But I’m putting my predicitions below the fold. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Television
Heroes – Nothing to Hide
This week we start to see the cracks of having a large cast, geographically separated and lots of storylines open. Cracks start to appear, and favorite cast members get forgotten and strands of the stories get left on the editing floor.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still loving me some Heroes.
Last time we had Niki left lying on the floor while DL takes Micah on a father-son outing. Matt fainted holding a gun in a convience store, from the overbearing loudness of other peoples thoughts. Issac was met by pixie-HRGG-collaborator Eve to be ‘brought in’. Claire got to meet her ‘birth parents’ in a meeting set up by Daddy HRG. Hiro and Ando get on with their quest after getting interrupted again.
This time, well we don’t find anything out about what happened to Issac, and Matt is back home with his wife without any talk of his breaking up a store theft then passing out holding the gun. *wave hands* These are not the stories you are looking for.
Spoilers and the rest below the fold. Continue reading
Survivor – Buh Bye Flica
We are getting down the the merge, and it appears that people finally got tired of the c’est la vie that was Flica. She certainly couldn’t be trusted in any alliance.
For the remaining 12, the numbers are interesting. Four of the original asian tribe (only Cao Boi has left), four of the original white tribe (only Flica gone), three of the original black tribe, and only Ozzie is left from the Hispanic tribe.
So who will make the merge, and start playing for individual immunity? The big four alliance of Yul, Becky, Sundra and Candice will probably make the merge, the two Aitu outsiders are Jonathan and Ozzie. I think if Aitu goes to tribal, they’ll probably pick Ozzie to go if they council before the merge. He is too dominant in the challenges to risk survival part the merge. If he does make the merge, he’ll have to run the table because he is such a big challenge risk.
On the once powerful Raro, they have shifting alliances, since Pavarti looks out for herself, her vote is for sale. Adam’s challenge acumen is highly over-rated, and I think he just expects to move on based on his physical talents. Brad, Jenny, Nate and Rebecca may make a good alliance to challenge the Aitu alliance, but as the last reward challenge showed, Rebecca is extremely lacking in the physical challenges. Add Pavarti to the group and you have in interesting alliance, should they all make the merge.
Will the tribes end up at even strength come the merge, it will make some interesting game play strategy wise. This season hs shown that they aren’t afraid to mix up the formula to make the game more spontaneous, I wouldn’t be surprised with an early merge with even strength teams, and another two people must leave at the next tribal council.
Yeah… this is just NaBloPoMo fodder. 🙂
Jericho – Long Live the Mayor
Or at least 12 more hours.
No recap, just thoughts.
Hawkins hid a barrel that sounds much like the one the cops were able to discover and disrupt, thus saving New York. So the question is, why a nuke device in the little town of Jericho
Lots of little bits and peices. Hawkins was probably in on some vast conspiracy to take down the U.S. government. Jake was involved in a teft gone wrong that invovled Emily’s father and brother, and they feel like he blew his assignment, thus leading to his death.
Emily’s dad is a bad-guy, but might be a good man to have in a limited resources world. Especially if things are as rough around other parts like Topeka.
Dale getting out from under the manipulative grocery store lady is a good thing. Probably go and work for Emily’s dad, which would be a bad thing.
Mayor is gonna die, you heard it hear first, setting up a confrontation between the royal family and the usurper that has returned home. Hawkins may do good to support the royals.
Mimi and the farmboy will be the love thing, and Jake gets kissed by Joan’s best friend.
Its holding my interest, enough for a pre-Lost show.
Verizon FiOS TV vs. Time Warner Digital Cable.
I should probably store up all these posts to spatter them about on days I can’t think of anything to write.. but anyways.
I called up Time Warner to cancel my Digital Cable subscription today. When asked about why I told them that I switched to Verizon Fios, and to the guys credit he didn’t belittle the competition. He did however try to soft-sell me back into the home court throughout the conversation of settling my last bill. So I thought I’d post some geekily posts on the winners and losers in this competition. And to TimeWarner’s credit they don’t seem to be standing still like Comcast (the company they bought) and I relish the idea of real competition in my neighborhood for cable television, it is good for my expenses and good for the consumer at large, regardless of who you get televisoin from.
Expense: Winner – Verizon
This is to be expected, because Verizon is trying to get onto Time Warner’s turf. But the simple heads up cost, undercuts TimeWarner’s by half. Something that Time Warner acknowledges, because when I told them I was switching, and part was by cost, the first response was, can we make a deal. So if you are a TW subscriber, call em up and see what kind of deal they are willing to make.
Signal Quality / Technology: Winner – Verizon
Hands down, no question Verizon has the better picture. Time Warner is dealing with legacy stuff, and the old Comcast plant is two-cable (A side/B side) stuff that is a mess to work with and install. Verizon is one strand from the demark to the cable splitter. Both are going to a full digitial technology that will require a set-top box except for a few channels, so either way expect to pay the rental for a STB regardless of provider. Both use the same Motorola STB for the DVR, but Verizon’s OS is better, the channel guide is logically arranged, and the DVR settings make it easy to set up recordings and ‘subscribe’ to a series of shows. The ability to share recordings with other STBs in the house (a premium add-on, but with standard half-price the add-ons are affordable) is also a bonus. The DVR has a 160GB drive, and can record two HD channels at once. The TW box I’m returning is a lot smaller and can only handle one HD channel at best. Also if you start recording a show that you are already watching, the Verizon DVR will add whatever is in the buffer to the recorded show. TW’s DVR would just dump the buffer and record from the point that the record button is pressed.
Remotes: Winner -Time Warner
The one thing I can’t do with Verizon is a 30-second advance, and it is largely because the remote they provide isn’t programmable. The TW remote (the silver one) is programmable, and the TW Motolora (I think it is a Microsoft operating system) had a hook for a 30 second skip, which made flipping through the commercials a snap. Verizon is limited to a FF and a REW for DVR functions. A nice semi-feature is that once you stop FFwding it backs up a bit, so you don’t have to worry if you over estimate a bit. Lack of programming also locks you into whatever the remote code for your other devices are, and you can’t add another button (for me it is my TVs aspect button) to the remote, so I have to keep my legacy remote around.
Hands down, at the moment, Verizon wins. The only niggling detail is the 30-sec skip, which isn’t even provided stock by TW, and takes some digging and remote control programming to enable. So TW has some catching up to do in my neighborhood.
Don’t shed too many tears, Verizon’s FIOS footprint is really really small when you compare it to TimeWarner’s footprint. So a little competition in this neck of the woods, could bring other capabilities to other TW neighborhoods that don’t have Verizon breathing down their neck.
I have to eat a bit of crow to be in Verizon’s camp, since their DSL in my neighborhoor was so horrilbe, and I dumped their POTS service too, and went to AT&T Digital Phone. I’m now a happy Vonage phone user, so don’t pay for POTS, and Verizon handles my internet and TV wonderfully over fiber. So this whole competition and market forces work in the telcom industry.
Lost Theories
Potential SPOILERS in the extended section.. don’t read if you don’t want to be potentially spoiled.
Okay, so the buzz is someone gets offed tonight on Lost and it will be a SHOCKER. Leave a comment with your guess if you want to. My guess is Eko, my reasons are below the fold.
Heroes – Better Halves
Another good episode, and yet another good cliff-hanger. I’m impressed that they’ve ran this back to back for six episodes, and have another one next week. LOST won’t have seven straight until after this first six episode tease.
Michael has a good recap, if you can get past the crowing of ‘I called it, EDEN is THE MOLE!’
As always it starts off where we left off, and we get some focus on the mystery of Niki’s powers. Up until now we have just skirted revealing her power, which is somekinda split personality disorder on steroids.
Last episode we left Peter answering present day Hiro’s phone call, and we pick up with Peter saying the battle cry!
Save the Cheerleader, Save the World!
Hiro and Ando have a broken conversation about which no one really knows what the next step is, or who the cheerleader is, but they agree to meet up in New York, while Peter and Issac work on figuring out who the is the cheerleader. Peter also spills that future hero has a sword, which later edges Hiro into katana geek-out mode.  Spoilers and recap after the break. Continue reading
New ViOSified TV service.
somewhere on misplacedkeys I detailed my Verizon FiOS Internet installation. Still smoking along just fine and dandy. Recently got a flyer in the mail that FiOS offers TV service now in my neighborhood.
Did the cost/benefit analysis, saved about $25 a month for basically what I had with TimeWarner (nee Comcast) so I booked and install, and today they came and installed.
The savings was enough that I put on some addons (the $25 savings is AFTER all the addons). Added the HDTV DVR and the MultiRoom DVR, and two extra set-top boxes. The MultiRoom allows the kids to watch recorded shows on their TV in the other room, while we watch what we want on our TV. The other extra STB drives the ReplayTV that still is capturing away.
The HDTV DVR is a dual-tuner DVR that can record two shows at once. It is a different dual-tuner setup, in that the TV actually either shows live TV or a recorded show, you can’t switch back and forth between the two tuners (if you are recording two shows, you can move back and forth between them)
So we can now record that third ‘must see’ show and catch up on somethings that we miss. If we do that at all. The things we lose, is mostly in usability. The old DVR could use a reprogrammed remote to have a 30sec advance, as well as the quick 15-sec review. That is gone on this system, FFW and REW, but no single button skip, and so moving through the commercials will be a skill building exercise.
The program package is fairly complete, with more HD channels that TimeWarner, and they are grouped ‘intelligently’ you want kids shows, 200-220, HD starts at 801, etc… Picture quality is excellent. Programming the DVR is a snap, and will basically record w single shows, or series, with a lot more options than the TimeWarner DVR. Not as great as the ReplayTV, but very close.
Also the MultiRoom package enables a MediaManager that can serve up music and photos from a Windows Computer. Â Which is gimmicky.. but kinda neat.
Video On Demand has some good choices, in both Free and PPV. Bring on the television shows!
Lost – Everyman For Himself
Not a full recap, just comments, observations.
When Benry came in to get Juliet and tell her about Colleen getting shot, did he says, “The Sub is back?” The Sub, as in submarine? Or sub as in sub-group? Thoughts?
Didn’t learn much about anyone, we knew Sawyer could dupe and be duped. We knew Henry was a lying sack of manure. We knew that Sawyer gets beaten up … a lot…
So What’s New?
We got a glimpse of the island from the nearby island where Jack, Sawyer and Kate are being held. So the zoo is an another island, and if the zoo is where they kept the polar bears, then how did the polar bears get to the other island If the Others illylic town on the new island, or the main island? Ethan and Goodwin were able to ‘run to the beach in about an hour’, so I think they live on the main island, and are currently in the zoo research wing. Perhaps there was a land bridge across the two, and Dharma sunk it for research programs.
Kate, didn’t leave Sawyer alone… why? She’s been known to take care of herself, and she could have gotten back to the main camp (well maybe not given they are on another island…)
AHA — The SUB!
Okay… they do have a sub to move back and forth from main island to ‘the zoo’. They covered their captives head on the dock, before they moved them to their cages/tanks. They raided the sailboat, from the water side not the peir side (thought it was a continuity error before). They let Hurley go before thy hooded the rest of the captives. So I think the submarine actually !!!!! makes sense.
UPDATE: Added Screecaps, click to embiggen.
This is how the boat was docked on the pier, the bow facing the beach, port side to the open sea.
This is when the Others came aboard the Elizabeth. Note the port side of the boat is boarded, as the sail is tending to the stern. You can make out two sets of handrails, one for the sailbaot, and one from the SUB!
Okay, back to Kate. I think she’s been turned, and her role was to help turn Sawyer, then they’ll both battle Jack. The Other borg will assimilate them.
Desmond has some pre-cog, he wanted to move Claire’s tent, to avoid the lightening strike, then ruined Hurley’s radio antenna using it as a lightening rod… If you can’t move one, move the other. It’ll be interesting to see what they develop from that new power. I wonder if he’ll be able to contact Hiro Nakamora and have him call in the help in the big battle with the Others…
Okay.. That’s all I got… What are you’re theories?
Jericho – 9:02
Okay… I’m stating for the record that this showed has Jumped, quite possibly the proverbial shark.
9:02 – I gather is the time of ‘Federal Response’ and the time that the magical EMP blows out ever electronic part, everywhere. Impressive range, but I call plot device. Like someone would explode an EMP over rural Kansas, because … we’ll there just is so many Military Industrial Complexes… *grr*
So now we really get into post-nuke phase. Back to the stone age, and HAwkins is ‘compromised’ so he’s getting ll domestic, looking out for number one. The hoodlums are being hoodlums, and Ms. IRS chick is going after farm boy.
Nothing much else happens, except we learn a little about why Jake left… he was involved in a theft gone wong apparently, and some poor kid got shot. *yawn*
I watched happy days after the shark jump, so I’ll keep watching.