NASA vs. Colbert/Whedonverse, Donna/90210, Idol, Survivor, Race, Lost, & More - April 16, 2009

Hope everyone is doing great!!!!! I’ll start with Lost. It really is interesting to see all the different people on the island and how they tie into the history of it. The latest was Miles who we haven’t gotten much background on over his run of the show. It turns out that he is the son of the Dharma video instructor guy. How great was Hurley in this episode with him continuing to tease Miles about his dad? The van ride was priceless. Speaking of Hurley, I loved him writing Empire Strikes Back with various changes. How cool was it to see the hatch being built??!!!! Then, Hurley has to see the numbers put on it. The end of the episode showed the return of Faraday. This is going to mean big things!!

This week’s American Idol was the week that the judges used their save option. The bottom three consisted of Matt Giraud, Lil Rounds, and Anoop Desai. Lil Rounds was sent back to safety leaving the bottom two of Matt and Anoop. Ryan Seacrest announced the voting results that Matt had the lowest number of votes and was about to go home. The judges voted to keep him around for another week. Simon then talked saying that the bad news was that there would be two people eliminated next week while also adding that it would be disco week. This week also saw a change in the judging with only two judges being allowed to talk for each singer. This was a time saving measure as the show keeps running over. Many did not even see Adam Lambert’s full performance if they didn’t watch live last week. This has stirred up quite a bit of debate among Idol fans.

Donna Martin graduates. Donna Martin graduates. Donna Martin returned on this week’s 90210. The latest original cast member to return to the show. Donna returned to visit Kelly and we learned what has happened to Donna’s character since the show ended. She has been doing very well as a fashion designer in Japan. What about her and David? Well, they are separated at the moment but have a kid together. David also is doing well as a music producer. Kelly continued to look after Silver who is recovering after leaving the hospital. Dixon and Annie took a road trip to Arizona. Unknowingly, Annie found out that the trip was for him to meet up with his birth mom. Dixon said that he had made the decision when he was eight on whether to stay with his birth mom or be put up for adoption with him choosing adoption. Annie ended up talking to his mom after Dixon wasn’t able to do so. The two had a nice conversation with Annie apologizing for Dixon like he wanted to do for choosing adoption over her. However, his mom said that it was her decision overall and thought it was in his best interests for adoption. The road trip was a nice storyline for the episode to have something good go along with the focus being on Donna’s return. Fun episode.

The Dollhouse panel with Joss Whedon at Paley Fest had his thoughts on whether the show would continue. He seemed to be optimistic while a lot of entertainment sites have said otherwise. He said that the show does have “soft” ratings but that it does very well in its demographic and in DVR numbers. It does do well in DVR numbers as I have seen that. It would be a shame if the show doesn’t continue cause the show has really hit stride once that sixth episode aired. That episode was hyped and delivered big!!

This week’s Amazing Race had the biggest penalty that I can EVER remember for a team. If I have forgotten another one, I apologize but Mark and Michael got penalized for a double two hour penalty!!! I just laughed when Phil announced it cause it was such a massive penalty. WOW. The penalty was for them using their personal belongings to settle a bill which is a big no no in the game. They did that twice so that was why they got hit so hard. They arrived in fourth place ahead of Jen and Kisha but Jen and Kisha obviously got there way before the penalty was over. However, it wasn’t an elimination round. What does that mean? Well, it means that Mark and Michael have to start the next leg of the race contining to serve out the rest of their massive penalty while also having to do a speed bump task at some point. I did laugh that the previews next week didn’t even hide the fact of who is going to make it to the pit stop. We all know that they can’t overcome that kind of a time gap unless something HUGE happens. It does look like this week’s episode will be tense between Luke & Margie and Jen & Kisha. Standings as of now: 1. Margie and Luke. 2. Jaime and Cara. 3. Tammy and Victor. 4. Kisha and Jen. 5. Mark and Michael.

Speaking of The Amazing Race, it has been picked up for a fifteenth season on CBS.

Tonight’s Survivor continued the mental game between Coach and Brendan. This battle leading up to tribal council was delayed last week with Joe’s injury departure. Not much changed this week except for an alliance being made between Brendan and JT. Would that alliance mean anything for Brendan? Not so much. Brendan, JT, and Debbie won the reward challenge and Brendan and JT hit it off. Brendan thought JT was a good guy and didn’t want to vote him out. So, Brendan worked with Sierra and their group to target Coach. However, Coach still had his plans of blindsiding Brendan. The plan went into effect with everyone talking about voting out JT. Brendan was looking to stick with that plan out in the open but was working with his group to get rid of Coach quietly. Things played out just as Coach had said. They would split the votes between Brendan and Sierra in case Brendan did play an immunity idol. The vote was three votes for Coach, three votes for Sierra, and four votes for Brendan sending him home. Brendan was blindsided and it all went according to plan. Sierra is going to have to do some major scrambling next week to save herself.

The Big Bang Theory invaded the comic book store on Monday night. The guys took Penny along as she was needing a comic for her nephew’s birthday. The reaction of Penny in the store from the regulars was much like what Claire got on a Heroes episode a few months ago. Ha ha. Penny got the comic that she needed and also hit it off with the guy that works at the store. Leonard couldn’t stand it with Penny being interested in a guy exactly like him. After seeing Penny and Stuart leaving together, Leonard wanted Wolowitz to take him to a bar to meet women. Neither night finished well for Leonard or Penny. Leonard ended up watching Wolowitz fail with women over and over. Penny ended up being an oversight after Sheldon interfered to cause a debate over Batman with Stuart. How funny was Wolowitz and Sheldon flying through issues that they had and then grabbing the one that they both needed? Funny stuff.

Nice to get some more background on Angela Petrelli on this week’s Heroes. I enjoyed the “1961” episode which had us learning the history between her and her sister along with what happened to everyone else there. Just a nice background episode. Counting down to the finale for Heroes.

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. Hannah Montana The Movie - $32.3 million. 2. Fast and Furious - $27.2 million. 3. Monsters vs. Aliens - $21.8 million. 4. Observe and Report - $11 million. 5. Knowing - $6.4 million. 6. I Love You, Man - $6.2 million. 7. The Haunting In Connecticut - $5.9 million. 8. Dragonball Evolution - $4.7 million. 9. Adventureland - $3.3 million. 10. Duplicity - $2.9 million.

Here is an interesting article where IGN takes a look at the differences between regular DVD’s and high defintion DVD’s. I’ve really enjoyed watching the fans of both battling it out over what they feel is right. http://dvd.ign.com/articles/963/963916p1.html

Not sure if you heard about this but NASA did a poll where they were going to let voters decide on the name of a room in the international space station. NASA gave a list of names to vote for. For the Joss Whedonverse, Serenity was on the list and it ended up being the top vote getter of the suggested names by NASA. However, Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report got his fans in on it and had them doing a write in vote to get it named after him. Colbert ended up winning by about 40,000 votes over Serenity. To say that NASA wasn’t amused would be an understatement and you just knew it wasn’t going to happen. NASA announced this week that they will be naming the room Tranquility which was said to be eighth in the voting. If it wasn’t eighth, it sure wasn’t one of the top vote getters anyway. NASA did say that they would be naming a treadmill by the name of Colbert in the space station. Ok, so what was the point of that poll? They ask people to vote and then don’t even take the overall winner or the vote winner of the names that they suggested. Serenity did get 70% of the vote. How great would it have been to have Serenity as a name in the space station??!!

Anyone see Jimmy Fallon take on Denis Leary in air hockey? They went at it on Monday night’s Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. I found it to be very entertaining.

The 2009 NBA Playoffs start this weekend and here are the first round matchups. In the east: (1) Cleveland vs. (8) Detroit, (2) Boston vs. (7) Chicago, (3) Orlando vs. (6) Philadelphia, (4) Atlanta vs. (5) Miami. In the west: (1) LA Lakers vs. (8) Utah, (2) Denver vs. (7) New Orleans Hornets, (3) San Antonio Spurs vs. (6) Dallas Mavericks, (4) Portland vs. (5) Houston. Some definite good first round matchups. Will Boston repeat? Boston will be hurt without Kevin Garnett as there is talk today that he may miss the whole Playoffs. Chicago has been better since their midseason trade. The Lakers are the favorite in the west obviously. It will be fun to see the MVP candidates battling it out to lead their teams through the Playoffs.

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, April 21. Dallas (Season Eleven), The FBI Files (Season Two), Hawaii Five-O (Season Six), iCarly (Season One – Volume Two), The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (Season One), Life Of Ryan (Full Series), My Own Worst Enemy (Full Series), Rhoda (Season One), Tiny Toon Adventures (Season One – Volume Two).

TV Lines Of The Week:
From The Big Bang Theory.
Sheldon: “After the nightmare of anything can happen Thursday, this is Friday night the way it was meant to be.”
Wolowitz: “Who is up for Sheldon free Saturday?”

From Lost: Hurley baits Miles on the reunion with his dad asking Dr. Chang the name of his son.
Hurley: “What’s his name?”
Dr. Chang: “Miles”
Hurley: “Small world. That’s your name too, right Miles?”
Miles: “Yeah”
Hurley: “Are you a fan of jazz Dr. Chang, like Miles Davis?”
Dr. Chang: “My wife is. I like country.” (Miles shoots an odd look at his dad)

You Tube Video Of The Week: The clip that has been getting all sorts of air play this week from Britain’s Got Talent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Wishing all of you a great and safe weekend!! Take care and God bless!!