Blog Posts by Sarah D. Bunting

Hannah is so frequently obnoxious that it's hard to say whether "I Get Ideas" is her least likeable showing in the series to date -- but it's got to rank in the top three, at least. On the plus side, she's so selfish and bratty that it's funny, but on the minus side… she's so selfish and bratty!

The episode opens with George dumping Elijah, who's just admitted that he had sex with Marnie. Over Elijah's protestations that "it was like three pumps, like two and a half pumps and then I lost my boner," George rightly notes that Elijah is still "confused," pretending there's a chance he's bi, and George has gone through all that already himself and doesn't want to deal with it now.

But when Hannah wonders what prompted the split, Elijah doesn't want to hurt her feelings, so he smoothly changes the subject -- back to Hannah's favorite topic, herself, and specifically whether Adam posting an entire album of angry songs about her on YouTube means he's not "murder-y in a sexy way" but rather

Read More »from 'Girls' recap: Murder-y in an annoying way

Monday, January 21

Watch: Find out what Michelle Obama's wearing to the inaugural balls on "Good Morning America." Conan's got a fun/foxy random guest combo with Timothy Olyphant and Busy Philipps (show of hands: who else wants to see a "Justified"/"Cougar Town" cross-over event?). And "The Daily Show" scores a SCOTUS: Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Skip: Craig Ferguson, Jimmy Fallon, and Letterman are in reruns all week… and "Ellen" might seem like one, as she's talking with Pauly D of "Jersey Shore." We like that guy, but man, did that show end or not?

Tuesday, January 22

Watch: Guy Fieri teaches Rachael Ray how to make at-home versions of legendary snacks like Twinkies and SnoBalls (although we find it hard to believe that it's possible to replicate that weird marshmallow dome/shell without industrial machinery). The New Kids (yes, those New Kids) head to "The View" to make an exclusive announcement, and we have so many jokes about that, we can't choose just one. And what's Dana

Read More »from In the Hot Seat: What to watch (or not) on TV talk shows the week of January 21

We weren't sure Lance Armstrong would have much left to say to Oprah Winfrey in the second installment of "Oprah's Next Chapter." He'd already admitted to doping, lying, and myriad other narcissistic sins in the first segment. But the second part still had a few remarkable remarks in store. Below, eight things that made us go "hmm" from the final part of the interview.

Armstrong called his decision to step down as the Livestrong chairman "the most humbling moment" in the process. "That was the lowest."

Watching a 2005 deposition in which he claimed he would never dope, not just because it meant a ban because winning "is not as important as losing the support of hundreds of millions of people," Armstrong looked nauseated and said, "That's sick. …I don't like that guy."

Why would he lie so brazenly – to the very millions he claimed he was responsible to? "That is a guy who felt invincible, was told he was invincible, truly felt he was invincible," Armstrong sighed, then admitted, "I'm

Read More »from 8 more memorable quotes from Lance Armstrong's interview with Oprah

Oprah didn't make us wait. After a very brief intro, she took the first part of the two-part "Oprah's Next Chapter" special straight to the question of whether Lance Armstrong had taken banned substances during his cycling career, and which ones.

He had. He'd taken them all, and he'd taken them all along. (Well, not during his 2009-10 comeback, Armstrong claimed, but he also admitted that he can't expect anyone to believe that.)

A few other memorable moments from the interview:

• Armstrong called his inspiring story "one big lie, that I repeated a lot of times."
• The cyclist, notorious for going on the attack against (read: "suing") those who accused him of doping, was asked by Oprah about myriad specific accusations he'd previously denied. Early on, he announced that he's "out of the business of calling somebody a liar."
• Why did he antagonize his accusers when he knew they were telling the truth, Oprah wondered. "It's a major

Read More »from 7 noteworthy quotes from Lance Armstrong's Oprah interview

This isn't a perfect metaphor, but Juliette and Sean's micro-marriage is a symbol for "Nashville" itself lately: It's rushed, nobody involved understood the motivations, and it doesn't quite work out… but it has some nice moments anyway.

That's right: the marriage is over, and Juliette is over it, dodging questions about it at the pre-tour press conference (which is set up similar to those of title fights; heh). She hasn't spoken to Sean, which her manager theorizes is why he won't sign the divorce papers, but it's actually because he wants an annulment instead. When Juliette skips Rayna's first tour set to fly to Oakland to confront Sean, he gives it to her sugar-free: She knew what marriage meant to him, and he only plans on getting married once, so he wants this one not to count.

It's Juliette, so she digs her heels in at first, but eventually gives in at the annulment hearing -- she admits to the fraud, then says she's sorry

Read More »from 'Nashville' recap: Hurry up and wait

The upcoming "Oprah's Next Chapter" interview with Lance Armstrong is the most talked-about TV moment of the year so far. In fact, it's probably one of the biggest cultural stories of the year, period, as embattled cyclist Armstrong sits down with Oprah to clear the air about his doping scandal.

[Related: After years of denial, why is Lance Armstrong admitting he used PEDs now?]

How big? Oprah's already decided to expand the episode, set to air Thursday night on OWN, to two episodes totaling two and a half hours, saying she didn't feel she could edit it down further than that. And the mogul appeared on BFF Gayle King's show, "CBS This Morning," to address rumors about the interview's contents, and discuss the extensive secrecy precautions her team and Armstrong's took to keep leaks at bay. (Oprah specifically mentioned hiring a different driver to take her to the airport, and personally carrying the tapes with her on the plane "along with my dog food and dog leashes back to Harpo.")

Read More »from 'Oprah's Next Chapter': 5 of the show's biggest revelations [Video]

Fans of the "Sex & the City" franchise won't find much they recognize in "The Carrie Diaries," the prequel that kicks off in 1984. It's pretty much just the name and curly hair of our heroine, Carrie Bradshaw (AnnaSophia Robb), her love of fashion, and her lifelong affair with the Big Apple.

And it's just as well. Comparisons to its R-rated parent wouldn't have served either show, and "The Carrie Diaries" is plenty likable on its own.

We meet Carrie, her Dickensianly named sister Dorrit (Stefania Owen), and her father Tom (Matt Letscher of "Brothers & Sisters") in the fall of 1984, just three months after the death of Carrie and Dorrit's mother from cancer. We also meet Carrie's friends Jill, a.k.a. "Mouse" (Ellen Wong), possessor of a super-cute bob haircut and a Mickey Mouse phone; Maggie (Katie Findlay, "The Killing"), who likes to drink and make out with cops; Walt (Brendan Dooling), Maggie's boyfriend, who's a little too intense on the subject of Rob Lowe's "Interview" cover; and

Read More »from 'The Carrie Diaries' recap: Some sex, some city

Perhaps figuring that everyone would be watching the Golden Globes instead -- and we wish we had been -- "Revenge" phoned in last night's episode. Both confusing and dull, "Sabotage" focused primarily on Foxy Aiden and Emily's attempt to convince Initiative Helen that, um… to fool her into thinking she's… OK, we have to admit we don't get what they're trying to do with Initiative Helen. Emily, realizing Helen has bugged Daniel's office, leverages that knowledge to lure Helen to her charity wine auction; then Helen and Foxy get "kidnapped" out of an elevator, Foxy advises her not to give in to their interrogator (actually Emily, dressed in ninja drag and using a voice-altering contraption), and then he saves her. So either Helen owes Foxy now, or Foxy thinks she should ally with Foxy against these shadowy kidnappers, or something.

The idea is to get them both closer to Helen, Foxy to figure out what

Read More »from 'Revenge' recap: Get with the program