The Week in TV ending 3/6/09

Die Hard meets The West Wing, Burn Notices abound, Texans continue to blow dust in my eyes, Playing catch-up with the Galacticans, and It's the Archbishop

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!

The Constitution of THE LEMMINGS SOCIAL CLUB (circa October 1984)

The Constitution of

THE LEMMINGS SOCIAL CLUB

I.  PURPOSE --

The Lemmings Social Club (L.S.C.) is a multi-faceted organization expressing wide interests, enhancing school spirit, and contributing to the social life and well-being of all members of the Washington University community.

II.  ORGANIZATION --

A.  The Executive Board will consists of one His Furriness (president), one Writing Furry (secretary-treasurer), and three Dubious Directors.

B.  A quorum of the entire assemblage of Lemmings shall hereby be known as the Gang of Lemmings (G.O.L.) as specified in section III-C.

C.  Selection Process for the Executive Board

1.  The Writing Furry and His Furriness will be elected at the end of the academic year in a general election outlined as follows:

a)  The election will be called and run by the Directors

b)  A quorum of 60% of the roster is required for an election.  A simple majority wins.

2.  The Dubious Directors will then be appointed after:

a)  nominations are taken from the floor

b)  His Furriness and Writing Furry discuss nominations and choose their preferences

c)  His Furriness and Writing Furry will appoint the Dubious Directors after the discussion.

D.  Ad hoc committees can be formed by unanimous agreement of the Executive Board.  The committees may include and are not limited to Social Activities, Budgetary, World Disarmament, Food for Cambodia, Peace in the Middle East, Save the Medflys, etc.

E.  Executive Board members can be removed by a majority of the membership as described in Sec. I-B1b.

III.  NEW MEMBER SELECTION --

A. The L.S.C. will be open to anyone without regard to race, creed, national origin, political affiliation, height, eating habits, reading proficiency, typing ability, species, or sex.

B.  Criteria for Consideration

1.  Must express a desire to become a member.

2.  Must have a current member as a sponsor.

3.  Must not be from the Falkland Islands.

4.  Must have a tolerance of Orientals or desire to be an Oriental or actually be an Oriental.

C.  All nominees will be considered and voted upon by the G.O.L.  A quorum is 50% of the membership.  A 75% vote is required for acceptance.

D.  A maximum of 15 people can be considered for membership per semester.

IV.  REQUIREMENTS OF MEMBERSHIP --

A.  The Lemming credo:

Clue thyself

To thine own self be clued

Clue others as you would have them clue you

B.  No one will be compensated for work for the L.S.C. other than their personal satisfaction and deliriousness.

C.  Attendance at all meetings unless excused by special permission of an executive.

V.  CONSTITUTION --

A.  Constitutional changes must be recommended by the Executive Board to the G.O.L.

1.  Voted upon by the G.O.L.

2.  A quorum is 60%.

3.  Simple majority wins.

B.  Suspension of the above rules can be request by His Furriness and must be approved by a majority of the G.O.L.

Getting Back in the Swing...

... the mad rush at the office will be coming to an end in about a month.  It's been a crazy time but in some ways rewarding.  It's never enough to fully compensate time away from the family, but in this economy, it's a blessing to have a job.

Hopefully this frees up more time to live a more balanced life, which for me includes more consistent writing.  Many ideas have been stockpiling in my head and I'd like to just get them down on paper, or at least through my keyboard.

As usual, I'm inconsistent about where to write... so this blog post serves as an experiment to see how well blogging and FaceBook can live together in peace and harmony.  Facebook is where I've started to jot down just a few thoughts... and hopefully there can be a good balance between public and semi-public expression with these two tools.

Mad about Mad Men (and Women)

I love TV, or more accurately, compelling storytelling on television. There have been very few times that I've looked forward to a single episode or show, savored the viewing, then spent the next day basking in the glow of excellence. Last night was one of those events: the season season finale of AMC's Mad Men.

Few shows are lucky to make it through a full season, fewer still can claim excellence in its first (and only?) season. And almost every show has a sophomore slump. Not Mad Men. If anything, Matt Weiner and company have ratcheted beyond an almost perfect first season...

Denise on TV!

Denise was on KSDK news on Thursday 5/8.


You can read the report, which include a link to the entire video, here.

How to use remote controls for light switches, click here