Week in Review, Nov 19 to 25

Back to all TV this week. I haven't started a new book yet. I am aware of no new music releases that interest me. And I'm still playing and enjoying New Super Mario Bros. Wii, but I'm going to hold any further comments until I complete it.

The Week in Television

Before I tackle the latest week, there was one item leftover from last week. Doctor Who's "The Waters of Mars" was both terrific and terrible, sometimes jumping from one extreme to the other within a couple of minutes. David Tennant was as great as ever, serious then silly then serious again, brilliantly depicting all sides of the Doctor's personality. The monsters were satisfyingly creepy, an area that Doctor Who excels in time and time again. And the story was reasonable, if a little too reminiscent of many past episodes, with a strong ending that sets up the next special nicely. On the terrible side, there was the ridiculous sonic screwdriver usage, the rocket-powered robot, and the majority of the characters. Ultimately, "The Waters of Mars" was pretty typical Russell T Davies era Doctor Who. Bring on the era of Steven Moffat!

Thursday, November 19th
Liked: 30 Rock (4x6), Fringe (2x8), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (5x10), The Office (6x11), Parks and Recreation (2x10)

I wasn't thrilled with any of the Thursday comedies this week; they were all good, but not great. 30 Rock was the funniest of the bunch with "Sun Tea," making the most of NBC Universal's annual insistence on an environmentally themed episode. The Office's contribution to the theme was Dwight as the ridiculous Recyclops--fortunately that only ruined the cold opening. The rest of "Shareholder Meeting" was okay, intermittently funny, with Jim's smackdown of Ryan as the highlight. The Parks and Recreation crew went on a "Hunting Trip" this week, with Jerry getting a rare chance to shine, and Ron getting shot by Tom, but the best laughs came from April and Andy back at the office. Always Sunny started slow with "The D.E.N.N.I.S. System," as Dennis's presentation of his seduction system wasn't all that funny, but the laughs came fast and furious when each member of the gang attempted to implement the system in their own fucked up ways.

I expected to like Fringe's "August" more than I did. It was very good, but the hype promised more. This was an important episode, establishing some back-story for the Observer(s), and had some great character moments with Walter and Peter, but the kidnapping plotline was simply not that interesting.

Friday, November 20th
Liked: Stargate Universe (1x9)

"Life" was another communication-stones-heavy episode of Stargate Universe like "Earth," but this time the focus was on characters that are less interesting, and the major conflicts were all character-based and seemingly unimportant when compared to being trapped on a spaceship at the far end of the universe. It wasn't a bad episode; there were a number of good character moments in the scenes on Destiny. But this series needed an excellent episode to keep the momentum from "Earth" and "Time."

Saturday, November 21st
Liked: Legend of the Seeker (2x3)

Legend of the Seeker's "Broken" was a good character development episode for new character Cara, but the plotting was a little heavy-handed. Cara's back-story was suitably dark and interesting, but the courtroom scenes that the episode was built around weren't as strong. The B-story with Zedd and annoying drag-along Flynn was goofy but fun, a nice light diversion from the meat of the episode.

Sunday, November 22nd
Loved: Curb Your Enthusiasm (7x10), Dexter (4x9)
Liked: The Amazing Race (15x9)

In "Hungry Man," Dexter attended two Thanksgiving celebrations, including an incredibly twisted afternoon with the Mitchell family. This episode featured one of the single most intense moments in Dexter history; that alone would make it a winner. But the ending also featured a crazy revelation that I did not see coming at all. Awesome!

Curb Your Enthusiasm ended its "Seinfeld" reunion season with a terrific finale. This wasn't the best or funniest episode of the season by any means, but it satisfyingly resolved the season's stories that needed resolving. I was expecting more time spent with the Seinfeld cast, more scenes from the episode within the episode--which seemed pretty, pretty good!--and less time spent on Larry's problems with Mocha Joe, but "having said that," in classic Curb/Seinfeld fashion, everything paid off in the end.

Monday, November 23rd
Liked: The Big Bang Theory (3x9), Heroes (4x11)
Meh: House (6x8)

I enjoyed The Big Bang Theory's "The Vengeance Formulation" more than recent episodes this season. All the characters had good stuff to work with, especially Sheldon with his prank and hilarious followup video, and I quite enjoyed the continued absurdity of Howard and Bernadette.

Heroes featured TV's second most memorable "Thanksgiving" meal of the week, after Dexter's awesome Mitchell family meltdown, with an entertaining Bennett family get-together. There was also a twisted Petrelli family gathering and a much less interesting carnival crew celebration. In other news, Hiro took some welcome strides towards the darker future Hiro, Nathan and Sylar are still fighting over a body in the storyline that just won't end, and the reveal of who killed Samuel's brother shocked no one.

Wednesday, November 25th
Loved: Modern Family (1x9)
Liked: Glee (1x11)

Modern Family knocked it out of the park with the hilarious "Fizbo," a cleverly constructed episode that made good use of the entire cast. The elaborate setup of the birthday party stretched credibility, but that's nitpicking. There was no shortage of highlights in this episode, but the best moments generally involved Phil (of course), the zip line, comb sheaths, and/or Cameron the clown.

"Hairography" was not one of my favourite episodes of Glee. There were some solid musical performances, including an interesting and somewhat inspirational version of "Imagine," but there was a lot of unnecessary politically incorrect humour early on, still no Ken Tanaka, not nearly enough Emma, and although it seemed like a lot of storylines progressed throughout the episode, the ending employed a reset button.

Blogging while not curling

Lately this blog has been all Week in Review posts, which is not at all what I intended to happen. November has been a busy month, at home and at work, so my blogging time has been greatly reduced from September and October.

For the last five weeks, Monday nights have been one of the busiest nights of the week, thanks to curling. Technically, I'm supposed to play only every second game, because I am splitting the cost with one other guy, but I got another couple games out of sparing for other missing players. Tonight is my first Monday off.

So here I was, sitting at home on a Monday evening for the first time in over a month, and I thought a new blog post would be a good idea. I am caught up on all of this week's TV, and I have been watching Mad Men's first season for something to do; it's definitely a good show, but not really the type of show I can marathon.

I'm going to start with a silly story that came to an unexpected end this week, and then write about whatever I want. Despite the title, this is not going to be one of those posts...

What the fuck, Scotiabank?

I have a lot of credit cards. Many of them are holdouts from my days of balance transfer shuffling, and the others are rewards cards. I am constantly seeking the best rewards program, and as better ones come along, I will shift all my spending to the best card. (Currently, Best Buy's Reward Zone Visa is the best deal out there, with rewards worth 1.25%. That sounds pretty poor, but for comparison's sake, my American Express Air Miles card earns approximately 0.65%.)

One night a couple months ago, while I was trying to watch TV, a telemarketer offered me a credit card over the phone. This was a new experience for me, as I didn't even have to apply. I've received and returned numerous pre-authorized credit card forms in the past through mail or on the internet, but never had someone call me out of the blue and give me a credit card. This was a SCENE rewards card from Scotiabank.

I should have turned the guy down, because I didn't need the card, and I doubt the rewards program is worth it to me, but it seemed the easiest way to get off the phone was to say yes. And, I thought, what the hey?--I don't have to put any effort into getting this card... (Why SCENE rewards is not a big deal to me: I don't go to movies all that much, and it's not the cost that keeps me away; it's the people and the crowds and the fact that it's just not a good experience in general.)

Fast forward a couple of weeks and I get a phone call from the closest Scotiabank branch. They had my credit card and I needed to come in to pick it up with two pieces of ID. What the fuck, Scotiabank? I started this story by saying this, but it bears repeating: I have lots of credit cards. I have never, ever had to pick up a credit card at a bank branch. Has Scotiabank not heard of the fucking mail?

So, anyway, I made the decision that I wasn't going to pick up the card. It was a stupid situation, I certainly didn't need the card, and I didn't want to deal with actually going into the bank branch. I was curious what would happen. I expected that they would eventually mail it to me.

Over the next month, Scotiabank sent me various letters reminding me to pick up my card--oh, so you do know about the mail system, Scotiabank!?--as well as the first two statements on the account. There were also a few calls from telemarketers asking how I liked the card so far, to which I responded that I didn't have it yet. When they asked why I hadn't picked it up yet, I told them that that was a hassle I didn't need.

This week I got my last letter from Scotiabank. Without any fanfare or explanation, it read that my account had been canceled. I guess you win this round, Scotiabank!

Oh, so I'm curling after all!

Well, shit, I have to cut this post short, because I just got the call. We are playing a late game this week (8:45--it's normally 6:45), and someone couldn't make it. Six weeks in a row for the cost of three! Good deal!

Week in Review, Nov 12 to 18

This is a packed Week in Review from an uncharacteristically busy week in my life. It was a challenge to fit all of the following content into a week that also included one restaurant meal with family, one night out at a friend's place, one brew day, one restaurant meal with friends, one restaurant meal as a first date, and one curling game followed by wings and drinks. Not that I'm complaining--I wish all weeks were as excellent as this one was!

The Week in Books

One of the first things I did when I learned that I was soon to be a single guy again was to place an Amazon order for the first seven novels written by Kurt Vonnegut. This was inspired by a couple of friends who strongly recommended that I start reading some of his work. I made the decision to read them in order of publication, so I started with his 1952 debut novel, Player Piano in August. Player Piano was an entertaining and effective warning against the dangers of automation, told with a smart satirical voice. Plot and character-wise, it reminded me a little of my favourite movie, Terry Gilliam's Brazil.

I started on Kurt Vonnegut's second novel, The Sirens of Titan (1959), in early September. Unfortunately, I stalled on it early on, not because I wasn't enjoying it--because I was--but because I wasn't in the mood to read, and then shortly thereafter Dawkins' The Greatest Show on Earth became my reading priority. So, after finally completing Dawkins' book last weekend, I leaped back into The Sirens of Titan. Vonnegut's second novel is impressively different from his first, told in a much different voice--frequently reminding me of Douglas Adams and his The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, actually--and featuring much less endearing, much more flawed, yet still equally interesting characters learning how little free will human beings actually have. The novel is seemingly disjointed at first, but it all comes together brilliantly in the end. I'm having a very hard time deciding which of the first two Vonnegut novels is my favourite so far; I'm definitely looking forward to diving into Mother Night (1961) next.

The Week in Music

Dashboard Confessional's Alter the Ending was released on November 10, but as is usual with new music, I learned this a week late. This is certainly no The Shade of Poison Trees, which was the best Dashboard album since The Swiss Army Romance for me, but it's still pretty good. I appreciate the Deluxe Edition's inclusion of a second CD with acoustic versions of all twelve songs, as I've never liked Dashboard's full band stuff nearly as much as the acoustic stuff. Highlights for me after the first many listens are "Get Me Right," "Belle of the Boulevard," "The Motions," and the title track.

The Week in Video Games

In this day and age of almost life-like 3D graphics, am I interested in a new 2D side-scrolling Mario game? Fuck, yeah, I am! The last few days of this week have been all about "New Super Mario Bros. Wii," easily the best game to grace my Wii since the awesome "Super Mario Galaxy." I am still early in the game (completed 4-1), but I have faith in Nintendo's magic touch with Mario games to keep it interesting throughout. The first few worlds do a great job of introducing many of the new twists to the 2D Mario formula, and I am already encountering challenges in the collection of all of the star coins and finding the secret level exits. Daisy is pretty confused about why I keep swearing at the television. Ultimately, this game is a beautiful refinement of what made Super Mario Bros. 3 the greatest NES game ever made, with a fair bit of Super Mario World thrown in for good measure. And then there's multiplayer!--which I haven't had a chance to try yet.

My only other recent video game purchase, Bioware's "Dragon Age: Origins," has been sitting more or less unplayed on my computer for two weeks. I took an hour or two to create and fully customize my first character, an Elvish mage named Tosc, and then started playing and was immediately turned off by the fact that my mouse's scroll wheel is not functional in the game, and that is a pretty critical element for controlling the viewpoint of the action. This is a known compatibility problem with Microsoft IntelliPoint products. I'm now in wait mode for it to be fixed. Or one of these days I'll "borrow" a non-Microsoft mouse from work...

The Week in Television

Last week's show purge gave me some breathing room this week to fit all these remaining shows into my busy schedule. The only TV content from this week that I didn't have time for was the new Doctor Who special, "The Waters of Mars." I should have time to watch that this coming weekend.

Thursday, November 12th
Loved: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (5x9)
Liked: 30 Rock (4x5), Fringe (2x7), The Office (6x10), Parks and Recreation (2x9)

This was another funny Thursday night. I wasn't a huge fan of The Office's "Murder," because it was one of those too far out there to be believable episodes, but it certainly had lots of laughs, and the movement on the Andy and Erin front was excellent. Parks and Recreation had an above average night with "The Camel," getting good laughs out of Andy and Ron, and especially Tom with his shapes. "The Problem Solvers" episode of 30 Rock was solid, featuring some great scenes with Liz and Jack, and making unusually good use of the terrible twosome Tracy & Jenna as the new polite Canadian castmember forced them to reconsider the ways they use Kenneth, much to Kenneth's chagrin as a guy that wants to be used. "Mac and Dennis Break Up" was my favourite episode of Always Sunny this season, hilariously focusing on the terribly unhealthy, but somehow functional relationships within the gang.

The best part of Fringe's "Of Human Action" was the ending, where we finally received confirmation that Nina Sharp and Massive Dynamic are big fat lying liars. The rest of the episode was solid, albeit unremarkable.

Friday, November 13th
Loved: Stargate Universe (1x8)

"Time" was the best episode of Stargate Universe to date. Initially, I was a little turned off by the dramatic device of showing so much of the action through the "eyes" of a Kino, but after the first big reveal of what the fuck was going on, it all made sense and worked perfectly. I also appreciated that the ending displayed a stunning amount of faith in the intelligence of the audience.

Saturday, November 14th
Loved: Legend of the Seeker (2x2)

Legend of the Seeker's "Baneling" was an excellent follow-up to the season premiere, developing the ongoing Stone of Tears storyline while also maintaining a much stronger episodic focus. This episode also featured some of the best action sequences of the series to date. Thankfully, the addition of Cara to the team is working out very well so far. There was nothing on TV this week that I enjoyed more than Legend of the Seeker, but I'm a fantasy geek of the highest order. It is also the show that I look forward to the most each week (Dexter is very close, though), at least until Lost returns.

Sunday, November 15th
Loved: Curb Your Enthusiasm (7x9), Dexter (4x8)
Liked: The Amazing Race (15x8)

Dexter and Trinity took a road trip in "Road Kill," another strong episode. It's pretty tough to discuss this episode without spoiling it, so I'll leave it at that. I say this every week, but I still don't know how there can be four episodes left in the Trinity storyline; but I'm pretty excited to find out. In the most important subplots, Deb learned something surprising from her wounds and Quinn is still digging for dirt on Dexter while being played by the reporter. There's plenty of material in the subplots for four more episodes.

"The Table Read" brought the entire cast of Seinfeld back to Curb Your Enthusiasm again, including hilarious guest appearances from Bania and Newman. Jason Alexander got some big laughs again with his undisguised hatred of Larry, but the highlight was Michael Richards meeting Leon. In a very amusing subplot, Larry is tormented by the text messages of a nine year old fan. I'm really looking forward to next week's big Seinfeld reunion finale.

Monday, November 16th
Liked: The Big Bang Theory (3x8), Heroes (4x10)
Meh: House (6x7)

The Big Bang Theory's "The Adhesive Duck Deficiency" was again good but not great. I didn't need to see Leonard, Wolowitz, and Raj get stoned and get the munchies; although pot humour hasn't previously been used on this show, it is overly tread ground in comedy in general and is tiresome to me. Fortunately, the Sheldon and Penny half of the episode was much stronger, with Sheldon having to play reluctant hero after Penny hurt herself in the shower.

Heroes' "Brother's Keeper" proved that it is possible to include all of the main cast in a single episode, although some characters may get little screen time (Noah) or a terrible subplot (Claire and Tracy). The meat of this episode was about finding out what happened to Mohinder nine months ago, getting some background on Samuel, and finally reuniting Sylon with Sylar while also letting Nathan know that he has been dead all season. The important stuff was reasonably well handled.

Wednesday, November 18th
Liked: Glee (1x10), Modern Family (1x8), South Park (13x14)

"Ballads" was a much better episode of Glee than last week's "Wheels," with a number of strong musical moments, and some major plot developments in the Quinn and Finn storyline. And Rachel's crush on Will brought the funny; the "Don't Stand So Close to Me" / "Young Girl" mashup was easily the highlight of the episode. But where's Ken Tanaka?--he's been MIA for two episodes in a row and that is a damn shame!

Modern Family's "Great Expectations" was frequently funny, but still probably my least favourite episode to date. Ed Norton's guest appearance as a washed up 80s musician was too ridiculous for this show. The funniest stuff came from Phil's talking head moments, especially his rattling off a list of gifts that Claire could have bought him, and Mitchel and Cameron meeting their friend Sal.

In season finale "Pee," South Park provided a cautionary tale about the danger of too much pee in the water park. This was a completely ridiculous parody of 2012 and other disaster movies, perfectly executed once you accept the premise. Meanwhile, Cartman makes a mathematical discovery that the population growth of minorities will cause the Mayan apocalypse.

Week in Review, Nov 5 to 11

Yay! As mentioned in a post last week, I've finally cracked the mental barrier that was impeding my ability to sit and read a book, instead of sitting and only watching TV for hours on end. This is great because I have at least ten books on my bedroom dresser waiting to be read.

The Week in Books

First up: it was about damn time that I finished Richard Dawkins' excellent The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. This book is a beautiful summary of... well, it's all there in the title of the book. Dawkins' previous book, The God Delusion, is one of my favourite non-fiction books (along with Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy and Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma), but it's easy to accuse it of preaching to the choir; it may convince some fence sitters to cross into atheism, but believers aren't going to bother even reading the whole thing. Despite Dawkins' outspoken atheism, The Greatest Show on Earth only peripherally deals with religious objections to evolution (mostly in regards to the fucking morons--Dawkins more kindly refers to them as "history deniers"--out there that argue against geology, biology, history, and physics and try to claim that the earth and man were created less than 10,000 years ago because The Bible says so). This is a book about laying out the evidence for evolution--and there is a lot of it that I wasn't even aware of--in a clear, concise, entertaining way. Dawkins has a witty style, very conversational and accessible. I challenge anyone that thinks that evolution is "just a theory" to read this book.

The Week in Television

I finally had an opportunity this week to see the excellent last four episodes of Defying Gravity, albeit in shitty Space Channel low resolution quality. If a Blu-ray was on the way, I would have waited, but it sounds like the series is only getting a DVD release, which is bullshit. I now refuse to buy DVD releases of series filmed in high definition. I have the same problem with the recent DVD release of "Legend of the Seeker." I want to own the show and rewatch it all, but I won't pay for 480p when I originally watched it for free in 720p. Anyway, I digress. Since Defying Gravity was never meant to end after only 13 episodes, there are obviously a lot of issues left hanging with the season/series finale, but what little resolution is offered is quite satisfying. Defying Gravity was a slow paced show, relying on the relationships between the characters for drama, while also being heavily serialized and taking place in space, so it's not too surprising that it never caught on with the general population--especially since it was premiered during summer for some stupid fucking reason! I have added this show to my list of favourite one-season wonders: Firefly, Wonderfalls, Jake 2.0, and The Lone Gunmen.

Now that the World Series is done with, most of FOX's TV shows returned this week (no Dollhouse until December), and I found myself struggling to keep up with all of these series. If Wednesday hadn't been a holiday, it would have been a lost cause. As a consequence, it's time to start purging the shows that are consistently Meh or lower. In October, I was happy to have so many of hours of TV to watch each week, but now I want to have time for other pursuits, like reading and music and some gaming--and maybe even some dating. Fortunately, in the next few weeks, a good number of shows I am watching now will be over for the season, and for the others, December hiatus is on the way.

Thursday, November 5th
Loved: The Office (6x8)
Liked: 30 Rock (4x4), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (5x8), Parks and Recreation (2x8)
Meh: Fringe (2x6), The Mentalist (2x6)

It was another strong Thursday for comedies. The Office's "Double Date" had the perfect balance of heart, uncomfortableness, and hilarity; I enjoyed the first half more than the second, finding Michael's realization that Pam's mom wasn't right for him, and his terribly awkward way of handling that, a lot more enjoyable than Pam's revenge. Parks and Recreation's "Ron and Tammy" was goofy and silly and way over-the-top, but I couldn't help but laugh at every mention of the evil "Library." I think "Audition Day" was my favourite 30 Rock episode so far this season, although I'm at a loss to say why. The highlight of Always Sunny's "Paddy's Pub: Home of the Original Kitten Mittens" was Charlie's Kitten Mittens commercial; the rest of the episode was my least favourite of the season, although it was still pretty damn funny.

The dramas didn't fare as well. Fringe had a mostly mediocre outing with "Earthling"--too standalone and X-Files rip-offy--although the focus on Broyles was an interesting change of pace. The Mentalist's "Black Gold and Red Blood" again had an interesting premise (Jane in jail), but the ridiculous ease with which Jane can influence everyone and plan everything perfectly is becoming tiresome. I'm officially calling it quits with The Mentalist as of this week; if the Red John storyline is ever resolved, I'll tune in for that one last episode.

Friday, November 6th
Liked: Stargate Universe (1x7), Legend of the Seeker (2x1)

Stargate Universe had a much better week than last with "Earth," an episode that made excellent use of the series' body-swapping communication stones conceit. There was some very good material with Eli, who is easily the best character on the show. I was excited to see Martin Gero's name in the writing credits, as he was a big reason why I enjoyed Stargate Atlantis as much as I did, but unfortunately he's not a producer on SGU.

Legend of the Seeker's second season got off to a reasonably strong start with "Marked," an episode that effectively introduced the season's big bad (the Keeper of the Underworld) and quest (the search for the Stone of Tears), and also had time to establish Richard as the new Rahl and bring Cara into the fold. It was almost too much, making the episode feel quite unfocused. Despite this, I'm very excited to see what happens next. Good or bad, there are no other shows like Legend of the Seeker on TV right now.

Sunday, November 8th
Loved: Dexter (4x7)
Liked: The Amazing Race (15x7), Bored to Death (1x8), Curb Your Enthusiasm (7x8)
Meh: American Dad (5x5), Family Guy (8x4, 8x5)

Dexter's "Slack Tide" seemed to be the calm before the storm, although it wasn't by any means a filler episode. There were important developments for Deb, Dexter made a big mistake, and Quinn looks to be picking up where Doakes left off two seasons ago. And Dexter and Trinity cut down a tree and killed a deer together--it sounds weird, but it worked. I still can't figure out how there can be five episodes left this season...

Bored to Death's season finale, "Take a Dive," was a strange episode. There was some hilarious stuff, especially with Ray and his boxing opponent, and there were a few important developments for all of the characters, but the second half of the episode (ie. the boxing matches) was quite flat. I'll most likely tune in for the second season, but I'm not at all concerned about the wait.

I enjoyed Curb Your Enthusiasm's "Officer Krupke," but it's in the lower tier of episodes this season. It was pretty amusing to see Larry walking around for a couple days with a security tag on his pants, and his talk with the store clerk about his lost pants was hilarious, but Larry's altercation with the kids at the lemonade stand was too much. However, the way everything tied together in the end was classic Curb.

I am really getting bored with Fox's Sunday animated comedies. This week's double dose of Family Guy was okay, and American Dad was better than most this season, but I'm thinking that if I'm not enjoying these shows anymore, why do I keep watching? I find that I barely pay attention while watching them, instead surfing the internet or writing emails or blogging. It's a healthy choice to stop bothering with these shows. There was no The Simpsons this week, but since new episodes of The Simpsons are generally even worse than Family Guy and American Dad, it's also included in this decision.

Monday, November 9th
Liked: The Big Bang Theory (3x7), Heroes (4x9)
Meh: House (6x6)

"The Guitarist Amplification" was an average The Big Bang Theory episode. Leonard and Penny's conflict was realistic, although I think Penny came off as pretty insensitive because she didn't relent earlier. The best scenes involved the comic book store, and I'm loving the owner's crush on Penny. Sheldon is always an over-the-top character, but there were some moments this week that took it a little too far for me.

Heroes had a stronger week than usual with "Shadowboxing," with all three threads offering something interesting. For the first time this season, I enjoyed the Matt/Sylon scenes. The Peter and Emma storyline continued walking its fine line between endearing and completely pointless. And I didn't hate Claire this week. Plus, Nathan finally returned, and it's always nice to see the Haitian.

House's "Known Unknowns" did not do much for me. It was just there. There were some good scenes with House and Wilson, but the rest was unremarkable. I'm approaching Mentalist-like levels of apathy for House, and don't know how long I'll continue watching.

Tuesday, November 10th
Meh: V (1x2)

Unless people start raving about V as this season proceeds, "There is No Normal Anymore" will be my last episode. I adore Alan Tudyk, and he's almost enough to keep me watching... but this show is thoroughly mediocre. Joel Gretsch and Elizabeth Mitchell are doing about as much as they can do with their thinly written roles, and Morena Baccarin is killing it as Anna, but the rest of the cast is a waste of screen time.

Wednesday, November 11th
Liked: Glee (1x9), South Park (13x13)

With "Wheels," Glee finally spread more of the musical load amongst the secondary characters, giving Artie and Kurt their first solos, with Artie's rendition of "Dancing With Myself" a particular highlight. This was a filler episode with no major plot developments, but it was still enjoyable and had plenty of good character moments.

In South Park's "Dances with Smurfs," Cartman takes over the morning announcements (after the hilariously intense on-air death of Gordon) and, of course, runs with it in the most inappropriate way possible, turning morning announcements into a platform for his politics. This is a pretty good satire of many FOX News talking heads and their completely absurd conspiracy theories. It culminates in a hilarious film where Cartman infiltrates the lives of the Smurfs, because school president Wendy is planning to kill the Smurfs for their Smurf berries... You have to watch it to believe it.

Week in Review, Oct 29 to Nov 4

The Week in Music

This week's notable new music release is Weezer's "Raditude." Unfortunately, there's very little that's notable about the album itself. There are a few catchy songs, sure, but the lyrics are pretty awful throughout, and I really don't need Lil Wayne with my Weezer, thank you very much. Even 2008's inconsistent "Red Album" is better than this. The best tracks are probably "Put Me Back Together" and "I Don't Want to Let You Go." I've been listening to the Deluxe Edition which includes five bonus songs, with "Underdogs" standing out as something special.

The Week in Television

This week featured the DVD/Blu-ray release of Battlestar Galactica's final content (boo!): "The Plan." With impressive skill, the storyline weaves between footage from the mini-series and the first two seasons of the show, giving some background on what Cavill and the Cylons were up to during this time. It doesn't always work perfectly, but I definitely admired the attempt. I question the addition of a new character at this stage, but almost everything else worked brilliantly.

Thursday, October 29th
Liked: 30 Rock (4x3), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (5x7), The Office (6x7), Parks and Recreation (2x7)
Meh: The Mentalist (2x5)

The Thursday comedies were all solid this week. The Office's "Koi Pond" had plenty of good laughs; I especially enjoyed the Pam and Andy (and Erin) B-story. Parks and Recreation had a strong week with Leslie's hilarious battle vs "Greg Pikitis." Jack and Liz traveled to Kenneth's hometown in 30 Rock's "Stone Mountain," but the best laughs came from the celebrity death rule of 3s and a gay Halloween party back at the studio. In Always Sunny, "The Gang [Wrestled] for the Troops" vs poor Rickety Criket with expectedly hilarious results.

The Mentalist's Halloween ghost story episode "Red Scare" started interesting and quickly devolved into typical predictability. The characters in this show are just barely good enough to keep me watching despite the weakness of the weekly mysteries.

Friday, October 30th
Liked: Stargate Universe (1x6)

Stargate Universe's "Water" was a good but not great episode of this young series. The sequences on the ice planet played out like every "crew member in jeopardy" episode of Star Treks and Stargates past. However, it was nice to see further exploration of the alien lifeform introduced in the third part of "Air."

Sunday, November 1st
Loved: Dexter (4x6)
Liked: The Amazing Race (15x6), Bored to Death (1x7), Curb Your Enthusiasm (7x7)

Dexter's "If I Had a Hammer" was another very strong episode, albeit much slower paced than the past couple of weeks. It's still hard to believe that the plot is at this stage only halfway through the season, and I really wonder how the writers can get six more episodes out of the Dexter and Trinity relationship when Dexter is so eager to finish off Trinity. There was also some very good stuff with Deb in this episode.

Curb Your Enthusiasm's "The Black Swan" was another excellent episode, full of terrific moments and with the welcome return of Larry's father. Bored to Death won me back with "The Case of the Stolen Sperm," possibly the best episode to date thanks to the unexpected resolution to Ray's season-long sperm donation storyline and the hilarious cliffhanger.

Monday, November 2nd
Liked: The Big Bang Theory (3x6), Heroes (4x8)

Heroes' "Once Upon a Time in Texas" was a desperate yet somewhat successful attempt to recapture some glory, revisiting one of the best storylines from season one: Hiro and Charlie. One of the things that annoyed me about "Acceptance" earlier this season was the complete disregard for the time travel rules the series has established: Hiro was somehow reliving the same moments of his day over and over, when he really should have been running into his original timeline self over and over. Fortunately, the time travel rules were respected in this episode--mostly. It's pretty tough to buy in to the idea that Hiro's encounters here with season one Sylar wouldn't have drastically changed the events that followed; however, I'll grant a little dramatic license when an episode is this entertaining. It is nice to actually enjoy a Hiro storyline for a change. The writers did their best to try to ruin the episode with a completely unnecessary B-story involving Noah, but the Hiro and Charlie and Sylar material worked well enough to earn a Liked.

The Big Bang Theory's "The Cornhusker Vortex" was a good but not great episode. Sheldon schooling Leonard on football was fun, but Leonard's awkward use of those lessons with Penny's friends was too cringeworthy. I preferred the B-story with Raj and Howard's "marital" problems.

Tuesday, November 3rd
Meh: V (1x1)

I wanted to like V's "Pilot" more than I did. The series definitely has potential, now that most of the awkwardly staged setup is (hopefully) done with. The terrorist cell storyline didn't work for me at all; and I really hated to see Alan Tudyk so wasted here. But the scenes on the alien space ship were better. And I like most of the cast so far.

Wednesday, November 4th
Loved: Modern Family (1x7)
Liked: South Park (13x12)

Modern Family's "En Garde" was one of the best episodes to date, with non-stop laughs and some of the best moments in the series since Phil stole the wrong bike. The figure skating in the parking lot was hilarious, as was the scene with the slippery stairs.

Big Gay Al--awesome! With "The F Word," an episode that wasn't so much comedy as it was social commentary on the power we give words, South Park cleverly redefined the meaning and usage of "fag." Sure, there was funny stuff, but this was an episode that delivered more with its message than its laughs. So, from now on, everyone remember: fags are Harley riders!

Blogging before bed

Yep, this is another one of those posts.

Acceptance

I realized something this Sunday, as I marathoned five episodes of the completely crazy True Blood, wrote a new song on my guitar, and read a couple more chapters of Richard Dawkins' The Greatest Show on Earth: I was finally actually enjoying my alone time. I've mentioned it before on this blog, but I used to love my alone time; however, having nothing but alone time after my ex-wife moved out took all the joy out of it. It wasn't the TV watching that clued me in--that's pretty much all I've been doing for two months--it was the reading and the writing music. I haven't been able to sit quietly and read more than a couple pages at a time for over a month. And I hadn't even touched my guitar since writing the About Me - Singer-songwriter post.

Everyone is familiar with the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. One of my favourite scenes in The Simpsons history has Homer burning through all of them in record time. In the past four months, I've seemingly gone through two separate cycles of grief. The first cycle, coming to grips with the fact that the separation was going to happen, consumed the last week of July and the first two weeks of August. The second cycle, which is the cycle relevant to this post, started in September and has haunted my alone time for nearly two months; this cycle was about me coming to terms with being alone.

You could argue that the second cycle was just an extension of the first, but I feel it was a separate experience consisting of all five stages. This blog post from October 6 (and the comment that follows) is a beautiful example of denial, anger, and bargaining all in one day; my brother was definitely on to something here. Any reasonable person knows that the stages aren't cut and dry (it's also easy to argue that the whole concept is bullshit, but that's not helpful to this post). You don't necessarily drop the anger as you step into bargaining. There is overlap, there is regression, and the stages don't always develop in the same order.

The second cycle's depression really hit me hard late in October, right around this somewhat deceptively upbeat blog post from October 20. I kept myself sane with fun distractions: TV, homebrewing, and curling. On Sunday the 25th, I managed to distract myself by watching nearly 12 hours of entertaining TV in a row, but as soon as I had no TV left to distract, I found myself sinking back into despair unlike anything I have ever known. Going to bed alone with nothing but depressing thoughts was completely awful and very distressing. Much of the last two weeks in October was nearly unbearable at home and at work. I couldn't even bring myself to blog about it, because I was struggling to put into words what exactly was going on.

With time comes acceptance. And with acceptance comes understanding. I'm not sure exactly when the change happened, and there is certainly no specific reason, but what is important is that it has happened. One of the early clues came mid-week last week when I was able to just sit and listen to music, rather than needing a more active distraction for my mind. For the last few days, I haven't felt any of the distress and despair that dominated my mind throughout October. I still have worries about the future and frustrations about the here and now, but it doesn't matter nearly as much anymore.

I have come to accept my alone time as a good thing. It's a big fucking relief!

What do you mean there's a completely free online dating site that nearly everyone uses?!?

I just learned yesterday about PlentyOfFish. This is a completely free online dating site created and maintained by one guy in Vancouver. No bullshit subscriptions are required for anything. And unlike other free classifieds options, the look and feel and features are nearly as good as the paid sites. And nearly every single person I've communicated with on the other paid sites is listed there for free. Fuck me! Well, at least I know about it now and can save my money in the future...