Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Welcome to TV-Land... and news from the Sunshine State

I've been watching all the new TV shows the last two nights while alternately knitting and working on homework. There have been some interesting programs... All three this evening had references to Mulder and Scully of "X-Files" fame ("Bones," "Supernatural," and "Law & Order: SVU"). I wonder why? Or if it's just coincidence...

Watching "L&O: SVU" right now... They're trying to indict the US Army for rape and murder for giving soldiers an anti-malaria drug known to have violent psychotic side-effects, which they concealed from the soldiers and their families causing one rape, two murders, one suicide and one attempted suicide in NYC alone (on the show, not in real life...). The DA just subpoenaed Donald Rumsfeld... got a bit of a thrill from the thought that they would do that (although I wouldn't expect him to be any more honest with a Grand Jury than he is with Congress or the American people... but that's a topic for another day.) This show's getting pretty ballsy this week. Real-life type corruption in the government (or as close as TV drama can get)... All the better to feed my conspiracy theories with, my dear.

"Bones" (on Fox) is a very interesting show... It's about a forensic archaeologist working out of Washington, DC with the "Jeffersonian Institute." ::winks:: It stars an unknown actress, Emily Deschanel, as Dr. Temperance Brennan PhD, and David Boreanaz, as Special Agent Seely Booth. Seely likes to call her "Bones" 'cause she hates it and she likes to remind him of her PhD 'cause he seems to hate that. And she's got a lot of really high-tech looking toys to play with, like catscan-type things that create just shy of instant hologram images of the dead people she examines. Pretty cool... and I'm sure there's a whole lot of forensic archaeologists would love to get their hands on something like that. The back and forth baiting between the two stars is very amusing and the science on the show is very interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing more of it. You can find out more about the show here: http://imdb.com/title/tt0460627/

"Prison Break" was on last night. That one's also very interesting. It's about a guy, Lincoln Burrows, who was set up for the murder of the Vice-President's brother. He's on death row, less than a month from his execution date, his wife isn't talking to him, his teenage son has been having truancy problems with school, no one will believe that he's innocent and he doesn't know what to do. His brother, Michael, an engineer who helped with the design of the prison and has since had the blue prints tattooed all over the upper half of his body (hidden in a very intricate devil and angel gothic motif that is very cool), has gotten himself sent to prison by pretending to rob a bank so that he can break his brother out. He has to deal with being a new guy in the slam, making enemies just because he's breathing, trying to make allies without letting what they're up to get out, and disgustingly corrupt guards. What makes it even more interesting is that they have several lawyer friends on the outside working their butt's off trying to find a legal way to get Lincoln out... but it's difficult because what they are finding is more closed doors than they should and what seems to be a government conspiracy involving the CIA and Secret Service... because the Vice-President's brother apparently found out some things he shouldn't have and was going to make them public... And every time someone gets remotely close to figuring anything out, black suits appear and they disappear. My only issue with the show is that it's not quite as gritty and cut-throat as it should probably be... but then, it's on Fox and not HBO, so one can only expect so much... More here: http://imdb.com/title/tt0455275/

I taped "House" (also on Fox). Hear that this is its second season... I don't remember it last year, but the commercials looked interesting so I'll check it out as some point this week. Of course, coming up pretty soon will be the season premieres of "Smallville" (which I'm not looking forward to because if what I think is going to happen, happens, I won't be watching it anymore) and "Lost" (can't wait, can't wait! What's in the tunnel? Where does it go? Why did Kate scream? Who kidnapped Walt and why?...) Anyway...

The reason I taped "House" was because "Supernatural" premiered on the WB at the same time, and I've been waiting for that one since I saw the preview for it after the "Smallville" season finale like four or five months ago. It's about... well, I'm still not sure exactly what it's about. It's like "The X-Files" meets "The Ring." Now, I really wish I had never gotten talked in to seeing "The Ring" because I'm still trying to block that one out, but this show is freaky in a good way... Like the main-story arch episodes of "The X-Files." It's about two brothers who are searching for their father, who has recently gone missing. Since the youngest was just a few months old, their father has been obsessed with finding the thing that killed their mother. She was attacked by something in the baby's room and her husband could do nothing but watch as it killed her horribly. He's convinced that it's some kind of... demon, I guess. **spoiler** After looking in the town their father was last seen in, only to find that he had left them a message and moved on to somewhere in Colorado, and dealing with the "woman in white" ghost that had been murdering men for 20 years in that tiny town, the youngest, Sam, insisted that his brother, Dean, take him home because he wants to become a lawyer and had an interview with a law school rep. the next morning. Upon returning home, he went straight to bed, hearing the shower on in the bathroom and figuring that's where his girlfriend was, only to look up at the ceiling to see that his girlfriend was being killed by the same silent, creepy thing. As he screamed in horror, his brother burst in and pulled him out of the room just before the whole thing went up in flames (just what had happened to their mother). It ended on a very "screw law school, let's get this thing" kind of note. **end spoiler** I'm thinking that this could be a pretty good show. One thing I particularly like is that the dialogue between Dean and Sam is very brotherly... Half the time, it seems they can barely keep themselves from escalating it into a shoving match or all-out brawl. Such as here:

Dean Winchester: Nice work, Sammy.
Sam Winchester: Yeah, wish I could say the same thing about you. What were you thinking shooting Caspar in the *face*, you *freak*!
Dean Winchester: Hey! Saved *your* ass!

Other lines I found amusing:

Homeland Security Man: Can I help you, boys ?
Dean Winchester: No, sir, we were just leaving.
[two FBI agents walk past them]
Dean Winchester: Agent Mulder. Agent Scully.

Sam Winchester: When I told Dad I was scared of the thing in my closet, he gave me a .45!
Dean Winchester: [totally unconcerned.] What was he supposed to do?
Sam Winchester: I was *nine* years old. He was supposed to say, "Don't be afraid of the dark"!
Dean Winchester: "Don't be afraid of the dark'"? Are you kidding me? Of course, you should be afraid of the dark! You know what's out there!

More info on "Supernatural": http://imdb.com/title/tt0460681/

On a totally unrelated note, but it was on the local news tonight and the reporters were bring kinda stupid and "we don't know why it's happening" about it... Alligators... Apparently, attack incidents in Florida have increased almost 300% to a present 14 per year in the last 15 years, sightings have been up and there are more incidents of alligators coming into people's yards and pools, and authorities are at a loss as to why. Hmm... I wonder? Could it be because a.) people are moving into and venturing into areas they have no business doing either (i.e. alligators' territory) and b.) people are stupid and do stupid things, like not respecting the alligator's space and feeding them(!!!)? I'm surprised that more people aren't attacked by alligators to be honest... I once saw two 8 or 9 year old kids, parents nowhere in sight, trying to *poke* a 4-foot alligator in their backyard with *sticks*... an alligator that the construction workers who had worked on their recently finished house used to throw leftover lunches to... Can you say "tonight at 11?"

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