Lost: Preparation for the Final Season, Season One

The wife and I have started rewatching Lost from the beginning in an effort to amp up for the final season.  In order to contribute something valuable to the blogging community I've decided to report on a few things that have jumped out at me as a result of the review.

First off, I have the "What We Still Don't Know" section where I round up information we still don't have a concrete answer to going into the final season.  My second category is the "Inconsistencies" section where I catalog how the writers seem to have contradicted themselves.  That section is rather small and could possibly already have been explained (I'm not perfect) or will be explained by the end of season 6.  That's followed by the "Worth Noting" section where I mention a few things that jumped out at me upon the review.

Before you continue please remember that this entry is extremely spoiler filled so don't continue if you've yet to complete seasons 1-5 of Lost (and if you haven't make the time, it comes back soon and you'll want to see what happens as the rest of the world does).

What We Still Don't Know

"Pilot"

What is the smoke monster? How does it work?

"White Rabbit" 

Jack's Dad makes his premier appearance and becomes the first of the walking dead on the island.  We still are unsure as to what/who is animating/controlling the walking dead, though the Island itself, Jacob, and Jacob's enemy are all leading contenders.

"House of the Rising Sun"

Who still don't know who the two people found in the caves are other than Locke dubbing them Adam and Eve.

"Raised by Another" 

Why can't someone else raise Aaron? What happens now that Kate raised him and Claire's mom has him now? I know the psychic was proven false later but I believe the prophecy to be true.

"Special" 

What is the deal with Walt, what kind of power does he have and where does it come from?

"Numbers"

What do the numbers mean? Where do they get their power?

Inconsistencies 

"White Rabbit" 

Charlie wakes Jack up to inform him that a woman is drowning because Charlie doesn't swim.  Obviously Charlie swims... enough said about that sad moment in Lost's history.

"Deus ex machina" 

Boone reached someone on the radio before the plane crashed, that would be impossible because the radio tower was blocking all transmissions to and from the island.  Unless of course Boone radioed to the "Others". (I forgot that Boone was able to contact Bernard who also located a short wave radio so obviously this was never inconsistent).

Worth Noting

Sayid prays with Islamic prayer at least twice in the first season.

Music was used to bookend the end of the episodes more often in the first season.  The moment when Hurley's Walkman ran out of batteries was terrific.

It's amazing how many questions raised in the first season are completely answered.

Michael was the only one to notice that there was something untrustworthy about Lock.

The first season has 25 episodes, that's insane, season two has 24, season three has 22, season four has 13 (writers strike), and seasons five has 16.

At the end of the episode where Boone dies (Do No Harm) Jack comments that "Boone didn't die, he was murdered".  Jack was right, the island killed Boone by setting in motion a series of events that started with his fever dream about Shanon's death.

Jack comes at Locke with intent to kill for the first time at the beginning of the episode "The Greater Good"

Avatar: A Love Letter

I just returned from Pandora and I must say that I am in love.  Avatar is the most amazing  experience I have had in a movie theater in a long time, possibly ever.  James Cameron should spend another 12 years making his next movie if the result will turn out anything nearly as impressive as this masterpiece.  While Avatar is not without its imperfections it heralds the dawning of a new age of movie magic.

Pandora is a magical place where "The People" (Navi) have evolved elegantly with the planet.  The Navi can literally plug themselves in to other indigenous creatures of Pandora in effectively guide them through mental suggestion.  The Navi can also plug into the plant life of the planet and be guided by the very essence of life itself on their home world.  

The creatures are simply gorgeous and fully believable as animals that have evolved on this unique planet.  Pandora itself is beautiful by day but breathtaking by night as all the vegetation on the planet glows in the moons (of course there is more than one) light.  The gravity on Pandora is less than that of Earth (which explains the massive flying creatures, and our heroes ability to survive falling from unbelievable height) and while I'm still not sure how that explains flying mountain ranges, I'm not bothered, it's just worth noting.

The Navi themselves are all distinctive and never once did I think to myself, "wait which blue alien is that now?"  They also happen to be massive (like everything else on the planet) 8 to 10 feet by my eye and stunning to look at (like everything else in this movie).  I had a hard time remembering that the elegant Navi were computer generated because I truly believed all the performances of the actors portraying these alien creatures throughout the film.  

Speaking of alien, I'm a sucker for a movie/television experience that places humans in the role traditionally reserved for non-Earthlings.  For the humans to be the aliens and the Navi to be the seemingly primitive people that the aliens cannot see the grace and beauty of was a fun and thought provoking turn on an old formula.  

In another amazing feat, after spending 3 hours on Pandora with the Navi I'm dying to go back to the planet to experience more stories.  Cameron's world is rich in the same way Tolkien's is, loaded with supplementary information that is not necessarily important to the story currently being told.  I'd love to know how Neytiri's great grandfather was able to ride the great beast, I'd love to see how the Navi learned they could integrate themselves into other creatures on the planet, I'd love to see really anything else this world could offer me. 

I viewed Avatar in digital 3-D and I can't imagine watching this film in any other format.  In fact, I might have to buy a 3-D TV to replicate this experience at home.  The 3-D was not used solely make you jump out of your seat (shrapnel flying at the audience) but to help more fully immerse the viewer in the world of Pandora.  I have a hard time seeing many effects in the third dimension (which is part of the reason the state of NJ tried to take my drivers license away) but Pandora literally popped off the screen and into my field of vision. 

It's rare that I go into a movie with such high expectations, rarer still that those expectations turn out to be less than the movie actually earns upon viewing.  Could I complain about and nitpick this movie?  Actually, I can't, do yourself a favor, go see this movie!

Benjamin Linus: The Red Scare-er

We recently realized that Benji is the last in a long line of spaniel mixes descended from Senator Joe McCarthy's dog Pinko.

Fringe: Grey Matters

That was certainly a much better episode than last week, which is a good thing considering it was the "fall finale" episode.  While I didn't find the episode as satisfying as I had hoped it would be it did leave me with enough momentum to push through till March or whenever they decide to air Fringe again*.

I loved Broyles and Olivia verbalizing the "answers lead to more questions" phenomenon that is previlent in so many shows I love watching.  Olivia even asked aloud what they learned from Walters abduction as if to give viewers disgruntled with the lack of progress this season since she came back from bizarro NY a voice.

On the "I may be a psychic" front, I did call the GPS chip as an integral part of this episode!  On the "maybe I am not a psychic" front I did not think it would be such a dead end so quickly.  Last weeks poor episode was made that much worse by the GPS tracker being such a non-issue this week.

Didn't they introduce a new FBI agent at the beginning of this season? Didn't her and Peter have a bit of a possible love connection brewing?  Where's Olivia's sister and niece?

I did think the cutting out Walter's brain and placing it in order people's heads to make them crazy storyline was actually interesting.  William Bell is quite the character, he's a grandfather figure to Olivia, a big brother to Walter, and his own evil twin.

Speaking of heads, I believe that the cryo-headed bad guy genuinely meant it when he apologized to Meredeth's father about leaving the back of his head off his brain (I can't be the only person out there watching Grey's Anatomy and Fringe).

*Correction: In the previous post I made a few references to Fringe returning in March.  In the blogs first user submitted correction Blue Sunflower commented that Fringe will return in January for 4 weeks before taking off again until April Fools Day (let's hope it's not a joke).  Thanks Blue... your my boy (figuratively speaking)!

While I'm back in this post, I forgot to mention "the Blight" that is affecting the other side of the door.  If it's as bad as it seems, this gives our ambiguous bad guys motivation to take over our world.

Fringe: Snakehead

Well, other than the fact that I have no idea why the doctor didn't just synthesize the drug compound that the worms created I found this episode somewhat enjoyable.  It was definitely not one that inspires me to write pages worth of prose but it does seem like this particular episode was all about one thing, getting Walter to put a GPS tracking device in his neck.

Which is actually a bit odd.  Why did Walter feel the need to be independent in the first place?  As far as I can remember, this is the first time he's felt any need to be off on his own, for the principle of it.  He's had secret meetings with the "observers" but never had a hard time finding his way back to the lab.  Walter even had that little tryst with the girl he used to drug (for research purposes) and was able to find his way home without Peter watching over him.

Therefore the fact that Walter chipped himself must play big into the next episode.  That being observed (get it?), at the moment when Walter inevitably gets kidnapped would it not have been more elegant for Peter just to comment about his father putting a GPS chip in himself because he's wacky and thought it would be fun?  Why waste a whole episode?

The worms were gross.  Peter was a bit more idiotic than usual storming into the lab thinking his Cantonese would defend him I guess.  I'm surprised that Walter waited in the car and nothing happened to him.  That was a nice change of pace from the normal "wait in the car" cliche (see "Chuck").  Another nice moment in this episode was Walter and Astrid hugging it out.  Their relationship has come a long way from Walter being completely incapable of remembering her name.

FlashForward: A561984

Wedeck hates Mark Benford. Aaron hates Mark Benford.  The Persian lady hates Mark Benford.  Mark Benford hates Mark Benford.  Olivia probably is going to hate Mark Benford because of the way he's bound to treat her when he finds out she's adopting Dylan.  Most importantly, I hate Mark Benford.

On the bright side, things are looking up for Demetri who happens to be a character I like much more than Mark.  I don't know why Zoey is so in love with Dem considering how much he ignores her and shuts her out but I do like them as a couple more than I like Olivia and Mark.  Did Zoey tell Demetri that she didn't actually see him in the flash when they originally had that conversation or did they insert that in the flashback?

Continuing on a positive note, I must admit I legitimately enjoyed this episode.  I like that Simon is a man who has convinced himself of the genius he possesses to the point that he can't fathom someone coming up with an idea about plasma whatit's before he did.  I also like that he's so concieted that he can't understand a man could invent something so world changing and not want an ounce of credit for it.

Olivia is falling for Lloyd and the fact that she's now his son's only parental figure is only going to help cement their future relationship.  That being said, the kidnapping of Lloyd was a fairly obvious plot point.  Maybe I've seen one too many escape/abduction movies but the second they mentioned that Dylan was going to be "transfered" I knew it was going to end up with Lloyd having a gun to his head.  On a side, why is Dylan even in the hospital?  He seems to be fully recovered to this medical non-professional.

I like Keiko the office drone turned rock star as much as anyone but I really like Nicole and don't want to see her crushed by Dr. "I want to kill myself, just kidding".  The kitten jar was a nice gesture.

The Iranian agent plot line bordered on being really cool but was constantly pulled off track by Mark making dumb decisions.  Additionally, I'm annoyed by the fact that this show portrays the CIA as being an extra government organization.  Why would a CIA agent have any control over what happens in China?  Especially considering the government of the USA pointed a finger at China regarding the blackout.

No more FlashForward until March.  I hope they take some time to focus on the stronger elements of the series and kill off the less enjoyable characters (Mark).

The Kitchen: Part III

As previously explained, we awoke Friday morning a bit befuddled by the size issue of the cabinet over the refrigerator and we were debating how to proceed.  To make matters worse all the demolition was done so I could not take my feeling of frustration out on a piece of drywall.  Continuing to compound the problem was the fact that screw drivers, pliers, tape, and other random smallish tools seemed to disappear with alarming regularity.  

We did some minor jobs, messed around with a bit more of the electricity, and were feeling a general sense of morose when Uncle Don showed up.  Thankfully he brought much needed energy to the project.  Uncle Don also completely ditched the plans my father and I drew up to splice current off old wires to make for simpler work.  He explained why that would have been a bad idea but in all honesty most of the meaning of his words were lost in my morning haze.  

The good news was that with Uncle Don and myself pushing the crew forward electrically, my father and Uncle Bill were free to hang some cabinets.  This process took us through most of the daylight hours as both the electricity and early cabinets proved more demanding jobs than originally thought.

Eventually our rag tag group was joined by my cousin Billy.  Billy brought us coffee.  He was a hero.  My Dad recruited Billy for cabinet work while Uncle Don and I toiled in the basement with the circuit breaker box.  At one point Billy attempted to solve our height issue by staggering the cabinets in such a way to look intentional.  I thought it might work but the wife was not having any of it.

At approximately 8:00 PM on Friday the electrical work was finished, we thanked Uncle Don and sent him on his way back to North Jersey.  At this point the wife had a research breakthrough and believed she had located the cabinet we needed at a Lowes approximately 45 minutes away.  This caused some concern because we needed to get to Lowes and purchase the cabinet by 9:00 PM when they closed.

I grabbed the truck key from my father but the wife convinced me that was overkill because the cabinet in question was so small it would fit easily in the trunk of my Versa.  Billy and I arrived at Lowes at 8:55 and caught some nasty looks for the exhausted Black Friday workers.  We high tailed it to the appropriate section only to discover that the cabinet was the wrong color.  Lowes makes a 12 inch cabinet in Red Oak not Honey Oak and we needed Honey.

As Bill and I were mere feet from the door and the clock struck 9:00 PM we got a call from my father in which he requested a half sheet of plywood.  The helpful girl at the check out counter responded that they did not sell half sheets but they could cut them for us.  After 5 minutes and one completely non-verbal encounter with the man who cuts plywood at Lowes at three minutes pasted closing we were wheeling 2 half sheets of plywood towards my Versa.

A Versa is a great car and it does some things really well.  Hauling plywood, however, is not one of them.  We unsuccessfully attempted to put it in the trunk.  We tried squeezing it in the back doors in vane.  We even thought we could tie it too the roof but Lowes had locked their twine behind the gates in the garden section and I was in no mood to scale the fence.

At this point a blind rage overcame me.  I lifted the (half) sheet of plywood over my head and slammed it into a curb in an effort to crack it in half (again).  When that did not work I leaned it against the curb and tried to kick through the wood (this would have worked if the curb was a bit taller).  Finally I decided I would have to jump on the wood like a trampoline until it would crack beneath my impressive (yes that's the adjective I'm going with) weight.  Fortunately or not plywood is made of fairly strong stuff and I was defeated.

While I was busy engaging lumber in mortal combat Billy had called the wife who was already on her way to pick the wood up. By the time I finished weeping in the cold on the plywood she was in the parking lot and loading the truck.  

The Kitchen: Part II

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving saw much progress on our kitchen.  My father arrived at around 6:30 PM and we resumed destruction immediately.  Every cabinet was ripped unceremoniously from their resting place, the old wall above the cabinets was removed (which made it rain insulation), and I re-tiled the floor in some key areas that the new cabinets were not going to cover.  The other spots in the floor were left bare because my father swore he'd be able to shim the cabinets later. 

Other than accumulating the bulk of the garbage from the kitchen project on the whole the work of Wednesday night was efficient and uneventful.

Thanksgiving morning I awoke at 6:30 AM to my father knocking at my bedroom door whilst singing a song about how much he loved Dunkin' Donuts (the melody of which I have thankfully blocked out) because the coffee gives him the energy he needs to work all day long.  That song unbelievably continued until the wife returned with D&D 20 minutes later.

In the meantime my father and I did some electrical mapping and had a serious discussion about whether or not what we had planned could burn down the house.  At the end of the debate we decided that we'd need to call in my Uncle Don (the familial electricity guru) for the heavy electrical hitting.  We did some cleaning, moved some wires around, and then left for Thanksgiving dinner (conveniently enough at Uncle Don's).  

Driving on Thanksgiving day was miserable as expected and after a 2 1/2 hour car ride in which we traversed every major highway in the state of NJ we sat down for our meal.  Dad badgered Uncle Don about coming back with us that night but he was not having any of that.  After some wheeling and dealing the old man got my uncle to agree to leave for South Jersey first thing the next morning.  

Once we got guaranteed participation from one uncle we went across town to interrupt my other uncle in the middle of his Thanksgiving dessert course.  Dad didn't give Uncle Bill any options, he explained that we were leaving in 10 minutes and Uncle Bill needed to be in the car.  Amazingly, Uncle Bill was excited about work on the kitchen and agreed to come down.  45 minutes later (Uncle Bill moves at his own pace) we were all back in the car and headed to South Jersey.

We managed to find enough to work to do on the kitchen until about midnight and went to bed exhausted.  Once 6:30 AM rolled around I heard a familiar knocking on the door but this time there was no song to accompany it.  After a brief inquiry my father informed me that he had been up all night trying to solve a kitchen problem I had not even realized existed.  It turned out that the cabinet I had bought to place over my fridge was about 2 inches too long and would have to be returned.

Unfortunately because we went with stock cabinets, there was no alternately smaller cabinet we could buy in it's place.  Most cabinets come in 3 inch increments but Lowes does not stock them in all possible sizes (must not be cost effective).  A brief Google search proved fruitless so we decided we'd deal with the over-sized cabinet problem when it inevitably came back up.

The Kitchen: Part I

The wife and I have been slowly remodeling our kitchen since the day we moved in to our home almost three years ago.  It was a small cramped space hemmed in by four walls and a giant peninsula that took up 55% of the available floor space (I did the math).  Over time we made some minor adjustments (ripping down a wall to connect the kitchen and dinning room) and some major adjustments (ripping down another wall, retitling the floor, installing a dishwasher and island in the place of the peninsula) but left the ancient cabinets and most of the appliances in place.

After approximately 1 year, 3 months, 21 days, and 2 hours of me making the case to completely overhaul the kitchen, the wife relented so I immediately grabbed a hammer and threw it through one of the remaining kitchen walls (that is the custom that signifies the beginning of a new job in our household, it's rather permanent).   

That weekend I convinced my father to come down so we could buy cabinets from Lowes.  In an effort to save the all mighty dollar we went with stock cabinets rather than custom.  While much cheaper, this would cause some serious problems down the road.  Additionally, if I never again hear someone at Lowes explain "Lowes is a warehouse, we only have what you see on the shelves" it'll be too soon.

Once construction (or destruction) began we immediately recruited the most useful family members to complete key jobs.  Johnny (the 5 year old nephew) and Jordan (the 2 year old niece) came over to pull the the wall oven out and remove the wall that contained it (their dad and mom came too but honestly Johnny was way more useful than his parents, Jordan not so much).  Note to all aunts and uncles; When attempting destruction jobs with 5 year olds, give them toy hammer, the real thing is far too nerve racking as it seems they are always inches from whacking themselves in the noggin.  After 4 hours of "hard work" the kids left and our kitchen was minus one cooking implement and another wall.

Then the real fun began because the bulk of the kitchen work was done over the Thanksgiving weekend.  Dad showed up on Wednesday (Thanksgiving Eve) to begin old cabinet removal.  We'll pick up the story from there in the next post!

Men of a Certain Age: Advanced Screener

First let me get to the good stuff, "Men of a Certain Age" came bundled in an awesome package.  The outside of the mailing box was made to look like a cassette tape container and the show itself was bundled on a 2 gig reusable USB key which resembled a cassette tape.  This packaging had me very excited about the prospects of a new comedy from the network that claims to know drama, TNT.

Sadly, once the show got started I was less than thrilled.  Either this was a slow screener episode with few moments of levity, let alone laugh out loud funny bits or I am simply not of a certain age that would enjoy this series (I know that was a bit of an obvious joke, but I can't help myself sometimes). 

Watching this show on the computer had a few downsides, for example, my computer screen was dark and reflective in my viewing environment and I simply could not find the best viewing angle.  More unfortunate however was the way the computer was constantly ticking how much time was left in the episode.  I made an unconsciousness point to look down on the time remaining gauge almost every 30 seconds and that makes me believe the show was less than engaging. 

The show was co-created by Ray Ramano but it seems to have none of the charm that worked for him in "Everybody Loves Raymond".  While I do like all of the actors in this series what they had to do in this episode was boring and depressing.  If "Men of a Certain Age" was billed as a drama with comedic tones I think I might be willing to give it another chance, but being a half hour comedy I simply should not have been this bored, this long.

Therefore, "Men of a Certain Age" should be passed up at any age!

Fringe: August

When this episode started I was ready to be pissed.  I knew that the observer we were following  in this episode was not the observer we were familiar with and I was annoyed that they could not get the actual actor for the big episode featuring his character.  Thankfully, Olivia noticed that it was not the same observer as well, and from there this hour of TV veered into much more interesting territory.  

I guess the title of this episode could have been "An Observer in Love" though it might have given away a bit too much.  How vane are the observers that causing the death of one of them makes a person important?  Though I guess they cannot be vane if they do not feel emotion.  Of course if August felt love maybe the others can feel vanity.

I'm glad they writers of Fringe decided to remind the audience that Olivia has a family but I was expecting someone to kidnap her niece the entire episode.  Speaking of people this show has introduced and then forgotten about, what happened to that FBI agent that helped Peter when Olivia was out of commission?  It seemed like she might be set up to be Charlie's replacement as Fringe divisions go to back up person but she only showed up in that one episode.

The fact that Peter can fire the observer's gun has something to do with inter dimensional citizenship.  The FBI might as well just let him keep it.  I really thought Walter might tell Peter about his true identity this time around.  Sadly, I guess it's just going to have to come out in some ugly unexpected way.

The Massive Dynamic mad scientist continues to be a terrific addition to this series.  Please keep giving that guy something to do!  I find him infinitely more interesting than Nina "it's cool if we clone a few kids and drive them mad" Sharpe.

Now that Walter is in possession of August's notebook I feel like the writers have opened a Pandora's box of plot lines.  Walter could translate a few key symbols and send our gang on a mission to stop a future event from happening.  It could go along the lines of Daddy Winchester's journal sending Sam and Dean on all kinds of adventures in the Supernatural universe.  

It seemed like a lot happened but I can't think of anything of consequence other than the older observer remarking that it was a shame that Olivia's life was about to get so hard.  

Supernatural: Abandon All Hope

That episode is the reason I often think of Supernatural as the best show on television.  Supernatural has done a wonderful job of creating a universe full insane and unbelievable scenarios which I implicitly buy hook line and sinker.  Let me summarize this episode.  

Sam and Dean hunt the Devil with a gun built by Samuel Colt, given to them by a a demon, that can kill anything in the world.  Sam and Dean are accompanied by an Angel and a mother/daughter pair that run a bar and hunt monsters in their spare time. The mother/daughter have to blow themselves up in order to stop a roving pack of invisible hell hounds from killing Sam and Dean.  Dean shoots the Devil in the head with the miracle gun, only to find out that it doesn't kill the Devil because the gun, that can kill everything on the planet, actually can't kill 5 things and the Devil is one of them.  The Devil then makes the brothers watch as he raises Death (one of the Four Horsemen) by killing every inhabitant of a town.  

I know it sounds crazy but as I watched this episode not only did that all make perfect sense, I was completely enthralled.  

I had thought that Ellen gave up on Jo way too soon, so I felt emotionally satisfied when she stayed with her to light up those good for nothing hell hounds.  I will miss Ellen and Jo.  They were the one example of recurring female characters that had a long and healthy relationship with our heroes.  In a show that tends to overloaded with testosterone (Sam, Dean, Bobby, Cas, Chuck, Daddy Winchester, and most other hunters) Ellen and Jo were always a welcome breath of fresh air on this series.  Ellen especially, was the closest thing that Sam and Dean had to a mother and her absence will be felt.

Speaking of strong male characters Crowley is a welcome addition to the Supernatural universe.  Sure he's not as attractive as the last crossroads demon, but Mark Shepard is one of the best actors floating around today and while we wait for Joss Whedon or Ron Moore to build a show around him, his presence will help continue to raise the bar for Supernatural season five.  

Crowley is evil, that was made clear as he sat joyously watching footage of the Third Reich (normally I hate allusions to Nazi's because they are so cliche, it was appropriate here because Crowley sees Lucifer as his own personal Hitler).  While his evil is obvious, his sense of self preservation is also apparent.  He's no idiot, he managed to give Sam and Dean the gun and not get killed by it.  That was a wonderful interaction by the way.

I would like to complain about Supernatural taking two month break now when it's on such a creative roll but I feel that is a silly thing to do considering this is the internet and you could be reading this in 2014 after picking up the complete Supernatural series on a special edition Blu Ray.  If that is the case its pretty impressive that I knew that right?  

FlashForward: Believe

In an example of terrible writing I've got to point out a glaring weakness in the character of Bryce.  He was concerned about making his death difficult for his family and believed that suicide was the only viable option.  Pretending that makes sense logically (obviously it does not) why would he kill himself so publicly on a pier in the middle of the day with literally hundreds of witnesses?  How would the media coverage that followed his death be dealt with by his family?  Either he's an idiot not worth rooting for or this is yet another example of the writers/producers dropping the ball big time.

Are Bryce and Keiko the new Penny and Desmond?  Peripheral characters that you can pin all the hope for the future on in a series that otherwise is devoid of hope and happiness?  How's that going to work if Nicole is slowly falling in love with Bryce?  How blind is Bryce that he can't see the girl of his dreams when she's on the same fraking plane as him? Did neither of them get up to pee on the flight from Tokyo to LA?  

As a viewer in order to buy into this series, I must accept that Mark and Demetri are going to fly to Hong Kong defy Stan's order and yet no one has gone to Somalia to follow up on the only true lead they've had in this entire series?  Also, Mark has still not asked his daughter why she knows the name D. Gibbons.

I'm glad they started to follow up on the cryptic text message that Olivia got regarding Mark's flash.  Olivia's not stupid, why wouldn't she think that was relevant information to her husband?  Mark is stupid but could he have gone about questioning his friends anymore boneheadedly then he actually did?  What's worse after his questioning of Aaron went so poorly he did the same exact act when he tried Stan, with exactly the same results.  

I am starting to worry that Stan is just as idiotic as Mark.  If he didn't text that to Olivia and Aaron didn't text that to Olivia shouldn't Stan be concerned about who did?  More importantly what else does this person/the NSA know?

While we are on the subject of the NSA, when the agent revealed to the group that she had information on Demetri's phone call and was subsequently pressed by the males in the room to "make the call" did anyone else laugh out loud when they cut to Mark and his "somebody fart?" face? 

I really do like Bryce and Keiko and I hope they can put Bryce's suicide behind him and move on. I also like Olivia, Nicole, Demetri, and Janis (who didn't show up this episode).  If Mark, Stan, or Aaron have to pull an Al and I don't think I'll be too broken up about it.   

No Simon or Lloyd either this time around.  Didn't miss them too much but I don't wish death upon them so take that for what you will.

The Prisoner: Harmony

What an interesting show.  It is a rarity that a series contains a glowing ball of goo which erases memory/kills/incapacitaes people, fake family members, and disappearing oceans.  

Let's start with the goo ball that keeps prisoners from reaching the crystal towers.  It seems to have erased the memory of 6 or at the least scrambled his brain.  Yet it killed 6's fake brother almost immediately after he admitted his rouse to 6.  Is it controlled by 2 or is 2 a prisoner as well and not the warden as it seems?  Speaking of 2 I forgot to mention that he spoke to the cab driver right before the cab driver "inadvertently" saved 6 from the exploding restaurant by slowing him down with his "nice guy" conversation.

Is there no money in the village?  Does that make the village communist?  In truth, it seems to be more like a dictatorship where 2 holds all the cards and informs people of their position in life.

The talking doctor is obviously scared of 2, as is the cab driver and his wife.  12 is not scared of 2 but even being the son of 2 is cold and somewhat aloof when talking with him.  Is it important that 2x6=12 or am I placing undue importance on numbers because of my love of Lost?  Is it possible to overemphasis the importance of numbers on a show where every character is numbered?

Do the people of the village interact with the real world in some way?  When 6 drives his bus is he actually driving a bus in the real world?  Is that how radio and water waves seem to phase in and out of this unreality?  Are the inhabitants of the village under some kind of augmented reality hypnotic distortion field?  Maybe the village is some kind of reality show.  Could it be a Truman show where criminals minds are erased and then reprogrammed to fit into this quasi Utopian society?

It seems like characters that 6 convinces about the unreality of the village are quickly killed off, why does 2 (or whomever is in charge) not simply kill 6?  Could the doctor with the crush on him and a fondness for Status of Liberty sketches be next?  Maybe the pleasant cab driver?

Is 6 valuable to kill off because of what he does in the real world?  From what he described he is some kind of analyst.  He's evidently good at his job considering he was able to identify the women he picked up as more than she originally let on.  Did 6's former employer place him in this "prison" to get his priorities in order and push him back on the job?  Did 6 kill the lovely lady he picked up in the coffee shop?

Wouldn't it be terrible if 6 was in fact some kind of sociopathic killer that was imprisoned because he lives in a post death penalty society?  That would certainly make him difficult to root for.

Last post I mistakenly identified the woman in bed at 2's house as the pleasant doctor with the interest in 6.  Obviously I was mistaken, I'd thank the people who corrected my error, but seeing as I am fairly sure no one is reading my "The Prisoner" posts I will hold my thanks.  I'm guessing the colored pills are some kind of meal replacement.  Based off 2's comments to the talking doctor (about his son not liking him if he knew the truth) I'm wondering if he is responsible for he current condition.  Maybe too much glowing goo ball does creates a permanent catatonic state? 

I noticed in the credits Jim Caviezel was listed as both 6 and Michael.  Did I miss him introduce himself as Michael or have we not learned that yet in the series?

The Prisoner: Arrival

Full disclosure, I've never seen the original Prisoner and probably will not bother going back to watch it.  That's why they make remakes!

The title of this episode implies that 6 (its' weird referring to a character as 6 who happens to be a he, and not a Cylon) has just arrived in the village.  2 seems to be the head honcho in the village and he is trying to convince 6 that he's gone crazy and needs to give in to the fact that the village is all there is in all the world.  524 sees the Statue of Liberty in her dreams and is inclined to accept that 6 is not crazy.  524 then explodes in an event that the doctor (whose number I forget) says happens not too frequently but sometimes does.  Also, there is a cab driver and number 2's protege (both of which have numbers that I forget).

I must say the title of this episode might as well have been disorientation!  The wife and I spent most of the episode confused and at points I was wondering if I should start taking notes.  That being said, I can tell that there is something of interest in this series.  It's got mystery, chase, danger, social commentary, great actors, and that is just what I can take away from the first episode.  

Additionally it has cultivated a definite Lost vibe!  The village itself reminds me of Dharmaville with the ways the houses are set up and the fact that the technology of the place is so obviously from a different era.  The flashback scenes to 6's life before the village were intriguing.  I liked that 6 and the mystery woman had a conservation about cell phones to at least show us that the real world is in a time/tech period more akin to our own.

Why is 6 imprisoned?  Did he kill someone?  Did he get into terrible debt after resigning from his job?  Is spray painting a window punishable by memory wipe and exile in his NYC?  Are the crystal towers supposed to be an allusion to the Twin Towers?

What was 2 doing to the nice, though misguided, doctor?  That was creepy.

Now for some wild speculation.  The village is like the island in the movie "The Island" rich people cloned themselves to grow spare parts so they would never die.  Though that seems a bit far fetched because it's been done, and if the village was in the business of making money off peoples organs I'm guessing they would go blowing people up on a sort of regular basis... Unless that's the way they keep the semblance of normalcy around the village, killing people off before they harvest their organs...

I have the next three episodes on the DVR and I plan on watching!

V: A Bright New Day

"We are of peace, always." Sure you guys are of peace.  V's are of the kind of peace that is obtained through treachery and carrots, Machiavelli would approve (I may have mixed a few metaphors there).

George Bush wishes he could have turned Cindy Sheehan the way Anna flipped the face of her protest movement... The preceding comment may have been a bit political for some, so if you were offended in some way, the following is a similarly overly wordy metaphor with a video game company instead... Anna must have learned a thing or two from Valve when they turned the "Left for Dead 2" protesters into excited fans http://bit.ly/YePmz (I am a man of many varied interests)

The V resistance is called the 5th Column, I'd like to know what the four other columns of V society are.  I bet one of them is the mind meld/Matrix juice that Anna is pushing to the brains of the loyal V's.  How does a handgun turn V's into a human shaped pile of dust?  Is Ryan now in possession of some crazy V vaporizing tech?

Human resistance was gearing up as well.  Our less than plucky heroes Erica and Jack were able to meet up with Georgie and Ryan.  Honestly, it's more like 3 and 1/2 humans but you get the point.  I'm guessing out of our fantastic four Georgie is not long for this world and does not make it past next weeks finale.  Though you'd think Erica was one the chopping block considering she broke into the secret V survellance room, got herself on camera, and was outed as a significant threat by Dale.

I must admit that when the Dr. killed Dale I geeked out (you can picture your own visual) because I simply did not see that coming.  On one hand I'm bummed that Alan Tudyk was permanently killed off this series but on the other I was thrilled with the fact that 5th Column members have infiltrated Anna inner circle.

Erica's son, Tyler, is "the one". If we follow the Matrix allusion does that mean he gets to take the blue pill and a direct line into Anna's secret sauce (that wasn't meant to read as dirty as it did)? I can't decide if this makes Tyler more or less interesting.

One more episode in this pod and then no new V until... well I'm not sure a simple Google search bore no fruit. I must say that I'm not thrilled about waiting for new episodes but if the rating stay strong I guess ABC can trickle these things out as they see fit.  Here's hoping the ratings stay rock solid!

Supernatural: The Real Ghostbusters

While some of the comedy fell a bit flat, overall I was happy with this one.  The best part of this episode was the fake hunt in which dozens of Sam and Dean's were searching for fake clues, interviewing fake witnesses, and speaking to fake ghosts.  These are the kind of inside jokes that only a terrific show in its fifth season can pull off.  

Besides that, any episode with the prophet Chuck is a winner in my book.  Especially an episode in which Chuck admits that he has no marketable skills and needs to keep writing the Supernatural books in order to feed himself.

When the Supernatural super-fan gave Sam a critical piece of information about the missing Colt in a seemingly light hearted throw away episode meant to reaffirm our heroes strength comes from each other I was reminded of Jonathan giving the Scoobie gang the key to defeating Adam in the terrifically comical and otherwise throw away episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer "Superstar".  I feel comfortable writing such a ridiculous sentence in this space because my Supernatural posts are the least read on Sensyden's Sounding Board which is saying something considering it has the readership equivalent of "Tim's Terrible Posts About Tuesday from Timbuktu".

Other than the Colt clue, Chuck's mysterious benefactor the "Swede" could possibly come into play in a future episode.

FlashForward: Playing Cards With Coyote

This one was a bit weaker. If Al could not find the woman he was going to kill, how did Demetri find her so quick?  Don't they have the same resources?  Al's death made front page news because it was the first instance of events not playing out in the way they should.  Is the Blue Hand group gone now? Replaced by the "hope" club that Nicole grabbed that flyer for?  If that's Al's legacy I wish he would have lived because I liked the Blue Hand angle.

Janis is trying to get pregnant to prove that Al's sacrifice was for nothing?

Simon and Lloyd playing cards to decide whether or not to go public with what they knew seemed very contrived.  According to Simon's logic, killing 20 million people makes him a god, Hitler, Stalin, and countless other historical monsters were gods.  Simon is not nearly as cool or interesting as Charlie.  Speaking of Charlie, when Simon was talking to Olivia did anyone else scream "NOT PENNY'S BOAT!" and scare both their spouse and dog?

On the lingering and annoying writing choices front this episode we still did not have anyone ask Charlie Benford about her vision and no FBI agents were sent to Somalia.  Though I guess I should at least be happy that Wedeck as least recognizes that the Somalia breakthrough is what almost got them all killed.  Is anyone else feeling odd about how often Stan touches Janis?  Could my wife have been right about him being the father of her child?

Aaron's daughter is back and running from Blackwater... I mean Jericho.  Did Aaron intentionally not mention that she looked completely beat up when he was talking her in that tent?  Aaron thought telling Mark would be a good idea because Mark is trustworthy?  The same Mark who admitted to him that he was drinking in his FlashForward.

Mark Benford is not only unlikeable, he's also an idiot.  Three stars on an arm is not exactly DNA evidence.  In fact, I'd venture a guess that it's a fairly common tattoo for someone with military/Jericho service.  Mark's best lead is sitting in his sponsors house but he's not going to put 2 and 2 together until it's too late.

The scene at the end with the Brando look a like quoting Oppenheimer was a little cool.  It would seem the rings keep you awake during the flash and our missing one must currently be in the possession of Suspect Zero.

V: There Is No Normal Anymore

It seemed odd that Erica did not know Jack was a priest.  So much ground was covered in the mini-series my brain assumed that they could write mini-biographies about each other by the end of it.  Though fun was had seeing them connect, fight, and reconnect by the end of this second stellar episode.  It is wrong that I'm rooting for the priest and the FBI agent to hook up?

I love that the characters are so fully realized in this series just two episodes in, it really is the hallmark of a good piece of fiction.  I care about Erica and Jack and I want them to successfully and safely build the resistance.  I'm worried about their well being and am greatly anticipating them getting in touch up with Ryan (the V).  

Speaking of Ryan, he does need to drop the soon to be fiancée.  He's going to get her killed, the V resistance fighter/mechanic/doctor is right.  

Is it wrong that I don't have faith in the agent we followed this week from the V task force because she played a miserable, untrustworthy, selfish character on Battlestar Galactica?  That and she made the "I'm a bad guy" face throughout all of her scenes.  Admittedly the "I'm a bad guy" face is easily confused for the "I'm a good guy, but I'm faking the viewers out" face.

Another miserable character on this show continues to be Erica's son Tyler.  His character makes me cringe every time he's on screen.  Why didn't the angry mob beat the snot out of Tyler when he hit that guy to impress the V he's got a crush on? Side note, I also intensely dislike Tyler's friend.  

Why would Dayle keep a cell phone to call the V's from on a regular basis?  Sadly it just seems like sloppy writing.  If the V's are smart enough to intercept 911 calls, they are smart enough to get their undercover agents burner phones.

I would have liked to see Erica swipe that list of crazies out of the V task force's office.  That could have added a moment of levity to a seriously intense episode of television.  

I like the way they are portraying Decker, the reporter.  I can't tell if he's in this for himself, the V's, or humanity and I think I'm going to have a fun time trying to figure him out.

Why does Anna make the blinky eyes every time Decker walks away from her?  More importantly why haven't we seen other V's make the blinky eyes?  Is it unique to Anna?  Is a twitch that comes with the stresses of being the V "High Commander"?  Why don't other V's make the blinky eyes?  These are important questions.

Have I mentioned I love this cast?

Supernatural: Changing Channels

I was ready to be angry and bitter about this episode from the teaser.  It seemed like a complete rehash of the sub par Paris Hilton episode from earlier this season.  The laugh track stuff got real old, real quick and I was afraid the entire episode would be stuck in that stale style.  Thankfully I was dead wrong!  

When they came back from commercial and the brothers were transplanted into "Seattle Mercy" hospital I knew the Supernatural crew had a much better episode in store for us than they originally let on.  As you may or may not be aware, my wife makes me watch "Grey's Anatomy" and other than the fact that the CW's version of Seattle Grace looked much shabbier than ABC's, the character names, cadence of speech, general dialog, and the background music were uncanny!

The generic "Cop Show" was terrific, I loved Dean saying that he hated procedurals!  Unbelievably, I almost missed the highlight of the episode.  I hope that Supernatural's advertisers  paid more for this particular hour of TV because after seeing Sam and Dean in a genital herpes commercial I made sure to scan each break carefully rather than fast forward through.  The Knight Rider skit was pure comic gold as well.  I laughed audibly when Sam was uncomfortable with Dean being in his "trunk".

Then Supernatural did the thing it really is great at and switched from comedy to tragedy without missing a beat.  Not only is the Trickster "an" angel, he's The Angel Gabriel!  Refusing to take sides and content to let the war play out in an effort to end it all is not how I pictured Gabriel but it is an interesting take.  In Supernatural lore it seems Gabriel did not bring the news of Jesus to Mary or deliver the Koran to Muhammad because he was busy avoiding his heavenly responsibilities.

I had a feeling that Sam was right to think that the Trickster would be a powerful ally but I did not come close to how powerful he actually is, considering he's Gabriel.  Gabriel and Castiel had an interesting little spat about finding/not finding God but I think Gabriel's tirade about Sam and Dean being chosen from the start of existence was the most interesting aspect of the episode.  

Here's hoping they can avoid their destinies because predetermination is a concept I was never comfortable with and tends to make for bad TV (see FlashForward before the episode entitled "The Gift").

Supernatural: The Curious Case of Dean Winchester

This once again was off the main storyline of the series, no Cas, Chuck, Angels, Demons, or even a hint of Lucifer and yet I did seem to enjoy it for the most part.  

The bit with Old Dean running up stairs because the elevator was out of order was a bit predictable as was the fact that his old body could not digest the burgers he's so fond of when he's his normal self.  That being said the actor cast to play Dean as an old man did a good job mimicking Dean's gestures and general attitude.  He was much more believable than "Old Bobby" who was just middle aged Bobby with grey hair and a cough.

I found it odd that the brothers did not feel the need to hunt the gambler at the end of the episode and that they were content to simply let him be (maybe the fact that he was forced to kill his partner at the end of it all was punishment enough).  I really did enjoy the actor who played the gambler.  He had a worldly way about him that mixed well with his supernatural abilities and reminded me of the character of Doyle from Angel (though it was probably just the accent).

Sam stepped it up this week and saved the day when both Bobby and Dean failed miserably to do so.  I must admit that it is nice to have Sam and Dean truly on the same side working for the same goals again.  It seems they have finally truly gotten over the "you ended the world" finger pointing.

FlashForward: The Gift

Al! You did it Al, too bad we barely knew you (I didn't even know your name until you were about to jump).  Al you changed the course of the series and your death was truly a gift to the viewers of this series as well as the characters.  You have opened FlashForward to a brand new world of possibilities, great job.

The Blue Hand cult turned out to be a bit more interesting than I expected.  Quite honestly any single episode of television that includes Battlestar Galactica actors tends to be better than the episodes that precede it.  Here's hoping we see more of the high school teacher turned German fatalist!

Why do all episodes of television entitled "The Gift" have people leaping off tall buildings to their inevitable doom (Spoiler: Buffy Season 5 finale)?

I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed this episode and it seems that FlashForward is on a general upward tick in quality.  It was disappointing that Simon did not get much of a role this episode and the fact that they are still ignoring the Somalia lead is criminal.

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

Warning: Don't watch "The Plan" unless you've seen the complete BSG series and don't read this musing unless you've seen "The Plan".

I had this DVD sitting on top of my XBOX 360 since it came in the mail from Netflix over a week ago.  I kept finding reasons not to watch.  It's too long (almost two hour run time), the Yankee's are on (baseball bores me), or I'd rather be playing Uncharted 2 (ok that one was legitimate) all these excuses kept cycling through my brain whenever I thought about putting it on.  It turned out that I had a hard time bringing myself around to the idea of "The Plan" because Battlestar Galactica the series ended on such a strong note. I was worried this new movie might spoil the sense of pure television joy I had whenever my mind drifted to this groundbreaking show.

The good news is that "The Plan" did not sour the taste of Battlestar.  The bad news is that it did not do much to improve upon the splendor of this series either.  The most intriguing aspect of this movie was that Boomer the Cylon was able to come to the surface whenever Cavil presenter her with a hand carved elephant.  It was ironic to learn that when Boomer thought she was most out of control of her own destiny she really held the keys to her own and the entire fleets fate.  

It was fun to see scenes from season one cut into the new material shot for this movie.  I must admit that some of the early footage was simply unnerving.  Revisiting the scene where Felix saved Baltar from certain doom with newly colored with the embittered future path they would soon be on.   

A major frustration with this movie was that we still did not learn anything about the creation and subsequent decimation of the eighth (non-final five) Cylon model Daniel.  "The Plan" would have been infinitely more interesting it focused on the creation of the human Cylons rather than the story of human destruction at the hands of the Cylons.  

I was also disappointed that we did not learn the fate of the Olympic Carrier.  The Carrier as you may remember was a ship in the fleet that Apollo destroyed because the humans thought the Cylons took it over and killed all the humans on board.  It seemed like the perfect fodder for this movie to explore and yet this is an aspect of Battlestar lore that will forever remain a mystery. 

Speaking of mysteries, why did Ron Moore and company put in all the gratuitous skin?  When  I heard that there was nudity in this movie I assumed it would be the Cylon's during resurrection.  Instead we got naked bartenders, humans in the shower (ripped right off of "Starship Troopers" in a series lowlight), and Simon and his wife, in the weirdest trifecta of nudity on a TV movie I have ever seen.

Simon's wife was the one new character I was impressed with on the whole.  I thought it was poignat that humans were able to change the opinions of single Cylons since before the genocide of humanity.  Simon airlocking himself rather than destroy his home ship may have been the best moment for any Simon in the history of the series (admittedly that is a low bar).  It seemed the scene when Chief kissed her was an act of desperation to find a kindred spirit.  It's funny that that kiss and the moments around it led to the Tyrol's recurring suicide dream.

It was fun to visit these characters again, even with a subpar (for BSG) movie.  The lack of Battlestar has really left a tremendous television void.

V: Pilot

V: Pilot 

Call me crazy but I really enjoyed that.  Erica is a terrific character to build a series around and Father Jack will be a great foil for her.  Reporter Chad Decker entered a morally grey area when faced with his first major career decision and I wonder how his character will react to the choice of going with a fluff interview over a substantive Q and A.  Erica's FBI partner going reptile was a bit of a shock, though it did cleanly prove to her that the people she was dealing with weren't complete wing nuts.  Speaking of shocking I loved that the Ryan was a sleeper V agent gone rouge and again, I didn't see it coming.

The only character I didn't love was Erica's son Tyler.  I feel like the story of the son rebelling against the parent has been done to death (see "The 4400") and I never get the emotional payout I want from it.  

The overall story of V seems serviceable enough and I am certainly more excited about it than what I've seen of FlashForward thus far.  I love that sleeper V cells have been out causing havoc in the world for decades.  It's nice to pretend all of our problems come from outside malicious forces beyond our control.  

The religious angel in this series is an interesting aspect of the show as well.  It was funny that when faced with irrefutable evidence that the Christian galactic view was a bit narrow the Catholic Church immediately endorsed the V's as part of God's plan.  

Am I missing something or did the creators of V just tell the House and Senate that they better pass Health Care reform or reptilian aliens disguised as humans will trick the citizens of Earth into worshiping them (the reptiles not the Congress)?

Did I mention I love this cast?  Please ABC don't drop the ball on this unique and engaging series!

FlashForward: Scary Monsters and Super Creeps

Why was the Nicole working as a candy giver at the Mark and Olivia's on Halloween?  Doesn't she have something better to do? Is she a live in baby sitter?  They've established that she has a home to go to so I don't quite understand why she was all Raggedy Anne'd and answering doorbells at the Benford's. 

Olivia got Mark to admit that he was drinking in his flash the first time she asked him point blank about if he was hiding something from her and her response was "I don't trust you".  I found that odd.  

Janis getting shot and told she is most likely never going to be able to be with child is the catalyst to her pregnancy.  Was Stan looking at her funny at the end?  The wife thinks he's going to be the father (I think that's crazy but wanted to mention it in case it turned out to be true).

Did Dylan's repeating of the address remind anyone else of Dory from "Finding Nemo"?  Charlie and Dylan were at the Benford house when the flash happened.  That means that D Gibbons is there too.  Is Simon D Gibbons?  He certainly seems insane enough.  His idea of pillow talk is completely repulsive.  

The FBI crew was almost liquidated because of their investigation into the blackout and Mark thought it was a good idea to go trick or treating with his daughter the next night?  Had a feeling Mark's masked men where pedestrian paperers of the high school variety.  Too bad Mark didn't have that same intuition.  

Demetri's persistent pursuit of the blue hand makes me believe he is slowly coming to the realization that he will die as foretold.  Speaking of Mark's board, did we completely forget about Somalia again?  

Agent Gough got a considerable amount of screen time this week.  I must commend this show for doing a decent job of bringing the background characters in the FBI field office into the spotlight.  Last week was Vreede and this week we got Gough, too bad Gough didn't get to sing like Vreede.

Lloyd's moment in the Benford house was interesting.  More intriguing however was his encounter with Simon.  Their "experiment" seems to be a bit more involved than your average chemistry project.  Was that the first time we got a number of the total dead from the blackout? 20 million seems a bit small considering how many people must have been driving/surfing.  

This show is definitely leaning in the direction of Greek Tragedy.  Knowing your future can only cause it to happen.  Everything you do to avert it only leads to your eventual doom.

Stargate Universe: Light

As this episode of SGU ended my wife turned to me and said, "I kind of like this show". I responded, "At the very least it does give me my weekly dose of Scifi".  That's pretty much a review for this entire series thus far.  The plots are serviceable, the characters range from mediocre to likable but still four episodes in I am finding myself emotionally un-invested.  

Since they introduced the plot thread of Destiny out of power it seemed inevitable that the ship would be quite literally solar powered.  The fact, that they were on a collision course with a star confirmed it for me.  Especially since the ship is the only character in the series doing anything of any consequence (at least the only character who isn't already dead).

Destiny gave the humans an opportunity to save themselves with the air situation last episode but obviously was not overly concerned whether the puny humans survived the experience as it only gave them 12 hours to accomplish the task.  The ship chose the stargates to call and ignored the others.  The ship solved the power situation while the humans almost got 17 of their band killed needlessly.

This brings us to the one character that is off the "mediocre to likable" scale and falls into the category of "interesting".  Dr. Rush knew Destiny would survive her encounter with the star.  I know this because I knew that was the most likely way the ship would power up and if I knew Dr. Rush knew.  I must say I was impressed Colonel Young was able to identify the fact that Rush knew so quickly (that makes Young a bit more interesting).

I know this sounds cruel, but I really was hoping that the writer would have killed off all 17 characters on the shuttle.  The SGU crew has not dealt with significant loss relative to the danger they are in.  Losing 17 souls would have considerably raised the stakes in the series, especially considering some of the characters on the shuttle have had a decent amount of screen time.

FlashForward: Gimme Some Truth

That was by far the best episode of the series.  Character development galore made this episode not only watchable but enjoyable to boot!  Mark on the witness stand in the Senate hearing was the highlight of the episode. The new veep was asking the questions that Wedeck should have been demanding of Mark from the start and in a nod to annoyed viewers Wedeck admitted that he should have grilled Mark more as well.

The agent karaoke in the bar was simply terrific, though I am concerned that they spent so much time getting wasted in a bar with an alcoholic.  On a side note, Vreede and Demetri have terrific chemistry on stage and off.  Their conversation in the hallway about the point of the Senate hearing was terrific.  Speaking of the Senate hearings, they were sadly hilarious as well. Of course the CIA thinks China did it.

The Nazi opportunist was correct in assuming that Janis was gay and the director made a point to zoom in on Janis' thumb ring a few times as if to say, "we know what we're doing".  This obviously makes the Janis being pregnant storyline a bit more interesting and I think her date/morning was some of the best character progression we've been given in the series thus far.  I don't think she'll die in that alley but it should directly relate to how she get pregnant.

I did enjoy the relationship between Wedeck and the President.  I had a feeling when they were playing basketball that the guy was more than an FBI buddy.  I loved how Wedeck put the screws to his presidential buddy to extort the funding for Mosaic.  More illuminating was how much it cost to get Wedeck his funding.  The President promoting his arch nemesis in the Senate to Vice President might out weight the good of the project.  Especially considering the President was about to promote Wedeck to be head of DHS.

Olivia knows that Mark was drinking in his FlashForward.  Only two people should have known that, his sponsor and Wedeck.  My money is on Wedeck sending that text message in the hope that Olivia can keep Mark on the righteous path through April if she is armed with this information.  How pissed is she going to be considering how honest she was about her flash?

My only real gripe of this episode was the start and ending.  The fact that Mark, Demetri, Wedeck, and Vreede all got out of an exploding car without a scratch on them seemed cartoonish in a series that prides itself on being realistic (other than the blackout/see the future element).

Saturday Night Fun

How did you losers spend your Saturday night?

Benjamin Linus: Evil Manipulation has a New Bark

He warned me. He brought me every toy out of his basket and I ignored him. He stared at me for five solid minutes while I looked around him and at the television (shocking I know). He even went into his bedroom and ripped the stuffing out of his bed.

I fixed the bed and continued to ignore him. He ripped the stuffing out of his bed again. I took the bed and hid it in the garage.

All the warning signs were there. I feigned ignorance. Any dog owner with a slightly rambunctious pup knows when the behavioral tsunami is coming and instead of running for higher ground I simply went wandering out towards the newly visible beach.

That's when he struck. I was sitting on the couch upstairs thinking of something witty to put on my blog when I noticed that Benjamin Linus Bonora (whose puppy mug graces this very page) had been gone for an unusually long period of time. I walked down stairs and to my horror saw the insides of my favorite sectional couch (my only sectional couch) scattered all over the living room floor.

After a five minute stare down in which I laid the optical smack down on my dog (see "Modern Family" on Hulu for a full description of how to optically smack someone) I cleaned the mess Benjamin had made in an effort to get my attention (which he did now have).

Rather than continue to fester resentment towards my loyal companion I did the one thing I swore I'd never do. I woke up 40 minutes early this morning so I could walk my dog before work. When I returned home from a long day in the school building I walked him again pound the excess energy out of him.

It is somewhat hilarious how in order to make himself happier my figured out that he must destroy my valuable possessions in order to motivate me. It took my brothers at least 10 years to get that lesson (Benji is a year and a half...).

Supernatural: I Believe the Children are our Future

For the first few minutes of this episode I thought we were in for another sub par episode. Electrocuting hand buzzers, a girl itching through her scalp, and the ugly tooth fairy all were terrible signs that an evil version of Paris Hilton (like another version exists, I know) was about to show up at any moment (again). Yet, this particular episode started slow and built into something that far exceeded my initial expectations.

I will admit that the buzzer in the weaker beginning half of this episode did make for some great moments. I loved Dean frying the ham with the buzzer that fried a man. The fact that Dean then ate the fried ham through the rest of the episode made for a great running gag. Dean proving that the buzzer had no real power by fake zapping Sam was another terrific beat.

The brothers are gelling back into the duo they were before heaven and hell made them pawns. Sam and Dean are starting to get over their childhood trauma and in essence this episode was a long metaphor explaining it. Dean and Sam's brief conversation at the end of the episode demonstrated once again how messed up life with Daddy Winchester really was.

The truly amazing aspect of this episode however was Dylan. Dylan adds another biblical stalwart to season five of Supernatural, the Anti-Christ. Dylan has the power to do anything and that makes him the most dangerous figure in the whole history of the series, more than even Lucifer. I loved that Cas, tried and failed to kill Dylan and was thwarted when Dylan turned him into a knife wielding action figure. Speaking of Cas, when he explained that the bible got a lot wrong, I began to wonder what he was referring to because at this point it seems that the bible has been fairly spot on describing the key players.

While I am thrilled that the episode introduced Dylan I'm glad it also benched him indefinitely in Australia. Dylan is a neat concept but he is far to strong to have on the side of Lucifer and if the brothers adopted the little turnip head I would have to assume that Supernatural had jumped the shark.

I do have a few lingering questions. If Dylan is so strong, why did your average run of the mill dark eyed demon get to create him? Additionally, why wouldn't more demons create anti-Christ's if all it takes is nine months and a virgin?

Whoot Watch: Damn you Nintendo

My nephew is a prolific bowler within the confines of Wii Sports. He is such a strong bowler that he consistently beats me with relative ease. This is extremely frustrating because I have been gaming on a fairly regular basis since the release of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and Johnny is not yet five years old (though he will be by the months end). In any event today after dropping another game to my pint sized pal I off handedly remarked, "Well, I could beat you in real bowling" (and suddenly I became my father).

This was the stupidest thing I could have possibly uttered for a few reasons. First off, I'm not entirely sure that Johnny was even aware that a game called bowling existed in places other than his home video game console. Secondly, and more importantly, I hate bowling with a passion. So obviously, two seconds after my bowling statement left my mouth, Johnny retorted with, "bowling? We can go bowling? Let's go bowling".

At that point I immediately started yelling at my dog for something he had done around three hours before Johnny got to my house. But the kid would not be distracted, "Uncle, let's go bowling" was repeated around four times before my wife could take it no more and dragged my ass to the bowling alley.

In an effort to make bowling fairer for everyone involved I ensured that we found a lane with bumpers. Incidentally, this was more for my own benefit than my nephew's as I have scored as low as six pins at the alley in the past (one roll away from a most imperfect game). Anyway, after 10 frames I was able to beat my nephew 97 to 68 (it is hard to throw a game with bumpers). At the end of the game I "accidentally" dropped a 10 pound bowling ball on my nephew's foot and it seems to have discouraged him from wanting to bowl again any time soon.