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Syfy Upfront 2013: Defying Gravity

by Ethan Alter April 11, 2013 1:58 PM
Syfy Upfront 2013: Defying Gravity

Last year Syfy turned the famous whale room at New York's American Museum of Natural History purple to unveil its annual slate to the assembled press and advertisers corps. The network's 2013 upfront took place in the considerably less grand surroundings of Chelsea Piers' Silver Screen Studios, where they used to shoot Law & Order for the gazillion years that show was on the air. The downgrade in venue was somewhat ill-timed since the network's 2013-2014 line-up looks to be significantly stronger than its predecessor, which offered two scripted shows (including a series called Rewind that seems to have been scrapped entirely) and a bunch of dubious-sounding reality series, many of which never even aired (so long Awesome Foundation -- we're kinda glad we never got the chance to know you). Unlike the 2012 edition, 2013's slate feels potentially big enough to fill the Natural History Museum's cavernous whale room, whereas last year the surroundings just barely distracted from the thinness of the content.

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Modern Family:  The Best Lines of the Night

"Flip Flop" really wasn't so bad. I don't entirely understand why the conceit of the plots were "women intimidate each other and constantly feel inadequate," and "gay men are serious about buying houses," but whatever, both storylines were entertaining enough, I laughed out loud at the reveal of Workaholics' Anders Holm as the cool put-together young man interested in settling down (since his character on that show is the polar opposite) and it's always fun to see where Rob Riggle (who played Gil Thorp) is going to pop up on TV next. The two-month time jump bothered me since baby Joe did not age (good thing he was huge to begin with), but on the bright side, the house drama is over and we got a nice callback to Barkley. Here are the best lines of the night, since I am actively trying not to be the biggest grouch ever about this show, I swear:

New Girl: Bachelorette Party Do's and Don'ts

by Angel Cohn April 10, 2013 1:57 PM
New Girl: Bachelorette Party Do's and Don'ts

This episode was pretty entertaining (we always love some Fat Schmidt), but it seemed a little out of order again, like maybe that funeral episode aired when it wasn't supposed to because we jumped back to Nick playing the dead dad card when he didn't even mention his father in "First Date" at all. But we loved the orange jumpsuit, and Shivrang's Jane Lynch/Sue Sylvester reference, so we'll give it a "dead dad" pass.

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Ready for Love: Zero Dollar Matchmaker

It's obvious what Eva Longoria and NBC were trying to do with Ready for Love: Cash in quite belatedly on the fame of The Bachelor using the "science" and snark of Millionaire Matchmaker. Unfortunately, this show is so poorly edited, egregiously sexist and clearly low-budget, it's much closer to The Choice meets Fashion Star and has all of the authenticity of Burning Love. Rather than validate Ready for Love by giving it a straight-up review, I'll instead list the very worst things about the show.

TV on DVD: Tuesday, April 9, 2013

by Ethan Alter April 9, 2013 8:00 AM
TV on DVD: Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Kelsey Grammer rides in a limo... like a boss.

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Saturday Night Live: Melissa McCarthy's Biggest Hair Don'ts

This second appearance of Melissa McCarthy wasn't the worst episode of SNL that we've seen this season, but that's not really saying much. It mostly relied on putting McCarthy in ridiculous wigs and having her do really broad physical comedy. Having watched more of Mike & Molly than we'd normally care to admit, we know that McCarthy is capable of slightly subtler humor that doesn't rely on her wearing gigantic high heels and bad wigs or falling on her face... but the show went for the easiest common denominator. They also went a really long way with a North Korea joke in the cold open solely so they could have Dennis Rodman butcher the "live from New York" intro. We've ranked the bad hair that McCarthy sported, from best to worst:

Game of Thrones: Our Weekly Westeros Scorecard

There's so much exposition, it can't be contained to a single episode. "Dark Wings, Dark Words" continues Game of Thrones's epic Season 3 set-up. Here are the highlights of what you missed.

The Most Heinous Person on Reality TV This Week

First off, we'd like to hand out some kudos to some special reality stars this week. From the receptionist on Urban Tarzan who is the least believable "actress" we've ever seen to Terry on Real Housewives of Orange County who didn't know when to let the onion rings go (just give up trying to have any shred of control in that marriage, dude) to Corinne from Survivor who continued to talk about collecting "gays" like they were toys from a machine instead of actual people. You are all stellar in your own way, if not quite heinous enough to make our list -- this time.

Parks and Recreation: Who Made the Comedy Grade This Week?

"Partridge" was great. I mean, of course we were going to love doped-up Ben -- given how good flu-stricken Leslie and human disaster Ben have been in the past, it only makes sense. The pacing in this episodes was fantastic, all of the storylines were fun and my only real complaint is that Parks and Recreation is never frickin' on, and I desperately want to watch a new episode every week instead of a seemingly random installment every first Thursday of the month, or whatever this schedule is. More, I say, more! On the bright side, there are still four episodes left this season, all of which are consecutive -- there's even two in one night on April 18! -- so I can stop my complaining and get to talking about how much I laughed last night. Until then, I'm not above suing the parents of whoever made up this stupid schedule for spawning a human turdburger.

Community: Dance Dance Evolution

Mentally erase those excessively maudlin closing moments, and "Herstory of Dance" becomes a sly, satisfying episode of Community, a clear standout in this wildly inconsistent fourth season. Much like its predecessor, "Economics of Marine Biology," "Herstory" eschews the high-concept stuff for a more traditional sitcom structure. Unlike that scattered half-hour, though, here the various plots all connect back to one main event -- the face-off between Dean Pelton's Sadie Hawkins dance and Britta's Sophie B. Hawkins dance -- giving it a cohesiveness that amplifies the comedy. And the puppet stinger at the end was a great tease for next week's all-felt outing. I don't care if it is a blatant rip-off of that fifth-season Angel episode; I can't wait to see more of Puppet!Annie, Puppet!Troy and Puppet!Pierece, the latter of whom is preferable to flesh-and-blood version at this point.

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