Crossing the Country

Well, this is the space where I will be creating a chronicle of my trek (mostly notes, maybe some links to pics on my photo site and if I can get the vids off my camera to YouTube) from Tampa to Spokane with a little bit of a layover in Texas to visit some old friends as well as a few new ones, doing a little something on the side for TheCup.us while I am at it with current semifinalist FC Dallas in action Wednesday for the CONCACAF Champions League.

I'm all packed up with most of the lighter stuff in the Mustang. Books, some clothes and a good portion of my ridiculously large dvd library are probably already ahead of me on their trip to the great northwest... depending on USPS, etc.

Right now, I am sitting on a nice cushy couch at the Clamps - thanks Steve & Natalie for putting me up for the night - sort of watching one of their favorite shows... True Blood. Thank goodness, one of the few shows, that while I don't watch I don't mind seeing in. A far contrast from the usual crap reality singing, talent, and other lame-drama filled stuff they usually have on.

Tomorrow I will hit the road, trekking my way north around the bend of the Gulf of Mexico en route to Tallahassee. I originally was gonna head out today to give myself a nice three days to get to Frisco and hook up with Jason / Alysha, but I will probably have to go well past the border, through the feet of Alabama and Mississippi before calling it a nice somewhere in Louisiana.

Falling Skies is partly cloudy

In general, the two-hour series opener for Falling Skies on TNT felt, well, like a mix between the movie Terminator Salvation and the CBS show Jericho, especially with Moon Bloodgood as one of the few stars in a cast that also includes Noah Wyle, Will Patton and 'Mr. Military' Dale Dye.

The show basically begins some months after an alien invasion has wiped out, apparently, 90 percent of the human population and focuses on a portion of the rebellion forces. The military combat nature of the series with the rebels in small groups trying to avoid the aliens and use gorilla tactics feels and looks very much like TS. The fact they are grouped up with hiding civilians that are scrounging for resources and have no real leadership is very much reminiscent of Jericho.

Body of Proof in good hands

The new ABC medical/detective drama Body of Proof is a well put together family version of all the CSI forensic investigative shows on television, melding together the work life of Megan Hunt Medical Examiner (Dana Delany) with her complicated family life.

The personality of the Hunt character itself though is very much Gregory House like in that she far more knowledgeable than her colleagues and arrogant, often very abrasive with those around her, particularly the detectives she works with. She is partnered with a former cop turned medical investigator in a relationship that is reminiscent of Brennan and Booth on Bones. The Peter Dunlop (Nicholas Bishop) will undoubtedly be caught in an insinuated love triangle with Hunt and her supervisor Kate Murphey (Jeri Ryan) as the show develops.

Superhero, The Cape, Felled by NBC

According to this report, the NBC lineup started seeing changes physically last week when it chose not to air two hours of The Cape, which it has decided to cancel, which based off my initial thoughts of the show was not a surprise.

I am a bit conflicted though as I was starting to take a bit of interest in the series, albeit solely for the quality of the villains, who were creatively designed and nicely executed on screen. The biggest mistake this show and network made right from the beginning was in the overly generic name of the character/series, The Cape. I know he had a fancy cape, but Batman had a fancy belt full of gadgets too and he was not named after that.

Granted, there are still a few episodes I have not yet caught up on via Hulu, but I am planning to watch them and absolutely applaud NBC for allowing the show, which they cut the episode order down of initially before outright cancelling, to have a series finale.

NCIS - Truth or Consequences

I have never been a fan of mid-series flashback and/or series update episodes where they catch you up on who all of the characters are and why they are the way they are. Usually, they come in the season premier as a tool forced upon the producers by the networks as they try to re-claim viewers that have faded off or acquire new fans. The problem with it is that they never really work and come across very awkwardly, particularly to loyal viewers, who experience them as an annoyance.

One of the few exceptions to this, however, is the NCIS episode Truth or Consequences - the opening show of season seven (rebroadcast aired early this evening on USA). There is a little awkwardness as they attempt to showcase who all of the characters are, but the fact that it is coming from an interrogation makes it more natural as part of the story.