The Week That Was....

I love me some sweeps television. This month is already off to a great start with Lost, 24, Fringe, and Life on Mars all knocking it out of the park. This is too much fun and I hope when I am 75 and bored, TV is still this good.
I should first point out that this Dell desktop (circa 2002) doesn't like to work very well when you are burning a CD - so as I type this , the letters actually appear on screen about 10 seconds later. Oh the early 00's, when technology was still archaic.

MONDAY
HIMYM and Big Bang were both excellent this week. Barney's video resume probably sent 1000's of today's young off to their PCs to start working on their video tribute to their own careers. Lily and Robin are both pregnant in real life and Lily (Allison Hanigan) is getting harder to cover up, so kudos to the writing staff who created a plot around Lily's hot dog eating passion so we could see her in all her pregnant glory - so clever. I have nothing specific to point out on Big Bang other than the actors have become one with their characters and the show just totally flows right now. Sheldon's lack of concern regarding money vs. Penny's hang ups, was a nice role reversal of personality. And as usual, Howard and Raj rock.

24 -- I think I will wait until this week to comment. As I think I have explained before, the show basically works as three 8 hour arcs, and I think we are getting close to wrapping up #1 -- I like where its going, but it is really only just beginning. I assume we meet John Voight soon.

Gossip Girl -- I liked the ending. Good for Dan and the no-longer-fired (woops) English teacher...Serena is a nightmare anyway, too much baggage. As far as Chuck Bass and his 'Eyes Wide Shut' liason? Kind of dumb, although I appreciated how Nate and Vanessa happened to be playing the movie's piano driven score while Chuck tried to remember what happened to him. This is going to be end up being an awful B plot once it has played out. BRING CHUCK BACK TO SCHOOL.

TUESDAY
I watched a great SVU this week with Ron Eldard who I still call Shep since his days on ER driving the ambulance. Remember when he had his own show with Rob Schneider called 'Men Behaving Badly'? Didn't think so....well he played an ex-con trying to find his missing daughter and Burt Young was involved as well -- and ever since Pauly lost all of Rocky's money by giving it to Bernie Maddoff, I have been angry with Burt -- but he and Shep delivered a great episode of television.

'Fringe' is awesome -- I love Oliva and the Bishop family, and I love that the conspiracy is growing, but they haven't thrown it into our faces over the last few weeks - they are letting the show evolve while sneaking in just enough to keep the mythology-fans happy.

WEDNESDAY
'Lost'. Aside from the big reveal that Ben was the one looking for Kate's kid -- dumb -- the rest of this episode was great. As soon as the losties found that wreckage with the cargo written in French, I knew we were going to meet young Rousseau -- and we did, pregnant with Danielle. And Jin is still alive! Yeah! Should be interesting watching Jin try to figure out what the hell is going on. Meanwhile, back in LA, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz -- can't wait for this story to get interesting. Sawyer seeing Claire and Kate during the birth of Aaron was cool as well. This show just keeps firing (at least on the island).
NEW RIDICULOUS THEORY OF THE WEEK: Penny and Desmond are like Adam and Eve and their young son Charlie is actually Charles Widmore trapped in time. Wha? Huh? So Penny is the mother of her father? No thanks....next.

'Life on Mars' -- the conspiracy continues...who is making the calls to Sam, how does this person know he is trapped through time, what is this secret project he is a part of and why is it also written in Russian?
And most importantly -- does ABC think we are fucking stupid, playing episodes out of order? Really? I get what they did -- the episode from this week would have been the first episode watched by 'Lost' fans and it was heavy-mythology whereas last weeks ep which should have been this week's was more single-episode plot driven. I mean I get it -- its just BS and confusing, especially since this episode picked up where they left off in November...it took me like 30 minutes to figure out what the hell I thought I was missing.

THURSDAY
I didn't love '30 Rock', I'm not going to kiss its ass for the sake of doing so. It had its beyond clever moments - like everything between Tracy and the investment bankers - but I didn't love the John Hamm bit or anything involving Jack and Salma Hayek...maybe next week.

'The Office' is on fire (no pun intended) since the Super Bowl and this episode didn't let anyone down. I mean would a liar bring mini Mounds? I didn't think so.
Anytime I can listen to Michael Scott lecture and cringe on the inside througout, is a great episode for me.

FRIDAY
I fell asleep during 'Numbers'....so I will have to get back to you. I don't think there is anything else on Friday nights for people under 100 years old. Sorry Jennifer Love-Hewitt, but your fan club median age went from 15 to 112.

A Super 'The Office'

I think we all can admit the sub-plot involving Jim and Pam's issues with Pam's parents, and Andy watching the pirated movie starring Jack Black, Cloris Leachmen, and Jessica Alba was a bust. I mean a downer of a B Plot with no point other than to extend a 40 minute 'The Office' into a 60 minute version. It was a like a microcosm of season 2 of '24' when the whole 'B' plot was the misadventures of Kim Bauer.

Anyway, let us focus on the good 40 minutes....

Opening scene with the 'real fire drill' was epic, I mean brilliant. The cat going through the celing, Oscar exiting through the celing, the chair bouncing off the window, the overhead projector going through the window, the copier breaking against the door, the overall panic....just incredible stuff. Finally Stanley has a heart-attack and Michael tries to revive him with a reminder that he is black and Obama is finally President.

Dwight and Michael's visits to corporate were very funny as was the scences involving CPR class culmiating with Dwight's organ harvesting. Call me crazy, but this is just brilliant comedy writing.

I loved the Roast too. Even though it ended a bit sadly, the roast itself was top notch, and the episode ended on a happy note, so there ya go...and of course, maybe the line of the decade was uttered by Michael in preparation for the roast..I am paraphrasing until I can get it right:

"I am going to have to remember to call YouTube and have them come down here and film this."

By the way -- the Super Bowl was fantastic, Springsteen was fantastic, the comeback was fantastic, and the winning touchdown was amazing -- everything you'd ask for in the 'big game'. Nice job NFL.

Officially the Worst SNL Ever...

and here is why...

When you bring back Steve Martin for the 15th time, it should just be automatically that much funnier...right? But you know what, when you have no material to work from...even the funniest men in America look downright stupid.

Pacino in 88 Minutes anyone?
DeNiro and Pacino together in that awful movie from earlier this year?
Beyonce singing 'Upgrade to DirecTV'?
Dame Judi Dench in that awful Vin Diesel Sci-Fi movie?
Paul McCartney in Wings?


Sometimes the greats cannot get out of their own way when the material just isn't there.
The writers just mailed this one in. For sure.

Obama cold open....fine, whatever...but not funny.

Edible Pampers? OK, cute. Gross, but I see where you're going...

3 pompus people go to a bar during the Super Bowl. REALLY? REALLY?

Keenan Thompson doing 'Issues'....uh huh. Wow, same as every other Keenan Thompson character.

Any of the awful McGrubers? Didn't think so...and a total waste of LEE MAJORS. Idiot SNL writers. Speaking of which, nice job on the Digital Short -- cats with lasers...hillarious...Fast Forward.

Hey look, its Kristen Wiig doing a funny voice with a zany lady married to Steve Martin. No funny.

Bernie Madoff calls people over the Super Bowl and no one answers....YOU ARE FUCKING SLAYING ME NOW....

Steve Martin gets it on with the four lady cast members...fine, whatever - Steve Martin is still funny when he gets to be Steve Martin.

News....more Gov. David Patterson is blind jokes. Look everyone, he reads his notes with binoculars. HEE HEE HEE. Hey, his chair rolled into Seth. Stop the comedy it hurts so much.

TV turn off. Goodnight. Someone wake me up from this long national nightmare.

Lost Recap: Borrowed

Not that any of my readership comes here for 'Lost' recaps, and I am too tired frankly to write one. So here -- TVGuide.com did a great job recapping and doing a little speculating....They too have come to the same conclusion that we all have -- Farraday's mom is that old lady in the basement who was talking to Ben last week, and she is the same lady who sold Desmond his diamond ring a ways back....oooooh.....

I loved this episode as it was very island-centric and answered a few good questions:
-Why did Richard have an interested in Locke when he was born?
-What is Chuck Widmore's fascination with this island about?

We still don't know why The Others don't time travel, but rather just seem to exist in whatever form/year the island seems to be in. And the blondie with the gun following Faraday? Is she supposed to be his Mom? Perhaps...he did seem to know her.

The link to the recap

Trust Me: A Review in Short Order

I am going to try and review the new TNT Drama 'Trust Me' Twitter style -- 140 characters or less. This is going to a challenge for me given my penchant for verbosity...but I will try.

The show airs on Monday nights at 9 central on TNT (We Know Drama) and stars Eric McCormack (Will and Grace) and Tom Cavanaugh (Ed) and Monica Potter (some movies I am sure I saw) and is about advertising agency life in Chicago...in otherwords, a modern day Mad Men, and seriously, what took anyone so long to make this happen.

Here comes the review:

I liked 'Trust Me' very much. The writing was fast-paced and witty, Lauren says the agency scenes and characters are dead-on, and I love that it's Chicago. Cavanaugh is annoying so far, but his character is supposed to be -- they will have to find a happy medium. McCormack is great, and the show has a fun supporting cast and could have some legs given good storylines. It was a fun hour of TV. It didn't change the world, but it did give a fair depiction of creative life within an agency trying to nail a campaign. I look forward to the shows growth and I recommend it.

That would not have been accepted by Twitter - I would have had to break it into several messages which is cheating - yet a lot of people do it -- and yes I am talking directly to you Richard Roeper....www.twitter.com/richardroeper

24 Recap and More

So now FBI Agent Long-hair/Freckles is is on the plan. And she too doesn't seem to care that Jack and Company work for no one but themselves. She also cleans up quite well from being shot in the neck and buried alive less than 30 minutes earlier -- amazing really. She is better than KITT.

Strangely I am more compelled to the 'B' Storyline right now with First Gentlemen Henry Taylor and the uber baddie Secret Service boy (Sven Sungaard doppleganger. If you don't know Sven, Google him...). That is a much more interesting story right now and I look forward to seeing how it works out for the currently incapacitated Hank Taylor who lays next to the dead Sven Sungaard and already stabbed and dead Samantha. Her death was brutal to watch. Yuck.

Tony remains a wild-card I think. He doesn't know who he is right and now and will probably have to double-cross Jack to keep the story going. The Big Bad however did kill 250+ Americans in two plane crashes -- so those keeping tabs on a death toll, I am up to 280 total people including bad guys and FBI agents.

LINE OF THE YEAR:
While applying a tooth-based tracking device on the Prime Minister only minutes before he is to be kidnapped so he can be traced, the Prime Minister asks Chloe...

Motobu: Do you work for the FBI?
Chloe: No, I am a stay at home mom.

Genius.

The Best 5 Days Ever?

I submit the following nomination for best week of TV ever:

-New HIMYM
-New Big Bang
-New 24
-Non-Stop Inauguration Coverage (most historical day of my lifetime)
-Badger Hoops game....lost in OT, but I knew I had Lost coming up next!
-Lost catch-up show to get the adrenaline going...
-New LOST (the two hour variety)
-Preview for return of Life on Mars next week
-New The Office
-New 30 Rock
-New Bones
-Extra new Bones!!!!
-New Numbers

Holy shit I watch too much TV.