Chic, IL Must see TV

For some reason I can not stop watching Dirt. I don't know why it's so compelling to me? I'm not sure if it's Courtney Cox's character, or the working schizophrenic character, or if its the fact that its on FX and can get away with a lil more on television.

"Heroes" speeds up just as "Studio 60" grinds to a screeching halt.

For a guy like Aaron Sorkin, who's overseen two very good shows (West Wing, Sports Night) and an equally good movie (American President), I had hoped that his pedigree would guarantee any new series at least a 1-season chance. Then again, "Studio 60" just used one of the most tired sitcom cliches ever ("help, we're stuck on a roof") as the secondary plot device for a freakin' 2-part episode. I'd say that's pretty clear indication that the guy hasn't got anything left in the tank. With that in mind, I guess it's no surprise that the show's being put on "indefinite hiatus" - that's Hollywoodland-speak for "canceled unless we get desperate to fill programming time." It's disappointing, but then again, so was the show itself. Each episode and sometimes each scene would swing wildly from solid and original drama one moment to total hack writing the next. Here's hoping they at least filmed the last 4 or 5 episodes for the inevitable "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: The Complete Series" DVD box.

And then there's "Heroes", which shows no sign of slowing down. Things were kinda slow there right after that dumb@ss midseason break - maybe in an effort to get everyone caught up? - but both the plot and character development are really moving along nicely. One of the things I like so much about the show is that there's very little black&white "good vs evil" storytelling. Every generally good character has secrets or a dark side, and vice versa for the so-called "bad" guys. SPOILERS AHEAD: Early on, I mentioned seeing the politician as being a potential villain, and that's certainly still possible; but at this point, my radar is pointing toward the telepathic cop as someone who might evolve into a full-fledged antagonist. The uneasy alliance he entered into this week reminded me a lot of the old Chris Claremont-era Brotherhood of Evil Mutants from X-Men: a group of physically and mentally damaged people who are convinced that more wrongs are necessary to make something right. And his personal story over the course of the season is reminiscent of the origin segments in The Killing Joke.

I'm not sure where the whole thing about Peter blowing up NYC is gonna wind up, but considering the psychological and supernatural changes that both he and Syler have been experiencing, I'll be very disappointed if we're not treated to at least one scene of knuckle-to-knuckle fight before the season is over. NBC would never do anything as dark as Alan Moore's Miracleman-vs-Kid Miracleman fight, but still: every superhero comic needs a few good fight scenes, and Heroes is nothing if not a damn good superhero comic.

-Le Penguin
"Works in theory."

Good points Penguin. I am totally with you on that scenario.

And if I hear one more plug for the Nissan Versa, I will commence to throw my remote through the TV screen.

Just caught up on Lost & Heroes. Lost is still lagging, though this episode was the best of this half of the season. Lt. Dan would have been happy to see a smoking hot Ling Bai in a scantily clad bikini for 1/3rd of the episode.

Heroes- Another good episode. Me and Kerry cheered heartily when Isaac shot Simone. Holy Crap did she ever suck and serve no purpose. Now, if they'll just kill off Niki/Jessica the show'll be spot-on. I mean they just introduced a new hottie that can cover the loss of eye-candy. KILL HER!

D'

If there's been a better 90 minutes of tv than yesterday's "Heroes" and last Thursday's "30Rock", I'd be very surprised.

-Le Penguin
"I think it's time for you to sit on me."

Just finished yesterday's Heroes. Man that was F'n good TV! It's going to be extra F'd up with Bennett relentlessly chasing the "one of them" who apparently shot him in the gut and got away.

Now, hopefully on Wednesday LOST can pull itself out of the slump it's been in before it gets the axe.

D'

Heroes got me back with that episode. It was all around great. I really like the direction it is headed.

30 Rock has become easily my favorite show on TV. funny as hell.

also, I think SNL is experiencing a mild creative resurgence, which I can only attribute to Seth Myers stepping in as a head writer. I hate him on screen, and thought he was an idiot, but dang if the show isn't funny again. and WEIRD funny, too--sketches with at least some small sense of edge to them.

or maybe it was just rainn wilson.

Best line from Heroes..

"I'm not gonna nuke the dog!"

Not sure what to make of last night's BSG.

Thoughts?

I'll tell ya Wednesday since I won't be able to watch it till Tuesday night.

If you have avoided S3 spoilers, you are gonna be absolutely shocked.

Great Heroes episode. Though it angers me that the next new episode won't be til April 23rd!! I need Hiro's ability to fastforward!!

WTF was with that BSG episode!?!? I don't think I've ever been so confused watching an episode! AHHHH!!!

Hero's was fricking insane! I really don't want to wait till April to find out what's going on!!


Has anyone been watching the HBO series Rome? I'm trying to catch up, and I have questions.

Jodo said it...another good episode of Heroes...though they've introduced yet another horrible young actress to replace the horrible young actress they killed off in the last episode.

I just watched: [link=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/yeariniraq/view/]Frontline: The Lost Year in Iraq[/link] for my Poli-Sci class. It's free online @ the link above. If you want to see what went wrong in Iraq politically in wrapped up in less than an hour, then I highly recommend checking it out. It pretty much lays most of the blame directly on Paul "Jerry" Bremer and indirectly on the White House & Pentagon's inability to coordinate leadership. As entertaining as it is to see Rumsfeld and Condi hatin' on each other, the ramifications of that hate are pretty unbearable.

D'

ZOMFG, Frontline roxxorz teh big one!!11!!!1! The show itself is great, and their site is a near-comprehensive library of the past several years' worth of episodes.

On "Heroes":
This week's ep was good, even very good, but also a little disappointing. Bennett started out as a nice "Cigarette Smokin' Man" style bad guy, and they seemed to go to great lengths to make him one again last episode. I was really looking forward to a storyline involving a good man who voluntarily turns evil because he knows it's the only way to do good. Instead, he's essentially back to the place he was ("secret good guy") about 15 minutes into the episode. I can't say I dislike where his story's going; I guess the show just had my hopes up for something more...

At least now we know what Hiro meant when he told Peter in the subway "You look different without your scar." I wonder how long it will be until Hiro and Ando make it back to the main timeline, if ever.

Warning to the show's writers: shape-changers are dangerous. It's a powerful plot device when used right (see the first two X-Men movies), but can become incredibly cheap and contrived when abused or overused (see Mission Impossible 2.)

-Le Penguin
"Even their voice."

Now if Peter has the same healing powers as Claire-Bear, wouldn't his scar heal like all of her previous injuries? Or is Sylar's finger-slicing just that powerful?


After they save the world, can they go and save Captain America, the ultimate hero? Though, like every other comic death, they are brought back in a month or so.



"Save the Versa, save Nissan"

He should be able to heal that. Unlike Claire though I think his heal is voluntary rather than involuntary. Unless of course he is out of mana in which case he is screwed.

1. Studio 60 is by far, no West Wing (and I'm one of those Aaron Sorkin people) But I don't think its as bad as everyone else seems too...

2. I thought the last BSG was nice. Thought I was like, "Finally some frakking robots"

3. I saw 30 Rock last night. I'm amazed by the shows constant mediocrity. Alec Baldwin though is a very funny man.

You have to be ****ting me about 30 Rock.

I love Liz Lemon!

After the first three episodes of the show, i would have agreed. But it's really grown into something much better, and in the process, even the stuff I didn't like before (primarily Tracy Morgan) is pretty funny now.

Last night's episode wasn't great, but it made me not hate Nathan Lane for 22 minutes, something that I didn't think was possible. And Jack's brief speech at the end about Catholicism was dead on.

For now, tho, I gotta come up with some good fist names.

-Le Penguin
"I'm gonna go talk to some food about this."

We've started watching "Ugly Betty" which is very watchable....nothing genius but entertaining and funny. If you liked "Devil Wears Prada" then you'd probably like this.

D'

I don't know about the rest of you, but I think MXC on Spike TV is HILARIOUS!!

"Andy Barker, P.I." is too funny, smart, and weird for television.

i give it three weeks, tops.