Monthly Archive for October, 2006

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COAMF VI:A Great Day For N.Y. A Great Day For the U.S. And A Great Day For Humanity.

Published on October 7, 2006 in ..The Dude, Sports and The Ill-Literates. 4 Comments

Why? Because the Mets completed a sweep of the Dodgers and the Yankees season ended as it usually does the past few years: In the 1st round. 9-5 Mets over L.A. on the West coast. Mets get a much needed 3 days rest before Championship Series starts on Wednesday against either St Louis or San Diego.

Tonights game was brutal on the nerves excruciating on the psyche, and generally tortuous in a way that is probably illegal somewhere under the Geneva Conventions (Not valid in these non-participating United States). And we were up 2 games and ultimately won by 4.

But it was really a rough one. After blowing a 4-0 lead as Mr Mediocrity Steve Trachsel melted down in the 5th we came back from 5-4 and edged through almost every inning with the Dodgers battling throughout.

I only had 2 hours of sleep last night, watched a guy die at work before 8 A.M., and played Tennis for 90 minutes, so I thought I’d drift off to sleep fairly early. But after that game I’m too wound.

And it was fun watching it with people online and trading barbs and references as the game and its many highs and lows went by. Also reacting to commercials and the announcers stupidity in real time was a blast. And camera shots. All that stuff. Almost as good as having a life and real friends.

And the Yankees are done. As a doornail. Lay down and pissed themselves like scared puppies in the face of a Tiger team that didn’t bow before them.

As I’ve been trying to tell Yankee fans for 6 years you’ll never win another championship with that payroll and a bunch of mercenaries and mediocre old pitchers.

Now of course the Mets have the issue with the old mediocre pitching thing too. And as some point it will probably be our undoing whether in the NLCS or World Series. BUt with everyone picking us for an early exit and the Yanks for greatness (and yes I thought they’d probably be right though the negativity on the Mets is more of a superstitious ritual), we’re making some noise and having a run at least.

BUt man if we hadn’t lost Sanchez in late July and had picked up 1 quality starter as we almost did at the deadline, we’d be in great shape right now.

Still a good season is protected by not being a 1st round loser. 1 more series would clinch a great season no matter what happens after that. Especially considering our paper thin staff.

And that staff was pushed again tonight as Willie had to use 3 guys in the 5th and eventually the whole pen was again pushed into duty accept for ROberto Hernandez whom no one trusts including his mother.

And the ugly beast that is Jeff Kent was put down. Or at least his team was. He actually killed us. Couldn’t get him out. If he becomes Albert Pujols in NLCS we’re in deeep trouble because he can single handedly carry a team and win a series. And the Cards have a few more supporting players with some past glory than Kent.

Indeed a fine day for our species as we find that striking a deal with the Baseball Devil doesn’t win championships and steroids and champagne don’t mix. Steinbrenner will be fuming and Arod will continue to be scourged by his teams fans until being driven out of town.

He should have been human, not let his ego drive him, and work things out with the Mets in 2002. I think he’ll be moved somehow this offseason.

And the good guys won.

COAMF V: Mostly Painless.

Published on October 5, 2006 in ..The Dude, Sports and The Ill-Literates. 0 Comments

Mets win 4-1 in game of small ball. Up 2 games to zip heading to lala land.

I shared this game online with my Mets brothers and found taht the combination of the real time venting and the pace of the game kept me from getting to emotionally up or down. But I did have moments of eye coverage and contorting in my seat. Also got into spinning mode since it’s a rotating desk chair. Of course I couldn’t just spin at any old moment. Once the spin was successful in certain situations like those preceeding a 2 strike pitch from Mets pitchers it had to be continued throughout.

And we got enough of those 2 strike pitches as Glavine and the pen did a great job. Glavine still needs to give me a couple of more playoff starts of quality before the stain of his Brave-ness is removed, but I did start calling him Tommy this year as opposed to 3 years of Tom or Glavine, or that Brave lover. I did go back and forth in 06 with the names but after tonight he can be Tommy full time.

But I still smell some Brave on him. If he gets us to the World Series he gets clean.

MEts got some lucky bounces again and didn’t look good offensively. The rookie Kuo shut us down for the most part. Hes pretty ugly by the way. Dodger ugly and then some.

But the Dodgers didn’t do much offensively all night so I didn’t have to endure runners on base. That meant not only not worrying over guys scoring but not having to have to see more than 1 or 2 ugly Dodger mugs on the field sullying the splendid visages of our boys.

Yanks lost to Tigers too which is nice. They’re 1-1 heading for Detroit.

Cards are up 2-0 as are the A’s.

I said all year too many people are forgetting St Louis. Pujols and Carpenter are a team unto themselves in a short series and the Cards have proven it in playoffs the past 3-4 years.

Mets still have work to do but I felt we had to have 2 at home to start to have a shot with the rejects we have starting in L.A.. And we got it. So there’s a chance now but things could get scary again.

Tonight though was an easy going fairly relaxing Met playoff game in October.

COAMF IV: Mets Survive Game 1 Of NLDS. So Do I.

Published on October 5, 2006 in ..The Dude, Sports and The Ill-Literates. 2 Comments

Well we got game 1. Barely. 6-5 Mets after the vaunted bullpen blew a 3 run lead in the 7th and Wagner came damn close to blowing a 2 run lead in the 9th.

I vacillated between calm acceptance and shaky intensity watching this thing. There was no wall climbing, crawling on the floor, or pacing, as has been customary in the past during these things. I was watching it on DVR and did have to pause a few times to gather my thoughts and put things in their proper perspective.

It was a wild game and one the Mets arguably should have lost.

The play everyone is showing over and over is the double play at home plate. The Dodgers rookie catcher, I forget his name, all you need to know is that he’s as repulsively ugly as you’d expect an L.A. Dodger to be, hit one off the wall in the 2nd with 2 on. The evil Jeff Kent, also an ugly, ugly man, hesitated because he apparently thought the ball was going to be caught, then tried to make up for it but was thrown out head first at home. And for some reason the runner behind him, I forget who it was but he was as monstrously ugly as the guy who hit the ball but not quite as ugly as Kent, wasn’t held up by the 3rd base coach and was tagged out by LoDuca after Maine and the Mets bullpen yelled at him that the guy was coming down the line.

It was a stupid play by the Dodgers and the Mets were damn lucky since they won by 1. The MEts mediocre pitcher of the day was lucky not to be down 3 or 4 after the inning. As it was we were down 1 and the handsome Carlos Delgado tied thiings with a wooly mammoth to deep center. Then the beauteous Cliff Floyd quickly followed with a monster shot giving the Mets the lead.

The mediocre Maine gave us just 4.1 innings but it was enough today.

It won’t be in the future. You can’t overtax the bullpen this much. Willie used 3 pitchers in the 5th. It worked then. The Dodgers didn’t score more runs when we mixed and matched. BUt we payed a price when Mota had to go 2 and blew a 3 run lead partially due to Valentine’s boneheaded fielding play in that 2nd inning. It will cost them more down the road. Perhaps as soon as Game 2. It’s why good starting pitching is crucial.

At this point the question is when the Mets will pay the price, not if. Can they get a series or 2 before this staff blows up? Or is a game or 2 all they have in them? It would probably be unprecedented if they won a championship having to play with this kind of staff and strategy. But both Mets championships in the past had rather unprecedented circumstances about them.

But it’s about pitching stupid.

Glavine needs to come up big tongiht in Game 2. The Dodgers are making a risky move throwing the rookie Kuo. He hasn’t been anything special but he’s a lefty and he shut the Mets down back in August. The Mets have been horrid against lefties since. But if I were Grady I’d hold him for game 3 in L.A. and go with the vet Maddux on the road. If Glavine can keep the Dodgers from jumping on top and silencing the crowd somewhat Kuo will be facing a kind of intensity and hostility he’s never faced before.

Glavine is iffy though and the Mets lefty issue is big. At this point they might not be able to hit Ned Flanders.

But I’d have saved him for LA and let the old Braves Maddux and Glavine face each other.

On the other side I think Willie is making a mistake not pitching the merchant of mediocrity Steve Trachsel at Shea in game 2. He’s much more comfortable at home and not likely to come up big on the road even if it is amongst the walking dead known as Dodgers fans.

Game 4 would have the head case Oliver Perez, picked up off the Pittsburgh trash heap as a long term project, pitching with our season on the line if Glavine doesn’t get it done. That’s some scary stuff and something that never should have happened.

But we needed game 1 and survived it more than won it. So there’s a chance now if not a great one. The other factor is that the Dodgers are, like everyone in the NL, not all that good. And ugly. Ugly to the core of their non-Mets essences.

It was a bumpy road that left me with the usual drainage factor. Wagner gets alot of positive pub lately but the guy is always on the edge of disaster and has never proved he’s clutch. He made it out of the 9th but can’t keep putting himslef in these spots. If we were up by 1 instead of 2 in that 9th we’d still be playing. I still sense ugliness in that one.

Never can be easy with these guys. Why the frack is that? Why must we suffer for the sins of others?

But we wont get swept and we got 1 of the 3 needed to at least avoid the ignominy of an opening round elimination in a season where we finished double digits ahead of the entire NL. It’s still precarious and tonight is just as big. Hopefully Delgado keeps it up, he was 4 for 5. If we were to win I figured he would be the MVP guy and not Beltran, Reyes, or Wright. So far so good there. But he’s not going to give us that every night. Certainly not tonight vs the lefty. Somebody has to pick it up. Reyes needs to stop swinging at everything. Valentine can not make another error. And Glavine must be gold.

That’s alot to expect.

The nervewracking continues Thursday at 8.

Confessions Of A Mets Fan III

Published on October 2, 2006 in ..The Dude, Sports and The Ill-Literates. 1 Comment

The most important event in the history of the Western world begins this week. That’s right the playoffs start Tuesday. Mets Game 1 is Wednesday at 4 vs the L.A. Dodgers at Shea. Orlando Hernandez takes the mound against Derrik Lowe. El Duque is like 58 years old. I may be too after watching this series.

Well the plus side about the Mets pitching woes (all predicted by me I might add), is that combined with late season offensive issues, the Mets are no longer a prohibitive favorite to get to the World Series. Alot of prognosticaotrs are calling for the early exit I predicted ages ago. After a season of being the NL’s team de rigeour we’re suddenly persona non grata. The media thinks we’re through.

I likey.

Now that everyone seees I was right and have jumped into my nonconformist viewpoint I as usual feel claustrophobic with all of them and want to jump off. And now they’re trashing my team. I can do it. These clods don’t know squat and wish they could spend an evening cleaning David Wright’s crotch pube by pube after a 16 inning game.

I’m more comfortable in the underdog role anyway. We’re not exactly climbing a mountain here if we win a couple of series against these teams. It’s not a huge obstacle the Mets have to overcome here. But more and more people have come around to believing they’re not made for the playoffs. Combine this with the fact that they are still basically as good as any NL team and I feel a nice sense of fatalistic acceptance combined with the underdogs relish that comes without having to face the quality teams underdogs usually have to overcome.

So in a strange way I’m optimistically pessimistic.

I thought in August the Dodgers or Marlins would go to the Series. The Marlins aren’t in. Nor are the Phils who I thought would be dangerous if they got in. But the Dodgers are. And they’re experienced. They have the evil Jeff Kent, Maddux, Lowe, Lofton, and Garciaparra. A solid lineup, a lefty the Mets can’t touch, and a scary Met staff do have to lead me to believe L.A. wins in say, 4 games.

Meanwhile the Padres and Mike Piazza play the reeling Cardinals. That Dodger pick looks good right now.

But they’re not anything all that special and their bullpen isn’t as good as ours. So there’s more than a bit of hope. Even without Pedro and much of a starting staff the Mets still would beat any of these teams over a longer span. But this is best of 5 in the first round and I’m not sure how some of our inexpereinced guys like Reyes and Wright will handle a playoff atmosphere for the first time.

The Mets haven’t had to play big games much this year and may not be able to rise to the challenge of a team playing big games to get in right down to the last weekend.

But man I’d hate losing to the Dodgers. They beat us in 88. That was the last time the Mets won the East. I don’t like California teams in general. And the evil Jeff Kent is there. Ex Met with an attitude. Watching this guy smirk and carry on at our expense will be hard to take. If the Mets face an elimination game I may not even watch. It’s too much. The agitation and neurosis are growing. I’m afraid. Very afraid.

I mentioned in previous post that I had no choice in becoming a Mets fan. And being one does something to you. It alters the way you look at the world. I should have been a Yankees fan. I was born in the Bronx. Lived on its borders in Yonkers most of my formative years and in my late teeens and 20′s was back in the Bronx. My dad, being somewhat new to America as an Italian emigrant, naturally found more interest in the 70′s doings of the Yankees and took me to many of their games. They were all over the papers. It was the Bronx Zoo. Billy, Reggie, Thurman, Sparky, The Goose. It was a soap opera and a good team that won back to back championships in 77 and 78.

And I liked them.

I confess that sin.

It was the only thing my dad and I have ever had a remote bonding over. I loved Graig Nettles in particular. His defense at 3rd and occasional homeruns were my favorite part of the team along with Ron Guidry’s pitching. The day Munson died in August 79 is still one of the most memorable of my life. It was huge on my block. We mourned. I cried right along with his arch enemy Reggie Jackson.

But through it all I never loved them and was leading a secret forbidden love with the NY Mets. I snuck off to see them with friends and their dads. When my uncle and his new wife were practicing for having a kid and wanted to take me to a game, I made them exchange Yankee tickets for a Mets game. This couldn’t have made them too happy. There was nothing to see at Shea. The team had been horrible, was horrible, and still had many horrible years inevitably in front of them. I brought shame upon them by having them take me to see this. I brought shame upon the whole family. You had all the aforementioned great Yankee characters across town and I made them take me to see Bruce Boisclair, Doug Flynn, Skip Lockwood, Bud Harrelson, Wayne Garret, and John Milner.

They never offered to take me to another game.

I dug Nettles alot but I loved John Stearns. He was the Mets catcher much of that era. His nickname was The Dude. That’s right. Though my inspiration remains more Jeff Lebowski than Stearns, the ex Met is always lurking in my mind when use or read that term. It’s an extra special little reference just for myself.

The Mets were just more relatable to me. I appreciated the Yankees lore but felt more kinship for the bumbling underdog Mets thing. So even now it’s there and after weeks of foreboding I only feel a sense of drama and cause in these playoffs because suddenly we’re not everyone’s favorite anymore. I’m uncomfortable with me or my teams being liked or appreciated too much. And I get pissed when we’re not. They and I can’t win under any circumstances. This is probably not the healthiest emotional framework within which to live a happy life but it’s one Yankees fans don’t seem to suffer from as universally as Mets fans. And it’s one that I think does have its attendant good qualities. Not the least of which is loyalty, devotion, and true love for the things and people who stay true.

Now all kinds of people are fans of all kinds of teams. I know alot of yanks fans I like alot. But your team choice does sometimes say something about you and there is something about the inherent unfairness the Yankees have always won with and their corporate identity that it takes a certain kind of person to ignore and still root for.

And Mets fans are more loyal, smarter, and better looking.

Clinical double blind studies have proven this.

Or will someday I’m sure.

But I do think we’re more loyal and have a certain sensibility that’s largely more likable, warm, and grounded. I sensed that as a young kid. While everything around me seemed to pull naturally at falling for the Yankees I couldn’t muster the natural organic passion and connection to them that I felt for the ignored losers with the colorful blue and orange uniforms dodging planes in Queens. Even with no media attention in that era, with nothing to recommend interest, is just seemed natural to like them. It was too fashionable to be a Yakees fan. It didn’t speak of anything unique in ones character.

Like with my Giants choice it was important to me to be in on theg round floor and not be perceived as jumping on a bandwagon. This was despite becoming a devoted Mets fan long before I was capable of the kind of rational thinking that could consciously express this ideal. It just seemed to be innate. It’s always felt like I had a Met gene somewhere in my DNA. Part of me thinks I’d be a Mets fan even if I’d grown up in Arizona. They were the Mutt that found me and I was drawn to rather than the pedigreed showdog the family shops for. A first love, mans best friend, and a biological imperative all at once.

And I’ve payed the price ever since.

Wednesday I start paying on a whole other level again. So begins the contortions, gesticulations, wall climbing, lip biting, hand wringing, pacing, and general agitation that characterize Mets baseball in October. I’m a hardened shell of who I was the last time we were there 6 years ago. Even then I was oddly disattached from the Subway Series. But I will suffer in the coming days. Many of us will. We may not all know each other but we will be bound as long lost brothers and sisters.

As for the Yanks and an AL prediction, they play the collapsing Tigers tonight. They slipped to WC status with a late season choke. The Yanks will destroy and annhilate them in all probability. This is unfortunate. The yanks may not be able to be stopped. Oakland plays Minnesota in the other AL series.

I lean towards the Twinkies and the Metrodome edge.

Got to figure on Yanks vs Twins in ALCS. If Minny had Liriano healthy I’d go with them. Right now it doesn’t appear anyone has the pitching to stop the Yanks $200 million lineup. So an old fashioned Dodgers Yanks Series seems a good possiblity. Just like 77-78, and 81. I hope not because unlike then I can’t muster any affection for the pinstripes. They’ve become a symbol of all that is wrong with the game the past few years, In the late 90′s I respected them. Rooted them on vs Atlanta in 96′s big 0-2 comeback. Good guys like Brosius, O’Neill, Cone, and Martinez were there. Class acts that weren’t all on mercenery missions. Starting with the Texan whore Clemens the Yankees started to sell their souls as the probable cheater Clemens sold his to get easy access to the World Series he couldn’t win anywhere else.

Now they’re a bunch of mercenaries, many of whom are or were steroid users. The newest whore de juer is Johny Damon who sold his soul and cut his hair and beard in order to suckle at the evil teet of General von Steingrabber.

I said after they beat us in 2000 they wouldn’t win another for a long time. I said they’d lose to Arizona in 01 and Florida in 03. I called the famed Boston choke once the Sox got taht first win. I don’t know if 6 years qualifies as a long enough time if they do win. I’d still like to think it’d be a decade or more no matter how much money they spent. Teams of all stars don’t win championships and they are of course holding the curse of payrod in their deck. So I think they are more than capable of losing. They’re just on such a role and score so many runs. Pitching wins but no one has a great staff. Usually the best one wins though and Minny and Oakland may still rank higher there, as does Detroit. Hopefully that rule holds out and the Yanks get upset here.

Let the nervewracking begin.

The New T.V. Season At A Glance

Published on October 1, 2006 in ..The Dude, Television and The Ill-Literates. 0 Comments

Some reaction to new tv shows.

Jericho seems like it will run out of steam but I liked the first episode and was ok with the second. The show resorted to alot of cliches pretty quickly but still has that inherent Red Dawn-Day After Tomorrow type allure. Among the tropes they pulled out in the very first episode was the returning prodigal son, the prison bus which gets wrecked as the nukes hit releasing said busfull of convicts into the Kansas area community, the perspective speech delivered by the mayor to calm the frenzied townspeople (made me think of Stan on South Park), the imperiled busfull of school kids saved by the prodigal son who does the standard on the fly tv tracheotomy on a little girl using pens, and in episode 2 the last second shootout in which our hero arrives in the nick of time.

But I’m still interested in seeing how they maintain suspense when the questions about what’s out there don’t seem quite as mysterious as Lost’s mysteries. If it merely becomes a post-apocalyptic survivalist show I’m going to lose interest. And besides the aforementioned cliches I’ve got issues with the implausibility that the President would be allowed to talk on tv while at least 2 nukes were incoming. I mean don’t we have early detection radar to give us a heads up for that? That’s the whole point of nuclear standoffs like that with Russia in the Cold War. Once somebody launches we know and launch right back. Mutually annhilating missiles passing in the night.

Could multiple nukes land all across the U.S. without a few minutes notice?

And how does a small Kansas community go through 2 days of apparent armegeddon and nobody mentions Jesus?

What’s the matter with Kansas indeed.

Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip.

Great show but I don’t think it has a chance.

I guess you could label it a dramedy in the mode of Ally McBeal but without as much of a slapstick aspect. The writing is tight, the acting suitably intense and slyly deprecating, and the production values sleek and full of scope.

But the show is probably too self-referential for a mass audience. Sorkin’s last effort, The West Wing is echoed in some of the kinds of dialogue and production techniques (though I admit I never saw a full of episode of that show), but you have to wonder if that kind of gravitas, despite a more humorous air injected into these proceedings, is too much when the stakes are television as opposed to politics and the White House.

Personally I can still get into it because the show is about more than the running of the SNL-like Friday night comedy sketch show Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip. The first episode makes statements about the state of the medium as a whole as well as dabbling with religious controversy. Judd Hirch interrupts the opening segment featuring another Bush is stupid oval office address much like SNL does ad nauseum, and goes on a Howard Beel rant after his Crazy Christians skit gets pulled despite reported brilliance. The Beel comparison is not lost on the media who quickly go on the air invoking PAddy Chiefsky’s movie and the “We’re fed up and not going to take it anymore speech. As new network exec Jordan played by Amanda Peet says, “At least they’ve heard of Paddy Chiefsky,” or something to that extent.

I like that the show doesn’t feel a need to explain itself too much and leaves it to the viewer to figure out little things like network news going to air with this after a late night Friday airing occurring simultaneously with a Writers Guild Award dinner because we can assume the show is airing live on the East Coast and the news footage is local West Coast media responding to the unprecedented Hirch explosion.

Or not explaining that a press conference being watched on tv’s at the studio in ep 2 is a closed circuit feed and not national news coverage as some thought. There are character driven subleties too that you don’t get hit over the head with. And as far as characters go I’ve definitely fallen into self-identification mode with the Matthew Perry character Matt who broke up with a Studio 60 cast member due to her going on the 700 CLub to plug a spiritual album. He calls Pat Robertson a bigot, makes a KKK comparison, and when reunited with the acctress-comedian refuses to accept that this isn’t a small enough issue to forgive and forget over.

Particularly loved his scene when he wins an WG award after explaining to his table that they broke up over her rendition of the national anthem at a Dodger game. When his name is called he doesn’t hear or notice so absorbed is he in his pain killer haze from back surgery and lamenting over the girl, that he thinks his table, icluding his writing partner Danny, are rising to hug him to console him over the breakup. “Yes I do miss her. Thanks, I appreciate your support,” he says as Danny opens his arms for the proverbial post announcement moment before being informed by him that he actually just won.

But the show really does a great job of capturing the behind the scenes atmosphere of a comedy sketch show as well as the world of network tv and its attendent politics. I don’t see it getting good ratings. The ratings fell pretty sharply from the debut, and even from the first half hour, indicating perhaps that alot of people left over from Deal or No Deal and its rather mindless premise couldn’t quite stay with it in week 1. Nor did it hold as much of Heroes highest rated new show debut in week 2.

Which brings me to: Heroes.

Yeah it’s got X Men elements as well as Unbreakable and maybe a little Smallville. But there were enough suggestions of something other than natural mutation going on in the first episode to make me feel a bit better about things. There’s actually a suggestion of an X Files type conspiracy related to the emergence of these powers this disparate group of people across the world have suddenly discovered. There’s even a neat little twist as to who one of the behind the scenes players is.

The writing wasn’t great but it might be possible they were going for a comic book style flatter verbal dynamic with lines like “We’re all quite small really aren’t we,” when an Indian guy who may not have any powers per se but who’s father was on to something regarding these new genetic variations, comments about an eclipse being a global event shared by all, which it isn’t really.

He does an opening and closing voice over that was a bit melodramatic as well. But overall I liked the characters, especially the Japaneese Hiro who has some kind of power over the time-space continuum. He adds a nice touch of nerdy realism and relatable excitement and joy to the proceedings. He also gives the show a chance to acknowledge and pay its respects to some of its possible influences with him not only alluding to Star Trek numerous times, but giving props to the aformentioned X Men, in particular #143 when Kitty Pryde time travels.

And alot of it takes place in Manhattan which always works for me. Definitely a show I’ll give a chance for a little bit and see if it gets better or worse. There’s potential for something unique to network tv here, but also the lurking possibility of alot of silliness and recycling of old ideas for a new venue.

Six Degrees

Set in Manhattan this show mixes multiple character and plot strands whose primary allure is that they take place in Manhattan. The show is on location and captures alot of the city flavor pretty well allowing me the vicarious thrill of leading an interesting and urbane life in the city I love but can’t afford to live in.

Most of the characters are interesting and have something, some thing, that makes them careworthy. But the connections that have them flitting through each others scenes and storylines are sometimes tenuous and superflous, pushing the six degrees of seperation thing a bit too hard at this point. The title of the show and its novelty could still be a bit of an uneccesary conceit.

And nobody seems to know Kevin Bacon.

But it has an indie film, script, character and life driven sensibility that may only appear unique to me for network tv because I haven’t watched much network tv the last few years. In fact I’m sure there are some articles out there that might compare it to certain independent films of recent years though I can’t remember any of the particular movies at the moment.

Kidnapped. The first ep had its direct rips from Ransom, including one of the actors, but again we get a NYC on location setting which had me at hello. The acting is great, and the show has a cinematic feel to it. I’m not sure where it can go long term with one rich kids kidnapping but I liked the premiere even if it did resort to rock music too much. Usually I like that but it needs to be less reliant on making a scene work. Having to go there too much may indicate covering for writing and plot weaknesses. Jericho is guilty of resorting to the FM radio as well to try and tell the tale.

Both of these shows need to choose their songs more wisely and use them more judiciously. This is as opposed to Studio 60 which used Queen’s Under Pressure sans lyrics to nice effect at the end of ep 1 and had a very nice dramatic wash into what looked like Chuck D from Public Enemy doing a dramatic rap number as the musical host on the edition of the show that Hirch went off on after all Hollywood Hell starting breaking lose offset. Gave me the tingles it did.

It doesn’t premier until after Lost on Wednesday but I may give The Nine a shot too. It’s getting decent buzz, the commercials have a cool creepy, intense vibe going on, and it’s another one of these shows with premises it’s hard to imagine going on for multiple seasons.

As for old favorites, well Lost starts up this Wednesday. Things should move more this season since the show has gotten alot of heat for its stagnant filler filled stretches last year. We get 6 or so to start the season and then a hiatus for about 3 months before going into 24 mode and riding right through the end of the season sans repeats. This week we get the 3 prisoners and some Others backstory apparently. Probably not going to find out anything about Locke, Eko, or Desmond for a week or 2.

The first Office was great. The stuff with Pam not having a kindred spirit and mind around the office with Jim relocated was great. The woman in Jim’s new office imitating that wry look he always gives the camera was also nice.

2nd episode not as great but good. This is the show that most makes the absence of Arrested Development less painful.

Earl’s been good if not great and we got to see Catalina jump alot, though not for Joy.

24′s not until January. Eddie Izzard and James Cameron? have just been added. Iaazrd is a bad gou. Cameron Jack’s dad. Donald Sutherland too good to work with his kid? He’d be a perfect domineering government/military type father figure who doesn’t approve of his kids techiques.

In case you missed it Wayne Palmer is the new President and Regina King most probably his sister. And Alexander Siddig a bad Arab dude.

Shocker huh.

And there will be no NYC, probably little to no Chinese element either. Very troubling. They just shouldn’t bother with cliffhangers if they’re not going to follow up on them. Just kill a new character in the last scene of every season like Jack’s wife in season 1 and leave it at that.

Start with Kim.

Galactica starts Friday. I’ll have to delay watching them a while. I’m a few eps into season 2. Sharon just got offed in my galactica world. The original one anyway. The model lives on and one is apparently preggers with Helo’s hybrid. Starbuck rules my world and is stuck on Caprica with Helo, Adama is up and around but Tigh already declared Martial Law. And there were Cylons on the plane! Well, on the ship. The realones. The big shiny toaster editions. They’re gone now but I didn’t get to hear anyone yell “I want these motherfuckin Cylons off my motherfuckin battlestar!”

And what exactly makes the human looking Cylons mechanical?

I mean they have real emotions, they are virtually indistinguishable down to a genetic level. They can even have our children. So what’s the big deal?

Am I alone here people?

Resistance is futile.

Sign me up for the hybrid making farm with 6 and the Boomer edition.

It’s hard taking sides in the growing political division since Roslin has overstepped democratic boundries and is truning into a religious nut and military coups aren’t my cup of tea either. At this point I kind of want the 6′s in charge. Yeah they have some religious issues as well, at least Baltar’s 6 and the guy Roslin jettisoned in season 1 did. But they’re basically children as a species. Very young. I’ll let them have some formative fairy tales until they get stabalized.

Baltar has the god’s tool complex as well much like our monkey boy Bush. But Gaius wears it better. If I were on the ship I might have to take him out. But the man’s a genius and he’s funny as hell. If Bush could carry on two seperate conversations at once and somehow make them jibe as Baltar does with 6 and whoever, I’d give him some points. Or if he got caught sodomizing a counter top. Or freaking in the bathroom. All good, eccentric stuff. But Bush can’t carry on one conversation without getting lost and he’s Biblically frightened of sodomizing anything but our planet.

And I want season 1 music back for season 3.

Let the Lost theorizing begin.