Saturday, September 29, 2007

The Vegas and New Power Rankings

Friday TV

Las Vegas (NBC). Last night was the 2 hour season premier. I feel like my boy Larry is the only one who is still with me on this show. A whole lot of controversy has arisen from my love for The Vegas. Let's put it this way, it seems like every other time I'm talking to someone they're hating on Vegas. There are three almost unarguable statement about this show. The writing is usually bad and corny. The acting is sometimes bad and corny. The characters are unbelievably lovable. For me, sometimes it is the less than stellar writing that helps make this show so good. It's fun to laugh at how stupid comments sound but know that it would probably be the sweetest thing in the world to hang out with Danny and Mike. I challenge anyone to not crack up from joy when Danny says, "They only make the best burgers here."
8 out of 10.

Performers of the Week

1. Danny McCoy (Las Vegas)
2. Alex Karev (Grey's Anatomy)
3. Marc Sloan (Grey's Anatomy)
4. Dwight Shrute (The Office)
5. Randy Hickey (My Name Is Earl)
6. Kevin Malone (The Office)
7. Mike Cannon (Las Vegas)
8. Michael Scott (The Office)
9. Noah Bennett (Heroes)
10. Marsh McGinley (Back to You)


9/29 Power Rankings

(last week's ranking)

1. Heroes (1)
2. Lost (2)
3. Las Vegas (4)
4. The Office (3)
5. 30 Rock (5)
6. 24 (6)
7. Entourage (7)
8. Grey's Anatomy (9)
9. Friday Night Lights (8)
10. Curb Your Enthusiasm (10)
11. Journeyman (-)
12. Rules of Engagement (11)
13. Greek (12)
14. American Idol (13)
15. House (17)
16. My Name Is Earl (14)
17. Family Guy (16)
18. Desperate Housewives (18)
19. Cane (-)
20. Scrubs (19)

Friday, September 28, 2007

Fantasy and Thursday Night

First off I have recently come across to new fantasy games that I obviously have signed up for and started playing. The first is Fantasy TV at www.fantasyteevee.com You edit your pre-draft rankings for characters, they draft your team for you and then you set your line up with two starters for each night (Sunday through Thursday). You are allowed to start 3 lead characters, 4 supporting characters and 2 quirk characters. Quirks are things such as "times they mention diseases in House" or "any time a character uses a power in Heroes." They don't have any characters from the first year shows so that's pretty bootleg. I obviously pre-ranked all of the characters I love highest regardless that not all of them score high points and most of them are on the same night. A character gets points for minutes they are in scenes, drinks, name mentions and kisses (minus points for swearing).

My Squad:
Sundays- Peter Griffon Family Guy
Senator McCallister Brothers and Sisters
Quahog town members getting their name mentioned in Family Guy
Mondays- Hiro Nakamura Heroes
Noah Bennett Heroes
Heroes showing their power
Tuesdays- Diseases and conditions in House
Wednesdays-n/a
Thursdays- Michael Scott The Office
Dwight Shrute The Office
Jack Donaghy 30 Rock
Tracy Jordan 30 Rock
Derek Shephard Grey's Anatomy


The second game is TV Big Shot (www.tvbigshot.com). In this one you are a network executive and you get a certain amount of money to buy shows with. Shows receive points for their ratings each week. Bonus points are given to a show for winning their time slot, being top five in ratings for the week, any actor from the show appearing on a magazine cover, and Gold Globe winners.

My Squad:

Las Vegas 58 mil
Friday Night Lights 40 mil
30 Rock 37 mil
Everbody Hates Chris 19 mil
The Office 50 mil
Heroes 82 mil


Thursday TV

My Name Is Earl (NBC). I'm still not sold on this show as a great comedy. In true NBC fashion, it is quite different in style than the comedies on other networks. Some of the humor just doesn't do it for me though. Maybe I just don't find hicks as hilarious as most people. Frankie Stechino is really the only one cracking me up in this show. That being said, I will absolutely watch this show every week for its incredible soundtracking. I can't get enough of it. No silly score or weird indy tunes. Straight rock classics throughout every episode. It's hard to feel much better than when "Sympathy for the Devil" comes on in the background when Earl is doing something crazy in prison.
4 out of 10.

Grey's Anatomy (ABC). I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved this season premier. Watching the ex-interns now as residents and dragging around their own interns was great. It was also nice to laugh at George as he has to do the whole internship over again because he's a moron. Karev (below) and Sloan (above) were both back in form as two of the wittiest, most charismatic jerks on television. What put this ep over the top for me was the fact that I didn't want to slap Yang and Izzie in the face any time they talked. They were surprisingly watchable.
7 out of 10.

The Office (NBC). I was disappointed in that there was no David Wallace and no Beardy. There were a couple Ryan moments though so that showed promise. I'm not usually a Kevin guy but I thought he was in rare form last night. Also is it just me or are the writers trying to turn Oscar back straight because he doesn't seem gay at all. I still don't get T-time's love for angela. Her complaining about her cats is just not funny. Dwight killing her cat on the other hand is extremely funny. So is Michael crying about her cat dying. Finally I'd like to know how many other people out there felt like they were going to vomit when Pam and Jim were holding hands. I'm sorry but I couldn't help imagining the expression on Hugo's fat face the second that happened. I'm pretty sure I hurled a little in my mouth any time Pam and Jim were together in this episode and that makes me sad because I like Jim a lot.
7 out of 10.

Big Shots (ABC). This is a new show about four dudes that are all ridiculously rich CEO's of sweet companies. A couple of the guys seem like they could be good characters but I don't see this panning out to be that sweet. I mean of course I'll keep watching but I'm not too high on it thus far.
3 out of 10.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Football and TV

It is football season so I might as well talk about the most important thing in football...

The Best Looking Quarterbacks in the NFL

1. David Carr
2. Brady Quinn
3. Joey Harrington
4. Matt Leinart
5. Kurt Warner
6. Tom Brady
7. Drew Brees
8. Brett Favre
9. Kyle Boller
10. Jason Campbell

Now that football is out of the way onto TV.

Tuesday

House (FOX). After skipping season three, I came back this year to a House with no team. I disliked Cameron, Chase and Foreman so this was a pleasant surprise. I mostly enjoyed the extra Dr. Wilson time, especially with his new found talent of comical terrorism.
6 out of 10.

Cane (CBS). Love the storyline, don't love the fluff. Although it is early and I might learn to enjoy the minor characters, in the Premier I wanted more Jimmy Smits and Billy Rosewood's partner in Beverly Hills Cop 3.
I guess Benjamin Linus' #2 man in Lost has a secret way off the island because he made it to Florida to fight with Jimmy Smits.
5 out of 10.

Wednesday

Back to You (FOX). There just are only so many funny people to go around. This new sitcom, which is basically Anchorman in present day, is pleasant enough but cannot compare to NBC's comedys. Although Kelsey Grammer is pretty funny but Fred Willard definitely steals the show here. The other four major characters just are not funny. That's tough to deal with on a comedy television show.
4 out of 10.

Kid Nation (CBS). Now this show is just bad. I can't stop watching though. I want to smack so many of the kids in the face for the entire hour but I still feel like it is worth watching. The show is so staged and planned but yet it's a reality television show. I wish the show actually just dropped 40 kids in a deserted town with a limited amount of food and hidden cameras and watched what happened. that would be fun to watch.
2 out of 10.

Private Practice (ABC). So Dr. Addison Montgomery Shephard from Grey's gets her own show. Not fair. She wasn't that sweet. Sloan (McSteamy) should've gotten his own show where he just hit on chicks the whole time. Anyway this first ep was pretty good. Tim Daly and Taye Diggs are pretty big studs which always helps a show. It just ran a little slow for me. Also, at this private practice, in the first episode they already brought 3 of their patients to the hospital. It doesn't seem to make sense to have all of this stuff at this office if they're going to bring all of their patients into the hospital anyway.
4 out of 10.

Dirty Sexy Money (ABC). A show about rich people with problems. ho hum. I mean it was decent. You can't go wrong with Jack Bauer's dad and one of the Baldwin brothers as main characters.
4 out of 10.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Monday Medley

Let's start off with the most important thing. Heroes (NBC) is back on the air. The season 2 premier was very good and the beginning monologue was music to my ears. I love the skip ahead knowing that they will intertwine all of the missing pieces from the previous four months at one point or another. I could've used a little more Peter, but the amount of questions I have is unbelievable.
Who pushed Kaito off the roof?
Will we find out his power?
Who are the nine, now seven if angela is dead, original company members left?
How did Peter get lightning power?
How did Nathan go from politics to ron burgandy "milk was a bad choice" so fast?
To start the scoring system low I give the episode and 8 out of 10

Next, Journeyman (NBC). Great start to the series. Kevin McKidd is the man. I thought I had all of the time travel concepts down after watching Bill and Ted, Back to the Future and Heroes....but I was still taken back at some of the happenings between Journey Dan and presumably Journey Olivia. Also can we think about how ridiculous it was when Journey Dan, in front of his present wife was kissing his ex-wife, who is presumably dead in 2007, (but is actually traveling through time) 10 years in the past, while his present wife is secretly in love with him, but instead dating his brother. All in all I'd say it was a good first ep. It got two of my housemates very intrigued anyway.
I'm gonna go with a 7 out of ten.

Chuck (NBC). Me and NBC must go together like lamb and tuna fish because I even liked this one. I can't tell you how much I am missing last year's NBC "not so hits" Black Donnellys and Studio 60. Anyways if you watched the series premier of Chuck and couldn't tell this was Josh Schwartz and McG then you obviously don't pay attention to writers and producers names. The former writer, Schwartz, and Exec Producer, McG, of The OC are back on TV with this one. Instead of a show about a comic book nerd, living in Orange County with as much indy rock as you can stand, you have a show about a computer nerd, living in Los Angeles with the same amount of indy rock in the first ep. Although he is no Seth Cohen, I definitely enjoyed the character of Chuck. You also can't go wrong with CIA effects and car chases.
I'll go with a 6 out of ten for this one.

Rules of Engagement (CBS). After watching the short first season online last year I couldn't wait for the second season of Puddy, David Spade and Lansing. If you weren't too quick on the uptake of the first and last stars of this sitcom, the first would be Puddy, Elaine's boyfriend from Seinfeld, also known as Patrick Warburton or the host of Soarin' Over California at Epcot and Disney's California Adventure. The second is Lansing, because from certain angles this guy looks like Mike Lansing-- former Fryeburg Academy of Maine, UMaine XC and track star and friend of T-time. His name is Oliver something or other and I believe he is Kate Hudson's brother. All in all funny episode. Puddy and Spade carry the show and as far as comedy's go these days it is one of the better ones.
Start small, 6 out of 10.

Two and a Half Men (CBS). After watching a few reruns on the CW at 7 I decided I'd give this a whirl. I mean it was the highest comedy in the ratings last year. Here's the problem with America. This show is not good. The laugh track is ridiculous. The kid and Charlie Sheen's brother are not funny and the old, fat lady is even worse. I did find myself laughing at the Charlie Sheen lines but I'm pretty sure that is only because I was imagining him in the Ted Brogan skit saying, "I got two g's" and "what you have here is a dude." Anyway this is sub-par at best but i will probably give it another shot next week.
3 out of 10.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Preseason TV Power Rankings

1. Heroes
With arguably the best Premier Season of all time Heroes looks to return to form in its sophomore year. Best combination of character development, storyline and “seat edge.”

2. Lost
Definitely the show that creates the most questions for viewers. Would have had this at #1 if there weren't a few lagging episodes per season.

3. The Office
Number 1 comedy on the air. We all hope that Ryan at corporate means more David Wallace and more Beardy.

4. Las Vegas
Although it is behind Heroes and Lost on storyline, it is still ahead in characters. Losing Jimmy Caan will be tough but gaining Tom Seleck and Tom Seleck's mustache will keep it high in the rankings.

5. 30 Rock
Still flying high after the big Emmy win, 30 Rock looks to draw on Jerry Seinfeld's comedic genius to make a run at The Office. More Tracy and less Jenna will do the trick.

6. 24
Jack Bauer is still hanging around in his 7th year. As long as the writers dig deeper to find new story lines, this veteran will remain in the top 10.

7. Entourage
Just finishing its 4th season and on hiatus for a while could hurt or help Entourage.

8. Friday Night Lights
Actually being on Fridays for its second season should help with the atmosphere of the show.

9. Grey's Anatomy
This is way too high for a show that just fired a black guy for hating on a gay guy.

10. Curb Your Enthusiasm
Larry David: number one human being I'd like to sit on a couch with and hang out with right now.

11. Rules of Engagement
12. Greek
13. American Idol
14. My Name is Earl
15. Rome
16. Family Guy
17. House
18. Desperate Housewives
19. Scrubs
20. According to Jim

New shows with potential:
1.Journeyman
2.Cane
3.Back to You
4.K-Ville
5.Cavemen
6.Private Practice
7.Carpoolers
8.Viva Laughlin
9.Big Shots
10.Dirty Sexy Money