Television Thoughts

Obviously, blogging seems to be a nervous twitch for me when I’m in an audience — I have a hard time focusing 100% on presentations, but find doing actual work-related…um…work to be too distracting for me to get anything out of the presentations. So I’m blogging for a bit. TV thougths:

– Survivor finale last night was boring boring boring. Aras is the worst winner ever: I’m #2! But worth a million bucks now. Shane was a funny guy. Crazy, but funny. I’ll probably keep watching, but it’s getting a little tired.

– The West Wing finale was pretty lame, I thought. Some nice moments, but mostly the echoes of the great moments of the series, no great moments themselves. “Bartlett for America” remembered the start of the first campaign. President giving the Constitution to Charlie remembered the Thanksgiving episode when he gave him his family’s carving knife. But it did remind me that deep down inside, I want to believe in our government and leaders. I want someone in the Oval Office (and Sacramento, and over on Olive Ave in Sunnyvale, for that matter) who I can be inspired by, who can govern, who makes me proud to be American. Maybe that’s a remnant of another time, but it’s what I’d like.

– Lost is awesome. What a great show. I don’t know who that Alvo Hansar dude is, but he had a bunch of cool stuff back in 1980.

– Thief was a good show. Sadly, gone. But means that Rescue Me is about to start, and that’s definitely good.

– (I know this is radio, but “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” was super-funny this week, with Tom Hanks telling them to Go to Hell. (they were making jokes that he’s the nicest guy in Hollywood.) But my favorite part was when they were recounting that W said last week that the high point, for him, of his presidency was catching a 7 1/2 pound fish of some sort or other. Roy Blount, Jr said: “You know, I think he’s right.”

– We’re 3 episodes behind on Big Love. That’s not a bad sign — sometimes happens to us with HBO shows. Can’t decide if I like it or not yet, but it’s creepy.

– The season finale of The Office was pitch perfect. But a painful break point. I was really skeptical about the US version, but not anymore. It’s terrific.

– I find myself wanting to watch The Colbert Report more than The Daily Show. Sort of shocking. I thought Colbert was going to get boring quickly, but it hasn’t. Weird. I’m pretty sure it’s the most respected news source in America today. Books didn’t tell me that — that’s what my gut tells me.

– Sopranos is good. Lots of foreshadowing. But I’m really geared up about Deadwood coming back. They say it could be the last season, which would be both a bummer, and potentially great, since it would give them crazy creative freedom. Sort of like The Wire, except that that ended up not being the last season. I’m both scared & excited for The Wire to return. not sure what to expect.

– Last, I could not possibly have any higher expectations for Studio 60, the new show from Aaron Sorkin. They got maxed out last night when I found out Brad Whitford will be on the show. How did Josh go from the White House to an improv show in LA? Did he get fired as the President’s Chief of Staff? Maybe we’ll find out next season, until he’s eventually replaced with Josh Malina. (sort of an Aaron Sorkin in joke.)

And that’ll wrap it up from day 1 of my OpenAjax get-together experience. I’m going to endeavor to pay more attention tomorrow, so less blogging. Probably enough for a while, anyway.