Premiere Week... a Few Thoughts

Wow. There is way too much TV. Especially with the Jewish holidays... I am BEHIND in my viewing. Way behind.

A few thoughts, though... not on ratings (since I've largely twittered my impressions), but on the content itself.

House: Haven't watch last night's episode yet so I don't know the extent to which the show is "back to normal," but the premiere was a combination of awesome and troubling. The temporary and new setting was a fun change of pace, and we got to really see how far this show has come from it's highlight lead character but entirely procedural foundations. As all doctors are psychologists on House, even the psychologists, I found the character elements of the premiere fascinating, but the actual story chock full of meh. The character types found in the psych ward were just that... types. Totally seen every single one of them before. But a great piece of Hugh Laurie who, one of these days, might actually win an Emmy.

Big Bang Theory: I thought last night's was funnier than the premiere. The show just puts a smile on my face. It doesn't so much matter to me that it and HIMYM were split up, because DVR make me my own scheduler/programmer.

How I Met Your Mother: Last night's episode showcased exactly what makes this show awesome, and exactly why Ted is the sore thumb. His storyline was almost entirely separate and tangential to the other four characters... and it was the least entertaining part. The rest of the ensemble is interesting. Ted grates. The writers should really have him meet the Mother soon and show us the courtship and be done with it so that we aren't given these awkward little dating stories told from the year 2030 (though, seriously, Bob Saget-Ted, why are you telling your kids about Stripper Lily?) Though we've seen the doppelganger plot on other sitcoms... I really enjoyed the way HIMYM did it.

Grey's Anatomy: Like House, I appreciated the break from formula (though Grey's is certainly less "formula" than House on an episodic basis). The little vignettes were an amalgamation of entertaining, devastating, and uplifting. And I'm really glad the show chose to do with "40 day" thing and get it out of the way so we didn't have to spend the first 10 episodes dealing with mourning stories (though I'm sure we'll still get some). I'm intrigued by the Seattle Grace / Mercy West merger plotline and, boy howdy, Ellen Pompeo's face looked pregnant.

Dollhouse: The premiere wasn't anything special, story-wise. Decent twist with Ballard being Echo's client and now Jamie Bamber's arms dealer. The best part of the episode, as always, was away from Echo, this time with the Topher and Saunders/Whiskey goings-on. Hopefully we'll get more Victor and Sierra in the coming weeks. Though, honestly, I wish the show would just forgot its episodic foundation and hurtle along towards "Epitaph One" territory...

The Amazing Race: God I'm so happy TAR is back. I totally made the mistake of watching it while fasting. Which, if you watched the episode, you know was not a great idea as one of the challenges was a Japanese game show called "Sushi Roulette" (WANT!) which had the contestants standing in front of a giant wheel that spun and you had to eat whatever sushi roll landing in front of you and the only way to move on was, if a wasabi bomb landed in front of you, to eat the wasabi bomb in 2 minutes. I really, really, really wanted a wasabi bomb. I think the producers finally did a bang-up job in casting the contestants this season after a few cycles of non-standouts. Lance is going to make for a great Ugly American villain. Zev, the guy with Asperger's, is hilarious. There are two cute gay brothers. And that female poker player team... MAN, I was happy the first leg was non-elimination so they could stay in the game.

Desperate Housewives: The introduction of Drea de Matteo's character and family was not the smoothest that Housewives has ever done. Still, I'm glad for the "cliffhanger" (which in the "next time" apparently wasn't a murder as Julie is comatose / on life support) to spice the show up. I've ragged on the need for the seasonal mystery arcs in the past, but this episode was pure soap and had, for me, no drive. There was no excitement going into it from the end of last season, which showed in the ratings nosedive.

Thank god I'd already seen all of the pilots so I didn't have to watch them this week (although I did resample Modern Family, Cougar Town, and Flash Forward for the HD awesomeness)... but I definitely will have to find time to view this week. Cougar Town was much improved in reshoots versus the pilot. A lot of unfunny awkward taken out and some funny lines added in.

Swim, You Fools!

I'm having so much fun watching this swimming / synchronized diving detour on tonight's TAR. I used to swim (back in the day, I swam butterfly...) and having Luke ASL to his mom that he has new respect for Michael Phelps because of the times he swam in Beijing (um, hello, he's an Olympic athlete... THE Olympic athlete...) were half the speed Luke (and Jamie) swam... wow. These people are slow swimmers! And it doesn't take THAT much energy to front crawl your way (not at racing speeds) through 100 meters, take a 90-ish second break, then swim it again. I'm sorry. I have to laugh. I'm horrible. FML.

PS - This does not apply to people, like Jen, who have a fear of water. I'm not that heartless.

Also why would anyone choose synchronized diving!? That shiz is hard!

Also... WOO, SUPER LEG!!!! SO GLAD IT'S BACK! WE MISSED YOU THE LAST COUPLE CYCLES!

200 pounds of cheese

That cheese challenge might just be the most amusing thing since Charla was in a knight's costume walking horses in The Amazing Race All-Stars.

I like that The Amazing Race and American Idol are both featuring deaf contestants.

I missed the first 18 minutes of the show (including commercials, so really just the introductions and the first airport segment since teams were already divided in Switzerland).  Thank you, Time Warner Cable.

Also missed: The Simpsons' first HD broadcast with new opening (I'll catch it on hulu, but... sigh).  WTF, TWC?  Seriously, you recorded United States of Tara at 7pm.  You weren't off.  You weren't recording anything else.  You just decided to not record the two programs at 8pm I have series passes for (TAR is set to record next week... so, yeah, I don't get it).

Not.  Cool.

UGH!  And Family Guy, which has been in repeats for, like, years, wasn't going to record!  I caught it in the middle of the opening theme.  Jeez, this is disturbing...

Meanwhile, Desperate Housewives was recording as expected.

Oh Thank God

1) Scare of the weekend tonight when I came home from a friend's place where we watched the penultimate Dexter of the season... and my DVR would not play anything back. I was able to watch much of Brothers & Sisters live, but because it was still recording I didn't want to unplug my cable box to reboot. Anyway, 11pm rolled around and I did. And the DVR was working again! And...

2) Thank God that Nick and Starr won The Amazing Race. Nick and Starr were perhaps the only fully competent team on this cycle. If the show ever does another All-Star edition, I'd love to see them competing against other capable teams. Did anyone else, um, totally notice the absence of Toni and Dallas at the finish line? Can we get a spin-off about the State Department getting them home from Russia after Dallas lost the passports? And then an MTV reality show about Starr and Dallas dating? And some more interesting and smarter contestants next cycle? Ken and Tina's putting their wedding bands back on was touching.

3) The Simpsons actually had some real laugh out loud moments tonight. I had to pause and cackle for about 30 seconds after Mr. Burns shot the guy in the gorilla mascot costume. And, of course, Homer's WALL-E moment.

4) Yay for Desperate Housewives letting us know the reason Dave is after Mike... and it's a reason that some people (at least in online chatter) predicted, but not many. Which, IMHO, is a sign that the writer is doing a mystery correctly (if some can guess, then it can't be entirely out of left field, but if most haven't guessed, then it's still a good reveal).

R U SRS

Dallas and Toni. DALLAS AND TONI.

You give me such pain.

Okay, first of all, sending Dallas to do a mental task? Very smart (can you detect sarcasm?) As Toni acknowledged in confessional. Dallas soooo is lucky Tina helped him.

And then LEAVING THE BAG WITH MONEY AND PASSPORTS IN A CAB!? R U SRS!? As I'm watching and the camera lingers I'm thinking "surely, the producers are contacting the cab company and will have the bag and money and passports waiting at the Pit Stop. Remains to be seen, but... um... yeah...?

If I were Toni I would (a) be kicking myself really hard for sending my dumb son to do that Roadblock, and (b) be kicking the ass of my dumb son.

Also Phil's explanation of the detour took about 5 minutes. Damn this is a complicated leg... and there's so much stupidity-induced drama!

Also... WTF DAN'S DANCING. OMFG. AND HOW THE EFF DID THAT LADY GIVE THEM THE CLUE BASED ON HIS SO NOT GETTING IT!?

OMG DAN AND ANDREW ARE IN THE FINALS. SANJAYA. SANJAYA!

You know there's gonna be some plane-related and task-related bottlenecking, but seriously if Dan and Andrew somehow beat Nick/Starr or Ken/Tina... I don't know what I'm going to do.

The Amazing Race Where Contestents Couldn't Read Good

OMFG WTF DAN AND ANDREW.

How are you IN FOURTH PLACE in this cycle of TAR when YOU CAN'T READ THE CLUES. CONTINUOUSLY. LIKE, EVERY LEG OF THE RACE.

Only 27 minutes into this episode, so they could still somehow pull victory out of the jaws of defeat... but could they please NOT?

HOW THE EFF IS DAN "SPORTS AND TV BASED" WHEN HE CAN'T MARCH? AREN'T SPORTS PEOPLE SUPPOSED TO BE MODERATELY PHYSICALLY COORDINATED? AND AREN'T TV VIEWERS USED TO WATCHING THINGS!? OMG LOOK AT THE OTHER PEOPLE YOU STUPID, STUPID PERSON.

I know this is probably a non-elimination round... but can it please be an elimination round?

And can someone PLEASE make that Dan and Andrew blooper reel and post to YouTube?

K thx bai.

Srsly though, the only characters this cycle who have been remotely interesting are the semi-villains Ken and Tina (really just Tina) and kinda Ugly Americans Terrance and Sarah (really just Terrance).

Though we do enjoy the presence of Nick, Starr, Dallas, and Toni (well, not so much Toni).

ETA: Dallas, seriously, do them one at a time. I R Dumb Jock.

ETA: Dammit, it was non-elimination.

It's Alive!

OMFG, ya'll. Sunday night TV.

Dexter: Went to a friend's house who gets the east coast feed of Showtime so we watched Dexter. Eh. That premiere did not have a ton of oomph. At the end of season two it seemed like there was going to be this massive transformation in how Dexter went about, y'know, his business. But after the 7 minute "previously on" (eye roll...) segment... not a ton changed besides Deb's hair (cute!) Highly underwhelming. And am I the only one who didn't care fore Jimmy Smits? The show is always so spot on with creating these characters and making amazing, unique casting choices... this didn't work for me. Well, I'm still hooked, of course, but... eh.

The Amazing Race: God I've missed this show. It was such a mistake for CBS to only do one cycle last season. This show demands you watch it. It's the only show that keeps you on the edge of your seat and your heart, er, racing the entire time. The usual business of a first episode for the cycle, and I'm sad to see the team that left leave so early (they definitely stood out in the crowd), but it looks like there's a lot of Ugly American activity brewing. Yay! Also... we have a new himbo.

Desperate Housewives: First few minutes? Wow. They didn't come out and say it, per se, but THEY KILLED MIKE. In such a quaint, amusing way! And the device bringing us from the "characters we knew" to the "five years later" versions was used to great, smooth effect. Well done, show. GABRIELLE'S KIDS ARE FAT. Bree... you're Martha Stewart. And you always should have been. And Andrew's... well, in a suit. Can he please have a gay boyfriend this season? Now that he's an adult and all. Katherine: "If there's one thing you're really good at, it's posing as a chef." I wish they would've shown the pie-in-face hilarity (they still may). Parker and Preston... eh, they're still causing trouble for poor Lynette. And Brian Kinney is screwing Susan! Of course he was fantastic, Susan, he's Brian Kinney. Hm, the awkward kicking-him-out-of-bed and secret-relationship talk makes me think that (a) Mike is not dead, and (b) Susan is having an affair... but she's just "still getting over it" etc. Hm, Brian needs to work on his abs. Hm, creepy blonde dude moving into neighborhood by sorta-force-evicting some old dude... and he's married to Edie! Edie's back! Okay, time to enjoy this show and stop gabbing.

Hi, okay, I'm trying, I really am, but yay to the gay househusbands sitting on their porch and snapping a cameraphone (even if it was a clunky piece o' crap phone) a picture of Brian Kinney escaping Susan's house in his skivvies in the middle of the day. Marc Cherry, please, keep this quality up!

Fun Orson cameo. Is Kyle MacLachlan going to be on the show or will he just be doing that brief bit of The Doors karaoke? Aw, Bree took Orson back. And Danielle took her son from Bree and Orson. Where is Susan's son in all of this, b-the-dubs?

... and Mike is not dead. Not sure how I feel about that. Though it does explain where her son has been while she's, y'know, sleeping with Brian Kinney. I like that this episode progressed all these characters so much without writing people like Orson and Mike off.

The ending with "creepy blonde guy married to Edie is (a) really crazy, and (b) on Wisteria Lane to hurt/kill/whatever some mystery person" was extremely clunky, though. I've always found the serial mystery plotlines to be the most forced and, after the first season, unnecessary part of the show. But, well, everything else in this episode was so good that I'll let it slide... for now...

Brothers & Sisters: The only issues I have going into this premiere are (a) icky Justin-Rebecca feelings lingering, and (b) the fact that I know that Ryan, the new "other Walker sibling" won't be around UNTIL EPISODE 14 (thank you, spoilers from casting friends). This is my favorite guilty pleasure, sappy-emotional fluff hour of TV. I don't analyze and criticize it like I do, say, Heroes. I just laugh and smile and cry and hold my breath along with my heart on my sleeve. And to do so... I need to just watch. So... yay, the Walker family is back, I'll blog ya tomorrow with thoughts on Mad Men and the Fox comedies (er, not King of the Hill of course) if I feel an urge to (and if I'm able to watch them tonight, as it's already close to midnight and tomorrow is, well, Monday...

There was something on TV besides football?

The Amazing Race finale: The finale already!? Ugh, they need to run this series twice a year. Anyways... without spoiling it (sort of?) the least objectionable team won. It was difficult to watch this season's finale because I wasn't actively rooting for or against the whole of any of the teams.

Breaking Bad: Haven't watched yet.

Sigh, no new Brothers & Sisters until February 10th (and then the last one on the 17th).

Sunday Night TV

The Amazing Race: This has been one of the funnier episodes of the season in the first 10 minutes anyway. Random confessional/interview with Nate and Jen talking about "no more nice Nate and Jen" (which, um... okay...) then Jen can't pronounce Taipei and then Nate says that they don't know much about Taiwan, except that they like Thai food. Y'think!?!?!? Also, the road block? The person who does it is driven underwater for 17 seconds and has to hold their breath (naturally) so Phil describes as "if they are still alive when it's over, they'll receive their next clue." Yes! Yes!!! Kill Ron! The tea place thing... man, the Asian legs have been to Christina and Ron's advantage (her knowing Japanese and them both knowing Chinese). Anyway... with Nate and Jen gone... I'm conflicted. I'm not actively rooting for any of the teams. And I have no team to root completely against. SIGH. Also! What's with the show doing away with the Super Leg? Huh? WTF!?

Sarah Connor Chronicles: Too long since I've watch the original pilot to recall the tweaks. I seem to remember the school shooting scene to be more violent, but, well, I understand having to tone it down a bit after the Virginia Tech shootings last year. Obviously the show needed to use Summer Glau (and scenes she's in from the last three fifths of the pilot) to promote the heck of the thing, but it does make the "reveal" that she's a terminator (even if a friendly one) less impactful (IMHO). Now that it's been pointed out to me, it is very strange that she starts with a flawless impersonation of a weird teenager, but as soon as she's on the road with Sarah and John, she's... well... robotic. I really do love the idea of a Terminator time portal appearing in the middle of the 101 (I think that was the 101 anyway...) I think the last 2 minutes were new material, they definitely helped with my question of "okay, but what is the rest of the series?" after the massive reset button that was the pilot (well, in the sense that you know the agent guy is still after them). Eager to see what the series looks like tomorrow (with its massively reduces budget).

Family Guy: ... ugh, there just aren't words to describe how bad that way.

American Dad: Um, that (an American Dad parody of spy films, with the character playing various stock characters) should've been brilliant? But it wasn't. But it was waaaaay better than Family Guy.

Brothers & Sisters: Nice, frothy fun. An episode fairly like last season's "Something Ida This Way Comes" in that it was sort of an airing of issues, tied up a couple loose ends, unraveled a bit... but not that much in the eventful department. And I'm happy (if Holly is telling the truth) that Rebecca asked the question I was thinking during the episode about her mother's mysterious friend. I don't want Rebecca to not be a Walker! That ending was interesting... but you know that Isaac had something to do with Robert's competition dropping form the race, which is going to create wonderful tension between Kitty and Nora. Ugh, only two episodes left! And the next one airs... when??? My DVR doesn't have it as new next week.

Okay, Now I'll Talk About 2008 TV

The Amazing Race: Pretty obviously a non-elimination round (since they spent like 5 minutes on TK and Rachel as they did the various activities from behind instead of just skipping them to the pit stop...) I almost brought myself to rooting for Nate and Jen to come in first place because they way the show has been edited together, I get the feeling that, if they don't come in first in the penultimate leg, that they're destined to win... which, ugh). When's the finale? Is it really in two weeks? Or three (given a potential super-leg)?

Desperate Housewives: Mrs. McClusky comes out swinging at Negative Nancy Edie (telling her that when you get to be her age, prayer is actually quite comforting, and Edie will know that in a year or two!) Anyway, Lynette's entire family is alright and everyone is happy... and the other old lady who apparently had a name, but I'll remember her as the Penis Demon Lady from the Buffy episode Doublemeat Palace. A respectful, solemn title card (first time I think the show has used it without any of the Danny Elfman score). Hey, look! Despite the fact that they weren't in the last episode, the Gay Couple is back! And their ugly fountain was destroyed! Hah, I totally forgot that. A bit weird that they cut to "3 Days Later" without so much as showing Gabby. But that's "last-minute pre-strike script, no rewrites" for you. Ugh, not loving the "Bree's contractor is gay, and the gay residents' friends are 'nines' and the contractor is 'a three' so they can't set him up with someone after his break-up, so Bree's house will remain roofless" thing. Not because of the plot, but because I enjoy Bob and Lee, but don't really like the "preening, judging, superficial gay" angle (and I swear to God, if Bree is thinking of setting that guy up with Andrew... oh, we're gonna have a fight about that... I mean, pimping her son!) I'm surprised Gabby didn't kill Carlos with that much morphine. And surprised that she continues to surprise me with her self-centeredness... I mean, you'd think I'd know better than to be let down by her behavior. Hah! Andrew totally called Bree on pimping her out. Awkward! "You can raise a man's hopes without satisfying them, I've done it all my life," Bree says. I don't think that means what she meant it to mean. And now Susan's trying to undo the "pimp my son" action to keep Bree as her kind-of-live-in-maid... and she brings up Justin the Gardner. What happened to Ray Carnes? Anyone? Anyway, Susan's foot should be firmly in her mouth in about ten seconds. Wow. Wow. The title is DESPERATE Housewives. And that scene with Bree and Orson (and Andrew) begging the contractor to parade Andrew in front of the contractor's ex certainly lived up to it. "He's got a mesh tank-top that will bring your ex to tears." You know... it just became not funny. Way to go too far, Orson. Hearing Gabby say "for richer or poorer" was almost believable. Carlos saying "in sickness and in health" says to me that he's blind (hence the wrap around his eyes). Um... yeah, unless they're planning another Lynette-styled cancer-remission with Carlos' eye-sight, don't they kind of have to write him off? And just as she's starting to exhibit growth! Sad, really. The scene between Katherine and Adam was okay. Too bad the season is getting cut short, but at least there's some twist and movement on the "What happened to Dylan?" mystery. Oh, Katherine, I hope whatever you did that it's forgivable enough that Dana Delany can stay on the show when it comes back! Not a season-finale by any means, and I don't think it fair in any way to judge it on that standard. Would've been great way to start off a new string of episodes, though. At least this way, when the strike does end, the DH writers can regroup, come back, and not suffer a mid-season quality slump.

The Simpsons: "Meh" political episode, but the ending was great (Ralph Wiggum is running for POTUS and as he sits on the Lincoln Memorial Statue's lap asking for presents for a political ad, he sticks his finger up his nose and the tag line reads "Ralph Wiggum: Pick a Winner").

American Dad: Total "meh". I really don't know why I still watch the show (oh, wait, it's because of the one brilliant half-hour they've managed to do, but that was in 2006...)

Cashmere Mafia: So this aired pilot was reshot and almost complete different than what I saw in May. I will say this... they did make it sleeker. They got rid of the cloying Mia (Lucy Liu) voiceover narration, AND dressed her better (one of my major gripes was that she's supposed to be the Second Coming of Carrie Bradshaw but she dressed like Ty Tai – thanks Mike – pre-Cher intervention). Seriously, at least through the first commercial break, I'm actually liking her wardrobe. Mia's e-mail thing was a decent way to introduce the other characters... though it might've gone unnoticed that in her e-mails, for whatever reason, she had their company names and positions. Subtle! *cough* So the "mafia" gathers and we see the Desperate Housewives our main characters together... a white brunette, a white blonde, a white red head, and a pleasing-to-look-at non-white ethnicity? Do go on, Marc Cherry. And they all, naturally, have square-jawed white men in their lives (yes, I know, Bonnie Somerville's character's story is the adventure into lesbianism... with Eva from The Nine!) By the way, the men are all surprisingly unattractive when shirtless. I know they shoot the series in NYC... there have to be better looking, decent actors. It's not like they're leads. They're accessories. And I still don't understand the "Mafia" part of the show's title. But whatever. Finally, my god, can there please be an hour-long show on ABC that isn't flooded with plucky, bouncy, "dramedy" score??? Someone needs to tell these women that there's more than one restaurant in Manhattan... and that they need to learn a thing or two about business lunches.

American Gladiators: Recorded the second hour (FauxVo was busy recording two things until 10pm). It's camp, of course, but I wonder if it's too slick to be appreciated as camp. It's so campy that it veers on being serious. And I'll have none of it. I would rank the return of this 90s series as among the worst crimes committed on television this decade... perhaps ever. Right up there with The Swan.

The Amazing Race 12, Episode 7 - This Is Forever, Now

First thing's first. I'm SO glad Azaria and Hendekea are gone from TAR. I think they were well liked, but I didn't not at all like the way Azaria treated his sister. At all. Nate and Jen supply enough dysfunction, thank you.

So, where we stand:
- 6 legs down. 6 to go (including a super leg? I ask because I can't remember last season's All Stars edition having the super leg).
- 0 fast forwards. 2 to go. ETA: 1 to go. There's only one of the race. And DAMN that's nice. That's like Joyce getting her head shaved nice. I mean... I'd have difficulty with that. Ink and Judaism aren't supposed to mix.
- 0 non-eliminations. 3 to go. If they've kept the "marked for elimination thing", that basically means that tonight HAS to be non-elimination.
- 1 dysfunctional, whine-y "BABYYYYYY" teams remaining.
- 2 teams with elderly folks remaining (I don't feel we've been given much at all on Don's personality in the Grandfather/Grandson team, and I still haven't been able to get over Ron's behavior in the second leg...
- Neither the Goths nor the Hippies have had a major blow up. Both are destined to have one. However, I think that the final three, based on the physical nature of the race, is going to be these two teams as well as Nate and Jen (sigh).

One of my friends who only started watching TAR this season complained that most of the "competition" was in getting airplane tickets. That's pretty true of this season... which is why I was glad to see one of the first (IIRC) bottlenecks of the race in the ferry to Ancona.

Uh oh, here comes TK and Rachel's crisis... maybe? I'll admit, I don't know the pressure of being on the race. I've obviously never been on it. But how do you leave your clue behind? Ugh, that wasn't nearly as devastating as it could've been... dammit, I want drama!

And a SECOND bottleneck at the Road Block that, thanks to a traffic accident altering 2 teams' courses and 1 team deciding to wait for the thing to clear wasn't a bottle neck. That doesn't happen too often.

Jen and Nate are not in a good relationship if they can't handle each other while "hot". When they're cool, they work. Which, it seems, is only when they're winning. And since Don is going to get the tattoo, I sense a big Jen-style blow up when they're announced as team number two by Phil (barring anything going wrong).

Ron continues to suck. Ugh, so frustrating.

Wow, this leg totally blew for Goths and Hippies. And Jen didn't explode at the pit stop! WTF, why are these people acting out of character?

Okay... only 2 non-eliminations this race. So, 5 legs to go. Only 1 non-elimination left. And they changed the rules! That "marked for elimination" crap was, um, crap anyway. I'm excited to see this Speed Bump in action (and ooh, wouldn't it be EVIL if the second non-elimination was the penultimate leg, so one team had a speed bump on the way to the final finish line? I know, I know, the producers of this show aren't as evil as I wish they were...)