57 Channels and Only This Is On: 11/18/2018

Supergirl: The season finale promised up Soviet Supergirl but it seems like she has only been on screen for about a minute and a half in the first five episodes this season. Certainly that storyline has to be better than this annoying anti-alien storyline.
Supergirl on iTunes.

Ray Donovan: So just how long does it take to drive from Los Angeles to New York City? I actually used Bing Maps and it actually took less than I expected: forty hours without traffic (though when I searched, Bing estimated nine extra hours with traffic). The trip while avoiding toll roads which I am guessing two fugitives would want to avoid would take at least forty-six hours (plus maybe twelve hours of traffic). Still, that is plenty of time for Daryll to hire some protection. Or does that set not have any protection. Last week Daryll said his dad was going to kill him, maybe get prepaired for that situation.

The Walking Dead: So five(ish) years later they never did finish the bridge (you would think how much Rick wanted it, you would think they would have continued) and Negan is still in prison. Oh, and Carol and Eugene have way more hair. Weird the different communities have lost touch, but of course theey are just starting to get back together. And was the “her” Michone talked about in HillTop Maggie or did she die in the missing years. And when did covering yourself in mud throw your scent off the zombies?
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

The Last Ship: I guess we now know what Saving Private Ryan would look like on a television budget. Though I guess the less personal and firepower can be explained away by the virus. And I joked about Tom Chandler going down with his ship a couple weeks back and it turns out I was right that they actually did sink the ship. Except Tom Chandler didn’t actually go down with it despite an apparent lengthy white light montage. Jokes aside, The Last Ship was a fun summer diversion (even though it crept into the fall in the last couple seasons), like a televised weekly action movie and still managed to go multiple seasons after no longer being the last ship.
You can download The Last Ship on iTunes.

You: Well I have been predicting Joe would kill Beck by the end of the season and it turns out I was right. Which brings up his death doll this season to six I believe. But whatever happened to the DNA the PI mentioned? Is there really no DNA in urine like Joe hoped? Was the PI just bluffing to see how Joe reacted? And though I was right about Beck, I was wrong about Candice being killed by Joe. So where has she been? Was Joe telling the truth that she really changed her name and moved to Italy? I just assumed the teeth were hers. So whose teeth were those?
You can download You on iTunes.

The Challenge: Final Reckoning: Do you believe in highly unlikelies!?! The curse of Bananas screwing over Sarah strikes again. And just in time for TJ to announce that twist of players being able to screw over their partner is back. I ridiculed Bananas for doing that, but for an extra half a million, I think I may just have to take that money. But then I thought about taxes. If you take the million dollars, you will ended up with $512,000.29 while if you split it, then you would receive $283,670.89 which is not as dramatic as getting an extra half a million dollars. But without Bananas and Tony, this may be the weakest finalist field ever. I guess if I had to make a prediction, I would go with Joss and Sylvia.
You can download The Challenge: Final Reckoning on iTunes.

Survivor: David vs. Goliath: The rare we get to see no votes cast Tribal. You have to expect some weird shirt to happen when the editors pull that. But why not just show the obligatory one vote for Christian and one for Angelina? We still would have gotten that shock that, oh, why is John getting votes moment. But yeah, why exactly did John get votes? Was it that Davie did not tell everyone that he had an Idol, but devised a plan to get rid of strong Goliath and not just an easy pickings like Angelina with Christian and Nick? That seems the only plausible answer I can come up with.
You can download Survivor: David vs. Goliath on iTunes.

The Good Place: Isn’t it obvious why Doug Forcett is destined for The Bad Place like Shawn suggest even though Michael was shocked. Tahani’s whole reason for going to The Bad Place is because she did good for the wrong reasons and so it would also mean if the sole reason why you are doing good things is for the moral deserts of not being tortured for all eternity, then not only are you not getting those points, you are actually getting negative points for your efforts to subvert the system. But really disappointed that The Real Eleanor did not play a bigger role in the episode. Why even un-pod her just to be a random henchman in a bar brawl?
The Good Place on iTunes.

Blindspot: A couple weeks ago an episode with a tease of Jane getting caught by Kurt only for her to talk her way out of it pretty easily. I do not think that will happen this time. But if she is going to go rouge, how long until she teams up with Zapada?
You can download Blindspot on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 11/11/2018

Supergirl: Wait, The Real Eleanor did not die in the season premiere? I thought she got stabbed in the back of the head. Oh well, I guess she is dead now since her fiancé just bought a shirtload of guns. And why is Manchester Black, um, actually black now? Isn’t making a football hooligan black kind of racist? At least Russian Supergirl is back. That storyline seems much more interesting than the anti-alien one is. Granted Commie Supergirl will likely do something evil and everyone will think it is American Supergirl which will only enflame the racists old white dudes on the show.
Supergirl on iTunes.

Ray Donovan: Oh Bunchy, you have never been the smartest of the Donovan children (which says a lot) but murdering a prison guard to break out your father who is on death’s doorstep (though being a television show, Micky will undoubtedly make a full recovery) is the dumbest thing you have ever done. It is hard to imagine even Ray can fix that situation for you, but being a television show, he probably will. I guess that will involve a cross country trip to New York.

The Walking Dead: Wow, Rick got out of being gored by a metal rod pretty quickly. I guess the only way they could end an episode that the show heavily promoted as Rick’s last episode would be to not actually kill him off. Instead he was taken by the mysterious helicopter people whom will may never learn about on the show because the flash forward almost ten years. But it seems we may actually learn what was going on there with a big budget Rick movie. So will he die in that because I cannot image Rick would not do everything to get back to his daughter.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

The Last Ship: I joked last week they were killing off all the minority cast members in the final season, but c’mon, another one gone this week. But the Columbian dude killing all his generals because of Tarot card was wild even if they were planning a coup.
You can download The Last Ship on iTunes.

You: I have spent most of the season thinking the season would end with Joe killing Beck with the outside chance of her joining him and his murdering way. Now that she knows, it kind of has to end that way. Or maybe she gets shipped off to Rome with Candice. Is that really happen to Candice? On the cusp of being signed only to move to Europe and completely cut herself off from everyone, including not learning her brother died? Sounds fishy.
You can download You on iTunes.

Kidding: I knew the show was always dark, but I would not have ever guessed that is was slit Tara Lipinski’s throat dark.

Manifest: The little kid can speak Bulgarian now? I did not think the show could get much dumber. And why him? Is there were like eight people being experimenting on, why did no one else feel it? This show is so stupid.
You can download Manifest on iTunes.

The Challenge: Final Reckoning: Yeah, doing the math before you actually start plugging in the pegs seems pretty obvious. Should have been obvious for the stronger males, but they clearly got outsmarted. Unfortunately the other battle was just pure strength with the two bigger dudes winning in a blowout. But it will be interesting if the other teams can get Bananas out before the final, which looks may start next week.
You can download The Challenge: Final Reckoning on iTunes.

Survivor: David vs. Goliath: Kind of a bad strategy from Elizabeth to wait until Tribal to stir up things. I almost thought it worked though when people started to get up and talk which has not been a good sign in the past. Though now I wonder what there were talking about because no one seemed to change their vote.
You can download Survivor: David vs. Goliath on iTunes.

Superstore: Weird to see Sue Heck play someone who is not Sue Heck. Good thing there is a spin off in the works for her. But since her replacement urinated in the middle of the store, she may be hired back next week.
You can download Superstore on iTunes.

The Good Place: The Real Eleanor is back! I was wondering why she was in a blink and you miss it first flashback and then did not appear in any more (the actree did say she was in the animal fair but she was cut). But then she shocking popped up in the present after the demons figured out how to get to Earth without going through the Judge’s door. This should be interesting. Hopefully she last longer than Trevor.
The Good Place on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 11/4/2018

Supergirl: Ugg, they are really laying on the evil old white guy who hates alien immigrants really thick this season. It is becoming a harder and harder watch. They really need to bring back Saturn Girl to make it watchable.
Supergirl on iTunes.

The Walking Dead: So this is how Rick dies, impaled on a rail with two hordes converging on him? Kind of anti-poetic. Sacrificing himself for Daryl to get out of that pit would have been a better way to go. Granted he is not dead yet so maybe he makes it out of that situation only to go out in a more poetic fashion.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

The Last Ship: We have said goodbye to a few sailors early this season and I thought we were going to actually get through the siege without any casualties, at least to the people we know. But just like a horror movie, there is always one last death. Although, haven’t all the long standing characters that have died this season, all been minorities? Maybe they are setting up the big sacrifice of Tom Chandler. A captain does always go down with his ship.
You can download The Last Ship on iTunes.

You: So Joe and Beck broke up for three months. Yawn. Can we fast forward to the end of the season where Joe kills Beck, it is going to happen eventual. If not now, maybe the series finale. Or Beck becomes a killer. Oh crap, are they going to kill John Stamos together?
You can download You on iTunes.

The Challenge: Final Reckoning: Stacking cards up high? Someone has been watching Survivor. Here is hoping Bananas does not pull the Double Cross.
You can download The Challenge: Final Reckoning on iTunes.

Survivor: David vs. Goliath: I thought for sure that Mike White was going to turn on a Goliath once again (actually I got very I am going to sacrifice myself vibe from Mike White right after the challenge) even though Lyrsa was the smarter vote. You cannot assume you are going to merge and with Lyrsa, you are not winning any more Immunity Idols. Of course right after voting out Lyrsa, there was a promo that there is a merge next week. Oops, maybe they should have voted out the more strategic threat than the way to beat Lyrsa.
You can download Survivor: David vs. Goliath on iTunes.

The Good Place: Wait, so Eleanor’s mom and Tahani’s sister do not even need any help getting into the Good Place? Kind of a filler episode if nothing that did helped their family member. At least Pill Boi was (presumably) put on the right track.
The Good Place on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 10/28/2018

Supergirl: Ugg, they are really going to lay on the illegal aliens are the actual aliens allegory pretty thick this season aren’t they. And as an old white dude, I am kind of offended how old white dudes are portrayed this season on the show. C’mon, we are not all alien (illegal or actual) hating people.
Supergirl on iTunes.

Shameless: Wait, crazy Peg Bundy is a shrink herself? I guess it takes one to help one, maybe? But poor Fiona, she seemed to finally get her stuff together, only for everything to completely fall apart right before she is about to leave the show. I wonder if she will end up going out the way it almost happened back in season one in that she does run away with Steve in her final scene. And is Lwna really that oblibious that Supergirl showed up seconds after Kara left?

The Walking Dead: Okay preacher guy, when you’re crazy girlfriend asks if you are with her or will you report her, maybe not admit you are going to tell Rick.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

The Last Ship: They have killed off a bunch of cast members in this final season and those all of them survived this episode (except for that one dude’s leg), did they really need to kill that child that helped the Americans? But how very Red Reddington of the Florida traitor. What shadiness does she have up her sleeve? But c’mon, military, be smarter, you had to know the ambulance was a scam all along. I sniffed it out from the moment they arrived.
You can download The Last Ship on iTunes.

You: So Joe is really going to be okay with Beck breaking up with him? Is he just going to start obsessing over that new chick? Well, at least he was able to last more than a minute the first time with her.
You can download You on iTunes.

Manifest: So is the kid going to be some sort of messiah? First he just happens to find the Jamaican dude by when he claims was a feeling, no voices or visions like everyone else. And then he is apparently the only person in the plane to see the weird lights. So what is his connection, did he do this or did some other force (aliens) do it because of him?
You can download Manifest on iTunes.

The Challenge: Final Reckoning: The producers really do have a floating scale when it comes to giving people the boot. I was a bit surprised when it was not even discussed Sylvia head-butted Marie and after giving Cory a deserved boot, how did Tony not go with him? Putting your arm around someone tightly and asking multiple times, “are we gonna fight” seems like grounds for being sent home. Also, that had to be the lamest trivia challenge ever. Two wrong answers I think? Just too many Challenge related questions. Trivia should be common knowledge questions.
You can download The Challenge: Final Reckoning on iTunes.

Survivor: David vs. Goliath: Oh my goodness, Angelina asking Natalie multiple times for her jacket after being blindsided is the greatest moment on the show since Andrea told Zeke he sucked at this game. I am not sure if she was being sincere or trolling her, but either way it was awesome.
You can download Survivor: David vs. Goliath on iTunes.

Superstore: Weird that the day after Megyn Kelly suggested that blackface is fine if done out of respect, and a day before her show was canceled for those comments, this show had the exact same discussion. And the anti-blackface side was only doing that so they could win the costume contest.
You can download Superstore on iTunes.

The Good Place: Did we really need to leave Jacksonville so soon? They could have spent the whole season trying to save the souls of Donkey Doug, Pillboi, or even Blake Bortles and I would have been perfectly fine with that.
The Good Place on iTunes.

Blindspot: So Jane explained the syringe that Kurt caught her with as what she wants to kill herself with. Um, Kurt, you are a moron. Are you not a little suspicious that she already had the poison in a syringe and not keeping it in a vile until it was time. But I really like these Patterson-centric episodes where we only get glimpses of the mission which is clearly done to keep costs down but are always well done.
You can download Blindspot on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 10/21/2018

Supergirl: Oh, hey, The Real Eleanor! Well, fork. They killed her off already. Shirtballs. And is it too late to have Saturn Girl be the token Legionnaire to stay behind because Braniac 5 may actually be more annoying than Toyman Jr.?
Supergirl on iTunes.

Shameless: Peg Bundy? Monica Geller? Danny Tanner? What nineties era sitcom star will be on next, Uerkel? But is that it for Ian? The actor announced he was leaving the show too. Seriously, can people just leave without announcing iy first? Once it is announced it is just a long slog until they are off the show. At least Ian just announced last week so it was not a long wait. Assuming he just rides off into the sunset with Micky. Kind of sad that is his big love. Is Jimmy going to come back for Fiona to take her away for her to leave?

Fear the Walking Dead: Is the preacher really going to hook up with the creepy Trash Lady? And what happened to his eye? I remember he was really sick last season, but I do not remember anything happening to his eye.
You can download Fear the Walking Dead on iTunes.

The Last Ship: Wait, the lesbian traitor is really an American mother of one from Orlando? I just assumed she was an ambiguous Latina who could pass as Caucasian. Being an actual turncoat makes her a much more compelling character. So just how and when was she turned? And I know in the post-pandemic world, they might be low on soldiers, but how do you not keep eyes on that house. At least pay a local.
You can download The Last Ship on iTunes.

You: So the Pretty Little Liar gets her head bashed in with a rock last week and looks none worse the wear the next day? Oh, but she is apparently dead now? It was quite absurd that Joe tossed the rock not far away from the body last week and I does not seem like anyone bother to canvas more than two feet from the attack, but c’mon, Joe had to have left plenty of DNA at the house, including a forking jar of urine. But Joe hallucinating his ex-girlfriend is giving me the sinking suspicion that the big twist at the end of the season will be that Joe was hallucinating some, if not all of what happened this season.
You can download You on iTunes.

Manifest: So now they passengers can see inanimate objects instead of just hearing voices tell them to do things? Meh.
You can download Manifest on iTunes.

The Challenge: Final Reckoning: Yeah, I laughed pretty hardily at Natalie in the ball pit. Big old shocker she actually won. Even bigger shocker Zach got the boot for medical reason. Always sucks when someone leaves for medical reasons. But had he stupidly not voluntarily put himself into that elimination that injured him, he would still be in the game uninjured.
You can download The Challenge: Final Reckoning on iTunes.

Survivor: David vs. Goliath: So we got a brand new advantage, the Idol Nullifier where someone can play it and would wipe out the Idol that is played. But only if they play it for someone who actually plays their Idol. I will be quite shocked if this actually gets played correctly.

Then at Tribal you had the battle of the dumb moves. First you get the Black Dude David with the Idol who decides to try to get the Tribe to vote out the other David so he would not have to play the Idol even though he would still be in the minority for any future Tribals with this group. I never understand the hold on the Idol for later strategy. If you think there is more than ten percent chance you are going home, play it now. Then tomorrow, go out and look for another one. I am too lazy to do the research, but I am pretty sure more people have been booted with an Idol in their pocket than have played one correctly. In Survivor you should worry about getting to tomorrow and then worry about tomorrow then.

But Black David was bailed out by the White Dude Goliath who had a dumber move of his own when he decided to turn on his majority for what appeared to me for no apparent reason. So now he is in the minority and why would anyone trust him? It is just amazing to me how whenever these Tribe swaps happen that the majority seemed to vote one of their own more often than the easy vote. I would be interested to go back and see how many of these early Tribe Swap turncoats actually make it very far. I would be shocked to see either of these two morons in the finals. I would be surprised if either get to the merge.
You can download Survivor: David vs. Goliath on iTunes.

The Good Place: Isn’t Michael telling the group about The Good Place point system kind of a backdoor to still get them in? Since they know about the points, any points they accumulate would be void, but now they think there is no way to get to The Good Place, actually they can get those points for doing good because they are doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, not because it will get them moral deserts of an decent afterlife. Right? I think I hurt my brain coming up with that theory. But hey, of course Jason has his own infectious disease named after him in Jacksonville.
The Good Place on iTunes.

Blindspot: Oh no, Jane got caught with a syringe. Oh wait, the promo for next week sees the team working together with no tension. I guess she is easily able to explain this like she did taking photos of Patterson’s board. I really need to stop watching promos.
You can download Blindspot on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 10/14/2018

Shameless: Oh Frank, of all your stupid ideas, electroshock therapy to your own junk has to be the worst. But getting conned by Peg Bundy in pursuit of drugs does totally seem on brand.

The Walking Dead: I feel like I missed something. A dangerous mission to DC for a plow and a wagon? And what exactly were you expecting pulling those things over a glass ceiling? And is It really that hard to make your own plow?

The Last Ship: Oh yeah, Tom Chandler still has children, that was the first sighting of the season. And right during the episode Chandler said he was back full time. And what a weird juxtaposition of a siege with a fight with the daughter.
You can download The Last Ship on iTunes.

You: So Peaches is just the female Joe? I can work with that. So when does Peaches get a POV episode? Is it a flashback to when Peaches met Beck? Although we are already seem to be done with Beck monologing. But of course Peaches is not dead, she just got interesting. And how exactly does Joe get out of this? He stupidly threw the weapon nor far from where he attacked her? Shouldn’t there be enough DNA on it?
You can download You on iTunes.

Manifest: So now the people on the show can solve crimes by following the voices in other people’s head? And kind of lame that the big cliffhanger of the person who went on television being murdered ended up being the maid.
You can download Manifest on iTunes.

The Challenge: Final Reckoning: You know what Marie, if you did not want the Lavender ladies to turn on you, maybe you should not have voted with Banana’s last week creating that tie.
You can download The Challenge: Final Reckoning on iTunes.

Blindspot: So Jane and Tasha are bad guys now? Alrighty. Not that I think that Tasha will do anything to hurt her old team. I guess something had to change to make the show more interesting.
You can download Blindspot on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 10/7/2018

Shameless: About half way through the episode I thought to myself, for the hundredth episode, this week was fairly tame for such a milestone. Then Frank went and started a race riot. That is more like it.

The Last Ship: I always found the lesbian relationship completely weird, out of place, and just randomly popped out of nowhere at the start of this season. It really just screamed something shady was going on. And apparently I was right. Too bad Alicia did not figure it out before me because she is yet another character to die this season. Is anyone going to get out of this final season alive?
You can download The Last Ship on iTunes.

You: Ooo, a change in format. But maybe I was too harsh on Joe monologing because Beck is not that more compelling at it. I actually assumed the Captain was her father the moment he offered money (I guess I forgot she mentioned he was dead). Though does Peach actually think he is dead with her dead dog an analogy for her father or does she just think the father is just dead to Beck? Really weird to tell everyone, even your best friend, your dad is dead when he is not. But did Joe really leave Beck alone in his apartment with her panties, shirt, and phone when returning the book or did h take that stuff with him. Joe is kind of sloppy for a meticulous stalker.
You can download You on iTunes.

Manifest: So this show is just going to be miracle of the week format? Meh. I am much more interested in the shadow figure who may be going around and killing passengers from the plane. My prediction: it is someone who was on the plane.
You can download Manifest on iTunes.

The Challenge: Final Reckoning: Do these people seriously forget they are playing for a million dollars? I am not risking a chance at a million dollars to play chicken with my partner. And Zach is clearly in the wrong because Amanda’s alliance is clearly stronger and easier to be one on one. And how did they lose that elimination? C’mon, at one point how do you not realize that Zach needs to climb across and shake that last flag off? I was thinking that after the third try failed.
You can download The Challenge: Final Reckoning on iTunes.

Survivor: David vs. Goliath: The promo monkey really was trolling us last week. It seemed like both tribes were targeting a woman of color, which would have been another in a long list of women of color being voted out first. Unfortunately, the show reverted back to an older trope of voting out the most attractive females early. Meh.
You can download Survivor: David vs. Goliath on iTunes.

The Good Place: Oh my goodness, the American Café was just offensively brilliant. Maybe even better was the explanation of how the Jacksonville Jaguars and Blake Bortles got suddenly good.
The Good Place on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 9/30/2018

Shameless: You would think Frank supporting a pedophile foe Congress would be the most shameless moment of the season, but it was not even the most shameless part of the episode. No, Lip pulling the plug of someone on a ventilator so he could kidnap a kid was really bad.

The Last Ship: Well that was a novel way to blow up a bridge.
You can download The Last Ship on iTunes.

You: Call me old fashion, but seeing who I thought I was dating forking some other dude she just met would be a huge deal breaker for me. Doing that seems more psychopathic than killing your crush’s boyfriend. Although leaving the body in your car while putting together the girl’s bed is probably up there. But really, trying to get a child to buy that stuff should be child endangerment that should come with some jail time. And I hope that ending was intentionally funny.
You can download You on iTunes.

Manifest: Going into the show I kind of expected it to knock off Lost, but I was not expected the show to also knock off another mid-nineties show, Wonderfalls. And really poorly because being told to do ambiguous things that turn out to be for the better is much more entertaining when it is done by inanimate objects rather than your voice in your head.
You can download Manifest on iTunes.

The Gifted: And I though the kid’s Beiber haircut was laughable. But other than him, I really wish they would just get rid of the Mutant Underground and spend all the time with the inner Circle, all of the more interesting character are there.
You can download The Gifted on iTunes.

The Challenge: Final Reckoning: Oh snap, someone on this show went with the strongest team to meet in elimination. And then actually defeated them.
You can download The Challenge: Final Reckoning on iTunes.

Survivor: David vs. Goliath: What a horrible way to end an episode. Definitely should have done a double episode on that. And why were they making such a big deal of Christian solving that first puzzle, which was the easiest one in the show’s history. A child could have done that in a minute or two.
You can download Survivor: David vs. Goliath on iTunes.

The Good Place: Kind of a meh start to the season. I guess having the characters all being on Earth kind of eliminates some of the zanier aspects of the show. Hopefully Trevor spices things up next week (but thanks to the promo right before the last segment and Adam Scott’s name appearing in the credits before he was actually on screen, that surprised was kind of ruined). Granted, if the demons are sending up their own to taint this experiment, it really should have been Real Eleanor. Hopefully Trevor fails and she is next.
The Good Place on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 9/23/2018

Shameless: Every season I say the show could not do anything more shameless than what they have done in past seasons, but Carl volunteering to euthanize dogs in cars may be an all-time low. Frank’s reverse racism would be up there if it were not so funny. Though Mo White is a little on the nose.

Fear the Walking Dead: How has a bunch of people who have manage to make it this long in the zombie apocalypse be as so stupid to pull a paraplegic along the road? Seriously, did none of them get up to ninth grade science? Not only are you pulling his weight, but the friction is only adding to the force. You would have exerted much less energy just to carry him. But when you are down a wheelchair, the hospital was the right call. Granted it would have been smart to get in, grab, the chair, and keep moving.
You can download Fear the Walking Dead on iTunes.

The Last Ship: My big takeaway from the episode is the New Colombians have a very weird salute.
You can download The Last Ship on iTunes.

You: So Joe’s last girlfriend weirdly went to Rome with some other dude after they broke up? There has to be more to that story. And what exactly is going to have to Benji, in real life and the digital world? Is Joe just going to dump the body somewhere and have people believe he got the wrong drink or if he just going to continue to make daily douchebag hashtags in perpetuity?
You can download You on iTunes.

The Challenge: Final Reckoning: Oh snap, TJ pulled out the our female testers were able to do this faster than anyone insult. I was kind of wondering if they tested that challenge from a couple weeks ago where they were dunking people underwater to solve a hard puzzle. Just how well did those testers do on that one?
You can download The Challenge: Final Reckoning on iTunes.

Previewing You: A Dude's Review of Lifetime vol. IX

I have long lamented how too many television show have ideas that would be better off as a two hour movie than a format that wants to churn out a hundred episodes per season. Sure ninety-five percent of these shows get canned after one season (or less). But the thing is Lifetime’s You already is a movie. In fact about nineteen percent of Lifetime Movies are about stalkers. Though I wonder if anyone watched a Lifetime movie and thought to themselves, I wish that went on for six seasons or more.

You stars a pretentious bookstore worker, because what else could have possibly been? But Penn Badgley (John Tucker Must Die) is actually a good guy beneath his "paper is better than digital" snobbery, he even bring home books to the kid next door who has to sit on the steps when his mother gets in a shouting match with a new boyfriend. And c’mom, who does not do a little Googling when they meet a new hot chick?

Okay, so Googling until they get an address, go there, and proceed to put your hand down your pants jumps across the proverbial line. And unfortunately the title sequence starting to bleed blood red spoils that someone is going to bleed ruining the, well maybe he is not going to go there. Sure a stalking television show about a stalker pretty much means it will go there eventually, but having it in your title sequence means it is going to happen soon.

For the first half of the Pilot, besides the pretentious job, Badgley actually comes across as an enduring everyman who does a pretty good job explaining what men think about in the pursuit of the fairer sex until he starts to slowly go over the edge. By then, his long inner monologues get a bit tedious and I wish he would stick to pithy one-liners which he is much better at.

Elizabeth Lail (Dead of Summer) plays the object of his obsession and is perfectly stacker worthy in an approachable hot kind of way. (I cannot confirm nor deny going through her whole Instagram but will confirm never actually peeping though her window in the bushes.) She has a creepy boss, a douchebag ex she cannot quite quit yet, and daddy issues which makes for the perfect kind of girl you can swoop in and save.

Though her friend circle can be trouble just because they are kind of annoying. Seriously, one calls herself an Instagram Influencer. And you would think a bookstore worker would get along with best friend Peaches Salinger (yes that Salinger played by the fourth best Pretty Little Liar Shay Mitchell), but Peaches and Badgley wisely do not trust each other as things escalate with every passing episode and becomes the most compelling part of the show half way through the first season.

You reminds me of classic J.J. Abrams in that the episodes are set up well and end with shockers that will likely have you tuning in the next week (the end of episode is, um, epically memorable) but everything in between is kind of a bore. I think it probably has to do with too much monologing and maybe a more captivating actor could have help. There is a format change in episode four that shakes thinks up for a bit until you realize it is not much better than the original format. When it comes down to it, You is just not as infatuating as Lail is to Badgley.

You airs Sundays at 9:00 on Lifetime.