It's now the final week of the fall semester, meaning most of my time is devoted to grading, exams, helping students with final projects - and I'm trying to finish up post on a short in time for a festival deadline as well. So I haven't had time to catch many movies. I have, however, caught a show a night this week (usually while eating dinner, which I know you're not supposed to do, but if not I'd be even further behind on my Tivo than usual); here's my quick hits:
1. Wednesday: "Glee" fall finale. Excellent. Sure, the fact that these kids (SPOILERS AHEAD) can put together a whole new show in an hour with no rehearsal space or anything is completely ridiculous, but what the heck, it's TV (and it's not like the version of show choir portrayed in the show has been any more realistic in any other episode). This was well-structured, with real drama played out in an interesting way, and a LOT of the characters had important progressions in their arcs without it feeling forced or untrue to what we had known about them to this point. Even Quinn has started to come together into a more consistent character, which was a criticism of mine earlier this season. Most importantly, I've been yelling at my TV for weeks that Will needs to lose Terri and go after Emma - and as the very cool "My Life Would Suck Without You" (love the song) montage came to an end and they kissed, I actually clapped. This is how you end your fall season with a bang. Don't know what they have planned for the spring, but I can guarantee my eyes will be glued to whatever it is.
2. Tuesday: "The Biggest Loser" season finale. I had pretty much given up on reality TV after season 2 or 3 of "Survivor," and haven't seen much since then to change my mind - until my wife got me hooked on this show. What I love is that it really seems to care about it's characters - and we do too. It's a mark of the show's success that when every season starts I think it's not going to be as good as the last one because I don't know the people, yet as it progresses I really come to care for them all. It was a real treat at the finale to see all the eliminated contestants back, and just how far they had all come. No better way to say it: this is the rare competition show where EVERYONE is a winner, and all of them really support each other in their efforts to lose weight. And let's be honest, with obesity an epidemic in the U.S. (I recall reading earlier this year that childhood obesity rates are finally leveling off after rising for years - but doctors think it's not because we're improving childhood health, it's that we've literally reached the point where EVERY child who has any predisposition to be overweight IS), a show that encourages people to take control of their lives and get healthy, AND shows it can be done through diet and exercise rather than surgery, is a worthy cause. Love the idea of the show, my one wish for its improvement is that (for the love of God) it would PLEASE tighten up the editing. I'm sure there's enough drama to fill its whole time slot without drawing the weigh-ins out so long and without repeating as much as a minute of material every time they come back from a commercial. Here's a tip, producers: we're fast-forwarding through this B.S., give us more show!
3. Monday: Ravens at Packers, Monday Night Football. Really *should* have been working Monday night, but made sure I got home in time for the game. I'm from Wisconsin and my wife's from Cleveland, so needless to say we were both rooting for the Pack and against the Ravens (for leaving Cleveland). This season of MNF may have the worst commentators in the history of commentating, if it wasn't that I wanted to hear the ref's calls during the game, I would have turned off the sound entirely and put on something less obnoxious, like static. When their comments weren't factually wrong (getting players names wrong, contradicting themselves, misusing statistics) they were uninsightful, annoying, and/or boring. Luckily the commentators' ineptitude was overshadowed by the Packers, who put on a good show and I think continue to demonstrate that they're improving as the season goes on. It felt like the won by even more than the final score - aside from a bizarre couple of minutes in the third, they seemed to dominate Baltimore pretty much the whole way through. Memo to both teams: there are refs watching these games, and they will call penalties when you commit them. I know both teams thought a couple of the calls were questionable afterward and that the game was called "too tight", but from my vantage point it was a well-called game, it's not the referees fault that your teams played sloppily. This is my biggest worry headed into the final quarter of the season: the one area of the Packers' game that has not improved as the season has gone on is their sloppy play and large numbers of penalties called. Let's hope they can get their act together or eventually that's going to catch up with them in a game.
Looking forward to next week, when the semester will be over and I can catch up on all the shows I'm STILL behind on (including almost the entire season of Nip/Tuck, several episodes of Always Sunny, and one or two of about twenty others). Now back to work....
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