Well, folks... tivogirl is going on hiatus for the next few weeks. I'm going on vacation, but the nice thing is my trusty Tivo will record all the great new shows that I'm going to miss!
While I'm gone, The King of Queens new season will premiere, LAX is moving to Wednesdays (up against Lost -- oops!) and, hopefully, CBS will finally announce when the Amazing Race 6 will start. I'll return just in time for all the new Fox programming -- woohoo!
In my absence, keep watching the good stuff (Lost) and tell everyone you know not to watch the bad stuff (Father of the Pride) and fight the good fight!
I caught a little show last night on the Food network, "John Cleese's Wine for the Confused". I expected it to be funny, but it was also quite informative.
As someone who enjoys wine but is not a conosseur by any stretch, this was the perfect hour-long tutorial. Cleese comes from the perspective that just because you're supposed to like something doesn't mean you will -- and that you shouldn't feel bad or unsophisticated for it.
There are cameos from other celebrities, interviews with winemakers, sommeliers and restauranteurs along this terrific tour of central California. The show begins with a cheeky introduction and blind wine tasting party at Cleese's home. The point is to get the guests to ignore labels and prices and to simply describe the wines in their own terms. Later, the show explores how white and red wines are made, the differences between the six main types of grapes, what a lot of the snooty-sounding terminology means and several other little tidbits of knowledge. Did you know the difference between white and red wine is that the skins are left on the grapes when they make red wine? Neither did I.
The show was just an hour and was well worth watching. In fact, we're going to archive it to a DVD. If you have the chance and you get the Food Network, the show will repeat several times this week (and no doubt again in the future).
Did you see Lost last night? If not, stop reading now. Seriously. Go elsewhere until you've seen it, then come back.
While the subject of this entry is a Simpsons comic book guy quote, it is meant in all seriousness. Last night's episode of Lost was not just the best one of the series thus far, but one of the best hours of television ever. It's not often that television a show entertains, provokes thought, swells emotions, builds intensity and makes you laugh the way this episode did without being overly dramatic, too self-aware or just plain schmaltzy.
When Mr. Locke -- wait, I think I'll call him the Colonel -- when the Colonel backed away from that desk in the travel agent's office... whoa. Wow! I stared, dumbstruck and mouth agape, at the screen for the next several minutes. So unexpected. My mind reeled back to all the little quirky things this guy had done or said so far during the show and suddenly a lot made sense.
Even prior to that moment, the episode unfolded in such an uncalculated and interesting way. We already think the Colonel is a little off somehow. He seems a little giddy, but maybe a little scary too. The suitcase of knives starts you wondering if he isn't just a nutball after all. Then the little peeks into his life before the crash start to unravel the mystique. Little by little, he turns out to be a loser. Disappointing, because we all want to like the guy, even if he is a psychopath.
But the more we learn, the more we realize he's only a loser by society's definitions. When given the opportunity, he does indeed fulfill his destiny. We have no doubt by the end that even if he had still been in that chair, he probably would've taken down that boar and faced off the beast.
The Colonel's story is terrific, but made even better by the fantastic way in which it is told. You imagine his bitter disappointment when he thinks he's missed out on his opportunity to go on the walkabout. You can feel his glee at discovering his ability to walk again, then his guilt when he realizes the circumstances which brought it back.
THAT, my friends, is great television.
The ratings can't be denied. Must See Thursdays are over for NBC. Even so, there is plenty worth watching -- Joey isn't bad, Will and Grace is still great, ER is still holding on (sans Carter and Kovach's storylines) and the Apprentice, though more predictable in its second series, is compelling.
The end of Friends and Frasier was truly the turning point, but not because of anything the network has or hasn't done. It's just us funny tv viewers. We get into habits and even if a show isn't so great anymore, it's just too much effort to find something new, so we keep watching what we've been watching. But when such an upheaval happens, it sort of wakes us up and gets us off our butts.
Everyone kept hearing about this CSI show and how great it was, so everyone who wasn't already watching it because of their NBC habit gave it a shot. And they liked it. And it comes on after Survivor, which we also like. So now CBS is winning Thursday nights consistently.
I think it's great that there is so much good programming on, but I do wish it wasn't on all at once. But it really doesn't matter to me, because my dual-tuner Tivo records it no matter when its on. I just know that on Thursday nights and Fridays I'll have plenty to watch!