Episode from 10-16-2016

I am trying to catch up on this blog, although that might be more hard as time goes by if I'm not able to watch the shows on tape I have recorded. In a way, I'm blocked with what I could be watching. Now I have cheats for when I can update this blog which is why you are seeing it updated today. These cheats will be used whenever possible unless they don't work out sometime, in which case, they would be moved back to my TV blog and I would be updating that instead. The way that I update this blog is going to change starting in March. Instead of the Sunday following the first Saturday having a guaranteed post and the next Sunday having a post if there was a new episode of this show then until there was no new episode, at which point the updates would reset to the next month, I'll be alternating Sundays between posting this and another blog. Using a cheat will decide which Sunday the alternations will start on. This will be in addition to any cheat days that I use. The alternations will continue until either April 9th, Palm Sunday, or April 16th, Easter. After that, I plan on posting here every Sunday regarding of old rules. Hopefully I can get caught up on posts at some point, although I don't know yet if I'll have to skip any episodes or not. Now that you've put up with this long, added introduction, let's get to the actual post.

Sometimes I talk about other shows in the useless introduction to this blog. Well, I’m at it again. Gary Glasberg, who is the showrunner of NCIS and NCIS: New Orleans, as well as the creator of NCIS: New Orleans, died during production of NCIS: New Orleans’s third season and NCIS’s fourteenth season. I doubt this is the first instance of a showrunner dying during their show’s production, but this is the first time that I’m familiar with this happening. You do have to wonder how this would affect both shows. You’d think that both shows would have different people take over as showrunner for them.

I noticed a recent episode of NCIS: New Orleans was written by Brad Kern, who was the showrunner of Charmed from its third season onward. He would make a great showrunner. I don’t know if the transition for NCIS: New Orleans will be as smooth as it otherwise could have been if there was a simple replacement. NCIS has already lost its first two showrunners, although this is likely to be their worst change thus far. I guess we’ll see what happens with it in the future.

It’s unlikely that I will be changing any show watching on my list soon, although I will be done with season one of Dollhouse pretty soon. I am replacing it with season one of Gilmore Girls, which I’m borrowing from a friend. I just don’t see a change from one show to another show for quite some time, although I could be finishing them all around the same time. I just hope that I’m able to roll the choices a lot as the rolls don’t always go my way.

Now that it is October, this means that I will be watching any Halloween episodes of certain shows that are next in line in their order of shows that I’m watching on DVD. This also means that I will be able to watch any and all Halloween themed episodes that are next in line as long as it is still this month. So what does all that mean? Well, let’s start with what I haven’t been able to watch. I was watching the first season of The Big Bang Theory and stopped before its Halloween episode. I did the same with the first season of Invader Zim. Interestingly, both of them are shows that I have to start watching again in future years when I have the option of adding them again.

There are other potential things on the list (or waiting to be added to the list) that involve Halloween related episodes. The first season of Power Rangers which I’m watching has a Halloween episode. In fact, in might have two, but one aired in May so I’m not sure it counts. I’ll add Charmed season 2 to the list and the next season has a Halloween episode. Another future addition to the list is the first season of NCIS and the fourth season has a Halloween episode. Those are the only ones I know of where the next holiday related episode of the show is a Halloween one.

I can finally bring you updates as to some of the football consideration that I was doing. I hope to have a full ranking of the teams that I will support at the end of this football season. Anyways, the Colts beat the Bears in that game. I’m still mad at the Colts for effectively delaying even more the season premiere of NCIS: Los Angeles, but since they beat the Chargers in that game, at least they rank ahead of one team. I’m not considering rooting for the Bears long term so this game is practically meaningless to me. The other game of interest, between the Chargers and the Raiders, was a win for the Raiders. In all the teams that they have competed against that I would root for, the Chargers have currently lost all of them, thus making them a good bottom pick, even if they are still in contention for me to root for if they aren’t one that I mentioned last blog post. Hopefully this makes sense.

If I may actually talk about the show for a moment, I’ve noticed that they are not revealing political parties in this show for some odd reason. They won’t say what party Elizabeth and Conrad are from. It seems odd that they wouldn’t reveal their party for sure. I mean, I was under the impression that these people are actually Democrats, but they might actually be Republicans instead. Is there any reason why they haven’t told us what party these people are from? Also, why would supporting the idea of climate change be a problem, even if you are a Republican?

As I check for sports, I notice that neither of the CBS affiliates of mine are showing sports right before primetime. This means that there is certain to be no delays on that network today. Well, not in my region at least. FOX is expected to air football and postgame coverage until 7. The game has the score of Dallas Cowboys 17 and Green Bay Packers 6 going into the start of the third quarter. Now I normally can’t see the score on my standard definition TV on FOX football games, but I do hope to find ways of staying updated and I know where to find it online in case I miss the final score.

As the game progresses, the Cowboys gain more points as the Packers retain the same score. It appears that the Packers are playing poorly this time and the crowd keeps booing them. The score is now Cowboys 20, Packers 9. I won’t be able to keep up with the game full time because at six I leave it to watch 60 Minutes. But I will check the score when I can.

A CBS sports update informs me that the Cowboys won, although I couldn’t see the final score for long. It will be nice having the shows air on time on CBS. I check FOX and they have switched to another game. The Seattle Seahawks are one of the teams playing. I don’t know who the other team is until they mention that it is Atlanta. Which team plays in Atlanta? Who is winning? I don’t know just yet. I switch back to 60 Minutes. I don’t catch the end of the game, but I do look up the score later online. First I’ll tell you about the older game. The Cowboys won against the Packers 30 to 16. I learn that the team from Atlanta is the Falcons. Who won that game? The Seahawks won the close game, 26 to 24.

Today’s episode is brought to you by no delay. We begin with Henry and Elizabeth talking to the FBI about what to do regarding the stolen/hacked laptop. Jason is reluctant to change his hand in his phone. There are problems with a party person who doesn’t like Conrad running as an independent. He also has some sort of health issue.

In segment two, Jason continues to be defiant with his phone and password which gets him grounded. I’ve never been grounded so I have no idea what that’s like or what it means. Elizabeth goes to Algeria, but things go very badly there. Whatever person they are talking with ends up executing someone that Elizabeth’s team was trying to work with.

In segment three, the situation with Algeria seems bad, but Elizabeth works to fix it. She gets information from her husband that helps her decide to fly back to Algeria and work things out. Also, a SWAT team decides to go to Jason’s school after a report of a kid with a gun surfaces.

In segment four, Elizabeth delays her trip for a moment in order to check out the situation with Jason. They suspect that some sort of prank happened. She then flies to Algeria and decides to go elsewhere then the original plan was. This gets her in trouble with the foreign leader.

In segment five, we continue where we left off in the tense Algeria moment. The president of Algeria wants to arrest Elizabeth and the man she is talking to; only the tables turn on him and he gets arrested. There is video of a fake bombing by the looks of things. A note in Jason’s locker makes it seem that whoever did the gun threat can go after their family at any time.

On the next Madam Secretary, it appears that there’s another international crisis, this time with people who might have been taken illegally in some way. I guess that we will find out more for sure when it airs. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode from 10-2-2016

WARNING! This blog contains a lot of unnecessary details that are probably not worth reading. I’ll write in all caps when the important part of this blog post begins. Until then, you’ll have a bunch of random, meaningless junk to read through if you are reading this still. I recommend skipping directly to the next paragraph for your own sake, although you don’t have to if you like my ramblings.

It appears that the new schedule for the season is going to complicate TV shows a bit. I was hoping that NCIS: Los Angeles would move to Sundays after this show so I could start a blog about it and the rest of the NCIS franchise. It turns out that I was right about that show moving, but it will be on before this show instead of after it. That means that I won’t be able to create a blog about it for the moment at least. Since this show is now (supposed to be) on at 8 Central, the only potential new blog that I’d create would be one about the show Elementary. I still don’t know if I’ll ever do one on Bob’s Burgers or not. It could happen, or it might never happen. It all depends on random things possibly happening, or not happening technically. I honestly have no idea yet, although I'll probably share the link here if I do create it.

Well, it looks like I can finally tell you about updates to the TV shows on DVD that I’m watching. I was watching the first season of 8 Simple Rules and the next episode to watch is a Thanksgiving one. After that would be a Christmas episode until it goes back to normal episodes for a while. I will be removing it from the list until it is November to watch these episodes. Its replacement is the Family Guy Star Wars parodies. This runs into a slight complication with my list as an f choice (Farscape) is already on the list. Luckily, there is an alternate name for those Family Guy episodes: The Laugh it up Fuzzball trilogy. I will put it as an l choice on the list instead of an f choice.

The rolling list has changed again. I have finished watching The Laugh it up Fuzzball trilogy and replaced it with season 1 of Invader Zim. I had a dream about an episode from that show so I thus put it back on the list of shows to watch.

The list keeps changing over and over, as expected during the summer. I have finally finished watching The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh VHS tape that I have. I have replaced it with Flashpoint from my other list. So, how will this affect the fact that Farscape, another f choice, is already on the list? Well, this may be a bit of a stretch, but I’m now labeling Farscape as Henson Company’s Farscape, making it an h choice instead of an f choice so Flashpoint can be the f choice. This means that as long as Flashpoint remains on the list, I will not borrow any future seasons of Farscape when I’m done watching that.

Well, the moment of truth has finally happened. I finished watching Thomas the Tank Engine and will now add Survivor: Palau to this list in its place. This means that my other TV show watching list is effectively nullified and I will only have the one list. Survivor: Palau is number five on this list and that is now the one that I have to look out for whenever I roll it. Of course, I have changed how my TV blog is updated and no longer have to roll this choice once a month. But, here’s an introduction to something that I have mentioned before. Enjoy something you may have read in my Survivor blog (if you read that).

Now that these blogs are linked up in a way at time, you will be seeing more posts like this in the courier new font. Every time I roll the Survivor: Palau choice, you will see a note about it in two of my blogs. These notes will explain when I’m able to watch these episodes of Survivor: Palau.

On 7-30-2016, I rolled the number 5 and will watch the next Survivor: Palau episode. This will put the updates of my TV blog on Saturdays and get rid of the Friday updates as it is the end of the month. I will wait for the next roll after this.

On 8-4-2016, I rolled the number five again which means that I will watch the next episode. This day was a Thursday so this doesn’t mean any new weekly updates for my TV blog. I could finish watching this season sooner than expected, especially now that I only have one list of shows to roll from.

On 8-17-2016, I rolled the number 5 again. That day was a Wednesday so this means that I will be updating my TV blog instead of my Survivor blog on that day. I am almost done with watching the show on DVD.

The rolling list has changed. The next Invader Zim episode is a Halloween one, so I’m removing it from the list for the moment. In its place will be the seventh season of NCIS which I will continue watching from where it was in the other list.

I have also finished watching Farscape season 2, so I have removed that from the list. In its place will be the first volume of the first season of Power Rangers. Of course, this has no affect on where Survivor: Palau is on the list.

Now there’s a minor change in the list: Flashpoint season 1 is now being replaced by Flashpoint season 2. I’m almost done watching Survivor: Palau and due to the way I’ve changed updating my TV blog, it won’t actually be necessary for me to watch another Survivor season in order to update that blog. Regardless, I’ll still be watching Survivor: Borneo again and I will want to watch Survivor: Blood versus Water if it comes out on DVD and I’m able to get it. We’ll see if I’m able to roll those last two episodes of the season before Survivor starts again.

On 8-24-2016, I rolled the number 5 again. This means that I get to watch the penultimate episode of Survivor: Palau. Just one more change and then I will finish watching it.

On 8-30-2016, I rolled the number 5 and watched the last episode of Survivor: Palau. This will mean replacing it on the list. It could be a while before Survivor: Borneo is added to the list, but you’ll see more about that later.

With Survivor: Palau gone from the list, I will be replacing it with the first season of Dollhouse. I actually could have added it last year as I dreamt about it in December. Since I had already watched it last year, I have decided to watch the show with Spanish subtitles. Now I have the feeling that it could be a long time before the list changes again, but we’ll see what happens for sure later.

The way I’ve updated my TV blog has changed. I am basically updating that on various random days, but mostly now every Saturday. It could be a while before a long term change happens to that blog again, but I will not have to worry about rolling a Survivor episode for some time. That doesn’t mean that I won’t be watching it on DVD again, but I just won’t have to watch it to update my blog for the long, foreseeable future. You should potentially see more changes with it mentioned here later...

Now there’s another change in the list: Flashpoint season 2 has now been replaced by its third season. So once again, we have a useless paragraph in this blog post with a meaningless change with it in a weird thing that I’m not sure why I’m telling you about this. I do this more for me than anyone else. And if you think that’s bad, just wait until I get to rambling about football. I’m not even sure yet just how little of this post will be about Madam Secretary. This is a blog about it too.

What am I supposed to think about a potential next season of this show with the lead character as a vice president instead of a secretary of state? Would they actually change her job like they said they might in the second season finale? This show could change the way Veep did. It turned from a show about the vice president a show about the president. Would they change this into a different type of show? I guess we will find out more about this as the show progresses. I do wonder if potential changes could happen in response to who wins the upcoming election.

Remember when I said that I was deciding between which two football teams to root for long term? Well, it is down between the Broncos and the Rams. How do I decide which of the two to root for? Well, they are actually playing each other during preseason play (but not regular season play). On August 27^th, the game will take place. Whoever wins, I will root for above all other football teams. The other team isn’t out; it will just be the number 2 team for me. I’ll let you know what the end result of the game ends up being. The final score was Rams: 9, Broncos: 17. This is also the first time in preseason that the Rams have lost a game.

There are other ways of coming up with an alternate to the Rams. I could just pick whatever team is the first to beat them in regular season play. Also, the Chargers and the Raiders both wanted to change locations so it makes you wonder if either of them end up in St. Louis. Meanwhile, the first team to beat the Rams in regular season play is the 49ers who shut out the Rams. Ouch. This will be my first time tracking a team throughout a football season so all I can do it hope that they can actually win for a change. Well, they do win, but they lose more.

Another way to come up with alternates would be to go with the next local team since St. Louis won’t have one anymore. To the north, there’s Chicago’s team, the Bears. To the east, there’s Indianapolis’s team, the Colts. To the west, there’s Kansas City’s team, the Chiefs. There’s no team to the immediate south that it seems that people were interested in being an alternate. The Bears will be playing The Chiefs in preseason play on August 27^th. The Bears and the Colts will play each other on October 9^th. The Colts and the Chiefs will play each other on October 30^th. I won’t be rooting for the Bears. I will publish the scores of each of those games so you can take that as a decision if you are torn between them. The Chiefs have an good winning streak since they have had winning seasons for the past ten seasons so maybe just picking them and hoping that they still win would be a good idea.

The only other way I can think of for finding an alternate to the Rams would be regarding the Raiders and the Chargers. They both wanted to relocate to Los Angeles and it can be assumed that if one of them was approved, then the Rams would have stayed in St. Louis. On October 9^th, they will be playing each other. I do wonder if St. Louis could potentially get either ones of these teams.

If you are looking for other alternates, I’ll tell you who you shouldn’t consider. The Patriots beat the Rams in 2002’s Super Bowl so I wouldn’t root for the Patriots. And, the Cardinals that are currently in Phoenix used to be in St. Louis before they left so if you are done rooting for the Rams because they left St. Louis, then don’t root for the only other team to have left St. Louis.

For anyone who wants to stick with the Rams as a team despite their relocation, I have started a facebook group call Still a Rams Fan for anyone who wants to show their continued support of the team. If you aren’t interested in that, well, then you can ignore this paragraph.

The Chiefs have beaten the Bears in their game, 23 to 7. This would put the Chiefs higher than the Bears. Now since there are three potential teams that are now considered local, there could be a problem if the Bears beat the Colts and the Colts beat the Chiefs. So, hopefully, the Bears will either lose again or the Chiefs will win again when they play the Colts so that this problem doesn’t happen. We could just consider the Bears out due to losing their game. We’ll see if they do well. Of course, I’m not potentially rooting for them regardless of if they beat the Colts or not.

Colin Kaepernick is someone who is in the news (or was, but is probably long since irrelevant by the time I post this) over not standing up for the national anthem before a game. I may end up rooting for his team, the 49ers, because of this. Now I’m not anti-American or anything, but we should respect someone’s right to not have to stand for the anthem. If all Americans are forced to do that, then would this great country really be a democracy? I didn’t like having to stand for the pledge every day in school and am glad that I will probably never have to say that again. You should only have to say it once, if that. I view it as a waste of time and I don’t see if someone who doesn’t do this is any more or less American than those that do.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch mentioned what potential football teams could replace the Rams as the one that people would root for. About 8.4% will still root for the Rams. 24.4% will now root for the Chiefs. 12% will now root for the Packers since they are so popular for some odd reason. 11.4% will now root for the Arizona Cardinals, which I find to be a bit odd as a replacement, but to each their own. 4.9% will now root for the Broncos. Only 4.4% of those polled will now root for the Bears. Apparently, the Colts are not a potential option among those mentioned. I guess the 34.5% that the rest of the poll goes to would be too scattered among the other teams. They also mention the Tennessee Titans as a potential replacement team locally now, so I guess that I will have include them among my teams to track.

What might be done for me, if I can figure it out and it works out well, is a ranking among the potential replacement teams from where they could be among each other which would be decided when they play each other. So far, Broncos rank above the Rams. But who else would work? There’s a lot of potential teams to track.

Now let’s get to putting the Titans in with the local pool of Bears, Chiefs, and Colts. Lucky for me, there are games with the Titans against all of these teams this season. On October 23^rd, they will play the Colts. On November 27^th, they will play the Bears. On December 18^th, they will play the Chiefs. I will have to check all of the games’ final score. I don’t know if I should root for the Titans since it was their loss in the Super Bowl that has the Rams as a winning Super Bowl team. We’ll see what happens.

I’ve decided that, for now at least, the Colts and Chargers will rank lowest of the two potential replacement teams for me. Last week, a game between the two of them cut into an already 30 minute delay that was happening. And then due to the many football rules that I don’t understand, they played more of the game after the clock finished counting down to 0 in the fourth quarter. So they are lower for me and that’s just out of the potential teams that I will root for.

I had a quick and busy weekend the day this show premiered so I may not be able to tell you about the football games that happen today before primetime. I just hope that I don’t miss any primetime whatsoever. I especially hope that I can watch more Once Upon a Time since I missed a whole lot of the last season. That show’s confusing enough when you do see every episode. So here’s hoping that this blog post is mostly normal this time around.

Well, I’m going to have to watch the episode online as I missed pretty much every bit of primetime today. I also missed if there were any football games on CBS. I did catch that the Rams were playing the Cardinals. The Rams won the game after a decision almost could have cost them that. It then switched to a game between the Chargers and the Saints. The Saints won by one point even though there were still 20 seconds left on the clock. I don’t understand why there wasn’t any more game played. I would if the difference was way more than just one point.

THE IMPORTANT PART OF THE BLOG POST BEGINS NOW! Today’s episode is brought to you by no delay. We begin with President Dalton losing the election. Elizabeth is blamed for it. Then, the obligatory, long flashback: There was a storm that hit a base. Elizabeth is told not to tell anyone about accepting the position of vice-president. They want to wait until after the convention although the convention is when there are the nominations for it. There is also a giant zucchini contestant. Really, Madam Secretary? Throwing a dirty joke in the show? Or is my brain just thinking that? Anyways, people want Henry to work with Murphy Station again. It’s hard to gather much else as this show can be more boring at times than you’d want it to be. But that can describe any show as it goes along.

In segment two, it is revealed that someone hacked into Jason’s computer. Elizabeth fights with Conrad. Some of his staff knows about this as they witness the beginning of this fight. It then appears that Henry is beaten with Jason’s laptop being stolen.

In segment three, Henry arrives home okay. Elizabeth talks about stuff on a news channel and seems to stumble over climate change. An important person died and the president calls the family to talk about it. The president talks about it at the debate which seems to put other characters on edge.

In segment four, more fallout happens as we return to the present. They incorrectly mention only Franklin Pierce as losing his party’s nomination. We have not had it happen during the modern primary age (where voters can actually help decide the nomination), but John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, and Chester Alan Arthur have all lost their party’s nomination to someone else for the next upcoming election in addition to Franklin Pierce. Franklin was just the only one of the five who was actually elected to be president in the first place. To no surprise, the next presidential nominee wants Elizabeth to stay as Secretary of State. But she wants Conrad to run as an independent.

In segment five, Russell comes to talk to Elizabeth about the crazy idea that she has that he doesn’t think will work. His theory to do this is to deny anyone the 270 electoral votes. They are wanting to pick a good VP pick from Pennsylvania to help his independent run although that would mean that Elizabeth would not be able to run as vice-president. Elizabeth also learns that someone is probably stalking their kids and that’s what relates to the computer. I was not able to see scenes from next time, so I’ll be back whenever with the next episode. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.