Theme of the week: No evidence is evidence

Anyone else happen to have Fringe, Awake, and Grimm on their TV-viewing schedules? If so, you may have noticed a common thread in their most recent episodes: No evidence is evidence. Spoilers ahead.

Even though Awake airs first, Fringe was the first of the three that I watched. In Friday's episode, called "The Consultant", Walter helps Fauxlivia solve the mystery of the mole in Fringe Division when he tells her "No evidence is evidence." By that, he means that her being unable to find any trace of the mole implies that the mole must be someone high up, with the power to tamper with evidence and erase his tracks. Though she initially can't believe that Colonel Broyles would betray them, by the end of the episode, they have him in custody.

It's a shame Walter can't be in every show (really, he'd be an excellent addition to just about anything). In Thursday's episode of Awake, titled "Ricky's Tacos," Detective Britten's subconscious--or magic power or whatever--is telling him to look back at a case he was working on before his accident. He checks out a building related to the case, but finds nothing. When he tries to find the case file back at the station, it is missing. When he reports this to Captain Harper, rather than being concerned that a whole case file is gone, she questions why he's investigating the closed case in the first place. Britten is deflected. No evidence is evidence, Detective. Of course, we the audience know that the police chief is involved in...something...which requires her to cover up this case and keep Detective Britten distracted. In her position of power, it's not a difficult thing for her to do.

Then we come to Grimm. Friday's episode, "Love Sick," starts with police Captain Renard killing two men (who probably had it coming) in a parking garage. Don't mess with Sam Adama. He knows just what to do to make it look like the men killed each other, but he misses one thing: the guy's cell phone, which could reveal that its most recent call was made to the captain himself. After Nick collects the phone for evidence, Renard is able to replace its SIM card. So, when the lab reports their findings back to Nick, they reveal that the old phone has a completely clean, new SIM card. How odd. No evidence is evidence, Nick. It's time for Nick to figure out that something's up with Renard, because I'm dying to know who/what he is and what he's doing.

I couldn't help but be amused by this apparent theme of the week. I guess it says something about the kind of TV shows that I watch. By now we've learned this lesson very well: If you can't find evidence, or your evidence goes missing, your boss is probably conspiring against you.

Fall 2011 TV series

In past years, I've done posts on which shows I plan to watch in the new TV season. I never did that this fall. Now it's November, and basically everything that's going to air this fall has already started. So, I figured I'd do a post on what I think of the shows that I've watched. Some I've been keeping up with religiously, watching the first night it's available online. Other shows I've seen a few episodes of, and may watch more if I find the time. Others I may give up on. Mostly, I've been a bit disappointed with this year's freshman shows. We'll start with those.

******

New Shows

Pan Am
I love this show. I'm a couple episodes behind, but only because it's not a show the Housemate watches (loser). See, most of my TV-watching time is during dinner (and lunch on the weekends) which I have with the Housemate, so any show that he's not interested in gets pushed aside, and I have to find my own time to watch it.

Pan Am is probably my favorite new show this season. I love the period setting, the world travel, the glamour of it all, even if it is exaggerated (I don't care). Of the six main characters, I loved about half of them right from the start, and the rest I've warmed up to in recent episodes. The show is funny and fun, but can also be surprisingly moving, as I found myself tearing up a bit on behalf of Colette in the Berlin episode. Anyway, if you're at all inclined to watch this sort of show but haven't given it a try, I highly recommend you check it out.

Terra Nova
I so wanted this to be good. I still do. It's just they keep being stupid about it. I'm no writer, I don't know how to fix it, but I can spot bad choices when I see them. First, they chickened out in the pilot by tacking on an awkward scene in which Mira (Christine Adams) and some other Sixer discuss Taylor's son, basically saying "See? We already have answers to our mysterious mythology, we promise." But that scene somehow managed to make the mystery both less mysterious and more confusing at the same time. Then you had that terrible conversation between Mira, the evil(?) Sixer leader(?) and hero Jim (Jason O'Mara) that went something like this:
Mira: You seem useful. Be on the right side of history. Make the smart choice. Join us.
Jim: But I like Terra Nova. It's a new beginning, and all that good idealistic stuff.
Mira: You're naive if you think that's really what Terra Nova is about.
Jim: OK, I'm listening then. What is it really about?
Mira: You know, you'd think I'd tell you because I'm trying to convince you my side is the smart choice, but the writers are telling me we can't give away too much of the mystery yet, so instead I'll just say, "You'll see."
Inexplicable. Side plots have been pretty lame, too, perhaps reaching a new low as Jim and littlest daughter Zoe spend the whole episode trying to get out of what is essentially a personal theater room. Why does that room only have an emergency door release on the outside? Is it a prison cell or something? I've been in walk-in fridge rooms, and they have emergency releases on the inside, because that is the more awkward of the two sides to get stuck on. And why would someone construct an access shaft that's only large enough for a small child to fit through? Did Hobbits build the place? And how many different scene cuts do you need to spend on these people figuring out how to escape that room? The only thing that could have made their plotline exciting would have been if there were ACTUAL spiders in there, trying to attack them.

OK, I should have saved my Terra Nova rant for its own separate post. Contrary to how it may sound at this point, I'm still enjoying the show, and I watch it every week. But I do so hoping that it will suddenly get better. They have a beautiful, interesting world to explore and some good characters. They just need to figure out what they're doing and use them intelligently.

Person of Interest
I like this show. I don't love it as much as I'd hoped, but I think they've been doing a pretty good job with it. I think my main issue is the cool, detached manner that Jim Caviezel gives hero Reese. It makes scenes with him that don't have any action a little...boring. Without more passion, I find it hard to really become attached to the character or the story. But I'll keep tuning in for now.

The New Girl
I really wanted to love this one, but after three episodes, I've just been a bit disappointed. There have been some good laughs, and I like some of the characters sometimes, but just not enough. Only if I find myself with a lot of free time, or hear that it's gotten much better, will I catch up with this one. I think Zooey Deschanel is a talented, funny actress. I just wish the material she got were better.

Revenge
I started this one late, but now I've seen three episodes and I have to admit, it's totally a guilty pleasure show. Watch beautiful people live extravagant, glamorous lives, and see the nasty ones take nasty falls. Like Pan Am, the Housemate doesn't watch this one, so I have to find time to catch episodes on my own. I may watch some more episodes at some point, but only if I'm caught up with everything else.

Once Upon a Time
I wasn't entirely sold after watching the pilot, but after watching the second and third episodes, I'm loving it. If any show challenges Pan Am as my favorite new show of the season, it's this one. The characters are fun (especially the Evil Queen), and the fairytale premise is intriguing. I just wonder how they can keep the plot going. I guess time will tell.

Grimm
Another disappointment. It's not bad, but it does suffer from characters being unbelievably stupid from time to time. It's also a bit hard to believe how many fairytale-creature cases Nick and his partner pick up. Does this reflect a universal percentage of perpetrators who are actually fairytale monsters? If only a Grimm is well suited to take out these creatures, does that mean that the rest of them, who get other detectives assigned to their cases, go free? It's one thing when a certain detective is well known for being good at "these sorts of cases", and gets called in from around the city or state to investigate. Alternatively, they could explain that this city is a fairytale monster haven. But they need some sort of explanation, because at the moment, it just doesn't make sense. There have only been two episodes, so I'm willing to give it some more time. If it gets better, great. If it gets worse, I may start tuning out.


Returning Shows

Fringe
Favorite show on TV right now. It's a bit frustrating at the moment (vague SPOILERS) with the new altered storyline, but things are definitely progressing in an exciting way. I love it.

Nikita
This was my favorite new show of last fall, and I think it's still going strong. The formula has changed a lot since the first season, and that took some getting used to, but change is good. It keeps things interesting.

How I Met Your Mother
Fun, lovable characters, and I've been enjoying Kal Penn's recurring guest star role this season. And, as I've already explained, I really liked their Ewok episode. Ted can take as long as he wants to find their mother.

Big Bang Theory
The other of the two sitcoms I watch. It's light and amusing, and I like the characters. They've had a couple good cameos so far this season, and they FINALLY admitted that maybe, just maybe, there might be one or two women out there who actually like comic books. Progress.

Glee
I think I've only watched the first episode, maybe two, from this season. The Housemate has given up on it, so I find it's a good one to catch a couple episodes of while I'm beading, since it doesn't exactly require my undivided attention. I'll have to see more before I decide what I think about this season.

Merlin
Yes, the Housemate and I are still hooked on Merlin. It alternates between painfully silly and surprisingly grim, and I really wish the characters would learn to recognize traitors (Look! He's smirking! All the time when bad things are happening! Why doesn't anybody see?????), but somehow I love it still. I like fantasy and Arthurian legend (even perversions of it), and I've fallen for the characters. Also, James Callis was in an episode this season. Oh, how I miss Baltar.

Walking Dead
This is a good show, but it's also distressing and depressing. If the Housemate weren't such a big zombie fan, honestly, I might drop it. It just never leaves me feeling good. At least it's staying interesting.

Chuck
This is Chuck's last season. We were lucky we got it this long, seeing as it was renewed only by the skin of its teeth the past couple seasons. I'm finding the current plot very frustrating. I understand why they wanted to switch up the Intersect a bit, keep it fresh, and didn't want to make things too easy for them, but it still pains me. Still, I've been with the show long enough that I'll see it through till the end, which I trust them to wrap up in a satisfying way, given that they have advance notice of the series finale.

Covert Affairs
I'm so glad we didn't have to wait until next summer to see more of this show. I love it so much. Annie, Auggie, and Joan are great, and the filming on location that Annie gets to do is beautiful and refreshing. So many shows try to make L.A. look like other cities in the world, who can blame the Covert Affairs folks for rubbing it in: "See? We really went to Paris! Not a set! And this? Yeah, we went to Venice. For real!" Fun, delightful show, and lighter and more realistic than my other two returning favorites, Fringe and Nikita.

******

Well, I think those are all the shows that I've seen this TV season. Any other shows I need to pick up this fall before I fall too far behind?

The close of 2010

I have been a pretty terrible blogger in the last month (assuming I was ever marginally competent). Sure I can claim to have been busy and preoccupied, but part of it was just me feeling unmotivated. I guess there are times when I write here because I feel the need to share my thoughts on some subject, but there are also times when it seems like too much work. There were three posts that I started in the month of December but never got around to finishing (and are now too out of date to complete). Any other ideas I might have had last month (if there were any) didn't even get that far. Still, I feel like 2010 deserves some form of closing post, even if I will be publishing this in the new year.

So what (of note) did 2010 bring to me?

Games
I was still playing some Dragon Age: Origins at the beginning of the year, and then again when they put out the Morrigan DLC. I also played through Portal after Steam offered it for free, and that was quite a revelation. It was too short, of course, but I am eagerly anticipating the release of the longer, larger Portal 2. I finished up the main campaign of Guild Wars all alone, as my brother couldn't bring himself to play the last three missions with me (sniff!). He did, however, get me to buy Borderlands, which he is willing to play with me, and we're nearing the end of our second playthrough together. But really, this year was all about Mass Effect 2. It is an awesome game, fun, powerful, and very well done. I loved it so much, and the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC which I recently played was just icing on the cake. I can't wait for Mass Effect 3, but at the same time I will be so sad to see the saga end.

Regarding other types of gaming, I also just got hooked on Dominion. Unfortunately, it was a Christmas gift that my younger brother received, so if I want to continue playing it when I go back to Hawaii, I will have to secure a set for myself. If you don't know the game, I highly recommend you check it out.

TV
Fringe continues to be my favorite show on TV. My favorite new show of the year was Nikita, though Hawaii Five-0 is a guilty pleasure of mine as well (it's so fun to recognize places they go to, though less so to imagine that people have been found dead there...). Glee had some ups and downs, but I think they may be on the right track again (hope hope). More disappointingly, they canceled FlashForward last spring, and Caprica this fall. I'm particularly bitter about Caprica. Maybe Blood & Chrome will help explain how the events in Caprica ultimately led to the Cylons of the Cylon War, but I'm not counting on it.

Movies
I saw more this year than I think I usually do in the theater. I'm trying to remember which ones (I should keep a list or something). Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Inception, Kick-Ass, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, and Black Swan stand out, but I'm surely forgetting others that I enjoyed. And those are just ones in the theater--I also recently saw the movie Clue for the first time (funny and very enjoyable), as well as (500) Days of Summer, which was quite beautiful.

I just have to share this anecdote from the theater when I saw Black Swan. At the end of the movie, as the credits started rolling and the lights went up, my friend and I overheard this conversation behind us:
Person 1: I don't get it... Did [slight spoiler happen] at the end?
Person 2: No, they have to leave it open for a sequel.
It was hilarious. This is not the type of movie that would have a sequel. Really, I mean, it's Darren Aronofsky. Imagine The Wrestler Returns. Requiem II for a Dream. Or Pi^2. No. Anyway, my friend and I thought the idea of Black Swan 2 was pretty hilarious.

Academics
In terms of classes and grades, 2010 may have been my best year ever (that one darn professor who only gave me an A). But unfortunately I'm not an undergrad anymore, and doing well in classes is not enough. I need to be doing research, developing my plan for my dissertation, writing my prospectus. That is so much harder for me than the clear-cut goal of mastering class material to do well on an exam. I got enough research done in one of the summer months to have something to present at the yearly student presentations, and then again at a presentation to the general public at Hanauma Bay. But that was really my only productive month of the year. Aside from that, I have failed miserably at being a good grad student. Luckily, I have PhD Comics to help me feel like I am not alone.

Family and friends
2010 was the first year that I had a boyfriend (and the same one, at that: "The Housemate") for the entire year. Over one sixth of the year, though, he was away in Antarctica. I rather like having a boyfriend, but I'm still not sure how serious the relationship is or where it is going. This will deserve its own post, later.

My grandmother died. I am now down to one grandparent--her husband. As the only one of their progeny living in the same city (in fact, I live less than a mile from my grandfather, whereas the next nearest descendant is a five hour plane ride away), I think it will largely fall on me to keep him company. I can't imagine how lonely it must feel to lose your spouse of 62 years.

My roommate from college came to visit me right before Christmas. Despite unusually rainy weather, we had a lot of fun, and her stay was all too short. I still need to go through those photos. If there are any good ones, I'll be sure to share.

In short
It was a good year overall. Could have been better, but could have been a lot worse. I hope that in the new year I'll be able to sort out some of the kinks I've developed in the past year (mainly, questions about the boyfriend and what the heck I'm doing in grad school). So I'll take a cup of kindness for 2010, and I wish for an even better 2011.

Happy Autumn, Moon Festival, and Hobbit Day!

It is now officially fall, if you take the beginning of fall to be the autumnal equinox, which was at 5:09 pm Hawaii time (erm...11:09 pm East Coast U.S. time, and the rest of you will have to figure it out for yourselves). September 22 is also the Chinese Moon Festival this year, also sometimes called the Mid-Autumn Festival, but I won't call it that because I just said that autumn started today. I feel like a bad half-Chinese person, but I don't really know much about the Moon Festival, beyond that we get to eat mooncakes. Mmmm. Today also happens to be Hobbit Day, as September 22 is the birthday of both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. So there are many reasons to celebrate today (though I realize that for most of the world it is already tomorrow, which messes up the alignment of autumn with Hobbit Day and the Moon Festival, but whatever). Anyway, happy autumn, happy Moon Festival, and happy Hobbit Day!

I don't have anything humorous or insightful or cool or geeky to share today, just some scattered thoughts. It has been a very long week, and I can't believe it's only Wednesday. Feels like it must be Friday. The Housemate is on the mainland this week for a workshop relevant to the research he is doing, so I've been having solitary evenings and nights. It's a lot less fun when there's no one to watch TV shows with me (especially considering that this week is the big pilot episode week for most TV shows), cook dinner with me, and dine with me. And cuddle with me. I think of it as practice for when he goes to Antarctica for over three months. But thinking that makes me sad.

My grandmother went to the hospital on Saturday night, just a couple hours after I had visited her at her apartment. She had seemed tired when I saw her, but I just assumed it was because I was visiting during afternoon nap time. I guess later she was feeling extra tired, and very weak. Turns out she had a very low red blood cell count, and low sodium. The MRI also revealed what the doctor told me were "mini strokes", which I thought sounded bad (even a mini stroke is still a stroke, right?), but he said they didn't seem to be causing problems, so it was fine. So every day this week, I've been driving my grandfather from his retirement home to the hospital in the morning, then going back after work to visit my grandmother, help her eat dinner (and make sure she eats well--she needs her strength!), and take my grandfather home. The last time she was in the hospital, there were other relatives that my grandfather asked to help out, too, but his brother is in China right now, and his sister-in-law just had an eye operation and can't drive... So it's been me. I'm happy I'm here to help, but it has made the days especially long. The good news is that they discharged her this evening, and I just drove her home. It will still be nice to visit, especially since she's in the special care wing of the retirement home, rather than her apartment, but at least I don't have to do all the driving anymore. And she's happy to be back at the retirement home, which is good.

Even though I'm going to wait until the Housemate gets home before I watch most of the TV shows this week, I will mention what shows I plan on following this fall. New show Nikita (CW, Thurs. 9pm) has already hooked me, after debuting two weeks ago with a pretty awesome pilot. I'm very excited for the return of Chuck (NBC, Mon. 8pm), How I Met Your Mother (CBS, Mon. 8pm), Glee (FOX, Tues. 8pm), Big Bang Theory (CBS, Thurs. 8pm), and Fringe (FOX, Thurs. 9pm), all of which are back this week. I'm still trying to catch up on last season of Castle (ABC, Mon. 10pm), which came back this week as well. I have high hopes for the Hawaii Five-O reboot (CBS, Mon. 10pm), as well as the new J.J. Abrams creation Undercovers (NBC, Wed. 8pm), about a married couple who return to the CIA, both of which debut this week. I also plan on checking out No Ordinary Family (ABC, Tues. 8pm, starting next week), about a family who suddenly get super powers, and The Event (NBC, Mon. 9pm, starting this week), which looks like "this year's FlashForward"--a confusing, mysterious sci-fi/conspiracy type thing. I actually watched about half the pilot of The Event before feeling guilty and deciding to wait for the Housemate, but I was pleased with myself when I recognized a couple of the filming locations to be here on Oahu, though I don't think the scenes were supposed to be in Hawaii. This got me all the more excited to see Hawaii Five-O, which is shot here in Hawaii and is supposed to be Hawaii. That should be fun.

OK, looks like it's time to end this rambling post. Sorry about that. Tomorrow I'll post the video I took snorkeling in Sharks Cove, which includes a glimpse of an octopus. I promise tomorrow's post will be decidedly less rambling.

2010 Primetime Emmy Nominations

The 2010 Primetime Emmy nominees were announced this morning. Let's see how "my shows" fared.

Glee was one of the big winners of the morning, with a total of 19 nominations, including one for Outstanding Comedy Series. Apparently there are some Gleeks in the Academy. Matthew Morrison (Will Schuester) and Lea Michele (Rachel Berry) received nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor and Actress in a Comedy Series, and Jane Lynch (Sue Sylvester) and Chris Colfer (Kurt Hummel) got nods for Outstanding Supporting Actress and Actor in a Comedy. A few guest stars also got recognized, with Outstanding Guest Actor/Actress nominations for Mike O'Malley (Kurt's dad Burt) in the episode "Wheels" (where he argues for Kurt's right to audition for "Defying Gravity"), Kristin Chenoweth (April Rhodes) in "The Rhodes Not Taken" (the first episode she was in where April joins the glee club), and Neil Patrick Harris (Bryan Ryan) for "Dream On". Glee also got nominations for writing in the pilot episode, and directing in the pilot episode and the episode "Wheels". If you're interested in the other nine nominations Glee got, they were for casting, art direction, interactive media, costumes, sound mixing, and two noms each for hairstyling and makeup. All very well deserved.

Lost got some nice recognition for its epic final season. It was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series for the fourth time in its six-season run (it has only won the award once, for its first season). Matthew Fox (Jack) finally got his nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and, as they have before, Michael Emerson (Ben Linus) and Terry O'Quinn ("Locke") were nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama. Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet) got an Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series nomination for her role in final episode "The End". Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof were nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Drama for "The End", which also received nominations for directing, editing, sound editing, sound mixing, and music composition. Lost also got an art direction nod for episode "Ab Aeterno".

OK, now that I have the big ones out of the way, I'm just going to do a quick overview of the rest.

Big Bang Theory got a nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy for Jim Parsons (Sheldon Cooper). It also got an Outstanding Guest Actress nom for Christine Baranski as Leonard's mom in episode "The Maternal Congruence".

How I Met Your Mother earned Neil Patrick Harris yet another supporting actor nomination for his role as Barney Stinson. But the show also got a nomination for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for "Nothing Suits Me Like a Suit" in the episode "Girls vs. Suits". Classic.

Canceled FlashForward got a tiny bit of recognition with a cinematography nod for episode "No More Good Days", as well as nods for stunts and music composition. My dear Fringe had to make due with a single sound editing nomination. A shame. Chuck also got one measly little nom, for stunt coordination.

Lastly, So You Think You Can Dance got two nominations for Outstanding Choreography: Stacey Tookey for her "Fear" dance, and Mia Michaels for "Gravity/Addiction", "Koop Island Blues" (aka "the butt dance"), and "One" (a group dance I had largely forgotten). The addiction dance gives me chills every time I rewatch it (which is a lot), so I hope she wins. No nomination for Sonya Tayeh, though--maybe next year. SYTYCD's Adam Shankman received a nomination for Choreography as well, for his work on the Academy Awards show.

Well those were the highlights of the nominations for me. I know there are lots of shows I should be watching that are also celebrating today (True Blood? 30 Rock? Modern Family? etc.). You can find all the nominees here, or a list of just the major category nominees here.

Winners will be announced in the awards ceremony on Sunday, August 29, hosted by Jimmy Fallon. Congratulations to all nominees!

TV show finales

Lost had its huge series finale last month, which was a big enough deal that I discussed it in its own post. The rest of the shows that I've been following this season I decided to lump together into one season finale post. While most shows ended several weeks ago, Glee was the late finisher, concluding only this past week. So now I finally get to do my finales post.

As you might have guessed, each section contains SEASON FINALE SPOILERS for its respective show.

V

V started off strong last November, but after only four episodes it went on a long hiatus, coming back in the spring with many fewer viewers and, in my opinion, worse writing. I was disappointed by a number of things this spring, and Tyler and Chad really got on my nerves. Still, I was overall satisfied by the season finale.

There were a couple weak points. I thought the whole situation of Ryan's wife giving birth on the V ship was ridiculous: obviously they were going to kill her--Ryan even expected as much--so why would he let them shuffle him out of the room as she was giving birth?! Even human hospitals, primitive as their technology is compared to V technology, can handle people in the room with a woman giving birth. That room on the V ship was very spacious! He couldn't have been in anyone's way. Seriously, he believed them when they told him he had to leave? Dumb, dumb, dumb. I also thought it was kind of unrealistic that, after Joshua told Chad about the bad things the Vs were doing to the live-aboard people, Chad was able to just wander down the hall, unhindered and unnoticed, to the secret rooms where the weird experiments were going on. I'm glad he's finally on the side of the resistance, but it was a little silly that it was so simple.

Luckily, there were enough cool things that happened in the finale to satisfy me. Erica has successfully infiltrated Anna's circle of trust: Anna is rather pleased with herself that she has recruited Erica for her side to help in the investigations to bring down the Fifth Column, but, ha ha ha, Erica is the Fifth Column. Sweet. And Lisa has now officially chosen sides, and she has chosen the Fifth Column. Yay for her. I like her character a lot. Lastly, when Anna flipped out when she saw that almost all of her soldiers had been killed? So freaky. So cool. So satisfying.

The show has been renewed, though it won't be returning until midseason. Another long hiatus. Hopefully things will continue to get better when they come back.


Fringe

I love this show. The characters had a fascinating foray into the "Other Side", and they met up with Leonard Nimoy who made a fitting exit. I find it a little hard to believe that no one noticed they had the wrong Olivia at the end there, though I guess they were in a hurry. Still, if it takes Peter more than one episode to realize she's the wrong one I will be very upset. It leaves a very interesting setup for the next season. Will Other Olivia (Fauxlivia? She's not really "faux"--that would be more like one of the shapeshifters taking her form--but it has a nice ring to it) realize the error of her ways and help to set things right? How will Our Olivia cope on the other side? The look Walternate gave her as he observed her in her cell was chilling--he wasn't looking at a person there. But will have to be some developments on that side, as well. She can't just stay isolated in that cell until the others come to save her.

I'm definitely looking forward to this one coming back next season. I can't wait to see where they take it. We'll see whether I get used to Olivia's new hair. I think I liked it better before.


FlashForward

So many characters with so many flash-forwards to cover. I was really impressed with how all the flash-forwards panned out. All of them were pretty close to how they were "supposed to be", but some with little twists. Olivia and Lloyd in the right place, but not exactly how their flash-forward had pictured it. Benford finally figures out the message on his mosaic board just in time to...do nothing about it. Janis's baby is fine but--*gasp*--it's a boy! (After stressing that she wanted that exact baby so much, did it turn out she did the wrong thing?) Tracy is OK! Bryce and Keiko find each other (aw!). Nicole was actually saved from drowning! The coolest part, I thought, was the stuff that happened at NLAP. First, how Janis got from there to the hospital where she needed to be while helping the others gain access was clever. Second, the two characters at NLAP, Demetri and Simon, happen to be our two main characters who didn't have flash-forwards, which is good because that would have been the most spoiler-y place for a flash-forward. Nice planning there.

This show had some rocky moments, but I think it's a shame it didn't make it to a second season. Luckily the season (and now series) finale cliffhanger wasn't too bad. I mean, everyone had a new flash-forward, but we only got to see one, so it's not like we had multiple cliffhangers taunting us. It would have been nice to see where the story was headed, but I'm not too tortured by the open ending.


Glee

First, I have to say we had some great episodes recently. I loooved the Joss Whedon episode. Neil Patrick Harris is awesome, as always. Artie finally got to get up and dance. And Shelby is Rachel's mom! Whose idea was it to cast Idina Menzel as the birth mother of Lea Michele's character? Perfect! I also liked the Lady Gaga episode. I've never been a fan of Lady Gaga, but the Glee girls and Kurt doing "Bad Romance" was awesome. I thought Santana was a standout in her part there. I wasn't sure about the "Poker Face" duet. OK, it was an interesting arrangement, but I couldn't believe that the song that Rachel had always been longing to sing as a duet with her long-lost mother was..."Poker Face". Some people really liked it--the Housemate said he got choked up during it--but I wasn't convinced. I got choked up during the part with Kurt's dad defending him. Aw. And Finn at the end in that red dress? Great.

Now the finale. I thought it was awesome. The numbers were great, and I was happy to hear them break out "Don't stop believing" again. Vocal Adrenaline doing Bohemian Rhapsody was very cool, and it worked surprisingly well as a soundtrack for giving birth. Though, while it is a long song, it's still probably not as long as it would take for someone to give birth the first time (ah well, it's TV, what can you do?). I can't help but try to figure out how the judges' voting must have gone, since Josh Groban seemed to like New Directions and we learned that Sue put them first, but whatever. It was good that they didn't win their first year (or else how could they improve, and still feel like underdogs worth rooting for next year?), though of course they had to find a way to keep the glee club together or else there would be no show. I loved Sue's development in the judging panel--when she is no longer the meanest, most successful person in the room, she finds her heart and identifies with the glee club. *Sniffle*. And Shelby adopting Beth was a nice touch.

A very strong first season for Glee. I hope they can keep it up and find ways to keep it fresh.

Final comment about the Glee finale. You know how at the end Will Schuester plays the ukulele and sings "Somewhere over the rainbow" Iz style? Well, I sing and play that song on the ukulele, too! It was the first song I learned (it's easy--five chords that change at regular, long intervals). I even sing it with the traditional (aka "right") lyrics just like Will did, because unlike Iz's mix-up, they actually make sense. So you may understand why I got way more excited about this song than probably most people did. And I can confirm that Matthew Morrison's fingerings on the uke are correct.

Goodbye to Lost

No spoilers (and not just for the finale, but any episode of Lost) except for the section between the warnings.

Whoa. Lost is over. It feels...strange.

I can safely say that Lost is the TV show that I've been the most invested in for the longest period of time. It's had its ups and downs, its hits and misses, but I've been a fan all along. I even followed some of its "alternate reality" material (the Lost Experience) one summer (I actually stuck with that Simon-like game to figure out what DHARMA stands for) before I decided that, well, it wasn't really worth it--the show was perfectly enjoyable without it.

I sometimes forget, but I didn't actually follow the show until its second season. I think I watched the pilot when it started in the fall of 2004, but this was during my first two years in college when I didn't follow any TV shows (hard to believe I once did that, now). By the summer after the first season I had figured out that this was a show I should be following, and a chance encounter with Daniel Dae Kim (Jin) gave me further star-struck reason to start watching. I bought the Season 1 DVDs, and by the start of Season 2 I was all caught up. I then proceeded to get my roommate hooked on the show. She was caught up by Season 3, which we watched together.

That year I bought the DVDs, I think I watched every episode in Season 1 at least four times; I could list them all by name in order and had a very good sense of the events and flashbacks in each episode. I also co-founded a facebook group at my school (ah, back when Facebook wasn't a giant monster, when you had to be in one of the listed colleges to join and Facebook groups were a new thing and were limited to people in your own school...) which enjoyed relative success in its first year (until Facebook groups went "global" and all school-specific fan clubs became dwarfed and outdated). This was the golden age of Lost's popularity, when even non-geeks were fans, and you had to watch it the night that it aired or you'd overhear people discussing it the next morning and the surprises would all be ruined.

The show got a little lost in its second and third seasons (though I never gave up hope), but once they set an end date--three more seasons with 16 episodes each (with maybe a little flexibility)--in the spring of 2007, Lost found its direction again. It seemed that every episode had purpose, with important character and plot developments packed into it. In Season 4, they really let out the geeky sci-fi side of Lost, alienating some (lesser) fans, though show runners Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof said that if any fans didn't think the show was sci-fi all along, they were kidding themselves.

When they set the end date during the third season, it seemed like a lot of time. The show, after all, was only half over at the time. Somehow, three years have passed. It may be hard for me to believe it, but the epic tale of Lost is finally over. Spoiler section ends after the picture, so skip down there for my spoiler-free final thoughts.

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SPOILERS FROM THE LOST FINALE
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Since the finale aired on Sunday, there has been a lot of discussion over whether it was good or bad. A lot of people, it seems, are disappointed about the questions that the show never answered. They had three years to tie it all up! And they never told us why ____?! I bet they never knew the answer. That's bad show-making right there!

There are indeed things that it would have been nice for them to tell us (to name a few: What was special about Walt? Why did Aaron have to be raised by Claire? It didn't seem so disastrous when Kate was doing it. And why can't women have babies on the Island?). I think it was sloppy for them to bring these questions up, make a big deal out of them, and then forget about them. But somehow, I'm OK with it. For now, at least, I can forget about those questions, too. Their answers are not required for me to be happy with the show. At the moment I'm satisfied with all the mysteries they did solve for us.

I was a little disappointed by the way they ended the "flash-sideways" story. They had set it up as a sort of alternate reality where the bomb had gone off in 1977, the Island had been destroyed, and thus the lives of the passengers on Oceanic 815 were never touched by the Island's craziness. I guess with everything we learned about the Island in Season 6, a hydrogen bomb may not have been able to wipe away the issues that the Island had, but still... I liked the idea of this alternate reality. When Juliet said, in her last dying breath, that "It worked," I assumed she meant that the bomb plan had worked and that, in the new alternate reality, none of them would come to the Island. Even though that reality existed, they still had to keep playing through their own reality, which was also real. I don't know where I thought this would lead (War between the two alternate realities! No, wait, that's J.J. Abrams' other show...), but I hoped that the Lost show runners had a good idea.

But it turns out the sideways world wasn't real. It was just a fantasy in which all of our favorite characters, who touched each other's lives in such monumental ways, could find each other in the afterlife and have a big get-together before moving on. It was very sweet and touching, and I liked the sentiment, but, well... Why would this fantasy created by the people brought together by the Island take a form that looks so much like how their lives might have been if the Island had been destroyed in 1977? The only reason I can think of is, so that it would trick viewers into thinking it was an alternate reality. And that makes me a little sad. If anyone has a better reason, please share.

On Island, though, I was very happy with the way they ended it. I'm still sad that both Jin and Sun died a couple episodes back (what about their daughter?!), but other than that, I liked how they tied up the characters. Jack--and Kate!--take down Smokey. Jack sacrifices himself, and passes the guardian role on to Hurley (I believe in you, Hurley--*sniff*). Ben becomes Hurley's new second. Lapidus is alive! And the plane has a runway! And he takes Richard (no longer ageless), Miles, Kate, Sawyer, and Claire off the Island (see, Desmond was right, if Charlie died Claire would get off the Island...eventually). Now Claire gets to raise Aaron and wash her hair. Rose and Bernard live out their days happily on the Island, with Vincent (Hurley should make Vincent ageless--he's a nice companion to have around). Desmond hopefully, with Hurley's help, gets off the Island. And then the last scene, mirroring the very first scene in the pilot: Jack lying in the bamboo, visited by Vincent, then the closeup of his eye closing...It was beautiful. I couldn't have asked for more.

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END OF LOST FINALE SPOILERS
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So I have slightly mixed feelings about the Lost finale, but overall I thought it was great. It was a fitting ending to an awesome show. Lost's place is firmly cemented on my list of favorite shows of all time. It was an important show both in my life and in the world of TV. It helped make sci-fi cool and start a movement in new TV shows (mythology-heavy, serialized, sci-fi related shows), which unfortunately hasn't really spawned many successful successors but is still appreciated nonetheless.

I will miss the show, but strangely not as much as I've missed other favorite shows of mine that have ended. I guess, in the case of Lost, I feel like it was time. They told their story, and now it's over. It was great while it lasted, and I am happy with the experience. It was one hell of a ride.

Fall lineups - what we know so far

Here's what I've been able to gather about the fall TV lineups, concerning the shows that I have an interest in...

ABC
FlashForward has been canceled.
V has received a 13 episode order to return in midseason.
No Ordinary Family, the new Michael Chiklis drama about a family with superpowers ("live-action The Incredibles"), has been given a slot on Tuesday at 8 pm (all times ET).
Castle has been renewed, keeping its slot on Mondays at 10 pm.
(Variety)
While I started out the fall very hopeful (as ABC did) about both FlashForward and V as possible successors to Lost, both had disappointing flaws. However, I felt that FlashForward, unlike V, was starting to pick up again, staying interesting with surprising twists and intriguing turns. If either of these deserved a second chance, I would have said it was FlashForward. I guess V was holding onto better ratings, but sometimes ratings don't know better. That's how it goes, I guess.


FOX
Glee has been renewed, as we've known for a while now, but it has been moved to the 8 pm time slot on Tuesday.
Fringe will be returning in its 9 pm slot on Thursday.
(Variety blog)
I was worried this past year that Fringe's competitive time slot would kill it, but I guess it held its own well enough. I am relieved because, while it's still no Lost, I am definitely very fond of this show.


NBC
Chuck, after being on the bubble at the end of its second season last year, has been given a fourth season order, returning at 8 pm on Mondays.
Heroes has finally been canceled.
Undercovers, the new J.J. Abrams husband and wife CIA agent show, has been picked up to air on Wednesdays at 8 pm.
(Variety)


CBS
Hawaii Five-O, remade with Alex O'Loughlin, Daniel Dae Kim, Scott Caan, and Grace Park (yay!) has been given the 10 pm slot on Monday.
Big Bang Theory will be making the move from the Monday comedy block to Thursday at 8 pm.
(Variety, Variety)


CW
Nikita, with Maggie Q as an assassin and spy, has been given the big 9 pm Thursday time slot behind Vampire Diaries.
(Variety)

Fall 2009 TV Season

Some TV shows have had an early start to their fall seasons (e.g., Glee's new episode last week), but for the most part, shows are just about to kick off for the year. Here's a list of the shows I'll be watching and when they'll air just in case you're interested, too.


Wednesday, Sept. 9

8/7c - So You Think You Can Dance (FOX)
Dancers of all disciplines from across the country must salsa, waltz, disco, hip hop, contemporary dance, tango, jazz, etc. their way through the competition to win the title of America's Favorite Dancer.
Kind of like American Idol for dance, SYTYCD is a competition where unknown talented dancers (and um, not-so-talented dancers) audition, the 20 best (10 girls, 10 guys) are selected to compete on the show, and America votes on their favorite dancers, eliminating one guy and one girl each week until one dancer wins in the finale. The dancers perform in couples (1 guy/1 girl except on special occasions towards the finale), selecting one or two styles of dance to tackle for the week. For the first five weeks, dancers are voted on as couples, and the judges have the final say in who goes home, selecting one guy and one girl from the three couples with the least votes. Once it's been narrowed down to the top 10 dancers, though, dancers are voted on individually and it's all up to America's votes. Dancers perform solos in their own style of dance if they are in the bottom three couples, and also every week once they get to the top 10, but most of the competition forces the dancers to move outside of their comfort zones--ballet dancers do hip hop, break dancers do smooth waltz, etc. How the dancers adapt is always surprising and impressive. The choreographers, who are tasked with not only choreographing but also teaching the dancers their style of dance, are amazing. I love this show for exposing such a large audience to such different styles of dance, making true art in many cases. ANYWAY, SYTYCD has had five successful summer seasons (one just ended a month ago), and now FOX is bumping it up to "real season" status. As long as they keep the good dances coming, I'll keep watching. Actually, I generally skip the audition episodes and wait until the real competition (with the top 20) starts. That won't happen until Tuesday, October 27.

9/8c - Glee (FOX)
Misfit students in the high school glee club try to find success (and glee) in the face of their "cool kid" oppressors (i.e., cheerleaders and jocks).
I talked about this show last week. The new episode last week was even funnier than the pilot (in my opinion)! It's a really smart, hilarious new show, and the music is delightful.


Thursday, Sept. 17 (FOX)

9/8c - Fringe (FOX)
FBI agent Olivia Dunham investigates crimes and disasters relating to the fringe sciences, along with Walter Bishop, a scientist specializing in fringe sciences, and his son Peter.
This show started off a little shaky last year, but by mid-season it was going strong with exciting mysteries and a thrilling blend of suspense and ickiness. The metaphysics behind the storyline revealed at the end of the season is intriguing. FOX is moving it up to the big time--9PM on Thursdays is the prime time slot, shared by juggernauts CSI and Grey's Anatomy. It holds the title of "last season's strongest freshman in the 18-49 demo", but here's hoping it'll catch on even more and hold its own.


Monday, Sept. 21

8/7c - How I Met Your Mother (CBS)
Ted tells his two kids the long, meandering story of how he met their mother. Many hijinks involving him and his four best friends ensue.
In my opinion, this is the best sitcom on TV right now. Hilarious, clever, and sweet. I still haven't seen most of the early seasons, but I didn't have too much trouble diving right into it at the beginning of last season. And we're getting closer to meeting the mother than we've ever been before. It's going to be legendary.

8/7c - Heroes (NBC)
Normal people, who have discovered they possess mutant superpowers, try to go about their normal lives but mostly find themselves fighting to resist (or assist) assorted bad guys and organizations hatching nefarious plots that only the Heroes can stop.
Like many, I loved the first season of this show, but in the two years since then, I've been disappointed. They keep saying they've learned from their mistakes and will make it good again, but they keep not delivering. I'll at least give it another shot. If it continues to be sucky, though... my schedule is pretty full.

9:30/8:30c - The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
Nerds Leonard and Sheldon, along with friends Howard and Koothrapali, and their new "normal girl" neighbor Penny find that they can learn from each other. Hilarity ensues.
This show is definitely funnier for the nerds and geeks among us who can understand all the jokes. There are some jokes that even go over my head--it's that nerdy/geeky. But the quirky characters (who with the exception of Penny are triple-crown nerds, geeks, and dorks) are different and adorable, the writing is good, and the story is being taken interesting places (I loved last season's episode where the four nerds tried to muster the courage to talk to Summer Glau on the train). I'm looking forward to its return.

10/9c - Castle (ABC)
Popular murder mystery author Richard Castle tags along with NYPD homicide detective Kate Beckett for research and inspiration, much to her annoyance, but beyond explanation manages to be helpful in many situations.
This was a new show last spring, and I had to tune in because the main character Castle is played by dear Nathan Fillion. He's great, the female lead Stana Katic is also great. The show isn't brilliant or anything, but it is light and enjoyable.


Wednesday, Sept. 23

10/9c - Eastwick (ABC)
Three New England women discover that they have supernatural witchy powers.
I've heard very little about this show, and it might suck, but I will probably tune in to give it a shot. I like witches.


Thursday, Sept. 24

8/7c - FlashForward (ABC)
All at once, every human being in the world blacks out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds and has a flashforward vision of what they will be doing at 10pm on April 29, 2010. Having people black out for over two minutes causes some considerable chaos to recover from, but there remain questions of why the blackouts and flashforwards occurred and what each person's vision portends.
This is the show ABC is hoping Lost fans will pick up while waiting for Lost's final season in 2010 and then stick with in following years. I had wondered at first whether they could continue the show after the first season (it seems that after April 29, 2010 it will lose some of its mystery), but apparently they've mapped out five seasons of FlashForward should they prove necessary. The cast includes Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love), Sonya Walger (Penny from Lost), John Cho (Harold & Kumar, Star Trek), and Dominic Monaghan (Lost, Lord of the Rings). This one looks promising.


Friday, Sept. 25

9/8c - Dollhouse (FOX)
Armed with technology that allows them to program a person's mind, an organization known as the Dollhouse rents out its "actives" who have been specially programmed to be suitable for their clients' tasks. There are weekly missions to complete according to the current clients, but there are also greater mysteries about the Dollhouse to uncover.
It took several weeks to hit its stride, but Dollhouse is good enough for me to tune back in. Everyone was surprised when it got renewed, since it didn't have the ratings--one can only assume that FOX was still regretting the way it ended Firefly (like Dollhouse, a Joss Whedon show) and wanted to avoid repeating that mistake (though Dollhouse wasn't as worthy of saving as Firefly). Guest stars this season include Summer Glau, Alexis Denisof (both Whedon alums), and Jamie Bamber. Can't wait.


Tuesday, Nov. 3

8/7c - V (ABC)
Aliens arrive on Earth claiming to come in peace, but some people know better and work to expose the aliens' evil plans.
A remake of an 1980s NBC miniseries, this looks like it might be a cool new sci-fi show. Its cast includes Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet on Lost) as an FBI agent in the resistance movement and Morena Baccarin (Inara from Firefly) as the alien leader. Sounds good to me. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait a long time for this one.


So what is that? 12 hours of TV a week? (SYTYCD is a time hog with 3 hours a week once it reaches its 2-hour performance, 1-hour results episodes routine). I'll be busy this season...

Chuck saved, upcoming fall shows, and Thor

I don't have much interesting new entertainment news to report since my last post on the subject, but there are a couple exciting things that I couldn't wait to share.

Firstly, NBC renewed Chuck! It will come back with a tighter production budget, but at least it secured a 13-episode order for a third season (Variety). This was the last show that I follow whose fate I was waiting to learn. Turns out the only show I watch that got canceled this spring was Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Chuck, Castle, Dollhouse, as well as all the other shows that were never in serious danger got renewed. This means that I will be rather busy next fall.

Fox has made some interesting choices in their fall schedule (Variety). First, their summer hit "So You Think You Can Dance" will be getting a fall skein. I have loved watching this show for the past few summers--I love dance and greatly admire the quality of the choreographers and dancers in the show--so I'm excited to see it moving up in the world. But it is a big time commitment, with two hours on Tuesday and one on Wednesday, which is fine when I don't watch anything else in the summer but will make things a bit crowded in the fall. Following the SYTYCD results show on Wednesdays will be new musical drama/comedy "Glee". The show focuses on a group of high school geeks who find their place in the school glee club. Fox clearly has high hopes for Glee, granting its pilot a golden sneak preview spot this Tuesday after the final performance episode of American Idol (that is, at 9pm). Early word is that it's clever, funny, and overall pretty great. Fringe has been moved from its first season Tuesday spot to the 9pm Thursday slot in the fall. This essentially is a big promotion, that time slot being the high attention spot that currently is home to heavy hitters CSI (CBS) and Grey's Anatomy (ABC). The question is whether Fringe will be able to hold its own in the time slot. Dollhouse will remain at 9pm on Fridays. New show "Human Target," about a decoy-for-hire who saves lives by assuming the identities of people in extreme danger, will debut in the winter starring Mark Valley and featuring Jackie Earle Haley; a new season of 24 is also scheduled to start in the winter.

ABC has given a series order to new sci-fi show "Flash Forward" (Variety). They had been promoting it with teasers during Lost commercial breaks, showing little clips followed by the words "What did you see?" without naming the show, and during the season finale last week gave it a proper full promo. The premise is that on one day, for 2 minutes and 27 seconds, everyone on Earth falls unconscious and sees a flash forward of their lives six months in the future. The show seems meant to tide Lost viewers over through the fall as they await the final season of Lost to arrive in the winter. Joseph Fiennes, Sonya Walger (known to Lost fans as Penny), Courtney B. Vance, Jack Davenport, and John Cho are among the cast.

My last bit of cool news is that it looks like Thor has finally been cast. Chris Hemsworth, recently seen as Captain Kirk's father (himself a Captain Kirk for 12 minutes) in the new Star Trek, is in final negotiations to take the lead role in the Kenneth Branaugh-helmed movie adaptation of the Marvel franchise (Variety, IMDb).
Hemsworth
The deal would also land him a part in Marvel's planned Avengers film. Oh, Chris Hemsworth. Yesterday morning, I didn't know who you were. Then just minutes into the Star Trek film you won me over and broke my heart with your heroic resolve and sparkling blue eyes at once both joyous and pained beyond imagining... *Sigh...* Ahem. Yes, well, now he's poised to become a blockbuster superhero. God of thunder and all. I hope the Thor movie will be good.

Season Finales

I said that I would talk a bit about some of the recent season finales of my favorite shows, so here it is. I am also happy to report that both Dollhouse and Castle have been picked up for another season. I think that leaves Chuck as the only show I watch that is still on the bubble. A final decision is expected this week.

As you might guess, there are SPOILERS ahead...

Heroes
I think Heroes is more on track than it was at the beginning of the season, but it hasn't yet fully recovered its former greatness. The finale left us with an unexpected ending of Nathan dying and Sylar essentially becoming Nathan. And I don't mean he took on Nathan's identity for his own nefarious purposes, but he was forced by Matt Parkman, at the behest of Angela Petrelli, to believe he is Nathan, and his powers to acquire memories (sort of at least) and shapeshift completed the transformation (this came up in my discussion of metaphysics). Pretty cool. And likely very problematic. A lot of Heroes have been weeded out at this point, though I'm still waiting to see more of Micah again as well as the third incarnation of Ali Larter. I'm still not overly hopeful about the future of this show, but I'll still be tuning in when it comes back next season.

Chuck
I love Chuck. I love his secret agent handlers Sarah and Casey. I love his family--sister Ellie and now brother-in-law "Captain Awesome"--and I like his friend Morgan. But I was getting really, really sick of Chuck's co-workers back at the Buy More. Lester and Jeff were embarrassing, totally sketchy, and not funny. And I just didn't really care about Big Mike or what's-his-name played by Tony Hale. That is why I am very hopeful that the fact that Chuck and Morgan both quit their jobs at Buy More means that we won't have to see any more of those nuisances. Assuming, of course, that Chuck even gets renewed. But I hope it gets renewed. The real game-changer in the season finale was that Chuck has a new Intersect computer in his head which in addition to giving him "flashes" of secret government information also gives him crazy expert martial arts moves. I kind of saw it coming ("They made changes to the Intersect... What does this new computer do?"), but it was still cool when it happened. The only thing I was disappointed about with the season finale was that they killed off pretty pretty pretty Bryce Larkin. Sad. I'm hoping for a Season Three, but if it ends here, I'll at least be fairly satisfied with the ending.

Dollhouse
The season's penultimate episode was great (hooray for Alan Tudyk's comedy), and the finale was also good, though it kind of fizzled at the end. With Alpha slinking off while Echo tries to retrieve Caroline's memories, we were robbed of a final showdown, though we did get the "You saved her" moment that, while predictable, was quite satisfying. I loved the revelation that Dr. Saunders had once been the active "Whiskey", but was taken out of active duty when Alpha scarred her face. I wonder if Victor will get a new job around the house. I was sad to see November go, since I thought it quite refreshing to have a capable, sexy young woman on TV who was not a size 2. Paul Ballard's relationship to the Dollhouse has now changed--he's not trying to bring them down?--and I'm very interested to see what direction the next season takes.

Fringe
It's Leonard Nimoy!!! Yes, the legendary actor made a cameo appearance in Fringe at the very end of the season finale, and appearance which probably didn't hurt the show's ratings or Star Trek's box office. But the finale was great. We got a final visit from a recurring villain, delved deeper into this concept of alternate realities (metaphysics at work again), and learned an exciting revelation about Peter. They had peppered the episode with clues, so I guessed it before it was revealed, but it was still immensely satisfying, and chilling, when we saw the name written on the gravestone. I'm looking forward to the direction they plan to take this next season.

Lost
The people behind Lost definitely know how to do a season finale. On one front, we finally got to meet Jacob, who before this had been a completely ambiguous entity--Is he invisible? Is he a ghost? Does he even exist? He is still mysterious, but we've seen him, learned that he lives under the big statue, has been there a long time, visited our survivors in their pre-Island lives, seems kind of nice, and likes to weave. We also know that he has a nemesis, a man who wears a black shirt, does not share his optimistic outlook on the progress of humans, and who has been trying to kill him for a long time. We learned that the resurrected John Locke is not really John Locke, but probably a disguise of this black shirt guy (I totally called what would be in the box at the beginning of the episode), and it seems that he has finally found his "loophole" and killed Jacob at the end of the episode. What's more mysterious than this murder is that Jacob did not try to avoid being killed but even seemed to encouraged Ben to stab him.

On the other front 30 years before, Jack convinced his fellow time travelers to back him up and help him carry out Faraday's plan to throw the hydrogen bomb core down the shaft at what was to be the Swan station in the hopes that, without the Swan station, their plane never would have crashed, and thus all the terrible things that have happened since the start of the show would never have occurred. Wow. We spent the entire season being convinced that the past couldn't be changed--what happened happened--and then they pull this on us. What made this finale even more cruel to us viewers was that when the bomb went down the shaft, and they all waited the long seconds for certain death, the bomb didn't even go off!!! All hell broke loose with the super electromagnet sucking things in toward it, some people died... And then, at the very end of the episode, we saw Juliet, who had fallen to the bottom of the shaft, use her last bit of strength to make the bomb explode. The screen went to white and the word "LOST" popped up over it. The end, until next January or so. We have no idea what will happen in the beginning of the next season. Really, really no idea at all. If the hydrogen bomb did what Faraday predicted and prevented the magnetic anomaly that crashed the plane, would any of what we have seen in the five seasons of this show have even happened? But if those things didn't happen, then how did Jack et al. throw the bomb down the shaft to prevent the magnetic anomaly in the first place? The paradox of time travel--metaphysics at work again. The show would be kind of sad if it didn't work and they actually did just write Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Sayid, Hurley, Jin, Juliet, and Miles out of the show. And yet for everything that has happened to not matter anymore would seem a bit cheap. I cannot wait to find out where they're taking this show. Next year can't come soon enough.

Metaphysics geek dream week

Warning: Major geeking out ahead (metaphysics and sci-fi!!!). Also, MAJOR HEROES SPOILERS from the 4/27/09 episode.

Last night's Heroes totally one-upped last Friday's episode of Dollhouse!

In the April 24 episode of Dollhouse, a murdered Dollhouse client named Margaret Bashford was temporarily resurrected when her mind (which had been copied a few weeks prior to her death) was downloaded into Echo's body. The resurrection was only temporary because at the end of the episode Echo/Margaret's mind was wiped. Then in the April 27 episode of Heroes, Nathan Petrelli, who had just had his throat slit by Sylar, was resurrected when psychic Matt Parkman made Sylar believe that he (Sylar) was Nathan; Sylar's power to know the complete history of any object (or person, I guess) that he touches allowed him to fill in his memory. Heroes went even further than Dollhouse, though, because Sylar's power to shapeshift allowed him to look exactly like Nathan.

We definitely have a theme going on here. Making copies of people's brains to grant them life after death. This is a fascinating plot device because it raises fundamental questions of identity. Is Margaret Bashford still alive? She knows everything that Margaret knew (up until three weeks before her death), thinks like Margaret thinks, and believes she is Margaret, but she is in Echo's body. And who is the man left standing at the end of the Heroes episode? He thinks he is Nathan, and he looks like Nathan, but is he Sylar? The tiny teaser at the end of the episode showed Nathan obsessing over a clock (something very Sylar, if I can turn him into an adjective), hinting that a bit of Sylar remains underneath. But if the transformation had been complete (without any remaining vestiges of Sylar), would he then actually be Nathan Petrelli?

I love thinking about these kinds of dilemmas. Even though I was an engineering major, I managed to fit two philosophy courses in metaphysics into my schedule. And identity was always one of my favorite topics, due in part perhaps to its frequently sci-fi nature. Some people can't stand discussing the issue: "What does it matter? We can't really scan in brains and download them into other people! This is pointless!" But these theoritical scenarios raise questions of how we define ourselves. Am I a certain cluster of molecules? Am I this body, which is allowed small, gradual changes? Or am I this specific set of memories and thoughts and feelings and natural disposition? What makes me me? To the uninitiated, I will attempt an introduction to these sorts of dilemmas (to those who have studied this before, I don't think I present anything new).

One simple explanation of one's identity is one's body. This independent form that looks like me and has all these parts exactly like my parts is me. But this is not a satisfactory explanation by any means. After all, I do not look very much like how I looked when I was three years old. My body may not even have any of the same molecules that it had when I was three. Cells die and I eat food and make new cells. If the completely same body is required for a person to be me, then we are constantly changing identities as we shed cells and make new ones. One could say, "Well, I'm not the same person that I was when I was three," but on the level of identity that I am talking about, that is absurd. If we are constantly changing identities, then I haven't met any of the people in my family, and they haven't met me either. The friends I grew up with are gone. I am a new person, I did not graduate from college, and thus my grad school application was a lie, but I can't be punished for it because I wasn't the one who submitted it. Okay, so the completely same body must not be a requirement for identity. We must allow a gradual change in body in the maintenance of identity. My body is not completely different moment to moment, so as long as it proceeds to change bit by bit, I will still be me.

Another definition of identity is my brain. Not my physical brain, since that is a part of my body, but my memories, tendencies, way of thinking, etc., which I will refer to collectively as my "psychology". This also changes constantly but, like with the body, it is a gradual change; the same defense of this definition of identity may be used.

So which am I, the body or the psychology? Are both required, or just one? Which one is more important? Consider death. P1 is alive at t1, but dies at t2. The psychology is gone, but the body remains (at first... though unless cremated it will continue to change gradually). The neighbor hears the gunshot and comes in to find a body, P2, dead on the floor. Is P2 the same entity as P1 (does P1=P2)? To those who say no, consider a case of sudden brain death. The body P2 is still alive, but the psychology is totally gone. In this case, does P2=P1? If P2 is not P1, then who is he?

Now, what if P1 knew that he was going to go brain dead at t2, so at t2 he arranged to have his entire psychology scanned into another body, P3. The plan works, so now we're left with P2, a brain-dead empty shell, and P3, who in spite of a new body feels quite like his old P1 self. Which of these is P1? The body P2, which is molecularly the same as P1, or P3, whose psychology is the same? They can't both be P1; if P2=P1, and P3=P1, then P3=P2, which is definitely not true (the brain-dead person has neither body nor psychology in common with P3; they are not the same person). So which is it? Consider the reactions of the family members. Assuming they get over the shock of having their loved one talking out of the body of P3, they would probably embrace P3, who knows them and loves them, and leave the brain-dead P2. This is similar to the Margaret Bashford case, except that in her case P2 is actually dead, not just brain dead, and P3's psychology is a continuation not of P1, but of a P0 who had her brain scanned three weeks before her death at t2. Does this make a difference in the question of identity? Does the body of P3 matter? If P3's body once belonged to a different person, does that make us less likely to accept that P3=P1 than if the body were a synthetic Cylon skin job type of construct (which looks like a human). If the body of P3 looked exactly the same as the body of P1, would that help confirm that P1=P3? This is similar to the Sylar/Nathan case.

Are you still with me, or have you ready to haul me to the loony bin? I'm going to switch gears slightly to one of my favorite examples: the Star Trek transporter. Now, I am not entirely certain of how transporters are supposed to work in Star Trek; I am totally psyched about the upcoming movie, but I am not a Trekker. However, this is a thought experiment, so whether or not this explanation is true to the Star Trek world doesn't matter.

Captain Kirk steps onto the transporter and says, "Beam me down, Scotty." Scotty presses the button, and the transporter scans in all the information that is Captain Kirk, vaporizes his body on the ship, then reassembles Kirk on the planet using the molecules on the planet into exactly the same configuration that Kirk was in on the ship. Kirk down on the planet brushes himself off and commences to explore the planet. Is the Kirk on the planet the same person as Kirk on the spaceship? The people in the Star Trek universe certainly believe so. The other option is that Kirk died in the vaporization, and this man on the planet is an imposter who has no right to the title of "captain". In the world of Star Trek, transportation is not murder, but a convenient way to get from here to there. They believe that K2, Kirk on the planet = K1, Kirk on the ship.

Now, let's say that the transporter is not working properly. K1 steps onto the transporter and says "Beam me down, Scotty," and the transporter scans him in and reassembles K2 down on the planet as in the previous case. The only problem is, the vaporization didn't work, so now we have K3 still standing in the transporter saying, "Scotty, what went wrong? Why am I not on the planet?" while K2 is happily exploring the planet without knowing that anything went wrong. It is clear that K2 does not equal K3, since one is on the planet and the other on the ship, but then which one is the same person as K1? In the previous example, we, and the denizens of the Star Trek universe, had decided that K2 was the same person as K1, but now it is hard to imagine that K3 is not K1. K3, after all, has the advantage of being continuous in both psychology and body to K1. But K2 has the advantage of intention: K2 is the one who is supposed to exist; K3 is a mistake. Imagine the epic showdown between Kirk2 and Kirk3: It's a fight to the death, winner takes all!!!

It is probably clear by now that I could go on and on about this topic. I hope you don't think I'm entirely insane. Hopefully you appreciate the relevance of this issue (no, it's not as immediately important as what you're going to eat for lunch today, but it still is a sort of fundamental question about our lives). And maybe you find it interesting and will now spend some time thinking through these questions and coming up with scenarios of your own. If that is the case, then welcome to my world.

There's a new episode of Fringe tonight. As a show about the fringe sciences, this scenario is right up their alley. I've got my fingers crossed...

My TV shows from the 2008-2009 season

I made a post last fall about the various TV shows that I thought I might end up watching this season. Now that this season has happened, I feel I should report on what I actually ended up watching. So here are the shows that kept me busy this past year, and what I think of them. There are a few other shows, like House, that I watch on occasion, but these are the ones I've followed faithfully. "My shows", as I call them.

The Big Bang Theory - Yes, the four nerds are pretty outrageous, but they are all lovable in their own way. Sheldon is especially epic. I think being a nerd helps one enjoy this show, since nothing beats hearing Sheldon go on a rant and realizing, "That actually kind of makes sense!"

How I Met Your Mother - Best comedy on TV, in my humble opinion. The characters are all fun, the storytelling is fast paced and wild, and the plot lines can be pretty sweet. Neil Patrick Harris is just awesome.

Chuck - This one I catch the next day on Hulu because it conflicts with BBT and HIMYM and our TV gets CBS better than it gets NBC. Chuck's three Buy More friends are getting increasingly annoying (Morgan is okay, but Lester and Jeff just seem to be two geeky creeps without redeeming qualities), but the main storyline is staying interesting and amusing enough for me to keep tuning in.

Heroes - I'm hanging in there with Heroes. I think it might be getting back on track, but it's been a shaky ride ever since the great first season. Most episodes still go by with at least one "That really makes no sense" moment, but at least I'm starting to care again.

Castle - ABC's new procedural with the wonderful Nathan Fillion. I hope it stays around--that guy deserves a hit. The two leads (Stana Katic plays a good tough cop opposite Fillion's childish writer) are charismatic enough to keep me interested. It's an honestly funny procedural, which I'll take over David Caruso's stupid sunglasses any day.

Fringe - Every few weeks or so, they pull out something really disgusting (most recently, maggots bursting out of the stomach of a corpse, threatening to do the same from a live person's belly), but mostly the show is just creepy and riveting. They try to keep the show episodic so the non-faithful can follow, but it's best when addressing the big picture plot threads.

Pushing Daisies - Tragic casualty of the writers strike and poor scheduling decisions by ABC. This was a bright, funny, and unique show that I absolutely loved throughout. Occasional singing by Kristin Chenoweth and Ellen Greene made it even better. I can't wait to see the final three episodes when ABC airs them this summer, and I'll definitely be getting the full DVD set of Daisies' two brief seasons.

Lost - After so-so seasons two and three, Lost came back strong last year, and this year's season five has kept up the momentum, which I don't expect to break at all before the series finale next year. Season five has delved even deeper into the mysteries of the Island, reveling in the show's true sci-fi nature. Some fans might complain that it jumped the shark with the time traveling, but I think the smoke monster, ghosts, and future-seeing Desmond should have tipped them off a little earlier that this wasn't going to be a totally realistic series.

Eli Stone - Another mid-season cancellation. It was a legal show with heart... and musical numbers. Pretty delightful. ABC will air the final episodes this summer.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - It may not have always made sense, but it was always fun to watch, with appealing stars and exciting action. The season two finale, which has become the series finale since the show wasn't picked up for a third season, was a fitting end. It gave a great answer to the big mystery of season 2--what "Mrs. Weaver" was up to--and stepped into a new wild stage in its story. I think it's for the best that it got canceled, though, since maintaining main characters in two different times would have been too difficult not to mess up.

Dollhouse - It took a little while to hit its stride, but lately it's been pretty great. I hope they can keep up the mystery, since too many "regular mission" episodes could get old. I hope they also keep up the humor that's finally starting to come out.

Battlestar Galactica - They ended it on their own terms with an amazing final season that had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. The series finale was intense, wrapping up so many threads in surprising and clever ways. Its absence has left me feeling a little empty inside. I can't wait for The Plan, an upcoming TV movie, and I'll definitely check out the planned prequel series Caprica.

Desperate Housewives - Not as good as last season when I started watching this show (last year had Nathan Fillion, and Dana Delaney's Katherine was new and interesting, whereas this year she's been kind of sidelined). But it's still entertaining, and the characters have grown on me. And what else do I do on Sunday evenings?

Other shows I follow:
Jeopardy - It airs when I like to eat dinner. It's how my schedule works out.
The Daily Show and The Colbert Report - I started watching these during the fall election coverage. Now it's a habit. I still find them both entertaining; there's still material, even with out the elections.


I shouldn't have, but I just added it all up. Now, some of these shows never overlapped because some are new and some are over, but in recent weeks, I've apparently watched as many as 16.5 hours of TV in a week. Not very healthy. I don't know if I can maintain that next year when I become a student again. But it's been fun!

Daisies airs, Fringe goes viral, Star Trek coolness, and more

Well, the stories have been collecting since my last entertainment news post...

Robert Downey Jr. has confirmed that Mickey Rourke, Scarlett Johansson, Garry Shandling, Don Cheadle, Samuel L. Jackson, Sam Rockwell, and Gwyneth Paltrow will all be in the Iron Man 2 cast (IMDb). Rourke has been cast as Whiplash, Johansson will play Black Widow, and Sam Rockwell will play Justin Hammer. Cheadle takes over the role of Rhodey from Terrence Howard. Paltrow will reprise her role as Pepper Potts, and Jackson will return as Nick Fury. I'm not sure at this point who Garry Shandling will play. I loved the first Iron Man movie, so I'm looking forward to this one.

Universal Pictures, which made a three-year production pact with Dark Horse Comics, is planning to make an "Umbrella Academy" movie (Variety). The story is about a dissolved band of superheroes who reunite following their adoptive father's death to carry out his plan to save the world. Mark Bomback, who wrote Disney's recent Race to Witch Mountain, has been chosen to write the adaptation. The Witch Mountain credit doesn't make me immediately confident, but we'll see how it goes.

Gore Verbinski has told Disney that he is done with the Pirates of the Caribbean movies (Variety). He will not be directing the planned Pirates 4 film, instead choosing to move on to other projects, including a movie adaptation of the video game BioShock (which came up briefly in a post I wrote last July). Verbinski's Blind Wink Prods. is also working on a movie adaptation of Hasbro game Clue and a drama based on the Wall Street Journal article about how online fantasy roleplaying (particularly focusing on Second Life) can negatively affect people's real world lives.

Michael Sheen has been cast as a vampire in Twilight sequel New Moon (IMDb, Variety). He will play Aro, the head of Italian vampire clan the Volturi. New Moon director Chris Weitz says of the character, "Aro is, on the surface, a very gracious and friendly vampire, but beneath that he is a tremendous threat." I have never read any of the books, so I don't know the characters, but judging by Weitz's description, Sheen is probably a good fit for the role. He can transition easily from gracious and friendly to threatening and dangerous, and he is overall a very talented actor. However, the first role I ever saw Michael Sheen play was the werewolf Lucian in Underworld. I think having Sheen play a vampire violates some sort of... mythical creature law, and we all may be in very grave danger.

ABC has announced they will air the leftover episodes of some of their cancelled series on Saturday nights at 10:00 starting May 30 (Variety). This means that the final three episodes of my dear show Pushing Daisies will finally be aired from May 30-June 13. Eli Stone, which I also followed, will have its final unaired episodes shown from June 20-July 11. Though I'm still sad these shows were cancelled, I am glad that I'll get to see whatever the shows' creative teams managed to pull together to end the series. Before I go and buy the complete DVD set of Pushing Daisies.

Speaking of cancelled series, while FOX is still not ready to make an official announcement, Entertainment Weekly has confirmed that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles will not be returning for a third season (EW.com). Season 2 ended last week with some pretty exciting revelations and cliffhangers, but I think it was a satisfying end for the show. The question now is What will Summer Glau do next?

FOX is conducting some sort of viral campaign for Fringe (Variety). Michael Cerveris has appeared in character as the mysterious Observer at a number of live events broadcast on FOX, including American Idol, an NFL divisional playoff game, and a NASCAR race. FOX has not commented on the campaign, possibly to make the promotion a little more mysterious, but due to the character's hairless nature, insiders have apparently nicknamed the campaign the "Where's Baldo?" initiative. I am much amused. Unfortunately, I don't watch any of these live shows on FOX, but viewers have posted clips on YouTube, and FOX has not been complaining about it. See them here: Idol, NFL, NASCAR (I'm pretty sure the Lance Reddick voiceover in the latter two clips was added and not actually aired live).

Finally, I must admit I'm getting pretty psyched about the new Star Trek movie coming out on May 8. I am totally jealous of the people who got to see it at the surprise screening of the movie in Austin on April 6 (NYTimes blog). I'm really not any sort of Star Trek fanatic; I consider myself a casual fan of The Next Generation, but the only original Star Trek that I've seen is the whale movie. I am, however, a fan of J.J. Abrams, and I'm excited about what he's done with the franchise (i.e., reboot it with a cool movie that is accessible to people like me). I am also totally digging the cast. The only movie I've actually seen with Chris Pine (Kirk) is The Princess Diaries 2: The Royal Engagement (yes, I've seen it), but he's cute and, from what I can tell from the trailers, good for the part. Zachary Quinto (Spock), of course, is Sylar from Heroes. I'm still not sure about his voice (Leonard Nimoy has such a nice deep voice, which is not Quinto's natural tone), but I'm still rooting for him. Simon Pegg (Scotty) is hilarious and brilliant (I loved him in Hot Fuzz... still haven't seen Shaun of the Dead). Karl Urban (Bones) was Eomer. Zoe Saldana (Uhura) I noticed in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie because I already knew her from that ballet movie Center Stage (her big screen debut). John Cho (Sulu) is Harold of Harold & Kumar, which is awesome. And Anton Yelchin gets two super summer blockbusters within two weeks of each other, playing not only Chekov in Star Trek but Kyle Reese in Terminator: Salvation, which opens in theaters on May 21. Busy kid. I really hope the movie lives up to all the buzz. I can't wait.

Fleeting members, Graysons, Sonic, and Pushing Daisies

My thoughts on assorted news from this week in the entertainment industry:

I am not a fan of reality shows. Correction--I have an intense distaste for reality shows on principle. Some of them, such as Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, do great things, but I still think they exploit people's misfortunes and emotions. And I actually watched about half of one season of Beauty and the Geek because Dave the Larper and Jasmine the Babysitter were really adorable. But all other seasons of that show and every other reality show are pretty trashy TV. So the fact that Survivor: Gabon (Survivor is still on??) has experienced an unfortunate "wardrobe malfunction" and has gotten CBS into a little trouble does not particularly concern me. But I do give the show and this wardrobe situation credit for inspiring the following quote, brought to you by the Parents Television Council: "The number of 'fleeting' penises we expect to see on broadcast television is zero." (IMDb)

The CW has picked up a new DC-based series to be called "The Graysons" about the young Dick Grayson (and presumably his family) before he became the first of Batman's sidekicks known as Robin (Variety). It's basically supposed to be for Robin what Smallville is for Superman. My only question is, well... Clark Kent is (basically) the last of an alien race living on Earth with superpowers that he uses when he must to fight baddies without arousing suspicion. So while Smallville is about how Clark copes with life as a teenager/young adult with these secret abilities, The Graysons will be about Dick Grayson coping with life as... a normal kid? Or, at best, a kid growing up in the circus. A show about a kid in an acrobat family could work, but the point here is to make a show about Robin. The executive producers say they've come up with an original take on the character, so we'll see what they put together.
> Update 11/7/08: The CW has apparently scrapped plans for The Graysons (Variety)

I have just learned about the new Sonic the Hedgehog game for the Nintendo DS (Variety). It caught my attention because it's a BioWare game, and as I have made known through previous posts, most of my favorite games are by BioWare. But as for this Sonic game... I think I must be getting old. Firstly, I'm not going to play this game because I don't have a Nintendo DS and I don't expect ever to get one. I don't know what the deal is with that touch screen--why should any game need more than one screen? Does a person have two separate fields of vision? No. Secondly, hearing the phrase "Sonic on the Nintendo...", I just have to shake my head; it triggers in me almost the same reaction I would have seeing Iron Man in the Justice League (*shudders*). Back in the day, Sega was a top competitor of Nintendo--the day of the Genesis vs. the Super Nintendo. My family was in the Genesis party, and we had a lot of fun with it, but as later generations of consoles came out, the Saturn and Dreamcast disappeared under the N64 and PlayStation's success, thus leading to Sega's demise as a console-maker. But in the height of my console days, Sonic was for Sega and Mario was for Nintendo, and Sonic had not one but two TV shows. That sassy Sonic with his love for chili-dogs has been reduced to an adopted Nintendo tag-along makes me a little wistful. At least he's getting some BioWare respect.

Now here's the good news: Fringe has received a full season order from Fox (Variety). It had me worried after its not-weak-but-not-strong premiere, but when the following week it had ratings-champ House as a lead-in, its audience increased significantly and it has now been receiving fairly strong ratings, particularly compared to other new shows which have overall failed to impress audiences. Fringe can be a little icky (and I can put up with a lot of ick), but I'm looking forward to seeing where they take the show. The bad news: Pushing Daisies's season premiere on Wednesday ranked fourth in its hour with less than half the audience that tuned in for the series premiere last year, getting a sad 4.3/7 with 2.0/6 in the demo (Variety, IMDb). This was the show whose return I had been most anticipating, especially since there haven't been any new episodes since the winter because of the writers' strike. I guess for other people, the long hiatus just weaned them of the show. *Sniffle.* This is a wonderful, delightful, whimsical, quirky, hilarious, lovable show. Help save Pushing Daisies! Watch the show! ABC Wednesdays at 8/7c.