Tanya Lane: Your Favorite Critic’s Favorite Critic

Tanya has always appreciated the arts, perhaps because it’s a pretty cool way to live vicariously through someone else.  Movies have always been an escape, and music was a part of her childhood from day one.  As a first grader she would listen to The Beastie Boys and LL Cool J on a Fisher-Price toy radio.  So she doesn’t rap, but if you ask Tanya she’ll tell you that she IS hip hop.  She’s also a bit of a know-it-all, so what do you call an opinionated lover of art and entertainment?  Duh, a movie critic!  Enter Poptimal.com, which has graciously given Tanya the space for cultural reflection and observation.  She tries an adamant “everywoman” approach to her reviews, one that is influenced by her belief that film is bigger than most people realize.  Movies, especially the iconic ones, move the culture forward in immediate fashion.  So, basically movies are a big deal to Tanya, more than just a simple way to pass an afternoon.  It’s an experience, and a huge influence on pop culture.  Tanya thinks she’s got pretty good taste and when she’s feeling some one or something; she gets hell-bent on convincing others.  Her latest musical obsession is Melanie Fiona, by the way – check her out.  From Lil’ Wayne’s latest mixtape to Tarantino’s latest movie, if it’s hot she wants to be up on it.  She’s a huge procrastinator and hopes to get around to changing that one day (wink).  She started a screenplay that’s been collecting dust, but one day she’ll finish it.  In a fantasy world Tanya would win the lottery, and run away from her normal life to attend film school.  Then maybe you’d see her name on movie posters.  Hey, a girl can dream can’t she?  Until then, the beat goes on.

Her favorite movie genre:  Too numerous to just pick one.  I like Hitchcockian suspense thrillers (The Talented Mr. Ripley), intersecting storylines (Crash), and thrillers with good twists (The Usual Suspects).

Her favorite TV genre: I like high concept shows like Flash Forward and reality TV, I’m not ashamed to admit!

Currently Covering: Grey’s Anatomy

Tanya’s Thoughts On:

Most annoying actor:  Nicolas Cage. That voice. Those eyebrows.

Actor I’d most like to be trapped in an elevator with: Omari Hardwick, he’s a newbie.

Best TV show almost in the history of the Universe:  True Blood

Actress whose powers of male hypnotism I most admire:  Meagan Fox

Best director without an Oscar: Spike Lee

Best actor without an Oscar: Brad Pitt

Best actress without an Oscar: Angela Bassett

Pop culture trends she shuns:  Snuggies.  Seriously? A blanket with sleeves?

Pop culture trends she embraces:  I freaking love Twitter, man.

Her television guilty pleasures:  For the Love of Ray J. *sigh* I can’t believe I admitted that.

The Show she is most excited About: Tie between V and Flash Forward.  They are both must-see TV

The Show She’s Glad She Doesn’t Have to Review:  So You Think You Can Dance.  I just finished with Dancing with the Stars, and performance shows are difficult to review.

The World Would Be a Better Place: if we all re-enacted scenes from our favorite movies every day

Her pop culture crushes are:  Matthew McConaughey and Paul Walker

The Show That Never Should Have Been Canceled:  The Wire.  Always gritty, never pretty

A Bleak Road Well-made and Well-traveled

It is officially the season of giving and sharing and hope and family cherishing…so what better time to contemplate the end of the world and humanity’s descent into an impossibly bleak hell of their own making? No, I’m not talking about 2012. I’m talking about The Road, superbly directed by John Hillcoat and adapted by Joe Penhall from the lauded 2006, Pulitzer Prize-winning Cormac McCarthy novel. 2012, with a price tag of $200 million, cost ten times the amount of the long-gestating The Road, but Hillcoat’s foray into the storied post- apocalyptic genre is the film that will endure in the public consciousness in the years to come. It’s a harrowing, relentlessly grim, emotionally-affecting, visceral, and often awe-inspiring ride that does rise to the level of art.

Art—when applied to film—is a term that often makes me uncomfortable. What is generally referred to as film art or an art film is usually exactly the kind of film I find to be impossibly pretentious, tedious, self-important and stiff, completely antithetical to the movies I watch and hope to make. But The Road manages to enter the realm of art while always remaining enthralling and emotionally engaging, and instead of pulling you out of the story, the film always keeps you completely entrenched in the immediacy of the moment. The three principals—Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Charlize Theron—are first-rate, and the film boasts two exceptional cameos, one by an almost unrecognizable Robert Duvall, the other by Guy Pearce.

The film plunges you right into what it would be like to try to be an ordinary man trying to protect yourself and your son from a seemingly insurmountable foe: the world. This is a world that doesn’t make sense, and we are never given any remote explanation as to who or what caused this apocalypse, the death of every animal and the destruction of the earth. The world of The Road is one in which all remnants of any kind of civilization have been obliterated. Here, everyone lives only for themselves and care nothing about their fellow man. People will do anything to survive, including eating each other. The central question the film explores is how do you survive and protect the ones you love from unspeakable devastation and barbarism without compromising your integrity and sense of honor? Is survival worthy as the ultimate goal, or does there come a point when the struggle to survive becomes worse than death?

For Mortensen’s wife (Theron), the answer to that question is indeed that death is a better option than trying to survive in an insane world. We see glimpses of Mortensen—referred to in the film only as “Man”—and his former life with his wife and son, first on the eve of the apocalypse and then in the beginning of the end. These glimpses are fragmented and only impressionistic in nature, but they effectively show the love he had for his wife and the love she had for him and their son. But she was not willing to walk the road with them, to go on this impossible journey. After failing to convince Mortensen that it would be—if not more humane, than at least a better solution—to use their revolver and two remaining bullets to kill herself and her son, she disappears into the night to die, leaving Mortensen the Herculean task of trying to take care of his young son.

From reading that description you might think that Theron was a cold hearted horror of a human being, but the performances are so strong that you understand her choice and feel sympathy for her. These sequences are also set apart from the rest of the film visually, as Hillcoat and his team elect to use a brighter, warmer color palette that contrasts sharply with the intensely gray, dreary, decayed and bleak world the Man and the Boy (Smit-McPhee) find themselves in. The visuals truly are remarkable in this film. Almost every single shot, every composition you could freeze-frame and blow out as a piece of art.  The film was shot entirely on location in Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Oregon, and I counted at least five different special effects companies in the end credits—digital matte paintings and the like. This is how special effects should be used, to augment and enhance an already brilliant frame, not as the basis of the frame itself—not to mention the story.

The Road by its very title is framed by the conventions or at least structure of the classical adventure narrative. You have two characters on a journey, facing immense physical and psychological perils and meeting remarkable and usually dangerous characters along the way. It would not be a reach to put The Road in the same pantheon of The Odyssey. Whereas Odysseus is trying to make the long journey home, the Man and the Boy are trying to head south to the water and gentler weather. They only have a vague sense of where they are going and in all honesty, the Man doesn’t know what they will find there. But there is no alternative but to believe that a better life exists somewhere. Anywhere.

There are some really intense action sequences that got my heart pounding, but it is the quiet, father-and-son moments in between that make the film special. There is even a moment where we see the Man teaching his son the best way to blow his brains out with their revolver in case he is about to be eaten by cannibals and has no alternative. Yeah, that’s not a scene you would expect to see in most commercial movies that are released.

The film is relentlessly bleak but oddly enough, that is partly what makes the film so enrapturing. It never feels overwhelming or sour or nasty. It’s just a realistic depiction of a world almost unimaginable. Hillcoat is a guy to really watch. His previous feature, The Proposition, is an equally grim and equally potent fair that takes place in Australia in the 1880s. It is a Western, and one of the darkest ever made. Check it out if you haven’t seen it already and then go see The Road. It ain’t exactly Frosty the Snowman, but it will make you feel almost as good.

The Amazing Race: Wordplay Be Tough!

I have to admit, I found watching The Amazing Race last night to be mildly therapeutic. Depressed over the end of indulgent Thanksgiving meals, relaxation and canine bonding and the return to the cold, dark Boston grind, it was amusing to watch people worse off than I am make spectacular fools out of themselves. And truly, that’s what they did. Another benefit: the episode had the most satisfying ending thus far.

The teams begin by racing to the Spanish Synagogue in Prague, where they are directed to the Ekotechnicke Museum. Meghan & Cheyne lead the way…it’s a funny world we live in. Meanwhile, Sam & Dan whine about how everyone thinks they are the villains now because they stole Brian & Ericka’s taxi last week. I say they were justified. Anybody that takes as long to pull themselves across a cable as Brian & Ericka did are just asking to be screwed.

At the museum, the teams have to venture into a Kafkaesque lair filled with ringing telephones. Five of the ringing phones have people on the other end of the line waiting to give them one letter. The challenge is to take the five letters and put them together to spell “Franz,” Kafka’s first name. Then the teams have to write it down and take the paper to a couple of gendarmes (wrong nationality I know, but the term fits) who either approve it or stamp a big red X over the paper. I loved the host’s introduction to Kafka: “the existential author rejected technology and questioned the meaning of life.” What a profoundly thorough preface.

Meghan figures it out pretty fast and she and Cheyne move on to a “kryocentrum,” where they have to spend two minutes in a cryotherapy chamber. Basically all they have to do is freeze their little conservative asses off for a short period of time. I could have done without seeing Cheyne half-naked, but you can’t win them all.

Meanwhile, everyone else is still at the museum trying to complete the challenge. Everyone except Brian & Ericka, that is, who are suffering through a penalty due to coming in last place last week. Their punishment, if you can believe it, is to go to a bar, make and drink a shot of absinthe. Who in their right mind would find going to a bar and drinking for free a punishment? Well, actually, Brian. He whines that he doesn’t drink a drop at home, so this is a big chore for him. They do it, then start running to the next clue. Brian worries about getting stopped for being intoxicated. If I were Brian I’d be more worried about being married to a shrew of a wife.

Everyone gets through the Kafka thing except Flight Time. Every team passes him, including Brian & Ericka, who got there hours after everyone else got there. Truly, he can’t figure out how to put five letters together to spell something coherent, even after Sam (or was it Dan? Who cares?) tells him that it starts with the letter F. I couldn’t believe it. How could anyone be that moronic? Maybe he got smacked in the skull with a basketball too many times. I really want to make some mean-spirited jokes and mockeries here, but being it’s the holiday season, I’ll refrain. Eventually, Flight Time gives up and the Globetrotters take a four hour penalty.

Brian & Ericka make it to the cryotherapy chamber. Ericka keeps whining that she hates the cold. Are you detecting a trend here? Stupid people whining. I really think that should become the new title for the show. I kept hoping that somehow the cryogenics would malfunction and Brian & Ericka would be frozen solid. Then Sylvester Stallone could run in and kick them into a million pieces, like he did to tax-evader Wesley Snipes in Demolition Man. No such luck though.

For the next challenge, teams have a choice between covering a heavy wooden golem with wet clay and lugging it across town to a synagogue, or carrying 30 beers through the town square to a group of soccer punks. I would have taken the beers in a second. Actually, I probably would have done the other one because I wouldn’t trust myself not to drink them.

Meghan & Cheyne finish first once again. The real highlight is watching Flight Time and Big Easy sit on their asses on cold stairs watching their million dollars fly away. They try to make jokes and act like they’re just hanging out, but they know they’re screwed and I knew it too. Can you guess how this one ends? Early on in the season Flight Time talked about how his dying father told him to win the race. Looks like daddy has some grave-rolling ahead of him. Good job buddy. Way to honor your croaking father. On that note, happy holidays everybody

For another take on this week’s episode, check out Sooo Kafka-esque by Alana D.

Season 16, Episode 10: “It starts with an ‘F’.  That’s all I’m going to tell you” (originally aired November 29, 2009)

For more on The Amazing Race, click here.

Sundays at 8pm ET/PT on CBS

Photographs courtesy of Larry D. Horricks, CBS

The Amazing Race: Sooo Kafka-esque

Kafka: Czech novelist who wrote in German about a nightmarish world of isolated and troubled individuals (1883-1924).  That pretty much sums up the show right now, yes?

First task is a Roadblock requiring a team member to enter a dark, depressing room full of ringing phones.  5 phones will say a letter when you pick up the receiver.  The letters are N-F-A-Z-R.  These letters form a word the team member must get to get out of there.  The task? Inspired by Kafka.

Now, to be fair, I don’t know if the clue says anything about Kafka, so maybe it’s not as completely obvious as it seems. Still, I’m not surprised when Meghan and Brian get it on their second tries.  However, Nathaniel, who got there third, can’t seem to get it.  He asks Dan if they can work together to come up with the word.  Dan says yes, but when he gets it before Nathaniel, Dan leaves, only telling the clueless Globetrotter that the word begins with an “F”.  Why?  Because there’s three teams left and helping others is stupid, Nathaniel.

Here’s what I think.  Nathaniel is a fun guy, an athletic guy, but puzzles are not his strong suit.  He didn’t ask Dan for help out of some misbegotten spirit of cooperation; he did it because he’s not good at puzzles and was looking for a get-out-of-it-card.  Dan didn’t give it to him, and good for him.

So Nathaniel gives up.  Yep, he gives up.  Just quits the task and takes the penalty.  A four hour penalty.

Seriously, are you kidding me?  I can’t believe he did that.  And I can’t believe that Herbert let him.  I’m not one for pushing the kind of verbal abuse that runs rampant on this show, but if there were ever a time to push your partner (encourage them, mock them, bribe them, harangue them, scream at them, whatever), it’s when you’re down to the final four, and your teammate just said he wants to take a four hour penalty.

Whatever, Globetrotters. I’ve been feeling guilty for using your decidedly uncool real names this season, but I’m done with that now, cause that?  Was decidedly uncool.

Next task, the Kryocentrum. Teams must go into a room for two minutes in their skivvies that’s -180º C.  Blah, blah, blah cold.

Before Brian & Ericka get to the Roadblock, they have a Speed Bump which requires them to visit a bar and drink a shot of absinthe.  Luckily for Brian, the bar contains tons of scantily clad women writhing in place on all available surfaces, including the bar top.  It was around this time I really started wanting a shot of my own to get me out of this Kafka-esque episode.

Next task, Detour.  Legend v. Lager.  In Legend, the teams have to cover a golem figure with clay and then move it across town to a synagogue.  The golem is very large, and looks very heavy. Normally I would infer that it is extremely heavy because it incites Sam and Dan to bicker constantly during the task except. . .it’s Sam and Dan bickering.  They’d bicker if it were moving cotton balls.  They’d bicker if the task said to cover Hugh Jackman in clay and walk him to the pit stop.  It’s Sam and Dan, and bickering is what they they do. ‘Course, Meghan and Cheyne bicker too.  Cheyne yells, Meghan accuses him of yelling at her, and I begin wishing I’d bought that absinthe from Leopold Bros. back when I had the chance.

In Lager, the teams have to deliver 30 beers to people the show hired to play rowdy soccer hooligans in a bar. Brian & Ericka choose this task, and on their first trip carrying the beers to the bar, Ericka ends up dropping her tray and wanting to switch tasks.  She says “I am not willing to make it work” and I get a sudden flashforward of their divorce proceedings. Anyways, Brian talks Ericka into it, and they deliver the remaining beers, and, eventually, 24 more, while walking through the streets of the Czech Republic as people accost them, yell at them, and try to steal their beer.  (Phil warned us that the Czech Republic has the highest beer drinking per capita in the world.  People, they LOVE their beer.)  Ericka threatens the Czechs with bodily harm for touching her beer, which is kinda amusing.

As they deliver the last bottles, the sun comes up and the Globetrotters’ penalty is over.  Brian & Ericka get to the pit stop (third, behind Sam & Dan, who are behind Meghan & Cheyne).  Herbert & Nathaniel go to the next clue box which directs them to the pit stop and they are eliminated.

Man, I cannot believe they went out like that.  Can you?

For another take on this week’s episode, check out Wordplay Be Tough by Cameron Cubbison

Season 16, Episode 10: “It starts with an ‘F’.  That’s all I’m going to tell you” (originally aired November 29, 2009)

For more on The Amazing Race, click here.

Sundays at 8pm ET/PT on CBS

Photographs courtesy of Larry D. Horricks, CBS

White Collar: High Stakes and Poker Faces

How do you catch a thief? You call in a bigger thief to beat him at his own game. At least that’s what Peter Burke did this week when one of his fellow agents went missing. Faced with the mysterious disappearance of undercover FBI man Mark Costa, who recently infiltrated the organization of notorious money launderer Lao Shen, the Feds decided it takes one to know one and called in Neal Caffrey.

Actually, my bad, they called in one of Caffrey’s former aliases, Nicholas Halden, after Neal requested immunity. The FBI found out Shen would be in Chinatown for only 72 hours, and the only way to get to him and find out what happened to their missing agent was by sending in one of their own, in this case a multimillionaire with a penchant for high stakes gambling (otherwise known as Nicholas Halden). Caffrey was given an ankle bracelet upgrade in the form of a gold watch transmitter that also records sound and told to buy his way into Shen’s underground game of Pai Gow – but not before Mozzie could give him a tutorial in the game. Peter and his agents were stationed in a nearby Chinatown apartment and all was set to go off as planned, until the NYPD unexpectedly raided Shen’s game. Fearing his identity would be compromised, Neal fled the scene until he was found and brought to a hotel room by Meilin, a stunningly beautiful undercover Interpol agent that was also in on Shen’s game.

I know he had to go to jail first, but how sweet is Neal Caffrey’s life? Beautiful women are literally thrown at him every week. If you’re going to be a criminal, apparently white collar is the way to go. Caffrey really is a one-woman man though, as he is yet to let any of his seductresses steer him off course from finding Kate.

Before exposing her identity to Neal, Meilin smashed his watch, leaving Peter and the Feds to hope that he didn’t try and flee the scene. As agent Cruz pointed out – fat chance, Caffrey knows when he has a good thing going. Meilin told Neal that she could find Kate and the man who kidnapped her as long as he purposely botched the Shen operation – Interpol was there first and were using Lao to get to his boss. She also reveals that she was the whistle blower to the NYPD in an attempt to save her own operation. Neal returns to Burke in the morning like a good little criminal, but he purposely avoids telling Burke about Meilin’s offer.

Burke and Caffrey then find their way into more trouble, as they find the missing agent’s body in one of Shen’s warehouses while they have no back-up present to help them. It’s sweet that Burke considers Neal his partner and all, but does he really think Neal will be helpful to him in a tight spot? Caffrey doesn’t strike me as being a sharpshooter, he’d probably do better just throwing a weapon at the crooks – that is, if the FBI would ever give him one.

Neal eventually finds a way to satisfy everyone’s needs and his own (good thing, since Peter revealed to him that he knew about Meilin) by setting up the illegal wire transfer that Interpol needed despite the fact that Meilin pulled a fast one on Neal. Instead of giving him a flash drive with information about Kate’s captor, the drive was blank. So, Neal didn’t feel badly about giving the FBI what they needed to take Shen down after he challenged him to another game of Pai Gow and let Lao “win” Neal’s recording device watch. Looks like the tiles fell in Neal’s favor this time as Lao admitted on tape that he was behind Costa’s murder. All would have returned to normal would it not have been for Meilin’s parting information for Neal – the person holding Kate was actually in the FBI. The closing scene shows Neal scanning the FBI office with suspicion as he tries to deduce if his co-workers are really on his team. Looks like things could get interesting next week if Neal decides he’d rather be a free agent.

This episode was a breath of fresh air for several reasons: first of all, the story line finally deviated a little to include the Asian version of Texas Hold ‘Em. At least the writers got the message to change it up a bit from past episodes. Secondly, June returned! Diahann Carroll most likely won’t see a lot of screen time, but seeing her return was a welcome change. Plus, she’s like a rich Obi Wan, her instincts are always spot on about people. Also, the comedic relief was adorable this week – Burke’s scenes with the little girl were even funnier than his novelty socks, where can I get a pair of those?  Finally, the tension between Burke and Caffrey as to whether Caffrey could finally be trusted was just starting to wane, which was definitely the show’s cue to throw a monkey wrench in the works. I do think they should develop Kate’s story line a little more, but the realization that Neal could be sleeping with the enemy is going to play out well in next week’s fall finale episode. One thing’s for sure – hell hath no fury like a Neal Caffrey scorned, if he switches sides I have a feeling the FBI is in for much more than they bargained for.

For another take on this week’s episode, check out High Stakes by Allison Toner

Season 1, Episode 6: All In (originally aired November 27, 2009)

For more on White Collar, click here.

Fridays at 10/9c on USA Network

Photographs courtesy of USA, Electric Artists, and David Giesbrecht

White Collar: High Stakes

Have I mentioned how gorgeous Neal Caffrey looks in his hat…what a great way to begin the show!! This week’s episode was different on many levels: more characters involved and new serious twists. We learn that Neal is tired of boring mortgage fraud cases, but a dangerous and exciting case comes along with high stakes for both the FBI and Neal.

FBI agent Mark Costa was working undercover to penetrate Lao Shen’s (a money launderer) organization but has disappeared. The FBI asks Neal to use one of his old aliases, Nicholas Halden (Neal is very surprised that they know about this alias) to contact Lao and find Costa.

Lao is only in New York for 72 hours and Neal must learn Pai Gow, a Chinese version of poker to impress him. Mozzie tries to teach him with the movie “Tiles of Fire.” Mozzie knows the movie a little too well; his mouthing of the words, although funny, annoys Neal. Mozzie is such a character; true to form for the USA Network. June is back, she brings the boys food and plans to join them for the rest of the movie and sequels. June (Diahann Carroll) only had two small scenes, but she was fantastic and I hope to see more of her soon!

One of my favorite scenes was when Burke, Cruz and Jones monitor the Pai Gow game from the apartment of a local Chinese restaurant owner. When entering the apartment, the agents and Neal remove their shoes and we discover Peter wears funny patterned socks! Neal asks, “Are those standard FBI issue?” Peter tries to cover his embarrassment by saying, “They were a gift from Elizabeth.” Neal’s response: “One that keeps on giving.”

Neal exchanges the ankle monitor for a watch that will track him but also record conversations during his interactions with Lao Shen. The game is going smoothly until the NYPD arrives and shuts it down. Neal flees to protect his cover during which he sees Meilin, a beautiful woman from Lao’s entourage, who invites him to her hotel room. Meilin breaks his watch and confronts him because she knows that he is Neal Caffrey, not Nicholas Halden. She also confesses that she works for Interpol and if he helps her, she will help him find Kate.

The next morning, still at the stakeout, Peter wakes up missing a sock. He questions the young adorable daughter of the apartment/restaurant owner about his sock and says, “You’re a little klepto aren’t you?” Peter assumes that she cannot speak English but we realize she can when she tells Peter, “You’re weird.”

Neal doesn’t tell Peter what he knows about Meilin and Agent Cruz reports that the tip to the NYPD about the game came from Meilin. In an effort to find out who she is, Burke goes to a hostess bar where she works. Peter talks to a group of Chinese women who only speak in Chinese but he secretly tapes the conversation, just in case they say something important.

Back at the FBI, while waiting for the translator, Burke and Cruz are listening to the recording, when the daughter of the apartment/restaurant owner walks in and tells him the ladies called him a bad name. She translates the rest of the recording which included, “They think you (Peter) are stupid” which Peter asks her to leave out of the translation. On a side note, Cruz tells Peter that they discovered Meilin works for Interpol. The translation leads Neal and Peter to a warehouse, in which they find the body of Agent Costa. Also, Peter calls Neal’s bluff about Meilin and tells Neal to tell him what he knows. Neal finally tells Peter that Meilin wants Lao to walk. Peter gives Neal an ultimatum: “Either take Lao down now or our partnership comes to end.” Neal’s shocked response: “We’re partners?”

Neal goes home to June’s to find Meilin waiting for him. He questions her about Agent Costa and finds out that Lao killed him because he thought Costa was working for a competitor. Meilin continues to try to persuade Neal to help her by saying, “The man who’s got Kate…I know who it is.”

Neal gets a new watch with tracking and recording features from Peter. As he heads to the meeting with Meilin, she gives him a bank account number to use with Lao. Neal complies and receives a flash drive with supposed information on Kate, which turns out to be empty. However, he still helps Peter and the FBI by losing his watch to Lao in another game of Pai Gow meaning that Peter is privy to Lao’s conversations and has enough to take him down.

After wrapping up the case, Meilin calls Neal and reveals that Kate’s captor is someone in the FBI. We end with Neal staring at FBI agents and looking very shaken.

One of the best parts of this episode was the interaction between Peter and the little girl. It was hysterical!

The angle with the FBI involvement with Kate was unexpected. Good for the writers! I was hoping they would think out of the box this week. I have so many questions and guesses as to what will happen. Trust is the real issue here. Who will Neal believe? I am very excited to tune in next Friday, December 4th for the fall finale!

For another take on this week’s episode, check out High Stakes and Poker Faces by Renata Sellitti

Season 1, Episode 6: All In (originally aired November 27, 2009)

For more on White Collar, click here.

Fridays at 10/9c on USA Network

Photographs courtesy of USA, Electric Artists, and David Giesbrecht

SUNDAY, 29th (Week of Nov 29 – Dec 5)

EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION: A surprise movie star comes help the team. It’s probably Brad Pitt, he’s attracted to these goodwill projects! (8pm/ABC)

MONDAY, 30th

FIND MY FAMILY: This show has become a real tear jerker. And if you don’t cry, you must have a black hole for a heart! (9pm/ABC)

TUESDAY, 1st

VICTORIA’S SECRET FASHION SHOW: Who knew bras and panties could look so good! (10pm/CBS)

WEDNESDAY, 2nd

GHOST HUNTERS: The Ghost Hunters invade the Mark Twain House. Special cameo appearance by Mark Twain, perhaps? (9pm/SyFy)

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