Thursday, May 31, 2007

 

Best Week Ever

Best Week Ever isn't on this week. Probably due to the holiday this week. Microsoft used to have this printed news letter called the Micronews. On weeks with a holiday, they took the entire week off. I always thought that was lame. Best Week Ever takes a week off out of every three or four and this is one of them. So to get you through the drought, he are the last five Best Week Ever's.

On May 25th, Heroes had the best week ever. And not just the show, but the NY subway hero and Paula Adbul who injured her nose while trying to protect her little dog Tulip.


On May 18th, Kelly Clarkson had the best week ever. That week was all about American Idol.


On May 11th, Summer Reality Shows had the best week ever. That week all the promos for the crappy summer shows came out. "No Bingo!"


On April 27th, People Who Didn't Deserve the Spotlight had the best week ever. Including (but not limited to) the American Idol crying girl and the kid who got hit by a football player.


On April 20th, Shaun Ellis the Man Amoung Wolves had the best week ever. Because white people crazy.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

 

Elisabeth Hasselbeck Ruins Everything

Rosie's not returning to the View on Monday. Her dust up with EH was too much and she's had enough. ABC has allowed her to leave her contract early. No word as to who will be one of the new hosts but rumors about Kathy Griffin are swirling! That's the only way I would keep The View on my TiVo.

For some reason Donald Trump felt the need to make a statement about this and he came in on Rosie's side. He called Elisabeth "one of the dumbest people on television." As much as I can't stand the Donald, it's nice to see that he can be right once and a while.

So let's sum up Elisabeth's offenses. She supports torture, both as interrogation and punishment. She supports the war in Iraq at the expense of so many civilian lives and the lives of our own brave soldiers. She believes Rosie thinks our troops are terrorists. And now she's responsible for destroying the best show on daytime. I blame her personally.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

 

LOST 3.22a - Spinal Injury Fetish

I'm breaking this weeks entry into two. This part will be all about the events off the island. Something seemed strange to me about this from the beginning. And even in the first scene I proposed that maybe this was in the future. Things just didn't fit the timeline. Jack's wife was long gone and pregnant. How could Jack go from being a bearded alcoholic pill swallower to the guy who had it together enough to eject his father from surgery? Then there was his phone. RAZR phone came out just before the events on the island so it is very unlikely he would have one. But by the end we discovered it was not a flashback but a future flash. This is something I was hoping they would do from the very beginning. I always thought the last season should have future flashes where we slowly see who made it off the island while the final events of the island unfold. Near the end of last season, Jack started being a dick. This episode brings him back as we see there were consequences for his arrogance.
Anyway, here's what we know:

And here are the new questions:

The biggest question is this: Is this how the show is going to end or this getting off the island only part of the story? Will future Jack join up with some others trying to find the island? Will season 4 start in 2008 as people try to get back to the island and flashback to the events in the in between years? Or will there be three more seasons of more of the same until people go back to their terrible lives?

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Wednesday, May 23, 2007

 

Elisabeth thinks Rosie is a terrorist

OK, maybe not really, but it is clear to everyone watching The View and Rosie that Elisabeth agrees with the Bushies that Rosie called our troops terrorists. Rosie asked her again point blank and she wouldn't answer with a simple yes or no. When asked in the past, she avoided an answer. This is not at all surprising behavior for Elisabeth. She has continuously spouted Republican talking points without bothering to form her own opinion. Here, her first hand knowledge through her friendship with Rosie is at odds with these talking points and her brainwashed little mind can't deal with it. And how does she react? With lots and lots of anger. I've never seen her so made on the show before. She has a lot of anger inside her. I feel very sorry for her husband and kids. It will be very sad day for that family when she finds out her husband is cheating on her. Someone is going to the ER.

The best thing was watching her boil over after Alicia Silverstone totally disses her on air. When coming out on stage, Alicia (my new hero) walks right past her and greats only the other three hosts. Even after casually grabbing her arm Elisabeth isn't even worthy of eye contact.

In this next photo, Elisabeth sees what is going on and she is pissed! I love it. Alicia greets all the other hosts with a hug, the biggest for Rosie. A total professional, Alicia doesn't treat Elisabeth any different than the other hosts during the interview. Most people probably missed the exchange at the beginning altogether. We got to witness first hand that even though speech is free, there are consequences for being a hateful bitch.

If you missed the fight, watch it here.


What else I loved:
If I were a producer at The View or an executive at ABC or Disney, I would be begging Rosie to stay for another year.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

 

Who gets a second year?

Now that all the new fall schedules are out, I wanted to take a look at last year's new shows which got renewed and look what I said about them when they were announced (Spring), when it debuted (Fall), and now (Now).

 

Heroes - End of Volume One

The final chapter of Volume One aired last night. If you don't want to be spoiled, then stop reading. It was awesome. Lots of stuff was resolved, new stuff was introduced, and questions remain unanswered. I was happy to see everyone gather together in Kirby plaza for the big show down between Peter and Syler. So the big question is where did the timeline diverge from the alternate future we kept seeing? And did the bomb really get stopped? From what we know of Hiro visit to the future, the bomb went off the next day after the election but the last episode only included events up to the night of the election. Also, it looks like Syler may in fact not be dead but hiding in the sewer. It is not clear if anyone is dead, in fact. Nathan could have taken Peter to the upper atmosphere and then flown to a minimum safe distance. Peter didn't necessarily explode, but just generate an explosion. He could have rengerated from it like he did in the alternate future. Matt the telepath was shot and taken in the ambulance. Although Syler flinging bullets at him wouldn't be nearly as bad as getting shot so he could pull through. DL was shot and didn't get attention for some time so his fate is much more dire.

In the end, we never learned what Nathan and Peter's mom's power was but we didn't find out Claire's dad's name is Noah. This is a strange thing to keep hidden but that piece of info was extremely satisfying. Niki seems to have taken on the powers of Jessica and perhaps put the second personality to rest for good. Hiro ended up back in time to meet the guy whose sword he stole from Linderman. If Kensei had powers it would explain why Linderman has the sword. And of course they set up the new big bad. Molly describes him as worse than Syler. When she tries to see him, he can see her. Scary.

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CW Fall Schedule 2007

With the demise of Veronica (series finale tonight!) the only show I'm left watching on The CW is Smallville. And every year I hope that gets cancelled. No luck this year.

CW Now - It's like 60 Minutes but for the CW demographic. Someone should tell the suits that their demographic either doesn't watch the news of gets it online. And speaking of online...
Online Nation - A show about what's good and funny on the web. VH1 used to call this WebJunk and even they cancelled that.
Life is Wild - A vet moves his family to an African Game reserve. It's a teen drama but the teens will have no one to interact with so were is the fun?
Aliens in America - A family hosts an exchange student and gets a Pakistani.
Reaper - A guy becomes a bounty hunter for Satan because his parent's sold his soul when he was a baby. The killer from Twin Peaks plays Satan.
Gossip Girl - Another teen drama about some elite prep school kids whose life keeps getting documented on the internet by a mysterious blogger named "Gossip Girl". This looks like it could be good. VMVO is the voice of Gossip Girl.

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Fox Fall Schedule 2007

Fox is getting really in to the split season. When I was a kid, we would get new shows in September and then a smattering of mid-season replacements. Kids these days get a whole new season premier month on January. I'm only going to comment on the stuff starting this fall so The Sarah Conner Chronicles will have to wait.

K-Ville - Are we ready for a show about post-Katrina New Orleans? I say yes.
New Amsterdam - An immortal cop in New York, formerly New Amsterdam and he's been there that long.
Back to You - Frasier is back on TV as an local anchor man fallen from former national status after an on-air breakdown. I want to see the breakdown and that's about it.
Kitchen Nightmares - I'm not sure how this is different from Hell's Kitchen.
The Search for the Next Great Band - since American Idol is only on in the Spring, Simon and Fox needed something to fill the vacant fall schedule and hopefully generate some ratings.
Nashville - I'm confused about this. Is this country music show reality or scripted? No stars are listed so it is either uncast or unscripted.

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Monday, May 21, 2007

 

LOST 3.21 - You're my Wonderwall

The problem with the end of the season is so many episodes actually take place within one day. The current day is 12/22/04. They are so close to Christmas I keep wondering if anyone will notice. It would have worked perfectly for this one since one of Charlie's flashbacks was a Christmas flashback. I both loved and hated the flashbacks from this episode. Usually Charlie flashbacks suck, but these were good: they were short and necessary for the current story. What I hated was the second flashback. The second flashback was from Karl. This was just lazy story telling. They could have easily had this as the teaser opener, but instead they put it later as a flashback. And how could we have seen all that since Karl was given the story of what Ben said and did second hand through Alex. I hate when they are inconsistent.

Speaking of inconsistency, what is going on with Desmond's flashbacks? He saw Charlie in the Looking Glass station and then drowning. Up until now all the things he saw in the future were things he would eventually see in person. If he didn't follow Charlie into the Looking Glass, how could he have seen these things? Maybe we will find out in the finale

And one more thing bothered me about the episode. The Dharma Swan station was generally referred to as "the Hatch" because they found the top escape hatch first. The survivors began to refer to the other stations as hatches because of the this. The Others and the Dharma folks always called them Stations, yet the blue prints for the Looking Glass Sayid got from The Flame calls it a Hatch. What the Pho? Also Desmond called it a hatch, but that might have been due to his cohabitation with the survivors.


OK, here's what we learned:


Here are the new questions:

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Wednesday, May 16, 2007

 

Until the last dance...in heaven!

What did I love about the Reno 911! season finale last Sunday? What didn't I love? It was full of surprises and laughs from beginning to end. I loved Leslie proposal at the beginning. It was both romantic and highly inappropriate. Later we got some great physical humor from Terry. Then Wiegel went into labor while inside a cake and the group has to role her down the street to the hospital. Finally, Leslie and Dangle had their big gay wedding in the hospital room only to have it interrupted by Garcia running in and professing his love...for Leslie. Wiegel turns to Dangle just after he is left at the alter and says that she knows who the father of the baby is. I loved it and can't wait until next season which should be this summer.

 

CBS Fall Schedule 2007

Not much change at CBS this fall. Jericho is out. I'll talk about that next week. A single new show on five different nights.

Viva Laughlin - Because one show about a casino is never enough on prime time, CBS brings a new show about the opening of a small casino in Laughlin. Laughlin is where my seventy-something parents go to gamble, so it's not quite Vegas.
The Big Bang Theory - It's Beauty and the Geek in sitcom form. It's got a great time slot but The Class didn't do well last time.
Cane - Jimmy Smits returns to TV in a family business drama.
Kid Nation - A reality show about a group of 40 kids who have to form a community. It didn't work in Lord of the Flies.
Moonlight - Why do people keep making Vampire shows? Nothing will ever compete with the Buffyverse so stop trying.

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Tuesday, May 15, 2007

 

ABC Fall Schedule 2007

ABC released their new schedule today. Unlike NBC they have some new comedies on their schedule including a sitcom based on a Geico commercial. Who knew?

Sam I Am - I love Christina Applegate so if she's in it, I'll put it on my list.
Cavemen - It's so easy a caveman could do it. I laughed out loud when I saw ABC was doing a show based on the Geico cavemen commercials.
Carpoolers - A group people carpool and talk about their lives.
Pushing Daisies - This show seems quite strange. This guy can bring people back to life so he uses his power to solve crimes. But if he touches the same person a second time, they die again.
Private Practice - The highly anticipated spin-off to Grey's Anatomy.
Dirty Sexy Money - Finally we've got a possible replacement for Dynasty/Dallas. This rich family drama is from the point of view of their new lawyer.
Big Shots - This one is about a bunch of guys in the business world. I'm glad Christopher Titus is returning to television.
Women's Murder Club - Finally a new detective drama that's not all about the police. There's a medical examiner, D.A., reporter, and detective who work together. Who knows.

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Monday, May 14, 2007

 

NBC Fall Schedule 2007

One of the best things about May is the release of the new fall schedules. Today NBC released their up fronts. Tomorrow is ABC, then CBS on Wednesday, and Fox and CW on Thursday. Hooray! Here's the new shows NBC has to offer:

Lipstick Jungle - It's the old smart-women-in-a-fashion-magazine show again. But this time it's a drama and more Sex and the City. We had enough of these in the 90's. The good news: Kim Raver is starring. The bad news: Kim Raver is starring which means she won't be on 24 next season either.
The Journeyman - It sounds like a new version of Quantum Leap. Except this time, he's a reporter.
Chuck - A computer hacker accidentally gets all kinds of government secrets downloaded into his brain and becomes a new secret agent. The best news: super hot Adam Baldwin is co-starring as the military contact. I can never get enough of him.
The Bionic Woman - A remake of the great Lindsey Wagner show from the 70's. Co-starring Katte Sackhoff (aka Starback). Let's count, there are now three additional SciFi shows on NBC this fall? How did that happen?
Life - A cop drama with the main detective just having got out of jail after getting acquitted. Sounds interesting but I don't watch too many cop shows.
The Singing Bee - NBC takes on American Idol with a karaoke show. That's all American Idol is anyway.

The good news is Comedy Night Done Right is back in it's entirety.

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Friday, May 11, 2007

 

Battlestar to end after 4th season

Two of the stars of Battlestar Galactica (Katee Sackhoff and EJO) confirmed that the next season of BSG will most likely be the last. The show is too expensive to keep going with the current viewership. It's sad but the good news is they know it will probably be the last going in. This thwarts the problem with most series finales: the unexpected end. As much as I'd love 5, 7 or 10 seasons, I'd rather have an ended planned out and scheduled. Irregardless, we have to wait until January 2008 for the start of the next season.

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Thursday, May 10, 2007

 

LOST 3.20: Help Me

I enjoy the Ben story but I was disappointed it wasn't a better episode. The best episodes are those with a flashback story that closely matches the main story. While Ben's story answered a lot of questions, it didn't match the John and Ben going to meet the wizard story. But it was still good. Even with the problem with Portland. 32 miles outside Portland in December people would not be hiking without hats and gloves. People would not be driving around in a convertible with only a light jacket. But the show is written by people from L.A. who live in Hawaii so I guess I can forgive them. The first time a survivor saw an image of his dead parent (Jack and his dad) the title of the episode was called White Rabbit. When Ben went looking for his dead mother again, he used a white rabbit to get through the sonic weapon fence. Coincidence?

What we know:
New questions (there's a lot of them):

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Wednesday, May 09, 2007

 

Jericho Finale

Tonight is the season finale of Jericho. The last two episodes have been very exciting concluding with the war between small town Jericho and slightly bigger neighboring small town New Bern. The season has been filled with several mysteries which have been satisfactorily resolved and some great stories. However it still remains the largest leap of suspension of disbelief of any show I'm currently watching.

I can deal with the main premise: a group of terrorist set off twenty or so nukes in major US cities killing some 30 million people. That's a stretch but OK. However I have bigger problems dealing with these points. (1) There was a total breakdown of communication at the start of the season. Broadcasting centers are far more diversified than just the main urban areas. (2) The EMP which hit in episode 6 was far more devastating than the nukes. But what caused it? How far reaching was it? (3) Although the complete breakdown of the federal government makes for great storylines, I don't buy it. The military would not collapse without the Pentagon. And wasn't the Pentagon designed to mostly survive a nuke? (4) The countryside scenes are clearly rural Southern California, not Kansas. Of course it's cheaper to do this but I still get bothered by it. I grew up there so I know what it looks like. (5) The food shortages seem a little unlikely. Kansas produces significant amounts of food which it ships all over the globe. With nothing getting shipped out one would expect an abundance of food. As a fly-over state when I look down all I see are those irrigation circles. (6) An early season sub-plot was the missing planes that couldn't land at the nuked out cities so they landed on highways. I never bought this one. There are lots of small regional airports which wouldn't be ideal to land a 757, but much better than a two lane highway. (7) What happened to Canada and Mexico? Germany, Russia, and China have all sent aid but what of our neighbors. Trucking stuff in would seem cheaper than airdrops.

OK, so why do I still watch? The characters are good and the action of the war between the small towns is second only to the action sequences on 24. Great gunfights and explosions and stuff. Even though there's a lot of hurdles to believability, it's fun TV. I hope they get a second season.

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Only 51 episodes left

I was reading the paper yesterday (yes I read the actual paper sometimes) and that's were I first heard the news about the end of LOST. They have announce three more seasons, each with 16 episodes. They will run without repeats or recaps from Feb-May in 2008-2010. Plus the three episodes left this season means a total of 51 episodes left in LOST. I think this is a great move. Of course I would love to see 22-24 episodes a season, I much prefer the short blasts over the long drawn out season with huge breaks in them. I think the popularity of the Sopranos with completely inconsistent seasons has allowed shows to survive and flourish with huge gaps between seasons. The best part of season 3 have been these 16 episodes in the spring. The first six in the fall did more to hurt the show than anything

Tonight is the first Ben flashback show. It should be awesome.

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Tuesday, May 08, 2007

 

The Great DVR Disaster of 2007

Almost exactly seven years ago I got my first DVR. It was the DISHPlayer 7200 and it would record about 8 hours. It was the greatest piece of technology ever. Well, maybe not ever but it is the technology that changed my life the fastest. Suddenly I didn't have to use videos tapes any more. The 10 minutes I spent every morning checking the VCRs and cable boxes was no longer necessary. Seven years later and two hard-drive upgrades later and I'm still using this great old box on my main TV. It can record nearly 100 hours now with no signal degradation. My Tivo can only record as much as 80 hours on crappy quality and something like 20 hours at a almost undetectable quality loss. The DISHPlayer is so great that I've overlooked a huge bug that has existed since the beginning: Daylight Savings Time. It never figures out PDT/PST so twice a year I have to create new seasons passes for everything. But that's not the disaster.

Sometime between last Wednesday night and Saturday morning, the hard drive was inexplicably wiped. The machine lost no functionality but all the saved programs, unwatched programs, and season passes were gone. Gone! A week's worth of The View, both Friday Stargates, Smallville, and Ugly Betty, GONE! Complete unwatched seasons of Boston Legal and Brothers and Sister which I had been sandbagging, GONE!! Great Episodes of the Simpsons and Family Guy which I'd been procrastinating copying to DVD, GONE!!! I almost cried. But I did what any disaster survivor does: I pressed on and rebuilt (I reset all my season passes). As God is my witness, I will never have an empty DVR again!

 

LOST 3.18 and 3.19 - Pregnancy and Patricide

I've been pre-occupied with the Photo Safari and a new computer game so I slacked off on my blogging. But as my friends over at Just Ted say, "one should blog for one's self not any pretend audience." So if I want to take two weeks off, I can. Pppppffffttt!

LOST 3.19: Everybody hates Jack
The least surprising secret (oooh, The Secret!) this season is that Claire is Jack's half sister. The second least surprising secret (oooh, The Secret!) is that Locke's father is the original Sawyer. Since he confessed to being a conman all his life, this storyline was secured. He's dead now. Besides flashback's by Juliet, flashbacks to all island events are my favorite. I hate having to filter through a boring pre-island story that's sorta relevant to the events we really want to see. So this was yet another favorite episode for me. Also Jack is a dick and now the other Losties are beginning to realize that. James should totally take over as the leader.

Here is what we learned:

New questions:

LOST 3.18: Patchy's Back
So who's your favorite Other? Besides Juliet mine has to be Patchy aka Mikhail. I'm so glad he's not dead. And how many languages does that guy know? How many does helicopter girl know? Juliet was great again. She's great and she still hates Ben. Who knows what he's up to. I think Sun/Jin episodes are my least favorite in the flashbacks. Mostly because I usually watch each episode twice, the second time while folding laundry or sorting Legos. When the show is sub-title heavy I have to pay more attention both times. I hate that.

Here's what we know:

Here are the new questions:

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