Week 16 NFL Picks

Week 16 picks below. I went 6-8 last week, and I've started this week 1-1, putting me at 123-100 for the season. For some reason, I randomly missed last week's Broncos/Raiders game, so it does not count. Again, picks are for the win, not against the spread.

Here we go (home teams are in CAPS):

 

Jets over BEARS

Patriots over BILLS

Ravens over BROWNS

CHIEFS over Titans

RAMS over 49ers

Lions over DOLPHINS

JAGUARS over Redskins

Chargers over BENGALS

Texans over BRONCOS

Colts over RAIDERS

Giants over PACKERS

BUCCANEERS over Seahawks

EAGLES over Vikings

Saints over FALCONS

Thursday and Friday NFL Picks

I'll do my full post of picks Sunday morning but for the early games:

STEELERS over Panthers

Cowboys over CARDINALS

Week 15 NFL Picks

Week 15 picks below. I went 11-5 last week, putting me at 116-91 for the season. I missed this Thursday's Chargers/49ers game (thanks CivPro), so it will only be 15 picks this week. Again, picks are for the win, not against the spread.

Here we go (home teams are in CAPS):

Browns over BENGALS

COWBOYS over Redskins

Texans over TITANS

COLTS over Jaguars

RAMS over Chiefs

DOLPHINS over Bills

Eagles over GIANTS

BUCCANEERS over Lions

Cardinals over PANTHERS

Saints over RAVENS

Falcons over SEAHAWKS

STEELERS over Jets

PATRIOTS over Packers

Bears over VIKINGS

Some Thoughts About SNL 36x10: Bridges/Eminem and Lil Wayne

Tonight Jeff Bridges hosts SNL for the second time. You might not remember his first, he co-hosted with his brother Beau Bridges in a season 8 episode in 1983, with musical guest Randy Newman. That hosting gig was a year after his film Tron came out, 27 years later he is back at 30 Rock to promote Tron's sequel. In between he did everything from making a cult-class bowling comedy to winning an Academy Award for Best Actor.

Eminem tonight becomes the 23rd member of the Five-Timers club. He is the 8th member of the club to never host the show, along with Dave Grohl, Tom Petty, Randy Newman, James Taylor, Beck, Nate Mendel, and Dave Matthews. The Five-Timers club was first introduced when Tom Hanks hosted in 1990, here is the sketch, including a not yet famous Conan O'Brien and a random visit from Ralph Nader:

Saturday Night Live - Tom Hanks - 12/08/1990
Uploaded by ccob. - Watch feature films and entire TV shows.

Eminem made his first appearance in 1999, as a co-musical guest with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. Tonight he is joined by Lil Wayne, who appeared as a musical guest in the season 34 premiere in 2008, with host Michael Phelps.

Some Predictions for Tonight:
-With today's repeal of Don't Ask Don't Update. Tell, I can easily see the "Two Gay Guys from the Military" returning to Weekend. Hader and Armisen have also played the "Two Gay Guys" from Jersey and Connecticut.
-Rihanna and Eminem had one of the top 5 songs of 2010, and while Rihanna didn't perform it when she was musical guest, I could see her coming back to do it tonight.
-I don't expect a five-timers sketch for Eminem, but if there is the cameos could be high-profile and numerous.

Be back at 11:30 for the live blog!

Sketch 1- Christmas Eve in Washington D.C., with Kenan as Frosty the Snowman. Now we're seeing Obama's dreams for 2011. Unemployment drops, Wikileaks- McCain a Muslim, Palin runs. Now Hillary (again portrayed by new girl). Rahm, Pelosi, Biden. Unique, but quite amusing. A.

Monologue- Bridges is completely clean shaven. Jokes he must have done a good job when he hosted in 1983 for him to be asked back so soon. Now talking about the differences (or lack there of) between The Dude (his Big Lebowski character) and himself. And now here's Cookie Monster. And the two of them are singing Silver Bells. That was quite random. B. EDIT- Totally forgot about the Cookie Monster hosting SNL campaign. They did a great YouTube video for it:



Sketch 2- A message from Mark Zuckerberg(Samberg). And guess who he's interrupted by- Julian Assange, for the 3rd straight week! Talking about why he should have been Time's Man of the Year instead of Zuckerberg. It is getting old, but Hader does own it. B-.

Sketch 3- The Miley Cyrus Show, which I assumed was gunna come last week, but they pushed it to this week. She's doing the Conan combined celebrities baby bit, using Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, which makes Suri! Miley's drug lesson- "don't let your friends video you when you do things." Her guest tonight- Bridges as Nick Nolte. Funniest part- superimposing Bridges' face on Nick Nolte's mug shot. B-.

Sketch 4- Digital Short- Lonely Island with Akon, doing a song "I Just Had Sex." And John McEnroe! And Jessica Alba and Blake Lively! Classic Lonely Island style digital short, we haven't seen in a while. Solid. A-.

NEXT NEW EP ON JANUARY 8 WITH JIM CARREY AND THE BLACK KEYS!

Sketch 5- Looks like we're getting a send-off to Larry King. With Armisen reprising Larry, which he did on King's final show Thursday, interviewing the man himself in matching outfits. A sendoff to the people who made his show. Kenan as Jermaine Jackson, Wiig and Eliot as the Judds, Bridges as a dead on Dog the Bounty Hunter. He asks Jackson if he is an only child. He asks the Judds which one is the mother. And now Dog the Bounty Hunter is singing My Way to close it out. So random. B.

Sketch 6- Under Under Ground Records is back! One of the most random sketches from last year. With Crunkmas! Sudeikis and Pedrad own this. Another death for Ass Dan! Pharoah is DJ George Costanza. Why? Who knows! It's 2 minutes of every random thing the writers room can come up with. Just brilliant. A+.

Music 1- Eminem and Lil Wayne are performing "No Love." This song samples Haddaway's "What Is Love" which has a rich SNL history itself through Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan's Roxbury Guys sketches, and the film "A Night at the Roxbury" based on those sketches.

Weekend Update- DADT, Assange, Afghanistan, David Paterson, Walmart, and Michael Steele, as portrayed by Kenan. Stronger impression than I would've guessed. Weekend Update weatherman a terrible Brad Pitt impression, joined by Eliot as Angelina. A Harvard joke. The ScarJo/Ryan Reynolds divorce. And now a holiday message from Snookie (Moynihan), Stefon (Hader), and Gov. Paterson (Armisen). An odd performance of "Christmas Tree." Very weird. Not a great WU. C.

Sketch 7- TCM looking at the original cut of "A Wonderful Life," the Chanukah movie "This, You Call a Wonderful Life?" Great premise, can they follow through? Sudeikis pulling off a very strong Jimmy Stewart. A 43 minute deli argument! Amusing. The director also tried and failed with "A Mitzvah on West 84th Street." Well done. B+.

Sketch 8- Jeff'd, Jeff Bridges' version of Punk'd. Pranking Sam Elliot (Sudeikis) at the dry cleaner. He comes in very early and Elliot doesn't care. Now Abby as Maggie Gyllenhaal. He sends her roses at the front desk of her hotel. Kenan as Forest Whitaker. He replaces Forest's dog with a cat. Samberg as Billy Bob Thorton. Bridges is his limo driver. And he tells him right away that he's Jeff Bridges. Thorton gets pissed and pulls out a gun. And then he tells he's been Billy Bob'd. Seems like it was probably a funny idea in the writers room on Monday, but it didn't work so great. C.

Music 2- Eminem performs "Won't Back Down." Then he leaves and Lil Wayne comes on stage to perform "6 Foot 7 Foot."

Sketch 9- At an old timey General Store. The worker is Hader, with the client new girl. Wiig and Daniels are the introducers of the concept of gift wrapping. They wrap things modernly. Now Sudeikis comes to shoot up the shop. Not good. Easily the weak link of tonight's episode. D.

Sketch 10- A holiday message from the Kardashians. Pedrad and new girl as Kim and Kourtney each dressed as "Sexy Santa," and Eliot as Khloe dressed as Santa. They wish their friends a "merry Christmas," their agents and managers a "happy Chanuka," and their boyfriends a "happy Kwanzaa." Decent filler. B-.

So that wraps it up for 2010. A solid ep. Nothing unbelievable, but nothing absolutely terrible. Overall, and compared to this season, a pretty strong episode. B+.

The Story of the Philadelphia Heat

*NOTE: Not everything lines up perfectly. This is just for fun, to show the similarities. I do not believe Lee going to Philly is really similar to LeBron going to Miami, but just for fun...

It's a story as old as time.

Or at least as old as July, 2010.

He spent his early career in Cleveland. They weren't a great team, but they were pretty good. They never could come up with a championship, unable to defeat a stronger overall Boston squad with veteran stars. After years of just falling short of winning a ring, he hits free agency in 2010. He is clearly the top available player in the league. His team wants him back. New York is doing everything to get him. There is even some talk of the second team from Los Angeles, but they never seem like a legitimate candidate.

Another star player was coexisting at the same time. He was playing his career out on a decent team. He made it to play for the championship several years ago, but at that point he wasn't the major star of the team; he was joined by a hired gun who had previously won several championships in a bigger market. After that guy left, the team struggled.

A third star was establishing himself in Toronto. With pretty much nobody else around him, the star put up dominating individual seasons, but was unable to make the team competitive.

Finally, in 2010, the three stars joined forces to form a squad everybody predicts will be one of the best ever.

Some Random Thoughts About SNL 36x9: Rudd/McCartney

Paul Rudd hosts SNL for the second time tonight. He first hosted in 2008 with musical guest Beyonce. That episode is probably best remembered for a sketch where Rudd played a minor role, with Beyonce filming her Single Ladies video (aka "the best video OF ALL TIME" according to Kanye West) with backup dancers played by Andy Samberg, Bobby Moynihan, and Justin Timberlake. Tonight he is promoting his new movie, How Do You Know.

Paul McCartney will appear as the musical guest for the third time. He first appeared via satellite and debuted a new music video in a season 5 episode hosted by Steve Martin in 1980. He came back 13 years later for a season 18 episode hosted by Alec Baldwin. Yet with only 2 prior appearances, he made it into the Platinum Lounge under the guise of being Paul Simon 4 years ago:

Some Predictions for Tonight:
-Literally anybody could cameo tonight, and I think there will be quite a few. I can envision a British Band Battle on the Barry Gibb Talk Show, which would include Timberlake, Jimmy Fallon, and Ringo Starr. Both Baldwin and Martin could stop by. One of Rudd's costars- Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon, or Jack Nicholson could stop by, or one of SNL's cavalcade of common cameos- Tina Fey? Cameron Diaz? Maya Rudolph? Really, nobody would surprise me.
-I'm sure McCartney will be in at least one sketch if not more, and I'm sticking with the Barry Gibb Talk Show as at least one of those.
-We haven't seen Jean K. Jean (Zut Alors!) or Judy Grimes, the travel expert, around the Weekend Update desk yet this season, maybe it's time for one of them.
-ADDED AFTER INITIAL POST: And they have to do The Miley Cyrus Show. I don't enjoy it, but the sketch exists for the sole purpose of being done in tonight's episode. If they don't do it, (and it is for a reason other that "we cut a whole bunch of sketches at dress rehearsal and decided to just have a cold open, a monologue, weekend update, and an hour long Paul McCartney concert) someone should get fired.
-ADDED PREDICTION #2: With this being the week of the 30th anniversary of John Lennon's death, and with Jimmy Fallon saying on Twitter than McCartney would do a special song of some sort earlier tonight, I bet he either performs or samples Imagine.

Be back at 11:30!

Sketch 1- Remember last week when it looked like we were going to have an Obama cold open but it was a fake out? This time its Obama. Who apparently is now a conservative Republican. This is actually funny. B+.

Monologue- From the decoration, you'd almost think this is the Christmas episode (it's not). "When I got here this week, all these fans were lined up chanting 'Paul! Paul!'... Then one fan shouted 'Yesterday' which was a reference to the NPR interview I game yesterday." And here is Sir Paul, which clarifies it for Rudd. McCartney says he loved Role Models. Then featured player Paul Brittain shows up.

Sketch 2- Parody ad for "Feline Culinary Creations." Essentially very formal cat food. Kinda slightly amusing, but one note joke. C+.

Sketch 3- The kissing family is back. This time Rudd is the son, Wiig the mother, Armisen the father, new girl the girlfriend, and Hader the brother. They're all overly passionate. It was moderately funny the first time like three years ago, but this is like the 5th time. They do some gum passing. Here's some Romanian relatives. And Moynihan is what appears to be Santa. Full open mouth tongue swapping between Rudd and Armisen. It is just the same sketch again. C.

Sketch 4- We've got a game show call "What's That Name?" Hosted by Hader, contestants Rudd and new girl. They show celeb pictures and they have to name them. For $20 Jared Fogel and Steve Zahn. For $10,000 Rudd's character's doorman (Kenan). He has no clue. Girl's office cleaning woman (Wiig). She has no clue. For $1mil, 8 of Rudd's summer interns, he needs to name 1, he gets it for 3, goes double or nothing and loses it by again not getting the doorman. It was amusing and original. A.

Sketch 5- A digital short called "Stumbling," to the tune of "9 to 5" Which features Samberg and eventually Rudd stumbling past a bunch of things. Now McCartney sings a bridge about walking. Now McCartney plays a tiny harmonica. Completely random but very funny. A.

Sketch 6- A statement from MasterCard, but here is Julian Assange! Hader does a great job with this character again. Each day they'll attack a different website. (BTW I didn't catch it but there was a Mario Batali cameo in there too) Quite good. A-.

NEXT WEEK JEFF BRIDGES AND EMINEM!!!

Sketch 7- Sexually Speaking. You know the one, the host is out sick so her producer, a fat, bald, and goateed Armisen hosts, but he can't hear anything and he can't give advice. New girl's husband has a small penis, Rudd is gay which Armisen doesn't get. Abby's boyfriend is selfish. Pedrad's boyfriend wants to wait. This sketch isn't good, but they keep doing it. Who knows why. D.

Music 1- McCartney's mic appears to not be on. He's performing "Jet," a 1974 Wings song. Because he's Sir Paul McCartney and he can sing whatever the hell he wants to sing.

Weekend Update- The tax cut compromise, Assange, Oprah. "Weekend Update Audio Caption" with Paul McCartney as Camilla and Meyers as Prince Charles. Was it funny itself? No. Was it funny seeing McCartney do that? Yup. City Correspondent, Stefan, who is only funny because Hader can't do it without cracking up. We do learn that Hader can do a really good "Angry Miss Piggy" impression. And that's about it. Pretty weak. C.

Sketch 8- We have some sort of holiday school event. Rudd is a teacher. Pharoah is a principal who seems to easily run out of breath. Rudd keeps making terrible puns. Kenan is the gym teacher. He's angry. This is just a plain waste of time. F.

Sketch 9- Parody ad for Meryl Streep On Ice at MSG. Abby is Streep, and does it pretty well. She's an insanely good skater. Fan reactions. Sudeikis shows up for first time tonight, tearing up. Kids chant "Meryl! Meryl!" Randomly amusing. B+.

Music 2- Pretty early for second performance already. "Band on the Run." A classic. Just sitting back and enjoying. It does surprise me, however, that McCartney went double-Wings. Especially this week (Lennon's death) and with all the Beatles/iTunes ads throughout the ep.

Sketch 10- Rudd is performing for Broadway Cares, something from Cabaret. Hader is director, Sudeikis is running the spotlight. Sudeikis isn't following him with the spot. This is essentially the only joke. Then when Rudd leaves. Sudeikis performs it. Yup, that pretty much sums up this episode. C-.

Music 3- Well there's the explanation. With the Beatle's classic "A Day in the Life." And he goes into John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance." I know I don't give grades on the music anymore, but A+ there.

And that wraps it up. Or does it? NO!

Music 4- Beatle's hit "Get Back."

I have a hard time letting a musical guest bump up an episode's game, at least significantly, but 4 musical performances, plus appearances in the monologue, Weekend Update, and the digital short by a man who is probably the greatest living musical legend cannot be ignored. It was otherwise a very up-and-down episode, I expected more from cameos (see my predictions and compare them to what we got, Mario Batali) and it would likely get a C or a C+, but thanks to Sir Paul: B.

Remember to checkout http://www.stickfigurelive.com/ for a visual recap!

Week 14 NFL Picks

Week 14 picks below. I went 10-6 last week, putting me at 105-86 for the season. Again, picks are for the win, not against the spread.

Here we go (home teams are in CAPS):

Colts over TITANS

Browns over BILLS

Packers over LIONS

Giants over VIKINGS

STEELERS over Bengals

Buccaneers over REDSKINS

Falcons over PANTHERS
JAGUARS over Raiders

SAINTS over Rams

49ERS over Seahawks

JETS over Dolphins

BEARS over Patriots

Broncos over CARDINALS

CHARGERS over Chiefs

Eagles over COWBOYS

Ravens over TEXANS

Some Random Thoughts About SNL 36x8: DeNiro/Diddy-Dirty Money

Oscar-winning legend Robert De Niro is hosting SNL for the third time tonight. The first time was 2002, 28 years after his first Oscar win and 11 years after his last nomination. In his monologue he stated he was invited to host way back in season one, in 1975, but he didn't feel comfortable doing live comedy. De Niro next hosted the Christmas episode in 2004, when he famously sang "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" with Kermit the Frog. Tonight, De Niro is promoting "Little Fockers," the triqual to "Meet the Parents" and "Meet the Fockers."

Diddy-Dirty Money is a musical group with Sean "P. Diddy" "Puff Daddy" "Puffy" Combs, and two other people. Under all his aliases, Combs has only been the musical guest once, in the season finale in 1998, as Puff Daddy. I'm guessing he does different songs tonight.

Some predictions:
-SNL's Twitter account hinted at a digital short with De Niro and Diddy, I'm guessing they'll be in one other sketch together as well.
-We haven't had a cameo in forever, since the second episode of the season actually. Someone is showing up on Weekend Update. I just don't know who.

See you at 11:30! Also, after the show, check out http://stickfigurenightlive.com/ for a Stick Figure Sketch-by-Sketch recap.

Sketch 1- We start with Armisen in the Oval Office, but it is interrupted by Hader as WikiLeaks' creator Julian Assage, with more embarassing WikiLeaks at WikiLeaks:TMZ. On the TMZ type set. Samberg as the guy with the long blond hair. Armisen as Omar Kadafi and Wiig as his nurse/prostitute. De Niro as Hamed Karzai. Apparantly new girl has replaced Amy Poehler as Hillary. Very funny, and unexpected. A.

Monologue- De Niro talking about New York, how it is his town, and getting every fact wrong. Just saying stuff about other cities. "That's why, in New York we say 'fahgetabout this.'" "It's great to be here, hosting the best show in New York, Friday Night Lights." Clever. B+.

Sketch 2- An ad for a book "The Abacus Conundrum" written by Harlan Kane (De Niro) who has written a lot of books. That was about it. C.

Sketch 3- It looks like... Is it... Yes it is! WOOOOOEEEE What Up With That? Guests: Robert De Niro, Robin Williams, and of course Lindsey Buckingham! A robot and an oompa loompa! De Niro and Williams complaining as the music starts behind them. Now De Niro won't speak. "This is wrong, this is disrespectful." Now Wiig is singing and taking off wigs. Williams is texting someone. Guess what, they didn't have time for Lindsey Buckingham! And it's his birthday (not in real life though)! But DeAndre got him a picture of the two of them, with Buckingham cutoff. I love this sketch. A-.

NEXT WEEK: PAUL RUDD AND SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY!!!

Sketch 4- From the Garden, with Mr. Produce, Tony Secilia (De Niro). His produce is all no good. Samberg is his son Anthony, who did not spray the produce and just questions everything. This just isn't funny, maybe there will be a payoff...It's not looking like it. Nope. Terrible. D-.

Sketch 5- Digital short, looking like Weekend at Bernie's with Samberg and Hader as the guys and De Niro as the boss. It seems like Weekend at Bernie's in 2 minutes, but the guests immediately figure out he's dead and flip out. Now they're in court over it. But his last will and testament is requesting the party and the Hawaiian shirt and the lie! Now that is how you end a sketch with a surprising twist. A-.

Music 1- Diddy-Dirty Money performs "Coming Home."

Weekend Update- WikiLeaks, The Kardashian Kredit Kard, and here's Pedrad, Elliot, and New Girl as Kim, Khloe, and Kourtney respectively. Atheist billboard, Dreidelpalooza, Spiderman Musical and here is Samberg as Spidey. "You know how many guys die every year doing Jersey Boys?" Man marries dog run of jokes. Now Wiig as a 1980s workout video instructor, on Michelle Obama's Let's Move initiative. Seriously. You might think I'm making that up, but I'm really not. That is what we're seeing on NBC at this moment. What the heck is Seth Meyers doing all week that this is the best stuff he can come up with? It isn't like this is based on something real that they're trying to make fun of, its just junk. You have to imagine MadTV is wondering why they were cancelled compared to this. D.

Spinning dreidels on the between commercial look-ins! Happy Chanukah!

Sketch 6- On the set of "Little Fockers," Moynihan playing a kid getting to see the set. He's a big fan. Here's De Niro. The kid is much less interested in him then meeting the Craft services guy or the schedule guy or seeing the camera. This is actually kinda funny. De Niro is taking this offensively. And here is Ben Stiller! The kid likes Stiller's one dramatic movie more than any De Niro hits. Surprisingly amusing. B+.

Sketch 7- Now a Diddy sketch. He's making an album, with the BlizzardMan. Samberg is the BlizzardMan, this may be recurring. Kenan, Wiig, Samberg also involved. He's horrible, but Diddy liked him. Now De Niro is the BlizzardMan's mom. This visual is clearly the sole purpose of this sketch tonight, and it is worth it. But besides that, pretty much nothing. C.

Sketch 8- Commercial look-in, we have a person dressed as a deer. Oh, its Vinny Vedecci, the Italian interview show. Of course, like all guests, De Niro doesn't speak Italian. Is it just me, or has De Niro been playing himself in a whole lot of sketches tonight? Vedecci (Hader) asks De Niro to do his best De Niro impression. Now his son, Moynihan, in the sailor outfit, is drunk. And it's the deer from "Deer Hunter," and he has a watergun. But De Niro throws a pencil at him and it stabs him. And he is dead. De Niro refuses to do his line from "Taxi Driver," so Vedecci starts talking quietly in the opposite direction to get De Niro to ask "you talking to me?" Better than that sketch previously has been. B-.

Sketch 9- Recycled Bosley pubic hair transplant from the Amy Poehler episode. I gave it a B+ then, I won't regrade the same sketch.

Music 2- Diddy-Dirty Money with Swizz Beatz doing their song "Ass on the Floor." Perhaps the funniest part of the episode.

Sketch 10- Samberg and Sudeikis at a bar. De Niro now has long hair and a beard. Samberg asks rhetorically "who do I have to screw to get a drink around here?" Which De Niro answers seriously "Me." So Samberg screws him and gets a beer. Now Sudeikis is doing it. Oh and Stiller was back there too. With long hair and a tiny little beard. Yup, that was the sketch. D.

Sketch 11- This is some sort of very short cartoon. I literally have no idea what just happened, so I'm going into uncharted waters here: Inc.

Overall- Started strong, got weaker, and then just got strange. Overall, highly mediocre. C.

The November Network, Primetime, Half-Hour, Live-Action Sitcom Rankings

 

Here are the November sitcom rankings. This goes through all episodes that have aired to date. Ratings and viewership numbers are considered, but it is mostly opinion based. Parks and Recreation continues to be based solely on the first two seasons.

 

Rank	Prev.	Show	Network	% of Next Seas.
1	4	The Big Bang Theory	CBS	100
2	2	Modern Family	ABC	100
3	7	Community	NBC	66
4	6	How I Met Your Mot…	CBS	95
5	5	Two and a Half Men	CBS	100
6	1	30 Rock	NBC	100
7	3	Better with You	ABC	85
8	9	Cougar Town	ABC	75
9	10	Parks and Recreation	NBC	75
10	8	The Office	NBC	95
11	12	Outsourced	NBC	20
12	13	Raising Hope	Fox	50
13	16	Mike and Molly	CBS	50
14	11	Running Wilde	Fox	5
15	14	The Middle	ABC	20
16	15	Rules of Engagement	CBS	15
17	17	$#*! My Dad Says	CBS	20

 

 

Some quick thoughts:

-Big Bang Theory wasn't particularly unbelievable this month, although I do like how they've integrated Amy and Bernadette into the regular 5-person cast- especially with Kaley Cuoco missing a couple episodes with a broken leg, this was necessary. But it moved up to the #1 spot mostly based on its strong history, top notch ratings, and a weak month by sitcoms overall.

-Community had an extraordinary month, perhaps the best run of episodes for any show this season- from Zombies to Missing Pens to Conspiracy Theories. They've finally found a way to use Chevy Chase without overusing him. And they've been given a full season with extra episodes, and appear safe now that NBC is transfering to 3 hour sitcom Thursdays. Still, the ratings are remarkably low, and this will always be an issue for this show.

-Better With You has shown its first weak spots, but is still strong, and clearly the strongest first year show...All first years seem safe for the season, except Running Wilde, which depending on who you ask is on hiatus or cancelled, but almost certainly won't be back in 2011...Parks and Rec had a good month solely because they have a startup date- see you January 20, with newbie Perfect Couples...Who watches The Middle?

Week 13 NFL Picks

Week 13 picks below. I went 10-6 last week, putting me at 95-80 for the season. Again, picks are for the win, not against the spread.

Here we go (home teams are in CAPS):

EAGLES over Texans

Saints over BENGALS

Bears over LIONS

PACKERS over 49ers

TITANS over Jaguars

CHIEFS over Broncos

Browns over DOLPHINS

Bills over VIKINGS

GIANTS over Redskins

CHARGERS over Raiders

COLTS over Cowboys

Rams over CARDINALS

SEAHAWKS over Panthers

BUCCANEERS over Falcons

Steelers over RAVENS

Jets over PATRIOTS

Mets Post Update

I know I promised a Mets post earlier this week, but I've decided to wait until tomorrow when the nontender announcements are finalized, both to see who the Mets cut (the only question really being Sean Green- I'm guessing they reach an agreement with him, tender deals for Pagan, Dickey, and Pelfrey, and nontender Maine)and to see who has joined the free agent market and might be looking for a short or even minor league deal (ala Dickey last year).