(S01E04) Well, that's it until March 2010. The most important thing that V could do this week was to leave us hanging on the edge of our seats as to what's coming next. If the idea was to give us a sense of sheer hopelessness in the face of the power of the Visitors, then that's what we did.
More importantly, we got to see the genesis of the Resistance movement led by Jack, Ryan and Erica. It makes an even more powerful figure when you consider that at this point there are exactly four people -- at least that we're following -- taking on 29 Visitor ships with technology and power almost beyond our imagining.
Everyone loves a scrappy underdog, and you couldn't ask for much more than that. But it was great seeing them take some of their first strikes against the Visitors as a unit. This is the struggle, against near impossible odds, that will keep us glued to our seats.
(S06E17) This week determines the top ten of So You Think You Can Dance. We welcome the top twelve dancers and judging by the audience, Legacy and Jakob are the most loved. With Dancing with the Stars ending this week, I'm happy that I can devote more time to this show because the dancing is a higher caliber and it isn't just a celebrity popularity contest.
Tonight we got to see the first Can Can and the return of the Lindy Hop. I am happy that the show continues to break the boundaries of dance and shine a light on new choreographers.
(S08E11) It was a big week, as the remaining five contestants settled in for their final week on the Biggest Loser campus. With Amanda as a clear outcast in the group, she was feeling the pressure even more to stay above that yellow line. And big weeks aren't something Amanda is known for, despite a valiant nine-pound loss last week. She's never seen double digits and spent most of the season hovering around six pounds a week.
However, as one of the smallest contestants in the game, those numbers can make a difference when it comes to her percentages. Liz, Allen, Rudy and Danny have all developed a tight bond over the past ten weeks, and you just know their dream was for Amanda to slip below so they could send her home and preserve their foursome into the Semi-Finals.
I have this odd tendency to root for an underdog, so even though Amanda has been less-than-impressive throughout this season, I suddenly found myself hoping she would pull it out and upset the apple cart, as it were.
(S09E21) Dancing with the Stars is down to three finalists, two hours, and one winner. We re-welcome the thirteen eliminated celebrities. Donny & Kym, Mya & Dmitry, and Kelly & Louis emerge from the other side of the stage and run past the eliminated contestants. Louis got a lot of butt slaps; he giggles and continues walking.
We get a recap of last night, ad in the middle of the recap we have the back of Miss Piggy's head. Was that the spaghetti cat of DWTS? The recap played again right after a commercial break.
The best part of the night wasn't the results, it was Miss Piggy laying the smackdown on Samantha Harris.
(S07E09) If you want to show the soft side of Jethro Gibbs, involve a kid. That would seem to be the logic behind this episode which was a bit of a reach, what with cornfields, a think tank for gifted children, government secrets, a tenuous link to gang activity, a dead Marine, and pink cupcakes ... but still interesting.
There was also the whole connection to Thanksgiving at Ducky's. Would our favorite NCIS team make it to dinner together or would they be setting out on separate paths? Would Abby master the cranberry sauce? Read more after the jump.
Thanksgiving is the best time to reflect on the year and find out what one is grateful for. Like most people, I'm grateful for my family and our well-being, but I realize that it's the little things that can perk up a depressing day.
Hulu
I cover a lot of reality shows and I found Hulu to be a great website for me to catch Glee, Modern Family, and Community without having to fill up my DVR. When Hulu gives me the option to play one long form commercial, I squeal, press play, and run to the bathroom to pee. When I get back Glee's preview is on. That show is better without either commercial or bathroom interruptions.
A lot of us here at TV Squad have been listing that for which we are thankful. Like many of the others, I feel I have to start with my wife and family, and my friends. And I'd also add the comedy community in Boston, where I work, and beyond, for giving me something worth writing about and following day after day, year after year.
But this is a TV site, so the big part of this list is the things I am thankful I can see on the rundown TV in my office that makes a horrible cranking sound when I try to play DVDs, ot downstairs when I'm not bothering anyone by trying to catch up on thirteen discs of the Steve Coogan Collection.
My Local Library
Don't laugh. I have a rule that I won't watch an episodic TV series unless I've started it from the beginning, which means I wind up missing a lot of shows everyone else is screaming praises for.
Last night was the series finale of Jon and Kate Plus 8 and the show ended as if it was any season finale. The family went on their two last adventures while Kate and Jon narrated how they will be good parents. TLC tried their best to put Jon in a negative light, but Jon's media training forced him to make diplomatic statements.
With the divorce, Jon and Kate Plus 8 was cut short. The dynamic between the parents was something to watch, but the real focus was eight children learning about the world and each other in the process. Each started gaining true personalities and by the end, I finally was able to distinguish between Alexis and Leah.
Ho Ho Ho... you're going to Afghanistan. Not exactly a Christmas present to be happy about. Having said that, Cal must surely be happy about what he accomplished in last night's episode of Lie to Me.
Sent to a US Marines outpost in the middle of the desert near Kabul, Cal was tasked with uncovering the truth about a deep-cover US operative who got left for dead and had to join to Taliban to survive. Cal was able to get plenty of info from his subject about two missing Marines but we ended up learning far more about Dr. Lightman as a result of his methods.
It seems like ESPN has been around forever, doesn't it? Can you even remember a time when there hasn't been an ESPN to turn to for a score or breaking news or updates? I can't. But along with the news ESPN provides, the ESPN brand has expanded to include a bunch of networks, a magazine, restaurants and lots of tchotchkes. But let's just look at the TV shows, shall we? One note: SportsCenter is not included because it's more of a daily news show as opposed to the programs that are more talk and game-oriented. Here's the top ten ESPN created shows, from the worst to the first.
10. Sports Nation
This is a relatively new daily show on ESPN with radio talker Colin Cowherd and Michelle Beadle co-hosting. It's supposedly an interactive program with surveys that include the fans, but all the bells and whistles can't change the fact that Cowherd is an obnoxious know-it-all that dominates the conversation – when they have one. It's new and shiny, but it's a mess.
(S02E10) ""A wife and a fiance catfight ... please can we stop for popcorn on the way?" - Castle
Molly C. Quinn is such a cutie. I loved the storyline this week where she volunteers to categorize evidence, and in doing so, uses her skills to help return someone's precious "brag book" to them. She takes after her dad in the "big heart" department.
Castle is good about that. They could have made Richard Castle as a roguish playboy who chases women and loves a good time, and while he's got some of that in him (see above quote), he's also a dedicated family man. The writers are good about the characters that way. Beckett is a hard-nosed detective, but she's also good with people, excelling at giving them bad news in such a way as to soften the blow.
The new Target holiday ads are out, and if you've been scratching your head, trying to figure out who that vaguely familiar-looking woman is who's playing that competitive and slightly demented Black Friday shopper, scratch no longer.
It's Maria Bamford, the cute but decidedly off-kilter stand-up comedian who is probably best known for participating in the Comedians of Comedy tour with Patton Oswalt, Zach Galifianakis, and Brian Posehn.
Most of the ads show Bamford playing the competitive shopper, pulling full Target carts uphill and sleeplessly decorating a gingerbread village in preparation for the store's big Black Friday sale. But in some of the spots, Bamford also plays the woman's more "normal" sister, who doesn't need to be there as soon as the doors open. Problem is, she also puts her wreath up using a staple gun. So how normal can she be? One of the ads is below, and a couple of more are after the jump:
If you don't already know her story, get ready to hear all about it. On December 13, the TV Guide Network will present a Susan Boyle special. An hour all about the unlikely Scottish singing sensation. I Dreamed a Dream: The Susan Boyle Story is a one-hour documentary/interview/performance special chronicling the rise of the Britain's Got Talent performer who became a You Tube phenom and has just released her first CD.
American Idol's Simon Cowell is the mastermind behind this production, which will also be broadcast in England on the ITV1. It'll have celebrity interviews including Simon himself, footage of Susan's hometown, her TV appearances till now, and -- naturally -- Susan singing songs from I Dreamed A Dream, the new CD.
The final episode of David Tennant's run on Doctor Who "The End of Time" has been posted online. Well, not the entire two-parter, but just the first three minutes or so. It was broadcast in England on the BBC as part of their Children in Need special. The first episode is scheduled to be shown in the U.K. on Christmas Day with the final episode on New Year's Day.
This, my friends, is a no-brainer. Psych is one of USA's more reliable hours, a comedy-mystery series that has a loyal following. This past summer season -- which will soon be completed in the winter when the second half of the episodes air beginning in late January (the date hasn't been confirmed yet) -- the show performed especially well in younger demographics.
(S01E04) Well, that's it until March 2010. The most important thing that V could do this week was to leave us hanging on the edge of our seats as to what's coming next. If the idea was to give us a sense of sheer hopelessness in the face of the power of the Visitors, then that's what we did.
(S08E11) It was a big week, as the remaining five contestants settled in for their final week on the Biggest Loser campus. With Amanda as a clear outcast in the group, she was feeling the pressure even more to stay above that yellow line. And big weeks aren't something Amanda is known for, despite a valiant nine-pound loss last week. She's never seen double digits and spent most of the season hovering around six pounds a week.
Thanksgiving is the best time to reflect on the year and find out what one is grateful for. Like most people, I'm grateful for my family and our well-being, but I realize that it's the little things that can perk up a depressing day.
A lot of us here at TV Squad have been listing that for which we are thankful. Like many of the others, I feel I have to start with my wife and family, and my friends. And I'd also add the comedy community in Boston, where I work, and beyond, for giving me something worth writing about and following day after day, year after year. 
It seems like ESPN has been around forever, doesn't it? Can you even remember a time when there hasn't been an ESPN to turn to for a score or breaking news or updates? I can't. But along with the news ESPN provides, the ESPN brand has expanded to include a bunch of networks, a magazine, restaurants and lots of tchotchkes. But let's just look at the TV shows, shall we? One note: SportsCenter is not included because it's more of a daily news show as opposed to the programs that are more talk and game-oriented. Here's the top ten ESPN created shows, from the worst to the first. 
(S02E10) ""A wife and a fiance catfight ... please can we stop for popcorn on the way?" - Castle
If you don't already know her story, get ready to hear all about it. On December 13, the 
The final episode of David Tennant's run on Doctor Who "The End of Time" has been posted online. Well, not the entire two-parter, but just the first three minutes or so. It was broadcast in England on the BBC as part of their Children in Need special. The first episode is scheduled to be shown in the U.K. on Christmas Day with the final episode on New Year's Day.
USA Network is losing Monk this year, but it's not about to let Psych go. The adventures of Shawn and Gus will continue. 
TV Squad Ten: Top Ten ESPN shows from worst to first
Andy Richter: The TV Squad Interview
Have any questions for Vik Sahay of Chuck? Ask them here!
