I need to hit a few things from this week such as that series finale from last night before I post my 2009-2010 television season in review.

- The Lost finale was good. Really good even. I had a few problems with it though.

• The network didn’t do the show any favors with the way they scheduled the commercials. The episode never seemed to build any real momentum because the breaks seemed to come every seven minutes. Look I know this was you’re night to cash in but I would have preferred fewer even if longer breaks.
• I felt like there was an argument between ABC and the writers. The writers kept arguing “we really need three hours to do this right” “look we gave you an extra 30 minutes you can’t have anymore, the affiliates won’t let us push the news back anymore” “fine, ok guys let’s go with the 15 minute white light wrap up”
• I’m glad I was able to get through the series and catch up in a few weeks to see the final four episodes live.
• I’m equally glad I didn’t watch it from the beginning. The long layoffs between fall and spring probably would have driven me away.

- If you’re a Friday Night Lights fan be sure to catch Friday’s episode. Zach Gilford who plays Matt Saracen is tremendous.

- Perfect episode on Breaking Bad, At some point, now that he's in remission, we had to see the toll Walt's choices are taking on his conscience.

- I’m not a casting director but Owen Wilson is terrible choice to voice Marmaduke.

- RIP Lima Time – Great Lima memorial show today on 1560 by John & Lance

- Finally saw Avatar. Meh. It looked good but I thought the story was better when it was called Dances with Wolves. I gave it 3 stars but that was mostly because I figure something has to be at least 3 stars for me to sit through it for 2.5+ hours. This is another instance when Netflix really needs half star ratings.

- The ratio of Stanley Cup playoff games to NBA playoff games I’ve watched this year is somewhere around 15 to 0

- Just 4 more days til school is out and I start earning my money as a stay at home dad.

- I found out the hard way if you want to blow up your email, post something in the free section of craigslist. The vultures are always circling.


Netflix this week
Avatar - ★★★
Another State of Mind - ★★★★
We Are Wizards - ★★★
The Messenger - ★★★

Books
Falconer by John Cheever

Goodbye Old Friend

461 months.

That’s how old I was when I finally outgrew MTV. Or maybe I should say that’s how old I was when then last show I watched on MTV reached a level of suckness I could no longer tolerate.

Yes, I’m old enough to remember when MTV still played videos. In fact, I can remember when 120 minutes was essential viewing because there wasn’t a radio station here in Houston that played good music out of the mainstream. What? Oh well, I guess some things haven’t changed.

Anyway, for the past decade my last bastion of MTV refuge has been The Real World/Road Rules Challenges. Let’s be clear, I love this show. Especially in the beginning when it was people close to my own age and not what you’d call world-class athletes competing in crazy events to earn money. The show also benefited from the fact that the contestants were all former cast members of the RW or RR. I was in the prime target demographic when RW premiered in 1992. Twenty years old and addicted to television.

In my opinion the challenges had more than a couple legs up on similar shows like Survivor and Big Brother. The winners actually had to compete to win. Where as it seems like at least half the time Survivor is won by the person that pisses the fewest people off because they didn’t actually do anything. The challenges were made up of a whole cast of young attractive individuals that didn’t whither away from a lack of food. The challenges also could boast some of the best train wrecks on television. Tanya Cooley anyone? Lastly, it was pretty obvious all the guys were on steroids and you know what? No one cared, it only made the competition and train wrecks better. There’s a lesson there MLB and NFL.

At some point in the past decade, the people in charge of casting for RW decided they were only going to draw from the cesspool of douche bags and douche hags. Ultimately, this has killed the challenges for me. The endless parade of the most reprehensible individuals you can imagine and a black hole of contestants worth rooting for has finally taken its toll. Someone should point out to the casting directors that there’s a reason car wrecks are much more exciting at a NASCAR event than they are at a destruction derby.

So, I’ve lost a good friend this year and it won’t be easy to replace them. Hey maybe the Astros will get on a hot strea….ahh there I go talking about train wrecks again.

On a related note, I also gave up on the last VH1 show I watch, Celebrity Fit Club. I like watching celebrities struggle and I’m fat so I really like fat celebs. However, the producers seem unaware that the show doesn’t work if a) the contestants aren't celebrities or b) they’re not fat. I’m almost certain that Bobby Brown was actually cast to be on Celebrity Rehab but somehow wandered onto the wrong set.

New Music

The Black Keys – Brothers

Recent Netflix

44 inch Chest - ★★★

Mean Streets - ★★★★

Good Hair - ★★★

Up in the Air - ★★★★

Crazy Heart - ★★★★

Zombieland - ★★★★

Herb & Dorothy – ★★★★

The Machinist - ★★★

Netflix at Home

The Messenger

Another State of Mind

Avatar

Coming up next time, a review of this past season of TV.

- So let me get this straight SNL, you find it easier to write good material for Betty White that Zach Galifiniakas. I can't figure out why you've become culturally irrelevant.

- Yep the girl who checked me out at Best Buy was named Cachet.

- Disneyland may be the happiest place on earth but as I've said before San Antonio is the saddest. Why does everyone there appear to be 10-20 years older than their actual age?

- Let's get on with it college football. We all know where we're headed. Four 16 team conferences that break away from the NCAA to form the "We're Better Than The Rest Of You Turds Association". You can split you billions of dollars equitably. Teams will only be able to play other teams from the WBTTROYTA. If this finally paves the way for a playoff and I never haver to pay for another UT v. FIU ticket again, I'm all in.

- Sonic if I pull through at 8am for an iced tea, let's just assume I don't want any chili cheese tater tots to go with that.

- How did your weekend go? Mine started off with my kids tag teaming to turn my macbook into a shiny paper weight by knocking it off the kitchen counter. It will cost a minimum of $280 to fix. Then we drove to the previously mentioned San Antonio with the 5 year old screaming stuff like "my computer is being mean to me".

- Went to a friends wedding in Burnet, Tx that was UnBeWeaveable. Congrats to Keri and Brian.

New Music This Week

The Hold Steady - Heaven is Whenever

The New Pornographers - Together

Netflix last week

Finished catching up on Lost

Netflix at home

Good Hair

44 inch Chest

Mean Streets

If you need me this week, I'll be hating life surfing the net on a crappy PC.

Late to the party? Yeah I got a little Lost on the way

Yeah I know Lost has been on for six year now and somewhere around 1.2 million articles have been written about it over that period but one more couldn't hurt. Could it?

Before last week I had never watched a minute of Lost and really up until late last year had no intention of ever checking it out. When Lost started I was going to night school to get a degree I'll never use and had a newborn baby at home. This didn't leave much time for exploring new shows. Once my schedule had cleared up a bit the show was already a few seasons in and without investing a chunk of money into season box sets there was no way to catch up. Even without having watched it before I could tell this was a show that you couldn't just jump into the middle and pick up.

Over the past few years Netflix and technology have combined to give us the wonderful gift of instant watch. Last year I noticed that all the Lost seasons had been added to Netflix's instant watch library. This combined with recommendations from people whose opinions I respect like Josh, Danny and Doyle gave me the push I needed to dive in and immerse myself in Lost.

Now a week after I started the series, I've just completed season 2 with the first episode of season 3 paused while I write this blog post. I must say I love the show so far. No series has done mystery and intrigue this well since Twin Peaks took TV by storm my freshman year of college. I have put all of my regularly scheduled television viewing (and I have a lot) on hold while I pound through the first 5 seasons episode after episode.

Luckily, I have avoided articles, reviews and recaps of Lost for the past 6 years just in case I ever did decide to give the show a chance. So, I've gone into with no information aside from commercials I've seen on ABC. Here's some misconceptions, thoughts on characters and hopes for future seasons I have so far.

Jack - I cannot identify with this character. Apparently I missed the episode where he was anointed king of the island. I don't get his connection with Kate a woman who has continually lied and betrayed him. But from ads and what not I went in with the idea that he was the protagonist of the show so I've had to overlook some of the problems with his character.

Locke - I always got the impression from commercials that he was the bad guy on the show. At least through season 2, and this could change, he's not. He is however, a more interesting and believable character than Jack. His faults and actions make more sense to me and I think or at least hope there's more to his story to be revealed.

Kate/Sawyer - There's a double wide, 3 filthy kids and an episode of island cops in your futures.

Boone/Shannon - Thank God for high cliffs and heavy airplanes. My only wish is that the heroin plane would have fallen on Shannon so we could have wiped them both out at the same time.

Jin/Sun - I like island Jin now and Sun is just kinda white noise but the flashback stories involving these two are borderline unwatchable. I'm sure Sun's dirty daddy will somehow all tie in to this stuff but good gravy I don't need anymore scenes in Korea.

Sayid - I like Sayid and if I was in the shit, he's the guy I would want watching my back. However, the fact that he's there requires you to suspend reality quite a bit. Let's just be real. If a plane explodes or breaks in half in air and a group of you survive. If there is an Arab guy none of you know among the survivors, mob rules dictate that this guy would have been convicted and torn apart by all these white people and no amount of reasoning could have stopped it.

Hurley - I like Hurley. He annoyed me at first but quickly grew on me. This is most likely because I too am a fat guy that says dude a lot and sometimes sees things that aren't necessarily there.

Michael - From jump street, I found Michael more than a bit irrational and defensive. I chalked this up to being stuck on an island with a bunch of angry, confused, scared, self important white people. Now after season 2 I just want him to suffer a horrible death.

Claire - I've been crushing on Claire for a while now. I don't know if it's the accent or that we're stuck on an island with few other options but she's alright with me.

Charlie - Charlie is the most pathetic character of all. Part of this is that he's a junkie and like Jesse on Breaking Bad, junkies are usually bumbling idiots and make bad partners. I also can't get over him being Merrie from Lord of the Rings. I keep hoping that Pippin will come walking out of the jungle and they will just disappear in a cloud of hobbit love and shire weed.

Eko - Anytime you can bring Adebisi onto your show you do it. Mr. Eko brings his wooping stick to the party and isn't afraid to use it. This guy could play an accountant on Designing Women and would be the baddest accountant on the planet.

The Others - Honestly, I'm a little disappointed in the others so far. I wanted them to be some kind of mystical aboriginal peoples that didn't appreciate the presence of intruders on their island but did appreciate the taste of barbecued place crash survivors. What I didn't expect was a clan of Scientologist led by Tom Cruise's nerdy uncle.

I'm looking forward to peeling this onion a bit more and starting season 3. So far Lost definitely looks like it will make my list of series that defined scripted television this past decade along with The Wire, The Sopranos and Dexter.