Catching up, the story of my life
Jan. 11th, 2005 04:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fenchurchIn this case, it's catching up on television... sort of. For some reason, I get really antsy if I sit in front of the television for more than an hour. Never mind that I can sit in front of my computer for days on end... though I guess there's one huge difference between the two -- at least the computer is interactive. What I really need to do is either figure out how to use the Inkle Loom I borrowed from my mother-in-law or finally break out the knitting books and figure that out instead... pretty much anything to give me a secondary task for television-viewing.
Anyway, I managed to watch the first two episodes of "24" yesterday afternoon, in time to catch the next two episodes last night (just a teensy bit delayed). So far, I'm enjoying the ride... I knew (as, apparently, did everyone else watching the show) that something bad would happen to Jack's new girlfriend, and I would have put my money on kidnapping, so that wasn't a big surprise. At least she seems to have brains, even while looking doe-eyed and vulnerable... and, even more important, SHE'S NOT KIM! Yay!!! No more majorly obnoxious Kim!! Sure, the girlfriend got put in harm's way pretty much immediately, but at least it wasn't because she was a whiny moron.
And speaking of obnoxious people, apparently the new CTI is full of them. I haven't yet seen a single person still working there who isn't like nails on a chalkboard... no Tony or Michelle, but they kept Chloe?!?! Oooookay. Even worse, one of new characters they introduced outside of CTI that I liked (the hacker guy) is apparently out of the picture now... but at least Behrooz is still around (yes, the one who makes me feel like a dirty old woman). Should be interesting to see where his character goes, and the writers actually pulled something unexpected on me by having the mother poison his girlfriend. Surprise!
However, my enjoyment and willful suspension of disbelief have already been stretched a bit past their limits by the utterly stupid way Jack handled delaying the guy he was tailing. In fact, I even asked (lj user="Rackham">, who has never seen the show, "If you needed to delay the terrorist you're tailing for a few minutes in order to allow headquarters to get a satellite fix, and said terrorist has just filled his gas tank and gone inside to pay for it, how would you do it?" His answer was the same as mine... put a nice big puncture in one or two of the guy's tires. IOW, you don't stupidly threaten a bunch of relatively innocent people by pretending to commit armed robbery. And you certainly don't then continue on your way as if there's not going to be an APB put out on your moronic self. All I can hope is that there's payoff later in the terrorist-guy remembering that Jack claimed to be picking up a "money drop" of a considerable sum, or something of the sort.
Personally, I'm thinking that the whole "terrorism" thing is just a front to confuse the authorities for whatever it is they're really trying to do. Or maybe I've watched "Die Hard with a Vengeance" too many times.
And I just now watched the first episode of "Medium" though not the second, because apparently something to screwed up on the recording. Not sure what was up with that... I had three episodes on the DVR, the Pilot and two that claimed to be the second episode. I watched the pilot, deleted it, then checked that the description was the same on the other two and deleted one of those. Stupid move, since the one I kept claimed to be "Suspicions and Certainties" but was, in fact, the Pilot again. Grrrr. Thankfully, it's supposed to repeat this Saturday.
I can sum up my opinion of this show in two words: pleasantly surprised. I had assumed it would be like every other show of its ilk. You know the type I mean... where some network execs sit around and say "Gee, we should have a 'quirky cult hit' this year." And then they proceed to make a show that they think has all the elements that make a "quirky cult hit," while not really understanding why people glom onto the shows they do in the first place. The Big Three networks are fairly notorious for trying this sort of thing (and, sadly, meddling with shows that actually do have the potential to be a cult hit), though I'm not letting UPN, FOX, or the WB off the hook for it either, they just seem slightly less uncomfortable with the idea of letting someone else have control.
The only thing that struck me as overly silly in the first episode was the bit with the Texas Rangers. Is there some sort of rule or mandate that whenever they're trying out a new psychic consultant they need to bring EVERY Texas Ranger along? And then to have the guy complain about the possibility that she would be wasting everyone's valuable time in having them dig in a specific spot for the body -- because a) it's not like they haven't all been lallygagging around all day trailing after her anyway and b) with the several thousand of them (okay, several dozen) who were standing around with shovels, they couldn't have dug up that whole area in less time than it took him to yell at her. Weird. And kinda stupid.
That said, I can't wait to see more episodes of the show -- to see if they can pull it off in the long run. They've got a likable main character, with a fairly normal life (just perfect for absolute disruption in the name of plot) and a fairly normal family (see previous parenthetical comment).
Still haven't had a chance to watch "Alias" yet... the DVR rather annoyingly recorded only the first hour *grumble* and I've yet to find anyone who has a copy I can borrow. I may wind up having to watch that hour and find a decent recap site for the second, just so I know what's going on. And I think I'm about three episodes behind on "Lost." I can't believe I was whining last Fall about there not being enough good shows on television...
Anyway, I managed to watch the first two episodes of "24" yesterday afternoon, in time to catch the next two episodes last night (just a teensy bit delayed). So far, I'm enjoying the ride... I knew (as, apparently, did everyone else watching the show) that something bad would happen to Jack's new girlfriend, and I would have put my money on kidnapping, so that wasn't a big surprise. At least she seems to have brains, even while looking doe-eyed and vulnerable... and, even more important, SHE'S NOT KIM! Yay!!! No more majorly obnoxious Kim!! Sure, the girlfriend got put in harm's way pretty much immediately, but at least it wasn't because she was a whiny moron.
And speaking of obnoxious people, apparently the new CTI is full of them. I haven't yet seen a single person still working there who isn't like nails on a chalkboard... no Tony or Michelle, but they kept Chloe?!?! Oooookay. Even worse, one of new characters they introduced outside of CTI that I liked (the hacker guy) is apparently out of the picture now... but at least Behrooz is still around (yes, the one who makes me feel like a dirty old woman). Should be interesting to see where his character goes, and the writers actually pulled something unexpected on me by having the mother poison his girlfriend. Surprise!
However, my enjoyment and willful suspension of disbelief have already been stretched a bit past their limits by the utterly stupid way Jack handled delaying the guy he was tailing. In fact, I even asked (lj user="Rackham">, who has never seen the show, "If you needed to delay the terrorist you're tailing for a few minutes in order to allow headquarters to get a satellite fix, and said terrorist has just filled his gas tank and gone inside to pay for it, how would you do it?" His answer was the same as mine... put a nice big puncture in one or two of the guy's tires. IOW, you don't stupidly threaten a bunch of relatively innocent people by pretending to commit armed robbery. And you certainly don't then continue on your way as if there's not going to be an APB put out on your moronic self. All I can hope is that there's payoff later in the terrorist-guy remembering that Jack claimed to be picking up a "money drop" of a considerable sum, or something of the sort.
Personally, I'm thinking that the whole "terrorism" thing is just a front to confuse the authorities for whatever it is they're really trying to do. Or maybe I've watched "Die Hard with a Vengeance" too many times.
And I just now watched the first episode of "Medium" though not the second, because apparently something to screwed up on the recording. Not sure what was up with that... I had three episodes on the DVR, the Pilot and two that claimed to be the second episode. I watched the pilot, deleted it, then checked that the description was the same on the other two and deleted one of those. Stupid move, since the one I kept claimed to be "Suspicions and Certainties" but was, in fact, the Pilot again. Grrrr. Thankfully, it's supposed to repeat this Saturday.
I can sum up my opinion of this show in two words: pleasantly surprised. I had assumed it would be like every other show of its ilk. You know the type I mean... where some network execs sit around and say "Gee, we should have a 'quirky cult hit' this year." And then they proceed to make a show that they think has all the elements that make a "quirky cult hit," while not really understanding why people glom onto the shows they do in the first place. The Big Three networks are fairly notorious for trying this sort of thing (and, sadly, meddling with shows that actually do have the potential to be a cult hit), though I'm not letting UPN, FOX, or the WB off the hook for it either, they just seem slightly less uncomfortable with the idea of letting someone else have control.
The only thing that struck me as overly silly in the first episode was the bit with the Texas Rangers. Is there some sort of rule or mandate that whenever they're trying out a new psychic consultant they need to bring EVERY Texas Ranger along? And then to have the guy complain about the possibility that she would be wasting everyone's valuable time in having them dig in a specific spot for the body -- because a) it's not like they haven't all been lallygagging around all day trailing after her anyway and b) with the several thousand of them (okay, several dozen) who were standing around with shovels, they couldn't have dug up that whole area in less time than it took him to yell at her. Weird. And kinda stupid.
That said, I can't wait to see more episodes of the show -- to see if they can pull it off in the long run. They've got a likable main character, with a fairly normal life (just perfect for absolute disruption in the name of plot) and a fairly normal family (see previous parenthetical comment).
Still haven't had a chance to watch "Alias" yet... the DVR rather annoyingly recorded only the first hour *grumble* and I've yet to find anyone who has a copy I can borrow. I may wind up having to watch that hour and find a decent recap site for the second, just so I know what's going on. And I think I'm about three episodes behind on "Lost." I can't believe I was whining last Fall about there not being enough good shows on television...
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no subject
Date: 2005-01-12 03:20 am (UTC)Also getting into Medium. I haven't made up my mind about that show yet; I did enjoy the pilot, but I was of two minds about last night's episode. I can't get over the fact that the husband looks and sounds like a cross between Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford... or something weird like that.
How's that for not spoiling anything?
I wanted to get into Lost but I missed the first couple episodes and figured that, like 24, if I didn't see it from the beginning I'd be... well, lost, actually :)
no subject
Date: 2005-01-12 03:23 am (UTC)24 was ruined for me when I missed the last few episodes of Season 1; demanded that the few people I knew who watched it not say anything to me, pre-ordered the DVD set when it went on sale, then failed to actually rewatch the season before season 2 started....
... and then saw the description for the season 2 opener on the TV Guide channel which began "One year after the death of Jack's wife..."
GRRR!!!
suspension of disbelief
Date: 2005-01-12 02:08 pm (UTC)For me, it was the list of numbers that could 'DESTROY THE INTERNET OMG!!" that the hacker just happened to see. My techie husband's commentary was both brisk and profane. I also didn't like the concept of a Middle Eastern family that's actually a terrorist group. There's enough nervousness about Middle Easterners in the US without fueling the fire.
Re: suspension of disbelief
Date: 2005-01-12 08:54 pm (UTC)I also didn't like the concept of a Middle Eastern family that's actually a terrorist group.
This is one of the main reasons I'm thinking that's not what's going on... that it's a front they're putting up to keep everyone busy and off their backs, and they're actually up to something else entirely. At least I hope that's the case. We'll see.
Though if Jack keeps doing moronic things like armed robbery... well, maybe I won't see. I can forgive a lot of stuff, but idiotic behavior from characters who really should know better is not one of those things.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-18 06:13 pm (UTC)