Reviews and More

Last night’s episode of Prison Break was called “Bang and Burn”, and was billed as the “fall finale”, which I guess means we won’t be getting any new episodes for a long time. I’m already late with this post as it is and I’m way behind on other stuff as well, so instead of giving a full recap here, I’m just going to write out some of my general reactions. Here we go!

(I have to admit that I wasn’t paying much attention to the non-Michael scenes in this ep, so I didn’t have many comments about what Linc and Sucre were up to. Ditto for the fake(?) passport in Whistler’s secret apartment.)

• We finally got a look at Scofield’s tat in this episode! It was only for like 2 seconds as he changed his shirt in his cell, so I’m not sure why the writers even included that part. Seems kind of dumb to make Wentworth Miller sit in makeup for all that time just to show a flash of ink.
• Speaking of the changing shirt scene, what the hell was the point of that? Was Michael trying to disguise the fact that he was one of the guys dangling from the helicopter? If so, exchanging one gray shirt for another one hardly seems like an effective maneuver. WTH?
• Oh, and can I just mention how sick I am of that stupid fake sweat stain that permanently appears on Scofield’s shirts?
• That rescue had to be the lamest attempt at a breakout that we’ve seen yet. You mean to tell me that an organization as powerful as The Company couldn’t do any better than that? Give me a break.
• Mahone is in bad shape without his drugs. The way he was digging at his wrists really squicked me out. But please tell me what the whole point of removing him from Sona was. They’re just bringing him back again a day later, so again, WTH?
• When Lincoln had Whistler’s bird book, we clearly saw him leafing through the pages. Do you mean to tell me that he somehow missed Whistler’s notes about Mahone??? Uh, I don’t think so.
• I’m calling b.s. on Michael being transferred out of Sona. The Sona guards have already shown that they have no qualms about shooting prisoners they think are dangerous. Why would they even bother trying to transport Michael? Why not just kill him on the spot if they think he’s behind the recent breakout attempts? It’s not like he’s a VIP or anything. So either this has to be a setup from someone on the outside, or it’s just piss-poor writing.

I can’t say that I’m upset about the upcoming hiatus. I haven’t been into this season at all, and it doesn’t look like things are going to get better anytime soon. It will be good to have a break for a while!

Last year I made a resolution to lose weight and get into shape. I started out strong, but faded over the summer, so now I’m pretty much back to square one. However, I am not going to give up quite yet, and still want to hit my weight loss goals within the next six months or so. Towards that end, I’ve been shopping around for some good fitness equipment to help put me on the right path.

As I was checking around online, I came across a website called Peakbody Fitness that has a huge selection of new and refurbished gym equipment to choose from, including treadmills, ellipticals, stationary bikes, free weights, and resistance machines — as well as parts and accessories for all of the above. The prices were extremely competitive, and were among the lowest I’d seen anywhere else.

Unfortunately for me, Peakbody is located in the UK, so it wouldn’t make much sense for to order from them. However, I felt the site was still worth posting about so that those of you who are in the UK can check them out.

Peakbody also sells commercial fitness equipment, so if you operate a gym, you definitely need to see about getting your machines from this site. I think you’ll agree that their prices are pretty amazing!

Last night’s episode of How I Met Your Mother was called “Spoiler Alert” and dealt mostly with the gang’s annoying habits. The basic tenet of the show was that you don’t notice your friends’ irritating tics until someone else points them out; then once you’re aware of them, you can’t get them out of your mind. Here’s a closer look at what happened in 3×08.

Ted: Ted started dating a girl that he thought was absolutely perfect. She was friendly, hot, and seemed totally into him as well, so he was excited about introducing her to the gang. They all go out to dinner together, but within minutes, Robin, Lily, Marshall, and Barney are treating Ted’s date pretty rudely.

Ted doesn’t know what’s up, so he demands an explanation. His friends refuse to give him one, saying that once they tell him, it will shatter his image of the girl forever. He doesn’t care, and keeps hounding them until they give in.

They tell Ted that his new girlfriend talks too much. Ted doesn’t think so, at which point Barney says Ted’s blinded to her faults because he wants to sleep with her. Ted then replays the dinner scene in his head, and we (the viewers) get a completely different version of events than the one we saw the first time through. This new scene shows that yes, the girlfriend does indeed talk too much.

Once the realization hits home (accompanied by a shattering glass sound effect), Ted agrees that everything is ruined and ends up dumping the girl.

Barney/Robin/Lily/Marshall: It was finally time for Marshall to check his bar exam results online, but he forgot his password. The wait is driving him crazy, so he asks Barney for help. Barney makes an elaborate show of securing a supersecret computer program that can bypass the firewall to gain access to Marshall’s results. But the CD-ROM just turns out to be a video of a dog pooping on a baby.

The gang also spend time telling each other their most annoying habits: Lily chews too loudly; Robin says “literally” far too often and usually means “figuratively” anyway; Ted constantly corrects people; Barney sometimes talks in a weird, high-pitched voice, zones out when his friends are talking to him, and constantly uses lame catchphrases; and Marshall sings inane songs about everything he’s doing.

As they’re complaining about Marshall’s singing by giving an example of a particularly nonsensical song, Marshall suddenly remembers that the song was a way to remember his password. He logs on to check his bar exam results, and sees that he passed.

My Reaction: I thought this was a pretty good episode. There was lots of continuity here, as we’d already seen hints of everyone’s annoying habits (except for Lily’s, which seemed to come out of left field). For example, Marshall was shown singing a dumb song at least once before when he was studying for a test, Barney’s three are obvious in every ep, and Ted just has that pretentious air about him where he’d definitely correct people about every little thing. I love it when writers care enough about the characters to keep them consistent, so this was great.

But I really could have done without the shattering glass sound at every annoying habit reveal. It was funny the first time when it happened to Ted, but it got to be too much as the episode wore on. I also didn’t like how unnaturally magnified Lily’s chomping sounded. I know they just wanted to emphasize the fact that she chews loudly, but that was friggin’ ridiculous. Plus, who makes that much noise with cotton candy anyway?!!

At any rate, I’m just looking forward to next week because that’s when Barney is supposed to get his third slap! Bring it on!!!