Author: ssw15

NYC: It’s quite quiet. And, cold. Etc. NY Giants lost, NY Jets somehow won, but I’m not that into football.

The cover of the New York Daily News tv guide has a picture of the star of “Saving Jessica Lynch.” I do not know if it’s a good thing that there are movies about Jessica Lynch, the woman GI of the recent Iraq war, and Elizabeth Smart, the Colorado teenager who was kidnapped. After much criticism (deserved or not), the Ronald Reagan movie was shifted to Showtime, instead of the producing network, CBS, the same network that broadcasted a movie on Hitler. What does all this say about our society? Then there’s CBS’ “60 minutes,” with a story on the other POW’s of the war, and we have to ask ourselves – who is a hero; what is truth; are we accepting what the on-screen media is feeding us, and shouldn’t we hear other stories and perspectives, to know what is “truth”? Hmm. Some food for thought, I suppose.

WB’s “Everwood” is still interesting tv. The annoying Dr. Harold Abbott, even if annoying, is a portrayed by a subtle actor. I just hope this show doesn’t wind up spending all its time inviting guest stars (maybe it’s just for November sweeps).

“Star Trek Enterprise” is slowly improving, but it’s still frustrating, especially when it lapses into the curse of recent Trek (i.e., hitting the reset button with a time travel episode that returns us to the correct timeline, yet declining to follow up on intriguing potential consequences or focusing on consequences with shortcomings).

I’ve noticed this since the baseball playoffs, and I figure I might as well mention this now – the Delta airlines commercial, where the lady who orders her seat on-line and her seat pops out of the printer and accompanies her to the airport. The jingle is strangely catchy; I would end up singing along with it, while still not actually knowing the words. And, yes, the subliminal (or not so subliminal) message: yes, Delta, let’s see the grandest of canyons and enjoy our traveling campanion, that comfortable seat. It’s campy, but scary too (because, I don’t know, the lady seems to like her seat way too much; and watching a seat with legs dressed in khakis must be a straight out of Twilight Zone). I’d give it extra credit for being a hypnotic commercial; both eye-and-ear catching.

Better Sundays ought to be out there. Really.

I caught most of tonight’s “Angel” – quite funny and angsty, in the best of the “Angel” way, wherein the vampire-with-a-soul, Angel, fights along side these Mexican fighters (guys with masks). Angel’s trying to regain his sense of being a champion for good since he’s been feeling disconnected (since he’s currently running the L.A. branch of The Big Evil Law Firm); finding out what it takes may still take awhile for Angel, but maybe he’ll find his way.

Still can’t get over seeing the Dukes of Hazzard (John Schneider and Tom Wopat) singing tv show theme songs during that CBS 75th anniversary show on Sunday night (11/2/03). It was eerie. The two of them are caliber level Broadway actors (Wopat, in particular, having done “42nd Street” recently) and yet singing the Ballad of Gilligan’s Isle? Aye Carumba, as Bart Simpson would say.

“Alias” on Sunday nights has been a boon for ABC. After finally catching up on the episodes I’ve taped, I think I can offer some comments of my own now. After the 11/2/03 episode, I’ve noticed this: “Alias” is taking some lessons from every great soap opera, science fiction television show (such as Star Trek) , and previous spy drama: “Alias” is also finding aways so that no one (not a major character anyway) gets to die. CIA agent Sydney Bristow loses two years of her life, after having been almost killed in last season’s season finale. Sydney has no memory of what she did or where she went. Evil Francie, aka enemy agent Allison Doren in the physical form of Sydney’s late best friend Good Francie, still has some explainin’ to do. And the tension between Sydney, her ex-handler/ex-boyfriend Michael Vaughn, and his new wife/NSC agent Lauren Reed, is so thick that you’d need a power saw to cut through it. The third season of “Alias” isn’t nearly as plot-twisted as seasons 1 and 2, and I miss Lena Olin as Sydney’s morally-ambiguous mother (she and actor Victor Garber, as Sydney’s CIA agent dad) sizzled on the screen. But, “Alias” continues to be fun tv.

My apologies for being away; baseball drained me and life took hold, I suppose. Reflecting on the month of October 2003, I can say that Star Trek literature has its good and bad moments, but lately, it has been more interesting than the currently broadcasted incarnation “Star Trek: Enterprise” (previously just “Enterprise”, but apparently returning to the Star Trek name in an attempt to reclaim fans who have been unhappy with the lack of consistent storytelling in a prequel series like this). The book franchise has released the special “Lost Era” series, to cover the heretofore unseen gap between the movie “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” (the last movie on the original crew of the Enterprise, of The Original Series (TOS)) and “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (TNG). These books take lines of references about the “Lost Era” from TNG, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” and “Star Trek: Voyager” and flesh them into stories, as well as bringing to life characters who have had minimum screen time. I haven’t read book 1, since I was eagerly awaiting book 2 – and I particularly enjoyed reading it.

“Serpents Among the Ruins,” by David R. George III, which came out in October, focuses on the experience of the starship U.S.S. Enterprise-B. Captain John Harriman, of the Enterprise B, was seen in “Star Trek: Generations” (the first TNG movie, and the end of William Shatner as Captain Kirk) as one who couldn’t possibly overcome that giant Kirk shadow. Fortunately, the Star Trek novel “The Captain’s Daughter” by Peter David rehabilitated Harriman’s character and “Serpents Among the Ruins” continues the portrayal of this man and how he fits in the pantheon of Enterprise heroes. I highly recommend this book, for being an intruiging read. It demonstrates the complex galactic politics of the Star Trek universe (yep, the Romulans and the Klingons are at it again, and the Federation don’t exactly come out looking like beautiful angels either). “Serpents Among the Ruins” was probably much too descriptive than it should have been, but I couldn’t put it down. It left me thinking, “Geez, how can Harriman pull that off? Who is he kidding?” but then realized that what he did was clever – his conscience is cleared of wrongdoing and he gets the right outcome, even if his means were questionable and bizarre. Harriman’s first officer, Demora Sulu, was also a good character and the story maintained the great Trek tradition of celebrating ideals and diversity with a good story.

Peter David’s latest entry in his “Star Trek: New Frontier” series , “Gods Above,” continues the adventures of Captain Mackenzie Calhoun, a non-human and all-around crazy hero, and his sidekick, Captain Elizabeth Shelby. In this book, they have to deal with the Beings, who had presented themselves to Captain Kirk a century before as “Gods” (of the ancient Greek variety). “Gods Above” isn’t nearly as powerful a punch as I’d like it to have been, but it has its moments (Mac and his one-liners; Mac and Shelby’s maturing relationship; the boy Moke, innocent and brave; and the return of Spock). Good read.

It may be awhile before I splurge on more Star Trek reading, but I’m feeling a little better about the Star Trek franchise after I read something as good as these had been.

Head to www.dilbert.com (or check your comics pages in the newspaper first and then go to the Dilbert website) – it’s Dilbert Mystery Artist Week, where a guest mystery comics artist fills in for Dilbert’s regular guy, Scott Adams. Hilarious stuff so far. (of course, today’s strip is particularly funny if you’re already familiar with the mystery artist and his usual comic strip, a funny odd one).

Ah, the world of the Internet has ways to save a tv show from cancellation. Visit http://www.saveboomtown.com/
and if you want to do so, please sign on to the petition and consider the other ways that can be done.

The latest Target ad has amazing guest stars – the mascots of all the various products. Pillsbury Doughboy, Fisherman Gorton, M&M’s (Yellow Peanut and the red one), Mr. Peanut, and the Kool Aid guy, all colliding into Target for good deals.

Don’t know about the good deals, don’t know if I like Target, but I love the ad. It’s like some weird alternate universe.

So, Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs are out, and NY Yankees and Florida Marlins are in. If one didn’t believe in curses before, I do wonder if watching these baseball playoffs would provide some corroboration for the idea of curses against the two teams that get plagued for so long. Real or not, the mystique continues.

It is 9:10pm, EST, andI must say, it’s exciting tv – Chicago Cubs’ Kerry Wood made an unbelievable homerun, helping out his own game. Wow. This just doesn’t happen too often.

And, yes, Yankees v. Red Sox continues…

[Ed. note: Watch the advertisement at the AT&T reachout website]

AT& T Wireless’ latest cute ad: you’re watching a couple in silent turmoil. They watch other couples in happiness, while they’re gloomy and doom-stricken. Is the relationship over? Is the despair temporary? The woman is sitting by, absently at her meeting, when she sees her mate appear out of nowhere. He’s holding cue cards – “I’m sorry.” It turns out he’s not actually at her meeting; he’s sending a text message to her. “Me too,” she sends by text messaging on her little Nokia cell phone. Without words being said out loud, their relationship is on its way to being repaired, the fight resolved, so the viewer hopes.

Notably (to me anyway), the couple is a bi-racial – an Asian female and a white male. Both yuppies, if I interpret correctly from the suits they were wearing. Hmm. Television is coming a long way to reflecting reality, I guess. Or is it just looking for new ways (particularly of the eye-catching variety) to make us use text messaging? Either way, it was something interesting to watch.

Yanks v. Red Sox continues…