Five Drinks Into How I Met Your Mother Final Season "The End of the Aisle"

Tom's Take:

In the penultimate episode of HIMYM, we get some build up to the events of the finale, but it was not what I was hoping for.

Five Drinks Into How I Met Your Mother Final Season Episode 21 "Gary Blauman"

Tom's Take:

And How I Met Your Mother managed to jump out of its’ funk and pull that off. This episode was a great one, though not necessarily a classic episode in the grand scheme of things, it was definitely one of the best of this season at least, and yes it even made me tear up a bit, although I’m not entirely sure why.

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Big Brother Canada Week 3 Game and Show

Tom's Take:

The house split between boys and girls, although really the First Five is running both sides. But ultimately the result was that Ika completely fumbled the ball on her hoh and accomplished nothing but making herself look like an idiot.

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Survivor Season 28 BBB Episode 4 "Odd One Out"

Tom's Take: Tribe Swap. Are the producers just giving the win to the Brains tribe?

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Big Brother Canada Weeks 1 and 2 Game and Show

Tom's Take:

Well we're off, and I'm back to doing another BB blog. So I've been super busy, and only started to get caught up on the feeds this weekend, although I still have trouble watching them online. But here we go, let's get into scoring these houseugests!

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Survivor Season 28 BBB Episode 4 "Our Time To Shine"

Tom's Take: Oh Brains tribe, you sucked so much you lost to a tribe throwing an immunity challenge.

Five Drinks Into How I Met Your Mother Final Season Episode 20 "Daisy"

Tom's Take:

We're at the point where I'm regretting trying to do this blog because I have nothing really interesting to say about this episode.

Lily being pregnant again is interesting, and I guess they're going to Italy.

Huh.

Yeah, that's all.

I hope I have more energy when I get to my BBCanada blog. And yes, I am going to get to it!

Five Drinks Into Reality TV Survivor Season 28 Episode 3 "Cops R Us"

Tom's Take:

I'm sorry for the delay. Words of Radiance came out, and I was busy with work all week. Anyways this was a pretty good episode, although I'm disappointed that the editors lead me to have some false hope for how the beauty Tribe would develop.

How I Met Your Mother Final Season Episode 18 "Rally"

Season 9 Episode 18 “Rally"

How I Met Your Mother Final Season Episode 19 "Vesuvius"

Tom's Take:

I'm reading Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson instead of writing an in depth review.

Here's the abbreviated version.

I thought this episode sucked, and the twist is awful.

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Survivor Season 28 BBB Episode 1 "A Hot Girl With A Grudge"

Tom's Take:

What an amazing premiere of this season of Survivor. I absolutely love how this episode gave us a strong introduction to all the characters of the season, at least touching on all of the different characters so that we can recognize each of them, and also giving us the basic strategic situations with each of the three tribes, while also having time for some moments of pure comedy.

And some cool challenges, with an amazing comeback in the second one!

Survivor Season 28 BBB Preview

Tom's Take:

Another Season of Survivor is upon us, and I'm sorry about this preview being a bit late, but I've been busy at work. So the rankings for this season may be highly irregular.

So for starters this season has a few big twists,

for one the Hidden Immunity Idol is back to being super powered, which sucks, since whoever finds it will probably get a free ride to the final tribal.

There is an elected Tribe Leader who has to pick a weakest link to get an immunity idol clue. I will have to predict who those people are.

The tribes are divided into beauty, brains, and brawn which will play out in some interesting ways, as people will have to try to live up or down to their tribe name, which should be entertaining.

Five Drinks Into How I Met Your Mother Final Season Episode 17 "Sunrise"

Tom's Take:

This episode definitely felt like a last season episode.

Five Drinks Into How I Met Your Mother Final Season Episode 16 "How Your Mother Met Me"

Tom's Take:

This episode proved once and for all that they should have met the mother in the series before this final season. In that way, it was actually kind of bittersweet, seeing as how much I liked the Mother and wished she could have been in more of the series. Instead, this episode was only a one off side episode, that gave us a glimpse of what the Mother was doing the last 9 years.

Five Drinks Into How I Met Your Mother Final Season Episode 15 "Unpause"

Tom's Take:

The Fifteenth episode of How I Met Your Mother's final season was a winner. While the last episode brought us a Slap, one of the longest running gags of the show, this one brought us Barney's job which was far more awesome. Because they managed to not actually disappoint us with solving the eternal mystery of what Barney does for a living.

And because I love it when Barney pulls a long con.

Five Drinks Into How I Met Your Mother The Final Season Episode 14 "Slappointment in Slapmarra"

Tom's Take:

So I totally lost track of the slaps somewhere along the line, because I was pretty sure this was supposed to be the final slap. Instead it wasn't, but rather what we got was a decently funny episode which took a massive detour from the major plots of the season.

Five Drinks Into How I Met Your Mother The Final Season "Bass Player Wanted"

Tom's Take:

We finally got more screen time for the Mother, and while I enjoyed her performance and the Mother as a character, I didn't particularly love this episode. It had a cute gimmick, but I wanted more flashforwards.

Five Drinks Into Survivor Blood Vs. Water Finale "It's My Night"

Tom's Take:

And the finale had a completely predictable outcome, but it was a fun ride. And I think Tyson delivered a top notch final tribal speech that was definitely worth the million dollars.

Five Drinks Into Reality TV Survivor Season 27 Episode 13 "Out on a Limb"

Tom's Take:

Although, I enjoyed this episode, it had a very predictable outcome. Still I think the journey is more important then the destination.

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Survivor Season 27 Episode 12 "Russel Feathers"

Tom's Take:

 Wow. What an amazing streak of episodes. Tyson might be destined for victory, but people are not making it easy for him! Great play from Hayden tonight, and props to Ciera for continuing to play the game and make moves!

Five Drinks Into TV: How I Met Your Mother Final Season Episode 12 "The Rehearsal Dinner"

Tom's Take:

This was actually a really good episode. All of the characters were in top form, and the ending of the episode was also pretty cute.

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Survivor Season 27 Episode 11 "The Gloves Come Off"

Tom's Take:

 This was an amazing episode of Survivor. There were moves, counter moves, and I ultimately didn't know who was going to be eliminated when we made our way to the final Tribal Council.

Five Drinks Into TV: How I Met Your Mother Final Season Episode 11 "Bedtime Stories"

Tom's Take:

I ended up kind of liking this episode, but it was fairly mediocre overall. I guess the rhyming shtick was fine? It was cute I guess. Not amazing, but it was cute. And it was nice to get some flashbacks.

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Survivor Season 27 Episode 10 "The Big Bad Wolf"

Tom's Take:

 So does that make Tyson, Rose Tyler?

What a bizarre episode. Ciera voted out her Mom. Wow. Just wow. It wasn't a good game move, but I can see why she did it. She wants to solidify her role in the final five alliance, and set the stage for her to make it to the end, although I don't think she'll win. I think she'll be there though.

Five Drinks Into TV: How I Met Your Mother Final Season Episode 10 "Mom and Dad"

Tom's Take:

Not a terrible episode, there were two good jokes, but overall I'm not really digging where How I Met Your Mother is right now. I just think we need more momentum for the story to give this season some edge and drive.

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Survivor Season 27 Episode 9 "My Brother's Keeper"

Tom's Take:

A by the numbers episode, but thankfully the producers combined both eliminations into one episode. And it was a fun one. The alliance stayed strong although it also showed cracks, and it is clear that Monica Culpepper is not a very good player.

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: How I Met Your Mother Final Season Episode 9 "Platonish"

Tom's Review:

Here's our flashback episode just as I predicted. With very little time spent in the present, this one is all about the love triangle of Ted, Robin, and Barney and how Ted missed his chance where he could have hooked up with Robin. Instead he let Barney seize his thunder.

Oh an also we learned that Barney has met the Mother in the past. Which was cool, and I was happy to see. I hope they hang out more in the present, although I no longer thing Barney will be the character who spends the most time with her.

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Survivor Season 27 Episode 8 "Skin of My Teeth"

Tom's Take:

What a great merge. Even though this Tribal Council's result was completely predictable, I feel like we're in for a great game. There are so many different factions brewing, and in this episode they came together to overthrow the King in Aras and break apart the couple's alliance. Now the question is how this "alliance" will break apart going forward.

Five Drinks Into TV: How I Met Your Mother Final Season Episode 8 "The Lighthouse"

Tom's Take

In what was otherwise a subpar episode, "The Lighthouse" delivered a fastforward that was truly wonderful. We got to see Ted propose to the mother!

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Survivor Season 27 Episode 7 "Swoop In For the Kill"

Tom's Take:

Another fun episode that served as great set up for next week where we'll see a merge, and then the war between Tyson's Five and the Aras-Tina-Katie-Vytas foursome. The key players going forward in this merge will be Monica and whoever comes back from Redemption Island in determining how this will all shake out.

Five Drinks Into TV: How I Met Your Mother Final Season Episode 7 "No Questions Asked"

Tom's Take:

A solid episode that finally brought us to the Marshall and Lily conflict, although I am shocked that Marshall still hasn't arrived at the hotel.

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Survivor Season 27 Episode 6 "One-Man Wrecking Ball"

Tom's Take:

An amazing episode

Five Drinks Into TV: How I Met Your Mother Final Season Episode 6 "Knight Vision"

Tom's Take:

Another pretty forgettable episode.  The whole episode was built on an Indiana Jones reference, which I didn't find all that funny. I did enjoy some of Ted with the sad girl, and Robin and Barney, but a lot of it fell flat.

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Survivor Season 27 Episode 5 "The Dead Can Still Talk"

Tom's Take:

Not a great episode, although I'm glad Galang finally lost a challenge, so we could see what was going on in the tribe. Meanwhile Tadhana had an uplifting episode, as each of the Tadhana survivors is now a fairly well established character that we can root for going forward.

Five Drinks Into TV: The Final Season of How I Met Your Mother Episode 5 "The Poker Game"

Tom's Take:

The fifth episode of the final season of How I Met Your Mother was a good one. It was funny and also had some genuine heart, as Robin is annoyed by Barney seemingly more loyal to his family than to her. That's a real issue and it was handled well. Meanwhile Ted, Lily, and Marshall had a great sideplot. Overall, just a really great episode.

Five Drinks Into TV: You should check out House of Cards

Tom's Take:

Another great series, that has finally converted me to the ways of Netflix. I think it started stronger than it ended to be honest, but I'm still really into this show and looking forward to a season two.

Although don't watch this series if you're on a diet. You will want to eat ribs.

If you're into good acting, politics, intrigue, or a dark anti-hero, then you should check out House of Cards.

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Survivor Season 27 Episode 4 "One Armed Dude and Three Moms"

Tom's Take:

Wow. Another great tribal council after Tadhana loses yet another challenge, and the Locker Room Alliance fell apart this episode. It was really incredible to watch, and I think Caleb made the right move by taking out Brad who was considering blindsiding him already.

Five Drinks Into TV: How I Met Your Mother The Final Season Episode 4 "Broken Code"

Tom's Take:

Huh. So Barney and Ted confronted Ted's feelings for Robin in what turned out to be another pretty forgettable episode. I was kind of disappointed by it, especially since the Ted/Barney confrontation was something I thought would be a major plot point this season, and instead it sort of dropped the ball.

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Survivor Season 27 Episode 3 "Opening Pandora's Box"

Tom's Take:

Our third episode of Blood vs. Water was a good one. The Locker Room Alliance turned on each other! Brad got called out! Colton quit! And once again the Blood twist played out with great drama as the brothers faced off in a physical showdown with quite a bit of history behind it. And is it just me or, did Vytas get a super sympathetic edit from this? He's playing a good game, and he's getting an awesome edit. I'm feeling more and confident in my new winner pick.

Five Drinks Into TV: The Americans Premiere Season Review

Tom's Take:

So obviously I'm way late to this party, but I just got caught up on the first season of The Americans, and wow do we have a winner. This clever spy thriller has an amazing premise. The leads are Soviet Spies. And they're sympathetic. Even more surprising is the reveal that this show isn't really a spy thriller at all but rather a meditation on marriage, and a will they/won't they type love story between our two leads, despite the fact that they're already married. Phillip and Elizabeth  Jennings, or actually Mishca and Nadezhda, are an interesting couple that really intrigued me and kept me coming back all season long to see what would happen with them even when the spy thriller parts of the show fell short for me. I highly recommend everyone check this series out.

Five Drinks Into TV: How I Met Your Mother Final Season Episode 3 "Last Time In New York"

Tom's Take:

Our third episode of How I Met Your Mother was pleasant but ultimately a pretty forgettable episode. So what worked, and what seemed like it was trying too hard?

Five Drinks Into TV: How I Met Your Mother Final Season Episode 2 "Coming Back"

Tom's Take:

First off, sorry this is late. I didn't realize there were two episodes last week, so I'll make sure to finish writing this before I watch Episode three.

We have our second episode of the final season of How I Met Your Mother, and this one was a winner. It made me laugh on several occasions, and was also charming in that perfect blend that makes a good How I Met Your Mother episode worth watching. Fantastic job.

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Survivor Season 27 Episode 2 "Rule in Chaos"

Tom's Take:

We got our second episode, our first truel, and then our second vote. I continue to like this season, and I am really enjoying the layers behind this twist. Tonight's vote was based on utilizing the Redemption Island Switch, and voting out the loved ones of the stronger players on the other tribe.

Five Drinks Into Anime: Ten Anime in the First Ten Months of 2013

1. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Episodes: 27
Rating: 9.7

Review: This is without a doubt the best anime I've watched of the year. There is a childishness to this anime that may turn many away but I advise you don't let. This series is absolutely fantastic. The characters don't have a ton of depth, and there are a couple of weak episodes in the middle, but the completely over the top action and wild enthusiasm at this show's heart more than makes up for it. This show is damn inspiring. And you'll never be bored watching it. 

Five Drinks Into TV: How I Met Your Mother Final Season Episode 1 "The Locket"

Tom's Take:

Well it's here. The final season of How I Met Your Mother is upon us, and even though I was and still am firmly against how long the writers have dragged out the show, I am excited for the final season, and I like the format of having the whole season take place over a few days. And they're off to a good start as this was a pretty good episode that accomplished two very important things that I'll get to below.

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Big Brother 15 Retrospective

Tom's Take:

So I'm taking this time to take a look back on Big Brother 15 and comparing my initial Cast Reactions to what they actually delivered.

First off, I want to take a moment to discuss the obvious controversy that overshadowed the rest of the season. Racism. Do I believe that any of these 16 BB15 houseguests is or was a racist? The honest answer to that is no. Nor do I think any of them were truly horrible people. I think most of the cast made racial or otherwise unsavory remarks, but that doesn't make them racist. Everyone has stereotypes in their head. And everyone I know has made some Non PC remarks from time to time. It happens. It's part of our culture, and honestly it's a part of human nature. Is it a positive part of our nature? No, and it shouldn't be encouraged. If you get cast on BB, I advise you to stay the fuck away from talking about anything racial or any stereotypes period. I think the HG's were dumb for forgetting the cameras were on, and their comments were stupid. But saying stupid shit doesn't make you Hitler. And these people gave up their privacy for the sake of our entertainment, and I don't think they deserve to be crucified for that. Because honestly, the things "fans" have said about these houseguests is far more horrific than anything the HG's themselves said.

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Survivor Season 27 Blood vs. Water Episode 1 "Blood is Thicker than Anything"

Tom's Take:

And we got our premiere. I am so excited about this season. We got a great first episode, and there was some great character development and backstory! The twist this season is doing a great job building in drama and relationships, and I'm doing incredibly well on my early predictions, which I always love.

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Game and Show Week 13

Tom's Take:

And we have an ending!

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Survivor Season 27 Blood vs. Water Preview

Tom's Take:

Blood vs. Water is coming, and I'm really looking forward to it, especially after a season of Big Brother that was quite frankly too long, and very emotionally draining for me as my favorite got hated on by most of America. So now we have a new season of Survivor to look forward to, with lots of returning faces that weren't as expected as the returnees from last season. And of course, we have family and loved ones of our favorites. I actually like this twist as it will force people from opposing tribes to work together and will make the post merge more interesting. So let's dive in!

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Big Brother 15 Game and Show Weeks 11 and 12

Tom's Take:

The Floater Four Triumphed over McCrae, although he took Judd out for the second time in the process. We're left with the most hated Final Three in the history of the show, but there still is ONE decent player amongst them. Although Andy has gotten a lot of hatred online from all corners, he is playing the best game out of everyone left, so I'm endorsing him as being the last possible satisfactory winner.

Five Drinks Into Reality TV: Big Brother Game and Show Week 10

Tom's Take:

This was a really hard week for me to watch, as my favorite (Amanda) was evicted, and McCrae, who to be honest I don't particularly like but feel like I sort of HAVE to root for then made a totally boneheaded move and got rid of his only potential future ally in a move that quite frankly showed how in control of the game the Floater Four are. It'll be tough to watch the end of this season, but plod along I must.