Breaking Bad (season 1)

Awesome tv show, about a high school chemistry teacher who turns to cooking crystal meth when he finds out he has terminal lung cancer. This show is even more fun than it sounds (and contains one of the greatest mormon missionary references I've ever seen in pop culture!)

4 of 5 paranoid meth heads.

p.s. Bryan Cranston won the Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series Emmy for this show... so check it out!

Dexter (season 1)

I finished watching this (again) the other night. Somehow I talked Deb into watching this with me, even though it isn't really her type of entertainment (She considered breaking up with me when I applauded at the end of Mr. Brooks... but that's a different story). That said this obviously isn't for everybody. BUT if you can enjoy a story about a Miami police department blood spatter analysis specialist who just happens to be a serial killer... The Showtime version is definitely "R" rated, but because of the writer's strike season one was edited down to air on CBS (in case anyone in Utah county wanted to watch it).

4 out of 5 chick flicks I'll now have to watch before I can convice Deb to watch season 2.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (season 1)

I almost skipped right over this one. There is a lot of good TV out there that really is worth watching (BSG alone makes a strong argument that the best writers in Hollywood are working in TV not feature films). But in the end I gave in and watched it. I have to say it wasn't all that bad. To be fair, I have a soft spot for the Terminator franchise (there's a few really great stories in the Dark Horse Comics).

I'm a little enamored by this idea that stories are really just a collection of words, images, noises, sometimes even songs depending on the medium... and that really great stories are only great because the reader/listener/watcher emotionally connects with something bigger than the sum of the parts (there's got to be a greek word or phrase for that idea right?). That said, The Sarah Connor Chronicles is only a mediocre TV show, but (IMHO) it happens to take place in a fascinating universe.
The acting is OK.
The writing is alright.
The cinematography is acceptable for TV.
The effects are also OK... for TV.
The music is great actually... all the time.
The ideas are pretty good, but occasionally phenomenal. (i.e. a terminator who has all of his disguise (flesh) burned off needs to replace it (right back to the roots in scifi horror); Sara Connor's psychiatrist from T2 becoming a believer!; sleeper cells; time travel paradigms; and hard choices;)
There's scifi gold in there. Sure sometimes you have to squint to see it, but it's in there.

3 out of 5 ways to avert Skynet nuking the planet.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

I finally finished this the other night.

Great show that did not end up getting picked up after it's first season. I could complain about it being under appreciated; Argue that NBC didn't know what a great franchise they were tossing aside; Compare it to some of the really terrible shows that air nightly on NBC and other networks; But in the end, much like Firefly, I didn't watch this when it was airing. Even though I knew it was good at the time (based on sentiment of people I trust), I always planned on watching it once it hit DVD. I read an article that talked about how the Nelson Ratings were making adjustments during the year that SSotSS aired to better represent DVR viewership, utilizing terms like "live +24 hours" or "live +7 days". Considering that I personally don't watch a lot of TV shows until after they have made it to DVD (gotta love NetFlix), I feel like I'm lucky for the enjoyable shows that hang around for multiple seasons (since I didn't contribute anything during their initial run). Years ago I did get to be a "Nelson Family" for a week though. They sent me a paper journal to leave by the TV and fill out whenever someone was watching something. The end result was nothing like my typical week of TV watching (even at the time). Knowing that each "Nelson Family" represents so many viewers, I felt it was my responsibility to watch a lot of shows that I enjoy but wouldn't typically make the time for... so if the Star Trek reruns had abnormally high ratings that week, it's totally my fault.

...better than the other 10 shows NBC cancelled after that season (10 out of 11).

Survivor (seasons 1 - 17)

OK I know, I KNOW...
but it's my guilty pleasure.

I actually purposely avoided Survivor when it first aired for a variety of reasons. The first episode that I watched (on a lark) was midway through season 12. After that one episode I was fascinated. I finished that season, and then went back and started from the beginning. Long story short Deb and I just finished the 16th season and should be ready to watch season 17 as it airs. In all honesty I'm not sure if I'll like watching it that way as much. I've watched 16 season in the last 2.5 years and it's been nice to be able to watch more than one in a sitting (time permitting). The flip side of that coin is that I can now join in "water cooler" type discussions when Survivor comes up (previously I've had to run out of the room with my hands over my ears, yelling "I haven't watched this season yet!"). I've had a few occasions where someone has let slip that this or that person WON survivor (including a billboard that was pretty hard to avoid seeing) and it takes a bit of the excitement out of the show.

P.S. if I remember correctly J-Rude and his wife are big Survivor fans? What do you say J-Rude, if you guys are still watching can I come crash your Survivor Night sometime this season?

2 out of 3 hidden immunity idols that people weren't smart enough to play (specific to this last season).

The Unit (seasons 1-3)

I'll admit that the first time I caught an episode of The Unit while flipping through channels I couldn't take that Allstate guy seriously as a Covert Ops / Special Forces operator. It wasn't until after seeing Redbelt recently that I was reminded that it was "created for television" by David Mamet. The show IS everything I dig about Mamet stuff. These characters live and breath one liners.

4 out of 5 members of the 303rd Logistical Studies Group Alpha Team:
Snake Doctor, Dirt Diver, Betty Blue, and Cool Breeze...

Rough Science

Zack and I have been watching Rough Science: Gold Rush/Space Race together. It's right up his alley and I'm certainly enjoying it as well. In addition to the very impressive scientific feats this group is able to execute every few days, we get to laugh about some of the peculiarities of the British accents (our favorite so far is the pronunciation of glacier as glASSier... if you can't laugh about that then you have a problem)

My "Trek" of choice

Last night I watched the series finale for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I wouldn't call myself a Trekkie, or a Trekker... but I do know the difference. But sometimes I feel like I was raised on Star Trek. I remember:

• watching The Cage on my parent's SelectaVision with G


• seeing each of the movies during their original theatrical run (except the first... which is still kind of impressive when you think my parents decided to take a seven year old to see The Wrath of Kahn)


• Watching TNG as original airings, but even moreso as reruns on FOX 13 after The Arsenio Hall Show


• And Deep Space Nine

DS9 was the Star Trek high point for me. It had all the familiar trappings of Star Trek, but the sense of permanence, the genuine lasting struggles,... all served to set it apart, and above all other Treks. I guess that makes me a Niner.

DS9 Trailer/Montage