TV. lost

lately ive gotten into the habit of not watching shows for a few weeks, and then all in one night binging on all the latest episodes i have saved in one sitting. last night i did just that with lost. i hadnt seen any episodes since the season premiere this year.
now that im all caught up i have just one question: why should i still care?!? ive been watching this show since its first episode, but im starting to wonder why. the first season was really great, i loved the mystery, the questions, the cool flashbacks (especially the one with locke). last season i still enjoyed it, but it seemed like they lost their way a bit with the story. they have fallen into the habit of asking new questions and beginning new mysteries, but they kind of forget to finish up the last one, or answer any questions. at all.
and now this season they seemed to have just plain given up! they probably said to themselves 'so, heres what weve got so far: where did the polar bear come from? what huge thing ate someone in the plane wreckage? what was that crazy black smoke monster? whats with those numbers anyway? why do they have to keep pushing the button? whats that whole dharma thing about? why cant anyone leave the island? whats with the four toed statue? how come everyone seems to have interacted with each other before they got to the island?' and after asking all those questions, i assume they answered with 'screw it, lets just ignore all that and instead introduce 10 more main characters to our show. im sure no one will mind.'
this show quickly went from 'must see', to 'dont really care'. pretty sad because it was such a cool set-up.

TV. the exodus decoded

about a month ago the history channel had a new special on about the exodus. when i saw an ad i figured 'oh great, another documentary trying to explain away God. ive seen a lot of these types of specials and they allthink that they have come up with a new way to explain what happened and then they dismiss God because theyve figured out how it could have been done naturally.
this one was different though. it actually made the point, several times, that all of these explinations they are sharing instead prove just how God made it happen. the narrator makes the point "God does not work in spite of nature, rather He works with nature to achieve His ends." wow! i was quite surprised that they were giving God credit instead of trying to rip it way from Him. knowing that, i took the rest of the documentary more seriously instead of dismissing it they way they often dismiss God.
the guy behind this show takes the idea that a huge volcanic explosion in greece at the mountain of santarini was actually the cause of the plagues. he went through and showed a passage in egyptian hyrogliphs that talks about the gods fighting and destruction, which could be an account from their perspective. he uses an example of a lake in northern africa that actually turned red and eventually killed all the animals and some of the people. and this is a well documented event- it happened back in the 1980s. after going through those explinations, he then goes on to figure out where the real mount sinai is located, and also he claims to have an actual engraving of the ark of the covenant! all of it is really well done, they didnt skimp out on the special effects or anything- its even presented by james camron!
if you get the chance to see this on repeats or anything, i would strongly recommend it! i think im going to purchase it from the history channel website so i can use bits of it in class.

TV. random summer stuff

due to the fact that i havent been posting for a couple months, i just wanted to write a few things about summer stuff, please indulge me.
over the summer i did a bit of tv watching, and since most of the shows i like to watch are not new at this time, i have to be creative and find new things to watch. some of them are as follows:

last comic standing- i was glad to see it back, i really liked this show last time it was on. its kind of an american idol type show, except its better because you dont have to see mediocre singers sing karioke of old songs. instead, you get to hear some funny jokes and actually be entertained! some of the comics were really funny, but i was quite disappointed with the final winner. the guy who won suffered from some spinal problem that affected the use of his limbs. sure, he was pretty funny, but it really felt like a pitty win. the other two guys were funnier, and didnt just rely on the one note joke 'look at me, im crippled, isnt that funny!' like he did.

rockstar: supernova- ya, i know, this one pretty much is mediocre singers singing karioke of old songs, but its at least a bit more rockin. i really dug this show last year and looked forward to what this year would hold. it turns out that it didnt hold much. there were a couple stand-out singers, but the band decided on one of the worst to be their new lead singer. oh well. i guess thats a good thing, because the really talented singers wont be trapped down by a contract to have to play with these has-beens.

blade- wow! i really liked some of the movies (as expressed here), and was very interested to see what spike tv would do with an ongoing series. the character is cool, the background for his world is cool, i guess i figured they would screw it up royally. looks like i was wrong! the whole season was really great- the story was gripping, the twists were unexpected (in a good way), and the effects were top notch. i was very very surprised that it had the quality it did. this could have been a quick cash-in on the character, but it actually turned out to be an incredibly interesting journey into the world of blade and his mission to kill all vampires. i am really hoping that they renew this show for another season!