"Back To You" - television show

OK, so there came a time several months ago when I apparently became completely unable to write about television shows. There are some shows that I don't think I even got around to starting and others where I just stopped writing about them, whether the show had just started, whether it was in the middle, or whether it was almost at the end. For the longest time, I was still taking notes and planning on writing synopses. And then I was just going to write a few thoughts. And then, I finally decided that for some of the shows (like "Big Brother", "Celebrity Apprentice", "Survivor" and "Hell's Kitchen"), I wasn't even going to bother, so I've actually deleted all of those notes. There are three shows that I've kept the notes on and that I will be writing some kind of comments on, for various reasons. This is the first of the three shows.




When "Back To You" came back after the writers' strike, there was one very noticeable difference. Chuck and Kelly had given away their daughter and instead adopted another daughter, also named her Gracie, and then were passing her off as 10 when she so did not look 10 but instead looked much younger. In actuality, the first actress was 12/13 when she was filming the show, about two and a half years older than the barely-10-year-old who replaced her, but in film and on TV, it's fairly common for kids to play younger than they really are. I have no idea why the other actress got the boot, since I thought she was fine. I didn't really care for the re-cast. I think that the attitude and smarminess was ok coming from an older child, but coming from someone that young, it just seemed annoying. Enough with the precocious little kids for now.


Gracie (Laura Marano) at the beginning of the season.


Gracie (Lily Jackson) after she went away to soap opera camp and then came back for the rest of the season.


I also didn't much care for the introduction of Marsh's wife Peg and the whole story that was built around Marsh and Peg and their apparently weird pictures/paintings of themselves naked in their house. It seemed as if Peg was going to become a regular and more emphasis was going to be put on Marsh's personal life, neither of which interested me. There was also a new girl at the studio, but Montana, the weather girl, was surprisingly absent. Were they trading in Montana for the new studio chick and Peg? After the initial let's-play-up-her-latina-heritage bit, they never seemed to know what else to do with her. Montana did show up in a subsequent episode, though only long enough to be fired. There was this whole story about how Chuck and Kelly felt bad about her being fired since they felt it was partially their fault, and then Chuck threatened to bring La Raza into the matter - only to find out that Montana Diaz Herrera was really Sally Lerner from Nebraska and was not hispanic at all - she just adopted that name. Well, at least she got to go out on a laugh.

The "big" story, of course, surrounded the secret of Gracie's parentage, that she was the result of a one-night-stand between Chuck and Kelly. Chuck finally convinced Kelly to tell Gracie that he was her father, a secret that Gracie was not happy to hear, but then, by the end of the episode, Chuck got her a puppy, so all was well. Yeah, I know it's a sitcom, but I wasn't too happy about that quick fix. The next crisis came about when they decided to tell the world about the relationship just as a new ad campaign for the news show was being launched - with the tag line that Chuck and Kelly were "doing it again", with Kelly posed suggestively bending over in front of Chuck. Another character was introduced in the form of new station manager Ginger, who was a bit of a schizoid - one minute, she was all business and tough, and the next, she had her feet kicked up on the sofa and was laughing and joking. Ummm, ok. Ginger threatened to banish Chuck and Kelly to the Siberia of news broadcasting if they told the secret immediately rather than waiting a year as she wanted, and Chuck had to decide between doing as he was told or not further disappointing Gracie by making her keep the secret for that much longer. Of course, in the end, Chuck decided to reveal the secret, and Chuck and Kelly were indeed banished to the early morning, there's-not-even-heat-in-the-building-yet-and-no-staff-to-speak-of-not-to-mention-no-one-is-watching news shift.

There was a funny side story at the end about Marsh, where he had this weird quirk that if anyone commented on how nice something was that he had, he had to give it to that person.

However, while I thought the show started off really good, it was kind of dragging by the end, so I wasn't terribly sad to see it go.

"Law and Order", "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles", "Back To You" and "The Big Bang Theory" news

"Law and Order: CI"

The detectives were called to a hotel room where a dead woman was found, a Ukrainian blonde that we had seen at the beginning of the show with her baby, and video surveillance showed that she had gotten off the elevator with a man but that another woman, dark-haired and unable to be identified, had been in the elevator with them. They found emails on the dead woman's computer that pointed to her as having been on a website for married people looking for something extra on the side. Hmmm, where have I heard of this before?

They ended up finding the man who was last with her, a married writer who was being blackmailed. He had woken up the next morning to find the girl dead, with a picture of him and the dead girl next to him. He already had a girlfriend on the side, but when she didn't show the night before, he had hooked up with one of the two women he had met at a bar. He had taken money from his wealthy wife to pay off the blackmailers, but the backstory from the guy and his girlfriend didn't quite mesh, so while he was already in jail, the girlfriend was taken in for questioning, and she showed up with her lawyer. We later found out that the girlfriend and the lawyer were in a lesbian relationship and were actually the ones involved in blackmailing married men who were cheating. After the man hung himself in jail, the detectives found out that he had met the girlfriend during a session of speed dating, and the girlfriend had already been involved in seducing and taping her sessions with married men, who were then blackmailed for their silence.

In a sting operation, the bartender at the bar purposely made an incorrect identification of the girlfriend as having been one of the two women at the bar with the guy. It turned out that the girlfriend was supposed to have blackmailed the guy, but instead, she let him fall in love with her and she developed feelings for him as well and was therefore unwilling to blackmail him. It was then revealed that her lawyer was actually the unidentified woman in the elevator and that she was the one who had killed the blonde in order to finally extort the money out of the man.


"Law and Order"

There were two drunk girls who had gone back to reclaim their car from a parking garage, but after they were refused possession of their car because of their inebriated state, one slept it off in the garage while the other wandered off and was reported missing. The detectives discovered that she was picked up by a guy in a cab, who turned out to be a pimp, and the cabbie reported that he dropped them off at a hotel that was known to be a workplace for prostitutes. Surveillance cameras showed that one of the hookers came out to pay the cabbie, so the detectives tracked down who she was and contacted her parents. They said they had previously sent her to rehab and so the detectives tracked down her former dealer, who led them to the hooker - Melinda. They also found the body of the dead girl but couldn't hold Melinda so let her go, hoping she would lead them to the dealer, who they thought had killed the girl. Sure enough, she did meet up with her dealer boyfriend and both were taken into custody. During the course of the trial, it turned out that the dealer boyfriend thought he had accidentally killed the girl after raping her, and he and Melinda, who had witnessed the rape, had both put the body in a bag. When the dealer boyfriend had gone to scout a place to dump the body, Melinda had noticed the girl in the bag moving, and she was jealous of her boyfriend's interest in the girl, so she ended up killing her after all.

There was also a side story that started during the voir dire segment about a member of the jury who became infatuated with the female ADA. That had been mentioned in the previous week's preview, so that had been the story I was interested in, but it ended up being a very small part of the show. Because the juror actually spoke to the ADA before the trial was over, she wanted to report the contact to the judge, but the male ADA didn't want her to because it would derail the trial and they'd have to start over again. So there was a bit of story about the fact that they didn't report what they should have and did that bring about the guilty verdict that was eventually revealed. However, I wouldn't have thought that one juror's improper conduct would have made a difference, especially since it had no impact on the other jurors. Sure, he would have been kicked off because he obviously showed a bias for the ADA, but there should have been two alternates, so the trial and deliberations could have continued with them. I don't think one juror's actions, given what they were, would have caused a complete mistrial.


So I've been struggling with these two shows since the beginning of the season. Sometimes the episodes were just ok, which happens, but usually, the good outweighed the bad. But this year, I've found myself less and less interested in the shows, especially with Sam Waterson's changed role on "Law and Order". I've found myself plodding through the tapes with the feeling that I was watching mostly out of loyalty and habit. I don't think that would have lasted much longer even if there wasn't much else on TV I was watching, but especially given the volume of shows I watch, I really don't have the time, inclination or interest to keep watching two shows that I have to almost force myself to watch. I noticed that Kelly Giddish, who I know and liked from when she was on "All My Children", was going to be on the following week's "Criminal Intent", and while that might have normally kept me interested, even that wasn't enough. I'm figuring on continuing to watch "Special Victims Unit" when new shows are broadcast because I still like their cast and stories, but as for these two flavors of the franchise, I'm out.


"Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" - first hour

Cromartie, the terminator who came through the time portal with them and is specifically after John, posed as an FBI agent and showed up at the school district office looking for a list of new students in an effort to track down John. When the man refused, Cromartie killed him and did the search himself. He then ended up at John's school. Cameron was tracked down by a hall monitor, who gave her a slip of paper to say that a policeman wanted to see her brother. When Cameron got a peek at him in the office, she recognized him and got one of John's friends to answer the summons instead. Cromartie was fooled since the friend was not a match for John's image and left the school. The friend later told John about the deception, and when John asked Cameron about the matter, she said it was Cromartie but that he will have moved on to another name and school and wouldn't be back. She told John that they couldn't tell Sarah about it or Sarah would immediately move them to another city.

Derek found the other terminator's brain stem/chip that Cameron had kept in her room, and he outed her to John and Sarah. Derek said that he thought Cameron sold his team out to the terminators and got them killed. Cameron defended herself by saying that the chip contained video and audio of everything the terminator did, and she thought it was important to keep the record of where he'd been and what he'd seen and done. John was disturbed that Cameron had kept this secret, and when he questioned her about lying, she confirmed that she was capable of lying when the mission required it, even if she had to lie to John - at least the teenage John. She had previously stated that her orders came from adult-in-the-future John.

John obtained a high-tech game system in order to try to hack into the chip. Cameron tried to help him by explaining what kind of power it needed and that they had to only give it enough power where they could tap into the video and audio, but that too much power could reactivate the higher functions of the chip. John was able to get into the chip, and they started to watch its visual record. It turned out that the terminator was using the name "Vick" and that he had a wife who was a city manager. When John questioned whether the wife could have really never known his true identity, Cameron responded ominously with "she would not be the first human fooled by a machine". When their address showed up in the video, Derek and Sarah decided to go have a look and see if they could get any more information.

As John was able to watch more of the video on the chip, it appeared as if Vick killed the wife and left her in the woods. Sarah insisted on going to find the body, even though Cameron didn't understand why since she was already dead. They found the location on the video and eventually the body, but it turned out not to be the wife. Instead, it was a woman who had opposed the wife's pet project, an automated traffic lights system that had been pushed by Vick in support of Skynet. Derek wanted to blow up City Hall, but John decided instead to develop a virus that would crash the system so its backers would withdraw their support and shut the project down.

As John continued to watch more video from the chip, he was disturbed by how Vick acted, how he could fake tenderness and accurately portray being human in order to get the wife to do what he wanted with regard to pushing the project through. John was even more disturbed when Cameron pointed out how "effective" Vick's technique was when he brushed his hand against the wife's face, and Cameron noted how much the wife liked it. Even with all the disturbing observations that Cameron had made, she was eventually exonerated of Derek's accusation as the chip showed that one of the freedom fighters had been tracking the wife, unbeknownst to the rest of the team. Vick had noticed and followed him back to the apartment and killed the entire team, minus Derek.

As Sarah and Derek tried to figure out how to get into City Hall to plant the virus, Derek mentioned that there were tunnels underground into City Hall, which he knew very well because those were the very tunnels he used in the future. They were in fact able to get in, and Sarah uploaded the virus, but the system had a built-in security feature that rejected it and sounded the alarm in the process. Sarah and Derek were able to get away from the security officers who came after that, but not before Sarah stopped Derek from unnecessarily killing one of the officers, who was already unconscious. It's interesting that as much as Derek rails on about Cameron being a machine and having no feelings, he has pretty much turned into an unemotional, unthinking killing machine himself. It's Sarah's sense of humanity, not his own, that saved the security guard's life.

As John tried to figure out a way to alter the virus to work, the extra power ended up activating the higher functions of the chip. Once awakened, it identified John and was attempting to take over John's laptop so that it could contact others to relay the information, but John managed to unplug everything before it could accomplish that. But this event gave John an idea. If Vick's chip could do that, then so could Cameron's, so he wanted to use Cameron's chip to take over a traffic light and then infiltrate the system that way and take it down. Derek relayed his worry to John that she might take over the entire system and then not want to come back out, that maybe it wasn't the program that would become Skynet but rather, it was her instead. John pushed aside Derek's concerns, and after Cameron talked him through how to take the chip out, he and Derek went to a traffic light and plugged her chip in. She did indeed get in and take the entire traffic system down, causing massive confusion and accidents because of the scrambled traffic light system. Derek took out her chip and wanted to destroy it, but John said no. He put it back into Cameron's body and tenderly caressed her face, stopping abruptly when her system finally rebooted.

Sarah contacted the person who had bought the computer from Andy's partner (the name on the card that Cameron had obtained). She also made it clear to Derek that she knew he killed Andy and that she was not happy about that and threatened him if he ever lied to her again.

In the previous chips from the video, it appeared that Vick was protecting the wife, which seemed odd, but apparently, it was only for as long as he needed her. Ultimately, there was video proof that Vick did in fact kill the wife.


"Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" - second hour

The date was April 21, 2011 - Judgement Day. Two boys were playing baseball in a park. We find out later that it was 15-year-old Derek teaching his 8-year-old kid brother Kyle how to hit a baseball. Kyle saw what he thought were fireworks overhead, but it was really the missile launch, and after that, Derek took Kyle underground to protect him.

Sarah communicated with the person who had the computer (Sarkissian), who said it would cost her $500,000 to buy it. Sarkissian was then seen at the house of the man who made Sarah's fake IDs. He said he was looking for her and that she might have been responsible for killing the guy's uncle. The nephew didn't show any sign of cooperating until Sarkissian's men killed all of the nephew's cohorts.

Meanwhile, FBI agent James Ellison visited Charlie. He talked to Charlie about the rapture and quoted Revelations. He also said that he knew about Sarah and Skynet and believed her story and just wanted to talk to her. He told Charlie that he thought Sarah was alive. He had to have been hedging his bets because he *did* know that Sarah was alive - she saved him from the fire. However, Charlie was not cooperating and also inadvertently alerted Ellison that another FBI agent (Cromartie in disguise) had already come to talk to him. Charlie then went to see Sarah, to tell her about Ellison's visit and that he believed her, but Sarah dismissed Charlie and told him to leave and not come back, that he could be putting them all in danger.

Sarah and Cameron were examining the diamonds that they had found at the freedom fighters' apartment, and Sarah hoped to use that cash to pay for the computer. She and Derek were stood up at the designated meeting place, but when they returned home, they found Sarkissian waiting for them. He told Sarah that he knew who she was, so now he wanted $2 million, and if he didn't get it in 24 hours, he was going to turn her in. When Derek threatened him, he said he had people watching John at that very moment.

John was otherwise occupied with other more mundane and personal matters. He was on a school field trip to a science museum, and he ended up telling Cameron that the next day was his birthday, and he was sad that Sarah had forgotten. However, mundane turned dangerous when Cameron noticed a man (one of Sarkissian's men) watching John. Later, one of John's friends saw her shutting the trunk of a car and asked what she was doing. He thought she was kidding when she said she was stashing the body of the man she had killed who was the owner of the car, but whereas the friend thought she just had a strange sense of humour and was just joking, John looked at her in surprise and horror, and the two of them drove off.

Ellison looked up the name of the other FBI agent that Charlie had given him, and when he saw his picture, he knew that he was false because he recognized him as the guy who had been a client of the murdered plastic surgeon. He left his office just as Cromartie arrived looking for Ellison because Ellison had Sarah Connor's file.

The girl who was at the fake-ID-making nephew's house who Cameron had kind of bonded with showed up with blood-stained clothes. She was now helping them, presumably as an act of revenge against the people who were killed in that house by Sarkissian and his men. They all went in search of Sarkissian, who ended up holding John hostage. Derek took a little girl hostage, but she turned out not to be Sarkissian's daughter. Derek managed to shoot Sarkissian anyway, but he at least covered the little girl's eyes, so I guess Sarah's humanity was rubbing off on him. John went in search of Sarkissian's computer and took out the hard drive, hoping to find some information about the computer they were looking for.

Back at home the next day, John spent hours tediously decrypting all the files on the computer. Derek came by and revealed that he knew it was John's birthday and offered to buy him some ice cream and told John he had something to show him. Derek took John to a park, where in the background were the two kids we saw earlier playing baseball. Derek revealed that he knew John was Kyle's son, and he also told John who the little boy was. It was a nice moment as John's eyes welled up while watching his father, but I was wondering how sentimental you would get seeing your father as a five-year-old.

Ellison had gathered a SWAT team to storm Cromartie's apartment. As the saying goes, you're going to need a bigger boat. One by one, Cromartie killed all of the men, but I loved how they showed the sequence. One of the men was thrown out the door of the second story apartment and landed in the swimming pool. The view was from the bottom of the pool and the man landed and the water around him started to tinge red from his blood. From that angle, more and more bodies dropped into the pool, making the water redder and redder. By the time we got the topside view again, there were just dead bodies strewn in the pool and in the surrounding area. Only James was left alive, and Cromartie was standing next to him, but he left without killing him. Charlie had heard the call go out while in his ambulance and arrived to see Ellison standing over the dead body of one of his colleagues. Charlie was appalled at seeing all the dead bodies.

John was back in his room working on the computer again when Sarah came in and said it was time to take a break to celebrate John's birthday. John was surprised and happy that she remembered after all. John told her that there were other people who had apparently been interested in buying the computer as well, so maybe one of them had it. Both he and Sarah were shocked, though, when he pulled up a passport with Sarkissian's name on it, and the picture on the passport was not that of the guy that Derek had killed. Instead, Sarkissian was apparently the cashier at the internet cafe Sarah and Derek had gone to. Sarah had told John that she had sent Cameron to get a cake for him. As Cameron was getting into the car, she saw a guy watching her, who turned out to be Sarkissian, and when she started the car, it blew up.


I had started out really liking this show, but I wasn't sure they would be able to sustain my interest. I'm still interested in the story, but I've also found some very frustrating things about it. The main story is really three-fold: 1) Cromartie is trying to find John to kill him; 2) Sarah, John and Cameron are all trying to hide John to prevent Cromartie from finding and killing him; and 3) Sarah, John and Cameron are trying to prevent the birth of Skynet and the arrival of Judgement Day. Most of the events of each episode are basically in support of one or more of the three main storylines. Of course, you're going to have the side stories as well, but I think they've strayed too far in those storylines. I'm ok with the side story about Ellison because it ties into both Cromartie and Sarah, but I can't for the life of me figure out why Cromartie didn't kill Ellison. He killed the entire rest of the team, and as I recall, Ellison was trying to reload a gun when Cromartie had his gun pointed at Ellison. But then Cromartie lowered the gun and walked away. OK, so other than Ellison being one of the main cast and his female co-hort being expendable, what was the reason for keeping him alive? Cromartie doesn't exactly have compassion, so he wouldn't have left him alive the same way Sarah convinced Derek not to kill the security guy. Ellison was obviously still a threat to Cromartie, so he really should have taken him out. Ellison wasn't the only one who was surprised and confused when he was left alive.

Then there are the two side stories at John's school. What is the deal with the girl who jumped to her death and what about the make-shift doors and what they meant and what was going on with her parents? And what's going on with the other girl, the blonde one, that John is interested in now who shares a class with him and freaked out when John mentioned somewhere she supposedly had previously lived?

And then I completely didn't understand why it mattered that the girl from the nephew's house came to help them. Could they not have done that without her? Other than driving the car, what real help was she to them? Did she provide any assistance that they could not have done themselves? Why was she even brought back into the story - just to show that all the people at the house were killed? It really made zero sense to me.

You also have the stuff from the future, which was interesting as it related to some of the events we know, but we don't know what the torture chamber was that Derek was subjected to. We also don't know everything that happened between Derek and Cameron, and while they keep dropping hints about Cameron's ability to turn on a dime, that hasn't really gone anywhere.

When it comes to something like "Desperate Housewives", which is all about having multiple storylines going at once without any all-encompassing story arc, it makes sense to weave in and out of stories, but even they would resolve stories here and there and then start new ones. For this show, it's not about having a bazillion storylines that don't get resolved. ("Lost", anyone?) The side stories are really supposed to be filler, like the B story, that keeps your interest but doesn't distract you or detract from the main story.

And then comes my biggest complaint. In the last hour of the nine-episode arc, we're introduced to a new face - Sarkissian. Ah, but it's not really him, it's just someone using his name. It's really this other dude. Surprise! Ummm, yeah, surprise that you threw a new face at me at the last minute and then pulled a switcheroo because I didn't recognize him. Some of my recap and especially the very end was done with the assistance of the official website. I apparently never realized that the guy who invaded the nephew's house was supposed to be Sarkissian until I read their recap. OK, maybe it was just me being bad at recognizing this stuff. But then I really didn't get the ending, with the name and face on the passport not matching what they knew, and I had no idea who the guy was that was watching Cameron before she went kablooey. Thanks to the official summary, though, I know now, but I shouldn't have to rely on a written summary to know what's going on in the story. To me, that's just sloppy "aren't we cool" trickery writing.

One of the things I have really enjoyed is Brian Austin Green. I was skeptical when I first found out he'd be on the show, and I wasn't entirely happy that he would be playing a character as pivotal and connected as Kyle's brother. But I've been really happy with the direction they've taken the character, and I've been really impressed with his performance. He's certainly grown a lot as an actor since his "Beverly Hills 90210" days, but then, that was a long time ago.

There doesn't seem to be any indication of whether the show is being picked up. 9 episodes seems a bit short for a first season, but I'm not sure how much of that is because of the writers' strike. They seem to be done for now with the current cliffhanger. We probably know that Cameron isn't dead or deactivated or whatever. She might need some of that skin-growing stuff that Cromartie has, but her system should be able to reboot fine - a little explosion shouldn't take her out. I think I generally want the show to come back, but I can't say I'd be terribly upset if it didn't. If it does come back, though, I hope they can get back the excitement of the first two hours of the show.


"Back To You" - Tuesday episode

They had two episodes of the show that were completed prior to the writers' strike that they hadn't previously aired for whatever reason, so the two remaining shows were aired on two consecutive nights.

A news anchor at the station (Ed) had died, and Kelly had been asked to do his eulogy but she was confused about that because she didn't know him very well. Gary, on the other hand, knew him *really* well but was not asked, so he expressed his upset at that throughout the episode as a running gag. Chuck had already decided he wasn't going to the funeral, so after a bit of cajoling, he finally convinced Kelly to let him watch Gracie while Kelly went to the funeral.

Montana showed up at the funeral dressed in black - but her dress was short and sparkly and revealing. She was funny because she didn't understand what the big deal was - she was wearing black like she was supposed to.

Another running gag was that Ryan kept not really knowing who Ed was. He initially thought it was one person, but then he saw the person at the funeral. Then he thought it was someone else, but then he saw *that* person two seconds later.

Unbeknownst to Kelly, Ed had told his country club friends that he was sleeping with Kelly. Marsh found out that Ed did that to hide his being gay. Gary didn't believe that because he knew him so well and that they spent a lot of time together and even vacationed together. One of the other people commented that at least Ed had never given him a ring, because that would have cemented it, and Gary surreptiously took off the ring he was wearing, so apparently, Ed had a thing for Gary that Gary never caught onto.

Ed had been Kelly's mentor, but he had been a difficult and demanding teacher, so Kelly's speech referred to her experiences with that, but everything she said was a double entendre that all the country club friends took to mean that she was referring to their sexual relationship. After she made a number of comments, which were really funny, Marsh went up and told her the truth, and she was really embarrassed. However, the focus was taken away from her when a celphone started ringing from inside the coffin. Marsh had taken Ryan's phone earlier to try to get a picture of Ed so Ryan would know who it really was (don't they usually have a nice picture of the person at funerals?), and Marsh had accidentally dropped it in there and left it. Later, when Gary was at Ed's graveside, the phone rang again, and Gary leaned in closer to hear it. I kept expecting a "Carrie" moment there.

Meanwhile, Chuck wasn't having much luck with Gracie. She was initially annoyed that she had to have someone watch her in the first place, and then she was bored with everything Chuck came up with to do, most of which were entirely too juvenile for her. Then Chuck's date from the previous night showed up, and complications arose when Gracie asked questions and Chuck and the date each had differing answers. Chuck eventually took Gracie to the hotel bar, where she was having much more fun, though she didn't heed Chuck's advice about the nuts on the counter. They turned out to be wasabi peas or peanuts or something with wasabi because she complained about how spicy they were. Do hotel bars or any bars for that matter really have wasabi something on their counters? Kelly found them at the bar, and rather than being mad as Chuck had expected, she actually was happy because after the day she'd had, she really needed a drink.


"Back To You" - Wednesday episode

At the end of the newscast, Chuck said that a longtime employee was retiring and so he wanted to thank him and wish him well, but he got his name, his job and everything else about him completely wrong, for which Kelly gave him a hard time. The group was going out together for dinner before the evening's newscast, but Gary wasn't allowed to go. Even though he'd had a great hard-hitting interview earlier in the day, he was given his next assignment - to cover Anthrocon, a convention for furries. He was told that he needed to cover the furry formal being held that night, and he referred to furries as the people that Trekkies beat up. I'm going to disagree with him. Furries are the people that other fandom people are *afraid* of.

And yes, Anthrocon is real. They even mentioned this particular "Back to You" episode, though I'm a little surprised they liked the episode. Yeah, it tells their point of view, but the con attendees also did some questionable things. But that comes later.

The group had previously talked about a new anchor on another TV station, and he happened to be at the restaurant where they went for dinner. He came over to the table to say hello, and as much as Montana seriously tried to flirt with him, he ended up asking Kelly out for drinks after the night's newscast, which made Montana seriously jealous. She was really funny during that whole dinner scene.

When Gary was conducting on-camera interviews with the furries, he was making comments and asking them all kinds of questions which were ridiculing, condescending and demeaning. However, when he was finished and went back to his car, he was surrounded by a menacing group of furries.

Chuck was jealous about Kelly's date, and he even thought that the anchor was asking her out solely to lure her to his station. When he bullied Ryan into calling the anchor, who Ryan had shown a total, complete and utter man-crush for, they found out that the anchor really just wanted to get to know Kelly for personal reasons.

One of the running jokes on this show was that Marsh was trying to come up with a signature sign-off line, but he was just trying random things on the air, which Ryan didn't like. It was like he was trying to come up with something like what Chick Hearn used to say, but Marsh's were totally random and unrelated and bizarre. At one point, he ran one past Ryan and said, "work for you?" to which Ryan responded "not for long", which made me bust up.

During the late newscast, they went to Gary and Chuck said he must have some really funny footage that he pretaped, but Gary said no he didn't and he was very serious as he was talking about the furries on air, with a group of them surrounding him. He made the comment that people should come down and see for themselves and they should call their friends and family and the police, and he acted like he was being threatened and was in serious danger, like if he didn't say the right thing, he was in for it from them. At the end of the show, he was sitting with a sketch artist describing the furries that menaced him. He was really good in this episode.

After the newscast, Kelly was talking to Ryan about something that Ryan did not want to talk about, and I can't remember what it was - maybe it was about calling the other anchor. Anyway, Ryan faked a phone call and took something out of his back pocket and held it up to his ear and said, "Hello?" Kelly pointed out that it was his wallet, so he said it was an iWallet! That was just too funny. Don't give Microsoft any ideas!

Because the anchor was quite a bit younger than Kelly, she got nervous and wanted to cancel the date, but Chuck told her she should go, to which she retorted that why didn't he go instead, to which he responded, "I would but Ryan would scratch my eyes out". He finally convinced her that she was still attractive and interesting, and she finally agreed to go.


Looking forward to new episodes of this show, which should start airing in April.


And speaking of new episodes, "The Big Bang Theory" comes back this Monday, March 17 with an all new episode at 8pm. The show had previously aired at 8:30pm. I'm already loving the previews I've seen, so I'm so excited that we get new episodes. YEAH!!!!!!!! Geeks Rule!

writers' strike - the effect on primetime television

Anyone who watches primetime television either has already been or will be affected by the writers' strike. The strike means that no new scripts are being written or rewritten, so the production companies only have what scripts were completed before the strike started.

Someone on one of the discussion boards I participate in posted
this link to a TV Guide article that details how many episodes there are left of various network television shows, as of November 30, 2007. It's not yet a comprehensive list - he's still trying to track some information down. Have a look, and you can see what to expect from the shows you watch.

I had already heard that "The Big Bang Theory" had exhausted all of their shows, so I wasn't expecting any more. However, I had also heard that "Back To You" was out of episodes, but according to this chart, there are two left. That depends on whether the two episodes have already been shot or if they still need to be shot. Sitcoms were being hit the hardest initially because they tend to need more rewrites, which obviously wouldn't be going on now. If the shows were already shot, we'll likely see them. If they weren't actually shot yet, we might not, if they need any kind of significant work on the script.

"Survivor" is obviously going to be completed, as would "Kitchen Nightmares", for whatever they can produce, since those shows aren't governed by the WGA.

"Desperate Housewives" should have one left, since an episode aired last night. However, after last night's episode, there was no preview of the next episode, and there's no new show this coming Sunday, so not sure when the final available episode will air.

"Heroes" is airing their last show tonight.

"Law and Order: SVU" has five episodes left, plenty for the rest of the year.

"24" - It's already been announced that while they have completed something like 8 episodes, they're not going to run any of them until they know they can run them all consecutively. This is the show that I'm going to miss the most because of the strike.

"Lost" - I know a lot of people watch this show. I haven't heard what they're going to do, whether they're going the "Heroes" route and showing what they have or if they're going the "24" route and holding them until more can be made. I don't personally care. I've already given up on the show. Last year was the final straw for me.

I'm waiting for the return of "Law and Order" itself. Not sure if episodes were already shot before the strike started, so we'll see if it comes back in January. I'm also looking forward to seeing "The Sarah Connor Chronicles", so the same story with those new episodes.

television round-up - "Heroes", "Hell's Kitchen", "Survivor" and "Law and Order"

"Heroes" - I liked this episode, with a few more bits of information revealed to us. I'm finding myself interested again in how the issues will be resolved, at least temporarily.

It was pretty much telegraphed that Matt Parkman was going to go where he ended up going with using more of his power, but I like that they did it in bits, first with him getting Molly to do what he wanted and then getting his boss to let him continue investigating. I think we were left to hope that he wasn't really going to go all the way when Angela Petrelli told him that he was becoming just like his father, but since he did get the name of the mystery woman in the end (and I keep thinking she looks an awful lot like Joanna Cassidy), he must have had to take that from Angela against her will.

I think the story of Elle is kind of interesting, but I'm not sure if they're going to be able to give her the depth that she needs. So far, she's a fairly one-dimensional character. She's pretty much been sheltered all her life, and she's been taught that people are toys or pets, which explains her behaviour towards Peter previously and in reference to Mohinder, her comment of "he's adorable - can I keep him?" They tried to give her a little more background by telling you about her life growing up, so that you do start to feel a little sympathy for her, but it's not until the end that you see something might actually be happening to change her. Guess we'll see in the next episode. However, I did think it was great when she woke up and realized she was tied up and then just tried to zap her way out of it - only to elocute herself because her feet were in a bucket of water and she'd been spritzed with water. Priceless.

When Bob was posing as a Board of Education member or whatever and talking to Claire and then calls her "Ms. Bennett" - was that really an accident? From the way he was wording it, it almost seemed like he meant to do it. He was saying things as if to let her know that he was onto her, so what better way than to call her by her real name?

Hiro's travels with his father was a bit of a diversion, but I liked the end result, that his father was taking his death calmly, that Hiro came to accept that he couldn't just save his father because he personally wanted to do it, and the closure that was arrived between father and son before the father's death. But the reveal I've been waiting for happened - Hiro looked into the face of the man who killed his father and saw that it was Adam/Kensei.

Oh, and I liked the explanation of why Adam hasn't aged, that he's regenerated so many times so he stays at that age. I wonder what the threshold is. I mean, how many times has Claire healed herself? And does it have to be completely or just parts? We know she did a lot of experiments in her original high school at least.

And the painting comes true - Mohinder kills Noah. Ummm, well, he shoots Noah at least. But then you get that funky, gross resurrection scene at the end. Hmmm, so Bob got enough blood from Claire to heal Noah *and* Nikki? Is there any left over? If Claire just becomes the sole donor to the Red Cross, everyone's good. Well, at least until that nasty virus hits next week anyway.

And now, Peter has gotten sucked into Adam's plan. Peter, who was given information by his later-ally Hiro has now thrown in with Hiro's arch-nemesis (?) to save the world. Question is, does Peter really know what he's gotten himself into? And did Adam change his ways from wanting to hurt Hiro any way he could, or is that really still the driving force behind his actions?


"Hell's Kitchen" - The episode was pretty much what the previews had promised from the week before. As the owner was talking about how she took all her money and opened this restaurant, and she couldn't figure out what was wrong, I was screaming at the TV that what was wrong was that she was opening a fine dining restaurant in POMONA. Are you kidding me? Did she just pick some random city to open the restaurant in without thinking about what city she'd picked? She can't have been from anywhere around there to think, hey, I know what Pomona needs - a fine dining restaurant!

And she was completely abdicating any responsibility for the place. I've found that interesting in a few of these cases. OK, so you're the owner - shouldn't you know what's going on in your restaurant? Shouldn't you be the one in charge? And if you don't have the guts to be in charge, why did you decide to be the boss?

I thought the test of the chef and sous chef was interesting of whether they could identify cuts of meat while they were blindfolded. I honestly can't imagine how you could mix up beef and chicken - they have completely different texture and taste, even if you cook the beef all the way through. If you've got beef that is the texture of chicken, you've got a problem, and vice versa. I probably don't have pork often enough to know whether or not you should be able to tell the difference.

And I know there are differences in fine dining but powdered mashed potatoes? And frozen everything? And what's the point of having things on the menu that you never actually have available? How can you not see that would be a problem? And again, why didn't the owner know that, and if she did, why did she allow it to continue?

When Gordon was working on the new menu with them and told them to come up with something, I cracked up when he mentioned the Pomona Salad, and how it should evoke and represent Pomona. Ummm, ewwwww. Seeing Pomona Salad on the menu isn't going to make me want to order that, no matter where I am.

I didn't think Gordon would be able to get the executive chef to come around, but it was nice that he did. Demoting him seemed to have done some good, but you get the impression that a lot more happened to make the turnaround in both the executive chef and Gordon. It was nice that Gordon was able to make a change, but apparently, it happened too late in the game since the restaurant didn't survive.


"Survivor" - I wasn't really expecting an episode of the show since it was Thanksgiving, so the fact that they showed a recap show wasn't a big thing, and we didn't really learn anything significant that we didn't already know. Looking forward to seeing what the big twist is on this week's show.


"Law and Order: SVU"

two weeks ago - This was the episode about the crazy woman who was killing to impress her serial killer "boyfriend" who was in prison for life for multiple murders. It's always been a point of discussion to figure out why some people (mostly women) are so fascinated and fixated with men in prison, particularly those who have committed heinous crimes, and who even go to the point of falling in love with them. It was great seeing the disgust on Casey's face when she realized that she would have to work with the serial killer to convict the woman doing the copycat killing. At least they came up with a fairly understandable reason why this woman fell for him as she did - the ones where there is no explanation are the freakier ones.

OK, are the detectives just not paying attention or have I been watching too many of these episodes. As soon as they said there was a pizza delivery for Olivia and she said she didn't order it, I knew there was a problem. But they just all accepted it until it went kablooey. Ummm, ok, asleep at the wheel much?

But then Olivia got great payback. How unlucky do you have to be to choose to attack a police officer in her own home, while she's on the phone with her office so she can immediately call for backup, and then beats you to a bloody pulp with a really thick, heavy book before finally realizing to pull back before she beats you to death with it?

But Casey won it all. I loved that when the serial killer changed his testimony on the witness stand, she managed to play to his ego and have him critique the copycat killing. But her best play was even yet to come. Mr. Serial Killer dude was all smirky because she had made a deal to transfer him to a different prison. But he didn't know that she could keep her deal with him *and* arrange for him to be transferred to a prison with tighter security and more restrictions so that he would be even more isolated and cut off from the world for the remainder of his life sentences.


last week's episode - This was a stellar episode, turning an issue on its head, as they're so famous for. They find out that a man has committed rapes on several young girls, only to discover when they finally catch him that he's been off his psych drugs and committed the crimes while off the drugs, and there are at least extenuating circumstances for what caused him to commit the crimes. However, usually, the argument is that he shouldn't be sent to prison because he wasn't responsible for those crimes since he wasn't on the drugs. In this case, though, when the rapist is on his drugs and lucid, he is absolutely horrified by what he's done, and he's not only ready to face his punishment, but he'd rather be extradicted to a different state that has the death penalty as a consequence of the crimes he has committed. You don't feel sorry for him or feel empathy for him really, but it's the first time you actually feel *their* sorrow and actual remorse. He can't live with himself, so you at least respect that in his medicated form, he is not a monster, but you realize along with him that he can't be trusted to stay that way and that he still needs to pay for what he did.

One of the issues this episode does bring up is that of the death penalty. It's a very short scene, but several of them do go through the pros and cons of having a state that employs the death penalty. And you discover that a cop and a prosecutor are perhaps not surprisingly on opposite sides of that discussion. I didn't much care for the ending though. Casey tries to convince the guy that he needs to forgive himself. But I think he's right. In the light of day and under his meds, he knows how horrible his actions were, how those girls that he hurt are going to be scarred for life, and even if there were extenuating circumstances and he wasn't on meds, he still knows he did it. How can you *ever* forgive yourself for that? How *do* you live with that?

But the best part of the episode was the appearance of Sam Waterston. I had seen his name in the credits earlier, so I knew he'd be in it, but I'd forgotten about Jack McCoy's promotion. Or maybe I just didn't think it had gone through yet. Casey has to defend her very unorthodox and unapproved actions to her new boss, the new District Attorney, Jack McCoy. When the old DA stepped down, Jack was promoted. I've been wondering how that's going to play out on "Law and Order" since he's really my favorite part of that show, and with him being DA, he might not be in it as much, unless they change the format a bit. But it was great seeing him here, dressing down Casey. Welcome back, Jack. Looking forward to seeing more of him on new episodes of "Law and Order" in January.


this week's episode - I didn't think this episode was as good as the last two. You kind of got a little of everything - a little bit about a father's taking justice and revenge in his own hands, little bits about race issues, and quite a bit about the foster kids, but I think they've done better stories about the foster kids. The story of the two brothers was a little too easy, a little too formulaic, and then of course, you had to throw in that the newbie in the squad room was also a foster kid. And the resolution to the murder case itself was fairly convoluted so that the whole story just seemed manufactured to tell the foster children story. Like I said, they've done that story much better before.


"The Big Bang Theory" and "Back to You" - Both of these shows are in reruns early. The writers' strike has hit the comedies early, since they don't tape as far ahead, and they require more on-set rewrites than do dramas. There won't be any new episodes of these shows, if at all, until probably a few weeks after the strike is finally over. Since this is the first season for both shows, that could put them in jeopardy. I hope the strike doesn't tank either one of those shows.

"The Big Bang Theory", "Back to You", "Kitchen Nightmares" and "Survivor" (and "Big Brother" note)

"The Big Bang Theory" - Another funny episode. I loved Penny's line to Sheldon that someday, she'll get the hang of talking to him, and Leonard's response that his mother's been saying that for years. I think it's interesting that they've made it so Penny likes half of the foursome (Leonard and Raj) and more or less dislikes the other half (Sheldon and Spock). It still bugs me that they pretend The Cheesecake Factory is something else entirely. Sheldon made a reference to a business in Reseda, so they're definitely in Southern California. I'm not sure why Penny needed people to actually order drinks though. I mean, can't they just give her names of drinks to test her? And Sheldon with his Diet Coke was a riot. In response to his request for a wedge of lime, I loved Penny's response of "then swim to Cuba". And the magic grasshopper allows Raj to actually talk to Penny. That was cool. However, he was such the bore with Lolita on their date.

I loved the twist they gave Sheldon. He's been the uber-geek one, but yet, they showed a completely different side of him with the Indian [Lolita: "Us Indian or come to our casino Indian?" :) ] fairy tale that he'd learned as a kid when he'd apparently fallen in love with the Indian princess. You totally believed that Lolita was much more into him than Raj, but as far as Sheldon was concerned, it was ultimately nothing. When he returns from the date, and Leonard asks if he's going to see her again, he's honestly incredulous at the question, because why on earth would he see her again since he already has a dentist. He also had no idea that it was bad form to leave with her when she was Raj's date.

I did disagree with one thing, though. While I thought it was funny to have Sheldon playing the keyboards and belting out songs, I thought it was wrong to have Penny spike his Diet Coke. It just really struck me as wrong for her character.


"Back to You" - I thought it was a decent episode, though it really didn't do much in the way of story. It was mostly interesting bits. (I'm a little disappointed that the bit about Montana's Hispanic heritage was apparently only being used in the first show.) I loved the scene of the birthday cake sliding down and being whacked by the windshield wipers, though even if that hadn't happened, who would have wanted rain-soaked cake? And I laughed at the exchange between Kelly and Montana when Montana comes in out of the rain and had no idea it was coming, and when Kelly points out that she's the weather girl, she is completely oblivious to the irony. The whole bit about the raccoon was actually pretty hysterical.


"Kitchen Nightmares" - This was an ok episode. It always kind of amazes me that chefs keep telling Gordon that he has no idea about anything about cooking. Ummm, hello? It also surprises me how many of these places lack any kind of major signage to tell people they're there. Next week's episode should be interesting. A restaurant in Pomona? OK...


"Survivor" - This was a good episode. I felt sorry for P.G., but she really needs to learn to shut her mouth. Yeah, ok, so you're frustrated, but making the target on your back bigger and brighter is *not* the way to go. It's kind of funny that she's the only Chinese person there and yet she hasn't been part of any winning team that gets to experience some local culture. I was glad she won immunity, though - it threw a nice wrench into things. I used to like Frosti, but I think I totally lost respect for him because of his connection with Courtney. What the heck was up with that? She's almost literally a stick - she might as well be a boy because she's got zero curves. I don't get that we see her eat, and she chose to eat during the immunity challenge even though she'd also eaten on the boat as part of the reward challenge, but she still weighs 4 pounds. I can't even imagine why Frosti finds her attractive. I think I noticed that Eric has bigger boobs than she does. I still want her to go. Eric was pretty funny with his goat noises. And if they kicked off Frosti because he's a big threat, then they might want to start *really* looking at the big pink elephant in the room - James. Strong and two idols? Yeah, I'm thinking it's time to go through with that blindsiding thing they'd planned on previously. And what was up with the end of tribal council? Guess we'll have to wait until next week.

On a slight tangent, I did notice that one of the ads during the show was a casting call for "Big Brother". That show only runs in the summer, but with the current writers' strike, they're looking for more reality programming, and there had been talk about them doing the next "Big Brother" early. Now would be a good time to start casting to get the show up and running in January or February if the strike is still going on.

television round-up - "Desperate Housewives", "Heroes", "The Big Bang Theory", "Back to You", "Kitchen Nightmares" and "Survivor"

"Desperate Housewives" - This week was a pretty light episode overal. I'm not sure I entirely get the deal with Susan and Mike's dad. I mean, yeah, ok, genetics and all that, but before she starts to worry about whether Mike and his dad have passed along any homicidal or psychotic genes to her unborn baby, maybe she ought to think about the seriously neurotic genes that she's passing along to the poor child. But then, look at Susan and her ex-husband, and Julie turned out ok.

I did love the bit with Bree and Danielle at the end. The scenes at the Halloween party pretty much continued to set them up as adversaries, but it was pretty sweet when Bree was encouraging Danielle to hold her newborn baby, and you could see the conflict in Danielle's eyes, and the worry on Bree's face at the very end when Danielle was leaving.

Gabrielle is so fickle about Carlos and Victor. At least Carlos finally had the nerve to leave Edie. But now that Victor knows about Gabrielle and Carlos? Guess we'll find out.

And then, we find out that Lynette's cancer is in remission. The whole storyline with the possum was actually quite nice. You knew something was wrong, but you weren't quite sure what. It wasn't until the night of the party and the conversation between Tom and Lynette about the possum that you're told what exactly is going on. And Lynette sobbing at the end.

But on a lighter note, I loved it when Lynette's trick-or-treating kids saw "Frankenstein" holding up the new baby! ;)


"Heroes" - There were parts of this week's episode that I liked, but it was losing me with all the popping around that Peter was doing. Great, *yet* another time period.

When Hiro was talking to Yaeko about Kensei, I kept expecting him to say, "There is still good in him. I have felt it." Shades of Vader much? But at least Hiro is back with Ando, and the look on Hiro's face when Ando had to tell him about this father was heartbreaking.

I liked the resolution of Matt's story with his dad and how that saves Molly. I also liked the stuff with Niki. And we found out who Adam Monroe is. I had a feeling that the explosion wouldn't be the end of him.

Apparently, at least one of the creators/writers of the show realizes the mistakes that they've made so far this season, so that bodes well for the future of "Heroes" - after the current writers' strike is over, that is.

Here's the article.

The teaser for next week's episode better be right. I expect ANSWERS.


"The Big Bang Theory" - Another stellar episode. Another one where we had to stop the DVR and go back so we could watch a scene again. I loved the Chinese restaurant episode. Chinese waiter dude is like the only working Chinese actor in Hollywood, if you don't count Chow Yun Fat and Jet Li, and you won't find either of them pretending to be a waiter in a Chinese restaurant. (I think this is the same guy who was in the Chinese restaurant episode of "Seinfeld", one of like two episodes of that show that I saw. I think I also saw the "we can't remember where we parked our car in the parking structure at the mall so we have to wander around everywhere looking for it" episode. But I digress...) I loved his retort when Sheldon was talking about "where he comes from": "I come from Sacramento," and then the look of utter embarrassment on Sheldon's face as he tries to hide. As Sheldon listed off what they usually order (steamed dumplings, general so's chicken, beef with broccoli, shrimp with lobster sauce and vegetable lo mein), and he then asked what was wrong, my response was "you're ordering BORING food!" It didn't get any better when either Leonard or Raj suggested ordering soup instead, and what would they be ordering? Won ton soup. Puhleeze.

I loved how anal Sheldon was being about not being able to divide everything evenly since Spock was with his new girlfriend. When Raj suggested cutting the fourth dumpling, Sheldon's response was that it's then no longer a dumpling, "at best, it's a very small open-face sandwich". And when waiter dude suggested "accidentally" dropping the fourth dumpling, and Leonard said, "No one will know," Sheldon was emphatic about "I will know."

I loved Penny's look when Leonard made her promise not to gnaw the meat off their bones after Leonard's and Sheldon's earthquake supplies discussion. And what the heck was up with Raj still munching on a sandwich in the kitchen? Too funny.

But the best bit really was when they were playing Halo 3, and Penny was kicking the crap out of Sheldon on her first try. Leonard: "Penny, you're on fire." Penny: "So is Sheldon." And then Sheldon tried to walk away, but Penny convinced him to come back - only so he could witness her nuking him. Priceless.


"Back to You" - It was an ok episode, nothing too spectacular. It was funny watching weather girl practicing with station manager to say that weird name, and her repeated failure to do so, and then the later payoff with the little girl saying the same thing like 3 times. The casting of Charisma Carpenter as the boy's mother was inspired - the husband and I chuckled that the son's name was Xander. Oh, and Mr. Investigative Reporter having to instead cover the birth of the baby hippo was probably funnier to me than most people.


"Kitchen Nightmares" - I think all of the restaurant owners/managers are vying for "most pigheaded restaurant person of the year". What amazes me is that this is the second person who has run a restaurant and admitted that they didn't care about the quality of the food. In the first case, the person just cared that the food was sent out. In this case, he just cared that it was "unique". Nothing about the quality. Umm, ok, great "concept" for operating a restaurant.

We couldn't figure out the whole "this restaurant will probably close down in 6 months" thought, followed by "we can franchise!" Yeah, franchise serving frozen food? Blech.

And I couldn't believe that the sign for the restaurant was advertising the wood-burning pizza ovens - that they weren't even using! What, you figure having them as decoration was enough?

Apparently, the makeover didn't last - Sebastian apparently went back to his "20 flavors combination" utterly confusing menu. Here's the link to the menu. I'm mildly curious, but I don't think I'm curious enough to actually go and try it.


"Survivor" - Tonight was a fun episode. The constant flipping by Todd was interesting, but it did make sense, even though Amanda was confused by it. Who would have thought that Courtney would *ever* have been able to win a challenge? She must weigh like 4 pounds. I don't think there's ever been anyone skinnier than her on a Survivor. When Jeff put the immunity necklace around her, it was bigger than her and probably heavier than her. The husband and I applauded loudly when Jean-Robert was kicked off. The look on Todd's face as he was trying not to bust out laughing was priceless. It was also fun to watch P.G.'s face as she began to realize that she wasn't being kicked off that night. Jean-Robert was still delusional though. In his farewell speech, he talked about him being the biggest threat. No, dude, they really didn't like you and only kept you around because they needed the numbers. And what was with being a poker player and being used to using strategy and stuff and then just being a big lumbering oaf who just kept threatening people?

But you know something happened to Denise. First, she wasn't picked by either side for the reward challenge. And then she was the only one who voted for P.G. because "her tribe" didn't tell her what they were doing. You could see how mad she was. It'll be interesting to see how alliances might change next week.

television round-up - "The Big Bang Theory", "Survivor", "Kitchen Nightmares", "Back To You" and "Law and Order"

"The Big Bang Theory"

Last week's episode - I thought the game at the beginning was a little forced, but it sure brought back memories of playing adventure games in college. I remember playing some D&D-type adventure game in college with someone, and we had gotten pretty far. We had a group of decently-leveled players, lots of spells, weapons, etc. I wanted to quit for the night. He wanted to try one more level, and he talked me into it. I didn't want to go into the room. He did. We went into the room. And we were ambushed. We were seriously out-matched, and they got first shot at us. Whack, zing, bwap. Killed half our team on their first go-round, half of the rest of the team went running away and were lost and one or two players made it back up top alive, but severely bruised and depleted. End of game.

I loved that they brought Asimov's 3 laws of robotics into the show, and they even recited two of them! I was laughing so hard.

I want a hypo-allergenic calico. Not because of me, since I'm not allergic to cats, but I love calicos, and if I had a hyper allergenic one, a friend who's allergic to cats wouldn't have as hard a time when she comes over.

I want to know why Penny knows the term "centrifugal force". ;)

This week's episode - "I love buffets." "Don't they have buffets in India?" "Yeah, but it's all Indian food." :)

I loved the shopping trip to the grocery store, and all of Sheldon's comments and *especially* Penny's reactions. "You're just making really expensive urine." "What if that was what I was going for?" And Sheldon with all his little bits of information. And then their tampon discussion outside Penny's door about buying 30 years worth? Too funny.

Sheldon looked really funny wearing the poncho (not sarape) in the entire scene. And the loom was a funny thing that reminded me of a joke among a few of my friends. All they needed was a Xena-wannabee...

I loved the dynamic of Sheldon being the uber-scientist with his ultra-conservative religious mother. Laurie Metcalfe was awesome! "I've got two other kids who are dumb as soup." Her delivery of the question to Mr. I-don't-speak-to-girls about whether chicken was considered one of those magic animals had us busting up. And the whole exchange in Sheldon's boss's office, including the exchange between her and the boss was terrific. Hopefully, they'll bring her back periodically.

When Sheldon's mom was finishing up with the prayer, she seemed to also be directing the comment to Mr. Spock. I don't remember him having a particular religious bent. Is he supposed to be Jewish? That's the only thing I could think of that would make her including him on the comment make sense.

Loved the glow-in-the-dark fish at the end!


"Survivor" - Last week's show was kinda non-descript for me. Glad that Dave got kicked out because he's just annoying. Interesting, though, that it means two of the three people who have gotten kidnapped have then been immediately voted out. As for this week's episode, not really sure P.G.'s and Jaime's strategy to throw the challenges so they can vote off Aaron and James is going to work. (And if they were going to do it, you think they could have been a little more subtle about it?) The last tribe that threw a challenge to kick someone off paid for it dearly. In this case, they have to throw *two* immunity challenges. And since they voted off Aaron and kept James, he's going to be fit to be tied back at camp. I don't expect he'll be working hard to get water and other stuff now that he knows their strategy. Wonder if he'll somehow be able to convey it to the other tribe. Next week - scary Chinese food challenge! :)


"Kitchen Nightmares" - Really enjoyed this week's episode. It was cool that Gordon liked the building to begin with, but it was a bit odd that they only had a little sign that you could completely miss. Gordon really did have a challenge with Dean, the owner. He was so much in denial that he wouldn't even listen to Gordon. And there was really no one else there who could say anything to him. He was more concerned about just getting food out rather than the quality of the food? Yeah, that's a good way to run a restaurant. And I thought his wife was pretty stupid for not wanting to know. He said there was no need to know. Ummm, yeah, well, she's your wife, so you don't think she should know that you're half a million dollars in debt and that y'all could lose your house? What you don't know *can* in fact hurt you, very much so. I loved the torching of the salad funnels. And who wraps shrimp cocktail in phyllo dough? I thought it was cool that Gordon explored the town, and the first thing I thought was "No more Italian dishes." And then he found the meat shop. It was nice to see Dean be able to make the transition, and the look on his face when he saw the name of the restaurant projected onto the wall at the end. Next week looks to be the first restaurant outside of New York.


"Back To You" - Another funny show. I loved the shots from all the different cameras, especially the overhead camera. And I've done the carpool thing before where you're stuck with someone you don't dislike but really have nothing to talk about with. However, if I'd been stuck with Marsh, I'd have rather walked home! And I'm gonna agree with Chuck. There are a lot of people I can think of where I'd rather be out having dinner my myself than be stuck having dinner with them. I don't think it's a matter of being rude. I just think it's a matter of wanting to spend my time with people I like and not with people I don't want to. But in a rare instance, I actually had figured out the end before they showed the guy come out in the bathrobe.


"Law and Order: SVU"

Last week's episode - This was the one with Melissa Joan Hart playing the teacher, and she claims that she was raped, but her student claims that she seduced him. It was a good job of going back and forth where you didn't know which one was telling the truth, really until you get to the revelation about her abortion and her husband's reaction. And then when you get to the rest of the story about the student, and he pleads, you figure it's over. But it's not. He then has the worst thing possible happen to him in jail, but then he ends up with a windfall while the raped teacher gets nothing, and then the very last line from the student's attacker - you pretty much knew it was coming, but it was chilling all the same that he's claiming the same affliction as the student, and maybe that will get *him* off.

This week's episode - The little girl who played the autistic daughter has got to be in the running for an Emmy next year. It's one of those roles where you have to get someone so young and so talented and yet who won't be traumatized by what you're asking her to do. (Think Kirsten Dunst in "Interview with a Vampire".) The misdirection with the Homeland Security stuff was cool (and Karen Hayes from "24" is now apparently working with them! ;) ), but the bit by bit information you get that they coax out of the daughter was incredible, especially with the voices she was doing. And the fact that she could describe the timber of the voices she heard. Great episode all around.

"The Big Bang Theory", "Back to You" and "Kitchen Nightmares"

"The Big Bang Theory" - I love this show. And I love having a comedy where I literally laugh out loud multiple times during the course of the show. I was laughing and cringing during the whole segment about Superman catching (and not cutting into three pieces) Lois Lane. As we fast forwarded through the next commercial, I asked my husband if he knew what was really scary about that. He said, "Because you know people like that?" "No," I said, "I've *been* that." (Original "Battlestar Galactica" - squadrons were purple and orange, and I was right.) OK, let's see if I can remember names from now on. Kaley's character's name is Penny. The taller, geekier-looking guy is named Sheldon, and the shorter, not-quite-as-geeky-looking guy is named Leonard. I loved the whole bit about Sheldon not understanding sarcasm, though in my experience, geeks are actually quite good at sarcasm, using and getting. But the sarcasm sign that Leonard makes later is a perfect payoff to the joke. And I haven't met too many geek neat freaks, so Sheldon's got a lot more going on with him. And do two people really have that many different kinds of cereal on hand? I think at most, I had two for myself at any one time. I loved Kaley's reaction expressions - she is so incredibly good at that. And now I'm interested to see if they're going to continue the Bart-writes-a-different-thing-on-the-chalkboard-each-time gag in the end title card that has the production company name on it. They had it last week, and this week, it's a different card, so we're pausing to read. This one just had random bits of advice that were really funny. My favorite was: "Don't eat anything bigger than your head. True in the sixties. Still true now."

"Back to You" - Nothing spectacular in this episode, but still very funny, and yep, laughed out loud literally again. I love the demo tape that the would-be anchor had. He really could be the break-out character on this show. I wasn't terribly happy with the angle that the daughter and Chuck bonded over making fun of mom, but the drinking game was pretty funny. I did like when she had the litany of things that Chuck could attend and/or help with so it wasn't just fun and games being a parent. And I loved the cracks about the Disney cruise.

"Kitchen Nightmares" - You could tell this was going to be a short episode because they had that long intro at the beginning, as if this was the first episode rather than the third. Was this episode intended to be the first episode? Why are we being introduced to a show that we've seen two episodes of already? And the wife's comment about "don't talk to me like that" was shown something like 5 times during the course of the episode. Ummm, ok, I get it. No footage. This episode at least had a slightly different twist in that it wasn't about how dirty and rotten the food/kitchen was. It really was just about the attitude of the people and especially Billy, the owner. The biggest thing that bugged me about The Mixing Bowl? That it's an eatery and a restaurant. Grrrrr.

"Back to You", "Kitchen Nightmares" and "The Big Bang Theory"

"Back to You" - Another good episode. It was kind of weird to have the "previously" segment at the beginning for a comedy. They usually don't do that. Unless you count "Soap". I loved all the different bits with the goldfish getting killed. I think my favorite was the coffee in the cup. But the fish that Kelsey took out of the bowl when Patricia thought she killed it looked incredibly plastic/rubbery. And where was the disclaimer about "no goldfish were harmed in the filming of this episode"? ;) I loved the field reporter guy with all the tasering. He was amazing at the shaking, and it was so funny to watch him trying to eat at the end. I also give major credit to the three actors actually in the tasering scene with him for being able to not even look like they were trying to suppress laughter as he was shaking and trying to talk. Nothing much with Montana this time, but I loved the pumpkin festival bit.

"Kitchen Nightmares" - This episode was ok, but I could not watch the scenes with all the creepy crawlies in the supply basement. I just had to look away. Amazing that even in the end, Martin just didn't get it at all.

I remember hearing that a lawsuit had been filed even before the show was aired, but I didn't know who had filed the lawsuit. Apparently, it was Martin, who is suing for something like $1 million, alleging, among other things, that Gordon had the rotten food planted and that he (Martin) was forced to quit.

After seeing last night's show, I don't think he's going to have a leg to stand on. Apparently, he had also asked that the episode not be allowed to air, but that was shot down by the judge/court.

There are two commentary bits that I found that had some more information: here's the first one and here's the second one.

"The Big Bang Theory" - This week was the series premiere of the show, and I'm so happy to say that I've now got 2 new comedies on my schedule! Yippee!!!! I loved the show. Kaley was so good in "8 Simple Rules", so I'm glad she's getting another shot here. She's great with her expressions on reactions. I hope this show makes it. I was laughing so hard at all the geeks. They brought back a lot of college memories. (Going to a computer science club meeting, being the only female there, most of the people didn't know who I was, many of the people didn't know *what* I was.) Mr. Smooth Geek guy was a riot, and when he started singing at the end, the laughter on Kaley's part looked so genuine. Some of the dialogue for the geeks must be a handful to learn and say. The husband loved the elemental chart shower curtain, though he claims not to want one. And apparently, the geek guys use the same brand of shampoo that I do, though not the same flavor. And no, it wasn't Darth Vader. Looking forward to seeing more of this show.

"Back to You" and "Kitchen Nightmares" - series premieres

Tonight was the premiere of two new series, "Back to You" and "Kitchen Nightmares".

"Back to You"

After reading a bit about "Back to You" and knowing that Kelsey Grammer was in the show, I had decided to give the show a try. I'm seriously hurting for comedies in my TV schedule - the funniest show I watch is "Desperate Housewives", which I really like and has its comedic moments, but it's not exactly a belly-laugh inducing sitcom. I've had a couple over the last year or two (including "Out of Practice" with Henry Winkler and Stockard Channing who were both excellent), but they haven't survived.

The half-hour sitcom about life at a local news show in Pittsburgh goes very quickly, helped along by very quick dialogue and a lot of throwaway lines that you're likely to miss if you blink or laugh too long at the previous joke. Kelsey as Chuck Darling is not quite as curmudgeonly as he was in "Cheers" and "Frasier", but he's still got great comic timing and sense. Patricia Heaton isn't someone I've really watched before, but she was very good in this, and there's a definite chemistry between the two of them. The actor who played the brother in "Out of Practice" plays a field reporter and wanna-be anchor, and he's great with the one-liners. There's a segment where he makes a comment about how he has to do a remote from in front of the empty dark courthouse in the pouring rain because that somehow lends credibility to the story, and anyone who's familiar with news shows can relate to the absurdity of that way of thinking. Fred Williard plays the sports anchor, and he's a joy to watch as usual. My favorite character, though, is Montana Diaz Herrera, the weather girl who plays up her Hispanic heritage up and over the top. She pronounces everything in a normal tone, except when she gets to her last name, which is overdone with a Hispanic accent. Later in the show, she brings up Chuck's stint in "Los An-heles". The husband and I were laughing hysterically. I'm not sure how well that plays in other parts of the country, but those in the Los Angeles area will be quite familiar with local broadcasters who use the same tactic in real life.

The series has a good production staff pedigree as well, with head writers who also wrote for "Frasier" and "Golden Girls" and the first episode directed by well-known and successful James Burrows.

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more of this show.


"Kitchen Nightmares"

I started watching "Hell's Kitchen" because the husband was watching it. I've seen the past couple seasons, and I usually start watching about half-way into the season. I'm not particularly keen on Gordon Ramsay's abrasive tactics, but you can see that he does really appreciate good cooking talent and expects of others the same that he expects of himself. So I decided to give this new show a try as well.

This show is like a combination of "Extreme Makeover" and "Supernanny". Ramsay goes into a different restaurant each week that is on the verge of failure and tries to help them fix it up. The first episode has him in a family-run Italian restaurant where the brother co-owner, Peter, is the major problem. It was really frustrating to watch Peter's antics, and it was really fun when Gordon gave him the needed dressing-downs, much to the amusement, appreciation and admiration of the sister co-owner and everyone else on the staff who has had to put up with Peter's shenanigans. Oftentimes, these kinds of shows are done from the restauranteur/businessman's perspectives, but knowing that Ramsay is an accomplished chef gives you a different look. When he is examining the refrigeration units and sees the rotting vegetables and other food and sees the deplorable state of the kitchen, with so many non-working or non-existent tools, you can see how appalled Ramsay is at those conditions.

It's an enjoyable hour of television, and it's being added to my schedule as well.