Now in its seventh season, there is now doubt that American Idol is a powerhouse in American entertainment.  Week after week, it is the most watched show on television.  Millions call in to keep their favorite contestant in the show.  Millions are donated to help a worthy cause.  And numerous careers have been launched thanks to this little singing competition. One of the aspects that makes American Idol fun is the feeling of participation that the viewer has.  We, the ...

Years ago, I started watching Alias.  My wife sat down and we were both immediately engrossed.  It became our weekly show, the one we would set time aside to watch together.  And if one of us couldn't be there we either taped it (in the old days), or (confession here) downloaded the episode.  It was a lot of fun.  We knew that, every week, we had that time set aside for a little escapism.  Our enjoyment of this activity waned a bit during the third season (our l...

I am a closet comic book fan.  I had a subscription to both The Amazing Spiderman and The Incredible Hulk when I was much younger (back when a single issue was $0.65!).  I tried to follow them, particularly Spiderman.  It was my favorite comic book and I watched the old movie regularly.  After my subscription ran out, I still cherry picked the issues and story lines that interested me.  But, it became too much to really keep up on.    The years passed, ...

I completely missed season one. I was entirely disinterested. Caught some of the auditions of season two and found them quite funny, so we started watching. And our enjoyment of American Idol was born. We watched regularly all through season two, cheering on those we liked and agonizing over those who should have left the scene earlier. We enjoyed it, and didn’t feel embarrassed at all. It was fun, it was entertaining. We were excited for season three. It started, and we watch...

My wife and I watch "The Apprentice".  We find it amusing.  This season the twist was a competition between "book smart" and "street smart" people.  It has been interesting to see the difference in the approaches the two teams take, and amusing to see in what ways each group is stonger/weaker than the other. But every once in a while you get a timeless comment.  Tonight's loser had one final, absolutely incoherent word of advice to us all: "Those of us who walk away win...

The commercials looked bizarre.  And after my disappointment with last week's episode I went into this one a little apprehensive. No need.  It was a good one and a lot of fun to boot. The episode starts off with a man, speaking Russian, watching some guards and a truck pull up to a facility.  Suddenly his car comes racing out of hiding, running one guard over, his automatic weapon taking care of the rest.  From the back of the truck he removes a highly technical lo...

I am a total Alias junkie. I think it is quite simply one of the most interesting and best done shows on TV. That it never seemed to garner the public respect and attention it should have (just about every TV critic agrees that more folks ought to be watching it) befuddled me. I place a lot of blame on ABC for stupid scheduling. The Wonderful World of Disney just doesn't seem like an appropriate lead in for an action-packed spy thriller. But what do I know. I think that Lost will be a...

I have already admitted to being a geek. I recognize that and embrace it. But I have another confession to make. I am also just a little boy. Deep down inside of me I still think and act like a little boy. Sometimes it drives my wife nuts (I don't blame her), but sometimes it really helps. And with our first little boy coming early next year, I will still be able to identify. See, I love explosions (and still can make a mean, mean explosion sound effect), playing with cars, playing...

First off let it be known I am unabashedly a geek. I don't try to hide it and I won't beat around the bush about it. So there it is. I am not a paying member of starwars.com. In fact I haven't visited the site since the hype sessions for Episode I. But I do know they released the teaser trailer for members today, and are going to release it for general viewing next week I believe. However, I also knew that they were going to be showing it tonight during Access Hollywood, so I punish...

Last night my wife turned on "The Bachelor". It is one of those shows that we have watched in the past in occasion out of some sort of sick fascination. It is like watching a train wreck, that twisted, macabre attraction that pulls you in. You know you should turn away, you want to turn away, you feel dirty watching it. But you can't. *shudder* As the end of the episode was drawing near I noticed something that set me back a bit. Perhaps it was because I hadn't really thought about...