The Daily Show [Jason Jones in Iran was exceptional TV, imho]
The Colbert Report
True Blood - back for the second season, good stuff.
Burn Notice - more season premiere goodness. Just a well crafted and acted show. Bruce Campbell is awesome, as per usual.
Fights - TUF, Strikeforce Challengers, The Ultimate Fighter Finale, UFC 100, Ultimate Chaos and a couple fights from K-1 Max World Final 8 tourney. Straight up boxing I rewatched the old Marvin Hagler V John Mugabi, and Hagler V Leonard fights. I still remember wanting Hagler to destroy Leonard, and in rewatching the fight it's just amazing how well Sugar Ray fought and kept Hagler from fighting his fight. Astounding boxing.
Joe Rogan - Talking Monkeys in Space Spike TV Comedy Special. Hilarious.
Better Off Ted - consistently one of the quirkiest shows I watch. In a really good way.
The Philanthropist - new show that I checked out on a lark and didn't have a lot of hope for, but it surprised the hell out of me. I really dug it. Must be my white liberal guilt.
The Closer - I watch this mainly cause the Mrs enjoyed it... and too often I find the characters a little grating and the plots overly predictable. But the third ep of season, co-starring Mary Mcdonnell from BSG as an IAD investigator kicked all kinds of ass.
Iron Chef America Octopus Battle.
Watched two documentaries on raw foods, as cleaning up my diet is an ongoing process. And while I doubt I'll ever go vegetarian again, incorporating more fresh fruits and veg are always a good thing. Watched Simply Raw and Raw for Life. Both interesting and well done. Particularly the aspects of controlling diabetes through nutrition. But I recoil from the way in which food kind of becomes a religion for some the folks, and those who are shown, by their own experience, how dietary changed can have positive effect on their lives, but refuse to follow through - I have little to no patience for those whiny bastards.
Hung - new show on HBO with Thomas Jane. High school basketball basketball coach going through divorce and a midlife crisis turns to male prostitution. Wry and funny. May give Breaking Bad a run for its money in dysfunctional ways to reinvent yourself.
Eureka - is back! I dig this show. Not the world's finest TV show, by any stretch, but it's FUN. Which is all too often lacking in TV. Witty, genial, interesting, well casted and well crafted.
Probably the best thing I've watched this past month has been Torchwood: Children of the Earth. Despite my geek cred, Doctor Who has never really been on my radar. Never actually watched it, to be honest. Knew OF it, of course. Cult status, UK, longest running, etc, etc. And I'm a huge fan of a lot of UK writers for whom it's a cultural touchstone. And even though the revival featured showrunners and writers whose work I enjoyed [Russell T Davies and Steven Moffatt, Queer As Folk and Coupling - respectively] I still hadn't watched any of it. What with all the history, I felt as if I'd always be behind the curve and there was no good jumping on point.
But Torchwood: Children of the Earth has been getting some rave reviews on a bunch of the geek TV sites I frequent, and given that Series 3 is only 5 eps, I figured I'd give it a swing.
It. Was. Awesome. The characters and the actors are extremely well drawn and gifted talent. The High Concepts were novel and unusual. I particularly enjoyed the sickening twist that - SPOILERS ON - the aliens wanted to abduct the kids not due to a survival of the species issue, which would be the standard trope, but because they USED THEM TO GET HIGH WITH. Brilliantly freaking evil, that was, and made the government's willingness to cooperate that much more appalling.
The government 'banality of evil' caught the attention of a lot of reviewers, the way the bureaucrats and politicians calmly and efficiently went about divvying up the youth of the nation to sacrifice, using the soft language of "units" to depersonalize and mitigate the horror of their actions.
I particularly liked the completely unflattering portrayal of how the echelons of government operate, despite the hand wringing and occasional pangs of conscience. Thoroughly appealed to my more cynical side. And having studied the Wannsee Conference in college, and having rewatched the 2001 dramatization Conspiracy earlier this year, it reinforced that the only way to do real evil is to make it policy.
Group dynamics are such that political, religious and corporate organizations are specifically designed to salve your soul as you commit the most horrible actions. BY DESIGN. You sacrifice for the higher good of the state, for your god, for your company - and that excuses EVERYTHING.
But besides the acting, production, plot and writing, I really dug on how it took all the standard cliches and tropes of scifi and fiction and basically just kicked their teeth in. Can't run away from your problems? You can on Torchwood. Heroes win by doing the right thing? No, the "heroes" "win" by doing shit just as evil as the bad guys. The villains attack you for no good reason other than their own evil nature? Nope, on Torchwood the villians come to play because you did evil shit with them decades ago. And on and on.
And also the lead is a dashing, swashbuckling bisexual. Which just cracks me up. And reminds me how limited and ridiculous the TV in my own home country can be. Definitely gonna be checking out more Torchwood and Dr Who after this. Two thumbs way, way up.
Speaking of cliched scifi, I also watched Star Trek: Voyager Seasons 1-3. This the only ST series I haven't really seen a lot of of. TNG, DS9 I've probably seen all the episodes of. TOS I've seen, like a lot of folks, a bunch of, and the rest I've culturally assimilated. Watched Enterprise off and on [the beginning and end far, far better than the middle.] Seen all the ST movies, including the newest kickass reboot. I enjoy Star Trek, as a series, as a genre. Never got into Voyager. The handful of eps I'd caught struck me as flat and not really engaging. But I figured I'd watch from the top and see if I dig it.
The best that can be said for the show, at least through Season 3, is that it's painfully uneven. There are some good episodes in there - Eye of the Needle, Heroes and Demons, The 37's, Projections, Meld, Basics, Flashback[Sulu!], Future's End [worth it alone for Sarah Silverman and Ed Begley, Jr], Warlord, and Real Life. A couple of the standard Star Trek heavy-handed metaphorical episodes were in there as well, though I'll admit to liking Distant Origin and great deal better than Jetrel.
There ARE some excellent character beats and some good acting. And the concept of the show, stranded in remote space, desperate to get home, forced to unite with your enemy for one common purpose - that's a genius high concept.
The thing is, that's a great concept that they do nothing with. It should feel like a desperate, mad race to get home, by any means necessary. Instead it devolves into a plodding, meaningless, kind of pointless farce. Typical alien of the week, "trade missions" - [you will never see this race or this quadrant again - you don't need a damn trade conference!], "Oh, we've happened upon this anomaly! Let's check it out" nonsense.
Instead it's the business as usual, uptight, middle class, Federation bullshit. Where the Prime Directive matters above all else, except when it doesn't. Where the captain and crew will blow a perfect opportunity to get home in order to fight the evils of... wait for it... capitalism! Bending and twisting the Prime Directive at will, except when it would help them get home. [False Profits, the Ferengi episode - which stuck me as misplaced, heavy handed and kind of dumb. Despite great performances by the Ferengi.]
Tuvok is a great character. As is the Doctor. Lots of cool issues and stories about identity, control and reality there.
But the show, overall... kind of pointless. All the other series had something. TOS was, well, the groundbreaker. The innovator. TNG shows the Federation in literally, a new generation. The scope of the future increases, a great new cast of characters, lots of good ideas. DS9 brings politics, war and religion into the mix like never before, season spanning arcs, depth... Enterprise tried to go back and show how it all began, with varying degrees of success. Voyager is supposed to be about... people trying to get home?... but it's not. It's kind of dull. And Kate Mulgrew is a fine actress, but I can't shake the feeling of having Katherine Hepburn on the bridge. And not in a good way.
Though I have to say the Janeway centered Sacred Ground ep was pretty interesting in that it got - spot on - secret society initiation rituals. It was like reading the Historical Illuminatus again. I'll keep checking out the series, because the actors are pretty good, even though the material is lacking. Plus, the Borg just showed up.
Lt. Reginald 'Reg' Barclay III: Lewis, how would you rather think of yourself? As a real person, with a real life, with a family that loves you? Or some...hologram, that exists in a sickbay, on a starship, lost in deep space?
Commander Chakotay: It doesn't matter what you're made of. What matters is who you are. You're our friend; and we want you back.
Lieutenant Tuvok: The Vulcan heart was forged out of barbarism and violence. We learned to control it; but it is still part of us. To pretend that it does not exist is to create an opportunity for it to escape.
Kes: To be honest, I never want to see that part of myself again.
Lieutenant Tuvok: To which part are you referring?
Kes: To the part of me that got pleasure from destroying those plants in the airponics bay. To the part of me that was tempted to go with Tanis. I never realized I had such dark impulses.
Lieutenant Tuvok: Without the darkness, how would we recognize the light? Do not fear your negative thoughts. They are part of you. They are part of every living being - even Vulcans.
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