Usually at the beginning of each quarter I list what albums are coming out chronologically, instead, this time I am counting down the ten albums I am most looking forward to listen to this fall. Then the rest I sorted by release date. If you are interested in pre-ordering the record from Amazon, click the album name (or the album cover where available). Click the artist name to be taken to their iTunes page to grab their current work. And as always, all dates subject to change.
1. Battle Studies – John Mayer (November 17): When I get around to making the Greatest Albums of the 00’s list, you could make an argument for any of his first three albums to land near the top of the list. Hopefully he goes four for four with Battle Studies.
2. Kamaal the Abstract – Q-Tip (September 15): This should have been on the Most Anticipated Albums of Spring 2002, but the album got shelved by Arista. The record takes the jazz samples of A Tribe Called Quest to the extreme of live instrumentation and even sees Tip sing long before Andre 3000 or Kanye with production from the late J Dilla.
3. Draw the Line – David Gray (September 22): Even though he hasn’t gotten the mainstream following after striking it big with Babylon, Gray has put out consistently good music since. And from the signs of the first single Fugitive, it looks to continue.
4. Everything Comes and Goes – Michelle Branch (November 10): Branch started off her career by making what may end up being the greatest pop album of the decade. Like many other artists this decade, she went country with her duo The Wreckers. Now back with her first solo album in six years, it sounds like she will continue straddling the pop / rock / country fence.
5. Kiss and Tell – Selena Gomez and The Scene (September 29): Just kidding, making sure you are paying attention. But seriously, their first single is disturbingly catchy. Don’t tell Chris Hansen I said that though please.
6. The Seventh Seal – Rakim (September 22): Another rap album that has been taking too long to be released. I have been anxiously waiting for this album ever since Dr. Dre signed him to his Aftermath label back in 2000. He left three years later to sign with Dreamworks that folded shortly after. Hopefully there are no more snags between now and the 22nd.
7. I and Love and You – The Avett Brothers (September 29): I was first introduced to the band when Friday Night Lights used it as the soundtrack to the Landy/Tyra coupling. Now with a Rick Rubin produced, they are posed to be the breakout rock act of the year.
8. Play On – Carrie Underwood (November 3): Unlike #5, this is no joke. Her debut was the guiltiest of guilty pleasures and the follow was exactly what you expect, save the last track Wheel that pushed her boundaries outward. From the sound of the first single Cowboy Cassanova she might be pushing further with the song co-written by Mike Elizondo, one of Dr. Dre’s co-producers.
9. Man on the Moon: The End of Day – Kid Cudi (September 15): Consider me skeptic about a five act rap concept album, the recent three acts from Green Day was heavy-handed. But Make Her Say may go down as the best hip-hop track of year. And bonus points for being from Cleveland.
10. How I Got Over – The Roots (October 20): You would think after agreeing to be Jimmy Fallon’s house band, The Roots would rest on their laurels, but just a year after releasing their last album comes a new one.
Here are some other albums you can expect to drop sometime before Christmas. If I missed anything, let me know in the comments or tell me what fall release you are looking forward to:
Quote of the Week: You can feed him in his wife beater onesy. (Tara – Sons of Anarchy)
Song of the Week: Welcome Daddy (Ashlee’s amended lyrics version) – The Sisters of ZBZ (Greek)
Big News of the Week: Politicians Behaving Badly: The week started off with the lames patrician bickering ever over Barack Obama’s speech to the nation’s children. Shouldn’t be something that all presidents to? But of course the religious nut jobs were all up in arms just like the liberal communists were back when the original Bush did. Sometime a speech to kids is just a speech to kids. But watching the speech, someone should have told Obama he was talking to a bunch of ten year olds because he sounded like he was giving one of his stump speeches. Granted he only has two gears of speaking, the stump speech and his bored out of his mind delivery.
That wasn’t the only speech Obama gave this week as he took yet another bite of primetime to pitch his health care plan. And like most addresses to Congress, the only reason to watch is to watch the unintentional comedy of the Congressmen like who gets caught sleeping because let’s face it, these addresses never actually say anything new. And the one on Wednesday didn’t disappoint. Usually the highlight is the parties trying to out cheer/boo each other at certain lines, but one Republican congressman went so far as to shout “You lie!” after Obama said his health care plan wouldn’t cover illegal immigrants. Classic. This overshadowed another Congressman who had in his lap a “What Bill?” sign. We are inching closer to the good old political days of Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton which I am all for.
Coalition Links of the Week: It premieres and it sucked. We mean that in the best way possible when it comes to The Vampire Diaries. (TV Fanatic)
George's funeral, a married Alex and Izzie; BuzzSugar gets a peek at the upcoming sixth season of Grey's Anantomy. (BuzzSugar)
This week, Sandie interviewed Stana Katic who plays Detective Kate Beckett on Castle. (Daemon's TV)
Vance breaks down the new Fall 2009 TV shows and why he is or isn't going to watch. (Tapeworthy)
With your favorite season premieres just around the corner, we shared our Top 5 most anticipated new comedies and dramas. (The TV Addict)
Tool Academy: I am not sure who wins the Moron of the Week Award, the “Special” Tool for blurting out, “Okay, I (explicative deleted) her” in front of his girlfriend, all the other Tools and the entire VH1 viewing public, the Dancing Tool who tried to explain just how much he loves his girlfriend by saying that he is dating her and doesn’t even have a Asian fetish (and then continue to keep digging after that comment), or the Redneck Tool for bursting a condom on his head. And that still didn’t hurt as much as the beating he got from his girlfriend. Naturally the Rednecks would react as if they are on Springer. But after the “Special” Tool confesses comes the most bizarre segment ever where almost all the guys there started confession their infidelities one after other. You can stream current episodes over at vh1.com. You can also download Tool Academy on iTunes.
Greek: Here is where I usually start off the review with “Holy (insert a favorite character’s name here) sighting!” But who do I go with Dr. Harold Abbot or Dwayne Wayne? Although I am not ready for Dwayne Wayne to have a twenty year old daughter. I wonder if Whitley is the mother. You can stream current episodes on Hulu.
Leverage: Having Eliot just happening to be at the drop spot to keep Parker from being assassinated was a lame plot point, but I will forgive the show simply because the slo-mo lunge with the flowing hair was absurdly cheesy in a funny kind of way. You can stream current episodes over at tnt.tv. You can also download Leverage on iTunes.
Free Download of the Week: Community (Amazon Video on Demand): Community may not be the best new show or even the funniest new comedy of the fall season (that goes to Modern Family), but you can check out the first episode of the show before it airs.
Deal of the Week: Fall TV Event: $20-$30 (Rescue Me, Chuck (Blu-Ray), Mad Men, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip)
Video of the Week: One of the great things about Hulu is they occasionally add criminally underwatched show (Arrested Development remains one of the most watched show on the site). Thanks to the recent partnership with ABC, here is another show many of you didn’t watch the first time around but should check it out now: The Knights of Prosperity which recently ranked in at #21 on The 100 Greatest Television Shows of the 00’s. All thirteen episodes are available to stream, here is the first one. If enough people check it on Hulu, maybe we will be lucky enough to get the show in DVD for. Now if only NBC would do the same for Ed (#4) and I will be a happy camper which actually came from the same producers of Knights of Prosperity.
Next Week Pick of the Week: Survivor: Samoa: The granddaddy of reality show is back for its nineteenth and it looks like this will be a bells and whistles free season, they are even dumping Exile Island this go around. As for a preseason pick, I would go with John. He is a rocket scientist for goodness sake (granted the last one didn’t last long).
I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post will include blurbs on Dark Blue, Eliza Dushku, Community, Saturday Night Live, Lock n Loaded, The Real L Word: Los Angeles, Mike Epps, and Jay Leno.
- Dark Blue is doing another online live chat with fans. This time Omari Hardwick will be chatting with fans Tuesday September 15 at 2 P.M. EST over at TNT.tv.
- This coming Sunday, Eliza Dushku will be interviewed by film students on Life After Film School on Fox Movie Channel at 7:30.
- Also airing this Sunday is a pair of documentaries on the National Geographic Channel. First up at 9:00 is The Girl Who Cried Blood (Scooter’s note: ewww, I hate blood) followed by The World’s Smallest Girl.
- The final three Straight A’s have been released by the Greendale Community College. Below are air conditioning (and as someone who went without some in his dormroom, it is a big draw) and Awesome New Friends. Head over to NBC.com for the last A: A lot of Class.
- Saturday Night Live has announced its first month of guests. Megan Fox (can we please end the Megan Fox era sooner than later) teams up with U2 for the opener 9/26. 10/3 is pretty much skippable with Ryan Reynolds and Lady Gaga. Drew Barrymore returns 10/10 for the sixth time (to quote Seth Myers - really?) to introduce Regina Specktor. Lastly Gerard Butler headlines 10/17 what should be the best of the first batch of episodes especially if they do a skit that follows the 300 warriors that didn’t make the cut and Sharkira shakes her hips. I tend not to be a fan of forced synergy, but shouldn’t NBC Universal have one of the stars of their movie Couples Retreat host with the movie coming out October 9. Not to mention Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman, Jon Favreau or Kristen Bell would have made a better show than the first three hosts they have lined up.
- A bunch of new coming out of Showtime. The network is getting into the reality game with the six episodes Lock n Load that takes a look at a gun shop in Englewood, Colorado starting October 21 at 8:00. Then there is The Real L World: Los Angeles which is a unscripted version of their former lesbian show which will air sometime in 2010. Mike Epps (Next Friday) get a stand up special Under Rated… Never Faded & X-Rated airing October 3 at 10:40.
- Fans of Battlestar Galactica may want to check out next Tuesday’s all new Warehouse 13 as Michael Hogan guest stars in the episode. Here is a preview:
- The Jay Leno Show takes root at the 10:00 hour starting Monday with Jerry Seinfeld and Jay-Z. Jay recently announced a bunch new corrisponance to his show which now includes D.L. Hughley, Mikey Day, Rachael Harris, Jim Norton, Dan Finnerty, The Dan Band, Liz Feldman, Brian Unger, Nick Thune, Owen Benjamin, Marina Franklin, Sebastian Maniscalco and Ross Mathews. For those that have patroned your local movie theater lately, you may have seen an ad for the show during the previews and here is an extended version:
Before he spent even one day in retirement, Jay-Z predicted he would eventually come back to rap when he said, “When I come back like Jordan wearing the 4-5.” The problem was when Hova finally did make his return with Kingdom Come, he wasn’t wearing a Bulls uniform, he had already skipped to the Wizards phase of his career. And the follow up wasn’t that much better. For his third stab at a comeback, is drawing up another Blueprint, the first of which came out exactly eight years ago today, the same day the Twin Towers fell.
Apparently the new Blueprint for Jigga is indie music (which we can probably thank the newly emo-loving Kanye West who produced half the album), the album even open up with a guest spot from one half of the alternative group Empire of the Sun on What We Talkin’ About. The album is then bookended with a guest electro artist Mr. Hudson on Young Forever that borders 80’s new wave cheesedom.
And Jay-Z really needs to avoid songs about age (remember how he tried to convince us that 30 is the new 20?) because it only emphasizes how old he is in a genre based on youth. And by including next big things Drake and Kid Cudi on a couple songs, it is hard not to think of Jay playing the part of Mathew McConaughey in Dazed & Confused. The multiple Frank Sinatra references do not help either. Which is a silly comparison anyway, Sinatra was a triple threat, Jay-Z is barely a single threat anymore.
The Blueprint 3 can best be summed up by the first unofficial single D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune). You get really excited at the concept and if anyone can put a death nail in the vastly over abused studio, technique, it is Jay Hova. But when you actually heard the song you wanted to like it more than you actually did. The lyrics don’t actually kill Auto-Tune, it is at best a flesh wound. And the lame hook is amplified considering he is the third act this year to lift the Steam chorus behind Wale and Kristinia Debarge.
What Jay does have going for him on The Blueprint 3 is his best post-retirement song Run This Town featuring Rihanna and Kanye (well it is either that or Brooklyn (Go Hard)). It has his most adventurous flow in recent memory but still not as tongue twisting as when he spit over Timbaland beats on the original Blueprint albums. Sadly though there really is only one more song of note on the set, the Alicia Keys assisted Empire State of Mind. Maybe it is time Jay-Z complete his Jordan prophesies and begrudgingly resigns to the front office position for a crappy NBA team. On the bright side he will have time to lower his handicap like MJ.
Jay-Z drops his latest Blueprint tomorrow (except in the places where you can already buy it which kind of defeats the special release date, but anyways, look for a review tomorrow). In the first official single Run This Town, Jay spits, “Please follow the leader. So Eric B. we are microphone fiend.” This of course is a reference to the classic Eric B and Rakim track. Odd that Jay shout outs Eric B in the song, even though it is Rakim that is the Microphone Fiend. But here is the other track Jay mentions from the seminal rap duo. And if we are lucky, we may see the long awaited Rakim solo album actually released October 20.
Being a guy, I don’t think I have ever watched anything on We TV which if I am not mistaken stands for Woman’s Entertainment. And it really isn’t a sexist thing because I haven’t watch Spike TV since they stopped airing The Dukes of Hazzard rerunswhen they converted from The Nashville Network. But We TV does have a couple shows of note airing this weekend.
First up is The Locator back for its third season with a special one hour premiere where Troy Dunn tackles two cases at once. First up is a cancer stricken woman with months to live hopes to track down her father after her mother left town before she was born and again when during a brief reunion with her father when she was thirteen. The other focuses on father trying to reconnect with his daughter after her mother left him back when he was strung out on different additions.
Naturally the show is right up the alley of anyone that likes heartwarming tales such as Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and doesn’t mind that their television makes them cry. And cry you will when you hear about the mother of four that grew up without a father and now only has months to live.
The other storyline has a weird segment after Troy hunts down the daughter and leaves her alone with her friends with the camera rolling which is eerily reminiscent of The Hills. The daughter even kind of looks like a brunette Lauren (what is sad is that I have never actually watched an episode of The Hills yet I know what it looks like and all the characters).
Right after the season premiere of The Locator is new series Adoption Diaries which is exactly what the title implies. The show follows two prospective parents as they try to add to their family through an open adoption, one where the biological and adoptive parents meet each other and match up. It is also reminiscent of another MTV show that I have never watch, yet somehow know too much about, 16 and Pregnant, at least the episodes where the mother goes into knowing she is going to give her kid up for adoption. But Adoption Diaries naturally focuses on the adoption process and seems geared more to the adopting parents more.
The Locator airs Saturday at 9:00 and is followed by Adoption Diaries on We TV. You can download episodes of The Locator on iTunes. If you have someone you would like to reunite with head over to TroytheLocator.com. I wonder if Troy works on such shallow cases like me wanting to hook up with my Middle School crush Lisa Mack.
Sons of Anarchy is hard to get into. No, not because it is graphic in nature, it certainly pushes the standards and practices department at FX. No, it is hard to get into because of the casting. One of the first people you see on screen is a tatted up Assistant Director Skinner in a wife beater that shows off his swastika tattoo prominently on his chest. Then later in the season, Peg Bundy beats down the chick from that Britney Spears movie with a skateboard.
The actual lead of the show is the British theater student from Undeclared. Also in his motorcycle gang as a prospect is the annoying kid from MTV’s Now What (anyone else remember that horrible show?). Throughout the season you get to see Hellboy armed to the T with various an assortment of high powered weapons. And we all know Hellboy prefers to fight you on like an, beat you down with his hands and bodyslam you. Charlie Utter has been reduced to a Barny Fife cop on the take. And one guy in Charming whose moral compass is pointing due north: Danny Boyd of all people.
Once you get past all those actors in a new light, Sons of Anarchy is an enthralling take of Hamlet on a motorcycle. And as the shows gears up for its sophomore outing, it is posed to go into overdrive now that Jax suspects that Hellboy put a hit on his best friend leading to the death of his wife leading to a power struggle for the lead of SAMCRO with Peg Bundy caught in-between her boy and her man.
This won’t be an easy task for Jax to pull off with the 9’ers, the Mayans, and Skinner’s Nords still lurking around the borders of Charming. And to make things even harder is the appearance Adam Arkin (Halloween H20 - Twenty Years Later), a more assimilated white supremacist that isn’t happy with SAMCRO supplying to the brown and black. And with all the casting that took some time to get used to, here is one that doesn’t, Henry Rollins as Arkin’s white-hand seems just right. Arkin also brings his daughter, Sarah Jones (Big Love) to town. Racism hasn’t looked this hot since Kate Bosworth in Remember the Titans.
Another good bit of typecasting is Tom Arnold (Soul Plane) who shows up in the second episode as, well, I don’t want to spoil the reveal. But once you see him you with think, yep, it is totally believable to have Tom Arnold play this part. And even though her case against Bobby Elvis dissolved after her witness too a one-way ticket out of town, Ally Walker (Kazaam) seems to be sticking around Charming for a little bit to harass SAMCRO some more.
Sons of Anarchy airs Tuesdays at 10:00 on FX. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Sons of Anarchy on iTunes and Amazon Video on Demand (see below):
Tomorrow is Labor Day which means summer is unofficially over. At least for those that the season didn’t at the first bell of the school year. Nothing better brings in the season for fall, especially for those whose autumn begins with that first bell, then We’re Going to Be Friends which chronically the first day of school and even starts off with the line, “Fall is here, hear the yell, back to school, ring the bell.”
Quote of the Week: Leah was pissed to the highest pissisity. (Dre P – Tool Academy)
Song of the Week: Tracks of My Tears – Smokey Robinson and The Roots (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon)
Big News of the Week: Teen Wolf Remake in the Pipeline: I really cannot take credit for there being a Teen Wolf remake because let’s face it, everything will be remade in the new future. But I would like to think that me mentioning it a couple times last month put it on the fast track. But oddly it is not being remade into a movie (yet), but as an MTV show. Sadly that probably that means the budget won’t be enough for my casting suggestions of McLovin as the Wolf and Juno as Boof.
Coalition Links of the Week: This week, we checked back in with your favorite doctors at Seattle Grace and have a early review of the Grey's Anatomy season premiere to share with you. (The TV Addict)
Which reality will Fringe take place in when season two premieres? The TV Fanatic can't wait to find out. (TV Fanatic)
We got yet another amazing Weeds finale this week. Buzz wonders: of all the seasons, which finale has been your favorite? (BuzzSugar)
This week, Eric shared some pictures from the season 6 premiere of The Office. (Daemon's TV)
Nigel picked his Top 15. Vance picked his Top 25 dance routines EVER from So You Think You Can Dance. (Tapeworthy)
This week, Jace offered an advance review of the first three episodes of Season Seven of HBO's painfully hilarious Curb Your Enthusiasm. (Televisionary)
Greek: It was nice to see Cappie turn down Casey’s advances because the Casey-centric love polygons are extremely annoying at this point. Pick a dude and stick with it. Or just fly solo and stick with it. And there were few thing more telegraphed than Rebecca (who suddenly looks absurdly hot this season) mystery guy turning out to be Fisher. And her “that’s just who I am” excuse is so lame it single handedly ruined the character. You can stream current episodes on Hulu.
Leverage: One has to wonder if Iceman’s accent was supposed to be bad or if the actor’s British accent was so bad that they just wrote in into the script. Either way it was hilarious. But the Sophie sub plot was a little odd and out of place. You can stream current episodes over at TNT.tv. You can also download Leverage on iTunes.
Free Download of the Week: Fall TV Preview (iTunes): iTunes has preview clips of many of the returning shows from network and cable including previews of ten new shows.
Deal of the Week: TV for Under $20 (The Big Bang Theory, Chuck, Pushing Daisies, Chappelle Show)
Video of the Week: It is a shame that no one goes to see live action movies by Mike Judge. In fact Beavis and Butt-Head Do America made over five times more money at the box office than Office Space and Idiocracy combines. Maybe that is why be brought back the animated duo to hock his latest movie Extract.
“I would pay a chick to pay me to have sex.” Huh, huh, that’s cool.
Next Week Pick of the Week: Leverage, Wednesday at 9:00 on TNT: The summer finale features a guest appearance from Jeri Ryan. And if you are a fan of the show, which you should be, you will be happy to know that TNT has renewed the show for the third season. Expect the show return to finish off its second season sometime this winter and the third to air Summer 2010.
I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post will include blurbs on E-Mail Order Brides, Smokey Robinson, Trauma, The Biggest Loser, and the most hotly anticipated returning fall shows.
- How many of you were watching Rescue Me this season when Chief Needles got himself a mail order bride and thought to yourself, “Mmmm.” And if you are a red-blooded American boy, one look at his bride and you did. Well I have a show for you E-Mail Order Brides coming Wednesday September 9 at 9:00 on the National Geographic Channel. The special follow two guys as they try to pick of foreign wives. Here is a clip:
- If Tool Academy ever would have a spin off called Douche Academy and that in turn would spin off Celebrity Douche Academy (and being VH1 which has a Surreal Life family tree of about twenty shows, this is certainly possible), then Jimmy Fallon most definitely be on the first season. But if there is one thing he has ever done right it was to hire The Roots as his house band which has led to some incredible performance (I recommend trying to hunt down them performing Let’s Go Crazy with Incubus). Here is a web exclusive of the band backing up Smokey Robinson doing my personal favorite, Tracks of my Tears:
- Trauma premieres Monday September 28. Here is the latest promo:
- The Biggest Loser has video profiles of all sixteen contestants over at nbc.com.
- TVGuide.com has released a list of their most hotly anticipated returning fall shows. Topping the list: NCIS. Um, yeah, alrighty. For the new shows, the most anticipated, again according to TVGuide.com is, wait, this has to be a joke, NCIS: Los Angeles. Are the only people voting over 65?
For some reason, network television still hasn’t figured out if you actually put quality television on during the summer, people may tune in. Instead during the summer months we get crappy reality show and scripted shows that the network figure no one would watch during the fall. So that left me only three shows to watch this summer, Rescue Me, Leverage and The Philanthropist while occasionally catching Raising the Bar, Royal Pains and Defying Gravity at my leisure. I am in no way complaining about the lack of television because it gave me to time to catch up on these shows via DVD:
Alias (Season 5): If my memory serves me correctly, the last season of Alias was moved to Thursday pitting it against Survivor, My Name Is Earl and Smallville and something had to give. The show always had some serious writing flaws, but Rachel Nichols was a great addition and Amy Acker surprisingly made for a good bad girl. Alias ranked in at #62 on The Greatest Television Shows of the 00’s.
Dead Like Me (The Complete Series): Thoroughly enjoyable series but Brian Fuller certainly perfected the jaded twenty-something with Wonderfalls. And the Desmond Hume staring movie wasn’t as bad as the fanatic would have you believe once you get beyond the fact that they ruined Daisy Adair with poor recasting. And the writing certainly did help things either. I wouldn’t be against more. Dead Like Me ranked in at #17 on The Greatest Television Shows of the 00’s.
Deadwood (The Complete Series): You really cannot boil down a series like Deadwood down to one paragraph but let me try to do so in one word: (expletive deleted). Nothing funnier on television possibly ever than when Al and Wu would try to communicate when he only knew three words, Sweargen, San Francisco and (expletive deleted). Good times. On the flip side, it was extremely weird to see Veronica Mars seduce Matt Saracen’s mom. Deadwood ranked in at #13 on The Greatest Television Shows of the 00’s.
The Secret Diary of a Call Girl (Seasons 1 and 2): A show where Billie Piper plays a hooker? Yes please. The Secret Diary of a Call Girl ranked in at #92 on The Greatest Television Shows of the 00’s.
Weeds (Seasons 3 and 4): One major problem with watching shows on delay is that you inevitably get spoilers and knowing that Agrestic burning down and Nancy ending up pregnant is included at that. Weeds ranked in at #90 on The Greatest Television Shows of the 00’s.
And since networks have been nice enough not to put anything on worth watching on Tuesday this fall I may be able to check up on some more television in the next few months. I recently won Mad Man season 1 and hopefully that lives up to the hype. And I will be checking out Dexter season 3 as soon as I can steal it from my sister after she buys it.
When a show has a bad season you have to wonder if it just an outlier or signs of what’s to come. The fourth season of Rescue Me just came completely off the rails with silly plots about baby stealing and Tommy being forced to date the chief’s daughter. But if there was one show that benefited from the writer’s strike more than any it would be Rescue Me which had a twenty month layoff between seasons. This apparently gave the writers enough time to get the train back on the track (for the most part) for the fifth season.
Part of the resurgence was song crafty casting that saw Alex P. Keaton turn into a hard drinking, wheel-chair bound tool that somehow landed Janet between the seasons. While an aloof Maura Tierney kept everyone, including the audience, guessing for the last couple episodes. And let us not forget the Garrity family who came to help Sean out during his cancer treatment, that caused the highlight of the season with Garrity musical numbers. By the end I was hoping that his big brother would stick in New York to keep tabs on Sean.
The big theme of the season was relapse. Shortly after getting his one year chip from Alcoholics Anonymous, Tommy found himself back at the sight of the former twin towers talking about his cousin who he hasn’t for that time, getting him back on the wagon. If only he knew this would be his downfall. And finding out his cousin had slept with his wife was the least of his worries from going back to the bottle.
Tommy’s reunion with the alcohol started a chain reaction that eventually contributed to the death of his Aunt. And despite Uncle Teddy only being married to her for a year or two, wanted to get away from her after he got out of prison, and let her get into a car drunk even though he was in prison for killing a drunk driving, he still blamed Tommy for getting almost the entire extended Gavin family back on the sauce. And so Teddy shot Tommy. Twice. In front of everyone at the bar. Leaving him to die a slow death as the season end leaving open what should be an interesting final season.
Next week is Labor Day which means one last hurray for summer; one last cookout before you start getting the patio ready for winter. And the last time the McGavin clan gets to pull out the croquet set for one more round. But before we break out the mallets for the last time in 2009, it is time to enshrine the sport in the Scooter Hall of Fame.
But the bi-annual McGavin family croquet match isn’t you stuffy great aunt’s croquet, like every competition at McGavin gathering (euchre, poker, horseshoes are other favorite),the game is very cutthroat with a lot of trash talking and we are not above cheating just to beat the six year olds playing. And it seems like new rules get added every year to suit different player’s cause.
And don’t even try winning if you are a newcomer to the clan. In fact plenty of boyfriends have been one and done after a round of croquet with the uncles in the family. One in particular actually made it all the way through the course to be the apparent winner only to be told we play poison ball in where anyone that finishes the course becomes poison and then can only be eliminated if they hit a wicket then the last ball standing wins. So flustered, dude hits a wicket and is never heard from again.
But nothing is more entertaining than when someone drunkenly tries to send somebody’s ball only to whack their own foot with their mallet. Good times.
When a reality show has an absurdly entertaining first season like Tool Academy did, there are really only two routes it can take. One can hope that it ends up like Survivor, a decent concept that along with the right casting can still be watchable nineteen seasons later. Then there are the reality shows that end up like Beauty and the Geek, a great concept, but one the cat is out of the bag, not even great casting can salvage subsequent season from being as great.
After the first season ended I was pretty sure Tool Academy would take the Beauty and Geek route, but after the first episode it is clear that there are plenty of tools that are stupid enough to think they have been chosen to compete to be a party king to be entertaining for years to come. Personally I would have been tipped off by the Her energy drink sponsorship which I was shocked to turn out to be an actually drink.
They even found some new kinds of Tools including the Old Tool, Tat-Tool, Hillbilly Tool, and my personal favorite “Special” Tool (their quotation marks, not mine) who may also win this season’s hottest girlfriend contest in Shannon. Although there are Guy-liner Tool, Manscaping Tool, and Spray Tan Tool which basically all of them are all already. And, well, they are all tatted up too, but Tat-Tool still overdoes it more than the rest. But there is still a high probability that this cast gets the Tool Academy logo tattooed at some point this season like the previous cast.
With a show like Tool Academy, it is hard to predict a winner because their rules for elimination seems to change from episode to episode, but I will be rooting for Ohio’s own Dre P., the B-Ball Wannabe Tool to win, who may have had the best line of the night, “Leah was so pissed to the highest pissisity.” Although the Giant Tool blaming his behavior on a “Schick coma” maybe the greatest excuse ever in the history of excuses.
The first challenge may have been better than any of the inaugural season where they had to bail water from a sinking ship. But it was amazing that of the twelve Tools competing; only one of them had the brain power to think, hey maybe I should stick a finger and/or toe in this hole. Then we had an elimination show expositive, the host flipped his lid and just started yelling at the Tool to leave. Luckily this wasn’t the Guy-liner Tool because he almost came to tears and that would have not been pretty.
If there was one complaint of the first season of Tool Academy it would be there were just too many chicks who took their Tools back after being eliminated. And much like last season, the first to go was taken back by his girl despite his huge hissy fit he threw. And not to mention she was already slumming with the guy who was way out of her league. But considering the preview for next week that promises a shocking ending that may finally change this season. Of course in true VH1 fashion, they ended up giving away that shocking ending two seconds later. I really need to stop watching VH1 promos.
Muck like last season, all these guys are definitely Tools, but not all the girls are squeaky clean again like last season which begs the question, when will we get a female version of the show? The biggest obstacle most likely is a name because not of the female equivalent of Tool are really television appropriate. But how about B-Girl Academy? And if you don't know what “B” means, let us explain: “B” stands for Broncos, Benzes, BMWs, bass, bangles, and a pair of bars. We see you pulling up down the alley; you all act like we are stars. We're not trying to make a joke, we’re just trying to make it known that people in the world that we call B-Girls like bars on a Cadillac Brougham.
Back in middle school, I won the alphabetical lottery when I was partner up with Lisa Mack, the absurdly hot new chick to the school as lab partners in science class. Unfortunately for me, one of the first experiments that year was that we swab our cheeks, put it underneath a microscope to see all the germs living in your mouth. Not surprisingly after seeing all the germs that came from my mouth, we never made out while slow dancing to More than Words at the proceeding eighth grade dance.
I bring this up because I had flashback to traumatic experience while watching The Human Family Tree where the National Geographic Channel swabbed the check of about a hundred Queens residents that partook, it wasn’t to see how many germs they had but to get some DNA that they could then trace their heritage. And the results of the five year study were so interesting it almost made me want to swab my cheek for the first time since middle school. Almost.
The result, airing tonight at 9:00 traces everyone back to a tribe in Africa and in much detail shows how are human family tree branches out slowly until our ancestors found their ways to as far flung places as Europe and South America thousands years before fuel made it easy to travel by ground, water or even air. And really who better to narrate how we are all connected than Mr. Six Degrees himself, Kevin Bacon.
If there was one compliant to be had about The Human Family Tree is that we don’t get that much reaction from the test subject and any reaction is saved for the final eight minutes of the program. And by then you almost forget the African-American model may have more in common with Southeast Asians in the study than those Africans that never left (or the group that left Africa then found itself back to the continent) by the time you get his reaction which is fleeting anyways as they then go on to the next subject’s reaction. Check out a preview of the show below and the Human Tree map:
– John Mayer (November 17): When I get around to making the Greatest Albums of the 00’s list, you could make an argument for any of his first three albums to land near the top of the list. Hopefully he goes four for four with Battle Studies.
2. Kamaal the Abstract – Q-Tip (September 15): This should have been on the Most Anticipated Albums of Spring 2002, but the album got shelved by Arista. The record takes the jazz samples of A Tribe Called Quest to the extreme of live instrumentation and even sees Tip sing long before Andre 3000 or Kanye with production from the late J Dilla.
3. Draw the Line – David Gray (September 22): Even though he hasn’t gotten the mainstream following after striking it big with Babylon, Gray has put out consistently good music since. And from the signs of the first single Fugitive, it looks to continue.
– Michelle Branch (November 10): Branch started off her career by making what may end up being the greatest pop album of the decade. Like many other artists this decade, she went country with her duo The Wreckers. Now back with her first solo album in six years, it sounds like she will continue straddling the pop / rock / country fence.
– Selena Gomez and The Scene (September 29): Just kidding, making sure you are paying attention. But seriously, their first single is disturbingly catchy. Don’t tell Chris Hansen I said that though please.
6. The Seventh Seal – Rakim (September 22): Another rap album that has been taking too long to be released. I have been anxiously waiting for this album ever since Dr. Dre signed him to his Aftermath label back in 2000. He left three years later to sign with Dreamworks that folded shortly after. Hopefully there are no more snags between now and the 22nd.
– The Avett Brothers (September 29): I was first introduced to the band when Friday Night Lights used it as the soundtrack to the Landy/Tyra coupling. Now with a Rick Rubin produced, they are posed to be the breakout rock act of the year.
8. Play On – Carrie Underwood (November 3): Unlike #5, this is no joke. Her debut was the guiltiest of guilty pleasures and the follow was exactly what you expect, save the last track Wheel that pushed her boundaries outward. From the sound of the first single Cowboy Cassanova she might be pushing further with the song co-written by Mike Elizondo, one of Dr. Dre’s co-producers.
9. Man on the Moon: The End of Day – Kid Cudi (September 15): Consider me skeptic about a five act rap concept album, the recent three acts from Green Day was heavy-handed. But Make Her Say may go down as the best hip-hop track of year. And bonus points for being from Cleveland.
– The Roots (October 20): You would think after agreeing to be Jimmy Fallon’s house band, The Roots would rest on their laurels, but just a year after releasing their last album comes a new one.
– Muse
- Drake
– Pearl Jam
– Wale
– Monsters of Folk
– Sean “Diddy” Combs
– Alice in Chains
– Paramore
– Mariah Carey
– Foreigner
(Box Set)
– Switchfoot
– Joe Budden
– Daniel Johnston
– Joe Perry
- Lights
– Bob Dylan
– Shakira
– Brian McKnight
– Five for Fighting
– Clipse
– The Swell Session
– Train
– Sting
- Kings of Leon
– R.E.M.
– 50 Cent
– Amerie
– Norah Jones
(Amazon Video on Demand): Community may not be the best new show or even the funniest new comedy of the fall season (that goes to Modern Family), but you can check out the first episode of the show before it airs.
(Rescue Me, Chuck (Blu-Ray), Mad Men, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip)
. The multiple ![Terror Alert Level: Elevated [YELLOW]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6-iVFV0hXCTSYP16K_V0Rrxp3GqFrtBIJKeTUyQ2LpxZQ9XKHFj6QGtqqa7oxhLadLV8vUj8R84AftD8IKUSfN0u_u0CYDtJwhrpCPN2DBWquAIDv0jbVlhZL0mDFKlPKluGyxw/s400/small_elevated.png)
on my 
rerunswhen they converted from The Nashville Network. But We TV does have a couple shows of note airing this weekend.
in a wife beater that shows off his swastika tattoo prominently on his chest. Then later in the season, 
beats down the chick from that 
with a skateboard.
. Also in his motorcycle gang as a prospect is the annoying kid from MTV’s Now What (anyone else remember that horrible show?). Throughout the season you get to see 
armed to the T with various an assortment of high powered weapons. And we all know Hellboy prefers to fight you on like an, beat you down with his hands and bodyslam you. 
has been reduced to a Barny Fife cop on the take. And one guy in Charming whose moral compass is pointing due north: 
of all people.
), a more assimilated white supremacist that isn’t happy with SAMCRO supplying to the brown and black. And with all the casting that took some time to get used to, here is one that doesn’t, 
) to town. Racism hasn’t looked this hot since Kate Bosworth in 
.
) who shows up in the second episode as, well, I don’t want to spoil the reveal. But once you see him you with think, yep, it is totally believable to have Tom Arnold play this part. And even though her case against Bobby Elvis dissolved after her witness too a one-way ticket out of town, Ally Walker (
) seems to be sticking around Charming for a little bit to harass SAMCRO some more.
made over five times more money at the box office than 
and 
combines. Maybe that is why be brought back the animated duo to hock his latest movie Extract.![Terror Alert Level: High [ORANGE]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhebDZ0qqwOVKMZj7oFSUe8Hm3ax54U9Hp1fThJPgiddTyzcdwx_5SV6E3b7hkKyxbaDiym4COmUXT2YJnsKCUjBHI_a2xZtNoY7qFQRslP5AGO5gLkJwn2ZbO0wIF80ycbKrgPPA/s400/small_high.png)
on my Terror Alert Scale. Rescue Me came in at #11 on 
, a great concept, but one the cat is out of the bag, not even great casting can salvage subsequent season from being as great.
