TV Geek Out 203: True Blood, "Trouble"

TV Geek Out covers episode five of season 3 of True Blood, "Trouble," in which there certainly is enough trouble to go around, and then some! Sookie meets Alcide's frightened werewolf packmaster; Eric pays a visit to Russell Edgington in Mississippi, prompting a flashback to his Viking days; Jason has a crappy first day working at the sheriff's office... until he meets Crystal from Hotshot; Lafayette and Jesus get to know each other; and Franklin makes a frightening proposal to Tara. Listen in as TV geeks Heather and Dana discuss all this and more here!

TV Geek Out 202: Game of Thrones, "Winter Is Coming"

TV Geek Out begins our coverage of the hit new HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones with this chat about the premiere episode, "Winter Is Coming"! TV geeks Dana and Heather dig into the show's incredibly complex world and discuss everything from the pilot's horror-tinged opening to its shocking last moments. Listen in here!

TV Geek Out 201: Mildred Pierce

Leave it to HBO to turn over 5 ½ hours of programming to Todd Haynes so the award-winning indie filmmaker could fashion a remake of Mildred Pierce, one of the classic melodramas in Hollywood history. TV geeks Perry, Dana, and Heather have seen it and are here to sing the praises of an amazing cast (Kate Winslet, James LeGros, Mare Winningham, etc. etc. etc.), try to find kind things to say about Evan Rachel Wood, and discuss why you’re more likely to see something like this on TV rather than at your local movie theater. Check it all out here!

TV Geek Out 200: Boardwalk Empire, "Nights in Ballygran" and "Family Limitation"

Boardwalk Empire finds its narrative footing halfway through the first season with "Nights in Ballygran" and "Family Limitation" (eps. 5 & 6), a pair of episodes that not only got the show's narrative drive operating at full steam (including Van Alden wrecking Nucky's annual Celtic Dinner, ward bosses being robbed, and the consummation of Nucky and Margaret's relationship), but also offered a wealth of character development including Eli's political ambitions, Pearl's tragic demise, and the revelation that Van Alden's inner demons force him to commit painful acts of self-flagellation. Join TV geeks Dana, Perry, and Heather as they wade through this dense two hours of television, create a new sound cue for their favorite Fed, and delve into the power dynamic between the show's many fascinating female characters. Check it all out here!

(The discussion of the second episode begins at about the 39:30 mark.)

TV Geek Out 199: 2011 Oscars Chat!

TV Geek Out is back after a few weeks of technical difficulties that were keeping us from posting!

Here we discuss this year's Oscars, from the lack of surprises to the quality of the hosting. Listen in as Perry, Dana, and Heather share our thoughts on the whole affair here!

Testing, testing ...

We're working on getting TV Geek Out back on its feet. Please ignore this post!

TV Geek Out 198: True Blood, "9 Crimes"

TV Geek Out discusses the 4th episode of season 3 of True Blood, "9 Crimes," which opens with Bill coldly dumping Sookie over the phone. Though he's giving in to his baser nature, he tells Lorena he will never love her (and punches her in the face!). Sookie has a good cry, but she still wants to find Bill, so she and Alcide go back to Lou Pine's (with her in bad-girl disguise courtesy of his sister); Russell shows up there and feeds his blood to the werewolves, Debbie is branded into the pack, and Sookie has to make a quick exit when they all start to turn. Back in Bon Temps, Franklin is holding Tara captive on his motel toilet, Bud retires and makes Andy the new sheriff, and Sam hires Jessica as a hostess. Sam also makes the questionable decision to put his trashy family up in one of his rentals, on the condition that they stop drinking and stealing (riiiight). Lafayette gets into trouble in Hotshot when he tries to sell V to the dealers there, but Eric comes to his rescue and closes the deal. Eric's got bigger problems back at Fangtasia, though, when the Magister shows up, finds his V stash, and tortures Pam. Meanwhile, Russell makes Bill procure a stripper for them and Lorena, and they chow down on her as the episode comes to a close. None of that is as fun as Eric's big lovestruck night-dream about Sookie, however, and TVGO's Heather and Dana geek out about that and more here!

TV Geek Out 197: 2011 Oscar Nominations

With just a few days remaining until Hollywood's most important awards are handed out, Heather, Dana, and Perry are here to help answer all of your burning questions: Will The King's Speech get the better of The Social Network? Does anyone have a chance of upsetting Christian Bale? How the heck do I know which live-action short to pick in my office pool? So listen in as the trio gives you all the info you'll need, and more trivia than you might have expected here!

TV Geek Out 196: The Walking Dead, "TS-19"

And so the first season of The Walking Dead ended with a bang and a whimper. In "TS-19," Rick and the rest of the survivors discover that the CDC is far from the haven they'd anticipated, and that Dr. Edwin Jenner isn't as much of a samaritan as they'd thought. Or is he? Jenner offers to share the certain death the CDC's computer is counting down to -- one of the few sure things our crew has encountered, and something that's all the more tempting now that it's clear the whole world has fallen to the zombie outbreak. Sure enough, some of the crew takes him up on the offer (bye, Jacqui! We hardly knew ye!) but the option of taking the easy way out only strenghtens Rick's resolve to survive. The last vestiges of the survivors' hopes that civilization will return anytime soon go up in smoke along with the rest of the CDC, and the search for a safe place begins again. Yet for the season finale, "TS-19" was surprisingly light on zombies, aside from the tantalizing opening glimpse of just how bad things got at the hospital while Rick was sleeping. And besides the drama surrounding how and which of the survivors would escape from the CDC, the episode was so low-key that it bordered on anticlimactic. Despite the show's unevenness, its mini first season made a maximum impression. We talk about the strengths and weaknesses of "TS-19" and the season in general, our hopes for season two and much more here.

TV Geek Out 195: Boardwalk Empire, "Broadway Limited" and "Anastasia"

TVGO's Heather and Dana discuss the 3rd and 4th episodes of Boardwalk Empire. In "Broadway Limited," Van Alden goes medieval on the newfound survivor of the roadside shooting, literally squeezing the name Jimmy out of him before he dies. Word travels fast, and Rothstein orders Luciano to take out Darmody. Perhaps lucky for Jimmy, Nucky's already banished him from town, so he heads to Chicago, but not before becoming suspicious of Angela and picking a fight with her as he leaves. Nucky also deals with the lynching of Chalky's driver and the ever-increasing cut that White wants of the bootlegging profits. As for the ladies, Nucky gets Margaret a job at high-end dress shop Belle Femme, where she later waits on his girlfriend, Lucy, in a tense exchange. In "Anastasia," Margaret is swept up in the news of the mysterious Russian woman claiming to be the missing Romanov princess. Meanwhile, Nucky is planning an elaborate "surprise" birthday party for himself -- and to wine and dine two political bigwigs. When Margaret goes to the party to deliver Lucy's dress, she gets swept up in all the opulence and Nucky is very taken with her. Later, after reading that "Anastasia" was a fraud and seeing Lucy with Nucky, the disillusionment leads Margaret to steal a camisole from the shop. Elsewhere, Eli arrests the leader of the local KKK under suspicion of the recent lynching, and puts White in charge of the interrogation, leading to one of the most memorable scenes of the season. In Chicago, Jimmy joins up with Capone, whose pranks are downright dangerous, and Jimmy takes up with prostitute Pearl, planning to go west with her. It's not to be, as Capone's brutish dealings with local gangsters lead to the slashing of Pearl's beautiful face. It was these two excellent episodes that finally turned Dana and Heather into Boardwalk Empire geeks, so check out why here!