April 13, 2006

Short Term For President Geena Davis

Well, it's all over but the whining. ABC is expected to cancel "Commander-In-Chief" after only one season.

ABC suits will not renew COMMANDER unless audience levels can hold a 15 share, a source claims. The show crashed from a high of nearly 17 million viewers for its second episode to 10.4 million for its last, Jan. 24.
A 15 share? With five weeks left in the season? Well, that ain't happening. At least Davis will be freed up to negotiate a deal for "Earth Girls Are Easy 2".

Kudos to Jonah Goldberg who predicted the failure of this turkey back on July 28 of last year:

"It will be dull because who cares how much more difficult picking a Supreme Court nominee, raising/lowering taxes, bombing terrorist camps, whatever is for a female president? Indeed, it will grow increasingly implausible for the audience to believe that there would be any significant difference for a chick president to do anything of these things, particularly after she proved herself capable of doing the job. And the more the producers try to hammer feminist issues into every situation, the duller or more tedious it will get. From the commercials, we're supposed to believe the government is drenched with crotchety white guys who just don't believe a woman can do the job. That's not only implausible, but to the extent they make it plausible they will still be repeating themselves week after week after week. Very quickly, viewers will say 'We get it, she's a woman. Next.'"
Now the flailing and gnashing of the teeth will come from the Hollywood Left who will no doubt bitch that America just isn't ready for a woman President, which is a lot of hooey. They're just not ready for a woman President that they find too unlikable (ahem, Hillary) or too Liberal.

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April 10, 2006

"24" Is Kicking Me In The Balls

Damn, this show doesn't let up. Three hours into Season Two and we've already got major bloodshed and explosions. Who knew plutonium acts so fast when inhaled? Jeez.

UPDATE: 4/11/06 10:00AM
Kiefer Sutherland has just signed a deal with FOX TV for seasons 6-8!!! So Jack will definitely be back. Any other member of the cast, however, better look over their shoulders because as we all know nothing is guaranteed for them.

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April 09, 2006

"24": Season Two

Here we go. Damn, Jack looks like shit. Understandble though.

But then, why does George Mason look like shit? Cuz he's still Director CTU - LA? He looks like he just scraped himself off a barroom floor. And what's with Roseanne Barr's problem child working at CTU?

Kim still looks awesome. Hmmm...Kim. Tough break getting the au pair job for the psycho.

The next two weeks will be all-"24". Sorry if posting is light. Need to feed this addiction.

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March 31, 2006

"24" Season One: The CTU Traitor Exposed

Just finished Season One of "24" on DVD.

RIVETING!!!!

Don't want to give spoilers but I did NOT see that one coming.

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March 29, 2006

Get "Lost" Tonight!

As exciting as the plot is getting, they just don't show enough Kate anymore...

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"If only they had one of these comfy couches in the hatch. Sigh."

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March 12, 2006

Battlestar Galactica And Politics

This post is actually in response to a comment left on a previous post about BSG. The comment read:

"Wow, major miscalculation by the Left Coast producers, judging by the reaction to the season ender across the Web! I won't spoil the plot, but the producers obviously went after Bush - to make him Baltar - and instead we see what would've happened under Gore or Kerry. And that's what people think and are angry about, apparently! They're also miffed that the Cylons are Muslims, or so they think. (Well, they do believe that their God resurrects them immediately after they commit suicide or die in holy battle, I guess.) Still, maybe it's just a TV show, people."
Interesting observations, but I have some of my own.

First, I don't look around the internet or on message boards for reaction to the show (don't have time) so what the general consensus is among fans regarding the season finale may very well be what the commenter describes. I just don't know.

Second, I don't infer any political allegory in this show at all. Ronald D. Moore no doubt has his own personal political feelings but (unless he's mentioned something on the commentary podcasts) I'm not aware that he's ever made them known. I don't think that just because the guy's from Hollywood that he thinks one way of the other. This is a different take on an already established plot idea. And certainly you can see some similarities with the current GWOT and the approach that the Bush Administration takes in fighting it.

But my own opinion is that Moore and Company haven't used the series to editorialize about current (or historical) events. And believe me I have a very low threshold for noticing that kind of thing (perhaps too low).

My take on the show is that its central premise is an examination of what it means to be human, contrasted against the culture of the Cylons. Human beings are flawed. They make decisions (for the most part) based on what they feel is the right thing to do. Sometimes they make good decisions, sometimes bad decisions. In each case, however, these decisions have consequences. And I feel that the show tries to look at what those consequences might be. I think it's more a case of "what if" than "this or that is necessarily right or wrong". While we have seen characters acting in a way they're not proud of, Moore recognizes that if a person's survival (much less the survival of the human race) is at risk there are certain unpleasant things that must be done.

I also think that as the series progresses we may be looking at an examination of what it means to be Cylon.

I don't think the show's creators are trying to make the Cylons out to be a version of the Islamofascists and I don't see Baltar (or Roslin) as representative of any particular U.S. politician. And I think that's one of the reasons that the show is so popular.

The best fiction tries to steer clear of particular allegory but rather presents the material in a way that can be interpreted as many different ways as there are people to interpret it. J.R.R. Tolkien was insistent that nothing in his work "The Lord of the Rings" was allegorical in any way to human events. This didn't stop speculation that the Ring was supposed to represent the A-bomb or that Sauron was supposed to be Hitler. But the story has been so popular for so long because each generation has been able to infer its own interpretation rather than read into anything that was implied by the author.

Okay, I'm rambling. But I think this series is unique because it is a human story and one that people can relate to because the characters are so much like us: flawed. If there's any similarity between the closing scenes of Friday's episode it would be that the Cylons are like the Nazi's occupying France in World War II. What will be interesting is not that there will be a resistance, but rather how the characters will all play a part in it.

As to Baltar, we know he is motivated primarily by self-interest. But what will he determine is in his best interest? Will he feel its better to play it safe and submit completely to the Cylons, going "Vichy" on humanity? Perhaps, but what kind of life would that be for him? He doesn't like to take orders or live that way someone else tells him. He may decide to be duplicitous and put on one face for the Cylons while all the while helping the resistance in the hope that one day they may be able to escape this fate.

Anyway, at this point I trust Moore to be even-handed in the telling of the story. As far as I'm concerned, he's given me no reason not to.

UPDATE: 3/13/06 - 1:30pm: MOORE SPEAKS!
There is an interview with Ronald D. Moore in Now Playing Magazine published on Saturday. Bottom line: this isn't a dream sequence or an alternate reality. This is what it is.

“The end of the season is quite a shake-up,” acknowledges Moore. “The Cylons show up and all hell breaks loose. Essentially, season three is going to deal with the Cylon occupation of the Colonials on New Caprica. The sort of archetype that we’re talking about is like Vichy France: There’s a Colonial government run by President Baltar that is collaborating with the Cylons, while the humans put together an insurgent resistance against the occupation. It’s a pretty big twist.”
So unless Moore is lying through his teeth, I don't see any parallels with any of the events of today being played out in the series. He also says that he'll eventually get the Colonials back out into space and that the evolution of Baltar's character will be to a "darker place".

One other note about the long wait for Season Three. Season One was essentially a short season of 13 episodes (15 if you lump in the two-part miniseries). It ran in the U.K. starting in October 2004. Episodes in the U.S. ran from January to March 2005. Season Two, also "short" by industry standards, was broken up into two runs of ten episodes each - July-September 2005 and January-March 2006. My guess is that Season Three will be the first "normal" season the show has had and going forward they will conform to the traditional Fall through Spring schedule that most other television shows follow. Plus, the extra couple of months will give Moore and his writers longer to figure out how they'll get out of this one.

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March 10, 2006

BSG Season Finale Tonight!

Let's Go.

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Episode #35: "Lay Down Your Burdens (II)"
Baltar captures the vote, leaving Roslin to consider stealing the election when she starts suspecting he's collaborating with the Cylons.


10pm Sci-Fi ** This is a 90 minute episode! **

Oh, piss up a rope! OCTOBER? This is worse than the Soprano's! Frak Me!

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March 03, 2006

BSG Tonight!

Season Finale - Part One!

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Episode #34: "Lay Down Your Burdens (I)"
The Colonial fleet is stunned to receive a peace offering from Cylon representatives.

10pm Sci-Fi

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February 24, 2006

BSG Tonight!

WATCH IT!

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Episode #33: "Downloaded"
When a Cylon's consciousness is downloaded into a new body following her death, the structure of Cylon society is revealed.

10pm Sci-Fi

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February 17, 2006

BSG Tonight!

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Starbuck's a girl? Frakin' "A"!

Episode #32: "The Captain's Hand"
Apollo assists in the search for a missing Raptor team as the new commander of the Pegasus grows increasingly unstable.

10pm Sci-Fi

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February 10, 2006

BSG Post-Game Analysis

Guest star Dana Delany:

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...is smokin' hot.

She's one of the hottest (almost) 50-year old women I've ever seen. I think I'm going to go rent "Exit To Eden". On second thought, Rosie O'Donnell is in that one isn't she? Forget it. But why the hell isn't this woman on TV more?

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BSG Tonight!

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Episode #31: "Sacrifice"
A woman takes hostages on Cloud Nine and demands that Adama turn over
Sharon in order to avenge her husband's death at the hands of the Cylons.

10pm Sci-Fi

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February 03, 2006

BSG Tonight!

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Episode #30: "Scar"
A crazed Cylon raider attacks the Colonial fleet in a series of hit-and-run attacks. Overworked Viper pilots must defend a mining operation from this raider that they nickname "Scar."

10pm, Sci-Fi

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February 01, 2006

"24" Is Such A Great Show

Even people like me who've never seen a single episode say it's the best show on television. Wanna know why? Because Jack Bauer is the number one terrorist-killing badass that ever lived.

And here's the Top 60 Facts About Jack Bauer. Pretty damn funny. If you do watch "24", they're probably even funnier.

Yips to Robbo (who hasn't seen the show either).

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January 27, 2006

BSG Tonight!

10pm - Sci-Fi.

Watch it.

That's all I have time for. Miss it and it's your own loss.

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January 22, 2006

President To Be Removed From Office

That is, the President from the land of make-believe, Josiah Bartlett - aka lefty moonbat celebrity Martin Sheen.

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Hey, when you're Hollywood and your political heroes disappoint you, you can always write a better story. Which is what happened seven seasons ago. In the wake of Bill Clinton's disgraceful second term, Liberal writers decided to huddle together and create for the viewing audience a vision of what the Clinton Presidency could have been.

It started off as a pretty popular show, but Americans eventually got tired of "The West Wing" and its ratings tanked. Now, NBC will be cutting this once-Emmy winning series from the line-up. Often referred to by Conservatives as "The Left Wing", the writers found they couldn't create Republican characters that weren't blatant stereotypes so they would often invite real-live Republicans in as consultants. Sometimes it worked. Most times it didn't.

The show apparently jumped the shark a while ago but you know that a series is on life support when it resorts to putting Janeane Garofalo in as a guest star.

R.I.P.

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January 18, 2006

What I'm Watching Update (Mid-Season Review)

Back in September, I posted a list of TV shows I planned to watch this season and why.

Now that we've hit the mid-point, I thought I'd revist that post and grade them. Click "more" to read. more...

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January 13, 2006

BSG Tonight!

Part 2 of "Resurrection Ship", 10pm - Sci-fi.

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Will Starbuck have the...ahem...cojones to blast Admiral Cain in the head? Personally, I think someone else will, first. And that person serves aboard the Pegasus.

Tune in!

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January 06, 2006

The Star Trek Manifesto

Here's a site where the guy makes a well-thought out and convincing argument that the "Federation" in the Star Trek universe (TNG and after) is essentially totalitarian in nature.

As Mr. Spock would say, "Fascinating".

Note: I'm angry at myself because when I stumbled upon it I had bookmarked it for reading later and forgot to note the referring source. If it's you, please leave a comment and I'll be sure to credit you! Apologies in advance.

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BSG Is Back!

The second half of Battlestar Galactica season two starts tonight! 10pm on Sci-Fi.

It's Galactica v. Pegasus - when Battlestars collide! And Number Six. Hmmmm...Hot Cylons.

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UPDATE: By special request, one for the ladies: Lee "Apollo" Adama (played by Brit actor Jamie Bamber)

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