Onto some links…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back tomorrow with more links, I imagine.

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

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

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

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

Long overdue links post tomorrow.

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

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

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

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

Other notes from “A Distinctive Horn”:

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

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

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

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

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

Rescue Me recap later.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back tomorrow with Weeds and Rescue Me recaps.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Entourage recap later today.

Onto the links…

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

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

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

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

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

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

we need more scenes like this.

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

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

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

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

Links tomorrow.

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

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

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

These scenes are few and far between these days.

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

Other notes from “Initiation”:

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

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

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

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

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

Weeds recap after lunch.

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

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

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

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

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

Rescue Me and Weeds recaps later today.

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