57 Channels and Only This Is On: 4/2/16

Shameless: You had to know Frank paying for the wedding was too good to be true, something bad had to happen, it just had to. But murder for hire? Oh Frank. And it just has to happen at the wedding right? Should make for a memorable season finale next week.

The Walking Dead: After the crap they pulled with Glen, I juwst cannot believe they would kill Daryl like that. And not to get too Zeputer film, the blood does not even look like it came from Darul’s direction.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Billions: Man, these guys are cold, and this is the very reason I could not make it in the financial game or politics. On one side you got Axe exploiting the health of an employing for financial gain while Chuck just goads Anthony Edwards into retirement, and then still sends the FBI after him… while singing He’s a Jolly Good Fellow at his retirement party. Double ouch. Still I am more fascinated by the silent war being waged by the wives than the manhood measuring contest of the men. It seems like Wendy figured out there was something else going on behind Donnie’s death while Lara seems to figured out that Wendy know knows Donnie was being used as a pawn. I am beginning to think one of these wives are going to bring down the other man’s husband, the big question is who.

Quantico: Well I was totally wrong about the terrorist attack being a sham. Oh well.
You can download Quantico on iTunes.

Supergirl: Nice crack at The CW but kind of a useless cameo by The Flash. Supposedly he beats a supervillain that can harness electricity but gets knocked out by one on this Earth. When Supergirl saved the helicopter, I actually thought they were going to go Spider-Man 2 with the crowd caring her. Oh well. All the racially diverse CW cast members can stay on their Earths now.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

Lucifer: That was not Rebecca De Mornay as Chloe’s mother. I saw her name in the credits, but I just do not believe that was Risky Business / The Hand that Rocks the Cradle Rebecca De Mornay. Nope.
You can download Lucifer on iTunes.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Holy Smash Williams sighting! (I am sure there is a Hulk joke in there somewhere.) That is two this month. And it came at the right time jut as Trya Collette got written off the how. Hey, maybe Smash can help out on that show.
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

The Path: They danced around the word in the premiere but the non-members really liked using the “Cult” word in the second episode. Within seconds of meeting them, the hedge fund manager, the hot classmate (the only thing more persuasive than cults are hot chick; Lyla Garrity could certainly get me to do more than eat meat), and the law enforcement guys all used it. But the episode basically ended the same way as the first, Eddie has weird visions of the ill leader (which we do learn is real), and Cal showing his dark side after spending most of the episode being the cheery cult leader.
You can stream The Path on Hulu.

Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty II: The merge is supposed to be the most important episode of the season, the point where two tribes come together and try to figure a way to get rid of the other side. But the thing is, you kind of know how the vote is going to go down about ninety percent of the time before the title sequence runs. This is one of the few times there has been actual intrigue going into the merge with the Brains on one side, the Brawn on the other, and the Beauty in the middle. Oh, and there were three Idols floating around, as well as the slim chance two would be combined to create a Super Idol. Then, what seemed to be right before Tribal, the two waffling Beauties decided to side with the Brawn to blindside a Brain, which made me think, oooo, if they are giving that away, something big is about to happen. And something big did, just not what I was hoping for. You never want to see someone pulled from the game, and certainly not before what looked to be an explosive Tribal Council. Since they told us, we can guess that Aubrey would get seven votes, Scot or Bounty Hunter gets four, so the big question, would have Neil played his Idol? Would he have guessed right? Had he and Scot gets the most votes that count, could he have been able to convince Gay Asian and Bounty Hunter to give up their Idols to save him? Le sigh. We will never know. And poor Aubrey, her clostest ally gets pulled and he does not even give her his Idol. But at least she is getting some antibiotics. If I am Scot, I am wondering why she gets some, but not me?
You can download Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty II on iTunes.

Vikings: Um, so was that Floki dreaming of having sex with Ragnor’s wife, and occasionally morphing into the mysterious dude who only hows up when Ragnor is gone, or was that Ragnor’s wife imagining having sex with two different dudes who is not her husband? It is kind of weird either way.
You can download Vikings on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 3/26/16

Once Upon a Time: Wait, there are crossing guards in the Underworld. At least Mr. Gold pointed out the absurdity of that saying they are already dead. It is almost as silly as the Underworld turning out to be a pit stop to somewhere else, either up or down. How sad that Hades as been reduced to being the gatekeeper of Purgatory.
You can download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

Shameless: Oh Lip, you were living the dream and now you are back at the Gallagher house, no sorority sisters and no track for a career. And the house is even more crowded with Fiona’s soon to be husband and a new baby. Oh well, at least the house should be safer now. Who would have thought back in season one that Ian would grow up to be an EMT while Carl would get into police work? But c’mon, a black cop harasses “Mitt Romney Jr.” and no one tells him White Lives Matter?

The Walking Dead: When the trip ended halfway through the episode, and the two storylines were about the doctor and mullet guy taking more personal responsibility, I thought, oh yeah, one of them or both is going to die soon. About a minute later doctor gets shot in the eye and mullet guy gets dragged out by the killer. Then the ending sees Carol leave the group again (okay, she was forced the first time). It has to be a safe bet she runs into Negan in the season finale.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Billions: Ooo, wife fight, how did that not happen sooner? It seemed like everyone just accepted that the wife of the U.S. District Attorney’s wife just so happened to work at a place he is investigating. Sure those two are actually keeping thing professional, even though it hurts their marriage, but I am surprised everyone else around them trusts their spouse. But it may happen soon, Wendy caught Chuck talking about the case he said he recused himself from. I actually thought she went to Axe to tell him about Donnie. And speaking of Donnie, what was actually said in the dead room? Do we trust him when he give up the inside man that he said Axe told him or is he playing the government? I do trust Axe when he told Wags that he truly did not know where Donnie is but I do not trust when Donnie said.

Quantico: What a boring episode. Really the only thing worth talking about is the promo which made it look like terrorists attack Quantico. Let me go ahead and predict that it is just a test because it is always a test.
You can download Quantico on iTunes.

Supergirl: I am spoiler adverse but for some reason I still will read casting news which sometimes are a bit spoilery. So I have known before she even showed up that Slobodan was Silver Banshee but it was still shocking that’s she was able to use her powers to keep her from hitting the concrete after falling over the edge of the building. I assumed we would get some sort of origin story as to how she got her powers.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

Gotham: There are fewer more annoying things these days when television shows run over a minute or two. So I was watching Supergirl and then flipped over to Lucifer only to catch Jim heading off to prison. Great, thanks for the spoiler (later in the night going from Lucifer to Blindspot I saw someone get stolen but I guess that is less of a spoiler because every episode ends with a Steal since they introduced the twist). What makes this practice more annoying is it is not as if we are getting an extra minute of content, no we are getting an extra minute of commercials simply because Gotham gets more ad revenue than Lucifer. Hurumph. So I spent the whole episode knowing Gordon would be going to prison which just makes the episode less satisfying. But hey, at least Fox got a couple more pennies of revenue. Oh and we learned where Penguin got his affinity to tuxedoes.
You can download Gotham on iTunes.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Wait, Bobby and Hunter cannot go back to the agency that technically does not exist? And their fond farewell did not carry much weight knowing a spin-off is in development.
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty: Just another completely dysfunctional Tribal Council. It may be time to blame it on Scot. He has been to every Tribal Council but one, and two of them were historically dysfunctional. First was the first time someone got themselves voted out because of their answers at Tribal. And this week I think this may have been the first time ever someone actually changed their vote on the parchment. When the social media person pause before putting the name in the bin, I actually thought she was going to throw it into the jungle and write down a new name Instead it turned out she just x-ed out the name and wrote a new one. Next week is the merge which should be interesting, four brains, four beauties, three brawn, with each original tribe having their own Hidden Immunity Idol. Should be interesting how the voting blocs break down and if any Idol gets played. I wonder if anyone will hold on to their Idols too long hoping to get the Super Idol. Gay Asian definitely should have last week.
You can download Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty on iTunes.

The Americans: To kill Pastor Tom or not to kill Pastor Tom. That is kind of a lose-lose situation. If you do not, he could turn you in, but if you do, Paige could get suspicious. And after Paige came clean she would definitely get suspicious if he dies now. Moving may actually be the best option. It would be funny if Pastor Tom if ended up getting hit by a bus on complete accident now.
You can download The Americans on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 3/20/16

Once Upon a Time: Poor Abigail Hobbs, suffers so long on Hannibal only to get her throat slit by him and end up in the underworld. I figured she would end up being the love interest from the Hercules movie, but that movie was so unmemorable I barely even remember her. And since this half of the season is based on his movie, it is weird that it looks like Hercules only gets one episode. I guess being a demi-god means he could probably travel to the Underworld whenever he wants, so maybe he will be back to take on his uncle.
You can download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

Shameless: Oh Lip, you just do not pour Jack Daniels down your throat, which was just the bane of my existence in college. I guess I am lucky to never walking up in a hospital and downing that. But maybe the dumber part of the episode was Fiona excepting a proposal by a guy using her current husband’s engagement ring. Shouldn’t it happening at your divorce proceeding be a huge red flag as to you not being marriage ready? And I cannot help but assume Frank is guying to go through that weed stash befor the commune makes enough to move to Hawaii, here is a guy who still has not learned to never, under any circumstance, get high off his own supply.

The Walking Dead: It took me a couple of minutes to recognize Alicia Witt. And it only took me a couple more minutes before realizing I do not want to see evil Alicia Witt. At least she died quickly, well after having her face eaten off. Ouch.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Billions: At the beginning of the episode I thought, oh wow, having the janitor as a mole is kind of brilliant, he can go through trash, is usually alone after hours to do other snooping. That may actually be better than blackmailing the lesbian. Who would suspect the janitor? But I turns out the attorney’s mole is actually a double agent and Axe knows everything. Though how does this even end good for the mole / double agent? Does Axe have a retirement plan for him where he lives on the beach of a country without an extradition tready? There is the old saying that some people play checkers against people playing chess, Axe may be playing three dimensional chess while Rhoades is just playing regular chess.

Quantico: Stupid promo monkey, last week when they said someone was going to die this week, I figured there is no way they would kill of the person with a bomb strapped to their waist, but that is exactly who they killed (granted not with that bomb). Also my theory about death no meaning much on the show since the actors would still be in flashbacks became moot because that chick got sent packing in the flashbacks too.
You can download Quantico on iTunes.

Supergirl: Awe, red kryptonite, always good to spruce things up. I did like how they explained it as Maxwell Lord failing to recreate the regular kind. It also explains why Jimmy would not instantly know what was going on because Superman would have never been exposed before. Apparently Superman was too busy to stop his cousin from destroying her city so instead Martian Manhunter had to expose himself. Though that still does not explain why they did not have any green kryptonite to weaken her first so he did not have to out himself as an alien too, and in the process go, oh yeah, the guy whose body I took over is dead. Still I give it one episode before a threat so great pops up that they need to release him to help Supergirl in the fight.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

Gotham: Holy Lori Petty sighting! And still sporting her Tank Girl haircut about a quarter of a century later. Interesting that the show has younger versions of all the Batman buddies and villains and yet we get what I assume is a older Harley Quinn surrogate. But of course since she is in the movies, we will likely never get an actual character named Harley Quinn on the show. That would have been a lot more interesting than the Silver St. Cloud we got instead.
You can download Gotham on iTunes.

Lucifer: Holy Herc back in a wheelchair sighting! A couple episodes back I suggested what this show needed was a serialized component, except I was hoping for something more supernatural, not a cop corruption case. And of course the separated husband shot the other cop, it is really the only possible suspect. Maybe this will end up having a supernatural component because Lucifer did save the guy. Does he know that he was shot by the husband and that is why he saved him? But if so, why not tell lady cop her husband is corrupt.
You can download Lucifer on iTunes.

Blindspot: Oh wow, a Chrissy Seaver training montage, get that girl in the field. But I thought for sure the mole was going to end up being Sutter ex-girlfriend. Oh well.
You can download Blindspot on iTunes.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Ooo, Talbert was the mole, not a good way to start off that relationship. But I missed part of the episode because my local ABC station broke into the show for John Kasich’s victory speech as if anyone who actually wanted to hear it was not all ready watching CNN or another 24-hour cable channel. So after a minute of him not actually saying anything (Apparently there was a protester yet the cameraman could not find him) I flipped over to The Voice until it went to a commercial. So I switch back to ABC and they were airing commercials already. So I flipped to CNN and Kasich was still talking. Seriously, if you are going to break into a show just show the whole speech at that point. So I missed about five minute of the show. I went to Hulu the next day but forgot ABC has a stupid eight day waiting period as if they do not want people to ever get caught up. I am certainly not watching it On Demand if I cannot skip to the part I missed, so hopefully nothing important happened during those five minutes.
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: Wait, let me get this straight, CeCe is not Alison’s sister, but her cousin, that her parents adopted (and then ignored even existed) whose mother is Mrs. Dilarentas twin (and apparently has the same initials A.D.), is just as tech savy as her daughter, and is in cahoots with CeCe’s doctor who married Alison as part of some plan that involves an extremely lifelike Wilden mask. Alrighty. And of course Hanna’s plan to admit she was the killer turned out horribly.
You can download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty: After Lizzie got the boot two weeks ago, I came to the realization that I do not particularly like anyone this season besides the hot chick alliance. And as if the show was trolling me (and every red-blooded American straight dude watching), when they split the tribes into two, the hot chick alliance somehow ended up on three different beaches. Making things worse, the third hot chick would replace the person who gets voted out waking it is both tribes best interest to get rid of a Beauty to make sure they do not become a majority on their tribe. What an amazing turnabout because had Caleb had not been pulled from the game, and assuming the tribe split when the same way with Caleb and Hot Chick #3 go to opposite tribes, the Beauty tribe goes from a majority in both tribes to being outnumbered or even in the tribes.

What is amazing is the actually had a way to make lemonade out of lemons because Gay Asian had an Idol, if he uses it correctly, can turn hiss tribe from a Brains dominated tribe into a Beauty controlled one. Except Gay Asian and Scot showed exactly why they did not start on the Brains tribe because they both made extremely dumb strategic moves. Instead of using the Idol, giving his tribe a Beauty majority, now Gay Asian is exactly where he was when the tribes swapped, one less Beauty than Brain with untrustable Scot in the middle. So he may very have to use that Idol next week except now when someone gets voted out, there is not another Beauty coming to help you out. I fully understand wanting to save an Idol for yourself, but the one time you do give an Idol to someone else is to get the numbers on your side. And what is even worse now for Gay Asian is that now not only does he not have the numbers, everyone knows he has an Idol which puts him in a horrible position in the game.

As for Scot, telling Gay Asian not to play the Idol was a bad strategic move too. So what if he now knows where two Idols are? Does he really think that if he is voted out, Gay Asian and Bounty Hunter are really going to come together like Voltron to save him? Do you know what is better than knowing where two Idols are? Having your own Idol. And if Gay Asian plays his Idol, there will be a new one in play the very next day that you can go out and find for yourself (and there is another reason Gay Asian should have played his, he already found one Idol, go and replace it after you play one like Kelley Wentworth last season). You can easily convince Bounty Hunter to enter a pact to save each other, than to get two people to give up their Idols for basically nothing.
You can download Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty on iTunes.

The Americans: It took the daughter three seasons to find out her parents were Russians, so I guess it should not be surprising nothing happens with that information except tell her minister who I guess is bound by some client confidentiality agreement or something. Kind of a run of the mill premiere as I guess these chemical weapons will be this season’s theme. How disappointing Stan did not break it while assaulting Philip.
You can download The Americans on iTunes.

Nashville: What a boring wedding. No deaths, no crashers. Just Avery annoyingly getting asked where Juliette was every two minutes. At least let Layla go HAM after learning Jeff did not kill himself and Juliette was just covering it up so she did not look bad. Meh.
You can download Nashville on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 3/13/16

Once Upon a Time: I kind of half joked when Emma said they were going to the Underworld that Hades from Hercules better show up. Then at the end of the episode the king of the Underworld’s hair turned flame blue and it turned out I was right. Man, they are really scrapping the bottom of the Disney barrel on this one. Are they going to Notre Dame next?
You can download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

Shameless: Oh Frank, everyone knows the number one rule of drug trafficking is never get high off your own supply. Of course that was going to end badly. Just like Debbie and her pregnant fetish guy. I saw that coming as soon as he asked for her help. Yet that was not even the most shameless moment of the episode. When Lip was confronted by Queenie, I thought, oh no, Lip is going to have sex with his… um; father’s baby momma I guess is what you would call it. And they actually kind of did it depending, not to get all Bill Clinton, on how you describe sex. Physically helping someone to, um, finish the job, kind of constitutes sex. But going by the Bill Clinton definition it was not.

The Walking Dead: So everyone is hooking up now, which means there is going to be a lot of deaths coming up soon. Since she is captured, could Carol be next? I am hard pressed to think they would kill off a pregnant lady, but it seemed apropos that whoever has the two got introduced pretty much the same way Glen was introduced on the show. I thought Abraham was getting the he is about to die edit last week but this week he just dumped Rosita presumably so he can shack up with Sasha instead. Sure I would not kick Sasha out of bed, but Rosita has to be the most attractive chick you are going to find during a zombie apocalypse. But I guess mullet guy has a chance now.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Billions: You know someone is really mad when they get out of a pool and go straight to their car, no shirt, no shoes, not even toweling off, to go punch someone. But c’mon Axe, you have to at least make the kids spend the night at camp before letting them give up. It may be interesting to watch those brats suffer if everything is taken away when Axe goes to prison. Actually let’s not take the Brody mistake of keeping the family on the show too long for this show too.

Quantico: So someone is going to die next week. Except the gay dude died in the Winter finale and him being around in the flashbacks kind of lessens the impact of the death. Since she has a bomb strapped to her, she would be the obvious choice, which means she is not dying or that would be the worst promo monkey job of all time. Instead I think it is going to be one of the twins which would have even less of an impact because not only would they still be in flashbacks but there would still be one twin still alive.
You can download Quantico on iTunes.

Gotham: We have known Hugo Strange has been collecting “dead” people since the Winter finale when we saw Galivan being wheeled and we got to see him in some sort of tank this week. Behind him was three more tanks, the next two with their backs t us and the next facing towards us. I did not recognize that last guy and it is hard to identify someone by the back of their head but that second guy did have red hair so Jerome instantly came to mind. There was a very Fish Mooney looking figure during the Winter finale. So the question is when do these zombies get reanimated? Was the Mr. Freeze serum the final ingredient Hugo needs?
You can download Gotham on iTunes.

The Voice: The sad sack stories have been the worst part of the show (well the proliferation of boring white dudes over the past four seasons may actually be worse) but my goodness, do we really need to sit through a dude talking about he kept on hitting decline on his phone right before his dad killed himself? That was just really too rough. And of course it gets worse because no one bothered to turn their chair which seems to happen to some of the people with the saddest stories as if the producers bring them on only for their story knowing they probably will not turn a chair.

Every season I do a bi where I mention all the artists I am surprised anyone covered on the show because the Blind Auditions is where the people are most adventurous and I was surprised that dude sang an Incubus song. And now that I think about, maybe half of those people end up not getting a chair turned. Look at the guy who closed out the week, he auditions last season with a great Cameo song, does not get a chair to turn. Does an overdone song this time and is on a team.

Oh, and holy Ellie Lawrence sighting! Talk about letting people come back, I know they do not let people who get a chair to turn to try out again but really anyone screwed royalty deserves to come back and be on a team with a real coach. Although if they brought Ellie back, they would also have to change the rules to ban anyone who voted for Braiden Sunshine from ever voting again, which they should do anyway. And like the first week, I was pretty meh on the talent this season. Pharrell picked up another indie chick to add to the three he pick up last week, but Christina actually nabbed the best indie chick of the season (so far) with Kristen Marie.


Apparently The Voice is doing that stupid scheduling where Monday’s show will half Blind Auditions, half Battle Round, so I will release my Blind Audition Power Ranking Tuesday evening even though two people will probably already had been sent home (with the third loser being stolen). During the Best of the Blind Auditions special (so none of the five singers yet to be put on a team qualify as Best; though three of the five the only other time they had this format went on to the Live Playoffs so do not completely write them off; sure none of those three got saved by the public vote in the Live Playoffs, but anyway) they did give away a couple of the Battle pairing, I am going to make my predictions now (the person I think is going to win is listed first):

Team Blake
Mary Sarah vs. Justin Whisnant
Paxton Ingrim vs. Brittany Lawrence
Brittany Kennell vs. Trey O’Dell

Team Pharrell
Brian Nhira vs. Abby Celso
Nick Hagelin vs. Jessica Crosbie
Emily Keener vs. Johnathan Bach
Hannah Huston vs. Maya Smith

Team Adam
Natalie Yacovazzi vs. Nate Butler
Laith Al-Saadi vs Matt Tedder

Team Christina
Alison Porter vs. Lacey Mandingo
Tamar Davis vs. Shalyah Fearing
Malik Heard vs. Bryan Bautista

My first takeaway from the pairing is that Pharrell had four previews (and he is the only one who still has two spots left on his team compared to one for everyone else) while Adam only two previews, one of which was between two guy I kind of thought may have been fodder (even though I do like Laith). Actually the other pairing is between two people I would be a bit surprised if either made the Live Shows too. Last spring Pharrell had five of his six Battles result in a Steal and I wonder if that is going to happen again. If my predictions are right I could see someone stealing Abby and Maya who got good edits so far. And predicting Steals do seem to be completely random, but Pharrell Stealing Shalyah. Has he ever not Stolen a young soul singer? There also seems to be more co-ed battles than usual. I wonder if this is a way to consciously limit the number of boring whit dudes make the Live Shows this year after six of the eight singers America saved in the Playoffs last season were boring white dudes (out of a possible seven). My other takeaway from the previews was how much time they spent on only one of the Battle pairing which made some of these predictions really easy (sorry Maya and Lacy). We get it producers you really, really want Alison to win so a female singer and coach will win this season. Except the more you push, the more the bored housewives are going to rebel and have yet another boring white dude win for the fifth straight season.

Lucifer: Two take always from this episode; Lucifer’s brother calls him Lucy. And if the brother is now the gatekeeper to Hades, just how many people are escaping during his many trips to Erth to try to convince his brother to come back home? And when does Lucifer start hunting down those souls because that show would be much more interesting than this one.
You can download Lucifer on iTunes.

Blindspot: Holy Smash Williams sighting! But the bigger shock was Kurt’s sister and Edgar… who knew? Not that they were hooking up but that character’s name was Edgar, I had to look it up and had no clue what his name was. Oh yeah, then there was Jane Doe learning she died.
You can download Blindspot on iTunes.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: So what was with the three months from now opener? Civil War does come out in May and the last Captain America movie is really the only time something in the movie actually had much of an effect on the show. But it is probably just a teaser for the season finale. But then again, three months is June and early May is when shows tend to wrap up for the year.
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: The Liars have had some epically dumb ideas over the years, but Hannah admitting she killed CeCe. So what happens when A gets revenge or possibly calls the police?
You can download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty: So we had our first medical leave of the season (second because apparently Lizzie had to be flown back to America right after being voted out to deal with some staph infections). Just last week I mentioned how even when the person who is getting voted out they always plant a seed for someone else, this is the first time I remember them not even put up a red herring, and went straight to Tribal Council and did not even show Blondie scrambling. Shame the merge came a week too late for her because she could have teamed up with the hot chick alliance. Same for Lizzie. Should be interesting to she how it plays out, if anyone find the Brains Hidden Immunity Idol, or if they are going to put more Idols into play in hopes that a Super Idol gets played.
You can download Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 2/27/16

Shameless: One thing I have learned from watching the Gallagher's i that even when things start to be looking up, things will still end up being worse. Except for Lip, dude continues to fail upwards. First, he is the only Gallagher that was able to get out and this week he gets fired from his Resident Assistant job and managed to land a better gig as house boy at a sorority. And yet he still messes it up but pining over the old married woman while blowing off the hot sorority sister. You are living the dream Lip, why are you messing up for the rest of us? So instead of participating in a pillow fight, the best scene of the week ended yup being Frank giving another impassioned speech during a suspension hearing (there was one with Carl a couple seasons ago which was just as good). But a close second goes to whoever decided to put subtitles when Carl was talking to his homies. Now I know what is "poppycock" is translated to in urban.

The Walking Dead: Rick and Michonne... who saw that coming? I guess they have been living together for a while now and she treats Carl like a son so it i not that surprising. I guess the big question is which one of them will die in the season finale. You know there is no way they are going to end up happy. Okay, that is probably aa stupid question, of course it will be Michonne they kill of, like a wise man said, always bet on black, especially when it comes to who will die next on this show.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Billions: What a great line about Chuck and Brody sniffing each other and not liking the smell. It was at that point I knew neither would back down even though Wendy pointed out to both of them this could easily go away. The big question as both looked to be willing to sit at the table would be which would be first to go back on their word. Despite saying he would never admit guilt (though how is forfeiting over a billion dollars not an admission of guilt?) Brody still ate it so it was Chuck who went over the line first (or twice if you include the admission of guilt thing) by demanding Brody never trade on the stock exchange ever again leading Brody to rip up the check, throw it in Chuck's face, and listen to more Metallica. But lost in the long game of chicken between Brody and Chuck was another great scene with the guy from the attorney General's office calling out Chuck for going too soft on Axe because of his wife before saying he was going hard after Brody because of his wife. Great question, just how much of this is about his wife, we do know they both enjoy pain.

Mercy Street: With historical dramas I tend to wait until the end of the series to look up really happen because I do not want to look up what happened in the real Deadwood only to find out someone was probably going to die soon. So I do wonder if there really was an attempt to blow up the hospital or was that just added for poetic licence. I am guessing that is the latter because how would anyone know what did not happen? I doubt the guy went home and rote in his journal about almost assassinating the president but did not go through with it to keep a friend from being collateral damage.
You can download Mercy Street on iTunes.

Supergirl: Of course the day I post about the absurdity of Irish names a Sloboden (but sounds like Chevonne) shows up on television that night, though the actress does not look to have any Irish in her. But anyway. A couple of off comments this week which are kind of annoying. First there was a conversation between Hank and Alex mentioned the villain of the week was a bounty hunter but not THAT bounty hunter. My mind first went to Boba Fett but that is not going to happen. I take it they were probably talking about Lobo butif so, just say his name. I guess they did not because they do not have permission to use the charachter which is getting kind of annoying on the comic book shows. Then Kara said there was another city that has people with masks, which again just name the city. Stop being coy. Again I have o guess she was referring to one of the cities depicted on one of the half dozen crappy CW shows. Meh.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

The X-Files: After the drag of the season premiere, I actually enjoyed the following episode, unfortunately, and inevitably, they had to end the season with the same story line. And had to bring back Agent Reyes who apparently was been the Cigarette Smoking Man's personal servant for the past decade. I Do not even want to know what the T-1000 was up to since then. Then they just had to end on a cliffhanger. Hurmph. So what was in the spaceship? Scully and Mulder's kid. If it come back, just wrap that story line up quick and just focus on monster of the week cases after that.
You can download The X-Files on iTunes.

Castle: Really, everyone know of the sociology experiment from years ago, but not one person thinks of Saw? Alrighty. And I really should be consulting for the NYPD, because I had that dude pegged early on as the guy running the experiment. C'mon, he had no loved one on the other side. But then again, it was a good thing I was not trapped in the room because my first instinct when the gun showed up was to shoot the bullets in the wall so no one could shoot me later. That would have backfired miserably, quite literally.
You can download Castle on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: I have long known that none of these girls are Veronica Mars so I have accept their utter stupidity from time to time, but c'mon, when the hole in Sara's hotel room gets plastered up, seriously, no one thought to show Allison the back door to Radley?
You can download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

Marvel's Agent Carter: Obviously Vinnie Van Lowe is great, but I really wanted more of his mother. The dance sequence at the start of the second episode was a nice touch too. Great ending with Rose saying she was not good enough for the fake talent agency. Too bad they did not work that into the show more often because the fake talent agency was comedy gold in the first episode.
You can download Marvel's Agent Carter on iTunes.

Survivor:Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty II: Maybe the most annoying part of Survivor is when everyone knows who is going home and yt the editors plant the seed of someone else may also be on the chopping block just to have some suspense at Tribal only for the obvious pick goes home ninety percent of the time. After flubbing last week's vote, obviously the Brawn tribe would actually get rid of Barbie this week. Sure an all-girl alliance seemed like a good idea (especially considering three tribe seasons get mixed up pretty early) so that actually seemed like. Except not only was it not the obvious pick that went home, or even the alternative that producers float to add a little suspense to Tribal, but maybe for the first time ever (not including Idol canceling votes) a third option was the person that went home. Wow, I cannot think of a worse Tribal performance in the history of the show except maybe the dude who basically handed a million dollars to the porn star in Thailand when he attacked the jury. This girl somehow managed to get three people to change their votes at tribal. People changing their votes at Tribal probably happens less than once a season (again, without an Idol in play or being threatened) and here it happened three times at the same Tribal. I did not think any tribe could be as dysfunctional as the last Brains tribe, but this season's Brawn tribe is trying hard. They are really one rice dump away. Seriously, how did they lose that challenge? Is there any bigger lay up for a Brawny tribe than carrying a sixty pound log a half a mile? I was expecting a drop off from the epic last season, but we are off to a strong start. Really my only gripe so far is the cat lady needs to go home sooner than later.
You can download Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty II on iTunes.

The Blacklist: So what was in the envelope that Red burned? It has to be info on Lizzie's mom right? But why burn it? And why destroy something on screen that we the viewers will now never know what the contents were?
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 2/21/16

Shameless: So the Gallagher family ends up only spending one episode "homeless." I do have to side with Gus, seriously, if you want something Fiona, you got to at the very least give the ring back. But that also means Carl is the one fronting the money for the house and of course, like everything else on this show, I do not see that going well.

The Walking Dead: So Daryl just has a bazooka taking up space in his newly commandeered truck. Awesome. Just as awesome, they killed off that annoying kid. Not only the kid, they just went ahead and kill the entire family. That is just cold. Unfortunately somehow Carl survived a gunshot wound to the eye. And I thought Bushwick Bill was the only human being that could do that.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Billions: So Brody was scamming everyone all along with his Metallica induced midlife crisis, almost had me fulled. I also though the arrest warrant was going after Brody, not Dollar Bill, kind of petty to make sure they haul away Bill before Brody left the country, and while his wife was playing hooky. I am begininng to think Chuck is actually going to screw up first and let his wife know some classified information before he can nail Brody. And did Chuck and his wife meet in a sex dungeon? Seems like it and not they learned after the fact they were both into domination. I was waiting for someone to pull off the mask to reveal the farmer they just conned. You have to have feeling Chuck will run into someone at some point.

Mercy Street: So Mary Todd Lincoln is going to show up at the hospital next week. That may be a little weird considering Ramona Flowers actually played her previously. I wonder if this Abraham will be killing any vampires on his visit. One can only hope.
You can download Mercy Street on iTunes.

The X-Files: I was a bit harsh on the reboot but the last three episodes have been really good and the country music montage was one of the best in the show's history which was only enhanced by it being placebo induced. And if they do more episodes, they can go ahead and add Lauren Ambrose to the cast. Unfortunately her partner is about as interesting as cardboard. I understand they were going for younger versions of Fox and Scully, but Mulder has dry wit, he is not just dry. Maybe it was intentional, they have the same set up of believer vs. skeptic but this time around the skeptic is the more interesting one while the believer is the wet blanket.
You can download The X-Files on iTunes

Lucifer: I came to the realization what it is wrong with the show. Though I am not sure why it took me so long because it airs after The X-Files, the problem is that it should be more like The X-Files with weird cases. Instead it is more like Castle but instead of a writer being in-bedded in the police department it is the devil. But if Satin is walking around the show, shouldn't these cases be more magical instead of cases you could see on any other cop show? How about throwing in a rogue demon perp every once in a while?
You can download Lucifer on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: So the hole in the wall just a secret way out of the hotel and not a secret evil lair? Meh, kind of boring.
You can download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

Marvel's Agent Carter: Having back to back episodes really made it very noticeable that Peggy's impaled injury conveniently went away in between the two episode even though maybe two or three days had passed since the injury. And I know she was distracted by Mrs. Jarvis, but oh Peggy, you do not leave a Russian spy along with a rent a cop. But it is interesting to have Whitney and Wilkes together. So is Whitney able to create Zero Matter while Wilkes can destroy it? Is that is what is going on between them?
You can download Marvel's Agent Carter on iTunes.

Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty II: Early in the episode the real estate agent on the "Brawn" tribe tried to make a explanation to her inclusion despite her Barbie doll looks. Later we meet a gay Asian on the "Beauty" tribe who straight up wondered aloud why was included on that tribe. It was at that time I began to wonder if they intentionally put one tribe member who did not belong on purpose and that would be a twist. The problem with that hypothesis was the "Brains" tribe. The person there that sticks out like a sore thumb is the social media consultant except she does not really fit on the other two tribes either. So maybe the better theory is that cast the season and decide to split by characteristics afterwards. Which is kind of silly and really defeats the purpose of splitting them in the first place.

The big draw for this season is that it is supposed to be the most grueling season ever with multiple medical and it looked like we were almost going to get our first one right off the bat. The social media consultant came down with a bit of the heat stroke while someone else had a bug crawl into her ear. I knew that was not going to be pulled from the game serious but c'mon, at what point does the medical team show up with a pair of pliers? Since we did get a good look at the people who get pulled in the trailer, the question is do you go back and rewatch it now that you know the contestants better? I think I am going to avoid those spoilers and just wait for them to leave when it gets to that part of the season.

We probably will not see a season as epic as last season with blindside after blindside, but there were off to a good start with a shocker right off the bat: instead of booting the obvious Barbie doll who should have never been on their tribe in the first place, they got rid of the black dude before I could make a The Waterboy reference (he looked and sounded just like the waterboy's buddy in the film right?). Another big shocker was the Brains actually won the first challenge after being disastrous the first time they played this game. And that is why I am going to make a very premature prediction that Lizzie is crowned the sole Survivor. And I am not just saying that because she looks like Lizzie from The Blacklist. Okay, maybe a little.
Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty II on iTunes

The Challenge: Battle of the Bloodlines: What a horrible end to what may have been the worst season ever. The first leg of the final last week was kind of cool, but the last four this week were all sorts of lame. I hate all eating challenge as a rule because I hate watching people puke. Then they had them stand for a train that never came all night. Alrighty, that was useless. The last two were fine but nothing special even though that math problem should be one of the easiest; since it is the middle number, five has to be in center square, then one and nine have to be across from there, it should be just process of elimination from there. And the thing is, this should have been a great season. I am actually looking forward to watch the Reunion because there were some big moments this season. Okay, not excited enough to stay up to 12:30 to watch it or even watch it the next day, but much more than I was to watch the finale.
You can download The Challenge: Battle of the Bloodlines on iTunes.

Vikings: I sometime I have trouble remember things that happened on last week's episode let alone something from last season which probably ended about nine months ago, but I could haccw sworn that Ragnor was pretty much dead at the end of last season. Oh well, at least we got someone saying "arsehole" in French in the season premiere.
You can download Vikings on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 2/13/16

Shameless: So no one is going to think of the most obvious solution to the Gallagher's living situation: the dead Greek's house? As soon as Kev mentioned he was dead, that was my first thought. I guess it is better for them to be scattered for a little bit before realizing they need each other again. We did get two surprised returns with Lip's ex-girlfriend outting his relationship and Fiona's ex cop boyfriend outting himself. Did not see that coming. I wonder if it will turn out he is just a ringer for the gay cop team.

Billions: I have been trying to follow what has been going on with Wall Street since they destroyed out economy about seven years ago so I have hear the term "short" multiple times yet I still have no idea what it means. And now I have to figure out what a "short squeeze" is too? Though I may not know what is going on with the business side of things, but I do know music and it is kind of laughable to think Metallica who actually have a folk singer covering Ratt as an opening act. Did the guys in the band not get a full script or just got paid enough not to care?

Supergirl: The writers really need to figure out more reasons to have Martian Manhunter to stand in for Kara, that was the best part especially butting heads with Cat. Though it was weird that the actress was much better at being Martian Manhunter than she was being content Kyrptonian in the fever dream. We did get a shocking ending with Aunt Austra getting killed so I guess Non was the big bad all along (well with Maxwell Lord also an antagonist; gotta love his list of demands in exchange for helping with the virtual reality simulator). It is weird that whenever Supergirl gets preempted, it never gets a "next time on" promo even when it is just off for a week.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

Lucifer: Holy Jodi Lynn O'Keefe sighting! Though big in the nineties, the new century has not been kind to three named hot chicks. But really Jodi as Ray Donovan was kind of laughable.
You can download Lucifer on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: Um, what is up with all those fake arms? Really no one is going to talk about, just stuff it back under the bed like someone does not have a fake hand under their bed? And how Lostian to end the episode on an deep tunnel. At least we do not have to wait the summer to find out what is down their, plus it does seem like a good guess that CeCe's Radley lair is down there.
You can download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

Marvel's Agent Carter: Oh Vinnie Van Lowe, when did you get that temper. Hopefully Peggy runs into him later in the season. Or maybe Rose, who knew she had that in her? And though you knewshe was going to do it more than once, Peggy's using the mind eraser was just comedy gold. No one does slapstick comedy these days that this show.
You can download Marvel's Agent Carter on iTunes.

The Challenge: Battle of the Bloodlines: Ugg, a two parter-finale? I am ready for this season to be over. But I had to laugh at Jenna saying so many time how she was shocked two females were leading. The female only teams dominated the first carry heavy bags challenge. Of course they would be leading as long as they did not especially mess up on the "parlor games" as Cara Maria put them. Actually they did mess up being the only team to fall off the tires and still won. I do wonder if they had more beer standing by because they almost ran out of the ones om the bar. I think I saw three left while the last team was chugging their last beer. And as luck would have it, just as when The Challenge is ending, we also get the start of Survivor next week. They really inadvertently timed that right because The Challenge started just as Survivor ended last year. Hopefully they sync this up ever year.
You can download The Challenge: Battle of the Bloodlines on iTunes.

The Blacklist: The DMV continues to be the best part of the show, the random Leslie Jones cameo was just great. I was about to suggest just adding the DMV guy to the cast and find a way to get Red into the waiting room every week but what they should really do is just give the DMV guy his own spin-off sitcom. Certainly that would be funnier than any comedy currently on NBC or any NBC comedy since the death of must see TV.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 2/7/16

Grease Live: My biggest takeaway from Fox's first try at live musicals is that NBC really needs to step their game up. I have been advocating NBC do it since their first one and the live audience really livened things up (granted on the flip side, it was quite glaring when you could not hear anyone laugh at most of Ana Gasteyer's joke even if her assistant was one of the standouts). And with the live audience, the cast gets a much deserved curtain call, even if there was not an actual curtain. It is always weird when the NBC shows just end, no applause, no curtain call, not even really any credits either. Sure there were some low points, seriously, no one in America cares about Jessie J (though the set up of the opening was great, especially the Motownphilly interlude with Boyz II Men and, um... Ana Gasteyer), Julianna Hough can sing about as well as Carrie Underwood can act, and the sound when out while Joe Jonas was singing (okay, that may have been for the best). Oh yeah, and the needlessly censored Grease Lightning. How can you get away with "pussy wagon" in a seventies PG movie but not on a live television event in 2016?

The big breakout star of the show was whoever played Patty Simcox, get that girl on a crappy NBC sitcom this fall (Does the already picked up Sam Malone, Veronica Mars show need an annoying assistant?). She and Lindsay from You're the Worst (the second most random casting after the dude from Treme as the coach) seemed like the only ones who ever ever been in a stage production before and brought the right amount of energy to their roles. Those two clearly were having fun; something missing from NBC's production: fun. It will be interesting to see what NBC this fall in responce, if anything. They have already announced Hairspray as their next musical (Patty Simcox for Amber Von Tussle); which come to think about it, very similar to Grease, set in the fifties, two worlds colliding, there is a televised school dance; so do they rip off Fox and bring in a live audience and a more sprawling set or do it like their previous events?
You can download Grease Live! (Music From The Television Event) on iTunes or pre-order the DVD below.


Shameless: Just when I thought Frank pimping his pregnant teenage daughter do a cancer stricken old man with a voice box would be the most shameless moment possibly of the season, if not just this episode, a wheelchair bound dude sets himself on fire while trying to hit Kev with a Molotov cocktail. I am guessing he probably is not dead just yet.

Billions: So Axe goes after Chuck's father's mistress to get to him. Has he yet to figure out that the guy's wife works for him?

Galavant: They actually gave us an ending this season (well, as long as you do not care about Madelana and her quest for ultimate evil). Of course that is not that the show is not holding out hope for a third season as Weird Al suggests even on a crappy cable channel. Maybe it was not the best idea to insult possible homes when you are on a very thin bubble. I would not mind if someone would be stupid enough to give this show another season.
You can download Galavant on iTunes.

Mercy Street: And this is why I usually do not watch medical shows, I have no desire to watch Ted Mosby chop some dude's leg off in graphic fashion, I just ended up scrolling through Anna Kendrick's delayed west coast reactions to Grease Live during those scenes. But what I do have a desire to watch is watching Ramona Flowers lay the smack down on Ted Mosby.
You can download Mercy Street on iTunes.

Supergirl: I like Supergirl and all but two Supergirl was really kind of annoying. And is Supergirl not powered by the sun in this universe? Because if Bizarro gains more power from kryptonite then shouldn't the sun weaken her? Oh well, at least they got rid of Cat's uber boring son.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

X-Files: During the first two episodes I came to the realization that I no longer want to believe which really hampered my enjoyment of the reboot. But you do know one thing I do want to do: laugh, and I did plenty of that in the third episode with the were-lizard. If they decide to do more episode, maybe they should do more funny episodes and less mythology ones.
You can download The X-Files on iTunes.

Lucifer: I did not think it would but I guess the show will not tie into the Constantine show from last season since Jeremy Davies played a part as one of the bigger secondary on that show. At least I am assuming he did not scrap his job as a college professor to take pictures of drunken celebrities. Shame. I think the shows would be better if they actually combined the two and get rid of the black angels that stop time.
You can download Lucifer on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: So they really are bringing back A (or an A). Meh. Watch it turn out to be a not so dead CECe or maybe a long forgotten twin.
You can download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

Marvel's Agent Carter: Young Peggy! I thought young Whitney Frost would be the more interesting segments because villain origin stories are usually more interesting but her road from wanna be scientist to actress was a bit of a bore. While during Peggy' engagement party I thought, where is her brother now, bring that guy around more, only to learn why we have not seen him before in the next flashback. Well done. Also well done were all the comedic moments, the best of which was Jarvis getting tranqued.
You can download Marvel's Agent Carter on iTunes.

The Challenge: Bloodlines: This is kind of a sad final three, and it would have been even more sad had Aneesa actually one the final Pit. What a meh season which started off so great. Survivor cannot return soon enough.
You can download The Challenge: Battle of the Bloodlines on iTunes.

The Blacklist: My biggest, and really only takeaway from the episode was Monk taking a bath with his dogs. Mine would have no part in that and would quickly jump off that platform.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

Previewing Billions

The first season of Homeland was one of the great season's in the history of television. Sure everyone knew it probably would have been better had they actually let Brody kill himself in the season finale, but it came back for the second season and continued to be great. Then about half way through the second season things started going downhill and the "they should have killed Brody long ago" chants started to get more fervent. Then the third season was dreadful and every time Brody showed up, you just could not help but wonder why is he still here. But at least he finally died at the end of that season.

So when Showtime announced Billions and Damien Lewis was listed in the cast you have to wonder why they were getting back into the Sergeant Brody business? Does he have pictures of Showtime executives? But anyway. On the show Lewis plays a hedge fund manager, but before you start thinking of The Wolf of Wall Street, he is is presented as a hedge fund manager with the heart of gold for giving out free tuition and is adored by the public since he was the lone partner of his firm not to die on 9/11.

Opposite him is Paul Giamatti (San Andreas) as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, basically the guy who prosecutes all the insider trading that happens on Wall Street (basically Eliot Sptizer but more powerful). Okay, this is a show on premium cable so these heroic personas are just for show, they are both mostly horrible people. Giamatti is the kind of guy who enjoys being burned by cigarette butts that are cooled down by, um, you do not want to know. But he is right to go after Brody because he has some ill gotten gain and says things like, "Why have (expletive deleted) you money if you never say (expletive deleted) you?"

And of course there is a twist: Giamatti's wife, Maggie Siff (Sons of Anarchy) just so happens to be the in house "performance coach" (a nicer way to say shrink) for Brody's Axe Capital, a job she had before she even met him and makes a sizable more than he does. So a guy who prosecutes inside traders really cannot give his wife a heads up he is building a case against her boss. On the flip side, Brody is married to Malin Akerman (Watchmen) who is just as conniving as her husband.

The biggest problem with Billions (once you get past Brody's inclusion in the cast) is I have little understanding what goes on with these hedge fund guys and Wall Street in general. I have seen multiple movies and read plenty of articles on it but still come away confused. And I think I am not the only one which is why these people were able to sink our economy because no one but these hedge fund guys knew what was going on. Apparently the new movie The Big Short recruits celebrities like Margo Robbie in a bubble bath, to help explain what went on. What Billions really needs is Margo Robbie in a bubble bath. Granted everything could benefit from Margo Robbie in a bubble bath.

Earlier I questioned why Showtime would want to get back in the Sergeant Brody business, but not only that why would they bring him back in the role that probably has just a shelf life of one season? Doesn't Brody have to go to jail in the season finale? I am not sure if many people want to see a cat and mouse game between a hedge fund manager and district attorney for multiple season. Sure season two could be the trial but we still need to get to the end of season one first.

Billions airs Sundays at 10:00 on Showtime.