Mid-Month Check-In

Movies
I finally got around to seeing both AVATAR and INCEPTION. I thought INCEPTION was alright, but I felt it tried a bit too hard to be complex. I thought AVATAR had some nice visuals in parts, but I don't see why it was such a big hit. I dozed off at one point, and I didn't bother to rewind.

I also borrowed RED on DVD, and gave that a watch. Nothing like the original comic whatsoever. In fact, they could've easily gotten away with calling it something else and saved themselves the money they used on getting the film rights to the original story.

Other than that I've mostly been watching old movies. (Even more now that we final got Turner Classic Movies when we upgraded our cable package recently.)

TV
I'm happy that COMMUNITY got renewed for a third season. It’s the only bubble show I was really worried about this year. Hopefully we’ll get another great season. I figure we've got at least one more good season before the statistical likelyhood of a decline in quality (I’ve come to expect a quality decline for any show that runs longer that 2-3 years, with a few exceptions.)

I suppose I'd like one more season of V, given that season finale. It's probably not very likely to happen though.

Internet
It seems that every few weeks I have a few days where my connection does a combo of having lots of packet loss or constantly dropping off completely. Even when my signal levels look fine. This is one of those weeks. It started late at night on Wednesday, where it went out for about 45 minutes. Then it was fine until Friday afternoon. Since then it's been spotty. Like it was fine all day on Saturday then between 9pm and now it's been dropping in and out like crazy. So frustrating.

Cable TV works fine. It happens at different times of day, so it doesn't seem like they're doing maintance or something (which I could see them doing at like 2-3 am or whatever). The signal level on the modem is fine, and the same as it is when everything's working fine. There's no bad weather, or downed lines or anything. It also never seems to last long enough to justify a service call. 2-3 days often.

I'd think that it was because on Friday we ugraded our cable package, and got a new Docsis 3 modem. But the problem started before the package and equipment switch. (Plus our internet supposedly isn't getting the upgrade until our phone service starts, which is next week once Verizon releases our old phone number to Comcast.)

Poker
I was doing pretty well, then on Friday things went bad. Within my first few orbits, I dropped around three buy-ins. Then the disconnects started, which just tilted me even more. Playing with an unreliable connection is pretty much impossible, since it sucks putting a bunch of money into a pot with a good hand and then losing because you get disconnected and somebody raises and you get timed out and they take it down.

Video Games
Only thing I've played in the last few days is the first SAINTS ROW. It's a good game, but the second one is better.

Made My Week

This week's COMMUNITY had two lines that I just loved. The first...

"Me and Abed have an agreement. If one of us dies, we stage it to look like a suicide caused by the unjust cancellation of FIREFLY. We're gonna get that show back on the air buddy."

"Can you imagine bouncing a check to Kunta Kinte?"

The second one only making sense in context, but it's still a funny line. It made Diet Coke come out of my nose.

Late Month Thought Dump

Wow, I've only made one post so far this year. That's pretty terrible.

Right now, as I write this, it's ridiculously cold here...

That's kind of unacceptable.

Firefox 4
Firefox 4 is supposed to come out at the end of next month. I've been messing with it a bit on my USB thumbdrive on my main computer. I also made it the main browser on my spare computer, which is an older, slower machine. It seems to run a lot better on the old PC than 3.x ever did. Messing with the beta has let me figure out how to get some of the customizations I'll want to add to my installation when the final version comes out. (Like adding the RSS icon back into the "awesomebar", some menu cleanups (I like my bookmarks toolbar to be icons only), etc. Anyway, I think it's a nice upgrade.

Video Games
DEAD SPACE 2 comes out this week. As much as I liked the first game, which I played through a few times, I think I'm going to hold off on this one. It's not an, "I must get this at launch!!!" title for me. I definitely want to pick it up. I figure if I wait the price will drop.

I've been replaying some older titles in my 360 library. I replayed BIOSHOCK, and I was annoyed I missed a few achievements. I was hoping to nail 100% on my first play-through. Right now I'm playing through SPLINTER CELL: DOUBLE AGENT. When I finish that I'm deciding between the first DEAD RISING or SAINTS ROW.

Poker
I went on a downswing and decided that I should move down a level in stakes. I'm hoping to move back up again before the end of the month. If I don't then I don't. I'm not going to force it. I need to be comfortably rolled for that stake, where I'm not worried about the money. While I still had enough in my bankroll to not have to move down, I think for my peace of mind it was the right move.

I've also been watching a training video a day every single day. I take notes on everything, pausing and predicting, especially noting instances where I would've made a wrong move if I were the one in the coach's shoes. I note my reasoning for why I'd make a certain move vs why the coach wouldn't have. It's a great way to improve your thought process. (Admittedly, watching videos this way takes a long time, so a one hour video can take three pluss hours to watch. That's why I usually do them in halves or thirds. Watching the first portion early in the day, the rest later on, or sometimes starting a video on one day and finsihing it the next.) I've only missed one day, and that was because I opted to play an extra session instead. (I set out to play a short session and then watch a video, but then after 1k hands, I just was burned out on poker for the rest of the night.)

TV
THE CAPE isn't winning me over. I saw the plot twist coming with Oracle, I mean Summer Glau's character from the first episode. At first I thought midget was one of those midget wrestlers, but then I remembered he was on SCRUBS. Anyway, it's just a bad knock off of Batman so far.

Since CASTLE wasn't on, I gave that new Kathy Bates show's pilot a watch. It wasn't too bad. A bit cliche and obvious in some parts, but she's such a good actress you can kind of overlook the flaws.

I also wasn't nuts about what little I saw of Olivia Munn's new show. Right now the only good show NBC has on Thursdays is COMMUNITY (loved the Theo Huxtable nod in the latest episode). THE OFFICE has been downhill since season four, and 30 ROCK has been losing me since last year.

I'm still trying to figure out why I watch NO ORDINARY FAMILY (I keep waiting for something to happen) and V (it's bad, but compelling enough to keep me coming back) on Tuesdays.

I'll probably disappear for another month now.

First One Of 2011

A week into the new year, and I haven't gotten around to posting until now.

Games
I blazed through DEAD RISING 2 (Xbox 360) and BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM (PS3). I have to say I enjoyed DR2 more. The Batman game was surprisingly good for a Batman game, but the boss fights were pretty repetitious. Now I'm replaying some of the older games in my 360 library. Currently, I'm playing the GTA IV: EPISODES FROM LIBERTY CITY disc. I just finished LOST AND DAMNED.

Any opinions out there on BATTLEFIELD: BAD COMPANY 2? I'm not interested in multiplayer, so I'm primarily interested in the the single player campaign. Quality and length are my biggest concerns.

Poker
So far, I've managed to watch one or more videos a day, every day. My plan is to really study my ass off.

At the tables, I've been working on tilt management. I've also been limiting how long I play. I generally set a 60-90 minute cut-off for my sessions now, and just quit, winning or losing. If things are going bad, the plan is to just stop within my stop loss. I'm really hoping to stick to quitting when things go bad. I found that I played the longest when losing, trying to chase my losses.

My results so far have been fairly up and down. I'm trying to remain emotionally neutral to either outcome and just concentrating on making the best decisions I can while playing. That coupled with working on my game by studying hopefully will give me the results I'd like to have.

TV, Movies
I don't know how or why, but I started watching BONES reruns on TNT. Sort of like how in 2008 I managed to watch pretty much the entirety of NCIS in reruns on USA in like three months, given how frequently they run the show. Anyway, I got a good deal on season 1, so I picked it up on DVD.

I've also been rewatching some old BLAKES 7 DVDs. They seem to be good late night bedtime viewing for me.

Regular TV, aside from a few shows seems like it's still on winter break for another week or two. V started it's new season, but it's still pretty mediocre.

I Still Can't Think Of A Title

Mocking The Dog
It's been pretty warm (relatively speaking) the last few days, but a few days ago it was so cold that we had to bundle the dog up in her sweater to take her out. After that I kept calling her Dr Huxtable, so I wonder if that's a form of animal cruelty?


The League
Aside from watching a few minutes of the pilot, I never watched THE LEAGUE. For whatever reason, I caught reruns the first two episodes on Saturday night, and now I've watched all but the last episode of the first season. After that I plan on catching up on season 2. Funny stuff. I didn't expect to like it because I'm not into football at all, but you don't have to be to enjoy the show.

Games
CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS ran horribly on my PC. Looks like I'll have to go with the console version. I may wait until I get another 360 since I hear the 360 version looks a bit better than the PS3 version. BLACK OPS is the first PC game in years that hasn't run on my machine. Guess I need some upgrades. Oh well, back to FALLOUT NEW VEGAS for me.

Poker
Ran really well for five days up until Wednesday afternoon. Then I had a bad session, hit my stoploss and quit. (My two biggest losing hands were having a big pocket pair that ran into a better pocket pair. JJ vs KK and KK vs AA.) Then about fiften minutes after I quit, I saw on 2+2 that the new Stars update was out and it added configurable bet-sizing buttons, so I played a short one table session to config the buttons and test them out. They work really well, it's about time Stars caught up to Full Title on that sort of simple functionality. As a bonus, I made a small fraction of my losses back.

Random Life Junk 10-2-2010

I don't know how long I'll stick to it, but I'm going to try to update more frequently this month. That's not to say every day, but more often than I have been.

Internet
My internet keeps crapping out on me. It'll be fine for weeks at a time, and then for a few days it'll just randomly keep dropping in and out. It's pretty frustrating, and not consistent enough or lasts long enough to bother with calling anybody out to the house. Especially since it seems to happen more often in the wee hours of the morning (like 3:30 AM) than in the afternoon.

TV
I wish they'd make up their minds about whether Linda Hamilton's character is good or evil on CHUCK. Nice usage of Timothy Dalton, and I like how the producers were less than truthful about his character to the press. The rest of Monday night TV was adequate.

Poker
First session of the month was a losing one. It was a mild loser until my last hand where I got it in vs a short stack with AK and he KK. Then it went from being down about 1/2 a buy-in to being down just over a full buy-in. Not that big of a deal, and I'm glad I stuck to my guns and quit. I had planned to quit, I had already turned off my auto post blinds and that was my last hand. In the past, I would've rechecked post and stuck around until I dropped another few buy-ins.

Anyway, the only bad thing to this first tiny losing session is that I've found that I'm semi-superstitious about these things. So I sort of feel that the first session of the month sets the tone for the whole month.

After that, I spent a good chunk of the late afternoon and early evening studying (2+2 forums posts). And I did some more studying (a video) after TV time was over. I only watched 1/2 of the video, which is something I do more often than when I first started watching coaching videos. This is because I find I absorb more info by just watching a chunk and saving the rest for the next day. Plus the way I watch videos: taking tons of notes, pausing during videos trying to predict what the coach is going to do, etc makes a 1 hour video take anywhere from 2-4 hours sometimes. So, trying to watch an entire video is rough on my very short attention span.

Weather
It got cold fast here in New England. I went from just a sweatshit to the sweatshirt + jacket combo when taking the dog out for her last trip out for the night. I probably could've even done with the jacket on the earlier walk before the sun went down.

First One Of November

I can't believe it's November already. This year seems to be flying right along.

Halloween
Do kids trick or treat anymore? Or do they just go to Halloween parties now? I ask because I can't remember the last Halloween where we got trick or treaters (not that I'm complaining). At least I wasn't dumb enough to try and put the dog in a costume.

The Walking Dead
I thought the first episode of THE WALKING DEAD was pretty good. It's been so long since I read those original issues, probably not long after they first came out. I've never gone back and re-read the early stuff, so while I know generally where things are headed if they follow the comic, but it's been so long and the few characters from the beginning that are still around are pretty different from when they started out. I also still have a hard time seeing Andrew Lincoln as anybody but Simon from TEACHERS, especially since they had him riding a bike in TWD, something he did on nearly every episode of TEACHERS. That having been said, he did a pretty good job as Rick.

New Vegas
Re-started FALLOUT NEW VEGAS. Not sure how I'm going to play it this time, aside from trying to do more/all of the side quests. Last time I was a good guy. Maybe I'll be a little less good this time around, pick different factions to side with and such. I figure I can keep going with NV until COD: BLACK OPS hits.

Life Junk - Early Oct 2010

Video Games
I'm replaying GRAND THEFT AUTO IV again. Shocker. I love that game, which is obvious given how many times I've played it start to finish. As for new games coming out, I plan on grabbing FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS for the PC, and I'll hold off on MEDAL OF HONOR until I see what word of mouth on that one is like. I want to pick up DEAD RISING 2, but I'm waiting until I get a replacement 360 to get it. The exclusive downloadable content for the 360 swayed me away from getting it for the PS3.

Poker
I've been playing fairly breakeven so far this month. This beats losing, but given my massive downswing over the last few months, it's a bit discouraging. On the upside, I cleared one bonus, and used some FPPs on Stars for another. This has helped pad my bankroll a bit. I've been slacking off on the studying side of poker. So many videos (downloaded a few new ones this week) and eBooks to get through.

Guitar
Earlier this week I changed the strings on my 7-string since they were getting old. What I didn't remember was that the only set of 7-string strings that I had in my little guitar toolbox were a lighter gauge (.009's) than what I had been using (.010's). So now when I play the strings feel like rubber bands. I don't want to waste a set of strings, so once these wear out I'll go back to .010's. I just hope I don't get used to the feel of the lighter strings. (The heavier strings also sound better.)

TV
With the fall season I've been watching tons of TV. Instead of going into detail, I figured I'd just provide quick raitings for each show, based on what I've seen so far.

Monday
Chuck 4/5
The Event 2/5
Castle 3/5
How I Met Your Mother 2/5
The Inbetweeners (UK) 3/5

Tuesday
No Ordinary Family 2/5 (not quite sold on this one yet)
Sons Of Anarchy 5/5

Wednesday
Modern Family 3/5
Terriers 3/5

Thursday
Community 5/5
30 Rock 2/5
The Office 1/5 (seriously, I need to just quit)
The Big Bang Theory 3/5
It's Always Sunny 4/5
Shit My Dad says 0/5 (gave up after the pilot, love Shatner, but it's shit.)
Outsourced 0/5 (crap)

Sunday
Venture Bros 5/5

Two Things Bugging Me About Season 4 Of Chuck

There's just two things about the current season of CHUCK that are sort of bugging me.

The first is the huge strain on my suspension of disbelief that Chuck's mother is a spy too. The thing with his dad being involved with the government and inventing the Intersect was a stretch too, but it wound up working fairly well. I just think having the mother be some sort of rogue spy is stretching it a little too far. Who, aside from his sister, in his family isn't involved in espionage in some way? What's next? Stunt cast Roger Moore (since Connery is retired) as his British spy grandfather?

In the first season we've got a normal guy who winds up in these extraordinary circumstances because of somebody he used to know. Now we've got a guy who was destined for all of this.

The other thing that bugs me is the whole pretense to Chuck's sister and brother in law that he isn't a spy anymore. I get that they wanted to pull the genie out of the bottle last year in case the show wasn't going to come back. I also get that they wanted and maybe needed to stuff that same genie back in that bottle so they can keep that hiding his secret identity riff going. He needs to hide his spy activities from somebody, it's a huge part of the show. Letting most of the characters know what he does erodes that. I understand.

Chuck's solution of saying, "I just work at Buy More again, no spy stuff," doesn't really hold up too well. For example, it doesn't give Casey a reason to still be hanging around. It doesn't give Chuck a good reason to disappear for extended periods of time frequently.

Chuck could just say to his sister, "I still work for the CIA. I'm just not a field agent anymore. I've got a desk job as an analyst. The closest I get to the field is occasionally sitting in a van and monitoring things. No more shooting and punching for me." This gives a perfectly plausible reason for Casey to still be around. It would pretty much alleviate any suspicions Ellie might have that he's sneaking around doing spy stuff.

I can't imagine she'd have that much of a problem with it. In fact, you'd think she'd be thrilled. Virtually zero danger and it's a massive improvement from working retail. What's more plausible... a government agent takes a desk job or a government agent goes back to working at an electronics store?

I still like the show, but I kept thinking about this stuff while watching the show last night.

Life In September 2010 So Far

At the beginning of the month I remember saying to myself that I was going to update the blog more often. Well, we see how that turned out. More than halfway through the month and this is only my fourth post. So much for that, huh?

I'm glad the fall TV season has begun. So far only the FX shows are back. SONS OF ANARCHY has been really good (that season opener had a nice sucker punch of an ending!). TERRIERS is alright, I'm not totally hooked, but I'm giving it a show. IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY was pretty funny. Oh, and VENTURE BROS was awesome as usual. This week coming up the shows really start rolling in, starting with CHUCK on Monday.

Poker is just meh. I did manage to stop the bleeding, but I still have to climb back up out of the deep hole I dug myself into. At least I've started quitting when I'm losing or not playing my A-game. That and just breaking even are huge after losing so badly. I still catch myself making mistakes like calling down light with marginal hands vs players who I think are full of shit when they've actually got a hand. I'm trying to get more disciplined about that leak in my game. One of the hugest inspirations in that department is watching the Durrr vs Antonius heads up at the '09 Aussie Millions. Tom keeps getting good hands but Patrick gets something better, and Tom keeps folding when he knows he's beat. He doesn't lose his cool and makes the right play consistently over and over. It's an incredibly impressive display. It's rare you can learn anything useful and applicable to online poker from televised poker, which is usually centered on people playing crappy cards and sucking out. But watching this really can teach a player something. Too bad I didn't watch it and learn from it about a month or two ago!

I wish I had counted how many times I've played through GRAND THEFT AUTO IV so far. I say that because I think I'm going to start a new game of that again. I just replayed through BIOSHOCK 2 again earlier this week. I'm still going back and forth between old original Xbox games and my tiny PS3 library until I can replace my dead 360. (Which I had more than enough money for from poker before my massive downswing.)

Speaking of video games, the other day, while I was playing BIOSHOCK 2 my dog surprised me. She was indicating she wanted to go out, and I wanted her to wait a few minutes while I was playing. The next thing I know, the screen goes black and the PS3 said something about "please wait". I look and see the disc sticking out of the front of the PS3. Lucy (the dog) had hit the eject button on the front of the PS3. Guess I should have it up higher... or take the dog out when immediately when she asks me to unless I want to lose my progress in a game.

Oh Yes.

I heartily endorse this message.



This isn't an official trailer, so who knows how long before it gets yanked.

Doctor Who Series 5

Towards the end of the previous Doctor/production team's run I was pretty much fed up with the show. I hated the 10th Doctor and was glad to see him go. I put that more on the head writer than the actor. Even his regeneration was annoying, whining, "I don't want to go." You didn't see the other Doctors being little bitches about it. I never particularly warned to 10, with him and Rose being so smug and annoying in series 2, and then it just got worse from there.

I was a bit nervous about the new guy, but now I love the 11th Doctor. I think he's the best Doctor since #4, Tom Baker. In a lot of ways Smith reminds me a lot of Doctor #2, Patrick Troughton. Which is funny, since the first Doctor is referenced numerous times this season, which I love.

Also a big improvement is in the companion department. I make no secret of the fact that I've got a massive crush on Karen Gillan/Amy Pond. There's been some mis-steps with the character, and a lot of people don't like that she's a bit aggressive sexually. Personally, I think the character is fine and the actress is hot.

Since this is so long, I've put it under a break. Spoilers ahead, esp for the final two episodes, which won't air in America until the end of next month.

Doctor Who Series 5 Finale Theory Update (Spoilers)

Earlier this week I made a guess as to what was going to happen on the finale... I was right.

I can't wait for next week's episode to see how it all turns out. I keep checking Amazon UK to see when the Blu-ray box set for series 5 is coming out. Right now they only list three individual discs, and I'd rather hold out for the entire series. (Are they going to wait until after the Christmas special?) Hopefully it'll be all region like the other WHO Blu-rays. The prices on the DOCTOR WHO seasons are much cheaper to import, even with the high shipping charges, than buying the US releases. Plus, it'll come out sooner than the US release.

Doctor Who - Series 5 Finale Theory

The first part of the finale will be airing this weekend in the UK, and in a few weeks here in the US. I'm pretty sure I know what's going to happen. Skip the rest of this post if you want to avoid spoilers for episodes that haven't aired yet in the US.

It involves the "Pandorica" which, looking at it from the preview is a big box. We've been told that when the Pandorica opens it's going to be a bad thing.

We know that a bunch of villains will show up for the opening of the Pandorica. Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, etc.

In the next episode preview last week we're told that it's a "box, a cage, a prison". We're told that there's a "goblin or a trickster or a warrior, soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies, the most feared being in all the cosmos." Sure sounds like the Doctor, at least from his enemies perspective, doesn't it?

People have been guessing that the Doctor will be inside the Pandorica when it opens. Some are pointing to leaked concept art as proof of this.

I personally think that all of his enemies have banded together to build this prison for him. They're going to lure him there with the knowledge that when it opens it's going to be bad. And it will be bad... for the Doctor. They all gather for "the opening" and it'll be empty when it opens and they're going to jam him in there. Maybe they'll then destroy the TARDIS, which creates the cracks in time and explains the piece of TARDIS rubble from a few episodes ago.

I'll be interested to see if the current fan theory that this entire series has taken place in an alternate universe is correct. I don't think it is, but I suppose it's possible.

Of course we also know that he'll survive since the show isn't ending. We can also guess it won't be a cliffhanger, since there's a Christmas special like usual this year.

The First Doctor Again

One thing I find really interesting about the current series (or season, if you prefer) of DOCTOR WHO is that the image of the first Doctor keeps popping up in episodes. Obviously he was in the montage of all the previous Doctors in episode one. Then in "Vampires Of Venice" the Doctor's ID card had a picture of the original Doctor. Then in the most recent episode (which won't air for two more weeks in the US), we see the first Doctor again, and we also get a picture of the second Doctor as well...

If both actors hadn't been dead for decades, I'd think they were trying to set up a multi-Doctor episode with these older incarnations. Obviously that's impossible though. I have to say, I love the referencing of the old Doctors. I also liked the Easter Egg a few episodes back of the TARDIS build date being 1963, the year the first episode of the show aired.

I'm Here For The Plot (Finales That Don't Quite Satisfy)

I see a lot of complaining online about the ending of LOST, as well as a lot of confusion. While I think that I liked the ending, I'm not 100% sure, I do understand where the disappointment comes from.

LOST's ending suffers from much of the same problems as BATTLESTAR GALACTICA's. On GALACTICA, the head writer infamously decided the ending was "all about the characters" (I'm paraphrasing here) and the rest of the stuff didn't matter. Too bad that's incredibly dumb. That stuff, all those mysteries introduced by those same writers, did matter to the fans.

When you're working on a plot dense show, to toss aside all the questions you chose to raise, and don't answer because you're too lazy to have thought up answers, you're bound to annoy people who stuck around. All you have to do is ask, "Would this show have been as interesting or successful if it was a bunch of people sitting around a room talking and it wasn't set on a mysterious island or space ship?"

Characterization is great, but I think a lot of people are more interested in the plot itself. I know that while I like seeing characters change, etc, I'm very plot driven. Saying, "oh it's all magic" or chalking it up to angels and saying that the things that made the show so interesting don't matter is a bit of a slap in the face to fans.

How often did you hear people talking about how interesting it was that Sawyer discovered that he liked to read books on the island? Pretty much never. People wanted to know who the Others were. People wanted to know what the numbers meant, etc.

This sort of "it's all about the characters, nobody cares about the rest" line from writers isn't unique to series finales. (For the few Brits reading, I'm speaking in terms of the entire show. I know what we call "seasons" you guys call "series".) The first four seasons of DOCTOR WHO were full of "emotion" and "characterization" over plot. Unlike the original run of the show this stuff took precedence over story. A lot of episodes were resolved with some sort of lazy magical fix. This is a pretty stark contrast to the older shows, where there were the occasional emotional moment (like the Doctor leaving his granddaughter behind), but mostly the show was about the plot. It wasn't concerned with trying to please "shippers"* or attempting to make the audience weepy. I think the current regime on WHO is doing a much better job of blending the two.

Don't think I'm tossing characterization under the bus. There is something to be said for making the characters interesting and not just as tools to advance the plot. That's where HEROES failed, by making the characters act however the plot required them to that given week, regardless of consistency.

The original STAR TREK is a good example of something that was plot-driven (although episodic rather than overall) while having interesting characters. In fact, the sequel shows all suffered from having bland characters and being overly plot driven. The actors seemed like they just recited a bunch of "technobabble" with zero personality.

I suspect that some of this "the plot doesn't matter" stuff is laziness. People come up with interesting ideas, but paint themselves into a corner when it comes time to explain the hows, whats, and whys. Better to make it sound like we didn't consider that important in interviews rather that admit we came up with a cool idea and then couldn't come up with an explanation.

To me, LOST's ending felt more satisfying that GALACTICA's. We got most of the answers. Unlike BSG (or THE SOPRANOS), I don't feel like I wasted a few years watching the show. Finally, the ending makes sense if you were paying attention... (Skip the next paragraph to avoid spoilers if you haven't seen the final episode yet.)

SPOLIERS: Seriously, anybody confused by the ending of LOST wasn't paying attention: The island stuff all happened. The sideways universe from the final scene is where the characters went after they died, either on or off the island at different times. They spell this out on the show. Like Jack's father told him, some of those people died before him (Jin, Sun, etc) and some after (Kate, Sawyer). Once they're all together, they're going to move on together. Presumably to some sort of afterlife.

Still, there were a bunch of lingering questions, and I just hate it when shows do that, or have cop out endings and try to make the audience feel like we shouldn't have cared about the plot. That all we should've been interested in were how the characters interacted and changed. We care about that stuff too, but we wouldn't have started watching and stuck around if it weren't for the plots.

* An incredibly stupid online term for fans that are interested in various couplings on the show. All these people care about are whether Jack and Kate (or Kate and Sawyer) get together. Or they're only worried about The Doctor and Rose being "in love". (Ugh. 900+ year old alien in love with a lower species. That'd be like falling in love with your dog or cat.) These people usually write terrible fan fiction.

Unanswered Lost Questions

Unless I'm forgetting stuff explained in previous seasons, we never got answers to the following...

1) Why were the others so interested in Walt in the first two seasons?

2) What happened to the rest of the original plane crash survivors? They disappeared once the time jumps started and were never heard from again. The camp was there, but they were gone.

3) During one of the time jumps, the time lost survivors were being shot at in a canoe by other people, who were the shooters?

4) Why/how did Jack see his dead father in the flash forwards back in season 4? It couldn't have been the Man In Black, since he couldn't leave the island.

5) Who were the Others? How did they wind up on the island?

6) We never got much of an explanation about who the temple people were.

7) They never did anything with that box where you wish for things and they appear. (I think that was season 3? It's how Locke's father got to the island so Sawyer could kill him.)

8) Why couldn't women give birth on the island?

9) What did the numbers mean? (I think this was answered off the show, but I don't know for sure.)

There's probably a lot more, but those are just off the top of my head.

Easter Present

RedLetterMedia's review of STAR WARS: EPISODE II - ATTACK OF THE CLONES is finally up. Given how awesome his review of PHANTOM MENACE was, this shouldn't be missed.

What I've Been Watching 1-1 - 1-10 2010

Here's some of the stuff I've been watching over the last week.

CHUCK: Before the season premiere, I found myself starting to wonder if this is the season where the show would start to suck. Almost invariably, good shows after a season or two have a least one season where it turns to crap. Some can pull themselves out of the nosedive (LOST) others never recover aside from rare flashes of what made the show so great to begin with (BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, THE SOPRANOS). So far, my fears haven't been realized. Any worry that fans had of the show jumping the shark with the addition of Chuck being able to download new abilities should've been alieviated by these two episodes.

Can't wait for tonight's new episode. When 24 returns next week, Monday will become the most crowded TV night for me again.

DOLLHOUSE: Wow, this show has gotten incredibly good. (Even if this episode's ending "twist" was predictable after the first twist, which was an incredibly obvious, yet sensible given the content of previous episodes.) I guess having an end date in site, and probably a little less network interference has allowed the writers to bring their A-game. I really hope they can wrap the whole thing up in a satisfactory way. As good as the show has gotten, I doubt it'll get the FIREFLY treatment, with a movie and people wanting more.

SCRUBS: While I enjoy the lack of J.D., the show should've just ended last year. I'm still watching because Turk and Cox were two of my favorite characters, but the new cast hasn't really hooked me. Basically the show just gives me something to watch before BETTER OFF TED comes on.

BETTER OFF TED: Probably cancelled, and that's a shame. The show gets funnier and funnier every week.

MODERN FAMILY: I thought this week's episode was the weakest of the season, but it's still a funny show.

The Remake Of The Prisoner

A few years ago, I discovered THE PRISONER and watched the entire series. I loved the concept, a spy retires and is abducted and placed in The Village. He has no idea where it is, everybody there is called by a number instead a name, and they keep trying through various means to get him to reveal why he resigned and prevent him from escaping. He's renamed to Number Six and his main nemesis is an ever changing head of the Village called Number Two. (There were only two Number Two's who ever appeared in more than one episode.) Once he even escapes (or thinks he does) only to wind up back in the Village and finding out that the person helping him all along is the new Number Two.

The show was surreal and clever. The final episode is pretty much what I envision happens inside a person's mind when they go mad. It's strange, it doesn't make any sense, but it's pretty much a fitting ending if you look it as the main character finally caving to the immense pressure and having a psychotic break.

A remake has been in the works for quite awhile now. Originally the new Six was to be played by DOCTOR WHO's Christopher Eccleston. I don't know if that was a rumor or not. Still he probably had the intensity to play Six as well as Patrick McGoohan. This didn't happen.

Instead the remake is remarkably dull and soulless. They take a great concept, keep a few things, and the rest is bland "re-imagining"... except it's re-imagined by people without imaginations. I suppose one could argue that if they had imaginations they wouldn't need to be doing a remake.

The only good thing is Number Two, played by Ian McKellan. Instead of a different Number Two each episode, like the original, they have just one.

The new version seems to like to spell things out. No ambiguity. In the original this exchange...

"Who is Number One?"

"You are Number Six."

... was uncertain. It remains uncertain to this day. Was the question being answered, or simply ignored? In the final episode of the original, we're given an answer of sorts. Even then we have to ask, did we really get the answer? In the new one, we're flat out told that there is no Number One.

In the original, it's never revealed why Six resigned. The new version tells us within the first two hours. The reason is mind-numbingly dull. The new Six is about as interesting and layered as a dishrag. The original drove the series. This one just seems pushed along. Spy or pencil pusher? Which sounds like a more interesting character?

In the original we wonder who is behind the Village. Is it Six's own government? Are they testing him to find out if he'll crack? Are they worried he'll reveal their secrets or that he was going to defect to the enemy? Is the Village run by an enemy government? Are they trying to get an agent from the other side to crack? In the remake, while it hasn't been revealed yet, it's clear it's the evil corporation that Six worked for behind things.

The Village isn't as interesting. The original was practically a character in and of itself. The new one just isn't as visually interesting.

I found myself falling asleep watching this. I've already invested four hours, and I'll see it through to the end, but I think my time might've been better spent re-watching the original, which AMC has OnDemand this month.

Two things that I did like...

Ian McKellan is a great actor, so of course he gives a great performance. In fact, I think he would've been a great Number Two in the original series as well.

The subtle intimation that the old man that the new Number Six meets in the desert in episode one's opening is the original Number Six from the original show. He's wearing the same outfit as the original and says to tell them that he "finally escaped".

Edit: I did like one other thing, I like how the new logo incorporates a 6 into the O. That's pretty cool. Forgot that.

Watch the original's opening sequence. So much better.

Be seeing you.