The Blog of Steel! SMALLVILLE Returns, Plus: Big TV Roundup, VMA's, and More Politcal Rants of Doom!

The blog is back!

It's been a looooong time coming, but finally, I have returned with more of my usual blogtastic goodness. To explain myself ... well, it's been a really busy several days. Big things going on at work - namely, you might have heard that NBC Universal is back on iTunes! I haven't really spoken about or plugged anything from work of late, but this is a biggie. If you use iTunes, log in ASAP and take advantage of all the free content being offered. Whether your TV viewing preferences include The Office, Heroes, 30 Rock, Battlestar, Monk, or The Rachel Zoe Project, there's likely something for you on iTunes right now, for free! And not only is there a bunch of free content from last season, but as of this moment there's free, pre-air premieres of the all-new Knight Rider, Lipstick Jungle, and soon, pre-air premieres of Life, Chuck, and Kath & Kim. And - many of these free episodes are also available in HD - if you have an Apple TV in particular, or just a great computer monitor - the shows are guaranteed to look great. Plus, if you download TV shows from XBOX Live, Zune, or Amazon Video On-Demand, you'll find a lot of the same special offers and pre-air premieres. So log into your Amazon account and load up on Microsoft points - what better way to kill time between marathon Gears of War sessions than with a pre-air premiere of Knight Rider in glorious HD?

So yeah, work has been busy, and I have neglected the blog. But there's a lot to talk about so let's get to it.

First up: POLITICS.

- I don't want to spend too much time on this, but all I want to say is that I echo the chorus of people who saw Sarah Palin's ABC interview last week, and shuddered as I watched, because it only confirmed my worst fears about John McCain's vice-presidential candidate.

Basically, the interview confirmed that she is not exactly an intellectual.

She may be street-smart, she may have some political savvy. But this is not a woman who knows her foreign policy. This is not a woman who knows the intricacies of the economy. This is not a woman who has nuanced and carefully-considered views on social issues. In short, whenever Sarah Palin was unable to defer to "the script," she came off like the kid in school who didn't do their reading the night before. And anyone who thinks that Charlie Gibson was unfairly quizzing here on "tough" subjects like The Bush Doctrine - well, I invite them to go to (gasp!) Fox News' website and check out the clips of Obama's recent multi-part interview on The O'Reilly Factor. During the course of that interview, O'Relly grilled Obama and went after him tooth and nail on any number of topics, and Obama responded eloquently and intelligently. Obama was so poised and articulate that he even got O'Reilly to concede on a number of key points, including on how to fix the economy. To contrast that interview with Charlie Gibson's relatively softball questions to Palin is like night and day.

The fact is this: Palin can repeat the same, already-tired lines about shaking up Washington all she wants. That kind of empty talk is quickly going to wear thin, and it won't hold up when she debates Joe Biden.

More to come on the Presidential Election soon, so stay tuned.

TV STUFF:

- Man, the Fall season is already nearly in full swing, and I still hope to do a slightly belated Fall Preview of sorts here on the blog. But let me run through a few items that I've been meaning to talk about for the last week or so:

SMALLVILLE: Well color me surprised. I went into tonight's 8th-season premiere of Smallville hoping for the best but expecting the worst. Almost all of the buzz leading up to this season had been bad - the show's two best actors, Michael Rosenbaum and John Glover, were gone, some new unproven actors were joining the cast, and the old showrunners bolted, leaving Smallville in the hands of their proteges. So, I was in slight disbelief that this was actually a pretty entertaining, well-done premiere. And it's funny, because back in the day, Smallville could always be counted on to deliver one hell of a season premiere. But I was resigned to the fact that at this point, the show was running on fumes. I was not expecting a season premiere that lived up to the standards of the show in its heyday. And while this wasn't a mind-blowing episode, I came away excited about the show's new direction, and cautiously optimistic about its ongoing potential. I don't know, the writing and acting just seemed a little bit sharper and more mature than the cartoonishness we'd become accustomed to. Even the obligatory scenes of someone being mind-controlled (why, Smallville, whyyyyy?!?!) didn't feel quite as clunky as usual. The dialogue seemed to have a bit more bite to it and a bit less cliche. And maybe it was my imagination, but Tom Welling seemed slightly reenergized, and seemed to give a little bit more nuance than usual to his performance. I liked that you could see Clark begin to separate and create a distinction between his Clark Kent and Superman personas. I liked the Lois-Clark dynamic, which seemed a little more mature than what we've been used to. The Jr. Justice League was fun, and the action was fast. I'm always impressed with how Smallville is able to do some really epic shots and nicely-done f/x, and tonight was a reminder that this really is one of the best shows on TV when it comes to conveying a big scale. In addition, there were some uncharacteristically gritty and cool-looking scenes when Clark was held hostage in Eastern Europe. Now, was the ep perfect? No, there was still a good deal of classic Smallville-style cheesiness, with a hefty helping of deux ex machina. J'onn J'onzz has been a walking plot device since he entered the picture a few years back, and he was equally pointless tonight. But man, it was great to see the show take an apparent step forward and have Clark finally ditch his family farm and take up residence at the Daily Planet. About frigging time (even if Clark never graduated college and has zero experience - perhaps he called in a favor from Perry White?). And finally, nice geeky shout-out when Oliver Queen gave the false name of "Roy Connor." Very cool. So yeah, I thought this might be my last-ever episode of Smallville ... but turns out, just when I thought I was out ...

My Grade: B+

SWINGTOWN: I never got to give one last shout-out to the one summer show that was actually worth watching this year - CBS' SWINGTOWN. The season (and sadly, probably series) finale wasn't quite the epic send-off that I had envisioned (in my mind's eye I imagined an ambitious narrative that flash-forwarded five years into the future ...), but, it was yet another quality episode and a clear reminder of why I'll really miss this show, assuming it won't be returning. But it really was a fun prime-time soap, with tons of great characters. It's a testament to the cast and the writing that the characters who emerged as favorites by season's end were really only background players in the premiere. I mean, the conservative couple of Roger and Janet really were the breakout characters when all was said and done, and I couldn't help but wonder what would happen to them once unassuming Roger ultimately ended up with Susan (his wife's best friend). And it shows ho cleverly the plot defied expectations that the crazy swinger couple, Tom and Trina, ended up being the most sympathetic, stable, and "normal" characters on the series when all was said and done. Again, I don't know what the exact breakdown on the ratings was for CBS, but I've GOT to figure that Swingtown delivered very un-CBS-like demographics for the network. As I've said before, for me, it was the first series I've EVER regularly watched on the network. And I'm a demographically-desirable 18-34 year old white male. Anyways, I give the Swingtown season finale a grade of "B+", but as a whole this was definitely an A-level show.

- I wasn't sure about the GOSSIP GIRL season premiere, but since then the show has really stepped up its game. I thought this past week's ep was a nice return to form, with the drama ratcheted up and the pieces put into place to make for an exciting initial story arc or two. And Chuck Bass had some absolutely classic lines - showing that GG's wicked sense of self-aware humor was still very much intact.

My Grade: A-

- PRISON BREAK is still on slightly shaky ground in my book as its fourth season ramps up. I thought S4, Episode 2 did a decent job of building on momentum from the season premiere, but there is a sense that the show has finally begun to lose a bit of its edge. There is definitely a certain appeal to the idea of Michael Scofield and his rough-around-the-edges mod squad using their skills to act as a secret government task force. But there's been no real justification for having the likes of Sarah or Bellick or even Sucre on the team, It weakens the premise a bit when so many characters seem shoehorned into the plot. The one guy who's really been clicking is, not surprisingly, Mahone, played with the usual gravitas by William Fichtner. The stakes are personal for Mahone, and I can't wait to see him confront the show's latest villain - the soft-spoken assassin who may soon get his just desserts. But, overall, there is still that thrown-together feeling that this season is going to have to overcome as it progresses. We need The Company and their motives to be fleshed out, and we need more of an overarching plot to drive the season forward.

My Grade: B 

- Okay, I never got a chance to talk about this year's MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS, so I'll take a second now to comment. It's now become practically a yearly tradition for me to rant and rave about how far downhill MTV has gone since it's glory days, so I won't waste time at this point talking about the general state of TV's most pathetic cable net, which went from being at the center of a cultural movement to being home to all manner of lowest common denominator cultural junk. But I will say this: last year's VMA's, best remembered for Britney Spears' epic fail of a "performance," were so horrific that this year's could have only been an improvement. And there were bright spots. Russell Brand, while not exactly hilarious, was at least something different - kind of a British Jesse Camp, so, in a weird way, a bit of a throwback to the MTV of old. I actually really like Rihanna. I give her credit - she's been the best thing going in pop music for the last few years. That "Disturbia" song of hers has been in my head and on my mp3 player for weeks now. Pink and Christina Aguilera both put on decent performances, though they were probably more notable for their elaborate costumes and choreography than for the actual strength of the music. Musically, and for sheer kick-ass factor, the highlight of the VMA's this year was definitely PARAMORE, who rocked and rocked hard. Amazing that MTV actually allowed a genuine ROCK N' ROLL band to perform, since they apparently hate all non-hip hop music at this point. I mean, there are so many rock bands out there, both up and coming and established, who could and should be on MTV. And with games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero so huge at the moment, I think it's clearer than ever that, at this point, MTV is just totally missing the boat when it comes to capturing the musical zeitgeist. I mean, The Jonas Brothers? Are you serious? There used to be a distinction between MTV and Nickelodeon - no longer, I guess. I don't know, it just still strikes me as strange that you can watch the MTV VMA's and NOT see any of today's biggest or most popular bands. Even Katy Perry, who had one of the absolute biggest pop/rock songs of the summer, was relegated to a shortened interstitial performance. MTV - stop kissing Britney Spears' washed-up ass and start putting the spotlight back on the hungry artists who deserve it. And geez, at least you always used to be able to count on the VMA's for a cool surprise or two. This year, biggest surprise was some off the cuff remark from an American Idol winner ... yeah, American Idol - a show that the MTV I grew up with would have nothing to do with.

My Grade: C

- Okay, I still need to review BURN AFTER READING, which I saw last weekend. Stay tuned for that review - coming tomorrow!