Sweet Caroline

They're singing it now. Guess it's about 40 minutes too late. And weirdly, I'm pretty sure I like the entire stadium full of Red Sox fans singing better than I like the American Idol guy. Maybe he could've improved his performance (in my eyes) by shouting "Let's go Red Sox" repeatedly after singing. Or doing a crazy Papelbon jig or something. Or revealing that he's actually Jacobi Ellsbury in disguise. I'll shut up now.

And an addendum to the Sweet Caroline thought: Are they really going to play that Dropkick Murphys song at every game this year? I know they didn't do it last year. At least I think it's a Dropkick Murphys song...but it could be Flogging Molly. Is there a difference? And now I'm curious to see if it'll drive me as completely insane as Sweet Caroline. I'll update on that come the post season.

No, I Will Leave You In!

So I'm watching American Idol because I've been told to. Apparently I'm supposed to observe a Texas kid with dreadlocks. I'm already just a couple minutes in, no singing yet, and I can't stand it. Is this seriously a show? My God. But, wow, does Neil Diamond look good for his age. Not that I have any idea how old he is. He just looks younger than he did 20 years ago, which seems like a plus regardless of his age. Aww, probably surgery. Or Will Ferrell in disguise.

Okay, Forever in Blue Jeans is a good song. And I kind of see the appeal of this guy. And Will Ferrell did a GAP ad as Neil Diamond and sang this song, so I'm really just picturing that.

Oops, I skipped the next guy. Oh well. He looks like a douchebag.

Hmm, this is a Monkees song. I don't think she should've done this. People are way too familiar with it because of Shrek, and she's making it kind of boring. What the hell is Paula doing standing up? Did they never take care of that drinking problem? Weird. Gods I don't get this show at all.

What's with the random famous people in the audience? So far I've seen Rita Wilson, the jock-ish one of Hugh Hefner's girlfriends from The Girls Next Door, and I definitely recognized a guy but I've already forgotten who it was.

OOOOOOHHHMYGOD! The kid that everyone loves is singing Sweet Caroline ensuring that I will absolutely hate him for the rest of my life. Classic! Amazing! I'm just disappointed that it wasn't timed better so that he could have been singing along with entire stadium that will be singing it outside my window in a matter of hours. I'm not sure if that would have made it better or worse.

I don't think I know this song...and I don't really like it. She sounds like a Disney princess though. Which is weirdly pleasing to me right now.

Ah, and judging. I listened to small bits and muted most of it. I hate the judging. But Paula's gone insane, so I see where this show could be kind of hilarious on a regular basis. Oh, man I really want to turn this off. I don't want to have to think about more of it. How do people watch two hours of this at a time.

Dreadlocks again. I'm not really digging this song. But him sitting on the stool is reminding me of Will Ferrell again (Few people know that I am fueled creatively by my massive hatred of immigrants). Okay, I'm muting the judging. I don't care.

Shoot, I almost skipped the douchey guy again. And it's like the guy from Creed singing. But he's probably better than Dreadlocks. I'm muting the judging again, but it looks like Simon was mildly complimentary.

I have to give the people that compete in this show a little bit of credit. The whole situation seems like my worst nightmare. Not only do they have to sing, but then they have to stand around grinning at the camera and the audience like idiots. Now that I've watched this, I probably will have nightmares about it tonight. Dammit. It's like a horror movie.

Okay, I already like her a lot more doing this second song. Do I know this song? I'm assuming I do...nope, I really don't...I like it though. Wow, I really like her singing this song. Shit, I told myself I wasn't going to get sucked into this. Muting the judging again. Okay, I'm listening to Simon. Fine. But I'm definitely not voting.

You're kidding me! Archuleta's singing America! Did he prep for this by watching SNL's Neil Diamond Storytellers? Hmm...but this is just stupid. And I don't think he's being fueled by his massive hatred of immigrants at all. Really disappointing. Judges on mute. I don't care with this one. I really don't like this kid. Unless this was all just one elaborate SNL reference.

I think I just completely ignored an Indiana Jones preview. Weird.

Okay, last one. I like this song. I'm disappointed. She's okay, but I'd rather hear the real version, I think. Is she barefoot? No judging.

Well, after this all I really want to do is watch the SNL skit. Here's the transcript. And here's the thing itself:



So my only concrete thoughts are that I don't like Archuleta and that I want to find the second song Brooke sang. Why don't I know that song?

"Great Big Outerspace Dunce."

4.04 "The Sontaran Stratagem"

Yay Martha! I think I just like her better when she's not the companion. Or maybe when she's not completely in love with the Doctor and being bitter about it. Because she was cute and fun on Torchwood and she's cute and fun here. And I'm pleased to see her and UNIT!

Since this is a two parter and I still don't know exactly where the plot is going to go, I won't comment on it much...not like I ever comment on plot in any remotely comprehensible way anyway...but I'm enjoying the Sontaran's so far. Way better than the Ood. Villains are generally more entertaining than victims, I guess.

I really liked this episode because it had a lot of unexpected jokes that turned out really funny (to me, because I'm lame). The "Drives me round the bend", the "'In-tru-dah window?", and the "Oh, was that it?" non-explosion bits were all amusing. So was the Doctor thinking Donna was leaving him and doing his whole goodbye speech. Also, everything about his interaction with his UNIT "escort", Ross, is pretty funny.

Arrrgh. This is the first time I'll have to experience a two-parter of this show in real time. I'm frustrated already. Can't wait 'til next week. (I'm really fearing for Donna's grandad.)

It's like I don't know them at all

4.04 "Escape Velocity"

Okay...so, I think I've kind of lost the thread of this season. Or maybe of the entire show. Maybe I just haven't understood what I was supposed to be feeling for the last three seasons. Or maybe it's that I've been paying too much attention all along and now that they're taking time out to show me certain characters' reactions to things, I'm getting bored because I feel like they're things I already know because I've been watching the characters for the last three years and I know them.

I get that Tigh is conflicted about being a Cylon and that conflict is really closely tied to his guilt over what he did to Ellen. I inherently understood that from utterances made in previous episodes and also from "The Nature of Saul Tigh as established over the previous Three Seasons". I didn't need multiple scenes of him hallucinating Ellen while talking to Six to understand that.

I also already get Lee's need for self righteous do-goodery (it's been driving Kara away for years), and Roslin's close-to-death desire to cut through the democratic bullshit and get the fleet the frak to Earth without further incident. And I get that Adama spends all of his time walking the line between the discipline required to protect his people and the compassion urging him to comfort them. I just feel like they spent half of this episode showing me things I could have understood in a matter of minutes.

One thing I don't get is Baltar. Is he serious? I'm just having an incredibly hard time believing that this idiot, to whom Six has been preaching about One True God since the moment she got into his head, is suddenly full of belief in God and a legitimate desire to spread the word. Where did that come from? I didn't see it. And I thought I'd been paying attention.

I also don't get Tory. At all. Like, what's her purpose? Or her motivation. She's turned all conniving and manipulative, but it's beyond simple self preservation. She seems to be working towards some sort of goal, some goal that I assume is bigger than just fucking with Baltar and Chief's heads, but I don't see any semblance of reason and it's frustrating me.

Anyway, I miss Starbuck. And Apollo. And the ready room and the flight deck and CIC and dogfights. Where did my awesome war show go?

Lion cubs

This is the cutest thing ever. I've watched it too many times so I finally just have to post it.

Murder at the West Hollywood Target!

4.09 "The Shape of Things to Come"

Didn't this show used to be about a isolated group of people trying to redeem themselves for their past mistakes...with some supernatural elements? And now it seems to be the fallout from the messy breakup of an extremely psychotic relationship escalating into guerrilla warfare...with some supernatural elements. I have to admit, I never saw that coming.

I love this new Sawyer: Protector of the Cast Underlings. If you're not at the top of the salary scale, Sawyer will watch out for you. Unless you're an extra, and then he'll just yell at you while you die hilariously. I kind of liked the whole setup of that group being barricaded in Locke/Ben's house under constant threat of attack. I was interested in a more extended version of that, where days of uncertainty gave way to infighting, a little cabin fever, and certainly some panic attacks before they made it out. Oh well.

And it annoys me that Ben controls the smoke monster. Has he always? I really don't get the whole Ben versus Charles Widmore war thing going on. Is this going to be the rest of the series? Are we going to find out that the members of the original cast were just pawns all along? Or will they end up being more related to what's going on than we can see now? When he walked back into that room, I was really hoping he was actually going through some kind of portal and that's how he was going to end up in the desert in Tunisia in the future, so that even though he only seemed to be in the room for a minute, he actually spent a long time doing all kinds of stuff in the future outside world before coming back.

And most importantly, why would anyone kill Sayid's wife at the corner of Santa Monica and La Brea where there's a perfectly lovely Target and a Best Buy?

Me, for the past 2 months

Future on Fox

The FOX website has been kind of screwed up today. If it hadn't been, I don't think I would have discovered this blog: Future on Fox. It looks like it just started a few weeks ago, but basically it just posts information about FOX shows in development, including casting, staff, production, and scheduling news.

Since I just discovered it today I haven't been able to determine whether news about FOX pilots shows up on this blog before it shows up elsewhere, but I plan to keep an eye on it. Of course, since it's network owned and operated, I realize that it'll all be spun to FOX's advantage, but even so...sometimes it's nice to have news about pilots coming to you in organized chunks rather than having to wade through the futon critic, with their all-caps-mile-long headlines. And weirdly, all of this year's pilots that have interested me so far are FOX pilots. Stark contrast to last year. Did their head of development change? Maybe I wasn't paying attention.

Anyhow, I'm already excited about Boldly Going Nowhere, Dollhouse, Fringe, 'Sit Down, Shut Up', Spaced, and Virtuality.

The Swan Song of Cally Tyrol

4.03 "The Ties that Bind"

This may be one of the few times that I don't agree with TWoP's Jacob about an episode.

I thought this episode had two main problems:

1) There is a difference between creative directing and "creative" directing. When your brain has to spend so much time trying to filter out weird camera angles, weird focus choices, weird lighting, weird blurry "sick cam" vision, weird scene blocking, and weird flashbacks of stuff we definitely already know, it can be really hard to focus on the story. And that's a sign that the directing has officially gotten in the way. By the third or fourth scene I was trying so hard to ignore all the flourish that I almost forgot there was a plot to be following.

2) Along the same lines, there is such a thing as too much angst. This episode was huge with the angst (I also call politics angst, because on this show, it is), and very, very low with the action. And I definitely felt the imbalance. The Chief/Tory/Cally stuff was good, the Starbuck turned Col. Kurtz thing was cool, the Lee's first day at the Quorum stuff was fine, but putting it all together in one episode was just too heavy.

And then there were some minor problems:

3) Tory seems to have changed personalities for every episode of this season. The "resolved to aide the President" Tory of the first episode seemed totally separate from the "spirituality crisis/cries during sex" Tory of last week who, in turn, was separate from the "murderous Cylon" of this week. Despite her awesome execution of Cally, I'm having a hard time buying Tory as a legitimate person.

4) This is just a nitpicky issue on my part, but why did Adama send every frakking pilot with Starbuck on the Demetrius? Helo, Athena, Sam and Seelix? Who's left guarding the rest of the fleet? Racetrack and Hot Dog? All by themselves? The execution of her mission isn't making much sense to me. It seems like they could have sent Starbuck, Gaeta for navigational stuff, and maybe Sam or Helo for emotional support.

5) I never need to see Grace Park kiss Dean Stockwell ever again. That was downright nasty.

Other than all of that, Cally did go out with a pretty impressive bang (and cute hair), Tory is a scary fierce bitch, Starbuck/Anders angry sex is hot despite its awkwardness, and Cylon civil war is awesome. Also, thank the gods for putting Helo back in regulation tanks.

Ood...Eww

4.03 "Planet of the Ood"

Okay, first off I was totally expecting this episode to be the first of a two parter. Guess that's next week. And thank goodness for it. The Ood are really hard to look at.

I was a little disappointed. For one thing, I felt like there could have been a little more of an emotional reaction from the Doctor when dealing with the Ood. One more related to his past experience with them rather than just their telepathically conveyed emotional pain. Although maybe he didn't really spend much time with the Ood since he was down in the pit. They were more Rose's territory. But I also thought he should have responded more to the fact that Donna's reaction was so similar to Rose's. Maybe the real issue was that this episode reminded me of Rose and made me miss her.

I did have another problem with it though. It wasn't what you'd call subtle. With the Ood as lobotomized slaves (Battlestar much?), the inhumane treatment, and the Doctor comparing it to third world country factory workers it just felt a little too message-y. Also, I don't necessarily think I was feeling the full weight of the Ood's telepathic "song of captivity". It sounded like Gregorian chanting to me, and certainly wasn't going to move me to tears anytime soon, so when Donna started crying almost immediately, I was a little lost.

Anyway, this episode mentioned the disappearing bees again. And next week involves the ATMOS thing from the first episode's taxi window sticker. Plus Martha! Yay! Wait, I've just had a thought. If the Sontarans are coming up in the next two episodes, does that mean they won't be the big bad for the end of the season? I guess that means it'll fall to the body belonging to that red fingernailed woman's hand who picked up the Master's ring at the end of last year. Interesting. But how does that relate to the bees? And Rose?

And finally, from the end of this episode:

Ood Sigma to the Doctor: "I think your song must end soon."

What now?!?!

The Babysitters

For one thing, I wish this move were actually called The Babysitters Club as that would be hilarious (although would probably encounter some rights issues).

Anyway, I read this script when I worked at Gateway. I remember being somewhat engaged in the story, but it was mainly because of how incredibly morally disgusting it was. I felt pretty confident that it would never actually get made. (Of course, I thought that about the one where the girl fellates her dog too, but I was wrong about that one.)

So it's about an OCD (we know this because she bleaches the grout in the kitchen of her client's house at the beginning...for some reason) high school girl who's a babysitter. One night the dad of the kids she was babysitting for is driving her home and they have sex because she has a crush on him and his wife is a shrew, or something, and then he gives her $200. And then it happens again. So she decides that not only will she do a joint babysitting/prostitution thing, but that she'll pander her friends and take a cut of their earnings. Then at some point she and a bunch of the other girls go with a group of the men that they babysit for/have sex with to some cabin where they have a weekend long drug fueled orgy. Then they come back and I feel like there's something gang related that happens which I think was related to a girl that didn't want to be a prostitute anymore and may have told someone what the others were doing. And at some point the main girl ends up going to meet a "client" and it's her dad. Then everyone is grossed out and the movie ends.

Behold, the trailer:

Start the Cancellation Countdown

Looks like Ron Moore & Co. have a new pilot in the works: Virtuality. And it's on FOX.

This'll end well.

Let's do the Time War again

...good lord I am lame and should never speak. Anyway...

4.02 "The Fires of Pompeii"

Okay, so far that's two for two for Season 4 in the "kicking Season 3's ass" division. This episode was really good and I continue to absolutely love Donna and her resolute Not-in-love-with-the-Doctor-ness. It never occurred to me that Martha's (romantic) love for the Doctor was what made her a weird combination of bland and annoying and made the season less-than-thrilling. I'd just been chalking it up to the absence of Rose. Whatever the problems with last season, this season is "rockin'" and I think Catherine Tate and the way Donna is written (snarkily) deserve a lot of credit.

That reminds me, this episode managed to question a number of things that have basically been taken for granted since the reboot (or they were possibly just a lot of asides meant to jerk off the fans...although RTD claims not to do that...but if you count the writers as fans...nevermind). Like Donna questioning how the TARDIS translating works. I've also always wondered what would happen if someone purposely spoke in the language they were being translated to. Granted the episode didn't really answer that definitively, but it was a good joke. In the same vein, albeit more serious, was the issue of "what's a fixed point in history?" and "what can be changed?"/"who can be saved?". This didn't really get a concrete answer either, but how could it? The method of dealing with it, though, was helpful, and expressing the fact that the Doctor literally can not change certain things was good too. Obviously, if he could change everything, he could just craft the whole of time and space to his liking, and then he'd be God. Which would be a problem (as there's no time off).

This episode was kind of a heart breaker. Tennant gets this look on his face, something between "angry" and "suicidal", whenever anything hits a little too close to either Rose-related emotions or Time War-related emotions and it practically hurts to look at him. And he was definitely making that face for most of the end of this episode (the look was also a little bit "disappointed I didn't die in the volcano; why will no one end my eternal suffering?"). It made sense, though, to give Donna an insight into the Doctor's emotional baggage without him having to explain the Time War. It also introduced her to the "hard decisions" issue so now she won't have to argue every point in every episode. It also proved that this season can still do serious and won't all be as goofy as the first episode.

Finally, the last episode had three things that may or may not be related to the seasonal story arc:

- that sticker on the taxi windshield that had a symbol that looked like a cross between an A and the recyclable symbol followed by "TMOS" (this was pointed out in the commentary podcast)
- the fact that all the bees are disappearing (this is one I'm just guessing at, but it resonated more than a standard throw away line)
- ROSE

If there's a key word this season (e.g. Bad Wolf, Torchwood, Saxon), then I haven't picked up on it yet. Also, I didn't notice anything in this episode that might be related to the overall arc, but maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention.

All right.

Cylon-dividuality

4.02 "Six of One"

So this is a line from the io9 recap:

And Lee, Adama's military jock son, has started wearing stretchy v-neck sweaters after deciding for sure to join the council to work with Zarek on political stuff.

Really they're more like modified thermals, but seriously, what is up with that? I can get behind the suits (the one he was wearing in Starbuck's cell was hot), but where did that casual wear come from?

Anyway, this episode had some pretty awesome bits, although I do kind of feel the same as I felt with the first episode. It's like I'm getting a lot of information without being told where to put it and it makes me feel like the season is being reversed engineered from the endpoint. In general, I have no problem with that, but the point is that I shouldn't feel it. But maybe it's just me being weird and nitpicky.

I, like everybody else, it seems, am definitely being drawn in by the new issues in Cylon...um...governance? or policy, maybe?. Whatever it is, I like the factions and the in-fighting. But I am confused by one thing. This new rebel Six (who I'll now call Rebel Six) believes that the Raiders and Centurions should have full use of their mental capabilities and that everyone should be in search of God's plan and trying to follow God's objectives for the Cylons. But then Rebel Six is the most appalled at the idea of Boomer voting against her model. I understand that Rebel Six was probably really pissed about the vote swinging in Brother Cavil's favor and that that would give her reason to freak out about this instance of a model functioning as an individual, but doesn't it seem like, in principle, that runs counter to her ideology? Doesn't it seem more like the straight-laced, follow-the-rules, we-are-machines Cavil to be upset by Cylons expressing themselves as individuals? Shouldn't he be concerned by the possibility that this individuality might spread? Because if every Cylon body suddenly becomes an individual with their own thoughts and opinions, there's really not much left separating the Cylons from humans. And if there's one thing Cavil hates it's humans.

Also, what was up with Brother Cavil watching topless Boomer do ballet? Creepy! But not as creepy as Baltar, who can now even creep himself out with his new Chip Gaius.

What?

The longer this went on, the more I laughed.

I'm such an old person...

...change upsets me. Television Without Pity just changed their layout (again), now quite far removed from the original, and they added a whole lot of crappy new features. I feel like I can at least legitimately complain about the fact that the pages all load really slowly. I was vaguely worried when Bravo bought the site, but not much changed and it kind of seemed like everything would be okay as long as I could ignore the abundance of reality show recaps. And then I was really concerned that it would all go downhill when the founders left. Looks like my concerns were not unfounded.

I am not pleased.

I'm on Team Starbuck...as usual

4.01 "He That Believeth In Me"

So I didn't blog about this one immediately and then I've watched Torchwood and Doctor Who (and then rewatched Doctor Who with podcast commentary) since then so my mind has drifted and I may have already forgotten stuff about the episode.

That being said, I thought Baltar's cult was hilarious and creepy. It's really entertaining to see him so torn between being really pleased that people worship him and will have sex with him at the drop of a hat and being annoyed that he's not more influential and that his followers actually expect stuff from him. Also, how will his followers respect him now that he's de-Jesus-ified himself?

I love Starbuck, always have, always will. It's frustrating to have people being suspicious of her and it is weirdly satisfying to have Lee and Anders on her side (possibly only because I imagine that the three of them having "Team Starbuck" moral support sex in random utility closets around the ship), but why does she still manage to have free reign on the ship? A two marine security detail is all she gets? Really? Aside from all that, I feel like this is going to be a really painful season for her (therefore super hard for me to watch), because the fact that she doesn't know exactly what's going on is going to drive her crazy. Her big thing has always been being in control. And when she finds herself in a situation where she's not in control, she starts lashing out, trying to create a sphere of control for herself, hence the repeated stabbing in the neck of Leoben. It's already led her to pull a gun on the President this season. Things could get really bad from here on out.

I'm wondering if I'm taking Tigh's hallucination of shooting Adama in the opener too seriously. I really feel like it was a code from RDM about how we shouldn't necessarily believe what we see this season. Am I reading too much into it? Was it really just a shock value stunt and a brief (and unnecessary) insight into Tigh's fears (we knew that was his worst fear without them showing it; it was on Michael Hogan's face the moment he stepped back into CIC)?

And finally, Chief seemed so calm and kind of accepting of his new "situation", what with the pep-talking Anders. Which is weird, because that whole Last Supper thing was leading us to believe that he was going to take it really badly and eventually knife someone.

Final thing: Didn't Starbuck notice that her hair had grown several inches in six hours?

Better than Battlestar!

Well that was just brilliant! It was like the most perfect possible episode! Quite possibly my favorite ever! New theme music! The Doctor's hair is super tall! Donna is awesome! Fat Babies! Rose!

Seriously, that episode was amazing. The whole set up of the Doctor and Donna repeatedly missing each other while investigating the same thing was so entertaining. And then the Fat Babies were really cute. And the Doctor and Donna trying to pantomime an entire conversation was great. I laughed hysterically. And then I was laughing just as hard at the end during the "I want to mate"/"I want a mate" bit.

I knew I liked Catherine Tate, but I had no idea I'd love Donna this much. She is awesome and already way more charismatic than Martha. And the bickering between her and the Doctor is great. I get the feeling this season is going to be...fantastic!

And did I mention: Rose!

Torchwood 2.0

So...the finale was...kind of lame. It's like the Grey (Gray?) thing was supposed to have been something built up and weaved in all season, Doctor Who style, instead of just in that one previous episode. I don't think it had near the gravity that it was supposed to have. There was kind of a lack of gravity all around. I was even having a hard time caring about the destruction of Cardiff. It also really bugged me that Owen didn't know Tosh was dying. If he had known then they could have kind of consoled each other and had a "see you on the other side" type of moment and it would have felt a lot more meaningful than Owen thinking he was going out in a blaze of glory all by himself.

The main thing that surprised me, though, is that Jack is still there. I was under the impression that Tosh, Owen, and Jack were all going to be gone next year and it was just going to be Gwen and Ianto left to rebuild. Now that it seems like Jack is still going to be around, I'm curious as to how things are really going to be different. Also, I think I've heard that Martha is joining the team. I wouldn't be surprised if PC Andy got an invite as well. But maybe they're not interested in keeping up a five person team. Although I'd love to see more Andy/Rhys interaction. I was kind of hoping next year would be Gwen, Ianto, Martha, Andy, and Rhys. I guess that would leave a crippling lack of alien expertise, though. And that reminds me, there were definitely points during the episode where I was pretty sure Rhys was going to die. Glad that didn't happen.

Well, regardless, I'm curious about where things stand and I do love Gwen and Ianto so I'm very likely going to watch at least the first episode of next season, even though this season was pretty terrible. The whole show would be so much better if the Doctor would show up every once in a while, just to laugh at the silly apes.

UNDERCOVER...or somesuch

I woke up the other day and while lying in bed, but before actually getting up, I had an idea for a show. I've been racking my brain trying to come up with if it's already been done, and also with the inherent flaw that makes it either unproducible or just unentertaining, but I can't come up with any of those things, so I'm continuing to consider it seriously. Well, that's not entirely true. There is one flaw. That being, it's not a show I would actually watch because it would be way too "dramatic" for my taste. But that doesn't mean that people that watch 24 and Prison Break and Mad Men and things that are completely serious (*cough*self-important*cough*) won't watch it. Anyway, here it is:

An agent (or a small group of agents) from the FBI (or some other significant law enforcement institution) goes (or go, I'm not going to add both tenses from here on; just read plural instead of singular if that's what you're going with) undercover into a suspicious situation for an extended period of time, which allows the agent to become personally involved in...Donnie Brasco...the agent gets to know the people, becomes one of the people, feels conflicted about busting the people. (Seriously, has this been done? Is it happening now? It seems so obvious.) It can work as a series because the agent can go undercover in a new situation in each season (see? like 24), but, if desired, can have regular points of contact outside of the undercover situation that carryover from season to season, like superior officers and family and whatnot. So the mob thing is pretty obvious, but my first idea when I started thinking about it was undercover in a suspected cult. Like one under suspicion for hoarding unlicensed weapons or for child abuse or something. Something that would provide a quirky and varied community for the agent to be involved with. A mole inside Jonestown or the Brand Davidians. How cool would that be? Of course there are tons of other options: aforementioned mob (people want more Sopranos, don't they?); drug trafficking; illegal arms dealing; insider trading; civilian vigilante groups...whatever...anything illegal that involves interaction with a group of people would work.

Anyway, there has got to be a totally obvious reason why that isn't already a show, but one that I'm just not coming up with. Is it too boring? It can't be, considering we're remaking old shows from the 70s and 80s left and right here. I would say it must be whatever the problem was with the unaired (I think) show The Insider(s?), but I was under the impression that was more episodic undercover like 21 Jump Street, rather than extended undercover. Someone please tell me what the problem is. I just wish I could figure out how to make it a quirky dramedy so that I'd watch it. Basically what I want is that episode of Veronica Mars, "Drinking the Kool-Aid", where she goes undercover to investigate a cult under suspicion of extortion, but as a series. Also, it needs a way better name than Undercover. If I thought it would just be about the cult I'd say Drinking the Kool-Aid would be perfect, but obviously that won't work for other situations...unless it would.

In addition, what about an elaborate vengeance scenario? Like Count of Monte Cristo as a series...