Steve Jobs (10/5)
I spent most of my life making fun of Apple products, until this year when I actually bought a few. I'm very happy with my iPad and MacBook Pro, and looking forward to moving up from my Droid (which started out fine, but has started to suck lately) to an iPhone. I don't know much about Jobs, but he seemed like a good guy.
Kim Jong-il (12/17)
Kim Jong-il, AKA our dear sweet little general soldier leader boy, was best known for his role as the North Korean dictator in Team America: World Police. He was a total nutcase.
Jack LaLanne (1/23)
Apparently this guy was like 150 years old or something, and did nothing all day except exercise and drink juice. I never saw his old stuff from the 50's, but I remember an informercial for his juicer, where he made some kind of statement about how juice is all about life, and meat is all about despair and death. I think I was eating a giant steak the first time I saw it, and it really made me think - if guys like this can live for a long time and never eat meat, then maybe, just maybe, there will be more left for me.
Harmon Killebrew (5/17)
The only thing I remember about this guy is that he was on Home Run Derby, which I used to watch as a kid. Watch on Hulu
Heavy D (11/8)
He never got much notoriety as a thin rapper named Skinny D, so he put on a few pounds and reinvented himself as that guy who did the In Living Color opening theme.
Frances Bay (9/15)
Frances was best known as Happy Gilmore's grandmother in the Adam Sandler masterpiece. Great movie, unlike the crap that Sandler's been spewing lately.
Muammar Gaddafi (10/20)
This guy holds the record for the most number of spellings of his name. Aside from that, the only thing I know about him is that he was the head of the country that tried to kill Doc Brown, so I think the world is better off now. Watch on YouTube
Osama bin Laden (5/2)
Good riddance to this piece of garbage.
The Emmy awards are coming up soon. Like always, I disagree with just about everything that these jokers picked, so I've put together a few of my selections for this past season, based on shows that I enjoy.
I haven't watched as much TV this year as I used to, so my selection this year is a little limited. But here are my predictions, along with my picks.
Outstanding Drama Series
Boardwalk Empire
Dexter
Friday Night Lights
Game of Thrones
The Good Wife
Mad Men
My prediction: Game of Thrones My pick:Stargate Universe Actual winner:Mad Men
Outstanding Comedy Series
The Big Bang Theory
Glee
Modern Family
The Office
Parks and Recreation
30 Rock
My prediction: 30 Rock My pick:The Big Bang Theory Actual winner:Modern Family
Outstanding Actress in a Drama
Kathy Bates, Harry's Law
Connie Britton, Friday Night Lights
Mireille Enos, The Killing
Mariska Hargitay, Law and Order: SVU
Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men
My prediction: Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife My pick:Angie Harmon, Rizzoli & Isles Actual winner:Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama
Kelly Macdonald, Boardwalk Empire
Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife
Christine Baranski, The Good Wife
Margo Martindale, Justified
Michelle Forbes, The Killing
Christina Hendricks, Mad Men
My prediction: Christine Baranski, The Good Wife My pick:Tiffani Thiessen, White Collar Actual winner:Margo Martindale, Justified
Outstanding Actor in a Drama
Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire
Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights
Michael C. Hall, Dexter
John Hamm, Mad Men
Hugh Laurie, House
Timothy Olyphant, Justified
My prediction: Michael C. Hall, Dexter My pick:Jeffrey Donovan, Burn Notice Actual winner:Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama
Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones
Josh Charles, The Good Wife
Alan Cumming, The Good Wife
Walton Goggins, Justified
John Slattery, Mad Men
Andrew Braugher, Men of a Certain Age
My prediction: Andrew Braugher, Men of a Certain Age My pick:Bruce Campbell, Burn Notice Actual winner:Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones
Outstanding Actress in a Comedy
Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Laura Linney, The Big C
Melissa McCarthy, Mike & Molly
Martha Plimpton, Raising Hope
Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation
My prediction: Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation My pick:Yvonne Strahovski, Chuck Actual winner:Melissa McCarthy, Mike & Molly
Continuing the Best of 2010 list, here's a list of my favorite TV shows of 2010. No spoilers here (except maybe a few in the video clips).
(1) - Stargate: Universe This was an experiment by the Stargate creators - a show that was so different from SG-1 and Atlantis, still under the Stargate umbrella. While the first two series were light and action-oriented, SGU is dark and character-based.
This formula has worked well to create an excellent science fiction show. It's slow, and it's not edge-of-your-seat exciting, but it's believable and really gets you invested in the characters.
Like most great sci-fi shows, it's not going to last. Low ratings, due in part to a lot of butt-hurt Stargate fans who boycotted this show because it's not an SG-1 carbon copy, combined with the new "Syfy" channel's total lack of interest in science fiction, mean that this show will not come back for a third season. This was the last space sci-fi show left on TV, and the last true science fiction show on what used to be a channel dedicated to the genre.
(2) - Psych Psych is now in its fifth season, and is still going strong. It really hasn't changed much since the beginning - still holding on to the formula that's worked so well. I guess as long as it continues to be funny, why change?
(3) - Chuck This year has been a little different for Chuck. The Subway marketing campaign that helped to save the show from cancellation after season 2 has become one of the inside jokes this year, with intentional over-the-top in-show advertising. The plot has also changed to allow for new character interactions, and new fun stuff from the Buy More and its employees.
It's been a fun year - I think the second season was probably the best overall, but it's still funny, still has an interesting story, and is still one of the best shows on TV right now.
Due to the low ratings, the budget has been noticeably slashed. There are still big-name guest stars like Linda Hamilton and Steve Austin, but some of the regulars have been left out of quite a few episodes for budget purposes, and the visual effects seem to be less pronounced now. Unfortunately, I think it's been accepted that this will be the final season. Of course, if the idiots at NBC would move it to a less competitive time slot, ratings would almost certainly pick up, but apparently that's not going to happen.
(4) - Community This show is kind of hit-and-miss. They mix realism with ridiculousness, mix stereotypes with unexpected behavior, and aren't afraid to try anything. With as much as they throw at you, some things just aren't going to work. But when it does, it's great.
Some of the funny episodes this year include an episode where the characters are forced to ride around in a KFC-sponsored space shuttle simulator, and an over-the-top conspiracy-theory parody. They've also had magical trampoline, a zombie outbreak, and a stop-motion animated Christmas special.
(5) - White Collar This one's a fun show with some continuing character drama, some crime solving, and some humor. It's interesting the way they manage to work just a little bit of the continuing storyline into most episodes, allowing it to evolve while still keeping the stories mostly standalone.
This seems to fit the mold of some of the successful USA shows, so hopefully it will stick around for at least a few more years.
(6) - 24 This was 24's final season - it lasted eight years, and seemed to run its course. By this year, they were re-using plot elements from prior seasons and lost a little bit of the shock factor that worked so well over the years. However, it was still a high quality, nail-biting action show.
This season did change up a little bit of the formula - it was more personal than business, where what's best for the country was the #2 priority. It allowed for a different side of the characters to show, and really added something to the overall story.
There have been rumors about a 24 movie coming out in a year or two. The 24-episode real-time format has worked very well, but I really think a series of movies would allow them to tell a more traditional action story, which should work equally as well in this setting.
(7) - V This isn't exactly a new concept - superior aliens appear benevolent, but secretly have a dark side. Only 12 episodes aired so far, but they've done a good job setting up the conflict. Looking at the season 2 previews, there's a lot of excitement to look forward to when they come back.
After only airing four episodes, they took four months off before continuing with the next eight. It's been over 7 months since the first season ended - I don't know why ABC is doing this - it seems to me like they're just giving people time to stop caring about the show, less likely to watch when it comes back. But what do I know...
Other Shows The other shows I've followed this year include The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, House, Bones, South Park, and Hell's Kitchen. These weren't bad this year, but they've all been around awhile, and their best years seem to be behind them. They all had their moments this year, but to me, they're just not what they once were.
I'm done with Hell's Kitchen, which doesn't hold my interest anymore. South Park is on the bubble - they've had a lot of terrible episodes this year, so it may be time for that one to end, like the Simpsons should have about 5 years ago.
This weekend I took a trip up to Las Vegas for a couple days. Here's how it went, in excruciating detail, more than you could ever possibly want to know.
Day 1: Friday I left my house around 9:00, and stopped at Alexi's Family Restaurant for breakfast. I wasn't terribly impressed with the food there.
So I'm off - I took the Carefree Highway over to US-60, skipping most of the city traffic. I heard that there was significant construction still on the path through HooverDam, so I took the alternate route through Bullhead City and Laughlin.
I was still more than an hour out, and getting hungry, so I decided to stop for lunch at the Iron Rail Cafe at Railroad Pass Hotel & Casino. They advertised a $7.99 prime rib or ribeye special, so I figured I'd check it out. The meal was awful. The meat was totally flavorless, the potato had no taste, and the vegetables, which were large and crispy in the picture, looked and tasted like frozen mixed vegetables (peas, carrots, lima beans, green beans) that were microwaved at some point in the last few weeks. So 0 for 2 in the food department.
After fighting construction and traffic on Las Vegas Boulevard, and cursing at my GPS for sending me to the wrong location, I finally arrived at the Excalibur Hotel & Casino. I got settled in, and headed down to the casino.
I dropped $100 in various slot machines, then $20 in a couple video poker machines. There was a TexasHold'em tournament starting, so I joined. The tournament started with 20 players, and I was in good shape most of the tournament. It got down to just me and one other player, and I finally was taken out, finishing in second place, for a $140 prize.
Next up: dinner. I went to the buffet in Excalibur, determined to eat well more than $20 worth of food. My first trip was to the Mexican and Chinese section, where I filled my plate with ground beef, fajita chicken, Spanish rice, fried rice, pork nuggets, orange chicken, then some prime rib and stuffing. My second plate was piled high with penne with meat sauce, manicotti, mashed potatoes and gravy, mac and cheese, a meatball, porkloin with demi glaze, and brisket. For dessert, I went with a small chocolate truffle cake. My drink was a Mrs. Arnold Palmer (iced tea and pink lemonade). Just about everything was very good.
After dinner, I broke even playing a little video blackjack, and then back to slots. I found one of those funky ones that has a bunch of bonus stuff that I didn't understand. I hit the bonus, and got a $500 winner, so I called it a night.
Day 1 gaming results: $359 ahead.
Day 2: Saturday
I started my day off giving $80 of my money back to the casino through slot machines. I then made my way over to the video poker machines, where I found the 100-hand games. These are pretty awesome - it's a different strategy to win 100 hands than it is to win 1 hand. It's also a big point-maker for the casino club points. Down to my last hand, I was dealt 4 cards toward a natural royal flush, so I got a few real royal flushes and a few wild royal flushes out of the 100 hands - the next hand I was dealt 4 queens, so I ended up with $250 more than I put in, and enough points to get a free lunch at the buffet.
For lunch, other than the drink, I went with all different items than last night's dinner: plate 1 consisted of pot roast, a pork chop with hunter sauce, banana nut bread, fried shrimp, sausage and peppers, and cheese soup. Plate 2 was taquitos, Asian pork, Mongolian beef, lo mein noodles, and roasted pork. For dessert, I went with Oreo cheesecake. Everything except the taquitos was good.
After lunch I didn't have the same good luck on the gambling front. $300 in draw poker and $200 in roulette just seemed to disappear. I continued my long-term strategy in roulette of playing 22 (my high school baseball number) every spin, in addition to other random places around the board, and after about 50 spins, 22 still never once hit, bringing my streak to about 200 consecutive non-22 hits (odds of a number not hitting 200 consecutive times is about 1 in 200).
Up next was the main event - Shakira in concert at the Mandalay Bay hotel event center. There was no opening act, just recorded music for over an hour after the ticket start time - not sure what was going on there. Once Shakira took the stage, the show was pretty good - a few newer songs like Loca and Waka Waka, some old ones like Ciega Sordomuda and Si Te Vas, and of course hits Whenever, Wherever and Ojos Asi. The instruments tended to drown out her voice during a few of the louder songs, but other than that, things were all good. Lots of music and dance styles, and plenty of hip shaking. During her first encore, some nutcase jumped up on stage and headed her way, and was grabbed by security just in time and dragged backstage, where I'm guessing he learned to regret his decision.
After the show, I decided that it was unacceptable for me to actually leave on the plus side at the casino, so I donated another $100 in a 50-play video poker machine, and $20 in a slot, and played just enough to get another free buffet for tomorrow morning. No dinner on Saturday - the lunch buffet was plenty for one day.
Day 2 gaming results: $450 down (-$91 overall)
Day 3: Sunday
Before checking out, I hit the buffet one more time for breakfast. Just one plate - I was about to hit the road, so I didn't want to overeat. I had hash browns, scrambled eggs with ham, onions, and peppers, a Denver omelette, sausage link, sausage patty, turkey sausage patty, bacon, a croissant, grits, biscuit with country gravy, white rice, half a peach, and half a pear, with a cranberry juice/apple juice mix to drink. I broke even playing video poker, and headed out.
I passed through Laughlin again on the way home, and this time decided to stop at the Tropicana Express, where I stay whenever I'm in Laughlin. I figured this would be a good opportunity to win back some of my money - of course it didn't work out that way. I managed to dispense of $100 in a little over an hour playing video poker. By then, it was lunch time, and I had enough comps for a free buffet - you know how much I love free food, so I stopped in. It was brunch-time, so the menu consisted of breakfast and lunch foods. I started with roast beef, a dinner roll, a cheese omelette, scalloped potatoes, apple pancakes, waffle with strawberry, a biscuit, chipped beef, and orange chicken, with an Arnold Palmer to drink. Next plate consisted of stuffed shells, french toast, potatoes with peppers and onions, and more scalloped potatoes and orange chicken. Nice healthy lunch - the meat was surprisingly tough, but other than that, things were pretty good. I made $20 on the slots, and gave it back playing roulette (just focusing on Black-22 and losing each time), before heading home.
Day 3 gaming results: $100 down (-$191 overall)
On the way home, I was in no hurry, so I tried a route I'd never done before. I went through Bullhead City, down through Fort Mohave, Needles, then the 62 and the 72 to the 60. This route was about as interesting as the rest (not at all) - I passed through a few tiny towns like Bouse and other places I wouldn't want to slow down in. If I had planned my route in advance, I probably would have gone through Lake Havasu City, but I was just playing it by ear. Maybe next time.
Whenever I take a driving trip, I always rip some audio from TV shows or movies that I know pretty well, and put them on my iPod. This time, I picked a totally random disc of The Big Bang Theory, and a random disc from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. By some bizarre coincidence, both discs contained Las Vegas-themed episodes. In The Big Bang Theory, the guys head out to Vegas to get Howard out of his break-up funk, and in DS9, Vic's lounge is taken over by gangsters and the crew must rob the casino to save it. Good Vegas episodes. This kind of thing happens to me way too often.
Anyway, I arrived home, and my cats didn't seem to notice that I was gone.
Date: 2010-10-18 10:12:16
Name:
Ryan M (via Facebook)
Joe, did you have a notepad with you when you were eating?
Date: 2010-10-18 19:12:31
Name:
Joe Enos
I wrote it all down (well, digitally wrote it down in my phone) after I finished each meal. This kind of thing is important.
Date: 2010-10-18 19:12:50
Name:
Joe Enos
By the way, I didn't really mention that I did enjoy my trip - I didn't win any money, which is always the goal, but I did have a good time anyway. And if you want to see the Shakira stage rushing thing, check out the first 20 seconds here - somebody got it on video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfVcq0saWxw
"A dog can't get struck by lightning. you know why? 'Cause he's too close to the ground. See, lightning strikes tall things. Now if they were giraffes out there in the field, now then we'd have trouble."
This year's vacation led me to San Diego, CA, for Comic-Con International 2010, the biggest geek-fest in the universe. After watching the highlights last year, it looked like it would be pretty fun, so I decided to give it a try. I bought the tickets and booked the tickets back in October, and even that was late enough that I missed out on Wednesday "preview night".
Here's a breakdown of the weekend - way more information than you care about or ever wanted to know...
Day 0: Wednesday
I took the day off of work on Wednesday to prepare. My plan was to go to sleep early on Tuesday night, wake up early, sleep 5 or 6 hours on Wednesday afternoon, then leave the house around 11pm to get to San Diego with plenty of time to spare on Thursday morning. Unfortunately, my stupid brain doesn't let me sleep on my schedule, so I ended up sleeping only about 2 hours on Wednesday evening.
Day 1: Thursday
I made the drive on schedule, and got to San Diego around 7am, after a couple of quick stops on the way (IHOP for a 3am breakfast, and a casino to stretch my legs and throw away 25 bucks). Knowing that parking at the convention center is not a good idea, I parked at the trolley station and took the train downtown. Unfortunately, an employee at the station misinformed me about the special "red-line" schedule, so I ended up waiting about 30 minutes longer than I needed before finding out that the red-line didn't come this early, so I'd have to take two trains. Of course, the wait at the next station was another 20 minutes or so, so I ended up getting to the convention center a little before 8.
Once there, I saw the line to get in - pretty long, but bearable. It wrapped around the back of the building, so I followed it back there. From there, it ducked around a corner, no big deal. But then it kept going and going and going - this had to be the longest line I've ever seen. The longest Disneyland lines were nothing compared to this line. But after about a half mile of walking just to get to the back, and another half mile to get back, I was finally in. Pre-registration/badge pickup moved surprisingly well considering the number of people there.
First stop, another line. The three USA shows (Burn Notice, White Collar, and Psych) were scheduled back-to-back-to-back in Ballroom 20, starting at 1pm. At 8:30, I saw the line was already growing, so I got in place. Three and a half hours in line in the hallway, alternating between standing and sitting in an uncomfortable position on the floor, while I was sleep-deprived, kind of sucked. For about an hour, there was a fairly steady stream of costumed attendees walking by, which was fun to watch. As big a TV nerd as I consider myself, I really had nothing in common with the people around me, so I didn't have much conversation, just a book to read (Dave Barry's History of the Millenium).
After another hour of waiting inside the auditorium, the panels began. I was in about the 8th row, so decent seats in a room of more than 4,000. The Burn Notice panel came first, and was pretty entertaining. Bruce Campbell was very funny, and the rest of the panel provided some fun and interesting answers to the prepared and audience questions. There was even an announcement of an upcoming Burn Notice prequel movie centering on Campbell's character. There was also a video describing how to do spy stuff to pitch your ideas to a Comic-Con executive, done in the style of the show. White Collar was next, a fun show starting its second season. The main cast was all there, including my favorite actress, Tiffani Thiessen, who of course looked great. The panel started with a funny video showing the planning of a caper to steal the new Tron footage, and moved on to some fun Q&A. Psych, probably the funniest show on TV right now, also had a very entertaining panel, including some singing and dancing.
The panels were fun, but honestly there wasn't much there that I would have gotten from watching the clips that will inevitably be on YouTube shortly if they're not already there. With such a large audience, there wasn't much of a chance to interact with the panelists. Also, both of the cameras I brought weren't able to take decent pictures of the panel - all of them had a horrible glare that made it impossible to see anything.
On the way back to the hotel at around 6:00, I realized the only thing I'd eaten since about 3am was a couple Oatmeal Creme Pies that I packed, so I decided to stop for dinner. I took the advice of a co-worker and stopped at Phil's BBQ, which also had great reviews on Yelp. The place has a line that wraps around the building, but since I was just going to eat at the bar, I could skip the 30 minute line and walk right in. The dinner menu is pretty much just beef ribs, pork ribs, and chicken - kind of limited for a BBQ place, but I tried the beef ribs and chicken combination, with fries. The dish came out, with tons of food. There were three giant beef ribs with lots of meat, and probably at least a half pound of chicken, along with a ton of fries. The sauce was excellent, thick and just a little spicy. Both the beef and chicken were great, and the fries were pretty good as well. Definitely the kind of place I'd frequent if I lived nearby.
Day 2: Friday
After 36 straight hours with only about 2 hours of sleep, my brain needed to be recharged. I decided to sleep in and skip day 2, which included Stargate: Universe, The Big Bang Theory, Bones, and The Joss Whedon Experience. I heard the Big Bang Theory panel was great, but somehow I doubt it was worth another day of 6 hours standing in line. So I played hooky instead.
With all day to kill, my first stop was lunch. I was in the mood for Philly cheesesteaks, so after a quick Yelp search, I ended up at Gaglione Brothers Famous Steaks & Subs for a Cheez Whiz steak sandwich with onions, with garlic fries. The sandwich was pretty good, but not as good as Corleone's back home. The garlic fries were a little weird, not something I'd have again.
I spent most of the day just kind of checking out the city. I checked out a few beaches and played some pool, and then it was time for dinner. I felt like Italian, and found one that looked kind of appealing, Paesano. I had the minestrone soup followed by baked lasagne and garlic bread. I really wasn't impressed.
Day 3: Saturday
Today was the Chuck panel, my favorite show on TV right now, and really the whole reason for attending the convention. The panel started late, and being scheduled for only 45 minutes, it ran pretty short. However, we did get a video and performance from Jeffster, and some insight into next season. Linda Hamilton will be making some appearances as Chuck's mother, and there will be several other guest stars as always, like the Old Spice guy. Unfortunately, with the time constraints, there was no time for audience Q&A, leaving the crowd a little disappointed.
I wanted to see one more panel later in the afternoon, so I stuck around and toughed out the next several panels. Family Guy was first - I'm not a fan of the show, but Seth MacFarlane is a funny guy, so the panel was bearable. The Cleveland Show was next, and that was horrible. Don't know how this show is on the air. Somehow Futurama is back on, and that panel was next - this show gave it a good effort when it started, but never really was funny, but it has a new home on Comedy Central, so Groening and crew were out there talking about it. The Simpsons was next, wrapping up the block of panels I didn't want to watch. Every time I watch the show anymore, I'm lucky to find one funny thing in the whole episode. It's another one of those shows that was great for awhile, but should have been ended about 5 or 6 years ago. But there was one funny moment in the panel; while answering a silly question about a Simpsons spinoff, someone brought up the fact that Seth MacFarlane has three shows, to which producer Matt Selman responded "Seth MacFarlane has one show three times", getting mixed reactions from the crowd.
The other panel I wanted to see was V, the remake of the old sci-fi miniseries, which will be entering its second season soon. The show is good, but the panel really didn't accomplish anything. The moron who was moderating it kept asking the actors questions about how the show is unfolding, and pretty much every answer was "Umm...well...I hope that...". The types of questions he was asking should have been directed at the show's creators and writers, and the actors should have been asked questions that they could actually answer.
After the panels, I was thinking about food, and I can't come all the way to Southern California without stopping at Shakey's. They currently have a special for a $9.99 large with BBQ sauce, bacon, ham, pineapples, and jalapeno sausage. It wasn't bad, but next time I'll stick with normal pepperoni pizza.
Day 4: Sunday:
There was nothing of interest in the Comic-Con schedule, so I took another day to relax. I figured I'd take this opportunity to find a day spa to get a fancy massage (and I mean a real massage, not a "massage"). I found one that looked promising, but never was able to contact them. The next place I found with good reviews was Suki Day Spa. Unfortunately, I didn't pay attention to the location - it was downtown, just a couple blocks from the convention center, which meant parking was impossible. I ended up parking about a mile away in some hotel garage's "guest only" parking, and luckily the car was there when I got back. I went with the 4-handed massage, something I've never tried before. Totally worth it - a little expensive, but having two parts worked on at the same time is a different experience, very relaxing.
Dinner was at Hunter Steakhouse. I started with a caesar salad and a chunk of a pretty good oat bread and sweet butter. The main course was a filet mignon served medium rare, small but very flavorful and perfectly cooked. Sides were excellent au gratin potatoes and ordinary onion rings. For dessert, a good sized turtle cheesecake. Overall, an excellent meal.
General Notes:
This was the first time I've done serious driving in San Diego, and it's as bad or worse than Los Angeles. There are lanes merging with no notice, through lanes turning into turn lanes forcing you to change lanes to go straight, ambiguous stop signs, interstate freeways dropping to one lane (not construction, just the way it's built), freeway entrances inside neighborhoods, random onramp locations, endless business districts, unmarked freeway exits, unmarked intersections, 45-degree drops, and the same old California drivers.
My cats were happy to see me when I got home - they've been extra friendly since I've been home. I've never left them alone for more than about 2 days before, so I was worried that they'd be mad at me, or that they would have torn up the house while I was gone. But aside from a few things knocked over, the house was fine, nothing broken or damaged.
Comic-Con really isn't for me. Sitting on the floor or standing for 5 or 6 hours at a time just to be in the same room as my favorite TV actors isn't worth it to me. I'm not interested in the other pieces: comics, video games, or buying crap, and I really don't get a thrill from seeing a big movie star from across the room. It was fun seeing a bunch of people in costume, and the panels were generally entertaining, but not enough to get me back next year.
Also, I didn't get any good pictures, but the ones I have are here: http://jturl.us/comicconpix - just some costume pictures. I didn't get any clear pictures of any panels or celebs.
Thankfully, there were only 22 half-hour episodes to this horrible series. There's debate over whether this series is part of the official Star Trek canon, but I think it's safe to say that regardless of its official standing, the series is complete crap. Its purpose was noble - bringing the original cast back after the original show was cancelled, to produce a continuation of the story and provide a series with things that could not be explored in live-action due to budget restrictions. So in theory, they could do more imaginitive visuals for less money. Instead, what we got was animation nowhere near the quality of Yogi Bear - at least in Hannah Barbara stuff, people showed some facial expressions and occasionally moved. In TAS, you get very boring animation, ridiculous animal people, and awful humor. There were also the same stupid purple dragon things in about 8 different episodes, always with the same animation and horrible sound effects. This was also true of many of the shots - the bridge and transporter room reused the same frames over and over and over again, even with different people were there. One example was when Scotty was beaming someone up, they switched to a close-up of the transporter controls, where you could see Kyle's moustache while he was operating the controls, then a wide shot again with Scotty, then back to the close-up with Kyle's moustache. It's like they didn't bother even watching the final product before releasing it.
For the first few episodes, it hurt my brain to listen to their science-fiction dialogue. In TOS, and to a lesser extent the newer series, the techno-babble can be either unscientific or nonsensical, but in this one, it was truly ridiculous. They didn't even try to get anything right. After I realized that it wasn't getting any better, I shut that part of my brain off to finish watching the rest of the episodes.
Many of these episodes were continuations of original series episdoes (More Tribbles, More Trouble, Mudd's Passion, Once Upon A Planet (Continuation of Shore Leave)). But the second episode, Yesteryear, bothered me because it directly spat in the face of one of the all-time great original series episodes, The City on the Edge of Forever. In Yesteryear, they return to this planet and use the guardian to study the past (with predictable results - someone screws something up). But the original episode's entire point was to show how dangerous and painful it can be to screw with the past. And while some other unrelated episodes may involve time travel and ignore this idea, this episode obviously was thinking of the original one, and it's completely out of character for Kirk to want to go back again.
There are plenty more examples of why this was terrible, but it would take all day to list them.
Phase II
Star Trek: Phase II started out as Star Trek: New Voyages, and continues on the 5-year mission where the original series left off (possibly ignoring the animated series altogether). It's technically fan-fiction, but it seems to be more accepted and popular than most fanfic franchises out there. To date, there have been six episodes, including the unofficial pilot and the 2-part "Blood and Fire" separately. They have several more episodes in progress, and seem to be releasing about one episode per year.
With a very limited budget, volunteer cast and crew, and no opportunity to make a profit (as per CBS rules), you can't expect much out of the series. The actors playing the main characters are all awful, and some have been re-cast more than once (Spock is on his third actor). Andy Bray as Chekov is probably the best of the bunch, but Chekov's character has never really been deep, so once you have the accent down, you're 75% there. James Cawley as Kirk is probably the worst - he seems to have no clue how to play the role, but his job as producer apparently gives him the ability to cast whoever he wants, and who wouldn't want to be Captain Kirk?
The series has been visited by a few real Trek actors, with Walter Koenig and George Takei playing older versions of their characters (Chekov when he had a rapid-aging disease and Sulu after a temporal problem left him stranded on a planet for 30 years) in back-to-back episodes. Denise Crosby had a role as an ancestor (probably great-grandmother or great-great-grandmother) of Tasha Yar from TNG.
The special effects were as bad as expected in the first few episodes, but dramatically improved by the 4th episode - still not as good as the TNG era, but significantly better than the original effects from TOS.
The stories are generally pretty bad, but much better than the animated series. However, they made the exact same mistake as TAS, once again going back to the City on the Edge of Forever planet. There was also one episode where something completely unexplainable happens to a main character (I'll skip the spoilers), something that is a blatant violation of the timeline, and is completely ignored in later episodes. Since there isn't much publicity for this series, it's hard to find official word on why they did it, but from what I've read, the show creators really didn't seem to have a problem with it, even though everyone else does.
Next
Next up for me is Enterprise. I watched about 30-35 episodes when it originally aired, and didn't care much for it. However, as a Star Trek fan, I can't just not watch a series just because I don't like it. With nearly all of my shows on break for the summer, I should have plenty of time to get through the series over the next few months.
The phrase "jumping the shark" has been thrown around constantly this year by TV reviewers, bloggers, and commenters, mostly referring to how many of these shows have had two main characters hook up, which is one of the favorite "jump the shark" categories. Some of them may be true, some may be artificial ratings boosters, but they all seemed to work well for the shows this year.
***SPOILERS AHEAD***
House, M.D. This season's finale ended with House and Cuddy (a.k.a. Huddy) finally getting together. This has been building for years, ever since it was revealed that these two had a past. House's mental and emotional problems aren't going to make things easy for them, and I don't see it lasting beyond the first few episodes next season.
The Big Bang Theory The season started on an unexpected note, when Penny kissed Leonard after being gone for a few months. This was something you figured was coming, since Leonard's feelings were well known since the pilot episode, but it still made for a good comedic moment. Of course, the two of them were so different that it just couldn't work, and the relationship ended hilariously, as Wil Wheaton broke them up late in the season so he could win a bowling match and a bet against Sheldon. I'd expect them to remain friends but not try getting back together again, unless they really plan to jump the shark in the future.
How I Met Your Mother The series started with Robin and Ted hooking up, but since you knew she wasn't "the mother", it couldn't last. This season, Robin and Barney got together, giving Barney the opportunity to actually mature as a human being in a relationship, but after they went down in flames, Barney was back to his old self, returning to his greatness.
Bones In a flashback episode, it was revealed that Bones and Booth almost coupled up when they first met, but ended up avoiding it. Back to the present, Booth wanted to give it a shot again, but was rejected, leaving the two of them slightly more awkward than before when left alone. This is one where I think they will try it again, since Brennan is slowly growing as an emotional person, and she'll eventually be ready for a real relationship, maybe in time for sweeps week next season.
Community There was weird sexual tension between Jeff and Britta from the beginning - the two of them were originally supposed to be the focal point of the show, until it turned out that the other characters, especially Abed and Troy, were funnier, at which point they stole the show. Jeff and Britta had a brief encounter during a game of paintball, but left it at that. In the season finale, Jeff was torn between Britta, who actually still had feelings for him, and a minor character that he had a brief relationship with earlier, but ended up choosing neither, opting instead for Annie, a girl barely half his age. This was a weird twist, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out next year.
24 Jack's been in failed relationships before. In the first season, he was going through a rough patch with his wife, but by the end of the day, they were back together again, with a new baby on the way. Unfortunately, his wife was murdered at the end of the day, which was one of the first of many terrible things that keep happening to him. He finds happiness again in season 4 with Audrey Raines, but that too ends tragically as she's involved in some of the events of the sixth season, and is shaken up to the point where she no longer can bear to be with him. In the 8th and final season, Jack tries one more time, this time seemingly out of the game and together with FBI agent Renee Walker. To add to his pain, she is shot by a sniper, leading Jack on a rampage, taking down everyone involved, and anyone in his way. There are supposed to be plans for at least a couple movies based on the 24 series with Jack coming back, but with all the tragedy he's suffered, I doubt he'll ever be able to love again.
Chuck Chuck and Sarah (sometimes referred to as Charah) got together this season, something you knew was coming eventually. This dynamic has worked very well this year, bringing up all kinds of possibilities, including the two of them trying to run away together, before realizing that they really still wanted to be spies. Chuck's character is significantly different from what it was when the show began - he's more confident and he's an actual spy (although still a little clumsy), but the show is still funny and entertaining, and his relationship with Sarah will likely last throughout the remainder of the series.
Psych Shawn and Juliet have been awkward around each other for most of the series, and the two obviously have chemistry together. It's been a fun secondary plot throughout the series to have them always tiptoe around each other, but last season's finale with Shawn and his girlfriend Abigail breaking up leads me to believe that the two of them will hook up early in this upcoming season. However, the overall feeling of the show tends toward not letting them stay together - I forsee a breakup by around midseason, but of course they'll still be friends and work together.
Hell's Kitchen Ramsay has been in love with his own ego since his first appearance on television. I don't see this changing anytime soon.
Date: 2010-06-08 21:30:40
Name:
Melissa E (via Facebook)
I like your thoughts on Chuck. It'll be cool to see the relationship grow and mature, since we've already experienced Chuck growing and maturing. I'm not sure I agree about Psych though. I see the writers taking longer to hook the two of them up, maybe not even until the second half of their final season, whenever that might be. Maybe they'll have a "practice fling" of sorts, but nothing serious will happen for a while, IMO.
Date: 2010-06-08 21:49:49
Name:
Melissa E (via Facebook)
Ok, on further reflection, I do recall Steve (or was it Saladin...) talking about them playing around with all the ways NOT to get them together, and how even that has a limit. Hmm...that could be problematic. I don't think I can handle a Shules breakup!
Date: 2010-06-08 21:58:12
Name:
Joe Enos
Well, however it plays out, I'm sure it will be fun and entertaining. The best part will probably be Lassie - I doubt he'll approve of his partner and Shawn together.
Date: 2010-06-08 22:43:20
Name:
Melissa E (via Facebook)
Absolutely. I trust our writers to do it right, however it works. I can definitely see Lassie doing the "hurt her and you die" talk with Shawn ;)
After 12 years on Tuesday nights, ABC for some reason decided to put the Lost series finale on a Sunday night. I personally never watched the show - I rented the first disc of the first season on DVD, and made it through the pilot, and it really wasn't my thing. But that won't stop me from posting my review of the finale.
*** SPOILER ALERT ***
I really like how they handled the smoke monster. Turns out the smoke was just the remnants of a bonfire on the opposite side of the island, where a bunch of hippies lived and burned tires for fun. That just goes to prove that when you're trapped on an island after a plane crash, you should really explore the entire island. Of course, I don't know what's scarier - living on a haunted deserted island, or hippies.
The first twelve times Gilligan accidentally destroyed the professor's coconut radio, I probably would have forgiven him. But after thirteen times, I'd start to sense a pattern.
Turns out the alternate timeline is actually the alternate timeline from J.J. Abrams's Star Trek movie. If Lost had lasted another 250 seasons, we'd have gotten to see Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the crew working to rescue these guys off the island.
It's finally revealed that the plane crash was actually just a metaphor for wearing uncomfortable shoes - I never would have seen that one coming.
For the last few months, I've been watching the original Star Trek series from start to finish. I had seen the entire series before, except for two episodes which I somehow missed until now (The Lights of Zetar and Requiem for Methuselah). I've seen the entire DS9 and TNG series several times, and recently watched the full Voyager series for the first time (after seeing maybe a third of those episodes before).
I watched the remastered series, with added special effects, enhanced artistic design, and some changed sound effects. Although some of the changes were improvements, in my opinion, the majority of the changes were for the worse. The ship was totally redone with CGI, and appears more cartoonish than real - the model that they used originally may not have been perfect, but the 40-year old visual effects were significantly better than the crappy effort they put into remastering the ship. Other effects, such as planets and other space phenomena were more colorful and detailed, mostly improvements, but sometimes gone too far.
Before:
After:
One of the changes that I especially didn't care for was the opening credits - they re-recorded the theme song. Here are the before-and-after videos - you'll notice that the soprano that was blended nicely in the original song was brought to the focus of the new song, really getting in your face and singing loudly and obnoxiously:
After watching the series start to finish, instead of random episodes every once in a while, it's much clearer to me why the show was cancelled. The third season of the show was absolutely awful. Not that the first two were great, but they were at least kind of fun to watch, and there were plenty of fairly good episodes sprinkled throughout those years. There were only a handful of episodes in season 3 that were watchable, and only two or three that I'd actually even consider to be ok. This was the season that started with Spock's Brain, and featured episodes like Is There in Truth No Beauty?, where a "Medusan" is so ugly that looking at it will drive you insane, and The Savage Curtain, where a giant turd forces Abraham Lincoln and Kirk to fight against Genghis Khan and Kahless. Then there's the episode where white actors with black paint on their faces played the roles of Klingons - the plot was kind of dumb too, but the makeup really stood out as ridiculous. And let's not even bring up Hippie Trek (Herbert! Herbert!).
Some notes on the series in general: First, although Star Trek was supposed to be a game-changer in the roles of individual equality, including gender equality, the show was still incredibly sexist. Women were treated as frail and fragile creatures, full of emotion and needing rescuing from danger at any given moment. They were objectified in many episodes, acting as workers on pleasure planets, items being sold, and damsels in distress. And that's not even mentioning the ridiculous costumes that they wore, including the dozens of female aliens that appeared throughout the series wearing washcloths (not that I'm complaining about that, just pointing it out).
After about the first season, I started noticing themes repeating over and over again. I went back and starting counting how many times a particular concept was used, and kept following that list throughout the rest of the series as I watched. Here is the tally - this may be a little off, since I didn't start from the beginning, and back-populated based off of memory. These categories are not all-inclusive, so many episodes fall into more than one.
Keep in mind that there were only 80 episodes total (including The Cage and including The Menagerie Parts 1 and 2 separately).
Episodes where Kirk (or some kind of duplicate) was deemed unfit for command: 9
Episodes where someone pushed a button on their wrist, belt, or other device, that controlled their enemies: 6
Episodes with time travel: 5
Episodes where they travel to/through the galactic barrier or leave the galaxy: 4
Episodes with androids: 4
Episodes where the crew has some kind of deadly virus or disease: 5
Episodes where a planet is exactly like Earth in some manner, or is specifically mentioned to be Earth-like: 11
Episodes with a court-martial: 5
Episodes with a paradise planet: 5
Episodes with weird evil kids: 4
Episodes where a main character "dies", but magically returns later on: 6
Episodes with a duplicate, clone, or imposter: 6
Episodes where characters are forced to fight by some third party, who sits back and watches: 9
And here's the big one:
Episodes with different beings or ships that had super or extraordinary powers, far superior to that of the Enterprise and crew: 30
30 out of 80 episodes where they're fighting a new super being is just ridiculous. Obviously, those types of episodes need to exist, but when there are this many, it just gets stupid. TNG had several episodes like this, but nowhere near this high of a percentage. DS9's entire mythology was based on a couple of far superior races of beings, but they stayed constant, and there were only a handful of episodes with new super enemies brought in.
Next on my Star Trek: The Animated Series, of which I haven't seen any episodes. This one has to be good, right?
Hell's Kitchen, the popular "reality" competition show, returns to Fox in just over a week. This is really the only non-scripted show that I can actually watch and enjoy, even though it does have some of the same flaws as any other show of its type, like the overacted drama, predictability, and repetitiveness.
Chef Gordon Ramsay is a great character, and he makes the show not only watchable, but actually very entertaining. His anger issues make for excellent television, and even if it's not totally authentic, it's always fun to see people get food thrown at them, get yelled at at point blank range, and even threaten to physically fight the chef, yelling stuff like "I ain't no fu**ing b**ch!" or "Let's go step outside, motherfu**er!" - one of the most entertaining scenes of the series to date.
This season, again, there are 16 contestants, 8 men and 8 women, so I think it's safe to assume the men vs. women game will be on again. I know absolutely nothing about these contestants, other than their pictures from the show's website, but I'm going to use my Nostradumbass powers to predict the order of how this season will go, based on nothing but what they look like and where they're from. There are interview videos on Youtube, but I'm too lazy to watch them all. Here is the order that I'm predicting they will be eliminated, along with some insight on how I think they will be treated.
#1: Andrew Forster Andrew gets the distinction of being the first eliminated, after proving himself to be totally incompetent in all things cooking, and having an all-around annoying personality.
#2: Fran Klier She will be the second one to leave, after Ramsay yells at her for longer than usual, mostly because at her age (44), she's been doing this long enough that she should be better at it.
#3: Savlatore Coppola Due to the fact that he is extremely friendly, and a nice guy to have around, he doesn't have the potential for the leadership qualities that Ramsay is looking for (a.k.a. being able to yell and swear at your co-workers).
#4: Nilka Hendricks Nilka is kicked off after (for the 4th season in a row I think?) serving undercooked chicken, and Ramsay says "You could have killed someone". If there's one thing to learn by watching this show, it's not to serve raw chicken whenever Ramsay's around.
#5: Benjamin Knack A service with screw-up after screw-up leads Ramsay to kick out Benjamin, a culinary instructor, and Gordon to say something to the effect of "You couldn't instruct a fu**ing donkey on how to s**t properly!", whatever that means.
#6: Ed Battaglia Again, a teacher is booted off the island, this time a high school cooking teacher. Ramsay makes a comment about how he's teaching a whole new generation of students how to poison the population.
At this point, the teams are uneven, so Siobhan, who hasn't been fitting in with the red team moves over to the blue team, evening up the teams at 5 each.
#7: Mikey Termini Mikey's toughness proves to be too much as it pushes him over the line with Ramsay. After yelling back too loudly at the chef, Mikey is eliminated. Ramsay tells him that he just has no respect, followed by "Now give me your fu**ing jacket you fu**ing donkey!"
#8: Jamie Bisoulis She has remained fairly quiet through the season so far, not really causing problems, but not shining either. Ramsay eliminates her, but does so relatively calmly.
#9: Maria Torrisi Maria suddenly forgets how to cook, and screws up everything she touches. Ramsay stands there with a dumbfounded expression on his face, saying "What is going on here?" several times during the service.
#10: Jason Ellis After nearly setting the kitchen on fire, and burning Chef Ramsay's hands with a hot pan, Jason gets the heave-ho and is escorted out by firefighters.
Down to 6 contestants, the teams join together as one. It's about this time when the show stops being as funny, as the remaining contestants are typically not totally incompetent or annoying anymore.
#11: Siobhan Allgood Ramsay has to kick off the only contestant from across the pond, after a series of mediocre performances. He expected more out of a fellow Great Britainer (or is it United Kingdomer, or whatever you call it when someone is from one of the British Isles).
#12: Holli Ugalde She is finally eliminated, and everyone wonders why it took so long. In reality, it's because you need to keep at least one attractive person on the show for as long as possible.
#13: Scott Hawley After "one of the toughest decisions I've ever had to make in Hell's Kitchen", Scott is eliminated after making a few small mistakes in the kitchen.
#14: Autumn Lewis A less than stellar performance while in charge of the hotplate gives Autumn a ticket home.
This leaves Stacey Slichta vs. Jay Santos for the final episode. Each choose the three of their former teammates to work for them in the final competition. Both act shocked and amazed when Ramsay tells them that they're going to visit the new restaurant in Vegas or London or wherever it is this year, as if they've never seen the show before. Ramsay treats both contestants very well, acting as if he wasn't calling them donkeys and throwing food at them just a few short weeks ago.
#15: Stacey Slichta Stacey loses in a close competition, leaving...
Winner: Jay Santos Jay wins Hell's Kitchen, where he will go on to be the new executive chef, head chef, or whatever, at some trendy restaurant.
Alice was made in a very similar fashion to the one they did a few years ago, Tin Man, which was the Sci-Fi Channel's reimagining of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Both mini-series were very popular, and I believe they were the two top-watched Sci-Fi/Syfy mini-series in the channel's history. The two original stories were similar to begin with, but Alice appears to intentionally mirror Tin Man in story, theme, tone, and style. For example, in Tin Man, the tin man character was just a person, with the nickname "tin man" because of his metal police badge - same here, with characters like the caterpillar and white rabbit being ordinary people with "code names". Both take place in the alternate reality long after the "original" story, with Alice and Dorothy both being drawn in to deal with events following their same-named predecessors long ago.
There were several recognizable faces, including several sci-fi actors, like Colm Meaney (O'Brien from TNG and DS9) as the King of Hearts, Teryl Rothery (Fraiser from SG-1) as Alice's mother, Alessandro Juliani (Gaeta from BSG) as the 9 of Clubs, and Matt Frewer (crazy time-traveler guy from that one episode of TNG) as the White Knight, aka Don Quixote. Kathy Bates (crazy stalker from Misery) played the Queen of Hearts, and there were several other faces I've seen before in various shows and movies through the years. The lead, Caterina Scorsone, hasn't been in anything popular before, but she did a reasonably good job as Alice.
I haven't read the original book, seen the Disney movie, the numerous other movies or musicals, nor the newest Tim Burton remake, so I don't know all the links to the original story, or how much they followed or butchered story items. But overall, I would say that by itself, this was somewhat entertaining, if a little long and drawn out - the 3-hour length is an unfortunate necessity for mini-series, but it probably would have been better as two hours. In my opinion, it's not as good as Tin Man, but better than some of the crap that's been released lately.
Tonight I watched the Star Trek: Voyager episode called Nemesis. Kind of a dumb episode, but the dialogue really jumped out. Most of the episode took place on a Vori planet, where they speak English, with several words replaced with stupider versions. Of course, they don't really speak English, but blah blah universal translator blah blah suspension of disbelief etc.
The writers wanted to make sure that you understood what these words meant in their context, by saying them over and over and over and over again. Here's the breakdown of how often they used these words in less than 40 minutes of screen-time:
I'm sure it's common to say one or two words over and over again in an episode, but this many just got ridiculous. Like: "How many will you nullify", "the Nemesis will nullify you", " never told an unkind word nor nullified an insect", "I'll nullify the beast", "Then the nemesis you nullified", "Your fleet colours will get us all nullified", and it just kept going on like that.
I've picked on Voyager once before - I don't mean to keep ripping on the show - it's really not bad, and got better toward the end of the series. But for some reason I enjoy nitpicking about this kind of thing.
2009 has been a pretty big year for celebrity deaths. Here are my reactions to some of the bigger ones, and what I found most memorable about their lives.
(1) Billy Mays [07/20/1958 - 06/28/2009] Billy Mays was the most in-your-face pitchman on TV, and his commercials were always fun to watch. His style definitely worked - it's hard to find anyone who doesn't know what OxiClean or Orange Glo is, all thanks to Mays's unique showmanship.
(2) Michael Jackson [08/29/1958 - 06/25/2009] This was by far the biggest worldwide event of the year, with millions of people tuning into every detail. After his death, people immediately stopped talking about his creepiness or possible terrible indiscretions, and focused on his music and early life. Thriller, Bad, Beat It, and Black or White are my favorites of the Michael Jackson collection.
(3) Gidget Chipperton [c. 1994 - 07/21/2090] The Taco Bell dog was an enormously popular campaign for Taco Bell back in 1997. I remember the first time seeing the commercial - one of the funniest things I'd ever seen in a commercial, just so ridiculous that it totally worked. I even remember having a "Yo Quiero Taco Bell" T-shirt with a picture of the dog on it.
(4) Ricardo Montalban [11/25/1920 - 01/14/2009] Ricard Montalban had a long and successful career in TV and movies. His greatest role was Khan in Star Trek II - the character was just the right amount of evil. Second best was Vincent Ludwig in The Naked Gun - one of the funniest movies ever made, and Montalban's character was hilarious.
(5) Henry Gibson [09/21/1935 - 09/14/2009] Not a hugely popular actor, but he played one of the funniest roles on Boston Legal - Judge Clark Brown. Judge Brown was the namby-pamby judge who still lived with his mother, and was constantly manipulated by the main characters in court.
(6) Ed McMahon [03/06/1923 - 06/23/2009] I barely remember Ed McMahon from The Tonight Show - I remember him more as the American Family Publishers guy, and the guy that hosted Bloopers and Practical Jokes.
(8) Farrah Fawcett [02/02/1947 - 06/25/2009] This picture is actually the only thing I've ever seen her in.
(9) Wayman Tisdale [06/09/1964 - 05/15/2009] Wayman Tisdale had a long and successful career in the NBA, including his last three seasons with the Phoenix Suns. In addition, he was a very talented jazz musician, releasing several popular albums. He was just a great guy, and was taken early after a fight with cancer.
(10) David Carradine [12/08/1936 - 06/03/2009] I never saw Kung Fu or any of the other hundreds of things David Carradine was in, except Kill Bill (both parts), which were absolutely awful movies. The thing I'll remember most about him was the ridiculous circumstances of his death. Depending on who you believe, he likely died in the most embarassing way possible, in a...how do I put this...compromising situation (if you don't know what I'm talking about, just leave it at that - you don't want to know).
Other famous deaths included Patrick Swayze [08/18/1952 - 09/14/2009] (that guy from some crappy movie in the 80's), Ted Kennedy [02/22/1932 - 08/25/2009] (that old guy), Walter Cronkite [11/04/1916 - 07/17/2009] (that guy from the TV news), and Bea Arthur [05/13/1922 - 04/25/2009] (what's-her-name from The Golden Girls). There's also a ridiculously long list (probably a few thousand) of notable 2009 deaths over at Wikipedia.
I'm starting a series of entries listing the "best of" various categories for 2009. Wow, real original, right? First up: TV Shows
2009 has been an excellent year for television, and even though a few great shows ended, there are some promising new shows that are here to replace them, continuing the circle of life. (By the way, not all of the video clips below are from 2009, but it's the best I could find on YouTube, and I'm too lazy to do this stuff myself.)
(1) Chuck Chuck is a very funny action-comedy series, airing on NBC Monday nights. The fan base is very loyal, but reasonably small, which was the reason the series was nearly cancelled after the second season. Thanks to an amazing fan campaign, of which I participated, the series is coming back for a third season in January, where hopefully ratings will improve to give the show a future.
(2) Dollhouse What started out as a simple and fun sci-fi/action series has progressed into a thought-provoking, intense look at the future. Unfortunately, the show has been cancelled, but Fox has been kind enough to play out the remainder of the series - the final 3 episodes up to the series finale will air in January 2010. After a look at the future in the unaired "Epitaph One", the second season has been building up to what promises to be a spectacular conclusion.
(3) The Big Bang Theory This was a show that I didn't really pay attention to when it first came out. I hadn't had much luck with sitcoms in the last few years, and just didn't give this one a try. A few months ago, I rented the first disc from Netflix to try it out, and it turns out that this is one of the funniest shows I've ever seen. I'm nearly through the second season, and I'm really looking forward to getting caught up with season 3 when that is released on DVD.
(4) Psych Psych is a smart and funny show that's in its 4th season on USA. Everything from the writing to the acting to the casting is excellent - the show consistently produces outstanding episodes, and it's always a lot of fun to watch.
(5) 24 After a year off due to the writers' strike, 24 picked up right where it left off. The show has definitely become formulaic - there's always the plot twist, the "this is only the beginning" scene, the close calls, the annoying office workers, etc. But it still works - this season was as exciting and interesting as they always have been.
(6) House M.D. House started this season on a completely different note. The season premiere was all about House the person, not the doctor, as he attempted to improve his life. After the premiere, we went back to "patient of the week" stories, but with a little more character drama than before, both for House and the other stars of the show. This has given the show a new life, without turning into a soap opera.
(7) How I Met Your Mother How I Met Your Mother is still a high quality comedy, but isn't quite up to the level it was when it started a few years ago. The gimmicks aren't quite as funny as they once were, and even with new things happening to the characters each episode, they seem a little stale. However, there are still a lot of laughs, and it's definitely still on my can't-miss schedule.
(8) Bones Bones has delivered consistent quality from the beginning, and that hasn't changed this year. The show is fun, adventurous, and the characters work very well together.
(9) White Collar White Collar is a new USA show that's halfway through its first season. So far, the show has been fun and interesting, and looks like it has staying power. The original story of the criminal who's helping the FBI while still being suspicious can only last so long, so I'd expect the formula to change slightly before too long. But as long as they keep the characters intriguing, and the stories entertaining, this show should be fun to watch for a long time.
(10) South Park South Park has continued its run as the funniest animated show ever made, giving us another set of hilarious episodes this season. There were a few bad ones this year, which got me worried that maybe the show had run its course, but it came back strong toward the end of the season.
(11) Lie To Me This show premiered in January, and has been pretty consistent since its start. It follows the case of a deception detection firm, with governments and private agencies hiring these people to determine if people are lying. It sometimes plays out as a typical cop drama, sometimes has more fun cases, but always delivers something interesting.
(12) Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles This was another victim of the numbers game this year - the show was cancelled after miserable ratings. However, like many similar shows, it had a loyal following. The show was always exciting, and was just getting into its prime, up to a huge season finale that served as the series finale. It was a shame to see this show go.
(13) Community Community is kind of quirky and silly, but it's just fun to watch. I'd guess that it won't make it past a single season before getting the axe, but I'm enjoying it while it's still on.
(14) Stargate Universe I'm still waiting for this show to find itself. The story of these people getting stranded on the other side of the universe and having to cope has been very interesting, but it's been moving pretty slowly. The simple character drama can only last so long before something has to actually happen, and when it does, it should pick up the pace and make the show something special.
(15) V Only a few episodes of this new show have aired - it's a remake of an old mini-series, which means that a lot of the concept isn't going to be a surprise to anyone. So far, the show seems to have actually moved too quickly, as if it was trying to tell the story in only a few episodes. I've enjoyed it so far, but it really seems like the story is either almost over, or will soon turn into something new entirely. We'll find out next year how it moves forward.
(Honorable Mention) Battlestar Galactica This was a great sci-fi series that focused on some of the darker sides of humanity, the definition of what humanity is all about, and combined that with an exciting space adventure. The show ended in early 2009, after 4 seasons. I really enjoyed the show in general, but wasn't all that impressed with the last few months, especially up to the finale. I'd still list the show as a whole as one of the top sci-fi series.
Just finished watching the Star Trek Voyager episode The 37's. The episode was so-so, but I noticed a funny pattern in the dialogue: "something in here called a key" "some kind of power source" "some sort of mine shaft" "some kind of power signature" "some kind of cryostasis chamber" "some sort of leather jacket" "some sort of romantic adventure" "some kind of weapon" "some kind of deflection system" "something called Jell-O"
All from the same episode. Apparently the writers had some kind of writer's block that forced them to use the same technique over and over again. Either that or it was just some sort of coincidence. Or maybe there was some kind of bet to see how many times they could work that phrase into the script.
The new direct-to-DVD movie Battlestar Galactica: The Plan was recently released on DVD. This movie is a follow-up to the hugely popular series Battlestar Galactica, the reimagined series of the same name from the late 70's. The new series ran for 4 seasons, and was an excellent addition to the sci-fi genre that has become popular again in recent years. There were some aspects of the show, including the finale, that were a little out there, but for the most part, people have nothing but good things to say about the show.
The series focused on the conflicts between the human survivors and a race of machines called the Cylons. The Cylons are a very complex race, and their story evolved significantly over the four seasons. The Plan is supposed to give you some of the back story of the Cylons from early on, things that you wouldn't have known during the run of the first two seasons.
Like the other BSG follow-up, Caprica (a.k.a. Craprica), The Plan pretty much sucked. It was exactly as described - the first two seasons from the point of view of the Cylons. But there was absolutely nothing interesting about it, except of course for the unnecessary gratuitous nudity (just like Caprica). I'm no prude, but it really looked like they just did it for the "Hey, we're not on TV anymore, so let's throw some naked people in there" factor. The interesting stories that made up the series were set as backdrops for the boring and useless dialogue of the Cylons, with a noticeably missing character of "Number Three" (Lucy Lawless). Watching this movie was like watching two hours of deleted scenes from the show - a little bit of "hmm, that's something new, but not all that interesting", but mostly "this is a bunch of boring crap that I'm glad I didn't have to deal with in the show".
It's just too bad that a great show like BSG has produced such crappy follow-ups.
All of our lives we have had to deal with what time TV shows air: "9/8 Central" or "8/7 Central" etc. Primetime shows during the week air between 8pm and 11pm for most major networks, with Fox airing between 8pm and 10pm. They are aired at the exact same time in the Central time zone, which means they air from 7pm to 10pm. This makes perfect sense so far.
From here, there are two options that make any sense: 1) The shows would be broadcast in Mountain and Pacific, from 6-9pm and 5-8pm. A show would be physically broadcast only once for the whole country. 2) Mountain would match Eastern, and Pacific would match Central. There would be two distinct physical broadcasts, one starting at 8pm Eastern, the other starting at 10pm Eastern.
Option #1 is no good, because people on the west coast aren't home by 5pm to watch their shows.
However, option #2 does make sense - it would mean that "10/9 Central" means 10 Eastern/9 Central/10 Mountain/9 Pacific.
(I'm leaving out Alaska and Hawaii - not that they're not important, but I'm just focusing on the 4 time zones in the 48 contiguous states).
Instead, we have option #3 - Eastern and Pacific match, and Mountain and Central match. This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Let's look at an example - The Jay Leno Show - I'm not a fan of this show, but the majority of the show's advertising was based on "10pm", and it airs every day, so it makes a good example.
If you live in New York, the Jay Leno Show airs at 10pm Eastern (local time) - let's call this broadcast #1. If you live in Illinois, you are also watching broadcast #1, at 9pm local time. If you live in California, you also watch it at 10pm local time, which is 1am Eastern - let's call this broadcast #2. If you live in Utah, then it's on at 9pm local time, which is 11pm Eastern - this would be broadcast #3. If you're in Arizona in the winter, then you're on the same schedule as Utah, but here's the kicker - during the summer, when 48 states succomb to the epidemic of stupidity known as Daylight Savings Time for 8 months, Arizona still airs the Jay Leno Show at 9pm local time, but this is now 12am Eastern - now broadcast #4. There are 4 physical times of day when the Jay Leno show is aired, and they're not in the right order: CA: 1am Eastern UT: 11pm Eastern AZ: 11pm/12am Eastern IL: 10pm Eastern NY: 10pm Eastern
You'd think that if they were going to have four distinct broadcasts, over four time zones, that they could find a way to make them all the same.
Apparently the major reason for this nonsense has to do with radio broadcasts from the 1930's - seems a little outdated given today's technology. But I suppose, like Daylight Savings Time, this will probably never change.
I just watched the unaired episode Epitaph One of the Fox show Dollhouse. The episode was not aired due to some kind of scheduling/contract problems, but was aired at Comic-Con, and was included on the DVD set.
***POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT***
The episode takes place in the year 2019, ten years after the rest of the season. The story revolves around life after the dollhouse - it explains how the imprinting technology went out of control, causing catastrophic results. The episode flashes back over the past 10 years, explaining some of the details on how life as we know it can turn into an apocalypse over the course of only a few years.
It's an incredible episode, and a real shame that it never made it to air. It seemed like it was meant as a conclusion to the show, and would have made a great finale if the series didn't get picked up. Since it did get renewed, there really were two possible paths for season 2: either they could continue in present-day, following the formula introduced in the first season, or they could continue where Epitaph One left off. From what I've read, it will flash forward back to 2019, but will still be based in present day, possibly starting to introduce the elements defined in Epitaph One.
The show has really grown quite a bit over the first season. When it first started, I thought it was interesting, and had some potential. After the first season, especially after Epitaph One, it seems that Dollhouse is really something bigger - a serious look at how technology can be abused, and some darker aspects of humanity, instead of the simple fun sci-fi that was introduced in the first 6 episodes or so. Definitely looking forward to the show's continuation. If you haven't seen the show, you've still got time to rent the first season DVD - only thirteen episodes, so you can catch up before the season premiere on September 25th.
Just finished the complete series of The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. on DVD. The show lasted only 27 episodes from 1993 to 1994, but like many other short-lived shows, has somewhat of a cult following.
The series follows the adventures of bounty hunters Brisco County Jr. and Lord Bowler in 1890's California, as they tracked down various members of the John Bly gang, the gang responsible for murdering Brisco's father, as well as other fugitives. It's a mix of western action, science fiction, and comedy, featuring colorful characters and fun subplots. There were many well-known guest stars, such as John Astin, Terry Bradshaw, Denise Crosby, and several others.
One running theme of the show focused on "the orb", a mysterious device whose origin and purpose are revealed a little bit at a time throughout most of the series, and was behind most of the science fiction elements of the story. Many episodes also featured newly invented technologies (the "coming thing"), such as motorcycles, rockets, tanks, blimps, denim, and "rain baths" (showers), and out-of-time cultural references, such as Dunkin Donuts, an Elvis-like character, and several lines alluding to future pop-culture.
Aside from the science fiction and comedy, the show was a pretty straightforward western - chasing the bad guys on horseback, gunfights in the streets, rescuing the damsel in distress, and facing imminent doom nearly every episode. I personally wasn't a fan of the sci-fi elements of the show - the orb and magical powers seemed to get in the way sometimes, and the show would have been just as strong without it. However, this was a quality show with a lot to offer as both a western and a comedy, and I definitely recommend it.
A couple days ago, the nominations for the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards were announced. Like most award shows, they were full of craptasticness - garbage like Lost and 30 Rock got nominated for a bunch of awards, and great shows like Chuck and Psych got snubbed.
Of course, this is all subjective - apparently a lot of people like these shows. But for those of you that have taste, I have provided a list of all-time great shows that I would give these awards to.
This list is absolutely subject to change as new shows come out, or as I remember old shows or change my mind about any of these.
I was thinking about that, but I realized that being good looking and being a good actress really aren't the same thing.
Date: 2009-07-20 14:44:45
Name:
Joe N (via Facebook)
Hey Joe -- Lost had its moment in season 1 and 2, now I'm just addicted to it and need to see what happens. Mad Men is my favorite show on TV and you'd be hard pressed to find a show that's more beautifully shot. I'm glad it received so many nominations.
UPDATE: The last few weeks, I've become hooked on The Shield - it's a great series, and I've added it to several of the categories. I was definitely surprised at how much I like the show.
Date: 2010-02-27 10:09:16
Name:
Joe Enos
UPDATE: The Big Bang Theory added - I hadn't seen the show at the time I wrote this.
This has been a great year for television - one of the best years in a long time. The shows I've followed this past season included:
24 (Fox) Season 7 was a strong season, much like the rest of them. Definitely a redemption after the 2008 season was skipped. This show was never in any jeopardy of being cancelled - the next season has been planned out for awhile.
House (Fox) This was the second season featuring the new cast, and they still didn't get their names in the opening credits. The season was pretty good, mixing the "patient of the week" plots with the personal storylines of the characters. This one also was in no danger of being cancelled, but just officially got renewed in the last few days.
Chuck (NBC) An extraordinary show, mixing comedy with action and adventure. The second season provided more character growth and plot twists, leading to a game-changing finale that begs for another season. Chuck had the most amazing fan campaign ever, with an incredible number of fans contributing to the cause to save the show. First was the Finale & Footlong campaign, where Chuck fans purchased $5 Footlongs from Subway on the night of the season finale in support of one of the show's top sponsors. Also as part of that campaign, Zachary Levi, the star of the show, led a group of 600 people into Subway in Birmingham, England, and actually got behind the counter and made sandwiches for the fans. Next was the Have a Heart, Save Chuck campaign, where fans were invited to donate to the American Heart Association in the name of the show, and pass the acknowledgement to NBC. As of May 15th, the campaign had raised over $14,000 from fans, and is still open for more contributions. I have no doubt that these two campaigns played a major role in the show being renewed, which it has been, for a third season, and I'm proud to have played a small role in this campaign, buying from Subway, blogging, tweeting, buying the DVDs, and donating to the AHA.
Bones (Fox) This season of Bones wasn't the best of the series, but was still strong. The season finale was a hotly-debated episode, with many fans, including myself, speaking out about how much they hated it, and some defending it as a great episode. There was a small danger of the show not being renewed, which would have been a real shame - but it was officially picked up a few days ago for its fifth season.
Battlestar Galactica (Sci-Fi) This was the fourth and final season for the re-imagined series. With a planned ending, we knew the show was not coming back next season. However, there is still an upcoming TV movie and a new series in the works, both related to the show.
Hell's Kitchen (Fox) This is the only reality show I've ever been able to watch. Ramsay's anger, whether it's real or not, makes the show worth watching. The show is getting a little bit repetitive - it's the same challenges, menus, and "surprises" each year, just with a different cast of loser contestants, who seem to get worse each year. I don't know if this show has much more life in it, but next season is definitely happening.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Fox) A great show, definitely underrated and underwatched. The story and characters are a little different from the movies, which allows the show to develop in its own universe without having to conform to the story of the three previous movies and the upcoming Salvation movie. The season finale was excellent, bringing together elements of the entire series to date into a cliffhanger climax. Last I heard, no official decision has been made about the show, but things really aren't looking good. If Fox doesn't pick it up, it wouldn't surprise me to see it picked back up by someone else, maybe the Sci-Fi channel. Edit 5/18: Turns out Terminator was officially canceled yesterday, so Sci-Fi seems like the only hope for that show's future.
Dollhouse (Fox) This was the first year for Dollhouse, a new science fiction show on Fox. It's an interesting concept, and has a small, but loyal, following. Nielsen ratings have been terrible, but DVR and online viewing has been significant, which probably is the major reason the show is being picked up for a second season.
Lie To Me (Fox) Another rookie show on Fox, Lie To Me is kind of fun, following the various jobs of a group of people who serve as lie detectors, contracting with governments and private companies. They've been picked up for a second season, so I'm hoping they can continue to keep the stories fresh and interesting next season.
Scrubs (ABC) The eighth season of Scrubs was significantly better than the seventh, which was a craptacular mess. My guess is that NBC attempted to sabotage the show in season 7 by intentionally making it terrible, since it was moving to ABC for season 8. But this year was back to being funny again, even though it isn't back to the quality of the earlier years. The season finale probably should have served as a series finale, since it wrapped up some of the characters' stories, and really left you with a sense of completion and satisfaction. Also, several of the main characters (Zach Braff as JD, Sarah Chalke as Elliot, and Judy Reyes as Carla) are not coming back, except for possible small transitionary roles. ABC has decided to pick up the show for a ninth season, focusing on a new set of characters, probably including some of the new interns introduced this year. The show will have to change quite a bit, but I'm hopeful that they'll be able to make it work.
Overall, I couldn't be happier with the outcome of this year. It looks like only one of my shows (Terminator) is being cancelled, which I can live with after the satisfying finale. With Chuck and Dollhouse both being saved, and the top shows like 24, House, and Bones coming back, next year promises to be another great year for TV.
Yesterday was the finale (season/series?) of the NBC sitcom Scrubs. It was a very strong episode, and did a good job wrapping up the series, assuming it doesn't come back next season. Stars Zach Braff and Judy Reyes, as well as creator/producer/writer Bill Lawrence have all confirmed that they will not return if there is another seasonEDIT: There's all sorts of rumors out there, so apparently this wasn't necessarily true - but I did read it somewhere as if it was fact..., but last I heard, it was still up in the air whether ABC was going to continue the show.
Scrubs has always been very character-based, with the long-term focus of the show being the growth and maturing of the young doctors, and the relationships between all of the characters. The comedic style is a mix of slapstick and exaggerated characteristics of each character. In addition to the comedy, Scrubs has a dramatic side, much like M*A*S*H, discussing the seriousness of life in a hospital, including sickness and death. While this wasn't the main focus of the show, it brought an element of realism to an otherwise silly and implausible show.
The core cast has been there since the beginning, but every couple of years they introduce a group of new recurring characters. The casting has always been great, from the main characters to the short-timers to the one-time guest stars (typically patients). This season, a new group of interns was introduced, who are funny and interesting, for minor characters. I suppose it's possible that a couple of them could step up in place of the ones leaving, so I'm sure the show could go on. The last couple of seasons haven't had the quality of the first few, so with a great finale in the books, I think that they should just end on a good note - I'd have nothing against a spin-off, but after eight seasons, if they do spin-off, I'd like to see an entirely new show in a different style, much like Frasier after Cheers.
There's a great show on NBC called Chuck that airs on Monday nights. The show is a great mix of comedy with just the right amount of action and drama, and has a pretty loyal following. But unfortunately, like a lot of other excellent shows this year, it's in danger of not being picked up next season.
There's a huge amount of support out there for the show, and a lot of ways that we, as normal viewers, can help. Below are a few ways that you can help:
1) Eat a $5 Footlong at Subway this Monday, April 27. While you're there, fill out a comment card asking Subway to continue their sponsorship of the show.
4) Go to Google and search for "save chuck". You'll find thousands of pages out there devoted to saving the show. I don't know which ones are the best, but you'll find many online petitions. Take a few minutes to sign some of these.
5) This is the best one: Watch the show. It runs against House on Monday night, which is a tough order, but it's worth it. You can TiVo House or watch it online, just this once - Chuck definitely needs the ratings this week for the season finale - if it holds its own this week, then just maybe we'll see it picked up next year.
Last night was the second season's finale of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on Fox. I'm not going to get into the details of the episode - if you've been following the show, then you already saw it - if not, there are plenty of places out there to find summaries and recaps. Here's two: The TV Addict and Television Without Pity.
They did an excellent job of concluding the season, bringing together elements introduced throughout the season, and finished off strong, with a surprising and exciting finish. And since ratings have been very low, there's a good chance that this will be the series finale as well. If that was the case, this finale still would be fulfilling. It's a cliffhanger, but the kind where I'd be content not knowing how it turns out. If you saw it, you'll know what I'm talking about.
What really surprises me is how incredibly low the ratings are. Even for the finale, the show was in 4th place, behind Ghost Whisperer, Wife Swap, and Howie Do It. The fact that anyone watches these shows is amazing, especially up against a show of such quality as Terminator. I guess this just proves that the majority of people out there have incredibly poor taste in TV.
After a couple of the most entertaining months of Hell's Kitchen to date, it looks like they're in a little bit of trouble. Following another pitiful performance by the six remaining aspiring chefs, Chef Ramsay made a 'surprising' announcement - Hell's Kitchen is being shut down. He finally admitted that none of these five individuals is capable of running a fancy restaurant.
Of course, this is going to turn out to be just a gimmick - after all, this is entertainment on a regular network show, and while Ramsay's convictions are higher than your typical 'reality' show host, I doubt he'd be willing to cancel the remaining four or five episodes of his most popular show.
This has been the best season yet because of the utter incompetence of the contestants. In past seasons, there have always been two or three legitimate players, who came together toward the end to show a hint of potential. This season, all 16 (with one possible exception who had to leave early due to injury) are completely worthless, which makes Ramsay angry, which makes the show so much better.
Next week, the contestants need to prove they're good enough to re-open the kitchen. My prediction: they'll be one step above imbecility, and they'll re-open the kitchen, only to fail miserably at dinner yet again. It promises to be another incredibly entertaining hour of television.
That’s one tactic some shows do to make their program more exciting. They try to suspend the viewer so the people would have more anticipation and the excitement arouse once again.
Isn't two hours of American Idol per week enough? There has been more than one week this season where Idol took up three whole hours of TV - this is the second time that Bones has been cut out of the lineup for a special episode of AI. I realize that a lot of people love televised karaoke for some reason, but Fox needs to understand that millions of people enjoy quality scripted programming as well. Bones is just not getting any respect, even though it's one of the best shows on TV right now.
As a follow-up, American Idol screwed over millions of viewers again last night. Apparently it went over its scheduled time by several minutes, which means Fringe started late, and therefore finished late, so people recording the show missed out on the ending of Fringe. I'm not a fan of Fringe myself, but I know a lot of people who are, and are angry about this. I'd certainly be angry if this happened to one of my shows.
By the way, this also means since Idol went over its schedule, its fans who were recording it missed out on the ending as well.
Fox has the best lineup by far of any network, but they've got to start thinking about all of their audience, not just the American Idolaholics.
Battlestar Galactica is a reimagining of a short series by the same name from 1978. The new show lasted four seasons, providing a science fiction experience unlike any other shows. The series was about a group of people who survived an apocolyptic attack, who search the galaxy for a new home safe from their enemies. The show was excellent - it's not your typical high-tech sci-fi series, focused on the futuristic toys and the action. Instead, it was about the people, their anger and pain, their struggle to survive and hope to thrive on their journey.
I'm sorry to say that the finale was kind of disappointing. The entire fourth season was a build-up to the end - the questions that had come up over the past seasons were starting to be answered, and events had reached the point of no return. With only one episode left, I still had hope that the show would have an exciting and interesting ending. The finale started out okay, but about halfway through, it just kind of fizzled away. The main characters' fates seemed rushed and forced, and the final destiny for the people was ridiculous and unbelievable. Plus there are still plenty of unanswered questions that I would have expected to be addressed in the finale.
Even with the below average finale, I still highly recommend the show. And there are still two upcoming events: Battlestar Galactica: The Plan is an upcoming TV movie telling the story from a different point of view, and Caprica is a new upcoming series which will take place 50 years prior to the events of Battlestar Galactica.
A sarcastic but honest review and summary of the episode can be found at: http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/battlestargalactica/daybreakpart_ii.php (Extremely spoiler-intensive, and also reader discretion advised for strong language).
Indeed, the finale was kind of disappointing. I mean what happened to Starbuck? Nevertheless, I am looking forward for Caprica and maybe some insight on how the frak is Kara Thrace. :)
@Galactica Fan: From what I've read, you may find some of your answers in The Plan. I don't know about Caprica - that could go either way - my guess is that it will have a few links to BSG, but that it will stand alone, and may not even touch the topic of Starbuck or some of the other unanswered questions.
A new show premiered on Fox this week called Dollhouse, part of the new Sci-Fi Friday lineup, following Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It follows the story of a secret company that places false memories into individuals in order to perform various tasks - whatever their client requires. The pilot focused on a kidnapping, with the main character Echo (Eliza Dushku) implanted with the memories and personality of an expert on kidnapping negotiations, hired by the father of the kidnap victim. While all of this is going on, there's an FBI agent trying to find and expose this highly illegal organization.
Tonight was the season premiere of Hell's Kitchen on Fox. This is by far the best reality show on TV. It certainly has its share of the drama that you'll find on other shows like Survivor and The Apprentice, but it's one of the few shows entertaining enough that I can forgive the nonsense.
Tonight Chef Gordon Ramsay unleashed his trademark anger on a new group of 16 hopeful chefs - you'd think it would get old after awhile, but it really doesn't. The rage in his eyes, even if it's not 100% genuine, is just hilarious. And the look on his face after one of the contestants offered to teach him some manners was just priceless.
If you're skeptical that a "reality" show can actually be good, you should at least give this show a try. The first 7 or 8 episodes of each season have typically been the best - the aspiring chefs are mostly incompetent, meaning Ramsay is angry pretty much the entire dinner service. Really makes for quality programming.
I'm a huge fan of Gordon and his show, Hell's Kitchen most of all! This season has proved to be the best yet, with such entertaining hilarity, amusement, and such touching and surprising twists that would leave our jaws on the floor. Like the second episode's shocking turn of events in the elimination which had me saddened because I had to see my favorite, Ji, leave the competition because of the injured ankle that she had. Although she has the option of staying, she took the team's welfare into consideration instead which led to her withdrawal. What she did was very noble though and I hope that they would bring her back to the show. I found that she has a web site, http://www.chefji.com with photos and you can email and even vote as to whether to have her back to the show!
I recently finished watching the complete series of Stargate SG-1, which ran for 10 seasons from 1997 to 2007. I never saw it while it was running on TV - I've been watching the DVDs for a little over a year, and finally finished it a few days ago.
The series started as a direct continuation of the 1994 movie Stargate, which starred Kurt Russell and James Spader (replaced by Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks in SG-1). The movie was decent, but nothing special. But it was good enough to get me interested in the series.
Stargate SG-1 revolves around a secret government program where a team consisting of military officers, an archaeologist, and an alien warrior travel to different planets through a piece of ancient technology known as a stargate. Their mission is to acquire weapons and technology that could be used to defend themselves from hostile forces, specifically the Goa'uld, the parasitic enemy introduced in the movie. While on this mission, they make contact with various alien races, both advanced and primitive, and form alliances with several of them in their fight. It's not your traditional space opera, but rather a present-day military adventure, that happens to involve aliens, advanced technology, and some space travel. The later seasons had significantly more interaction with space ships and more traditional sci-fi elements, but the focus was still generally with the characters and the struggle for survival and inter-planetary relationships, rather than with starships shooting at each other.
The first eight seasons focus on the battle, with the Goa'uld as the primary antagonist. It's a very interesting storyline, and with the show's long tenure, they had plenty of time to tell the entire story, including a strong finish. Seasons 9 and 10 were focused on a new enemy, the Ori, who were more powerful than anything they had faced before. Season 9 also saw the departure of Richard Dean Anderson, replaced by a relatively unknown actor named Ben Browder.
The first seven seasons of the show were very good. It combined present-day science fiction with plenty of action and just the right amount of humor. The camaraderie between the characters made for a fun and interesting show. Starting in season 8, the show started to decline a little in quality, and continued through seasons 9 and 10 - the replaced characters and the new enemy just couldn't live up to the old ones. It was still good, but just not the same.
One of the most fun things about the show was its tendency to poke fun at science fiction, and specifically at itself. Anderson's character, Jack O'Neill, was a Star Trek fan, and several times referred to Star Trek - for example, when doing a pre-flight check, he asked if the phasers were online, and when they built a full-size space ship, he tried (unsuccessfully) to have it named Enterprise. Episodes 100 and 200 of the series were specifically about having fun with the show's concept - they dealt with a show inside a show, called "Wormhole X-Treme", which mirrored much of SG-1's story and characters. They were able to pick specific parts of the show to have fun with, by talking about them in the context of Wormhole X-Treme. At the end of both episodes, there were cast interviews with the "cast" of Wormhole X-Treme, just adding to the humor of the episode.
The series was followed up by two made-for-TV movies, The Ark of Truth and Continuum, both released in 2008. In addition, a spinoff, Stargate Atlantis started in 2004. Although the last few seasons of SG-1 coincided with the first few of Atlantis, I haven't seen any episodes of this series yet. From what I've read, it was reasonably safe to finish SG-1 without spoiling much of the early episodes of Atlantis, so I decided to do that. I do plan on watching this series before moving on to the two SG-1 movies, so it may be another year or so before I get around to watching those. I'm hopeful that Atlantis will be as good as SG-1, but with a completely different cast and totally different story, it's hard to guess what the show will be like. I guess I'll find out.
Overall, I definitely recommend the show for any sci-fi fan, or for anyone who just enjoys a good action series.
I just saw something unbelievably offensive on TV. I was tuning in to CNN to see the beginning of election coverage, and there was a commercial for ashleymadison.com. Apparently this is a personals site for married people, whose motto is "Life is short. Have an affair." If you go to the site, that's exactly what it is - a service dedicated to helping married people cheat on their spouses.
The fact that this service exists isn't what bothers me. There are all kinds of things online that are disgusting, and that's just life. But to advertise this on a major news network is just wrong. It promotes the opinion that cheating is "just fine" to millions of viewers, as if it was perfectly normal. I am not naïve enough to believe that marriage is easy, or that all marriages can or even should last. But these problems should be worked out in a mature and open manner, with open communication, counseling, and finally divorce if appropriate - not by having affairs.
By the way, I'm not singling out CNN - if the site is telling the truth, Fox News also advertises their service. So you've got a mostly liberal channel and a mostly conservative channel both advertisng the same garbage.
As you probably know, standard television in the US will be 100% digital in February 2009, which means that old TV's will not work without cable, satellite, or a converter box designed for digital. I currently have cable, and plan to have cable or satellite indefinitely, so the cutover date should not apply to me. However, like a lot of people, I'd like to be prepared for the change by getting a converter box. The federal government has created a program so that individuals can receive one or two $40 coupons toward a converter box, which nearly covers the purchase price.
Several months ago, I applied for these coupons online. A couple weeks ago, I realized that the coupons had never arrived, and decided to check the status of my request. Turns out that the coupons were "mailed" a while ago, and are actually expired now. Since I never received them in the first place, and they obviously knew that they expired without being used, I put in a request to have them re-sent, assuming that they have a process for handling this scenario. A few days later, I received a response - here's a snippet:
...
Your duplicate application remains denied because your household has already been approved for, or has already received two coupons.
If you have reapplied because your coupons have expired or you have not received your coupons, we are prohibited by law from replacing your coupons. While we understand that many situations may have caused your coupons to expire, we are prohibited, under all circumstances, from replacing coupons.
...
Apparently, when they built the program, they included a clause that they are not allowed to replace coupons even if they were never received. In effect, this gives them the ability to "misplace" as many coupons as they want, saving up to $80 a pop, and there's nothing we can do about it. For the consumer, this means the government is forcing anyone who does not have cable/satellite, and whose mail is either "lost" (meaning never sent) or legitimately lost (it does happen sometimes - I understand) to shell out the full purchase price for each set in their house, in order to just continue watching TV.
If this conversion was market-driven, I'd have less of a problem. For example, anyone who rents or buys movies was effectively "forced" to buy a DVD player several years ago if they wanted to continue watching movies at home. And I'm sure it will happen again with Blu-Ray, then the next big thing after that. But the DTV issue was made a federal law, meaning people have no choice - the market can't decide, or have any influence over, this transition.
The government has no business telling private companies what medium to use to transmit their programming. That's what a free market is all about - if the major networks and local stations decided in transmit their signal digital only, then people would buy the boxes on their own terms, not the government's. The free market system is an amazing thing, but the more the government sticks its nose where it doesn't belong, the less powerful the market becomes.
I did find the following link, which sends comments to the FCC commissioner - apparently this is the only way to give feedback on the program. I doubt anything can be done about it, but at least people can voice their frustrations.
Apparently some people think "The Simpsons" is still good - it just won an Emmy for Best Cartoon (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080914/tv_nm/emmys_dc_4). In my opinion, the show hasn't been funny for at least 3 or 4 years - before that, it was hilarious, but it really declined quickly. The movie was very good, but the show is just unwatchable.
But I guess some people feel differently. What caught my attention was the headline for the article on Reuters: "The Simpson's wins 10th best cartoon Emmy" (it's their 10th win in that category). The first time I read it, it seemed more appropriate - I thought it was a little strange that they'd give an award for the "10th best" cartoon, but it's reasonable to assume that The Simpsons is the 10th best cartoon on TV now...
After two minutes watching the Babylon 5 pilot, I already knew the entire series was terrible. Horrible special effects - it looked like I was watching some low-budget sci-fi from the 80's. The characters were annoying and stupid-looking. The dialog was ridiculous. Even the credits were awful. I enjoy a good sci-fi series. Star Trek TNG and DS9, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Time Trax, Earth: Final Conflict, Quantum Leap - all very good shows. I've read some good reviews about Babylon 5 from sci-fi fans, but apparently they're all just a bunch of morons - this is the dumbest thing I've seen in a long time.
I kept watching for about 30 minutes, hoping it would get better, but it just kept getting dumber and dumber. I highly recommend staying away from this show.
You do realize that Babylon 5 WAS conceived of and created in the '80's, do you not? As far as 'low budget'goes, all new pilots are not given the keys to the kingdom right away.
I believe it's extra important for a pilot to be impressive, since many people will watch just the pilot before deciding whether or not to continue watching. By 1994 I would have expected a show with as big a following as this one to look a little less like an Atari video game. But you are in the majority about the quality of the show - A lot of people agree with you that the show was great, and I can't find too many people on my side...But you do have to admit that the hairstyles are ridiculous, right?
I thought the Babylon pilot was ok. You're better off not watching the rest, it only gets worse. Production quality can be forgiven, but the writing was ridiculous.
Is BSG coming to a close this year? I thought the writers' strike divided season 4 in half, with the last 10 episodes probably airing in 2009. Is it just me, or have the last three episodes not been up to par?
If you haven't seen it, the first season of Heroes is pretty good. Second season sucks. Also, Lost is actually a pretty good show with sci fi elements. You can watch lost on abc.com.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't like Babylon 5...From what I've heard, this season is the final season for Battlestar Galactica - Last I read, they were going to take a hiatus and finish the season in early 2009 - not really sure why. I didn't even know about the show until a few months ago, so I've been renting them on DVD. Since I missed the beginning of Season 4 on TV, I'm going to have to wait until the DVD is released, or until my TiVo catches me up. I did enjoy the first season of Heroes - I haven't started on the second season yet, but I'll give it a try whenever it gets released on DVD - if it's as bad as you say, I may not finish the season. I know a lot of people who love Lost, but I've never seen it - it looked kind of silly - a serious version of Gilligan's Island - but I'll give it a try. Thanks for the suggestions.
Date: 2008-06-27 09:35:12
Name:
Josh
On Babylon 5: The series has a lot of variability. The pilot was pretty bad. The first season has only a couple of decent episodes, and the actors are, let's face it, hamming it up. The second season is extremely slow, but at least it's relevant to the ongoing plot and the acting improves. Seasons 3 and 4 are quite good actually; writing off the whole series on the pilot is a bit extreme. Season 5 is meh. If you ever feel like giving it another try, watch episodes 20 and 22 of the first season, then seasons 2-4 (skipping a few filler episodes of season 2 if you like).
Of course, I'm a little confused by you talking up Earth: Final Conflict. That show was good for the first season, maybe even the second, but it slides downhill a great deal over time. I like a little less "Jesus" in my sci-fi.
I agree that Earth Final Conflict got worse over the years - by the time it got to season 5 it was just awful. The only reason I kept watching is that I expected it to get better and actually tell a good story - of course, I was disappointed - but I'd still put the first three seasons in the "good" list for Sci-Fi.
Date: 2008-09-15 12:30:46
Name:
Saida
Emmy for outstanding SFX for the pilot episode, two Hugo awards, the SFWA Ray Bradbury award for dramatic screenwriting, dozens of other awards ... but all those people and juries are "morons". It can't be a question of having seen the entire thing rather than just 30 minutes, a matter of different taste, or that certain things (like: hairstyles) have a purpose that only turns out later - no, all those who like the show must be "morons". Well, the loss is yours.
@Saida: I never actually said that people who liked the show are morons - I admitted that a lot of people liked it, and that I was in the minority.
Maybe the characters got less annoying as time went on, or the hairstyles were explained, or the graphics graduated beyond 7th grade art, but I just was not willing to wait and see.
Like you said, it's just a matter of taste - I prefer good shows.
Date: 2008-09-15 13:17:15
Name:
Saida
Well, so do I. Given your list of "good shows", I just have a different idea which shows are "good".
@Saida: Just want to make sure you know I'm just having a little fun - I enjoy a spirited discussion, especially when neither one of us can be proven right or wrong. I appreciate your comments, and you are always welcome to disagree with anything of mine that you read.
I stand corrected about the moron quote - I didn't realize that I did call some people morons, and I apologize. People are not morons just for liking things that I don't like.
If there are any morons out there who were offended, please accept my apologies.
As you can see, Babylon 5 has a lot of rabid defenders. I liked it. Much like the Battlestar Galactica redux, Bab 5 has a lot of seemingly minor plotlines that pay off later on in a big way. It's definitely not for everyone though.
If you're looking for a few TV series to catch up on how about Buffy the Vampire Slayer? It was a decent series, it's all out on DVD, and best of all it's cheap.
I'm also really liking Dexter and The Unit if you're not currently stuck in Science Fiction/Fantasy mode.
