Quickies

At the end of this post, I made reference to Andy Umberger, who not only pulled the rare "hat trick" on the Whedon shows, but also popped up as the shrink on last year's best show, Mad Men. Well, there he was Monday night on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles as the FBI director who was skeptical about the inconsistencies in the "dead plastic surgery dude" case. (And did the whiny, scheming agent who cut the legs out from under show regular Agent Ellison remind anyone else of Isaiah Thomas? He looked like him, and had that same phony smiling, unctuous attitude. Maybe he'll trade 7 future draft picks for a terminator and sign him to a long term, overpriced contract. Of course, that would make too much sense for Isaiah, since a terminator would probably wreak havoc in the low post).

Also, in preparation for tonight's fresh Lost, here's a TV Guide interview with the four new cast members. All hail the extra twitchy Jeremy Davies.

Twinkle in daddy's eye gets full ride to USC

Houston Rockets center Yao Ming popped the question to his longtime girlfriend Ye Li. Ye is a talented basketball player in her own right, having suited up for the Chinese National Team.

Upon hearing this news, USC coach Tim Floyd continued his recent trend and immediately offered a scholarship to the yet to be conceived child of the soon to be married couple.

Mini-Musings

Busy this week, but I'll share some abbreviated thoughts as the days pass.

American Idol
No long recap here. Jordin wins.
She did Xtina's "Fighter" well enough, went back to the well with "Broken Wing" and sang the hell out the sappy "coronation" song.
Blake reprised his showstopping Bon Jovi tune, but it lacked suspense the second time around (but was still surprisingly entertaining). Then he did the Maroon 5 song I was so thankful he ignored last week (lame) and had no chance on the sappy coronation song -- it just wasn't designed for him. Question: why didn't they let him completely re-arrange it? Put down an uptempo synth beat and do something different? The producers, judges and everyone knows that head to head on pablum like that, Jordin will mop the floor with Blake 100 times out of 100. It might have been a huge trainwreck (and a slap in the face to the songwriters who won the contest -- but no more than the slap in the face this song in its utter insipid sameness did to viewers) but at least it would have been different and daring.
Daughtry rocked, but needs to lay off the eyeliner.

Veronica Mars
Two solid eps for the swan song, filled with snark, great performances and not a lot of closure. Even this year, where the storytelling and quality was more hit and miss than the first two seasons, Veronica remained one of the best shows on TV and it's a downright pitiful shame that it was cast aside for whoring sea donkeys.

Lost
I can't even convey how excited I am for the finale tonight, the first Lost finale I've approached spoiler free.

24
Finally, it's over. Despite Kiefer's heroic efforts and fantastic performance, this was the worst season of 24 ever. In the next week or so, I'll post a list of problems with this year and potential "fixes."

Heroes
Again, more coming later when I'm not swamped, but the finale was a huge letdown in terms of squandered comic book potential.

NBA Lottery
Only the Hawks could screw the pooch like this. They had to get in the top 3 to keep their pick and not give it to Phoenix. And this is a draft with TWO transcendent, franchise-making talents. So where do they wind up? Third. Par for the fucking course.

CSI Finale
Loved the insight into the Miniature Killer, and the creepy performance from the actress who portrayed her. I can't stand Jorja Fox nor her character Sara Sidle, so I hope she stays trapped and dead beneath a car while she tries once again unsuccessfully (and undeservedly) to renegotiate her contract.

The Office
I just started watching the last few weeks of this season. I can't believe I missed this the first go 'round, but this show is incredible (if a wee bit uncomfortable). Catching up on DVDs now.

New TV Season
I'll have my usual "new show picks" later this summer in a full season preview, but the leaders in the clubhouse now appear to be Reaper, Pushing Daisies and Bionic Woman. For those who read my old myspace blog, my picks for this year were Dexter, Shark, Heroes, Studio 60, Smith and The Nine. Guess I hit .500 in terms of them sticking around. Of those remaining, Heroes is great pulp entertainment with occasionally stellar acting and vision, Shark is scenery-chewing entertainment and a decent way to pass an hour, and Dexter approaches Battlestar Galactica for the title of Best Show on TV.

6.2 and 2.6. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Those are John Ameachi's career stats (points and rebounds). Actually, there is something wrong with that. If you're 6'10", 270, and you only average less than 3 boards a game, I do think that would be a problem.

However, Ameachi's recent notoriety has nothing to do with his lack of rebounding prowess, but more to do with his book "Man in the Middle," in which he comes out as gay. If you were a sports fan, it was hard to miss the news and stories surrounding this revelation, with ESPN "platforming" the story (the book was published by them, of course) and Tim Hardaway giving moronic, small-minded bigots a fresh face ("I hate gay people.")

The sports blog With Leather put up an interesting piece the other day about a night out with John Ameachi. In it, the former NBAer sounds like he has in every other interview I've read since this story broke: highly intelligent, amusingly self-aware and a refreshing change from more recent headline grabbers in sports. My favorite quote:

"He was also confounded by people who pick and choose what leftovers from the Old Testament are and aren't sins: 'It also forbids eating shellfish. If being gay is as bad as going to Red Lobster, I'm not really worried about it.'"

I suppose some of these nutjobs could just go there for the tasty cheese biscuits and retain their integrity, but then they wouldn't be hypocritical nutjobs, now would they?