TVSquad

(S08E09) Suddenly, it's game on! After this week's double elimination, we're left with our final six competitors. Now they've no choice but to start playing the game. No more of this "who deserves to be here" crap, because there's a quarter of a million dollars on the line and they're starting to smell the finish line.

With Tracey gone, it looks like the producers have found their next "villain," though it could just as easily be a case of the whineys with another contestant -- a contestant with a history of whining.

Both challenges were endurance events, with one having the contestants jump up and grab tennis balls secured to a panel by velcro strips, and the other having them jump off a trampoline and through a hoop a couple of hundred times. When Ali announced that it took 100 jumps through a contestant's hoops to eliminate them, I was flabbergasted. I was also pretty sure we were going to see an injury.

Remember when Tek was voted off of Hell's Kitchen a few weeks ago? Then what the hell was she doing working in the kitchen on this week's episode?

This wasn't one of those deals where a former contestant comes back to help the remaining contestants for some reason, this was... odd. They didn't interview her or point her out and Ramsay didn't say "Tek, what the hell are you doing here, you donkey?! Didn't I kick you out? And how did you get your chef's jacket back? Jean-Philippe, what's going on?"

Today is Mother's Day, and while J.J. Abrams' new big screen version of Star Trek re-imagines the mythology of the Enterprise crew and vanquishes Spock's mother Amanda in an alternate time line, I prefer to remember Spock's mother the way she was on television. On the original Star Trek episode that aired on November 17, 1967, "Journey to Babel," introduced Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan and his lovely human wife Amanda, when they boarded the Enterprise on a diplomatic mission. It was a shock to Captain Kirk to discover that the elegant older couple were not merely envoys, they were in fact, Spock's parents.

Damn the TCA's, screw billboards and to hell with magazine advertising! Slowly, ever so slowly, TV networks are beginning to realize that the Internet is the way to go to promote new and ongoing shows. The ways I mentioned above, those are the Stone Age, man. The newfangled World Wide Web is how their shows are going to become hits.

Case in point: the season 3 premiere of Kyle XY. While it's network television premiere is next Monday on ABC Family, you denizens of the technological world can see it over at Fancast right now. Heck, you can't even see it on ABC Family's website -- those primitives. For the interested, this is the conclusion to the season two cliffhanger that left Kyle searching for the abducted Amanda.

Look, if you are one of those people who like to stay one step ahead of everyone else, get your butt over to Fancast and watch the premiere. Then, you can let all of your commoner friends know what happened. Just make sure you limber up first because you are sure to be chased by fans of the show after you reveal all the spoilers.

(S09E06) "Cups are a very essential part of life, ya know. We use 'em for drinkin' and what not." --Matt on Big Brother taking away all the drinking cups in the house after last week's HOH competition

Do you see how much vital information you can learn from CBS's Big Brother 9? Did you know about the power of the drinking cup before this? I didn't. The cup and his brethren, the glass, have taken on a whole new meaning for me. Matt, you have officially rocked my world. Matt also told us to never trust anyone with pink hair. Wonder who he's referring to?

More of Matt's nuggets and a recap of last night's Big Brother 9 is after the jump.

(S03E20) It feels weird calling this episode of Entourage a season finale since we have new episodes starting up in just two weeks. It's not exactly normal TV convention for a season to end and a new one to begin so quickly -- but hey, I'm not complaining. What we got here was essentially a culmination of the series thus far. It's everything that Vince and E have worked so hard for and now it's finally paying off. Walsh is on board too and Medellín is officially a go. So as the season ends in normal Entourage fashion with Vince heading off to make his next pic, who knows what's in store.

If only this were true. Seems like the crew behind HBO's Entourage had some extra dough laying around because they took out a fake Emmy consideration ad for Drama's role in Five Towns in today's issue of Variety. Hilarious, huh? Well it gets even better. Johnny Chase himself wrote a short letter to the readers of Variety, discussing how stressful the Emmy season can be for a veteran actor such as himself. It's definitely worth reading if only for his vivid imagination as well as his plan to bang the "hot presenter" after smelling her perfume. Johnny Drama at his finest! He is like a punch in the gut!

[via Defamer]

Now here's something you don't see every day. A reason to actually feel good about the fact that you pay for HBO. Get this! Entourage is taking no time off between seasons three and four! Well... one week, but that doesn't really count does it?

That's right folks. When the show returns on Sunday, June 3, it'll wrap up its twenty episode third season with the finale "Adios, Amigos." The following week, there's no episode because it's The Sopranos series finale and the series premiere of John From Cincinnati. Then a week after that (Sunday, June 17), Entourage is back with the premiere of its twelve episode fourth season. My friends, get excited because that is a whole lotta Johnny Drama.

For some slightly spoilerish info (straight from the HBO press release) and the schedule (in case my previous paragraph confused you), keep reading.

(S03E19) "I'm not gonna pull a Clooney... not yet!" -Drama

As much as I've enjoyed the recent string of episodes, this one definitely best resembles the Entourage I remember. We had it all. Great story, some classic Johnny moments, and one of the most insane situations Vince has ever gotten himself into. Medellín is a go (finally!), but it certainly didn't come together the way I expected.

(S03E18) "Don't tell me you whack off to The Warriors..." -Ari

One of the things that's impressed me about this second half of Entourage's third season, is the way the show has grown. It's evolved into something much more than just a comedy program full of fart and boob jokes. Even the episodes that aren't loaded with the funny can still be excellent and this installment was no exception. To see where our four main characters were once at and where they've ended up is just very cool to watch. Drama's personal growth has been something of a hardship (that's putting it lightly) and to see him finally achieve success is immensely rewarding for a viewer.

(S03E17) "Sorry E, the Manneschevitz does not flow until sundown!" -Ari

Well that was a long time coming. Amanda is out and Ari is back in. I have to be honest though. I wasn't too enthralled with this episode only because I had a pretty good feeling as to how it was going to end. I mean, of course Medellín was going to fall through and of course Amanda was going to get blamed. Was there any other logical way for her to make an exit short of giving Vince some sort of rash? I kid about that, but I suppose you have to wonder. She was so quick to hop in the sack with Vince... how many other clients has she "gotten to know?" It doesn't really matter though because Ari is back and he seems more determined than ever.

(S03E16) "So why don't you and your hoopty just move along." - Drama

Johnny (or should I say John Chase?) seems to be consistently getting every funny line Entourage offers lately, and much like Vince feels about Amanda, I sort of like it. Speaking of Amanda, my suspicions were confirmed. She's smitten over her client and while Vince says he feels the same way, I get the impression that Amanda is far more head over heels than Vince is. We've seen Vince get that way with Mandy Moore. He's not even close to that level. She's falling for him, he's still on a high from the single(?) night of sex, and the best part is that their little tryst was only one part of this great episode.

(S03E15) "I'd buy diseased fish from her." - Drama
I second that, not just because Amanda is smoking hot, but because this is the Entourage I remember. This was an extremely solid episode and quite possibly the best one we've gotten from season three. The only one I can recall liking as much was "Vegas Baby, Vegas," and that one was good partly due to it not having any real ties to the rest of the season. It sat by itself. This episode sticks right to the story line we've been running with and that makes it all that much better in my book.

(S03E14) "We may be whores at my agency, but we ain't pimps." -Ari
This wasn't exactly the best Entourage episode, especially after how much I enjoyed last week's mid-season premiere. However, I still really liked this one a lot for some different reasons. The whole "break-up" between Vince and Ari has really done wonders for the show and while it was a little rough this week, I really like the direction it's headed. If you think about it, the entire series to date has been about the client/agent relationship between Vince and Ari. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this may have been the first episode where the two of them didn't talk even once.

(S03E13) "This town's not safe for a bitch."
It certainly isn't. What we have here is a good thing. Something you don't often see on television. Usually after a mediocre run of episodes, you expect a show to keep heading in the same direction. No matter how much you may love it, you expect the same mediocrity. Entourage has gone ahead and blown away all my expectations. This show feels new again. The way it did when it first premiered. Suddenly, there's this extremely serious tone and to top it off? It's just as funny as it ever was.