Mad Men Finale Approaches - Is one blogger wrong to hate the show?

You might have noticed a lack of Mad Men coverage on this blog, even though it's supposedly such a popular show. Why? Because one blogger hates it, and the other blogger is far from being caught up. But we thought, due to its acclaim and popularity, we would mention it, because the finale is tomorrow night.

Why does one blogger hate it? For these reasons:

1) Glacial pacing. The aforementioned blogger made it through LOST with no impatience at all. Ever. All the plotlines are so slow-moving.

2) All the cads. Cheating, sleezy guys just aren't that interesting. This blogger doesn't care how messed up Don Draper's past was. He is a ho-bag, this blogger doesn't go for the "bad boys," and there are too many guys like this in life and on TV for it to be edgy anymore. Maybe it's a great fantasy for some guys, being so successful and cool at work and having many women, but it just doesn't do it for the rest of us.

3) Mad Men is obsessed with pointing out how racist and sexist America was in the '60s, allowing us to look down upon the past with the benefit of our politically correct hindsight. Have we really come that far? Don Draper was AskMen.com’s most influential man a while back. When Don Draper is idealized as an example of manhood, we have to wonder how far we’ve really come.
4) The actress playing Betty can't act at all, and Don Draper is so stiff. No, not that way, you sickos.

BUT both bloggers like the style/visuals, and we love Christina Hendricks for bringing that real woman’s body back into fashion. Also, this blogger didn't get very far into the show. Being bored to tears by the first couple of episodes and not hearing anything about the show in subsequent years that would draw her back in, this blogger might not have given it a chance. The blogger who likes the show doesn't like it enough to be watching over Chuck, Glee, The Vampire Diaries, and random Disney fare on Instant Netflix.

We are wondering if we should both catch up on this show when we are on winter break or if our first impressions were correct. Are we wrong? Are we taking Mad Men's attributes out of the context of the whole show?

Checking in with The Big Bang Theory- Ssn 4, Eps 2-4.

This blogger’s opinion of this show is that it is just one, long joke about nerds, but that joke is at least mildly funny. The quality and style of the show is somewhere between That 70s Show and Two and a Half Men. (That 70s Show being the superior series and Two and a Half Men being the worst.) As the other blogger once wrote, this is not a “water cooler show.” If you miss it, that’s fine. Catch it tomorrow or just watch the new one next week. It’s one of those things this blogger will watch any time it’s on, but not a must-see. Maybe it would be funnier for physicists who get all the science references.

Is it our imagination, or does Leonard sometimes look really white and then sometimes look really tan this season? It’s wigging us out. In episode two, Sheldon made himself into a absurd-looking robot, which was hilarious for a while, but it got old around the time the robot left the apartment. They just played it out too long. Episode three was funnier, because it featured Amy, Sheldon’s rude “friend who is also a girl.” They had a well-written argument and broke up. Then Sheldon, despite a mentioned cat allergy in season one, bought 25 cats to comfort him during the breakup. Sheldon’s mother got them back together, which is great, because Amy seems perfect for Sheldon and NO ONE ELSE. She sort of sounds like Frasier Crane’s ex-wife on Cheers/Frasier. The other blogger pointed out that Sheldon is the best character on the show, but this blogger grows tired of him if the others aren’t given their own storylines and things to do. In the fourth episode of the season, we got to see Sheldon spar with Raj, which was great. Also, Bernadette is back. We finally noticed why we hate her now: The actress was on True Blood, and she was annoying.

This season, the show is still a perfectly serviceable comedy. It’s not on par as far as laughs go with comedies like Modern Family, Community, or even How I Met Your Mother, but the writing is clever, the acting is good, and the quality stays level.

The Office- Sex Ed review and recap

There were so many missed opportunities in this episode, particularly in the Sex Ed portion of it. We liked Michael’s trek through his ex lovers and his touching message to Holly, the only one he really loved, at the end of the episode. But why would The Office have Andy, a grating, unfunny character the show is trying to make us root for, teach the office workers a sex ed class? Would it not have been so much funnier to have Dwight do it? Well, what should we expect, since this episode was written and directed by the man who plays Toby. Toby is the worst. No, Andy is the worst. The funniest Andy ever was is in the episode where Jim hides his cell phone and Andy freaks out. It's funny to laugh AT Andy, not with him. He needs to go back to being a jerk who always talks about Cornell, not a sympathetic doofus. We have Michael for that.

Michael and Dwight
We loved the opening with Dwight’s personal Mose-run INS organization, and we laughed at the poor guy Dwight hired to get rid of a hornets’ nest near the office. The outrageous weapons Dwight provided the man with included a bow and arrows, a bat, and a blowtorch. That did not go well. But it’s “do or die,” according to Dwight. Literally. The drama started when Michael had what Meredith was sure was a cold sore on his face, although Dwight had a sound theory that it might just have been an ingrown moustache hair. With Dwight’s assistance, Michael tracked down Holly (on the phone), Jan, Pam’s Mom, Oscar (with whom he shared a kiss in season three), Debbi, and Carol (who is Steve Carell’s real-life wife). On the phone, Holly told Michael that their relationship was just a fun fling that he romanticized. Upon reconnecting with all his old flings, Michael realized that Holly was wrong. He felt the most for her, and he called her and left her a message telling her that. Hilariously, he ended it with, “You might want to see a doctor, because you might have herpes.”

Sex ed by Andy
Meredith’s admission that she has genital herpes (no surprise there) caused some office members (Angela) to shun her. Andy decided to make a sex ed class for the office to get the office to tolerate Meredith. No, really he was just trying to see if Erin and Gabe were having sex. When he realized they were, Andy flipped, which was pretty funny.

Further Comments
Jan’s kid is cute, in an Olsen kind of way. Why does Jan sing like a nightclub singer to her child? We hated Jims combed-to-the-side hair this episode. Maybe the hair is what was making him look so old and puffy. Finally, Carol stated that Michael proposed to her on their fourth date. It was actually their ninth date. Is the show so far from the good seasons that it is starting to forget them?

Best quotes
“I’m no doctor. I’m just a normal guy who enjoys revenge.”- Dwight
Also, Dwight’s list of places he thinks gay men would hook up.

Episode Grade: C

Watch it here: http://www.hulu.com/watch/184790/the-office-sex-ed#s-p1-so-i0

Grey's Anatomy- Can't Fight Biology review/recap

This episode of Grey's Anatomy was slow after the high-intensity episodes that started off the season. So far, this season is going well, and we haven’t had a ridiculous Dead Denny-type storyline, so we are not going to complain that this episode seemed like a filler. We appreciated the humor, the actual adult problems, the direction in which the relationships are going, and the warm tone, but that doesn’t mean we are going to think about this episode in weeks to come.

The Cases
Our main gripe with this episode is that there were too many patients, and none of them were particularly memorable. Well, we liked the revelation that one patient had rammed her car into a Laundromat to hit her husband, who was inside doing his new girlfriend’s laundry. She was sufficiently creepy as she confessed, thinking that her crime would fall under doctor/patient confidentiality. Another woman had Huntington’s disease from her mother, and this inspired Meredith to get tested for the Alzheimer’s gene. Then we had a biologist who had consumed a bunch of worms in an experiment intended to cure asthma. Sadly, the gross worms were killing him, so Bailey had to operate and take them out. We liked this case the best, because it struck a blow to the depressing plotline that is Pathetic PTSD Cristina. As the biologist moaned about his purpose in life and finally finding some work he was born to do, you could see the gears moving in Cristina’s brain. Maybe now she will go back to her love, surgery. Cristina also saved the man’s worms so that he could have them when he recovered. Finally, there was the 15-year-old ballet dancing boy with bone cancer in his leg. The doctors wanted to amputate, but the boy freaked out and asked Alex to come see him dance so Alex would be more committed to finding a solution without taking the leg. Alex, Callie, and Arizona went down to the ballet studio and watched, which we didn’t find entirely believable. Aren’t we always seeing how busy these doctors are? We weren’t blown away by the ballet either. There was one cool move, and the rest of the time, the camera focused too much on peoples’ faces. We didn’t get much resolution on the case either. We guess the alternative surgery worked.

The New Dark and Twisty Couple
Cristina and Owen looked for a place to live. Owen found an old firehouse. What is this, Better With You? No, because what makes this show a better show than that laugh track-infested sitcom is the female counterpart’s reaction. On Better with You, all the women are shrews from 90s rom-coms, and they hated the idea of living in a firehouse. Cristina acted like Owen was offering her a choice between a turkey or beef sandwich. Owen had to say, “If we are going to choose where we life, I need you to care.” In the end Cristina chose the firehouse, because it made Owen happy, and she still didn’t care.

Everybody Else
Why are April and Jackson at Meredith’s now? We totally missed this. That takes the number of residents up to six. MerDer are trying to procreate, but Meredith’s uterus is “hostile.” What is this, Friends? Arizona was having trouble bonding with her girlfriend’s best friend, McSteamy, but she made an effort, and it looks like they are on the road to being cool with each other. There was some weird plotline where Jackson used his good looks on Teddy to get into surgery, because Teddy was objectifying him in conversation behind his back (and he heard it). Lexie was jealous of April and Meredith bonding, and we don’t blame her, because April was just annoying enough to ask for a house “chore wheel.” Lexie confronted Meredith about how out of the loop she felt. Meredith told her that she wasn’t alone in the psych ward, because Meredith actually sat by Lexie’s bed for 36 hours while she slept. Awww. Meredith opened up about her pregnancy troubles too.

Favorite line- Arizona: “Mark has abs where his soul should be.”

Episode Grade: B-

Watch it Here: http://www.hulu.com/watch/184775/greys-anatomy-cant-fight-biology#s-p1-so-i0

Vampire Diaries Death

Since The Vampire Diaries isn't on tonight, we'll share a spoiler we got from E! Someone on the show is going to die soon. One of us hopes it's Jeremy.

Cougar Town- The Damage You've Done review/recap

Cougar Town is such a great comedy. A lot of the time, it’s just as funny as Modern Family, if in a goofier way. We join the lament of critics everywhere that the show is underrated. This episode was a good one, and hardly anybody watched it. It’s not about cougars anymore, people, so get into it.

In this episode, Laurie and Grayson finally told Jules that they slept together before Jules and Grayson got together. We had totally forgotten that they even slept together. Was that a big deal? Even Laurie had trouble remembering it. At first, Jules had to be cool about it, because she “didn’t have a reason to be mad.” But then Jules chose to be mad at Ellie (after a reality TV-style elimination scene in Jules’ living room) for not telling her about it, but when she found out that Laurie knew she liked Grayson at the time, she transferred her wrath to Laurie. But Ellie and Grayson reminded Jules that she could never cut a loved one out of her life. Sure enough, when Laurie’s boyfriend dumped her, Jules was right there for her. Awww. We felt bad for the sobbing Laurie. It was “keep the baby” love, after all.

Meanwhile, Travis had grown a soul patch at college, and it looked just as bad as you’d think. He called it his “Soul Friend,” which made it better. Well, it made it even funnier. Jules is the perfect mom. She and her friends held Travis down and shaved the awful thing off as soon as he visited home. Travis went home to find his old girlfriend, Kylie, with whom he has an open relationship, taking advantage of her freedom by making out with other guys. Travis had a problem with this, even though it was his idea, but found himself unable to break up with Kylie.

We love Ellie and Jules’ policy of “harsh truths.” We’ve decided that Jules is a better character than Monica Gellar. We also loved the episode’s catchphrase: Eat the Sword! It was kind of a “just get it over with” substitute. We think Smith dumping Laurie will be good for the show. Watching Laurie get over him and find another man will provide much-needed plot fodder, since we are not ready to see Jules and Grayson have major drama right now. Does anyone see Bobby and Laurie together, or would that be too much irresponsible crazy in one houseboat?

Episode Grade: A

Watch it here: http://www.hulu.com/watch/184777/cougar-town-the-damage-youve-done#s-p1-so-i0

Modern Family- Strangers on a Treadmill reviw/recap

The Dunphy Couple- Phil was about to make a speech at a banquet, and Claire heard him rehearsing some truly awful jokes that only Luke thought were funny. Claire wanted to tell Phil that he would bomb with those jokes and save him the humiliation, but she had spent most of their time together pretending she thought he was funny. “I laugh at all of his jokes. With my mouth. Not with my eyes.” The show cut to one of these laughs and Claire’s face doing it was classic. Claire enlisted Mitchell to tell Phil he wasn’t funny, but Mitchell did not come through. To be fair, Mitchell would have had to let Phil down in front of Luke, who clearly adores his father. No one could do that if they had even a smidgen of heart. Claire stole Phil’s index cards with his jokes on them so that he would have to wing it and play it straight. Instead, Phil went with comedy, making jokes up as he went, and he killed, in a GOOD way.

Mitchell and Cam- Cam was working out again, but he was doing it in bike shorts. Mitchell got Claire to tell Cam that he looked bad in them. By the way, we loved Claire and Mitchell on treadmills, talking to each other like believable siblings. We are not fans of troga though. Claire was able to do her part of the pact with her brother. Cam ran to the bathroom and cried after she told him the bad news. To be fair, she did it really well.

Pritchett-Delgado three- Gloria talked Jay into attending the Quinceañera of one of his employee’s daughters. Manny and Gloria gave Jay such a hard time about being elitist, he gave in and went. The three accidently crashed a Hispanic engagement party rather than the real event. Gloria realized this mistake early but let Jay keep pretending he knew people at the party. Jay was horrified when he saw the sexy dance between the fiancées, thinking they were father and 15-year-old daughter.

Alex and Haley- We loved Haley in this episode, for once. She was hilarious trying to get Alex to manipulate the popular girl at school into letting her sister into the cool crowd. Sadly, Alex blew it by mentioning that she had a life because she had homework. Yikes. Poor Alex has no friends.

This episode was funny and sweet, as usual, but we were laughing more than in the last two episodes. We liked all three storylines, the reference to “Strangers on a Train,” and the teamwork between family members. The show is still good.

Episode Grade: A-

Watch it Here: http://www.hulu.com/watch/184807/modern-family-strangers-on-a-treadmill#s-p1-so-i0

America's Next Top Model- Patrick Demarchelier review/recap

Each week, the show has been bringing on some big name in fashion that they name the episode after. Since we are not super into fashion, unless it’s a cute dress for $20 at TJ Maxx, we usually don’t know the people appearing on the show. But this week, even we had heard of the photographer. The mean boss in The Devil Wears Prada wanted someone to get him on the line for her. That’s right, it’s Patrick Demarchelier, which is a really nice name, for a French name. Sadly, we couldn’t understand a flippin thing he said with that heavy French accent.

This week’s challenge took the models to a tent pitched outside of the local Wal-Mart. The show didn’t shoot much of the Wal-Mart, and the one part they showed made it look like the nicest Wal-Mart of all time. But we weren’t fooled. It was still Wal-Mart. The girls were placed in groups of three to pitch some makeup to Wal-Mart shoppers who judged their presence and personalities. This blogger actually uses the mascara they were pitching, and it’s actually really good. Ann failed miserably, because she had no personality. They showed “pathetic sad Ann” pictures from her childhood, and she was really cute in middle school. A fashion journalist showed up to evaluate the girls, and Ann got the lowest scores. The much-hated Kacey won the challenge, showing that she actually can be charming.

The photo shoot involved the girls getting done up by some famous stylist we don’t know about. Then they had to skip along a street on a guy’s arm, looking happy. Sounds simple, right? Well, it is. Even Jane was able to do it well this time. Kacey still looked dead inside though, and Kayla was the Complainer to Scare of the week. Kayla’s shoes were too tight, and the pain registered on her face. Tyra, blessedly absent from the show until now, appeared to frolic, dance around, flirt with Demarchelier, and show the girls how it was done. Demarchelier seemed to have fun with Tyra though, asking about the first time he shot her and joking around with her. Finally, a guest judge who clicked with Tyra.

Ann won best photo again, but we disagree with the choice. Ann’s photos might have been high fashion and appropriately gawky, but Jane’s were just as good and she actually looked attractive. We are sick of Ann getting best photo. We’re done feeling sorry for her for being weird. This blogger was mocked for being weird at one time too. Down with Ann! We actually cheered for Tyra when she did a mean, but accurate, impression of Ann walking. The winner of the challenge, Kasey, got the boot. We knew she would when she appeared in the bottom two with Kayla, because most of Kayla’s photos are stronger. Kacey seemed to know too, because she already looked defeated before Tyra said the other name. Bye bye, eye bags. But we felt really bad for her, because she said she felt drained and that she was “never going to get over this.” Ouch, we know how that feels a little bit, and we feel bad for you, Kacey.

We didn’t like the photo shoot this week, and we’re sick of seeing Ann win everything. Someone needs to shake this party up, because it’s boring us.

Episode Grade: D+

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South Park- It's a Jersey Thing review/recap

Once again, we have a gripe about South Park’s target choice. Not that this blogger likes Jersey, oh no. This blogger was in complete agreement with South Park about the ridiculousness that is The Real Housewives of New Jersey, Jerseyliscious, and Jersey Shore. (The other blogger loves Jersey and these kinds of shows…weird.) But this is such an easy target. We like when South Park is topical, but we also like when it points out things that we haven’t noticed yet. This did not happen in this episode. The easiest person in the world to make fun of is oompa loompa-colored Snooki. South Park did a great job on her in this episode though. The cartooning of Snooki was epic. We will never look at her again without thinking, “Snooki want smoosh smoosh.” We really hope Snooki reacts to this episode via twitter or USWeekly or something.

It all started when a New Jersey family moved next door to the Marsh family and got an invite to dinner. Theresa freaked on the family, starting cursing, and used the term “muff cabbage.” We still don’t know what that means, but one of us is going to use it every day. The characters’ only explanation of the term was, “It’s a Jersey thing.” Soon, the town discovered that it was overrun with people from Jersey. The Jersey folk were drinking beers and throwing the empty bottles around, punching each other, being vulgar, freaking out for no reason, and humping in public, which was pretty accurate.

Sheila Broflovski revealed to her friends that she was from New Jersey, and both she and Kyle mutated into Jersey folk to better defend their South Park friends. Kyle stopped Snooki from raping Cartman midway through the act, earning Cartman’s gratitude, which is probably a first for Kyle. That part proved George Carlin’s theory that anything can be funny, even rape. Watching that Snookie monster rape Cartman was the funniest part of the episode.

Behind the Les Miserables-style barricade, the always stupid Randy Marsh appealed to the governor of California (can’t spell his name), asking him to help them stop the Jersey folk from taking over South Park, because they had already taken everything east of South Park. The governor refused, saying that there were two states between Colorado and California, so it wasn’t his problem yet. So Randy sent a tape of an episode of Jersey Shore to Osama bin Laden to convince him of the threat. We chucked at this, because this is exactly where militant Muslims would agree with most of us. Al-Qaeda came through, sending suicide bombers into the advancing army of Jersey-ers. It was really messed up to see Randy and the town rewarding and celebrating bin Laden, but fortunately an American soldier appeared and shot him. Randy seemed to look confused for a second before shouting, “We got him!”

Episode grade- B-

Watch the episode here: http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s14e09-its-a-jersey-thing

No Ordinary Family- No Ordinary Ring recap/review

Another week with the Super Powells, and the show is still sweet and entertaining. It’s not yet a gripping must-see, but we are still enjoying it much more than most of the other new fall shows.

Jim
The episode opened with Jim hitting baseballs into the ocean. Watch out, boaters. Then, he met the other Powells at the wedding, and they all looked great. Suddenly, the lights went out and there was an armed robbery where the robbers took everyone’s jewelry and money, including Stephanie’s ring. Stephanie stopped Jim from interfering in the crowded wedding, because the robbers had machine guns and guests could get caught in a crossfire. That’s exactly what we were thinking. Smart Stephanie. We think the solution to Jim being bad at crime fighting is for him to convince Stephanie to come along and think for him. As the robbers ran away, Jim followed them but loses them because the building is too high for him to jump. Jim, still angry about Stephanie’s ring and his own impotence in the face of crime, kept his rented tux and started crashing weddings with his lawyer friend, hoping he would get another crack at the robbers. At the first wedding he crashed, he ended up thinking there were robbers when there weren’t and ruining the large wedding cake, something we saw coming ten miles away. The second crashed wedding involved the perps. Jim was able to leap the building this time, because he had taken dancing lessons. He grabbed on by the ankle and threw him off the building. Huh? For stealing? That’s not right. The guy didn’t die, but in real life, he probably would have. All the perps were released because the cops had no evidence on them, even though they were at the scene of the crime, wearing black matching crook getups, and carrying guns. Man, that's a good defense attorney right there. Even lamer, the crooks just happened to be carrying Stephanie’s ring, so Jim was able to get it back. Yeah. Right. They would not be carrying that.

Stephanie
Stephanie was informed that the board was going to fund her research. They just needed a sample of her blood for an insurance physical. Predictably, her assistant donated her own blood so that Stephanie’s secret blood anomalies wouldn’t be revealed. Stephanie had to swap assistant Katie’s blood with an old sample of her own from when she was hired. Katie, are you just an excuse for the show to have another attractive woman on the show who isn’t a mom or an adolescent? Stephanie successfully pulled of the switch without being seen, but her boss noticed a difference in the footage of the vials of blood. Yeah. Right. Like there would be a perfect shot of those vials on the security cameras. Even if there were, the boss would have to be some sort of “noticing things savant.” Nothing in this plotline made any sense. The idea that two scientists would bungle the handling of the blood test so badly in the first place is laughable. At the end of the episode, Jim took her to a romantic dinner on the roof, which was cheesy, but we were touched anyway.

Daphne
Daphne is making out like a bandit in keeping JJ’s secret. If she doesn’t tell on him for having powers, he has to do her homework. Seems fair. She read her friend Megan’s mind and found out that Megan’s parents are splitting. Like a moron, Daphne starts talking about it. Megan thought Daphne had creeped in her backpack and found the info in there. (On a text? In a diary?) Upset that a peer might think she was a freak, Daphne asked Jim and Stephanie if she could tell Megan and they said no. Daphne, angry at her dad for trying to keep his crime fighting a secret (like he had any chance of doing that with a mind reader in the house), ran off to tell Megan anyway. We knew she wouldn’t, so there was no tension. We are over Daphne storming around and whining like a typical TV teenager every episode. Speaking of character themes we are over, we are also over Jim acting sad that he has a useless job compared to his wife. Can he just start the application to become a cop already? It would make it easier for him to fight crime.

JJ
JJ was crushing on a girl, and he asked his sister to read her mind to see if he should go for it. Turns out, the girl thinks, “He’s nice…for a tool. I hope he doesn’t like me.” Ouch. JJ isn’t so bad! To spare his feelings, Daphne told JJ the girl only dated Jewish boys. Predictably, this prompted JJ to learn everything there is to know about Judaism and pretend to be a Jew. This did not work at all, and it was totally awkward, but funny. We think JJ should always be comic relief. It’s ok JJ. At least you have mad knowledge of a major religion, right?

We are still fans of this new show, but the level of predictability was ridiculous in every storyline except for Jim’s. We like that he’s not a great superhero yet. It makes sense that he doesn’t yet know what to do when he arrives to stop a crime. We like that they are emphasizing how Jim’s clumsiness gets in his way, even with the powers. Also, a few things pushed the boundaries of plausibility, even in a show based on an implausible premise. There was also a weird lesson about how the dad was only lying to protect Daphne, like Daphne lied to JJ to protect him. That’s a nice lesson for a family show. We thought this one was a little sloppy, writing-wise, and it would be so easy to fix the problems and make it believable. Everything else, including tone, was good.

Episode grade: C

Catch up and watch this episode here: http://www.hulu.com/watch/184781/no-ordinary-family-no-ordinary-ring#s-p1-so-i0

Glee- Duets review/recap

Duet Competition
Puck was sent to juvie for stealing his mother’s car, crashing it into a convenience store, and running off with an ATM which, as we know from Breaking Bad, would have been super hard for him to break open. HA. We love that this is the reason for Puck’s absence, but he better come back soon. Will distracted the gang with a duet competition with a gift certificate for two at Breadstix as the prize. This bothered us, because we are poor and hungry, and we want breadsticks. We were reminded of food throughout the episode, mostly by Santana. Sam, the new kid with the Bieber haircut, has finally joined the Glee club, with little explanation as to his change of heart. Rachel and Finn decided that Sam should win the competition so he will feel good about the club. In their minds, they could take the competition easily, so with themselves out of the running, Sam can take it. Dear Finn, Sam’s voice is better than your autotuned travesty. Rachel and Finn plan a duet that involves a bad song and costumes that made it offensive and sacrilegious. If you re-watch this episode, watch Will’s face during all the duets except for Rachel and Finn’s. Will wasn’t given much to do this week, so he let all his acting energy out during his reactions to the duets. Just watch him during the duets. He looked like a mixture between a creepy old guy looking at a hot girl and a kid who just arrived at Disney World.

Kurt
The walking gay stereotype that is Kurt had a crush on Sam and convinced himself that Sam is gay because of his hair coloring. Kurt enlisted Sam as his duet partner, but Finn was determined to keep Kurt from throwing himself at Sam the way he did at Finn last year. Finn was eerily wise and grounded this episode. (Sidenote: his speech in this episode was the other blogger's defense of Finn last season during the episode they refer to). That boy’s brain comes and goes. Kurt’s dad is getting better, and it was so sweet to see Kurt taking care of him. Burt Hummel gave his son a much-needed lecture on staying appropriate with the straight boys, because he heard from Finn’s mom Finn’s side of the story. Vindication for Finn! Kurt whined about how he couldn’t have the same romantic high school experiences as everyone else, because he is openly gay and judged. By this time, we were rolling our eyes. The first time Glee did its little gay rights PSA, we were touched. We cried. We are pretty sure it was in the episode “Preggers.” But this is the millionth time, and Glee is getting way too preachy as it is. Can everyone in the world PLEASE be nice to gay people, not only because they are PEOPLE, but because we are sick of hearing the gay rights machine heavy-handedly beat us with the fist of tolerance on TV? We think this is well-covered ground on Glee.

Sam and Quinn
Kurt relinquished his hold on Sam, who stayed with Kurt as a partner because his word is important to him. A guy with honor? We are crushing even more than we were when we saw Sam with his shirt off in the locker room. Of course, we also found out that Sam is a huge dork (in the most adorable way). Who could sit through Avatar six times? Kurt went with a duet with himself. Silly Kurt, even if you pretend to be both a man and a woman in the number, it’s still not a duet. Finn and Rachel paired Sam with Quinn for his duet, and there was pretty immediate and surprising chemistry between the two. Sam and Quinn won the competition by being adorable, and they started what looks like a pretty cute budding relationship. The much-touted breadsticks looked too thin though. Breadsticks should be fat and fluffy, like at The Olive Garden.

The minor characters
Brittany got clingy with Santana after their much-hinted-at physical relationship hit the screen. We think this joke was best left off-screen and subtle, because it was funnier that way. Are we viewers so immature that we have to have every joke rubbed in our faces? Santana decided to do her duet with Mercedes to get away from Brittany. She told Mercedes that they were the best singers in the school. We beg to differ. Santana has an interesting sound, but Sam and Rachel are technically better. Brittany took Artie’s virginity to make Santana jealous……WHAT?!! Artie scolded Brittany afterward, saying that sex meant nothing to her, but she should have thought about what it meant to him. Whatever, Artie. We feel for you that you were used, but you threw your virginity away on Brittany, so you can’t put all the responsibility on her. Tina did a duet with Mike, even though she is getting sick of everything Mike only doing Asian things and taking her to The Dim Sum Palace. She's obviously not getting sick of his body/dancing, and we don't blame her.

The songs
Don’t Go Breakin’ My Heart by Rachel and Finn- Rachel is such a ham in this number, and we think this song is overdone. But it was cute, and definitely a duet.
River Deep, Mountain High by Mercedes and Santana- Officially the ONLY version of this song that we like. Very well done, and we love the way these two voices went together.
Le Jazz Hot by Kurt- This is the gayest thing we have ever seen in our lives, including pictures of the gay pride parade. Also, it was originally done by Julie Andrews, and Kurt doesn’t have a good enough voice to measure up to it. It was sweet where it should have been powerful and growly where it should have been sexy. But we liked his slide up to the high note, and we like the song.
Sing by Tina and Mike- Holy choreography, this one was fun. Great cover of a funny song from A Chorus Line.
Lucky by Quinn and Sam- This was really sweet, and we couldn’t stop smiling. This blogger prefers Quinn and Sam’s voices to the Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat’s voices. We don’t think it should have won though. River Deep, Mountain High was better.
Get Happy/Happy Days Are Here Again by Kurt and Rachel- We loved this duet. It was pretty, and Rachel and Kurt sound fantastic together. It was a great way to end the episode.
We downloaded all the songs off of itunes this time. (Last week, we only bought two of the songs.)

Favorite line: Sam- “Kurt emailed me (recordings of himself) singing, and I thought it was Faith Hill. The kid is good.” Haha. But we don’t think Faith Hill can sing, especially live. Her performance at the Oscar awards made the dogs howl. Favorite moment: Brittany alone at Breadstix nosing her meatball on her plate of spaghetti.

Episode grade: A-

Watch it here: http://www.hulu.com/watch/184046/glee-duets#s-p1-so-i0

Gossip Girl- Goodbye Columbia review/recap

We know a lot of people are going to like this episode of Gossip Girl, because of all the drama, action, and backstabbing, but we were fighting back yawns. Chuck and Blair need to step up their games, because their efforts at destroying each other fizzled. We bet they are saving their best plans for sweeps week. With all the pettiness and plans, genuine moments were hard to come by. Dear show, if you make an entire episode about cattiness and revenge, at least make the revenge awesome. Stealing phones and sucking up to professors? Please, we can do that ourselves.

At the start of the episode, Serena was upset that she couldn’t get a cab to Columbia, because a man kept stealing them from her to dump his one-night-stands into. Let’s call him Cab Stealing Man Ho. Also, the eternal question: what is Serena wearing? There is a time and a place for a halter top and short shorts, and it’s called summer in South Beach, not your first day at an Ivy League school. Serena got in trouble with a professor for being late.

Blair was trying to get in with a powerful guest lecturer at Columbia named Martha. This interested us, because you really don’t meet many black women named “Martha.” Blair trotted down to Martha’s office with a cherry pie and two minions. Blair’s plans were foiled when Martha picked Chuck (who is now a student, solely for the purpose of taking down Blair) as her assistant. Chuck leered almost cartoonishly after delivering this news to Blair. Chuck walked away after giving the best line of the episode: “Mmm. I almost forgot how much I used to enjoy your pie.” We yelled, “Ohhhh snap.” Blair’s next move was to set Martha up on a hot date in exchange for the assistant position. This would have worked, but Chuck replaced Blair’s selected man with a woman, and Martha is not gay. Martha resigned from her position at Columbia because of how “psychotic” Chuck and Blair were. At least SOMEONE got taken down. Chuck threatened to tell everyone about how he slept with Jenny Humphrey, which is a low and boring blow. He said, “I won’t stop until you have nothing.” You could fry an egg with the heat between these two.

Juliet had Gossip Girl send a blast spreading a rumor that Serena had an STD. There was a bunch of boring drama regarding that. Juliet’s brother wanted Juliet to have Nate steal Serena’s phone and get Serena expelled from Columbia. Juliet didn’t do that, and it was pretty obvious by the end of this episode that she is falling for Nate. Yawn. He’s hot, but how could you fall for Nate? We guess he’s sweet. Juliet got Vanessa to steal the phone instead. Juliet sent an email from Serena’s phone to her professor and later plopped it into Vanessa’s purse. The email offered the professor sex if he would give her a good grade. The professor showed the Dean, and the Dean threatened to expel her. Serena explained that her phone was missing, and Juliet suggested she call her phone in case the thief was still at the party. Vanessa was caught with the phone, and Dan didn’t instantly believe her. She cried. We love seeing Vanessa cry. But it makes no sense that Serena would believe Juliet over Vanessa, because Juliet has tried to hurt Serena before. Vanessa was freaked out that Dan might have slept with Serena, so she spent the whole episode questioning him and everyone else about it. This is why she stole Serena’s phone for Juliet; she wanted to see if there was any evidence of a tryst, and she found none.

Vanessa and Dan broke up, which means the world is now a little less boring. It looks like Serena is going to start living it up with Cab Stealing Man Ho, because if she can’t escape her past and reputation, she’d better just go with it. Speaking of boring Dan, when he was walking with Nate to the health clinic, didn’t he have the biggest man boobs you’ve ever seen on this show? If Dan starts getting even less hot, he will be completely useless. We wonder if Blair’s traitorous random minion (who told Chuck that she wanted to get in with Martha) will reappear and try to cause more havoc? Do we care?

Episode grade: C-

Boardwalk Empire- Anastasia review/recap

What was this, the love episode? Our harsh gangster show turned into a fairyland of jealousies, princesses, and widows. Ughh. Shoot someone. We watch Grey’s Anatomy for the love fests. This episode set up a bunch of things, but it was slower than previous episodes. It also focused too much on romance and the KKK. We thought it was a little heavy handed with both things.

In this episode, Nucky got closer to the widow he is crushing on, Margaret Schroeder, at his surprise birthday party that he knew all about. He was stressed about it, and it was a little alarming to see that unhinged side of him. Nucky’s hilarious dumb girl, Lucy, popped out of a cake, looking slutty. But Nucky only had eyes for Margaret, with whom he had just shared a dance. Sadly, Lucy didn’t see Nucky dance with Margaret, so we missed an opportunity for an epic freak out. This episode established the difference between Lucy and Margaret, as if we didn’t already know. It showed them both discussing a woman’s right to vote. Lucy didn’t know what they were talking about, and Margaret had an opinion. We guess it’s about time the show advanced the widow/Nucky dynamic, but it just seemed like too much focus on the love triangle for our tastes. Especially when Steve Buscemi is such an uggo. We were much more interested in the part where Margaret stole a lingerie from the dress shop where she works after seeing Lucy and Nucky strolling together on the boardwalk. We were sad that she has stopped so low as to steal, but we also wanted to cheer a little, because Margaret deserves that lingerie.

The episode also focused on the dynamic between Jimmy and Al Capone, telling us what we already know: that Al Capone is a jerk, and he will spell trouble for Jimmy. We were never fans of Capone, but we’re liking him even less after his…ahem…antisocial behavior this episode. (That poor Greek guy!) We hate him almost as much as we hate Lucy. But we love to hate Lucy, so keep her around, we say. She’s really good at her part. Al Capone and Jimmy were trying to get into the mob in Chicago. They made a deal with Charlie Sheridan, but they didn’t exactly make friends with him. So Sheridan knifed this pretty hooker Jimmy slept with, ruining her looks and making Jimmy sad. Great, there’s another thing that Jimmy can feel guilty about.

Nucky sent his brother to find out who lynched the black guy last episode, so Eli went to a KKK meeting. Of course, the show took the opportunity to have the speaker at the meeting mention that they were Christians, because, if you are in TV, you can’t miss an opportunity to point out that Christians in history were baaaaad, can you? This show also makes a point in every episode that people in the 1920s were racist. We know already. Anyway, Eli arrested the KKK leader and Chalky White questioned/tortured him after giving a mildly intriguing monologue. The KKK wasn’t responsible. So why did the episode spend so much time on this? Who knows. Character development of Chalky, maybe.

The episode ended with a shot of a boardwalk building with the words “GAIETY!” and “FROLIC!” on it. We wish buildings still had these words on them.

Episode Grade: C+

Dexter- Practically Perfect review/recap

The Irish Nanny

The episode began with Deb interrogating potential nannies for Harrison, which was pretty funny and featured Deb at her cursing, abrasive best. Dexter settled on the creepiest one: a soft-spoken Irish lady named Sonya. There’s nothing outwardly wrong with her, but we are getting a weird vibe, so either we’ve got a crazy on our hands or the actress is playing it all wrong. We believed that Sonya might have kidnapped Harrison when Dexter returned to find them gone. He just missed the note on the fridge though, so the joke's on us. We love how organized, practical Dexter made Sonya a checklist of things about Harrison, organized by category. (Sample category: Sleep Preferences.) Dexter worried that Harrison might have been affected by Rita’s murder the way Dexter was by his own mother’s murder, but a crisis counselor assured him that Harrison would not have known what was happening at his tender age. Dexter looked relieved, but we’re not so sure, because right after that, Harrison ripped the head off a doll. Foreshadowing?

Deb's Doings
Quinn and Deb still have their hands full with the Santa Muerte cases. You know, the cases where the murderer cuts up heads and sets them up in a ritualistic manner? You should remember, because it’s disgusting. The very white Deb wasn’t getting information from the all-Venezuelan neighborhood. Neighborhood Man: “You live in Miami. Why you no learn Spanish?” Deb: “Because me too busy making a living.” So she enlisted Officer Manzon’s help. Is it just us, or does her name sound like “Officer Munzo” when she says it? Officer Manzon is played by the main student girl in Freedom Writers, and she was one of the only appealing things about that movie, so we are glad to see her more on Dexter. Officer Manzon came through, but the man who gave her information was Santa Muerte’s next victim. It was nasty, complete with a cat licking up a pool of blood below the head. Quinn is still investigating Kyle Butler, and one of his connections is going to let him show Trinity’s family a picture of Dexter. Yikes! Actually, we’re not that worried. Dexter never gets caught. And if he DOES get caught, well, wouldn’t that be interesting? It’s something we wouldn’t mind seeing, as long as it turned out alright in the end. In other Random Cop News, Batista is going to be investigated for his assault and battery with a deadly weapon on his fellow officer last episode.

The Real Action (Dexter's kill of the week)

Dexter sought therapy in the form of a kill. He needed to murder someone by the code to “bring himself back.” The victim, Boyd Fowler, was already selected last episode. Dexter trailed Fowler, but Fowler caught him and recognized him. Dexter was at a lunch table, so he simply introduced himself (using an alias) and feigned interest in getting a job like Fowler’s. Fowler invited him on a ride along to pick up dead animals. At first we thought, “What a moron to believe that anyone would want that crappy job.” But it turns out that Fowler was sharper than we thought, which was a nice surprise. It’s always more intense when the kills are difficult. Fowler noticed that Dexter had a mark on his hand from where a wedding ring used to be, and when Dexter stabbed Fowler with a syringe, Fowler spun around and shot Dexter with a tranquilizer gun. Both men were picked up by an ambulance and neither squealed on the other. They both then escaped the hospital. Dexter met Fowler at his home and successfully disabled him this time. Wearing an apron that said, “Natural Born Griller,” Dexter killed Fowler in Fowler’s own home. Dexter realized, miserably, that the kill only made him feel emptier.

Julia Stiles

In the corner, Fowler had a locked closet. We saw the face of someone who saw Dexter kill Fowler. Predictably, it is guest star Julia Stiles, one of Fowler’s young, blonde victims. Dexter opened the closet and she tried to escape, but Dexter prevented that, and she passed out. FINALLY. They sure didn't glamorize Julia either. She LOOKED like she had been kept in a closet by a serious creeper...totally busted in the face/hair. We guessed that Julia would be a Fowler victim last episode, but we could never have guessed that she was going to know what Dexter is. We’re excited to see where this is going. This episode was funny, intense, gross, and classic Dexter.

Episode Grade: A-

Outlaw cancelled

Outlaw is the third casualty of the fall season, following Lone Star and My Generation. We are neither sad nor surprised.