Sunday, August 7, 2011

Random Thoughts, "Falling Skies" finale, MLB update

Hello,

Tonight is the two part finale of the TNT series "Falling Skies". I'm looking forward to it. This has been a great show that I've enjoyed very much. I look forward to it every week and I'm glad they've announced a second season already. From the previews it seems the aliens want to negotiate. That's a little disappointing as I want to see the resistance kick some alien ass! Are Tom Mason and Anne Glass finally going to get together tonight as well? All season long we've been teased by that storyline. I should be writing about the two part finale in my blog tomorrow.

Hopefully the finale isn't as bad as the finale for "The Killing", that was one of the worst finales ever. That finale was so bad it turned off many people who were fans of the show. It also completely wiped out many fans who were holding out to find out who the killer was. (I still say it was Rosie's Dad, Stan.) It's mind boggling how bad that finale was. It turned off so many people, I'd be surprised the show survives it's full second season.

One thing I would recommend to AMC for season two of "The Killing" is to limit it to just 10 episodes. Having 13 episodes in the first season was too many as there was so much filler. Including the entire filler episode when Linden and the other detective search for her son. Yawn. Next to the crappy finale, that was the second worst hour of the first season.

Another example of the filler of "The Killing" is the alleged move to California and get married story line between Linden and her non-fiance fiance. That tired story line lasts the whole season. It seemed like it ended after the 8th episode, but then at the end of the last episode Linden and her son are flying somewhere. That story line covered all 13 episodes but early on it was easy to predict that Linden was never moving to California or going to get married. That was a non starter story line that very few people care about. That was a waste of time and filler that could have been trimmed if the show was only the 10 episodes it should have been.

AMC is redeeming itself with "Breaking Bad" being back. And thank goodness early next year the fifth season of "Mad Men" will finally be here. They are currently filming with Jon Hamm directing the first episode. January Jones is pregnant in reality, but she's not pregnant in the storyline. They'll be hiding her pregnancy someway.

Simon Cowell's new series, "X Factor" starts on September 21st I believe. For some reason he's bringing back Paula Abdul. Cowell is saying that he thinks his new show can be bigger than "AI". That's one of those statements where I think of course he's going to say that. He's not going to come out and say "AI" will kick our butt. I expect the first episode will have a large audience, but drop precipitously for the second episode. Which is exactly the same reception I expect for Scotty McDreary's career.

I disagree with Cowell I don't think his show will be bigger than "American Idol". That's not a reflection on the "X Factor". That's more a reflection on singing competition reality shows. 10 years of watching the manipulations of "AI" will do that for an audience. That's especially true with "X Factor" being on Fox as well. Although "The Voice" sounded like an interesting twist on the concept, I just couldn't watch it. I might start watching the "X Factor" but I doubt I'll watch the whole season. Once it ends just a few weeks later, the crappy 11th season of "AI" will start.

I'll be coming up with some questions for my book club selection this month, "The Havana Room". I've read about 180 pages so far and as the story moves away from the Manhattan steakhouse, I'm losing interest. It reminds me of one of the big weaknesses of "The Killing". The story moves away from what the title promises.

I've taken a break from that book and started reading a couple of other books. One book is Geraldine Brooks "People of the Book". That book is for a local book club on Wednesday. Then yesterday I went to one of my favorite places, the library. I just randomly looked through the books. I do that from time to time as a way to find new books. One book I came across was Jim Butcher's "The Dresden Files".

They didn't have the first book in the series, "Storm Front", in. They did have the fourth book in the series though, it's "Summer Knight". I read the first 37 pages last night. I probably won't finish this book now, I just wanted to get a taste for the series. In this literary world of vampires, werewolves and wizards, do we really need another series from that genre? I would say "no" initially. However Harry Dresden is a fine chap to hang out with. He doesn't take himself too seriously and brings a much needed cheeky sense-of-humor to that genre.

Now for my baseball teams. Boston (the resistance) won last night and will battle the evil Yankees (the skitters) for first place in the AL East. Pittsburgh has completely fallen apart while Chicago has won 7 straight games. Not that it matters for the Cubs as they've been so awful most of the season and I expect them to return to that quickly. I would like to see the Pirates bounce back and at least finish at .500. Powered by great pitching and some actual offense the Dodgers have won a couple of games against one of the best teams in the NL West, Arizona. It shows you how good that team could be if they had an owner who had money to surround Matt Kemp with some more bats. Last but not least Atlanta is now just battling for a wild card spot. The Phillies have completely put them in the dust with their 9 game winning streak. They are going to be hard to beat in the playoffs this year.

themusicaddict

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