57 Channels and Only This Is On: 5/10/15

Mad Man: I do not care that an organ just randomly popped up in the desolate offices of Sterling Cooper and Partners, I am just glad it did because those were some of the best scenes in the history of the show, especially Peggy drunkenly roller skating around. Don, on the other hand, chasing down the waitress' ex-husband was not.
You can download Mad Men on iTunes.

Revenge: Holy Abbott reunion! Nice of Amy to retain the services of her father after getting arrested. It is weird to think both of the Abbott children are now superheroes. But anyway. Oh yeah, Courtney Love the hitman that I believe Margot hired to kill Emily is still out there and for some reason she is hanging out with a not so surprisingly not dead Victoria. Does Courtney also do security too and that is why she is there or is she there in a hitman capacity? Thankfully there is only one episode left ever.
You can download Revenge on iTunes.

American Odyssey: I was harsh on the the premiere because it was looking like another rich people are evil and will stay in power by any means necessary type story, something we have seen many times before and done much better. And yeah, that story line is still kind of annoying, but the show has managed to get more entertaining thanks to the transvestite Arab television star who seduces the Malian general for help. Yeah the show has not gotten to Homeland levels of absurdity yet (you know Carrie would have seduced Aslam by now) but at least it has gotten watchable.
You can download American Odyssey on iTunes.

Gotham: What a cluster of a finale, and yet it was still very enjoyable. That was one of the best chick fights in recent memory. I cannot remember a time before when a character has had that many personality changes in one season than Barbra did this season. Where do they actually go from here with her? You pretty much has to turn her into a supervillian at this point because it is hard to redeem her at this point after attacking the good doctor. And there seems to be some darkness lurking in the doctor too, knowing to beak the mirror to make a weapon to banging Barabra's way more than she really had too.

But my favorite part was all twists at the Falcone "safe house." Just when you thought it was the end, some one else would turn or someone else would randomly find a gun. My favorite point was Harvey just hanging out in the gallery while his partner still was hung by a meat hook.

My two biggest problems were they really just shoehorned in the Riddler, they might as well have just ended the last episode with that scene and left him out of the finale where it felt out of place. Then the ending was just annoying because they teased that scene about three or four weeks ago.
You can download Gotham on iTunes.

Castle: I was really hoping Carly Rae Jepsen, as her self, was going to turn out to be the killer. Instead it just turned out to be the accountant. Yawn.  Seriously, why even go on a cop show if you do not get to be the killer?

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Well that was a tense meeting. You had to figure something bad was going to happen, the big question was what. Ward with the twin jet seemed like the most likely considering Raina's premonition; Raina herself was another contender; you of course could not count out the two people meeting, both seemed to be on the right side but a little shady. Now just how long will this SHIELD / Inhumans war goes on? Is it over at the end of the season which is just two hours away, or does this drag into next season (or does it drag on until the Inhumans movie comes out in, oh goodness, 2019, eleven Marvel movies away)?
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

Survivor: Blue Collar vs. White Collar. vs. No Collar: When the vote came down to Dan and Tyler I figured Dan had to use his special vote now right and hope Mike and Seirra also vote Tyler just in case? Shockingly not only does he keeps it in his pocket he does not even vote for Tyler, sticking with the Mike split vote. Tyler even did the same thing. Wow, those two were morons. But the biggest part of the episode happened during the commercial break when Probst announced the next season of Survivor will be Second Chances with us the viewing public voting. This got me excited until I saw the list which was fifty percent who and thirty percent why. But, hey, at least they included Ciera, the most entertaining contestant of the past decade. On the other hand there was Mike and Carolyn, and since this is a second chance season of non-winner it pretty much means neither of them will be winning this season (after someone asked him about it, Probst said if either of them win, their votes would be null and void, but c'mon, they already knew if those two won or not why include them if they did; and anyway, who would even vote for Carolyn anyway?). Here are the twenty people I will be voting for everyday until the finale:

Kelly Wiglesworth
Peig-Gee Law
Monica Padilla
Natalie Tenerelli
Mikayla Wingle
Sabrina Thompson
Abi-Maria Gomes
Ciera Eastin
Tasha Fox
Kelley Wentworth (after seeing them on the same list, maybe Kelly Wiglesworth and Kelley Wentworth on the same season will be extremely confusing; I may switch to Shirin instead)

Jeff Varner
Andrew Savage
Stephen Fishbach
Troyzan Robertson
Vytas Baskauskas
Woooooooooooooooooooooooo Hwang
Spencer Bledsoe
Jeremy Collins
Keith Nale
Max Dawson
You can download Survivor: White Collar vs. Blue Collar vs. No Collar on iTunes.

The Blacklist: It seems like I have been lost most of the season having little to no clue. I again had trouble keeping up with most of this episode until everything finally became clear at the end when it seemed like the whole season was leading up to Lizzie being outed as a Russian spy. A little clunky getting there, but hopefully it plays out a lot better. Maybe Lizzie should get on that boat with Tom.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 5/2/15

Mad Men: Right before the episode started, I thought to myself, I hope we get a Trudy sighting before the series runs out. Luckily we actually got one moments later with one of the more entertaining scenes in the series history with Pete and his family's hundred years feud with the headmaster (ironically the episode was actually directed by Lane Price himself as Lane punching Pete may be the number one best scene and Pete finally got his revenge on someone else's face). The rest of the episode felt like deja vu with Sterling Cooper looking to break free from their overlords once again. But surprisingly is did not work this time. But the most shocking moment of the episode was Peggy actually talking about her kid for the first time since I believe the second season when he was being taken care of by her mother. I just thought they completely dumped that story line and would never mention it again.
You can download Mad Men on iTunes.

Revenge: I was not totally convinced Victoria killed herself last week, and this week I am convinced she is still around somewhere. But then that begs the question of did she actually implanted her teeth into a corpse or payed someone to change the records. And sure her video was deleted from the server, but couldn't Nolan and his infinite computer knowledge just undelete it? Seems like something that can easily be done. Or at the very least, wouldn't it still be saved in Emily's cashe? Not that it should matter at all because there has to be surveillance footage of Emily at the air field, it would be hard to believe that is the only air field in America without cameras all over the grounds.
You can download Revenge on iTunes.

Gotham: Well, we finally learned where Harvey's proverbial line is this week and it is donkeys. Funniest part of an otherwise dark episode. Odd that Barbara told The Ogre to kill her parents, I just assumed she would say to target the good doctor instead. And where does that love triangle from from her, will the guilt drive Jim back into Barbara's arms despite the Stockholm Syndrome? I kind of hope they stray from the funny books and have Barbara become the new Ogre because that may be the only way they make the character interesting.
You can download Gotham on iTunes.

Bates Motel: It actually took me to this week to realize that Bob Paris is the same guy who plays Ted Chaough... I was not voted Least Observant in high school for nothing. But anyway. The big new though this week was the return of Bradley... maybe. Is she really there or just a figment of Norman's imagination?
You can download Bates Motel on iTunes.

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Boooo, they should have let Simmons kill Ward, would have been poetic. But hey, we got an Age of Ultron spoiler: the Avengers are going to go after Loki's spear. Um, nice tie in, I guess.
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

Survivor: Blue Collar vs. White Collar vs. No Collar: Shame that Shirin did not win Immunity too, that would have made for an interesting Tribal. Granted we almost got an almost was an all time Tribal Council with Mike threatening to use his Hidden Immunity Idol. Too bad Will was the only one dumb enough to switch his vote (Tyler definitely had to just in case Mike was not bluffing, but Will, again, showed he was a moron) but it was obvious that Mike was bluffing if he was not willing to hand over the Idol pre-vote. Now the question is if Dan finally realized he is on the bottom. Too bad it may have been too late because if he does team back up with Mike and is able to pull in Sierra, the best they could do is tie the vote even with his extra vote. Then again they could always get Will to do something stupid again.
You can download Survivor: White Collar vs. Blue Collar vs. No Collar on iTunes.

57 Channel and Only This Is On: 4/25/15

Orphan Black: Oh Allison, how have I missed you. Now that Raylan Givens has retired to Florida, you are now the best character on television. But I did not appreciate them teasing that she might die. Not cool.
You can download Orphan Black on iTunes.

Once Upon a Time: When Ursala got her happy ending with papa Winston Zedmore, I theorized Cruella who have some sappy reunion with her puppies. Boy was I far off from that. So is Emma really going to turn dark and she will end up being the Big Bad next season kind of like the Willow season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer?
You can download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

Mad Men: Oh hey, Creepy Glen, of course you get to come back to say goodbye one last time. Usually I would complain about him, but there was such a big gathering of horrible acting in that lobby season that it was almost entertaining. But not as entertaining as Don telling his realtor how to sell his apartment. Too bad they could not string that out for the last couple episodes.
You can download Mad Men on iTunes.

Revenge: Oh snap, Victoria actually killed herself in hopes that Amanda takes the fall. Bold move. I just hope they do not try bring her back saying she made it out in time and then planted another body there to make people think it was her. That would make it the second time that the writers wanted us to think Victoria died when she did not really.
You can download Revenge on iTunes.

Gotham: And there in lies the problem with prequils: where is the suspense that Barbara is going to be the Ogre's next victim when anyone familiar with the comic knows she is going to survive long enough to marry Jim (um, spoiler alert for those not familiar with the comics)? Though I do wish the writers were actually bold enough to kill off Barbara because she has been pretty worthless as a character so far.
You can download Gotham on iTunes.

Castle: Oh yeah, I forgot the season started off with Castle with amnesia that they never figured out. Maybe they should have kept it that way because the explanation was pretty thin. Sadly I do not believe that saga is over.
You can download Castle on iTunes.

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Meh, I really wished they killed Ward off back in season one along with Garrett, him now playing both sides is just silly. The only way to make it worse if they do wipe his memories and make him a good guy again.
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

Survivor: Blue Collar. vs. White Collar. vs. No Collar: Ooooh, a new twist. So Dan can add an extra vote whenever he wants (or did they give a final date like they do with the Hidden Immunity Idol). Could be interesting. But it could end up like the Hidden Immunity Idol which has become inconsequential because if someone in the majority alliance has it, it never gets used, if it is in the minority alliance, that person is just voted out at a later date. The only time I could remember an Idol having any bearing on a season was when Paravti whipped out two during the Heroes vs. Villains season.

The other big news is Mike turned out to be an even bigger idiot than I thought. Seriously, if you are not going to buy the letter from home, then just say you are not going to do it, ad if you are stupid enough to try and lie about it, do not go back on it. Between that and his blow up after the action, this may have been one of the dumbest power moves in the history of the game. All he had to do was pull Sierra and Dan aide, point out the Masshole's four person alliance, say that if they vote out Shirin and Jenn, we would be the next three so we should recruit Shirin and Jenn, vote out the flippers, then vote out Shirin and Jenn for an all Blue Collar Final Three. Instead he managed to get booted from his alliance and did not even get the extra vote from the auction. Moron.
You can download Survivor: White Collar vs. Blue Collar vs. No Collar on iTunes.

Black-iah: Was it not enough for Michael Rappaport to ruin Justified last year, he had to bring down the funniest show on television too?
You can download Black-ish on iTunes.

The American: Oooh, Paige talk Pastor Tim about her parents. Yet I will feel this will not end up with them being caught but it will be like when Martha learned of her husband and nothing will come of it. Look at Stan, just like I predicted, his correspondence with Oleg will make him look like the buy who planted the bug, but not only does he not get arrested for treason, he gets a promotion. I really wish someone will actually get caught soon.
You can download The Americans on iTunes.

Nashville: Sure Christina Aguilera cannot act, but that three way cat fight in the bathroom was almost as entertaining as the bad acting meet on Mad Men this week. I always thought Layla made a much better foil to Juliet than Rayna, it is nice that the writers are finally figuring that out again.
You can download Nashville on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 4/19/15

Once Upon a Time: Oh yeah, I forgot Robin Hood was out there somewhere. I also forgot just how boring he is. Maybe the show can turn him into a wolf or something.

Mad Men: Weird that Betty and company showed up in the first scene and were not seen again after that. I audibly groaned when I saw them thinking we were going to have to sit through another boring Betty story line. Instead we got the loathsome Harry who managed to to creep on Megan before the ink on the divorcee papers was even dry, or technically before there was any ink on them at all. Overall a pretty meh episode even if we mostly avoided the Francis clan, it definitely needed more Ken.
You can download Mad Men on iTunes.

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Holy Billy Riggins sighting! But why are they wasting his talents on just knocking on the door to a bathroom? He did not even get to run into his sister-in-law. Oh well. So we finally learned how May get her title of The Calvary before taking a desk job until Coulson brought her back into the field. Fine, whatever, But maybe the most interesting part of SHIELD this week was Clarke Gregg Skyping into Jimmy Kimmel Live during a fan Q and A segment to ask any of the Avengers if they ever thought about working on the small screen which was met by deafening silence by the six movie stars. Ouch. Guess none of The Avengers will learn Coulson is not so dead anytime soon.
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

Justified: For the third time in the series history, the finale episode featured the song No One Gets Out of Harlan Alive. This turned out to be one big red herring because everyone who has been around from the first season was able to get out of Harlan with their heart still beating: Raylan, Boyd, Ava, even Wynn Duffy moved to an undisclosed location presumably to to door to door dog grooming.

Not that it was a satisfying ending. Raylan got in a few more great zingers, the best being, "Try this one" as he kicked a gun to Boyd after admitting he was out of bullets. Then Raylan did get his one last showdown with Boone that even though you knew was coming the moment he stepped on screen did not make it any less epic. Raylan is actually losing his touch because he actually let Boone get a shot off.

As it seems to becoming standard for television shows, we got a "four years later" coda, most surprising being that Raylan did not get the girl (whatever did happen to Jackie Nevada), Ava had a chid of her own and we finally learn why Boyd and Raylan just could not kill each other: they were brothers in arms who just took different paths, and they managed to help each other get out of Harlan alive.

All that is left now is figuring out where the show lands in the Pantheon of all time great television shows. I am ready to call it the best of the first half of this decade. As for all time, the show boasts the all time greatest opening of all time (Raylan giving the crime boss twenty-four hours to leave town and the time is up), one of the greatest antagonist of all time in Mags Bennett (sorry Boyd). Really only two demerits: the drag of the Michael Rappaport season and the flimsy heal turn by Ava, shaking up with her brother-in-law who was more evil than the man she killed. Still, if there were a Television Hall of Fame, you could make an easy argument for Justified in five years.
You can download Justified on iTunes.


Survivor: Blue Collar vs. White Collar. vs. No Collar: I liked how Probst refused to verify the validity of the Hidden Immunity Idol for Mike. Fake Idols are not made on this show enough anymore. Other that, a pretty boring episode as we are in the long decimation of the smaller alliance post merge that happens most seasons. They should really double up those eliminations into one episode when that happens to speed things up. Hopefully the promo for next week was not a red herring and that Mike and the Masshole go after each other (which hopefully results in the Masshole's elimination).
You can download Survivor: White Collar vs. Blue Collar vs. No Collar on iTunes.

The American's: When Martha found out Clark was not who he said he was I thought, well he has to kill her now. With her cracking and about to go home I thought, oh yeah, Clark is taking off his wig so Martha knows exactly who he is before he kills her. Except the episode just faded to black. But she cannot possibly survive the season. And with the season finale next week, someone has to finally take the fall for the bugged pen. Martha death making it look like a suicide because of guilt over betraying her country but I still think Stan may actually going to get caught trying to free Nina that he gets fingered.
The Americans on iTunes.

Nashville: Juliet's irrational post pregnancy moods is really the most entertaining she has ever been.
You can download Nashville on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 4/12/15

Shameless: Yeah I was totally wrong about never seeing Sammi again. Why end the episode there, between that and juvi showdown I was the most excited about this season in its final three minutes. The rest was not very shocking with Fiona choosing wrongly once again, Frank's sugar momma dying on him (or so we are lewd to believe), and Ian finding his way home. Really only shocking part of the finale was Debbie announcing she was pregnant... I think. That was kind of unclear. But having a fourteen year old pregnant really is a very Shameless storyline.

Mad Men: I was a little grumpy going into the premiere because of the stupid half season stunt and I could barely remember the first half of the season (I really only remember Bert dying and dancing his way off the show), but whoa, that is how you start off an episode after a long break (fun fact: the girl in the fur coat was Andie McDowell's daughter). Though why was Sterling Cooper still auditioning anyone after that, hire her right then and there. The rest of the episode had its ups and down and should I know what is happening (I was not entirely the chick from season one was the chick in Don's dream until her named popped up in the credits and did not even realize that was a dream until Don brought it up to the waitress). But the clear winner of the episode was Ken Cosgrove who gets one over on Rodger, that should be a fun dynamic for the rest of the season, the only way it could be more entertaining is if Ken hires Paul Kinsey to work with him.
You can download Mad Men on iTunes.

American Odyssey: The has been a glut of Homeland rip-offs networks have tried out over the past three seasons with The Blacklist the only one to get a second season (Crisis being the only other one I personally enjoyed). So I did not have much hope going into this show and it pretty much live up to my low expectations. Add in the extremely cliched rich people are evil and do everything in their power to hide their evilness with the government's help and the show will probably end up being a very tedious watch.
You can download American Odyssey on iTunes.

Bates Motel: The best part of the episode, if not the entire series, was Romero's reaction shots during Norma's blackmail attempt. I am surprised the evil businessman accepted, I am sure he does have other plans than the one Norma demanded.
You can download Bates Motel on iTunes.

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Oh hey, Deathlok, I completely forgot about that guy. And oh hey, Sky's mom, I thought she was dead. I guess in addition to not aging she apparently cannot die even when disected. So when does she reveal that to Sky? You would think that would be part of the introduction.
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

Justified: They really should have included the hill people in the "Previously On" package because took me until he started talking about putting Raylan and Boyd in a box to remember who he was. And poor Constable Bob, about to get his biggest criminal of his life only to get shot two times. Only one episode left but it feels like they may need another two or three episodes to wrap everything up at this point. Like just how is Raylan going to get away from the state troopers. His, "Don't suppose you'd believe me if I said no" still is one of his best one liners. But the biggest question is who, if anyone, will defy the song and get out of Harlen alive?
You can download Justified on iTunes.


Survivor: Blue Collar vs. White Collar. vs. No Collar: It is time again to bid fond farewell to the Token Hot Chick this season. Well at least we will get to see Hali on the jury. As the votes came in and I wondered why the White Collar did not flip like they pondered I realized the major flaw in Survivor, annoying people always go further than they deserve because smart players know they will be easy to beat in the Final Tribal. Sure it would have been much better television had the two White Collar players joined No Collar and voted off the annoying Blue Collar tribe. But it would be harder to beat them in a final tribal and if you believe the Masshole that they are a final four with Will, those are two very beatable players. This happens every season, I sit and wonder why they do not get rid of the annoying person or people, but that is the smartest strategy.
You can download Survivor: White Collar vs. Blue Collar vs. No Collar on iTunes.

The Voice: Much like the previous seasons, I have lost interest somewhere between the Blind Auditions and Live Playoffs and I have definitely reached that point this season which I am done with. Of course number one on my Power Ranking after the Knockout Round got the Preston Pohl Memorial for Worst Song Selection for the Live Playoffs. It seems like most people believe the coaches or producers do this to make sure their favorite advance (it does not help that Adam has openly admitted to sabotaging his team during the first season so Javier would have an easier path to the finale). I am not much of a conspiracy theorist (except when something questionable happens on Team Adam) but I do find it befuddling that they would give Love Me Like You Do to Brooke Adee. First off, the song just sucks. Second it is a little creepy having a teenager sing a song from a movie about a sex slave. And third, the song was already used earlier this season and apparently bombed so bad it was montaged. So are the coaches (or the producers) just really bad at figuring out songs for certain artists, especially more alternative singers (again, see Preston Pohl) or do they actually try to railroad certain artists. And if it is the latter, why sabotage Brooke if that means the boring and bland Corey advances? I could say I will never watch the show again, and I should not, but I am sure the turning chairs will draw me in again in the fall only to complain about the lack of talent by Thanksgiving.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 4/4/15

Once Upon a Time: I remember back when we saw Emma's back story saying that it was surprising that her friend did not turn out to be a fairy tale character. Well, it turned out she was in fact from the fairy tale world and apparently Malificant's daughter. Except wasn't Lily Hispanic? Or was I thinking of someone else?
You can Download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

Shameless: Even though I thought it was the case, I still laughed at the end when Sammi started banging on the storage bin revealing she was not so dead. I do wonder if that is the last we see of her, it does seem like that character has run her course and this show has no problem getting rid of characters they do not know what to do with anymore.

The Walking Dead: During the final commercial break I was thinking, are they really not going to kill anybody off in the season finale. Sure Glenn somehow made it out of the zombie dog pile, Daryl somehow was saved by one dude as about a hundred zombies surrounded his car (no one thought of at least trying to hot wire it). Things got even more surprising when Glenn and his nemesis and Sasha and the Reverend were all seen in some weird friendship montage. Of course that was all red herrings for the finale when the evil doctor stabbed the politician's husband who gave Rick the okay to kill him right in front of his old friend Morgan who just got done telling Daryl "Every life is precious." There has been a lot of discussion this season about how Rick has morphed into Shane. Does that make Morgan the season one version of Rick to Rick's Shane? We will have to wait until fall to find out but first up we get to see how the outbreak broke out with Fear the Walking Dead this summer! Starring Matt Saresen's mom!! Hopefully that show does not take four to five seasons to get good.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Revenge: So Courtney Love pops up in one scene as a hit man who services will not be needed? Alrighty, I have a feeling this will not be her only appearance. Does she still go after Emily Amanda or go after Margot for knowing her identity? This is just getting too silly, hopefully this is the end of the show, just let Courtney Love and Louise kill them all.
You can download Revenge on iTunes.

Marvel's Agent's of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Finally a showdown between Bobbie and May, and it certainly lived up to expectations. But the feuding SHIELDs is a little silly, you are both on the same side, there is no need to act so covertly against each other.
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

Justified: Rarely is there is a scene that is extremely shocking but Mikey Michael strangling Katherine to death while she keeps shooting him had my jaw dropped for a couple minutes.
You can download Justified on iTunes.

Survivor: Wow, an Immunity Idol actually worked I cannot remember the last time that happened. Not that it matters much if it stays six versus four. I am surprised the White Collar went with the Blue Collar who is full five, why not go with the easier No Collar tribe?
You can download Survivor: White Collar vs. Blue Collar vs. No Collar on iTunes.

The Americans: Finally Paige learned who her parents were after teasing that she was on to them way back in the first season finale. Of course right went something interesting was about to happen when CIA Agent Stan showed up to diner, the episode ended. Meanwhile Henry got more lines this week than in his entire run of the series to date.
You can download The Americans on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 3/29/15

Once Upon a Time: So if the good guys are going to pick off Mr. Gold's cabal one by one with kindness, does this mean they are going to give Cruella Dr. Hopper's Dalmatian as an appeasement to her at some point?
You can Download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

Shameless: Oh no, Sammy called the Army to report Ian. Which begs the question how did it take a tip from someone to catch him, Ian was hiding in his own home? I wonder if he will get a bunk with his brother.

The Walking Dead: Oh snap, I just figured that the old group would just blindly follow Rick with his overthrow of Alexandria but it did not cross my mind that any of them would actually want to assimilate which apparently Michone does. If Rick is exiled like I assume I wonder who goes with him. Of course they will be back just as Rick warned Deanna that anyone exile will be back. Sure the middle episodes were a bit of a drag but no one does season premieres / finales like this show and next week should be explosive. Plus we still have the person that is marking walker foreheads with a Scarlet A.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Revenge: So a taxi to happened to plow Margot over in the fire lane? Seems fishing, nothing is that coincidental on this show. I wonder if her henchman had anything to do with it, with or without Margo's knowledge, because he seemed a little to overeager not to give up the fight.
You can download Revenge on iTunes.

Bates Motel: So Norman did not kill the token hot chick like I feared, but she still ended up dead. Meh.
You can download Bates Motel on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: I have long predicted a not so dead Mona would turn out to Be A, well at least I was half right. When her name flashed up under the guest star list I then assumed a not so dead Alison's mother was going to be A after realizing it was not Mona. Completely wrong at that. We learned that Charles is actually A and by the home movie that do make it seem like Charles is Jason's twin brother that apparently no one knew existed. If so, where has he been all this time? Did the Dilarentas family have him hidden in that bunker this whole time?
You can download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

Marvel's Agent of SHIELD: So the "Real SHIELD" does not trust Coulson and his alien DNA, that actually seems reasonable. They could have spent the whole episode in that conference room explaining stuff I would not have minded because I could not care less about Ward and Agent 33 (but it did give us some decent comedy with Talbott ruining his marriage and basically sexually harassing his female underlings).
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

Justified: One of the main problems with this season was that you knew that Raylan was not going to catch Boyd until the series finale but much like season four where they actually caught Drew Thompson a couple episodes prior to the finale and then ending up have its best episodes of the season after that, Raylan actually caught Boyd redhanded with a couple episodes left. It looks like we may get the trial Tim was hoping for. Though since the CI shot him, I wonder if a RICO case will stick.
You can download Justified on iTunes.

The Challenge: Battle of the Exes II: Congratulations to Sarah and Jordan. And since you won, you can both retire because I really have no desire to see either back on the show. And take Jay and Jenna with you because they do not deserve another invite after quitting (though it is odd the other challenges had a thirty minute time limit but the drinking one). Pure rookie moves, first they do not look at LeRoy's answer and then they actually tried drinking the fish oil while Sarah and Teresa clearly poured half of it down their faces and then spit out the rest while pretending to puke.
You can download The Challenge: Battle of the Exes II on iTunes.

Survivor: Blue Collar vs. White Collar vs. No Collar: Morons, Survivor 101 states you never, under any circumstance: throw a challenge. The only time anyone threw a challenge and actually ended up winning was when in Fans vs. Favorites they did not even bother to compete just to get rid of Brandon Hantz. Every other time a team that has thrown a challenge, no one involved ever won that season. It is weird to think after how bad their tribe was, No Collar may actually be in the drivers seat. Blue Collar is in disarray, White Collar lost two members after the tribe swap, if smart the No Collar could easily decimate everyone, but are they smart enough to do that now that the merge is immanent?
You can download Survivor: White Collar vs. Blue Collar vs. No Collar on iTunes.

The Americans: Could Stan actually take the fall for the bug in the pen? If someone catches him working with Oleg he would have to move to the top of the suspect list for the FBI. But I have a feeling the black dude will end up being that fall guy.
You can download The Americans on iTunes.

The Blacklist: Wait, did they just out Lizzie as being pregnant? Tom having an ultrasound in his pocket pretty much confirms it. Red is going to be very disappointed.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 3/22/15

Shameless: I was hoping for a Carl / Chucky juvenile spinoff but it looks like we will be getting that on the main show with both being sentenced to hard time. Of course Chucky ended up with the white supremacists while Carl ended up with the hood gang. Elsewhere I really liked the doctor story line, I just wonder how long it will last. On one hand, Frank needs a place to stay, on the other, the last time he took care of a dying women in hopes of being left her estate did not work out very well for him. But then again, nothing really works out for him except for his inability to stay dead.

The Walking Dead: A couple weeks ago I floated out the theory that it was not Rick and company who should be weary of the residents of Alexandria because they always run into evil doers, it should be Alexandria that should be hesitant of the new group. It looks like I am not the only one as the reverend also voiced his concern over Rick. With the death of the congresswoman's son, I am guessing the coup will be coming next week (or at the very least in two weeks for the finale).And poor young Chris Rock, but how do you let one person out power two in the revolving door? And speaking of those two deaths, the camera really lingered way too long on those death scenes.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Bates Motel: So Norman maybe killed the token hot chick already? Bummer. But that was not her in the lake was it, it looked more like a dude, I first thought that was the creepy neighbor.
You can download Bates Motel on iTunes

Community: About a decade ago Arrested Development did everything it could to get a fourth season, they even slipped some in jokes about hoping to being picked up by HBO or Showtime into episodes. But alas, the show could not find a new home. Five years later, DirecTV saved Damages from cancellation opening up a flood gate an now five short years after that no beloved or cult television show is allowed to died because there are so many channels, band streaming sites looking for content. Even horrible shows that everyone hates like The Killing somehow manages a reprieve. Seven years later Arrested Development finally got its fourth season. So it is clear we are now living in an era when no media property will die as long as everyone involved wants it to live on (sorry Friday Night Lights fans, Kyle Chandler has no interest in reviving the series, probably for the best).

So when Community finally got the ax from NBC, the was little question on if it would get its prophetized six seasons a movie, the question would be where would it land. Hulu passed and surprisingly Yahoo! wanted to get in the streaming game. Even more surprising is that the show is basically commercial free and free to watch. I watched the first two episode and they only aired on ad before the first one. As for the content itself, it is still Community even though it is down yet another cast member (Shirley escaped to CBS multicam hell), it did not even relish in the lack of network standards and practices. Like always it is somewhat enjoyable but I really hope that this is it, well plus a movie. But even if this is it, it will probably be revived again in five years or so.
You can watch Community on Yahoo Screen.

Pretty Little Liars: I have been out on this show for a season or two now, but this episode finally pulled me back in with the characters acting like idiots (passing notes in jail with the lawyer calling them out for it; Aria's brother leaving the car after getting hit with an arrow... stay in the car and keep driving you moron, do not leave the car where there is not a windshield to protect you) and other characters just doing things for no apparent reason (Calab just sitting in the dark at the cabin) and a big plot twist: Alison gets convicted followed directly by all the Liars getting arrested. If only they had gone to the police after the first text. An let me predict one more time, a not so dead Mona will turn out to be the next A that will be revealed next week.
You can download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

Marvel's Agents of SHIELD: So the big secret Bobbi and Mack have is they are covert operatives for "the real SHIELD." Alrighty. At least they only drug that secret out two episode. Granted if Edward James Olmos is involved, maybe it is the real SHIELD. And let me guess, he is going to want to lock Skye up but over Colson's dead body.
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes

Justified: If you are dumb enough not to assume the evil crime boss lady does not keep a gun in her purse, you definitely deserve to die. The Ava finally tipped her hand and went with Raylan this week, unfortunately for her, Boyd did not get caught red handed as he did not make it through the bottom of the floor. Yeah, it probably was not the best idea to trust the crazy explosion expert.
You can download Justified on iTunes.

The Challenge: Battle of the Exes II: So Sarah has had two of her partners leave prematurely and was sent home too as a result; Leroy had two of his sent home and both times got a replacement partner. This time he got an upgrade right before the finale. Lucky boy. Why not just hand him the prize right then and there (well probably because Sarah ends up winning anyway). But the best part of the show was the After Show with Banana's saying he would never sell out a friend / cut to him selling out Paula. Did he forget all of this was on tape?
You can download The Challenge: Battle of the Exes II on iTunes.

Survivor: White Collar vs. Blue Collar vs. No Collar: Ask and you shall receive, just last week I was complaining about no Reward Challenges and we get two this week. The show flows a lot better with two challenges per episode. Then we had a Tribe Swap which could not have ended better for Blue Collar, a majority on one tribe and a swing vote on the other. Bearded dude brought up it ended up like the swap back in One World but it was also divided by strength back in the Fans vs. Favorites II season also. Maybe it is fixed.
You can download Survivor: White Collar vs. Blue Collar vs. No Collar on iTunes.

The Americans: Wait, is Martha really going to forgive Clark? Even more surprising, how does Clark kill Martha just in case?
You can download The Americans on iTunes.

The Blacklist: Wait, so they just let Tom walk after confessing to killing harbor master just to keep Lizzy out of jail even though the AG guy could have made the whole thing go away anyway? Maybe Tom should have been taken to a black site. I really hope he does not end up joining the team somewhere down the road.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 3/15/15

Once Upon a Time: So Snow White had something to do with Malicifant losing her baby and she had something to do with Cora's death... are we sure he is really pure at heart?
You can download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

Shameless: Considering all the horrible things Frank has done, I am not sure this tops the list, but getting your grandson arrested by selling out your son at the same time is pretty high on the list. I have long advocated for a Justified spinoff starring Dewey and Dicky in prison, but a Shameless spinoff with Chucky and Uncle Carl in prison may just be as entertaining.

House of Lies: As soon as Clyde hooked up with Kelsey after Doug got there first last week my first thought was, oh no, we are going to have to sit though a threesome of them. Kelsey quickly brought it up shortly afterwards, joking or not, but I really fear they will go through with it. You know Doug will have no qualms about it, no will Clyde just talk himself into it.

Revenge: So the chick from Firefly is Victoria's ex-mother-in-law... What? It is really time for this show to end.
You can download Revenge on iTunes.

The Returned: As I teased in my preview, the sisters turning out be twins was extremely freaky. Twins are kind of freaky on their own but this takes it to another level. And to tease upcoming episodes, their twin connection get only more freaky in upcoming episodes. I did not get to bring it up in the preview, so just let me now point out just how wrong having sex with a "psychic" to connect with your daughter is. And if you are a fake physic, why add they sex part to it?
You can download The Returned on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: I was expecting the trial to be a little more explosive than that. Sure it came out that Mama Marrin hooked up with Jason and the prosecutor theorized that Alison was never kidnapped without any actual proof. Hopefully they are much more fireworks in the season finale which promises another "A" reveal which I think with be the fifth in the show's history. Let me go and predict a not so dead Mona is pulling the strings.
You can download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

Marvel's Agents of SHIELD: If ABC decides not to bring Agent Carter back, they should definitely go with a Lady Sif spin-off for a mid season filler for SHIELD. Or even better, cut SHIELD to ten episodes, then ten of Agent Carter and Lad Sif.
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes

Switched at Birth: Whoa, Bay, of course Emmett is going to break up with you when you go all crazy girlfriend on him, interrupting his movie not once but twice. But very smooth for Emmett to pull they maybe we can hook back up after college if I cannot find anything better while I am here ploy. Has that actually ever worked for anyone?
You can download Switched At Birth on iTunes.

Justified: What a weird ending to the episode as Raylan gets Shakespearean with his father in his old hiding space which turned out to be as empty as Al Capone's vault. Just a weird departure for a show with about a month left before going off the air.
You can download Justified on iTunes.

The Challenge: Battle of the Exes II: At the beginning of the season TJ asked Nany which of the guys was going to be her partner and she mentioned it could have well been half of them. For the inevitable next Rivals season, there are just as many possibilities and it looks like you can add Nia and Sarah to that list. Of course Sarah made the right decision, you eliminate a strong team right before the finals. If Bananas or Leroy think they deserve to be in the finals, they should have won the last challenge, and they definitely should not have lost it.
You can download The Challenge: Battle of the Exes II on iTunes.

Survivor: White Collar vs. Blue Collar vs. No Collar: zit seems like I say this every season, but the show really needs to bring back the Reward Challenge, with only one challenge per episode we get way too much filler, like watching monkeys having sex.
You can download Survivor: White Collar vs. Blue Collar vs. No Collar on iTunes.

Hindsight: So Lolly, who was okay with Becca hooking up Kevin, now thinks its is an unforgivable act because a Lolly in another timeline shunned future Becca for it. Chicks, man, chicks. What a depressing way to end a season, Becca pretty much screwed everything up, her future husband ended up marrying someone else, her brother, and possibly father, are going to jail, she ruined her friendship with Lolly a whole decade earlier. Really, they only one whose life improved was her ex-husband who managed to sell some paintings. Then the ending was pretty vague, clearly she went into the elevator hoping to be transported back to current day. The musical cue of Numb would have us to believe that there was some time traveling involving involved but I would be surprised if she ends up back in 2015. Of course I would be more surprised if there is a second two. But if there is I would guess Becca wakes up in a different year, maybe 2005. The Killers! Jack Johnson!! Gorillaz!!! A sane Kanye West!!!! Sure I'd watch that.
You can download Hindsight on iTunes.

The Americans: This is beginning to be one of those show where the promos are more entertaining than the actual show. Last week they made it seem like Martha was going to confront Clarke, this week she realized that the spying equipment was inadvertently brought in by her, but she never ended up confronting Clarke about it. And wasn't Paige supposed to confront her parents this week? Are they really going to drag this out for the rest of the season?
You can download The Americans on iTunes.

The Blacklist: Odd to have a glorified clip show at this point in the second season. And did we really learn that it was Red who hired Tom to get close to Lizzy instead of Berlin like we were told earlier? I guess that is why that interaction they had before Tom disappeared was weird.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

King of the Nerds: Finally, at long last, gender equality has become a reality now that a dude has actually been crowned King of the Nerds for the very first time. I was rooting for Kaitlyn, but it is hard to justify having a King of the Nerds be someone who works with NASA and cannot get a sun question right that even I guessed correctly.
You can download King of the Nerds on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 3/8/15

Once Upon a Time: Seriously, no one noticed the smoke monster slither out of the magic hat? And if Mr. Gold is such an evil genius, why wait at the city line for a sea hag that in no way should help you get back into Storybrooke when you could just stowaway in the truck of the car? But when your adversaries are dumb enough to believe someone stole your phone and just happened to call you out of nowhere, you look like a genius next to them.
You can download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

The Walking Dead: Last week I suggested there will end up being something nefarious about Alexandra, but watching this episode I am beginning to think that Rick and company will be the antagonists to the city folk, not the other way around. And why did no one offer Carl a haircut too?
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Marvel's Agents of SHIELD: I was hoping through Skye's transformation she would find a new hairstyle, but alas, it is for not. overall kind of a meh episode even with the Hydra take down and the new Raina. Is it possible they can get Agent Carter into a time machine and inserted into this show?
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes

Justified: So Limehouse did sell out Ava and yet Boyd does not irrationally kill her like Dewey (aside from a brief question from Raylan last week, does anyone care that he has been missing since the first episode; Dewey deserves justice). Boyd cannot possibly trust her anymore (which is why he gave her a gun with no bullets), so I wonder if he will eventually (try to) get rid of her once he knows for sure what Raylan is doing.
You can download Justified on iTunes.

The Challenge: Battle of the Exes: Welcome back Nany, who wastes no time getting into her first fight. Whoever decided to put her in slo-mo while Bananas puts a fist in his mouth deserves a Emmy for that editing.
You can download The Challenge: Battle of the Exes II on iTunes.

Survivor: White Collar vs. Blue Collar vs. No Collar: I was racking my brain trying to think of a time when an entire tribe was blindsided by a vote where an Idol was not involved. And what a horrible move, Will went from the swing vote and in control of the destiny of his tribe to the least liked person in the tribe that no one can trust. This show is at its best when it is filled with morons and this season has its fair share of them.
You can download Survivor: White Collar vs. Blue Collar vs. No Collar on iTunes.

Hindsight: You gotta love any show that starts off an episode with a Toad the Wet Sprocket deep cut. Though I do not understand why Becca just does not stop Kevin right away, she know what it does to her relationship with Lolly and it is clearly not something that lasts because she end up with Andy. But kudos to Lolly for deciphering that Letters to Cleo song.
You can download Hindsight on iTunes.

The Americans: After two and a half season, are we finally going to get two plot twists that should have happened at the very least last season? The promo sure makes it looks like Paige will finally learn about her parents' double life and that one of the Jennings will actually get caught after too many close calls.
You can download The Americans on iTunes.

The Blacklist: Television has been littered with countless characters that should have been killed off a lot earlier than they did which range from just rolling your eyes whenever they walk on screen to completely ruining a great show, something that will forever be known as "The Brody." Tom is currently closer to the eye-rolling portion of the spectrum right now, but the show should have really killed him at the end of last season, he serves no purpose now.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

King of the Nerds: It became pretty obvious that I would have no chance on this show. During that name as many nerd culture things as you could, I probably only would have done good in the movies and Mario Kart categories. Though I would have crushed the Stratigo Nerd Off. C'mon, you always put the flag in the front row if you are playing someone smart.
You can download King of the Nerds on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 3/1/15

The Walking Dead: The biggest problem with the show is that the show is predicated on the character being completely stupid for it to be any good. The smart thing to do in a zombie apocalypse would be to join up with as many living people as possible to beat back the zombie hoards. The smart thing to do back in season one would have been to join forces with the nursing home people, but had they done that, that show would have been extremely boring. So our protagonists are stupid. Which leads us to this week. The smart thing would have been to jump in the camper and ride up to Alexandra and enjoy all the homemade applesauce they would let someone else force down their throats. Instead we get an entire episode of Rick being paranoid when the alternative is that his group starves to death. Of course Rick has every reason to be cautious because the homosexuals will obviously turn out to be evil like every other group they have run into since they opted out of the nursing home: The Governor was a megalomaniac, Terminus was full of cannibals, even the cops in the hospital were basically using slave labor. Now the only question is what demented thing are these Alexandrians in to. Well, besides forcing their children to eat applesauce against their will. That is the evil cult I want to run into when their is a zombie apocalypse.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Gotham: After The Dark Knight trilogy I was hoping for a little more lighthearted Batman adaptation as a follow up. I was not expecting The Brave and the Bold or even Adam West type cheesy fun. If Man of Steel was any indication, Batfleck will be as dour as Christian Bale and the show is not much cheerier. That is why I liked all the silly comedy associated with the Red Hood this week. Unfortunately the mail characters went to darker places this week with Alfred getting stabbed and, oh goodness, why did Fish scoop out her own eye and step on it? When she said their was a option C, how did that be the only thing that crossed her mind? Fish Mooney has quickly moved into Brody territory of why did they not kill them off much earlier then they actually did? Really she is only behind Brody and Otto from Sons of Anarchy (who also lost and eye and was into self mutilation) on that list right now.
You can download Gotham on iTunes.

Marvel's Agent Carter: It has become Marvel tradition that the final scene is dedicated to some big plot twist or recognizable star making an appearance. I figured that scene for the season finale of Agent Carter would be dedicate to her being the first S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Nope, they went with the more shocking route with the dude from Captain America lurking in the shadows. That will be a formidable big bad team for a potential season two. Instead of waiting until next winter, how about another eight week season this summer?
You can download Marvel's Agent Carter om iTunes.

Justified: Poor Choo-Choo, it did not quite have the Of Mice and Men ending as it teased, but still sad. I thought maybe he would make it when the train stopped but alas, it looks like he is gone. And the plot twist just kept coming, it is clear the Lawnmower Man set up for Boyd to go down that hole, but why? And why exactly did Limehouse sell out Ava?
You can download Justified on iTunes.

The Challenge: Battle of the Exes: Stupid promo monkeys. From the very introduction of Ex-ile in the first episode, we have heard Sarah say, "This changes evvvvvvverything" and they play her saying that basically every week, or very least on every episode. So it was pretty clear she and Jordan would still be around by the time TJ announces the twist to the unsuspecting competitors still around. This lead to little drama in the dome as it was clear Sarah would be back. Speaking of spoilers, the promo for next week really looked like Nany's ponytail making their return inevitable (of course if the show were scripted, then Nany and Bananas would obviously be the ones chosen to get back in the game). But they do have to go through the behemoth that is Zach, but since he just lost a strength based dome, it is very possible.
You can download The Challenge: Battle of the Exes II on iTunes.

Survivor: White Collar vs. Blue Collar vs. No Collar: The show is at its best whenever it divides its tribe along specific attributes, well except the age season, that one not surprisingly turned out bad. And the show needs a good season after the disastrous last season when it became how flawed Blood vs. Water was. No one really stuck out as someone to root for, I kind of want to do that for the "hearing advocate" (hey, it is better than coconut vendor and this is the No Collar tribe) but the promo monkeys make it look like she is not long for this game.

One thing that really stuck out to me is how much this season resembles Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty. White Collar are the Brain, Blue Collar are the Brawn, an though they are not all that attractive, No Collar do share some attributes of the Beauty tribe. And just like the previous season, the White Collar are trying way too hard to outsmart each other early like the Brains tribe did. You just cannot take the deceit that early in the game and if you do, you better come up with a better excuse then what they did. Poor So, pretty much was voted out because of it.

Except that was a really dumb play on the White Collar tribe. The move was to vote out Carolyn, first off she seems really annoying, is old, and most importantly has the Hidden Immunity Idol. The two swing guys should had targeted her, if she does not play the Idol, a weak and annoying player is gone; if she does play it, oh well, So goes home and the Idol is flushed out.

Since I see this season playing out like Brains vs. Brawn, vs. Beauty, that means a White Collar will not win because they will try to out think each other, eventually playing themselves out of the game; the No Collar will turn on each other early and often (that love triangle cannot possibly end well); so that mean a Blue Collar wins. I just hope that the Masshole does not turn out to be this season's Tony, so I will predict Mike as the winner.
You can download Survivor: White Collar vs. Blue Collar vs. No Collar on iTunes.

Hindsight: I thought the music supervisor really screwed up when Vanessa Carlton started playing at the beginning of the episode. But they threw a curve and eventually let us know they flashbacked (or forward depending how you look at it) to 2003. Lolly's normal looking hair should have been the hint at the time. Granted later in the episode during the 2003 timeline they did use the nineties Sarah McLachlan classic, so the music survivor did much that up a little.
You can download Hindsight on iTunes.

The Americans: It seems like Philip has ninety-nine problems, and they are all (expletive delete). Two wives and two fifteen year old's. The Jennings have done some pretty morally corrupt acts on the show, but seducing a fifteen year old have to be number one.
You can download The Americans on iTunes.

Nashville: It seems like every week things go from bad to worse for Layla, but shockingly something went her way this week getting signed by Rayna (off of a kind of crappy song, but alas). But then it looks like she already sabotaged that relationship but hiring Rayna's archnemesis Jeff as her manager. Bad move Layla.
You can download Nashville on iTunes.

King of the Nerds: Well that was disappointing. I was kind of hoping that the secret six five alliance would make the wrong decision and Colby would send another one of them home. Oh well.
You can download King of the Nerds on iTunes.

The Tenth Annual Scooter Television Awards

Welcome to the 10th Annual Scooter Television Awards honoring show that aired a majority of their season between June 2013 and June 2014. Without further ado, here are the winners of the 2014 STA's:

Best Scripted Show: Hannibal

Best Sitcom: The Big Bang Theory

Best Sci-Fi Show: Orphan Black

Best Reality Show: Survivor: Blood vs. Water

Best Talent Competition: The Sing-Off

Best Talk Show: Pardon the Interruption

Best Talk Show Host: Norm McDonald

Best New Show: Masters of Sex

Best Mini-Series: Bonnie and Clyde

Guiltiest Guilty Pleasure: Pretty Little Liars

Best Awards Show: 2014 Grammy Awards

Best Hour of TV: Mizumono – Hannibal

Best Half Hour of TV: Goldbergs Never Say Die – The Goldbergs

Biggest Shocker: Hannibal Lecter leaves his house with everyone else near death

Worst Idea: The How I Met Your Mother ending

Worst Moment: Kat not making the merge on Survivor: Blood vs. Water

Biggest Disappointment: Homeland season three

Best New Title Sequence: Penny Dreadful


Best Song Placement: Ants Marching – Dave Matthews Band (Community)

Best Karaoke: Islands In the Stream – Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton (as sung by Wayne Brady and Wayne Brady, How I Met Your Mother)

Best Singing Competition Performance: The Scientist – Holly Henry


Best Dance Sequence: Bert Cooper’s exit (Mad Men)


Best Fight (Scripted): Dr. Hannibal Lecter vs. Special Agent-in-Charge Jack Crawford (Hannibal)

Best Fight (Unscripted): Nany Gonzalez vs. Camilla Nakagawa (The Challenge: Free Agents)

Hottest Token Hot Chick:

Best Character: Alison Hendrix (Orphan Black)

Best New Character: Raymond Reddington (The Blacklist)

Best Recurring Character: Dewey Crowe (Justified)

Best Guest Appearance: Nick Fury (Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)

Best Duo: Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)

Most Entertaining Reality “Star”: Ciera Eastin (Survivor: Blood vs. Water)

Most Annoying Reality “Star”: Brad (Not-Dante) Culpepper (Survivor: Blood vs. Water)

Best Quote: Spare us the wiener act. Bullying is a vital part of every ecosystem, it teaches kids resilience. The world is a rough place. Bullying is like getting inoculated: it’s a vaccine. And you little (expletive deleted), you got to learn to stay away from people like my son. That is what you learn when you get punched in the face by a bully. How do you think Steve Jobs turned out so great? Bullies. And I guarantee Junior here will be getting the hottest chicks when he’s thirty because he got bullied today. Do you want to peak now? My kid will be picking up roadside garbage in an orange jumpsuit in ten years and you’re kid will be in med school curing cancer and getting laid. You’re welcome. (Frank Gallahger, Shameless)

Best “Unscripted” Quote: Our relationship is just starting and now I've, like, embarrassed all his friends. Who wants to date someone that doesn’t make the merge? (Kat Edorsson, Survivor: Blood vs. Water)

Show That Should Be Brought Back: Suburgatory

Most Anticipated New Show of Next Season: Marvel’s Agent Carter

Biggest Question for 2014-2015: Can Homeland ever be great again?

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 5/25/14

Mad Men: After Pete missed her twice, I was beginning to fear that we not get to see Trudy this episode and after Community got canceled, I need my Alison Brie fix anyway I can get it. I even sit through her vodka ads. But anyway. Every since Bob Benson creepily touched Pete’s thigh, people questioned his sexuality and this week we got a definitive answer as to just how he swings, going as far as to ask Joan to be his beard. Poor Joan, actually thinks she can still find love as a single mother pushing forty. Her best, and probably only hope is her baby-daddy Roger who has the maturity level of his kid.
You can download Mad Men on iTunes.

Penny Dreadful: I was beginning to think the second episode was going to enter into a sophomore episode slump after a fairly uneventful first half of the episode (consumption sex notwithstanding). But things really picked up in the second half. The séance scene was more disturbing than anything on The Walking Dead while the first Frankenstein Monster reintroducing itself to his father was just as creepy. Still the second episode felt more like an extension of the Pilot where we are introduced to two or three main characters. Now that we have met all the players, hopefully the show starts to pick up next week.

The Voice: I checked into the finale for a couple minutes and quickly realized that I wisely checked out somewhere between the first and second Battle Rounds. Somehow they found singers more boring and bland than last season’s final three in Christina and Jake. At least Josh won, though I not sure if he could have even sniffed the semi-finals in the first four seasons. This is usually where I make a long list of ways to fix the show, but I have only one right now: find better talent. I thought season four was pretty weak talent wise compared to the first three and the last two have gotten significantly worse talent wise. It is time to bring in more ringers. And good ones, not silly YouTube “superstars,” ones with actual talent and entertainment value.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.

Survivor: Cagayan: Sometime I just have to scratch my head at how some people vote. After three jury members attacked Tony for lying after swearing on his badge, wife and kid, and even his death father’s grave, I actually though Woo had a chance of winning, yet all three of those players ended up voting for Tony. I do not mind lying and cheating to advance in the game, but who gives a million dollars to someone who reigns on the memory of their dead father? What’s worse is that Tony did not even gain anything from voting for Trish. Ugg, so after such a promising premise, Brains vs. Beauty vs. Brawn, this season ended up being in the bottom five of the series.

Undoubtedly there will be an all-star edition of the format in the near future (they are already recycling Blood vs. Water), so here is my suggestion for the cast. I did fill the Beauty tribe with all hot chicks because I do not think anyone wants to know my thoughts on the subject. Plus, let’s be honest, the idea of a “beauty” tribe is that the members use their looks to advance and guys just do not do that. Look at this past season, two of the male beauties looked like they could have very well been on the Brawn tribe.

Brains
Ciera Eastin (Blood vs. Water)
Kim Spradlin (One World)
Sophie Clarke (South Pacific)
Rob Cesternino (Amazon)
Stephen Fishbach (Tocantins)
Todd Herzog (China)

Beauty
Parviti Shallow (Cooke Island)
Andrea Boehlke (Redemption Island)
Morgan McLeod (Cagayan)
Natalie Tenerelli (Redemption Island)
Chelsea Meissner (One World)
Mikayla Wingle (Phillippines)

Brawn
Kat Edorsson (One World)
Cliff Robinson (Cagayan)
Jeff Kent (Philippines)
James Clement (Blood vs. Water)
Stephenie LaGrossa (Palau)
Abi-Maria Gomes (Philippines)

You can stream recent episodes on cbs.com. You can also download Survivor: Cagayan on iTunes.

The Americans: With teaser at the end of the first season finale it seemed obvious that Paige would learn of her parents other lives sometime this season. And with Larrick hot on their trail, it seemed likely that he would kidnap and she would learn that way. Oops, got that totally wrong. It turns out it was the other kid who learned of his parents extracurricular activities. And then killed his parents. Alrighty, that was a bit rushed. But it did set up would could be a fascinating third season where Paige has to find out about her parents… right?
You can download The Americans on iTunes.

The Challenge: Free Agents: I have to grown whenever a new cast is announce and Johnny Bananas is once again a part of the season. And I have done a lot of growing because this is his tenth Challenge (he, along with C.T. and Anessa have tied Paula for the most appearance; and since I was on the Wikipeia page, I was flabbergasted to see Cara Maria just tied Sarah for most consecutive Challenges ever with seven, who keeps asking her back). So it says a lot that for the first time ever I was actually rooting for Bananas in an elimination round. That shows you juts how much of a douche Jordan is. And really there are very few things more entertaining than Jordan calling his shot against Bananas and then lose. And not just lose, but fail epically, falling of the wall. Good riddance Jordan, here is hoping you do not reach Johnny’s record.
You can download The Challenge: Free Agents on iTunes.

Hannibal: Well, frack, that is how you do a season finale. It may take me a couple days to fully compute what just happened.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Hannibal on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 5/18/14

Once Upon a Time: C’mon, you cannot have a Marty McFly reference and not have Emma’s hand start to disappear after she keeps her parents from meeting. And I thought after they made a big deal about Charming falling in love with Snow White after seeing the ring on her finger, I thought when Emma found the ring, she would put it on and her father would fall in love with her kind of like when Marty’s mom tried to have sex with him. But that is one of those only in the eighties type storyline.

It seemed pretty obvious to me the unnamed prisoner would end up being what fairytale property the show would exploit next season. Being that she was slightly ethnic, I was thinking Jasmine from Aladdin except Once Upon a Time: Wonderland went there and I doubt the writers will want to return there after it bombed massively. I was way off; she turned out to be Maid Marian and will just be a catalyst to turn Regina slightly evil again. The big surprise to me was that Emma told Rumplstiltkin that his son dies in the future and he does not do anything about it (that we know of yet), he just drinks his forgetful drink and makes a funny joke. So Neil may actually stay dead even though it does not seem like Rumplestiltkin to let that stand.

So I wrong the person that Emma brought back from the past would predict where the show is going next season (it turns out the actress has been on the show in a previous season, but just did not leave much of a mark), the actual tease for season four turned out to be, um, I had to look it up, Princess Elsa from Frozen? Alrighty. Have they really run out of fairytales to exploit, they have to do one that is not even a year old?
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

Mad Men: A couple weeks ago a hot blonde approached Don saying she knew him but he had no clue who she was. I originally thought that was his “niece” up until she started to hit on her. I still assumed the resemblance was not a coincidence. The niece actually showed up this week for the first time in a long while, which of course make me think of her doppelganger a couple weeks ago. Was the other more together the idealist version of her than Don remembered and the knocked up hippie was the reality? Granted that juxtaposition does not really work because Don did not actually see the new “niece” but that could be because he can still remember her the way she was. Not that any of this mattered because Ginsberg cut off his nipple to keep the computer from communicating with him. What the frack!?!
You can download Mad Men on iTunes.

Revenge: After a pleasurable, albeit guilty type of pleasurable, first season, this show hit a sever sophomore slump due in part to the lack of takedowns. I also blamed the lack of enjoyment of the inclusion of Aiden. Every ten episodes or so he would have a spat with Emily, leave the Hamptons, but would always find his way back after a episode or two. After two seasons they finally pulled the trigger on Aiden who I am guessing will not be returning from death anytime soon, unlike someone else.

The show teased that someone would die and with Aiden out of the way halfway through, I figured that was it. Nope, it looks like Conrad will join Aiden in, well, wherever those two may be going. But the second death was not the shocker, this time it was the murderer that was the surprise, the not so dead David Clarke. The show has teased this a couple times, but it would always go nowhere.

So this opens a whole new can of worms. Where has David been all this time? Why chose this very moment to kill Conrad? Who else knows? Nolan? Was he helping Emily from the shadows (aside from providing her with the infinity box) all this time? Will he come out of the shadows now that his name is cleared? How will Emily react to him still being alive (she just wasted a decade of her life avenging his death that did not actually happen)? And maybe most importantly, why was this not the finale for last season, or even season one? We really wasted two worthless seasons to get to this point.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Revenge on iTunes.

The Blacklist: Shows that have a stellar first season but cannot stick the landing have me a bit worried moving forward. Call it the Lost Paradox. And The Blacklist actually made me think of a worst case: The Killing. At the end of the first season, we leaned that the mayoral candidate did the killing. But wait in the last scene the evidence against him turned out to be tampered with. I had the same reaction with Berlin, Red kills him, but wait, that was not really Berlin. Worse, I say the ending a mile away, when the other passengers were saying “He cut of his hand” I originally did think they meant Berlin cut off his own hand. And I guy we are now to assume Lizzie is Berlin’s daughter, right, and Red was the one that stole her from him?
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The Blacklist on iTunes.

Castle: It was a little convenient that a room full of bikers and mobsters did not start shooting at each other. But I guess we are supposed to spend the summer thinking Castle is dead despite being the titular character. Now that Kate’s mother’s murder is closed, this will probably be the start of the next lengthy case the duo undertakes.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Castle on iTunes.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: I thought the show stalled out a bit after the Captain America premiered but that was a thoroughly entertaining finale. It seemed pretty obvious to me that Joss Weadon himself wrote those Colson / Fury scenes. I am really glad they never even tried to turn Ward good again, but I have a feeling that there will be a Loki in Thor 2 situation sometime in season three. I hope they instead use him as more of a Hannibal Lecter situation if they do bring the character back. I just do not think there is a way they could ever redeem Ward. My only disappointment with the finale (other than they let Ward live) is we did not get any more information about Skye’s origins other than her father is still alive and he has a thick bloody hand.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

Survivor: Cagayan: I had to laugh at Trish saying she was a good person in the game after the blow up with Kass. She was so unliked that someone rather quit the game than be around her for fear she would start punching her. With or without her, this is a lackluster final four. Woooooo is the only person worth rooting for but he will probably be out first unless he wins Immunity.
You can stream recent episodes on cbs.com. You can also download Survivor: Cagayan on iTunes.

Nashville: So Will actually admitted to his wife that he was gay, unfortunately for him, it looks like his reality show producers were listening. But it is about time this news came out, it hopefully will make the character interesting for once. The rest of the episode was pretty meh for a finale.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Nashville on iTunes.

The Big Bang Theory: I would actually watch a show where Sheldon rides the rails.
You can stream recent episodes on cbs.com. You can also download The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.

The Challenge: Free Agents: Nothing better than trivia week on The Challenge, T.J. clearly enjoys it two. Australians speaking Dutch had to be my favorite answer.
You can download The Challenge: Free Agents on iTunes.

Hannibal: Will says he knows how to set a trap, I wonder if he is actually using Jack as the bait (as seen in the season premiere and the next promo). You can also add Hannibal having Mason feed Will’s dogs with his own face to the most disturbing scenes list.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Hannibal on iTunes.