Yesterday was Yom Kippur, but I've caught up on most of my Wednesday and Thursday shows.
"Lost": Hey, an episode that gave every castmember (except Malcolm David Kelley) something to do! Is that allowed? They've only done a few of these ensemble pieces, but I liked it; it's refreshing to take an occasional break from the various Big Mysteries to just spend time with the people of the island. (And we did get a fair amount of development in the story of the other Flight 815 survivors, including the touching and surprising introduction of Rose's husband.)
Also, I can never complain about an episode where the main character is Hurley. On the other hand, I don't think any of this season's flashback stories have been especially illuminating. We already knew that Jack had married a woman whose paralysis he'd miraculously cured, that Michael was upset about losing Walt, that Locke was bitter about losing his kidney, and that the lottery money was the worst thing to ever happen to Hurley. Admittedly, this was a slightly different angle on that than the cursed numbers, but I'm starting to wonder if we just need to stop seeing flashbacks of anyone but Sayid, Sawyer and Kate, all of whom still have some secrets in their past.
(By the way, I downloaded an earlier "Lost" episode from iTunes to get a sense of the quality, and about the most I could enlarge it was to 3" x 3", which isn't good enough for a widescreen show like this.)
"Veronica Mars": Well, that didn't take long. Veronica appears to have solved the big mystery by the end of episode three: Logan's dad hired his old stunt driver to crash the bus he thought Veronica was on. Except that nothing on "Veronica Mars" is ever that simple, and I'm sure that by the time the season is over, we'll discover that Aaron had absolutely nothing to do with the crash.
I've heard complaints about the season so far, and I suppose it's human nature to decide instantly that the new stuff isn't as good as the old stuff ("I loved Dave Pirner until he sold out and started dating Winona Ryder, man!"), but I'm not seeing it. Was the season premiere a little heavy on exposition? Yeah, but so was the pilot. I'm really enjoying all the new storylines and characters -- Dick Casablancas Sr.'s "Shred everything!" exodus was like something out of "Arrested Development," only he got away with it -- and the writers haven't lost their touch with the older ones like Sheriff Lamb, whose staredown with Veronica was hysterical. With a lot of my cable favorites on hiatus, I'd say this is the best show airing on television right now.
"Survivor": This is around the point where I've dropped previous seasons like Thailand and Vanuatu, but this episode may keep me around a while. For the first time all season, it didn't feel like "The Stephenie Show" (and the more I see of her, the less I'm liking her; it's like Rupert on All-Stars, where knowledge of her celebrity has ruined what made her so appealing in the first place), as we got decent glimpses of Brian, Amy, Blake, Danni and others. The environment still seems too brutal for decent scheming and plotting, but I'll give it a few more weeks, if only to see whether Danni creates a spin-off of "Bait Blake" called "Goad Gary." ("So, Gary, didn't you play quarterback for the Cowboys?" "No, but I worked for the Cowboys, in a helmet-wearing capacity." "Oh, okay.")
(And speaking of Danni, I haven't been this concerned about the well-being of a TV character since Christopher tried to strangle Adriana. Lots of people make the mistake of going on the show without fat they can afford to lose, but she may be the first contestant who went into the game with a negative body fat percentage. When we got a sideways look at her in the pool, Marian gasped and said, "She needs to be in a hospital right now!" I mean, at this point, she makes Calista Flockhart look like a Picasso model. Check out how far her hip bone is jutting out here.)
"Everybody Hates Chris": Last week's two-laugh episode had me worried, but this one was at least as good as the pilot, if not funnier. The sausage, the detention lady, the montage of Rochelle quitting her jobs for no reason -- everything was clicking. And after two weeks of ratings dips, the numbers actually went up last night. Die, "Joey," die!
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Last and Ten
Did you know that Cuba Gooding Jr. has signed on to play Fred Smoot in the new movie, Boat Trip II: Vikings Team Cruise. A new Last and Ten list has been created (on the left) in honor of the Vikings. The Last and Ten archive list also has a new home, here. You can even add your own quips in the comments section. You know you want to.
Raiders Need to Regroup After Bye
You can lose a lot of momentum during the bye week.
Just ask the Oakland Raiders.
Raiders players admitted on Wednesday afternoon that the bye week took a little something away from them. Most players conferred that they were a little jealous that the Baltimore Ravens had committed 21 penalties on Sunday, stealing the Raiders thunder. Or that the Minnesota Vikings made the Raiders bye week look like a week at Disney compared to their sex-cruise. Or what about Kyle Orton (picture)? Was it that long ago that Kenny Stabler was a drunken quarterback lout in a bar? When a Raiders bye week meant that somebody is going to jail?
Where are the Raiders that we used to know? They are just a mediocre football team instead of the bad boys of the NFL they used to be.
"I remember when I was the guy that would walk out of jail, drunk off my ass and smoking cigars," quarterback Kerry Collins said. "But do you want to know what I did during the bye week? I went to (expletive) Ikea. I was putting together a (expletive) dresser."
Raiders legends of the past are too ashamed to associate with this new breed of Raiders who embrace losing over losing brain cells during late night binges. Even go-to guys such as kicker Sebastian Janikowski has not been busted for trying to pass of ecstasy pills or the date-rape drug in a long time. And you can see the affect it has had on its game. Janikowski has missed four field goal attempts this season.
Guys like Collins believe that is no coincidence.
"You could always count on Sebastian showing up for a game, eyes as big as saucers, a rapid heart beat, and sweaty palms," Collins said. "And he would not miss a kick. Now he is at home by 11 p.m. and he sucks."
Many had hoped that an infusion of malcontents such as Randy Moss would have a positive influence on the team, but no such luck. Moss seems content to catch his one touchdown a game and not care about anything else. Not only has Moss stayed out of jail, he has not even called out his quarterback publicly for his inability to get him the football. Moss leaves the Vikings and they become bigger bad boys.
Even Warren Sapp has mellowed. A local high school coach made eye contact with Sapp recently and the bully defensive tackle did not try to get him thrown out of the practice facility.
What in the name of the Tooze is going on here?
The only Raiders spending time in jail these days are former Raiders such as Barrett Robbins. It should come as no surprise that the club has not spent any days in first place since 2003. It is a sad day for the Raiders when your most prototypical Raider is a former kicker, such as Cole Ford.
"It comes to a point where you have to question those guys making personnel decisions," one player said. "It has been how many years and we still have not replaced a guy like Daryl Russell. You cannot lose character guys such as Russell, Robbins, and Ford, guys who exemplified what the Raiders stood for and still expect to be the Raiders."
Just ask the Oakland Raiders.
Raiders players admitted on Wednesday afternoon that the bye week took a little something away from them. Most players conferred that they were a little jealous that the Baltimore Ravens had committed 21 penalties on Sunday, stealing the Raiders thunder. Or that the Minnesota Vikings made the Raiders bye week look like a week at Disney compared to their sex-cruise. Or what about Kyle Orton (picture)? Was it that long ago that Kenny Stabler was a drunken quarterback lout in a bar? When a Raiders bye week meant that somebody is going to jail? Where are the Raiders that we used to know? They are just a mediocre football team instead of the bad boys of the NFL they used to be.
"I remember when I was the guy that would walk out of jail, drunk off my ass and smoking cigars," quarterback Kerry Collins said. "But do you want to know what I did during the bye week? I went to (expletive) Ikea. I was putting together a (expletive) dresser."
Raiders legends of the past are too ashamed to associate with this new breed of Raiders who embrace losing over losing brain cells during late night binges. Even go-to guys such as kicker Sebastian Janikowski has not been busted for trying to pass of ecstasy pills or the date-rape drug in a long time. And you can see the affect it has had on its game. Janikowski has missed four field goal attempts this season.
Guys like Collins believe that is no coincidence.
"You could always count on Sebastian showing up for a game, eyes as big as saucers, a rapid heart beat, and sweaty palms," Collins said. "And he would not miss a kick. Now he is at home by 11 p.m. and he sucks."
Many had hoped that an infusion of malcontents such as Randy Moss would have a positive influence on the team, but no such luck. Moss seems content to catch his one touchdown a game and not care about anything else. Not only has Moss stayed out of jail, he has not even called out his quarterback publicly for his inability to get him the football. Moss leaves the Vikings and they become bigger bad boys.
Even Warren Sapp has mellowed. A local high school coach made eye contact with Sapp recently and the bully defensive tackle did not try to get him thrown out of the practice facility.
What in the name of the Tooze is going on here?
The only Raiders spending time in jail these days are former Raiders such as Barrett Robbins. It should come as no surprise that the club has not spent any days in first place since 2003. It is a sad day for the Raiders when your most prototypical Raider is a former kicker, such as Cole Ford. "It comes to a point where you have to question those guys making personnel decisions," one player said. "It has been how many years and we still have not replaced a guy like Daryl Russell. You cannot lose character guys such as Russell, Robbins, and Ford, guys who exemplified what the Raiders stood for and still expect to be the Raiders."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
