But apparently Kevin McKidd (Rome. And wasn't he the lead in Journeyman? Big doughy blonde Scandinavian-lookin' but really Scottish? oh yes, and he was in that horrific bridesmaid bullshit movie with Patrick Dempsey.) will be Christina's new love interest.
Really?
I think we've already talked about how FNL will be on DirecTV in the fall - then (repeated?) on NBC later (January or spring).
Ugh. As someone whose ENTIRE LIFE revolves around TV (if that's all there is, then that's all there is), summer is obviously a tough time. And hello stupid SciFi channel, THANKS SO MUCH for choosing to postpone the second half of the last season ever of BSG until next January. Thanks for going that extra mile and helping me out here.
SO, what will you be watching?
Well, I'll definitely be watching The Closer. I don't think it's the greatest show, certainly not to the level of its hype, and I ALWAYS think the season opener is very weak (they always go a bit too far in dumbing down the team and making Brenda the only person who can figure anything out in that episode, every season so far), but I really enjoy the different relationships among the team, the "camaraderie" (whether it be snarky and mean or sweet, depending on the participants), and I LOVE Fritz. So there's that. And it's definitely willing to operate on a goofier fun level than other cop shows. (And I know Michelle would not let me get away without mentioning J.K. Simmons!) Somehow that all makes it possible for me to get past the grating Southern accent.
I'll also be watching Burn Notice, the Eggplant's favorite show. I just don't get why everyone on earth thinks the lead dude is so charming (seriously, every article you read), because ALL I can think about when I see him is the mean nasty dude he played in Hitch. Seriously. And the voiceover, while being somewhat self deprecating and amusing, is always said in this smarmy self satisfied voice that makes me CRAZY and contributes even further to me thinking of him as the mean nasty dude he played in Hitch. That said, I love Sam and Fiona, and there is a lot of humor on this show, and hello this season "Smokin #6" as my Dad calls her (Tricia Helfer to the rest of us) will be in multiple episodes. So there are certainly enough reasons to watch.
I won't watch Saving Grace on purpose, but given it comes on right after The Closer, chances are I'll wind up seeing it. It's not the God stuff that bugs me (because frankly it's NOT about "saving grace because she's a drunken ho" although you would have to assume that from the previews), it's just that so many of the characters are one dimensional dead ends and while Bailey Chase (who you may remember from Buffy, he played one of Riley's military cohorts) is yummy, his character is kinda...dumb. It is fun to see Angela Chase's dad again (he plays one of Grace's brothers) and Laura San Giacomo is playing so much against type here (the nerdy best friend) that it really cracks me up.
I was considering watching The Cleaner because (BSG obsession again) Boomer/ Athena/ Sharon/ #8 is on it...but it's getting BAD reviews, like rubbing your face in kitty litter bad.
And....what else is out there? I believe Damages won't be on until 2009 (or so I've heard). I HATED the episode or two of Mad Men I watched last year and hello that show is sooooo overhyped, I'm out hunting for reviews of other people who didn't like it and I just can't find any!!! I may try it out again (maybe...if I'm really really desperate and lying on the floor doing nothing and staring at the ceiling is somehow not an option that night) but I doubt it. I just have no interest in that women-repressing time period and that's ALL I could think about when I watched it.
Got any other suggestions for me? Because it's looking very desert-like at this point....
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS / CALLSIGN: DUFF
Dear Carrie, first I have to say Thank You to you and the Pants because it was your effusiveness over BSG that finally got me into watching it and it's so blown past my expectations of excellence into some other stratosphere of awesomeness. Last week watching Revelations, I think I might have turned blue from holding my breath!! What were your first impressions of the mid-season finale??
ATHENS, GEORGIA / CALLSIGN: SCHMOO
Dear Carolyn, First of all, WHY are they doing this to us? Why are they waiting until 2009 to show more episodes? Seriously, screw you, Sci-Fi channel. Because this episode was so good that I don't really know if I can wait until NEXT YEAR to get my questions answered. sniff.
BUT. here are my initial impressions of the mid-season finale:
What were your favorite parts?
DUFF:
The SciFi channel clearly has on their STUPID hats, I KNOW!!!! I am convinced that if they were just running the rest of season 4 right now without interruption, the ratings would be off the hook. And as I know I've obsessively emailed you before, there is NO WAY all the secrets of those final episodes will stay underwraps for the next six months. This isn't a show like, say, Bones with only a few main characters and very few "extras" involved. Given the size of the cast and crew and all the spoiler sites out there... What are we supposed to do, ban the Internet from our lives until 2009? Very bad programming decision!!! Could potentially ruin the last half season of an awesome show!
As to this actual episode, there were a lot of little moments I loved!! Including, damn it girl, all the ones you already mentioned!!! (So subtle on Kara's part, LOVED that!) But also:
That said, there were a lot of things that felt missing about this episode. I mean, hello, Helo, Athena and (any) Six are almost not even in it, less than two full minutes of screen time each. What's that about? Will we get a big "flashbacks to the other stuff that went on during Revelations" episode when the show returns? What did you think this episode left out?
SCHMOO:
I knew you were going to mention the lack of Helo. ha.
But, I think you're right. There was definitely some stuff missing. I am thinking that the first show they air after the hiatus will sort of be a continuation of this episode and maybe fill in some of the time gaps. I read somewhere else that they sure were quick to forgive/release the Cylons (like Athena, who was jailed for killing Natalie, and the Final Four). That did ring a little untrue to me - I know they were trying to show D'anna that they wanted to make a truce, but seriously? And, how long did it take them to get to Earth? It wasn't just one jump, right?
Even though they did squeeze a whole lot into the episode, I was still really satisfied. I got to see a lot of interactions that they had been building up, like Saul's confession to Adama, AND they made it to Earth. Or did they?!?!?!?!
DUFF:
But of course Helo's absence was really the big thing of the episode right? Hahahaha
No really what the lack of him, and Sharon, and Six made me think about was here in the last season suddenly a couple randoms (Tory and D'anna) have been given much larger roles and some of the people who basically had their own personal season-long story arcs in previous season have just vanished from one of the most dramatic episodes ever (and several of the previous eps as well). So either we later get some fill-in on them...or their characters just take a backseat going forward? (No, please no.)
Yeah that whole "I've granted the four of them a pardon" or whatever was weird, right. A pardon for what, for being Cylons even though they did nothing Cylon-ish? I mean other than Tory, the others have certainly continued to faithfully carry out their duties and support the human cause despite their realizations that they actually weren't human.
I think it took more than one jump...but maybe not that many. I mean how far do we think colonial distress signals travel? Somehow the viper was picking it up so couldn't have been whole galaxies away.
OK and the whole is it Earth or is it New York or is it San Fran (or Tokyo or wherever the frak) thing is driving me NUTS!!! I used to love perusing the Ravelry Battlestar forum but now everyday the only new posts are "no, you're wrong, it's New York" and "no, you're wrong, it's not". Hello it is a fictional show, does it have to tie up EXACTLY with the real world???
At this point, clearly the characters DO believe it IS earth. So I think the question should be not "is it Earth?", but "was Earth really the final destination the prophecies referred to?" Perhaps the mistake was tying "promised land" and "Earth" into one...
Every propechy from either the colonial's "bible" or whatever AND those from the hybrids is clearly open to many interpretations.
So...what is either your hope for the rest or your guess? What do you want to happen? Or what do you think will happen, whether you want it to or not?
SCHMOO:
Hmm.
I think the reveal of the Fifth Cylon is going to be really important to WHY Earth is all burned out and wasted away, but I don't know that I have a guess for that - maybe the Fifth Cylon is orchestrating all of this from somewhere? I also think we will learn a lot more about Hera and her importance to this whole big plan. I really do want more details about how they got to this point.
I'm not good at predictions. I like happy endings, so I'd love it if Lee and Starbuck got together and and Laura and Bill lived happily every after and Gaius and his harem got booted out the airlock, but I kinda think that's NOT going to happen.
What about you?
DUFF:
What I think is going to happen and what I would hope in a perfect Duff-controlled universe would happen are very different. I would hope that Hera and Nicky would be very important to the final story; that we get to see some kind of confrontation/discussion between Chief Tyrol and either Boomer or Athena (hello, we could have been Cylon lovers together!); that those #6/Ellen Tigh back and forths will stop because seeing Ellen's head atop Six's body is frakking spooky; that Starbuck would go back to being the tough sassy kickass she was in earlier seasons (and maybe kill Leoben in the process, I HATE the Leobens) and (indeed) wind up getting over her fear of loving Lee; that Helo will NOT be the Fifth Cylon; that they would do another episode as awesome as the boxing one from season 3 (my favorite, even if there isn't enough Helo) was in terms of "revelations" about what they glossed over in this episode; that it will be less religious or at least if it is religious that the people of "many gods" will win instead of the people of "one god" and please less Jesus-y stuff with Baltar (Baltar is my Dad's favorite character right now, I mean after "smoking #6" as he calls her, but he's only starting season 2 so he just DOESN'T KNOW YET, ya know?) and that Baltar becomes LESS important than it seems that he is meant to become. And despite thinking the humans, hybrids and Cylons working together is a "good" message, I don't want it. I want some more fucking space battles. I want to see Viper pilots kicking some Cylon butt.
But I THINK ... I think a lot of bad shit is going to go down. I think at least two or maybe three major characters are certainly doomed. I think whoever the Fifth Cylon is, it's going to be a major punch to the gut. And I think the ending is going to be something along the lines of "humans just have to keep going and ENDURE, because that's what being human is" and certainly no dream of Utopia is ever going to either a) come true or b) be where we wind up, although it may be a step along the way, it will always only be temporary.
Frak I love this show.
Smooches!
p.s. Lookout DragonCon because here we frakkin' come.
"You frenched me, Suarez. You frenched me good." -- Gio, on Ugly Betty
I'm coming out of a looooooooooooong posting hiatus only to say - Season 3 bones finale - Holy Shit!!
That's unfortunately all I can say, as the owner of this blog is still on Season 1.
You got a lot of catching up, girl.
Dear The Office,
THANK YOU for returning to classic Jim & Pam pranks on Dwight. That was the best opening you've had in a while. And it set up the funniest episode you've had in a while. So THANK YOU for a general return to greatness. Is it coincidence that the show lasted an hour? I agree with Carolyn's assessment from the beginning of the season, that the hour-long episodes allowed the show to be a little more . . . human and tender in addition to brutally funny.
Amy Ryan rules. Dwight's set up, telling her that Kevin was "special," led to some really funny stuff--hilarious to watch Kevin just be Kevin but see it from Holly's perspective. And her face after Michael does his Yoda voice was priceless, as was her giving it right back. And Michael's reassessment of HR in general--"Not all monsters are bad"--also funny.
And thank you for giving Phyllis her time to shine. I love Phyllis. Her quest to find an anti-gravity machine had me on the floor. She took her duties so seriously, like she was a long-time minor league player getting called up into the majors, and she seemed so intent on getting that anti-gravity machine so Michael would be happy, but hey--bouncy castle is like the next best thing, right? And I love, LOVE, that she was the one to walk in on Angela and Dwight, especially after Angela delivered that awesome "you are never throwing another party again" line.
What else was funny...Ryan gets arrested for internet fraud and the video of his arrest shows up on the Internet. Awesome.
Creed trying to sound out what exactly it is that he does.
Oscar's face when Michael offers to make Holly a mix CD.
The idea that Andy has been carrying an engagement ring in his wallet for six years because you just never know...hilarious.
Thank you for bringing Jan back, as well. The idea that she got pregnant while she was with Michael but not WITH Michael, her explanation that if she were in her 20s...damn. That was harsh. Funny, but really harsh.
A great way to end the season, I thought. Thanks.
Love,
Michelle
I'll be back to write about The Office (loved!) and Lost (also loved, but with a couple reservations) but I caught this during my morning blog reading and had to share it:
Tahmoh Penikett shows up about about 2:03, Carolyn. Though he's not a big presence in the trailer. I felt compelled to add that disclaimer.
What do you think, though--looks good, right?
I don't even know how to write this, this week's episode was so incredibly good. I kept pumping my fist (or punching the air, depending on where you live) and shouting, "Awesome!" or "Yes!" or "HaHA!" or "I KNEW it!"
Locke-centric episodes are always good, but this one...this one goes beyond.
This episode was like a reward to those of us who have slogged through the at-times frustratingly mediocre episodes (or string of episodes). It proved that an episode doesn't have to have huge reveals or big answers in order to satisfy. Because what did we learn, conclusively, from this episode? Very little! But what did we find out? Tons!
Richard Alpert, for starts, has not aged in who knows how long. We sort of knew this already, since the Richard Alpert of Ben's first flashback is the same age as Richard Alpert of the show's present (if such a thing exists). And one of the Dharma Initiative's (or the "DI," as dream-Horace called it) experiments was to prolong life. So here we get a better sense of how long Richard Alpert has been around--and probably a lot longer than 1957.
When Emily's mom sees Richard at the window, she recognizes him, doesn't she? Even though she says she doesn't?
Locke's mom and Ben's mom are both named Emily. Not that it's the same Emily, but if there's some sort of prophecy that Richard Alpert is keeping store by, one that says the savior of the island will be born prematurely to a woman named Emily...and so Richard goes to John first, but John chooses poorly, but then Ben is born...you know? It's all starting to fall into place, though the big picture is still incomplete and fuzzy.
John's choice of items: Sand, check. Compass, check. Knife? Very much in keeping with Future Locke, but clearly not the right choice. What should it have been, then? The Book of Laws? (Jenn pointed out that this test is like the one used to find the next Dalai Lama.)
So Locke doesn't choose the right item, and the universe needs to course-correct, which it apparently does with Ben. But Locke clearly has a role to play in the island, and this is why he doesn't die, as he probably should have, after being pushed out of a building. Which Abaddon points out, before planting the idea in Locke's mind about the walkabout. Not that the reason Locke decided to go on a walkabout is any big mystery, but still, it helps put the big picture together. Abaddon is working for the good of the island. Right? Maybe?
And does anyone really believe Ben when he seemingly relinquishes his role as leader? ("Destiny is a fickle bitch" is one of the greatest line readings in the history of this show.)
The parallels and similarities between Locke and Walt got more concrete with this episode. I wonder if the island allowed Locke to see Walt's potential, and that's why he taught the knife-throwing, the backgammon, etc.
The wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey business with the freighter doc--ever since the doctor washed up on the beach but the people on the freighter said he was fine, we should have known that the doctor was doomed. But seeing it play out as part of a power struggle between Keamy and Frank was pretty chilling. There's more to say about the freighter but all I can do is list things--the Dharma plans that Keamy says will tell him what Ben's next move is, Michael's plea to Frank not to take Keamy back to the island, Keamy's declaration that he's going to "torch" the island and that shiny device on his arm, and most importantly but totally downplayed--Sayid takes off on his own to get his people to safety. What's going to happen to Sayid?
As for the cabin, which we now know was built by Horace, I don't even know what to think. Christian is there with Claire, who seems very laid back about it all, which would seem to support the theory that she's actually dead, but in that not-dead way the island has about it. And the way to save the island is to move it? Wha? (Move it in time, perhaps?)
