It's the first week of February sweeps (which thanks to the now canceled digital TV switchover is in March), and what great viewing there's been. Thanks to some downtime from dental surgery I got a bit more viewing in than usual and cleared off a backlog on the DVR.
Die Hard meets The West Wing: The 'Die Hard' part isn't original (I'm sure I read this in Sepinwall's blog) but I added The West Wing part. "24" always stretches plausibility, sometimes ludicrously, but to have a renegade general actually take over the White House with First Family hostages? It's not the What that they do, it's How they make us feel the pain and angst that have made this episode and this season among the best of the entire series.
Burn Notices Abound: I started watching Burn Notice as season 2 started, doing a marathon of season 1 wherever I could catch reruns. What started out as a cool spy-thriller-conspiracy diversion (with a bit of Robin Hood magic for the clients of the week) has morphed into absolutely must-see TV. There aren't many recent movies or even TV series that have packed this much intrigue, character development and action per minute that I can recall. USA Network has got a fan in me for life. (No spoilers here -- you just need to watch this)
Texans continue to blow dust in my eyes: Friday Night Lights, you have officially returned to season 1 form, where the benchmark was how many times did I wipe a tear from my eye. Yes, the plotlines definitely stretched credulity -- Jason Street goes to NY to get a job as a sport agent (which are hard for even Harvard grads to land), but does it really matter when all TPTB (the powers that be) want is to showcase the relationships on the show? Who cares that Tim Riggins is AWOL from practice to help Jason on this quest -- Riggins has missed so many practices over three years I wonder if it's easier to count the number of times he's actually shown. What matters is "Texas Forever!" friendship between these lifelong buddies. More detail in a future post where I'll also contrast the Coach/Principal Taylor marriage (best on TV) to the sweetheart romance of their daughter Julie with former QB1 Matt Saracen.
Playing catch-up with the Galacticans: Battlestar Galactica may be the best drama on TV right now as it ramps up to its series finale in a few weeks. When my former DVR crapped out last spring I fell behind, then decided to stockpile reruns to watch in marathon form. In some ways its Sci-Fi setting is a hindrance -- most people see the spaceships and the robots and think, oh it's geek culture. But its Sci-Fi characteristics are actually powerful devices for exploring human nature and tremendous metaphors for our own post-9/11 world. Week in and week out I'm impressed with the ambition, vision and execution of these story tellers, and will miss this greatly after it ends in a few weeks.
Lost: I'm trying to keep these weekly recaps to only five shows, but need to mention this week's Lost. From a strict mythology perspective, there was nothing really new here. What's been amazing about Lost lately is how, even in a fill-in-the-blank episodes, they make us care about secondary characters. I never cared much for Charlotte until the last three episodes before she died; and this week it was Juliet's turn. Impressive.
It's the Archbishop: But the TV event of the week, and perhaps of the year so far, was Archbishop Desmond Tutu guesting on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. I heard the Archbishop speak for almost an hour at a national youth gathering here in St. Louis in 2000 -- he's an engaging and inspirational speaker, even without his contribution and notoriety from the South African Apartheid struggles. And most people know I'm a huge fan of Craig Ferguson because of his ability to effortlessly switch from the inane to the serious because of his openness. To have the two share the screen for half an hour, plus the preceding half hour during which Craig prepped the audience for Father Tutu, made for one of the best hours of TV I've ever watched. Such a beautiful pairing of intelligent, sensitive, focused gentlemen. Fantastic viewing this week!
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