Follow the Day

It’s been a typically busy week so I’m relaxing by catching up on some shows, as usual.

Mars Attack

Season two of Veronica Mars wasn’t as consistently entertaining as the first, but it’s still smart and endearing. A few season-long mysteries get resolved satisfyingly. I was shocked when long-forgotten arcs from the first season resurfaced and tied well to the heart-wrenching season ender. Some important characters have been written off the show, so it pretty much re-sets some relationship angles. I hope Veronica’s friend, the problem-solving techie Mac (Tina Majorino), becomes a regular cast member in the next season. Wow, they’re in college in the show’s third year. I wonder how different Veronica’s cases will be, and how her detective skills will be honed this time.

Basta, Veronica and Duncan forever.

Musings on Lyrics

I was able to catch the hilarious VH-1 special 40 Most Awesomely Bad Love Songs last week over at MTV. It had a few comedians commenting on some of the lyrical content of old and recent love songs, most of which have become hits in the US. The countdown list was a mix of guilty pleasures and those that fall under the “so bad, they’re good” category of songs, and it was interesting to hear what the comics had to say about the meaning or packaging of certain sappy ones.

Pleasant-sounding ballads like Oleta Adams’ “Get Here” weren’t spared. The commenters singled out that the lines “you can reach me by caravan/ cross the desert like an Arab man,” saying that it’s “racial profiling” in a song, and that it went too far by suggesting that the guy Oleta pertained to should “windsurf into my life.” Also mocked was The Jets’ “You Got It All,” as it’s a song that, according to the commentary, kept comparing the current boyfriend with the ex, among other things. Steve Perry’s popular “Oh Sherrie” was included, and some comedians wondered why the singer was yelling his lyrics (“You should’ve been gone!”). Other songs that made it were by boy bands, hair bands, and some ‘80s and ‘90s pop chart fixtures.

Super Jock Itch

I gave up on this show long ago, but I just had to see the “Justice” episode of Smallville. Clark “Boy Scout” Kent and Chloe “Watchtower” Sullivan team up with righteous pals Green Arrow, Aquaman, Impulse and Cyborg. Quite campy but fun. They got the guest actors who previously appeared as the characters, so there’s a cleft chin overload. I dunno if a live-action Justice League series in the works (I doubt it), but it was nice to see some of DC’s superheroes gather for an episode, even if they have a clichéd scene where they’re shown walking away, calmly, from an exploding building. Gawd.

Lost in Your Isles

I’ve seen about eight episodes of the first season of Lost. I dunno. It’s okay, but It’s not that exciting yet for me. I like that it has neat twists when it comes to the many characters’ back stories, though. I’m familiar with Matthew Fox, who played Charlie Salinger from the depressing but watchable ‘90s drama Party of Five. There’s also Dominic Monaghan, of course, an ex-Hobbit sidekick, and the actress who played the blonde villain girl from Roswell, whose name escapes me at the moment. It’s a nicely cast group of castaways and all, but I do hope that the story speeds up. I hope the truth behind the mysteries gets revealed before I lose interest, and that there’s a rewarding payoff after all this buildup. Maybe I’m just getting really impatient, but so far, the building-society-from-scratch thing isn’t bowling me over.