I have been holding my breath about Heroes.  Last year was such a big disappointment.  I didn’t want to jinx the chemistry that they have started building for this year.  Bringing Heroes back to it’s roots (what roots it has after only a couple years on TV)…  The whole eclipse thing is great.  Good vs. Bad.  Heroes vs. Villians.  I LOVE IT!  Angela (who the show has built us as being a villian, but it really a hero) facing off against Arthur (her long presumed dead husband who is a really bad villian).  Making Sylar their son.  Turning Sylar into a kind of good person that no one really knows what to think of.  Getting rid of Hiro’s memories, turning him into a 10-year old again.  Nikki/Jessica/Tracy…is she on the good side or the evil side?  Bringing back scenes from the first season, tying it all together.

Now this all being said, I have some problems with the show.  The eclipse took their powers away?  We are led to believe in the first episode that Sylar had his powers before the eclipse.  So did Angela and Arthur Petrelli.  And so did the Haitian.  We know Sylar and the Haitian have lost their powers.  The original eclipse (the one in the first season) did not bring about these two people’s powers, so why is it taking their powers away?

If anyone has any thoughts on this let me know.  I hope that the writers can explain this away…because as we know, anything is possible in the Heroes universe.

Posted under Television

One of the perks of working at a TV station is that I get to see screeners of some of the new shows that are coming out.  The newest one that will be hitting a tv screen near you is Lie to Me.  I’m a big fan of crime procedural shows, CSI, Law & Order, Without a Trace, I love them.  There are a few though that I didn’t care for.  Law & Order: Trial By Jury, The Jury… there has to be a likeable element to the show.  Take Bones for example.  Bones has that criminal justice system element, but yet it’s so much more.  Lie to Me is like that. 

In the pilot, Dr. Cal Lightman is a human lie detector that is hired by the Department of Justice.  But he’s also hired by a senatorial committee.

I also LOVE the fact that Dr. Lightman doesn’t always tell the truth.  In some situations, it isn’t his place.

Though the show starts out a little slow and has a cast of virtually nobodies, stick with it.  It turns out really good.  Here’s waiting til January 21st!

Posted under Television

For a show that has always kind of pushed the edge of believability, Ghost Whisperer just took another leap.  Now don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the show.  I love the character’s of Melinda and Jim.  They’re a wonderful caring couple.  My only complaint is how Melinda is always running off in the dark and Jim is just letting her. 

Two episodes ago, Jim (the big bad paramedic) ended up getting shot.  Things are going well with Jim in recovery.  Melilnda falls asleep and wakes up to Jim telling her this is how he wants to be remembered, whole and healthy.  Over Jim’s shoulder, Jim is in his hospital bed and the heart monitor is flat lining.

Jim is dead.  It’s a good November sweeps stunt.  But then the previews for this last Friday’s episode were starting to be a little iffy.  I didn’t watch this last week’s show.  I was busy.  But guess what I find out.  Jim didn’t want to be separated from Melinda.  This could have been pulled off for quite awhile.  Jim "helping" Melinda cross ghosts over.  Then during February or May sweeps, Melinda could finally convince him he needs to cross over.  But no, instead Jim spends one episode following Melinda around and bam, he decides to enter the dying body of a car accident victim.  Only catch is that he doesn’t know who Melinda is, but when Melinda looks at the victim, she sees Jim where others see the victim. 

I think it’s about good-bye time for Ghost Whisperer.  It was a very good show, but it jumped the shark big time.

Posted under Television

Okay, I’m not a big fan of Fear Factor.  Never have been.  I liked Joe Rogan (the host) well enough, but just didn’t see the appeal.  But take the creepy crawly bugs and phobias that people are facing and throw them into a different setting…and I like the show.  Go figure.  Estate of Panic premiered this week in a prime spot (following Ghost Hunters) AND had the added benefit of having Steve Valentine (Estate of Panic’s host) co-host the Halloween episode of Ghost Hunters along with Destination Truth‘s Josh Gates.

The show consists of seven people ransacking a "crazy billionaire’s" home for money.  Only thing is there are icky things all over the house.  In the pilot, the basement fills with water and snakes while the contestants are searching throughout for wads of cash.  The last one out (the one who’s too greedy) is out of the game and locked in the basement.  After the contestants present their money to Steve Valentine, the one with the least amount gets sent home.  Soaking wet and without shoes, the contesants are shown to the garden outside where there are "high voltage wires" strewn about.  The wet contestants get zapped as they collect money.  Again the last one out and the one with the least amount of money are out of the game.  The last three contestants are shown to the study where there are two glass containers, one full of earthworms, one full of crabs.  Oh, yeah…the ceiling starts to lower until they are crawling around on hands and knees.  The one who survives gets locked in a vault…and chained to the ground.  It’s all bizarre, but it had me on the edge of my seat and wanting to see the outcome.  It was like a bad train wreck.  I can’t wait til next week.

Posted under Television

Michael Crichton died on Tuesday.  This news got lost behind the fervor of the election.

He died at age 66 from a long fought private battle with cancer.

The first Michael Crichton book I read was Jurassic Park.  I read this after watching the movie which came out in 1993.  (I was only 12 when I read this book.  As I’ve said, I’m geeky…give me a break.)  After this I read Disclosure (before it came out as a movie).  I was then hooked on Michael Crichton and growing up, received many of his books as Christmas gifts.  I learned more about DNA and genetic mutation from The Lost World…the Bernoulli Principle (how planes stay in the air) from Airframe…quantum physics from Timeline…

As a freshman in college, I surprised an intructor, who was a NASA scientist before he retired to the north, about what I knew of quantum physics and the fact that I grasped the concept.  He was even more surprised when I said that I had learned it from a book.

Michael Crichton was an extremely intelligent man.  Besides his work that was translated to the big screen, he was behind the creation of ER.  The man graduated from Harvard Medical School…much to his fighting it.  He never went onto really practice medicine.  If you have read any of Michael Crichton’s works and enjoyed them, read his book Travels.  It is somewhat autobiographical and great.  It was written in 1988, before he became a household name.

I will miss reading his newest delusions… 

Posted under Books