Tyson: Assistant Coach

If you have enjoyed Tyson on this season of Survivor then I suggest watching this video of last week's tribal council. It has Tyson's audio commentary and it is hilarious. Enjoy.

We Could Be Heroes

Last night NBC threw two hours of season finale action at us. While this post is going to be mostly about the Heroes Volume Four finale, I need to mention how great Chuck was last night. It was a fantastic ending to an awesome season. If this is, in fact, the last we see of the CIA/Buy More crew, I will be sad but pleased with what they gave us.

Unlike Chuck, which has been getting better and better over the past two years, Heroes has been all over the place. Season One was one of, if not the best first season in my memory. After that the show started on a downslide, which might have been caused by the writers’ strike during the second season. Volume Three started this fall and it was more of the same mediocrity. Now for me, volume four was looking like a step in the right direction, but last night’s finale threw me through another loop.

I have always been the guy who says that, in a serialized action show like this, you need to kill people off at times to keep the viewer’s attention. This is something Heroes wasn’t willing to do. Sure they got rid more minor characters like D.L., Isaac and Linderman, but when they kill off Nikki only to bring her back as Tracy, or they kill Nathan at the end of season two only to have him be healed by Claire’s blood it just makes me angry.

So when spoilers for this volume’s finale said that a major character would die, I didn’t think they were going to cop out like they did. -SPOILER ALERT- So Peter and Nathan go in to attack Sylar (which they don’t let Claire or the audience see, bootleg) and surprise surprise, the killer with multiple lethal powers kills the dude that can fly around. After Nathan’s throat is slit by Sylar, and Peter has mimicked Sylar’s shape shifting power, Peter shifts into the form of the President and stabs Sylar with a tranquilizer. Now Peter, Claire, Noah, Angela and Parkman are left with a dead Nathan and a knocked out Sylar. As a political move, and so that Angela doesn’t lose her son, Parkman gives Sylar’s body all of Nathan’s memories and removes anything to do with Gabriel Gray/Sylar.

So there wasn’t really a death of a main character. Sure the real Nathan is dead, but he’s still around in Sylar. And I guess the essence of Sylar won’t be around, but the preview of volume five shows that the new Nathan starts to show Gabriel’s original power of knowing how things work. So we will probably end up with having a half Nathan, half Sylar dude wondering around in the near future. That's not really killing anyone off.

And to top things off, at the very end of the volume five preview we see Tracy again. After shattering herself into a million pieces a while ago she is now back and has some sort of water manipulation power like Alex Mack. Unless this is not Tracy, and is in fact the third triplet, it is more proof that they can’t kill anyone off.

Buy More Chuck

After a great four episode run, last night's fantastic penultimate ep and a set up for what could be one of the best hours of television this year, everyone should be excited for next week's Chuck season finale.

Last night episode had everything you could ask for. There was loads of action, there were plenty of laughs at the Buy More and there were many great Chuck/Sarah moments throughout. Not to mention (SPOILER ALERT) Chuck telling Captain Awesome that he's a CIA spy. There were the continuation of great guest spots, with my birthday buddy Scott Bakula as Chuck's dad and Chevy Chase as an unbelievable villain.

Allison Waldman wrote a great review over at TV Squad.

As Chuck has quickly moved itself into a top five spot on my tv favorites, it is in danger of not coming back for a third season. Many people are doing their part to keep Chuck alive, but if anything will help it will be ratings for the finale. So if you aren't doing anything Monday night, throw the tube on NBC at 8:00 PM for the Kid here. I don't ask that you watch, just put the tv on. If you have digital cable, you can even leave the tv off, just put the box to NBC.

Idol at the Movies

I think anyone of these top seven (except for maybe Lil) could have/would have won season three. Tonight everyone was very good (except for Lil).

Yo producers, if you run out of time and have to cut the judges in half for comments, please get rid of Kara. Why did you bring her on? Four is way too many.

So tonight is songs from the movies. Let's see the run down of the top seven.

Go Home

Lil Rounds- (The Rose, The Rose/Bette Midler) So as this started I thought to myself, wow this is finally not boring. But by the end I realized that I had spaced out through half of it, so I guess it was once again a snooze alert. Add to this the fact that she was whining and complaining about the judges and I say she needs to go.

Not Impressed

Kris Allen- (Once, Falling Slowly/Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova) I guess it does pay to do songs that the audience knows, because the two that I like the leasts are the two I had never heard of. Kris started a little slow, but just before the halfway mark he really brought me in and I started to enjoy his performance.

Allison Iraheta- (Armageddon, I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing/Aerosmith) Everyone and their brother has done this song so you have knock it out of the park. I don't think she did that. It was good, but not great. She started out pretty different from the original which gets you hooked for the rest of it. This makes it okay that the second half was basically a second rate version.

Top Four Dudes

Matt Giraud- (Don Juan DeMarco, Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman/Bryan Adams) Bryan Adams really does nothing with his songs. Both Matt and (will get to later) Kutner made fantastic changes to his songs just by show better vocal talent. Giraud had the vocal riffs going but there were a couple moments where he kinda messed up and it sounded a little off. That's why he's not in my top three tonight.

Danny Gokey- (Endless Love, Endless Love/Lionel Richie and Diana Ross) By far his best of the season. I loved that it was just him and the harp up there. I totally disagree with Simon, he did change the song. The original has way more going on musically, Gokes stripped it down so he could show off the vocal talent that I can now see that he has. Unlike past weeks, he showed some major range in this performance. Sure it doesn't compare to Rickey Smith's version in season two, but what does?

Anoop Desai- (Robin Hood, I Do It For You/Bryan Adams) As I said before, Bryan Adams is easy to outperform and Anoop killed this one. Way better than the original. Dr. Kutner has been resurrected and this was finally two great weeks in a row for Noop Dog Millionaire. He made such great changes in the melody of the song. Awesome.

Adam Lambert- (Easy Rider, Born To Be Wild/Steppenwolf) Unlike Larry Avitamiboblay, the judges, America, Barstool Sports, JJ, and yes I love Ms. Lambert. This was unbelievable! Like he did with Play that Funky Music, Adam took a song that I really dislike and turned it into a masterpiece. It's kind of ridiculous how he has been like clockwork so far, in that he goes with an upbeat joint followed by a slow-down ballad every other week. If he doesn't come out with something slow next week, I'll be shocked.

Sarah Connor Chronicled?

It's really a shame that people haven't been watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, because this past Friday's Season Two Finale might have been the final episode of the series. With ratings lower than Howie Do It and Wife Swap, as well as anything they put on CBS, most are certain that Terminator has run its course on television. Others have a slight bit of hope that the opening of the Christian Bale starring Terminator Salvation (watch trailer) will give enough reason to keep the show on the air.

8PM	CBS	Ghost Whisperer	10.23	2.5/9
	ABC	Wife Swap	4.64	1.4/5
	NBC	Howie Do It	3.86	1.1/4
	FOX	Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles	3.56	1.3/5
	CW	Everybody Hates Chris (R)	1.47	0.6/2

Source: TVAddict

I didn't come into watching this show as a fan of the Arnold movies. I had a clean slate and got hooked right away. Now sure, it has had some dull episodes, but so has what I consider the best show on television, Lost. The way Terminator has picked up over the second half of this season has been terrific.

The final episode, maybe ever, was fantastic and everyone seems to thinks so. After Cameron (right) demolished everyone in her path to get Sarah out of jail, the good metal chick went to super computer John Henry and voluntarily gave him her chip. Meanwhile crazy liquid metal Weaver meets with Sarah and John Connor to let them know SkyNet is her enemy also. Here's where a fantastic interaction occurs.

Sarah: "We need to get out, they're trying to kill my son."
Weaver: "No they're trying to kill my son, just like you are." (speaking of John Henry)
Sarah: "I'm sure she's done it." (thinking Cameron was going to destroy John Henry)
Weaver: "You better hope not. You're John may save the world, but he can't do it without mine."
--Boom! Roasted.

After they all find a chip-less Cameron and a missing John Henry, Weaver travels through time to go get John Henry back. And sure enough Johnny Connor (left) goes with her to find Cameron's chip. When they get there, they are smack dab in the resistance with a healthy and alive brother combo of Derek and Kyle Reese, as well as a human looking Cameron (probably the mold they use for her). When John talks to a Derek that doesn't recognize him, he let's him know that his name is John Connor. "Anybody heard the name John Connor?" Derek asks. Boy did they screw up the space-time continuum somehow.

The only reason I won't be extremely upset with leaving this story completely up in the air is because there are going to be three more Terminator movies over the next decade. That being said, I would love to see a season three of the Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Friday Night Loss

Tonight aired one of my favorite Friday Night Lights episodes in recent memory. Take that for what it's worth, my memory is not so good. I felt so complete when it ended that I wished it was the season finale.

Lyla reunited with Buddy on account of the fact that the Riggins household is a dump. Tyra wrote a very moving college essay that was narrated over scenes of all the characters as they got ready for the State Championship game. Landry got his chance to play on special teams and ended up getting a nice smooch from Tyra (below left) after she realized how amazingly nice he has been to her. Julie and Saracen's grandma shared a nice moment after figuring out that it was best to let Matty (right) go to art school in Chicago. Matty got to play QB again after JD (or Sam Bonsey) was benched for acting like a jerk to everyone on the team. The thing is, maybe they should've called some running plays if the pass rush was so dominating. Saracen ended up leading the Panters all the way back to lead by one. Riggins was real emotional throughout about his Era coming to an End, and capped it off by leaving his boots on the field to end the ep. Coach T, as always, made a fantastic, heart-felt speach after the game, commending the players for what they did on the field.

What they did was lose. On a last second, game-winning field goal by the heavily favored South Texas Titans, the Dillon Panthers failed to win the Texas State Football Championship. Now they won the championship in the first season and I was worried that they were going to be dumb and have them keep winning and winning. This is the second season in a row where they have not won State. Nice work.

For a while I didn't know if I thought FNL was still a top flight show, but after tonight I'm convinced it's still up there. Thankfully there are at least two more seasons in store. I just hope that they don't keep all the same characters around...maybe Riggins can stay for his fourth senior year.

Quote of the Day

From Privileged...

After the typical jerk of a friend makes a bad joke about Sage's boyfriend being poor.

Rose- "Are you ok?"
Sage- "Please, like I wasn't expecting this? He's poor. I'm rich. Gass. It's so shocking? They did it on the first 90210."

Jack Is Back

The show that got me to be the terrible television freak that I am is back after taking 2008 off because of the writers' strike. For the second time, Jack Bauer and 24 had a two night, four hour premier this past Sunday and Monday. Back during my sophomore year of college, Larry brought the first three seasons of the real-time drama to our suite. I finished the 72 episodes in about 6 weeks (albeit this was much longer than it took Larry and Mags who stayed up til 5 a.m. watching eps). Mags then went out and bought a bootleg Asian version of season 4 so we got to see the best season ever (with Habib Marwan) before it came back on the air in January.

Now I agree with all of you that seasons five and six have not been up to par with the fourth or third installments, but season seven has started out with a bang. Even though I knew beforehand that, spoiler alert, Tony, Bill and Chloe were coming back for this season, it was still an unbelievable moment. Sure I am as gullible as the next idiot and believed Tony was completely dirty, but finding out that he is working under cover with Buchannon and Chloe to take down the corrupt US Government was like a magical conjunction. When Jacko joins them during the fourth hour to go under, it truly geared me up for a great season.

Just think, Lost starts in less than a week...

Top Characters

Top TV Characters of Fall 2008

1. Dwight Schrute- Office
2. Morgan Grimes- Chuck
3. Cappie- Greek
4. Patrick Jane- Mentalist
5. Gabriel Sylar- Heroes
6. Jamie Lucas Scott- One Tree Hill
7. Megan Smith- Privileged
8. Chuck Bartowski- Chuck
9. Tracy Jordan- 30 Rock
10. Sam Briggs- Worst Week

Top New Shows

Top 5 New TV Shows of Fall 2008

1. Privileged
2. The Mentalist
3. Worst Week
4. True Blood
5. 90210

Next: Top NFL Teams

Top Veteran Shows

With the end of the year coming, I am posting some tops lists of the fall.

Top 10 Veteran TV Shows of Fall 2008

1. Chuck
2. The Office
3. One Tree Hill
4. Heroes
5. 30 Rock
6. Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles
7. Entourage
8. Survivor
9. Greek
10. Gossip Girl

Next: Top New TV Shows

Best 2 Hours on Television

Monday night on NBC is truly incredible. There is no better one-two punch on tv than Chuck and Heroes.

Sure I watch 24 for action, I watch One Tree Hill for romance and I watch 30 Rock for comedy. Chuck is the only show on television that legitimately pulls these three aspects together for an unbelievable hour of non-stop action. If you are not currently watching Chuck, I strongly suggest you start. "And what bands are you in to?"- Chuck

Heroes last night gave us such a wealth of information and made us ask so many more questions. It truly is back from last year's questionable mini-season. Sylar has been unbelievable so far. He names his kid after Noah, awesome. The ambiguity that I am left with about who is good and who is bad during the 'four years in the future' segment is awesome. Isn't Peter always good? It doesn't seem that way. There will be another Ali Larter character after Tracy bites the dust? All in all, Nathan is still my man and I think will always be my favorite character.

South Park

So I've never been a South Park guy, but have enjoyed the bits and pieces that I've seen. Lochness told me he could never watch family guy after seeing the South Park ep when they destroyed Fam Guy. I finally got around to watching the two Cartoon Wars episodes and here's what I think. The point they were trying to make is that Family Guy is all about random jokes that don't have to do with the running plot of the ep. Who cares? Do I need to have every joke relate to the overall plot of an episode of a cartoon comedy? The answer is definitely no! Each ep of Fam Guy has a story line and the fact that they are completely random doesn't take away from the ep for me. Sure there are a lot of flashes to 'times Peter did something in the past,' but I feel that is part of its charm. After finishing with these eps I watched a bunch more and came to terms with the fact that South Park is definitely not close to Family Guy in comedy. It sure does have all of their jokes involved with the plot of the ep, so they got that goin' for them.

On a side note, I watched one of Lar's favorite South Park eps. The South Park kids are playing Little League baseball but want to lose in the playoffs because they are tired of playing baseball because it's boring. They try as hard as they can to lose and finally end up losing by disqualification in the state championship, and boy are they happy. This episode always came up at the end of our basketball seasons when we were tired of playing ball and wanted to have more time to watch tv and bro out.

TV Tops 9/27

Week of 9/21-9/27

Top Shows

1. Heroes
2. The Office
3. Entourage
4. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
5. Fringe
6. Survivor
7. Gossip Girl
8. Grey's Anatomy
9. 90210
10. Greek

Top Characters

1. Michael Scott- The Office
2. Gabriel Sylar- Heroes
3. Major Hunt- Grey's Anatomy
4. Randy Hickey- My Name Is Earl
5. Cappie- Greek
6. Peter Bishop- Fringe
7. Dwight Schrute- The Office
8. Megan Smith- Privileged
9. Sam Briggs- Worst Week
10. Cameron Phillips- Terminator

Top Quotes

Gossip Girl
Serena- "Dan's not a big sports guy."

Greek
Beav- "They just mooned us!"
Cappie- "Yeah everyone except for Rusty, he just showed his underpants."

Casey- "I need to borrow your phone so I can deal with this hot frannie mess."

Fringe
Agent Dunham- "I pretty much knew this was what I wanted to do by the time I was nine."
Peter Bishop- "When I was nine years old, I think I wanted to be a brontosaurus."

The Office
Michael- "I want us all to live forever. How are we gonna do that?"
Jim- "Cryogenics, beer me five."

My Name Is Earl
Joy- "I only do tounge kisses if it's Brad Pitt or Eric Roberts."

Buddy- "Have you seen a movie without Burt Reynolds in it?"
Earl- "Not all the way through, no."

America's Got Talent

America's Got Talent has been going on all summer long and next Wednesday is the finale where the winner will be crowned. The champion of AGT receives $1 million and one performance at the MGM Grande in Las Vegas. There is absolutely no one on this year's show that comes close to how good Terry Fator was last season. But of the five people left, I'd say that I would pay $50 to go watch Nuttin' But Stringz perform in the Vegas. Eli Mattson (Mike Downing of Gorham track fame) has a great sound and I would definitely download his tracks, but would not spend money on going to one of his concerts at this point. Donald Braswell and Neil E. Boyd both have terrific voices and should get jobs on Broadway and in the Oprah, respectively. Queen Emily is God awful at singing, but very good at yelling and screaming. Since their first audition I said Nuttin' But Stringz, two black kids from inner city New York, would be my favorite and have a great chance of winning. They attend Juliard and compose all of their own material that they perform on the show with their violins.

Here is my favorite performance by Nuttin' But Stringz...


And here is my favorite from Mike Downing...

Fantasy Survivor Rules and Teams

This idea basically developed from the kid Lenny Holt, who's family drafts players in Big Brother and the winner gets something. I decided to take things a step further and make Survivor into a full on fantasy league. Although I came up with the points for each round, Larry, Mags and Jaydon came up with the other rules of the league since they are more familiar with the show than me. Larry wrote up the rules of the game below...

The Inaugural Bro Out Survivor Fantasy League

Rosters: 4 survivors per team. That leaves 2 out. Since its a waste to not use these two, it will go as follows.

- Whoever has the survivor eliminated in week one will get the chance to pick up one of the unused players. However, the other three teams have the opportunity to pick up one of the unused first according to waiver priority. Same goes for week two and then there will be no extra players.

Surviving an elimination each week gets you points (obv each week you last is more points): 1,2,3,4,6,8,10,13,16,19,23,27,31,36,41,46,52,58
Team Challenges: Reward = 5pts, Immunity = 10pts
Individual Challenges: Reward = 8pts, Immunity = 16 points
Backstabbing: 20 pts. One of the most fundamental parts of a reality competition is forming alliances, making deals etc. In this regard, it is also just as important to go back on your word and stab a (paraphrasing) "dude in the back". That requires strategy and good gameplay, and that should be rewarded.
Man Shit: 10 points. Survivor is all about man shit. Killing pigs, spear fishing, all that shit should be worth something. If there is something that is not clearly recognizable man shit, we could talk about it, majority rules.
Votes at Tribal Council: -4pts/vote. If your dude gets a vote cast against him, he is sucking at the game, and your team sucks because he/she sucks. Negative points for each one your sucky player gets.
Leader: 10pts. According to mangus, there is sometimes an unofficial leader of the tribe. If it is made known that one of your dudes wears the crown, kudos to you and also 10 pts.
Bonus: 8pts. Make it to the merger (where there is one tribe and all challenges turn individual)

Teams




The Renegades (Owned by Danny)
1. GC
2. Bob
3. Kelly
4. Crystal








Renaissance O & F Surgery
(Owned by Jaydon)
1. Ace
2. Corrine
3. Jacquie
4. Michelle







Ranger's Star Cowboy Mavericks (Owned by Larry)
1. Dan
2. Ken
3. Randy
4. Paloma







Freecell Makes Me Wanna
(Owned by Mags)
1. Marcus
2. Matty
3. Charlie
4. Jessica





Check back for weekly updates

Tuesday Thoughts

So watching tv with my pops has given me a greater appreciation for the non-serialized shows. Although still nowhere near the love I have for the continuous plot line of a serialized drama, sitting down to watch an ep of SVU or Without a Trace is like a succinct movie. They're much more driven, there's no dragging like you would get in many 2 hour plus movies, which I like. As long as Big Tom is home watching tv with me, I'm going to watch a lot more Law and Order and CSI. And if SVU keeps having fantastic guest stars like last night's Dylan McKay, Happy Gilmore's girlfriend, and Riggins' little friend from Friday Night Lights, I'll enjoy it.



Before the start of 90210, critics were mentioning their thankfulness that they had a couple of credible actors. The brother sister combo of Dixon (Tristan Wilds) and Annie (Shenae Grimes) had pasts in "The Wire" and "Degrassi," respectively. So far this season, I would definitely say that Tristan Wilds is the worst actor on the show and Shenae Grimes is probably a distant second. That's not to put down the rest of the actors...Jennie Garth is performing wonderfully and I think Ryan Eggold is also a great actor. Adam Gregory, playing Matt Ginn, oh I mean Ty Collins fills his role perfectly. It's still nowhere near the original, but for a guilty pleasure, it's almost on par with Gossip Girl for me.

Check out Wilds' acting here, and how cute Jessica Stroup is...

Heroes Is Back

This dude who commented on imbd basically says it all...what a fantastic return!

Heroes: The Second Coming

I swear I never jumped on the bandwagon for season 2. Right from the first episode, I felt it was lame. No Tim Kring, the problem was not the pace or the romance, it was the laughable story. The stilted dialogue. The abundance of plot holes.

This was the best episode since "Company Man".

The season premiere just started explosively and never let up. No questions got answered, and a whole lot more were brought up, but what made this opening exciting was the shear unpredictable factor. It was just solid, surprising and engaging storytelling. It felt fresh and inspired, like the first season.

A phenomenal beginning, and definitely a return to form. 10/10

comment by username: Topher-Liam

Preseason TV Power Rankings

Since tomorrow marks the real opening of the 2008 fall tv season, I will do my first power rankings of the year. This season I'm going to do it a little differently. I will only do power rankings every three or four weeks, but be doing top shows and characters each week in order to highlight the shows that are currently being aired. With that being said, here are my power rankings of returning shows and top new shows.

Preseason Power Rankings



1. Lost- We won't get to see where the island moved to until January.







2. Heroes- Tomorrow is the big premier event, hopefully Claire is already a villain within the first two hours.






3. 30 Rock- Let's hope Dennis Duffy or the Floydster come back for Lemon.










4. The Office- Dunder Mifflin this is Dan.







5. 24- Well it's been a long time since 24 has been on the air, and it seems the longer I wait the more I forget about how the last two seasons weren't that great.







6. Friday Night Lights- Rumor has it that Jake Porter is no longer a castmate (Thank You!)






7. Curb Your Enthusiasm- When is LD coming back with his new gf, Vivica A. Fox?








8. Chuck- Captain Awesome is, shall I say, really awesome.






9. Entourage- First two eps have me wanting more, strange for recent Entourage.








10. Big Brother- This summer's edition was fantastic. Dan sweeping the final vote was like when the Colts won the Super Bowl.





11. One Tree Hill
12. Family Guy
13. House, MD
14. Grey's Anatomy
15. Gossip Girl
16. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
17. My Name Is Earl
18. American Idol
19. Brothers and Sisters
20. Greek

Top Ten New Shows

1. Fringe- JJ Abrams's latest goldmine.
2. 90210- Worth it for the nostalgia.
3. Worst Week- T-Mobile commercial guy should bring it strong.
4. Crusoe- Pirates of the Caribbean meets MacGuyver.
5. My Own Worst Enemy- Christian Slater is very sassy.
6. Privileged- Palm Beach is so beautiful.
7. Knight Rider- We all wish Mr. Feeney was doing the voice of the car again.
8. Gary Unmarried- "Running low on beers."
9. The Mentalist- Simon Baker seems kind of sweet from the commercials.
10. Do Not Disturb- Not so great so far, but Jerry O'Connell makes me think of Jerry McGuire.

90210 Throwbacks

Now this is what I was really looking for when I started watching the new 90210. This week's episode had some great shout outs to the original. My personal favorite was when Dixon was applying for a job at the Peach Pit and Nat, in all his glory, told his war story about a time when he hired a kid from West Beverly back in the day and that kid was "a really good egg." That really got to me. I also got a great chuckle out of the convo between Kelly and Brenda in the cafeteria about how Brenda can still hear the people chanting "Donna Martin graduates." The other, most important shout out was when Brenda and Kelly got into a heated conversation about the father of Kelly's son. And although we all knew it was going to be Dylan, when his name was actually said on air, I could actually feel the millions of goosebumps on many viewers all over the world. The rumor now is that they will be actively pressuring Luke Perry to guest star on the series. That would be amazing. There were also references to Donna having a kid and a great call to the back of the Peach Pit for Willie.