FOX, give him money and The Simpsons

Not that I care anymore.

You see, TechTV was my kind of channel. It was about video games, computers, technology… video games…. and video games. Sure, the shows were mostly low budget, but at least I identified with them.

Now thanks to Comcast, there are only two original shows left (Attack of the Show and X-Play), neither of which I want to watch. The channel now consists of syndicated shows like Cheaters and COPS (Arrested Development was awesome, but I can watch that on Hulu).

It didn’t help that I could now watch game and gadget reviews everywhere online (including G4′s own site).

That’s too bad, to see a channel try to become everything and end up being nothing. Makes me want to move to Canada, where it seems the programming of G4 Canada doesn’t suck.

I am more excited about this series because it features one of the greatest Marines ever existed, Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone from my neighboring town of Raritan, NJ.

How great is Basilone? If you just earned a Medal of Honor for fighting in Guadalcanal and survived, no one will fault you if you decide to retire. Basilone felt differently and volunteered for Iwo Jima, where he was killed.

The only greater honor would be to name the Browning .30 Cal Heavy Machine gun after Basilone.

With a $200 million budget, it is sure to be epic.

Spoilers ahead

Contrary to popular belief, libertarian and conservative criticism of American health system is not limited to public health. As Royal Pains show, private care is flawed as well, with the tendency to make economic/political decisions instead of medical ones in serving patients. Not to mention the medical bureaucracy that shutout innovative doctors like Hank Lawson of a medical career.

As Hank’s PA mentions, concierge physicians are how medicine was practiced before there was a healthcare system.

So wouldn’t Hank serving as a physician to the rich and elite only serve to benefit them exclusively? Not necessarily. As libertarian principals state, if individuals are allowed to pursue their own self-interest, society benefits.

The key here is Hank’s self-interest. It’s definitely not a mercenary one, though having to payoff massive debt and the nice beaches are motivators. He is, of course, staying in the Hamptons for mostly altruistic reasons (I say mostly because I’ve accepted the fact that having a romantic interest is a prerequisite for television shows).

As a private practitioner, Hank can be Dr. MacGuyver . I’m not someone to make predictions on a show, but I can see him make enough bank from his rich clients to treat poorer patients pro-bono. Plus, then there’s his new lady-friend’s free clinic project. Maybe he will chip in medically and financially. Everyone wins, probably except the hospital that canned Hank. Thankfully, the show won’t be pushing universal healthcare as the solution.

I look forward to checking out the rest of the season. Beyond the glitz there is potential to deliver a Libertarian message on American healthcare. Then there is also nothing wrong with looking at hot babes and hotter cars.

The plot is predictable, but who cares? It’s all presented in such a exciting way. Even as flashbacks of being picked on in middle and high school and thoughts of regret popped up, I found the humor and performances to be infectious. I’ll be sure to catch the rest of the season in September.

Now I have their rendition of “Don’t stop believing” stuck in my head. Now that’s evil

Kings is also done. It got moved to Saturday. How good is that show? It’s not David vs. Goliath. It’s David vs. Goliath written by Shakespeare. It’s that good. How the hell is Medium still up but not Kings?

Sarah Conner Chronicles is done, even though it’s at its most interesting point, when young John Connor ends up in the future. I guess I have to settle for man to cyborg 2nd base.

Dollhouse is getting canned soon. How much more hotness does this show need to stay alive?

What’s still around? Heroes, The Office, all the Law & Order’s. What do you know, all on NBC. Southland starting to look pretty good. Hey, also on NBC.

What’s still for some god-forsaken reason? Family Guy (now that it turned into the left-wing version of South Park), American Idol, Dancing with the Stars.

Now that BSG is over, I’m gonna hate television.

Update: Okay, the season finale of Chuck managed to out do the previous episode. I couldn’t believe it either. I’m gonna be extra vengeful if they cancel Chuck.

Now I’m getting depressed just talking about it. I’m talking to myself again right?

With that in mind, I decided not to post any analysis of BSG… at least until I acquire the entire box set.

For you hipsters who still watch SNL for the jokes, this is The Rock

Which part of WWE Raw to the SNL writers would indicate that “The Rock Obama” would speak and act like Tarzan? Even as a critic of Barack Obama, I wanted to watch “The Rock Obama” give those Republican Senators a smackdown (though with McCain that might make an awesome cage match). But no, SNL writers would rather take an idea and put it under the Fairness Doctrine, and make it two minutes too long.

I would have made “The Rock Obama” give Tom Coburn the people’s elbow and do anything to Kay Bailey Hutchinson’s candy ass. Wrestling may be fake, but SNL sucks.

Alas, like any government institution SNL will be here forever. Occasionally, they do something funny like talking about how they’re on a boat. Most of the time, is a time-wasting, over-budget shipwreck with an inflated sense of self-importance. The real Barack Obama could probably appoint a Comedy Czar for them.

*What? What? Yeah spoilers!!!*

The first argument made by this citizen is that we cannot trust the Cylons. Yes, they wiped out everyone I knew and loved. But I learned that Cylons are pretty quick learners. The first thing they learned is that humans are like cockroaches, we can’t be wiped out, even with nukes.

The second thing they learned is we’re still #1 species in the universe and the Cylons know it. All my boys Helo and Baltar showed was a little love (Starbuck showed love to Leoben too in form of multiple executions. I guess some Cylons love getting dumped on. Am I right ladies?), and half of them don’t want to kill us anymore.

And as soon as we destroyed their resurrection ship, they learned a third thing. Like my boy Baltar, they love to live.

So maybe we don’t have this “trust” thing right now. But as long as they know they can’t kill us completely, need our lovin’, and that we can wipe each other out anytime (or in your fourth wall term, mutually assured destruction), trust isn’t even the biggest issue.

But what about us humans, we’re a bunch of back-stabbing xenophobic hicks right? From what I see, it seems humans seems to hate each other more than all humans hating Cylons (oh look, another thing we have in common, irreconcilable differences). Tell me, how many cylons died during the coup? Whom did the coup leaders try to execute first? Was this person a known Cylon? Even alleged Cylon haters like Zarek and Gaeta needed the Cylons alive for a reason. Something about “mutually assured destruction”, I might have mentioned that in passing.

And if there’s one thing we humans love, it’s leadership. The Adama’s and Roslin just oozes it. During the coup, a few words from them and anyone listening switched sides. So perhaps the Cylons cannot trust some of my peers, but they can sure trust our leaders.

Oh, and did I mention I love #8? You can trust this Geminon.

But what now? Now that we learn that Earth is a nuclear wasteland, what so great about this alliance? Forget about military or intelligence value. All this animosity between humans and Cylons have brought nothing but bloodshed. I think it’s time we go a different path. I like to believe that the more dependent we are on each other, the less likely we will back-stab each other. Oh yeah, then there is thing about what you fourth wallers call “establish a common defense”. There is still those Cylons led by that priest of destruction, Cavil, trying to wipe both of us out. If they ever find us, we might have a better chance of fending them off if we fight as one.

Finally, there is the issue of Cylons wiping most of us out only four years ago. You know why I am so forgiving? Because we humans, if given a chance to wipe out the Cylon race, would have gladly taken it. The only difference between humans and Cylons is that they succeeded. Remember LCMV? So given an opportunity to not repeat the cycle of annihilation, I think we should take it. As a member of a democratic society, we should welcome the Cylons into our fold, because they are now truly the same as us.

Also we really need to repopulate. Dibs on an eight.

Signed,

Single civilian mechanic

Yay Spoilers!

The last time we saw him, he was caught taking out members of Baltar’s legal council. So his hatred for Cylon was well established. So during the coup, Kelly was sprung from the brig by Zarek, who knows a little something about domestic terrorism. So for Kelly, the motive is revenge against Cylons and their “collaborators”. And as a former high-ranking officer, Kelly was given a lot of responsibilities, including capturing Adama and Tigh and escorting Zarek.

Despite spending time in the brig, Kelly remains a loyal son of the colonies, committing the bombings of Baltar’s legal council on the conviction that Balter is a traitor. So when he witnesses the massacre of the Quorum under the order of Zarek, he begins to waver.

Then he completely turns when he catches Tyrol crawling around Galactica like a sewer rat. Tyrol delivers what I thought was the best line of the episode.

That’s right, I’m a machine. But what does that make you? Dumbass?

So here is Kelly staring at the “enemy”, someone who is too tired to avoid getting shot. Someone who didn’t even know his wife screwed around. In contrast, he is pledging loyalty to Zarek, someone who just destroyed most of the civilian government. This is not the first time a character had to go through this perception warping trial. Way back in season one, Helo went through the same thing with Athena, discovering that she is as vulnerable and capable of love as any human. The Kelly makes his first key decision, he lets Tyrol go. Tyrol, of course, would go on to shutdown Galactica’s FTL, preventing its escape.

When it was time to assemble Adama’s execution detail, Kelly became part of the escort. He later peels away from that group and went off to his potter’s field and became engulfed with guilt. Fortunately for this Judas, redemption came in the form of Apollo and his group of rescuers. Kelly gives Apollo the admiral’s location and comes with him.

So is this end of Aaron Kelly’s role in the story? Depends on next week’s episode whether how Adama deals with the rest of the mutineers. I highly doubt Kelly will end up the same fate as Gaeta and Zarek, but key characters like Kat do get killed off. I guess the best answer is to stay tuned.