Television Premieres and Notables: March 3-9, 2014

Monday, 3/3

Bates Motel; A&E. 8 pm CST. 2nd Season Premiere.
Season 1 had some moments where it dragged (the whole town-wide drug trade yawner, for one), but stars Freddie Highmore and Vera Farmiga were absolutely great. Totally worth some eye-rolling to watch their work.

Those Who Kill; A&E. 9 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Chloe Sevigny stars as a detective with some serious baggage.


Tuesday, 3/4

Bill Paxton appears for a few episodes of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD (ABC; 7 pm CST).

The Goldbergs (ABC; 8:01 pm CST) pays homage to that classic '80s film: The Goonies.


Wednesday, 3/5

Flipping Out; Bravo. 9 pm CST. 7th Season Premiere.

Restaurant Impossible; Food Network. 8th Season Premiere.

The Face; Oxygen. 9 pm CST. Season Premiere.

Through the Wormhole With Morgan Freeman; Science. 9 pm CST. 5th Season Premiere.


Thursday, 3/6

Saint George; FX. 8 pm CST. Series Premiere.

Sirens; USA. 9 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Co-creator Denis Leary brings us this humorous series about Chicago EMTs.


Friday, 3/7

Sofia the First; Disney. 8:30 am CST. 2nd Season Premiere.

Cesar 911; National Geographic Wild. 8 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Cesar Milan has another show.


Saturday, 3/8

The Graham Norton Show (BBC America; 9:15 pm CST). Season Finale.


Sunday, 3/9

Resurrection; ABC. 8 pm CST. Series Premiere.
A young boy who was last seen 30 years ago is seen in a rice paddy in China.
He hasn't changed, physically.

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey; Fox. 8 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Seth MacFarlane produces this "reboot" of Carl Sagan's classic series, and he brings Neil deGrasse Tyson to show us around.

True Detective (HBO; 8 pm CST). Season Finale.

Chopped Tournament of Stars; Food Network. 8 pm CST. Season Premiere.

OMG! Wall-E is coming true!

Television Premieres and Notables: February 24-March 2, 2014

Monday, 2/24

The Voice; NBC. 7 pm CST. 6th Cycle Premiere.

Dallas; TNT. 8 pm CST. 3rd Season Premiere.

RuPaul's Drag Race; Logo. 8 pm CST. 6th Season Premiere.

Late Night With Seth Meyers; NBC. 11:35 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Another Saturday Night Live alum gets a show.
Funny considering SNL has sucked for so many years...


Tuesday, 2/25

Game of Arms; AMC. 8 pm CST. Series Premiere.
This hard-hitting docu-reality series gives us a close look into the high-stakes world of arm wrestling.
I hope they use the Sammy Hagar/Edward Van Halen tune "Winner Takes It All" (as heard in the Stallone classic film Over The Top) as the theme song.

Amish Mafia; Discovery. 8 pm CST. 3rd Season Premiere.

Mind Games; ABC. 9 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Christian Slater and Steve Zahn star as brothers who use observation to manipulate others into doing things.

Clash of the Ozarks; Discovery. 9 pm CST. Series Premiere.

Ink Master; Spike. 9 pm CST. 4th Season Premiere.


Wednesday, 2/26

Survivor: Cagayan; CBS. 7 pm CST. Season Premiere.

Mixology; ABC. 8:31 pm CST. Series Premiere.

Legit; FXX. 9 pm CST. 2nd Season Premiere.


Thursday, 2/27

The Red Road; Sundance. 8 pm CST. Series Premiere.
A Jersey sheriff forms an alliance with a Native American tribe.

Ice Cold Gold; Animal Planet. 9 pm CST. 2nd Season Premiere.

Vikings; History. 9 pm CST. 2nd Season Premiere.


Friday, 2/28

Inside Job; TNT. 8 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Four people apply for a job; one is a spy for the company.
I don't know what the point is...

Hannibal; NBC. 9 pm CST. 2nd Season Premiere.

Betty White's Off Their Rockers; Lifetime. 9 pm CST. Season Premiere.


Sunday, 3/2

NASA's Unexplained Files; Science. 9 pm CST. Season Premiere.

Television Premieres and Notables: February 17-23, 2014

The Winter Olympics are wrapping up this week. If you haven't been watching, give something a chance.

The USA Men's Hockey team had a killer game against the Russians-- and if we're lucky, we'll see them face each other again.
The Women's team ran over their opponents until they came up against their arch-nemeses, the Canadians.
Unfortunately, the teams I have been watching most closely for the past couple Olympics, the U.S. curling teams, have been plagued with bad play at first, and then bad breaks later. The women didn't make it past the Round Robin and the men are not far behind. Not great for my "local" teams (the women are mostly from my current WI whereabouts and the men are from my birthplace of MN).
Oh well. Still gotta root for 'em.
But since the U.S. women are done, I'm hoping the Russians can make a run if they get past the prelims. They're my team now. Not only are they interesting in a less-seasoned (they're very young for the field) way, but they're strikingly beautiful.


Monday, 2/17

Lab Rats; Disney XD. 5:30 pm CST. 3rd Season Premiere.

Star Crossed; CW. 7 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Sexy teen aliens integrate themselves on Earth through a high school and hang out with sexy humans.
Okay-- I'm sure there's more to it, but that's what I know.

Worst Cooks in America; Food Network. 8 pm CST. 5th Season Premiere.

The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon; NBC. 11:00 pm CST. Premiere.
Fallon gets his shot in the big chair.


Tuesday, 2/18

Tosh.0; Comedy Central. 9 pm CST. 6th Season Premiere.


Wednesday, 2/19

Super Fun Night (ABC; 8:30 pm CST). Season Finale.
It's ep #17, so that's weird-- but I read somewhere that this is the end of the season tonight.

Fleming: The Man Who Would be Bond (BBC America; 9 pm CST). Mini-series Finale.


Thursday, 2/20

The Taste (ABC; 7 pm CST). Season Finale.


Friday, 2/21

Hello Ross; E! 9 pm CST. 2nd Season Premiere.


Saturday, 2/22

Ripper Street; BBC America. 8 pm CST. 2nd Season Premiere.

About a Boy; NBC. 10:07 pm CST. Series Premiere.
A man (David Walton, who I've liked quite a bit in past NBC comedies) who was doing just fine on his own, has new neighbors in the form of a single mom and her son.


Sunday, 2/23

Downton Abbey (PBS; 8 pm CST). Season Finale.

Growing Up Fisher; NBC. 9:30 pm CST. Series Premiere.
J.K. Simmons stars as a blind lawyer, and Jenna Elfman plays his soon-to-be ex-wife.

Some of the wrongest lovemaking stories I've ever read

Television Premieres and Notables: February 10-16, 2014

Monday, 2/10

Top Gear; BBC America. 7:30 PM CST. 21st Season Premiere.


Tuesday, 2/11

The 138th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show; USA. 7 pm CST. Special


Friday, 2/14

Ghost Adventures; Travel. 8 pm CST. 9th Season Premiere.

Outrageous Acts of Science; Science. 9 pm CST. 2nd Season Premiere.


Saturday, 2/15

Atlantis (BBC America; 8 pm CST). Season Finale.


Sunday, 2/16

Wicked Tuna; National Geographic. 8 pm CST. 3rd Season Premiere.

Television Premieres and Notables: February 3-9, 2014

Monday, 2/3

Swamp People; History. 8 pm CST. 5th Season Premiere.

Inside Comedy; Showtime. 10 pm CST. 3rd Season Premiere.


Tuesday, 2/4

Ravenswood (CW; 8 pm CST). Season Finale.


Wednesday, 2/5

Top Chef (Bravo; 9 pm CST). Season Finale.


Friday, 2/6

Opening Ceremony of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games; NBC. 6:30 pm CST. Special.
The Winter Games are back, and I am stoked.
I'm going to hit as much curling and ice hockey as my DVR will allow.


Sunday, 2/9

The Walking Dead; AMC. 8 pm CST. Mid-season Premiere.
As has been the case with the mid-season finales, the "game has changed", so we'll be coming back to these characters in a much different place after the wild events of the last episode.
There also was quite a bit of casting announcements last summer of characters we haven't seen yet, so I think we can assume we'll be seeing new faces very soon.

Television Premieres and Notables: January 27-February 2, 2014

Wednesday, 1/29

Toy Hunter; Travel. 8 pm CST. 3rd Season Premiere.

Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond; BBC America. 9 pm CST. Mini-series Premiere.
Dominic Cooper plays Ian Fleming, the man who created James Bond.


Friday, 1/31

The Carrie Diaries (CW; 7 pm CST). Season Finale.


Sunday, 2/2

After The Super Bowl (around 9:30-10:30 pm CST), New Girl and Brooklyn Nine-Nine air special new episodes.

Odds and ends

Ok, so I know this blog thing isn't always that creative. Regurgitating web content takes some time (and sorry for the ones that don't post correctly; sometimes I pre-post weeks in advance in the attempt to have something new post every day) but not always a lot of energy.

So I'm going to give a shot at periodic "things I think are cool/lame/etc" a little closer to my actually experiencing them.

[On that note, can I point you to Twitter? @teameckent, where I actually Tweet a few things about what I've watched or read-- around reTweeting/regurgitating the genius I see there. You don't even need to be on it; just go to the website and search for me.]

Won't promise frequency or length for these blog things, but I'm giving it a try...

TV:

I am so stoked to see what Archer comes up with this season. What does a spy agency that gets shut down by the FBI going to do with itself? Maybe sell that $50 million of drugs it had in storage. Archer Vice-- cannot wait.

I am liking @Midnight quite a bit. I am just flabbergasted by the quick wits that show gets. I'm sure there is some content/bad jokes cut out, but, geez, there are really some great stuff. And Chris Hardwick really is coming in his own as a host.

I'm also really loving The Goldbergs. Great cast that gibes me at least one huge laugh every episode. I love Bert on Trophy Wife. Love him. I think How I Met Your Mother is finally finding some of the greatness it lost a few years ago. Still erratic, but the highs are higher, and the lows aren't as awful.

Agents of S.H.I.E.LD. had a bit of a slow start, but it's really found its legs of late. Gotta give Clark Gregg big props. He has been the father figure and emotional center to this show-- and he's really great at it.  I also love that bits of the mysteries are being revealed and often coming in very unexpected ways. And they are revealed in ways that set-up more-- or give us very interesting reactions by the characters.
Case in point: last week revealed a big part of Skye's backstory. But instead of us seeing how she reacted to it, Coulson related the reaction to May-- and it went a big way to explaining what type of person Skye is. Brilliant scriptwriting there.

I had the Big Deal that happened on Person of Interest in November spoiled to me, so I couldn't bring myself to watch it until last week. Damn... Gut wrenching.  And then they took it to an even darker level the next episode when the ends were being tied up. Using Johnny Cash's rendition of "Hurt" to open the episode while the remaining members of the "team" went on a tear... Didn't think I could hurt more than I did the episode before.

But my favorite show right now is The Neighbors. Completely, absolutely surprising every week. Killer cast that has really found its groove within all the craziness.  And it always lands back on a very human center by the end. Love, friendship, breakups, mid-life crises, new careers... the show really is a lot of fun.


Music:

I really liked Jordis Unga on Rock Star: INXS from a few years back and even watched her on The Voice a couple of years ago (didn't like her songs as much on that show). So when she released a song recently ("Neva Eva") I actually downloaded it (I'm still old school-- would rather have a CD than a file that can disappear). And it's great. Just great. It has a '50s Motown vibe, but still sounds very contemporary.

A woman knows her man has been messing around on her, and she's calling him out. Jordis had a pretty cool idea to change her tone throughout the three minute song that really accentuates her skills. The chorus (she knows her man will say he would "Neva Eva" cheat on her) is sung first as a matter-of-fact statement, then moves to "cute" then has an angry tone. Love it. Give it a try and then download it yourself if you like it. She may have moved to L.A. (I think), but I still consider her a hometown (Twin Cities) girl I can root for.


The Web:

I've been pointed to two great Amazon review pages; one for a crazy-expensive TV and another for a candy that makes one lose bowel control.
I just f-ing love the genius of the average person on the internet...

Samsung 4K HDTV

Haribo Gummy Candy




Well, that'll do for now. I'll try to get to movies and books the next time...

Television Premieres and Notables: January 20-26, 2014

Monday, 1/20

Sleepy Hollow; Fox. 7 pm CST. Season Finale.

Hollywood Game Night; NBC. 7 pm CST. 2nd Season Premiere.

Klondike; Discovery. 8 pm CST. Mini-series Premiere.
Three-part mini about the gold rush.


Wednesday, 1/22

Ghost Hunters; Syfy. 8 pm CST. 10th Season Premiere.

Workaholics; Comedy Central. 9 pm CST. 4th Season Premiere.

Wahlburgers; A&E. 9:30 pm CST. Series Premiere.
The Wahlberg brothers open a restaurant in Boston.

Broad City; Comedy Central. 9:30 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson bring their Web series concept to the small screen.


Thursday, 1/23

Rake; Fox. 8 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Greg Kinnear stars as a sleazy lawyer.

King of the Nerds; TBS. 9 PM CST. 2nd Season Premiere.


Friday, 1/24

Dracula (NBC; 9:01 pm CST). Season Finale.


Saturday, 1/25

Black Sails; Starz. 8 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Pirates!


Sunday, 1/26

Barefoot Contessa; Food Network. 10:30 am CST. 21st Season Premiere.

WTF Happened to Movie Posters

This is pretty great.
If you're like me, you haven't even noticed how shitty movie posters have gotten.