Kid Nation Episode 3

In episode 2, the producers had the kids kill some chickens (through the “advice” in the “old” book), the yellow district continued to do nothing, and Michael won the gold star over a likely to be angry Greg, who found out pretending to be a hard worker for a couple days just to win $20,000 won’t necessarily work.

The show starts off with a party to celebrate making it through the first week. Lots of kids hopped up on sugar probably isn’t the best thing.

Those who weren’t smart enough to know not to stay up all night get a rude awakening early in the morning that they’re not ready for. The council rings the bell and screams, while Greg has fun banging pots and pulling people out into the street in their sleeping bags. Sophia confronts him about this, and he runs off and locks himself in the room. Mallory, 8, isn’t happy with the cursing.

The pioneers suggest some law and order, starting with a curfew, a pretty coincidental suggestion considering the late night partying the night before. The decision is that they must be in their bunks by 9:30. No questions asked and no discussion allowed.

The yellow district gets into a food fight, further adding to people’s wishes they be booted from the kitchen. They keep saying the problem’s their age, but Mallory is willing to step up and clean up after them.

It’s time for the next showdown to determine what the classes will be. The challenge is to work together to round up sheep. Council members will yell the names to their teams below. They get 5 minutes to catch 5 sheep. The whole thing is complete chaos with nobody being able to hear a thing. Blue gets off to an early lead as usual. Yellow catches up to them. Red and green are way behind. Yellow ends up winning, so they are the upper class, thanks to Colton’s animal background and fearlessness. This means the yellow district can do whatever they want, including nothing at all. So basically what they’ve been doing all along. Blue takes second to be the merchants. Green finally doesn’t lose the challenge, allowing them to get into the kitchen, where Sophia will take charge as she has been all along. With seconds to spare, red finishes last and are the laborers, but it’s fast enough to win the reward.

The choice is between 1) a microwave and a barrel of cocoa or 2) 40 pizzas with every topping. Mike wants pizza and is extremely vocal in his opposition, offering no support to his fellow town council members when the decision is announced. The other three go for the microwave and cocoa instead. Few of the kids are happy with this choice, whether it’s a logical choice or not. Some of them, however, realize that the pizza would be gone very quickly, whereas the cocoa and microwave would be useful for the rest of their time there.

Taylor may have dug her own grave by being so vocal. There were only a couple people who were upset with the council to begin with, but after no pizza and a curfew, there’s serious potential for her being overthrown.

Sophia tries to get a bag from Mallory for 5 cents, and Mallory offers a deal but isn’t a pushover. For her age, she’s proving pretty impressive at running the store.

Then a storm blows through town. There’s lots of wind and tipped over outhouses, but it looks to pass pretty quickly. Zach takes charge and gets the situation under control. The storm is enough to upset Cody, 9, and Mallory and make them homesick.

This time, the council is smart enough to get feedback from the others on who they think deserves the gold star. The main suggestions are Greg and Morgan, who has tried to step up and be the mom of the group to some of the younger kids. Olivia, Mallory’s sister, suggests Mallory, which does lead them to start looking at the kids who maybe aren’t old enough to pitch in as much as the older kids but are doing a great job in their own right.

As expected, nobody’s happy with Taylor’s pageant queen attitude. A lot of them are probably still bitter over the pizza party as well. She says she will work harder in the future, which buys her one more chance.

Nobody ends up going home this week. The gold star winner is Mallory, a happy 9th birthday present, which Greg says is the only reason she got it. I’m not sure he realizes if he finds a positive attitude and keeps working hard, he’ll get the star eventually, even if it takes a while.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live blog of Kid Nation episode 4, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

NBC Picks Up Crusoe

NBC has picked up Robinson Crusoe, a drama based on Daniel Defoe’s novel, for 13 episodes, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The series is expected to begin in fall 2008 or midseason 2009.

“It’s part ‘MacGyver,’ part contemporary morality tale about race and personal discovery, part comedy, and part ‘Castaway’ meets ‘Survivor’,” said Ben Silverman off NBC. The show was chosen by NBC’s development team when asked to choose a list of the most engaging stories ever told.

House Season 4, Episode 2 – House Hides a Patient

The season opener of House saw Dr. Gregory’s hardheadedness as he tries to solve a patient’s health case by himself, as he refuses to hire his new staff. In this episode, the questions remain: Is House really considering of hiring a new diagnosis staff? Will Cameron, Chase and Foreman ever return?

In a lecture room, House meets 40 aspiring applicants and discussed why Buddy Ebsen, the original Tin Man in the 1939 movie “Wizard of OZ” was replaced due to allergic reactions from the aluminum makeup used in the film. But when a lady officer from the NASA shows up with cash in House’s office, claiming to “hear with her eyes” and asked to keep her health condition off-the-record, House used his “resources” and let the applicants help him solve the case.

House divided the group into 4 — some tested the patient’s blood, the other group tested her stool, one group was asked to break into the patient’s home to find what she’s hiding and the remaining were asked to clean his car. House then saw Chase walk pass his office.

As usual, House went to Dr. Wilson’s office and asked what Chase was doing in the hospital. Wilson says that Chase accepted a job in Arizona and finds it interesting that House sees a vision of Chase (the one he fired) instead of Cameron or Foreman, who voluntarily quit the job. Wilson psychologizes House and says that what he’s experiencing is “repressed guilt”. House, of course, finds Wilson irritating and tries to focus on his patient.

One blonde applicant played her entire group that they’re wasting their medical education for some arrogant doctor. Most of her groupmates left with her leading the team, but she went back after only 1 “competition” was left cleaning the car. She even stole House’s car keys and just drove through carwash. Back at the office, the group of applicants were discussing her health condition to the patient when she experienced a psychotic attack, ran and locked herself in the hospital chapel.

While outside the chapel, House saw Cameron (with blonde hair) downstairs enter the hospital door. As House and the group of doctors extort the patient into coming out the chapel, Cuddy arrives and discovers that House is hiding a patient and demands to know her name. Everyone in the classroom did not disclose the patient’s name, claiming House never told me, except for one doctor who was asked to break into the patients House. When House went back into the lecture room, he immediately fired the guy who ratted the patient out.

Back in Wilson’s office, House told him that he saw Cameron. Wilson says it’s impossible since she was with Chase in Arizona. From their debate about House’s vision, he came up with a solution about his patient – they should stress the patient’s liver (and from one of the applicant’s suggestions) by getting her wasted. The patient along with House and three other doctors took a couple of tequilla shots. After a few shots, the patient drew short of breath.

While debating with one applicant about killing the patient’s dream versus the doctor’s beliefs, House saw Foreman pass by the room. He followed Foreman, but was stopped by Cuddy in the hallway. House found out that the patient’s problem was with her lungs and needed a lung biopsy to treat her. However, since NASA is unaware of her condition, the patient begged House to find another way to hide her health problem, scar or any sign of her being sick.

The remaining applicants discussed on a solution to force a patient into surgery. They ended up with an unconventional solution — asking the patient to get a boob job to find what’s wrong with her lungs. This way, NASA will only have records of breast augmentation, instead of a lung biopsy.

While in the surgery room, they discovered cysts on the left side of the lungs, while House asks the team to make a diagnosis based from the heart attacks, psychosis and cyst. No one answered correctly, except Chase who was upstairs watching the surgery. (House thought he was a vision and asked an applicant if he was seeing the blonde guy too).

After they have finally diagnosed the patient, House and the remaining doctors were back at the lecture room for the big decision. After firing more than half of the doctors, House asked the oldest guy in the batch to stay. He found out that the applicant had no medical degree and cannot be hired as a doctor. House hired him as an assistant, instead.

When House confronted Wilson about Cameron, he finally told House that she has been an attending doctor in the ER of the same hospital for three weeks. House visited Cameron at the ER and found out that it was her who recommended House to the NASA officer. When asked why House ratted the patient out to NASA, Cameron knew, House couldn’t kill the patient’s dreams.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of House Season 4 episode 3, which airs Tuesday at 9/8c on Fox.

Prison Break Season 3 Episode 4 Preview

Here’s a 2 minute look at Prison Break season 3 episode 4. Contains minor spoilers. Don’t forget to stay tuned to dingoRUE for a live recap of the show from the east coast.

In it, Michael asks McGrady for another favor. He then asks Mahone for a pen and tells him to get his act together.

See also: Prison Break season 3 episode 4 preview, part 2
Prison Break Season 3 episode 4 recap

The Biggest Loser 4 Episode 4

Last week, the red team finally squeaked out a victory, with the blue team losing and deciding to vote out team captain Jerry. I’ve decided to go ahead and start doing live blogs of this show.

The show starts off with another temptation, this time cupcakes for the trainers. One of them will give a team a 15 second advantage at the next challenge. It’s revealed the trainers will also be participating in the challenge. The trainers all reject the temptation. I’m not as impressed with this lesson as they want me to be. I get the concept of not eating cupcakes at every sitting, but the message that it’s not okay to eat them once in a while is irresponsible. That’s how people get cravings and fall off the wagon. Or get on the wagon. Whichever one’s the bad one. Granted, the people they’re working with have been excessively irresponsible for so long, so I could see where it’s argued it’s a good lesson.

After this, we get a Subway commercial. Of all the fast food choices, Subway’s definitely a good one, though.

Alison tells the teams the winner of the challenge will have such a big advantage at the next weigh-in she can’t even reveal it yet. The challenge is to race down the hill, capture a flag, and run back up the hill. Teams must bid how fast they think they can do it, and the lowest bidder must do it in the time they say. Some potential strategy can come into play here.

Red team bids 7 minutes. Black responds with 6 minutes. Blue team bids 5:55. Red team bids 5:54. Black team bids 5:30. Blue challenges black team to get the flag. Red team bids 5:29. Jillian convinces her team to bid 5:28, despite reluctance from the girls on her team. Red bids 5:27. Black team bids 5:25, the lowest bid.

Jez is strong the whole way. The girls are struggling all the while. Hollie falls, but Jillian helps her back up. They get to the flag in 2:25, giving them 3 minutes to get back up the hill. Jez makes it up the hill in time, but the rest of the team overbid by a few seconds.

So now it’s time for a bidding war between red team and blue team. Red bids 6:25. Blue bids 6:00. Red bids 5:55. Blue team tells them to go ahead.

Phil’s dominant as usual. Bryan’s right behind him. David looks like a lost cause early on. Amy wanted to quit but didn’t. They get down the hill with a little less than 4 minutes left on the clock. Phil gets back to the top with 32 seconds left, and the rest of the team shows up with 18 seconds left. Red team wins the challenge again. Blue team should have attempted to force the bid down a bit more.

After the loss, Bob gets his team away from the campus to 24 Hour Fitness for a spin class. He convinces Patty she’s worth the effort of losing the weight. The trainers then break out the goal shirts, in an effort to uplift their spirits and help them strive toward those goals, ranging from being a better husband to being a firefighter.

The last chance workout shows positive attitudes by some, though Amy whines about it as usual, as does Isabeau, who calls Jillian crazy. Isabeau seems as if she may have learned a lesson, however.

Alison reveals the advantage red team won at the weigh-in. They win immunity, so it doesn’t matter whether they lose the weigh-in or not.

Red Team:
Phil: 358 pounds (-5)
Amy: 278 pounds (-1)
David: 337 pounds (-1)
Bryan: 319 pounds (-2)
Total: -9 pounds (0.69%)

Black Team:
Hollie: 236 pounds (-3)
Jez: 308 pounds (-8)
Jim: 314 pounds (-11)
Isabeau: 272 pounds (-8)
Bill: 285 pounds (-13)
Julie: 203 pounds (-7)
Total: -50 pounds (3.00%)

Blue Team:
Neil: 375 pounds (-11)
Kae: 191 pounds (-6)
Nicole: 258 pounds (-4)
Patty: 255 pounds (-5)
Ryan: 341 pounds (-6)
Total: -32 pounds (2.20%)

Red team gets absolutely obliterated with a horrible week but skates by because they won the challenge. Not impressed by this immunity. Blue team goes to the elimination. Kae is the biggest loser on her team and is safe. Despite being the lightest person there, she’s sure proving to have a lot of determination. They tell Bob they’re willing to let it go to a tie and let the rest of the house decide. He says he forbids it, as it’s taking the easy way out.

Votes
Kae: Neil
Patty: Nicole
Neil: Patty
Nicole: Patty
Ryan: Patty

With three votes, Patty is eliminated. Patty’s down from 280 pounds at the start to 219 today.

Afterwards, Alison warns it’s a new game with new rules and like nothing they’ve ever seen before. The campus is shutting down for a week. She’ll reveal exactly what this means next week.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live blog of The Biggest Loser 4 episode 5, which airs Tuesday at 8:30/7:30c on NBC.

Heroes Season 2 Episode 2

Heroes Season 2 episode 1 saw the debut of some new heroes (Maya, Alejandro, and West), Claire and her father’s (failed) attempts to be normal, Hiro trying to rehabilitate his hero Takezo Kensei, and at the end, Peter Petrelli… with amnesia. It’s almost time for another live blog. In the meantime, check out the spoilers (part 1 and part 2).

The guys looking for the iPods slap Peter around some. He tells them he doesn’t know how he got in there, but they don’t buy it.

Claire complains (again) because she doesn’t want to be normal, and her father tells her his job isn’t a normal 9-5 job but rather keeping his family safe.

Then his wife pulls out the paper showing the photo of Hiro’s father, and she makes him tell her what’s going on. He knew it was going to happen because Isaac painted it. The painting was 1 of 8, and he wants to find the other 7.

Parkman just so happens to get assigned to the case and pretends he doesn’t know the person who died. A witness saw someone push him off the roof, yet there’s only one body. Ando stops by and tells him the mark on the photo is the crest of Takezo Kensei.

Back in the 1600s, Hiro’s still trying to smack some sense into Takezo. Unable to get anywhere, he puts on the mask and fills in for him.

In school, Claire’s learning about lizards capable of cellular mutation. She asks whether it’s possible for people to be able to heal themselves. West gets (more) suspicious.

Bob finds a man with abilities who’s got a virus, the one that killed Suresh’s sister. The only cure for the virus is Suresh’s blood, so he goes to meet him.

Maya and Alejandro find someone who says she will help them without needing money.

Peter’s tied up and bloody. Caitlin walks in to try a kinder way of getting something out of him, rather than just letting her brother beat him up more. She asks his name, but he can’t even remember that. Eventually, he heals himself, and neither can figure out why.

When he arrives, Suresh is told the hero he went to save (the Haitian) doesn’t want the cure, but he insists.

A woman says she’s a healer and offers to help Maya. Alejandro says no, but she insists, only to find out that Maya can’t be healed. She thinks she’s been cursed.

Hiro confronts the enemy. He says he doesn’t need a sword, then takes all theirs. So they gets out the bows, and he makes all of them come to him as well. The swordsmith’s daughter is impressed by this display.

Peter breaks free of his ropes. Someone comes to shoot Caitin. By this time, though, Peter’s figured out how to use his abilities and defends her.

West waits for Claire after class and brings her Suresh’s book. She blows him off and tells him she was just bored in class.

While trying to flee to America, Maya kills again, but Alejandro is able to reverse the damage and return the woman to life.

Claire’s car gets stolen after she left it unlocked, which her dad uses as a metaphor for the larger problems at hand. He warns her that she’s freer there than she would be if she were to be found out.

Mrs. Petrelli is being questioned by the police, and Parkman learns the motive for the murder of Hiro’s father was revenge. She then gets attacked out of nowhere and hands over the photo of herself, which contains the same symbol.

Peter gets blackmailed into helping settle the score over the problems that will be caused by him attacking the guys who came after Caitlin. In exchange for his assistance, he’ll get everything that was on him when they found him.

Hiro promises to make Takezo the hero the swordsmith’s daughter sees. As soon as they step outside, Takezo gets shot and dies. Until he’s healed that is.

It doesn’t take the Haitian long to find Claire’s dad.

Thinking about what her teacher said about pinky toes not being necessary, Claire cuts hers off, hoping it will regenerate, which it does. Obviously, she does this in front of an open window with West watching. He leaves the book he had earlier and takes off, and that’s where chapter 2 ends.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live blog of Heroes Season 2 episode 3, which airs Monday at 9/8c on NBC.

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Prison Break Season 3 Episode 3

In Prison Break Season 3 episode 2, Michael got Whistler out of his hiding place and cleared his name with Lechero. Now he just needs to figure out how to break him out of prison. Stick around for another live blog. After that, don’t miss the live blog of Heroes Season 2 episode 2.

Link’s in his room looking through the bird book with names and numbers. He gets the pictures he asked for of LJ and Sara, then hears a noise and turns around to find Sucre, who just wants some money and isn’t interested in helping.

Scofield offers to help Lechero out with Sona. Lechero makes it perfectly clear it’s his show and he doesn’t want to be bothered. After that, Link goes to visit Michael with the picture of Sara, pointing to a specific spot in the newspaper, which they believe tells them where she’s being held. Michael tells him it’s already been three days, and he’s got nothing, so if he can’t break out, Lincoln’s going to have to break her out of where she’s being held.

Michael asks Whistler who he is, and he says he’s just a fisherman. He then asks McGrady for a cell phone, which only Lechero has access to. Link tells Susan she must let Michael speak to Sara, and that it’s a demand, not a request. Scofield turns to a reliable old friend to get the phone, T-Bag. He threatens to tell about his crimes if he doesn’t help him out.

Whistler’s girlfriend Sophia stops by and is happy he’s still alive. She tells him that Scofield’s brother took the book. She asks who that is, but he tells he tells her as little as possible. She asks what she can do, and he says nothing.

Whistler gets angry that Link has the book and treats Michael like the enemy. The response he gets is that Sara’s all that matters, and that he doesn’t care about him or his book.

Mahone starts going crazy without his little pills. He meets with his public defender, who tells him his trial date is a year away, “great news” since it’s less than the average of two and a half years. He says that he’s got a guy on the inside (Scofield) who will testify on his behalf, which he’s told doesn’t matter because it’s one inmate taking the fall for another. So Mahone asks for his pills to be smuggled into the prison. Needless to say, this doesn’t go over well.

T-Bag unplugged the phone so it was dead and still needed to be charged. After Lechero says to leave it to charge and heads off for his haircut, T-Bag grabs it and gives it to Michael, telling him he’s got less than half an hour. He calls Link, but Link lets him know Susan hasn’t even agreed to let Sara talk to him yet. Link tells her to stop pretending she’s in charge because she needs them. They get their way, and Sara calls Michael. She tells him it’s a lost cause but then gives him a vague clue indicating that the original interpretation of the first clue was wrong. She’s forced to hang up, and then Michael dashes to put the phone back where it belongs. He’s almost caught by Lechero, but T-Bag interrupts and lets him get away. Because the phone wasn’t placed back in the charger all the way, though, Lechero gets suspicious and redials, calling Link, who hangs up.

Sophia pulls a knife on Link, who tells her what’s really going on and says they’re on the same side and she should talk to her boyfriend. He then hops in a cab to try to figure out what Sara saw. He’s looking around trying to find her, and she sees him and throws something out a window to break it. He charges into the building and proceeds to beat the crap out of people, but they manage to get LJ and Sara into a van and take them away. After that, he breaks the bad news to Michael but tells him it’s got to be possible to break out because otherwise they wouldn’t have gone through all the trouble of setting this up.

Whistler explains his story to Michael and tells him he needs the book to plan what to do after they escape. Michael tells him his only concern is getting him out of there and that what happens afterward is not his concern. I’m sure that will change soon enough.

Lechero’s other men start to harass T-Bag and say they’ve got him figured out. In retaliation, he tells Lechero that they’re trying to take him down because they’re not getting their cut.

Link gets back to a passed out Sucre and gets a call from Susan. She tells him he’s never going to try anything like that again. Just so they’re clear, she tells him to check in the garage, where he finds a box. What’s in the box? We’ll find out next week. What do you think is in the box?

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live blog of Prison Break Season 3 episode 4, which airs Monday at 8/7c on Fox.

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