Grid Effect

A few more links to close out the day. A few programming notes: We didn’t do any fall network previews this year mainly because it is relatively a lot more work than we are accustom to on a day to day basis, combined with additive day job responsibility from a year ago and another site we are writing for daily, we felt it better to just forgo bashing the efforts of every broadcast network and let you find out for yourself just how lethargic they apparently are.

But starting next Monday, in which virtually every new fall series will have already premiered, we will do a nightly preview for every day that week. Sure, it will cut into work hours and links and everything else that we are trying so desperately to keep up on, but what’s writing a blog for marginal pay without over-extending yourself? With any luck, I’ll be fired from my day job as a result.

Onto the links….

It warrants mentioning that Friday Night Lights technically kicks off its third season tomorrow night. I say “technically” because it only exists for you if you happen to plunk down the egregious amounts of money that Direct TV requires for their services. So, since its only available through the satellite provider, we’re going to pretend that it isn’t airing until next February when us philistines with cable can catch it on NBC. We apologize for the circumstances, here, Direct TV subscribers, but as an apology may we offer you a narrow, pale, extended middle finger right between your eyes for pandering to the inefficient, overpriced & unnecessary service that is satellite television. If it wasn’t for you materialistic heathens who need to feel important with a wobbly satellite atop the roof of your house, we wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place. And we would be able to get the NFL ticket at a reasonable rate via a more practical service as well.

The brain trust over at the Washington Post wonders what New York City was like circa Mad Men times. Uh, it was only forty-six years ago. Part of the point of the series is a reflection on how prehistoric our sensibilities were despite a healthy percentage of the current population being alive at the time. But they are probably right, I’m pretty sure Dinosaurs ruled the streets, and to get a cab you first had to pull the tail of a Stegosaurus so he could hale one for you. Isn’t it suspicious how little of the show is actually held outside? Now you know why. Other than that, I hear it was pretty much the same.

A visual approximation. Truth be told no one knows what it was like.

SNL has experienced yet another ratings bump with Tina Fey impersonating Sarah Palin. At this point Fey is still basically a cast member of the series, and I can no longer deny her virtual comedy icon status, but I’m not really getting this impersonation. She looks and sounds like Palin, to be sure, but she never says anything all that funny. She just acts like Palin. Of course, there was the “lifeline” gag, but the connection is tepid at best. In fact it is just completely random. Why would Sarah Palin ask for a “lifeline” in the middle of an interview with Katie Couric? Because she is struggling so much with the interview? Isn’t there a better route to go with that other than a reference to a now archaic quiz show?

ZOMG you guys, you remember when the entire branch weighed itself in on The Office? Well, as it turns out, they used a real scale! I can’t believe it, instead of using a slightly elevated black platform that wasn’t a scale, they used a slightly elevated black platform that was. That’s what makes this series so funny, the taut realism of their props. Not just every series goes to such great lengths for their audience. That must’ve been a weight on the budget….A weight, get it? Man, I am priceless.

Paul Feig, most notably the creator of Freaks and Geeks, along with having directed and written for virtually every series we’ve ever watched including Arrested Development, The Office, Mad Men & Weeds, considers his career a failure. Oh boy, this is messy. We had a feeling this might happen, and not because Paul Feig is actually a failure, but because everyone around him is so immensely successful. If Freaks and Geeks had been released in 2004 instead of 1999, it would still be on air and he would be at the helm of this new comedy wave, instead of on the sidelines. Poor bastard.

This is fucking brilliant. HBO’s upcoming series set in the near future, Americatown, will explore the concept of Americans as immigrants when American equivalents of Chinatowns start going up all over the world. The one looming question I have is, don’t people generally go to McDonald’s or whatever landmarks of American culture because it is convenient and affordable? If they are secluded to these niche segments of a city, doesn’t that negate both advantages thus making them obsolete (at least in foreign countries)? Whatever, we don’t usually say this, but we are certainly looking forward to how this and the litany of deeper questions is tackled.

Chuck premiered last night, and it improved upon its fairly successful strike-shortened pilot season, says Alan Sepinwall. We respect Alan Sepinwall, but this series is one of the few we do not see eye to eye on. I mean, as far as fluff goes it is probably better than most. But we feel like there are enough series on television where we can watch some impotent little bitch mince through a plot, there isn’t any reason to go out of our way to watch just one of them when the character is virtually always the same person.

And finally, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will be the halftime performance for the upcoming Superbowl in Tampa, FL. Unlike most of the country — or rather, the countless array of ESPN sports pundits — we have enjoyed this slew of classic rock artists for halftime. I know, I know, this is done to avoid anymore “nipple-gate” scenarios. And while we don’t like the all the additive precautions for the sake of placating the FCC, the Janet Jackson-Justin Timberlake performance, all nipples aside, was just idiotic. I know this sounds crazy, but I’d rather hear actual good, creative music than watch a bunch of dipshits perform choreographed dances. Regardless of how old said good, creative music may be.

Back tomorrow morning with something.

I don’t think I’ve ever been so thrilled to not have any series’ to watch. Finally, I can just sit here, be oblivious and churn out some good ol’ fashion links. This is truly a blessed day for Grid Effect. For the past week we’ve felt more like an automaton programmed to write absurd TV reviews as quickly as possible rather than an actual living, breathing human being.

Entourage is reportedly sparing no expense in its online marketing campaign, which is odd because this is the first I’ve ever heard about it. Then again, I’m probably not the standard Entourage viewer, so anywhere I might see this campaign is not somewhere I would normally be. If I had to guess it is probably on something like Perez Hilton’s website, and as “hilarious” as it is to crack jokes about starlets multiple public indiscretions, we have yet to ever mosey on over an see what that freak of nature is actually devotes his efforts towards.

As you’ve probably all heard by now, McCain snubbed David Letterman out of an interview in favor of Katie Couric. Yes, it was a shitty thing to do, but does Letterman think he was the first show host to ever be denied an interview from an in demand politician? I mean, McCain basically canceled an appearance on Letterman’s entertainment show in preference of a news show on the same network. So what? How entitled and out of touch does one have to be to actually like a petulant child about this? Either way, Craig Ferguson rushed to his mentor’s defense.

We’ve marveled in the past about ER still being on the air and now, as if someone actually reads this site, they’ve managed to even astonish themselves. Yes, this is the final season of the acclaimed medical drama. A series that has spawned such hits as 3 LBS. and Chicago Hope is finally closing the curtain on its 100 year run. I, for one, am going to miss those promos during The Office the few times that I actually watch commercials.

ER's contribution to television is unparalleled.

If you’re wondering what Sarah Michelle Gellar has been doing as of late, the answer is trying to finagle her way into a TV deal with HBO. For you Buffy fans, you will be happy to know that it worked. She will be part of an ensemble cast for a series called The Wonderful Maladys’ . Unfortunately the show is about three young adults who lost their parents at an early age. So not to be too superficial, but unless the character has severe daddy issues, we probably won’t be seeing her naked. Sorry ladies, but a guy hears “Sarah Michelle Gellar” and “HBO” in the same sentence, and that caveat is the first thing that comes to mind. Anyhow, I’d bet 10 to 1 that she got the job by promising to make a True Blood appearance should the series make it past its first season.

Good news, people. Jeff Probst is blogging about Survivor for Entertainment Weekly, meaning you have no reason to read one of our Survivor posts ever again. But still, he won’t provide the irreverent wit and brutal honesty that we do. Sure, he will be tough on the contestants, but this is a man who once called China, “one of the greatest seasons in the history of Survivor“. If you want to avoid that kind of hyperbole, stick to Grid Effect. Your move, Probst.

I haven’t read his book, or any of his books for that matter. But we tend to think Bill O’Reilly gets a bad rap as the ultra-conservative fascist that no one left of center seems to like. He is a conservative, but he isn’t Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh, those are the republican equivalents to Keith Olbermann. We tend to think he is just entirely too abrasive, and he gets the “fascist” moniker for being the headline act on FOX News.

That said, O’Reilly doesn’t do himself any favors when he blames the liberal media for the shortcomings of the Seinfeld finale. Again, we haven’t read his latest memoir, but according to this post, Bill O’Reilly stated in “A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity” that the creators of Seinfeld, as well as the creators of The Sopranos, intentionally made a dud to end their respective series’. It is kind of an incomplete blog post (or incomplete book), because it doesn’t state why or how O’Reilly believes this to be true or why the showrunners would intentionally sabotage their own work, but either way, assuming the blogger isn’t taking O’Reilly out of context (which is entirely possible), this is about the most random shit I’ve ever heard.

Back with more later.

In what will probably be our favorite new show of the fall season, The Life and TImes of Tim offers a new approach and refreshing format to the adult comedy cartoon. In other words, it will probably be canceled after its first season (I’m assuming they want a second one).

It doesn’t follow the traditional mold of any other late night cartoon before it, and instead of offering a traditional half hour episode with three acts, it is broken down into two vignettes that offer nothing in terms of continuity, in fact the only thing the two shorts had in common were Tim being the focus of both of them. But they were are chock full of precarious situations and numerous laughs. One would think this would cater to America’s five second attention span, but it doesn’t cater to America’s disdain for subtlety and nuance, so when it is canceled we can point to this as the reason why.

The humor in it isn’t going to be for everyone, and not liking it doesn’t necessarily make you an idiot, but it makes you suspicious of being one. There isn’t a lot of heated confrontation, in that respect it is like the exact opposite of It’s Always Sunny, but it is like the FX series in that the comedy doesn’t always smack you in the face with its obviousness. Sure, they do that on It’s Always Sunny, but some of the funnier aspects to that series are the moments in between the racuous exchanges.

Our hapless protagonist.

In the first half of the episode entitled “Angry Unpaid Prostitute”, the premise is simple: Tim called a plumber and accidentally ended up dialing an escort agency for a house call, and this coincides with the first meeting of his girlfriends parents arrival. That is pretty much it: Tim, his girlfriend, her parents and a prostitute conversing over the peculiarity of their situation. The setup is simple and almost overused, but the payoff is original. The difference being, there never is any great climax that the short builds to. Everything happens and ends with Tim getting out of the situation by offering the pimp the clothes off his back and fashion advice.

Also, when you laugh you’re not laughing at jokes persay, so much as you are laughing at the interaction. For example, It is similar to The Office, but even more subdued. For instance, when the prostitutes pimp arrives, he buzzes up to his apartment:

Pimp: Let me up or I’m going to shove your head up your asshole.

Tim (To prostitute): ….Am I to assume that’s Maurice?

Prostitute: That is unmistakably Maurice.

Tim: That’s classic Maurice, huh?

The tone and tenor of this episode was much the same that it was in the second. Little to no enthusiasm, a dry sense of sarcasm with virtually no scathing confrontation like every other comedy we watch on this site. In the second short, “Rodney’s Bachelor Party”, a coworker of his throws a bachelor party and only Rodney, Tim and one other coworker show up. So in order to uphold Rodney’s image, they come up with stories for their other coworkers who neglected to attend.

In short, Rodney tells their boss that Tim was raped by a homeless man when he left early. Again, the situation goes to from simple misunderstanding to outrageous but we never get an outraged confrontation or hysterical behavior. The mood and behaviors of the characters indicate that they recognize the absurdity of the ordeal, but they seldom react to it like one would expect.

Explaining humor is tedious and no one is ever interested in it, but if you do tune in, do not expect something like Two and Half Men or even something we generally watch like Curb Your Enthusiasm. The humor in it is depraved and immoral in the classical sense, but more so than any other show, The Life and Times of Tim is okay with that.

Links or something tomorrow morning.

The string of good episodes continued last night with “Fire Sale”. In fact it was infinitely better than last week’s episode which we were kind of waffling on (despite ultimately concluding that it wasn’t a complete waste of time). Basically the followed the same format, kept it limited to two storylines so as to narrow the focus thus engaging the audience more in what’s taking place and making the comedy a little more relevant to what’s at stake rather than just interchangeable one-liners. Which, believe it or not grow rather tiresome.

Not that we are on pins and needles wondering what ever will happen to Vince Chase. It is pretty much of no consequence to us. We were kind of under the impression that he wasn’t able to land any respectable roles, at all. Not just leads. When he was so generously guaranteed the second male lead in the “Fire Jumpers” movie, we were kind of flummoxed at what all the commotion was about. Countless leading men have volunteered to either be second lead or co-lead and no one has ever thought twice about the implications it would have on their career. Has anyone seen The Departed? What? Every single actor in that has a leading role? Wahlberg, Damon and DiCaprio still regularly carry movies, while Nicholson, Baldwin and Sheen are all more than capable. It seems like the most negligible of sacrifices for someone like Vince to make.

But set aside any minor quibbles about the accuracy of depicting Hollywood (which this show admittedly prides itself on), we watched an episode that was high-energy from beginning to end that involved about five different interested parties in one script, all with different motivations and ideas for how to bring the script to life: Ari wanting to sell the film with Vince, Eric wanting to sell it for his clients but also not wanting to leave Vince behind, the writers wanting as much money and as much star power as possible attached to their project, Amanda representing Ed Norton and the most money, but the studio offering it is the same one that did Aquaman 2 and wants to abandon Vince altogether.

Fuck with him and you will feel his wrath. And by which I mean complaining about materialism.

This has so many little caveats to it that we are interested to see if it actually gets resolved quickly or if this turns into the new “Medellin” for them. For once, we are actually hoping for the former. The drawn out plot of “Medellin” lasted for three full seasons and ignored the notion of pretty much every other script that may have been written. And since it ended up actually being a shitball that went straight to DVD, we have to wonder why. It wasn’t just that they thought it would be good, but everyone around them telling them how good it would be. We never got an explanation as to why it ended up being so fucking terrible.

Basically, we know whatever happens will end up being a successful rebound, and we certainly don’t mind if that encompasses an entire season or two, but just don’t make it all about one potential movie that may or may not be received well by audiences. We’ve already been there, and we’ve already done that. But as it stands right now, they are handling the “Fire Jumpers” plot as well as anything they’ve ever done.

On the other side of the Chase family, Drama is turning into even more of a caricature of himself. I don’t watch The View except for when they have the occasional segment aired on every op-ed show or when it is featured on The Soup, but do they ever really sandbag anyone like that? Either way, Drama comparing the life of a celebrity to the life of a “civilian” was bad enough, but to be strong-armed into breaking out in tears and running off the stage kind of overshadowed it. We will admit that this is, indeed, getting old. And it has only been two episodes.

The momentary stint in jail seemed to sober him up to the reality of the situation, but considering the show has conditioned me to a short attention span when watching it, if this plot continues on past next week’s episode, we aren’t going to be nearly as forgiving. Drama lamenting his breakup has already almost lasted as many episodes as the actual courtship.

Other thoughts on “Fire Sale”:

-Amanda commenting on Eric’s naivete, suggesting it was mostly an act: No, Amanda, Eric really is in over his head but occasionally gets lucky, much like anyone would.

-Speaking of which, Eric’s little “You wanna go” challenge to Ari reminded us all too much of Chris from Team America.

-We hope there is some sort of retaliation from Drama for his costar setting him up in what seems like a completely unprovoked dick move.

Back with a recap/review for The Life and Times of Tim — which we enjoyed immensely — later today.

You know, as much as I enjoy getting two episodes in one night, the series is so energetic and exhausting that they could get away only one episode a week. It would make the syntax of these posts a lot clearer as well. As you can tell from the heading, we are taking it back to covering both of them in one episode, partly because we found them equally enjoyable and partly because we (kinda) have a life and (sorta) want to start living it.

In the first installment, “Frank Buys a Billboard”, Dennis, Mac and Frank hold auditions for models to occupy the space of his billboard. Glenn Howerton absolutely stole the show in this episode. Most notably when he dresses down Frank’s physical appearance in comparison to his, and when Mac compares him to Rex the model. I don’t think that they’ve ever brought people onto this show that Dennis would consider himself threatened by, but it was a necessary evil to put him on the defensive, especially about his appearance. In episode two they came up with the dynamic that Mac was the brains, Dennis was the looks and Charlie was the wild card, that has never been more true than in this episode.

This will probably keep me up at night.

Speaking of Charlie, we loved Greenman (whom we still insist was born out of the Red Hot Chili Peppers video, “Breaking The Girl“) the first time we saw him, and the little image of him flying up on the youtube screen, along with him keeping his hands in his pockets to conceal the Green Man outfit he was wearing under his clothes, damn near knocked us off our chair it was so randomly hysterical. Dee’s failed acting aspirations were once again mocked by the writers and characters alike, we loved the absurd Mad TV parody of parodies that she was doing and the dysfunctional nature that always occurs whenever she works with Charlie. This reminded us of the anti-smoking/Russian roulette episode from season 2.

The fourth episode of this season, “Mac Bangs The Waitress”, had a lot more potential than they actually produced but it was funny regardless. The suspense music used from “Dance of The Sugar Plum Fairy” with Dennis and Charlie popping up unexpectedly everywhere was the preferable ten minute sequence of the episode as it reminded us of “Mac Bangs Dennis’ Mom”. The lack of Frank and Dee really tightened the focus on Dennis, Charlie and Mac as they are the core of the series. As much as I like the compliments of Dee and Frank, they are both expendable to varying degrees. If the series ever lost Glenn Howerton, Rob McElHenney or Charlie Day then the show would take a considerable plunge.

But the elements of this episode were abnormally sound and almost in the mold of traditional sitcoms unlike we are used to from this series, particularly when you compare it to the first episode of this season. Even though it was purely to feed his ego, Dennis pining to be considered Charlie’s best friend despite sleeping with the girl he longs for (we are amused by how she is still only known as Waitress, and that is consistent with Dennis’ alphabetized homemade video collection) is something that has been done repeatedly in other shows in the past, but few execute it so regularly.

I think we’re going to have to watch it again, though. Between this, The Office, Survivor and the USC game, we were watching this at about 1:30am last night and I was kind of nodding off. Not that we’re going to write about it again, but it would probably be wise.

A few choice moments from “Mac Bangs The Waitress”:

“I have to lie down like a Starfish, this way, if I can make myself flat enough, they might not be able to see me” -Charlie, insisting there is nowhere to hide in his apartment. Followed by the cut of the best thing they could come up with being him and Dennis curling up into a ball with a comforter thrown over them.
-Mac’s description of Dennis’ porn stash.

-The connect four exchange and Dennis’ astonished facial expressions to why Charlie doesn’t want to play.

This capped off a really solid night of television despite how tired we were. Next week’s hour long episode looks hysterical and we’ll try to post on it that night to give us a little more free time on Friday to hopefully get to some links or what have you.

That’s it for the week, have a safe one.

Greg Daniels and company love coming back with these hour long episodes. One here and there isn’t terrible, especially a season premiere to acknowledge that the series is finally back after what seemed like an eternity. Last night actually seemed to include everyone (sans Meredith) and hit some sort of chord in every scene.

The Jim-Pam saga I guess has reached its climax. We were kind of hoping Rich Sommer (Harry Crane from Mad Men, if he was as unrecognizable to you as he was to me. I guess it was just the Clark Kent effect, but we wouldn’t have known that was him if we didn’t already know in advance) would be given more to work with, but the third party getting in their way caveat was kind of done to death in the first three and a half seasons.

I’m sure virtually all women who tune into this series were ecstatic, and I can probably stop worrying about it ruining the comedy aspect of the show (they seem to be giving Jim plenty to do with Pam’s absence, “I’m going to lose 65 pounds”), but it still just simply doesn’t interest me in episodes where it is a focus. Sorry. We know they have great on screen chemistry and that it is part of the core of the series, but there are about a hundred other series’ on television that we can flip on for relationship drama, there are about six we can flip to for laughs. The Office is one of those few.

Anyhow, we have no idea why Amy Ryan is slumming it over here on a network sitcom, but we are thankful for it anyways. It actually gives Michael a legitimate love interest that isn’t taken seriously in any way. They are probably going to eventually get together and eventually breakup because I can’t see Beadie Russell, I mean, shit, Amy Ryan being a permanent fixture on this show.

Sorry, she'll always be Beadie to us.

But the dynamic with Michael seeking Jim’s advice and Jim doing all he can to deter Michael from idiocy is a great one. I couldn’t ask for a better, more subtle gaffe from Michael Scott than him ripping those Counting Crows tickets to shreds. Even with all the suggestiveness that Holly throws his way, he still isn’t nuanced enough to gather what she is thinking. To her credit, Holly might be the most patient human being on the face of the earth. Or is at least as much so in the office.

The ongoing plot that everything revolved around was the weight loss contest, this managed to include everyone (again, except Meredith, whom we don’t even recall seeing) and provide for some worthwhile moments. Most notably with Creed providing Kelly with what she believed to be a tapeworm. It was as horrifying as it was hilarious.

Even Ryan came back and was appropriately put in his place by Jim, who is now on notice with Ryan. We were surprised that as low as he currently is that he would ever go back to Kelly. But aside from that his return on to the bottom rung of Dunder-Mifflin Scranton branch is a welcomed one. Even if he is still a cocky little prick. His faux-humbleness is about as transparent as a starlets reform after rehab.

The one storyline that we felt dragged on too long and never really provided anything new was Angela constantly going to and from sleeping with Dwight depending on Andy’s complacency and annoyance level. It was just beat into the ground and its only been one episode. I know Ed Helms is getting a spinoff, but if this is the way they are going to handle the remainder of his time on the series, then it can’t come soon enough.

There was one nice little extension to that storyline, and that is Phyllis blackmailing her way to the reigns of the party planning committee, and Angela’s clear frustration with it. Hey, if you want to cheat on your coworker/fiance with another coworker, it is probably wise to not do it in the office.

Other notes from “Weight Loss”:

-The Michael Klump bit wasn’t terrible, but they always manage to stretch out Michael Scott’s inanity a little too long. At least Holly was horrified from the get go but eventually warmed to it. We loved his commanding of Phyllis, who was taken behind the woodshed this weekend. Speaking of which…

-Dwight’s ruse to get her to walk back was mean-spirited, like everything Dwight did this episode and every episode before it, but it was damn funny.

-Stanley, getting back down to his revolution weight didn’t do anything for us, but we always like to hear about character history. Especially Creed’s.

-It wasn’t even alluded to this episode, but if they can somehow get Vincent Kartheiser on this show through the Rich Sommer connection, then the TV universe might shrivel up and die from the two Office worlds colliding.

A strong return for The Office, we are actually looking forward to seeing how everyone (including the writers) handle the engagement. After one episode it looks to be a prevailing theme so hopefully it isn’t overdone. If it does become too overbearing, NBC might be better off extending the series to an hour on a regular basis, despite my earlier protestations.

Back with It’s Always Sunny recap later today.

Thursday night’s are going to be busy as hell with all the quality shit on television. We really didn’t need a full two hours of Survivor that was atypical to most Survivor premieres in that one team was completely pwned by the other, so we actually got to know some of the contestants since the focus was so narrow. Anyhow, we wrote this as we watched it last night so forgive any typos.

We’ve previewed the cast and now it is time for the games to begin. In typical Survivor fashion it began as slow as possible with an excurciatingly long introduction and even longer two hour season premiere. Probst calls it one of the “last untouched places on the planet”. Yeah, until you and your fucking camera crews and pack of idiots decided to show up. With any luck one of those cheetahs they keep showing in the credits will maul one of the camps.

We will give them credit for the amazing landscape they’ve provided. It’s unlike anything we’ve seen since we’ve been watching this show.

Randy lived up to expectations and we already like him. Everyone is really great at doing everything they can to embellish their resume except for him. Because he doesn’t give a shit. Both of the older people on the show are immensely likable and when they are asked to pick teams, they seem to realize the levity of it. They seem to all have bonds formed already based on how everyone pickes their team. I think Charlie is the first flamboyantly gay contestant they’ve had.

They divide into two teams: Red team is Fang (pronounced Fong), Yellow team is Kota. Kota should have Fang covered in spades. Here is the breakdown:

Kota: Bob, Ace, Sugar, Marcus, Charlie, Jackie, Corrine, Paloma & Kelly.

Fang: Gillian, Crystal, Dan, Ken, Michelle, GC, Randy, Matty & Suzie

The first challenge is your standard first challenge with everyone running through a giant open space with the only obstacle being an uphill climb. It is a significant one. Fang is terribly inept, and the realization that they are a liability in physical challenges dawns on them immediately, which means they will win tonight’s immunity challenge. GC and Marcus both get individual immunity for the first night.

One thing we took great schaudenfreude from was miss gold medal winner being the second to last person up the hill, followed by her complaIning about her standard low top tennis shoes each weigh ten pounds. The girl who was the last pick was a close third up the hill and the first woman. She fended it off when Probst asked her about being the last picked, but she clearly took it personally, which is insane. For their efforts Kota wins some beans and rice.

Sugar is a god damn retard. She does the Tom Cruise thing where she laughs at everything she says, regardless of whether it is funny or not. Bob is clearly a favorite, I liked his “I come from Maine, that’s all we do in Maine”. He is fifty-seven but looks sixty-seven. Building huts in Maine apparently takes its toll on you.

Ken is another likable contestant, despite his ineptness, it is going to be a shame to watch one of these women, most likely Michelle, completely take advantage of him.

Marcus and Charlie, our first alliance. Charlie is kind of barking up the wrong tree, thankfully this isn’t 1962, Charlie isn’t in the closet and he won’t steal Marcus’ lighter any time soon.

Randy gets a cut on his head that makes him bleed like he was bitten by a vampire. Thank you Survivor production team for showing us the stitching, followed by the wrapping his head like a mummy. Have they ever done that before? Methinks we have our first evacuee.

Michelle hates, and I mean hates her team, “The other team has all these smart beautiful people, and I am stuck with all these…dorks”. At least she veered clear of the direct contrast with the “dumb and ugly” to match the smart and beautiful. She eventually remembered she is on television so that demonstrates some self awareness.

I think Randy has fallen in love. Michelle is just mad she isn't with the beautiful people.

First immunity challenge is climbing and jumping around things, followed by digging for things all while harnessed together, then putting the dug up things in a proper order on a surface. A puzzle, for the layman. We are rooting for Fang, but they seem to be hopeless. They get a bit of a lead climbing over some logs, but Kota digs up all three of their bags of puzzle pieces before Fang even gathers one. Bob has now told us that he teaches Physics at least four times, and that’s if you don’t consider the bowtie telling you the exact same thing.

Randy hates Gillian, the two frat boy looking dudes hate Michelle, and Michelle wants to vote out Gillian as well so, so does Ken. It is clearly down to those holy shit, did they just blur out Michelle’s vadge from affront? That is a new one.

Michelle jumps out of the case at Tribal Council and starts barking at everyone for not digging enough. She basically signed her own death warrant. Or at least her doused torch warrant. Man, I’m hilarious. Anyhow, it looks like Michelle is clearly being ousted, I hate to spoil it for you. Michelle votes for Gillian, Gillian votes for Michelle, the votes read as such:

Michelle, Gillian, Michelle, Michelle, Michelle, Michelle

See ya, Michelle. Couldn’t have happened to a better person. You really have to be a fuck up to get voted out before about three people over the age of forty. We don’t even get any parting words from her, at least not in the middle of the two fucking hour marathon.

In contrast, Kota is clicking on all cylinders with Bob ordering everyone around. The women, as is often the case, don’t seem to be contributing in any way. Wow, Charlie is really spilling guts to Marcus and this is getting depressing, yet Marcus isn’t really deflecting all that well, calling him his “inner-circle”. Charlie and Marcus both seem to like Jackie and Corrine to be the “outer layer to their inner circle”. Wow, the physician falling for the pharmeceutical sales rep, how typical. I think these two have seen Scrubs one too many times.

Corrine, Marcus, Charlie and Jackie all decide to bring Bob in as their lacky that they plan to dispatch when appropriate. They are already kind of detestable.

Gillian bitches about people bitching about her snoring. Or more specifically, about people waking up because of her snoring and thus waking her up. This leads to GC putting in his formal resignation as leader, then a discussion about who should be leader that consisted of saying the word “leader” about two hundred times in under three minutes.

We have a third challenge that is immunity and reward, which is fishing equipment. Also, there is an exile island somewhere amongst all this land they’ve been scaling, and the winner sends a member of the losing team there. Man, they are really packing it all in in these first two hours.

Gillian is really taking it on the chin for her physcial shortcomings. Apparently she is the first old woman we’ve ever seen on this show. Other than Cirie. And Scout. And well you get the point. Oh, the challenge is rolling this giant boulder around, then one teammate climbing the boulder and grabbing some keys. It is actually pretty close but we in no way think Fang has a chance in hell because they’ve been on camera so much more. Well, at least it was close. Progress. Fang is somehow like the team from Necessary Roughness after only four days. Dan the lawyer is sent to exile island.

Kota returns to camp happier than pigs in shit. They all dance and it is embarrassing. I’m going to feel bad for them when they have to integrate with Fang.

At exile, Dan is given a choice between a clue or a prize. The prize is an apple. Unless he is a rabbit he is probably going with the clue. The clue is pretty vague and Dan takes it incredibly hard that he can’t decipher it. But it seems to just be run of the mill bitching, though the music would indicate he’s on the verge of jumping off a mountain.

Back at his camp, everyone is discouraged by yet another loss and they are all pinning it on Gillian. Her and the older latino woman are all grumpy and shit over these youngins. They talk about it like its armageddon, “They’re going to wipe us out”. It’s a lot of hyperbole that no objective viewer takes seriously. As much of a bitch as Michelle is/was, they probably would have won the boulder challenge with her as opposed to Gillian or Suzie.

Fang is reduced to finding six worms and being thrilled by it, then making a fish hook out of glasses and a shoe string. The latter is fairly innovative, it leads to catching five fish to split amongst seven people (Michelle voted out and Dan in exile).

Dan comes back and for whatever reason they all assume he has the idol. He does nothing suspicious, Randy is the only one with a modicum of common sense, pointing out that he was bitching about a tough night and that is probably what his issue is: He had a tough night. If they actually vote him out over lamenting a long day instead of one of the older women then they deserve to lose.

At TC, they talk about leaders and Randy again points out the crux of the problem: “I wouldn’t want to lead this bunch”. Dan literally dumps all the shit out of his bag pleading to not vote him out because something is clearly fishy. He is the one who should be suspicious of everyone else, not the other way around. Man, what a cracked out fucking bunch. Dan votes for Gillian, Gillian votes for Ken, my guess is Gillian does in fact go home but we’ll see. Outside of the fishing hook we haven’t seen a single logical play. They read as such:

Gillian, Ken, Gillian, Gillian, Gillian, Gillian.

Randy is a little too vindictive when he flashes a smile of glee at her departure. There is really no reason to hate that woman, it says more about you than anyone else. Finally, we reach the end of the episode and it is in memory to Alton Desiree. Anyone?

Next week: Fang decides who is and isn’t a leader. They have that challenge where you drag members from the opposing team off a poll and through the dirt. We’ll see which triumphs: the well fed or the pissed off.

In her parting words, Gillian wanted to keep playing but isn’t allowed. Pretty common tale, that right there.

More later.

Just finished watching. And, well, that was decent. I guess. I mean, at least something interesting happened between Nancy and Esteban. It took a ridiculous “twist” (Question: Is a surprise plot element really a twist?) this time to have an excuse to keep Nancy alive. And, with all due respect, we were kind of hoping she would meet her maker, but hope was all we had because they clearly aren’t killing her off. She could survive a nuclear holocaust at this point.

At least the characters on the show are beginning to realize how remarkably unreliable she is. Not that they are any better, but at least they are realizing that co-dependency with Nancy Botwin, regardless of how they know her, is in poker nomenclature: The Sucker Straight. In other words, it is a losing proposition. Will any of this actually come to fruition? Probably not. I’m sure they will try and eventually fuck it up, mostly because this series won’t allow any of the Botwin boys succeed at anything unless they are assisting Nancy.

But the revelation that Shane is selling weed was shocking. And by shocking I mean completely foretold. It only makes sense. The only reason this kid sees the inside of a school building anymore is to appease the Goth twins for more threeway action. At least in her note to Silas Nancy expressed some regret about being an absentee mother since her husband died, or maybe even beforehand. She apologized for all eighteen years. Which kind of raises an interesting question I was somewhat curious about: What was her dealing career like before we met her in the pilot season? And how long had she been doing it for? Was it mentioned and I am just forgetting it? Because I don’t think it ever was. It seemed pretty nonchalant selling bags at the soccer field.

In other subplots, we absolutely adored Doug’s rebound from sending Mermex back across the border followed by his letter to Nancy which was verbatim the letter Brooks sent back to Red and the rest of his friends in the Shawshank Redemption. If you haven’t seen the film and couldn’t figure it out Brooks’ letter was actually a suicide note. Jenji Kohan ad-libbed it a little after Doug began jerking off. The entire scene I think marked the turnaround we’ve been waiting for all season. A confident, smug, Doug with a piss off attitude is the Doug we know and love.

And last but not least, they brought back Quinn, and of course they had to make her loathesome. I saw that scene and when she started to go off into the schpiel about kidnapping her Celia and selling her back to suburbia, all we could think of was the old SNL skit “She Turned Into Her Mother”, though Celia was never a sociopath like Quinn seems to be, she’s just a drunken, selfish, controlling republican. Which in this show’s world might actually be worse.

All in all, not a terrible season. It wasn’t up to the standards of season one and especially not season two, but season three makes it look like The Wire. We still don’tlike how the series expects us to cheer Nancy and her clumsiness on, but there seems to be a little self-reflection during this episode so that is at least an improvement. So just to recap the plethora of cliffhangers taking place:

-Nancy is pregnant with Esteban’s kid, meaning she probably finagled her way out of rightfully being murdered yet again.

-Silas, Shane and Andy are looking to buy land in Mexico with Silas’ drug profits, Andy’s coyote money and Shane’s money he is currently making from selling drugs he stole from Silas.

-Doug is getting ready to butt heads with his estranged wife with absolutely nothing, likes Shawshank Redemption and beating off with a neus around his neck.

-Celia has been kidnapped by her daughter Quinn who may or may not be played by a girl that was in my Italian class in college. As far as we know, Dean and Isabelle are none the wiser.

As for whether or not we’ll watch the fifth season: I haven’t the slightest. We’re kind of bored with it, but if we have Showtime or are dating someone who does then sure; we’ll watch it. But scrambling around to find a friend’s apartment who actually carries the pay channel, I can guarantee that we’ll be waiting for the DVD’s if that is the case again.

Anyhow, Survivor is on right now so we’re going to get watching it hopefully with a dearth of commercials. Busy day tomorrow with recaps for that, The Office and It’s Always Sunny.

Unlike It’s Always Sunny, there is always something to ssay about Mad Men. This episode advanced the plot like no other Mad Men episode before it, and it felt a little uneven in a way, but it was definitely a crowd pleaser. I guess it was in the making, but when Betty finally decides to give Don the boot, well, I think we all had to see it to believe it.

This all did seem to happen rather abruptly. Betty was clearly a ticking time bomb waiting to go off, and usually the things that trigger these types of spouts are minor, like feeling slighted at a dinner party. I could understand her frustration, she probably spent the better part of the day preparing that meal, only to be unintentionally mocked for her efforts. Everyone seems disappointed that Don wouldn’t just come clean. I can sort of understand that. But, um, he’s pathological. Always has been. So when his second biggest secret is brought to his attention by the one person he is concealing it from, I’m not exactly shocked that he didn’t break/confess.

We loved the touch with the dress, as if she has completely abandoned her once happy facade. If she once cared how she looked she certainly doesn’t anymore and apparently neither does Don, so long as she isn’t in a bikini. Considering wardrobe is such an integral part to this atmospheric, it is good to see that when presented with the opportunity to use it for plot development, they do such a great job executing it.

The way they brought about her complete breakdown/breakthrough was just fantastic this season, but the way it all came tumbling down like a Stepford avalanche felt a little forced to me. I suppose someone who reached their boiling point is prone to acting like that, but she has always been so passive and mild-mannered we would have liked to have seen Don kicked out of the house sometime in the upcoming episode. Still, quite the development.

Don Draper: 60's Beer Baron

Joan, who seemed to fit and be happy in the mold of the times, stumbled into a position with slightly more responsibility and wouldn’t you know it? She enjoyed the creativity of pitching. We felt bad for her but at the same time never understood her resistance to climbing the ranks. If you recall in “Maidenform“, Peggy asks her for assistance on how to command the respect of her fellow copywriters/executives, and Joan’s initial reply is, “I never had your job. Never wanted it.” Was this a sort of don’t knock it until you try it deal, or was it an aspect of their company she wasn’t even aware of. Either way, the pained expression on her face when Harry introduces her to her replacement was enough to make you absolve her of any guilt. Either that or I have a thing for Gingers.

It wasn’t necessarily Harry’s fault either. She already had a job managing the secretaries and for all Harry knew she was elated to be relieved of additional responsibilities. I’m not implying she would have even gotten the promotion had she vocalized her interest in it, but how is anyone to know if she never mentions it. One would think the results would be enough, but one would be wrong. Roger Sterling, who seems to be in charge of all this is completely clueless when it comes to promotions. Though we love how he handles Harry’s persistent reluctance.

We’re on record as stating that Joan never really pined to get married and this current engagement is as much a facade as Draper’s marriage. But this might really lock up those already cold feet as she now has professional and personal regret. Her fiance isn’t exactly the progressive type, and maybe Joan always thought that is what she wanted, she now seems to think otherwise.

Peggy, the one Joan has always harped on for any type of professional ambition, is now facing her own existential crisis. And it is more similar to Don’s than anyone else’s. She has cultivated a personality that no one else is aware of except for maybe Don, her mother and sister, and even that is a stretch. There are aspects to her life that all three of them are not aware of. When Colin Hanks was pleading with her to open up about whatever is clearly troubling her, I’ve never seen her look so vulnerable. In the previews for next week she looks completely pissed the fuck off. My guess is she is either yelling at her sister, her mom’s priest or Pete and his rifle.

Other notes from “A Night To Remember”"

-Duck seems to be keeping his sober public appearances on the up and up, though everyone from Don to the spouse of a client is encouraging him to drink these days. Honestly, if he is going to drink tomato juice, I am going to have to encourage him as well.

-”What’s going on? Did we get Miracle Whip?” -We get so little of Pete Campbell these days, it’s good to see he gets some of the better lines. Second to only…

-”Crab: Duck, Duck: Crab” -Roger Sterling seems to be the other headliner from last season that has taken something of a backseat. It’s a shame, these are probably two of our three favorite characters.

-It seems relatively clear now that Don and Betty never had any interaction about his infidelity until this past Sunday night. We still don’t know what exactly transpired still, but we should assume that if they were speaking about his indiscretions, they they were doing so indirectly.

Top-tier episode. Again, not as subtle as we are accustom to. But it is good to see that even when they are beating you over the head with plot they do so with creative and professional regard. If the three women on this series ever get together in the same room alone with each other, I’d hate to see the result. I’m pretty sure the Sterling Cooper offices will be burned to the ground.

Back later with a Weeds review/recap.

The strand of strong Entourage episodes didn’t stop this past Sunday with this two storyline installment. That’s probably what made it strong, even though we kind of could not stand the ending (HAHA! He vomits on the cake! I never saw it coming when he forced himself onto a stage after drinking all day). But with only two storylines (the actual entourage, Ari) this episode had a much tighter focus than the usual three (Vince-Eric, Turtle-Drama, Ari) which had become standard for an Entourage episode.

That isn’t to say Turtle and Drama were completely axed out of the picture. Drama’s breakup troubles just followed Eric and Vince instead of branching off with Turtle to some odd convention or something. We suspect he’ll end up getting fired from “Five Towns” as a result of his drunken malaise that probably isn’t likely to stop anytime soon. And yes, Turtle was pretty much a side piece this entire episode. But if you recall back to the first and second seasons, it was rare that we ever got anything from Turtle and Drama independently. I like them getting their own subplots and all, but a change of pace to alter the framework of one episode is a pleasant surprise.

Of the two stories, we are undecided as to which one we thought was stronger. The Ari storyline had more laughs but we had a difficult time actually siding with him on the prank contest, mainly because his vitriol was out of place and misguided. If you send someone pictures of their naked girlfriend telling everyone she wanted to fuck you, then you deserve whatever retaliation is in store, even if it involves your wife. Just because he doesn’t care about his ex-girlfriend being humiliated, doesn’t give Ari clearance to escalate the tone and tenor of a prank war when Davies does the same thing to his wife. Indifference has its rewards and this was one of them.

Since when was Davies ever actual competition?

Still, the entire thing had its moments and one-liners. Ari strutting through his house reminded us of the scene in Field of Dreams where Aimee successfully wins the debate over banning Terrence Mann’s books from the library. We have no idea why, but that is what stood out. Probably because Ari pointed to the day making him feeling young and Aimee said something along the lines of “It was just like the 60’s!”

The Sweet 16 storyline was sort of funny. Like I said earlier, it ended on kind of a predictable note with Drama vomiting on the oversized cake or whatever. And listening to them bitch about getting $200 grand for Vince to basically sing a song with a busted teleprompter being beneath them was a little nauseating, but having all four characters together was a nice change of pace as it has happened so irregularly as of late. We would have preferred to see Vince in Mexico a little longer, but this is a good second choice.

Also, we liked the over-privileged preoccupied Goth children portrayal, but it was a lot funnier when the two girls TP’d Larry Davids house on the third episode of the second season of Curb. And even then it was still the highlight of Vince’s trip to comeback-ville. Let me offer props to Fran Drescher and Kevin Pollack for willfully actually playing indulgent parents on a series known for its cameos who play themselves, of which they are most certainly qualified to do.

Other notes:

-This episode featured the return of Shauna and Marvin, which no one is going to complain about. In fact, we would welcome an entire series revolving around Marvin.

-The car chase was probably the most random shooting and editing this series has ever done. It felt out of place, like if everyone from Roadhouse walked into the bar wearing designer clothes, but we didn’t scoff at it and weren’t embarrassed when it aired, so whatever. They should have a sword fight next episode and see how that plays.

-TI’s cameo was nice and casual, he didn’t seem to take it too seriously. Davies prank with him during his interview was probably a little too blatant. At first I thought it was Lloyd who set him up because of Ari’s previous request.

It was a strong episode, and they’ll probably continue to be just that so long as everything isn’t going great for everyone. It’s escapism, so it eventually will. But when getting a six figure payday just to serenade a sixteen year-old on her birthday is considered the lowest rung for our characters, I’m not exactly crying a river for them. Still, if these characters are going to hang out with high-schoolers, I prefer it be more akin to the “One Day In The Valley” episode.
Back with either a Mad Men or Weeds review later today.

(Note: It’s Always Sunny has two more episodes tonight, along with The Office and Survivor premieres. We’re going to try to get to all five recaps before Saturday so it could get rather sloppy around these parts. It’s best to probably just look away).

This was probably a top four or five episode for us, up there with the Serpico impression, Dennis and Dee going on welfare and the incest twins holding up Paddy’s. Usually the one’s that are remotely topical tend to steer us the wrong way. But when they follow the structure of virtually every 80’s studio movie that was made, then they had us at Ghostbusters.

So, who's the muscle and who's the looks?

We loved the casual approach Frank had to waterboarding Dee, and the even more casual reaction from the three guys when stumbing upon it. We bursted out laughing when Dennis walked in and responded, “I like what I’m seeing here Frank catch me up to speed”, then nonchalantly goes to take a piss in the neighboring urinal where his sister is pleading for help. I’m not nearly as callous as that description makes me sound. I swear.

Dennis’ creepy obsession of sketching pictures of curvacious women is one of the more subtle running themes on this series that dates back to the second season. It led into yet another embarrassment at the bank scene and that was fantastic. This marks the second time Dennis has used his scribblings for the purposes of convincing someone in business to see things his way. And the second time he has failed miserably because the person was not only sensible but also a woman,

The tinted car windows really provided Dee and Frank with a hilarious exchange about their usefulness, but ended up contributing to the weakest part of the episode. Which was watching that guy get his car beat to hell, seemed to almost cheapen the episode’s quality. Everything about this episode hit perfectly, but when he came running out of his apartment screaming about his life being ruined, it just felt random and unnecessary. But that appeared to be their excuse to end the episode because otherwise they wouldn’t have had one.

Everyone seemed most amused by Charlie’s antics than anything else. And first the quick cut to them endlessly pumping gas into a trash can followed by him syphoning it out of Dennis’ SUV with his mouth was probably my favorite ten second sequence of the episode. “Barrel #6 is done, dude. (takes deep breath) Barrel #6 is done.”

Choice moments/quotes:

-The convincing powers of the fireball reminded us of GOB turning a $100 bill into 100 pennies to get the approval of the board.

-Charlie: Yeah, cause your paragon uh, iiiitttt, it isn’t quite working.

Dennis: It’s paradigm, but yeah, we need me to be the brains.

-Dennis: Did the waterboarding work?

Frank: I got her to admit to things she never even did.

Dennis: Well, it works then.

Again, when these episodes are good there really isn’t much to say about them other than, “I like this scene…I like that scene”. But when this series is clicking there isn’t a funnier half hour on television. Really our only question with this one is who was who in Ghostbusters?

Damn it is good to have this series back, I feel like we’ve been growing to earnest and literal and mature, but it is safe to say that in one quick hour of It’s Always Sunny all of that “growth” was washed away. The thing about these episodes is that when they are good, there tends to be very little to actually say about them. Sure, they are uneven, kind of repetitive, classless and deplorable, but I’ll be damned if you can sit through an episode of this and not laugh out loud at least four or five times a half hour.

The first episode was entitled “Mac and Dennis: Manhunters”, and the episode revolved around cannabalism, teabagging, Rambo, and of course, man hunting. This — especially for those new to the series but even us season vets — is a little much. I mean, I am all for pushing the envelope, but when you have two characters in a morgue with a hot plate and a six pack actually considering eating a chunk of a cadaver…I think that one can probably wait until later into the season. You generally want to ease into something like this, not throw in your audiences face like a brick.

Did DeVito and Stallone ever star in a film together?

This is a minor nitpick though. Odds are, if you are tuning into It’s Always Sunny you have at least some idea of what you’re tuning in too. One of our favorite scenes was Charlie and Dee deliberating how race relations entangle with cannabalism. But I will say that even I was a bit shell shocked having not watched the series since its third season finale. Almost even moreso with the manhunting plot.

At some point I want to see Rickety Cricket get the better of Dennis and Mac, but that would probably kill the punchline and if that meant we didn’t get to see the two of them on a stakeout in urban camo, then it is something we heartily opposed to. If we didn’t have Cricket to torture, who is actually lower on the totem poll than Mac and Dennis if not him? Or the homeless in general. As was evidenced by the quick cut to Charlie and Dee seasoning the homeless man, because who else could they actually manipulate? I try to keep that in mind every time I watch this series and have a rush of consciousness.

Some great lines from this episode:

“I used airplane glue that’s gonna kinda be your look for awhile” -Mac, explaining how he applied his pubic hair to Dennis’ face.

“Alright, we don’t give a shit about any of this” -Dennis, in reference to why they are seasoning a homeless guy eating a sucker.

‘Would you chill out? You’re eating that thing like a giant bird.” -Charlie, at Dee’s hard pecking at a steak sandwich.

“You’ve probably got a tapeworm, that stuff is lousy with parasites” -Frank, explaining the meat he fed to Charlie and Dee.

“Is that stupid? Well I’m sorry Dee, then I guess Jaws 4 is stupid. Because that is the exact same plot” -Charlie defending his theory that they are cannibals.

-The Asian gorcer scene.

Recap of second episode later today which we actually preferred to this one, and would have led off the season with if up to us.

Much like Tony Soprano in the least liked episode of the final season, we will be playing catch up for the foreseeable future. In terms of writing a television blog, it was a bad 12 days to be out of pocket. We missed the premieres and season episodes of multiple series, and just as a cherry on top we managed to be in a Greyhound on our way to St. Louis while the Emmy’s were taking place. If that isn’t a good indicator of our disinterest in the event, then I don’t know what is.

The only thing we were really concerned with is whether or not The Wire would actually win the only award it was nominated for and it didn’t, but it at least lost to Mad Men. We are constantly conflicted about this. On the one hand, it is better for the series’ legacy if it is constantly overlooked for awards (particularly Emmys). On the other, and this is with all due respect to Mad Men which is the best series on television by a mile, this is still a crock of shit. Here’s a list of winners if you care, though it is oddly agreeable for the most part.

Either way it doesn’t sound like we missed much except a Colbert acceptance speech and maybe a David Simon appearance at an award show. Other than that, we were happy to save the money on the plane ticket. At least sort of, riding a Greyhound across the country is kind of like getting on one of those Halloween cart rides at a carnival, only the thrills aren’t vicarious.

If you absolutely must travel via Greyhound, do try to avoid the Tulsa layover.

Still, here is a quick rundown of what to expect from us over the course of the next eight work days (sans links or previews or anything else that is never planned). We did manage to catch a break in that Mad Men randomly decided to take a night off:

-Recap/review of the most recent Mad Men episode “A Night to Remember”.

-Recap/review of Weeds season four finale.

-Recap/review of Entourage season five, episode three.

-Recaps of Survivor: Gabon and Office season five premieres.

-It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia review, which we’ve already sort of mentioned completing.

We hope to burn through all of this by Friday but any promise would be admittedly hollow. Though we will try to get to one of these later tonight.

Greetings from Arizona! We are obviously still on vacation but found some free time and figured we’d get this out of the way so it is one less thing we have to do when we get back. As a result of our limited availability, it is relatively short.

One thing we never liked about the last season and a half of Entourage was the fact that nothing was ever pertinent to the series unless it was happening in Ari’s office with Eric and Vince. Drama was obsolete and Turtle was completely irrelevant except for the occasional punchline despite being a lead character. Unless they were talking about Vince’s career, everything else around that would be discarded and forgotten in two episodes time. We were at a point where It’s Always Sunny had more continuity than Entourage.

The same cannot be said for season five. Drama has a career and a girlfriend that are both integral to the plot, Turtle is given more to do (regardless of how absurd it is) and seems to be suffering from something of an inferiority complex (he was absolutely hammered this episode). Eric is branching out, Vince actually functions like a human being and Eric now has a life that doesn’t revolve around his insecure best friend. Needless to say, we like what they are doing with this season.

When Vince was handed down from Justine Chapeman to her friend (whom was immensely sympathetic) at one point he said, “something isn’t right about today”, and we couldn’t agree more. There was something odd about how this episode was shot. It almost had a melodramatic feel to it and a Sopranos approach to shooting. In a lot of ways it was distracting being in such contrast to the usual Entourage style, but on a repeat viewing we adapted and enjoyed it. If they can add humor (which this episode was admittedly lacking) with quality storytelling, then we can finally stop scoffing at this as legitimate fluff and an illegitimate narrative .

Hopefully this isn’t a short term change. We like Eric attempting to sign new writers, Drama with a life, Vince with ambition and Turtle with a conscious. The scene between Ari and Vince where Ari leveled with him about his beshitted career was one of the better honest assessments we’ve ever seen of Vince Chase, and it paid off well. Usually they save these exchanges for Eric and Ari, but throwing Adrian Grenier in Eric’s spot (which he surprisingly excelled in) was a nice change of pace, as was Eric being completely flustered going into his meeting with Carla Gugino’s character.

The only downside to this episode was the misogyny that so many seem to complain about on this series was in full force on Sunday. The two most glaring instances occurred when Turtle convinces an idiot girl to cheat on her boyfriend and Vince treats some girl who doesn’t care if he addresses her with a name different from his own like an expendable object. I guess that is bullshit anyways. There are no girls from Ohio with the name Michala. But when everyone complains about an aspect of a show and said show goes out of their way to rub said aspect in your face, it is difficult to ignore.

Other than that, all the cameos come off as annoyingly self-satisfied and we still do not give a shit about any of Vince’s love interests. Still a good follow-up to a solid season premiere. Again, we hope it isn’t a fad and are cautiously optimistic.

We’ll try to get to an It’s Always Sunny recap later today, if not expect it on Tuesday night.

I think we’re going to keep this short due to time constraints. Really we’re just trying to post something to say we posted something. It’s one less thing for us to do for when we get back.

So, who didn’t love this episode? And is it me, or is season two topping the groundbreaking season one? Good golly this is a helluva series. The only downside to this episode is that we didn’t get much Pete Campbell. I mean, he’s a scumbag but Vincent Kartheiser enhances the quality of every scene he is in. I can’t say this enough.

Man, if only Jimmy had confronted Betty and Don together, its like he just wanted to add to the withheld tension that exists between the two of them. As peaceful as they’ve seemed over the past few episodes (ever since the fight over how to punish Bobby, actually), that will all come to a hilt. Maybe it won’t be spoken, but the resentment from both ends will be palpable. Someone should tell Don if he is really intent on keeping that car spotless, he should keep his indiscretions more discrete. Or drop them altogether, whichever seems more convenient.

The Sal-Ken-Kitty storyline is as funny as it was devastating, and Sal as the tragically closeted gay man of the early 60’s is probably one of the more painful things to watch in this series. There was so much discrimination and societal conformity back then, but Sal isn’t even allowed to conform to his group of choice without severe persecution that would result in his life falling apart. Kitty, probably the sweetest character on this show seemed to effect Sal as much as the audience. And Sal is all too certain of the effect his…proclivity are having on his wife.

One of the things that is great about this series is the levity they occasionally provide in extremely tense situations. And in this case it was Ken’s casual approach to everything circling around him. He knew there was something behind the curtains taking place, but he wasn’t sure of what it was and chose to not give a shit. It’s like this mixture of indifference and cluelessness. The best example of this is when he confided to Sal the following day after dinner at Sal’s house that what he had with Kitty is what he wanted for his life, and Sal took off in a secretly devastated hurry. Ken knew there was something abnormal about it, couldn’t fathom what it would have been, shrugged it off and went about whatever he was doing with his day. He is probably my favorite side character on the series. Blissful ignorance is probably the best way to float threw an office as fucked up as that one.

At least no matzah balls were left hanging.

Of course, his one obsession outside of work and writing seems to be Jane, the ice-queen secretary that we can’t determine if we like or not. But regardless of our opinion she definitely brings a new element to the show: a rival for Joan. Or rather, someone Roger can use to piss Joan off:: a youthful version of herself. For that reason and that reason alone, Jane is competition for Joan’s reign as queen bee, even if she isn’t as cunning or intelligent. We love the prospect of this and we actually think it will (unfortunately) turn out badly for Joan, just to keep with the theme of the series. It will either result in her hurting herself, getting fired or quitting and doing the Betty Draper routine.

Other notes:

-Speaking of that car, could it make anymore sense that Don was a used car salesman? Is anyone else curious as to who that woman was and what Don had to keep her quite about not actually being who he now is? Did that last question make any sense? Has there ever been a better cliffhanger for future episodes that took place in the first five minutes of one? The debate rages on.

-The break in to Bert’s office was indicative of a lot of things, especially of Jane’s approach to her job vs. all the executives. In other words, she knows she can get away with just about anything via looks, charm and manipulation. Whether anyone likes it or not, she was proven right in her scene with Roger, and we suspect he knew what she was doing.

-Duck seems to really struggle being in the presence of alcohol, which is unavoidable in the halls of SC. Being looked over for the meeting with Roger and Bert isn’t going to help his cause.

-The picnic scene is going down in history as one of the most ham-fisted on this series. We follow it with the littering and everything else. The most memorable part of it was Bobby running up to his parents ecstatic that he managed to urinate behind a tree, and they barely act like they would have left him there if he didn’t hurry back.

-We know Harry was always low man on the todem poll, but when did he turn into a babbling moron?

This wasn’t exactly short and there is still plenty we didn’t dissect (especially subtext), but this episode kept everything rolling smoothly and presents some great prospects for the last four or five episodes of season two.

Since we won’t be able to recap the following episode at the same time as the last one, we’ll sort of do a two in one deal with Sunday’s episode and the one to follow it. This is the last post until at least Monday, if not later.