I’d put Glee as part in the Junk Food/Good Fats category.  It’s very much like that irresistible Hostess Fruit pie, I know the “real fruit” advertising on the packaging is stretching the truth, and the pie crust isn’t, but one I have a bite I omnomnom the whole thing with a smile on my face.  Such is Glee.

Why do I watch it?  1) It’s a show my whole family enjoys, the songs we play on our iPods, sing in the car, connect with the characters, so if I didn’t watch it, I’d be missing some great relational times with my kids. 2) It’s funny quirky, a life without Brittany S. Pierce wry observations or without Sue Sylvester’s put downs or unique takes on American history.  3) It’s just plain fun to watch.

So given that, I enjoyed last nights Britney/Brittany episode.  The intertoobs are taking Glee to task for a lame plot last night.  It’s not that I disagree, it’s just I don’t flip on Glee and open my notebook filled with character sketches and plot arcs and expect a full night of note taking.  Glee can bring the drama, and the plots, when it wants too (see Kurt’s arc last season with his Dad) but it can often stumble in deftly handling the awkward teenage plot lines as well.  Does that make it less of a television show?

People, people, … please ( ripped out of the Amanda Show)

1) the ensemble cast and creative characters all have roles to play, and the plots of their characters have to mesh.

2) they have to bring the sing-a-long music that makes the kids happy, and the parent’s remember the first time they heard Don’t Stop Believing

3) they MUST bring the one-liners and comedy.

That is something that Glee does consistently, and to keep those three plates spinning means sometimes one of the three wobble from time and again.  Some of the characters I don’t connect with, I want to see more Tina and Brittany than Quinn and Emma.  More Puck and Arnie than Finn and will… I cheer for underdogs (see my twitstream for my regrets to Lone Star’s cancellation).

That said, it’s good that people have some strong emotions about Glee (both good and bad) because it’s a show that fun to talk about, whether you hate it or enjoy it.  Kind of like that Hostess Fruit Pie.

Junk Food – guilty pleasures

Hellcats – Fun and light show, that, as Damon Lindelof tweeted, is surprisingly not about Hell or Cats.  This cheerleader drama should be right up my teenaged daughters alley, but alas, they’re not interested.  So I’ll keep up with the show to bring them up to speed on the haps of Sharpay (Ashlee Tisdale) and Aly.  In my house the TV spends a lot time on Nick and Disney, and it seems that TheCW is trying to pull those younger viewers in by grabbing the ex The Suite Life and Phil of the future stars.  It’s a teen soap, sure, but it’s on TheCW so won’t be early on the cancel list.

The Big Bang Theory – Used to be a Monday night standard, but shifting it to Thursday (probably a good move, since Monday is being onslaught with new shows) for me makes it a Friday night watch.  Love the characters and the geek humor.  One sad aside from the premiere episode is there seems to be a trend at putting really inappropriate sexual innuendos on at 7PM by CBS, which makes watching this show with my young sons very much awk.ward.  Or maybe I’m getting to be too old and cranky, but speaking of …

How I Met Your Mother – This show about some dude in 2030 telling his teenage kids a long-winded tale about how he met their mother, has always had a bit of the innuendo.  Barney Stinson being the main culprit, which is awesome, of course.  But this first episode was a bit over the top, 7PM Central is a bit early to get the ‘tent in the shorts’ jokes.  I might not have noticed it as much in the past as I time-shifted the show til after the kids went to bed.  I love this show, but it might have to go back to the time-shifted DVR slot for. the. sake. of the children.

Protein – Good meaty dramas

Rubicon – This AMC drama is about 9 episodes into it’s run, sharing Sunday night AMC slow with Mad Men, and it’s gaining strength as the show is connecting many of the crumbs that got dropped early.  The slow place makes it intriguing to watch, not much action, but lots of ‘where are they taking this’ questions get answered in unexpected ways.  I’d recommend going back and finding some good recaps before diving in, or finding the episodes to watch, since this is certainly not a procedural.  I love the mind twisting goodness, and the characters are getting fleshed out, as slowly as the plot.  A show that makes you think, I love that.

Mad Men – THE reason to turn on the TV on Sunday nights for me (not that it’s ever off very long) is to figure out how Don Draper is coping with his life.  The last few episodes either has Don bouncing off his whiskey soaked bottom, or a false bounce with the promise of a deeper crash coming.  Last week, Don lost his anchor, as Miss Blankenship passed on, and daughter Sally has a rebellious streak that we all know Betty won’t be able to handle.  So Don’s new sobriety is tenuously handing on the ledge of Cooper, Sterling, Draper & Pryce’s window ledge, lets see how he handles it.

Terriers – It’s set in Ocean City (small beach suburb of San Diego) and has nothing to do with a canine club full of pedigreed terriers.  Instead it’s following the gritty lives of an ex-cop Hank, played wonderfully by Donal Logue (Life), and his partner Britt, as they start a fledgling Private Investigation business.  They are both all sorts of messed up, but another slow-burn season long arc is unwinding as their partnership begins to jell. It’s on the FX, so some episodes (like this last one) can get the parental warning sign, so keep this one on your DVR and enjoy it after the kids hit the hay.

Castle – This is just a delightful show, I love love love Nathan Fillion and it’s great to see him get a good breakout show.  That said, it’s good because of the rest of the cast, a core family for Rick, and a caring group of cops that keeps Castle grounded as he researches his next novel.  Simmering relationship drama is still fresh and doesn’t feel teased and overdone yet (see Bones).  It’s a procedural, but so much fun that it’s on my must see list.

Grey’s Anatomy – This is weekly date night TV for me. If there is only one show I’ll actually watch on my very busy Thursday night, it’s Grey’s, with my wife, and enjoy it every week.  Characters are still fun and engaging, and the stories are consistently solid.  Good stuff to watch with my favorite person in the world.

The rest are below the fold.

Good Carbs – No extra sugar, just good regular nutritious fiber to keep you regular

Fringe – Fringe is like the soy bean in my list, is a veggie or a protein?  It’s both wonderfully meaty, and still mysteriously fun. The format this season is going towards a more season long arc, I think, than the mix of mythology shows and MOTW (monster of the week) and for that I’m thankful.  The shows is a visual masterpiece, and the cast has had a good while to jell and really begin to understand their characters.  Now toss in more characters that look alike, but have different pasts and backgrounds, thanks to the alternate universe collision of last season means it’s only going to get better.  Must see!

Bones – If Fringe is almost meaty, then Bones is like corn on the cob.  Just a food processing plant away from high-fructose junk food.  The ensemble is a wonderful mix of characters, the weekly procedural stories are easy to follow and figure out, the humor is nicely done. The main relationship, Bones and Booth, is being teased to the point of breaking, but show-runner, and twitterphile Hart Hanson is a trusty hand, who obviously has a firm hand on the rudder.  It’s a weekly favorite but because it’s procedural it’s okay if you skip a week here and there.

The Event – NBC – New this season, and unfortunately labeled as ‘the-next-LOST’ which I find abhorrent, it’s like calling some painting the next Mona Lisa, it’s just not gonna work.  But the pilot was a nice tease of the story, some good identification of the characters, and has me ready to tune in again next week.  It needs to keep the character generation going while stringing us along on the story.  I hope it’s careful about how it shows us answers, and mostly how those answers impressed the characters to make the wacky decisions they made in the pilot.  To paraphrase Han Solo, good pilot kid, now don’t get cocky.

Hawaii Five-0 – ABC – Another new premiere that keeps us on the island.  I was expecting meaty arc driven drama, and was surprised to see a more serial arc.  Which is good for the show, procedurals generally get better ratings as people don’t have to invest as much to enjoy the show.  It’s on the island, and has Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park so I’ll tune in.  It might be DVR time shift fodder if mythos shows get deep.

 Fats – you need fat in your diet, but be careful with portion and types

Chuck – I hesitate to put Chuck here, but I feel off the Chuck wagon last year because of a clogged Monday night.  The pilot this year looks good, and I trust the show will pay off with some good action, comedy and intriguing story arcs.  It’s well done, sort of like an avocado, good fat but it comes at a cost, in this case, some competition on airing night. DVR for sure, then it’s how tired I am, whether it gets watched Monday night or Tuesday.

Survivor – Canola Oil.  Used to give flavor and crispiness to fried foods, it’s essential in my diet.  I admit, I don’t like reality TV that much, but I have a soft spot for Survivor. The game play is obvious and they know it, it’s not disguised like Biggest Loser, you expect people to lie, and strategize.  Jeff Probst has kicked off this season with two of the best early Tribal Council’s in recent memory. Jeff is a twitterer and his weekly blog at EW is worth the review for behind the scene goodness without spoilers.

Lone Star – Didn’t record this on the DVR, Monday night is just toooo busy, which is unfortunate.  The pilot was good, nicely done, slow play con game. It’s story seems to be a mix of The Riches with a little bit of Big Love and Friday Night Lights thrown in.  The protagonist is wading deep into swamp land trying to keep a normal job, to make enough money to placate his hard core con-man dad, and keep a dried up con alive in west Texas.  Oh, did I mention that he’s married, twice?  Lone Star is a macadamia nut, yummy, has the right type of fat, but might be too decadent.  In this case that means, the horrible out of the gates ratings have it on the early chopping block. Fox might move the show to a new night, but the early read is this show, sadly, might not be around long.

The rest are getting archived to watch on lazy weekends, or other times:

• Modern Family – I’m sad I haven’t watched this yet this week.  It’s Always excellent
• Cougar Town – Funny but a bit like a Hostess Fruit Pie, I know I shouldn’t eat it, but it’s yummy good!
• Haven – still catching up on the Stephen King SyFy drama, highly recommended by my twitter pals.
• Nikita – Something has to fall off my Thursday night must see list, but this is good so far, so worth the watch on DVR or my hard disk.
• The Middle – getting a bit tired, but still taking up hard disk space.

What shows did I miss? Tell me in the comments!

(Shows that are mid-season hiatus I skipped, but will watch when they’re back: Warehouse 13, Eureka, Leverage, Burn Notice)

I run because, frankly, I love to eat food.

Which is probably as good as a reason as anything else.   In the past 42 years, I’ve eaten a lot, and if I was honest, I recognize that I’ve avoided pretty much anything that would balance the scales to make my lifestyle anywhere close to healthy.

If you’ve followed my social media streams, you may have noticed that I’ve made a turn this past May and started incorporating regular exercise in my weekly routine, for one reason to help in my goal to lose weight, and the other is because, frankly, I love to eat food.

This morning at church, our pastor (interim) encouraged us again to study the bible.  I’m a sunday school teacher, so I do that, each week.  But if I’m honest with myself, it’s not really studying.  It’s more like saying, I walk from the car to the elevator, and calling that exercise.  The phrase about running, because he loves food echoed in my thoughts, and I had an epiphany.

I love television, perhaps too much, perhaps in the same way I love food.  Loving food isn’t wrong per se, but when my love of food is out of balance it becomes unhealthy.  Same with consuming popular culture, out of balance and it becomes spiritually unhealthy.  I need to give myself some balance.

Sort of like my weight loss plans, I cut down on the intake, making better food choices, and incorporated exercise that allows me to still enjoy eating food, and also delivers the exertion that my physical body needs.  So in my spiritual diet, I need to cut back on my popular culture intake, make better choices as to how I consume television, and have something spiritual to offset the dose of popular culture and provide my spirit a connection with the Almighty that is needs.

So in that endeavor, I’m going to get back in to a regular bible reading plan.  As a way of using the social media that has been helpful in my physical life style improvement, I plan on blogging about what I read. I don’t promise a daily epiphany, or even any words of wisdom, more just a bit of my thoughts and the scriptures I peruse.  Again the purpose here is accountability to myself, not preaching to you, my readership.  If these posts don’t satisfy, just skip them, just like you might my exercise and weigh-in updates.

Like who got shot in the canoe, our LOSTies flashed in and out of the time frame so fast, they had no idea who was shooting at them, or who they shot.  So, while it would be cool to pull a LOSTie loop and have Juliet gun down Sawyer, it just isn’t important to the remaining LOSTies who was in the canoe.  Chalk it up to Widmore goons and be done with it, for you own good.

While you let the denial fade over your answers addiction, here is a modified Serenity prayer just for you.

Damon and Carlton (or your own higher power) grant me the Serenity
to accept the answers that you have written
the courage to develop some answers of my own
and the wisdom to know the difference.

Watching one episode at a time
Enjoying on scene at a time
Accepting character arcs as their pathway to peace
Taking, as all fans have, this wonderful show
as it is, not as I would have it
Trusting that the show will be incredible
if I surrender to it’s awesomeness
That I may be reasonably happy in this season
and supremely happy with rewatches of the DVDs
forever in the future.

Namaste

Shamelessly reimagined from this

originally posted at LOSTblog

Hugo “Hurley” Reyes, lives with his mother Carmen, who desperately wants Hugo (she never calls him Hurley – always Hugo) to get a life, more importantly a lady.  Hugo, however, wants to sit at home, channel surf and have a bucket of Mr. Cluck’s Fried Chicken, while hoping that he might have a bit of privacy.  This all changes when the numbers that he learned while at the Santa Rosa Mental Health from a patient named Lenny. 

See Hugo, at some point was the 23rd person to walk on a desk that was built to hold 8 people.  It collapsed, and Hugo was sure that it was because of his excess weight.  Hugo was fat because he’d been using food to comfort himself ever since his father, David, left for Las Vegas 17 years earlier, last thing he gave little Hugo was a Nestle Crunch bad that Carmen forbade.

All that tragedy landed Hugo in the Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute, under the care of Dr. Brooks. In Santa Rosa, Hugo’s constant companion was a man named Dave (there are a few other David’s in the LOST-verse, Jack’s sideways son, Libby’s dead husband, as well as Hugo’s absent father).  The only problem is that Dave wasn’t real, consider Dave as more of a balding Harvey, a pooka. Once Hugo, under the guidance of Dr. Brooks, determined that Dave wasn’t real, he made a real breakthrough, was released from the hospital, moved in with his mother, and got a job at Mr Cluck’s Chicken Shack.

It’s after this that we reconnect with Hugo, he’s watching the TV while enjoying a Mr. Cluck’s bucket of chicken when the lottery comes on and reads the number’s that were burned into his brain by Lenny.  Hugo is a bit afraid of the change, and doesn’t tell anyone for a couple of days.  The knowledge of his financial security does change his outlook, as he realizes that he no longer needs to work for that douche Randy, and quits his job.  In a fit of solidarity, Hugo’s friend Johnny also quits the Mr. Cluck’s gig, and they start on a LOST version of Hugo Reyes’ Day Off.  First stop, record shop, where Hugo tries on some new headphones, and tries on asking Starla the shop assistant out on date to a Hold Steady concert.  Next stop is collecting garden gnomes to then arrange on Randy Nation’s lawn spelling out “CLUCK YOU!” They stop to refill the van at a convenience store, but that where the story changes.  The clerk (who’s also dressed up in the Mr. Cluck’s chicken costume in Hurley’s dream in the swan hatch’s storage room) recognizes Hugo as the big lottery winner.

Winning the lottery is where Hugo’s life changes again.  He has a press conference where he introduced his whole family, including his grandfather Tito.  Sad part is that Tito drops dead from a heart attack.  Hugo’s brother’s girlfriend leaves him for another woman.  The priest residing over Tito’s funeral gets struck by lightning. Weird.  Hugo buys his mother a house, and while surprising her with the new purchase some things happen 1) Carmen doesn’t surprises. 2) Carmen twists her ankle. 3) The house catches on fire. 4) Hugo gets arrested on suspicion of being a drug dealer. (Sure — it had nothing to do with the bright yellow Hummer, loud music and red bandana he’d given his mom to blindfold herself.)

All this misfortune has Hugo thinking the numbers are cursed.  His financial advisor, Ken, doesn’t think so, after all, Hugo is now the owner of a box company in Tustin.  His sneaker company in Canada was over-insured, so even though the fire destroyed his operation (and killed 8 people) he still netted a windfall of more cash.  Surely, Hugo isn’t cursed (cue man falling past Ken’s window.)

Hugo buy’s Mr. Clucks in an attempt to change his luck, only to have a meteorite destroy the franchise and kill Tricia Tanaka.  Hugo’s ready to get rid of the numbers’ curse.  His father, David, returning to his life is the last straw.  Hugo heads to Austrailia to purge the numbers from his life, he needs to visit Sam Toomey, Lenny’s partner and find out what’s up.  Well, Sam’s dead, but Hugo gets to visit with Martha, Sam’s one-legged widow.  Sam killed himself because he thought the numbers were cursed.  Martha saw things differently, and thought, despite her loosing her leg in a freak accident after Sam used the money to win a count the beans in the jar contest, that Sam was the luckiest man alive.

The last part of Hugo pre-crash, is the series of unfortunate events that almost had him missing the Oceanic flight and missing his mother’s birthday party.  First his alarm doesn’t go off, because the socket shorted out (with a black smoke scorched wall).  He has to take the stairs because the elevator is stuffed.  His car engine coughs, stutters and dies and he has to walk to the terminal.  He has to buy a second seat to get on the plane. Is late but can’t cut through the excessively long security line.  He pays an old dude to steal use his electric cart, and arrives at the gate to have the airway door close in his face.  Luckily, Hugo uses his charm to convince the gate agent to open the gate and let him on the plane.

Lucky Hurley.

See Hurley thinks he’s unlucky, but really, he is one of the luckiest people in the world.  Hurley is also one of the worst liars, he simply sucks at it.  Hugo also thought it was unlucky, unfortunate, that he has an uncanny super power of being able to talk to the dead.  That is until he was touched by Jacob in a cab, and told that talking to the dead is an incredible gift.  It certainly has come in handy in Season 6, as Hurley has been a translator to the spiritual guides that helped Jack come to grips with his past, and Richard to entrust the true love of his long dead wife.

What do you think will happen tonight? Are you psyched? Leave us your thoughts in the comments.

Cheers.

Hail of bullet points from rewatching:

• Hugo’s grandpa Tito, worked for 52 years.
• Hugo’s Mom doesn’t like surprises.
• 8 people died in the in fire in his Canadian shoe factory. 
• Hurley is spry.
• Lenny loves playing Connect 4 while chanting the numbers.
• Lenny’s comments after Hurley told him he played the numbers: You used those numbers play the lottery?  You shouldn’t have done that, you’ve opened the box! Shouldn’t have used the numbers, it doesn’t stop. You have to get away from those numbers! It doesn’t stop.
• When they come upon a rickety bridge on the way to Rousseau’s to find batteries for the Raft. Jack: Never mentioned anything about a bridge.  Sayid: I’ve never saw this before.  Lucky Hurley made it across, little Charlie didn’t. 
• Hugo is often used as a greek chorus speaking for the audience, and to the audience, cluing us into the narrative of the story.  Except when the show features Hurley’s story, he’s much less in that role, and it switches often to Sawyer, Miles or Charlie.
• Hugo brought hope to the castaways when he found the old Dharma van, and with the help of Sawyer, Jin and Charlie got it running again.  Key line while convincing Charlie to join him: Look, I don’t know about you, but things have really sucked for me lately and I could use a victory. So let’s get one, dude. Let’s get this car started. Let’s look death in the face and say, "whatever, man." Let’s make our own luck. What do you say?

Before you read any further, this is not a humorous look at “LOST addiction.” My hope is to start a very real discussion of real life addiction, and how recovery programs have made a difference, not only in my life, but in a great many others too.

Disclaimers:

• This entire post may be a very bad case of projection.
• I have to tip-toe a bit, because of the requirement for anonymity and safety in any recovery program. Anything I reveal here is regarding my journey, and only reflects my opinions as I work through my personal recovery process.
• I’m currently attending a recovery program that is a local extension of the Celebrate Recovery (CR) program that was founded at Saddleback Church (the home church of Rick Warren mentioned in Doc’s article). The nature of my recovery and addiction I’ll be keeping private. Publishing that I’m going through a recovery program is a very sensitive disclosure. I’ve never really put this ‘out there’.

Celebrate Recovery generalizes its recovery program as an application to our ‘hurts, hangups and habits’ (HHH). This generalization opens up the program to many other aspects in our culture where people can find great relief and growth in completing a recovery program. Even if they may not be under the influence of a chemical addiction. Celebrate Recovery also specifically identifies its higher power is God, and the recovery program revolves around the acceptance of Jesus Christ as one’s Lord and Savior, and working out one’s recovery through the power of his love, grace and forgiveness.

For many years I’ve struggled with my own personal temptation, struggled with denial, struggled with how to make amends with the people I’ve hurt, and acceptance and forgiveness towards the people that have hurt me. Recovery from a HHH is a difficult road, with many dips and struggles. Recovery is not an event, but a journey that is never smooth, always a challenge, and very difficult. 2008/2009 was a low part of my personal road, relapsing into self-destructive and harmful acts, and drowning in a sea of denial.

Near the end of LOST season 5, my head started to appear a bit above water, and finding a community of fans I started interacting with people online. While my personal struggle centers on being very secretive and isolated, the start of the Twitter group Watch From the Beginning (#WFTB) gave me an open outlet to connect with people with similar interests to my own and slowly pull myself out of isolation. The danger with addiction is often taking one habit and replacing it with another habit, which truthfully I still struggle with when it comes to internet communities. Finding the balance between being present in real life (RL) and interacting healthily with an internet community is difficult. This past week has been one of the times where that balance hasn’t been optimal. I’m still working on it.

Last night was one of my regular meeting nights. A Celebrate Recovery meeting and the community of accountability partners and sponsors that are focused on facing their HHH’s and reconciling their struggles with the Great Physician is essential in continuing my road to recovery. The weekly community, the time spent listening, reflecting and applying changes to one’s character is difficult to explain, but powerful in its execution and meaning. I’m by no way perfect, but my recovery is gradually gaining traction. Each day is a struggle in trying to reject the lies I tell myself and accepting the truth and love that God reveals.

For me, after coming home from a meeting, then reading Doc’s column about LOST being a recovery story was a bit surreal. I’ll need to re-read it again, because I spent a lot of the time not really reading the article, but skimming as I reflected on my journey these past 4-5 months. Recovery, its problems, its solutions, its processes are powerful metaphors for how we live, the scenes in LOST where recovery is shown (Charlie’s journey in the Moth, Locke’s anger management, Christian’s AA meeting) don’t do it justice.

I think Doc’s column goes a long way into exposing the hope that recovery programs such as AA or CR give to those suffering from additcions, hurts, hangups, habits and steeped in denial. Applying recovery from addiction as a pop cultural reference to LOST is a powerful metaphor. These little glimpses and hints that pain, denial and addiction can be overcome through the power of faith, hope and love, is one reason why I enjoy television, and especially shows such as LOST, and thoughtful commentators such as Jeff.

Thanks for reading, and your prayers as my journey continues are appreciated.

I might be announcing something in the next few days, that will most likely leach any additional hits from this site…

that’s all I can say for now, stay tuned.

don’t forget #LOST #WFTB tonight 9pm for #S5E12 Dead is Dead

The CBS franchise Survivor, is launching its 20th season with a spanking new concept. Bring back popular Reality TV stars and split them up into teams and let them try to Outwit, Outplay and Outlast each other for a million bucks. Okay, maybe it’s not that new, given Survivor All-stars, and Survivor Fans vs. Favorites and recurring roles for popular players that got burned playing the game the previous season. Aside from all that, this is a BRAND NEW CONCEPT! See they’ve split the teams into two teams, one playing for the side of good (insert dah-dah-daaaw trumpet sound), and the other for the side of evil. (insert maniacal Dr. Evil laugh).

Only how to categorize the players in a game that known best for its backsides and blindside and other dirty play. How can you get 8 heroes? Last night CBS revealed the cast of the much anticipated new season, that promises (again) to be the most exciting season of Survivor. Ever. Period. Exclamation Point.

Heroes: Rupert Boneham, James Clement, Colby Donaldson, Cirie Fields, Amanda Kimmell, Jessica “Sugar” Kiper, Stephenie LaGrossa, James “J.T.” Thomas, Tom Westman, Candice Woodcock

Villians: Tyson Apostol, Randy Bailey, Sandra Diaz-Twine, Danielle DiLorenzo, Russell Hantz, Jerri Manthey, “Boston” Rob Mariano, Parvati Shallow, “Coach” Benjamin Wade, Courtney Yates

While "generally" the categories hold based on perhaps viewer feedback, but this is basically a producer school-yard. How else to explain branding devious Sugar, who was all smiles when not bawling her eyes out, then blindsiding Randy and delighting the fans a Hero. While aggressive Boston Rob a perennial favorite with fans, and a respected player is branded a Villain. Sure Randy is hated almost as much as "Coach" Wade, and Rupert is LOVED by all along with James all of them got blindsided thinking that they were adored by their peers.

In other words, neither the Heroes tag nor the Villains tag is really self-descriptive. How long until the Merge? Will they be Hillians? or Veros?