I knew the last one would get to 500 eventually...

oh man, I was trying to catch up to 24's season finale tonight, but I'm so far behind...

24, Day 5, 6 pm to 7 pm Oh man, what a tough episode. I love this show. So much happened in this episode, and yet, so many beats--violent, soft, scary, tense, loving, sad. One of the best episodes of the season.

I love how "by the book" Lynn is responsible for so many people dying by not reporting that his keycard was missing. That's so fitting in a way. Maybe he'll be more understanding of others now.

And the reconciliation with the President and his wife was beautiful. Great scene, well shot.

Jack and his daughter...(damn, I so wished she was one of the people who died...rats...). But that was a good tape for Jack overall.

Great show. Can't wait to see what happens next. Ms. Rajskub at the end is just simply heartbreaking.

24, Day 5, 7 pm to 8 pm Definitely a submission for both Kiefer and Gregory Itzin, and Sean Astin. Wow. So much loss within CTU. Devastating, indeed.

Powerful, powerful stuff.

24, Day 5, 8 pm to 9 pm One of the reasons that this deserves Best Drama this year is that it so deftly mixes drama and heartstring -pulling. That and the whole machinations of people in power, people pulling rank over others, are what make this show so great.

The German guy and the female superspy is a nice touch, too. Great to see Jack get information out of someone WITHOUT torturing them. He works the people based on what he knows they are like.

It's heartbreaking to see Chloe working without Edgar. Horrifying to see Homeland Security moving in, after these people have suffered such a tragedy. But not unlike, I'm sure, what happened after Katrina in our own land. Bureaus thinking they know better than the ones doing the job. I really hope that Homeland Security guy gets his. That's one thing 24 is good at too.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: MicheBel,

24, Day 5, 9 pm to 10 pm This does bring up an interesting point, this story within a story. 24 has always relied (too) heavily on torturing its suspects. Perhaps as our own government does too. And now, there is the potential for Audrey to be withholding something.

Her lover (almost fiance) and boss both believe her and vouch for her, yet the new bosses persist. It's a very interesting dramatic point. I'm quite sure I'm going to fast-forward through the parts where she gets tortured. But it does make us ask--how much is too much? When do we rely on protocol, and when do we trust our gut instincts? This is one of the most powerful tangents 24 has ever gone on.

Yes. The Audrey episode this season was possibly the best hour of 24 the show has ever produced. I have never ever bought emotion on 24. I've never been that invested in the characters that I cared when they got all emotional. It usually had me bursting out laughing.
But that episode was almost difficult to watch in watching Sutherland and Raver. It's a real testament to Raver that I finally care emotionally about a character on 24 (outside of Sherry Palmer of course).

24, Day 5, 10 pm to 11 pm Other than the fact that it was unclear what exactly she was trading for her daughter (a disk? where was it?), this was a good episode, with a chilling finale.

Man, I love this season of 24!

Alias, Season Five, Prophet Five Wow. I think that is quite possibly the best episode of Alias ever. Certainly since the first season, at least.

And did they do away with those heinous credits that were all Garner all the time? LOVE that idea.

No mention of Rimbaldi, and yet, an amazing story well told. Great acting, well directed! Good job!

Alias, Season Five, ...1... I like the new credits a lot. I see why they didn't do that with the first episode.

At least now the episodes seem more grounded in reality, and more leading to something. I'm liking Season Five very much so far. I'm in the middle of this episode. All these new people this season! Wow.

Desperate Housewives, Season Two, You Could Drive A Person Crazy Marcia Cross remains luminous and such a great actress. Felicity Huffman is also incredible. I'm getting super tired of the Susan storyline. And Lynette talking to a rat in a garbage can? Um, HUH?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: MicheBel,

quote:

Originally posted by MicheBel:
Alias, Season Five, Prophet Five Wow. I think that is quite possibly the best episode of Alias ever. Certainly since the first season, at least.

And did they do away with those heinous credits that were all Garner all the time? LOVE that idea.

I guess you didn't watch the commentary in season 4 that featured JJ and Jennifer. As the credits came up, JJ says to Jen "you don't like these credits do you." Jen says "it's a little much."
Great commentary if you still have a chance to check it out.

Glad to read you're enjoying season 5...it only gets better, hehe.

quote:

Originally posted by Garner'sHusband:

quote:

Originally posted by MicheBel:
Alias, Season Five, Prophet Five Wow. I think that is quite possibly the best episode of Alias ever. Certainly since the first season, at least.

And did they do away with those heinous credits that were all Garner all the time? LOVE that idea.

I guess you didn't watch the commentary in season 4 that featured JJ and Jennifer. As the credits came up, JJ says to Jen "you don't like these credits do you." Jen says "it's a little much."
Great commentary if you still have a chance to check it out.

Glad to read you're enjoying season 5...it only gets better, hehe.

No, I didn't see that part. But I totally agree with her. It was overwhelmingly Jen. And really unfair to all the other great actors who make up that cast. So I like the new ones MUCH better.

Especially love Kevin Weisman's credit. Why is Greg Grunberg not a regular cast member though? What's up with that? :-(

I actually do look forward to watching this now. Sadly, I realized that I was mad at Alias for Season Four, so I didn't record the beginning of the season. I'm furiously downloading them from iTunes now to catch up.

Grey's Anatomy, Season One, The Self-Destruct Button Man, I love T.R. Knight! He is fast becoming as hot as Dr. McDreamy, IMHO. This episode really showed the characters. I just loved the interplay, the way everyone is developing is brilliant. Great, great show.

Alias, Season Five, ...1... (continued) Well, this one wasn't quite as good as the first one. Some crazy unreality, like all three of them showing themselves to this guy they have tied up, then telling him what they are going to do. I mean, they do explain it later, but it seemed silly nonetheless. And Weiss ducking down behind a food tray cart on the plane, as bullets are flying. Yeah, that's realistic.

And why do I think the guy who's frozen is Vaughn? Which, btw, would be lame, since he was both shot beyond belief and buried. But it would be consistent with the wacky Alias logic.

Love the way they introduce the Baltazar Getty character. That was cool.

Alias, Season Five, The Shed It's kind of a fitting way to end the season by remembering how the series began. The way Syd was working for SD6 at the beginning. The way two of her fiances have been killed, it's all very resonant.

I really despised Amy Acker on Angel, but here, she's interesting.

Excellent introduction of Rachel Nichols, too. Now we've got a team to root for, and soon, I suspect, they're going to have something to be fighting for. Good season so far. Too bad Season Four sucked so bad. They have a lot to make up for yet.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: MicheBel,

Glad you are liking Season Five Miche!

I really liked Racheal's intro as well, and they do a good job with it basically the whole way through.

Not to hype it too much, but "The Horizon" is great, and erases (for me) any of the bad taste remaining from seasons three and four. From then on its the ALIAS we all remember (though not as good as seasons one and two).

Can't wait to see what you think of the rest.

Thanks, Lily. I really am looking forward to more Alias episodes, which I didn't think I'd be saying. But I'm trying to be balanced with all I have to see.... So...I dipped back into:

Six Feet Under, Season Five, Time Flies It's really hard to watch even more than one of these in a row. It's like eating a really rich dessert or something. Gotta eat slow and savor.

In this episode, you could just achingly feel time passing. From the moment in the beginning when they lovingly focus on every little thing in this woman's apartment (trailer park home, actually). All the little tstochkes she had placed. The knitting that sat waiting (funny how later Ruth goes to a knitting group), the open copy of Stephen Covey's best-seller.

It just painstakingly set up how every one of those things was important to this person, yet, there she is, dead on the toilet.

Somehow that sets us up perfectly for Nate, looking at his wrinkles on his 40th birthday. And again, this fugue. Every person in it is unhappy. Yet every person is also doing the best they can. Trying to get to whereever it is they think will make them happy: Keith and David with their adoption/surrogate process; Brenda with another kid; Claire with her drugs and her boyfriend; Ruth with her women friends at her knitting group.

Nate, trying desperately to find connection, seeks out his old photo albums. Nate, who wasn't happy with his first wife, yet now looks on it nostalgically; now isn't happy with his current wife, and doesn't know what to do.

And there it is. The bluebird of happiness flies into the room. All anyone can think to do with it is to shoo it away. No one wants to take responsibility for it. No one wants to enjoy it. They just want to make sure the window's open for it to fly out. And still the persistent bird keeps flying back in.

David is freaked out by it. Claire is totally ok with it, but her off-his-meds boyfriend can't deal with it at all. And Nate freaks out, finally, and beats it to death with a broom.

These people have just lost all connection to happiness. Whatever they try, it eludes them. And mostly, it flies away because they won't let it in.

This show is just heartbreaking. You can feel the weight of every second. Time flies, indeed.

Currently watching season 2 of Veronica Mars and just finished episode 15. I have to say, that I'm starting to be pretty disappointed by this show.
Season 1 started out rather ho-hum, but by the end of episode 8 or 9 (when the twist of Veronica's paternity was brought up) the show moved into greatness. The rest of the season really started to focus on the characters and the mystery of Lily Kane and it lead to a rocking season finale.
This season, the show had a much stronger start than season 1. It set up an interesting mystery and it kept the focus on minor mysteries surrounding the cast members instead of bringing in guest stars who I could give 2 sh*ts about.
Now at about, the halfway mark of season 2, this all just started to become really old. Veronica and Logan's CONSTANT (and I mean CONSTANT) sarcastic tones and one-liners is absolutely exhausting. It's ridiculous to think a person would be this quick-witted all the time. I know it's a small thing to criticize, but if you watched the season rather quickly like I am, you'll see how annoying it gets.

I was willing to forgive the show's ridiculousness in the amount of mysteries it was piling on for these cast members. My god, these people have a lot of problems in their lives. It was a little ridiculous to think that all of this would be going on, and it's really hard to keep track of all of them.

The other fault in the show (and the biggest one I think) is that it really isn't focusing on the bus crash at all. I have no doubt it will become the focus towards the end of the season, but this middle part is really really lagging with its almost complete ignorance of the plot line.
The show has also resorted to doing one episode mysteries that I simply couldn't care less about. The winter carnival, the Neptune gay website, the runaway bride...I simply couldn't care less. Then usually in the last 30 seconds, we get some small tidbit about the bus crash. It's become formulaic.

I hope the show picks it up soon.

Grey's Anatomy, Season One, Save Me I can see why Sandra Oh didn't win with this tape, against Blythe Danner's sublime turns on Huff. There is a lot going on with Sandra Oh's character, but it's all internal.

And can I just say that T.R. Knight is just as sexy as Dr. McDreamy? JUST as sexy. You don't have to change one thing, baby. You are so hot.

Great show. Great episode.

"Cricket", eh? ;-) cool

This message has been edited. Last edited by: MicheBel,

Miche,

Glad you are still catching up on Six Feet Under. I enjoy your comments on the show.

And, yes, this show is heartbreaking...heartbreakingly real.

A lot of people jumped off the SFU bandwagon with the third season, but that is when (in my opinion) the show became grounded in reality and stepped itself up in maturity.

Not saying the first two seasons were some kind of magical entity, but the third season started to focus on the family without the full benefit of relying on the dead to provide most of the character's inner thoughts.

That isn't to say that the living don't rely on the dead anymore - they do. It's just with more of the aforementioned maturity (as you will see in the final three episodes).

If I had to pick a show that truly catered to real life (and this is all the more ironic considering it deals with the afterlife) - it would be Six Feet Under.

I won't say why as it would ruin something that happens in a future episode, but the bird is VERY symbolic and keep it in mind.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ashmores,

Are you kidding? I can't get that bird OUT of my mind.

And it was weird because in the same week, I watched Lynette talking to a dead rat in her garbage (on Desperate Housewives), because I'm watching things so out of sequence. And that struck me as just hokey and phony and dumb.

Then I see the bluebird sequences in SFU. They just blew me away. And I know by watching the whole hyperintensity of it that nothing that HUGE as a bluebird flying around for no reason happens by accident.

Bluebird of Happiness. Of course.

I don't know what happens next, but I feel the plot turning on that device. That the death and terminal unhappiness of these characters is very soon going to be brought to bear.

I really wish I could just watch these faster, but I can't. They need time to savor and process in my brain. But at least I have them now, to savor as I can.

Veronica Mars-Drivers Ed
B+
I'm Starting to geting to hook on VM. I Loved This one Line. "If I Ever die Unexpectly,Go on Oprah and them I love Kittens"

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Bluthie,

Alias, Season Five, Mockingbird "I guess we'll have to bring 'em all down." The mission statement of the fifth season, to bring down all the Alias bad guys. Interesting.

This season definitely holds up better than the last one. The addition of Baltazar Getty and Rachel Nichols really brings something needed to the show.

I like how Stephen Spinella is making the bad guy rounds from 24 to Alias.

Good episode, but then Drew Goddard does know how to write. Looking forward to the next one.

Commander-in-Chief, "First Strike" Well, this show is out of the running for Best Drama. A ton of continuity errors here. However, there are many things that really make this like the early West Wing. In this, the third episode, Mackenzie Allen seems extremely presidential, oddly, in ways that Martin Sheen didn't. Namely, she speaks Spanish to an errant dictator. Funny, that.

It's really sad about CiC. Had it continued on this path, I could easily see it competing for Best Drama at year's end. This episode was stunning, brave, well-written.

I don't much like the whole First Family nonsense, but that is after all, what distinguishes it from The West Wing.

Great, great stuff here. Peter Coyote was especially amazing.

Watched episodes 17, 18 of season 2 Veronica Mars and the show is FINALLY returning to the bus crash storyline that it has put off for far too long, and therefore, the show is much much better. I hope it finishes strong.

Desperate Housewives, Second Season, "You'll Never Get Away from Me" Boy, has this show gone downhill. It seems like every episode just gets worse and worse and worse. Susan's storylines bug the crap out of me. They are so based on vengeful jealousy and spite.

The only one I can even tolerate in this episode is Marcia Cross. Felicity Huffman's talents are totally wasted. Eva Longoria is also vengeful and based in jealousy. And Alfre Woodard, with that guy in the basement...? Good grief. Horrible, horrible stuff.

Grey's Anatomy, First Season, "Who's Zoomin' Who?" Wow. What a cliffhanger! Now, this series deserves its accolades. Great show, great acting, great scripts. I am hoping for it to make the final five in Drama.

T.R. Knight just keeps getting cuter and cuter. And that scene in the hallway between Isiah Washington and Sandra Oh couldn't have been played better. Wonderful drama.

Weeds, First Season, "Free Goat" Mary Louise Parker and Elizabeth Perkins are just incredible as the suburban wives. Excellent acting, and amazing scripts. The spectre of the dead husband throughout. She slowly takes off the ring, yet throws the camera with her husband's image at the wall. Brilliant and beautiful and heartbreaking. Such a great show.

Desperate Housewives, Second Season, "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" Gosh, this show is just so mean-spirited now. Something about the first season made it more light-hearted, though there was some mean-spiritedness within.

Marcia Cross and Felicity Huffman are the only things that make this show worth watching.

Six Feet Under, Final Season, "Eat a Peach" Again this fugue between death and happiness. It starts by a man dying because he ate a peach (which he loved) when he shouldn't have. But the peach made him happy.

And every character chooses their own happiness in this episode. At long last, Ruth takes steps to get out of her own misery. Claire definitively dumps Billy. Brenda defends the importance of truth, and brings out some true emotional resonance because of the discussion.

David and Keith, still thinking that a child is going to make them happy, keep reaching for that.

I'm just so astonished at Brenda's transformation from the first season to this one. Who knew when she seduced Nate in that airport that she'd end up being the standard bearer for truth in relationships? I wanna marry Brenda. She's just amazing.

Announcing to her guests at a dinner party that the tension in the air is because of their argument, I could just kiss her. Whereas Frederico's inappropriate truth to the wrong people at the wrong time was painful to watch.

Justina Machado had a great scene with him in this episode too. No happiness anywhere on that front anytime soon.

I love this show.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: MicheBel,

24, Day 5, 12 am to 1 am Oh my god. This show is amazing. And they really are making an effort to have each show be somewhat self-contained. To leave you wanting for more, yet also knowing that what you just saw was amazing drama.

You gotta know, when someone on a thriller is wearing a pristine white coat, it's probably, at some point going to end up with blood on it.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this show. I also love love love Six Feet Under, and boy, it's really going to be tough to decide between these two shows for the Best Series show. Really tough.

But EVERY episode of 24 this season has been stellar. There have been no duds, as in past seasons (unless you count the return of Kim, Jack's daughter).

Jack is just so amazing. I also love this shadow government that's developing, with Chloe offsite now. Should be interesting. Fabulous show.

And then we have the opposite end of the spectrum:

Desperate Housewives, "They Asked Me Why I Believe In You" Just when you think the depths of this show can't get any lower, we have this. When people talk about how bad this show was this season, one image that will immediately bounce to mind is the sight of Terri Hatcher humping Wallace Shawn on the floor.

Within this episode, though, we also have Felicity Huffman dancing on a bar (also something her character would never do) and the wonders of Marcia Cross' acting. Her breakdown at the gravesite has to be one of the most amazing moments of the show yet, and the fact that she makes it so believable--if she isn't nominated, it will be a crime.

For the record, I REALLY hate the whole Alfre Woodard storyline. HATE IT.

Don't much give a crap about Zach anymore either.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: MicheBel,

Alias, Season Five, Out of the Box Yes, this season is much better than last. It moves along quickly. I like the developments, and storylines.

They almost do explain away Garner's pregnancy to a convincing level, but I can't believe they'd put any agent in so much danger when they are pregnant.

Like all the new castmembers though.