Daniel's TV Blog

It's Season 10 for the "Race" and it seems more and more likely that the non-elimination rounds are picked by who they don't want eliminated from the race. Last year every non-elimination was to the advantage of the Hippie Team who eventually won. This year both times the supposed predetermined non-elimination happened when the Coal Miner and wife came in last. This seems a little too coinicidental. I'm starting to get suspicious. Anyway, here's what I think of the remaining teams:

David and Mary: The Coal-Miner and wife team who seems to get all the advantages. Of course they are the nicest team and kind of deserve the breaks so if they win I won't complain like I did when the stupid hippies won last year.
Dustin and Candice: The beauty queens. They are the villians this year. I don't like them and want them to loose.
Erwin and Goodwin: The asian body building brothers. Also a goodie-goodie team who I wouldn't mind see winning.
Lyn and Karlyn: The black mothers. I've grown weary of them.
Rob and Kimberly: The dating couple with serious anger management issues. They are entertaining and haven't done anything to earn my hatred. I'd be happy to see them get the prize.
Tyler and James: The hot models and recovering drug addicts. Yes we know it's hard to be beautiful, so shut up and go home.

Just in time for Halloween, here's my take on scary television. First off, ghosts don't exist, or do they? Medium's third season starts up on 11/15. It's moved to Wednesday against LOST so I'll only be watching it after LOST returns in February. The Boob Whisperer is on Fridays. This show sucks so I don't watch it.

To scare you on Halloween, Ghosthunters is airing a live episode. Regularly they are on Wednesday nights. The other ghost hunting reality show I enjoy is the Celebrity Paranormal Project on VH1. The first episode with Hal Sparks and Gary Busy was really scary. The stuff kept moving around the sanitarium on it's own and there were scary black shadows. They replay these all the time so check VH1 listings. Scary. Episode two features a real hunter, Rachel Hunter.

But the scariest thing on TV is Flavor Flav. He is so gross, I can't bear to watch him on my little TV in my Lego room. This weekend they had the reunion show for Flavor of Love. I had to stop watching the show after two episodes. The reunion show turned into a Jerry Springer episode with several of the women rushing the stage trying to assault New York. She is going to get her own dating show on VH1 called I Love New York. And that's the scariest thing of all.

Happy Halloween!

I wonder if Sawyer knows that gullible isn't in the dictionary. He seemed to believe that the little girl is his daughter. He doesn't even know if she is Cassidy's daughter of if she pulled her out of a frame at Walmart. Open hear surgery wouldn't have laid him out for days (or at least a day on this island) but he didn't question the pacemaker con at all. What a rube. Here's what we've learned:

• Trixie died from Sun's gunshot
• Jack is being kept near Kate and Sawyer
• The Other's have a sub
• The three are being held on the little brother island next door
• Desmond can see the future

Here are the new questions:

• Who has the spinal tumor? The previews make it look like it's Ben.
• Was Juliet telling the truth about the island's hierarchy?
• Why did the bears move leave the little island? Can polar bears survive in tropical waters?
• Is the girl really Sawyer's daughter?

Labels: LOST

Doctor Who is a strange and wonderful phenomenon. We are currently in the midst of season two. Season three will start on the BBC on Christmas Day. Spin-off #1, Torchwood, starts this weekend in the UK. We may see it this spring. Spin-off #2, The Sarah Jane Adventures, is currently in production. It's about the old companion from the 70's who returned for an episode last week. I never watched the old series but it was still very enjoyable watching Sarah Jane interact with Rose, the current companion. It really shows how powerful this concept is that the cast can turn over so completely but the show still lives on. All they need is a obsolete police box. Nothing else is like that, not even ER or Law and Order.

Episode 2.04 is on tonight followed by 3.04 of BSG as the Exodus of New Caprica concludes.

I have to rate last night's LOST a little lower on the scale of the last two. However, it was a great and necessary episode. For two weeks we've been seeing the work of The Others. We needed to be reminded that the odd stuff on the island is not their work. With the Locke episode we see what and odd place this is. Plus it was great to see Boone again. I liked him better with shorter hair. Here's what we've learned:

• The hatch has imploded and left a large crater.
• Desmond survived, but his clothes didn't.
• Locke survived, but his voice didn't. He got better.
• Eko survived, but got captured by a polar bear.
• It's endless shrimp time at Red Lobster.
• Nikki and Paolo have been there the entire time, don't question it.

And here are new questions:

• What happened to Eddie, the undercover cop?
• Why was Locke living on a pot farm?
• If the hatch "imploded" why did it fling the hatch door all the way to the beach?
• What happened to Locke, Eko, and Desmond during that day they were missing?
• Who were the bodies in the polar bear cave?
• What was the polar bear doing with Eko?
• Is there anything else in the polar bear cave, like a Dharma station?
• How did Desmond know about Locke's speech before it happened?
• What are Nikki and Paolo's stories?

Labels: LOST

So this season seems to have the best batch of new shows in recent memory. I'm enjoying The Nine, Jericho, Ugly Betty, and 30 Rock. The unexpected hit, however, is Heroes. I was expected a fun show that struggled through it's one and onlu season with an unsatifying series finale. The good news is it is bringing in higher than expected ratings and NBC has picked it up for the entire 22 episodes. It is also much better than I expected. I was thinking it was going to go along the Buffy/Smallville paradigm with everyone keeping secret identities, the bad guy of the week killing people, and the strange stuff all ignored by the normal population. Luckily it's much more involved. The mutants have a standard variety of super powers: telepathic, flight, cellular regeneration, controlling time, seeing the future. But the mutants are becoming aware of their abilities and that there are others out there. And there is a evil group wanting to control them. And one powerful mutant killing all of them (Syler). And there is a big problem coming that two of them know about: NYC is going to be nuked in 5 weeks.

Episode 4 was the best one yet. First the cheerleader wakes up on the autopsy table, sighs, and pulls her skin back on. Later Hiro and Ando use Hiro's power of time manipulation to win money at Las Vegas. Then Niki kicks series butt and has sex with the flying congressman. Finally Peter gets visited by future Hiro at the end of the episode. This show has shot up to the top of my list of new shows this year. Watch the latest episode online: http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/

Battlestar season 3 started last week. It's easily some of the best television every produced. Critics love it. Everyone gushes about it. I love it. But it isn't the most enjoyable show to watch. Currently most of humanity is in a big concentration camp. We start to sympathize with suicide bombers. I was hoping Starbuck was going to kill a toddler. What has happened to television? Still, it's a great show and the character will be out of their crappy situation after a few more weeks and back in space. I hope they give them some good things after they escape from New Caprica.

Sun flashback episodes are usually uninteresting. This one ended with a bang. Although I don't think there was enough time after bald dude's death for her head to Australia and fall back in love with her husband for him to be a contender for her baby's daddy. I also don't think he jumped. We will never know the answer to that. Trixie from Deadwood showed up for a split second until Sun plugged her in the stomach. Poor Trixie. And then they lost the boat. They just keep loosing their coolest resources. Next week we finally get to see what happened in the hatch. Anyway, here's what we've learned:

• Alex is looking for that guy in the cage with Sawyer
• Kate now knows Sawyer's name
• Jack likes baseball
• Jin knows more English than he's been letting on
• The Others are paranoid the survivors might find their little town
• The Others are indeed in contact with the outside world
• The prisoners are under surveillance
• Sayid's plans was lame and destined to fail

And here are the new questions:

• Are the others planning to pit Jack against Kate and Sawyer?
• What purpose is served by making Kate and Sawyer do hard labor?
• Has Ben really spent his entire life on the island?
• Did Jin know that Sun was cheating on him?

Labels: LOST

I've been busy the last week. As a result I've got some good stuff saved up on TiVo. Also, tonight has lots of good new stuff. So much stuff I had to make an agenda so I could watch everything without having to sit through comercials.

6:25 Veronica Mars 3.02
7:10 Jericho 1.03
7:55 South Park 10.02
8:15 Jericho 1.04
9:00 The Nine 1.01
9:45 LOST 3.02
10:30 The Nine 1.02

It is now 6:28. Frak, I'm already behind.

Tonight is all about numbers, but not Numb3rs. I don't watch that show. Tonight is the debut of 30 Rock on NBC. This is Tina Fey's new sitcom about an SNL type show. Studio 60 isn't doing so well and, as I keep saying, probably won't last out the season. Tina Fey is a great comedy writer and if she's involved in the show, it's going to be funny. It also stars Alec Baldwin who showed of his comedic talents with a recurring role on Will & Grace during its final season. Tracy Morgan also co-stars. I don't know who else is in the cast but I hope it's big. Ensemble shows are in this year. Last week they had the best week ever.

After 30 comes 20, Good Years that is. The new Jeffrey Tambor and John Lithgow sitcom is like the Golden Girls meets the Odd Couple. I looks kind of traditional sit-com-y, but with those two stars on the cast, it's going to be funny.

4 8 15 16 23 42

Finally at 10 on ABC is episode 2 of The Nine. I haven't yet watched last week so I'll watch them both tonight. A good friend of DanielsTVBlog gave this show a good review. He said it was a much better premise than he thought it was going to be. I can't wait to get caught up.

I haven't watched survivor in many years. I decided to pick it up again this year after they divided the tribes by race. I was really enjoying it again and then they integrated the teams at the start of only the third episode. It wasn't the teams split by race I enjoyed, it was the four small teams. It really changed the game. But now it has devolved into the same crap of large team dynamics of manipulation. It sucks again. And the worst thing is the voting off of J.P. He's the hottest guy and now he's gone. There's no more reason this show so I removed it from TiVo and added Ugly Betty.

What a great starting to season 3 last night. This show continues to deliver. I did find it interesting that most of the story was from Juliet's point of view but the flashbacks were Jack's. We've seen where the courageous three have gone but we still haven't seen what is going on with the beach camp, Hurley, the sailboaters, or Miss Widmore. I loved that season three opened with a close up of an eye just like the first two seasons. Whose eye it was is also significant. Season one opened on Jack's eye and it was all about the survivors. Season two opened on Desmond's eye and it was all about the hatch. Season three opened on Juliet's eye so it should be all about the others. Here's what we've learned:

• The Others live in a cute little idyllic small town community on the island.
• The Others have a book club.
• There are at least two Dharma stations controlled by the others, The Hydra and The Monkey(?).
• Ben (fake Henry) is the leader of this group.
• Jack is a butt-bag.
• The Others have access to outside resources such as new technology (CD players) and personal information.
• The Others now have blood samples from at least five survivors.
• Juliet doesn't really like Ben and does little things to piss him off like choosing a book for the book club that he wouldn't like.
• The fake bearded Other named Tom is gay. How do I know this? He said Kate is not his type. Even I admit that Kate is smoking hot. I can't believe any straight man would not want her. Thus I assert that he is gay.

New questions:

• Do they have a file on all of the survivors?
• Why do The Others stay there?
• Is the Others village part of the Utopian social something described in the Swan orientation film?
• Do they leave frequently or are they supplied? Who is supplying them?
• What do they want with Jack, Kate, and Sawyer?
• Why is it just the next two weeks that will be difficult for them?
• What did the Dharma group do with the dolphins and sharks in the Hyrda station?
• Are they really underwater?
• Did Jack's dad and his wife have an affair or were they just helping each other through difficult times?

Labels: LOST

Tonight has it going on, just like Stacy's Mom. I'm most excited about the third season premier of LOST. It's a Jack episode so we can be certain we will see what happened to them. Of course nothing will be as it seems. It will take most of the mini-season to hammer out the consequences of last season's finale. The only thing we don't really know about Jack is what happened to cause his marriage to breakdown. I think his wife was having an affair with his father. I'm assuming this based on the fact that his father called Ana-Lucia "Sarah" during her flashback and that's the name of Jack's wife. If so, she's such a butt-bag. So are Jack and his father for that matter.

Also tonight is the premier of The Nine. This is my most anticipated new show of the fall. More about that tomorrow.

Runway is new, but it's a reunion show so it's not really new. Next week is part one of the finale.

Jericho is going strong and I'm enjoying it. Episode three is on tonight at 8:00 before LOST, but on CBS.

Finally tonight is the premier of the epic tenth season of South Park. From the preview I saw during the Daily Show, it looks like the boys become addicted to a video game. They are all fat now too. Afterwards is a new show called Freak Show. I'm not too optimistic about this one.

Mars that is. And season three starts tonight. It's been very hard to find any spoilers about this season. All I know is she's at college and there are three mysteries this year instead of one big murder mystery. Of course one of those mysteries is the rapist storyline that was introduced at college orientation last year. They also introduced the bad fraternity who I'm sure VM will be tangling with again this year.

The last season ended with a great show and a lame cliffhanger. Keith went off on some urgent trip for Cordelia and left Veronica at the airport. And why is Veronica not at Stanford? Although I'm most interested in seeing who is in the opening credits this season.

OK, I don't really have amnesia. At least I don't think I do. Amensia is the second most overused plot device in all of television. Soap operas are the biggest offender. You can't of one without the other. It's a great story telling device as we either watch the trauma of the amnesiac trying to reintegrate into his/her life or as we watch this person unfold some mystery that he/she has forgotten. It's great, but it's lazy. True amnesia is exceptionally rare. Have you known anyone who has had it. Do you know of anyone who knows anyone?

The most overused plot device in television, however, is the serial killer. Soap operas are also the biggest offender on that. How many serial killers has Days of Our Lives had? Serial killers are also extremely rare yet these procedural shows seem to catch one every week. Unfortunately there are no stats on TV serial killers on Wikipedia.org. I'm sure we have about half as many each year on TV as we have had in all of recorded history. It's the laziest kind of writing one can find on television. And now Showtime is starting a new show about a serial killer called Dexter. Please don't encourage bad TV behavior by watching this show. Like Lisa Simpson said when the 50 foot eyesores where attacking Spingfield, "Just Don't Look!"