The Good Guys- The Mustachioed Gentleman

The network upfronts were this week and I'm going to do some coverage on them next week once most seasons are over, but FOX brought out of one its new shows last night as a preview event. The Good Guys, starring Bradley Whitford, Colin Hanks and Bradley Whitford's mustache, premiered last night before Idol. It's basically a buddy cop action/comedy that feels very 1980s-esque.

Why does it feel 1980s-esque? Well besides the kitchy editing and graphics, it's because Whitford's character Dan Stark is a cop legend from the 80s that is still bumming around today. After one episode, Whitford is killing it and making it worthy of a watch. The jokes are corny, but funny. Everything about Stark is ridiculous and that works. He has a giant mustache, he drinks on the job, and he hates new technology. I'm pretty sure he used the phrase 'computer-machine' three times in this episode. He also brings to the table a great nostalgia for his glory days of the mid-80s. Every time he starts to tell a story about him and his famous partner from the good old days it was funny.

The Goody Guys had a very Chuck Season One feel, in that it is an action show that isn't taking anything serious at all. There is ridiculous crime going, guns a blazin' and everything is a joke. It's a nice change of pace to all of the serious action shows out there.

The editing and graphics that I mentioned earlier, plus a bit of weird pacing to the pilot, are a couple of the early mis-steps. The pilot should have focused a bit more on the two partners and less on the criminals. Kind of like Justified split its stories in half, between Raylan and the criminals early on, The Good Guys kinda did that last night and it felt weird. Maybe it was because Mikhail from Lost is supposed to be Russian, not latino, but nothing clicked on that side of the story.

One other thing that didn't work for me at all was Colin Hanks. I know he's basically the straight man in this situation but he couldn't have been less entertaining in the pilot.

The Good Guys will air again this summer and be on the fall schedule for FOX in 2010.

Fantasy Idol Results- Personality of a Mailbox

Pops- "I'll be right back, I'm gonna go put my head in the oven."

That is absolutely how bad the conversation between Seacrest and the final three contestants was last night. I envy those who fast forwarded to the end last night, don't watch the results show at all, or have quit on Idol all together, because the ten minute heart to heart between Seacrest, Casey, Lee and Crystal was brutal to watch. Honestly I haven't heard a more boring conversation since Andy Stitzer rambled about making an egg salad sandwich. At first I thought that they need to stop talking to the contestants because it's just completely awkward, but then I realized that it was just the fact that no one on this season has a speck of personality. If Adam Lambert were being asked the questions, I'd be engaged. Even David Cook was a good speaker. But these three? Terrible.

Fantasy Scores

The Rock Bodega
Casey James- Eliminated (-26)= -26
Janell Wheeler
Tim Urban
Lee DeWyze- Safe (79)= 79
Week 13= 53 Total= 670

Splash Downs All Around
Todrick Hall
Crystal Bowersox- Safe (79)= 79
Tyler Grady
Michelle Delamor
Week 13= 79 Total= 369

Diabolical Haters
Didi Benami
Lilly Scott
Lacey Brown
Michael Lynche
Total= 159

You're Coming With Me Leather
Andrew Garcia
Paige Miles
Aaron Kelly
John Park
Total= 150

The Curlgar
Ashley Rodriguez
Joe Muñoz
Haley Vaughn
Siobhan Magnus
Total= 92

HashTag Katie Stevens Is Only 16
Katie Stevens
Jermaine Sellers
Katelyn Epperly
Alex Lambert
Total= 19

Lost- Fireside Chat

Jacob- "You should get your friends...we're very close to the end Hugo."

It's as if Cuselof were sitting back and enjoying all of the criticism that came from Across the Sea, because they knew that everyone and their mother was going to love What They Died For. Like it or dislike it, the back story of both Jacob/Man In Black and The Island Light completely enhanced the pleasure of this fantastic penultimate episode of Lost.

The whole episode had more of a 'we're leading up to the end' feeling than anything I've ever seen. In both timelines we got everyone coming together to start the formation of what the finality of Lost is going to be.  What that actually is, well that's yet to be determined.

In the sideways we got Desmond doing his best 'get the band back together' roundup as he pushed Locke towards Jack, before turning himself into the police for running Locke over with his car and beating up Dr. Linus. Everything in that parallel seems to be leading to this concert in which Kate will be wearing a pretty dress. After Desmond figured out a way to sneak Kate and Sayid out of police custody (paying off Ana Lucia with Hurley's money), the gang of fools was on their way to the concert. How awesome was Hugo when he pulled up in his Hummer with all of his Island memories asking if Ana Lucia was coming too?

On the Island it was MIB and a Widmore-killing Ben on their way to find the remaining candidates so that Ben could kill them too. MIB says this is to get him off the Island and allow Ben to have it all to himself. Is Ben going along with this or is he now pulling some sort of hoax on old Smokey in order to help bring him down?

On the other side of the Island little Jacob shows up to steal big Jacob's ashes from the tubby Hugo. I'm still a little fuzzy on this because when Hugo runs him down, he finds big Jacob sitting next to a fire. What was up with that transition?  This whole section of the episode was one of the best moments of all time. After telling Hugo that the ashes are in the fire and once it goes out he will be gone, he explains to Hugo that the end is near and he needs all of his friends to come.

"Come and sit down and I'll tell you what they died for," Jacob tells Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hugo. Powerful stuff here. Hugo asks why he brought them to the Island and Jacob explains that they are all flawed and weren't good people off the Island. He talks to them about protecting the Island because one of them will have to start doing it. Instead of picking one of them, he gives them "the one thing he was never given, a choice." (Another moment that is amplified by the great character story of the last episode) Of course Jack volunteers for the position unwittingly. After all, he is supposed to do it. Absolute stud moment for the doctor. What were the other three thinking in that moment? (well we know Hugo was just happy it wasn't him) Jack drank the holy water that Jacob gave to him as he proclaimed, "now you're like me." I could feel all of that Island power flowing through Jack at that moment and it was glorious.

Now we have a new Protector in Jack, an old one's ghost that claims to be disappearing in front of our eyes, and still this feisty Smoke Monster coming to kill everyone so that he can go home. This final two and a half hours has the potential to be masterful.

Other Thoughts

- Who is Jack's ex-wife in the sideways? By not showing or mentioning her the entire season it has to be someone important right? Juliet? Kate? Could it still be Claire Dunphy?

- Again we get reference to how special Desmond is. In an ironic choice of words MIB explains to Ben that he is Jacob's fail safe. He is Jacob's last resort to save the Island just in case MIB kills all the candidates. Is this important because all of the candidates are going to die? Yikes.

- Kate was only crossed off the list because she became a mother. She shouldn't be relegated to a life on the Island if she has a baby to take care of. Didn't stop him from keeping Kwon on the cave wall though.

- Jack stitching up Kate at the beginning of the ep was a great call back to the Pilot when Kate stitched up Jack.

- "We insist. Even if we have to kidnap you," Rousseau explained to sideways Linus. Funny how a bunch of these lines come out the other way around in this parallel universe.

- Did the MIB as the Smoke Monster kill Richard. I thought that wasn't possible. He asked to never die, not just never age.

Your thoughts?

American Idol- Dear America

Dear America,

In case you haven't noticed, we want Lee DeWyze to win this season of American Idol. We see him as a much more commercial artist than Crystal Bowersox and therefore it would be in our best interest to have him win our reality show. Last night we did everything we could to get Lee into the finale and hopefully continued our run of making him the champion come next week. Honestly what else do we have to do? We gave him the pimp spot of singing last. For judges pick, he got his song from the most respected reality man in the biz. His pick? Only one of the best songs, and one of the easiest to perform extremely well, Hallelujah. Even Tim Urban had a moment with this song. To cap it all off we brought back the gospel choir for the first time since what seems the Ruben/Clay finale to perform with Lee. Thankfully Mr. DeWyze helped us out by doing Hallelujah really well. In doing so he made it much less uncomfortable when our judges made him out to be the best thing since The Shawshank Redemption without even paying attention to the performance. So if you didn't pick up on it from last night's show, we want Lee to win and we will stop at nothing to make this happen. Good luck voting. Remember we have AT&T employees sent out all over the country teaching how to cheat in order to mult-vote for Lee.

Thank You,
American Idol Producers

That about sums up last night show for me. Don't get me wrong, Lee was really good on the night. Maybe slightly better than MamaSox, but I might be being swayed by the choir and the judges. Who knows? All I know is if Lee and Crystal aren't in the finale it will a travesty of the Fantasia vs. Diana DeGarmo nature. Goodbye Casey James.

Chuck- I Can't Kill It

Big Mike- "You have the hips of a six year old girl."

This marks the second week in a row where I've had a problem with a storyline in Chuck. Last episode it was all of the dream stuff and this time around it was Daniel Shaw still being alive. We never actually got to see his face, so if we find out next week that it is an impostor, I will be relieved. But if Shaw is still alive that will be disappointing and Heroes-esque. When you have an epic, heroic moment like Chuck did when he saved Sarah and killed Shaw, it's time to move on to the next stage. Don't bring him back just because you liked the job the actor was doing. This is just another example of why it wasn't a smart move to give Schwartz and Fedak six more episodes. What can you do with six episodes? Come up with silly ideas like bringing Shaw back to life apparently.

On the other hand, we got the return of Chuck's dad. Scott Bakula doesn't really bring much to the table in this role, but it was nice to see him getting all gung ho about making Chuck a governor 2.0 to keep his brain under control and out of dementia.

One of Chuck's best attributes is the way they cut from a semi-serious moment to something completely ridiculous that parallels the previous conversation. We got two of these great moments this week. The first was when Morgan is specifically told to not touch anything when he gets to hide out in Castle and then we cut to Morgan trying on bullet proof vests and playing with the guns. The second was when Chuck was lying to his dad via a serious convo about not being a spy anymore, and then they cut to him struggling with climbing up the face of a building. Brilliant work.

Finally, my favorite moment of the night was the convo between Awesome and Morgan in the kitchen. I can't figure out which was better, Awesome rambling about all of the ridiculously awesome stuff he does for Ellie, or the trance that Morgan gets in listening to the whole thing.

Let's hope that the end of this six episode season 3.1 ends with some sort of cliff hanger now that we know we're getting a fourth season next year.

Survivor Finale- That's The Way The Game Is Played

Tom Westman- "Whoever wins a season, deserves to win that season."

And that quote, in the end, is what makes the game of Survivor so good. There is probably no perfect way to play the game, and if there is it uses a lot of luck. I was pretty mad when Russell didn't win last season in Samoa. This year, not only did I begin to hate him as a player, but it became more and more evident that his style of play just isn't suited to win Survivor.

No matter how many times he states that he's the best player, or he should have won the game, or Parvati should have won over Sandra, it's not going to change the fact that Survivor doesn't work that way. As Tom so elegantly said, "whoever wins a season, deserves to win that season." Whether it is more luck or more planning, if you make it to the end and get the most votes from the jury, you played the best game that time around.

So how'd we get to the point where Sandra became the first ever two-time Survivor winner? Well let's start with the first immunity challenge of the episode where Colby finally came alive. It took him 37 days, but he finally started trying, both athletically and strategically. He barely lost to Parvati in the plates and bowls challenge and then decided to play the game for the first time in over a month. He claimed "I don't know how to quit. It's not in me," even though we've all witnessed him quitting this entire season. He finally made a move in trying to convince Russell to get rid of Sandra and keep him. A valiant effort, but an unsuccessful one as he went home that night.

Before the final immunity challenge, the final four went on the famous journey of fallen survivors. Although the contestants never have anything of substance to say about their comrades when they get to their stick, this is always a nice moment to relive all of the contestants in that given season.

The last challenge was a great one. A blindfolded maze which got me all nerved up as Parvati, Jerri and Russell all wondered towards the finish line at the same time. I was very surprised to see Russ grab the necklace first. Back during the Samoa Finale everyone said that Russell was so sad and emotional about losing because he had already filmed Heroes vs. Villains and had gotten out early enough to know he wasn't winning. Of course it ended up being that he was in the final three, but knew he had absolutely no chance of winning it.

When we get to the final elimination, I was absolutely thinking Parvati was going home. It was a great editing trick by them, because I usually can figure out who is going home before the vote. During the tribal council, we see that Russell is completely oblivious to what is actually going on in the game, because he thinks he "protected Parvati" and not the other way around. As Parvati so nicely put it, they "protected each other."

Anyway. Jerri went home. It's so hard to figure out who would vote for who if someone else was in the final three, but I think Parvati would have won if it were Russell, Parv and Jerri.

It's always interesting when we get to final council. This was the first time in four seasons that we had three players that all were strategic players and could easily make great cases for themselves. Parvati had the best opening statement by a mile and that wasn't even that great. "Russell was the dragon," she said. "And instead of slaying him, I kept him...as my pet." Just an epic line. Russell, for how great and long of a speech he made last season, it seemed like he didn't say a word this time around. He never even claimed that he had control of Parvati the entire time. Maybe because he knew how dumb that would be, given that she ruled this game. Sandra didn't make many good points either.

And in the end, Russell got shut out. Parvati got three votes, and Sandra got six for the win. Obviously Russell dominated the reunion show with many complaints about losing. Last season I was with him, and this year I wanted to slap him in the face. How dumb is this guy? Even when everyone on the stage is trying to explain it to him, he still keeps coming back to "I play as hard as I can." I know it's cliched, but it's not playing hard, but playing smart that's gets it done. Going all out with manipulation is a decent way to make it to the final three, but as we've seen, it's not a good way to win the game. To paraphrase Boston Rob, Russell doesn't play this game to win. I really don't think that is Russell's mindset, but it is absolutely the reality of it.

Russell thinks America needs a percent of the vote, but Probst shoots him down with the fact that Survivor is not that. Survivor is what it is. And if you're able to win the game of Survivor, you deserve to win Survivor. It doesn't matter if America likes that way you're playing or not. On a related note, how did this idiot win America's Player of the Season Award? I was one of the biggest Russell fans in Samoa, but I couldn't have disliked him more this season. He was just a complete idiot that was becoming played out because he did the same things over and over again. My favorites of the season were Boston Rob and Coach, but I think Parvati played the best overall game of the season. And Rupert was second in the voting? What a joke. This guy was the absolute worst.

Congratulations to Sandra for becoming the first person to win Survivor twice. I don't know if that makes her the best player ever, but it certainly could be. She definitely played a good game this time around. She was hindered by the fact that she was on the outs for most of the way, but she benefited from the fact that no one thought much about her. Always a bit of luck that comes from playing that type of game. But when you get to the end like that, you have a good chance at winning. And she is now two for two.

Fantasy Results

Punch Face Champions

Russell (Villains)- W15 (106), W16 (121), Immunity (20)= 247
Danielle (Villains)
Sandra (Villains)- W15 (106), W16 (121), Votes (-4), Win (137)= 360
JT (Heroes)
Tom (Heroes)
This Week= 607 Total= 2,199

Redwood Original

Boston Rob (Villains)
Parvati (Villains)- W15 (106), W16 (121), Immunity (20), Votes (-4)= 243
Colby (Heroes)- Vots (-16)= -16
Sugar (Heroes)
Candice (Heroes)
This Week= 227 Total= 1,627

DJ Roomba

Tyson (Villains)
Randy (Villains)
Jerri (Villains)- W15 (106), Votes (-12)= 94
Rupert (Heroes)
Amanda (Heroes)
This Week 94= 94 Total= 1,221

Kick Puncher III

Coach (Villains)
Courtney (Villains)
James (Heroes)
Stephenie (Heroes)
Cirie (Heroes)
Total= 164

Lost- Changing the Rules

It has been three days since the airing of what I think was a fantastic episode of Lost. What made Across the Sea so good was that it was so very polarizing. So many people either really liked, or really hated this episode. Anything that is close enough to the median where the majority of people are thinking it's just okay, it obviously is the wrong thing. As James Poniewozik of Time said, "'Awesome' and 'awful' are actually closer to each other on the continuum of quality than either is to 'meh'." What an ep like this does is get people to talk about the show. For better or for worse, it was an epic episode.

A few more things about the substance of the episode. A question has been raised about whether the Fake Mother is actually the protector of the Island or actually a previous version of the Smoke Monster. Well first off, maybe she's both. But in the favor of protector are that she talks about it like she is (although we've seen what a liar she can be), we never saw her take the form of the smoke, and she accepted her death just as Jacob did in The Incident. Reasons she could be Smokey are that she destroyed the Roman Others and filled in the well so quickly and easily, she may have been using smokey to appear as dead Claudia, and she might have wanted to die to get out of the terror of being a monster.

Speaking of Smokey. Another question out there is about whether or not the Light went out once MIB was flushed down the chute and came out as Smokey. It is hard to tell if the Light actually went out when Smokey emerged from the cave. It most certainly could have been put out, but it also could have been that the smoke coming out of the tunnel was blocking our view of the Light. The Light shouldn't have been put out, because isn't the Light what helps turn the donkey wheel into a transporter? We've seen it get used for such a thing a long time after Smokey emerges. But if the Light did go out, does that mean that the Smoke Monster took all of its energy and now is the Light in which Jacob is protecting (hence why Jacob can't let him leave)?

So how about all of the rules? The Mother keeps talking about all the different rules she put in place. The fact that Jacob and MIB can't hurt each other or the fact that MIB can never leave the Island. Or even the idea of the Light and someone needing to protect it. Did we ever actually see either of them try to kill each other? Did MIB ever attempt to leave the Island and fail? We know that the Mother is a liar. What if she was lying about all these rules? And these two boys just never tried to disobey any of them, because they were continually looking for ways around them. This has really been a recurring theme in Lost. Whether it was Ben, Widmore, Locke or Jack, they've all used manipulation to get what they wanted.

So what's the end game gonna look like with Lost? Across the Sea showed us that the game has been played for a long, long time. Stealing babies, manipulating, trying to leave the Island, crazy mothers. In other words, "They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt. It always ends the same." Well in Ryan McGee's Lost Podcast he thinks that it will either end with a new iteration of the game beginning, or the destruction of the game for all of time. Although the ending scene of Jack and Locke sitting on the beach talking about how much they want to kill each other would be great, I think I'd rather see our favorite characters be the reason this horrible game of senet came to an end.

You see as Jacob said, "It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress." I thought they were epic words at the time and I can't disagree with myself now. Just as Smokey has been spending an eternity manipulating people into getting what he needed to win the game versus Jacob and get off the Island, Jacob too has been structuring everything just right so that he can win and end this thing so that it never happens again. You see when MIB made up the rules to their game of senet, Jacob complained and was told by his brother that some day he'd be able to make up his own rules. I think he did.

Maybe MIB has been playing by an outdated set of rules this whole time, so killing Jacob and the rest of the candidates isn't really going to help him get off the Island. Jacob made his own set of rules and is making it so that whatever Jack, Hurley, Sawyer, etc. do in the next few hours will stop all of the horrible Island stuff from happening to anyone ever again. It will be very satisfying to see that our favorite characters are the ones that help save the day.

I'll come back after this Tuesday's episode and apologize to myself for how wrong all of this is.

Survivor Week 14- What Are The Chances?

Me- "What are the chances Colby makes it longer than a minute in this challenge?"

And 15 seconds later Colby dropped out of a contest that took 20 minutes to knock everyone else out. This has been the epitome of the highly touted Colby's season. He has either been giving absolutely no effort, or somehow became the worst competitor in the history of Survivor. This guy was my first pick on the Heroes side because of his reputation for winning challenges. Fortunately he is keeping me in the hunt because of his complete lack of effort. Nobody seems to have a need to get rid of him, because he's done absolutely nothing to make anyone afraid of him. Nice move Donaldson.

Nothing too exciting on the strategy side of things, except for the fact Russell continues to make himself out to be more of an idiot than I could have ever imagined. He was completely surprised to find out that Danielle was close with Parvati? You mean the fact that the three of you have been in an alliance for the past eight weeks didn't tip you off that they might like each other? Wow you are dense.

The most annoying aspect of Survivor? The fact that these people get so emotional when their relatives come to see them. Seriously people, you've been away from your families for a month. Did you all cry your eyes out when you came home on Thanksgiving break from college? What a joke.

Fantasy Results

Punch Face Champions

Russell (Villains)- W14 (92)= 92
Danielle (Villains)
Sandra (Villains)- W14 (92), Idol use on last day (-)= 92
JT (Heroes)
Tom (Heroes)
Weeks 14= 184 Total= 1,592

Redwood Original

Boston Rob (Villains)
Parvati (Villains)- W14 (92), Immunity (20)= 112
Colby (Heroes)- W14 (92)= 92
Sugar (Heroes)
Candice (Heroes)
Week 14= 204 Total= 1,400

DJ Roomba

Tyson (Villains)
Randy (Villains)
Jerri (Villains)- W14 (92), Reward (10)= 102
Rupert (Heroes)- Votes (-16)= -16
Amanda (Heroes)
Week 14= 86 Total= 1,127

Kick Puncher III

Coach (Villains)
Courtney (Villains)
James (Heroes)
Stephenie (Heroes)
Cirie (Heroes)
Total= 164