The Office 706 Review- Only One Season Left MacGruber

Creed: Best Edward James Olmos costume I've ever seen...like freaky good.

I thought last night's The Office, "Costume Contest", had a lot of good laughs, but some long story lines that felt tiresome. You can check out my review of the episode over at TV Fanatic. There were definitely more Halloween themed episodes this year than last, but for the majority they were good. If anything, it's a great way to get costume ideas for this Sunday.

My best options...

Man-Spider- Always Sunny
Glenda or Miss Piggy- Community
Scranton Strangler- Office
Pierre Thomas- The League

The Office 706 - "Costume Contest"
Review
Recap
Quotes

Survivor Week 7- La Florian Voting Patterns

Spoiler alert...Below are a few thoughts on last night's episode of Survivor: Nicaragua. So watch the ep, pee in an already dirty pool, then read what I have to say.

Marty- "I gotta give the idol to somebody, so I'm either giving it to Jeff tonight or I'm giving it to Sash."

Ummm, excuse me? I was all prepared to write about how dumb Brenda and Sash were thinking that asking Marty for his idol was even remotely close to being a plan, but then Marty actually fell for it! And then to top it all off, it didn't end up getting him sent home?!?

I mean come on! How about we ask him for idol? How is that a plan? Who on earth would hand over their idol with no real strategy as to why. I mean when J.T. did it on Heroes vs. Villains, it was dumb, but at least if he was correct in his thinking, it could have been a good move. This move by Marty was just one of desperation and stupidity.

Let's think about this for a second. You can give the young kids your idol, knowing that you are one of two people currently on the outs, and hope that it buys you their loyalty and gets you through this week. He is lucky that these kids don't understand that he is the much bigger threat and failed to vote him out this week, but now it is those same kids that now have the idol and the numbers. Or, you can use the idol to protect yourself this week, and have an even playing field with the kids. You may win a couple of more challenges and make it to the merge. Just a completely ridiculous move by Marty.

But then once they get the idol from Marty, the La Florians don't vote him out. Whuck?!? What is the point of keeping him over Jill? With the five non Jill/Marty's of La Flor splitting their votes 3 and 2 between Jill and Marty, I can only assume that just had absolutely no plan going into tribal. This season by far, has had the most unexplainable voting patterns I have ever seen.

In fantasy related news, next year I am going to have to modify the idol scoring system. Currently it is if you find an idol you get 10 points. If you use it correctly you get 10 and if you use it incorrectly you get minus 10. Next year I will add that if you steal or are given one from someone else it is 10, and if you give one away to somebody else it is minus 10. No excuse for this action.

Meanwhile I am still killing it and well on my way to the Fantasy Survivor Championship. Get some Jaydon.

Fantasy Scores

Brigade Grenades

Sash- W7 (22)= 22
Chase- W7 (22), Reward 4, Im (8)= 34
Dan- W7 (22), Reward (4), Im (8)= 34
Jill- Votes (-12)= -12
Jane- W7 (22), Votes (-8)= 14
Week 7= 92 Total= 387

The Full Schilling

Jimmy J
Benry- W7 (22), Reward (4), Im (8)= 34
Kelly B
Alina- W7 (22), Reward (4), Im (8)= 34
Holly- W7 (22), Reward (4), Im (8)= 34
Week 7= 102 Total= 289

Studio Flow CEO

Shannon
Fabio- W7 (22)= 22
Kelly P- W7 (22)= 22
Jimmy T
NaOnka- W7 (22), Reward (4), Im (8)= 34
Week 7= 78 Total= 231

Power Bottoms

Brenda- W7 (22)= 22
Marty- W7 (22), Votes (-8)= 14
Tyrone
Yve
Wendy
Week 7= 36 Total= 121

Sons of Anarchy 308 Review- When You're Bleak, You're Bleak

Jax: Holy s**t! What was that?

Irish Dude: Welcome to Ireland.

So this week Sons of Anarchy needed an hour and a half to disappoint me. To understand all that disappointed me in this week's episode, "Lochan Mor", head over to TV Fanatic to read my review. I tweeted a couple hours ago that I enjoy it when my review and Alan Sepinwall's review have similar sentiments. After mine went live, I went over to HitFix to see with the Godfather of television criticism had to say, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that he was also disappointed.

He also mentioned, like Jaydon commented on my review last week, that creator Kurt Sutter has been claiming that only chicks can understand the greatness of this third season. First of all, there's no way that is true. Secondly, if you have ever read this blog, you know that I hope on everything good in this world that he's not happy about that. Why on Earth would he want his show to only be gotten by chicks? This isn't America's Next Top Model. This is Sons of Anarchy. Dudes can understand clever and deep, understated plot lines. What your run of the mill awesome dude can't take is boring, dragging your feet in the mud plots that don't get anywhere by episode eight.

Having said all that, I still am a big fan of the show, and when this months power rankings come out, it might actually move up, but this season has definitely been worse than the previous two. And like Sepinwall said, "that has nothing to do with my gender."

Sons of Anarchy 308 - "Lochan Mor"
Review
Recap
Quotes

The Event 106- Age Is Just A Number

Spoiler alert...Below are a few thoughts on last night's episode and the start of The Event's first season. So watch the eps, bring me a sunflower 50 years too late, then read what I have to say.

I really want to do a better job of talking about some of the shows that I don't get to write about over at TV Fanatic. I could wait until the first of the month, and the November Power Rankings, to give my thoughts on the start of The Event, but last night's episode intrigued me enough to give it its own post.

Most of my readers (like 5 out of 6 total) enjoyed Flash Forward more than I did, but I still found much of it interesting. I find Flash and The Event so easy to compare because they have both come out as saying they are like Lost and critics immediately slammed both of them for being nothing like the recently retired great.

Both shows were and are of the serialized format, and both series had and have science fiction elements in them. The one area that I felt Flash fell short, and contrarily have seen some promise for in The Event, is getting the audience to care about the characters.

Throughout the season, I have enjoyed Jason Ritter and Sara Roemer story, and have been pleased with the tale of Simon the undercover alien. This week we got to know Simon in much greater detail as they kept flashing back to his life in the 1950s and early 2000s. In what was a great technique for Lost back in the day, I thought the flashbacks worked perfectly to get me more involved in Simon's story.

The only negative that came from this is that I think he died underneath that building. I'm not ruling out that he is still alive though, since he may have some super human alien strength. Let's hope so because last night he became my favorite character on the show, and it would be a shame if they got rid of him just like Flash Forward did to Al Gough.

Again, the flashbacks are a great technique to get the audience deeper in the minds of the characters. I think once we figure out what went down in President Martinez's past, he could become a more interesting guy, but for now he's one that I could care less about.

Keep the crazy stuff coming, but don't forget to make us care about the people that this crazy stuff is happening to.

Chuck 406 Review- Squirrel Baby's Brother

Morgan: I knew Mrs. B wasn't a bad guy. You know why? Bad guys don't make such delicious lemon bars.

You can check out my review of last night's Chuck, "Chuck vs. the Aisle of Terror", over at TV Fanatic right now. I thought it was another great ep and explained why in my review. If you're just in it for the yucks, check out all of the great quotes, or this week's Round Table over at the site.

Chuck 406 - "Chuck vs. the Aisle of Terror"
Review
Round Table
Recap
Quotes

The Office 705 Review- Justifying the Sale

Dwight: People can't keep their true natures hidden for long and this guy is smoldering like a tire fire.

Michael: Testify.

My review of last night's The Office, "The Sting", is up over at TV Fanatic, but I'm going to take another few paragraphs to piggy back off of what I was complaining about in my 30 Rock post. If you are, or ever have been, a fan of The Office, I dare you to listen to Talking TV With Ryan and Ryan's State of The Sitcom and not pull your hair out.

Critics' ability to take something as silly as The Office and critique it like it has characters from Mad Men, is absolutely absurd. Yes Michael Scott is many things, and many of those things are hilarious! Who cares if something he does this week doesn't exactly coincide with what he had been three years ago? It's a silly comedy that is supposed to make you laugh. Now sure, sometimes it fails at that, like last week's episode for example. But don't criticize it for its characters not seeming real. Criticize it for using unfunny situations with Jan, or Ed Helms's inability to make us laugh when ranting about the dangers of sex.

This week I laughed a lot. I thought Dwight and Jim were both used quite well, some of the smaller characters were infused much better, and Michael was Michael (which is good for me in almost any circumstance). I know there are Michael haters out there, and I respect that, but personally I find him hilarious. This week, that did not change.

The Office 705 - "The Sting"
Review
Recap
Quotes

30 Rock 505 Review- Ice Cream Caper

Tracy: Shirt on or off, Sean?!?

After listening to Mo Ryan and Ryan McGee's podcast on the State of the Sitcom, I realized that good comedy is much more subjective, and opinion based, than good drama. Listening to them wax on about how great The Big Bang Theory is, and continue to trash on Community, made me think that not only do normal people have amazingly erratic thoughts about sitcoms, but so do critics.

I guess one of the main problems I have with critics' feelings about comedies, is that they always give off this feeling that the show needs to be realistic and make sense. No, it doesn't. After complaining about the lack of realism in some comedies, Ryan and Ryan went on to talk about how they liked 30 Rock because it had a niche.

Yeah, that niche is being funny. A sitcom, unlike a drama, shouldn't have to feel realistic. A certain type of comedy can, but it's not inherent to be good. 30 Rock is completely ridiculous and because of that is funnier than most shows.

My review of last night's 30 Rock, "Reaganing", is up over at TV Fanatic. I didn't find it as funny as last week's "Live Show", mainly because there weren't as many good jokes. Just because the live show was a bit off putting in terms of look and feel, that doesn't mean it wasn't funnier than almost all the episodes from last season.

30 Rock 505 - "Reaganing"
Review
Recap
Quotes

Survivor Week 6- Grand Master Marty

Spoiler alert...Below are some thoughts on the sixth episode of Survivor: Nicaragua. So watch the ep, eat some kebabs in front of me, then read what I had to say.

Well somehow my entire post got deleted so I'm not going to try and re-think of everything I had to say the first time around. Never-the-less this week's tribal council was very interesting and deserves at least a few thoughts on it.

How do you have a plan of getting Marty out and/or flushing out the idol and end up doing neither? Even if you wanted Kelly B out because of the sympathy vote down the road, that's not enough to vote her out now on a tie breaker. Marty now has revenge on his mind AND the hidden immunity idol in his back pocket. Plus he has an extra chip in that Brenda made a terrible move at tribal. Really, what was she thinking calling out Marty on wanting to get Jane out? That can't do anything but make more enemies in my opinion. She should definitely watch her back at this point.

For the first time this season, I'll comment on how I am crushing everyone in fantasy. Man does my team look poised to finally take the championship. Jaydon, on the other hand, scrub city.

Fantasy Scores

Brigade Grenades

Sash- W6 (16)= 16
Chase- W6 (16)= 16
Dan- W6 (16), Votes (-4)= 12
Jill- W6 (16), Ind. Im (20), Ind. Reward (10)= 46
Jane- W6 (16)= 16
Week 6= 106 Total= 295

The Full Schilling

Jimmy J
Benry- W6 (16)= 16
Kelly B- Votes (-12)= -12
Alina- W6 (16)= 16
Holly- W6 (16), Ind. Im (20)= 36
Week 6= 56 Total= 187

Studio Flow CEO

Shannon
Fabio- W6 (16)= 16
Kelly S- W6 (16)= 16
Jimmy T
NaOnka- W6 (16)= 16
Week 6= 48 Total= 153

Power Bottoms

Brenda- W6 (16), Votes (-8)= 8
Marty- W6 (16), Votes (-12)= 4
Tyrone
Yve- Votes (-24)= -12
Wendy
Week 6= -12 Total= 85