Weekly TV Thoughts: 02/15 - 02/21

Another week with a lot of things to watch, especially at the end of the week, some of which won't be chronicled here (Conan O'Brien's final show on Friday, UFC 95 on Saturday). And I'll start this week off with the Academy Awards tonight (where Heath Ledger will win for Best Supporting Actor, despite my earlier prediction).

-Heroes, Monday: Man, this episode sucked. Seriously, everything they did wrong in the past few seasons they did wrong in this episode. Hiro and Ando go to India to stop a wedding. WHY? So they could get a fax from Rebel telling them that they have to back to L.A. to save Parkman. They went to India so they could get a fax. Terrible. Sylar and Luke on a buddy roadtrip? Whatever. Claire saving Alex and Aquaboy? Okay, actually not that bad. I like the set up of Claire going on the run and actually having a reason to go on the run. But the episode was quasi-saved by the final moments, where Peter, Mohinder, and Parkman drug HRG and take him away to interrogate him via mind reading in the next episode, which has to be better than this episode was.

-24, Monday: Okay, so I was wrong on the FBI mole. Turns out, it was Hillinger, a.k.a. Billy Walsh from Entourage. He was an early suspect for mole when he was caught logging onto the system to check his wife's flight status; nothing beats a cover story that also happens to be true to throw off the scent of treason. Still though, I insist that the blonde FBI chick will be important by the end of the day. Maybe she'll be the one to blow the whistle on Hillinger. The Chloe-Janis showdown was a little underwhelming; hopefully that gets better as Janis continues to distrust Chloe in the coming episodes. Perhaps in a situation where they're forced to work together.

-Lost, Wednesday: And just like that, the Oceanic 6 is back on the island. It was only a matter of time, and I really glad they didn't drag it out over the length of the season; that would've been stupid. Instead, everyone got on board Ajira Flight 316 from L.A. to Guam and passed over the most likely location of the island, as determined by the Lamppost Station (nice Narnia reference). Loved all the call backs in this episode, from Jack waking up in the jungle to the O6 having to to recreate as best they can the circumstances of the original crash. Hurley with the guitar? Charlie. Sayid in handcuffs escorted by a fed? Kate. Sun with her husband's wedding ring, worrying about her husband? Rose. Ben running onto the plane at the last moment? Hurley. All with Lapidus as the pilot, where he should have been the first time (line of the night went to Frank after he saw all of the O6 sitting in Business Class, "We're not going to Guam, are we?"). I think the seccond best line, and probably the most telling one, came from Kate, when she said to Jack, "We're here, but we're not together" (or something to that effect). That speaks to all the questions that still remain about the O6- why were they they all there on the flight? You knew Jack and Ben would be there, and Sun was pretty much a lock since she's desperate to find Jin. But Kate? What changed her mind? Where's Aaron and why doesn't she want to talk about it? My guess is that Aaron was taken from her and that forced Kate back to the island. Why/how was Hurley there? He seemed pretty content in not going back and not doing anything Ben wanted him to do (he seemed shocked to see Ben on the plane), so what changed his mind? It was clear that Sayid had no intention of going back, so him being under arrest seemed to make sense. But why? And why was he being transported back to Guam? Does it stem from when he was killing people for Ben? Did he even know that they others would be on the flight? And what about the two other people with them in Business Class- the fed with Sayid and the guy from Three Kings (seriously, do you know the actor from anywhere else)? I think they get sent to the island with the O6; is it a case of wrong place wrong time, or are they part of the plan as well? And what about Lapidus? Does he go back too? I hope so, because he's a cool character. As for Jack, Hurley, and Kate seeing Jin pull up in a Dharma bus wearing a Dharma jumpsuit, I think its clear when the O6 have landed. This should be awesome, with plenty of headache inducing time travel goodness.

-Dollhouse, Friday: A much better episode than last week's. In fact, I think it would have been best for the show if they had gone with a 2-hour premiere, showing these two episodes back-to-back on one night. The story would've had made more sense from the start and I think more viewers would be into the show. As it is now, I don't know if enough stuck around after the pilot to see this week's show. By giving a mini history of the Dollhouse and Alpha, and by tying Alpha to Agent Ballard, the series is building a nice serial base from which to work. And as Echo starts to remember things she shouldn't, the series should really start to pick up. I have to say, I'm still excited for this show.

-Battlestar Galactica, Friday: Cylon melodrama! Clearly, this episode was about forcing the idea onto everyone that their society cannot be humans and Cylons but instead simply society. Tigh had the best line when he said that human-human is too weak and Cylon-Cylon is too weak; that division is how all of this started in the first place. I guess the Cylon compound being used to fix Galactica is just a thinly-veiled methaphor for the integration of the whole fleet. I think killing Caprica Six's baby was also done just to further illustrate the point; the only future is the human-Cylon hybrid (a.k.a. Hera), nothing else will work. Adama has come around to the idea of integrating the Cylons, and it appears that Lee and Roslin are coming around as well. But I htink Baltar is right, the fleet as a whole isn't ready. Not yet. Which brings us back to Baltar and his now assult rifle-weilding harem- that can't end well. We'll see, but next week it looks like we'll get some Starbuck answers, which is good seeing as there are only 4 episodes left. Can't hold anything back now.

-Bracket Buster games, Saturday: Praise be to the guy that thought this would be a good idea. Take a bunch of good, mid-major conference teams, pair them up, and give them a chance to show what they can do on a big stage. Paying attention on this day can help you when trying to pick those first round upset come March Madness. This is one of my favorite days of the college basketball year.

-Taking Chance, HBO, Saturday: And now, something a little serious. I saw ads for this a while back, and I didn’t know when it would actually be airing. I'm glad I caught it. If you have a chance to watch it at some point, I suggest you do. When I first heard about the movie, I went and read the original story written by Lt. Col. Michael Strobl (which you can find here- I recommend reading it). I know a Marine that was killed in Afghanistan and its good to know the level of care that was given to him when he returned home. Semper fi.