I figure any kind of analysis of the finale of Battlestar Galactica on this blog wouldn’t compare to the full on geek debates that have been raging on the web so I’ll forgo that and just say that I’m going to miss BSG.

I have to admit, I didn’t start watching from the moment it came on TV. Even though my brother watched it and it was definitely a show that someone like myself would watch, I didn’t bother with it. My coworker/friend convinced me to start watching it and I was hooked from the miniseries that started it all and berated myself for taking so long to get into it. I quickly caught up with it and by the time the second part of second season started, I was ready. Not every episode has been perfect but overall, it’s been a great show. It was so much more than just a science fiction series.

Here are some random moments/things from the series (SPOILERS!) that ‘got’ me in one way or another (not comprehensive by any means):

-The fact that only around 50,000 people in the entire human race were left after the initial cylon attack in the miniseries.

-Bill Adama’s rousing speech in the miniseries that he WILL lead them to Earth. So Say We All! (although he didn’t really believe an Earth existed).

- That President Roslin’s justice involved ejecting a cylon out of an airlock.

-Boomer completely unexpectedly shooting Bill Adama after a successful mission when he was going to shake her hand.

-In the episode ‘Downloaded’- finding out that Caprica Six saw a vision of Gaius Baltar the same way Baltar would would see a vision of Caprica Six.

-The entire rebellion on New Caprica - I particularly remember when Roslin was being held captive and Baltar insisting that there was no torture being conducted.

-Galactica’s rescue mission on New Caprica. Oh man, the part where Galactica descended and then jumped out? Whoa.

-The reveal of 4 of the 5 final cylons.

-Realizing that the Earth they have been searching for was a radioactive wasteland.

-Dualla blowing her brains out after a pleasant evening with Lee to avoid dealing with the above point.

-The role of All Along the Watchtower.

-The fact that Kara Thrace had known the notes to the above since she was a little girl.

Maybe I didn’t entirely get everything that happened in the series finale but I was still pretty satisfied with the way things turned out.

Also, I just want to say that I loved the relationships in BSG, especially the father/daughter one of Bill Adama and Kara Thrace.

Oh, and…

Least Favorite Episode: Black Market

The other night, I caught an episode of How I Met Your Mother, a documentary about life in New York City. This particular episode dealt with the issue of unemployment, one that I know well. One character faced deportation (to Canada) if she did not get a job soon. One friend, Barney, had a particularly inspiring idea to help her get a job: make a video resume. And then he showed the gang his own video resume, a video filled with explosions and a theme song. When it was pointed out that he doesn’t actually do anything in the video, Barney said:

“That’s who Corporate America wants. People who seem like bold, risk takers but never actually do anything. Actually doing things gets you fired.”

As I look for a job myself, I wonder if I should keep that in mind (I kid, I kid!).

And, if I need to make my own video resume.

Check out Barney’s.

Alright, ok, not me specifically but my people were featured on this past Sunday’s episode of The Simpsons: People who like Apple products!

And, there was a Muslim family in the episode too!

Bart made friends with Bashir and his family who happen to be Jordanian Muslims. Homer of course thinks they are planning something against the U.S. because he happened to see a bit of an episode of 24 in which Jack Bauer was interrogating an Arab guy. Funny enough, Shoreh Agadalashoo provided the voice for Bashir’s mom and last time I saw her, she was on 24 playing the mom in a sleeper cell family in the U.S. Alas, she made her exit from the show in traditional 24 fashion - she was done in by the bad guys.

Can anyone please tell me what happened to Behrooz?!

In all seriousness though, it was a pretty good episode by current Simpsons standards and the episode actually gave a good message that one cannot judge someone based off of religion and ethnicity. I know no one goes searching for meaning in a Simpsons episode but here’s the thing - people still need to be reminded of this even after all the public service messages, interfaith work, and everything else the Muslim community in the U.S. has done.

Which is why it was really cool that there was an episode of Simpsons like this.

USA! USA!

(Btw, I understand I’m a few days late with this.)

Most of my friends know that I’m a big Superman fan. He’s always been my favorite superhero despite the fact that many are hesitant to name him as their favorite because a) He’s too powerful b)They think there’s not much too him or c) He’s too well known and it is therefore cliched to think of him as one’s favorite. Even then, he’s still my favorite.

I have followed Superman in all the mediums - I read the comics for a few years, I’ve seen all the Superman movies, any animated series that featured Superman, any TV shows that featured him - reruns of the black and white Superman show with George Reaves, Superboy, Lois and Clark, and, the topic of this post, Smallville.

There was a buzz around Smallville when it first debuted on the WB more than 7 years ago. And indeed it did start off quite well. The premise was as follows - A toddler in a spaceship crash lands in Smallville, Kansas amid a meteor shower. The meteor shower killed several people in Smallville, including the parents of Clark’s future crush Lana, and also had the unintended consequence of infecting some residents with ‘meteor rock’ (kryptonite as Clark found out later). These same rocks weaken Clark (but you knew that).

Also, the series featured a friendship between Clark and his future nemesis Lex Luthor. They met in the first episode when Clark saved Lex’s life and thus began their friendship and, unbeknown Clark, Lex’s obsession with finding out what exactly it was Clark was hiding.

Unfortunately, the series delved into a series of soapy, filler episodes that outnumbered the good ones and Lana Lang, who Clark could not stop fawning over, was one of the worst characters on TV. Yet, years later, I was still watching due only to my allegiance to the Man of Steel. My perseverance has paid off as Smallville seems to be experiencing a creative resurgence as of late. Might this be due to Lana no longer being on the show? I admit, there’s more to it than that (different writers, etc( but it’s enough for me.

However, even though I enjoy watching Smallville, I still find myself talking at the TV while I’m watching the episode because it’s just so illogical sometimes. Here are a few things:

-Clark has become a reporter at the Daily Planet despite his only experience stemming from writing an assignment or two for his high school paper 7 seasons ago. He hadn’t shown any interest at all in being a reporter and then all of a sudden he’s working at the Planet? Couldn’t the writers have spent two seconds to explain this? Maybe even Clark just saying “Good thing I got this job because I really like writing!” or something equivalently lame?

-These people never graduated from college. They all started at one point but then something happened to the school or something but then they never went back. Therefore, not only does Clark not have any experience to be a reporter, but he doesn’t even have a college degree. Lois doesn’t have a degree either.

-Back in Season 1, Smallville was far away from Metropolis. Now, it seems to be a few feet away as the characters live in Smallville and yet are happily commuting to Metropolis for their day jobs and in fact sometimes seem to make the round trip more than once in a day. And I’m not just talking about Clark zipping back and forth. I’m referring to the mortals on the show.

-Where’s Martha Kent? She’s a senator and all that for Kansas (yeah, I know) but there has been no mention of her for more than a season, even when Clark had disappeared for a few months. I mean, you don’t think she would care or something.

-Also, is Clark still running the farm? Sell the thing, man. You’re the only one who’s holding on.

Anyways, I’ll continue to watch Smallville until it’s no longer on. For the first time in a while, I’m interested in how the storylines will play out (although not looking forward to Lana showing up in 5 episodes this season). I just have to say that I know when the creators started Smallville, they were living by the mantra “No Flights, No Tights” but enough is enough. Put Clark in a costume and have him fly. It’s about time.

Hi All.

I caught Aliens in America on TV the other day, the new show on the CW that debuted on Monday. The premise, if you’ve been living under a rock is this: A Pakistani Exchange student comes to live with an unsuspecting American family in Wisconsin. The mom was expecting some good looking Nordic kid that would make her own son, Justin, more popular at school. Instead, the family got shalwaar kameez and kufi wearing Raja from Pakistan.

I heard before that the show does a good job of portraying Raja as a real person and not just some steretype. I had my doubts when he came off the plane and acted, y’know, strange, but the actor and character came around. The funniest scene was Raja’s first day and the teacher asked him what it was like to be different. While he was trying to get a protest in, the teacher asked what people thought of Raja and when someone said she was angry at him because of “what his people did to the buildings,” the teacher asked who else was angry. The rest of the class raised their hands. The look on Raja’s face was the dawning realization that life in America wouldn’t be as simple as he thought it would be.

I’ll tune in next week to catch the further hijinks of Justin and Raja.

I have to say, I was a bit surprised at Scott Patterson’s portrayal of the Dad. I was expecting some grumpy guy that wouldn’t care for Raja from the outset. Instead, he was the first one to warm up to him, especially after he saw how Raja washed the dishes without being asked.

I guess I’m so used to seeing Patterson as grumpy, plaid-wearing, backwards baseball cap Luke on Gilmore Girls that I forgot he wasn’t supposed to be Luke.

Yes, I admit I watched Gilmore Girls. Happy? Granted, it got sort of not good (my nice way of saying ’stupid’) in the final season with all that stuff about Lorelai and Christopher but when Lorelai ended up serenading Luke with “I Will Always Love You” during karaoke night in one of the final episodes, I got all choked up. Shut up. Not a word :p

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Most people know that I am unhealthily obsessed with the TV show, Veronica Mars. I look forward to each and every new episode and, a few times the episodes have been pretty intense and I even have a hard time falling asleep after watching it. I know, crazy right?

The episode that came on last night was the first new one in about 2 months. A couple of weeks ago, they started airing commercials for it and apparently it revolved around prejudice with Arabs. O-kay. . .

But I thought, it can’t be bad. I mean, it’s freakin Veronica Mars.

And then I watched it. Man oh man.

It was LAME.

So Veronica takes the case of a Middle Eastern Restuarant that gets vandalized by someone spray painting Terrorist on their restaurant.

You know what Veronica says?

“Guess it’s a bad time to be Arab in America.”

Yeah. It’s 2007. It’s been a bad time to be Arab in America FOR A LONG TIME NOW.

Didn’t 7th Heaven already do an episode of helping out the Muslims? God Bless You Camdens!

And what of Crash? This was a rehash of one of the movie’s many intertwining storylines.

This episode was so cliched and bad. It hurt me. The only good part was Mac.