I want to get rid of cable and its associated $60/month, I really do. And I'm so close...between a Netflix subscription, a TV tuner, and sites like Hulu or the network websites themselves, I can get almost anything I want to see for much cheaper....old shows, new shows, movies, etc. So why do I still have cable? Because there's no good way to get live sports or shows on other networks like Discovery (they have full episodes of just a few shows), Food Network, or the Science Channel, for example. Or if people are over and I want to flip over to It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, I couldn't do it until the following day if using Hulu instead of cable.
On top of all that, cable companies still hold a monopoly in a lot of areas and if you don't have a lot of options you're forced to go with them even if you just want internet, because when you start watching all kinds of stuff over the web (especially in HD) you need a pretty fast connection which is a lot easier to get with cable than with DSL. Consequently, the cable companies are aware that an ever-increasing number of people are going internet-only which is why there's now a lot of testing and rollout of bandwidth caps by all the companies with such stakes, limiting you to a certain amount of web traffic per month. For instance, Comcast now has a bandwidth cap of 250GB per month. When watching HD content, that adds up quick.
Sports do have some online coverage, as with CBS online during March Madness, and many games appear on the regular networks (CBS, NBC, FOX) where you could get them free with a TV tuner, but you still can't get many games this way.
However, Hulu hasn't been around all that long, so it's conceivable there's still a lot of room for growth of such services and that more will continue to pop-up. After all, the content providers also benefit by not dealing with a middleman in delivering content (and the associated advertising) to viewers. However, it's just as possible that they could suddenly decide Hulu wasn't profitable and pull the plug at a moment's notice, leaving all those that had come to rely on it out in the cold (and crawling back to cable). Hopefully we get more of the former rather than the latter, and sooner rather than later.
This episode Dave and I discuss what's going on with 24, ponder the versatility of meats, answer some listener questions from the mailbox, and more.
Get the MP3 file directly here, or sign up for the feed to get new episodes automatically (In iTunes, you add it under the Advanced menu and entering the URL in the "Subscribe to Podcast" option).
This week's episode was interesting. The Kim/Jack reunion happens but wasn't very climactic since she's not saving Jack right now. But I'll put money on the fact she'll be back within 3 episodes to save Jack. I wonder if there will be any lingering effects once he's saved though, since it's starting to get pretty extreme. Of course the big news was all in the Tony storyline, as he was at the center of all the action this week. He was still sneaking around Starkwood and got a glimpse of the rocket fuel tanker with its gigantic label on it and figured out what was going on. The call that followed between Jack and the President was funny, with Jack saying she was lying without saying he knew why, and then his describing the entire situation (including everything she knew) and asking her to tell the truth even though he just said it. Tony managed to get down to the fuel room to blow up the tanks before the rockets could be launched. His fumbling for the detonator after it fell under the grate was also ridiculous. He couldn't just lift the grate? But, of course, he grabbed it just before the rocket could take off and blew up the fuel tanks, and somehow got out of the enormous explosion that caused. There's no way he would really have escaped from directly above the rocket fuel explosion.
As a result of all that, they're able to arrest Jonas and Seton, but there's a twist! One of Jonas's thugs still has a canister of the bioweapon and Larry can't stop him. So he and Tony pursue to reveal the second twist...Tony's evil! At least this is what we assume since he commanded the henchman to lower his weapon, killed Larry, and let the henchman guy run away with the weapon, saying he'd call him.
Jonas Hodges has an interesting meeting this week
So the bioweapon is still floating around and Jack is still dying at the FBI building. And what's Tony up to? Not a lot of episodes left to find out! And is there any substance to Jonas's comment that he's just a cog in a much larger machine? It can't be that big, there's only 5 episodes left!
In anticipation of tonight's episode, which looked crazy in the previews, here's pieces of a TVSquad interview with Carlos Bernard who plays Tony Almeida (or Smirky McSmirkerson as I prefer to call him). Before I get to all the other questions though, here's the main reason it caught my attention (esp. the part in bold):
JT: So regarding this season, anything you want to tease about these final episodes?
CB: Everyone just works their ass off to make it as good as possible. It's just such a hard show to write. We actually wrapped before Christmas, but at the beginning of seven, I remember walking into the writer's room and they were all wearing season six t-shirts. Basically, it was motivation because they were all disappointed. These are the types of people that don't like to lose. It's got by far the best ending of any season yet. The last six episodes are even better than the front half of the season. There was a point with one of these final episodes where we halted production for almost a month so the writers could re-write some stuff. You've got to hand it to the writers and producers for doing that because it's expensive to shut down, but it paid off because from that hour on, the rest of the season is just fantastic.
I like that the part in bold glosses over the 3rd quarter of this season, which seems to be the most ridiculous and also most filler. And we're just getting to the last 6 episodes, so this is promising if you've seen the preview for this week.
Here's some of the other interesting questions/answers:
JT: [Talking about Tony's death at the start of Season 5] Along with Palmer and Michelle and everyone else.
CB: Right, and I was like "OK, great," but I told them I thought they were wasting an opportunity. I pitched the idea of Tony surviving and going on this vendetta to find the person who killed Michelle. But this show is like a Rubik's Cube -- everything has to fit together perfectly and that's why I ended up in a hospital bed for half the season. They just couldn't figure out how to fit in that storyline. It came down to "we can't keep paying you for nothing" [laughs], and that's why the door got left open because they were half-heartedly doing it [killing off Tony].
JT: At the time, were you satisfied with how Tony went out?
CB: No, nobody was. But it was done in a rush and they were writing on the fly at the time. Season seven is the first season they finished writing before the show started airing, but that was because of the writer's strike. We had the chance to re-write things and stop if things didn't make sense. Because of that, from top to bottom, I think this is going to be one of our strongest seasons. Personally, this is my favorite since the first. But back to season five, they were just really under the gun. I don't think anyone was satisfied with it.
JT: Talk to me about the evolution of Tony's facial hair.
CB: [laughs] Season one, I had the soul-patch because I just came off from doing another show and I thought it might be OK for 24. Then we shot the pilot and I kind of realized, "Oh my god -- it all takes place in one day." You read the script and you get the concept, but it's not until you start shooting that you realize it. So the soul-patch was in. I lost it for season two because I was sick of it. It sort of came back with some stubble in season four. This season was a completely different story. We played a lot with how Tony was going to look. I really felt like his exterior should reflect his interior feelings. We wanted it to be a bit shocking. I know in my personal life, when things aren't going well, you aren't very well kept.
JT: Why do you think Tony and Jack work so well together? They share a similar patriotism, but they both have very different views about their government.
CB: There's a history of trust. They knock heads over things. I know in my life, people who disagree with me and that I can have arguments and debates with, those people, I just don't trust anyone who doesn't lose their temper from time to time. Think about grade school. You might actually trust someone more if you get into a fist fight with them as a kid. There's something about having it out with someone. That's how you know where someone stands and I think that's true for Jack and Tony.
This thing is really cool, essentially a powered skateboard that can handle rough terrain, including sand and snow:
It can handle rough material, but I wonder how well it handles bumps or other obstacles? And what kind of impact it can withstand, like if you rode it off a sidewalk curb or something.
Of course this post is kind of redundant if you've already subscribed to the feed , but since it's just the second episode I'm posting about it. In this podcast, Dave and I discuss movies, including Judd Apatow films and The Soloist, and food, including bread and candy, and more! Get the mp3 directly here!
By the way, a correction on a comment I made...the Soloist story was based on an LA Times journalist's story, not CBS!
Ok, I may have said it before, but I think I seriously plan to stop watching 24 once this season is over. Despite all the promise of the "rebirth of 24" after the lackluster Season 6, it feels like things are really going off the rails since this Season is not only lackluster as well, but there's no characters worth getting invested in. Tony's a wildcard and always seems foolish/unconvincing when he's running around on his own as he was in this episode. Jack has become the anti-Jack Bauer, all vulnerable and not part of any serious action this episode. Renee is annoying and I don't know if it's the makeup, the big eyes, or the empty expression, but she seems like a ghost floating around. And her interactions with Jack are always stupid. Now she's telling him about what to do with his daughter without knowing anything about them?
The whole Starkwood situation has also been without any real compelling suspense or surprises, as they've been setting up what's going on for a while and they have so few characters going around on the base that as soon as they give someone a backstory (i.e. the chairman guy) you know where they're going with it before they get there. They also claimed there were SWAT teams at Starkwood, and that it would take several hours to mobilize troops to get there?!? How is that possible? Also, if Tony could get to the other end of the base so quickly, isn't it small enough that they could just carpetbomb the whole place and have the whole ordeal over with? While I'm pointing out plot holes, Starkwood has managed to jam communications at least a couple of times in previous episodes, but now that Tony is running around on their base, he can communicate freely with the FBI, even when he goes underground in one of their buildings. And don't get me started on Larry's disruption and Jonas's sudden inability to notice Tony wasn't boarding the helicopters with everyone else and leaving the base.
Jack is forced to watch this season of 24
At least next week's preview shows that it's all action. With the amount of stuff they cover, I hope they can't possibly have enough time for more crap with Allison and the reporter. That whole story was dumb and I hope it doesn't affect the overall plot, though it wouldn't make any sense to have so much of it in there if they're not going somewhere with it.
It's Friday and I've got some exciting news! Dave and I have started a podcast and it's awesome. It might take a couple of episodes to get the hang of it, but as our first podcast, I'd say we did a pretty good job. Check out the first episode of Tremendous Upside with Dave & Niraj!
Update: P.S. A feed for the podcast is forthcominghere ! You can enter the URL "https://somethingyoumightbeinterestedin.com/podcasts/tremendousupside/tuwdn.xml" in your player (iTunes, Zune software, etc.) to subscribe and get the latest episodes! In iTunes, you add it under the Advanced menu and entering the URL in the "Subscribe to Podcast" option. Bam, automatic updates!
In a surprise move this week, Haaaaaaaretz is reporting that the Israeli government has announced "we're fed up with falafel, hummus and shwarma, and we're moving on to pizza." Their arguments cover the fact that they've been eating chickpeas for 7,500 years (long before they were used in falafels), it's too easy to overdose on shwarma, and a general feeling of discontent when travelling abroad and discovering attempts at recreating Mediterranean food are generally crap in comparison.
"Why should we have all the pressure of creating the best shwarma around?" asked Benjamin Goldstein. "It's time we took a break and let others learn to make good shwarma. Plus, don't tell anyone because it's not Kosher, but I love a good pepperoni pizza!"
Others are skeptical. One Mark Pearlman commented, "It figures...Benjamin Netanyahu was always pushing a pro-Italian food agenda, so now that he's in power again, what do you expect? But my bootleg hummus and falafel operation (run out of my apartment) is going through the roof! So I guess some people still love the stuff."
Earth Hour this year was such a huge success, it's being expanded to Earth Year in 2010. "We've seen a lot of good come from Earth Hour with the international community embracing it this year, so we thought, 'Why not extend the positive effects?' Sure, we could have gone with Earth Day or Earth Week, but that's just half-assing it," said Chief Emeka Anyaoku, head of the World Wide Fund for Nature.
The move is expected to have devastating effects on the economy if the level of participation matches this year. Several ComEd employees have begun stocking up on canned goods. An Amish couple was seen shrugging and shaking their heads.
