Veronica Mars: Season 2: Episode 10: One Angry Veronica

The problem with UPN
Sure, Veronica Mars may have a small audience, but UPN isn’t helping. For one thing, some people can’t get that station. Also, I haven’t been able to see the last three episodes, because on Wednesday I watch Lost, and than I can’t catch them when they’re replayed on Sundays. Problem is that I can’t tape Veronica Mars when it’s first on and the last three weeks they had basketball games on Sundays, and on one day they had this idiotic Security Installation screen up. So if I say something that doesn’t make sense- remember, I haven’t seen the last few episodes. It’s a sad thing- I really love Veronica Mars. (It’s a 10 out of 10 show.) Thank god for DVD sets!

Duncan and Meg
I was wondering why Meg was being such a jerk, though being pregnant doesn’t mean she should of been that way to Veronica. It’s not like she knew and purposely stole the father of her child away from her. After this episode I find myself really not liking Duncan now. He does this to his first girlfriend, and than he takes the risk of doing it again with his next! I find that he’s just another irresponsible teenage boy. If I was Veronica I wouldn’t have found it so easy to forgive him. He kept all that big information away from her. I’m also wondering how Meg thought Veronica could keep her child from being sent to that orphanage. (Wait a second! Isn’t it the choice of the mother? Maybe I just don’t know my law very well.) Anyways, Meg’s parents seem like horrible people to do that to their own grandchild. There’s one of the things I love about Veronica Mars- it has great ideas for ongoing storylines.

Jury Problems
While you may think that an episode taking place almost entirely in a jury room wouldn’t be very entertaining, Veronica Mars (as always) does it very well. One question though- if the jury is deadlocked don’t they have to stay in a hotel? Maybe I’ve just watched The Simpsons a bit too much. Also, did Veronica come into the jury when the main part of the trial was over, when it was open for jury debating? This part of the episode was entertaining. (Keith Mars anybody?) Anyways, it was very funny when he showed her the jury duty notice. Also, I found that one man in the jury was incredibly prejudicial. (He is a few words I won’t even type.) Then there were those stupid vandals who wrote those very insulting words on Veronica’s car. The ending of this episode with Wallace coming back at New Years was incredibly wonderful. (Though I have to wonder if this means that Veronica was on jury duty Christmas Day.)

The Lilly Kane Tapes
This is maybe my favorite part of the episode, due to the fact that it focuses around Keith Mars. (Go Keith!) I could kind of guess that it was Leo who stole the tapes… it’s just this 6th sense that I have. I find his justification was pretty lame, (Stealing porn to get money for his sister with down-syndrome) but I thought it was honorable that he didn’t try to fight it off. (Though he still should have received some jail-time instead of just being kicked off the force.) Another part of this episode I loved was how Keith trapped Logan. (“That’s Mr. Mars to you.”) Didn’t Logan hate his father for what he did? Logan, destroying those tapes isn’t going to cause that whole thing to not of happened. Or did he do it for some other purpose? Hmmm. That was also a pretty stupid thing for that one guy (I forget his name) to put those papers on the desk when Logan was there. All I have to say for my closing statement is that UPN had better not cancel Veronica Mars.

Smallville: Season 5: Episode 9: Lexmas

It’s a Freaky Life
Ok… so why did that girl shoot Lex? Was it to leave no witnesses? Anyways, I was kind of annoyed at some of these “Wonderful Life” parts. Lana and Lex!? (Not to mention that they didn’t look any older than they do at the present time.) Clark seemed to be a little absent when Lana needed to be taken to another hospital. He could have flown her there, and even if he did have that power yet (Not even then!) he could have at least super speeded her to the hospital. And if Lex’s ghost mother wanted him to change than why did she show him the bad parts of this future? (The death of his wife!) While Lois sadly remained absent from this episode, it did show some great bits of Clark’s future, such as his being a reporter at the Daily Planet. Chloe and him also seemed to be an item at that time. But what about the major death that’s coming up? Everybody from the cast seemed to be there, except Lois, and you know she’s not going to die. Also, after Lionel went to prison, didn’t Lex get all the money? How did Lionel reclaim the company? (Not to mention how he went from evil, to good, and back to evil again.)

Drunken Santa
The music was annoying! These parts seemed to be fillers and god bless Clark- he saved Christmas. I did find drunken Santa funny. (B@#$, B@$$, B@$$.) And the fact that the “real” Santa is a drunk and was going to throw himself off a building was very funny. Clark saving Santa by running on the side of the wall was a classic moment in the series, but I thought that Santa was easily convinced. Sure, two people may have Christmas spirit, but what about the rest of the world? And I hate the whole “The girl you loved since you were a kid,” bit. Clark- there’s a lot more girls right for you than Lana. From what I originally read the girl that told Clark “He’s not Santa” was going to be named Cindy. I glad she wasn’t because that would of driven me off the edge. There were enough references to other Christmas specials in this episode.

Decisions, Decisions
We all knew from the beginning that Lex was going to choose to continue on to his path of corruption. Though for someone as smart as Lex, he sure doesn’t know his Charles Dickens very well. He says he had a Scrooge-like experience and to secure his happiness he needs money and power. First off, if he had a Scrooge-like experience he would be more into the welfare of others. Second, he would learn that money and power is worthless compared to being loved. I did enjoy the scenes between Lex and his informant. I also believe it was a great ending, leaving me to wonder what information could possibly bring good ol’ Mr. Kent down. And does it have anything to do with Clark? Also, why didn’t Lex ask what it was? Overall, I may sound like I’ve been harsh on this episode, but I really love Smallville. And this was a good episode, though not the best.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

Good Grief!
(“Do they still make wooden trees?”) One of the reasons this special appeals to me so much is that we share something- the belief that Christmas is getting too commercialized. Charlie Brown holds the true spirit of Christmas, such as when he gets that scrawny tree because, as he puts it, “It needs me.” All of those other trees were too commercialized and didn’t hold any spirit at all. (Pink Christmas trees?) Another character in A Charlie Brown Christmas that shows some true Christmas spirit throughout this special is Linus. He is the only one who sticks by Charlie Brown, though he did advise that he should do what the group wanted. One classic television moment is Linus’s annual Christmas speech, answering Charlie Brown’s yearly question as to what is the meaning of Christmas. I did think Lucy had a little Christmas spirit when she allowed Charlie Brown to be the director… but then she blew it by her insulting comments about that tree. More moments in this special showing the commercializing of Christmas is when Sally was going to have her poor brother write down that long Christmas list saying “I only want what’s coming to me,” and when those kids (and even Snoopy!) laughed at Charlie Brown because of his choice of getting that small tree. They may have shaped up some after Linus speech, (“He did pick out a good Christmas tree.”) but they still called him a blockhead. Truly it is not Charlie Brown that is the blockhead, but all those moronic kids that have called him that throughout this special. (And throughout the years.)

The Christmas Play
What the heck were those kids thinking? They put together a Christmas play, about the birth of Jesus, but the whole time they just dance to Schroeder’s piano playing? Charlie Brown had some good ideas as a director, but unfortunately no one else participating has the capacity to listen. Would anybody come to a play where all of the play is just dancing kids, and listen to music that isn’t even Christmas music? Saying that Charlie Brown would be a bad director was just plain stupid. At least he tried to keep order. And what was Lucy thinking when she was talking about being an ice queen in a religious play? (Also I don’t get the jingle bell bit she had with Schroeder.) I have to wonder how they fixed up that tree at the end. It had very little branches to begin with, but when they fixed it up it became a full-fledged (but still small) Christmas tree. Not to mention the fact that they tore down all of Snoopy’s work on his doghouse.

Is it just me…
Isn’t it amazing seeing the whole cast from that time period? Some of those characters disappear and some fade away into background characters. How often do you see Shermy, Patty, or Violet anymore? (And they were some of the originals too!) I find this classic is different from other holiday specials for many reasons. One is that it focuses around the fact that Christmas shouldn’t be commercialized- instead it should be a time where you better yourself. Many holiday specials say that if Santa Claus can’t deliver presents than Christmas would be canceled. That is not true… Christmas is there no matter what. (Also well shown in the How the Grinch Stole Christmas holiday special.) It also isn’t the normal cheery holiday special- it shows Charlie Brown’s depression about the holiday season and his questioning of what we think of first when we think of Christmas. It also shows that Christmas is a religious holiday at heart. Some funny things I see in this special are how their number of fingers keeps changing. Sometimes it’s four. Sometimes it’s five. At one time I even saw six! Then sometimes it looks like Lucy has a uni-brow! Despite those animation problems I find this is a special I cannot miss… year after year.

LOST: Season 2: Episode 9: What Kate Did

Episode Centric: Kate

Kate
Many comments I have read suggested that Kate had no good reason to do what she did. But when I think of the problem I see deep psychological issues. Kate, who has all this anger built up at Wayne throughout the years, finally explodes and kills him. Some think that Kate’s reasoning was not very strong, but what I believe to be the cause was that she thought, at least in her subconscious mind, by killing her father she would be free of the curse of his genes. But we know this is not true and she actually becomes more like him by doing so. I don’t believe the murder was very well planned though. If her “stepfather” dies in an explosion and she suddenly disappears than people might be getting suspicious. And telling her mother when she knew she loved the jerk was a wrong move. Did she not expect her to say anything? And is it just me or did it seem like the man she had thought was her father was a noble person? That woman cheats on him while he’s in Korea and he tries to keep the truth from Kate because his ex-wife loves Wayne. He also tried to take Kate when she was 5 and even gave her a head start before he called to turn her in. As for the horse all I have to say is that “the plot thickens.”

Inside the Hatch
I loved the suspense when Jack and Locke came back into the hatch to find the alarm going off, and finding Sawyer lying on the ground. Later when Sun left, leaving Kate with Sawyer was a bad move on her part, unless she didn’t know what happened. When Eko was telling the story to Locke it seemed to me like he (Locke) thought of it as fairy tale. One thing I have noticed is that these two have very different kind of faiths, such as when Eko told Locke not to confuse consentience as faith. I may be the only person that thinks that they may not get along very well. About the film, that’s what I expected the missing piece about the computer to say all the way from Orientation… except for the fact that it might cause another incident. When that sound started I expected for a second that Michael might have messed up the computer. Then when I saw someone typing a message on the computer I knew it had to be from was Walt. (Or was it?)

Sayid and Shannon’s funeral
This scene had some beautiful music. But it seems to me like the islanders aren’t making too much of a deal of Shannon’s death. When Boone died Jack was ready to kill Locke, even though he didn’t directly kill him. Now Ana Lucia killed Shannon and he goes out to give her a drink. This just goes to show that Sayid is a much more reasonable man than Jack. Sayid showed some great grief during the funeral scene, even though I’ve always wondered how a man like Sayid could love Shannon. I also thought it was polite thing for Eko to do to go to the funeral, even though he didn’t know her. I thought it was inconsiderate of Kate to not go to the funeral; staying with Sawyer should have been the doctors job.

Romance between our Islanders
I knew from the first episode that Kate and Jack would kiss… but not like that. The music made it seem creepy and awkward. I have to wonder why Kate did that. Was it to shut Jack up or for some other reason? As for Kate saying that Sawyer would get a kick out of her treating him like a baby; I very much doubt that. Sawyer seems like a man that would rather take care of himself. And I wonder if Sawyer meant someone other than Kate when he said “I love her.” Another part of this episode that I loved, was how Sawyer thought they had been rescued… then they step out into the jungle. (“Son of a @#$%”) Why did Jack say that all women are crazy, and what is also what is Jacks deal with Ana Lucia? He seemed to really be into Kate and than Ana Lucia comes in. He even brought AL a drink (That could very well be used for medical purposes.) He doesn’t even seem to care that she shot Shannon. (I wouldn’t of cared, but that’s because I’ve always hated Shannon.)