Charlie!

So...that was...well...kind of boring. I don't really know what else to think about this one. It took a really long time just so everyone could divide up into Team Jack and Team Locke. And we all already knew that was coming anyway. Whatever.

A few bits I liked:

- Charlie! Seriously, that was probably the best Charlie ever. Dead is a good look for him.
- The look on Rousseau's face when Ben said "I need you to do me a favor." Hilarious.
- SAWYER!!!

Yep, that's about it. Anyway, now we know that only six people get off the island. Three of them are Jack, Kate, and Hurley, and one of them is dead. I really hope the other two are Sun and Jin, just so that Sun doesn't die. But I doubt they'd be the most interesting to see in the future. Same with Rose and Bernard. It's obviously not just limited to Team Jack people though. And now the question is, will we get flashfutures for people who didn't leave the island? Will they be flashfutures that show them still on the island? That seems like it'll be confusing. Damn this show.

You Had Me At Hello

Okay, so 25 minutes into the second episode and Torchwood has me with this line: "Period military is not the dress code of a straight man."

Realizing this made me stop to recall the other series that hooked me with a good line early on.

Firefly: "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal." (Obviously.)

Buffy, 4th episode: "Your hands are so...serrated."

Veronica Mars, 2nd episode exchange: "Flat?" "Just as god made me."

Angel, season 3, 13th episode (first one I ever saw): "I think I'll just have to go with my patented sudden burst of violence." (Really that whole scene, though.)

I'm not sure if Battlestar or Heroes hooked me with any particular lines. I'll have to rewatch the first episodes at some point and think about it. It's different when the show isn't really meant to be funny. I'm sure there were hook lines for other things too, like the O.C., Arrested Development, Bones, pretty much anything I've ever watched. They don't come to mind quickly like the ones I just listed though.

Okay, back to watching the show.

HHGG/X-Files/Angel/Mission:Impossible?

So I just watched the first episode of Torchwood. Interesting. Very interesting. I'm not sure it's the greatest show ever, but it kept me fairly entertained. There was one thing that truly disturbed me though. John Barrowman is Scottish. And yet, on the show he plays American. That's all fine except for the fact that when he's speaking English with an American accent, HE SOUNDS JUST LIKE TOM CRUISE! It is insanely creepy. What's even worse, though, is he seems to do the weird Tom Cruise pseudo-maniac laugh. Actually, a lot of his mannerisms, phrasing, everything, was pretty Tom Cruise-ish. Like he realized Capt. Jack Harkness (btw, awesome name!) was supposed to be American and smarmy and just kind of a dick and thought to himself "I'll pick someone that fits that bill and perfectly mimic him. I've got it! Tom Cruise!" And I can't decide if I find that really annoying or really amusing.

Other than that, I liked the show. It's British, obviously, which is a whole other vibe that I'm not totally used to. They have that thing, I'm not sure if it's because it's digital or what, where everything kind of looks like it's shot with a video camera. And there's kind of a lower...or just cheaper...production value. It's just not quite a pretty and glossy as American TV shows. But there is certainly nothing wrong with that. It's just a different look that requires some adjusting to. And you've got to love the length of each series. 13 episodes in series 1.

Anyway, so this show is a little bit Hitchhikers Guide what with the Perception Block thing essentially being a SEP (Someone Else's Problem) and the jumping around in space and time. And it's a little bit Angel with the mysterious and jaded leader in a trench coat and his team of devoted helper people. And it's X-Files-y what with the aliens. It does feel a little bit like it's cobbled together from a bunch of other shows. But it is the good parts of those other shows, and not so much of the bad parts.

Rule of Threes

So, Heath Ledger just died. High profile deaths usually come in threes, so I guess we should be bracing ourselves.

Okay, as EW.com just reminded me, Brad Renfro died earlier this week, so really, we should have already been bracing ourselves.

Cloverfield

I liked it. Kind of a lot. And I'm not sure why. I guess the deal is that I really never cared much about the monster, and as it turned out, the movie wasn't about the monster. The movie was about what a group of panicked people do to save themselves and their friends. Which was cool. Also, I was really impressed by the fact that I cared about the characters really quickly and I was legitimately upset whenever someone got lost or was in danger or died. I didn't expect to be so drawn into the emotions of people I was only viewing through really, REALLY shaky home video. But I was. And I think that's a real testament to the acting, writing and direction. Also, Rob. Wow. He was great and I loved him almost instantly even though his brother called him a douchebag. I am definitely going to be paying attention to Michael Stahl-David from now on.

Okay, I may have done this before but I'm going to do it again: Steven Strait in 10,000 B.C.; Taylor Kitsch in Friday Night Lights; Chace Crawford in Gossip Girl; Jessica Lucas in Cloverfield; and Laura Ramsey as the absolute creepiest thing in the preview for The Ruins. Who knew the cast of The Covenant would do so well?

Oh yeah, also it's really about 9/11.

And I want to see it again.

Pilot review: Terminator 2...wait, that's not right

I get the feeling they're never going to change the name. That's unfortunate. Although some sites do seem to be calling it SCC for shorthand. I could do that, I guess.

Anyway, the second half of the pilot was good too. There are already some plot holes, most of which just seem to be based on the difficulty in explaining time travel. Like, if Sarah was supposed to die of cancer in 2005, now that she's skipped her death, what happens? Does she still die 8 years from now? I guess that would make sense. Also, what happens now that John has just lost 8 years worth of his age? Is the future John now 8 years younger than he originally was? Or has the future him always been 8 years younger than he should be? And these are just the easy questions. Also, on this show there doesn't seem to be any issue with people being in any one time twice. But what if they'd jumped all the way forward to the time Cameron came from? Would John be a teenager and would the older John have disappeared? Yeah, it's enough to make one's brain hurt.

Okay, I'm predicting that it's going to gradually be revealed that the creation of Skynet is a big conspiracy involving a lot of people in the present (2007) and people and Terminators from the future that have come to the present. I'm really wondering how Sarah's old fiance, Charley, will fit into all of it. Also, I'm curious to see if the FBI agent will have seen enough at one point that he'll actually believe Sarah and start to help them out.

And finally, it's really weird that Charley's wife is Penny from Lost. It makes you wonder how big a part she'll play in either show.

Pilot review: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Okay, first of all, I don't like the name of this show. Because I call it Sarah Connor. So it confuses me whenever I try to look it up somewhere and it's listed under T instead of S. And no one's ever going to just call the show Terminator, because that's confusing it with the movie. The first movie. And that's just weird.

Other than that name issue, I actually liked this a lot. More than I thought I would. I had major doubts about Lena Headey for some reason. She looked too young or something. But I was definitely proved wrong because she's great in this. I was convinced that Summer Glau's character Cameron (is that a dumb nod or what?) was going to be my favorite character, just because she's Summer Glau, but it's possible that Sarah's my favorite.

Also, Thomas Dekker was better than I expected. He was doing way better than his awkward, pining-0r-gay Zach from Heroes. He was totally believable as a teenager who's scared to death of the crazy future that's already planned for him.

Really, the only person that simply met my expectations but didn't exceed them was Summer Glau. She's really great at the stunts, really great at the Terminator style movement, but not necessarily the best at the acting. But maybe it's just that the character isn't quite there. I imagine it'd be difficult to play a robot who has no actual emotion but who has to fake emotion. I think I'll be pretty satisfied with her in the role in general though. She sure looks great.

Overall, I'm definitely going to watch all of what airs of this one. I'm thinking I might have to come up with a new way to refer to it though. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is just too long. Sarah Connor Chronicles is still pretty long. Maybe they're hoping that this show will be so successful that it'll eclipse the original movie so people can just say Terminator and it'll refer to the show. Fox has probably already canceled it by now though.

Did I just die? Is this Heaven?

Just read this from the Hollywood Reporter:

Christian Bale is in talks to star opposite Johnny Depp in "Public Enemies," the Depression-era crime drama Michael Mann is directing for Universal.

Awesome.

Ugly, Mean Nerds Unite!

Ben Silverman, the head of NBC, who was just promoted to that position last fall and is oft described as a TV development wunderkind, said this the other day about the possibility of the Golden Globes being canceled due to the writers strike:

"Sadly, it feels like the nerdiest, ugliest, meanest kids in the high school are trying to cancel the prom. But NBC wants to try to keep that prom alive."

This guy must be a moron. How many people these days think back and feel that the popular jocks were the nicest, most awesome people in high school and that they're the people to sympathize with? Also, how many writers are going to want to work for a guy that called them ugly, mean nerds? Loser.

Holy Sweet Awesome! Forgetting Sarah Marshall Trailer!

Can. Not. Wait.

Oh yeah, I have a blog...

There hasn't been any TV, so I haven't had much to say.

I've had this one pet peeve for a long time and I don't think I've ever mentioned it to anyone, so I'll mention it now. I absolutely hate it when people say "AM in the morning". Like "I had a dentist appointment at 9 AM in the morning." AM means that it's in the morning. There's no need to clarify. There's never a time that's PM that's in the morning. Nor is there ever a time that's AM but is in the afternoon, or at night. And it's not like people are making a mistake because they don't know better. Everyone knows this. At least everyone who knows how to tell time knows this. So, as far as I'm concerned, it is inexcusable for anyone over the age of five to ever say "AM in the morning".

That's all.