So it looks like the Family Guy season is already over, which is exceptionally disappointing since I was looking forward to a summer of new episodes. I guess new episodes aren’t until another month or so (September 11), but I’m still disappointed, especially since all of the new episodes have been major home runs. Along with that, Home Movies was evidently cut from the Sunday Night Adult Swim lineup, so that absolutely sucks. The pizza episode is one of the funniest bits of television in years.
HOGAN KNOWS BEST:
Watched last night’s episode of Hogan Knows Best, and in my opinion, this was by far the best episode yet. I’ve only watched the show casually (usually the repeats that air midway through the week), but when I saw that this week’s episode would focus on Hogan’s involvement in the Hall of Fame and WrestleMania (in addition to American Dad being a repeat), I had to watch it.
What I especially enjoyed about the episode was the almost bonding experience shared between Hulk and his son Nick. I remember an old WCW Nitro episode where a face Hollywood Hogan transformed back into Hulk Hogan. Hogan (in Hollywood gear) was heading down the hall, and a young Nick yelled for him while chasing behind. He then gave Hogan a bag and said “wear this.” Inside was his old yellow and red Hulk gear. With that scene in mind, it was almost poignant watching an older, teenage Nick stand by his father’s side as he prepared to make his WWE and WrestleMania return.
It was also fun watching (or listening to, rather) Vince ask Hogan to be inducted to the Hall of Fame, and seeing Hulk’s touched and excited reaction. It was also nice seeing Hulk and Linda treat the induction as such an honor (especially since, in Hulk’s case anyway, it truly is an honor). I also liked watching Hulk dust off the boots and boas, as well as Hulk reuniting with everybody backstage upon arriving at the Hall of Fame ceremony.
THE 4400:
I haven’t watched last night’s episode yet, but last week’s episode struck me as odd for one reason (and this may be resolved by last night’s episode): For the first time ever, at the end of the episode, we didn’t discover what the trickle effect was of the ability that was spotlighted the entire episode. For example, that episode that the girl wants everybody in the mental institution to construct a tower ultimately resulted in a genius returning from his vegetative state, eventually paving the way for the discovery of the abilities of the 4400. When Tom spends an entire episode in a fantasy, we discover it is to create a relationship that will give him the strength to overcome future obstacles in his life, so that he can help continue to play a part in the progression of the 4400.
What was interesting (and slightly disappointing) was that we never found out what impact the woman who could unleash a plague has on the future. At first, I thought that perhaps the person that saw Kyle before he assassinated Jordan would be one of the people killed (in which case, you might argue that she had this power to protect Kyle, who could continue doing the biddings of an entity from the future). It just seemed confusing to me that the people would give somebody such a destructive and awesome power, yet not have a clear plan for what they wanted the woman to do. Again, this might be resolved in last night’s episode, but it just seemed strange to not show us the trickle effect, like they always have.
That said, I did enjoy Shawn’s side story. It makes sense for an 18-year old (or however old he is) young man to be completely overwhelmed with the responsibility that was laid on him. Not only is he heading a major conglomerate, but there’s also a huge weight on his shoulders knowing the implications of his work. I think the new character, Matthew (I believe), has a lot of potential. It’s reminiscent of the Shawn/Jordan relationship, only with the roles reversed (with Shawn in control). I’m also pleased that Shawn’s (probably) eventual turn to the dark side is not as immediate and abrupt as I thought it might be. Also, I found Lily’s behavior somewhat cryptic and, in a way, uncharacteristic (not necessarily in a bad way, though). It seems very unlike her to do just do something for the money, especially something so admirable that could help so many people.
LOST:
I caught last week’s episode of Lost, which focused mostly on Sayid. This episode also allowed for us to see the characters grow closer together on a more personal, friendly level while they were playing golf. It was a welcome departure, and something that I really think helped ease the mood. However, based on the fact that the episode ended with a semi-cliff hanger, I wouldn’t be surprised to see their usual hectic lifestyle return.
Speaking of relationships, I have come to enjoy a lot of the ones that have developed. Of course there is Jack and Kate, which I’ve already talked about. But there’s also Walt’s fascination with Locke, which was somewhat foreshadowed in an early episode, when Locke told Walt there’s a light and dark side to everything. Both of these characters seem to have a mysterious bond with the island (which we haven’t really seen with Walt yet), and by the end of the season it appears as if Locke might be the dark side, with Walt being the light.
There’s also the friendship between Hurly and Jack. The two work off each other very well, with Jack being the brainy, quick thinking, urgent one, and Hurly being the more laid back, fun loving guy. Their chemistry and contrast works very well together. There’s also a respect-based relationship between Kate and Sayid, which was really obvious this past episode, where she was clearly impacted by his departure. Finally, there seems to be a developing relationship between Kate and Sawyer, at least to the extent that she cares (at least a bit) about him integrating into the group.
WWE WEBSITE:
For the past few weeks, I’ve been noticing how much the WWE website has been improving. I was disappointed when the website became pretty much completely kayfabe, especially since I used to enjoy reading the post-PPV interviews where the wrestlers would praise their opponents out of character. Sure, in a lot of ways it was counter-productive, but they were still insightful and more enjoyable than basically reading the transcript of a promo you just watched on RAW or Smackdown anyway. It was also upsetting that they did away with some of their “Backdoor” features, like True or False (which I especially liked).
Anyway, not only have they developed a far superior layout design, but they have taken full advantage of the fact that they own every major wrestling video library in existence. The Superstar bio pages are also written with exceptional detail, and the superstar sections are almost constantly updated (JBL’s is especially impressive), which is nice. Further, they now include interviews with wrestlers not currently under contract (such as Marty Jannetty, Kevin Nash, The Blue Meanie, all of the released Superstars, etc). They’ve also made it a point to actually address issues internet wrestling fans discuss (the Meanie/JBL incident, Jericho’s contract status, the Muhammad Hassan controversy, etc). It’s actually become a pretty good source for news and information.
I am disappointed, however, that they removed the ECW and WCW title histories. Those were pretty cool.
Well, that’s it for this week. If you’ve got anything to discuss, feel free to e-mail me. I respond to all e-mails. Until next week…
