It was a strange week for ratings. Brett Favre playing against Green Bay made for a huge Monday Night Football (21.84m/9) audience on ESPN. And then the baseball playoffs ran through the rest of the week, calling a lot of the seemingly odd drops in viewers into question. Despite that increased competition, there was some good news to be had. The Biggest Loser, Bones, The Office, Lie To Me, Castle, and The Simpsons all managed to make gains week-to-week. Dollhouse also got in the game, stopping a four episode streak of series lows. On the other side, it’s starting to look like ER took all of it’s viewers with it when it left. The premiere numbers for Three Rivers were not good, and NBC’s dueling medical dramas continue to struggle. Read the rest of this entry »

The week that NBC proved to everyone that they don’t care about hour long dramas anymore, they at least gave Jim/Pam ’shippers the moment they’d been waiting for, a very special Wedding on The Office. Matt Damon showed up on the Entourage finale, and got a good one in on Drama. And Glee proves that it is easily the most quotable show on television today.

The Office

“What are you doing?” — Oscar
“I’m trying to decide if I have time to pee.” — Kevin
“How long do you take to pee?” — Oscar
“The peeing is fast, Oscar. It’s getting my tie back on.” — Kevin

FlashForward

“I’m the CEO of the airline. All the executives are taking flights today, to prove to the customers that the skies are safe again.” — CEO
“How’s that working out for you?” — Zoey
“Gangbusters. Another scotch” — CEO

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I had a tough time figuring out how I’d order my Sunday night’s lineup, and there’s a very close fourth show that I struggled with adding over Entourage.

Curb Your Enthusiasm — The Seinfeld moments alone give this episode my number one pick of the night. I caught this episode a couple of weeks ago, but still the awesomely funny digs at the lackluster Seinfeld finale won’t soon be forgotten. Most weeks, Curb doesn’t do much in the way of being remarkable, but making a reunion episode about making a reunion episode was brilliant.

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Week two of the full-tilt-boogie season brought with it some interesting things, including premieres for Animation Domination, The Amazing Race, Trauma, Hank, and The Middle. We also saw more huge numbers from House, NCIS, and Grey’s. But after all of that, the most interesting story again comes from the show with the worst ratings on all of the big four networks, Dollhouse. After season two premiered to a series low last week, things got even worse. Episode two just barely cleared the 2 million viewer bar, while falling below a 1 in the demo. Reached for comment, my BFF Jill said, “OMG! RLY!?”

Yes, really. The situation is dire. Even the hardcore Whedonites are now at DEFCON 1. Someone has got word that the show could be in danger of being pulled from the air. I don’t know anything more than they do about that, but I would expect it to get one more shot this Friday, before baseball takes over. If episode three doesn’t show some sort of improvement though, I wouldn’t be surprised if baseball makes way for a series of House and Bones repeats on Fridays at 9. Read the rest of this entry »

What did people have against Matt Damon’s appearance after the end of last week’s episode of Entourage? Well, not him so much as Vince’s stumbling through a spot for the Damon supported charity onexone. People said things like, “Clearly it was scripted, but it’s no fake Vince/Adrian Grenier,” or “Damon really was frustrated with how crappy an actor Vince/Grenier is.” It was a parody, folks, and it was hilarious! And the joke was on Damon.

That was Damon playing his lighter side, same as this week. Yes he believes in the cause, and yeah, I’m betting part of his deal was exposure for the charity, but he was being Matt Damon, star of The Informant!, or his Sarah Silverman video … people need to quit being so negative about Vince, and start appreciating the great character that Grenier has carved out of stone. He’s the typical Hollywood lay-about, springing to attention only when a Matt Damon, when a Bono, when a star bigger than him makes him feel just this big. In less than five minutes, Matt Damon made my night (admittedly, I’m already a huge fan … but, still; that includes Seinfeld on Curb). Read the rest of this entry »

Last night’s Entourage had one bit of big news for us, and it all focused in on one Ari Gold, his future, and the future of his agency. Once again, Vince took a very far back seat in this episode, only showing how much the boys rely so much on him and keep his cellphone ringing constantly with pleas for advice. Oh, and that he gets to screw chicks in his pool all day long. Often.

Terrence’s offer is potentially big news for how the rest of Ari’s career plays out on this show. There are two ways I can see this playing out, both of which could change the direction of the show in a positive way.

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I can’t speak to the fate of Entourage without Ari, but the fate of Lloyd without him is a total and complete mess. I really enjoy Rex Lee, but apparently not as a solo artist. Without his abusive and berating boss, Lloyd was a huge drag on the entirety of last night’s episode. Hopefully this schism is temporary.

It did, however, allow us to see a very different side of Drama. He’s always been needy and self-centered, but I think his plea to Ari was pure and sincere; this is his life, and he needs to be represented by someone who truly feels that he’s talented.

Of course, he’s also an idiot, and the “plum” role on Melrose that he gave up his steady gig for is probably some five-minute spot on a random episode that’ll net him nothing. Did he not see the grin on producer Phil Yagoda’s (William Fichtner) face when he mentioned it? I guess we know where Drama’s arc is headed — back to where he was when the series started. Read the rest of this entry »