“I'm So Empty” (“The Alliance” Recap)

I'm not particularly surprised, but I really don't have much to say about tonight's episode, as far as Alex was concerned – I'm not even going to bother page breaking this one.  Basically, she appeared in a few scenes, and that was that – she really didn't even get a chance to add much of anything.

Most disappointingly there was not even a word about how her new job is going in that one coffee shop scene – other than one line Alex was, once again, little more than scenery. Again, hopefully bigger and better things will come later and tonight (using her job and location as merely a prop for other characters' story lines) was an exception and not a regular feature.

At least the episode as a whole was quite good, with the “ha, ha – fooled you – that's exactly what we wanted” ending.

Alex's Line Of The Night: (speaking to Haley at the coffee shop about her boyfriend's teenage daughter) ”You're nervous? I mean, how can this go wrong – she's a teenage girl – that's when you peaked.”

We could have used a few more barbs like that, especially since this might be the last we see of Alex until after the holidays. But that's a rant or two I'll resume in two weeks.

“But There Ain't No Cure For The Summertime Blues”

Yes, that lyric doesn't seem particularly relevant at this time of year (well, here in much of the U.S.A. and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere, anyway), but I'll explain it later.

"You're As Cold As Ice" (First Impressions - "Snow Ball" - Season 8, Episode 9)

Sometimes being right isn't such a good thing - as evidenced by this press release for "Snow Ball".  More on that in a moment.

It's airing on December 14th, the night the other Wednesday comedies have their Christmas episodes.  So it's in effect a substitute for a Christmas episode, since they only air new ones every odd year (I think it's a safe guess that last year's "White Christmas" will now air on the 21st).

I'm not 100% certain, but I believe the season opener ("A Tale Of Three Cities") is repeating on 12/7 (on their professional press page¹  ABC lists the re-air date as 11/7 - I'm assuming that's a typo), which will put the show an episode behind the other Wednesday night shows (and probably means we're only looking at 22 or 23 again this season).

Anyway, getting back to my original premise about being right being a bad thing:

“It Was Nothing At All” (“Thanksgiving Jamboree” Recap)

OK, maybe it was a little bit more than nothing. But Alex's story with Dwight barely got off the ground.

“Gonna Be A Football Star”

“Thanksgiving Jamboree” is tonight – will Alex's story with Dwight (the football player living with Cam and Mitch) score a touchdown, or does the show fumble the ball (as they often do with Alex)?

"Everybody Get Together" (First Impressions - "The Alliance" - Season 8, Episode 8)

It's this episode that will air on November 30th and not "Sarge and Pea".  The press release and promo photos can be found here, but there's no sign of Alex this time.  In fact with Haley and Luke getting stories, we have to wonder if she'll even be there at all.  But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

One other episode title has been released - what is listed as Episode 13 (for now - no 11 or 12 yet) is titled "Sushi Chefs".  Now if the title had mentioned coffee that would have perked me up (pun not intended), but raw fish? Yeah, yet another less-than-awe-inspiring title.

“(It's) Funny How Time Flies” (First Quarter Review)

It seems like just yesterday that Season 8 started, with Alex and her family still on their impromptu vacation in New York. And yet here we are, six episodes done already.

It's too bad this first quarter has been anything but a pleasure trip for Alex.

“And So It Begins” (“Grab It” Recap)

In and of itself, tonight's Alex story wasn't really that interesting. But, as a single step on a thousand mile journey...

(OK. I doubt the journey's really going to be that long. But at least it's going somewhere.)

“If You Judge A Book By The Cover”

I don't have a lot to say about what happened last night – I know Alex would be mighty ticked off this morning (Ariel certainly was – I'd post her tweet but I want to keep this blog SFW). I've said from the beginning I wasn't thrilled with the prospect of either candidate getting elected so I probably wasn't going to be very happy either way, but I am somewhat shocked Trump pulled it off.

So, with that out of the way, let's get back to Alex's world. “Grab It” airs tonight, and there is a story with Alex in it (the main story is how Claire interprets what Alex is doing with her life, while there is a sub-story about what Haley thinks Alex thinks about what she's doing).

"57 Channels And Nothing(?) On"

A quick scheduling note or two first.  Titles for Episodes 9 and 10 have been released.