A Cat's Life.

Watch this time-elapsed 7-hour power nap:

I, Malcom

Nathan Fillion on being Malcolm Reynolds: "It was only a short time, but Firefly changed me. It changed my whole life. Rotten it’s over? Sure. Regrets? No. No way. What happened, happened. Anything bitter made everything else all the sweeter. I fought the good fight. I was a part of something that resonated with people, and still does. I made lifelong friends who have improved the quality of my life. So, what was it like to be Mal? I don’t know. ... I guess, imagine wanting, all your life, to be able to fly. Daydreaming about it, fantasizing about it. Imagine that flying was all you ever wanted. Then, for a few months, somebody gave you wings. ... Ooo. That’s good. I’m going to write that down."

Check them out while you can!

Check out these new photos from Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull before Spielberg and friends find them and make the site take them down.

Ford is looking pretty haggard in the first shot - well, he looks his age, I guess - but I think he's looking fine in the other two. I can't wait to see it!

For old times' sake, here's the trailer for original, best Indy movie:

I saw this on the local news last night.

Police fear child porn stash could yield hundreds of victims: "A doctor who once faced child abuse allegations kept a staggeringly large collection of child pornography -- found nearly a decade after his death -- and investigators fear there could be hundreds of victims, authorities said Wednesday. The owner of a West Hartford home formerly owned by Dr. George Reardon found the images -- 50,000 35 mm slides and more than 100 8 mm movie reels -- in a hidden storage space during a renovation project in May, town police said."

Wow.

Buster Gets a Girlfriend

Have I mentioned lately how much I miss this show?

"Good news, everyone!"

Futurama is Back:

"Futurama was killed, but like some B-movie cyborg it refused to stay dead. The fans watched the 72 episodes religiously in syndication and shelled out $170 to get the entire run on DVD. So, in 2005, Fox green-lighted 16 new episodes. Cohen and Groening have reassembled many of the hundreds of writers, animators, and voice artists who'd gone on to other projects to create four DVDs of new material, including sexy robot stage shows. The first DVD hits stores on November 27, and the features will then be divided into half-hour episodes when the entire run of the series begins airing on Comedy Central next year.

At last, Futurama is getting a fifth season."

I bought my copy of "Bender's Big Score" yesterday. Woo!

TV Talk

rondmoore.com - The creator of Battlestar Galactica has a personal blog, in which he talks about the strike and how it affects the show: "I refuse to believe that we won’t finish, that we won’t be back to film our final stories, but I know and accept there is that possibility. The strike will be a seminal event for many of us in this business as it’s put literally everything we care about in the balance (if only for a short time so far) for something we all believe is important...Galactica’s coming back, I frakking promise you that. But I am ready to put the rest of the story on the table and take the risk that I’ll never be able to tell it, in support of this strike." God, I hope it doesn't come to that and that the recent contract talks prove to be fruitful.

Top Gear - A BBC show that consists of 3 men talking about cars, driving cars really fast, creating space shuttles out of cars...more testosterone than you can shake a dipstick at and yet I really enjoy it. They show much disdain for American cars (and America in general), but they're funny and crazy and the cars are pretty cool. You can find it on BBC America on Monday nights.

The Biggest Loser - I am a reality show snob that got sucked into this show one night while channel surfing and now I have to see it through to the end. I hate the usual reality show trappings - creative editing, manufactured drama, etc. - but it is amazing to see how these people transform themselves.

Cloverfield

I can't believe I've never heard of this movie!

(thanks for the heads-up, mike!)

Heroes: Episode 10

Truth & Consequences

I knew that was Joanna Cassidy!

This was an extremely uneven episode, particularly disappointing after the awesomeness of last week. There were some bright spots - Elle trying to start the car and her subsequent face-off with Claire, Bennett's scene with Mohinder in the beginning, every scene Ando was in, Mrs. Bennett holding the gun on Bob, Micah beating the crap out of his obnoxious cousin, even Claire's little soliloquy about how much she hurts after her father's death - a lot of bright spots, actually. Yet I found it to be just an OK episode. I think part of the problem is the writing - stupidity is not a good plot device.

OK, so what happened?

Sylar, Maya and Alejandro have made it as far as Virginia already. For some reason, Maya finds Sylar attractive and ditches Alejandro for him. Actually, what happens is Sylar shows Maya that she can control her own power (by stupidly upsetting her so that she will cry the black tears at him and then have to stop it herself so he wouldn't die, and Sylar is damn lucky she figured out how) and doesn't need her brother. Meanwhile Alejandro, who supposedly can't speak any English, finds a news article on the Internet- in English - about how Sylar murdered his mother. Sylar convinces Maya that it was an accident, she believes him, Alejandro leaves but then comes back to Sylar's motel room and Sylar kills him and then makes out with Maya outside his room.

Nikki goes back to New Orleans to see Micah. She tells him that she has the virus but that Mohinder is working on a cure for it. He wants to give her his dad's bravery medal, but it was in his backpack and his juvenile delinquent of a cousin stole it for the comic books it contained and then the gangbangers he was selling the comics to stole the backpack from him. Monica, who is having a particularly stupid night ("So that's why Clark Kent wears glasses!" Seriously, Monica? And why even bother waking Micah up to tell him that you're going to go get his backpack for him if you don't want him to do anything?), and Micah head over to the gangbangers' house to retrieve the backpack. Monica uses a freerunner's jumping techniques to get in the house and she finds the backpack. But then the gangbangers come home and they catch her and throw her in the back of a van. Micah runs away.

Hiro and Ando look through Kaito's old papers to see if there is any record of Kensei in them. They find a photo from 1977 showing Adam Monroe (Kensei), Victoria Pratt and Kaito at Primatech Paper in Odessa, TX. (you know, for an ultra-secret superhero organization, these guys took an awful lot of pictures of themselves) Hiro travels back to 1977 to the Odessa lab and finds out that Adam wanted to release the mutated virus (strain 138) into the general population in order to "save the world" - basically annihilate everyone and start all over again. Kaito and Pratt catch him trying to steal it and lock him up. Pratt wants to destroy strain 138 but Kaito won't let her. She leaves The Company in protest.

Hiro returns from the past and tells Ando that he must go to Odessa to kill Adam and avenge his father's death. He grabs his sword and blinks out of there, leaving poor Ando alone. I think Hiro and Ando are like peanut butter and jelly - they should always be together. Hopefully Ando will have a part in next week's episode.

When Bennett wakes in his hospital room, Mohinder is there. Mohinder and Bob are the ones who saved him. He tells Bennett how he saved his life using Claire's blood and Bennett gets all fierce because he doesn't want him near Claire. Mohinder and Bennett argue about The Company's motives. Mohinder still believes The Company's intentions are good while Bennett tells him that they are the ones who invented the virus, you moron! Wake up, Mohinder!! Gah!

Back at the Bennetts, Bob delivers Noah's (fake) ashes to a pistol-packin' Ma Bennett. The family spreads the ashes at the beach (actually, Claire does - you'd think her mother and brother would have been standing beside her, wouldn't you?) and Claire spots Elle watching her from a car. She confronts Elle and tells her that she's going to go public with her ability and then The Company will have to leave her and her family alone. Smart, Claire, then you'll only have the rest of the world to worry about.

Peter tells Adam about the Shanti virus and Adam tells him he knows who made it: a bio-engineer named Victoria Pratt who used to work for The Company. They find out where she lives, go there and it's Joanna Cassidy! Told ya! Anyway, Peter gets the location of strain 138 - Odessa, TX - out of her by reading her mind. Why doesn't Peter read Adam's mind to see if he's telling the truth? Stupid Peter.

Peter tells her that he wants to destroy the virus but she tells him she doesn't believe him because Adam is not a good guy and wants to release it. Peter's so kind-hearted he could never believe anyone could be that bad, I guess. Adam gets all tricksy and releases Pratt from her bonds, knowing she will try to shoot Peter, and then Adam can kill her. And he does. Wait - all of that buildup for this character and she's gone, just like that?? What the heck? Adam pulls out a photo of Pratt and scrawls the Godsend symbol on it in her blood and drops it on her body. Nice.

Here's a question: If Victoria Pratt left The Company 30 years ago, what the heck was she doing in a photo that was apparently taken within the past couple of years? Did they have a reunion or something?

Mohinder combines Claire's blood with his own and comes up with a cure for the virus. Yay! He tells Bob about the cure and how he wants to destroy all strains of the virus that The Company has stored. Bob agrees. (yeah, right) Mohinder calls Nikki to tell her that he has found the cure and is on his way to New Orleans to give it to her (oo!). On his way to the airport (I think), Mohinder gets a call on his cell phone from Sylar. He and Maya are in Mohinder's apartment with a sleeping Molly and he wants Mohinder to come home now. Yikes! Where's Parkman?

Peter and Adam are walking through the Primatech Paper warehouse when time stops for everyone but Peter. It's Hiro, come to kill Adam. Hiro tells Peter that Adam killed his father but Peter doesn't believe him; he believes someone he just met instead. Peter raises his hand to Hiro, threatening him with a ball of electricity. Hiro raises his sword above his head and charges at Peter and...you have to wait until next week to find out.

That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" airs tonight at 8:00, on ABC.

Drive Thru Reviews

I've seen quite a few movies lately. Here are some thoughts on them.

Ratatouille - This felt more like a regular, live action film than an animated one. And the animation was extraordinary, especially the "sets". If the rats weren't talking I would have sworn the locations were real!

Night at the Museum - I wanted to see this even though Ben Stiller is in it, because it looked kind of funny. And it was. It's a fun family film.

My Super Ex-Girlfriend - This was horrifyingly BAD. Don't even bother.

Chinatown - I've seen this movie a few times and it never disappoints. A convergence of the perfect screenplay, director, writer and actors make this one of the best movies, ever.

Grey Gardens - I can't believe I'd never heard of this movie before. It's a documentary from 1975 about an eccentric mother and daughter (Big Edie and Little Edie Bouvier Beale, aunt and cousin to Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis) who were living in virtual squalor in their dilapidated mansion in the Hamptons (the titular "Grey Gardens"). It is absolutely fascinating. Imagine if Charles Dickens wrote Sunset Boulevard and you'd have a pretty good idea of what Grey Gardens is like. As a side note: I work with a woman who is one bump on the head away from being Little Edie, I swear. Anyway, try to see this one if you can!

Heroes: Episode 9

Cautionary Tales

After such a lackluster start, it's so nice to see this show return to form in what I think is possibly the best episode they've ever done. Thematically, the writing was very tight, with the episode examining several father/child relationships; and the cinematography was stunning.

Parkman discovers that his power is developing - from simple mind-reading to something more powerful, like the power of suggestion, only it's done telepathically. Very much like his father. He first realizes what he can do when he thought-pushes Molly into returning to the table to finish her breakfast. Then he plays the Jedi mind trick on his Captain, convincing him to give him another 24 hours on the Nakamura case so that he can interview Angela Petrelli. He wants to know the identity of a woman in The Photo (it's Joanna Cassidy, Parkman, I swear!) and will question Angela to find out. In an amazing bit of acting, the awesome Angela is forced by Parkman to tell him what she knows: That Adam is behind the killings and that he is immortal because after regenerating often enough, the body stops aging altogether. The identity of the woman, however, is something she doesn't want to reveal because, she says, all the woman wants is to be left alone, and that she "made her a promise." She also tells Parkman that if he forces the information out of her, he'll be no better than his father. The scene ends, but later we see Parkman looking at The Photo again, and this time there is a yellow stickie above the woman's face with the name "Victoria Pratt" on it.

I think Parkman is standing at the top of a very slippery slope right now, and I can see him finding darker uses for his gift, not unlike his father. Remember the "dark" Parkman we saw in "Five Years Gone"?

Hiro is attending his father's funeral when he decides this is just not right and he blinks himself back to the roof where his father is standing right before his murder. Kaito doesn't want him to save him, and tells Hiro that he must not play God and that it was meant to be. Hiro won't accept this and blinks himself and his father further back in time to his mother's funeral in order to remind Kaito of how sad he was when his wife died. Hiro encounters his young (and extremely cute) self and realizes that he is being childish. (By the way, all of the funeral scenes were shot so beautifully). Hiro and Kaito return to the roof and say their goodbyes and I cry. Then Hiro blinks out of there and the hooded figure appears and tackles Kaito. Just before they go off the roof, though, Hiro reappears and stops time. His father and his attacker are frozen in midair. Hiro pulls back the hood and sees that the attacker is Kensei (Adam Monroe). He vows to avenge his father's death.

OK, now the big story. This plot was sort of serpentine, but I'll try to distill as best I can.

The Bennetts are packing up the house and getting ready to leave town. Claire tells her father that she isn't going. They argue a lot and she tells him that she hates him and storms out of the house. Claire! Don't ever say things like that! You'll regret it later on, believe me. After she leaves, Bennett finally shows his wife the death painting and explains why he's been acting so weirdly.

Claire tries to reconcile with West, but he's not convinced so he flies away and then swoops down and snatches Bennett from his yard to find out why he took him. They have a nice chat, agree that they both want to protect Claire and Bennett enlists West's help in keeping Claire from Bob and Company.

Meanwhile, Bob, Elle and Mohinder arrive in town and prepare to take Claire by force. We find out that Elle is Bob's daughter, which is what I was assuming anyway. Mohinder gets a big gun from Elle and through his not-so-superior spy skills unknowingly reveals to Bennett that he has been turned by The Company. Claire is kidnapped from her house by Bob (but not before she sees the death painting, finally!) while Bennett and West manage to kidnap Elle from Mohinder. While Bob has Claire, he takes some of her blood; while Bennett has Elle, he tells her that her father basically gave her to the Company for experimentation and that the reason Bennett kept Claire from the Company all these years was so that she wouldn't wind up like Elle. Ouch. Bennett arranges a swap with Bob - Elle for Claire - during a beautiful sunset on the beach. But the exchange goes wrong and Mohinder ends up shooting Bennett in the eye, just like in Isaac's painting! NO! WTF?! But then...

In the final scene we see Bennett lying on a hospital bed, with blood being intravenously pumped into him. The camera pans up and Bennett's obliterated eye begins to regenerate. He awakens, sits up and looks around, and says, "Oh, sh--." He lives!

So who do you think saved him? Did Bob bring him back to The Company labs and use Claire's blood? Was Mohinder in on it? Or did Peter and Adam have something to do with it? Maybe using Adam's blood? Is this a one time deal for Bennett, or will have the power to regenerate now? And if they can bring anyone back with Claire or Adam's blood, will anyone ever really die on this show?

What did you think?

Image Hosting

I haven't been able to figure out how to point to a "missing files host" yet, so images that I have hosted myself will not load right now.

Also, I will hopefully have a Heroes post up today!

Success! (so far)

Finally, I have fixed my archives problem!! Yay! And at long last I am able to utilize the Labels feature offered by Blogger. I have a lot of work to do, adding labels to my old posts (over 4,000!), so please just consider it a work in progress. Soon, you'll be able to click on the "LOST" or "Heroes" labels and call up all of my recaps and posts regarding the shows. Or "Idol" or "photos" or "pugs"...it's like Christmas!

Hopefully all of this will add to your thisisgina reading experience, in a positive way :-).

Thisisgina undergoing organizational and publishing changes

I'm playing with custom domains and DNS records, so it's very possible that you won't be able to access this site over the next few days. Apologies in advance.

If you do encounter some trouble, or get a dreaded "404" message, please have patience and check back periodically. I haven't deserted you - please don't desert me!

Oh, and wish me luck.

The First Course

The First Course, originally uploaded by gina64.

Today I am thankful for all of my wonderful family, friends and faithful readers (who are almost all family and friends!). I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving Day.

Time to stir the gravy!

Chatty Cats

Bang!

FABIO: Come on, girls, give your Uncle Fabio a hug. Say it wid me, "I can't believe it's not --"

KB: Ow! Ew! Who is this guy?

HP: My mom is gonna flip when she sees this!

FABIO: "-- buttah!"

In the beginning...

Feeling Blue? This'll make you Happy.

Map, Schmap.

A couple of weeks ago I received an e-mail from the Managing Editor of Schmap Guides. She said that they were in the process of putting together this year's Vancouver Guide and that a Flickr photo of mine was chosen for the short list of photos to be included in the guide. This is the photo:



They wanted to use it in the Chinatown Night Market section of the guide and I had to submit it for final consideration, which I of course did because wow, someone I don't personally know actually liked a photo of mine!

So anyway, I received an e-mail from Schmap this weekend and lo and behold, they chose my photo!! Yay for me!

You can click here to see the page containing my photo (on the right) or you can click on the widget in the sidebar of the page. I'm pretty sure I don't have many readers who are currently considering a trip to the Vancouver Chinatown Night Market, but I wanted to brag a little.

Is it still ironic when it's intentional?

Suicidal Driver Hits Big Rig Head-On -- on "Carefree Highway"

No, you're not seeing things.

I'm back with my old template. I have some serious issues with my blog and publishing, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to handle them. Mostly, my problem is obsolescense. Thisisgina has been around for a while and in order for me to be able to utilize some of the layout and blog management features (like labels) that are now available, I'm going to need to address the way I host and publish my blog. And there's the problem of my archives not publishing since March.

It's a daunting task that's going to take a lot of time and research and support, so please bear with me as I try to bring this thing up to date. Thanks!

Hulu, hulu you think you're foolin'?

Sorry, that goes through my head whenever I say Hulu.

I got my invitation to join the beta version the other day, and I have to say it's pretty cool! At Hulu.com you can watch streaming television shows from FOX, NBC, and their associated networks like USA, Bravo, Sci-Fi, FX and more. They have new episodes of Battlestar Galactica, 30 Rock, The Simpsons, The Office, 24, Heroes, and Bones (among many others), as well as classics like Buffy, Arrested Development, Lost in Space, Kojak, Miami Vice and Remington Steele. And you can embed clips, like this one:



Or this one:



I can't stop myself:



You can also create a playlist and I believe you can make your own clips. Oh, I can see myself wasting a lot of time with this.

Head over to Hulu.com now and get yourself on the list for a beta invitation.

I wish I said that.

"There’s so much comedy on television. Does that cause comedy in the streets?"
- Dick Cavett

The strike is but a test of our love, Desmond!

I'll wait for you!

The strike claims another favorite.

Effects of writers' strike head north:

"Meanwhile, the fourth season of Battlestar Galactica is stopping production tomorrow, and will remain out of commission until further notice, because it ran out of scripts, a source close to the show said. It was supposed to run until March 10. At least 200 people will be laid off in the aftermath...Mr. Vigars said the other real concern is whether, once the strike is over, these affected shows will be able to pick up where they left off. 'It's hard to get them rolling again,' he said."

I can't imagine that BSG won't return, but I think this does make a case for them splitting the final season in half. There's pretty much no way to get around it now.

Thisisgina on a desert island.

My friend Colleen sent this around in an e-mail yesterday, and we all had a great time sharing our choices, so I thought I'd post my list here and ask you to share, too.

This began as a blog post somewhere (sorry, don't have the link), and the original question was "If you could bring one episode of television with you to a desert island, what would it be?" OK, cool question, but just one episode?? Sorry, can't do.

So we expanded our criteria to one favorite episode from your top 5 TV shows. That's much better. Right? Not so fast. Seems I couldn't even stay within those criteria! And that's excluding the 2 shows that my regular readers (all 2 of you) will be shocked to discover I've left off the list. I had to exclude LOST and Heroes from the list because none of their episodes really stand alone all that well. And after spending literally hours coming up with these shows, I realized that I never even looked at Alias!

Maybe one of you guys will land on the same desert island with episodes of LOST, Heroes and Alias and you can lend them to me...

My list:

Battlestar Galactica

This show has an abundance of excellent episodes, but not many of them are “feel-good”. So I will pick Exodus, Part II. It’s a thrilling, bittersweet conclusion to the New Caprica story arc and is one of the most cinematic episodes of television, ever.

The X-Files

I chose the 3-parter Anasazi/The Blessing Way/Paper Clip because it has everything that I love about the show: the mythology is at its peak at this point, M & S become more personally invested in the conspiracy, and in each other, and there are some great Vancouver locations. Watching these episodes feels like coming home to me.

Deadwood

I was torn between the first two season finales;

Sold Under Sin – We saw one of the first appearances of the peaches, Jewel got her boot brace, Bullock and Alma finally went at it after he beat her father to a pulp, we got Doc’s anguished prayer about the Civil War atrocities he witnessed and Al killed the Reverend Smith.

Boy the Earth Talks To – I don’t think this one was as emotionally satisfying to me as Sold Under Sin, but it demonstrated very well one of the core themes of the show, the contrast and convergence of beauty and savagery, with the murder of the San Fancisco C*cksucker, Wolcott hanging himself and Andy stabbing Cy all played out against the backdrop of Alma and Ellsworth’s wedding.

Arrested Development

How about Pier Pressure, where Gob helps George Michael (or was it Buster?) buy some pot; or Good Grief, the one with Pop-pop in the attic...Afternoon Delight was pretty good, too.

Frasier

It would come down to either The Matchmaker, which is the one where Frasier doesn't know the new station manager is gay and the new station manager thinks Frasier is, or Flour Child, where Niles carries around a bag of flour and pretends it's a baby, especially for the scene where Eddie the dog tears the flour bag to pieces and Daphne yells, “That dingo just ate your baby!”

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

This was close to impossible. I think I’m going to have to say Once More With Feeling, the musical episode. I’m not a huge fan of the musical, but this was an exception for me. It’s definitely an episode that can be watched over and over, and it would give me something to sing when I get bored with watching TV. And all of the major players are in it. (Becoming, Part II, where Buffy first teams up with Spike and she has to kill Angel and Angel gets his soul back right before she plunges the sword into him...that’s a close second)

*****

As you can see, I couldn't even keep the list to 5 shows, nevermind one episode per show. So feel free to list as many episodes as you like. Any particular favorite episode you would like to bring to a desert island with you?

I love this song.

I'm not sure I understand the video, but the song rocks.

Heroes: Episode 2.08

Four Months Ago

This show really does a great job with the episodes that either flash back, like this one and "Company Man", or that glimpse the future, like "Five Years Gone", doesn't it? I wonder why that is? Perhaps it's because they are required to tell a lot of story in a short amount of time. Whatever the reason, it makes me happy.

And wasn't that teaser amazing?

We begin with Peter and Nathan, flying higher and higher, away from Kirby Plaza, with Peter becoming more unstable with each passing second. To save Nathan, he pushes away from him and flies up through the clouds. As an unconscious and badly burned Nathan falls back to Earth, Peter explodes, regenerates and flies back and catches him. Peter exploded and regenerated offscreen, however, so we don't know the specifics. And we probably never will.

Peter brings Nathan to the hospital and is then take captive by Bob and Elle and brought back to The Company. They convince Peter that they can cure him of his powers by using power-suppressing drugs that he has to take every day. Oh, and The Haitian is working with Bob. Just exactly where does The Haitian's loyalty lie? He's switches sides more often than Anne Heche. Badump bump!

While staying at The Company (locked in a cell with a hospital bed, to be exact), Peter becomes Elle's personal plaything and there's a lot of inappropriate touching and invasion of Peter's personal space by Elle. She tells him that she's been diagnosed as a sociopath, and she's spent practically her entire life locked up at The Company labs. She cuts Peter's hair and that makes me like her more than I probably should.

Adam is in the room (cell) next to Peter and the two start conversing through the air vent that runs between their rooms. They get to know each other and Adam tells Peter that he's been locked up in there for 30 years after trying to go public with his powers. He also tells Peter about his healing power, and that he's over 400 years old. He convinces Peter to stop taking his meds and they use Peter's phasing ability to escape.

OK, a few questions at this point: How did Peter acquire DL's phasing ability? If you're immortal, at what point does the aging process stop? When your ability first manifests itself? Will Claire then always be a teenager? And what kind of super-secret, high-security facility does not have video camera surveillance in their "guest rooms"??

Poor Nathan has been burned beyond recognition. Mrs. P tells Heidi that Nathan was burned in a car accident, that he's inherited the crazies from his father and to not believe anything he says about flying and powers and bombs and such. Heidi believes her. Mrs. P is conspicuously touching Heidi the entire time she's speaking to her, which makes me believe that her power is some kind of persuasion, and she possibly has to touch people for it to work. Plays nicely into her Machiavellian presence behind Nathan's campaign last season, like Angela Lansbury in The Manchurian Candidate.

Peter and Adam escape and go to Nathan's bedside. Adam injects his blood into Nathan's IV and Nathan begins to heal immediately. As Peter and Adam leave the hospital they are ambushed by Elle and The Haitian. A chase ensues and The Haitian catches Peter, tosses him in a shipping container, handcuffs him to the wall of the container, gives him his "S" symbol necklace and tells him that because of the kindness of Peter's mother (!), he will give Peter a chance for a fresh start instead of bringing him back to The Company. He erases Peter's mind completely and leaves the container, closing the doors behind him.

I did have one huge complaint about this episode: They sacrificed information on what happened to Sylar, the Bennetts, and Matt and Mohinder in the four months since Kirby Plaza in order to show us who Maya and Alejandro killed back home. See, Alejandro had just married his sister - wait, that's not Maya! (didn't she look just like her?) Anyway, Maya's not happy about the marriage and walks in on the bride cheating with her ex, and she gets upset, and we all know what happens when Maya gets upset...but it's pretty cool this time because she doesn't just kill the bride and the ex - she wipes out the entire wedding, which is pretty much the whole town. Yikes. She ends up a nun in Venezuela for about 5 minutes and then she and Alejandro go on the run. These two had better pay off, BIG TIME.

It turns out that DL didn't die from his wounds at Kirby Plaza (yay!), and after being treated at the hospital, he, Nikki and Micah head back home to Vegas. Oh, but not before Bob approaches Nikki in the halls of the hospital and tells her that he can cure her mental illness if she comes with him. She doesn't want to leave her family, so they compromise and she goes home with some drugs. Life is good, and DL has a new job as a fireman and he even uses his power to rescue a child from a fire and gets an award for his bravery. However, Nikki stops taking the meds because of the way they make her feel, and a new party girl personality named Gina emerges, and she takes off to LA. When DL goes to get her he's shot and killed by some sleazy coke dealer/pimp/scumbag and Nikki blames herself. She decides to return to Bob and The Company for help with her multiple-personality disorder.

We return to the present day at the end of the episode, and we see Nikki saying goodbye to Bob and leaving The Company labs. Hey, isn't she contagious or something?? Is it a good idea to let her wander around on her own?

Also in the present are Peter and Adam in Montreal. Adam suggests that it's time for them to get a move on and change history. You know, I'm not so sure about how evil I think Adam is; Bob keeps vacillating on the Bad Guy Meter as well. It'll be interesting to see who's telling the truth. I'd also love to know for once and for all what The Company's agenda is!

ETA: I forgot to mention that this entire flashback episode began when Adam told Peter that he could recall all of his lost memories because he has the ability to heal himself. When we returned to the present day in Montreal, Peter told Adam he had remembered everything.

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet...Mr. Piggy-Winkle.

I never thought I'd say this but, I wish I was Renee Zellwegger.

Heroes: Episode 2.07

Out of Time

Finally, my show is back, and I can't get my act together enough to get a recap out in a timely manner!

I think what made this episode click was the fact that they finally stopped farting around and started pulling together all the disparate story threads of the season and put the threat to the world into motion.

The recap:

Matt and Nathan go to The Company's headquarters (labs? hospital? What is that place? and how do they know how to find Bob?) to warn Bob about Maury coming to kill him. Maury shows up practically at the same time and starts messing with Nikki's head, making her think she's seeing DL. Matt spends FOREVER apologizing to Molly for forcing her to reveal the Nightmare Man's whereabouts, but eventually comes dream face to dream face with his father. Matt and Maury pit brain power against brain power, with Matt winning. He not only locks his father in his own nightmare, he also sheds his daddy issues with the best acting Grunberg has done yet. When it's all said and done, Molly wakes up.

While this is all going on, Mohinder and Nikki are stalking Maury with a virus-filled hypo, per Bob's orders. Things go awry, with fake DL almost forcing Nikki to kill Bob (or was it someone else?); at the last minute, she injects herself to stop her from killing anyone. Not a big deal, right? Mohinder can inject his own blood (the cure) into her and she'll be fine...except he tries that and it doesn't work. It seems the virus has mutated.

And while all of this is going on in The Company halls, Nathan and Bob talk about the old days. Nathan asks who Adam Monroe is, and is told that he was the one who organized all of the old Heroes into forming The Company. But then he got out of control and they had to lock him up. Bob tells Nathan that Adam escaped and wants vengeance, and that Adam's the one who is going after all of the old Heroes and he is using Maury as a weapon. Bob also told Nathan that Peter is still alive. Bob is awfully forthcoming with the information, don't you think?

OK, so, Peter...he and Caitlin (every time I type her name, I type "Claire") get picked up off the streets of Future NY by hazmat-suit-wearing guys, brought to a decontamination area, hosed down and segregated from each other. One of the agents tells Peter that 93% of the world's population has died from the Shanti virus and shows him a warehouse stacked almost floor to ceiling with the dead in body bags.

Some stuff happens with the Bennetts and West, but I really don't like West, so in a nutshell: Mr. B. is back in town and when puchy West shows up one morning uninvited to make pancakes or something for Claire, he finds out that the man with the horn-rimmed glasses is Claire's father. When Mr. B finds out about West, he and Claire fight some more and I'm not happy about it at all!

In Japan, Hiro, Yaeko, and Yaeko's dad escape from Kensei and White Beard and decide that they will have to destroy White Beard's armory in order to preserve Japan's future. Before Hiro can blow everything up, Kensei arrives and they have a swordfight in the armory. Things catch fire. Hiro tells Kensei that they need to teleport out of there, but Kensei won't go with him. Hiro gets out just in time and the whole place goes boom, turning Kensei into a crispy critter (who can heal, remember). Yaeko tells Hiro that she will keep his legend alive. Hiro returns to the present in a moving reunion with Ando that made me smile from ear to ear. Just for a few seconds, though, because then he found out that his father is dead.

Peter's mother comes to see him while he is detention, and he doesn't remember her. She tells him that Nathan died during the first outbreak and helps Peter somehow to remember that she is his mother. I'm not sure if this was a manifestation of Mrs. P's power - maybe to project thoughts/memories into someone else's mind like she did when Parkman was interrogating her - or if it was Peter reading his mother's mind, but either way, she's awesome. They had better not EVER kill her off. Peter remembers and they embrace.

Later, Peter sees Caitlin being shipped out for deportation and the emotional stress makes him unintentionally jump back to the present, to the shop in Montreal. Caitlin is stuck in the future and Peter tries but can't jump back. And then who should emerge from the shadows of the shop but Kensei, who introduces himself to Peter as Adam Monroe (!) and tells Peter that together they are going to change history.

This episode had three more of the eight paintings:

1. Nikki beating down the door;
2. Peter looking through window with the BioHazard sticker;
3. The Hiro/Kensei swordfight.

There are only two more painting scenes we haven't seen: the one with Mohinder firing the gun and HRG shot in the head. Considering that this episode ended with Mohinder and HRG on the outs and Bob giving Mohinder a gun and telling him to bring Claire in because she's the only one who can save the world (again!), I have a feeling we're going to be seeing those scenes quite soon. When he takes the gun, dippy Mohinder tells Bob about his secret allegiance with Bennett and their plan to take down The Company together. You're pretty, Mohinder, but not too good with the cloak and dagger stuff, are you?

Tonight: We find out what happened during the 4 months between last season and this one.

More on The Strike.

Alan Sepinwall over at nj.com has posted a concise, easy to understand FAQ re: the writers' strike and how it will affect you:

"Many latenight talk and comedy shows that are written close to airdate -- including "The Daily Show," "The Colbert Report," "Saturday Night Live" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" -- will go into reruns immediately. Some may try to tough it out for a while without writers, as David Letterman famously did during the WGA strike of 1988. (I'm still awaiting comment on plans for Letterman, Kimmel and a few other shows in this category.)

After that, almost every scripted genre will have some episodes in the can, and the strike rules will allow, in theory, completed scripts to be filmed so long as changes aren't made. (Complicating matters is the fact that most TV writers also have producing duties; some have said they'll show up to work long enough to film the leftover scripts, while others are picketing. Complicating matters even more are shows where the writers are also actors; while on the picket line, Fey told the LA Times that she had no choice but to appear in the uncompleted 10th episode of "30 Rock" season two.)

Daytime will be affected earlier than primetime, possibly running out of episodes by the end of this calendar year. But primetime sitcoms and dramas, depending on how they're scheduled, could make it a month or two into 2008 before they run out, and a handful of shows with irregular production schedules won't run out at all. "Everybody Hates Chris" on the CW and "The Wire" on HBO, for instance, have both completely producing finished their seasons."

The most unfortunately named product since the fanny pack.

Peter Brady is 50, guys. FIFTY.

Tim Kring tries to explain what went wrong with "Heroes"

''Heroes'' creator to fans: I'm super sorry: "[Tim Kring] was calling to explain why Heroes, suffering a creative decline and a 15 percent ratings drop from the same period last year, went from Human Torch hot to Iceman cold. The good news? A turnaround appears to be under way. After weeks of sluggish storytelling, the Nov. 5 episode recaptured some of last season's fanciful energy. We've also seen the next two episodes — and we like them, too. The cliff-hangers are back. Narrative purpose has been discovered. Old favorites like Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) and Horn-Rimmed Glasses (Jack Coleman) take center stage. Even more encouraging: Kring himself is keenly aware that Heroes is broken. "

That's encouraging, especially since I agree, Monday's episode was a vast improvement. It's finally going to return to form, just in time for the strike to grind things to a halt!

TV Talk

While I'd love to characterize my recent absence here as some sort of symbolic gesture in support of the WGA strike, it's really just a result of my shitty work ethic lately, as well as some real-life turmoil. So please hang in there while I try to get things back on track.

So, did someone mention the WGA strike? Are you wondering how it will or will not affect your favorite shows? The LA Times has a pretty good rundown of how the strike might affect certain series. And this SyFyPortal article talks about how LOST and Heroes will probably end up with split seasons if the strike lasts into the new year. I also just read that the first scripted casualty of the strike is NBC's The Office - production has ceased because Steve Carrell is a writer for the hit show and he won't cross the picket line.

BTW, for those of you who don't understand what the strike is all about, you can read up on it here.

On to other things...I realized the other day that it's been a while since I talked about Pushing Daisies, which I actually didn't start watching until 3 weeks after it aired, but that's not really important. What is important is that I think Pushing Daisies is one of the best new television shows I have seen in years. It somehow manages to blend its macabre premise with humor and sweet affection, all the while keeping the quirkiness in check. Which is amazing, since this show is about the quirkiest thing, EVER, on television. I think that's greatly due to an amazing cast. I won't say more because I don't want to give anything away, but I will give it my whole-hearted recommendation. Watch it! Before the strike makes it go away!

Oh, and about Bionic Woman: There's a new episode on tonight and I will not be watching.

I don't think we'll ever learn.

U.S. Is Likely to Continue Aid to Pakistan: "The Bush administration signaled Sunday that it would probably keep billions of dollars flowing to Pakistan’s military, despite the detention of human rights advocates and leaders of the political opposition by Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the country’s president.

In carefully calibrated public statements and blunter private acknowledgments about the limits of American leverage over General Musharraf, the man President Bush has called one of his most critical allies, the officials argued that it would be counterproductive to let Pakistan’s political turmoil interfere with their best hope of ousting Al Qaeda’s central leadership and the Taliban from the country’s mountainous tribal areas."

I was telling my sister this morning that it just feels like deja vu all over again. We prop up a regime, despite its human rights abuses, because it is strategically beneficial to our interests, all the while stoking the fires of anti-American feelings in hundreds of little Osama bin Ladens all over the Middle East.

Heroes: Episode 2.06

The Line

There was a lot of information given out in this episode and even some forward plot movement, and yet...not one of my favorites, I'm sorry to say. Does anyone else feel as though they're recycling some of last year's plot? Or at the very least that they're draping the story over the same frame: Future NY is in peril, Claire is a cheerleader again, Bennett is back to being ruthless and using the Haitian as a weapon, and Isaac Mendez is still producing paintings that predict the future, despite him being dead.

I love the show, but this is all feeling a little too familiar, like I'm watching a rip-off of Heroes. (Or like the movie "Eragon", which we watched last night and which was a terrible, pale imitation of Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and every other coming-of-age/fantasy movie)

Just a couple more remarks before I recap: I found the characters to be kind of inconsistent this week, like they were being controlled by a lightswitch. Claire goes along with West but then suddenly has a change of heart; Mohinder says he's leaving the Company and the next scene he's in he's all mousy and remorseful; Bob is all bossy to Mohinder one moment and all apologetic, "you're right and I'm wrong", in the next and he's all fatherly to Monica after wanting to inject her with the virus; I know there were more examples of this, but these are all I can think of right now. It was just so jarring to me.

The other thing: Their green-screen effects are not cuttin' it this year.

OK, so what's everyone up to? I'll try to be brief:

Monica is brought to The Company labs for testing. Mohinder tells her she should be proud of her ability. Bob then tells Mohinder that he needs to inject Monica with an altered version of the virus, that Bob says should inhibit her ability. Mohinder tells Bob that not only should they not be inhibiting her ability, but that tinkering with the virus could alter it to a point where it could spread beyond the heroes and into the general population. Dun dun DUN.

Bob insists, but Mohinder refuses and throws the vial containing the mutated virus on the floor, where it SMASHES. Then he throws a chair into a glass cabinet full of vials of the virus, SMASHING IT. Mohinder, if you don't want this thing to spread, it's probably not a good idea to smash every vial in sight. Bob backs down, Monica goes home. Actually, Bob takes her home and gives her a video iPod filled with action-y sort of stuff so she can practice and develop her muscle-memory. Later at The Company, Nikki greets Mohinder in the lab and tells him that she's his new partner. So Nikki (or is it Jessica now?) is working for Bob. Hmm.

Oh, and Bob was carrying around a file with the name "Adam Monroe" on it.

Sylar, Maya and Alejandro find a hole in the border fence and recklessly drive right through it, doo dee doo, only to be stopped by the Militiamen who Maya, with Sylar's encouragement, kills with the bleeding black eyes. Alejandro isn't happy about Sylar's bad influence and while Maya steps away Sylar tells him, in English so he won't understand, that he's going to kill them both and take their powers as soon as he figures out what is wrong with himself. At least he's consistent!

When Hiro, Kensei and Yaeko find Yaeko's father, he doesn't want to be rescued because he needs to make sure the armory that stores all the guns he showed White Beard how to make is destroyed, or otherwise WB will take over Japan. Fine, they say, but as they are heading to the armory, all these guys are shooting at them and Hiro has to teleport himself and Yaeko out of harm's way. When he does, she realizes that Hiro was the Kensei in the cherry orchard and that it's Hiro that she loves. They kiss (really awkwardly) and guess who is watching? Kensei. How did he get there so quickly? Anyway, Kensei's not happy and despite Hiro's pledge to stay away from Yaeko, Kensei betrays him to White Beard and goes all dark side on him.

Claire and West are being really stupid. When Claire doesn't make the cheerleading squad, they decide to humiliate the stereotypically bitchy head cheerleader (another recycled plot point from last year!) and bring about her downfall so Claire can get on the squad. There's flying involved and falling and appearing to be dead and teenage alcohol consumption...it's really kind of dumb. But they accomplish their goal and Claire makes the squad. And feels badly about what she did.

Bennett and The Haitian continue their search for Isaac's paintings in Ukraine. They hold hostage and interrogate an old friend of Bennett's, who works for the company. Old friend offers Bennett a job at The Company, and Bennett looks like he's tempted, but he doesn't bite. Finally, the old friend gives in and tells Bennett where the paintings are: In a warehouse, the one where they "tagged" the "Liquid Man". Hmmm. Bennett then shoots the old friend in the head. Wow, you might have wanted to think that one through a little, Noah, like maybe check the warehouse first to make sure he's telling the truth! Luckily, Bennett and TH go to the warehouse and find the paintings, which include (according to the Heroes Wiki):

1. Claire lying on the staircase, broken and bloody
2. A hand holding a vial
3. A blonde woman banging on a door
4. Two men, one with a scar who looks like Peter, near a jail cell door that has a biohazard symbol on it
5. Hiro and Kensei fighting with swords and
6. A dark-haired man (Mohinder?) who has just fired a handgun.

Add those to the painting of Kaito's death and Bennett's apparent death, you have all 8.

Finally, Peter and Caitlin travel to Monreal, to the address that Peter painted. They enter the building and find it's filled with old objects, furniture, etc. There's a note stuck to an old mirror with Peter's name on it. It reads: "We were right about The Company. The world is in danger. It's up to us. Adam" Peter and Caitlin hug and Peter prays for guidance about the future and when he opens his eyes they are in Times Square. The streets are deserted and Peter finds an evacuation notice dated June 14, 2008. Dun dun DUN.

Another Nail in the Nerd Coffin

10-21-2007 018, originally uploaded by gina64.

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Connecticut Renaissance Faire with some friends. I had never been to one and to be honest, that was sort of intentional. But you know what? I really had a good time. I got to shoot an arrow, I failed miserably at knife-throwing, I saw a sword-swallower, I tried Turkish coffee (EW) and Scotch Eggs (yummy), and I got a henna tattoo. I would highly recommend a trip to a Ren Faire, especially to people who have kids. The people who "work" the faire are enjoying themselves so much, it's impossible not to have a good time yourself.

Here are a few of the photos I took that day. If you'd like to see more, check out my Flickr set.

Excuse me as I let out a little geeky "Yay!"

"X-Files" stars, crew reunite for secretive sequel: "Fans of 'The X-Files' no longer have to rely on Internet rumors to seek the truth about a sequel to the 1998 movie based on the popular TV series. On Wednesday, Fox announced production will start December 10 on the sequel, which reunites the show's stars, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. The studio also picked July 25 as the U.S. release date."

Bewitched and Beguiled

Double Double, Toil and Trouble, originally uploaded by gina64.

Mickey the White

You shall not PASS!, originally uploaded by gina64.

(Like Gandalf the White...Fine, you try coming up with some good wizard-y humor -- and Dumbledore gay jokes don't count!)

Spider Pumpkin, Spider Pumpkin, Does Whatever a Spider Pumpkin Can...No?

My Spider Pumpkin, originally uploaded by gina64.