Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Survivor Season 24 Episode 3 (I)

Tom Reviews Survivor: Season 24 Episode 3 "One World is Out the Window"

The girls finally won an immunity challenge! And a reward challenge to boot. So 12 points for all of them, but I'm also taking 5 points from them all for whining about being cold the whole first half of the episode. So (+7) for all girls, and we finally got to see the guys scramble around to figure out what to do, and who to vote out.  And we got our first blind side!

Five Drinks Into a Wednesday Night Rewatch: Dexter Episode 4 (I)

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Five Drinks Into Off the Air TV: Lost Episode 23 (I)

Five Drinks Into Off the Air TV: Lost Episode 22 (I)

Five Drinks Into Monday Night Television: Ted Moves Out! (I)

Tom Reviews How I Met Your Mother: Season 7 Episode 18 "Karma"

Five Drinks Into Off the Air TV: Lost Episode 21 (I)

Five Drinks Into a Top Ten List: Top Ten TV Series (I)

Tom's Take.

Okay, so this is a list of the top ten TV series I want to recommend that everyone watch. Just to qualify this, these ten series will all be ones that have finished their run, and I will also try to make sure to keep this list to be fairly diverse. If I pick a show from a genre you don't like, please don't be bothered. This is done for the sake of diversity, and everyone has different tastes. So let's get started.

Five Drinks Into Off the Air TV: Lost Episode 20 (I)

Five Drinks Into Thursday Night TV: Kathy, oh Kathy (I)

Tom Reviews The Office: Season 8 Episode 16 "After Hours"

Five Drinks Into Off the Air TV: Lost Episode 19 (I)

Five Drinks Into a Wednesday Night Rewatch: Dexter Episode 3 (I)

Tom Reviews Dexter: Season 1 Episode 3 "Popping Cherry"

As I was watching this episode, I was surprised by just how many different storylines this series has going already. I'm going to talk about each in no particular order.

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Survivor Season 24 Episode 2 (I)

Tom Reviews Survivor: Season 24 Episode 2 "Total Dysfunction"

So for this episode, let's get things started with some character rankings.

I award the Men two points for winning the reward challenge, and ten points for winning the immunity challenge. (+12 for all men.)

Five Drinks Into Off the Air TV: Lost Episode 18 (I)

Five Drinks Into Off the Air TV: Lost Episode 17 (I)

Five Drinks Into Monday Night Television: Lily Steals the Show? (I)

Tom Reviews How I Met Your Mother: Season 7 Episode 17 "No Pressure"

Okay, not really, but she was pretty funny in this episode.

We pick this episode up right where the last episode ended, with Ted having just told Robin he loved her in a romantic way for the first time since they broke up five years ago. Remember that? Well, back then they broke up because they wanted different things out of their lives, but in this episode five years have passed and the two are no longer that different in what they want. So the question boils down to whether or not Robin loves Ted back.

Five Drinks Into Off the Air TV: Lost Episode 16 (I)

Five Drinks Into Sports: The Week That Was (I)

Join FDI as we recap the week in mainstream sports every Saturday. If we've missed something, feel free to leave a comment.

Five Drinks Into a TV Rant: Online Streaming (II)

Tom's Take:

So I don't really want to bother talking about the ethics of online streaming. Here's my take on that in brief. We are consumers. Our job is to consume, and we're going to work to do that the cheapest and easiest way possible for us. It's up to the TV networks and the various producers of television content to make sure they find some way to profit from online streaming.

This article isn't about that. This article is about how and why we stream television online instead of watching it live on our TV screens.

(Just to cover my ass, because I have no real idea what piracy laws are like. Nothing I say here is true. I will deny it all if you ask me about it. This whole article only exists in a magic fantasyland.)

Five Drinks Into Off the Air TV: Lost Episode 15 (I)

Five Drinks Into Thursday Night TV: Fun Away from the Office (I)

Tom Reviews The Office: Season 8 Episode 15 "Tallahassee"

Five Drinks Into Off the Air TV: Lost Episode 14 (I)

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Survivor Season 24 Premiere! (I)

Tom Reviews Survivor: Season 24 Episode 1 "Two Tribes, One Camp, No Rules"

So it's the first episode of the new season, so let's start by trying to get a grounding on all the new characters.
For the male Manono Tribe we have...

Five Drinks Into Sports: Zambia and the Natural Narrative (I)

Sean's Take: The second after Zambia won the 2012 African Cup of Nations on Sunday was the moment I knew I had to write about it. Unfortunately, life gets in the way, and as I write this post some four days afterward, it is difficult to once again experience the spectrum of emotions that swelled up inside me in the tournament's aftermath. Still, there is no denying the facts involved, and the wonderfully compelling story they provide.

Five Drinks Into a Wednesday Night Rewatch: Dexter Episode 2 (I)

Tom Reviews Dexter: Season 1 Episode 2 "Crocodile"

The theme of this review is that details are important. Its the little things that make this episode so compelling. For starters there's the eating in the car that Dexter does that draws attention to his driving. Its such a small thing, but it adds so much to his character, and it also creates this feeling of suspense whenever Dexter is driving. That danger permeates throughout the whole series.

Five Drinks Into Off the Air TV: Lost Episode 13 (I)

Five Drinks Into Off the Air TV: Lost Episode 12 (I)

Five Drinks Into Monday Night Television: Where Do We Go From Here? (I)

Tom Reviews How I Met Your Mother: Season 7 Episode 16 "The Drunk Train"

That girl's name was Quinn, not Karma. Wasn't it? Wasn't it?

Okay let's talk about this episode by breaking down what happened to the four main characters. (Marshall and Lily count as one person until one of them has an interesting story that doesn't involve the other.)

Five Drinks Into Off the Air TV: Lost Episode 11 (I)

Five Drinks Into Sports: Embracing Linsanity (III)

Sean's Take: Last time I wrote, I touched on the idea of sports heroes, and whether or not the sports public was ready to embrace them once again, and I mentioned the growing popularity of Jeremy Lin. Well, even in the limited time since that post Linsanity has grown even further. And my skeptical mind is having a hard time resisting him. 

Five Drinks Into a TV Rant: Viewer Loyalty (II)

Tom's Rant:

Why did I watch the tenth season of Smallville? Why am I still watching Big Bang Theory, even though I don't enjoy it? What compels me to watch shows long after they've jumped the shark like Weeds and Californication?

The answer is viewer loyalty.

Loyalty is very important to me. I've had the same best friend for more than ten years, despite us not going to the same school for eight of those years. I've had the same computer for four years, even though it has suffered multiple virus infections, and has been barely functional for at least half of that time. I've stuck with Nintendo despite the fact that nearly every game that I actually want to play seems to be released for the Playstation instead. I know I would be a faithful husband, because I've suffered for my loyalty, and the same thing applies to my TV watching.

Five Drinks Into Thursday Night Television: I Want Dwight Schrute to be Happy (I)

Tom Reviews The Office: Season 8 Episode 14 "Special Project"

Five Drinks Into Off the Air TV: Lost Episode 10 (I)

Five Drinks Into a Wednesday Night Rewatch: Dexter Episode 1 (I)

So to introduce this article, basically every Wednesday, I'm going to rewatch an episode of a TV series I've already seen. In this case, I'm going to be talking about Dexter, which is still on the air, having just wrapped up it's sixth season. It's a great show, and I highly recommend everybody watch it, but don't read this blog until you've finished the sixth season, because while I don't know if I'll be making a lot of references to future episodes, I won't be avoiding them. The format of this will be a little different than my other reviews, because I started writing these a while ago. Anyways, without further ado.

Tom Rewatches Dexter: Season 1 Episode 1 "Dexter"

Five Drinks Into Off the Air TV: Lost Episode 9 (I)

Five Drinks Into Sports: The Death and Resurrection of Heroes (I)

Sean's Take: I grew up with 3 heroes in sports: Joe Montana, Michael Jordan and Owen Nolan. The first of those was forced upon me by my father while the second was thrust into my mind by a combination of the media and popular culture. Only the final one of those legends was created organically, a manifestation of the pride I took in the Sharks early on in both my life and the organization's. Owen Nolan represented everything good in hockey: vicious hits, determination, incredible skill, etc. The usual cliches, but acted out in reality. Even as Nolan reached the final stages of his career, Sharks fans demanded that the organization bring him back. It never happened, but I'll always be grateful for the memories he gifted me.

Five Drinks Into Off the Air TV: Lost Episode 8 (I)

Five Drinks Into Monday Night TV: A Lame HIMYM Episode After Three Weeks of Waiting (I)

Tom Reviews: How I Met Your Mother: Season 7 Episode 15 "The Burning Beekeeper"

This episode attempts to do something that classic episodes of How I Met Your Mother like "The Pineapple Incident" "The Platinum Rule" and "Three Days of Snow" managed to pull of so well. Interweave multiple plot threads through a non linear story telling method. I actually bought that it would work for a while, but ultimately I found that this episode fell short of expectations, and the story telling framework just made it worse. Why didn't it work? That's what I plan to dive into now.

Five Drinks Into Off the Air TV: Lost Episode 7 (I)

Five Drinks Into Thursday Night Television: Fruitloops (I)

Tom Reviews Big Bang Theory: Season 5 Episode 15 "The Friendship Contraction":

Talk about a one trick pony. Big Bang Theory literally has nothing going on for it other than Sheldon. Wollowitz and Raj continue to play off the same joke of Wollowitz living with his mother. Leonard and Penny continue to dance around their relationship until I no longer care. The only part of the episode that was worthwhile was once again Sheldon. So until this changes I am no longer going to rate Big Bang Theory.

Rating: 6 out of 10.

Five Drinks Into Thursday Night Television: A good Office episode? (I)

Tom reviews The Office Season 8 Episode 13 "Jury Duty":

I loved this episode and that really surprised me, because I haven't liked The Office for a while. I feel like the series has gotten to a lull, and even when it's funny there isn't a lot of plot development. This episode was different. It gave me hope that the series will improve and come to some sort of satisfactory conclusion.

First off, I loved the cold open. Having taken part in a stage production of Footloose in high school, I have a special place in my heart for Footloose. And tearing up the warehouse was fun to see.

Five Drinks Into Off the Air TV: Lost Episode 6 (I)