Screened News

What to Watch This Weekend: Some Manner of Football, Which May or May Not be of Great Importance

Plus, new episodes of Luck, Fringe, and Portlandia.

"I really don&squot;t understand my purpose here. "
"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.

boogiewithstuon Feb. 3, 2012 at 10:27 a.m.

I like the puppy best.

metanoia507on Feb. 3, 2012 at 10:35 a.m.

@boogiewithstu said:

I like the puppy best.

yep

ThePickleon Feb. 3, 2012 at 10:45 a.m.

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

sanbell_09on Feb. 3, 2012 at 11:17 a.m.

Going to watch Supernatural tonight.

not_a_bumblebeeon Feb. 3, 2012 at 11:35 a.m.
Love me some Portlandia and Todd Margaret. 
StealthMaster86on Feb. 3, 2012 at 11:36 a.m.

@sanbell_09 said:

Going to watch Supernatural tonight.

Yep. Thank god it's finally new.

skrutopon Feb. 3, 2012 at 11:42 a.m.

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.

ElectricBoogalooon Feb. 3, 2012 at 11:54 a.m.

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!

oobson Feb. 3, 2012 at 12:07 p.m.
cocaine and hooker thing..good one bet you put that show on there just to say that..lol
teh_destroyeron Feb. 3, 2012 at 12:14 p.m.

No Andy Whitfield, no Spartacus.

Popcornon Feb. 3, 2012 at 12:31 p.m.

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

GRONK.

andrewbeardsleyon Feb. 3, 2012 at 12:56 p.m.

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

CharAznableon Feb. 3, 2012 at 1:38 p.m.

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

meaninoflife42on Feb. 3, 2012 at 1:54 p.m.

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

ProjektGillon Feb. 3, 2012 at 3:34 p.m.

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.

vinsanityv22on Feb. 3, 2012 at 7 p.m.

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.

Fragonardon Feb. 3, 2012 at 8:21 p.m.

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

hrn212on Feb. 4, 2012 at 4:57 a.m.

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.

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.

Undeadpoolon Feb. 4, 2012 at 11:45 a.m.

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."

hrn212on Feb. 5, 2012 at 9:13 a.m.

I just now started watching Fringe from the first season. Please, someone tell me that it gets better? I know it's all about psudo-science, but they could at least get the actual science right. And their version of what is, and isn't, standard practice for law enforcement is just...phew boy. It's a fun story, but man the inaccurate bits are annoying.

Plus a lot of the story inconsistencies are just frustrating.

Teaser Trailer: Skyfall

Hoping anticipation's not the best part.

Trailer: The Master

I'm mean ya, it's gonna be great.

BOX OFFICE: You sunk my Battleship....

Thanks a lot Avengers.

Trailer: The Great Gatsby

I want to go to there...

G.I. Joe Retaliation: Release date moved so it is not a summer movie anymore.

Why? So it can be converted to 3D. Smart move or suspicious?

What to Watch: Monday

House...series finale...enough said.

Red Band Trailer: Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

Not another ridiculous vampire story. Please don't force me to click play... wait, what? This actually looks cool.

3D...will it ever go away?

I mean, can we all just admit it sucks already?

G.I. Joe Retaliation: Release date moved so it is not a summer movie anymore.

Why? So it can be converted to 3D. Smart move or suspicious?

3D...will it ever go away?

I mean, can we all just admit it sucks already?

Trailer: The Master

I'm mean ya, it's gonna be great.

BOX OFFICE: You sunk my Battleship....

Thanks a lot Avengers.

Teaser Trailer: Skyfall

Hoping anticipation's not the best part.

What to Watch: Tuesday

Summer slump is here...grab some discs and start a marathon instead.

What to Watch: Wednesday

The Wire and the finale of Modern Family...very different, but great in their own ways.

DVD/Blu-Ray: May 22nd

So many choices, so little time...what to do?

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