Blog Posts by Sarah D. Bunting

We admire anyone who gets it together to send holiday cards, but the one from the folks at "American Horror Story: Asylum" had visions of shock treatments dancing in our heads. The guy in the back row is particularly freaking us out…what is he looking at? And why is Ian "Swearengen" McShane looking so repentant?

We noticed a couple of interesting changes and omissions; a lot of main cast members aren't shown (Sarah Paulson and James Cromwell, to name a couple), and Sister Jude is back in uniform. We'll all just have to watch the upcoming "AHS:A" Christmas episode to see what's going on with that. The hour features a murderous Santa, because of course it does, plus Sister Jude fighting Satan, and a big shock for Dr. Arden.

But in the meantime, print this card out and put it on the mantel next to the fossilized fruitcake from Aunt Shirley, which is just as scary...and tell us what you think of the card in the comments. Scary? Funny? Not the same without Leatherface?

Dig the promo for the

The "Revenge" winter finale felt strangely flat. A lot happened -- most of it revenge-related -- but it seemed like water-treading, set-up for 2013 episodes. Emily didn't have much to do, the Ashley-Conrad sex revelation sort of fizzled, and while the Ryan-brothers Stowaway subplot finally got moving, it's…still a Stowaway subplot.

Let's start with that one. It's time for Little Carl's christening (and yes, the characters are still calling the baby "Little Carl," because apparently he's indistinguishable from Dead Carl otherwise), and Jack decides to invite a bunch of Dead Carl's old friends, as he's unearthed Dead Carl's address book.

He also invites Homeowner Kenny Ryan and Nate Ryan as a show of gratitude for everything they've done for his family; the fact that it was Kenny's idea for Jack to invite his dad's buddies, along with Kenny's vulpine staring and pointed remarks about family, somehow fails to raise any alarms with Jack. Then again, he still hasn't figured out that

Depending on how you look at it, "Broken Hearts" is either an audacious hour of TV, courageous in the chances it takes with the plotting and the viewer's suspended disbelief; or an unrealistic mess that alternates action for action's sake with lecturing monologues that the formidable acting can't save.

Or it's a bit of both. Either way, it's one of the only times in the run of "Homeland" that certain scenes or ideas just straight-up didn't work for us. The writing isn't "Kim is menaced by a cougar"-level ridonk, and "Broken Hearts" does some things well -- the first scene, when Saul tracks Dar Adul to a greasy spoon, is an acting-subtlety master class from Mandy Patinkin and F. Murray Abraham, particularly the moment when Adul gives Saul an amused "so, it's you…how about that" look. Adul's line, "Christ, I miss the Cold War … I miss the rules!," followed by him trailing off, "This bunch…" made us want to see more of the character. And the scene didn't drag out the payoff: Quinn is

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! That is, time for TV shows to roll out a fresh batch of Christmas-themed episodes for our viewing pleasure. But which of the many Christmas episodes we’ve enjoyed over the years have stood the test of time to become a true holiday tradition? You tell us. We’ve ranked the most enduring Christmas episodes ever -- along with a few wild cards -- and placed them in a March Madness-style bracket. Over the next two weeks, we’re asking you to vote for your favorite episodes until we get a winner: the undisputed best Christmas episode of all time.

(7) Grey's Anatomy, "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" (aired December 11, 2005)
One of those "Grey's" episodes that shouldn't work, but somehow avoids mawkishness thanks to great acting and chemistry (with a shot of that trademark grumpy-Bailey zest). Everyone tries to help Alex pass his boards despite siding against him in the cheating-on-Izzy thing, a boy resists undergoing his second heart transplant

Monday, December 3
Watch: Missing famous original "Project Runway"? Host Heidi Klum is on "Good Morning America." And you shouldn't miss "The Chew," which has our favorite inappropriate topic pairing of the week: Kermit the Frog is the guest, and they're also covering holiday ham recipes. Kind of offensive in light of his long-term relationship with Miss Piggy, no? One last "missing" pun: "Katie" is all about stories of people who vanished without a trace, for you true-crime fans out there. On another note, it looks like Richie Sambora is co-hosting "The Late Late Show" all week, which could be really weird and fun.

Skip: Kimmel, which is in reruns all week.

Tuesday, December 4
Watch: We're not nearly as excited about "The Hobbit" as Colbert -- his guests all week are from the film -- but if you're a fan of "Sherlock," you won't want to miss Martin "Bilbo Baggins/John Watson" Freeman's appearance tonight. Gingerbread houses get cutthroat on "The Chew" with a visit to one of the country's

Promos for "Lovesick" touted the long-awaited Round 2 in the James-Barnes bout -- but the showdown between Rayna and Juliette, like much of the rest of the episode, felt a bit flat and predictable.
 
That's in spite of the acting; Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere have excellent enemy chemistry, but the plotting that pits them against each other here is contrived. For a 25th-anniversary show for the label, Rayna and Juliette must close the event with a duet, though each had assumed she'd have the finale to herself. Rayna argues that she made the label; Juliette, clad in a skin-tight no-BS red leather dress, glowers that she's given the company two multiplatinum albums.
 
But Marshall leverages Juliette's continuing image problems (dating Sean Butler isn't working as hoped; her PR flack sighs that "his fans are holding you responsible for his poor passing") and the release of Rayna's greatest hits against her wishes. As Liam shrugs to Rayna -- after the withering observation that

You may know Mark Consuelos as Mateo Santos from daytime drama "All My Children"; you may know him as Mr. Kelly Ripa (the couple married in 1996 and have three kids). But you may not have known him as Spivey, the creepy peeping Tom with dysfunctional dental work who was lurking in a closet on last week's "American Horror Story." We didn't recognize the guy.

And that's just fine with Consuelos, who's thrilled to be on "AHS" and doing something different, despite lengthy stretches in the makeup chair and never really knowing what the script is going to make him do. He spoke to us earlier this week about Spivey's grill, Ryan Murphy's vision, and what's next for him.

So…your character's exposing himself to little kids, getting injected with syphilis…

Right.

It's kiiiiind of a far cry from your previous work. How did you come into this role?

Thank God. I was so happy, to try to, to have the opportunity to take stuff in a different direction, I really really am.

I was speaking to Ryan

We're not sure, but Emmy-winning "Homeland" star Damian Lewis might have given Ellen DeGeneres a big spoiler on her show yesterday. In between discussions of Lewis's British accent and how high he ranked on People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive list, Lewis dropped a few hints (...maybe?) about how the season might end for various characters.

[Related: Read our latest "Homeland" recap]

The clip is below; again, don't watch if you don't want to be spoiled.

...So, if you watched: Do you think Lewis spoiled the outcome of the second season? Was he just messing with Ellen's head? Most actors are pretty strictly prohibited from revealing anything specific about upcoming episodes; would you take Lewis's comments seriously, given that? Let us know in the comments. (And for everyone else, just a reminder that those comments may also be spoily, so look out.)

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