Found

Okay, so. It happened. LOST ended. Spoiler alert no freaking duh so please do not read on OR BE ON THE INTERNET if you are a few episodes behind.

So like, okay. Right? Wait, but. And what? Immediately after last night's finale, my friends and I basically sat around talking like Stefon from SNL ("You know it's like that thing where...and huhhh?") It's taken me until this morning, but I am definitely understanding a little bit better what quite happened in the last episode. Mostly because last night I thought dying Jack was seeing the Sideways Universe version of Oceanic 815 overhead, so I kept being like, "wait what?! with the time loops?" But this morning an associate assured me that he was seeing Lapidus' Ajira plane taking off. Okay, one mystery solved.

So in general, yes I am happy with the ending. It was a cheezy cop-out of them to create an alternate reality where all the people who died are alive, and they can all reunite with the people they loved, but at least they spent a season and a half creating said reality, and hell yes did it work. When people were touching each other and feeling it left and right, I was definitely on board. Yes, absolutely I cried when Jin and Sun remembered everything, and when Charlie and Claire kissed, and when Sawyer and Juliet knew, oh my goodness I was all shook up. I did not care when Sayid and Shannon hooked up because lol (and forget about Nadia, I guess, apparently).

Other awesome things about the episode were Lapidus, the chillest dude ever, floating out in the water like "hey bros," and Hurley becoming Ben's boss of the magic island filled with trapped souls. Also Miles and Richard being like "middle age, am I right?"

So, look. I don't quite understand what happened last night. As far as I am concerned, everything that happened on the island was real, and the Sideways timeline is a subjective/collective reality/purgatory that does/does not exist, but that allows everyone to be reunited. And then Christian Shepherd is there for some reason? And he opens the doors to...heaven? But only for some of the castaways? And Penny? And I guess like, Jack's son is irrelevant? I mean, I don't know if when the main dudes go off to heaven, if Ben will still have a reality in which to marry Rousseau and be Alex's dad, or where Julie Bowen is in all of this or whatever, let alone Daniel "The Constant" Faraday/Widmore. But like, okay, if the main dudes are going off to Heaven then I guess that's okay? Right? What?

Ken Jennings blogged the following: "I’m not one of the people who’s going to tell you the finale sucked because I didn’t get ANSWERS to stupid five-year-old questions. The finale didn’t have to explain The Numbers or polar bears or that one Dharma food drop or who built that statue. I don’t care about any of that. But I think it needed to pretend it was wrapping up a single story told on a big canvas: it needed to tell you why it, for long stretches, seemed to be about things like dead babies, quantum physics, Walt, etc."

I think that last sentence nails it. I am willing to forfeit answers about the the statue, the hieroglyphics, the vaccine, the fertility woes, and whatever. But when they spent seasons trying to convince us that Walt had magic superpowers, or Aaron was the magic savior baby, or whatever, only to never return to or resolve those storylines, I can't help but think that 99% of the show was Darlton making stuff up as they went along. We're probably lucky more of the series wasn't about Nikki and Paolo.

So, yeah, I'm satisfied with the finale. Because Jin and Sun get to go off to fantasyland and raise Ji-yeon together. And Charlie gets to lay in bed and have the DT's while Claire nurses some dude's baby right next to him. Hurley and Libby get to have picnics together for eternity. And Juliet and Sawyer get to make out in a giant polar bear cage in the sky while Jack creepily watches on CCTV, holding hands with Kate and thinking about his imaginary son. Desmond and Penny will just be chilling the whole time, ignoring their kid as well. But also I am a little tepid on the series as a whole now, as it is no longer the game-changer it used to be. I mean, I put years into watching you, show. And you just haven't quite fulfilled me?

For an earlier blog about series finales, click here. Now I'm going to just mull it over some more and think about more of the crazy stuff I can't figure out.


ADDENDUM:
Okay, what was with that stinger shot played over the credits, of the original wreckage of Oceanic flight 815 on the beach with no one around? No bodies, no people, maybe some footprints in the sand (Jeebus?)... It's unclear to me if that's something that the show creators intended to air as the final visual of the show, or if it was added on by ABC, but what could it mean? I think we're all assuming the island life was real and the Sideways timeline was the "hallucination," but that last shot implies that everyone died in the crash? Maybe?

am i the only person who didn't see that one coming?

I don't really know what to say about last night's season four finale of LOST, because it was such an excellent, complicated two hours of television that it's hard for me to string together a coherent discussion of one of the most divergent shows ever on TV. So, for the ease of muddling through all the thoughts that last night's episode - and this entire season, in fact - left me with, I'm going to break from tradition and write in bullet points today (storing up my energy for 2 and 1/2 hours of Sex and the City tonight).

Jin and Sun -- Oh man oh man, I was having quite a bit of trouble keeping it together for this whole section of the episode. First of all, I'd been holding out hope that Jin, despite not being one of the Oceanic 6, was still alive, ever since the ambiguous "tombstone" in the Ji Yeon episode. Somehow I still have hope that he survived the freighter explosion because a) it's LOST, and b) Jin is awesome. And Jack's a big douchebag. Yunjin Kim's acting was really spectacular, and totally sold the entire helicopter scene for me. I'm excited to see her start owning her grief and her destiny in her time after the island. She freakin' confronted Widmore himself!

Time travel -- Thankfully they've eased us into this being the true reality of the island, because if they'd just sprung it on us four seasons in, I think it would have fallen totally flat and nobody would have signed on. It would have been J.R. coming out of a dream sequence or something like that. I thought it was pretty bomb to see Ben turning the WHEEL OF TIME in the mysterious frozen core of the Earth, and another Dharma orientation video was long past-due. I can't wait for this to finally tie together the loose ends of Richard Alpert, polar bears, and four-toed statues. Also, I read a great theory online that the reason Widmore is trying so hard to find the island is because he moved it once himself and, like Ben said, the person who moves the island can't come back.

Desmond and Penny -- I was very surprised to see their reunion happen so early in the show's run. Considering the fact that Desmond was only introduced in season two, and the magnitude of their love story, I wasn't expecting resolution there until the final season. Of course, this just emphasizes the fact that their story is neither as interesting or as important as the raison d'etre of the island itself, and the conflicting groups who have found themselves there. It's a shame their union won't last forever. Come on, you know something bad has to happen there.

Ben and Locke -- Locke being groomed to become the new Ben was exciting, because it was finally a payoff to the strong connection he's had with the island. Locke being in the coffin at the end totally took me surprise (hence this blog entry's title), and opened up a lot of questions and possibilities for what could happen in upcoming seasons to fill the gap in Locke's life between last night's episode and his death. Ben had become my favorite character on the show long ago, and seeing what happened just before he landed in the Tunisian desert ("What year is it?") just made him even cooler in my book. Oh yeah, and he stabbed some dude in the neck a few times. Oh, and he is totally going to go after Penny now, and I'm sorry but Desmond is no match for Ben.

The "future" -- Okay, so now Jack, Kate, Aaron, Sun, Hurley, and Sayid have to go back to the island. And they have to bring back Locke's cold dead body. Does Ben get/have to go with them? Why doesn't Walt have to return? Or does he? How long (in TV time) is it going to take to get them back there? And how will Kate and Hurley be convinced? Will Jack ever stop being so insufferable?

The LOST Experience -- Another entry in the canon of LOST ARG-related websites. Did you catch the commercial for Octagon Global Recruiting? Watch it again at http://octagonglobalrecruiting.com. It's clearly something you can sign up to attend at COMIC CON 2008 because it says "San Diego" and "July 24-27." Yeah, even though I can't go to Comic Con this year, I still have the dates memorized. I can't wait to hear what they reveal!

it's been swedish...i mean, sweet-ish

As a very meager attempt to atone for how remiss I've been at posting these past few months, I just wanted to post an abbreviated review of this past season of TV shows that I've been watching. I haven't been able to follow all of them as religiously as I usually try to, but it's been an interesting post-strike stretch of episodes, that's for sure.

Gossip Girl (The CW)
Sometime between telling my then-uninitiated roommate that gossip girl "isn't a character, it's an entity," and haranguing Josh Schwartz on the picket lines about Rufus' backstory, Gossip Girl became one of my favorite TV shows of all time. Sadly, The CW stopped making the episodes available online, as it was more popular as digital media than its Nielsen ratings would indicate. So I've missed about three installments of the first season, which I lament more than you can know. However, Serena's juicy backstory reveal (I CALLED IT ALL ALONG!)*, the entanglement between Lily and Rufus, and for the love of god Blair and Chuck, all of these elements have come together in a show that is actually titillating and still makes me laugh. When a friend recently asked a carload of GG-obsessed girls what the big deal was, I think we held court talking about it for about 45 minutes. Choicest dialogue (paraphrasing):
(Serena is embarassed to tell her friends about her secret shame)
Nate: We've all done things we're ashamed of, Serena. I had sex with you!
Blair: (indicating Chuck) I had sex with him in the back of a limo. Twice!
Chuck: (pause) I'm Chuck Bass.

30 Rock (NBC)
This second season of Tina Fey's pet project managed to be even funnier and more ridiculous than the first, and has really become one of the smartest shows on the networks. In one recent episode alone, they managed to reference both the uncanny valley and the Mozart-Salieri conflict. The season finale ended on a couple of cliffhangers, which is a useful tool for a sitcom, as proven by The Office, but one of them was about Liz Lemon planning to have a baby, by hook or by crook. I've put the brakes on my eyes rolling, but just until proven wrong about season three having "buy Baby Mama on DVD Tuesday" tie-ins every five minutes.

The Office (NBC)
Bluntly put: while remaining one of the funniest shows on American television, the fourth season signalled a decline in quality that is troubling for fans. Jim and Pam seem cemented in their relationship, which moves their romance from the A storyline, but I could see the show breaking them up at some point, just to drag things out and elicit groans from everybody. Michael and Jan had reached a peak of awkwardness - so we thought - until the season finale shocker. There have been some unusual changes in Michael's character, whereby he seems to swing from lovable buffoon Michael Scott to harmful idiot David Brent tendencies, and I don't think that makes it easy for the audience to side with him. (Did the show jump the shark when Michael drove his car into a lake?) Ryan as a cokehead with no business ethics is no surprise, but seems like more of a gag than a character arc to tug at our heartstrings. The Dwight-Angela-Andy triangle, then, seems to be the most compelling storyline, but without a little more insight into Angela's state of mind, I don't know where to stand on that. If showrunner Greg Daniels is devoting time to both The Office and its unnamed spinoff next season, then I forsee bad things happening to the show. I stopped watching Alias when J.J. started working on LOST (though, thank god, because LOST is so much better!)**, I stopped watching Grey's Anatomy when Shonda started Private Practice (also when Izzie and George got ridiculous), and I hope I won't have to do the same for The Office.

Other shows, like Grey's Anatomy and America's Next Top Model, I have basically stopped watching. I've checked in on ANTM from time to time, and was very happy to see this season's winner be a plus sized model, but Tyra is so obnoxious that I can barely stand the clips of her they show on E!'s The Soup. I do watch Ugly Betty and LOST, but the latter's season finale hasn't aired yet so I'm reserving a post to discuss it then, and I'm in the midst of catching up with the last few episodes of Betty online before I do the same.

* (SPOILER) Really, anything too dark for her to tell Blair about in the first place had to be murder. But the show would never want our heroine to be so unrelatable, so I knew it would be either someone-was-going-to-be-sexually-assaulted OR Serena-was-a-party-to-an-accidental-drug-overdose. Imagine my surprise when it was both! (END SPOILER)

** To be fair, I started watching LOST on DVD two years ago, and only started watching Alias on DVD two months ago. But when I got to the season 4 Alias DVDs, which is the point in the show which aired concurrently with season 1 of LOST, I stopped caring about Sydney Bristow and stopped watching.

season premieres!

It is far past time for me to organize my thoughts about this season's new and returning offerings of primetime TV! So far, the one show that seems to have found itself on the cutting block is ANTM, which I just haven't been able to find the time for. The great thing about that show is that it has two "cycles" each season, so I don't have to wait a whole year to catch a new crop of skinny bitches. Also, I have to wait until February for more LOST, but at least there won't be a mid-season hiatus this time around.

Heroes
Mondays at 9pm on NBC
So far, I have been greatly impressed by the reintroduction to the Heroes-verse. Unfortunately, there was about a month last season when I really had trouble keeping interested in some of the show's many plotlines, so I feel like I keep missing out on some backstory now and again, but I feel like I'll catch up. As far as the Nakamura family is concerned, I'm sad to see George Takei go, but I am thrilled with the interaction between Hiro and Takezo Kensei. Not only does it reinforce how amazing of a hero Hiro really is, but it's nice to get a totally different perspective on the super powers. As far as Peter Petrelli is concerned, I like how much of a total badass he is, but I hope they just don't make him omnipotent and take the humanity out of him. That said, he looks a lot hotter this season. Claire is getting less annoying now that she's not a cheerleader any more, but I have to wonder how far they are going to take her abilities.

I Love New York 2
Mondays at 9pm on Vh1
So, my dear friend Evan and I became obsessed with Tiffany Patterson's search for love on the first season of I Love New York, and were sad to see that she didn't find it with Tango (personally, I think Mr. Boston would have been her best shot). So of course we more than eagerly tuned in to see the premiere of this second season. So far, it looks promising - plenty of fame-hungry 'mos looking for a shot to hook up with the living Bratz doll that has been on Flav. Now, don't get me wrong, I think Tiffany is great. I just think it's funny how these guys claim they've been in love with her ever since they tuned in to Flavor of Love for the first time. So far, no particular standout suitors, but I really hope Vh1's lawyers get Sister Patterson to stop being so hateful to self-named "Midget Mac."

Pushing Daisies
Wednesdays at 8pm on ABC
I'd heard good things about this show, which had gotten some buzz in recent months, but the advertising and word-of-mouth never really stuck with me. On a whim, I watched the pilot on abc.com last week, and became totally smitten! Lee Pace, from the late, great series Wonderfalls, and the beautiful Anna Friel (see The Land Girls if you ever get a chance) have extremely charming chemistry, made sweeter by the fact that they cannot touch. The character interactions are reminiscent of those on Dead Like Me, though there is less cynicism, and the show is so well-produced that it is like watching a high-budget movie fairy tale each week. Always a gem, Kristin Chenoweth is able to be physically comic and sing on the show, which I am very grateful for!

30 Rock
Thursdays at 8:30pm on NBC
The first two episodes of the season thus far have not been as hilarious as much of last season was, but I fully expect that the show will start delivering in a few weeks. It took me a few episodes to really get into the show when I started watching, and I'm sure it just needs to get back into the swing of things. That said, there have already been a couple of jokes which keep me giggling at inappropriate moments ("Oh no! Did a Korean person die?" and "Boys becoming men; men becoming wolves!"), and I just hope that the show doesn't start to rely on cameos and fat jokes for season two.



The Office
Thursdays at 9pm on NBC
With one major exception, I have been pleasantly surprised by everything that season four of this show has given its viewers. At first, I was really worried that a premature resolution of the Jim/Pam storyline would siphon all of the magic out of the show, but so far that hasn't happened. The Dwangela storyline seems to be filling its shoes quite nicely, and I look forward to Angela's character being given more room to breathe. The first four episodes of this season are hour-long, and so far that has worked sometimes, but last night's episode felt stretched too thin. The main problem I'm having with this season is that Michael's character has changed from a well-meaning idiot to a completely unrealistic buffoon. I can't really sympathize with him anymore because the things he does seem to be stupid for stupid's sake, like driving into a lake. It's almost Brentian. Hopefully things right themselves, because my impulse purchase of the first three seasons on DVD really made me fall even more in love with the show.

Grey's Anatomy
Thursdays at 9pm on ABC
Nah, not really. I hate to say it, but this show has really lost a lot of its charm. I couldn't justify spending the money on the season 3 DVDs because of the sour turn that the show took during the second half of the season, and so far season 4 has yet to draw me back in. I've decided that The Office gets my viewership on Thursday nights, and I will watch Grey's online when I have time, in the hopes that the writers can find a way to get back on the right track, but at this point I really don't even care what happens to the characters. I wish I could be as gung-ho about this show as I was for seasons 1 and 2, especially as a minority female hoping to become a writer someday, but it has gotten...boring. Characters making too many stupid mistakes and not getting out of their ruts is just...not doing it for me.

So, hopefully I'll have a chance to catch up on ANTM, Private Practice, and Gossip Girl (which I'm sure I'd love), but as I'm writing a first-semester thesis, that just doesn't seem too likely. Fingers crossed!

~Kat

TV on DVD

Before I get to my assessment of the TV shows that I am trying my very best to keep up with each week, I wanted to give a shout-out to Netflix, and the shows that I have been catching up with lately. Shortly after I first got my Netflix subscription in early summer '06, I started using it to make up for the time I'd lost during the first two years of college when I didn't have a TV anymore. If it weren't for Netflix, I wouldn't be watching some of the shows which I consider to be my current favorites, like LOST, Grey's Anatomy, or The Office.

I am now caught up with the first four seasons of Nip/Tuck, and I have been totally sucked in. Now, I've heard from the show's fans that after the first two seasons it disintegrated into a pointless soap opera with more twists than necessary. For this, I am grateful. Yes, the first two seasons made me care more about the characters than I do currently, but the show wouldn't be as sensational and addictive if it didn't push the boundaries of believability, network standards, and comic hyperbole. For a while during season 4 I was displeased with Sanaa Lathan's character and with the departure of Julia, but the way that the season wrapped up was very satisfactory. I am quite looking forward to the complications that will arise from Sean and Christian's relocation to my sunny neighborhood of Los Angeles. Also, as I mentioned in my last post about Death at a Funeral, I have become very impressed with Peter Dinklage. I was very happy with his character in Nip/Tuck, especially the romance between him and Julia. The flash-forward episode was a little "LOST" though, and I wasn't over the moon about that.

Also, I am two discs away from being finished with season one of Ugly Betty. I had seen a couple of episodes of La Fea Mas Bella when I was younger, and did watch the pilot of Ugly Betty last year, but I guess I had quite underestimated the quality of the show. Once I catch up, I plan to keep the show as part of my general rotation of primetime programming, and I can't wait to see if this show will have legs. My favorite parts (so far) are the snippets of telenovelas that we get to see, and the interactions between Mark and Amanda. Also, I think that America Ferrera is a very good actress, and I like seeing her do something much more comedic than Real Women Have Curves or, my guilty pleasure, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

oh jeez

Okay, so the first week of senior year of college is behind me, and now I need to get used to the actual schedule of having classes and work and still trying to spend some of my free time to blog instead of just watching TV on DVD all day long. So, okay, let me try to jump back in headfirst. As far as school is concerned, I am taking James Joyce, Film and Literature, Media Sketchbook, and writing my thesis! Looking forward to it all!

Now, first I'm going to transcribe the journal I took during COMIC CON all those weeks ago, and then in the next few days I'm going to try to catch up on all of the movies I've recently seen. Now, get ready for day one of the LONG overdue Comic Con 2007 recap...


THURSDAY, JULY 26

"You don't understand, Michael Cera is my soulmate."
"No. Michael Cera is my soulmate."
"... Michael Cera split his soul into horcruxes so that he could be both of our soulmates."

So began our conversation the night before we left for Comic Con. We had a little bit of a late start leaving from Beverly Hills this morning, so we didn't get to San Diego until about 11:30am. We checked into our hotel, took the shuttle to the Convention Center, and cut in line with a friend in order to claim our badges. Then we cut in line to try to get into the Paramount Pictures panel. Though we had another friend saving us seats inside the hall, apparently we haadn't cut far enough ahead in line because we were about 25 people past the point where we couldn't make it in. But now we're waiting in line to get into the same hall for the Lionsgate panel. We won't be able to stay for the duration of that, because we'll have to leave early to get in line for the LOST panel, which is upstairs in Ballroom 20.

*****

So, the Lionsgate panel was okay...we saw Dane Cook and Jessica Alba talking about Good Luck Chuck. But the most important part was Bob Stencil, who asked a really lame question of Jessica Alba, dressed in a 70s outfit complete with airline pilot's wings and a pornstache. As Esther and I were obsessing over him, we left the hall afterwards and saw him on the escalator! We were like totally geeky fangirls and I took a picture of him doing this great pose, then Lizzie, Esther, and I took a great posed photo with him. Now we're sitting in the LOST season 4 room! He said he was staying at the Ramada Inn, room 3312. Also, Optimus Prime in a Su-Fi t-shirt asked Dane Cook a question.

*****

So, the LOST panel was amazing. A few days ago, it was released that Harold Perrineau will be returning to the cast full-time playing Michael. The creators of the show had intended to release that news today at Comic Con, but its early release did not make it an less thrilling when he walked onstage (!) to join Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof. (Lizzie, Esther, and I were the only ones who stood up and screamed our heads off.) They answered audience questions and then showed a great 2-minute clip of "lost" Dharma Initiative training footage where that Asian guy said "Station 6, the Orchid, is not a botanical station. Sorry you've had to lie to your family," and the he was holding a bunny marked with the number 15 which seemed to have a "smart" clone which knocked a light bulb off the ceiling. "They've learned!" shouted that Asian guy. And there were some split-second images of a tall office building and a frame with some unrecognizable words, one being "Jacob"!

Then, we went to dinner at the Corvette Diner. We split a basket of spicy fried pickles, a peanut-butter-bacon-cheeseburger, and all ordered entrees and milkshakes. The '50s style diner was very kitsch (Bazooka gum instead of after-dinner mints), and the waitresses were too much - doing little birthday girls' hair with plastic straws, dancing, making balloon animals, and having alternate personas named Doris, etc. It felt like that time Brenda Walsh worked at the Peach Pit. I'm so full I feel like dying.

TO VIEW MY VIDEO DIARY OF COMIC CON 2007 PLEASE VISIT http://www.youtube.com/katexmachina

season finales

Welcome back to my blog, those of you who read it! Summer has finally gotten into swing and I am starting to get used to my new work schedule, so I owe a long overdue update. Now this information may be tediously old hat for you, but I did want to give my input about some of the season finales that aired a couple of weeks ago.

LOST
Though not without their flaws, the last few episodes of this season have been outstanding. I felt more like the fangirl that I was during the first two seasons when I found myself scouring the internet for screencaps and theories about certain events that came into play, and from my discussions with other losties, I am not the only one. A lot of people stopped watching after the first few mediocre episodes of the season, and I feel so bad for them. Now is my chance to get excited all over again about some of the things they missed out on. Firstly there was Jacob, whose eleven frames onscreen reminded me so much of the creepy masterpiece "Carnivale" that used to be on HBO. Then there's the further layers of the societies on and off the island, with dharma, and natives, and the lesbians (probably) in the new hatch. Of course, Desmond's foresight and the resulting Charlie storyline raise a whole plethora of questions to add to the preexisting ones for the next few seasons (four-toed statue, anyone?). But smoothing over the many other questions I have about the last few episodes (people who don't age, John freaking Locke), let me just say, "WALT! WAAAAAAAAALT!" omg walt lolz

Grey's Anatomy
Guuuuuuuuh... this season finale was such a letdown after the stellar endings to the first two seasons. Lady Grey, M.D., III seems like such an unecessary addition to this show which is already starting to mire itself in useless quagmires. I think the show really shot itself in the foot when Izzie and George did the thing that must not be named, and I am holding on to some very strained hope that it can recover next season. I had a feeling that Burke was going to get written out of the show somehow, and I suppose it makes sense that he'd be the one to leave the relationship with Cristina, but it was done in such a depressing way. I'm long past caring about the Mer/Der dynamic, but when the only hope for happiness that any of the characters had is gone, what is going to want to make the audience of the once-bubbly show keep tuning in? I couldn't understand what the reasoning was behing any of the chief of surgery / chief resident decisions were, though Chandra Wilson and T.R. Knight's interaction was very well done. They have always had good onscreen chemistry. The saving grace of the episode was the final scene when Meredith cut off Cristina's dress for her, and hugged her so tight, her best friend falling apart from the weight of her freedom. Their relationship has always been my favorite on the show, and I liked that they were holding each other up there at the end.

The Office
I've already said most of what needs to be said about the amazing progress of this show, but the season finale tonight cemented it in my opinion as an American TV classic in the making. As far as Jim and Pam go...I always want them to make it, no matter how hot and hip and smart Rashida Jones is. It bears repeating that fans of the UK Office will beware a romantic denouement, as it seems unlikely to stay strong as long as the show continues. I'm so glad Jim's cojones grew back, though. And I wish that I could be linked on www.creedthoughts.gov/www.creedthoughts even if it is only a Word document open on Creed's computer. Also - for looking directly in the camera in the way that you did, B.J. Novak, you are my American Idol.

Heroes
Because of the excellent way in which next season's villain was teased, I thought it was a little bit of a letdown that Sylar didn't die at the end. I mean, it's a smart move to hang onto him just in case things get a little weak down the line, but it was just such a transparent move. I was very glad to see Nathan's character fleshed out more in this episode, and I must say I can't wait to find out what crazy stuff Mama Petrelli can do! Hiro and Ando did not disappoint in their interactions, and the final scene with Hiro was beautifully suspenseful. Though it's not my favorite show on television, I look forward to continuing to have fun with it next season.

boob tube

Being a student at a pretty rowdy party school, I go out fairly often, and though Thursday is generally a very busy night, I didn't feel like putting in the effort yesterday. However, I wasn't abandoning a big party on the penultimate weekend before finals because I was planning on studying or something (pshaw)...it was primarily because I had a date with my television. A few yards away from my dorm, girls were wrestling in jello with little people who'd been hired for the occasion (I shit you not - disgusting), while I curled up in bed with primetime.

Some may scoff at the third parent of America's children, but I think television's value is ineffable. So without even attempting to explain why I carve so much time out of my schedule to watch tune in, here's a brief overview of my must-see TV shows. One small disclaimer - there are quite a few quality TV shows on cable, but I just don't have that at college. Some, like Showtime's Dexter, I find a way to watch "on demand" when visiting my parents' house, but for the most part, my cable TV viewing is on hiatus until I move out of the dorms.

HEROES
Mondays at 9pm on NBC
My appreciation for this show could be described as sinusoidal. I started watching it because it had gotten so much hype, and at first I was unimpressed. The first few episodes, however, got me telling people about how it was at least much better than most of the crap that gets picked up for networks nowadays, and isn't that really the best endorsement a fledgling series can get? As the season went on, I got more and more hooked. Some of the characters, like Hiro and Claire and Matt, are pretty interesting. Hiro, of course, is the most original, but those three capture my attention far more than the others. Peter's powers are, frankly, bitchin', but as a character he's kind of boring. Then there's someone like Niki/Jessica whose storyline has taken too long to be explained, and as such I lost interest in figuring her out or paying much attention after a few episodes. In terms of the storyline, though, Heroes wins at creating suspense and adrenaline for a series which, at first, stole too much from X-Men to be that exciting. At times there are a few too many things going on and an episode will thin out too much, but there is almost always a great cliffhanger at the end of each one, and it keeps me tuning in every week! The mid-season hiatus isn't something I'm pleased about when it comes to a show's first season, however, and I admit I've been a little forgetful by the time these last couple of episodes have aired, but I look forward to the new developments of season two.

America's Next Top Model
Wednesdays at 8pm on The CW
When ANTM came out, I never would have expected to want to see it once, let alone weekly, year after year. I started watching about halfway through Cycle 2, then forgot about it for a couple of years. But Yoanna's great face, and Shandi's boyfriend drama were better than a lot of scripted TV (yeah, I get that "reality" TV is as scripted as anything else, but I plan to devote a whole post to that eventually...). When I got to college, I finally had less homework and more free time, eventually found a group of Top Model Enthusiasts, and I am more than glad to have reentered their ranks. You see...the "skinny bitches show," as my dad calls it, is completely addictive. Though I generally couldn't care less about the modeling industry, somehow this show sucks me in. I can't really explain it. I went to all girls' school for nine years, so you'd think I'd have had my fill of girl-drama, but these hungry women make me nostalgic, I guess. And when the judges critique their posing or walking, I just eat it up. "Oh yeah," I'll say, "she needs to be a lot more fierce. She's hiding her neck, and has dead eyes." Perhaps it's because I'm waaaay too short to ever entertain the possibility of modeling, but I get such a feral kick out of criticizing these poor girls. I think if I were a fashion photographer and a model was being too timid on set, I'd pull out a conch and yell, "Sucks to your ass-mar!" Perhaps most importantly, though, I really don't like Tyra Banks. I am far too tired of the girls squealing every time they see her, I hate how "helpful" she is all the time, and 75% of the time she makes herself look like shit even though she's gorgeous. I love this show in spite of Tyra. That's a pretty big deal.

LOST
Wednesdays at 10pm on ABC
Last summer I rented season 1 of this show, in the wake of The Lost Experience, which made me feel as if I'd missed out. Having been in some sort of bubble, I really didn't know what to expect at all. But I specifically remember being completely surprised by the tense mood that the pilot put me in. It was pretty damn cool. I ate up the entire season on DVD, and spent way too many hours during my boring summer office job scouring the internet for LOST theories, explanations, and recaps. Season 2 came out on DVD right before the premiere of season 3, and it was a very tense race to the finish line for me, but thank god I made it. Season 2 was really spectacular, and though the current season has not exceeded it in suspense, I don't think it's gone that far downhill. The only characters I actually care about are Hurley, Jin, Sun, and Sawyer, but dammit I want to know the WHY of the island! This is where the show's creators really did it right. They had a good formula with flashbacks, and a good concept, but in the first few episodes they set up a system whereby they can always keep the audience waiting for answers. And I will keep watching until it gets explained. For the record, the episodes since the mid-season hiatus this year have been far superior to the first few of the season (barring the excellent premiere).

The Office
Thursdays at 8:30pm on NBC
For far too long, I was determined to dislike this show. Mostly, the advertising just never drew me in, and I have too many traces of Anglophilia holding over from my days as a teenage Janeite to want to buy into the Americanization of what I'd heard to be superb British comedy. So, I set some time aside within one of my favorite pastimes - watching whole seasons of TV shows on DVD in one or two sittings - to watch the entire UK version, followed by the first two seasons of the US show, which were available on DVD at the time. By the end of the Christmas special of the UK version, tears of joy in my eyes, my resolve to hate the US version was firmly in place. What Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, Martin Freeman, Lucy Davis, and Mackenzie Crook did was magical. And I can still watch the show on DVD over and over again and be entertained. Then I watched season one of the US version, and was disgusted. Frankly, I still feel like the first season is entirely not worth watching for fans of the original. I've come to realize this is because the humor and energy of the writers and actors was being stifled by their unreasonable attempt to poorly imitate the dry genius of their predecessors. Seasons 2 and 3, however, have completely won my respect and admiration. I feel that the actors have finally been given an opportunity to breathe life into their quirky characters, and I am very glad that Steve Carell is not in a show that I at first thought was below him. There is only one thing about this new iteration of the WernhamDunder-HoggMifflin universe that irks me, which is that the pacing of the original is incompatible with the US version's desire to stay on as long as is financially possible. Let's face it - Tim and Dawn only worked as a couple because we had to wait until the last possible moment for them to get together. The Jim and Pam relationship has already gotten stagnant and recycled too many times, and I just hope the show doesn't go too far, too fast.

Grey's Anatomy
Thursdays at 9pm on ABC
This was another show that I didn't watch during its time slot until having rented the first two seasons on DVD. To be honest, I don't have too much to say about this show's substance. I think Shonda Rimes & co. do a fantastic job of unrealistically witty banter that women love, and I'm okay with buying into it. I got obsessed with this show as soon as I started watching it, and it's nice to have a show which has made me cry (heart-wrenching medical emergencies), laugh (oh, that droll Cristina Yang!), and think (ew, I hope I'm not too much like Meredith). Plus, there's a ton of hot hot hotties on it. I suppose on a slightly deeper level, I appreciate the show's treatment of multiracial coupling and families - not making a big deal or very special episode out of a Jewish Korean-American dating an African-American, or portraying a Hispanic woman as being the more powerful, wealthy, and intelligent in her marriage with a white man. I attribute this to the impressive diversity among the writing team, and as an aspiring screenwriter myself, it's nice to see a minority female doing so well in this field. I know the blind casting on this show is unrealistic, but I'm willing to suspend disbelief for a show like this. Also, Sara Ramirez, Katherine Heigl, and Kate Walsh are just goooorgeous. I'd watch them sitting around making quilts for an hour... I mean, come on!

30 Rock
Thursdays at 9pm on NBC
I only just started watching the episodes of this show which were on the network's website, so I can't really say anything comprehensive, except that the absurdist comedy works so perfectly to balance the outlandishness of the Tracy Jordan and Jack Donaghy characters with the awkward realism of Liz Lemon. I am very much looking forward to watching the whole 1st season on DVD, as I've had to relegate my viewership to catching up online as a result of my previously existing appointment with Grey's. Also, it's nice to have a Tracy Morgan fix that isn't watching Brian Fellow clips on the internet. For the record, Tina Fey is also my idol. She's funnier than I could hope to be, and she champions hotness for bespectacled brunettes everywhere!
ETA: Since the season finale, NBC has put the entire series of 30 Rock online. I totally watched the whole thing when I was procrastinating, and I recommend it as a way to put off doing anything useful!

zombies, man...freak me out

You know that feeling you get when you're waiting in line to go on a huge rollercoaster, and you've been standing there for hours, and you can't tell if you have to pee or if you're just scared? I get pretty wimpy about stuff like that, and by the time I get to the front of the line all I want to do is walk right across the rollercoaster car and wait at the bottom for my friends. Then when it's about to start, I seriously feel like sitting there is the worst mistake I've ever made. But I put up with it because of those glorious moments when the ride has stopped, my stomach is sore from hitting the lap bar, and I can't stop grinning.

This is exactly how I felt about 28 Days Later... and I am completely welcoming the feeling in anticipation of installment the second, 28 Weeks Later... On the one hand, zombie movies are almost always worth it. However, will there be too many changes from the 2002 original that it will reduce the charm? (Yes, I just said a zombie movie has charm. Stick with me, folks.) From the trailer and cast of the new film, the entertainment value looks promising. But all it takes is a brief recollection of how excited I was to see The Matrix Reloaded to give me pause.

For me, much of the appeal of Days was what Danny Boyle did on his budget. The unknown cast was a crucial key to the realism of the zombie threat, and by primarily shooting on digital, there was a grittiness that 1) served his cost limits and b) really upped the sexiness of the whole thing. I have no doubt that the sequel will maintain the tradition of portraying The Infected as fast, active, and vicious. It was this departure from the sluggish braaaaaaaaaaains-mongering of Romero's zombies that probably captured a lot of audiences who weren't typically into the genre before (like me). Don't get me wrong, I love Romero-style zombies, but I don't think it's valid to lump the films together. The interaction between Night of the Living Dead's Ben and Barbra was serving a very different social purpose in 1968 than that between Day's Jim and Selena.

So what purpose will Weeks serve? Though not in the director's chair this time, Boyle will be an E.P., which gives me hope that we will see his artistic traces on the new movie, with Juan Carlos Fresnadillo at the helm. From the trailer, it looks as though it was shot on film, which, coupled with the other changes I've noticed (with my ever-keen eye), doesn't look like it will distract fans of the original. Mostly because of other elements which deviate from the low-budget appeal of Days. American audiences may not know where they recognize Robert Carlyle or Rose Byrne from, but LOST castaway Harold Perrineau could be distracting to some Wednesday night ABC-addicts (I want to yell out, "Waaaaaalt!" just once in the theater...just once!). Also, is it just me, or did anyone else notice that The Infected look really different in the trailer for the sequel? Less pasty/bloody, more dirty/gunky. I know, I'm a wordsmith. Anyway, watch the trailer (available in YouTube form at the bottom of this post) and you'll see what I mean. I'm assuming this will have something to do with a mutation of the virus considering that, according to the rules set up in Days, all those with Rage should be dead by the time the sequel comes around.

The Spanish-British collaboration possibly portraying the Americans as more of a threat than The Infected, however, is what worries me the most. Now, I'm not so much of a jingoist that I'll turn my nose up at any picture that doesn't portray America glowingly, but in the wake of the nonsense surrounding 300, I just think it's possible that some mischief will be made about the USA swooping in to help people, only to become mindless killing machines (could they be lowering themselves to the level of those they are fighting? this is a completely new idea!), and this will interfere with my enjoyment of an energetic zombie romp! Ask anybody who's taken a film class with me, and they'll tell you that I am a champion of entertainment in cinema. I get that there have always been sociopolitical implications of zombie films, ever since 1932's voodooploitation White Zombie, but I think that imperialism and colonialism are just not present in the minds of the majority of people who are going to shell out a cool Hamilton to have the crap scared out of them. By zombies!

If anybody knows more about the production of 28 Weeks Later..., I'd love to hear it! Anything I wrote here came from IMDb, Wikipedia, and stuff I remember from the paper I wrote about zombies last semester. In particular, how do you feel about the presence of social concerns in modern horror movies?

~Kat

P.S. Yes, I get that The Infected are not actually zombies. They are not dead, not from Haiti, and have nothing to do with black magic. And they are after blood, not brains. But no one can try to convince me these aren't zombie movies...