Week 11 TV Power Rankings

With a lot of shows seasons either ending or going on hiatus until after the holidays, we too will be taking a break from the rankings. Look for our return sometime after the week of 1/17.

"Running Wilde" and "The Challenge: Cutthroat" have been removed because the first was garbage and the second was too difficult to write about each week.

1. (2) “Chuck” – Well it was pretty much inevitable, wasn’t it? After one week off the top spot, “Chuck” returns. I thought the return of Timothy Dalton was a lot better than his first episode that other “Chuck” fans were all about. I was a little bit disappointed with the way Chuck was able to regain his Intersect abilities though. It seemed like too much of a quick fix.

2. (1) “Community” – I thought the episode dealing with Troy’s 21^st birthday was one of the more depressing episodes of a sitcom I’ve seen. The laughs really weren’t there this episode, but it showed how strong a show “Community” has become because I don’t watch it for the jokes (even though they are usually plentiful), I watch it for the characters. That’s usually the mark of a very strong show.

3. (5) “Terriers” – It’s just so sad. Unfortunately, no one besides me and a few other people watched this show, and so FX had little choice but to cancel it. I’m still ranking it this highly because there was no show on cable this year that had a better full season. I’d highly recommend anyone interested to someday purchase the DVD and am confident you won’t be disappointed.

4. (4) “30 Rock” – I keep saying it and I am fully aware how repetitive I am, but this season has just been such a return to glory for this show. I am starting to not be surprised by how good the quality is each week, but rather expecting it the same way I did when the show first started.

5. (3) “Modern Family” – There’s been a couple slow episodes and a few strong ones, but the majority of this season has fallen somewhere in the middle. Still, it’s held firm as one of the shows I look forward to the most each week.

6. (6) “Boardwalk Empire” – Fantastic finale. I know I criticized the show in the beginning for being a little slow, but I had absolutely no complaints about the last few episodes. The finale did an excellent job of closing out the season, and also setting things up for a second season I can’t wait to see.

7. (7) “Sons of Anarchy” – Well here’s the question: Would you rather watch a show where the season is very good throughout, but the finale is so-so, or a show where the season is uneven, but the finale is incredible? Season 2 of “Sons” was the former, Season 3 the latter. I think I would put myself in the former category because even with the finale of Season 3, I still enjoyed Season 2 a lot more. What will be interesting is the first two finales clearly set up the dilemmas for the following seasons, whereas I think Season 4 could go in a number of different ways.

8. (9) “Walking Dead” – It’s difficult to really get a good feeling for a show in only six episodes. It’s also surprising that is the usual length of seasons for British shows. (Fun fact: British shows call the seasons of shows, “series”) I really enjoyed the premiere season of this show and will be very excited when it returns. However, I still have my doubts for how long a show built on simply surviving a zombie attack won’t soon get to be too much of the same thing over and over.

9. (8) “Fringe” – I’m a little sad the two Olivia’s have returned to their respective worlds now. I’m also a little nervous the show won’t be as strong without that dynamic involved. It was a great ride while it lasted though and I am sure the two will meet again. Sadly, this show will be relegated to Friday nights soon and that’s not a timeslot that spells big time hit.

10. (10) “The Event” – I have fallen back a bit with my enthusiasm for this show. I think I am only a fan of learning more about the back stories of where the aliens have been for the last 40 years. I still have very little interest in anything related to Sean and Leila, but perhaps finding out her father is an alien will change that for me when the show returns.

11. (12) “Family Guy” – It’s difficult to really go to in depth reviewing this show since the characters never change. I just feel like this season’s been particularly strong as I am laughing out loud a lot more frequently.

12. (11) “How I Met Your Mother” – I think this season’s been a lot better than the previous one, but I still don’t think it’s rebounded back to the form of the first two seasons. They are still having those dud episodes where too much is going on and I am not laughing enough. And I don’t think Zoey is the mother anymore, so now I’m just waiting for them to get through her storyline because at this point I only want Ted to be with the mother. Finally, it really pains me to say this, but Jorge Garcia’s performance as the Blitz made me realize why I didn’t see much of him before “Lost” and now don’t expect to see him much after. I still love you Hurley.

13. (13) “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” – I was disappointed with this season as a whole. I also don’t like how the season finale is the Christmas episode I already bought on DVD a year ago. I feel like I got screwed somehow with that. I’d say the lone bright spot from the season was when Charlie and Dennis got drunk with Ryan Howard and Chase Utley. They seemed like nice enough guys.

14. (15) “The Office” – I have to say, the Oscar-Michael China debate really brought the show back a little bit for me. I was getting used to ripping the show in the rankings every week, but I can’t rip what I’d loved. The Tour De France joke was probably my favorite.

15. (X) “Glory Daze” – Ok, there was some chatter among the masses for this show to be added so I decided to give it a shot. The show seems to be “borrowing” a lot of subject material. The scene in the pilot when Reno hits on the teacher in the supermarket is reminiscent of Otter hitting on the Dean’s wife in the supermarket from “Animal House”. I liked Kevin Nealon’s appearance as the weird townie who the guys visit at his house better the first time when Will Ferrell did it on “Undeclared”. The “Guy who’s close to 30 and is still in school” character is in almost every college movie, and the one in this show looks like Tom Green, who played that type of character in “Road Trip”. I also felt I recognized the Republican main character from something, but couldn’t remember what. Well it’s from a music video he did with Selena Gomez they played at my gym all the time and it’s awful (go to the 2:15 mark, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4UPO9lmmYc ). Now despite this show having all this going against it, I really like it. I know that sounds silly, but I don’t care that I’ve seen this stuff before or if one of the actors is a Canadian pop star (the male version of Robin Sparkles), I just like the show.

16. (16) “Cougar Town” – Hasn’t been on since the last time I did a rankings, but my opinion stays the same. It’s not horrible, but I feel like it’s taken a step back and have been very disappointed with its sophomore season.

17. (17) “Raising Hope” – I was waiting for when “My Name is Earl” star Jason Lee would make an appearance on this show. Now that he has, I wish it had been a character that had more potential to pop up again. Maybe that’s still something that can happen, but I don’t see why an aging rock star would revisit this small town or odd family anytime soon.

18. (18) “Glee” – I’m strongly leaning towards chopping this down to 15 shows once I return and this is one of the reasons. I have nothing to say about this show anymore. Last season, I really enjoyed the jokes the show had, I liked Sue, I tolerated the characters I didn’t care for and I knew most of the songs. This season, there are less jokes, Sue’s become like a cartoon character villain, I can’t stand whenever Mr. Schuster is on the screen and I know one song an episode. I don’t even know why I keep watching it at this point.

19. (19) “Survivor” – I disagreed with people who thought it was corny that the prize they got one week was to watch “Gulliver’s Travels”. These people haven’t had anything to do for a month except swim, stare at each other, crap in the woods and be hungry. It wouldn’t surprise me at all that they’d welcome a movie, ANY movie, as an escape from what they would be doing without it. Having said that, from the standpoint of someone who is well fed, uses a toilet and watches so much TV they write a rankings column, that movie looks like terrible.

20. (20) “Parenthood” – Whenever I see Michael B. Jordan, it just makes me wish “Friday Night Lights” was currently on instead of shows like “Chase” or “The Defenders”. And that’s why “Parenthood” is #20, because I use the space for it to discuss my fondness for other shows.

21. (21) “The League” – I didn’t think it was possible, but this show is starting to ruin my enthusiasm for fantasy football.  

Remembering My Godfather of Slapstick

I think as people grow up we are introduced to the different genres of movies by the actors who frequent them. For many people they will always equate any action movie to the work of Arnold Schwarzenegger. For others, there will never be a leading lady in a romantic comedy that will top Julia Roberts. These actors define these types of movies and when you think of that variety of movie, you think of that person who portrayed those characters so adeptly.

One of the actors who defined a genre for me growing up sadly passed away this week. Leslie Nielsen was 84 when he died on Sunday night and to me he will always be the face of slapstick comedy. The first time I saw “The Naked Gun” I thought how I had never seen a movie like this before, and didn’t know they made movies like that. Up until that point, my comedy taste focused mostly on Scooby Doo and the Mupper Babies, so this was a major part of the puberty for my comedic tastes. The jokes were so ridiculous but Nielsen spoke them all with such uncanny delivery. Even though I probably understood about 25% of what was said, I still laughed until I could hardly breathe.

As I grew older and I rewatched “TNG”, I picked on even more of the subtler jokes I had missed. I also picked up on the ones that were too mature for me to get, specifically one regarding a stuffed beaver, and the genius of Nielsen continued to grow for me. When I saw “Airplane” for the first time I immediately got excited when I saw him step on screen (this was before imdb, so if you weren’t paying attention to the credits you wouldn’t know who was in the movie until they appeared). His performance didn’t disappoint and it could be argued it’s even better than “TNG”. Nielsen’s presence didn’t always translate to laughs though. I remember being disappointed in him as The Captain in “The Poseidon Adventure”, and being frightened throughout that whole movie. Still, I never gave up hope on Nielsen’s presence in a movie delivering the goods and I followed his work throughout my teens.

There was another reason I followed Nielsen’s work so closely and it’s also why I’ll never forget him. As a kid I remember always wanting to make my father laugh and I loved watching him find something hilarious. The first person I remember my father laughing at was Leslie Nielsen. My father is by no means a stern man, and laughs quite frequently, but there was still something special for me to see him smile so broadly whenever Nielsen told someone not to call him Shirley. I continued to watch Nielsen’s movies not just as a fan, but also knowing each one was something new my father and I could share. We watched both “Naked Gun” sequels as they came out, and then made sure we rented “Dracula: Dead and Loving It”, “Spy Hard”, “Mr. Magoo” and “Wrongfully Accused”. Now none of those movies came near the level of the original “Naked Gun” or “Airplane” but they still made us laugh for 90 minutes each. Laughing at Nielsen’s antics together was one of the first bonds my father and I shared and while there have been plenty more since then; this one will always be close to my heart.

I didn’t follow Nielsen’s career very closely over the past few years. I knew he was in a few of the “(Blank) Movie”s, but I never checked them out. Nielsen’s passing is sad in it of itself, but what makes it even sadder for me is the state slapstick comedy is in right now. Those “(Blank) Movies”s seem to come out every six months, which makes me highly doubt their quality. Still, this was supposed to be something celebrating Nielsen and celebrating the joy his work brought to so many people like me and my father. So with that, I’d like to pass along a final thank you to Leslie Nielsen. For bringing me countless hours of enjoyment, for eliciting some of the biggest belly laughs I have ever shared with my father, and for being my Godfather of Slapstick Comedy. You will be missed.

Week 9 TV Power Rankings

1. (2) “Community” – Yep, that’s right. A new #1 for the first time ever. “Community” sadly doesn’t get the audience it should and I think its had an outstanding sophomore season (unlike “Cougar Town”). This week’s episode did an exceptionally good job at having a mysterious storyline involving night school classes that kept me as intrigued by where it was going as much as it made me laugh. The episode had plenty of references to pop culture throughout, but they weren’t as obvious as other episodes have been. Plus, the pillow and bed sheet fort Abed and Troy made could have been reason alone to elevate this to the top spot for the week. One final note, I read people felt this episode ripped off the J. Walter Weatherman storylines from “Arrested Development” but I didn’t see that at all. Double crosses and triple crosses have been in movies and TV for years, no one show can take credit for that and no show should feel like they’re ripping another off by using it.
2. (1) “Chuck” – Well here we are. Maybe if “Chuck” had tried a little harder this week we wouldn’t be in this situation. In all honesty, this episode wasn’t bad at all. It guest starred Rob Riggle (the cop who lets the kids taser the guys in “The Hangover”) as a spy trying to get Chuck to flash again. The issue is the episode was clearly the beginning of an arc and as such I felt I had to slip it down a notch. When the arc eventually wraps up, I like the chances of “Chuck” reclaiming the top spot again.
3. (3) “Modern Family” – I liked how Manny finally saw in himself how odd his behavior sometimes can be. Don’t get me wrong, he’s one of my favorite characters on the show. I would just think it would be lazy to not have him address how he clearly is very different from kids his age. I know they came close to doing this in Season 1 when he was supposed to hang out with Luke and instead hung out with Claire all day, but I thought this was a lot better. Now I am not saying I want this to happen with all the characters. I don’t need Gloria to all of a sudden notice how she seems to only wear clothes where her boobs bounce all over the place. No, let’s just keep that how it is.
4. (4) “30 Rock” – It’s funny how sometimes shows seem to just take seasons off. Maybe it’s that they tried so hard and came up with a great season, and so they can slack a little bit and it’ll still be pretty good. Who knows? But what I do know is a lot of shows have trouble rebounding from that, like “The Office” and much of this year of “How I Met Your Mother”. This hasn’t been the case for “30 Rock” as I keep being more and more satisfied with what a bounce back season this has been. This week really utilized Jack’s additional duties as Head of Microwave Ovens at GE. While it was a fitting ending to Jack being a member of GE, I am sad to see the loss of an aspect of Jack’s job that had so many potential laughs.
5. (5) “Terriers” – We finally got to see the case that caused Hank to be kicked off the police force and essentially ended his marriage. It was a particularly gruesome case, one that seemed more like something off “Law & Order: SVU” but the payoff of catching the guy was well worth it. Britt’s in a lot of trouble though for beating up Katie’s classmate. It’s going to be tough for the boys to get out of this one. Then again I thought the same thing when Landis died in Hank’s bathtub and that all worked out for everybody. Except Landis.
6. (9) “Boardwalk Empire” – I feel like I am going to be criticized for enjoying this episode more than most because of the action near the end. I realize the character building from the slower episodes that I ranked lower than this paved the way for this episode to be so good. Still, I am gonna ignore that because it makes me look semi-ignorant and just say this show is starting to fulfill the high expectations I had for when it began. I think my favorite part of the season so far was this week when the D’Allesio brother who tried to shoot Nucky asked Jimmy if he was going to kill him for mouthing off and Jimmy said “Well I wasn’t going to but now that you talked me into.” And then shoots him in the head. Awesome. Finally, was I the only one who thought that when Agent Van Alden had his first shot of whiskey he was gonna react like Doc Brown in “Back to the Future III”?
7. (7) “Sons of Anarchy” – Finally a little bit of closure to wrap up this uneven season. But there are still two episodes left and as much as Jax says he’s done listening to his father from beyond the grave, I’m sure the love letters stuffed in his bag will bring it all back again. I will say this, Salazar should kill Tara. It’s the only realistic thing to happen, but I know it won’t. I don’t want Tara gone, but she killed the guy’s girl and he has a gun and they are in the middle of nowhere. Come on.
8. (11) “Fringe” – Uh, oh. Peter knows he’s been sleeping with Fauxlivia, what’s gonna happen? The real shame will be if when Olivia goes back to her own world she gets rid of her red hair. That look is working for you girl!
9. (8) “Walking Dead” – Much better than the previous two. The only reason it slipped was because of how good the shows in front of it all were. I am very excited for these last two episodes.
10. (6) “The Event” – Here’s the deal, I don’t care about Sean and Layla. So when the plot deals with them I zone out. Plus, we found out early on in the episode that the VP was behind the assassination attempt and we knew Hal Holbrook was bad already too. So this “backstory” episode that was so supposed to reveal so much did nothing for me.
11. (14) “How I Met Your Mother” – I will never ever tire of Robin Sparkles. Nor will I ever complain about Nicole from the Pussycat Dolls being around. However, it was a bit of a stretch that she was from Canada, yet was living in New York as the organist for the Rangers. They have hockey teams in Canada, a lot of them.
12. (12) “Family Guy” – This week’s laugh out loud moment was when Brian leaves Stewie to take a cab and Stewie sees he has no money. He then says, “Well at least it’s not raining” and some guy runs up and stabs him. Typical NYC.
13. (13) “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” – Two back to back very strong episodes are keeping this from falling any lower. I feel like the show could do every episode focused solely on Charlie’s warped mind and I wouldn’t grow tired of it. Denim chicken is a sweet band name by the way.
14. (10) “The Challenge: Cutthroat” – This season isn’t going as well as it started as it has hit quite the lull. But Boston’s own CT is on next week! I will work you son!
15. (15) “The Office” – Ryan’s idea was actually not bad, but obviously he doesn’t have the work ethic to follow through on it. Dwight’s whole hay ride shenanigans weren’t funny and I guess the best part of the episode was Horn-Rimmed Glasses Guy from “Heroes” being Angela’s new love interest.
16. (16) “Cougar Town” – Eh, as previously stated this show’s not having the sophomore season I wanted or expected it to. I really don’t like Travis and I think that’s what is affecting my fondness for the show. I don’t see how these people like him. I know two of them are his parents, but even still, he sucks.
17. (17) “Raising Hope” – I do like this show, I do. There’s just not a whole lot to say about it and I run into this problem every week. It’s about a 6 or 7 every week, so if you are looking to kill 22 minutes (you should own a DVR at this point, you’re not Amish) every week then here you go.
18. (18) “Glee” – I have to admit, Gwyneth Paltrow REALLY impressed me. I was fully expecting all her scenes to be cringe-worthingly awkward, but she did a real good job and clearly has a stage presence I didn’t think she had. I still dislike a vast majority of the characters and now only enjoy about one song an episode.
19. (19) “Survivor” – How is Dan still on this show???? I gotta think if he makes it to the final three you’d have to vote for him simply because he literally “survived”.
20. (20) “Parenthood” – Why was Joel the director of a play his daughter wasn’t even in? I hope I missed that part because if I didn’t that made ZERO sense.
21. (21) “The League” – I think this will be the last season I watch this show
22. (22) “Running Wilde” – Wasn’t on

Week 8 TV Power Rankings

Couple notes

"Eastbound and Down"'s season ended, so it's gone

"Hawaii 5-O" is gone too because I never got around to watching it

1. (1) “Chuck” – Wasn’t on
2. (2) “Community” – It had the potential to claim the top spot for at least one week with “Chuck” not on, but sadly it couldn’t capitalize. I thought the episode had a decent enough premise that kind of gotten taken too far and it was one of the rare times I didn’t like Abed commenting on the episode as if he’s aware it’s a TV show.
3. (3) “Modern Family” – Wasn’t on
4. (5) “30 Rock” – This show is really firing on all cylinders was again. I know I said a few weeks ago that Kelsey Grammar’s appearance on the show might have been my favorite guest star of the year. Well, John Slattery from “Mad Men” blew him out of the water. Great episode and the show’s very worthy of being in the top 5 in the rankings.
5. (4) “Terriers” – The show’s been leading up to Gretchen’s wedding and I thought they did a really good job of the wedding always being present without anyone really interacting with it. If that makes sense, probably doesn’t but none of you watch this show anyway so who gives a sh*t?
6. (9) “The Event” – It’s gotten to the point where I almost feel guilty for how much I trashed this show during its first few episodes. It has made an amazing comeback for me and I thought the backstory on the Director of National Intelligence made the character infinitely more interesting and likeable. It’s becoming a much more character driven show and not so reliant on “The Event” which I think is a good thing.
7. (7) “Sons of Anarchy” – This season has been subpar and I want to think it’s because Season 2 was so good that nothing could compare. But I don’t think that’s the case. I think this slow has just been slow and dragged out the Abel-kidnapping storyline too much. I’m at the point now where I just want the last two episodes to be here so I can hope Season 4 is an improvement.
8. (6) “Walking Dead” – Continuing to fall here. Third episode was by far the weakest one as there were only two zombie deaths and very little action. I also thought the reunion of Rick and his family was poorly done and I felt very uncomfortable through most of it. Only three episodes left, so I am sure there is more action coming up, but the show needs to pick it up again if it wants to remain in the top 10.
9. (12) “Boardwalk Empire” – Jimmy’s back in AC and after the G man killed the witness he should have Van Alden off his ass. Good stuff, now let’s get Chalky White on the screen again and we’re in business.
10. (11) “The Challenge: Cutthroat” – To tell you the truth, I watched the newest one two nights ago and now I don’t even remember what happened this week. I know Brandon lost and so did Melinda. And Chet got sent home because he got a concussion. So the Red team lost three people that week. Sucks to be them.
11. (17) “Fringe” – This has probably been the best season yet and I think had it ranked so low for too long. My apologies. I know this show isn’t for everyone, but if you’ve ever been a fan of it, I’d suggest coming back because it’s at its peak right now.
12. (18) “Family Guy” – Two straight weeks of me gasping for air at a joke during the episode. This week was when Lois knocked out the girl and pulled her head up to say, “No matter what you do for the rest of your life, you’ll always be garbage.”
13. (13) “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” – Probably the best episode of the season if only for the extended clips of their movie “Lethal Weapon 5”.
14. (15) “How I Met Your Mother” – Much more of a classic HIMYM with everyone dealing with some pretty heavy things. Like Barney finding out who his dad is, Marshall realizing he has chosen financial stability over his ideals, and Ted possibly falling for the woman’s who trying to ruin his life. Plus all the monocle jokes were fantastic.
15. (8) “The Office” – I think I might hate this show. I really do. It’s Dominique Wilkins on the Celtics. You’re excited because it’s his last go (like Carell’s), but he really doesn’t have anything left (like Carell’s effort this year) and you get aggravated because you think of what he use to be but isn’t anymore (like Season 2). Plus the other Celtics were just as unlikeable as Jim and Pam are.
16. (16) “Cougar Town” – Wasn’t on
17. (19) “Raising Hope” – It is what it is. Just a straight 6 or 7 every week.
18. (20) “Glee” – I like this show less and less every week. It really is what Kelly on “The Office” said it is, irresponsible writing. Storylines and character arcs go nowhere.
19. (22) “Survivor” – Hahaha, suck it Marty
20. (24) “Parenthood” – Better. I will say I wouldn’t mind if the Lauren Graham character left the show though. I don’t liker he one bit.
21. (21) “The League” – Not a great episode and I don’t find Pete’s thinking he can get hot women to be believable at all. He’s a dumpy looking dude who dresses like crap.
22. (23) “Running Wilde” – Yeah they just need to cancel this show already. Tough break Will Arnett, but I’ll still tune in to whatever you do next, that’s my loyalty level to the Bluths.

Week 7 TV Power Rankings

One note, "The Challenge: Cutthroat" was added

1. (1) “Chuck” – What was billed as the best episode of the season kinda fell flat for me. I think it had to do with my expectations being so high for it. I still thought it was a really good episode, but I think I liked the season premiere better. Guest star was Timothy Dalton who was James Bond in a couple movies, and was the grocery store owner in “Hot Fuzz”.
2. (2) “Community” – When Troy entered the secret garden and saw the bright light I thought what he found was going to be a lot better than a trampoline. However, the payoff of the gardener being a racist at the end was well worth it. The storyline with Abed becoming a “mean girl” didn’t really do much for me. Neither did Hilary Duff as a costar, I think we can now safely say her poor acting skills is why she wasn’t bigger.
3. (3) “Modern Family” – I will say this now, I don’t like the idea of Phil’s business getting so bad he might lose his job. I don’t really wanna watch if that happens. It would just be too depressing because it’s not like it’s a job he hates and then he’s gonna become something that will make him happier. Also, did anyone else notice Haley’s hair was changing length throughout the episode? Lazy writing last week, lazy editing this week.
4. (5) “Terriers” – One of the most touching stories surrounding a murdered transvestite stories I have seen in a long time. I know I say it every week, but it will really be a shame if this show doesn’t get a second season.
5. (6) “30 Rock” – I thought this was another great episode that has continued this season’s return to the quality of Season 1 episodes. Jack telling Jonathan he had to cut off Jack’s pinky and bring it to his lawyer in order to be his mentee was one of the funnier interactions the two have had in a while. Jack’s phone call to Liz’s dad was also classic and I really enjoyed his identifying himself as a “corrupt cop, and my brothers are corrupt firemen.”
6. (4) “Walking Dead” – It was nowhere near as good as the pilot, but I think I still might have had enough of a Halloween hangover going to still be amped for watching zombie killing. This week’s episode didn’t disappoint with one dead guy getting an axe right to his head. Next week’s should be very interesting as the Sheriff should be seeing his son and wife, and his best friend who’s been nailing his wife, in the woods, from behind, count it!
7. (7) “Sons of Anarchy” – A lot more action than there has been in the past few episodes which was good to see. However, just as Jax is looking like he’s close to getting his kidnapped son back in Ireland, his pregnant girlfriend gets kidnapped back home. Let’s finish one thing at a time please, this season’s been exhausting.
8. (8) “The Office” – I found myself comparing this episode to the Wedding from last year and I think that is a bit unfair to this episode. While it wasn’t nearly as strong as the wedding (which was the best of last season), it wasn’t terrible either. I liked the people who only came to the after-Christening for the food, and I really liked the whole sequence with Toby not being able to enter the church (although why didn’t he have an issue going to Pam & Jim’s or Phyllis’ weddings??) and then asking God why he is so mean to him.
9. (9) “The Event” – Wasn’t on
10. (15) “Eastbound and Down” – See, now this is what I wanted. I get the idea of the journey throughout this season makes the return all the sweeter to watch. But I just felt like 2 or 3 of the Mexico episodes could have been taken out. I was so happy to see all the characters from last season again, and loved the scene with Cutler and Kenny in the car before he found April. HBO has picked it up for another season which would be at the least a year away, but I am hoping it won’t be all about Kenny in Myrtle Beach and then have him return to North Carolina for one episode again.
11. (X) “The Challenge: Cutthroat” – It was requested this show be added to the list, and I actually kicked myself a little for not adding it on my own sooner. So far it hasn’t been an all-time Real World/Road Rules Challenge, but there have been some great moments. The Vinny/Big Easy Gualag was riveting. There were too big die each player had to be on. They had to roll it, without touching the ground, onto a square with the number five facing up. Now as they are doing this, they cut to one of those candid interviews and Brad says something to the effect of, “I’m looking at both these guys and they are both so locked in and concentrated and you can tell things are about to get dicey” DICEY! I swear I don’t think he meant to say it either! Highlight of the season for me so far.
12. (10) “Boardwalk Empire” – Jimmy Darmody is heading back to AC. I have to admit, at this point I only really care about Jimmy and Chalkie so this makes me happy. I feel like the characters who aren’t constantly around Nucky don’t get as much attention and this will allow for more time spent on Jimmy.
13. (11) “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” – SNL cast member Jason Sudekis guest starred this week as an old member of the gang who had been kicked out. Literally, they kicked him out of a moving car. Had some funny moments and Charlie’s job interview was a highlight, as was Newsradio’s Dave Foley’s appearance as the principal. Still, this season is continuing to be a disappointment for me and this show might just be past it’s prime.
14. (12) “Hawaii 5-O” – I didn’t watch it. Don’t really care that I didn’t, nor do I plan to rectify that situation. Next week’s looks good though, I’ll watch that.
15. (13) “How I Met Your Mother” – I always think it’s stupid when “The Simpsons” Treehouse of Horror episode is on after Halloween, so I have to say the same about this week’s HIMYM. Now that’s out of the way, I didn’t really think this was a particularly strong episode either. I like Will Forte, and liked the first time he was on the show. I just didn’t like it the same this week. And I didn’t think you got a severance if you’re fired from your job due to incompetence?
16. (14) “Cougar Town” – I like anytime a show does an homage to “The Usual Suspects” and I thought it did it very well in this week’s episode.
17. (17) “Fringe” – It’s nice to see the kid who played Iceman in the “X-Men” movies is still acting, and he even has a twin who acts too!
18. (18) “Family Guy” – When Peter, Joe and Quagmire drove past Meg and her friends and yelled out “Ugly bitches!”, well that was about as hard as I laughed all week.
19. (16) “Raising Hope” – Wasn’t on
20. (19) “Glee” – Wasn’t on
21. (20) “The League” – Taco bringing a real gun to use as a starter’s pistol was pretty funny. I think he’s the only character I like. Fear Boners is a very good fantasy team name as well.
22. (22) “Survivor” – I feel like every week you can definitely see who’s going to get voted out about 20 minutes before the show ends. There are no real surprises this season and that’s why it’s so low here.
23. (21) “Running Wilde” – Wasn’t on
24. (23) “Parenthood” – Wasn’t on