Archive

Posts Tagged ‘Showtime’

Best of the Week: 13th-19th Dec

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.

best of the week 13-19dec

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

Categories: TV Tags: , , , , ,

Best of the Week: 6th-12th Dec

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.

Best of the Week: 6th-12th Dec

After a few weeks of almost no TV this week was pretty decent for content.  The Christmas holidays will mean that just about all the shows worth a damn will be on break for a while which is kinda disappointing but at least I’ll be able to get some movies watched.  I’m off to see Avatar on Friday and I may even go see Where The Wild Things Are on Tuesday.

1.  Survivor “Damage Control” (19×13) – Russell is a fucking legend, but I’m still positive he won’t win it all because of how much I really want him to.  8/10

2.  Dollhouse “A Love Supreme” (2×08) – The presence of Alpha alone makes this the better episode of Dollhouse in this weeks double-shot, but it was also a great episode in its own right.  Although Ballard isn’t strictly dead (and I’m sure Topher will be working on bringing him back) I still love it when Whedon kills one of the main characters.  Too often on other shows there are characters constantly placed in danger but nothing ever happens to them.  How is the audience supposed to be worried for their safety if they always get out OK?  It’s such a shame Dollhouse has been cancelled because these latest episodes are really building towards what was hinted at in Epitaph One.  I would love to have seen how it all developed over the course of another two or so seasons.  7.5/10

3.  Parks and Recreation “Christmas Scandal” (2×12) – I guess Louis C.K. is gone for good now and that makes me wonder how long it’s gonna be until Justin Theroux shows up.  It’s nice to see more of April (Aubrey Plaza) and I like the idea of her and Andy hooking up.  7/10

4.  30 Rock “Secret Santa” (4×08) – I’m a huge fan of Boogie Nights and Children of Men so my love of Julianne Moore should be obvious.  As such, even though I thought the secret santa stuff with the writers and Kenneth was pretty dull I think that the increased screen time for Cerie, the creation of YouFace and the presence of Moore all made this a pretty decent episode.  It was also a pleasant surprise to see the new guy actually on TGS.  I thought his appearances were gonna be few and far between but he’s had a good amount of screen time since he was added.  7/10

5.  Dollhouse “Meet Jane Doe” (2×07) – I really didn’t like the story for Echo in this episode.  The only good thing about it was the fact that she was using breaking the girl out of prison as training for freeing the dolls in the Dollhouse.  I loved Topher telling Adelle about his remote imprint technology (a great link to Epitaph One) and Adelle’s betrayal of Topher’s trust.  It’s nice to see Olivia Williams playing Adelle as a woman who is now concerned about her own position within the corporate structure.  This makes Adelle’s relationship with Topher in Epitaph One even more moving.  There were some great elements to this episode but it wasn’t very impressive as a whole.  6.5/10

6. Dexter “Hello, Dexter Morgan” (4×11) – Hurry up and dump Rita and those damn kids already Dexter.  And while you’re at it why don’t you kill Trinity.  Jesus, enough with dragging it out.  6/10

7.  How I Met Your Mother “The Window” (5×10) – If Dexter should hurry up and dump his wife and annoying kids, Ted should hurry up and find his wife so he can have his annoying kids.  Bring on the mother and Rachel Bilson (one and the same maybe?)  5.5/10

8.  Fringe “Grey Matters” (2×10) – Some more mythology at last but not nearly enough William Bell.  So far this season I’ve been pretty disappointed with Fringe.  It’s just lacked something compared to last season.  And what the hell happened to Olivia being special and turning out those light bulbs with her mind.  Maybe I’m missing something but that didn’t seem to go anywhere at all.  5.5/10

9.  Community “Comparative Religion” (1×12) – I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Jeff should forget about that dull bitch Britta and set his sights on Annie, Troy and Abed should have more stuff to do because they’re the comedy gold on this show, and Shirley should be shot because she’s so fucking annoying.  I can see this show becoming stale like My Name Is Earl did in no time which is a shame because I had such high hopes for it.  5/10

Categories: TV Tags: , , , , ,

Best of the Week: 8th-14th Nov (Twitter style)

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.

BestoftheWeek8-14Nov

Due to time constraints concerning my damn Uni commitments this installment of Best of the Week will be in Twitter style 160 characters form.

1.  Survivor “Tastes Like Chicken” (19×09) – Russell survived yet again.  Another Idol, really? Laura is pissed because he’s better than her.  Hope that bitch goes next.  9/10

2.  South Park “Dances With Smurfs” (13×13) – About time someone took on that asshole Glenn Beck.  I hate him so damn much.  Nice nod to Avatar too. Definite improvement over recent eps.  8.5/10

3.  How I Met Your Mother “The Rough Patch” (5×07) – Finally Robin & Barney broke up. They weren’t the same together. Loved the fat suit showing how the gang perceived Barney.  Roll on ep 100.  7.5/10

4.  30 Rock “The Problem Solvers” (4×05) – About as close to a Liz/Jack romance as there will be. Great ep. Loved the new guy.  “Who said I’ve been alive forever”. Classic.  8/10

5.  Fringe “Of Human Action” (2×07) – OK, but still not enough mythology for my liking.  This week’s Observer-centric ep should fix that though.  7/10

6.  Community “Debate 109″ (1×09) – Finally Jeff & Annie kissed. Not meaningful in any way so far, but hopefully they’ll hook up & not Jeff & Britta. Abed continues to rock.  6.5/10

7.  Dexter “Slack Tide” (4×07) – Last season it was a brother replacement, this season it’s a father replacement. Get over it Dexter and kill Trinity already. Rita too.  5.5/10

8.  The League “Sunday at Ruxin’s” (1×03) – Only watch because of Katie Aselton and the funny character of Taco. Any guy who has a Genesis is cool in my book.  5/10

Best of the Week: 1st-7th Nov

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.

best of the week 1-7nov

I didn’t get to watch a bunch of shows that I wanted to this week as the uni workload in preparation for my exams took all of my time.  Besides eating, sleeping, shitting and working all I did was study. Ah, I hate it so much.  I did see Trick r Treat though.  It was a cool horror flick.  Not that scary but cool.  I got a real Tales from the Crypt vibe from it.

1.  Parks & Recreation “Ron and Tammy” (2×08) – A nice episode which introduced one of Ron’s previously mentioned ex wives (played by the beautiful Megan Mullaly).  I find it a little odd that I hate Will & Grace so much yet enjoy Megan Mullaly in the guest appearances of hers that I’ve seen.  I remember her from an episode of Seinfeld as one of George’s girlfriends, from 30 Rock as a child adoption agent screening Liz, and then from this episode of Parks & Rec.  On the whole it was a pretty funny episode and it was great that Ron was the focus for once.  Not much Aubrey Plaza this week though which is a downer.  7.5/10

2.  Bored to Death “The Case of the Stolen Sperm” (1×07) – The show is really starting to hit it’s stride now.  More Zach Galifianakis and more Ted Danson (especially being involved in the cases) is a good thing.  I particularly liked the storyline this week linking into Ray’s sperm donations to the lesbians which I thought was just a simple joke in the episode it was raised in.  It was nice that it formed part of a future story.  Oliver Platt and John Hodgeman make great enemies for George and Jonathan.  It was also great to see the adorable Sam Bee (The Daily Show) in a tiny little role as one of the recipients of Ray’s sperm.  7.5/10

3.  How I Met Your Mother “Bagpipes” (5×06) – I absolutely loved Barney convincing Marshall that it was a good idea to tell Lily he didn’t want to do the dishes and that she should do them.  Ted arguing against Barney’s logic was just as great.  It was like the devil and an angel battling over him.  Aside from that though I thought the episode was somewhat average.  I like Barney and Robin together but the stories they’re coming up with for them are so average.  Aside from the Robin Sparkles based episodes Robin hasn’t had much good stuff over the course of the show, but Barney has been nothing but comedy gold.  It seems like this relationship is dragging him down into mediocrity.  I really hope that the 100th episode brings a much needed boost.  6.5/10

4.  Fringe “Earthling” (2×06) – Nothing mythology based this week but we did get a fairly decent standalone episode which brought to light some of Broyles’ backstory.  This was probably the most that he’s appeared in any episode so far.  Not much for Olivia or Peter this week either.  The ratings are also continuing to go down too.  I don’t think Fox will cancel the show before the end of the season, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they elect not to pick it up for a 3rd season if the ratings don’t show some improvement.  That’s a real shame because the show on the whole is very good.  6.5/10

5.  Dexter “If I Had a Hammer” (4×06) – When will Dexter be done with that fucking whining bitch Rita.  I’ve never hated her as much as I do right now.  She’s a prime example of why I hate the idea of marriage.  Trying to change someone and make them do all the things that they don’t want to do.  Why would anyone want to go through that kind of life.  Dexter’s situation is a little different because he’s pretty much forced to live that life in order to blend in and escape detection, but it just pisses me off so much that he’s changed his core self in the adoption of that life.  A couple of episodes ago he stated that he couldn’t lose them.  There’s no way he would have felt that way about anyone except Deb in previous seasons.  The one real bright spot of this episode was the development in the search for info by Deb about her father.  I really hope she discovers the connection between him and Dexter’s mother soon.  I don’t want that to be the cliffhanger for the season finale.  Something tells me it will be though.  Oh, and I’m over the Batista/Laguerta relationship too.  6.5/10

6.  South Park “The F Word” (13×11)South Park encouraging kids to call bikies faggots is advice that I wouldn’t suggest be followed.  Bikies account for a great deal of drug dealing and as such are probably not to be messed with.  That much can be seen by their blatant law breaking in the incident at Sydney airport where a fight broke out between rival gangs in the departure terminal and they beat a guy to death with a metal bollard.  That being said, mocking them as they did in this episode was pretty damn funny, and it’s true that all the noise from those bikes does make them fucking assholes.  Still not a very impressive episode though.  5.5/10

7.  V “Pilot” (1×01) – Having a whining teenage kid complain when his mother says she wants to listen does not build sympathy for him, it just makes him seem like a fucking baby.  Call it the Kim Bauer effect if you will.  There was some stuff to like about the pilot but nothing spectacular.  I’m still mad that Elizabeth Mitchell left Lost to star in this show.  It’s been a while since I was truly blown away by a pilot (that being Lost).  For the most part every pilot since then has been OK at best.  5/10

Best of the Week: 25th-31st Oct

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.

Best of the Week: 25th-31st Oct

No Fringe again this week and that goes along with no How I Met Your Mother or Dollhouse.  Disappointing.  Never mind though as this coming week both How I Met Your Mother and Fringe (if there’s no game 7 in the World Series) return for the November sweeps period.  The V remake also premieres on ABC on Tuesday.

1. Subtle Sexuality – “Male Prima Donna” (webisode) Holy crap this was fantastic.  I hadn’t seen any of the other webisodes based around Subtle Sexuality but I knew that a music video was coming soon.  This far exceeded my expectations.  There’s no way on Earth that this couldn’t be a top 10 single.  It sounds like every top selling pop artist currently worth a damn (in that it’s autotuned about as far as it can be) plus it has the awesome Mindy Kaling, Ed Helms and BJ Novak.  I was surprised by how much I liked Ellie Kemper in it too, seen as how she doesn’t get that much to do on The Office.  I think I’ve watched the video over 10 times now and it’s still great.  The only problem is that parts of it get stuck in my head and I sing them to myself all day. 8.5/10

2. Parks and Recreation – “Greg Pikitis” (2×07) Another great episode from the most improved show on TV.  I loved that Leslie has a seasonal feud with a high school kid, and that he bests her once again.  Roping in Dave and Andy was great too.  I loved that Dave would entertain Leslie’s behaviour simply because he liked her so much.  I really hope that Louis C.K. continues to appear on the show but I think he’ll be gone soon.  Shame.  The whole Halloween party thing was OK, nothing special though.  Except for April coming with her boyfriend and his boyfriend.  That was a nice call back to the season premiere.  I also liked that one of the boys came as a straight person and then Mark stands next to him.  8.5/10

3. South Park – “Whale Whores” (13×11) Fuck you dolphin.  Fuck you whale.  Ah South Park, how you make me laugh.  It’s about time South Park tackled the political debate on whaling and they of course did it by shredding another cable TV show.  Cartman singing Lady Gaga was hilarious.  But the best part of the episode was the end where they highlighted the hypocrisy of western society condemning whaling whilst simultaneously killing an almost endless amount of chickens and cows.  They talk about charismatic species in international environmental law and how people are far more concerned about protecting those animals with charisma (whales, elephants, tigers etc) to the exclusion of other less charismatic animals.  South Park did a good job of showing this in that closing scene.  7.5/10

4. 30 Rock – “Stone Mountain” (4×03) A fairly forgettable episode other than seeing Tina Fey’s bra and Katrina Bowden in a bikini.  The rule of three stuff was pretty good though, especially the cameo by Jimmy Fallon.  It was funny how they played up his status on late night by saying his first guest was a dog that plays soccer.  7/10

5. Dexter – “Dirty Harry” (4×05) Finally Dexter has discovered the identity of Trinity.  I certainly wasn’t expecting him to have a home and family in Miami.  When is Dexter gonna leave Rita and those damn kids.  That’s just a terrible situation for him and it doesn’t provide us with any kind of compelling viewing experience either.  It’s so dull.  I find myself fast forwarding through those scenes with him and Rita because they’re always the same, Rita telling Dexter he has to change.  I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would want to get married.  I thought Jennifer Carpenter had a lot to do this episode and she did a great job.  That scene near the end in the car park was crazy.  I thought she was gonna throw up a lung she was breathing so hard.  6.5/10

6. Survivor – “Houdini Magic” (19×07) The best thing was that Russell continues to survive and next week brings the merge.  Natalie also continues to be smoking hot.  It’s rare for my favourite contestant and the hottest contestant to both still be on the show this far into the season.  I really really want Russell to win.  But I’m almost always disappointed by the final winner of the show.  6/10

7. Community – “Introduction to Statistics” (1×07) Far more for Chevy Chase to do this week which was great but other than that and Troy’s costume, this wasn’t a particularly noteworthy episode.  Abed’s Batman impression was pretty good though.  Oh, and as always Ken Jeong continues to rock the comedy world.  Only slightly above average.  5.5/10

Teaser poster for DEXTER season 4

Check out the teaser poster for Dexter’s upcoming fourth season.

I simply loved the first season but for whatever reason I abandoned the show only one episode into the second season.  There’s no real reason why I did it, so I should probably watch the rest of season 2 and all of season 3.  I get annoyed with myself for not keeping up with shows I know I enjoy.  Weeds is another one which I suddenly stopped watching for no reason after the third season.  And don’t kill me, but I haven’t even seen the first season of The Wire yet.

dexter season 4 teaser poster

(source = The Hollywood Reporter)

Categories: TV Tags: , , , , ,