This Week in Buffy History: November 29-December 5

November 29

1956 - Hinton Battle born (played Sweet in Episode 6.07 “Once More, With Feeling”)

November 30

1956 - Lily Knight born (played Gronx in season 5)

1999 - Episode 4.09 “Something Blue” airs on The WB

1999 - Angel Episode 1.09 “Hero” airs on The WB

December 1

1972 - Ron Melendez born (played James in Angel Episode 3.01 “Heartthrob”)

December 2

1952 - Keith Szarabajka born (played Holtz on “Angel”)

1955 - Dennis Christopher born (played Cyvus Vail in season 5 of “Angel”)

December 3

2002 - Glenn Quinn’s dies (played Doyle on “Angel”)

December 4

1954 - Tony Todd born (played Vyasa in Angel Episode 2.08 “The Shroud of Rahman”)

December 5

1971 - Kali Rocha born (played Cecily Adams/Halfrek)

1976 - Amy Acker born (played Winifred “Fred” Burkle on “Angel”)

Playoffs? Don’t Talk About Playoffs? At least, not if you work for the BCS

Check your college football schedule today, and you’ll see something that the people who run the BCS would like you to believe is functionally impossible: a playoff. The FCS playoffs begin today, and about a month from now, they’ll actually crown a champion that has gone through a postseason gauntlet and proven itself as the best team against all comers.

The mere existence of this playoff at a relatively high level of football disproves just about every argument the BCS makes against a playoff -- and they are arguing. In the past few weeks, the BCS has set up a Twitter account (@INSIDEtheBCS) and a website (Playoff Problem), both of which basically serve to say why their system is the right one. Only, they do so by one of two methods:

1. saying that the BCS has paired the top two teams in the BCS rankings for a national championship game every year. This is a circular argument. The rankings themselves are flawed, and just ask anyone who watched Nebraska back into the title game in ’01 if they were really the #2 team in the country.
2. giving countless reasons why playoffs in general are flawed. Just look at the front page of playoffproblem.com. There are half a dozen questions that try to make it seem like playoffs in general don't work. Except, you know, in all other levels of NCAA football and every other NCAA sport in America.

My problem with the BCS is it’s the only championship system that effectively eliminates 85% of the teams competing before the season begins. In the decade-plus of the BCS, only one team has jumped from outside the preseason Top 15 to reach the national championship game: Oklahoma in 2000. BCS officials will tell you that their system makes sure every game is meaningful, but just how meaningful was Auburn’s undefeated 2004 season, when they couldn’t jump USC or Oklahoma (who started the season ranked 1-2)? The same question applies to Utah in 2004 and 2008 and Boise State in 2007. If you win every game you play, but lose out on a spot in the national championship game to a one- or two-loss team, then how is your season still “meaningful”?

The way the BCS works right now, if you’re a team from outside the Big Ten, Pac-10, SEC or Big 12, and you start the season ranked #16 or lower, you shouldn’t even consider the possibility of playing for a national championship. And yes, I realize I left out two AQ conferences, but no team from the Big East or ACC has reached the national title game since those conferences realigned (even in ’06 when 1-loss Louisville was ranked behind two Big Ten teams and two SEC teams, including a 2-loss LSU).

As for maintaining the importance of the Bowl system, the BCS has failed at that. Yes, teams do still strive to make a BCS bowl aside from the national championship game, but that’s for financial purposes and has little to do with the prestige of those games. In fact, since the introduction of the separate national championship game, the other BCS bowls have steadily decreased in importance. The bowl system as a whole is little more than a glorified NIT at this point -- and therefore could continue to exist alongside a playoff, just like there are now three Division I postseason tournaments that exist alongside the NCAA Tournament.

The only time the BCS “works” is when there are two undefeated power conference teams and no other unbeatens in college football (like in 2002 or 2005). Otherwise, it’s a compromise system that either chooses the lesser of two evils (in 2007, when 2-loss LSU made it) or leaves worthy teams out (like in 2004, or likely this year, when multiple unbeatens will be playing in meaningless bowl games). But, despite the evidence that a better system exists -- evidence that will be on display in FCS action later today -- the BCS continues to stick its head in the sand.

Friday Five - Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV Shows in Trouble

It was supposed to be a banner year for science fiction on television, but things have started to fizzle out. So what’s going wrong? Let’s take a show-by-show look at this to see if it’s a trend, or just a coincidence.

1 - Dollhouse
Status: canceled, will run off remaining episodes
I’ve already written about this, but I don’t think the failings of “Dollhouse” were specifically because it was a sci-fi show. The show failed because it struggled to establish exactly what it was and who we should be rooting for, character-wise.

2 - Eastwick
Status: canceled, will run off remaining episodes
A fantasy show, involving witchcraft instead of science, Eastwick seemed to have all the necessary elements to succeed. But it seemed like the creators wanted to downplay the genre elements and play up the characters -- who themselves weren’t particularly interesting. It resulted in an incredibly weak show that never had much of a chance of succeeding.

3 - V
Status: on hiatus until March
V’s four episode mini-run wrapped up on Tuesday, and that’s what sparked this idea. V has been plagued by behind the scenes problems from the beginning, as ABC tried to downplay the whole “alien invaders” aspect of the show. None of the show’s marketing referred to aliens, and even on the show, they’re always called “the visitors” or “the Vs”. Now, with the show on hiatus for three months, it’ll be easy for it to get lost in the shuffle, which is unfortunate, since “V” probably has the most deeply rooted sci-fi plots of any of these shows (including the sci-fi tradition of using aliens as a metaphor for something more Earth-bound).

4 - FlashForward
Status: full-season order received, but production halted
This show had such promise early on, but things have stalled. The last couple of episodes have been incredibly disappointing, and now ABC has called for a halt to production, according to a spokesman “to maintain the high quality of the show” (can you say “too late”?). In my eyes, the reason the show has bogged down is because it’s become character-centric, trying so hard to avoid being science fiction. When you’ve got visions of the future, an experiment that caused the entire planet to black out, and possibly magic rings, you’re sci-fi. Embrace it.

5 - Heroes
Status: still going, for some reason
Just go away. At this point, you’ve gone from being character-based sci-fi to boring primetime soap. Strangely, the shows listed above generally struggled creatively when they tried to avoid being “too” sci-fi. Meanwhile, as “Heroes” got deeper and deeper into the genre (with shadowy corporations, genetic formulas, time travel through centuries, butterfly effects, etc.) it got more and more unwatchable. Maybe the people in charge of the other networks saw that, and that’s what led to the toning down of the genre elements in Dollhouse, Eastwick, V and FlashForward.

Obviously, none of the shows listed above are on the SyFy channel, but a sci-fi show should be able to succeed outside of one small corner of the television universe. I’d say that “V” or “FlashForward” might be better served by getting away from ABC, but FOX cancelled “Terminator” and “Dollhouse”, NBC dropped “Medium” and is watching “Heroes” die a slow death and CBS stuck both of its fantasy shows on Friday night. Meanwhile, The CW continues to have success with “Supernatural”, “Smallville” and “The Vampire Diaries” -- in part because the network can afford to live with the lower ratings genre shows traditionally bring in.

"Up"... the new standard for Blu-ray

After being without my PS3 for about a month, I finally got it back last week, which meant I could start buying Blu-ray movies again (I'd stopped buying them when I didn't have my PS3, since I don't have another Blu-ray player to watch them with). The first movie I went out and bought was Disney/Pixar's "Up".

Aside from being an awesome movie (despite the sob-fest that is the first 20 minutes), "Up" reminded me why Blu-ray is so amazing. As I was watchign the movie, I was continually stunned by the level of visual detail in the picture. Things I hadn't even noticed when watching the movie in theaters were clear as day on Blu-ray.

Think back 10 years, when DVDs first started to be mainstream. We were all amazed at how much better a DVD looked when compared to a VHS movie. But by the time DVDs had been around for awhile, they didn't seem nearly as amazing, especially when TV technology started to exceed that of DVDs (a 480p DVD doesn't look that crisp on a 1080p TV). The visual difference between Blu-ray and DVD is even more striking than the difference between DVD and VHS, but because DVDs themselves weren't that bad, sometimes that difference is hard to appreciate. That's not the case with "Up", which I'm pretty sure is going to become my new reference disc. Now I just need a new TV.

Series of Tubes: Kevin Michael Richardson is Awesome

A couple years ago, there was an under-appreciated but incredibly funny show on ABC called “The Knights of Prosperity.” The star of the show, in terms of credit and promotion, was Donal Logue, but the man who stole every scene was Kevin Michael Richardson.

If you didn’t watch “Knights of Prosperity”, you probably haven’t seen Richardson much, but I guarantee you that you’ve heard his voice. The guy is a prolific voice actor with an incredible range of voices, but when it comes down to it, the voice of his I love the best is his own.

Last night was a great night for me to get my KMR fix. He did the voice of Jerome on “Family Guy”, and while the episode itself was painfully unfunny, Richardson did the best with the material he was given. Earlier in the night, Richardson’s real voice showed up on “The Cleveland Show”. He does a couple of voices regularly for the series -- which, honestly, hasn’t been good at any point this season -- but last night he used his real voice for “Kevin” the real man behind the “Auntie Mama” character (a mediocre parody of Tyler Perry’s Madea).

Richardson also showed up late last season in a ridiculously hilarious cameo on “How I Met Your Mother”. Basically, whenever he does comedy, he’s awesome (I never saw him on “The Cleaner”, but he was only on one season, and that show wasn’t really up my alley anyway.). If I ever get control of my own sitcom, I’m definitely casting Richardson in a role.

Why I Both Love and Hate the NFL Red Zone Channel

The 2009 NFL season has been different for me for one big reason: the NFL Red Zone Channel. This channel, which was made available to non-satellite viewers this season, bounces around from game to game, showing the most exciting action, along with highlights of every scoring play in the league. Most importantly, it does this without commercials.

Now, this isn’t a perfect solution to Sunday Ticket still being a DirecTV exclusive, but it’s pretty damn awesome (plus its a hell of a lot cheaper than Sunday Ticket -- AT&T U-Verse put it on an HD Tier that costs $5 a month). All season, when I’ve been home on Sundays, I’ve been watching this channel rather than CBS or FOX. Even if there’s a specific game I want to follow, I can trust that Red Zone channel will be on top of it. More importantly, I don’t have to be stuck with my so-called local games -- and this is huge, since I hate the Giants, Jets and Patriots.

It’s amazing how much this has affected my football viewing. Instead of casually watching a local game on TV, while tracking other games online, I simply let NFL Red Zone do the work. Today it was incredible, as there were multiple instances when the Red Zone channel went to a two-box format and got simultaneous scoring plays. Even a game like Browns-Lions, which looked so crappy on paper, got run on Red Zone when it got super exciting.

That said, today is when I also discovered a serious problem with the Red Zone channel -- it has made me completely non-productive on Sundays. It used to be that I could use commercial breaks and halftime as markers to get things done, whether it was taking out the trash, doing laundry, getting some writing done, making phone calls, whatever. Now, because I watch football non-stop with no commercials and no halftime breaks, it’s really hard to do anything but watch football.

Yes, usually the 4:15 games all hit halftime around the same time, resulting in a brief break, but by that point, I’m in a football-induced coma, and I’ve got zero incentive to do anything (so, basically, I’m the football-watching equivalent of JaMarcus Russell).

Of course, the many, many pros of NFL Red Zone network (did I mention they show pieces of EVERY Sunday game -- even the dismal Redskins-Cowboys debacle today?) outweigh the one con. Plus, once the regular season is over, I should be able to go back to my productive weekend self. Maybe.

This Week in Buffy History: November 22-28

November 22

UNKNOWN YEAR - Michele Kelly born (played Alonna in Angel Episode 1.20 “War Zone”)

1964 - Khalil Kain born (played Gio in Angel Episode 3.03 “That Old Gang of Mine”)

1967 - Erik Betts born (played Agent Brown in Episode 5.04 “Out of My Mind”)

November 23

1999 - Episode 4.08 “Pangs” airs on The WB

1999 - Angel Episode 1.08 “I Will Remember You” airs on The WB

November 24

1997 - Episode 2.10 “What’s My Line? (Part 2)” airs on The WB

1998 - Episode 3.08 “Lover’s Walk” airs on The WB

November 26

2002 - Episode 7.09 “Never Leave Me” airs on UPN

November 27

1974 - Alec Newman born (played Drogyn in season 5 of “Angel”)

2001 - Episode 6.10 “Wrecked” airs on UPN

November 28

2000 - Episode 5.09 “Listening to Fear” airs on The WB

2000 - Angel Episode 5.09 “The Trial” airs on The WB

Seriously, America? "New Moon"? WTF?!

So... umm... this happened (from E! Online):

New Moon smashed The Dark Knight's single-day and opening-day box-office records with an estimated $72.7 million Friday, its studio reported today.

If the movie's unprecedented midnight business was "absolutely freakish," then its unprecedented full-day take was simply phenomenal.

I haven't seen "New Moon", nor do I ever plan on seeing it (I did see "Twilight" and have spent the last year researching methods on how to un-see it, but that doesn't seem scientifically possible). Still, I can't believe that this:


... is better than this:



Also, I can guarantee that no one from "New Moon" is winning any acting Oscars any time soon. However, if "New Moon" surpasses "The Dark Knight" in final box office totals, then we as a country have failed.

AdamNPooZ.com Podcast Outtakes from Episode 2.13

Whenever PooZ and I record a Podcast, we usually end up with a lot of material that doesn't make the final cut. Hell, we normally ramble on for about 10 minutes before we actual do the offical Podcast welcome, and ramble for another 10 minutes after the rollout. Then there are the times we get off topic, overly random or just screw up.

With that in mind, I'll be sharing some of these outtakes for each episode from here on out. Here are some of the quick highlights from the 30-or-so minutes of audio that ended up on the cutting room floor for this one (note: there is no actual "cutting room", since this is all done in GarageBand).

DELETED SCENE - We have another laugh at Jay Cutler's expense (0:51)


BLOOPER - Adam confuses himself while trying to set up the third topic of discussion (0:27)


DELETED SCENE - PooZ lets Adam know that Tiffani Thiessen is still getting work (0:35)

Review: Buffy #30, “Retreat, Part 5”

Yes, I know this issue came out two weeks ago, but I was busy doing other stuff and didn’t get to the comic shop until recently. That said, I think this is a solid wrap-up to the “Retreat” storyline, while leading into the next arc that will begin to wrap up Season 8.

COVER TWO

Adam Hughes handles duties on the main cover, putting Buffy front and center in the middle of a snowstorm. Hughes portrays Buffy with a stake, which is an iconic image, but doesn’t fit with the issue. George Jeanty’s alternate cover shows the group in glass, being shattered by the emergence of the Tibetan Goddesses. Sure, the metaphor may be a little strong, but it works.

THE WRITE STUFF

For the most part, this issue wrapped up the “Retreat” storyline. The group realized they weren’t getting their powers back, and Buffy struck out on her own -- it almost felt like the

end of Season 6, with a “what’s next” feeling (or “where do we go from here”, if you want to get musical with it), rather than a neat wrap-up like Season 3 or Season 4.

At first, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the Riley reveal, but it makes sense, and was handled well. Given what we’d seen of the character in Season 4, the fact that he was working for Buffy as a double agent made total sense.

THE ART STUFF

These last few issues have probably been among the most challenging for Georges Jeanty, given the amount of action that’s happening in each panel. He’s been up to the task so far. I loved how he did the two-page spread with Buffy waking up five hours later, showing her reactions in inset panels laid over the main image of the battlefield.

Also, the final splash page was fantastic (and I actually like the whole “Buffy flying” thing, because it’s something that couldn’t have been done on the show) and the added touch of color when Buffy fell into the Goddess’s hand gives a contextual clue as to how Buffy got her powers back.

WHO IS TWILIGHT

Still no Twilight reveal, but there was an interesting piece of dialogue that changed my opinion on who he may be. During the battle, when it was pointed out to him (and I keep saying him, because it’d be a real cop-out if this male-sized and shaped person whose voice we can’t hear turnout out to be female) that most of their soldiers were getting killed, Twilight responded, “They’re mortal. They have to die sometime.” I know this is weird, but the WAY he said it (again, though we can’t actually hear it, in a comic book) seemed to signal that whoever is under that Twilight mask isn’t mortal. So, barring any kind of huge twist, that would rule out both Graham and Pike.

GRADING “RETREAT”

Now that the “Retreat” arc is done, it’s time for me to give it an overall score. I ended up liking this arc a lot more than I thought I would. The de-powering of the Slayer army was necessary, and allows the book to get back to the core focus of Buffy and her small group of “slayerettes”, rather than this grand story that’s dominated Season 8. The individual books of the arc had their uneven moments, but taking the 5-part series as a whole gives it better context. Grade: 4 out of a possible 5.

<-- Previous Issue (#29: Retreat, Pt. 4)

Next Issue (Willow One-Shot) -->

Gossip Girl - Whatever You Like

On Tuesday, I wrote that the threesome on “Gossip Girl” was overhyped and given too much attention, but that didn’t mean it failed to resonate with me. In fact, since the episode, I’ve been wanting to expand on the scene where Dan/Olivia/Vanessa all kissed, turning it into a video of hot “Gossip Girl” moments, using the same song (Anya Marina’s cover of T.I.’s “Whatever You Like” - available on iTunes).

Well, whenever I get one of these ideas, it generally takes up all my creative thought until I get it done, so, here for your enjoyment is the final product.

At first, I was going to try and pick moments to match up with the lyrics, but I decided to just let the video flow naturally. I think it works better.

This Week in Buffy History: November 15-21

November 16

1999 - Episode 4.07 - “The Initiative” airs on The WB

1999 - Angel Episode 1.07 “Bachelor Party” airs on The WB

November 17

1928 - Rance Howard born (played Marcus Rosco in Angel Episode 3.04 “Carpe Noctem”

1972 - Leonard Roberts born (played Forrest Gates in season 4)

1997 - Episode 2.09 “What’s My Line (Part I)” airs on The WB

1998 - Episode 3.07 “Revelations” airs on The WB

2002 - Angel Episode “Apocalypse, Nowish” airs on The WB

November 18

1961 - Nick Chinlund born (played Major Ellis in season 5)

1979 - Elizabeth Anne Allen born (played Amy Madison)

November 19

2001 - Angel Episode 3.09 “Lullaby” airs on The WB

2002 - Episode 7.08 “Sleeper” airs on UPN

2003 - Angel Episode 5.08 “Destiny” airs on The WB

November 20

1971 - Christopher Leps born (played Agent Goodman in Episode 5.04 “Out of My Mind”

1973 - Jonathan M. Woodward born (played Holden Webster on Buffy, Knox on Angel)

2001 - Episode 6.09 “Smashed” airs on UPN

November 21

2000 - Episode 5.08 “Shadow” airs on The WB

2000 - Angel Episode 2.08 “The Shroud of Rahmon” airs on The WB

Series of Tubes: Closing the Dollhouse for Good

The news came down today that FOX has officially canceled “Dollhouse”. The network will allow the show to continue production to finish the 13-episode order and has committed to air the remaining episodes.

This move shouldn’t be a surprise, and in fact, I warned this may be coming back when I reviewed the most recent episode of “Dollhouse” back in October. However, it’s still disappointing, because of the general trend it signals in television.

Currently, “Dollhouse” is on hiatus for November sweeps, mostly because of the incredibly low ratings its been pulling in this season (which are even worse than the low ratings it got in Season 1). Sadly, repeats of “Bones” and “House” drew higher numbers than new episodes of “Dollhouse” on Friday nights, pretty much sealing the show’s fate. Repeats are free programming, and if they’re going to draw higher numbers than new programming, it’s a no-brainer for any TV exec.

Of course, this is the same logic that led to NBC deciding to go with 5 hours a week of Leno at 10pm, rather than invest in new scripted programming. Leno is chapter, and even though his ratings are horrible this year (still way better than “Dollhouse”), NBC can afford to stick with him, because he’s more profitable at the low ratings spot than new scripted programming would be with higher ratings.

Sometimes what fans fail to remember is that TV networks are business. Yes, it is in their interest to develop new, interesting programming, but only to the point that it serves the business. As critically acclaimed as “Dollhouse” may have been (and there are still doubts about that), and as rabid as its small fan base may have been, there simply weren’t enough people tuning in at the end of the day to justify ordering more episodes of the show.

As for the show itself, I’m going to enjoy watching these last nine episodes. Just because a show has been cancelled, that’s no reason for the fans who have been supporting it to suddenly stop (on the flip side, don’t think a sudden surge in ratings will reverse this decision). It’s not Joss Whedon’s fault or Eliza Dushku’s fault or Dichen Lachman’s fault that the show is canceled, so I’m going to supporting the work they’ve done.

Also, unlike a show like “The Nine” from a couple years ago, there aren’t any concerns that “Dollhouse” isn’t going to have a satisfying ending -- because “Dollhouse” already had its ending. “Epitaph One” was the perfect end for the series, it just so happens that it was made at the end of Season 1 and didn’t air in the United States. Still, if Whedon sticks to his plan (which I believe he will), then the big things that happen this season will build toward “Epitaph One” in some way. So there’s no reason not to sit back, enjoy the last nine episodes, and let the show live on in Blu-ray form for years to come.

Rules for Chanting “M-V-P”

Last night I was watching the Wizards-Heat game, and the few people in attendance (seriously, there were entire sections that were empty) started an “M-V-P” chant for Dwyane Wade. Now, I think Dwyane Wade has what it takes to be an MVP, but it’s WAY too early in the season to be giving anyone the M-V-P chant.

In general, the M-V-P chant has gotten way out of control in recent years. First of all, no MVP voter has ever considered “number of M-V-P chants” before casting his or her ballot. Also, there are so many more creative things to chant -- “M-V-P” is starting to feel like “over-rated” in over-used chants. If you’re a Cavs fan, trying doing an “Ak-ron Ham-mer, ”, Yankees style, for LeBron. He’s already an MVP. You don’t need to remind everyone constantly.

So, with that in mind, here are my guidelines for chanting “M-V-P” at an NBA game:

1. No chanting M-V-P until at least 50 games into the season. Sure, it may have seemed cool to chant M-V-P for Kevin Garnett early last season, but how cool was it when he missed the last three months of the year? Plus, the last thing you want to do is suffer from a Guy Morriss-esque premature celebration. 
2. If more than 10 percent of your seats are empty, you shouldn’t be chanting for anything, much less M-V-P. Real MVPs can sell out their home venues.
3. If the target of your MVP chants doesn’t rank in the top 7 in the league in scoring, top 3 in rebounding or top 3 in assists, then please stop. The only MVP in the last 30 years who didn’t meet those standards was Dirk Nowitzki, and after his 2007 playoff flameout, he should have had to return his award.
4. You can only chant M-V-P in the final six minutes of a game in which the target’s team has the game in hand. If you start an MVP chant in the first quarter, or when your team is down by 10 points, you should be immediately ejected from the arena.
5. Only chant M-V-P for a genuine MVP moment (thunderous dunk, buzzer-beater, crazy blocked shot). Do not chant M-V-P for routine jumpers, layups or free throws (exception: the M-V-P chant started after a thunderous dunk can continue during the free throw in an and-1 situation).
6. Once the regular season is over, all M-V-P chants should stop (since, you know, the award’s already been voted on). M-V-P chants are allowed to resume for one playoff game, when the actual MVP receives his award. They must immediately cease again after that game.
7. The only time an M-V-P chant should be started in the Finals is during the last minutes of a potential clinching game, and then only for the winning team’s absolute best player. If your team is about to win a title with Tony Parker or Cedric Maxwell getting Finals MVP honors, that’s great, but chanting M-V-P only demeans the actual superstar on the team.
8. You can only chant M-V-P for a visiting player for two reasons: either you’re a fan of the visiting team, and have somehow scored tickets to a road game (in which case, all previous rules except the 90% capacity rule apply), or your team has spent much of the previous decade clearing cap space to woo the potential MVP to town. Otherwise, you should be ejected from the arena. If any home crowd starts multiple M-V-P chants for road players in the same season (I’m looking at you, 2007-08 Knicks), the entire front office should be fired.

Follow these rules, and we’ll all be better, smarter fans.

Series of Tubes: Three out of Four Ain’t Bad

In honor of last night’s “Gossip Girl” threesome (which received way more promotion and media attention than it deserved, especially for being a b-story), I’m gonna pick three things I liked from the three TV shows I liked last night, then complain about three things I hated from the one show I didn’t like (the one that should have been canceled three years ago).


It’s like Sesame Street (which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this week)... this post on AdamReisinger.com is brought to you by the number Three.


How I Met Your Mother

1. Best thing about the episode, by far, was the introduction of another potential ongoing gag (in this case, the search for Robin’s Canadian variety show). HIMYM does on-going gags incredibly well, sometimes letting them linger behind the scenes for years before bringing them back. Now, if they could only remember to “bring back” the meeting of the mother...
2. Let’s be honest, the show was different with Barney and Robin dating. I’m not going to go as far as to say it was worse, but it didn’t have the same feel. Now with Barney single again, things should be legen - wait for it - dary, again.
3. During the stakeout scene, Lily and Marshall got into an argument about stormtroopers, and Lily, upon realizing they were people and not robots, was aghast at the sheer amount of death caused by the blowing up of the Death Star. Marshall said the stormtroopers knew what they were getting into. I’m pretty sure I’ve had this same conversation before. Like word for word. And I know I’m not the only one.

Gossip Girl

1. Any threesome involving Hilary Duff is fine by me. But more than just the obvious threesome, this episode was actually all about trios of people teaming up for good or bad. You had Blair-Serena-Chuck, Blair-Eric-Kira and even Jenny and her two escorts (not what you’re thinking).
2. The actual purpose of the threesome, from a future plot development perspective, seems to be to create tension between Olivia, Dan and Vanessa. This is great, because I felt like they were all getting a little too chummy, especially with everyone around them being at each others throats.
3. As for Jenny, who was the focus of the A-story, I thought she was at her most likable awhile back when she was with Nate. Hopefully the cotillion incident can re-kindle that relationship.

Castle

1. First up, as I tweeted last night, the more the episode went on, the more it felt like a re-make of Season 1 of “Veronica Mars.” I am completely fine with this. I miss that show so much.
2. I almost thought we were going to go the entire episode without an Alexis moment, but then she showed up right at the end to have a great moment with her dad. I felt like she was over-used in the previous episode, but in small doses, she’s perfect.
3. Captain Montgomery hasn’t always had much to work with, in terms of story, on this show, but last night’s episode was his time to shine, and he did. I immediately like the character significantly more.

... and as for last night’s clunker:


Heroes

1. You can’t use a scene in promos all week, then try to build it up as a shocking moment in the episode. As soon as the tow truck guy showed up, we knew Sylar/Matt was going to kill him, but they took forever building to that moment. Just more wasted time on a show that perfects that.
2. We get it, H.R.G. wasn’t always the nicest guy in the past. Does that have to be the motivation for every new character on the show? 
3. Please, please let characters die. We thought Nathan was gone when he got shot and re-shape-shifted into Sylar, but now he’s back. And based on the promo from next week, Parkman will be revived and Mohinder is alive and well too. This is just getting stupid.

Tuesday Afternoon Ramblings

I have no plans this weekend, so no “Tuesday Countdown” this week, and I’m home sick (Day 6 of the cold from hell, but I can feel it breaking), so I figured I’d clear out some thoughts that have been kicking around my head for the past few days -- or more, in some cases.

-It looks like it’s going to be harder to get to a true BCS Nightmare Scenario, now that Alabama beat LSU (with some more dubious SEC refereeing) and Iowa lost. Still, there is the potential for five unbeatens at the end of the regular season, including three from major conferences. I don’t think most people would object to a Texas-Florida/Alabama national championship game if both are unbeaten, but if there’s a one-loss team in the championship game over one or two unbeatens, people are gonna be pissed. Also, if there really are five unbeatens at the end of the year, there will be even more calls for a playoff.

-I’ll have my full thought’s on Monday’s TV shows later today, but for now, a bit of news from the land of TV: “Eastwick” has been all but cancelled. ABC has said it won’t up its order from the original 13 episodes, and it doesn’t even have all 13 on the schedule. As far as I’m concerned, this is a mercy killing. The show is awful.

-As I mentioned above, I’ve been sick for six days now. I took the first week of November off from work, fully intending to work more on my Covington Curse novel, but instead spending most of the second half of the week unable to look at a screen. For those of you who’ve been waiting for the next short story in the series, it might be awhile, since that “short story” is feeding the plot of the novel. I have to go back and cherry pick introductory elements from the first six short stories so the novel can stand on its own, but the bulk of the story is coming from what would have been the next six short stories. Stay tuned, because I hope to have more regular updates on my progress, and I’d like to have something to share with you by the end of the year.

-I don’t know if you’ve seen the little box on the front page, but I’m on Twitter now (and have been for a couple months). You can follow me at http://www.twitter.com/adamreisinger. Mostly I use it for making sarcastic comments about sports and television. Think of it as AdamReisinger.com Lite (plus, I’ll always send out tweets when I publish an update to this blog or LeBron2010.info).

-Speaking of LeBron, I’ve got one last anecdote to mention from last Friday’s game. Kevin Rudolf provided the halftime entertainment. You may know him from his one hit song, “Let It Rock”, which featured Lil’ Wayne and got completely overplayed at sporting events last year. Well, apparently, New York does not like overplayed one-hit wonders, because they booed the crap out of Rudolf. The boos got particularly loud when a hype man tried to do a call-and-response, subbing for Lil’ Wayne’s verse. Then at the end of the song came the loudest booing I’ve ever heard. Seriously, it was impressive. I can never hear that song again without thinking of the boos.

Series of Tubes: Mad Men Season Finale Reaction

I have to be honest -- I wasn’t really on board with this season of “Mad Men”. Things seemed a little too dark, Don seemed way too negative at times, and there wasn’t nearly enough Joan for my tastes.

Of course, if I had known it was going to lead to this season finale, I would have bought in fully to everything they did.

In Sunday’s episode, Don finds out from Connie Hilton that Sterling-Cooper is being sold to a rival firm -- the one that tried to use Betty to steal Don from Sterling-Cooper way back in Season 1 -- and, of course, thanks to Don’s new contract, he’s stuck. Not only that, but Betty is pushing forward with her divorce plan, leaving Don without a home (both in terms of his life and his career).

Of course, Don Draper doesn’t do “caught off guard” or “stuck”, so he comes up with the most awesome plan I’ve ever seen on television. After failing to put together a bid to buy Sterling-Cooper, he convinces Pryce, the PPL financial rep in charge of Sterling-Cooper, to fire himself, Roger Sterling and Bert Cooper, allowing them to start their own firm.

The way this all goes down, and the aftermath that sees Don putting together his staff, his “office” (actually a hotel room) and his client list, was done phenomenally by everyone involved on the show. On top of that, this building of Don’s new work life was juxtaposed with the dissolution of his home life (Betty decides to go through with a plan to relocate to Reno temporarily to push through a divorce). All season long, the strain of holding together Sterling-Cooper while rebuilding his marriage was weighing on Don, resulting in much of that negativity I didn’t like. With Betty’s discovery of the Dick Whitman secret a few episodes back, and the re-sale of S-C, it was going to be harder for Don to keep everything together, so it’s as if he chose rebuilding one from scratch (the new firm of “Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce”) and letting the other go completely.

For many of us “Mad Men” watchers, we’re left much in the same place that the S-C employees who weren’t taken by Don are in: wondering what just happened and where things go from here. Does this mean we’re going to have a reduced cast next season? What’s Betty’s role on the show, if she’s going to be divorced from Don? Will Don’s new firm hire Sal, or is he really gone for good?

Of course, all of this pales in comparison to the big question, for me: will we get a full season of Joan next year? Honestly, Christina Hendricks is the only reason I started watching this show (though she’s not the only reason I keep watching, since the show itself is phenomenal). Over the last couple episodes, it’s been hinted at what Joan means to Roger on a personal level, and in this episode it was clear how integral she was to the whole plan, as were Peggy and Pete, two other characters who got marginalized a bit this season, but were redeemed in the finale. In fact, much of the finale came down to restoring the importance of the characters who drove Season 1.

Now I somehow have to survive nine months, waiting for Season 4.

This Week in Buffy History: November 8-14

November 8

1981 - Azura Skye born (played Cassie Newton in season 7)

November 9

1999 - Episode 4.06 “Wild At Heart” airs on The WB

1999 - Angel Episode 1.06 “Sense & Sensitivity” airs on The WB

November 10

1948 - Vincent Schiavelli born (played Uncle Enyos in season 2)

1997 - Episode 2.08 “The Dark Age” airs on The WB

1998 - Episode 3.06 “Band Candy” airs on The WB

2002 - Angel Episode 4.06 “Spin the Bottle” airs on The WB

November 11

1975 - Eyal Podell born (played Lawson in Angel episode 5.13 “Why We Fight”)

November 12

2002 - Episode 7.07 “Conversations with Dead People” airs on UPN

2003 - Angel Episode 5.07 “Lineage” airs on The WB

November 13

2001 - Episode 6.08 “Tabula Rasa” airs on UPN

November 14

1949 - Gary Grubbs born (played Roger Burkle on Angel)

1960 - Jim Abele born (played Connor’s father on Angel)

2000 - Episode 5.07 “Fool for Love” airs on The WB

2000 - Angel Episode 2.07 “Darla” airs on The WB

Series of Tubes: Catching up on this week in television

I fell behind on my DVR this week for a number of reasons, not the least of which was a debilitating cold that turned into a migraine that made me not want to stare at a screen at all.

Then, just as I was getting better, I decided to go through with my trip to New York to see LeBron, which was worth it, but brought the cold back, so I basically sat around today in bed -- which actually helped me catch up, since I didn’t have the migraine and was able to just watch TV. So here are some quick-hit thoughts on what I watched:

-“V” was really enjoyable. I expected them to drag things out for weeks -- like “FlashForward” or “Lost” -- but instead they blew past all the exposition by jumping ahead three weeks. And while some people are criticizing a supposed anti-Obama agenda in the show, I’d rather just enjoy it as a good sci-fi show.

-Speaking of “FlashForward”, they finally did something that was a key plot point in the books -- people committing suicide to prevent the future they saw (if you’re dead, you obviously don’t have a future, regardless of what happened in a vision). It’s a touchy subject, but I thought the show handled it well. Plus, it gives the characters interesting places to go from here.

-My DVR forgot to record “Bones” and “Fringe”, mostly because it thought there was still a World Series game to be played Thursday (obviously, there was not). I did manage to watch them on Hulu. “Bones” was ok -- I didn’t like the case, but the insecurity of Booth at the end made up for it. “Fringe” spent a lot of time on Broyles’s back story, which was somewhat interesting, but I miss the specific references to The Pattern and the over-arching mystery that drove Season 1. I understand that ratings-wise, those episodes are hard to do, but they’re much better.

-“30 Rock” continues to be the funniest show on television. This week’s audition episode was an instant classic. There was a great exchange between Jenna and Tracy when they were discussing the possible new cast member. Jenna said, “He’s evil, Tracy.” Tracy responded, “He’s ‘Evil Tracy’?!” Jenna looked at him all confused, and Tracy finally figured it out. “Oh, he’s evil ‘COMMA’ Tracy.” I laughed so hard that I had to rewind because I missed the subsequent joke (also, I was in pain from laughing because of the cold).

There are some other shows I watched (like “Smallville” and “Eastwick”) but they might have actually re-induced a headache by being so bad, so I’m not going to pay them any more attention.

Tuesday Countdown: T-Minus 72 Hours to Cavs at Knicks

I’m gonna have a full preview of this game over on LeBron2010.info Friday morning, but let me just say, I’m freaking excited to be seeing LeBron James play in person again.

More importantly, I can actually go to this game, in New York, wearing the gear of the opposing team and not fear for my life. Because, in this case, the opposing “team” is LeBron, and Knicks fans will be cheering for LeBron as much as they cheer for the Knicks (and possibly more).

Also, this will be just the second basketball game I’ve ever seen at MSG, and the first one was when I was about 10 years old, so I barely remember it. Yes, I’ve seen more Britney Spears concerts at The World’s Most Famous Arena (two) than professional basketball games (one). On some level, that’s really sad, but it’ll change Friday, and hopefully LeBron will put up one of his patented MSG performances (he’s one of two visiting players with multiple 50-point games at the current MSG, the other being Michael Jordan).

Obviously, the storyline you’ll hear all week is about the summer of 2010 and how the Knicks want LeBron. As I’ve explained before, I’m not really a Cavs fan at heart -- I became one when they got LeBron. It would be significantly more convenient for me if LeBron left Cleveland and signed with New York or New Jersey. I could see him more than a handful of times a year. That said, I’m still rooting for him to stay in Cleveland, because I’ve become attached to the Cavs over the last six years, and I want to see him win a title in Cleveland.

Rooting for the BCS Nightmare Scenario

I used to do weekly college football rankings on this site, but I stopped this season, mostly because I haven’t watched as much FBS action as I had in the past couple of seasons.

That said, I have been following the season, and I’ve decided that I’m rooting for one of two possible BCS nightmare scenarios:

-Currently, the top 7 teams in the BCS Standings are all undefeated. At least one of them has to lose, since Florida and Alabama are on track to meet in the SEC Championship Game. But if there were six unbeatens at the end of the regular season, that would be one huge mess.
-The other possible mess is this: LSU beats Alabama this Saturday, then goes on to beat Florida in the SEC Championship Game, leaving three one-loss teams in the SEC: Alabama (who wouldn’t even play in the title game in this scenario), Florida (who beat LSU in the regular season, but lost in the title game) and LSU. Would the BCS reward a one-loss SEC team over an unbeaten Iowa, Cincinnati, TCU or Boise State? And is it possible, in that scenario, that Florida (who would likely enter that game at No. 1) could stay in the top 2, despite the loss?

The second scenario lends itself to more of a mess, particularly if Texas loses between now and the end of the season too, but neither scenario is tidy. In the past few seasons, the BCS has lucked out and had things pretty much take care of themselves before Selection Sunday, but they need so much to happen between now and then that it’s more likely we’re headed toward another 2004 (when there were three major conference unbeatens). Of course, the odds of any of this mess leading toward an actual playoff system are nil, so it doesn’t really matter, except for giving us college football fans something fun to talk about for the month between the conference championships and BCS Championship Game.

Series of Tubes: “Gossip Girl” Rapid Reaction

I can’t say this with absolute certainty yet, but I’m pretty sure that I just watched the best episode of “Gossip Girl” so far (and not because Jenny was in it for two scenes and didn’t have a plot to herself).

Let’s run down some of the reasons why I loved this episode so much:

-It happened so quickly that I didn’t notice it happening, but somewhere along the way this season, Chuck Bass matured and became the show’s moral compass. That may seem fucked up, but somehow it works.
-I’ve always felt the show works better when there’s conflict between the main characters, but when it’s not forced. All the conflicts that came to a head in this episode happened organically, and over the course of multiple episodes, but now everyone (aside from Blair and Chuck) is at each other’s throats.
-Hilary Duff has been an incredible addition to the cast. I never thought I’d write that sentence, but there it is.
-For two-plus seasons, I hated Dan Humphrey, and through most of this episode, I thought he was a moron (how could he not see something was up with Olivia), but he somehow redeemed himself with the whole “candles in the loft” thing. I’m not ready to say I like the guy, yet, but at least I don’t hate him.
-Oh, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Blake Lively’s “improvement” this season. She’s really “enhanced” her interpretation of Serena, and is “busting out” from the ensemble. “boob job” (whoops, did that defeat the purpose of the innuendo?)

I also want to take the time to address Leighton Meester, specifically her “singing” career. Don’t do it. Look, Leighton, sweetie, lots of actresses have done this before. Just because you can act, and are on a popular TV show or in a popular movie, doesn’t mean you should be a singer, too. Just ask Jennifer Love Hewitt. Or Lindsay Lohan. Hell, take some time during a break in shooting and ask Hilary Duff. You may sell some albums, and get your video played on... well, not on MTV, since they don’t play videos anymore, but somewhere... but if you don’t legitimately have the vocal chops (and based on that clip I saw, you don’t), then your second “career” is gonna get torn apart. And it’s not worth it.

Why Do All My Things Keep Breaking Around Me?

I refuse to say that I have the worst luck with technology, because that’s not true. I have an original Xbox 360 that hasn’t red ringed yet (because, as PooZ points out, I barely use it). My iPhone rarely crashes (though, because it’s on AT&T, it drops calls like a motherfucker) and my MacBook Pro -- on which I’m writing this blog post right now -- is a rock.

That said, I seem to be on some kind of ridiculous streak of bad luck right now. Let me run through this real quick:

-About two weeks ago, my MacBook -- which I rarely use -- stopped running off its battery.
-Around the same time, my AT&T (there’s that shitty acronym again) U-Verse gateway started randomly resetting. There’s no rhyme or reason to it, and AT&T won’t replace it.
-Last week, one day after I bought “Uncharted 2” for PS3, my PS3 decided to stop turning on. Yeah, so that sucks.
-A few days later, my MobileMe account went into some weird state of limbo, and Apple had a hell of a time straightening it out -- and what they did to “fix” it fucked up my iPhoto/MobileMe connections on an epic level.
-Last night, I tried syncing the old iPod that serves as my alarm clock, and something went horribly awry, and now it doesn’t “alarm” so much anymore.
-Then today, as I was driving to work, my car started acting wonky, and it’s now in the shop.

So, I’m here at home with no car, no PS3, down one laptop and with a sometimes functional Internet connection (to be semi-fair to AT&T, the gateway doesn’t go down for extended times, it just resets, which is more annoying than anything).

Of course, all this comes right after I wrote a big list of things on my wall that I needed to have done around my condo. Things I can’t really afford to do if all the technology I use daily keeps failing (and, of all the things I’ve listed above, the most important, by far, is my car, which I’m told will be ready tomorrow, and for not that much money).

This Week in Buffy History: November 1-7

November 2

1957 - Michael Bailey Smith born (played Toth in episode 5.03 “The Replacement”)

1999 - Episode 4.05 “Beer Bad” airs on The WB

1999 - Angel episode 1.05 “Rm w/a Vu” airs on The WB

November 3

1997 - Episode 2.07 “Lie to Me” airs on The WB

1998 - Episode 3.05 “Homecoming” airs on The WB

2002 - Angel Episode 4.05 “Supersymmetry” airs on The WB

November 5

1937 - Harris Yulin born (played Quentin Travers)

1949 - Armin Shimerman born (played Principal Snyder)

2001 - Angel Episode 3.07 “Offspring” airs on The WB

2002 - Episode 7.06 “Him” airs on UPN

2003 - Angel Episode 5.06 “The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco” airs on The WB

November 6

1972 - George Hertzberg born (played Adam)

2001 - Episode 6.07 “Once More, With Feeling” airs on UPN

November 7

2000 - Episode 5.06 “Family” airs on The WB