This week’s column is all about new shows. Well, kind of. The Tonight Show certainly isn’t new, but Conan O’Brien hosting it sure is. I take a look at that, examine jungle morality with Frangela, and decide if The Listener is worth watching.

Conan’s first day on the job

I’ve been super-excited about the prospect of Conan taking over for Jay Leno on The Tonight Show, though I have been worried that Conan’s antics may not mesh well with Jay’s established audience. After his first night, I have no idea whether or not he’s going to be successful in this new job, but I do know this: His opening was amazing.
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The summer season is getting under way now. Here’s a handy guide of what’s to come:

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK

• It hasn’t even debuted yet and I’m already annoyed with NBC’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here. I say get them all out of there, and off my screen before the two-hour premiere. (Mon. 8pm)
• But if you can’t get enough of Heidi Montag and Spender Pratt, you can flip over to MTV and see “Speidi’s Wedding Unveiled” in a special presentation of The Hills. (Mon. 11pm)
• Scare tactics are alive and well on ABC’s Earth 2100, which takes a speculative look at how we might just wipe ourselves out in the next 100 years. It WILL happen. Bob Woodruff says so. (Tue. 9pm)
• The following night NBC takes us into the Presidency with Inside the Obama White House: Brian Williams Reports. I wonder if he’ll ask how we’re going to avert oblivion in the next century. (Wed. 9pm)
• Just in time for Land of the Lost, find out how Will Ferrell would really fare in the wild as he takes it on with Bear Grylls in a special Man vs. Wild on Discovery (Tue. 10pm)
• The NBA Finals kick off with a Jimmy Kimmel special on ABC before the Orlando Magic take on the Los Angeles Lakers. (Thu. 8pm)
• It’s The Tony Awards in HD for the first time on CBS, and it’s hosted by NPH himself, Neil Patrick Harris! (Sun. 8pm)
• Worst Week is back to burn off its remaining episodes on CBS (Sat. 8:30pm)

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And that, my friends, is precisely why I write about TV, and not for TV. Never in a million years would I have come up with such a solution for a very tricky situation. Well okay, maybe I would have, because a million years is a long time. Anyway, I knew that there was no way Allison herself would be able rid herself of Harvey Lucas, so at least I got that part right.

Now that I’m done giving myself undeserved props, let’s talk about villains: Read the rest of this entry »

Seriously, two two-parters in a row? What gives? As Kona mentioned last week, the first one was really unnecessary. It wasn’t even really a continuation. Now we get another “to be continued…”, which granted, seems a little more interesting, and yet, I’m fearful that this is going to bomb.

While this episode was a vast improvement from last week’s, which really just felt like a whole lot of filler, I have a couple of bones to pick.

First off, has there ever been an instance in which a spirit has influenced Allison’s dreams before? If there has been, I can’t remember. I called it before the big reveal at the end, and yet I was hoping it wouldn’t turn out to be that way because it seems ridiculous. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes I wonder if there is ever anything new on TV anymore. As I was watching Allison realize that that game show buzzer going off in her head was telling her people were lying, I knew that I had seen something very similar not all that long ago, but couldn’t for the life of me remember what it was.

Then it hit me: Sylar on Heroes. Truth is, I probably couldn’t remember at first because I stopped watching three or four episodes ago. Not because of Sylar’s lie-detecting abilities, but because I now hate the show. But I digress. Read the rest of this entry »

No, not Dale Cooper, although I admit that would be pretty awesome. I mean Agent Edward Cooper, or rather his ghost, brilliantly played by Kurtwood Smith. Even though to me he will always be Red Forman from That 70’s Show, there’s no denying that Kurtwood Smith makes creepy look easy.

We knew it couldn’t be that simple, didn’t we? There’s no way Cooper would just give away precious information like that and not expect anything in return. I know I’ve seen the other two episodes he’s appeared in throughout the years, although my memory is a little fuzzy on exactly what it was that he did. I did remember that he’s from the school of taking lives to save lives.

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Poor Ariel. She is a very sweet girl, smart and pretty to boot. So why can’t she find a nice boy who shares her interests instead of using her to look out for his own?

I’m beginning to think every guy she goes to school with is a douchebag. That, and they are all attracted to her for some reason. A few weeks ago it was the lazy pothead, and now this asshat. Sorry, I can’t remember his name, so I’m afraid I’m going to have to keep making up names for him as I go along. OK, OK, I will go look it up. Gavin Coley. I think Asshat suits him better, but Tool and Dillweed are also options. Read the rest of this entry »