Rundown: Week ending in February 27th

District 9
I finally saw District 9. FANTASTIC movie. I'm still thinking about it, but will eventually write a more substantial review.

La Femme Nikita
My La Femme Nikita re-watch continues. I've finished the first season, which ends on an extreme downer, and a pretty decent cliffhanger. Had the series ended right then and there, it would have been satisfying. Since entertainment news on decade old niche shows is spotty at best online, I don't know if this was done "just in-case" the show was canceled (absolutely no pun intended for those familiar with the show) after its first season.

Season two starts off looking a lot like the second half of the Alias series premiere. Gee, I wonder where those guys on Alias got the plot to that story? The reuse of that thread was less transparent than the discussions that Star Trek Deep Space Nine ripped off Babylon 5 (and there's some pretty clear evidence to that, but that's for another day).

The spy show still centers around Nikita, an innocent person convicted of murder (which she did not commit, unlike the film "Nikita" or "Point of No Return") and forced to work for a secret organization. Section One, still protecting the free world from the dangers of evil and rogue groups, are more sinister than ever. There is no moral dilemma for Section; They're willing to kill innocent people to catch the bad guys without batting an eye. I'm halfway through season 2, and they've certainly fleshed out the rest of the main cast finally.

The Olympics
I'm enjoying Human Target, but was bummed out they didn't do an episode this week. The same goes for Community or The Office, thank you again, Olympics. I was out and about last night, so I completely missed Caprica, but will promise to watch it the moment it hits Hulu. Again, if you haven't caught Caprica, please please please catch old episodes online.

Modern Family
I'm quickly catching up on this show, and it's hilarious.

And the rest
I'm still working through M.A.N.T.I.S. the show has really hit a serious downturn now that the season has hit its midpoint. I honestly don't remember a whole lot of the later part of this show during its initial 1994-1995 airing. I did halfway enjoy the episode with the aliens that all looked like Tommy Wiseau.

I'm almost done with the television spin-off of Tremors on Hulu. Only two episodes left.

Rundown: Week ending in February 20th

Well, what a busy week. After all the snow we've had, the weather has finally started to "warm," accelerating the snow removal from the roads. People are finally making it back to work, so I guess I should too. Oh wait, I've been working harder than ever. Also, happy Birthday Adobe Photoshop (20 years) and Richmond's Legend Brewing (16 years).

Anyway, I've tried to keep up with the shows I watch, and since I'm done with the "Lost: Revisited" reviews,I had to figure out what would be next.

Well, after careful debate, I decided to suspend my "Avengers" re-watch and start my La Femme Nikita re-watch. For those who don't know what La Femme Nikita is, go watch it. Just do it, it's great. If you liked Alias (or at least the first two seasons) you'll like La Femme Nikita. The spy show centers around Nikita, a innocent person convicted of murder, and later forced to work for super secret "Section One," who are convinced she did in fact murder and believe they can train her to be a secret agent to protect the free world from the worst of the worst. Sounds far fetched? Sure. The show is extremely depressing at times, with a lot of "downers" by the end of the episode, where either the good guys (or Nikita) have failed. But through this downtrodden atmosphere comes a fantastic and gripping universe. I'm usually on the edge of my seat while watching.

I'm about 3/4ths the way through the first season, and suspect I'll finish by the end of the weekend. This season was a lot better the second time around. When I first watched it in late 2008, I wasn't as enamored by it as I was with later seasons.

Well, on further review, the season starts off pretty strong, with a lot of character building on the part of Nikita and Michael. The rest of the cast so far haven't had a lot of fleshing out. Operations is the man in charge, cold, calculating, and treating lives like pawns in a greater scheme. Madeline is little better, a slight soft touch, but that even proves to be fabricated, she is cold and at times even more calculating than Operations. Their portrayal show that Section One can be no better than the enemy they claim to be saving the free world from. Bigger things are to come, but so far - it's pretty wonderful.

On to other shows, and what better than to go to another show started by Robert Cochran and Joel Surnow, 24. This episode showed a marked improvement over the pretty lame and boring story progression that occurred in previous weeks (two episodes ago really got better towards the end, but was about on par with earlier weeks).

I'm enjoying Human Target. It's like an shorter and more over-the-top version of a James Bond movie. Mark Valley does a good job portraying Christopher Chance and I'm surprised to say it, but I'm finally liking Chi McBride. The show would not be nearly as good if not for Jackie Earle Haley's fantastic character, Guerrero. Should the show keep being this fun, and not become repetitive, it could last a while.

No new Community or The Office, thank you Olympics.

Caprica was FANTASTIC. This show really hit the ground running and hasn't let up. The show's drama is on par with some of the best programming that I've seen, and this most recent episode shows some fantastic acting from the main cast members. Please please please if you haven't watched this show, catch old episodes on Hulu.

Was Castle new? I think I saw that episode before, but I may have missed some of it before. Still good, will keep watching.

I've been watching the Tremors series on Hulu. Since the show only lasted 13 episodes, I'm almost done. I suspect I'll try to do a more substantial review later covering this series. If you enjoyed the first film, catch the sequels (skip the 4th film, it's a boring 19th century "prequel") and then catch the show.

Is this the last season of Heroes?

I suspect this is it. That was a perfectly fine series finale. Should the show not continue, I'd suggest they change "Chapter Six" to "Epilogue."

After Season 2's nominal disaster (opinion was much lower than season one), they should have sat down and really mapped out the future seasons right then and there. They weren't able to plan out a suitable ending to that season, even though they had ample chance to actually write it ahead of time, with the assumption that they may not make it to the end of the season. They only got 11 episodes in.

Even today, two seasons later, the writing staff still appear to only be pumping out episodes about 4 episodes ahead of one another, with no foresight into what is coming next. This season has been erratic at best, with "twists" that show up as quickly as they're gone (or as quickly as they are ignored).

With that said, I thought that the season's overall plot was a lot more cohesive than I expected. Way better than Volume 3. It was slightly better than Volume 2, but not as good as Volume 4, and doesn't even reach the greatness of Volume 1. I thought that the Carnival was a good idea, however the season was muddled with way too many subplots, and minor plot points that either never started, or appeared to have no foresight to what was going to happen just a few episodes down the road. There was far too much hesitation from the characters, and in turn, the writers.

I liked the concept behind the Carnival, but the execution of the season was pretty poor (mostly due to Claire's subplots this season). I just felt there was absolutely no "art" in the way they handled the show’s story lines, which is sad. It felt as though they just jumbled a few scenes together with no grace at all. Stories that occurred in adjoining episodes that that would have worked perfectly together, were just thrown by the wayside, losing any kind of deeper meaning that they could have.

They've had numerous chances to write out characters last year and this year, though that goes without saying. Every season shows characters complete their character arc, and could promptly ride off into the sunset. Nathan, Hiro (with Ando), Mohinder, Parkman, all could have been written out of the show entirely at the end of last season. Parkman's out, which was provided in one episode this season would have gone down as one of the best exits ever. Nathan's exit made a lot more sense last year compared to the one given to the character this year. Last season it was a shock when his character died, but this season it was lame. It was the kind of lame that makes you wish they had just killed off the character once and for all a while back. For those who kept up with the show, it was almost as lame as D.L.'s exit, entrance, then exit again in a flashback. Those were “perfect outs" for characters were given that were never taken, and unfortunately that meant that the resolutions were poor.

Hiro's silly tumor subplot which appears to have been resolved. This was without resorting to his acceptance of death, which would have made for a good character departure. Instead he healed by his dead mother, in some mental vision. Huh? Parkman, who would have had the *best* character departures in the show's history had he been gunned down when he tricked the person who was controlling his body, "head Sylar," into a showdown with the police.

But anyway, back to Hiro’s brain tumor. In one episode, Hiro, the time traveling character, with his own wacky "brain tumor" sub-plot, sent Mohinder, one of the original cast members, to an insane asylum presumably to keep him safe from the main villain of the season, Samuel. Of course, the writers are on record for not planning more than 4 or so episodes ahead of themselves, so it may not be too much of a stretch to believe they had absolutely no idea how they would resolve him being in the institution when they filmed the episode, though it did make for a "shocking" cliffhanger. Kind of like the fantastic cliffhangers and lame follow-ups written by Russell T Davies for Doctor Who. Mohinder’s addition in "Close to You" and "Pass/Fail" was filler at best, when he was eventually rescued. I'm still not really sure why the writers didn't just send Mohinder "home" when Hiro made him "disappear for a while" - Samuel didn't appear to really pay attention to the outside world beyond a few people (Claire and everyone surrounding her, Emma, and a handful of other 'specials'). Mohinder would likely have been forgotten by Samuel, like a good storyline is forgotten by the writers from time to time. Claire, the perpetual cheerleader of the series, more than probably any previous season, ate up the screen time. And more than probably any previous season, this was a huge detriment to the overall story.

What is sad is that the show is one of (if not the most) pirated shows on the air today. If people watched the show through legal means on HULU or NBC.com (if they failed to catch the initial broadcast), or watched the show during native country's broadcast (for international viewers), the show could probably survive at least one more season.

Unless we can be sure that Tim Kring (or someone more competent in the role) actually maps out 18-22 episodes FROM THE VERY START OF THE SEASON, it's time to end the show right where it ended. Since I don't think that's going to happen, just change "Volume Six" to "Epilogue" and be done with it.

So Far: Lost Season Six

While I don't really like the idea that the Producers of Lost "spoon feed" us answers, there are a few notable items that probably will get no more screen time to answer. Questions that really need to be explained through some sort of "official" means. This means producer approved information that actually "fits" in with established on-screen events.

To that point, I'm still not even sure what ancillary material is "canon" - the mini-episodes appear to be, the "The Lost Experience" from between seasons appears to not be but I'm not sure about something like "Mysteries of the Universe" from just a few months ago.

Personally, with the whole time-jump, I don't see why they didn't officially integrate "The Lost Experience" into the Show's mythos.

So what really "counts" in terms of the way that the material shapes the way that the creators of the show care about?

Unanswered Questions
The Food Drop is probably the biggest and most glaring issues I have that hasn't been answered, and probably won't be answered. It would appear to indicate that the Dharma initiative still exists, and is aware that someone is pushing the button. It would also appear to indicate that they know the location of the island. If it wasn't Dharma doing the food drops, why the hell would they keep up the pretense by creating "Dharma brand" food? And if it wasn't Dharma doing the food drops, then why didn't Charles Widmore just go after them instead to find the location of the island? Ben appeared to be pleased that the Button was no longer being pushed. If it was Ben/Eloise Hawking at The Lamp Post, Why would they have been providing Desmond with food all that time?

Solutions
In some ways I wouldn't mind some kind of spin-off material (Direct-to-Video, or something akin) to be produced which followed some additional "Lost mysteries" throughout the eighties. Of course, making all material adhere to the Lost mythos and having the blessing of Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse.

I suppose we won't know until the finale.