"Desperate Housewives" - November 9, 2008 and November 16, 2008 episodes

November 9, 2008 episode

Lynette had seen Anne (Porter's friend's mom) come out of the band rehearsal location, so she thinks that Tom is having an affair with her. When Tom comes home, Lynette confronts him and tells him that she followed him and knows everything. Thinking she means about Porter and "some girl", Tom's non-chalant attitude and "boys will be boys" feeling completely throws Lynette for a loop, but it's not until Porter himself returns home that Lynette asks if he's really sleeping with Anne, which is when Tom realizes who the "some girl" really is. They want Porter to break it off, but Porter says he loves her, and she's afraid of her abusive husband. He finally reluctantly agrees to call it off. Lynette runs into Anne at a PTA meeting, and she ends up confronting Anne, who says she loves Porter, but Lynette threatens her.

When Porter meets with Anne to break it off, Anne has news - she's pregnant. Lynette tries to make Porter understand that someday, he'll meet someone he really loves, but she doesn't know that Porter is planning to run away with Anne.

Bree discovers that one of her employees has stolen money (she finds out it was to pay for marijuana), so she fires him. She and Orson end up having sex in the work kitchen. The fired employee steals the surveillance CD and is blackmailing Bree for money to get it back. Bree authorizes Andrew to do whatever he needs to do to get it back, which he does, but he then shows Bree and Orson that it's not them on the CD - it's Katherine and Mike instead. Bree takes the CD to Katherine and gives it to her, which embarrasses Katherine. Bree questions the appropriateness of Katherine's relationship with Mike since Susan is one of Katherine's oldest friends, but Katherine says Susan broke up with Mike and she even has a new boyfriend. Bree says that women just don't do that to each other and wants her to be careful. So I'm thinking, really, women don't do that to each other? Since when? Women steal other women's men all the time, even women they know. It's usually the men who have the "bros before hos" rule. I liked Andrew's line about never eating anything that comes out of that kitchen again.

Susan and Jackson start over again, and he reveals that he's not just a house painter, but that he's an actual painter and has just hit a block. Susan wants them to just get to know each other and insists that they not have sex until the fourth date. Jackson's sexual frustration drives him to paint again, and Susan is touched to find out that Jackson has painted her, in a portrait with an expression when she's sad and haunted, something she tries to hide from people, and she apologizes for thinking he didn't know her very well.

Karen and her sister Roberta are investigating Dave, and Roberta finds from his phone bills that he gets calls from and calls back near the beginning of every month a particular number. She has tracked this number to a hospital in Boston and specifically, to a particular psychiatrist who specializes in treating the criminally insane. It's still weird seeing Lily Tomlin as Roberta.

Carlos is dismayed that Gabrielle has become very chummy with Virginia, the older rich lady from the Country Club. Gabrielle is enjoying having the luxuries again, and they even stay the weekend at Virginia's mansion. However, Virginia gets more and more demanding when it comes to the two kids, and Gabrielle finally orders Virginia to leave them alone. Virginia retaliates by getting Carlos fired.

Dave has arranged for the band to participate in a Battle of the Bands competition at a local club.


November 16, 2008 episode

The show starts with the band during "Battle of the Bands" on stage, which becomes ablaze with fire. Rewind to the events leading up to that moment.

Susan is excited that Julie is coming back to visit, and she's bringing her new boyfriend, Lloyd, but Susan is upset when she discovers that Lloyd is much older than Julie, that he was Julie's professor, and that he's been married three times before. Playing Lloyd is none other than Steven Webber. Wow, that was a surprise.



Playing father and daughter? No - playing lovers.


Yes, there's a quite a number of years between them. 29 years to be exact. They actually share the same birthday, 29 years apart. Coincidentally enough, I share that birthday with them as well, though I am much closer in age to Steven Webber than Andrea Bowen. OK, tangent done.


Gabrielle returns home to find Virginia sitting with Carlos. She has arranged for Carlos to get his job back, and she has put Carlos and Gabrielle down as her sole heirs, so they let her back into their lives. Virginia bullies Gabrielle into letting her come along to the club to hear Carlos' band, but when Virginia insists that the girls go to a particular school, Gabrielle puts her foot down and says that as their mother, SHE gets to decide that. Virginia says that since she's making such a financial investment, she should have some say, and Gabrielle says that she can keep her money, but she's not giving up her daughters to Virginia. Yeah, ok, so bravo to Gabrielle for finally choosing her family over money, but I don't like how far down that road she was willing to go.

Bree has an interview with a national magazine and is nervous, especially when Andrew shows her the writer's previous articles which are basically hatchet jobs. She tries to present the perfect picture, but the writer digs up all the dirt in Bree's life instead. When Bree makes a final plea that her book is about rising above the challenges each person faces and how making the perfect dish can be the accomplishment and hope a woman is waiting for, the writer decides to take that angle instead.

Parker tells Lynette that Porter is planning to run away with Anne. She goes to confront Anne, who admits that she wants to be with Porter, but when she says that she's pregnant with Porter's baby, her husband walks in, having overheard. The husband gets Lynette to leave, even as Anne is pleading with her eyes for Lynette to stay. Lynette gets to her car before an attack of conscience hits her, and she goes back, to find the husband beating and kicking Anne. Lynette throws something at him to make him stop and threatens to call the police, but he says that Anne will then be prosecuted for statutory rape. He leaves, and Lynette goes to Anne, who is bleeding but thankful that Lynette came back. Lynette takes her to the hospital, where Porter shows up shortly after, but when he sees what happened to Anne, he takes off.

At the club, Susan spills to Julie that Lloyd is going to propose to her, which upsets Lloyd because he wanted it to be a surprise. Julie says they've only been together three months and declines his proposal since she never wants to get married anyway. When Susan approaches her later to ask why, she says that she sees what Susan has gone through and doesn't see the point in getting married, and Susan tells her she needs to open herself up to love and that she's too young to be that cynical about love.

Meanwhile, Karen and Roberta have been snooping around and had called Dave's doctor, but while he didn't reveal any information, he did find out from them that Dave is in Fairview, which causes him concern, enough to make a visit himself. Dave is surprised to see him but tells him everything is ok and that he'll explain after the show. The doctor is even more alarmed, though, when he finds out that Mike is in the band with Dave. The doctor insists on speaking to Mike, even though Dave says they've worked things out, but Dave finally agrees, and he leads the doctor to a storage closet. OK, the doctor saw Dave sitting at a table with a bunch of guys, all wearing the same shirt as Dave - wouldn't he figure that's the band? And that one of those guys is Mike? Why would Mike be in a storage closet? The doctor's stupidity or lack of paying attention costs him his life as Dave kills him in the closet. He then sets a fire to cover the murder. But you figure when they do the investigation, they're going to figure out that this particular person died before the fire (since he was already dead, he wouldn't have inhaled smoke into his lungs), and it shouldn't be that hard to figure out who he is and that he's connected to Dave.

Anne's husband is the person who runs the club, and Porter comes in to confront him, with Lynette having to break up their fight. After Lynette and Porter go out the emergency exit, the husband orders the door to be locked. The husband later accuses Porter of having set the fire, which Lynette finds to be plausible since he and Parker had set fire to the restaurant of the guy who was hitting on Lynette.

When the fire breaks out, everyone tries to leave, but when they get to the emergency exit, they can't get out. Dave breaks a window and helps everyone out. Jackson had gone to the restroom right before everything happened, and Dave had locked him in the restroom. OK, so why does the restroom have a lock on the outside? Susan notices that Jackson hasn't come out and goes to look for him. Mike stops her, but when she tells him about Jackson, Mike goes back to look for him, not knowing that Jackson has gotten out by breaking a window. When Mike reaches the restroom, he succumbs to the smoke and passes out. Jackson comes out and meets up with Susan, but when she asks about Mike, he says he didn't see him. Dave comes out, and Susan says Mike is still in there. Dave rushes back in and later emerges with Mike. As he puts Mike on a gurney, he whispers to him that he's not done with him yet. Dave is the hero of the day.


One funny thing I realized is that James Denton, who plays Mike, is actually a member of a band, Band from TV. He is listed as playing guitar and not a singer, but I'm presuming he actually did sing his own stuff during the episode.

"Desperate Housewives" - October 26, 2008 and November 2, 2008 episodes

October 26, 2008 episode

At a surprise birthday party thrown for Karen, we get flashbacks on the events that happened in the five years between last season and this season.

When Gabrielle first found out she was pregnant, Carlos admitted that he didn't get the vasectomy that he said he had.

After Susan's divorce, she hired Jackson as her painter and then they started their no-strings relationship. But now, he wants to move in and have a real relationship, which she says no to.

Tom was in the hospital for some reason or other, and that resulted in his mid-life crisis and getting the sports car. Now, he's sold the restaurant, and he wants to buy an RV and tour the country. Lynette is concerned about the kids, but he totally blows everything off and then gets angry when she's more pragmatic. Yeah, I'm so over Tom. Jerk.

Orson had gone to prison and Danielle had taken Ben, so Bree fell off the wagon and started drinking again, but Katherine was pushing her and was there for her and got her on her feet again. Orson wants to tell everyone about his new role in the partnership, but Bree is reluctant.

Dave has been messing with Karen's house, so when she comes after him with a bat at the party, she's taken away in an ambulance. And it's made clear that Dave is after Mike.


November 2, 2008 episode

Tom finds a rehearsal space for the band, which consists of Dave, Tom, Mike, Orson and Carlos. Tom also sets up the place like a bachelor pad. Porter has been sleeping with a friend's mom, but Lynette sees her and thinks Tom is cheating on her.

Jackson broke up with Susan because she wouldn't let him move in. Susan finds a girl in his shower when she goes to make up with him.

One of Carlos' country club clients wants him to go with her as a personal masseur to Europe. He has inadvertently been "finishing her off" with his massages, and she gets Gabrielle to agree to the trip by tempting her with fancy dresses if she takes the family along.

Katherine thinks about moving to be near Dylan since she feels pushed out of the partnership. But Bree doesn't want her to go, and Orson says Bree told her how much she helped Bree when Orson was in prison. Bree sets her up with a guy who Orson claims to be a college roommate but who he later admits he met in prison, so Katherine is mortified that she slept with him.

Lily Tomlin plays Karen's sister. That was weird.

Dave's brother died in prison, killed by Mike in self-defense, which is why Dave is after Mike.

"Desperate Housewives" - October 19, 2008 episode

Through a drawing by MJ, Mike discovers that his son thinks of Susan's boyfriend Jackson as the man of the house whereas Mike is a tiny speck of a presence. Mike tries to remedy that situation by buying a bicycle for MJ and telling him that he'll be back sometime to take off his training wheels and teach him how to ride a bike. In the meantime, though, MJ is so excited that he asks Jackson to teach him, which Jackson agrees to, but Susan is mortified to learn this just as Mike is saying that he's coming over to teach MJ to ride the bike. Susan tries to get MJ to pretend to not know how to ride the bike by purposely falling down, but MJ hurts himself in the process, and a trip to the hospital reveals the truth to Mike. Mike laments that he's missing out on so much with MJ because he lives so far away, and Susan says they both are, but it's something they have to learn to deal with. I'm going to agree with Susan that Mike can't just buy a bike for his son and then make him wait until Mike is free to learn how to ride it.

Orson was fired from his job three weeks prior after they found out that he lied about not having a criminal record. I'm not sure what he was doing since he was a dentist before going to jail. He hadn't told Bree because he was ashamed since she was doing so well, but she found out by accident and was hurt that he hadn't told her. He's not having very good luck finding another job, so he says that he wants to work with Bree as a partner, neglecting to remember that Katherine is already her partner. Bree is initially not keen on the idea but is about to give in when Katherine privately tells Bree that if Orson joins, Katherine quits. Bree eventually tells Orson no, who pitches a fit, even going so far as moving into the guest bedroom. Bree's friends make half-joking comments that when she gets rich and famous from the cookbook, she'll be too busy to talk to any of them anymore, and her being named Businesswoman of the Year (which includes a luncheon) brings on even more jealousy. I do think it was a bit presumptuous of Orson to assume that Bree would hire him just because he's her husband when he really had no experience in the subject.

After Bree talks to the girls about her new cookbook, Lynette asks to see the marketing plan Bree mentions, and later, Lynette thinks it's an awful marketing plan. She ends up making up an elaborate new marketing plan presentation, which Tom sees, and she says she might do some freelance work in marketing again. When Tom asks when she'll have time for that with the restaurant and the family, she shoots back that she'll find time just like he finds time for his band. Lynette presents her plan to Bree but Lynette is hurt when she doesn't like it. At the luncheon, Lynette is still bitter about her marketing plan being rejected, and she has too much to drink. She is pushed further over the edge when she meets the person running the marketing campaign, and it turns out to be someone she knew long ago, and she is depressed that this guy who was kind of a flake is now doing this job whereas she used to be a high-powered ad exec and is now nothing. Lynette ends up causing a scene at the luncheon, much to Bree's embarrassment. When Lynette goes to apologize to Bree after she has sobered up, Bree dismisses it, and they have a nice talk where Bree talks about all the problems she has, mostly brought on by her success, and she wonders if it's all worth it. I loved Lynette's line that her friends were all proud of her and would support her, even if they were all pea-green with jealousy. It's true that even while we are happy for our friends when good things happen to them, we might also still be envious. Tom's objection to Lynette wanting to work part-time *really* irritated me. I'm glad Lynette called him on his hypocrisy, but the fact that he even had the nerve to bring it up!

Gabby decides that Carlos is lucky because he gets to have blind sex, especially since he says he has to rely on other senses rather than sight so sex is different for him now. She wants to try it, so she puts on a blindfold, but that means neither of them are aware that Juanita has walked into the room at some point. When Juanita asks what they were doing and is concerned that in their "wrestling", her dad is hurting her mom, they eventually decide to tell her the truth about sex, which she then promptly talks about to a girl with whom she has a playdate, which angers the girl's parents. Even though they manage to straighten out that misunderstanding, the playdates are called off again when Carlos says that Santa isn't real, unaware that the daughter is standing there, devastated to hear that news. I wasn't particularly interested in this story except to hear how much parents look forward to playdates when they can leave their kids somewhere for a couple of hours.

Tom and Dave have been rehearsing their band, and they're auditioning for a guitarist, but even though they find one who's really good and who Tom really likes, Dave pushes hard to get Mike in the band. Mike says that he doesn't really have the time, and if he's in the neighborhood, he's going to want to spend time with his son instead. Dave then takes Edie's suggestion to buy a neighborhood house as an investment, but he tells Edie to rent it to Mike for a very cheap price without letting him know that they're the landlords. (This wigs out Susan, but hey, it's not the first time an ex of hers has lived down the street.) There is speculation on the net that the person Dave has a grudge against is Mike because Dave is the husband of the mother and child who were killed in the car accident with Mike and Susan. Dave's fixation on Mike would seem to give credence to that, but then you wonder why he's after only Mike and not Susan as well.

"Desperate Housewives" - October 5, 2008 and October 12, 2008 episodes

October 5, 2008 episode

When Susan's new boyfriend Jackson stays the night, he inadvertently ends up separately meeting both Mike and their son MJ while he is still in his robe. Mike says that he wants to get to know Jackson if he's going to be around his son, and they arrange a night out together, which goes smashingly well. Susan is happy that Mike approves of Jackson until she finds out that during their night, Mike happened to reveal a bit of information about what she finds appealing sexually, and she's weirded out about them exchanging that kind of information so doesn't want their budding friendship to progress. She is also concerned about what bad things Mike might tell Jackson given their acrimonious breakup, but Mike assures her that he holds no such bad feelings about her, which makes Susan feel better about letting their friendship continue to develop. I can understand Mike's desire to make sure a man around his son is ok, and I get that Susan wants them all to get along ok, but I'm with her in that I would probably be weirded out and not happy about it if my new boyfriend was going to be bff's with my ex-husband.


Edie still doesn't understand why they came back to Wisteria Lane when they could have gone anywhere, but husband Dave says he thinks they could have a nice life there, though she is (and we are) unaware of his ulterior motive.

Karen McClusky makes a remark to Edie that hurts her, and after she tells Dave about it, Dave goes over to see Karen to ask her to apologize, but Karen refuses. Dave then makes a veiled threat about her not wanting to lose the friends she has, and her cat mysteriously disappears for several days and then immediately and just as mysteriously reappears right after she apologizes to Edie. Karen has a feeling something is up with Dave and enlists Katherine's help in find out what that is.


Carlos works as a massager out of the home, but Gabrielle convinces him to take a job as a masseuse at a swanky country club because the clients will be more wealthy and therefore pay more. That ends up having repercussions she didn't anticipate when a birthday invitation she had previously been excited about receiving ends up being rescinded because most of the guests are members of the country club and the birthday lady thinks it would be weird for her guests to be mingling with the hired help. Gabrielle is concerned that she's falling further and further down the social ladder and that not being at this party will make her standing fall even more, so she arranges to crash the party, with disastrous results when they're discovered. Carlos tries to explain to her that money isn't everything, that as their blind masseuse, he hears all about how miserable they all are, just as miserable as he was when he was always thinking about money, and he says that with each other and the kids, they're much better off and happier now.


Bree is getting ready for the launch of her cookbook, but her decision to use the name "Mrs. Van de Kamp" because it sounds better than "Mrs. Hodge" hurts Orson, who would rather she use his last name not just for social purposes but also professional ones. She convinces him that she's already got that name out in the public and that she had used that name when they were separated, so she doesn't want to lose the branding now. However, when she's being interviewed on a much-coveted food radio show, she doesn't see the irony of talking about her cookbook and how she focuses on home-cooked meals while Orson is sitting at home with take-out. When asked about her husband, Bree effectively denies having one, which Orson hears and is upset about. When Orson later confronts her about that, she relies on the techicality of being asked whether there is a "Mr. Van de Kamp" and her saying there wasn't, which is true. Orson then accuses her of hiding him because she's ashamed that he went to jail, and she more or less confirms that. He says that he went to jail because she said it was the only way to get her back, but now, she's still denying him. I'm going to agree with Bree that "Mrs. Van de Kamp" sounds better, and somehow to me, it also fits better with the cooking persona than "Mrs. Hodge", but I completely see how and why Orson would be angry that she did not contradict the notion that she currently has a husband.


Lynette is concerned that Porter might be involved in drugs because a fellow student and former friend was recently busted, so she decides to open an account and pretend to be a similarly-aged girl on a sort of "myspace" website in order to talk to him and get information from him. She gets hooked because she finds out more and information from him, information he would be unlikely to tell his mother, but she doesn't realize that he's actually falling for this girl. When he tells her, she writes him a lovely "I can't get involved with you" letter that's nonetheless supportive, but she makes the fatal mistake of absentmindedly signing it "love, mom". Porter is appropriately angry and refuses to speak to her for some time, though we see that he misses talking to her too. I can't believe that she didn't see it coming that he'd fall for the persona she had created.


October 12, 2008 episode

Orson has been trying for several years to get Danielle to visit for a weekend, and Danielle finally agrees, bringing husband Leo (who works as a lawyer for the EPA) and son Ben, now 6, with her. Orson cautions Bree to be on her best behaviour, but Bree can't help herself from butting in and judging, especially when she finds out that all three of them are vegetarians and that Danielle will be homeschooling Ben, not to mention that they're apparently Jewish now as well. When Bree is alone with Ben at the park, she tempts him with a story of how little boys and girls need hot dogs to grow up big and strong and then offers him a hot dog, as long as he doesn't tell his mom. At a dinner party later that night that Bree throws which includes their family and the neighbors, Ben gets sick and Danielle finds out that Bree not only fed Ben meat in the form of two hot dogs but that she also instructed him to lie to her about it. Danielle is furious and declares that her family will be leaving in the morning, and Bree's apologies do nothing to help the situation. Orson is angry at her for her behaviour, but he's most angry because when he agreed to go to jail, he still had Ben in the house as his son, but when he got out, Ben was gone and now barely even recognizes him. He blames Bree for not fighting hard enough for Ben, a comment which angers Bree in turn. I can certainly understand if Bree objects to how Danielle is raising Ben, but she herself said that Danielle is actually Ben's mother. How she could think it's ok to completely undermine Danielle with the vegetarian thing, not to mention her not realizing that if he hasn't had meat in a while, having meat and lots of it was going to make him really sick, really surprised me. I can't imagine she would have been very happy if her mother or her MIL had pulled the same thing on her, encouraging her children to do something she didn't allow. She also makes a comment about not being able to watch Danielle make all these mistakes with Ben. Ummm, yeah, you know, Bree, you're not exactly the paragon of child-rearing, given your track record with Danielle and Andrew. She said so herself that she did a horrible job with them and that she was going to get a second chance with Ben. Well, who says she wasn't going to screw up again, and why should her second chance trump Danielle's first chance at being a mother? The husband also noticed that when they were at the dinner table, she made some comment about having her entire family under the same roof for the first time in a long time, but Andrew was noticeably absent. Yeah, I guess Andrew doesn't count. That's a mother's love and concern for you.


Susan's son MJ is getting picked on by other kids, but when Susan tries to talk to him, he says he wants to talk to Mike. Susan eventually finds out that the person picking on MJ the most, that he didn't want to disclose, is in fact Juanita, Gabrielle's oldest daughter. Susan tries to talk to Gabrielle, but Gabrielle is mostly defensive. Things escalate when Susan tries to handle the situation herself and Juanita refuses to stop bullying MJ, which results in a catfight between Susan and Gabrielle. Later, Susan comes over to Gabrielle's with a peace offering of wine, and the two bond and talk about their fears raising their children. I wasn't crazy about this story at first because I didn't like Gabrielle's reaction. Your child is bulling another child, the child of a good friend no less, and you're not really all that concerned about it and instead turn it around and insult the other kid for not being tough enough? However, I did like the heart-to-heart talk they had in which Gabrielle admitted how and why she felt what she did when Susan told her about Juanita's bullying, and then Susan expressed her fears about MJ's growing up without his father being there all the time. These are the kinds of moments I actually really like about this show, and which they do really well but haven't done much of lately.


Gabrielle and Carlos are hurting for money and decide they have to sell their sports car, much to Gabrielle's dismay since she is losing more and more signs of her once-wealthy stature. Their negotiation tactics, partly because of their desperation, are awful, and the sale goes through with them getting much less than they had originally wanted. I thought it was odd, though, that after the verbal agreement, she tossed the keys to the new owners and then she and Carlos just walked away. Ummm, don't they need to pay you first? Gabrielle and Carlos then end up buying a really crappy car from Andrew, and they aren't able to negotiate him down. Gabrielle drives the car and then discovers that it needs a new radiator, but Andrew is completely unremorseful about having sold her a lemon. After Gabrielle's talk with Susan, though, in which she admitted to feeling defeated, she gets her spunk back and forces Andrew to pay for the new radiator. Hmm, ok, maybe now, she'll also stand up to both Carlos and Juanita about Juanita's weight and attitude.


Karen asks Katherine how she's done about looking up information on Dave, but Katherine says that because he has a fairly common name (Dave Williams), she's coming up with a billion hits, so she needs more information about him, like where he grew up or where he went to school or something. Katherine and Karen arrange to meet Edie for lunch in order to get more information about Dave, but whereas Katherine had recommended subtlety, Karen just starts firing question after question about Dave, most of which Edie doesn't know the answers to, and Karen berates Edie for not knowing that information about her husband. Edie is startled and leaves.


Dave happens upon Tom and Lynette cleaning out their garage, with Tom being upset that he has to throw away so many things, including his guitar. Tom mentions that he used to jam with Mike before he moved away, and Dave says he plays the drums so offers to jam with him. Tom enjoys jamming with Dave so much that he enthusiastically tells Lynette that they're going to add a few more people and start a garage band and maybe even play some gigs. Lynette reminds him that with the restaurant to run, and being a husband and father, he doesn't really have time for that, but Tom is stubborn and insists. Lynette arranges for his very-expensive guitar to be "accidentally" destroyed, but then Dave comes by with another one and ends up manipulating her into accepting the guitar and then presenting it to Tom as a gift from herself. The more they play out Lynette and Tom, the more I'm getting to dislike him. They actually used to be my favorite couple because they were the most honest and grounded, but more and more, Tom has just turned into a completely ineffectual father and husband. They have the restaurant because HE wanted it as it was his dream and he threw away a perfectly good career to pursue this. HE doesn't want to deal with being a real father to his children and so pretty much has a hands-off approach, leaving Lynette to do everything. HE is the one having a mid-life crisis with his red sports car. I get that there are things he wishes he could do, but he's completely throwing all responsibility out the window, and he has been for some time, and Lynette totally allows it! The boys are in so much trouble precisely because they get no guidance and direction from their father. I've gotten to really dislike Tom for being such a big baby and Lynette for allowing him to be one.


At Bree's dinner party, they're talking to Leo about what he does and where he grew up and where he went to school, and the same questions end up being asked of Dave, who deflects them, but then Edie presses the issue, at which point Dave tells a well-fashioned and sympathetic sob story about how he's ashamed to admit he didn't go to college and that he grew up in a terrible household with abusive parents. Later that night, Edie apologizes and says she was egged on by all of Karen's questions, and Dave finally understands what happened, but he makes up a story about a relative who started going senile and becoming paranoid, so much so that she ended up having to be put in a home, all of which we know is a thinly-veiled threat against Karen. I think Karen went about it the wrong way, but I do think it's weird to marry someone without knowing so many details about their life. I would think that would just come out in conversation and that you'd want to know about a person you were planning to spend the rest of your life with. Dave's telling of his story was just awesome though. Karen better look out!

"Desperate Housewives" - September 28, 2008 episode - season premiere

The new season starts off where the last season left off - after having made a five-year jump into the future.


Susan

She had given birth to her and Mike's baby boy, and she and Mike were on their way to an anniversary dinner when they ended up in a really bad car accident. In the present, she has a boy-toy that she sleeps with who's actually her painter, but she has kept him a secret and has not allowed him to meet her friends or her son. He wants more of a relationship with her, but she refuses. Eventually, she tells him about the car accident. We then learn that Mike didn't die in the accident, but rather, the mother and daughter (the same age as Susan's and Mike's son) in the other car were killed. Susan's guilt caused such a rift in the marriage that she and Mike divorced. When he comes to take their son for his visit, she finally admits that she's seeing someone else.


Gabrielle

Glamor-queen is gone, and she's now the mother of two kids, the oldest of which is fairly heavy for a four-year-old. Carlos apparently indulges her (he's still blind) and doesn't want Gabrielle to make her self-conscious about her weight. Gabrielle tries to get her daughter Juanita to get some exercise by having her run after the car (that seems like a bad idea, doesn't it?), and when Juanita is finally tired of it, she just gets on a bus. And the bus driver doesn't make her pay? She certainly didn't have any money on her. Gabrielle's life and looks are certainly very different now than before. It was cool to see them do almost no make-up and no hairdo on Eva, and they still toned it down even when Gabrielle was supposed to be dressed up.


Bree

Bree has a catering business with Katherine, but she's also about to publish her first cookbook. Katherine is touched that Bree has dedicated the cookbook to her, but she's angry after she's had a look at the recipes and finds that some of the recipes were either jointly created by both of them or are outright Katherine's creations, yet Katherine is mentioned nowhere in the book as a collaborator. When a local cooking show wants to tape Bree, Katherine manages to show that Bree doesn't know how to make one of their famous creations, one that's contained in the cookbook. Bree kind of treats Katherine like the hired help, which Katherine doesn't like. Bree is apparently back with Orson, but it's revealed that Danielle came back to claim her son since she is now married and could provide for him, and she only gave him up because Bree talked her into it. It appears that Bree has no access to Danielle or her baby, so Bree is trying to fill the hole left by their departure, though Andrew is still around.


Lynette

Lynette's and Tom's twin boys haven't calmed down any in the five years that have gone by. She catches them having taken over the family restaurant for an alcohol-filled poker night with friends, which has apparently been going on for some time. She grounds them from Homecoming, but she and Tom argue about what they've done. Rather than being a dad to them and teaching them what was wrong with what they did, Tom is more like a friend who shares in the "cool" things they do. Tom even overturns Lynette's decision to not let them go to Homecoming. But Lynette turns the tables on him by telling the boys that they can go AND they can use Tom's treasured convertible. When they're late returning, Lynette finally gets through to Tom that they have to be parents to their kids, and when the boys finally show up, Tom finally puts his foot down, being dad for what looks like the first time. I used to really like Lynette and Tom as a couple, but Tom's actions over the past season, especially with his daughter from the other woman and even with his own kids, shows him to be a total baby and wuss who can't seem to take responsibility for anything. OK, so NOW he decides to be dad? Ummm, yeah, dude, the twins are 16. Where ya been this whole time?


Edie

The big surprise (to me, anyway, since I thought she was gone from the show) is that Edie returns to town, and she's got a new rich husband - Dave Williams. They move back into her house, much to the neighbors' surprise. The women of Wisteria Lane are surprised that after Edie makes a rude remark about Gabrielle's appearance, her husband has some words for her, and then Edie apologizes, and she even says she baked them some muffins. At a party thrown by the women to welcome back Edie, there's a disagreement about who was at fault when Edie left, but her husband calms things down. It turns out that he convinced Edie to return to Wisteria Lane. Late at night, he receives a phone call, from someone to whom he is required to check in once a month. It must be some kind of doctor or something, because Dave is shown on video as having been in some kind of treatment for anger management issues, though the anger is apparently directed at one person, someone who lives on Wisteria Lane.

2008 fall television season

Since today is Labor Day, that means it's September, and September means that the start of the new fall TV season is imminently upon us. Here's a run-down of the shows that I plan to be watching this year, which means, unless I get another really bad case of writer's block when it comes to TV shows, these are the shows I will be blogging about.


America's Toughest Jobs - Monday, 9pm, NBC - I really don't need another reality show to watch, but the previews for this show intrigued me enough to watch the first episode. I like that this show isn't just about made-up challenges - the challenges are actual jobs that the contestants have to do, and these aren't run-of-the-mill desk jobs. The first episode involved going out on crabbing boats and being on the water for 24 hours with very few breaks and amazing swells and lots of heavy ropes and cages to lift and sorting through crabs and just a ton of work. It definitely made me appreciate all the work that crabbers have to go through, and it made me annoyed with the people who just wouldn't do the work. I did think it was funny that the person on each team who did the best was a woman, especially since some of the guys had been smack-talking about how it was hard work and it was no place for girls to be. Yeah, dude, shut up and just do the work. They've shown previews of the other jobs/challenges that will be coming up, so I'm looking forward to seeing more.

90210 - series premiere Tuesday, Sept. 2, 8pm, CW - I loved the old "Beverly Hills 90210" show, so I'm going to give this new show a shot. I'm not sure I'm still going to be interested in high school antics, but we'll see. If nothing else, I have to see what they do with Kelly's and Donna's characters.

Kitchen Nightmares - season premiere Thursday, Sept. 4, 8pm, Fox - I have to remember not to eat while watching this show, or at least not look at the screen too closely, but I like this alternate side of Gordon Ramsay. The first episode, showing this week, is supposed to revisit some of the restaurants featured on previous shows, to see what has happened to those restaurants since the shows aired. That should be interesting to see.

Hole in the Wall - series premiere Sunday, Sept. 7, 8pm, Fox - This is the American version of the Japanese show Human Tetris. I've been looking forward to seeing this, though I'm not actually sure how long it's going to be able to retain my interest since the games will be fairly repetitive. But maybe watching people trying to contort themself without having to think too hard about the show might be a nice weekly break.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - season premiere Monday, Sept. 8, 8pm, Fox - I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the new season of this show. The end of last season was quite explosive, literally, so I want to see how they explain some of the new developments.

Fringe - series premiere Tuesday, Sept. 9, 8pm, Fox - I'm not entirely sure what the show is about, and I haven't even really seen a trailer for the show, but seeing the billboards has intrigued me. I'm not particularly in the J.J. Abrams fan club, but I'm curious enough to give this show a try.

The Big Bang Theory - season premiere Monday, Sept. 22, 8pm, CBS - I'm looking forward to seeing the show this season, to see where they take the Penny/Leonard thing, and to hopefully see them build on the great start from last year. This is my only sitcom this year, so I need it to provide me with lots of laughs.

Heroes - season premiere Monday, Sept. 22, 9pm, NBC - They've already told us what to expect this year by subtitling the show "Villains", and apparently, Nikki isn't so much dead. I didn't think last season was as good as the first season, but I'm still liking the show, and the previews look great.

Knight Rider - series premiere Wednesday, Sept. 24, 8pm, NBC - I enjoyed the movie earlier this year, so I'm glad the show got picked up. Go, Justin Bruening! Looking forward to seeing this show.

Survivor: Gabon - season premiere Thursday, Sept. 25, 8pm, CBS - I've been watching the show now since the end of the first season, but I actually haven't decided whether I'm going to be watching this season. I've gotten a little tired of it, so it will probably be a matter of whether the previews interest me and if the first couple of episodes make me invested enough to keep watching. Sometimes, the people are just too stupid and aggravating to me for me to enjoy the show.

Desperate Housewives - season premiere Sunday, Sept. 28, 9pm, ABC - Since the new season continues the five-years-ahead jump that ended the last season, I'm interested in seeing what all the new developments are, especially since Edie didn't leave like I thought she had.


There are two other shows that I'm looking forward to seeing, but they won't be on for a while.

24 - Yes, the stupid writers' strike meant that last season didn't happen at all, so I have to wait until January 2009 for the new season to start, though there's supposed to be a movie in November, I think. Need to see Jack Bauer again!

Dollhouse - The show isn't currently on Fox's schedule, but it's expected to start airing probably sometime in January. The premise sounds interesting, and I like both Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku, so I've definitely got to give the show a try.


These are the shows that I'll be watching, and here's an article that has the season/series premiere dates for all the returning and new fall TV shows so you can find the ones you're interested in.

return to Wisteria Lane

This Sunday (April 13) marks the return of the first new episode of "Desperate Housewives" after the writers' strike. I'm so looking forward to it, as I really like the show, though I think I've forgotten where we are, but they usually do a recap of the relevant points at the beginning of the episode, so I'm ok. I think Lynette's neighbor now needs somewhere to live, Gabrielle is screwed because the mayor is alive *and* remembers what she and Carlos tried to do to him, and I'm still wanting to know what the big secret is with Katherine and her first husband.

So whether you'll have spent all day Sunday (certain people won't be surprised to hear one bit that the weather forecast in Southern California is for sunny skies with a high in the mid-80s, right?) facilitating a really hard game at Disneyland, playing said really hard game at Disneyland, enjoying a leisurely lunch (like us) of yummy goodies at Disney's Food and Wine Festival and then tracking down your friends to say hi to them, or finding yourself stuck in some other city in some weird time zone, welcome back to Wisteria Lane!

"Law and Order", "Celebrity Apprentice" and "Desperate Housewives"

"Law and Order: SVU" - This was a really good episode, with the hallmarks of SVU. The story of the homeless kids and the families that they create on the streets was heartbreaking. (That scene with Olivia and Elliott eating in front of Josie was just cruel!) Some of what the homeless people do is reprehensible, but when you find out what Cassidy had to deal with as a child, you can almost understand how she's gotten where she is and why she's so adamant about helping her "children". Your heart breaks for her when she's testifying against Cole, and he just completely loses it on her. But then comes the twist - Cassidy is not in fact an abused runaway. She was a bored, bratty Park Avenue debutante who rebelled against her parents and ran away, and it turns out that she was ultimately the one responsible for the death that the detectives were investigating.


"Law and Order" - The series returned with two back-to-back episodes and three major cast changes. Fred Thompson left the show because of his run for president, so Sam Waterston's Jack McCoy is the new District Attorney, and a new actor has been hired as the new ADA. In addition, Jeremy Sisto joins the cast as a newly-transferred-in detective. I remember him from the cancelled TV show "Kidnapped". I liked him in that show, so I'm happy about his joining L&O, although I did like the lady detective who was there the last two seasons.

I thought the shows themselves were ok but nothing really special. Jeremy Sisto was very good, and I think he's going to fit right in. However, I did not like the new ADA. He's a sort of renegade, almost an ADA version of Mike Logan, but I like him. I guess I'll have to see if he grows on me.

My major concern, though, is about Jack McCoy. When I heard that he was the new DA, I wasn't sure how the show was going to go. The DAs that I've seen on the show aren't on it much, just making an appearance here and there, so was Sam Waterston going to be reduced to cameos? Well, they're apparently changing that dynamic as Jack was on screen more than Arthur generally was, but then, Jack now seems to pretty much be babysitting the new ADA. I'm not sure how much I'm going to enjoy that aspect, but what I'll really miss are Jack's closing arguments. Sam Waterston was a master at that.


"Celebrity Apprentice"

I've seen a handful of episodes of "The Apprentice", but it wasn't a show that I watched on a regular basis. And celebrity versions of shows don't always catch my attention, but for some reason, this particular one did. I think the major curiosity factor for me is Gene Simmons. The thought of him going up against Donald Trump sounded like it was going to be fun.

The first show started with the introduction of the celebrities. I'll admit to not knowing most of them, but then, they're mostly from areas that I don't follow. The only ones I really knew were Gene Simmons, Marilu Henner (from "Taxi"), Nadia Comaneci (though I would never have recognized her - but then, it's been a billion years since I've seen her), and Stephen Baldwin, and I've heard of Lennox Lewis, and once they identified him, I got that Piers Morgan was the Simon Cowell-esque judge from another reality show. I never watched "The Sopranos", so I didn't know that actor. And of course, I'm familiar with Omarosa.

Once they divided the groups into men vs. women, the two groups were sent off to come up with their group names. I liked Empresario ok, but I really loved Hydra.

With the hot dog selling challenge, the men in general and Gene Simmons in particular had the right idea. They're celebrities with lots of contacts. Instead of selling $2 dogs for charity, why not sell $1,000 dogs for charity? Using the phone was a way to expend minimal effort with maximum results.

On the flipside, though, Omarosa's declaration that they were going to go with selling the product itself rather than using the celebrity and the women seemed like a thud idea, but the other women ultimately went along with it.

As expected, the men crushed the women, raising something like $52,000 to the women's $18,000.

And when it came time for the boardroom, Omarosa reverted to form, her protestations of her change notwithstanding. She never really accepted the blame for insisting on the failing business model and instead blamed other people. (And what the heck with the Latina news person who was totally backing her up? Yeah, she was perfect in every way, except that when it came to choosing the very foundation of the plan, she picked a sucky one, so the entire thing crumbled - you don't think that's her fault?) I'm not really sure why Omarosa focussed on Tiffany. But Tiffany never fought back adequately. When Donald Trump asked why she didn't call her major contact (Hugh Hefner) when Marilu Henner had called people, she didn't stridently tell him that Marilu did it by going against Omarosa's explicit directive. Instead, she went for the "I'm saving him for something better" route. That was her downfall. Had she laid the blame on Omarosa where it really belonged, she might have still been let go, but I think she would have at least had a fighting chance instead of going out with a whimper.

Next week's episode looks interesting with the tease that Donald Trump is going to go after Gene Simmons because of some comment about Ivanka.


"Desperate Housewives"

This episode was all about the aftermath of the tornado. There is some tension as they're digging out the Scavos, but the drama ends as we expected it to - Tom and the kids survived, but Ida didn't. Much of the episode is about Ida, or more accurately, what we didn't know about Ida. Lynette is stunned when Karen tells her that Ida used to be on a baseball league, and she was a star at it. But Lynette is even more stunned when her oldest son tells her that Ida basically sacrificed herself to save Lynette's husband and children. Lynette is appalled at the flippant attitude of Ida's niece (I loved the "you passed bitchy 10 minutes ago" line) and manages to "save" Ida. And the scene with Lynette and Karen on the field scattering Ida's ashes, the ensuing police chase and then the two of them heading out for some beers was terrific. I hope they develop that relationship further.

Gabrielle's story got a little more interesting with the funeral scene where Victor's father blackmailed her into leaving before the service. It's been nice watching Mike Farrell in this role. I used to love him as B.J. on "MASH", but circumstances had made it difficult for me to watch him anymore. And we find out that Carlos has been keeping a secret from Gabrielle - he's blind from the accident. (BTW, when Gabrielle kept clicking on the pain meds for him and they pretty much took effect immediately after she kept pushing it repeatedly - BZZZZTTT, thanks for playing. Yes, you can medicate yourself, but the machine only lets you have so much medication in a certain period of time, no matter how many times you continuously click it.) But I'm still not that engaged in this story. Of everyone, I think Gabrielle is the least sympathetic character. She has blatantly and unrepentantly cheated on both her husbands, and she is much more self-centered with many fewer redeeming qualities than the other women, and I don't think they've really shown the other side of her that they've even managed to show in Edie.

Bree and Orson end up staying with Susan and Julie, which Susan at first dreads, but when Bree ends up playing mother to both of them, Susan doesn't want to let Bree go. I liked the last scene between them when Susan admits that she needs Bree there. I was a little surprised that they played the angle of Bree trying to use Andrew to seduce the contractor into fixing her house after all. After the whole reconciliation and everything, it just seemed really callous, especially since she didn't get his permission or even warn him about it ahead of time.

But the kicker to the entire episode centered around Katherine's big secret. She kicks Adam out since he did in fact have an affair, but just before he leaves, he finds the note that Katherine's aunt wrote that had fallen under the bed. And he leaves on his own terms, but not before letting her know that he knows her secret. And at the very end, Dylan rustles through the ashes of the not-quite-burned paper and finds out the secret herself.

AAAAUUUUUGGGHHHHH!!!!!! This is the one story that I've been most engaged in, and I've been happy with the little bits we've been told regularly, but now, nothing. This was the last episode completed before the writers' strike, so nothing else will come out until that whole thing is settled. I'm dying to know what the secret is, but part of me wonders whether or not Marc Cherry has even come up with it yet.

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.

"Law and Order", "Kitchen Nightmares", "Survivor" and "Desperate Housewives"

"Law and Order: SVU" - I didn't think this was as good as some of their other ones, though it did give Mariska Hargitay a chance to shine some more. The main story seemed a little more personal than they normally are, especially given how hard it hit Elliott. We don't usually get quite that much about their lives. And I'm not happy about how they never resolved the issue of what would happen to Tommy. His mother's dead, his father's going to jail for life for killing his mother, and he saw both his dead mother and his dead nanny. And now, he's probably going to be awarded custody to his biological father, who his mother was having an affair with, and who is a complete stranger to him. Think all that might scar him a bit? There had also been a build-up last week about Olivia and Kathy getting hit while in the car, and the baby's life hanging in the balance. OK, I had thought that might be interspersed a bit in the regular story, but that was just the story at the end. And while the scenes with Olivia and Kathy, and the rescue workers trying to get them out and Olivia having to do all sorts of things for Kathy and then basically taking Elliott's position while Kathy gave birth, were all good, there wasn't that much time when the baby was really in danger. By the time Elliott gets there, it's all good. I liked the hug that Elliott gave Olivia, presumable for all that Olivia did for Kathy and the baby, but I really would have liked just a simple "thank you" from Elliott to Olivia before they went back to normal. You got the look, but for me, it wasn't enough. Next week, you have the stunt casting of Method Man. I hope he's as good as Ludicrous was.


"Kitchen Nightmares" - OK, so you don't know anything about running a restaurant or about cooking really, and so you decide to open a restaurant? Ummm, ok, why? I'm amazed they were open for 18 months with the way things were going, but he was seriously in debt by that time. It's kind of interesting that even if you don't know anything about the business, you apparently can't figure out that having a "fun" working atmosphere is detrimental to your business. Yeah, you want to make it a pleasant place for people to work, but not at the expense of your customers. One of the things I don't get about a lot of these people is that they can't see some of the obvious problems with their restaurants, that they can't put themselves in the shoes of their customers and know that in their position, they wouldn't put up with certain things. A few of the people in this restaurant said it's known for people having to wait for their food. And the owner can't figure out that's a bad thing. He'd sit in a restaurant and wait a really long time for food and keep going back? It took Gordon to come in and see that their "fun" environment was entirely too loud for the customers, and maddening on top of that when you hear people goofing around while you sit there waiting endlessly for your meal? It was also amazing that there was so little business in the restaurant, but there were so many people on staff. As Gordon was counting them, it seemed to me that there were way more people working the restaurant than were eating in the restaurant.

One curious technical part for me - when Gordon was at their house and interviewing the wife, there's one scene at the end of that segment where Gordon and the wife are what looks to be in another room, and the cameraman was peering at them through a slightly open door. What was up with that?

I also found it odd that Gordon decided to take on the woman who was complaining about the food. I didn't think she was making a scene or anything, and Gordon really cussed her out. Seemed a bit odd to me.


"Survivor" - I thought this was a terrific episode all around. So the big twist was that they did an immediate reward challenge after tribal council, with the winner and two people going to the exclusive Shaolin temple. I was actually very happy that PG won that one. You could see the look on her face when Jeff announced the prize. I think she would have been crushed if she hadn't won or hadn't been chosen to go. The only Chinese contestant actually wins the most cultural award to date on this season. Interesting that the subject of the challenge was about the culture itself. Did they engineer this for her to win, since she would have had more of a background, other than Jean Robert, though they were probably all given stuff to read? I thought she was going to pick James and Todd to try to play game, but it was actually nice that she picked Eric and Denise, more so once we found out that Denise had some training in karate. It was interesting that the outcasts got to go on the reward challenge while the main alliance all stayed at camp. There really wasn't that much game to discuss, though Amanda showed that she had other ideas.

The karate demo was pretty cool to watch, but as soon as they mentioned Denise's training, I knew that was going to show up some time. It was cool that she got to demo to the kids. Being able to perform at Shaolin temple is probably going to be something that Denise never forgets, though when she thanked PG for choosing her, I was figuring that meant she would probably vote her off at the next tribal, since that's how it happens a lot.

Courtney is still bugging me. When outcasts came back and PG was talking about the reward, it wasn't like she was just volunteering. She was asked. And Courtney is going on about "her" cave. Ummm, when did she become master of the cave?

I was also annoyed at Todd for being mad at PG for trying to play the game and suggest voting him off. Ummm, yeah, he's one of the strongest players, and she's on the chopping block. Of course she's going to try to stir it up to save herself and target him. I don't get when people think it's fine when they have to do this or that to play the game (considering Todd was going to try to blindside James previously), but if the game is played on them, then they're mad and it's not right, blah, blah, blah.

So Amanda now embraces and even implements the plan to blindside James that Todd had previously advocated and that she didn't like. Maybe they just haven't showed footage, but it's about time more people are seeing exactly how big a threat James was, both in his actions and with his two hidden immunity idols.

I liked the flying stars challenge - culturally related and fun to watch. Nice that Eric came out on top. I also liked in the machinations before tribal when Amanda had to finally convince PG to stop stirring the pot and just act as if she was going home. I know it must have taken a lot for PG to believe her.

And then we got to one of the best tribal councils ever, second to one from last year, imo. Everyone played the role they needed to play, especially PG emphasizing her being voted out and being on the jury and people needing jury votes. Even after they voted, and before Jeff started reading the votes, Amanda and Courtney were looking back and forth at people, rather guiltily. OK, you're not out of the woods yet. Until Jeff has read the first vote, James can still play an idol. Stop looking and acting guilty. But even though James later admits that he was suspicious, he doesn't play either of the idols - and he is completely blindsided. You could see Todd trying not to laugh, and when it all became obvious, we were busting up at the look on his face, and his pulling his cap down, the look of sheer joy on PG's face as she realized she was not in fact going home, and the laughter of the jury members at what was happening.

And to top it off, major kudos to James for accepting his position graciously. He wasn't angry about being voted off. He understood why it happened and that it was his mistake not to play an idol. Very classy.


"Desperate Housewives" - A tornado (or other natural or created disaster) hitting the major members of the cast is a staple in daytime soaps, but it's usually accompanied by a lot more drama. Given the catastrophic nature of the disaster and the hype for the last couple weeks, I thought it was a fairly ho-hum episode. Yeah, there were a few major revelations, but they've had those without the added fury of Mother Nature. I get the depiction of the literal and figurative tornado as goes through, shredding and changing lives, but a lot of it fell flat for me.

Gabrielle and Carlos - OK, still don't really care. OK, so Gabrielle and Edie called a truce, more or less. Victor was conveniently killed by Mother Nature herself, so that frees up Gabrielle, though I thought that was a little too trite. I would have liked to have seen Victor torture Gabrielle and Carlos for a while. She and Carlos now no longer have to run, and their secret regarding Victor is now safe, but now that Carlos' millions of dollars is literally lost in the wind, they'll have to find something else to do.

Susan and Mike - Again, it's another soap staple - throw the pregnant lady down a flight of stairs. It's usually a rival that does it, but in this case, it's to show us the decline of Mike. Too bad since he's been actually a pretty good character. Didn't much care about that either, except that I wondered about a doctor prescribing pain meds to a pregnant woman. I wouldn't think she'd be allowed to take something that strong.

Bree got herself much more than she bargained for when she invited psycho-Chicago lady into her home. I also wondered why she had to take Benjamin out with a stroller when she was only going a couple doors down. She couldn't just hold him? In the increasing winds, wouldn't that also have been safer, rather than a buggy that is hard to handle and can blow away? I did love the scene when Bree inadvertently confirms to Katherine that her husband did in fact have an affair with psycho woman. Can't wait for the fallout of that.

And then we get to Lynette. She's usually the reasonable one in the bunch, but I had a serious problem with her. OK, so they're not prepared for the tornado. I understand that she wants to keep her family safe, so I can let go her basically bullying Mrs. McCluskey into letting her entire family into the basement for shelter. But after inviting herself and her clan in, she can't believe that Mrs. McCluskey won't also agree to toss out the cat? Yeah, ok, it's a cat, but it's also someone else's home, someone else who didn't invite her or her family to begin with. And then on top of that, she surreptitiously takes the cat out while they're not looking? (And that wouldn't really have helped anyway, since the cat's hair and dander would still be in the basement, so Tom's allergies weren't going to get any better anyway.) Wow, talk about breach of etiquette and courtesy! And even the ending, when Lynette is screaming because Mrs. McCluskey's house has been levelled. OK, well, she's just lost her entire house, but Lynette is the one freaking out. I mean, I would think that since the family was in the basement, that would mean they're ok.

The opening of the show said someone would lose a husband (that would be Gabrielle, since Victor's now dead) and someone would lose a friend. Who's the friend? The cat? Mrs. McCluskey's friend? Did I miss something?

"Desperate Housewives" and "Heroes"

"Desperate Housewives" - I like the "water under the bridge" theme of this episode. We think we've gotten rid of things in the past, but the past always comes back to haunt you. And boy does this episode epitomize that.

There were a lot of funny lines in the episode. When Bree is trying to talk Orson into letting baby Benjamin sleep in their bed, he says the reason people did that was so the baby could be near their milk, and since Bree wasn't lactating, that would mean Benjamin would really need to sleep in the refrigerator. I laughed really hard at that line.

Bree is still so misguided. She is trying so hard to not repeat her past mistakes that she doesn't even see that she's just forging on ahead making brand new ones. OK, so she wants Benjamin to turn out differently, and Danielle is pretty much out of the picture. But Andrew is right there. And virtually invisible. She says that the three of them (her, Orson and Benjamin) are a happy little family - but she completely excludes Andrew, and he's witness to that time and again. And finally, it results in him moving out. But it didn't turn out quite the way I thought. There's a part of him that's still the same person he was as far as personality, but he's not nearly as destructive. And he has already pledged support to his mother, in his own mind. And he's right - she hasn't seen or really acknowledged any of the progress that he's made in the last year or two. But I did like that in the end, he's going to go out on his own, but there's a very different relationship there now between Bree and him - he's his own person now.

And the past coming back to haunt someone is played out beautifully in the cycle of blackmail that follows. Katherine's husband is visited by someone who was obviously involved in the "Chicago incident". You get the feeling there was some kind of affair or something. Mike is witness to this, so Mike takes advantage to ask him for a prescription for his painkillers. The husband in turn asks Orson to write the scrip instead, blackmailing him by reminding Orson that he knows about Danielle being the real mother of Benjamin. Orson is still hesitant, but after talking to Mike, who says the pain originated when he was hit by a truck, Orson readily agrees to hand over the scrip, since Orson knows it was him that hit Mike. Oh, what a tangled web we weave and all that.

And then when Barrett, Mike's dealer, tries to blackmail Mike into letting him keep his date with Julie, Mike rats him out instead, but the dealer rats him out right back about how much business they've done together.

And poor Susan. She's so delusional. First, she tries to set Julie up with Barrett based on superficial information. And then, she wants so hard to believe Mike that he's given up the drugs. But he lies to her again and again. And Susan has to find out the hard way that Mike has not in fact given up on the drugs as he'd promised.

Gabrielle and Carlos - OK, really still don't care that much. But when Gabrielle slipped the sleeping pills in Carlos' drink, I thought it was odd that the pills took effect that quickly. Was that because they were dissolved? Odd. And Victor was found. Ho hum. But the twist there was perfect. Amnesia, he doesn't remember anything that happened on the boat. Oh, yeah, how convenient. That happens on soaps a lot. But then we get that he definitely remembers. And Gabrielle knows it. Usually, they really do have amnesia or they don't, but they're keeping it a secret from everyone. In this case, only Gabrielle knows, for now, anyway, until she's able to tell Carlos. So now, Victor's got that to hold over her and Carlos. What is he going to ask for in return?

And then there's the story of Lynette and her mother and stepfather. I was kind of curious about casting Richard Chamberlain in that role, but he was actually perfect for it. I didn't guess the reveal at all. I figured it was something like he'd had the affair instead of the mother, but his being gay didn't figure into it. Nice twist there, and then with the mother being his new roomie.


"Heroes" - So I guess I hadn't paid enough attention to connect the verbal dots, but getting hit by a clue by four finally did it - the virus is named after Mohinder's sister. So is that why his blood doesn't work to counteract that, because he's a relative?

OK, Noah's healed. What I really want to know, though, is does that mean he doesn't have to wear glasses anymore? Does it heal *everything* or just up to where he was before?

Sylar has managed to wrap Maya around his little finger. He's still evil, but in a purely human way now, without the special powers - yet. He knows just what to say to get Maya to trust him and be attracted to him and think that he's her saviour. He even tries to sacrifice himself to save her, to show her that she can control her own powers. OK, well, if she can control her power now, then why does she still need Mohinder? Didn't she need him because she couldn't control herself and she needed someone to help her do that, other than her brother? And poor Alejandro. He didn't know exactly who he was getting involved with. The shot of Sylar and Maya kissing outside his room as he shuts the door on Alejandro's stabbed dead body in the room was chilling. Body count 1.

I loved the scenes with Claire trying to pack her things. She goes through a litany of the physical harm that's come to her, that she's always healed from, but the one thing her powers can't do is heal her broken heart.

So Mohinder thinks he's found a cure for the virus to save Nikki, but he may not be able to test it since Sylar and Maya are now "babysitting" Molly. Uh oh.

Micah and his copycat cousin get themselves into a mess of trouble. But we knew that was coming when the camera focussed in on the cousin when Nikki was consoling Micah.

And, I win the lottery. That was in fact Joanna Cassidy playing Victoria. When her name came up in the credits, I actually yelled at the television. Her character is there to explain a few things, I guess, and to really show that Peter is completely being mislead. She only lasted one show. Body count 2. But if Victoria left the company when Hiro's dad refused to destroy the virus and decided to hide it instead, when was the picture taken that we've been seeing? That was obviously taken at a later time.

And the ending - it comes down to Hiro versus Peter. Yeah, I knew it was going to be a cliffhanger.




So next Sunday and Monday are going to be action packed. Huge tornado/hurricane on "Desperate Housewives" and the last episode of this arc of "Heroes", to see how much they wrap up. What a way to start December! And if the writers' strike doesn't end soon, we may just be left with what we see next week.

"Desperate Housewives" and "Heroes"

"Desperate Housewives" - This was a fun episode. I was laughing entirely too much when Lynette's mother and her one-night-stand came down the stairs, both of them in robes, and Lynette and Tom just stared at them. It was a nice through-line to learn about the mom and to see Lynette's sisters. On the one hand, I felt sorry for the mom that she had to listen to all that, that she knew she wasn't wanted. On the other hand, I was kind of with the sisters in that I didn't see why the mom had to live with one of them, especially since we saw how she treated her one daughter at the diner. Who would want to be around that kind of toxic behaviour day and night? If the mom wasn't the way she was, maybe her daughters wouldn't be trying to pawn her off on each other. Wonder where she's taking the cab to at the end.

The circumcision talk between Orson and Bree (Bree biting down on the top of the eggroll - oh my goodness, I laughed so hard) was funny and interesting, but it eventually turned into a telling example of how Bree was viewing the baby and Orson's role. When Bree couldn't find a doctor to perform the circumcision, it had occurred to me that she could find a Jewish rabbi to do it, but I had forgotten about the bris that they'd been invited to.

The dinner table discussion among Bree and Orson and Susan and Mike about pre-schools and their costs and applications was just too dead on. $10,000 for a pre-school? But I've heard people who do that. They know that their children need to get into X college to eventually get a good job, and Y prep school is a known feeder into X college, and Z private school is a feeder to Y prep school, and Q school is a feeder to Z private school, and M elementary school is a feeder to Q school, and R pre-school is a feeder to M elementary school, and you have to know someone or be someone to get into R pre-school, and you have to apply as soon as you have proof that you're pregnant, and it's going to cost the equivalent of a brand new car for yearly tuition and baby better have lots of extracurricular activities or baby won't be accepted. It's absolutely ridiculous - but absolutely real.

So I had thought Mike was taking blood pressure medication, but apparently, he's taking some kind of painkiller thing. When he poured the bottle of pills down the drain, my first thought was that he didn't run any water after it nor did he turn on a garbage disposal. I knew the pills were still there, so when he later went to retrieve them, I wasn't surprised. (BTW, I loved Bree's demonstration to Susan about how sneaky and devious addicts can be in hiding their addiction.)

Gabrielle...Victor...boat...overboard...Carlos...rescue...knife...overboard...Carlos...Gabrielle...boat...bye-bye. Yeah, not so much care.

Loved the scene between Dillon and Katherine when Dillon finally pushes back against Katherine. And then when Katherine tearfully explains to Dillon what happened with her father - I knew there was nothing on the piece of paper. She was counting on Dillon buying her story. There is no finding dad for Dillon. Dad is dead. It may be true that he was abusive - that might explain some things. But that particular branch of the family tree has been pruned.


"Heroes" - OK, I forgive them, for now. They didn't explain anything about how Sylar survived or how and why he was where he was at the beginning of this season, but they answered enough other questions that I'll let that go for now.

Nathan - Now we know why he's continued to have these visions of the burned man. I wonder, though, that he didn't die since it looked like he had third-degree burns over so much of his body. And does he or his mother know how he was healed? And does having Adam's blood in him have any other effects on him other than having healed his burns, like can he now regenerate as well? And what the heck is mom's power?

Peter - His mother told Nathan that Peter was still missing and that they were still searching for him. But lots of people saw Peter bring Nathan into the hospital. Wouldn't someone, especially the cop, remember him and have been able to describe him enough so that his mother knew it was him who had brought Nathan in? Nathan was probably too out of it to remember any time that Peter was there.

Adam - So apparently, he's hundreds of years old but doesn't age because of his regenerative powers. Since Claire also has regenerative powers, does that mean she won't age either? Is she going to be high-school age for the rest of her life? And is Adam ultimately going to be revealed to somehow be related to Claire? Do we know for a *fact* that Nathan is Claire's bio-dad? Adam obviously knew Nathan's mom - who's to say Adam didn't have a thing with Claire's bio-mom?

Niki - So Jessica's gone, but party girl Gina came out to play, and Niki is now racked with guilt because she knows that she was responsible for D.L.'s death.

Maya - It was weird that she ended up killing everyone in the vicinity. The other times we've seen it happen, it's been concentrated to where she is. Wonder how far her killing ability reaches.

Elle - She was really irritating me with her "can't keep her hands off Peter" thing. She did become a little more sympathetic when she told her backstory. She's been isolated from society - no wonder she's going to pounce on Peter. In a previous episode, she was on the phone with her "boss", who she also referred to as "dad". Is that Bob? And at the end, when Elle is going after escaped Adam and Peter, she uses her lightning power as the Haitian is standing right by her. I thought the Haitian neutralizes powers. Why was she able to use hers around him?

I'm looking forward to the further developments in Hiro's story, and at some point, you know he's going to see Kensei/Adam.

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 - "Desperate Housewives", "Heroes", "Law and Order", "Survivor" and "The Big Bang Theory"

"Desperate Housewives" - This show has some of the most clever arcs and bookends that I've seen. There is often some kind of theme that is presented in the opening narration and then revisited in the closing narration, with the action in between highlighting that particular theme.

The previous week's episode was about pests. It started with how pests of the bug and rodent kind are what drove Bob and Lee to Wisteria Lane, only to encounter a "pest" in the form of Susan. Teri Hatcher is terrific in her role of the well-meaning but poor-execution neighbor. I know, I'll save their dog - right after I hold it hostage in the garage without knowing there's open yellow paint in there. And of course, she has no idea how utterly ridiculous she sounds in explaining that she knows all about gay people because she watches a lot of cable.

And then we saw the return of Bree's former mother-in-law, who is trying to buy her way into her grandchildren's good graces while simultaneously trying to circumvent their mother. I'm not finding her antics nearly as funny as I might have a year or two ago. I lurk on a board where there's a lot of discussion about problematic relations with various family members, especially mother-in-laws, and the kinds of things that Phyllis was saying and doing were textbook of the kinds of attitudes, tricks and passive-aggressive moves that the people on that board talk about all the time, so rather than finding that kind of stuff amusing, I find myself getting irritated and mad on behalf of the people on that board, and I'm hoping that Bree can see right through it. I loved the ending, though, that while some pests can be a nuisance, others are downright dangerous, as Phyllis has just showed up at the convent where pregnant granddaughter Danielle has been stashed.

This week's episode had a lot of interesting developments and some really great moments. One of the things I really like about this show is how some of the relationships are portrayed, and how they really involve realistic situations that people deal with fairly sensibly but not always perfectly. I love the friendships that have been built among the four women (I don't think Edie counts) and how they support each other, and yet, each is (or at least was, since Lynette's secret about her cancer is out) still keeping a secret from the others for various reasons. I love the dilemma that Susan was caught in between doing what's best for her and Mike (voting for Katherine, who has vowed to get rid of Bob and Lee's art sculpture fountain, for Homeowners' Association president - and had they previously said that Wisteria Lane had an HOA, because I don't recall hearing anything about that before) or voting for her very good friend Lynette. In the end, she votes for Katherine, and Lynette gives her a hard time about it, but Susan calls her on making her choose between her friend's children and her own husband. Lynette finally realizes how unfair that actually is, but she also explains what the treehouse means to her kids, which melts our hearts along with Susan's. I also liked in previous episodes when Lynette was going to her chemo appointments and she couldn't figure out why good friend Gabrielle wouldn't go with her - until Gabrielle admits what it was like watching her father die and not being able to show any emotion about it, and how difficult it is seeing Lynette in a similar position and not knowing if she can survive not showing any emotion about that. My favorite scene of the friendships, though, was from season one, I believe, when Lynette has just had it with her unruly kids that she has no idea how to handle, and she's sitting in a field/park against a tree, crying, where Susan and Bree find her. Lynette finally admits to how hard she's finding being a mother, and when Susan and Bree tell her they felt the same way, she's so relieved because she thought they were perfect parents who didn't feel any of that. They agree that you're not supposed to say how hard it is, but that as friends, it would help so much if they did. The other relationship I really like is that between Lynette and Tom. They have the most "real" marriage on the show, I think - it's not perfect, and they've certainly had their ups and downs, with Lynette's almost/kinda affair and Tom's out-of-nowhere daughter from a previous relationship, not to mention said daughter's psycho mother, and then there was the work tension when Tom worked for Lynette at the ad agency and then when Lynette worked for Tom at the pizza place. They had scenes last week with the trepidation that Tom felt trying to make love to Lynette after she took her wig off, revealing her bald head, and Lynette's attempt at role-playing by getting a new and different wig, which got out of hand, and then the realization that Tom's place with regard to her cancer had never been addressed. These are all situations where real issues are addressed and resolved realistically, and people learn to forgive each other. Hmmm, all of these situations involve Lynette - but then, I do think she is the most grounded of all of them. Maybe that's why Felicity Huffman won her Emmy - for portraying a real woman.

It's interesting to see the change in Bree, especially with regard to her children. She was the one with the perfect home - but she was completely oblivious to the fact that her husband was having an affair and that her children had turned out to be monsters, much due to her own behaviour. It was refreshing to hear her admit that she knew she'd done a horrible job with Andrew and Danielle and that she was hoping to get a second chance by raising Danielle's baby. This week, it was fun to watch her and Orson trick Danielle into doing what they want (thanks to Andrew's advice), but at the end, when Bree softened a bit towards Phyllis and offered to perhaps let her babysit on a weekend, part of me screamed "no" inside, that she was just giving Phyllis the opportunity to wreak more havoc. Yep, I think I've been conditioned.

I'm finding myself not that interested in the whole Gabrielle and Carlos thing or even the Gabrielle and Victor thing. And I'm not really sure the point of bringing back John this week - maybe just to show Carlos the parallels? But I still don't understand why John is trapped. Yeah, there's a baby on the way, so he would still need to do what he needs to do about that, but why stay with a shrew of a wife who thinks she did you a favor by letting you "marry up"?

However, I *loved* last week's bit at Bree's baby shower when the server brought a tray of food around and offered it to various people. We watched along with Edie as the waiter offered crab cakes to Carlos, then Gabrielle, then Victor - and Edie made the connection that the familiar smell she couldn't identify on Victor was the smell of the genital crab medication that she herself had to use, and the travelling crab cakes showed her exactly how Victor had gotten the same affliction. Bravo for that bit of writing. This week, Carlos tells Gabrielle he's going to break it off with Edie, but I thought he was stuck because of the off-shore account. I guess we'll see if that accountant he hired can actually do anything.

And I'll say it again - I am absolutely loving Dana Delaney on the show. As much as I love Alfre Woodard, I never felt her character went anywhere, whereas Dana's Katherine has hit the ground running. She provided a great foil to Bree in the Homemaker of the Year running, especially with the pie competition. This week, she was a great adversary to Lynnette in the HOA presidential election. And she's got that smile down pat - that smile that both says everything's fine and I'm trying not to scream or kill you. We've been learning little by little about her, but I'm dying to know what happened in that room involving Dillon's father and what Katherine's aunt's part was in it. Not to mention why Dillion doesn't remember anything about being on Wisteria Lane. And then there's the whole matter of Chicago. I loved when Bob and Lee said they knew all about it and basically used it as a blackmailing point. I'm still interested enough in the suspense not to mind it, but I'm hoping they reveal bits and pieces at a time, because I need some kind of payoff, even little ones.

Oh, and I loved the comments from one of the older neighbors about Bob and Lee, so that not everyone on Wisteria Lane was 100% accepting of the gay couple that had moved into the neighborhood. But seriously, that art thing was awful. It didn't fit in at all. Ugly, out-of-place and obnoxiously loud to boot.


"Heroes" - I loved season one, and I'd been liking season two, but this past week is the first time I've been kind of bored and consciously waiting for the episode to be over. I hope they're not falling into the same trap that "Lost" fell into in their second season. Season one of this show culminated in bringing them all together, but season two has seemingly scattered them to the four winds. Hiro has been banished not just to another place but another time, and he's now with completely different people - the gaijin hero Takezo and Yaeko, the woman they're both fighting for. I've enjoyed the Cyrano story to some degree, but I also hate that since Hiro's father died, Ando is reduced to doing nothing but reading restored scrolls. Meanwhile, Peter is in the same time, but on a different continent and unaware of who he is, also now with completely different people, including his new Irish girlfriend. Claire and her father are also in a totally different place, with totally different people, including Claire's new I-can-fly boyfriend and cheerleader group at school. Mohinder is now undercover at the company, but with the problem with Molly, you're sometimes not sure where he stands. There's the new head of the company. There's the twins with the power of life and death. There's the girl in New Orleans who immediately learns everything she sees. (Oh, by the way, when she and cousin Micah revealed to each other that they had powers and wondered where they came from, especially since Micah said his mother and father both had powers, I was yelling that they needed to ask Uhura what the heck was going on, cause you gotta figure that she knows.) There's newbie I'm-made-of-electricity girl who works for the company who is tracking down Peter. Horned-rim-guy, Claire's dad, is traipsing off to other parts of the world with the Haitian trying to track down the lost/missing paintings. There's Matt's dad, who is not the Daddy-dearest he initially posited himself to be. There's the picture of the original group of "superheroes". And there's that mysterious sign. And we have been given zero hint as to what happened to Peter and Nathan and Sylar from the end of last season and how Peter and Sylar ended up who and how they are at the beginning of this season.

One of the biggest mistakes that the "Lost" people did was bringing on the Tailies and completely abandoning the original cast in the process. "Heroes" isn't quite doing that, but it keeps adding more and more players and opening more and more questions, and unlike last year, they so far have provided zero answers. Having continuous smaller payoffs worked really well. Here's hoping they haven't forgotten how to do that.


"Law and Order: SVU" - The episode about the doctor who created/instituted "benign" torture methods for prisoners was ok, but it was one of those that was entirely too political for my taste. It did touch on the hippocratic oath aspect of the story, but I thought there was entirely too much about the war. I have my own opinions about the use of torture for certain purposes, which I won't go into too much here. Basically, I don't object to torture when it's used in the right situations. The dilemma comes in knowing when the right situations are.


"Survivor"

last week's episode - I liked Sherea sometimes, but she got too cocky. Her farewell speech was a bit weird. Delusional much?

I'm really surprised that in the immunity challenge, the thousand-year-old egg was considered worse than the balut, at least based on that it came after. The chicken hearts would have been easy to eat because I love them anyway, but I'm not sure I could have eaten them fast enough. I might have been able to eat the small turtles - depends on the texture of the first one I tried to eat. I didn't realize they were that small until one of them was popping them in her mouth. With how terrified I am of snakes, I don't think I could have picked up, let alone eaten, the eel, especially since their heads were still on them. I would have absolutely refused to even attempt to eat the balut. (I couldn't even watch most of that segment.) I didn't think they usually came with actual feathers. And I love thousand-year-old egg. I think it's usually made from a duck egg. I love it in porridge.

this week's episode - It took almost a year for the payoff since when Yao-Man created the fake idol last time, no one found it and tried to use it, but this time, it was too funny watching Jamie present the piece of wood as an immunity idol to Jeff. It was great watching Todd and James trying to control their laughter. And how funny was it that Jeff threw it into the fire! You know that when Jamie said on camera that she wasn't as dumb as they think she is, that she was doomed. I loved that the immunity challenge was done at the camp itself, with Jeff coming to them. I don't think they've ever done that before. Maybe they figured that they'd all be too drunk from the wine to go anywhere. And since the challenge was just about answering questions anyway, it wasn't a problem doing it there.

I was laughing really hard when Todd was calling Courtney a bitch. Yep, both she and Jean-Robert need to go soon. They can spend all kinds of time together when they're sequestered on the jury.


"The Big Bang Theory"

last week's episode - I can't tell you how much the episode made me laugh. Some of the writing on the show is absolutely brilliant. Clever and quick. However, I was completely distracted by the fact that when we visited where Penny works, that is so *not* The Cheesecake Factory. I could swear the show was supposed to be set in Los Angeles, and then they also talked about Bob's Big Boy. The Cheesecake Factory is so not a little sandwich place. That seriously bothered me, and it changed my perception of Penny a little since The Cheesecake Factory is a much more upscale place, so her working there is different than where we saw her working. Why didn't they just come up with a random fake restaurant name? But there were so many great moments: Leslie's line of "come for the breasts, stay for the brains" in response to Penny's comment about her being a woman in that field, Mr. Spock beatboxing, Leslie's comments to Leonard about her real reason for staying after to practice, Leonard completely fumbling with his instrument, what Penny and Sheldon overhear Leslie saying from behind the closed door (BTW, why did Leonard still have his shirt on the next morning?), the flash-frozen banana that Leslie makes to break and put in her cereal (but seriously, she can't possible eat that - the banana bits would still be rock hard), Sheldon's line about Souplantation - "you can't grow soup". But my absolutely favorite bit is when Leonard is questioning what Penny meant by he and Leslie making a cute couple, and Sheldon's retort is about Leonard and Leslie manufacturing a couple - "Mr. and Mrs. Goldfarb - aren't they adorable?" We laughed so hard at that line that we had to rewind, partly so we could hear it again and partly because we missed what came after.

The stairs bug me though. I think I've figured out that they live on the fourth floor, and I get that the broken elevator is really a device so they can have a conversation as they're climbing the stairs, but watching them walk in the same redressed set as their conversation continues is just bugging me.

Oh, and we figured out that the end card blog is a two-card thing. "Two and a Half Men" has new cards as well.

this week's episode - I didn't find this one nearly as funny as last week's but it was still fun to watch. How many shows get to work in the Doppler Effect as an integral part of their storyline? I loved the bit about them all dressed as The Flash. Sheldon's comments about a costume parade and contest were just too funny. And Leonard's interaction and intellectual put-down's of Penny's ex-boyfriend were just a riot. Poor Leonard, though. Penny kisses him, but he has to be the good guy and tell her that she's probably doing it because she's mad at her ex and because she's been drinking. She tells him how smart he is. "Yeah, I'm a frickin' genius," he sarcastically replies. You feel for him, wanting to take advantage of her, but he just can't do it. It's funny that Sheldon is the overly-geeky one, but Leonard is almost in denial about his geekiness some of the time, especially when it comes to Penny.