HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER: Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap

It’s that wonderful time of year again. When you get together with loved ones to give thanks, share great food, create memories…and cause Barney to flinch uncontrollably in fear. It’s SLAPSGIVING! So put your slappetizer down, tie your friend to a chair and let us give thanks to another new episode of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER.

It’s the first Thanksgiving at Lily and Marshall’s Dowistrepla apartment. But Marshall was extremely bummed out when after finding the perfect Thanksgiving turkey he left it in a cab. Thankfully he has great friends like Ted and Robin who went to the Port Authority to find his turkey. To show them how much they mean to him, Marshall gave them one of the greatest gifts he could bequeath unto them: the fourth slap! I know this is the Thanksgiving episode but for me, Christmas came early!

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Tonight’s TV Spotlight…Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Good morning! Just a few days until Turkey Day, are you excited? I’m hungry just thinking about it.

Sorry for the lack of updates yesterday. I had a rough day, and right now pain trumps pretty much anything I want to do.  Here’s to today being a bit better. I have a smorgasbord of television to watch dating back from this weekend. On Thursday I’ll be sure to give extra thanks to the people that made the Slingbox. I don’t know what I would do without it.

Lots going on tonight.  We’ve got the last episode of V until the new year.  Most of America (sadly) will be watching the DANCING WITH THE STARS finale. I DWTS watched (by force) last night.  I could care less who wins, but I’m pulling for Kelly Osbourne. Mya and Donny have had dance training in the past so I don’t think they should win. And really, don’t you think we should stop encouraging Donny Osmond, or any Osmond at this point.

Oh good lord, I just wrote a whole paragraph about DWTS. I blame it on the pain meds.

Check out the late night listings below to see if any of your favorite stars will be chatting it up. I’m looking forward to seeing TRUE BLOOD star Ryan Kwanten on CHELSEY LATELY. Although, I think I’d rather have dumb as rocks Jason Stackhouse on the show. Ha!

On to tonight’s TV!

What will YOU be watching?

V | 8pm on ABC
“It’s Only the Beginning”
Anna meets with a special guest aboard the mother ship; Chad finds himself conflicted by some of his discoveries at the V Healing Centers. [GMMR: This is the last episode of V until March 2010. Give a shout in the comments below if you are watching? I’d love to know what you all think.]

So You Think You Can Dance | 8pm on Fox
“Top 12 Perform”
The remaining 12 dancers compete for your votes. Tonight’s show is very important as the 10 dancers still left after tomorrow night will be part of the summer SYTYCD tour.

The Biggest Loser | 8pm on NBC
Suze Orman talks to the contestants about the connection between health and wealth; the contestants take a health quiz; former professional football player Rod Woodson helps start an NFL challenge.

NCIS | 8pm on CBS
“Child’s Play”
Thanksgiving plans are put on hold while the NCIS team investigates the horrific death of a Marine.

NCIS: Los Angeles | 9pm on CBS
“Random on Purpose”
Forensic scientist Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette) joins the team when a murder case resembles the pattern of a serial killer she has been tracking.

(More of tonight’s TV spotlight after the jump)

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V | 8pm on ABC

Anna meets with a special guest aboard the mother ship; Chad finds himself conflicted by some of his discoveries at the V Healing Centers.

DEXTER: Hungry Man

Wow. Really? Didn’t see that one coming! The last couple of seconds of this episode will have to be explained next week, but it certainly raises a lot of questions. I’ll go through a quick recap and then we’ll handle all of the turkey day festivities.

Dexter snuck into Arthur’s for Thanksgiving after he talked to Jonah. As the day progressed, we gwe saw how utterly nutty the entire Mitchell family actually is. Sally is terrified and in denial. Rebecca wants to get out so badly that she is willing to give Dexter “whatever he wants.” Yikes. Arthur breaks Jonah’s fingers because he can. Everything comes to a head when no one is thankful for Arthur. Jonah is almost killed by Arthur, who, in turn, is almost killed by Dexter.

Back at the Morgan household, the neighbor guy hits on Rita and Masuka watches it all go down. He wants to bolt, but Deb needs him there to keep her mind off Frank. While there, Deb has two epiphanies. 1) Trinity is planning his kills around some sort of school schedule, and 2) Christine Hill, the reporter, had to know more than she was privy to about Frank’s death.

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SNL – Al Gore on Weekend Update

Al Gore is passionate about the environment. So much so that he’s going to go a little crazy.

SNL – What Up With That (feat. Al Gore & Mindy Kaling)

It’s not often that I find an SNL skit featuring Kenan Thompson funny. But I had a good chuckle during last night’s “What Up With That” segment. Thompson was right on the money with his performance, but or me Jason Sudekis’ bit part as a background dancer really had me rolling.

As a fan of THE OFFICE, I was excited to see Mindy Kaling, even if she didn’t do anything.  Just wondering how she managed to keep a straight face.

SMALLVILLE: Pandora

Was Chloe great in this week’s Smallville or what?! Seeing Lois and Clark decide to date also marked this episode as one of my favorites. To bad it all stops here until January 23rd.

The writers did however deliver a cliffhanger for fans that have been waiting for Lois’ flash backs to finally be pieced together. The view into the future didn’t hold a happy ending for most of Smallville residents. Chloe and Tess both die. I almost felt bad for Tess when she explained that her only intentions were to safe the earth, and just how insensitive Chloe was about shooting an arrow right into her stomach was surprising. Who knew she would turn into this hard core warrior princess that was no longer friends with Clark or that she could mistrust him so much after all they have been through.

Oliver was still around in the future as well to save the day. Chloe and Oliver’s union to fight evil was interesting. The most symbolic moment was when Oliver was on the floor crying over Tess after Chloe shot her. Talk about the tables being turned. Oliver was right where Clark had once been with him. This brings me to the scene where we see Clark and Lois together in the heat of the moment.

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BONES: The Foot in the Foreclosure

Before we get into a discussion of last night’s episode, I have a special announcement.

Mark your calendars! Set a reminder on your iPhone! On December 10th, we’re going to host another LIVE BONES CHAT. I thought it would be nice if we could watch the BONES Christmas episode together. The episode features Zooey Deschanel, Ryan O’Neal and Booth in his boxers. Hello! Are you in? RSVP in the comments.

Hey there, BONES fans! How are things? Did you like this episode? I don’t know if it caught me on a bad day or what (actually, it did), but it felt a little forced to me. I guess I could have handled a two or three episode arc with Pops, and getting all of that storyline across in one episode seemed like too much. I will say that once again like last week, while Booth was centric to the episode, it was really more of a commentary of Brennan’s character development. Loved that.

THE CASE:

A pretty good case, I thought. Booth and Brennan are called to a home for sale, and in the bedroom is a body (or two, as we find out) completely incinerated with the exception of a foot. Also a hand is somewhat salvageable. Booth and Brennan are cute at the crime scene. Never thought I would say that, but I’m not complaining. There are a few suspects in the deaths of Meg and Hugo. Meg’s roommate; the capitalizing real estate agent; the home owner, etc.

BONES managed to gain justice and sympathy in the end when it was revealed that Howard, the original home owner was the murderer. On the advice of the realtor, he’d moved out of the house. But he just wanted to sleep in the bed he’d carved for himself and his late wife. Seeing Meg and Hugo in the bed was enough to incite him to murder, ironically using the handmade bedpost toppers as weapons.

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SUPERNATURAL: Abandon All Hope

Okay guys, this was a major moment in the SUPERNATURAL-verse and there seem to be a lot of mixed feelings and strong reactions from the little of the online feedback that I’ve seen. One thing is for sure – we fans won’t ever forget the episode where we said goodbye to Ellen and Jo, who, if they had to go, got a pretty amazing send-off. They kicked major ass and were far and away the big heroes of the episode. Jo saved Dean’s life and lost her own as a result. Ellen sacrificed herself to stay behind go out in a blaze of glory with her dying daughter and allow Sam and Dean to continue the hunt for Lucifer. We’ll come back to all this in a few.

Since Becky conveniently gave Sam a hot tip on the Colt at the end of last week’s episode, we begin this week with the Three Musketeers tracking down Crowley to go about getting the gun back. Cas finds Crowley closing a deal under a bridge with a big-shot banker. I guess even the government handouts weren’t enough for some and they had to deal with the big guy downstairs to get the job done (would anyone be surprised?). Cas reports that the deal is “going down” as he speaks to Dean – I love when Cas uses colloquial terms in an attempt to blend with Sam and Dean – it always fails but always makes me laugh. He follows Crowley to his palatial mansion that’s handily covered in angel-repelling graffiti, so Dean, Jo and Sam join the party since they can get past the gates while Crowley relaxes inside. I can’t tell you how many nights I’ve come home from a long day at work, poured myself a stiff drink and sat back with a little Aaron Neville and some nice uplifting Nazi propaganda films. It’s the only way to cap off a day, really.

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THE VAMPIRE DIARIES: The Turning Point

Alright, so last night was our last episode before TVD goes on its break until January 14, which feels like forever away, right? I was actually kind of bummed out while I was watching this episode, because I decided to watch Supernatural first (BIG mistake) and because I had the hiatus information in the back of my head.

Still, there was a lot to love about this episode, not the least of which was Stefan and Elena. (Caution: If you haven’t seen the episode, just stop now. You’ll want to be surprised.) YOU GUYS. These two are such drama queens but I love them together and I can’t help it. They just have really nice chemistry, and I know people complain that Stefan is boring and a buzzkill, and you know, I see it, but at the same time, I stand by my opinion that whatever emotion we see out of him seems way more legit as a result. When Elena told him she loved him and he just stopped dead, I swear my heart about stopped. And then when he turned around and came at her to kiss her … WHOA. It was super hot. I had been kind of bummed also that I wasn’t able to get midnight New Moon tickets because I waited too long, but then I saw all this go down and I was like … yeah, I’m happy to be on my couch in my pj’s right now.
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FRINGE: August

First of all, can somebody explain to me why this episode was entitled “August”? I’m guessing that the reason is either (a) completely obvious and just escaping my little brain for no apparent reason or (b) a very minor detail that I failed to catch, likely because I could barely hear the TV over the noise of my husband tearing into our latest DIY project. Help me out — PLEASE!!!

One Less Watching
This episode had not one, not two, but FOUR Observers in it! This makes it difficult for us to continue to refer to Walter’s follicallly challenged friend as “THE” Observer. From here on out, I will call him O1…not to be confused with O2, the star of the mysteriously titled “August” episode.

O2 was observing the 1989 San Francisco earthquake and witnessed a little girl lose both of her parents in the bridge collapse. Her bravery touched him and he experienced feelings, an ability which the other observers appear not to possesa. For the next 20 years, he observed her, even though to the other observers she appeared to be unimportant. On the day that she was meant to die in a plane crash, O2 kidnapped her to prevent it from happening. By doing so, he broke an important rule of observing – he altered the natural order of life.

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Tonight’s TV Spotlight…Friday, November 20, 2009

Aw, man. This is going to be a tough Friday. Of the ten Thursday night shows I recorded, I’ve only watched one. I’m going to do my best to get caught up as quickly as I can, but that means I’m going to have to avoid Twitter, Facebook and the enormity of the world wide web or risk being spoiled.

Keep checking GMMR throughout the day as we’ll be sharing reviews of BONES, THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, PARKS & REC, THE OFFICE, SUPERNATURAL and more.

Before we get into tonight’s TV lineup, I just wanted to say thank for all the well wishes I’ve received as of late from some of you.  The emails have been so nice and they brighten my day. I wanted to let you all know that I found out yesterday that I have to have back surgery (wah wah) sometime over the next few weeks. A little scary, but if it means I’m up and walking around again soon I’m all in! With the help of the always kick ass Team GMMR, we’ll try our best to keep the site going with as little disruption as possible. Thanks!

Geesh, enough of that.  We need to talk Friday night TV! Here are a few highlights from tonight’s lineup.

Smallville | 8pm on The CW
“Pandora”
JTess kidnaps Lois in an attempt to find out where she went during her disappearance; Clark makes a significant decision about Zod.

Monk | 9pm on USA
“Mr. Monk and the Badge”
Monk’s return to the police force becomes more challenging than he anticipated when he becomes involved in investigating a serial killer.

Stargate Universe | 9pm on SyFy
“Life”
Lt. Scott and Camile Wray use the communication stones to visit Earth; the crew discovers a piece of ancient technology that carries a promise of a way home.

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CHUCK Returns in January with New Episodes

Hell yeah!! NBC just sent word that CHUCK will be returning with new episodes in January.  The show was not scheduled to air new episodes until after the Olympics in January.

According to the press release, CHUCK will air back-to-back new episodes on Sunday, January 10th (9-11pm) before moving to it’s regular place on the schedule beginning on Monday, January 11th (8-9pm).

“Josh (Schwartz) and Chris (Fedak) and the writing team are doing a great job this season, and we think the loyal fan base for this show will be happy to see it back on the NBC schedule,” said Angela Bromstad, President, Primetime Entertainment, NBC and Universal Media Studios.

I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t be more excited!

The video below includes info about Season 3. Watch at your own risk.

If you’re a spoiler hound, keep reading after the jump for news on some of the guest stars that will be appearing on CHUCK this season. If you are anti spoiler you should stop reading NOW!
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About Last Night…Your Turn to Be a TV Blogger

So much TV to talk about form last night.  We’ve already covered the SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE results show.  As well as TOP CHEF.  I had hoped to post my review of last night’s GLEE before I left for the day, but I’m only about half-done (what..there was a lot to talk about).  I’ll be posting by GLEE thoughts later in the day, so be sure to check back.

Just because I won’t be around doesn’t mean that YOU can’t talk about your favorite Wednesday night shows.  Ever wanted to be a TV blogger? Well, here’s your chance.  The comments are open for your writing pleasure.  Write a recap/review of MODERN FAMILY, COUGAR TOWN, THE MIDDLE or anything else you watched last night.  Share your favorite moments. Best quotes. Anything you though was worth sharing.  Maybe your comments will help get other GMMR readers to give the show a shot.

So until I get back from the doctor’s, I turn GMMR over to YOU!  Have fun!

TOP CHEF: Culinary Olympics

[GMMR: Before we get into SB’s review of last night’s TOP CHEF, I just wanted to make sure that all of you have entered our TOP CHEF: The Quickfire Challenge Giveaway. The contest ends next week so be sure to enter soon.]

Alright, NOW it’s a competition. There were definitely a lot of times, especially recently, where I thought my original top four might not remain in tact (thanks for the heart attacks, Jennifer), but I think that the top shook out exactly how it should have and I’m happy with how things went.

This episode seemed extremely challenging, maybe one of the hardest challenges I’ve seen on Top Chef. I’d never heard of the Bocuse D’or before, but everyone seemed to treat it with great respect and Michael describing it as like being chosen to represent your country in the Olympics was a good description. So thanks, Michael, I guess I can’t say you never did anything for me.

Speaking of Michael (UGH, do we HAVE to?) I like how he’s now trash-talking everyone. Well, okay, not everyone. I don’t think he takes Eli seriously enough to trash-talk him, and trash-talking Bryan would reflect badly on him, since they do such similar stuff. But he’s still carrying on about Kevin cooking the way Michael cooks on his day off (eye roll), and he’s started in on Jen and how she started off strong but has nowhere to go now. Which, naturally, made me EXTRA proud when Jen won the Quickfire. You go girl! She really needed that. Also, meats inside meats inside meats kind of grosses me out. Turducken? Barf. I know lots of people enjoy that sort of thing, but I am not one of them. Also, food on mirrors? Sort of weird. Apparently this week is, for me, all about NOT wanting to expand my horizons.

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