Ringer

So I missed the first airing of Sarah Michelle Gellar's new show Ringer earlier in the week.  I hadn't realized it was starting this week, most of the network shows start their season premieres next week.  A post by a friend on Facebook made me realize that I had missed the show.   Luckily their showed it again tonight.

So far the show is a hit.  It run its night and was one of the best nights for CW in three years.  And even better was that the show is good.  The first episode set up a lot and if you're not paying attention it can get pretty confusing.  I'm not even going to try to explain what's going on.  I'm just glad to see Ms. Gellar is in fine form and was great in the show.  Here's hoping that the show continues to grow and get better.

The Ending of Fringe Season 3

*************SPOILER ALERT****************SPOILER ALERT*************************

If you haven't watched the end of last season, season three of Fringe, and want to, don't read any farther.  But if you have seen it I have a few questions.

When Peter vanishes at the end and the observers comment that Peter was not important, he didn't matter anymore and that was why he disappeared.

Excuse me though, isn't Peter the one person that is important as far as the two worlds are concerned?  If Walter hadn't kidnapped him in the first place, none of the destruction would have started on the other world.  If Peter wasn't there to go into the machine how did the two worlds come together at the end?  

I'm hoping, and reasonably sure, that they have explanations for these questions, but it makes me wonder.

Buffy Returns

Ok, not really, but Sarah Michelle Gellar returns to TV this Fall in the CW show Ringers.    This is the show I'm anticipating the most.  It's a very complicated show, with Sarah playing twin sisters and one twin is missing and the other twin is pretending to be her.  Throw in some crime and someone trying to kill someone else and the FBI is looking for the sister that is pretending to be the other sister and already my head hurts.  But I'm truly hoping that they pull this off.  Ms. Gellar has been away too long.

More Ringer Videos

Google TV

Logitech just dropped their price from $250.00 to $99.00 for Google TV.  I would never have even thought of buying it at the first price, but now at its new price it has me thinking.  Does anyone have Google TV?  Is it worth the price?  I'm curious about it and wonder it it is something that I'd use for more than just watching tv shows.

What Are You Watching?

I really think network TV is behind the times.  With a regular television season being 22 weeks they should divide the year up into two seasons.  Forget about the summer of reruns and failed pilots.  Have a winter season and a summer season.  Some of the other networks have taken advantage of the lack of new shows during the summer.  You see new shows on USA, FX, Fox and some of the other networks.  When will the big three (or are they even still the big three) going to follow form?

Actually this post was going to be about what are you watching now that we are in the midst of rerun season.  Are you watching the same shows again?  Or are you watching some of these shows on the other networks?  I'm watching "In Plain Sight" on USA and this is one of my favorite shows on any network.  Also "Royal Pains" is a fun show.  And I've just gotten in "Breaking Bad" in the last few months.

What are you watching?

Super Bowl Commercial

I know I haven't been on for awhile, but I plan on coming back.  But I had to put this up, I love this commercial.

DirectTV Problems

When I decided to go with DirectTV it was a simple process.  I managed to do it all online and never even had to talk to a person.  A few clicks and it was all arranged, the day and time of set up included.  But try to drop something and it's another matter entirely.  They offered so many months of "free" Showtime when I signed up.  But it's really not free, they get you when you forget about it when the "free" part ends and you end up paying for it.  Which is what happened and what I wanted to change.  I wanted to drop Showtime now that it was no longer free and I had to pay for it.  But can you go online and drop it with a click?  Of course not.  You have to call the 800 number and go through the recorded questions and press the correct buttons and than you're still not finished.  Than it connects you to a live person who you have to confirm you want to cancel.  Unless their system is down of the night and they can't do anything.

Call back tomorrow.

If it was this hard to subscribe I bet they wouldn't get as many people.

The Best Show on TV

I had to work tonight, but I DVR'd Terriers which I plan to go watch shortly.  If you haven't watched this show, if it is re run you should definitely watch it.  I really think it is the best show on TV right now.  Unfortunately tonight's episode is the last one for the season, hopefully they'll be a second season.

TV to Watch

The new season is well underway so I thought I'd take a few minutes to share some of my favorites so far.  When I switched from the cable company to Direct TV they offered a free DVR with my order and I'm glad that they did.  It's so much better than trying to use a VCR trying to record a new show.  I just program what shows I want to watch and it records it, no matter what time it comes on.  I've found I end up rarely watching a lot of shows when they first come on, I wait until I have some free time and than I'll sit down and watch.  The cool thing about this is I might not watch a show for two or three weeks, so when I finally sit down to watch it I'l have multiple shows to watch at one time.

So in no particular oder are some of my favorites:

The Big Bang Theory:  This is one of my favorite comedies and most of the time actually makes the characters believable for more than just the next joke.  My biggest worry is that because Sheldon has proven the "funniest" character it seems he has been dominating the show lately.  I like Leonard and Penny and the other characters and while Sheldon is very funny, I want to watch more than just him.  I'm hopeful, the last show I watched looks like it might lead back to the Leonard/Penny relationship, which I loved.

Cougar Town:  Finally Courtney Cox has found a show worthy of her since Friends.  This show is so crazy but in the end it is still filled with so much heart that it makes it a worthy watch.

Modern Family:  Another good show, I don't know if I'm as in love with it as most critics, but I still like it and find it funny.

Castle:  Nathan Fillion.  No more need be said.

Sons of Anarchy:  I started watching this last year and somehow found myself mesmerized.  It's one of those shows I would not have thought I would enjoy, but find myself really looking forward to it.  It's about a motorcycle gang and it doesn't try to pretend that the members are just misunderstood or anything, but while you're watching it you find yourself rooting for them and even caring about them.

Smallville:  I didn't catch all the episodes from last season but the ones I did I wasn't that thrilled with.  It seemed that the series was getting tired.  And Clark's whining was really starting to get on my nerves.  But this year, it's Final Season has been great.  I've still got a couple episodes on the dvr I haven't watched yet, but the ones I have so far have been really good.  We can see Clark making that final step to being Superman.  It would be great if this show just turned into Metropolis and we saw the early years of Superman.

NICS:  One of my favorite shows of all time.  This show just keeps getting better and better.  I love all the characters, but Abby is awesome.   Something I realized I liked about this show the other day.  Gibbs, when he dates, goes out with women his own age or close to it.  You don't see GIbbs dating younger women, the few times one has come on to him, he steers it away from himself.  You don't see Gibbs having a relationship or dating the two female leads.  He is a father figure to them.  I like that.  Most shows Gibbs would have already had a fling with Ziva and probably be eying Abby up.  Just one of the small things you don't really think about, but that makes this show so good.

Terriers:  My favorite show of the year.  Next week is the season finale, so if you haven't started watching yet it might be too late.  But if you can catch it in reruns do so.  This show is, as far as I'm concerned, the best show on TV right now.  Earlier this year they tried to bring back Rockford Files with new actors, but it was so bad that it didn't even get past an unaired pilot.  To me this is Rockford Files updated and not just a retread, but keeping what made that show so good.  Watch this show.  I love the characters.

That's all I can think of at the moment.  I'm sure as soon as I post this I'll remember some show that I will wonder how I could have forgotten it.  But you can't go wrong watching these shows.

I Want To Hold Your Hand

I meant to post this awhle back, but never got around to it, but it's too good not to give notice to.  Last year I was a huge Glee fan.  I still am enjoying the show this year, but I'm not sure what it is, I'm just not enjoying it quite as much.  But this moment in the new season made me feel like last season, when the songs would just make me sit up and feel.  As regular readers know I am a huge Beatles fan and they took this song and re-made it like no other version I have ever heard.  Listen to it and not be moved, it's impossible.

Unanswered Questions From Lost

I found this video over here, but it asks a lot of questions that were never answered on Lost.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

LOST Season Six on DVD

The final season of Lost came out on DVD this week.  I haven't purchased it yet, but I will.  I have the previous five seasons, so it's just a matter of time before I buy this one.  I think I'll wait and see if it goes down it price some and until I'm ready to watch the entire six seasons.  When I do buy this season I plan to go back to season one and start at the beginning and watch it all in one long continuous session.

I never wrote my wrap up post about the ending of Lost, so after I watch the series hopefully I'll sit down and write my thoughts on it.  To sum it up quickly: I think how much you enjoyed the ending of Lost was where you came down on the Faith vs. Reason argument that was the basis for the ending.  If you favored Faith you liked the ending, if you were on the side of Reason you probably didn't enjoy the ending as much.  I was with Reason, so to me the ending wasn't what I was hoping for.  I knew it wasn't going to tie up all the loose ends, but it really tied up very few.  They left way too many holes, I think mainly because they had written themselves into a corner and had no idea how to explain some of the stuff.  I have nothing against happy endings, but to me it felt like it was forced, so everyone on the island got a happy ending.  And Sayid's true love was Shannon.  I'm sorry I just can't believe that.

Allright, I'll stop here before I continue to rant, but I really want to write up my thoughts soon on the ending.  I still think Lost was one of the best shows ever on TV and I was afraid a bad ending would spoil the entire show I still think the series holds up, despite the ending.

More on Rizzoli and Isles

Started to watch the second episode that I had taped the other day and got about five minutes into it and turned it off.  I still haven't decided if I'm going to turn it back on again or not.  I know a tv show or movie is vary (almost never) as good as the book.  If you get lucky it captures the book's spirit and can move you in different ways than the printed word did.  But this show....

Dr. Maura Isles is the scientist, she's the Medical Examiner. It's established that she's smart in the books.  In the books she's somewhat cold, aloof, hard to get to know.  Her and Jane (the Rizzoli of the title and a police detective) are friends, but it's a strained, not hang out at the bar type of friendship.  I can forgive the show for making them closer, it works better on the screen I would imagine, having them be better friends so they can spend more time together.  For large parts of the books, their paths don't cross until the murder scenes.

But what I'm finding harder to forgive and harder to want to watch is their quick cliched characterization of Dr. Isles.  Since she's smart she has to be weird.  In the second episode she's wearing some sort of wet suit type covering that is supposed to keep her cool in the heat.  She's watching a ball game and ends up at bat, with the hood pulled up and looking like she belongs on the set of "The Big Bang Theory" not a police show.  Why does being smart have to mean being strange?  Nowhere in the books is this part of her character.

As far as the books go, I'm down to only three left to read.  And this series just gets better as it goes along.  It really is very good.  I'm enjoying it a lot.  Unfortunately I can't say the same for the tv show.

Rizzoli and Isles

The new TNT series Rizzoli and Isles is bases on a series of novels by Tess Gerritsen.  I watched the first episode mainly because I like Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander and was interested in seeing them in something new.  Unfortunately the show isn't that original.  In many ways it's just another buddy cop show, this one starring two female leads.  There's a few bright spots, mainly the two characters and their relationship.  Hopefully they'll continue to improve the show and it will get better.

The show did make me pick up one of the books and let me tell you how much I enjoyed the book.  Enough that I went out and bought five more volumes in the series.  I think I"m only missing two of the books right now.  I've already read three of them.  These are really good.  Where the tv show lacks in originality the books more than make up for them.  The two characters are so strong in the book, I really hope the tv shows ends up showing more of that.

I'll keep reading the books and I'll watch the show for awhile longer, hoping it gets bettter.

A Great TV Series

I ordered this from Amazon.com last week and it just came it today.  One of the all time classic TV series.  Normally it sells for close to two hundred dollars for he entire series, but last week I caught it just before it ended its sale for less than $75.00 for the entire series.  I've been wanting this series for awhile, just haven't wanted to pay that price, so at the sale price I couldn't pass it up.

The Tudors

In my time away from you all I've been watching the first two seasons of The Tudors from Showtime. Best Buy had them on sale for $15.00 a season. It was worth it to give the shows a try, at the normal thirty dollars a season there was no way I would have ever picked them up. I'm glad I did. At the time I started watching the first season I picked up a book that I've had sitting in my bookcase for years and never got around to reading. It was "The Six Wives of Henry VIII."

It was strange reading and watching the show at the same time. Somehow I kept my reading along what was going on in the show. I couldn't remember what happened to his first wife Katherine of Argon and I wasn't sure if I was going to read about it or see it on the show. I actually started to get ahead in the book and discovered her fate reading it and later watched it on the show.

Now you can complain that The Tudors is just historical soap opera, but life in Henry VIII's court was nothing sort of a grand soap opera at the time. Reading the book I was surprised by how historical accurate the show was. Some of the lines from the show are straight from history. It made the times when they deviated from the truth hit harder for me. The whole subplot of Henry marrying his sister to the King of Portugal was completely wrong. It was his younger sister and she married the King of France, but she does end up marrying Henry's friend after her husband dies and she returns to England.

It just made me wonder why when they did such a good job of sticking to the truth most of the time, that they had to change things in some occasions. I'm sure they thought they had to keep the number of characters down or whatever reason, but to me it was no excuse. Stick to what happened.

Still I have enjoyed the first two seasons and plan to eventually purchase the final two seasons. I finished the book and went right into reading the sequel by the author, "The Children of Henry VIII." A very fascinating time. The problem is that the second book ends with Elizabeth becoming Queen, so now I have to find a book about her.

Rockford Again

I read somewhere that they are making a new version of The Rockford Files for TV.  I'm sorry, there will only be one Jim Rockford and that's James Garner.  Are there no new ideas out there, that the networks have to keep going back and dusting off old television shows.  I've also heard that there's a new Hawaii Five-0 in the makings too.  Why try and re-do Rockford, use all that energy into creating something new.

New TV Show

I'm not a fan of all the CSI shows on TV.  The few times I've tried to watch them I never make it through an episode.  But whenever I go to visit my Mom, one of the shows we have to watch every Monday night is NCIS.  And if there's nothing else on she can always find a re run of the show somewhere on cable.  So slowly it's been burrowing under my skin.  The problem was that I saw the shows out of order and it didn't make sense.  This was Navy...so why was everyone in civilian clothes.  A little research and I discovered that NCIS is civilian. 

But slowly, oh so slowly, this show was growing on me.  Until now I'm a fan.  I've bought the first two seasons on DVD and am on my way through the second season now.  The first season was great.  There's an episode in the second season about a Medal of Honour winner that will hit you in the heart and hard.  It's an amazing piece of televsion. 

And my favorite character.  Why Abby of course!

Gumby's Creator Dies

The creator of Gumby, Art Clokey, died today at the age of 88.  Gumby always fascinated me.

Dancing Spiderman

This one's for Trav, a different type of Dancing with the Stars.