Go Villains

The new Survivor season is definitely off to a great start. The premiere was a blast and I can only hope it gets better. Since I am very likely to be catching up with most episodes only afterwards, I also have to try hard and avoid spoilers until I watch the episode. (Btw by spoilers, I mean my too-eager-to-spoil-it-for-me buddies here).

Anyways, I am yet to pick my two pre-season picks (which I usually do only *after* the first episode). Considering I know most players well, I am torn between whether to go for who-I-want-to-win versus who-I-think-will-win. For the former, my two picks are quite easy - Russell and Cirie (in that order). Of course, knowing Russell is 99.99% not winning (based on his show at the Samoa's finale) and that Cirie is already a target in her tribe doesnt help the case. Since I still haven't finalized on who-I-think-will-win yet, I think I might just stick with Russell and Cirie. After coming too close to picking a winner in past seasons, I think I ll survive a bad pick this time. Oh, btw something tells me this time it will be a woman winner, much like Micronesia. Lets see.

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Marathons on Discs

Turns out I prefer watching my favorite Television shows on DVD with back-to-back episodes (one season after another) rather than waiting a week for the next episode. This year (which is almost up!) I did exactly that. I was trying to recap some of the shows I caught on DVD this year and was quite surprised by how many of them turned out to be fairly engaging. Here's the list (with my ratings):

Awesome: John Adams, Rome (Seasons 1 & 2) and Carnivale (Seasons 1 & 2).
I am not sure whether to applaud HBO for the great series or to be mad at them for cutting short  Rome and Carnivale. The second season of Rome was rushed to cover a greater timeline while Carnivale didnt really offer much closure (or got around to showcase its dense mythology) - neither of which I am happy about.

Pretty Good: Entourage (Seasons 1 - 6), Six Feet Under (Season 1), Top Chef (Season 5), Coupling (Seasons 1 - 4), Mad Men (Seasons 1 - 2)
Entourage until season 4 was pretty good but I am not going back for more considering how poor seasons 5 and 6 turned out to be (Ari Gold carried me through them!). Six Feet Under had a very satisfying first season and considering I know "it has a proper ending" I must have been tempted to stay through for more - somehow I never really cared for any of the characters and didnt make it beyond the first season. And Top Chef probably became my next favorite "reality competition" show after Survivor (I am still surprised at why they continue to have Hells Kitchen, Chef Academy and other such nonsense that sell characters and drama in the name of cooking). Coupling (the UK version, obviously!) was surprisingly not a F.R.I.E.N.D.S remake as I was led to believe and turned out to be funny most of the time. Mad Men surprisingly fell short of my expectations towards the second season and its great cast and spot-on sets/costumes or the invoking nostalgia parts weren't enough for me to go in for the third.

Average: Survivor (All Stars, Pearl Islands), Chuck (Season 1)
Two blah seasons of Survivor - one with the infamous Johnny Fairplay and a blah winner; the other whose jury members must have been relieved after the current Samoa's jury took over their "most-bitter-survivor-jury-ever" crown. (Side note: one look at the All Stars season's DVD set and I was furious - that DVD design team needs to be fired immediately if not already. How extremely creative of them to place pictures of those eliminated in the next set of episodes on the corresponding DVD cover! And I was worried about chancing on spoilers everywhere else.) I really liked Chuck, but it was just like Prison Break or 24 for me - by the end of the first season I was so used to the writing that the show stopped being interesting (may be I shouldn't be watching these shows as a marathon, but a little too late for that!); and that ridiculous season finale pulled it down several notches to the "average" category.

Skipped: In Treatment (Partial first season)
It had an interesting premise which I seriously thought I would go crazy over, but didnt do anything for me. I still stuck around for 3 weeks before exchanging the shrink for some freaks during the dust bowl .

That is definitely a lot of TV-on-DVD for a year but considering I hardly watched much otherwise (except for Survivor, which I continue to watch semi-religiously) and considering I haven't had cable since the latter half of the year, it is probably still within limits.

Btw a big thumbs up to the Cincinnati Public Library for changing their holds policy this year!

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Tocantins Finale

It was a pretty good season although JT's winning streak towards the end played a major spoiler. Not only was the finale predictable (despite a good jury tribal) but I had to be content with my pre-season picks taking the 2nd and 3rd places. Hopefully I ll get it right the next season!

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"Toh-khan-cheens"

Survivor Tocantins spoiler alert!

The best episode of this season of Survivor was when they voted out the second member of the jury.  However the episode following that hasn't really lived up to expectations. Overall, this season has been pretty lame with a large number of the contestants lacking strategy. And Coach with his "dragon-slayer" ramblings is more irritating than funny to me.

Two positives this season:

1. My two pre-season picks Stephen and Erinn are still in the game! And with only 6 people left, I have much better odds than ever before to have picked a season winner!
2. I have to give credit to Coach for inspiring some unimaginable dialogues. (Sample: Sierra to Coach: "How do you save the kind enemy?". Whoa!)

Btw, the secret scenes from the episodes and the ponderosa clips offer a lot more insights this time into the tribe equations that are pretty much edited out.

For example, Erinn and Taj didn't write down Sierra's name at tribal council because they are playing for her jury vote! Erinn's vote against Stephen has nothing to do with sending her to exile (as I had initially thought).

Also, Sierra apparently spilled the beans on Taj still holding the hidden immunity idol to Coach and Debbie, who refused to believe her. Whoa! And I thought Coach can't get any stupider.

Hope they don't start bringing in Coach stereotypes in future seasons.

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Survivor Tocantins

My pre-season picks are not necessarily those with the best chances of winning, but who I would like to root for from the very beginning. Usually it is the "geeky" asian guy / girl from the predictable set of cast members. I think Survivor is a full-on social game and it is very interesting to watch a un-social person adjust and do well in the game. A very good example would be Kenny from last season (Gabon) who started off as a clueless kid and went on to become the godfather only to fall prey to the full-on drama of Sugar. Yul from Cook Islands would be another fine example for the same. I was very surprised to not see the token asian guy/gal in the cast this season. I had to finally settle with Stephen who seems to doing pretty well, two episodes in.

My second pick was a tough choice between Sydney and Erinn. Both of them belong to the typical "dumb-blond" category which is always a big disadvantage in the initial periods but can be used to their advantage if they are smart. I finally settled for Erinn which seems like not -a-bad choice considering the first 2 episodes. Sydney seems to be in it for the long haul as well considering she is almost missing in action almost entirely from the episodes.

I haven't had any of my picks win so far, may be this season will be different.

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Kenny Boi

Note: This post may have spoilers about Survivor Gabon.

Yeah Kenny, one of my pre-season picks in Survivor: Gabon is doing extremely well and is very likely to win if he reaches the final 2 (or 3), which also makes him a huge threat for others to get rid of (with 7 people left now).

I wasn't happy with his early plays like aligning with Crystal or getting rid of Ace etc. But all that seem to have worked out for him - till now at least. But he better watch out since given the current set of remaining players, all of them are equally likely to blind-slide anyone - just to get to the next round. These people are so fickle (especially Sugar and Susie) that the last person to talk to them is going to have his/her way.

What I want? I want Matty gone ASAP. Clearly he will not think twice to get rid of Kenny and Kenny can always convince the others to get rid of Bob & Corrine (since they already have favorable numbers in the jury). I am also concerned about Sugar since she is still holding on to her idol - which is a major threat.

I think, the next two episodes are going to determine the winner. Let's see.

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Survivor: Gabon

Another season of Survivor about to start. The last season, Fans vs Favorites, was quite interesting although none of the fans were impressive. This new season seems to have an interesting mix of people and will hopefully not be disappointing. My initial pick to win this season would be between Ken and Charlie, although I think Bob may hang around quite a bit and give us all a Yau-Man feel. And who do I think will get to be booted out first? Me thinks it will be one of the ladies, and my bets are on Gillian and Jessica.

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The Amazing Race Asia 3

More dirt (spoilers) about the show.

Looks like my previous post on how me and my brother bumped into The Amazing Race contestants got quite a few hits and I received few emails from the fans of the show who were looking for a bit more information. (This post is for them).

This is what I gathered from the emails I received - the contestants who I bumped into are Geoff Rodriguez and Tisha Silang, mini-celebrities (actors?) from Philippines, and are competing in the 3rd season of The Amazing Race Asia. And although they were the only team on the flight, based on the supposed filming dates, it doesn't look as if they were any near the finish line at that point.

Although I have already mentioned all the important details in my previous post, just to confirm, the contestants were on the Cathy Pacific flight CX739 from Hong Kong - Singapore that departed from Hong Kong on 1st June 2008 around 11:20AM (Hong Kong time). And at Singapore, after our chat, they booked the next flight from Singapore - Cochin in Air India which was leaving in another 3 hours or so from Terminal 2 (or was it 3?). Hope this extra bit of information is gratifying enough ;)

And no, I didn't take any more pictures. However, I think the one I have is good enough ;)

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The Amazing Race

An exciting start to an eventful vacation.

On our way to Chennai, my brother and I bumped into a team from the next season of the Amazing Race at the Singapore airport.

Possible spoilers from the next Amazing Race Season ahead.

(Hereafter, "we" refers to me and my elder brother.)

We first noticed them after boarding the same Hong Kong - Singapore flight. Seeing their backpacks and the two cameramen behind, our immediate guess was that they were part of the Amazing Race. However, I didn't get a good look at them when they zipped past my seat and also, I was pretty tired then, so I spent all the time aboard sleeping rather than trying to find out if the guess was right. My brother usually acts as if such things are no big deal, so he didn't snoop around either.

After getting off at the Singapore airport, we were still discussing the possibility while standing in line for our next boarding pass at the Air India counter when they came and stood behind us. We immediately asked them THE question (if they were part of the Amazing Race) and lady said "We don't know what you are talking about."

It wasn't rocket science to figure out the instructions they had - that is to not say anything about the show. We spent few minutes with them and gathered quite a bit of information. The two contestants were representing Philippines, their next destination was Cochin, India (we even got a peek at the blue note with the globe symbol). Since no other team was around, and I think they mentioned a 2 hour lead over another (with some Simon?), my guess is that they were among the final few contestants.

Below is the picture I took with the team in the background (they couldn't pose - they aren't allowed to!). Notice the yellow-red flag and the backpacks with the number 9.



I am sure my brother was equally excited about the whole thing although he will deny it (except in front of our younger brother). After all, we were totally "amazed" by the show once and never missed an episode of the first season.

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Micronesia

Survivor - Micronesia spoilers alert!

Too soon for another survivor post (especially after the big break in-between). However, Ozzy getting snuffed deserves a post. Really glad that he is out. I have hated Ozzy since Ep 1 this time and he seems to have showed his true colors this time around. It was hard considering I was a big fan of his after Cook Islands. But now, I am just glad.

Also, Cirie earns a few brownie points for getting rid of the Oz and is probably the only "favorite" I wouldn't mind winning the game (the chances being pretty bleak though). Just like I lost interest after P.G was out in China, I think I am going to lose interest in couple more episodes, as soon as Jason gets voted off!

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Micronesia

Back after a long break which probably deserves a long post itself (on what I have been up to). Anyways, that would have to wait. How could I not have a post on Survivor: Micronesia now that we are up to the merge.

Spoilers alert (till Ep 9) :

Now, this season has been pretty disappointing. Usually most of my early survivor picks get voted off immediately, but someone or the other manages to hang around till the last 5 or last 4. This season though, all my picks have been eliminated before the merge (ep 9). But that's not because they played bad and were voted off, but because I haven't had many players to root for.

Going in as fans vs. favorites, I was looking forward to an exciting season. But the only favorites I wanted to root for were Yau and Johnathan. Ami and Eliza were in the next tier of my picks thanks to their alliance with Yau. I wasn't going to root for Johnny fairplay or the "clique" of 4. Cirie was always a wild card who ended up outside my list for eliminating Yau.

They couldn't have done any worse selecting fans. On one hand you had the very shortsighted players like Mikey and Joel, and on the other hand you had quitters Kathy and Chet. I would have liked Tracey if only she were little less annoying and a little more sociable. Anyways, I didn't have any clear picks amongst the fans until the tribes were shuffled (ep 5?).

After the shuffle, my only favorites were Ami and Tracy (not because I shifted allegiance but because I wasn't left with any other choice) who again were eliminated successively. By Ep 9, I was forced to root for Eliza and Jason which again wasn't going to last.

Eliza got the boot today, Jason is about to follow any time he fails to win the immunity. My option if he too gets the boot? No one.

Too sleepy to go over my predictions. Hopefully will continue later - soon enough.

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Online TV shows

:( news: CBS finally woke up to the fact that ads in their innertube can be skipped by using a real player. Now they have changed it to a flash player and I had to bear the ads to watch survivor repeats !!

:| news: NBC have placed "The Office" episodes online. That's great but just like cbs' innertube, you have watch the ads EVERYTIME before / after you watch a segment. That is big pain if you want to rewind to the funny parts of the show !! Kudos to the abc team though for a much better interface. There, once you watch the ads, the segments get merged and hence, you will watch an ad only once to watch scenes from a segment any number of times!! (If you didn't get it, try it :P )

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Pushing Daisies

The one new show I have liked the most this season is "Pushing Daisies" (not that I have been seeing too many new ones).

"Daisies" is about a man who can bring the dead back to life with his touch. However, as expected, there is a catch - actually there are two catches. One, if he touches that person ever again, he/she will die forever. And two, if he brings someone alive, an innocent person will have to die instead.

The pilot episode had the unique mix of humor and innocence that is essential for a story using magical realism. The episode was very well shot and had a "if-Tim-Burton-was-happy" feel to it (or may be I still have a "Big Fish" hangover). The story was very "fairy tale"-ish with unexpected twists and interesting characters.

I hope the show lives up to its promise and that they don't stretch it unnecessarily.

Considering how, many of my favorite shows don't survive long, I probably just jinxed this one. But then even if I did, this show can always bring itself to life with its own magical touch !!

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Something good. Finally.

Since I couldn't find anything worth watching on TV this season, I decided to watch instead few TV series that I have been missing. Somehow, I managed to catch the complete season (and in some cases, several seasons) of 3 of them. They are:

Prison Break - Season 1:
Good, but not good enough to make me stick around for future seasons. Season 2 was given the skip.

24 - Season 1:
Certainly better than Prison Break, but too many tiresome (and slightly illogical) subplots and a pretty lame ending that leaves a lot of questions unanswered. However, Seasons 3 and 5 have been given a "must-see" recommendation from a "not-so-reliable" source. Still haven't decided but might give it another try.

The Office (US) - Seasons 1, 2, and 3:
My roommate hates "The Office" now. He had a real tough time over the past two weeks. I watched it in my laptop (with headphones) and kept cracking up every second, and he had to endure my laughter track (minus the jokes). Btw, if you haven't already, you should watch the "webisodes" too (but in order). I can probably go on a big rant about my favorite characters and episodes - that would only be another of "The Office" ke side effects.

Next on my list is certainly "Arrested Development". Haven't been able to get the complete season 1 episodes though.

Also, haven't seen any movies lately. Since "Sivaji", I have only seen "Ratatouille", "1408", and the good-but-overrated "Mozhi". May be will switch to the big screen for a while.

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Not again !!

*Survivor Fiji spoilers *

This had to happen. I probably jinxed her. Why else will a very strong player like Michelle (in a reasonably "safe" alliance) get voted off, that too, immediately after I write a post supporting her? She certainly didn't deserve to go. Although the "twist" by itself was acceptable, Jeff's questions in the tribal council were totally unfair.

I just hope that my other favorites hang around a lot longer.

*Edit*

Btw, if you are mad about Michelle getting the boot, here's something to laugh about.

What did Boo tell Earl after he finds out about Michelle ?

Boo: Knock, Knock.
Earl: Who's there?
Boo: Boo
Earl: Boo who?
Boo: Don't cry !!!

PS: The joke is old but seemed appropriate here.

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Survivor Fiji

Yes, I am following Survivor Fiji. It has started getting interesting only after re-shuffling of the teams (Ep#6). The last episode (Ep#8) was certainly the most entertaining this season, and it does look as if the real games are just about to start. However, I just discovered a new reason for me to follow the show and find out who gets the million bucks this time.

Minor spoiler(s) alert !!

My favorites were actually Yau-Man and Earl. But now, I have added one more to the list. Its Michelle. And its not just because she is smart and likable. I just found out that she is actually a student of UC studying in DAAP!!!

I never go through the contestants' profiles but when I was trying to watch that last episode online, I guess I clicked on Michelle's profile by mistake. And I was pleasantly surprised to learn that we both study at the same University. She has always been likable and in last episode, she did come out as "survivor-smart". Now, with some additional brownie points, she joins my favorites list (ahead of Earl and at par with Yau-Man).

Btw, if you are NOT watching the show, you probably should. It is bound to get a LOT more interesting, especially, if the other "immunity" idol gets discovered. And as I mentioned before in my Cook Islands post, you can still manage to watch all the episodes from cbs without any ads.

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The Cook Islands

As I had wanted to, this season, I cut down on the repeats of FRIENDS, Raymond and Seinfeld. Only few of the shows I had wanted to watch were good (LOST was the biggest disappointment though with just 5-6 episodes which weren't that good anyways). My initial and the only favorite had been Studio 60.

Thanks to ABC, most free-to-air channels (read: NBC and CBS) decided to go online with the latest episodes of their popular shows. I should say that among them, CBS' "inner tube" is simply the best. Because a) all the episodes of the shows are available, and b) you can even skip the ads if you are clever enough. Anyways, the whole point is that I happened to catch the latest Survivor from CBS and it just blew me away.

I had seen the show before, when the now-in-jail "Rich" manipulated his way to become the first Survivor. Not that I understood much then, but I liked the show. Since then, I hadn't quite been able to catch the show until now. I would say that it has been worth the wait.

I cannot say much about this season without giving away some spoilers, but trust me, if you even remotely like any reality game shows, you MUST watch Survivor this season. The twists in the game and some of the characters this time are simply too good to miss. After all, if you are free enough to read through something like this, then you surely are free enough to watch the initial episodes at least. And why not when you can catch all the episodes online that too without any ads.

Why am I recommending it so much? Because, unfortunately, I don't have anyone else to do some "Survivor Talk". So, in case you do end up liking the show, do let me know.

PS: To skip ads in CBS inner tube, first use real player codec and once the video starts in the inner tube, transfer it to play in your computer's real player. Then you can skip the ads.

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Chandler Bing 's back... with a Bang

This season, after a lot of thought (since I wanted to cut down on my tv watching time), I decided to stick to only 5 shows on TV. Four I chose were from abc, including the 3 biggies - Lost, Grey's Anatomy and Desp. Housewives. Among the several new shows from abc, Six Degrees seemed more interesting to me (than Men in Trees, 9, Help Me Help You and Ugly Betty) although its premiere episode wasn't too flattering. However, it is the new show from NBC - Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip - which has been the best of the lot till now (of course, Lost is yet to begin).

If the first two episodes of Studio 60 are any indicator, I am sure this show is only going to boost nbc's comeback. Till now, everything about the show has been great. The first two episodes were very racy, the cast has been amazing and the cold open at the end of the second episode was hilarious. Even the background score was very cool (slightly familiar though). But what I liked best about the show is that everything is so real-like. We have a SNL-ish "show-within-the-show" (Studio 60 inside the Studio 60) on the fictional tv channel NBS (!!), which is trying to get back on top. Its all so "Adaptation." over and over again.

And some good news: you can watch the episodes online @ nbc.com. Shows from abc are also available @ abc.com. Do watch the episodes of Studio 60 and let me know if you enjoyed it as much.

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