If someone came up and told me that one of the most entertaining reality series on TV would be based on at car dealership in the Nevada desert, complete with a blue genie, I’d have sold them some of my ocean front property here in Phoenix, but after viewing select episodes from the second season of King of Cars, its no lie.

King of Cars takes place at the aforementioned car dealership, Towbin Dodge, in Las Vegas where diligent owner, Chop, who is featured in DUB magazine via a photo shoot in the opening of “Ugly Truckling,” one of the second season’s episodes, takes running a dealership to an unheard of level. We’ve all bought cars before, whether new or used, it is a daunting, and sometimes terrible, experience depending on the dealership, but just about everyone who has had a bad experience may need to flying into Las Vegas and buy a car here.

While you have to expect some playing up for the camera, the sales team at Towbin provides a two fold experience for the viewer, it goes behind the scenes to show you, as a consumer, how deals get down in a dealership, and may give you some insight into the cut-throat world of selling cars, and the incentives that go with them. In “Ugly Truckling” a team of two is tasked with bringing together contestants vying for $1000 by having the most ugly, deplorable truck on four wheels. The episode itself whisks by its 22 minute runtime leaving you wanting more because the on-the-lot experience is just ripe with material to be filmed.

In fact, it’s surprising that so much material can be turned out from a car dealership to fill a reality show, but the charismatic personality of Chop and his staff makes for great, sometimes excellent, TV.

Chop himself may be the “star” of the show, filling out the cheesy, yet entertaining, opening credits wonderfully, but the sales team he has constructed and the positions he puts them in is what creates the material for these episodes.

The second episode we were able to review focuses on the promotion of one employee and a back-stabbing competition to fill his former position which is ultimately decided by a basketball game when both contestants closed the same number of deals during the work day. This episode, in particular, really focuses in how hard car salesmen work to close that deal and help you out, while also having them work for something behind the scenes. The competition really brings out the great relationships between the sales staff, even in an environment such as this.

The show’s editing also makes it a point to not always show the happy endings, with some sales falling through at the last minute, and shots of utter disappointment on the face of both customer and salesman. It’s a tough job, and King of Cars shows the good and bad aspects of it, but the good is the focus of the show and the humor really brings that out.

You may have never heard of King of Cars before, but its definitely one of the most entertaining shows on cable, and this half-hour series would be a great edition to your viewing or DVR habits.

WARNING: Spoilers for previous seasons and this episodes

Does absence make the heart grow fonder? That’s what ABC was hoping by only showing us a hint of the third season of Lost last fall and now the show returns for 16 uninterrupted episodes all the way through the rest of the season. I’ve been very vocal about my displeasure with the track the writers have chosen in the third season, after a successful and highly rated start, the show began to languish towards the end of last season with the culmination of the hatch exploding and almost completely wiping away that story dynamic. The third season saw three of the main characters Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly), and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) captured by the Others whose intent is hard to gauge, but the first six episodes of the season were disappointing, focusing too much on the above trio than the rest of the characters stranded on the beach.

The biggest problem that the show faces, as address in a previous feature here at Entertainmentopia, was the fact that the writers and producers have weaved such a rich narrative full of suspense and intrigue we (the viewers) are beginning to lose faith that they can wrap everything up and deliver us some answers. So many more questions have been brought up over the last three seasons and there aren’t many answers to go along with them.

In this week’s return episodes we delve into the back story of Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) and are given more questions, once again, with very little answers. The flashbacks do, however, show how long some of the Others made it to the island, how they were “recruited,” and how, it seems, they are kept in line through brainwashing.

Picking up exactly where the mini-cliffhanger left off back in the fall, Lost never fails to impress on telling a good story through the use of present day action and flash backs usually related directly to the character in focus for the episodes. For the first episode focusing on one of the Others, the look into Juliet’s seemingly normal past is interesting when you compare it to her current actions and her position on the island. Her final conversation with Jack, after successfully completing Ben’s surgery, was the clincher telling us exactly how long she’d been on the island and her motivations for doing everything that she has.

So does this new “second season” make up for the tedious start to the overall third run of the show? No, not yet at least, its going to take a lot more time to really get the viewers hooked back into the show and its really going to take some effort from the writers to stop dangling the carrot in front of us, as they have for over 50 episodes, and let us take a big bite to really get into it again.

Even disappointing Lost is still must see TV, but it would be a lot nicer if the show reverted back to its water-cooler, first season roots that had us all abuzz about what the monster was, where the tail section went, and what the hell was in that hatch? While the spring return of the show wasn’t anywhere near the best episode the series has done, it was better than all six previous episodes this season and the glimpses into the future look good, lets just hope there’s some substance when we finally get there.

Returning for the second half of its first season is USA‘s Psych, the story of Shawn Spencer (James Roday), a twentysomething with a gift for perception who convinces the Santa Barbara Police Department that he’s a psychic solving cases from missing persons to murders in the quiet coastal town. The first season of the series was a bright spot at the end of the summer season balancing a great level of humor along with the standard drama of a detective show, much akin to USA‘s Monk.

As the series returns January 19^th for a second run the show brings back the familiar scenarios in unfamiliar circumstances as Shawn and his childhood friend Gus (Dule Hill) strive to make their town a safer place. The subtly of the shows humor is not lost as sight gags blend well with wordplay. The second season premiere also keeps the routine of flashing back to Shawn’s childhood in a situation that impacts the outcome of the crime in some way, usually for the better.

Much to the dismay of the police department, Shawn continues to show them up in many of the cases they are assigned as Detective Lassiter (Timonthy Omundson) fails to believe Shawn’s “gift” at every turn while his open-minded partner Juliet O-Hara (Maggie Lawson). Providing additional foil for Shawn’s antics is his father, a perfectly cast Corbin Bernsen still channeling Roger Dorn from Major League.

When I reviewed the first part of the season last summer I did question whether the series would have enough steam to keep up the farce that Shawn was a psychic long enough to make it hold up over time, but as the season went on, and now into the new batch of episodes, Psych seems to be hitting its stride with fun stories, and excellent dose of humor making the show a pleasure to watch.

This run’s debut, “Forget Me Not”, guest stars Kurtwood Smith (That 70’s Show) as a former police captain attempting to tie a twenty year old cold case to a recent mountain lion mauling. In the typical Psych fashion things aren’t always as they seem, and a series of misadventures and predicaments await our heroes in locating the true killer. What more could you ask from an entertaining Friday night program?

Psych’s first season continues Friday, January 19 on USA. Check your local listings for time an appropriate channel.

ABC’s latest try at a comedy series comes out resoundingly well in the form of The Knights of Prosperity which seeks to rob the multi-million dollar New York apartment of Mick Jagger, lead singer of The Rolling Stones. Jagger himself provides a hilarious cameo lampooning himself as a hat-addicted, Asian-assistant employing, movie lover complete with a Rolling Stones tongue that squirts butter on his popcorn.

The real standout about the series is the lack of laugh track and the honest laughs that truly hit their mark in a series not seen since the fallen Arrested Development. Only NBC’s The Office and Scrubs seem to pull of the intellectual humor to the same degree, but there’s also some humor for everyone’s taste.

The ensemble cast lead of Donal Logue, late of Grounded for Life, also stands out as the standard sitcom caricatures  we’ve come to expect over the years, but with each actor personifying the role and bringing a little big of something to it. Whether it is the dim-witted, bombastic Rockefeller, the Indian cab driver who loves his crazy bread, or the intern duped into thinking the group was making a sequel to the Jimmy Fallon vehicle Taxi, the cast really shines.

Even with the hi-jinks, obtuse named “operations,” and the thought that no group as incompetent as them could pull of an Ocean’s 11-like heist like this, they make surprising progress in the pilot to obtaining the keys and access to Mike Jagger’s apartment. The ending scene shows how worthless the key is, but the joy of the hunt is much better than devouring the prey.

With all hope the ratings for the series will hold steady (especially anchoring the 8PM MST hour and leading into the returning Lost with the recently introduced In Case of Emergency). For those still lost after the demise of Arrested Development, there’s something smart back on TV that will have you laughing and wondering what this mish-mash of would-be criminals will do next.

The unusually named Broken Trail has nothing to with gay cowboys on the old frontier but everything to do with persevering in the Old West when lawlessness was everywhere and men thought only about themselves and worldly pleasures. The AMC mini series stars Academy Award Winner Robert Duvall and Academy Award Nominee Thomas Haden Church as uncle and nephew, respectively, bringing a herd of wild horses across the frontier to make money and set out on an adventure. But while the story starts with just the two of them, I certainly doesn’t end there as series of unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on how you look at it) events bring to men together with five Chinese girls sold into slavery among other accomplices in need of assistance.

Writer Alan Geoffrion’s story is fleshed out and interesting enough to keep you interested but after the first hour you may wonder why the mini was expanded to three hours (four with commercials). In fact, the story doesn’t really start going until well through the first night of the two night event when the main antagonist makes herself evident. There is a lot of character development, and while it’s much appreciated by everyone in the audience, some portions of the film, once again, feel as though they are slightly padding. As the movie goes on the heart and honesty that these seemingly rugged cowboys possess becomes ever the more apparent.

The brutality of the Old West isn’t shied away from either as gun battles, hangings, and attempted rapes are a staple of the conflict the main characters must face every day during their adventure. One particularly surprising moment is a bloody shoot-first-explain-later battle in which Duvall’s character Print Ritter opens fire for seemingly no reason on another man. Its only after his corpse lays before the men do we learn why these events took place.

Walter Hill’s direction and cinematography takes advantage of the untamed wilderness with some amazing shots showcasing beautiful sunsets and vistas, just as they would have appeared before the skyscraper seemed to block out all the mountains from view.

Duvall, who also produced the film, still has a lot in him playing his signature old, wise character he’s played in many movies before, but the character suits him well and he fills the role wonderfully. The soon-to-be-Sandman Church plays the role of the slightly troubled, but adventuring Tom Harte equally as well. The supporting cast, including the five Chinese girls who come to join the troop, are played very well as their actions and facial expressions must speak for them due to their lack of English skills. Even without the subtitles on portions of the film you’d still be able to figure out what was going on due to the quality of the acting.

The immense amount of talent associated with this production has the high production values oozing out, and it defiantly shows in almost every facet. Writing, direction, and acting, the movie definitely sets a bar for made-for productions.

Billing itself as AMC’s First Original Movie, Broken Trail is a worthy addition to the channel’s original content and a great overall film that brings you believably back to the Old West which shows it in the most dramatic light possible with an unflinching no-holds-barred look into a way of life that once dominated a great portion of our country.

Starz Comedy’s new series, Stand Up or Shut Up! takes a backstage look at what it takes to be a standup comedian and how different topics are address by comics. The screener provided delved right into one of the most poignant and hot topics in the comedy world today, politics. The comics interviewed for the micro series, and host Michael Somerville, give their opinions on how political humor is address in the industry and how they use such topics in their own act.

The series breaks things up by showing the comics talking to the camera either walking through a park or walking down the street and also in workshop classes at the American Comedy Institute in New York City complete with small standup sessions with their classmates.

One of the great things about the series is it isn’t afraid to show the would-be-stand-ups fail in some of their jokes, in fact, a great majority of them aren’t particularly funny to start off by even over the course of a 10 minute episode you can see them become more comfortable with some of the material the show addresses.

Standing out amount the comics featured on the show is Aussie-native Josh Zepps who had me laughing hysterically when he compares gay marriage to shellfish and how the Bible doesn’t seem to distinguish any difference between laying with another man and eating crab cakes.

The series has been running since July 21 for a 10 week run culminating in the graduation of the comics from ACI. There’s a lot to like about the series, including its condensed, no-nonsense time frame that gets you in for a few good laughs and leaves you wanting just a little bit more.

Stand Up or Shut Up! runs on Starz Comedy every Friday at 7:50PM. Check your local listings for actual time and channel.

For more information on the series, check out the official website.

The History Channel once again upholds its tradition of creating rewarding, interesting specials that both entertain and enlighten with Desperate Crossing: The Untold Story of the Mayflower which explores the separatists movement away from the Church of England and subsequent settling of Plymouth Colony in North America.

Through the common use of narration, voice over from first party sources and interviews with historians Desperate Crossing begins with the movement away from the recently founded Church of England which saw the King denounce the Pope and place himself as the figurehead and leader of the church. Of course this wouldn’t sit well with everyone and a separatist movement was founded which ultimately lead to a group of different-thinking individuals boarding the Mayflower and setting sail for “the New World” where religious persecution couldn’t find them.

Anyone who progressed through elementary school is familiar with the story of the Pilgrims, their trek across the Atlantic Ocean and peace accord with the native peoples which ultimately led to the first Thanksgiving (or harvest festival as it was known back then). What they don’t necessarily teach you is the deep circumstances which lead the Pilgrims to leave England and the Netherlands to settle the virgin New England coast. What Desperate Crossing does in its three hour runtime is bring in several high profile, and historically accurate, characters for the viewer to follow through the trials and tribulations of the new colony.

What is equally impressive is the program’s runtime of 180 minutes never really feels that long as the pace in which the specials is produced serves up very little downtime and moves along briskly focusing on events and years of significance that helped to shape one of the fledgling colonies of what would become the United States.

The acting is generally good throughout sans some dramatic overacting by the actor portraying King James I, but as a period piece all of the pieces fit together into a believable setting that almost makes you forget you are watching a reenactment.

Two interesting points worth mentioning here are the insight from descendants of the Native Americans who meet and were entertained by the Englishmen at the first Thanksgiving and the fact that that event plays a very small roll in the special’s story. The focus of the program is on setting up the voyage, the reasons that lead up to such a voyage being attempted, and the first, deathly, year here in America which is quite refreshing for those who have seen and heard the story of Thanksgiving dozens of times.

Desperate Crossing: The Untold Story of the Mayflower premieres Sunday, November 19 at 8PM/7C on The History Channel. 

The History Channel builds upon its mini series Rome: Engineering an Empire by expanding it into a weekly series focusing on some of the worlds most fascinating and complex empires including The Aztecs, Greeks, Alexander the Great, China, and the two hour pilot episode Egypt.

The premiere episode kicks off introducing us to the ancient Egyptian empire and how the engineering feats accomplished nearly 5000 years ago were dramatically ahead of their time and shaped future empires such as Rome and Greece with the invention of stone structures, pillars, obelisks, and the use of quarrying technology to construct these massive structures when the rest of the world was still piling small rocks together or shaping buildings out of mud.

The series is hosted by actor Peter Weller (“24”, Robocop) who is also an art historian as he takes us through some of the surviving structures in Egypt and helps us to understand the massive undertaking it was to fully accomplish what the Egyptians did without the use of computers and machines of any kind.

One of the stand out features of the telecast is the use of remarkably improved CGI over some of the History Channel’s past endeavors which left much to be desired in the computer effects departments. The use of digital models in Engineering and Empire gives the viewer a great perspective how spectacular the engineering feats accomplished really were.

The program, while being focused on the construction of massive ceremonial burial tombs, also touches upon the Egyptian ingenuity in building forts along the banks of the Nile during conquests of neighboring Nubia and the construction of dams to protect the Egyptian people from the seasonal flood waters of the Nile River.

One of the most interesting points explored in the program is the failure of several structures including a dam and the Bent Pyramid which called for the angle of inclination to be dramatically altered after only half the pyramid was constructed due to the failure of the underlying bedrock to support the massive weight of the structure.

Aside from some history lessons on several of the pharaohs explored in the episode, the focus is clearly aimed at the “engineering of the empire” rather than focusing on some of the well known figureheads such as King Tut or Cleopatra.

The series strives to show a clear view of the architectural genius that was present during the time of the pharaohs in Egypt and it accomplishes this task marvelously. One can only hope the rest of the planned weekly episodes is as focuses and informative. For any architecture or history fans, Engineering and Empire is Tivo worthy programming.