The Idiot Box 101

Heroes: Are You Kidding Me, Tim Kring?



( save the world, save the ...world )

Heroes airs on Mondays at 9 PM on NBC (check your local listings). 

Have a wacky prediction for what will happen this upcoming week?  Post it here!  Internet points to whoever gets closest to what happens in the actual episode!

-Rachel Frazier, Idiot Box 101

Bones: Romantic Comedy with a Dash of Murder



( king of the lab )

-Rachel Frazier, Idiot Box 101

Why Criminal Minds is Actually the Best Cop Show in Town (But No One's Watching)



( you kick like a nine year old girl )

Criminal Minds is on Wednesdays at 9 PM on CBS (check your local listings).

-Rachel Frazier, Idiot Box 101

Supernatural



( the family business... )
Supernatural airs on Thursdays at 9 PM on the CW (check your local listings).

-Rachel Frazier, Idiot Box 101

The Emmys: Recap and Rant



( 10 Shows/Actors That Deserve Emmys... )
-Rachel Frazier, Idiot Box 101

A Quick Guide to TV Online

If you're like me, then there are way too many shows for you to physically watch them during their actual timeslots.  So what do you do when you've got four shows all starting at 8 pm on Monday, and you've only got one you?

I guess the first step is to figure out which one you're actually going to watch.  Once you've done that, you decide if you really, really want to keep up with the other ones, or if you can wait for the DVD.  If you're still like me, and want to know what happens every week, then this is what you do.  You go online.

Now, I'm not suggesting that people start downloading all their shows or anything—that's copyright infringement, and that's bad.  I am saying, though, that there are lots of legal ways to watch your favorite shows online. 

1.Check the network's website.  A lot of networks these days are hosting full episodes online for anyone who missed them.  This is perfectly legal, and takes up no hard drive space.  You stream the episodes right on your computer.  Granted, these usually come with ads, but it's worth it.
2.Check a meta-site, like sidereel.com or alluc.org.  Sites like these archive links to online streaming content.  They will be able to tell you if the network has archived the show somewhere off of their main site.
3.Check iTunes and Amazon.  Both of these sites sell episodes of most major television shows for a reasonable price.  You download the purchased episode onto your computer and watch it there.

As far as legal ways to find things online go, these are the best.  From these basic areas, you can branch out and find even the most obscure shows, streaming into your computer at a time convenient to you!

-Rachel Frazier, Idiot Box 101

Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog



( all the birds are singing that you're gonna die... )

Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog can be seen on www.drhorrible.com or downloaded on iTunes.

-Rachel Frazier, Idiot Box 101

House MD





House MD airs on Tuesdays at 8 pm on FOX (channel 33).

-Rachel Frazier, Idiot Box 101

Fringe



( massive dynamics... )

Fringe airs Tuesdays at 9 pm on FOX (channel 33).

-Rachel Frazier, Idiot Box 101

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles


( Everything's fine now... )
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles airs at 8 pm on Mondays on FOX.

-Rachel Frazier, Idiot Box 101

sorry for the super long absence!  here's some Gossip Girl to soften you up!

Gossip Girl

 

( xoxo, Gossip Girl )

Gossip Girl airs at 8 pm on Mondays on the CW.

-Rachel Frazier, Idiot Box 101

yeah, about the not updating last week...my bad.

on a better note, fresh soup for you!  have a season review of buffy the vampire slayer, season one, a season of cheese and tight skirts.  those were the days.  the days before sarah michelle gellar became anorexic and lost her boobs.  which was sad.

Season Review:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season One




-Rachel Frazier, The Idiot Box 101

sorry that this is late (again!).  hope everyone had a good thanksgiving.  just as a warning, this is half-digested stuff from a class I'm taking--but the television references are good.  I promise to try to have something new and exciting up for next week.

Heroes meets Nietzsche, Sylar meets Mohinder





-Rachel Frazier, The Idiot Box 101

[sorry that this is kinda late...]

M*A*S*H




-Rachel Frazier, The Idiot Box 101

[for the record, this article does not take into consideration any of the new characters from season 4 of House, since I don't really think that they have much character development yet.  and I really like Chase.]
The Idiot Box 101- “Daddy Issues”





-Rachel Frazier, The Idiot Box 101

okay, today's is a bit mondo big, but I had bit too much fun writing about Pushing Daisies, and really, who can blame me?  there's another picture behind the cut too.




Rachel Frazier, the Idiot Box 101

this is part one of a two part article--this covers all of season one of Doctor Who and Mickey Smith's contributions therein.  yay!  while I doubt that I will post the second part next week, since I have committed to a Pushing Daisies article.  still--soon, I swear.


The Idiot Box 101

Mickey the Idiot: The Glory of Ordinary Men (Doctor Who)



to be continued...

-Rachel Frazier, The Idiot Box 101

I'm trying out a new format now for the site: instead of doing a season a week, I'll pretty much just write about a television phenomenon that makes me happy.

so here's this week:



An Ode to Vain TV

In case you've been living in a horrid little cave the past few years, a horrid little cave without cable, there's this thing called reality television.  Now, by and large, I am not a fan,  but there is something compelling about some of these shows, something special  that suggests that they strive to be more than just schlock, something--

Oh who am I kidding?  They're just plain fun!

Here are the latest contenders for the Vain TV Award:

A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila (VH1)

I admit it.  I have sat through an entire episode of this show, and I enjoyed it.  The whole point of the show is that Tila Tequila, an exceptionally hot bisexual chick who's giving 16 guys and 16 girls a "shot at love."

Tell me you don't love that double entendre.

Here is what I give it actual props for: head on addressing bisexuality and homosexuality as everyday dating issues, and not promising marriage and eternal committment but rather a chance at all that.  It mostly promises sex and a jolly good time.

Here is what I actually watch the show for: seriously?  It's a bunch of lesbians and straight men competing for a bisexual woman.  It's kinda hysterical.

America's Next Top Model (CW)

This show is practically the reigning queen of Vain TV.  Tyra Banks?  Twiggy?  Janice Dickinson?  Scores of impressionable wanna-be models clawing each others' eyes out for a chance to even get into the room with a fashion photographer?  Glorious.

To be fair, this show has convinced me that modeling is difficult and that it takes a lot of talent and hard work to succeed.  But it's also taught me that models really are catty and shallow and it makes me happy to watch.  There are catfights, runway disasters, bulimia jokes, "oh no she didn't"s, catfights, drag queen spectaculars (Miss J. Alexander comes to mind), bad photos, good photos, more catfights, and healthy, honest feminine competition (which means more catfights).

NEXT (MTV)

This show is not a guilty pleasure.  It's a guilty treasure.  It's about pretty people hooking up with each other.  There's one person who wants a date, guy or girl, and there's a bus full of five possible dates.  The dates go in, and they get money for however long they last before the date-r yells "NEXT!"  If the date-r chooses them, they get to pick whether to take the money or a second date.  It's awesome.

I mean, it's still awful and degrading and vain, but it's really REALLY fun to watch these pretty people deflate each others' egos.  The date-rs always have tricks to weed through the dates, and the dates have ways of trying to be as awesome as possible.  It's all posturing and hyperbole, and it's darn fun to see!

The Grand Prize Winner in Vain TV: America's Most Smartest Model (VH1)

Who could hate a show like this?  This is a show of unbridled vanity and stupidity.  The gag?  Ben Stein and his cohost, Mary Alice Not-nearly-as-cool-as-Ben-Stein, have gathered a group of models, male and female, who all think that they are smart.  Yeah.  It's never a good sign when the show itself is grammatically incorrect, and the models have to test their "smartingness".  

They're not great models.  They're slightly retarded.  Some of them are rather unattractive.  They're arrogant.  Theyr'e bitchy (even the guys).  It's made of awesome.  Perhaps the best part of this show, however, is the fact that the show itself mocks the models.  It is a show that is well aware of its own stupidity and the stupidity of its topic.  

Ben Stein has no love for these models.  In fact, he has scorn.  They set themselves up for this.  I'm sorry, but I have no pity for them.  This show revels in its mockery, and I invite you to revel with me.


Rachel Frazier, The Idiot Box 101

last one, I swear!

The Idiot Box 101, Fall TV Premiers 2007, Part Three

THE LATECOMERS:

1.    Cavemen, Tuesday 8:00, ABC

Remember those Cavemen ads for Geico?  They were witty and clever and highly entertaining.  They were also about a minute long.  This show is twenty-nine minutes too long.  Sure, it’s funny, and cute, and the concept really is pretty cool (cavemen live among us, everyone knows about it, and they face a lot of racial discrimination), but aside from stereotypical gags about not dating outside of your species, scaring away annoying neighbors by grunting and threatening them with sticks, etc, this show really doesn’t have much to offer after the first five minutes.  That’s when the novelty wears off and it’s just kind of annoying.

2.    Carpoolers, Tuesday 8:30, ABC

Let’s just get this out of the way first: yes, I know that the characters on this show have seriously retarded names (Marmaduke, Laird, Dougie—seriously, Marmaduke?).  Still, it’s a cute show.  It isn’t hysterically funny, but it’s sweet.  The guys, who all carpool to work every morning and evening, are sweet and funny dudes just trying to navigate their work and family lives.  Nothing revolutionary or spectacular, but lots of chuckles and giggles. 

3.    Pushing Daisies, Wednesday 8:00, ABC

Love.  Love love love love love.  I adore-heart-hug-LOVE this show.  I realize that I should try to be slightly more objective, but I don’t want to be.  I really love this show.  The concept is spectacular (guy touches dead people and they come back to life, he touches them again, they go back to being dead), the acting is really good (Ned is adorable, Chuck brings a sweet pathos to being dead-alive, and Olive is deliciously stalkerish as she pursues Ned), and the absurdly precise voice over just adds the perfect touch.  That, and it’s a show about death that has super-bright colors everywhere.  It’s just made of awesome.

4.    Supernatural, Thursday 9:00, CW

Sometimes you can think that your siblings are kind of dumb.  So, imagine how Sam Winchester feels.  His brother, Dean, has just made a deal with a demon, selling his own soul to bring Sammy back from the dead.  If the brothers try to break the deal in any way, Sam goes back to being dead.  Sam’s not very happy.  On top of all of that, the boys may have inadvertently started the apocalypse.  Oops?  The season promises to be full of hedonism (Dean already lived for the moment—and now he only has a year left to live), mysterious, but sexy, femme fatales, and lots of violence.  I like this show a lot.  I see no bad here.

5.    Moonlight, Friday 9:00, CBS

Okay, so you hear that there’s a show our about a vampire private detective who lives in Los Angeles.  I’m pretty sure that everyone’s first thought was to flash to Angel, the reasonably good spinoff of Buffy that followed her vampire ex-boyfriend as he moved to Los Angeles and became a private detective.  I’m just saying, déjà vu.  As for the actual show, however, it’s pretty good.  Mick is a very modern vampire, pretty up to date with the world, and he has a sweet film noir vibe.  Beth, his pretty blonde love interest is played by the spectacular Sophia Myles, is a perfect blend of the classic damsel in danger, and a brilliant chick with enough guts to run into a scary building, shoot the bad guy, and save the hero.  It may be a carbon copy of a show we’ve already seen, but I’ll watch it again.  It was pretty good the first time too.

6.    Numb3rs, Friday 10:00, CBS

If you’ve ever seen Numb3rs before, then you know how this will go.  The episodes are almost classically formulaic (bad guy does crime, FBI tries to solve crime, math genius uses math in a weird way to solve the case), but if you like it, then you’re good with it.  They know what works, and they stick with that.  There must be something in the air this season, though, because not only do the main characters, brothers Don (FBI agent) and Charlie (math prodigy), have girlfriends, even Charlie’s weird professor friend Larry has a girlfriend.  I’m not saying this is a bad thing—there’s just something in the air.  The math is still baffling, the crimes are still impressive, and the show’s still predictable, but in a good way—like those old Choose Your Own Adventure books.

Rachel Frazier, The Idiot Box 101

[Doctor Who/Torchwood sightings: Caroline Chikezie guest stars on Supernatural in the premier (she was in several episodes of Torchwood).  Also, Sophia Myles costars on Moonlight--she guest starred in season two of Doctor Who (she's also David Tennant's girlfriend).]

TV Premiers 2007, Part Two

1.    How I Met Your Mother, Monday 8:00, CBS

Oh my gosh, how can I describe television’s funniest (best) sitcom?  If you’ve never seen it, the show’s about Ted, a nice enough everyman, who’s desperately searching for The One.  For the first two seasons Ted dated Robin, a Canadian expatriate, but now they’ve broken up, and Ted’s back on the prowl, with the aid of his “wingman” Barney, and the hesitant support of his married roommates, Marshall and Lily.  It’s legendary.  Watch it.  Watch it.  Watch it.

2.    Heroes, Monday 9:00, NBC

I’ve already whibbled to you all about the glorious joy that is Heroes, so I think I’ll just stick to commenting on how season two looks.  There are a bunch of new characters (which is not a good thing for a show that already has thirteen main characters, give or take), but the old characters are still here, and the producers swear that they won’t let their world get too big.  There’s a plague, a new bad guy, romance, and time-travel.  I am more than ready to settle in and let them all save the world.  Again.

3.    NCIS, Tuesday 8:00, CBS

I haven’t seen much of the previous seasons of NCIS, but this one sure starts with a literal bang, and the threat that a beloved character (Tony) has been blown up.  There’s not nearly enough Abby (the goth lab tech who talks to her computers like people) in this episode, and frankly I could take it or leave it, but there’s something worth coming back for, when you get past the tendency towards overdramatic music and plots.  Watch it for Abby and Tony, because they are where the magic is.

4.    House MD, Tuesday 9:00, FOX

By the end of last season, Dr. House had alienated or fired his entire staff his boss, and his one friend, Dr. Wilson, wasn’t feeling all that pleased with him.  House has to hire three new fellows, evade his boss, solve cases, and there’s the slight issue of the ransom notes he keeps finding, threatening his precious electric guitar.  It’s a brilliant start to a fourth season that promises to be absolutely hysterical.

5.    Mythbusters, Wednesday 9:00, Discovery

Okay, so Mythbusters isn’t really a premier, because it doesn’t really have seasons.  It’s pretty much just on all the time.  I still maintain, though, that it is so worth watching.  They take simple accepted myths and try to see if they are true or false.  It’s great fun, because the guys are really just geeks giving a good time.  They blow things up, crash cars, slaughter dummies and do other crazy stuff.  It’s well worth the effort.


Rachel Frazier, The Idiot Box 101