Weekly TV Thoughts: 03/15 - 03/21

A very busy TV week. A couple of shows took a week off, but a couple more had their season premieres, plus there was a ton of basketball to watch (and a little lacrosse, too).

-Kings, Sunday: One of the shows that premiered last week. All the reviews I read pretty much said the same thing- you'll either love right away or hate right away. After watching the two-hour pilot, I guess you can put me in the "love right away" column. It wasn't perfect, but I appreciate the attempt at such a high-concept show. What's it like? Start with the story of King David (on which the show is loosely modeled), add in the political intrigue of The West Wing, the story complexity of Battlestar Galactica, and the character relationships of Gossip Girl, and mix it with alternate-reality mysticism of Lost or Alias, and you've kind of got what Kings is all about. If they can deftly manuve among all these facets and keep it all in balance, the show could be great. If they can't, it'll fail horribly.

-24, Monday: When in doubt, make your enemy a private security firm that's overstepped its boundaries. It worked on Jericho with Ravenwood. It worked in real life with Blackwater. And now on 24, its Starkwood. But what is Jonas Hodges's end game? He bringing in some sort of bio-weapon to target a bunch of cities in the mid-Atlantic region, but he doesn't want to use it unless he has to. So what could he want from the Presient? Guess we'll just find out later. Now to Jack- why does everyone find it so hard to trust this man? Sure, you may disagree with his methods at times, but when has he ever done anything where the absolute end game wasn't in the best interest of America? I liked the mini series recap that Jack gave when he was talking with Senator Mayer. I wonder if its apparent to anyone in the show that ever time Jack's been tasked to save the world, its taken him 24 hours to do so. Hmm. I was really hoping that the Jack-Senator Mayer partnership would last for a few episodes, so I wasn't expecting Mayer to get gunned down right then and there. I'm starting to like ths showdown between Ethan and Olivia. It puts President Taylor in the middle and should make for some good drama.

-Better Off Ted, Wednesday: The second premiere of the week. Who would've thought that taking The Office and setting it in Fringe's Massive Dynamic corporation would work so well? Its a completely off-the-wall show that is paired perfectly with Scrubs. Both shows include narration from the main character (in this case, Ted breaks the fourth wall and just talks to the audience directly), and both have a cast of supporting characters that may be more entertaining than the show leads. The two lab guys are hysterical, and Portia de Rossi's deadpan delivery is a perfect representation for the souless corporation they work for. And its always funny when the little kid is the smartest person in the room. Its a nutty show that hopefully isn't too nutty for TV.

Lost, Wednesday: Welcome back, Lost. Good to see that the Ajira plane did in fact land on the runway that Kate and Sawyer helped build over on the Hydra island. And its also good to see that Lapidus really is a kick ass pilot. I am dying to know why Sun wasn't teleported back to 1977 with the rest of hte O6 (and Ben, Locke, and Lapidus, for that matter). Based on what Christian told Sun at the end of the episode, it looks like she (and probably a few other people) will be going back in time, instead of the others travelling back to 2007. So back in 1977, I liked the reunion scene, where everyone got to drop some knowledge on each other. Jack tells Sawyer and Jin that Locke's dead, Sawyer tells Jack, Kate, and Hurley that they're in 1977; I think Sawyer wins in the shock value category. I really enjoyed watching Sawyer work the con, trying to keep everyone's cover intact. And its a good thing Sayid was smart enough to pick up on Sawyer's game on the fly. I think Jack is honestly trying to defer to Sawyer's leadership; I think he really wants to be able to let things go and not be a control freak. He's starting to accept the idea of fate and destiny, but its still hard for him. I think he want to see Sawyer about Sayid not because he wanted to take charge, but because he feels responsible for the O6 being back on the island, and just wanted to make sure Sayid was going to be okay. Of course, that lead to Sawyer's awesome smack down of Jack's leadership style and the great quip about Winston Churchill. A couple other things, I hope the fact that Amy's baby was revealed to be Ethan has greater significance than "Hey, her baby's Ethan!" I hope that means somehting more and important for Ethan's character. Also, I wonder when we'll get some answers about Faraday. According to Sawyer, he's not with them anymore, so where did he go? Is he still on the island somewhere, or did he leave altogether? We know he worked (at one point) on the construction of the Orchid station, but when was that? Guess we'll have to wait and see.

-Dollhouse, Friday: Everyone was saying that this episode, Episode 6, was turning point for the series, and I think it was. Now, they've really set up the overall story of Agent Ballard trying to bring down the Dollhouse by establishing that there is someone on the inside that also wants the Dollhouse gone. Yes, it was a little predictable that Millie turned out to be an Active, but it was still a nice twist. The Dollhouse knows that Agent Ballard is after them, but the don't know there's someone inside who'll be helping him. And there's still Alpha out there to worry about. I can't wait to see him brought into the fold.

-Battlestar Galactica, Friday: So here it is, the series finale. First off, I loved the finale. Some people out there hated it, but they're wrong. Sure, I thought there might be a little more bloodshed and death, but after seeing it, I'm glad there wasn't. The attack on the Cylon colony was awesome, from Anders taking control of the other hybrids, to the Raptors jumping away from the museum wing, to Galactica just ramming into the colony. It was action packed and very satisfying. Boomer got a little redemption by saving Hera, and still got her due when Athena shot her. I glad that they decided that the head characters (Six and Baltar) were actual ouside entities and not just some mental manifestation. I also loved how they paid off the Opera House vision, where it wasn't symbolic of anything, it was actually happening. If that was the plan all along, I salute the writers. If not, I still salute them for making it work. I glad that Tryol got some vengance for Callie's death; he deserved that closure. And in the end, the fleet ends up at the planet WE call Earth, and decide to settle on it. And after 150,000 years, here we are, all children of Hera (aka mitochondrial Eve), meaning we are all decentants of Cylon model 8, which really isn't a bad thing at all. I think this the proper way for the show to go it. The survivors desereved to find a home, deserved to find some peace. The show was about humaniy's fight to survive, and in the end, they got to. And as for Starbuck? Her just disappearing and Lee not being freaked out by it was the perfect way to go out. Her destiny was to lead the people to Earth. She died in the process, so she was allowed to come back and fulfill that destiny. And when she did, she was gone. All in all, the perfect ending for a near perfect show.

-College Lacrosse, Virginia vs. Johns Hopkins, Saturday: Finally, I get to watch Virginia lacrosse on TV (the first of 4 consectutive games on either ESPN2 or ESPNU). All this basketball just reminds me of how bad UVA is at hoops, so its nice to watch a sport where we're the best in the country. I'm glad they're finally on TV so I can distract myself from the pain of Virginia basketball.

-NCAA Tournament: As always, the first two rounds of the tournament provide plenty of upsets. The odd thing about this year is that most of them came on Friday night, after a day and a half of mostly chalk. Its pretty rare to see the 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 seeded teams in one region all make it to the second round, but that's exactly what happened in the Midwest region. There's nothing like the first two rounds of the tourney; my bracket's shot to hell and I don't care. I love the upsets and am always rooting for the higher seeds.