American Idol
A pretty lackluster week on American Idol with the fairly boring Stevie Wonder theme. Why is it that someone as great as Stevie Wonder just can't be duplicated when people try to sing his stuff? Sub-question: Is it better to flame out or to fade away?
The only thing redeeming about this episode was Kevin Covais singing "Part Time Lover." I WAS this kid when I was 16. From his good-natured joking about being a sex symbol, to hamming it up on the out of character song to his absolute throttling of Simon made me laugh out loud and entertained me more than anything else has on this show. That combined with the fact that Melissa forgot her lyrics and Bucky is still just awful is the only thing saving his ass for another week.
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The Shield
Sweet Lord! I'm not sure that I can recall a show that makes my adrenaline rush more than this show. This season has been absolutely phenomenal. I know that the "Vic Mackey as anti-hero" meme has been played out when discussing this show, but it has never been more apparent than when contrasted against the foil of Forrest Whittaker's fantastic Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh is the good guy, but the show has been so adept at making us love Mackey, even though he is a reprehensible human being that hating Kavanaugh, who's squeaky clean, "I'd send my wife to prison if she broke the law" stature is just too easy. Even as Mackey is having to face the consequences of the life he's led -- the kind of cop that on any other cop show would be chastised for being the kind of police that gives everyone else a bad name -- we still want him to get away with it. There's just not enough superlatives to praise this show.
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The Sopranos
Is Tony dead or isn't he? I was surprised at just how good this season premiere episode was. It was tight and beautiful storytelling.
I'm sure this isn't the first time that this theory has been floated, but I came up with it on my own, so I'm writing it here for posterity's sake: Tony is dead. This episode was actually the episode that, if shown in chronological order, would have appeared at the "end" of the first half of this season (which HBO is breaking up into two segments, waiting 6 months or so before showing the last half, so that it really resembles two seasons but still allowing them to call it one). The rest of the first half of this season will go back to the beginning and fill in the blanks. In Sunday's episode, it's been 15 months since Johnny Sack got nabbed by the Feds. Next week's episode will be what would have been the season premiere, and they'll go in chronological order up to the episode we just saw, which would have been the season "finale." The last half of the season, next year, will the power struggle and all out war, with Johnny Sack in federal prison and Tony dead, between the Christopher led Jersey family and the Philly Lotardo led New York family.
Evidence to support my claim that Tony is dead: Tony is dead because the whole episode was about death. From the poem in the opening montage about the 7 souls peeling away when we die, to the constant references to Tony's demise, ("God forbid he has a coronary"), or the suicide of the never before seen top earner in the family, the theme of the episode was death. Tony is dead as a doornail.
Evidence to support my "last episode is first" theory: Every season premiere of this show has begun with Tony walking down the driveway to get the paper. This episode began with two Agents in a car saying (and I'm paraphrasing), "The American public is stupid. Package it the right way, and they'll buy anything."
UPDATE: Here is the text to the poem at the opening of the episode, which was from a William S. Burrough's piece.
The ancient Egyptians postulated seven souls, Top soul, and the first
to leave at the moment of death, is Ren, the Secret Name. This
corresponds to my Director, He directs the film of your life from
conception to death. The Secret Name is the title of your film. When
you die, that's where Ren came in.
Second soul, and second one
off the sinking ship, is Sekem: Energy, Power, Light The Director gives
the orders, Sekem presses the right buttons.
Number three is
Khu, the Guardian Angel. He, she, or it is third man out . . . depicted
as flying away across a full moon, a bird with luminous wings and head
of light. Sort of thing you might see on a screen in an Indian
restaurant in Panama. The Khu is responsible for the subject and can be
injured in his defense- but not permanently, since the first three
souls are eternal. They go beck to Heaven for another vessel.
The
four remaining souls must take their chances with the subject in the
Land of the Dead. Number four is Ba, the heart, often treacherous. This
is a hawk's body with your face on it, shrunk down to the size of a
fist. Many a hero has been brought down, like Samson, by a perfidious
Ba.
Number five is Ka, the Double, most closely associated with
the subject. The Ka, which usually reaches adolescence at the time of
bodily death, is the only reliable guide through the Land of the Dead
to the western Lands.
Number six is Khaibit, the Shadow, Memory, your whole past conditioning from this and other lives.
Number seven is Sekhu, the Remains.
Man, I'm just don't see it as Kevin Covais good-naturedly joking. I see it as a 16 year old thinking that it's totally possible that he's finally going to get laid, and it won't even have to be with his acne-riddled cousin. The kid creeps me out, and I can't wait for him to go.
Posted by: aldahlia | March 17, 2006 at 12:58 AM
Even thought Melissa forgot her lyrics, she certainly did better than Bucky. I just can't understand how the love child of Toby Keith and Ronnie van Zant managed to squeak into Hollywood, let alone the top 12.
Posted by: Johnomatopoeia | March 17, 2006 at 12:36 PM
Kevin Covais as the "only redeeming part?" Are you kidding me??
He sucks, doesn't deserve to be there, and sounds worse than Bucky.
Posted by: | March 18, 2006 at 10:33 AM