My Week In TV - 9/28/14

Remember how I used to post about which comic books I bought every week, with comments about each book (or comics in general, or whatever else I decided was sort of related to them)? Well, I don't buy nearly as many comics as I used to (go back and read about my issues with the DC comics reboot that led to Superman's using his baby blanket as a cape). So, I thought I'd try something new: commentary on the TV shows I watch each week.

This is in part inspired by what a big week this was for my personal TV viewing, which I will get to. First, though, this won't be about my regular Monday-through-Friday shows -- consisting of the brilliant Keith Olbermann on ESPN2 and, of course, TMZ -- unless something in particular during those shows that I think needs attention. Nor will this be about telecasts of sporting events, again unless I feel it's warranted. So we'll start with the programs that aired between September 21 and 28. (I didn't necessarily watch them in their time slot. I usually DVR everything and skip through the commercials. Also, I hope future posts won't be as long as this one is turning out to be.)

Last Monday started with, thanks to the magic of DVR, two episodes of The Big Bang Theory on CBS, the two-hour third-season finale of Dallas on TNT and the premiere of the new series Gotham on Fox.

Big Bang has been on so long now that I'm sort of waiting for the dropoff in quality. Not sure it's happened yet, because they've been able to have the characters grow out of their established personas. It's very slow, but just enough (such as Raj finally being able to talk to women without alcohol) to keep them interesting. So we'll see. (Note: it's on Monday for a few weeks due to CBS showing some NFL games on Thursdays.)

The Dallas reboot has been surprising since the start. Although ostensibly starring the sons of J.R. and Bobby Ewing, so much of the show has featured the old cast, and killing off J.R. (necessitated as it was by Larry Hagman's passing) led to some of the best television of 2013. Season three ended with a shocking death, although the shock was lessened by the fact that it happened at the very end of the episode and was hyped by TNT: "One...Ewing...Will...Die." Better to kill the character in the middle so it's truly unexpected.

I had tremendous expectations for Gotham, the Batman series without Batman.

Three Annoying People

Some comments on three people who are in the news today, at least locally, and for wildly different reasons. This is like that Keith Olbermann "Worst Person in the World" segment, back in the days when he was on television.

Annoying: Phillies pitcher Ryan Madson's wife Sarah doesn't like fans...

“I hate the fans. It is bad enough that they bother us during the season, but they will not leave us alone in December when we go out to eat. We stayed here during the off season last year, but we will be going to California this year. There must be something particularly bad about Phillies fans because all the players leave in the off season.”

I really don't want to unload on her much, especially since the comments came during an event she and her husband cohosted to raise funds for MANNA. And I don't like the idea of fans interrupting famous people at dinner. Wait until before or after, but not while they're eating. But it's her husband's success that helped the Phils ascend to the top, which raised fan interest even more, which led to all of those sold-out games at Citizens Bank Park, which gave the Phillies the revenue to pay Ryan Madson $12 million in a three-year deal that ends this season. (And whether players live here in the offseason means nothing, by the way.)

Annoying-er: Kobe Bryant called a referee a "fucking faggot" during the game last night.

My Priority Is NOT Keith Olbermann

In my opinion, it's not all that urgent that I contact MSNBC and demand they put the suspended Keith Olbermann back on the air. He donated money to political candidates. It's against NBC's rules for editorial personnel. It doesn't matter to me that they've possibly played fast and loose with their own rules over the years. That's standard just about everywhere. Some people get preferential treatment, some people don't. (Surprisingly, you'd think he'd be the one getting that preferential treatment. What does this say about his status?) If you want to guarantee that you're not punished for a crime, don't commit a crime in the first place.

And it doesn't matter that someone from Fox News probably gives money to all manner of candidates with no repercussions. (Pssst -- Olbermann doesn't work for Fox News, although thanks to this foolishness he just played right into their hands and the hands of his other critics. Let Fox News police their own if they want.)

No, I just can't get worked up about that. On the other hand, when a post is cruelly retweeted into my timeline with a taunting message about what might have been? Off with their heads!

It doesn't even make sense! The "if" probably is for "if necessary" or "if game is rained out" -- but there's no way they'd play a World Series game at 1 pm on a Saturday! This was posted today. Game 7 was scheduled to be played last night. A postponement would have pushed the game to tonight; continued bad weather would push it to Saturday night. This whole thing is ridiculous and has given me post-traumatic stress over the end of the 2010 Phillies season. I really want to sue someone for damages.

Here's an idea: instead of petitioning to get Olbermann back on the air, how about we petition to have the MLB playoffs re-played so that a more entertaining World Series could take place?

Let's Talk About Twitter

Since I seem to do my best work in the early morning hours -- to be more precise, since I tend to post in the early morning hours -- here's a blog post. My original intention (since I keep putting off the posts about the three movies I've seen in the last 2 weeks) was to just write about some random stuff in my head at 2:30 a.m (the time I began this). However, it's turned into a whole Twitter thing.

As of now I follow about 275 Twitter accounts. (I have about 180 followers of my own and am always looking for more, so tell your friends!) While I really like Twitter, there are things about it that I dislike immensely, and it's not posts about the weather or people's lives that some get worked up about -- they see tweets (or Facebook status updates, for that matter) like "Going out to dinner..." as boring. I don't mind them, though. They're little looks into people's lives.

Following 275 accounts, though a few aren't really active at all, it takes time trying to read through the timeline. That makes me want to try and save time by dropping some of those I currently follow. I don't want to unfollow anyone who's following me back, though, and of those who don't follow me back, I always seem to find various reasons to keep them, whether they're really entertaining or just because they're a favorite of mine (like Annie Lennox).

I finally dumped a couple today, one being ESPN's Jayson Stark. Why Jayson?