New Season, New Season Passes

Here's my thoughts on some of the new shows that I've watched recently:

Las Vegas: This show has potential. It's got a high production quality. The first episode has the same problem as many pilots, packing too much in to one hour. Will be good if it has interesting stories. Two and a half stars.

The Handler: Another interesting show that packs too much into an hour. The
premise is interesting and the acting is good. Not superb, but I can see myself watching this every week. Three stars

10-8: It's like a cop show combined with The Wonder Years. It's a collection of cop show clichés, and it's also trying too hard to be friendly. It's hard to believe the main character was ever a New York street punk because he's so nice. Two stars.

I was disappointed with the Boomtown premiere. All of the characters were flat. The episode almost redeems itself with the McNorris appearance at the end.

1000 Killed in Segway Related Accident

Segways being recalled because of software problem

The interesting thing about the Segway to geeks is the intelligence of the technology. As Michael Crichton has repeatedly warned us, using AI to control real world things is dangerous. You could be attacked by Dinosaurs or Serial Killers. Or fall flat on your face.

So Shall You Reap

This week Junkyard Mega-Wars featured harvesters. The concept of the challenge was interesting but only one of the vehicle designs was interesting, and both vehicles underacheived when out in the field. Two stars, a real disappointment.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

TV REVIEW: Carnivàle
In the midst of the great depression, Ben Hawkins(Nick Stahl) is taken in by a traveling carnival after his mother dies. There's something supernatural going on at the carnival, and it seems Ben has some sort of healing power. Meanwhile, a preacher (Clancy Brown) is having strange visions. The show has a strong Twin Peaks vibe of mystical strangeness but does not appear to be as obtuse. The concepts aren't entirely original but the execution is good. Production quality is very high and the direction is good. A pression era feel of decay is clearly conveyed. The show's biggest flaw comes from the lack of obvious conflict. We know there are secrets to be revealed but we do not know what the immediate issue is. Three and a half stars, though I wouldn't be surprised if the show fails to gel before the end of the season.

Stuff Blows Up South of the Border

MOVIE REVIEW: Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Directory Robert Rodriguez returns to his roots with this sequel to El Mariachi and Desperado. The legendary gunfighter known as El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas) is asked by rogue CIA agent Sands (Johnny Depp) to kill a general who killed the gunfighter's wife (Selma Hayek), but only after the general has killed the president of Mexico. The plot of the movie isn't great. The action is spectacular. The movie is quite violent at times but also quite funny. It doesn't take itself too seriously. Johnny Depp practically steals the whole movie. Three Stars, entertaining but without much weight.

The Day the Laugh Track Died

Actor John Ritter dead at 54

I don't think anyone expected him to be outlived by Don Knotts.

Higher Quality Junk

The Junkyard Mega-Wars for this week was Rock Climbers. Despit the fact that the challenge was just another variation on "make a car" the show was good. The vehicles were impressive and the crazy character aspect of the show was toned down, though the new format isn't good and the hosts are still awful. The challege was well designed and well contested. Three stars,or two more than I was expecting to give the episode.

I Don't Get It

Coming Soon pages are apparently evil. I guess. I suppose this is because of the adverts Register.com added to the page. So what. A petty thing to sue over, as indicated by the petty pay out of $5 to every customer off their next renewals.

Class action lawsuits do very little to help the consumer. Greedy lawyers get big payouts from companies. The consumer gets a coupon.

The Truman Show Meets Survivor

TV REVIEW: The Joe Schmo Show
Spike TV's is willing to put any wacky! show idea on the air. This leads to some very bad programming. Most Extreme Elimination Challenge is so dumb I don't know how anyone could watch it. Ren & Stimpy's Adult Party Cartoon is too gross for the tastes of anyone I know or would like to know. Gary the Rat is like a half hour test pattern. A few of the things they air actually work. Stripperella is funny when it's not trying to hard to be sexy. Slamball is a well thought out sport.

The Joe Schmo show is another wacky! idea. The producers create a parody of a reality TV show; It's a copy of Survivor set in a mansion called Lap of Luxury. All of the contestants on the show are actors except one. Matt Gould. Law school drop out, pizza delivery guy. Not a rocket scientist. He doesn't know that he's the only real contestant and that the whole show is scripted around him.

The fake contestants are stereotypes so broad I can describe them in one word. Jerk, Buddy, Slut, Quack, Virgin, Gay, Schemer, Veteran. Some of the acting here is pretty bad, especially the scheming Survivor fan Gina. Especially hammy is Ralph Garmon as the host. His over the top performance may be the funniest scripted element of the show.

The entertainment from reality shows comes from reality, tautologically. The reality of watch real people react to odd situations. Condensed down to the most entertaining moments, of course. The more real the reaction the more we feel for the show. When people who act like they just walked out of central casting try really hard to be cool the show fails, as is the case with Dog Eat Dog. Because most of the contestants on Joe Schmo did just walk out of central casting, the entire burden of the show is on Matt to unwittingly deliver the reality.

It's hard to imagine the producers finding a better mark than Matt. He's game, willing to jump though every silly hoop on the show. He's also a generally good guy, making it easy to root for him. And he's not smart enough to realize how stupid everything going on around him is. It doesn't matter that the acting is awful because he buys into everything going on around him. The actors slip up and can't keep their stories straight and he doesn't notice. He should be especially suspicious of all the interest the beautiful women of the show have for him.

Matt's reactions to the situations around him are priceless. He's not a complete puppet. He nearly gives the actors and producers a heart attack when he voluntarily loses the game "Hands on a Hooker." Yet for the most part, he's finding every trail of cookie crumbs left for him. The writing is pure cheese and filled with holes; Matt finds away to fill them up. Three Stars, solely on Matt's "performance."

Wrong Turn

This article demonstrates what I feel is wrong with Ralph Nader and those who follow his philosophy. The article states near the end "This is the blindness of ideology. It is what happens when public policy is conducted by those who cannot conceive that human beings will do willingly what is in their own interest."

I find that people who support Nader generally feel that they live life the right way and don't need government telling them what to do. Yet they are willing to support laws that fix other people's problems. This article demonstrates two problems with this thinking. The first being that people will help themselves. The second is those who want to fix other people's problem might not have a solution.

NFL Season Begins

I am sufficiently prepared for some football.

Bullies

A couple of thoughts on this: Report: Bullies at risk of becoming criminals

First, you can never trust statistics in a report like this as they've usually been sexed up, as the BBC might say. Assuming that the statistics are close to true, the report's creators show the standard government first flaw. They assume government spending can solve the problem, it's just a matter of finding the money. The way to fix bullies is to have responsible parent who prevent children from becoming bullies in the first place and punish the children if they begin to act like bullies. Spending $100,000 for anti-bully training isn't going to help.

There are a couple things that students should do with bullies. First, they should be punished appropriately. Suspension for a couple days is a bad punishment. If I punch a kid in the face I shouldn't get to stay home for a couple of days. Detention is a good punishment. Physical labor is another good option, though I'm sure any principal who tried that would be eaten by the ACLU. If these punishments don't work, the student should be expelled for the benefit of the other students, no matter what Jesse Jackson says.

As for the the bullied students problem, even if you were to surgically remove all the bullies, the reason why kids are bullied would still be there and the students would still be depressed and suicidal. If these kids want to fit in they need to take responsibility for themselves and either decide to be like everyone else or accept that they will be outcasts. You can't coddle someone into being accepted by their peers. The more you try the more trouble they will have connecting with others in the future. If these students don't know why they don't fit in need to be shown. I'm pretty sure there's no good way to do that except perhaps the kid's parents figuring out what makes them different, so I guess some kids just won't fit in. It's the way things work.

I'm not saying being different is bad. I was different as a kid. Kids will be cruel. This is a force of nature.

Junkyard Mega-Wars

Finally watched the two new "Junkyard Mega-Wars" last night. The new format doesn't help the show. Taking away the tournament only hurts the show. Having teams who knew each other beforehand also game the show more character. The hosts are particularly awful. The guy gives off a Charlie Sheen Wannabe feel. The woman is completely vapid.

Snowmobiles was a complete failure, but that's not surprising. Getting a vehicle to move on the snow without the ability to test it first is very difficult. One Star. Battleships was better, but it lacked a new mechanical challenge to accomplish. If the ship sinking weapons needed to be mechanical, there would have been more of a challenge. Two Stars.

Junkyard wars is more interesting when the builders must create a complex machine. There have bee too many episodes where the objective was to build another variant on car or boat. Next week's Rock Crawlers will probably not be that episode, but the last four episode all look to have interesting premises.

Fry's

The new Fry's Electronics in Renton has finally opened. It's about as good as a I could have hoped. The PC parts section is particularly good. I did have one minor customer service issue. I had searched the store for A/V cable but had been unable to find any on the first trip to the store. A friend of mine had suggested it was near the network cable. This friend was incorrect. On my second trip to the store I asked a employee where it was, and they pointed me to the wrong place. I was eventually able to locate the cable in the audio section.

Walking

Walked out to the lighthouse on the end of the Dungeness Spit yesterday. The imporant thing that I learned is that walking five miles is much harder on soft sand than on solid ground.

That Movie Everybody Watched

MOVIE REVIEW: My Big Fat Greek Weeding
Unattractive Greek girl Toula (Nia Vardalos) changes her life and appearance and falls in love with attractive teacher Ian (John Corbett). He's not Greek, and her parents (Lainie Kazan and Michael Constantine) don't like that, therefore the movie laws of physics tells us either hilarity or tragedy must ensue. This is a comedy, so hilarity ensues. While much of the material genuinely is funny, the quality of the production is low, like that of a made for TV movie from 1989. The direction is bad; this is not surprising as Director Joel Zwick was responsible for the awful Second Sight. The acting is also bad with the worst coming from Fiona Reed as Ian's mother Harriet. The music is especially bad. Additionally, the conflict in the plot is resolved in the first half of the movie, leaving the second half to ride solely on gags about Toula's family. Whether this works for you is questionable. It seems to have worked for most of America. 2 and a half stars, funny sometimes but not something I want to watch again.

Even Short Tom Clancy Books Feel Long

BOOK REVIEW: The Teeth of the Tiger by Tom Clancy
Jack Ryan, Jr. is recruited by a secret anti-terrorism group along with his twin cousins, FBI Agent Dominic Caruso and Marine Brain Caruso. Meanwhile, a terrorist is making deals a deal with a Columbian drug lord to sneak terrorists onto America soil. The concept is interesting but the book takes too long to tell the story. Very little of import happens with the protagonists for the first half of the book while the terrorists are planning their scheme yet the book continuously cuts back to what Jack, Brian, and Dominic are doing. The book also spends a very long time detailing the journey of the terrorists and this journey is not very interesting. We are also given far more details about nearly everything than we need. The book explains to us in detail twice how a poison weapon works, then again details it when it is used, that briefly again at the end of the when an extra character needs to know.

The book eventually comes together with a big coincidence just past the halfway mark. After this point the book moves far more rapidly. If you make it to this point it won't be difficult to make it to the end. The ending isn't good enough to redeem the flaws in the first half of the book. Two stars, recommended to Clancy fans but no one else.