Articulated

New season

I have been a bit depressed lately. The loud voices of non-sense that come from the people who would derail necessary reforms to this country’s health insurance system, as well as our president’s potential for success, continue to be loud. As friends – and Bill Maher – would argue, just because the voices are louder doesn’t mean that a majority of people (or even 50% of the people) believe or agree with the nonsense. Our modern news media just makes it seem that way. But I can only listen to the bull for so long before becoming so angry and disappointed in people that I need to just shut off the noise and ignore everything. I realize this is not the correct response, but it is a necessary one. I can only endure so much psychological assault.

As a remedy to all of this, I have Bill Maher. His most recent “Real Time” show was perhaps one of the best I have ever enjoyed. Of particular pleasure was the appearance of guest Kathy Griffin who took over the show for several minutes. You can listen to audio of the show as an iTunes podcast. It’s really worth the time. In addition to Ms. Griffin, Bill had a number of other excellent guests as part of his 9/11 anniversary observance.

Another remedy this past week as been the season premier of some of my favorite shows. There were also some new shows. Here are my impressions of what I saw:

NCIS
Over the last season, I had been disappointed that my favorite character, Agent DiNozzo, had become less of a serious character and more comic relief (much like what happened to Gimli in the LOTR movies). So it was very nice to see an episode that featured Tony and showcased so much of what I enjoy about his character. I also thought the episode was great for folks who may have not seen the show before. Great start to the season. Now that the drama of Ziva’s departure from NCIS has been resolved, I look forward to the team tackling more mysteries.

NCIS:Los Angeles
Last season on NCIS, we were introduced to an entirely new team on the left coast. Now this team has it’s own show. I’m sorry to say that I think this show is going to flop. It looks like all style and no substance. LL Cool J is ridiculous as a former Navy Seal. The settings have nonsensical designs – as if they were simply made to look sexy instead of appropriate and practical. The interactions between the characters were not natural. Perhaps this is just the growing pains of a new show, but the update of Knight Rider that was on NBC had the same problems and we all know how that turned out.

CSI:NY
Another spin-off show that, to me, never lived up to the success of the original enters its sixth season? Wow. I actually didn’t expect much from this season opener. The show has dropped off over the last couple of seasons by trying too hard and featuring overly complicated stories and unbelievable resolutions. I’ve mostly stopped watching. Perhaps because of the low expectations, the season opener was actually pretty good. They stuck to the core story, didn’t get too crazy, and the result felt natural. They introduced some awkward character stories that will develop throughout the season, but they did a good overall job.

Bones
I’m a little worried that the show might have run out of ideas. The season opener suffered from an extremely clumsy finish, and the focus appears to have shifted from solving mysteries to solving the relationships between the characters. The excellent work of the show’s first few seasons made this my single favorite television show. But nothing lasts forever. The season’s second show was an improvement, but we’ll see how it goes.

CSI
After a clunker closed last season, I hoped to see the new season start on a high note. They delivered. The new season opens with the CSI team in a bit of disarray, but it looks like the return of Sara Sidle and the emerging leadership of Dr. Langston will start to bring things together. A few of the team disagreements seemed forced, but a well executed story and some “holy cow” moments really gave the episode some pop. Looking forward to the rest of the season.

The Mentalist
I’ve quickly become a fan of this show and this season’s first episode was a perfect example of why. I won’t say much about the episode because it’s worth watching and (like Patrick Jane) I don’t want to spoil the surprise.

Grey’s Anatomy
I’ll say it again: I’m very disappointed that T.R. Knight has left the show. He was the soul of this show and I’m not sure the show can get by on heart alone. The very long season premiere wasn’t bad, but it felt a bit uneven. The new season finds things falling apart. Just as T.R. Knight was the soul of the show, Dr. O’Malley was the soul of Seattle Grace. Without him, it looks like there will be quite a few changes. I guess this is a good thing. But I can’t help feeling that this show peaked a little while ago and is slowly on the way down.

Fishbourne

A new era begins today. Morpheus is joining the cast of CSI. Yes, I am being silly. I do really enjoy CSI and as sad as it will be to see Bill Peterson leave the show, I am glad that they will be replacing him with an actor I really like to watch. CSI is one of the shows that made me begin watching television again after college. It’s well made, well written, and well cast. It has gone through quite a few changes over the last season or so, but the quality remains high even after so many years. It may no longer be my current favorite (that designation belongs to Bones now) but it is still one of the greatest.

Strange connections

Just for grins, I did a search on IMDB for Emily Deschanel, the actress who stars in the TV series Bones (see older posts). It turns out she is Zooey Deschanel’s sister. Zooey is one of my favorite young actresses. She was the depressed teen girl in the movie Mumford (which I’m sure very few people saw but was written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan, who also wrote Empire Strikes Back); She played Trillian in the movie Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, one of my other favorites. Unfortunately, she was also the female lead in The Happening. We won’t go into that.

And more strange: Emily and Zooey are the daughters of Mary Jo Deschanel. Her limited credits include the portrayal of the kind and slightly sad Eileen Hayward in the Twin Peaks series. As we all know, this is the greatest TV series ever.

Unrelated information provided by the great and powerful oracle: lupus is an autoimmune disease. Monica was asking me about this today because it’s come up a few times when watching crime/science television shows like CSI and Bones or doctor shows like Private Practice or Grey’s Anatomy. The Lupus Foundation of America provides a quick overview of the disease which is not life threatening in every case. However, all auto-immune diseases are a bit disturbing. Much like having an unsanctioned civil war occur inside your body.

Bones postscript

iTunes has all 4 seasons of Bones available. This could be a good thing or a bad thing. I realize now that the third season of Bones is the one that was cut short due to the writers’ strike.  There are only 15 episides instead of the usual 20+.

iTunes also has the audiobooks of the novels upon which the show is based. I am curious about them, but I don’t know how I feel about audiobooks. I believe people comprehend and remember better when they see something as opposed to when they hear something.

Bones

My new favorite television show is Bones. I have been watching it on Hulu.com, which is how all TV will be viewed some day. Not on Hulu specifically, but on something similar. Hulu was nice enough to provide the entire 1st season of the show plus most all of the current season. Unfortunately, the 3rd season is not available and most of the 2nd season is missing as well – including the conclusion to the cliffhanger in the 14th episode. Clearly, they want me to purchase the DVD. I might have to. I really enjoy the character interactions on the show. It’s very well done – humorous without being silly, grotesque without stooping to gross.

I do wish I could see all the episodes online. I’ve decided that purchasing DVDs of television shows isn’t a wise expense. How many times will I actually watch those shows? Once would be enough so that I know the story. I don’t need that many repeat viewings. People must think of it not just as owning the shows but also “collecting” them like coins or stamps. I’ve ‘collected’ 4 seasons of Northern Exposure, but there are a handful of episodes I need to see more than once. I also have 3 seasons of CSI. Those shows are nice to have on when I’m bored.

Anyway, Bones seasons 2 and 3 are officially on my Christmas wish list.