Last week in stuff that Earl happened to be watching
This went over well earlier in the year, so I’ll see if I can try to make it a regular thing again.
Jericho: As if things weren’t already dark enough, Walls Of Jericho took us into some seriously dark territory. We really need a payoff on who the hell Hawkins is, why he moved to a place that was already the middle of nowhere before the bombs started falling, and how/why he’s still connecting to the outside world. If he’s supposed to be on the side of the angels, the producers took a pretty bold chance with making him so utterly unlikeable in this episode, especially given that he treats his entire family like he’s dressing down a bunch of unruly people who are lower on the org chart than he is. It’s a decent show, probably the best thing on the air this season for folks who really dig Lost, but we need to start paying some stuff off fairly soon. (November sweeps would be my guess…)
Lost: I’m fascinated by how this show can continue to reveal shocking new facets to the main characters without completely trashing what has gone before. Just like Jin has revealed a checkered past, turns out Sun has too, and how. I almost thought we were going to find out that Jin could speak English all along, just like Sun could. As for the Others, I guess things aren’t so cut-and-dried about the island having a magnetic attraction that would keep any boats in its “orbit” – otherwise why would “Ben” be so freaked out that Sayid, Jin and Sun have a boat? Could the whole thing about all of the incredibly specific coordinates and headings given to Michael have been a smokescreen, to keep Jack, Sawyer, Kate and Hurley from thinking that anyone could hightail it out of there? I thought the World Series gag was cute, but it went on just a little bit too long. And call me crazy, but I have yet to really believe a word that “Ben” has said, particularly not the bit about living on the island his whole life. The series continues to play out in an incredibly compressed time frame – we find out that no more than a week has passed between Two For The Road and this week’s episode. One thing I’m mystified about, going back to the videotape of the World Series, is the continued use of the Umatic 3/4″ VTR. When that was the machine used to play the orientation tape for the Pearl station in ?, there was a logical reason for it – the Umatic was in wide use circa the early 80s (and that tape was “copyright 1980 the Hanso Foundation”). When the Others clearly have some modern conveniences in their little holiday village, I wonder what the point of the World Series video being on a 3/4″ tape is. (Sorry, little stuff like that bugs me. It’s been years since I had to do anything involving 3/4″ videotape.)
Doctor Who: I’ve already made my thoughts known about this episode in the review in theLogBook’s episode guide section, but I’m just curious, for those reading, about how the U.S. audience (and not necessarily diehard fans) responded to Sarah Jane’s return. Did folks recognize her from 25+ years ago, or is she now just too obscure a point of continuty for anyone to remember?
Battlestar Galactica: Does anyone else think we’re going to run into some Boomer problems down the road? I’m fascinated by that character, partly because she’s evolved into both the enemy and a member of the family. I like that the Colonials are leaving the injured “skin jobs” to rot, rather than putting a satisfying bullet through their heads that would enable them to download and immediately tell their superiors what’s going on. Very smart – something Starbuck should’ve figured out with Leoben. (Talk about a kid who’s going to have some issues…) Another fascinating paradox is that I have both more and less respect for Ellen Tigh than I had before this season. I respect her (deeply flawed) decisions to protect her husband, and I pity her for the things she’s had to do on his behalf. In the first two seasons, I just thought of her as – quite frankly – a skanky lush, but in the first three episodes of this season I think we’re seeing more of the character’s heart.
The real question mark here, with the rescue scenario, is how Starbuck’s story is going to play out. I think we know, more or less, how everything else will end up to restore the series’ status quo, but I can’t even begin to fathom how we might extricate Starbuck from her situation. Will she wind up bringing that kid back to Galactica with her?… Read more
