Mark's Review: The Wire (Season 1)

Holy Crap... I've not ever really been one to get into Police style action/drama shows. Tried to get into Homicide, Law and Order's, Criminal Minds, whatever... never got them, never could enjoy them. Maybe it's because I'm watching them on DVD, but The Wire absolutely was awesome. Kept my attention through out.

I guess a lot of people complain that it's just a dialogue heavy show... but yeah... that's bull. Plenty of action, and even the dialogue (while i guess there is a lot of it) grips you.

Characters are just awesome. Some will argue that it's just playing stereotypes and what not, which maybe it's true... but you start to identify with all the characters... and some of them are just....absolutely....bad...ASS. But deep at the same time! arrrgghhhh Can't get my thoughts in order to write them down. Oh well.

Check out The Wire!
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Get Stoned!

Now, before I get an email from my parents/brothers... no... not that kind of Stoned... I was thinking more like this kind of Stoned. If you haven't yet checked out Eli Stone on ABC's Thursday Night Line Up... you are missing out!

The show has a wit and humor that seems to fit perfectly in with the cast. Johnny Lee Miller (or as some may call him Zero Cool/ Crash Override) delivers a stellar performance both balancing the quirkiness of a man receiving visions thanks to an inoperable brain aneurism and the sincerity of a lawyer... yes.... sincerity of a lawyer.

What really makes the show great is the ensemble cast. From Victor Garber as one of the Partners at the law firm/ Eli's ex-fiance's father to Sam Jaegar at the anti-Eli lawyer.

Honestly, there've been a few bumps in the road, but honestly this show has consistently been solid humor, and even some real drama. Something I think other shows fall short on (balancing the laughs and the drama).

tune in

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Day Late with change in my pocket

Sorry that this didn't get posted yesterday, but... i was busy playing bejewled at work all day.

So the Heroes finale has come and gone. They did some things well, and they did some things less than well. Over all I was pleased with the finale. It falls short of last years obviously, but with the writer's strike Kyp and I discussed that this whole season has felt a bit rushed.

On the up-side we got to see Sylar being a little more Sylar by shooting Maya. We got to see the Bell shock soem people, and threaten Bennet. And we got a little bit of light humor.

I guess I don't have much to say about the episode itself...

But basically I think that they've made a terrible mistake. By showing they can regrow the skin of someone who received burns from direct exposure to radiation, as well as and eye that got shot; and now from this episode to bring someone back to life... How will they actually kill anyone off? For instance, one of the things that I thought was great was Nathan getting shot; his character was great, and I genuinly liked him; however, he got shot twice in the chest... all they have to do (and I'm hoping they don't) is have Claire decide to save her biological father by giving him some blood. As for Nikki dying, eh. As Kyp and I agreed, if you didn't see them die... chances are they aren't dead. The big promo for this episode was "two heroes will fall" well... Maya died (despite being brought back) and Nathan is dead (presumably)... so there's definately a possibility that Nikki will return.

Now, Adam... we have NOT seen the last of Adam, I'm willing to bet anything he'll return... he was way too good of a character for him to be gone. Adam like Linderman in the first season was a perfect badguy because he truly believed what he was doing was the Right thing. Sylar is a perfect bad guy because he's become drunk with power in a sense, and even last season there was a moment where he looked to stop, when he was talking to his mother... but her rejection sent him further over the edge.

Now, the final scene; like I said it was fantastic, however the whole Parkman forces them to listen, kind of makes me think he might eventually go rogue, and become evil. Because the whole idea was what his father was saying how it started by listening to minds, then putting thoughts in people's heads, and eventually he just snapped... I could see that happening to Parkman. Honeslty, I'm hoping next season they will make one of the "heroes" consciously choose to become bad. We've already seen the Bell leaning towards becoming Good with the, 'you saved our lives', "really?... cool".

Anyway, again Overall not floored, but it definately was stronger than the rest of the season. I look forward to next season as Tim Kring has actually said he wasn't too pleased with this season himself... that means he'll push himself to make next season better.

mm out

Hero to Zero

To start... yes I made a reverse Hercules reference in the title of this post... ya wanna fight about it?!

Ok, Heroes... a wonderful show with a kick ass first season known for twists, cliff hangers, and plot lines/ characters who didn't annoy the be-jesus out of us all. Now we're stuck in season 2... or as I like to call it, "land of unneccessary characters/relationships". First we had Maya and Alexandro- terrible characters, with a questionable power, who pushed the reading subtitles.. i know what you're thinking- but mark... hiro and ando and that entire back story in ancient japan... so much reading! You're right, that was a fair amount of reading... but it was to keep up with a character we liked in a sub-plot that wasn't all that bad (sans annoying relationship with swordmaker's daughter). Reading for Maya and Alexandro is more like a battle... do i really care what they're saying? Probably not.... it's most likely something like, we did something terrible... the devil is in us... we need to see this doctor... then bickering about whether or not to trust Sylar.

Sylar... ultimate bad-ass bad guy from season 1 has been turned into a whiny emo bitch. Quite disappointing. He wasn't all that bad to begin with, when we first saw him still alive, even when he was traveling with the two ?twins? (are they twins?) he had that nice speach to alexandro about how he's going to kill him and stuff. AND FINALLY WE GET SOME BAD ASS ACTION FROM SYLAR... granted not in good ole finger blade to the head way, but knife to the chest isn't all that bad. Not to mention the benefit of getting rid of one of the annoying characters. But no sooner do we finish this awesome scene... than do we get into what is wrecking heroes... maya making her move on sylar... personally i can't wait til next week when (my prediction) sylar gets his powers back, and cuts maya's head open and steals her power.

I don't know I guess I just have the vision of Sylar flipping the FBI transport with Ted (nuclear guy) inside with a flick of a finger... and now he's just plain annoying me (here's to hoping they turn this around with the finale).

Also, while we're on the topic of annoying new additions to the cast... Micah's cousin who's name I haven't even bothered to learn. In a show where we've been expected to understand a fair amount without being told it out right- (ex: when hiro first travelled through time, it wasn't like he looked at the clock and was like ... my goodness, i'm travelling through time or when the Bell first showed up and shocked the side of the container she didn't say, "clearly I have interacted with Peter Petrelli and he absorbed my power") WHY for the love of everything holy did Micah have to look at her when she put on the hood and be like, "...you're st. joan!"

and don't even get me started on the ending of hiro chargin peter... we've got the Godsend thing burned into our head so much, the close up of it on the sword running towards peter i thought was unneccessary. but all in all, I want that fight to be good.

NEXT WEEK:
Here's what they need to do. SURPRISE US. You want something good... how about actually killin off a main character. My prediction however- they'll kill of Maya and either West or Micah's cousin. If they do go the main character route it'll be Parkman, because we haven't seen him in like 3 episodes anyway (and I'm pretty sure he got cast in a new JJ Abrams project).

In my opinion... have peter kill hiro, or vice-versa. If that's the case stick with your conviction... don't bring them back (or as Kyp and I would call it... Charlie them) Obviously this would be more difficult if it's peter who got killed. (although there has been a lot of, 'she was about to take your head off... there's no coming back from that') it's kind of a... oh... ok so that's how adam is gonna die.

Move away from romance! Seriously! Please! No more romances! I forbid it... they're not adding anything to the show. in the words of John Stewart, "you're hurting America". So yeah he was talking to the guys on crossfire, and not Tim Kring, but regardless... please!

Alright... I've been long winded enough.

Final thought:

watch dexter.
mm out