GameSpot Reviewer Fired for Angering Advertiser

Its kind of assumed concept in the world of journalism, whether online, TV or print and that's the journalistic endeavors are separated from the business and advertising goals. In other words, a company may buy advertisement but they are not buying good press. Its also assumed by many that is not 100% of the case and that business goals do leak into journalistic ethics (see Newsweek's love issue to Amazon) but at least its usually blatant enough that you can make a judgement call on what you are reading.

However, there are times when the entire facade is blown away and confirms our suspicions and further erodes the trust between journalists and their readers. That is the case with the controversy surround GameSpot.com who fired Editorial Director Jeff Gerstmann, a 10 year veteran of the company.

The theory is he was fired for his 6.0/10 review of "Kane & Lynch" which resulted in Edios pulling hundreds of thousands of dollars in ad revenue. Information leaked form someone working close to Edios is he was fired for "unprofessional reviews and review practices" and the "tone" of his reviews (whatever that means). Judge for yourself and read the review (here and here) and watch the video version below which was pulled from GameSpot.

Currently these theories cannot be confirmed. Gertzman briefly commented on the story by saying he is unable to comment, "This probably won't come as much of a surprise, but I'm unable to comment on the rumors surrounding my termination."

CNET, owner of Gamespot, did release a short statement that didn't address this controversy directly "GameSpot takes its editorial integrity extremely seriously. For over a decade, Gamespot and the many members of its editorial team have produced thousands of unbiased reviews that have been a valuable resource for the gaming community. At CNET Networks, we stand behind the editorial content that our teams produce on a daily basis."

The news of the firing came about last night as a result of an early release of a Penny Arcade strip that comments on the firing. Tycho later released a statement on the controversy. As a result of the strip, the news of the firing has blazed across the gaming websites everywhere with few pleased with the news. It even resulting in Edios closing their forums.

So to sum up, all that is known is that Jeff Gurtzmann from Gamespot has been fired. The theory is the cause is because of a bad review of a game that resulted in lost advertising dollars but the site owners are claiming the real cause is "tone" of his reviews. Edios, CNET and Gamespot have refused to comment directly on the story and will not allow Gurtzmann to do so either.

Why is this important? Well, this confirms that many of us suspect but don't want to believe, that advertisement dollars drive editorially content and can buy positive reviews of products. This has a chilling effect that post effects current employees of CNET's network of websites and also the readers of the those websites.

For the employees that provide reviews, articles and content for the site, I can't imagine that if you currently work for a CNET owned website that this doesn't have a negative effect on how you review and write about products and companies that do business with CNET or under consideration to do business with them. If Apple buys advertisement does that mean that CNET reviewers need to consult the business end to determine what the iPhone review should be? Oh wait, Nintendo just bought advertisement space, should the next game review for the Wii be a 9.5 or a 10? What if the advertisement arm is trying to pursue new business, does that mean reviewers have to check all reviews and stories through them to verify it will not effect the closing of a sale? If I was currently employed there that would be steps I would consider as not doing so apparently can cost you your job.

For the readers, its an issue of trust. When you look up reviews you want an honest opinion, warts and all of a product so you can make a sound decision. If its an article about a company and what its doing, you want the truth, not spin.

As of now, thanks to this controversy, you can not trust any of the content on Gamespot or any of CNET owned websites and publications. I include all of CNET because we simply don't know if this was a decision internal to Gamespot or is part of a company wide policy for advertisement revenue. Until CNET clarifies and explains exactly what happens (and allows Gerstmann to do the same), defines what the hell "tone" of a review means (because I don't see a problem in the reviews I read or seen), and makes it clear what steps it will take to keep the advertising arm firewalled from the content arm it is my belief that CNET and any of its websites can be trusted as a source of news, reviews and information as we simply don't know what has been bought off and what hasn't.

Amazon's Kindle Released

Amazon announced what it considers to be the re-invention of the book called Kindle (pics). The book is slightly larger but thinner (7.5" x 5.3" x 0.7") then your average paperback (6.9" x 4.2" x 1.2") and comes with a lot of bells and whistles that books don’t have like wireless access to new content via Whispernet (similar to a cell phone network), storage of over 200 books (thousands available, around $9.99 per), and ability to download newspapers and blogs (pricing varies), view email attachments and light web surfing (How to Video). All of this in a $399 device. Compared to most other eBook readers, the Kindle stands on its own.

Does the book need to be reinvented? Sure, why not if it’s an improvement. Based on this first version I don’t think the book has anything to fear. The eBook model doesn’t yet duplicate the feel of getting into a novel and reading faster and faster to get through the exciting story as times passes unnoticed by you. The theory is there with the “E Ink” display, but when you have to wait a second for a page to load, the momentum can shift. Time suddenly gets noticed and suddenly finishing the chapter may not be so important.

Then there is the cost. $400 dollars for the electronics that display the books contents (assuming no pics). Even with the discount of only $10 per new novel (versus $20-$30 it usually costs) that is a lot of book buying to recoup the “savings”. Then there is notion of convienance. I just don’t see people tossing this into a backpack the same way we do books. There is something to be said about the ease of being worried about your book breaking. Sure you will have hundreds of possible books at your fingertips but really how often is that really needed?

The screen is currently black and white, to mimic reading a book, but is that necessary in the digital age? Why not a color screen that can display pictures and content, with it switching to black and white as the books need it? Also why no backlight? One annoying aspect of the book is needing a lot of light to enjoy it (to avoid headaches) so why not make it easy to literally read a book in most conditions such as long car trips or say a wait outside on Black Friday?

All these quibbles aside the Kindle is a good first step in the reinvention of the book. The potential is there, whether its books that get corrected and updated on the fly, the ability to access information anytime, anywhere, or even a college student that has all their books for class literally in the palm of their hand. I could be wrong as don’t have $400 to find out first hand, but on the surface it seems this first attempt at the book 2.0 doesn’t seem worth it, not yet anyway. I will let the early adopters work out the kinks and look forward to Kindle 2.0 (which would benefit greatly from iTouch technology).

Top 10 Ways to Prepare for Black Friday

Using the idea from here, I decided to write my own list of how to prep for Black Friday 2007.

1. Research your deals.
Many sites now provide the Black Friday weeks early. The one I use the most is bfads.net. I also recommend getting your local paper on Thanksgiving Day so can verify those ads.

2. Determine what want and from where.
Reason I recommend this is a lot of places offer the same deals. For instance one place may have a DVD set for $18 but another for $25. So this avoid duplication of effort and figure out what places you want to hit in what order. Some stores provide price matches but they tend to suspend those rules for Black Friday deals so don't count on those.

3. Check for Online Deals
You have your list of much have items and their great prices, now check to see if can beat them online allowing you to avoid waiting in line or focus on new must have goal. In some cases, stores will only have online deals so be sure to create shortcut list and check them frequently on Thanksgiving Day. Just don't count on getting the item as you will not be the only one checking so still have a store waiting plan B just in case can't get what you want online at the price you want.

4. Prioritize your goals.
Stores open early, and with limited quantities so its literally the case of the early bird gets the worm. Unless your in teams or lucky you can't store hop successfully for those high ticket, low item deals. With most stores all having lines, you probably have only one shot at one store to get that huge deal so make it count.

5. Try to work with a team.
Teammates can help with the long lines and wait with tag teaming and supply runs. They can also help hit multiple stores at the same time increasing your chances of success. But remember that its generally one per customer so your bud shouldn't be eyeing that deal too.

6. Get plenty of sleep the night before.
Stores open early, but all that means is you have to get in line even earlier. The better the deals (and more likely the more limited the quantities) the earlier you have to arrive. That means no sleep as between getting up to prep and celebrate for Thanksgiving you may not get that nap that allows you to go from doing the family things to getting in line. Its possible as a result you might be up for 24 hours or more so just be aware of that.

7. Be prepared for the line.
You will have hours of waiting to go so you need some basic supplies. Dress comfortably and for the weather, you will be outside in the elements so add some layers. You can always remove layers but once in line its hard to add them. A blanket wouldn't hurt either. Entertainment is a must such as a book or a gameboy, but note plugs may not be available so don't depend on power for that laptop or DVD player. Be sure to fully charge everything to day before. Also standing is just painful and tiresome so bring something to sit on whether a fold up chair or cushion. All lines are different, don't rely on the kindness of strangers to hold your place during that the long wait so don't over do it on the drinks and food before heading to the store. It doesn't hurt to over prepare but you want to line just enough stuff that will get you through the wait (and pack up quick) but not necessarily require you to have to leave the line to get more. Once you get a feel for how the line is being handled (friendliness etc), trips to the car may be possible. Don't forget your list! It would stink to get there, wait it out, and then forget key items.

8. Leave the kids home.
Seems obvious but you would be surprised how many people will show up with kids and wait hours in line with them. No Black Friday deal is worth the hassle and aggravation to yourself and others in trying to control bored kids for hours or simply just trying to keep up with them. Its also irresponsible as its probably going to be cold. Kids also will divert you from your gameplan and push you to buy items you may not have planned on. To put it bluntly, they will get in the way.

9. Get there early.
Hopefully you have your list, your supplies and an agenda. But its no good if people already wrapped around the building because you showed up just before the store opens. So determine when the store is opening that day and show up even earlier. How early is hard to determine because it can vary wildly but generally the better the deal is the earlier you should show up. Also just how much is your time and effort with it to you to save those dollars. If your saving only 10 bucks maybe not, but if its a few hundred, maybe it is.

10. Be realistic and have fun.
Know going into this that you may not get some or any of the items that you want. Most of the best Black Friday deals are in limited quantities so things could sell out very quickly. Some stores give out "coupons" for the BF items before the store opens so keep an eye on that. If they run out of coupons to the first 10 people in line and your 40 back well you know that your probably out of luck. If your realistic in your goals you can plan better and handle the stress of waiting better. Most people take the waiting and shopping entirely too seriously for mostly unrealistic goals. This can lead to conflict and sometimes violence and really no sale is worth that. If you go in prepared but with proper expectations you can actually have fun doing this. The point is a good deal but also hopefully done in the spirit of giving and if your more stressed about the deal then the pleasure you hope to give then your missing the whole point of Christmas.

So there you go, my Top 10 list of how to prepare for Black Friday based on my experiences from last year. I achieved only a tiny tiny fraction of my goals but I fun in the effort and actually came away with some great presents as a result. Because I went into it prepared and in the proper mindset, it had fun and plan on doing it again this year.

Google's Android SDK Info

Google has released a few details on the SDK for Android, its mobile phone OS its developing in partnership with multiple companies. According to Engadget, the phone will support touchscreen, 3G networks, Java, threaded text messaging, and MPEG-4, h.264, MP3, and ACC file formats (common Apple and Microsoft formats, but apparently not divx). Also it can handle 3D games qith Quake used as an example. A demo of the OS (on a device reference model, not actual product) is below. The SDK can be downloaded here. Also Google has annouced the Android Developer Challenge with a pot of $10 million that will be divided among various winners.

Another iPhone Brick That Can't Call

Userfriendly posted a hilarious strip that covers the recent bricking of hacked iPhones that is sung to Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall."

Special Comment: Conspiracy of Torture

Keith Olbermann closed Countdown yesterday with another scathing indictment (transcript) of the Bush Administration. An administration that seems to know no ends of its depravity.

This special comment was triggered by recent revelation that Bush fired Daniel Levin for daring to disagree with him on American policy regarding torture. Levin was Justice Department official assigned with determining Bush Admins policy on torture. He decided that first hand knowledge would be helpful and experienced Waterboarding first hand. From that experience he declared it a form of torture, very much contrary to Bush's stance on it. For daring to disagree and not do what all other Bush minions do by simply regurgitating Bush's current opinion regardless of consequence or if its good for the nation. As has consistently been the case, for Bush the only thing that matters is what Bush's wants and the nation be damned.

The video can be found here. (couldn't find on youtube at time wrote this)

Legend of Zelda Commercials Compliation

If a fan of The Legend of Zelda through the years (I have em all), then here is a walk down memory lane via commercials some of which are pretty strange. Learned of the compilation via Joystick and edited together by Skullkid700.

Mario Bros Theme on Tesla Coils

Rather then rewrite a solid description from YouTube:

Twin Solid State Musical Tesla coils playing Mario Bros theme song at the 2007 Lightning on the Lawn Teslathon sponsored by DC Cox (Resonance Research Corp) in Baraboo WI.
The music that you hear is coming from the sparks that these two identical high power solid state Tesla coils are generating. There are no speakers involved. The Tesla coils stand 7 feet tall and are each capable of putting out over 12 foot of spark. They are spaced about 18 feet apart. The coils are controlled over a fiber optic link by a single laptop computer. Each coil is assigned to a midi channel which it responds to by playing notes that are programed into the computer software. These coils were constructed by Steve Ward and Jeff Larson. Video was captured by Terry Blake. What is not obvious is how loud the coils are. They are well over 110dB If you look at another You Tube video which is from a different angle, you can hear the echo off the building and get a better idea of how loud it is.

fast Food Calorie Counter

If you eat fast food, you know its unhealthy. If you don't, you have bigger problems. What may not know is just how unhealthy the food is. Fortunately Calorie Counter provided a nice guide to just how unhealthy the fast food is with a little best and worse (relative to each other) for each category.

For Fries, Sonic's is the best, White Castle and Dairy Queen the worse. Basic hamburgers its White Castle and Wendy's best, Carl's Jr the worse. In the other burger varieties, best is Burger King (whopper jr) and White Castle (Bacon Cheeseburger) and the Worst goes to Carl's Jr for the Double Six Dollar Burger and its 1520 calories and 111 grams of fat. Wow.

Lots more information can be found here.

Google Phone, I Mean Android Announced

Today Google announced the development of Android for mobile phones (press release). Android would be an open source Linux based Operating System for new phones that would allow easy development of applications that could work on multiple brands and types of phones as long as have the core OS. This would be a direct competition to closed OS's like Palm, Windows Mobile and iPhone. The expected release date of phones with the new OS is second half of 2008 and the SDK for developers will be available on November 12th.

So far 34 different companies have signed up for the Open Handset Alliance. This includes the top mobile carriers of At&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and others from various countries. On the hardware side, Samsung, LG, and Motorola are also signed on. Nokia oddly staying out despite rapidly losing the cell phone race. Additional companies include Nvidia (graphics for phones) and Skype (voice over IP).

Its to early to say what impact this will have on the market but with the calibur of money and talent being brought to the table, its looks the "smartphone" will become the de facto phones on the market. What this means for Blackberries, Palm devices and the iPhone could be to make them obsolete as users will have the ability to customize their phones to fit their needs rather then work with whatever the developers think you need. The iPhone apparently was just step one of a mobile phone revolution.

I am personally looking for to the variety of choices that may come available. I wanted to possibilities that the iPhone was bringing to the table but as the locked down iPhone combined with being forced to do business with the craptastic AT&T was unacceptable at any price.

VideoSift Open Letter to Viacom

Videosift, a website that tracks popular online videos, has posted an open letter to Viacom and its owned network Comedy Central to work with the Internet. Viacom has started a policy where its most popular internet programming is only available through select websites and doesn't allow sharing via embeds and the like.

The result is no one can easily share the funny and insightful moments from their most popular shows such as The Daily Show, Colbert Report and South Park. Its their anti-YouTube policy of limited distribution from very limited sources. Something I think its idiotic and counter productive to advertising and selling the brand. Out of sight, out of mind is something to be avoided while Viacom seems to be embracing the concept. Personally because of the difficulty is sharing moments from Comedy Central, I simply don't bother to post about them anymore.

Here is the letter:

We love the Daily Show on VideoSift. The Comedy Central video embeds have been consistently some of the most popular voted content here.

So, it’s with a lot of regret - after an extensive community discussion- that we have decided to ban the submission of all Comedy Central videos.

The Internet does not respect national borders and your recent decision to block access to non-US viewers means that 30% of the members on VideoSift see a frozen screen when trying to view content from The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, South Park and other CC programs.

I’m sure you have very good reasons for taking this action - exclusive distribution deals with overseas TV networks, advertisements not meant to be globally broadcast etc. - but we ask you to reconsider your decision – and not just for the obvious reasons.

Programs like the Daily Show do more to create goodwill toward the US than the current US administration has ever done.

If the Daily Show can relentlessly skewer its nation’s politicians without fear of retribution - it gives hope to those living under despotic regimes that democracy isn't quite dead in the US.

Those of us living overseas see Jon Stewart as a face of America- and we like an America that is self-deprecating and willing to highlight her many mistakes. It makes it so much easier to forgive that way.

Of course, you own the content, and who are we to tell you how it should be distributed? Comedy Central has no obligation to send a political message to the rest of the world.

But there is another reason to allow international viewing that has more commercial appeal. When you block dependable access to your videos, you are driving people to illicit sources for their favorite content. (YouTube, Bittorrent etc.) We would try to monitor contraband
submissions on our site, but for you, policing this across the Internet will be like trying to drain the ocean with a teaspoon.

Comedy Central, please think globally and give us our Daily Show!

Respectfully yours,
The Rest of the World

PS. While you’re at it – can you prevent your videos from “expiring” after a few weeks?

Big Teleco To Rule It All

The 3rd US Court of Appeals upheld the FCC's deregulating of the Internet in regards to rules that revoke a requirement for the telephone companies to provide "nondiscriminatory" access to wire lines to consumers to competing Internet Service Providers. This means that the big teleco companies can tell the smaller companies to go to hell legally with massive bills for access.

As has been the case for the last 20 years, the call for "deregulation" has only led to the merging or elimination of competition so that only 3-4 companies are the sole providers. These providers often working together so the illusion of competition is maintained even though there really isn't. In the end, as it has always been, the consumers will pay the price as the teleco can dictate prices and you will have no choice but to accept it.

Colbert For President No Questions Asked

MediaMatters.com posted an excellent commentary that examines the media's reaction to the announced run for President (at least in South Carolina) by Stephen Colbert. This is where the site shines, showing the failures of the media (now if only would expand that to cover all media, regardless of political leanings).

In this commentary, writer Eric Boehlert notes the joy that the political commentators and media have had over Stephen Colbert. They laugh at the joke, sometimes participate in it, and generally just have a high old time without asking the critical questions you would expect from the media. Like is it legal (finally asked here). Is this joke good for the country (not sure yet on that one). Basically, he wonders why they are not doing their job.

I wonder the same thing, especially based on this recent report from Journalism.org that noticed the overall lack of information gathered by the media about the Presidential candidates. Some have focused on the subjective "positive" vs "negative" nature of the articles to paint a liberal media bias which I think is a false question. When reporting that John McCain didn't raise as much money as projected or falling behind other candidates, is that a negative or positive story? Is the expectation not to report it all?

That seems to be the problem though, the press is reporting on the "sexy" news, not the relevant news. Based on their study, "In all, 63% of the campaign stories focused on political and tactical aspects of the campaign. That is nearly four times the number of stories about the personal backgrounds of the candidates (17%) or the candidates’ ideas and policy proposals (15%). And just 1% of stories examined the candidates’ records or past public performance, the study found."

Only 16% of all stories covers what truly matters; what the candidate says they will do as President and what their previous records indicates they will actually do. Only 16% covers this area. With primaries around the corner, how does a voter make a informed decision? How does the strategy to win help make this decision? How does knowing the potential first wives are hot help? What does the usually nonsense about being the son of a farmer blah blah blah have to do with their ability to lead the country?

The problem, as the commentary pointed out, is the media's decision to treat the candidates as celebrities rather then future leaders of the free world. Basically they are treated no different then Britney Spears despite the fact they are different, dramatically different. Britney's decisions effect herself and her kids. The President's decisions can quite literally effect the entire world. The reporting should reflect the difference in scale but doesn't.

As is often the case nowadays, it seems laziness and money is driving how the reporting is done. Research is difficult, collating research even more difficult, but commenting about a haircut, that is easy. Read a blob blurb about it and the reporters are good to go. No effort needed.

Money is driven by readership and viewership and sadly the average American has demonstrated they want the sensational over the factual. They complain otherwise but their actions disprove the words. Of course the media tries to fill that need (hence talk of haircuts). The news though should strive to be more then infotainment. They should strive to inform, even when people don't want it.

The press is often called the fourth branch of government. The ones that watch the watchers. They failed us in the build up to Iraq. Will they fail us again in the quest to entertain?

Wanted Trailer Out

The trailer for Wanted, based off the comic book by Mark Millar, is now out on Yahoo! Movies. From what I can tell, the movie is more inspired by the comic rather then based on the movie. The comic itself was ultra violent and blatantly sexual, definitely a hard R while this movie is a PG-13 (or probably will be). Also the comic was about the son of a super villain who takes over for his father's legacy and decides to destroy the group responsible for his murder. This group is all the supervillains who joined together and killed all the superheroes, then quietly took over the world. Again, an R storyline. So while the movie and the comic don't match its mature theme, it does look like it will be entertaining. (source)

The trailer can be found here.

How to Ask A Question

Microsoft apparently got tired of people's inability to ask direct questions to their computer woes. Being in IT (any jobs out there?) I know just how poorly people are at expressing their issues. Also how quickly they get upset that you can't just translate their nonsense explanation into something usuable requiring the asking of more questions. Which tends to get more nonsense answers.

So for those that don't know how to ask a direct, solid question that provides all the information needed to actually answer it directly and correctly, click here for help.

NBC / iTunes Deal Failure Revealed

NBC accidently revealed why the deal with iTunes fell apart. To the surprise of no one the reason was money. The grand "experiment" of pricing that NBC was prevented from engaging in by Apple was to increase the prices of their shows from $1.99 to $2.99 each. Yep the grand experiment was really "we want more money." Apple told them no so NBC grabbed their toys and started a new sandbox called Hulu.com. Which isn't working and after an initial cheap price will probably go up to the preferred profit price. So there you go, more proof that when business start using words like "experiment" usually its just another way of saying "how can we screw our customers?".

Ready for a FLILF?

The Daily Show yesterday posed an important question: Is America Ready for a FLILF? Or "First Lady I'd Like to Fuck". Yep, there are actual candidates wives out there that are actual knockouts of the highest order. Numero Uno FLILF Elizabeth Kucinich even particpated in an interview with Jason Jones. She had a good sense of humor about the whole thing and with that gorgeous red hair is incredibly easy on the eyes. Even if her husband doesn't go to higher office, some news show should consider hiring her for regular political commentary as people are bound to watch just to take a gander. For me, the answer is yes, big loud yes. Give us a FLILF!

Click here to get video of the hilarious segment.

TV Quick Hits 10/26

Stargate: Atlantis - Blah episode. Shepard goes out and about, gets captured by a group that wants him to control an Ancient ship so they can use it to fight the wraith. Battle of wills ensue and eventually the group gets the ship and Shepard set free. The main problem with the ep is the woman playing the group's leader as she frankly couldn't act herself out of a cardboard box. Almost no inflection and no real acting skill was on display. It reminded me of a high school play. She looked good, real good, but looks are not enough so bad it makes you wonder who she is the girlfriend of within the show). The show implied the character could return, if so hopefully recast.

Friday Night Lights - Problem with this season is two many silly subplots. You have the murdering beauty and the geek storyline. You have the rebellious daughter acting like a jealous 6 year old of her baby sis and trying to nail the older man. Lila, still being the good christian, decides to befriend the hot convict and get him a job. Then there is the wheelchair man going down to Mexico to get shark crap injected in his spine, cause everyone knows Mexico is a haven of medicine. Really the only interesting story is the team as a whole, Coach Taylor, and of course the stunning Connie Britton. Thats a whole lot of dull going on.

Las Vegas - Funny running gag with Piper (lovely and dimpled Camille Guaty) in various Halloween costumes trying to scare the guys and failing. Delinda has to deal with a nutty and pregnant pastry chef. Mike helps his girl from an abusive husband (cause his running "joke" is always dating women with major issues). His solution is to go mano-o-mano and as the police pull up, toss him a gun so it looks like he was going to get shot. Kind of silly but whatever. Sam decides to participate in high stakes poker with the Tom Selleck, gets her rear handed to her and loses her lucky coin (where that come from?). All in all, other ho hum episode.

Women's Murder Club - Mom dies and the obsessive gym trainer did it, accidently cause didn't know about a latex allergy, which he used to tie her up. Not explained well how got there with the "evidence". The mix of serious with the light (mostly relationship related) is handled well. In the relationship part Lindsay agrees to a blind date just to make the ex jealous. Jill gets in trouble for taking in the now orphaned daughter and gets written up by the evil Denise (Linda Park, still looking off). Not idea where going with the evil boss thing as stuff like that gets boring real freaking quick because its so one note. Hopefully its a short term thing.

Moonlight - Rogue vampire killing escorts and Mick must hunt him down, but only realizing this after the initial goal was to find a missing girl. Beth (yums Sophia Myles) gets involved because she correctly surmised the serial killer angle. Pretty good fight on a roller coaster. More elaborate then television usually goes for.

Numbers - On the hunt for a bank robber who donates the loot to charity, the targets loot being gained through various nefarious ways. Helps bust them too. Navi Rawat remains absolutely stunning. Turns out the robin hood was doing it because his brother died fighting a fire for a runaway shelter.

TV Quick Hits 10/25

Smallville - Lana Lang evil? Turns out that Lana was helping to keep Lionel Luther prisoner but sadly he escaped (why not kill him?). The story is a superhero show is filming in Smallville and the starlet is in danger cause a comic fiend takes the comic a little to far thinking the film should mirror by having her die. In the act of saving her a few times, the bad guy discovers Clark's alter ego and decides he too needs to lose a love one to become a true hero (shades of Flash's Zoom). All ends well of course...except Lex visits the guy to hear his story.

Supernatural - Guys goes to a town to stop two demons (and lovers). The female demon has a slight lisp but makes up for it by being absolutely gorgeous. Sasha Barrese plays the bad girl and I couldn't help but notice she would have made a great Bionic Women as far as the visuals go. Anyway the other development is the hint that Sam may have a massive dark side considering he is supposed to take up the mantle of leadership for all demons. Finally the demon gun is back in action thanks to the assistance of the friendly demon blond (the sassy and gorgeous Katie Cassidy). What is her agenda? Me thinks she is Lucifer in disguise. It appears that Supernatural is following the Angel/Buffy model of a season long Big Bad that guides the actions throughout the season until defeated in the season finale. Bout damn time that tradition came back to TV.

Grey's Anatomy - See Bailey missed her son's first Halloween and upset about it. George feels guilty about screwing another women. Meredith helps a boy get ears for free and Alex got his groove on with Ava (the ferry girl) but didn't follow up. So another meh episode. Dr. Hahn (Brooke Smith, attractive to me but not sure why) is back to torment yang

Big Shots - The transvestite black book silliness might be resolved as Terrence bought the book and gave it to Duncan. Course Terrence gets to sack the ex (Paige Turco) so why not. Just glad that storyline (I hope) has been put to bed. Wendy (Amy Sloan) shows off her magnificent body (in lingerie) to have sex with her husband which makes you wonder why he would cheat on such a knockout to begin with. Duncan's daughter (amazingly eyed Peyton List) highers a guy to help her do her job and of course plans to jump him at some point. Course the guy has an agenda of his own. Only on TV can the intern higher another intern to help her. Almost forgot about the other silliness with the Alias guy dressing up in a costume for his kids attention and turns out the ex-wife's boyfriend does the same so they fight.

Survivor - Another tribe interloper goes home, this time Sherea cause they lost a nasty food competition. Like dry heaves gross. On the bright side for the other two interlopers, the preview gave away the merge so the producers goal of a 5 v 5 teams were realized. Good play producers, but could you leave the actually playing to the players next time? Much appreciated.

My Name is Earl - Alyssa Milano guests, still looking fan-freaking tastic and barely looked like she aged a day. She plays the girlfriend of Frank, Earl's inmate friend. Nice to see her sex appeal on display after years of it being suppressed on Charmed. Joy vs Catalina (hmmm) cause of a picture Cat took that shows Joy crapping her pants (being preggers and all). As for the Earl side, his goal was to get Alyssa back with Frank but once he does realizes they need to break up because Frank was holding her back.

30 Rock - Carrie Fisher guests as an ex-writer of a sketch comedy show from the 70s that Liz (Tina Fey) was inspired by. Tina hires her as a guest writer who is more then a bit filthy in her preferences for sketch comedy results in both getting fired (gets job back at the end). Tracy explores his daddy issues with Jack (who ends up playing Tracy's entire family, hilariously). Jenna (the lovely Jane Krakowski) destroys Kenneth's page jack. After sex appeal fails to impress, Kenneth must do a Page-Off to keep his position or get transferred to CNBC. Sadly no page off occurs as everyone ordered back to work.

The Office - Dunder-Mifflin decides to run ads locally. Instead of simply waving their hands like supposed to, Michael tries to create his own which of course gets rejected.

Scrubs - The return of my favorite comedy on TV. Partly because of the ever more gorgeous Sarah Chalke. I swear the girl gets better looking every year. Anyway, the cliffhanger ending is that Elliot and JD where going to do it but that gets resolved in five seconds by them not. Despite not getting busy with JD, Elliot breaks off the marriage with Keith. Preggers Kim (yummy Elizabeth Banks) is still around. The rest of the guys (including Kelso) get involved in helping Joe, the patient with the great smile. The Janitor gets a girlfriend named Lady. Still doesn't have a name...yet. JD realizes he doesn't love Kim but will stay anyway for the child (depressing thought).

ER - Most of it boring but the Morris bit was funny. He's wearing a promise ring, which woman think is a wedding ring. So he is constantly getting hit on, including from some outstanding twins. Suffice it to say, knowing the hotties hitting on him is quite painful. When twins hit on you and you have to so no, can't help but feel for the man.

Law & Order: Criminal Intent - Forgot this show moved to USA Network. Had to hit the internets to get the first three eps. Still as interesting as was in the past. Alicia Witt joins the cast. Freaking gorgeous natural redhead (rare those) and even if didn't like the show probably watch just cause a fan. Her character not so realistic. The girl is too pretty to play a tough, socially inept detective. Pretty woman tend to get too many social opportunities growing up to not learn skills. Its why you have the socially inept, few opportunities to learn. She is there for sex appeal and doing a mighty fine job of it.

TV Quick Hits 10/24

Bionic Women - Jamie goes undercover to find out why a recovered POW went kaka and killed all the doctors that where treating him. As part of the identity, she "takes on" a British accent. Which is her real accent, being British and all. What is it with the British and Australians able to do a better American accent then Americans? Michelle Ryan added a few notches to the sexy meter with that accent. As for the story, bad guy gets caught selling the microchip that allows the programming of people to do actions against their will and all is well, especially since Jaime met a man from the CIA to bump uglies with.

Life - Uh forgot to pay attention. Something about a pimp who managed to surround himself with nothing but knockouts and one of them died.

Criminal Minds - The lovely (but better with long hair) Suzanne Cryer guests as the aunt of a kidnapped girl in a mall that was locked down preventing the kidnapper and girl from leaving. At first the Minds crew thinks its a serial pedophile who kills them within an hour but the right questions and hints, learn that the uncle was molesting the girl and the aunt decided that if the girl was killed it would fix her marriage and husband. The girl lives. Sadly the criminal couple leave behind a boy. Overall, no deaths, maybe a first for the series, but a sad story nonetheless. Well executed as always.

CSI: NY - Second Life advertising fest as an assassin kills a person to claim her popular avatar to give the assassin access to murder a US Senator that was sleeping with the now dead girl. Pretty over the top and convoluted story. Entertaining too. Amazingly enough, the killer gets away. Doesn't happen often on the CSI shows.

Private Practice - Stuff happened I guess. Didn't care enough to remember it so could make snarky comments about it.

Dirty Sexy Money - Brian's wife learns he had a boy with another women, wants a divorce. The twins continue to bicker over the other woman, who isn't really preggers. Nick talks to Simon to figure out what his dad was doing with the rival billionaire, basically comes down to him being an advisor and was about to quit and work for Simon. Jeremy later loses it a bit once confirms the pregger lie cause knows that most of the people in his life want him for his moolah. Considering what a waste of space he is, no one would want the character for his personality. I think supposed to feel bad for him but can't, the writers forgot to set him up better. Also apparently paintings of ants is big money in New York. Don't understand it either.