Tuesday Apr. 10th

"Michelle Obama talks to the contestants"  Air Date 4-10-12

I wonder what would have happened if one of the contestants could not get the clearance to meet the first lady? (Also if you misspell "clearance" the first word spell check gives you is clearance spelled correctly the second in Clarence, so if just seeing the word clearance doesn't make you think of the movie Airplane spell check will (that is if you are an idiot that misspelled clearance 4 times in the above paragraph)).

Lets see...this season started airing right after the new year, and I know that the episode where they went home for two weeks took place at Christmas time and that aired about four weeks before they went to D.C.  So it's possible that the first lady has seen three or maybe four episodes of the show, if she really does watch it every week.  If that's the case it must have been shocking for her to see them one minute so fat on tv and then so skinny the next when she met them in person.

Since when are contestants allowed to call home if they feel like it?  Most seasons they have to win a challenge just to get letters from home.

It was very selfish of Roy to ask Chris to come home just because he misses her.  From seeing their home they are the people that could use the money most of all and it is obvious that she is still battling her demons.

Oh, they are still in D.C., the phone must have been in her room.  I guess that is one of the little secrets that they never mention while on the show.

I don't buy for one second that what happened after Chris got off the phone with Roy was her binge eating.  From everything I know binging or looking for comfort from food needs to be an instant gratification.  It's the kind of thing where you go to the fridge and grab a carton of ice cream or a bag of chips, it's not the type of thing where you order a ton of room service.  If they had shown her raiding the mini-bar, or if they had shown her ordering the food in a moment of weakness and then coming to her senses when it was delivered  I would agree that it is her looking for comfort in food.  But the way she plates of food and then ordered a jar of mayonnaise that she applied liberally to just about everything; makes me think she was just trying to put on some weight so she could be voted out and go home to Roy.

When they were lining up to weigh in I had the feeling that it doesn't look good for Bob having trained the winning contestant this season.

With the way she seemed to give up; I'm glad the other contestants were willing to send Chris home even though she was the lesser threat of the two people below the yellow line.

It's about time they got to this much rumored walk out. *Spoilers Ahead*  From what I have read the producer bring the eliminated contestants back and give them the opportunity to get back in the game.  Which is something that has happened almost every single season.  The difference being this year all the people that were left flipped out and walked off the show, threatening to quit the show outright.  From what I have heard two of the people that walk out are not allowed back. I have been waiting for this to happen and can only hope one of those two is Conda and that her manipulating way have finally caught up with her.   

Tuesday Apr. 3rd or; What A Long Strange Week Its Been

I ended up being at work on Wednesday from 7:30 A.M. until 11:30 P.M.  Needless to say I didn't have any time to write this blog, or watch anything on TV for that matter.  Once again I must stress never work for family!  Then on Thursday I came home and crashed, Friday I went out with friends and didn't get in till after midnight, Saturday I spent doing all the catch-up work I didn't get to during the week, and Sunday was Easter. So here is what I watched last Tuesday; hopefully this week won't be so hectic and things will finally return to normal around here.

"This Is Wicked Strange" Air Date 3-25-12

The border patrol seems to be becoming more and more likeable, I think it has to do with the fact that they seem to be acting more and more humble.  They have gone from talking about how they are the best and should always be in first place, to saying they know they are one hard task away from being in danger.

The fast forward seems to be way more time consuming and much riskier than the last one. the helicopter one was a few feet away from the task and was quick and simple and only one team even tried it, yet the one today where they have to drive to it and looks to be very hard and time consuming two teams go to do.  If I were the second team to arrive I would have left as soon as I got there.  The amount of time the task will take makes whom ever doesn't win almost surely in last place or at least fighting to stay out of last.

If I got car sick very easily I think the last thing I would want to do is go on the Amazing Race, and if I knew my partner was easily sick I think I would try and find another person to run the race with before I applied.  I don't know how Mark could sit there while Bopper threw up; if it had been me there would have been some chain reaction vomiting going on.

How many times does Rachael need to tell Dave not to throw the bales on top of the pile?  It almost seemed like he was passive aggressively trying to hit her with one of them.

They didn't give the contestants much info as to what the road block would be, and with it involving going underwater and then spinning around, I'm surprised that someone didn't freak out before they had to do it.  I mean really freak out like that girl that lost because she refused to go down the water slide.

Actually after seeing some teams do it the roadblock seemed pretty easy.  I miss the old days when a roadblock could be a game changer, instead of a short pointless task that everyone has to do.

It's interesting to think about how these workers take a helicopter to work every day.  On most reality shows one of the best prizes contestants win is a helicopter ride to somewhere and these guys have to do it everyday as part of their daily grind.

I think there have been past contestants that would not have fit through the simulators windows.

The water in that pool had to be freezing.

When Vanessa, who was the only person to freak out even slightly at the roadblock, was getting ready to do the roadblock there was a noticeable heartbeat coming through my speakers.  I could not decide if she was very nervous and her mike was picking up her heartbeat or if it was something that the producers added to create more drama.  Since she was able to do it without a problem after the commercial I'm leaning toward the latter.

The Jersey Boys only hope is that there is a very hard detour that involves finding something using only luck.

The detour seems to be a choice between something easy and gross or something more challenging but much more sanitary.

One thing to take into account is that the racers don't know exactly what the apple they are looking for will look like.  Sure they can assume that it will be a normal apple that is somehow marked with the race flag, but it could have just as easily been a little wooden apple hidden within the car.

All the scenes with the oil looked like they could have been in the movie Borat and all the guys in the bath looked like they could have been extras in said movie.

With the way the fast forward played out this was pretty much a pointless episode.  Thou it did amuse me that the Jersey guys left to house music instead of the standard music.

Also Brenden and Rachael had a pretty melodrama free leg.

"The contestants receive makeovers" Air Date  4-3-12

I don't know if I have mentioned this before but when I add the show logos to the page I always have to go in and make them bigger so they are the size I want them to be; the only exception to this rule is the biggest loser logo which I have to shrink to get it to be the right size.  I'm pretty sure that is the definition of irony.

 I don't know why this is the only reality show where the contestants can't admit to actually playing the game while on the show.  I don't know if the producers stop them from doing it or if no one has the courage to say what they are actually doing.  I for one would change the way I see some of these people if they would just say "Yeah so-and-so was more deserving and probably needed to be here, but I'm trying to win this money and she was a threat to my doing so." instead of the wishy-washy reasoning they always give when eliminating someone.

The challenge seemed rather basic this week almost like the designers are running out of things to have the contestants do.  Climb a little cargo net and then shoot a ball with a slingshot at a target?  It seemed like something that the producers had these extra parts lying around and forced them into being a challenge.

I don't like one pound disadvantages.  I can see letting someone get a pound advantage for winning at something, but it seems unfair to further punish someone just because they are not good at some unused and unnecessary skill.

They should have used some kind of glass that would shatter better when the target was hit.  It made the challenge seem very lack luster and uneventful.

Makeover week can be very hit or miss if you ask me, and it all depends on who they have lined up to pick out the clothes.  When Tim Gunn was the stylist that they used almost everyone came off looking like a million bucks, but last year it looked like everyone was going to a fancy ball.  What the makeover should be about is letting these people, who have had so very little options as to what clothes they could buy, experience what it is like to go into a store and know that they can buy just about anything off the rack, not trying to outfit them to go to the prom.

Great, now all these horrible people get to go meet the first lady.  I don't think they could have sent a worse seasons worth of players to the white house.  I didn't care for the most of the people last season, but that was more due to not finding any common ground with any of them and also finding them annoying.  This season I have disdain for almost all the people who are left.

How could the contestants not realize that their families would be there?  They do this every year and there are always family members at the reveal.  Usually it is only one person, I think this might be the first time that multiple people have come to a reveal.  Also I am not talking about the emotional breakdown that the contestants have when they see their family, I am talking about the fact that they are always shocked that their family is there, like they have no concept that this would ever happen.

Of all the reveals I would have to say Mark and Chris were the best two.  Mark looks like he should be walking into the finale, not like he still has a potential month left on the ranch, and Chris looks about 25 years younger with her hair colored.

If they are going to split up the episodes like it looks like they are, then the second half should air sometime later on during the week.  If this was a one time deal then it is okay, but I am pretty sure NBC has added an hour of the Voice results to Tuesday nights and plan to split episodes for the foreseeable future.

"The Beauty in a Merge" Air Date 3-28-12

On one hand it seems a bit early in the game to merge the two tribes, but on the other hand this might be the perfect time for a merge.  There are six men and six women left in the game and everyone has to be a little unsure as to what their next move/alliance should be.  Salani dominated after the tribe shake up, so all the people on the Manano tribe are going to be looking to go back to their old tribe and it would be easy for the new Salani to go with a new alliance that was made there, but any alliance that was made there has not been put to the test and could just be lip service and as soon as a member of one sex is voted out the tribes could shift back and wipe out the now under manned team.

I think if I was on Salani I would go to my new alliance and say that I trust them and want to work with them but it is survivor and it only makes sense to have a good plan in place, and then tell them that what we should do is whoever wins immunity that week, a person of the same sex is voted out.  So if a guy wins one of the new Manano guy gets voted out and if a girl wins a Manano girl gets voted out.  That way the choice of which sex becomes the underdog is left up to fate.  Of course I would then try and throw the challenge so that a girl would win; there by letting me remain with the most options.

So now after more than a third of the players have gone home we finally get opening credits with the cast in them.

The fact that the reward challenge is team based and the colors that are used are the old tribe colors, makes me think that they moved up the merge.

Why would you send your smallest player out to dig the hole first?  I could see that he should have to dig the smallest hole and there by get through sooner and get you out to a psychological lead, but it also means that who ever goes next is going to have to stop and make the hole bigger so they can fit through it.

And then to top it off Leif goes into the little hole head first so the hole he dug isn't big enough anyway because he is trying to get through the opposite way his spine works.

Toward the end of the reward challenge Jeff says both tribes are down to their last three pieces, but the second after he said that they showed Jonas and Tarzan and they had at least 6 pieces left to put in.

I feel sorry for Tarzan.  In real life he is a surgeon and from the way he talks you can tell he is a very educated person, but the way he is being edited and the whole thing with the poopie  pants is going to make him into nothing more than some wacko who pooped himself on a tv show and then tried to argue that he didn't do it.  I don't see how anyone would ever want him to operate on them after watching this.

I wonder if the producers planned to add another immunity necklace to the game after the merge, or if they added this one to replace the one that Colton took with him.

If they are going to keep hiding the necklaces they need to start coming up with some better hiding spots.  When Russel found them without any clue is was new and ground breaking and you could tell he put in some work to do so, but now it seems that people can't walk down the beach without tripping over a hidden immunity idol.

I wonder what would have happened if after Tarzan was out of the immunity challenge, he had accidentally bumped into one of the other players and knocked them out of the challenge?

This seems like a rather tough but fair immunity challenge.

Wow, someone one that tribe is quite the artist.  They just showed the new tribe flag and it looks like it could have been made by professionals, usually they look like something kids would make during kindergarten.

If I were Jay I don't think I would be banging the "vote out the strongest, biggest threat" drum quite so loudly.

You could tell some of the people were really upset with voting out Jonas.

I can't believe the Salani men didn't seem to ponder the possibility of the girls going back to an all girl alliance.  By voting out Jonas they are putting themselves at the mercy of the girls in their alliance with no real backup plan.

Monday Apr. 2nd

Before we begin I've found a preview of what has the potential to be the best new show in years.  It's from Aaron Sorkin and will air on HBO.  I've known it was in the works for about a year but this is the first preview for it that I have seen.  It looks to be the perfect combination of West Wing and Sports Night.

"Beside the Dying Fire" Air Date 3-18-12

When ever they show large groups of zombies I always find myself looking for the extras that aren't doing a very good job at being undead.

I've never noticed it before but all the walkers either have multiple layers of clothing or are wearing long sleeve shirts.

I thought that the producers did a very good job of showing how a hoard forms in the opening segment.

And the award for worst mother in the world goes to... Lori!  Considering all she seems to want to do is play homemaker, you'd think she could keep an eye on her kid.

Instead of driving around and shooting wildly at all the zombies; wouldn't it make more sense to try and use the cars to distract the walkers into following the them and then pick off the stragglers that didn't take the bait.

It's funny, after watching Top Shot and seeing some of the best shooters in the world struggle to hit their targets while shooting from a moving vehicle, any scene where these amateur shooters were able to constantly hit every single thing they were shooting at completely took me out of the moment and ruined any suspension of disbelief that I had.

With Jim dead inside and the farm being completely overrun with walkers I hope this isn't the end for Dale's Winnebago.

Alright it's a commercial break,  I've got to remember to breathe.  I was talking with some friends over the weekend about intense TV shows and movies, and I think the best way to tell if something is truly intense is how long it takes before your brain tells you "remember to breathe" after the scene is over.  So far this episode ranks up there with the most intense things I've seen all season.

Right before they went to commercial they showed a shot of the barn engulfed in flames starting to collapse in upon itself, and right next to it you could see the shell of the Winnebago.  Boo.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is the perfect game it advertise right after that last scene.  Too bad everything I've heard says the game sucks.

You would think that they would have been smart enough to have had all the cars loaded with basic supplies in case something like this happened.  You would also think that before they left the rendezvous point they would have taken the supplies that they left on the car for Sophia.

The hung-over zombie spot for Mad Men, where the cast awakes for drinking too much set to the music from Walking Dead was perfect.

Lori basically plants the idea that Shane is losing it and can't be trusted and has to go, and then when Rick tells her what happened she acts all upset and taken aback and can't believe that he did it.

I loved how they introduced Michonne, but only gave us a little teaser as to who she is.  I was wondering how they were going to introduce her to the show with the way they have grown to trust no one that they meet.  I guess having her save Andrea's life works.

Well we have finally gotten to the prison, not to spoil anything but next season is where the show really starts to get dark.

4-2-12

The crowd tonight is crazy.  They are able to get indy style chants going in a huge arena.  It's the kind of thing that you usually only see in New York, Chicago, or certain parts of Canada.  At first I though Florida was going to have to be added to that list and then I realized that last night was Wrestlemania and most of the crowd was out of towners that came in for the weekend.  Still the crowd was something special that hasn't really been seen since the attitude era ended.

The Rock promo shows how much better things are when the wrestlers are allowed some freedom and have the ability to be loose and not so scripted.

The crowd doing Bryan's Yes chant might become the new What? chant, but for right now it is pure magical.  Who knew that losing in 18 seconds would be the best thing for his career.  If the WWE doesn't see the writing on the wall and capitalize on it they are missing out.

I have to give props to Ziggler for the bump on the ramp with Brodus Clay.  It looked sick and had to hurt.

They did the right amount of build with Lord Tensai.  A few weeks of "Lord Tensai is coming" and then have him actually come as opposed to Alberto Del Rio's intro that seemed to last for about six months.

I was also glad that they at least slightly acknowledged that Tensai used to be know as Albert.  One look at him and you could tell  there was no way to hide it.

They are doing a different version of the Punk drinking angle that Punk did in ROH with Raven, I suppose they spent last summer doing a different version of Summer of Punk, why not steal the Raven stuff also.

When Jericho went to smash the bottle of whiskey over Punk's head; the bottle broke in his hand well before it came anywhere near to Punks head.  They must have gotten their bottles the same place that The Amazing Race got the bottles for the challenge from a few weeks ago.

All the Team Johnny guys got some sort of perk from him tonight.  Swagger and Ziggler got a shot at the I.C. belt, Henry got a shot at the WWE Title.  That is except for The Miz, Miz won the match for Johnny at Wrestlemania and all he gets is a match against Ryder?

Brock Lesner is back,  hopefully this leads to some good things and he has more of an impact and is around more than The Rock was this last year.  The only thing I would do is get Paul Heyman there immediately to be his mouth piece.

Back to normal!

I think I have come up with a new plan that will allow me to better stay on top of what I am viewing and also keep me from talking about TV shows that are months and months old.  When TiVos and DVRs became a standard household item, Nielsen ratings changed the way they monitor and come up with the ratings that a show receives.  The new way included a "+7" this basically meant that what ever number a show does when it airs plus what ever it does from DVRs over the next seven days equals the true rating that a show gets.  I'm going to use the same system but with a +14.  So, if I watch a show with in 14 days of when I record it I will talk about it the next day, if for whatever reason it falls through the cracks and I don't get to it within two weeks I just won't discuss it after I watch it.  That way there will be no more posting about Valentine's Day shows in the end of March. 

So, if everything goes to plan, posting will resume on a daily basis starting tomorrow with my thoughts on the season finale of Walking Dead, the season premier of Mad Men, and maybe last weeks Survivor.

The only question left was what to do with all the shows I have watched and taken notes on but haven't written about yet, and I decided the quickest and easiest way to get back on track was to either just erase them and start over, or to just post the notes as I took them and not elaborate on them like normal.  So what follows is just that, my notes as I watched these shows. Let me warn you they are true notes.  Some are complete ideas that would more or less be copied straight to the blog, others are two or three words meant to jar my memory on what I planned to write.  Some are shorthand usually dealing with character names, others are talking points that I planned to use as a jumping off point.  They were never intended to be read by anyone but me and I'm sure are full of grammar and spelling errors, but I figured for as inconsistent as I have been recently, I owed everyone a little peek behind the curtain.


Survivor
"A Bunch of Idiots" 3-14-12

tribes just became more uneven
If I had a strong alliance I'd convince whoever had more to throw immunity and then vote out a girl
6-8 instead of 7-7
producers moved it up
drop your buffs, what if one of the girls had been wearing it as a top
stay at the beach bigger than the reward
not really one world anymore
whats that mean for the other hidden immunity?
could they plug the holes with mud
do the losers get the stuff they won before
So did they just give them fishing gear for losing?
what about the tarps?
that crab was gigantic
Jay seems to have his head on straight
Alicia's bikini
chicken was funny
poor Leif
Kat is useless
Jeff laughs at Colton's shot
tarzan doesn't know who's who
if I were Lief I'd be confused
ships have helms not wheels
jeff says I smell a but coming
liefs face is always dirty



Community
"Urban Matrimony and the Sandwich Arts" 3-15-12

Community is back yeah
backgrounds are usually funnier than half the shows on tv
"we will be fumagating the library to remove all insects, pests and as we say in Colorado... Vermin"
one of the pictures that flashed through jeffs heart was annies boobs
"That's the Jim Belishui of speech openings it accomplishes nothing, but everyone keeps using it and nobody understands why"
Troy and Abed may be getting too weird
missing the background regulars
Don't know about subway-chuck
dont mind product placement-early survivor


Worst cooks in America
"Luck of the Irish" 3-11-12

tiffany trying to be sexy walking in
hells kitchen gets longer for a taste and recreate challenge
when chefs sit down to spy tv video is going in fast forward
if david wasn't there for potato making switch him to something else
too many cooks ruin the soup
at what point do producers step in-vinny and the flaming burbon
how can anyone ever talk about broccoli rabe with out thinking of Andy on the office
its like a cobb salad and Action
impossible to even come close to recreating these dishes
whats the purpose of making them plate four dishes if they each cooked a different component of all the plates
if there is no reward for doing the first thing why do it
the second dishes have to have a ranking of hardness
no way making ruebens is as hard as some of the other dishes
but then vinny under estimated because he thought they were so easy
don't think Benjamin was going to go home this week


Jersey Shore
"We Are Family" 3-15-12

funny prank but if they switched inside for out
shouldn't the upper deck patio thats outside rons room have gone in rons room
Mike is just being a baby
that wasn't a tornado warning it was a grenade horn for the lesbians in the next scene
Don't understand why ron was sleeping in the guest room
Mike does the same stutter talk when ever he lies
anyone else rooting for the storm
yeah deena leave the safety of the house to go run in the storm
more like a munchkin than dorthy
youre great comeback for the prank is to throw water at them
house is trashed
should wait 10 years


The Ultimate Fighter Live
"Embrace the War" 3-16-12

fighters had to keep faces covered live intro
wouldn't they pick teams before picking rooms
don't think anyone has ever given up picking the first fighter
Faber picked more by previous training camps
where cruz pick more by fight impressions
both coaches seem like decent guys
that cant be said about all the seasons
only had one pratice before fight pick
suppose with time constraints has to be that way
thought Dana was going to be there for all the stuff
just noticed time stamp
feel sorry for Michael high of making it to low of losing his dad, only worse if he had lost his fight
what a time to have started live fights
glad they let him go home
any drama was gone due to him being in the live shot
would like to see a little highlight from the get in fight before the fight just to refresh on who's who
about to call out foreshadowing but can't because its a live fight-cruz tells vick to stay busy
ref and cutman didn't do outside stuff
talk about lucky knee
someone will have an easy second round fight
missed ending going to have to pad the recording time
if they hadn't had so many breaks


New Girl
"Bully" 2-21-12

Last viewer discretion was one of the best
like cecilia is disgusted but can't get enough
Freaks and Geeks cast and crew
fix cactus with masking tape
I'd always thought she taught younger kids
checked youtube song wasn't there disappointed holt45
schmidt sexual snowflake
no more lizzy caplan boo
globe was still down after Nick picks it up
ending cut off again



Raising Hope
"Sheer Madness" 2-21-12

fake trix called Kids
also has nuterion facts on both sides
normal tuesday with nothing good on tv-shows on tuesday
Ethan Slupee looks good
Sabrina had lost her edge through out the show miss the fruit drawing girl from the beginning
Virginia drank a ton of that oj
Cloris leachman and the spider


Storage Wars Texas
"The Surgeon, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" 3-6-12

first time they have ever used a different auctioneer
last time Lesa sells something to moe

"Puffy in the Sky With Diamonds" 3-13-12

untouched for two years makes it better how
is moe splitting the money with mary
50,000 in diamonds!!!
when's the last time Victor even bought a unit


Awake
"The Little Guy" 3-8-12

rex=son
Is he getting rest, is he waking up refreshed, or
is he becoming more and more tired and exhausted
Sugar Rice Pops-mascot cross between tony the tiger and Ratchet
son-blue and green drab, wife-orange and red bright
cant get over FEZ
nothing like seeing the temp of 37 on a show from 2 weeks ago when it currently 78
some people the same in both some slightly dif-fez some very dif-dead doc-dead homeless
both realities had scenes he wasn't involved in
don't like big bad & being boss


Justified
"Harlan Roulette" 1-31-12

recorded in SD
Mr. Limehouse teeth don't stand out in SD
glad Jermey Davis is still on the show
would you really make him play russian roulette in your office
killing a marshall would just rile the hornets nest
christmas lights boyd go on and off
Raylan does seem to keep himself in the thick of it


Restaurant Impossible
"Woody's Tupelo Steakhouse" 3-7-12

beginning car commercial parking deck
feather
wouldn't he want to eat first before further damaging the rep
waiter seemed scared of the camera
photocopied S.O.P reminded me of my first job
project he started website
why would you use a material that you had never used before in such a high pressure sit
maybe stop making crappy chandeliers and do something more important
don't see how fixing one dish and adding another can fix a menu full of problems
only did one room rest seemed to have like 4
elvis imp couldn't stop staring into the camera



Cougar Town
"Lover's Touch" 2-28-12

dominance ball poor mans penny can
wine shop on speed dial hang up on andy
poor tom
Tom's Id-issue date 2012 may 21
expiration date 2009 May 20
Grayson becoming less interesting
Busy Phillips is beautifully moley


Happy Endings
"Everybody Loves Grant" 2-15-12

dave lists all the personalities
don't really care for dave
doorknob falls off right after dave fixes it



Amazing Race
"Taste Your Salami" 3-11-12

All the scenes in the credits have been used
5:10 border patrol  9:50 B&R
rest all together except last 12:15
Slight benefit of being later travel agency goes faster
everyone helps mark and bopper
M&B have great attitude
Sponsored by Ford
driving stick
FF is right there looks like multiple could go at same time why wouldn't you try
horrible fast forward
Rachael seems to do everything
2 min road block
army and wife need to get refocused
brendan is so emasculated
autopark is pretty cool
B&R stumped cut to old footage of his school history
Its the other rachael that needs to worry about being punched
statue is way easier
just too many salamis but depends on how close
are the clues right in front of the elevator
classic B&R
see how she looked at him before talking about the marriage
"Amazing Race is supposed to be fun and good"
think statue officials were screwing with them with the heads
do the correct salamis stay or do they start over
dave is too army for rachael
Rachaels meltdown just keeps coming
salami judges awkward
once fast forward knew non elim
sure played with b&m before telling them

Restaurant Stakeout
"Party All the Time" 3-14-12

Willy host
sounds like this show could be fixed with new general managers
they have to know the cameras are there
looks like its early evening when willys talking to camera installer
interesting owner sits with him whole time
If had service that was that bad I would have left
about half the staff needs to be fired
starting with the manager
is this really all in one day?
answered my question
staff meeting while restraunt still open?
like the concept but pacing is off.

Storage Wars Texas
"If I Were Tibettin' Man" 3-13-12

no moe
why go if you don't go prepared-victor
victor partner never goes with him
talk about getting it authenticated going to the source
roy williams
nailed the price on the ancient milk pitcher


Raw 3-19-12

made no mention that santinos abs were painted on


Worst cooks in america
"Something Fishy" 3-18-12

seem to be going through teaching seafood awful fast
did they get some examples of what a raw bar should look like
adding things throws time management out the window
show seems to be treating them more like masterchefs than worst cooks
thought the whole red team was underwhelming
dorthy was right choice david has been more consistent
tiffany has gotten into her own head and lost her confidence
both people that got switched are still there


Biggest Loser
"The contestants learn how to surf" 3-20-12

these horrible people get to go to hawaii
don't think anyone has ever used the excuse cant lose weight on vacation
where would they get clothes that would fit them
hawaiin shirts match team colors
Mark seems to be only one still focused
I'm sure no one knew Bethany Hamiltons name before they were told.  I went its gonna be the surfer girl that got her arm bitten off
they way they keep saying surfing reminds me of what about bob
special shirts with lays
tivo error missed from dolvett talking to kim to top of the hour
they always do a first hour recap-not this week
missing that part made tiki challenge lost on me
Kind of tell Bob is getting sick of these contestants
shows work levels by who's bottom two
must suck when your logic is thrown back in your face
what a bunch of two faced cowards
when ever outside always windiest spot possible
letters with megan???


30 Rock
"The Ballad of Kenneth Parcell" 1-26-12

She's bigger than MP on Whitney
Maulik Pancholy played jonathn on 30 rock
what ever happened to Cerie?
barnes and noble bathrooms have signs about taking books into them
show is getting a little too goofy
mankind was funny though
so was spoofing those vapid holiday movies


Amazing race
"Uglier Than A Mud Rail Fence" 3-18-12

8:57-11:33 time dif between 1(FF) and 2
Liked they weren't all bunched up
3:58-5:54 time between last two
did border patrol make the connection and then wait
both tasks seem like fun
ginger bread may be easier
beard easier for the girls
good job staying with the pack-mississippi girls
speed bump seemed too easy
beards randomly easy or hard
does everyone walk the same gingerbread trail if so mark and bopper stole all the early gingerbread
couldn't care less
pay to go to the wrong castle
but money doesn't seem to be an issue anymore
pretty easy road block
would like to see them put times somewhere like online
Fbi needs to move a foot to the left-gnome curling
glad fbi girls made it mississippi just boring



Top Shot
"Blast From the Past" 3-20-12

the way the blue team has preformed under pressure
challenge should go to red
slow challenge eliminates blue pressure
wouldn't you mess up the sight after your shot to not help the other team
no good way to pick those up for elimination
right way to pick elimination but wouldn't want to be the one listing faults
better to squash beef but unfair to chee
both shooting challenges were "cheap" this week
atlatl
better to go first or play catch up
the shot they gave chris 6 points for looked more like 3
tim only went in because he got angry
"he who loses control, loses"-Frank Pembleton




Survivor
"Thanks for the Souvenir" 3-21-12

tarzans vote for monica
down right mean to christina
at least Leif got to keep his box
back against the wall willing to make any scramble deal-why not keep her in the dark
At least some of these people will make the jury they have to be disgusted with the way colton is acting
how is throwing a coconut off a trampoline into a target like anything you play in your back yard
don't know who is more worthless Kat or Alicia
Jeff is ruthless with alicia
doesn't look good that the new person Colton hates everything about is another ethnic person
I would have killed someone if there wasn;t mint cho-chip
Boysenberry=odd choice
totally down playing idols this year- no clues at reward
christina cant even talk strategy without getting caught
colton is so prissy cant tell if really hurting or just a drama queen
tarzan was right
title and preview kind of gave away what would happen
alicia when you lay down with dogs you wake up with fleas
even with coltons parting words he creates drama
merge this early producers are playing overtime
but writing was on the wall with manano tribe
not sure if i like this but it will make it interesting


Auction Hunters
Auction Hunters: Live 3-21-12


cool that its live trying to prove not fake
but somehow comes across even more fake
other bidders eating up clock
looks like stuffed with winning lockers
especially with cameras with back of lockers
an hour of opening boxes last seen on deal or no deal
their gun guy is in the crowd
should of had the others going through the lockers as well
ton's knife is pretty ridiculous
they scratched the floor with the safe
talk about vamping
look at that they got it in at the wire



Community
"Contemporary Impressionists" 3-22-12

sad that hiatus confused the beginning
Danny Thomas joke
dean pelton
french stewart plays french stewart impersonator
jeff-seacrest
Blake anderson
hulk music
abed talking to evil abed "this is really crazy and inaccessible and maybe too dark"
chang the evil dictator



Justified
"The Devil You Know" 2-7-12

you can tell Neal McDonough is loving every minute of this part
last time ted danson in bored to death
would they really be stupid enough to have the dr.pick them up
girl on last man standing
when stupid people try to be criminal masterminds
Devil dying would be a bigger deal if i didnt always confuse him with dewey crowe




Jersey Shore
"Reunion" 3-22-12

wish ron was like this all the time
tshirt right behind the host is blurred out-gijoe logo
didn't apologize for the past apologized for leaving
laugh track is horrible




The Challenge
"Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" 3-21-12

thought they said it was a new dome event
but x battle plays the best
overall disappointed with dome events
you'd think they would get some basic mma training
dont see why thy keep doing the final somewhere else
dont know if id be doing shots before the final
maybe ct and diem were going faster because they were both running and no one was riding
cold watching them jump in the water
wonder if they knew how shallow the water was
4 sec between 1 and 2
1 sec between 2 and 3


Kitchen Nightmares
"Chiarella's" 3-23-12

don't like it when the show becomes marriage/family counseling
way tommy is muttering to himself reminds me of Mike on jersey shore
pretty bad when the cook thinks he wont like the food
fog advisory
pretty daughter
pretty standard boring episode
nothing seemed to happen


TUF
episode 3 3-23-12

this week they didn't try and hide the fighters identity
even promoting the fight on face book and such
don't remember the fight pick last week must have been cut off
calling out like that will either completely demoralize or cause them to be more focused
might be the best fight of the season
thought it would be late in the tournament if not final
don't know if its the smartest move by cruz
there is always a hot head like tickle and if not there is a gang
problem with having no commentators vs taped show from before
overall disappointing fight
neither really wanted to engage
justin just found his openings first



Storage Wars Texas
"Dallas Cowboys and Indians" 3-20-12

one interesting thing in a room full of junk will also probably have junk inside-victor
passing his trash
110 degrees then when auctioning 120 degrees
again no moe
didn't realize paintball guns were that expensive


"Who Bought JFK?" 3-20-12

air conditioned yet still 86 inside
pretty cool that the book depository is a museum now


30 rock
"Today You Are a Man" 2-2-12

Frank's hat said Jobber, wore two different hats
tired of kenneth
TiVo cut off what seemed like a funny botching of Who's on first


Parks and Recreation
"Operation Ann" 2-2-12

Jerry falls for toms little indian in her joke
Chris has a framed picture of jack valane on his desk
Ron smashes the cryptex
Jerry hires a escort from craigs list
22 clues left
Martin Starr
Goth warren should be in more episodes-laughed at him liking the music, hiding under the table
gays guys like ron
Ron likes the riddles-i like giddy ron
if ann went out with tom who did chris find so the music got better?


Suburgatory
"The Body" 2-15-12

top white teeth is name supremacy white
now I cant stop looking at everyones teeth
no real pay off to anything that happened


Modern Family
"Aunt Mommy"  2-15-12

Manny needs some toughing up
classic sit com misunderstanding with gay guys but it works
commission impossible, commission accomplished
clair seeing herself in alex "sometimes I worry no one is going to like Alex"
Drunk egg give away
Best episode in a long time, always better when they are all together
Frasier levels of miscommunication at brunch
under the table was sweet
so was hiding mannys pennies


Shamless
"I'll Light a Candle for You Every Day" 1-22-12

seems like lots of setting up thing we all ready know in beginning
fiona puts her shirt on twice
if everyone needs to put in $1000 and Fiona finds $500 and they are so worried about not making it after buying the baby back why spend the money so wastefully
How can Frank possibly think he can get away with stealing the ring
if frank worked half as hard at a job as he does at trying to make easy money he'd be rich
like the texting on screen
no way shee was renting on that street for $500. a month
thought Kevins plan would include his wife being the nurse that way they would get the money back
knew it was coming but bad karma on frank answering the page
fiona has sex with married man
Frank is sad about dottie
couldn't have looked more like a bad back drop on the phone-steve
Frank steals collection box



Raising Hope
"Single White Female Role Model" 3-6-12

mayor got strip club to put up drapes and moved the library indoors
Crab man is at the occupy protest
write in vote for chocolate rain guy for mayor
liked that katy perry was just a crazy jailor
step backwards after last two great episodes


Californication
"Boys & Girls" 1-22-12

Like that Hank is trying to go back to NY. 
Wrote the script and is out, not getting dragged into problems in cali
split parents should have two of a favorite thing
didn't take charlie long
hank should know better, she not even that good looking
becca is the only reason he'd stay cause its the only thing he loves


Cougar Town
"Full Moon Fever"  3-6-12

gay garden gnomes
like that he's still wearing the helmet
blurred out the photo on the phone
sarah clake
same patio as the last season of scrubs
andy films jules surrounded by bicycle boyz
jules shirt is wet in different spot when she buckets andy
wonder how long sarah will be on the show



New Girl
"Injured" 3-6-12

winstons car
episode has been too heartfelt at the expense of being funny


Breaking in
"The Contra Club" 3-6-12

christina slater talking to the camera
would a high class security firm:
1. hire a temp
2. tell the temp everything about themselves
understand they are hammering home who everyone is but come on
will miss the duchy boyfriend
took cheers 6 seasons before sam sold the bar
roddy piper is the boss
she uses his chew bubble gum quote
megan is a good addition unless all shes going to do is be the bad guy thorn in their side


Restaurant: Impossible
"Valley View" 3-14-12

everything is frozen
usually there is at least one redeeming dish
like someone makes good pie
don't think i'd have the attitude jesse does
did they use to have a good cook?
Robert's hair seems greyer than when the show began
wonder if this has been stressful
jesse still cant see the difference
they are all wearing the same clothes on the second day
one of the better looking reveals think it was because the place was in such poor shape
how are they doing now on the website




Biggest Loser
"Truck-loading challenge" 3-27-12

Newmans own all profits to charity!!!
great reward for the towns
buddy hasn't been cleared for anything
got to do heavier first except you have to carrier them farther
tiny little winner flag
nice to all the towns
cool of newmans own, but if they give all the money to charity anyway not that big of a deal
If you not committed at the ranch, home is going to be a nightmare-megan
Zumba workout is located right next to an all-you-can-eat taco restraunt
We get it Zumba is a good workout we don't need everyone to tell us
Jared from subway-brought his pants with.
Real story of Jared and his weight loss
Newman's own, Zumba, now Subway commercial city
why give them such stringent time limits on the food challenge
unfamiliar grocery store
jeremy forgot the eggs
first time Kim's food is displayed calories are listed as 33z instead of 337
If Antone knew how different this season is from last, he'd see things differently
stopped paying attention
Conda is going to skate right to the end and then everyone is going to boo her.
Conda to be a bridesmaid-barf

Of Mice and Men

Well, I've been doing this for three months now.  For the most part I've enjoyed every minute of it; that is until I got sick.  Ever since then doing this has seemed more like work and less like a fun little thing to do.  The main cause of this I believe to be the fact that my TiVo is constantly full; to the point that most nights I have to rush home and watch stuff just to make enough room to record new show that night.  Now this has been a long time coming between a decrease in the amount of free time I have, the amount of time it takes to actually write this, and the increase in time it takes to watch a show while taking notes; it feels like for every two steps forward I take I am also taking two steps back, and that is starting to burn me out.  So, getting sick was less the causation and more the final straw but it has lead me to make some temporary changes to the format around here.

So for the time being it's going to work like this:

1. Anything I am up to date on or only a few episodes behind on I will keep writing about as I watch it. (E.g. Amazing Race, Survivor, Raising Hope, Biggest Loser, New Girl)
2. Anything new that starts and I watch I will stay on top of. (E.g. Mad Men, Community)
3. Everything else I am going to try and watch as quickly as I can, and as soon as I am caught up to current I will then start writing about them again.(E.g. Justified-8 episodes behind, Alcatraz-12 episodes behind, The Office-8 episodes behind)   I still have left in my notes some show that were about Valentines Day, April Fool's Day is Sunday.  It was never my intention to talk about shows that were months and months old,  If that were the case I might as well be writing about Freaks & Geeks, and The Wire.
3a. If while watching one of these shows I am behind on. I find something that I want to talk about, I'm going to talk about it.
3b. If there is a show that someone asks me to keep writing about, even though I am so far behind, I will keep writing about it.  So if there is anything you want to still see my opinion on leave me a comment and let me know.

I think that covers all the changes.  Things should start back up tomorrow with looks at two week old amazing race and survivor, as I try to get caught up to current.  If you have any thoughts, or questions leave a comment let me know.

When I was sick Part IV

"Swing Into Action"  Air Date  3-13-12

I understand that sometimes people have to sit out to make the competitions even, and I find it to be an interesting twist that they let the other team pick who gets to sit out.  But I find it unfair that they don't pick the person to sit out until after the practice.  It gives an unfair advantage to the team with less people because they all got more time to practice than the team with more people even thought in the competition the teams will be the same.  Some one is always wasting the instructors time because no matter what the greater team will have one person who will never shoot in the competition.

There are two left handed shooters in the competition.  I'd say they are now the people I'm rooting for (you know in a show of left-handed solidarity), but I didn't write down who they were and I have absolutely no idea who they were.

As with pretty much every single challenge so far this season, the red team worked better as a team, while the blue team did a better job of actually shooting the targets.

I wished the jugs they were shooting at had been filled with something besides sand.  The sand just kind of plopped to the ground after the jugs were shot and usually one of the best things about this show is the incredible explosions that happen when things are shot.

If the blue team was so worried about Greg's performance, why did they have him go last and shoot at the target that was the farthest away? On that same note Tim did the worst in the red teams practice, why was he the last shooter for them?

The way that they showed Greg fumbling during the challenge led me to believe that the blue team would actually end up winning the challenge.  It's pretty standard for reality shows to try and pull the reversal of what they show in the previews.

The blue team didn't really beat the red team as much as the red team beat themselves.

Every week they air a commercial for the website where they sell merchandise for the show.  The web address is topshotshop.com, and every single time I see the commercial it makes me think of Bob Loblaw's Law Blog on Arrested Development.

You would think that shooting through the little window like they are at elimination, that they would have all ready drawn a beat on the first target.

See, these glass jars filled with water create a much better explosion than those jugs full of sand did.

The second time they did the elimination challenge they both shot better.  I think this  is due to them having the timing of how fast the wall was going to move down.  You could see them both struggling the first time through because they didn't anticipate how fast the wall was going to move. 

Iggy just fell apart o during his second run through.  It was kind of sad to watch.

"From the Top Down"  Air Date  3-12-12

This seems to be an interesting concept for a show, but I'm left wondering is it really necessary?  Any owner could install some hidden cameras and try and watch his staff to see if they are preforming up to par with what he wants done.

All the commercials for this show seem to use footage from this episode and only from this episode.  I wonder if that means something, like they changed the format or the show was rushed to air.

I was wondering how Willy was going to be able to see all the problems that the restaurant was having.  The answer: use plants!, but in reality it makes perfect sense.  I wonder if the plants are crew members and they will be the same at every different restaurant that they go to.  That would be kind of interesting, kind of like the secret diners on Ramsey's Best Restaurant.

I wonder what the actual time period is that they film the staff is.  Because in reality to do all this to the staff on one day would make it the day from hell for them and might end up skewing the actual responses that they would get from the staff.

It's interesting none of the other "fix-a-restaurant" shows have really focused on the front of house staff.  It's nice to see a different spin on the same old concept.

I think if he had shown the owner some of the footage, instead of just telling him about it, the owner might have had a stronger reaction to what was being said.

The girl she just threw a napkin at wasn't a plant, she was an actual customer.  Wow, that might be the worst customer service I have ever seen.

There not really leaving much time to fix anything.

The staff is treating Willy like he is a joke, which is kind of understandable, they have no idea who he is , or what he's doing there, plus everything he's doing is pointing out all the negative things they are doing at work.

Well, for the most part I found this to be an okay show.  It had some kinks that need to be worked out.  The pacing is a little bit off, the owner should sit with Willy so they are seeing what he sees and learning from him who to do it the right way, and Willy needs to do a better job of conveying the changes that need to be done to the staff at the end.

 
Episode 5 Air Date 2-6-12

Red says she wants Jax's birthday party to be small, just friends and family.  Uhhh...who else would you invite to a one year old's birthday?

If this show is only about cage fighters, you don't need to put "Cage Fighter" under everyone's name every time that they appear on screen.

The promoter sits all the boys down and tells them the honest truth, and then as soon as he leaves all they do is dump on him for trying to help them.  They all came off looking like spoiled children.

They never seem to put screen names on the people who I don't know who they are, yet seem to put up the main characters name ever single time they are on screen.

This episode is the first time I've noticed it, but Jax really looks like his father.

Is this fight over his birthday party really that big of a deal.  He's turning one, he won't remember any of it anyway.

Are shingles contagious?  If they are and he's been rolling around on the mats at the gym, everyone else that trains there is going to get them also.  Since they are stress related they probably aren't.

Really you're going to have your mommy call and tell them you are sick?  What a little child.

Ugh, don't try watching anything at MTV.com,  in this one episode that I missed the player has crashed twice and skipped ahead to the final segment three times.  It's frustrating crap like this that makes people download stuff illegally instead of watching it where they could online.

Wes missed the weigh-in because his flight was late and then he was still over weight.  Then they let him try and sweat the weight out.  My question is how long does a fighter have to make weight after the "official weigh-in" is over?  Is this standard practice or did MTV pull some strings so they had at least one fighter fighting this week.

Don't corner men usually get paid?  When Wes asked them to corner him they should have asked him if he wanted to pay gym fees like all the other people that they corner.

You know, "It's time to rattle the cage" actually isn't that bad of a catch phrase for an announcer to have.  He should trademark it before some one steals it from him.

I'm surprised the ref didn't stop the fight after Wes dropped the guy in the first round.  It seemed like pretty poor officiating on the refs part.

We're in the fourth episode and this is the first real fight that has had any drama to it.

I'm not surprised Wes ended up losing.  Between his head not being in the game and the tough weight cut he had to make, the cards were stacked against him.

"Leap Year" Air Date 2-29-12

Oh look, another holiday for The Middle to do an episode about.  I wonder how many different shows I'm going to watch this year that have a character with a leap year birthday?

The logo on the fast food bags was blurred out, but it wasn't the normal blurring effect that shows use.  It was just kind of always out of always out of focus, even when the bags were placed somewhere that it should have been in focus.  Strange, i wonder why it was like that, the show doesn't use actual products so it's not like they lost sponsorship from some company and were blurring out their logo.

I must say I have never noticed the kitchen floor in the Heck house before, but for some reason it constantly jumped out at me.

"On the Wings of Love" Air Date 3-14-12

There were lines drawn in the sand for the competitors to go to and essentially hit their mark.  Out of all the domes they have done this is the first time that I have noticed this.

This was a pretty stupid dome.  It was basically the same thing as the one where CT went home last season, except instead of it being run in an X, this time it was just a straight line.  This made it into nothing more than who could do the 50 yard dash faster.

If you watch closely you can see one of the producers come in and replace one of Ty's balls that have fallen off the rack.  I only bring this up because last season one of Adam's balls fell off and if I remember correctly, it basically caused him and CT to go home.  So, I wonder who the producers wanted to win this challenge.

They should have been checking each other every single time they passed one another.  Because they didn't all this was was a narrow boring race.

Also, with all the previews they have shown all season long of a black guy getting blown around by a jet engine, this dome was pretty much given away before it even started.

Again, they do a poor job of explaining the rules of the competition.  Do they have to set the stuff back up on the other side of the jet? If it's a timed comp how is it judged?  Do the different items have a different point value or is everything worth the same? If it's all worth the same they should move the little stuff first since you can carry a bunch of it for quick points.

For as much as it seemed like CT didn't want to ruffle Johnny's feathers by throwing him into the dome, CT had no problem making him go first in the challenge.

I wonder how much jet fuel was wasted to do this challenge.

Did it seem like the jet ramped it up when it came to the parachute part?

The Dummies were the hardest thing to move, were they told that each team member had to move one of them.  Because it seemed like that is what ended up happening and some of the teams could have shaved off some of the time if only one person had done both dummies.

It's a stupid move on CT's part sending Mark & Robin into the dome.  They are by far the weakest of all the teams left and at this point in the competition it only makes sense to take an easy team to beat to the final.  I understand CT motivation in only wanting teams that have proven themselves to get the money.  But if he ends up losing he only has himself to blame.  Especially when you consider this is two weeks in a row he has had the option of putting Johnny & Camilla and Ty & Emily against each other in the dome.

Hasn't Mark retired from doing these show like three times now?  He's almost a professional wrestler in terms of doing retirement matches. 

But it is a credit to his character that he has done so many of these and never seen the inside of an elimination round.   I think this is mostly due to the fact that when the challenges started he was already seen as the elder leader figure and he is a nice guy so he was able to retain that role, where some of the other older players like Coral got left in the way side by the younger players.

Continued again? Really MTV? Bad form.

When I was sick Part III

"One contestant wins a shopping spree" Air Date 3-13-12

It's about time they brought in the yellow line.  Now maybe all the secret alliance crap will stop and we will finally get to some real competition.

Emily needs to get out of her head and focus on the task at hand.  All she is doing by second guessing herself and worrying about being on the outs with the other contestants is setting herself up for failure.

Having both green team members standing next to each other in the ice rink challenge gave them a hugely unfair advantage.  It was obvious that as soon as they realized it was going to continue to be a stalemate they would work together and end up winning.  Is Conda so influential that she has the producers doing her bidding now?

As soon as Jeremy opened his prize I knew he was going to give it to his sister, even though there were better prizes he could have taken.  It would be poetic justice if he was below the yellow line by one pound and he gave up the opportunity to take a one pound advantage.

When Bob was talking to Emily in her room in the background you can see all the pictures of her friends and family that she has hung on the wall and right in the middle of the pictures is  a picture of the cast of the office.  It just struck me as odd that it was there and I couldn't decide if she put it there and somehow gets inspiration from it or if it is something NBC put there as some kind of subliminal messaging thing.

I don't think that Bob was able to get the break through he was hoping for with his talk to Emily.  But I do think that the weight lifting training that she did with Bob right after that was just what she needed.

It was interesting, the very second Jessica Simpson was visible an ad for her new show popped up in the bottom corner.  I just found it funny that they couldn't have been more blatant about their self promotion.

I wonder what they would have done if Jeremy had kept the shopping trip for himself.  Would they have had the male judge of the new fashion show be the person he got to meet? or do you think he was "encouraged" to give the prize to a female, because it didn't look like there were any male clothes at the shop they went to.

Rock walls should have a bell at the top of them.  It would have been more satisfying for Kimmy to have had some goal at the top of the  wall instead of just reaching it and looking around like she did.  A simple bell to ring is all that would have been needed.

They never showed anything with Emily and the phone she won in the Ice challenge.  You'd think they would have used it to try and get a heartfelt moment into the show, or she would have tried to use the phone to curry favor with some of the other contestants.

The contestants are now in the individual portion of the show, yet when they went into the elimination room they still stood by their trainer separate from the other team.

They've switched from weighing in topless or in a sports bra to weighing in with their shirts on.  That's usually a sign that the show is winding up, but there still seems to be a lot of people left.

I wonder if it will be Kim or Emily who has to weigh in last, since they are the only two that seem to be guaranteed to go home if they are under the yellow line.

If I were on this show and it came time to weigh in, I think the last thing I would do is go up to the scale wearing all sorts of jewelry.  Emily had a necklace, giant earrings, and a huge ring on, and while I'm sure they didn't weigh much they had to weigh something.

I'm glad to see that NBC is pushing Community as much as they are.  There have been commercials for its return during a number of the commercial breaks tonight and I don't believe I have ever seen a commercial for it before.  Watch it it's a good show.

Could the other contestants clapping for Emily have been more patronizing?

The way they were acting you would have thought that they pink girls were life long friends that were being separated, not strangers who just met two months ago.  

With the amount of double speak that Mark just laid down at the elimination ceremony, after he leaves the ranch I see a future in politics for him.

I bet Emily is regretting throwing that weigh-in a few weeks ago.

With Emily leaving, I'm running out of players to root for, and I am slightly tempted to give up on the whole season.  The only things keeping me with the show is an internet rumor about a walkout and the knowledge that contestants who are big time game players are always the ones who end up gaining the weight back.

When I was sick Part II

"One Meatball Stands Alone" Air Date  3-8-12

Mike tells Gianni about him and Nicole then he goes upstairs,  as he passes the mirror he lifts his shirt to get a good look at his abs.  What a Douche.

I wonder if they have to call in a deep cleaning crew like they sometimes have to on the fix-a-restraunt shows to clean the house after they leave, because from the looks of it there is filth everywhere.

For the past two seasons of this show there has been one and only one running storyline and that is Mike and Nicole and what really happened before Italy.  They have been building to this ultimate confrontation and conclusion and what happens? Gianni hears about it and then goes and takes a nap and then later Mike and Nicole have a food fight.  Talk about the most underwhelming outcome, it was like buying fireworks and after lighting them having them all be duds.  The only way this should have ended is with fisticuffs and a trip to the hospital.

Did Vinny and Pauly not go camping because they didn't want to camp or because they wanted to pull this prank, either way it should be a classic prank that can't be topped.

Did they go and ask Danny for help or for permission?  I'm pretty sure he owns the house that they are living in, so they might have needed his okay before moving everything around.

Well, it didn't take them long before they had completely trashed the woods.  What a bunch of savages.

Was anyone else kind of hoping they all got eaten by a bear.

 "Love and Marriage"  Air Date  3-7-12

I really don't like it when shows do the whole flash forward flashback thing, where they show something that happens later in the episode and then rewind to the beginning and put a graphic on the screen saying something like "24 hours earlier".  It's basically a warning sign that the producers are telling us the first half of the show is going to be boring, but stick with it because after that there are going to be fireworks.  They did it the other week on walking dead, "yeah, they are going to the school bus parking lot, and there will be a lot of talking, but stick with it because soon ZOMBIES!!!"  and all it did was take away the element of surprise when the zombies showed up.  It just smacks of poor storytelling whether its a reality show or a scripted show.

They seem to be letting the contestants leave the house an awful lot this season.  Usually there are never any scenes where they are out of the house and this season it seems like they are going out every night.

Well I guess they didn't spoil the ending in the first episode.  But it did give away far too many of the teams that went very deep in this competition.

 That's a lot of cake they had to eat.  For as body conscious as most of these people are it has to be more sugar than they normally eat in a month.  It might not seem like much but trust me, they will be feeling the effects of eating that much sugar in one sitting.

The challenge would have been better if they had to get married at the end of the competition. 

If you know that you are going to go in next time unless you win, wouldn't it make the most sense to put the strongest team possible in this time.  If they come back you know that they had planned to put you in next anyway, and there is the possibility that they might get eliminated.

I think it is one of life's unwritten rules that if you are about to do something and you think to yourself that what you are about to do might be offensive and racist, don't do it because more than likely it is offensive and racist.  And it doesn't help your case if someone from the race that might be offended says its okay.

If I were Ty i would have been more offended because what they did wasn't funny. Putting chocolate pudding on your face to pretend your black is one thing, after doing it, then doing nothing but walk around is another.  It's like on Seinfeld, Jerry wasn't upset that his dentist converted to Judaism just so he could tell Jewish jokes, because Jerry was a Jew, Jerry was upset because he was a comedian and his dentist wasn't funny.

I watched this episode about two weeks ago, but my TiVo cut off the ending and I had to wait for another airing so I could see the end before talking about it.  They finally aired another viewing of it and what did I miss?  Them cutting to black and the screens saying "To Be Continued."  Thanks a lot MTV.

When I was sick Part I

Well I'm back and feeling better, I've got a glut of show to talk about (I think 34 in total).  The best way I have though to get through this immense back log is to do double posts until I've worked my way through all that I've watched.  So if everything go according to plans I'll post once around 1 P.M. and then again around 7.  I had originally planned to have one post be old stuff and the other be current and then I realized that I would end up skipping over episodes I had watched and taken notes on to talk about newer episodes I had watched E.g. If I was doing it this way today I would talk about the episode of Biggest Loser I watched last night but would still have last weeks episode to talk about.  Hopefully I will be able to burn through this rather quickly and it doesn't turn into a vicious circle where I constantly adding more things to the backlog than I am talking about.

"Me? Jealous?" Air Date 2-8-12

I don't know why but for all the shows I watch this one is the one I have the hardest time writing about.  It always seems like anything I would write is either retelling a joke from the show or criticizing minor details that feels more like nit picking than anything else and it's one of my favorite shows and I hate doing that.

The scene in the restaurant with the DJ must have been shot in an actual diner because they were shooting from outside through the window.  It was barely visible but if you looked closely you could see the reflection of the glass.

I'm glad the episode came together as well as it did, because it didn't look like it would get there until the very end and the show is the best when they intertwine all the story lines.

"The St. Valentine's Day Maxssacre" Air Date 2-8-12

Man, the jokes were so rapid fire in the first few minutes of this episode they probably had more in it than most sit-coms have in a whole 22 minutes.  I like that about this show, it feels like they are real friend sitting around talking and cracking wise on each other not your standard show where no one talks over each other and the next line isn't spoken until the laugh track stops.

I found it amusing that all of Max's prices were $69 except the spa package which was $169.  I like the way they portray Max as gay but still an immature idiot male.

On the side of Dave's food truck in very small print was the web address for his company.  www.steakmehometonight.com, so obviously I had to pause the episode and go check out the web page.  I must say they have done a great job of making a truly amateurish hack web page.  I always love silly little viral stuff like this.

"Dangerous Beauty"  Air Date 2-8-12

Pretty smart of SyFy to cross promote the start of the second season of Being Human by having one of the actors be a guest judge on Face/Off.  And he was really into it, usually guest judge actors don't really care too much about these competitions.  It was nice to see how much fun Sam was having with the whole thing.

I thought all the werewolf makeups were really well done.

If you have immunity you shouldn't have to compete in the challenges.  There is no real advantage and if you end up paired with a poor performer all that will happen is your stock will end up lowered.

Where do you even go to get a Rhino?  It's not like you can call a pet store and order one.

There were more options as to what animal the teams could pick than there were teams.  This wasn't the case  in the challenge with the sneakers.  I don't like it when shows are inconstant with how they work challenges.  I wouldn't care which way they did it either always have extra or always have just enough, but pick a way and stick with it.

Because they have to incorporate the flowers into their design the guys that picked the chameleon would seem to have a natural advantage.

Beki is doing everything that Sue wants her to do, the way that Sue wants her to do it.  I don't see how Beki could be sabotaging her.

That snake is a hot mess.

The spider looks like it has rolled up poster board for talons.  I don't know what they were thinking, but it didn't come together they way that it should have.

The judges were hard on all the contestants.  It was a hard challenge to incorporate the flowers into the animal design and the judges were critical of every way that the contestants attempted to accomplish it.  I'm not exactly sure what the judges were looking for.

You are not really being thrown under the bus if everything that is being said is both true and accurate.

Athena was the right choice to send home.  She has been one of the weaker people since the very beginning and the only reason she made it this long is because others kept messing up worse.  There was no possible way that she was ever going to win this show, 

Postponed

I'm super sick.  I don't even want to sit up let alone write this blog.  So I'm postponing things around here till I feel better.  If I watch anything I'll take notes and talk about it when I'm feeling better.  In a perfect world I'd wake up tomorrow feeling fine, but I'm thinking it will be more like late Sunday or Monday before I'm posting again.

Monday Mar. 12th

"Anna Maria's" Air Date 2-22-12

This is by far the dirtiest restaurant I have even seen on one of these shows.  There was just filth everywhere, it was so bad I almost had to shut it off and stop watching.  The celebrity on these show always seems to be digging his fingers into things I would never touch and they are able to do it without even the slightest hint of acknowledgement of how gross it is.  For Robert to be gagging and throwing up just shows how vile that kitchen was.

If you have a professional cleaning crew there, why would you hide another bad room from everyone?  You have already been brow beaten and taken your lumps for having a filthy kitchen, why not get everything back up to snuff?

Even after the cleaning crew had finished nothing really seemed all that clean.  At best I would say the place was now at average.

The whole thing were they only have two days to do all this work adds nothing to the show, it just puts extra pressure on everyone for no real purpose.  Sure it makes it a challenge for Robert and the design team, but so would only giving them 5 hours but that wouldn't make the show a better show.

I don't like the wall paper that they hung up.  It's just too busy and seemed cheap and tacky.

"A Mind With a Heart of its Own"  Air Date 2-21-12

The jokes were coming fast but they didn't seem to be as good as normal.  Something about them seemed to fall flat.

My parents have an in-ground pool in there back yard and I always wanted to attach a zip line from the roof of their house to the back fence and zip line down into the water.  I only say this because after watching everyone on the show crash into the tree after using the zip line, I can safely say that more than likely I would have killed myself trying to zip line into the pool.

The sad two person zip line cracked me up.

This season the show seems to be grounded a little more in reality and that is not a good thing.  It worked because it was so quirky, not in spite of it.  I hope they right the ship because what was once one of my favorite comedies so far has only been middle of the road.

3-12-13

I really didn't pay much attention this week.  Nothing important seemed to happen.  For being as close to Wrestlemania as they are, you would think everything would be going in high gear.  From what I've heard Vince keeps flip flopping on different things that are in the works.  I think this above anything else is what is making the show seem so lacking lately.  Maybe it's time Vince retires.

I would be okay with a heel thug Cena.  Keep him in the upper mid card and i suppose you could even let him be an anti-hero if you wanted, but don't let him be the company's main focus.

They cut away from the in ring action a couple of times through out the night to basically advance the story lines that are going on.  I hate this, all it does is tell the audience watching at home that the wrestling doesn't actually matter and as soon as they realize even the producers think the product doesn't matter they will stop watching.

Recording 3-13-12:

Raising Hope
The Biggest Loser
Cougar Town
New Girl
Breaking In
Justified
Top Shot
Storage Wars: Texas

Sunday Mar. 11th

Better Angels Air Date 3-11-12

I liked the zombie hunting squad at the beginning of the show, it was a good way to show characters grieving and working through their anger while still being productive.  But more importantly they were all finally using weapons wisely.  Everyone was armed with a gun in case of emergency, but was using a blunt or bladed weapon to dispose of the walkers they came across.  It's about time they started acting like they need to conserve ammo and also make as little noise as possible.


Shane wants Carl to keep the gun so that he can protect himself when Shane is not around.  If this wasn't major foreshadowing I don't know what is.

Lori can't keep her mouth shut.  What good did it do telling Shane any of that.  She knows he's border line psychotic.  She was the one warning Rick that Shane thinks the baby is his, and now she's telling Shane she doesn't know for sure that it isn't his.  Talk about sending mixed messages.

 They know that Randell went to high school with Maggie, so he has to be a local kid and at least somewhat familiar with the area.  That being said, what good is it really to drive Randell a hour away and dump him? Just thinking about it if you took me to my home town, blindfolded me, and drove me in any direction for an hour, it wouldn't take me long to figure out where I was and how to get back home.  It's not like they are going to black out all the road signs along the way.  The only reasoning they could be trying to use is Randell might decide it's not worth going back or he might not make it back.

The way Randell is talking to Shane after Shane says he wants to join Randell's people makes me think that Randell isn't as lily white  as he was making himself out to be.

Killing Randell so soon makes Dale's death even more meaningless.

It is very interesting to watch Shane's decent into madness.

Okay, lets say for arguments sake that Shane is telling the truth.  the four guys go looking for Randell and split off into teams of two.  What happens when one of the teams find him?  How do they get in contact with the other team? Were the others just supposed to search all night until they found the first team?  Again I say they need to find some Walkie Talkies, and while they are at it they should probably teach everyone how to hot wire a car.

During the final scenes the producers did an amazing job of using the environment and onset of night.  The change from dusk to moonlight and the use of the fog in the background was just perfect.  ( A funny side note: I watched this last night, and then I rewatched some parts of it right before I started to write this.  After I finished watching the ending for the second time, I got up to close an open window and when I look out the window the sun had just set and there was the same level of dusk and the same general coloring on my lawn as in the last scene.  It kind of freaked me out a little.)

I think it's pretty safe to say that the whole ending of this episode is Lori's fault.  They are making her much more unlikable in the show than she ever was in the comics.

I wonder when Rick knew what Shane was planning on doing.  I think it was pretty early on and Rick knew he had to see it through because if he didn't the whole situation would just continue to creep back up.  I also think Shane was trying to bait Rick into doing something first so that Shane could justify his action to himself.

I found the scenes with the quick cuts and the zombiefication of Shane to be weird.  Are we supposed to believe that when you become a zombie the first thing you see is other zombies eating stuff and that is what gives you the driving force to go out and kill?  It just came across as odd.

I've watched the scene twice and I still can't tell if Carl drew his gun on Rick or if he only pointed it after Shane started to stir.  Also did Carl ever have any training with a gun?  That was a pretty great shot for a kid with little or no training.

Man things have ramped into high gear.  It looks like the walkers are coming out of the wood work next week.  Add to that they have basically figured out what the show has been hinting at for the whole second half of the season, that when you die no matter if you were bitten or not you become a zombie, and that really in all essence it is the living that are truly The Walking Dead.

Recording 3-12-12:

Monday Night Raw
Alcatraz
Being Human