Life After People

My daughter introduced me to this show today--she's on summer vacation and spending a lot of time watching the History Channel and Animal Planet. Hey, at least it's educational.

Anyway, we saved a couple of episodes on the DVR and took a look together. While an interesting show in its way, it also doesn't make a great deal of sense. The show focuses not on how people were eliminated, but on what supposedly would happen to the planet after we're all gone. This premise seems flawed to me, because the fate of everything else on the planet is going to be dependent on how the people get wiped out. For example, if there's a nuclear holocaust, the aftermath will be distinctly different than if, for example, a meteor smacks into the planet.

Perhaps I'm missing the point of the show, though. Maybe it's really just about how much we've affected our planet, for bad and for worse. In many ways, the projected results make you think that maybe Earth would be better off without us.

Top Five TV Shows of 2008

To round off the top fives for now, here are my picks for top five TV shows. These aren't necessarily new shows, but they're shows I've particularly enjoyed this year.

1. Supernatural. This remains my favorite show on TV, and this year it's better than ever. Dean's time in hell, as well as the introduction of angels to the show's mythology, have added layers that work better than I ever thought they would.

2. Bones. After a major misstep at the end of last season and a really horrific return at the beginning of this one, I was afraid I was going to have to take this former favorite off my must-watch list. But the show has recovered nicely, and while I still hold a grudge, it's returned to its eminently watchable self.

3. Leverage. This show just started a couple of weeks ago, but it's rapidly becoming a favorite. Familiar faces Christian Kane (Angel) and Aldis Hodge (Supernatural, Friday Night Lights), make it that much more entertaining.

4. Burn Notice. The presence of Bruce Campbell and Sharon Gless make this already fun show even more awesome.

5. House. Last season was questionable. The season before that? A bit annoying. This season seems to be back on course.

My Boys are Back!!

Thursday night marked the return of Supernatural, after a loooong and painful hiatus. I thoroughly enjoyed the episode, "Ghostfacers." Though there's been some complaint that, with Dean's contract coming due and much angst to be had, a comic episode was not a good launch back into the series, I thought it made a great palate cleanser from the hiatus. If they'd showed some angst and then the comedy ep, it would have detracted from the main arc, so showing this one first was a fun way to get back in stride with the show.

Next week--yeah, baby, bring on that angst!!

Bones--The Man in the Mud--Short Comments

Monday night's Bones was a blast. I'd almost forgotten how much I missed that show. I was going to complain about Sweets, especially the fact that he's in the beginning credits now, but the interaction with him, Booth and Brennan was the highlight of the show for me. I like him when he's doing his psychiatrist thing--not so much when they involve him in the actual cases. Plus? I have theories about him... We'll see if they pan out.

Bones is Back!!

I'm very excited! Bones comes back tonight for a six-episode run. \o/ It seems like ages since David Boreanaz and his Incredibly Wide Shoulders adorned my screen--it has been ages!

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the return of one of my favorite shows, and I'll try to squeeze in some commentary.

Starbuck Hat

Here's a nifty knitting pattern, for those who are into Battlestar Galactica. It's not my favorite show at all, but I'm still tempted to knit this for the hell of it. Cause it's pretty. And I do like Starbuck...

Jericho--Why I Haven't Watched the Finale

I have some things on my DVR I need to watch, most notably the season (series--*sniff*) finale of Jericho. I almost don't want to watch it, because I know it's the last episode, unless another network picks it up, which is probably a longshot. And part of me just doesn't want to see how it ends.

I think this truncated, hold-n0-punches season has been solidly written, but it some ways I haven't enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed some of the tighter episodes of Season One. My complaints about S1 centered around too much soap opera-like content, not enough apocalyptic aftermath--my complaints about S2 center around too much political intrigue, not enough apocalyptic aftermath. Although I have to say the political intrigue is much more interesting than the soap opera stuff. I do like that so far they've given a good background for the cause of the bomb blasts. I'm a bit disappointed it seems to track back to a single crazy person instead of a full-fledged government conspiracy. I'm all for those full-fledged government conspiracies...

So I'm guessing the finale will be action-packed and have some good plot and probably a bit of an open-ended finish, but I'm still hesitant to watch. And I think a lot of this is that I'm afraid they'll kill off more characters. And they already almost lost me with...

WARNING BIG FAT SPOILER


...the death of Bonnie.

It wasn't just that they killed Bonnie. It was that they killed a woman on the verge of finding herself, of moving out into independence after spending her whole life largely dependent on a man. Maybe I'm overreacting to that, but death or maiming or Horrible Torture of some sort seems to be the fate of an independent woman far too often in literature of all stamps, from that stuff by dead white guys they make you read in college to prime time network TV.

Plus, I liked her.

So there you go. At some point, I'll get up the nerve to watch the episode--probably today, in fact, and then I'll probably comment on it. In the meantime, I'm finding myself a wee bit bitter.