Miller Vs. Miller

In the span of two days, two fading stars named Miller face turning points. One embraces greatness, the other continues to fall. More on that later. First:

Well another day where I come home from work ridiculously tired, not because I worked particularly long hours or anything but just because, I tell ya, some of the personalities I have to deal with requires a lot of energy expenditure and a hefty dose of patience.

As I was coming home today I did witness a Hollywoodrific example of unstoppable force meeting immovable object, as the late great Gorilla Monsoon used to say. Basically, as I walked to my car, past the Ellen artist's entrance, out comes Taye Digs into a limo, but wait, it wasn't the star of UPN's Kevin Hill that caused such a commotion, it was Mariah Carey, who soon after exited the show into her own large caravan of black vehicles. And who was arriving at that very moment? None other than J-Lo herself! Yep, these two titans of diva-hood had a near-miss, and I guess that's for the best, as a run-in of the two could cause the universe to implode, or maybe just a big-azz catfight. Crazy.

Anyways, today brought some interesting news which directly affects us pages, as it was revealed that Dennis Miller's CNBC show is, in fact, cancelled, after a number of conflicts between Miller and CNBC. It's weird - having worked at the show it really gives you a new perspective on cancellation - I mean sure Miller will go on to other things, but all the people I've met who work there are suddenly and sadly out of a job, just like that. It's a tough business, that's for sure. I think that Miller's show had a decent format, but Miller's recent stubborn political conservatism alienated him from his old fanbase, which I would guess were mostly liberal intellectual types who enjoyed him back in his SNL days. Sadly, Miller himself often seemed less than 100 percent committed to his show, and you could see that in the uneveness of his performances. I myself appreciate that he has an original comedic voice and a smart if sometimes obscenely incomprehensible style that few could fully understand and see the humor in. Hi show was also way too unfocused, featuring everything from political panels to celeb interviews to cooking segments, and you never quite knew what to expect from it. I will say also that I will miss working at the show. It was a nice change of pace from Leno and Ellen, at least making an effort to present thought-provoking topics and doing something a little different. His opening video highlight real had some CLASSIC comedy moments from the show's brief lifespan. There was Don King kissing up to Dennis ("Dennis Miller, I would like to promote YOU!"), this really flamboyant reporter interviewing people at the Republican National Convention ("I am not a crazy old lady!"), and of course Tim Meadows bashfully skinnydipping at a nudist colony. Funny stuff. Where does Miller go from here? Who knows, but since CNBC is so focused on becoming a channel about business and business related news only (oooh, compelling stuff that is for a TV station), he won't be popping up there anytime soon. As one poster to the Daily Kos website states: "A tragedy this big hasn't been seen since the Visigoths conquered Southern Gaul." Hahaha ... don't get it? Exactly.

NBA PLAYOFFS:

Now let's talk about another Miller - that's right, Reggie Miller - who last night had a few more great moments to help the Pacers defeat the Pistons in an amazing game that saw the Pacers even their series with Detroit at 1 game a piece. Great game and it was amazing to see the determintation of Reggie to put some points on the board at key times in the game. Kudos to Jeff Foster who had a career game (20 rebounds!) and Jamaal Tinsley and Jermaine O'Neal, who had huge contributions as well. Weirdly, this series is really paralleling the Dallas-Phoenix series, which has followed the exact same pattern of a blowout by the hometeam and then a close victory by the road team. Phoenix, overall, is playing great and looking unstoppable if they can keep up the pace, though Dallas may have something to say about that.

TV ROUNDUP:

LOST:

A pretty good episode this week, though a little slow paced, and Kate's flashbacks were frustratingly short on real answers about her past, which seems more mysterious than ever now. I was left wondering what Kate did to her mother that made her so unwelcome at her hospital bed, and also what she did to become a fugitive in the first place. Kate's character has been one of the show's trouble spots, as the writers can't seem to decide if we are supposed to root for her or be suspicious of her apparently manipulative ways. I know it's supposed to be left ambiguous, but it just seems inconsistent. Otherwise, the stuff with Locke and Jack, and with Michael and his son, was great. What is in that freakin' hatch? I can't wait for the season finale, but with the pace they're going at it seems like it will be years before we get any answers. My grade: B

JACK AND BOBBY:

A great, great season finale. Looking back, it was, in it's way, over the top and heavy on the cheese. But I was totally caught up in it. In all honesty, I woudn't mind much if this was the final episode of the series, because it wrapped up so well and really seemed like a goodbye to the characters. Throughout the season I've complained that Jack was unrealistically stoic, but all that lack of emotion was paid off big time in this ep - I swear that was an amazing scene when Jack meets his father for the first time, and just breaks down and cries, showing emotional vulnerability for the first time, well, ever. Damn that was some powerful stuff. All of the scenes came together really well, and the pieces of the puzzle really fell into place. Finally we see exactly how Bobby becomes President and how Jack comes to suffer his final fate. A very nice ending to a show that really, really improved and found its focus over the course of the year, and in the end turned into one of the most emotional, smart, inspiring and epic series on TV. My grade: A

Smallville: Wow, that sucked. This series has really hit rock bottom. Sure, there were a few decent character moments between Clark and his father, and Lex and his father. But the plot, oh my God, that plot was atrocious. The writers clearly have no clue how to create a convincing villain for Clark aside from Lex, and the amazingly crazy plotline of this episode was testament to that (I won't even go into it here because it's so absurd, even for a show about a young Superman). Now despite all that, I am still looking forward to the season finale. This show tends to run on cruise control for much of the season, but rarely fails to deliver the goods in its movie-length season enders - so I still have faith that they can bring closure to a year's worth of crappy storylines in a fun, exciting way. But wow, looking at this ep, the Jason Teague / Lana / tattoo /caves / reincarnation plotline has been so completely nauseatingly awful that it's gonna be painful just to see it brought up again in any subsequent episodes. Please let all of these terrible plotlines die and refocus this show on bringing the classic Superman mythology to life. My grade: D

THE OC - Decent episode that dragged for much of the first 40 minutes or so, but dayum that last 5 minutes was a sweet cliffhanger for next week's season finale, which is shaping up to be one hell of an episode. The adults on the show have really become a lot more interesting than the teens, and it shows in how played out the Seth-Summer, Ryan-Marissa stuff is, even as the Julie Cooper plot is really stealing the show. Oh, and who knew poor George Lucas regrets missing his prom? Talk about pointless guest appearances ... Could you imagine Lucas actually making a movie based on Seth's comic? That might be the worst movie ever, I mean talk about being out of ideas - oh, let's go mine material from a 17 year old's badly drawn comic about a bunch of teenage heroes with stupid names. That'll work. Actually, that doesn't sound that improbable, which is scary. My grade for this episode: B -

Well, that was a lot of writing. Tommorow promises to be crazy as usual, so I gots to get my rest. Oh and hey, George Lucas, I have some material you can use - it's called IBA: The Movie, and I think it could be bigger than Star Wars, no joke.