What I’m Watching this Fall

Monday: 8:00: Chuck - NBC, 90210 - CW 9:00: The Event - NBC, Gossip Girl - CW The events of last year's Chuck season finale made me cry, but also made me really excited for what's to come. Hopefully they stick with what they do best and focus on great action and comedy rather than forcing a new Chuck/Sarah relationship drama every episode. The Event is supposed to be crazy. Supposedly whatever the event is, we're left wondering how there could possibly be a second episode after it happens. I'm leery, but intrigued. And shut up, 90210 and Gossip Girl are perfectly good guilty pleasures. Hopefully Blair is back to her awesome self after her dreadful year last season. Tuesday: 8:00: Glee - Fox, No Ordinary Family - ABC Here's hoping Glee strikes the same balance of humor, drama, and music it had in the first half of the first season and doesn't try too hard fitting the story around the songs they want to sing. Of course I'm super excited about the Britney/Brittany episode though! I haven't seen a single promo for No Ordinary Family, but people keep talking about it, so I figure I should give it a shot. Besides, what's not to love about a family of superpowered people? Wednesday: 8:00: Survivor - CBS, Undercovers - NBC, America's Next Top Model - CW 9:00: Modern Family - ABC 9:30: Cougar Town - ABC Wednesday is turning into a busy night! Yes, Survivor is still on, and yes, I still watch it. And the less said about America's Next Top Model the better. Modern Family and Cougar Town just need to keep doing what they were doing last season and I'll be happy. Undercovers is by J.J. Abrams, so as a dork I am legally required to watch it. Fringe was a major disappointment for me (I heard it got better though) but this looks like a lot more fun. Thursday: 8:00: Vampire Diaries - CW 8:30: 30 Rock - NBC 9:00: The Office - NBC, Grey's Anatomy - ABC, Nikita - CW I recorded Vampire Diaries but waited for the longest time before I started watching it, and it turned out to be the best show (not just new show, but all shows) of last season. I haven't devoured a season with that much pleasure since the first season of Lost. Hopefully they can keep going strong. I don't care what anyone says, Grey's Anatomy is still a fantastic show. The combination of drama and humor is almost always incredible. Lexie and Christina wearing diapers (surgery, NASA style!) last season was genius. People said the last season of 30 Rock was disappointing, but I still enjoyed it thoroughly. The Office on the other hand was horrendous. Hopefully they step up their game for Steve Carell's last season. Sadly Parks and Recreation (possibly my favorite NBC comedy) doesn't come back till mid-season. Should I give Outsourced a try? Nikita looks so badass and fun. You really gotta give the CW credit for being able to pull off action shows. I still haven't seen Supernatural, but I've heard great things, and like I said, Vampire Diaries is amazing. Plus Maggie Q is ridiculously hot. Friday: Nothing - Come back Caprica! Saturday: Nothing - R.I.P. Legend of the Seeker Sunday: 9:00: Family Guy - FOX, Desperate Housewives - ABC Very rarely do I not get a laugh or two out of Family Guy and last season had some genius episodes, the best being Stewie and Brian traveling through all the different universes. ("Love it." "Hate it." "Love it." "Hate it.") People like to make fun of Desperate Housewives, but I still really enjoy it. Yes, the storyline of last season got resolved a little too easily, and Susan is super annoying, but overall it's still a fun hour of television. Eva Longoria is always fantastic, and the addition of Vanessa Williams this season should be amazing. What will you be watching this Fall? Am I missing anything?

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season 7 Review

Here it is. The moment you've all been waiting for! My review of the final season of Star Trek: The Next Generation! I know, I know, you guys can hardly contain yourselves. You just love reading my reviews of television shows that ended over 15 years ago (yes, you are that old). So what did I think? Well, I went in with lowered expectations since I heard a lot of not so great things about the final season. But I have to say, it was a pretty solid season overall. Probably not as high as seasons five and six, which were already a bit lower on the scale of awesomeness than three and four, but still a solid season. Perhaps my lowered expectations helped a bit. Yes, there were a few more clunkers than usual (every season has them), but overall I thought the final season was a fitting end to the series. Standout episodes included: Phantasms, where Data begins to experience odd dreams (Deanna Troi as a human cake) leading to the crew to discover strange creatures infesting the ship; Dark Page, where Lwaxana Troi goes into a coma and Counselor Troi discovers some long buried family secrets showed a great emotional side from Lwaxana that we never really saw and was a very touching episode; Attached was one of my favorites of the season, where Picard and Dr. Crusher are taken hostage and telepathically connected, which forces them to acknowledge their deep feelings for each other; Parallels, where Worf finds himself traveling between multiple universes and timelines was another amazing episode; The Pegasus, where Riker's old commanding officer needs the Enterprise to find their old ship and its buried secrets; Lower Decks, where we see a dangerous mission from the point of view of the low level officers was another one of my favorites, with an emotional impact I wasn't anticipating, especially for characters we didn't really know; and of course the series finale All Good Things was an incredible end to the series with the conclusion of Q's trial bookending it superbly. Like I said, overall I thought it was another great season. I, like the rest of humanity, could have done without the Troi/Worf romance, but thankfully, it had been built up in my mind as such a wretched idea that I was actually pleasantly surprised that it was only touched upon in a couple of episodes. Although it is a disappointment for the series to end with them remaining a couple, her relationship with Riker is thankfully resolved (in the best way possible) in the movies. I was pleased with the conclusion of the Wesley storyline. It would have been better if I thought of Wesley as a Mozart-like child all along rather than an annoying nuisance, but I can appreciate the point they were trying to convey. I was a bit disappointed with the conclusion of Ro Laren's storyline though. I enjoyed her character in previous seasons and it was disappointing to see her only back for a single episode, just to wrap up her storyline so poorly, especially given that her episode was the second to last ever, and they should have been focusing on the entire crew, and not just someone we haven't seen all season. Oh, and it was also disappointing not getting a Guinan episode this season, though she has a sizable part in Generations to make up for it. Speaking of the movies (which I'm watching this week and will give you a final review of when I'm finished) it's interesting how I feel about them now having seen the entire series. I obviously knew about the series, and had seen bits and pieces of it when my brothers and cousins watched it growing up, but I was really a fan of the movies and it wasn't until now that I've sat down and watched the entire series as a whole. And before, I would have considered the movies to be the most vital aspect of The Next Generation, they are really just a bonus. I love the movies of course, and I've love picking up little nods to the series now that I'm seeing them again, but now I almost view them similar to the appendices of The Lord of the Rings. The main event is the television series, and that is what is capable of standing on it's own as a testament to great science fiction. In a way, I feel the opposite is true for the original Star Trek. Yes, the show is great for what it is, but it's almost as if the television series is a footnote to the wonderful series of movies that came after it, though I may feel differently after seeing the original series from beginning to end of course. There we have it. I have finally seen the entire series of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and what a wonderful voyage it has been.

The Littlest Big Floppy Disk

Ten Years Later…

It's a little known fact that me and my friend Robin are Olympic level Ms. Pac-Man players. We honed our skills in college when there was a Ms. Pac-Man machine in our dining hall, and it's been magic ever since. Here we are ten years ago: And when we stumbled upon hunted down a Ms. Pac-Man machine when we were in Providence, RI this weekend, we had to hold a reenactment, not too unlike Civil War reenactments in all their splendor and magnificence: Here's to ten years of Pac-awesomeness and tens and tens more.

Turning Left is a Privilege, Not a Right

Like marriage, turning left onto a major road is a privilege, not a right. After the influx of additional traffic lights in our town, it became apparent to me that the problem can broadly be defined by residents of smaller roads not wanting to wait at intersections longer than they feel is right. But when looking at the situation a bit more precisely, the problem is better defined by people thinking they should be allowed to make lefts onto major roads at all times. I live on a road that intersects with the main street of our town, aptly named Main Street. I know that if I want to make a left onto Main Street between the hours of 8AM and 8PM, rather than turning from my block directly onto Main Street, that I need to take a few additional side roads to get to a light that will allow me to make a left easier. It adds about thirty seconds of travel time, but that time is made up by not having to wait at the intersection for the opportunity to make a left. In addition, the main shopping center in our town has a single-laned exit with no traffic light. If a person wishes to make a left out of the parking lot, they can hold up an entire line of traffic to make a left onto Main Street. Meanwhile, there is a parking lot across the street from that intersection with two entrances. If you make a right onto Main Street, you can easily turn into the parking lot across the street, then make another right onto Main Street, which will send you in the original left direction and on your merry way. Basically the point I'm trying to make is that if we required it to be easy to make a left onto all main roads at all times, nearly every intersection would have a light at it. Yes, I understand that lights are most certainly necessary at some intersections, but there are ways of getting places without having to make a left onto a main intersection. In the situation I described above, it's even faster to make the right and use the parking lot across the street to turn around than waiting for an opportunity to make a left. So really what I'm trying to say is, drivers suck and everyone should be as wonderful as me. THE END.

Star Trek Cast Members Talk About Galaxy Quest

As I was working diligently, I came across these quotes of Star Trek cast members' reactions to the movie Galaxy Quest that I thought I'd share. Patrick Stewart's is obviously the best: "I had originally not wanted to see Galaxy Quest because I heard that it was making fun of Star Trek and then Jonathan Frakes rang me up and said "You must not miss this movie! See it on a Saturday night in a full theatre". And I did and of course I found it was brilliant. Brilliant. No one laughed louder or longer in the cinema than I did, but the idea that the ship was saved and all of our heroes in that movie were saved simply by the fact that there were fans who did understand the scientific principles on which the ship worked was absolutely wonderful. And it was both funny and also touching in that it paid tribute to the dedication of these fans." -- Patrick Stewart "I thought it was very funny, and I thought the audience that they portrayed was totally real, but the actors that they were pretending to be were totally unrecognizable. Certainly I don't know what Tim Allen was doing. He seemed to be the head of a group of actors and for the life of me I was trying to understand who he was imitating. The only one I recognized was the girl playing Nichelle Nichols." -- William Shatner "I loved Galaxy Quest. I thought it was brilliant satire, not only of Trek, but of fandom in general. The only thing I wish they had done was cast me in it, and have me play a freaky fanboy who keeps screaming at the actor who played "the kid" about how awful it was that there was a kid on the spaceship. Alas." -- Wil Wheaton "I think it's a chillingly realistic documentary [laughs]. The details in it, I recognized every one of them. It is a powerful piece of documentary filmmaking. And I do believe that when we get kidnapped by aliens, it's going to be the genuine, true Star Trek fans who will save the day. I was rolling in the aisles. And Tim Allen had that Shatner-esque swagger down pat. And I roared when the shirt came off, and Sigourney rolls her eyes and says, 'There goes that shirt again.' How often did we hear that on the set? [laughs]" -- George Takei

The Best Thing You’ll See All Week

A picture from the upcoming Britney/Brittany episode of Glee, clearly inspired by the video she did with Madonna for Me Against the Music: Naturally I'm stoked about having a Britney Spears episode of Glee, and it's made all the better by centering around Brittany. I thought the Madonna episode was fantastic, though the story did strain a little too hard in order to use the Madonna songs they wanted. I think we can all agree that the episodes work better when they pick songs based on the story instead of the other way around. But as long as they stick to only one or two theme episodes a season I think it's fun.

I Can Only Do THIS if THAT – or – Snobby People

As I was walking to work today I saw someone who looked to be approximately my age smoking out of an old fashioned wooden pipe. He was hustling to work just like everybody else and smoking out of a pipe seemed like no big deal to him. "What a douchebag," I thought. Yes, that may seem harsh, but it got me thinking about people who only do stuff that meet certain requirements they've set for themselves. Snobs, if you will. But not snobs in normal everyday life, just snobs about certain things. Examples I've heard in the past include: 1. Only being able to drink Starbucks and refusing anything else. Really? Dunkin Donuts coffee is delicious, stop being so elitist! 2. Refusing to go to a movie theater that doesn't have stadium seating. Oh really, you want to drive half an hour longer to a more crowded theater and pay double the price just so you can have your precious seat? 3. Only eating sushi that is imported overnight directly from Japan. Okay, no, I haven't really met anyone like that, but I have met people that don't like going to a certain type of restaurant because surely it isn't as good as what they've had elsewhere. 4. It's dijon or nothing!!! I'm half kidding about this last one, put your pitchforks away. Let's not beat around the bush, these people are snobs. These people didn't start out in this world any different from you and me, but they've conditioned themselves to only like things a certain way. I can't be certain that the guy I saw smoking out of the pipe is one of these people ("Oh, silly child! Cigarettes are so plebeian!") but it got the big red playground ball in the brain rolling. I tried to think of things that I can be snobby about and -- not to sound all high and mighty ("snobby", one might say) -- but i really couldn't think of any. I was joking the other day with my parents about how I could hardly make out what was happening on their television screens since their DVD players were so blurry compared to my blu-ray, but obviously I was joking and haven't reached that level of snobbery yet. I almost never turn down going to a movie or going out to dinner due to what we're eating or seeing, and if those decisions haven't been made yet, I usually leave it up to the other people to decide because I really don't give a damn. That brings me to the question of the day. What are you snobby about? Or if you're perfect like me (yeah right, no one is as perfect as me) what other snobbish habits have you come across with other people?

Natalie Portman Gets Freaky with Mila Kunis in Black Swan

When Natalie Portman, my wife, isn't getting sexually harrassed by cocky and rude bloggers, she's getting sexually harassed by Mila Kunis. Check out this new trailer for the upcoming movie Black Swan by Darren Aronofsky: Darren Aronofsky makes awesome movies including The Fountain (yes, it was awesome, shut up if you didn't think so), Requiem for a Dream (which was awesome, but I never want to see it again, thank you very much), and The Wrestler (which was surprisingly awesome and made me love Mickey Rourke and 1980's wrestling).

Teach Me Something Tuesday #27

Did you know that Star Trek: The Next Generation was the first -- and currently only -- syndicated television show (a show produced outside of network television, then sold to networks for broadcast, examples include Baywatch, Xena, and Legend of the Seeker) to be nominated for the Emmy for Best Dramatic Series? It was nominated for its 7th season (most likely as a testament to it's cultural significance rather than the quality of that particular season itself) in 1994 but lost to Picket Fences. But as everyone says, it's an honor just being nominated.