Fox is hot ....again

House
As I posted before I started watching House and the it's good. The most recent episode dealt with a teenage boy who was bleeding from every hole in his body. Everyone was screaming Lupus but Dr. House didn't believe it. His problem though was that he was going through withdrawal from Vicadin, I think. He earlier made a bet with his boss to stop taking pills for a week, while doing so he came to realize that his pill-popping was a true addiction not pain management and he doesn't want to change. House orders a dead cat that the boy owned dug up by Omar Epps and a fellow doc. House discovers that the cat died the same way the boy was and found a termite in the cat-daver. After busting open the wall in the boys room hundreds of termites pour out. The young lad was being poisoned by the gas that termites exudes, he was basically living in a termite mound and that was not healthy. After not treating the boy he became better.

On a side note Omar Epps is a young actor born and raised in New York, I may have met him before he was famous but I'm not sure. So I ask does anyone know where he worked before becoming an actor? Did he work in a supermarket? And if so which one?

The Inside
Yes another good one hour drama from Fox. This episode started out with a mother discovering her 9 year old son gutted in their pool. Only one witness points out that the handyman of this gated community did it. So the agents investigating the murder are split with half of them going after the guy and the other half heading by Special Agent Rebecca Locke going after the 10 year old witness. After Locke confronts the girl in a treehouse the little darling throws herself off the top and blames the agent. Everyone now believes that the girl did it including the victims mother. The distraught mother then finds the girl right before she was about to kill a fellow playmate and takes her to a pool. While the evil girl explains how she killed the little boy the mother gets angry and is about to do something stupid when the evil mom of the evil girl comes from behind and whacks her with a shovel. We don't see how the particulars went down but we see the mother-daughter killers hugging each other as the victim's mother is floating dead in the pool. This will be a rough Fathers Day for their 2 husbands. There is also little said about how the killers will face justice but most likely noting much can happen to them.

Ashton Kutcher's a Genius

No really, the last episode of Beauty and the Geek had three teams facing off in a hiking race. It was the uber-geek Richard versus his arch rival Chuck and the boy scout Shawn & superfit Scarlet. Now the fix was on. Now if this wasn't fixed it was some perfect timing, Shawn takes about ten steps and falls over with all the dramatics of a 40's screen siren. His partner, not in on the fix I assume, jets past everyone else. Chuck and Caitilin win and are safe but wait how are the producer going to insure that Richard wins, well during the final quiz his partner Mindi aces her questions and Shawn stumbles and loses the game.
If the WB and the producers of this show haven't Punk'd us then they just edited the show nearly perfectly to suit the situation. I'm mean if Richard is real then everyone must hate him, they just opted to only show the audience the run-ins he had with Chuck.
Either way one more episode left and it's the two rivals going head to head. Whoever wins the star will be Richard even if he loses the $250,000 he is still going to get swept up by Kutcher's production company.

Update: For another great opinion check out Blessed are the Geeks, For They Shall Inherit the Earth. he makes a good point about the reverse roles that I didn't even think of.

Update2: Reading tvGeek I was reminded that for those who want to watch from the beginning the WB will have a Beauty and The Geek marathon on July 3. Enjoy.

Tragedy of an Underdog

If you came here from
TV Squad or Cinematical
this may mean something to you.

I do a lot of commenting on the Weblogs,Inc all over their myriad of sites. It's fun especially on TV Squad and Cinematical. They have a system of rewarding those people who leave good comments with giving them a star, if your bad and have stars they take one away. In early May they announced a contest, for the month of May whomever earned the most stars will receive an iPod shuffle or $100 and second place would receive $50. I already was a fan and started commenting more often, only on things I liked. I also started commenting on other Weblogs sites.
The competition was strong for most of the time a fellow Blogger, going by Underdog, kept a strong lead. She had great things to say and was more of an American Idol fan than I was, I stopped watching after Kelly Clarkson won. Then suddenly a little over half way through the contest she stopped writing. She kept up her own blog though.
Eventually I took the lead and one mysterious fellow named B was my closest rival, but this underscored how good Underdog was. I never would have won if she didn't give up. She was number one on at least four other sites and placed in the top ten for any others she visited. Until a day or so ago she was on Cinematical's list and she hasn't written in a month, she is number four in both AdJab and TV Squad.
On June 4^th she left the following message on her blog

PARTING IS SUCH SWEET SOMETHING
It's not sorrow that's for sure. I'm done blogging! WOOHOO! It was a fun experiment, and I don't have to do it anymore. Blogging is like being on a 10 lane highway with nothing in site except more blogs - a few really good ones and a whole lot of really bad ones.

Now I won the contest and received my prize but only because she gave up and I noticed that with a majority of the commenters and bloggers that after a month or so they stop. Are they gone or do they have nothing left to say?

This is a tribute to all those who give up and encouragement to give a little more time.
Now there is a person who out of nowhere started commenting like crazy,moved Underdog out her position and I'm not sure if this is one person or a group/forum of people who will comment under the same name & email address just to win something.
So your asking why bother the less writers means a better chance for you? Well I like competition and true fans. So everyone write not necessarily more just stay on topic.
Okay enough of my preaching I need to rest.

Mr. President

The President gave a speech on the state/reason were still in Iraq. While I supported most of Bush's war planning I recently thought that he should pull out already. Now hearing some of his reason for staying in Iraq I would agree with him completely.
Now before you get all one-sided I support absolutely nothing else the President has done, he is wrong in every aspect of domestic policy, foriegn policy on the other is fine.
I've seen every other speech he gave and laughed at most of them but this one was good.
During his speech he gave out this address to help support your troops, http://americasupportsyou.mil/ it is a well made site and gives you links to help support our troops.

Six Feet Under

Another truly depressing episode featuring kids talking dirty, Nate killing a beautiful blue bird and Claire and her beau spiraling into self-destruction. Back to the bird it was a blue bird I've never seen before but no one in the house, not even Claire the photographer, seemed to care for anything except getting rid of it quickly. There was a great scene with George and Billy realizing although they are crazy they know it, unlike the rest of the family. Everyone in the show is on the edge and the build up to the series finale will hopefully be deadly because they definitly need to be put out of their constant misery.
Lately the only working on the show has been Federico Diaz, his life is a little messed up but luckily he isn't a morose self-destructive fool. I hope he gets back together with his wife and maybe take over the funeral home when the Fishers die. It was Nate's 40^th birthday and his wife is pregnant again but is anyone happy, I think you know better.

I feel the show is leading upto something big. The common opinion is the death of all the Fishers. If you recall the show started with the death of the father and everyone having to decide if they to join the funeral business or sell it to corporate companies. The family although depressed about the loss were still relatively happy and used this to experience life to its fullest. since then the family has gotten caught up with strange people and near impossible situations. Season one was great but now as the show comes to a close it is not being true to the original concept.

TV Guide: June 26-July 2

Enough already! It's another 4 collector cover edition. This one is for NASCAR fans. Along with a four page coverage of this years NASCAR events.

Good things to read inside:

• Lance Armstong's special on the Discovery channel is a preview for his final Tour De France this Saturday.
• Wasting cake in Time Square as Bridezila made brides-to-be fight for a $50,000 prize in the cake. (The winner found it in the front of the cake right where all the cameras were focused.)
• An article on main characters gtting killed off.
  
• Did Thiessen replace Doherty again?
• Keri Russell is finished on Into The West.
• Matt Roush hates this season of Six Feet Under. Rightfully so.
• Bobby & Whitney's new show, The Closer and Entourage all get reviewed.
  

The Dead Zone

Just a few words. This episode was a lighter, breezier one. Johnny runs into another Psychic who can also speak to a comatose boy. Jennifer Finnigan formerly of Commited played the cutesie other psychic. She lives, they kiss then they part ways.

The 4400

This was a rather slow moving episode. Jordan Collier re-affirms his leadership role by correctly predicting two outcomes. First his young healer apprentice gets involved with a group of Seattle street kids, homeless-white-wannabe-drug-addicted-rockers to be exact. Collier warns him against using his powers in front of them. He does anyway and the group surrounded him begging for help overwhelming the young healer. Second Collier caught up with Richard and convincing him he's a changed man and that Lily And the killer baby should meet-up. They met and the cute little killer baby laughed and played with Collier.
The second plot line involved a returnee who has the power to unlock the hidden artistic talents of children. She fails to do so in one little brat so he brings a gun to force her to do better, his daddy helps the situation and everybody hugs in the end.

Into The West "Gold Rush"

You won't be seeing Keri Russell anymore but Rachel Leigh Cook and Tyler Christopher. The Wheelers continue having children and dying. Thunder Heart Woman and her second husband made a nice life until someone struck gold. The gold bug bit her husband and soon the house was in disarray, another Wheeler cousin shows up and bad goes to worse. Eventually the two Wheelers strike a the mother lode but as gold fever often does they get paranoid and die stupidly. Thunder Heart Woman now no longer a bigamist gets a surprise as her daughter brings home Jacob Wheeler and they live happily for the next ten years. The Wheelers who had stayed back in the east are not fairing well. After Lincoln gets in office the people are picking sides and the Wheelers are the unpopular minority. Since you can't get through an episode without massive deaths the Wheelers and many Native Americans get wiped out by old fashioned racist.
All of Loved by the Bufflao's predictions are coming true and with a civil war pending there will be even more death awaiting this next generation.


Next week July 1^st they will be having NASCAR so no Into The West they return on July 8. A good show so far they are still going through twenty years every week. All the original actors have been replaced with older actors.

The event...

Don't walk pass this is the location.


Peter Rojas prepares.


There has been, from my last count, at least 70 people who said the will be there. Compact-Impact is a small store it may bigger than I'm thinking but if more than a all those people show up this party is spilling onto the streets.
Here's a view
from the inside from

http://vjsputnik.com/compact/New%20York%20City/index.html

then with 25 people inside

USA the Nth Network

The 4400:
Robert Picardo plays Trent Appelbaum a loser abducted 15 years ago who owes money to a loan shark. That fat loan shark shares a drink with Appelbaum and loses 75 pounds over the weekend. The shark apparetnly never read or saw Stephen King's Thinner and lets his wife share the spit of death with predictably tragic results. Appelbaum sells his golden loogie to a company that gave it to 100 people, it's up to the agents to cure Appelbaum, his daughter and the 100 others. Meanwhile Jordan Collier is letting his greed slip affecting all those who believe in him.

The Dead Zone:
Johnny Smith never had the surgery that was supposed to save his life last season and he's never been healthier? Well anyway, this week Smith was chasing a serial kidnapper who obsessed with Leave It To Beaver. He kidnaps women and makes them into model housewives and then lets them go. One of the women, who like the others never told anyone of her ordeal, helps Smith and the Sheriff trackdown the psycho. She later betrays Smith and annouces that she loves Mr. Psycho and helps him escape. Hmmm, for a psychic Smith should've seen this coming. No updates on the secret society.
The USA network has evovled beyond the other basic cable channels with these one hour dramas this week the also will show the Tribute to George Lucas and soon Monk will be back on. Don't forget that Law & Order: SVU repeats which are the best of all the Law and Orders, although I here that the new Law & Order: Garbage Inspection Unit should be good.

Long Weekend? Movie Time

I saw about six movies this week-end on HBO, SHO and Starz.

1. The Terminal, Tom Hanks as a mildly retard tourist stuck in an airport. I'm not sure if he was meant to be retarded but he sure acted like it. A man trying to go New York City gets grounded at an airport after his passport is revoked because his country is at war. Ignoring the plot hole that a person without a country has to stay in an airport, I continued watching the movie. The reason Hank's came to America was to get an autograph of jazz man for his dead father. He meets airport employees and they help him survive. At the end he gets everything he came for and then wants to go back home. Catherine Zeta-Jones plays the love interest, yet she's not that interesting.
2. Barbershop 2, Ice Cube and the gang are back making fun of everyone and everything. The plot is that a new barbershop is opening directly across of Cube's place. the gang tries to fight the opening but lose. Cedric the Entertainer is great in the flashbacks when we learn how the barbershop was put together and how it survived.
   
3. The Prince & Me, Julia Stiles in a romantic comedy that is just what the title says. If you don't already know the predictable ending of this movie then you never watched movies in your life. The only original part of this movie is that when they get together the movie doesn't end instead they grow apart and then a year or so later they get back together. Stiles is sweet in the movie the "prince" is forgettable.
4. Against the Ropes, Meg Ryan is a boxing guru. Ryan plays the most annoying boxing promoter since Don King. She whines her way through the movie until becoming the most successful women in boxing. Omar Epps is the only bright spot of the film and he is sparsely used.
5. The Notebook, the best of the bunch. Based on the bestselling book it is a must watch. I won't say much about the movie for those who want to watch a good movie. Ryan Gosling and James Garner play perfectly against Gena Rowlands and Rachel McAdams. It's an emotional movie and doesn't get overly dramatic to achieve this.
   

With the exception of The Notebook I am glad I never saw these movies in the theaters. I did see some good shows over the weekend but phone troubles kept me inside. Thank god for TV and the internet if not my communications with the outside world would have meant me actually getting dressed and going outside.

Into The West

Episode 2 of Into The West was even better than last week's Keri Russell stars in this episode as the young-rasict wife who will embrace the native American ways, in a way. The Wheelers are back together under one roof but Jacob Wheeler and his wife Thunder Heart Woman are not as welcomed as the other family members. They soon decide to head for California. They take his brother and their cousins along for the 3 year ride. Along the way they go with Stephen Hoxie a level-headed wagon leader played by Beau Bridges. Before you get to attached to any of these wagoneers they all die. The only reason the Wheelers survive is that they luckily got the deadly cholera and had to be left behind. The Cheyenne slaughtered the wagoneers for the same fear of cholera. When they came to attack those left behind Jacob was seriously wounded and had to be left even further behind again. We skip ahead five years and the Jacob's wife is married to his brother, Jacob after going mad living alone is now in the military and America has grown by leaps and bounds. Naomi Wheeler(Russell) survives the attack and gets abducted by her attackers, she stops the chief's assualt on her body by chanting nursey rhymes, if I ever go to prison I'll see if that works. Eventually she grows to like the chief, have his baby and not seem to hate non-whites.
The whole episode moved extremely fast, I believe ten years may have passed. There were no slow moments unlike last week and the sense of doom for the Lakotas is getting heavier with the introduction of alcohol.

Raised on the history taught in school you get a brief look into the pioneers and the troubles that they face. Watching this series you get the fact that this is an adventure instead it was a struggle that would cost lives if not years. The average lifespan of early Americans was only about 40 years and these wagoneers would spend 1/4 of that travelling.

Also knowing that not all native American tribes got along with each other and they treated women like property was not something that public schools ever taught me. These people still had honor as did the white-men but you can't judge them on what we consider right. That is why the western genre in movies and TV has died out. The Missing was the last big hit western and it relied more on one family and still fell into a bit of the old only the main characters are good and the women have lots of power. Although it may have been true in some cases the majority of women in the west were less gunslingers and more housekeepers, this was true for natives and newcomers.

My TiVo

I bought a 40-hour TiVo in February of 2004 and it's great, I can't imagine TV-life without it. When I first got TiVo I only had regular-premium cable since then my cable company has gone digital and the at least 250 more channels have been added. TiVo dealt with this change easily. I canceled my TV Guide subscription because the guide that comes with Tivo is more accurate and simpler to use, recently I started getting TV Guide for free.
The set-up was simple I used a dial-up connection it took about thirty minutes with no problems. I have taken it off the phone line and now use a router to connect to high-speed cable.
At first TiVo starts recording "TiVo recommendations" according to your zip code at least that what I believe since it kept recording Spanish children's programs that I never even knew existed.
That stopped after I started picking my own programs to record.
Now the Pro and Con list, these are my own experiences and may not be typical.

Pros:

1. Never miss an episode: I just put the name of the show and it will record it on any time and channel, I can pick to reord new or repeats, add extra time for longer recordings.
2. Pause live TV: Also rewind I don't ever have to recap a show for anyone who comes in late, I can get a phone call and actually tell them to call back later instead of just leaving a message on the machine.
3. Save to VCR: If I decide I want to keep a show forever I can wait to buy a tape and then save it even months later.
4. Remote Control: It works great and look good.
5. The Future: There plenty of Java apps for new TiVo that actually work and it seems the want to expand beyond just a passive Guide.
6. Not home, no problem: I've set recordings from a computer miles away and got to see the show when I came home.
   

Cons:

1. TiVoToGO: The first two version were highly unstable and still to this day communications between my computer and TiVo goes out on a weekly basis.
2. Four-digits: because my cable box takes four digits and the TiVo only takes three-digits there is a lag time which is annoying.
3. Networks: By this I mean ABC & NBC they now start and end shows at just one minute difference so that two shows can not be recorded at the same time on different channels, TiVo will adjust for the time and record one but cannot then record the other.

Nitpiks:

• In a quiet home you can hear TiVo's fan humming away.
• If you are an insomniac, like me, and just are cruising the stations you occasionally are shut out while TiVo downloads data usually at 2-3am.
• It's too small I now want a 140-hour TiVo with DVD recorder and HDTV tuner.
• Subscription fees are just $12.95 but it should be less.
• Hacking the TiVo still seems a bit scary.
  

I bought this TiVo at three times the price it goes for now but I'm still happy. What I'm not happy with is that I had a $150 rebate that I lost due to the incompetence of the Dell staff. If you have a rebate which is TiVo still offers go purchase your item in person or go to online store that has an actual physical store in your area.
I have many other gadgets I will start to review such as my Dell PC, a Canon camera and my cable company, these will all be things I have owned and used. Hopefully this weekly/monthly review will let you make a decision on your future purchases. they may not all be TV related but I'll try to make some sort of connection even if I have stretch and make six-degrees-of-seperation connections.

TV Guide: June 19-25

Yeah, I'm early. It's the summer special diet issue you fat pigs, with Kelly Ripa on the cover. Learn how Ripa stayed thin after pushing out some babies.

Good things to read inside:

• Joss Whedon has approved 3 comics, first on June 29 you can get Angel: The Curse it leaves off where the series finale ended, it's a five-part comic. Second Spike: Old Times finds Spike chasing demons and the ladies. Third Serenity a three-part comic transitioning from the show to the movie. All from IDW publishing.
  
• More cool tech especially the Sling Media Slingbox, it looks interesting.
• 50 celebrity diet tips. Hey half of these celebs are dangerously thin so it must work.
• Tommy Lee and Kathy Hilton Interview each other and sparks don't fly.
• Also there is a long list of the best TV DVD's , Davey and Goliath: Volume 1, sweet.
• For Fathers Day TV's hottest dads, shouldn't a better Fathers Day honor be the TV's hottest daughters.
  

Repeats Galore

I saw two repeats of Hit Me Baby One More Time with great performances from The Knack and Cece Peniston yet two rappers won Vanilla Ice, he was good, and Arrested Development, they were awful. This show is a good idea but their voting is crap. They're only voting for the most recent hip-hoppers. Fill an audience with kids and crap like this happens I may have voted for Vanilla Ice but not Arrested Development, the show is better than the group.

Then a show worth watching House on Fox was gret again. Dr. House tries to solve a newborn infection in the hospital and must sacrfice on of the babies to do so. It turns out that the sacrifical baby would have died antway because it was the wrong treatment. House's underling find the cause and House finally finds patient zero. In a side story House once again shows how many fathers aren't really their babies daddy.

TV Guide: June 12-18

Sue me I'm late. Either way it's yet another 5-cover "collectors edition" featuring Family Guy. A 4-page article dedicated to the Family Guy. They give a detailed summary of the whole Griffin clan and the actors who voice them. There is also a great explanation of why creator Seth MacFarlane made Stewie so bi-curious, why there are so many musicals and also his family connections to American Dad!.

Good things to read inside:

• They ask some of TV's hottest stars what they're up to this summer. Half of them are in Vancouver filming movies, Josh Holloway in Whisper sound great.
• 7 Things You Didn't Know About Batmanlike the Lost connection.
• On the set with The 4400.
• On the set with Six Feet Under.

Rick Schroder joined the cast of Lifetime's Strong Medicine in case some was asking.

Secret Societies and Other Evil Friends

The Dead Zone:
The season premiere started where last season left off. Psychic Johnny Smith is trying to stop his girlfriend from killing future president Greg Stillson. Rebecca Caldwell still upset about her dead sister believes that Stillson is the killer and will shoot him if Smith doesn't stop her. Unfortunatly everyone believes that Smith is a deranged stalker after Stillson. During the chase we see glimpses of Stillson's father smacking his son around and moulding him to the great guy he is now. Smith gets to the hotel in time to stop his girl and also learns that papa Stillson is the real killer. How does Stillson respond? Well he commits patricide. That was the main plot but it's the sub-plot that is going to kill the show. The Rev. Gene Purdy in jail for forgery and more gets a visit from a guy willing to help him and wearing a secret "illuminati" decoder ring. The guy frees Rec. Purdy and then goes to Stillson to cover-up the murder of papa. Why must they always bring grand-secretive organizations in show like this? It ruins the flow of the show, it's supposed to be about two locals who hold the fate of the world in their hands. Not Johnny Smith vs. an evil empire.

The Scholar:
Episode two had less interaction between the kids and more of their background stories. All the kids complain about their apparent poverty because their parents make less then $50,000. Wow, I must be dead if these geniuses think that is poor. Melissa completely dominated and the big whiner Scot won $50K. These kids are still stumbling over high school level questions.

The 4400: Ep. 2 Season 2

Sharif Atkins starred in this episode playing a mind-reading wannabe baseball player. He is plagued by the rush of voices in his head that only psych drugs can get contain. The agency in charge of the 4400 use him to infiltrate Collier's Scientology group. They learn that the group is trying to overthrow a small fictional country and promptly arrest him. Atkin's character gets betrayed by the agency and will not be helped instead gets used more for his gift.

Meanwhile agent Diana's sister came to town and Diana's daughter let it slip she is still psychic. Agent Tom's didn't pay for his son's college so the boy couldn't initially attend then goes to class and meets his to sexy-to-be-realistic new teacher Lexa Doig, straight from Andromeda and giving birth. Richard, Lily and baby once again committed crimes to survive but it strange each time the Lily is in need the bad things happen, is it possible that the baby is only amplifying Lily's power not actually the causing these acts?

Cowboys vs. Indians vs. Time

Into The West a 6 week mini-series aired tonight, twice, and will repeat every few hours until you see it on TNT. It starts in 1825 Virginia with the Wheeler family building wheels. Meanwhile young White Feather a Lakota boy is getting a glimpse of the futture, and it's not good. Jacob Wheeler sees nothing but wheel making in his future so takes a midnight trip to the west. Wheeler takes an outward journey and grows into an honorable man. The young Lakota becomes a holy man and gets renamed Loved By The Buffalo his journey is inward and he's not even half way finished. Wheeler through chance marries into this Lakota tribe and feels his destiny is intertwined with theirs.
The story moves slow yet you have to keep your eye out for the actors because they are gone in a flash. Gary Busey lasted all but five minutes on screen. This Spielberg production is full of foreshadowing and omens it is told through narrative by Wheeler. The native landscape is grand yet gritty, the use of special effects is few but effective. One of the better scenes is when Josh Brolin's character is fighting a bear we see his scalp getting ripped off but not getting sewn back up.
To make it a more realistic view of the west they did not sugar coat everything. So far most of the bad deeds that happens on screen have been done by the Indians, the killing of animals is shown and the mistreatment of women and minorities overlooked. Many modern westerns fall into the honorable-Indians and evil-dirty-white-man roles, Into The West strikes a balance between that showing all sides did mostly what they believed was good and right but occasionly failing and doing the wrong thing.
Everyone has a sense of something big, bad and everlasting is coming but the side that it comes from is not clear.
Episode two airs June 17

Freaks and Geeks

The Inside:

The prettiest bunch of government agents you've seen in a while track and capture freaks who kill. In the pilot Supervisory Agent Webster and his 4 underlings are tracking an 8 time serial killer when he gets a call on victim number 9. Victim #9 is one of their own and they need a replacement. Coming straight from agent school Agent Locke, no one likes the new girl. They get a video feed of victim #10 and follow the cables but are too late. They use Locke as bait, flush out the serial killer and kill him. That was all just standard FBI show dribble. The twist of this series Rebecca Locke is not her original name she changed it to avoid all the questions people ask her when when they know her real name because she was kidnapped and held for 18 months during her childhood, by a yet to be named psycho, and escaped on her own. Webster signed off on her psych test without evaluating it. Adam Baldwin is on the show so that's half the reason to watch it.

Beauty and the Geek:

Episode 2 had the beauties growing closer to the geeks. The girls had an automotive challenge and the guys had to massage the ladies. During the quiz the two women aced their auto challenge, the guys struggled with their spa questions confirming my suspicions that these aren't true nerds like in The Scholar instead they are spazy-loser-geeks, they were all afraid to touch girls.In the same vain I don't know if it is a good thing or a bad thing but the beauties are not that beautiful. Joe and Erika were kicked out and they cried about leaving. Oh also either Richard is the greatest actor on the WB or he's the saddest person alive.

Old not dead: An Update
After the suprising plug pulling of WCBS FM in New York as I wrote the change to Jack FM is permanent and most of the on-air personalities were fired. One of whom, Cousin Brucie, has signed on to Sirius Satellite Radio and will premiere a oldies show on July 4th.

In da House

Now that my regularly scheduled programs are over for the summer I'll start watching what ever else I missed during the season. I saw House it's a Fox medical drama on Tuesdays at 9:00pmET. The central character on House is Dr. Gregory House played by Hugh Laurie he has 3 specialist under him and a female administrator who he fondly dislikes. Dr. House is exactly like Dr. Perry Cox(John C. McGinley) on Scrubs except this is a hour long drama and Scrubs is a 30 minute comedy, but the same jokes work well on both. The show works well explain all the medical jargon by including graphic imagery. This is to make sure that an outrageous diganosis is possible even if the have to drill the story line into your head, which they did in this episode. "Paternity", the title of the episode I saw, dealt with a teenager with who after getting hit playing sports is suffering strange side-effects. Through a long and complicated way they come to realize he has the measles. The fun is the journey through his medical history and watching the symptons unfold. This is yet another good show to add to my long list.

The Summer Season Begins part 2

The Scholar:
Real life nerds compete for $250,000 scholarship and each week someone wins $50,000. Unlike the Hollywood stereotypical nerds like in Beauty and the Geek the smarties can dress and speak with looking like a scared mouse. And yes there is even sexual tension, from both the guys and girls. Melissa wins the first 50k during the competition of 19th & 20th century literature. The questions are intellectually based but were clearly written towards older people. The question that stumped the second place contestant was "Who wrote Gone wtih Wind?", these kids weren't alive when the movie played on constant rotation during the 70' and 80's but there parents were. When the second-placer calls his mother to tell how he stumbled she laugh out loud knowing the answer without even thinking, he got little consolation from her. Other than the simple question there are spacial puzzles and leadership roles that there graded on. It's like the Real World meets Jeopardy.

Six Feet Under:

The Fisher family is back and are as nutty as ever. Now on Mondays the show is still as fascinating, well written and uncomfortable to watch. Nate and Brenda are happily expecting their baby, Ruth is expecting George coming home from the hospital, Claire has a new love life, David and Keith expect to be parents and Rico is dating badly while his soon to be ex-wife is alone.

Spoiler: Sounds like a good life if this was another show instead Brenda miscarries for her wedding day, but the wedding goes on. George is crazy but happy and Ruth is now getting a bit slap happy. David and Keith fight over how to have baby and decide every way possible will be fine. Claire is scared of her scary boyfriend. Rico is gettong dating advice from Ruth and his wife, so of course that will end well. We also learn that all normal people having massive amounts of pot readily available.

Quote: " I hope you pick me so that I won't have to resort to other obvious forms of prostitution" --- dream-woman talking to David about surrogacy

The Summer Season Begins part 1

The 4400:
The two hour season 2 opener started with a recap of season 1. We learned at the end of last season that the returnees weren't dropped off by aliens instead they were taken by future humans who are facing a crisis of an unknown size and dimension that will end the human race. The 4400 people have not been physically changed but now have"super powers" of different sorts. Then one year later we start season two.
This episode included a young psychotic woman taken in 1955 and returned with an image in her head and the power to make people build this thing for her. After the tower of crap is built it's turned on and wakes up a fellow psycho making him normal, the twist is that he is a scientist researching waking up dormant mental functions.
Other backstories had agent Tom Baldwin dealing with his son. Diana Skouris trying to trust her adopted 4400 daughter. And Richard, Lily, and the baby running from apparently everyone and dealing with their adorable-killer baby.


The Tony Awards:
This show should be the standard for all award shows. It started with Billy Crystal doing some funny jokes. Next the real host Hugh Jackman comes on and trades witty banter with Crystal. First winner Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play Liev Schreiber for Glengarry Glen Ross was funny and looked scared. Other highlights were Jackman joke about grab happy Christian Slater, Christina Applegate taking a pitfall on stage, Jeff Goldblum just talking mormally made everyone laugh and Al Sharpton in a The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee skit was great.
Short list of Winners;

• Best Play
• Doubt

• Best Musical
• Monty Python's Spamalot

• Best Special Theatrical Event
• Billy Crystal 700 Sundays

• Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play
• Bill Irwin for Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

• Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
• Cherry Jones for Doubt

Mystery Woman:
Kellie Martin and a cast of B-level TV celebs are on a spa vaction when affairs and intrigue lead to murder. The made lots of jokes during this murder investigation none of which were funny. The women in the spa were being drugged, their symptoms were gigglyness, a happy feeling and then intense hunger, hmmm sounds familiar.
Spoiler: The evil doctor who drugged everyone and preformed illegal surgeries was not the killer instead he was being used by a more evil nurse who was stealing his money.


The Comeback:
Lisa Kudrow as "over-the-hill-actress" Valerie. Kim Voynar's review at TV Squad was better than the actual show. I want to see the show Kim Voynar saw, what I saw was an Hollywood-insiders show with flat jokes and only good serious moments between Valerie and her husband. I hate pilot episodes so I'll wait 'til episode 2 but Lisa Kudrow may win an Emmy but the show is no comedy.

TV Guide June 5-11

It's the TV's sexiest men issue, meaning another 6 "collectors edition" they have Gary Dourdan, Hugh Laurie , Patrick Dempsey, James Denton, Josh Holloway and Tom Westman with several more inside.

Good things to read inside:

Richard Belzer, John Ratzenberger and George Wendt all appeared as their own character in six different shows. Care to guess for each?

Steven Culp, Rex on Desperate Housewives, discuss his character and all the shows he died in.

The Electric Company is coming back, for those who don't remember the DVD is now available...somewhere.

Also on DVD Lois & Clark: The Complete First Season, a good show to compare aginst Smallville. Where is Dean Cain?

7 short tech reviews including the sweet Logitech Harmony 880 Universal Remote.

A four-page pullout showing week-to-week Into The West summaries and cast list.

Look out tonight for Mystery Woman, The 4400, The Comeback and The Tony Awards.
Tomorrow Six Feet Under.
The week Into The West.

Sidenote: TV Guides Movie Index was in a pinkish-salmon color and now it is back to normal it was a small annoyance that was fixed, good job.

Seriously Jack Off

WCBS FM 101.1 is gone and replaced with that 70's crap. The last FM "Oldies" station in New York was taken off the air and replaced with a 70's, 80's and 90's nostalgia station, don't we have about 20 of those in NYC. Their website was also taken over for several hours and replaced with Jack. Why the hell go from the Beach Boys to the Beastie Boys? At 5 PM without notice they changed formats. The reason it was a surprise is to not rile the anger of thousands of loyal listeners.

Mickey Dolenz, of The Monkees, celebrated his 100th show today at B.B. Kings on the same day his radio went silent. The oldies station is not completely gone, yet. It has been turned into an internet station. I wasn't alive in the 50's & 60's but I know the music well because of this station and now another generation will grow up thinking that awful Madonna or Britney remake of an oldie is the original.

06/05/05 4400 Season 2

Five great episodes made the first season 9 more for season two. Yes, the fewer the episodes the less chance the writers will completely ruin the show.
The new season of The 4400 is just about here. The 4400 is a drama about 4,400 people who went missing over the past century and have returned to Washington state. There are short stories of each person dealing with the consequence of going missing and returning with no memory of what happened, unchanged by time yet changed in miracleous ways. For bad or good they must deal with these changes within themselves and the society at large.

The pilot episode featured a ball of light shooting throgh space heading towards Earth, 4,400 are dropped of next to lake. Some were missing for a few years while others have been gone for decades. All of their lives have drastically changed.

It's the Yawn of New Century

I did not review Extraterrestrial after it first premiered on Monday because I just didn't want to. Why you ask? Well, simple it was dull and didn't even come close to living up to to the hype. Two hours of fictional planets and only three creatures living on each. The special-effects were worse than The Hulk. The second hour-planet was slightly better than the first. I see why they stuck this program out on a station few people watch. I will never be fooled by educational programming again!

There They Go

Wondering where certain TV actors will pop-up next, well three of these constant poppers are back again this week on the Hallmark Channel.


Kellie Martin, John Larroquette, Lea Thompson
You've seen them appear on ER and Law and Order over the years. Now they are all reprising their detective roles on Hallmark Channel Mysteries Movies staring June 5.
Kellie Martin plays, on June 5,

"Samantha lands a job photographing a new spa in Southern California for their brochure. When one of the guests staying at the upscale retreat turns up dead, Samantha is once again on the trail of a murderer."

John Larroquette plays, on June 12,

"McBride is representing his friend Harry Evans in a custody case until Harry's therapist turns up dead and the Harry is blamed for the murder."

Lea Thompson plays, on June 19,

"a soccer mom with a mind for mystery."

It's good to see faces from the recent past are still working on quality shows but if the three of them can work together, I smell a network show.

The Geeks are Slightly Less Annoying

Beauty and the Geek
Premiered tonight on the WB and I was fortunate to watch it. The premise of the show is having 7 confirmed dumb-but-pretty chicks paired with 7 nerdy-geeks and watch the sparks fly. Well less sparks more snide-snickering from the girls. They gave the girls the typical Howard Stern type political questions and no surprise the girls did horrible. The geeks got music questions and faired better. There was a dance competition that was just sad. I'm sorry to say that I couldn't see the last couple of minutes but I believe Cheryl and Eric were kicked off.

This show is produced by Ashton Kutcher & Jason Goldberg, J.D. Roth, Todd A. Nelson, John Foy and Nick Santora the great minds behind Punk'd, Guess Who, The Biggest Loser, For Love or Money and The Sopranos respectively.