When one of this season's more agreeable Survivor contestants, Dawn, tearfully declared, "I don't want to be here" during Brandon Hantz's epic and ugly tirade of a meltdown last week, I imagine she was speaking for many of us.
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ABC has been running a series of ads lately for The Neighbors quoting TV critics who trashed the show when it premiered in September but have since changed their mind or at least lightened up about this harmless time-waster. I was not among those quoted, for good reason. I'm hardly a fan, but even back in the fall, I knew there were far worse sitcoms to get riled up about — including elsewhere on Wednesday (NBC's DOA Animal Practice and the presumably soon-to-vanish mediocrity Guys With Kids) — and my main objection, then as now, is its occupation of prime real estate between two infinitely better comedies, The Middle and Modern Family.
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It's whack-a-mole time on a terrifically taut episode of FX's The Americans (10/9), as the uneasily married Philip and Elizabeth learn just how treacherous these spy games can get, while Agent Stan of the FBI concocts a gem of a plan to try to take the focus off the real mole, the lovely but understandably terrified Nina. Even a subplot involving the Jennings' kids Paige and Henry, stranded miles away from home when the parents are suddenly otherwise occupied, isn't as annoying as these things tend to be (think Kim Bauer or Homeland's Dana Brody). For what it's worth (to me, a lot), Keri Russell has her finest did-she-just-do-that badass moment yet when she realizes the level of mistrust she's dealing with at work and at home.
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Question: Zero Hour canceled. OK. I get it. The ratings were too low in that time slot. But then I don't get it. This was, what, a planned 10-episode season? Three down, seven to go. It was always planned to be a mid-season short-run program. Aren't all the episodes already filmed and ready for broadcast? So the ratings are so low that they are willing to call it a complete loss? And execs think that reruns will generate more revenue in that same slot against the same competition? If you are losing the time slot ratings already, how does airing reruns change that result? And why not move shows like this to Saturday? They have already given up on Saturday programming as it is. At least let seasons like this run their course. — Joe
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Every week, editors Adam Bryant and Natalie Abrams satisfy your need for TV scoop. Please send all questions to mega_scoop@tvguide.com or tweet them to @adam_bryant or @NatalieAbrams.
I need Once Upon a Time scoop, STAT! — Mallory
NATALIE: Let's see if I can turn this into a fairy tale: Once upon a time, a noble and moral character made a drastic decision that would forever mar his or her future, something so dastardly and irreversible that you would think that this character was actually evil rather than pure of heart. Any guess as to who will make the biggest mistake of his or her life?
I'm crushed that the CSI writers broke up Sara and Grissom! What are they thinking? — Lisa
ADAM: Hopefully, this news will console you...
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