[SPA]

SUNDAY, MARCH 23
"ALIENS IN AMERICA" (8:30-9:00 p.m. ET)
"One Hundred Thousand Miles" (TV-PG) (HDTV)

RAJA RUNS AWAY – The Tolchucks are set to fly to Vancouver for a family vacation, but when Raja (Adhir Kalyan) begins praying at the airport, the family is questioned and the trip is postponed. Feeling that the family resents him and has never understood him, Raja leaves the Tolchuck's home and asks Mr. Matthews (Christopher B. Duncan) to place him with a new family. Guilt-ridden and frantic to find Raja, the Tolchucks turn to the local mosque, where Franny (Amy Pietz) and Claire (Lindsey Shaw) meet a Muslim mother (guest star Nimet Kanji) and teenage daughter (guest star Sunita Prasad) who are hosting a German exchange student (guest star Lars Anderson). Meanwhile, Gary (Scott Patterson) and Justin (Dan Byrd) set off in search of Raja and share a rare father/son bonding moment. Fred Savage directed the episode written by Richard Day (#113).

The last new episode for the next 4 weeks – and it looks like another good one. If the CW’s clip and Director’s Cut are any indication, this episode will be memorable as well. I can’t wait!!! To heck with NCAA basketball -- gotta see Aliens.

[razzlephrat]

I had the CW on almost all day and I didn't see ANY previews or mention of AiA, not even when it was coming on.

eta: Not really a funny episode, but it was excellent plot-wise.

Plus I'll take Scott singing any day!

[crazyboutscott]

Another great episode. We got to hear Scott sing..awesome..and what about Gary with the brown jacket and collar up.....can you say hot!

[razzlephrat]

Originally Posted by crazyboutscott (View Post) Another great episode. We got to hear Scott sing..awesome..and what about Gary with the brown jacket and collar up.....can you say hot!

Or the shorts!
I remember someone was hoping they'd be a little short. He looked super cute, and when he was getting justin to ride his bike, he looked really cute with the cap.

[SPA]

Okay, we are back with snow everywhere – in the dead of winter. The juggling of episodes are really showing.

So, this was the Tolchucks in the movie “The Shining” with cabin fever.

I loved the Gary flashbacks. Was that Franny flying by diving into the water to save Justin?? heehee

Gary acting like a dad. And Scott was singing!!! I forgot about Bowie and 100,000 miles – nice touch.

Claire was in full form tonite. And Justin was the first one to recognize Raja’s pain.

I loved the conversation with Mr. Matthews and Raja; and Franny screaming at her third child.

A little sad about Gary’s own dad; makes his and Justin’s relationship that more believable.

Episode wasn’t as funny as I had hoped, but it was on the dramatic side. It wasn’t a knee-slapper.

Nice touch with fixing native foods for Raja – it was a very nice ending.

[lulu1960]

Lots of good parts.

Cracked me up that they were so excited to go to Vancouver because it was a balmy 50 degrees.

The parts withflashback Gary were cute, but flashed by so quickly. Definitely a backwards cap in the pitching scene. Liked the hat in the bike scene. And yes that was Franny flying by when Little Justin was in the lake.

My favorite parts were Gary and Justin with their heart to heart. Scott wasn't goofy, or over the top, he acted in the way that I remembered him in GG. Just the perfect amount of seriousness, candor and tugging at my heartstrings. And absolutely no accent.

The singing was so nice, I wish there was a bit more of him doing it, he has a higher singing voice then I would have thought.

Raja and Mr. Matthews were great together and I actually teared up when Franny was hugging Raja and telling him welcome home.

The episode was very touching.

[Elissa5]

This is my favorite episode thus far! It was all so touching! Everyone was involved. Of course, like everyone else, my favorite scene when Justin and Gary were bonding. Justin didn't bother me in that scene at all. [Surprise, surprise!] I loved learning more about Gary too! And I agree with Lulu that was one of Scott's best scenes on the show, and it did remind me of the way he can relate so well to a son/nephew.

I also loved the scenes when the two mothers and daughters were comparing their exchange students and they were each longing for the qualities of the other exchange student. That was so funny. Yet, I still thought the Tolchuks got the better deal because Raja is so wonderful to them and does so much for their family. I was glad at the end they realized he was part of their family.

[lancer1993]

Great ep and I agree with everyone here, now we have a months waiting before the final 4, hope we get S2 this show is just getting into it's stride.

[lulu1960]

Okay because apparently I have a lot of time to think as I'm outside doing my work.
But the timeline of the show is all off. What is it with TPTB that they can't air the episodes in a logical order. So for your viewing pleasure the way the episodes should have gone according to lulu (this is just from the episode Church.


Taking Church as out guide post, we know it is set in Dec. Christmas time so that's a no brainer.

Now, 100,000 Miles should have aired next because of two obvious things. One it's winter and two Gary asked Justin to take down the Christmas lights. As far as them being on a vacation, that's a bit trickier, if the kids have winter break (like my kids did) then I'd go with it being Feb. (or it could be Jan either works)

The episode that we had some pics for (that hasn't aired yet) should technically have came next. Not to give anything away but there is snow in that episode too.

Kay so next IMO it should have been Mom's Coma, still a bit chilly (looking at the clothes) but it's only rainy not snowy, so I'm thinking March

Same with Hunting, no more snow so seems like they are heading to Spring.

Now finally they should have aired Community Theatre and that one has big clues for timeline. One: The calendar that Franny is marking for the '500 days till Justin leaves for college' is a thirty day month (April). Figuring franny's 500 day plan, 500 days is 1 yr. and 145 days or 1yr and 5 month (approx). which if you figure Justin goes to college in Sept (after he graduates) that would infact be April (april to April is one yr. April to Sept is the five months) and finally if you remember what Gary said to Justin in 100,000 Miles at that point he hadn't gone to any of Justin's performances, so why the heck did they air an episode the previous week with Gary watching Justin sing.

This concludes lulu's mini rant about timeline accuracy

[lancer1993]

One thing that did bugs me (apart from the screwed up timeline) is the fake opening picture of the house in the snow, it reminds me off all the ones they used on Gilmore of the various building when they cut to the next scene and it was obviously a photoshoped picture of Chilton or the Inn. If it was real or at least done on set then use a moving camera to establish the shot.

[SPA]

NGNM: Both episodes are now up and available on iTunes. Weird hiccup. Download like crazy!!!

I think at the house it might have been fake snow as well. You can always tell, can't you.

[crazyboutscott]

lulu I enjoyed your rant and totally agree. Why did they have to mess with the time line?

[lulu1960]

I take it as simply poor planning. i mean all the episodes were complete by Nov.

A lot of the episodes were interchangeable, just some were glaring in the timeline mistakes. Particularly these last two.

But other then that, this episode was very touching. Some of the beginning stuff that was said to Raja was harsh, especially when Gary told Raja he didn't want to be there either and Raja replied he never said that. Raja was really hurt because he thought they would back him up. But I think they all learned a valuable lesson about tolerance between Raja and the family and even between Justin and Gary.

[crazyboutscott]

They were really not nice to Raj in the beginning. I really loved the episode, it was such a great message for better communication between parents / kids and tolerance for everyone.

[SPA]

One of the reasons I like this show so much is that it dances to a different beat almost every episode. Never the same scenario twice that I can recall. This was definately on a different scale -- more dramatic than funny, though it had some funny mini-scenes -- Gary flashbacks, Claire thinking she had a date with the German exchange student -- Franny dusting fresh fruit with a feather duster. Not knee slappers, but amuzing. And it didn't seem too rushed this time -- some of the episodes feel rushed at times or throughtout the whole episode; others seem to a little sluggish to get to the point. I liked this particular episode because of the point it was trying to get across and the forgiveness and understanding at the end.

Peace, Love and Understanding. This is reallly a nice show. I'm going to really miss it if it closes.

By the way, they are listing the last episode of the Season/Series called: Raja at Sixteen. That's all I could find out on the last 4 new eppys.