Jersey Monday: Ryan Howard

Well, the calendar has almost turned to March, and Spring Training is well underway, so I thought it might be a good time to change things up and showcase a baseball jersey from my collection.

I picked up this Ryan Howard Phillies road authentic on eBay during the 2008 World Series, when the Phillies were facing the Rays. At the time, I already had a Rays jersey, and I wanted to be able to say I had the jersey of whichever team won it all -- something I can say every year in the NFL and almost every year in the NBA (specifically, every year since 2005), but almost never in MLB.

The weird thing is, as a Mets fan, I hate the Phillies, so I don't think I've worn this jersey since that series. Normally, I'd be upset about spending so much money on something I barely got any use out of, but either this is a bootleg jersey or I got the steal of the century, because I bought this for just about $20. For reference, an MLB replica jersey goes for about $100, and an authentic is about $250 or so.

Jersey Monday will continue every Monday until I run out of jerseys to spotlight. And since I’ve got more than 150 of them, that could be awhile.

Fringe "Subject 13" Reaction

Normally I dislike it when a TV show or movie series writes its story so that all the major events in a world center around a handful of people who've been interconnected throughout their lives -- "Alias" was a particularly bad abuser of this, getting much worse as the character backstories got more complicated in the later seasons -- but somehow I had no problem with last night's episode of "Fringe", which added some serious connectivity to the backstories of Walter, Olivia and Peter, but did so in remarkable fashion.

The episode took place entire in 1985, much like Season 2's masterpiece episode "Peter", and we saw more of the fallout of Walter's kidnapping of Peter from the alternate universe, as well as the starts of the Cortexiphan trials. As the episode progressed, we got a glimpse of just how important Olivia has always been to not only our universe but, in a remarkable twist, the other one as well.

At first, I was a little concerned when I saw in the promos that young Peter and Olivia would be interacting, but they only met briefly, and there wasn't really much there for either of them to connect the other one to Walter. It's completely understandable why 30-something Peter would have completely forgotten Olivia from their one chance encounter. And it's just as understandable, given how much of the Cortexiphan trials Olivia has repressed (or had removed, we don't know yet) that she wouldn't remember Peter. So in that regard, this episode avoided what would have been a massive retcon problem.

But the ending was more important than any other piece of the episode. All along, we've been told that Walter started the Cortexiphan trials to prepare an army to deal with a war with the alternate universe. However, as we saw throughout the episode, Walternate wasn't even considering an alternate universe among the possibilities for his kidnapped son (though alien shapeshifter did hilariously come up at one point). At least, he wasn't until Olivia, pushed by the emotional fear of being sent back to her step-father, confronted who she thought was Walter, but turned out to be Walternate, spilling just enough information for Walternate to put the pieces together.

In the end, Walter was preparing for a war that was never going to come, and his preparations actually planted the seeds for that war. It's an incredible paradox that adds another layer of pathos to an already complicated character in Walter Bishop.

Also, I feel that if "Fringe" does get picked up for another season, we need one more flashback episode to kind of complete the story in both universes. We need to see this universe's Walter end the Cortexiphan trials, and we need to see what the other universe's Walter did with the information presented to him, specifically as it relates to Olivia Dunham. I'd imagine now that it's no coincidence that Olivia ended up as one of Fringe division's best agents over on that side too.

For more coverage of the 2010-11 television season, visit the AdamReisinger.com TV Reviews home page.

30 Rock "TGS Hates Women" Reaction

Oh, "30 Rock", you always find a way to make me laugh, even when I shouldn't. The twist in Thursday's episode, "TGS Hates Women," was altogether creepy, but I was laughing the entire time as Abby Flynn/Grossman (guest star Cristin Milioti) had her breakdown.

But Milioti wasn't the top guest star of the week -- and no, her fake boobs weren't either. That honor instead goes to Chloe Moretz, who played the heiress to the Kabletown empire and turned out to be a perfect foil for Jack Donaghy.

The A story of the week featured Liz bringing in female comedian Abby Flynn as a guest writer, in response to criticism from a popular blog that TGS hates women. Only, it turns out Flynn is an oversexualized child woman, which Liz thinks is her way of responding to "pressure from society." While Flynn bounces around for the TGS crew, Liz tries to get her to drop the sexy baby act, which Flynn insists isn't an act. But Liz finds out that before she was Abby Flynn, she was Abby Grossman, a relatively standard, plain, brunette female stand up. Again, Liz thinks the image change was "pressure from society", but it turns out that Grossman adopted a new identity to hide from her psychotic ex-husband, who was electrocuted while watching "Sleeping With the Enemy" (then again while watching "Seven", resulting in a funny-but-horrible head-in-a-box joke).

As funny as that storyline was, I thought it missed some opportunities. They really should have played up things between Abby (pre-unmasking) and Jenna, whose jealousy was on display. Also, the idea of Frank, Toofer and Lutz taking on new personalities could have been hilarious, but instead was mentioned pretty much just once, then dropped.

Normally, that would have made for a disappointing episode, but the stuff between Jack and Kaylie (Moretz) was great. Jack was trying to make sure Kaylie wouldn't have an interest in TV, so he'd be free to take over Kabletown. So he invited Kaylie to NBC, where she revealed that she was more interested in marine biology. They went on a tour of the aquarium, where Jack's childhood interest in marine biology was suddenly rekindled. Only Jack figured out he'd been played, and Kaylie was trying to get HIM out of the way. The scene between the two of them at Kaylie's school was everything that last week's negotiation scenes with Jack and his Nanny were not.



OK, now for the top 10 lines of the week that DIDN'T come from that scene.

The Big Bang Theory "The Toast Derivation" Reaction

I've technically only been watching "The Big Bang Theory" regularly since the start of this season, but I've seen every episode, and while I'm not ready to call Thursday night's episode, "The Toast Derivation", the worst episode ever, it was highly indicative of the overall decline in quality in the show this season.

The introduction of the new female characters has clearly affected the show's overall dynamic, with almost all of the main characters acting significantly differently than how we first met them. It's most noticeable with Sheldon, and this episode emphasized those differences. The episode centered around the shifting social dynamic in the group, with everyone hanging out at Raj's place (so Leonard could spend more time with Raj's sister, one of the many, many women who have been inexplicably irresistibly attracted to him this season). The Sheldon we were introduced to in the early seasons would have been fine with this, even as a variation in his routine, because that Sheldon saw social interaction as something forced on him by society, and a distraction from his work/overall genius.

The scene at Raj's with everyone talking about Sheldon almost felt like a wake for the character, like they were all reminiscing about someone who was no longer part of their lives, and in a way, that's true, because Sheldon isn't really "Sheldon" anymore, and the character in his place isn't nearly as funny as the one that used to be there. On top of that, the show is now overstuffed with characters, resulting in some painfully unfunny scenes of Penny, Amy and Bernadette having a "girls' night" and jokes about electric toothbrushes. Considering this show used to get mainstream laughs out of physics jokes, this seems like a huge step back.

Now, as I mentioned, I technically haven't been a long-time viewer of the show, so I won't feel as bad if the decline continues and I have to drop the show from my schedule, but if we get more episodes like this in Season 4, I may not be back for Season 5.

For more coverage of the 2010-11 television season, visit the AdamReisinger.com TV Reviews home page.

Desktop Girl of the Week: Rihanna

So on Sunday I was watching the NBA All-Star Game, and the halftime entertainment was provided by Barbadian R&B star Rihanna, prompting this tweet from me:

I know I'm not breaking any news here, but Rihanna is hot.Mon Feb 21 02:57:06 via TweetDeckAdam S Reisinger
adamreisinger

It was at that moment I decided to make Rihanna this week's Desktop Girl of the Week.

Personally, I've always been a fan of her music, though it's never been at the top of my rotation. Still, her latest album has become more and more a staple of mine. It's definitely better than her "Rated R" misstep, which, while not bad, wasn't really her style, and wasn't fun to listen to.

I remember the first time I heard "S.O.S.", I kind of fell in love with it more than I should have -- and that's coming from someone who listens to Britney Spears obsessively -- and I've picked up every one of her albums since. I still haven't seen her in concert live, but I hope to change that at some point in the near future, possibly this summer.

• Rihanna Official Site
• Follow Rihanna on Twitter
• Buy "Loud" on iTunes

As always with DGOW, I’ll provide a widescreen (1680x1050) image for downloading. If you want to see past DGOW, then just check the archive album.

No Ordinary Family "No Ordinary Proposal" Reaction

I've been kind of down on "No Ordinary Family" of late, and while I don't think Tuesday's episode was great by any means, "No Ordinary Proposal" did at least take care of resolving some lingering plot-lines that I think were holding the show back.

First, the episode took its title from Joshua proposing to Katie, but by the end of the episode, everything about Joshua had been laid out on the table, and he was on his way out of town, having been threatened by Jim and dumped by Katie. In the interim, he was administered Stephanie's experimental antidote to the serum, which didn't seem to work at first, but by the end of the episode appeared to have stripped him of his powers. While I don't think this is the last we've seen of Joshua -- in fact, I'd hope it's not -- I do think pushing his convoluted story aside for a few episodes can only be a good thing for the show. It was also incredibly satisfying to see the Powells finally learn of his removal of Daphne's memories, and Jim's reaction to that was exactly what I'd hoped for.

The episode's "villain of the week" story involved Chris (Daphne's psuedo-boyfriend) and his dad. Basically, Chris stole a sample of the serum from the Powells' house (why Stephanie didn't have it secured in a safe at least is beyond me), then gave it to his wheelchair-bound dad to heal him, only the dad went kinda crazy (as most people who've been given the serum do) and started punching through ATMs and beating up Chris. As it turned out, the dad -- played pretty well by Anthony Michael Hall -- had been kind of an ass before the accident, so the serum only "amped up" his bad traits, rather than making him evil, which is also something different for this show. Plus, it led to a scene in which George and Jim broke down the sport of boxing, which is always a plus in my book.

The one negative of that storyline is that it seems like the Powells are starting to get a little fast and loose with who knows things about them. While they may not have revealed all the details to Chris, it shouldn't be hard for him to put two-and-two together. Add in the way JJ's teacher has been roped into Dr. King's evil scheme (in a plot that threatened to bring the episode down a notch), and it seems like the cone of silence is widening. They're not quite the Fantastic Four yet when it comes to public profile, but they're not really on the down low either.

Really, aside from the JJ thing, the only thing that fell flat for me in this episode was the story in which Jim accidentally knocked a bullet from a mugger into a bystander, resulting in collateral damage that was potentially life threatening for the innocent victim. I have no problem with that kind of story in general, but it would have been so much better if it had been the main focus of an episode, instead of an afterthought, which is what it felt like for most of the hour. Plus, it was resolved way too perfectly, with the lucky discovery of a tumor that wouldn't have been found if not for the surgery to remove the bullett. Again, the show drifts toward black and white, instead of shades of gray.

For more coverage of the 2010-11 television season, visit the AdamReisinger.com TV Reviews home page.

Glee "Blame It On The Alcohol" Reaction/Song Review

OK, first things first, "Santittany" cannot happen. It's Brittana. I'm all about those two getting together, but if/when it happens, it needs to be the latter name. "Santittany" doesn't roll of the tongue at all.

As for the rest of this episode, I thought the depiction of the drinking among the kids was beyond over the top, to the point of completely losing the message. It made for an entertaining watch, but there was an underlying unease throughout my whole viewing process, particularly in how quickly Rachel went from never having had a drink to basically being a budding alcoholic. For the vast majority of the episode, it seemed to be sending the message that so long as nothing bad happens, bringe drinking is totally fine, and sometimes even the bad things that happen are OK.

I did think Finn's breakdown of the drunk girl archetypes was 100% spot on, and seeing the girls fall into the various roles was so random and hilarious. And the thing is, they totally nailed the right role for each girl. Obviously, Stripper Brittany was my favorite, but the way Finn brought it full circle to needy girl drunk Rachel was incredibly well done.

Also, we did get a glimpse of Rachel trying to put together her original song for regionals. And, wow… I really hope those lyrics are a VERY rough draft of the Glee original song, because those were… umm… bad. Finn called Rachel out on the song not being "emotional", but he could have just straight up said "this blows." And the Kurt-Blaine-Rachel love triangle went as predictably as possible, right down to Blaine actually referring to himself as "100% gay" after his non-drunk kiss with Rachel.

Still, while I may not have enjoyed the episode on the whole, I thought there were some great one-liners.

Figgins: "Just listen to any pop hit by Key-dollar sign-ha."
Will: "You mean Ke$ha?"

Sue: "There's no one lining up to coach glee clubs because it's a sucky job for losers."

Brittany: "It's alcohol awareness week"
Santana: "Precisely. And I am AWARE of how much fun alcohol is."

Burt: "I don't know what two guys do when they're… together. Ya know, I sat through that whole 'Brokeback Mountain.' From what I gather, something went down in the tent."

Brittany: "Ke$ha's been a cultural icon for weeks, and I really wanna do her music justice."

Santana [to Will]: "If you don't drink, what will you have to live for?"

OK, on to this week's songs.

Chuck "Chuck Versus the Masquerade" Reaction

I haven't been as excited about this season of "Chuck" as past seasons. I feel like as the main character has moved more into spy life -- while dragging more of the characters around him into that life -- the show's lost a bit of it's heart. There have been plenty of moments that were supposed to be emotional, from the reunion with his mother to the birth of Ellie's child to his proposal to Sarah, none of which really resonated with me in the way the creators intended.

Then there was Monday's episode. While I liked "Chuck Versus the Masquerade" for many reasons, not the least of which was the introduction of Lauren Cohan (late of "The Vampire Diaries") to the ensemble, there was this one particular scene with Chuck and Morgan that stood out.

For various reasons, Morgan came to the realization that he needed to move out of Chuck and Sarah's place. So he got about the business of dividing up all the collectibles in the apartment that he and Chuck had accumulated throughout the years. The scene -- which had its roots a couple scenes earlier in a moment between Morgan and Sarah -- was just really well done. Rather than describe it, I'll just share it with you

How I Met Your Mother "Garbage Island" Reaction

There was a lot going on in Monday's episode of "How I Met Your Mother", even if it seemed that the entire episode was a big set-up for the "reveal" that Zoey isn't the mother -- a fact pretty much everyone who watched the show figured out on their own a long time ago.

Still, despite the ending falling relatively flat, I enjoyed "Garbage Island" for a few reasons, not the least of which was Kyle MacLachlan's over-the-top portrayal of The Captain, Zoey's now ex-husband. I never really liked him on "Desperate Housewives", but I'm starting to get the sense that was more due to the character and not the actor, and The Captain seems to mock everything Orson was, which is pretty awesome.

For the two male leads aside from Ted, this episode was about growth: Barney's personal growth and Marshall's professional growth. We'd gotten hints in the past that Marshall was going to re-embrace his environmental roots, and this episode continued that theme, while drawing its title from it as well (oh, and FYI, Garbage Island is a real thing... kinda makes you sad, right?). Plus, anything to put off Marshall and Lily having a kid is good in my book, because that's gonna be a show-killer when it happens.

Meanwhile, there's Barney's continued evolution into a not entirely horrible person. I loved the back-and-forth with him and Robin, and his continued excuses for not calling Nora led to one of the greatest lines in television history: "With great penis comes great responsibility." Spider-Man reference FTW! Also, "We’re exes, we’re probably due for a backslide — or we could do it the normal way." was pretty damn good. And in the end, Barney made the right choice! Yay for him!

Was this a great episode of "How I Met Your Mother"? Not really. But it was good, and the way everyone's story tied into how Wendy the Waitress met her husband -- then how she didn't have time to listen to Ted's story in the future -- seemed to be a nice self-aware dig at the show's rambling format itself. Plus, Zoey is OFFICIALLY not the mother, so hopefully we can dump her soon and move on to bigger and better things.

For more coverage of the 2010-11 television season, visit the AdamReisinger.com TV Reviews home page.

This Week in Buffy History: February 22-28

February 22
UNKNOWN YEAR - Dagney Kerr born (played Kathy Newman in Season 4)
2000 - Episode 4.15 “This Year’s Girl” airs on The WB
2000 - Angel Episode 1.15 “The Prodigal” airs on The WB

February 23
1999 - Episode 3.16 “Doppelgangland” airs on The WB

February 24
1998 - Episode 2.17 “Passion” airs on The WB

February 25
1966 - Alexis Denisof born (played Wesley Wyndam-Pryce)
2002 - Angel Episode 3.15, “Loyalty”, airs on The WB
2003 - Episode 7.16, “Storyteller”, airs on UPN
2004 - Angel Episode 5.15, “A Hole in the World”, airs on The WB

February 26
2002 - Episode 6.15, “As You Were”, airs on UPN

February 27
1962 - Adam Baldwin born (played Hamilton on “Angel”)
2001 - Episode 5.16, “The Body”, airs on The WB
2001 - Angel Episode 2.16, “Epiphany”, airs on The WB

Jersey Monday: Kobe Bryant

If you missed it, Kobe Bryant won the 2011 All-Star Game MVP Sunday in Los Angeles, scoring 37 points to lead the West to a win.

Here's the weird thing: I don't like Kobe Bryant (I won't go as far to say that I "hate" him, but in the Kobe vs LeBron debate, I'm Team LeBron, and I refuse to even acknowledge that Kobe vs MJ is a debate), but I own three different Kobe Bryant jerseys.

I chose to spotlight this one today for a couple reasons. First, it's the only one of my three that's from the "Kobe 24" era, with my other two both being old school #8 jerseys. Secondly, it's a home jersey, and Kobe was playing in Los Angeles yesterday.

I picked up this particular jersey when I was in Los Angeles for the 2008 NBA Finals, and it's got a Finals patch on the front. It was part of a nice little streak I had of buying a jersey during the Finals of the team that lost in the finals (Cleveland in '07, LA in '08, Orlando in '09), though by the time I bought this jersey, it was pretty evident the Lakers were going to lose that series. They did manage to win the game that night, Game 5, extending a weird streak of mine in which the home team wins games at which I buy a jersey, a streak that started in 1996 and is still going (to answer the obvious question about the 2007 Finals, I bought a Cavs jersey during that series, but not at a game).

By the way, I do think Kobe deserved the MVP yesterday, even though LeBron had a triple-double. In a single-game scenario, the MVP should probably go to someone on the winning team, and while LeBron had a triple-double, Kobe's scoring was a major reason the West had the cushion it did going into the final quarter.

Jersey Monday will continue every Monday until I run out of jerseys to spotlight. And since I’ve got more than 150 of them, that could be awhile.

Review: DC Universe Online (PS3)

After playing the game for more than a month, I really wanted to give "DC Universe Online" a glowing review. It's the first MMO I've ever really tried, and it got me hooked enough that I'm paid up on my subscription through mid-June.

However, I went back in this weekend to play for the first time in about a week, and I was reminded of the game's fatal flaw: it's incredibly buggy.

That's not to say it's not fun. When the game is working, it's very fun. But the bugs get in the way of completing missions, making progress and sometimes playing at all, and they happen far too often in a game that asks you to not only make an initial $60 investment, but then wants you to lay out an additional $15 a month (though the first month is included with the game purchase, and you can currently get a three-month deal for $29.99).

When I first purchased the game, I created four characters, though I quickly found myself focusing on two of them -- one hero and one villain. Though I'd criticized the character creation system in my review of the beta, I found it to be much less of a problem with the shipping game, mostly because my expectations had been properly set by the beta, but also because once you have the full game, the ratio of time spent creating your character versus time spent actually playing the game is much more tilted toward the latter. I'm still disappointed that my "King James" character looks less like LeBron James and more like Marvel's Carlos Boozer, but I'm pretty happy with how he turned out.

King James, despite apparently now being the villain of the NBA, is my hero character. In game, he's mentored by Superman, and I've played through the story with him getting him up to level 30. What I found in my gameplay experience is that early on, if you're on a Player-vs-Environment (PvE) server, the game doesn't force you into multiplayer situations. Once you start to get into the higher levels, the missions become difficult -- but not impossible -- to complete without a teammate. While DCUO's system for communicating with other users isn't great (in fact, it's probably best described as "horrible"), the user base that I encountered was more than willing to help out. And once I got to the point of being able to be the helper, rather than the helpee (not a word, I know), I tried to reciprocate as much as possible.

As I found in the beta, the combat is well-balanced between melee and powers, though there were definitely times I found myself wishing my power bar had a little more energy in it. With my role (tank) and my set of powers (fire-based), I ended up being something of a self-healer, but I also would get myself into trouble at times due to my inexperience with a game like this. I will say that I wish I'd picked a different movement type. There are three in the game: flying, super speed and acrobatics, and I've tried all three. King James uses acrobatics, which appears to be the slowest way to get across the massive city maps, though the Hulk-style building climbing is kind of fun.

30 Rock "It's Never Too Late for Now" Reaction

To be honest, Thursday's episode of "30 Rock" was probably my least favorite of the season. The back half of "It's Never Too Late for Now", with Liz unraveling the plot by everyone felt a little too much like Season 2's "MILF Island", and Jack's negotiation subplot felt entirely out of character.

The main story was that Liz, following her breakup with Carol, had "given up" and was preparing for a life of spinsterhood. However, Jenna got her to go out to a club one last time, where Liz ended up having the perfect date, turning into a perfect one-night stand. The next day, when recounting the previous day's events, she realized that her "perfect" day, and had actually been a setup by everyone at TGS, though in the end she chooses to believe that it really was just a perfect series of coincidences and decides not to give up.

There were two minor plots going on along with that. First, Jack was trying to negotiate down the rate for his nanny, since she was only spending half as much time on the job as before, but he kept failing, because the nanny had control over the baby. Jack was worried that his failed negotiations would haper him in his upcoming negotiations with Kabletown, because he didn't have a bargaining chip like the baby, until he realized that NBC WAS his baby (in another incredible dig at the network that airs "30 Rock").

Finally, Pete and Frank started a band and tried to record an original song, in a subplot that probably seemed funnier on paper than it ended up being. It wasn't the worst thing "30 Rock" has ever done, but it certainly wasn't anything to write home about either.

Still, for an episode that wasn't among the show's best, there were countless laugh-out-loud moments, even with the absence of Tracy (who, in-universe is pretending to be in Africa, but in reality missed this episode recovering from a kidney transplant). Some of them were subtle, like Liz's copy of the book being the large print edition, or the clichéd naming of the cat (Emily Dickinson). But as always, here are your top 10 lines from the show:

Charmed Comic Review, Issue #6: Morality Bites Back

Before I get to my recap and review of this issue, I have a request. I know a lot of you "Charmed" fans out there are reading these, and copying the recap portion to various other sites for fans who can't get the issue. That's fine. I have no problem with that. All I ask is that you give proper attribution along with a link. It's a time-consuming process for me to recap these issues, and I'm tired of seeing my work appear word-for-word on other sites with people passing it off as their own. If it continues, I'll just stop recapping the issues altogether, which I'd rather not do, since I know there are people overseas who can't get the issues immediately and do benefit from the recaps.

Now, with that said...

RECAP


The issue starts off with Phoebe at work, taking a break to work on her book. Her friend Mika comes in and Phoebe asks about the guy she's been dating. She says its Cal Greene, and Phoebe flashes back to her trip to the future in which she was burned at the stake for using her powers to kill Cal Greene. Mika wants Phoebe and Coop to join them on a double date, while Elise wants to talk about the live web chat Phoebe is supposed to be having later.

Back at the manor, Phoebe talks with her sisters about Cal Greene, recalling her trip to the future. They all discuss how their lives are very different from what they saw (or, in Paige's case, didn't see, since she wasn't a Charmed One back then), and Phoebe decides she needs to go to the dinner to find out more about Cal. Phoebe spends the night flirting with Cal to try and read something off him with her empathy power, but she gets nothing.

Sensing that Phoebe's frustrated, Coop takes her to his temple in Italy, where he and Phoebe discuss the situation more. Coop has one of his messenger cherubs deliver a message, and they discover that while Mika and Cal are in love, it's not eternal. Phoebe is worried that means Cal kills Mika, but Coop, staying positive, points out that at least now Phoebe can break them up without interfering with true love.

Back in San Francisco, Phoebe does research on Cal in the newspaper's archives, and discovers that about a year ago, the paper stopped covering him. She confronts Elise about it, and Elise told Phoebe that around that time, a badly-beaten woman came to her wanting to tell the story of how Cal had beaten her. She urged the woman to go to the police first, but when the woman did, she recanted her story entirely. The paper continued to investigate, but Cal threatened to sue, and Elise was forced to back off. Then, Elise said she gave Cal's file to Mika as soon as she found out, and Phoebe rushes out to find Mika, who likely went to confront Cal.

Phoebe consults with her sisters on the phone, then finds Mika, who is crying because Cal started freaking out as soon as she confronted him with the truth. They both go to Phoebe's office to prep for the webcast. Paige and Piper meet them there, and just as Phoebe's talking about Elise's webcast from the previous week, Phoebe gets a premonition of Elise's funeral. She realizes that Cal is going after Elise, and the sisters all head off to try and stop him.

They arrive just as Cal is leaving and Piper freezes him. Phoebe uses her empathy to feel Cal's rage, and she realizes that when she killed him (in the trip to the future), she reflected his emotions back on him and overloaded his brain. They then find Elise, who is barely alive. Paige heals her, but Phoebe still wants her revenge. Rather than attacking him, they set up a fake webcast where Paige -- glamoured as Cal -- attacks Elise live on the internet, which requires Phoebe to tell Elise the truth about who she is. Back in the manor, Phoebe wraps up what she was writing -- her story about trust -- while spending time with her family.

REVIEW

Britney Spears "Hold It Against Me" Video Review

I've got a lot of Britney Spears concert videos on my YouTube channel, and I do read every single comment posted to them. A lot of them are positives, but there are two common criticisms (aside from the "SHE'S NOT ACTUALLY SINGING LIVE" comment that pops up frequently).

- Lady Gaga is better (which isn't really a criticism, so much as a differing opinion)
- Her choreography isn't as good as it used to be

While I don't necessarily agree with either point in full, Britney's video for her latest single, "Hold It Against Me", should fuel the fire for both of them.

The entire video had something of a "Gaga-lite" feel to it, with a strange retro-techno S&M theme, unexplained paint-fingers and a Britney vs Britney fight scene. I wouldn't go as far as saying Britney was trying to out-Gaga Gaga, but it certainly seemed like she was trying to evoke a certain imagery that doesn't really fit her style.

As for the choreography issue, the more I watched of Britney's last tour, the more I realized that intricate hand motions and lots of movement by the backup dancers had replaced a lot of the actual dancing that had once been Britney's staple. A lot of that is due to the knee injury she suffered years ago while shooting the "Outrageous" video, but it's just as evident in this video. It's clear we're not getting "I'm A Slave 4 U" Britney back any time soon, but its still disappointing to see so much confident stepping in the place of intricate dancing.

When it comes down to it, I still like "Hold It Against Me" a lot, more than many of the songs that were on the "Circus" album, but that album had a killer first video with "Womanizer", and HIAM is not up to that caliber.

Desktop Girl of the Week: Naya Rivera

You may have noticed that I skipped "Desktop Girl of the Week" last week while I was on the road. I was all ready to make it Naya Rivera -- aka Santana from "Glee" -- but because I was traveling, I didn't have access to an HD copy of last week's episode of "Glee" to grab this screenshot.

The 24-year-old Rivera -- not 17, like her TV character -- has been acting since the early '90s, and while I'm sure I SAW her in some things, particularly her appearances on "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and "Family Matters", I can safely say she wasn't on my radar at all until "Glee."

This season has been something of a breakout season for Rivera, who was given painfully little to do in Season 1. While Santa still lacks a certain sensitivity to be called a true "three-dimensional" character, she's getting more to do than drop in one-liners and make out with male cast members, and Rivera is handling the upgrade nicely. She even stole the show with her performance of "Valerie" in the sectionals episode.

Because of her "Glee" obligations, Rivera doesn't have anything else slated to come out in the next year or so, but "Glee" is already guaranteed a third season, so it's not like she's going anywhere anytime soon. Which is good, because, let's be honest, she's pretty awesome.

• Naya Rivera on IMDB
• Follow Naya Rivera on Twitter
• "Glee" Official Site

As always with DGOW, I’ll provide a widescreen (1680x1050) image for downloading. If you want to see past DGOW, then just check the archive album.

No Ordinary Family "No Ordinary Powell" Reaction

I don't usually enjoy TV episodes that start in medias res, because it usually isn't done well enough to avoid telegraphing the rest of the episode, and that was the case with Tuesday's episode on "No Ordinary Family." In "No Ordinary Powell", we start the episode with Stephanie discovering the believed-to-be dead body of her husband, Jim, but by the time the episode catches up with that scene, it's pretty obvious that the body was that of the shapeshifter -- a fact confirmed entirely too quickly, when the dead body somehow morphed back from Jim to Victoria after she'd been killed.

That style of too quick resolution is clearly a trend at this point with the show, which seems reluctant to explore some of its darker themes and situations. Within the episode itself, the mystery about Natalie's mother was introduced and resolved with lightning speed -- even for a group of people with super powers -- and by the end the good guys were happy and the bad guys got what was coming to them.

This isn't a show that seems enthused about possibly portraying its characters in shades of gray, so even when one of the good characters goes to a darker place, as Daphne began to with her mind-controlling powers, she quickly is shown the consequences of it -- in this case, almost getting killed by the woman who'd murdered Natalie's mom -- and then everything's happy back in the Powell home again.

Actually, to be fair, it's not even a reluctance to show shades of gray, because aside from Victoria and Dr. King, even all the so-called "bad" characters we've seen had mitigating circumstances that made them that way, and didn't WANT to be bad. It's like this show takes place in some kind of magical universe where everyone but one or two people are supposed to have the best of intentions all the time, and when they don't, they're quickly punished for it. And while Joshua -- the best example of the "bad guy with good intentions" club so far -- hinted that the grand superpower serum conspiracy goes far beyond Dr. King, I'd be stunned if the show bothers to investigate that any time soon.

Glee "Comeback" Reaction/Song Review

A while back, a rumor started to swirl that "Glee" was going to do a Justin Bieber-themed episode. After growing way out of control, that rumor was shot down by the creators of the show, who said that Bieber hadn't reached the iconic level of a Madonna or a Britney to be worthy of his own "Glee" episode.

However, while Tuesday's episode, "Comeback", wasn't a Bieber episode in the sense of having all (or mostly) Bieber songs, it was as close as they could get without going in that direction, which really, really made me dislike it.

The Bieber part was basically Sam starting a one-man band called "The Justin Bieber Experience" to try and make sure Quinn only had eyes for him and not Sam, which had the girls swooning. So then all the other guys (except for Finn) got involved. And it totally worked again. Meanwhile, Finn was keeping it real:

"You guys do realize that Justin Bieber sucks, right?" Finn Hudson is my new favorite TV character ever.

The other main story in the episode involved Sue being down about the failure of her cheer squad, to the point of being suicidal. I don't want to go into the reasons why here, but let me just say that I've never found anything about suicide to be funny, so I don't like seeing it played for comedy, especially to the level "Glee" took it here.

From there, Sue got ingrained in the glee club, as part of some convoluted "cheer her up" plan of Will and Emma's, and Sue took to taking apart glee club from the inside. While it was amusing to watch, I just don't understand why anyone involved with the club would ever believe anything Sue said ever.

There was also this weird story where Rachel was trying to get Brittany to dress like her, so people would think Rachel was a trendsetter and Finn would come back to her -- along with a parallel story of Santana trying to steal Sam from Quinn. It was pretty impressive to see Rachel's plan backfire on her, as everyone picked up Brittany's styles, but credited them to Brittany. Hearing Brittany lay the truth on Rachel about being a trendsetter -- in true blunt Brittany fashion -- made the whole thing even better. It also added an interesting layer of pathos to the scene with Quinn standing alone in the hallway, dressed like Rachel, after Sam broke up with her.

Speaking of that, Brittany had my favorite line of the episode, while wearing Rachel's legwarmers on her arms: "I wore a tank top today because I thought it was summer. No one ever taught me how to read a calendar."

A close second was when Sue called Will "SpongeHair SquareChin". Nice.

On to the music, which, to be blunt, took a disappointing step back from last week.

Chuck "Chuck Versus the Cat Squad" Reaction

Sarah's past has always been something of a mystery on "Chuck", so whenever we get a glimpse of it, it's usually a good thing. However, I felt like Monday's episode, "Chuck Versus the Cat Squad", fell flat in that department, possibly because it tried to wedge the revelations about Sarah's past into her present storyline with getting married to Chuck.

I think part of the reason I didn't like the episode as much as I could have is that to me, the more interesting part of Sarah's past is her family history, and that was only really hinted at here. There's even a more natural tie in, with what Morgan's going through with Alex and Casey and their family, so that would have made more sense. It seemed so weird that Chuck was pushing Sarah to have "friends" (plural) at their engagement party, when the only friend we ever see Chuck spend any time with is Morgan.

Morgan's story, with Carina messing things up for him and Alex, was solid, but was kind of one of those things that can only happen in the world of TV -- which pretty much describes everything that happens on this show, so I'll let it slide. Still, Morgan referencing the few relationships he's ever had (and it's really a stretch to call what he had with Carina back in her previous appearances a "relationship") gives me hope that we might get an Anna Wu sighting this season.

On the whole, the episode wasn't bad, it just didn't excite me either. The Cat Squad thing just seemed like a lame Charlie's Angels spoof, the kind "Chuck" should be past at this point, and the twist of who was the betrayer was entirely telegraphed. Now, had Sarah been the one who betrayed the group, adding a layer of intrigue to her already mysterious past, that would have been interesting. Instead we got another episode with lots of guest stars, lots of characters complicating things that would have been simplified with basic conversation and no real meaningful progress.

For more coverage of the 2010-11 television season, visit the AdamReisinger.com TV Reviews home page.

This Week in Buffy History: February 15-21

February 15
2000 - Episode 4.14 “Goodbye Iowa” airs on The WB
2000 - Angel Episode 1.14 “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” airs on The WB

February 16
1999 - Episode 3.15 “Consequences” airs on The WB

February 17
1958 - Carole Davis born (played Ilona Costa Bianchi in Angel ep 5.20 “The Girl in Question”)

February 18
2002 - Angel Episode 3.14 “Couplet” airs on The WB
2003 - Episode 7.15 “Get It Done” airs on UPN
2004 - Angel Episode 5.14 “Smile Time” airs on The WB

February 20
1954 - Anthony Stewart Head born (played Rupert Giles)
1964 - Rodney Rowland born (played Corbin Fries in Angel Episode 5.01 “Conviction)
1967 - David Herman born (played David Nabitt on “Angel”)
2001 - Episode 5.15 “I Was Made to Love You” airs on The WB
2001 - Angel Episode 2.15 “Reprise” airs on The WB

Jersey Monday: Ben Gordon

I was going to use today's Jersey Monday to show off the newest jersey in my collection, which I picked up last week in Georgia, but I'm going to save that for a later date and instead tie in to the game I went to tonight: UConn basketball.

The game I was at tonight was actually a UConn women's game (well, less a game than a beatdown), and this is a UConn men's jersey, but close enough.

I've lived in Connecticut for more than 25 years and somehow this is the only UConn jersey I've picked up. My parents got it for me back in probably '03 or '04, when Gordon was at the school. I can't say I'm much of a UConn fan, but I did pick them in my official NCAA Tournament bracket both times they won the title.

This jersey is in a box somewhere in my basement, which means I won't be wearing it when I go to the UConn men's game on Wednesday against Georgetown.

Interestingly, the Pistons -- Gordon's current NBA team -- are one of the handful of teams for which I don't have a jersey, so I could add a second Gordon jersey to my collection, and I don't even particularly like the guy. It's just easier to find jerseys of UConn players in this area than other guys.

Jersey Monday will continue every Monday until I run out of jerseys to spotlight. And since I’ve got more than 150 of them, that could be awhile.

The Cleveland Show: LeBron James DOES Care About Cleveland

In Sunday's episode of "The Cleveland Show", Cleveland got courtside seats to the 2011 NBA All-Star Game, which he used to heckle some NBA stars, sending them to Stoolbend to get revenge on Cleveland. Celtics teammates Kevin Garnett and Shaquille O'Neal, former teammates Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash and of course Heat teammates Dwyane Wade and LeBron James all voiced themselves, in what turned out to be a very long set-up for a LeBron/Cleveland joke.

If you want to watch the entire episode, it's available on Hulu, but if you just want to see the NBA parts, I've embedded them below. I have to be honest, some of it made me laugh -- including the idea of Shaquille O'Neal as a 2011 All-Star -- but the last line just elicited a "really?". I'm sure the reaction was significantly worse IN Cleveland, Ohio.





Of course LeBron would want them to get rid of dribbling.

I also love that a major driving point of the episode was Cleveland insulting someone's mom -- which is what happened with LeBron just a few days ago. Hell, if I were a cynical person -- ok, a MORE cynical person -- I'd say LeBron orchestrated that whole incident to tie in with the episode.

Desperate Housewives "Flashback" Reaction

Whenever "Desperate Housewives" does an episode where all the housewives are scattered in their own plots, the goal is to have the plots tie into each other thematically while also having each be able to stand alone as strong. However, more often than not, what we end up with is one really strong story, one acceptable story, one disappointing story and one completely horrible story. Sunday's episode, "Flashback," was no exception to that rule, at least where the housewives were concerned. Let's take this from worst to best.

First, the Susan plot. This whole kidney dialysis thing has been strange from the beginning, but kidney stalker guy really took it to another level of creepy. And not "good, Desperate Housewives" creepy, but "unwatchable" creepy. And in the end, EVERYONE came off looking like an asshole, especially Susan, who didn't really seem to do much consulting with Mike when it came to her fate (Mike, though, was pretty busy in this episode, and we'll get to that).

The Lynette story featured the death of Frank the racist rich guy. However, he died at Lynette's house, a day before his new will kicked in, and Lynette's mom convinced Lynette to wait until the next morning to call the coroner, so she'd get her big inheritance. It looks like they're taking this plot in a "money changes people" direction, with Lynette's mom already acting asshole-y, and I just can't be motivated to care about Lynette's mom.

The Sick Week Round-Up

So, as you may have learned if you follow me on Twitter, I've been sick for awhile. It started Wednesday when I was at the University of Georgia, and is still going today, thought I'm starting to recover. However, because I was so sick (and also in part because of the whole "being on the road" thing), I fell way behind on my DVR -- both in watching and in reviewing. Rather than go back and post reviews on each show I've missed since Tuesday, I decided to just compile them in one round-up post. The regularly-scheduled reviews should resume tonight or tomorrow.

TUESDAY

V - "Concordia"
This episode was largely about Tyler, and it seems a disproportionate part of the V's plan hinges on him. We've been given hints as to why he's important (the missing DNA strand being the biggest), but I feel like if we knew a little more, this whole story might not seem so tedious.

No Ordinary Family - "No Ordinary Double Standard"
This was the second time this show's given us hints of a darker story line with Daphne. The first was with the memory erasing, which didn't even last past the first commercial break of the next episode. This time Daphne's discovered that her mindreading powers also allow her to "plant" thoughts in people's minds. The first time she did it in the episode, it was by accident, and she was doing it to save her life. That's fine. But the second time it was on purpose, to get out of a grounding. I'd LOVE it if the show took her in a more morally ambiguous direction, even if just for a couple episodes, to shake things up a little bit.

WEDNESDAY

Glee "Silly Love Songs" Reaction/Song Review

We're SO close. In Sunday's episode of "Glee", there were only two small things that bothered me in an otherwise outstanding episode. In Tuesday's episode, "Silly Love Songs", there was only one thing that I felt was left out, but otherwise it was a very good episode.

This was the "Glee" Valentine's Day episode and love was in the hair, but it was, as expected, a high school style of love. Finn was having trouble figuring out if he had feelings for Rachel -- who did have feeling for him -- and Quinn -- who might have had feelings for him, but she was with Sam and all signs kept pointing Quinn away from Finn. I think in the long run Finn and Quinn are going to end up together, and mono aside, I'm rooting for those crazy kids.

Then there was the ongoing Kurt/Blaine psuedo-flirtation, in which Kurt completely misread Blaine's words, because Blaine was crushing on another guy. But once that fell apart -- in over-produced "Glee" fashion, and I mean that in a good way -- Kurt finally admitted to Blaine what he'd told Mr. Schuester a few episodes back, and now all the cards between the two of them are on the table. Another good thing.

However, my favorite thing about this episode was the back-and-forth between Puck and Lauren (the female wrestler who took Kurt's spot in glee club). Puck was crushing on Lauren because, as he put it, she's "as big a badass" as him. However, Puck thought because of Lauren's size, she'd simply say yes to him without him having to try. But she wasn't having it, and made Puck work for his date, which was a nice -- and realistic -- turn of events. Lauren knows she's not perfect (and she's definitely not Santana), but she's happy with who she is and she's not going to let any preconceived notions force her to settle for less than what she deserves. Also, the scene in which she and Santana threw down, resulting in Santana getting her ass extra kicked, was great. Some of the best non-Brittany, non-Sue humor of the season.

So, with all that good stuff, plus the great musical numbers, what was my problem with this episode? Well, it was something that's been kind of a frustration of mine for the season as a whole, and that's the back-burner-ing of Mr. Schuester's life outside of the glee club. A Valentine's Day episode would have been the perfect opportunity to rekindle things -- or at least reintroduce the story -- between Will and Emma, but instead she was completely absent in the episode. Yes, I know that technically she's married to Carl, but really, how long is that going to last? And if Will's not going to be with Emma, can we at least get him some kind of relationship (as long as it's not with his ex-wife)?

Also, maybe getting Mr. Schuester a romantic interest would get him some songs again. As it is, we had five songs tonight, and all of them were pretty good.

How I Met Your Mother "Oh Honey" Reaction

Just so we're clear, Zoey's not the mother.

Yes, she and Ted are kissing up there, and yes, this episode was mostly about how they got together, but  I think given the signs we've been given this season, this is just another romantic detour for Ted. One of the signs came in this episode, because I'm pretty sure if Ted was married to Zoey in the future, he'd be able to remember the real name of Zoey's cousin, rather than just calling her "Honey."

As for Honey's story, it was the other big part of the episode, and guest star Katy Perry did a wonderful job. Most of the credit for that falls to the writers, who did a good job of making her pitifully funny. In a way, she was very reminiscent of the character Britney Spears played a few seasons back, in her absurd levels of naivety, but she was less a character and more a plot device.

I thought the phone jokes got a little tedious, but the whole phone concept was a good way of acknowledging Marshall's grieving process and keeping the show somewhat grounded in an extended continuity. Overall, this wasn't one of the standout episodes of the season, but it wasn't a bad one either, and I don't think the guest star distracted from the story. Plus, let's be honest, Katy Perry is not hard on the eyes. Proof:

For more coverage of the 2010-11 television season, visit the AdamReisinger.com TV Reviews home page.

This Week in Buffy History: February 8-14

February 8
1974 - Seth Green born (played Oz)
2000 - Episode 4.13 “The I in Team” airs on The WB
2000 - Angel Episode 1.13 “She” airs on The WB

February 9
1999 - Episode 3.14 “Bad Girls” airs on The WB

February 10
1974 - Tanoai Reed born (played fire demon in Season 6)
1998 - Episode 2.16 “Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered” airs on The WB

February 11
2003 - Episode 7.14 “First Date” airs on UPN
2004 - Angel Episode 5.13 “Why We Fight” airs on The WB

February 12
2002 - Episode 6.14 “Older and Far Away” airs on UPN
2003 - Angel Episode 4.12 “Calvary” airs on The WB

February 13
2001 - Episode 5.14 “Crush” airs on The WB
2001 - Angel Episode 2.14 “The Thin Dead Line” airs on The WB

February 14
1970 - Mark Lutz born (played The Groosalugg on “Angel”)

Jersey Monday: Dominique Wilkins

I've been doing Jersey Monday for more than a year, but I think this is the first time I've done it from the road.

So, in honor of being in Atlanta this week, I figured I'd spotlight one of my Atlanta jerseys, this classic Dominique Wilkins replica from the mid-'90s. This is a true vintage jersey, not a throwback, and it's hard to see on this picture, but it's actually signed by Wilkins. A friend of mine got it signed for me at a Celtics game when Wilkins briefly played for the team, and though the signature has faded over the years, it's still visible enough that I'd like to get this jersey framed.

Despite having no attachment to Atlanta or the Hawks, I was a huge fan of Wilkins when I was a kid -- it was probably the "Human Highlight Film" nickname. By extension, the Hawks became my favorite team (and Stacy Augmon even became one of my other favorite players, though I'd become a fan of his when he was at UNLV), but when they traded 'Nique to the Clippers, they were dead to me.

I have one other Dominique Wilkins jersey, but I'm going to save that for another day (and maybe a return trip to Atlanta). But this was my first, and one of the first basketball jerseys I ever owned.

Jersey Monday will continue every Monday until I run out of jerseys to spotlight. And since I’ve got more than 150 of them, that could be awhile.

Glee "The Sue Sylvester Shuffle" Reaction/Song Review

I was all ready to pick apart every little thing that was wrong with Sunday's special episode of "Glee" -- most of it centered around the horribly inaccurate treatment of high school football -- but then something weird happened: I found myself really enjoying the episode. I think the show has really struggled at finding a balance between comedy and drama this year, but "The Sue Sylvester Shuffle" really felt like the right mix.

The episode brought the conflict between the glee club and the non-glee football players to a head, with Sue's Cheerios thrown in the mix for extra drama. Everyone was being forced to choose sides, right as everyone should have been coming together for McKinley's appearance in the championship game (and, again, I'll still get to all the football-related problems with the writing soon enough). Throughout the episode, things kept getting more and more fractured, with Quinn, Santana and Brittany choosing Cheerios over glee, Karofsky and company walking out on the football team rather than perform with the glee club at halftime and the remaining glee girls doing their best to help the football team. But, somehow, in the end, things worked out, in a way that felt like it was a bit of a closing chapter to what has been a rocky first half of a second season for "Glee" and turning the page to a new chapter.

Probably the standout performer in the episode -- in terms of script, not musical performance -- was Karofsky. It was interesting to see him forced to interact with the glee club, and even better, it was nice that they didn't just have the character have some great epiphany and totally change the way he's acting. Of all the characters on the show, he seems to be the most like someone who is actually going through the high school experience: conflicted about his identity, acting in a way that he thinks people expect him to act, and more worried about short-term perception than long-term identity.

OK, now for my two complaints about the episode:

- everything about the football. You can't lose a game and then play in the state championship the next week. No coach would spend his or her entire week before a championship game preparing for halftime and not the game itself. And even setting aside the various problems with only playing with nine players (one of whom apparently left way before halftime), there's no way a team could get into the locker room for halftime, put on elaborate zombie makeup, perform an entire halftime show, and then get back into the locker room before the second half. Unless Ohio high school football now allows for 60-minute halftime breaks in state championship games.

- there was one scene set at Dalton Academy, which came out of a commercial break and out of nowhere. It didn't really fit with the rest of the episode at all, but it least it provided a solid musical performance. Speaking of, let's get to this week's reviews...

The Big Bang Theory "The Thespian Catalyst" Reaction

I know I'm a little behind in my TV reviews from this week, but Heat games on Thursday and Friday and spending half of Saturday hitting refresh on TicketLeap will do that to my schedule. Still, I can now start to catch up thanks to the joys of in-flight WiFi (seriously, I don't think we realize just how amazing the times we live in truly are), and I thought I'd start with this week's episode of "The Big Bang Theory", which marked the second consecutive really funny episode, after a string of mildly disappointing ones.

There were two main stories in "The Thespian Catalyst". First, Sheldon's latest teaching appearance was widely panned by his students (to the amusement of the rest of the group), sending him into a depression. On a suggestion from Amy, Sheldon decided to get acting lessons from Penny, so he could "act" like he cared about the students. I like that the show remembered that at one point Penny was a struggling actress, not just a waitress who hung around with a bunch of nerds. Her teaching scenes with Sheldon seemed to be mocking every generic acting teacher the people on the show have ever encountered, and as usual the pairing of the two most different characters on the show made for a really amusing conflict.

The other story involved Raj getting complimented by Bernadette, which led to him fantasizing about Wolowitz's girlfriend in more and more elaborate ways, resulting in an incredible Bollywood-style song-and-dance number to end the show. It was probably one of the top five things the show has ever done, in both its execution and its insanity.

To be honest, neither story came to a real satisfying resolution, but I'm OK with that, because I've gotten used to how "The Big Bang Theory" works. It's not really a serialized show, but it lets threads linger, to be pulled at later. And while it might have been funny to see Sheldon trying to use his new "acting" techniques in front of a class, the breakdown he suffered while acting out his one-act play with Penny was pretty damn funny too.

Also, I thought this episode did a solid job of getting the entire expanded cast involved without forcing them together or awkwardly acknowledging someone's absence. Sure, Leonard didn't do much, and Amy really only appeared via video chat, but that's more realistic than all seven of them constantly hanging out. It seems like the writers are getting into a rhythm with their new pieces.

For more coverage of the 2010-11 television season, visit the AdamReisinger.com TV Reviews home page.

San Diego Comic-Con, Here I Come!

Well, it was much more of an ordeal than I'd hoped -- and $34 more expensive than it should have been -- but I will be attending all four days of San Diego Comic Con this July.

I wanted to go last year, but by the time I went to buy badges, four-day badges and both weekend days were all sold out, so I decided I didn't want to fly out to San Diego to attend just two days. I made it a priority to buy badges for this year, but thanks to high demand and what can only be described as poor planning by either SDCC or their ticket provider (or both), the first two registration processes both failed.

This morning, when tickets went back on sale, things didn't go much better. TicketLeap's site crashed immediately (not "almost immediately", but literally at 12:00:00 ET, you couldn't get in). They sent out a tweet telling people to "just keep hitting refresh", which is probably the worst advice a web provider can give, but whatever, I kept trying.

At some point, I got to a ticket selection screen, only to get a message that four-day passes weren't available. Apparently that's been the case on and off today -- and though its entirely possible that I could have held out for a four-day pass, I decided to just pick up four individual one-day passes (one for each day from Thursday through Sunday). Yes, it's more expensive that way, and yes, it means I'll have to make sure to pick up the next day's badge before I leave the show the previous day, but it's still better than not attending or playing the "available-or-not" game with the four-day passes.

Finally, after more than an hour of hitting refresh on the TicketLeap site I ended up with this glorious screen:

Now just to book a hotel, flight and rental car, and I'll be all set for my first San Diego Comic-Con experience. Like Bart Scott so eloquently put it (before getting whooped by the Steelers), "Can't wait!"

V "Unholy Alliance" Reaction

Can we just fast-forward to the part of "V" where something important happens? Because I'm getting tired of watching people move around like pawns in the slowest game of chess ever. Tuesday's episode, "Unholy Alliance", added more pieces to the board, but didn't really get us closer to any kind of endgame on either side.

So this week, a radical anti-V group murders three V Peace Ambassadors, leading Erica to freak and a lot of the blame to fall on Father Jack, whose anti-V sermons have been getting a lot of attention. Erica's got a new FBI partner -- an old friend, it so happens -- and they go to meet with Father Jack, who... blah, blah, blah...

Look, there's a lot of talking, a lot of meeting, a lot of secret-keeping, and a lot of "unholy alliances". Anna goes to the Vatican (conveniently, a Vatican where everyone speaks fluent, un-accented English) and makes some shiny blue lights turn into stigmata on a statue while spouting some mumbo-jumbo about science and miracles (which at least felt like an Arthur C. Clarke shout-out, even if it wasn't designed as such).

This week's episode also brought us two new (likely) recurring characters, in Erica's new partner and the leader of the radical Fifth Column group, the latter played by Oded Fehr, who I really like. But at this point, between Fehr, Bret Harrison (who was nowhere to be found this week) and Jane Badler, it seems like the show is more intent on throwing more cast members into the mix than advancing the main conflict of the series. People keep talking about being "almost ready" and making vague references to something that might happen, but I can't keep sitting through episodes like this waiting for that moment.

It just seems like every time a character is ready to break through -- whether its Tyler vandalizing the church, or Ryan going back to Anna, or even finding out about Father Jack's military past -- everyone just stands around and talks some more. Even the revelation that the FBI is suspicious of Erica came with more talking than action, and that really should have been a much bigger deal. Hopefully next week it will be, because otherwise this show is likely going to lose me.

For more coverage of the 2010-11 television season, visit the AdamReisinger.com TV Reviews home page.

Desktop Girl of the Week: Brooklyn Decker

If by now you don't know who Brooklyn Decker is, you've probably been hiding under a rock for the past few years, and you DEFINITELY haven't been watching any commercials for the past two months.

Decker is an incredibly popular Victoria's Secret and SI Swimsuit Edition model, and normally I don't pick models as DGOW selections, because I like to write about the things these women can do besides look good. However, in the past year or so, Decker has branched out into acting, starting with a guest appearance on "Chuck", where she played a model (ooh, what a stretch!).

However, as I mentioned above, you've probably seen Decker in every other commercial break since about Christmas, and not for Victoria's Secret or SI. No, instead its for her feature film debut, "Just Go With It", where she co-stars alongside Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler. Does the movie look good? Not particularly. But it will probably be successful at the box office, and Decker will be a big part of that success.

It's also worth pointing out that Decker is married to American tennis star Andy Roddick, which means that the better Roddick does, the more likely you are to see Decker rooting him on from the stands. Sadly, that hasn't been that frequent of late, as Roddick has reached just one Grand Slam final in the last four years, and hasn't won a Grand Slam event since his U.S. Open win in 2003. Oh, and when Roddick won that event, Decker was just 17 years old. No, they were not dating then.

• Brooklyn Decker on IMDB
• Follow Brooklyn Decker on Twitter
• "Just Go With It" Official Site

As always with DGOW, I’ll provide a widescreen (1680x1050) image for downloading. If you want to see past DGOW, then just check the archive album.

The Cape "Dice" Reaction

I feel like reviewing "The Cape" is an exercise in futility at this point, since NBC has cut the show's order from 13 episodes to 10 and rumors are swirling that they've shut down production. It's unfortunate, because the show has so many things to like about it, but the simple fact is that at the end of the day, it's just not a good show.

Monday's episode, "Dice", featured another villain with special powers who both knew that Peter Fleming -- the show's primary villain -- is Chess, and wanted to take him out. But if that happened, then Fleming couldn't clear Vince's name, which is the main reason Vince became The Cape in the first place. Meanwhile, former cop Vince is still wary about helping out The Carnival of Crime (in this episode, he got them their police records, which they promptly burned), but needs them to help him be The Cape. It's all a convoluted mess, shrouded in a layer of psuedo-camp.

Mena Suvari did a solid enough job as the villain of the week, a savant who called herself Dice because she was able to break down probabilities so well that it bordered on precognition. It's an interesting premise, but one that "Fringe" did worlds better earlier this season. Plus, by tying her past into Fleming's, while also making her brain the template for Fleming's new invention, it added unnecessary layers to the villain's motivations -- a problem of many modern superhero movies too. Then when you consider that on top of that Orwell is Fleming's estranged daughter, it's like there's this whole massive conspiracy affecting the entire world that somehow revolves around five people.

I honestly think at this point that a show about "The Carnival of Crime" screwing up Fleming's master plan on a weekly basis would have been a better show than what "The Cape" really is, in large part because the scenes with Vince's family are among the worst each week. But at this point it's probably too late to change what "The Cape" is, and after a few more episodes, it'll be relegated to the dustbin of TV history.

For more coverage of the 2010-11 television season, visit the AdamReisinger.com TV Reviews home page.

Buffy 30th Birthday Giveaway Winner Chosen

Back on January 19th -- Buffy Summers's 30th birthday -- I announced a contest to give away the first 20 issues of the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Season 8 comic, including a copy of the first issue signed by cover artist Jo Chen.

I got a bunch of comments, e-mails and Twitter submissions to enter the contest and today I chose a winner.

So, come on down Jaci822, you're the next contestant on "I won a bunch of Buffy comics from AdamReisinger.com."

I've contacted Jaci822 through her LiveJournal account (the contact she left in her comment on the original post), and hopefully she'll get back to me soon so I can send her the prize. In case you don't feel like clicking on that link above, here's what she wins:

- Buffy #1 (second printing), Signed by Jo Chen
- Buffy #2-4, Jo Chen cover
- Buffy #5-8, Georges Jeanty cover
- Buffy #9-11, Chen cover
- Buffy #12-15, Jon Foster cover
- Buffy #16-20, Chen cover

Doing this giveaway was fun, and if I end up with more stuff to give away, I might do another one around the time of the final Buffy Season 8 trade paperback release, so keep reading AdamReisinger.com.

Chuck "Chuck Versus the Push Mix" Reaction

I've watched this episode of "Chuck" twice now, and I'm still not sure what exactly I watched. "Chuck Versus the Push Mix" seemed to resolve a season's worth of storylines in what can only be described as an incredibly neat package, but it's not a season finale, and I'm not sure it was good either.

The episode takes Chuck and Morgan into the heart of Volkoff Industries (thanks to the object that Sarah slipped Casey before throwing him off the building the previous episode), where they worked with Mama Bartowski and Sarah to take down Volkoff once and for all. This should have been amazing, but instead it all just felt too convenient. Morgan's turn in evading a killer laser grid was the moment when I realized this show has shed any pretense of these characters being normal people and is instead just going to treat them as if they all have super-spy skills, which is just sad.

Also, in the past, if "Chuck" was going to so blatantly rip off a plot point from a movie like "Sneakers" -- in this case, tricking Volkoff into saying the final word they needed him to say to record his voice password -- they would have had Chuck or Morgan or someone make a nerdy reference to it. Instead, they just let it sit there as if Chuck had come up with the plan on his own, which felt insulting to the show's hardcore audience.

AdamIsAweso.me In Review: January's Best

After a one-month hiatus, the month in review returns, making its 2011 debut. In case you don't remember from way back in 2010, here's the drill: www.AdamIsAweso.me is one of the vanity domains for this site. At the start of each month, I use it to spotlight the 5 most "awesome" posts of the previous month (aka the 5 posts that drew the most traffic).

5. Buffy 30th Birthday Giveaway
Lesson of blogging: if you offer to give away free stuff, people will click on the link. Another lesson: you actually have to give away the stuff. Look for the winner to be announced in a post later today.

4. DC Universe Online Beta Mini-Review
Speaking of things that are coming later, at some point next week, I'll have my review of this game at the one-month mark (decision day for those who bought the game on Day 1 and are reaching the end of their free month). But my review of the beta has been a popular post.

3. Charmed Comic Review, Issue #5: Unnatural Resources
This issue was delayed two weeks, but would have come out in January either way. Hopefully future issues of this series will come out on schedule, and continue to build upon the momentum from the first arc.

2. Desktop Girl of the Week: Izabella Miko
This wasn't the most visited post of the month, but it ended up being my favorite because of this:

Yep, that'd be Miko linking to my post on her official Facebook page. She also sent out the link on Twitter, which makes her officially my favorite DGOW selection ever.

This Week in Buffy History: February 1-7

February 3
2010 - Season 8, Issue 32, "Twilight, Pt. 1", released by Dark Horse Comics

February 4
2002 - Angel Episode 3.13 “Waiting in the Wings” airs on The WB
2003 - Episode 7.13 “The Killer in Me” airs on UPN
2004 - Angel Episode 5.12 “You’re Welcome” airs on The WB

February 5
1951 - Robin Sachs born (played Ethan Rayne)
2002 - Episode 6.13 “Dead Things” airs on UPN
2003 - Angel Episode 4.11 “Soulless” airs on The WB

February 6
2001 - Episode 5.13 “Blood Ties” airs on The WB

February 7
1985 - Clara Bryant born (played Molly in Season 7)