Monday Musings- Serena Bets the Bluff

Gossip Girl
The three-girl dynamic that was the main focus of this week's episode was just fantastic. Blair, Vanessa and Olivia are all completely different and the way way they battled each other had a great chemistry about it. First you have good old Blair, who is as brutally conniving as they come. Then there is the new girl, Olivia, who seems to be as genuinely nice as we've seen on this show. And finally Vanessa, who back in season one seemed much like Olivia, but has taken on parts of Blairs deceitfulness as the year's have progressed. This week she was a very bad girl in the way that she treated both her roommate, Olivia, and her best friend, Dan.

It's sad to see the awfulness that is Serena is dragging Nate into these awful story lines with her. This week Nate and Serena went to a poker game in which Serena had to play because the opponents wouldn't allow Nate in the game. Here's my question, do the writers for these shows not have anyone consulting them in specific areas. Whoever wrote this ep has never played poker. They might have seen poker on tv or in the movies, but they don't know how bluffing or tells work. Even if this PJ character had changed his tells, it wasn't going to help Serena's cause. NOBODY BLUFFS ON A CALL. I know I've seen this before on tv. If you want to beat someone who is bluffing, you wait until they make their move (it might be pushing the stacks) and then YOU CALL HIM. The nerve of these writers to think they can get one past the kid.

Sunday Speculations- Betty Finds Dick Whitman

Mad Men
This was the first time I've finished an episode of Mad Men asking myself questions and really looking forward to the next ep. Betty finding Don's Dick Whitman stuff truly brings up a lot of questions. What did she really find out from looking through it all? How much stuff was in there, and how good was Betty at figuring out what it all meant? If she does know that Don was Dick and switched his identity, what will she think of all of it? Does she now give him a break for the way he behaves? Or does she detest him even more like they foreshadowed by her getting snippy with him on the phone near the end of this week's ep. Will she say anything to him, or keep this bottled like she has in the past? Betty has always been the most interesting character on the show for me, and this may make her that much more of an intriguing person.

Brothers and Sisters
A couple of great moments from a couple of my favorite characters on this show. First of all, Rebecca, who I have loved since day one, is on the hunt for a venue to have her upcoming wedding. After realizing that every place they look at is stupid, which I agreed with, she remembers what she loved to do as a kid and decided that was what she wanted for her wedding day. As a kid she would imagine that her and her stuffed dolphin were alone on a tropical island, highlighted by palm trees and tiki torches. I think it was meant to be between me and this fictional character.

Now Sarah, who has been out in France for the last couple of episodes, returns to Cali to help out Kitty with her cancer treatment. While being there for her sister, Sarah retells the story of how she met some French dude through flashback dream sequences. The way they went about showing this made it seem like she was making the whole thing up, starting with her looking for something to talk about at the very beginning of the story. Sure enough when they got near the end, Kitty realized that the story was made up because it was the same plot to a movie they used to watch as kids. The clever, but illogical, move they did next was to switch it back to a true story that Sarah changed the ending to so that Kitty wouldn't know Sarah left her French dude just to come back to the States for her sister. That's all well and good, but she was obviously making the whole thing up from the beginning. How do you explain that?

Poolies Watch- Dr. Doug Ross Award

It's always tricky figuring out which dudes to put in as a lead character and which to call supporting characters. I definitely give more people the lead moniker than normal awards shows do. With Greg House leaving the category, Tim Riggins, last year's winner, will see much more breathing room. That is if he ends up in the category after this season. Friday Night Lights hasn't started yet and I don't know how much of Riggins we will see. That being said, he currently leads the pack of nominees heading into this season's Dr. Doug Ross Award.

In For Now
Cappie- Greek
Chuck Bass- Gossip Girl
Dan Humphrey- Gossip Girl
Don Draper- Mad Men
Eric Taylor- Friday Night Lights
Hank Moody- Californication
Johnny Chase- Entourage
Julian Baker- One Tree Hill
Liam Court- 90210
Tim Riggins- Friday Night Lights

Moving Johnny Drama up this year, from supporting character may give Riggins a new challenge. Personally, I like Cappie as one of the top two in the group, but not many people have jumped on the Greek bandwagon (except for Ty).

Outside Looking In
Derek Shephard- Grey's Anatomy
Justin Walker- Brothers and Sisters
Nathan Scott- One Tree Hill
Walter White- Breaking Bad
David Breck- Melrose Place

I really only seeing Nathan Scott challenging for a spot out of this group, but the wild card will be Friday Night Lights characters that step up. Whether it is Saracen staying on as a lead character or JD McCoy stepping up to the plate, I feel someone from Dillon, Texas will be in the mix.

Who else deserves a nod?

Catching Up- Californication Season One

So I clearly don't watch enough television that is currently airing. Because of this, I have to find shows that I have never seen and try to catch up to their current status. Californication is currently in its third season on Showtime and over the past 3-5 weeks I have viewed the 12 episodes that comprised season one.

The Good
--For whatever reason, I'm starting to enjoy the underproduction of cable television. Shows like Sopranos, Entourage and now Californication are pretty washed out in terms of production value and that makes them seem more realistic to me. Californication makes me feel like I'm actually watching a dude living in LA. A shows like The OC and Chuck, on the other hand, are too made up to feel like I'm really looking at Southern California.
--David Duchovny as Hank Moody. I don't know why I came into this thinking I wasn't going to like Duchovny. The only thing I know him from is Zoolander and I thought he was fantastic in that. As Hank Moody he is fantastic at playing a too cool for school jerk of a father that is down on his luck in LA. He's witty. He's charming. He's an a hole. But he loves his daughter. Makes the show.
--The first season just came to a terrific end. The season finale was a fantastically culminating 25 minutes. If they had to, or wanted to, they could've ended with one season and this guy would've been completely satisfied. How Hank controls himself at his ex-gf's wedding, and controls Mia at the same time, and then ends up getting the girl, is just so satisfying to see.

The Bad
--Charlie Runkel, Hank's best friend and agent, is just a terrible character. Not terrible to have on the show, just a terrible and lame human being. It doesn't get much worse than him. I can't stand watching him on screen, but I can't turn away because I am trying to slap him through the screen for being such a loser.
--Unbelievability. So I get that Mia looks older than 16, because the actress was 22 at the time, but in real life a 16 year old girl wouldn't look like her. There is no way that Hank would see a 16 year old sophomore in high school and think that she was in college or even older.

The Future
--I'm looking forward to getting into season two to see what happens after Karen, Hank and Becca rode off into the sunset to end the first season. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up to this, the third season by the time it finishes.

Friday Fancies- Wizards Doin' Teen Wolf

Wizards of Waverly Place
After what I thought was a poor season premier (the stupid Frankengirl was a bad idea), this week's ep showed me that Wizards is stepping back up to the plate. At first, I didn't really give this show a shot and thought some of the characters were stupid and some were useless. I have quickly found neither to be true. The parents, especially Jerry, definitely have their moments. Justin, who I thought was awful at first, has turned himself around and into a character that I find very funny almost every episode. Harper, although still painful to watch at times, continues to surprise me with moments of likability.

My highlight of this week's episode was when Alex explained to the family that she used air quotes to say "out of this world." Max was confused because he thought she was doing the Teen Wolf Dance!!! First off, it's awesome that a character that was born in the mid 90s is even aware of Teen Wolf. That being said, when he started doing the dance itself to show everyone what he though Alex was doing, he did a ridiculously terrible job at it. I think he needs some lessons from The Bonz and JJ on how to correctly do the Teen Wolf Dance.

Thursday Thoughts- Tracy Jordan Wants To Guess Your Name

Flash Forward
Let's begin with a note on the great dynamic we observed between The Dude and Noh early on in the ep. When the two of them went to the burger joint we got action as they chased down the pot dealer, then they had a heated argument stemming mostly from Noh being scared of his future murder, they then get into a bit of a fist fight, and finally the guys discuss the situation like men and put it behind them. Great sequence.

How about Olivia. What is her deal? Be a little more realistic honey. You cannot continue to just completely dismiss the flashes, thinking that it will make yours cease to exist. Stop commenting on the flashes like they are just like dreams. They are obviously much more and you're an idiot if you think they don't mean anything. If you're suicidal doctor friend discovered something based on a patient's flash, it makes sense to look into it. Don't disregard it and end up almost killing some dude because the flashes are like dreams.

And we finally get what all us Lost fans have been waiting for. This week's ep ended with (Lord) Simcoe receiving a phone call from who else, but Charlie Pace. And little did we know that this wouldn't be the best part about the call. Charlie mentions to Lord Simcoe that the two of them were responsible for this entire event! The fact that Simcoe may be involved in this whole thing actually makes Olivia's flash forward very interesting. Does his involvement in the black out have to do with why he is with Olivia six months from now? Does he know her husband is on the case and wants to screw him up by stealing his wife? The fact of the matter is that Charlie and Simcoe are probably a small cog in a much greater scheme involved in the event, but we'll see.

30 Rock
What a valiant return by Tracy Jordan. He lost no ground as the funniest character on television during the first episode of the season. Here are the ridiculously funny moments from Tracy this week.

--People in St. Bart's be eatin' lobster like this...mmm, mmm, yumm, yumm, mmm
--(Rolly walks in) Eeeek, who's that?
--Hello fellow human being. Would you like to ask me what time it is?
--You look regular, could i guess your name? Is it Pedro? Is it Craigford? Is it Swimming?
--Are you a pre-op trans-centaur?
--Do you wanna hold hands with a black millionaire?
--New what?!? If it's a blonde woman i'ma kill myself!!!

Survivor Samoa- Week 5

My girl Ashley was ousted and the Foa Foa tribe is almost dead. Can we get a merge or tribe mix up already? Getting a little stale here.

Fantasy Results

The Technotronics

W. Russell (Foa Foa)-W5 (11)= 11
B. Russell (Galu)- W5 (11), Reward (4), Im (8)= 23
Monica (Galu)- W5 (11), Reward (4), Im (8)= 23
Liz (Foa Foa)- W5 (11), Votes (-4)= 7
Natalie (Foa Foa)- W5 (11)= 11
Week 5= 64
Total=222





Sweet Niblets


Erik (Galu)- W5 (11), Reward (4), Im (8)= 23
Ben (Foa Foa)-
Ashley (Foa Foa)- Votes (-20)= -20
Kelly (Galu)- W5 (11), Im (8)= 19
Shambo (Galu)- W5 (11), Reward (4)= 15
Week 5= 37
Total= 130





Canon Controversy

John (Galu)- W5 (11), Im (8)= 19
Jaison (Foa Foa)- W5 (11)= 11
Mike (Foa Foa)-
Dave (Galu)- W5 (11), Reward (4)= 15
Betsy (Foa Foa)-
Week 5= 45
Total= 125






Freecell Makes Me Wanna

Mick (Foa Foa)- W5 (11)= 11
Brett (Galu)- W5 (11), Reward (4)= 15
Marissa (Foa Foa)-
Laura (Galu)- W5 (11), Im (8)= 19
Yasmin (Galu)-
Week 5= 45
Total= 114

Wednesday Wisdom- Cougar Town's a Comedy?

Modern Family
I've always been interested in how having a certain expectation into an episode or a movie can change your appreciation for the experience. Whether it is reading a positive review, hearing a negative comment or making sure you don't listen to anything about the show, how you head into an ep may affect if you like it or not.

So far this television season I've been making a conscious effort to steer clear of reviews and recaps before watching. Before I watched this week's Modern Fam, JJ gave me a call and said "Don't get your hopes up for tonight's tv." Knowing that he was talking about the ABC comedy, I asked him if it was no good. All he came back with was, "not as good as last week."

Now with what you may call low expectations, I was ready for Modern Fam to disappoint after a fantastic ep last week. It surely did not. Don't get me wrong, I don't think any comedy episode this year has come close to last week's Modern Fam, but this Wednesday was definitely another hit. They brought in their first guest star, putting Mrs. Brady from the Brady Bunch movies as Jay's ex-wife. She had her moments, but what I thought was the key ingredient was the fact that she didn't overshadow the genius that is the main cast. Sure Manny was more in the background this week, but he still spit out a few great lines. Jay, Phil and the rest of the crew still had enough screen time to prove why this is the best new comedy on television.

Cougar Town
So I completely passed on this show before it started because it looked really stupid. Then it started getting decent to good reviews and I figured I'd give it a shot. I mean it had to be better than the awfulness that was Hank. And it was. By no means a show I will continue to watch, but it had a small amount of watchablity. I enjoyed Cox as Monica on Friends and I liked her in this to some extent. Busy Phillips' character is the only one that I can say I truly enjoyed. The main thing for me is that there weren't any funny moments. That is something I usually look for in a comedy. And then we have what put it over the edge. The chick from the Drew Carey Show was just brutal.