Best of the Week - 10/29/11

Quote of the Week: I ain’t afraid of no ghost. (Beckett, Castle)

Song of the Week: Like a Surgeon – “Weird Al” Yankovic (How I Met Your Mother)

Scene of the Week:



Big News of the Week: Charlie Sheen Coming Back to the Small Screen: Right after getting the boot from Two and a Half Men, Charlie Sheen was quickly cast in an Anger Management reboot (the original movie starred Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson) and now it has a channel, FX (which I once called the nest network on television, but after picking this and American Horror Story and canceling Terriers and Lights Out, I may have to reassess). And not only are they looking at one-ten episode season, if successful, it will be picked up for an additional ninety episodes much like many of the TBS sitcoms. No word on where Vegas has set the Over/Under of how many episode Sheen will make it through.

Free Download of the Week: Make My. – The Roots featuring Big K.R.I.T. (Rcrdlbl)

New Album Release of the Week: Achtung Baby (Super Deluxe Edition) - U2

New DVD Release of the Week: Scrooged [Blu-ray]

Video of the Week: In honor of their Rocket City Redneck, National Geographic Channel has laughed a new PSA to Save the Rednecks asking all Americans to break out their work boots, coveralls, and proudly declare themselves rednecks. Their campaign even comes with this shiny new video:

PSA


Next Week Pick of the Week: Homeland, Sunday at 10:00 on Showtime: I have finally caught up on what is, for all intents and purposes, the best new show of the fall (assuming you do not consider Beavis and Butt-Head “new”) as well as tomorrow’s episode. And just in time as the last image for the previous episode is a suspicious couple buying a new home, straight cash homie, which just happens to be right near an airport. That and many other plots will be playing out tomorrow including an intense interrogation sequence, which is a bit of more realistic than one commissioned by Jack Bauer. We also get to meet a couple more family members of the main cast. And get ready for more Homeland because the show was recently renewed for a second season.

Around the Tubes - 10/28/11

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 Grimm, Chuck, The Incredible Dr. Pol, Explosion Bus, Zombie Apocalypse, Dallas, Lynyd Skynyrd, and Adopt a Turkey.

- The long awaited final season of Chuck premieres tonight along with the series premiere of Grimm. For those that cannot wait a couple more hours, here is a twenty minute preview of Grimm along with a sneak peak of Chuck:

Special Extended Preview


- New show alert! The Incredible Dr. Pol follows a veterinarian who specializes in large animals and pets as he makes house calls to his patients. Some compare it to a real-life version of All Creatures Great and Small, the British television series from the 80s, but that is a bit before my time and wrong continent. For the premiere this Saturday at 9:00 with back to back episodes on Nat Geo Wild, Dr. Pol treats a horse with a spinal cord injury, operates on a cow with two dead fetuses that need to be removed, a K-9 Hungarian German Sheppard that may have cancer, and a cow with a twisted stomach. Check out a clip below (assuming you have not eaten lately because the video is as graphic as the title suggests):

Massaging a Cow Uterus


- Fans of singing competitions may want to check out Explosion Bus, a satirical web series that looks into the genre from Tom Snyder, the creator of Dr. Katz.

- For those looking for a scare this Halloween weekend, Syfy has its new original movie Zombie Apocalypse starring Ving Rhames and it premieres tomorrow at 9:00. Here is a preview:



- The TNT Dallas reboot had its first day of filming recently and here are OG Larry Hagman and newbie Josh Henderson talking about it:



- BBQ, Beer and Lynyd Skynyrd sounds like a natural fit, and now you can have all three starting December 8 in Las Vegas. And you can be there for an “eat ‘n’ greet” with the band for the grand opening as tickets go on sale today at 10:00 by calling (702) 262-4400.

- We are less than a month away from Thanksgiving and Adopt-A-Turkey Project recently announced Ellen DeGeneres will be back as their spokesperson.

- For the latest installment of Political News of the Week, last week I mentioned that Herman Cain was the number one seller on CaféPress among Republican hopefuls and now he has even taken over Barack Obama in sales at 43% of all presidential candidates to the current president’s 33%. Although Poll Position recent survey of registered voters found that a third of Americans think Mitt Romney has a better chance to defeat Obama than Herman Cain. Although when it comes to the voting cycle, wake me up when voting starts happening.

Previewing Grimm

When it comes to new shows, I tend to look past the cast and the glossy introductory promos and look at who is working behind the scenes of the show. Surprisingly of the two fairy-tale themed new shows this fall, Once Upon the Time (see my First Impressions of the show) topped my list of the Most Anticipated New Shows of Fall 2011 list while Grimm could not even make the list considering the former is “from the writers of Lost,” a show I still cringe whenever I think about it, while the latter is brought to us by the guy who co-created Angel with Joss Whedon, which landed in at number sixteen on my list of the 100 Greatest Shows of the 00’s. Of course, on the flipside, Sean Hayes is also a co-executive producer. Yes, the Sean Hayes you are thinking of.

Much like Angel, the lead in Grimm, David Giuntoli (Road Rules, wait, what? Why am I just learning that this guy was on Road Rules and the subsequent Challenges with the Real World, and why do I not remember him at all?) is a detective that takes on special cases due to his special ability, in this case, his is a descendant of the Brothers Grimm and as it turns out, their stories were not just fables but real life and only the Grimms can see these characters for who they really are. Unfortunately just like Angel, the lead is tall, dark, and boring (which is maybe why I do not remember him).

Giuntoli is joined in the homicide department with Russell Hornsby (Playmakers) who like to bust his partner’s balls. Also hanging around the precinct is Reggie Lee (Persons Unknown) and all will be reporting to Sasha Roiz (Caprica) as the captain. While at home Giuntoli is getting ready to propose to girlfriend Bitsie Tulloch (Quarterlife) but his newfound lineage may put that in jeopardy. Kate Burton (Monty) also puts in a memorable guest appearance in the Pilot as David’s aunt who keys him into his heritage.

One problem that Grimm runs into is that it is a very dark retelling of the stories we remember as children, but it may be hard for the show to go into the cheesy, like in the first episode where we meet a young girl in a red hooded sweatshirt, who is kidnapped on her way to her grandparent’s house, whose initials just happen to be R. H. It is hard ton to wince a little at plot points like this. Hopefully this gets less cheesy as the show goes on just like David Greenwalt managed to do with Angel which managed to be a darker version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that still had a lighter side to it. This time around, the comic relief (though not as entertaining as Krevlornswath of the Deathwok Clan) will come in the form as Silas Weir Mitchell (My Name is Earl) who will be helping the newest Grimm out with some of his cases and just happens to be a reformed Big Bad Wolf. No, seriously.

Despite what looks to be a procedural every week, there looked to be an introduction of a Big Bad in the form of the moderately attractive Claire Coffee (Wild Things: Diamonds in the Rough) which hints that the fairytale characters may be more organized than the Grimms may realize. Hopefully she will be appearing early and often because I am not quite sold yet on a strictly procedural show.

In a battle between the show and Once Upon a Time, you will have to give the win to OUaT in terms of quality and almost certainly in terms of viewers (assuming Grimm will not garner enough eyeball on Friday against the already entrenched sci-fi show Fringe) it is currently a tossup because it is hard to be cautious when it comes to a show “from the writers of Lost.” But Grimm’s ratings may make that discussion moot much like The Playboy Club vs Pan Am.

Grimm airs Fridays at 9:00 on NBC. You can stream episodes on Hulu. You can also download Grimm on iTunes.

Dumb Plus Dumb Equals You

Trends are so powerfully, even big time rock stars like The Rolling Stones were recording disco songs at the height of the genre. With the explosion of Adele this year as the most buzzed and bought artist, I bet record labels are already signing clones for the last couple months. You would think one artist who would love to jump on the Adele bandwagon would be Kelly Clarkson. After her most personal album My December bombed with critics and the public alike, she was resigned to recording what sounded like leftovers from Katy Perry and P!nk albums for the follow up All I Ever Wanted.

But instead of filling her latest album with Adele like tracks that more highlight the voice over cheep production effects that are meant to hide the limitations of lesser singer, Clarkson’s latest album Stronger is just a retread of her last album which sounds even more dated now two years later. Just how overplayed is her title track What Doesn’t Kill You (Stronger)? It actually inspired someone to compile a video of all the pop songs that have overused the Nietzsche quote.



From the title track, you get another twelve forgettable tracks. It is never a good sign when you go through a whole album and not one song sticks out from the mediocrity. They just sound like leftovers from her last album (which sounded like leftovers themselves and no one likes still eating turkey the Sunday after Thanksgiving). Okay, one song actually stick out, but not in a good way. Einstein features lyrics so painfully lame they would make Ke$ha songs read like something out of the Bob Dylan songbook. Not only is “Dumb + Dumb = You” a line in the song, it is the actual chorus. C’mon, you could not come up with a second insult that you had to add dumb to itself? Why not then just say “Dumb Squared = You” then? Hopefully Clarkson recorded Stronger before Adele had her success and we will have to wait for her to capitalize on Adele’s domination of the charts for her next album, because songs like Einstein are embarrassingly bad.

Song to Download – You Love Me

Stronger gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I Want My Music Television - 10/25/11

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.

Paradise - Coldplay



With the whole formal opening credits for a film I was expecting some grand epic music video, but the very next scenes is someone in an elephant costume with scenes with the elephant in a trunk (get it?), on a unicycle, and in his natural habitat, in the Sahara playing music. Well done Coldplay.


This Isn’t Everything You Are – Snow Patrol



It is not a very good sign when a band rushes out a second single, it usually means the first one bombed, and the first single was so forgettable, I cannot remember its name. The new Snow Patrol song is slightly better, though not as fun as the last video, not that I remember what the song name was, and this one kind of reminds me of the Kings of Leon video for Pyro, but with less freaks and more random dancing.


We Found Love - Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris



Speaking of videos that remind me of other ones, the new Rihanna video looks Teenage Dream if it had been filmed by the director of Trainspotting who wanted to add a completely random intro for no reason.


One Up for Love - Boyz II Men



With The Sing-Off, the Beyoncé sampling Countdown, and contributing to some midget’s Christmas album, I would love for a Boyz II Men comeback (get ready to feel old, Cooleyhighharmony came out twenty years ago). I am not sure this is the song to do it, the opening production (I was going to ask where was Babyface, but upon some research, it turns out he actually produced it), but it did get better by the time the band kicked in. But this is still better than ninety-nine percent of what is considered RnB that is released today.

First Impressions: Once Upon a Time

It seems like every season there are a couple shows that share a premise and this year there were actually two competing shows on ABC and NBC with the same idea. ABC resoundingly won the first battle between the sixties era drama with Pan Am being a more critical and commercial success while The Playboy Club flamed out with both and did not last a month. This week sees the debut of two more similarly themed shows based around fairy tales, with Grimm premiering Friday at 9:00 (look for my review later this week).

Where Grimm is simply a procedural whose perps just happens to come from children’s stories, Once Upon a Time is all in with its fairytale theme with half the story set in the mythical land and the other in present day Storybrooke, Maine where the fairytale characters live your average human existence. Confused yet (the show does come to us from writers on the Lost staff)? As the story goes, the Evil Queen (of Snow White Fame) cast a spell banishing everyone in the enchanted forest to the worst place where there are no such things and happy endings without any knowledge of their fairytale past: present day America (or purgatory, these are the writers of Lost). And the writer really hit that idea hard repeating just how much this life sucks making you wonder how much they hate their own lives.

But wait, it has been prophesized, by Rumpelstiltskin of all people, that the offspring of Snow White and Prince Charming would come back on her twenty-eighth birthday to rescue them from this horrible place. And wouldn’t you know in present day Boston, Jennifer Morrison (Urban Legends - Final Cut) is celebrating that very birthday when she is visited by a precocious ten year old saying he was the son she gave up a decade before and is apparently the only one in Storybrooke aware of the inhabitant’s pervious lives (maybe it is because he looks to be the only one who is actually ageing in the city which is why Snow White and her daughter look the same age; though not explained is why they look nothing alike or why Morrison is wearing a jacket out of the Thriller collection). One has to wonder in the Evil Queen excluded herself in the amnesia curse.

Much like the upcoming Grimm, the big flaw (aside from the laughably bad CGI) is that both shows take themselves too serious for a show about fairytale characters. It is hard not to cringe as scenes like present day Red Riding Hood is a slut. But shows really need to learn to embrace the cheese factor when updating stories like these to be successful.

Other modern day counterparts include Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin, Ramona and Beezus) is now a teacher. Prince Charming (Joshua Dallas, Thor), who was fatally wounded before the curse was set in now a John Doe in a coma at the hospital. Jiminy Cricket (Raphael Sbarge, Vision Quest) is a children psychiatrist. Rumpelstiltskin (Robert Carlyle, Once Upon a Time in the Midlands) “owns” the town, whatever that means. And naturally the Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla, Spin City) is in politics and the adoptive parent of Snow White's grandchild.

There are very few more likeable actors working today than Goodwin and Parrilla manages to make the real life mayor of Storybrooke scarier than the Evil Queen making modern day that much more interesting, but I am not sure how far the show can go unless it develops a funny bone.

Once Upon a Time airs Sundays at 8:00 on ABC. You will be able to stream episodes on Hulu. You can also download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 10/23/11

How I Met Your Mother: As everyone else, I found Robin dating her therapist creepy, but him psychoanalyzing the group this week was hilarious.
You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com. You can also download How I Met Your Mother on iTunes.

The Sing Off: There is nothing I hate more about The Sing-Off more (now that they banished the Pussycat Doll to a crappier show) than guilty pleasures week. If I should be guilty of liking Bell Biv DeVoe then lock me up and throw away the key. Same goes for Lionel Richie, Huey Lewis, Rick Stringfield, Flashdance or Footloose (unless we are talking about the Blake Shelton version which should make you feel guilty for liking). But enough of the silly stuff, North Shore getting voted off this early was the worst judges’ decision in the history of the show. Sure their version of Power of Love was not the best performance of the night, but it certainly was not one of the two worst. I still had them in my top five.

Even though they have a boneheaded move, the judges did provide two great moments with Ben Folds rapping and Shawn calling Sara out for calling the Soul Train line a wedding march (full disclosure: when I saw the Soul Train line I first though the DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince Summertime video). Shamelessly Afro-Blue did not let the white chick down the Soul Train line, but at least they let her speak and sing this week. As for Antoine Merriweather singing Jessie’s Girl: hated it. Why would he want a woman like that when Jesse sounds like such a great guy? I was also disappointed that no one showered Delilah with water in their chairs during Flashdance. And though over half of the songs performed this week do not deserve the Guilty Pleasure label, this, my friends, is the definition of a guilty pleasure (followed by the latest Power Ranking):



1. Afro Blue (+2)
2. University of Rochester YellowJackets (+3)
3. Urban Method (+1)
4. The Dartmouth Aires (-3)
5. BYU Vocal Point (+2)
6. Delilah (+2)
7. Pentatonix (+2)
8. The Collective (+2)

You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download songs from The Sing-Off on iTunes.

2 Broke Girls: It is about time someone threw a nineties themed party, the eighties are just too overplayed. But how did no one show up as O.J. or sport the Aniston?

Castle: I understand that no one would know, or would admit knowing, the thief named Falco, but come on, not one Rock Me Amadeus reference?
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Castle on iTunes.

Sons of Anarchy: Oh snap, Bobby Elvis called a vote on the president! As disgruntled as he has been, I did not see that coming. I did see Juice trying to commit suicide coming about a half an hour before it happen. Though self hanging on a tree does not seem like the best way to be successful.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Sons of Anarchy on iTunes.

Survivor: South Pacific: I originally thought that Cochran was not long for this game, but the island is full of idiots, and he may end up winning this thing by riding Jim and Dawn to the finals. Ozzie lost his mind while Keith and Whitney’s big power play was to do nothing. While on the other side the hubris, mental health, and stupidity of Coach, Brandon, and Rick have sabotage their tribe. The only hope Albert and Sophie is that Mikayla rejoins them as a threesome after the merge (assuming she returns into the game; I may have to call Shenanigans if Christina manages to make it back in the game after winning every Redemption Island challenge like Matt did last season).
You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com.



Pretty Little Liars: You are officially old when you hear someone say that are going to dress up like Lady G and you think they are going to get a Lady Godiva costume. But anyway. This episode seemed to be a glorified reason to stuff in as many characters (you must have been starring at the stars if you missed Ezra) with basically everyone showing up at some point. Surprisingly one of the few people missing was Jenna’s boyfriend. And it looked like there may have been a forming of the Anti-Allison Fan Club with Jenna, Mona, and Hermy banning together as charter members, a lot of looks between those three.

Revenge: There are few things I have more than the “Two Days Before” place card and Revenge had the most egregious example ever when it spoiled the season(?) at the beginning of the series. But if you are going to utilize the cliché, this is the way you do it because it set up an interesting murder mystery. Was it Amy Abbott? The nerd? The Greysons or their henchman? But my favorite part of the episode was when the rich kid actually said, “All I can think about is taking you to the bedroom,” a line that hysterically worked.
You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Revenge on iTunes.

The Big Bang Theory: This show and religion should never mix again.
You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com. You can also download The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.

Best of the Week - 10/22/11

Quote of the Week: Oh, they don’t always get to ride to roller coaster. Sometimes they only get to spin the teacups. (Penny, The Big Bang Theory)

Song of the Week: American Slang – The Gaslight Anthem (The Lying Game)

Scene of the Week:



Big News of the Week: A Melancholy Happy Trails to Muammar Gaddafi: I am too young to remember the height of the cold war, and by the eighties the Eastern Block was a shell of itself on the verge of collapse. For a short period in elementary school it was Muammar Gaddafi who public enemy number one with every school child wanting to blow Libya off the map. Not only was Muammar evil, dude was completely insane. In recent years other mad men have taken over most evil man in world crown, but Muammar came back with a vengeance during the Arab Spring killing civilians to make sure it would not happen to him. But in the end he was found hiding in a drainage tunnel and killed by rebels. Goodbye Muammar, you will not be missed.

Free Download of the Week: Live It Up Chris Isaak (Amazon MP3)

New Album Release of the Week: Mylo Xyloto - Coldplay

New DVD Release of the Week: Captain America: The First Avenger (Three-Disc Combo: Blu-ray 3D / Blu-ray / DVD / Digital Copy)

Video of the Week: We are coming close to the end of Breast Cancer Awareness month, but before we turn the calendar HBO will be airing The Education of Dee Dee Ricks about the self made millionaire who was diagnosed with the disease and learned how difficult the disease can be for those without the insurance she relayed on to win her fight and is now deternmained to do something about it. Look out for the movie this Thursday at 8:30. Check out the trailer below:



Next Week Pick of the Week: Beavis and Butt-Head, Thursday at 10:00 on MTV: Wake up the thirteen year old version of yourself, take off your thinking caps, and lower your standards because Beavis and Butt-Head are back.

Around the Tubes - 10/21/11

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 Strike Back, American Masters, Twenty, Web Therapy, Rock Center, Franklin and Bash, The Novogratz, American Horror Story, NBC and Showtime programming, and Cafe Press.


- The season finale of Strike Back hits Cimamax tonight at 10:00 and here is a preview of what you can expect:



- American Masters is celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary this year while Pearl Jam is celebrating their twentieth together. So the former is going to honor the latter by airing the Cameron Crowe directed documentary about the band Twenty premiering tonight at 9:00 on PBS. Check out the trailer below:

Watch Pearl Jam Twenty on PBS. See more from American Masters.

- Selma Blair is the latest client for Lisa Kudrow on Web Therapy and you can watch the episode Bring Up Babies over at LStudio.com.

- Naturally Rock Center with Brian Williams will be premiering on Halloween night (at 10:00 on NBC) and here is a promo:



- The boys of Franklin and Bash returned to the set this week to start filming the second season, and there were not alone. Also showing up next season will be Cybill Shepard, Eric Mabius, and Rick Fox. Look for the episodes to air next summer. Check out a picture from the set below:



- Also recently returning to production is The Novogratz which is currently working on thirteen new episodes for HGTV set to return April 2012.

- Marathon Alert! On Halloween night, FX will be airing all four previously aired episode of their latest program, American Horror Story starting at 10:00.

- As we close in on the holidays, NBC has announced some of their specials airing the next couple months including The Biggest Loser: Where Are They Now (11/23); the broadcast premiere of Dr. Suess’ Horton Hears a Who! (Thanksgiving Night) followed by The 85th Anniversary of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade; Christmas in Rockefeller Center 2011 (11/30); a special holiday episode of The Sing-Off (12/5); A Michael Buble Christmas Variety Special (12/6); William and Kate: Inside the Royal Wedding (12/13); WWE Tribute to the Troops (12/17); Saturday Night Lice Presents: a Very Gilly Christmas (12/20); and of course It’s a Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve. Before then president Barack Obama will be returning to The Tonight Show for his fourth time next Tuesday. Also returning to NBC is Fear Factor coming Monday December 2 at 8:00.

- Even further in the future, Showtime has recently released its Fall/Winter programming Overview including the series premiere of House of Lies (1/8/12 at 10:00) starring Dob Cheadle and Veronica Mars; returning shows Shameless (1/8/12 at 9:00) and Californication (1/8/12 at 10:30); and documentaries From the Sky Down (10/29/11 at 8:00), The Last Play at Shea (11/11/11 at 9:30) Saint Misbehavin’ the Wavy Gravy Movie (11/17/11 at 7:55) and Thespians (11/10/11 at 7:30).

- And for the latest installment of political item of the week; we still are a couple months away from voting, but that have not stopped people from trying to figure out who will be the Republican nominee by trolling over all the data. Like Herman Cain currently has 58% of all GOP nominees related items bought on Café Press. Longtime frontrunner Mitt Romney although only amounts to 6% and whose highest selling items just happen to be flip flops. You cannot even make this stuff up.

The Best of Soul

Last year Rolling Stone released a “Playlist Issue” that saw a bunch of artists list their ten favorite songs from a genre, niche, or other artists which let me to suggest that this become a yearly issue. Apparently Jann Wenner was listening because they just released the second annual issue (with Steve Jobs on the cover). What I like about these issues it gives me new suggestion from some of my favorite artists and deep cuts playlist from other artists I enjoy but never fully dug deep into. And who would have guessed Ke$ha’s Party Starting playlist wouldn’t suck? In honor of the issue I thought I would dig out one of my most requested mixtapes I made in college that was so loved, I was asked to make multiple volumes of, The Best of Soul. I this first one is a quick primer so those that have yet to dig deep into the classics yet like so many my age at the time to sample. And for more great musical suggestion I highly recommend to pick up the latest issue of Rolling Stone.

1. Lovely Day - Bill Withers
2. Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours - Stevie Wonder
3. Sexual Healing - Marvin Gaye
4. Let's Get It On - Marvin Gaye
5. Just the Two of Us - Grover Washington, Jr. & Bill Withers
6. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You) - Marvin Gaye
7. Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
8. Higher Ground - Stevie Wonder
9. Superstition - Stevie Wonder
10. Use Me - Bill Withers
11. Stand By Me - Ben E. King
12. What's Going On - Marvin Gaye
13. Lean On Me - Bill Withers
14. Pastime Paradise - Stevie Wonder
15. Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) - Marvin Gaye
16. Living for the City - Stevie Wonder
17. I Heard It Through the Grapevine - Marvin Gaye
18. Lately - Stevie Wonder
19. Ain't No Sunshine - Bill Withers
20. As - Stevie Wonder

I Want My Music Television - 10/19/11

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.

Red Solo Cup – Toby Keith



If Schrodinger's Cat means that something can be alive and dead at the same time, is there a corollary that a song can be simultaneously the greatest and worst song ever made. If so: ladies and gentlemen, the latest Toby Keith song.


Lucky Now - Ryan Adams



How do you make Ryan Adams more depressingly sad? Apparently all you have to do is put him in an empty house that is just starting to fall apart.


Love on Top – Beyoncé



Well that was boring; Beyoncé just did the same dance routine from the VMA’s in the same loft from the Countdown video, but with more costume changes.


Nasty - Nas



I swear I this video a long time ago. Are we sure that Nas did not release this same video back in 1998?

Hell Hath No Fury Like a Twin Scorned

There should be a workshop that every writer for serial television shows should go to. And the 101 class has to arcing a season. The number one rule in the class is set up the mystery, ask questions throughout the season, answer them by the end of the season, and then set up some new questions for the next season. For reference, watch any of the seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Veronica Mars. For what not to do, watch the first season of Lost which spent the final three hours of the show figuring out a way to open the hatch and then nothing. Or go back and reread all the hate surrounding the recent The Killing season finale.

I bring this up for my season wrap-up of The Lying Game because I went into the finale expecting some of the big questions to be answered. Why did the Mercer’s only adopt Sutton? Why did Annie take back Emma after she was adopted? How do Ted and Alex fit into this? What is Justin hiding and does it have to do something with the twins? And what the frack is The Lying Game which was mentioned early in the season, but never actually explained? Then an hour later and not a one of those big questions were answered and in a Lostian tradition, the set up a few more questions like who was in the car with Sutton, was that really Annie at the party, and where did Alec disappear to (assuming he was not telling the truth).

I originally thought it was Annie in the car, but if that really was her at the party, the only other serious possibility was Char’s boyfriend. If it was him, that would explain where Alex was, he was getting him in the car to do more undercover work for him and really the only other character we know that was not at the party was Ethan’s brother and though he seems he may also have some shady history with Alec, I doubt it was him.

But I guess it may have been too much to ask when the show was created from the books that were also authored by another criminally bad question answerer Pretty Little Liars. And the episode breakdown and pacing for The Lying Game seemed off all season. It took them way too long to get Sutton in Emma’s shoes, which turned out to be way more entertaining than the vice versa (WAY OFF TOPIC ALERT! remember the great Judge Reinhold / Fred Savage movie, you know, back when body switching was fun; ah the good old days).

It did not help that aside from Alexandra Chando, who lit up the screen in the dual roles, the rest of the cast were utter bores. The second most interesting character was that of Alec but he was relegated to recurring status which makes me think he may be found out for his misgivings sooner than later. But then again, that would assume they answer some questions in the near future. That is not to say I will definitely stop watching, but hopefully if I do continue to watch when it returns in January, they figure a way to work in more Becky Sproles, she could replace any of Sutton’s friends and I do not think any viewers would care, or even notice.

A quick prediction for season two (besides a lack of answers): Emma continues to be Sutton while Sutton sits in a coma as Emma because she still has her ID when brought to the hospital. Unless season two is too early for an amnisia plot.

The Lying Game gets a on my Terror Alert Scale. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The Lying Game on iTunes.

First Impressions: The Walking Dead 2.x

Behind the scenes turmoil is never a good indicator of onscreen quality. Usually these problems stem from creative disagreements between the producers and the network. Though most is speculation at this point, what we do know about the second season of The Walking Dead is that creator Frank Darabont and AMC parted ways early into the filming and is was not a very amicable decision. The shakeup really puts the thirteen episode season set for this season in question as will it live up to the promise to the first season.

That is not to saw the first season did not have its flaws even with Darabont in complete control (even Frank may have seen the shortcomings, firing the writing staff in between seasons, starting off all the behinds the scenes gossip surrounding the show). The one minute recap at the start of the episode was so short but comprehensive it makes you wonder why it took seven hours to tell that story.

With the trip to the CDC a dead end (quite literally as it blew up), at the start of the second season, a band of not so merry men are heading out to an army base and naturally hit a road block where a disturbing about of people chose to die in their cars. Naturally a pack of Walkers were not far behind which makes you wonder where there were going. Do they have some natural instinct that is leading them somewhere or did they think they heard something and just went that way and did not stop?

The season premiere also broke down like one from the first; the cast is going nowhere and then they get sidetracked as a plot point, this time around the young girl goes missing in the wood and you really cannot go shouting her names as not to alert the zombies. And after an hour of searching, she is still missing. But we of course get a cliffhanger in that the young boy got shot while looking at a deer in a weird scene. Seriously, who goes up to pet a wild deer? But anyway.

The episode did show possibly the most gruesome scenes to date. Even though I had eaten dinner four hours earlier, opening up of the zombie to see what he had eaten earlier made me quite a bit queasy (and brought back flashbacks of biology class when we had to dissect animals to see what they had eaten). Also high on the creepy-meter was opening up the church to find three Sitters just at the pew staring at Jesus. Also cool and gruesome as these season are, much like season one I find myself wondering when The Walking Dead will kick into high gear.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9:00 on AMC. You can stream episodes over at amc.com. You can also download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 10/16/11

Pan Am: The sixties seem so long ago, and WWII even longer it is hard to put the two in perspective for one person’s lifetime. It never really dawned on me why Collette would avoid Berlin up to this point, and when she said why I did not realize why it would hit her so hard until she told her story at the end of the episode.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pan Am on iTunes.

How I Met Your Mother: C’mon Marshall, the second season of Friday Night Lights was not that bad. If FNL were U2, season two would be Pop, yeah it is not as good as the rest of their catalogue, but it is still better than ninety percent of music out there.
You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com. You can also download How I Met Your Mother on iTunes.

The Sing Off: First off, it is time to retire “pitch” from the judges vocabulary, they all use it way too often. Sonos really got a bad rap for their version of I Want You Back. You want an example of the song that does not share the iconic hook but is still great check out The Civil Wars version. I would have had them above The Collective and Pentatonix (who continued their streak of horrible songs this week) and maybe even the Deltones. The stand out performance (and I cannot believe I am saying this considering the show featured Antoine Meriwether singing about balls that inspired Shawn Stockman to talk about ding dings) was the old dudes doing The Dougie in lounge chairs. And not to get too Adam Levine on you, but I have never heard The Rocketeer song before, is that really considered a hit? But anyway. Here is my Power Rakings for the second week (and their movement from last week in parentheses):

1. Dartmouth Aires (-)
2. North Shore (-)
3. Afro Blue (+1)
4. Urban Method (+2)
5. The Yellowjackets (-2)
6. The Deltones (-1)
7. Vocal Point (+2)
8. Delilah (-)
9. Pentatonix (+2)
10. The Collective (-)



You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download songs from The Sing-Off on iTunes.

The Lying Game: They really did a poor job braking down the story because they took way too long to get Sutton to Las Vegas because Sutton in Sin City is way more enjoyable than Emma in Phoenix. And unfortunately Sutton only stays there for one episode. But it should be an interesting reaction from Sutton when she realized someone took over her life and none of her friends and family noticed but Becky Spoles knew she was not Emma right away.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The Lying Game on iTunes.

Castle: The was a nice trick to have someone in witness relocation fake their own death to make the transition easier, but how do you avoid the family from seeing the body before the funeral? I am also trying to figure out who looked sillier this week, Detective Esposito or Adam Braverman.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Castle on iTunes.

Parenthood: It is about time someone called out Jason Ritter for whatever that is that is sitting on his face. Many cite poor writing and bad acting that sank The Event, but it is clearly his choice of facial hair that doomed that show. A note to every guy out there, if you cannot connect your goatee with your moustache, then you should really shave every day. But anyway. In the least surprising turn of events, the latte girl decided to give Julia her baby. I wonder if there is a chance they also adopt the latte girl and make her an official Braverman too.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Parenthood on iTunes.

Sons of Anarchy: Gee, if a porn star and a gang member cannot make it after about a month, what chance do the rest of us have? Onto more surprising news, was it common knowledge that Tig had two daughters? I vaguely remember it being alluded to but I do not actually remember either of them ever show up before.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Sons of Anarchy on iTunes.

Survivor: South Pacific: That has to go down as one of the most disgusting, and evil challenges ever (making contests bite down on protein but making them spit it out). And Keith may have to be a late addition to my list of The Dumbest Survivor Contestants Ever because his voting strategies may be the dumbest in the alphabet one. Instead of choosing side (and essentially controlling your tribe) now both Ozzie and Jim’s new alliance cannot trust you. Going into the merge with a tribe fractured like this spells certain doom (unless Brandon goes Brandon again messing with the Coach alliance). Even though he has the hidden immunity Idol in his back pocket, I wonder if Ozzie’s best strategy is to allowed getting voted out next, go to Redemption Island and hope to win, come back into the game with his Idol in tack and assess the situation then.
You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com.



Modern Family: The four guys tackling the fake ID guy may be the funniest sight gag since Cameron hoisted baby Lily to the sounds of The Lion King back in the very first episode.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.



Revenge: What a letdown Hamptonsexposed.com is. They just have the same videos we saw in the episode and dummy links that lead to the show’s Facebook, Twitter and ABC pages.
You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Revenge on iTunes.

Community: If it wrong that the Troy getting the pizza was the only timeline that I actually laughed during?
You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Community on iTunes.