Weekly TV Thoughts: 03/08 - 03/14

No Lost this past week, which made for a lighter television week. Thankfully, Championship Week was in full swing. Usually I avoid the major conference championships and just focus on the one-bid leagues, but all the tournaments have been incredible this year. Six overtimes for Syracuse and UConn? Then Syracuse plays another overtime the next night against West Virginia? Amazing. And I love seeing all these top potential top seeds lose early going into the Big Dance (except for Lousiville, who's looking tough to beat). I'll have more thoughts on college basketball later tonight, once the brackets are announced (Selection Sunday, one of the best days of the year). Who knows, it might go down as a live blog.

And on top of all the college basketball that's been on, the World Baseball Classic's been playing as well. I know a lot of people are down on the WBC, but I think for the most part, its alright. The USA-Canada game was phenomenal, and the Dutch coming out of nowhere to upset the Dominican Republic twice? No one saw that coming. And as to how this effects players come the regular season, I'm thinking it'll effect pitchers more than position players. Which is why I'm glad the Dominican team has been eliminated, so Edinson Volquez and Johnny Cueto are done and back at Spring Training.

Okay, now the scripted shows of the week:

-Heroes, Monday: I don't know what the hell is going on with this show. The Sylar's dad storyline was just stupid. He spent part of the episode STUFFING A FUCKING RABBIT. And what did he learn? That he'll he never be fullfilled just collecting powers, so he should direct his murderous nature toward something more meaningful; didn't he already come to this once before? The only redeeming part of that scene was Sylar going back and taking the rabbit when he left his dad's and placed in in Denko's apartment. Sylar vs. Denko so should be good, so I'm at least glad for that. Adding to the ricidulousness is Hiro and Ando, who have been charged with protecting Matt Parkman's son, Matt Parkman. We haven't heard from Parkman's family since Season 1 (I think), and now they just suddenly reappear? Please. This story better last less time than the stupid India trip. So what was good about this episode? Denko finally learning the Nathan can fly. Denko's meeting with Angela. Any time Denko and HRG face off. Now that Sylar's been reintroduced and Nathan's been outed, I really think this storyline gets interesting. Hopefully the Rebel storyline continues to advance this story, and not the other ones. Speaking of Rebel, what was the point of sending Claire to help Doyle when it was Rebel that did all the work of getting him a new ID? Was it just to shoot the scene of her in the comic shop? And if Rebel can penetrate Denko's computer system and take over, why doesn't he just shut the whole thing down? Oh well. According to Greg Grunberg's Twitter feed, the entire cast is together in the same scene later in the season (Episode 20, perhaps, which Grunberg says is awesome). We'll have to see. Heroes if off next week, and when it comes back, it'll the first episode with Bryan Fuller back on staff, so hopefully the series starts getting better.

-24, Monday: I have to admit, I didn't expect Bill to be the one to die (I read a lot spoiler sites, so I knew a death was coming). And I didn't expect it to happen right at the top of the episode, though when I think about it, its passe to end an episode with a tragic death, so mixing it up and doing right away was a nice change of pace. Its kind of amazing how much a dick Larry Moss is. I mean, on one hand, he's fully capable of defying the Vice President and storming to take back the White House, and on the other, he's 100% resitant to everything Jack says. So maybe its just Jack that he hates. He didn't bat an eye at suspending Renee for going over his head and talking to Ethan, so I guess this frees up Renee to join Jack on the rogue agent trail. And speaking of Ethan, I'm glad we got some backstory between him and Olivia. He bit the bullet and asked Olivia to join the administration (at the behest of the President) after being fired from the campaign, and she just bites his head off. I'm starting to think she's not a traitor, but that she will still be a problem because she's going to go digging to find out who in her mother's administration was responsible for all this and that's not going to go well for her. And that brings me to Jon Voight's villian, Jonas Hodges. He seems completely crazy, and that's awesome, and we also got a little insight into this master plan. He's got a cache of weapons on the way toward the States and a list of cities as targets. We don't know what he wants, but he did indicate that he didn't want to go through with the attacks if he didn't have to. I wonder what his end game is.

-Castle,Monday: A new series that debuted on Monday staring Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic. Its a character-driven procedural cop drama/comedy with a Moonlighting twist. Basically, its Bones with a little more silliness (thanks to Nathan Fillion). I'm bit fan of Bones, and Nathan Fillion, so I'll be watching this show, even if its not very good. Fillion should be a big(ger) star, and the fact that he's not is a crime, so I hope this show does well.

-Battlestar Galactica, Friday: And the end is closing in fast. Part I of the series finale, and I thought the episode was great. I liked the flashbacks, showing life on the colonies well before the Cylon attack. You have to think that these flashbacks will become more important/will be explained in the second part of the episode airing this Friday. Funny parts- Baltar telling Caprica Six that he'd forgetten her name (nice little nod to the fan there, myself included, who constantly wonder why she doesn't have a name), and finding out that Anders was the Dan Marino of Pyramid players. Highly talented, no championships, constantly rebuilding team. Back on Galactica, I really liked the scene between Lee and Baltar, setting up Baltar to have one last chance at redemption down the line. And it was a foregone conclusion that Adama would be leading one last charge to save Hera and destroy the evil Cylon faction. I like how he literally drew a line that you had to cross AND made everyone declare their intentions in person, leaving no doubt in their minds about the slim possibility of survival. Did we see Athena in that scene? Helo was there, but last we saw Athena, she was a wreak, seemingly unable to leave her bunk. And although we didn't see Baltar cross the line in this episode, I'm positive he'll be with Adama before its all said and done. And it all sets up the final, suicide mission against the baseship this week. So who lives and who dies? I think Lee's going make it. Starbuck, too. Roslin will obviously die. Tigh, I'm a little uncertain. But whatever happens to him, live or die, the same will happen to Ellen. Hera lives, because you can't kill kids, even on Battlestar Galactica. And since Hera lives, I'm saying that Helo lives as well. I think Anders is stuck as the hybrid for Galactica, so I'm not sure if that qualifies and living or dying. Tory and Tyrol are interesting cases; do they survive simply because they're part of the Final Five, or do they die and experience resurrection? Don't know. I think Baltar lives, even after he finally commits a truely selfless act, and I think Boomer dies, but not before she helps Hera escape. There are a number for whom killing Boomer would be a fitting end (Adama, Tyrol, Helo, Athena), and I think it'll be one of them that ultimately does her in. Which leaves Adama. Clearly, this is Galactica's last mission, and Roslin isn't going to make it much longer. So he's on the verge of losing the two things he loves the most; does that set him up to die as well? I think it does. If anyone's in position to make a grand sacrificing jesture to save all of humanity, its Adama. If that happens with Adama, it would be a little cheesey, but I'd be okay with it. Can't wait to see how this all ends.

Thursday and Friday of this week are two of the greatest sports days of the year, which will put a little hitch in the TV viewing schedule. But that's why God created DVR. March Madness it here! Time to go print out some brackets and get ready.

In Preparation For March Madness

There's a new commercial for Vitamin Water starring Christian Laettner and Rick Pitino. I think its hysterical, especially Pitino's bit at the end. He's still probably wondering why both they guys he put on Laettner were standing behind him.



And THAT got me remembering this outstanding ESPN college basketball commercial from back in the day:



R.I.P. Chris Farley.

Weekly TV Thoughts: 03/01 - 03/07

I saw 2 movies in the theater this week; can't recall the last time I did that. First was Fanboys, which I recommend for big-time Star Wars fans (or big time Kristen Bell fans). The second was Watchmen, which I discussed (briefly) here.

-Heroes, Monday: The Rebel storyline only works if it actually unites all the characters together. If its just a mechanism to loosely tie all the stories to one common point (like it is now), the show's not going to get any better. But if they can tighten up the story and get everyone working together, the show's got some hope. I'm glad they finally had Parkman use his mind-control powers deliberately to achieve an end and not while he was under stress to save his life. He's ridiculously powerful; why don't they use him more? And how does strapping a bomb to Parkman help The Hunter reach his goal? People would have to know that a)people with abilities exist and that b)Parkman is one of them for it to be an effective stunt. Peter exposed the operation of rounding up US citizens to the public, but not the specifics as to why; people with powers are still unknown. The Claire-Alex storyline was only good because it gave Claire's mom, Sandra, something constructive to do. And Sylar's storyline? Just stupid. So his dad has TK and he sliced open his mom's head. Whatever. That toy car sparked his memory; did he call it Rosebud? That story needs to be finished.

-24, Monday: Who knew that it was that easy to take control of the White House? Just dive underwater, drill up beneath the subsurface, and with the help of a single man in the inside, you too can take the President of the United State hostage. It had a real James Bond-ish plan feel to it, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I'm glad to finally see Jon Voight on the show; I think he's going to be an awesome villian. I'm also getting the traitor vibe from the President's daughter, Olivia. I didn't think that before, but now, it seems like it makes sense. Its the kind of left-field twist 24 is always good for. I'm also really enjoying Agent Walker's transformation from a by-the-book FBI agent to a do-what-is-necessary Jack Bauer clone. The ongoing struggle betwen her and Agent Moss is good to. Moss and Bauer and polar opposites and Renee is moving in between then. This episode also had my favorite 24 scene device- when a character has vital information that needs to be heard, so they tell a random person to call someone in charge so they know what's going on, but before that person can make the call, they're shoot and killed and the information remains unrelayed. Happens all the time in 24.

-Lost, Wednesday: I've read some review from people that didn't like this episode; I loved it. I loved the "Three years eariler/Three years later" construciton, filling in the gaps on the island between when Locke reset the wheel and when the O6 got back to the island. So we learn how Sawyer and company become a part of the Dharma Initiative. Sawyer, Jin, and Miles all work security; makes sense. Juliet works in the motorpool; not so much. But where is Faraday? We saw him a the beginning of the season working on the Orchid station; is he still in contact with everyone else, or is he off doing his own thing? Charlotte's death seem to send him off the deep end (if that was even possible), so its possible he his disassociated himself from everyone. My favorite scene was the conversation between Sawyer and Richard Alpert; what must be going through Richard's head at this point? He doesn't age, which one would assume he's aware of, so he had to know that the island has some special time properties associated with it. But what about all the time-travel? He seemed not to understand it when Locke talked with him in the 50's, and he seemed non-reactive when talking to Sawyer, like he didn't want to let on that he knew more than he was letting on. I'm starting to think that the reason Richard doesn't age is because he died and the island brought him back to life. There a lot of talk about an Egyptian connection to the island (the hieroglyphics, the ankh necklace, the statue); I think it would be awesome if Richard was part of the first settlement on the island, thousands of years ago, and he's been the same age ever since (because he's dead and doesn't age). And finally, new girl Amy's baby boy; he's going to be important. Why? Because the actress playing Amy said in an interview that she knows who her baby is and isn't allowed to say. That just screams important. The the child was born in 1977, putting him in his late-20's at the time of the Oceanic plane crash, and about 30 when the Ajira plane landed. So who could it be? Still pondering that one.

-Battlestar Galactica, Friday: Starbuck confesses her death to Baltar and Baltar rewards her by outing her secret to everyone. Well done, Gaius. I like the open, shared knowledge about how Starbuck, Hera, and the Final Five all experienced "All Along The Watchtower." One of my favorite parts about using this song has been how they've worked in lyrics into the dialogue. And in this episode, the dying Eight that requested seeing Tigh quoted a line herself ("Too much confusion"). First time a non-Final Five quoted a line. Important? Dont' know, but was a nice touch. I think its interesting that Sam is now plugged into Galactica hybrid-style; I hope they keep playing this angle before they abandon Galactica (which appears inevitable). While Boomer appears to be evil, it doesn't like she's completely evil. She obivously bonded with Hera and it looks likes she's going to save Hera from Cavil's experiments and return her to the fleet, at the cost of her own life. And we still need some answers to Starbuck. The longer they delay those answers, the more it looks like her answers are the answers to everyone and everything.

And finally, this weekend was the real start of March Madness. Or, the Mayhem Before the Madness, as the ESPN promos would tell us. Championship Week is just as good as the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament (which, let's face it, is the best part of the tournament). Little mid-major schools playing for a chance to be Cinderella, where you're only way in is to win because there is no bubble. The elation when a team wins and earns a ticket to the Big Dance, the agony of coming so close and losing. That emotion is why college basketball is lightyears ahead of the NBA.

Watch Watchmen

Watchmen was fucking awesome. Plain and simple, go see it (don't worry, no spoilers in this post). Do you have to be a fan of the comic (or know the comic) to enjoy it? I don't think so, but its hard for me to say since I am. Just know going in that there is a lot of graphic violence and sex and that the movie is very dark. Very dark. And very graphic, especially with the violence. The sex is actually pretty tame when compared to the violence. That is, unless you count all the time you see a blue-CGI'ed penis, which is quite a few (seriously). But I can't stress the violence enough; if you can't stand violence, Watchmen might not be for you. Based on the audible gasps and the fact that a few people walked out part of the way through the movie, I'm guessing some people in the theater didn't quite know what they were getting into. Oh well. I thought it was incredible, and my complaints (few as they are) have to do with visual style and casting and nothing to do with the story or how it was told.

Complaint #1- all the damn slow motion. We get it, Zack Snyder, it looks cool when you slow down time and then speed it up real quick to catch up; we all saw 300. Watchmen is a long movie (2:43, I believe), and I swear it could have been a half hour shorter if all the slo-mo had been dropped. Okay, so there's not that much slo-mo, but there's a lot. Its used in pretty much every action sequence. I get that its just a director's visual style, but its been done to death (see: Bay, Michael).

Complaint #2- Matthew Goode as Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias. A lot of reviews I read pegged Malin Akerman as the weak casting link, but I think it was Goode. And its not that he's a weak actor, I just think he was miscast. You don't believe for a second that he's the "smartest man in the world", and if you do believe that, you certainly don't believe that he physically capabable to do what he does in the movie. And then there's this odd accent that comes and goes with him. The first time we see Adrian Veidt, he's got this strange, indecernable accent, but later in the movie, he's got nothing at all. It was a little distracting. Aside for Ozymandias, I thought the rest of the movie was cast well, especially Jackie Earle Haley and Patrick Wilson.

There's a lot of talk about the movie altering the climactic ending from that in the comic; don't worry about it. I don't think the original ending would have worked on screen. They cut elements from the story that tie into the original ending (and they were right in doing that), so without those story points, the original ending wouldn't have made any sense. What they changed it to works better in the context of the story and achieves the exact same intended outcome. In fact, I dare say that the movie's ending achieves that outcome in a more complete and all-encompassing way than the comic.

So all-in-all, I loved Watchmen. Its totally worth seeing again in the theater, and I might do just that before the weekend's over.

This Is Just Weird

I'm in full-on Watchmen mode right now. I would love to see this guy take on scenes from the graphic novel in the same Saturday-morning cartoon style.

Just An Excuse To Post This Video

So last night against the Magic, Shaquille O'Neal did something that he's been complaining about on other players ever since he entered the league. He flopped.



That was a flop that would have made Vlade Divac proud. Shaq's seen enough guys flop on him in his career, so it no wonder that when he finally decided to do it, he did it like a champ. But as the title of this post suggests, I only bring up Shaq's flop so I show this video, the most egregious flop in the history of basketball (sorry for the laugh track):



How bad is that flop? European soccer players find it offensive, that's how bad. It's why so many people hate Duke (and why they specifically hate Greg Paulus).

Weekly TV Thoughts: 02/22 - 02/28

TNT is showing The Lord of the Rings right now, which is surefire way for me to waste away an entire day. Its right up there with Band of Brothers on History.

-Heroes, Monday: While I don't plan to abandon this show anytime soon, my patience is wearing thin with Heroes. This episode wasn't that bad; there was a lot of good exposition and the black-and-white flashback scene were a nice call back to Company Man, easily one of the best episodes to date. But I don't think we learned anything Earth-shatteringly new. HRG is a double (or is it triple) agent, working his own agenda while working with The Hunter. Shocker. They need to reassemble all the characters and get them fighting toward a single goal. Of course, that goal now appears to be saving New York, err... Washington, D.C. from annihilation. Good thing no one's currently occupying Isaac's loft, otherwise where else would Parkman use his as-of-yet-unexplained new ability to paint the future? It does sadden me, however, that they can't seem to come up with a better storyline than "save a city from destruction." I'll keep watching, but I really don't know why.

-24, Monday: See, I told you the blonde FBI chick was a mole. I just didn't think she'd be a mole in tandem with Hillinger. Too bad she fell for Sean's shoot-the-girl-than-shoot-yourself-in-the-arm act. That one fools them every time. I really thought for a second there that Hillinger would get away, at least for an episode or two. But I didn't count one the extent of Chloe's digital kung fu. Hillinger is in custody, Dubaku is dead, all the names everyone working with Dubaku is exposed, and the coup in Sangala is being quelled. Looks like a short day for Jack Bauer and company, if it weren't for the imminant attack being planned on Washington right now. Looks like General Juma is going to go after the White House next, which should keep Jack busy for the next 14 hours or so. I also get the sense that they've introduced the President's daughter for the sole purpose of her getting kidnapped somewhere down the line. I can see it going down something like this: Juma threatens the White House, everyone is evacuated, the attack is averted, Juma then captures the First Daughter because she defies her mother's orders and goes off and does something on her own without any Secret Service protection. I'd like to think that they could use her for more than that, but I'm not banking on it.

-Lost, Wednesday: First, what's happening on the the island. We now have names for the two other people who were sitting in business class with the O6 and Ben- Caesar and Ilana. And while it looks like everyone else on the plane survived (clearly, Lapidus IS a really good pilot), these two are obviously going to be important. From the looks of it, they landed on the small satellite island, by the Hydra station. Did Lapidus manage to land the plane on the "runway" that Kate and Sawyer were forced to work on? Was the runway being built because the Others knew that the Ajira flight would eventually have to land there? The woman that left with Lapidus on the outrigger has to be Sun. I mean, who else would a)have something or someone to look for and b)even know that there IS something or someone else to look for? They head toward the main island, carrying some Ajira bottle waters, and land on the beach, looking for the old camp. But if that's the case, why wasn't Sun with Jack, Hurley, and Kate? Why was she left on the plane? And where's Sayid? According to Caesar, some people disappeared in the flash, while other didn't; who stayed and who was flashed away? This begs another question- the flash of light is associated with time travel; so have Jack, Hurley, and Kate been transported back in time while the rest of the plane, including Lapidus, Ben, and what looks like Sun, crashed on the island in "real time"? I have no idea. Oh, and the least surprising part of the episode- Locke's alive again. Or, at least he's not dead. He can interact with everyone and can eat food, so let's just assume that he's actually alive again. Okay, so now to off the island, when Locke turned the wheel and was sent to the Tunisian desert. We do we learn? We learn that Charles Widmore wants to help Locke because Locke is special and destined to lead the people on the island. This is odd, because Ben claims to want to do the exact same thing for the exact same reason, except that he and Widmore are also working against each other. It makes Locke seems like nothing more than a pawn in a much, much larger game. Nothing all that exciting in Locke's meeting with each of the O6 (though Hurley assuming that Locke was dead was funny). None of them want to go back, and they make that very clear to Locke (especially Jack and Kate; they REALLY cut down Locke). We do get some good info, like how Jack gets sent off the rails (Locke tells him that his father says, "hi"). We also see that Locke wanted to kill himself, but doesn't because Ben stops him. And then Ben kills Locke anyway, and makes it look like a suicide. I wonder whether killing Locke was his plan all along, or if he decided to do so only after hearing Locke's plan to go visit Ms. Hawking. Now that I've had some time to think about it, I think it's the latter. Why? Because Ms. Hawking thinks Locke committed suicide. Ben's working with Ms. Hawking, trying to bring the O6 back to the island, because that's what Locke was supposed to do. He got Locke to divulge his mission so HE could carry it out and get himself back to the island (since he wouldn't have been included if Locke was running the show). It was only after he assumed Locke's role that he learned that he needed to bring Locke's body back with them. He clearly didn't realize the implications of doing so (ie- that Locke would come back to life on the island), otherwise he might not have murdered him. That should make for an interesting meeting once Ben awakes on the island.

-Hackers, Thursday: I can't believe I watched this movie. Again. It was made in 1994, released in 1995. Is that really how people thought computers worked 15 years ago (man, I feel like I've made this observation before). I think War Games, made back in 1983, gave a more accurate depiciton of computers than Hackers did. That said, check out the cast list to this movie; there are a ton of actors that you'd recognize now from other, less crappy, work, outside of just Angelina Jolie.

-Battlestar Galactica, Friday: So, I thought we'd actually get some answers about Starbuck in this episode. Turns out, we didn't. At least, not on the surface. While nothing specific was revealed about Starbuck, the implications were very heavy. The popular interwebs theory is that Starbuck is a hybrid, and that her father is Daniel, the missing 7th Cylon model that Cavil destoryed. Ellen said that Daniel was an artist, and from what we saw in this episode, Starbuck's father was a piano player (it was pretty clear that all the piano scenes were just in Starbuck's head). Also, Hera, a known hybrid, drew the melody to All Along the Watchtower, which happens to be the song Starbuck played as a kid, taught to her by her dad, and the song that triggered the Final Five (err, Four) to realize who they really were. So I think Starbuck's a hybrid, the first hybrid, and that when we get the specific answers about her, we'll get specific answers about humanity as a whole (ie- the end of the series). Speaking of Hera, its good to see that Boomer is just straight up evil. Clearly, it was the plan all along for her to "escape" with Ellen, rejoin the fleet, exploit her relationship with Tyrol, disguise herself as Athena, kidnap Hera, steal a raptor, and return to Cavil's baseship. It seems that Roslin's health is tied to her proximity to Hera; I don't think she's long for this world anyway. It will also be interesting to see what happens to Tyrol, since he was responsible for Sharon getting out of the brig and thus complicit in the kidnapping of Hera. It will also be interesting to see what happens to Galactica itself. Clearly its falling apart and it won't last much longer, but what happens when they do have to abandon Galactica? Roslin's going to die, and Galactica is on its last legs; can Adama go on without his two loves? With only 4 hours of the show left, I have no idea how they'll cram everything they need to say into the final episodes. But I can't wait to see it.

Okay, back to The Lord of the Rings.

The End Is Nigh.

You now have just over a week to go and read Watchmen before the movie is release on March 6th. I've been excited for this since the trailer first ran before The Dark Knight back in July. I've checked, and I couldn't be more stoked now. Here some clips from the movie that have been released so far (the last one combining 10 shorter clips together):









Yeah, couldn't be more stoked. I've checked the scenes against the novel (because, let's face it, I'm a geek), and I am impressed. But I'm not one of people that think any deviation from the source material is automatically a bad thing; I understand that things change when a property is adapted from one medium to another, so I can accept changes as long as they make sense. Example- clip 6 (of the 10 shown in movie four) shows Deisberg talking to Veidt about the Comedian's death. In the novel, its Rorschach that talks to Veidt. Why the change? Don't know, but as long as the same information is conveyed in the scene, it doesn't really matter. Also, I don't mind that they've decided to actually use the name "Watchmen" in the movie; nothing changes in the story by doing so, you eliminate any potential confusion among the non-graphic novel crowd about why the movie's called Watchmen and "Watchmen" is never mentioned, and it sounds better than "Crime Busters" anyway.

I've read that there are 3 cuts of the film- the theatrical cut (155 minutes), a director's cut (around three hours), and a special extended cut (pushing three and a half, which, I would guess, includes the Tales of the Black Freighter story cut into the film). I can't wait until the 6th. Let's hope that the greatest comic book ever made into a movie can also be the greatest comic book movie ever.

(Man, that last line was terrible. Sorry).

The Remakes Have To Stop

You can file this under "worst idea ever":

Gore Verbinski to direct 'Clue'

They're going to remake Clue, to which I ask, "WHY?!?!?" What possible reason would you have to remake a movie as good as Clue? Its hysterical and seriously, one of my favorite movies of all time. Its never not funny, and insanely quotable. If you haven't seen Clue, I suggest you do so before its destroyed by the remake.

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.