The Voice Quarterfinals (Part 1) Review- She's A Heartbreaker

Blake- "You don't have a boyfriend?"

RaeLynn- "No! I'm a heartbreaker."

There were performances by contestants, performances by coaches and a pair of instant eliminations on the first episode of The Voice's Quarterfinals.

Team Xtina performed "Fighter" together, and the coach's outfit was one for the ages. I also loved that she added to the running joke of Blake and male strippers, as she had two shirtless dudes on stage with her during a second stint of "Hillbilly Bone."

Maroon 5 also rocked out their new single "Payphone," and Team Blake sang "Heartache Tonight." I wasn't surprised at all that Blake gave his team members much more of an opportunity to shine than Christina did earlier in the show.

Let's get to the important performances, though. One member from Team Xtina, and one member form Team Blake were going to head home immediately following the performances. How did they perform under the pressure?

Team Blake - RaeLynn - "She's Country"
If America voted her through last week, I can't imagine how many votes RaeLynn is going to pull in with this performance. She got rid of all the weird she brought last time, and absolutely knocked this song out of the park. Being very familiar with this song, I loved hearing the female vocal on it. It was a pleasant surprise, and I'm back on board the RaeLynn train after two subpar performances.

Christina said RaeLynn makes her want to sing country.  Cee Lo said it was like AC/DC did a country song. Adam noted that Blake finally did something right in picking the song. Blake said that it was the most proud moment he has had this season.
Grade: A

To read the rest of my review of last night's The Voice, head over to TV Fanatic.

Mad Men 505 Review- Down For The Count

Peggy- "Lane beat the crap out of Pete."

Ken- "I can't believe he beat me to it."

The down and out life of Pete Campbell was interesting to witness during "Signal 30," especially when comparing it to how content Don Draper was at this given point in time. It is best summed up by the words of Ben Hargrove...

It might have been living in the country that was making him cry. It was killing him with its silence, and loneliness, making everything ordinary too beautiful to bear.

I'm not sure which combination of living in the suburbs, growing tired of his wife, an increased work load or simply wanting to be like the ad men he has watched over the years forced Pete into this type of behavior... but I'm glad it has happened.

Without his downward spiral, we never would have been able to watch Lane knock him the heck out. How great was that fight scene in the conference room? Between Roger aggressively wanting to see the fight and later claiming he had money on Lane, Don quietly closing the blinds and Pete actually hitting the floor, it was the most entertaining scene of the episode.

To read the rest of my review of last night's Mad Men, head over to TV Fanatic.

Mad Men 505 - "Signal 30"
Review
Recap
Quotes

The Borgias 202 Review- Sans Paolo

Vanozza- "Affections can be lethal in this Rome of ours."

Vanozza's words could not have been a better reflection of "Paolo." The Borgias continued its strong start to the second season with a twisted tale of love, family and betrayal this week.

As much as I have commended Francois Arnaud for his performance as Cesare over the course of the first season-plus, darn it if David Oakes didn't steal the show as Juan Borgia during this hour.

I kept finding myself so intrigued by what he was doing and the feelings he was emoting. The character has so much pride and it showed up in spades during that scene at the fountain.

How great was it seeing Juan immediately come to his sister's defense? He was so disgusted by the fact that a commoner would even think about coming near him and his sister; it made for very strange moment out of Lucrezia.

To read the rest of my review of last night's The Borgias, head over to TV Fanatic.

The Borgias 202 - "Paolo"
Review
Recap
Quotes

American Idol Top 7- Save For the Belle

I talked at great length about this week's results with Jack and Rizzo.  My two email conversation with Rizz about Sanchez's bottom three appearance and inevitable save can be read below...

From Rizzo...

I have not watched idol from last night yet. But I don't need to because from what I hear they made a big deal about needing to save Sanchez.

I think there is NO WAY she got the least votes. She is the best female voice by far and very popular. Also dialidol.com is never wrong and they don't even have her in the bottom three for total votes. Joshua had the least votes and raw numbers.

I think they did this on purpose for ratings and to draw attention to the show. I think and still think that it's Phillip and Sanchez to the end.

Larry mentioned something about daughtry and how everyone was sure that he would stay so no one voted or something.

Bottom line is no way in hell that Sanchez actually had the least votes. I think they did this on purpose for ratings/attention/press etc.

Also, no idea why I am so interested in this because I have not watched an episode in two weeks.

From me...

haha i love that you are so interested even you haven't watched.  i am also extremely intrigued, haven't watched a single results episode, and only watch the performances (no judges, intro videos, crap) on the regular eps.

here is my thought.  i think it is extremely possible that they staged this elimination and save in order to drum up excitement, however I don't believe it is necessarily what happened.  dialidol has definitely been wrong in the past...heck they had eben frankewicz as the leading vote getter in the top 24!  usually, though, they do have good standings.  since the added the texting votes though, they have been less accurate.

while i agree that jessica is the best of the season (you may like philphil, i may take colton, but sanchez has the best voice talent), I think she may be hurting for votes because she's from southern california.  the other six of the top seven are from the south or southeast, places that are known to vote well (texas, louisiana, south carolina, tennessee, georgia, mississippi). those people have nothing better to do than sit by their phones and vote for their small town girl or guy who is on idol.  it's rare to see somebody from LA, San Diego, NYC, etc. do really well on these shows, because people have lives in those places and theirs no "entire town or state voting for the contestant" mentality.

having said all that, I still think there is an absolute chance that Idol rigged all of that to increase ratings for the rest of the season, but then why wouldn't they just rig every week?  why not rig the entire order of finish?  why would they have a dude win the last four seasons and then complain about it?  there's a lot of merit to the fact that they may be cheating the system, but I'm not entirely sold on it.

Fantasy Idol

Larry
Phillip Phillips: Safe (+21)
Skylar Laine: Safe (+21)
Erika Van Pelt
Adam Brock
Brielle Von Hugel
Top 7: +42, Team Total: 146

Rizzo
Jessica Sanchez: Eliminated (-16), Saved (+21)
Shannon Magrane
Elise Testone: Bottom 3 (-8), Safe (+21)
Aaron Marcellus
Johnny Keyser
Top 7: +18, Team Total: 113

Tyson
Heejun Han
Hollie Cavanaugh: Safe (+21)
Jeremy Rosado
Hallie Day
Chase Likens
Top 7: +21, Team Total: 79

Me
Colton Dixon: Safe (+21)
Reed Grimm
Eben Franckewitz
Haley Johnson
Jen Hirsh
Top 7: +21, Team Total: 76

Jack
Deandre Brackensick
Baylie Brown
Joshua Ladet: Bottom 3 (-8), Safe (+21)
Chelsea Sorrell
Creighton Fraker

Top 7: +13, Team Total: 73

The Office 820 Review- There's Magic Out There

Dwight- "I wonder if king size sheets are called presidential sized in England. I really should have a tweeter account."

It had been almost a month since the last episode of The Office aired, and its return confirmed the sad truth: this show has become a mediocre comedy this season.

"Welcome Party" was filled with a few heartwarming moments, and a couple of laugh out loud scenes here and there, but every new installment seems to make it more and more obvious that The Office is a shell of what it used to be.

Catherine Tate was pretty polarizing in her first few performances, but at least she was giving audiences an opinion. Here, her Nellie Bertram was neither hilarious nor detestable, and instead was used as a sympathetic character taking on the mean-spirited words of her coworkers. Whether Nellie deserved the hate from the office, or the love from Jim's defense, it didn't have much of an effect on our viewing pleasure.

The fake party for Nellie did bring about two of the funniest moments from the episode, though. There was this classic "Kevin is fat" hilarity...

To read the rest of my review of last night's The Office, head over to TV Fanatic.

The Office 820 - "Welcome Party"
Review
Recap
Quotes

30 Rock 617 Review- Double Donaghy Downer

Tracy- "Son this isn't easy for me to say because my tongue caught what my foot has..."

I became very uninterested in "Meet the Woggles" shortly after the episode started. With Jenna in another weird yet boring relationship, and Colleen Donaghy back to annoy us all, Tracy attempting to keep his son out of college was the only story I could hang on to.

Colleen did have that one good line about the stork, but other than that she was just grumpy as always, and not in the funny old curmudgeon way. She just took most of the life out of 30 Rock this week.

Jenna has been great this season without Paul, so bringing her weird love life back to the forefront was disappointing. Also, the musical group that gave this episode its title wasn't really a humorous addition. I think the Woggles didn't work because they weren't much of an exaggeration on the children's groups they were trying to make fun of.

To read the rest of my review of last night's 30 Rock, head over to TV Fanatic.

30 Rock 617 - "Meet the Woggles"
Review
Recap
Quotes

Survivor Week 9- Chicken Wings Would Really Hit The Spot

Screw you Jay, and your chicken wings.

Champions League

Larry

Michael -17
Kat +50: Reward (+4), W9 (+37)= +91
Jonas +9
Tarzan +100: Reward (+4), W9 (+37)= +141

Last Week +142: Team Total= +224

Me

Jay +87: Reward (+4), Votes (-20)= +71
Chelsea +8: Immunity (+20), W9 (+37)= +65
Monica -5
Colton +25

Last Week +115: Team Total= +156

Jack

Troyzan +127: Reward (+4), Idol Misuse (-10), W9 (+37)= +158
Christina +47: W9 (+37)= +84
Kourtney -45
Bill -45

Last Week +84: Team Total= +152

Jaydon

Matt -100
Kim +38: Votes (-4), W9 (+37)= +71
Alicia +115: Reward (+4), Votes (-8), W9 (+37)= +148
Nina -24

Last Week +29: Team Total= +95




Free Agents
Leif +125: W9 (+37)= +162
Sabrina +148: W9 (+37)= +185

Developmental League

Marsh

Jay: Reward (+4), Votes (-20)= -16
Chelsea: Immunity (+20), W9 (+37)= +57
Bill
Christina: W9 (+37)= +37

Week 9= +78, Team Total= +495

Mags

Matt
Kim: Votes (-4), W9 (+37)= +33
Alicia: Reward (+4), Votes (-8), W9 (+37)= +33
Tarzan: Reward (+4), W9 (+37)= +41

Week 9= +107, Team Total= +471

Tippy

Troyzan: Reward (+4), Idol Misuse (-10), W9 (+37)= +31
Kat: Reward (+4), W9 (+37)= +41
Colton
Monica

Week 9= +72, Team Total= +415




Rizzo

Michael
Jonas
Kourtney
Nina

Team Total= +49

Free Agents
Leif: W9 (+37)= +37
Sabrina: W9 (+37)= +37

The Voice Top 24 Results (Part 2)- Lucca Who Made It Through

It was another action packed night on The Voice, as the results were handed out and four more singers were sent home. There were some contestants digging down deep to put on the performance of their lives.

There was also time for a quick performance by Jessie J with Team Xtina. Didn't they see that there was no point in brining the team on with the guest performer last week? They didn't do anything up there.

The only other negative from the night was the return of the awkward Sprint Lounge. At least this time Adam Levine mentioned how terrible it was, and hopefully they make some changes. I don't know what those changes need to be, but something needs to happen soon.

Now let's get to the results...

TEAM ADAM
Safe: Mathai, Tony Lucca, Pip
I couldn't agree more with America on these choices, but what about the contestants in danger of leaving?

To read the rest of my rundown of last night's The Voice Results, head over to TV Fanatic.