Better Off Ted: Battle of the Bulbs

Top Gear: S14E05

Iron Chef America: Symon vs. Culinary Students

Secret Ingredient: Balsamic Vinegar
Judges: Karine Bakhoum, Anthony Anderson, Anya Fernald
Winner: Iron Chef Symon

Fringe: Of Human Action

Monk: Mr. Monk and the Badge

White Collar: The Portrait

Doctor Who: The Next Doctor

Oh, the weather outside is frightful..ish. Yesterday the ladies of OneSixNine would not be deterred by the impending snowpocalypse and ventured out into Bloomfield (which is, in fact, as beautiful its name implies, but more on that later.) Since the storm was predicted to hit New Haven in the early afternoon but not touch northern Connecticut until later, I packed my things to spend the night at Emme’s place in Hartford. After our trip to Bloomfield (beautiful as its name implies) we spent our evening doing what everyone else in Connecticut was doing – sitting at home and bracing for the PARALYZING NOR’EASTER that COULD START ANY MINUTE NOW OH MY GOD. I think I speak for everyone when I say that was the lamest snowpocalypse ever. Still, I’m glad we have that shared experience. I feel like I’ve bonded with all of you – as though you were right there with us as we played Clue and watched “How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days” on USA.

Anyway, on to Bloomfield. Bloomfield, aside from being as beautiful as its name implies, borders Windsor, East Granby, Simsbury, Avon, West Hartford and Hartford (41°50′39″N 72°44′29″W if you’re scoring at home). And what I’ve learned from my brief time there is that Bloomfield is big on two things – beer and religion.

See Something

I want to preface this bit by noting something about casual, unannounced visits in places of worship – they’re uncomfortable. Even if you’re just going there for totally innocent looking around. Even if most places of worship are very welcoming of visitors. And even if you’re at a place that’s run by your own team.

We experienced that last one at St. Thomas Seminary. The buildings there are really beautiful (even if the name doesn’t imply it). In fact, if I knew anything about architecture, I’d tell you what style they’re in.

I can tell you that The Archdiocesan Center at the Seminary offers “22,000 square feet of retreat and conference rooms, 80 dormitory style guest rooms, catering and conference services and recreational facilities.” There is also a Catholic Book Store and Gift Shop, which we did not visit. We really didn’t linger at the Seminary. The grounds were so quiet that it felt like we were trespassing even though, had we been approached by a passing Seminarian, we could have been like “It’s cool, man. We, too, enjoy incense and Bingo.”

However, if you think the Catholics have a monopoly on striking religious buildings in Bloomfield, you haven’t seen The First Cathedral. I have to admit that as we drove down Route 187 and it came into view, I took the Lord’s name in vain. (Guess we should have swung back to the seminary afterward for a quick confession.) The First Cathedral is huge, but I guess it needs to be since it’s home to 11,000 members – the largest congregation in New England. The edifice is allegedly built in the shape of a dove, a fact that we can’t verify since the OneSixNine helicopter was in the shop this weekend.

We ventured inside briefly and saw the Grand Lobby. This is one impressive non-denominational church. Unlike at the seminary, we did stop by the gift shop. The proprietors were very nice, and their merchandise included this amusing t-shirt, as well as “The Bad Girls of the Bible,” “The Slightly Bad Girls of the Bible,” and “The Really Bad Girls of the Bible.” Much like at the seminary, we didn’t hang around for too long. After all, there was a Nor’Easter coming and there was a lot of Bloomfield left to see.

Drink Something

As I’m sure all you studious students of Connecticut history know, Thomas Hooker was the puritan founder of the Colony of Connecticut. The nice thing about having a founding father like Mr. Hooker is that Connecticut companies, like the Brew Pub formerly known Trout Brook, can innocently adopt the name “Hooker” and then make a killing on hilarious merchandise.

Oh, the witty folks at Hooker Beer. The brewery is a pretty cool place. It has open houses – just make sure you obey the rules!

The scene at the brewery on a Saturday afternoon with a storm coming was pretty tame. Emme was telling me that sometimes it gets pretty crowded – like in one of the photos on the wall. Closer inspection of said photo confirmed Emme’s firsthand knowledge – she’s in it. Can you find the back of Emme’s head? You should know what it looks like by now!

The big attraction at the brewery was the Nor’Easter beer. And what an appropriate day to indulge! I made sure all our Twitter followers were updated on how much we were enjoying Nor’Easter while waiting for the Nor’Easter.

Do Something

As per the rules, we took a tour of the brewery. What I learned is that brewing beer, much like math class, is tough. There’s all this science stuff involved. Who was the dude who, thousands of years ago, discovered that fermented grain tastes good and makes you act silly? Props to him, because I still don’t understand how the stuff is made.

Mmmm, tank of Nor'Easter!

On the way out, Emme bought herself a growler of Nor’Easter (or, as Emme’s native people might say, “A growlah of Nor’Eastah”) and the Hooker folks threw in some innuendo at no extra charge.

Eat Something

After the brewery we headed to Concetta’s, an Italian restaurant located in the Bloomfield Shopping Center (which also has an Ocean State Job Lot, a definite sign of sophistication). Concetta’s was recommended to us by one of Emme’s co-workers and it did not disappoint. It was your standard, though very tasty and very plentiful, Italian fare.

Also, if some of our Jewish friends are feeling left out by the Catholic and non-denominational Christian stops on our tour, don’t fret: we made some time for your people as well.

Talk to Someone

As usual, the OneSixNine will disappoint our readers with our willingness to meet people on our journeys.  We can’t help it, we’re just such great conversationalists that it’s hard to find a reason to talk to anyone but each other.  We did get to chat up the Beer Girl at the brewery, who was super pleasant.  And she even gave us Christmas cookies!  Emme suggested getting OneSixNine business cards to pass around so people would know how legit and important we are when we go places, so if you’re looking to buy us a Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, or Solstice gift, you’re welcome for the suggestion.  And thank YOU for thinking of us!

Lessons in Connecticuting

1. Letting Elle be in charge of writing the post and using her camera for photos cuts our turnaround time down by, like, a month.
2. Bloomfield has a lot of religion.  Which, for at least one lapsed Catholic, is both surprising and a little overwhelming.  It’s humbling to be in really religious places when you’re slacking and your mother is judging you for not going to confession.
3. Worshipping false idols (or no idols) does not guarantee asign from the heavens in the form of outrageous snowfall.  Hartford was surprisingly snow-limited this morning when the oft-delayed storm had finally come and gone.
4. Don’t trust Connecticut weathermen.  Or Aonghus.  Both misled us several times yesterday.  But you can trust Curt Cameron (not to be confused with Kirk Cameron… who, ironically enough, attends a megachurch).
5. Eating dinner across from the University of Hartford women’s basketball team is a good way to feel short and unathletic.  And old.

image from Psych's facebook

Slow news day?

I don’t know, but I just thought today would be a good day as any to remind you that Psych is returning to USA Network in January, but moving to Wednesday nights.

Wednesday Jan 27th 10 pm mark your calendars and set your DVRs.

And click on the link to see the cast sing “Private Eyes.” It’s hilarious.

Graham Elwood says he may be the only comedian who doesn’t smoke pot.

Which is why fellow comic Doug Benson brought Graham on his recent 13-state medical marijuana tour.  “I’m the designated driver and I bring bail money,” quips the Madison-native funnyman.

Camera crews followed the duo on the road to Boise, Idaho, and Spokane, Wash, for new comedy special “The High Road” airing now on G4TV.

And that’s not all Graham’s been up to since his last visit to Appleton in January 2009. An extreme sports fan, Graham was recently hired to cover surf competitions as a correspondent for action sports show “The Daily Habit” on Fuel TV, and he’ll reprise his role as a cop on the third season of Comedy Central’s The Sarah Silverman Program.

Graham has been karate-ing his way into American hearts for 15 years, though. A second-degree yellow belt with an affinity to referring to himself in the third person, Graham has rocked crowds on CBS’s “The Late Late Show” and NBC’s “Late Friday,” not to mention starred in five USO tours to Afghanistan and Iraq.  The comic has made regular appearances on VH1 and Fuel TV, and even played host on games shows likes “Cram” for Game Show Network and “Strip Poker” for USA Network. His new comedy CD “Graham Elwood: The Comedian Has a Boo Boo” comes out soon.

This week Wednesday through Saturday (Dec. 16 – 19), Graham is live on the Skyline Comedy Cafe stage once again. Let’s go behind the laughs for a little quickie Q & A, shall we?

So you grew up in Wisconsin, eh?

Yeah I grew up in Madison, and I lived there till I was about 12. We had season tickets to Badger football games back when they were so, so bad, before Barry Alvarez, so they were really bad.

Some bad years…Well, you’re back in Appleton this week! It’s been, what, a year or so?

Yeah, in January (2009) I performed for Doug Benson.

You always get to come when it’s the dead of winter and so cold…

I think they like make me freezing (laughs). I’ve been living in California for a long time, so…

Hopefully you’re into extreme outdoor sports.

I am! I just got done surfing. I’ll go skiing when I’m in Lake Tahoe performing.

Sweet. So what do we get to hear about this time around at the Skyline?

You’re going to hear about (how) I went on a 13-state medical marijuana tour. Doug Benson and I went to 13 states where medical marijuana is legal, so I talk about that. We went to all these crazy places like Burlington, Vermont; Montana; Alaska… So that was pretty nuts.  I’m talking about how cold it is!

Speaking of Doug, how did you two first hook up?

I’ve known Doug a long time. We know each other through the comedy circles in L.A. I was in “Super High Me.”  I’m one of the few comedians who doesn’t smoke pot, so he brings me on the road with him to balance things out–my high energy craziness with his “duude” stoner.  I’m the designated driver and I bring bail money.  There’s a new comedy special on G4 called “The High Road,” where they follow Doug and I on the road to Boise, Idaho, and Spokane, Wash. running December 8.  I’m a correspondent now for “The Daily Habit” on TV. So when a surf movie has a premier I go. I go to surf competitions, and I will be playing my recurring role as a cop in the 3rd season on The Sarah Silverman Program.

Sarah seems hysterical. What’s it like working with her?

It’s a blast! I’m friends with her and a lot of the writers. I’m getting paid to get dressed and goof off.

So we’ve got to ask about the Tees! Are you still out there Palm Striking everyone? Are you bringing some shirts to Appleton with you?

Absolutely. I’m still a second degree yellow belt in karate; I’m going to be palm striking my way through the Fox Valley. So I’ll have the Yellow Palm Strike tees, and black shirts–the girly tees for women, and the head band.  I’ve got a new CD coming out too, “Graham Elwood: The Comedian’s Got a Boo Boo.” That’s the new CD I cut, available on Rooftop Records.

What else, Graham? What are the burning details we need to know before your shows this week?

Well…I’m a regular on the Jimmy Pardo podcast “Never Not Funny.”  I’m a big fan of public transportation.  Uhh, I’m the surfing yellow-belt vegetarian. But, I love doing crowds in the Midwest, specifically Wisconsin in the winter. It’s so cold, and because (of that) there’s nothing to do other than go to a club, drink and laugh. I love that club, love performing in Wisconsin. Again, the Midwest in winter are just the best crowds; they’re just so pumped up to be out of their houses.

Graham Elwood Online

VIDEOS

RESERVATIONS:  (920) 734-5653   |   Skyline Comedy Online

We’ve got the biggest names in stand-up comedy right here every week! Check back next week for more fun with Appleton native Rob Brackenridge (Dec. 23 & 26).

Scrubs: Our Role Models

Better Off Ted: Love Blurts

Parks and Recreation: The Camel

Monk: Mr. Monk Is the Best Man

Mythbusters: Unarmed and Unharmed
Unarmed and Unharmed, Speed Bus Jump

Top Chef: Las Vegas: Season Finale: Part II (Season Finale)

White Collar: Flip of the Coin

We just got back to Jersey after attending NBC Universal’s party for the press. The soiree Tuesday night, held on the 52nd floor of 30 Rock in Manhattan, was officially off-the-record. But we can certainly tell you who we saw there.

As we were checking our coat, Kathie Lee Gifford was putting on her’s and leaving. Her NBC morning-TV partner, Hoda Kotb, was still inside at the shindig.

The event, sponsored by NBCU chief Jeff Zucker and his communications team, came on the heels of news that the nation’s largest cable operator, Comcast, was buying the home of the Peacock Network along with its stable of cable channels, which includes USA Network, SyFy, Bravo, Oxygen, CNBC and MSNBC. The seller is General Electric.

A shirt-sleeved Zucker briefly addressed the gathered media, and made some funny jokes about the coming merger (we can’t say what, it was off the record, remember?)

There were both NBCU talent and suits at the holiday party. NBC News anchor Brian Williams, a Jersey guy, stopped by, as did Lester Holt, Ann Curry and Amy Robach from “The Today Show.” Jimmy Fallon popped by when the party was ending.

As for execs, in addition to Zucker there was NBC Cable Entertainment chief Bonnie Hammer, Bravo honcho Frances Berwick, NBCU’s women’s and lifestyle chieftain Lauren Zalaznick, CNBC president Mark Hoffman and “Saturday Night Live” creator and producer Lorne Michaels.

We have written about Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” for NewJerseyNewsroom.com, and NBC has big home shopping connections and affiliations.

First of all, GE/NBC currently owns about 32.5 percent of ShopNBC on a fully diluted basis of 37.6 million shares. NBC’s 6.4 million shares represent 16.8 percent ownership and GE’s 6 million common stock purchase warrants represent 15.7 percent.

Secondly, the stars of several of NBCU’s cable show have home shopping lines, including: Tori Spelling, who is in Oxygen’s “Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood,” on HSN; Rachel Zoe, from Bravo’s “The Rachel Zoe Report,” on QVC; Isaac Mizrahi, who hosts Bravo’s “The Fashion Show,” on QVC; Padma Lakshmi, from Bravo’s “Top Chef,” on HSN; and Ramona Singer from Bravo's "The Real Housewives of New York City." on HSN.

The party gift was a DVD of the third season of NBC’s “30 Rock,” appropriately.

White Collar promotional poster

The pilot episode of White Collar was most definitely slick and smart, as well as charming, as Matt Bormer will charm the pants off anyone he meets as his suave alter ego Neal Caffrey.

This show most definitely fits in the USA Network’s slew of shows, which include Burn Notice and Royal Pains. It has good pacing and interesting chemistry between Matt Bormer and Tim DeKay, something that isn’t easy to fake. They work well on the screen, there is no denying this.

Basically, Dekay’s Burke is a white collar specialist who put Bormer’s Caffrey away a few years ago. In order to reduce his sentence a bit further, after having escaped a super max jail, Caffrey offers to help Burke to catch the illusive Dutchman, a criminal that Burke has also been chasing for a few years. This setup kind of reminds me of Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can as well as The Sting with Redford and Newman.

What’s also interesting, is that the guys don’t just keep this professional. They also involve their personal lives. Burke needs help to make his hot wife Elizabeth, played by Tiffani Thiessen, happy while Caffrey is searching for his wife that just vanished. All in all, a great show with good actors. I recommend it.

Warning: spoilers ahead

* * * * *

The big revelation in this episode is that the man who is holding Kate prisoner is from the FBI. At least that’s what the Interpol agent told Neal. Well, I didn’t expect to find out who the man from the FBI was, but we do. It’s pretty surprising. I wonder what will happen next. Also, this gives the show a bit of a shelf life. Why? Well if Peter is the bad dude, then he can’t be in the FBI for long now, can he?

* * * * *

Burke and Neal go to their next case. The manager at a clothing store thinks that a necklace was stolen. This necklace has the world’s biggest pink diamond on it. It’s 42 carats. The store is filled with gorgeous models posing as mannequins. She shows them footage. The diamond was stored in their vault for 10 hours. The surveillance footage shows a masked man going toward the safe and covering the camera. The necklace that they have has a pink synthetic diamond.

Neal and a model have some chemistry. It annoys everyone.

They arrive back at the office and find OPR guys there. The Office of Professional Responsibility is like IA for the cops. Hughes wants to see Burke. Fowler is waiting for him. Fowler says that 6 hours of location data from Caffrey’s ankle bracelet is missing. He suspects Caffrey of being behind the theft.

Caffrey leads Burke to Twolane, a famous cat burglar. They don’t get anything.

Moz checked out the FBI people. He didn’t turn up anything. Fowler’s file from the OPR is sealed. The next day, Burke has to arrest Caffrey. They found Neal’s signature on the fake diamond necklace.

Neal says that he was framed. Moz is Neal’s lawyer. He arrives at the prison. It looks like this was part of Neal’s plan. Moz requests all of the files pertaining to Caffrey. The judge ordered the FBI to comply, as per discovery rules. Neal wants to buy a bakery near the judge’s chambers. Neal finds out that the OPR has been monitoring them by some bugs. While in the chamber to make a statement, Caffrey gets out by jumping out of the window onto the awning of his new bakery. He easily gets away. Neal calls Elizabeth. He calls the phone of one of her work associates. Neal shows up in Peter’s kitchen. Neal wants 1 minute to explain. He shows Peter the logs. There was a bug on his phone. Neal says that Fowler is dirty. Fowler is using Peter to get to Neal. Fowler places the signature on the necklace. Neal tells Peter that he’s trying to find Kate. Kate is being held by someone. Interpol told him that someone from the FBI is holding him. Neal thinks it’s Fowler. They need to investigate him. In order to do so, they need to clear Neal first.

Back at the office, the OPR is trying to follow Burke. Burke wants to meet Neal at the jewelry store. They find out how the thief got out. It leads them to an old Prohibition tunnel. The exit is covered by CCTV. It’s Twolane.

Burke arrests him. Fowler arrives huffing and puffing around. They’ve recovered the diamond necklace. Twolane says that he was hired.

The OPR guys leave. Caffrey was cleared. Caffrey is celebrating with Burke. Kate calls Caffrey at the FBI. She says that he’s close to him. She says that he can’t trust anyone.

He tells Moz. Moz tells him about a hotel room that Fowler has been using. It’s not for an op. Neal arrives there and finds a bunch of OPR agents. He doesn’t find Kate. They aren’t surveilling Neal, they are looking at Burke.

We see Burke sitting in a chair. He’s wearing the ring. Kate arrives. He says that they need to talk about Neal.

* * * * *

Relevant Posts and Links

• White Collar @ Wikipedia
• White Collar S01E01
• White Collar S01E02
• White Collar S01E03
• White Collar S01E04
• White Collar S01E05
• White Collar S01E06

I can’t believe that this Friday at 9p.m. on USA was the last ever episode of one of my Favorite shows to ever grace TV, Mr. Monk! In the finale Monk finally solved his show-long crime, the murder of his wife Trudy, and it was amazing! I will truly miss the touching, wonderful show that I waited for every week to come on, it has been a pleasure these last few years, but just let me know when the complete series comes out on DVD!

A sweet parting gift, Monk got the record high numbers for Mr. Monk and the End Part 2 with more than 9.4 million people watching! That’s the highest number of viewers for an hour long cable drama ever!
Good-bye Mr. Monk! Congratulations on a good run, and see you at the Emmy’s next year, clean up won’t you! : P You’ll always be with me in spirit, cuz of my delish bobblehead doll! You are the only one who understands/loves me!

Peter Daboll wants you to have a little fun, or at least stay engaged when you visit your favorite brands online. He is the CEO of Bunchball, an organization that creates interactive experiences for the likes of NBC, USA, and SyFy. Including aspects of gaming and social networks as well as linking to user’s social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter; their closed environment allows them to not only create the experience, but also to track how engaged the end-user is with the brand. They power the the interactivity behind NBC’s The Office (dundermifflininfinity.com) and USA’s Character Arcade.

I had the good fortune of sitting down with Peter Daboll this Fall in Santa Monica at Digital Hollywood to talk a little bit about Bunchball. Here is that conversation:

With all the ‘bull’ being raised at the CRTC hearings in the National Capital District it amazes me that nobody has glommed onto the obvious. The great television networks of North America are a dying breed. CTV and Global are wasting their time and ours by arguing for a future that doesn’t exist. In fact if you read between the lines, subscription fees are another way of saying “we want to be a cable service.”

The greedy part of what they are doing is that they are attempting to keep all the perks of over-the-airways channels: must-carriage, simulcasting, the best spots on the dial, while charging the same sort of fees that TSN, Slice or W charge.

The real truth is that they cannot win these new fees without offering something huge in return. The most obvious is to promise greater amounts of Canadian content. It will be the CRTC’s job to make sure that the content they offer is in the form of drama, comedy and documentary production. The nets would far prefer to offer cheaper reality TV. The nets will offer the Canadian programs in dead zones like opposite hockey, Friday nights, outside prime time. It will be the CRTC’s job to get guarantees for a percentage of prime time and while I’m at it, an assurance that Canadian shows will have the same sort of promotion budgets that the big U.S. shows get.

I’m not holding my breath. The CRTC is toothless in dealing with the networks. Global seldom if ever lives up to its license guarantees. CTV uses every trick to shortchange Canadian production. The CRTC has always been silent on any transgression.

The bread and butter of CTV and Global is the big U.S. blockbuster series. That’s where they get their audience. That’s where they make their money. The U.S. shows are way cheaper to buy than spending $2 million and more per episode on Canadian drama. And here’s the rub: the U.S. networks are in as bad shape as CTV and Global.

Many American media experts point to two events in the past year as forewarning the end of the network era. First came Jay Leno’s new prime time talk show. It basically said NBC doesn’t have the money to produce three hours of prime time every weekday. More recently Oprah’s announcement that she is walking away from her hugely successful show that runs on network television. Everyone knows she will reappear on her own cable station that’s about to be picked up by cable and satellite companies in the U.S.

The writing is on the wall. NBC is trying to sell itself to Comcast, the biggest U.S. cable operator. What’s fascinating about this sale is that it’s General Electric’s cable channels: Bravo, USA, MSNBC, SyFy and CNBC, not NBC are what Comcast wants, not the fourth place broadcast network.

The experts agree that broadcast TV that relies on advertising may be a broken model. In a recent article in the U.S. Tim Arango and Bill Carter looked at the future of broadcast networks:

“The business model of the big three networks — which became four when Fox began prime-time programming in 1987 — has for decades relied on a simple formula: spend millions on original programming that will attract advertiser dollars and later live on as lucrative reruns in syndication.
But ratings are going down. In the 1952-53 television season, more than 30 percent of American households that owned televisions tuned in to NBC during prime time, according to Nielsen. In the 2007-8 season, that figure was just 5.2 percent.
The mass audience — the bread and butter of broadcast networks — has splintered into niches as viewers flock to alternative entertainment choices on the Internet, to video games and to cable channels dedicated to individual tastes, like Ms. Winfrey’s forthcoming OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network.
And yet, programming remains expensive — a network drama costs about $3 million for one hour — and advertisers are becoming reluctant to pay ever-rising premiums for prime-time shows. All the networks have tried to adjust, putting on more reality programming, for example, that is cheaper to produce.
NBC made perhaps the biggest bet of all — moving Jay Leno to prime time each night at 10, saving the millions it would have cost to develop a scripted show in that time spot. The Leno move has been the subject of intense scrutiny by the media, because Mr. Leno’s ratings have lately fallen on several nights well below even the modest guarantees NBC made to advertisers.
While networks have found it difficult to charge ever-higher advertising rates in the face of declining ratings, big cable channels — like USA, TNT and TBS — have flourished with the millions of dollars in subscription fees from cable operators that they receive, on top of advertising.
“The cable players have a robust affiliate fee stream that allows them to better finance original programming,” said Anthony DiClemente, a media analyst at Barclays Capital. “The main structural issue right now with broadcast is that the vast majority of revenues are from advertising.”
Profit margins for cable networks are also much better than broadcast networks’. Derek Baine, a senior analyst at SNL Kagan, said big cable networks earned profit margins of 40 to 60 percent, while a good year for a broadcast network is a 10 percent profit margin.
Illustrative of this is a comparison of NBC to ESPN, one of the most popular cable channels. Last year, revenue for the two networks was roughly equal. NBC, according to SNL Kagan, generated about $5.6 billion in advertising dollars; ESPN generated a total of about $6 billion in revenue — $1.6 billion from advertising and $4.4 billion in subscriber fees. But ESPN was vastly more profitable. Its cash flow was about $1.4 billion, while NBC’s was $304 million.”

What does this mean for CTV and Global? It means the shows they have depended on to survive, the ones they want even better access to, may soon cease to exist. How long can a dying industry continue to produce $3 million episodes that get smaller and smaller audiences? Not long. Global without House and NCIS is dead. CTV without the CSI’s and Grey’s Anatomy is likewise in big trouble.

So, instead of looking at ways to save the dinosaurs shouldn’t the huge brains at CTV, Global and the CRTC be planning for a very different future? A future where all TV is either by subscription or pay-per-view. A future that includes on-demand TV and television via the internet and cell phone. If these guys are so smart why can’t they see what’s happening before their eyes right now? The stupidity of the Aspers, Fecans and von Finckensteins is frightening to me. How about you?

Monk: Mr. Monk Goes Camping

White Collar: Book of Hours

Hace algunos días anunciamos los regresos de varias series de la cadena USA Network, pero en las ultimas horas sus ejecutivos nos sorprendieron al realizar grandes cambios en los días y fechas de estreno de Burn Notice, Psych y White Collar.

A pesar de los anuncios iniciales, finalmente la cadena decidió cambiar totalmente su estrategia y estirar su programación original lo más posible al presentar sus tres series más importantes en tres noches diferentes.

Según lo informado, White Collar regresará con nuevos episodios el martes 19 de enero, Psych realizará lo mismo todos los miércoles desde el 27 de enero y finalmente Burn Notice regresará con su tercera temporada el jueves 21 de enero.

Sin dudas estas son grandes sorpresas, especialmente Psych que dejará su histórico horario de los viernes por un lugar mucho más competitivo en la mitad de la semana después del esperado final de Monk.

Por su parte, White Collar deberá enfrentarse solo al mundo, ya que muchos esperábamos que USA decidiera acompañarlo con Burn Notice, la serie más exitosa de la cadena y una de las más exitosas del cable.

Para terminar, será interesante ver como USA compite con su cadena hermana NBC ya que estas series se enfrentarán directamente con ese experimento que todos conocemos como The Jay Leno Show.

White Collar promotional poster

The pilot episode of White Collar was most definitely slick and smart, as well as charming, as Matt Bormer will charm the pants off anyone he meets as his suave alter ego Neal Caffrey.

This show most definitely fits in the USA Network’s slew of shows, which include Burn Notice and Royal Pains. It has good pacing and interesting chemistry between Matt Bormer and Tim DeKay, something that isn’t easy to fake. They work well on the screen, there is no denying this.

Basically, Dekay’s Burke is a white collar specialist who put Bormer’s Caffrey away a few years ago. In order to reduce his sentence a bit further, after having escaped a super max jail, Caffrey offers to help Burke to catch the illusive Dutchman, a criminal that Burke has also been chasing for a few years. This setup kind of reminds me of Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can as well as The Sting with Redford and Newman.

What’s also interesting, is that the guys don’t just keep this professional. They also involve their personal lives. Burke needs help to make his hot wife Elizabeth, played by Tiffani Thiessen, happy while Caffrey is searching for his wife that just vanished. All in all, a great show with good actors. I recommend it.

Warning: spoilers ahead

* * * * *

The big revelation in this episode is that the man who is holding Kate prisoner is from the FBI. At least that’s what the Interpol agent told Neal. The cases are interesting, but I’d like them to move forward with why Kate has been taken away. They are drip dropping around with this one, not letting us know much of the situation.

I also find it funny that Liz, Peter’s wife, has 100% confidence in Neal, a known felon. I mean, they haven’t known each other for very long, even though Burke has spent quite a bit of time chasing after Neal.

* * * * *

The FBI is missing an undercover agent. Agent Costa was trying to launder money through Shen. One of Caffrey’s aliases was involved with Shen. They want him to go undercover. They make it known that Holden is in town looking to launder some mula. Caffrey has go to play a poker version of dominoes.

The NYPD raids the game and the gangsters suspect Caffrey. They pull guns on him. The cops arrive and Caffrey has got to get out of there to maintain his cover. Burke didn’t want it to go down this way. Instead of meeting Burke, Neal gets a meeting with Shen again. The hot Asian chick picks him up and takes him to a condo. She takes off his watch. Neal has got a GSM device in the watch. She smashes it. She pulls a gun on Neal. She’s working for Interpol. She called the cops. She knows that Caffrey is posing as Holden. She says that if he helps her, he’ll get Kate. She knows where she is and knows what the man with the ring wants, or so she says.

The next day, Neal turns up. He doesn’t tell Burke about the offer from Interpol. They trace the tip off call to Mai Lin Wong. This is the Interpol girl. It doesn’t lead them to much but Burke records Mai Lin’s escort girl co-workers. Lauren runs Mai Lin’s face and finds out that she’s Interpol.

Liz tells Peter that there is only one reason Neal would keep something like this from him: Kate.

Burke finds Costa. He’s dead. He tells Neal that he knows about his Interpol friend. Burke tells him that it isn’t about Lao’s boss. He doesn’t have any. It’s about funding. If they arrest Lao on Chinese soil, they get more funding from China.

Mai Ling shows up at Neal’s place. She entices him with more info. Neal doesn’t really buy it. On the day of the bust, Mai Ling gives him a new account number, one that the FBI can’t trace. He gives Lao the money from Mai Ling’s account and then plays another hand of dominoes.

The flash drive Mai Ling gave Neal is empty. She phones him later and says that the one with Kate is FBI.

* * * * *

Relevant Posts and Links

• White Collar @ Wikipedia
• White Collar S01E01
• White Collar S01E02
• White Collar S01E03
• White Collar S01E04
• White Collar S01E05

White Collar promotional poster

The pilot episode of White Collar was most definitely slick and smart, as well as charming, as Matt Bormer will charm the pants off anyone he meets as his suave alter ego Neal Caffrey.

This show most definitely fits in the USA Network’s slew of shows, which include Burn Notice and Royal Pains. It has good pacing and interesting chemistry between Matt Bormer and Tim DeKay, something that isn’t easy to fake. They work well on the screen, there is no denying this.

Basically, Dekay’s Burke is a white collar specialist who put Bormer’s Caffrey away a few years ago. In order to reduce his sentence a bit further, after having escaped a super max jail, Caffrey offers to help Burke to catch the illusive Dutchman, a criminal that Burke has also been chasing for a few years. This setup kind of reminds me of Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can as well as The Sting with Redford and Newman.

What’s also interesting, is that the guys don’t just keep this professional. They also involve their personal lives. Burke needs help to make his hot wife Elizabeth, played by Tiffani Thiessen, happy while Caffrey is searching for his wife that just vanished. All in all, a great show with good actors. I recommend it.

Warning: spoilers ahead

The bottle leads Neal and Moz to Grand Central Station. They find a message from Kate telling him to move on.

Burke arrives. A 2-million dollar painting was stolen. The home owner is very young and says that the painting wasn’t insured. When the grandma died, she left the girl the painting and the house. Uncle Gary quickly lawyered up. Neal talks with Gary. He’s involved. He writes Neal a check for the man that was involved. The check is for $10,000 for Gerard Dorset.

Taryn Vanderzahn, a buyer from a gallery, convinced Dorset to meet with a “buyer”, namely Neal. Taryn is supremely hot. Her clear eyes bore through men like lasers.

Neal folds up Kate’s note and finds out that she wants to meet him on Friday.

Dorset comes over for the exchange. He spots some of the FBI surveillance. He pulls a gun on Neal and Taryn. He runs with the money and the painting. Burke has Neal and Taryn arrested.

It turns out that the painting was stolen from a museum in ’67. Julianna is brought in. Neal says that she’s a bad liar. Her grandma stole the painting. She took it because the grandmother was the little girl in the painting.

Dorset mentioned a girl named Brigitte who arrived from France yesterday. With Neal on the job, he finds Brigitte easy enough. Brigitte and her friend invite Neal and Peter up to their suite for a little party. Neal finds the painting easy enough. He takes it.

They lose Dorset and the painting. Dorset phones Neal. He wants the painting back. Dorset threatens Taryn. Neal talks it over with Moz. Neal decides to come clean to Burke.

Neal is whipping up a fake painting. It’s pretty good and Dorset is caught when Neal hands over the painting.

It turns out that Haustenburg was Julianna’s father. He willed the painting to her grandmother, but the museum chose to ignore the will. Neal left a little message for the curator on the fake painting to make sure that he accepted the fake.

At the meeting, he talks with Kate on the phone. He sees her in the distance. She says that the man who took her wants something that he hid. He wants all of Neal’s stashes. Only then will he let her return.

* * * * *

Relevant Posts and Links

• White Collar @ Wikipedia
• White Collar S01E01
• White Collar S01E02
• White Collar S01E03
• White Collar S01E04

White Collar promotional poster

The pilot episode of White Collar was most definitely slick and smart, as well as charming, as Matt Bormer will charm the pants off anyone he meets as his suave alter ego Neal Caffrey.

This show most definitely fits in the USA Network’s slew of shows, which include Burn Notice and Royal Pains. It has good pacing and interesting chemistry between Matt Bormer and Tim DeKay, something that isn’t easy to fake. They work well on the screen, there is no denying this.

Basically, Dekay’s Burke is a white collar specialist who put Bormer’s Caffrey away a few years ago. In order to reduce his sentence a bit further, after having escaped a super max jail, Caffrey offers to help Burke to catch the illusive Dutchman, a criminal that Burke has also been chasing for a few years. This setup kind of reminds me of Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can as well as The Sting with Redford and Newman.

What’s also interesting, is that the guys don’t just keep this professional. They also involve their personal lives. Burke needs help to make his hot wife Elizabeth, played by Tiffani Thiessen, happy while Caffrey is searching for his wife that just vanished. All in all, a great show with good actors. I recommend it.

Warning: spoilers ahead

Liz shows up at the office with her friend Dana. She says that the FBI issued a warrant for her husband’s arrest a month after he was discharged. He’s on the run. He was involved with some Iraqi missing gold artifacts. He’s going to be turning himself into Burke. He says that someone working for the State Department asked him to bring over some gold. He refused. His name is Patrick Ames.

Burke questions Ames. He doesn’t say much and Peter sees the telltale burns on the arms that Neal mentioned he would find on the bodyguard. Burke wants to reexamine all of the gold.

All of the prints on the gold are left-handed, which is improbable. Neal deduces that Mitchell was having drinks with whoever lifted his prints. When Burke asks Dana, who’s staying with him, she starts to cry. Liz sends him away. Dana says that they had a fight because of John went out for drinks with him. It was a journalist of some kind. She was embedded with John’s unit. He also lost his cap that night. Burke finds out that she’s Alisha Teagan.

Neal and Peter go to interview Alisha. When the security guard informs Alisha about the FBI, she gets really worried. Neal gets himself into the studio pretty easily. Alisha tries to avoid meeting Burke. Caffrey pretends that he’s the new sports anchor. The coffee and donuts he brought work well. Neal follows Alisha to her desk where she stashes some papers before going out to see Burke. While Burke is questioning her, Caffrey goes to her desk. He photocopies the info. It’s a pawn shop ticket. Burke doesn’t want to know about it. Peter gets Moz on the case.

While looking at the bottle, Neal figures out that X marks the spot on the Bordeau bottle. Moz is coming over with his little treasure. Burke comes over with some beer. Burke looks at the coin that Moz brought over. It’s an old dinar. This means that Alisha is guilty and involved. Caffrey goes to the station and pretends that he’s got a story for her. He shows her the coin.

Alisha goes to Burke. She confesses. She was the mule. She says that it’s all on Ames. She says that she doesn’t know where the gold is.

Burke wants her to smoke out Ames. She tells him that the FBI is getting close and that the case against Mitchell is falling apart. She has a private buyer. Neal poses as one. Things go south because of Alisha. Ames tries to do a runner, but Burke is after him. The gold was always hiding in plain sight. Moz helps out by driving over Ames.

* * * * *

Relevant Posts and Links

• White Collar @ Wikipedia
• White Collar S01E01
• White Collar S01E02
• White Collar S01E03

White Collar promotional poster

The pilot episode of White Collar was most definitely slick and smart, as well as charming, as Matt Bormer will charm the pants off anyone he meets as his suave alter ego Neal Caffrey.

This show most definitely fits in the USA Network’s slew of shows, which include Burn Notice and Royal Pains. It has good pacing and interesting chemistry between Matt Bormer and Tim DeKay, something that isn’t easy to fake. They work well on the screen, there is no denying this.

Basically, Dekay’s Burke is a white collar specialist who put Bormer’s Caffrey away a few years ago. In order to reduce his sentence a bit further, after having escaped a super max jail, Caffrey offers to help Burke to catch the illusive Dutchman, a criminal that Burke has also been chasing for a few years. This setup kind of reminds me of Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can as well as The Sting with Redford and Newman.

What’s also interesting, is that the guys don’t just keep this professional. They also involve their personal lives. Burke needs help to make his hot wife Elizabeth, played by Tiffani Thiessen, happy while Caffrey is searching for his wife that just vanished. All in all, a great show with good actors. I recommend it.

Warning: spoilers ahead

The team gets contacted by some mob guys. He says that the bible was stolen from his church. He wants Burke to investigate. It’s 500 years old. Burke gets him to shut down his bookmaking operation in a restaurant.

Moz and Neal are trying to figure out the clue hidden in the bottle that Kate left for him. He gets called by Burke. The bible is known as the Healing Bible from Naples. Moz and Neal think that the bible was stolen because of its miraculous properties.

The father says that he let a homeless man sleep in the sanctuary. That night, the bible was stolen. The father says that someone close to the homeless man is sick. Steve says that someone asked him to take the bible from the church. He says that he can ID the man, but he sounds a bit loopy.

Steve is a vet from Iraq. He found his dog Lucy there. She’s sick. That’s why he took the bible.

Berelli’s nephew just got shot. He’s the one who asked Steve to get the bible. He’s Berelli’s #2. Burke finds out that Ruiz is running organized crime. He gets kicked off the scene by Ruiz. Ruiz doesn’t want to share any intel because of Caffrey. Burke tells Caffrey to do his magic to get some intel. Caffrey gets Moz to impersonate an FBI agent to get into the nephew’s place. He lets Caffrey in through the back. Paul was researching medieval history. He had an appointment with a medieval art scholar named Maria Fiametta. She wrote about the black art markets. They meet her and she says that the bible is not a bible, but a Book of Hours. She denies knowing Paul and hits on Neal.

Burke tells Caffrey that Maria was lying about Paul. They think that she’s got the bible. She also knew who Neal was, a master forger. Burke wants to float it around that Caffrey is back in the game. Elizabeth suggests that Neal asks her out. They get a warrant and plant a bug in her place. She brings Neal back to her place and notices something amiss immediately. A vase was moved. The bug was planted in the vase. She’s on edge. She checks her security footage and sees what went on in her place. Neal also notices something amiss and drops the bug in her wine. He offers to fence it for her for $250K.

Ruiz finds out that the prof paid off Paul with $10K.

Neal has to pretend to go with her and cut his ankle bracelet. They leave in a red SL55 AMG. When they go to do the exchange, she pulls a gun on him. She killed Paul. She shoots him. He uses the bible as a vest.

Neal hands off the bible to some FBI guy. That FBI guy is Moz. He was only giving it to Steve. Berelli offers to help Steve with Lucy.

Kate drew a map of the NYC subway on the bottle with lemon juice. It is revealed when Neal has the bottle next to a candle.

* * * * *

Relevant Posts and Links

• White Collar @ Wikipedia
• White Collar S01E01
• White Collar S01E02

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mythbusters: Dumpster Diving
Dumpster Diving, The Squeeze

Monk: Mr. Monk and Sharona, Mr. Monk and the Dog

Bueno al parecer seguiremos disfrutando de los consejos de un espía de Miami ya que el Variety dice que el canal USA network ha renovado la serie de “Burn Notice” para una cuarta temporada.

La serie ahorita se encuentra pausada, con tan solo nueve episodios de la tercera temporada que se comenzaron a transmitir este verano (en México creo que se acaba de estrenar la semana pasada), y los siguientes siete capítulos se estrenarán en enero. No se sabe cuantos episodios se pidieron pero la temporada de Burn Notice generalemente tiene 15 o 16 capítulos por temporada.

No han dicho cuando comenzarán a filmar la nueva temporada ni cuando será su fecha tentativa de estreno en la tele.

USA continúa renovando, luego de que ayer les anunciásemos que Psych volvería para una quinta temporada, se ha confirmado oficialmente que el drama de espionaje ambientado en Miami Burn Notice, también volverá a las pantallas el año próximo.

A pesar de que los rumores acerca de la renovación del show para una cuarta temporada habían estado circulando desde hace meses, el trato no fue hecho oficial hasta el día de ayer.  Protagonizado por Jeffrey Donovan, Gabriel Anwar y Bruce Campbell entre otros, el show narra la historia de Michael Westen, un espía que es puesto en la lista negra y forzado a residir en la ciudad de Miami.

Allí intenta ganarse la vida usando sus talentos para realizar todo tipo de trabajos que van desde ladrón hasta detective privado. En medio de ello deberá lidiar con su conflictiva madre, su inestable ex-novia y muchas otras situaciones que siempre están listas para salirse de control más rápido de lo que parece posible.

La cuarta temporada de Burn Notice se estrena en el 2010.

El canal USA network se sigue manteniendo al día con uno de sus shows más populares para otro rato. Según lo informado por el Hollywood Reporter, este canal acaba de renovar la serie de “Psych” para que siga con una quinta temporada.

La cadena le mandó un memo donde le piden que haga otros 16 capítulos que protagonizan James Roday y Dule Hill. La serie se había puesto en pausa y en enero se volverá a transmitir la segunda parte de la cuarta temporada. Estos nuevos episodios saldrán por primera vez sin estar bajo la sombra de Monk ya que esta serie se terminará por el mes de Diciembre.

Se había comentado de que Psych regresaría con episodios nuevos el 29 de enero, pero todavía no se confirma esta fecha en la cadena de televisión. La quinta temporada comenzará en alguna parte del verano del siguiente año.

Se ha confirmado que la comedia policial de USA, Psych, regresará para una quinta temporada de 16 episodios.

Protagonizado por James Roday y Dulee Hill, el show se centra en Shawn Spencer (Roday), un consultor para el departamento de policía de Santa Barbara, quien gracias a sus enormes habilidades detectivescas y de observación es capaz de convencer a sus superiores de que posee poderes psíquicos los cuales usa para resolver crímenes.

No soy seguidor del show, pero lo considero una de las producciones más originales y entretenidas de los últimos años por lo que me alegra mucho que regrese a seguir entreteniendo a su público un año más. Fanáticos de Pysch, Felicitaciones

La quinta temporada de Psych comenzará a emitirse en algún momento del 2010.

White Collar – USA Network – 10:00/9:00pm Friday – USA / Channel 10 – 9:30pm Wednesday – AUS

Starting on Channel 10 tonight is the new USA Network series White Collar. USA is a network made famous by light, forgettable fluff like Monk, Psych and Burn Notice. Predictably enough White Collar takes the heist genre and makes it as light and fluffy as possible. We follow the adventures of too handsome to be a real criminal Neal Caffrey, and standard issue FBI agent Peter Burke as they team up to track down international fraudsters.

There are only so many stories that exist in this world and you often wonder why a show can’t take a familiar premise and deviate even slightly from the set path. Why does Neal Caffrey have to be the greatest con artist of all time? Why can’t he be like in the top thirty or something? Why does Peter Burke have to be ‘the only guy who’s ever caught Caffrey? Why can’t he be one of fourteen guys to have ever caught a crook who’s only kind of okay at what he does?

The pilot opens with Neal Caffrey employing the greatest technique in the con artist handbook: the right shirt. Apparently the key to a great con is finding the appropriate attire for any given situation. The first scene finds him dressing as a prison guard and walking out of the prison with no hassles whatsoever. This is followed up by Caffrey acquiring a yellow jacket that is conveniently similar to the yellow jackets the parking attendants wear at the airport, where Caffrey uses this magical jacket to steal a car.

When word gets out that Caffrey has escaped Burke gets to utter lines like “We’re not going to catch Caffrey using roadblocks and wanted posters.” He doesn’t actually suggest how they can catch Caffrey, he just knows that wanted posters aren’t going to do the trick. It turns out though that Caffrey didn’t escape to commit one last big score; he just escaped to go see his ex-girlfriend who’s run away.

In predictable USA Network fashion we find out that Caffrey doesn’t like guns because he’s the nicest criminal ever. Burke then recruits Caffrey to help him solve a big ol’ mystery so the pair of them can spit buddy cop dialogue back and forth at each other for the rest of the series. These former rivals are going to work together?! Crazy! A gruff cop and a carefree criminal? How will they ever get along? Here’s another thing: why can’t we ever just have a gruff criminal and a carefree cop?

Tim DeKay and Matt Bomer make for passable leads. DeKay looks like every cliched FBI agent that’s ever existed on television, while Bomer isn’t so much a charming rogue as a smug douche. Caffrey may pass as a pretty boy actor, but he’s no criminal. George Clooney would have nailed that character, oh and he did, in all three Ocean’s movies.

Tiffani Thiessen even shows up as Burke’s wife. As his wife? Really? Shouldn’t she and Zack be skipping class only to be caught out by Screech who accidentally reveals it to Mr. Belding before they all learn an important lesson about friendship and responsibility?

Tiffani gets to run through the motions of being a TV wife. She gets to support her husband at whatever taxing career he may have, and gets to worry about him when he doesn’t get home on time. Which brings me to why I think White Collar fails as light entertainment; it is okay for a show to be so fluffy that it almost floats but there was so little to care about that I started openly wondering things like:

“Why do wives on TV always just leave food on the table so it can go cold, rather than just serve it when their husband gets home? She knows her husband’s an FBI agent. She can’t exactly be surprised when he has to work late on a case. And another thing, why are they always so disappointed when their husbands inevitably make the call that they’ll be late? Do they really think the meal is wasted? Do they not own microwaves?”

Any show that leaves you enough to time to ponder those sort of questions is not exactly grabbing your attention. White Collar opens the season with a movie length premiere, which I hate because they’re always so damn “movie length.” This show would have dragged after forty minutes, but extending it out any further turns it into a real snooze fest.

White Collar is a fine show, but it’s a predictable one that you’ve seen before. Like Psych, Monk, Burn Notice and everything else on USA it’s nice enough but it’s not exactly the sort of show that gets you excited about tuning in. I was going to rate it ‘Alright’ and call it ‘nothing special’ but after writing this review out in full I think that simply because it didn’t try in the slightest to be anything more than mediocre I can only award White Collar a ‘Bad’.

Good, Alright, Bad Or Ugly?
Bad

Top Chef: Culinary Olympics

How I Met Your Mother: Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap

The Venture Brothers: Self Medication

The Big Bang Theory: The Vengeance Formulation

Castle: Love Me Dead

White Collar: Threads

Omg, do you watch White Collar? It’s a new white-collar crime thriller-dramedy on the USA Network. The show’s about Neil Caffrey (played by Matt Bomer) who was once a white-collar criminal and who now secretly works for the FBI. He helps them solve high-end crime and stuff.

Blah Blah Blah. All that really matters is that the lead character is amahzing. Like…scorching hot. Plus, he’s a big-ole gay!

When I saw advertisements for White Collar in the subway I nearly passed out. And when the show’s actually on, I couldn’t care less about who got murdered/what got stolen, etc. I’m looking at Matt Bomer. Because, um, that’s what the show is really about. I’m sure the execs over at USA were all, “Put this dude in a show and everybody will watch it.” Yup. It’s funny how desperate TV studios can get for viewers. Look at how they even made the show’s logo match Bomer’s crisp blue eyes. Aww.