Wednesday, March 25, 2009
LOST 5.09 - Dharma Cameleon
New LOST tonight. But I'll be watching it tomorrow morning on my laptop. Last week I did send a nasty letters to both DISH and Fisher Communications. I blamed each of them. They both suck. I need to see if I can get out of my DISH contract and switch to DirectTV.Anyway, last week's episode kick ass. Kicked Jack's ass to be specific. While Jack was descending into a shame spiral of Oxycontin and facial hair back in L.A., James was developing real leadership skills. It's good to see Jack kicked down a notch and forced to cleaned toilets for a while. Speaking of characters I don't like anymore, if Kate breaks up James and Juliet I will find the Lamppost, go to the island and throw her off a cliff. Jack seemed irredeemable at the end of the third season and now he's coming around. It is going to be a long road for me to like Kate again. The other big new development was Christian's reappearance. This was the first time he actually directly interacted with someone for the first time. He handed the photo to Sun. In the past he only appeared and talked to people. My theory is Christian had some previous experience on the island. When 815 crashed he was resurrected the same way Locke was. He's been working directly for Jacob since the crash. That's just what I'm thinking.
What we learned:
- Frank did land the plane on the runway James and Kate were forced to labor on in Season 3.
- Frank left with Sun
- Ben was injured by Sun, not in the crash.
- Sun left before Locke woke up
- The baby is Ethan.
- Young Ben met prisoner Sayid.
- Why didn't the Others repurpose the Processing Center after the purge?
- Did the reason the Others kidnapped Jack, James, Kate, and Hugo at the end of season 2 was because they knew they were Dharma?
- Why didn't Sun go into the past? What circumstances did she not replicate when she was on Flight 316?
- Where did Daniel go?
- When did Ethan go to the live with the Others?
- If Radzinsky was so concerned about revealing plans for The Swan, why did he let Sayid into the Flame?
- If the Swan is one of the last stations built, why is it called station 3 of 6 in the orientation film?
- And there are more than 6 stations anyway. What's that all about?
- What is Sun's journey ahead of her? Is she going back or bringing them forward.
Labels: LOST
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Saturday Morning Cartoons
Remember when cartoons were only on Saturday morning? Now I have like four channels for just cartoons 24 hours a day. Anyway, here's my weekly favorite Phineas and Ferb song. It's their One-Hit-Wonder song that took most of the morning and half a dozen phone calls to become a huge hit.
Labels: Phineas and Ferb
Friday, March 20, 2009
The Last Battlestar
The last episode of Battlestar Galactica is on tonight. From the online guide it looks to be 2 hours and 10 minutes long. Hopefully your TiVos are all set properly. The last few episode have been really boring. Really boring. I'm looking forward to them wrapping it all up tonight.
Not only is it the last episode, but it is the last Battlestar. All but two Battlestars were destroyed by the Cylons in the miniseries. The Pegasus was destroyed in the battle of New Caprica. Now the Galactica is the last of its kind and it is dying. The years of war have taken its toll and it is literally falling apart. We all expect a big final battle for the old ship as they make a final raid on the Cylon homeworld or colony or space station or whatever they are calling it. It's the thing that looks like a giant shuttlecock near a black hole where they took baby Hera.
Also we need to find out the deal with Starbuck. Is she a Cylon-Human hybrid? Did the Ship of Lights reanimate her? Will she bring humanity to its doom? Will she create a successful overpriced coffee franchise?
And after the big final battle with the bad Cylons vs. the good Cylons, the final five Cylon, and the Humans, will the survivors finally find a nice place to live? Which characters will survive? Will god show his face and will it be Dirk Benedict?
Some of the cast has already moved on. Helo is on Dollhouse which tonight airs at the same time slot. Number Six was on Burn Notice but she died along with Daniel Jackson in the finale. Lee is on the British version of Law & Order. I hope we get that on BBC America. I hope to see the others in new shows coming up, especially Cylon Anders. He's dreamy.
Better Off Ted
In honor of Ted's visit to Seattle this weekend, I recommend watching the new ABC show, Better Off Ted. It is available at ABC.com. If you had any doubts I will convince you in three words why you should watch: Portia de Rossi. The beauty from Ally McBeal and Arrested Development, aka Mrs. Ellen DeGeneres, co-stars as Ted's boss Veronica. The show is a half-hour single-camera no-laugh-track direct-camera-narration* comedy. *See below.Here's a random list of stuff about the Teds:
- Not unlike our Ted, TV Ted is good looking and in great shape.
- Unlike our Ted, TV Ted is a single parent. Our Ted recently dog sat for a week for the first time. Hi Milo!
- Like our Ted, TV Ted is a voice or reason in his hostile work place.
- Unlike our Ted, TV Ted works as a manager in a large evil corporation. Our Ted left his manager job at his evil corporation and does consulting or something for another evil corporation.
*TV Show Narration styles:
Voice-Over Actor. Examples: Veronica Mars, Magnum PI. The main character also supplies the narration because otherwise you don't know what they are thinking.
Voice-Over Narrator. Examples: Arrested Development, Desperate Housewives. An all knowing narrator provides extra insight and/or jokes to the story.
Voice-Over Flashback. Examples: Wonder Years, How I Met Your Mother. Although similar to "voice-over actor" these is told from the point of view of one character in the future about events in his/her past.
Interview. Example: The Office. I think this is a unique format to The Office right now. Characters talk to a never seen or heard interviewer as if they were on a reality show. It is not clear to me if this is just a window into their mind or someone is really interviewing them. I need to watch more of The Office. My goal is to catch up on it this summer.
Direct Camera Narration. Examples: Better Off Ted, Ferris Bueller's Day Off. OK, that second example was a movie, but it was also a short lived TV show with Rachel from friends as Jeannie his sister. But I digress. This kind of narration has the main character talking directly to the camera and breaking the fourth wall. Also, Malcolm In The Middle.
Labels: Better Off Ted, definitions
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
More thoughts on LOST
We are halfway through the season already. A lot of people were talking about how LOST has returned to it's flashback/flashforward format in episode 4.08. I disagree that this was a return to that format. It sure looked like it but the big questions would have to be: which was the current time and which was the flashback/flashforward? I don't think there is an answer to that. The events in 1974 were concurrent with the experiences of the time travelling group and the events of 1977 were concurrent with the Oceanic Six group. Neither was a flashback nor a flashforward. I think of this episode as a "bridge" episode to bring the timelimes together. The start of the season reset the timeline of the Oceanic Six group to 2008 and there were some minor teaser flashbacks to 2005 (or possibly later for Desmond). So this had a unique format and not a flashback afterall. Here's how this season's formats played out.5.01 - Unrelated flashback to open the season: Daniel in Dharma land.
5.02-5.04 - Teaser flashbacks to 2005: just a quick scene to open the episode.
5.05 - No flashback, gasp! Is this the only one?
5.06-5.07 - Wraparound flashforwards: the episode opened and closed with flashforwards to the near future back on the island.
5.08 - Bridge episode: neither timeframe was a flashback or flashforward, although it really seemed like one.
Yay, new episode tonight with more Dharma intrigue. Yay and Yay!
Labels: LOST
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Disco Miniature Golfing Queen
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
LOST 5.07 and LOST 5.08
We are half way through the current season of LOST and a surprising amount has happened already. In episode 7 we had an entire episode off the island (except for the revisit of the wheel turning) that was followed by a an episode entirely on the island. I think we got to see Locke turning the Frozen Donkey Wheel in three different episodes. Locke's episode had a surprising amount of answers. The opening sequence with resurrected Locke was considered for the opening sequence of the season. That might have been a good choice. Although Jack, Kate, and Hurley in the water would have been a cool season opener too. But the Dharma opening with Daniel was definitely the best choice as this looks to be the biggest Dharma season yet. The second season opened with Desmond in the Swan and that season was all about the hatch. The third season was all about the others and that opened with Juliet in Otherville. The fourth opened with Hurley back in L.A. and that season was all about getting home. At first I thought this season was about getting back to the island but that's only half the story. It also about The Dharma Initiative.Here's what we learned from The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham:
- Flight 316 crashed on Hydra island
- Ben and Locke ended up in the island in the present along with the rest of the 316ers.
- Ceasar the Lost Whisperer is keeping secrets from the others. I think the island makes people act that way.
- Widmore doesn't seem to be part of Dharma
- Widmore knows where the Oceanic Six are at all times.
- Abaddon works for Widmore.
- The reason Abaddon was with Locke back before the island was because Widmore knew about Locke from the 50's.
- Ben killed Locke
- Why did Ben kill Abaddon?
- Why did Abaddon allow himself to be seen by Hurley? Was he trying to mess it up for Locke?
- Does Widmore really want the Oceanic Six to return?
- How many people survived the 316 crash?
- Where did the Captain Frank go?
- What women did he go with?
- Where they the ones who fired on the time travelers?
- but the biggest question: how did Locke return to life?
Then onto the Sawyer episode, whom I will call James forever more. Only James could pull of the con he did. He got lucky. What if Horace asked him for more detail about the Black Rock? James only really knows that it's on the island but a real salvage person would know where it left from and what year. I doubt James knew that. But in my opinion, three years is long enough to get over someone. Especially if the previous person they knew for only 108 days. We learned a lot and Jin learned English.- The final time jump was during the Dharma years
- The penultimate jump was really long ago and the four toed statue was still standing
- James, Juliet, Miles, Daniel, and Jin integrated into the Dharma Initiative
- The Dharma people are quite frightened of James
- There is a truce between The Others and Dharma. James was very important in keeping the peace.
- James and Juliet are now a hot item.
- Why did the Others attack Amy and Paul?
- What are the terms of the Truce?
- Was the little girl Charlotte?
- What is the significance of the ankh necklace?
- What are Miles and Daniel doing for Dharma?
- Who is Amy's baby? Is it someone important? Someone we know?
- How was Amy able to conceive and have a baby?
- Where did Jin make the phone call from?
- What happened to Rose and Bernard? If they ended up in 1974 did they join Dharma too?
Labels: LOST
Top 13 AI
So American Idol broke with tradition gave a pity wild card to one of the ethnic kids. Yay, that was harsh, but it was true. So now there is 13 American Idol contestants left for the regular season which starts tonight. This season is very heavy toward the men. There are 8 vs on 5 women. This year there is an openly gay emo kid named Adam. But my vote is for the super hot Kris (pictured). Or the also hot big guy Michael. He's got some kids. A lot of them have kids this year. But it's clear it's going to Dead Wife or Blind Guy. For that reason I'm not going to watch it much from now on this season.Saturday, March 07, 2009
Do you trust me?
Well if you trust me you should put Phineas and Ferb on your TiVo or DVR or whatever. Why? It's very funny and smartly written. It's also the best cartoon to come along since SpongeBob SquarePants. I've only seen about a half a dozen episodes but I've had a big laugh in each episode.What's it about? Phineas and Ferb are two step-brothers and best friends who are making the most of every day of every day of their summer vacation. They also have the ability to build huge and amazing things in a short time such as teleporters, time machines, or an enormous and amazing mini-golf course. The antigonist to their fun is their older sister Candace (voice of Ashley Tisdale) who is always trying to bust them for doing stuff. But whatever they build gets moved, destroyed, or shrunk before mom and dad get around to seeing their shenanigans.
The other thing you should know is they have a pet, Perry the Platipus, who is a secret agent. His one goal each week is to stop the evil Dr. Doofenshmirtz. The boys know nothing of his secret life or his headquarters under the house. Luckily while foiling the evil plan, Perry manages to destroy the evidence of whatever Phineas and Ferb are doing. Plus they have a lot of random songs. Trust me, it's very funny.
Labels: Phineas and Ferb
It's Malarky, Mumbo Jumbo, Grandma Grandpa, Cook Some Gumbo
I don't usually blog about Best Week Ever anymore. It's just not as funny as it used to be and it's only about 30% as funny as The Soup. But this week the winner of Best Week Ever was People Who Just Discovered Twitter. I haven't twittered since last summer. Unless you count the Loopt updates which are linked to Twitter. And that died out last fall. Twitter pretty much died out for me because of Facebook. I can micro-blog in the same application I upload photos, send out event invitations, and play useless games. And I've set up text message notifications for about a dozen friends so I get immediate twitter-like notifications. In fact while I was typing this I found out Dean is making snowballs. Thanks non-Twitter Facebook!
I did log on to Twitter and looked through my history. Here are some of the good ones:
I did log on to Twitter and looked through my history. Here are some of the good ones:
- I just farted and left the room. Suckers. 1:51 PM Feb 12th, 2008 from txt
- Capri jeans have never and will never be in style.
- Ted's helping a woman who tripped in the parking lot. 2:17 PM Mar 9th, 2008 from txt
- Kody just peed on me. 8:37 PM Jan 13th, 2008 from txt
- Flirting with the funeral director. in Burbank, CA http://tinyurl.com/3nlzzu
- Safeway is out of bananas. What is this Soviet Russia?!?! 6:33 PM Nov 27th, 2007 from txt
- I almost walked into a telephone post while texting
- Holiday window shopping with Matt in Seattle, WA http://loopt.us/8CQPqA
Sunday, March 01, 2009
The Girls Who Moved Away From Next Door
The girls of Playboy have ended their latest season and I'm more confused than ever. The show itself was fine but I'm confused based on the interviews Holly and Kendra had with Chelsea Lately. Holly said watching the whole season would make everything clear. Yet at the end she was still with Hef and she left for a trip to Vegas for a photo shoot. The Hef says he thinks she is unhappy because he's not going to marry her and give her a baby. It was never clear how and when she and Hef broke up. Also Kendra told Chelsea that there were some skanky bitches in the mansion while she was still there. We didn't really see this. Kendra's own show start on E! later this year.At least we know about Bridget. She left the mansion to be the host of a new Travel Channel called Bridget's Sexiest Beaches. This starts next week and it will definitely be on my TiVo. Bridget is my favorite and I love travel shows and beaches.
Battlestar is Running Out
There are very few episodes of Battlestar left. They need to start wrapping things up soon. There are a few really big questions to be resolved:1) Starbuck's story. She's supposed to lead humanity to its doom. But she has already died and come back from the dead. What's the deal here? I think this week we got a clue to her background. She had a vision of her father and I think he was Daniel, the number seven Cylon killed by Cavil. I think that makes a good conclusion.
2) The Importance of Being Hera. This poor little girl has been bounced around since her birth and fake death. Now Cavil and Boomer pulled off a very clever kidnapping and she's gone again. The next adventure is tracking her down and bringing her home. She will bring Hope and Change just like Obama.
3) A Perfect Place to Live. Planet Seattle Winter aka New Caprica kinda sucked even before the Cylons showed up. Of course before that they need to end the war with the bad Cylons.
4) Galactica's Disintegration. The ship is falling apart faster than a McMansion made by The Bluth Corporation. I think the Cylon hair gel came a little too late.
Only three episodes left.
Labels: Battlestar Galactica
