They made me go to Miami!

I’m a huge fan of the original CSI. I’ve watched the repeats so many times on Spike that I can usually figure out which epi it is in the first 5 minutes. I also watch CSI: NY, though not quite as obsessively (Mmmm, Eddie Cahill). But I have never been able to get through more than a few minutes of CSI: Miami, until last night. And I gotta tell you, it was NOT easy.

If you are a fan of CSI: Miami, you might want to wander off, because I’m probably about to insult you. How can anyone watch that crap!

How to navigate Thursday night TV

Why do they do this to us? Why do they have to stick all the good shows on one night? Let’s look at 9PM (Eastern) on Thursday:

CBS – CSI
NBC – The Office & 30 Rock
FOX – Fringe
ABC – Grey’s Anatomy
CW – Supernatural
And part of the season
USA – Burn Notice

Not Buck Wild

Why does Joe Buck call baseball games for Fox? He makes it abundantly clear that he isn’t interested in the game – he couldn’t sound more bored. Except for when he is being sarcastic about the players, coaches, umpires, advertisers, and pretty much everything else. So why is Buck there? Do they not pay him enough for football? Does he just not want to go home?

Jon & Kate Plus Nausea

While flipping through the channels last night, I settled on TLC for a few moments. In the corner of the screen was one of those constant, annoying text ads for an upcoming show. I find those ads moderately annoying (especially the USA ones with little tiny people running across the bottom of the screen – creepy!). But this one was worse – “Kate’s Story”, Monday night at 8 PM. Why?

• It’s sad that I know who “Kate” is, without even stopping to think about it.

My TV Week So Far – Amazing Race, Top Chef, and Brooke Shields

I have been watching a lot of baseball and hockey this week, so my viewing schedule is a little off. But I am still incredulous (yes, incredulous!) that Mika wouldn’t go down the water slide on The Amazing Race. Listen, I’m not a big fan of heights myself, but it’s for a million dollars! And has she ever watched the show? Heights, water, tight spaces…it’s part of the deal.

Don’t even get me started on the fact that she was wearing swimmies.

Castle is King

It’s easy to think that for television to be intelligent, it has to be innovative or complicated. It has to blow your mind, or make you see something differently. But every once in awhile, a show comes along to remind you that intelligent can be fun. Case in point: Castle.

Wow, I love this show! The dialogue is natural and witty. The character portrayals are genuine, likable, and believable. The murder mystery that each episode is framed around is usually pretty easy to figure out, but the clues develop nicely and never insult the viewers’ intelligence. And I usually laugh out loud at least three or four times each episode.

What Did You See?

I admit it, I fell for it. ABC said that Flash Forward would be perfect for Lost viewers. They teased me with glimpses into an intriguing mystery. And I fell for it hook, line, and sinker. I couldn’t wait for the first episode. I even tweeted a “Woot!” that morning. And then…

Thud.

Flash Forward is a derivative waste of time that Lost viewers were tricked into watching. There, I said it. My great hope, for a new addiction that could fill the conspiracy zones of my brain after Lost ends, has died. I am instead faced with a confusing, formulaic, poorly written mess with one dimensional characters and lazy writing. Pthth!

There was an international phenomenon where every person on the planet blacked out for 2 minutes. Millions were killed in the resulting accidents. The lead FBI office is basing their entire investigation on one agent’s flashforward of his case board six months from now. Which he was still studying at that point, so how useful could it be? Let me count the other ways Flash Forward has ticked me off:

The Persian Gulf and Balloon Boy: Random Weekend Musings

Maybe contestants on The Amazing Race should be required to take an intelligence test? Last week we discovered that most of the teams did not recognize Jackie-O in a picture of a trip she took to Southeast Asia.

This week, teams were told to go to the Persian Gulf and find their next clue at the world’s tallest building. I knew that the world’s tallest building is in Dubai, but then random knowledge sticks in my brain like gum. So I can understand that they needed to ask around or look up that info.

Not Feeling the Glee

I know I’m supposed to love Glee. I’ve heard that every week the songs from the show end up at the top of the I-Tunes charts. But I just don’t get it!

For me, musical numbers are a tricky proposition. Most of the time I think characters suddenly breaking into song in the middle of a scene is too cheesy and makes it tough for me to take the storyline seriously. A few movies have done it successfully (“Chicago” comes to mind), but even well-done big screen examples are few and far between.

Friends Don’t Let Friends Lose Their Passports

Last night on The Amazing Race, Zev and Justin came from the bottom of the pack to win this leg of the race…and were eliminated. Why? Because they lost Zev’s passport, and you can’t technically finish the race without your travel documents.

To all that is weird!

Are you watching Fringe? It is a smart, scary, wonderful show that no one I know cares about. The show is about the Fringe Unit of the FBI, which investigates unusual crimes. I spend the entire hour on the edge of my seat, and then an hour the next day lurking in forums to see if I caught the same hints and details as everyone else.

I expected to be disappointed by Fringe for two reasons. First, they cast Joshua Jackson in one of the lead roles, Peter Bishop. I hated Dawson’s Creek, and I viscerally associate him with that annoying piece of teen-angst soap opera. Second, it sounded like a modernized rip-off of the X Files, which is one of my favorite shows of all time. Well, at least until it became redundant and boring.

Top Chef Rule #27 – Don’t serve raw prawns

On Wednesday nights, I always expect I will flip back and forth between Top Chef and CSI: NY. So I watch the setup on CSI and flip over to Bravo in time for the Quick Fire challenge. And then I get so engrossed in Top Chef that I forget about Eddie Cahill, which is hard for me to do.