Guest Blog from Steadman's Army: Let's Talk TV

Enjoy this guest blog from Steadman's Army, it has been a while since we had any guest bloggers here, and a while since I devoted any real time to blogging about TV watching. This blog takes care of both! Enjoy.

Let’s talk TV. This will be my second year of using Aileen’s blog as a vehicle for informing the public what they should be watching. My credentials? I continue to pay over $230/month for the fios triple play with the platinum movie package and 5 cable boxes, including 3 hi-def DVR’s. BTW, there are 4 people living in my house, inc. an 11 month old and the occasional in-laws. Deal with it. About 6 months ago I also noticed the playboy package (2 channels) had been added as well at 17.99/month, although no one in the house seems to know anything about it I narrowed the suspects down to my father-in-law and my 3 year old son - and I could not be any prouder of either of them. Obviously I kept paying for it even though it’s essentially unwatchable until the ‘juicy stuff’ comes on after 11pm, aka my bedtime. Deal with it.


Smallville is in its final run and on track for its best season yet. This isn’t saying much considering the first five seasons all consisted of Clark talking to Lana about feelings in the loft of his barn. It was about as much fun as taking a cheese grater to your privates, but she was finally written off and now Lois Lane is out-acting and out-cleavaging everyone on the show. It’s glorious. As Hugh Laurie is back into full vicodin relapse, House continues to deliver the goods. 30 Rock is the best comedy on TV, and has been since its inception. Two and Half men, winner of like 15 emmy’s for best comedy, has always sucked, and Modern Family and The Middle are worth mentioning but certainly do not get DVR privileges on any of my box space. NBC’s Thursday night lineup, The Office, Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock is still king. 48 Hours Mystery is the best show on Saturday night, and CBS Sunday Morning is the jewel in Sunday’s crown.

Other than that I have been watching the occasional Antiques Roadshow and an insane amount of Wow Wow Wubbzy. I don’t have time to watch anything good, ok? My wife and I get about an hour to ourselves from 9-10 at night and most of that I spend in a scalding hot shower with like 100 pieces of gum in my mouth crying tears of blood.

Wubbzy

Oh, and I have the DVR queued up for the upcoming HBO miniseries ‘Game of Thrones’ but that will probably sit unwatched until it gets bumped for space because somebody accidentally taped 2 hours of ‘Golden Oldies’ music on channel 1927. Deal with it.

TV Trouble

Last week the TiVo failed to do its only job. I think this was partially my fault because I have been using the fax so much that the TiVo was unable to connect and update through the phone line.

This is just another reason why I think I will be calling Cablevision and getting the DVR.

Anyway, besides the fact that the TiVo didn't record anything on Monday, I never actually set it to record the Biggest Loser on Tuesday. However, it did record the first half hour of the second hour of the show so I saw that Nicole lost the biggest percentage of weight at home and was back on the scale. I also saw that she gained 5lbs, Laura gained 1, Kristen dropped 4 and then it cut off. My goal was to actually watch the entire episode online so that I could actually be an informed blogger, but that didn't happen so I just looked it up.

So, in a quick recap and correct me if I am wrong. Allison Sweeny had her baby, Nicole got back on the ranch was given immunity and was immediately annoyed by Tara, Ron went to the hospital with a bleeding ulcer, Sione won an extra pound at the weigh in, Nicole gained 5lbs and lost immunity, Ron gained 3lbs and Nicole was voted off.

I hope that covers it. This week the TiVo is set and I am planning some quality time with it.

ER Finale

I feel like I should comment on the final episode of ER. This was a show that fifteen years ago, we used to cram into (well not cram, I went to Loyola and we had super sized rooms) and watch, where nobody was allowed to talk unless it was a commercial and then we all went out after at 11pm. It was a big bonding show and I remember the frenetic pace of it and the fact that not everything always turned out alright. Patients died on the table all the time and even though we got to know the characters personally, it wasn't some huge drama about relationships and love lives, it was a show about people who worked their asses off in the emergency room and who entertained us each week.

I was prepared to cry the final episode, but I wasn't totally moved. Granted the mom dying after delivering twins and leaving three other kids motherless wasn't very upbeat and at 23 weeks pregnant you would think that some sort of hormonal thing would have kicked in, but overall I thought it was a pretty average episode.

I think that the writers tried too hard to fit in all the old characters, and although it was nice to see them, it just seemed like a time filler. Plus, I am not super vested in the whole Carter/Kem relationship and wondered why they even included it.

I think what I really want to say, is that although the final episode wasn't the greatest one I have ever seen, I really think that the show was one of the best medical one's on TV. Even in its fifteenth year. Granted I only started to watch ER again about 3 years ago, but caught plenty of the old ones that I had seen and missed in the early days of the Lady being home on TNT during Prime Time in the Daytime. Las Vegas anyone?

I watch House and Grey's and although I like them both for different reasons, there are plenty of things about them that are a little annoying. Take House for instance, he has his team try a thousand things, two of which will definitely kill them, before he has a heart to heart with Wilson about something related to his personality and is suddenly hit with the correct answer. And did anybody see last night's episode? Kutner dead? By suicide? Did Kal Penn have another Harold and Kumar to make? And Grey's. . . as much as I am caught up in the melodrama of it all it is a bit weepy and heavy handed at points. The only thing it has in common with ER is that they both had patients with broken penises this year.

So, ER was the one "reality" medical drama where you could relate to not only the doctors and nurses, but to the patients as well. I will miss it and when baby number 2 comes, will try to catch as many episodes as I can at 11am on TNT.