Really Trucco?

I've been watching The Big Bang Theory for a little while now and I enjoy it. It's a fun show. Moist is in it. However...

Michael Trucco was in tonight's episode! And he was underused! This is definitely the worst BSG cast member post BSG job yet. Katee Sackhoff at least managed an episode of Law & Order (in which she was gorgeous and kickass, as usual). Seriously, what gives?

I also feel compelled to note that being in such close proximity to the cast of The Big Bang Theory throws into sharp relief exactly how attractive Trucco is, which is to say very. A fact that was sometimes obscured on BSG due to his occassional close proximity to Jamie Bamber.

Captivity!

Day 3 5:00pm-9:00pm

So after the second disc of the show I still really like it. I'm amazed at how quickly things seem to happen. I also feel a little weird about the number of times Jack appears to switch sides. How does anyone ever trust him at all? And for that matter, how does any character manage to trust any other character? They all seem to be doing random things secretly for random reasons all the time. It's very strange. I'm not sure it's the kind of show I would have been able to watch on a weekly basis as it aired. Even though things seem to move quickly, the individual episodes also seem to feel kind of like nothing happens. It's weird.

I still don't understand why the storyline about the President, his girlfriend, and his brother is important, and I'm still not finding it particularly interesting. It does crack me up that the President's brother is DB Woodside. All I can think is Robin Wood!

I realized the other day that Elisha Cuthbert is still on the show. I had no idea. I actually looked at imdb and saw that a whole lot of people have been on from the beginning. For some reason it just seemed like a show that cycled through actor's who weren't Kiefer Sutherland or Mary Lynn Rajskub. Apparently I was wrong.

As for what actually happened in the episodes that I watched, I was amused that Kim got to be the one "held captive" by Gael. Obviously she was the victim a couple times in the first two seasons, so it's just funny that she's at CTU to be safe and she's still the victim. I hope she's still a victim all the time and it's a joke in the show. Although I guess there's a lot of people being held captive on this show so it might not come across as obvious that Kim is being held captive more than anyone else. It would also be amusing because Elisha Cuthbert was in the movie Captivity.

Ben Silverman is a huge douchebag, so this is really funny...

Celebrate Bryan Fuller's awesomeness!

Possibly the only good thing to come out of the cancellation of Pushing Daisies:

Bryan Fuller's interview with Ausiello at EW shows that he clearly has a great grasp of the general and specific problems on Heroes, has some good ideas about how to fix them (which hopefully include killing Tracy), and now has the opportunity to put those ideas into action. It gives me enough hope to stick with the show (even though I kind of wish it didn't).

Long live Bryan Fuller! I hope that some day he'll create a quirky magical realism show about death that doesn't get canceled after two seasons. (That reminds me, did I ever post about watching Dead Like Me? I'll have to do that sometime.)

My Building #2

The people that live in the apartment below me all seem to play different instruments. Or maybe it's rotating people who each live there for a few months or weeks. I'm not sure. The point is, I can't hear them talking, listening to music or the TV, throwing or moving things, but I can hear it loud and clear whenever one of them starts to play something.

The classical violin doesn't bother me very much, or at all, actually, because it's pretty infrequent, is always lovely, and can mainly be heard only in my bathroom. Everything else is bad.

There used to be a band that seemed to be of a variety that I might describe as "ethnic rock" that would practice down there until late into the night. It involved a lot of drumming and what sounded like a person wailing/singing the same two syllable word over and over and over again. That lasted through most of the summer. Occasionally it was either just the singing or just the drumming. It was always annoying. When it was particularly hot and everyone had their windows open, sometimes the neighbors would yell at them to shut up. I tried banging on their door a couple of times but they couldn't hear me. Like I said, that was mostly during the summer.

Since then it's a saxophone (I think). And it's a lot of the time. Sometimes more people come over and it's a full on jazz jam session thing. It's generally quite unpleasant. But more often than not it's just the one horned instrument. There are definitely days when it starts at exactly 8:00am. There are also many days when it lasts until midnight. The absolute worst part, though, happens almost daily between around 6:00pm and 7:30pm. It is the time when the player of this horned instrument plays long, wavering, unmelodious notes over and over again. The only thing I can figure is that it's the tuning process. But for an hour and a half every day? Is that really necessary? I haven't ever knocked to ask the person to stop because it seems like maybe it's within their rights to do whatever it is they're doing in the early evening. There are plenty of days, though, when it legitimately hinders my ability to think.

Anyway, the tuning thing, or whatever it is, is going on right now and it's making me want to scream. So I thought I'd share.

I am stupid. But Jack Bauer is not.

Day 3 1:00pm-5:00pm

So because Zachary Quinto was in Season 3 of 24 and because I am stupid I Netflixed the first disc of the season and have watched the first four episodes. Until yesterday I had never watched a single episode of the show. And now, of course, I understand its appeal. I quickly realized, mind you, that Zachary Quinto just plays some kind of tech/analyst guy or something and he doesn't do much other than look petulant and whine every once in a while at CTU, but I was already engaged in other aspects of the story before the end of the first episode so I didn't much care. Except that he does look really pretty-boy makeup-y while everyone else looks pretty much gritty-realistic, and I don't quite get what that's about.

Anyway, my thoughts so far:

I was instantly suspicious that someone that we were seeing must be some kind of traitor so I spent the whole first episode trying to guess who it was. They revealed it at the end of the second episode and I have to say, I never would have guessed that the terrorist doing the orchestrating was going to be a CTU person. So good job show.

I'm not really that interested in the storyline about the President and his brother and his doctor girlfriend (Ha! Doctor Girlfriend!), but I'm assuming that that will all become more important at some point.

I'm also not interested in Jack's daughter and her relationship with his protege/partner kid. I actually kind of like Chase, the pseudo partner kid, but I hate Jack's daughter, Kim, and I wish she would just go away. I'm pretty sure that I am just one in a long, long line of people to wish this. I'm also pretty sure that she's hasn't been on the show for at least a couple season's now.

But I like the whole virus thing, I like the CTU people in general, I'm tolerating the "Jack kicking smack" plot, I like the fact that this uber-powerful terrorist brother of Ramon Salazar appears to have only one employee, the CTU insider guy, managing this entire blackmailing the US government situation. That part I like because it's humorous. I like the show in general. Now I think I have to watch the whole season. And possibly then go back and watch the first two seasons. And maybe season 5, which I think was widely regarded as a really good one, as opposed to season 6 which I know for a fact was widely regarded as stupid and boring.

Hmmph. At least this wasn't a post about Heroes.

I leaned on the wall and the wall leaned away

3.12 "Our Father"

Damn show! You really hit it out of the park this week. Even more awesome than your normal level of awesome. So first of all, Ed Westwick is a freakin' force of nature. Chuck had me in tears. And Lily was gorgeous and wonderful. And Blair and Chuck...for a moment. And The National's "Slow Show"!

...crap, that's the wrong show. I heard Kristen Bell's voice and I just thought...nevermind. So Heroes was a piece of crap as usual. The recaps, things like TWoP and io9, seemed to think it was better than the previous few episodes, but honestly, without "Gabriel" and any Syelle possibilities, I was bored. I am, of course, still angry that Elle is dead. I am holding onto a glimmer of hope based on this semi-spoiler from Watch With Kristin:

* This statement is still true: A cutie-pie blonde in a new romance is going to die, and at first she'll seem to be done for, but then we will learn that it's all a cover-up—she's still breathing. Elle just got roasted by Sylar. Is she the blonde in question—or is there someone else who qualifies?

But Ausiello (scroll down for a while) says Kristen Bell is really gone, and he always seems to know, so I don't know what to think.

Anyway, as far as this episode in particular goes, I had two thoughts:

1) In the previous four episodes Elle has electrocuted the bejeesus out of herself and everyone around her, worn yoga clothes, then worn nothing but her underwear and Sylar's shirt and she was shot and dragged from a house to a grocery store, thrown around, took some hostages, then was at the beach. Through all of that, how did she manage to carry around a cell phone still in working condition for Sylar to pillage? And why did she keep her list of old Primatech missions as contacts in her cell phone?

2) Is Mohinder really the only "scientist" available to Pinehearst, or to any of the Heroes for that matter? I realize that he has one of those magic TV degrees that give him a doctorate in medicine, genetics, biology, chemistry, and physics all at the same time, but the guy is an idiot. He doesn't seem to have even a basic grasp on anything. Is there really not a single other person out there who's aware of this "abilities" issue and has a science background that Primatech or Pinehearst could hire? And did Mohinder even speak during his scenes in this last episode? Why is he still even around (other than to fill an ethnic minority quota)? It could have been any random character doing the stuff he did in the last episode.

Why am I still watching this!?! I'd like to say I'm going to quit but, to be honest, the next chapter title, Fugitives, kind of intrigues me. Also, I obviously have no interest in blogging about shows that I think are really, truly good. There's nothing to complain about. So apparently my watching of Heroes will continue until I go insane...from watching Heroes, most likely.

My brain only has one track, and it's circular.

So a few posts back I thought I had something to say and then I'd forgotten what it was and instead I posted a picture of Zachary Quinto eating a burrito with his third arm. Really good use of my time, I know.

But I've just remembered what I'd actually been thinking about. It was a Sylar issue. At the beginning of the season Sylar seemed pretty intent on working for his "mother" and, like, avenging her or something. And then he showed up at Pinehearst and switched over to Arthur's side with little to no incentive. Then he made a show of throwing Peter out a window, but saved him from dying. So then he became the weird order following daddy's boy with the "Yes, sir"s and whatnot. And then he vascillated back and forth between remorseful and homicidal for a few minutes. Then he legitimately seemed to care for Elle enough to drag her bleeding ass around and try to save her from HRG. And then he killed her.

So after thinking about all of that I feel like there are two options as to what's going on: 1) Sylar is carrying out some sort of elaborate subterfuge for a purpose that will eventually become clear or 2) The writer's of this show are retarded.

Yeah, I'm Matt Parkman.

Yep, I'm still posting about this...

So the TWoP recap of last week's episode is generally hilarious, but this paragraph had me laughing out loud uncontrollably:

Outside Primatech, Nathan tells Peter that he's just going to pop down, get The Haitian, and come right back. Peter, however, tells Nathan that The Haitian went down to nab this guy "Baron Samedi," a Level 5 escapee who's into drug trafficking, kidnapping, and slavery. Well, that doesn't sound so bad. I mean, if you really want to get my attention, you'll have to refer to him as a VILLAIN. Anyway, Nathan wishes his little brother would stop trying to tag along on his date here, but Peter sad-sacks about how he doesn't have a purpose anymore, and moves in close to Nathan for literally no reason, like, do the two of them have oppositely charged particles in their lips? Nathan accedes to Peter's request, resulting in Peter mounting him and them flying away past the sun and the moon. Climbing all over his brother's jock is one purpose of Peter's that doesn't seemed to have abandoned him.

I can't wait for next week to get their take on my new most important question about Heroes.

One big question down, one to go...

3.11 "The Eclipse, Part II"

Okay, within the first 3 minutes of this episode a new question suddenly became way more important than "who's writing 9th Wonders?". At the end of the last episode HRG was watching Sylar and Elle through his sniper sight when Sylar pulled Elle towards him and they started making out. And now, at the beginning of this episode they're tangled up together on the floor basking in their post coital bliss when he starts shooting at them. It should be obvious, at this point, that the question is: Did HRG really sit outside that house looking at them through the sniper sight the whole time they were having sex? Because that is downright creepy.

The next most important question is: Is he really such a crap shot that he missed them while they were lying perfectly still and he had a sniper?

And once again I can't see a damn thing that's going on. Why is it so dark even when they're inside?

Mohinder wailing on Flint was pretty funny. And speaking of funny, does Sylar have frosted tips?!? This is not the direction I want Zachary Quinto's hair to be going in. It needs to regress back to last year's hair. The hipster fauxhawk was working for him.

OMG, "In Hiro's origin story..." Are they serious with this shit? Also, way to go Breckin Meyer. I'm glad it took him the same minute and a half it took the audience to figure out that their powers would only be gone during the eclipse. At least not everyone in the Heroes universe is a moron. Just the heroes. I must say, though, "Yeah, I'm Matt Parkman" is an hilarious sarcastic comeback that I really wish I could start using in regular conversation.

Holy Hell! If it wasn't so completely obvious that all of these people are going to be completely fine and able to heal as soon as this eclipse is over then this episode would be downright nerve wracking.

What the hell did the Haitian just do to his brother? Kill him by erasing his brain?

Um, I have to hand it to them. That bit with Hiro jumping in and systematically removing everyone from the Bennett house was pretty amusing.

And they just answered the "Who's writing 9th Wonders?" question by possibly retconning Isaac's comic book production schedule. I guess that's fine. They can't use this just-do-what-the-comic-book-says thing as an impetus for action anymore. Unfortunately that means the writers will have to get some kind of grasp on character motivation if anything else is ever going to happen.

Oh! Oh! NO! If Elle is really dead then I'm quitting this show. I mean it this time. Dammit show! Do not do this to me! You finally got me back and you're throwing it all away. I needed Sylar to be conflicted and vulnerable. I needed him to be the bad guy who tries to be good. And now I realize that that's what this show has been missing from the beginning. The Wildcard. The Spike. The Sawyer. The Logan Echolls. The Kara frakkin' Thrace. I need a tortured soul to root for. Preferably one who fights against his very nature to be a good person for the woman he loves. And if what this show is going to give me to fill that void is fucking Mohinder and Maya then screw it. God I'm so angry I could scream.