Grid Effect

A few more links to close out the week. It’s kind of absurd how top-heavy our TV viewing is: Two series’ on Sunday, one on Monday and one on Tuesday, then nothing Wednesday-Saturday; and that’s likely not going to change anytime soon. I hate the site being so monolithic and then just changing pace for the second half of the week, but we’re not dictating the terms ’round here. Unless something unusual arises, expect this pace on Grid Effect to continue until It’s Always Sunny starts up.

Onto some links…

Here’s Jeremy Piven saying “fuck” on CNN’s web site. Oh no, someone cursed on the interwebs? What’s happened to us?! Anyways, I’d expect a media shitstorm over this if he had been on, say, Larry King or something equally reputable; because he’s Jeremy Piven and everyone hates his guts these days. But not even the most sanctimonious prick can get worked up about someone cursing on a streaming internet video. Please tell me I’m right about this.

Big news coming out of HBO’s media day or whatever it’s called in television. To summarize, Hung, True Blood and Entourage were all renewed (no surprise considering that all three of them are dramatically moving the dial), Treme isn’t going to premiere until August, and a second season of Life and Times of Tim is in production stages but they haven’t decided where to schedule it. The two series’ that are still waiting to hear where they stand: The Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency and Flight of The Conchords.

The latter of which is likely to come back for a third season, though I didn’t even realize they were seeking a renewal. Last I heard, –and kind of just assumed because the series ended with Bret and Jemaine doing a “Stomp” like rendition in New Zealand– they were undecided if they wanted to do a third season, since I don’t think they ever regarded themselves as TV people, as evidenced by Bret Mackenzie’s non-satirical band, The Black Seeds. At least I think it isn’t satire.

Heard this in Breaking Bad episode, “4 Days Out”; season two, episode nine. Turns out it goes well with a montage for cooking meth.

For those who actually give a shit (read: the pitiable and disenfranchised), John and Kate return next week, and Kate’s going to don a bikini at some point. Great! Even more reason not to watch. They need to make more of an effort to render this show unwatchable, if just to save us from Satan’s embrace.

Larry David said that the Seinfeld cast members will appear sporadically throughout the upcoming season, scheduled to premiere on September 20th. He said it’s possible that they’ll touch on Michael Richards’…incident at The Laugh Factory from a couple years ago. I don’t really see how they can miss an opportunity like this if Larry is still living with the Blacks. It was almost tailer-made for him to put into a television show.

Here’s a study profiling average usage in cable, and reportedly 22% of us are substituting online viewing for it, either cutting back on costs or canceling it altogether. What a revelation. I never would have thought that when you made the exact same viewing experience available through other mediums at a discounted rate, people would actually take advantage of it.

And finally, it has been reported…I don’t know how many times, but I can’t recall if we ever brought it up or not: you will not see fictional Ray Drecker’s fictional penis anytime soon on Hung. I understand this is a big disappointment or relief for a lot of you, and to both parties I would like to say that you’re the reason I never feel bad when I don’t leave my house all weekend. I guess I should thank you for the excuse.

Have a good weekend, we’ll be back on Monday with the standard recaps.

My apologies for not posting yesterday, but I woke up feeling like I got my ass kicked in a bar last night while shit-faced. My back was preventing me from walking, my head from thinking and my stomach from eating; long story short, it was a tremendously long day for getting out of bed at 1PM. I guess it makes sense given that we referred to a new links post on Tuesday as “long overdue“, given that we were too incapacitated to actually post them yesterday morning. I feel like Walter White minus the cancer and double life, which is to say flat out miserable.

If you weren’t angry enough at the world for already being a smoldering ball of chemicals on a fast track to hell, then I have some bad news for your insufferable perky optimism: Lauren Conrad’s bullshit “novel” could end up being optioned for a film. Which struck me as strange because isn’t her book based on her life, which has already been made into a TV show? Christ, I hope I never have any daughters if this is the consumerism that drives the demographic.

In attractive woman that I still respect news, Gabrielle Union has joined the cast of the upcoming NBC series FlashForward. She’ll play a lawyer with a romantic interest on a show that turns two words into one…On second thought I take back my initial assessment, but she’s still insanely beautiful so it doesn’t really matter.

Here’s a concise synopsis of the AMC party that supposedly took place after they premiered the first episode of Mad Men’s third season. I have to tell you, if I was to attend any circle-jerk Hollywood event it would probably be this one. From what it sounds like everyone is rather amiable and these are without a doubt the two best projects in television or film. Yes, film industry, you’ve officially been surpassed by television in regards to inspiring, original content.

This seems like a good time for me to do my weekly pimping of Breaking Bad, and point you in the direction of the mini-episodes they put out in after their strike shortened first season and before the kick in the balls second. For the most part they’re pretty mundane and aren’t necessarily representative of the greatness of the series, but the mini-episode entitled, “The Break In”, is a real knee-slapper and is emblematic of the dark humor displayed on the series.

Here’s some snippets of the Joan Rivers Roast set to premiere August 9th on Comedy Central (where else has a roast aired in the past 10 years?). I always tune into these for Greg Giraldo, because his career is so ridiculously overlooked that you can always bank on him to be at these things, and he always kills. As does most everyone else given the chance at the podium. And while I don’t tend to like Joan Rivers (entirely too superficial work detail for me to take seriously, I also resent anyone being a harbinger of fashion), she can give as good as she gets.

Speaking of Joan Rivers, she, much like about, say, 50% of the country, takes the legitimacy of Jay Leno’s career quite personally. I don’t understand why this guy is so hard for everyone who hates him to ignore, but it is proving quite daunting. And the fact that Conan is now losing to Letterman on a regular basis seems to only fuel the flames of resentment. We never enjoyed Leno’s comedy either, but it certainly isn’t keeping us up at night.

ESPN’s upcoming documentary series, 30 for 30, has added more directors to its arsenal. I can’t emphasize enough how much I’m looking forward to this. For the uninitiated, under the suggestion from Bill Simmons, ESPN grabbed (or is currently grabbing) 30 filmmakers to put together a small documentary about a pivotal (sometimes obscure, sometimes not) sporting event since their inception in 1979 (that’d be thirty years). You can see the full list of what they have completed so far, personally we’re looking forward to “The Trial of Allen Iverson”, if for no other reason that it feels like we might get a Zapruder-like film out of it.

In its ongoing quest to make mincemeat out of supposed “new king of pay cable ever since Sopranos went off the air” Showtime, Diane Keaton has signed onto her own HBO comedy about a feminist icon. Because we all know how humorous feminists tend to be. I kid, of course, because while this probably isn’t something I’ll watch more than once (I even watched the first three episodes of Carinvale, so I’m probably too easy when it comes to HBO), there is definitely an untapped market for it. And in all likelihood HBO will be true to form, and knock this out of the fucking park.

As you probably heard, Ben Silverman has finally been ousted as NBC’s Entertainment President. This was probably long overdue. Even though I personally watch(ed) more on NBC than any other network for the past five years and counting, the ratings are in the tank, they have way too many series’ open to horrendous reviews and even worse Nielsen’s, not to mention all the desperate attempts at remakes. Sorry, man, but The Office, 30 Rock and FNL will only carry an entire broadcast network so far.

And finally, below is the trailer for the upcoming season of Dexter. We’ve made our feelings quite clear about this show, and the trailer contains much of what we find redundant about it, but I’ll be damned if this series isn’t tailer-made to produce an anticipatory montage, which is probably why they were able to get over three minutes out of it. Most TV spots run roughly under a minute, but most series’ aren’t about a charming sociopath who brutally disembowels and murders other serial killers, because that’s just how he was raised.

Back tomorrow with more links, I imagine.

Just a few quick words on a pretty ordinary Rescue Me. When I describe an episode of Rescue Me as “ordinary”, it’s generally intended to be a comedic episode that falls flat, making it ordinary in the sense that it’s too much like most television and not unique or interesting enough for us to really care about any of it.

For starters, I’m growing tired of Tommy always, no matter how small or large the dilemma/task, always outshining everyone around him. He gets in a fight with his old friend/chief, naturally he clobbers him. Him and his fire crew decide to wager on who can see up Needles’ wife’s dress first, we see both Franco and Kenny fail but he succeeds in spades. And the worst of all he gives his family a lecture at an intervention about the joys of drinking/alcoholism, and manages to convince his entire family short of Maggie, most of whom were practicing sobriety, to do a toast with him at Mikey’s bar.

The first of which we don’t have much of a problem with. Its been established that Tommy is something of a fighter and Needles always has looked a little frumpy (probably why we’ve never really bought the actor in the role). The challenge actually provided some good comedic moments, most notably in the deliberating the terms of the bet and the exchange afterwards, and as much as we hate seeing Tommy outsmart everyone else, at least they were able to work in a good laugh while he’s being given shit detail (we also got a reference to the season two development of him and Janet taking prozac, glad they haven’t forgotten about it).

But the lecture was a tad self-aggrandizing for Gavin, even for this series. I suppose they’re trying to say something about the penchant Gavin’s have for the bottle and the grip alcoholism has on those vulnerable to it, or man’s inability to change himself (there’s only about five other series’ we watch that do this and do it better), but it just came off so clumsily thrown together. I’d like to think that, especially for Mic –since he’s basically been the foundation for Gavin ever since he told the firehouse about him and Sheila back in the first season– it would take more than some bullshit soliloquy from Tommy to put him over the edge (though he’s had his moments).

We’ll see where they take the storyline tonight. Actually, all the Gavin’s sitting in a bar rotting from the inside out at 11am isn’t the worst case scenario for this show. To the contrary I think it involves any relationship Tommy might have with someone of the opposite sex. See below for the gist of every scene Tommy Gavin has with an actress on this show. Judging from the previews next week, it looks like that all the Sheila-Janet build-up comes to a head tonight. I hope my preset notions turn out wrong, but I, for one, am not looking forward to it.

Long overdue links post tomorrow.

It looks like we were wrong about the introduction of a new Botwin child. Not in the broader sense that a newborn has a tendency to ruin a television show, but because of the overwhelming narcissism of all these characters possess, I should have realized that everyone would only worry about how little Stevie Ray effects them, and not really give a shit about his well-being. Some might say Andy was the exception, but he’s only on board with Nancy’s plan because he wants to better position himself to fuck some stuck-up gynecologist. Ooh, you’ve been to Zimbabwe, well allow me to kiss the ring, your highness.

That isn’t to say Andy’s been the bastion of responsibility to any person, male or female, to become romantically involved with. But the dismissal by her and Andy’s reaction to it, were equally shortsighted and crass. Obviously rearing someone else’s child isn’t what Alanis had in mind (is this Big Daddy? Because it feels an awful lot like Big Daddy), Him stepping in too play Mr. Mom isn’t going to endear him to her, not to mention it’s quite a hazardous direction to take with one’s life, but naturally Nancy doesn’t mind.

Of the few comments over on TWoP’s message board*, the consensus seems to be that Nancy is “gutsy” for her protestations with Esteban. And on some level that’s true, but at the same time her life isn’t nearly in as much jeopardy as Andy’s, whose name she volunteered as the father without his consent, and only through some misguided notion of accrued “responsibility” is Andy going along with it. In other words, guess who catches a break once again!

*I love going TWoP, especially immediately after watching what I feel was a particularly great episode of television (like last night’s installment of Weeds, for example). But for whatever reason this is the only show in which I tend to disagree with the majority. Still haven’t been able to figure out why, probably because everyone is so happy to give Nancy a pass on just about everything.

Anyways, while Nancy takes everyone’s life around her into her own hands but will remain unharmed in any tangible way because she’s the unnecessary star of a meandering TV series, Silas and Doug’s attempts to get their marijuana back has hit a rough patch without them even realizing it. Regardless, the fallout from Doug letting Dean slam his cock in a desk drawer is going to be cataclysmic when he discovers that Dean gave a good share (if not all) of his drugs to Celia, who Dean amazingly still has a soft spot for. And when I say “soft spot”, it’s quite obvious he’s either a masochist, pussy, or both. Either way, it’s good to see the writer’s are still somewhat concerned with the pretense that someone should be distributing marijuana on this show.

Other notes from “A Distinctive Horn”:

-I tend to be distracted by the absurdly liberal slant that this series takes on every single issue/conversation, especially because it always seems so oddly random, and plugged into the show just so Jenji Kohan can spout her ideology. But the scene with Andy and the abortion protester was hilarious.

-Also taking place on TWoP’s message board for this show: everyone’s thrilled to death that Lupita is back, some even claiming she “saved” last night’s episode. I don’t mind the character or anything, but what exactly did she say or do that was so gratifying? Lupita’s putting on a wet suit and she’s old. Haha, classic.

-I’d generally regard someone being offended by the ownership of the General Lee as a dealbreaker. Not that I defend the Stars and Bars or ever really watched The Dukes of Hazard, but that car is just fucking bad ass.

-Doug’s candor and willingness to do just about anything to maintain whatever the status quo is at the time continues to be the funniest thing about the series. I don’t think we ever met his wife, but I think that would just ruin the character if we did.

Anyways, the gang’s all back! Or at least all the white one’s and Lupita! At least the gradually put them back into the series instead of rushing everyone out of Agrestic within a couple episodes (I’m looking at you, Nip Tuck). At least it Nancy might have someone to turn too when she’s eventually pressed to be something other than a huge pain in the ass for everyone around her. Maybe that woman “taking care” of Esteban public relations –who the writer’s are being annoyingly ambiguous about her relationship too — is an abomination of the highest order, but at least she isn’t a co-dependent recluse without any sense of responsibility. It’s clear that at least the so-called “Mexicunt” oversees and tries to protect what’s important to her. You can’t really say the same about Nancy these days.

Rescue Me recap later.

Last night’s episode represented the best and worst of what Entourage has ever had to offer. For instance, their was a heavy emphasis on Ari mentoring not only Eric but also Turtle. This speaks to some sort of character development the series has been severely lacking since pretty much the second season. At the same time, however, there are numerous lapses in logic, unnecessarily hurried plot points (ones that in the past have never been touched on again) and a vast array of unbearably awful “comedy” moments and boring “how great are our lives?” extended scenes.

Let’s start with what was enjoyable: Turtle deciding to branch out on his own. They’ve attempted and failed to do this on several occasions (Rufus’ daughter and Saigon being the most notable), who would’ve thought that all it would take to get him properly motivated was set him up with a millionaire actress. Anyways, I would love to see them follow through on this as it would bring a new plot and hopefully derive a broader scope of humor for a series desperately in need of a revival, but there isn’t any reason for me to think this will actually happen.

It also begs the question: why would Turtle all of a sudden feel uncomfortable mooching off of Vince? Because he’s dating Meadow Soprano? If anything you’d think he would consider that liberating. I mean, at least he’d be mooching off someone that would be considered more conventional than a platonic high school friend. Vince doesn’t play in the NBA, after all. I’m also not sure why he’d interpret both his friend and girlfriend getting him a car as “thinking he’s a loser”. In short, there was just so much bewildering about it that I was distracted by the bigger picture: Turtle is finally going to attempt to regain control of his own life. But in the Entourage universe, that has tended to mean they’ll touch on it a couple more times five and nine weeks later before abandoning the plot altogether.

Eric had the other dominant storyline this week, and he too relied on going to Ari for help instead of the three friends who never offer anything constructive, but it seems like he should have been able to keep Charlie on his own series behind the camera if not in front of it. I mean, it was his show that tested so high. One would think that would count for something. Personally I think E should figure out how to get his The Crush-esque love interest off his back. Not that she’s especially annoying or anything, but since she’s clearly lying about her age (as is the actress’s IMDB page), it would be wise to seek some mentoring on that front. Her juvenile descriptions of why she doesn’t like Charlie are just emphasizing her young appearance. It’s also a little ironic, since “I don’t like her” is exactly how I would describe the actresses presence on this show so far. He needs to get back to bedding women like Holly Valance and casting needs to get their shit together.

That was pretty much the bulk of the episode with the only redeeming scenes both involving Jeremy Piven. Kevin Connolly and Jerry Ferrara managed to hold their own, but then they took Ari’s sound advice out into the world, we got Eric’s remarkably weak, “well maybe you’re racist” line delivered to the TV exec; and Turtle’s revelation that he’s taking business courses at UCLA. But no explanation of how he’s finagling his way into a competitive business college, other than Jamie Lynn-Sigler might be willing to donate enough money for his enrollment (that’s just my assumption).

Other notes from this episode with the ridiculous title I refuse to retype:

-I actually think the best scene that encompassed Turtle’s sudden self-consciousness was 50 Cent’s cameo, which was unusually good for any a series that thrives on shitty cameos.

-Is there a specific reason Drama’s lines are written worse and worse and with less efficacy? God, that line about E being too small for anyone to find was brutal.

-It’ll be interesting to see if they keep Charlie in the storyline. For a series that regularly packs too much fluff into its seasons, for them to put emphasis on the “Murphy Group” would be enjoyable, but I doubt it happens.

They didn’t follow up with Ari and Andrew at all (in fact we didn’t even see Andrew), and outside of a couple throwaway remarks we didn’t get any development with Ari and Lloyd. I will say that one theme we enjoyed is Ari appears to be playing an even larger role this season, which is always a step in the right direction. He’s not really what the series is supposed to be predicated on, but keeping the series fresh is the top priority. If he’s going to be a life coach for all four members of the “Entourage” and it’s the best they have to offer, then by all means, it’s better than watching Eric and Turtle bemoan shit that people in their respective positions just do without consultation.

Back tomorrow with Weeds and Rescue Me recaps.

My apologies for starting this so late. It turns out that when you skip work for three days you return with an unusual workload. Who’d've thunk it?

Anyhow, Hung continues to run strong with “The Pickle Jar”. It wasn’t a perfect episode by any means, for instance I’d like some explanation for why Damon is so caught up in the state of Darby’s love life. I’d also like the actors who play Damon and Darby to be completely replaced with different actors, since they’re making Robert Iler look natural on camera.

It seems to be the case, however, that even if a scene or storyline isn’t working, their is always something to redeem it. In this case it would be the chance for Tom Jane to deliver what I think has been the only real laugh out-loud scene of the four episodes to date. As awkward as the drive-in scene was –and again, its awkwardness stems directly from the actors playing the twins (maybe it’s intentional) — Ray breaking up the fight and pronouncing, “You’re about to hit my son when you’re twice as fat as he is” had me in stitches.

And this is how every scene with Jesse, Damon and Darby tends to go for me. For the most part I find it boring and unnecessary, but there will always be some caveat or direction it takes at the last second to make up for the scattered remains that are left from what ended so promising in the previous episode. They beat a dead horse for the first ten minutes, then offer him a salt lick immediately afterwards. If they don’t show more consistency or substantive development, I’m going to stop being fooled by the hope they keep instilling in the final minutes. I’m a bit slower than most, so we’re willing to wait a full season.

But one thing we don’t have to hold out for anymore is Tanya and Ray embracing and beginning to excel at what they do. If there is a god in this fictional world, they will both force Lenore out of the loop and give her clients an ultimatum: us or her. Given how hyperbolic the series is when the topic of Ray’s member/prowess is broached, I imagine they can force most of them out of Lenore’s client base. That’s basically why I’m watching this series still, to see if Lenore experiences any sort of comeuppance for just constantly being an overwhelming bitch with no redeeming qualities.

Speaking of which, Ray finally showed he’s capable of being more than a self-aggrandizing whore with a big cock. He did so mostly by not resenting his kids never-ending shortcomings. They not only possess character flaws, but they are the same types of flaws that he would resent in his formidable years, and when it comes to anything other than child-rearing he seems to use those years to direct his life, which is probably why he’s now hooking.

And also in the closing scene with Molly, who clearly isn’t accustom to such a lifestyle, but he made her comfortable and probably ensured a regular customer as a result. This is after he left because he claimed he was under the weather. I think he was partially being honest but he clearly used it as an excuse because he was uncomfortable sleeping with an overweight, menopausal woman. The look on his face when she answered the door and his studying the clock at the hardware store pretty much summed up his reasons for leaving the first time and going back for a second. But it was still undetermined if he was legitimately sick.

But it appears he’s acclimating well, and the money isn’t hurting things. If she’s paying $600 a visit and uses him once a week, already he’s ensuring $1,800 a month for one customer after giving Tanya her 25%. That’s $21,600 a year, if he has one regular customer for each weeknight he’s clearing $107,400 per year. For roughly 10 working hours a week. I can certainly understand the motivation and probably why the concept of a straight male hooker clearing that kind of scratch is so far-fetched. If his customers found out how much he was netting, they’d probably cut him off out of resentment.

On top of being actually getting the career off the ground, this was also the funniest episode we’ve seen. The aforementioned line too Hammer and the awarding of the pickle jar alone made this funnier than all three previous episodes combined. I still don’t understand why Hung is billed as a comedy, but this was a step in the right direction. And despite contrivances like Lenore running into Jess and the kids at the Salon, just watching the actual business operation and the chemistry between Tom Jane and Jane Adams is worth the half hour on a Sunday night.

Entourage recap later today.

Just a few quick links to close out the short week at Grid Effect. It’s not like it really matters, we never post anything interesting here half the time anyways. Also, since this is a links post let me get this started in the introductory paragraph: Breaking Bad’s second season is available on Amazon online, I highly recommend it after you watch the first season. It may seem like I’m talking abou this series too often these days, but it’s really just making up for lost time. I don’t think there’s anything you can watch on television that’s more worthy of your time than these DVD’s. Unless you take pleasure in watching So You Think You Can Dance, in which case I can’t help you.

Onto the links…

Lie To Me, which is amazingly still on the air, nabbed Erika Christensen for their…next…season? I don’t care enough to read but that has to be the gist of it. Anyhow, if you don’t know who Erika Christensen is it’s probably because you follow current film and television, and she hasn’t been in anything since the blockbuster Swimfan, which took the world  by storm with its acerbic wit and originality…I’m just kidding, it’s a steaming pile of cliched horseshit that shouldn’t have ever been made in the first place. But she did give a promising turn in Traffic, but that was seven or eight years ago. And now she’s in Lie To Me. I think everything’s gone according to plan.

Brooke Burns has landed a role on the apparently vaunted yet detestable and discouraging Melrose Place, because CUPWNB or whatever the network is going by these days is the epitome of class, and Brooke Burns reflects that reputation. She the star of such shows as North Shore and the host of Dog Eat Dog, I think we can all agree she’s earned this. I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to know that this woman will probably make more money in the next calendar year than I will in the next twenty. Really brightens my day. Also landing a role on CW’s remake of a former hit television show? Kelly Carlson. Here she is below doing some of her finer work on Nip Tuck.

I don’t know how many of you watched The Daily Show, and more specifically how many of you watched it on Monday night, but Jon Stewart’s interview with Brian Williams was about the funniest thing I’ve seen on television since The Office went off the air (sorry Weeds, Entourage and every other “dramedy” we may have mentioned along the way). The writer seems to think the conversation was part of some ongoing, unknown riff between the comedian and nightly news host, I think it was just two decent friends (good acquaintances?) breaking balls, or whatever the nomenclature is these days. But I’m just a lowly blogger and Dave Itzkoff writes for the Times. Just go with your gut on this one.

And finally, it looks like AMC is breaking out the big, ineffective guns to boost Mad Men’s third season, much like they did for the second which scored them such paltry ratings that AMC couldn’t find it in their heart to throw the bank at Matthew Weiner. Which is unusual since this is the best and most critically acclaimed series on television. I can sort of understand this, fans of Mad Men can be pretty insufferable. If half the people I know who watch Mad Men had recommended it to me before I bothered to watch it on my own, I’d probably steer clear of it as well, since 90% of the time the first thing they talk about is either style/set design. Both are the best you’ll find in film or television, but a series it does not make. Honestly, give it a rest, average Mad Men fan. I get it, the style is almost impeccably reflective of the era, but it’s a hat/living room/Sunday dress. Nothing more, nothing less. I can find one online and buy it for you, if you promise to shut the hell up about it.

Alright, back on Monday with the current standard recapping schedule.

I wasn’t all that impressed with “Where The Sidewalk Ends” but it seemed like it was five minutes long. Usually when an episode of television seems shortly than it actually is that implies it was entertaining. That could be the case, or I could have just been ecstatic to be away from my office for an hour. Since it felt kind of hollow I’m going to go ahead and pin the seemingly abnormally short length on the latter.

The episode consisted of three parts, essentially: Esteban explaining to Nancy the new circumstances of their arrangement, Nancy convincing Andy to leave and driving to Alanis Morrisette’s office, and Andy convincing Alanis Morrisette to operate on Nancy, despite how impractical it maybe. There was a lot of substance in these three parts, particularly the transfer in the General Lee, but nothing we didn’t already know about the characters.

we need more scenes like this.

We rehashed that Andy is in love with Nancy, she thinks he’s a poor imitation of Judah, and the only way in which he bests his older brother is in still being alive. There isn’t much else to say about the two of them. Other than I hope Justin Kirk eventually leaves, gets his own spinoff and somehow drags Doug Wilson with him. Because Nancy is growing increasingly difficult to sympathize with. Though I loved her retort when Andy wanted reassurance that she might offer a hand-job.

Speaking of which, the Botwin sons are regressing just in time for them to need their mother to bail them out. Shane has no idea what he’s getting himself into asking Celia to bring him in and Silas isn’t nearly as smart as he considers himself to be, being stung by the same employee Doug wanted to fire (for selfish reasons, naturally, not as any sort of precautionary measure). Naturally, we can’t expect anyone on this show to be able to fend for themselves other than Nancy and whoever her dark knight in shining armor happens to be.

In all, we’re interested to see where the baby ends up taking the storyline, but we’re not interested in everyone sharing screen time with him. Babies are, by and large, awful for television shows. They tend to be nothing more than a contrived plot device to keep a show going that should have ended long before he/she was popped out of the womb. This isn’t always the case, naturally. Its worked well for Friday Night Lights (though the second season when the baby was introduced was unquestionably their worst). But that is a series that offers much more of an ensemble than Weeds. My guess is that baby is going to be the centerpiece for just about every topic of conversation next Monday.

Needless to say, we’re not looking forward to that aspect of it.

Links tomorrow.

A couple quick notes before we get to the recap: we have yet to watch Weeds but plan to on our lunch break and hopefully finish the recap of their latest installment before I leave work today. Also, we have a sibling getting hitched on Friday, so after two posts today and a links post tomorrow morning, we’re done for the week. Sorry, but family obligations take precedence, at least in this situation.

Not a terrible episode last week but certainly not their best effort. I have to wonder if Tolan and Leary think some of the stunts they pull are unpredictable, because there are a couple instances at work that anyone who regularly watches the series could unfold before they conclude(d), as a lot of what they do on this series seems foretold. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. On my new favorite series, Breaking Bad, they literally show you a  wordless clip from a scene that airs later in the episode. And it still manages to be quite effective.

To summarize, if anyone didn’t think Damien wasn’t going to be forced to clean up the “spic ‘n span” or that Tommy’s over-protectionism of Damien by way of Sheila wasn’t going to prove detrimental to everyone around him, then you probably shouldn’t leave the house without a helmet on. I wouldn’t mind so much but it seems like the writers want these moments to be the unexpected twists and turns of bringing in a new firefighter that’s already so close to the crew.

Either way, I like the additional presence in the house, and everything building up to them trashing the kitchen basically epitomized what people initially liked about the series: firehouse camaraderie. All of the main cast in the house simultaneously offering conjecture and opinion on the same topic. We so rarely see such scenes these days.

These scenes are few and far between these days.

What else happened in last week’s episode? Franco still fretting over his girlfriend’s sexuality. I’m still convinced she’s going to end up leaving him for a woman just to put him in an incredibly vulnerable state and will lead to him either getting knocked out in his next fight or it will motivate him to win whatever tournament there is. Either way, I’m kind of tired of how one-note this storyline has been. Again, it seems pretty obvious which direction it is heading in, so just hurry the fuck up with it.

Other notes from “Initiation”:

-Much like everyone, I loved Garrity’s explanation of his newfound perspective, something he had obviously given a lot of thought…which he caps off by lighting a cigarette.

-Steve Pasquale has a few good moments last week, another one being his final scene with his mom when she admitted she loved Terrance more than him after his false honesty. As much as I like Leary on this show, I think Pasquale is the best comedic actor, while Leary is the actual comedian.

-Speaking of camaraderie, Mikey’s finally coming into his own, first with knocking Tommy on his ass a few weeks ago, and last week with razzing Franco about his girlfriend in response to taking shit from everyone about his band. It wasn’t particularly articulate, but it was a spirited defense that pushed all the right buttons with Franco, who is oddly defensive anytime someone questions him.

-At least they’re now speeding up their sex scenes in semi-tributes to A Clockwork Orange, instead of giving us some drawn out encounter that always ends one of two ways: with Tommy being congratulated for a job well done or a punchline that falls flat. I appreciate the fast-forwarding, but can’t we just skip to them being finished and Jimmy forcing Tommy into a cuddling session?

Good episode, nothing spectacular and almost completely forgettable (is it obvious we haven’t watched this since last Tuesday and didn’t take any notes on it?). We’d like to see them get back to working with the cancer kids, but really we feel like 22 episodes is just too many for a Rescue Me season. Right now we’re waiting for it to end so we can quit writing about it, and the only reason we’re being so persistent is based on the strength of the first six or seven episodes. But it seems they’ve backed away from that weighty material and are delving into something only semi-related.

Weeds recap after lunch.

They’re going to have to knock it the fuck off with these episode titles if they want me to keep recapping their show. I’d be on board with if their was ever a significant reason for two separate not-sequitur titles, but there isn’t. For two episodes its just been two, unrelated quotes that the only thing in common with them is they happen to reside in the same episode. This week Ray describes his relationship with Tanya as “strange friends” and Ray giving his neighbors lyric cookies, one of which has a lyric inside the says “the truth is, you’re sexy”, that the wife is obviously going to misconstrue.

But still, we thought this was another successful effort from Hung, despite the absurd episode title(s). It’s building much in the same way that Breaking Bad* did, in that just learning the tricks of the trade dominates the story while they react to the fallout from their ill-preparation. That fallout isn’t nearly as perilous on Hung as it is on Breaking Bad, but it’s the main source of comedy, and since this series bills itself as such, its fitting. But I think they’d be better off labeling it a dramedy of sorts, because as much as I enjoy Hung I don’t really laugh that much when I’m watching it.

So the struggle continues, they finally get Ray’s wallet back from Lenore after numerous avoidances and bold-faced lies from her. What I can’t understand is why she took $400 off his card if she’s as wealthy as she presents herself to be. I mean, it’s $400 and seems to mean a lot less to her than it does to Ray or Tanya. I know she’s supposed to be vile, but a thief, liar and con-artist seem to preclude any chance of redemption, despite what she may look like. And I tend to be especially shallow.

I think it’s time we started to see a little evolution from Tanya, as well. This is three episodes in a row of her beating around the bush, timidly approaching everyone she interacts with. What makes her and Ray so great on camera together is she’s considerably more forthcoming with him and he always has a response for her new wave arguments and lifestyle. I’d like to see more of that personality inflicted on the rest of the world, including her date with overly pretentious yet clueless Floyd. Not that Floyd’s necessarily a bad guy, right now he seems like the furthest thing from it. But if he has ulterior motives its not really going to surprise anyone, and Tanya seems to recognize how full of shit he could be but elects to ignore it.

The trials and tribulations of Jessica and the twins still aren’t matching that of Ray and Tanya, and usually the second they come on screen I’m waiting breathlessly for them to leave it. We will say that we did like the decision to purchase the rescue dog and their subsequent shared awkward moment over it. Jessica seemed like she had some good will coming her way, even if we still find her pretty loathsome. Who would have thought that the second you show your kids you have something to offer other than doting after them, they will immediately respect you more. Life’s funny like that sometimes.

The show continues to impress when Tanya is on screen with Ray, and it seems Ray is the only character whose definitively compelling in every scene he’s in and manages to be likable in spite of his many, many vices and flaws. I like the move to repair the house by himself. He started out the series lamenting the changes in the country that would have his parents rolling over in their graves, I’m pretty sure one of the principals these dead paternal figures would live by is self-reliance, and nothing is symbolizes that more than rebuilding your own home.

Rescue Me and Weeds recaps later today.

*We gave in and bought the first six episodes of Breaking Bad’s second season on Amazon because I can’t stand not wasting my money, and it’s easily the best series on television right now with the exception of Mad Men. Just un-fucking believable television and significantly better than Hung, which we obviously enjoy.

Well, this was an improvement but it simply isn’t great (or even all that good) television. Not that I’m expecting it to be, at least their was some new material here with Andrew and Ari, but every scene with Mrs. Ari (just give her a first fucking name already) and Andrew’s wife were cringe-worthy. Not to be all oddly feminist or anything but you can always tell when a writer’s room is overloaded with men when scenes like the one with them drinking after a “mani-pedi” are produced from them.

As usual, though, the best material came from Miller-Gold and not the Vince Chase camp. The notion of fraternizing with underlings has always been joked about on this show but never broached, and some sort of conflict regarding Andrew was inevitable since he’s getting so much camera time, I just happened to guess wrong as to what it would be. Also, expect to see Lizzie (do 26 year-old aspiring agents working for powerful Hollywood agencies often refer to themselves as “Lizzie”) having a more prominent role in upcoming episodes, as she’s played by Autumn Reeser, who is supposedly someone people have heard of before.

But from “the boys” side of things, I’m just not that interested unless it involves work in some capacity. I like looking at Emmanuele Chirqui, but I couldn’t care less about Sloane and Eric’s relationship. Vince’s love life is back to being superfluous, just like it should be and Drama was especially douche-y last night (though I liked Kevin Connolly’s take to Drama’s date inviting him for a threesome).

If this show is going to start to focus so heavily on their relationships, about the only one redeemable at the moment is Jamie-Lynn and Turtle, and I’m pretty fucking certain that’s only because the two actors are also dating (it doesn’t hurt that Jerry Ferrara is arguably the best actor of the four of them and Turtle is easily the least developed character). Am I alone in this or there actually people who care what’s exchanged between Eric and Sloane? I guess if the alternative is Eric dating his thirteen year-old neighbor, then yes, I care quite a bit.

Honestly, who made that casting decision? Did they think it would go unnoticed if they paired Eric off with the girl from Boy Meets World? There are things about this series that are simply bewildering at times, and this is one of them.

I get the feeling that’s going to be the dominant theme this season, seeing as how everyone’s career is oh so successful at the moment, all we have on our plate is the respective love lives of the entourage and Ari’s reaction to whatever transpires with Andrew and Lloyd at Miller Gold. Which isn’t terrible television, but its not all that inspired either, specifically since we know that none of this will permanently afflict our core cast of characters. If the show was funnier, then we could forgive it, but it’s rarely as funny as it thinks it is, so we need some more substance, writers.

Hung recap later.

A couple follow-up notes to my hurried yet entirely too long Emmys post yesterday before we get to some fairly paltry links. First, it didn’t really shock us, but I find it hard to believe that any group of people could sit down, watch something like Friday Night Lights and follow it up with something like, say…Burn Notice, or Saving Grace, and tell you honestly that the latter two were better than the former. I just can’t comprehend it. Secondly, Family Guy? Why have seven nominations if we’re delving into this territory. Its not going to win. Is it? No, it has to go to 30 Rock because of all the writing nominations.

On the heels of the news they’re releasing their first animated series, FX announces plans to develop a sitcom revolving around a fantasy football league. We’re obviously going to watch this given our proclivity for fantasy football, and our opinion of it going in would be considerably diminished if it was on any other network (save for AMC and HBO); but still: a comedy about a fantasy football league? Did I come up with this when I was 20? Either way, it looks like they’re coupling it It’s Always Sunny, so if it takes on the same crass tone we have higher hopes. But it sounds kind of hackneyed, like something we’d see on ESPN following Playmakers. Guess ESPN films was slow to the draw on this one.

Kristen Bell has asked to make a cameo on Gossip Girl. I think of all the shows and actors and actresses I don’t care about, I probably talk about Kristen Bell the most. But this is particularly unique because I don’t think I’ve ever posted about Gossip Girl or anything related to the CW or  or UPN or WB or whatever that network is called these days. Such is the power of the opportunity to hunt for Kristen Bell photos/youtube videos. What?

The ESPY’s were taped last night, and I’m not sure if this is something that anyone has ever cared about but it does seemed to have increased in noteriety. That fact, to me, epitomizes to me what’s wrong with celebrity obsession and entertainment these days. The American public, by and large used to scoff at these types of events (Emmys and Oscars always have and always will draw a crowd), but now they make headlines and people pay attention to the red carpet non-antics of the  fucking ESPY’s!

Here’s an article out of Vanity Fair asking if Americans are stupid enough to elect reality TV stars. I’m going to say that in 99% of cases, being on a reality TV de-qualifies you from ever running for office. But at the same time, there isn’t anything inherent about reality television that makes it this the case, it’s what networks do with it. The article makes the mistake of conflating Randall Pinkett, some guy who won The Apprentice, with every reality star gracing our airwaves. I think there’s a far cry from Pinkett –who’s a Rhodes Scholar and has a rap sheet of professional experience– and the fifth place finisher on I Love New York or New York herself (I can’t begin to tell you how frightened I am to know “New York” is some skank’s handle and not a reference to the city or state). Not that The Apprentice is a noble endeavor, but it used to require that participants had real world practice, whereas your standard cable reality show seeks people who have as little as possible.

And finally, I haven’t touched on the Jon & Kate saga too much, because it’s so remarkably uninteresting (romantic partners squabbling! What a unique concept!), but this article speculates on whether or not Jon’s new girlfriend is using him for his fame. Whoa, whoa, whoa; hold on, you’re telling me that everything every woman does isn’t completely wholesome and absent of malice, and that includes women who surround themselves with reality TV stars? My world is sufficiently rocked. You take it back Us Magazine! You take it the fuck back!

Probably some more links later in the day.

So it appears the Emmy nominations came out today, and although we couldn’t care less about any of this shit, we are writing a TV blog so there’s a sense of obligation to pay attention to it. One highlight we noticed — and it’s only because his magnum opus was so absurdly overlooked by the Emmys — was David Simon’s adaptation of the Evan Wright novel, Generation Kill snagging eleven nominations. I would love it if he didn’t even bother showing up, but as noteworthy as he is for being irritable, I doubt he’s that big of a prick. Even though he should be.

With that said, let’s rundown the nominees for the best acting, best writing and best comedy and drama series’, because there isn’t much else that’s been transpiring for the past 27 hours. If you want to see the full list because we’re being nothing if not non-comprehensive, go here.

Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series
Lost “The Incident”
Mad Men “A Night To Remember”
Mad Men “Six Month Leave”
Mad Men “The Jet Set”
Mad Men “Meditations In An Emergency”

Looks like Mad Men is officially the new Sopranos. While I appreciate the fact that it’s garnering so much attention, I can’t stand the fact that everything else is overlooked at it’s expense. I’m about two episodes into the second season of Breaking Bad, and I can all but guarantee that it’s being overlooked in some capacity. Same with Friday Night Lights and BSG (though the few episodes I’ve seen always did strike me as heavy-handed. Anyways, I liked all these Mad Men episodes, but I can’t believe “The Mountain King” wasn’t among the nominees. Of those I’m probably taking “Meditations In An Emergency” to win in a landslide, but “Six Month Leave” would be our selection.

Outstanding Writing For A Comedy Series
Flight of The Conchords, “Prime Minister”
30 Rock, “Reunion”
30 Rock, “Apollo, Apollo”
30 Rock “Mama Mia”
30 Rock “Kidney Now”

And it looks like 30 Rock is the new Friends (with the small caveat of actually being good). My reaction to this was pretty much the same as it was to Mad Men, except there was so much more competition in this field. No nominations for The Office or Life and Times of Tim or South Park or Weeds? Anyhow, amongst the choices I’d go with “Reunion”, but again, I’m amazed that “The Natural Order” isn’t nominated. You nominate a fifth of a season for writing awards and you don’t even get the right fifth.

Best Actor in A Drama Series
Simon Baker, The Mentalist
Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Michael C. Hall, Dexter
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Hugh Laurie, House

Sorry Jon Hamm and Michael C. Hall, Bryan Cranston deserves back-to-back wins for this. One of your characters comes down with cancer or starts dealing heavy narcotics, then we’ll talk. But right now Cranston absolutely carries an already great series (whereas Hall carries a mediocre one and Hamm is great but the ensemble is just as impressive).

Best Actress in A Drama Series
Glenn Close, Damages
Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: SVU
Holly Hunter, Saving Grace
Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

You probably won’t go wrong with Close or Sedgwick, but Moss should win this in a landslide. Whatever, if Sally Field wins this award again we might start a petition to get that series — a series we didn’t realize was still on the air until just this second– off the air, if for no other reason than in the eyes of this site, ABC should have lost the right to still create original programming fifteen years ago.

Best Actor in A Comedy Series
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Steve Carell, The Office
Jemaine Clement, Flight of th Conchords
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory
Tony Shalhoub, Monk
Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men

Do the nominees ever change for this category. Sure, we have Jemaine Clement and Jim Parsons bringing in some new blood, but how many times have Sheen, Shalhoub, Carell and Baldwin been nominated? I guess the bright side is the last two were deserved. Anyways, Carell should win for all the range Carell showed with Michael Scott’s extremely reluctant growth, but I think we all know Baldwin is taking this home.

Best Actress in A Comedy Series
Christina Applegate, Samantha Who?
Toni Collette, United States of Tara
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The New Adventures of Old Christine
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds
Sarah Silverman, The Sarah Silverman Program

I’m not so certain that half of these aren’t really comedy roles (Parker, Collette and Applegate specifically). With that out of the way, I’m probably giving it to Fey and for the first time since we’ve been writing this, we agree with Emmy voters.

Best Comedy Series
Entourage
Family Guy
Flight of the Conchords
How I Met Your Mother
The Office
30 Rock
Weeds

Tough field, though I don’t know how they justify giving it to anyone other than 30 Rock. Great comedy stems from great writing, and when four out of the five nominees are for one show and from the same committee that’s determining the best writing category, it seems pretty self-explanatory. I’d obviously go with The Office, since I know it’s a pipe dream for It’s Always Sunny to ever be nominated for anything other than a Spike TV award (or whatever that shit is called).

Best Drama Series
Big Love
Breaking Bad
Damages
Dexter
House
Lost
Mad Men

As much as we love Breaking Bad, our pick is still Mad Men. It wouldn’t surprise me if they made an exception in this case and gave it to Lost, simply because it’s on a network and infinitely more people want to see it win, which I’m sure might endure the masses to the broadcast. Still disappointing that FNL can’t get any love, but I really shouldn’t be surprised.

We didn’t want to get into supporting acting, guest acting or variety categories because this shit is already being given about six hundred more words than it deserves, but there was plenty more to like and dislike (easier to read list of nominees here). Specifically, I thought the supporting actor and actress nominees for comedy made a lot of sense, but the same can’t be said for the supporting actress nominees for drama. How do January Jones and Christina Hendricks get snubbed here? How? What are they seeing that I’m not or vice versa?

Also, while Generation Kill did receive eleven nominations, none of them were for acting. I’m guessing the voters had difficultly telling the characters apart, but Alexander Skarsgard (whom you can now see in True Blood as something named Eric Northman), James Ransone, Lee Tergerson and Brian Wade were all pretty remarkable with the time they were given.

If we had any complaints, along with The Shield getting snubbed those were probably the three most notable. But for an awards show that saw five seasons of The Wire and only nominated it twice for writing Emmys, it has obviously invalidated itself. I hope they enjoy the swag of whatever it’s called from the networks and advertisers, maybe some day these meaningless awards will have some legitimacy to them.

Back later with some links.

No television to recap and that’s kind of a good thing. For how irregularly we post on this site yesterday was a fucking marathon. Here are a few links, because we have nothing else to write about. Sorry, we didn’t watch Rescue Me last night, I was too busy losing another basketball game. We only lost by fourteen this time, that’s a considerable improvement over the 98-54 drubbing from the week before. Seriously, we’re like the fucking Bad News Bears out there. That’s probably why I’m mailing it in today, I’m fucking depressed that a fourteen point loss is a good news.

For all you hopeless romantics out there, I have some bad news: David Alan Grier is getting divorced. I would make a “if these kids can’t make it, what hope is there for the rest of us” joke, but honestly,  if the star of Little Man can’t hold a marriage together, we might as well all just give up. What a tragic day this was when it broke last Thursday. I almost feel like I knew about it at the time.

Some endeavors weren't as successful as others.

Well, if nothing else, HBO’s upcoming Jack Kevorkian biopic is going to have as strong of a cast as any HBO original in ever made: first Al Pacino and now Susan Sarandon and John Goodman. Sarandon’s a good actress but her and her non-husbands reactionary politics drive me fucking crazy. Goodman, on the other hand, is probably one of my favorite character actors around. Ever since Dan Connor and Walter Sobchak he gets a pass for life. And if you don’t know who those characters are, then we can’t be friends.

Richard Hatch’s request to be let out of prison in time for another Survivor reunion has been denied. How long was his sentence? Is this starting to seem excessive to anyone else? For the time he got he might as well have tried to rob a bank. Maybe since I never saw what a prick he was in the two season’s he’s already competed in I want to see him out of prison. It seems like anyone would since it’s, you know, a game show. But some people apparently become incensed by these things.

Take a good look, because it's the last time she'll be on this site for awhile.

It’s amazing and refreshing to see how open Friday Night Lights is with their “spoilers”. Here you can read descriptions and motives of four new characters for the upcoming fourth season that wasn’t supposed to ever take place. To be honest, I hate how these descriptions read, but I generally hate reading anything sincere, so don’t listen to my interpretation of it. I’m embarrassed enough that I enjoy watching the show.

Reason number 523,476 I can’t stand what American television is slowly devolving into: tourists in LA are going in droves to reality television locales. I don’t care if it’s because they’re with kids who want to see where The Hills stars hang out or if they know people on any of these shows or if they’re drooling morons, I can’t think of a single solitary reason to regard anything described in that article as being an attraction to someone on vacation. For fuck’s sake, hit up Hermosa beach or go to a sporting event or any of the plethora of options there are for someone visiting LA.

FX picked up prime time animated series Archer, which is basically satire on the world a James Bond inhabits (trailer here). FX continues to be the best basic cable network for original programming in terms of quality, availability and options. AMC’s series’ are better, but with only two of them in rotation it’s hard not to give the nod to FX.

And finally, despite what I may think about True Blood and the Entourage season premiere, it looks like HBO is back on top of the original programming world (note: it isn’t basic cable), at least in terms of ratings. I’m not sure if its quite surpassed Showtime in quality (we still like Weeds and as stated ad nauseum before, Dexter is incredibly flawed but has some great energy and uniqueness), , I think we might have to wait until Curb returns and Treme premieres, but at least they’re in the conversation.

Back tomorrow, probably with more links.

This was a pretty self-contained episode. Outside of Sean mistakenly believing that all would be forgiven if he admitted he’d been skimming from the top at the bar now that he’s recovered from cancer, I don’t see anything else really holding court for a few episodes. Also, Lieu is clearly about to get burned by Candy again and he seems completely unaware to consider the possibility.

At least I hope that’s not where it’s going. Lieu isn’t an idiot and he wouldn’t let that happen to himself twice. Once was enough to sit through. But the whole idea of “waiting” but doing every single imaginable domestic chore strikes me as a bit off for a former scam artist, and a little too ideal for what someone like Lieu would seek in a woman. Maybe I’m being too cynical about it, but considering this series’ track record with women, I don’t know if I see it ending positively. Who knows, this could be the one instance they allow someone in the house more than temporary joy.

The “is she or isn’t she” storyline with Carla could grow tiresome pretty fast, but for right now it’s providing some decent material. My guess is he’ll eventually confront her, she’ll admit to being bisexual, he’ll act at least mildly incensed by it and she’ll take it personally. When he finally asks her to forgive him which will probably be at her doorstep in the middle of the night, she’ll open the door a little wider to reveal a half-naked woman is also in the apartment. And then he’ll lose his next fight.

Maybe it won’t pan out exactly like that, but much like with Lieu’s thing, there are only so many ways you can make everyone in the firehouse resent the opposite sex, and this seems like one that would work on Franco, as he seems to pride his virility over everything else.

I like Damien in the firehouse, with Sheila constantly harping over Tommy to protect him, how long before he loses a limb? They could have Tommy learn something from Connor’s death, and he’ll be insistent about adequate protection (like some might argue he wasn’t with the bike helmet); but that wouldn’t incite Tommy to take a blow torch to his leg.

I did like the final scene last Tuesday, with the cancer kids and the trucks and whatnot. It was a nice follow-up to the final scene from the week before (linked above). Sure, it was a bit emotionally manipulative and predictable (insufferable cancer kids, I’m so conflicted!), but scenes like the one with Tommy and Lieu trying to provide encouragement for the Problem Child knock-off made it worthwhile. It’s also good to see a reminder that for as flawed as all of these people are, they usually strive to be decent. It’s evidenced in efforts like this one.

Other than that, I look forward to seeing how they handle the fallout from Sean stealing all that money, and still needing more on top of it. I am kind of confused as to why they’d be strapped for cash and not even realize it, I suppose that’s why Sean called them all morons; which was a nice flashback to Franco’s photographer girlfriend’s mentally-challenged brother calling Sean a retard.

Anyways, pretty mediocre installment. Unless something substantive happens from all the ongoing storylines that tie into Genevieve’s visit from the earlier episodes this season, we’re going to feel like it’s another season of seemingly random events strung together for the sake of selling products on a small cable network, and it does seem to be running out of steam. The good news is there’s only eight episodes left.