It’s funny, I keep saying that at this point, with the season over, all I want to see are exciting games. Well, they’ve had three of those in the past week but thanks to TSNFU, I haven’t been able to see them! Such a ridiculous situation.

Sounds like it was a great game last night, with the raps clawing back in regulation, and again in OT, before falling short. No surprise there, but nice to see then hang with a team that usually kills them, to give the home crowd a show.

Sounds like Calderon finally started going to the whole last night. Where’s that been all year? Looks like PMB had another solid game, marred by a youngster mistake on the final play. That’s tough, but no one else on the team would have made that play so I’ll forgive it.

Bargnani only played a few minutes thanks to the flu bug; that’s a shame, he’d been playing so well lately. Calderon set the franchise assist record, congrats to him - too bad it couldn’t come in a winning season.

Well, now the so-called easy stretch begins. Can they finish up 8-8? 10-6? 12-4?? Hey, a guy cab dream…

Tags: Detroit Pistons, Toronto Raptors, TSN2

How’s this for a good laugh: According to the National Post, Jose Calderon has joined the legion of fans frustrated by the TSN2 Fiasco. He had to trek down to the ACC to catch the game on TV there. You know the situation is getting out of hand when the team’s own players can’t even watch the team play!!

You know, you might think a story like this would force MLSE to step up and solve this, but that seems doubtful. Still, I wonder… suppose there was a blizzard and Jose slipped and fell or somehow otherwise hurt himself (knock on wood, heaven forbid) going down to the ACC to watch? Do you think THAT might get someone’s attention?? Absolutely ridiculous.

Tags: Jose Calderon, Toronto Raptors, TSN2 Fiasco

I didn’t watch NBC’s Heroes when it first started airing. Even though it got a lot of praise, even though I’m a “comic book guy,” and even though people said I was crazy for not watching it… it just didn’t appeal to me.The main thing was, I’ve read hundreds of super-hero stories in thousands of comic books. There’s no way this television series would be able to offer me anything new, other than new characters, and I knew that Hollywood to try and make it “edgy” and “hip” and all that crap. Just give me good comic book. I don’t need a comic book on TV.

And I think that was part of the problem - all the critics were going on about how great and original it was and just ignoring the fact that there are hundreds of great super-hero stories waiting for them at the bookstore. It’s that narrow-minded view that comic books are not a legitimate form of art or entertainment, and that if it’s not on TV it’s not any good, that really pissed me off.

Well, two years later I’ve finally given it a shot.

I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, that’s for sure. It was definitely engaging, well-filmed, and with a couple of exceptions, well-acted. The overall story is pretty simplistic - group of super-powered individuals must come together and save the world - but the best stories are often the simplest ones. As I feared, it’s nothing different from anything I’ve seen before, but that’s not a bad thing.

I know for sure if I’d watched it two years ago, I would have hated it - the hype would have dragged me down. But now that the hype is gone, and I was able to watch it as it stands on its own, I enjoyed it.

The performances, as mentioned, were generally pretty good, especially Masi Oka. With the exception of the always-awful Ali Larter and her furrowed-brow husband, Leonard Roberts, the rest of the cast was also rock solid, with standout performances from Sendhil
Ramamurthy and Jack Coleman. The show also featured some fantastic guest stars, including Eric Roberts, George Takei, Richard Roundtree and Malcom MacDowell.

Some notes on a couple of the main leads, though. First off, Milo Ventimiglia gives a strong performance as Peter Petrelli, but he disappears for long stretches of the second half of the season (more on this later). At first he comes across like you’d want your hero to be - eager to help, believing in himself when others don’t, etc. But then he starts to become whiny and brooding, and he’s barely likeable by the end (that’s not Milo’s fault, it’s the writers). Peter starts out basically as the “main” character and he’s the plot point that drives most of the series. He should have been featured more.

One of my other complaints was that there was a real lack of humour in the series. I don’t want it to be joke-y or campy, but everyone took themselves sooo seriously. Hiro and Ando provided the only comic relief, and even that was a little out of place seeing as how Hiro is the only one to really embrace his powers and responsibility. I hope that going forward, everyone lightens up a little.

Meanwhile the villain of the piece, Zachary Quinto’s Sylar, is a little more troublesome. First of all, while Qunito does a fine job, it’s hard to find him threatening. He’s tall, lanky, a bit socially awkward, with a squeaky voice. Maybe that’s the point - after all I think I just described every famous serial killer - and I wouldn’t want a traditional bombastic, ego-driven super-villain, but still… I don’t know, give him the aforementioned George Takei’s deep baritone voice and he would have been a lot more effective.

As a character, Sylar shows even more weakness. What’s his motivation? Power? To what end? It’s never made clear. Especially at the end when he (SPOILER) steals Ted’s power. He knows Ted is essentially a human bomb. He knows it’ll make him blow up, and he’s already said he doesn’t want to kill “innocents.” Why would he want it? So he can boil his coffee faster?

Unclear motivation for a villain can be a story killer. Remember, most bad guys don’t know they’re evil. There seems to be no reason for Sylar to do what he’s doing other than “he’s evil.” That’s not enough. And if he’s just “insane,” well that’s even more lame.

The second half of the season definitely slowed down and it hurt the show in the end. In the first half, we met everyone and watched the connections between them grow, until the “mini-climax” at the high school, and it worked quite well.

In the second half, everyone just kind of meandered along until the climax. The problem was that we all knew what the climax was - the destruction of New York - so they needed to give us something else to keep our attention until we got there. But they didn’t give us much, and much of what they did give us were nothing more than hints at the larger story (particularly those about Hiro’s father, Nathan’s parents, and Mr. Linderman) that were not resolved. We just kept moving inexorably toward the big bang, without much excitement, and without seeing much of Peter, who really was the anchor in the first part of the season - and who we know plays a big part in the end, seeing as how he’s the bomb.

Thankfully, the climax was pretty good. As far as super-hero fights go, everyone got to play a part, and the battle between Peter and Sylar was well done. And it was great to see Hiro finally get his moment to be a hero - that was a very satisfying conclusion to his journey.

The “sacrifice” of Nathan seems a little hollow, although that’s probably just because I’ve seen the commercials for later episodes and know he’s still alive. Same with Peter of course. Oh well, I suppose that’s my fault and not theirs.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a shout-out to Tim Sale’s fantastic illustrations. Sale has long been one of my favourite artists and it’s fantastic that this series gave his art some additional spotlight. As usual he knocked all the illustrations out of the park, and it saddens me that, because Isaac is dead, we probably won’t see too many more.

Overall, I’m glad I waited to give Heroes a shot. Removed from the hype and debate, I enjoyed the first season.

I’ve heard the second season was not as good, but I’ll still give it a shot. I invested enough in the characters to want to see where they go from here; I’ll keep my expectations low and hope that, by the time I’m ready for season three, they’ve learned from whatever mistakes they’ve made, and have got the show onto solid ground.

Tags: Heroes, Television

Here it is, my first ever television review. I’m not a big TV guy. I watch my sports, and about 10 Seinfeld re-runs a week, but that’s about it. The only new show I regularly watch is Lost, although I generally wait until the season is over and watch all the new eps in a couple of days…

Anyway. The point is I think most TV stinks. But people raved about The Wire. Still, I wasn’t convinced, not until my boss, who has similar tastes and TV and movies to myself, vehemently recommended it - he basically said “you HAVE to watch it.” (I don’t actually think he was saying, “watch it or you’re fired,” but it could have been implied.)

So, watch it I did. All five seasons. 60 episodes… in about three weeks. Yes. It’s that good… I simply could not stop watching. Now that Season 5 is out on DVD, the time is right for you to check it out too.

The Wire tells the story of a group of detectives in the Baltimore Police department. But it doesn’t stop there. It tells the story of the drug dealers they’re investigating. It tells the stories of the people the drugs and investigations affect, from the docks, to the schools, to city halls, to the city newspapers. In reality, the city of Baltimore is real main character of the show.

I don’t even how to tell you how good the show is. On the surface, it’s a cop show. But it’s so much more. The stories unfold in a subtle, engaging manner; there’s little flash or extravagance involved. The show lets you decide on your own who the good guys and bad guys are - it doesn’t come out and tell you.

The acting and writing are so good, I don’t even know where to begin.

But perhaps here’s one great example (I’ll try and tell it spoiler-free). As the first season builds towards its climax, you start to see just how dangerous this job is for the cops. There’s a great air of inevitability surrounding them - you just know one of them is going to get hurt or killed.

Finally, in the 10th episode (of 12), one of the cops is placed in a tough situation at the start of the episode. And you can feel it - you know, you just KNOW - something bad is going to happen. And it does.

But even though you knew it was going to happen, you saw it coming - it still shocks you. You’re still on the edge of your seat until the very moment, and you’re rocked when it happens.

You shouldn’t be. You saw it coming. But you still were.

That’s because the show draws you in, emotionally, like no other TV I’ve ever seen. It makes you care for all of these characters - really, once you are hooked, it’s impossible not to care, and instead of sitting there waiting for the shit to hit the fan and saying “I knew it!” when it does, you sit there praying it doesn’t. And when it does all you can do is choke back the tears.

That’s good TV.

I can’t decide which season is my favourite. I know I loved the first and third seasons, and I still to this day am amazed at how they turned those kids into such real people in Season 4. And although the fifth season was the show’s weakest, it’s still a damn sight better than anything else you’ll see on TV.

But something about season two keeps me thinking that was the best season. There was something simply ingenious about the way they introduced a whole bunch of new characters, and just as you fell in love with them all, they pulled the curtain back a little more to reveal just how they all tied in to the first season. I’ve never seen anything like that before. No other TV show would ever take that risk - to set aside everything you loved about the first season for the first six or seven episodes of the next, in order to expand the story, before bringing the whole thing together in a startling climax at the end.

Anyway. Don’t listen to me, check out the myriad reviews on the Web proclaiming The Wire as the best television show ever. And then go and rent it or buy it or whatever. Just give it a try, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Tags: television review, The Wire