Monday Night Reviews

DANCING WITH THE HOUGHNESS- This week on Dancing with the Stars....oh, who cares. How is our boy Derek doing? This week he did the Paso Doble. For those not familiar, in the Paso Doble the man is supposed to be a tough, masculine bullfighter and the woman is his cape. Hey Paint Hougher, what do you think of that?

If Houghness got into a bullfighting ring, he'd win because the bull would die of laughter.

ALIENS IN AMERICA-Mark it down, folks. It took 3 episodes for Aliens in America to have Raja accused of terrorism. He didn't get sent to Gitmo. Pretty unrealistic considering the evidence against him. He definitely would've been Renditioned in real life.

THE GAME-The Game was so thought-provoking. If you have an episode devoted to how much of a cliche one of your characters is on a show that's one giant cliche is that ironic, deep, or a cliche? This clip is going into the video all-stars this week. Enjoy a preview now

JOURNEYMAN-I watched this less than 24 hours ago and I'd need a time machine just to remember what happened. One thing I do remember is that we never found out why it was important or Dan to save this week's time travel beneficiary. Are we just going with the value of human life now? I also remember that the ads promised me that Dan would have to figure out if he could take another life to save someone. He asks Livia that question (she tells him it's cool 'cuz it's the past so it doesn't count-infallible logic), he just never has to make the call. Lame.

WEEDS-I thought this was the season finale. It wasn't. Andy Milder (Dean) is amazing this week. He does his best work incapacitated in a full body cast and wheelchair. Celia catches Nancy screwing her new boyfriend. Next week is going to be very interesting.

Monday Night Reviews

DANCING WITH THE STARS- Very boring this week, no dancefloor disasters to cut the bad dancing and the blatant self-promotion. Speaking of which, Maksim worked his Vegas stage show into his video package and Floyd actually told us to buy his Pay-per-view fight. I really hate these people. I also have a gripe with this show: some of the dancers were not actually doing a ballroom Tango. I'm pretty sure no one will care to hear why so I'll just leave it at that until someone engages me about it.
HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER- Not a standout episode. It was trying to be far more outrageous than it actually was. You can't do a threesome storyline properly with an 8pm timeslot on CBS. The most noteworthy part of the episode-for all the wrong reasons- was that Bob Saget spends the episode narrating a story about the time he may or may not have had sex with 2 sorority girls to his tween children. You've gotta love CBS's family-friendly slate of programming.
PRISON BREAK- Prison Break is so strange this season. There's way too much going on, too many subplots, too many characters, and none of it makes any sense. At least the producers took care of the Sarah situation on Monday. I was getting tired of seeing that bad body double. It's amazing that PB has conditioned me to be more shocked when there is no twist. At the end of last week they left us wondering "What's in the box?" This being PB, I assumed it wouldn't be what I expected...but it was. Job well done Prison Break. Job well done.
ALIENS IN AMERICA- Aliens faltered a bit in its second week. I'm glad they cut some of the sentimentality; but it's still not hitting hard enough on the laughs. The show is holding itself back. Also of note: some of the peripheral characters have been recast without explanation. The bullies and the guidance counsellor are clearly now played by different actors. The show tries to hide this by not referring to these characters by name, so that maybe we'll believe that they're not the same people.
MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL- Why can't my Bills just win a game already. This week was especially depressing. I felt like we came so close. This was probably the most exciting 4th Quarter I'll see all regular season. Too bad it didn't go my way.
THE GAME- Speaking of football, this episode of The Game actually featured its characters playing some. Here's the thing; last season this show was a sitcom. Complete with laugh track and multi-camera action. This season it's just a half hour Tyler Perry movie. I'd say the show isn't funny anymore; but I don't think it's even trying to be. They're even piping uncomfortable laughter through the laugh track. The whole experience is surreal because it feels like a sitcom in the way it's shot; but it plays like a cheesy nighttime soap. Here's a clip:


JOURNEYMAN- Boo hoo, Dan used to be addicted to gambling. I liked him better when he was a crackhead. This week's task: stop a crappy lawyer from killing himself over his gambling debt so that he can evnetually become a good lawyer and get innocent people off death row. A noble purpose, no doubt. I'm just not sure why it takes Dan half a dozen trips to do that and why the solution is to have a building fall on the guy.
WEEDS- Filler episode to set up next week's season finale. Some good bits involving the always hilarious Kevin Nealon and Justin Kirk, including this one:

Aliens in America Update

Yesterday I said I wasn't sure about the recasting on Aliens in America. Last night I was able to watch the new version of the pilot, and I have to say it was completely unsettling. Don't take my word for it; compare them for yourself. Here are two scenes featuring the dad that demonstrate how this is like a whole new show with the cast change. In this first scene the old dad plays it like he's Justin's bitch, while Scott Patterson looks like he's gonna beat the kid down for messing with his breakfast time.

This second scene entertained me because you can tell the difference just by the props they give the two actors for their scene.

What's On Kongye's TiVo: Now With Even More BitTorrent Action

Someone just asked him what he finds most sexy on a woman

PRISON BREAK- 8pm, Fox- According to the description "Determined to speak with Sara, Michael enlists T-Bag's help to get to the only phone in Sona." Something tells me that's not going to work out so well for him. This show is aggressively boring this season; but at least Wenty is slowly getting more naked.

DANCING WITH THE STARS-8pm, ABC- Why do I watch this? Take a look at the picture above and tell me if you could resist the magic of THE HOUGHNESS. I didn't think so.

THE GAME- 9:30, The CW- My TiVo has an affirmative action policy (I'm kidding, please don't send angry letters). I have personal reasons for liking this show. Plus, there's nothing on at 9.

JOURNEYMAN- 10pm, NBC- I'm going to give Journeyman another week to show me what it has to offer. I'll let you know how that went later.

WEEDS- 10pm, Showtime- This show just keeps getting better. I have no idea what's going to happen this week; but last week ended with Mary Louise Parker getting eaten out by her boss and the discovery of her DEA-agent husband's body. That's as good a set-up as I could ask for.

*****NEW FEATURE*********

WHAT PIRATED MATERIAL WILL BE ON KONGYE'S HARD DRIVE?

Since TiVo only allows 2 programs to be recorded at the same time, there are occasions where Kongye has to enlist the assistance of BitTorrent to watch quality programming that slips through the cracks. The criteria for what goes on the box and what gets downloaded has nothing to do with which show Kongye likes more or what show is better. As a general rule 1 hour programs get TiVoed because they take longer to DL and because its less efficient to set smaller timeframes on the DVR. Beyond that, it's really just a random judgment call based on what is most readily available online at the fastest speeds.

HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER- NPH just keeps getting better. Last week was chock full of Barney goodness and this week he puts on an accent! I'll be watching this long before I get to the other stuff I'm actually recording in the 8pm timeslot.

ALIENS IN AMERICA- We'll be checking out the new cast of this one to see if it's improved the show or made it worse. Stay tuned for the results.

Aliens in America Review

Let’s get back in the swing of the blog with a fresh review. Also added today is my supplement to Phallic’s Moonlight review. That was inserted in a way that makes some chronological sense. Check it out if you’re interested.


Today we take a look at ALIENS IN AMERICA. Premiering tonight on The CW, Aliens is a new single-camera half-hour sitcom. The premise of this show is that a geeky Midwestern kid’s parents decide to import a foreign exchange student to befriend him and make him more popular. To their horror they get a traditional Muslim from Pakistan instead of a hunky WASP. It stars a sweet, if questionably talented, Dan Byrd as awkward Justin Tolchuk.
This show is pretty innocuous. It has some funny moments, and at times it’s quite smart. While I think the show itself will be decent, I didn’t necessarily enjoy the pilot on its own merits. The pacing was inconsistent and I didn’t feel like it had found its voice or tone yet. There were many sentimental scenes; but there are also quite a few crude jokes, too. Both worked individually, they just didn’t blend well together. There is a subplot about Justin’s sister that generates some fantastic comedy. Both Phallic and I felt that an early scene where school bullies tell Justin what they would do to Claire if she was their sister was the funniest thing in the pilot. On the other side of the spectrum, the scenes where we get emotional with these characters are also well done, even if slightly out of place. Raja is just so unrealistically perfect, with the most obviously heart-tugging of all back stories that he floats angelically on a different plane than these other people. For a show that’s trying to make the point that despite our cultural differences we are all the same, that isn’t a good thing.
Also worth noting is that the father has been recast here. Having seen the original pilot, I don’t understand this move at all. The new father is Scott Patterson from Gilmore Girls. I understand The CW’s impulse to keep this guy with their network after the end of that show. He probably has a certain fan base that will be really excited about this move. However, Patterson isn’t at all suitable for this role as written. In the pilot the dad is an older version of the son. He’s a gawky, nerdy Wisconsin accountant type. The dad’s main personality feature is that he’s obsessed with supplementing his income with stupid schemes. I’m not sure what CW execs were thinking on this one.

Verdict: This showed some definite promise from the pilot. In they can figure out what they want this show to be and keep it simple, this could be one of the better family-friendly comedies on TV. As far as the show’s future goes, I’m not too sure. With a midseason replacement in the half hour format already in the can at The CW (Eight Days a Week), Aliens will have to perform strongly in the middle of 3 shows that generate no common audience (all from the former UPN). Even if it makes it past the first season, you then have the problem of figuring out how to keep the exchange around an extra year to further the plot.

Would I Watch It? Too early to tell.