Journeyman SciFi Storyline; Real Life Stories

I haven’t written in a while, because it seems that when I write something positive about a show it turns out that the next episode makes what a wrote a lie. I have have been tempted to write about Journeyman for several weeks now.

Actually, my first temptation was after episode one. Not because the show itself was outstanding. While the characters, writing, direction, and premise is interesting and entertaining. My motivation to write was based on its marriage-friendly theme.

Take a minute right now and think of a current show that portrays one of the main characters as happily married and is working to keep it that way, or at the least shows no signs of ending the marriage. Of the roughly 45 dramas on the 5 networks that are broadcast in my area. I can only come up with six or seven.

The first and perhaps most obvious example is the Seventh Heaven which I am counting because it is rumored to be going into its 12th season. Then there is the new CW family show Life is Wild. Third, we have Friday Night Lights, but I am not sure that Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) can be considered the main character. There is also the marriage of Law and Order: SVU’s Detective Stabler (Christopher Meloni) which has struggled in the past, but they are working to put it back together. Next we have the Unit, where Jonas Blane (Dennis Haysbert) has a committed and loving relationship with Molly (Regina Taylor). While I might have missed one ore two, I am going to end this list with Journeyman.

The first three shows are teenager-oriented dramas, which typically have some stable parents. I don’t mean that to discount them, but simply to categorize them. SVU, The Unit and Journeyman, however, are the only three dramas specifically geared towards adults that portray marriage as something worth pursuing. That is six out of 45 (13% for those who don’t want to get out their calculators).  Only 3 (7%) if these are directed to adult audiences.

In a world where we falsely believe that 50% of marriage succeed (the marriage success rate is actually higher), you would think that a medium that claims to paint the picture of society might actually have more married couples. However, it doesn’t and I think that it adds to many of our myths about marriage and our societies value of marriage.

Journeyman has become my favorite new show of the season because it shows that even in difficult times, marriage can succeed. It takes work, but it can succeed.

The premise of the show is that Dan Vasser (Kevin McKidd) is suddenly transported back in time. However, when he returns he loses the time spent in the past. Thus, if he spends 2 hours in 1993, he will be missing in 2007 for 2 hours.

Not sure what is happening to himself, Vasser doesn’t tell his wife, Katie (Gretchen Egolf), about the trips. Eventually he tells her, and the marital problems are resolved. But this is only the beginning of the problems. While in the past he finds out that his long lost love Livia Beale (Moon Bloodgood) is also a time traveler.

So, is this love spark to be rekindled? So far, no. While there are temptations and some original interest, Ultimately, Dan chooses fidelity over passion. Not every episode is completely about the marriage, there is a definite theme that marriage can succeed no matter what the problems are.

This is the type of message we need in television. One of the things I love about Science Fiction is that it often address of the issues of today by removing us from the issue directly and talking about it somewhat covertly. While more overt than most science fiction, Journeyman is a great discussion of values, family, and marriage.

Lost Is In The Brig

I am a big fan of Lost. I am currently watching (or re-watching as the case sometimes is) the second season of lost just to keep myself up to speed. And I am enjoying even the episodes I have already seen and mysteries that I already know the answers too.

My re-watching of season one helped me to already figure out that Locke’s father (Kevin Tighe) was Sawyer’s (Josh Holloway) nemesis. And honestly, I knew that Locke (Terry O’Quinn) was lying after about 2 minutes of him telling Sawyer that he wanted Ben dead.

However, as I watched I kept telling myself that I didn’t want Sawyer to do it. I knew he would, but I just wanted him to learn forgiveness. I would have settled for something else (like an earthquake or Jack) to get in the way of the murder, but it didn’t happen either.

It’s all about the murder. I was bothered when Michael killed Ana-Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez) last year and I don’t like what Sawyer did in this episode. I understand that these murders play an important part in the development of the show, but I am not fond of them.

You might be thinking that after last week’s episode, maybe they are already dead, so it shouldn’t really matter. Or you might think that they too could be revived like the Russian (Andrew Divoff) was. However, there were too many references to them already being dead in these past two episodes for me to really believe it. You have to remember that this is the Hanso Foundation. They have power to cover anything up. Oceanic Flight 815 didn’t really need to crash in the Pacific and they didn’t really need to find the survivors, for others to be convinced otherwise.

The events of these past two episodes aren’t about whether they are dead or not.

We have to remember that Ben (Michael Linus) is the mastermind here. Ben could have ordered Locke’s father to the island. Locke’s father’s death could have been faked (remember the smiling man with the IV after the car crash, what was in that bottle?), he could have been brain washed into thinking that the Oceanic 815 passengers died, then he woke up in the box.

Also, this mystery woman (Marsha Thomason) from the helicopter could easily be an “other” that we haven’t met yet. I am sure that the others have the back-story of Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) as they do for everyone else on the island. So they can talk about Penelope (Sonya Walger), and even have a copy of a picture with Desmond and Penelope.

All of this happened so that Locke could give Sawyer the tape recorder. Don’t you think it was awfully convenient that Ben was listening to the tape just when Locke arrived at his tent? And I find it hard to believe that Ben would let the recorder get stolen that easily. This is just another masterly planned con by Ben.
Okay, I am getting too much into theories here. But it is to make a point. I think that the story line has gotten a little too obvious. The mystery is slipping a bit. Maybe I am just upset about the murder, but it just seems to me things are a little too obvious. It could also be that I am just being conned into thinking it is that simple when it is not really the case.

Either way, just like last year, it is near the end of the season and I am losing my interest in the show again. This is partly because of the murders, and partly because of the storyline.

Heroes Renews It’s Energy

In gearing up for last night’s return of Heroes, I re-watched every season 1 episode on-line. Yeah, I have to admit I am a little obsessed. Since I did the same thing during the last Heroes drought, I have watched the pre-December episodes at least three times.

While watching these episodes again, I couldn’t help but think that they had tied up too many loose ends. We found out who Claire’s (Hayden Panetierre) real parents are. We had my suspicions that Mr. Bennet (Jack Coleman) was a good guy, and only the “face” of evil not evil itself, confirmed. We met Mr. Linderman (Michael McDowell), however, who he really is hasn’t been revealed. And many more important parts of the story have been discovered.

I was honestly thinking that if they kept up the pace, then the show would be all over by the end to of this season. However, with this one episode, while having several questions answered, we had many new questions to keep our interest.  Some of these interesting new questions are:

1. Will Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) encourage his brother to explode?
2. What is Mrs. Petrelli’s (Cristine Rose) power?
3. Does Claire need to stay in New York or go to Paris to save the World?
4. Can Mr. Bennet stop the Company?
   • Does he meet up again with Claire when in New York?
   • Or do they end up going to Las Vegas instead?
5. What happened 15 or so years ago to cause a former group of Heroes to separate?
   • Was Mrs. Petrelli one of the group?
   • Does Mrs. Petrelli work for Linderman?
   • Who was in that group?

These are just some of the question that I have come up with, and I am excited to see them develop. I am also very interested to see what happens 5 years in the future that is so important to today, so next week is going to be another great episode.

It’s great that I have Heroes to hold onto, because as of late, I have been losing a lot of interest in television. Sure, I am still watching Lost, but many of the other staples in my TV diet aren’t as appetizing as they used to be.

I really don’t want to get into the speculations about the show, I just want to point out how good this show is and has become. This show is so good; I even started to believe the tricks of this episode.

It should have been obvious to me that Peter just needed the glass pulled from his head. But for some reason, I was so caught up in mourning his loss (or trying to figure out how Linderman was going to save him), that I didn’t really think too much about pulling the glass out of his head.

I was moved when Claire saved him and cited the all to cliche line “I guess we’re even then.” I just solidified their relationship in my head. Before it was just a young girl fantasy about an older brother figure. Now, it is a great uncle-niece relationship that I know will prove important through out the show, even perhaps during the next few episodes.

Jericho Gets Nuked

As Jericho is one of my personal favorite new shows this year, I am upset to report that I won’t be watching any more. I have said in the past there is one thing that will make me stop watching a show. I have been accused of being a prude and of not understanding real life because of it too.

Last weeks episode had an allusion to the fact that Bonnie (Shoshannah Stern) had spent the night with her boyfriend at her house while Stanley (Bradley Beyer) was in New Bern. I started to question if I should even bother watching the show then. However, I couldn’t determine if Bonnie was a teenager or not.  While I had alway thought she wast, I didn’t want to give up on the show just then.

According to Stern’s IMBD bio, she is 26 years old. However, it isn’t uncommon for television to have actors portray people younger (or older) than they really are. So, I decided to reserve judgment. Honestly, I was hoping that they would just drop the issue and let me watch in peace.

However, they continued the story this week, and during a conversation between Stanley and Mimi (Alicia Coppola), Bonnie’s age is hinted to. She is referred to as a teenager, and it was specified that she was having sex with her boyfriend.

I struggled at that point. I love this show. While my interest in Jericho is starting to wane, I don’t want to stop watching yet. I even contemplated not writing about it today and just letting the incident slide hoping that no one would notice my hypocrisy.

However, I can’t do that. If I give in on one show, then I lose and those who are determined to normalize teen sex win. So, I am done with Jericho.

Before some of you start arguing that I don’t know anything about teenagers, I want to point out, that yes I know teens are having sex. I also understand that sex is very much on most teenagers’ minds. However, it isn’t something that they should take casually, and too many television shows are treating this as a casual act.

I am also hopeful that there is still a large number of teens who are choosing to abstain. I am still waiting for a show that emphasizes that choice, and not as some fanatically religious reason for their choice. I am fine with religion being a part of the choice. I am just afraid that the media will make it some religious fanatical reason for the decision.

I predict that Jericho will lose a lot of viewers over the rest of this season, and I further predict that fewer will return for the next season. I am sure I am not the only person who feels this way. We need to have more viewers be more discerning about the shows they choose to watch. As for me, I am done with one of my favorite shows this year.

Imaginary Raines Entertains

When I first read about Raines, I was wondering how many more talking to the dead shows we need. Then I realized that Detective Michael Raines (Jeff Goldblum) doesn’t really talk to the dead. He just imagines them.

So, then I start wondering if we really need another Monk. However, after watching the past three episodes, I realize that this isn’t Monk, and frankly, I think it is a lot better.

Prior to any of the first episode, Raines’ partner, Detective Charlie Lincoln (Milka Yoba) was killed and Raines is taking it pretty hard. So hard, that he sees the victims that he is investigating as he works on their cases. He even talks to his old partner in his imagination.

He is not however seeing their ghosts. He only imagines them, and the victim’s character is slow developed as Raines learns more about them. Last week’s episode started with the victim all covered in seaweed and half eaten by fish, until Raines sees a photo. Then the victim becomes normal.

Last night’s episode we see the victim’s clothes changes as Raines learned more about her. She went from looking like a homeless woman, to a suburban mother like individual.

These imaginary individuals, however, don’t tell Raines more than he already knows. Sure sometimes they help him talk through problems to understand possible solutions. However, they don’t tell him anything more than he already knows.

It really creates a very interesting story line, and helps you to understand better how Raines puts the cases together. It really is an excellent literary tool.

It is a really interesting premise and is very enjoyable. The monologue at the beginning is a little too Dragnet, but it does work for this show, especially when you take into account that Raines talks to himself (or his imagination) throughout the show.

I will keep watching and enjoying Raines. It is perhaps the best new premier among this mid-seasons releases.

Ugly Betty Gets Uglier

If I had posted these comments about Ugly Betty last November when last nights rerun originally aired, I would have been a lot more complimentary about the show. That’s right I have been watching Ugly Betty.

At first I was watching the show to prove myself right that this show didn’t deserve to be on the air. I was convinced that it would be a complete and total mockery of everything good. And I was pleasantly surprised.

During the first half of this season this show actually proved to be a great show about how traditional family values will always prevail no matter what part of the world you lived in. Betty (America Ferrera) managed to always save her boss, her company, or her own family by relying on the values and morals her parent taught her while growing up. These values were either never taught or were easily forgotten by her coworkers in the fashion industry.

I was also further caught up in the mystery surrounding the death of Bradford Meade’s (Alan Dale) mistress. Who killed her? Who was this mystery woman that was going to take over Mode Magazine by revealing Bradford’s involvement in his mistress’s death? It was captivating.

It was really looking up to being a great show. However, after the winter break in new episodes, Betty got Uglier. Betty Suarez didn’t get uglier, just the show.

We find out that the mystery woman was supposedly Bradford Meade’s deceased son, Alex(is) Meade (Rebecca Romijn). He faked his own death in order to go into hiding so that he could have a sex change.

What little I know about sex changes, I know that there is no way you can take the offspring of Bradford Meade and Claire Meade (Judith Light), have a boy, and then convert it into something as beautiful as Romijn. It’s just not possible with today’s technology.

The revelation of Alexis Meade is where I realized the hidden agenda of this show. It is an advocacy program for the sexually confused. Two of the supporting characters are gay. Two of the supporting characters are sex addicts. And one of them is transgendered. That adds up to five of a regular cast of eleven.  Seems like a high percentage to me.

This is all couched in the message of fighting for the underdog. We cheer for the success of Betty in her poncho while saving a fashion magazine. We hope for her father Ignacio (Tony Plana) and his plight for legal status in the United States. We have heart for the differences in personality of Betty’s nephew Justin (Mark Indelicato). We pine for Christina’s (Ashely Jensen) success as a fashion designer.

However, you really lose my interest when I have to accept the transformation of a man into a woman. This is agendized television and I just am not going to accept it.

It is a blatant attempt at trying to change the hearts and minds of American’s to greater acceptance or at least tolerance towards the sexually confused, I was willing to bear it for a while, but I think I have had enough.

The Man from Tallahasee is the Confidence Man

As a general rule, I like to avoid posts that are directly related to theories about a show. However, I found this one a little interesting and I thought that I would share it with you all.

During the last episode of lost we learned how John Locke (Terry O’Quinn) lost the use of his legs and was in a wheelchair. For some this was a huge mystery revealed. For me, it was boring.

I like Locke; He is in my top three of favorite characters in Lost. And I was looking forward to this episode mostly because it was focused on him. However, I wasn’t genuinely peak interested in learning about how he lost the use of his legs.

That is until I rewatched Episode 8 of Season 1. My wife missed most of season 1 and I know that there are a few that I have missed too. So, we decided to rent the season and watch it to keep us up on things.

Last night we watched the Episode where Sawyers is confronted by Kate about the Letter that he handles so gingerly and reads with heart. At first, Sawyer claims that it is a letter he received. After being tortured by Sayid and prostituting a kiss from Kate, Sawyer confessed to Kate that it is a letter he wrote to a Confidence Man who stole money from his father, which lead to the murder-suicide of his parents.

I just realized that the Man from Tallahassee is the Confidence Man. It fits perfectly. It is almost too obvious. If it hadn’t been for the two plus year delay in the connection, I would think that it is too obvious to be the case. However, I can’t wait now to see the episode where Sawyer meets up with Anthony Cooper (Kevin Tighe). I further think that it will start tying up some interesting loose ends.

Am I out in left field on this one? Has this been obvious for a long time and I am just catching up with the rest of you? Should I just not even bother worrying about the mysteries because I am so naive? What are your thoughts about some of the mysteries of Lost?

Jack Bauer is MacGyver on Adrenaline

I missed out on the first season of Fox’s 24. I wasn’t even aware that the show was being aired. My sister-in-law mentioned it to me, and I thought the concept was interesting. However, I didn’t bother watching it until the second season.

Actually, that is somewhat of an over statement. I watch about the first half hour of the first episode of the second season. I thought it was boring drivel, turned off the TV, and never bothered watching again.

That is until this season. A co-worker said it is the only show that he watches. Considering this gentleman is rather finicky about his television viewing I thought that maybe I had misjudged the show. This is especially true when you consider that the second season is considered by most to be its worst iteration.

So, I have given Jack Bauer (Keifer Southerland) another try. And honestly, it is still the same old drivel.

Jack Bauer is just the MacGyver of the new millennium. He is MacGyver with enough adrenaline to just make it stupid.

You can expect the same thing every episode. Jack Bauer saves the day, just barely. Yesterday’s episode was no different. Even though he is injured enough to be in an infirmary, Bauer manages to kill three men (single handedly, with two guy as unnecessary back up), then fly an UAV out of the air space of millions of people.

Yeah!!!! He did it again. And guess what next episode, he will be our hero. Why can’t someone else save the day? Morris O’Brian (Carlo Rota) could have put a bug in a code to save the day. Tom Lennox (Peter MacNicol) could have prevented the assassination of the President. But the writers can only write a script in which Jack Bauer saves the day.

Boring… It is so predictable, that I am not even feeling like I am giving away any spoilers. Just watch, next week. If Jack Bauer is there, then the world will be saved, but if he is too far away trust me doom will happen.

If this were the real world, we would put Jack Bauer as the President’s personal body guard, and then he would be immortal, because after all Jack Bauer is.

It is quite humorous. It’s like watching a MacGyver episode all over again. When you put it all together Jack Bauer is just like MacGyver accept for one thing. Bauer does use a fire arm, and many more weapons of torture. Something that MacGyver would die before he would ever use.

Bauer can create anything (especially if it saves his life) out of anything. He can use a belt to stop a bullet from speeding to his head. He can fly a UAV. And MacGyver was famous for all the inventions he made out of everyday ordinary things.

Also, both MacGyver and Bauer are fighting terrorists. Sure MacGyver was more against the Russians, but hey they were our biggest enemy in his day. If MacGyver were still saving the world today, I am sure it would be from the Afghanis.

I should really be making the comparison, because at least MacGyver was entertaining. But I was kid then, so it might not be as entertaining for me now.

Don’t Delay My Drama

Why all the delays?!

Heroes, Lost and Jericho are perhaps my three favorite shows on TV. Most Americans would probably agree with me on that list too. And yet we find ourselves having to wait for at least several weeks before they air the next episode.

Jericho’s delay is probably directly related to March Madness and I can forgive the CBS decision makers for that. However, I don’t understand the NBC or ABC decision makers.

For the time being ABC is keeping Lost on the air until this season is over. That’s great. But I don’t understand the huge delay in the middle of the season. They finally bring the show back just in time for February’s sweeps.

We got pretty much the same treatment from CBS and NBC too. We had to go on hiatus from these serialized shows for at least two months after the November sweeps.

Are the viewers only worth their votes on the ratings months? Sure we have value then. But when we are treated as though that is our only value to the producer, we aren’t happy.

It’s acceptable to have a break in a sitcom or a regular drama, but when the show is serialized, people hang on from week to week. I have even found that it is better to just wait and either rent the video, or watch the replay on the Internet.

I have to give NBC a little credit in that they did at least allow Peter to “save the cheerleader” before they took a break. We at least got some closure. Lost, however, didn’t give us the same courtesy. If I recall correctly the best that they gave us was revealing that Jack, Kate and Sawyer were on a different island. However, Jack was also told by Juliet to kill Ben. We were left hanging even more.

Well-done serial stories are great, they keep us wanting to return. This is especially true when the story lines are as captivating as Jericho, Lost and Heroes. But the producers and broadcasters need more respect for their audience.

This is a call out the decision makers at the television networks. Have more respect for your viewers. If you string us along too much, we will get fed up and leave.

Law and Order is Fair and Balanced

I am a Law and Order fan. I got a late start in the Law and Order series, I got started with the program sometime before the Criminal Intent series was broadcast, but after the Special Victims Unit started broadcasting.

I like the original better than either of the others. But I really like Detective Robert Goren (Vincent D’Onofrio) in Criminal Intent. Sure he’s a little Monk (obsessive compulsive) in his nature, but he isn’t overwhelming like Monk is. His psychosis is probably something different, but I like it. It adds to his character.

I am generally bothered by Special Victims Unit. I watch it on occasion, but always with caution. I don’t disapprove of the general message it sends. The cops catch the bad guys, and the bad guys generally go to jail. That’s the way I want my entertainment to be. It is just that sometimes while watching SVU, I get too uncomfortable in the topic, and I just can’t watch any more.

Today’s episode of Criminal Intent had me nervous. And it seemed to go down hill as the show progressed.

Television often portrays religious people as nuts. And Law and Order has had it fair share of such nut case religious people. These portrayal don’t do religion justice. It is an unfair representation of some of the best organizations in America. This episode of Criminal Intenat was in part a contributer to this problem.

In this episode, it is discovered that a televangelist is into homosexual prostitution. And because of that, he is assumed for murder. I will be the first to admit that religious people aren’t free from sin. Even those who are actively involved in preaching religion fall short of everything they preach. However, this portrayal and other like it send a continued message that religion is the problem. The media continues to say that religious people are hypocrites.

However, I have to give this episode a fair and balanced label because they made the ultimate statement that the scientist (symbolic of the non-religious) wasn’t perfect either. The scientist had a secret of his own (his secret was perhaps more innocent), but he was willing to kill in order to hide his secret.

Also, this episode portrayed religion in a positive sense. Det. Goren wasn’t sold on the positive nature, but the show made it clear that religion does have value in our society.

In a surprise twist, we met Det. Goren’s brother in this episode. He is a recovering drug addict, who says that he recovered because of his faith. he was very grateful for what religion had done for him. He was still struggling in life, but he was making a change for the better.

They make this point even more firmly with a poignant statement about the help that religion provided Goren’s brother in only a way that a Dick Wolf creation can. Goren lack of hope for his brother is proven false. And we see that religion can help the down trodden.

There are other examples of Law and Order allusions to the good of religion. The one that comes to mind is the Catholic Sister who runs a shelter for rape victims in Special Victims Unit. And I think that this is perhaps the most balanced show available. However, it still has a taste of negativity toward religion.