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2010 TV Round-Up Part 5
February 1st, 2010
The Cleveland Show 01/31/10
Episode 11: Our Gang
Cleveland is shocked that the kids in the local school are running wild in the school. Cleveland Brown is chosen as the one to save the school. So Cleveland brings them home and he tries to set them straight. He gets them going right, and making money by selling cookies. Of course, Cleveland is oblivious to the fact that there is some serious gang stuff going on and he’s just put himself right smack dab in the middle of a cocaine & heroin gang war, and now the biggest gang in the world is after Cleveland and they are coming to where he lives. Cleveland dumps the drugs down the toilet but the leader of the other gang calls back saying they have Junior and they want their drugs back. Cleveland gathers the gang together and they set up to get Junior back. There’s a cool cameo from Chris Griffin here, too. I wasn’t too crazy about this episode to be honest and I think this was the first disappointment of the season. C.
Family Guy 01/31/10
Episode 11: Dial Meg for Murder
There’s a series of clips of a drunken helicopter pilot to eat up time to start the show. Peter goes to the rodeo, too, leading to a “Ballad of Billy The Kid” video. Wow, two pointless bits to open the show. At the show, Brian meets a writer who asks him to pen a story on the average teenage girl. So he trails Meg. There’s a funny bit where Stewie mentions that not all dogs go to heaven and we see Goofy in hell for his part in 9/11. Brian trails Meg to a correctional facility where she is dating an inmate! Brian tells the family and Peter has to put on the Cosby sweater for serious parenting. Kevin, the boyfriend, escapes and goes to Meg. He hides in her room and only Peter and his TV guide tell him it’s an escaped convict! He calls Joe, who tracks the kid down. He also arrests Meg for harboring a fugitive! Meg returns home from jail as a hardened jailbird. She beats up Peter to gain dominance of house. Meg even cracks some skulls open at school, and she’s officially a freak. She forces Brian to drive her somewhere to get money (leading to a funny Chinese NASCAR joke), and she holds up Mort’s store. Brian brings Meg back to the good side by showing her the article he wrote about her. This was a rare Meg-led episode and it was a funny one, though it lacked the one big joke to make it stellar. B+.
American Dad 01/31/10
Episode 10: A Jones for A Smith
This is the most well-crafted episode of Animation Domination tonight. Stan is dead-set against getting help of any kind. He doesn’t want handouts. He won’t even bail Francine out of jail for a DWI. Francine has to work at a soup kitchen and Stan takes the soup! He ends up sitting next to a bum and getting “medicine” for his cough. Turns out, it was just crack cocaine and now Stan is addicted. He sells his family’s TV and jewelry to help his addiction. The addiction becomes blatant when Stan is stealing from the parents of Steve’s new girlfriend (including the dad who will let Steve get intimate with his attractive daughter) and ruins Steve’s chances with her. Stan goes to his neighbors’ house (the gay newscasters) and steals from them. A terrible hostage negotiator allows Stan to fly to Columbia where he realizes he needs help and he can ask for it. He goes home, goes to rehab and is better. Like I said, it was very well crafted. The two storylines (Stan and Steve) were welded together seamlessly and this was an example of why American Dad has been as great as it has been. B+.
Heroes 02/01/10
Episode 17: The Wall
When we last left Peter, he was trapped in Sylar’s mind. Now he’s found Sylar and he wants to bring Sylar back. Sylar says there is no way out, and he’s been trying for THREE YEARS, despite only a matter of hours passing. Unfortunately, Peter can’t bring Sylar out of this mental trap. Peter muses that perhaps Sylar can’t get out because he doesn’t WANT to get out. Peter finds a wall in Sylar’s mind and he tries to break it down. It’s only when Peter admits that Sylar isn’t the person he was does the wall start to break down. Sylar breaks out of the mental wall, and the one that Parkman built, and the two are off to save Emma (Dazzler), only to be countered by the Multiple Man. Meanwhile, Claire is prisoner of Samuel and Samuel is trying to tell her that HRG is the one behind the shootings. We check in on HRG who is seeing past memories in the mirror room, including an old family he once had that he never told Claire. We show HRG with his first wife, and running into a super-powered crook for the first time, and how that villain killed his wife. All of HRG’s secrets are revealed to Claire, including how HRG got into the company, and a meeting with Gretchen about Claire and the Haitian making an appearance. That would cause the obsession I guess. HRG’s partner wanders into the circus and gets medical attention from Dazzler, but she sells her out to Samuel. Things build to the big conclusion, with Samuel telling Claire that the whole group is heading to New York City to make a big power play at Central Park that will result in the loss of life to show people how powerful they are. Claire goes to free her father but Samuel drops the HRG and Claire into the ground. I may have missed the last few seconds of the show, but even if I did, this was another episode with a LOT of plot advancement and exposition. At least things are moving forward, but it definitely seems more boring than last season.
The Pull List 02/02/10
February 2nd, 2010
I don't have too much to talk about this Tuesday evening. I do have the February 2nd, 2010 edition of TPL posted and it was a week of 24 books. Yeah, definitely check it out. I guess I'll get back to watching the first assortment of videos posted to WWE Classics.com. It's Divas week and I'm not too crazy about it, but the first set of matches doesn't seem to bad at first look. We shall see.
Aints No More
February 7th, 2010
Wow, what a Super Bowl! I thought that the Colts and Peyton Manning would take it but the Saints defense and offense came alive after the first quarter and the real game-changer was the start of the second quarter and the Saints onside kick. It was a ballsy, unexpected move by the Saints and it paid off. The Saints had been gathering momentum up to that point, giving up 10 points in the first quarter and getting 6 back in the second, even though they could've had more. They were stopped at a fourth and one at the goal line while the score was 10-3. The onside kick led to a touchdown and a 13-10 lead, but the Colts came right back with a touchdown and they took a 17-13 lead. The Saints were able to completely control the game after that, hitting a field goal to cut the lead to one as play entered the fourth. Everything was going the Saints way and nothing was going for the Colts. They missed a field goal from the 41 that gave the ball back to the Saints and they rumbled down the field for another touchdown and a 2-point conversion that gave them a 24-17 lead. A Manning pass was intercepted with about 3 and a half minutes left to give the Saints a 31-17 lead and it was all over after that. The Colts tried one last rush but this time it was their turn to fail on a fourth down conversion at the goal line.
This was a fun Super Bowl for me. I wasn't rooting for anyone in particular so I wasn't disappointed with the outcome regardless of what would've happened. It's great that the Saints got off the snide and they finally have a championship under their belt. I did watch the half-time show and I thought the Who sounded their age. It was not their best performance and really, Janet Jackson ruined it for everyone. The Super Bowl should be about new talent but the last few years they've played it safe with people like the Stones, McCartney and Prince, all aging rockers well past their prime. I wasn't too impressed with the commercials, either, though I did like the Clydesdale one with the bull. And was all the hype about the Tebow commercial worth it? No.
I will finish up with the usual DVD review posting. This week it is X-Men The Animated Series Volume 4, a decent collection of X-cartoons that I never saw when they first aired as I'd stopped watching by that point. That one is the first DVD review I finished in 2010. In regards to reviews for the week, tomorrow will be Heroes (Animation Domination were repeats due to the Super Bowl)), Tuesday will be TPL (I've only read 3 issues so far, but it is a light week of only 12 books so I anticipate it will be on time), Thursday will be Superstars, Saturday will be another trade review and we'll be back here on Sunday for another DVD review. I finished the WWE SmackDown DVD yesterday and the next one on the list is X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I'm halfway through the movie and it's interesting so far. That's it for now; Let's Go Saints!
2010 TV Round-Up Part 6
February 8th, 2010
Heroes 02/08/10
Episode 18: Brave New World
Claire and HRG are still buried underground as HRG’s love interest looks for them. HRG is convinced he’s dead and he talks to Claire about what she saw in the mirror and that once Samuel takes the cover off the super-powered thing, she should hide and live a full life. Just as HRG is about to die, in comes Tracy to save the day. The Multiple Man shows up Parkman’s house to make sure that Peter and Sylar aren’t problems. Peter and Sylar take care of them and Peter uses Matt’s mind control powers to find out what Samuel is up to (displaying his powers in Central Park and killing many) but Parkman won’t let Sylar leave. Eventually he agrees to let Sylar prove himself and they head off to the carnival. Meanwhile, at the carnival, Puppet Master starts controlling Dazzler to ensure that Peter’s vision comes true. She plays until her finger bleeds, bringing tons of people to the carnival. It’s Sylar that saves Dazzler, redeeming himself. We take a look at Hiro and he’s found Charlie! She’s an old woman now, having met Hiro 65 years ago! Hiro wants to bring her back to the past but when he realizes that she has led a full life, Hiro realizes his hero’s journey is complete. He’s off to Central Park, too. The finale sees Claire, HRG, and Multiple Man convincing everyone of Samuel’s true evil and everyone starts bailing. It isn’t enough as Samuel starts trying to destroy everyone. Peter is there to fight against him and Hiro manages to teleport everyone away from the carnival, leaving Samuel powerless. Samuel’s reign of terror is over, for now. We start off Volume 6 in the last few minutes. HRG continues covering it all up, but Claire demonstrates to the whole world and all the reporters exactly what is going on by climbing off the Ferris wheel. Sylar tells Peter that he enjoys doing good as Peter, Hiro and Ando watch Claire change everything by leaping off the Ferris wheel and getting up with no problem. There’s a cool callback to the very first episode of Heroes, too. This was a good ending to Volume 5, with Samuel being defeated and Volume 6 will probably start the close of the show, with the cat out of the bag on the whole Heroes thing.
Happy Valentine's Day!
February 14th, 2010
Wow, welcome back fair readers. I am really sorry for the delays but I was uber-stressed these past few days because the Yearbook of my school (which I run) was due on Friday and I worked a bunch of hours on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and didn't really lend time to post online. Yesterday I was just out late and forgot so that was my bad. Anyway, the yearbook is (for all intents and purposes) done so that is one big load off my shoulders.
I was able to do a lot of work on the yearbook on Wednesday and Thursday because I was lucky enough to have two days off from work because of the snow. That let me do a lot of work I would've had to do at night and it even let me have a few hours to sneak in a WWE review from Classics.com. So the first thing I want to post is the WWE Superstars episode from September 7th, 1991. I had a lot of fun watching the episode but I find my enjoyment of these episodes depends on the mood I'm in. I also have to post the review that should've been here yesterday and that review happened to be for the Marvel 70th Anniversary Magazine. I finished this a long time ago but it's only seeing the light of day now. I didn't realize how short a review it is but I think it sums up the magazine nicely.
One big thing that is happening right now in the world of sports is the Olympics. Unfortunately, the Olympics got off to a TERRIBLE start with a Georgian luger losing his life going around one of the turns and being shot through the air and into a steel post. It's a scary video for those who have seen it. I wonder if sports like that are worth having? The danger is very high and maybe the luge isn't a sport that should be played. I missed the opening ceremonies and I wasn't too bummed about it. I don't like the Winter Olympics as much and the only sport I really like seeing is the hockey. The men's hockey doesn't start until Tuesday (with the NHL stopping play after tonight) and the women's hockey got off to a record-breaking start. The Canadian women's team just DESTROYED Slovakia 18-0 in the most lopsided women's match in Olympic history. I fear that women's hockey may go the way of softball in the summer olympics. It's really only two teams that vie for the title, USA and Canada. There needs to be some more parity for the sport. In terms of men's hockey, I fear the USA won't be doing all that well and it looks like Canada may win the gold again, though if Lundqvist is playing well for Sweden anything can happen.
I'll close up today with what is supposed to be here on Sundays: the DVD Review of the week! This is one I finished about a month ago; The Rise and Fall of WCW. I enjoyed the disc and I think you'll like the review. I only have two reviews left to post so I better finish off the ones I have so I can keep up with the weekly content! I am working on X-Men: Origins - Wolverine right now, and after that is the Hulk Hogan DVD that came out late last year. I hope to finish at least three DVD reviews during my week of this week (Origins, Hulk and maybe Shrek 3) but if I bank two I will be happy. Anyway, in regards to reviews for the week, Animation Domination is brand new tonight so expect that to be posted tomorrow. Maybe earlier than normal because Heroes is done for the season. Tuesday's TPL is on track (I just need to write about the issues which isn't too bad since, like I said, I'm off this week) and after that you'll probably get your Saturday trade. Maybe I'll have something for Thursday but I make no guarantees.
Oh yeah, one more thing before I go: Happy Valentine's Day!
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