"Nina In The Block" Benched: "Hooked & Booked"

This week's episode of "Benched" deals with Nina tries to be one of the guys in the PD office. It turns out to be one hell of a night for both Nina and the guys.

Nina doesn't seem to be adjusting as a public defender, when she goes to talk to her client about the charges. She freaks out about the smell in the room along with the sticky substance on the table. Soon Nina leaves and told her client that she'll make a deal, without the client agreeing to it, for lesser punishment.

When Nina gets back to the office, Phil makes a fun at her by how she's asking for the hand sanitizer and just does nuts over it. She talks about how it was disgusting in the jail interview rooms.

Later on Carol is freaking out about how his computer keeps freezing but turns out that he's upset about his wife. Then Phil comes up with an idea for an all guys night out to help Carlos take his wife off his mind.




As they planned it out, Nina just came back after an incident where her client freaked out how she wanted her to speak about who's drugs they were. And soon the client is back in jail. Nina does get a bit upset about her heels getting scuff.

Phil then talks to Nina about the "Hooked and Booked" program that new public defenders do to get close to their clients. You know to see and what's it really like in jail for their clients. After Carlos talked about his time, he spoke about Phil's time that the guy he was with in jail died.

So, as Nina was heading out to get her one hour spa day at the Four Seasons. She goes to Morris and taps him on the shoulder. She gets booked and put in jail with other females. Nina starts to freak out just a bit. In one scene, she asked the others to look away when she was trying to use the toilet.

Then came her client and fireworks started up until each got tasered by one of the officers. Soon she wakes up and she thinks she's at the Four Seasons until she realized that she was still in jail. Then her client and Nina got real and talked.

The client told Nina that the drugs wasn't her and that it was her boyfriend's. She did it because she loved him and soon Nina realized that she did the same thing too.

Meanwhile, the Phil and Carlos goes out to bars, only Carlos doesn't drink. Phil goes all out and him and Carlos had a moment of respect.

The next day, as Phil and Carlos was back in the office, Nina came back, wearing the same clothes and having half of her hair breaded looking like one of the gals in Orange is the New Black. The guys were shocked that she did it and soon as she left to go wash up, they went to look for the tape of her getting teased.

Morris comes in with the tape and gives it to Phil as Nina was talking to him. Soon Nina realized that the while "Booked and Hooked" was all a joke and then punches Phil in the stomach.

I thought this episode was just so freakin funny. Some of the characters in jail were funny, including the client where she looked like Crazy Eyes from Orange is the New Black.

I think that Nina is hilarious with the way she's freaking out about the jail smells and sticky stuff. That was pretty funny along with her thinking that the whole booking process was just an act of the club.

You can catch "Benched" Tuesday nights at 10:30/9:30c on USA Network.

State of Affairs: "Pilot"

In her first television role since "Grey's Anatomy," Katherine Heigl returns as Charlie Tucker, a top CIA analysis who's responsible for the President's Daily Briefing in the the new NBC series "State of Affairs."

After a year since a terrorist ambush, where Charlie's fiance and the President's son was killed, we see Charlie reliving through those moments while talking to her therapist. Seems Charlie like to take those horrible memories and go to bars, get hit on guys and have a one night stand. So she's a rebellion.

When it comes to crunch time for her and her team, she has to make a decision between saving a doctor before he gets killed by a terrorist group or take down the terrorist who killed her fiance. And when she chooses, it turns into one hell of a typical work day.

Just after Charlie briefs President Constance Payton of the important situation and not mention about how they could take down her son's murderer. Soon the head of the CIA hears about what Charlie and her team has done and gets upsets and puts an arrest warrant for her.

When she gets word of the situation from her team, Charlie decides to go whatever it takes. When a visitor who talked to the head CIA, Charlie thinks that he's spying on the CIA and soon the President. Charlie calls a friend for help, who is a bit like Saul from Homeland, and picks the guy up. He does find a hidden cell phone, which proves Charlie and the team right.

Soon Charlie is trying to get to the President to clear the situation up. She goes beyond the distance, trying to get there. Soon as she gets there, the new CIA director makes an argument that she should be fired.

But after President Payton asked her about it, Charlie gave her her opinion and then told that the guy that the CIA director had was spying on them and soon the President.

Later on during the episode, we see Charlie's been getting secret text messages from someone who knows what happen at that ambush. She tries to get a tracker but it doesn't seem to go anywhere. Later on that evening, as she comes home, her apartment door is open and sees Nick, a CIA operator who was there of the time of the ambush.

Nick shows signs of wounds, talks to Charlie, seems like he has some demons like she does. After she talks to him about if he was responsible for the text messaging, he admits it wasn't him. It seems he's wondering why that moment a year ago isn't effecting her as much as him.

Soon, when Charlie and Payton was at Aaron's memorial, Payton talks to Charlie and gets real, like really real with each other on getting the guy responsible for killing Payton's son and Charlie's fiance.

I got really into the show middle through the pilot. The first part of the pilot was a bit hard to follow but when we got down, meeting the new guy, the team and the situations, things really did pick up. I thought that the situation when Charlie was wanted for what she had done was just thrilling.

I think that this show as the penitential to grow. I like the character of Charlie and the President's relationship but also Charlie's team too.

This show has a bit of network version of Homeland meets with The Blacklist that also meets The West Wing.  

We are left with thrilling situations at the end of the show that'll set the tone of this series. I look forward to tuning in next week to see what this show will do.

You can catch "State of Affairs" Monday nights at 10/9c on NBC

Heartache and Regrets: Parenthood:

It's never easy getting your first heart broken by someone you really love. This week's Parenthood dealt with Max's first ever heartache and for Max's case, it didn't go so well.

We all know that Max has a crush on Dylan and we think that its the best thing that we've seen of growth as a character to make this development. When Max goes to his mom and ask her for advice about how to ask someone out. Kristina tells him to just be himself and ask her.

During school, probably during break or lunch, Max was looking for Dylan. He looked everywhere until someone told him she was in the kitchen. As he went into the kitchen, he saw her with someone else kissing and that turned love into heartache.

Max then went to Kristina and asked her to ex-spell a student for the things that Max thought of, but he did tell her he saw Dylan and the boy kissing. Later that after noon, Max then passes out flyers asking everyone to ex-spell the student.

Soon Dylan came by and saw the flyer and tried to talk to Max and then came the student. And after that, there was a rumble and Kristina took both the student and Max to her office.

It wasn't until later that Dylan came by the house and told Kristina how she doesn't love Max but likes him as a friend. When Max came down and saw Dylan, he went back upstairs and Dylan went off too.

The next day, Max thought up a way to get Dylan to like him back. He made a poster of photos and things that she likes, including a drawing she did and threw away. By the way, this was in front of other students during lunch so it was totally embarrassing her.

Dylan tried to tell Max but Max was getting louder and asking her more questions until she snapped and yelled out that she doesn't love him and will never will. That sent Max running out of the school and Kristina running after him. One of the heartfelt moments of this episode came when Kristina talked to Max and told him that she was proud for what he had done in there.

Meanwhile, Crosby is dealing with two things. One him and Amber are trying to save the business. Adam is away on business and so for what's been going on they've been recording jingles for advertisement. One of them was for cats, and the duo was meowing more than singing.

So after having such a boring recording session, Amber had an idea for her and Crosby to go out to the clubs and find this band that she has heard of and get them to record. Well, Crosby didn't think it was such a good idea but later he did go right after dinner with his mother-in-law.

As Amber and Crosby get to the club, two things happen. One that Crosby was searched before getting in and the guard find pot in his jacket. And two that Amber was having strange labor pains. Don't worry folks, it was just false contractions. But Amber does need to take it easy. But after that Amber told Crosby that she wants to keep the business up and had Crosby promise not to give up one it  

The other thing with Crosby was that since his business isn't doing well. Jasmine decided to take part of making money for the family as a file clerk along with her mother. That didn't settle in with Crosby at all, because of the whole male ego thing. But later Crosby does talk to Jasmine about it and that he tells her that he doesn't want to be a failure if he can't bring in the money and provide for the family.

And of course, Hank has finally stepped up and be a father. As Ruby was upset (again) about her mother no letting her stay home alone. She asks Hank for support, which he did. But later on, as he checked up on her, he soon drove to see and found a party going on at the house. At first Hank really didn't know what to do and hide at first but later on he went in there and told everyone to get out.

Of course, Ruby tried to tell him that she only invited a couple of friends over but Hank didn't buy it and soon she went up stairs but not before telling him that she hated him. But soon, as Ruby is grounded, she came over to Hank and since she can't do anything like she use to, her and Hank got to play some cards.

I thought that this episode was just amazing. I loved both the Hank/Ruby story along with Max's story. I felt so bad but proud for Max. For someone like me, I could never do what he did at all. Hell I could never do that now. I really was hoping for Max and Dylan to be a couple. That would be so happy to see Max grow up even more. But life is all twist and turns.

Next week, might be the episode that no one should miss. I know I keep saying it but heck this is the final season. So every episode can be missed. But we see a familiar face return, Joel and Julia's relationship: can it still be saved? And a moment that will have us grabbing a hold of someone.

You can catch "Parenthood" Thursday nights at 10/9c on NBC

Two Cities but Two of A Kind: SVU & Chicago PD Crossover

They may be different from the outside but are the same deep down inside. As the two-night, three-show crossover of Chicago Fire, SVU, and Chicago PD concluded, we not only see them taken on just one case but see how both two cities aren't different at all.


Where we last left, on Chicago Fire, we saw that a house was on fire and had a guy who was bringing a briefcase but dropped it on the floor. That briefcase was full of photos of little children. Erin and Voight are called, and soon, Erin sees her brother in one of the photos. So they contacted SVU for help to find her brother Teddy. And so, they left, and we are now here.

We start with Voight calling Benson, as she was with Amro and Noah at the park, talking about the case and that Erin and Jay are on their way. He also tells her she should watch for Erin since this is very personal.

Both Amro and Fin talk about Halstead. The last time that Rollins and Fin were there in Chicago, he heard that Halstead tried to hit on her. He also tried to act so macho in a way. Both met in Benson's office, and soon Rollins came in.

Benson shows everyone that Amro found more photos of Teddy, and Rollins looks shocked as she takes it to view the file. Then Benson, Erin, Amro, and Jay were at another place where law enforcement looked through videos and watched kids in a sexual video. They tried to find where the tape was recorded and also tried to find out who the person behind the video was.

They look for Erin's brother and come to a place where he was years ago. They talked to the head person there but couldn't find him and not even the security guard couldn't remember him. So when they spoke to a girl who was once a prostitute at a young age and became successful as she went to school to become a teacher, Rollins and Amro talked to her.

Later, they find out where Teddy is, where prostitution is happening. They pulled, and soon, it was a bit of a family reunion with Teddy and Erin. Teddy is not too happy to see Erin as she's trying to ask for help to find the people doing this to these other kids.

As the episode continues, they find a break in the case when the security guard is part of the ring. As Benson, Erin, and Jay chase him, Benson gives the badass knockout to suspects on the run while Erin gets hit by a biker and soon falls to the ground.

That's when Voight visits the Big Apple; he visits Erin in the hospital and sends her back home to Chicago. Then, that's where the chills began as Benson and Voight greeted each other and met for the first time.

As Rollins and Amro question the suspect, Voight thinks that it's a bit boring. As soon as he couldn't take it anymore, he went in there and handled it himself. As he takes him to the wall, Benson commands him to stop.

Moving on, it wasn't until they found where one of the videos was streaming they got three of the guys and found the boy in the live streaming. Everyone questions them, and when one of them wouldn't talk, Benson and Voight get intense with him but send him to a 24-hour jail hold. It wasn't until later that he was killed.

Soon, word from the gang in Chicago informed Voight that the suspect from the fire also died, but he died of a gunshot to the head, along with a police officer guarding him. And that's where things take their turn and head back to Chicago.

The show continued, and we saw the rest of the gang, Dawson, Al, Ruzek, Atwater, Burgess, and Roma, looking at the scene when Ruzek found out who the officer's whole life; it got personal for him as he knew him from the academy.

Everyone goes back to the house; Erin is there, and so is Voight with Rollins and Amro. They bring everyone up to speed on the investigation.

The one thing in this episode of CPD is that we get to see Platt on an emotional side, that she was assigned the officer to watch the suspect at the hospital. She tells them that he was there and working overtime for her daughter's tuition.

Later, they come to two suspects; one of them gives Voight, Halstead, Ruzek, and Amro a run for his money. The guy was running like Spiderman, humping off rooftops. But when he jumped off, it turned out to be too far, and he was hanging on the edge. And then he fell on the ground before Amro, dead on impact.

The others, along with Erin, found one of the girls that was in the video in the video. Erin talks to her, and the girl hugs her very tightly. Soon, Erin takes her in. She's thinking that she could do what Voight did with her, but I don't think she can handle the responsibilities that come with that.

As the gang reaches a dead end, the Commander tells Voight that he has one more day to get this case solved, or he's given it to Major Case. With that in mind, he calls for Benson's help. As Benson comes in, she shares her thoughts and charity with Platt, the falling officer. She and Voight bump heads.

It wasn't until Erin found Teddy and talked to him. She brings him to the House, and he sits at her desk while she talks to Voight and Benson. It was then that Teddy saw a photo and started to say that it was the guy. The guy that took him. It turned out to be the guy that they interviewed at the DCFS office.

As they arrested him, he turned out to be in the basement in a cage. And you know when someone's in the cage, you know what's coming. It's time to Get In The Cage with Voight. But that stopped when Benson told him that she had more cases that she needed him to talk about. So she did talk to him and later on they found the other boy at an abandoned house in a locked room.

After finding the boy, the gang enters the station and exits the car. The officer's family was there, and as soon as they came out, everyone raised their arms for a salute. They walk down, and as they get to the car, Ruzek hugs the widow, helps her in, and shuts the door. As they left, everyone saluted.

Later, Erin comes in and sees the little girl playing. She then tells her that a foster family wants to take her and the little boy with them and invites Erin to come. The girl was so excited when she heard Erin was coming. It did bring some emotional connection to Erin.

Later, at a local bar, we see Benson and Voight having a beer together. (Do I sense a relationship?) Anyway, they talked, and Benson mentioned that she hadn't seen any sights yet and asked Voight if it was beautiful. He replied that it's one of the most beautiful cities and that, at times, when it's not.

This crossover episode event was flat-out amazing. I haven't had this much excitement that it brought in a long time. I remember when ER did a crossover with Third Watch, and I remember Law & Order (the mother-ship) doing a bunch of crossovers.

The storyline for this event was nothing but fantastic. I was really into how we would see Benson and Voight meeting and how they would work together, but as it came out, it worked out fine. And that they have a workable relationship.

I hope in the future that we'll see this again. I don't know if once a year of crossover is good; that would probably be pushing too much.

You can catch Law & Order SVU on Wednesday nights at 9/8c and Chicago PD on Wednesday nights at Tenn/9c on NBC.

It Starts Here: Chicago Fire: "Nobody Touches Anything"

This week is a special event from Chicago Fire as they team up with Law & Order SVU and Chicago PD in one of those epic crossover episode. And it all started with Chicago Fire.

Since we last saw the gang, what we know two weeks ago was that Severide was in Vegas and then he kisses a mysterious lady. Jumping two weeks later he comes back and everyone seems to be happy to see him along with him to the guys too. Severide went to talk to Bowden and Mouch and told them that he got married. (Oh Erin, is not going to like this at all.)

Meanwhile, Newhouse is having a bit of trouble. This is the first time we get to see his character in some kind of situation that needed the firehouse's help. Last time, we saw him and Mills pick up a dog from a guy and given it back to the owner of a nasty divorce. Soon, a strange guy comes by as Newhouse get his phone from his car and gets hit from a man that he's trying to put back in jail but has failed to get him.

Also he's trying to get enough money to afford a trip for his daughter to go after she's been working and studying hard. Later on, Mils wants to help and he does with both situations. One he told him to let go of the getting that guy and the second he got the firehouse gang to clip in to help with the trip. Hey that's what family is for, right?

More on the Severide storyline, he seems way too happy. For example, during a call, when a car was flipped upside down in a ditch, after the rescue he high fives everyone and tells them good job. I'm sure that you don't do that and it really started to become a red flag for others.

Casey talks to him about the girl and marriage. Then he got to see a photo of her and Casey approves from the way he was looking at it. The only person that doesn't approve it is Dawson and she did confront him about it later on but Severide did throw the tables back at her with her relationship with Casey. And after that she seemed to like Severide's fiance.

One of the funniest moments in this episode that just had  me laughing for a good while was when Britt was at a gym and in a Zumba, Zumba class. She's trying to get into doing things in Chicago for her own. Anyway as she enters and gets ready the class started and what beyond our own eyes is instructing the class was that of Cruz.

As soon as Cruz see her, he instructs her to come over and discuses if anyone knows about this or if this was a prank. She tells him no and soon Cruz asked her not to tell anyone but she did help him return the favor of helping him cook something up for the menu for Molly's II. That at first didn't go well after she made one dish and everyone wanted her to be the cook of the house but Cruz disagreed and soon the guys agreed with him.

The moment that began the crossover comes when the house was called to a house fire. Everyone seemed to be out but one lady told Casey and Severide that someone came out and ran back in there. Severide went into the basement and saw the guy and drags him out. The guy was hanging on to a briefcase and as Severide put him up on the backboard and moved him up, the guy dropped the briefcase.

That briefcase opened and photos fell out. Severide saw what the photos were contain and told Bowden to call in CPD. Erin and Voight come in and took a look. They see the photos of children ranging from at least eight to fifteenth years of age.

Soon as Voight was heading out, Erin was looking through the photos one by one when she got the shock of her life. One of the photos she has seen was that of her brother when he was fifteen. Voight calmed her down and she told him that he's in New York City and hasn't see him in ten years or so. Voight told her that he'll call Manhattan SVU and see what they have.

Later Erin calls the folks at Special Victims Unit and Rollins answers. Erin talks to her and tells her that it's her brother. Rollins said that they'll look for him and Erin asked them if she can come and help find him. She agreed and told Erin that they'll get this guy.

And so we are off to New York City!!! Don't miss the concussion of the crossover event tonight with Law & Order SVU and Chicago PD Wednesday night at 9/8c right after The Voice.

(My thoughts with this episode will be on the CPD/SVU recap/review because since it's a crossover I thought it would be better to get it all together after the end.)

You can catch Chicago Fire Tuesday nights at 10/9c on NBC.

Things Have Changed The Blacklist "The Decembrist"

Everything has been lead to this moment, things have changed and if you missed it last night, what the hell's wrong with you?

This time I won't give away spoilers because I think that this episode should be watched and not give any details. But I will give notes at what went down in this episode.

We first get to view a flashback to four months ago when we saw Liz and Tom in a stand point and Tom's shot. When we thought that Liz was going to kill him, she takes him and gets tries to get him well. After that we go from Day 1 to Day 77 of Liz and getting Tom to talk until the last moment of last week's episode.

Meanwhile, Red talks to Berlin about the person who framed him for killing Berlin's daughter. As the daughter talked, she couldn't remember but only a name called "The Decembrist."

That lead to Red getting Liz and her gang to search for The Decembrist. When Liz found out that Red is looking for Berlin, she was stun.

Soon they find a man who they think is the Decembrist, a man in Russia who is the Treasurer for the country. Berlin and Red fly there and talk to him. He tells him that he's not the Decembrist but gave the name who is The Decembrist, who's an American and someone who knows Red.

Meanwhile, Liz on the other hand can't kill anyone, maybe she still has feelings for Tom. With someone snooping around the boat and getting killed by Tom. Liz has no choice but to let Tom go so she can get the where about of Berlin, since he's still on the run and about to kill the Decembrist.

Tom walks free but that probably doesn't mean that will be the last time we will see Tom. We do get to see him walking in a restaurant and talk to Red. As Red gave him an envelop of something, probably money, passport and other things; as Tom leaves Red grabs him and tells him that he need to leave Liz alone and never show his face. But then he tells him that in the four months in the hell hole, that he hasn't told her what his and Red's relationship is or was.

I will say this, two people are dead. Two people that we know.  I won't mention any names to that account. You just need to watch the episode online or if you DVR it, watch it soon.

The game has certainly changes and when The Blacklist comes back, I'm going to be guessing that hell is going to break loose to Red and Liz.

"The Blacklist" will return on February 1st, right after the Super Bowl with Part 1 of a two part episode that will concluded on it's new night Thursday, February 5th at 9/8c on NBC.

Don't miss it! I know I won't! And if you are looking for something to watch next week at 10/9c, why not check out the new series that's from the director of "The Blacklist" called "State of Affairs." The promos and trailers look really good. Maybe a network style of Homeland, if you will.

You can catch last night's episode of The Blacklist on NBC.com right now and On Demand.

Here's the full episode of  "The Decembrist"

Holy Moly Mulaney: "In The Name of the Mother, and the Son and the Holy Andre"

We've probably all lied to our mother a bunch of times just to make her feel better and not knowing some of the bad things we have done. Yet sometime those lies can turn into some crazy situations for us and that's what this week's "Mulaney" has brought upon with John and his mother.

With John's mother coming for the weekend, only to spend some time until Saturday, John gets things ready for her. Like he put up a frame that says something of that an Irish family would have in their house. Apparently John has never put that frame up on the wall before but had lied to his mother. Just like he also lied that he went to church every Sunday, met a cool priest and hangout with him playing hoops.

When John's mother comes, played by Nora Dunn, the John, Jane and Motif greet her. Later on John takes her to meet Lou. John asked Lou to meet his mother and with the unpleasantly agreeing to do it, after talking to her he falls in liking her. Then Lou ask her to go to a Yankee game with him and David Letterman. She accepts it and tells John that she can go with him to Sunday Mass at his church. That really put John in a situation.

After pleading with Lou to cancel the date, he had to go to the other side of evil for help. He went to Church and ask the father of that church to help him by lying to his mother that he's this priest and he knows John. Of course, the father doesn't agree and tells him that he should do some heavy praying. As soon as John left he did ask the father for a blessing on his appearance on The Tonight Show.

Later that night, as John was watching TV in two in the morning. As it was quiet, John begin to get down on his knees and prayed. As soon as he was done praying Jane comes out and yells out if he was praying and John replies no that he was master-baiting.

That morning, as John and his mother were at Sunday Mass, all of the sudden the priest that John had told his mother about is actually for real. He came out and started telling jokes and stories from the bible. Then John and his mother met with him and John had a quick talk with him. Apparently, the father that John talked to had died yesterday and he was the fill in. John asked him if the father died at two in the morning and the guy tells him no but that he died at 2:01 am.

That freaked out John and he went to Oscar for help. Oscar told him that he shouldn't lie to his mother it would just hurt her more than hiding the truth from her. So later on after the Yankee game, John's mother was about to head out and John told her the truth. She wasn't angry at him but did mention that she had a kiss with Lou at the game. Apparently Lou has a crush on her.

Also in this episode, Jane goes through changes not just with her relationship with her boyfriend but with some other changes. Apparently Jane is taking these birth control pills called Jazzaprime. It's suppose to jazz up your life or so.

As soon as Jane takes them, she starts changing. She gets hot and cold. After her date, she comes home sweating through her shirt and Motif and John ask if she was okay. She starts to get into mood swings.

Then Andre a comes in with a gift for John's mother, brownies..pot brownies. Apparently we learn that Andre is taking the same pills as Jane is and as soon as he stops, he changes into a completely different person like a 360 difference.

Later on we see Jane, as she keeps taking the pills, changes into the same character as Andre. It was really freaking out Motif and Jane. She then stops taking it but her boyfriend, who's a lawyer fighting for women to have the right to take pills, didn't like that she stop taking the pills. He also didn't like to wear condoms.

That upset Jane and then she gets him turned on and told him to go into her bedroom and as soon as he runs in there, she calls 911 and reports a man in her room pretending to hold a gun. And then later, we see him coming back to see Jane and then a buffed up Andre comes and takes him out.

I find this episode funny. I thought that Martin and Nora's characters together were funny. It's not surprising to see some former SNL cast members on this show. I do love it. Jane's storyline was funnier too.

You can catch "Mulaney" Sunday nights at 9:30/8:30c on FOX.