TV Season Winding Down

Spoilers ahead! Be warned!

With the TV writers still out on strike shows have been winding down. On "Desperate Housewives" Andrew (Shawn Pyfrom) moved out of the house which can only mean we'll see even less of him than now I guess. In the tornado episode Bree didn't touch base and we didn't see the gay neighbors at all. Two die. "One loses a husband and everyone loses a friend." I don't know if the second part will actually show this month or if it's being held for the shows inevitable return.

"Heroes" wrapped the second Chapter on Monday and I think I've lost interest in the show. I think they've jumped the shark. If the season wasn't bad enough with the "wonder twins" and the lame diversions with Claire at school and the other story in NOLA. Really my favorite story was Hiro and then, maybe, the Peter mystery but it all came to mean nothing. We know immortality and resurrection exists now in the show's universe so just where's the risk? I've been skeptical since they let Sylar survive in last year's finale and this year proved my skepticism justified. Sad.

January sees the return of "Kyle XY" with the second half of the second season. I don't know when other shows return yet.

"SVU" got me excited last week with the "death" of Eliot's wife. Unfortunately she was alive at the end of the episode. I've never liked that character. "Criminal Intent" is on a slim budget with the four detectives, switching off weeks, and the Captain. No ADA now. I never did find out how or why Jamie Sheridan was replaced. I can't stand the hair on the his replacement.

"House" has his new team. I'll miss "Cut-Throat Bitch."

TV is barely interesting.

TV. Weak.

"House" was preempted (@*#%! baseball!) so we saved electricity Tuesday and took a nap insead.

Many folks complained about it but I thought "Heroes" was more entertaining than it's been all season. I still hate Micah but we learned about Parkman's dad, Molly's boogeyman and the 'wonder twins' found a familiar body in the middle of the road. Saints be praised, Kristen Bell ("Veronica Mars") joins the cast next week.

Wednesday has something for us to watch. Right? Riiight.

TV Wrap, Save Electricity Edition

"Heroes" was OK last week, nothing monumental. "House" held interest although I wasn't thrilled to see Cameron. House told her she looked like a hooker as a blond.

Dale, the resident gay, came in second at "Top Chef" although from the tasting panel comments I felt he had a real shot at winning. Unfortunately, it was pretty obvious over the weeks they were setting up Hung, the Ego, for the win. Only 20% of the poll voters wanted Hung to win. Most voted for Casey.

I was disappointed in Casey's dishes and I think she was also. Dale had one 'bad' dish--his lobster course. Hung had one great dish and went safe on his last by doing chocolate cake which didn't fit with his asian-inspired dishes at all. Wednesday is the postmortem reunion show. I'll probably tune in to see what Tre, Casey and Dale have been up to.

I'm trying to figure out why they had the "live" announcement in Chicago rather than Aspen where the finale took place or back in Miami where the season was centered.

Bored, I watched "Desperate Housewives" on Sunday. Even Bree breaking-and-entering to steal a pie recipe couldn't prop up a show so clearly past its prime. Listed as "Also Starring," Shawn Pyfrom hasn't appeared yet. I tried to stay tuned for "Brothers and Sisters" but the political manure was getting too deep. I hate that show although I've liked Bat Getty, Emily Van Camp ("Everwood") and Rob Lowe ("West Wing") in past roles.

Thanks to free downloads on iTunes I caught up to the pilot of "Gossip Girl" which features Kristen Bell as narrator. She was the highlight. I might watch this week. I also saw the vampire detective show "Moonlight" which has another "Veronica Mars" alum--"Logan." The show was painful and free was almost too heavy a price. I know "Piz" is on "Private Practice" but nothing short of a six-figure bribe will get me to watch.

Tuesday Torment

The computer gremlins struck again. I assume all will be OK after I rebuild the hard disk. My dreaming storyline was bizarre. There were tsunamis. Normally such water volume is my bladder trying to push me out of bed but that wasn't the case here. I don't really know where the subconscious has been going with recent dreams.

I watched "On The Lot" for its first elimination show. Wow, I thought I'd packed filler into its results programs but this was beyond Secrest's work. They did, of course, retain his trick of getting down to two people and announcing results will come after yet another ad break.

The season finale of "House" was more interesting for unanswered questions about potential cast changes in the new season (if any) than the case itself. Tonight's "The Shield" took my loathing of Shane to new depths. He's such a fool. Next week's preview of the season finale suggests Shane threatens Vic's wife with a gun. A compromising camera photo of the (now) councilman has just fallen into Vic's hands. Now the question comes, does he use it to save his job or does he keep looking into the mysterious Mexican businessman financing the councilman's exploratory committee for L.A. mayor?

Mail brought an expected bill. I'm tired but sure kitty is up to something evil. She's being too quiet. I must investigate!

TV Snoozeworthy

Idol stayed more or less the same when seeing it as when hearing it alone. Chris looked very uncomfortable on stage trying to rock out.

I was pleased the judges didn't sugarcoat some of the vocal problems. Randy tried to drum up sympathy votes for Jordin when her vocals veered well off their mark. Chris was told he did as much as he could with his song but maybe not enough to be back next week. Simon even literally kissed Lakisha for her return to form and told Blake his risk-taking is why he would be back next week! From Simon's mouth to voters' phones? We'll know soon enough. He was clearly the live audience favorite.

"House" was... *snore* although Hugh Laurie had some good lines. I hope Foreman leaves and this isn't just a fake two-weeks notice for ratings purposes.

"The Shield" didn't give me much to care about. Shane told the wife what he did, however. The preview for next week suggests Vick gets suspicious and starts to catch on. I still hope they end up killing Vick in the line of duty.

I may have missed VMars' return. I saw bits while flipped and the episode didn't look familiar but there was an on-screen teaser telling me "One Tree Hill" is new on Wednesday. I caught up with the "Shear Genius" from last week where Theodore goes home. He made the mistake of playing it safe. I love Tabitha for not equivocating. I can't imagine cutting hair with safety scissors. Somehow she did it and made the top 3. Maybe I'll check the next show.

Speaking of ratings earlier, it's May which means shows crawl back from reruns because it's the final ratings period of the season.

TV Tuesday

Starting late, I caught five of the Idol performances on country night. Sanjaya was bad enough to make me sound good. It was his turn when I put the show on.

Blake got the "pimp spot" at the end of the show. It wasn't fantastic *but* he "raised his game" (gotta use those cliches!) on his vocal power. Good work on that, Blake. I've seen some say online he was off pitch but I really didn't take note of that. I was looking at other things in her performance. I suspect he'll be back next week.

Chris may have stepped in it. He talked back to Simon when he was criticized as being "nasally" he defended it as being a style of singing. While that kind of interaction with the judges is usually bad he pulled the Virginia Tech sympathy card out so it might be a wash. Still, I won't be surprised to see him in the bottom 3 with Phil but who will be the third? Could it be Blake or will we finally get rid of Sanjaya?

Melinda had a nice performance. I hated the outfit. It looked like an old curtain worn as a bath towel. Inexplicably Simon thought she looked better than last week. I'm overjoyed to see he called her out on the tiresome "surprise" at getting praise from the judges. She was probably best of the five I saw. Lakisha left me cold and judges agreed.

It'll probably one of those result shows where they split the seven into two groups of three and the middle person has to decide with which group to stand. Two years ago a shrewd Bo Bice refused to budge.

The Shield was a good episode but it did not leave my jaw on the floor this week. I was a little disappointed in the Abu Ghraib overtones of Vic's interrogation of Eduardo. For me the new House was only note worthy for what he did to his friend Dr. Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard).

I did plenty of flipping and caught bits of Cold Case, SVU, Pussy Cat Dolls, CSI: Miami, Criminal Intent and a Mythbusters which showed it's possible to put a fire out with sound. Lance Bass was cheering Joey Fatone on again on "Dancing with the Stars." He seems to be a permanent fixture with nothing better to do or he's hot for one of the dancers.