Back to the TV and movies

I am sure the producers of "American Idol"(Tuesday Fox 7) were very worried about halfway into tonights show, it was awful and the competition looked like a joke. But then the ladies "brought it". If Lakisha, Meilinda and Jordan aren't the top 3, then there is something seriously wrong with the voters. There were really only 4 singers who completely stood out, the 3 ladies who were all clearly better than the rest and Sanjaya who was markedly worse than anyone else. I don't vote because I don't care that much about who wins, but I also hold out for the hope that the voters can't be that wrong. But there have already been some very poor choices by "America" this season, and I am sure there will be more to come and this year I think it could get very controversial.

I saw 300 at the local brew and view(which may have helped in my enjoyment) and I thought it was good, but in the immortal words of the Top Cat "It's not going to win any awards". Visually it is an amazing movie. It was shot to look like a comic book and succeeds by actually creating a different world, there is only one scene which was shot outside, everything else was shot in a studio in front of bluescreens. The movie has fascinating battles scenes and a decent story as well as some good old "bad ass" moments. If you liked the action from Braveheart and Gladiator(The 2000 movie with Russell Crowe, not the far superior 1992 boxing movie with Cuba) you will definitely like this movie.

Ricky rocks! I loved seeing the Rickster on "24"(Monday FOX 8), and while the episode was, once again, over the top, it actually got me back into the season. I am hoping Mike Doyle can take over for Jack when he really retires.

Remember you can watch every episode of "The Black Donnellys"(Monday NBC 9) online.

I am excited about Andy Richter's new show on Thursday, but I am really going to miss "30 Rock"(Thursday NBC 8:30) while it is off until April 5th. I noticed that I am saving a lot more episodes of 30 Rock on my DVR than I normally do. I usually try to keep good episodes on my DVR as long as possible so that I can relish in their HD brilliance, although right now I am technologically handcuffed because my current DVRs only have 16 hours of HD space. Normally 30 Rock would be deleted immediately, or at least by Monday, but right now I have 3 episodes which I don't really want to delete.

• The most recent episode is "The Fighting Irish"(watch the 2 minute replay here) which brought use some great "fist names" and also gave us the sneezing Panda (the ultimate internet clip to help break bad news).
• The previous episode is "The Source Awards" (check out this 3 minute collection of clips from the episode) which was a great Tracy episode with a guest appearance by LL Cool J.
• The oldest episode I have saved is from February 1st and is hilarious. The episode "Black Tie"(check out the recap here) included great guest appearances by Paul Reubens(Pee Wee) and Isabella Rossellini and is a completely over the top episode, but it works.

I think Dan is right, this is one of the top comedies currently on TV. I hope that 30 Rock can keep the momentum they have and continue to grow, by next year it may become one of the best shows on TV.

Dwight Schrute! watch it, rock it