Today’s show is very different from yesterday’s show. Over the past season, this became my favorite series. But as Heroes hit it’s stride, it then quickly dovetailed over the last few weeks and just kinda ended with a whimper. Meanwhile, LOST started out weak and steamrolled back into a winner by season’s end.
I wonder how much we, as an audience, should blame ourselves. I mean, it is just a TV show. The big collossal smack-down we were hoping for is pretty unrealistic by budgetary standards. Then again, they’ve teased us with this showdown by previewing it in the future and foreshadowing it a number of times in previous episodes so maybe it is the show’s fault.
Once you get past that initial dissappointment, the season finale did it’s job. It wrapped up most of the mysteries brought up over the last year, sowed the seeds for the next “Big Bad”, and set Hiro on pace for another crazy adventure through time. Although a little bummed by the lackluster finale, I will be on board for Volume Two of Heroes.
It’s been a week but my head is still spinning from the Season 3 finale of LOST, Through the Looking Glass. It seems that, judging by the online reaction, many feel this episode proves the show is back on track. It also proves my theory: Serials should not take time off between episodes. A good decision to keep all the new episodes together, for the most part. Sure, there were those six weird, kinda lackluster episodes last fall. But since the show returned in February, it has gotten good again. And anyone who still thinks the writers are just making shit up as they go has clearly not checked out this LOST easter egg site. These guys clearly have a game plan and I am looking forward to seeing it play out over the next three years.
As for the end of this year, this was no doubt the best cliffhanger the show has had yet. The “snake in the mailbox” or whatever they’re calling the big reveal has people talking. Check out Lefty’s theory about how the show will operate differently next year.
And this coffin? Sure, posting this picture seems kinda spoilery. But, out of context, you don’t know much more than someone at some point died. Besides, even if that got spoiled, that’s not even the biggest reveal in the episode. Although, it’s hard to spoil a mystery I don’t have the answer for. But I’ve got my theories! It comes down to four suspects for me. Head to the comment section to learn who I think is in there. And a Sock Point will be awarded to those who discuss LOST season 3.
I’m going to spend the rest of this short week by talking about the big season finales I saw last week. Or even earlier as is the case with today’s offering. The Office has quickly risen to the top of my “must see” list. It doesn’t hurt that this is one of the few shows that overlap mine and Lisa’s tastes. And, for some odd reason, there’s not a lot of them. Fortunately, NBC’s hit comedy continues to do well with both of us. The season finale was no exception (great double meaning for the show’s title, too) as it sets up a lot more humorous scenarios for the fourth season. There is a concern that another Office romance might be the death of this show, especially this being the big one. But for a show that lives off of “little moments”, I’m sure they’ll downplay this moment and move back into a groove like they did with the season 2 cliffhanger.
As you can tell, I’m being pretty vague, trying to avoid being too spoilery. I used to have an option where I could write in a “hidden” section, but I can’t figure out how to do that here or even if I can. Maybe we should just discuss the spoilers in the comment section so we don’t blow the ending to anyone who still has it sitting on their TiVo or waiting for the season to come out on DVD.
“The White House reception committee greeted the Prime Ribroast Minister and I do the cha-cha like a sissy girl”
I gotta say, I was pretty impressed at how many of you had any clue about the picture I posted yesterday. I got the impression that the Mothman was nowhere near as big as Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster or even the Jersey Devil. The people have only recently figured out they can turn a profit on their local legend. They’ve only begun to try and exploit and it’s so cure to see the baby steps they’re making into marketing their Mothman.
Yes, I spent part of the holiday weekend in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Yeah, Lisa was thrilled to drive across the state and even the Ohio River to look at a bunch of silly trinkets celebrating some mythical creature. Fortunately for her, that’s not all we did. We also stopped off at Rio Grande, Ohio for Bob Evans Farms and Serpent Mound. So we hit a couple of hot spots with one road trip. Very efficient road trip, I think.
By the way, it’s time to look at last week’s season finales. Or at least the ones I saw. Or are getting around to seeing… eventually. Tomorrow’s The Office. Appropriate since we have to go back to work. Be prepared.
“What’s the name of that Mexican lizard, eats all the goats?”
“Uh, that would be the Chupacabra, sir!”
“Hey! Chupathingie. How ’bout that? I like it! Got a ring to it…”
A little change of pace. Today’s Sock Point will be earned by whomever can figure out where I am based solely on this photo. Even if you have no clue, take a guess. That might be funnier than the actual location. Might be damn funny.
This brought back some funny memories. Nickelodeon once was pretty big in my world. Too bad the old classic Nick shows aren’t on TV anymore. Good thing we’ve got YouTube.
“Why the hell would we pay you to write to your friends?”
“We thought it was kinda strange.”
For those of you with well-trained eyes, you may be able to spot me in that picture to the right there. When in the water, I become silent and invisible. I am Kayak Ninja. Lisa will gladly tell you how fantastic I was in this endeavor last week during our Hilton Head trip. Trust me, I was stellar.
Anyway, I promised there would be winners for all of your hard work last week while I was gone and this is one promise I will actually deliver on. As agreed upon, everyone got a Sock Point who contributed. These are the people who get the extra Sock Point for their creativity. Following is the winners, their sparkling contribution, and what made them stick out from the competition.
Buncha Monkeys: Eric It looks like the guy behind you is on the phone calling animal control on you. “Hey! I think I found the missing link!”
I’m down with innocent bystanders being beffuddled by my appearance.
Pipe Smoking Makes Lisa Angry: Amy Louise “I am going to break his !!!#@** camera!”
Pretty much points for accuracy.
Lisa @ Star Tours: Goat “Oh no! Ewoks! And they’re pissed about Yub-Yub being cut out of the special edition!”
Ewoks are funny. Yub-yub. Heh.
It’s My Turn: Drewes “Alex, Let me have things that happen with a Univ. of Cincinnati education for $200.”
It’s funny cause it’s true. Nice use of Jeopardy, as well.
And One More For The Road: MOe “OK, Dennis Quaid, follow me! We’re heading for the colon!”
A lot of good ones to choose from this day, but an Innerspace reference trumps them all.
So, congrats to those winners. Overall, great job by all of you. I think it went very well. Next time I go away for a week or so, I think I’ll do this again. Any suggestions about how, or even if, I should tweak it?
“I got your damn book. Now send me back, like in the deal.”
For the city of Cincinnati, the answer is apparently “bobblehead night.” Last night, Great American Ball Park was well over half full for a mid-week confrontation between the two shittiest teams in the National League. And I’m sure more tickets were sold than that. All because of that little fella you see above: Bronson Arroyo Bobblehead Night. But nothing kills a bad product quicker than good advertising. A lot of people were on hand to see a shitty game. I can’t imagine too many of them will sign up for another trip to the ballpark after watching that crap. But maybe another bobblehead will bring in the masses. Still three more bobblehead nights left.
As for me, it took more than just a bobblehead to get me to come downtown to watch these awful, awful Reds last night. It took a booblehead and free tickets. That’s how bad this team is. I can’t imagine what it’s gonna take next time.
“Today is gonna be the day that they’re gonna throw it back to you. By now you should’ve somehow realized what you gotta do.”
A while back, Comic book memes were huge. Basically, you scan in a picture from a comic and make some zen-like bumper sticker saying for it. But, I had neither the resources nor the effort to join in. Until now.
A little big, but you get the point. And, yes, that is the actual script from Incredible Hulk #404, I did not alter it at all. God bless Peter David.
“Pleasure to meet you, sir. And may I congratulate you on all your success… you smell terrific!”
And I’m back. No more auto-blogging from vacation, it’s back to work and the real world. It’ll probably be a little while before I get my blogging legs back but at least the content is live and not pre-packaged. I will say I was very pleased with Word Press’s ability to set up everything in advance and automatically put up new posts whenever I wanted. No repeat of my last vacation where I was worried where I could find precious internet hook-up. As for this vacay, here’s my Hilton Head trip photos, or at least what I’ve uploaded so far. Feel free to take a look around. And here’s some things I learned while gone:
I thought I really liked hush puppies. Then I realized it was probably just the butter you dip them in.
The pirate themes are a lot more prevalent than the last time I was here a few decades ago.
The island pretty much closes up at 10:00 p.m., even on weekends. It made me feel less old that I was able to stay up late enough to get kicked out.
I am a Kayak Ninja.
I’ve been having a blast reading through the captions you made up for the pictures I posted while I was gone. I will render a final winner for each day either Thursday or Friday so you still have a day or two to take a shot at earning some extra Sock Points if you haven’t participated yet. You get a point every day you made a comment and the best one each day earns another point. But, for today, it’s back to earning them the old-fashioned way.
“So the very next day we loaded up the car with potato skins and pickled weiners, crossword puzzles, Spider-Man comics, and mama’s home made rhubarb pie.”
