It’s Avatar at the top of the charts again! I think this is seven weeks in a row now. Wow!
I’m not much of a fan of comic book franchises that are turned into movies or television series, but my husband is. I liked Spider-Man with Tobey Maguire well enough, but didn’t really get into other recent films — not even The Dark Knight. Now my husband is anxiously awaiting the release of The Flash, which is supposed to hit the big screen sometime in 2011, reportedly with Ryan Reynolds in the title role.
To help make the wait more enjoyable, I’m thinking of getting The Flash — Complete Series on DVD. These DVDs are for the television show that lasted for just one season beginning in 1990. It stars John Wesley Shipp (perhaps better known to my generation as Dawson Leery’s dad) as the titular crime fighter whose superpowers allow him to run very fast. I’ve never seen any episodes of the show, but I’m assuming this speed would come in handy during chases and stuff!
As I said, the show was only around for one season, meaning there are just 21 episodes in all. They’re collected on six DVDs in this set, which is currently on sale at Buy.com for just $11.99. That price seems reasonable for a one-season show, so I was surprised to see that the original price is $59.98!! I would never pay that much for a single season of anything. Thank goodness for sales, I guess!
House 6×12 — “Remorse”: This episode wasn’t as good as the last one, but it was still interesting. I actually liked the POTW stuff more than the personal stuff going on with House and his old school buddy, which was a change. Usually House himself is the biggest draw for me, but I wasn’t interested in yet another example of how he’s changing — only not enough to fess up about his feelings for Cuddy. Is this going to come up in every single ep?
So now that Cameron is gone, I guess it’s up to Thirteen to become the meddling, moralistic preacher of the team. WTF? That was totally out of line how she tried to tell the husband that the wife was cheating on him. No real doctor would ever get involved in a one-time patient’s life like that. It’s not as though Thirteen was this guy’s longtime family physician, right? She’s just part of their lives for a few days. And what’s with Thirteen and Foreman playing nice at the end of the ep? Please tell me that’s just so they can work together without tension. The last thing I want is for their “relationship” to resume!
Castle 2×14 — “The Third Man”: After a so-so ep last week, Castle was back with a vengeance this time around! I have to say that The Third Man is probably my favorite of the series thus far! It was great! The case itself was interesting, and all the stuff between Castle and Beckett was simply perfect. From Beckett’s initial reaction to the newspaper article to her realization that she needs a date to the way their dates played out in the same restaurant to how Beckett and Castle ended up walking out arm in arm for burgers… perfection!! They are officially my favorite couple-to-be on television! I love this show 
!
Bones 5×13 — “The Dentist in the Ditch”: This was a decent episode. I actually thought the mystery was interesting for once — despite the writer’s attempts to make sure we all know that even big, strong, manly men can be homosexuals. These guys were football players, Marines, firemen, etc. Yes, of course anyone can be a homosexual. Did we really need to be told that so explicitly?
Back to the ep. At first I thought the ex-boyfriend might have done it to cash in on the cheap term life insurance policy they’d been paying off, but then Booth pointed out that no, the guy wouldn’t have been entitled to those benefits anyway. I then thought it might have been the husband of the dental hygienist, going off in a jealous rage or something. But since we never met the guy that theory was out the window. I didn’t pick the contractor — but I guess the explanation made sense.
I hated the personal stuff because Booth’s brother bothers me. Who cares about him anymore?? They probably just needed him there so Bones could see how she’s having a negative affect on Booth and then make her “I know what love is” speech. Barf.
The deadline has passed for my Burn Notice giveaway, which means that it’s time to announce the winner. I used the randomizer at Random.org to select a number, which turned out to be 10. The 10th entry I received was from Ken C., so he’s our winner. Congratulations, Ken!
Ken has 48 hours to respond to the email I sent him notifying him of the win. If he doesn’t reply with his address within that time frame, I will select another winner.
I hope you enjoy your prizes!
Edit: Ken C. of Chandler, AZ has responded to the notification email, so this giveaway is officially over! Thank you to everyone who entered!
Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon (played by Saoirse Ronan) is murdered on her way home from school one day in the winter of 1973. The girl’s spirit then gets stuck in an “in-between” place as she comes to terms with what happened to her. While there, Susie can see how her family, friends, and killer cope with the aftermath of her death.
Father Jack (Mark Wahlberg), mother Abigail (Rachel Weisz), sister Lindsey (Rose McIver), and grandmother Lynn (Susan Sarandon) all react in completely different ways to Susie’s death. Jack is the one who never gives up hope of finding Susie’s killer. He becomes obsessed with tracking down clues and making sure that Detective Len Fenerman (Michael Imperioli) is looking at particular suspects. It’s clear that he has the hardest time accepting what happened.
Abigail’s grief takes a much quieter, internal form. She withdraws from her family both emotionally and physically, eventually moving away to California to do her own thing. Lindsey empathizes with Jack, and though she continues to live her life, she also proves pivotal in uncovering evidence of the killing. Grandma Lynn breezes in and pretends that nothing bothers her. She smokes, drinks, and curses as usual, hoping to numb everyone else’s pain by carrying on business as usual.
Meanwhile, the killer, a neighbor named George Harvey (Stanley Tucci), slowly feels the pressure of the Salmon family’s inquiries closing in on him. He initially fends off the cops, but is unable to shake Jack and Lindsey so easily. Once Lindsey breaks into his house and finds proof of the deed, Harvey has no choice but to flee the community.
As Susie watches, she sees that her family finally gets the closure they need in order to move on with their lives. Mr. Harvey was never caught by the authorities, but he gets his just desserts in the end, and once Susie realizes that everything is going to work out, she can finally pass into her heaven.
My Reaction: I read the Alice Sebold novel prior to seeing this film, so I already knew what the story was about. I’m glad I had that background, because I’m not sure I would have been able to decipher the movie version otherwise. It’s just as jumbled as the book, and there are so many different things going on that it’s hard to process everything and make sense of it all after a single viewing. Good luck to those who are going in cold!
I liked the murder plot more than the heaven/afterlife stuff. I thought Stanley Tucci’s performance was positively riveting, and I was immediately on the edge of my seat whenever he was on screen. He was so damn creepy (without being a caricature) that it practically made my skin crawl. I wish the movie had veered from the book in this respect and focused on him a lot more.
Speaking of the film veering from the book, I’m glad a couple of things were left out, such as Susie’s ridiculous reappearance in Ruth’s body so she could spend the day having sex with Ray. Yes, I know she comes back for a kiss in the movie, but that was much easier to take than the long, drawn-out scene in the book. Also, I’m thankful they left out the mom’s affair with Len Fenerman. That would have felt just as out of place on screen as in the book, and wouldn’t have added anything at all to the plot.
Overall, I can’t say that I was exactly disappointed by The Lovely Bones. I didn’t particularly like the original book, so I guess I was hoping the film would be significantly different enough to come off as a better story. It wasn’t. But some of the performances are damn good, which made the whole thing relatively easy to sit through. I give this film 6 stars out of 10.
I’m still watching 24, even though I kind of got tired of the repetitiveness after Season 5. I don’t know why, but every January I decide to tune in to the 2-hour premiere and end up getting sucked into the whole season.
Thus far, Day 8 is playing out more or less as expected in the 24-verse. Some fictional Middle Eastern country’s president is on U.S. soil for historic peace talks with President Taylor, and there’s an assassination plot. Jack Bauer gets involved, then CTU gets involved (this time they’re in New York instead of Los Angeles), and even though Jack’s supposed to be out for good, he’s soon drawn back in because the president asks for his help, blah, blah, blah.
After CTU foils the assassination attempt, they learn that that was just one facet of the evil plan. The bigger picture involves nuclear weapons and who knows what else. Since Russian mobsters are believed to be selling the weapons-grade uranium to the faux Middle Eastern country, ex-FBI agent Renee Walker gets brought back in as well. Apparently, she spent several years undercover and conveniently happens to be close to the mobsters involved.
Back at CTU, there’s the usual personnel drama, with yet another employee somehow managing to pass an extensive background screening despite being a convicted felon living under a fake name. How many times does this make? It seems that there’s always someone shady working at that place!
Despite the familiarity — or maybe even because of it — Day 8 has been rather entertaining so far. I don’t know if I can sustain my interest for the remaining 19 episodes, but I’m in for the immediate future.
One of the TV shows that I’ve been meaning to get into is The Mentalist. It’s about a man named Patrick Jane (played by Simon Baker) who has exceptional observational skills, which he uses to review crime scenes and pick up clues that police might have missed. Of course, there’s a personal reason for Patrick Jane’s vocational choice: his own family was murdered by a serial killer — and he’ll stop at nothing to track down Red John and bring the man to justice. The show is a hit with critics and fans alike, so I want to drop one of the other series I currently watch in favor of this one.
A great way to get caught up on my viewing is to purchase The Mentalist — Complete First Season DVDs. I believe the show is only in its second season now, so if I had the DVDs, it wouldn’t take me more than a couple of weeks to catch up. This first season set contains all 23 full-length episodes, as well as some bonus features like abehind-the-scenes look at the cast and crew and a mini-documentary about the differences between a mentalist and a psychic. Sounds cool!
The Mentalist — Complete First Season is on sale at Buy.com for just $24 right now, a price that includes free shipping. That’s about the best deal I’ve seen for the complete first season (new, not used), so I might have to jump on this fairly quickly since I certainly don’t want to end up paying the suggested retail price of $59.98!
Burn Notice 3×10 — “A Dark Road”: Burn Notice was finally back after a long hiatus! This is one of my favorite shows, so it was great getting to see Michael, Sam, and Fi back in action. This was a solid start to the second half of the season, and I’m looking forward to seeing what else is in store for the remainder of eps.
The odd job of the week involved a complicated insurance scam centered on slick driving. I loved Michael’s good ol’ boy impersonation, mostly because it allowed me to see him in a wife beater for most of the ep! I also enjoyed Clayne Crawford’s guest appearance as scammer Ryan — mostly because I recognize him as a potential troublemaker on this season’s 24. Oh, and he’s easy on the eyes as well!
My favorite part of the ep by far was Tyne Daly’s guest role as Tina, the DMV “asset” that Madeline has to work on. It was great that they became instant friends (of course they would!) and the blackmail scene was very emotional and well done. That in turn led to another wonderful scene with Michael and Madeline. Let’s hope his break-in can pave the way for a reconciliation between the two women so Tina can pop in again from time to time. That would be sweet! And the gang can always use someone at the DMV anyway.
Chasing down the person who burned Michael is just as confusing a proposition as ever. Michael went to meet with the guy at a hotel room, only to have it start burning as soon as he got close. Then he went to a marine stadium — where the guy started aiming rifle shots close to Michael’s position. I get the feeling he and Sam should set up a couple of cardboard displays in their likenesses at the next rendezvous point instead of risking outright assassination by Mason Gilroy again!
Also, I have to say that I’m liking Fiona more and more. I couldn’t stand the character in Season 1, but now I truly can’t imagine the show without her. The core three work so well together… what an awesome team!!! Can’t wait for more BN next week!
Criminal Minds 5×13 — “Risky Business”: This episode was weird. I didn’t like the subject matter at all, and felt like the writers were tiptoeing around the issue, trying to make it more of a public service announcement than a real case. It was nice to see more of JJ, but the writing was so heavy-handed and clunky that the ep did not come off well at all. Right from the beginning it was obvious that Someone Close to JJ had committed suicide and that we would know who by the time the credits rolled. And I swear that necklace JJ pulled out in the opening scene was in a Cartier box. Does it seem reasonable that a kid would have something from Cartier????
Bones 5×12 — “The Proof in the Pudding”: This ep started well enough, but then kind of petered out by the end. I liked how the gang was confined to the Jeffersonian to work on the top-secret project, and how they thought it might have been JFK’s remains. I also liked how Booth forced himself into the facility so he could protect “his people”. But there just wasn’t enough material to make it through the entire hour. The pregnancy stuff was filler, of course, and we got YET ANOTHER protestation of love from Hodgins. Geez, that guy is getting to be really pathetic. Character assassination, anyone? And speaking of acting out of character, it wasn’t like Bones to bend the truth just to protect Booth’s feelings. Hasn’t this ground been covered before? If she’s doing it now, does that mean her feelings for him are changing? I don’t know… I didn’t love this ep, but I didn’t hate it either. It was decent enough compared to the rest of the season.
Castle 2×13 — “Sucker Punch”: I had high hopes for this ep, but to be honest, I didn’t really get into it very much. I’ve never been all that interested in Beckett’s backstory — at least as far as her mom is concerned — because it seems like such a cliché. Someone’s parent gets murdered so they become a cop, blah, blah, blah. And I knew we weren’t going to actually get any answers anyway, so I was only half watching the show while playing around on the computer and running random searches for implant dentist Plano, luxury hotel Las Vegas, senate race Massachusetts, etc. I mean, I seriously wasn’t into the ep at all. Bummer, cuz Castle is usually my fave of the week!
