Showing posts with label King of the Nerds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label King of the Nerds. Show all posts

Sunday, March 03, 2013

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 3/3/13


Shameless: When Papa Milcovich called in “The Russian” I thought, uh oh, those boys are in some real trouble. Nope, the Russian was just a prostitute brought in to sex the gay out of them. And that did not even rank in the top two most offensive parts of the show this week. Number one would be having sex with your mother-in-law while your wife gets you aroused because a turkey baster did not work. And then there was Frank holding his clean urine in his mouth for who knows how long.

House of Lies: I used to think the pre-teen stripper routine would be the most offensive dance sequence from Little Miss Sunshine would be the most offensive dance I would ever see involving kids, but now Roscoe and his posse takes the top spot. Congratulation… I think?

How I Met Your Mother: I really hope that some savvy producer saw this and realizes it is about time for a Weekend at Bernie's reboot (something I have pushed for the last couple years). Maybe even Judd Apatow who would go ahead and have Jason Segal play the Andrew McCarthy role (though it would be better to have someone like Seth Rogan take on Jonathan Silverman part instead of Ted Mosby). Then just bring in Jim Carrey as Bernie. It is a surprise no studio has yet hired me to run their reboot department.
You can stream recent episodes over at CBS.com. You can also download How I Met Your Mother on iTunes.

Dallas: Only the Ewing’s would know the best way to overcome armed thugs would to fake(?) a fight with each other.
You can download Dallas on iTunes.

Bunheads: It was a little weird that after an entire episode about a group of girls thinking about losing their virginity, they choreograph a big dance sequence around Makin' Whoopie. And for those not sure what the difference between boys and girls, the girls plan for weeks, if not month or years, like in the episode, guys just want it to happen anywhere with anyone, preferably as soon as possible.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Bunheads on iTunes.

Castle: Not as cool as Liam Neeson’s “skills” speech, but I liked the French dude’s speech to the microphone on the wall. Too bad he turned out to be a chicken and had to die. And we finally got to meet papa castle (shame on the promo monkeys for spoiling that reveal last week), it was teased a couple seasons ago that he worked deep cover. And really, if Stana Katic ever got bored with the show, I would not a mind a Castle and Castle spy spin-off. Or throw in Alexis and make it Castle Cubed.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Castle on iTunes.

Deception: I really hope that it does not turn out that Julian’s booty called turned out to be Vivian’s murderer. That would be as dumb as Rosie Larson’s aunt accidentally killing her.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Deception on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: Plaster all those annoying phrases with the pound sign on the screen as much as you want, I do not believe that was Toby out in the woods until I see a face. I am more inclined to believe that was Detective Waldon under the cap. But my favorite part of the show was when Hanna pushed the cop car into the lake. I was really hoping that it would sink about a foot before she realized that lake was not deep enough to cover an entire car.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

The Lying Game: I am not surprised Ted would place flowers on the grave of someone who is blackmailing him, but I just do not see him as a murderer / kidnapper. I have a feeling it will turn out the Ted feals responsible for the death, he just did not do it himself.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The Lying Game on iTunes.

Justified: Wow, they actually killed Arlo off. And what a way to go… out fighting but hanging on long enough to tell his son to kiss him somewhere unsanitary one last time. Awesome. So if you had Arlo in your Who Is Drew Thompson Office Pool, you may want to stop planning your cruise you were going to purchase with winning (which is probably for the best). Granted Arlo was always the least likely to be Drew. So that leaves (or the people we have seen this season) the three white collar criminals that Boyd is shaking down and Sherriff Shelby. But I do not know why they are spending so much time having the ex wife looking at pictures because wouldn’t Drew have had copious amounts of plastic surgery by now? Wait a second, could Wynn Duffy be Drew Thompason?
You can download Justified on iTunes.

Survivor: Caramoan: I wonder if there was some heavy editing during the Immunity Challenge because why did they let Fratboy #2 to continue to try to throw the hook and keep missing when Fratboy #1 got it on his first try, and Shamar was also able to get it fairly quickly. But his inability was never brought up (which makes me think that it was heavy editing). Speaking of creative editing, I think it may have been some foreshadowing editing that Andrea talks about not telling the wrong person her plan to oust Corrine followed by her telling Brandon the plan. Did she not see his season? He blabbed his alliance’s secrets, what made her think he could keep a secret by someone he hates: i.e. absurdly attractive chicks.

Poor Shamar, he dumped on throughout Tribal Council, and probably rightfully so, but he was right in his memory of his conversation with Hope and all she had to do was just vote for Fratboy #2 and she would have stay. Granted it would had been awesome if there was a three way tie, and after a revote, a two-way tie which would had led to another revote.
You can stream recent episodes over at CBS.com. You can also download Survivor: Philippines on iTunes.

Modern Family: The neo-folk revival of Mumford and Sons have gotten so big that even Alex Dumphey is in a knockoff band. Actually I would not mind hearing more of the Eclectic Light Dorchestra.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Modern Family on iTunes.

Nashville: I feel as if I just complained about this, but what chick really gives guys, “I am sorry someone close to you just died” sex? C’mon, this just does not happen. It was almost as weird as Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys showing up for Deacon’s birthday party to hit on Rayna fresh off her divorse.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Nashville on iTunes.

Community: It may be a long slog to the inevitable death of this zombie show, but at least we got to see Annie in an Octoberfest costume before it was thankfully put out of its misery.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Community on iTunes.

Annie Edison in an Oktoberfest costume

King of the Nerds: As a stats nerd, I have to call shenanigans. The probability is astronomical that every time someone had a clear advantage (like Moo in both challenges this week as a NASA employee) throughout the show has lost. Every single time. Either the show is playing up the strengths of each contestant or there is some manipulations going on behind the scenes. As for a prediction for who will win next week, I am going with Genevieve.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 2/24/13




Once Upon a Time: Wow, eyeless girl was creepier than anything on The Walking Dead this week. Although will Mr. Gold be willing to get rid of his grandson just because he will be his downfall? Stupid question, this is a guy who let his son slip through a portal alone just to keep his powers.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

Revenge: It was pretty obvious that the person at the bottom of the boat would turn out to be the evil dock guy, but I never would have guessed that he would take Amanda down with him. After she had Jack’s baby, I assumed she would be here for the long haul of the show. Hopefully this inspires Emily to get back to taking people down again and stop with all this slow and boring cooperate espionage that has gone on this season.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Revenge on iTunes.

The Walking Dead: I thought crazy Rick stopped after he realized he was getting phone calls from beyond the grave. Ugg. And all the zombies that came out of that delivery truck might as well all had wigs on because that was essentially a clown car.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Shameless: Of course child services shows up at the most chaotic time ever on the show. It will be hard for to get the Gallagher’s to get out of this one, but I have a feeling the inept worker will help them out inadvertently or not. And can you really get pregnant with a turkey baster? I always that that was an urban legend.

House of Lies: Uh, oh, Veronica Mars went on a blind date with the Hearst rapist this week. Hopefully she will be back next week with all her hair.

How I Met Your Mother: I am too lazy to even bother to think about it, but I am pretty sure the show has done the three stories from three perspectives before, probably multiple times, and it it gets less interesting every time. With that said, I kind of want to watch this episode again just to see of Barney’s Austrian king actually shows up in the background somewhere.
You can stream recent episodes over at CBS.com. You can also download How I Met Your Mother on iTunes.

Switched at Birth: I had the new girl pegged to be a mole, she was acting a little too weird, but I would not have guessed that she would turn out to be the opponent’s daughter. But will Toby be able to use that to his father’s advantage?
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Switched At Birth on iTunes.

Bunheads: I did not think the show could top the weirdness Istanbul dance from last summer, but I think they may have done so with the dancing miners.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Bunheads on iTunes.
2 Broke Girls:

Castle: I was going to take this time to make numerous Taken jokes, but the promo monkeys already beat me to it with the previews showing an upcoming Liam Neeson joke. Hurmph.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Castle on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: Do people in the suburbs really have shower / spas like that in their homes? I defiantly need one.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

Go On: I am really ready for Simone to go back to wherever she came from.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Go On on iTunes.

Justified: The video that Jody made for Raylan (with the aid of Paul Kinsey!) was so entertaining I will completely ignore that he really never had the time to make said video (or how implausible that basically every episode this season so far took part in less than a week). Also the show could use more Jackie Nevada. I take her over Ava, Wynona, or the barmaid from earlier this season. If you cannot get enough of Nevada, I highly recommend Raylan the book (see my review here), this episode is basically the end of the book, except there was no doubt if Raylan got any. Then again, in my experience, whenever a girl leaves the bathroom door open when she takes a shower, it is a sign she wants you to join her. Okay, that has never actually happened to me.
You can download Justified on iTunes.

Survivor: Caramoan: I really like the trend of people outing other people at tribal council who have a Hidden Immunity Idol. I do not like the trend of people claiming that they are going to use said Idol but keep it in their pocket. I also do not like how the “Player of the Week” commercial is almost always spoilery. When both Laura and Douchebag #1 (not to be confused with Douchebag #2 whose name I also have no desire to learn) were up for the award, you knew they were going to do something but they did nothing interesting before then. I am usually good at skipping the ad, but the show really needs to move it to the last commercial break to avoid such spoilers.
You can stream recent episodes over at CBS.com. You can also download Survivor: Caramoan - Fans vs. Favorites on iTunes.

Modern Family: Holy Bud Bundy sighting! T is a shame that it took Al this long to get his son some work.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Modern Family on iTunes.

The Americans: It is weird watching this episode with all the paranoia that the Russians were behind the shooting of Ronald Regan when we now know that some crazy dude did it just to impress Jody Foster (I hear she’s currently single). I guess the closes thing similar that I can think of was when the power went out here and most of the northeastern part of the United States right after 9/11 and everyone thought it was another terrorist attack, but just turned out that our power grid just sucks. And a decade later, they still have not fixed it.
You can download The Americans on iTunes.

Community: I am now convinced the new showrunners are just fracking with us between the Stockholm Syndrome attempt and Luke Perry and Jennie Garth ruining Inspector Spacetime. This is going to be a long final season.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Community on iTunes.

King of the Nerds: It is weird that for a show entitled King of the Nerds, that there is only one guy that remains even though the game started out with more guys than girls. I guess it may not be all that surprising that a bunch of male nerds would get flustered with chicks around, losing ever head to head gender battle in the Nerd Off. Now will the chicks band together to make sure Ivan (like when Parvati won Survivor) or with the self implode and let the guy win (like that season with Eliza)? Actually come to think of it, has there ever been an all male final on Survivor? (Researching… It has happened three times out of twenty-five seasons; five were all female)

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Best of the Week - 2/23/13




Quote of the Week: Hello I’m Dr. Sheldon Cooper. Welcome to Sheldon Cooper presents Fun with Flags. My apologies that this episode is coming late, I did shoot one last week in honor of Black History Month but I was informed by my roommate that my spot on portrayal of George Washington Carver could be considered “wildly racist.” My heart goes out to the members of the African American community who, like me, have been kept down by The Man. (Dr. Sheldon Cooper, The Big Bang Theory)

Song of the Week: It's Tricky – Run-DMC (Suburgatory)

Scene of the Week:


Big News of the Week: Sequester Madness: Both sides of the aisle spend the week blaming the other side over the upcoming sequester cuts set to kick in next week unless yet another deal is struck despite both sides signing off on the deal. The bickering will probably go on right up to the deadline when they make yet other deal they will put another sequester for sometime this summer when we get to go through it all again then. And they wonder why they have a worse approval rating than Oscar Pistorius.

Preview Picture of the Week:

Justified "Outlaw" Tuesday at 10:00 on FX

Free Download of the Week: Livin for the City – Stevie Wonder (Google Play)

Deal of the Week: $0.50 Hit Songs: Pay only half a dollar for current songs by The Lumineers, The Black Keys, Fun., and Bruno Mars.

New Album Release of the Week: Amok - Atoms for Peace

New DVD Release of the Week: Man From Shaolin

Video of the Week: Virgil made an interesting observation on King of the Nerds this week in that whenever the Nerd Wars are subjective his team loses, and when it is objective they have won. Seems a little fishy because much like when Kevin Smith hosed Genevieve, I thought Team Blextrophy should have won this week.

Next Week Pick of the Week: Bunheads, Monday at 9:00 on ABC Family: It may not be a good sign that the show is coming to an end two weeks before the other ABC Family series that premiered the same week, so you may want to enjoy Bunheads while you can, because this week may be the last episode ever.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 2/10/13



How I Met Your Mother: They really should have saved most of the Abby Elliot (I wonder if she is going to run into her real life father and Lily’s fake dad) storyline for next week and devoted ninety-five percent of the episode to Robin Sparkles Daggers. The show is always at its best when it makes fun of Canada, and Robin’s Underneath the Music was the most memorable skit this show has done in recent memory. Hats off for getting Dave Coulier to come in and insist the song is not about him in a not so subtle nod to the rumor that Alanis Morissette’s You Oughta Know is about him. Now if only Bob Saget can get Kimmie Gibbler out of retirement.
You can stream recent episodes over at CBS.com. You can also download How I Met Your Mother on iTunes.

Dallas: Well that was an ending I did not see coming. Assistant Director Skinner finally makes the title sequence, and then gets gunned down. Unfortunately that pretty much spoils if he survives the gunshot. Although that would be a great misdirect if they put him in the credits only to kill him off in episode three. (Rumor has it Joss Whedon wanted to put Eric Balfour in the credits of Buffy the Vampire Slayer only to kill him off in the two part series premiere but was not allowed because of financial reasons.)
You can download Dallas on iTunes.

Castle: Apparently the NYPD needs to hire me as a consultant because it seems like I am always one step ahead of their investigation. Like this week, as soon as they found the car, my first thought was why would someone kill someone else in front of their car and not use it to transport the body instead leaving the car there with plenty of incriminating evidence inside for a day or two.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Castle on iTunes.

Deception: Wait, Mia’s real father cannot possibly be the dude from the John Laraquette show, can it? It has to be him or someone we have not met yet (unless they want to go even ickier and make Julian the father).
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Deception on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: I’m with Spencer, (in only one respect), there is no reason to eulogize Alison again. They did it at her last funeral and presumably when she first went missing and presumed dead. I am not with Spencer for going crazy just because she learned her creepy boyfriend, that she believed less than a year ago killed one of her friends, turned out to really be evil. And finally someone on the show actually stated a theory that I have had since the first episode when Hannah, who of course has always been my favorite, actually questioned if Allison is actually alive. Who else could have been the blonde in the red coat? CeCe? Everyone else on the show I can think of has dark hair except the chick Emily dated a couple of seasons ago.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

Justified: Last week I pondered how long it would be until Ellie May teams up with the preacher’s sister to exact revenge on Boyd. Maybe the preacher’s sister is insignificant as Ellie May ended up in the sheriff’s house this week as the lawman looks like he wants to go legit and bring down the Crowder Empire. This would be much more interesting than what I thought was going to happen (though I have a feeling that we have not seen the last of the sister).

I got a sinking suspicion that Josiah may turn out to be Drew Thompson. C’mon, you do not bring in Major Dad to be a dude who sends out his daughter to steal pipe. And what better reason to cut off your own foot if a ruthless druglord who you stole money from is close on your tail? (I always thought the home monitors had heat sensors so such things could not occur, maybe I watch too many of these types of shows.) So either Major Dad is Drew Thompson or the real Drew I the person that kidnapped him.

It was also nice to see shocked Wynn Duffy back. His reactions were always the best and watching the dude from Yes Dead shoot an FBI agent in the head was another classic Wynn look.
You can download Justified on iTunes.

Modern Family: I do not like how they made a joke out of Cat's In the Cradle, one of the greatest tales ever recorded in the history of storytelling.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Modern Family on iTunes.

Subugatory: It is amazing how close to racism they can get away with. That is not to say I did not enjoy Triple A. I actually would not mind more trips to East Chatswin. But I wondered why Dallas just did not sell off enough of her East Chatswinian land to make her a majority Chatswin Proper resident.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Suburgatory on iTunes.

Nashville: Ooo, the show totally put Taylor Swift on blast with Juliet’s storyline this week. Btu it is weird they are trying to turn her into a real artist when at the start of the series they had to auto-tune her in the studio. Now she is singing acoustically live… with no back up dancers? Pretty soon she will be touring with The Lumineers.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Nashville on iTunes.

Community: Kind of clever of the new showrunners to have a tongue in cheek “regular” sitcom inside the show, but they went one joke too far with Inception parody.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Community on iTunes.

King of the Nerds: Genevieve definitely had reason to hate on Kevin Smith because he jobbed her in that debate. She won that debate going away. Oh well, at least she won the Nerd Off. Seriously, how are you dubbed the “Batman Expert” and lose a comic book trivia challenge? Even I was able to get two questions right and I am not an expert or even studied. Granted one I just guessed, but I was able to guess the right year Superman was introduced before the choices were even announced.

Sunday, February 03, 2013

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 2/3/13



Shameless: The show has had some pretty immoral storyline (like this week when Frank tried to scam the Make a Wish Foundation) but they did do something right by organizing a mob to give a beating to a child rapist, a group of people that certainly deserve a ritual beating by the general public. Of course this being Shameless, the perp ended up being a hot chick. But I guess Lip was right that they need scorned too.

Bunheads: I would have absolutely no problem if they shifted the show away from ballet to roller derby. Not at all.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Bunheads on iTunes.

Deception: I am ready to fast forward to the part where we learn the mother killed Vivian. She seems like the only plausible person at this point (except maybe the sister in law who looks keen on skipping town).
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Deception on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: So Allison may have been pregnant before she died and may have been killed because of it (and not so coincidently the detective assigned to her murder who is eager to blame it on the Liars happened to be in the vicinity during the conception). Not that I am one to believe CeCe, but an interesting turn of events nonetheless. Not so interesting is Spencer’s spiral this week. Just tell your friends your ex-boyfriend is part of the A-Team and get on with it. And is it not obvious that the key goes to the creepy motel when the A-Team hung out in? That would have been the first place I looked.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

Justified: This was an odd episode. No mention of the skydiver plotline and it kind of wrapped up two other plots with Raylan’s girlfriend going into the wind with her husband going back to Florida in restraints. It was even more shocking that they abruptly ended the preacher who I thought would be a thorn in Boyd’s side all season (granted it is probably not completely over with his sister still around and I have a feeling she will reunite with Ellie May at some point). But the sandbag shotgun may have been the greatest invention ever.
You can download Justified on iTunes.

The Americans: I had high hopes for this show after the lackluster offering there was this Fall (the best new show, Last Resort, has already aired its last episode) and though it will under up being the best new show of the season (with all due respect to The Neighbors) the premiere was missing something. I went into the show thinking it would be Justified meets Homeland with Russians. But it misses the subtle humor of Justified (which like The Americans is produced by Graham Yost) and misses the manic craziness of Homeland (though the kids on the show manage to be even more clueless than Chris Brody). And I felt a little creepy seeing Keri Russell get violated multiple times over the course of an hour. I also found it a little weird, and obvious, that the new FBI anti-communism task force member just happened to move across the street (which begs the question, who hangs out in the corner of their garage with a silencer). With that said, I am still on board for a full season. And I have a feeling that the season finale will be the two KGB agents turning themselves in and season two will be them acting as double agents.
You can download The Americans on iTunes.

The Big Bang Theory: I had the exact same response Penny had when Sheldon admitted there was a possibility that he may at some point make coitus with Amy at some point.
You can stream recent episodes over at CBS.com. You can also download The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.

King of the Nerds: Note to producers: during the explanation phase, do not show the actually players scoring because it ruined the suspense of the Nerd Off. If you show the red ball go into the goal and then the pink haired girl gets the red ball we know that she would get at least one goal and would probably win.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Previewing King of the Nerds


The cast of King of the Nerds

Over the years I have given a lot of grief to The CW for canceling Veronica Mars and made fun of it for managing to get less viewers to watch original episodes of Everybody Hates Chris than TV Land could with repeats of the show. But I do not give them enough credit for ruining, and then canceling one of the great reality shows of the past decade: Beauty and the Geek (introducing male models and gay homosexuals just ruined the social experiment aspect of the show of nerds trying to hook up with hot chicks). Although TBS has not answered my prayers for a Beauty and the Geek reboot by a station not ran and watched by a bunch of morons, they did the next best thing: created King of the Nerds.

Booger and Lewis Skolnick back together again
King of the Nerds takes eleven nerds and geeks (yes there is a difference) to see who is the best of them all. And who better to host the show than Robert Carradine and Curtis Armstrong. Yes, Lewis and Booger from Revenge of the Nerds; unfortunately Lamar was apparently unavailable. The show is basically Beauty and the Geek without the beauties (though half the nerds are female. And that is not the only great predecessor it has talked from as it also has taken ideas from Survivor (they start on teams before becoming an individual competition) The Challenge (the losing team gets to pick one person from their team to face elimination in the Nerd Off while the other team picks the other).

Unfortunately it did not rip-off other aspects because the challenges are pretty lame (at least in the first episode). I understand that the first competition is short and sweet as it is every nerds worst nightmare, a school yard pick of teams (if you noticed earlier I said there are eleven contestants, which of course means someone gets left out). But when they mentioned that the Nerd Off would be simple game I thought, there has to be a catch. Nope, no catch. Hopefully future challenges will be a lot more entertaining, if not, they better steal the challenge creator from The Challenge.  (Spoiler Alert: It turns out that the competitions get much more entertaining, at least they are in the second episode.)

But if you liked Beauty and the Geek or really enjoy all The Big Bang Theory repeats that TBS runs (and I am sure will run before King of the Nerds), you will definitely enjoy the show. There are plenty of colorful characters and made up languages spoken. And upcoming guest judges include George Takei from Star Trek; Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes (better known as Jay & Silent Bob), Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci (of the duo as Garfunkel and Oates). I just hope that the challenges get more entertaining. That and Ted McGinley shows up in a second season to lead a group of frat boys to take on the geeks while The Ogre taunts the opposition with a rousing chant of “Nerds! Nerds! Nerds!”

King of the Nerds airs Thursdays at 10:00 on TBS.