TV Show: Heroes (Season 2 Premiere) "Four Months Later"

Disclaimer – These reviews will have spoilers because I want to talk about the show, be aware of this before your read.

This morning as we continued to catchup with our host of TV shows from the past week we watched Heroes this morning. And how I have missed this show. We catch up with most of the major characters and we are introduced to a few new ones.

Suresh – Suresh is giving a lecture about a virus that affects the Heroes, will this be the big issue this season or will it be the big bad that Molly sees in her nightmares. Either way Suresh is out there and he is actually trying to get pulled into “The company” so that he and Bennet can take it down from the inside. The new Heroes character that recruits Suresh has “The Midas Touch”. And I do not mean that he can fix cars at a super powered level. That is a cool power especially since he can actually control it.

Nathan Petrelli – Nathan did not die but he looks like hell. He’s drunk all the time, he grew a beard and he is haunted by a hideously burned memory of his brother. I first thought that Peter and Nathan merged or something. Weird. Also Claire seems to have Nathan’s phone number so there are some things that happened in the past 4 months that we should have some backstory on.

Angela Petrelli – she is marked for death, still a bitch and still we have no idea if she has a power or not.

Matt Parkman – He and Suresh are Molly’s protector and he is also going for his detective’s badge. So after taking 4 bullets tot he chest he still wants to much to be a cop. And we see that he is using his powers with better skill and according to Molly, he’s cheating.

Molly Walker – She is having nightmares and is also very troubled by them, one minute she is fine and when Parkman asks her about them she gets very angry.

Clare Bennet – Clare is at a new school, her dad is at a new job. Dad gives Claire a car, drops her off at school and tells her to remain ordinary, not to do extraordinary things. Of course she tries but cannot help who she is. She defends another girl from the popular clichey ones and garners the attention from a mysterious boy. A Boy who can fly and uses that ability to be creepily stalky.

Noah Bennet – I forget the cover last name that he gave the family but it also begins with a B. Noah now works at Copy Kingdom (Something that made Allison and I crack up) and I was wondering how long it would be before he put his boss in his place. And I was not disappointed. Bennet has skills, he flipped the guy onto a table using just one of the guys fingers. And the scene around the table was so funny. I can’t remember if the mom knows anything about Clare and Noah’s double lives but the awkwardness of the table scene was very funny.

Hiro – Hiro is in feudal Japan with his hero Kensei. But things are not as history has depicted them. Kensei is an Englishman. Hiro is still very very clueless. He is completely out of his element and I am wondering when Hiro becomes the hero Kensei. That is my prediction, Hiro is really the hero Kensei. But the promos say that the real Kensei has a power, however right now he is a drunk mercenary.

Ando and Hiro’s Dad – Mr. Nakamura and Ando are together, Ando is like a personal assistant to Mr. Nakamura. And Mr. N. is marked for death. And by the end of the episode he is killed but someone he knows. I don’t have any idea who killed him or any guesses, but poor Ando is one minute too late.

Peter Petrelli – He’s in a cargo container in Cork, Ireland. But he has no clue who he is. Interesting.

Micha – Niki/Jessica – D.L. – No sign of them, good. sorry, but they are not my favorite characters.

New Characters – Maya and Alejandro – Fugitives from Honduras making their way to New York. Maya has a very deadly power that she cannot control but apparently her brother can help her control. I am interested in hearing more about them. I am going to check out the online novel too because it does talk about them.

All in all the episode was a great opening to the season, many questions answered and many more to tease us as well. I look forward to the rest of the season.

I also read through all the online graphic novels. It is worth doing because they give backstory on many of the new characters this season as well as how Ando became the assistant to Mr. Nakamura.

TV Show: The Big Bang Theory

Last night Allison and I started catching up on our TV shows and while I did some blogging she watched Intervention and watched even more people try to get their loved ones to talk to them and get help. Most of the people being intervened upon during the show end up agreeing to enter drug rehabilitation facilities. I’m not a fan of the show but since I ended up blogging so long she watched most of the episode.

So it was late and we put in the tape for The Big Bang theory and we didn’t realize that we totally missed the absolute ending of How I Met Your Mother. The “Slap Bet” countdown clock. How awesome. Barney now knows when it is coming and there is going to be a great episode of him trying to avoid it, there has to be.

So, the Big Bang Theory. Uneventful, forgettable and slightly humorous. The main characters Sheldon and Leonard are stiff and awkward, sure they are supposed to be because they are supposed to be socially inept. But their own interaction together is horribly stiff and wooden. I think that eventually they may get a better rapport but the whole episode felt like one of my high school one act plays. Weird. The show may have potential but I think that Mo has the right idea to boycott the show out of solidarity for cancellation of The Class. That was a far superior show.

Singer Spotlight: Laura Glyda

On Sunday I listened to, met and interviewed Laura Glyda. Laura is a singer songwriter who used to live in Boston but now lives in Chicago. I think that Boston lost a fantastic asset to the local music community. When she makes her way back here on a future tour or show I am going to be there.

Laura had a strong set of powerful music. I caught a couple of songs during the set and I enjoyed them thoroughly. I asked the woman running Laura’s sign up e-mail sheet if I could have an interview after her set. She said sure and I took a quick walk around. I made sure to stay in hearing distance. When I came back I took some more photos and then met Laura. I got a cd of some of her live stuff and then asked her for the interview. She was very agreeable to that idea.

Laura came over to the PayPerPost booth and we talked about her music her influences and what she has planned. Laura was very nice to talk with and seeing as she was the first person I had ever interviewed it went very well. After the interview Laura gave me another CD that she did with a full band behind her.

On Monday I took the CD’s with me on my drive to work. I listened to the LIVE CD first and then on the way home I listened to the CD with the band. I am a fan of LIVE music so that is the CD that won out for me and it also had the song I Ain’t Down. That is my favorite song by Laura Glyda. The sound, the tone, the lyrics are all fantastic! I listened to it 4 times in a row because I liked it so much. That night I loaded up the CDs into iTunes so I could listen to them at any time on my iPod. I look forward to when Laura returns to Boston because I will be wanting to take Allison to see Laura play.

Here are the interviews. I think they are in order and I apologize in advance if the sound is not good. This was my first time doing an interview, ever and it was also during CollegeFest 2007 which was extremely loud.

I’ll be adding the interviews as soon as I can see them working. Check back.

The first one has the Intro with Laura at the last 30 seconds of the video.

The second one has the rest of the interview. I think I had some of the middle of the interview cut off though. Sorry.

This was my first interview ever. I really had a great time interviewing Laura, she was awesome to talk with and is a wonderful singer/songwriter. If she is in your neck of the woods performing. Please stop in and see her and tell her that you heard about her on The BenSpark’s Singer Spotlight.

Back in College….

Every once in a while I do things that remind me of when I was back in college. this past weekend I was at the Hynes convention center with PayPerPost for CollegeFest 2007. The last time I was at the Hynes was for another event for college kids called NACA, which is the National Association for Campus Activities. It made me feel a little nostalgic. At NACA I would go from showcase to showcase of various acts and decide who we should bring to campus to entertain the students.

Some people I saw before they got famous, Ray Romano, Frank Caliendo and Dane Cook. Yeah they all did the college circuit back in the day. I even had dinner with the awesome Frank Caliendo. He was the nicest guy ever and we really like our dinner with him. He was warm and open and very funny. If you don’t know who he is, check out this video of some of his great impressions.

Yesterday Allison sent me this video from YouTube.

The guy there is Rob Paravonian and he is a comic. He has a great video series called Life as a Comic. Rob’s podcast is excellent. It talks about the things that he does as a comic and it is fantastic. One episode is all about NACA conventions and it totally took me back to those days on the college campus. I’ll be subscribing to Life as a Comic on iTunes tonight when I get home. And I think you should too.

HIMYM – Season 3 Premiere

Allison and I watched the season premiere of How I Met Your Mother before we went to the last baby class. It was a pretty good season opener and looks like we are getting closer to the possibility finding out how Ted met his kids mother. If anyone is looking for christmas gift ideas for me the first couple seasons of this show would be perfect.

This episode was pretty funny and the whole pre-show promos where Barney is talking to Mandy Moore about her getting naked for the episode. And yep, she did as well as Ted, Barney and her random friend. While that was a pretty funny part the part about how Ted got a tattoo was way funnier. And Barney having a great time at Ted’s expense was hilarious.

I really like how this cast works together. They are pretty polished and have great chemistry. As Ted came out through his shaving of the beard was a laugh fest. The group making fun of Ted with each return visit was very clever. However Lily’s hair is terrible and has thus made he fall of my list. The cut and the color are terrible. Bring back the red head. Please.

The Office – Premiere

So, I messed up tonight and I didn’t tape the season premiere of My Name is Earl and we got home from baby class a little ways into The Office. We missed the first 15 minutes but caught the rest. I do like the office but I guess I shouldn’t have missed the begining to enjoy the end. Tomorrow I should be able to see the full episode online however.

What I did like was that many of the questions from last season were answered. And I won’t spoil it for anyone but they are great resolutions. I would like to say, poor Sprinkles however. And poor Andy’s nipples, that is just terrible.

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TV Show: Life (Premiere)

Last night after Allison and I went over to Derek and Michelle’s for pizza we got home in time to see the new NBC show called Life. I’m not sure what I was expecting with this show but it was certainly something different and interesting. The main character Charlie Crews is a cop who was wrongly accused and imprisoned for twelve years in a triple homicide case. So for twelve years he was beaten not only by the other inmates because he was a cop and also by the guards because they were sadistic. Every bone in his body was broken and he had one cut that required 24 stitches.

The tag line that was repeated a couple of times int he show was “Life is what he got, and Life was what he got back”. Charlie rose above all the torture from his time in prison and began to learn Zen meditation. While in prison he met his financial adviser, played by with comic genius by Adam Arkin. Once Charlie was released from prison after it was determined that he was falsely accused he received a huge undisclosed settlement. Part of his settlement was that he be able to be a cop again. Charlie is a detective and a good one, he approaches things from a different perspective and can read people well. I liked his character.

Some of my favorite pats from the show was when Charlie was driving his brand new sweet car he kept saying, “I am not attached to this car”. Which turns out to be a good thing because Ted (Adam Arkin) ends up backing a tractor onto it at Charlie’s Orange grove. It could have easily have been a sweet golf cart that Ted could have turned into a bunch of golf cart parts because you often see gold carts and other vehicles like that in an orange grove. Maybe in another episode we will see him touring the place again and eating oranges.

Charlie seemed pretty obsessed with fruit. Almost every scene he was eating a different type of fruit. He was eating pears melons, and an apple. Maybe that was one of the things that he really missed while being on the inside.

TV Squad put up a good review of the episode and they brought up some great points about how the show is a bit different and probably the thing that will keep people coming back is te subplot of Charlie investigating who set him up. And to that, it really could have been anyone. People don’t seem to like Charlie much. Weird.

Also TV Squad compared this show to two other ones that were favorites of mine, Bones and Psych. Read the TV Squad review.

Law & Order: SVU "Alternate"

Last night Allison and I watch Law & Order: SVU. The guest star last night was Cynthia Nixon from Sex and the City. She was excellent playing the role of a woman with a multiple personality disorder. But there was a twist to the whole thing and it was bizarre.

To start off Olivia is back and the native American cop (IT think he is native American) is part of the SVU now. Dan Floreck’s character got the boot after the shenanigans that the SVU did last year. Elliott covering up his daughter’s DUI and Olivia helping her brother escape, Finn did something too but I forget what it was. So Floreck is out and Munch is in as the new Sargent and head of SVU.

And Munch is not a good Sargent or at least he never got a chance to prove himself. I am disappointed in that. I would have liked to have seen him get more of a chance. Having Floreck come back and take back over was awkward and an easy cop out.

Cynthia Nixon was excellent. She had so many different personalities and she cased all sorts of havoc for the SVU. She even went to Elliot’s house with a knife and made veiled threats to his wife. So weird.

Eventually we find out the truth of her character. She killed her parents and “developed” these multiple personalities to always be able to have the insanity defense. Mind you her parents were abusive and probably deserved it but man that was an intense episode. And excellent acting from Cynthia Nixon.

Bones: Season 3 Premiere

Season three started out with a bang. Well not really, it was more of a bounce, “Hey what is that” “Bang!” when a human skull slammed into the windshield of the weed-mobile. And even that wasn’t too scary. No need to reach for your portable pulse oximeter with that opening sequence. It was interesting but not something that was really special.

So about 3 or 4 months has passed since Jack and Angela took off from their wedding leaving Booth and Bones at the altar. I’m not sure why anyone would have thought that Booth and Bones would have tied the knot in place of Jack and Angela. But anyway that wasn’t what Bones was upset with all episode. She wasn’t upset with Booth arresting her father either.

It should have been obvious that she was upset about losing ZacK to the military. Bones has this thing about being a big sister and wanting to protect those who are vulnerable like ZacK. We learn at the end of the episode that Bone’s was upset with Booth because Booth didn’t stop Zack from going to Iraq.

But despite finding a new member of the team (I hope this guy gets to stay on) Zack does return from Iraq because he didn’t fit in. And seeing Zack back made me realize that he is even more socially awkward than I ever remember. I think that something big happened in Iraq and we will learn more about that in a future episode.

Another thing we will learn about in future episodes is the serial killer subplot that is starting this season. Wasn’t there a serial killer called the grave digger last season who was never caught? Let’s not get to mired in serial killers or at least wrap up last year’s storyline on the grave digger.

We were very lucky to get home in time to watch the episode. It was a good one and I realized how much I missed the characters. Booth is still my favorite followed by Hodgins. Hodgins sports a whole new look and I like it. I’m looking forward to big things this season.

Burn Notice, season finale…

Finally getting to the 2 hour finale of Burn Notice. Out of all the new shows this past summer Burn Notice is my favorite one. I had a great time watching this show and loved the characters that came out of this. Sam played by Bruce Campbell was comic relief all season until the finale. He showed some real character as he was captured and tortured. And all the time he was still comic relief. Fi played by Gabrielle Anwar was tough as nails and a great woman to play opposite Michael Westen. Sharon Gless as Madeline Westen was perfect as Michael’s neurotic manipulative mother. And of course I loved all about Jeffery Donovan as Michael Westen. He had the perfect demeanor and all to play this role.

The season finale was excellent with an ending that left me upset that summer was so far away. Such a short season for such an excellent show. I can’t wait to see the next season and what happens.