Five Drinks Into TV: 10 Reasons You Should Try Vampire Diaries

Tom's Take:

For years the only vampire fiction I liked was the Joss Whedon universe in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. I still refuse to watch Twilight due to their absolute failure in having Vampires able to walk around in the daylight without harm. However, recently I got an ache to find a Teen Drama to get addicted to, and so I gave Vampire Diaries a try. For the first two or three episodes, it was exactly what I expected in terms of pure teen angst with Vampires that were able to walk around in the sunlight. Then the show started to grow on me, and I forgave them this flaw. I mean, at least they have magic rings to explain why they can walk in the sun. I have fallen in love with this show, not as some dramatic masterpiece by any means, but as a guilty pleasure that I will actually defend to my friends for being well written and compelling television. So let's take a look at what Vampire Diaries does right.

Five Drinks Into TV: How I Met Your Mother Season 8 Episodes 11 and 12 "The Final Page"

Tom's Take:

I haven't spent a lot of time talking about How I Met Your Mother recently, because to be honest it hasn't been very good in recent seasons. The show peaked in Season 4, and since then it has been very inconsistent, with only a handful of episodes that have held up to my high standards of what this show can be. To be frank, I feel like the writers drew the show out just to keep it going, when they should have aimed to end it a couple of seasons ago. All that said, I want to talk about these two episodes, because they were really good and a return to form and why I loved the show to begin with.

Five Drinks Into British Television: Torchwood Series Two

Tom's Take:

Torchwood Series Two was a vast improvement over Series One, because I think I fell in love with the team during this series, which made their conflicts more compelling, and made the conclusion of this series even more heartbreaking. Since it was the characters that really made this series worthy, I think I'll focus on them as I talk about this series.

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Survivor Season 25 Finale!

Tom's Take:

Clearly I am wrong about everything.
Denise, who I had discounted, pulled this one out and became the Sole Survivor of Survivor Phillipines. Congratulations to her, and I think she was a very worthy winner. She played a strong social game, and was absolutely correct in her analysis that sometimes listening is really the best thing to be done. She survived every Tribal Council, and really dominated in her Final Tribal Council Performance, which is an often underestimated aspect of the game that really should be considered more. I mean the Final Tribal Council is almost more important than the rest of the game combined. So congratulations to her, and to Lisa for winning  America's Favorite, which let's be honest was mostly based on her Christian pull, but still it was nice to see.

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Survivor Season 25 Episode 13 "Gouge My Eyes Out"

Tom's Take:

And there's your final 4 people. Congratulations Malcolm, Denise, Lisa, and Skupin for reaching the Survivor Finale! I hope to do a full overview of everyone afterwards, but first let's do a little speculation on Final 3 and Final 2 Scenarios. Let's go.

First off, I think Malcolm wins any Final Tribal Council he's in. And I think Denise beats Lisa and Skupin in a  Final 3, so let's delve into the three other final 2's that don't include Malcolm.

Denise vs. Skupin:

I give Skupin; RC, Lisa, and Penner for fans of Skupin, and Abi, and Pete for disliking Denise.
I give Denise; Jeff Kent for not wanting a returning player to win, Carter for being on the same tribe as Denise, Artis for hating Skupin, and obviously Malcolm.

I'm calling this 5-4 for Skupin, but I could easily see Pete flipping and voting for Denise, or Penner approving more of Denise's game, so I give him maybe a 52% in this one.

Skupin vs. Lisa:

I'll give Skupin; RC and Penner. I think Lisa gets everyone else.

I'd call this 7-2 for Lisa. I think she's actually picked the perfect person to go to the end with if it's a Final Two.

Lisa vs. Denise

I'm giving Lisa; Skupin, RC, Artis, Pete, Abi Maria as a Tandang majority vote. I'll also give her Penner because I don't think he likes Denise as much.

Denise gets; Malcolm, Jeff Kent, and Carter.

So Lisa beats Denise 6-3.

I guess that means my projected winners in a vacuum would be Malcolm, Lisa, Skupin, then finally Denise. Let's try and delve into why below.

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Survivor Season 25 Episode 12 "Shot Into Smithereens"

Tom's Take:

Wow. Lisa's brother almost brought an end to Malcolm. Luckily for me and the rest of the Malcolm fans, he won immunity. I continue to root for him to win, although now I've decided I want him to go to the end with Abi. That would make for a fun but very lopsided Final 2.