1 Show, 5 Days/Nights, 43+ Hours, 130+ Episodes... My stint as Naruto's Bitch

Ah, Naruto, my tenacious, nine-tailed friend.
I took you on, got beaten down, but ultimately survived. And so goes most of the fights on the show.

Naruto, a popular anime (Japanese animation), started in 2002 and was originally a manga (Japanese comic book). Currently there are 10 seasons of 220 episodes. A continuation or Naruto: Shippūden starts a couple years after the story leaves off when the characters are a bit more mature.

Ninjas are the way of life. And we follow young Naruto and his friends as they become more accomplished ninjas through various, episode-intensive fights.

Do not underestimate the addictability of this show because it is a cartoon. There's a reason for its popularity - amongst children and nerds, yes, but many, many people nonetheless.
Warming: Do not attempt unless willing to sacrifice part of your social life/image.

recommendations: Bleach, One Piece, Dragonball

TiVo for the Poor

Television online was the next natural step in the evolution of entertainment.

Plus, it's super cool for those of us who cannot afford or commit to TiVo.

TiVo is basically a digital VCR, but with a "brain." No more setting up your VCR timer, no more woes of recording the wrong program at the wrong time, and no more chunky video cassettes to store.

But it does mean buying the TiVo box, which comes in set number of Gigabytes, and subscribing to the service. With your TiVo set up, however, you can just let your TiVo know what programs you want and it'll automatically record and store your shows till you are ready to watch. And it'll even keep track of shows that match your interests.

But now that the major networks are making certain shows available to watch in its entirety and with limited commercials (TiVo allows you to fast forward through them) the day after they air, folks like me can cheaply enjoy programming that would otherwise conflict with our schedules.

If you're a television fanatic/freak like me, you can work out a schedule to watch missed shows at your leisure on your computer.
Not all networks and shows do it though, especially some of the more popular or less popular programs. And of course, if a show gets canceled or put on hiatus, the site will eventually remove the videos. Some canceled shows do get a bid farewell with the remainder episodes exclusively online, such as Kidnapped, Smith, and Vanished.

To make things easier, here is a brief list of the major networks and the shows currently available for viewing.

ABC (dynamic.abc.go.com)
Showlist:
Brothers & Sisters
Desperate Housewives
Grey's Anatomy
The Knights of Prosperity
Lost
Ugly Betty
What About Brian

CBS (Innertube)
Showlist:
The Class
CSI
CSI: Miami
CSI: NY
How I Met Your Mother
Jericho
NCIS
Numb3rs
Shark
Survivor
The Unit

Fox (myspace.com/fox)
Showlist:
American Dad
Bones
The Loop
Prison Break
Standoff
Talk Show with Mike Feresten
'Til Death
Vanished

NBC (NBC Rewind)
Showlist:
Friday Night Lights
Heroes
Las Vegas
Passions

Note: The availability of these shows and its episodes is subject to change. For example, NBC has only the episode of the week available, while most other sites offer several past episodes. If you're a fan of a particular program and are not sure, check. And remember, these are streaming videos so you will need a high connection.
Enjoy.

24 Things I Love About 24

The following takes place between 1 thing and 24 things. Events do not occur in real time.

1:00 Jack Bauer. A dangerous man to know.

2:00 President David Palmer.

3:00 Watching it on DVD - How do people stand waiting a whole week for each episode? I can barely wait a couple of days for each DVD.

4:00 Absolute absurd situations that make me say, "Come on!" It's fantastic.

5:00 Character elimination.

6:00 Jack's courage and ability to get things accomplished.

7:00 True allies' faith in and loyalty to Jack.

8:00 How quickly the tables turn - Plot twists that don't take seasons to resolve (ahem, Lost).

9:00 Torture (and not just interrogation) - It's nice to see on TV.

10:00 Kim Bauer's ability to get into trouble.

11:00 The rotating cast, including familiar faces now on Lost, Prison Break, and most recently Heroes and Ugly Betty.

12:00 Traitors and traders - We all want something for something.

13:00 Kim Bauer's boyfriends/love interests get treated like crap.

14:00 Information retrieval time at CTU is inversely related to urgency. The more important the information, the longer it takes.

15:00 Nina Meyers and George Mason are married. (Okay, so Sarah Clarke and Xander Berkeley are married.)

16:00 Wicked women. They can be more badass than the guys.

17:00 Framing boxes - Let's see what everyone's up to.

18:00 Cell phones.

19:00 The jam-packed day - You can get a lot done when you don't eat, sleep, or go to the bathroom.

20:00 Real time. Not really (time added during commercials). Fake real time.

21:00 Nearly every episode ends in a cliffhanger - Apparently, extreme things happen on the hour, every hour.

22:00 The ticking clock - beep Beep beep Beep beep Beep.

23:00 The man behind the man behind the man behind the man - It's a conspiracy theorist's wet dream.

24:00 Kiefer Sutherland.

Farewell Kidnapped

Where do television shows go when they die?

Television heaven? Is there a television set for every person in television heaven? Are these people glued to their TVs gripped with suspense or bawling with laughter?
Do bad shows go to television hell? Is television hell full of people with better things to do, with more intellectual and physical pursuits?

Was Kidnapped the victim of bad advertising, a bad time slot, bad lead-ins?
It could not have been due to bad writing, bad production, or a bad cast. Jeremy Sisto hailed as a man-for-hire, a retriever of kidnappees. One season of this gritty show would have revolved intricately around one case. This prematurely cut season dealt with the abduction of a rich and powerful New York couple(Timothy Hutton and Dana Delany)'s son.

Networks nowadays are quick on the draw. It feels as though every time a viewer doesn't watch, another show gets axed, and leaves the rest of us hanging. Some shows don't even stand a chance and get cancelled after only about 3 episodes. In most cases, this is not enough time to gather an audience. Shows need time to settle and develop its niche.
Nevertheless, low ratings equal television death. NBC's Kidnapped may have found a more sympathetic home on a cable network and would have at least acquired a cult status, but unfortunately, television is largely a hit-or-miss business and shows rarely get a second chance.

On the semi-bright side, the creators thoughtfully anticipated Plan B, a storyline that finishes the show in 13 episodes in case the series didn't get picked up for an entire 22 episode season. Catch these remaining episodes online on NBC or YouTube.
As I hopefully await the DVD set, I imagine the excellent show it could have been and mourn the loss.

R.I.P. Good, Promising Shows
(Cue sad music...)
American Embassy
Arrested Development
Carnivàle
Committed
Dead Like Me
Emily's Reasons Why Not
Eyes
Firefly
Freaks and Geeks
Heist
Huff
John Doe
Kidnapped
Kitchen Confidential
Love Monkey
Smith
Sons and Daughters
Threshold
Undeclared
Wonderfalls

Saturday Night Live 10.28.06

SNLove (My Two Hours of Heaven)

host: Hugh Laurie
musical guest: Beck

I looked into Mr. Laurie's blue blue eyes and they swallowed me whole.

Waking up at 4:30 AM was worth it. Standing outside in the rain was worth it. Having to blow-dry my Uggs because they were soaked was worth it. Having my heart sink in my chest in fear of possibly missing those eyes was all worth it in the end.

Sketches included "Most Haunted," "Advance Man," "Hardball with Chris Matthews," "Weekend Update" with Tim Calhoun and two gay guys from Jersey, a job interview, Frankenstein, and a hospital scene with Hugh Laurie in drag, with special appearances by Lorne Michaels and Borat (with Azamat).

Cut sketches that didn't make it to the live show include a "Lost" parody, "Evil Speed Reader," "Vincent Price's Halloween Special," and an annoying drunk guy.

Beck sang two songs, "Nausea" and "Clap Hands," both with marionette versions of the band playing right alongside in a small replica of the stage. The second song included dinnerware as instruments. Very awesome. And Mr. Laurie also had a musical treat for us with a protest song.

Overall, a great experience to watch the workings of a live show.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (Short)

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is the stuff television dreams are made of.

What The West Wing did for the White House, Studio 60 will do for television shows. This hour-long dramedy takes a faux (or not so faux) look at the backstage ongoings of a Saturday Night Live-esque show and sees the return of Aaron Sorkin, much needed by NBC.

This intelligent show doesn't pander down to audiences. It's all about quality: quality of the actors and quality of the words. As he did with The West Wing, Aaron Sorkin assembles the best in talent and script and lets the audience soak up yummy TV goodness. Okay, okay. So that wasn't smart. But you don't have to be smart to appreciate smartness. That's the beauty of television. So sit back, relax, and smile at being able to appreciate brilliance.

Victor Garber Serves Up Some Justice

Justice

Good news - My favorite secret agent dad from Alias, Victor Garber is back doing what he does best, playing an expressionless professional. This time, as a lawyer on Fox's law drama, Justice.

The new series from Jerry Bruckheimer, which is three episodes in, has a typical episodic, or fomulaic, format, à la CSI or Cold Case. But it does feature a new twist at the end of each episode - a peek into the real circumstances of the crime, meaning the viewers get to see the truth of the guilt or, so far, the innocence of the defendant after the verdict. And besides the stellar partners, Dawson's Creek's Kerr Smith, Rebecca Mader, and especially Oz's Eamonn Walker, the fictional law offices of TNT & G house the latest and greatest in technological gadgetry to simulate and demonstrate for the jury (and the mock test jury) their client's innocence.

One hitch - Garber is sorely underused as an egotistical spin doctor. It's all well and good, but one-dimensional. If Victor Garber was going to be playing a lawyer, I can't help but feel that his talents might have been better utilized on the highly quirky Boston Legal. I would have loved to have seen him run wild with the other looney lawyers, develop a real character, and deliver intelligent David E. Kelly dialogue/monologues. If you don't know Boston Legal, get to know it. Denny Crane.

But I guess as long as Victor Garber's in a suit, I'm happy.

House Season 3

House, M.D.

An all new season of House has kicked off to an early start. The medical drama starring the incredibly talented and Emmy nomination-robbed Hugh Laurie as the misanthropic title character premiered its third season's first episode Meaning this past Tuesday. As we last left the dour doc, he had been shot twice by the husband of a former patient (if House wasn't so good at what he does, this probably would've happened sooner) and had asked for the ketamine treatment to reboot his system - painfree.

And as the season promos promised, we see House doing something we've never seen him do before - running (and riding a skateboard). And as if that wasn't enough, House admits he is happy. What have they done to the unlovably lovable House? Don't fret, folks. If the season premiere is any indication (House was seen grabbing his thigh and stealing a prescription for Vicodin from Wilson), House will be back to his old deprecating self, and perhaps even worse off after experiencing a taste of a cane-free life once again.

For the purists out there, turn away from possible season spoilers. Promised in the new season is a story arc featuring a policeman, David Morse, out to get our favorite pill-popping doc. And a possible episode with an incarcerated House. And for those of you who are against Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) mooning over her much older superior, House will encounter an even younger admirer.

Can't wait to collect more Houseisms on the ever growing list.