Sunday the 1st

• Modern Family. Finally got around to watching this in an effort to clean out the DVR. Turns out it is FANTASTIC. I laughed out loud at every episode, and got teary-eyed at most. The "Circle of Life" moment in the premiere episode was just perfect - check iTunes to see if you can still download this for free. Well worth it. Start watching so it sticks around a while.


• The State, Season 2. Netflix is hella behind sending me the rest of Dexter Season 3, and so I've ended up with too many episodes of The State to watch back to back. It's still funny, but not needed in large doses.


• Sports. Somehow, I got caught up watching Niners/Colts (loss - DAMN), Packers/Vikings (wanted to see the response to Favre's return - will be curious to read his biography years later and find out what actually happened with his retirement/return), and the World Series. I was rooting for the Phillies, bc rooting for the Yankees isn't all that much fun, but had to give up to Johnny Damon for stealing two bases (and shame on you, Phillies, for letting that happen).
  
• TAR. One of the best episodes of the season - the Globetrotters dance - and a real bummer of an ending. While I didn't much care for the Poker Players, that was a horrible way to have to leave the race. I wonder how hard hitting the bell was? Can you solve that with physics, or just brute strength?


• Mad Men. This season really took off in the last 3-4 episodes. I was struck by how dark and moody the lighting was when Don went upstairs to absorb the fact that Betty was willing to say she didn't love him. Of course, knowing he'd just been having another affair makes it pretty difficult to feel very sympathetic about this. I am also glad the show addressed the Kennnedy assassination - I'd heard internet rumors that they weren't planning to - because I find it even more engaging to watch characters I already know react to a historic event, rather than watching a movie specifically designed to address that event.

Weekend the 23rd-25th

Friday Commute:

• Listened to a slew of Story of the Day podcasts and NOT ONE was about health care! They were great.

Weekend Viewing:

• 30 Rock. This feels like it should've been the premiere - much better than last week. I love the GE tie-ins. Maybe I just have a soft spot for microwave ovens.


• The State - Season 2. From Netflix, and it is about damn time this became available. Terrific sketch comedy, and their exuberance is so much fun to watch.


• Fringe. Caught up on everything else from this season. Still a pretty satisfying series.


• The Simpsons. Also caught up on this season's episodes. The Halloween was a definite middle-of-the-packer, but I did enjoy the kick-punch-choke ultimate fighting league episode.
  
• It's Always Sunny. "The World Series Defense". I laughed out loud when Charlie pushed Dennis in front of the car. Typing that, it really sounds like something I shouldn't have laughed it. But trust me. Hilarious.


• The Amazing Race. I admit, I didn't think the Globetrotters would be able to do the math challenge after the watch debacle. But I don't really blame them for razzing the girl who freaked out at the water slide. One word. RACE.
  
• Mad Men. What a fantastic episode. It was fascinating to watch so many characters lash out at the people who had broken their hearts in such controlled ways.
  
• World Freerun Championships. I turned this on just to see what the hell that meant. And it meant awesome. Parkour! Parkour!

Monday the 12th

Morning and Evening Commute:

• Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me podcast. Mildly entertaining, Ashley Judd was a guest bc she's currently a grad student at Harvard, and that's all I remember. Oh, except I totally missed the "Bluff the Listener" - turns out that a Denver weekly is actually hiring a marijuana critic. No, the outlet is not the Mile High Times. (See, I could totally be a Wait Wait panelist.)

Nighttime viewing:

• HIMYM. Start being funnier, show. I am growing even less tolerant of forced hilarity. I was actually OK with Marshall and Lily's over-the-top terrible hosting, but the ending was ridiculous. Robin and Barney? Too good for that.


• Mad Men. Don is not very likable this season. Not showing many redemptive qualities. It was thrilling to see Roger put him in his place, even though the point he had to make was that the agency has to find a way to keep themselves endeared to their horrible clients. They could take lessons from poor Carla.

Sunday the 4th

Morning Run:

• Yeah, that's right. I went for a run. So Amazon has MP3 daily deals, and I've picked up some interesting stuff there. Recently, I downloaded Enjoy Every Sandwich: The Songs of Warren Zevon. My current favorite tracks are "Ain't That Pretty at All" by Pixies and "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me" by Jackson Browne & Bonnie Raitt.

Laundry viewing:

• The Soup. They made Wendy Williams up, right? That can't be real.

Mid-morning commute:

• Read Revenge of the Spellmans.

Evening commute:

• Polished off 3 Story of the Day podcasts - 2 on healthcare (enough with the healthcare!) and one on a children's orchestral program from Venezuela. Then most of Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me, which had a timely and unwelcome series of anecdotes for the "Bluff the Listener" segment - ridiculous legal stories. The true one was about a brief being tossed out for poor stapling, and the listener got it right because she used to be a paralegal. Yup. I got that one right, too.

Nighttime viewing:

• FINALLY sat down for SYTYCD, and that New Orleans Bounce audition was fantastic. It got me to wondering, what's my favorite audition ever? And one still stands out. Phillip Chbeeb, Season 3 (his first attempt). Now he did not turn out to be one of the best contestants - but what he did was so unusual and yet lyrical that I have never forgotten the feeling I had watching it. An edge of my seat, joyous amazement that made me want to scream "Did you SEE that?!"
  
• SNL. Checking IMDB now to remind me what Ryan Reynolds has been in bc I'm confusing him with... oh. He WAS Van Wilder. Which I didn't even see. He's like Dane Cook without the constant shouting, or Ryan Gosling without the indie cred. Anyway, intro over and I haven't laughed yet. 2 minutes into the Family Feud parody aaaannndddd... I am done. I am deleting this from my scheduled recordings. We are on a break, SNL.
  
• TAR (That's The Amazing Race, to you non-TWOP readers (and that of course is Television Without Pity). I'm not gonna lie - it makes me very, very happy that the loud-mouthed attorney is such a dumbass when it comes to figuring out the Race.
  
• The Office, finishing up "The Promotion". And this one has inspired me to coin a term - it was a meh-pisode.
  
• Mad Men. The Pete & Trudy moments were very well done - they captured that awful wordless exchange, where you go from feeling so optimistically close to someone to realizing things have gone very, very wrong.

D(VR)leted:

• Dollhouse. I just don't care. I had high hopes, because Joss Whedon's Firefly was fantastic, and I like Eliza Dushku - but the overacting in this show is horrendous. I will stare at Google images of Tahmoh Penikett (hhhaaawwwwtttt) rather than sit through this festival of meh.

Insomnia viewing:

• HIMYM, "Little Minnesota". Kaela had told me this is her favorite episode and it took me until the 2nd repeat to catch it. And it was pretty good, but I think my favorite is when Robin sits in as Barney's bro.
  
• It's Always Sunny, "The Nightman Cometh". He's a master of karate, and friendship - for everyone!