My favourite new comedy is Party Down, featuring a lot of the Veronica Mars gang. One character I really like is the sci-fi nerd. They reverse the typical character situation, with the attractive popular guy actually being nice and the dorky unpopular nerd actually being a repulsive freak. A classic moment was when he finally had a chance with a woman who said she was into sci-fi, but he realised she meant fantasy and started on a huge rant about how stupid fantasy is.

I remember seeing some things on Arrested Development and wondering how they managed to get approval to show them on Fox. I always assumed that whoever was in charge just didn’t get a lot of the jokes.

Sit Down Shut Up is a new show from the creator of Arrested Development and I’m getting the same (fun) feeling. Shown here is a school fair (a fair fair, because the games are not rigged this year) with the bi-sexual Mexican drama teacher’s mouth used as a target for throwing games.

Olivia Dunham lives here.

The address shown in the show is fake (as is the impossible IP address), but Google Maps shows it to be somewhere around 108 Chestnut Hill, Brighton. Street view makes it clear they don’t shoot on location (I remember reading that Fringe is shot in New York).

So, now you can virtually stalk the fictional character. But be warned, she’s tough.

Both Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Dollhouse have quite bad ratings and are unlikely to return next season. Nothing I say here is new - I’ve read the same things in many places.

Terminator has been really impressive recently. The first season was a little boring, but the second has been much better. The story has played with time travel using multiple timelines (people coming from different futures and creating different pasts). A lot of the episodes are fairly deep, which is probably hard to get approval for when you’re on Fox. It doesn’t rely on one major character and it is brave enough to kill off a favourite in a completely unexpected and abrupt way. For me, it’s taken over from Battlestar Galactica in the nerd entertainment department.

On the other hand, I do not think Dollhouse is worth saving. The main problem is that Eliza Dushku is extremely dull. I’m not sure if she can’t act, or it is a bad character, but I just don’t care about Echo. Some parts of the story have been interesting - I often wonder if it would be better if they killed Echo. Or study Alias, which was a show about a kick-ass chick where you really believed she could be kick-ass and also have a softer side.

In general both shows are about solving a mystery with strong female leads. Unfortunately I only care about one story.

It reminds me of XKCD: his blag on female leads in action movies and (understandable) obsession with Summer Glau (one, two).

Blair and Nate, back together. In high school terms, Nate is the legend of the show. He’s been with every major female cast member approximately his age: Blair, Serena, Jenny, Vanessa and now back to Blair. Although Chuck is catching up, and there is no way Blair will last. I think it’s fantastic that the show can have a complete swap of relationships in a single episode without a lot of drama.

Also, isn’t it a little weird that Chuck would be so welcome at Jenny’s 16th birthday party? After all, he did try to date rape her… twice.

“Worst case, I’ll encrypt the file in a Radiohead mp3 and leave it on Audiogalaxy.” - Sydney Bristow - Alias - Season 1 Episode 3. This went to air on 14th Oct 2001. I was surprised to find that Audiogalaxy still exists in some form today, but more surprised that Sydney was a Radiohead fan.

Page one of Lily Bass’s (nee van der Woodsen) list of former “close friends”. Two important points: (a) Slash!! (we already knew about Trent Reznor) and (b) no mention of a van der Woodsen. Who is Serena and Eric’s father?

I know this isn’t possible, but it would be fantastic if it turned out being Rufus.

Michael, during his profiligation speech.