Grid Effect

I have never seen a dramatic series operate like The Black Donnelly’s, so much has happened over the course of three episodes (four if you count the online exclusive) and we haven’t really seen any of the characters question their past actions or been fed any motivation from any of them. Every human emotion about the four brothers comes from the mouth of Joey “Ice Cream”, so at this point it is still a pressing task to take any of them seriously. I’d feel the same way about anybody whose explanations came solely from the mouth of someone with the words “Ice Cream” in their nickname.

Last nights episode revolved around the funeral for Huey, the Irish mob boss Tommy killed in order to ultimately save his brother Jimmy and to take out vengeance for his younger brother Sean. Despite the fact he was setting up Jimmy, Tommy had no intention of murdering Huey, he was sort of collateral damage as he was conspiring with the Italians.

Either way, Huey’s younger brother Dokey (and presumable new boss of The Irish Outfit) has managed to piece together through a series of events that the Donnelly’s were responsible for his brothers death. He doesn’t know in what capacity, but he is certain enough to threaten Erin (Tommy’s crush) in order to hail Jimmy and Tommy down to the basement during his brothers wake in the Donnelly’s bar.

Eventually, Tommy and Jimmy get the drop on Dokey and his muscle after persuading them to let Erin leave. Tommy goes into a really detailed fabrication about who they killed and everything else to try and make amends… it works.

Needless to say there needs to be more illustration of an internal struggle with Tommy, some sign of self-doubt to make him likable. As of now, we are supposed to be rooting for him but are not provided any real incentive to do so. He spends the entirety of every episode bossing around his perpetual trembling voice brother Kevin and measuring his dick with Jmmy. It seems like he has supplicated matters for the Irish for the time being, but now the Italians (the most cringe worthy Italian crime family in the history of television or film, by the way) have a bone to pick with the Donnelly’s, will there be any self-reflection or is everything still going to be hammered home by Joey “Ice Cream” and his emotionless tale of the four brothers? My guess is the latter.

Another folly of this series, seeing the web exclusive episode was almost imperative to being able to follow this episode properly. They alluded to it in a couple flashback scenes but never took the time to address how Kevin attempted to get Jimmy out on bail and what transpired between Tommy, Erin and her dad. Very strange that they would make a key plot development so pivotal to the story “web exclusive”, then not make an effort to advertise the exclusive (I only heard about it from reading Pop Candy).

Also, for all the arguing between three of the four brothers, there discourse seems fairly stagnant. It mainly consists of Tommy berating either Kevin or Jimmy with questions, Kevin trying to earn the respect of his two brothers and Jimmy attempting to prove he is still the alpha dog when standing next to Tommy. They always explain what they are going to do, but never explain how or why. Occasionally Joey “Ice Cream” will voice over the description and/or reasoning, but it simply doesn’t resonate with the audience when the main characters are never forced to explain themselves.

Hopefully something changes in their narrative style because my interest is teetering in the balance, and judging by the nielsen’s, Haggis and Moresco are going to need every viewer they can get.

I’m sorry, you will have to forgive the generic tagline, but after watching two hours of any FOX sitcom nowadays, commonality is simply unavoidable. I have been late to posting about The Winner, normally I wouldn’t give two shits about a series like this and would simply ignore its very existence, but it gets acknowlegement from Grid Effect, if for no other reason than Daily Show alum Rob Corddry stars as Glen Abbott, a 32 year-old still living at home with his parents.

This show is basically a standard sitcom with an abnormal premise. Corddry’s Abbott narrates from the future in which he eventually became “the richest man in all of Buffalo”. It is set in 1994, mainly for the ill-conceived pre-set notions we may have had about various public figures (such as “Bill Clinton seems like a strong family man” and “Bill Cosby is a great public speaker”) and for OJ jokes (whom Glen’s dad vehemently defends, with the series set in Buffalo and OJ having spent his entire career with the Bills, it makes sense).

His life takes a turn for the better when his childhood crush, Alison, moves in next door and is now a divorced doctor with a 13 year-old son, Josh, that Glen immediately befriends. They are both socially inept, mild hypochondriac’s and wildy nervous and insecure around women. Again, like any other sitcom with the exception that revolves around a middle schooler and his best friend in his early thirties.

By the end of the pilot, Josh is fully aware that Glen pines for his mother and is mostly indifferent about it. Actually, he is encouraging about the prospect of Glen potentially being his stepfather. And essentially, that is the entire series, Glen and Josh trying to improve their social standing in order too appeal more to women.

The series has its highs and lows, a few good punch lines but mostly tired and rehashed ones. Also the notion that a gorgeous thirty-two year old doctor is going to let someone that looks like Corddry hang around her house and bond with her adolescent son is somewhat far-fetched (male-female relationships generally always are on sitcoms, so no surprise there) and never explained.

The only notable acting comes from Corddry, who plays his role charming and innocently enough that it avoids being misconstrued as creepy or even pedarist. This wasn’t terribly unexpected, as Corddry has had good turns on Arrested Development and Curb Your Enthusiasm (in the latter he coincidentally played a convicted sex offender). Every other adult actor on this is too peripheral to even warrant commenting on. Child acting in comedy series’ isn’t really subject to criticism.

The most intolerable aspect about this show? The overbearing laugh track. Maybe its because I haven’t regularly watched a sitcom with a laugh track since Seinfeld went off the air, but it didn’t add to the show, if anything it detracted. It seemed like nothing more than a que for viewers to use so to know when to laugh, but even then we would be submerged in uproarious laughter when it seemed like nothing more than a simple exchange. Bizarre.

This series does not have much staying power, and clearly FOX doesn’t believe so either. They have rushed out four episodes on two Sundays, hoping to draw in that Simpsons, Family Guy crowd. However, even after this is cancelled, I do believe Cordrry will get another network series (if he stays in television), hopefully he will have more creative control than he does with The Winner.

Fairly dull episode of Survivor last night. Thankfully though, its looks like this degree of redundancy will be short lived.

Pre credits scene, Ravu is sitting back at the shit island, and Yau-Man has managed to decifer that the idol is at camp. So since neither one of them can individually get time away from the team in order to dig without suspicion, him and Earl decide to pull there forces together and for a collaborative effort. Which, all things considered, is a fairly sound idea.

Michelle looks out at the sunset and ponders the game along with whatever else goes on inside that head of hers. Earl and Yau are really going to task with finding the idol. Earl manages to pull them all away from the suspected locale so Yau can dig. And with all due respect to the elder statesman, shouldn’t Earl, the young virile contestant be digging as opposed to Yau? Just sayin’…

Earl and Anthony hike up to the top of the hill to look for fruit, but end up admiring scenery. So apparently this is That Episode. The one where everyone takes into account how far removed they are from their daily lives and the beauty of the islands. Yau pontificates about the search for the idol not going well. And… of course. It’s never going well until you find it. Moto is much less impressed with the prospective reward at the next challenge than is Ravu. Which gives the teams the option of cake, pie, etc; or more practical items like fishing gear that they select before going to RC. Someone actually says, “we have so much luxury it doesn’t even matter”, they sound like the rich family discussing about how they do not care about money.

At RC, the challenge is a joust of sorts, where they hit each other with these large pillows on a platform in the middle of a muddy bank. First to fall off the platform loses… And its fucking retarded, because not only does Moto seemingly have the size advantage in every single match up (with the exception of Boo vs. Earl), Ravu is also malnourished. Moto jumps out to a quick 6-0 lead, the matches are, on average 6-8 seconds long, Moto gets the seventh match with Yau-Man battling Stacy. Then on the eighth match, Cassandra, in a single push, throws diminutive Rita off the platform like King Kong breaking loose in the city and flicking a car out of the way or something. Moto sends Earl to Exile Island, which is such blind luck. In addition to everything else that is going their way, it is starting to grow extremely tiresome. There is no justification for rooting for anyone from Moto in this game. And if Ravu fails to put even one player deep in the game, this season is going to seem somewhat pointless.

Back at Moto, they are once again basking in their rewards. There really isn’t a survival element to this teams game. Stacy, once again, is callously singling out everyone not in there alliance (namely Dreamz and Lisi). Alex finally picks up on how inconsiderate Lisi and Stacy are, as does Edgardo. They both seem pretty intent on breaking the alliance the two women are clinging to, and neither of the women are necessary for any challenges. Lisi is seemingly just a fat slob and Stacy lost to a man twice her age, with a tenth of her diet and half her size in a head-to-head pillow joust (for lack of a better term).

This image is all too familiar

Earl gets another clue that reads verbatim to what all the others have been. Seems to be that a lack of resources is the main problem.

Not so surprisingly, Rita and Michelle for Moto like to have conversations that tend to relate to more feminine topics. Rocky wife abuses to the camera that he cannot stand it and that he wants to smack them for their being so womanly. Its pretty much exactly how it sounds, though it gives Rocky and Anthony a chance to bond which I never thought I would see.

Alex, out of his seemingly good nature, tries to convince Lisi and Alex to treat Dreamz and Cassandra with more appreciation, because come the merge, if the seven from Moto are still intact, and Ravu merges with three, the two Moto outcasts could turn against them and the numbers would be even, the girls seem unnerved because they’re morons and pine to continue berating the unpopular kids.

At IC, and I have never wanted a team to win as bad as I want Ravu to win. Luckily its a mental challenge, which is still enhanced by lifestyle, but not nearly as significantly as physical challenges. Its essentially matching numbers and words on a slew of flipboards. Its really uninteresting to read about so…

Cassandra gets lucky for who else? Moto and randomly matches the eights.
Boo, after being tipped off from Moto’s previous turn, matches the sevens. 2-0, Moto
Earl matches the priest signs after an effort from Yau and Lisi who both missed. 2-1, Moto
Anthony matches the 5’s. 2-2.

At this point they just go into a montage of people flipping the boards until it gets to 6-6. Probst informs us there is one last match and the rest are dummy boards. It’s somewhat comical because Ravu is much more emotionally invested in the game, it is somewhat suspenseful in that regard. Never the less, after Rocky misses on a nine, Cassandra steps up for Moto and matches the two of them. This has to incredibly frustrating for Ravu, regardless of how close they come, they’re still miles away.

At this point it is just depressing watching Ravu. Back at camp, Rocky takes blame for the loss and they try to work out there team issues, led by Rocky. He is really emotional and I am not all convinced he is necessarily a bad guy, but the conditions are without question taking there toll on him. Amazingly enough, in the discussions as to who to vote off, Yau’s name is never mentioned. How does the elder, physically inferior player elude being brought into the fray? Aren’t they always some of the first ousted contestants. Anyhow, all the conversation seems to be circling around Anthony and Rita.

At TC, Ravu is devastated. Rita is udner the impression her “stories” were entertaining and distracting her team from the losses. Good lord is she mistaken. Why didn’t anyone say anything to her? Yau gets philosophical and Anthony is nervous, and for good reason. But he just now proved he is worth his salt in this game with what I think has been our first mental challenge. We go to the vote (Obviously Anthony and Rita both voted for each other):

Anthony
Rita
Anthony
Rita
Rita
Rita

In terms of the most recent challenge performance its fitting, but it’s difficult to not empathize with this teams situation. Never has a squad been dealt a poorer hand, especially relative to that of their opponents. Typically we get a 10-9 suited versus a Q-8. But this is akin to pocket Aces versus a 2-7 off.

In her parting words, Rita is remarkably gracious towards her team, but not nearly as hostile as she should be towards the producers.

No new episodes until March 21st as a result of the NCAA Tournament (but the 21st is still on a Wednesday, and the tourney will still be taking place on the 22nd, so I am not sure of the reasoning for the week delay). Anyhow, the previews are incredibly revealing but for those who intentionally avoid them, I will refrain from dolling out details.

Well, South Park surely wasn’t apprehensive in its return. What was probably one of the more offensive episodes ever, Parker and Stone turned The “N” Word into a national joke, making the few white people who have been publicly ostracized for using the word offended for being recognized as such (Mark Fuhrman, Michael Richards, etc.). In addition, the episode was a non-stop barrage of midget jokes, as Cartman couldn’t contain himself around the sensitivity speaker the school hired.

Really, the bottom line is this, because no one is even remotely surprised by what Parker and Stone concoct anymore, they pretty much have limitless freedom and no material is too pervasive. To the contrary, they are at the point that if the material isn’t socially or culturally edgy, then the episode would be a disappointment. I mean, what other series could have a main character on Wheel of Fortune in the final round, and being asked to complete this puzzle:

Category: People who annoy you

N_ggers

Solve the puzzle.

Then on national television, the main character blurts out The N Word, when the correct answer was actually “nAggers”. To me, the truly offensive aspect of ths scenario was not the word itself, but rather the category that Ryan Marsh applied it to. His immediate connotation with a racial epithet as a description of people who are perceived to be annoying strikes me as adding an entirely additional insult already associated with the word in question.

Can anyone else pull this off? I know HBO isn’t restrained by any FCC regulations and they do not have to worry about sponsors. But they do have to worry about subscribers, and there isn’t a single series on any premium network that can openly mock the usage of the most offensive racial slur in the history of the country and simultaneously show a fourth grader beating up a midget. This sort of creative freedom that South Park continues to relish in can have its positives and negatives, such as it deepens the pool of material they have to fish from, but when everyone and everything is fair game, it can also make its audience uncomfortable in certain situations, particularly when someone happens to be watching the show with acquaintances instead of friends or family.

As far as the season outlook, the presidential race parodies are always standout South Park episodes, with the primaries races kicking off so early for the 2008 election, I am almost uncontrollably giddy for what Parker and Stone will produce this season.

The Black Donnelly’s sophomore episode was substantially more coherent than its premiere, but it didn’t return in the manner I was hoping. Many of the same cliches stayed prevalent and the dialog didn’t improve one iota. But still, I fully plan on watching this show next Monday. Why is that? Everything I respect and enjoy about scripted television (outside of plot development) this series misses its mark on, clearly this is something of a guilty pleasure for me.

For starters, remember when I said Kevin Donnelly was a cross between Sonny and Fredo? Yeah, he is just Fredo. When he unflinchingly murdered those two people outside of the bar where Sal and Huey were congregating, I just assumed that was going to be Gary Cooper, “strong, silent type”. Considering all we saw of Kevin in the premiere was that he had a mild gambling problem and he viciously shot two people with seemingly no remorse, I would venture to guess the continuation with this character was handled somewhat poorly, as he essentially started crying on two separate occasions in the same scene.

Tommy Donnelly, on the other hand, is setting up to be not “good guy forced to do bad things” brand of character, but rather a cold-blooded killer along the lines of Paulie Walnuts or Sylvio Dante. As of now, its hard to even label him an anti-hero because he is fighting for the virtue of Jimmy (a character only portrayed negatively) and Sean. And the only thing we know about the latter is he is very comfortable around women and he might die.

The only (and possibly sufficient) motive we have from Tommy is he swore to himself and God to never let anyone harm his family after he ran over Jimmy’s leg with a stolen car when he was ten. But there has to be more reflection about the past, if for nothing else than to redeem Tommy in some capacity. The only such instances we have seen thus far is flashbacks and some teardrops when he murders three people. How does he devolve from that into bludgeoning the knees of a corpse (Downtown Louie) to fit him in a barrel so he’ll sink to the bottom of the river? I understand his role as protector, but still, there should be some sort of transition.

Speaking of which, one of the pet peeves of mine on crime series’ are the horribly cliched nicknames. Such as “Downtown” Louie and Joey “Ice Cream”, its pretentious of me, I know, but why not simply go with Louie and Joey. Downtown Louie had maybe five minutes of screentime last week before Jimmy shot him in the face, so I guess the sole purpose of the nickname is to distinguish him from the pack, because the entire story is going to stem from his murder, but what are the origins of the nickname? At least we know Joey Ice Cream’s name is an honorary title, because he melts under pressure. But then why even bother? He’s the fucking narrator, the audience doesn’t need any precursor to identify him.

Also, Jenny Reilly continues to agitate more and more with her insipid obviousness. First she makes out with Tommy, then cleans the blood off the basement stairs of the Donnelly’s bar for them, then gets lectured by her father about the lack of morality on the Donnelly’s part, then she sleeps with him and then claims that she cannot be with him. And according to Mr. Ice Cream, its because he has agreed to protect his brothers, even though the two things are mutually exclusive and never really intersect. Whatever, what’s a mob narrative without a faux-noble love interest.

Again, a lot of inconsistincies and shortcomings, but for whatever reason, it seems the content alone is triggering my patience.

I meant to write about Rob Corddry’s new sitcom The Winner and last night’s Black Donnelly’s, but I got to work an hour late this morning and could not find the time. So as my regular fail safe, here are some links…

Much to my relief, Knights of Prosperity has been cancelled. If the guy who plays Murmur from The Sopranos had known this would happen, the writers from The Black Donnelly’s probably wouldn’t have killed him off in the pilot. Man, does that guy get around.

This article helps explain why I do not watch Heroes or 24.

Is it just me, or has Stephen Colbert been risking over-exposure for the last few months? Between the ice cream, the hockey mascot, Bill O’Reilly interviews and presidential roasts… he might get a little burnt out, as well as his audience.

In case you were concerned, Gary, also known as Papa Smurf, who had to leave Survivor last season for medical reasons, states that an allergic reaction is what forced him off the island.

And finally, the actors that form the entourage on HBO’s Entourage are incredibly grateful to have been cast on the series. Considering the knock on all four of them (with the exceptionof Kevin Dillon) is that they leave something to be desired on screen, this disproportional response is fitting.

In the past six months, NBC has taken a risk with a wide variety of network dramas and sitcoms that break the mold of the garden variety we are accustom to. Some have been commercially and/or critically successful (Heroes, Friday Night Lights), while others have been utter bombs (Studio 60 anyone?), but what you cannot begudge Kevin Reilly for is a lack of effort, in a time when most entertainment venues are stale, flat and predicatable, I think that is to be applauded.

Under the same mode of operation, NBC debuted The Black Donnelly’s last Monday to mixed reviews. The series was created by Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco, who brought us the 2005 Oscar winner for Best Picture in Crash. Haggis, who got his start in television has never been one for subtlety so the unapologetic nature of “Donnelly’s” should have been anticipated. But the series did have its positives and negatives and the mixed reviews express my sentiments exactly for what I saw last Monday. Here’s a quick summary of my thought process while watching at lunch seven days ago:

Heavy narration=cheap plot device, too many characters introduced too soon, there’s a recognizable face, that doesn’t make any sense, Tommy Donnelly is a decent actor, this is like a cross between “Sleepers” and “The Godfather”, there’s two recognizable faces, cliche, cliche, melodramatic acting, I can successfully identify every character now, who are all those women?, Holy shit! that was a damn good payoff and an unexpected twist. I’m intrigued.

It came as no surprise to me when Nielsen feedback showed that The Black Donnelly’s lost millions of viewers from teh first half hour to the second. For the first thiry minutes there is almost nothing positive to say about the series. It was, and I am being generous when I say this, very disjointed. There is almost no symmetry from scene to scene, we are introduced to about three scores of characters in the first fifteen minutes and given about ten different back stories. It was initially confusing, upon second viewing everything was crystal clear but never the less, sloppy.

If you did happen to tune in for the first half hour then sticking around for the second half hour was worth your time, because the payoff was in the final five minutes was enormous, even if somewhat predicatable. Either way, the episode beomces more of a redemption tale then a standard issue crime story.

The characters are essentially carbon copies etched out from other crime dramas and plastered onto the screen as Irishmen instead of Italians. The four brothers all have shades of Sonny, Michael and Fredo. Tommy is the soft spoken leader trying to steer him and his three brothers from a life of crime, he is Michael all the way. Jimmy is the hot headed older brother with a heroin habit making Sonny with a touch of Fredo. then the two characters that are essentially put on the back burner are the little brother Sean (seems intelligent like Michael but weak and misguided like Fredo). And Kevin, whom has a penchant for gambling despite his notorious bad luck (dumb like Fredo but ruthless like Michael). All in all, there is a lot of material here for one episode.

Some of the peripherial characters are borderline unbearable. Particularly Jenny Reilly, the childhood tomboy friend of the four brothers. According to the narrator (we’ll get to him in a minute) her husband has been dead for an undetermined amount of time, everyone in the neighborhood besides her knows this yet she is under the impression he is at some sort of teacher’s conference.

A cliched, insufferable little fellow by the name of Joey “ice cream” is narrating the story to two detectives. Aside from a few instances, we are never quite sure how he is privy to all of the information he is. He has longed to have siblings like the Donnelly’s and is something of the smarmy loser that everyone uses as the neighborhood whipping boy. He has an obnoxiously grating voice and is supposed to be for comic relief, such as when he keeps rehashing or embellishing stories (”I was with a girl that doesn’t stop all night”, then we see his mother chase him out to a cab). It is never made clear if Joey is honest or not when talking to the cops, so it leaves the option open for several more twists and turns if the writers deem that necessary.

We get a little backstory to the Italian family, but nothing of substance. It is worth pointing out that there are several “that guy’s” in this pilot. There is that guy who played Frank Sobotka in the second season of The Wire, that guy who played Murmur on The Sopranos and the CO on Rescue Me and that guy who played Miguel Alvarez on OZ, in which he was a latino crime leader; now he is the Italian mob lead on “Donnelly’s” and seemingly the main antagonist.

As far as technical aspects are concerned, the writing is mediocre, the quality of acting varies (Peaks with Kevin Donnelly and bottoms out with Jimmy), the cinematography is, well, cinematic; and the plot is intriguing. I cannot recall what the last network crimes series was, but as far as these things are concerned, the show was watchable. Haggis, who was responsible for a previous series of the same vein with EZ Streets, and has been quite successful in film the past few years with Crash Letters From Iwo Jima, Flags of Our Fathers and Casino Royale and Million Dollar Baby (all of which he wrote the screenplays for and the first of which he directed). With that kind of film resume, coupled witrh television work in the same genre, one would expect the series to be exceptional as opposed to simply watchable.

Not to say Black Donnelly’s wasn’t a complete flop by any means, but if it wasn’t for the last five minutes I might have been singing a different tune. Never the less, I am somewhat eager to see where they take this story so I’ll be tuning in tonight. this is a series that is really dependent on personal preference, if you like crime dramas, it is worth the hour out of your evening. If you do not like Goodfellas, The Departed or any other mob movie, do not even bother. Because while I thought the premiere had its redeeming qualities, it is nowhere near the caliber of the two Scorsese pictures.

Interesting episode of Survivor last night, certainly some division is starting to take place and antipathy is starting to take hold. Hopefully episodes of this caliber are a regular trend this season.

Pre credits, Anthony declares a post TC “pow-wow”, Rocky immediately resents the idea and brings Anthony’s manhood into question as a result of all his perceived “bitching and moaning”. To be honest, I say perceived because while Anthony looks like a somewhat soft, I am not sure what this is derived from. Apparently Anthony has low self esteem that stems from being picked on while growing up. He proves my suspicions right when he starts crying during his confessional interview. Honestly, why does anyone give a fuck what Rocky thinks? Is this the alpha male for Fiji? Because… yikes.

While sitting in the beach, Lisi and Stacy talk about how great they are and how tight the alliance is between the two of them, Boo, Alex and Edgar. And even though she is entirely to impressed with how she is “kicking the ass” of Ravu, I am simply waiting for her to step out of the water. But her proclamation about the fortitude of her team is flawed for two reasons. One, she has very little to do with it. Two, Ravu is at a significant disadvantage due to living conditions.

Gary is still having health issues, Lisi is incredibly callous about it, “I don’t want to have to babysit him”, are believe her exact words. I am not sure he is asking for a babysitter, but hey, way to disgust everyone at home with your horrific personality.

At RC, they’re playing for rice, fish, spices, pillows and a bed that will be at camp. The challenge involves walking around teammates on a platform, it is too convoluted to explain and make engaging in prose, so I’ll just tell you who wins…. it’s Moto, again, Despite Ravu getting out to a significant lead. At this point its more psychological than anything. They send Yau-Man to Exile. Apparently Moto is under the impression that being in Exile is better than being at Ravu’s camp. And the suggestion isn’t too far off. Also, at this point I am convinced that the winning tribe is relocated to the nice camp, hence why there is a bed waiting at camp for the winner. I doubt they are building one bed at each camp, and it leads me to believe that whoever won was going back to the nicer beach. The only problem being, Ravu is too numerically, emotionally, spiritually and physically decimated to mount a win.

Alex on Moto at least has some empathy for the other tribe, but rightly says he doesn’t want to let up for one second. Ravu, on the other hand, is noticeably incredulous. Rocky is just throwing rocks at the mountain and ranting about losing five in a row. Michelle, in a naive attempt to provide some levity, asks, “Who’s going to get some wood?” Here I would like to apply the Larry David logic, “I don’t understand, why don’t you get the wood?”

Anthony is fretting to Earl, Earl camera talks that he doesn’t know if he wants to keep him around or try too form an alliance with him.

Yau-Man is on the island, discovers the idol is back at camp.

Liliana is giving back rubs to all of the guys on Moto, Lisi is smart enough, as is everyone, to recognize that this is a ploy to curry favors with the male members of the team, but in her description she manages to slip in, “I know what’s going on in her diobolical Mexican mind.” What does Mexican have to do with anything?

The morning after, Gary is still feeling miserable. He says Malaria that he contracted eight years ago was nothing compared to what he’s going through right now. He ends up leaving camp after seeing that his blood pressure is relatively stable and there is nothing more the medical team can do. Lisi says she is glad because his voluntary exit makes it better odds for everyone. Which, I really hate this broad. Sometimes editing can manipulate the audience into believing someone is a bad guy when they really are not and it’s usually transparent (i.e. Johnathan last season), but to say things like this are a little absurd. Would she be just as indifferent if he had died on the island?

Rocky now claims he is trying to lead by example. So when Michelle is reading the tree mail, he walks up to her, naked, and puts his hand on her shoulder. He later interviews and goes to IC with a halter top on. He is pretty much losing his mind ala Shane on Cook Islands.

At IC, Moto pretends to care that Gary left. The challenge consists of freeing tribe members from cages at varying points in the water while walking across lily pads. They then get in a boat and row to pick up the rest of the team members, then get to shore, form a human period and unlock the remaining team member out of one last cage. Probst also informs them that there is a bottle the winning tribe will have to open. Moto jumps out to a seemingly insurmountable lead. Lisi cackles and makes me want to smack her in the face. Ravu makes up some ground and gets to the last cage where Michelle and Stacy are racing to unlock the last team member out of their respective cages. But Moto had such a significant lead, it proves to be too much and they win yet another challenge.

The bottle turns out to be a catch-22 for the winning team, either they give up their camp or they go to Tribal Council to vote someone off. Amazingly enough, they opt to go to TC. So apparently they all have someone they want sent home.

Moto is experiencing some sour grapes about having to vote someone off. Dreamz wants to have a group discussion about it, and singles out Cassandra and Lisi. Please, please send Lisi home. Stacy is incredibly snide in explaining that her core five is dictating the game. I am hoping Lisi or Stacy gets the boot, but after that exhibition it will probably be Dreamz.

Humorously enough, the core five want to get rid of either Liliana or Cassandra, the three women want to vote out Liliana because they are intimidated by her, the three men want to vote out Cassandra because she is seemingly worthless in the challenges. After all, she was the one they put in the final cage. All she had to do was stand there. Interestingly enough, if they split their vote, and the other four vote for, say, Lisi, then she would go home and they could bring the two alliances to a four-four tie.

At TC, Lisi calls out Dreamz’s diatribe immediately after IC, and he is put on the defensive. Apparently someone is bitter about being recognized as expendable. He asks Liliana what she brings to the tribe and she says strength and persistence. And to illustrate just how out of the loop she is, Probst asks Cassandra’s opinion of Liliana, she says she is a good representation of female strength and she wants her to go far in the game. They vote:
Liliana
Lisi
Cassandra
Liliana
Liliana
Liliana

Liliana and I are both surprised and it’s really infuriating Lisi got her way, that’s someone you never want to see vindicated. And more proof that you would much rather have male than female nemesis’ in this game.

In her parting words, Liliana states a tribe never wants to vote off their strongest members early, and she is right about her strength and the general strategy, but its obnoxious listening to people sound so self-absorbed. I guess she is just trying to save face.

Next week, if its any consolation to her, her team starts to come off the hinges, probably as a result of the head alliance being torn on voting off her or Cassandra, hope she’s happy.

Well, if there was a ever a transitional episode of dramatic television, last nights Friday Night Lights was it. Even the episode title, “Extended Families” alludes to a transition in plot. Look at all the burgeoning relationships from this episode alone:

Tyra-Tami
Taylor-Buddy
Smash-Waverly’s Dad
MILF Neighbor-Riggins
Riggins-MILF Neighbor’s Son (obviously in a different context)

and of course, turning points in these classics:

Jason-Lyla
Matt-Julie
Julie-Tyra
Tami-Taylor

There was too much going on in this episode to do a play-by-play, so we’ll keep it as succinct as possible, since most of what took place is not too pivotal.

As far as the Riggins plot goes, at least you can say they are giving it a couple episodes before he ruins the lives of that women and her kid. In all seriousness, is there any doubt he is going to end up sleeping with that woman, then awhile down the line she catches making a porno with with Julie and two rally girls or something? Either way, I liked the concept of the kid humanizing him again (despite how contrived and exploitive it clearly is).

Tyra was as much a focal point as anyone else this week and she is one of the more tragic figures on this show… pretty much the female equivalent to Riggins. One parent is AWOL, the other is a substance abusing absentee parent. Both are completely insceure and are, at times, unfairly labeled. She was deeply concerned for her mother in this episode (as Ms. Colette unexplainably self-destructive and distraught over losing Buddy Garrity, his wife doesn’t seem too mind) and I enjoyed watching her confront Tami about her parental restrictions.

Smash is in over his head with Waverly, it reminds me of Mac’s comment a few episodes back when he called Smash “Too big for his britches”. At the time and in the context it was used Mac was completely out of line, but to apply the same phrase to this current situation is a vast understatement. He would be wise to inform her father about Waverly’s admission of self-medicating (or lack thereof) after seeing her curled up in the fetal position on her parents kitchen floor. Where was her dad, anyways? Did she kill him? Hopefully we’ll find out after yet another hiatus.

Street is still in denial about the whole engaged to Lyla thing. From what I understand it is customary (Or less peculiar) to get married at a ripe age in Texas, so I suppose their engagement isn’t that much of a stretch. Never the less, with trailer trash blond girls tattooing her fiance and Lyla describing all of Street’s new friends (i.e. Herc and all of his friends) as “scary”, things do not bode well for the Dillon dreamboats. Still, he is undyingly committed to her ( and I assume likewise).

Like I said before, they are using the college coaching offer as a potential conclusion to this series should it not get renewed. So, if it does, I think TMU (a combination of TCU and SMU, which would make it Texas Methodist University) will retract the offer after discovering either the Smash steroids cover up or the Voodoo “recruiting” tactics (Despite the fact he never did anything untoward). If FNL is cancelled after one full season, well, it has a very loyal fan base, so they will definitely be disappointed, luckily for the country its fan base is small enough to fit into my office building.

Oh, almost forgot, say what you will about Buddy, but he is in it to win it. Despite his marriage falling apart, sending another woman into a deep depression and imposing on Taylor, he still finds the time to use The Big Lebowski scribble ploy to read what was written on the top page of a notepad and discover Taylor was contemplating leaving for a college position. Really enjoyed Taylor’s lecture towards him at the end and we were enlightened to depths of Buddy Garrity’s High School football neuroses.

-Does MTV have more reality/dating shows than CBS has crime/law shows? Most likely, given they have twenty-four hours to kill of original programming as opposed to the fifteen or sixteen CBS is responsible for, but percentage of series’? Its pretty much a toss up.

-We are seeing an influx of Irish mob stories in film and television. Which ethnicity has the favorable stereotypes? Italians tend to be categorized as more violent but somehow more cosmopolitian. Irishmen are typically labeled as drunken louts with little or no cognitive abilities. Personally, I think I would prefer the culutural mischaracterization of Italian/Americans, you may be brutally violent but at least it’s by choice.

-HBO needs to spread out the body of their original programming throughout the course of the year. We have three months from teh finale of Extras to the start of the second half of the most recent seasons of Entourage and The Sopranos. Why not pick up one of these two on the same night Extras has its finale? Only seems logical, right?

-From what I understand and from the little I have actually been privy to, Showtime series are a close second to HBO series. But really, what percentage of the American population have Showtime? Like five percent. Honestly, putting Dexter and Weeds on the obscure premium network is akin to The NHL being on Versus. Except people would actually watch the two shows if they were even remotely available.

That’s all I’ve got. More on last nights FNL later today.