All airdates are as they appear on my cable box.
BOARDWALK EMPIRE
"Broadway Limited" Created by Terence Winter
Written by: Margaret Nagle - Directed by: Tim Van Patten
Airdate: 10/03/10 - Viewdate: 10/04/10
No matter how slow this show moves, or how little the plot actually progresses, I can't help but continue to enjoy both the quality of the acting and the inventiveness in the story. This series is really bringing Steve Buscemi's limitless talent to the attention of everyone who tunes in, downloads, streams, watches it through a camera obscura, whatever. Proves he's got acting chops that Hollywood has never really let him stretch. Maybe it's because he's so god damned homely. Talented, but dear god, homely. (Steve, if you read this - unlikely - it's not personal. I'm just being Rush Limbaugh-esque in the hopes of boosting my readership. Score so far: Zee-ro.)
Canadian Club! I had to. Every time I see a show that gives props to Canada in some way, shape or form, I gotta point it out. Good to know that we were keeping the puritan masses liquored up during their thirteen year experiment in sobriety. I did very much enjoy Chalky the Red -Jacketed-Pimp (he was supposed to be a pimp, right? I mean come on, black guy, in a RED freakin' jacket talkin' twenties Jive? Pimp.) Please forgive me, but adds a little 'colour' to the drab scheme this show lives in. At the end when we see 'Liquor Kills' scratched into the side of his car, how many of you could hear the epic words "You don't mess with a black mans ride!" resonating in your head? Well I did. And since I'm writing this, that's all that matters.
Our latest episode also taught me more about 90 year old treatments for gonorrhea than I ever wanted to know. Here again lies this shows strength. In true 'Mad Men' style it embraces the age it's from and shows us all just how important it is to bag the little boy before you send him to night school.
And typing of little boys, what about that poor kid in the dentists office? Quite possibly the origin of every young persons fear of the dentist stems from this one scene: You just never know when two Feds will haul in a man with a festering abdominal wound and torture him for information in the same seat you were just getting your cavities filled. Does this happen all the time at the dentist in 1920, or just on the day of this poor boys visit?
Once again, worth watching. Great writing without being pretentious, great acting with out being over bearing. AND great nudity. Leave it to HBO to works boobs in somehow. And girl on girl action, even if Kelly McDonald is fully clothed, we all knew what was really being alluded to.
Or was that just me?
The Amazing Race 17
Accra, Ghana
Airdate: 10/03/10 - Viewdate: 10/04/10
It's really hard to Blog about TAR (The Amazing Race, retaards) if you haven't been to the places they go week after week. I remember learning a *little* about Ghana from a West African Art History class I took in University. All of their Kings sat on special ceremonial stools. And they had some divine figures called 'zambles' I think. ("Aaack! Zambles!") What I DO remember though is the line in the Simpson's episode 'My sister, my sitter' when Bart dials over a driver to antagonize Lisa while she's babysitting:
Driver: I am here to pick up the ambassador from Ghana.
Lisa: I'm sorry sir, but you've been deceived.
Driver: Why would the ambassador do such a thing?
Yeah. So does anyone else think that the father Michael in the father/son team should've been the ringer for selling those glasses during the Roadblock? Have you ever been in a convenience store in Vancouver? He should've just leaned on a counter reading a magazine, those cheap ass sunglasses would've sold like crack cakes (cuz I never understood why 'hot cakes' would sell so well). And what chance does a half trash/half rocker white guy have selling over priced, under-manufactured merchandise on the streets of West Africa?
Did anyone else find some kind of bizarre irony in watching unskilled white people - on a TV show for crying out loud! - trying to bring a broadcast signal into the slums of Accra? Maybe that isn't irony, I'm never good with the definition. But it was... weird.
And I'm sure you all caught the sign 'Kofi Anan Training Centre' when one of the teams was lost. "For aspiring leaders of neutered world bodies."
Last but not least, watching the Acapella guy get de-nied a Hi-5 from a tiny Ghanan child? PRICELESS!
Winners of this leg: Brooke & Claire. Their prize, 10 days all inclusive in Hawaii, where they will guest on CBS' other show, Hawaii 5-0.
HOUSE
"Unwritten" Created by David Shore
Written by: John C. Kelley - Directed by: Greg Yaitanes
Airdate: 10/04/10
Okay, so before I knew the son was dead I found it almost oppressive the 'Harry Potter' references in the opening. The scar on his face? In the words of Job, "C'mon!" This was however a nice lead in to yet another one of House's idiosyncrasies, his apparent obsession with children's literature.
I'm also enjoying what they're doing with Cuddy as well. No longer will she simply be the foil for House. She's being worked in as a near member of the team now, or at least being made complicit in House's various offenses, meaning the writers want to take this relationship further and explore just what one can do with Cuddy when she isn't perpetually annoyed. (or maybe she still is, but we get to see more of the affection!)
[Sidebar: I'm still waiting for them to bring back Cameron. Sure, they FINALLY removed Jennifer Morrison's name from the titles, but you have to appreciate just how delicious it would be for her to come back and mess up everything between House & Cuddy.
It's also nice when we get a patient who's a decent match for House - And Amy Irving's Alice (or Helen, if you prefer) Tanner did serve as a great means to hold a mirror up to House and his pain, especially since he can actually be 'happy'. At least for a few more episodes. I mean, you don't often see House surprised by someones actions, but when she put the syringe in her leg, there it was on his face.
This episode also shows why i've been waiting so long to get that MRI. I'm fine until my double vision turns to triple.
And what are the lessons we continually learn from this riveting mystery series? (cuz the medicine portion of it is only periphery when you think about it)
House rule #1: EVERYBODY LIES!!! (just like it says on the back of Taub's labcoat.
House rule #2: IT'S NEVER LUPUS!!! (actually seemed a little lazy the writers would even insert that as a diagnosis. Eh, they can't all be gold.)
Best lines:
"It's not a tumor."
Chase. (seriously, you said this in a medical show?)
House:
"I need a vagina."
Cuddy:
"I'm pretty attached to mine."
NEXT TIME: The women come to House to replace 13 (who we all know will be back sooner or later, or else why is Olivia Wilde still in the titles?)
HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER
"Unfinished" Created by Carter Bays & Craig Thomas
Written by: Jamie Rohnheimer - Directed by: Pamela Fryman
Should've been called "Where's the poop."
As much as how uneven this show is bothers me, there's still something genuine about it that seems like a warm blanket. It might stink, be full of holes and old as the hills, but somehow, it still makes you feel better. Sometimes honesty in TV is better than laughs, and once again this just-barely-a-hit episode reflects a part of my life back to me that I didn't expect to see on primetime TV. This episodes kernel of truth: The idea of your phone storing a 'version of yourself' that you can't let go of. We all have those things about ourselves that are not true, but wish were true. I wish I was Rugby player. It's unlikely, but I still wish it. (I also wish I was a successfully published and syndicated writer, but one step at a time).
My nerd quotient was filled tonight with talk of 'Rebel proofing' the new GNB sky scraper & remarks about the clearly labelled 'Garbage smashers on each detention level'.
And did anyone else find it an amazing piece of acting that NPH could appear to be so bad at picking up another man?
However, I am still waiting for this show to do an episode that is current, and not a sequel/continuation of older, better episodes. You can't mine your history forever HIMYM.
And that's it for today. There's still 'Lie To Me', 'Castle', 'The Event', 'Hawaii 5-0' & 'The Good Guys' to type about, but I need to be up in 7 hours and I still need to manufacture a lunch for me and the misses. Thank god the only worthwhile show on Tuesdays is 'Running Wilde'. Don't miss it!
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