Watchin' that there TV

Having finally watched the first season of The Wire, I now completely understand the hype it received during it’s run. Over the course of two days I watched all 13 episodes…I could quite happily have sat there and watched…no food, no drink, taking a crap in an empty Chapters bag sitting near the chair…you know, if that wasn’t so decidedly gross and stupid. Still, great show. I’ve got season 2 locked and loaded and ready to go, so more on that later.

I’ve also been watching the first season of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. Bourdain has basically become my hero…the man’s living the life of kings. Man becomes chef, man becomes traveler, man travels the world eating whatever bizarre (and tasty) stuff he can fine and engages in bizarre behavior with the locals whilst mocking anyone who enters his mental cross-hairs. He singlehandedly gives me hope that maybe something worthwhile can actually be salvaged from the French. Anyway, the current episodes are also running on Discovery…don’t ask me what day or time because I keep forgetting…you obviously have access to the Internet and Google, so luck it up your own goddamn self.

Finally, 24. Aaah, 24. Two seasons ago was one of the best runs of television that I have ever seen. Simply fantastic. Hell, at the end Bauer was taken by the Chinese to a life of torture and interrogation and that was actually kinda ho hum. Then there was last season. Last year might have been written by 12 different sets of writers. I haven’t seen anything that uneven since the last time I drove the roads of Edmonton. Early on there was promise…Jack’s been brought back from China to be handed over to terrorists for them to torture and kill, and in exchange they don’t nuke the country. And he was ready to do it! Of course, it went wrong and he ended up kicking ass and taking names, but he didn’t seem…’right’. And that was awesome! It seemed like he could fall apart in to a drooling pile of defeat at any moment! Unfortunately, one episode they’d show a little weakness, and the next episode pretended like it had never happened. Absolutely terrible. I didn’t even watch the last 8 hours or so, which just degraded in to a bizarre personal revenge story where the same Chinese agents who didn’t REALLY want to give him back have taken his woman and he needs to get her back…if I want shit like that, I’ll rent a Van Damme feature.

This season, though…we’re a quarter of the way in and so far I’m likin’ it. The funny thing is, I actually don’t give a shit about the massive government conspiracy angle. Seriously, they’ve done this so many fucking times by now it seems like half the entire US prison population must be made up of evil Secret Service agents, members of government and their various associates. I’m over that. What IS interesting is that everything has been blown wide open in terms of possibilities. There is no oversight…because there is no CTU (the agency Bauer’s worked for for all these years). Hell, the first episode sees Jack on the stand being lambasted by senators at a congressional hearing for his…’interesting’ interrogation techniques. Nope, him and a few other ex-CTU flunkies are working against a massive corrupt force in government helping to prop up a strongman general in a fictional African country (that’s also kind of refreshing for the same reason the movie Tears of the Sun was…you don’t typically see that material covered). Admittedly, it’s rather silly that Tony Almeida is one of them…this fucking guy has been resurrected more than Jesus. The fact that he’s actually been working WITH the bad guys for awhile, though, is interesting…and I just don’t know fo0r sure that he still ISN’T. Fuck, I wouldn’t be surprised if they ALL are up to something wrong. For the first time ever in the history of the show it is actually conceivable to me that Jack might end this season bleeding out in a street somewhere, and that’s AWESOME. Lack of predictability with main characters makes for big entertainment!

So, yes, there you go. And no, Sean…still haven’t watched UFO yet.