TV Musings for the "Second" Season

Yes, with a lack of politics to pay attention to, and a cranky back, I've spent an inordinate amount of time with TiVo and some new and returning shows.

Lost
I missed out on this show's first half because I was strangely fascinated with the train wreck known as America's Next Top Model. ANTM was like eating spun caramel corn - the first few bites were sweet and crunchy, soon it began to stick in my mouth, and ultimately, I felt a little sick. I was spoiled on the winner - or I guessed it, maybe - so I wasn't surprised at all. But damn, it was silly and boring.

So Lost started showing up in a few reruns here and there, and I caught up on all (OK, most) of the synopses on Television Without Pity, and now I'm in on the fun. And it is fun. I could do without the multiple flashback back story, where each main character thinks back to How I Got Here, but doesn't really relate any of their back story to any other character, so basically they're a bunch of ciphers running around trying to get rescued, build a viable society, and protect themselves from strange goings-on. Jeez, given the backstory I get from people just waiting for the train, these are the most close-mouthed 21st centurians I've ever seen. Oh well, keeps that mysterious feeling going - cause all we the viewers do is watch and wait for everyone else to find out stuff we already know. Hee. Kind of like Hitchcock, but about 10% as good but 100% more jungle-y.

24
Oh. My. God. I'm back, Jack. I'm sorry I left you midway into Season 2. I couldn't stand your Spawn, and I lost the storyline (that was pre-TiVo) and I just didn't have the patience to figure it out all over again.

This season, 24 has given up the pretense of "foreign" terrorists (I'm looking at you, Dennis Hopper, Season 1) and committed to offending the Arab Defense League (or whoever they are) with real Islamic Jihadist Terrorists as the bad guys. Well, if the Sopranos can go balls-out and offend Italian Americans, network TV should be able to do the same.

The terrorists include a sleeper cell family, who apparently have been in the U.S. for four years as part of the nefarious plan. The most arresting of the terror family is the strikingly beautiful but evil Dina Araz, played by the beautiful but probably very nice Iranian actor Shohreh Aghdashloo. Her dark eyes are so arresting that you feel she could hypmotize you with a 10-second stare. She has an amazing way of smiling with her face but not her eyes.

Other promising characters include Aisha Taylor as a sneaky independent contractor trying to trade her way into CTU's power base; William Devane as the bad-ass Secretary of Defense, whose kidnapping started off the fun; and Lukas Haas as a hapless computer programmer who stumbled into someone hacking "the Internet." Uh-huh.

Despite the ridiculous plot twists (too many to name, even after only 4 epi-hours), the show is still engrossing and even unsettling. It leaves you with a feeling of "yeah, that could happen," when you see a train blown up by plastic explosives, or the hopeless scrambling go on at the intelligence agency to figure out what's going on. Ouch.

MI-5
This British import, called "Spooks" in the U.K., is showing up in its third season on A&E. Unfortunately, MI-5's season is only 6 episodes. Stingy Brits.

Where "24" goes for over-the-top effects, suspicious "good guy" characters, implausible "whatever" technology that works or doesn't in the service of the plot, and unbelievable heroics from Jack Bauer, MI-5 concentrates more on the Crazy Business We Call Spy - what it does to personal lives, the subtle office, national and international politics, the erosion of trust and faith, and, oh yeah, some really rip-roaring good stories.

Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares
Gordon is my new TV boyfriend. Yeah, Jack Bauer can save the world, but can he clean out a nasty kitchen, re-train chefs, rip a lazy stubborn owner a new one, revise a menu, and prepare delicious meals all in a single week? I think not.

Gordon first caught my eye on the goofy show "Faking It," where a burger chef was made into a real chef, and he was one of the coaches.

He is horribly potty-mouthed and arrogant, but that doesn't mean he's an idiot. On my ever popular and easy-to-learn scale of Nice/Mean and Smart/Stupid, he would fall into the "Mean/Smart" quadrant, although probably he's not all that mean - just tough. But tough isn't in my quadrant. Oh well, I digress.

The point of this show (again, only four episodes? What is up, Stingy Brits?! Make more, please.) is for Gordon to go into a failing restaurant for a week to get it back on its feet. The problems originate with clueless restaurant owners who don't seem to consider decent food at decent prices a priority. One owner has run a fancy restaurant into the ground by trying to cook himself; another has let a 20-year-old kid run a "fine dining" place - meanwhile the "chef" has let food go horribly off, and he has a particularly bad palate and no real knowledge of basic cooking techniques. And so on.

Gordon's dedication to the business of food service makes for compelling viewing - especially when he threatens to shove a microwave up a useless "executive" chef's arse. I just love watching Gordon dropping his f-bombs liberally, along with some "bollocks" and "bloody hells," in his never-ending quest to serve .... the customer! He is devoted to providing the customer with a pleasant dining experience (he offers redecorating tips), and good, simple food for a good value. He is also big on food cost and time savings - he is apopleptic when he sees food going to waste. This devotion often takes the employees and owners by surprise - wow! our food sucks! wow, people around here don't WANT fancy food! Wow! We have competitors who are better than us!