The Perfect Song Blog

Somebody asked me what my favorite TV shows are.  First, Leigh and I only watch five shows a week, so I guess those are my favorites.

The top show on my list is Lost. It’s one of the most creative shows in the history of TV, along with The Twilight Zone, Star Trek and The X Files.  A weak X Files show was still better than anything else on TV.

There are no weak Lost episodes.  By zooming in on one character a weak and showing scenes of their history, leading to their defining moment, and how they made it to the ill-fated plane, we get a whole new dimension that adds to the current drama of their lives on the island.

I could go on with the computer that, if left unchecked, could destroy the world, the obligatory romance, the betrayals, etc, but that would be gratuitous ego dabbling.

I will mention one young person who has a website devoted to Lost and all the clues that he finds in each show. This kid spends hours doing detective work that would shame Sherlock.  I’m always amazed at how some people spend their time.  But then again, I know some people wonder why I spend my time the way I do.

Next on my list is Numbers.  It mixes geeky intelligence with action, all revolving around a dad and two sons, family history, family values and bickering. I could watch each episode two or three times trying to understand the math calculations and what they mean in the physical world.

I watch the show with probably some silly subconscious hope that the math theories will teach me something, though I’m a mathematic-impaired moron. I never understood math.  I was not helped in college when I took a calculus course from a Chinese prof who barely spoke English.  I am not stereotyping when I say that he actually called it “carcurus”.

We watch CSI because my wife loves it.  We actually started watching it when I was doing research for a marketing campaign on our forensics major.  We got hooked and watch CSI Miami and CSI Crime Scene Investigation.

The original show, Las Vegas, is my top pick, mainly because of the Grissom character.  He’s also a pure, aging geek who loves language, literature and bugs.  I was glad to see that he and the young lady detective Sara who’s been after him for years, finally jumped in the sack, though I cannot imagine Grissom having sex.  I can’t see him taking it seriously.  I can’t see him passionate.

Horatio’s character is what keeps my interest on CSI Miami.  David Caruso has perfected the lone wolf crime fighter whose seriousness is humanized by a permanently sad-eyed expression.  Lean, hunched and man of few words, he fights crime and the establishment (often one-and-the-same) with stereotype one-liners that he always seems to pull off.  The greatest moment was the final episode this year, when, on a revenge spree (yes!  He fell in love with a woman dying of cancer and the bad guys shot her in the back on their wedding day!  What kind of luck is that?  And how bad is that?  Kill them any way you can, Horatio).

Horatio wounds a bad guy.  As he starts off for another bad guy, the wounded one weakly reaches for his gun.  Horatio, without breaking stride or looking down, simply shoots the guy as he passes by him.  Straight out of a Clint Eastwood western.

There’s probably other good TV.  My computer Jedi Jared talks a lot about 24 which I’ve been meaning to watch because I’ve heard so many good things about it.

Coming soon:  Pumping Gas and Explosive Death by Cell Phone.  I kid you not, it could happen!