TV

"I really don't understand my purpose here. "

Of course this is Super Bowl weekend, that grand tradition where the entirety of America's population (even the ones who never really watch football during the season) get together to eat giant fistfuls of nachos and chicken wings while watching two teams they're only vaguely familiar with play football for a couple of hours. Also, Madonna will be there, which everyone keeps telling me is some kind of big deal, but can't actually explain why. My prediction? Patriots by six, and Madonna uses an auto tuner.

More important than any of that, however, is the 2012 Puppy Bowl, which will air all goddamn day on Animal Planet. Not much to say about this except PUPPIEZ PUPPIEZ PUPPIEZ KITTY HALFTIME SHOW PUUUUUUUUUUPIEEEEEEEEEZ.

Oh, and there's also regular ass television, if you're into that sort of thing. Let's see what other options exist.

	Who Do You Think You Are? Friday at 8PM - NBC - Martin Sheen researches his family roots on this season premiere, presumably to try and trace where on his family tree the whole "cocaine and hooker addiction" thing came from. If you can find the source, you can find the cure.
	Fringe Friday at 9PM - FOX - Peter and Olivia track a killer with a "toxic weapon that defies chronological description." Not ashamed to admit I have no idea what that means.
	CSI: NY Friday at 9PM - CBS - A role-playing game goes terribly wrong, leaving one fantasy nerd dead. I'm sure this episode will treat the D&D scene with all the respect and truthfulness it deserves and oh who am I kidding this is going to be 60 minutes of nerd mockery.
	Spartacus: Vengeance Friday at 10PM - Starz - So, hey, those with Starz: How's the new Spartacus? He a suitable replacement for your former, fallen hero? Or has this show finally jumped the shark?
	Portlandia Friday at 10PM - IFC - Kyle MacLachlan returns to reprise his role as the Mayor of Portland, and he tasks Fred and Carrie with redesigning the city's police force. MacLachlan is pretty much the best thing on this show every time he shows up, so I'm looking forward to this.
	The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret Friday at 10:30PM - IFC - Todd's antics land him in prison--specifically, the wing dedicated to sex offenders. Prison rape jokes are all but assured.
	Luck Sunday at 9PM - HBO - I feel like an ass for forgetting to mention the season premiere last weekend, but hopefully me mentioning it from here on out makes up for it. Heard mostly great things about this (it's TiVo'd right now), despite its extremely dense terminology and atmosphere. Love me some Dustin Hoffman.
	The Voice Sunday at 10PM - NBC - If you're too lazy to change the channel after the Super Bowl ends, you can watch the season premiere of The Voice. Or you could just turn your TV off. Either is an acceptable solution.

I like the puppy best.

@boogiewithstu said:

I like the puppy best.

yep

My big prediction: Puppies will win the Puppy Bowl. And when puppies win, we all win.

Going to watch Supernatural tonight.

@sanbell_09 said:

Going to watch Supernatural tonight.

Yep. Thank god it's finally new.

I like Todd Margaret, but I only really watched it because it was on after Portlandia. Last week's episode had me crying with laughter, especially the scenes with Jon Hamm. It was truly amazing.

Also, Gronkowski is a monster on the field, but he sounds like a total idiot when he interviews. Dude needs some coaching.

I watched half of Luck last week and turned it off since I had no idea what anyone was talking about for most of it. I might watch the rest purely because of the talent involved, but I don't hold out much hope that I'll like it because of the source material.

Also, GO BIG BLUE!

No Andy Whitfield, no Spartacus.

I came here for BiBi Jones and I get no Bibi Jones. Damn you Alex.

GRONK.

@teh_destroyer: Its actually pretty good with Liam to be honest.

I've never seen Spartacus, but my friends have been grumbling about the change on Facebook. How's THAT for anecdotal evidence?

I'm gonna watch Chuck tonight... oh wait...

Fringe is getting much better and I hope they continue that trend because even last week's "filler" episode was still pretty good. Any news on the chat being open during the Superbowl? It was pretty fun last year to mock the Black Eyed Peas with the Screened community.

Wow. All that is horrible. Except the Puppy Bowl of course. Naturally, I have great disdain for how the whole fucking country shuts down for the Super Bowl, even if they don't care about the teams. It's more heavily marketed and hollow than Christmas....by a long shot. Glad Animal Planet doesn't give a fuck.

First episode of Spartacus was decent. The new guy seems like he's trying too hard though. He needs to tone it down.

Spartacus wasn't ever the most high-brow show, but I'm really liking this season so far. It's only been two episodes, but I like them. As for McIntyre, he's not doing too shabbily. It took Whitfield (and really the whole show) a few episodes to find it's groove, so I think it's reasonable to give McIntyre a few episodes too.

@Fragonard I can't tell if the new guy is trying too hard, or if he's just been saddled with all these intense scenes. Spartacus hasn't had any filler, chatting scenes, so maybe that's part of the problem. Everything's either been about freeing slaves, fighting the Romans, or figuring out what he's feeling for the Sura-look-alike.

One of my favorite "dog" lines a la your caption up there is in a Rifftrax short when a kid asks his dog "Why do you think Jim's so popular, boy?" And Mike Nelson, as the dog, replies "I'm incapable of thinking in the abstract."