Daniel's TV Blog

My old, old, old friend Sean has been talking up How I Met Your Mother since the first season. I put it on my Tivo (and NetFlix) a few weeks back and I understand why. While I still think 30 Rock is the funniest sitcom on TV right now, this is a close second. The thing I love about it is the non-linear story telling. They often jump around and use lots of pre-season 1 flashbacks. Monday was a repeat of what is sure to go down as one of the funniest of the show. The gang tries to discover Robin's Canadian secret. Doogie thinks she did porn. Marshall thinks she has a secret Canadian husband. The truth is beyond funny as they discover she was a teenage Canadian pop star with one hit "Let's Go to the Mall!"



I've been singing this all week. Not surprisingly, I have this great desire to go to the mall.

The only reason to watch the view is going to end in June. That's when Rosie's contract runs out. She and ABC could not agree on a new contract so that's it. I started watching The View in January. I highly recommend it. Rosie has given new life to the show's "Hot Topics" segment, frequently saying things no one else says on talk TV. Ratings are up 15% in their target demographic. I'll be interested to hear if there is more than just contract disputes going on.

At least we have six more weeks of Rosie before summer.

Tonight is the first week without our dear Sanjaya on American Idol. The show will never be the same. He has made this the first season I've watched since the beginning. It wasn't just that he was a laughably bad singer, he was a great performer. Often I would skip through Phil or Lakisha's performance but Sanjaya was always a joy to watch. He played well to the camera and his look was always fantastic. I hope we haven't seen the last of him.

There are several things I liked about Catch 22, episode 17. The first was the little adventure with the non cool kids. The second was Kate and James doin' it again. And finally, I really liked the flashback. All the other characters we've seen all the important flashbacks already. We know the important details of Kate, Jack, James, Hugo, Charlie, and Locke's lives. This was only the third flashback for Desmond so there was so much of his life we didn't know about him before this episode.

What we know:

• Desmond was a monk
• Desmond's spirit guide from his immersion flashback is related to the head monk
• Desmond met Penny immediately after being fired from the monastery
• Desmond's flashes are all jumbled up
• Hugo is easily frighten by Korean ghost stories
• The island is still trying to kill Charlie
• Someone new came to the island, looking for Desmond
• Kate is jealous of Jack and Juliet so she turned to James
• The Losties have to play ping-pong every 108 minutes or the island will explode

New questions:

• What caused the helicopter to crash?
• Was it really a helicopter?
• Why was the woman wearing a high altitude flight suit?
• What is her connection to Desmond?
• Could The Flash beat Superman in a foot race?

Labels: LOST

One of the biggest hurdles I needed to get over in watching this show the first season was the fact that the island had no natives. If the Polynesians found their way all the way to Hawaii, they would have most certainly stumbled across the island. Flight 815, Desmond's sailboat, Yemi's beachcraft, Henry Gale's Balloon, and Delenn's science vessel all made their way to the island by accident, why no one in the distant past? They finally explained why there was no permanent population on the island in this week's episode: no one can carry a baby to term on the island, except for those pregnant before they got there like Delenn and Claire. This was probably one of the most revealing episodes of the series this season. We now know the motivation for Juliet trying to get Jack to kill Ben and why she was so upset at the book club in 3.01. I do so love the changing character dynamics. In the first season Sayid tortured James, now they go on adventures together alone. And of course Jack is back and as big a dick as ever. I love that he has been completely fooled by Juliet. She's my favorite character.

Here's what else we learned:

• Juliet is a spy
  
• Juliet was having a relationship with Goodwin
• Claire has an implant that made her sick
• The island's healing properties prevent pregnancies.
  
• Juliet's favorite book is Carrie
• Ben think Carrie is depressing
• Juliet made the distinction between a tumor and cancer.

Here are the new questions.

• If Sun got pregnant on the island, will she survive?
• Does Juliet know Sun is pregnant?
• What is her goal as being a spy? Mr. F.
• Why is Ben still so concerned with the beachers?
• How do the others know James killed Frank in Australia?
• Why put a chip in Claire?
  
• Did they put one in anyone else?
• Did Juliet's sister ever really have a relapse?
• Why doesn't James trust Juliet? She saved his life.
• What were the criteria for the lists that Ethan and Goodwin made?
• What was the symbol on the tree? Is that the same as the mark Juliet was branded with?
• Why did it take Juliet all night to get to the supplies?
  
• Who were the guys on the sub?
  
• Why is the last part of the sub ride bumpy? Do subs encounter turbulence?
  
• If Juliet's work is so important, why does she waste time with a book club?
  
• Does Juliet know Ethan killed Steve?

Labels: LOST

I'm always sad when there is no new Best Week Ever. I've figured out the pattern: three new episodes followed by one week break. We have to wait until next Friday to see a new one, so here is a recap of the past few weeks.

On April 6th, Alanis Morisette had the Best Week Ever. Here's her My Humps video. It kicks ass. I've watched it half a dozen times.

It has gotten 5M hits in less than two weeks. The actual Black Eyed Peas video has barely 1M hits and it's been on youtube for over four months.

On March 30th, The Great American Dream Vote had the Best Week Ever. This was a horrible reality show hosted by Donny Osmond. The best thing was the little girl who wanted to be Miss America and buried all the other little girls.

On March 23rd, Phil Spector's Hair had the Best Week Ever. Here's his old hair. He's some sort of music producer or something. He killed someone so he's on trial, allegedly. His new hair is bad, his old hair was hysterical.

If you've stuck around after Best Week Ever for the past few weeks, then you've seen Acceptable TV. Each we they show six short shows. One is user submitted and one is animated. Each week two of the five non-user shows are voted back for a second episode. The same stupid animated show keeps coming back, Mr. Sprinkles. It's just an excuse to be bloody and gory on TV, don't vote for it. My favorite from last week was Kitten Calendar 2. It was better than episode one. My all time favorite was CSI: Cirque du Soleil. Never before have crimes been investigated with such mystery and wonder. It was pretty much a one joke premise so I'm not upset it didn't get a second episode. If we don't get a Kitten Calendar episode 3, it's still worth checking out the first two installments:
http://acceptable.tv/videos/771-Operation-Kitten-Calendar
http://acceptable.tv/videos/1148-Operation-Kitten-Calendar-2

So add 30 minutes to your TiVo season pass for Best Week Ever. And skip through the animated one if it's a Mr. Sprinkles show.

Both Stargates return tonight. It has been quite some time since the mid-season finales. Since then we've seen the entire third season of BSG and elected a new Congress. If you don't remember we were, here's a brief history.

It was the old convicts-chained-together story with a twist on this week's LOST. While people lying to each other is a big recurring theme of this show, "Left Behind" took it to a whole new level. I think Kate and Juliet (Evangeline Lilly and Elizabeth Mitchell) both did some of the best acting I've seen on the show. Especially when they faced Smokey the Monster. I assume Juliet pretended not to know about the monster to learn what Kate knew about it. She didn't learn much. As much as we like Kate as viewers, I think her mom was right turning her in. Kate had no right taking the law into her own hands. How long was Kate on the run? The feds must have spent a fortune trying to catch her. I also liked the comedy of the Hurley-James con. Watching James try to be a nice guy was great. Today while walking through the park after lunch, I heard the monster. I looked around but no black smoke, only a Seattle Parking Enforcement officer printing out a ticket for a car parked too long on 11th. They sound remarkably similar.

Here's what we learned:

• The sonic fences are to keep out the monster, not people
• The combination to the sonic fence is 1-6-2-3
• Juliet doesn't not know what the monster is
• Cassidy did have James' baby, that wasn't a lie
• Locke left with the Others
• James is the de facto leader until Jack and Kate return
• Sun still doesn't trust James

New Questions:

• Why did the Others leave Juliet? They already branded her.
• Where did the Others go?
• Are there other sonic fences?
• Why don't the castaways move to Othersville?
• Why did it take so long for Jack to wake up?
• How much will Juliet tell the castaways?

From the previews it looks like a Juliet episode next week. We get to see her arrival at the island via the sub.

Labels: LOST