Grid Effect

That’s a wrap for the fourth season on Nip Tuck, and I am really not sure what to say about it. Nothing all that spectacular happened, and maybe that is why I enjoyed more so than in recent weeks.

I still believe this series has “jumped the shark”, as they say (I am not going to be able to look myself in the mirror after using that phrase), and I am not confident I will tune into the fifth season. Hopefully my habitual impulses have some limitations. Never the less, it was nice to see an episode with an acceptable amount of egregious behavior. Considering they fed an organ dealer to an alligator, it should give you some indication where we are with this series.

It was really hard too watch last nights episode and consider it a finale, because the majority of the major plot points left with Julia a little under a month ago in the now infamous future episode. And I guess that explains why I am disinterested in this series, the writers seem like they are making up the season as they go with no real direction. Sean and Christian are fighting, then Julia and Sean go at it, then Christian and Kimber, the Matt and Christian etc. And they are constantly bringing in new characters yet ending their arc in the middle of a season, there is never any continuation (with the exception of Escobar, who is now dead).

Their is an exceptionally bad movie called Reindeer Games with Charlize Theron, Ben Affleck and Gary Sinise. And in the climactic scene, everything we knew turns out to be a lie, as seemingly every character we we’re introduced comes walking around the corner to admit they were in on this elaborate casino heist. We knew is that Ben Afflecks character was basically decent, that was the only constant variable. This is essentially what every episode of Nip Tuck this season was.

First we think Michelle is simply a trophy wife, then she is a prostitute, then she is an organ thief (ditto for James The Woman). Then we have Escobar, first he is an international drug dealer, then Bob was his prag in prison, then he is actually an organ thief and by the time we know he is married, his wife is shooting him in the head. We could do this for Bert, Marlo, (even Sean to some extent) at a certain point every character has so much history that it becomes difficult to suspend disbelief. The only constant truths in Nip Tuck are Sean and Christian are our protagonists, and while they may do some things the audience detests, for better or for worse, we ultimately root for them and everyone else is sort of cannon fodder.

This finale, was entirely too convenient for me, the only lingering question afterwards is will Matt ever eventually break up with Kimber (my guess is he will and she will fight tooth and nail for a cut of that check Sean gave him)? And who else is going to follow Sean and Christian out to LA? Seeing as how no one else has any livelihood outside of the two of them makes the scenario pretty likely. Even still I was kind of hoping Christian would stay in Miami, which brings us to the last twenty minutes of the season.

Like I said earlier, the episode was way too accommodating. Christian and Michelle went from happily married to separated and on opposite sides of the country in ten minutes. Sean went from content at a less lucrative position too opening up a new independent practice with Sean, and all of this happened over a musical montage that panned from character to character mouthing the lyrics to the soundtrack. Also, the last scene with Sean and Christian leaning up against the “HOLLYWOOD” sign was beyond lame. Clearly Julian McMahon and Dylan Walsh both took courses at The David Caruso School of Mannerisms.

All in all, my expectations were not that high for Nip Tuck coming into this season. Will I continue to watch next season? Probably. Mainly because I have no will power, but partly because the new locale can only improve what has turned interesting characters tiresome and made original storytelling redundant.

Until next time.

Not a lot of new territory from “It’s Different For Girls”, yesterday’s episode of Friday Night Lights. We get some more Julie/Matt/Taylor/Tami awkwardness, particularly for Matt, who can only manage to complicate his life moreso with this pursued love interest. A lot of Lyla being harassed in school but a bulk majority of the harassment seems to be at the hands of a fellow cheerleader. Jason is in the best spirits he could possibly be in and is affable with his neighbors, his parents and anyone not named Lyla Garrity or Tim Riggins, really.

On the other hand, we are introduced to one new character, a preachers daughter who serves as Smash’s new love interest. The two are also acquaintances, I imagine from Gatlin She apparently has a litany of secrets she is hiding, as everytime anything discrete is mentioned she either shy’s away, changes the subject or makes a peculiar facial expression. The most intriguing of the secrets involves an alleged trip to Africa, which is really intriguing if she actually went there (It’s hard to tell given her reluctance to talk about it), you ever seen The Constant Gardener?

Two refreshing changes came about from her introduction last night: One, someone finally called out Smash on how conceited it is to constantly refer to himself in the third person. Two, a potential counterbalance to Smash’s hysterics, as she seems very levelheaded. The latter is appealing to me because the Smash persona is bordering on cliche at this point, not necessarily the actual conflicted, behind closed doors Smash, that’s a great character.

On the football side of things, Smash is being complimented on his forty time by Taylor and the offensive coordinator. Only problem is, the improved forty time is accompanied by a nosebleed, multiple nosebleeds in fact. He actually sustains one on a date/outing at the minature golf course with the ministers daughter. She actually suggests that the money he got from the church was not for SAT courses, because she wants to be pre-med, and wanting to be pre-med in high school means you are privy to all the side-effects of steroid use.

The Julie-Matt-Coach Taylor/Julie’s Dad conundrum is a little more combative this week. I am not sure if it was derived from that exceedingly awkward kiss at the end of the Gatlin game, but jesus would it be pathetic if it was. Anyhow, Taylor catches his team engaging in the standard locker room talk only this time it is directed at his daughter. Essentially, Smash baits Matt into a “I’ll tag the Minister’s daughter before you do the same with Julie”, but he refers to the female genatalia in question as a V-chip. So it is tawdry, vulgar and exactly what Taylor has heard about dozens of other girls in his locker room, but just not about his daughter.

Of course, Matt “holier than thou” Saracen says nothing of the sort, but just his association with it has Taylor in overly-protective mode. Obviously Taylor wasn’t there to overhear Matt’s dumbfounded reply to Smash’s, “Saceran hasn’t been down south since he was with his mom on his first birthday” comment with, “My mom lives in Oklahoma”. Nicely done. Not only did the writers convey Matt is more clueless than we initially believed, it also answer the question as to where his mom is.

Anyhow, this is followed by a series of inimidating bravado from Taylor towards Matt, followed by him giving Matt an extensive amount of research to do over the weekend, in order to put a wedge in between his daughter and his quarterback. Needless to say, it doesn’t work as the calculating move motivates Julie to take an interest in game preparation.

Onto the upperclass men, Lyla is continually harassed by random students, but a nasty piece of work named Brittany (also a cheerleader) seems to be leading the helm. Lyla’s locker is spraypainted with such deragatory remarks as “slut” and “whore”, when they practice routines or whatever they’re called, Lyla is subject to multiple catty remarks that actually interfere with practice. She quits, then at the Riggins insistence shows up at their competition at the last minute. The whole scene is very “after-school special”, which a show like this always teeters on the brink of being.

At this point the entire school is now well informed about the Riggins-Lyla torridness. While Riggins is relatively unaffected, Lyla is berated with insults and unwelcomed advances from classmates. Hence the title, though Riggins did get punched out by his best friend and his car beaten to shit by the offensive line, Lyla’s perscution certainly has more longevity. Tami references The Scarlet Letter in describing the lunchroom scene, and its pretty apt.

Street’s parents have him talk to a lawyer who works solely for comission about potentially suing the school. When he asks frivolous questions about Taylor’s coaching procedure that no one could feasibly adhere to, Street agressively retorts that he doesn’t want Taylor bearing any penalty, legal or otherwise. Which kind of shows his naivete, because how could the school be culpable and not the immediate authority on the football field? I don’t know either.

Jason is still unable to forgive either of them, and rightfully so. He actually returned last night to a handicap accessible home. Raced their neighbor’s son on his bike and repeatedly turned down advances from Lyla, even after Tim spoke on her behalf. He even admits towards the end of the episode that he wants to take her back, but can’t allow himself to do so. At this point I was hopeful the writers would not get them back together.

In the closing scene we see Lyla do her routine at the competition in slo-mo, with everyone in attendance including her family, Riggins and Street. So much for my initial optimism.

Other notes:

-No Herc this episode, I hope they bring him back as someone who can actually relate to what Street is going through.

-At the Cheerleader competition/showcase, they were playing that awful “Man Eater” song by Nelly Furtado. While I am obviously not a fan, I like the upkeep by the music coordinator, as this song is a fairly new single.

-While on their date, Julie and Matt watched The Office her living room. Nice self-promotion on the behalf of NBC, I don’t mind product placement if it’s for things I enjoy.

All in all, a fairly ho-hum episode, it really just felt like they were going through the motions with no real advancement in plot. Everything outside of the Smash storyline was fairly uneventful or engaging, still not complaining though. It is definitely a much more enjoyable hour than the one I spent watching the season finale of Nip Tuck last night. Which I’ll be recapping later.

The season finale of The Wire entitled “Final Grades”, wrapped up its fourth season much like 1-3 before it: with a musical montage. And while this is usually a cheap tactic utilized by writers and producers alike to compensate for unoriginal storytelling, it is necessary for this series, there is simply no other solution to conclude all of the different plot lines that have developed over the past twelve episodes. I have a hard time determining if I am not good enough to watch this series or if it is actively making me a better person.

As expected, we saw the fate of the four boys we have come to understand at great depth unfold. And as The Wire is prone to do, by seasons end everyone is essentially cannon fodder for various revolving door institutions, “pons”, if you will.

Is there any chance Randy, Dukie or Michael can make it out of their impoverished misfortune? Not likely. Lets start with Dukie, his crack addled family is evicted from their apartment and all of their belongings are thrown out on the curb. They abandon him, he decides not too follow them to whatever slum-hole they opt to inhabit next. The dysfunctional school system forces him into high school despite Prez’s best efforts to halt the situation, this after Dukie has finally settled into this environment. Hell, any environment. Because of the mounting pressure, Dukie drops out and goes to work on the corner, most likely because he is living with Michael and feels a debt of gratitude too him. Does he have any chance of living a long, normal life? Well, he has no family, he is not attending school, he lives with an emerging sociopath and is now peddling drugs. Odds are probably slim to none.

Michael, the natural leader of the group, has now murdered a kid in cold blood, been handed a corner too run, invited Chris, Snoop and Marlo into his house and now his photo is up on the MCU drug hierarchy board alongside every other violent criminal we have seen in this series. What was astounding about that photo is how Michael looked no different from the Weebey’s, the Bird’s, the Monk’s we are accustom to seeing MCU target. As little as a few months ago Michael was leading the rival club into an attack of urine filled water balloons, now he is on speaking terms with the creepiest character I have ever seen on television. His transformation has been uncanny.

Randy, well, the sequence of events that had to take place for Randy to be sent back to the group home is frankly remarkable. To think this all started with a jilted girl falsely accusing two of her classmates of rape. One would think coming into this series, that if any of the four was likely to escape the societal ills of west Baltimore, it would have been Randy. He had a caring foster mother, he was resourceful, intelligent and goal-oriented. Every time I sit down too watch The Wire, I am reminded of the opening line of Match Point: “The man who said he would rather be lucky than good, saw deeply into life”. This couldn’t be more true for Randy Wagstaff, who was continuously caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Even despite all of his misfortune, after Carver did everything, literally everything he could so Randy could avoid readmitting into the group home up to and including offering to take adopt Randy himself, Randy said acknowledged Carver’s efforts and thanked him for trying. Unreal. He thanks the guy whom he feels is responsible for ruining his life. The last we see of Randy is him getting beat down by several of his roommates for being a snitch.

Randy probably has the best chance between the three of making it out, because Ms. Anna could either take him back in if she can heal properly or if Carver stays committed and goes through the process of legally adopting him, his chances readily increase. It will be interesting if Carver does stay true too his word. If we are judging by his reaction in his car, he definitely will, but my guess is in a matter of weeks Randy will be an afterthought for Carver, despite how he feels now.

And finally, there is Nemond, the one who was fortunate enough to find someone go the extra mile for him, and that someone is Bunny Colvin. In probably the most noble gesture in the history of The Wire, Bunny set up a meeting with Weebey in prison through Carver and Cutty, and convinced Weebey, the quintessential thug, that his son was not meant for the corner life. This incredibly eloquent scene resulted in two satisfying occurrences: Nemond, despite all of his shortcomings, got out of the game. And it resulted in Weebey coming too terms with how fraudulent his life has been (”Look at me in here, if anyone could be anything but a soldier then why wouldn’t they?”) while forcing De’Londa to give up their son. In fact, watching her cower and walk away powerless was really rewarding for me.

The resurgence of McNulty was inevitable, and in spite of his limited role this year, he was directly responsible for my favorite scene of the season, if not of the series. The exchange between him and Bodie was so significant and so multi layered, I can’t even express how thought provoking it was. It illustrated the dynamic between cop and criminal, Bodie’s stret code vs. his moral code, McNulty’s natural instinct for real police work vs. his commitment to Bea and his newfound sobriety. When he says at the end of Bodie’s justification for giving up Marlo, Chris and Snoop; McNulty just calmly states, “You’re a soldier, Bodie”. It was just the validation McNulty knew he needed. And its true, no one has been more loyal to the game for virtually nothing than Bodie. But with everyone he has known, admired and befriended from the past three seasons being dead except for Slim Charles and Poot, he probably realizes what a lie it is, then the callback to the chess scene from season one: “We like them little bitches on the chessboard” sealed the deal for me. I had to be carried out of my living room, just completely leveled with the perfection of the conversation.

Of course, Bodie is gunned down, defending his corner after Spyder and Poot bailed on him when they saw the ambush taking place. He was shot from behind by a random assailant (there has been much speculation online about whether or not that was Michael, and according to David Simon himself, it isn’t), while Snoop and Chris created a distraction jumping up and down between the cars. His death will ultimately lead to the fall of the Marlo Stanfield gang. Well, that and two dozen bodies being pulled from the vacants. The last cop you want tracking you is Jimmy McNulty, because he will screw everyone over just to put you in jail.

Marlo ends the season with, at least to the best of his knowledge, things on the up and up. He got to meet face-to-face with Vondas and his hat under Prop Joe’s supervision. Vonda’s really, really trust and respect Prop Joe. First he met with Nick in season two at his behest, now he is meeting with a young, notable drug dealer. Seems surprising. And even though Bunk foiled his plan to setup Omar, out of the co-op he is the least affected with Omar being at large. Simply because he now knows the supply hook-up personally and no one blames him for the shipment being stolen.

On the political end, much to the detriment of Bunny, Donnelly, Prez, all the teachers and all the students, Carcetti sold the schools short to feed his vanity. I guess we’re not supposed to be surprised, but one couldn’t help and be optimistic about his good intentions earlier in the season.

This was just a perfect end to what many believe is the most poignant, accomplished and emotional of the four seasons. I will definitely do a more cogent recap of all the themes and subtext of this series. I get so caught up in the recapping aspect of each episode, I always feel my opinion is set-aside because like I have said before, every single minute detail bares mentioning. To a great, if not devastating season: Cheers. Here’s looking forward to the next one.

According to Courtney Cox, a Friends reunion is still a possibility. I really think its time to move on. She has a new series coming out on FX, Jennifer Aniston has a steady film career, Mathew Perry has a fledging dramatic series and if they haven’t yet, there is still plenty of time for the remaining half of the cast to find failing projects as well. If anyone should still be nostalgic for the days of Friends it should be the guy who played Gunther.

Think you can guess what TV Land named as the number one catchphrase of all time? Hint: Odds are, you’re probably too young to have frequently watched the program.

Donald Trumps decaying career in television has reached a new low. Are they going to split the teams up by gender again, and then see who is better at selling towels on the beach?

What are the worst shows of 2006? So far, my nomination isn’t making much noise.

At what point is the continued decision to nationally air The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show a self-fulfilling prophecy for the executives at CBS? Its paltry ratings are just more proof that the 18-34 year old male audience is a hopeless cause for networks.

Last Thursday provided us with yet another turning point in this Survivor season. Unfortunately, Satan willed himself to another victory in the Survivor franchise, taking claim of not only Adam and Parvati but several members of the Aitu tribe as well.

We open with everyone walking back from Tribal Council where Candice was recently voted off. Johnathan delves into a really lenghty “Everybody take a look at the bad guy” speech after being personally degraded for ten straight minutes on national television. I must say, he is handling all of this really well considering all of the unfair critiques about his character. We cut to credits after an unusually short pre-credits scene.

Everyone is working, Ozzy fishes and even Parvati is chopping coconuts, until she misses and damn near hacks off her thumb. Everyone gives their own impression of how queasy the cut made them feel. Except for Johnathan, who actually holds her other, fully intact hand, and encourages: “Your being so brave right now” as the doctor stiches her up. What a sadist.

At Reward Challenge we discover this is the seasonal family reunion episode. Everyone exchanges hugs and gets all misty eyed because it has been oh so long since they have seen each other. Johnathan’s wife, Parvati’s and Adam’s fathers, Becky’s sister, Yul’s brother and Sundra and Ozzy’s mother’s are all reigning in the emotional encounters. Needless too say I never understand the wave of uncontrollable emotion this has on Survivor contestants, guess you have to experience it because everyone, every season breaks down. Except for Becky, who’s ice cold heart hell could not melt.

Jeff informs us that our guest relatives will be participating in today’s challenge. Essentially, each contestant is blindfolded and handed a bucket to scoop water out of the ocean, turn around and throw it too there family member standing ten feet away with a their own small bucket too catch the water with and a larger one they must fill up in order to tip a scale and raise a flag. Its one of those typical Survivor challenges that they pull out for the family members. You know, on ethats predicated on communication and trust and all other intangibles that inhabit a healthy coexistence within a family. I get it.

Anyways, the challenge is fairly dull. Johnathan’s wife, Kelly, decides that wringing the water out of her shirt into the bucket is just as effective as the water she catches in from her Beau. Parvati’s Dad follows suit and utilizes the exact same tactic. It’s hard too tell, but according to Jeff’s narrating the challenge comes down to those two, with the result of Parvati and her father edging out Johnathan and his wife.

She immediately sends Johnathan to Exile Island. As expected, her father is allowed to join her on the reward, and Jeff informs us that two other contestants along with their family members are allowed to join them, but Parvati’s father has to invite which pairs are tagging along without deliberating with his daughter. Wisely, he bases his selection based on the other visiting family members that I am sure he spent some time with, as opposed to arbitrarily selecting Parvati’s competition based on some frivolous details. He selects Sundra and her mom along with (luckily for Parvati) Adam and his dad.

Back at camp, Ozzy is childishly annoyed that the only two members of the remaining Raro alliance have won the last two challenges (adam won the last immunity). He even takes credit for Parvati’s win because she eats all the food he collects and never brings any too camp herself. If anything, Johnathan’s wife is responsible for that win, since Parvati’s dad had the foresight to parrot her wringing the shirt into the bucket strategy, I think he is taking entirely too much credit without recognizing the part Mrs. Penner played in all this. So he proposes to Yul and Becky not feeding them for awhile. They all agree to hide the coconuts. I understand their logic, but damn does it seem vindictive.

The reward is worthwhile. The six fortunate souls meet up with yet another native tribe and visit this cave with beautiful blue fresh water. They all jump into it and get some food afterwards all the while they gush about how fufilling the whole experience is and gives the three of them time to concur they all hate Johnathan. Which, I don’t know. Are they so limited in topical conversation they always have to resort to this? he really doesn’t strike me as a bad guy, by any stretch of the imagination. I mean, if you look at fingergate, he was the only one providing any emotional support while Adam was fretting iover how it made him look. Kinda strange they have managed to use him as a scapegoat.

Sundra, Parvati and Adam; knowing that Johnathan won’t be at camp, all return with leftover reward challenge food in hand for Ozzy, Becky and Yul. Apparently they decided to share the coconuts after this. Way to take the moral high ground, fellas. Economically speaking, while they probably enjoy the chicken, biscuits and cornbread more than anyone enjoys fish and coconuts at this point, it is still only one meal versus dozens that Adam and Parvati have bilked off of Ozzy and Johnathan. So technically they do not owe them anything but I guess it is the easier, less combative route, which is probably the one I would take.

The Immunity Challenge is brutal. It entails swimming out to this balance course, swimming across another stretch of water, grabbing a bag full of sticks, then running back across said course and swimming too shore. After they go through the course and grab two bags, they then take the sticks out of the bag to form a long pole and grab three rings off a board from roughly fifteen feet away.

Since it is nautical based, Ozzy wins handily. In fact, the only person even working on their pole when Ozzy finishes is Yul. For the swimming based challenges, Ozzy should really be weighed down just to make things even remotely fair. I mean, he was returning his second bag before any female contestant returned their first.

The tribe is hanging around, shooting the breeze about how physically daunting the challenge was. Then Johnathan shows up, and the entire group falls dead silent. He then asks queries about the state of Becky’s sister, and Becky is non-responsive. The whole thing is very high-schoolish, but the camera work on this is a little shoddy, and it is unclear how much of it is selective editing. Because I want to sympathize with Johnathan in this predicament I have determined that none of it is. Adam goes into the woods and again tries to coerce Yul into voting out Johnathan, Yul interviews that he feels like The Godfather, proving that when you are considered a leader on Survivor, its almost inevitable that it will go to your head. he says he is uneasy about the prospect, so at least there is one redeemable player left in the game.

Johnathan then pleads his case to “The Godfather”, and reminds Yul that the Aitu alliance could have been crippled if he had not flipped on Raro two weeks ago. And while it is true, telling someone how indebted they are to you is never a solid Survivor strategy.
Johnathan voice overs that he thinks his alliance is still strong, and considering what he did for Aitu, if they decide to break their promise to him because Parvati smiles at them, or Adam gathers a little firewood or they bring them a little food from the RC, then there is nothing else he can do. He learns just how loose those promises are when he catches Sundra and Becky going out to gather firewood and there is so much distrust, and really a lot of animosity directed at Johnathan that it really alters the hugh opinion I had of Becky and Sundra. And it goes sort of like this:
Johnathan: Hey, what are you up to?
Becky: We’re just going to gather firewood.
Johnathan: Are we still voting for Adam?
Becky: That’s what we said.

And this doesn’t really do the scene justice. It is handily the most passive aggressive exchange I have ever witnessed on Survivor, and that is quite the accomplishment. During the encounter Sundra is mentally attempting to pull Becky away and won’t even make eye contact with Johnathan as the two of them do their best Mean Girls impression.

At Tribal Council, all of the attention is focused on whether or not Johnathan is a decent person. Even Ozzy concedes that it was pleasant with Johnathan being away from camp. And that might be true because you don’t have two self-entitled, spoiled little brats wallowing about not getting their way all the time, but that doesn’t mean Johnathan is at fault. Johnathan again states that he saved the Aitu tribe from being decimated in similar fashion to what is currently happening with Raro. Which may or may not be true, because Yul could have given anyone on his alliance the idol, so Nate still would have gone, and the following week would have been a 4-4 split and who knows what would happen the following week? But he continues to plead his case, Adam even has the audacity to suggest their are several people on the jury who deserve to still be playing in the game. Johnathan rightfully points out that outside of Nate and Candice, Adam voted off the other four members. And he has nothing to respond with, because Johnathan doesn’t have a foot to stand on, he is simply wrong. And somehow he has self appointed himself alongside Parvati as the moral arbiters of this season, which is ironic because the two of them are the most immoral people remaining, or at least thats what the selective editing would suggest.

Anyhow, the vote reveals that their bullying tactics actually worked and Johnathan is sent home. In his parting words he summarizes that it is just a game, people lie and deceive all the time in Survivor, and that four of the remaining six will still be on the jury. He also adds that he wished they would have just told him to his face instead of lying about it, because they were very transparent.

Next week: Ozzy considers flipping, Yul senses it and says he will delegate to Becky.

Links and The Wire summary of the season finale. I have needed a couple of days to gather my thoughts about this one.

A military coup in Fiji erupted during the shooting of the next Survivor Season, according to Jeff Probst, they are not going to let that phase them. Boy this really puts Ozzy’s whole self-description as a warrior into perspective. Not only has he never been involved in an uprising, he wasn’t even in the same Survivor episode that was next door to one.

American Idol is such a ratings juggernaut that even a show as immensely popular as Lost is getting out of its way. This is like Carson Palmer throwing a game to Tom Brady, where is the competitive spirit?

For those into the gossip rags, the blond from Scrubs is engaged. I don’t care either.

Here is a synopsis on Oxygen’s new reality series, The Bad Girls Club. Way to avoid the stereotypes, Oxygen.

Salma Hayek, now with a semblance of respectability from the success of Ugly Betty, is in talks with FOX to produce a medical student drama along the lines of Grey’s Anatomy. My, she has a come a long way since the days of From Dusk Till Dawn.

Gone for the weekend again, back with tonights Survivor recap on Sunday.

Last time on morally ambivalent happy hour, also commonly referred to as Nip Tuck, James The Woman is now murdering people for their organs in Sean and Christians office, Sean has re-inherited his not-son Wilbur after the kid’s biological father died. And Sean was mourning the dissimilation of his family.

The theme of this week, Sean is now feeling insecure about being in Christian’s shadow, professionally and socially. This has kind of been an ongoing theme in the series, and this is only the 7th or 8th time they have addressed it, so relatively speaking it is virtually new territory for this show. This resentment is exemplified when a woman comes in for implants, but also to flirt with Christian as he was apparently named one of Miami’s more eligible bachelors in a local publication. Sean storms out of the office virtually unnoticed.

When it comes to for her actual surgery, Sean busts in to oversee that everything goes smoothly. It is rather transparent and Christian calls him out on it. Luckily, they are both bailed out when Sean’s assistant informs him that he has a 2pm consoltation with a ventriloquist that is also feeling insecure… around his dummy. Sean walks away dejectedly. Is this a real issue with plastic surgeons? The alpha male gets the breast implants while his counterpart is forced to perform the facelift on the crazy stage-performer with an inferiority complex around his wooden dummy?

Anyhow, I am a little tired of Christian, but mostly Sean identifying his own faults through his patients and ultimately coming to grips with what is actually bothering him. Its trite, redundant and cheap. At least last week he vicariously recognized his emotional problems through a homeless man. And to complete the metaphor that is Sean’s despair, after the operation, the ventriloquist’s dummy (i.e. the ventriloquist) mocks his operation. Sean, clearly at his wits end, suggests Mr. Ward just take his hand out of the doll. The Ward holds his head down, choking back the tears and says through the doll, ‘He can’t doc, without me he is 176 pounds of nothing”.

Wilbur this week is sought after by a couple of predatory women. One is Gina, his biological nymphomaniac mother with AIDS. Last we saw her she was on the straight-and-narrow, operating a rehab center for patients out of elective surgery with Julia. She is still clean, yet still psychotic and wants to be allowed back in Wilbur’s life despite court order restrictions and the Father’s will. Christian isn’t interested either as he wants Michelle to be the legal mother.
James The Woman wants the child’s kidneys, as they are very valuable because few people are heinous enough to kill a child for his/her organs. She comes up with not so subtle threats such as, “He looks plump and juicy” when referring to Wilbur. Actually, they are subtle compared to those of Gina, who busts in on Michelle, Christian and Wilbur’s dinner celebrating the two of them officially becoming Wilbur’s legal guardians. She throws food on Michelle, screams all sorts of veiled threats and has to be physically restrained after she tears up the legal documents.

Of course, Wilbur is kidnapped when they are both sidetracked by a woman who looks like Gina at the park. We see James The Woman stalking them in the remote viscinity while Michelle is pleading with Christian to get protection from Gina, when she wants it for both her and James The Woman. At that very moment, Wilbur goes missing, and we are lead to believe James The Woman is the guilty culprit.

So of course it is Gina. She promptly returns him to Christian after an hour as the result of an epiphany and determines she is not cut out to be a parent, and this was evident three years ago in the days of “cab fair”. Christian says he still fully intends on pressing charges for obvious reasons, though it looks like he might recant after she goes into some sappy diatribe about parenting and gives Wilbur some toy that is supposed to have some sentimental value, but I am too tired and disinterested to care about it.

Meanwhile, James The Woman broke into Michelle’s house, stole her gun and has turned it on her. this is clearly just a PSA about gun ownership. Anyhow, right before James The Woman kills herself we learn that she lost a son at eighteen months old. So that is why she is such an unforgivable monster.

In incredibly dysfunctional relationship news, Matt and Kimber are having sexual chemistry problems, which makes sense because she is a former porn star and he is borderline jail bait. Matt seeks out advice from Christian, and ends up getting some from Sean who at first tries to be technical before Matt shows up saying he wants to know how to make Kimber “hot” not take advice from Dr. Ruth’s male equivalent. After like the 50th example of someone preferring Christian to Sean, Sean erupts into an incredibly candid explanation of what he did with Kimber, and its not for the faint of heart. Never the less, Matt’s only response is, If that’s what you did with her, I can’t imagine what Christian did”. Well buddy, it can get a little awkward when you marry and impregnate a woman who has already slept with your surrogate and biological fathers.

Ends up Matt was right, as Kimber confided her sexual frustration to her psychiatrist, who is also a Scientologist. So Matt gets the idea to hire a film crew that consists of several of Kimber’s old porn crew, including her mentor (what does this imply in the porn industry, exactly?). They do a role play thing with Matt as an OB/GYN and Kimber as a patient. I guess we are too assume she is fantasizing about Christian. Either way it makes me feel better about missing the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in the same time slot.
Ends up her mentor is on the paper chase, posted the video online, and, gasp, the “church” knows about it. Now according to this cracked out Scientology doctor, the babies health as well as her future in the “church” is in jeopardy (Stretch, Yawn).

Sean decides he is selling his share of the practice to Christian and Michelle to get out from under Christian’s shadow because Sean believes he has no identity without him.

Another fairly mediocre if not flat out bad episode. Hopefully the season finale can compensate for the 10 of 12 sub-par episodes we have been subjected to.

Friday Night Lights is like the younger, more attractive Texas high school football version of The Wire. More pointedly, they are nothing alike in content, but similar in style. There are so many characters and plot developments that nuance is a necessity, just to fit everything into the one hour. This series is doesn’t even begin to approach The Wire in terms of developmental television, but for what it is trying to be (that is, coming of age story revolving around a critical juncture for the people who inhabit this particular community), it couldn’t be much better, and this week exemplified that.

In the pre-credits scene, we are given a montage of Smash shooting up before Mass and Lyla making cupcakes. The Cupcakes, I imagine, are meant for appeasing Street. Because, you know, when you devastate someone, nothing quite mends wounded pride and emotion like some baked goods. The steroids however, are just the catalyst enabling Smash’s skewed perception of justified sacrifice for athletic prowess.
The montage ends when Lyla walks in on Jason removing all the pictures of them together. The true horror here is that spiffy little collage being decimated for these petty differences. Because that collage was the cheeriest TV concoction this side of Care Bears. She makes a tearrful apology, he wants to know how many times they had sex, her response is, “Jason, pleeaasse”, he retorts, “you can go”. Really, the least she could do is tell him what he least wants to hear.

The entire school eventually catches wind of what took place between them, though the details are somewhat vague, the offensive line goes to visit him and the circumstantial evidence is overwhelming. In fact, between the nurse mentioning he has not had a visitor all day (Lyla not visiting), the absence of the collage and Street openly admitting that he punched Riggins, the O-line can put two-and-two together. The leader of the pack, who is surprisingly a red head, says “we got your back, we’re going to take care of this.”
The aforementioned confession leads to the offensive line taking baseball bats to Riggins’ truck with him in it. And again they beat the hell out of this thing. This marks two groups of kids on the same football team completely demolishing someones car with baseball bats. Apparently this is the preffered method of revenge in Texas. In fact, if this team was half as good at football as they were at destroying cars, I can assure you they wouldn’t be 2-2.

Lyla does not fly under the radar, either. First she catches an earful from Tyra, whose intuition seems to simply tell her that despite any proof of her pseudo boyfriend banging his best friends girlfriend. Then while at the game she is taunted by several classmates in the bleachers. When it escalates to throwing some water at her she haplessly walks away. This inspires Buddy, who witnessed the entire scene unfold, to follow his daughter outside. He inquires, “what was all that?” And for a brief moment, given how skeevy he generally is, I thought he was going to reprimand her for embarrassing him at a game, but instead he consoles her, saying “We all make mistakes”. Its really out of character and somewhat annoying, but its nice to see even Buddy is multi-layered, apparently he isn’t the absentee dad we all assumed him to be.

In blossoming relationship news, Saracen, after some ill-advised yet hilarious advice from Landry purchases a Members Only jacket specifically for the purposes of his first date with Julie. There is more humor derived from this one storyline in this episode than in the short history of the series. Between Matt’s inept “Star QB” act, Taylor’s reaction to Saceran’s arrival and everyones reaction to Julie’s screw me dress, I for a millisecond mistakenly thought I was watching Arrested Development again. Unfortunately, original comedic settings are seldom capitalized on effectively anymore, so I am sure this is just me registering surprise that I laughed while watching Network television that isn’t The Office.

Anyhow, on the date, Saceran is in the middle of his Johnny Moxon facade when he gets a call from Landry who agreed to watch his grandmother. Apparently Grams has locked herself in the closet R. Kelly style. Matt is cornered into singing “Mr. Sandman” in his deceased grandfathers voice in front of Landry and Julie. Since he is like the nicest high school sophomore ever, he doesn’t even hesitate to do this, Landry is freaked out and Julie is noticeably touched by his affection for ailing grandmother but is unsure of how to respond, so she just says, “I’ll just have Landry drive me home.” And since they’re in high school, everything is misinterpreted. Though she does confide to Landry that she thought it was “sweet and vulnerable”, and Landry relayed the message the next day.

As mentioned in the intro, Smash is still actively on the juice and the game this week is in Gatlin, where Smash, according to a couple yokels on the radio, actually grew up. I will try to summarize this quickly though it is an interesting story, we learn that they moved away from Gatlin to escape the memory of his deceased father, that he gave Smash his nickname “Smash” after he slammed into a car while riding his bike, his father was unfaithful and through eavesdropping we understand that Smash’s mom is at least semi-thankful he is dead and that is something no son wants to hear about his father.
After overhearing this he storms out of the barbeque he is at to go visit his old house. Upon return his mother apologizes for possibly giving him the wrong impression, and reassures Smash that she loved his father very much. He subsequently visits his grave and breaks down in tears.

Going into the game against Gatlin, Riggins’ team hates him, Smash is feeling insecure and even more so because his childhood friend who doubled as his rival is on the opposing defense, Silvero. On three straight plays in the second half, Silvero tackles Smash in the backfield on three straight plays. The last of which is for a safety, giving Gatlin a 2-0 lead in the fourth quarter. The next series we are introduced to is the last of the game. In a culmination of will, forgiveness and desire; the O-line forgives Riggins, Smash picks himself up and he busts off an eighty yard run for a 6-2 win. A block from Riggins in which he just flat out levels Silvero enabled the play. The crowd storms the field, as everyone celebrates Matt is sought out by Julie, and from his adrenaline rush and pent up sexual frustration, he plants one on her. She is unresponsive and sort of runs away, all too aware that her parents are roaming around that field. In fact we are welcomed to a peculiar glance from Tami that reads more to me like, “Typical” more so than “how dare you?!”. Either way it just adds to their clumsy awkwardness.

Other notes:

-Jason and Tyra bonded over their collective hatred for their departed significant others with a forty. They took turns mocking their (for now) exes that sort of made everything that happened pre-spinal injury a lie.

-Tami being capable of convincing the Gatlin figureheads to set them up with better hotel accommodations when she, as she herself put it, was “Buddy’s yang”. Which is exactly what she was, as Buddy came off as abrasive and unpleasant. This storyline represented the type of misplaced subconscious racism that I am sure is prevalent in small towns like Dillon.

-Tyra not only confronted Tim about the entire Lyla situation, but she smacked him right where his bruise was from Jason. Which I thought was a nice touch by the director, because it is completely in her character to intentionally smack where the most harm could be inflicted.

-We could probably use at least one game that is won or lost in less dramatic fashion, just to keep up with the realism of things.

Some great lines/exchanges:

Taylor: You want a beer?
Matt: Oh. No thanks, I’m driving.
Taylor: I was kidding.

Matt: Is this about Julie? cause I’ll have her back early.
Taylor: Oh I know you will.

“Things could be worse, alright. She could be dating a serial killer… or one of the Riggins boys” -Taylor, on Julie going out with Matt.

Very satisfying episode this week, expect more when the next episode airs, that presumably isn’t for awhile. Thoughts on last nights Nip Tuck coming tomorrow.

Rosie O’Donnell is now possibly leaving the view for a full season on Nip Tuck, as opposed to developing her own spinoff of the Dawn Budge character from earlier this season.

This article from the LA Times asks if Friday Night Lights has brought back “The Strong, Silent Type”. Short answer: since this series generally attracts in between 15-20 viewers a week, I am not sure if Peter Berg & Co. are capable of reviving traditional masculinity. Just a thought.

Ummm, did anyone else realize the Billboard Awards last night were hostless?

Vivica A. Fox is joining the cast of Curb Your Enthusiasm for its sixth season. Is she funny or something?

Joe Gannascoli, better known to the world as “Gay Vito” on The Sopranos, is producing his own line of pool cues. Depending on your sensibilities, this is either mildly humorous or utterly tasteless.

In case you are a viral video hound, IFILM.com has picked up Daily Show and Colbert Report clips, weeks after they were pulled from YouTube.

British women have voted Simon Cowell the man they most commonly fantasize about…. I think that tells me all I need too know about British women.

For the past ten seasons, South Park has made us (me) keel over in hysterics. Now, well now is the dawn of a new day, because the politically incorrect tale of four friends has spawned a book summarizing the philisophical elements in the animated series.

Plenty on Friday Night Lights and Nip Tuck tomorrow.

One thing I hate doing with The Wire is labeling episodes, but last nights episodes entitled “That’s Got His Own” was definitely a turning point. Everything that has been pending for the past eleven weeks eventually came to fold and we were met with some unintended consequences.

Michael, as was the case with with Sharrod earlier in the season, is noticeably hardened by his affiliation with the corner. His training scene in the opening demonstrated Michael’s proclivity and demeanor for the soldier life, something that even if he could escape at this point, probably doesn’t want to. His thrashing of Kenard was absolutely chilling. It wasn’t so much that he beat down the nine year-old, it was his scowl of utter-disdain for him while lying on the ground, beaten and bloodied, like he was completely indifferent towards whether he lived or died. This series is great at illustrating moments that there is no coming back from, that was definitely one of them.

If you contrast that to Nemond, the one character being groomed by his parents for the corner from birth, does not have the will power or inner-hatred for it. His inability to hit Kenard, even after he had ripped him off, illustrated Nemond’s incapability for the drug trade. Its amazing Nemond even confronted his ineptitude for street life before it was too late. The audience is supposed to recognize what an anomaly Nemond’s story is, if he had tried to acclimate to the drug culture anymore than he had already pretended to, he probably would have ended up dead before high school. This is to be attributed with the socialization he has received in the corner kids program.

The difference in character between Nemond and Michael was exemplified in what might be their last encounter at Cutty’s gym, in which Nemond was once again taunting the unfortunate Dukie in the same fashion Kenard was taunting him, that is before Michael slams him against the wall and smacks him four times before Cutty interferes and throws Michael out of the gym. Nemond meanwhile, is on the ground crying from a culmination of all the repressed sadness he had been carrying around with his corner boy facade.

Cutty’s attempt to apologize to Michael was sincere and one of the more concerted efforts we have seen from any character to help another for the better, and in true Wire form, this act gets him shot. Michael, with still an ounce of kindness left in him, stopped the Monk from killing Cutty after shooting him in the leg and offered to wait for the ambulance, which Cutty decided against for a variety of reasons: those of which were helpful in the short term but detrimental in the long term.

It has been thrown around on various message boards that Dukie’s character is not nearly developed as intricately as his three counterparts. While I can understand this perception, I think it is that Dukie’s story is simply more commonplace than those of his peers. Michael is slowly turning into a murderous thug, Nemond, comparatively speaking, is over-privileged and rebellious all while living a lie, and we will tackle Randy’s situation in a minute; but Dukie comes from an extremely impoverished, neglectful family and is completely deprived of any parental or domestic support. Now he has lossed the only paternal figure he has ever known in Prez and he has come to discover him and his drug addicted family has been evicted from their row house that is about thirty years beyond disrepair. Dukie is the typical story of urban social, political and financial deprivation; the other three are exceptions.

And the most tragic story of all, Randy Wagstaff has now realized what will hopefully be the full retaliation for his alleged “snitching”. Outside of Miss Anna, he has continually been let down by every adult he has come to know. And that lone reliable adult presence is now in the burn ward after two thugs through a couple molotov cocktails through the window of his apartment. Randy’s heckling/screaming/pleading with Carver as Carv walked out of the hospital was the first example of anyone in the executive branch at any level in the chain of command realizing face-to-face the destruction their negligence can cause. And in this case, Carver wasn’t even negligent, just naive and unlucky.

Carcetti is really clinging to strings trying to be the noble, good intentioned politician immersed in corruption, but he is slowly learning how daunting of a task that is. With all of the leftover mismanagement Royce has saddled Carcetti with, I cannot see hm continuing this crusade for change. Just one more example of institutions and their intolerance for it.

And finally, as I mentioned earlier Sharrod was not himself when working the corner, he was hardened, tired of being vulnerable in the streets of west Baltimore and doing heavy amounts cocaine. And it appears, that even while he was back with Bubbles, content to work Bubbles mobile mini-mart for presumably the rest of his life, had not kicked the coke habit. And this had dire consequences because Bubbles had a vile of Cyanide meant for the over-aggressive crack head that had been constantly harassing him. For whatever reason, Bubbles did not inform Sharrod of his plan, and while he was sleeping, Sharrod went into Bubbles’ coat and snorted the Cyanide, resulting in his death. Depressing.

Other notes:

-Not unexpectedly, Omar managed too surprise yet again. Naive and impressionable little me really believed he was going to play this one semi-straight (pardon the pun) and only rob Marlo. Instead he robs The Greek (Which might come back to haunt him) and the entire drug trade in Baltimore with an elaborate heist for all of Prop Joe’s shipment that he was supplying th co-op with. In this series, Omar has been untouchable outside of Stringer violation the Sunday truce last season, since Omar does not adhere to any institutions its amazing he has been around for this long, seems like robbing an international criminal would be his match.

-Loved Prez’s reaction to the “tickle my nuts!” comment by one of his students.

-Not surprised by everyone’s hesitancy to pull the bodies out of the vacants. They are so accustom to juking the stats for politicians that they are unable to grasp a change in procedure. Leads me to believe he isn’t long for the Mayor’s chair.

-Shades of McNulty once again. With only one episode left they can only incorporate him so much into the remaining season but I expect a full return in season five.

The paradox with a series as flawless and introspective as The Wire is I am pining to see the finale yet am not ready for it to come to an end. I am too invested in the characters and too intrigued by the storylines. I have the same conundrum with The Sopranos. Oh well, looking forward to next weeks closing fourth season episode. Until next week…

Interestingly off-beat episode of The Office on Thursday. After a two week hiatus, the episode entitled “Convict” was written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the creators of the British Office that spawned the American version we have come too know and love. Those unfamiliar with the comedy stylings of these two, can catch a glimpse of them in action here (Merchant has the glasses on). The clip is from their new BBC series that HBO has picked up, Extras.

We saw yet another former Stamford employee quit the Scranton branch as a result of Michael’s unknowingly crass behavior. My guess is that by seasons end, not a single Stamford transfer will still be on cast (Short of Jim, of course). This weeks departure was Martin Nash after his criminal past in white collar crime was revealed, leading to Michael eventually locking all but two of his employees in the conference room.

This premise is rife with humor, but for some reason it felt incomplete, like Gervais and Merchant neglected to take full advantage of what they had eloquently pieced together. The derision of the Pam/Jim/Andy/Karen played out nicely, and everything with Ed Helms represented a high point in the episode and begs to ask the question: are they really going to write his character off? Jim’s handling of the inevitable Pam/Karen conflict was definitely in character and refreshing, but overall this episode missed its mark. Aspects of the Prison Mike bit were a little too finagled, it was just so absurd (even by Michael Scott standards) that I couldn’t suspend disbelief. Additionally, the “Prison is better than employment at Dunder-Mifflin” theme was probably the most predictable gimmick used in this series. Ultimately, I think Merchant and Gervais are simply a little rusty with the characters, if they continue to pen episodes, there is no question they improve with time. And I feel ridiculous nitpicking like this.

Some great line/exchanges:

“You are such a racist because you think he is black.” -Michael to Kevin about new employee Martin Nash

Jim: Dundler Mifflin, This is Jim.
Andy: I am so horny.
Jim: (Pause) I can’t help you with that…
Andy: How about Angela? Blondes are more fun, man.
Jim: Trust me, thats not fun for anyone.

Michael: You name me a white guy you trust, and I’ll name you a black guy that I trust.
Jim: Jonas Salk?
Michael: who?
Jim: Justin Timberlake?
Michael: Please, Colin Powell
Karen: Jesus?
Michael: (straight faced) Apollo Creed.

Karen: You can’t give paper clips to a baby, he could swallow them.
Creed: Its okay, I have plenty.
-Karen holding the new employees toddler and fending off Creed.

“Martin started off as the new employee, and then he became my friend, then he was my enemy before he became my friend again, and then he was pretty much a nuiscense, and now he’s a quitter. And I won’t miss him, and thats not because he is black”. -Michael, explaining his perceived tumultuous relationship with Martin.

Also, any scene with Ed Helms singing. Since I cannot really understand what he is saying, direct quotes make for a difficult task.

Again, good episode on Thursday, but nothing relatively exceptional. Hopefully we are party too more Dwight and Andy camera time next week.

This week’s episode of Survivor managed to be collectively spontaneous and predictable. Yul is able to dictate the game like no one I have ever seen. The strange thing is, everyone acknowledges it yet he evades being a target. This is unheard of within the context of Survivor, we’ll see if he can continue at this pace. If so, he has a cakewalk to the final two.

We open this week with the remaining eight contestants walking back from Tribal Council. as Johnathan defends his actions to the depleted Raro alliance of Candice, Adam and Parvati: “Either there was a 100% chance of me going home tonight or a 50% chance of me going home next time.” Not only do I know its valid, because as a spectator I am privy to his circumstances, but he also articulates his position to the point where any rational person can empathize, so that rules out all three nitwits compiling Raro. He even admits that Yul has the hidden immunity idol, but for the sake of staying in character, they refuse to believe “anything he says” and call him a “rat”.

On the Aitu side of things, Sundra and Yul are pleasantly surprised by the sudden turn of events, and confide to each other their trepidation during Tribal Council.

The following day, Sundra teaches Parvati how to gut a fish. Johnathan, in full blown contempt, voice overs about what a despicable person Parvati is, for spending thirty days on an island and being unable to grasp the fish-gutting concept: “She is a lazy and selfish girl… a million dollars would ruin her life”. And to be honest, she has probably never been asked to gather any food, much less specifically catch and disembowel fishes, so why would she have bothered to learn? Its one thing to complain that she never does any work, its an entirely different too complain that she doesn’t know how to do anything she has never been asked too learn.

Once the two alliances go to their corners or whatever, Johnathan excitedly details how much more enjoyable the game is with them as opposed to the Raro clique, dubbing them, “the clown house”.

The Reward Challenge is a survivor auction. Meaning they are given several hundred dollars of play money to bid on several seen and unseen items. They are not forewarned when the auction will end, so if they sit on their money too long it is warranted worthless. It is all fairly uneventful so I will just list who took what:
Johnathan gave $100 for an unknown item which turned out to be a hot dog with some fries and a beer.
Parvati dropped $360 for a bath and a slice of chocolate cake.
Next item is unknown but is put up under the heading “This is for power in the game”. Candice immediately throws up all of her money and Becky matches. Candice is loaned $20 from Adam, to bring her up to $620, Yul loans Becky $40 to bring her up to $640, Adam refuses to loan Candice anymore, which is somewhat odd, because the two of them need all the help they can come across. Becky takes it, the award ends up being sending someone to Exile immediately, and she gets to collect the same persons money. Who does she send? Candice, of course. Which has to really sting because not only did she want the award in the first place, but also its her fourth time going to exile, and third time since her mutiny.

This does bring the idol out into the open, however. When Jeff tries to inject a silver lining for Candice, he mentions that the idol is still at large. Yul announces, “I will save the suspense”, and goes into a long explanation about how he wanted to use it for a pivotal juncture of the game, and that was last night so now he doesn’t mind everyone is in the know. And that makes sense, even if people want to vote him off, there is no motivation to now, in fact its detrimental to one’s own standing in the game to vote for him.

After the long hiatus to discuss the idol, we get back to the game and Ozzy drops $420 on an ice cream machine.
Johnathan offers up another $240 for a covered item, it turns out to be a pepperoni pizza, he throws his arms in the air in celebration causing Adam and Parvati to roll their eyes.
Next item is covered, Sundra ends up spending $140 on a sea cucumber, its funny so long as its not all you get. The last item is some toiletries that Johnathan swoops up for $100 and unbeknown to everyone, that ends it.

Yul voice overs how difficult it was to watch everyone else eat, while at camp Johnathan talks incessantly about the excess of food he ate at the RC, much to the annoyance of everyone. Both alliances are so irritable at this point that even Aitu discusses voting him off prematurely. Johnathan, though obnoxious, is not an idiot. He notices a change in tone around camp but he cannot grasp where it is coming from. Now I know that I just said he was not an idiot… but how can he lack any and all self awareness?

Back on Exile, Candice is really on the brink of insanity. She is shaking, crying; and I damn near feel sorry for her. She is like the tormented sister from the Roman Polanski film, Repulsion.

The Immunity Challenge quizzes the contestants on the past thirty days. Too summarize I will just say that math is intricately involved. They have to add up the totals of past events and add, subtract, multiply and divide those numbers to get a total that matches a box containing a key that allows each participant to raise a flag.
Adam, Johnathan and Parvati are the three to advance to the next round, Candice finishes a millisecond after Johnathan, it just isn’t her secluded island adventure. I am not so sure Becky and Yul didn’t throw this one. In the second round, Adam simply destroys Parvati and Johnathan, its the biggest blowout we have seen so far. Johnathan is actually courteous enough to give a congratulatory hand shake.

Afterwards, all three Raro members really, for the first time, collectively give their best effort to persuade Yul into voting off Johnathan. They even go so far as to say they will definitely vote for Yul, should he make the final two. Yul empathizes, saying he can understand their frustration, but he acknowledges Johnathan as a smart player even if he is a selfish one.

The two tribes disperse, and since Johnathan has been fishing while all this was going on (presumably with Ozzy), and the three Raro members never do anything, they eat without calling them over. And certainly they are no way obligated to share their food, but I am always partial to being as conciliatory as possible with things of this nature, especially when everyone is in such a desperate situation.

When Raro catches wind of this, Candice approaches the five of them, and Candice delves into one of the more self-righteous tirades about selfishness that I have ever seen. Really, its inexcusable and childish. But hey, thats never stopped her before.

After the incredibly tense scene, Yul goes back into the woods to contemplate with Becky, he says something along the lines of, “We can vote off Johnathan and still have a 4-3 advantage … if I make the final two that is three votes that are coming my way”. Then he takes notice of Becky’s disgruntled expression, because, she would clearly like to win as well, even though she wouldn’t have a prayer in a F2 vote because she is mainly Yul’s confidante; never the less he backs off the last statement: “Or at least its three people who don’t hate me”. Nice recovery, Yul.

At Tribal Council, Fish-gate is almost immediately brought up. And while I think it is just obligatory to share food with everyone, Raro really doesn’t have a leg to stand on here. They are not entitled to fish caught by someone they actively despise. Yul chimes in and says that Raro is not painting an accurate picture, which prompts Jeff to refer to him as “The UN”. Johnathan bickers with the three Raro members some more. Everyone votes, and…. Candice is voted out 5-3. She gives a much more commendable parting words segment than Nate. Fittingly enough, as she walked away from TC, she said “love ya”. I am sure in a sequestered hotel room somewhere, Billy is banging his head against a table.

Next week, well, I did not watch the previews, but I would suspect its more of the same.

A little linkage on your Friday afternoon…

This article asks if we just went through the best Fall TV season ever. It seems to be fixated on the four major networks, so considering the only series’ I watch are Friday Night Lights, Survivor and The Office, I sincerely hope not.

CBS’ neurosurgeon drama,3 Lbs, died on the table after a mere three episodes.

NBC is rearranging their programming schedule to escape ratings purgatory. Friday Night Lights moving to Wednesdays can only help the shows cause.

50 Cent gets socio-political all over Oprah.

Radar online has compiled a list of the top 100 TV catch phrases.

Apparently the women in the Baltimore area were displeased with the local networks decision to air last nights Ravens-Bengals NFL game, pushing back the time of Grey’s Anatomy to 1am. If the men and women of Baltimore watch The Wire instead of some formulaic hospital drama, they might realize their city has problems eclipsing that of the local affiliates programming decisions. Speaking of which, here is a detailed interview with David Simon, the creator of The Wire.

Back later with last night’s Survivor recap.