Well, I'm still behind the world of television, thanks mostly to moving house at possibly the worst time I could have managed and then being denied any sort of external television viewing - apart from the freeview channels - until all the various problems were sorted out.

But now I'm taking advantage of the summer lull to catch up with the various shows I was watching and I thought I'd share a few thoughts and the like on them. First up it's The Office's fifth season and How I Met Your Mother's fourth.

The Office:
Naturally after such a gap I had a little trouble recalling where things were when resuming viewing, but fortunately The Office is a pretty slow moving show where major developments are concerned. So it wasn't long before I was back up to speed and enjoying events. I'm still somewhat amazed that The Office has managed five seasons without a major dip in quality, it still provides entertaining and hilarious moments by the truck load. A particularly inspired piece of casting was the arrival of Idris Elba (The Wire, Obsessed, RockNRolla) as Charles Miner, Michael's new supervisor (a role previously filled by Ryan and Jan). Michael takes an instant dislike to him, then quits and forms his own paper company in a "where are they going with this story?" moment. Pam in one of her impulsive moments quits along side him, opening up a slot in reception - which is filled by Kelly Erin Hannon (Ellie Kemper) or "Erin" as she's refferred to in order to avoid confusion.

Of course, by the end of the season Michael and Pam are back working for Dunder Mifflin, but the events do have some lasting reverberations. Ryan is back with the company (despite defrauding them before) and ends up temping again, but Pam is now a sales person - which means Erin is staying (for the moment at least). Frankly I do hope she stays permanently; she's funny and the way she reacts around Michael is quite entertaining as well (especially as Michael isn't inappropriate to her the way he is with Pam). So I'm hoping she stays and adds a new dynamic to the show.

Idris was of course, fantastic. But all things considered it's hard to say how much more he will be involved with the show. Likewise the fantastic Amy Ryan (The Wire) returned as Holly Flax, and it seems that any story she has with Michael will be a long burn and I'm fine with that.

How I Met Your Mother:
Ah HIMYM, how you managed to move me and then dash my hopes and anger me. The single biggest moment I got from watching the back end of the season comes from the episode 'Right Place, Right Time'. There's an absolutely wonderful and life affirming speech which is given and the episode feels ripe for a huge moment. Then it drags out the whole episode in a rather funny manner, skipping the story back and forth before gradually building up to a reveal as to who he met in this right place and time. Is it the mother? Oh, no. It's Stella... bleah! Now no offense to Sarah Chalke, she's a fantastic actress, but Stella is just. I really don't have the words to explain how disappointed I was when I saw her there. Fortunately, we find out over the next few episodes Stella is just there to give Ted direction in his life. While I'd like to hope she's gone for good, it's clear she's due to return at least once more, but she's not the mother. Thank goodness.

Two other things impress me about HIMYM, the first is of course Neil Patrick Harris's portrayal of Barney; he remains the highlight of the show, and the number one reason I watch. But I've also come to really enjoy watching Alyson Hannigan and Jason Segel as Marshall and Lily. It's rare a show, especially a comedy show, which manages to keep a pair of characters together and also make them entertaining. Normally you'd expect the married couple to be the boring straight characters, but while they are the voices of reason in the group - at times those voices get a little... deranged... but that's what makes them so much fun.

We end the season with Robin and Barney sort of, maybe, together, but they have expressed their feelings for each other ('bout time!) and Ted in a new job as a professor of architecture, and apparently the mother took this class. So we're maybe a year or two away from finding out, perhaps three. But to be honest, HIMYM continues to be entertaining and funny, so I don't mind. As long as they never provide such a moving speech just to rip the rug out from under the viewer's feet again, that was a cruel trick!
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Quite a few shows on this week's TWTW (any ideas as to how on Earth you'd pronounce that? It reads like an owl who dislikes vowels...) as a lot of shows have returned.

How I Met Your Mother:
This week's episode was definite Seinfeld material, it's impossible to tell if the plot similarity was an accident, a homage or just a straight rip off of the Seinfeld story which had Elaine and Jerry trying the same thing as Robin and Ted. Marshall's B story pretty much stole the show mind you (again I believe Seinfeld did this one first as well), it combined with Barney's constant Freudian slips and television breakage to provide the vast majority of the comedy.

Scrubs:
Another two episodes this week and as such Courtney Cox's character has already departed from the show, if her appearances had been spread over three weeks she might have made more of an impact, instead she feels like a flash in the pan. She was good but she's already gone. Neither of the two episodes aired compared to Glynn's star turn as the dying patient George last week but they were both quite satisfactory.

Damages:
Damages review is located here, I've come to realise on a re-reading I might sound a little harsher on the show than I intended. It was still a good episode, I just have concerns that the show hasn't realised it's errors last season and taken steps to correct them.

Supernatural:
Supernatural this week returned with a spin on a haunted house that really worked. Often the show isn't as frightening as it could be because it's hard to consistently provide a serious level of threat for the Winchester boys all season. But this week they managed it with the addition and involvement of the family who were just moving into the house. It was a fine effort and a strong return for the show.

The Office:
So, Dwight and Angela's secret is out and this week Andy finds out as well. Frankly I'm happy that the writers have decided to move beyond the secret love tryst/triangle as I wanted to stop feeling sorry for Andy. I still do feel sorry for him, but after his duel against Dwight and the awesome method he used to gain the upper hand it feels like he's a returning a little to form.

Michael spent most of the episode at Corporate headquarters talking about his methods as his branch is the only successful one in the company. Needless to say he has no idea why he's succeeding

30 Rock:
Flu Shot was the title of this week's mayhem at 30 Rockafella Plaza and the episode was on the whole pretty average. There were no stand out funny moments during this as such. Jack's romance with his nurse simmers away without delivering major laughs, but that's OK because it does add some depth to his character, while Liz's attempts to be liked by the teamsters are spoiled by her own actions. Kenneth once again had some of the better moments but I'm also enjoying the burgeoning friendship between Tracey and Jenna.

The Beast:
I wrote about The Beast's pilot episode yesterday, I think the brief highlights are. Swayze is great, the show has promise but it needs to iron out a few issues in it's plot and it's slightly OTT moments and the second lead character Dove isn't very interesting. It's one to keep an eye on as a lot of shows which begin with the word "The" turn out to be good.

The Guild:
Speaking of good shows beginning with the word "The", The Guild continues from strength to strength. The seventh episode of the second season brought potential crisis for Codex when Vork's issues with Zaboo meant that Zaboo might be kicked out and as such would return to Codex's house. The lass isn't confrontational enough to keep Zaboo out if he returned, but with judicious application of advice from her psychiatrist (via the phone), she manages to solve the problem. As well observed and as funny as ever, and I'm glad Zaboo didn't return to Codex's because the Vork/Zaboo dynamic is far more hilarious than the creepy stalker Zaboo/Codex vibe.

Other News:
I'm planning to sit down and watch BSG's season opener tomorrow after I finish reviewing the first season of The Wire. I might write about the episode itself on Monday, but it's more likely that I'll just let others talk about it as I rarely have much to say about BSG beyond "I like Cylons more than the Humans" and "Roslin is an annoying pain in the arse."

I picked up Bones - Season Three this week and also the entire of My So Called Life. Those two are probably amongst the last of the DVD purchases I'm going to be making until after I've moved home next month, but there might be something which catches my eye and changes my mind.
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The Week That Was returns to it's usual spot at 'Sometime on a Saturday'.

This week is pretty sparse, shows are just starting to return to normality after the Christmas break, so it's going to be pretty light this week.

Scrubs:
There were two episodes of Scrubs this week and it's clear that in both of them that the dedicated decision to scale back the wacky and return to the tone of the first few seasons has been followed. The first episode introduced Courtney Cox as Kelso's replacement and a whole batch of new interns. Cox is very good, but the new interns are all best described as the Rude One, the Annoying One, the Brown Noser and The Rest. I'm not fussed on them.

The second episode guest starred The Wire's Glynn Turman as George (at least I think that was his name) a dying man who's kept company by JD and Turk. It was the better of the two episodes, both for the comedy moments and the more thoughtful ones. Glynn gave the entire thing a real sense of gravitas and dignity, it's been a while since the show has had such a strong actor playing a one-off patient. I have a good feeling about this season of Scrubs, but I do hope it's the last one if Zach is leaving.

My Name is Earl:
Sometimes I find myself wondering why I keep watching 'My Name is Earl' and for some of the latest episode this was one of those times. I guess I'm not the worlds biggest fan of forumlaic shows and My Name is Earl is pretty much the pinnacle of forumlaic alongside House M.D. and CSI. But then I got swept up in the story of Earl's attempt to get a young lad he was responsable for causing the pregnancy of (there must be a better way to write that) to fly straight and grow up. It was fun and the B story of Mr Turtle being lost was entertaining as well.

I just wish that Earl would resist going back to the start every single episode, this is a show that's meant to be about someone growing and making amends for what they've done, but it doesn't seem to go anywhere and the characters don't grow much either. Maybe I'm just expecting too much from this, I've already seen three and a half seasons so I shouldn't be surprised anymore...

30 Rock:
Also returning this week is the businesses favourite comedy 30 Rock. Salma Hayek joins the cast as Eliza, a nurse Jack has hired to look after his mother. Liz on the other hand meets a UN Member (name forgotten and not present on the imdb) played by Peter Dinklage when she mistakes him for a little boy. The show is filled with some excellent comedy, overall a little weak plotwise but there were so many funny moments I didn't really care. 30 Rock continues to be a little up and down with it's quality, but when it's on it's so good that it more than makes up for the lulls.

The Guild:
Rounding up this comedy edition of TWTW is the Web based show 'The Guild', I've written a little about it in the past and I've enjoyed it enough that I wanted to find a way to support it each week. As each episode is just less than ten minutes in length it's hard to write a full review on each episode. So I'm just going to give it a slot in TWTW each week instead.

We're up to episode six at this point and I have to say this second season is a lot sharper and funnier than the first season. Paring up Vork and Zaboo together has been nothing but comedy gold, Zaboo is inappropriately homo-erotic towards Vork constantly and the dysfunction between them constantly has me laughing. Add to this Clara's repeated griefing of Vork, her sleep deprived delusions and the awkward attempts by Codex to get to know her stunt man/martial artist/all round awesome neighbour after she puked on him and it's amazing to think these episodes are so short. They're packed with as much action as an episode of Treehouse of Horror or Harvey Birdman.

You can watch the full episodes for free on msn or via Xbox Live.

Other News:
In other news my copy of BSG Season 2 arrived damaged, I thought about complaining but it turned out I would have to return the product and then wait for a new one, costing me both time and money. I decided to use an iron, glue and good old skill to repair it instead. You'd never know it was broken now.

I also purchased season four of Battlestar Galactica as well because I honestly haven't watched Razor or the fourth season yet -- That's for next week. Amusingly this means that part of my collection looks like this now:


Yes, that's right. I don't own the third season, I just have a gap instead. (I'm also missing the final season of The A-Team still, I keep meaning to get it and then putting it off.) For the curious who don't recognise everything up there on sight, if you click the picture there's an 800 x 600 version. (For the doubly curious, the dragon doesn't have a name, but I like to celebrate my nationality! Call him Welshie after the Futurama character.)

I'm also waiting on deliveries of RescuMe's second season and the first two series of Wire in the Blood. I'll probably write about them at some point. RescuMe in particular has really grown me, despite the fact that I can't write it's name correctly and have given up trying.
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Boston Legal:
Another show gives us it's final hurrah this year and this time it's the often preachy but always silly Boston Legal. Of course they save the silliest moments of the show for the final episode, out doing themselves on just about every front. Now if I'm completely honest I thought last weeks offering was better overall, but finales are always a little unsatisfying as they represent death. No matter what happens now there are no new stories for Denny & Alan, Carl & Shirley and Jerry & Katie. This is the end of their tales, but as far as it goes it wasn't bad at all.

The main take-over plot thread was a little bit of a blindside, while the show had been hinting that Crane, Poole and Schmidt was in trouble the Chinese investors were essentially shoved in without much foreshadowing in context. Of course if you look at the world in general right now you can see the foreshadowing, China continues to rise and it's only going to keep getting stronger in the world arena as time passes. But still, it could have been handled better and maybe it would have been if the season had a full 22 episodes instead of 13.

I'll miss Boston Legal for sure, the final season paired everything back, gave us a cast which worked, situations which were fun and not too much liberal ranting. It's not the best show that ended in 2008 but it's up there.

How I Met Your Mother:
'The Fight' was an absolutely awesome episode that gave everyone in the cast plenty to do, Robin and Marshall in particular were given some great lines and moments that really nailed their characters. Even Ted himself was pretty interesting (I always rag on Ted for being the show's boring straight man) and Will Sasso (from MADtv) was fantastic as Doug. Providing just the right amount of support for the cast without taking over (as some guest stars can do).

The final sequence in particular was ace. "Here's your coco!"

House:
A pretty good episode overall from House, which is just as well because the current House:The Thirteen Show, story arc sucks gigantic donkey reproductive organs and then some. She's becoming more and more boring and whingey as time is passing. I have absolutely zero sympathy for her character and even less tolerance.

Leaving that aside the more interesting thread has been the Cuddy/House will they won't they thing. Normally I can't stand will they won't theys. But this one I quite like because the odds are firmly on the "won't".

Once again the patient wasn't very interesting, and the episode even managed to spoil itself by putting in a "not-a-revelation" moment which pushed the entire plot towards a hidden teen pregnancy long before even House got there. Still the final section of the episode included some tender moments and even House allowed himself to be human, it's possible he's lost out on anything with Cuddy now due to the arrival of this child.

Oh and the "virgin conception" moment was delivered with a superb level of fake-out and snideness from House. Good stuff.

The Office:
I don't know if I enjoyed the Christmas episode of The Office or not, I was thrilled with the return of Jim's cold opening gag. This time it had him Christmas wrapping Dwight's desk with a neat twist. But the episode on the whole, it had good points and not so good points. The main, Meredith drinks too much storyline wasn't that interesting, likewise Phyllis' blackmailing of Angela and the subsequent revealing of Angela's affair was awkward. Good, but awkward. I kind of hope it means they're bringing that storyline to a close as the love triangle has gone on long enough.

Most of the best moments were more throw away ones. Michael's continued mistreatment of Toby, Jim & Pam's talking head interview and Dwight's fire marshall moments were funny. It's not their best Christmas episode, but it was ok.

30 Rock:
I really, really dislike any storyline in 30 Rock with Jack's mother in them. Now all due respect to Elaine Stritch, she's a fantastic actress but the relationship her character has with Jack isn't funny. It's borderline boring. As such the good parts of the episode had to come elsewhere; Griz and Dot Com's 'bounderies' moment, Frank's Hat (as always) and this time Jenna's failed attempt to stand up to Jack. (ftr I like Jane Krakowski a lot, she manages to play a great little self centered starlett without being too much).

On the whole it was... Weak.

The IT Crowd:
I caught most of The IT Crowd this week after missing last weeks episode, this week was good. Very good in fact. Matt Berry was given a meaty (bad pun) storyline which played well to his strengths and his character's traits. Likewise Moss and Roy had a decent plot/gag when Jen was asked to give a speech as Employee of the Month and they decided to have her show the stockholders the Internet (a black box with a flashing light). It was great as episodes of the show go, funny and light. I especially enjoyed Berry's fight sequence.

In other stuff I picked up "The Planet Earth" for a meagre £12 yesterday and I've been watching the odd bit of King of the Hill, you know that other, other, other cartoon for adults. The one which isn't The Simpsons, Family Guy or Futurama. I only watch it occasionally so I rarely can recall what happened in each episode, which makes it feel like I'm watching it for the first time again.
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Dexter:
I don't really know what exactly to say with regards to Sunday's episode of Dexter. It should have been a gripping and exciting episode that left me worrying about what's going to happen to our dear protagonist. But the knowledge that there is another two confirmed seasons in the bank after this one means that the threat against Dexter just doesn't feel real.

Now the twist that's brought us here is great, it's tied things up very nicely, but having Dexter being the target of the Skinner's abduction just doesn't raise the tension for me at all. Intellectually I know it should be a worrying and tense moment, but emotionally I already know he's going to get out of it fine. Compare this to season one (Deb) and season two (Doakes) and it's just not as gripping, they are both characters who could be lost to the show (in fact one of them was) so any threats to them are quite real. Dexter on the other hand is going to escape this.

Now if it was the final season of the show, all bets would be off and I'd be worrying here. But instead I'm confident Dexter will get away, kill the Skinner, kill or neutralise Prado (most likely kill considering the ends of the previous seasons) and get married.

Boston Legal:
Oh wow, just wow. Last weeks antepenultimate episode was an interesting and fun mix up of the format but this weeks penultimate episode was a tour de force for everyone involved. Yes, some people may have found Carl Sack's case attacking the networks for failing to provide programming for the over 50s a little self indulgent and preachy. But I for one enjoyed and appreciated his speech, it raised some wonderful points while skating along the edge of the fourth wall

"The only show on TV with starring roles over 50 is Bo--."
Carl points at the camera.
"Well, I can't say the rest...it'll break that wall."

Denny's Alzheimer's is advancing and this provides the thrust of the story for Alan and Denny, they attempt to get Denny access to an experimental non-FDA approved drug and after several set backs it ends up with the pair realising that they're going to be heading to the Supreme Court for, as they put it, their Grand Finale.

Finally Jerry and Katie work together on the case of a young girl who used Ritalin to enhance her score so she could get into Harvard. Once she admitted to doing this in a paper her admission was rescinded. It's a case with personal echoes for Jerry as he both went to Harvard himself and is on medication to help him function. While it's fun, it's not Jerry's best storyline this season, but. That said it does have a wonderful moment where Katie asks Jerry out for a drink and when he assumes they'll be doing it as "just colleagues" she corrects him. Jerry running out of the office after her was a great moment to watch.

Honestly Boston Legal has had it's ups and downs over time, it's been to preachy and pretentious at times, it's suffered far too much cast attrition and this hurt the chemistry of the show. But this final season has paired things back to the cast members that matter, it's given them all things to do, stories, cases, fun moments, touching ones. It's just a shame that it's taken five seasons and the impending end of the show to get it to happen. Next week is the two hour finale for the show and honestly, I'm going to miss it when it's gone.

2008 has seen the end of some giants in television, I think Boston Legal can be called one of them.

House:
I caught up with House this week by watching last week's episode as well, I was pretty pleased to see Željko Ivanek (Damages, Homicide) as he's a great actor. Sure enough he didn't disappoint, and the episode was pretty decent. But it was slightly marred by still running off and teaching "Thirteen" another lesson about herself. Hopefully she'll stop being such a whingy moo-cow now and we can get on with interesting patients plus unusual and horrible diseases.

This week's episode on the other hand was better on the staff story front but had a weak patient who was exceptionally uninteresting. The most entertaining part of the show right now is the awkward and amusing interactions between Cuddy and House. They're interested in each other (which has been obvious since the start of the show) but House is a jerk and Cuddy is concerned about that. Add into this mix House alternating between being sweet (in his way) and being House and you can't be exactly sure where this is leading. Which makes it fun to watch (and a lot more entertaining than that insipid House/Cam Club thread on tv.com is - but, sadly there's now a "Huddy" thread as well...) still one shouldn't judge a show on the merits of it's fan base.

30 Rock:
Reunion was a great episode with two story lines; the first involved Liz's reunion and the discovery that she wasn't the school nerd, in fact her defensive sniping at people hurt them all very badly. At the same time Jack pretends to be someone he isn't at the reunion and begins to wonder if his life is all it's cracked up to be. Back at 30 Rockerfeller Plaza Tracy and Jenna become insecure about Kenneth's popular elevator jokes and feel he's threatening their status as actors and the focus of attention. Good stuff, no heavy use of guest stars and the only thing I missed was the presence of the other characters, I do enjoy any scenes involving Pete and Frank especially.

The Office:
The Office is my comedy highlight of the week, every single episode this year has had me laughing, nodding and even occasionally squirming at the antics that go on in the Dunder-Mifflin Scranton branch. This week was no exception, Oscar comes into Michael's office and explains that there's a budget surplus that needs to be spent before the end of the day. The Office divides between a new photocopier and new chairs (most notably Jim is pro-copier while Pam is pro-chair), and Michael is unable to make a decision. Meanwhile Dwight shows Andy and Angela the site for their marriage ceremony and almost manages to turn Angela around on the subject, before he pulls another Dwight special and drives her right back.

Also, this episode had one of the best editing cuts it's ever had right near the end of the episode. Oh and it was hilarious that Michael was pouring sugar into a diet coke.

My Name is Earl:
"Reading is a A Fundamental Case" was rather average for an episode of My Name is Earl. The episode ran as a parallel to the story of Tarzan, or at least the knock off copy of the book anyway. The idea of knock off classic books is a pretty funny one in itself. I'm not sure if it's a parody of the poor quality DVDs or titles of adult films, but regardless it's a good joke. On the other hand the rest of the episode just wasn't, most of the story was pretty lackluster for me, I think my favourite moment involved Darnell, and he just had a single line joke himself. I'd like to see this season do something, even if it's just a few two-part episodes.

Other Stuff:
I've still not watched this week's Heroes, it's no longer high on my priority list to see, maybe Fuller will be able to fix the mess that Kring has made, maybe not. But right now the show is a steaming pile. In the DVD front I watched Harvey Birdman again, it's incredibly easy to sit and watch through that entire show thanks to the ten minute episodes and the exceptionally fast plots plus high joke content.

I'm gearing up to watch Sons of Anarchy next week, I'll have the verdict on the show once I've watched the entire first season. I'm also planning to catch back up with Life over Christmas, it may have improved now they know they have a full run to play with.
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A relatively quiet week for TV watching in the Rev-Views household.

Dexter:
Finally we're past the spoiler moment for Dexter, I already knew for a long time that Prado was going to get drawn into Dexter's tangled web after the news report about the knife incident mentioned saran wrap. This has impacted on my enjoyment of the show because instead of watching Prado take steps into a world that he shouldn't be involved in and sit around hoping he would pull out, I've instead been watching his slide into evil.

But, this week still managed to pull a great revelation moment that has set the scene and returned all of the tension (as Rob predicted they would over at Dan's reviews of the show). The final few episodes of Dexter promise to be pretty special.

Boston Legal:
An exceptionally unusual episode of Boston Legal this week, taking place almost entirely in Shirley and Carl's home over thanksgiving. There are no court cases, just Carl, Shirley, Denny, Edwin Poole (remember him?), his adopted son, Alan, Jerry and Katie. It's a sweet episode that has some exceptionally lovely moments for Shirley and Carl, plenty of amusing groans everytime Alan said he had something to say and an "about time" moment for Jerry. I really do feel that the quality of the show has risen greatly in this final season and I'm going to miss the show when it's gone.

Heroes:
Eclipse is the first of a two-parter in what is possibly the worst decision the show has ever made. Right now they've ruined the characterisation of their core characters so deeply that the only entertaining elements left are the powers. Now they've taken them away for the duration of this two part 'event'.

As a consequence things are exceptionally dull, short of the writers killing Claire and Peter off (which will sadly not happen any time soon) there's really nothing much to be gained from this episode beyond some half decent - but bizarre and out of character - moments for Elle and Sylar. This is a show that I'm very close to walking away from, as frankly, it's rubbish right now!

How I Met Your Mother:
This season has had a few very good episodes and then a few that are pretty flat. Fortunately for us "The Naked Man" belongs to the former category. We have every character involved in fun storylines based around Robin's latest date who likes to pull something he calls 'The Naked Man', a move that has a 2 in 3 success rate. Cue some brilliant moments for everyone, even Ted manages to be a bit less boring than normal this week.

The Shield:
It's over and this will be one of the last times I get to talk about the show (until the Season 7 DVD release, which should come out in Region 2 before Region 1 if past trends are anything to go by) but I'm still at something of a loss. The full review is over here, but there are still so many more things I'd love to say about this show. The short version is this. The Shield was the best thing that aired over this Fall season, no arguments, no disputes, that's the truth. Of course, the show will be ignored at Emmy time, but that's because the Emmys are as meaningless as popularity polls when it comes to judging what shows are actually the most well written and performed.

I digress. It was AMAZING and frankly the show is now a MUST WATCH for anyone who considers themselves an informed and tasteful watcher of TV.

Oh and the words "Family Meeting" will never sound the same again to my ears.

The IT Crowd:
I missed the first episode and a few minutes of this one (the second). I enjoy the IT Crowd because of Richard Ayoade's portrayal of Moss (I've enjoyed his work since The Mighty Boosh and Darkplace) and because I think Katherine Parkinson is lovely. The episode was fun light comedy but nothing really groundbreaking, it seems that the show is in something of a rut. Fortunately it's still fun and I honestly enjoy it. But it's not something that's ever going to be worth more than a paragraph in a review round up.


Live at the Apollo:
I managed to catch the first 'Live at the Apollo' this week by almost pure chance. It was presented by Michael McIntyre (a comedian who I first saw at the Hammersmith Apollo) and featured his own talents alongside the stylings of American comedian Rich Hall and fellow Welshman Rhod Gilbert. Michael was just brilliant, as always. Likewise Rich (who I normally see on shows like QI and Not the Nine O'Clock News, I've never seen his stand up before) was great. Rhod on the other hand was a little hard to get used to, I sat in silence for most of his gig. But I did start laughing towards the end, his style just took some adjustment on my part.

The episode is here if you wish to watch it.

In other news I've been catching up with Weeds season 2 + 3 and continuing to work on 'Watching the Wire' episode seven will be up tomorrow. Outside of TV land I've been enjoying Left 4 Dead on the 360.

That's all for this week, so if you don't mind. Lets just take a moments silence for the passing of one of the greatest TV shows of our generation.

...

The Shield.
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I had something of a light week of TV watching this past seven days, Halloween combined with the upcoming election seems to have reduced the amount of TV I like to watch around. Which is actually fine as

First up, on the 29th Stephen Colbert had a guest I have a great deal of admiration for, Mr David Simon.



I missed this on the actual date because The Colbert Report and I are not on speaking terms right now, it's not the fault of the show, it's Comedy Central's fault. They are the ones who removed region free viewing from their shows. Instead I caught this at Brian's blog over at mysterybookspot. I guess I should be grateful that I can at least watch the clips.

Boston Legal:
I think we're starting to see the shape of the end story in Boston Legal, there's been numerous mentions of how Crane, Poole and Schmidt are struggling due to the economic relapse, Alan's reputation and Denny's antics. This week had the two of them out away from the office on a dude ranch and included a truly disturbing moment between Denny and a Sheep (really? Is he that far gone now? Seriously?) plus a great reprise for the Texan lawyer Melvin Palmer. But the best moment is summed up in one sentence "Jerry as Bo Peep". The episode was a hoot.

Heroes:
The earlier season villains are all dropping like flies right now aren't they? I'm not really sure what else to say about the show right now, it seems like they're trying to correct all their previous mistakes and return everything to some kind of balance. It's still fun to watch, but it's not a great show any more.

House:
All I really have to say is "It's about time", House has been dancing around Cuddy like a petulant school child who isn't sure about how to deal with his crush since nearly the very start of this show. It's been obvious that he has deep feelings for her since, well as long as I can remember watching this show. But he's so emotionally stunted that he's been using cruelty as a way of getting and keeping her attention.

It was a pretty good episode this week, I didn't comment on the previous episodes because I fell behind with watching them and had only just caught up. This weeks was better than most of the previous episodes, apart from the Wilson/House Road Trip episode (which was also very good).

Dead Set:
I watched Dead Set every evening this week (or caught up the following day on those evenings when I was out) and on the whole, it was OK. Brooker's script was decent but not amazing, I was hoping it would have something new to say about the subject of zombies, especially with the big brother spin, but it essentially boiled down to "idiots in a siege situation" which is nothing new for any zombie aficionado. It had some good moments in it, but it also had a lot of things that were just essentially wasting time. Overall I'd call it a C+ effort, shows promise but room for improvement.

Oh and thumbs down for running zombies, they're not as scary as the shuffling drones are. Sure running ones give you more immediate kicks with chase sequences, but the slow mindless ones are far more indicative of the society which they're supposed to reflect and also they result in people dying purely through human errors.

30 Rock:
30 Rock premiered this week and the episode was used to swiftly return things to normality, getting Alec Baldwin back where he belongs and swerving to avoid the adoption issue because babies are not that funny.

The Office:
Holly is gone! Sad faces all around! Yes, it's true. The lovely Holly Flax (Amy Ryan) is gone, she was the perfect Miss Michael Scott and their collective mirrored dorkiness was so great that I will miss it almost as much as Michael will. In addition we have a great Dwight/Andy argument where Dwight uses the same antagonistic passive/aggressive style that Jim so loves to inflict on him. This time dressing up as if he wanted to go to Cornell, Andy's old university. Cue utterly childish behaviours that really result in no winner, just two losers.

Supernatural:
"Astronaut!"
Supernatural has indeed been spoiling us this October month with a third great episode, Monster (a fortnight ago) was so good it could have been the Halloween special but it was followed up with not one but two great episodes. This week's was Halloween themed with the lads investigating people dying from urban legends and attempting to foil a witch from returning Samhaim to the world of the living.

Not only does the episode steep itself in the fun of Halloween, and includes a brilliant moment between Dean and a fat little astronaut but it also pushes forward the main plot with Castile making a strong appearance. It also marks our second angel putting in an appearance - Uriel - played by the brilliant Robert Wisdom (The Wire, Prison Break). Great stuff.

In other things I've mostly been pottering around on Xbox live playing retro games this week, I discovered that I could play my all time favourite game 'Streets of Rage II' on the 360 and that's eaten up hours - I'm also resisting the urge to purchase 'Castle Crashers'. But I did have enough time to watch the first series of "Marion & Geoff", some of Homicide season 7 (series 6) and I've been catching up on the odd bit of "Monty Python" (I'm up to series 2 atm) .
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Life:
I'm really sorry to do this, I am. But Life is being bumped down into the week that was feature instead of getting it's own episode review because I'm tired with the lack of consistency. After last week's brilliant Standford Prison Experiment episode this week's was pretty average, and while average for some shows is still miles above the rest Life is not one of those shows. The problem is, I like the show, but this is not Life as I know it. If they'd just pull things together and get back to the great and compelling moments of the latter part of the first season then things would be forgiven. But it's had too many duffers so far with only two episodes that were good.

Dexter:
Likewise Dexter has been bumped down to here, in part because my personal schedule is utterly overwhelmed with other things and something had to give. And in part because this season hasn't been very inspiring compared to the previous two seasons. Last Sunday's episode wasn't bad, but it also wasn't really good either. It seems the show is a little rudderless right now having shot it's bolt in the previous seasons with the loss of two really good antagonists (B & D).

Family Guy:
"Das Poop!"
I never like the "Road to _____" series it's a set of stories that Seth and Co seem very fond of but I find to be rather boring overall. Fortunately this one is pretty good, the Little Shop of Horrors skit was great, as was the Back to the Future skateboard scene, the Top Gun references, the awesome Flash Gordon moment with Brian Blessed and the Indiana Jones snow raft moment. It was all very silly and a lot of fun.

American Dad:
In contrast, American Dad was. Eh, not so interesting. Stan's juggling work and home life again, which is a little... meh considering the potential subject matter. You have to wonder how a show about a fat overweight American can result in an epic romp around wartime Germany while it's sister show about a powerful CIA man instead spends it's time rowing back and forth across a lake to a fat girl. Below average for the show, nothing really that funny contained within it.

Heroes:
Utterly stupid, utterly fun. But it was a real shame they decided to kill off Adam Monroe, he was one of the better characters in the show and definitely the best thing that happened last season (that wasn't retconned this season). At least they've finally neutered stupid Peter, man I'm tired of his special blend of poor acting and plain stupidity of character. Sadly it seems the writers have decided to infect almost every other character in the show with an lowered intelligence. But as long as it remains fun, I'll watch this season.

Also how did I miss the Hare & the Tortoise reference with regards to Parkman and Daphne?

How I Met Your Mother:
After a brilliantly leaked fake out set of pictures last week the crew at HIMYM had a lot of people thinking that we were going to see a happy ending. But as the episode unfolds, no. It was a great little episode with some fantastic moments, more sentimental than funny mind you.
But, I'm thinking the show has just one or two more seasons in it after this one through, it shouldn't be dragged out.

Boston Legal:
"Have you no shame what so ever?"
"None!"
We have a solid episode of Boston Legal this week, to be honest there's nothing we haven't seen before. But there are slight inklings of how the show is going to end creeping in here. Denny and Alan's antics have consequences at long last, the firms reputation is suffering and Shirley is less than impressed with them both. There was plenty for everyone to do, except Carl and Katie who were somewhat sidelined, it does seem that David struggles to write for an ensemble style show. His next project should try focusing on only a couple of core characters and then have reoccuring guest stars that fit the situation when needed. Funnily enough this might be what his next project is...

Did I mention how much I love Tara Summers as Katie? Yes? Did I mention it this week? Well I have now.

The Shield:
This episode was the best thing that has been on TV since the fall season started, more here.

The Office:
I'm really, really enjoying seeing Michael and Holly together. The stuff he says is so cringe-worthy that you think it's all going to blow up but then Holly talks and you realise that they're very much in sync. The auction was also good, with some great moments but I think my favourite moments was the lot "leave now and have a drink with us" and the moment when Dwight realised that his cruelty towards Phyllis was unwarranted and he attempted to make up for it by bidding heavily on a hug with her - each time passing the previous bid by a penny. The other great moment was Jim meeting up with Roy again and nearly developing the same level of possessiveness and paranoia as he had by rushing off to New York to see Pam without warning. But instead of causing some scene he comes to his senses and turns back.

My Name is Earl:
Another episode with Earl attempting to make amends with Randy, this time by getting him a car for his birthday, except it gets stolen and Earl is forced to talk to the police instead of just getting drunk and inflicting violence and property damage onto the culprits (as he did before he got his list). Pretty standard fare for the show, it does feel like it's in a bit of a rut right now. Very formulaic.

Supernatural:
While this week's episode couldn't hold a candle to last week's utterly amazing black and white B Movie monster homage this week did have some pretty superb moments. With Dean acting up after being infected with a 'ghost sickness' - the actual threat of some ghostly illness was pretty laughable. But the episode itself was great, Dean was acting up like a prize coward and you could see that Jensen Ackles was relishing the chance to break character. The episode also packed a couple of strong moments when Dean's fears about Sam resulted in a hallucination where Sam displayed the powers of old yellow eyes. But the real sting was right at the end, where a now cured Dean saw a flash of yellow in Sam's eyes. Sam has vowed off using his powers, but that's not a good sign.

Also, the scene after the credits was amazing and hilarious at the same time, you don't even need to watch the show to enjoy this one so here it is:


On the DVD front I gave up attempting to recover my Green Wing DVDs and picked up the complete collection instead (review coming soon), the phone call to my father was interesting. I started off asking about my DVDs and he flat denied having them, claiming he'd returned them to me a while back. Seeing how I keep my DVDs in order and always have them on the shelf if I'm not watching them, I know he was mistaken. But he was pretty pleased when I told him he could keep them. If I didn't know better, I'd suspect he was trying to borrow them indefinitely anyway.

I also picked up the 15 disc "Almost everything ever in one gloriously fabulous ludicrously definitive outrageously luxurious Monty Python boxset" and the first two series of Rob Brydon's "Marion & Geoff"
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I found myself wondering if I'd missed some stuff this week as my TV load didn't feel quite so overwhelming as it did the past two weeks. I suspect it's in part because a few things didn't air and in part because I'm getting used to the overload of great television.

Dexter:

Review is over here, short version is - it's a very funny episode.

How I Met Your Mother:

This week's HIMYM had a wonderfully subtle set of homages to other comedy shows in it. Barney running a wonderful back to the future skit, more Marshall robot impressions and Robin projecting onto everyone else. It was classic HIMYM and I just wish I could talk about it more without spoiling it for someone who's already complained once about spoilers!

Heroes:

I finally caught back up this week with what is now being called 'Heroes: The Wire reunion tour'. Jamie Hector has been in it for a few weeks and now the amazing Andre Royo turns up this week, both with his usual level of supreme acting talent and an interesting power. So 305 was much better than 304, all this Heroes Time Travel Cause and Effect Nonsense just clouds what's good about the show. Still, maybe, just maybe this goose isn't over-cooked yet.

But I can't help noticing just how much of Heroes is stolen from The 4400, vague unpleasant future, time travel, abilities, a formula that gives normal people abilities, a conspiracy to control the world etc etc. I don't really mind so much, I'm just wondering why 4400 failed while Heroes is so popular. Especially considering the lack of consistency in writing right now.

Boston Legal:

A back to basics episode which featured just Denny Crane and Alan Shore defending the husband of an old flame of Alan's. It's a simple and pure trial episode with some great performances from the guest stars, including the lovely Brenda Strong and one of my favourite Homicide actors Kyle Secor. It's an episode very much centered around Alan and it works well. But I did miss Katie, Carl and Jerry. Especially Katie, I think I love Tara Summers.

The Shield:

That baby is over here. Not as tense as last weeks episode but it shows huge potential for explosive action in the next one. The brew simmered rather than boiling over, but that makes for better flavour (enough with the food jokes!)

Supernatural:

"I'm a maverick, ma'am. A rebel with a badge. One thing I don't play by, the rules."


Do not adjust your set!

People are dying in the Pennsylvania Ocktoberfest and they're being killed by classic monsters from old black and white movies. It's up to the Winchesters to get to the bottom of it all, in stylish black and white.

Seriously, Oh my goodness, stars and stripes, garters and elephants, werewolves and vampires. This was the best thing on television all week. Supernatural was so freaking amazing that it deserves it's own post and the second slot in my long forgotten 'Exceedingly Excellent Episode' feature. I'm going to write about just how amazing it was in full sometime soon but for now I'll just leave it by saying that I LOVE it when shows occasionally mix things up like this. It's better than last years Ghost Chasers episode and the Hollywood episode (in season 2) was and that's saying something. Bravo, bravo!

My Name is Earl:

"Boys aren't supposed to think their mothers are sexy. I mean, maybe a couple of weird dreams during puberty that you don't tell anyone about, but that's it."

Cheerleaders, badgers, families and facial scars. Earl attempts to cross Randy off his list by agreeing to go to cheer leading camp with him. It's actually an episode that I felt could have been longer, a double length 40 min episode would have worked great here as there were some hilarious supporting actors playing cheerleaders. Still, it was short but sweet.

The Office:

Jan has her baby without telling Michael, so he continues to throw a baby shower after the birth. Cue awkward moments involving a melon and butter, Jan singing inappropriate songs to her newborn, conversation about a tub birth while eating cake and Dwight trashing a $1200 stroller by throwing it around in a junkyard and then dragging it behind his car. Michael comes to realise that he doesn't really feel anything for Jan's baby and finally asks Holly out. Pam and Jim spend the whole day slightly out of sync with each other before finally ending up so in sync that they have the same conversation to each others answer machines at the same time. A great little scene to cap the episode off and it's good to know that the writers are content to let their relationship push forward in a productive manner instead of jerking the viewers around.

And in DVDs I've been watching Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law again because it's a great way to fill ten mins, That 70s Show season 6 and 7 (I completely forgot that they changed the actress who plays Laurie in this season, it's really off-putting) and I'm still working through The West Wing Season 1 by enjoying a little of it here and there.
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No new shows this week,

Dexter:
Review is located here. Solid episode with some great moments that was spoiled by tv.com's unwise release of news from future episodes without a spoiler warning.

Family Guy:
Eh, some weeks Family Guy is great, some weeks it's not. This was a not week for me. I was amused by the continuous repetition of The Trashmen's "Surfin' Bird" but that's about it. No doubt the various videos of it on YouTube will double in hits from people with it stuck in their head. Don't you know, about the bird?

American Dad:
American Dad on the other hand was rather amusing with a tale of not very mystery and obvious suspense. But then again you don't expect depth and unexpected twists in a cartoon like that, so the obvious nature of the plot was fine. The King Klaus joke was very good.

Life:
Episodes 2 and 3 are reviewed here. Short version is the second episode is bad, third episode great.

How I Met Your Mother:
A reasonable episode with some good moments, but nothing majorly special. I've never understood the New Jersey hating from Manhattan so it was hard to click with this one. The Barney moments were still great and Robin had a couple of zingers also.

Boston Legal:
There are two cases this week that focus on some of the core traits of Denny and Alan, guns and sexism. True these are pretty old topics for the show, but it's delivered in a fantastic way, the "Boom" interplay between John and Bill in the courtroom is nothing short of hilarious but it's capped by Henry Gibson (who's always fun as Judge Brown) yelling at them. Nice touches in this episode with Alan being cut off while ranting and Denny failing to fail, thus failing to get what he wanted. It's good to occasionally have things switched up, even a little.

The Shield:
That's over here. Short version, un-freaking-believable. But could you really expect anything less?

The Office:
Office (USA) how I love you oh-so much with your tackling Michael Scott and the doubling up of Holly and Michael's terrible matched sense of humour. Michael is just incapable of giving up anything when it comes to heading up a discussion, even when he's desperate to forge a connection with Holly he still can't help spoiling her presentation . Jim's back to antagonising Dwight, this time about his time wasting - I really can't get enough of those two going at each other and this weeks was gold. Battlestar Galactica will now forever be, the story of Dumbledore Calrissian and his journey returning the ring back to Mordor. But Jim's monitoring of Dwight's activities has put him closer to spotting that Dwight is carrying on an affair with Angela.

The scene where Holly gets a dressing down from HR is a great little callback/parallel to all the ones Michael used to get from Jan.

Supernatural:
"What can change the nature of a man?"
Dean confronts Sam about his abilities and his intimate relationship with Ruby. The episode has the lads dealing with a man who's suffering from a parallel condition to Sam's own one - eventually the man will turn into a flesh craving cannibal. Dean wants to end him while Sam wishes to give the man a chance to redeem himself. By the end of the episode he's driven to become the monster, unable to resist when another hunter threatens his pregnant wife and Sam is forced to destroy him. As a result of this Sam agrees to stop using his demonic abilities. For now at least.

My Name is Earl:
This week we learn that the first amendment is about the freedom to talk with firearms, memento makes for mildly amusing comedy and giant prosthetic asses stop being funny when you get older. Pretty standard fair for the show, nothing spectacular - just fun.

In the land of DVDs I finished watching season five of That 70s Show and I picked up the complete West Wing for an absolute steal so I've just started watching it. I missed it when it was first out but I really enjoyed watching Studio 60 so I decided to take the plunge. I'm rather glad I did, the stirring music during speeches irritates me somewhat as I hate it when shows try to manipulate your feelings with their musical score, but that's a minor gripe at best and the rest of the show is superb. Seriously, if you have a spare £50 and half an interest in it there's 114hours of programming (plus extras) there and it's been great so far.

I also forgot to watch Heroes this week, but I heard/read it was a fun episode.

I'm thinking about picking up 'Sons of Anarchy' to watch as well because it sounds like it's getting good. Anyone had any experience watching it?

Come back tomorrow for the first of the Watching the Wire series, you might want to watch/rewatch the first episode in preparation. You'll be able to correct me if I got anything wrong and earn some Wire geekery points in the process, or something.
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A change of name for the post previously known as "The Weekly Round Up" to differentiate it from "The Shield Review Round Up".

More returning shows this week, I can't help but feel I should try to watch some other new show this season. But there's not much that interests me amongst the newer shows:

American Dad:
American Dad returns with a rather average episode based mostly around Steve as he hits puberty. Francine doesn't want to lose her baby while Stan wants Steve to hurry up and become a man. Cue some rather silly youth/aging antics which provide some great old person jokes. But on the whole the episode isn't great and they didn't take it in the direction I hoped they would.

Family Guy:
It's an age old story on family guy, dog meets woman, dog likes woman, viewer feels disturbed that people date dogs on Family Guy - even if they can talk (the dog not the people, I mean... ack, you know what I mean), baby gives dog bad advice, dog loses woman to friend, friend and woman nail each other everywhere dog goes, second friend nails woman, dog and friend make up again, everything goes back to normal.

Eh, that's pretty much all I have to say about the episode. I like Family Guy, but I really don't like the episodes which involve Brian falling in love with a woman. I know it's a cartoon, but I mean "Come On"! (I love referencing that show.)

Dexter:
I've already written about the first episode as it was leaked early. My thoughts on it haven't changed.

Boston Legal:
"My penis has Alzheimer's"
I watched the first two episodes of the final season as I'm playing catch up. Boston Legal has lost a lot of the spark that made it so good originally, the constantly changing staff has made it difficult for the viewer and the cast to develop attachments. I am a little saddened that this will be it's final season, but at least it's getting a chance to end on it's own terms. I do wish more networks would give a show a chance to do one final season before going (Yeah, I'm still smarting about the Arrested Development, Dead Like Me, Firefly, 4400 and Dead Zone cancellations.)

I digress, onto the episodes. It seems the cast has been paired down to a core group, containing the most interesting and effective characters of the previous season. Of course we have Denny and Alan back. But also we've kept Jerry, Katie, Shirley and Carl. I'm happy that they have been kept on because the relationships between these characters have been the strongest ones in recent times. I still miss Mark Valley mind you... The first episode revolves mostly around big tobacco, growing old and Denny's penis. It's an on pitch Boston Legal affair with almost all of the great moments in place; Alan's big speech, Jerry's sharp rant, Denny acting up because he's not the center of attention, Carl making surprising decisions. It's all there and it serves as a great return for the series, there's no innovation. Just more of what the viewer enjoys. The second episode had it's moments, truth be told it was very formulaic but there was the odd moment that really entertained. Especially the fourth wall references to this season being the last and talking about the end.

Oh and Tara Summers is as lovely as ever; one day, when I grow up I want to marry a lass just like her.

Heroes:
Jumped sharks much? Seriously, the show is really losing it's grip on it's own reality. It remains entertaining, but, well it's a little convoluted. I think I'm at the point where I just stop worrying about it all and start enjoying the nonsense instead. There are just too many errors and continuity issues to even start worrying. Fortunately they've not wasted Jamie Hector by just killing him off early, sadly he seems to have a pretty lousy ability as far as things go so it's just a matter of time before he's gone. I quite like the way that Parkman keeps getting called Pac-man mind you.

Enjoyable fluff, that's what the show has devolved into.


How I Met Your Mother:
This week gave us a fun and lighthearted episode centering around nostalgia, which is fitting for a show that is well... centered around nostalgia. It's not the best episode of HIMYM, lacking any truly brilliant moments but it does move the story forward for Marshall and entertain.

House M.D:
"Less creepy, more gay"
It may be utterly formulaic, but I can always forgive House for that because it's so damn entertaining. Normally I enjoy the whole "Who's going to get ill?" build up at the start of an episode, but this week it was very obvious as Breckin Meyer (Robot Chicken, King of the Hill) was in the scene - famous, recognisable person always gets ill. As for the episode, it was OK. There was some nice character development for Tau and Cuddy gets a little interest, both from House and Lucas. I'm still not sold on Lucas, he's a solid character but hardly deserving of his own series.

Supernatural:
I'm always a little cautious about any episode of a show that uses time travel, unless the principle focus of the show is time travel itself. Heroes is a great example of a show that's been screwed up due to the terrible influence fiddling with events can have. Continuity is a terrible thing to mess with, future or past. So once it became clear that the focus of this episode was going to be on time travel and Dean was intent on changing everything then things looked a little worrying. Fortunately the writers of Supernatural are not that stupid, the entire purpose of Dean's experience was not to change what happened but to see how everything unfolded. Now Dean is a little more aware of what's happened to Sam and the lines have begun to be drawn in the sand.

I do find watching Supernatural weekly to be an unusual experience, I watched the first three seasons entirely on DVD at my own pace. If I'm honest I preferred that experience over watching it each week. I'm tempted to stop watching and wait for everything to be released together because I prefer to see the show in blocks. But the story is so interesting right now that I don't think I could wait.

My Name is Earl:
"Don't forget to make a wish."
"I wish I was a girl."
There's another two episodes released this week, they're putting them out so fast there's going to be none left by the new year. We get a Joy and Darnell centric episode for the first of them which is always good, they're the most amusing characters in the show after Randy. It turns out Darnell gets migraines for one, not surprising considering how abrasive Joy is. The man better avoid any affairs then, having an affair if you're migraine prone can lead to strokes (according to the latest study anyway). We also get a return of the Earl/Randy bed scene at the end of the episode, they're always good. The second episode is a bit more heartwarming in nature, but has some pretty funny scenes involving incredibly dangerous old men and a not very British Randy.

The music on the show was just excellent this week as well.

(The Office did not air this week.)

I've also been watching Skins: Season 2 (DVD Review here), That 70s Show and Pushing Daises: Season One (I don't get on with Pushing Daisies, but I keep coming back to it and trying again. DVD Review coming soon, short version - I've finally gotten over the irritating narrator.)
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