24, Lost, and other shows

-Two hours of 24 tonight! I'm spent. I'm glad that the little lull we had a couple weeks ago was an aberration rather than a sign of a larger problem. Very different tempos with the two hours tonight. The first hour was more of the on-the-edge-of-your-seat and explosions variety, while the second hour offered some quieter, more heartfelt moments.

The biggest development of the night was Lennox's involvement in what seems to be an attempt on Wayne Palmer's life. I'm still pretty shocked about the developments here, and I'd like to know how this guy's political agenda ties in with Phillip Bauer's agenda. I just don't see a connection here, but I like what I'm seeing. I'm dying to see what is going to happen next. Just a really solid two hours tonight. Even the slower parts were really interesting.

More on the possibility of a Palmer assassination attempt...I'm actually kind of happy about this. I don't think that Wayne Palmer really does much for me. He can't hold David Palmer's jockstrap in terms of screen presence. I hate to compare them, but if they're going to make them brothers on this show, then he needs to step up to the plate. The bar has been set pretty high here, and he's just not reaching it. If they dump him and insert the current VP into his place, I'm ok with it. I'll be completely and utterly shocked, but I'll be pretty happy. We'll see.

-LOST came back last week. I love this show, but I'm not sure why. The entire time I'm watching, I know that it's basically a carrot being dangled in front of me. I realize I'm basically never going to get any answers on this show. Even when you get a semi-answer, it just poses about 6 new questions. I was pretty disappointed that we didn't get to see anybody other than Kate, Jack and Sawyer. The writers realize that this show was most popular 2 years ago, when the storylines revolved around those three, as well as Locke, Hurley, Sayid, Charlie and Claire, right? So why do they abandon these guys in favor of The Others, who nobody likes? At the very least, don't introduce two new random characters. What purpose could they possibly serve? We don't need more people on the beach to be central characters. They don't even have time for the people they've already established.

One "weirdness" note here. Who in the heck was the girl that helped Kate and Sawyer and who the heck was her boyfriend? I need to do some searching to figure this out. But what really threw me for a loop was the weird mental experiment being done on the girl's boyfriend. It's probably pretty similar to the way I feel after watching most weeks. They were flashing random images and phrases in front of him, almost like some kind of weird sensory deprivation or something. I have no idea what they were doing. I also don't expect an answer in the next 20 episodes. After all, we still don't have any idea what the smoke monster is.

-For my weekly vagina update, I still love Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives. I was getting kind of worried about DH for awhile, but they have really rebounded this year. The writers actually have a storyline instead of just switching everything aimlessly from week to week. The pizzaria is still my favorite storyline, and Tom going on a power trip was freaking hysterical. I think I laughed harder at the fake chewing out that he gave Lynette than I did at anything on The Office or My Name is Earl this week, and that's saying a lot. When I think about how much I'm enjoying this season, it's really confusing as to how last season got so bad with the Applewhites and all.

-I just saw this on ESPN.com, but San Diego just fired Marty Schottenheimer! I have to admit, I'm pretty surprised here. This franchise has been basically nothing for as long as I can remember. They peaked for a couple of years in the mid 90's, even making the super bowl once, behind the two headed monster of Stan Humphries and Natrone Means. Correct me if I'm wrong, but those guys aren't hall of famers. They DID have Junior Seau, and he was an absolute terror back then (isn't HGH great?), but other than that, they've been nothing until Marty put their current team together. And I think Marty was a great fit for them. Yeah, he doesn't win in the playoffs, but if you're in San Diego, why would you even care?

I used to wonder why people in warm weather climates could be so apathetic towards things like this, considering the way we live and breathe football 11 months out of the year here in KC. But when I went to Hawaii back in December '05, it all became pretty clear to me. These types of people live in gorgeous weather all year round, when you can go to the beach in the middle of January, heck even their malls are open-air. It's just a totally different vibe in places like this. And I totally understand it now.

So why not keep Marty around? They'd be in pretty good shape with him. They'd be pretty successful year in and year out, just enough to keep the fanbase interested. That's really all they need in San Diego. They have plenty else to occupy their minds, so they're not going to mind if they get bounced from the playoffs right away each year. Surely my blogging cohorts have some thoughts on the end of Marty ball in San Diego.