Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Idol thoughts and other non-Lost related TV stuff

Happy LOST day, everybody!! I'll be posting the latest installments of Doc Jensen's interview with Damon and Carlton later, as they discuss their defining moments of Seasons 3 & 4, as well as their thoughts on how people are dealing with the sci-fi elements of the show.

But there is some other stuff on TV that I'm watching...I know you're shocked.

First of all, last night's American Idol...ugh. That was everything I normally hate about the audition episodes, and the less said the better. I don't understand how we actually got MORE filler crap during the one-hour audition episode than we did in the 2-hour episodes last week. I mean, we're going to watch a dude work a Rubix cube? Seriously? And then the guy couldn't even sing, so it was a total waste of time. The segment with the Puerto Rican chick went on about 5 minutes too long, and although she wasn't mentally challenged per se, I think it's safe to say she was at least mentally disturbed. At least she was a decent singer. And then we spent another 10 minutes on Jesus...nice guy, cute kids, boring voice.

Then there was the girl with the braids who couldn't pronounce any words correctly...was it necessary to spend about 10 minutes on this person? She had no talent besides being an obvious product of our public school system. Even PAULA walked out on her. I totally agree with Kara on this one when she asked Simon why he yells at some people, and then encourages others to just go ON and ON.

The result of all this time wasting was that we didn't really get to see any talented singers, which is what they said they were going to focus on during the audition process this season. The guy who has been in "Wicked" for the last year and a half was good, everybody else was just meh in my opinion. They sure did show a bunch of people with golden tickets there at the end, though...it would have been nice to have heard some of THEM rather than spending the entire show dealing with all the other crap.

Hollywood week can't get here soon enough.

On to better things...

24 appears to be BACK. Last season was a disaster of epic proportions, to the point where I swore off the show. But I was intrigued by the "Redemption" promos, so I watched the prequel, and it hooked me back in. This season has been great so far, with some real "old-school" type 24 moments. This past week's episode even included the "silent clock" at the end....does that mean Agent Walker is dead? Probably not, but it was still a cool act-out scene, with Jack throwing that last bit of dirt on her, from her perspective. And the stuff going on right now with the First Gentleman freaks me out...that's something that always gives me the willys, when people are completely paralyzed but concious. That's just creepy. That's like the whole "I'm awake but they don't know it, and now they're doing surgery on me" stuff. ::shudder::

So far, so good...hopefully they can maintain this through the end of the season. We've gotten a lot of what would normally be considered pretty big reveals (the Tony situation, the fact that the FG's Secret Service guy killed Roger, etc) very early in the season...wonder what else they have coming?

And one more returning show last night...Fringe. This show is really starting to find its stride, and they've even made Olivia more interesting in the last couple of episodes. That whole ending sequence last night was VERY interesting, as Olivia ended up making some points I had not really thought about. Why DID her abductors keep her alive? Why DID Mitchell react that way to his wife's death, and what does he mean "You don't even know what the sides are?" Good stuff. And, of course, Walter steals the show again: "This kind of stuff used to happen in the lab all the time...it makes me feel NOSTALGIC"....as he holds a trash can over a gigantic slug that can go about 50 miles an hour. HA!

OK...back to our regularly scheduled LOST Day broadcasting!

1 comment:

Shan said...

I liked the "second pilot" of Fringe. They did a good job of giving new fans (post-Idol) an idea of what was going on, without beating the rest of us who have been watching since the beginning over the head. And you're right about Olivia. I've liked her all along, but many critics have found her too dour or one-note. I think they made a conscious effort to show her smiling (with her sister) and amped up the badass quotient (her escape from the lab, among other things). Great start to the rest of the season.