Another Night of TWIN TiVo Tasks: Lost and Lie To Me

So the Lost premiere is tonight.  You might have heard it mentioned on a jillion other sites.  Seems to be the second most newsworthy item of the day behind the micro-analysis of yesterday's festival of inauguration.  Personally, I think THIS news item warrants more airtime, but what do I know.  And no, I've never been to Australia, in case you were wondering.

I'll let everyone else harp on Lost and instead take a hard right at Albuequerque (Bugs Bunny aficionados out there should have just snickered) and tell you to set your TiVos for Lie To Me, the new Mr. Orange (aka Tim Roth) vehicle on Fox at 9:03 (yes, three minutes past.  That ain't a typo.).  Freddy--er, Mr. Roth--plays Dr. Cal Lightman, a human lie detector who uses body language and facial expressions to tell when someone's giving the truth or is a big ol' Fibber McGee.  He's a hit at parties and the bane of poker tables, but he also uses his talents for the greater good, helping law enforcement bust the bad guys once a week in this time slot. 

Lightman the character is based on the extensive body of research by psychologist Dr. Paul Ekman, who is an expert on facial, body, and speech patterns, and has advised law enforcement entities in how to recognize when someone's got something to hide (although I'm willing to bet Vin Diesel would give him a run for his money.  Vin shows no emotion and has but one facial expression.  Rage, pain, broken heart, ecstasy...it's all the same.).  I've read some of Dr. Ekman's work and it's fascinating stuff, indeed.  Dr. Ekman is a consultant to the show and will even be writing a weekly column for the show's website, explaining what in each episode was based on real science and what the writers took some liberty with (to wit:  tonight's rubbing-the-nose plot thread apparently doesn't necessarily mean someone's lying).

If it sounds like The Mentalist (which, I think, is a higher brow rip-off of the always funny Psych on USA Network), well, since the sincerest form of reproducing high Nielsen ratings is a Xerox copy but with a British accent, it may well be.  I guess we'll find out.

Tonight's TWO TiVo Tasking: BSG and FNL

I don't have a lot of time to expound on the whys and wherefores, just do as I say and I won't kick you out of the family.  Deal?  

First, Friday Night Lights, 9 pm on NBC.  It's not Shakespeare, but it's addicting in a way that only my therapist might be able to explain (five'll get you ten the explay involves Minka Kelly and Connie Britton).  All those reasons I bag on Smallville?  Yeah, they all apply here, too (minus the curiously long canine teeth), yet I can't seem to say no mas, no mas.  Season 3 starts tonight.

Second, Battlestar Galactica.  Really.  Hiatus over, the first of the last ten eps airs tonight on Sci-Fi at 10 pm.  When last we saw our beleaguered heroes, huzzah!, they had found Earth.  Problem is, it didn't look anything like they had been promised in the tour guide; as if the whole world had played Jarts with their nuclear arsenals and no one was left standing to brag about it.  I was half-expecting Adama to bust out his best Heston:  "You maniacs!  You blew it up!  Damn you!  Damn you all to hell!"

TiVo 'em.  Watch 'em.  Come back here and discuss 'em.

Tonight's TiVo Task: Smallville

Okay, I'll be square with you:  I'm not a Smallville fan.  More of a peruser, actually.  Can't watch it in real time, only on TiVo, so's I can jump not just commercials, but Tom Welling's perma-brood, like he's trapped in a perpetual phantom zone of an Abercrombie & Fitch photo shoot; Kristen Kreuk with her single facial gesture no matter the emotion, and her engaging-as-cardboard line delivery, not to mention her curiously long canine teeth (I'm convinced she's part vampire); and the way-too-rich/tries-too-hard-to-be-cool-cold-and-calculating Lex Luthor, especially Michael Rosenbaum's heavy-handed monologues de sinister (in all fairness, though, I think it's the script more than the actor).  The whole shtick is often too saccharine or too cheesy for my taste, and the dialogue is so cringe-inducing that I often just watch it with the volume off.  Each episode's structure seems to be very chip-off-the-90210-block, which was annoying in its formula even back then.  Truth to tell, I think The Hills is more compelling television, with a villain in Spencer Pratt that even Smallville's Brainiac cringes from.

Still, tonight is the "Legion" episode I've been eagerly anticipating for a while.  Brainiac, my favorite baddie in the comics (and the least annoying character on the show) possesses Chloe's body, and three strangers from the future join forces with Clark to perform an exorcism, super-hero-style.  Who's kung-fu will be stronger?  Well, that's probably pretty obvious if you've got two functioning brain cells, but for geeks and fans and us old-schoolers from the halcyon days of Adventure Comics, tonight should be a real treat.

I may even break tradition and watch it in real time.

Length DOES Matter

It's a blow to masculinity.  Seems that everyone from the Financial Times to the Fort Mill Times is reporting on the results of a study from the University of Cambridge in England.  Researchers compared the length of a man's ring finger to the length of the index finger on his right hand and correlated the results with success in high-frequency trading on the London stock market (a longer ring finger occurs as the result of fetal exposure to higher levels of the male hormone, androgen).

The researchers found that traders with ring fingers longer than pointers made eleven times more money than their stubbier counterparts over a twenty-month study period (the more experienced traders made about nine times more than the less-so, and in the experienced group, the long johns made five times more than the nubbins).  It's not a total loss, though, since the reverse ratio has been found to demonstrate skill in math, science, and engineering.

This certainly has to cause more than a few Gordon Gekko wannabes alarm and perhaps several to return to a therapist's couch.  I mean, if making and waving about obscene wads of cash compensates a man for a lack of endowment, then this study basically implies that a session of cheirognomy is probably in the cards to discover if someone truly IS behind nature's eight ball, BEFORE they waste all that time and money at B school fostering delusions of hedge fund grandiosity.  

New Army Recruiting Tactic?

I read this article and the first thing I thought was:  somewhere in here is a new reality TV show.  With  The Biggest Loser  a ratings darling for NBC, adding guns, PT, and O-courses to the formula, and the winner getting their own set of cammies and a year-long pass to the head of the chow line would surely be a hit.  Certainly couldn't be worse than the train wreck that is Superstars of Dance.

And the Army could market a new slogan out of it:  

The United States Army...Better Than Weight Watchers.

Best Shots reviews for comics out last week

Over on Newsarama, the weekly Best Shots review feature is up, within which I yap about Radical Comics's new book, Shrapnel.  For a rookie company, Radical has been quite impressive and  Shrapnel continues that tradition...but it is flawed.

They also have a YouTube video promo here.

Once upon a time..

I know what you're thinking:  "Oh, great.  ANOTHER blog.  Yeah, we need one of those like we need a new strain of avian flu."  I normally would agree with you, but since it seems like everyone's doing it these days, and because I really want to be one of the cool kids...here we are.  "So," you might then ask.  "If everyone jumped off a cliff, would you follow?"  Well, now, that depends.  Is Jessica Alba in that group?  If she is, then yes, yes I would.   

Who am I?  I can name my tune in three words:  writer, reader, pontificator (more or less in that order).  And that's pretty much all you need to know for right now.  While I can't guarantee that this blog is going to be maintained on a daily basis, I hope it will at least be entertaining.  There should be a wide enough gamut of topics discussed for anyone and everyone to jump in and give their plugged nickel.   

Think of it as a little daily ray of sunshine...or a sharp blow to the head, whatever it takes to keep morale high.  Keep your arms and legs inside the car at all times, and whatever you do, don't feed the animals (or any of my friends).

Hope you enjoy the ride.