24- Jack's Crying Game

It's been a long time since I've written about 24, mainly because this season has been so bad, but a couple of developments from the past two episodes have made my typing fingers itchy.

We got ourselves another silent clock with the death of Renee Walker. Other than the first one ever, I always seem to get a little sad when the clock is silent. It's the realization that another main character has left us. The first one ever was, of course, the death of Teri Bauer. I was so happy to see that terribly annoying character gone that I had no way of feeling sorry for Jacky B. As I look back on it, maybe it would've been worth having to see Teri through the years if it meant that Jack wouldn't turn into a sad sack over every new girl he finds.

I really love watching Jack Bauer torture people, scream at the top of his lungs, chase down terrorists and everything else that makes him the baddest dude on the planet. But what I don't love is when he becomes a sappy sad sack. If I want to see an action star with a sensitive side, I'm gonna break out the tissues and turn on an episode of Chuck.

He had his wife of so many years die in his arms, and since then it's been Kate Warner, Claudia Hernandez, Audrey Raines, Diane Huxley and most recently Renee Walker. I mean I'm all for Jack being a ladies man, but why does he have to act like a pathetic sap when they get shot, go mentally insane or go back to Texas? I'm not saying there should be only one woman for every man, but there is no way he should be crying over six different women in eight seasons? Give me a break Jack.

Our favorite criminal President has returned. This was the first thing to get me excited about this season. An older, more doubly chinned Charles Logan is back to help with the U.S./Russia relationship. Sure he committed treason as the President of the United States, helping terrorists enact a terrible crime on his own country, but the good people of America could always use his help right? Awesome. He's up to no good an I love every second of it. Take that woman President down a few notches. Show her how we really do things in the oval office.

And finally Dana Walsh. It's incredible how 24 can change the appearance of a character after we find out who they really are. Although I couldn't stand a second of her in the early going, I still found Dana Walsh dumb and unassuming; not evil. Now that the audience has been let in on the secret that she is dirty and was a mole for the terrorists she just looks like pure evil every time she's on screen. Is it just that I'm looking for it now? Or does she has an evil scowl on her face 24/7 at this point?

Still not a great season so far. Let's see if Logan, and hopefully an improvement from Cole Ortiz, can pick things back up down the home stretch.

Treme- The City, The Music and Steve Zahn

Davis McAlary- "Now where the f*ck am I gonna eat breakfast?"

Treme is the highly anticipated New Orleans drama from the mind of The Wire creator David Simon. I have yet to watch The Wire, but I couldn't help but have really high expectations for the second creation from the guy who everyone seems to think made the best television show in the history of the world. Through a long series premier, and now the second episode, I'm a bit disappointed. I know it is just a drama, and therefore won't have the added plot intrigue of a LOST or Breaking Bad, but that doesn't mean I can't be disappointed in that.

The things that work great so far are the city, the music and Steve Zahn. New Orleans is a fantastic background, and like How to Make it in America does with New York, Treme really uses the city as a character. If you went into this with no knowledge, at no point are you wondering where it takes place. It's as much about New Orleans as it is about any of the characters.

The music that comes with New Orleans is also great. Everything from the opening credits, to Louis Prima's Buona Sera at the midpoint of the premier. From the authentic music jazz you get by the characters in the show, to the southern hip hop that Davis blasts form his window to annoy his neighbors. The city is so rich in music that it can not help but play a huge role in the show.

Even a legend like Elvis Costello has decided to take part in the project, appearing in each of the first two episodes. He has taken an integral in two great moments so far this season. In the premier he was merely watching the local band, as Steve Zahn's Davis tried to talk to him. It led to this gem from Davis who was quite terrified to be talking to Costello, "I taught him everything he knows...about Keynesian economics." In this week's episode Costello was working with a band in the studio and came up with 101 excuses not to join them for a night on the town. My favorite was when he tried to use tea and toast to get out of it.

Steve Zahn's Davis McAlary has easily been the best character in the show so far. He's so cynical and against the man of New Orleans, and so gung-ho about the history and local flavor of New Orleans. We've had only two episodes thus far and he's been fired from two jobs. The first, a local disc jockey position, came to an end when a legend of a guitar player sacrificed a chicken in the studio. "Ladies and gentlemen. Live chicken in the studio." The second, a bell hop at a hotel, came to an end when he started telling the tourists to go random sketchy places in the city. He couldn't help himself from letting these people see the real New Orleans, not just what the hotel wants the tourists to see. The anguish on his face when he started that job was fantastic. Even after he was fired, he told the tourists about the best breakfast place in town, only to realize "Now where the f*ck am I gonna eat breakfast?"

Sure I like John Goodman's character and the trombone guy who can't find a job, but Zahn has won me over early. Early on in the series it just seems like everyone is just living life. Sure they have problems and they need to work through things, but there's nothing that puts this show over the edge for me early on. I'm sure it will suck me in with some sort of twist as it moves along, but for now I'm in for the city, the music and Steve Zahn.

Breaking Bad- Walt's In. Jesse's Out.

Walter White- "I'm in. You're out."

Breaking Bad has used different types of story telling structures throughout its first three seasons. They've done flash forwards of scenes we would see down the road. They've done flashbacks to moments far back in the history of the characters' lives. This week we started the episode with a flash back to a time period that we knew very well. A new way of executing great story telling. They used both 1)old footage that we had already seen (Walt with a full head of hair giving Jesse a bunch of money to buy an RV) and 2)new scenes that we had not scene before (Jesse and Combo stealing the RV from his mom and living it up at the strip club). After the cold open ended and the opening credits began to roll, I knew it was all going to come back to Hank finding out about that same story one way or another.

It took a heck of a lot of stuff in the middle of the episode before we saw Hank take a look at the picture of Combo, Jesse and a stripper. Hank is now on Jesse's tail and seems to be the beginning of the end for our favorite meth cooking duo (of course something will trip Hank up).

But Walt and Jesse aren't much of a duo at this point, which both saddens me and detracts a bit from the show. I know you can't do the same thing over and over again, but the buddy buddy give and take between Walt and Jesse are what made the show good in the early going. With Walt going nutso selfish with is meth and kicking Jesse out of the meth scene by way of Gus Chiggins, we are forced to deal with the two of them separately.

Sure they're both great characters on their own, but no where near as good as together. Jesse giving it to Walt over the phone was fantastic. He has gotten back to his old self. We had lost him to depression for the first few episodes of this season and he was not nearly as enjoyable to watch. The amped up, ready to brawl Jesse is the Jesse I learned to love in season one.

Meanwhile, Walt on his own was good only because he slowly but surely was lured back into the meth game. Thanks to Gus Chiggins pronouncement that, "A man provides...And he does it even if he's not appreciated...or respected...or even loved. He simply bears up and does it because he's a man." After that Walt went home, signed the divorce papers and figuratively put his apron back on. His showdown with Jesse at Saul's office (where he let Jesse know that he was back in the game) "I'm in. You're out" was both chilling and a sad state of affairs on the relationship of Walt and Jesse.

Seven Restaurants In Seven Nights

Recently I spent seven days in the great south region of our United States. I was much too busy hanging out at Disney hotels, going to the beach and playing outdoor basketball to watch any tv (hence why I am so far behind on many shows now that I'm back in the cold northeast). What I did do while I was on my seven day vacation was go out to dinner at seven different restaurants. I'm taking a break from writing about television this weekend to blog about every fat kid's second greatest passion, food.

My Top Seven Restaurants on Vacation

7. Sonic- Savannah, GA
Jayj and I drove from the Happiest Place on Earth to Savannah on Friday. Once we finished the four hour trip, and stopped at the outlets in St. Augustine to check out the Tommy Bahama gear, we were as hungry as cats. A quick trip to everybody's favorite Drive In hit the spot. I love my chicken toaster sandwich as much as the next guy, but the good people at Sonic were way to skimpy on my tots, and JJ's fries, to get anything but last place.

6. Tubby's Tank House- Savannah, GA
On our last night in Savannah JJ, the parents and I hit up Tubby's Tank House right on the river in Savannah. Although Jayj insisted that they let me eat free because the restaurant was named after me, we had no such luck. The chicken salad sandwich was great and the live music was a bonus, but the second floor deck right on the river made everything a bit too chilly for my liking.

5. Seven Bridges- Jacksonville, FL
A somewhat ale house type establishment right outside Jacksonville. We hit it up on my last night down south before getting on a plane early Wednesday morning. It was good food and good service. Well excellent and terrific if you were to ask our waiter. Really? Does every response have to be such a hyperbole? We're just eating a normal meal here. The hickory burger hit the spot, but not enough in the surrounding area to get me excited.

4. Fudruckers- Savannah, GA
I had been hearing stories of the famous Fudrucker burger from T-time and JJ for quite some time. It was definitely going to be hard to live up to. I hadn't been to one since I was like eight, so there wasn't much to remember. Much more than fast food, but a bit less than a sit down restaurant, Fudruckers was solid but not much more. The burger was great, but i did have to put on my own accouterments.

3. ESPN Club- Lake Buena Vista, FL
I have been to this ESPN Club so many times that it feels like a second home. That is exactly why I won the bet with Case the Base that it was not ESPN Zone. Anyway Disney's Boardwalk as the atmosphere, a perfect buffalo chicken sandwich, and the gigantic flat screen all made for a fantastic experience. Our annoying waitress didn't help its cause of getting the title on this list though.

2. Moon River- Savannah, GA
My first experience in downtown Savannah was accompanied by a visit to Moon River, the city's only microbrewery. The pub atmosphere was nice, the bacon burger was great, but it was everything else that came with the great downtown Savannah that gets Moon River runner-up status. You can't beat that first time walking into the River Street Sweets and picking up your free sample praline and then walking right out.

1. Earl of Sandwich- Lake Buena Vista, FL
Sure it had the added bonus of being in Downtown Disney on my first night of vacation, but the real reason Earl of Sandwich gets my best dinner of the week is because of who was accompanying me. During my last trip to Disney, The Bonz, Jon the Bon and myself thought it would be a nice place to eat. Of course JJ and T-time couldn't eat there because they hated sandwiches. The argument went on from there...Everything from how can you 'hate sandwiches'? That's such a broad generalization. To what is actually a sandwich? Does it have to be a deli sandwich? Could a hamburger be a sandwich? What makes a chicken sandwich a sandwich?

Either way I found out recently that JJ decided to eat at Earl of Sandwich in February while he was at ESPN The Weekend. He scarfed down a meatball sandwich. His main motivation for eating at the Downtown Disney hot spot? To watch Mike Greenberg eat dinner. Well that might be a stretch. Either way he was eating at a place that he threw a hissy fit about us eating at less than a year earlier. When I sat down with my Hawaiian BBQ Chicken and watched him take down their Meatballs! it brought a great joy to my soul. Especially when I snapped a pic of him in the act and put it on Twitter for all my 34 followers to see.

Survivor Week 9- Take My Idol, Please

Russell Hantz- "Now I don't even have to find idols...People are actually giving me idols."

Was this entire episode just a dream? Or did I witness the most ridiculous move in the history of mankind? You're a member of the Heroes tribe. If you win the final immunity challenge you go into the merge at an even five to five against the Villains. Instead of taking your chances against what you think is an "all girl alliance" of five, you hand over the most coveted commodity on Survivor? Yes JT's plan, which was eventually enacted with only one slight questioning by Amanda, was to give Russell his hidden immunity idol so that he could save himself and join forces with the Heroes after the merge.

"Granted I get a chance to talk to Russell at the next immunity challenge and we win...I give him the hidden immunity idol, he votes out Parvati- Bam!- Done."

What?!? First of all the guy admitted the biggest problem with this plan. He's guessing as to what is going on inside the Villains tribe. Of course we know that his guess is completely wrong. You're guessing on the situation! You have maybe 10 minutes of contact per day with the opposing tribe and you think you can get a feel on what is going on? I thought you guys played this game before. Well when you have a guy like JT in charge, a guy who didn't do any game play his first time on Survivor, you are gonna be in trouble.

"We're gonna make Survivor history with this one today guys," JT said. Well you're right brotha. You're making history as one of the worst moves of all time. As Parvati so succinctly put it, "You don't hand the enemy idols." What you do with hidden immunity idols is what Parvati did with her new found one. You keep them hidden.

Unlike JT who gave his away, and Russell who once again showed the whole tribe his shiny new toy, Parvati used a strategy closest to what I think should be done. She showed only one person her hidden immunity idol clue and later on the idol itself. She showed Danielle and kept it a secret so that she can create a strong bond with her and only her. If you tell the whole world, then you lose that bond and have less trust with your idol buddy. Good work Parvati. What do I know? She'll probably get eliminated for it soon.

Fantasy Results

Punch Face Champions

Russell (Villains)- W9 (37), Merge (8)= 45
Danielle (Villains)- W9 (37), Reward (4), Merge (8)= 49
Sandra (Villains)- W9 (37), Reward (4), Merge (8)= 49
JT (Heroes)- W9 (37), Im (8), Merge (8)= 53
Tom (Heroes)
Week 9= 196 Total= 725

Redwood Original

Boston Rob (Villains)
Parvati (Villains)- W9 (37), Reward (4), Merge (8), Idol (10)= 59
Colby (Heroes)- W9 (37), Im (8), Merge (8)= 53
Sugar (Heroes)
Candice (Heroes)- W9 (37), Im (8), Merge (8)= 53
Week 9= 165 Total= 596

DJ Roomba

Tyson (Villains)
Randy (Villains)
Jerri (Villains)- W9 (37), Reward (4), Votes (-4), Merge (8)= 45
Rupert (Heroes)- W9 (37), Im (8), Merge (8)= 53
Amanda (Heroes)- W9 (37), Im (8), Merge (8)= 53
Week 9= 151 Total= 543

Kick Puncher III

Coach (Villains)
Courtney (Villains)- Reward (4), Votes (-20)= -16
James (Heroes)
Stephenie (Heroes)
Cirie (Heroes)
Week 9= -16 Total= 164

Fantasy Idol Results- A Poor Man's Didi Benami

Pretty low key night compared to last week's epic save spectacular. Seacrest spent no time getting rid of Garcia before any of the guest performances. Speaking of...for as much as I loved Adam Lambert as an Idol contestant last year, and a mentor last night, his original stuff is less than fantastic. I'm as likely to download his album as it is likely that Tyson would eat a pickle. We also got a nice duet with Brooke White of season seven and Justin Gaston of If I Can Dream. Gaston seemed really nervous, but satisfactory, and Brooke as Dan Feinberg said via Twitter "remains a poor man's Didi Benami." Once the rest of the bottom four was created (Michael Lynche, Tim Urban and Katie Stevens) the young Connecticut hopeful was sent packing. Ho hum, just another day. The save did its job once again. It kept somebody in the competition longer than they deserved.

Rizzo is now eliminated from play as Katie was his last contestant. Larry continues to kill it with the rock boys and Turban Tim. Tyson takes a hit with the loss of Garcia and Mags and I take a few more strides towards second and third place.

Fantasy Scores

The Rock Bodega
Casey James- Safe (29)= 29
Janell Wheeler
Tim Urban- Safe (29), Bottom 4 (-8)= 21
Lee DeWyze- Safe (29)= 29
Week 8= 79 Total= 251

You're Coming With Me Leather
Andrew Garcia- Bottom 4 (-8), Eliminated (-16)= -24
Paige Miles
Aaron Kelly- Safe (29)= 29
John Park
Week 8= 5 Total= 109

The Curlgar
Ashley Rodriguez
Joe Muñoz
Haley Vaughn
Siobhan Magnus- Safe (29)= 29
Week 8= 29 Total= 85

Splash Downs All Around
Todrick Hall
Crystal Bowersox- Safe (29)= 29
Tyler Grady
Michelle Delamor
Week 8= 29 Total= 84

Diabolical Haters
Didi Benami
Lilly Scott
Lacey Brown
Michael Lynch- Bottom 4 (-8), Safe (29)= 21
Week 8= 21 Total= 76

HashTag Katie Stevens Is Only 16
Katie Stevens- Bottom 4 (-8), Eliminated (-16)= -24
Jermaine Sellers
Katelyn Epperly
Alex Lambert
Week 8= -24 Total= 19

LOST- The Right Man For the Job

Michael Dawson- "I'm here to stop you from getting everyone killed."

Are there really only six hours of LOST left in my life? Extremely disappointing. If last week's Happily Ever After was game-changing, this week's Everybody Loves Hugo was just a championship level performance of said changed game. Hurley has always been a character I've enjoyed. His humor and sincerity shine through and that is why his sideways story was another intriguing romp through the bizzaro alternate universe (Hugo's words, not mine).

This week in sideways world we watch Hugo Reyes, who is not unlucky with money but an extremely successful businessman who shares his wealth with the unfortunate. His one downfall? He has not found a lady friend to have by his side. That is until one Libby Smith sits down to chat with the big man at Spanish Johnny's. As we move forward from what we learned last week with Desmond, and how the two worlds are somehow becoming one, Libby claims to have known Hugo in another life. Huges doesn't share the memories and blows it off that Libby is as crazy as a road lizard. Thankfully she's hot so Hurley goes on a date with her anyway. On said date, Libby kisses the owner of Mr. Clucks and a lot of his Island memories come flowing back. Awesome.

Also awesome? Desmond running around sideways world getting the band back together. First he finds Hugo to make sure he stays with the Libby thing and now he is running Locke over with his car. Why is he doing this? Because he knows that he is dead in the Island universe? Does the sideways Desmond have that memory? And if he does, what good will killing this Locke do in his plan?

Meanwhile back on The Island, Hugo is met by a ghost of Michael. Here is where I am confused. He comes right after all of the whispers. The whispers represent Smokey right? So is this a true ghost of Michael or just Smokey doing what he does? Have any of Hugo's ghosts been ghosts? Or just Smokey planting his seed to get Hurley to do what he wants when he wants? Michael doesn't want Hugo to blow up the plane. Obviously...because Smokey needs it to leave The Island (with everyone including Sun, Jack and Hugo).

Back in camp Smokey we get UnLocke going on a trip with the new Desmond that will go along with anything anyone says because he has no reason for being afraid. Before the two guys get to the "very old" well they have a run in with the young boy in the woods. The one who has been mentioned as anyone from a young Jacob, a young Sawyer, an old Aaron, an overseer of Jacob and Man In Black, and just a persona of The Island. This time he looked older and looked even more like Jacob. All he did was smile at UnLocke. What's this kid's deal?

After UnLocke throws Desmond down the "very old" well (yeah that was anticlimactic), team Hugo finds themselves face to face with the Man In Black and the rest of his crew at Camp Smokey. Before Hugo and his furry friends make this move we get a very poignant quote from one Jack Shephard.

Ever since Juliet died. Ever since I got her killed. All I've wanted is to fix it...but I can't. I can't ever fix it. You have no idea how hard it is for me to sit back and listen to other people tell me what I should do...but, I think, maybe, that's the point. Maybe, maybe I'm supposed to let go.

Great words from a man who has made his way back into my good graces. If that didn't sound like a foreshadowing for the guy who will be taking Jacob's place as the protector of The Island, I don't know what it is. He's so calm in taking a back seat to others this season. Just as Jacob does. The protector must let others do what they will, without forcing them to do what he wants. Jack wasn't the very opposite of this throughout the first five seasons. Maybe him finding this new way is why he is the right man for the job. What do you think?

American Idol- Little Less Conversation, Little More Singing

Aaron Kelly- "I don't necessarily know that this song fits me. It's probably wrong in every possible way, but I'm gonna go out there and have a good time with this performance."

This is the first blog post in almost a week. This is my first day back from my vacation. And this...is American Idol. What a way to get back in the swing of things. Ms. Lambert as the mentor less than a year after his run on Idol? Great to see. And actual great mentoring to many of the Idols this week. Of course there are some train wrecks (cough Aaron Kelly cough) that just can't be mentored.

For the first week since the semifinals began, Crystal Bowersox was not my favorite performance. She is still my favorite contestant, and I think her Saved was the second best of the night, but Lee DeWyze killed it tonight in a big way. It wasn't just that he sand the theme song to one of my favorite bad tv shows of all time (Las Vegas), he actually performed extremely well. Immediately after he finished his stellar take on A Little Less Conversation, I wrote that he really took Adam's advice to heart and stepped his performing game up. 30 seconds later Lee made the same observation, going out of his way to thank last year's champion runner-up.

Siobhan Magnus was enjoyable to me for the second straight week with Suspicious Minds. Her scream in the middle had a certain Lambert-like musicality to it that could have only come from the help of Adam himself. She finished the song off with both a great falsetto and a fantastic glory note that wasn't cringe worthy like something she did early in the competition. The judges, like always, were completely wrong in my opinion. Simon's "you lost who you were two or three weeks ago" comment was absurd because everyone knows her performances of two and three weeks ago were God awful. The past two weeks have been her best in a long while.

Going into watching last night's episode I had heard from multiple sources that Tim Urban was one of, if not the best of the night. I was very disappointed. I wanted to really like his Can't Help Falling In Love. I enjoyed it. But it was just another decent to good attempt at a very easy to sing song. The highlight of Tim's session was Kara taking her love for the phrase singer-songwriter to a whole new level as this week she used it as a straight up adjective. Tim's performance was "singer-songwriter" to Kara.

Mike "Will Kieffer" Lynche performed yet another soft and sincere performance, but his slightly sleepy In the Ghetto was stuck as a middling performance for me. Katie Stevens continues to show that she has the pipes, but her Baby What Do You Want Me To Do kept getting annoying for me. Once someone points out that there is something annoying about a certain person, it's hard to ignore. I wanted to throw up every time she moved her head back and forth as if she had some swagger--Thanks Slezak.

My Bottom Three. Casey James's vibrato is getting worse and worse. He didn't sound like a hungry goat during the semifinals. Last week and during this week's Lawdy Miss Clawdy, he did. Andrew Garcia was really bad once again. He needed to either speed up Hound Dog a lot, or slow it down a lot and bring out his acoustic (broken record). As Lambert said during their session together, it was boring. For the second week in a row, my least favorite of the night was Aaron Kelly. He did Blue Suede Shoes and just like the quote at the top said, it was completely wrong for him. Unlike what the rest of the quote said, it didn't look like he was having a single bit of fun up on that stage. Pack your bags Aaron, because you and Andrew are going home tonight.

My Performance Rankings
1. Lee DeWyze
2. Crystal Bowersox
3. Siobhan Magnus
4. Tim Urban
5. Michael Lynche
6. Katie Stevens
7. Casey James
8. Andrew Garcia
9. Aaron Kelly