Author: ssw15

I’m not exactly having a Hawaiian adventure like FC, but the crazy New York City weather is enough to make me dream of Hawaii. Strong gales making leaves and trash and pieces of buildings flying all over the place. Please be careful out there tonight, folks!

Last night had some very good television. Pardon the vagaries of the following, since I don’t to give away plot lines for those who haven’t seen the episodes yet:

“Star Trek Enterprise” had a strong episode. It wasn’t nearly as predictable as I feared and had good hopeful for humanity moments, in the great Trekkian mode. Maybe all isn’t lost yet; so, I guess I can’t give up on Star Trek just yet. For those who missed it last night, Channel 9 (NYC’s local UPN) will show it again at 9pm on Sunday (yeah, I know – against ABC’s “Alias” time slot – just tape one or the other; “Enterprise” was good, really!). I’m scared about next week’s episode – the preview indicates that Trip, the chief engineer, will be cloned. The Star Trek writers run the risk of making this upcoming episode lousy; then again, I wouldn’t trust “Star Trek” previews with the way the bad habit of undermining the episodes they are supposed to promote, so maybe I’ll be proven wrong. That remains to be seen.

“Angel” continues to be on an incredibly strong streak; I really enjoyed last night’s episode. The subtext continues – the tension Angel feels toward his friends is almost palpable because only he remembers the timeline he arranged to delete. Meanwhile, Wesley is perplexed by Angel’s tension (not realizing that in the deleted timeline that he caused the grief in the first place) – but then becomes ultimately busy with his own unresolved issues. I get the feeling that the writers are able to better concentrate on “Angel” so far into the new season, because they don’t have to worry as much about dealing with “Buffy” episode to parallel at the same time (i.e., they don’t have to develop two simultaneously cataclysmic plotlines on two different networks, like they did last season). I hope they keep up the good work.

Considering all the hype on this new Fox sitcom (9:30pm, Sundays), I checked it out that Sunday night. Hmm…

Basically, it’s about the Bluth family – the eccentric George Bluth, Sr., (played by Jeffrey Tambor, a great character actor) is arrested for some bad investments and accounting in his corporation. The SEC continues to investigate, so the family has to watch its (extremely expensive) spending. Middle son Michael (played by the 1980’s child actor, Jason Bateman) is the Good Sane Son, trying to reform the family and claim the control of the family corporation. However, the family is undermining all his efforts. He’s a widower and has a 13-year old son, George Michael, who tempted (in a near incestuous sense) by his cousin Maebe (pronounced “Maybe”?), a 13-year old siren (who doesn’t seem that attractive in personality; more like a praying mantis). Maebe’s mother (played by Portia deRossi, formerly of “Ally McBeal”) is Michael’s spoiled-brat sister, who’s married to an out-of-work “actor.” The oldest brother Gob (pronounced “Job” (the tested man from the Bible), is a magician, who’s jealous that Michael is trying to make things better (but Gob is a total incompetent about everything anyway). Mrs. Bluth, the matriarch of this clan, loves her wealth, and is not helping Michael (but he’s able to predict his mother, more or less). There’s another brother, who’s apparently quite immature and eccentric too (I don’t recall seeing him in the episode I had watched; but he’s in the commercials, acting rather screwy).

So, there are lots of interesting characters. I like Jason Bateman’s acting (he’s convincing as the responsible, exasperated one). But, maybe I’m not totally impartial – I liked him in NBC’s “The Hogan Family” (he helped carry the show even after Valerie Harper left it). He deserves to finally have a good series, after being in a bunch of cancelled stuff over the last several years. But, it’s weird to see him as the father of a teenager; he has a baby face himself and just exudes a youthful exuberance.

I don’t think the series is a laugh-out-loud kind of funny; of course, then again, there’s no laugh track to give cues to the audience about what’s supposed to be “funny” (for better or for worse; take your pick). But, the scenarios did make a smile on my face and got me reacting “Geez, Michael; get with the program – where do you think your father was hiding the money!” There’s hope that this series will work. On the plus side (it’s not a negative, anyway) – Ron Howard (whose production company is behind “Arrested Development”) is the narrator. Think about it – “Richie Cunningham” of the old “Happy Days” is back on tv (well, his voice anyway). (sorry, I tend to still think of him as Richie, not Opie – I never saw the whole Andy Griffith show (I’m of a generation that knows Andy Griffith as Matlock. Kind of like how I’d think of Henry Winkler as “Fonzie” and John Ritter as “Jack Tripper” and the Dukes of Hazard as the Dukes of Hazard…).

Okay, enough rambling. I’m otherwise still looking for better Sundays…

NYC: It’s quite quiet. And, cold. Etc. NY Giants lost, NY Jets somehow won, but I’m not that into football.

The cover of the New York Daily News tv guide has a picture of the star of “Saving Jessica Lynch.” I do not know if it’s a good thing that there are movies about Jessica Lynch, the woman GI of the recent Iraq war, and Elizabeth Smart, the Colorado teenager who was kidnapped. After much criticism (deserved or not), the Ronald Reagan movie was shifted to Showtime, instead of the producing network, CBS, the same network that broadcasted a movie on Hitler. What does all this say about our society? Then there’s CBS’ “60 minutes,” with a story on the other POW’s of the war, and we have to ask ourselves – who is a hero; what is truth; are we accepting what the on-screen media is feeding us, and shouldn’t we hear other stories and perspectives, to know what is “truth”? Hmm. Some food for thought, I suppose.

WB’s “Everwood” is still interesting tv. The annoying Dr. Harold Abbott, even if annoying, is a portrayed by a subtle actor. I just hope this show doesn’t wind up spending all its time inviting guest stars (maybe it’s just for November sweeps).

“Star Trek Enterprise” is slowly improving, but it’s still frustrating, especially when it lapses into the curse of recent Trek (i.e., hitting the reset button with a time travel episode that returns us to the correct timeline, yet declining to follow up on intriguing potential consequences or focusing on consequences with shortcomings).

I’ve noticed this since the baseball playoffs, and I figure I might as well mention this now – the Delta airlines commercial, where the lady who orders her seat on-line and her seat pops out of the printer and accompanies her to the airport. The jingle is strangely catchy; I would end up singing along with it, while still not actually knowing the words. And, yes, the subliminal (or not so subliminal) message: yes, Delta, let’s see the grandest of canyons and enjoy our traveling campanion, that comfortable seat. It’s campy, but scary too (because, I don’t know, the lady seems to like her seat way too much; and watching a seat with legs dressed in khakis must be a straight out of Twilight Zone). I’d give it extra credit for being a hypnotic commercial; both eye-and-ear catching.

Better Sundays ought to be out there. Really.