I was pretty disappointed with this episode. It seemed like a lot of filler to me. Something I definitely do not want to see with less than 15 hours of Lost left. The reason I call this filler is because we have no idea why the Lost writers are spending so much time focusing on the “present.” Hopefully there will be a major twist and the “present” that we think is really the past. Otherwise, what is the point of focusing so much time on it….All we care about is the island. With that said, they need to reveal that pretty quick otherwise a lot of Lost fans are going to be disappointed.

There were only two revelations this episode and neither were very big. The first being that Sayid has the sickness and the Others somewhat explained the sickness. I already had a pretty good grasp on the sickness so this did not seem like a revelation at all to me. The question I have about this is if Ben has the sickness since he also used the fountain to hell him? Is that why he couldn’t ever see Jacob? I don’t think Ben was dead though but I don’t think Roseau’s crew was either do the sequence of events do not add up.

The other revelation is that CFL (otherwise known as Roseau) probably had the sickness and so does Claire. The only question is how did Claire get it. She didn’t seem to be entirely crazy because she only killed the Others; not Jin. Maybe she escaped from them like Sawyer did. What if we find the MIB is actually the good guy while Jacob is the bad guy. There are clues to see if from both angles.

Fun

I had a pretty entertaining weekend. I went to Double D’s to celebrate a friend’s engagement. Another group of people that I knew were also there. It was a fun time. I still am surprised of the crowd and the atmosphere of the new location.

On Saturday, I got some shopping in. I bought a couple fake trees for my place. The coolest one is a 7ft bamboo tree that I put in my bedroom. It was expensive but it fits the room perfectly. The base even matches my bedroom furniture. I hung out at a friend’s that night for his 30^th b-day party. It was a great night and was the first time in a long time that we all hung out. We fit in a little dancing at Big Daddy’s and then made a quick run to Pops to round out the night.

Sports

Pretty big weekend for sports. The biggest event on my mind was the MU – K State game. It turned out to be a great game and helped to ease a lot of the anxiety of the team after some tough road losses to some bad teams. MU now has a 30 game home winning steak which is extremely impressive. It was a good start to Big 12 play and hopefully it continues. I watched bits and pieces of all the playoff games. Thought I would watch more of the Dallas – Philly game but did not. The Blues won their first game under the new head coach too.

TV

Sunday night premiered two of my favorite shows. The first being Chuck which almost did not record because it lost a DVR matchup with Big Love and the Simpson’s 400^th episode special. I moved Big Love to 10:15 and it was all resolved. Chuck showed two new episodes back to back. There is another one tonight. I still do not know why more people do love Chuck. Here is a good synopsis from my favorite Lost writer on the show. All I can say is that it has drama, comedy, romance mixed with hot girls, fighting, and tons of trendy electronic callouts and references. As for the new season, it did seem that they were cutting cost since the show was basically cancelled and brought back to life by their strong fan base. It seemed like some of the CGI explosions looked a little cheesy to me. Overall, the two episodes were good and Chuck 2.0 seems like he will have some new moves. The Accord commercials with the characters were sort of weird. I didn’t know if I was watching the show or a commercial at first. I guess that’s good Marketing.

More importantly was the premier of Big Love. It has been so long that I forgot some of the major plotlines. I totally forgot that Joey killed Roman. It also looks like for now that he will get away with it. It was a very entertaining first episode and through out some very interesting twist to setup the season.

All I can about Jersey Shore is Gym, Tan, and Laundry. Everyone has to have a little GTL in their life.

Going to hit some quick highlights from my weekend.

• Had a good lunch with some family members Friday at J Bucks Downtown along with them seeing my place for the first time.
• Went to Electric Cowboy in St Chuck. It was interesting. I like the concept but not that they just played slow dancing country songs during the country music portion. The hip hip was all the classic club songs.
• Had a good dinner at Bar Louie on Saturday. Love the dipping sauces for the pretzels.
• Couldn’t fit ice skating in due to the torrential down pours but will try to reschedule soon.
• Watched 3 hours of Jersey Shores. That show is ridiculous. I will keep watching it even though I think I become more stupid after watching it…lol. It just so intriguing.
• Watched Funny People. Expected it to actually be funny since it had so many popular comedians in it but it was not. It really dragged on too.
• Watched half of the new Harry Potter and was bored.
• Had an amazing fantasy football performance. None of my guys did amazing but all except a last minute sub put up 25 points. Got to love the consistency. I put up top points for the week and still have the top D pointer getter in the league along with another guy on D.
• Did not fix my Xbox 360. More to come on that.
• Did get my car back but not happy with the outcome.
• Did get my third patent approved. The extra bonus money couldn’t have come at a better time. Two more to go which are solely in my name so an added bonus if they get approved.

I saw a recent article in the Post and thought I would post my own opinion. Keep in mind that I love premium cable shows.

1. Lost
2. Carnivale
3. Six Feet Under
4. Sponge Bob SquarePants
5. Deadwood
6. Family Guy
7. Sopranos
8. Weeds
9. OC (I had to throw in a teen drama)
10. How I Met Your Mother

Wild Card

1. Playmakers – I loved this show but it was too much controversy for ESPN to carry.

Honorable Mention:

1. Dexter
2. Futurama
3. Curb Your Enthusiasm (probably should be high on the list because I love it but just started watching it)
4. Rome
5. Big Love
6. Californication

My first two selections were easy since both are by far my favorite two shows. The rest could be in any order.

I am probably missing something that I love on network tv but I just love the plots and mass details of the HBO and Showtime shows. What is your list?

I did almost absolutely nothing productive this weekend and loved every minute of it. I pretty much stayed in my condo the entire weekend. I caught up on my DVR Friday night as well as watched a couple episodes of Dollhouse Season 1 as I am trying to catch up. I am impressed with Dollhouse and it seems to get better as the plot thickens. The last episode I watched which I think was 4 or 5 left me really hanging. Cant wait till watch more.

I met up with some friends Saturday for a chicken dinner at Hodaks then watched the bad MU football game. I have two things to say about this night. One, I am not sure if I like fried chicken anymore. This thought crossed my mind a couple weeks ago after I had been craving KFC for a while and finally went but was disappointed. I then thought the same at Hodaks. Its not that it is bad but there is about 100 dishes that I can think of that are better. Its almost the same reason why I avoided chicken wings for most of my life … I am grossed out by looking at a cooked chicken and all the weird pieces of meat and whatever that it consists of. The weird part is that I can eat chicken wings because wings are normally coated in sauce that masks the appearance. Secondly, why did Blaine Gabbert play that game? His gimp self cost us the game against Nebraska and cost us this game too. We could have easily won this game. He had great protection but kept overthrowing his targets. I am positive that any backup could have bested his play that game.I think the Texas game is going to be disastrous.

On a side note, I had an amazing workout Sunday…did not have the best Saturday but it was still good.  I think the combination of awesome sleep for two nights in a row and no alcohol for a week made my muscles thrive. I blew away my normal lifting capacity in almost every lift.

Good Shows Coming Back

Dexter (Showtime on Sunday) – I was really expecting a lot out of this show. I read in a review that the Dexter books have him teaching his new step children his ways of killing. That would be pretty freaky and wouldn’t make sense knowing his character dilemma so far so I do not expect this. Overall the episode was okay but I believe it was a building block show for their new serial killer.

Californication (Showtime on Sundays) -Seems like this show hasnt been on for ever. I have been watching some episodes lately but really have no clue where the plot will begin. I counted on the preview before the episode to catch up. I thought this episode was pretty awesome. I would call this show the new Entourage. Its edgy and full of surprises.

How I Met Your Mother (CBS on Mondays) – A classic returns. I didn’t watch this show from the start but it is quite funny. I am glad to see that Barney and Robin are a “couple” now but it will make the Barney character into something totally different so not sure how that is going to turn out.

Two and a Half Men (CBS on Mondays) – For some reason, I can’t watch reruns of this show but I am really entertained by new episodes. Needless to say, the first show this season was good. This show is not super funny but it is entertaining. They basically just keep reusing the jokes over and over again.

Big Bang Theory (CBS on Mondays) – I’ve always like this show. Half of it is because of the engineer in me and how they act like they use big words and big scientific theories but they are actually quite basic to anyone that has took a Physics class. Needless to say, I think this show is hilarious.

Gary Unmarried & New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS on Wednesdays) – Both shows are solid and on my watch list.

Fringe (Fox) – I almost totally forgot about this one and it is one of my favs. Thanks to Matt S., I now realize the whole alternate universe concept from the season finale and how Peter actually did die but his dad went into the other universe to get him. That went right over my head. Doesn’t really fit with this statement I read on Wikipedia “Unlike his other series, Lost, J.J. Abrams promises the series’ story arc will be easier to follow and more accessible for those who skip the odd show.” I can follow Lost but seem to be struggling with this show. Guess I need a good Fringe blog to read. I also have no clue how Massive Dynamics plays a role in this show. I thought they were bad but maybe they are only bad in the other dimension. Nina kissing Phillip blew my mind even though I was expecting it.

Sit Down – Shut Up (Fox on Saturdays) – Thought I hated this show plus I thought it was canceled but new shows keep popping up on my DVR and I’m watching them.

New Shows that I have watched so far

Bored to Death (HBO on Sundays) – The pilot to this show was extremely boring. I will give it another try but it doesn’t look good. I am surprised because HBO doesn’t normally disappoint.

Accidentally on Purpose (CBS on Mondays) – I really liked the first episode but curious to see how they could make this into a long standing series since it revolves around a girl getting accidentally pregnant. You would think that premise would last for only 9 months unless it gets more serious with her “boy toy.” I think it caters to the same crowd as the other CBS Monday shows so should do good.

The Forgotten (ABC on Tuesday) – I only watched this because no other shows are new on Tuesdays. I almost turned it off immediately whenever they went over the premise which is a bunch of volunteers solving John/Jane Doe cases after the police give up. It might be a good show but I do not like shows like this so it does not make the cut.

Cougar Town (ABC on Wednesday) – With a name like this, how could you not expect me to watch it. Plus, it has Courtney Cox in it. I really liked Dirt on FX and thought she did a good job on that show to break of out the “Friends” typecast. I was surprised to see this was on a 30 min show. It was funny but I am struggling with the fact that Cox’s image of her body as not hot. She has a hot body; simple as that. I will continue to watch.

Modern Family (ABC on Wednesday) – This show seems to be the same as lot of shows last year that did not get picked up. It was funny but don’t expect it to make it on ABC. Would do better on Fox.

Glee (Fox on Wednesday) – I didn’t originally record this but watched the 1st episode online then recorded the next two in which I watched all 3 in a row on Sunday. I was surprised about this show and how much I like it. It is sorta a musical but has a good plot for a teen drama/comedy. Does anyone else think that the teacher sorta looks like Justin Timberlake? Plus, he dances and sings so its like he could be a dead on impersonator.

Flash Forward (ABC on Thursday) – This show is supposedly made for me according to the reviewers. Its sci-fi, action, and drama all in one just like my favorite show Lost. I thought the premise behind the show is that the world jumps 6 months into the future and now the people are trying to figure out why. I was a little wrong after watching it. The people did jump in the future but only for a couple mins then came back to the present time with everything being totally chaotic. The rest of the show seems to have them solving what is going to happen based on what they saw in their flash forward. To be honest, I am a little disappointed. I think this show was over-hyped. I expect V to be more of my type of show after seeing the previews.

Community (NBC on Thursday) – This show did have a funny first episode so it makes my cut list.

Other shows – I do have a bunch of other new 1 hour drama shows plus Brothers on Fox saved on my DVR but I doubt I will watch them. Let me know if I missed anything worth watching.

“New” Shows on the docket

Madmen – After all the hype, I decided to throw the first two season in my Netflix queue. I have a weird querk where I can not start a show like this in the middle of its life cycle so it will be a while before I catch up to the latest. I did the same thing with Lost after I did not watch the first season until the weekend before the series premier of season 2.

Dollhouse – For some reason this show seems like something I would like too after missing the 1st season so it is in my Netflix queue too. It sounds like this show almost got canceled but the “cult” fans responded which is something I would do so I am giving it a run.

Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO on Sundays) – Amazing enough, I had never watched a single episode. It goes back to the fact that I don’t like to stat a show mid-series. I was intrigued about this season because all of the Seinfeld hype and my love of the show. I thought the first episode was hilarious. I laughed the entire time. It has the same concept as Seinfeld – a show about nothing. I always though that Jerry was the brains behind the show but maybe it was Larry David. Hopefully all the episodes are that funny.

Series Premiers yet to come

V (ABC on Tuesdays) – Every time I see this episode title I think of Vampires but this show has nothing to do with the blood suckers. Instead if is a show about “visitors” who are aliens that are trying to take over the world from within our own governments. This show is supposed to be 1 of 2 shows (Flash Forward being the other) for catering towards Lost fans so I am looking forward to it.

The Middle (ABC on Wednesdays) – This comes out this week. A lot of critics have good faith in this show. I saw the preview and immediately thought Malcolm in the Middle (which I did not like) then found it funny to see the St Louis Post writer make the same comparison. It has Patricia Heaton (Everyone Loves Raymond) so I will give it a chance.

This was a pretty fun weekend. There was so much to do. I had choice among some of my favorites: Cards vs Cubs, Air Show, a MU Football game, Blues game, Schlafly Beer fest, and an old neighbor leaving for Cali. Fortunately, I got to knock a lot of these out.

Friday was the Cubs vs Cards game. I knew a bunch of groups going so I decided to get First Pitch tickets so I woke up late and went and got my ticket voucher before work. The line was longer that I expected and it went pretty slow so I was 45 mins early and waited another 45 mins after the window opened. I bet I was probably #75 in line and I really doubt they went through all the tickets by noon so I bet these tickets are available almost every day till close to game time. Needless to say, my friend had to work late but we still got in with standing room tickets. All in all, I paid $5.50 for a standing room tix instead of the $30 through the conventional ways. The game itself was pretty awesome. My boy Matt Holliday hit a walk off homerun to win the game. We then went to Paddyo’s for a while then Lucas Park then the Wash Ave diner.

What seemed like hours later, I woke up to friends coming over for some pre Air Show drinks and some college Gameday. We then went to the Scott Air Force base air show. It was pretty awesome. You can find all the picture here. My favorite part was Tora! Tora! Tora! which is a depiction of the Pearl Harbor bombing. I liked it because they blew up a lot of stuff. I unfortunately got really sun burnt but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. We then went to Show-me’s for dinner and watched the end of some good foosball games then went to Paddyo’s to celebrate another Cards walkoff hit to win the game. I was super close to not going to Paddyos and calling it a day but I love that place and immediately woke up as soon as I got there. I stayed there for a pretty long time then went back to my place to get ready to meet up with the Wash U folks at Bar Louie. It was a good time. It seems like I committed to Chicago for Halloween so I guess I need a costume. I rounded out the night with some Pepper Lounge.

Sunday was boring. I slept some but then watched football along with enjoyed the start of the new Fall lineup. I was not impressed with Bored to Death. I can’t wait for Dexter and Californication next week!

Weeds on Showtime

This used to be my favorite show but has seemed to go downhill recently. The whole Mexican mafia and preggo Nancy storyline isn’t as exciting as the earlier seasons when she was a pure drug dealer. It also seems like they have more Kevin Nealon in this season but his scenes are not as funny as they have been in the past.

Hung on HBO

This show seems pretty appealing to me. It has a funny storyline and feel like it has potential but I doubt it will make it past the first season based on reviews.

NYC Prep on Bravo

Even though I can not get this in HD, this show is right up my alley. Its like a real version of the OC so of course I am watching it. This is even better because I love the stupid stuff that comes out of these kids mouths.

Entourage on HBO

Always one of my favorite shows. I almost see this show as a fake celebrity version of Seinfeld since it is basically a show about nothing. I was a little worried

True Blood on HBO

They really changed the storyline this season. It seems like almost everyone is some kind of “freak.” The thing that I am the most curious about this show is the Tara storyline and why that woman is so interested in her.

Nurse Jackie on Showtime

An entertaining series and I am sure it will be picked up for another season.

Kings on NBC

I think this is the most underrated show on TV. It started on Sundays then got pushed back to Saturdays then eventually got put on hiatus then back on Saturdays in the summer. I like this show because of the characters. Especially Al Swearengin aka Ian McShane (from Deadwood). Unfortunately, I don’t see this show being picked up.

Harper’s Island on CBS

I started watching this show and then let it build up to about 10 episodes on my DVR after I got bored. Fortunately and to my surprise, the show got more interesting as the season went on for the mere fact that I wanted to know who the killer was. Not sure if this was intended to be a 1 season series but I know who the killer(s) are so not expecting to see this one back.

Merlin on NBC

Its saved on my DVR and I have watched a couple episodes but just can not get into it.

Shows that worked there way back with this crazy Saturday night lineup without me even knowing

• Eli Stone – Another one of my favorites that is set to be canceled.
• Dirty Sexy Money – Another ABC favorite of mine. It is basically a fake version of what we see on TMZ. Not sure why this did not make it.
• Better off Ted – A really funny comedy. Not sure why it is struggling. I know Dan B likes it because its has scientists.
• I’ll put Kings and Harper’s Island on this list too since they basically suffered the same fate but not as long as hiatus as the two shows above.

• Am I going to get an sleep on this lake trip? Probably not but it will be a great time.
• Is the Allstar Game really going to make the town insanely crazy. The city sent out a letter to all companies within the city limits to try to reschedule any deliveries to and from your facility to reduce traffic. Really? Is there going to be millions of people driving around? Are companies going to deliberately lose money by not shipping products? Who ever wrote that should be fired for being an idiot.
• Finallly scored free Cards tickets and they are very good. Many thanks to KJ.
• My whole idea of getting in better shape for this trip went down the drain when I got sick. I tried to workout tonight but only lasted about 6 sets.
• My sholders and chest are still peeling from last week. I am really confused. I barely got burnt. Maybe I have a skin eating disease.
• Still loving the great deals I got on Sunday. Sounds like I came extremely close to buying a similar swimsuit as another guy going on the trip. That would have been a distaster. We already have a problem of all wearing white or black shirts every time we go out … lol.
• Has anyone watched the NYC Prep show? I just found out about it today. Sounds right up my alley but I can’t get it in HD so not sure if I can stand to watch standard definition.
• Looking forward to both the start of our sand volleyball league and baskeball league (for me) next week. Thanks for Sarah N. for designing the shirt. I came up with both funny names. Boutros Boutros Volley for vball and Boom Boom Pau for Bball. The bball name is a play of words for the Black Eyed Peas song but we will have a picture of Pau Gasol (of the World Champion Lakers)  instead of Pow.

First off, I did not get to see this episode until Friday so I kept seeing everyone comments about the episode. To me, the episode had extremely high hopes. I did not see one comment from anyone that said it delivered the answered we were searching. Everyone said it was good (which is not very good in my eyes) to it proposed more questions than it answered (typical Lost). With that said, I do not know what they were watching because I thought the episode was amazing. The writers could have seriously ended the series in this episode (Carnivale style) and I would have been okay with it.

• The major revelation of the episode and the entire show was that there are two “Jacob” style man on the island. Plus, people keep coming to the island and fighting each other throughout time. The real kicker to the other Jacob that most are referring to Man #2 is that he found a loop hole in the system in which he could kill Jacob. He did that by appearing as apparitions to the survivors to get them to do what he wanted. I believe this included Kate’s unicorn, Jack’s dad, Locke on the island the second time, and many more. The only two apparitions I am questioning is if Hurley was seeing dead people and if Man #2 is also Smokey. I think Man #2 was the dead people Hurley was talking to thus why he told him in the cab that he was not crazy.
• Man #2 looked to bring Locke back alive when his father threw him out of the building thus explaining how he lived so a huge fall.
• I liked the back stories with Jacob meeting all the survivors thought their lives. The stupid thing on my part is that I did not realize that was Jacob. I must have been too tired.
• I am going to miss hot Juliet. I do think she is dead. She had been wearing a red shirt alot which supposedly is a sign that she is going to die plus she did not meet Jacob in her flashback. Her flashback seemed to actually portray that she needs to learn to “take one for the team” thus another reason why she would be dead.
• The good vs evil question in my mind was finally answered. Jacob seems to be the good along with basically everyone on the island except Man #2.
• Vincent, Rose, and her husband were back like promised. I expect this to be the end of them. It was a nice quick way to get their storyline finished so everyone would quit asking about where they were. Plus, I am pretty sure that Rose is one of the detectives Mom’s in Southland. The only thing peculiar about the exchange was the comment about the tea between Rose’s husband and Juliet. Not sure what was going on there. Are they really dead?
• We finally knows what lies in the shadow of the statue … it is Jacob. I am surprised to see that no one theorized that early.
• It turns out that Man #2 was the person in the cabin all along and not Jacob. What does this mean about Claire? Also, was Hurley the one that let his escape by disrupting the gun powder ring where he ran away from this place? Hurley really is cursed and brings only bad things with him.