The Incredible Being of Lightness

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    Let's see how long I can go without getting all political. I thought I'd ruminate on how my past week has been. Aside from irrational political entities driving me nuts.
    Television is driving me crazy.
    Hawaii Five-O had its season finale (spoiler alert in case you TiVo'd it). Steve McGarrett, attempting to solve his father's murder, has been thoroughly framed for murdering the governor of the island state (by the guy who killed his father). He's also been framed for the murder of the whistle-blower assistant to the governor and one of the members of his team has been arrested for stealing $400,000 from the police evidence locker (which she actually did, but for a good cause). I don't see any way this situation can ever be resolved and I have to wait until the fall season to find out how the writers work this out.
    Really, Hawaii Five-O is just awful. The show has some really bad acting and plays like a tourism promotion for the fiftieth state, but it is sweet and charming and I love the actors even if they do film the entire show in one take.
    What else? Oh yeah,  I found out today that the series Lie to Me has been cancelled. Why? It was a really great show, very thought provoking with a thoroughly obnoxious lead character. I loved the show, but Fox only ran it as filler during American Idol's off-season. Too bad. I don't know what Tim Roth will do now, but I hope it's as well written as Lie to Me was.
    Since I don't watch NBA basketball (redundant, I know) I've had a hard time finding things to watch. I don't normally watch reality shows (and I really hate to admit to watching), but I've been catching a few episodes of River Monsters and I watched Hillbilly Handfishing one night. Pretty entertaining stuff.
    I'm not clear on the current definition of the term "reality show." Most people these days seem to lump everything not completely fictional into the reality show category. To my way of thinking, Real World and Jersey Shore are reality shows. American Idol and America's Got Talent are talent shows. Greatest Race and Survivor are, believe it or not, game shows (just really awfully extreme game shows). How It's Made and Storm Stories are educational. I don't actually watch any of those (although I did watch a couple of seasons of Idol), but it's almost impossible not to get some exposure to them through their promos.
    So, it remains a vast wasteland. At least I still have a few episodes of Nurse Jackie left and I'm confident the finale won't be a cliffhanger.
--Stephen P.

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