The Simpsons: "Ice Cream of Margie (With the Light Blue Hair)" Review

This week's episode of the Simpsons went back to the well. It had Marge and Homer doing separate things, only for them to collide at the end, which causes marital problems. Though the plot was subpar, the gags lifted the show.

Homer gets an ice cream truck, which in turns leads to a lot of popsicle sticks, which Marge turns into art. Like I said, the plot was thin. But scenes like Homer getting dressed in his ice cream uniform ala Ali G and Moe loving his stick replica a bit too much went a long way to save the episode.

I do wish though that the writers would get away from the Homer and Marge conflicts. In this episode, Homer accidentally wrecks Marge's art show when he rushes to make it on time. Marge gets upset, but for once, I felt she was unduly angry. She was the one who wanted Homer to be on time for support, and he tried hard to do that. It was unfortunate that everything got wrecked, but c'mon, it wasn't entirely Homer's fault.

Bart and Lisa were hardly seen or heard from this episode, with only a few unimportant lines. Not the best use of the cast.

2 1/2 Melting Cones out of 5.

::Puts on my Sunglasses:: This...link...is...funny.

Alright, so I am blatantly ripping this off from EW's PopWatch, so sue me. But as a former fan of CSI: Miami this link made me guffaw:

See David Caruso Overact!

And yes, there was no editing done other than connecting the clips. I have seen some of the openings when they aired for the first time.

Enjoy.

Book Review: "World War Z"

One of the positives about flying home to visit the family for Thanksgiving is the loads of reading time one can accomplished on a plane. To that end, I picked up, read, and finished World War Z by Max Brooks. Max is the son of movie director Mel Brooks, and you can see that they share a humor bone. Though this book is not zany by any means, it does have some humorous moments and serves a dark comedy from time to time.

It presents the outbreak and resulting war against zombies. However, unlike a conventional story, it is told as an oral history, from many different view points. And not just American ones either, from China's role in the outbreak, to how Israel coped with the impeding war, all of which rang true. You could almost hear the desperation and the sorrow in the people's recollections, and it wasn't like these people were even real! The full story is never told, as with most oral histories the focus is on personal history. What little global history is revealed, it is uncovered in bits and pieces, with one event mentioned in passing, only to be talked about later in the book.

This might sound like a backhanded compliment, but I mean it in the highest regard: halfway through the novel, I was picturing it as a movie. In my imagination, I pictured myself visually seeing some of the events that "happened" during the war. I got giddy. I could see the book work more as a miniseries or a TV drama, with an ensemble cast that rotates season to season as the outbreak manifests itself and war begins.

I fell so much in love with the book, I actually picked up Max Brooks' first novel, also zombie themed, The Zombie Survival Guide. I would recommend anyone with a zombie, apocalypse, or alternate history fetish to pick up World War Z.

4 1/2 Infected Zombies out of 5.

New Movie Review: "Casino Royale"

I could start off this review with any number of catchphrases that are associated with James Bond. Talking about martinis, or how he introduces himself would be a bit cliched though. And Casino Royale isn't really about those things. No, it is more of a "reset" movie, much like how Batman Begins reseted that franchise. Bond only introduces himself in that unique way at the end of the movie, and only orders a martini halfway through, and with disdain. There is no Q or Moneypenny to play off of either.

So if the movie isn't about the flamboyancy of the previous films, what is it about? It is about getting back to basics. Here, Bond is a newly promoted Double-O agent. He doesn't have a lot of fancy gadgets, and he has unearned swagger. He isn't perfect and often gets caught in situations that leave him bloody and bruised. That is virtually a new thing in the Bond movie, as previous movies had very rarely blemished Bond. James gets tortured not by lasers, but by a weight at the end of a rope. He gets punched out and beat up. In other words, he becomes "real".

Of course, there are some negatives to the movie. It runs a bit long, and the plot seems to shift mid-movie. Some fringe characters are never fully explored. But overall, the movie is satisfying. Some might complain that Daniel Craig, who plays Bond, isn't "pretty" enough. I felt he played the role well for the new direction Bond is hopefully taking.

A minor point to make her is that in college, I wrote an indepth paper on Ian Fleming, the creator of Bond. Casino Royale was his first novel that used Bond. While the movie used the central plot from that book, with the use of Le Chiffre and a poker game, the movie expands Bond and gives him an origin story. It is also that last book to have an official Bond movie made from it. Previously, a comedy using the Bond name was made of Casino Royale.

So where does the fanchise go from here? I hope they continue the realistic slant this movie had. Recently, the Bond movies had gotten more and more ridiculous, with Bond getting into and out of fantastical situations. And every movie had a world-ending situation arise. Casino Royale forgoed the world-is-ending mantra and went with a global, but not globe destorying, threat. Sometimes, restraint is a good thing.

3 1/2 English Accents out of 5.

New Movie Review: "Stranger Than Fiction"

Following in the footsteps of Jim Carrey, Will Ferrell takes a meta approach to his first major dramatic role. Like Carrey in The Truman Show, Ferrell stars as a man trapped in a story. Unlike TTS, Ferrell's character exists in the real world, and is actually hearing a narrator narrate his life. The narrator, played by Emma Thompson, is writing a novel that stars a unknowing Harold Crick (Ferrell). If Thompson writes it, Crick has either experienced it or will experience it.

If this sounds like a script written by twisty, metafilled Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation, Being John Malkovich) you would be wrong. It is written by Zack Helm, but it does come off as Kaufman-lite. In the opening few minutes, graphics are shown to illustrate what is being narrated around what Ferrell is doing. When Ferrell hears that the narrator is planning his death, he seeks out ways to stop it. Among the people he meets are Maggie Gyllenhaal, who plays his adversary then love interest, and Dustin Hoffman, who plays a literay scholar trying to help Crick find out what type of story he is in.

Crick's life is paralleled with Emma Thompson's character, Kay Eiffel. Kay is suffering from writer's block and is trying to find a way to end Harold's life and her book. Her vivid imagination pictures all the ways one can pass on, but she isn't inspired until halfway through the movie. She writes up the ending, and possibly seals the real Harold's fate.

Harold does eventually confront Eiffel, which leads to the climax of the film that is heartbreaking but well done. What is more important? A great work in death or a mundane piece with life?

There are nice little in-jokes for those who pay attention. Most of the main characters share last names with famous scientists. Crick helped discover DNA, Pascal (the last name of Maggie's character) has the unit pressure named in his honor, and Escher (the name of Queen Latifah's character who helps Eiffel) is a famous mathmetician. I am sure other people caught other jokes, but those stoof out to me.

This was an enjoyable movie. I wasn't as blown away with Ferrell's perfomance as I was with Carrey's in TTS, but I was impressed. Ferrell was restrained and exuded the dullness of Crick. The supporting cast played their roles well. The direction was excuted with precision and symbolism and the writing, as I said, was Kaufman-lite, which meant it wasn't too heavy, but it wasn't awesomely trippy either.

3 Wristwatches out of 5.

Enough with TomKat

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes got married in Italy on Saturday, and hopefully this closes the saga that is TomKat, at least for a little while.

When Tom and Katie first started dating, it was last summer, the time when Tom's War of the Worlds and Katie's Batman Begins were being released. The media called foul and said the pairing was a publicity stunt. Tom's jumping on Oprah's couch didn't help things. Tom's sanity seemed to be quickly unraveling, while Katie seemed to be slowly disappearing from the spotlight.

The media and the paparazzi latched onto this story and all sorts of crazy rumors started. Tom was brainwashing Katie with Scientology. Tom was really gay and using Kate as a "beard". When Katie, through Tom, announced she was pregnant, everyone thought she was artificially inseminated. When Suri was born and no one saw her for weeks, the baby was thought to be deformed or obviously not Tom's. When photos were released, people said that the baby looked more like Chris Klein, Katie's ex-boyfriend, then Tom.

Of course, TomKat didn't do much to fight these allegations. They became recluses, with Tom acting as the occasional mouthpiece. Katie clammed up. Meanwhile, Tom became box office poison, with the relative failure of WOTW and MI:3. Tom had a highly publicized split from Paramount Studios, and now has reopened United Artists, with him as a head. Every little minutae of their lives were being studied. The more they tried to stay away, the more and more each new story that involved them became important.

With the couple finally married, maybe we can move on from them. While this ordeal made it clear that Tom isn't exactly "normal", who in Hollywood actually is? The mistake Tom made was that he chose to run away from his actions for a bit, allowing them to mutate into something horrible. If, after the couch jumping scene, he had gone on SNL or Leno or Letterman, and joked about it (but not actually repeat it), problem would have been solved. We wouldn't be seeing the gags we still see today. If Katie had been a little more public about the relationship past her promotional campaign for BB, we wouldn't have these wild theories to contend with.

The marriage provides a natural bookend, chapter break, whatever for an excusable withdrawl from the scene. But it needs to be a total withdrawl. Make with the wedded bliss and go into a real seclusion, meaning no projects, no high profile business dealings, no nothing. Let the public forget TomKat for a few months. Then, when they show up again (presumably Tom will, Katie said she wants to be a mom, which is commendable, but again leads to the brainwashing theory), the whole hurricane of the past few years will be gone.

We shall see what happens in the future. I wish them the best.

Odds and Ends

It seems like forever since I last posted, but sometimes the real world impinges upon the blogger world. I just got another issue of EW, so we will have a rare 3 for 1 review coming up. Also, as I mentioned before, I will start to review Heroes soon. Expect another Dreamweaver sometime around Thanksgiving. But for now, I will briefly talk about some topics.

Britney and K-Fed No More: If you remember, I talked about how Britney's career seemed to be on the downswing. While with Kevin Federline, Britney seemed to be the epitome of white trash. But surprise, as soon as she birthed her second child, she seemed to wise up. She immediately hit the gym (which a lot of new Hollywood moms seem to do) and got into shape. She changed her hair and showed up on Letterman, full of life. There seemed to be change in the air.

And that air did change. Britney filed for divorce from K-Fed, with rumors saying she sprung this little tidbit on him through a text message. It seems he is going to have a tough time getting anything from her, as he signed a strong pre-nup. He has decided to fight for his kids, which is noble, but supposively he is going to get dirty to do it. His musical career looks like a nonstarter, and even before the break up, he was appearing on wrestling programs trying to hype himself up.

So where does this leave Britney? Well, she is poised to make a comeback. She is better off image wise than two months ago. She still has a lot of work to do. She turns 25 in December, but she has two kids and an ex-husband. That's not going to play well to the young fans she once had. That fact hasn't changed. However, if she grows up musically, then she can achieve success again. Hopefully she is back to her pre-K-Fed attitude, the one that made fun of herself on SNL and was the right mix of goofy and serious.

Spider-Man 3 Trailer: The third installment of Spider-Man will hit the screens in May, and just last week, the first full trailer was released. There was a previous trailer, a teaser, that made me excited. The new trailer made me giddy. The Spider-Man saga is the finest comic adaptation and Sam Raimi can do no harm. The third movie will focus on Spider-Man's personal troubles, like they all do, but this one has the inclusion of the infamous "black suit". The black suit is an alienlife form that "bonds" with Pete in the comics. This causes all sorts of problems and eventually the suit leaves Peter and helps form a new, vicious villain called Venom.

Whether or not Venom appears for any significant length in 3 is unknown. The movie are heading towards modern continuity interms of what stories it is starting to use. While this does not bother me, it may leave older fans scratching their head at a black suited Spider-Man. Hopefully, SM-3 will be a major blockbuster like the previous two were.

November Sweeps: That maginificent time of television is upon us again, as sweeps month has reared it's head. For those who don't know, there are two months out of the year that advertisers look at ratings and other factors to determine which shows they want to buy time on. November is one month and May is the other. That is why the big events usually take place in those months.

So far we have seen the two offices merge on The Office, the return of a serial killer on CSI, and coming up, we will "Save the Cheerleader" on Heroes. I have not yet been disappointed. Sweeps are much more kinder to nonreality shows, because as much as a producer can manipulate the reality show editing, they cannot truly "script" big events to coincide with sweeps. That is why reality shows have to be always bigger and grander then regular shows, to show advertisers that they are big winners throughout the year.

But regular TV captivates me. The sweeps period is when they pull out the big guns. We, the viewer, are greatly rewarded by the commercials that run between the show, for once.

The Simpsons: "GI D'oh!" Review

The second episode back from the baseball playoff break of The Simpsons finds the long running series in fine form.

Although the plot borrowed somewaht from Family Guy's plot from last week, with a parental figure signing up for the Army after their younger child does so, the two shows take a different approach. While in FG, Brian and Stewie go off to war, here, Homer is deemed too stupid and is stuck running war games in Springfield. Of course, Homer finds a way to screw this up and has his commanding officer invade Springfield to find him.

The gags in this episode are nonstop. From a helicpoter chasing Homer ala an old fashioned cartoon chase to Lisa dousing Krusty in red paint to protest him wearing fur and then properly asking about a Krusty movie, there were laughs to be had. And unlike last week's Halloween episode, were the Iraq War was heavily commented upon, this episode had more of a sly take on the conflict (especially when the Commander says never to admit our mistakes and that's why America has won nearly half the wars it has been involved in). I also liked Marge pointing out all the crazy stuff Homer has done before, including joining the Navy.

Keifer Sutherland voiced the Commander, and it was almost hard to realize it was him. This is a good thing, as sometimes celebrity voices are too intrusive. He handled it well and since it was not a quick cameo, added something to the episode. It's just too bad that he isn't going to be a part of the upcoming Simpsons episode that will parody "24".

The other major happening during this episode, was that a second Simpsons trailer premiered. You may remember there was a teaser trailer put out in the middle of summer. Well, the new trailer actually had a scene from the movie, and let's just say it looks like Homer will be put in between a rock and a hard place. Literally. I urge you all to go out and find this trailer on the Internet if you did not see it yet. You won't be disappointed.

This episode was a vast improvement over the Treehouse of Horror episode last week.

4 female helicopters out of 5.

The Ratings are Lost!

With the mini-season of Lost wrapped up, we can now look back at the biggest story about Lost. No, not that Eko is dead or that Jack is attacking very erratically, but that for the first time in two and half seasons, Lost lost the ratings race with Criminal Minds, the procedural that runs against it on CBS. It was not more than a year ago that Lost was a ratings juggernaut. The show, along with Desperate Housewives, was credited in saving ABC from the bottom of the ratings heap. But since about mid-season last year, Lost’s ratings have been slumping. Why is this?

In the spirit of Lost, I have a number of theories:

1 – The Hatch Disappointment: I did not watch the first season as it aired. I caught up later on the DVDs. But I remember at the end of the first season, there were a number of weird theories about what was down the hatch. Some thought it was the gateway to Hell. Others thought it was a passage way to a parallel universe. The hatch definitely lead to the rest of the spacecraft that the island was a part of, some cried. However, it was revealed that the Hatch was nothing more than a bunker where Desmond lived, pushing a button for something called the Dharma Initiative. All those wild theories were disproved, and I am sure some people left because of the rather mundane function the Hatch served as opposed to those other ideas. But was this reveal such a bad thing?

Think about it. If the Hatch did lead to some place mystical or science-fictional, I am sure more people would have left. The show is built upon a foundation of some reality. But the second season being about entering Hell, or exploring a spacecraft would be such a radical departure from the first season, I am sure people would have jumped ship a lot quicker. So a more fantastical Hatch would probably not have kept the ratings up.

2 – More Flashbacks?: In the second season, those who watched the show and write about it started to complain about the repetitive nature of the flashbacks. Why were there flashbacks showing us stuff we already knew about Jack, Kate, and Locke? What purpose did the Sun/Jin flashbacks really serve? Critics called for the discontinuation of the flashbacks. Unfortunately, the flashbacks are an integral part of the show. They show parallels, and yes, they can be repetitive. But they also show us a history. While showing us Kate as a married woman and not merely telling us, it informs us about what type of life our castaways led. Sometimes that life is boring.

There should be more diverse flashbacks though. Did we really need two Jack flashbacks last season, where the only important part of the second flashback was that Jack’s wife left him for another man? While showing that the island healed Jin’s infertility (apparently) was a nice episode, it does not make for an interesting flashback. While there are stories to tell with the main characters, sometimes these stories are boring. That drives off a lot of people. But maybe new characters can help, right?

3 – Unpopular New Characters: Ana-Lucia was brought in serve as a romantic foil for Jack. She was hated. Nikki and Paulo, two new characters this season, are reviled. While Libby was tolerated, she never got more than a C-list, B-list at most feeling. Henry Gale and Juliette show potential, and are generally liked, but they are in the unfortunate position of being the enemy and who knows that shelf life? Desmond is liked, and may be the break out character of this season.

So why do viewers cry out for more interesting and new flashbacks, and then shun the newbies? Sure, their introductions might be awkward, but the story takes place on an Island, and there is a very few story excuses to bring in people. If the story only focuses on the original survivors of the crash, then you run the risk of getting repetitive flashbacks or stale storytelling, as a character’s arc reaches either a plateau or has to resolved in a manner to write them out of the show.

It seems like critics and viewers themselves grew bored with the original survivors, judged the new additions too critically, and was left with nothing. Why were the left with nothing? Well…

4 – Deaths: Nobody likes seeing their favorite character go. Boone’s death in Season 1 was the first inclination that the show was willing to kill of its characters for the sake of storytelling. But also, on a show that takes place on an Island, where I said it is hard to write in people, it is also hard to write people out of it, if they want to leave. The actor who played Eko wanted to leave the show. So they killed his character. Why did they have to kill him? Well, he was such an important part of the show, they couldn’t just have him disappear into the ether. Look at the departure of Michael and Walt. Surely, people are wondering when they are going to show up, but by all accounts, they aren’t going to come back this season. It is not easy to write people off the show.

Even when a character is hated, like Ana Lucia or Shannon, their death heaps criticism upon the show. Nevermind that it could be argued that the creators of the show were listening to its fans when it offed Ana Lucia, some people felt her death was uncalled for. The writers felt there was no where else to go with Shannon’s story arc, so she was sacrificed (a fate I fear might befall Claire). But by now, viewers should realize that the show is an ensemble piece and any character can be sacrificed if the story calls for it.

5 – Deconstruction of the Characters: Locke last year and Kate this year have dramatically seemed to change in character. Where Locke was confident in Season 1, he was the Button’s lackey in Season 2. Where Kate was self sufficient in Seasons 1 and 2, she is now weak. The writing hasn’t made it clear enough whether or not these were planned regressions or sloppy writing. I, for one, believe it was a planned regression. But I can see how others would not see it that way.

Another complaint about the characters is what I call the “I would do this” syndrome. A lot of message board critics wonder outloud at the stupid things the survivors seem to do. The viewer would obviously see that choice a) is better than choice b) or ask question x), but they forget that they are privy to more information then the characters on the show. The viewer has not crash landed on an Island full of strange happenings. Who says that the sheer shock of what’s been going on has made the survivors numb to the surprises the Island seems to offer up?

6 – Unsolved Mysteries: This is probably the biggest complaint and cause of frustration and dwindling ratings. The piling on of mysteries confounds people, especially when nothing seems to be answered. Though we now know why the plane crashed, who the Others are, what the monster looks like, etc. people are clamoring for more answers. However, it is easy to forget that the fundamental questions posed in the first season can’t really be answered until the end of the series.

The newer mysteries are supposed to sustain the show until the time that the bigger mysteries can be answered. Smaller mysteries like what the button truly did were answered in time. But it wasn’t answered in the next episode. People seem to get fixated on the latest mystery and forget the last one, until that last one in answered, usually to some unsatisfactory answer (see The Hatch). They see only the piling on, not the slow removal. One also has to realize that there are just some small things that will only be answered in terms of a larger mystery (see what the 4-toe statue will probably be, what the Others are ultimately trying to accomplish, etc.)

But it is no surprise that the mystery aspect of the show drives away people. Lost is also a very hard show to attract new people. If you have missed out on Seasons 1 and 2, it is very hard to watch an episode in Season 3. Contrast this to a serial like 24, where the episodes are interconnected, but from season to season there is very little informative continuity. There is also a glut of Lost clones that cut into the time that the show demands.

With Lost going on a 3 month hiatus, I fear that the returning ratings will continue to slide. It is possible to me that next season will be Lost’s last, or at the most, Lost will only last 5 seasons (though it was originally planned to go only 5 or 6). The bloom is definitely off Lost’s rose.

Lost: "I Do" Review

The Fall Season Finale of Lost came and went. Now we all have to wait till February 7th for the next new episode. Would this finale have enough to it sustain the excitement for 3 months?

While it was not a blow away episode, "I Do" did enough to make the wait extruciating. As Jack first blows off then decides to operate on Ben's tumor, Sawyer and Kate realize that their time in the cages is probably coming to an end. Sawyer has a target on his back, painted by The Other Pickett. Kate has reached a psychological dead end. Something's gotta give.

The flashback this week belonged to Kate. She married a favorite actor of mine, Nathan Fillion of Firefly/Serenity fame. As per Kate's history, in Season 1, she said she was married. This flashback showed that and what the circumstances were. In Season 2, Kate said she had taken a pregnancy test. Again, showed the circumstances surrounding that.

Kate's motivations in the flashback and in current times showed that she doesn't want to run, she wants to plant her roots, but something always comes up and forces her to flee. Fate doesn't want her to settle. I was actually surprised that in the flashbacks she said she loved Kevin (Fillion), because previously, it seemed like she would only love her childhood crush. Kate did have a happy period in her life after she became a fugitive.

Meanwhile, back on the main island. Locke and crew bury Eko. Locke spies Eko's stick as he is driving it into the ground and reads the saying "Look to the North." What this means will remain unknown until February. Another mystery is who "Jacob" is and why he wrote a list for The Others without Jack on it.

With the first half of the season at an end, look for an entry this weekend about why the show's ratings have fallen. I will also pick up Heroes to review. For now though this episode gets:

3 1/2 Drugged Nathans out of 5.

The Simpsons: "Treehouse of Horror 17" Review

The Simpsons are back from their mini-hiatus with their annual Halloween episode. Yep, Halloween in November, who woulda thunk it?

The first tale of terror was "Married to the Blob." This rift on the movie "The Blob" was funny, but not hilarious. I got a chuckle out of 50-foot tall Lenny and Invisible Lenny, but little else. Actually, the Dr. Phil did, calling him Jeffrey Tambor did bring a smile to my face. Overall though, this was a so-so opening bit.

The second tale, "You've got to know when to Golem," was also only average as it looked at the Jewish mythical beast. Some Jewish jokes and Fran Drecher and Richard Lewis later, you got a pretty typical story. I was waiting for a circumstion joke, but thankfully it never came.

The final tale was "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid." Though the title was ripped off from a Futurama episode, I enjoyed this story the most. There is something funny about seeing Springfield in another era (or as Lenny put it, in "sepia"). The Orson Wells bit was a great homage (which would have been funnier on Halloween). Of course, the ending of this story echoed our situation in Iraq, but I didn't feel it was controversial as some people were saying it would be. And does Lisa ever tire of being wrong?

This was an ok Halloween episode. Lately, the Halloween episodes have lacked the cartoonish gore of yesteryear. The tales aren't really as scary as they used to be. Still, it is nice to have The Simpsons back again.

3 Title Puns out of 5.

Splitsville

Ryan Phillippe and Reese Witherspoon announced their separation earlier this week after seven years of marriage. The couple has two children together.

With this break up, the past two Best Actress Oscar winners, Reese and Hillary Swank, have separated/divorced from their actor husbands. Is this a coincidence? I don't think so. In Hollywood, success is everything, even between two people in love. You don't think Ryan and Chad Lowe looked at their more famous significant other and felt jealousy? Ryan supposively had an affair with an unknown actress. Just little bit ironic, no? Chad entered rehab shortly after the announcement of his separation. Are the Oscars a curse? No, just a clear display to mark the haves from the have nots in a relationship. When the two spouses are off filming, on different sides of the globe, do you think that the fact that the less successful one is filming some project with Gary Busey while the more successful one is with Spielberg gnaws at the lesser one? How could it not?

Another divorce that is more than likely the cause of a disparity between levels of fame is the Paul McCartney-Heather Mills marriage. Despite Heather's claims to the contrary, one can't deny that she got a lot of publicity for her charities and herself when she married Paul. And now she is dragging his name through the mud so that her own fame can rise.

While it is true that in America, the rate of successful marriages is now below 50% and no doubt that the usual problems that plague us normal people also apply to the famous, I can't help but look at the recent divorces and see a disparity between one partner and the other. You can go back a few years to the Aniston-Pitt break up and see evidence of it there as well. Brad Pitt was a movie star, and Aniston was a huge star, but on television. Was it any surprise that Pitt found Angelina Jolie a more compatable partner?

I would suggest that a happy Hollywood marriage can only include one Hollywood powerhouse, but I just read that Chris Rock is breaking up with his "normal" wife of ten years. Brad Garrett broke up with his wife too. So maybe it is true that they glare of America's troubles is often reflected in Tinseltown.

I just hope Homer and Marge Simpsons don't have any "irreconsilable differences" any time soon.

Lost: "The Cost of Living" Review

Well, my previously review got eaten by the spell check, so I am going to make this one quick and sweet.

Episode rocked. Twist I did not see coming. Let people complain about the show, I am sticking with it.

4 Smoke Monsters out of 5.