Oscar Live Blog 2012!

Hello everyone, I'm back. After taking some time off to deal with some outside things, I'm back to writing about television on this site.

To get everything going again, I thought I would start out with the return of the Oscar live blog for the 2012 Oscars. Things are going to look a little different for my second go around, as I won't be using the Cover It Live system. Basically, I will be updating this post with all my thoughts on the ceremony throughout the night.

My thoughts are after the jump!

Will Your Favorite Show Be Renewed or Cancelled?: 1st Edition

Last season I did a series of posts on which shows on TV will be renewed and which series would be cancelled. Now, this series of posts has been "renewed" for the 2011-2012 season. (Frankly, they did better then most of my posts about normal television.) I will be posting one of these every 3-4 weeks.

What these posts are is a list of shows, my prediction of their fates, and analysis of my predictions for each of the broadcast networks. (I was asked to do this for cable, but it's just too difficult to predict those due to many other factors being involved.)

All that is after the jump.

Best of 2011: Top Ten Series

Welcome to the second and final of my year end blog posts. (I should have a few more posts before the end of the year, but this will be my last one on 2011 as a whole.)

At the end of the year, critics like to look back at the television of the past year. One of the most popular way of doing this is by making a top ten list. I decided to join in the fun, making my list of ten series.

Without further ado, let's get to the ten. They are after the jump along with a list of honorable mentions.

Best of 2011: Top 10 Episodes of 2011

Welcome to my first post on the best of 2011! This is a series of posts that will publish over the next three days. These will highlight what I think was the best of television to air over the past year. (*)

(*) Disclaimer: I cannot say that I have seen everything, or even the vast majority of what is on television. This is purely coming from my sample of TV.

The first list will be my top ten episodes to air over the past year. My process was this: I picked one episode from each show that I thought was worthy of consideration, and then I narrowed down that list to ten episodes. It led to some very difficult decisions and the cutting of some very good episodes of television.

The final ten that I picked are after the jump. (They are presented in alphabetical order by episode title.)

November Sweeps Catch Up: How I Met Your Mother

Robin and Barney share a moment on "How I Met Your Mother"
Credit: CBS

I take a look at the current state of How I Met Your Mother after the jump.

Alex's TV Watch is Back!

Hello, everyone!

This is the last time I will be writing such a post. I'm back, this time I mean it. October happened to be a month where my time for writing was slim. Writing is not my career, so sometimes things get in the way.

However, I'm back. It's time to get back to writing about television in what should be 4-5 posts per week.

However, I won't be returning to weekly reviews for a little bit. I have a lot of TV writing on which I need to catch up. To do this, I will be creating a new series of posts that should last me through the end of the month. "November Sweeps Catch up" will cover many of the series that are airing on broadcast TV. The day after the latest episode of a series airs, I will be dissecting the series on an overall level.

This will start tonight, with a review of the series "Once Upon a Time."

On the Old TV Watch Project, this will resume full time on Sundays in January. I will be continuing my coverage of Veronica Mars season 1 at that point. On the Serenity front, that review will happen before the end of the year, as soon as I find time to watch the two hour movie and write about it.

Thank you all for reading, and I'm looking forward to us sharing our thoughts on television with each other.

RIP Steve Jobs

The computer industry lost a truly important figure today. Steve Jobs has died at the age of 56.

Since getting my first iPod several years ago I have never turned back. Jobs has completely changed the way I (and the world) look at technology.

Appropriately and sadly, I am typing this post on my iPhone.

I will leave this thread open for discussion of his role in the computer/music/MP3 player/phone/ tablet industry.

New Show Review: FX's American Horror Story

Connie Britton Stars in "American Horror Story"
Credit: FX

My review of the new series "American Horror Story" is after the jump.

Archer-"Heart of Archness Parts I, II, and III"

Again, the cast of "Archer"
Credit: FX

The final part of the Archer "special assignment" just finished airing on FX, and I have some thoughts on it after the jump.

Pilot Review: "New Girl"

Isn't Zooey Deschanel "adorkable" on "New Girl"?
Credit: FOX

Some thoughts on the pilot of the new series New Girl are after the jump.

Season Premiere Review: Two and a Half Men-"Nice to Meet You, Walden Schmidt"

Ashton Kutcher joins the cast of "Two and a Half Men"
Credit: CBS

Some quick thoughts on the premiere of Two and a Half Men are after the jump.

Emmy Live Blog 2011!

Like I mentioned in my Fall TV post from earlier today, I will be covering the Emmys in a very similar way to how I covered the Oscars. I will be live blogging the ceremony. I use the Cover It Live system which allows you to join in the fun and comment along with me.

It will start tonight at 7:30PM tonight! I can't wait for you guys to join us!

Archer-"Heart of Archness: Part I"

The Cast of "Archer"
Credit: FX

I was lucky enough to have my screener of the fall premiere of Archer arrive today. Unfortunately, that didn't give me enough time to write a full review of the episode before the episode aired.

So, all I will say is that this was absolutely hysterical. It continued its plotline in a way that was both brilliant and hysterical. I found myself laughing at this half hour of television more then anything I have watched in a good long time. The one liners flew out of the characters' mouths so quickly. I barely had time to recover before the next one liner had me falling over with laughter. Seriously. This was good.

What I also loved about it was that it was based in a very genuine place. Archer is dealing with the grief of his fiance dying in a very genuine way. I can't wait to see what Adam Reed and crew have cooked up for the rest of this mini-arc. That ending at the pirate fortress was a very good place end part one.

What did everyone else think?

Up all Night-"Pilot"

Regan and Chris spend some time with their baby on "Up All Night"
Credit: NBC

I just watched last night's airing of the pilot and I have some quick thoughts on it after the jump.

Emmy Picks 2011: Who Will Win? Who Should Win?

Margo Martindale from "Justified"
Credit: FX

It's that time of year folks, the Emmys are here! I have previously announced that on Sunday I will be live blogging the ceremony, but for now, I would like to share my predictions. This post will consist three items for each category: The nominees, who will win, an who should win. I will be taking a look at comedy and drama series, the major acting awards, the major writing awards, and the major directing awards. All that is after the jump.

Fall TV 2011!

"Chuck" will be a show that is covered regularly on this site.
Credit: NBC

It's that time of year again folks! The fall TV season started yesterday, so I'm a day late in publishing my "What I will cover this fall" post. Everything you need to know about my coverage of the fall TV season is after the jump.

Season Finale: Suits-"Dogfight"

The Cast of "Suits"
Credit: USA

Some thoughts on the finale of Suits, and the season as a whole, are after the jump.

Breaking: Early Access to Pottermore has Begun

Credit: Pottermore/J.K. Rowling/WB

I just woke up to a big surprise in my email. I now have access to Pottermore! My early access account has just been activated.

The Pottermore insider has confirmed this with the following statement:

We’re excited to announce that early access to Pottermore has begun, so if you’re one of the million people who found The Magical Quill and registered for early access, please read the rest of this Insider post carefully.

The most important thing to know is that we need to stagger entry to the ‘Beta’ (early) version of Pottermore so we can properly collect all the feedback. To begin with, we’ll be inviting a very small number of people onto the website, so you may not receive your Welcome email straight away.

We’ll be sending those Welcome emails out over the coming weeks and, once yours arrives, you’ll be able to log in and start helping us develop the Pottermore experience. 

If you want me to continue to update this story with early findings please comments.

See you in Pottermore!

White Collar-"Countdown"

The cast of "White Collar"
Credit: USA

Some thoughts on the midseason finale of White Collar are after the jump.

Hello Everyone, It's Been Awhile...

Hello readers, it's been awhile.

I would like to apologize to you all for my prolonged absence from the blogosphere over the past few weeks. I know that when you read this blog you expect me to be there writing new posts, and I haven't been there recently.

I could rant about how I'm enjoying summer, how my summer job is very tiring (for the record, I make no money on this site at this point), and how my summer work is taking up a lot of time but I won't. I know that I don't feel like writing long tirades on those subjects, and that you don't want to read paragraphs and paragraphs about excuses.

What I want to do is get back to writing between 2 and 5 posts a week about television. This will happen immediately.

Although, there is one more detail I want to work out. I have been horrible about the Old TV Watch Project. Three series proved to be way too much to run at the same time.

Here's my proposal: First, we finish off Firefly with a Serenity review. I know there are people who email me often about that and I feel awful for not getting to it when it was scheduled in June. That will be online Thursday. Then, it becomes a little more complicated. I don't think I can make this a weekly project. I think I'm going to make this more like Myles McNutt's catchup project and write about one season at a time, when I have time to write it.

So how it would work is whenever I have time to watch and episode or two and throw together a post, I'll do that. I will probably end up posting 2-4 posts a month. As for the show, I though long and hard about this. In the end, it came down to pageviews, and my Veronica Mars posts are higher viewed then my Friday Night Lights posts. So, what I'm going to do is write as many posts as I can, when I can write them. I will give you 24 hours notice on each post to watch the episodes on DVD or on theWB.com. Friday Night Lights will resume as soon as I finish Veronica Mars Season 1.

So, let's get back to it! Look for some brief thoughts on the White Collar midseason finale publishing at 10PM.