Virgin Territory - 90210, Privileged, Heroes

90210 - Wide Awake And Dreaming - Ep. 105
Privileged - All About What You Really, Really Want - Ep 103
Heroes - The Second Coming, The Butterfly Effect - Ep. 301 - 302

Why does it always seem like Shanae Grimes is losing her virginity on television? First the drugged rape on Degrassi: The Next Generation. Then maybe for real with Peter? I can't even remember, and now with Ty as she plays Annie on 90210? The girl always seems to have the whole virginity thing swirling around her and dramas about losing it.

As for people who have not seen the musical Spring Awakening and are still deciding on it, please do NOT use any of the footage you saw from 90210 to make your decision. Boy, that was AWFUL.


On the flip side, Privileged should really have been called Charmed. I'm so charmed by the show and by the lead JoAnna Garcia and the wise-gay-Black-man-sidekick and by a much more likable Lucy Hale (redeeming herself from Bionic Woman) and by the two cute boys (Brian Hallisay and Michael Cassidy) that the addition of hot Headmaster Jacob Cassidy is putting it through the charming limits!

David Giuntoli (Road Rules, Grey's Anatomy as one of the gay soldiers in love) joins the show as yet ANOTHER cute guy Garcia's Megan has to pick from and so she rethinks her no dating policy (while she concentrates on work). Who wouldn't reconsider their own chastity rules when you see this:

I would reconsider my own chastity rules except I don't have one. No. I don't date because just cause I can't get one.


It's been nine months. What happened again on Heroes? No. I mean on the third season premiere. Not just last season. Which they didn't even bother recapping in hopes that we forgot that it sucked the big time and we could fall in love with Peter's pouty lips again.

I'm guessing exciting things happened if I could remember what the hell was going on, but I couldn't remember ANYTHING from last season and how it ended (and I know I watched it but it's like the Haitian erased it from my head) so I have no idea in what timeline is Nicky/Tracy/whoever is in. Or Peter and Nathan. or Claire when Sylar kills her.

Or time jumping Hiro who saw Ando kill future Hiro for the "formula" daddy Sulu left for him? About the only bright spot was the moment Hiro meets a fellow Speedster Daphne (Brea Grant, Friday Night Lights).

And I still have no idea what use Mohinder has except to increase minority visibility on NBC. Yah, now he finally has super powers. And?

Or Matt? What's the point of his character?

And I almost forgot David Anders and Kristen Bell are being wasted on this show. I feel sad seeing them here actually. And now they captured Bell's Veronica Mars alum Francis Capra too? Rob Thomas, please save them!

I know a lot of the fanboys are excited about this resurgence/reboot of the show but I'm not sure they know where it's going and I'm not sure it's entertaining enough at this point to continue to follow.

Okay fine, bonus points for the big Sylar secret. No wonder Christine Rose (as Angela Petrelli) is in the main cast now. That was a nice twist. Too bad I had to sit through 2 hours to get to a shock finally worth waiting for.

More After the Jump...

Those "That Guy"s - Marshall, Booth, House, Chuck, Joshua, Sheldon and Peter

How I Met Your Mother - Spoiler Alert - Ep 308
Bones - Boy in the Time Capsule - Ep. 307
House - Ugly - Ep. 407
Gossip Girl - Seventeen Candles - Ep. 107
Beauty and the Geek - Raising the Bar - Ep. 410
The Big Bang Theory - The Grasshopper Experiment - Ep. 108
Heroes - The Kindness of Strangers, The Line, Out of Time, Four Months Ago - Ep. 204, 206-208, Ep. 205 Here

I don't have much time but while we still have TV to talk about, let's discuss:

How I Met Your Mother - YAY! Literally! Marshall passed the bar! "Lawsuit up!"!!! Lindsay Price (who DOES she know that she keeps getting her onto shows? Though she was funny here and actually the only good thing in Lipstick Jungle) is Ted's new girlfriend Cathy who the gang hates because of her incessant talking. (Robin: (on Cathy) "She's a keeper, just keep her somewhere else"). This starts a round where everyone points out everyone else's annoyances.

Best one, Marshall singing everything he does.

Or Lily's loud chewing/crunching. Marshall: (to Lily) "I love you, but when you eat it sounds like a garbage disposal full of drywall screws."

Or Robin always saying "literally". Barney: "Don't they teach you vocabulary in Canada?" Marshall: "They don't, Literally, they don't". (They really don't.)

Next week: Slapsgiving!!! The Countdown closes in!

On Bones: Booth is THAT guy. THAT guy in high school. We all knew that. The squints all knew that. Booth does not know that. Sweet wants Booth to reveal a revealing, embarrassing moment to Bones and he tries, but they always end up being stories of someone else being embarrassed. Meanwhile, a High School Time Capsule is opened and a body is discovered within the nasty liquids and mementos of the 80's (floppy discs! A-tracks! Boom boxes!). Ew. Patrick Fabian/Prof. Landry is back (yet again, who does HE know for popping up on every show?) so automatically I assume he's the killer, but alas, he's not. In fact, he was clueless to the fact that his wife had an affair and that his son is really the son of the murdered computer geek. This brings back all the high school roles into the lab, with Bones leading as Brainy Smurf while Booth is obviously THAT guy. Personally, I was the guy that knew enough people in every clique to not get beat up, but not really belong in any clique. I was luckily the smart guy but not the smartest so I wasn't the nerdiest of the bunch. I knew to lay low enough to avoid that. Whew.

On House: Thirteen (Olivia Wilde) has still yet to prove to House that she has the smarts to stay in the game, which Wilson points out, and House really wonders if she keeps the beautiful women around because he's like THAT guy. All guys really.

House: "I can't believe I'm that guy."
Dr. Wilson: "Every guy is that that guy."
House: "I'm not every guy."
Dr. Wilson: "What is this, semantics here? All guys are that guy."
House: "I'm not all guys!"

Michael Michelle is a clear and automatic disappointment but House actually feels a conscience and withholds firing her since she left her life behind at the CIA to join House's team.

House: "She had good ideas at Langley."
Dr. Wilson: "All your ideas."
House: "She was able to identify that they were good ideas."
Dr. Wilson: "Stab in the dark here. Is she pretty?"

Meanwhile, a man with a large face deformity stumps the group as a documentary crew follows the team. It's nice when House diverts from its procedural but with the new ducklings, the documentary angle was unnecessary and distracting (and reminder of the annoying first episode of Season 4 Entourage). It allowed the crew to extract an accidental love confession out of Cameron but that was kinda lame. Anyways, you knew Thirteen was going to come up with the solution to justify House keeping her around because, well, Olivia Wilde is hot. I actually get that and totally dig her and since we know she and Kal Penn are the most famous/hottest of the bunch, they're totally going to be picked.

On Gossip Girl: Ugh, I hate Vanessa. I understand there needs to be an Anna Stern/Amanda Woodward interloper to Dan and Serena's Seth Cohen/Billy Campbell and Summer/Allison hookup but Vanessa annoys the heck out of me.

Yeah, I feel the same way too Serena. Just bitch slap the woman. I won't hate you for it.

Meanwhile, Grant Show/Jake Hanson/Ryan Atwood Nate is totally being pimped out by his mom to marry Blair even though they just broke up, but Nate reconsiders while Blair, desperately trying to forget her night with Chuck and trying to win Nate back on her 17th birthday (SHE'S ONLY SEVENTEEN ON THE SHOW???) nicely manipulates him into begging her back.

That is, when Michael Mancini Chuck isn't totally crawling all over her with his slimy hands and realising that he's actually aching for Blair. Ewwww. This could be tasty. Chuck becomes THAT GUY that ends up falling in love, despite his best to stay the cad he so wants to remain.

Dan and Jenny's mom shows up and she's not as famous as I would have thought they would have cast. Instead, Mrs. Humphrey's, who could have been Dan and Serena's older sister just as Rufus could have been their older brother, is still getting the cold shoulder from Rufus since she cheated on him.

On Beauty and the Geek: The Beauties need to pick up nasty bugs (insects I mean) while the Geeks learn the art of making a cocktail (kinda like Tom Cruise but much less gay) and seriously, Joshua was hysterical. Oh poor Josh, trying to flip the open-topped cream carafe. Then again, Dave flung cranberry juice all over himself. Nicole just kept swinging her arm like she was using a lasso (with a brilliant interpretation by Sam, who while the biggest narcissist in the world, is pretty damn funny). Meanwhile, Will, still at war with partner Jen, was probably going to knock someone out with a bottle or two after being confident with the task and overdoing the attempted tricks.

In the end, Sam won the bug contest and Dave won the bar tricks, leaving Will and Jen against Joshua and Shay, and it couldn't have been Shay who would bring a tear to my eye as she outlined the changes within her because of Josh and the geeks, which means of course, they would end up losing the elimination round and be forced to leave. Nooooo. Another team I liked gone. Again.

On The Big Bang Theory: Raj's parents try to set him up with a possible wife, but instead, Sheldon and Lalita make more of a connection than Raj does. But the most poignant line comes from Wolowitz: "Is it just me, or does webchatting with your clothes on seem a little pointless?" So true so true... hahaha

And finally, I caught up on Heroes...

[crickets]

Seriously, between falling half asleep during some episodes or losing attention while my mind wandered elsewhere (what should I eat for dinner? do I really want to date someone that actually likes torture porn? I think it's time to book another haircut. should I go swimming today or do more weights? what's the meaning of life?) I finally got to the big Adam Monroe reveal and was like. Huh?

Wait, who is good? Who is evil? The Haitian was helping Peter? Who is chasing who anymore? What's with Nikki/Jessica? Why is she even still on the series anymore? Yes, I know I defended her character last year but I was wrong. People make mistakes. Now rub her out.

Meanwhile, Matt Parkman's story has gotten BORING (or actually, shall I say, always was BORING) and I don't care about that little girl anymore (if I really ever did). Has Suresh ever really done ANYTHING on this show other than providing another token non-Caucasian cast member onto the series? Hiro finally meets his love, no, not the girl, I mean being brought back to the present with Ando (who looks like he could use some sleep and less of the partying now that he's made it in Hollywood). Claire is kissy kissy with freak cute boy but they haven't really progressed much with it since the first episode of this season. About the only funny thing that happened was when he freaked after seeing HRG in Claire's house.

Peter and Irish girl keep jumping around the world, being naked and all (about the only thing I ended up concentrating on), while Kristen Bell's Elle proves that Veronica Mars Season 4 really should have happened.

There are the wonder twins............zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

And didn't they use the 4 months ago device last year already? Didn't that just prove the whole previous 7 episodes were almost kinda useless? Or at least, needlessly confusing?

Anyways, David Anders rocks the role of Adam (even though I'm truly confused about who/what/why he is) and Kristen Bell because she's just awesome no matter what, and I do like the black girl that can copy anything she sees. But they've split the old Heroes up too much and into tedious storylines. I find it like tedious homework now to watch, and if I didn't have this blog, I'd probably have dropped it by now. Is this some kinda sign about this blog?

More After the Jump...

My Four Favorite Words: Worst Super Heroes Ever? or Let The Aliens Takeover?

Chuck - Chuck Versus the Sizzling Shrimp Ep 105 - Super
Hereos - Fight or Flight Ep 205 - Worst
How I Met Your Mother - How I Met Everyone Else Ep 305 - Super (finally again)
Aliens in America - The Metamorphosis Ep 104 - Super Duper!
Samantha Who? - The Job Ep 102 - Super

What did we learn this week?

- When in trouble/amongst geeks, USE THE "SAFE" WORD... shhh... (Aliens in America)
- too-much-tongue-guy and incredibly-small-mouth-girl are, uh, the "Worst Super Heroes Ever". (How I Met Your Mother)
- Kristen Bell makes the best detective ever and always looks good in a car on a cell phone on the lookout... but even she can do so much with lame lines and a boring plot. Where is Rob Thomas when you need him? (Heroes)
- Alums from good shoes (Veronica Mars alums Kristen Bell on Heroes and Adam Rose (Max) on Aliens in America ) and bad shows (What About Brian alums Sarah Lancaster on Chuck and Barry Watson on Samantha Who?) can still be awesome.
- Apparently there are only 4 Asian actors in Hollywood because it's the same 4 people that keep getting the guest spots (Joy Osmanski (so brilliant in The Loop) as Sam's poor secretary on Samantha Who?, that old chinese guy James Hong that always plays the old chinese guy in EVERYTHING on Chuck, Gwendolyn Yeo (Desperate Housewives) as the chinese spy on her personal mission to save her brother on Chuck, Julia Ling (Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip) as the Nerd Herd's female component on Chuck). Apparently Chuck is the only show to do well in Asian representation. You would think it should be ER or something.
- "My four favorite words": Chuck Is Super Awesome (though not as awesome as Captain Awesome but can anybody be?)

So Kristen Bell joins the cast of Heroes! Finally! She has powers! She has electricity running through her! Kristen Bell is AWESOME!

Kristen Bell isn't enough to save the suckage that has become of Heroes. She's awesome, but everything around her was still very hokey. She deserves better.

Wow. Is it bad when the only points of interest was seeing Kristen Bell and pretending it was just Veronica Mars the sequel (especially when she was in the car on the cell phone) and when Monica Dawson (Dana Davis) discovers her powers, and adds a bright spot missing while Claire is off the screen. Even the sight of Masi Oka wasn't enough to save this episode as he sent messages from the past to Ando.

There was some whole ridiculous fight with clean shaven Nathan Petrelli and ugly scared Petrelli, and Matt Parkman against the Haitian until they wind-up fighting each other somehow. Oh and Peter rolls back his eyes like Isaac used to and freaks his new girlfriend out. More people get the sign to be killed... yada yada... why wasn't Kristen Bell in the show longer?

I will also admit that the spy plot in Chuck wasn't the greatest either, and it's not always a great sign when the B-plot involves more of annoying Morgan but as Chuck finds himself lying to his sister and friend as he's taken away by Sarah and Casey on a stakeout, he gets the case of bad time management. Chuck and Sarah are supposed to celebrate "Mothers Day" (in the fall) and while it seems odd that Ellie would be so persistent that Chuck show up, it's all nicely explained at the end by one quick explanation that "Mothers Day" was the day when their mother left leaving them with a useless father and that was the day when the brother and sister learned to rely on themselves. It was such an awww moment that it forgave the slightly weaker stakeout plot and somehow even redeemed Morgan (though his nicety to the customer during the sales competition moved Morgan up a notch as well).

How I Met Your Mother finally redeems itself with this seasons so-so year when the gang is alltogether at the bar and meets Ted's date BlahBlah (future Ted can't remember her name) who he met on the internet (which they show at the end!!!). Except she had some story to cover that up, but in doing so, points out to Barney that she's crazier than hot on the Crazy/Hot scale. Lily and Marshall re-tell their first meeting, now perfected to a performance, Ted reveals how HE first met Lily, Barney retells how he first met Ted and Marshall, and we remember why we loved this show so much in the first place. Plus the Crazy/Hot chart was very educational in its demonstration. The "sandwiches" were a nice touch.

Samantha Who? finds Sam going back to work, trying to figure out what she does, realises she was a crazy ass mean boss (who makes her secretary start her apple off with a bite), was deathly afraid of elevators, worked for an unethical developer (aren't they all?), and was planning on getting a boob job. It's strange that this show is paired up with Dancing with the Stars and while I'm sure the lead in helps it with the ratings, it seems like it would have been more suited with Denis Leary's defunct The Job or Arrested Development or even Notes from the Underbelly (which was so tragically underrated). Jean Smart is wicked funny as Sam's mom, who tries to make the connection with Sam despite being the typical nagging annoying mom (which is their jobs though, but someone like old-Sam would have had none of it).

Another wicked-funny mom was Amy Pietz in last nights funniest show, Aliens in America. Since last week when it really hit its stride, it's becoming more and more a favorite and while I'll hold off one more week to see if this trend can continue, this show will probably move to my 4 or 5 star category (and thus highlighted in red on my sidebar. Yes it's a big deal because I'm lazy at changing the codes so you KNOW it must mean something. Meanwhile, Heroes may just get downgraded finally (I was holding off until Kristen Bell showed up but her 3 scenes only convinced me that Dawn Ostroff is a complete moron for cancelling Veronica Mars). Alas, I must give Ostroff a few points though for Aliens in America, where last night, Justin's old girlfriend from kindergarden, now the popular girl, somehow gets convinced by Raja to become the smart girl and they all start hanging out. Claire joins the cool group, replacing Justin's new friend position in the hierarchy of school, and finds out that those cool parties she's been missing, were kinda gay (the guys wrestling shirtless was a riot and Claire's reaction was priceless).

Gary gets dolled up (and oranged up) for work to impress the boss, as Fran shifts her energies when Justin rejects her wardrobe choices. Justin, now convinced his new girl friend loves him back, and Raja is just so honest and simple and into his education (computers really DO rock!) that you just want to squeeze Adhir Kalyan who plays him so lovingly.

More After the Jump...

Samantha Who? Premieres Tonight

I haven't seen the pilot yet and I've heard mixed reviews, but this cast is so top notch (Christina Applegate! Jean Smart (Designing Women, 24)! Melissa McCarthy (Gilmore Girls)! Jennifer Esposito (Spin City, Crash), Barry Watson (finally with better hair)!) that I'll have to watch it, and while I thought it was going to get clobbered by Heroes, now with Dancing with the Stars lead in and Heroes getting REALLY boring fast (okay, fine, I still don't mind Hiro in Japan and Claire in High school but some interaction would be nice) until next week (when Veronica Mars finally shows up), I might actually watch Samantha Who? live. Maybe.

Jean Smart

Barry Watson

Jennifer Esposito

Melissa McCarthy

Tim Russ

Kevin Dunn

More After the Jump...

That White Light You See Is The TV Set Turned On - The Canadian Thanksgiving Holiday TV Catch Up

As much as I love going away and discovering new places, I love coming back from a trip and catching up on all the TV I missed. Seriously, for a split second as I was about to die from almost falling off a horse on a Chilean mountain, I thought about the episode of Brothers & Sisters I was missing. The possibility of death (or at least getting muddy and a backache) sure puts good TV into perspective.

And now that I'm back, still bruised (Heath Ledger I'm not, I can definitely attest that I'm a city slicker, and thank god we went on the winery tour AFTER horseback riding in the mountains) and spent the day mostly catching up, here's what I loved from what I missed these past few days, in order.

Pushing Daisies - Dummy
Chuck - Chuck Versus the Tango
Brothers & Sisters - An American Family
Gossip Girl - Bad News Blair
House - 97 Seconds
Desperate Housewives - Smiles of a Summer Night
Beauty and the Geek - It's Not Rocket Science
Everybody Hates Chris - Everybody Hates Caruso
Aliens in America - No Man Is An Island
How I Met Your Mother - Third Wheel
Corner Gas - Spin Cycle
Dirty Sexy Money - The Italian Banker
Private Practice - In Which Addison Finds the Magic
Heroes - Kindred
Journeyman - Game Three
Reaper - All Mine

Holy. Did I really just watch all that TV in just one day? (And to think it can't be done. Pushaw... now I have proof there's always time for TV! Granted, I'm still on holiday here and recovering from the 11 hour flight)

So not the greatest week again for last years faves How I Met Your Mother and Heroes (not horrible, just not superb), good episodes from Everybody Hates Chris and House (which has re-invigorated itself by switching things up finally) and yet another homerun for newcomers Chuck and Pushing Daisies, and as clichéd as it is, I still find myself immensely enjoying Gossip Girl, though I think mostly impart from Blake Lively and Penn Badgley's charms.

And as amazing and complete as the pilot episode for Pushing Daisies was, everyone I spoke to worried about where it could possibly go from there. First of all, people, just ENJOY IT for what it is. Second of all, worry no more, because wasn't the second episode just as delightful, in a totally different way? This time almost taking a horror film slant within its whimsical and odd tone.

I loved that they delved back to Ned's childhood, explaining a little bit more after his mothers death. I loved that Chuck and Ned actually kissed already and that they aren't holding them back from each other despite the fact that they can't actually touch each other. Moonlighting this is not, this goes beyond that point right away and it's a smart move. I loved that they already made Kristin Chenowith sing in a hilarious musical ode to her unrequited love for Ned. I loved that I love Chi McBride as Emerson because I found him a bit annoying on House, so it's good to see him in a good role. Next week, the aunts are back which can only mean more wackiness ensues!

As for the cast of Chuck, why isn't Ryan McPartlin as Captain Awesome not part of the regular cast? If Morgan can be, why not Captain Awesome? He who does more with 3 minutes of screen time than some can do on a whole series? Captain Awesome teaches Chuck to tango for Chuck's first mission, while Morgan gets stuck in a cage. I understand that Chuck needs one of those annoying best friends that gets him into trouble, but does he have to be so annoying? At least that's my only complaint about the show. The rest, hilarious!

Justin is alive and back in the US, injured but safe, until the Walkers come descending upon him, and gets attacked with motherly love from Nora and all his Brothers & Sisters. Kitty, Kevin and Nora also get in trouble after backtalking to a radio political shock jock that gets Senator McCalister in trouble. Rebecca reveals the truth about what happened with Joe to Sarah, while Joe is officially over with Sarah. Rebecca gets her friend a job at Ojai, who presumes Saul is gay, mistakenly outing Saul underneath Tommy's watch, before everything is swept under again. Again, I love the dynamics of the crazy Walker family which makes this show work so well. I love that Calista Flockart, Matthew Rhys, Rachel Griffiths, Dave Annable, Sally Field and Emily Vancamp actually gel on screen well together, and make it seem possible that they could actually be related. Now if only they could stick Balthazar Getty's Tommy into the mix a bit more, and it would let his character be more interesting since his scenes with the family are great, but they are few and far between, since most of the time we see him with depressing wife or at Ojai.

Allergy ridden Gossip Girl (hilarious narration from Kristen Bell) is back tracking down S and B, who this week, are trying to be friends again, then not, when Blair gets unceremoniously dumped as a model by her own mother in favour of Serena, then friends again, when Blair finds out it really wasn't Serena's fault after all. Wait, was Margaret Colin the mother in the pilot or did they just do a switcheroo? I LOVE Margaret Colin so I think I would have noticed if she was in the pilot. Anyways. LOVE Mararet Colin (from the cancelled-too-fast-gem Now and Again with Dennis Haysbert (24, Far From Heaven) and Eric Close (Without a Trace)) so I like that they seem to be filling the adult roles with some good pedigree (including Peter O'Brien (UK's Queer as Folk) as the photographer). Meanwhile, Nate is having his poor-little-rich-boy crisis and with the help of former-rich-boy-hippie, loses a lot of money in a con poker game much to Chuck's objections. (Seriously, what's with all the Chuck's in this years best new shows?)

Like I mentioned before, House has totally revitalized itself by throwing all these wannabe ducklings into the mix, and Foreman with his own set at a different hospital. I've always liked Olivia Wilde (The OC, Skin) and Kal Penn (Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle) so I'm glad they are finally on a good show that gives them a chance for more, especially now that they will be permanently added to the cast. The best episodes of House were always the ones where they mix things up from their usual disease-of-the-week where House solves it 10 minutes before the end of the hour, and while the addition of new ducklings will probably end up doing the same, the audition process sure was fun.

Ditto with Desperate Housewives, with the addition of bitchy old/new neighbour Katherine Mayfair (Dana Delaney) and the bonus of husband played by Nathan Fillion has added a nice new mystery to Wisteria Lane. They've also grouped the housewives back together again, making sure they all intermingle, which has always been the strength of the show. While the men (a great group of guys Doug Savant, Kyle MacLachlin, Nathan Fillion, James Denton) have mostly been relegated to the sidelines (with the exception of Carlos' Edie marriage proposal's storyline), all seems right again on Desperate Housewives and it's finally landed in the right balance of an enjoyable show again.

Between Rebecca being with studly Sam and Will's constant winning bloating his ego, everyone is out to get them on Beauty and the Geek. It's viewers favorite competition week and the Beauties must make a bottle rocket while the Geeks must give the beauties a message. Thankfully, Jesse wins the massage, enabling them to enact revenge on Will and Rebecca (paybacks a bitch), while Sam wins the rocket launch contest and puts up Will (the other one) and Jennifer assuming they would easily be beat. Sam was wrong and Will (the good one) while gloating, is adorably put into place by partner Jen, to not let it get to his head. That's how Will (the evil one) was antagonized in the first place. Justice is served and just before next week's makeover episode! Yey! It's my favorite episode! Who doesn't love Pygmalion?

Everybody hates Caruso when the Chinese kid beats him up, taking out the sole bully from the school. However, chaos ensues when the natural order of the school falls apart as everyone becomes a bully and Chris must fix it before Everybody Hates Chris. Rochelle makes Julius take his vacation days, but Julius being Julius, secretly takes on a job as a delivery man. Okay, I know the Emmy's are generally whitewashed and only award black actors on white shows, but it's time to stop the insanity and take notice of Terry Crews and Tichina Arnold who are really the heart and soul of this show, and can balance between heartfelt emotion to over-the-top hilarity all in the same scene.

While we've already seen almost everything on this second episode of Aliens in America, when Justin really gets the blunt of social rejection for being connected to Raja, I couldn't help but laugh at Dan Byrd who really is terrific as the social outcast on the show. Adhir Kalyan plays Raja sweetly naively and bonus points for being naked in the locker room. And while the accent is a little annoying, I've got to hand it to Amy Pietz, who if I hadn't seen doing theatre, would have written her off from her Caroline in the City days, because she and Scott Patterson (there really IS life after Luke's Diner!) work really well together as the Tolchuk parentals.

I think I should have laughed a little more on How I Met Your Mother, as Ted finds himself in a possible position as the third wheel in a threesome between former dates (Danica McKellar, Busy Phillips). Barney is hilarious TALKING about the threesome but is it not weird that technically, future Ted is telling his KIDS this story? I know. I'm thinking WAY too much but it occurred to me during the show and then it creeped me out. This is one to boast to your friends (maybe), but NOT your kids. Oh the horror. At least Robin was on a funnier storyline as she dates a British doctor and realising she needs to shave part way through the good date (just watch, it makes sense on the show).

Lacey is asked to do model nude for the local ladies charity calendar, Hank teaches a spinning class (!??!) where Karen becomes a teachers pet and Wanda gets a cordless phone for Corner Gas. Somehow Brent and Co. makes this REALLY funny. I love the dry Canadian sense of humour but I do wonder how this will do on American syndication?

Okay, Samaire Armstrong is the best thing of Dirty Sexy Money. There. I said it. I was worried at first that her character would be one note (even though all her other characters have always been fully fleshed out smart girls), but no matter how many dimensions (or lack there of) Juliet has, Samaire is ridiculously funny with her. As funny as the mean priest Brian is, I'm getting a little tired of it all, and the slow serious parts of the show still lag the pacing a little but I'm still liking this show even though it still feels like it's trying to find it's own footing. Maybe Blair Underwood will help, if he actually shows up in person.

Meanwhile, the best part of Private Practice this week is Paul Adelstein in a butterfly costume playing with little girls. Somehow it's not as creepy as it sounds, much to Paul's credit. I love me some Audra McDonald but maybe they should take a note from lead-in show Pushing Daisies and let the Broadway star sing instead of making her eat cake all episode. You'd think this show was written by men and not lead by a woman. What is this? Womens Wear Daily?

While I didn't hate Heroes this week, I just don't really remember anything from it except Milo's large eyes as he pushes his hands into the air and Claire and emo-boy-Thomas Dekker-replacement flying in the sky. Nikki is back, the new latinos escape from jail, Mohinder gets Issac's studio, remade into a lab, and Hiro makes sure Kensei becomes a hero and thus loses his love. Blah Blah blah... Oh yeah. and Sylar is alive and being nursed by a company.

Journeyman had a neat concept, by sending Dan back to San Francisco during game three of the world series when the earthquake shook the city. He keeps returning, assuming he needs to save people from the quake, but of course, things are never as they seem. It was good but this episode could have been exceptional, and by actually personalising the story to the man he had to save, it actually decreased the interest somehow. Luckily, they have Kevin McKidd in the lead so I'll keep on this journey for now.

I find myself wanting to really like Reaper especially because of Bret Harrison and Tyler Labine, but I find myself always getting a little bored partway through every episode so far, and while Sam contends with wasting his future, I always feel reminded that I'm wasting my time watching TV (which, as a TV lover, I should not feel like). I know most people seem to be loving this show but I feel like a slacker while watching these slackers reap evils-of-the-week. I feel more productive when I watch The Real World. Yet I still have this devotion in trying to love this show and there are parts I do, but it's not becoming the love affair I thought it would be. I think part of it is that I don't buy the girl boy relationships. No way would Josie have gone out with Socks, and no way would her lawyer boss have just acted so casually upon meeting him, and while I could understand smart Andi toiling away at something beneath her, something still feels off about that storyline. I don't buy it quite yet. I'm hoping there's more to the explanations.

So there you go, I'm back, I'll be back on my normal work schedule on Monday and as of now, I play catch up with life and TV, which sometimes is one and the same!

More After the Jump...

Up Chuck On Mondays With Some Big Alien Mother Heroes

How I Met Your Mother - We're Not From Here
The Big Bang Theory - The Big Bran Hypothesis
Aliens in America - Revised Pilot
Heroes - Volume 2 Chapter 2 Lizards
Chuck - Chuck Versus the Helicopter

Was it me or did Chuck's episode 2 cement that the pilot wasn't a fluke, while usual favorite How I Met Your Mother and Heroes sort of rested on their laurels and produced filler episodes?

Gael (Enrique Iglesias) is still living with Vacation-Robin in New York but Old-Robin is slowly creeping back in now that they are back on an island without palm trees. Watching unhinged Robin go all island tropics was funny but I'm not sure we needed a whole episode of that. The Robin on Robin almost kiss was a little too creepy for me.


However, Barney was loving it of course, especially after his plans with Ted of pretending to be from Misoura' backfired when they tried to pick up New York girls who were GASP... in fact from New Jersey.

Finally, Lily and Marshall were making preparation plans in case of death as Marshall writes a teary farewell letter to Lily, then discovers she just left him her pin numbers. Funny, but again, seemed to stretch a bit for a whole episode.

Again, Barney saves the day as I could have watched more of Misoura' Barney, especially with that accent. I'm not even going to say the Mother L word... I don't have to anymore. Still, overall, felt more like filler than a classic Mother episode.

Okay, fine. The Big Bang Theory isn't great or anything but it's still cute enough. I still love Jim Parson's Sheldon, and Johnny Galecki's Leonard is adorable as they start cleaning Penny's apartment which freaks her out. Yes, but now you have a clean apartment. Feel free to come to my place. Lord knows it needs all the help it can get.

That being said. I think I do prefer Aliens in America and while I love Luke Danes, I did wonder a bit if Scott Patterson could stretch out of the role from Gilmore Girls into anything else. Well, his gruff but lovable manly man seems to suit the Tolchuk family and I felt his presence more than original dad Patrick Breen (who I think is good, but has yet to really find a role that suits him that lasts more than a season (he was good in Kevin Hill)). Patterson's Gary Tolchuk is more believable as someone that lets Frannie call the shots, but still has the usual father cluelessness while still being a loving dad. Plus, I buy it more when he falls in love with Raja because he's willing to clean and not eat the bacon.

Well, what can I say about Heroes? Last year I complained that while it was a fun fast moving show, a little character development wouldn't hurt. I didn't mean completely halt the storyline. Granted, while some seem annoyed at Claire back in high school, I actually don't mind that storyline. Especially seeing HRG in regular normal life situations. It's a comedic minefield. And creepy student friend (Nicolas D'Agosto, who seems to have become really TALL) finding out about Claire seems to really continue the storyline that never really finished off when Thomas Drekker was written off (to join The Sarah Connor Chronicles).

I don't mind that Hiro is still back in 1671 (or whatever year it was) in Japan since his interplay with drunken Takezo Sensei (David Anders) is amusing, now if only the keep moving all the stories forwards. I could care less about Matt Parkman or Mohinder at this point with the little annoying girl, and Peter Petrelli just has to remain in the same wardrobe.

Maya's black eyes were creepy but the whole storyline seems to hack horror flick to me right now and I just don't care for them. Plus, I never thought I would say this (since I love my foreign films) but reading all the subtitles hurt my brain last night. Maybe it's just that bad dialogue is made more obvious when I actually have to read it. At least with the Japanese, they could get away with a "Watah" every once in a while and it would seem funny when Masi Oka spoke it.

Meanwhile, Chuck was FANTASTIC. Chuck is still not sure if CIA Agent Sarah or NSA Agent Casey are rogue and who is double crossing who, each telling him the other is trying to kill him. We get a nice comedy of errors, some kick ass fighting between Sarah and Casey in a Wiener shop (Sarah's new cover), and hilarity all around. Plus some more sister love who totally cares for Chuck and wants him to do well with a new girlfriend (the rapport between Sarah Lancaster and Zachary Levi is actually really sweet), while Captain Awesome remained... well... AWESOME! We also learned his name was Devon but I'm going to continue calling him Captain Awesome! And we, like Captain Awesome, feel the Chuck love (above)!

Oh, I forgot to mention, the shoutout to Oceanic 815 was a nice touch!

More After the Jump...