I love that they’re using this Nuked Island Reality as a way to bring back pretty much everyone who’s been on the show over the years (we got Frogurt and Arnst in the premiere, so I’m not even sure who to hold out for now… Alex, I guess), and give us a glimpse of what their life would be like if there was no Island.

Having Keamy, season four’s resident psychotic badass as a half-intimidating, half-goofy crime boss/loan shark and one hell of a cook? That stands out as the best Dead Dude cameo so far! The fact that his underlings seem completely uninterested in his cooking made it even better. That, and having Jin in his fridge. A random bit of awesome in a big, big episode of the final season.

-Jerk

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This show has been a bit of a diamond in the rough and I’ve been meaning to write up a big post on why it’s happily ripping on the success of other such shows in similar situations but fact is, in my stacked TV watching schedule, there’s room for them all.

Despite it’s similarities to things like Castle or Leverage, White Collar puts on an entertaining show with lovable and interesting characters each week. I really disliked how they twisted the cliffhanger at the end of the first half of the season. If you’re going to make one of your characters evil, do it. Don’t just pretend and bend the trust that the audience has put into the characters and the show itself.

Because of this previous blunder, I’m slightly concerned for the final episode of the season. One thing they haven’t done, is set up the finale very well. Shows like say Leverage, Heroes and even Smallville are known for setting up their finales in a two part-er kind of way. I know that’s a to-each-his-own choice but the last episode of White Collar, while good, didn’t do a lot to lean us in the direction of Kate. The music box, yes, but not Kate, which is what both we and Neil want.

The webcast was totally worth a watch if not for the hints at next week’s finale and next season’s plans but to hear DeKay and Bomer harmonize on multiple occasions. Their commradery is even more infectious off screen. You can check out the webcast HERE

A couple other gems from the interviews were:

• “Did you just say poets garret? You are AWESOME!”
• “Parkour” “Parkouur” “PARKOUR” “PARKOUR!!”
• Performed a song about the statue of liberty and full out broke into “Wayward Son” -  in harmony.
• May or may not have given up the secret from the finale but it was so muddled and uninformed by the audience, it didn’t really make any sense but they did act like they’d said something they weren’t supposed to.
• “I will back palm you, I will cup and ball you!” “Don’t cup and ball me”
• “Did you take your medication yet?” “… I took.. the purple one” “but not the green one?”
• “He’s like the Brando of Donkeys”

-DoubleBitch

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When I was posting about the seventh season, one of the things I loved was how a new twist or complication would arise, which you’d think would be the central plot for at least a couple episodes, and a half hour later they’ve dealt with it. It kept a breakneck pace by making it feel like these people were amazingly good at their jobs, as opposed to season six, where it felt like 89 different crazy plots were going off one after the other for no apparent reason. They’ve kept this style for Day 8, they’ve added to it with Legendary Bauer.

Last season, Jack was sidelined for a good portion with that whole ‘incurable nerve toxin inhalation’ thing. It was a cool new direction to take 24 in, and I loved it, but somehow now Jack’s back, happy, getting along with his daughter, and as a result more badass than ever.

From people being shocked when others don’t know who Jack Bauer is, to shrugging off a stab wound and a torturing, to convincing his enemies go give up with about 40 seconds of discussion, to the way takes out CTU security guards with zero effort, this season’s Bauer has been boiled down to his most pure, badass essence. He bursts into interrogation rooms and chokes lawyers he’s never met (above), then intimidates a guard with a drawn gun into crapping his pants (below). He tells people what to do, when he has no authority over them, and they almost always do it, because Jack Fucking Bauer just told them to.

You know when you’re watching a show, and you think of something really awesome that could happen, but know they won’t actually do it? At least three times so far, that thing has then happened this season on 24. For example; *terrorist’s partners turn against him* “Wouldn’t it be awesome if Farhad called CTU for help?” *five minutes later* “Hahawhat!?!?” This phenomenon amazes and delights me to no end, especially considering this is the eighth season. The reason I decided this post wouldn’t work as Ness of the Week? Because there were easily a half dozen amazing moments in this ep, and I really couldn’t pick just one that stands out.

Though that said, I do have to mention Jack showing that his Man Bag’s strap has specific positions that indicate ‘civilian’ and ‘action’ modes.

-Jerk

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Daniel Dae Kim from Lost, Moonlight’s resident vamp Alex O’Loughlin and a frakn cylon, Grace Park.  The show was proposed by two fringe creators and a CSI:NY exec producer.  (By far my least favorite of all the CSI cities).   All this wrapped up in a pilot set to be directed by the guy who’s directorial experience is pretty much wrapped up in the 4th Die Hard movie.

I’m just confused.    Is it just me or is none of this fitting together?  It’s like yay! yay!  Huh?  What?

As long as they keep the theme song…

-DoubleBitch

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If you’re too lazy to watch the quick clip he basically goes on about how season 6 of Supernatural will happen, only if the fans want it.  Do we want more?  Probably but to say that the majority of fandom is in support of season 6 seems a little off to me.   This is from the 100th Episode party which happened only a few weeks ago, just before the announcement that it would be renewed.  Maybe there was just a lot of wine going around.

I’m not going to drag out all the reasons why this is or is not a good idea but I’d love a show of hands that if you had been asked, what would you say?

-DoubleBitch

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As a blogger of fine televisionals, there are two things that are my bread and butter: things I can bitch about, and things I can speculate on. So if a show is really good and lacking in mysteries, well that kinda sucks. Like for example, the Leverage finale. It was damn good, wrapped everything up, and provided a great ending point for the second season. Which… doesn’t give me a lot to work with, outside of a straight up recap/review of the episode.

Last season, Supernatural gave us plenty to blog about: where the boys’ relationship was going/how they’d reconcile, and then some NewRuby bitching. This season, well there was speculation about the Colt, but overall it’s just been solid storytelling and entertainment, week in, week out.

‘But Jerk,’ you say; ’surely Heroes gave you something to bitch about!’ Well, yes. But at the end of the day, the scope and consistency of the problems didn’t really change over the course of the season. So, everything we said in the fall was still relevant last month.

It seems strange to complain about shows being good, and I really can’t complain about things I like being well made, even if it makes the blogging more difficult.

What’s required, I believe, is a paradigm shift. A Third Pillar of TV bloging is required, and I’m going to attempt to find one.

-Jerk

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Stay at home Lois was just plain fun and boy does that girl look good in a costume.  I also like that we’re learning that Clark’s kinda into that.  They’ve really let him grow up.  It was even nice to hear him use his man voice when he was confronting Zod.  Forget Ollie and his vocoder, lets let the man of steel use his real voice a little more often. Speaking of Oliver, it was refreshing to not see his naked torso in this ep in lieu of some awesome Dr Gaeta.

Seeing Tess again, finally, after the recent revelations about her leaves me unsure of her character.  I feel like she’s being bounced around too much and that’s clouding her having clear badguy motives.  Speaking of Bad Guys I think I’ve finally figured out why Zod sucks.  Aside from the writing, (which I thought was pretty good this ep.  Written by producer Anne Cofell Saunders who’s got writing credits for Chuck, 24, Eureka and 20 eps of BSG under her belt. Woo!)  I really think the problem is Callum Blue.  Not only does his name remind me of a dandruff shampoo, he just plain isn’t scary enough.  He’s too young and somewhere between too pretty and not pretty enough by Smallville’s standards.   Normally I give Smallville’s casting kudos but this one just doesn’t fit.  I almost wish it was Marsters again or could you imagine Mark Sheppard?  We’d be talking a whole different show.

I liked Clark’s progression.  I liked seeing him do some things a little out of the ordinary and really own the show.  Sometimes Smallville’s graphics can look lame but there were some amazing shots tonight – and I’m not talking about Durance’s dancing.  This sends another round of Kudos to Christopher Petry, considering this was his first shot at directing TV.  I’d say that man has a knack.  The ring of fire looked great, the Kandorian funeral was breathtaking and utilized one of Smallville’s greatest strengths – the musical montage.  It was great to see some old favourites like the Kent Farm and the Barn Loft.  I also loved the shot at the end while the towers burned.

Maybe I’m a sucker for the campy episodes – Red, Exploding baby, Lois the cage fighter and Sneeze being some of my favourite Episodes – but I really thought this was Smallville at what it does best.

-DoubleBitch

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First, Supernatural. I don’t have a lot to say here, really. I honestly didn’t (and still don’t) see how you can follow up DEFEATING SATAN, and I also don’t see how the boys can pull that off without one or both of them winding up dead. More dead than they normally end up, I mean. But I trust Kripke, and Sera Gamble and Ben Edlund and the rest of the SPN creative staff. I trust them to be awesome, and to not move forward with something that’s less-than-awesome. So I’ll wait and see what they bring to the table in the fall.

Now, Smallville. First of all, from what I’ve read it’s the standard cost-to-ratings ratio that’s got the CW questioning bringing Smallville back, and they’ll most likely wait to see if any of their pilots seem like they’d be more viable. So Smallville needs to lower costs, and the quickest way to do that is to thin out the cast. Zod? He’s been pretty lame and will most likely end up dead in the season finale anyway. Chloe? She’s doing pretty much nothing and can easily be replaced with Dr. Gaeta if Clark needs some tech/science wizardry. Plus, like Mack’s going to stick around when she’s got nothing to do. Ollie? Showing up a couple times a season is fine, but full episodes of Smallville should not be revolving around Green Arrow.

I say cut the main cast back to Clark, Lois and Tess, and introduce some more recurring characters at the Daily Planet (also, seeing Clark/Lois/both actually doing some reporting would be nice). I’d suggest throwing in Steve Lombard and maybe Cat Grant. Won’t that turn Smallville into Lois & Clark? Well… yes, but what else can they do at this point?

-Jerk

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But some shows just keep slugging on, shows like Leverage for instance.  It’s no secret that I have been rather enamored with Leverage from the beginning but this season has shelled out week after week of satisfying entertainment.  I’ve learned not to worry about a good show being good.  A live and let live sort of thing I guess, but two days from now we’ll walk back into our Leverage drought.  Let’s take a look at where we think they’re going to leave us.

My prediction is that most of the gang is gonna get caught.  Nate out witted, perhaps out sobered.  Parker just plain caught.  She’s a great hider and a great thief but once she’s seen she’s rather short on defenses.  Eliot a little hot headed and held in a position where his actions would hurt someone else, he’s going to fight to the end – not that I see a real end in sight.

Hardison, on the other hand, I think will slip away by the skin of his teeth.  I’ve always hated that phrase.  yuck.  Unless he gets in too far and lets his head get clouded by feelings for his family or Parker.  Confidence being his big problem, sometimes too much, sometimes not enough.  Tara, I’m not sure I care and that’s a problem for me.  Why don’t I care about Tara?  Was it that I know she’s not coming back?  Is it that I know she’s got one foot out the door?

I really do feel like I connected with Tara.  I think she fit into the crew like no other and maybe even meshed a little better but it was essentially a different crew than it had been with Sophie.  Something in me feels like this was a crew a little more suited for American Television but that doesn’t mean I don’t want Gina back.  Tara is the wild card, the one who I still feel like could pull a Sterling and switch teams at any moment.   I liked Tara.  I liked the character a lot and I hope they bring her back in the future but I don’t really get the part she plays.

Some of the time, with great shows and great writing I’m left exactly where I’m supposed to be.  Unsure, wondering all the questions I’m supposed to be wondering.  How will Sophie – and in my prediction, Hardison – bale them out or keep them out?

I’ve heard people talk about shows like this where week in and week out the good guy always wins and you know they’re going to win.  No matter how many times the Leverage team wins I’m still always engaged.  I never expect anything with this show and rarely figure out the con before I’m supposed to.  It’s refreshing and something I have full confidence they’ll keep up as they gather in Portland to start filming season 3.

We keep hearing from The Powers That Be that all of our questions will be answered in season 3.   Where does Parker live?  Why does Eliot know so much about guns?  and the return of Sophie are all promised in season 3.   I’m really looking forward to all the tweets and where they’ll take the show the next go round.  The more we learn about these mysterious characters, the better.

-DoubleBitch

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It’s a show about college football.  I hear ya, that doesn’t sound very interesting and it’s ‘been done’ by the massively acclaimed Friday Night Lights but FNL this isn’t – by any means.  Blue Mountain State is more like a frat boy movie about how charmed the life is of college athletes with full rides and beautiful bodies.

The real reason why I tuned in to check it out was the casting of two Smallville Alums as lead characters.  Our beloved Pete – Sam Jones III and Alan Ritchson aka Aquaman.   Ritchson has me stunned.  I wouldn’t have gone out of my way to say he was a good actor based on his work as the scaled hero but he owns Blue Mountain State as the overcompensating team captain with a questionable sexuality and an exchange student for a sister.   He brings out some serious comedy chops to hold the show better than the debatable ‘lead’ underachiever.  Believe it or not this guy was discovered on American Idol.  Yeah.  Check out the profile on his character Thad Castle below or follow him on Twitter @thadcastle.  Yes it’s a network promo twitter but he uses the hashtags like #fucklost and #pocketpussy. Totally worth it.

Mister ‘the third’ on the other hand plays an virgin football pro in the making who’s girlfriend is going to make damn sure his career makes them rich no matter what it takes.    Tones of great characters like the best buddy/team mascot and his armless girlfriend meet great plots like a team building Drug Olympics and a bare ass cookie race keep this show a nonstop laugh.

If you’re looking for touching, mature or serious this is not the show to turn to but if you want to laugh your ass off, I totally recommend Blue Mountain State.  Tuesdays at 10 on Spike.

-DoubleBitch

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