After the dramatic entrance of V last week, there were no similar big splash stories to lead things off this week. Then, as I was perusing the year-ago numbers, something occurred to me. It’s quite possible that FOX could improve both Monday and Thursday at 9:00 if they swapped Fringe and Lie To Me. If you look back to the initial Fringe run, it had a lot of success following House. In fact, while the House numbers are virtually unchanged from Tuesday to Monday, Fringe was holding much more of the House audience on Tuesday than Lie To Me currently is on Monday.

Example:
11/18/08: House (13.03m/5.5), Fringe (9.36m/4.2)
11/09/09: House (13.31m/5.3), Lie To Me (7.41m/3)

And that was against very similar competition. Both faced DWTS on ABC, which was pretty much a wash. NBC was greatly improved against Fringe with Biggest Loser (7.84m/3.3), as opposed to Trauma (5.35m/1.8). And CBS was mixed, with The Mentalist (15.83m/3.5) trailing the Men/Big Bang hour (13.62m/4.6) in the demo.

Now we look at where we are this season. Fringe did manage something of a rebound this week, finishing with (5.91m/2.2) on Thursday. That’s still a distant fourth place, and should find the show on the hot seat at the end of the season. It would, obviously, do better on Monday following House. The question is, would it do better than the (7.41m/3) that Lie To Me is currently offering? I think it would.

On the other side of that coin, while I’m not quite as confident about the move of Lie To Me to Thursday, I do still see the potential for it to outperform the current Fringe numbers. That bar has been set, after all, rather low. It would likely take a  hit in the move, but the end result would be that Thursday at 9:00 is stronger as well. Just something to think about. The usual numbers junk is after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

I continue to be amazed by the way that not only Joe, but also Scanlon and Devalos, just dismiss Allison’s dreams on a regular basis. Have they not been paying attention for the last six years? You can, on occasion, look at that as being a little silly. But I’m going to give Joe a pass on it for one simple reason. I take it as confirmation that he is the eternal optimist. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knows, “Oh crap.” But for whatever reason, he just chooses to dismiss it. Especially where family is concerned. There’s something very likable about that quality, as silly as it is. Read the rest of this entry »

That’s more like it. “Time” certainly had its share of points you can quibble about, but it still managed to be my favorite episode of the young Stargate Universe season. Kicking things off with the crew exiting the stargate onto a jungle planet was a great start. We need a little more adventure here. Add in some nasty aliens, some nice character moments, and a save-the-day twist that was rather interesting and you have the makings of a pretty good episode. Read the rest of this entry »

Clearly, I have to stop referring to these episodes that don’t deal with the apocalypse as stand-alone. There was nothing stand-alone about “The Real Ghostbusters.” While it did continue our little mid-season break from the goings on with Lucifer, it did so while managing to tie back into the delight that is the Supernatural books, and their nutty fans. Even better, the Supernatural team managed to weave a little spooky adventure, something of a touching moment, and an interesting nugget for the future into all the absurdity. And best of all, it also meant the return of Becky! Read the rest of this entry »

“Return To Malice” was a tricky bit of business. Taken on its own, it’s clearly my least favorite of the first four installments. It is, however, one that is going to age very well, and will improve greatly when taken as a part of the entirety of season four. Months from now, when we’re all burning through the grooves on the DVD set, the saga of 21 will be a stand out moment. Read the rest of this entry »

Another slow week for the current big network shows, but there are a number of interesting packages hitting the store shelves this week. First up — complete with some very cool packaging — is the complete collector’s set from G.I. Joe. You’ll also see complete series sets from Dawson’s Creek, Justice League, and Show Me Yours. My pick of the week is a series of sets from late-70s British drama The Sandbaggers. The Cold War shenanigans of MI6 are always a good place to start. The rest of the list is after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Actually, the episode wasn’t so awesome. It was solid. Another interesting case for the team, and another chance for Castle to prove his worth. Captain Montgomery even had a little more to do this week. With that line though, and particularly the delivery of it, I realized exactly what it is that keeps me coming back week after week. As great as Beckett and the rest of the team are, it really is all about Castle. Read the rest of this entry »