TV Thoughts And Insights From The Potato's Couch

LOST: Show Will Have Tragic & Happy Ending!

2010-05-08T12:33:00.000-07:00

This week's episode of Lost was sad. Real sad.

Consider first that Sun and Jin had been apart in their timeline for over 3 years now and mere hours after finally reuniting on the beach and being locked in cages together, they die. Watching Sun and Jin slowly drown in the submarine was painful. Heart bursting, streams of tears inducing painful. Their death scene ranks right up there with Charlie and Juliet as easily the saddest death scenes on the show thus far.

Oh and quasi-zombified Sayid woke from his undead state just in time to do something heroic and blow up.

Yes, it was an episode filled with important deaths. This wasn't Nikki and Paulo dying folks. The only thing sadder than actually watching Sun and Jin slowly drown was watching Hurley, Kate and Jack outright sobbing over their deaths on the beach.

Oh that Smoke Monster. He's going to get it now.

However, there is comfort in the double timeline. Sun and Jin exist in this other world and are happy and together. That's going to be the ultimate happy ending for Lost. When the island timeline ends in Jack sinking the island and killing the Smoke Monster, the rest of the Losties will remember their island lives (like Desmond, Penny, Hurley, Charlie and Libby already have.) Actually, after this week I would also add Bernard and Rose to that list. Bernard's comments and demeanor suggested that he knew everything about the island and it would be just like the "retired" Bernard and Rose to know everything but choose to stay out of it. The other timeline will be everyone's happily ever after. That is the direction I believe Lost is going. And if I am right, which of course I am, then you can expect a lot more really sad deaths coming up on the island timeline.

Did you notice that the island doesn't seem to care much for love? Sun and Jin arrived on the island as a broken couple on the verge of divorce. They rekindle their love affair, get tragically lost from each other for 3 years, reunite, and then die. Charlie and Claire's budding romance is tragically cut short by Charlie's death. Hurley and Libby's romance is cut short when Libby is killed by Michael. Juliet and Sawyer's romance is ended when Juliet is killed during "the incident." Desmond and Penny's relationship has been repeatedly damaged by the island separations as well. Charles Widmore and Eloise don't stay together in the island timeline. John Locke returns to the mainland only to find that his love Helen has died from cancer. Richard loses Isabella and is doomed to spend eternity on the island. Jack and Kate better watch out, because aside from Hurley and the Dharma Ranch Dressing, there are no real love affairs left to speak of in the island world.

If the island timeline is the breaking down and sacrificing of their lives, the other timeline seems to be the restoration and blessing of their lives. The weekly parallel between the situations also is interesting to watch. Island Jack is trying to kill Smoke Monster John Locke. Other timeline Jack is trying to fix John Locke. Island Jack never believed John Locke's craziness until he was dead, other timeline Jack is the believer trying to restore that lost faith to John Locke.

Sawyer's actions of this episode even bond him with the good doctor. The rift in their relationship was because Jack's crazy H-bomb plan ended up killing Juliet and ending Sawyer's new happy life of the past 3 years. Sawyer, refusing to believe Jack's craziness, opted to try to stop the bomb and in all likelihood brought about the deaths of Sun, Jin and Sayid. As a result, guilt-ridden Jack and newly guilt-ridden Sawyer will have a deep bond of understanding (deeper than the one they share in that they both dated Kate and Juliet.)

Jack Shepherd is going to be the "candidate" and he is going to be the one to stop Smokey. His motivation was provided in this episode. The island will sink and lead into the other timeline.

In that timeline, we can expect to see Juliet again, and it's probably safe to say that Juliet and Sawyer will get to have a cup of coffee and perhaps a romantic kiss or two.

This week also gave us a hint of what Kate's thinking. Her extremely emotional response to Jack on the beach seemed to indicate that she's a Jate and not a Skate fan. Jack and Kate will be the end game in the other timeline.

In the meantime, be afraid, be very afraid of the Smoke Monster. Sure, he can't directly kill the candidates, but he's done a heck of a job manipulating others into doing that. You can bet that the recently MIA Benjamin Linus will feature prominently into that plan. He already used our favorite baddy to kill Jacob. It shouldn't be hard to convince him to kill Jack and company.

One final note before I go: John Locke in the other timeline clearly remembers something. His talking in his sleep, his recognition of Jin, and his pausing on hearing his own words offered back to him suggests that he might just be remembering something important. If so, perhaps he plays some role in helping to ultimately defeat old Smokey.

SURVIVOR: 8 Players Remain, But Only 3 Are Playing To Win

2010-05-04T16:30:00.000-07:00

And then there were 3.

Sandra.

Russell.

Parvati.

Folks, these three ought to be the final 3 of this game because they are the only people still playing.

Let's look at the events of this week.

First, you have the tomfoolery of the reward challenge. Colby, Danielle and Amanda win. They go to some creepy mansion of some long dead author and watch an old movie. Amanda and Danielle are thinking that there must be a clue to immunity somewhere in here, while Colby is thinking that the popcorn is rather tasty.

Danielle finds the clue. Amanda takes the clue. They tussle. Colby, clearly disinterested in playing Survivor and annoyed that anyone would dare interrupt his movie, declares that the clue belongs to Danielle. Amanda submissively complies complete with sad puppy dog eyes.

Here's the problem with this scenario: Amanda and Colby just handed power to their enemy willingly. Colby's the bigger problem here because he clearly lacks any desire to play or win this game. He's not even trying to pretend. His performance all season has been marinated in mediocrity and lethargy. He has the look of someone who committed one more time to collect his returning fee and doesn't care one iota whether he wins or loses. I know he's a decade older than in the Outback, but this Colby doesn't resemble the cowboy from season two at all. His apathetic decision to nonchalantly hand the clue to his enemy in the game helped cement the villains' majority status.

Amanda, although smart enough to know to look for and take the clue, didn't help matters much either. Her inability to stand up for herself and need to be liked trumped her strategy once again. She just resigned herself to submission and handed back the clue.

At least read it first!

This is why Amanda made it to the end both times--and lost.

The star of self-destructing moves of strategic stupidity however, is Candace.

From the beginning Candace was a head-scratching choice for an All-Stars edition. The Survivor die-hard fans that I know had no memory of Candace beyond asking "wasn't she the blonde chick from that year that they divided up the tribes by race?" Not one single person could name a single contribution that Candace made to the game besides being young and blonde. (Would it have killed the producers to choose one older woman? Tina from the Outback was a previous winner AND the first person voted out of All-Stars...she would have had a lot to prove and would have been more "heroic" a choice than Candace.)

Throughout this game, Candace has only further supported the view that her selection wasn't justified and that she is severely out of her league in playing a game with the big dogs.

The heroes had no idea who Russell was. His first move post-merge was to backstab and blindside them at tribal council. He told them he was an outsider and the next victim of an all-powerful women's alliance, collected their immunity idol and proceeded to vote them out. About 2 seconds after he pulls the dagger out of Candace's back, however, he sidles up beside her in hopes of making her the latest addition to his now multi-season "dumb girls alliance."

Candace, with all the grace and style of a deer caught in the headlights, began pondering her options and no doubt the ever-elusive world peace: "Sure he stabbed me in the back and I have no idea who he is. Sure he's running the show and has a firm alliance already, but I'm going to trust him. And even if I do make the final 3, I'm sure my entire tribe will forgive my blatant backstabbing of them. And something about maps. And the Iraq. And such as."

Somewhere Tyson and J.T. are pleased to find out that they are not alone in the annals of "Stupid Things Contestants Did Because of Russell's Mind-Control in Survivor."

Candace, Colby and Amanda willingly gave back control to the villains. This despite the fact that Sandra was willing to join them to take out Parvati and Russell. The heroes, for about the 100th time this game had a sure thing and managed to somehow screw it up.

Russell and Parvati are virtually unstoppable at this point. And the rest of the gang, with one exception, seems to be okay with that. Russell and Parvati are unparalleled at their individual and combined manipulative and strategic skills. They are steamrolling the competition each week--and the thing is, they did this EXACT same thing before!

The only person with the strategic and manipulative skill set (along with the actual desire to win) to stop them is Sandra. And she already won!

On the villains side of life, Jerri (who did win her first immunity ever this week) is completely content with 4th place. She's 4th and she knows it, and that is apparently cool with her. Danielle is content to merely show off her chest and settle for runner-up. Her gameplay has done nothing to differentiate her from Russell and Parvati. Other than annoying her potential jury members, Danielle is content to ride the coattails of Russell and Parvati and hope for the best. She will have neither the jury's support nor their respect.

Sandra, on the other hand, has already managed something that nobody else in the past 2 seasons has managed, and that is to survive in the game long after she went head to head with Russell. Consider the following:

In both seasons of Russell's dominance, every single player that even remotely questioned him in any way was voted out immediately. Sandra, on the other hand, openly defies Russell regularly in camp and at tribal council. She manipulated him into believing that Coach was out to get him. When he went into one of his wild-eyed intimidation rants against her, she boldly asked "who you talkin' to?" and then proclaimed "you don't scare me." This week, she even ordered him off the beach because she was "trying to do something here" with Candace and was frustrated that people kept interrupting her. And he complied.

Yet, she remains in the game. Russell has done nothing to take her out and often backs down to her. Although a previous winner, she is being underestimated once again. Sandra knows how to play the strategic side of this game brilliantly and it is now hard to imagine a scenario that doesn't result in her making it to the final 3. And if she does make it, she will most likely be the first person to win Survivor twice. (An honor I'd might add that should have gone to me. Unfortunately after they interviewed me in Philadelphia for Survivor: Palau, I haven't heard from Mark Burnett's folks. This even after I had the sister of a Survivor casting agent in my class, and after 7 years of running a game of Survivor: Lord of the Flies game in my classes where my students backstab each other and I play the role of Jeff. What's a guy got to do to get cast?)

Yes, Sandra and Sandra alone, has the power to stop Russell and Parvati. Even the looming rift between Parvati and Russell won't do them in. They're just that good. (Look for Candace to go next. She's a rat and everyone knows it.)

So despite having 8 folks left in the game, there are really only 3 people still competing to win. You can bet that one of them is the winner.

Before I go, a recap of where the players stand:

RUNNING THE SHOW/VIRTUALLY UNSTOPPABLE:
Russell & Parvati

ONLY OTHER PERSON TRYING TO WIN/DEFINITE FINAL 3:
Sandra

TOO LITTLE TOO LATE:
Rupert

SETTLING FOR RUNNER-UP:
Jerri & Danielle

NOT EVEN TRYING:
Colby, Amanda

OUT OF HER LEAGUE/NO BUSINESS BEING IN GAME:
Candace

SURVIVOR: Villains for the Win!

2010-04-23T14:03:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I posted on Survivor: Heroes Vs. Villains. Work and family obligations have kept me pretty busy. So, before commenting on the most recent episode, we need to recap some of the greatest hits of the last few weeks.

Boston Rob has fallen into shadow. The great strategist was taken down by Russell and Parvati. Boston Rob almost single-handedly won most of the challenges for the Villains tribe, and his previous play in the first All-Stars edition demonstrated how thoroughly Rob has mastered the strategic element of the game. (Even though his jury of cry babies refused to give him the victory over his bride-to-be because their feelings were hurt.)

So when Boston Rob gets voted out by Russell's alliance, you know it is a game-changing move. Jerri decided to go all in with Russell and Parvati, even though she had played the game before with Rob and presumably had a more thorough knowledge of how he plays the game. Her move also ran counter to her own intuition regarding Parvati that led her to spend the opening days of the game trash-talking her and trying to convince people to vote her out of the game. Jerri, for all of her villainous reputation, is remarkably loyal to her alliances. This jumping ship from Rob to Russell marked her first such move.

Her pal Coach wasn't exactly thrilled with the move because of his own reservations with Russell. Yet Coach couldn't even bring himself to vote for Russell and at least give Rob the fighting chance to stay in the game. Despite all of his protests about his personal integrity, Coach revealed himself yet again to be a duplicitous and yet simultaneously self-righteous player.

Rob's departure from the game marked a downward spiral for the villains that saw Coach and Courtney voted out. Courtney's departure was delayed by a week thanks to some shrewd manipulation courtesy of Sandra. Sandra, who spends half her time out there lurking in the bushes and overhearing her opponents plotting and scheming and the other half using that information to her advantage, manipulated Russell and his alliance into believing that Coach was plotting against them. So convincing was her story that several of the gals chose to take out the dragon slayer rather than the emaciated but witty Courtney.

Sadly, Sandra lacked another move to save her partner the following week, but her bold (and successful) move to oust Coach demonstrated once again her skill in the game of Survivor. With only 9 people left in the game at this point, Sandra is still the only one giving Russell and Parvati a run for their money.

A side note: Coach chose to enter his first tribal council as a jury member in what appeared to be a ladies' nightgown. We can only hope it was one that he stole from a bunch of Amazon women who were chasing him through the rain forest.

Right before the merge the heroes tribe demonstrated just why they will lose this game. While physically superior to the villains, the heroes, well, just ain't that bright. Country boy poster child (and previous winner) J.T. wrote what amounted to an elementary school love letter to Russell while handing off his hidden immunity idol to save Russell from the alleged big bad women's alliance. The entire tribe agreed with this move, with the exception of Amanda, and her only slight concern was mainly due to the fact that her pal Parvati was the intended target of their plot. High fives were offered all around as the heroes signed their own death warrants.

This week, even after Russell emerged with Parvati still very much in the game, the brain dead heroes still believed Russell whole-heartedly. With complete confidence J.T. beamed to the camera that there was absolutely no doubt whatsoever that Russell was on their side. (Of course in media appearances since his departure from the game J.T. is claiming that he was "on to Russell" before his departure. Apparently, he just wanted an excuse to leave the game early then.)

Even after Sandra pulled Rupert aside to warn him of Russell's power and deception, the dunces on the heroes tribe (except for Rupert who seemingly re-awakened as his old self this week after sleep-walking through the first half of the game) believed Russell over Sandra. Russell, a man none of them had ever met, who was chosen to be on the villains tribe, and whose season the other players did not get a chance to watch as they were filming Heroes Vs. Villains while it aired in the States. Not only don't these clowns know him, but without the chance to watch him in action, they have no idea how he plays other than the fact that it must have been somewhat slimy as he was a villain. Yet, Sandra, who is close personal friends with Rupert and has a relationship with him going back over 5 years is someone they can't seem to trust.

Then, even as they start to suspect that Russell is lying to them, their brilliant plan is to say they are voting for Parvati but really vote for Sandra or Jerri. Sandra? Really? Because isn't it fairly obvious to everyone this side of Forrest Gump that if Parvati and Russell are lying that Sandra isn't? Shouldn't she then be viewed as someone to preserve in the game as long as possible as a potential ally in future votes? Eventually the gang settled on their fall back of Jerri, but the motive behind the switch wasn't revealed on camera.

You have to hand it to Parvati. Personally, I can't stand her, but she's a great player. In the immunity challenge she stood with ease on one foot while the others shook and shifted their weight back and forth. Back at camp, she was able to see through Amanda's lies and convince Amanda that she believed her. She was also bold enough to give immunity idols to both Sandra and Jerri because she wasn't positive which direction the votes were headed.

This game has been and continues to be Russell and Parvati's game to lose. Still, with 9 folks remaining, the only person who strategically maintains any kind of serious threat to their victory is Sandra.

The heroes now know what they are dealing with, but their eyes were opened too late. The only hope they have is to try to convince Sandra to jump ship to join them in a vote. She's a shrewd player, however, that would vote out her own mother to win this game. She will only jump if there is no risk at all of the plan backfiring. And with Russell and Parvati, it's unlikely that she will feel safe with the mindless heroes tribe. The only angle the heroes can try to play is the new Parvati and Russell tension that will come this week because of Parvati's leaving Russell out of the loop on HER hidden immunity idol.

If they play that angle well enough (and I'm not confident that any of them possess the strategic/manipulative chops to do so) they could maybe convince Russell to vote out Danielle, so as to weaken his ally Parvati and make her more dependent on him.

In all likelihood, however, we are witnessing the beginning of the end for the heroes. Look for the next few jury members to come from the heroes tribe.

Before I go, an assessment of the players standing at this stage in the game:

RUNNING THE SHOW/BOLD & BRILLIANT PLAYERS:
Russell
Parvati
Sandra

MIDDLE OF THE PACK PLAYERS:
Rupert
Danielle

CLEARLY LACKING THE DESIRE/WILL TO WIN THE GAME PLAYERS:
Colby
Candace

DEER CAUGHT IN THE HEADLIGHTS/LEMMINGS:
Amanda
Jerri

One thing is certain: thanks to J.T. and his band of morons, a villain will win this game. You can take that one to the bank.

LOST: Sundown & Dr. Linus

2010-03-16T14:09:00.000-07:00

Where is our dear LOST heading?

Well, in the past two weeks we have seen episodes that are a study in contrast. Two weeks ago we were treated to what is arguably the darkest episode in LOST history as Sayid joined Smokey for some good old fashioned horror movie inspired fun.

Gone are Dogen and that John Lennon wannabe. Sayid has gone rogue for team smokey. The last portion of "Sundown" was downright frightening and had "Empire Strikes Back" written all over it. It's always darkest before the dawn.

We had already established that Claire and most likely Sawyer had joined fake Locke in his dastardly plan to leave the island. This week Claire's face to face interaction with Kate shortly before smokey entered the room was also chilling. "Catch a Falling Star" has never sounded so creepy.

And what of Kate's face when smokey soared overhead? Awe? Fear? Confusion? Is Kate the next to join the wicked band of smoke monster led zombies?

In "Sundown" the addition of Sayid really upped the ante of the whole good and evil showdown. Sayid's choice enabled smokey to enter the temple and kill a whole bunch of others. This dark turn by Sayid contrasted quite well with his parallel narrative where Sayid was able to save his beloved Nadia (something that eluded him in the original timeline). Sure, Sayid had to kill a bunch of nefarious folks in the kitchen of some undisclosed location, but in so doing, he liberated Nadia's family from the danger they were in and quite possibly also liberated Jin, who was being held captive in said kitchen.

On the island, Sayid's choice seemingly did the opposite. It enabled the vicious predator to have his way with those he was chasing. And it should be noted that if Ben Linus is scared of you, you must be scary indeed. The scene of Ben nervously backing away from Sayid toward the end of the episode was quite telling indeed of the state of affairs.

That leads into last week's episode of "Dr. Linus." Sayid's downfall into evil marked Ben's redemption in both timelines. Ben is actually the first character this season to have an episode where his actions and behavior in both timelines seem to match up. Do you reckon that might be important?

On island, Ben is digging his own grave at Ilana's behest when fake Locke comes to offer him a deal. Join me and rule the island again. Sounds enticing to the man who let his own "daughter" die so that he could retain control of the island, right?

Well, that's were redemption comes in. In the new timeline, Dr. Linus "saves" Alex from having her academic career destroyed by a corrupt and randy principal. Ben has the same choice to make involving power or Alex. This time he sides with Alex, who is merely his student. The episode also revealed that Ben didn't kill his dad but was rather caring for him in his old age. Redemption fit for a king--king of an island perhaps?

On the island, after Miles makes some funny references to Nikki and Paulo, Ben is pointing a gun at Ilana. Should he shoot her and dash off into the jungle, Ben can join up with smokey and claim his throne. After Ilana offers her forgiveness to the teary-eyed Ben, by answering his statement that fake Locke is the only one who "will have him," he once again is faced with a choice.

This time he chooses redemption. In both timelines, Ben Linus is currently one of the good guys. That has to be significant.

Of course, so does the fact that Charles Widmore just showed up in a sub.

What's he doing there? How did he get there? And from just what timeline is he arriving?

SURVIVOR: The Hobbit on Crack and The Walking Wounded

2010-03-14T07:34:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it's been two weeks since I posted on Survivor, and I know it's killing you to get the real story of what's going on through my rhetorical genius. So, finally, I am going to attempt to sum up two weeks of Survivor in one blog post. Check back later for my update on Lost.

Well two weeks ago on Survivor, the strategic grudge match began between Boston Rob and Russell. Said the Robfather of the wee manipulator: "He's like a hobbit on crack."

Indeed.

As both tribes were made aware of hidden immunity idols at there camps, the heroes all went a-searching for the little guy while the villains made a vow not to.

Boston Rob led his team in re-creating their shelter with the new supplies from the reward challenge, and lo and behold Russell announced that he was going to "take a walk." I'm not sure if he realizes this, but he's not playing the game with a bunch of "dumb girls" and the vapid duo of Mick and Jaison who lazily lounge about camp awaiting their marching orders without a single independent thought of their own.

Immediately upon his departure to look for the idol, Boston Rob ordered Sandra to do what she does best. If you remember correctly, Sandra spent the better part of her season in Pearl Islands hiding in the foliage listening in as various power players schemed and plotted. She then was able to leverage that information to get her further in the game. This time around it is no different. Sandra snuck into the jungle to witness Russell looking for the idol.

Look for her crafty observations to take her far into this game.

Once she reported back to Boston Rob, a Survivor death sentence was pronounced upon Russell.

Now the squaring off of Russell and Rob is hard for me. I like both of them. If only they would work together! If forced to choose, I'm rooting for Boston Rob, but with an idol in his pocket, Parvati at his side, and a tribe full of folks who didn't get to see a single episode of Russell's season on Survivor, and thus have no idea how he actually plays the game, I have to realistically give the benefit of the doubt to Russell.

If things were even and Russell was a known quantity, Rob would wipe the beach with him.

An idea for next season....put Boston Rob as the leader of one tribe and Russell as the leader of the other and see how things shake out.

Coach's instability also warrants comment. Seriously dude? You can't profess to be this "dragon slaying warrior" who allegedly survived being captured by a tribe of Amazonian cannibals and then break down crying because Sandra said you don't do anything and Rob doesn't want to hang out with you except at challenges. Also right about the time the first Confucius quote regarding Survivor came out of your mouth, I would be a big ball of laughter on the ground.

Of course this week he led the tribe in dragon-slaying meditation. Another classic Survivor moment.

Meanwhile, as an epic battle of the Survivor masters brews at the Villains camp, the Heroes continue to disappoint.

Two weeks ago the crafty Cirie found herself surprisingly tossed out early by a last minute blind side courtesy of JT. It was a beautiful Survivor moment where someone who thought she was running the show was taken out to her surprise.

Cirie, however, was not the problem in this tribe. The lack of desire to win, and the preference for hanging out with your friends on this tribe is stunning given how well some of these folks played in their previous times out. (Of course, I still really don't remember anything about Candace's game and Amanda still confounds me as to why anyone thinks she is A. a hero and B. a good player.)

Amanda and James have their own clique and anyone who isn't in it must go. JT just seems to be flopping back and forth akin to the death throes of a fish on land, and Tom and Colby had very few options to play.

It's striking how differently Tom and Colby are viewed this season as compared to their previous ones.

And Rupert, where do I begin? Does anyone really even like Rupert anymore? Gone is the happy-go-lucky pirate and in his place is a mopey Eeyore-esque whiner with a massive sense of entitlement. You can forgive Rupert for being too trusting in Pearl Islands and aligning with, of all people, Johnny Fairplay. Then came All-Stars, where once again Rupert demonstrated his stupidity by aligning with Jerri and Jenna instead of the honest previous winners Ethan and Tina. Now in his third time out, while protesting too much about how heroic and honorable he is, Rupert aligns with dirtbags like James and Amanda, and mopes when he doesn't get his way.

So two weeks ago, Tom was able to play his hidden idol to take out Cirie. This week, unfortunately, with no more idol to play, Tom was done. JT decided that his long-term game is better off with James, who can barely walk and will surely guarantee that they go to tribal council again next time. Of course, not only does that no make sense physically, but strategically, as a former winner, JT should understand that he is better off going against Tom and Colby in the finals.

Tom was right to point out their duplicity. Claiming to be heroes they became villains as they boldly lied about the motivation for the vote. "Oh, it's just on strength." Good old Jeff even saw through that by pointing out that his 5 year old niece could beat James in a foot race.

The Heroes are a big bag of pathetic. Hopefully the deer-caught-in-the-headlights Amanda, the mopey Rupert, and the invisible Candace will finally vow to keep Colby and toss out James at the next tribal council, but as Mama always says "stupid is as stupid does."

Once again, the last two weeks have demonstrated that this game belongs to the villains. The heroes are only supporting players in this game, and losing 4 out of 5 immunity challenges proves that beyond any reasonable doubt.

SURVIVOR: As Long As It Ain't Me

2010-03-02T13:55:00.000-08:00

Survivor: Heroes V. Villains saw the villains taking their first serious pounding in a challenge and Coach's first temper tantrum.

After two weeks of beating the snot out of the heroes on the puzzle challenges, the villains proved that pushing people on a platform with dirty pillows into a mud pit is not their specialty. They are more of the type to slyly stick their leg out in order to trip someone than folks who have the braun and tenacity to knock people down through sheer force.

After losing 7-0 in the challenge, the villains headed back to their camp in single file already mentally stabbing the back of the player in front of them. The heroes, meanwhile, actually had something to celebrate for once. The heroes tribe still had the fallout from last week's James outburst, y'all. James has alienated himself and seriously demoralized his team. Still, given the previews I was expecting more than just violently shoving Randy into the mud and then screaming in the old crumudgeon's face and cursing him out in an elaborate display of poor sportsmanship.

To his team, he seemed to calm down. Tom and Colby seethed about whether or not they even want to play this game because James was mean and voted out their play date Stephenie. Maybe Colby has forgotten how he backstabbed Jerri, Amber, and Mitchell the first time out. Despite being an all around nice guy, Colby did play a strategic game with Tina in the Outback. That called for tough choices. He also had it out with Keith several times around the camp. Tom also had it out with his alliance partner Ian in Palau. Perhaps the amount of time since their last game has sugar-coated their memory of Survivor, but both Tom and Colby are going to need to man up if they want to remain in the game long. They are still great guys personally and physically tough competitors. They need to re-awaken their mental/strategic toughness, however, if they are going to survive much longer.

Over at the lair of the villains, it was game on. Parvati somehow still has complete control over the men. Even though they all admit that she needs to go because she is a flirt and has won this game before, they all still crave her attention and soak it in like the Jersey Shore cast soaks in artificial sunlight.

Coach quoted from Martin Luther King and continued to do chants and yoga on the beach. As he was in all seriousness quoting Martin Luther King regarding the game, I began to wonder how the other players don't outright laugh in his face when he speaks. He is like a sitcom character.

Boston Rob's failure to take out Parvati may be catastrophic to his game. Russell is increasingly uneasy with Rob, and his close bond with Parvati should prove very dangerous to Rob's existence in the game. Ironic that Rob may be taken out by a "couple" when his own coupling with Amber during All-Stars was able to land him in the top two and hand his future bride the money.

I'm actually starting to like Jerri Manthey. I never thought those words would come out of my mouth, but as everyone was scrambling/preening for Parvati's attention before tribal council, Jerri was one of the only folks talking sense. She rightly identified that Parvati needed to go and that she additionally needs to be punched in the face.

Also quite revealing this week was Sandra's resurrection of the "as long as it ain't me" strategy that served her so well in Pearl Islands. Sandra is a devious and hardcore strategic player. Her ability to vote anyone out no matter how dear they are to her in order to stay in the game longer is a potent weapon in the Survivor arsenal. Last time nobody took her seriously, and yet this time returning as a previous winner, still not one person has even entertained the idea of voting her out yet.

That might change this week. After pointing out that Coach barks out orders and then leaves to go do beach yoga, Sandra seemed to get under the dragon slayer's skin. In previews, it appears that the manly dragon slayer has been "cut to the quick" by Sandra's words and begins weeping and gnashing his teeth that anyone would dare question his integrity. In all reality, if Boston Rob wasn't standing next to him telling him to pick his head up and stop crying about it, I would have thought that next week was a re-run from Coach's previous season, where he spent large amounts of time weeping and moping about people who would dare question his integrity as he lied to them and backstabbed them.

Randy's elimination was surprising to me. Sure, his misanthropic demeanor doesn't exactly endear him to anyone. However, on a tribe full of strategists that should have stuck out as his greatest asset. Nobody likes him and he has no friends. He doesn't have the ability to suck up or play nice. Sounds like a final two pact to me! Yet this was lost on everyone. Parvati should have been the obvious choice to anyone who wants to win the money. If they were voting on weakness, as they claimed, then why wasn't the emaciated Courtney considered for ejection?

This week will give more clarity as to whether or not this routing of the villains in the immunity challenge was a fluke or a change in momentum. And with the promised addition of hidden idols, look for an all out street fight at villains beach, as expert idol hunter Russell does what he does best.

LOST: Another Shepherd Another Timeline

2010-02-27T08:12:00.000-08:00

Jack Shepherd has a son.

In the "alternate" "future" "parallel" timeline that is.

This week's episode focusing primarily on Jack. Jack started out the series as the hero, but then somewhat fell out of favor as other characters moved to the front, and he was left sniveling on the sidelines.

Season six, with the arch of redemption so prominent is starting to move Jack Shepherd back into the foreground again.

In the alt reality, Jack has a teenage son named David. We don't get to see David's mom, but we can be sure that it is probably someone we have seen before. It's not Kate, Ana Lucia, or Libby, because they would have been on the plane with Jack. It could be his former wife Sarah that he just met earlier in this timeline, or maybe even fellow doctor Juliet.

To be sure, we were not shown a picture of the ex-wife for a reason. She's someone important.

Also interesting (and a point that I completely missed) is the fact that David played the same music selection that Daniel Faraday did. Lost experts have even analyzed the writing on David's sheet music that Jack rifled through in the room to compare with Faraday's journal notes. Apparently, they are an exact match. This would seem to imply that in the alternate timeline, Faraday does not have an overbearing mother push him into science, and he is therefore, free to pursue his passion of music. Somehow, then, he ends up as David's music teacher.

A couple of telling things regarding the alt timeline. First, Jack's uncertainty as to how and when he got his appendix removed. A reference that Jack perhaps, is starting to remember the other timeline?

Another telling moment was the emotional exchange between Jack and David. While reassuring David of his unconditional love for him, Jack admits to David that his own father didn't think he had what it takes, and that Jack carried that around for "most of" his life. Also telling, the multiple smiling photos of Jack and Christian that adorn his home.

Island Jack is still carrying that around as evidenced by his reaction to Hurley telling him that he did have what it took, his freakout session at the lighthouse, and his statement that he would be a terrible father.

Again, as with Locke, we see a great deal of healing having occured in Jack. He isn't the brooding quasi-alcoholic emotional wreck. He's capable of being a good day, as the scene with David proved. He's not an alcoholic, and he's not filled with rage about his father. He actually seems upset that his father is dead.

This reinforces my belief that what we are seeing in the "alt timeline" is the ultimate destination for our losties. Whatever Juliet started with the jughead "incident" will be brought to completion by whatever mission Jack has to perform on the island. His mission will save everyone and result in the losties being sent into the new timeline. I believe that by the end of the series, at least Jack in the new timeline will become aware of this. Then, Jack, ever wanting to be the hero, will be able to look around at the much happier and more fulfilled lives of the losties and know that he did in fact "fix them."

Jack and Hurley on the island were fun together and the lighthouse gave us a glimpse as to how Jacob kept tabs on everyone and was able to enter into their lives at different times.

Hurley also had to "lie to a samarai" which made him a little uncomfortable.

Claire is just plain crazy and poor Jin's going along with her delusions to try to get away from her was priceless. Unfortunately, crazy Claire and the smoke-monster infused John Locke are heading to the temple. After this week's episode, I doubt many of the folks in that temple will still be alive.

And what if Claire comes across Kate? After her eery statement that she would have to "kill Kate" for taking Aaron, I think we got a little foreshadowing there.

Claire will attack Kate. You can bet on it.

Expect a lot of bloodshed on the island timeline if I am right, because if they ultimately end up in the other timeline thanks to heroism on the part of Jack, that frees the writers up to kill as many of our friends as they see fit, knowing full well that they will live on in the other timeline.

This week's episode features a focus on Sayid and should tell us whether or not Sayid is really "infected" and thus evil or if the others were lying. My money is on Sayid turning to join smokey and Claire.

With so much of Lost's storyline's revolving around the father-child relationship, it is also rather interesting to see that at least on the island, Jack and Claire (both children of Christian Shepherd) are on opposite sides.

So while Jack will be battling his half-sis on the island, the alt timeline's revelation to Jack of his father leaving something to a "Claire Littleton" will likely lead to Jack meeting his half-sis and helping her along in life with little Aaron.

LOST: A Tale of Two Lockes

2010-02-21T13:32:00.000-08:00

This week's episode of LOST focused on John Locke, both dead and alive.

John Locke in the parallel/alternate/future timeline is still wheelchair-bound, yet surprisingly better adjusted. He seems happy with Helen. He seems less hell-bent on proving himself and getting out of that wheelchair. He lost his job, and yet came upon a happy-go-lucky Hurley, who quickly wrote down the number for his newly acquired temp agency.

That temp agency, run by our beloved and terminally-ill Rose, sent Locke to be the "substitute" teacher at a local school.

A school where a nerdy history teacher is heard lecturing his co-workers on how easy it is to remember to change the coffee filter in the faculty room. A school where that nerdy history teacher turns around to reveal another familiar face--the menacing stare of Benjamin Linus!

This week's look into the new timeline seemed to reinforce the idea that while some things are vastly different, other things never change. Ben, Hurley, and Rose were still crossing paths with John Locke.

John, however, is no longer the man of faith. Perhaps because he is more fulfilled in his life as it is, Locke doesn't seem to be the man contemplating his great fate and having faith that something larger is looming for him.

In this timeline, it is Helen who has to keep reminding him that miracles can happen.

Especially emotional in this timeline was the scene between Locke and Helen where he basically tries to give her an out by telling her not to wait for him to get up out of his wheelchair to walk down the aisle at their wedding.

When Helen poignantly tells him that wheelchair or no, he is the man she has been waiting for, and that she loves him just as he is gave Locke what he has been looking for for six seasons.

Locke's storyline has largely been driven by an unsatisfying life, and a brutal rejection and manipulation by his "parents." Locke was so desperate for love and for a purpose of some kind that he simultaneously displays both the childlike boldness for adventure and the sad puppy naivete of a child betrayed and ostracized one too many times.

It's part of what makes an episode like this so powerful. One one hand, you have sad vulnerable John Locke in the new timeline, and on the other, you have the newly fearless and somewhat frightening version of Locke now inhabited by the smoke monster.

Locke getting the unconditional love and acceptance from Helen that he has needed for so long will lead to him getting out of his wheelchair. He is now free to call the good Dr. Shepherd to fix his back because he is certain that Helen loves him for him and not the person he could become. Basking in this new confidence, Locke is now free to start believing again with Helen being the "wind beneath his wings."

In the island timeline, Sawyer continued to be the great con man. While others stood with their mouths wide open in shock that the new fake Locke is not the "real McCoy" Sawyer already knew that. He immediately asked fake Locke who he was and said "John Locke was always scared even when he was pretending to be brave. You ain't got any fear in you."

We've never seen Richard so scared in all of the show's history. That should be a big clue that Smoke-Locke is scary. Of course, then Smoke-Locke tells Sawyer that everyone thinks Jacob is so good because you think you have free will, but he's always manipulating you to get you to the island.

So if Jacob isn't for free will, then maybe he's the bad one? Or maybe they both are?

The list is finally revealed in the cave by the ocean (eerily reminiscent of Chris Farley's "van down by the river") where Sawyer almost dies after a ladder malfunction.

The losties have been assigned numbers and placed on a list allegedly by Jacob to determine if they are the next "candidate" to be the protector of the island. All kinds of folks have their names on there. Except Kate. Which is sort of odd because back in season 3 I think it was, she was told by an other that she was on Jacob's list.

Juliet was on the list. Some Dharma folks were on it. Lots of Oceanic 815 folks.

So Sawyer agrees to join Smoke-Locke in getting off the island.

Or does he? Is Sawyer agreeing or pulling a long con?

And what happens when/if they get off the island?

This episode set up the narrative for the remainder of the season. Who is good? Who is bad? And whose side are you on? The remaining survivors will have to choose sides. For now, it seems like most of them are with the creepy Temple-dwellers, while Sawyer (and Claire?) is joining smokey.

Sawyer's storyline will be interesting. His storyline in season 5 was largely about assuming the leadership position that Jack and Locke fought over--and succeeding. Sawyer grew up a lot in season 5 and became quite the leading man. His relationship with Juliet represented the first real relationship in his entire life. With Juliet gone, what will Sawyer do? Will he carry with him the growth that Juliet helped bring about throughout season 5 or will he sink back into his scoundrel-like ways?

And what of Juliet? Will he be reunited with her in the other/alternate timeline?

In closing, I leave you with another classic LOST moment. Ben, Sun, Illana and Frank bury the real John Locke. As a eulogy Ben mentions casually that he's sorry that he murdered Locke to the surprise of Sun.

Dueling timelines. Dueling fates. Dueling powers of good and evil. Dueling survivors. Dueling outcomes. Such is the tale of two Lockes. One thing is clear, whether he's dead or alive, you don't dare tell John Locke what he can't do!

SURVIVOR: Boston Rob faints, Stephenie Whines & James Freaks Out

2010-02-21T10:43:00.000-08:00

On Survivor: Heroes Vs. Villains, the heroes continue to collapse into themselves like a dying star.

Meanwhile, at the camp of Villains, victory is in the air.

Of course, they did have a set-back this week with Boston Rob's flu-induced collapse in the jungle. Boston Rob took a break from his quips about the laziness and "buffoonery" of his tribe to get the flu, pass out, and mumble with some crazed look on his face.

Thankfully, it was only the flu, and Rob was allowed to remain in the game. By challenge time, he was back to his usual dominant self.

We did, however, see the seeds of Boston Rob's eventual demise. Unfortunately, the other master manipulator Russell recognized Rob's strength as a player and strategist and began plotting and scheming for the right moment to take him down. As Russell is a largely unknown quantity to the other players, look for them to be more willing to trust this snake in the grass than the King Cobra of Survivor, Boston Rob. They won't get rid of him immediately because they need his strength, but don't be shocked to see Rob leave prior to the jury once Russell thinks a merge is imminent. He will not want to share power with Rob. His plan will be similar to last time, to form alliances with the physically weaker girls that he thinks he can control. The problem with that plan is that these are girls not used to being controlled, particularly Parvati and Sandra. If anyone is going to take down Russell, it will be with the aide of Sandra. She is a largely underestimated player, but in her season, she outlasted both Rupert and Johnny Fairplay through her own cunning and shrewd strategy.

As for the heroes, after last week's elimination of the non-threatening Sugar, it was clear that the Heroes had yet to screw on their strategy hat. This week saw the tribes take sides, but it wasn't pretty.

The Heroes, although visibly a stronger tribe, lost yet another challenge due to a puzzle. This puzzle was so simple that a 1st grade student would have been able to accomplish it. It was simply stacking blocks that spelled "Heroes." Yet, for some reason the tribe was unable to complete the challenge.

Going into the challenge, the Heroes elected former winner JT as their leader, since he was the only player who had competed in this exact kind of challenge before. The plan was simple: just listen to JT for what to do and put the blocks in place as quickly as possible.

During the purely physical portion of the challenge, once again the Heroes dominated. That's not to say that the sick Boston Rob and the energizer bunny of challenges, Russell, were not to be commended on their efforts over on the Villains tribe. Of course, it was also funny to see Coach yell at Jerri and to see former winner Parvati get smacked in the face with the heavy block.

The Heroes, meanwhile did their best and got the blocks to the finish line first. They began working on their puzzle. Then Stephenie opened her mouth. Her incessant whine of "listen to me I'm amazing" tinged directions drowned out the leadership of JT. This was apparently too much for the gravedigging James to handle. He began screaming at Stephenie to shut her mouth.

Positively stunned that someone didn't absolutely adore her and worship her "competitor" status, Stephenie was unsure how to proceed.

Don't get me wrong, the first time Stephenie played she was fine--although over-rated. Her tribe lost every single challenge and she outlasted everyone to be the last standing member of her tribe. Her perseverance was commendable, however, she did make excuses for their losses and seemed to shrug any responsibility off of her own pre-dislocated shoulders. That was the first sign that Stephenie wasn't the "hero" she was advertised to be.

Once she merged with the other tribe, her oft-mentioned "competitive spirit" was gone. She stepped down willingly in a simple immunity challenge of endurance (standing on a pole) for a piece of pizza. She did so knowing full well that the chances were great that she would be voted out at tribal council and would be able to eat all the pizza she would like at loser lodge.

When she was brought back to compete in Guatemala, she was unbearable. Every statement that flew out of her mouth was drenched in self-adulation and an overwhelming sense of entitlement. How dare anyone consider voting her out? How dare anyone not pick her to join them for a reward? This led to her eventual loss to Danni in a 6-1 jury vote.

So, to see Stephenie leave this game early and demonstrate her true colors is not a surprise at all. James, however, came across like a crazy person. His point about Stephenie was right, and in many ways the tribe was right to cut her loose, but his execution was absolutely horrible. James alienated the tribe, demoralized the camp, and destroyed any hope of team unity in future challenges. Despite his obvious brawn, James marked himself for a pre-jury boot. His strength is a boon to his tribe, but his attitude and disruption will more than take away from any contribution he makes in strength.

Meanwhile, Tom and Colby continue to be shadows of their former selves in this game. Granted, they don't have many options before them, but they could have worked Cirie and Candace harder, especially given how close Candace and Colby seemed early on. Rupert meanwhile, seems almost poised to follow Stephenie down the road of entitlement and it is wearing thin on his fellow players. Hopefully he gets his feet (complete with broken toe) back on the ground and can begin playing like the old Rupert.

Cirie is playing her cards close to the vest, but by openly repeated several times that she's "not with James and Amanda" while also occasionally being "with Amanda and James" in terms of strategy and voting only reminds her fellow players that she is a cunning player who should not be allowed to get to the jury stage of the game.

Week two only further solidified that the Heroes are in serious trouble. A storm is brewing on Villain beach between Rob and Russell, but the Heroes have devolved into all-out anarchy. Can the heroes save the day this week and turn around their losing streak? That largely depends on how the fallout from the James-Stephenie smackdown plays out and if former immunity hogs Tom, Colby and Rupert can deliver on their challenge-winning potential.

SURVIVOR: A Broken Toe, A Dislocated Shoulder and the Rise of the Villains

2010-02-12T07:20:00.000-08:00

Survivor's 20th season began last night in the epic battle of good versus evil. The Heroes and Villains of previous seasons came to play. That much was obvious after the first challenge saw hero Rupert break his toe, hero Stephenie dislocate her shoulder, and hero Sugar have her top ripped off by villain Sandra.

The villains mean business.

As a fan of the show since the beginning, I've become quite adept at interpreting how things are going to go, and I have to say after one episode, I am already ready to call the game for the villains.

The fact that they were able to make fire on their own and the heroes struggled with fire even after winning the flint serves as a telling metaphor for the direction of this season.

That first challenge along, and the stunning come from behind victory told the tale that the villains are here to win, while the heroes are here to be nice people.

At the Villain's lair, Boston Rob pointed out how lazy his fellow player were in that they never wanted to do anything important like building shelters. That's because they are all so villainous that they are focused on which throat to cut first.

Jerri and Coach have a budding romance? Wow, you can't make this stuff up and the scenes of Jerri giggling and ogling the battle-ready yoga enthusiast and self-professed "dragon slayer" was hilarious.

Equally hilarious was Boston Rob and Sandra betting over Coach's climbing of the tree. Sandra remarked that Boston Rob was someone she could work with....until she had to cut his throat. The villains are here to play.

Russell, who has the advantage of being an unknown to the players, began to play the exact same game. (Heroes Vs. Villains was filmed in Samoa immediately after Russell's season. He didn't even come home in between. Therefore, the other players have no idea who Russell is because his season was airing on television as they were playing their game.) He offered final two plans to Danielle (again who is this girl?) and Parvati.

Let me say here and now that Russell will last very far into this game. I don't know that he will win, but don't make any plans to see him leave before the final weeks.

The narrative over at Heroes beach was quite different. Hero Rupert seemed a shadow of his former self after a failed challenge, a broken toe, and the inability to make fire even with flint. His failure to catch a fish also just showed that Rupert is off to a shaky start.

Tom seemed more sluggish as well than his glory days of Palau, however, he did lead the tribe in catching a plethora of chickens, reminiscent of his previous time out where he killed a shark for all to enjoy.

Colby, a decade older than he was in Australia showed that this game may prove to be more challenging for him as well when he was bested by Coach in the first challenge. Coach. As Tyson rightly observed, "Colby might as well become a woman now. He can't maintain his manhood after being bested by Coach."

Colby also had the unfortunate experience of having a Survivor stalker. During his days in Australia, he was stalked by Jerri as she canoodled with him and boasted of one of their shared reward day trips that it was like "a honeymoon." In Heroes Vs. Villains it is Sugar who is stalking Colby. Talking endlessly in the middle of the night to Colby, and following him around the shelter from spot to spot even moving his arms when he was "lying as if in a coffin" to try to snuggle with him, Sugar sealed her own fate. What little chance she had of not being voted off was eliminated when she began to sob at the first immunity challenge.

As Colby observed, "Sugar's having an emotional breakdown on day three, she obviously doesn't have the stuff to make it the entire time."

And as the heroes went to their first tribal council, it was Sugar who was sent packing.

Her elimination further underscored why the villains will take hold of this game. The villains are here to plot, scheme and win. The heroes are not. Cirie and Amanda rightly observed that strategically they needed to take out Stephenie to weaken Tom and break up that strategic twosome. They knew that Sugar was no threat to anyone and could be taken out later.

On the other side of the spectrum, Tom demonstrated why he won in Palau by rightly recognizing that Cirie needed to be taken out. Cirie offers little more in the physical department than Sugar, and she has been quite the master strategist and manipulator over her two previous entries in Survivor. Her close bond with both James and Amanda also set her up as someone to take out before the weak and weeping Sugar.

The difference between the heroes and villains is that the villains would have made the bold move of taking out Stephenie or Cirie instead of the safe "cease-fire" move of taking out the uselss and non-threatening Sugar.

If the heroes don't pick up their game, they are going to get stream-rolled by the gaggle of villains looking to "slay" a few "dragons."

Survivor is back people!

LOST's Final Season Begins...

2010-02-11T06:22:00.000-08:00

Alas poor Juliet.

Her death (again?) in the premiere of the sixth and final season of LOST was a sad moment and a great loss to the show. Juliet Burke as played by Elizabeth Mitchell was one of the best characters on the show and added a great deal of charm to the storyline. So effective was Mitchell's acting that what was supposed to be a minor detour of a storyline (Suliet--the Sawyer and Juliet relationship) turned into a major love story that permeates every aspect of season six. The combined acting of Josh Holloway and Elizabeth Mitchell in season 5 (particularly the emotionally charged finale scene) sold the viewers on their love story and set-up Sawyer and Juliet to be this season's Desmond and Penny (complete with a parallel scene of tossing an engagement ring into the water!)

The multiple timelines and the reports that Mitchell is heading back to Hawaii to film more LOST scenes this season seems to imply that perhaps just as Desmond and Penny had to find each other in the original timeline, Sawyer and Juliet will find each other in the new timeline.

Whatever the case, it appears that Kate and Sawyer are over, at least as of this week's episode. Of course, it also appears that Jack and Kate are over, so who knows.

Season six is clearly setting up to be a battle of good versus evil and a continuation of whether or not man has free will or is destined by fate, or as the Anglo-Saxons called it "wyrd" to do the same thing no matter how hard they try to change it.

The question for the viewer remains: who can we trust and who exactly is evil?

It appears that Jacob is good and the Man In Black/Smoke Monster/Fake Locke is evil. Of course, appearances can be deceiving on LOST. This week further elaborated on the idea of people being "infected" with some sort of evil. The last person that rambled incoherently about a "sickness" taking people was our late great Danielle Rousseau. That crazy French chick with all the traps and guns unfortunately met her demise at the end of season 4. However, through the time travel craziness of season 5, we were able to see her early time on the island. It turned out that Danielle wasn't so crazy after all. There really did appear to be some smoke monster induced sickness that took over her friends.

We now know that Fake Locke is the smoke monster. Of course, that was because he freaked out in the statue and turned into old smokey before killing Ilana's pals. As he turned back into John Locke to talk to Ben Linus (who was busy cowering in fear and perhaps peeing his pants about the whole thing) the fine acting duo of Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson delivered one of the best scenes of the series as Fake Locke apologizes to Ben that he "had to see him like that."

Ben then pointed out the obvious, "so you're the monster." To which Fake Locke deadpanned, "there's no need for name-calling."

Fake Locke is one scary dude. His evil/scary image set-up a beautiful contrast with the real John Locke, still wheelchair bound, arriving in LAX in the alternate timeline. His scene with Jack at the airport reminded us all of why we loved John Locke in the first place.

Personally, I don't trust the Temple "others." They just seem crazy to me. You have the John Lennon lookalike and the weirdo Asian leader man, who "doesn't like the way English tastes on his tongue." He tried to poison the newly resurrected Sayid this week because Sayid is "infected."

Even our boy Hurley is confused. Leave it up to Hurley to sum up what the audience is thinking with one of his funny quips. This week, still unsure of what to make about the newly resurrected Sayid, Hurley asked him: "Dude, are you a zombie?"

And that is the heart of the matter. Is the newly resurrected Sayid part of the evil force on the island? Is that smokey? Is the newly crazed Danielle version 2.0 version of our little sweet Claire also infected, or is she just nuts because she talked to her dead dad, was trapped on a time-traveling island, and came face to face with smokey?

In the coming weeks, the island survivors will be picking sides. Right now, nobody is really sure who to trust. It looks from the previews that Fake Locke is going to recruit the rage-filled Sawyer. (Which by the way, had some powerful scenes again this week as he and Kate shared a moment in Dharmaville to mourn over his lost love.) According to an interview with Terry O'Quinn, the actor who plays the challenging dual role of sweet faith-tinged Locke from the alternate timeline and evil scary smokey Locke in the original timeline, Locke will entice Sawyer to his side by promising something he wants.

What does Sawyer want more than anything at this point? It has to have something to do with Juliet. Sure, he wants revenge, but he feels that being stuck on the island is revenge enough and seems to have sworn off actually killing Jack. Perhaps fake Locke offers Sawyer a chance to be reunited with Juliet in some timeline, or perhaps he offers a chance to talk with her. What's to stop fake Locke from taking Juliet's shape as she is also dead on the island?

It's early, but I'm beginning to think that all of our losties will be dying in the original timeline. I believe that the timelines will merge at some point. They will most likely have to play their part in the island's epic battle and pay with their lives. The bomb may have started the re-set, but I think the actions they take on the island now are going to finish the transition from original timeline to the new one.

What do you think? Post comments and tell me your theories!

LOST February 2nd!

2010-01-17T06:02:00.000-08:00

Where will lost pick up? What to make of the alternate timeline? Does Juliet die?

These things and more will be answered in the premiere of LOST on February 2nd.

According to the producers, the show will pick up right where they left off with Juliet detonating the Jughead core. The first episode is also called LA X indicating that the good old flight 815 will land safely in Los Angeles instead of crashing on the island.

Of course, we know that things are not that simple. The raging debates thus far on Lost are between the idea of fate versus free will and whether or not one can change the past. For several seasons now, that has been a resounding no. It has largely been assumed and repeated to be "whatever happened happened." Season 3 saw Desmond's inability to save Charlie from the death that was stalking him no matter how he tried. Mrs. Hawking and Daniel Faraday have both been on record as saying that "whatever happened happened" and that changing the past was a no go.

That was until right before Daniel Faraday's death at the hands of his mother, Mrs. Hawking. Faraday urged Jack and company into a plan to detonate the Jughead core largely on the basis that they could change the past and thus the future. His new argument took into account the fact that the Losties were a "variable" in that while being in the past, they were still in their present and thus not bound by the "whatever happened happened" rule.

So now the question that season six will answer is whether or not you can change the past.

Juliet detonated the bomb. There are scenes of LAX and the Losties running around Los Angeles. All kinds of dead characters are coming back for the final season (Boone, Charlie, Charlotte, Faraday, Libby, Michael and perhaps some more). This seems to suggest that they at least were successful in creating an alternate timeline, if not directly changing the future outright.

What's to become of Juliet then? Well, according to the many spoilers, there will be a passionate kiss and very sad good-bye. That sure sounds like Juliet and Sawyer to me. The problem with that idea is that Elizabeth Mitchell has been traveling between Vancouver and Hawaii filming scenes for both "V" and "LOST." If Juliet dies in episode one, why is it reported that Mitchell may appear in six or more episodes this season?

Something's going on folks and I can't wait to see how it plays out!

Is John Locke really dead? Is Jacob? Is Jacob good or evil?

And let's not forget the glorious smoke monster. Surely he will claim some additional victims this season.

May Juliet live on and may LOST thrill us one last time!

SURVIVOR : Heroes Vs.Villains Cast (My take)

2010-01-09T07:50:00.000-08:00

As an avid fan of Survivor since season one, and an almost contestant of Survivor: Palau, I have to offer my take on the upcoming season. I am always interested in the all-star editions of Survivor. For a long time I have been hoping they would do an all-stars edition featuring all previous winners as a tournament of champions kind of thing. The heroes vs. villains edition, however, seems like an entertaining romp through reality goodness.

First, my sadness at some previous contestants not included:

Richard Hatch & Sue Hawk, Season 1 & All-Stars: Of course Richard was in jail so there isn't much they could do about that, and Sue Hawk sued them over getting rubbed by a naked Richard in the first All-Stars edition, so this isn't a surprise. It is just a loss to the fans that two of the greatest villains of the entire series will not be represented.

Tina Wesson, Season 2 & All-Stars: The sweet mom who won Survivor: Australian Outback prior to being the first gal voted out of the All-Stars edition was fun to watch. She's a great strategist and one of the nicest winners of the show to date. She will definitely be missed from the heroes tribe.

Ethan, Lex, Season 3 & All-Stars: Obviously Ethan, currently battling cancer, would be unable to participate, but I'm not sure why Lex was included in the parade of villains. His villainy from both Africa and All-Stars is famous. He would have been fun to watch.

Kathy O'Brien, Season 4 & All-Stars: Kathy was one of the best players in this game. Her All-Stars performance was not nearly as good because her emotions got the better of her. She would have been fun to watch for a third go round.

Rob Cesternino, Season 6 & All-Stars: Rob was one of the best players in this game period. He would have been a fun villain to give another shot at the glory that eluded him previously.

Johnny Fairplay: One of the best villains ever. Of course, he sort of quit in the Fans V Favs edition and methinks that is why they didn't ask him back this time around.

Yau Man, Survivor China & Fans Vs. Favs: Everyone loved Yau. He should be on the heroes tribe.

Taj, Survivor Gabon: Taj was a fun player and I think she could have been given a second shot at the game instead of giving Cirie a third shot.

Shambo, Survivor Samoa: She was asked back and turned them down. Still, she would have been "shambolicious" in this edition.

NOW on to the actual cast:

HEROES:

Colby: Excellent choice. He's a great guy and should be fun to watch. A definite must-have on the heroes tribe.

Rupert: You can't have a heroes and villains edition without Rupert, so glad he's back!

Candace: Seriously? Does anyone, and I mean ANYONE, really remember this chick? She's a forgettable nobody chosen only to help represent the later seasons and to have another young girl on the show. Very poor choice.

Tom: Great choice! It's exciting to see him come back, although I have a feeling he won't do nearly as well!

Sugar: She was entertaining the first time and sweet for the most part. Good choice.

Stephenie: Should have been a villain in my opinion. She was okay in Palau, but when she came back for Guatemala, she was an egomaniac that was constantly complaining and demanding that the other players give her everything because she was Stephenie. I understand why she was chosen, but I would have classified her as a villain.

Cirie: She's a decent choice. She was a good player and highly entertaining. Should be fun to watch again, although as with Tom, I have a feeling she isn't going to do nearly as well as the previous two attempts.

JT: Good choice. He fought hard and won. It will be nice to see the all-American boy return.

Amanda: Seriously? She was dull and uninteresting BOTH times that she played. She can't handle the jury and has no business returning for a third go round.

James: He was entertaining and is certainly a tough physical competitor. That said, he doesn't really have the fire necessary to win this thing and maybe his spot would have been better off in the hands of someone who did want to win.

VILLAINS:

Jerri: One of the most famous villains ever. If you have Colby, you should have Jerri. Good choice.

Russell: EXCELLENT CHOICE. YES!

Courtney: Well, she certainly was a villain. Not one of my favorites however. Personally wouldn't have chosen her.

Randy: Good choice. Crotchety and loserific. Perfect.

Coach & Tyson: The sidekicks of villainy should at least make us laugh for however long they last in this edition. Good choice, at least on the Coach part. Could take or leave Tyson.

Parvati: Twice was enough for this girl. Would have given her slot to someone else more interesting.

Boston Rob: Excellent choice! Freed of the baggage of Amber, he will be able to navigate the game on his own. HOWEVER, as good a player as Rob is, he has now played Survivor 3 times and Amazing Race twice. I think that might make him an early target.

Danielle: I remember her...barely. I remember who she is and how far she made it, but I can't remember a thing about her. She's just not that interesting and was a poor choice. There were much better selections to be made here.

Sandra: Perfect choice. Absolutely loved Sandra in Pearl Islands and was bummed that she wasn't in the first All-Stars (as with Shambo, they asked her and she said no). She was fun, and conniving and just might have the stuff to last well into the game if she can survive the first few tribal councils where decisions are largely based on physical strength to preserve the team.

Should be a fun and interesting season!

BIG BROTHER: Go Jordan!

2009-09-11T17:46:00.000-07:00

How great was it that Jordan trounced Natalie in part 2 of the HOH competition. Natalie will now spend the rest of her time in the house sucking up to Kevin and telling him that "her fate in this game is in his hands" over and over again while making excuses for her pathetic performance in yet another competition.

Natalie's abilities have been terrible. She lost every single competition that she participated in, save the one HOH that she won by a lucky guess in a tie-breaker question.

Despite being one of the "athletes" she has proved about as coordinated as a drunk and strong as tissue paper.

Her obnoxious eye rolling and robotic stilted speeches have not endeared her to the masses.

The reality is that she may even lose to both Kevin and Jordan should she make the final 2.

I'm still impressed by Jordan's victory in round 2 and hoping that she can pull off a miracle and win the final HOH!

Go Jordan!

BIG BROTHER: Seriously? Is this the final 3?

2009-09-10T14:26:00.000-07:00

So as the final three compete for the last HOH, it looks increasingly likely that the final 2 of Big Brother will be none other than Natalie and Kevin. How lame. I guess in that comparison I am rooting for Kevin. Of course, that is really only because Natalie is a complete loser who seems to need to read her every comment from a cue card. (Either that or she is seriously deranged the way her eyes bulge out of her head and dart to and fro as she attempts to say something witty.)

Sadly, Michelle was sent home, leaving Jordan as the only "good person" left. Kevin seems like an okay guy, but his association with those vile folks known as Lydia, Jesse, Chima and Natalie tells me that he can't be all good.

Sadly, Jordan will not win the HOH. She's dumb as a post and not very coordinated. As a result, the only hope of Jordan seeing the final 2 is if one of the other dolts sees fit the backstab their ally in favor of the lesser-liked Jordan.

You win some, you lose some. We lost some on Big Brother 11. It was a good season, but it looks like it is going to be a terrible ending.

BIG BROTHER: Russell is Gone but at What Price?

2009-08-28T09:52:00.001-07:00

So Jeff and Jordan got rid of Russell. And surprisingly, the usually unstable Hulk left gracefully with a smile and a hug for all.

HOWEVER, this victory will be short lived. Russell was a short-term threat to Jeff and Jordan, but he was not a long-term one.

His comments with Julie indicate that he was planning on going to the final 4 with Jordan, Jeff and Michelle. That would have ensured that Jeff and Jordan controlled 50% of the house.

Now, however, with the lying snakes Kevin and Natalie still around and still together, they face much steeper odds.

SPOILER (Stop reading if you don't want to know about something from this Sunday's episode)

The winner of this week's HOH is

Kevin. As a result, Kevin will nominate probably Michelle and Jordan with an eye on back-dooring Jeff. No matter how the cookie crumbles, we know that Natalie isn't going up. So one of the Jeff/Jordan duo is going home.

Natalie will most likely vote for Jeff/Jordan while Jeff/Jordan will vote for Michelle.

After that, Kevin will have to break the tie. Seeing that Jeff and Jordan are a bigger threat to him in the game, he will most likely toss out whichever unlucky member of Jeff/Jordan is remaining on the block.

SO, although Jeff and Jordan got rid of Russell, they opened the door for Kevin and Natalie to win this game.

Their best option at this point is to convince Michelle to stick it out with whatever one of them survives this week as Natalie and Kevin will have a jury full of BFFs and Michelle would certainly lose to either of them.

They also have to simultaneously go to Kevin and Natalie and push to take out Michelle to try to convince them to "keep their word" about a final four deal.

Kevin and Natalie are in a strong position to win this game right now.

It's also funny that Natalie struts around the house acting all big and tough and often talks of herself being a "competitor" when she is literally the only person in the house that has still won absolutely nothing.

Michelle, although a socially awkward nerd, has won several competitions. Ditto Jeff. Ditto ditzy Jordan.

Even weak and physically useless Kevin has won challenges.

Big bad Scrappy, however, has won nothing. Oooh, what a competitor!

BIG BROTHER: Jeff's Mistake

2009-08-26T06:17:00.000-07:00

So last night, Jeff and Jordan got into some fights. They weren't the cute and cuddly couple that we are used to!

However, Jeff continued his winning streak by narrowly beating out Michelle to win the power of veto. Jeff and Jordan then conspired to "back door" Russell by vetoing one of the nominees.

Natalie and Kevin promised them they wouldn't come after them if they saved them. They also promised a final four alliance with them. Jeff and Jordan trusted them more than the ever-wavering Russell.

Now, it's true that they shouldn't have trusted Russell. He freaks out any time he doesn't get his way and shows himself to be a true mental case. He also lies to everyone and then gets made when they catch him in said lies.

He's also the physical equivalent of the Incredible Hulk.

So, getting rid of him is not exactly wrong, but it might just be Jeff's first big mistake of the game.

With Russell gone, the house will have two duos (Jeff & Jordan vs. Natalie & Kevin) and one floated in Michelle. Michelle, after having her alliance partner backstabbed by Jeff and Jordan and not even being let in on the secret, will have a hard time trusting and wanting to stick with Jeff and Jordan. Jeff and Jordan seem to have bought the lie from Natalie and Kevin, so it looks like they might not even attempt to keep her on board.

As a result, the new alliance in the house will likely be Jeff & Jordan vs. Kevin, Natalie & Michelle, thus virtually ensuring that either Jeff or Jordan will go home this week.

Unless Jeff and Jordan come to their senses and give Michelle all the assurances in the world, they may have just lost this game.

In addition to the fact that one of them might leave this week, if the remaining player survives until the end, they are certainly not going to win against Natalie or Kevin with all of their friends on the jury. They need to go against Michelle in order to win.

They should use that leverage in winning Michelle back over to their side as well. She also would not win against Natalie and Kevin.

So, in that respect, Jeff and Jordan's move to cut out Russell early may be their downfall. They may have just created a playing field that is stacked against them and given themselves opponents who they cannot beat in a final jury vote.

Hopefully I'm wrong. I don't wish to see Scrappy win anything, and as Kevin said "Natalie and I have gotten this far by winning absolutely nothing!"

BIG BROTHER: House full of crazies

2009-08-21T06:32:00.000-07:00

So this season seems to have even more unstable whack jobs than ever! First of all, we had Chima leaving the show because there was a twist in the game that sent muscle man Jessie home and Lydia, Natalie and Chima into hysterics.

The ladies lashed out like pre-school children over the "unfair" nature of the twist. Perhaps none of them own televisions, or perhaps they just didn't like reality television before becoming stars on a reality show, but the fact is that Big Brother has had a twist every season pretty much. I haven't even watched every season and I know that much.

Chima's infantile temper tantrum led her to toss her mic into a pool and refuse to put another one on. She cursed, she lashed out, she acted every bit of the immature narcissist that everyone thought her to be. Soon, BB had to evict her.

With Chima gone, Lydia saw an opening and went completely nuts. She cried, she slurred her words, she screamed and cursed at her fellow contestants. Their crime? Playing the game to win. They should have rolled over and died for her alliance. Don't they know that they were supposed to win?

Lydia is now gone, and we can only hope that Natalie will follow next. Of course, I wouldn't be too upset if the unhinged and untrustworthy Russell were taken out yet too.

Jordan and Jeff are wonderful. Not the brightest folks in the world, but nice good people. I hope one of them wins. In fact, it was for this reason that America voted for Jeff to have the power. All Chima, Lydia, Jessie, Natalie, et al had to do to win the power was to be likable. None of them managed to do that. So, America sided with the people they identify as the heroes of the house.

We can only hope that the way has been paved for Jeff and Jordan to make the finals.

Juliet Back on LOST Because of the Fans!

2009-07-28T17:54:00.000-07:00

It was reported this week from Comic Con that Juliet Burke (played by Elizabeth Mitchell) will indeed be returning to LOST for the final season.

Many thought she was done due to the whole falling-down-a-pit-and-detonating-a-nuclear-bomb thing. Perhaps Jacob has other plans for her.

From the comments offered by Elizabeth Mitchell so far, it seems like the plan was that Juliet would be done, but due to the massive fan response to her storyline this season with Sawyer, some plans were changed.

She mentioned that she would be "doing as many episodes as I was before" on LOST. We know that she isn't going to be a series regular, but could it really be that Juliet would appear in most episodes this season? Most people think Juliet will appear in about 2 episodes.

Based on the comments made this week, and the promise from Ausiello that we should expect more announcements from Elizabeth Mitchell in the near future about her status, I'm thinking that she will appear in a significant number of episodes.

At least, I'm hoping she does. And with other dead characters from Charlie to Boone to Shannon, etc rumored to be returning, we can only assume that Juliet's detonation of jughead did in fact re-start something. Call it an alternative timeline, or maybe a total re-boot. Whatever. It seems like this season of LOST will be a wild ride tjhat will bring the series full circle.

LOST FINALE: Please Let Juliet Live!

2009-05-15T19:31:00.001-07:00

Lost's season five finale was a mixture of crazy and sad moments that left fans' heads spinning. We have to wait how long until next season?

First, the beginning of the Jacob story has begun to put some flesh on the bones of this mysterious character that we have been wondering about for years. Many commentators and bloggers far smarter than I have been debating many theories about the identity of Jacob and his seemingly evil nemesis. Jacob and Esau from the Bible? God and Satan? Egyptian gods? Strong parallels can be made for all of those examples and then some. That reveals the depth of the Lost writing. They intertwine all kinds of mythology, religion and literary elements to craft a deep and meaningful storyline and endearing fully fleshed out characters. Of course, as the seemingly ageless and powerful Jacob visited the various characters throughout their lives, made us question who this creep was and what he wanted with our beloved characters. There were indeed moments that one felt as if they were high as they tried to make sense of some of the craziness.

We did get resolution on Bernard and Rose. Chilling in the jungle in "retirement" I suspect that will probably be the last that we see of them until it is revealed that those skeletons in the cave are in fact their remains.

We also saw that our kind-hearted adventure-seeker John Locke is in fact dead. Sadly, our naive man was suckered one too many times and his death by the hands of Benjamin Linus was real. I knew that Locke had been creeping me out the last few weeks, now I know why!

Then, of course, there was the incident. During the episode there just seemed to be a feeling of something bad lurking for Juliet. Most of it centered on her relationship with Sawyer and his schoolboy infatuation with Kate. A cloud of overwhelming sadness seemed to engulf poor Juliet in this episode with each passing moment.

Then the incident happened. Magically, only Juliet was wrapped in chains and sucked down into the pit of death. In one of the most moving scenes in the entire series thus far, we got to see the depth of the Sawyer and Juliet relationship as Sawyer desperately tried to save her life and she said good-bye in order to save his. Thus, like the Shakespearean character she's named after, she gave up her life for her love. This scene, however, may have also been the kiss of death for the Sawyer/Kate relationship.

I'm not sure what the writers plan was when they put Juliet and Sawyer together. They probably weren't sure themselves as to how that would play with audiences who were accustomed to seeing Sawyer and Kate in their on-again off-again dysfunction junction. From just reading around the web, it appears that this relationship connected with a vast majority of viewers and this ending scene only further cemented that. As a result, what was probably intended to be the certain death of Juliet Burke ended up being an open-ended cliffhanger. I'm sure team Darlton, who reads commentary on the web with fervor, is looking at the massive calls for Juliet to live and re-thinking their endgame.

Now, a couple of things about Juliet's "death." First of all, it makes me laugh the number of people who find it "unbelievable" that she survived the fall. Really? Have you been watching the same show for the past four years? Locke was cured from paralysis. Rose was cured of terminal cancer. Locke was shot in the chest and lived to tell about it without any medical attention. Locke survived a fall from several stories up. Michael attempted to kill himself multiple times without success. Jin survived an exploding freighter when he was clearly still standing on the deck. So in light of all that, it's unbelievable that Juliet could survive a fall?

This show is about destiny. If destiny isn't done with you, then you don't die. You do what you were meant to do. Juliet obviously survived the fall for a reason. Therefore, it is highly likely that she did detonate the bomb. What other reason was there for her to survive.

If she did detonate the hydrogen bomb, then all of the folks standing right above her: Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Marvin Candle, Miles, Hurley, Jin, and Sayid would all be dead as well. Please don't tell me that that would survive that blast.

That could explain Richard watching them all die.

Now, if this did in fact change the future even in the slightest way, logic would suggest that Juliet would survive just like all the others if they are all transported to another time. Sure, she would be injured, but Jack could certainly tend to her wounds. Even the ending logo in reverse color scheme seemed to suggest the start of something new. A new ending...a new future. Maybe not completely new, but different enough to declare that all bets are off.

One theory is that the only reason the others survive the blast is because they were touched by Jacob and Juliet wasn't (at least not that we have seen.) If that is the case, then I sure hope Miles died in the blast as well, as he wasn't touched either.

Also, when Juliet awoke with a start, who is to say that Jacob didn't touch her at some point in her life, or even down there at the bottom of the hole similar to Locke's tumble from the skyscraper.

In reality, the vagueness of the scene was probably meant to give the writers an out either way. Elizabeth Mitchell is signed to star in that remake of the 80s show "V" where random people rip their faces off to reveal a lizard interior. If, however, Juliet were to survive, and if things were re-set to some degree, Juliet could survive and return next year but only be featured in a handful of episodes as she was not an 815 passenger.

Consider this my plea for Juliet Burke to survive her brush with destiny. Her story isn't over. There was no closure with her sister, and we never really had that mark on her back explained. Additionally, the final scenes between Juliet and Sawyer ruined any hopes the writers had of the audience buying back into Kate and Sawyer.

Give the fans what they want and keep Juliet Burke alive. The Juliet and Sawyer dynamic did much to grow both characters and can still contribute a lot to the final season. There is also always the backup plan of Kate and Jack getting back together. Let this Juliet have the happy ending that was denied her predecessor.

Biggest Loser: Good For Them!

2009-05-06T14:30:00.000-07:00

Biggest Loser was inspiring last night. All 4 remaining players took part in a marathon. That's right, 26.2 miles.

Even Ron, with his bad knee finished all 26 miles. It was quite an inspiring thing to see the 4 of them accomplish.

It was also nice to see some former contestants back to cheer them on. It's sad that so many former contestants can't be used because they gained some/all of their weight back. I think maybe Biggest Loser should due an edition where those folks who fell off the wagon get some more face time with Bob and Jillian.

Anyway, with father and son Ron and Mike below the yellow line, I think it is safe to say America will choose Mike to go to the final 3 with Tara and Helen.

Sadly, my Kristen will not be in the finals, but maybe she can win the at home prize.

It appears that this contest is Tara's to lose. She's won just about everything. When she isn't being annoying by telling us every single week how she just gained confidence in herself for the first time, she is actually quite impressive.

She deserves the victory. Helen has also done extraordinarily well for a woman her age. Mike still could steal this thing from the ladies if he loses a lot more since they are both tiny already, but he didn't fare nearly as well as they did during the 1 month at home portion of the contest.

Biggest Loser continues to be an inspiring and wonderful reality show. Go Jillian & Bob!

Could Lost Really Be Killing A Bunch of Folks Off?

2009-05-05T16:28:00.000-07:00

I have to admit it, I have been loving LOST season 5. I have also been worried about my favorite castaways as rumors about an upcoming death have been swirling in the media.

Lost's writing is such that the characters are so layered and so well developed that one can't help but become enchanted with them. While it seems like many of our folks will likely not have the happy ending that I wish for my television friends, I do hope that some of my absolute favorites will come out smiling.

For most of the season, I have been worrying about plucky Dr. Juliet Burke played brilliantly by Elizabeth Mitchell. Juliet has been a favorite of mine since she debuted on the show in season 3. Reports that Elizabeth Mitchell had signed to star in the 80s sci-fi classic "V" remake made it appear that Dr. Burke would be joining Boone and Charlie in the island in the sky.

Since then, however, reports seem to suggest that Juliet might be safer than we originally thought. With Faraday's death this week, one of the 2 promised deaths has arrived. The other one is supposed to go down in the finale. Who will it be?

Speculation centers on Juliet, Sawyer, and even Hurley. We are promised that this will be an emotional and powerful death.

What the heck! It better not be Juliet, Sawyer or Hurley. Kate can kick the bucket. Even Jack if you must.

Also, please leave Juliet and Sawyer together. Kate is nothing but trouble.

Anyway, so you can imagine my horror when I watch a clip from tomorrow night's episode in which Richard Alpert tells Sun (in the present day) that he did know Kate, Jack and Hurley back in 1977 and that he distinctly remembers it because he "watched them all die."

Okay, seriously. You can't really kill them all off? Can you? Whatever the case, I know I will be glued to the television the next two Wednesdays!

Survivor Tocantins: Coach Is Nuts & Defending Sierra

2009-05-01T15:50:00.000-07:00

This season of Survivor has been very enjoyable. First things first.

This week's boot, Sierra, didn't deserve to go. I have no idea why the dynamic duo of Stephen and JT chose to take her out. Her actions proved her character and loyalty in calling out Coach and Debbie for their deception and lying. She refused to join their axis of evil. Had she done so and Stephen or JT would have joined the jury.

I don't get the animosity towards Sierra. Sure she was sick in the beginning, but that is nothing to lash out about. She seemed to keep to herself a bit, but again nothing to warrant the wrath that she continually faced from Coach, Tyson, Debbie et al.

I don't know if there was something they weren't showing, but man, she didn't deserve to be treated the way she was and she certainly didn't deserve to be voted out for telling the truth.

In reality, she wasn't a threat to JT, Stephen and Taj. She was a lone wolf that the challenge revealed was not very popular. She was actually an ideal candidate to take to the final 2. I'm not sure why they threw their vote away this week.

Debbie should have gone. That would have weakened and embarrassed Coach further and solidified the power that Stephen, JT and Taj have over the game. Now the 46 year old snake in the grass will re-coil and plot and scheme with the "dragon slayer."

Are we sure the producers didn't help Coach win immunity? How in the heck did that happen? The man is completely nuts. He is a pathological liar and a man with an ego the size of Texas. I can't wait to see him discuss his delusions about himself in the live reunion show. That should be a blast.

Hopefully the famed dragon slayer will meet his demise this week. If not Captain CrazyPants will get one step closer to the finals.

Erinn is also a wild card. After being a marked woman for much of the season, she is now laying low and off the radar screen. Her actions may well determine who gets to the finals.

Taj also needs to clutch that immunity idol close and perhaps use it to get rid of Coach or Debbie if she has to. Her alliance with JT and Stephen seems solid, but they have backstabbed just about everyone else out there. If she flies too low under the radar, they might just realize that they would fare better with Coach in front of the jury.

Watch your back, TAJ!

Good casting job and good strategy brewing in Survivor Tocantins! This has been a great season so far! The best is yet to come with the fall of the Dragon Slayer and his prophetess of deception, Debbie.

24 Better Not Kill Off Aaron Pierce!

2009-03-09T15:32:00.000-07:00

Word on the beat is that 24 will be killing off "a long-running" and "beloved" character tonight. That so better not be Aaron Pierce. Sure, I like Bill Buchanan, but if I have to choose one of them to bite the bullet, I am sending Bill to the wolves.

Aaron Pierce has been an enjoyable part of the show since season 1. He is the only character besides Jack Bauer who has appeared in all 7 seasons. An effort must be made to save his life!

We have already had to suffer the deaths of David Palmer and Michelle Dessler. We shouldn't be asked to suffer through the loss of beloved Secret Service Agent Aaron Pierce.

This season of 24 is a massive improvement on the steaming pile of crap served up in season 6, however, it is hard not to notice all of the repeats in this season as well. Consider:

A high-level government corruption causes Jack to act outside of the government (see also Seasons 1, 2, 5 & 6)

The president was at odds with her entire cabinet (see also Season 2)

The bad guys get into the White House via some secret below ground tunnel (see also the secret below ground tunnel that the Chinese used to access CTU during season 6)

The President is in danger of being killed (see also the assassinations of President Palmer (season 5), President Keeler (season 4), and Wayne Palmer (season 6...okay he might still be alive, but he's probably brain dead) and the attempted assassination of President Logan (season 6)

The First Gentleman is crazy (see also First Lady Martha Logan from season 5)

You get the idea. The writers need to do something new. Now is a good time to do so with the promised return of Kim Bauer looming on the horizon. We certainly can't be expected to watch her be kidnapped, attacked by cougars, trapped in a convenience store robbing and drug deal, imprisoned by a mountain man in the woods, etc.

May Aaron Pierce live to fight another day.

Survivor Gabon Finale Crowns The Right Winner

2008-12-15T16:24:00.000-08:00

Bob deserved the victory last night on Survivor: Gabon's finale. The thing I can't understand is how in the world did Susie score 3 jury votes?

Susie's accomplishments: 2 immunity challenges and avoiding being voted out.

Sugar's accomplishments: Found hidden immunity idol and never had to use it. Was the swing vote that turned the tide on several tribal council votes and changed the dynamics of the game. People hated her and were gunning for her yet never voted against her.

Bob's accomplishments: A billion immunity victories and several very real looking fake idols (which saved him in the game). Decent sense of strategy.

So, if you weren't going to vote for Bob for some reason, I could see voting for Sugar, but for Susie? She's a nice enough lady, but she really didn't have a case to make. Thse jury members who voted for her were most likely doing so out of their own immature need to get back at the people who outwitted, outlasted and outsplayed them (Sugar and Bob).

Sugar deserved better than the treatment she got from the jury. Especially from Corrine. I love dry humor and biting sarcasm as much as the next guy, but she stepped over a line when she made fun of Sugar's dead father. Sugar seems like a nice enough girl. She played well for someone playing from their heart and not their head and she certainly kept the game interesting right until the very end.

Susie played with neither her heart nor her head. She not only didn't deserve to win, but in my humble opinion, she didn't even deserve a spot in the finals. And I speak as one who still believes that Tina Wesson from Survivor: The Australian Outback was perhaps the best player of this game ever. You don't have to dominate the challenges to deserve the victory, but you need to have some sort of active role in the game. Susie was MIA on both fronts for most of the game.

Bob still deserved the victory and it was right that he should be crowned the winner of Survivor: Gabon. I don't, however, appreciate him trying to steal my thunder about using Survivor in the classroom. I have been having my students play Survivor in my class for years.

Mark Burnett, you really need to just cast me already!

The Evil Vicky on Biggest Loser Must Not Win!

2008-11-28T09:22:00.001-08:00

Seriously, the woman is not nice! She didn't want to compete in a challenge that would win her a message from home despite having 2 small kids at home. She has been vindictive and nasty throughout the whole game.

She's just not nice! Biggest Loser usually doesn't generate a lot of villains. The people on the show are generally trying to make their lives better and as such generally like everyone.

Not with Vicky. You know it's bad when your own trainer (Bob) trashes you in interviews week after week.

Amy was voted out this week because of her stupid move to save Vicky the week before. I really like Amy and was rooting for her, but as soon as she made that move it was obvious to me that she had lost the game. You can't keep someone in the game that has referred to you as a backstabbing "b" over and over again and posted signs and made threats referring to revenge all week long.

Michelle and Renee are all that stands between total world domination by the evil trio of Vicky the Wicked, Heba the Haughty and Ed the Dope. Hopefully the mother and daughter can win the finals and send the witch and her flying monkeys back where they belong--under a house that falls out of the sky!

Jack Bauer is Back! The 24 Movie Shows Some Signs of Life

2008-11-28T09:00:00.000-08:00

So, to recap. When last we saw Jack Bauer:

His brother AND father had been involved in the plans to kill his friends President Palmer, Tony Almeida and Michelle Dessler.

He was having some sort of emotional affair with his sister-in-law.

Martha Logan went completely insane and stabbed her ex-husband.

D.B. Woodside was such a bad actor in the role of President that Wayne Palmer was blown up and yet another somewhat evil VP took over.

Audrey was in a catatonic state after some sort of torture by the Chinese.

And every single plot twist or storyline was a re-tread from a previous season.

By the end of season six, many of us were ready to say good-bye to 24 forever.

The 24:Redemption Movie, however, showed some signs of life.

Sure there will be moles, betrayals, and evil government officials. Sure, Jack and the gang will be breaking laws to save the country again. There does, seem to be a chance that it might be on the right track.

Consider: Season 5 largely succeeded despite the vacuum created by the deaths of Tony, Michelle and Palmer because of the wacky Logans and the wonderful actors who portrayed them.

Cherry Jones and Jon Voight add an element of acting prowess to the cast and could keep the season interesting.

Then there is the resurrection of Tony Almeida. Hopefully, he's not really evil, but who knows. At least seeing him again will be an improvement. Dare we hope that the reason he's evil is because Michelle is also secretly alive and being held captive somewhere?

The movie showed signs of life with the new president and with Jack's situation. A new setting in D.C. could do wonders for Bauer. The script for the movie also didn't go crazy with wacko plot twists. Let's hope the season follows through on that. Whatever the case, I am prepared to give 24 one more shot!

REIKO AYLESWORTH JOINS LOST!

2008-11-12T13:38:00.000-08:00

Good news 24 fans! Our beloved Michelle Dessler (Reiko Aylesworth) will be joining the cast of "Lost" this season. Reiko will be playing an "important" recurring role on the drama. I am hoping that becomes a series regular part for the remaining 2 seasons of the show.

Aylesworth was a fan favorite on 24 during seasons 2-4 of 24. Her character Michelle seemingly rode off into the sunset for a happy ending with her television husband Tony (Carlos Bernard) at the end of season 4. Unfortunately, the writers decided to bring them back in season 5 for the sole purpose of killing them off and Michelle was blown away within the first 15 minutes (a horrible waste of her character!) We have since learned that Tony somehow survived and is now evil. It doesn't look like the producers are going to bring Michelle back from the dead with him unless this is the best kept secret in television history.

Which brings me to another point. So many great actors have become unemployed after their character was killed off on 24. So please, give television jobs to the following wonderful people:

Penny Johnson Jerald (Sherry Palmer)
Greg Itzin (President Logan)
Sarah Clarke (Nina Myers)
Jude Cicelella (Mike Novick...currently guest starring on "Prison Break")
Glenn Morshower (Aaron Pierce)
Michelle Forbes (Lynn Kresge)

SURVIVOR GABON & AMAZING RACE 13: Good-bye to the fun old people!

2008-09-29T06:40:00.000-07:00

Survivor Gabon began with 2 episodes packaged together as one. We certainly had some entertaining moments! Gillian encouraging her tribemates to not just look at elephant poop, but to eat something from the poop was just classic reality television! Michelle (the first boot) was useless and miserable and that saved the granny elephant poop lover for another 3 days. Unfortunately for Gillian, her tribe can't seem to win a single thing, for several reasons. First, they have GC who likes to take naps in the middle of challenges. GC is the guy who got cornered into being a leader who then used the faux scandal of Gillian politely asking if they could keep down the noise in the middle of the night so that some of them could actually sleep to proclaim that "ain't nobody gonna tell me what to do," and promptly quit being the leader. They also have a former olympic gold medalist in track who is one of the slowest and weakest people on the tribe somehow. Then there is the deranged videographer who stabbed himself in the head. He sounds like he's a joy to be around. Oh, and also they have that awkward kid who likes video games. Apparently, thumb dexterity and the ability to sit motionless staring at something for hours doesn't help in Survivor.

The other (triumphant) tribe has that old guy with the bowtie. I like him. He seems fun, but he needs to eat a sandwich or something. The tribes seem very uneven. Of course, I don't think I'd be able to concentrate on the game what with all of the hippos and elephants charging around their camps. Let's hope that the misfit tribe of "FANG" is able to pull it together next week.

AMAZING RACE 13: Okay, so the old hippie bee keepers are gone. Pity, I had such fun the last time there were hippies on this show. I think they could have been really entertaining.

The one couple that might steal the show is (I'm forgetting names) the guy who only does things that are "fun" and his serious girlfriend. Let's see, he asked her to stop outrunning him, because she kept "lapping him." He complained that she was actually interacting with the other teams when he wanted her to "hold" him and "connect with" him. Later, he stirred her into a frenzy when he pointed out that her attempts at conversation with Starr and Ryan were falling on deaf ears. They are then seen proclaiming their "hatred" of them because of being ignored. Can you say pyscho?

All in all, both veteran shows are off to a great start!

BIGGEST LOSER IS BACK!

2008-09-21T18:33:00.000-07:00

Okay, first of all, who knew that fat hung off of your lungs and heart like that? I certainly didn't and it kind of freaked me out. I had sort of resigned myself to the fact that there was fat around my midsection, but I had no idea that fat went elsewhere!

Some initial thoughts:

Why did they let that police officer on? If he is too sick to compete, don't you think they should have just given him a referral for gastric bypass?

Jillian is trying to be meaner again. I still say I would want to train with her over Bob. He's always doing that new-age yoga crap. She at least scares the poop out of her people and makes them work harder. I didn't get to the weight that I'm at because I think it's cool. I'd need someone to scare the poop out of me.

My wife knew immediately that Adam and Stacey were getting the boot. I did not. It was unsettling that my wife could predict something on reality television that I could not. I need to work harder this week on Survivor:Gabon.

My wife also chose to like the husband and wife with the autistic child (Phillip & Amy) That is usually the kiss of death on reality television. She often proclaims her love and support for the stay at home moms on Amazing Race only to have them eliminated in leg one. We'll see if they can break the curse.

It's too early to really tell anything about the outcome of the game yet, but it should be another heartwarming and interesting season!

WHY I AM HAPPY THAT DAN WON BIG BROTHER

2008-09-21T18:29:00.000-07:00

Dan did well.

He plotted, he schemed, he won challenges when he needed to and hid in the background when he had to. He formed relationships with people to protect himself and to secure votes on the jury. He did do some strategic moves that involved backstabbing, but he never did so in a personal way. Even when Jerry called him "Judas" and insulted his faith.

Dan also deserved to win over Memphis, who played a largely coattail riding, under the radar kind of game. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that kind of game, but it usually doesn't earn you the respect of the jury and this was the case with Memphis. His other issue with the jury was that he didn't make those relationships with the jury and with the precious few people that he did, he backstabbed them.

The jury was right to give the money to Dan. He had fun, and he wasn't nasty about how he played the game. The right person (since Renny was voted out!) won Big Brother 10. Good job jury!

PRISON BREAK EPISODE 2 & SARAH CONNOR PREMIERE: " TERRIBLE ACTING GONE WILD!"

2008-09-09T15:50:00.000-07:00

TERMINATOR: SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES

First, let's get to the Sarah Connor premiere. It was good, it wasn't great. I love the mythology of the show and the characters. Overall, the episode was solid, but there was on thing that lost me. Shirley Manson. She can't act. She comes across like an understudy who just found out 30 minutes ago that they were going on stage. Her performance was stiff and uninteresting. Of course, it turns out she was playing a robot, but still, it was just a little dry and stilted. Her big reveal scene as a terminator was also somewhat problematic as it basically re-created a scene from Terminator 2. Yes, yes, we've seen the liquid metal terminators turn their hands into knives to stab someone through the head. It's really not as shocking or even interesting the second time around. I'm also still getting used to Sarah Connor NOT being Linda Hamilton. I feel like they still need to toughen her up a bit. Sarah Connor in T2 was tough and frankly a little scary. This Sarah Connor is a little softer, which is probably on purpose, but I prefer the tougher version.

PRISON BREAK:

I'm really into this season of Prison Break. I think it was a smart choice for them to take the show in this direction. It's fun and exciting and brings all of our good friends together. There is one problem. Bad acting.

Michael Rapaport, best known to me as Phoebe Buffay's boyfriend in Friends is just such a terrible actor. He delivers his lines as though he's auditioning for some ghastly junior high theater production. He's stilted, he's monotone, he's not convincing at all, and he's being eaten up by all of the decent actors around him. His limited skills worked on a sitcom where he played a one-dimensional character, but he lacks the skill set to carry a drama or infuse any sense of urgency into the suspense of the story.

I'm also having trouble buying Dr. Bailey's husband as a company assasin. He's okay, but he just seems too soft for me for the role. Other than these two though the show was full of gems. T-Bag continues to entertain, as does the newly rejuvenated Bellick. I found him tiresome during Season 3's storyline and was ready for the writers to kill him off, but now I am finding his comic relief enjoyable. Oh, and Agent Mahone has become likeable.

The best line of the night, however, once again belongs to Dr. Sara Tancredi. When faced with long odds and Michael's confidence wavering, a calm Dr. Tancredi deadpanned that they could do the impossible because she "came back from the dead." A wink and a nod to fans of the show who witnessed her nasty beheading last season. It's always good when a show doesn't take itself too seriously!

PRISON BREAK SEASON PREMIERE THOUGHTS

2008-09-07T14:38:00.000-07:00

So Prison Break has been re-booted! The season 4 opener was a good episode. Here are the highlights:

1. Dr. Sara. Tancredi. Sure, she's a little bit crazy smashing bottles and freaking out every ten seconds, but she's alive.

2. "What's wrong did you eat some bad Mexican?" the man says to T-Bag. "Something like that," says T-Bag.

3. Brad Bellick and his mom picking him up!

4. That computer geek sidekick should be funny.

5. There is hope on the horizon that at some point Michael and Sarah will have a normal life after they take down this company! The stakes are high again with that new Company assasin chasing them around.

6. Michael and Sara's dialogue about him having to get divorced from his Russian stripper wife was priceless.

The Bad stuff:

1. Okay, so if the company is trying to kill them, how come LJ and Sofia are just wandering around in Panama. I understand that maybe they aren't going to be main characters, but there should have been a throwaway line of dialogue to reference that they were in hiding somewhere. Lincoln's past behavior of abandoning all common sense where his child is concerned would not permit him to just take off and leave him in Panama unprotected.

2. It's good, but it still isn't the same magic as the first season when they were in prison.

All in all, a good start to a new season!

BYE RENNY DAWLING!

2008-09-07T14:32:00.000-07:00

Renny has left the Big Brother house. All the fun and excitement are gone. She made us laugh and cheer for her, but the geezer Marine won that pesky HOH competition and the beloved New Orleans socialite is gone. Look for Jerry to fight hard this week to stay in the house. At this point, I'd like Keesha or Dan to win the whole thing. With Dan as head of household, look for him to nominate Jerry for sure. His second pick will most likely be Keesha. He and Memphis should be safe this week unless someone can win the power of veto. Once again it will all come down to the power of veto! With Keesha getting wise to the schemes of the "Renegades" this could spell trouble for Memphis. She may just surprise the house and take out Memphis if she's the power of veto holder (and Jerry will definitely take out Memphis!)

It's been a fun summer with the houseguests, but it's almost time for Survivor: Gabon to begin! Let the games begin!

BIG BROTHER 10: RATING THE PLAYERS

2008-08-22T06:56:00.001-07:00

BB10 is getting to the finish line. With only 7 people remaining and 2 scheduled to be evicted this week alone, we are closing in on our final group of houseguests. Here are some thoughts about the remaining players. Oh by the way, how great is is that April is finally gone? I mean, she did manage to tell us that she's prettier than everyone, she's smarter than everyone and with a straight face told Ollie that she didn't deserve to be on the block because she didn't do anything but wash dishes and bake. (Um, you turned on your entire alliance in favor of psycho muscle man Jessie!)

So here are the remaining players:

THE ONES I LIKE:

DAN: Dan's voice is annoying. He sounds like the Will Ferrell SNL character that is constantly shouting because he can't control the modulation of his voice. Aside from that, he seems smart, funny, and is playing well. He understands the game and manipulation quite well. The problem I see is allowing himself to always be the swing vote may make him a target sooner than he thinks.

RENNY: I love Renny. She's funny and wacky and yet likeable. She messed up a little this week with her nominations. They alienated her from Keesha, Memphis and Dan a bit. She needs to pick sides and go with it. She's right to be suspicious of Memphis, but now isn't the time to target him. She could very easily sneak into the final 4, but without a more firm alliance, they probably won't let her in the final 2.

KEESHA: Keesha is also sometimes annoying to me, but I like her more now. She's a little too emotional and explosive for her own good. She could go very far if she tames those outbursts and sticks with Dan, Renny, and Memphis.

THE IN BETWEEN:

MEMPHIS: Not really a fan of the mixologist, but I prefer him over some of the other clowns. He's also gotten better in the last few weeks, but his freak out on Jerry was a little out of control a few weeks back. His size and occassional arrogance will make him a target pretty soon.

OLLIE: Ollie to me is just one step above my category of people that I don't like. He's not played this game yet at all. He's been on an extended date with a trashy girl instead of playing the game. For a preacher's son, he sure doesn't go out of his way to act like a Christian. Now that his cheap trick April is gone, he might actually start playing. I can't stand players that just drift through the game and so far that is all Ollie has done.

THE BAD:

JERRY: I have to give a lot of credit to a man who is 75 years old and is not only competing here but winning loads of challenges. The problem is that he is unstable and grumpy. His unfair attacks on Dan's religion, when he did the same thing with his Marines attire is ridiculously hypocritical. He's angered just about everyone in the game, so it will be hard for him to win the jury vote.

MICHELLE: The voice. The accent. The arrogant in-you-face and very poor loser personality is on my last nerve. This woman is emotionally unstable and takes EVERYTHING in the game personally. She acts as though someone murdered her mom when they vote out Jessie. She's toned it down a bit lately, but she's still by far the worst one left in the house. She needs to go.

FYI: Have you noticed how many times the houseguests throw around the word "respect" for each other. I'm not sure that they understand what the word means though. They will tell someone they have so much respect for them and then proceed to curse them out and tell them off if they don't vote the way they want them too.

PRISON BREAK: DR. SARA TANCREDI GETS HER HEAD BACK SEPT 1!

2008-08-15T07:59:00.001-07:00

Prison Break fans only have to wait until the Sept 1 premiere of season 4 to see Michael Scofield and Sara Tancredi reunite despite her decapitation in season 3. This represents a triumph of television fans and good character development. Sure, it's a bit hokey to decapitate someone and then bring them back from the dead, but this was the show that started with a Vice-President's brother's murder who wasn't really dead.

The reason it's such a triumph, however, is that Sara was a core character in the ongoing drama and her death stole a lot of the passion and heart that glued Prison Break fans to their couches every Monday night. It also appears from most reports that the decision to off Dr. Tancredi was based on salary disputes and the network desire for something "shocking." It doesn't sound like it was a necessary storytelling device. The problem with characters being killed off with those motives is the empty and pointless feeling of the major character's exit. Audiences don't seem to like that.

This was similarly felt in the "chump" deaths of Tony Almeida and Michelle Dessler in "24." As sad as everyone was to see David Palmer killed off in "24" (I seriously couldn't breathe and tightly gripped my wife's hand when the ex-prez was shot in the neck) at least his death had a purpose. It set the whole season in play and David Palmer loomed large over the entire season. That made sense. Tony and Michelle, however, were afterthoughts that were just cast aside after 3-4 seasons of contribution to the storyline. That hurt. This was the case with Dr. Sara and why her return is so highly anticipated.

Her return promises new life for the show as it enters its fourth and possibly final season. I think we can all say that we hope that Michael and Sara finally get their happy ending. Are you happy to see Sarah Wayne Callies as Sara Tancredi return?

Big Brother 10: The Stupidity of Jessie

2008-08-06T12:01:00.001-07:00

This season of Big Brother has more than the usual share of backstabbing and fighting. The casting people did a fine job in finding a group of extremely volatile individuals to shove into a house together.

One such individual is Jessie. Jessie hasn't been doing too much of the yelling, but he has given us some reality television gems. First of all, Jessie has the constant deer in the headlights look on his face and makes George Bush's verbal skills look like fine art. An example: describing a strategic move that needed to be made in the game, Jessie declared that everything was "on steak." I can only imagine that the muscle man meant "at stake." He also attempted to describe fellow houseguest Libra as I'm guessing "devious" but he boldly declared that she was "deviant."

This past episode, Jessie concluded several sentences with "point being" which to my knowledge doesn't close a sentence. Typically one using such a phrase would follow it with a succinct description of what their point was. Jessie chooses to use it as punctuation to end his sentences.

I'm sure in real life Jessie is a gem. On Big Brother, however, his constant talking about his muscles and his body and adorning his room with pictures of himself flexing, while finding even good-bye videos for voted out castmates as appropriate times to say that he hoped they were inspired by his body and workout regimen, point to a completely arrogant self-absorbed example of vanity at its worst.

Personally, as a huge reality television fan, I can't imagine having to share a house with this guy. Hopefully two things will happen: Jessie will finally get voted out this week so that we don't have to listen to Jessie's self-proclaimed superiority to everyone for one more second, and secondly, that Jessie will watch the shows and realize this about himself to maybe make himself a little bit better of a person.

As for the show...Dan & Ollie seem to be the most stable and therefore most strongly positioned players in the game. They don't freak out every ten seconds, and they both seem to be universally liked. Time will tell as each week brings compeletely new alliances! In the meantime, America log on and vote for Jessie to get the boot!

What are your favorite Jessieisms?

Bringing TV Characters Back From The Dead

2008-08-04T16:17:00.001-07:00

As a big fan of the ongoing suspense dramas (24, Prison Break, Lost, etc) one of the biggest double-edged swords that writers face is the killing off of characters. It is necessary to avoid becoming a typical formula drama where all of the main cast members will always be safe and therefore, the level of anxiety to the viewer is muted. Killing off major characters can infuse a tremendous creative life into a show. Killing off Teri Bauer at the end of season one of 24 was brilliant.

Sometimes, however, bad choices are made. Last season, on Prison Break, Dr. Sara Tancredi (played by Sarah Wayne Callies) was be-headed. This tore out the heart of the show as it gave Michael Scofield very little to live for. As a result, many viewers began to shrug their shoulders at the progression of the show and become less interested in the brothers latest escapades.

The same happened to 24 after 5 seasons. Season 5, although a critical favorite burned through many valuable characters to the 24 universe by killing off fan favorites David Palmer, Michelle Dessler, and Tony Almeida.

Already the tide is turning as writers realize that they have ripped the heart out of the very drama that they were trying to create. Prison Break is brining Dr. Sara back from the dead, and 24 is bringing Tony Almeida back from the dead.

As storytelling goes, it's a little ridiculous for them to return from the dead. HOWEVER, people like myself have been so discouraged by the deaths of these key characters that we are willing to look past whatever hokey storyline is cooked up to fake their deaths. I personally look forward to seeing both Dr. Sara and Tony back in action this season (although I would really appreciate it if Michelle Dessler could return with Tony!) So I say, bring it on writers! Let's raise the corpses of some of televisions most popular characters and shake things up! Sure, it will be a little nutty for an episode or two, but after a few weeks we'll just be so happy to see our old friends that we won't mind one bit!

Word of warning to the writers, kill people off, but do so sparingly, you may need some of these familiar faces a few years down the line.

What do you think? Is it a good thing to bring the dead back to life? What other characters would you like to see resurrected this fall?

Why Aren't More People Watching The Mole?

2008-08-01T10:40:00.000-07:00

ABC's new season of "The Mole" is about to come to an end. With only 2 weeks remaining, the ratings remain in the basement. Why aren't people watching this show? Personally, as a fan of competitive reality television, I find "The Mole" to be enjoyable viewing. It's really one of the only reality shows that I can't predict. I love Survivor and Amazing Race, but I've grown accustomed to how the game is played and how the editing plays out, and can most times guess pretty early on who the finalists will be and who will be leaving that week.

The Mole is a show that I just truly can't guess who the mole is! With only 3 people remaining, I still have no clue. Craig and Nicole have been doing molish things a lot. Mark hasn't. I still can't say for certain which one is the mole!

As for why people don't watch the show? My guess is a bad time slot and poor promotion. This show would have faired better in an earlier timeslot. Any thoughts?

Here's hoping that ABC renews the show for next summer despite terrible ratings! Long live the Mole!