Ananas

Just listened to the new track. I'm not even a big Smashing Pumpkins fan, but that was awesome.

Of all the fake blogs created for TV shows, this has the potential to be the best. Then a woman I have literally never seen before in my entire life started talking very loudly about something involving Halpert. :lmao:

Smallville - "Phantom" - 6.5/10 This was a really disappointing payoff to an otherwise great season. We finally find out Chloe's superpower and then... well I won't spoil it. After half a season of Lex/Clark stuff, Clark's final arc of the year is almost entirely based around the Phantom Zone. I guess we have to wait 4 months to have what was really the major arc of the second half of the season dealt with in any way. The narrative was completely muddled; the pacing made every story but Clark's seem like an afterthought. It almost seemed like they were trying to do too much, and a second hour may have helped. You've got at least 3 major characters in serious peril, and it had enough build up to be watchable, but after a string of great season finales elsewhere, this comes off as extremely disappointing.

Killer finale. Dwight, Andy and Pam made a great secretive team. I almost wish Michael had gotten the job so as to give us a bit more of that. I'm a little surprised that they had such an understated resolution to the Pam/Jim situation. Don't get me wrong it was very sweet, but this came after a week of NBC promoting The Office as the show that always has "the most shocking finales". Pam is still awesome; they should keep writing her with this added gusto. Creed's blog was hilarious. Ditto for Kevin comparing Pam to Karen. Little surprised as to Karen not getting the job (given her recent pilot pickup), but I suppose there's more than one way of dealing with that. Didn't find anything particularly interesting about the Michael/Jan situation, but then again I rarely do. Another in a line of awesome NBC Thursday finales. Except for ER, which I don't watch. But who does anymore?

It means one of two things. Generally it means they'll find a slot for it in either January or February, but it could also mean they intend to use it as a replacement when one of their other programs inevitably fail. Probably best bet is that it returns in January after the fall season of "Beauty And the Geek", because they said in the press release the hiatus was to help the producers "retool" the show.

FOX: I think the key word Peter Ligouri used with regards to this schedule is "vibrant". Last year's newcomers were essentially candidates for the role of "24" lead in, apart from "Justice" (the potential House lead-in) and the two sitcoms (the potential lead-ins to our painful, horrifying deaths). This year you have just one crime drama, one legal drama and then several concepts more new to FOX in recent years. "New Amsterdam" sounds interesting, even if it has little in common with the show it leads into. "Rules for Starting Over" and "The Return of Jezebel James" don't sound particularly fascinating, but they've definitely got good pedigree and might be worth the look. Then you've got a couple lame reality shows and "Back to You", which sounds about as funny as "Til' Death". Still, it stars cast members of two of the most successful (and IMO funny) comedies of the 90's, so we'll see. Perhaps the best move is in cutting down the amount of days interrupted by baseball from 26-14, which not only most likely makes the games they do show more important but also cuts down on the time programming needs to be bumped. However, they did choose to give "Prison Break" another lengthy hiatus so as to debut "K-Ville", and if this season has taught us anything it's that those hiatuses tend to suck the energy right out of the viewership. It's hard to say whether they'll be able to develop into anything more than a half-year performer, but this schedule's far more promising than last year. And The CW's Schedule:

I love how CBS is trying to branch into "edgy" TV. A show about swingers on any network, much less CBS, is going to come off as silly. The musical murder mystery is a show I must admit I'll be front and center for. I'll even give Moonlight a chance, even though what Zero said is right on the money. Cane sounds like an overblown vanity piece too heavy handed to work on modern network TV. The Big Bang Theory sounds like a horrendous comedy, although I guess you never know with sitcoms. And... that's it? I mean even NBC ordered more new programming than that. And furthermore, if you're going on 3 dramas and 1 comedy, can't you do better than this? I know CBS needs to do the least to improve itself ratings wise, but I mean if Cane is the best they can do why not give Jericho another look? I really don't care about CBS so this doesn't matter much, but wow, at some point the tides are bound to turn and just tip this giant over.

In case you want to follow the work of its creator, Amy Sherman Palladino (whose exit from the show many attribute the recent quality drop) has a new show rumoured to be picked up for the fall on FOX called "The Return of Jezebel James". It stars Lauren Ambrose and Parker Posey and is a multi-camera (laugh track) sitcom.

As a non-spoiler reader, I'm just a bit curious as to why people read them. Don't you feel like not experiencing things as they come takes away from your viewing experience? Or does knowing perhaps help you appreciate watching things come together? Or something else I'm completely ignorant of? It just seems to me like watching a serial show like Lost is most likely to have its most profound impact on an unassuming viewer.

This week is the hour season finale.

Although I'm not crazy about this schedule, I will say that it's pretty daring to shake up your roster like this when you're already so strong. "Cavemen" I must say I've heard competing buzz of both good and bad. The commercials themselves were funny, so I'll give it a shot when it starts. Bryan Fuller's "Pushing Daisies" was said to have been extremely well received, so that's one that might work. "Dirty Sexy Money" at first look doesn't really appeal to me, but it's another one the network was big on and has Samaire Armstrong, so I'll at least be there for the premiere. "Sam I Am" sounds like the network version of "13 Going On 30". "Miss/Guided" and "Carpoolers" sound too conventional sitcom-ey in an era where traditional comedies are falling like flies. "Women's Murder Club" and "Cashmere Mafia" seem basically like twists on the SitC format. Oh, and "Big Shots" is pretty much dead in the water. Why debut a show in such a timeslot of doom unless you have nothing better to slot in and don't want to be obvious in giving up? Kudos to ABC for casting off the old guard of the 4th place network pre-Grey's/Boston Legal/Lost and pushing forward with more kindred programming. Most of it doesn't interest me in the slightest, but it's not like ABC has since it canceled "Two Guys And A Girl" and "Norm".

For those interested (and this is probably the last NBC tidbit before ABC's presentation tomorrow) NBC has posted video previews for all its upcoming series at the official site. Personally, I think "Chuck" and "Journeyman" look like appointment viewing, and "Bionic Woman" and "Life" might also be cool. "The IT Crowd's" video is just an interview with Richard Ayoade though, and I don't need a video to tell me he's funny.

How I Met Your Mother - "Something Blue" - 8/10 It's gonna be LEGEN-Wait for it... Best Cliffhanger ever.

All kinds of awesome there. Good seeing George Takei and Clea Duvall again. I guess it was because all of this happened in the second episode, but it didn't occur to me that Molly Walker was the kid Parkman saved from Sylar until they mentioned it. Sylar, Hiro, Mr. Bennet and Nathan were pure awesome this week. The season finale's gonna be must see, and I might have to make this the first 24 season finale I haven't watched live in years.

Are my standards just really low, or was that a surprisingly decent episode? I'm happy to see they're actually going in a direction they haven't completely done already. Have they been on the verge of war before? Sure, but it wasn't America who were gonna get the fuck bombed out of them. There was minimal Doyle in this episode, and we actually saw CTU people doing something useful for a change, even if it had to be brute force. Would have been cooler to see Chloe fuck some shit up for the first time this season, but I'll take it. We're still a far cry away from any of the first five seasons, really, but at least it leaves them in a good place for the finale.

I like where Heroes stands for next year. Add the 6 episodes of "Origins" and you can pretty much run through May sweeps without more than a few weeks during the holidays of reruns. They're either going to air the spin-off while the show is in hiatus, or after the season is done. They're leaning towards the latter, I'd prefer the former. They've also added the obscenely well received (NBC's highest testing pilot in 5 years) "Journeyman", a kindred themed show that may help build some brand recognition on Mondays. Now all they've gotta do is bring home this season in good form.

A few other tidbits from the Press Conference: – Though “Bionic Woman” was strongly considered for the post-“Heroes” slot, “Journeyman” won the time period partly because the time-travel series tested higher than any NBC drama in five years, he says. – The six-episode “Heroes: Origins” spin-off was created partly to help “Heroes” retain its momentum. The drama dropped sharply after going on a six-week hiatus this year. “Origins” will have a separate writing and producing team and (one presumes) a lower budget. The network hasn’t yet decided when the “Origins” episodes will be used. Filling a six-week hiatus is possible, but a more likely option is that “Heroes” will finish its run and “Origins” will air afterward. Either way, Reilly says, the goal is to have as few interruptions to “Heroes” as possible. – More series announcements are forthcoming. NBC just ordered two new pilots last week and another drama pilot pickup is coming soon, Reilly says. Also, NBC could increase the episode orders for one or two more series, joining super-sized orders for “Heroes,” “The Office” and “My Name Is Earl.” For the complete article, which includes Reilly's explanation for the "Studio 60" cancellation, commentary on the rumored cancellation of "ER" as well as "The Apprentice" and the network's conservative approach to the schedule this year, click here.

The New Pornographers - Challengers Anything else is just... a band that isn't the New Pornographers. And how lame is that?

NBC is seemingly the least transparent of all the networks, as we knew about basically everything but the actual arrangement of the schedule days in advance. I actually like some of the programming moves, and will give a chance to 6 of the new pilots. "Journeyman" is created by one of Aaron Sorkin's regular collaborators (although he had nothing to do with S60, which I suppose in the network's mind can only be a good thing), and is a kindred theme to "Heroes". "Chuck" is a tough show to schedule, but the sort of popcorn action it offers is probably fine with a reality show lead-in. Still gonna get killed against "House" though. "Bionic Woman" and "Life" are shows that have conflicting good and bad feedback going in, so it remains to see how they'll do here. It's not like NBC's ever had a foothold on this night in recent years anyway. The small move on Thursdays is "The Office" and "30 Rock" switching places. I do agree with the move to have "Office" headline the 9pm hour, but "Scrubs" seems much more kindred in theme to "Earl" and probably would have worked better in the 8:30 slot. It also would have probably done better if it wasn't bleeding away a portion of its audience to the other medical show in the slot. Nonetheless, probably a move based on wanting "30 Rock" to build its audience in the 2nd season, whereas "Scrubs" is moving into its final year. "Friday Night Lights" moving to Fridays is a given, but 10pm? That's a little odd. However "Lipstick Jungle" is probably the network's most buzzworthy pilot, and it seems odd to me that they would hold it off until midseason. All in all this isn't the fearless network willing to try everything in the book from last year, but we all know where that got them. But I can at least say that for the first time I have interest in most of 3 different nights for NBC, so there's that. Now we wait to see if the other networks are as disappointing as they were last year.

Michael is at best sympathetic but unrelatable, at worst completely ignorant and two-faced. Jim incessantly bullies a person whose only fault is taking his job too seriously. All the characters have moments of redemption but my complaint is that they come too rarely, at least to be paired with shows like Scrubs or My Name Is Earl, which are practically bursting with heart. I'm not saying I don't enjoy it, the show's great and I'm not saying that they all have to be sympathetic, but it definitely makes for a rough marketing sell. If they'd move the show to 9 I think it'd be fine.

One of my biggest complaints about this show (and I don't have many), is that for all its relentless humour and exploitation of human discomfort, there is a definite lack of sympathetic characters. Michael could be if he wasn't so often the cause of the discomfort, Dwight is a tool, Jim is a bully and the rest of the cast are varying shades of neurotic. It's actual the big reason I hope they move the program to 9 to pair with 30 Rock and let Earl lead in to Scrubs. However I will say this: Toby and Pam were both great last night. Toby plays the sad-sack character as well as just about anyone, and Pam's forthright moment was about as unexpected as anything to happen on the show thus far. Great episode; this Thursday sitcom block is probably the closest thing to "Must See TV" NBC has had in years.