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.