Lost must have some 18th-century philosophy majors on their staff, because they keep drawing on the Enlightenment for their character names. From day one, we’ve had John Locke, of course, and then we were introduced to Rousseau. In the last couple of episodes, we’ve picked up Edmund Burke and (Desmond) David Hume. I can only [...]

I have to go on record as saying that I thought Prince’s halftime show at the Super Bowl was Super Lame. I’m not a fan of Prince to begin with, but I really thought it was awful. For one thing, he didn’t play his own music for at least 75% of the show. What’s up [...]

Up until this past week, I was a supporter of Studio 60, but not heavily invested. The show has some problems, which both Heather Havrilesky and Slate have dissected well, but I was sticking with it, mostly out of residual West Wing loyalty to Aaron Sorkin. After this past Monday’s episode, though — which is [...]

I have some advice for sitcom writers: pay more attention to your characters. I realize that it’s called “situational” comedy, but it is not enough to try and think up bizarre situation after bizarre situation to throw your characters into. We don’t watch for the set-ups.
I’m thinking of this because The Class continues to disappoint [...]

I’m no longer in the habit of blogging TV shows, per se, but I thought I’d give a quick rundown of the new shows I’ve seen and whether they’re worth your (my) time:
Heroes
Heroes gets a “boring as ass” rating from me, although Dan likes it. Now, don’t get me wrong; I love superheroes. X-Men and [...]

Well, I’ve now discovered that the NPR stations on Sirius don’t carry Morning Edition or All Things Considered. I can only assume that they have an agreement with their local member stations not to run those programs, thereby forcing even Sirius customers to support their local stations if they want those programs. Which sucks, because [...]

I have a new (apparently not so) secret crush on Mike DeGruy, I think. He’s the presenter for “10 Deadliest Sharks” and “Perfect Shark,” which have so far been my favorite programs on Shark Week. He’s so personable and enthusiastic about everything he talks about, which is adorable. Special bonus: he filmed segments for both [...]

If you missed the Saturday Night Live opening from May 13, you can be forgiven. SNL is only so-so these days, although it’s better than it was three or four years ago. We pick it up on TiVo and then only occasionally actually watch it, when we’ve run out of Friends reruns and every Law [...]

It occurred to me today that what all (or nearly all) of the survivors of Flight 815 have in common is death: Jack’s dad; Locke’s “father”; Kate’s stepfather; Walt’s mother/Michael’s wife; Ana Lucia’s partner Danny (Dani?); and, getting into the less directly-related ones, the guy Jin killed when he came home with blood on his [...]

A few things I’ve been thinking about, some by way of explanation:

I continue to find our dual celebration of holidays amusing. Neither Dan nor I “feel” Christian in any way, but we’re also not going to turn down the Cadbury creme eggs when they come around. This year’s winner for the Bizarre Blending of Holidays [...]