Friday, October 13, 2006
Sticking to a safe subject, for now.....
There are some serious issues bugging me, but I think I'll wait for another post to get into them. I don't generally avoid what's going on with me, but at the moment, it seems like I am surrounded with mostly bad news, and I am overwhelmed. Also, I am very upset with the actions of some people close to me, and I'm not sure yet if/when I'll bring it up because it would be difficult to do so with tact.
I did one good thing this week: I wrote an article for But You Don't Look Sick about the importance of protecting prescription medication from potential thieves. I thought it was one of my better pieces. I will post a link as soon as it's up, which should be by Monday.
So, how about that new fall prime time TV season? I don't think I've watched this much network television since I was a child. But what else have I got to do right now?
"Desperate Housewives" is a bit slower out of the gate this year than I would like, but it's still entertaining in parts. We now know that Bree's son did indeed resort to living on the streets and that her daughter is a regular diva bitch. And Orson seems less harsh than he was portrayed at first, but there is still an air of self-absorption to him even when he is doing something kind. I hope that Lynette's hubby's mistress is gone from the show soon; she is incredibly annoying to the point that I want to turn the tv off whenever she appears. Gabrielle has taken up with her boy toy again, but now he is calling the shots. It was pretty funny that she had to stow away in some luggage to avoid being caught. Susan caved in to temptation with the British guy. I don't particularly like the actor who portrays him; he doesn't seem very genuine. The best part of the episode was when Edie took a peek at comatose Mike under the sheets and was suitably impressed with what she saw. At the very end, Mike opened his eyes.
"Brothers and Sisters" probably has the best acting and cast of all the new shows. While signing off on some papers relating to her deceased husband's business, Sally Field's character runs across a description of a house purchased 15 years ago. She asks to see the house and meet the occupant, who happens to be her husband's mistress. Ms. Field is extremely friendly and makes everyone who knew of the affair squirm. She decides to throw a big party and invites the mistress, who reluctantly attends. Her children are totally freaked out and argue about whether or not to tell their mother that their dad was having an affair. Turns out they needn't have worried. Their mom announces in the middle of dinner that she has known about the mistress the whole time.
"Heroes" is so far my favorite new show. It's quirky and full of surprises. And our main hero, HIro, is extremely likable. This week, he returns to his friend in Tokyo. He still has the comic that was written about him, but now the contents of the comic are changing, showing where he currently is and what he will be doing next. He goes to his friend, who also now appears in the comic. His friend still doesn't buy the whole teleportation/space time continuum thing, but becomes convinced when he actually witnesses Hiro stopping time to save a girl from being run over. He reluctantly accompanies Hiro on a flight to Los Angeles and then in a rental car that they are driving to Las Vegas, where one of the other heroes is. The dude who can fly can't get his brother, who is running for public office, to acknowledge his abilities and in fact is humiliated when his brother makes a speech about him actually suffering from depression. He's also discovering that he can't fly at will. I suspect he may only be successful when his brother flies with him. The cheerleader gets in a fight with a boy who was trying to rape her. She is killed, but then wakes up in the middle of the autopsy! Ewwwww!
"Studio 60" is pretty decent once you realize it's not really a comedy. I think it does a good job of explaining what goes on behind the scenes. It does have weak moments, though, and lulls when they say something and you can't decide whether or not that was supposed to be funny. Amanda Peet is better than I expected, though, and Matthew Perry is not as annoying as he was on "Friends", so I'll probably keep tuning in for the time being.
"Boston Legal" has not disappointed at all this season. Alan is back to his raunchy self, making his desires clear to Shirley, but she turns him down on the grounds that it will upset Denny. Alan tries to reason with Denny, but he will not budge. Then there is a hilarious wrestling match between Denny and Alan. Oh, and there are some courtroom scenes as well, heh heh.
Last night, I watched two new new shows, "30 Rock" and "Twenty Good Years" instead of "Jericho". The first one is ANOTHER series about behind the scenes of an SNL-type show, but it's a half hour comedy instead of an hour long drama. Tina Fey plays the writer of "The Girlie Show" (a takeoff of Comedy Central's "Man Show"??) and Alec Baldwin is her brand new boss who knows more about marketing a convection oven than he does a tv show. Tracy Morgan is the crazy comic who is recruited to join the cast of the show, or perhaps take it over entirely. Fey agrees to go to lunch with Morgan to discuss his joining the show, but she ends up getting dragged to a strip club. It's too early to tell if this show will be consistently funny, but the premiere did make me laugh, so i will tune in again next week.
"Twenty Good Years" stars John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor as old friends. Lithgow is an arrogant surgeon who is forced into retirement on his 60th birthday, and Tambor is a judge who seems to have trouble making decisions in his personal life. Lithgow decides that since he and his friend probably only have 20 good years left in their lives (hence the title), they should start embracing all the things they either didn't have time for or were too timid to do, such as joining the Polar Bear Club. i must admit the sight of John Lithgow in a Speedo is fairly amusing. One thing I could have done without, though, was the laugh track. It was annoying. But I did like the rest of it, so I'll watch it for awhile longer.
And of course with last night being Wednesday night, I couldn't miss a moment of "Lost". This one focused on Sayid, Sun and Jin on the sailboat as they wait for any sign of Jack, Sawyer, Kate and Hurley. We find out that Sun did indeed have an affair prior to the crash and that Jin is not likely the father of her unborn baby. They sail toward the dock where their four friends had been held captive but find it empty. Sayid suspects the Others have intervened again and goes ashore to build a fire to draw them out. He gives Jin a gun and instructs Sun to go back to the boat, a stupid tactical move on his part. He does, however, tell her about a gun that is on board. Turns out to be a good thing, because while Sayid and Jin wait on the beach, the Others sneak onto the sailboat because their leader covets it. Sun grabs the gun, and, to my surprise, actually shoots one of the Others! She also leaps overboard when the Others begin shooting back. Jin is able to swim out to her and help her back to shore. Meanwhile, Sawyer and Kate are forced to do meaningless manual labor. Sawyer decides to see what will happen if he stops working and suddenly kisses Kate. There's a scuffle, and while Sawyer manages to get a gun away from them, another gun is held to Kate's head, so he must relinquish his. Later, when he thinks he and Kate are alone, Sawyer analyzes who he could successfully fight and who they might have trouble with. Naturally, though, the Others are monitoring him and hear every word. Jack is still imprisoned in the aquarium. Henry/Ben formally introduces himself and promises Jack that he will get to go home if he will cooperate. Ben says he's been on the island all his life and that they have contact with the outside world. He then produces a tv monitor and shows a clip of the Red Sox winning the World Series! Very odd indeed.
And finally, I watched "The Nine". This week, the survivors of the bank holdup try to go back to their regular lives without much success. Some are interviewed by the media, and there is some question as to whether to try to hold the police accountable for the breakdown of negotiations which resulted in the shootings. The girl that was in the bank can't remember anything that happened and tries to get one of the robbers to tell her from prison. He won't cooperate. Finally, at the end, she recalls dialing 911 on her cell phone and realizes this is what prompted the shooting to start. As with last week, the show is interesting, but I am still not convinced that there is enough good material to successfully carry a whole series. We'll see.
Too tired for more comment. Later.
I did one good thing this week: I wrote an article for But You Don't Look Sick about the importance of protecting prescription medication from potential thieves. I thought it was one of my better pieces. I will post a link as soon as it's up, which should be by Monday.
So, how about that new fall prime time TV season? I don't think I've watched this much network television since I was a child. But what else have I got to do right now?
"Desperate Housewives" is a bit slower out of the gate this year than I would like, but it's still entertaining in parts. We now know that Bree's son did indeed resort to living on the streets and that her daughter is a regular diva bitch. And Orson seems less harsh than he was portrayed at first, but there is still an air of self-absorption to him even when he is doing something kind. I hope that Lynette's hubby's mistress is gone from the show soon; she is incredibly annoying to the point that I want to turn the tv off whenever she appears. Gabrielle has taken up with her boy toy again, but now he is calling the shots. It was pretty funny that she had to stow away in some luggage to avoid being caught. Susan caved in to temptation with the British guy. I don't particularly like the actor who portrays him; he doesn't seem very genuine. The best part of the episode was when Edie took a peek at comatose Mike under the sheets and was suitably impressed with what she saw. At the very end, Mike opened his eyes.
"Brothers and Sisters" probably has the best acting and cast of all the new shows. While signing off on some papers relating to her deceased husband's business, Sally Field's character runs across a description of a house purchased 15 years ago. She asks to see the house and meet the occupant, who happens to be her husband's mistress. Ms. Field is extremely friendly and makes everyone who knew of the affair squirm. She decides to throw a big party and invites the mistress, who reluctantly attends. Her children are totally freaked out and argue about whether or not to tell their mother that their dad was having an affair. Turns out they needn't have worried. Their mom announces in the middle of dinner that she has known about the mistress the whole time.
"Heroes" is so far my favorite new show. It's quirky and full of surprises. And our main hero, HIro, is extremely likable. This week, he returns to his friend in Tokyo. He still has the comic that was written about him, but now the contents of the comic are changing, showing where he currently is and what he will be doing next. He goes to his friend, who also now appears in the comic. His friend still doesn't buy the whole teleportation/space time continuum thing, but becomes convinced when he actually witnesses Hiro stopping time to save a girl from being run over. He reluctantly accompanies Hiro on a flight to Los Angeles and then in a rental car that they are driving to Las Vegas, where one of the other heroes is. The dude who can fly can't get his brother, who is running for public office, to acknowledge his abilities and in fact is humiliated when his brother makes a speech about him actually suffering from depression. He's also discovering that he can't fly at will. I suspect he may only be successful when his brother flies with him. The cheerleader gets in a fight with a boy who was trying to rape her. She is killed, but then wakes up in the middle of the autopsy! Ewwwww!
"Studio 60" is pretty decent once you realize it's not really a comedy. I think it does a good job of explaining what goes on behind the scenes. It does have weak moments, though, and lulls when they say something and you can't decide whether or not that was supposed to be funny. Amanda Peet is better than I expected, though, and Matthew Perry is not as annoying as he was on "Friends", so I'll probably keep tuning in for the time being.
"Boston Legal" has not disappointed at all this season. Alan is back to his raunchy self, making his desires clear to Shirley, but she turns him down on the grounds that it will upset Denny. Alan tries to reason with Denny, but he will not budge. Then there is a hilarious wrestling match between Denny and Alan. Oh, and there are some courtroom scenes as well, heh heh.
Last night, I watched two new new shows, "30 Rock" and "Twenty Good Years" instead of "Jericho". The first one is ANOTHER series about behind the scenes of an SNL-type show, but it's a half hour comedy instead of an hour long drama. Tina Fey plays the writer of "The Girlie Show" (a takeoff of Comedy Central's "Man Show"??) and Alec Baldwin is her brand new boss who knows more about marketing a convection oven than he does a tv show. Tracy Morgan is the crazy comic who is recruited to join the cast of the show, or perhaps take it over entirely. Fey agrees to go to lunch with Morgan to discuss his joining the show, but she ends up getting dragged to a strip club. It's too early to tell if this show will be consistently funny, but the premiere did make me laugh, so i will tune in again next week.
"Twenty Good Years" stars John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor as old friends. Lithgow is an arrogant surgeon who is forced into retirement on his 60th birthday, and Tambor is a judge who seems to have trouble making decisions in his personal life. Lithgow decides that since he and his friend probably only have 20 good years left in their lives (hence the title), they should start embracing all the things they either didn't have time for or were too timid to do, such as joining the Polar Bear Club. i must admit the sight of John Lithgow in a Speedo is fairly amusing. One thing I could have done without, though, was the laugh track. It was annoying. But I did like the rest of it, so I'll watch it for awhile longer.
And of course with last night being Wednesday night, I couldn't miss a moment of "Lost". This one focused on Sayid, Sun and Jin on the sailboat as they wait for any sign of Jack, Sawyer, Kate and Hurley. We find out that Sun did indeed have an affair prior to the crash and that Jin is not likely the father of her unborn baby. They sail toward the dock where their four friends had been held captive but find it empty. Sayid suspects the Others have intervened again and goes ashore to build a fire to draw them out. He gives Jin a gun and instructs Sun to go back to the boat, a stupid tactical move on his part. He does, however, tell her about a gun that is on board. Turns out to be a good thing, because while Sayid and Jin wait on the beach, the Others sneak onto the sailboat because their leader covets it. Sun grabs the gun, and, to my surprise, actually shoots one of the Others! She also leaps overboard when the Others begin shooting back. Jin is able to swim out to her and help her back to shore. Meanwhile, Sawyer and Kate are forced to do meaningless manual labor. Sawyer decides to see what will happen if he stops working and suddenly kisses Kate. There's a scuffle, and while Sawyer manages to get a gun away from them, another gun is held to Kate's head, so he must relinquish his. Later, when he thinks he and Kate are alone, Sawyer analyzes who he could successfully fight and who they might have trouble with. Naturally, though, the Others are monitoring him and hear every word. Jack is still imprisoned in the aquarium. Henry/Ben formally introduces himself and promises Jack that he will get to go home if he will cooperate. Ben says he's been on the island all his life and that they have contact with the outside world. He then produces a tv monitor and shows a clip of the Red Sox winning the World Series! Very odd indeed.
And finally, I watched "The Nine". This week, the survivors of the bank holdup try to go back to their regular lives without much success. Some are interviewed by the media, and there is some question as to whether to try to hold the police accountable for the breakdown of negotiations which resulted in the shootings. The girl that was in the bank can't remember anything that happened and tries to get one of the robbers to tell her from prison. He won't cooperate. Finally, at the end, she recalls dialing 911 on her cell phone and realizes this is what prompted the shooting to start. As with last week, the show is interesting, but I am still not convinced that there is enough good material to successfully carry a whole series. We'll see.
Too tired for more comment. Later.
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