I’ve got to be perfectly honest – when That ’70s Show was on the air, I never watched it. It wasn’t until two or three years ago that I caught some re-runs and went, “Holy crapballs, this show is freaking amazing.”

I knew about it, of course. I’ve had a massive, raging crush on Topher Grace since Win a Date with Tad Hamilton. (Topher, you could do so much better than Kate Bosworth. Can I interest you in, say, me?) When he doesn’t have his haircut that makes him look like an eight year old, he still makes my stomach do funny fluttery things. But I never felt the need to watch the show. What a dumb premise, I thought. A show about people in the ’70s? How do you pitch that to studio executives? I can just see a bunch of nervous, eager writers lining up and going, “Look, we’ve got this idea for a show about a bunch of kids in the ’70s. And we will call it… That ’70s Show.” If I was an executive, I would have laughed in their faces and kicked them out of my office.

This is why I am not an executive.

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I feel like a broken record. All of the shows that I watch that are in their second or third seasons are getting the same complaints from me: Where’s the progression? Where are the stories that make sense? The ones that fit?

Well, In Plain Sight was, and is, firmly in that category. What’s happening in Albuquerque?

If you caught the last episode, and have been reading my reviews of season two of the show, you know that a lot of the questions that I’ve previously posed have finally been addressed. In one episode. Where everything is put on fast forward, and ties up in a neat little bow by the end credits. Huh?

We’re talking about major plot-points here! Series-long arcs that need time, thought, and lots of story to conclude. Instead, we get forty or so minutes? Why so lazy? Read the rest of this entry »

USA, okay! And I mean that, brother.

Once an afterthought cable network without a clear identity, in just a few short years this little network that could has become a destination for hit series. With syndication licenses for shows like Law & Orders: SVU and Criminal Intent, NCIS, House and JAG, the network has quickly become a regular part of my television watching experience. And then their original series broke through. As Larry David’s George Steinbrenner would say: “I am blown. Bloooown away. Blown George. Bloooooooooooown!”

From Monk to Psych to Burn Notice, USA has had nary a miss (although The Starter Wife….) The conceits are original and daring: a compulsive detective with OCD, a fake-psychic detective (and see how many poor imitations this has spawned), and a spy cut out by his own agency, aren’t your average characters, yet on USA, they’re all welcome.

So it was a no brainer that, when In Plain Sight was announced, I was intrigued. I’ll admit that I was not a fan of Mary McCormack’s Kate Harper on The West Wing, which did give me pause, but the concept of the show, and the success of USA originals, led me to record the pilot. I’m glad I made that decision. Read the rest of this entry »

This episode was… wait for it… completely hilarious. Yep, you heard it here first: I thought How I Met Your Mother was funny tonight. Funnier than tickets to Wrestlemania, funnier than a monkey in two tuxedos; yes, even funnier than a public dry hump.

Sometimes this show really comes together for me, like a perfectly emulsified balsamic vinaigrette. This episode had it all: clever writing, one-liners to beat the band, the classic HIMYM buildup that I have grown so fond of, and of course a Robin gun joke.

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