More Opinion Quickies: Glee and Survivor

So I watched last night's Glee and while I had some feelings about the episode, which I want to express, I just can't bring myself to do a full blog about it. Same with tonight's Survivor. So rather than just skip them outright, I'm gonna do some quickies. This probably won't be a habit, but you never know.

Glee: Choke: Glee did something bold last night: all three of the main storylines ended in a failure of sorts. Rachel choked during her NYADA audition and has probably ruined her chances of getting into that school, Puck failed the one exam he needed, despite actually studying for it and now won't graduate, and Beiste lied about leaving Cooter, after he had an abusive episode. It's all dark, sad, stuff (Well Puck's story was mostly played for laughs until the end) and the show handled it well. I especially appreciated how delicately they handled the domestic abuse storyline, much like how they handled the Gay Teen suicide story way back when. Having Beiste get hit, and then give Cooter another chance at the end is dark and the story probably won't end there, but it's also realistic. And having Rachel blow the biggest audition of her life is a devastating move for the character. Will she get another chance? It wouldn't surprise me, but for now her future has suddenly become incredibly uncertain, just as Kurt finally gets a break. Oh, and the musical numbers were all pretty solid. Anyways, good stuff Glee. Keep it up. Quicky Grade: 80% (Great) Quicky Best Musical Number: Shake It Up!

Survivor: One World: It's Gonna Be Chaos: Now we're getting somewhere. Watching the elimination of all the boys over the past few weeks has been fascinating (Especially since Kim, who I've liked from the start is more and more likely to win this game), but predictable. But instead of getting rid of Tarzan like I was expecting, or even getting rid of Sabrina, which was what the episode seemed to be aiming towards, Kat goes, after making the same kind of mistake at the reward challenge that Kim made last week, but on a worse scale, because Kim was more sympathetic in the eyes of her island mates than selfish Kat. There was other interesting stuff in this episode too, from Alicia deluding herself into thinking that she's running the show, to having the loved ones compete in the reward challenge. And with little time left to go before the finale, it should be interesting to see if Kim can pull this off and win it all. Quicky Grade: 78% (Good)

Quicky Opinions!

Hey gang. Sorry for the lack of posts on things in recent weeks, but I've been busy/lazy. So here's some quicky opinions on things I should be posting about, but just haven't found/made the time to do. I'll try harder as we head into sweeps season, though.

Glee: After a seven-week hiatus, Glee returned with a strong, funny episode. Matthew Bomer was great as Cooper Anderson, Blaine's actor brother. His acting advice to the kids was comically horrible and I really bought into Blaine's conflict with him. Meanwhile, Sue seems to be getting a good arc for the last part of the season, trying to get the Glee club to win Nationals in order to prove she can still lead the Cheerio's without Roz Washington has co-captain (and struggling with the fact that her baby may have down syndrome). As for Quinn, I liked how the resolution to her car crash was handled. Watching her get used to being in a wheelchair will be interesting to see (As will this flirty thing she has going on with Artie) and provides a nice arc for the character going to graduation, as she attempts to walk again. And it's good to see that Finn and Rachel never got married, and this new conflict with Finn possibly going to California will be exciting to watch. Welcome back Glee. Quicky Grade: 82% (Great)

Modern Family: I've dropped the ball lately when it comes to talking about Modern Family, but Election Day was a great episode, filled with lots of humour and pathos. Mitchell and Cam abusing the power of their car megaphone was a highlight, as was Phil trying to get Walt to the polling stations.And although it would've been interesting if Claire had won, it's probably better for the show that she didn't. And Haley's worrying that she'll get rejected from her last college was a good plot for the character and the moment at the end with everyone celebrating her being waitlisted was funny and sweet. Aside from a massive lack of David Cross, good job, Modern Family. And I'll try to write more about you in the future. Quicky Grade: 85%

Survivor: One World:   I've also been dropping the ball with Survivor these past few weeks, to the point that the landscape of the game has drastically changed since I last wrote about the show. Anyways, this season, I've been enjoying Kim slowly but surely becoming the mastermind of the season without anyone really figuring it out. Well Troyzan figured it out when she was too assuring to him, but all that knowledge wound up doing is costing him his hidden immunity idol. It's too bad Jay's gone, because he was shaping up to be an interesting player. Bet he's regretting giving up the challenge for chicken wings now. Speaking of which, Chelsea talking Leif into giving up the challenge was great. And Tarzan remains as comical as ever. Another great episode from a great season. Quicky Grade: 80% (Great)

5 Things I Enjoyed About Survivor: One World: A Bunch of Idiots

So just when the whole One World Boys vs. Girl starts to get a wee bit stagnant, One World goes out the window, the tribes are matched and new intrigue arises. This was another solid episode of Survivor, with plenty of things to fill my 5 Things feature. so let's get to it!

1. Mixing, Matching and Plugging Holes: Survivor wastes no time and after seeing some girl reaction to the boys idiocy, we get right to the challenge and the tribal swap. 4 of the main girl alliance (Everyone except Alicia) wind up with the remaining two of Matt's old Alliance (Mike and Jay) plus Troyzan to become the new Salani, while the rest of Colton's misfit alliance gets Alicia, Monica, and Christina. These new tribes should allow for lots of good drama before they get merged back into One World. Then, they had to fight for their camp by trying to pour enough water (from a hole-filled bucket) into a container. This was fun to watch and ended with New Salani keeping the camp, while New Manono was sent into the unknown.

2. A Tale of Two Tribes: Now that One World is gone until the merge, we were afforded the chance to see two camps trying to survive separate of each other and man, was there a lovely contrast. Salani (Who Colton refers to as a tribe of Greek Gods) has all their old stuff and quickly catches lots of food to go along with their Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches that they won in the challenge. They all get along and everything's fine. Manono on the other hand is a weaker tribe starting from nothing, and as they try to rebuild, Colton starts scheming with everybody. Colton has reverted back from being a sociopathic asshole last week to more normal levels of hatred. He's still an evil schemer who his tribe should probably get rid of, but I don't hate him with the passion of a thousand burning suns. Anyhow, the new tribe dynamics are great. Best part of this whole part of the episode: Manono catching a chicken which promptly escapes.

3. Kim and Chelsea Take It Up A Notch: In the early stages of the game, I was a fan of Kim, but she didn't really have much screentime to make much of an impression. The new tribe dynamics change that, first with Kim making a potential "keeping her options open" alliance with Troy and Jay, and then with her finding the lost Salani idol. Sharing it with Chelsea (Who I'm also a fan of), this was a good moment as the two of them now have a lot more power in the game. It should be interesting to see how this plays out.

4. Surprise, Surprise, The Super Strong, Super Athletic Tribe... Wins. OK, It Wasn't That Surprising: The Immunity Challenge of full contact water Basketball went pretty much the way you'd expect it to. Sure Monica scored a point for Manono tribe and Leif put up a surprising valiant effort trying to stop Mike from scoring (and almost scoring a goal himself), but at the end of the day, this was the worst possible scenario for the new Manono tribe and they wound up being losers. Can they turn it around before the merge? Maybe but probably not.

5. Monica Is Voted Out For Reasons I Cannot Explinate: So Colton and Alicia would rather vote out the strongest person on their tribe because she could be a threat down the line than vote out their actual weakest link? That's a worse move than when the girls elected to keep in Kat over Nina, because Nina wasn't that big a powerhouse. Manono is in trouble, but at least it's entertaining trouble and we can get more entertainment from Tarzan, who uses fancy words (both real and made up), refuses to answer certain questions because "the game is afoot" and actually has a condition where he can barely remember names (Explaining why he called Jonas by the name of Jason last week.). So Monica goes home, and Manono is left in a worse situation than before. Man, I like this season.

5 Things I Enjoyed About Survivor: One World: Bum-Puzzled

Did that really just happen?! No, seriously. Did that really just happen?! Is Colton really such an evil, manipulative son of a bitch that he was able to get his tribe to voluntarily give up immunity just so he could get rid of someone he doesn't want to associate with?! Are the boys really that dumb?! Is Tarzan really that ridiculous?! When I heard that this episode was going to feature a tribal council first, I was skeptical. After all, this show has been going on for 24 seasons. How many firsts do they have left? But Bum-Puzzled managed to pull off a first and pulled off one of the best episodes of Survivor in a while, because of it. So here's 5 things I liked.

1. Breaking Targets and Forgetting Names: Things got off to a pretty normal start and the reward challenge was a fun one, as the tribes flung coconuts at a wall of targets, trying to break 5 connected to each other in a row. And continuing their momentum streak, the girls overtook the boys, won the challenge and finally got the tarp they needed for their camp. And as exciting as all this was, the most entertaining part of the challenge for me came when Jonas stepped up to plate and Tarzan started calling him Jason for some reason. That doesn't even make sense! Oh, Tarzan. You amuse me.

2. Leif Gets Into Trouble: When Leif accidentally reveals to Bill that he's on the outs with the tribe, that schemer Mike (trying to prolong his stay) reports him to the Queen Bee of Malono, Colton. Once again, Colton surprised me with the depths of his villainy (and his kind of offensive comments) as he tells Leif coming clean now might help his case, only to claim Leif's fate was sealed when Leif actually did come clean. It was an interesting scene to watch, and surprisingly, it was only a taste of the real insanity to come.

3. The Boys Win...: The immunity challenge wound up being another one where the boys dominated the girls. Alicia and Chelsea just could not solve that first puzzle. Even when they started looking at the boys finished puzzle (much to Tarzan's protests. Tarzan was on fire this week), they just couldn't stop Leif from solving the puzzle, which I thought would redeem him for the week. It also gave us a good mislead, as Alicia let out a laugh after losing the challenge, which seemed to reignite the Christina vs. Alicia conflict and give us a clear narrative for the rest of the episode to follow. Unless the boys do something stupid of course. But that would never hap-

4. Wait, What?!: So Bill tries to talk to Colton. Colton refuses and doesn't understand when Bill yells at him because of it. So Colton decides that maybe the boys should go to Tribal instead of the girls. And somehow, this goes from a one-off comment to an actual plan and they manage to convince all of the guys to give up immunity in what will surely go down as one of the worst survivor moves ever. Of course, some confusion gets in when Tarzan thinks they're doing this because Leif has betrayed the alliance and that's an unforgivable offense, but Colton is still confident Bill will go. And I'm just losing my mind.

5. No, Really: What?!: At Tribal, Jeff is surprised to see everyone. And Colton quickly goes to show just what a terrible person he is, as he insults Bill and says he hates Bill because Bill is a person he would never hang out with or ever talk to in real life. He even insults Bill's career and dream as a stand-up comic. Tarzan defends Colton and gives a speech about how he's sick of the race war or something and how Colton is being portrayed in a poor light. Crazy ol' Tarzan. Of course, Colton gets his way in the end and Bill goes home, even though Colton is so overconfident, it would be super simple to blindside him and get rid of the queen because there's no way he'll use his idol anytime soon. And this game just got kicked up a notch. Only time will tell if this move was the stupidest Survivor move ever made, but honestly, how on earth could this turn out to be a good move? Man, this season is great.

5 Things I Liked About Survivor: One World: One World Is Out The Window

OK, I have gone from being amused by Colton to hating him in the span of two episodes. But at the same time, he still fascinates me. He's the sort of villain who doesn't even realize that he's a villain. He sees himself as the outsider, but that's all his fault. He judged his tribe way before they ever judged him, as Bill (Who Colton hates to the point that he directed the phrase "Go Kill Yourself" towards Bill in a confessional) pointed out because he assumed he would be judged for being gay. And although I definitely don't want Colton to win, I'm glad that his presence at least resulted in a massive tribe shake-up for the boys. So let's get to this weeks 5 Things I Liked About Survivor.


1. Battle Of The... Lesser Minds: The girls gain some momentum right off the bat by winning the reward challenge (Though, since many of the women I know are killer in memory games, this isn't that surprising) in a sweeping 5 points to nothing, but the real hightlight of the challenge came from watching Kat face off against Troyzan. Troyzan barely looks at the thing before trying to solve it and gets it wrong. So does Kat. They try again. Wrong again. Soon funny music is playing as we watch this accelerate as both keep getting it wrong until Kat finally gets it on her seventh attempt. Oh, Kat. Keep being part of great moments like this, please.

2. Women Get Needy and Men Get Frustrated: A running theme through the first half of the episode is the girls relying on the guys for warmth due to the cold. They get an ember, but when the boys ask to use the boat the girls won sometimes, the girls won't give them a straight answer (Though they don't say no), but keep warming up to the boys frustration. This is an interesting scene. The hightlight has to be when Alicia and Chelsea interrupt the boy's discussion on whether they should cut the girls off to warm up. Awkward.

3. Oh, How The Tides Change: For a while there, I was convinced that the girls were going to lose again, destroying the momentum they had and ending up worse than ever. With Sabrina not being able to reach through to Christina and Monica for a while, it seemed for sure that Bill would solve the puzzle and win. But suddenly, Sabrina (Still one of my favorites) comes up from behind and starts catching up. At the last second Sabrina pulls of a win and the boys finally go to Tribal.

4. Matt Makes Himself A Target: If Matt had kept his mouth shut, then Bill (Who Colton also calls Ghetto Trash) would've gone home. Just because Colton hates him so much. Colton has convinced his whole alliance to vote Bill (And these guys have also roped Jay into it), even though Tarzan thinks Matt is the bigger threat. But Matt sees a lot of guys talking and decides he better form an alliance of "Roosters" or something with Troyzan or some others. And Troyzan firmly put himself in my mind as an amusing character (Though not enough to crack my favorites to win list) by hearing Matt out, making an alliance with him, then telling the cameras that it's not Survivor without lying and spilling everything to his alliance. So now, even Colton doesn't know if he should target Bill. And Colton hates Bill. But Matt thinks he safe and thinks he's about to show the "Average Joes" (Seriously Matt? What a douche.) they don't run the show. Yeah, good luck with that.

5. The Boys Are Just As Much A Mess As The Girls Were. If Not Moreso: Man, Tribal was great. Secrets were revealed (Colton just won't keep that idol a secret). More secrets were almost revealed (Matt almost got Tarzan to reveal who the top 5 were). Probst called out Colton with a reverse duh double dare. Bill got excited. And when everything was said and done, Matt went home with 5 spoken votes. Tarzan asked for the last two votes to be read, but Jeff denied him the right (They were both for Matt though.). Things are exploding on the boys, and I'm excited to see where things go next.

5 Things I Enjoyed About Survivor: One World: Tribal Dysfunction

Oh, Kat. Salani probably made the wrong decision last night when they chose to keep Kat around instead of Nina. In fact, unless Kat makes a massive turn-around over the next couple episodes, they definitely made the wrong decision. But Kat amuses me, even if she's a liability to her tribe and I find the dysfunction of the Salani Tribe fascinating, so I'm glad she's sticking around for now. And after an episode that made up for the bum note the season premiere ended on, here's this weeks 5 Things I Liked About Survivor: One World

1. Interview Interrupted: As the girls return from their first Tribal Council, they are informed by Mike (At least, I think it was Mike) that he's been making sure their fire didn't go out. Well Kat takes offense about this for some reason, and while she's in the process of explaining (Though I still didn't understand her point), an insect buzzes into frame and she gets distracted. I like it when the confessionals don't go as planned and that amusing moment helped get the episode off on a good start.

2. Do It Yourself: This episode marked the introduction of The Do It Yourself Challenge, where Probst is absent and the contestants have to run their own reward challenge (Because with no Redemption Island, they can do Reward Challenges again.). So Bill does his best Jeff Probst impression and the tribes set out to untangle a giant knot mess and win a tarp. It's fun to watch, though I did miss Jeff's play-by-play, and in the end the boys win again.

3. Survivor: Colton's World: Colton kind of got on my nerves this week. He kept complaining about being an outcast, but he didn't seem to be making any effort to be part of his tribe, preferring to spend every second with the girls. Sabrina (Still one of my favorites) calling a fake meeting so he would leave was another great moment of the episode for me, but Colton gets the 5 Things spot for deciding to reveal his idol to Leif, Jonas, Tarzan, and Troyzan, creating a makeshift alliance of mismatched misfits, simply because he doesn't have any other choice for now. Boy, this should be fun to watch.

4. Kat: An Embarrassment to Womankind?: The Immunity Challenge brought more funny Kat moments, but was really painful to watch as Kat struggled and struggled and struggled through the challenge, finding it hard to get around some of the girl's big boobs, and jumping into the water for no reason... twice. Nina got angrier and angrier with her as the challenge progressed and for good reason. The girls eventually started to figure it out, but it was too little, too late, as the boys won yet again. Oh, how I love this dysfunction.

5. Stick With The Status Quo: Tribal Council had Jeff being brutal with the girls. He told them they were off to one of the worst starts he had ever seen and compared them to sixth graders. And as the whole Nina vs. Kat struggle quickly emerged, I started to wonder if Kat's alliance would turn on her. Chelsea and Sabrinna admitted if they could start over, they would rethink their alliances. Even Kat admitted she was responsible for losing the challenge and admitted it would be fair to vote her out (She also revealed she had never failed, because she never put herself in a position to fail, which really doesn't help her case). It was all good, but in the end the status quo won out and Nina was sent home. It's a shame. But maybe the girls will be better role models for people watching at home next week.

That's all for this time out.

5 Things I Enjoyed About Survivor: One World: Two Tribes, One Camp, No Rules

How anti-climatic. That was my first thought after finishing the mostly enjoyable premiere of Survivor: One World. Everything was going great until Kourtney had to be medically evacuated from the challenge and the boys chose to just take the victory (which makes tactical sense and causes lots of juicy drama, but real men would've seen that challenge through because they probably would've won anyways). Kourtney's broken wrist caused her to be thrown from the game by default, so the first real elimination has yet to occur. Luckily though, Probst was still able to kick up some drama between the girls so the episode didn't end on a totally sour note. I'm still psyched on this season and all the possibilities the boys versus girls on one beach thing entails. And I still came up with five things I liked about this episode.

1. Right Off The Bat, There's An Axe To Grind: It wound up being the opening shot in the ongoing war between girls and boys, but Mike stealing the girls unguarded supplies, including the important axe in the first challenge of the game was really funny, as it slowly dawned on the girls what had happened, followed by Mike's confession that he stole a bunch of the girl's stuff. Would he have done it if he knew they would be close to the girls all game? Based on the boys later actions, I'd say yes.

2. The Fire Fight: The girls withhold one of the chickens country girl Chelsea caught from the boys, so this leads to the boys not helping them with the fire. This leads to some failed attempts from the girls to steal fire. Alicia tries it when the boys are right there, but quickly fails. Later in the night, Christina and Monica actually sneak over to the boys camp and successfully steal an ember, but the fire doesn't last. It was still awesome though. There's also plenty of bartering going on and when Christina finally strikes a deal, Alicia doesn't like it because she thinks Christina is trying to get in with the boys. Oh, Survivor drama, how I missed you.

3. Sabrina Finds An Idol! Except It's Not Hers to Keep. Schemes Ensue: Sabrina finds one of the men's idols and has to pick a man to give it to. Since the obviously gay Colton has been the friendliest to the women and is the only guy without a big alliance of some kind (and one of the few guys there who isn't a macho manly man) she gives it to him, giving him the opportunity to take out Alpha Dog Matt (Who's an obvious villain). Was this the right decision? Only time will tell. And this led to another thing I enjoyed.

4. Colton Has Wit: Colton right off the bat is one of the most ridiculous people in the game (Though Tarzan and Troyzan seem pretty ridiculous with those nicknames alone) and he may come to bug me in future weeks, but this week he was funny. His funniest line? "We're gonna cut his throat faster than Taylor Swift can write a song about her next boyfriend." It's funny because I didn't see it coming.

5. Let's Stir Up Some Animosity And Then Send Everyone Back To Camp: Again, because the challenge was cut short, and because there was almost no chance of Kourtney coming back to play the game (which is a real shame because she seemed interesting in the brief snippets we saw her.) the episode felt anti-climatic, but Probst still asked the girls some tribal questions and it still caused some chaos. Christina trying to explain how they got fire, only to be interrupted by Alicia who called it a shady deal, only to be interrupted by Christina who said Alicia didn't know what she was talking about, only for Alicia to insist she knew everything that had happened, only for Kat to also start talking for some reason we never heard was great, chaotic fun and a nice way to sweeten the sour note of no vote.

My Favorites To Win (As of Episode 1): Sabrina, Chelsea, Jonas are my top 3 at the moment, and if I had to pick one, Sabrina. Most of the guys did not impress me this week. That could change though.

Survivor: South Pacific: Loyalties Will Be Broken

Oh, man. Last night another season of Survivor drew to a close as Sophie (my pick for winner) sunk to her lowest ebb with a tribal council breakdown, then recovered from it to beat Ozzy, become the new Dragonslayer, vote Ozzy out, and go on to beat Coach to obtain a million dollars. Because of the lateness of this, I'm not really going to get into much detail about the final 2 hours of the show. But they helped cement this season as a great one with plenty of fascinating characters and happenings. I guess I can pick out several moments I enjoyed specifically.

-Ozzy's reaction when he learns how Brandon got blind-sided.
-Sophie shouting at Albert to drop his stack and help her beat Ozzy.
-Ozzy causing Sophie to meltdown at Tribal. I enjoyed this because it showed a more vulnerable side to Sophie than we had previously seen, and it makes it easier to cheer her on after her victory.
-The restoration of the Albert/Sophie/Coach alliance was nice to see, after it had apparently been destroyed last episode.
-The final immunity challenge which seemed to be gearing us for another Ozzy victory, before Sophie overtakes him on the puzzle and wins it.
-Sophie getting crowned as the new Dragon Slayer for defeating the dragon known as Ozzy.
-Coach ultimately not taking Ozzy to the end, like he had previously implied and voting him off.
-Ozzy's squeal of joy after being voted off.
-The final tribal council. Specifically:
-Rick not giving Albert the chance to defend himself.
-Jim telling Albert if he tried to compliment Coach or Sophie before pointing out their flaws, he would instantly lose the vote. Albert goes on to compliment... Jim.
-Sophie saying she saw Coach as a young girl she could take to the end.
-Brandon insisting that Albert give him a Yes/No answer on if he knew Brandon was going home.
-Edna being surprisingly calm and levelheaded for her turn at bat.
-Brandon's reaction after Sophie reveals the idol deception.
-Sophie winning.
-I liked Russell's appearance at the reunion show too.

So that's it for South Pacific. I'm incredibly excited for the idea of Survivor: One World, which opens the doors for tons of new strategic possibilities. I might do something different than 5 Things I Enjoyed... for One World. We'll have to see.

And that's it for now.

5 Things I Enjoyed About Survivor: South Pacific: And Then There Were Five

Holy Crap! After a few predictable episodes of no one making big moves, this game just got interesting again as I was truly unsure over who was going home tonight right up to Jeff Probst revealing the name of Brandon (Though in retrospect, I probably shouldn't have been). Man, what a stupid move (Does believing it's God's will give him a better excuse than Eric when he did it in Fans Vs. Favorites?). However, it did make the last half of the episode incredibly unpredictable and made for possibly the best episode all season. Man, I'm excited for what's next. And although it was hard to choose, I still came up with... 5 Things I Enjoyed About Survivor: South Pacific: And Then There Were Five

1. Allegiances Revealed: Coach mentions at the beginning that true alliances are about to be revealed and that definitely came to be true. Seeing them together for a lot of the season, I had assumed that Albert and Sophie were allies and in an alliance together. But as the episode opens, Albert is convinced Sophie will be the next to go, because he thinks she's too dangerous. He plans to go to the finals with Coach (the cult leader) and Rick (Mr. Do Nothing). However, it turns out he's been keeping it tight with Brandon too. And Sophie's not too fond of Albert either. But she's after Brandon, and gets Coach (Who is dismissive of Albert's plans, calling it jealousy) and Rick onboard. What could go wrong?

2. Worst Case Scenario: Brandon Wins Immunity: Going into the challenge, I had a feeling that Brandon was going to win. I tried to shake it off, but sure enough he won the challenge. Suddenly certainty flies out the window for a second. At this point, Sophie and Coach decide to go for Albert. So while Brandon (and reward choice Rick) are enjoying pizza, Sophie informs them of her intentions (Though Albert is highly suspicious of her), which leads to Brandon finding out that the final 3 deal Albert has given him is apparently a lie. Which leads to...

3. Everybody Hates Albert: As Sophie watches in quiet triumph, Brandon, Rick, and Albert have a big argument over whether or not Albert has been lying. This makes it more and more likely that Albert will leave, but it's also really entertaining to watch Albert's plans blow up in his face. If the show had gone the "Vote Out Albert" route, I'd still be satisfied with this episode. But Albert is smart enough to do damage control and gets Brandon back on his side. And suddenly...

4. Brandon Does What?!: Oh, man. When Albert came over to do damage control on Brandon, I was unsure whether or not it'd work. You never know with Brandon. What I wasn't expecting was Brandon deciding to give up his immunity necklace to Albert, without knowing who Coach was going to vote for (Again, as I watched it, I should've realized he was going to vote Brandon, but I wouldn't have been surprised if he had voted for Sophie). Brandon ultimately turned out to be too loyal for his own good (which has plagued him all his life). Though maybe he can beat Ozzy and come back.

5. Pressure's On Albert: The whole tribal council was crazy to watch (and I loved the jury's reactions throughout), but I enjoyed when Probst put the pressure on Albert and asked if he was willing to give the idol back to Brandon. Albert clearly didn't want to, so he just said some things about not needing to because he's confident Brandon was safe. Oh, Albert. This episode has really killed your chances of winning the game. But it was so good.

Can't wait for Sunday!

5 Things I Enjoyed About Survivor: South Pacific: Ticking Time Bomb

You didn't fool me this time Survivor. For all of Edna's scheming and good arguments this week, and for all of Brandon's craziness and not understanding why Edna might be angry at him this week, I never believed that Brandon would go home. So I wasn't disappointed when Edna's plan failed because  And now with two episodes left, I'm hoping for some truly crazy gameplay to take us home on a good note. But anyways, here are 5 Things I Enjoyed!

1. Cochran Almost Does The Impossible: I wasn't expecting Cochran to beat Ozzy, but I was hoping for it, just so it would shake things up. And Cochran actually almost did it. I was holding my breath during the last 30 seconds or so of that challenge and exclaimed rather loudly when Cochran just lost. Oh, well. He had a good run. Maybe Edna can take down Ozzy

2. Brandon's Dad: Has CBS ever thought of just giving the Hantz family a reality show where we follow them around in regular life? First, Russell, then Brandon, and now Brandon's dad who finds it crazy that Brandon refuses to make a move, gives his son a 'C' in terms of gameplay (without even knowing how generous that grade actually is), and tries to get Coach to promise Brandon's in the final 3. Based on those 3, this family is full of interesting characters. Anyways, Shawn Hantz livens up the family visit sequence and gives us some good quotes to. "Get to the Final 3. THEN it's up to God."

3. Coach Has A Master Plan: Coach sees Ozzy picking him to see family as an effort to court favour, so he goes to Ozzy... and tells him that if Ozzy returns Coach will take him to the Final 3. He wants to see the strongest duke it out. Apparently, he hasn't realized that Ozzy could win if he makes it to the Final 3. But anyways, it's good to see Coach continue to play a good game this season, and this adds a twist into the otherwise predictable proceedings.

4. Edna's Angry At Brandon? Shocker.: After Brandon revealed that Edna was the next to go last week, Edna was understandably upset and pissed. This led to some funny moments like Edna not going to morning prayer because "she's not part of the tribe", and it also led to some funny Brandon moments. Brandon was willing to let her be mad at him, but he didn't understand how she could slam his character? I mean, how could you hate the guy who outright states he was trying to make you lose the immunity challenge (Well he didn't use her name, but that makes it worse)? Or the guy who thinks saying "Sorry" makes everything better, and then goes on to the next insult. I felt bad for Edna this week and wish that she had been able to convince the others to vote out Brandon.

5. Edna Makes An Effort: As I've already said, Edna made a good argument to vote out Brandon instead of her. I liked her argument and the aftermath of her argument, with Coach managing to be detached and non-committal, but still making her think he was onboard, leading to her telling Albert and Sophie that Coach was so onboard, she would eat his... excrements. Of course, Coach wasn't as onboard as she thought but at least she tried. And again, there's always the outside chance that she beats Ozzy next week. Wouldn't that be something?

5 Things I Enjoyed About Survivor: South Pacific: Cult-Like

So once again, Survivor tricked me into thinking something could happen, only to go for the predictable vote. But this time around, I wasn't as bugged with the predictability of the vote, because there was plenty of interesting things going on with it. And of course, 5 things I enjoyed.

1. Cochran's Last Stand: Now that most of Savii is gone, Cochran is next on the chopping block unless he can change enough minds to rise him up to the sixth position. This is the thrust of much of the episode, and it's entertaining to watch Cochran try to save himself for one more day. His plea at the beginning of the episode seems to convince Albert and Coach (Though Sophie just got offended by it). But ultimately, he is voted out and sent to face Ozzy. Which means his big move was incredibly stupid in the long run and ultimately left him worse off than he would've been if he had just stuck with Savii. Which is too bad for him, but that's how the game is played.

2. Lie About Your Birthday And Get A Massage: I just found this really funny. Part of Cochran's plea was that it was almost his birthday and he'd like to spend it with Upolu. So Albert gave up his reward to Cochran as a birthday present (and also probably an attempt to get Cochran's vote at the end.). The best part of this? It wasn't anywhere close to Cochran's birthday. Of course, Albert still may have given Cochran the reward to get favour, but it's funnier that it was partially a birthday present.

3. Prince and Princess Albert: At first, I just liked the scene of Albert not doing work around camp and Edna and Rick complaining, because Rick got to do some talking. And his line about Prince Albert was funny. But Cochran later used Rick's comments to try and get Albert onboard to vote out Rick, which would've been an interesting turn of events, had they actually gone through with it. But even though, Cochran wound up getting voted out, it'll be interesting to see if this Prince Albert thing carries on to create more issues for Rick in the next couple episodes.

4. The Strange Case of Brandon Hantz: Over the course of the season, I've gone from being annoyed with Brandon to utterly fascinated by him. Here is a man with no room for the "shades of grey" theory on morality. Everything is black and white for him, which means he will always keep his word, but it makes it hard for him to strategize at all. Which is what everyone pointed out to him tonight, after his latest tribal outburst. There's something noble about a man who refuses to recognize a middle ground between good and bad, but in a game like Survivor, it's not that helpful. Things are definitely coming to a head for Brandon and I'm intrigued to see where things go from here, as next week hints Brandon is in trouble.

5. Saying No To Jeff Probst: So simple, but good enough to make my 5 Things I Enjoyed list. Jeff talks about what an eye-opening tribal they just had. Sophie just shakes her head no. She doesn't think it was eye-opening at all. Honestly, Sophie has been my pick to win for a while now and that simple gesture just elevated her further in my mind. Go Sophie! Keep disagreeing with Jeff.

5 Things I Enjoyed About: Survivor: South Pacific: Running the Show

Oh, Survivor. Getting me to think that Albert might change the game only to have it not happen was cruel. But it did lead to some killer suspense in an episode, where the outcome would otherwise be expected once Dawn and Whitney barely lost out on immunity. And it was still a solid episode in a very good season so I can still think of 5 things I liked.

1. Who's Running The Show?: When Jim mentions that Upolu is the closest thing to a cult he's ever seen, my one thought was that he obviously didn't see Redemption Island, which featured a much worse cult than what Coach has set up. Coach doesn't state that he's the leader though former Savii members may disagree with this statement (And Coach later calls himself a mob boss, which I'm pretty sure is a leader, Coach.). So I found the various points of view on whether or not Coach was the leader quite enjoyable and interesting. Especially Albert's Tribal statements when he suggests Coach may just be a figurehead. Or a puppetmaster.

2. Sharing the Screen: I also liked that this episode gave more screentime to people like Whitney and Sophie, who we haven't seen that much of since the game began (though Whitney was in danger of going to Redemption, and Sophie won both immunity challenges, so I guess the extra screentime was a given.). Still not much of Rick though, but I can accept that.

3. Tons of Challenges: There was the redemption island duel, where Ozzy managed to balance his boards, and score a win over Keith and Jim and stay alive in the game. There was the main challenge, where people had to balance rice on their heads and cross teeter totters, which was fun to watch and had Sophie score a win by gambling on being able to carry a massive amount of rice. And then there was the extra immunity challenge, where they were asked survival questions and Sophie managed to win again, sealing Whitney's fate. All the challenges had a good amount of tension, which made them enjoyable. Which is why they're here.

4. Albert Gets My Hopes Up: Albert considers getting Cochran, Dawn and Whitney on his side when it comes time to vote, by voting out Edna instead of them. He even gets Sophie in on it and it looks like they're really going to go through with it. Of course they don't, but the tension wondering whether or not they'll go through with it made for excitement. And also Coach making sure his original alliance knows anyone who goes against the family is dead.

5. Jim wants to go to Double Secret Redemption Island: If only, Jim. If only. It doesn't exist but his hope for Double Secret Redemption Island was probably the best line of the night. I'm sad to see Jim go. Ozzy is staying alive and staying strong out there, but I sort of wish Jim or Keith had won out. Hopefully, Dawn or Whitney will win the day next time, just to shake things up.

5 Things I Enjoyed About Survivor: South Pacific: Cut Throat

"I thought we were supposed to be in the final 3". Those are the last words of Cut Throat, uttered by Jim as he joins Ozzy and Keith on Redemption Island, which just go to show what a game changer Cochran's move last week truly was. Of course, with the rest of Savii now freshly vulnerable, it was pretty clear who would be going to Redemption this week (unless there was another game changing move, which there wasn't.). But the episode was still enjoyable, so here are 5 specific things I enjoyed.

1. For Some Mysterious Reason Savii Hates Cochran: OK, technically I didn't really enjoy watching this, but it was good television. Because oh, man. It was previewed last week, but the first few minutes of Cut Throat were a bit hard to watch, as Ozzy, Jim, and Whitney tore into Cochran hard. Well, Ozzy wasn't that bad. He was at least civil about it, so Cochran sent away bodyguard Brandon. Then Jim told Cochran to never speak to him again and Whitney told Cochran he disgusted her. You can understand their emotions though. If I was in their shoes, I'd've been pissed at Cochran too. As a viewer though, I found his big move exciting, because it changed things up.

2. You Get The Water From The Coconut And Spit It All Out: As a double elimination episode, we got to the duel pretty quick, which had everyone try to shoot a coconut in the basket and then had the first 4 people to do this break coconuts, get a mouthful of coconut water, and rush through an obstacle course trying to fill a vial. And though Whitney and Dawn both made it to the second part, this really was a race between Jim and Sophie. And ultimately, Jim won his survival for another day at least when Sophie threw up just as she was about to beat him. Which leads to...

3. Tribal #1: Send A Message: Though Jim considered transferring his immunity to Ozzy, he ultimately decides against it, and winds up using a big part of tribal council for a wacky speech, where he implores Upolu to vote out Cochran to send a message to future generations of survivors that being devious and dishonorable doesn't get rewarded. Of course, Coach points out that this would also teach future generations of survivors that if you stand up for yourself you get screwed, and Ozzy gets voted out. Nice try though, Jim (also nice was the sand diagram he drew up later in the episode when trying to get Albert and Sophie to flip.)

4. Dawn: So Nice, It's Dangerous: During the second immunity challenge, everyone in Upolu plus Cochran took the option of easting pastries instead of competing, and Dawn made some supportive comments that everyone appreciated. Except Albert realized that Dawn was slowly worming her way into their alliance and that she was really dangerous if she made it to the finals. So he thinks about voting for Dawn instead of Jim (Whitney has immunity.). Of course, this is only there so the forthcoming tribal isn't so predictable, but it'll assumedly be important next week and it was good to see Albert acknowledge that Dawn is dangerous. But of course Upolu + Cochran all vote for Jim. But not before...

5. Tribal #2: Brandon Treats Savii To His Insane Tribal Ramblings: Brandon annoys me as a player, but I have to admit: when he freaks out at Tribal, it's always amusing. This time, Dawn mentions that it was kind of hard for her to watch Upolu stuff themselves at the challenge and he sees it as a contradiction of her earlier support of their decision. Dawn calmly handles her way through it though. Oh! And he also says that they won't stop until Savii is all wiped out. Oh, Brandon. What kind of wacky shenanigans will you get into next week.

And that's five. That's all for now. Expect the regular coverage of Community, Parks and Rec, and Office over the next day or two after they air tonight. And expect me to talk about Chuck again, after missing last week.

Survivor: South Pacific: Double Agent

That's right, Survivor is getting a full write-up this week. Part of this is to compensate for the big quicky review I gave for the last 5 issues. And part of this was because this was the best episode of the season so far. And it's all because of Cochran.

The episode doesn't waste time before getting to the duel so we can find out if Ozzy's big plan to make the tribes even for the merge will work (I had seen promos, so the suspense of if the merge was coming was gone). Ozzy actually beats Christine quite easily and the tribes go into the merge completely even. Now for the second stage of Ozzy's plan: have Cochran convince Upolu that he is going to flip in an effort to get information from them. Except there's only one problem: Ozzy's effort at Duel to convince Upolu that Cochran had betrayed the tribe was incredibly poorly-acted. And no one falls for it. So Coach attempts to get Cochran to flip for real after calling his bluff, in order to avoid a tie, in which case the person ousted is determined by random chance. And based on his fear of having to pick a rock, and the fact that he's still at the bottom of his tribe and goes through much bullying, he considers it. He also tells all of Upolu that Ozzy did get himself voted out. And as Cochran considers switching sides, Dawn (who has felt bad that she hasn't stood up for Cochran that much so far) considers joining him.

After the duel, in which Dawn and Ozzy outlast everybody to win immunity, Savii is feeling good about their chances and decide to use their idol to give Whitney immunity so that there's only a small chance that one of them will go to redemption. Little do they suspect that Cochran is still seriously considering betraying them, telling Sophie exactly what they plan to do and making sure he has top sleeping arrangements. Meanwhile Dawn decides that she won't go through with betraying the tribe and tries to convince Cochran to stay loyal. But Cochran really doesn't want to pick rocks and Dawn winds up just not saying anything to the tribe, hoping that maybe Cochran will have a last-second change of heart.

Tribal Council is intense and much of the talk is about the merits of switching. They also talk about how bad Ozzy's acting was with Sophie even saying that she was offended by it. Then everyone goes to vote, Ozzy plays the idol on Whitney... and it's a tie between Rick and Keith. Cochran's tribe loyalty is getting strong. So they vote again... and Cochran switches sides once and for all sending Keith to redemption and getting Jim to declare him a coward. Which leads to Brandon actually having a nice moment where he points out that talk like that led to Cochran switching in the first place. So Cochran proves to be a triple agent and completely changes the course of the game. Not bad for a nerd. Of course, there's no way he's going to win now since much of Savii will be in the jury and judging on the preview for next week, are all pissed at him. But he made a bold move that finally makes him worthy of not being known as John. And for that, I applaud him. Man, I love this show.

Grade: Zounds! (Almost Perfect)

Memorable Moments

-Merged tribe name is Te Tuna. Kind of stupid, so I won't be using it much.

5 Things I Enjoyed About Survivor: South Pacific: Trojan Horse

Ok so the title is a bit incorrect. In this installment, I'll be listing 4 things I enjoyed about an episode I honestly enjoyed a lot, as well as the one thing I didn't really enjoy, but was memorable enough to list (It involves Adam Sandler).

1. God Helps Upolu Find The Already Found Idol: After last weeks decision to vote out Mikayla (who lost her duel to Christine, who more than ever has become a real force in this game.), Upolu tribe needs to be restengthened. And with Brandon letting Edna and Rick onto the clue he found for the idol, Coach, Albert and Sophie execute a ruse where they get the whole tribe to hunt for the idol and refind it so Brandon doesn't realize they had the thing all along. The best part? Coach gets the whole tribe to pray that they find the idol even though he already has it. So when they "find" it, it's proof for Brandon that God is with the tribe. Man, I love this show.

2. Blindfolded, Dressed to Match, and Promoting Adam Sandler: The Immunity/reward challenge was sponsored by the people behind Adam Sandler's upcoming movie Jack and Jill. Now I'll talk more about the reward in a second, but I really enjoyed the challenge. Basically, the tribes had to pair up and dress up like twins (an important element in Jack and Jill), then go blindfolded through an obstacle course, getting puzzle bags, bumping into things and solving the puzzle. So it's really entertaining to watch, especially with the twin element (Brandon and Albert dawn fake bikini tops and Sophie gets a beardline among other things.). It also has Cochran making a major mistake, hooking in Ozzy and Dawn to their harness thing wrong, which costs Savii the challenge. Coach getting his tribe on their knees to pray thanks while Ozzy kicks a wall: classic.

3. One Thing I Dislike: I'm not a big Adam Sandler fan. His movies are pretty hit and miss for me. Especially his more recent movies. And Jack and Jill just doesn't look good. The clips of it we saw while Upolu got to eat delicious movie food didn't appeal to me whatsoever. Much of Upolu Tribe seemed to enjoy the movie and that's good for them. If I was out surviving in the wilderness for half a month and got to take a break and see a movie, I'd probably enjoy it too, even if it was that one. But that wasn't the case so I just didn't enjoy this instance of product placement. Luckily the rest of the episode made up for this one not-so-great part.

4. Shall Savii Send The Court Jester?: Earlier in the episode, we see Ozzy tell Cochran that if Savii loses the challenge, he will volunteer to be voted out in order to try to send Christine home and even the odds assuming the merge is next. But after Cochran costs his team the challenge, it looks like the whole tribe is in agreement that Cochran has to go and try to redeem himself. They even have a real encouraging attitude about it. It'll take Ozzy having some sort of crazy dream to save Cochran now!

5. Ozzy Has A Crazy Dream. His Plan is Back On: So Ozzy decides that he needs redemption and he wants to go through with this after all. His tribe is not entirely onboard with the idea, but they all vote for him anyways and after giving Cochran his idol, Ozzy sets off to meet Christine. However, as Jeff points out at tribal, this entire plan is based on the idea that the merge is going to happen the next day and that the redemption island champ will return right away. Also they're assuming that Ozzy will be able to beat Christine. Savii is seriously tempting fate and if they're wrong, and they voted out their strongest player only to face another challenge before the merge, they're screwed. Boy, next weeks episode is going to be sweet.

5 Things I Enjoyed About Survivor: South Pacific: Free Agent

Boy, plenty of memorable moments last night in another solid episode of Survivor: South Pacific. I'm actually enjoying this a lot more than Redemption Island and I enjoyed Redemption Island a lot. But if I can only pick 5 things, here's what I enjoyed the most about last night in (mostly) chronological order:

1. Ozzy Has A Tantrum: Ozzy is really ticked off that his closest ally has been voted off and in the aftermath, gets mad at Keith and Whitney for keeping this from him, declares himself a free agent, and then reveals he has the idol. And it takes him until after the duel at Redemption for him to realize that he's made a big mistake, and rebuild his alliance with Keith. His tantrum also gives Cochran the opportunity to call Ozzy a "little bitch", which is really funny.

2. Brandon's Idol Hunt: Brandon finds a clue to the hidden immunity idol, but unbeknownst to him, Coach already has the idol. So he tries to get Coach and Albert to help find it. Of course they just watch him go and decide not to tell him, because of how emotionally unstable he is. Classic.

3. Christine Knows How to Take Encouragement... Not: During the Redemption Island duel of Christine vs. Elyse (Christine won, again), Rick shouts some encouraging words. She responds by subtly flipping the bird at him. This is really funny, but it also shows that Christine coming back from Redemption Island is bad news for her former tribe.

4. Loyalty vs. Strength: After Upolu loses the immunity challenge, Coach wants Mikayla gone, because she sucked at the challenge and didn't listen to his instructions. Plus he believes Edna will do anything he asks. Albert and Sophie think Edna should be gone though, because she isn't that strong and since the next challenge is likely to be the last one until the merge, they need the power that Mikayla brings. Brandon is with Coach, because they made a promise to Edna (even though he knows Edna SHOULD be going). The only undecided factor is Rick, who gets more screentime and dialogue this episode than he ever has. Ultimately he chooses loyalty though and Mikayla is voted out, but not before...

5. Brandon Has Another Tribal Council Episode: Man, Brandon is insane. He wanted to show another side of the Hantz family and he has done that, but it's not necessarily a positive side. His speech about how half a lie is still a lie and how people also think a bit of drugs or alcohol is OK, but it isn't was crazy. I found it really funny, but it was still crazy. Maybe Upolu should finally start thinking about sending him to redemption.

Well that's it for now. Next opinion will be for HIMYM I think. It might change, but probably not.

5 Things I Enjoyed About Survivor: South Pacific: Taste of Victory

So last week, I mentioned that I wanted to talk about Survivor more, but it takes a really long time because I get really into every detail and want to list every detail. I also mentioned that I was going to try a couple new things format-wise. So behold the first installment of 5 Things I Enjoyed About... in which I list 5 highlights of the most recent episode of Survivor (I may try this with other shows later down the line). And last night's episode had lots of highlights. So here we go in chronological order.

1. Stacy's Last Hurrah: Stacy was pretty bitter about being voted off last week and before the redemption island duel between her and Christine (who won again.). So she exposed the power structure of her tribe to Savii, letting them know that Coach and Albert were running the show. And she did it in a ridiculous fashion with references to "Chucky the Cheese" among other things. Oh, Stacy. You'll be missed.

2. Coach: Coach has been much better this season than he has ever been. Tonight we got a glimpse of his crazier side though, as he freaked out when he learned that Stacy and Christine were calling him Benjamin repeatedly (and that he would be a big post-merge target). Things turned around for him again though, in a good way when Albert shared the immunity idol clue with him and Sophie, and subsequently found the idol. While I still don't want to see a returning player win the season, I could watch this version of Coach for the rest of the season.

3. The Meat-Eating Challenge: Holy crap, that was disgusting. But strangely I couldn't look away. As both tribes had to rip off chunks of meat from a roasted, BBQ sauce covered, pig, and drop it in a basket, we got a good look at the whole affair and it got gross, as people eventually were taking meat from each others mouths and from the floor.. It was also a really close challenge, as Savii lost by 2 ounces. Basically, one bite. Wow. What would've happened if it was a tie? I don't think I want to know.

4. Jim: This is kind of breaking chronological order, but Jim reading into Ozzy's suggestion that Coach should get rid of Albert, one of the stronger players as a sign that he'll get rid of Jim and Keith when he can, and using it as ammunition to get Keith over to his side and get the vote needed to get out Elyse, Ozzy's closest ally was genius. Jim is a great player and character for the show. Can't wait to see him in future weeks, as Savii just suffered a major shake-up.

5. Blindside: The tribal council where Elyse got voted out in the first real blindside of the season was great, especially when Keith and Whitney decide to only half-betray Ozzy by voting for Dawn, instead of Elyse or Cochran, hoping they can use this to wiggle back into his good graces. We'll see how that works out. Good job, Survivor. Good job.

Wednesday Quicky Opinion Time, Yo!

Kenny Sage here (Of course). So I've had this blog for about a month now and have a pretty good rhythm for posting regular opinions of shows. But sometimes I just get busy and miss a opinion here or there. (I haven't seen Ringer since Pilot. Don't think that will become regular despite my initial claims.). So I'm experimenting with a few things. The first thing I'm trying is called an opinion quicky. Ir's where I quickly talk about shows that I: A. don't usually talk about all the time B. Just didn't have time to talk about. So this week, I'll be quickly talking bout' Modern Family, Suburgatory, and Survivor: South Pacific.

Modern Family: Door to Door

I really wish I had time to write a full opinion this week because it enjoyed this episode a lot. David Cross showed up for his first episode since getting a recurring role as a city councilman and he was fantastic. Phil and Luke teamed up again. And Cameron and Gloria had a great story involving looking for the dog Stella (Cameron quickly gets caught up in a whirlwind of Streetcar Named Desire references, including an encounter with a little girl named Blanche.). This show is still great and I will talk about it more fully next week, when I'm not doing silly things like practicing for my Learner's test. Grade: Awesome! (Good)

Suburgatory: The Barbeque

I didn't intend to talk about Suburgatory regularly, but if it keeps up the quality, I may talk about it more often this winter. Anyways, this episode has Tessa dealing with an unwelcome attraction to dumb jock neighbor Ryan Shay, while George finds out he has to throw a barbeque, lest he be shunned by the suburbs. This was a quality episode with lots of great jokes, and a couple funny new hopefully recurring characters (including father of Ryan and Lisa Shay, played by the great Chris Parnell and a couple of husbands who are probably closeted). Keep it up, Suburgatory. Grade: Awesome! (Good)

Survivor: South Pacific: Survivalism

In future weeks, I plan to list my five favorite moments each episode of Survivor, because this is turning out to be even better than Redemption Island. Less focus on Brandon Hantz this week, which is welcome because that guy is paranoid. Actually, there was a bunch of focus on people who hadn't had much screen time to date, like Stacy and Dawn. And it was sweet. I was a bit sad when Stacy was voted out this week, but it had to be done. Here's hoping for more awesomeness from this season. Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)

So that's it for quicky reviews for now. Stay tuned for my NBC Thursday reviews to be up shortly.

Survivor: South Pacific: I Need Redemption

Survivor is a show that I was aware of for a long time, but I never wanted to watch it. I'd read about it. I'd hear about crazy happenings (especially during Russell's initial seasons), but I never watched it. I just didn't want to watch a reality competition show. Then last spring, curiosity got the best of me and I dove into Redemption Island. I was hooked. Between Boston Rob's complete domination of his tribe (which some people hated but I personally loved), and Phillip (another dividing figure, but I was a fan.), I just enjoyed every minute. So I watched a couple other seasons online. Coincidentally they both featured the two returning players this season, Ozzy and Coach (The seasons in question were Fans vs. Favorites and Tocantins). I was hooked even more. Survivor had become my guilty pleasure. I couldn't wait for the next season. So after a summer of waiting, Survivor: South Pacific is here. And so far, I like what I see.

Since Survivor is different from the kinds of shows I'll usually be talking about (and I won't be talking about Survivor every week. At least, I think I won't be.), I'm going to handle the format of this opinion differently. First things first, I'm going to run down a who's who of the players this season, based on what I know about them from pre-game information and from the first episode. People will be divided up based on the two tribes: Savii and Upolu. Since the most time was spent with Savii last night, we'll start here.

Savii

John Cochran: A Survivor superfan who's never missed an episode. Right off the bat, he gets Jeff Probst to refer to him by his last name only, as he feels he fits into the lineage of great players who go by their last name. He's really funny and he's probably one of my favorites so far, but doesn't seem to have much self-confidence, and for a superfan, he doesn't come off well at Tribal Council (which we'll talk about in a bit.)

Jim: Another one of my favorites so far. He's had an interesting career and currently operates two Medical Marijauna dispenseries. Not that he's going to tell anyone that. He claims he's a cool Kotter-esque teacher.

Mark AKA "Papa Bear": A former NYPD detective who's openly gay and get's everyone to call him Papa Bear. He already kind of sets himself up as the dad of the tribe. Again, another favorite of mine.

Dawn: A teacher who's been wanting to play Survivor for a while, according to the pre-game info. Unfortunately she also suffers a breakdown of sorts early on, which doesn't bode well for her.

Semhar: A spoken word artist. She sort of ruins the immunity challenge for her tribe, and has a public, heated, discussion about it with Jim afterwords. Does this ruin her chances of going far in the game? We'll talk about that when we talk about Tribal Council.

Whitney: A country star of sorts who's been on a reality show before: Nashville Star and has a bit of a following. Didn't get too much of a lasting impression from her this episode, but she's pretty attractive.

Keith: I also don't remember much about Keith. I know he's a pretty good competitor and that he has a congenital heart condition. Hopefully he'll be featured a bit more in future episodes.

Elyse: Don't recall much about her either. I remember she mentioned having "Native American blood" at the start of the episode. Again, she'll probably make more of an impression in the future.

Ozzy: I liked Ozzy in Fans vs. Favorites and he was good here. Pretty laid-back and definitely more accepted by his tribe off the back than Coach was. It doesn't seem like he'll get into a Boston Rob power position though, and that's a good thing. As much as I enjoyed last season, I don't really want to see a returning player win it again. Especially with all these interesting new players.

Upolu

Brandon Hantz: Nephew of the notorious Russell Hantz. As he puts it: "It's like being Hitler's Nephew". Of course he plans not to tell anyone who his uncle is, but since he has two tattoos identifying him as a Hantz, that may be hard. Seems nice enough, except he keeps mentioning he's Russells nephew in the interviews, which is kind of annoying. It's even listed as his occupation!

Christine: A teacher. Right off the bat, she calls Coach and Ozzy "temporary players" and begins searching for an immunity idol right away, which is a good way to get people wanting you gone.

Rick: A Rancher with a sweet stache' and cowboy hat. Seems like a cool guy. Initially against Coach, but later enters into a final five pact with him, so we'll see how that works out.

Albert: His name is the same as my middle name (and my Dad's first name.). Like Rick, he seems like a cool guy. He's a dating coach, so we'll see if that gives him an advantage in the social side of things.

Sophie: Fresh out of College. One of the things she majored in is Russian. Of course, Coach also knows Russian, and a russian conversation between the two was one of the better moments of the episode.

Mikayla: A Lingerie football player. Brandon refers to her as "Delilah" and a "Temptress" and sure seemed tempted. She should be one of the stronger females, actually.

Edna: The only one who waited for Coach and helped him after the tribe lost the first challenge. Though she wasn't part of Coach's initial alliance. Also when the returning players were about to be revealed she whispered to Brandon "I hope it isn't Russell", which I found really funny. Besides that, she didn't leave too much of an impression of me.

Stacy: Her career is Mortician, which I just find awesome. She makes a pretty big mistake though, as she is right by the clue to the hidden immunity idol and completely misses it.

Coach: The Dragon Slayer himself dubs himself Coach 3.0. He seemed to turn his initial cold tribe reception around when he showed off some of his tricks. He seems pretty normal so far, but who know's if that's going to last long?

Things that Happened

-Everyone arrived at the Redemption Island Arena, where Ozzy and Coach came and were put onto Savii and Upolu respectfully. Christine immediately made herself a threat to the returning players be calling them temporary and Cochran got Jeff Probst to call him Cochran. Then Ozzy and Coach faced off in a challenge for some helpful supplies, and Ozzy won (though it seemed designed so that would happen.).

-Coach tried to turn his cold reception from his tribe around by showing how he could be useful around camp. His tribe set up their camp right away, before doing some more "getting to know you" type things. Christine goes off on her own to try and find the idol. This is noticed by the whole tribe.

-Ozzy meanwhile got his tribe to swim and get to know each other before building the camp, which panicked some of the older people. Cochran is worried about swimming shirtless, but does it anyway.

-Dawn has a bit of a breakdown. Ozzy and Papa Bear calm her down. Papa Bear wants to keep Dawn, because she's around his age and he doesn't want all the older people leaving right away.

-Meanwhile, Coach makes a final five alliance with Rick, Brandon, Albert, and Sophie. Should be interesting to see how this plays out.

-Immunity challenge. Big obstacle course. Semhar insists that she should do the final portion. Than she sucks at it. Probably part of why Upolu ultimately wins the challenge. They also win flint, which they need to make fire (Savii won flint initially.).

-Jim gets mad at Semhar for saying she feels "sorta bad" about her part in their losing. Things do not look good for Semhar.

-Meanwhile Stacy ALMOST finds the immunity idol. She is really close and she misses it.

-Ozzy wants Semhar to stay, and starts targeting Cochran, who isn't a strong physical asset. Cochran panics when he finds this out. We hear that people are more leaning towards Semhar, though.

-At tribal council, Semhar doesn't do good, but Cochran arguably does worse. Mainly because he goes on and on and on about how if they keep him, he will improve, and he's a big fan of the game, and he'll be like a genie in the bottom. It's enough that I start to worry about him but...

-Everyone votes for Semhar, except for Semhar. So now Semhar is at Redemption Island? Will she last long when the next person comes to the island? It's hard to say but probably not.

Grade: Awesome! (Good)

Memorable Moments

-Here's the thing. I pretty much mentioned all memorable moments above. And I've been working on this for a couple days now and kind of want to finish. So this one time, I'm omitting the memorable moments section. Sorry for the lateness of this update. I'll try and be more timely in the future (though I think I can be let of the hook this time because my readership's not that high). Especially since this coming week is when we start for real with the official start of the fall TV season. So get excited for several opinions over the course of the week! I can even be really timely with my New Girl opinion because I've already seen the pilot! So get excited for that!

An Introduction, Yo!

The Simpsons was my first love.

Now when I say first love, I'm not saying I had a crush on The Simpsons. That'd be weird. I just mean that they were first television show that I was obsessed with. The first TV show where I made an effort to see every episode- some multiple times- and memorize my favorite moments. As a young Canadian Jr. High student, it was also my gateway into something special: the world of prime time television.

Prime time was something I always knew existed. I knew of all the classics that had come before my birth (I was born in 1992 by the by.) and a lot of the shows that were on at the time (2006-2007), but I didn't have much desire to watch them. Until one night, I stumbled upon the season 6 premiere of 24 (which had preempted Simpsons that night), started watching, and kept watching. I was hooked. Maybe prime time was worth watching after all. My only problem was that I didn't have cable, so watching TV was a bit of a hassle. It'd take a special show- even more special than 24- to make me dive in. Then heading into summer, something special happened. Having heard good things about it and having seen a couple episodes which I liked well enough, I rented the second season of The Office.

The Office was my second TV love and is still my greatest TV love. I became addicted. I watched every episodes of the second season a couple times within the course of a week. I began watching the third season online. I began memorizing my favorite moments. The works. That fall, I watched the new season of Office and a couple other shows I thought were interesting (Chuck and Pushing Daisies). I was fully committed to watching prime time now. Even the writer's strike didn't faze me (the writer's strike was how I started watching reruns of my third great TV love: Arrested Development. It's also why I decided to commit to Lost.).

These days, I still watch plenty of TV. And I'm still addicted to The Office. I can quote lines off-hand perfectly, and I'm pro at the trivia board game. My friends try to prove they're bigger fans than me and they fail. I probably know more about The Office than anyone in my province (Alberta.). And that's a modest guess. So what does any of this have to do with anything? Well, a lot of this most recent paragraph is me bragging, honestly. But the rest is to give a bit of background on how I came to love TV enough to blog about it. Now here comes some more background.

I'm a big fan of TV. But I also know that people like to talk about more than TV. I like to talk about other things too. I'm actually a pretty active guy, but sometimes I just want to talk/read about my favorite shows. Which is why, when I found websites that review episodes of television (primarily I use IGN and AV Club), I soaked it up. I loved reading reviews. Getting a professional's take on what I loved. Sometimes I agreed with them and sometimes I didn't, but I loved them.

Over the years though I began to desire more than those reviews could give me. I wanted my own voice to be heard. So I thought about making a blog where I gave my opinions (not reviews, as I don't think I'm a critical enough person to call them reviews.) on the shows in the NBC Thursday night comedy line-up. So I would review The Office and some of my newer loves: Community, Parks and Recreation, and 30 Rock. Over time though the idea expanded to making a blog where I would cover most, if not all of the shows I watch. And hence, this blog was born.

So with all that background out of the way here's the 411. Starting next week, I will begin posting my opinions about shows this fall. Some of these shows I will continue to post an opinion for all season long (The NBC Comedy Thursday Shows (but not Whitney. It doesn't seem appealing), Glee, Fringe, etc.), some of the shows ( the news ones), I may only post an opinion occasionally depending on how I feel about the show (New Girl, Person of Interest, Terra Nova, etc.). These opinions will probably be posted irregularly at first, as I don't always have access to cable or the internet, but I'll try not to be too late. These opinions will consists of a recap or sorts, some memorable moments and end with a rating of sorts (I won't be using grades or ratings. I'll probably use words.). Then hopefully, people will comment with their own opinion and that will possibly lead to some good discussions.

So what shows will I be covering? I'll post a list tomorrow. The first opinion will be for The CW's Ringer, which is premiering next week and which I'm interested in, mainly because I'm a big Buffy Fan, and Nestor Carbonell (Richard Alpert on Lost) is a big plus also. Than, I'll talk about the one reality show we'll probably cover: Survivor: South Pacific. So get excited because Kenny Sage Talks TV, Yo! is here and it'll probably be awesome!