Rants and Raves (November 3rd, 2008)

Rave: A rave goes out to The Simpsons on Treehouse of Horror XIX. The treehouse of horrors have kind of been duds recently but last night’s episode was pretty funny. Starting off with the homage to the upcoming election (and a crooked voting booth) and ending with the tribute to It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown this was a good episode of the Simpsons. I’ve never been a huge fan of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown but I thought The Simpsons parodied it quite well. I also thought it was hilrious to see the Great Pumpkin terrorize the town until it met Tom Turkey and they end up getting into a fight. While the poll and great pumpkin storylines were the best of the night, I thought the other two storylines were also solid which lead to a funny episode overall.

Rant: I don’t know if it was just me but last night’s Amazing Race wasn’t suspenseful at all. I don’t know why but I knew from the beginning of the episode that it was going to be a non elimination round. When you know it is going to be a non elimination it is really hard to feel any suspense in the episode since no team will be eliminated anyway. This got me to thinking that Amazing Race should just dump the non elimination episodes since they are never suspenseful as long as you know that they are coming. Instead the show should just start with more teams. Just add three more teams and eliminate the non elimination legs and I think the Amazing Race would remain interesting in every episode instead of hitting one of the boring non elimination episodes. One positive though is that I found it funny how Toni was trying to flirt with Star with his mother starring at him the whole time.

Rave: To Desperate Housewives on another good episode. I don’t know if it is just me but this season of Desperate Housewives has really been a rebound season for the show. It turns out that the jump in time is just what the show needed since it has given the show many more storylines that wouldn’t have been possible without the time jump. Overall I thought all yesterday’s storylines were pretty interesting. It’s good to see McClusky get more time on the show and I think she and her sister will bring quite a few laughs to the show in the upcoming weeks. Gaby and Carlos’ story was the best of the night in my opinion. I honestly don’t know why Gaby would agree to go on vacation with the woman that enjoyed Carlos’ massage a “little too much”. Finally I think it will be interesting to see where the Porter storyline is going.

Rant: While I overall thought that last night’s episode of Desperate Houswives was pretty interesting, I need to rant about Lynette and Tom. I don’t know if it is just me but I don’t know why Desperate Housewives has to continually but their marriage in trouble. It is getting rediculous especially since the cheating angle is getting ridiculous. Hopefully Lynette will soon find out that it isn’t Tom but her son since I think that could lead to some interesting stories and I am personally sick of the Tom/Lynette cheating storylines.

Rave: Family Guy had a pretty good episode last night in my opinion. While I think the episode could have been funnier, I am not going to dwell on it. The episode did have quite a few good laughs. Family Guy has really been on a roll with their movie and television references. Last week there was some Indiana Jones and Back to the Future while this week there was more Back to the Future and even some Home Alone. I am going out on a limb here but I am going to guess that the Family Guy writers are Back to the Future fans since there was Back to the Future references in the last two episodes. Finally you also can’t go with a Lost reference. Even mentioning Lost (the best show in the history of television) always gets you browny points in my opinion.

Rant: I have been ranting on American Dad for sometime and it’s not going to change this week. I don’t know why but American Dad really hasn’t been very funny this season. I am afraid to say that if things don’t pick up really quickly I am going to drop the show from my viewing schedule. I just don’t have time to keep watching a comedy that has serious problems being funny in the first place. It’s still boggles me that American Dad has so many troubles being funny while Family Guy has no troubles whatsoever.

Rave: While last nights Brothers and Sisters was just a solid episode, I do like the direction that this year’s storylines are headed. It’s good that someone is finally doing something with Ryan. While I think this whole storyline is being drawn out way too long, it’s good that the show is finally making some progress towards revealing Ryan. I also like that Sara is getting a storyline that actually doesn’t revolve around Ojai. Kitty and Robert starting a family together should also be interesting. Finally it’s good that the family is finally starting to forgive one another after everything that happened at Ojai. It was funny to see Kevin and Tommy fight at the rehab meeting though.

Rant: Last night’s season finale of Army Wives disappointed me. I can see why the show wanted to leave the season on cliffhangers but did every single character need to have a cliffhanger. I also don’t know what I think of several of the cliffhangers. I personally got the feeling that several of the cliffhangers were added just to get people excited about the next season. In my opinion the cliffhangers really didn’t do their job since none of them really make me antsy for the next season. I am actually glad that there is going to be a break in the show since this season has kind of dragged on a little too long in my opinion.