- “The West Wing”’s best season in years ended last night with a standout season finale, depicting something likely to never happen ever again in real life- a brokered convention. When the dust settled, the Democratic nominee for next season’s general election was Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits), who surprisingly picked longtime chief of staff Leo as his VP. Guess now we know why they had Leo have a heart attack earlier this season.
And if you thought the real-life Democratic Party was in disarray, check out the “West Wing”’s fictional version: their four choices for president were Det. Bobby Simone, the boss from “Office Space,” Otter from “Animal House,” and Al Bundy. All for the right to face Hawkeye Pierce in the general. At least the guy who played Laura Palmer’s killer was just a governor, and didn’t jump in the race.
- “24” was great on Monday, even though I did predict the ending in the first five minutes of the episode. And why, exactly, is it considered “controversial” to do a presidential-assassination plot? Remember the entire first season?
Four seasons in, a pattern has emerged with "24" that while the show’s unique real-time gimmick is one of its best attributes, the writers can be constrained by that gimmick that they often paint themselves into a corner, and leading to notably weak sections in each of the first three seasons (the amnesia thing in the first, the searching-for-the-recording section of the second, and the Salazar brothers arc of the third). There have been bad episodes this year, sure, but this is clearly the first season of the show with a strong beginning, middle, and end.
And speaking of “24” history, here’s a countdown of the show’s 24 greatest moments. Some hilarious stuff- and best part, of course, is the Kim-bashing.
- “South Park” was above average once again on Wednesday, not laugh-out-loud, certainly, but with lots of great references, making fun of/parodying: the lack of interest in baseball by today’s kids, the “epidemic” of sports-parent brawling, the William Ligue arrest, and “The Bad News Bears,” all while depicting the baseball scenes as something out of the old Nintendo game “RBI Baseball”- since the “South Park” boys are shaped exactly like the RBI characters.
But then again, how do you do an up-to-the-minute satire of baseball, without a single reference to steroids?
Posted by Stephen Silver at April 8, 2005 12:37 AMa homo named the pope
a geezer and a dope
FINALLY did croak.
Wbo cares?