Happy Sunday My Friends!

This week was filled with some great television and some not so great stuff.  I did give a few new shows a shot, not all of them are going to make the cut and a couple are still on the fence  One such show is My Generation, it was alright (not great) but has some potential so I’ll DVR for a week or so to see if it”s worthwhile but since it falls on Thursday when I have loads of other shows I love it’s potential is further diminished.

Some shows tied up their seasons, others began and a few continued forward.

Boardwalk Empire

Great show!  By great I mean, totally awesome show you definitely should be watching.  I mean it, if you put nothing else on your DVR this season definitely season pass Boardwalk Empire.  It’s got booze, jazz, mobsters, and Martin Scorsese backing it.  TOTAL WIN!

Steve Bucemi as Nucky was a stellar choice.  He’s no hearthrob but he’s completely convincing as a two-faced politician out to make loads of cash and accrue as much power for himself as possible. What’s so great about Bucemi’s Nucky is that in one breath he’s this sweet law abiding guy who wants to help a woman in distress then in the next he’s having people killed.

So the low down is — Nucky is a politician in prohibition-era Atlantic City. He’s as corrupt a politician as it gets at this time, one who works with mobsters to import liquor.  He’s got a Boy Friday as an enforcer, loads of cops on the payola and a growing obsession with a local abused housewife that reminds him of his dead wife.  Oh and there’s the government investigation.  He’s dirty, they know it and now they want to prove it and will stop at nothing to do so.  They even recruit Boy Friday (or did they?) to be a mole.  That is the most interesting part of the show for sure.  Boy Friday could be playing both sides or remain true to either side, I doubt viewers ever know until the bitter end of the series and even then maybe not.

The scene for the show was set in this episode.  We got loads of character introduction.  We learned about relationships and history and what some of the goals are for each.  Of course this will all progress as the show progresses but as it stands right now it’s already a must see.

The Vampire Diaries

Elena and Damon went with Mr. History Teacher to Duke to learn more about Katherine’s past in the hopes that they can be better prepared for whatever she’s got planned for them.  The most interesting part of the trip (well besides the usual chem oozing off the screen between them) is the continued debate about whether they are friends or not.  Elena’s being a hard ass and manipulated him into helping her and divulging information he wouldn’t normally have shared.  Damon is genuinely hurt by her actions leading up the most fabulous comment of the episode whereby Damon tells Elena that she was more like Katherine than she knows.  AWESOMENESS.

Speaking of chemistry, I have to say that once again Caroline brought out something in Stefan.  He has always struck me as a bit more wallpaperish until now but as this version of the guy, the one who’s helping her adjust to vampirism, he’s got some personality and I’m liking it.  The sad part about this is that I suspect things are gearing up for an interspecies romance between the vamp and the werewolf (Tyler).  Caroline got dumped by Matt and Tyler got shot down by his piece of patoot du jour and there has to be a point to that. More importantly there has to be a point to the whole werewolf thing (outside of their ability to kill vampires) that brought the brother in to show Tyler’s true nature.  Time will tell.  Still not my favorite part of the story but it’s slowly getting better. At least this week we saw the brother change into a wolf and attack people, oh and get admonished and sent away by a mere request so he’s able to be controled.

Can I say that I’m still totally liking Caroline being super bitchy and bordering on evil?  I’m feeling pretty confident that it’s only going to get more so since Katherine showed up to chat with her at the end. me thinks they will be quite the dynamic duo.

Nikita

I’m still really enjoying this show, but I have to admit there isn’t a whole lot of substance to it.  It’s kinda always the same deal — Nikita finds out Division’s mission, she uses Alex the mole to get information and assistance and then foils said plot.  There’s lots of manipulating, and fight sequences and explosions.  Nikita always relates in some way to the person she’s saving and we always get just the tiniest piece of her puzzle to put into the larger whole.

I think that is the thing that has me losing a bit of interest.  We’re not seeing any significant development or progression.  It’s kind of just a showcase for Nikita’s sexiness and shoot ‘em up action scenes.  The tiny pieces of relevant information and plot are secondary and trickling out at such a slow pace it’s barely relevant at this point.  If they don’t start to give more I suspect this show isn’t long for the world.  The sexy ass kicker is only going to go so far for so long.

Tonight Nikita saved a reporter who had information on a plane crash in which Division had a role.  They were smuggling drugs on the plane and dropped in to pick up said drugs instead of helping save crash victims.  Now they want to cover that up by getting back an amateur video shot of their retrieval of the drugs.  So Division goes after said reporter and Nikita saves her (with the help of Alex).  Michael once again got his ass kicked and Nikita once again came out on top.  About the only thing new and relatively interesting was Alex’s increasing connection to another recruit.  They seem to have a bit of an interest in each other but I won’t be surprised to see him be a plant by Division.  So at least there is that, but all in all they need to get moving more on some actual plot.

Supernatural

How I love me some Sam and Dean!

Dean is living the normal family life with Lisa and Ben.  Cooking burgers on the grill, working his construction job, and just being typical in most every way.  Until one night, strange things start happening.  Nope not just the nightmares he’s used to having at this point but creepy otherwoldy things.  But is that the biggest shock for his family life?  Um, nope.  Welcome home Sam!!

But wait, Sam isn’t the only one back.  Dean is the proud new member of the extended Campbell family (three new cousins, etc), lead by the one an only dead grandpa.  There’s a whole lotta resurrection going on here folks! The interesting thing is even though Dean’s being told that they are there to save the world I have a sneaking suspicion that this is not the case.  In fact I’m not even sure that any of these people really are who they say they are.  I got the definite evil vibe from some of the new Campbell “family” particularly grandpa.  It’s too early to tell how much lurks underneath, obviously, but the vibe is definitely there.  The question is who, how and is any of it going to be a double-cross or some such thing.

Gotta say that the Sam/Dean reunion fell short for me.  Dean was a little flat in this episode, his snark was missing and the emotion between he and Sam was just kinda there.  I can’t decide if that was on purpose (ie: that is what the writers/directors wanted) because he’s supposed to be blindsided and stunned or if the boys are just over playing it all and are just going through the motions.  I hope it’s the former not the latter but time will tell on that one.

Blue Bloods

This was one of the shows that I was on the fence about but one of my girl-friends is a HUGE New Kids on the Block fan and basically convinced me to watch it for Donnie Whalberg, haha.  Low and behold, I totally liked it.

New York family of cops and lawyers navigating death, divorce, and the law.  There’s plenty of dysfunction, strong personalities, and an interesting plot.  It’s not the typical procedural drama — we didn’t see how the evidence was collected or really how it was interpreted.  No, this show is more about the Reagan family and how they interact, the police and law stuff is just the catalyst for that.  In this episode we saw the youngest son (a Harvard law grad) graduate from the police academy and start his beat, daughter (in the midst of a divorce) DA navigating work and parenting, daddy police commissioner battling both the press and the mayor, and older cop son beating up a perp to find a stolen girl before she dies.  It moved pretty quickly, had interesting turns and decent characters.

There was a nice twist towards the end of the episode — a covert “blue templar” organization of corrupt cops was revealed to exist.  So dad’s the police commish and has no clue about this investigate, sone number #1 is a member of said group, and son #2 is killed investigating it.   Now beat cop baby brother was asked to participate because his older brother was part of the investigation and was killed when he was found out.  It’s got great promise to see if he betrays the family enough to join in and investigate.

I’m going to stick with this one for the time being.

Survivor

This week found the tribe dynamics becoming increasingly strained.  Both the old timers and the new timers and young ‘uns had their proverbial thorns in sides.  At least for the youngsters Naonka was entertaining about it.  The girl has zero filter and just pretty much abuses everyone.  It’s kind of entertaining.  The old timers were just nattering each other in general, there wasn’t a whole lot of substance to it outside of one guy’s $600 shoes getting filled with sand and dropped into the ocean.  But seriously, who brings $600 dollar shoes into the jungle in the first place?

The immunity challenge was interesting — it was an obstacle course where a person slides through the mud to retrieve a ball that is then tossed from castaway to castaway via a flat board (on which they must balance the ball) and then finally tossed into a bucket.  If the ball falls onto the ground you start over.  In the end the older folks came out on top after a very close race.  The young ‘ums headed to Tribal Council!

But first there was all sorts of positioning back at the young ‘uns camp.  Everyone was trying to work things in their own favor and truly it was anyone’s guess who was going to be the ultimate cast off.  Well that is until one particular person started running their mouth of.  So off they go….tribal council and man, what a great meeting it was, there was just so much animosity.  People were hurling insults left and right.  In the end it was Shannon who found his torch snuffed.

Can I just say that Shannon is just a great big huge helping of dumbass?  Seriously, no SERIOUSLY, first rule of Survivor – keep your stinkin’ mouth shut at tribal council.  You always end up getting the boot because you inevitably say something incredibly stupid.  Boy oh boy did Shannon step in it not once, not twice, but so very many times it was almost impossible NOT to get rid of him.

Hawaii 5-0

This is definitely my new favorite show of the season.  It’s got great eye candy (Alex O’Loughlin – yum yum gimme some), great characters with loads of chemistry together, good plot, and just the right level of action.  It’s put together really well visually and the writing had me laughing one minute and the tiniest bit emotional a few later.  Now don’t get me wrong, this isn’t going to be one of those shows that has loads of morals or heart-wrenching drama but it will have enough meaning and depth to keep people interested and not fall into the pitfall of being too action oriented.

The show starts out with Steve  McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) the military man tracking down one of a set of criminal brothers. He’s got him in custody and the other is still out roaming free.  Unfortunately the free one has Steve’s father hostage and wants to trade one for the other.  When a deal can’t be made the bad guy kills the father.  This is what brings McGarrett back to Hawaii.  Once there the governor (also a friend of the father) offers the ability to create a special no holds barred and no limits task force to investigate his father’s death by .  After a series of mis-steps he agrees to head the task force and the team building begins.

I liked how we were introduced to the different team members (Chin, Danny, and Kona) as they were brought in to help work on the case.  I got to see their background, I got to see their strengths, and most of all I got to see some of their personalities.  They really are a great team and enjoyable to watch.  I’m looking forward to seeing their dynamic build up.  They are a lot of fun so far.

I have to say I was surprised that the guy who killed the father was dead by the end of the episode.  I thought for sure that would be a thread that was going to be carried throughout the season.  It wasn’t necessary that it do so but I just thought it was odd that it was finished so quickly. It was a good ending though and we got the “book ‘em Dano” shout out!  Definitely a show to keep on the roster!

Glee

Love this show!  It’s just so much fun!

The first episode pretty much focused on what everyone did over the summer and where they are in regards to glee club now.  I kinda felt a little meh about the episode honestly, it wasn’t fabulous it wasn’t hideous.

The good – Tina and Mike got together at Asian camp over the summer.  They are a fun couple, I’m excited to see more of.  New characters! Sunshine is an exchange student who can seriously belt the songs out.  Sam is a new boy who is on the football team and can sing and play guitar. Coach Biest replaces Ken as the leader of the jocks.  She united Mr. Schu and Sue for a short time as their budgets were cut to give more to the football team but then Mr. Schu switch back into his normal caring self. I’m sure there will be more animosity to come.  Quinn is going back to her bitchy roots and got back on the cheerios.

The bad – Poor Artie got hosed by Tina’s dumping.  We didn’t see Emma at all.  I don’t know why she wasn’t at the very least part of the Coach Biest stuff particularly since she was going to marry Ken and now he’s gone.  Was it necessary to do the whole Santana boob-job thing for conflict between she and Quinn?  Wasn’t there enough already?

A little good a little bad – Rachel is her usual power and control hungry self, this can work for a little while but it does get old. They need to move her a little further on in the character development department. The new guy — he’s Finn, we already have Finn.  They’ve introduced him exactly as they did with Finn, he sings, he’s the quarterback….it’s kinda uneccessary unless we see some sort of nefariousness later I suppose.  Sunshine getting scooped up by Vocal Adreneline — Rachel made it happen (source of conflict for glee club later I’m sure) — it will be fun to see how she fits in but we’ve been down the path of their rivalry before so it’s got potential to get stale.

Gotta say that the best part of the episode was the preview for next week’s Brittney episode.  It’s going to be AWESOME!

I also tried The Event and honestly don’t know that I’ll keep up with that one.  It paled in comparison to Lost and the disjointed premier that tried to give us everyone’s back story quickly enough so they could cram in “the event” in the first episode made it seem very convoluted and rushed.  I’m going to try this week to see if it piques my interest further but honestly don’t know if I’ll keep with it.  I also caught the Biggest Loser, but it’s not worth spending loads of time on here because it just basically gave back story on everyone who was selected to go to the ranch.  Castle was great he and Beckett still have it and I like that they’re giving more time to the rest of the crew.  Great ensemble cast with the ability to do the fun and funny as well as the serious.

I’ve still got Fringe, The Mentalist (which I’m watching as we speak and love me some Simon Baker!) and Grey’s on DVR to get through too!

Title: Something Like Fate
Author: Susane Colasanti [website] [twitter] [facebook]
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Viking
Format: Paperback
Source: Book Club Swap
Parental Advisory: none
Teachable Moments: being true to one’s self, honesty and responsibility, bullying, peer pressure

“In a school as small as ours, you know the names of everyone in your class.  There are seventy-three people in our junior class.  Most of us have gone to school together since first grade.  But that doesn’t mean we actually know one another.  I know people by their reputations and who they hang out with and how they act in class.  These judgments aren’t based on truth.  You can’t ever know the real anybody, unless you’re friends with them.  And sometimes not even then.”

Summary (from the publisher):
Lani and Erin are lifelong best friends — and total opposites.  Lani’s a down-to-earth Taurus; Erin’s a fiery Leo.  Lani likes to do her own thing’ Erin prefers an entourage.  They’ve always had wildly different tastes, from pizza toppings to guys.

That is, until Erin starts dating Jason.

From the minute Lani meets Jason, she can’t deny the amazing connection she feels with him.  It’s like they’ve known each other their whole lives.  She’s not sure if he feels it, too — but even if he does, he’s off-limits.  Lani’s determined to ignore her feelings for Jason, no matter how powerful they are, rather than hurt her best friend.

Then Erin goes away for the summer — and Jason seems to appear everywhere Lani turns.  How long can she keep running from the guy who just might be the love of her life?

Opinion:
Something Like Fate is a swiftly moving book with a realistic and relatable plot featuring accessible characters.

Colasanti has created a complex lead character for a girl Lani’s age.  Wise beyond her years, she is emotional and genuinely caring of the feelings of those around her.  It is for this reason that she fights her own feelings for Jason (her best friend’s boyfriend) so much; feelings, pre-dating Erin’s,  that she endeavors to tamp down and push away with very little success.  It isn’t until Jason appears to be reciprocating that Lani gives in and no longer ignores it all.

Admittedly I did struggle some with Lani’s desire to make everyone else happy.  She was so worried about how her own relationship with Jason was building that she takes on the brunt of the abuse her classmates dish out as a result of the ultimate betrayal.  She accepts the ridicule and even reaches out to the people who in turn betrayed her without cause. Even though it showed great strength and endurance I don’t know how believable it is that a girl that age would actually do so.

Jason, too, was a decent enough guy.  He didn’t go into his relationship with Erin looking to fall for her best friend and certainly didn’t look to hurt her.  Having said that, he made some serious miscalculations and missteps in how he handled the end of their relationship.  In this way I thought it made him less swoon-worthy and just a regular guy. He was definitely flawed and his actions portrayed his boyishness. I liked that a great deal.

I can’t say I felt amazing amounts of chemistry between any of the characters in a romantic way.  In fact, the two characters with the most chemistry were Lani and Erin.  But even that didn’t make the story. What made the story was the way the events of Jason and Lani’s betrayal fell out.  The way everyone in school reacted and how the main characters themselves reacted.  That is the most intriguing and interesting element of this story.  That being said, I felt as though the book missed the opportunity to speak more about the aspect of bullying in high school.  I know, not every book needs to focus on a social issue, but Colasanti did an excellent job writing the actual acts of bullying.  Lani’s descent into outcast status as a result of gossip and innuendo (among other things) was as realistic as it gets for a teen.  This focus had the opportunity to be a much bigger teachable moment than it ended up being.

**spoiler alert**

Further, I felt like the end was a bit convenient.  I like the moral it teaches — that long time friends can encounter relationship altering difficulties and still find their way back to each other — but don’t know how true to life that is.  In fact that might be the one element of this book that stepped outside of the reality and more into the “wouldn’t it be nice if” territory for me.  Situations like this tend to be deal breakers for friendships at this age so the fact that it was a happy ending for all felt off.

**end spoiler**

All in all I found Something Like Fate to be an enjoyable read. but admit there was a definite level of predictability.  I can’t say, though, that this predictability doesn’t come as a direct result of reading this book through the lens of my age and life experience.  So for that reason it may not be the best young adult book for an adult to pick up.  It is certainly good for pre-teens and teens who have little to no experience in platonic relationships progressing into the romantic or navigating tenuous friendships amongst different social circles.  These readers will likely have far more ability to work through the story with more anticipation for what comes next.

In case you haven’t heard me talk about it, I’m a big fan of the Cybils — The Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards.  As described by the organizers the purpose of the awards are:

” Reward the children’s and young adult authors (and illustrators, let’s not forget them) whose books combine the highest literary merit and “kid appeal.” What’s that mean? If some la-di-dah awards can be compared to brussel sprouts, and other, more populist ones to gummy bears, we’re thinking more like organic chicken nuggets. We’re yummy and nutritious.

[and]

Foster a sense of community among bloggers who write about children’s and YA literature, highlight our best reviewers (and shamelessly promote their blogs) and provide a forum for the similarly obsessed.”

Who wouldn’t want to be part of that?  I mean, seriously?  It’s a boatload of awesomeness for a lover of young adult and children’s literature!

That’s why I’m super excited to announce that I’ve been selected to serve on the panel for the Young Adult Fiction category of the awards.  Speaking of awesomeness, look at who I get to work with:

Panel Organizer: Jackie Parker, Interactive Reader

Panelists (Round I Judges):

Cherylynne W. Bago, View from Above and Beyond
Justina Ireland, The YA 5
Kelly Jensen, Stacked
Ami Jones, Three Turtles and Their Pet Librarian
Jackie Parker (see panel organizer)
Amanda Snow, A Patchwork of Books
Melissa Wiley, Here in the Bonny Glen

Round II Judges:

Karen Ballum, Sassy Monkey
Kathy M. Burnette, The Brain Lair
Michelle Franz, Galleysmith
Alice Pope, SCBWI
Tasha Saecker, Kids Lit

I’m grateful that the organizers wanted to include me and I can’t wait to get started working with all of the wonderful panelists.

So how can you get involved?

Starting October 1, 2010 you can nominate titles in a variety of categories from young adult to picture books, from middle grade to easy readers.  You can also publicize the awards.  Throw some bling on your blog, post about the process and keep tabs on how things are progressing, the sky’s the limit.

Interested?  Well then head on over to the Cybils website and learn more. They have a wealth of information about the awards and the process.

Be prepared to hear more about the Cybils Awards on this here blog as I continue to encourage you all to get involved!

…. ready for his blogging debut!

This weekend had my good friends Lenore and her husband Daniel visiting the Metro-DC area for a book signing at Hooray for Books.

In case you weren’t aware Daniel is the artist behind the illustrative masterpiece Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten [order it!!] authored by Audrey Vernick.  Today I was lucky enough to attend the book signing to pick up a personally illustrated and autographed copy that I’m excited to add to my collection.

Look!  Buffalo is blogging!

How cool is that?  Cool right?

Huh, not cool enough?

How about Daniel in a buffalo cap?

Yup, now *that* is definitely cool!

I really enjoyed being able to spend time with a few of my local friends (Swapna, Jenn, Deb) as well as Lenore and Daniel as he signed and personalized my book along with Audrey before she read the book aloud.

Did I mention that I walked away from the store with more than the awesome Buffalo book?  Because, you all know me, impossible to go into a bookstore without coming back out with an armful of books.  I also picked up Oh.My.Gods and The Dairy Queen for Shelby — great big thanks to everyone who has continued to give me awesome suggestions — and Bruiser for myself.

But, really, the best part of the weekend was being able to spend quality time with friends I don’t get to see often enough.  It was fabulous time spent!

Happy Sunday My Friends!

This week was filled with awesome television.  Some shows tied up their seasons, others began and a few continued forward.

As I mentioned previously I watch a scary amount of television.  I have 2 DVRs and they both get a decent workout.  Wait, who am I kidding, they get a better workout than I do!  But I digress.  I don’t know that I’ll always chat about every show I watch mainly because this post would be epically long if I did but we’ll see how the season goes.  Sometimes my interest wains in a show and it drops off the radar so that could affect things here as well.

This was a pretty good week in television all, so here’s what I’m thinking (oh and there are spoilers so if you haven’t watched don’t read if you don’t want to know):

The Vampire Diaries

Yup, Damon is still H-O-doubleT HOT!  I saw it mentioned somewhere (Linus’s Blanket I believe) that Damon gets the best of everything on the show — he gets to be evil yet vulnerable, has fabulously snarky dialogue and really has boatloads of chemistry with just about every single character.  I couldn’t agree more and tonight’s episode is no different.

No actual physical traces of Katherine tonight, but boy was her handiwork prevalent.  Most particularly in Caroline. She’s begun her transformation into a vampire and I like it.  She’s got the bitch quotient and dare I say she might eventually be able to rival Kat in the evil and manipulative department.  I find Caroline far more interesting as a powerful bitch as opposed to the whiny needy girl she was in season one.  Kudos to the show makers for taking this risk. Oh, and can I mention that I think Stefan has far more chemistry with Caroline than Elena?  Cause he totally does.

Bonnie is still a bit manic.  One minute she’s the happy perky carnival worker hitting on the cute new guy then the next setting Damon on fire.  She’s got issues man and I’m thinking that now that she knows Caroline is moving over to the dark side she’s only going to get her spell on all the more.  As an aside, I’m still totally wondering if eventually they’ll use her and Damon together.  There is a pretty good vibe there and the good vs. evil thing could be interesting.

Anywho0, there was also some interesting stuff with Jeremy and Damon.  Will they join forces to keep the vampires a secret or is there something else going on in young Mr. Gilbert’s devious mind?  There was also a bit more of the Lockwoods and their werewolvery.  So far that plot bores me, mainly because I feel like the vamp vs. wolf thing is a tad played out in books, movies, and television.  But I’m going to keep an open mind for awhile and see how it progresses.

Nikita

This week’s terrorist du’jour was some nasty Eastern Bloc lunatic hiding plutonium that a whole bunch of other nasty nasties wanted to get their hands on.  Of course, one such team of nasties were Division.  I’m sure you know by now that means Nikita’s on the case too, right?

Interestingly enough this episode centered far more on Alex and how she became involved in Nikita’s plan than anything else.  Was totally reasonable, I needed to know how it came to be that Nikita partnered up with her.  So it goes something like this — Alex is a drug addict, Nikita saves her from rape by drug dealers, Nikita detoxes her, Alex rebels but then eventually she and Nikita grow closer over a common bond.  Alex’s background mirror’s Nikita’s, this isn’t any big shock.  There weren’t any huge revelations in what we saw.  YET.

I’ll say that I do think that there is some serious potential for Alex to become polarizing in some fashion.  She’s either going to turn on Nikita or fall in love with Michael and that will distance she and her partner in crime.

Speaking of Michael, I have to say Shane West is cute and all but he lacked the edge Michael needs to have.  He’s playing him too soft at this point.  I hope to see that change in coming episodes, I hope that tonight’s behavior (he saved Alex from sexual assault — which was admirable for sure) was a rare demonstration that he’s human enough to do the right thing but I’d still like to see him toughen up more.

All-in-all this episode wasn’t as fast-paced as the first but the show does have to build up story and characters, it can’t be smash ‘em up go, go, go every episode or it would get boring so it all made sense.

True Blood

Sookie finally got her sass and spunk back in this episode and I, for one, was glad to see it.  She’d gotten entirely too whiny for my tastes over the second season.  But….it was Eric who stole the show. The man was bad ass and still walked away looking like he had a heart of gold.  You can see all of my thoughts on the final episode of the season over in my column at Snark and Bark.

Big Brother

The final HOH had Haden winning (again) and choosing who he wanted to be in the final two with.  Naturally he picked Lane because he knew that bringing Enzo would likely mean absolute defeat.  Definitely a wise choice on his part.  Enzo had personality and didn’t really stab anyone in the back too badly.  He didn’t play an outright aggressive game (he left the challenge winning to other people) but he did a great job socially and did pull some string behind the scenes.

Is it any shock that Hayden ultimately won the grand prize?  I don’t think so.  What was shocking was the fact that the votes came down to just one tie-breaker between he and Lane, I couldn’t have imagined that in a million years.  Particularly given Lane’s inability to be articulate.  He totally shot himself in the foot with the final Q & A.  If anyone was on the fence I suspect Lane’s incoherence pretty much tipped it all in Hayden’s favor.

Oh and Brittney won the America’s Choice prize.  Also not a huge surprise, though I could have seen Enzo getting it too. The reunion show had some funny moments, specifically everyone’s reactions to the stunningly obnoxious Rachel.  The eye rolls and what not were fabulous!

Survivor

I went into this first episode of the season wondering if I was going to like the plot point of having a tribe of folks over 40 and a tribe of those under.  Like most, I think, I felt like that angle was pretty unbalanced and that the youngsters would be pre-disposed to win all challenges.  Particularly those that require domination of strength.  So, while I did like the angle as it related to the social dynamics of the tribes I can’t say I was entirely wrong about the challenge aspect.

This week the immunity challenge had a pretty benign physical aspect to it (filling buckets of water and sending the water down a chute to fill a larger bucket) it also had a portion focusing on mental capability (a puzzle).  So imagine my surprise when the older folks had a lead after the physical portion but then completely lost it with the puzzle.  I guess my stereotyping didn’t do me any good  this time because it was a total reversal of what my expectations were.  That teaches me!

I’m not going to go into a full on contestant description of everyone but there were a few standouts for me.  First, I think the younger set is going to get annoying really fast.  So arrogant and into their perceived power.  The dancing and singing into the first immunity challenge was lame and a total turn off.  BUT they have this one apparently dim kid they call Fabio.  Within minutes of arriving at camp this klutzy boy had hurt himself twice.  What’s better?  He grabs a machete.  A MACHETE!!  I thought for sure he was going to cut his arm off.  Don’t worry he didn’t but the potential is definitely there!

As it relates to the older folks I can’t say anyone in particular stands out the tribe was kind of blah when they were focused on but Jimmy J (yes that’s the Dallas Cowboy’s Jimmy Johnson) is an interesting addition.  I don’t think he’s long for the game mainly because he was already physically sick on the first day.  But if anyone is smart they won’t vote him off and try and take him to the final.  Given his celebrity status I don’t think anyone would give him the money.

The first contestant to go wasn’t a huge loss.  She was a woman from the older folks tribe and who didn’t really click with anyone.  She was pretty annoying to watch as well so I can’t say I’ll miss her presence.

Time will tell on how the season will progress but there’s some potential.

So, what did you all think of this week’s television?  I’m excited for a bunch of stuff to return and start up this week.  Most notably, this evening starts the new HBO show Boardwalk Empire which my friend in LA pre-screened and said was AWESOME.  Martin Scorsese….need I say more?  Also, this week I’ll be testing out new shows The Event, Hawaii 5-0, and My Generation as well as watching returning favorites Castle, Biggest Loser, Glee, Fringe, Grey’s Anatomy, The Mentalist and Supernatural.