24mula revised?

I just watched my first episode of 24 in years. The show for the most part seems exactly the same which is comforting in a show about international intrigue, aggressive, frightening terrorist attacks, and unapologetic torture. Jack goes around yelling on a cell phone, people switch alliances, and Chloe sits at a computer and makes a strange a face anytime anyone says anything to her at all. I thought Freddy Prinze junior was on the show this year but the big news that I can't believe I was not made aware of is that both Starbuck AND Leoben are on the show this year. Now 24 makes sense, Jack Bauer is a Cylon. He has regenerated more then anyone on "Earth" ever did, all we need is the scene where he wakes up in a tub of goo on the hub with Cavill, 6, and Boomer waiting for him and I think we can all finally go back to our DVDs of 24 and nod our heads that it all makes sense. HIMYM and top 15 seasons posts to come.

I'll get back to my projects soon...

But first, since my last post was about Lost and I think this is the best way to view Lost.... after it is all done without any mystery and edited to make sense. Here you go...

#9 Drama - Lost Season 4

Lost - Season 4

I found this show much different then most people. I have a vague memory of the pilot episode and then made a decision that I did not like this show and actively shunned it based on absolutely nothing. Then the writers strike happened and most shows were done putting out new episodes, but Lost had a late premiere date so season 4 got my attention on a week to week basis. Even amongst avid fans season 4 was highly anticipated because of the 'game changing' season 3 finale that revealed that the characters had gotten off the island and now needed to get back in the shows first 'Flash-Forward' which later had Joseph Fienes inserted in it and became instantly boring.

The universe and story telling of Lost had just been entirely flipped for the loyal viewers but for me I was watching for the first time. Now the island events were happening in the past, the flashes were telling us where these people end up, each week revealing another castaway that made it back to the real world and the trouble that came with the impending fame. This season even introduced four new freighter characters who had a traditional flashback episode, and added to the mythology of the show.

Obviously in a show this serialized and mythologized each season is just a chapter in a larger book. I selected season 4 because there was a conciseness and structure of story telling is one that no other season pulled off (save season 1, before this show became a true sci-fi show). This season had two time lines working toward the conclusion. The first was on the island where the character were closer then ever to going home and choosing different alliances between Jack, Lock, and the supposed saviors from the freighter, for their best opportunity. The second time line stared in the first episode the furthest in the future of the show and worked progressively backward to the moment they returned home. Once we learned that Jack, Kate, Sayid, Aaron, Hurley, and Sun were the ones who made it off the island, every scene on the island that separated these characters created greater tension.

The series also took it second big dip into the world of time travel that would end up defining the 5th season in the oft praised episode 'The Constant'. Desmond does not seem to have to follow the time travel rules the show has set and has become the one true wild card in story telling for this show, but in The Constant, that wild card was used to tell a very sweet intricately told love story. Desmond's 2004 consciousness slipped away as his 1996 self would slip into his 2004 body. Only one of his bodies would hold his conscience and the empty Desmond risk passing out and eventually worse. That is unless he can find a constant, something important in his life that covered the 8 years of time between the two bodies. That constant was Penny, the love of his life, who had not given up hope of his survival since he had been lost on the island. It all culminates in a teary phone call fit for the end of a romantic movie. As a single episode, it was a fun sci fi gimmick to tell a love story, for the series, it thrust the next big plot point in this serialized show. The balance of good episodes and the overall mythology of the show was always a consideration of the show, but season 4 was the first season after the announcement of an end date and the momentum of each episode showed that cohesion.

Between the tragic destiny of Locke, the creepy game playing of Ben, and the conflict of the Keamy and the freighter folk from keeping the castaways from getting off the island, the season all built to an impressive visual finish. The Island disappeared. Our two time lines came together and lead to the complete vanishing of the island. So if season 4 is just one chapter of a book, it was a well structured one that lead me to find out what happened before and interested to know how it will finish. And since this is sci fi, we all know the ending will suck, but it will be fun getting there.

Defining episodes; Cabin Fever, The Constant

HIMYM 115: Game Night

After winning one too many game nights, the crew enlists Marshall to run their game nights instead of participating in them. Marshall takes this opportunity to create his own game that doubles as a 'Ted's New Girlfriend Interrogator'. After taking the opportunity to grill Victoria, the group learns of Barney's humble beginnings as a womanizer, which he leverages to hear everyone's most embarrassing stories and reclaim the glory of being Awesome.

Ted: Once again Ted is not all that nice a guy. It is one thing to hide a crush on a friend from your girlfriend, but buying Robin a welcome mat is a pretty forward act for a guy with a girlfriend.

Marshall: So Marshall is a game master and takes great joy in both playing them and winning at them. In season 4 we will see it came from kind of an ugly start with his dad, but for now it is fun. Also, being the guy who relentlessly enforces drinking game rules is incredibly important, otherwise people would just be left drinking for fun.

Lilly: Lilly played a classic switcheroo with the tapes to embarrass her good friend Barney, but he gets her back as sociopaths are known to do. Also the extra 'm' syllable when she said the word 'time' while Marshall's mom listened to them have sex was almost art.

Robin: Well Robin showed some good old fashioned ugly jealousy toward Victoria who was only nice to her and the group. Classic undermining of the romantic rival.

Barney: Well it was his origin story so there was a lot of good stuff, pretentious hippiedom, explaining the rules of Marshall's convoluted game, and even taking a drink when he said what, but it all paled to the bridge of his break up song with Shannon. The fact that the group couldn't continue to watch the video through the bridge only made it funnier to me.

MVP: It could have been Victoria for the embarrassing story we didn't get to hear, but it's Barney, it has to be.

Season count:

Ted - 2
Marshall- 3
Ranjeet- 1
Barney - 5
Lilly - 3
Guest (Ellen the matchmaker) - 1

Continuity:

• Marshall's mom puts mayonnaise in cookies along with salads? How can you ruin sugar.
• Everyone heard this story, and yet when they were talking about their first times in season 2, they all forgot that Barney was saving himself for Shannon.
• Marshall winning at games and being good at them will be repeated many many times.
• Ted was very aware to lie about being 'vomit free since 93' when he got drunk during the Pineapple incident, so this is a clear retcon line for Marshall, but at least the writers remembered and cared enough to do retcon.
  

Suit Ups: 1 (9) well it was written on a flyer but it created Barney... so it counts.
Wait for it: 0 (2)
Have you met....: 0 (8)
Barney: He finally gets Shannon. Confirmed; Shannon, Tania (2nd hottest bridesmaid), Work's with Carlos girl, Natalia (NYE) (4), Possible; Suitcase thing worked (1)


Up next: Victoria and Ted spend their last night together in NY

HIMYM 114: Zip, Zip, Zip

Ted and Victoria's relationship starts with a long romantic weekend holed up in Ted's bedroom not boning, or other tasteful euphemism. After a pre approved month of waiting, Ted and Victoria go back to the apartment which is supposed to be free, because Lilly and Marshall have gone out of town to celebrate their 9 year anniversary. As it turns out they bailed on the trip and are now stuck in the bathroom, sit com style to make sure they do not salt Ted's game, which is horrific game at that. All this leaves Barney and Robin to have a night out bro-ing when Barney hits on Robin which will pay off in sleeping with her in 2 years and dating her in 4... oh yeah spoilers.

Ted: Ted spitting bad game was funny through out. That is the beauty of a moment, it is fleeting.

Marshall: Marshall's exasperated 'Oh Boy' after Lilly explains the peeing conundrum is I believe the first sitcom Quantum Leap shout out that has existed.

Lilly: Let's see, Lilly tells us that she always covers a fart with a cough, makes fun of Ted's crappy game and gives a blind high five to Marshall when she says she could have completed the act 5 times in 45 minutes. Thems MVP numbers right there.

Robin: This is the first episode we got to see Robin out as who she is most, a sexy tomboy. This episode laid out the most template to who she was and did the important job of pairing her off with Barney and establishing what their dynamic would be like.

Barney: Not the funniest the man has ever been, but I do appreciate jokes that go a long way into calling your male friend a girl.

MVP: Lilly mos def.

Season count:

Ted - 2
Marshall- 3
Ranjeet- 1
Barney - 4
Lilly - 3
Guest (Ellen the matchmaker) - 1

Continuity:

• Back to the Slutty Pumpkin and the complicated costume. Lilly has really never peed in front of Marshall?
  

Suit Ups: 1 (8)
Wait for it: 0 (2)
Have you met....: 0 (8)
Barney: No one new this week as time was spent with Robin. Confirmed; Tania (2nd hottest bridesmaid), Work's with Carlos girl, Natalia (NYE) (3), Possible; Suitcase thing worked (1)


Up next: Barney Stinson as we know him is born

#10 Drama - Homicide: Life on the Streets Season 3

Homicide: Life on the Streets - Season 3

I am starting my list of the 15 greatest television series with #10 in drama Homicide: Life on the Streets. This might be considered my indoctrination to adult television. This series unlike others that will be higher on the list did not depend on serialized story telling, but stories continued over multiple episodes. While some murders were solved on the week they were introduced, cases often took multiple episodes, and the effects of those cases on the homicide detectives and the department as a whole were felt from episode to episode and built a complete view of the family that was the murder po-lice of Baltimore.

There was no one single story line that dominated the series, but multiple threads that changed the relationships of the detectives. They ranged from the trivial, Munch, Bayliss, and Lewis trying to buy a bar, to the professional, Pembleton at odds with the department and the commissioner, to the overarching, Crosetti's suicide casting a blanket of despair over the entire department.

Ironically for this list, this season was the most disjointed and aired out of order. There was reference to Crosetti's death before that episode aired. Later there was an episode that involved the on the job shooting of Bolander, Felton and Howard, that was followed by an episode where they were not shot and dealing with case load that Crosetti left behind. All that said, this season had some of the best of the series and created a universe where despite the dire nature of the job of the principles, you were invested in every aspect of these people's lives week to week.

Pembleton had a crisis of personal faith that challenged his partner ship with Bayliss, affected how he investigated cases, placed him at odds with the very department that defined him. Giardello was shunned for promotion by the department that he had done nothing but give all of himself to for years. Bayliss, Munch, and Lewis went through a number of trials dealing with the city in the process of buying a bar. A process that took great pleasure in having city employees express the greatest frustration in dealing with the city and it's peculiar bureaucracy. Felton and Russert have an affair that has an incredible impact both personally and professionally, all of which is played against the constant danger that the job itself brings. The danger of the job was shown in two distinct ways. Homicide prided itself on showing how boring murder investigation could be, how slow and taxing the process could be and the walls the detectives build to deal with the job. Most the time it is gallows humor, or a hobby, but Crosetti's suicide showed every detective, especially his partner, Lewis, that the job can be more then a facination with conspiracy theories can handle. The second way the job is dangerous is that the job is physically dangerous when a routine siezure can turn into a shootout and put three people into the ICU.

This season did not build to one big conclusion but had so many threads that had significant payoffs (even out of order) for the characters, and on a personal note introduced me to a higher level of story telling on TV. This season also had one my favorite moments on TV of all time.

It is all good, but from 8:25 on, well the room very often seems to get dusty in that time.




Defining Episodes: Extreme Unction, Crosetti, End Game, The Old and the Dead

The 15 best seasons of television... ever... to me

I have already said that two of the things I love are lists and television. There have been many variations on a theme when it comes to looking at the great deal of fantastic television that has come our way in the last decade. Greatest single episodes, greatest series, most under appreciated, and so on. With the popularity of TV on DVD that exploded, and cable networks starting to let a singular creative force become responsible for television shows, entire seasons of television shows have become there own entity. In that vein I am going to list the top 15 seasons of television in my viewing lifetime.

First what fun would a list be without some rules? The rankings are very personal to how I first took in the show. In some cases, I watched them week to week as they aired, in others I picked up the series and watched them in rapid succession on DVD or some other form of on demand viewing.

Second, this list is personal in that while I may have watched way too much television in my life but I have not watched all of the television, so if The Shield, Firefly, Deadwood, or the British Office would appeal to what I like and produced some of the best seasons ever... well I still haven't seen them.

Third, I picked one season per series, mainly to spread the accolades around and to acknowledge some shows that may not be quite built for this list.

Finally, I believe what defines this era of television is that watching shows in a serialized form is that seeing each installment adds to the greater tapestry. A show will be ranked higher if the season had a greater payoff as a whole then its individual episodes. For example of a show that is not on this list, every episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show in season 2 might have been the greatest comedy episodes ever, but viewing the final episode before the first episode of the season has no bearing on your enjoyment of the episode, so as a season, it does not really qualify for this list even though it might be a great season.

So without further ado...