TVSquad

(S06E12) "Sorry - he Jason Bourne'd me." - Drama

Huh?!? Was that really an Entourage season finale? It was so... good. It was as if every conversation I've ever had with my buddies after another season of Entourage and all of the "man, I really wish they had done this or included that" requests were jammed into this episode. Maybe Entourage should have double-length installments more often.

Anything to ensure that Ari always walks around with a paintball gun.

Usually television shows, especially comedies, should try to end a strong note and Jay Leno's Friday show did just that. Well, the last part did.

The interviews were much improved, including the dreaded "Ten@Ten" segment, the comedy worked for the most part and the show finally seems to be fitting around Jay the way a plastic shrink wrapper engulfs its product. Except there are quite a few air bubbles that need pounding.

Have you seen the annoying new ad campaign for the ESPN SportsCenter relaunch? If you watch even a half-hour of ESPN programming -- or like me, Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption -- you can't miss these commercials.

There's a young, 20-something guy named Steve running around with a bulky, scoreboard-like digital clock with a strap that hangs around his neck like he's a peanut vendor at a baseball game.

The ads show him going through his day -- working out at the gym, jogging -- while he's waiting for the launch of the new, 9-hour SportsCenter on August 11. The commercials are completely live, which I grant you is novel, but they are not funny, clever or up to the ESPN standard. I hate them. They're jarring, poorly done and, like I said, annoying. I guess some genius in marketing decided that any way to make the viewer remember that a new format is coming is good enough.

Here's a sample of Steve's work (don't say I didn't warn you!):

(S33E01) "All-But-Certain-To-Be Next President" (Cold Open): This was a funny piece, but it didn't pack the punch I would have expected for a season premiere open. Oh! Hi, Darrell Hammond. Still here, huh? No, it's not a problem, man. It's just that you've been crashing here for a while and, well, you haven't really been doing much to contribute. And we've kind of been wondering when you'd be moving out -- Yeah, I guess your Bill Clinton voice is still pretty funny and I guess it'll come in handy some time in the near future. Okay, I suppose it's okay if you stay for a little while longer. Just try not to creep out the younger folks, okay?

With the announcer not cutting in until about halfway through the cast, it must have sucked to have such a slip-up this early in the episode. Was that even Don Pardo doing the voices for the cast intro? At first, it sounded like someone doing an impression of him.

According to Sports Illustrated, the Cleveland Cavaliers' all-star forward and ubiquitous sports entity LeBron James has signed on to host the season premiere of Saturday Night Live in September.

James will join a long list of sports icons who have hosted the NBC sketch comedy show which more recently includes Peyton Manning and Derek Jeter. No word if his booking on SNL was related to his recent co-hosting gig of ESPN's ESPY Awards, but apparently he did quite well alongside Jimmy Kimmel.

I personally think this is a great choice to open up SNL's 33rd season. He seems like a genuinely nice guy with a good sense of humor. He's made plenty of goofy commercials for companies like Nike and moreover, when it comes to SNL, good episodes often stem from a host who's a bit awkward and out of their realm. This might be one of those instances.

First of all, Comedy Central finally has a new Daily Show cast picture. It took 'em long enough. Everyone looks really good (you can see it here, but it's a massive image)... Neither Aasif Mandvi nor Larry Wilmore are included, as you can see. It looks like we're back to having the cast a strict shade of pale.

This week's programming consists of four days of midterm coverage, titled "Battlefield Ohio: Midwest Midterm Midtacular". The cast and crew are spending their time at Ohio State University, with a shiny new set to reflect the glamour of Ohio and the snazziness of midterms. The first part of the night's episode was written for the Ohio/midwest folk (I've spent most of my life on the East Coast, so Joel had to tell me about the midwest's excessive chain restaurants situation). Although I understood the Applebee's and Bob Evans jokes, I'm sure I would have enjoyed them much more if I actually lived in the state.