DVR Overflow

WATCH THIS 3/8/2012

It’s only one week away, devotees: Community returns to our hearts and televisions next Thursday. It will surely be a joyous event, filled with celebratory paintball fire and pockets full of Hawthornes.

But this victory does come at a cost: As Community comes back to life, Parks and Recreation will be going on a short hiatus until April. So show Leslie Knope some love while you still can, and watch the last Parks and Recreation for weeks tonight on NBC at 8:30PM ET. Special bonus: Tonight’s episode is written by Ron Swanson himself, Nick Offerman, so be sure to prep a pre-show meal of all the bacon and eggs you have.

WATCH THIS 3/1/2012

I know we can get a little NBC-centric on Thursdays. Our love for Community, Parks and Recreation and 30 Rock tends to bias us. But this wouldn’t happen if NBC didn’t totally own Thursday nights with excellently crafted shows that for some reason nobody watches. The next great NBC show that probably nobody will watch looks to be the new drama Awake, premiering tonight at 10PM ET. It stars the criminally underrated Jason Isaacs, most famous for playing Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies, as a cop suffering from either a severe sleep disorder or some freaky sci-fi dream wormhole. In short: his family was in a car accident and he now lives in two realities, one where his wife survived the crash and one where his son did. This episode has been streaming online already, but if you haven’t checked it out, please do so. It’s great enough and probably desperate enough to need a strong following right out of the gate.

WATCH THIS 2/28/2012

Much like the rest of the world, we like big round numbers. Like one thousand, that’s a really nice number. So nice it’s almost kind of attractive in a sexual way - but that’s a topic for another day. Today’s topic is that The Colbert Report, our beloved home for gleefully random political satire, is celebrating its 1000th episode this very evening at 11:30PM ET on Comedy Central. Watch and see what wonderful festivities Stephen has planned. I personally hope he battles a minotaur again.

WATCH THIS 2/23/2012

Glorious Thursday! Oh how we love thee. You are the home to Parks and Rec, 30 Rock, and in less than a month, our beloved Community returns to your shores. You also feature the guilty pleasure of Person of Interest, and the guiltier pleasure of ABC’s Winter Wipeout. But the clear cherry on top of this Thursday night dessert is Archer, at 10PM ET on FX. Tonight’s episode combines two of our favorite things: Archer and Justified, as we find our favorite spy off working with a Kentucky drug ring. And they’re bringing our favorite southern simpleton Jack McBreyer along! It’s going to be a barrel full of monkeys drunk on moonshine.

(Image courtesy Warming Glow)

WATCH THIS 2/22/2012

Ah, Wednesday. That day where upper-tier cable channels like HBO and AMC refuse to program, which also happens to land smack in between the prime network TV nights of Tuesday and Thursday. ABC’s Wednesday night comedy bloc is a solid choice for programming, but today we’ll mix it up a bit and suggest you check out Sons of Guns on the Discovery Channel at 6PM ET. Sons of Guns does very little to differentiate itself from most of the other testosterone fests on Discovery, Spike and A&E these days - but tonight it is re-airing its episode where they make a giant flamethrower cannon. And if there’s anything I have a weakness for, it’s giant flamethrower cannons. Go ahead and indulge your inner pyro tonight.

WATCH THIS 2/13/2012

At this point in the year, your Monday night options are well established. You can watch Hugh Laurie think it’s one disease and then another and then another and then another and then maybe something else on House, watch Hurley protect San Francisco from time traveling serial killers on Alcatraz, chuckle at Neil Patrick Harris for a bit on How I Met Your Mother or watch three straight hours of fame seekers spreading cheer for all to hear on The Voice and Smash.

Why don’t we vary it up a bit this week, shall we? Let’s watch dogs. Specifically, ridiculously pampered showdogs on the Westminster Dog Show, tonight at 8PM ET on USA. It’s got a ton of entertainment to offer! For example, you can snicker as you listen to an exceedingly proper British gentleman say the word “bitch” over and over. On top of that, you can figure out what the hell that mop-like creature is in the above photo. Also, I hear they’re doing a Whitney Houston tribute, you won’t want to miss that.

WATCH THIS 2/6/2012

There were several takeaways for viewers of last night’s Super Bowl. For one, Madonna apparently can get a little excessive when it comes to production values. Who knew? Also, Clint Eastwood is America. But beyond that, NBC made one thing very clear: They have a new show called Smash, and it is airing tonight at 10PM ET after The Voice. They repeated this thousands, perhaps millions of times, so I’m only providing this reminder for all of our goldfish readers with their 5-second memories (aquatic life makes up 40% of our audience). The show is already a critical hit, having been available for download for weeks, so you might as well check it out, if only so you can chat about it around the break room fridge tomorrow morning.

And while you’re at it, go ahead and watch The Voice at 8PM ET, too, which was surprisingly pleasant in its postgame season debut last night. Perhaps I have underrated this spinning chair extravaganza. Apologies to Cee Lo, if that is the case.

WATCH THIS: SUPER BOWL XLVI EDITION

It is an excellent day to be a Giants or a Patriots fan. It is a terrible day to be a Jets fan. And if you follow any other teams, it’s a pretty decent day to eat some Fritos, imbibe some alcoholic beverages and watch the Budweiser Clydesdales be adorable. Yes, today is the holiest of unofficial American holidays, Super Bowl Sunday, which should be the most inessential day for WATCH THIS of the year. I mean, you’re all planning on watching the Super Bowl, so what other direction do you need? Plenty - there is, in fact, a right and a wrong way to watch the Super Bowl, which is not just a game, but an all day event. Let’s find out what the right way is, shall we?

PRE-GAME

First off: Do not watch any of the pre-game shows. Black out NBC, ESPN and Versus NBC Sports off your cable box until game time. Instead, indulge the part of you that will always love watching puppies mindlessly parade around a miniature football field. I am talking, of course, about the Puppy Bowl, airing at 3PM ET on Animal Planet. If you are looking a (rather ridiculously) in depth preview of that game, I would suggest consulting Yahoo Sports.

If that doesn’t satiate you, TNT is hosting an all-day Super Bowl Law & Order marathon, going from now until the end of time. And I might as well mention that the Lingerie Bowl is on MTV at 4PM ET, but come on people, in the age of unlimited supplies of free Internet porn, why is there any demand whatsoever for the Lingerie Bowl?

GAME TIME

This is the simplest part of the day: Just switch your plasma screen over to your local NBC affiliate at 6:29 ET and you’ll be ready to go for kickoff. Or - if you want to impress all your friends at your Super Bowl fiesta with the advances of modern technology - grab an HDMI cable and hook your computer up to your TV, then stream the game on NBCSports.com (the first legal online steam of the Super Bowl ever).

HALF TIME

Do not watch Madonna. Honestly, I’m not sure what the thought process was booking the halftime act this year. The Black Eyed Peas suck, but at least they’re still popular. The Who didn’t have any of their old talent left, but at least they’re big with the type of audience that does football. And acts like Springsteen and Prince, well those are just solid picks any year. But Madonna? She hasn’t been relevant since she did the theme song for Die Another Day and she’s not exactly popular with people who wear mock Patriots jerseys as normal everyday wear, meaning she doesn’t keep the normal Super Bowl audience nor does she bring in a new one. Could you not land the Foo Fighters or Adele, NBC? Was Bon Jovi busy doing something else today?

Anyway, ranting aside - the half time show should go on the air around 8PM ET. at which point I would suggest changing the channel to CBS where 60 Minutes is airing their pre-Oscars interview with Meryl Streep. Meryl Streep is peerless and an American treasure on par with the Lincoln Memorial, so it should be much more interesting than listening to Madonna warble through “Ray of Light.”

AFTERMATH

As you will surely be reminded thousands of times during the Super Bowl itself, the season premiere of The Voice will be airing after game festivities conclude. Which is all well and good - Cee Lo Green is cool enough to make that show bearable - but the real entertainment comes on after your local NBC news, with Jimmy Fallon’s Super Bowl Special. Fallon has been in Indianapolis Super Bowling it up, and his post-game show will air live (which probably will mean even more Fallon giggling than usual) and feature Andy Samberg and Adam Sandler as guests (which probably guarantees you will see multiple Adam Sanders on screen at some point in time). It should be a fun time - and at the least, it should be better than those Jimmy Kimmel post-Super Bowl shows that ABC runs.

WATCH THIS 2/1/2012

Once again, it’s pretty slim pickings on TV tonight, my fine folks. With American Idol sucking up an entire network and the rest of broadcast TV mired in reruns, this Wednesday features a dearth of fresh fictional content (though both Whitney and Are You There Chelsea? are running new episodes tonight…). As such, your only refuge may be late night TV, where your favorite Denver Broncos fan (me) would suggest checking out tonight’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon at 12:30AM ET for it’s special guest, one Tim Tebow.

But from what I hear there are some people out there who don’t like Mr. Tebow for some reason. Go figure. In that instance, try heading over to Comedy Central at 9PM ET for two of my favorite South Park episodes, “Tsst” and “Ginger Kids.” It’s a full hour of Eric Cartman doing terrible, terrible things, and that never fails to bring anyone pleasure.

WATCH THIS 1/31/2012

There’s a few things you should watch tonight. Besides the consistently amazing Justified at 10 ET on FX, tonight is the series premiere of Comedy Central’s latest foray into sketch comedy, Key & Peele. The show has been getting largely positive buzz, and I’m really hoping the show succeeds. Comedy Central hasn’t exactly been churning out sketch comedy hits since Chappelle’s Show ended in 2006 (be honest: has anyone ever watched an episode of Nick Swardson’s Pretend Time?) and we have it on pretty good authority that Key & Peele will be worth watching if people give it a shot. So if you’re not already committed to watching Raylan fight Oxycontin dealers, check out Key & Peele at 10:30 ET on Comedy Central. (Also, the season premiere of Tosh.0 is at 10, but I’m pretty over that show as I am no longer 14.)