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I should of known NBC’s recent good decisions (cancelling Heroes and Law and Order) wouldn’t last.

Just a couple of days after it was confirmed that Heroes was not coming back NBC has announced their fall schedule and whilst there are a number of new interesting shows they’ve decided to switch timeslots between The Office and 30 Rock.  Worse still is that Parks and Recreation will now be a midseason show.

Ahhhhh.  How could they do this to me.  Parks and Recreation is the best comedy on TV.  Every single episode this season has been good and they’ve just introduced Rob Lowe and Adam Scott.  I’m so fucking annoyed at the stupidity of NBC.  I have no idea why they would decide to bring back a show that had such a massive improvement in it’s 2nd season and stick it in at midseason.  The only thing NBC has going for it are their four Thursday night comedies and now they’re gonna delay the return of the best one until midseason.  No wonder they’re in fourth place.

Today is a good day.  NBC has finally cancelled Heroes (3 and a half years too late mind you) and we can all move on without this absolute piece of shit polluting the airwaves.

I liked the show early on but the first season peaked with episode #17 “Company Man” and it went consistently downhill from there, and although I continued to watch the show for all of the 2nd season I did so under the foolish idea that the writers would turn it around.  They never did.

All those poor saps who deluded themselves into watching the show week after week for four years (like my friend Bean) will probably be disappointed that’s NBC cancelled it, but not me.  I’m happy the show’s gone because it sucked and it made me hate Greg Grunberg.  Hopefully NBC will find some gold within all the shows it’s added for next season with Outlaw, Chase and Undercovers all sounding at least mildly interesting.

A weekly post with the purpose of highlighting the shows I watched during the week and how I ranked them.  It’s not intended as a list of all shows on the air, only those that I actually watched during the week.  Watching something on Monday that aired on Friday won’t make the cut.

Like everything on this site it’s for my own enjoyment but feel free to comment.

Oh man, it’s been a long time since I’ve written up my Best of the Week.  What with work, a hectic study schedule and a lot of shows being on break I haven’t had the time or desire to do one of these.  That all changed this week though because I watched a decent amount of shows and my exams are over.  It feels good.  Hell, I even found time to go see Iron Man 2.

1. Parks and Recreation “Telethon” (2×22) – Detlef Schrempf.  That’s gotta be one of the best and most random casting/cameos I’ve ever seen.  Add in some truly fantastic highjinks from everyone at the telethon, Ron’s sleep fighting, and Leslie passing out at Anne’s in the tag and it amounts to one of the best episodes this season on a show which to me is clearly the #1 comedy on TV.  9.5/10

2. Lost “The Candidate” (6×14) – It’s hard to judge individual episodes of Lost because each season is really constructed as one large story which is broken up in 14-16 parts.  Not to say that the show isn’t consistently fantastic because it is.  I feel like I should have had some emotional response to the deaths which occurred during the episode but it just left me stunned that they actually killed off main characters this far from the finale.  I wasn’t expecting the people who died to actually die.  Not now and not in the series as a whole.  And I certainly wasn’t expecting four of them to go in one episode.  Looks like Jack’s the man now though.  I just wish they’d reconcile the two realities already, but something tells me we’ll learn what the whole sideways thing means in the finale and not a minute sooner.  8/10

3. Community “Modern Warfare” (1×23) – It was like Terminator, Die Hard and a John Woo flick all rolled into one.  Fantastic stuff.  Community is really ending its first season on a roll.  This and the great Goodfellas inspired episode were some of the best stuff this season.  What’s even better is that Jeff and Britta hooking up wasn’t the focal point of the episode so we finally got that over with (I’m not a fan of those two getting together, I’d prefer Jeff and Annie) without it turning into a must see episode.  Oh, and Ken Jeong rocks.  8/10

4. 30 Rock “The Moms” (4×20) – All those returning moms.  Brilliant.  Tina Fey’s boobs.  Brilliant.  Alec Baldwin being a fucking comedic legend.  Brilliant.  I really run out of ways to say how much I love 30 Rock.  This is how a sitcom should be done, not like that piece of shit Big Bang Theory.  8/10

5. Survivor “A Sinking Ship” (20×13) – Russell continues to amaze me week after week.  I wouldn’t of thought that was possible after almost two seasons with him but the guy’s a damn God.  He almost certainly won’t win it this season either (he might not even make it to the final 3) but just like last season he deserves to.  His hand has been in every move over the last two seasons.  That’s unheard of.  8/10

6. Fringe “Northwest Passage” (2×21) – Only two good things occurred in this very lacklustre episode.  Martha Plimpton guest starred (The Goonies is one of my all-time favourite films) and the identity of the “Secretary General” was revealed.  And to no-one’s surprise it turned out to be alternate Walter.  I can see it now, Walternate will tempt Peter to join him, Peter will consider but ultimately side with Walter (yay Peter really does love him, isn’t everything grand) and defeat Walternate in some mediocre fashion.  I hope I’m wrong and the plot develops better than that but I don’t think I will be.  5/10

7. How I Met Your Mother “Twin Beds” (5×21) – I didn’t even make it through the whole episode.  I think that’s the first time I haven’t watched an episode of HIMYM all the way through during its entire run.  What the hell happened to this show?  4/10

Didn’t Find Time To Watch: The Office, Treme, Justified, Party Down or The Ricky Gervais Show.

A weekly post with the purpose of highlighting the shows I watched during the week and how I ranked them.  It’s not intended as a list of all shows on the air, only those that I actually watched during the week.  Watching something on Monday that aired on Friday won’t make the cut.

Like everything on this site it’s for my own enjoyment but feel free to comment.

Once again my study commitments have raised their ugly head and I just haven’t had the time to post anything.  I’m still getting in some TV watching but even that has shrunk a little with the workload.  I’m gonna do my Best of the Week in a Twitter style 160 character format this week in an effort to get something posted and to save just a little time.

1.  Archer “Skorpio” (1×06) – Either Carol or Lana naked or in lingerie for the entire episode. The best story and some of the funniest lines yet. Best episode so far.  9.5/10

2.  30 Rock “Anna Howard Shaw Day” (4×13) – Five cool cameos. Horatio Sanz, Dean Winters, Jon Hamm, Jason Sudeikis, and Jon Bon Jovi. Liz tripping balls was awesome too.  7.5/10

3.  Survivor “Slay Everyone, Trust No One” (20×01) – Steph is back. That alone makes the return of Survivor kick ass. But add in Russell, Amanda, Tom, Courtney, Rupert, Colby & Jerri too. WOW!!  7.5/10

4.  Community “Communication Studies” (1×16) – The Breakfast Club montage alone made this ep superb, but Senior Chang dancing like Michael Jackson sustained the greatness.  7/10

5.  Lost “What Kate Does” (6×03) – I hate to put it this low but Kate episodes are always so dull. The few revelations in this ep didn’t make up for it’s mediocrity.  5.5/10

6.  How I Met Your Mother “Rabbit or Duck” (5×15) – Why is HIMYM so average this season? Maybe if they actually introduced the “mother” it would inject some life into the show.  5/10

7.  The Mentalist “Blood In, Blood Out” (2×14) – Cho’s a former gang member. That’s the biggest leap this show’s asked of me, and that’s saying something. None of these CBI guys are tough.  4.5/10

A weekly post with the purpose of highlighting the shows I watched during the week and how I ranked them.  It’s not intended as a list of all shows on the air, only those that I actually watched during the week.  Watching something on Monday that aired on Friday won’t make the cut.

Like everything on this site it’s for my own enjoyment but feel free to comment.

Just under two weeks until Lost premieres.  Oh my God I can’t wait.  I tried to get as much TV watching in as I could this week but I haven’t felt too crash hot.  Plus I watched a lot of late night talk shows and finally saw Sherlock Holmes and The Fantastic Mr Fox so all that ate into the time I could spend on prime time TV.  I’m also trying to catch up on The Mentalist, The Office and I’ve started to watch Chuck so I’m going right back to the beginning on that one.

1.  Archer “Diversity Hire” (1×03) – The show’s only three episodes old and it’s already getting hard to come up with ways to say it’s damn funny and the best show on TV.  So aside from that I’d also like to mention the fabulous voice work by all of the actors.  Every single one of them does a superb job.  Roll on the next episode.  8/10

2.  30 Rock “Winter Madness” (4×11) – The gang head to Boston as a reason for Jack to meet up with Nancy.  I loved when Tracy said nothing bad could happen and behind him Pete says “smash cut to”.  It’s writing like this which makes the show so damn good.  7.5/10

3.  Better Off Ted “Lust in Translation” (2×10) – I really enjoyed this episode.  All three stories were fun.  Especially Ted and Greta using the translator with Phil’s voice while having sex.  The episode also had more great stuff with Linda and Veronica.  Whenever those two are together it makes for some awesome scenes.  7/10

4.  Fringe “What Lies Below” (2×13) – A good standalone episode.  That’s been a hard thing to come by this season.  I especially liked the idea of a virus decimating the Earth hundreds of thousands of years ago and then being defeated by a volcanic eruption.  It seems very X-Files to me but not in a derivative way.  I wasn’t too fond of Peter going crazy from the virus but I guess there had to be personal stake for everyone involved.  And there was once again more hints as to Peter’s death and Walter getting an alternative.  The next episode is titled “The Bishop Revival” so I’m really hoping that the show finally deals with what Walter did after the original Peter died.  7/10

5.  Community “Interpretive Dance” (1×14) – This episode was actually an improvement over the last few but it still wasn’t anything too great.  Danny Pudi continues to be the best thing about the show but he doesn’t seem to be getting much to do.  I’m not to fond of the idea that Britta is gonna be jealous of Jeff and the accounting teacher.  I don’t want another will they or won’t they show.  6.5/10

6.  How I Met Your Mother “Jenkins” (5×13) – Yeesh.  Talk about fucking average.  HIMYM is fast becoming a hit or miss show.  One week it’s brilliant and the next it’s barely acceptable.  It was nice to see Amanda Peet on the show but she was completely wasted with such a shitty story.  The same happened with Rachel Bilson last week.  They better not fuck up Carrie Underwood’s appearance.  5/10

7.  The Mentalist “Bleeding Heart” (2×12) – Eh.  Eco-terrorism and local council politics don’t make for a good episode.  Average as always but Jane wasn’t really that compelling this week.  And as much of a fan as I am of Robin Tunney in Empire Records and Encino Man I’m fast approaching a can’t stand her attitude to her on The Mentalist.  Her performance/character just rubs me the wrong way.  Amanda Righetti too.  I really wish there were more Red John stories on the show ‘cos a couple per season isn’t anywhere near enough.  4.5/10

A weekly post with the purpose of highlighting the shows I watched during the week and how I ranked them.  It’s not intended as a list of all shows on the air, only those that I actually watched during the week.  Watching something on Monday that aired on Friday won’t make the cut.

Like everything on this site it’s for my own enjoyment but feel free to comment.

TV finally came back in a substantial way this week so that means I can do my Best of the Week post again.  It was an especially great week because we got double episodes of Fringe, 30 Rock, Better Off Ted, Chuck, and Archer, and there was comedy gold on just about all the late night talk shows concerning the Leno vs Conan vs NBC drama that’s been unfolding.

1.  Archer “Training Day” (1×01) – Ever since I saw the pilot back in September (which I guess is no longer the pilot considering the order that FX chose to show the first two episodes) I’ve been dying to see some more.  I’m thrilled beyond belief that I wasn’t let down.  I loved the Archer and Cyril story about training him and thinking Cyril killed a hooker.  I always know a show or movie is good when the time flies while watching it, I don’t even once look at my watch, and it leaves me wanting more as soon as it ends.  All the best shows do that.  30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, South Park.  Archer is already up to that level.  Two episodes down and it’s already the clear frontrunner to be my favourite new show this year (and second only to Lost as my favourite of everything on TV).  9/10

2.  Archer “Mole Hunt” (1×02) – It’s still hilarious after all the times I’ve watched it.  If anyone’s interested I did a little review of this episode back in September.  Check it out here. 9/10

3.  Parks and Recreation “The Set Up” (2×13) – Aziz Ansari said that this may be his favourite episode of Parks and Recreation yet and I think I have to agree.  Not only did we get a guest appearance by Amy Poehler’s husband Will Arnett as the uncomfortable date that Ann sets Leslie up with, but we also got the first episode in Justin Theroux’s arc and the supremely great Aubrey Plaza once again shined with some increased screen time.  Nick Offerman also continues to be balls out hilarious.  9/10

4.  30 Rock “Klaus and Greta” (4×09) – James Franco as himself and in love with human sized pillow with an anime girl on it.  Priceless.  Kenneth and Jack on a mission was also fantastic.  9/10

5.  30 Rock “Black Light Attack!” (4×10) – It was nice to see Danny again, and for Liz to get some action (in back to back episodes no less), but overall it just wasn’t as good as the previous episode.  The Jenna and Tracy stories really brought it down a notch or two.  8.5/10

6.  The Tonight Show – Late night talk shows don’t really belong in this list but the circumstances have been rather unique this week.  Conan moving to The Tonight Show resulted in him curtailing some of his more outlandish behaviour and that was a real shame.  However, with all the drama surrounding his probable ousting from the show this week it’s freed him up to do the type of comedy that he’s great at.  Not to mention the almost continuous attacks on both NBC and Leno have been a thing of beauty.  It’ll be a shame when Conan goes off the air and Leno returns to suck NBC’s cock and fondle their balls like the bitch he is.  8.5/10

7.  Better Off Ted “The Impertence of Communicationizing” (2×08) – The outtakes for this episode which were posted online during the week were far better than what was actually used, but it was a nice episode about following company mandates despite how illogical they may seem.  Better Off Ted does a good job of highlighting the bureaucracy of company life and this was another solid example of that.  7/10

8.  The Mentalist “Rose-Colored Glasses” (2×11) – I watched about half of the 1st season of The Mentalist and then gave up on it for no real reason.  I figured I’d give it another watch seen as how it’s doing really well in the ratings on Thursday against some good competition.  I can tell you it hasn’t changed at all since about the same point last season.  Simon Baker is still effortlessly charming as Thomas Jane and the rest of the gang are still D grade wanna be FBI Agents.  The show lives and dies by Baker’s performance and as long as Thomas Jane doesn’t become a one trick pony the show is at least mildly entertaining.  Other than that it’s just the current procedural du jour.  6.5/10

8.  Better Off Ted “The Long and Winding High Road” (2×09) -  Another good episode of Veronica using Rose as a tool to get what she wants.  I love it when they do that in the show.  Aside from that though it was a pretty average episode.  6.5/10

9.  Fringe “Johari Window” (2×12) – A pretty decent standalone episode which has been a rare thing so far this season.  I wish they’d get back to the mythology of the show though.  That’s where the real gold is.  And you gotta believe that Peter is gonna find out about being a double at some point this season.  There’s been too much of it so far for it not to be revealed.  6/10

10.  How I Met Your Mother “Girls vs Suits” (5×12) – A real letdown for the 100th episode.  There was nothing for Jason Segel or Alyson Hannigan to do and Cobie Smulders was left to be a jealous hot chick.  Plus there was more of that damn annoying mother teasing.  Either the mother is important to the premise of the show or she isn’t, but 100 episodes in should be far enough for her to be revealed by now.  If she’s important she should be in the mix by now, and if she’s not then introducing her doesn’t need to be some huge revelation.  I wish the writers/producers would just bite the bullet and cast someone already.  5.5/10

11.  Jimmy Kimmel Live! – Once again, another late night talk show appears on the list.  This time thanks to Kimmel impersonating Leno for an entire show.  Props to Chevy Chase for also making a minimal effort to appear as Conan.  6/10

12.  Fringe “Unearthed” (2×11) – Fox airing a previously unaired season one episode was just stupid.  Charlie Francis died early this season yet there he is in all his glory being a bad ass FBI Agent.  It made zero sense in the context of the season and I’m sure I’m not the only one who was confused when I first saw him on the screen.  Couple that with the fact that it was a very average episode and I get the feeling that Fox is burning off episodes so that the show can be dumped at the end of the season.  4.5/10

The title says it all.  If you’re not in support of Conan O’Brien then I hate you.  It’s as simple as that.

By the way, Jimmy Kimmel fucking annihilated Leno as a guest on Leno’s shitty 10@10 segment.

In a perfect world Leno would retire (or die) and Conan would be left free to do The Tonight Show like he was promised back in 2004.  Unfortunately we don’t live in a perfect world.

Both the New York Post and Nikki Finke are reporting that NBC has signed Leno to a new contract (because they are in breach after moving him out of the 10pm timeslot) that would put him back in control of The Tonight Show at 11:35pm and result in Conan walking away with a hefty sum of money.

The only thing I can figure from all this is that Leno obviously had a higher penalty figure if he’s removed from 10pm than Conan has if he’s dropped from hosting The Tonight Show, and that Leno must have said that he’d go to another network if he wasn’t given the hosting gig on The Tonight Show.  The difference in penalty money, the chance to improve the ratings of The Tonight Show, and keeping Leno from another network can be the only factors which brought about this decision.  NBC could of kept Conan hosting The Tonight Show at 11:35pm and put Leno on at 12:35am for a half hour but that doesn’t seem to be the course they’ve chosen.  All Conan wants to do is host The Tonight Show at 11:35pm.  That’s it.  I honestly think that all he wants is to keep The Tonight Show exactly where it’s been since 1954 and not mess with Fallon on Late Night too much.  Why’s that so hard for NBC to understand.  If you wanna keep Leno and he’s such a team player, put him on at 1:30am.  They haven’t done any of this and it all points to Leno once again screwing over a more deserving person that himself because of his own selfish attitude.  Fuck I fucking hate him and his lame, boring, vanilla, neutered, unfunny brand of “comedy”.

What a lovely dramatic weekend NBC had with the whole Leno vs. Conan bullshit.  Time for me to vent.

NBC promised The Tonight Show to Conan back in 2004 because they were afraid to lose him to Fox.  The problem was that Leno wasn’t ready to step down from The Tonight Show then, or in the middle of 2009, and this caused a similar problem for NBC in not wanting Leno to go to another network and kill them in the ratings.  Their screwed up solution was to give Conan The Tonight Show but to create The Jay Leno Show and put it on at 10pm.  Effectively undermining the position of The Tonight Show as the preeminent late night talk show and screwing over Conan.  This led to a whole bunch of complaining by NBC’s affiliates because Leno’s ratings suck and that’s having a torpedo effect on their own news shows.  All this led to the reshuffle that was announced on Sunday with the plan being to put Leno on at 11:30pm for a half hour, Conan at 12:05am and Fallon at 1:05am.

Congratulations Jay, you’ve got what you wanted since 2004, to keep The Tonight Show.  That’s what this basically amounts to.  The actual name of the product doesn’t matter.  It’s the timeslot and the host, and Leno at 11:30pm doing the same old tired and boring comedy is The Tonight Show.  Creating a show for Leno and putting him on ahead of Conan was a slap in the face, but bumping Conan to accommodate Leno is even worse.  If Conan can get out of his contract and head over to Fox he should do it in a heartbeat.  Not only would they throw money at him to entice him to leave NBC but he’d probably be able to shift back to the zanier presentation he had on Late Night.  Everyone is well aware that he’s toned down his personality to fit with the 11:30pm timeslot and the supposed hallowed history of The Tonight Show (which is a bullshit approach to take in 2009), but a move over to Fox would allow Conan to go back to his real self.

All this conjecture is pointless though because it seems pretty obvious that Conan isn’t gonna leave NBC.  He seems like too loyal a guy to bail on the network which gave him his start in late night.  So he’ll probably sit there whilst NBC reshuffles again, and accommodates Leno again, and doubts him again, all because he’s a good guy and because he reveres The Tonight Show so much.

A weekly post with the purpose of highlighting the shows I watched during the week and how I ranked them.  It’s not intended as a list of all shows on the air, only those that I actually watched during the week.  Watching something on Monday that aired on Friday won’t make the cut.

Like everything on this site it’s for my own enjoyment but feel free to comment.

Not much on TV this week as everything winds down for Christmas but I did get to finally see Where The Wild Things Are and the stupendously great Avatar.  On a shitty note my PS3 died so I was forced to buy a new one because Sony Australia won’t fix a US PS3.  Plus Uncharted 2 was in the drive when the machine died so I can’t get it out.

1.  Dollhouse “The Attic” (2×10) – It’s hard to stomach the fact that Dollhouse has been so good this season yet it suffered the ignominious fate of being cancelled by the retards that run Fox.  This episode inside the framework of The Attic was very Matrix in style but it had some outstanding moments that hint to the possible future depicted in “Epitaph One” and also provide the very real possibility of a satisfying conclusion to the series.  I’m beyond ecstatic that Adelle has now been shown to be with the good guys in their attempt to bring down Rossum.  I really like the group that’s been assembled with Adelle, Boyd, Ballard, Ivy, Topher, Echo, Victor and Sierra.  With only three episodes left in the series I’m very hopeful that the show will go out with a bang.  And that Topher and Adelle will come together to cure Miss Lonely Hearts deep sadness.  Plus no-one understands and cares for Topher like Adelle.  8.5/10

2.  Dollhouse “Stop-Loss” (2×09) – No too bad of an episode but I wasn’t too fond of the central plot of Victor’s release and subsequent induction into the military unit.  There was a definite Borg connection with that collective which was fairly cool but the best stuff in this episode was the scheming by the various people within the Dollhouse.  If anything, this episode acted more as a setup to “The Attic” than as its own standalone story.  7/10

3.  How I Met Your Mother “Last Cigarette Ever” (5×11) – I really liked the gang all having smoking in common, and their unified attempt to break the habit.  I also enjoyed the new guy playing Robin’s co-anchor, but I just wish they’d get around to introducing the now mythical mother.  7/10

4.  Survivor “Two Brains Are Better Than One” (19×14) – Russell continues to go along unchallenged which continues to surprise me because it seems like everyone has commented about how he can’t be trusted.  I particularly loved when he decided to keep the immunity necklace as a souvenir rather than play it at the last time he was allowed.  That’s how confident and cocky he is.  I just have a hard time believing he’s gonna win it all because of how much I really want him to.  6.5/10

5.  Dexter “The Getaway” (4×12) – Another average episode that has some people buzzing about the “shocking” ending.  I think that whinging Rita had it coming and I’m just upset that it wasn’t Dexter who did the deed himself.  I also find it a little convenient that Trinity found Rita seen as how the address he got for Dexter was his old apartment and it’s entirely questionable whether there would be anything at the apartment which let him know of Dexter’s new address.  Seems like the show needed Rita to die and they went about it in a contrived fashion.  It would have been vastly better if Dexter had lost control with Rita like he did with Quinn, the cops and the hit and run guy.  The end result would have been the same but there would also be the added element of his potential remorse and the mounting suspicion of the disappearance of Rita.  Now we’ll just have him be sad and saddled with three kids he probably doesn’t want next season.  5/10