Quality Shows Only

LOST: It's been solid for several weeks now. I thought this most recent episode captured that creepy, question-raising nature of the plot that the show does so well. Tom Sawyer's "It's a little hot for heaven, isn't it?" line to Sawyer was great, but too easy for all the purgatory-theorists out there.

What I liked was that for the first time, we saw insecurity on the part of Ben, a possible chink of sorts in his armor. Whatever his followers are doing with Ben, the arrival of a paralyzed man (Locke) on the island, who was immediately healed, presented to them someone "special." Ben's big show with Locke's failure to kill his own father - is Ben threatened by Locke? And if so, why not do away with him? I suppose he has to "prove" to his followers that Locke is a weak, normal man. This is interesting, though; what will happen once Locke rejoins the Others with the body of his father?

All in all though, what with the Naomi-from-the-chopper thing, the whole Penny-searching-for-Desmond thing, the they-already-found-the-plane-wreckage-and-bodies thing, the Jack-and-Juliet-have-a-secret-but-Juliet-hates-Ben-but-also-she's-still-
working-for-him thing, and the Sawyer-and-Kate-are-regularly-banging thing, this season's on point.

Ed: Also, good news.

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Sopranos: Legit. I think we saw some genuine emotional problems/growth and, dare I say it, a reason to sympathize with and maybe even like the erstwhile detestable AJ a bit? Chris's character has grown tremendously as well, but he's approaching a crossroads. Too much bad history between him and Paulie. Will there even be strife between Chris and Tony? In the opener it seemed that Bacala was dealing with climbing the ranks while fighting with the boss at the same time - not a good combo, and a lot of people thought he was on his way out. That plotline seems to have disappeared. I'm very pleased with the new episodes thus far. Keep it up and let's finish strong!

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Entourage: Hey, they're fun. Always good for some laughs, and so far they haven't run out of wacky antics for Vince's crew. Piven is brilliant without fail.

Also, I'd let Carla Gugino represent me anytime.

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Big Love: Coming out in June. This is a good show, so I'm looking forward to it.