Friday, October 26, 2007

And The Agony Continues...

I'm not, by nature, an optimist.

So almost every Georgia-Florida weekend since I started at UGA way back in 1990 has been something of pure torture for me, as I'm sure it's been for the rest of Bulldawg Nation.

I carry little hopes that this year's Cocktail Party (CBS, Saturday, 3:30 p.m.) is going to be much better. Georgia got whipped by Tennessee two games ago and barely beat Vandy before this past weekend's bye week.

My lone ember of hope is that this season, there are about five upsets every weekend, everything from Appalachian State winning at Michigan to USC losing at home despite being a 41-point favorite. Will the Dogs get swept up in upset mania and change what has been a constant fate for most of the past two decades?

I don't know, but winning this game more than once a decade would be nice.

THURSDAY RECAP: Maybe it was having Jason Reitman on board as director, or maybe it was the return to the half-hour format, but last night's "The Office" was definitely the strongest effort of the season, from Dwight and Andy's different reactions to the initial "D" to Michael's commercial, a classic Michael Scott joint if I ever saw one. Hopefully, NBC will finally learn the lesson that you can have too much of a good thing.

WEEKEND'S BEST BETS: Well, I dissed "Moonlight" (CBS, 9 p.m.) with my initial review, and four episodes in, I still don't think it's very good, but it continues to pull together a steady following. One of the few things I liked about the show was Jason Dohring's character of Josef, but he has hardly had anything to do thus far and wasn't even in last week's installment. And I still prefer the wide variety of demons and supernatural creatures that the gang on "Angel" fought to the vampire-of-the-week or really-bad-human-of-the-week that "Moonlight" is seemingly stuck with. A new "Ghost Whisperer" precedes it, while the night wraps up with "Numb3rs."

"Women's Murder Club" (ABC, 9 p.m.) is carving out its own niche on Fridays. It's a solid show, certainly not appointment television, but fairly entertaining if you are home on a Friday. It's followed by the cult hit, "Men In Trees."

Unfortunately, with both "Moonlight" and "Club" doing well, it takes away potential viewership from the night's best show, "Friday Night Lights" (NBC, 9 p.m.) Much like the cast and crew of the show, I'm resigning myself to the fact that this is never going to get even fair ratings despite superior acting and writing. If this is the last year, I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the ride. It's followed by "Las Vegas," in which former Tom Selleck's former "Magnum, PI" buddies Larry Manetti and Roger Mosley show up for a mini-reunion.

"Torchwood" (BBC America, Sat., 9 p.m.) is all-new and coming off its most ingenious episode yet last week.

On Sunday, new episodes of "Cold Case" (CBS, 9 p.m.) and "Shark" (CBS, 10 p.m.) compete with Game 4 of the World Series (Fox, 8 p.m.), as do ABC's "Desperate Housewives" and "Brothers and Sisters," from 9-11 p.m.

As always, the pick for Sundays is the ingenious "Dexter," (Showtime, 9 p.m.), which is followed by a new "Brotherhood" at 10 p.m.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wish I didn't care so much about the Dawgs - this annual game is the scariest week for me every year, so it's fitting this game always takes place near Halloween.

But like you, I am going into the game "assuming" we will find a way to lose, and hope to be pleasantly surprised if we actually WIN.

The saving grace this year, Phillip, is that for the first time ever, Georgia had a BYE week prior to this game (thank you, Damon Evans) and maybe that 2 solid weeks of getting healthier (we get 3 key players back including Mikey Henderson, Marcus Washington and Brandon Miller) of doing nothing but focusing on every possible way to beat Florida, maybe, just maybe gives me a bit more hope.

Then again, if DJ Shockley doesn't get hurt in 2005, the far superior Georgia team would have easily won the '05 game, which should have given Georgia back to back wins after the '04 win. Instead, Shockley gets hurt, and the Joe Tereshinski led Dawgs go down, 14-10.

That changed everything because win that game and we'd have had 2 straight wins, which may have even killed the butterflies for last year's game, in which 3 Martrez Milner end zone drops cost us the game by a mere touchdown. The point being...the Shockley injury cost us the 2005 game and invariably affected the mental psyche for the 2006 game.

It's entirely possible if Shockley had never gotten hurt, Gerogia would be heading into this game with 3 straight wins and we would be 'over' the jinx finally.

The one thing I offer this week Phillip, is let's squint our eyes and pretend Mark Richt is Eric Taylor, Matt Stafford is Matt Saracen, Brannon Southerland is Tim Riggins, and Knowshon Moreno is Smash Williams, and Georgia plays with Dillon Panther type of heart and we win this damn game.

Truth be told, I can't even comment on other TV shows, because all I have been able tot hink about for like a week is this frigging game.

Please God, give the Dawgs a victory tomorrow.

Phillip Ramati said...

Please, God, we pray for the continued good health of Knowshon Moreno...

Anonymous said...

Phillip and Zodin

Here hoping that UGA crushes Florida. No one believed the Tide would win last week and we destroyed the Evil Empire so have hope

Anonymous said...

Well, God heard our prayers and the Dawgs did indeed crush Florida.

And of not for some of the worst officiating I have ever seen in a football game, we probably beat the Gators by a lot mor ethan 12.

Phillip Ramati said...

Never have I been so happy to have been proven wrong.