This Is Not A Secure Channel ~!

Hmm, I may have to use some discretion with this post, you never know WHO may be reading ...

But I've gotta say:

How intense is Monday night TV now with 24 and Prisonbreak back to back?

Dayum ... that was some good stuff Monday night ...

PRISONBREAK:

Wow, GREAT episode. Serious intensity, fun pulpy action, great acting as usual, and what show has better supporting players than this one? Stacy Keach owns it as the prison warden - old-school mustache and all. The guy who plays the main prison guard is so awesomely evil and slimy, you really love to hate him. Dominic Purcell is simply great as Lincoln Burrows - the scene where he seems to have finally come to peace with his execution, then suddenly explodes in rage, hurling a table and yelling "I didn't do it!" was just chilling and classic. This show is really tightly plotted as well. They did a great job of showing us all the reasons why Michael Scofield will NOT be able to pull off a last minute stay of execution -- and yet we know he has to have one last trick up his sleeve. But what is it? Nice cliffhanger, as the suspense for next week, with Lincoln about to get fried, is ratcheted up to eleven. The one scene that was laughably cheesy was when everything stops as the governor calls the Warden, only to tell him that he has NOT decided to cancel the execution! What?!?! Why would he even call when nobody else was aware he was even considering this? Very cheesy, but hey, that's what you've gotta love about this show - it has enough of a sense of fun to make stuff like that amusing rather than simply annoying. Overall, this was an AWESOME ep that was a great return for the season's best new show.

My Grade: A

24:

Well, this episode was a little bit of a mixed bag compared to the last few weeks of unbridled intensity and drama, but that ending ... the ending saved it. Overall I really enjoyed the ep -- Jack vs. the German spy, Buchanan's attempts to stave off a Homeland Security powerplay, the increasing tension in the White house - all very cool. But what was up with Tony? He is apparently dead and barely gets a sendoff? If he really is dead, which looks to be the case, this is a really lame way to send off one of the show's best and longest running characters. But, one caveat -- if Tony is NOT dead, and this is all a ruse to get ultimate revenge on Peter Weller - well then, good show. And I wouldn't put it past this show to do something sneaky like that. But come on, one way or the other, the Soul Patch must get his props, cops. Also, what is up with trying to make us empathize with CTU when, come on, they have like 5 employees at this point! Who in their right mind would allow them to head up antiterrorist operations when they just lost 40 % of their personnell in the nerve toxin attack? The fact that CTU has always had such a large role in saving the country has always been a bit tought to swallow, but at this point it's a bit ridiculous - as pretty much Jack Bauer is seemingly the only guy capable of getting anything done in all of CTU, and he doesn't even work for them. Once again they need to do a better job of making CTU look like a real functioning operation and not just Jack Bauer and Friends.

But still, the ending was an awesome twist. What other show would have the balls to pull out something like that, and (spoilers)

...

... make one of its longest-running, still-alive characters evil?!?! Okay, so we don't KNOW that Jack's old flame and DOD liason Audrey Raines is evil, but it sure seems that way. If she is, it opens up a whole range of interesting possibilities, a pandora's box, if you will - so I hope they run with it. Hmm, could there be a cabal of evil-doers whose ultimate goal is the destruction of Jack Bauer? Oh, the possibilities. In any case, this episode had some problems, but it is starting to hint at some cool potential directions. My grade: B+

THE OC:

I did succumb and watch last Thursday's ep of everyone's favorite so-two-years-ago teen soap. And nope, still kinda sucked. Although I have to say some part of me wanted to know whether Ryan would drop his leftover feelings for Marissa and just get with that new girl already. Still, aside from this small amount of curiosity regarding OC hookups, what is there left for this show to do? It has nothing to do with high school anymore, and the characters have been squeezed like a sponge for every last drop of storyline potential. Evolve it or end it. My grade: C+

DR WHO:

I taped the newest incarnation of Dr. Who and finally got around to watching this Sci-Fi by way of BBC series the other day. Some great concepts and a fine cast, but overall I had a hard time getting into it. Just too slow and too much of a mishmash of random ideas and situations without much of a driving point or purpose. I guess it was maybe just too British for me. I am usually a fan of the British style of storytelling, but as far as dramas and scifi goes they do tend to be a bit rambling and slow for my tastes. I loved some of the crazy aliens and other outlandish creatures in the second episode, but overall just had a tough time getting into the whole mythology of the show - it just seemed too meandering and without much real drama or sense of urgency. Still, there is potential and I hear good things about the upcoming episodes, so I'll prob check in periodically to see what the deal is. My Grade: C+

OTHER STUFF:

- Well, my luck in the NCAA brackets has pretty much gone downhill. But hey UCONN could still win it all, so there's that, at least.

- So I'm trying to get a writer's group together of people who want to meet weekly and discuss their writing and have it critiqued. I am really excited about this coming together, because I think I like many others work better under deadlines, and having some external motivation to actually get something done will be a huge aid in me actually doing more regular screenwriting. I have so many ideas, the trick is just seeing them through to the finish, with only limited spare time in which to get it all done.

- Passover is coming and I may head home to CT for a few days. Watch out Bloomfield.

- Food recommendation of the day: Stonybrook Farms Chocolate Underground nonfat yogurt. Not bad, and who doesn't love foods that have a chocolatey surprise when you get to the bottom of the cup? Plus it's nonfat, so guilt free. However, writing this has really put me in the mood for a DRUMSTICK, perhaps my favorite of all childhood desserts. Nothing beat biting into that chocolatey outer shell, and then eating the ice cream, chomping on the cone, and then finally reaching that inner stash of chocolate candy crunch. Seriously, what is better than a Drumstick ice cream bar? (rhetorical question)

- Hmm, I'm pretty hungry now - time to go. And I think I'm intercepting some hostile frequencies on this channel - must be the Ruskies.

Until next time, and remember: "Wherever you go, there you are."