The Best of Prelims

Before I get to the long-promised Best of 2006, I thought I had better kind of lay out the main ground rule: What I actually watched. I watch an insane amount of television (and I do take a shortcut-- I NEVER watch commericals, which gains me about 30% time), and below is a list of what I watched that had episodes that were new in 2006.

Titles in italics are ones that I didn't watch every single episode of. I either dropped the show, came in "late", or in the case of Boston Legal, I watched last season but haven't gotten to this one yet.

All others, I watched every ep that aired (including situations like Runaway's three episodes before cancellation).

Hopefully, this can kind of give you an idea of what I watch and why I'll (eventually) choose a Top 10 from them and not include shows I'd love such as Deadwood or Battlestar Galactica but haven't watched as of yet.

And I hope I can point you in a direction of what I find good enough to watch when I list many, many more shows in my weekly premieres posts.

The Amazing Race (CBS)
American Dad (FOX)
Aqua Teen Hunger Force (adult swim)

Big Brother (CBS)
Big Day (ABC)
Big Love (HBO)
Black Books (BBC America; to be referred to as "BBC" from now on)
Book of Daniel (NBC)
Boston Legal (ABC)
Bromwell High (BBC)
Brothers and Sisters (ABC)

The Class (CBS)
Comedians of Comedy (Comedy Central)
Conviction (BBC)
Conviction (NBC)
Costas Now (HBO)
Courting Alex (CBS)
Crumbs (ABC)
Curious George (PBS)

Dane Cook's Tourgasm (HBO)
Desperate Housewives (ABC)

ECW (SciFi)
Ed vs. Spencer (BBC)
Emily's Reasons Why Not (ABC- the one ep that aired--owch!)
Entourage (HBO)
Everybody Hates Chris (UPN/CW)

Family Guy (FOX)
Fantasy Show (ESPN 2)
Fred Willard's American Festivals (Travel)
Free Ride (FOX)
Frisky Dingo (adult swim)

Happy Hour (FOX)
Hardware (BBC)
Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law (adult swim)
Help Me Help You (ABC)
The Hill (Sundance)
How I Met Your Mother (CBS)

Iconoclasts (Sundance)
Identity (NBC)
Inside the NFL (HBO)
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX)

Kath & Kim (Sundance)
King of the Hill (FOX)
King of Queens (CBS)

Legion of Super-Heroes (CW)
Less Than Perfect (ABC)
Little Britain (BBC)
The Loop (FOX)
Love Monkey (VH1)
Love Soup (BBC)
Lucky Louie (HBO)

Mad TV (FOX)
Malcolm in the Middle (FOX)
Men in Trees (ABC)
Metalocalypse (adult swim)
Minoriteam (adult swim)
Moral Orel (adult swim)
My Boys (TBS)
My Life on the D-List (Bravo)
My Name is Earl (NBC)

New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS)

The Office (NBC)
One Punk Under God (Sundance)

Prison Break (FOX)

Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (HBO)
Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)
Reno 911 (Comedy Central)
Robot Chicken (adult swim)
Rock Star: Supernova (CBS)
Runaway (CW)

Scrubs (NBC)
Showbiz Show with David Spade (Comedy Central)
The Simpsons (FOX)
Slings and Arrows (Sundance)
So NoTORIous (VH1)
Sons and Daughters (ABC)
South Park (Comedy Central)
Square Off (TV Guide)
Spaced (BBC)
Spongebob Squarepants (Nickelodeon)
Standoff (FOX)
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (NBC)
Survivor (CBS)

10 Items or Less (TBS)
That '70s Show (FOX)
30 Days (FX)
30 Rock (NBC)
'Til Death (FOX)
Twenty Good Years (NBC)

Ugly Betty (ABC)
Unan1mous (FOX)
The Upside Down Show (Noggin)

Vanished (FOX)
The Venture Brothers (adult swim)

The West Wing (NBC)
What About Brian? (ABC)
Wonder Showzen (MTV 2)

Ninety-one shows. I guess I certainly trimmed down my list from 2005 when I watched over 120 shows (it was knid of a New Year's Resolution for 2006).

And seasons I watched this year, but don't qualify because they weren't new in 2006:
Bodies (BBC, all six eps-- entire season)
Coupling (BBC, all 4 seasons)
Deadwood (HBO-- first and second seasons)
The Sopranos (HBO-- first five seasons)

Hopefully, in the next week or so, I'll give my Top 10 list. Not because it's important but because everyone else is doing it.

Jan 11-14 Prems, Part 3

Thursday, 1/11

Nashville Star; USA. 9 pm. Season premiere.
The fifth season begins.


Friday, 1/12

Comedy Central Presents; Comedy Central. 9 & 9:30. Season Premiere.
Marc Maron and John Heffron are showcased.

Cory in the House; Disney. 8:30. Series Premiere.
My kids aren't old enough for these "tween" shows, but Disney has promoting the Hell out of it for a month now. Must be a big deal.

Giada's Weekend Getaways; Food Network. 8 pm. Series Premiere.
Giada DeLaurentis and a show about great restaurants. I don't get it. The pilot is in Seattle.

Cowboy U: Colorado; CMT. 7 pm. Season Premiere.
Sixth season? Never heard of it.


Saturday, 1/13

Louis C.K.: Shameless; HBO. 9 pm. Special.
I hope this stand-up show is better than his sitcom.

Grendel; Sci Fi. 8 pm. Movie.
The oldest story in human history. Every heroic book, movie, play, show, etc comes from this one.
And SciFi is doing it.
I have a bad feeling about this...


Sunday 1/14

24; FOX. 7pm. Season Premiere.
It may not be as big as Idol, but this show is huge for FOX. The sixth season airs a 2-hr block tonight and Monday before falling into its 8 pm slot-- right after Prison Break. Even though I haven't watched the series yet (I've got the past five seasons on tape), I know this is Must See.

Rome; HBO. 8 pm. Season Premiere.
The second, and final, season begins here. Must See.

Extras; HBO. 9 pm. Season Premiere.
Ricky Gervais starts Round 2 of the show that makes him look even more pathetic than The Office did. I saw a killer clip of of the show with David Bowie singing a song about the Gervais character called "Pathetic Little Fat Man" that made me laugh so hard I nearly cried. Must see.

Living With the Kombai Tribe: The Adventures of Mark and Olly; Travel. 8 pm. Series Premiere.
I have no idea...

Crossing Jordan; NBC. 9 pm. Season premiere.

Star Trek Tech; History. 9 pm. Special.
I'm not sure what it's about, either.

Jan 8-14 Prems Pt 2

Tuesday, 1/9

The People's Choice Awards air on CBS at 8 pm (CST). Sometimes the people choose wisely, but mostly they don't.

Spike airs the Quentin Tarantino CSI 2-parter from 8-10. I haven't watched the show the last two years, but this episode kept me watching for a while. You can see Tarantino's handprints all over the epsiode (and that's a good thing).


Wednesday, 1/10

The Wire; BET. 8 pm. Syndication Premiere.
BET (a channel I don't get-- and am now mad about that fact) airs the show nearly every critic has said is the best on TV.

The Sopranos; A&E. 8 pm. Syndication Premiere.
A&E goes for some actual quality after airing the garbage it has for years by showing not only one of the best shows ever, but also one of the most groundbreaking. I'll admit, I wasn't blown away by it when I watched it for the first time last summer, but its influence is undeniable. Without it, there would be no Deadwood, Rescue Me, or The Shield. This is highly recommended viewing.

And now for something of much lesser quality:

Armed & Famous; CBS. 7 pm. Series Premiere.
"Celebs" like La Toya Jackson, Jack Osbourne, and Erik Estrada get trained as cops in Muncie, IN.
Seriously.

Tease; Oxygen. 8 pm. Series Premiere
Reality competition among hairstylists. Oh you know this has to be good.

Okay, back to actual "good":

China From the Inside; PBS. 8 & 9 pm (check local listings). Series Premiere.
The history of China-- from the Chinese residents' perspective.


More later...

Premieres & Notables for Jan 8-14.

Lots and lots of stuff this week. The wife and kids will be back in 20 mins, so I'll get through as much as I can now and post the rest later.

Firstly, I missed the announcement of one of my (and my kids') favorite shows season premiere: Jack's Big Music Show started airing new eps yesterday. Noggin will trickle them in along with the 10 eps from the first season throughout the next few weeks. If you have preschool-age kids and the Noggin channel, this is mandatory viewing.

I love kids shows that don't talk down to them (or resort to bodily noises to get laughs), and Jack is great. Jack and his friends get together and discover music (right up my kids' alley) and let their imaginations run wild. For a "puppet show", it's pretty darn good.

And since I'm on a roll, check out The Upside Down Show on Noggin. This show rules. It's for kids, but adults will like the humor. And those of us who watch lots and LOTS of TV should be able to see the genius of Shane Dundas and David Collin's performances. Those dudes (along with whoever the genius is behind the camera) do amazing physical "stunts". And as I watched more and more episodes, I noticed many of the scenes are done in one take. It's wild. I'll never get to a "best performances of 2006" list, but Shane and David would definitely be on it if I did.

And something else I missed: HBO is reairing the first season of ROME all week. This is a show best watched in 2-3 hr blocks. I almost gave up on it after the first two eps, but it really clicked as it headed toward the final episodes. Just as many HBO and BBC America shows work, this is one story, beginning to end, that takes over the whole season. It just kept building and building until Titus Pullo exploded in violence when he was to be executed (in one of the most brutal, yet satisfying sequences I've ever seen on TV) and all the way to the finale, where the bodies just kept lining up (including the Julius Caesar-- I knew the dude was gonna die, but I thought they'd hold it off a bit longer). With half the cast dead after the first season, I don't know where season 2 (the final season, beginning next Sunday) will go. I can't wait.

Okay, on to this upcoming week:

Monday, 1/8:

Want to see a great performance by a young actor? Check out the episode on Desperate Housewives that airs on Lifetime at 6 pm (CST). Andrew confesses (to a priest!) how he's going to ruin his mother, Bree. It was a major shock.

The SciFi Channel finally begins its run of Star Trek: Enterprise. It'll air in four-hour (why not six, so I can fill a whole tape?) blocks every Monday from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm CST. It's a very underrated show that did have it's problems, but the third season was one of the most ambitious (and best) seasons of any show I've watched. And the fourth (and final) season took what came before (in the series as well as the other Trek shows) and closed up the show with some phenominal stories. Plus it stars one of the best TV actors out there: Scott Bakula.

Quick hits:
Ellen's Acres; Cartoon. 8:30 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Show for preschoolers about a 5-year-old who lives in a hotel.
Lincoln Heights; ABC Family. 6 pm & 9 pm. Series Premiere.
An L.A. cop moves his family into the inner city; into a community who hates police.
Gay, Straight, or Taken?; Lifetime. 7 pm. Series Premiere.
A dating show where women must pick who is gay, straight, or taken. Isn't this one of the horsemen of the Apocalypse?
No, wait, this piece of crap is:
I Love New York; VH1. 8 pm. Series Premiere.
One of the losers (in more ways than one) of Flavor of Love gets her own "finding love" show.

[teameck's note: I'm really sorry I keep including VH1 and MTV shows in this blog. I try to be thorough, so I'm forced to. But I won't be including them anymore. This is the last straw. I'm not even mentioning the other VH1 premiere tonight about white rappers going after a $100G prize. I'm done. If you watch this garbage, go to vh1.com or mtv.com and find out for yourself what's on. I am completely against censorship of any kind, but typing what's on VH1 and MTV makes my head and fingers hurt-- and I'm afraid too many people will bypass actual decent shows to watch these shows which are about the equivalent of watching stool get flushed down the toilet..

If, by any chance, there is actually something that sounds remotely good on either network, I will include it. Otherwise: I'm DONE with this claptrap.]

Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century: The Resurgence; PBS. 9 pm (but check your local listings). Special.
This documentary looks at the growing anti-Semitism in the world. I don't get it. This is the Twenty-First Century, for cryin' out loud! We're supposed to be hating gay people now. Don't you listen to Darth Bush and his Christian coalition?

[That was a joke, you idiots... Hate for any religion/color/sexuality should not be tolerated. It's time to wipe bigotry off the face of the earth. Hate the jackass you work with, or the one who broke your heart, or the prick that stole your car. But don't hate someone because they believe in a different God or because their skin is different color than yours, or because they fall in love with people you never would. Until we as a society can abolish bigotry, we'll never be at the pinnacle of civilization.]

Okay, my family's taking longer than I expected, but I've gotten a little heavy (but real), so how 'bout I take a break and finish out the week in a bit?

Later.

A MUST SEE

I'm pretty fortunate that most of the movies/DVDs/shows I watch are of above-average quality. I've used some of the best resources in magazines/friends/the internet to ensure that I filter out the garbage the best that I can and I try to catch as much of the good stuff as possible.

Once in while, though, I watch something that makes me feel changed after watching it. Once in a while, I watch something that so moves me, I'm not sure if I will ever be the same again.

In the waning hours of 2006, I watched one of those movies.

Joyeux Noel ("Merry Christmas") was one of the most beautiful, powerful things I've witnessed in a long time. This movie (now on DVD) told the story of the infamous "Christmas Truce" in World War I.

I heard about the truce a few years ago, and I found the whole thing amazingly unbelievable. On Christmas Eve, 1914, enemies put down their guns, rose from their trenches and celebrated Christmas together. Naturally, the Powers That Be didn't want word getting out about the unwarlike behavior, so actual proof that the truce occurred is hard to come by. But there is proof.

Enough proof that writer/director Christian Carion was able to piece together accounts and create this wonderful (fiction, but "based on real events") film.

In the movie, German forces face French and Scottish troops, and, in a miraculous series of events, they end up coming out of the trenches and meeting each other. They share stories, show pictures of their loved ones to each other, even play football (soccer) against one another on Christmas Eve and through Christmas. They allow each other to bury their dead on the day Christ was born and come together to celebrate the birth of their savior. Even though their states are enemies, the humanity of the individuals allowed them to find peace with each other-- even if it was for only a day.

I won't go it it any more (I'm tearing up just thinking about the movie-- not that it's sad-- it's just that wonderful), so as not to spoil anything. But, seriously, rent this movie. It's amazing.

The movie itself is worth the time, but it really behooves one to also watch the Interview with Director Christian Carion in the special features area after watching the movie. He goes over the history and research (in a very lively way) he put into the preparation of the movie. He also shares anecdotes he discovered (and wove into the story) and proves just how much truth is in the fiction of the movie.

Full disclosure alert: the movie is a French film, and the director (wisely) chose to have the characters speak in their own languages, so the Scots speak English, the French speak French and the Germans speak German. The non-English languages are subtitled. But you cannot let that deter you. Man-up and watch (read) this movie.

I have given a large number of "highly recommend"s in this blog, but this gets my highest. I have not watched or read anything this excellent in the entire year of 2006.

If you find it half as profound as I have, you will find you've changed a little inside as well.

Premieres and Notables Jan 1-Jan 7

Happy New Year! I'm back and trying to keep up with things as usual.

Monday, 1/1:

Craploads of college football. Pick a network and you'll find some dumbass bowl on it. I've got nothing against college football, but I do have something against the unabashed marketing of it. These student-athletes are being raped so their schools can make some coin. It's just wrong.

If you think I'm harsh here, wait until the bullshit "March Madness"...

High Maintenance; E!. 10 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Another moronic reality series from a network that used to have some respect. This piece of garbage gets the hired help's perspectives of their employers on Beverly Hills.

Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations; Travel Channel. 8 & 9 pm CST. Season Premiere.
I really dug Bourdain's book Kitchen Confidential (highly recommended), but I just couldn't get into this show. I guess I just don't understand great food.

Next; MTV. 4:30 pm CST. Season Premiere.
Remember when MTV had shows worth watching? Yeah, me neither.


Tuesday, 1/2

Dirt; FX. 9:00 pm CST. Series Premiere.
The first hour-long drama at FX that sounds like crap. Courtney Cox stars as an editor-in-chief of a tabloid rag. I haven't heard a single good thing about this show. I'll check it out because I'm stupid, but no reason for anyone else to make the same mistake.

If I've scared you off of a new show at 9 pm Tuesdays, why don't you jump over to TBS at 9:00 and watch My Boys. It's not great, but it's pretty entertaining. Plus, it's got two of my favorite supporting actors: Jim Gaffigan and Kyle Howard.

Oh yeah, Show Me the Money moves to Tuesdays at 7 pm. (Does anyone watch that show? I haven't met 'em...)


Wednesday, 1/3

Wired Science; PBS. 7 pm CST (but check your local listings). Series Premiere.
A new series inspired by Wired magazine.

Beauty and the Geek; CW. 7 pm CST. Season Premiere.
And they dip to the well yet again... The first season was cute, but made any subsequent seasons pointless. Let me lay it out for you: Hot women who aren't so smart team with smart guys who aren't so hot and the teams help each other pass challenges. They come from different worlds, but ultimately see they're people like anyone else... It's a great show, but if you've seen it once, you've seen them all.

According to Jim; ABC. 7 pm & 7:30 pm CST. Season Premiere.
I used to like this show, but it's like so many network comedies: they sink to the lowest common denominator. Haven't watched it in about three years, so maybe it got better. I doubt it, though...

Knights of Prosperity; ABC. 8 pm CST. Series Premiere.
I looooved Donal Logue's last show (Grounded for Life), so I've got high hopes for this one, originally titled Let's Rob Mick Jagger. BTW: Jagger is supposed to have an awesome cameo in this pilot, so: Must See!
Check it out before American Idol completely buries this show in a few weeks.

In Case of Emergency; ABC. 8:30 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Starring David Arquette. That's all you need to know.
This show was doomed from the start.


Thursday, 1/4

The "Must See" Thursday block sounds hot tonight:
My Name is Earl: The gang watch home movies; or what other people call Cops.
The Office: Michael returns from Jamaica, and doesn't want to settle down-- until a risque photo from the vacation is circulated around the office.
Scrubs: A rash of far-fetched mysteries are solved by a cane-wielding Dr. Cox (in an obvious House parody). It's supposed to be awesome.
30 Rock: Jack and Tracy take a trip to a GE golf tournament. Okay, so they can't all be great...

Final 24; Biography. 9 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Series about the final day of dead celebs. The pilot profiles John Belushi.


Friday, 1/5

Beyond the Break; The N. 7:30 CST. Season Premiere.
A second season of the surfboard soap.

Wild World of Spike; Spike. 11 pm. Series Premiere.
A mixed-martial-artist, a skateboarder, and a comedian recreate the world's weirdest sports.

Gunslinger Girl; IFC. 10 pm. Series Premiere.
Anime series for adults. That's all I've got...


Sunday, 1/7

Alma shows up on Desperate Housewives (ABC, 8 pm). That's big news if you're a fan...

And here are series (and season) premieres, shotgun-style:
Just Jordan; Nickelodeon. 6:30 pm
Grease: You're the One That I Want; NBC. 7 pm. A reality competition with people auditioning for the Broadway show. Seriously.
The Surreal Life Fame Games; VH1. 8 pm. I really liked the first and second seasons of the real show, but since then, they've sucked. This sounds even worse.
The Apprentice; NBC. 8:30, Season Premiere. This season is set in L.A. Oooooo. Someone needs to make The Donald go away. Unless he's talking smack about Rosie O'Donnell-- God, he railed on her...
I'm From Rolling Stone; MTV. 9 pm. Aspiring journalists compete for a staff position at the magazine. Now this sounds good. Except it's on MTV. They'll f*** it up somehow...
Living With Ed; HGTV. 9 pm. Follows Ed Begley Jr.'s eco-friendly life. I'd love to watch it, as I feel it's important, but I just don't think it'll be that interesting/good. Sorry, Ed.
Grey's Anatomy; Lifetime. 10 pm. Lifetime begins reairing the monster hit. I think I'm going to check it out. People love this show.
The L Word; Showtime. 9 pm. Season 4 begins.
Shooting Sizemore; VH1. 9:30. Follows Tom Sizemore's attempts to recover from substance abuse. Why why WHY!!!!!!

Message to VH1: YOU SUUUUUUUUCK!

Premieres and Marathons, 12/26-12/31

Sorry I'm late this week, but I already posted about the Venture Brothers marathon last night as well as the Boondocks marathon tonight. Cartoon Network's [adult swim] keeps it going the rest of the week as well.

Wednesday, 12/27

When Parents Are Deployed; PBS. 8:00 pm-8:30 pm CST. Special
Cuba Gooding Jr. hosts this Sesame Workshop show for the 700,000 children under the age of 5 who have parents who are away from home this Holiday Season.

Bio Live; Biography Channel. 7:00 pm CST. Series Premiere.
New profile series placing artists in front of a studio audience. Lee Ann Womack is the guest in the premiere.

Robot Chicken; Cartoon Network [adult swim]. 9:30 pm- 4:30 am CST.
A thirty episode marathon of the insane stop-motion toy series. Your mind will melt if you watch it all at once, but in two or three 15-minute episode blocks at a time, you should be okay. Hilarious at times; horrifying at times-- you'll never look at toys the same way again. Creator Seth Green voices many characters, and he enlists friends such as Sarah Michelle Gellar, Scarlett Johansson, Donald Faison, and Ashton Kutcher to lend their voices as well.

Funniest Commercials of the Year; TBS. 8:00 pm. Special.
Just what it sounds like...


Thursday, Dec 28

Squidbillies; Cartoon Network [adult swim]. 9:30 pm - 4:30 am CST.
Another marathon. I gave up watching this show after a few episodes, but if you want to see something completely insane, check it out. Squid hillbillies. That's all I got...

Friday, Dec 29

Smallville; ABC Family. 10 am CST
Nine hours of the show from the pilot to the fourth season finale.
I soooo have to watch the DVDs of this show I've got on my shelf...

Eureka; Sci Fi Channel. 8:00 pm CST
Yet another show I've got on a shelf and haven't watched yet. I hear it's good. This marathon consists of six episodes.


Saturday, Dec 30
Marathon marathons marathons...
Law & Order: Criminal Intent; USA. 10 am CST. Twelve episodes.
Fashion Team; TV GUIDE Channel. 11 am-6 pm.
Mama's Family; CMT. 4:00 pm. Twelve episodes.
Ugly Betty; ABC. 7:00 - 10:00 pm. Three eps from this great series. Note: ABC Family has all ten episodes on Sunday, and SoapNet has them all on Monday.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia; FX. 10 pm CST. The entire uneven first season of this show airs. The second season was better, but there's some good stuff here.


Sunday, Dec 31

Lots and lots of New Year's Eve specials.
And Marathons:

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit; USA. 5:00 am. Twenty-four hours of episodes from all eight seasons.
Twilight Zone; Sci Fi Channel. 8:00 am. FORTY-FIVE (!!!) hours of the classic science fiction series. Awesome!
Six Feet Under; Bravo. 9 am. The first five episdoes of the series.
Law & Order; TNT. 10 am. Thirty-freakin'-seven episodes.
Seinfeld; TBS. 6 pm. A six-hour block.
South Park; Comedy Central. 9:00 pm. "Chef Aid" begins this six episode block.
Entourage; HBO. 9:30 pm. The entire third season airs.

Well, that's it for the year. I have to give my props to TV GUIDE for all the scoop I steal from it for these weekly "premieres" posts I make.

More Marathons

I spoke about the Venture Brothers marathon Christmas night, but my DVR scheduler popped up some more marathons of great [adult swim] (Cartoon Network) shows coming up.

On Tuesday, Dec 26, the network is airing 6-1/2 hours of Boondocks, beginning at 9:30 pm CST and running to 4:00 am. This could easily be a network show-- if networks had any balls at all. It's a show about the black experience that can work for any race, and a number of episodes really made me think about the life and cultures around me.

I wish I had time to explain and praise it properly, but it's Christmas Eve, and I just don't.

If you can't commit to the full 6-1/2 hours of the marathon, I highly recommend you check out the episode "The Return of the King", airing from 11:00 pm to 11:30 pm. It poses the question "What if when Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot, he fell into a coma and awoke just before September 11, 2001?" It's a very biting commentary on the political landscape at that time-- and the crazy zealotry of our own country.

It's one of the best episodes of television I've watched the last two years.


And on New Year's Eve, the Cartoon Network airs a four hour and fifteen minute marathon of the heavy metal turned up to 111 show Metalocalypse from 9:00 pm to 1:15 am. This is a crazy show. I recommend using the closed captioning on your TV to catch everything.

There's no real redeeming value to the show. It's bloody, vulgar (the worst words are "bleeped" with guitar), and on the other side of reality, but I find it funny. I'm not hardcore metal, but I understand it.

There's a classic scene where bassist Murderface drops his pants and plays his bass with his schwing-schwang (I hope it airs during the marathon...).

Check it out.

An ad-VENTURE-ous Marathon

After you send the family home and put the kids to bed on Christmas day, flip on over to Cartoon Network's [adult swim] at 9:30 pm and watch seven straight hours of my favorite show on the network (and I watch lots of [swim] shows): The Venture Brothers.

The [adult swim] website doesn't match my DVR schedule for episodes, but it looks as if the last episode of season one and all of season two will be airing. 9:30 pm CST to 4:30 am CST.

Highlights are:
"Hate Floats": Centering on lovable, yet dimwitted, Henchman 21 and Henchman 24 who become part of The Monarch's attempt to rebuild his empire-- and win back Dr. Girlfriend (The Venture Brothers has the best character names).

"Assassinanny 911": Brock has a secret mission to go on, so he gets his ex, Molotov Cocktease, to watch the boys. Includes a killer line about Dean having Apache Ghosts in his swim trunks.

"Escape From the House of Mummies Part II": A very odd episode (a fake "recap" episode) that contains the best comeback to a threat I've seen in a while, courtesy of Dr. Venture.

"Victor. Echo. November.": Longtime readers may remember my love for this episode when I wrote about it on August 14. (And if I knew what the Hell I was doing with this blog, I'd be able to make a link to it...)
Here are some lines from the episode I noted in that post:

"There were two side effects. One: he can mess up a guy just by touching him. And two: he became a humorless dick."
The Monarch, describing The Phantom Limb's origin.

"Ah, c'mon! Why does that happen? I shook it so hard, I almost hit that pink puck."
Hank, lamenting the fact that he had a"pee stain" on his pants after using the urinal.

"We need one of these at home, it's better than riding sideways on a swing."
Hank, while using the hot air hand dryer to dry the aforementioned stain off his pants.

"Dude, stop wailing on my junk!"
Hank to Dean, who was trying to put out the fire on his pants caused by the hand dryer.

And the crazy two-part finale "Showdown at Creamation Creek" where everything comes to a head: Team Venture gets accidentally captured by the Monarch's minions; The Monarch gets back with Dr. Girlfriend, but The Phantom Limb tries to break them up again; Brock rallies the Monarch's henchmen for the battle, and Hank tries to prove his manliness along with the others; Dean hallucinates that he is a great warrior and that David Bowie is a pack of cigarettes.

So check it out. It's hilarious-- and not bat-sh** insane like most [adult swim] shows are. It's accessible in both plot and animation and is highly recommended.

A Couple More for the Morgue-- and a Programming Change

ABC has pulled Day Break and Show Me the Money from its programming. Doubtful either will come back.

Help Me, Help You also had its new episode this week pulled from the schedule due to low ratings.

ABC has decided to not try to use Lost to lead into a show anymore as it hasn't worked in two years and will move the show to 9pm CST when it returns from the planned hiatus. A nice side effect: it won't air against American Idol.

Sadly, the promising Knights of Prosperity will air against Idol-- and will probably get trounced and cancelled quickly.

Awards Season Has Begun

The AFI Top Ten TV programs of the year were:

Battlestar Galactica
Dexter
Elizabeth I
Friday Night Lights
Heroes
The Office
South Park
24
The West Wing
The Wire

Not a bad list. The panel of critics, AFI trustees, academics, and industry professionals chose from the best fictional narrative programming of the year to compile their ten best. The discussions for the list are secret in order to preserve the list and allow the panel to debate freely. That's probably why the list includes only the best-- and not weird calls like the Golden Globes and Emmys can have.

Speaking of the Golden Globes, the major TV-related nominations were:

Best Drama Series
24
Big Love
Grey's Anatomy
Heroes
Lost

Best Actress in a Drama:
Patricia Arquette
Edie Falco
Evangeline Lilly
Ellen Pompeo
Kyra Sedgwick

Best Actor in a Drama:
Patrick Dempsey
Michael C. Hall
Hugh Laurie
Bill Paxton
Kiefer Sutherland

Best Comedy:
Desperate Housewives
Entourage
The Office
Ugly Betty
Weeds

Best Actress in a Comedy:
Marcia Cross
Felicity Huffman
America Ferrera
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Mary-Louise Parker

Best Actor in a Comedy:
Alec Baldwin
Zach Braff
Steve Carell
Jason Lee
Tony Shalhoub

Supporting Actress:
Emily Blunt
Toni Collette
Katherine Heigl
Sarah Paulson
Elizabeth Perkins

Supporting Actor:
Thomas Hayden Church
Jeremy Irons
Justin Kirk
Masi Oka
Jeremy Piven

And here we see some of the problems with a five-nominee process with an eventual winner: you just can't win. Where's Deadwood? Sally Field? The Shield? Kyle Chandler? Michael Chiklis? Scrubs? My Name is Earl?

I think the AFI has it right by picking ten shows to say were the cream of the crop for the year-- many of which need a little recognition.

Premieres & Notables Dec 18- Dec 24

It's the week before Christmas, so not much is new. Use this time to catch up on the tapes, DVR shows, DVDs, books, magazines, etc that have piled up since September. Or hang with your family/friends.

Monday, 12/18

Identity, NBC. 8 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Penn Jillette (of "Penn & Teller" and Penn & Teller's Bullsh**!) hosts this game show where contestants try to match character traits to 12 strangers. Sounds lame, but Jellette is a fantastic entertainer. May be worth checking out. This show airs on NBC every night this week; 8 pm on Monday and 7 pm on Tues-Fri.

Jenna ("Pam") Fisher of The Office is a guest on Craig Ferguson's late night show.


Saturday, Dec 23

FX has a 13-hour block of Christmas-themed episodes of various shows:
6 am-6:30: Dharma and Greg
6:30 am- 9:00: Spin City
9:00 am- 11:00: Fear Factor
11:00 am- 2:30 pm: Married With Children (Classic Episodes "It's a Bundyful Life Pt 1 & 2" guest starring Sam Kinison air 11:30-12:30).
2:30 pm-5:00: King of the Hill
5:00 pm- 7:00: That '70s Show


Sunday, 12/24

It's a Wonderful Life; NBC. 7 pm CST
The classic holiday movie.

Best of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog; G4. 6:30 pm
If you're not into the "Ho ho ho" thing.

And lots of marathons. I'll list what TV Guide has, but it may be best to check out the marathons you may be interested in online at the network website just to be sure.

Nickelodeon: 16 hours of seasonal cartoons starting at 5 am.
Discovery: 18 hours of Dirty Jobs starting at 8 am.
AMC: 18 hours of the classic Miracle on 34th Street, beginning at 11 am.
ABC Family: 12 hours of Rankin Bass classics; 11 am.
Speed: 15-1/2 hrs of Nascar Beyond the Wheel; noon.
TV Land: 24 hours of Christmas episodes of classic shows; 5 pm.
TBS: The yearly 24-hour non-stop airing of A Christmas Story; 7 pm.
FX: Ice Age-- interspersed with other programming-- for 20 hours; 7 pm.
Court TV: 4 hours of COPS; 7 pm.

Or there's football of course. I may finally check out the man who's kicked major ass for me in Fantasy Football all year, LaDainian Tomlinson, when his Chargers face the Seahawks at 3:15 pm. He's been on a massive record-breaking year, and from what I've seen and heard others say about him, it couldn't happen to a nicer guy. No BS touchdown dances and "look at me, look at me" shenanagins; just an amazing player who lets his work speak for him.

Sadly, I won't be personally invested in the game as I just lost my semi-final game this week (not LT's fault-- my receivers suuuuucked) and my work league will not enjoy my presence in the Championship game. Boo!

But I all but wrapped up the Championship in my other league (with a monster performance by Mr. Tomlinson). Pray for a low-performing game tomorrow night with the Bengals vs. the Colts. I've got 80 points on my opponent, but she's got three heavy-hitters in the game to my one decent player.

A PRISON BREAK spoiler of sorts

Okay, if the title didn't scare you away, this bit contains a spoiler that directly follows something from the fall season finale.

You've been warned...







Okay, so Kellerman "flipped" and now is helping Linc and Michael-- and confirmed it by shooting Mahone.

Now, I'm pretty leery that Kellerman actually is on the side of the angels for the long haul. I'm predicting that he's just trying to use the boys to get to Sara and then will kill all three of them. And then he'll get back that which means the most to him: his job.

And while there was hype that "someone major" dies in the fall finale, I just read from Michael Ausiello that Mahone is not dead. I guess it's no real surprise considering I have heard NOTHING about what William Fichtner is going to be working on (which would have happened had he been off the show for real). And, let's face it, it was a pretty bloodless "death" for this show. Of course I'm not happy about being lied to as the only other death on the show was with the woman T-Bag hooked up with that episode.

Oh well...


Other tidbits: Bellick's new nickname: "Fish". Awesome.

Lane Garrison ("Tweener") was involved in a car accident that killed a 15 year old girl and injured some others. Bad, bad news. Worse because alcohol is believed to be involved as well.

And another odd thing I learned: Lane lived with Jessica Simpson for a year when he was 17 and credits her father, Joe, (you know, the one who's pretty much been Jessica's pimp all those years) for helping him get his life together (he was a juvenile delinquent, for sure). Garrison mentioned it was "torture" living there because Jessica is "gorgeous".

Maybe Lane's troubles are one reason why Jess couldn't get through "9 to 5" in the Dolly Parton Tribute Special... Weirder things have happened.

Quick Reviews

Just a few quick notes on things I've read/watched lately.

Last week's 30th Anniversary show of Inside the NFL was a classy bit of television. There were a few looks back, but mostly, it was a tribute to a show that has become must-see for me (and I don't even care about football).

I love the Wallace & Gromit "shorts" and the feature length-movie, so I used my "daddy persuasion" (not too much as my kids enjoy them as well) and chose Aardman's (with Dreamworks) new feature Flushed Away as a movie to watch with the kids. The movie was made using CGI as opposed to the "Claymation"-style of other Aardman pieces, but the look was the same as Wallace and Chicken Run.

It was a fun movie. Smart for adults, and they didn't dumb it down for kids. Check it out.

Happy Feet on the other hand, was a freakin' mess. It was at least three, distinct movies, and the end sucked ass. The animation was pretty good, but this movie had the biggest thing I hate about the mainstream animated feature business: they got a bunch of "name" actors who had no reason playing voices in this movie.

Pixar movies and a few select others can get away with it because the actors and the characters mesh so well, but many movies just use an actor's name to sell the studio and the audience on a film. There are fantastic voice actors that could have done the voices-- and made them their own.

Okay-- rant over. Anyway, Happy Feet had many more problems than the voices, and I apologize for getting on my soapbox.

Ultimate Fantastic Four Volume 5 "Crossover" also had the good and the bad of the "Ultimate" Marvel Universe (which was designed to use characters/concepts that are 40 years old and reinvent them as if they were created today). It was good, even great, but it took the equivalent of six issues to tell a story that original Fantastic Four creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby would have taken two issues to tell. At least that's cut down from the first few issues of the titles telling a story over six issues that Stan and Jack would have knocked out in one.

"Crossover" is broken into two stories: the first is one where Reed opens a portal to a universe that looks very similar to the one in the regular Marvel Universe (the one fans have been reading about since the '60s), but it's all a trap to lure Reed to a world where the superheroes are actually zombies. It leads to a harrowing adventure (and led to the blockbuster Marvel Zombies mini-series of 2006).

The second tale is about the finding of Atlantis. And the introduction of Namor to the Ultimate Universe. This Namor looks and acts the same, but his background is much different than the regular Marvel's King of Atlantis. I did like the end of the story where the terribly over-matched Fantastic Four ended the fight in an unusual way (and established the Ultimate Namor as a total prick in a different way than the regular Marvel Namor is).

All in all, this is a good read. Mark Millar's story and dialogue were above par. I just wonder why some of the changes between the two universes have to be made. Some changes are so abrupt, it's as if he's painting himself (and others) into a corner. But then again, this is supposed to be a new universe where anything can happen. One change I do like in this "universe" is the attempt to make the fantastic a bit more realistic. Sure they still do crazy stuff, but time is taken to explain the principles of the power/ability whereas in most comic books, things that are just taken for granted "just because" (the team can go deep into the ocean due to a combination of powers-- without Johnny-- whereas the Marvel Reed would just whip up a submarine that would do all the work).

Not to knock Millar, but the stars of this book are penciller Greg Land, inker Matt Ryan, and colorist Justin Ponsor (and Laura Martin). My God, were the pictures gorgeous (as is beginning to be expected of Land). This is some of the most photo-realistic artwork I've ever seen in a comic book. Many, many panels had me stopping (many to say, "Damn, Sue is HOT!") just to take it all in.

The downside to the artwork is it looks as if Land used a number of sources for reference (one is an obvious reproduction of Jessica Alba as Sue from the movie of last year), and a number of times, the same character just didn't look the same (I noticed it mostly with Sue, but then I paid the most attention to her). But, let's face it, that's a pretty small complaint.

Ta Ta for now...

Dec 11-17 Premieres/Notables

Tuesday, 12/12

How the Grinch Stole Christmas; ABC. 7-8 pm CST
Gotta love this classic.

Rickey Gervais shows up on Letterman. I just saw a commercial for HBO's season 2 premiere of Gervais' Extras that said it begins January 14. Awesome.


Wednesday, 12/13

George Clooney: An American Cinematheque Tribute; AMC. 7-8 pm.
I can't pronounce the title of this tribute, but I have to give a shout out to Clooney, who is one of the best.


Thursday, 12/14

Now The Office gets an hour-long show-- directed by Harold Ramis-- and My Name is Earl gets a rest this week. NBC, 7-8 pm CST.

And Turner Classic Movies is airing Gary Cooper movies all night. If you haven't seen Pride of the Yankees, now's the time to check it out (1:45-4:00 am CST). And, yes, it's okay to cry. If you don't after seeing this movie, then you must be dead.


Sunday, 12/17

Big night for season finales as Survivor, Sleeper Cell: American Terror, Dexter, Breaking Bonaduce, and Celebrity Paranormal Project all end tonight.

December 10 Premieres and Notables

AAAAAARGH!!! I typed the Sunday notables and then gave a longer-than-usual heads up for Sleeper Cell-- and then hit "publish post" and lost everything because there was a burp in my connection.

Well, here's the brief finale to this afternoon's Premieres:

Sunday, Dec 10.

The Amazing Race 10 ends (CBS 7 pm), as does what most critics consider the best show on television: The Wire (HBO, 9 pm).

House of Tiny Terrors, TLC. 7 & 8 pm. Series Premiere.
Families with problem kids move into a house to be studied and counseled by clinical psychologist Tanya Byron.

Alpha Company: Iraq Diary; Military Channel. 7 & 8 pm. Series Premiere.
Profiles of Marines in Iraq.

TV's Best 2006; TV Guide Channel. 7 pm.
This two-parter (part 2 is the next night, same time) looks at the best TV had to offer in 2006 (early). I hope to make a few lists of my own for this blog, so I'll be taking notes.

And the highlight of the night:
Sleeper Cell: American Terror; Showtime. 8 pm. Season Premiere.
Man, I wish I still had Showtime... The network is airing this eight-episode season over the next eight nights (or Showtime On-Demand is offering all the eps at once when it premieres).

Michael Ealy's undercover agent infiltrates another cell, but this time, he's leading it. Last year's cell mastermind Farik (the fantastic Oded Fehr, who gave one of my favorite performances of last year) also is returning as the now-jailed leader, who is still running things.

If this season is anything like last year's, it gets my highest recommendation. Much like I noted about BBC America shows, though, it can't be judged until all episodes are shown. Season One was a little uneven, but as a whole it was great. Check it out on DVD. Unlike the snobbish HBO DVDs, Shwotime DVD season sets can usually be found at a decent price (I've seen Sleeper Cell for as low as $20).

Premieres Dec 4 - Dec 10 Pt 1

Monday, Dec 4

Incredible Journeys; Animal Planet. 7 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Documentary about animals who migrate. This week: a polar bear.

The Eleventh Hour; BBC America. 8 pm CST. Series Premiere
Patrick freakin' Stewart plays a crime-solving physics professor. Stewart + BBC America = Must See.

Supernanny, ABC. 8 pm CST. Season Premiere.
Third Season. A perfect lead-in to What About Brian. :)

And CBS is reairing the season two premiere of How I Met Your Mother at 7:30. Here's your chance to check it out if you still haven't taken my advice and watched it yet.


Tuesday, Dec 5

Campus Ladies; Oxygen. 10 pm. Season Premiere.

Cash and Treasures; Travel. 9 pm. Series Premiere.
Host becky Worley travels the country looking for vaulable, offbeat items.

Bad Girls Club; Oxygen. 9 pm. Series Premiere.
Another booze-soaked "reality" show from the producers of The Real World. This one is about seven "bad girls" who live together in L.A. The opener highlights the roommates clashing after a night of drinking. Hmmm: drinking and fighting amongst themselves. Wasn't that on an episode of Real World once?

And if there was anyone still watching, MyNetworkTV's first telenovels end tonight.


Wednesday, Dec 6

The King of Queens; CBS. 7 & 7:30 pm. Season premiere.
The ninth (and probably final) season begins. Let's all hope it's better than last season...

Wicked Wicked Games; MyNetworkTV. 7 pm. Series Premiere.
Another 13-week telenovela; this one starring Tatum O'Neal.

Watch Over Me; MyNetworkTV. 8 pm. Series Premiere.
Does it matter what it's about? I'm sure it's classy.

Dirty Dancing; WE. 9 pm. Series Premiere.
Another f-ing reality series. This one's hosted by Chris Judd.

Twentyfourseven; MTV. 9:30 pm. Series Premiere.
A reality-show Entourage ripoff. On MTV. I'm not even gonna comment.

Mythbusters (Discovery, 9 pm) will delve into what it would take for Santa's sleigh to fly.

Inside the NFL (HBO, 9 pm-- and lots of reairs during the week) welcomes back original hosts Len Dawson and Nick Buoniconti for the 30th Anniversary show. Now that's what classy really is.


Thursday, Dec 7

My Name is Earl airs a 2-parter at 7 pm and 7:30 pm.


Friday, Dec 8

Mean Girls. For those of you who don't get movie channels or haven't watched the DVD, here's a chance to see Lindsay Lohan in a good role-- and Tina Fey being funny (kinda rare on 30 Rock or SNL). TBS, 8 pm.


Hey, lunch is almost over. I'll get to Sunday's shows within the next day or two...

Must See TV?

Fantastic News about NBC's new Thursday comedy block:

It was a success! Each show experienced some of their the highest ratings of the season.

My Name Is Earl had 9.5 million total viewers; best since Oct 12.
The Office had 9.7 mil; best since Sept 21 (awesome as that was the season premiere that "answered" the Jim/Pam finale).
Scrubs had 7.7 mil; best since Feb 28.
30 Rock had about 6.56 million-- and got a full-season pickup on Friday after the numbers came in.

The numbers aren't fantastic, but we all should be happy that if NBC stuck with the shows with lower numbers, that's pretty good news for these four shows (especially with 30's back nine pickup).

To put things in perspective, Ugly Betty had 13.85 million viewers and Grey's Anatomy had 24.27 million. But, other than Betty, there are no other comedies airing that night, so the counter-programming attempt seems to have worked-- thankfully (especially for Scrubs, which is continually on the verge of non-renewal).

Good news for the first episode of Men In Trees to air on Thursday as well: it had its highest numbers since its premiere (11.85 mil) and took second in its slot (Shark was a repeat, BTW).

NBC Mid-Season News

Finally, a network stepped up and announced its mid-season schedule. Predictably, it's NBC, which has some hits again-- but not a good schedule to fit them in yet.

Dateline NBC takes over the Tuesdays at 7 pm spot beginning Dec 26.

Friday Night Lights moves to Wednesdays at 7 pm starting Jan 10, followed by Deal or No Deal. The move should keep it out of the horrorshow that American Idol would inflict upon it on Tuesdays. But it still has to lead off the night, which is gonna be tough.

Grease: You're the One That I Want (a reality contest to find actors for the Broadway revival) begins Sunday, Jan 7 at 7 pm followed by the show that should just die already: The Apprentice (Season 6 in L.A.) at 8:30 pm. Crossing Jordan takes the Sunday at 9 pm slot starting Jan 21.

The supposed-to-be-good Black Donnellys will finally premiere in early March and will take Studio 60's spot (leaving four episodes unaired-- unless they find another spot for it; it's a very lucky show to enjoy the Heroes lead-in for much longer than most people would have expected). And Raines will take over Las Vegas' timeslot in early March as well.

Maybe It's Cursed

3 lbs got the ax after three episodes.

Oddly enough, it was in the Tuesday at 9 pm slot that Smith resided in for all of three episodes earlier this season.

Two shows down in less than three months, both starring great actors. How did Jericho make it at this network?

Thankfully, CBS has planty of CSI-related shows they can throw in there-- assuming they don't think the timeslot is cursed.

A MUST SEE show to watch out for

One of the best shows I watched all year, Bodies, is re-airing on BBC America Tuesday am (Dec 5) from 2 am to 5 am (episodes 1-3) and Wednesday am (Dec 6) from 2 am to 5 am (episodes 4-6). That's right: over the course of two mornings, the entire series is airing. Put a tape in or set the DVR.

This six-episode series is amazing. It is truly one of the best shows I've ever watched.

The show follows Rob Lake, a new doctor in the Ob Gyn department of a city hospital as he runs up against his incompetent boss, Roger Hurley. Rob makes a mistake, and Roger covers it up. Roger makes a mistake, and Rob looks the other way. Roger makes another mistake and Rob starts to question his boss' abilities. More and more mistakes, and Rob finds himself in a no-win situation: report his boss and lose his job and career or keep quiet and lose his soul.

You'd think you could easily guess how the story will go, but this isn't American TV. Rob Lake is no Doug Ross (George Clooney's flawed, but heroic character on ER). He doesn't want to lose his job-- especially knowing that Hurley could and will bury his career. He also isn't the most moral man, either; letting a mistake he made be covered up-- or having an affair with a married woman.

As with many BBC America shows, it takes an episode or two to get into. DON'T be discouraged if you aren't feeling a pay-off by the end of the first hour. Most times, a BBC America series is made to be 6 or so episodes long, start to finish, so they often utilize the full episode order to tell a complete story; a luxury American shows don't have.

But be warned: this is a very dark show. Very bloody and very emotional (could they have chosen a more heart-wrenching place to have these mistakes than a birthing unit?).

If you can stomach the blood, the emotions, and the nebulous morality of this show, the rewards will be tremendous.

Seriously, record it and give yourself an afternoon or evening to watch it, start to finish. It gets my highest recommendation. This was the show that made me buy a cable box, so I could record the series to tape to keep (until a DVD set is released, of course).

For added fun, you might recognize the actor who plays Roger Hurley. Yes, it's Patrick Baladi from BBC America's The Office. He played David Brent's boss Neil Godwin on the second season; a nice bloke, who was very friendly and down-to-earth. In Bodies, Baladi plays Hurley as a similar character, outwardly (nice, caring), but Hurley will do anything to maintain his status at the hospital, and there's a very dark side to this character.

Hey, I read a little, too

I know I focus on TV, big time. Especially during the Fantasy Football season when most of my computer time is spent on my teams (I'm #1 in one league and #2 in the other, so it's paying off).

But I also find time to read. I go on spurts where I read a ton. The last month has been one of those times.

I've promoted library use before, and I will again. If libraries have done anything for me beyond expanding my horizons, so to speak, they also force me to read. Because unlike when I buy books (which doesn't happen so much anymore-- which is okay since I've got hundreds on shelves at home), when I borrow them from the library, I have to take them back.

So I usually end up reading them.

Here's what I've read in the last few weeks:

The Van Halen Encyclopedia, C. J. Chilvers.
I'm a big Van Halen fan. Probably a bigger fan than most. I have every album, nearly every solo work any member has done, an enormous collection of magazines with interviews of any band member, and I've also tried to keep up on the goings on of the members throughout the years.

C.J. Chilvers is a mega-fan. This labor of love must have been an enormous undertaking. He's listed every album, release dates, dates they went gold, platinum, diamond. He's got every album of every member (including Hagar and Roth's solo work, and albums Cherone has been on). He's got as many tour dates as he could dig up (and even gives the usual set list-- or any aberrations).

There's a ton of info in this book.

I plan to hunt down a copy and buy it for my book shelf someday. That's probably the highest recommendation I can give.


Sir Apropos of Nothing, Peter David.
I'm a long-time Peter David fan. It began when he revolutionized the comic book The Incredible Hulk (which I was really lucky to get in on just as he started his 10-year run). I was the owner of some of his earliest work in books (the great Knight Life) until a copy I lent out never came back (it took me years to track down another copy). I can't/won't claim to have read all of his novel work; I'm probably closer to having read about half his work. Apropos, at 500 pages, is, by far, his longest work, and did he ever pack in the story.

Apropos is about as low in the medieval food-chain as one can get (bastard son of a whore who lives in the back room of a tavern), and he's not a very heroic character by any means. In fact, his entire existence is to exist. So he's not about to stick his neck out for someone else. David uses a first person narrative, which is about the only way an outwardly unsympathetic character can gain any possibility of sympathy from the reader. It works very well.

As can be expected in a fantasy novel (which this one is very accessible to any reader), Apropos finds himself in an adventure (actually, a long string of many adventures). I won't go into detail, but let's just say there's enough here to sustain an entire series of books.

As with most Peter David books I've read, the tone of the book is very playful. There's loads of humor and wordplay, and that can be a little offputting to some. I'll admit, once in a while the names pulled me out of the book briefly. Names like Apropos, Sir Umbrage (Apropos "had to take Umbrage"), Queen Beatrice (who likes to be known as Bea; Queen Bea), and King Meander (whose kingdom is a gypsy-like caravan; you know, it meanders from place to place). But that's a small quibble. There's also a number of pretty graphic scenes, some of which involve battles (or Apropos' ways of getting out of battles) and some of which involve sex (no Penthouse-style stuff, but it was in stark contrast to the rest of the book) which probably hit so hard because the book is so playful otherwise.

But I really did like this book, and I've got the next in the series (Woad to Wuin) on hold at the library.


Belly Laughs: The Naked Truth About Pregnancy and Childbirth, Jenny McCarthy.

Yes, that Jenny McCarthy. The hot blonde, who may not be a great actress, but knows what she's good at-- being funny.

McCarthy took a chance and wrote this book for women. It's a chance because she can pretty much hook a readership of men (although there's no pictures in this book), but women are usually a little less forgiving to let a "hot chick" with no medical or writing experience tell them about pregnancy.

But McCarthy immediately puts herself down and shows she's no different than any other woman, and I'm sure she did a good job (as she's got two more books published since this one). You see, she had the worst pregnancy of anyone I've ever read or heard about. I can't imagine everything that goes on to women when they're pregnant-- even though I'm married to a mother of two-- but Jenny let me into her world.

And she didn't use flowery language. She had to pee like crazy, she puked, she was constipated, she feared crapping on the bed at the hospital (which many women do when giving birth, I guess) and she had much, much more bodily stuff go on that I probably should know.

I can't say this was a great book, but it was fun-- and very easy (and fast) to read. I liked it enough to start reading her next book Baby Laughs.


And saving the best for last:

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, Max Brooks

I don't really dig zombie movies. I've seen a few of the better ones (the original Night of the Living Dead and the comedy Shaun of the Dead) and I like the comic book series The Walking Dead, but zombies don't really do it for me.

But I really, really liked this book.

Brooks takes a very unique approach to this book. Imagine the earth was overrun by zombies, and humans had to fight back. Imagine the humans won (at least have made the planet nearly 100% zombie-free). Now imagine a journalist travelling the world and recording the stories of politicians, soldiers, military leaders, fathers, mothers, children, heroes, scumbags, astronauts, and on and on about their experiences during the Zombie War.

This entire book reads like dozens of people telling their stories. Each story is a few pages long, and all together, they tell a very whole tale.

I found the premise brilliant and very engaging. Each story tells a different piece of the war, or how the zombies acted, or how people reacted. Each storyteller comes from a different walk of life. Many stories move the plot along, others tell a very emotional tale, and a few even gave me the creeps.

I highly recommend this book. It's another easy one to read. As I said, each story is only a few pages long, so it's easy to find a break to set the book down if you're short on time.

But I'll say it is a very difficult book to put down. It pulls you in.

The only quibble I have is that there wasn't a timeline at the end of the book. It's not necessary to the story, but as a reader who was fascinated by the world, I was hoping for a way to really see how long the war took (was it three years? five? it was less than ten?) and how the zombie invasion progressed and then was repelled.

But I suppose I'll have to read it again, and maybe this time, I'll note the places/events as they're told so I can have a concise overview of the war.

Or maybe I'll cheat and Google it...

PRISON BREAK-- non spoilers

Holy Sh**!!!!

Okay, I did not see that coming (until 30 seconds before it happened).

But I wish I would have told SOMEONE about my prediction as I was hoping/expecting one of the characters to do what he ended up doing.

I even e-mailed my friend, Tom, today and almost told him my prediction, but since I didn't know if he's been watching, I didn't mention it.

Well, the producers said "no one is safe", and this episode proves it.

Did anyone else notice the last shot of Bellick was an identical one of Schofield very early on in the series? I really dig Wade (Bellick) Williams, so I hope we continue to see more of him.

Thankfully, we only have until Jan 29 to see what happens (I know FOX was touting Jan 22, but I've been reading that the first date is a recap show to get us primed for the remaining episodes).

Premieres and Notables 11/27- 12/3

Big Week; I'll try to get through them all. If not, expect Part 2 a little later.

Monday, 11/27

The Fall Season of Prison Break ends tonight in what's supposed to be a pretty high-octane episode (I've heard rumblings that another major character bites it this ep) loaded with cliff-hangers. It's been confirmed that the break will be a short one this year, as the show comes back on 1/22 to a recap show, and then with new eps starting 1/29-- with no repeats until the season ends.

For those of you wondering-- The conspiracy storyline is supposed to end this season, so there will be a close to the two-year storyline. Things are hush-hush on next year's storyline, but the body count is supposed to be so high that there are only a handful of characters left to embark on the new story next season. I'm hoping it'll be Schofield hunting T-Bag.

My Super Sweet 16, MTV. 9 pm. Season Premiere.
Fourth season? Seriously?

10 Items or Less, TBS. 10 pm. Series Premiere.
Another partly-improvised comedy; this time, a guy returns home to run the family store.


Tuesday, 11/28

My Boys, TBS. 9 pm. Series Premiere.
Comedy about a tomboy sports journalist and the male friends she hangs with. It's gotten good reviews so far. Check it out.

Dirty Jobs, Discovery. 8 pm. Season Premiere.

American Gangster, BET. 9 pm. Series Premiere.
Profiles on infamous black criminals and their stories, while taking pains to not glorify them.


Wednesday, 11/29

My Celebrity Home, Style. 8 pm. Season premiere

Undercover History, National Geographic. 9 pm. Series Premiere.
Fresh perspecitves on unsolved events in history.

Corkscrewed, FOX Reality. 7:30. Series Premiere.
Reality series of two American Idol producers and their efforts to buy and maintain a vineyard.


Thursday, 11/30
NBC gets back "Must See TV" with My Name is Earl, The Office, 30 Rock, and the season Premiere of Scrubs.
***Alert: the episode of The Office is written by the original series creator: Ricky Gervais. This is MUST SEE TV, right here.***

Crimes That Shook the World, Discovery. 9 pm. Series Premiere.
Horrifying crimes are recalled. This week's ep: the BTK killer.


Friday, 12/1

BBC America is running new series and season premieres in it's Friday comedy block.
My Family (8 pm), The Worst Week of My Life (8:40), and Black Book (10:30)
I love this channel, and will be checking out most of these.

That's it. Unless you want to check out the new The Librarian: The Return to King Solomon's Mines (Sunday, TNT, 7 pm) or Big in '06 Awards (Sunday, VH1, 8 pm). I'm sure they're both garbage...

Premieres & Notables 11/20- 11/26

Sorry I'm late.

At least it's Thanksgiving Week, and very little new stuff is happening aside from Holiday Specials.

Wednesday, 11/22

Real World: Denver; MTV. 9 pm. Season Premiere.
Season 18 begins. Remember when this show meant something beyond gettin' drunk and gettin laid? Heck, remember when MTV was innovative? 'Been a long time, hasn't it?

Thursday, 11/23

I love Thanksgiving Week. It used to mean I'd have less to tape/watch. I finally got a little break from the craziness of the past three months because TV shows took a 1-3 week rest and aired repeats. Somehow that all changed the past few years. New episodes are airing tonight for Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, Survivor, CSI, Shark, Deal or No Deal, and ER. And that's just on the major networks!

Friday, 11/24

Off The Record, HBO. 10 pm. Series Premiere.
A preview of next year's new show. This pilot features Dave Stewart of The Eurythmics interviewing Bono and The Edge of U2.

Sunday, 11/26

Assy McGee, Cartoon Network [adult swim]. 10:30 pm. Series Premiere.
I'm not sure if this is a worthy replacement for Robot Chicken, but a show about a vigilante shaped like two butt cheeks is something I'm going to have to check out. I tend to watch almost all of the Sunday [swim] shows because they make me laugh. And a couple make me think. And a few make me go: "What the f*** was that?"

Speaking of making me laugh, was Monday's How I Met Your Mother not the funniest thing you've seen in a long while? When Barney slapped Marshall three times in succession, I almost fell off the couch from laughing so hard. And then the ending when Marshall backhanded Barney off the chair was a riot as well.

What wasn't funny on Monday is how hardcore Sara showed she is on Prison Break this week. Daaaaaamn!




(SPOILERS)

First, she tries to iron Kellerman's shirt-- while the dude is still wearing it!. Then she stitches a gash on her own arm in a bathroom stall using a needle and thread. Girl is taking herself to a whole 'nother level...

(END SPOILERS)



And I've got to say: Prison Break is gonna rock next week. I've been hearing big hints that someone major is supposed to die. Also, every character will find themselves in some sort of cliffhanger to make us wait in agony until the back-half of the season airs.

I also gotta say I'm glad I called how Bellick got in trouble a few weeks ago (no, I didn't read the details on a spoiler website).

VANISHED Vanishes

Another one bites the dust...

FOX pulled Vanished, finally, and will air the rest of the episodes on its website (and maybe myspace.com's as well).

I gave this show a lot of chances. I tried really hard to like it, but it was a mess. Even killing off the main character (a radical move that allowed the show a chance to change direction) didn't do it for me.

Add it to the graveyard and bring on another...

NBC Opens Doors to Immigration

NBC is hoping the success they found with The Office can allow lightning to strike twice.

It's developing a BBC Three show called I'm With Stupid with the Farrelly Brothers, which should be interesting. It's also looking to snatch a Channel 4 show called The IT Crowd and an Australian show called Kath & Kim.

I don't know what I'm With Stupid is about, but I'm sure it'll be over-the-top with the Farrellys on board. The IT Crowd is about three IT-support workers who are exiled to the basement of their company's otherwise posh office building and is being adapted by Just Shoot Me veterans. I've actually seen Kath & Kim since The Sundance Channel airs it, and it'll be interesting to see how they translate it since I found the original slow (it's faux-documentary/reality show where cameras follow around a woman and her adult daughter).

Now, NBC scored with The Office, but let's not forget the disasters that were Coupling and Men Behaving Badly; two other BBC shows it tried to adapt. BTW: I watched the original, BBC version of Coupling over the summer and found it absolutely hilarious; truly one of the best comedies I've ever seen. Check it out if you have a chance. It's not currently on the BBC America rotation, but I'm sure they'll air it again soon.

I got on a BBC America search today, looking for other shows to record, and I see it's airing the first three eps of Rocketman again this week . I have all six eps in my DVR as I haven't gotten to them yet-- but I did see the first episode, and it was very good. It brought tears to my eyes a couple times (it's a very rare show that can get that reaction from me). It's about a man's quest to send his wife's ashes into space-- just as they always wished-- but he doesn't have the funds or the proper equipment to make it happen. But that doesn't stop him from trying, again and again. But it is taking a toll on him emotionally, as well as on his children, who he has practically abandoned while he pursued his quixotic quest.

December 1 has the premieres of two promising-looking BBC America shows.

First is Hardware starring The (original) Office's Martin Freeman (who played the "Jim" inspiration "Tim"), which airs at 10pm on December 1. It's about four hardware store employees who help their customers and annoy each other.

Second is the second season of Worst Week of My Life. I didn't see the first season (the first three eps of which re-air Monday morning from 2-4 am). Each seven episode "season" follows a week in a new couple's life (the couple are played by Ben Miller and Sarah Alexander; Alexander is all over the BBC, having starred in Coupling and Green Wing as well as NBC's Teachers from last year-- but don't blame her for that NBC garbage). Week (Season) One was about their wedding, and this new season follows the week leading up to the birth of their baby. The second season begins at 8:40m on December 1, and runs the next seven weeks.

I'm trying both shows out, for sure.

I highly recommend trying out various shows on BBC America. It's not the Monty Python or Benny Hill- only network it once was. I've seen tremendous shows on it the past year and a half. Not every show is for everybody, but there are very "American-feeling" shows on it that aren't as foreign as past shows were (even The Office took me a while to "get", but "get it" I did after I understood the language differences).

Just a short list of shows I'd recommend: The Office (the first, and the harshest), Conviction (a morality tale about a guy who had a terrible secret-- has NOTHING to do with the piece-of-crap show of the same name NBC aired last spring), Coupling (seriously, one of the best comedies I've ever seen), Bodies (an extremely dark show about cover-ups, lying, and how far can one person let it go before taking action-- one of my Top Ten shows of the past year), Green Wing (Think Scrubs mixed with the attitude of M.A.S.H. and take away the FCC-- and make some of the characters bat-sh** insane), Ed vs. Spencer (two guys compete to see who is better-- or worse in various contests; a real life "Goofus and Gallant" strip), and Bromwell High (England's answer to South Park and The Simpsons; off-the-wall animation; bad-ass Keisha is one of my favorite characters of the year).

Welcome PRISON BREAK news

Sounds like FOX doesn't have much in the pipeline for mid-season-- which isn't helped by the failures of their new shows thus far, so they may have to bring back an All-Star early.

Prison Break was supposed to disappear until March after it's Nov. 27 episode, but now there's talk of bringing it back in late-January.

Good news to not have such a huge gap in the middle of the season, but it could mean the show will wrap early (in March; with a killer cliff-hanger, for sure) or air repeats in between new episodes.

Another tricky thing about it: apparently the show is running really tight now, with very little time between wrapping and airing an episode. The moved-up second half of the season could wreak havok on the filming schedule.

Oh well, I'll take my Break wherever I can get it.

Some pick ups-- and drops

It's the mid-season point of the new TV season, and we have four cancelled shows: Smith, Runaway, Kidnapped, and Happy Hour and three that are "on hiatus": Twenty Good Years, Six Degrees, and the latest, Justice, which was pulled from tonight's lineup at the last second.

These shows were given full-season pickups: Men In Trees, Studio 60, Ugly Betty, Friday Night Lights (picked up just today), The Game, Brothers and Sisters, Shark, and Jericho (which, it was just announced, will go the Lost and Prison Break route and air in two repeat-free blocks).

To follow up with Jericho: the last episode this year will be on Nov 29 and then the aging King of Queens will air in its timeslot until Jericho returns in late-February.

A Good TV Night

Well, the kids went to bed (and stayed there), and the wife is working late, so what's a boy to do? Watch the tube. And tonight had some good stuff.

First off is Prison Break (no spoilers beyond what you'd see in the previews). Man, what a jam-packed episode ("Bolshoi Booze"). Michael makes the final arrangements to get across the border, Lincoln has to make a tough choice, Sara and Kellerman square off, more and more is learned about Mahone, T-Bag tries to escape in a stomach-turning scene, Bellick threatens Geary, Geary livin' large. A horror movie-level scary visitor...

Twists, turns, revelations, foreshadowing. Only two more episodes this fall and then a too long wait for the rest of the season.

I also checked out a bunch of [adult swim] episodes from last night. Fantastic stuff.

First off was Moral Orel; my goodness, if I actually believed in Hell, I'd be afraid I was headed there after watching this. Take a kid who loooooves church, and mix in an astounding amount of naivete and the ability to COMPLETELY misinterpret the teachings he hears in church, and you get Orel.

This week, he heard that God made people in his own image, and his pastor said some are more in his image than others, so when the local Italian family 's skin doesn't match the color of his "God approved" bandaids, he decides that they are different enough to be separated from the rest of the town.

A wonderful commentary on the devisiveness of people, whether it be skin color, class, religion, or whatever.

Metalocalypse had a religious theme as well in the "Religionklok" episode from last night. William Murderface had a near-death experience and decided that he needed something more from life; something spiritual. So he decides to try out religion.

He (and the others in his band Dethklok) goes to a Christian rock gathering-- and chaos ensues. Then they visit an atheist church where they pray to "no one" and a group of protesting agnostics (with signs that say "maybe God") riot at the atheist service. But the last, and funniest, is when they visit a Church of Satan, and the service is led by a pansy and is even more boring than any other service he attended. Murderface stands up in the middle of the service and asks where the nearest bar is-- because he's so bored.

No real commentary to this one (other than worship services are boring, maybe), but it's still funny.

And my new favorite [adult swim] show now that The Venture Brothers' season is done: Frisky Dingo. Last night's episode ("Kidnapped") was the usual crazy antics of the villianous (but lazy/incompetent) Killface as he attempts to get the $12 billion he needs to finish his giant "Annihilatrix" rocket to send the planet into the sun. Since he crossed paths with billionaire playboy Xander Crews (aka super-hero Awesome X) last episode, Killface figures he should kidnap Crews to get the money. Meanwhile, the ants in the computer keyboard form the invention contest last week became super-intelligent ("because they were working with computers") and Watley, whom Xander grafted giant lobster claws onto, is charged with getting the ants-- and the nuclear waste he's got in his office-- to the dump. And hot news reporter (and Xander's girlfriend) Grace Ryan gets an interview with Killface.

All the major players converge at the end, and everything that can go wrong, does.

Check it out. It's a great show with killer lines (usually from Xander) and very realistic animation (at least the characters who are human). But as is most [adult swim] shows, it's bizarre.

Premieres and Notables for 11/13-11/19

Tuesday, 11-14

City of Men; Sundance. 8 pm, Season Premiere.
Third Season Premiere.

Show Me The Money; ABC. 8:31pm, Series Premiere.
A quiz-style game show hosted by William Shatner (could... there... be... a more perfect... game show host?).

3 Lbs; CBS. 9 pm, Series Premiere.
Smith's demise led to CBS fast-tracking this House-ian show about a neurosurgeon starring the great Stanley Tucci.

Everest: Beyond the Limit; Discovery. 9 pm, Series Premiere.
Six-part series about a 2006 ascent to the world's tallest peak.


Wednesday, 11/15

Dancing With the Stars (ABC, 7 pm), Laguna Beach (MTV, 9 pm), and I Pity The Fool (TV Land, 9 pm) all have their season finales.

Medium; NBC. 8 pm, Season Premiere.
The "little show that could" comes soon after Kidnapped's demise in a 2-hour premiere.

Day Break; ABC. 8 pm, Series Premiere.
Taye Diggs stars in this new series about an LAPD cop who gets framed for murder-- and keeps reliving the day over and over. Sounds cool, and the promos for it have rocked, but the only "review" I read of it said it was "silly". I'm still trying it.


Thursday, 11/16
My Name is Earl sees Randy munching on the wrong thing-- and then start seeing the others as "Claymation-esque" characters. Christian Slater guest stars.

And all of NBC's sitcoms are "supersized", so watch out for weird start and end times (Earl: 7pm- 7:36; Office: 7:36-8:20; 30 Rock: 8:20-9:01).


Friday, 11/17
Foxworthy's Big Night Out, Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders: Making the Team, Ice-T's Rap School, Air: America's Investigative Reports, and Real Time With Bill Maher all have their season finales tonight. The only one I'll be sad about is Real Time.

Saturday, 11/18
After a few years of not having one, Comic Relief returns, this time in aid of Hurricane Katrina survivors. HBO and TBS are simultaneously airing the benefit (I'll be watching HBO-- just in case someone "goes blue"). 8 pm.


Sunday, 11/19
Reba, CW. 6 pm and 6:30 pm, Season Premiere.
Reba comes back because of a huge deal The WB made before combining with UPN to make the CW. See, it would cost a lot more for CW to dump the show, so they brought it back. In a sh**ty timeslot. This is a classic example of "burning off" episodes. Two in a row this week, and then paired up with Reba repeats in subsequent weeks.



And, finally, just because I had to mention it. I read in this week's TV Guide that Flava Flav is expecting his seventh child in January. The unidentified woman is not a winner-- or one of the contestants-- of his show Flavor of Love.

Just wanted to mention what a classy guy Flav is, supposedly looking for love on a national (albiet cable) TV show, while hittin' it on the side. Maybe he should hollow out the clock on his neck and fill it with condoms.

Just a thought.

Or maybe a checkbook. I'd imagine child support, even for a washed up rapper, would be costly. Especially when he's got six others running around...

The November Sweeps Bloodbath

Just a quick one tonight (starting to become the norm, I know...)

We're ten days into November, and we've already had some casualties:

Happy Hour came back from its baseball hiatus for one week-- and then it got the boot. What a waste of airtime (although I hope hottie Beth Lacke finds something else to work on; she actually had some talent). It's timeslot is going to be airing 'Til Death reruns for the foreseeable future (I'm sure that'll help the ailing The O.C.).

Six Degrees got yanked. ABC says it'll come back in January, but it's struggled since the first week, getting trounced by ER of all shows. Men in Trees will take its spot (don't know if they are repeats or new episodes yet).

Kidnapped was finally brought around back and put out of its misery as it couldn't even maintain a decent enough audience in the Saturday wasteland. At least NBC is going to get some use out of what's "in the can" by having the unaired episodes on its website to watch (I think it'll have up to "magical" episode #13, which was to be the episode that ended the series anyway). As to what's going to go in Kidnapped's timeslot?-- pick a Law & Order series, and I'm sure it'll air there sometime.

Premieres and notables for 11/6 - 11/12

Sorry for no posts last week. Really sh**ty week. Maybe I'll write about it (I've got a good line about a Halloween costume).

Monday, 11/6
Sarah and Schofield finally meet up in Prison Break. All of you looking for a romantic getaway shouldn't be surprised if it doesn't happen. Let's see, since Schofield escaped, Sarah's had to deal with the knowledge that she helped 6 others escape (including T-Bag), she lost her job, father was killed, she was almost killed-- twice so far, and on and on. Yeah, I don't see a passionate lovemaking happening soon.

Vincent, BBC America. 8 pm CST. Series premiere.
Crime drama from one of the best "networks" around.

American Chopper, Discovery. 8 pm CST. Season premiere.
Fourth season already?


Tuesday, 11/7

Go vote.
Don't know who to vote for? Do what I do: do not vote for an incumbent. Preferably a non Dem or Repub if you have those options. You vote isn't wasted if it's not going to one of the two major (only) parties. If enough people keep smacking the elephants and the donkey, we may actually get something accomplished.
Is your state voting on the insidious gay marriage ban? C'mon... This is America: whether you think gays are icky or going to Hell, do you really want to deprive people of their basic rights? Vote Hell No (against a ban) for that one...

There you go: no reason not to vote now.


Thursday, 11/9

Nickelodeon is airing 26 straight hours of Spongebob Squarepants. I like the show, but by the fifth or so hour, I'd be mentally fried. I should take the day off, and try it...

Jenny McCarthy guest stars on My Name is Earl, and our favorite supporting character, Crabman, gets a storyline.

And on The Office, the Scranton branch is closing (so that's how they'll bring Jim back), and Michael tries to cheer everyone up.


Friday, 11/10

Jenna Fischer (The Office) is a guest on Letterman.

Cinemax begins its weekend-long Star Wars movie marathon in order, beginning with Episode One at 11pm. Cinemax has some great commericals touting it. And if you've got Cinemax HD-- your eyes might melt. Be careful...

Sunday, 11/12

See footage from next summer's Simpsons movie during tonight's episode (7:00 CST).

All right. Gotta fly!

PRISON BREAK direction

Just got off a spoiler website, and let's just say that by the end of Episode 13 (11/27/06), things will look very different. That's the last show of the front half of the season (before it goes on hiatus for a few months).

There's one plotline that will leave us hanging as hard as the fixed drain pipe did for the cliffhanger in the middle of the first season.

Keep reading for a look at the direction the show will take as of Episode 13 ("The Killing Box")...

Prison Break executive producer/creator Paul Scheuring is making plans for the third season already. What we know: the current storyline will end at the end of this season. Also, the next season will only focus on one or two of the characters, so it's expected that there will be a number of deaths this season as characters are written out of the show.

Okay, the direction of the show (probably classified as "teasers" since they don't spoil anything) as of Episode 13 is:



"Two escapees are recaptured and sent back towards Fox River. One man gets new living arrangements. Sara must make alterations to stay alive. One escapee commits a crime."



Now for more details about the teaser. This one is a definite spoiler, so page down a little to get to the "good stuff". And, as always, this is the end of the post, so if you really don't want spoilers, you aren't going to miss anything by not scrolling down:














"Two escapees are recaptured and sent back": Lincoln and Schofield get recaptured. They do not actually wind up back in prison.

"One man gets new living situations": Bellick ends up in Fox River with a 25 year sentence. My speculation based on bits and pieces I've gathered: he gets blamed for killing Geary (a homicide I imagine T-Bag actually committed). It's a stretch as I don't know that Geary dies or anything-- just speculation I want to post before the truth comes out.

Sara's alterations: I'm guessing an extreme makeover since she's on the run, too (from Kellerman's goons).

"One escapee commits a crime": Could be anyone. T-Bag seems the most reasonable.

Premieres and notables 10/30- 11/05

Monday, 10/30

Remember, as I posted a few days ago: "The Slutty Pumpkin" epsiode of How I Met Your Mother airs tonight.

Schofield goes on the offensive tonight on Prison Break.

Friday Night Lights airs in Studio 60's spot tonight. The episode is supposed to reair tomorrow in its normal timeslot.


Tuesday, 10/31

House returns in it's normal 8 pm CST timeslot.

Standoff returns to a new timeslot (7pm). No need to remember the change; I'm sure it still sucks.

Wednesday, 11/1

Rich List, FOX. 8 pm. Series Premiere
Get ready for the gameshow glut...


Thursday, 11/2

Fat Friends; BBC America. 9 pm. Series Premiere
A British drama about the ups anddowns of the members of a dieting club. (I wonder if it'll be funier than FX's horrible "comedy" Starved.)

And showing that anyone can get a reality show:
Rob & Big; MTV. 9:30 pm. Series Premiere.
Skateboarder Rob Drydek and his bodyguard share a house. I have an in-law connection to the show, so I have to check it out. I'll let you know what I think.

'Til Death and Happy Hour return from the baseball hiatus. Catch 'em while you can. I doubt they are long for this world. (Because they suck; not because viewers "just don't get it").

Roseanne Barr guests on My Name Is Earl as a woman who once believed Earl was God. Seeing as how the celeb guests on this show have absolutely ruled so far, I expect Rosie to do the same.

Friday, 11/3

Chevy Chase does his guest-starring role on Law & Order as a celeb who gives a Mel Gibson-styled rant after he's arrested.

Outkast's Andre 3000 cocreation Class of 3000 begins on the Cartoon Network at 7 pm.

Two new History Channel shows premiere as well: The Lost Evidence (famous campaigns through combat footage, 8 pm) and Dog Fights (famous air-to-air battles via compter graphics, 9 pm).


Sunday, 11/5

FOX Sunday returns with The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror 17. American Dad, Family Guy, and (shudder) The War at Home also return with new eps.

And someone's supposed to bite it on Desperate Housewives in the storyline that begins tonight. Everything's pointing to Lynette, so it probably won't go that way (also Felicity Huffman should be begging to be off that show since they don't know what to do with the character). Also, the previews look like Susan's daughter (Julie?) could be the one, but that's pretty hardcore. May I recommend the psycho ex of Lynette's husband?

Quick notables coming soon

I'll be posting the premieres and notables soon, but I wanted to make sure I posted ones on the tip of my brain as they come soon.

Sunday, 10/29:
BBC America is running a Hex marathon. All nine episodes of the first (only?) season from 10 am CST to 8 pm. I only saw the pilot (have the others in my "to watch" tape pile), but the commercials had a big Buffy vibe. It was promoted heavily during its run this past summer. May be worth checking out.

Monday, 10/30
CBS is repeating the "Slutty Pumpkin" episode of How I Met Your Mother. This was the episode that sold me on the show. It was very well-written, and the show pulled me in every direction it wanted me to go (will he or won't he find her?). And check out Barney's tactic to hook up with a woman by changing costumes frequently and giving her a different pick-up line.

This is a highly recommended episode of a highly recommended show. It isn't as "sexy" as The Office or My Name is Earl, but it's one of the best-written comedies out there when it's firing on all cylinders.

Now this ep is from last year, so Ted's a lot more pathetic in that ep than he is now. Just keep that in mind.

24 Trailer and Ausiello interviews

Just a quick one.

There's huge buzz surrounding the 24 trailer that was just released. I just want to know how many hours/episodes will be spent shaving Jack's face.

Here's the link:
http://www.24trailer.com/


And TV Guide's Michael Ausiello interviewed a number of FOX stars at a recent gathering, and he hit up five Prison Break members for a few minutes each. Minor spoilers in them (not here), but nothing you probably already didn't know-- or won't know long before they air.

Notables:

Wentworth Miller seems like a guy you could sit and talk with for hours. He's always seemed that way to me in any interview I've ever seen him give. Dude's smart and extremely articulate. And he seems to know his way around Michael Schofield (the Ausiello clip caught Miller saying Schofield and Mahone are almost like two sides of the same coin-- except Mahone went to the dark side).

Sarah Callies took the obvious question Ausiello had to ask and stopped him in his tracks. It was pretty good to see-- and reminded us of how much has happened to her since Schofield betrayed her.

Dominic Purcell was humorously underdressed compared to the others.

Marshall Allman seemed comfortable with his continued existence on the show.

William Fichtner cut Ausiello NO slack. He chewed him up and spit him out. Either Fichtner knows something about Mahone we've never seen, or he's deluded himself as much as Mahone has had to. I also liked how Fichtner did everything except say "stop letting the major plot beats dictate the characters," by saying, "I don't know what show you've been watching."

And Invasion fans may not want to stay to the end of the Fichtner interview. Let's just say he's not upset the show didn't get renewed.

Those were the Prison Break clips, but I also checked out the David Boreanez clip about Bones. "TV Geek" Ausiello asks him if he'd ever consider doing a Buffy The Vampire Slayer movie, and you could feel the temperature drop as he said, "I don't know." I don't what happened on that show or Angel (other than maybe he felt he was typecast for a while), but it seems as if he has no desire to go back. Bummer.

Anyway, here's the link to the clips. Most are about in the 2 minute range.
http://www.tvguide.com/News-Views/Columnists/Ausiello.aspx