After the great season 3 (my favorite season of the show), and the revelation of who four of the five remaining Cylons were, I was excited to see what was going to happen in this season.

The biggest difference from the other seasons, and biggest problem I had with this season so far is that a lot of the episodes seemed to be trying to set things up for the rest of the season. It wasn't until a few episodes before the mid-season finale that the episodes felt like great episodes in themselves in addition to setting things up for the future.

One of my favorite parts of the season was watching as the four known Cylons had to cope with the knowledge that they were the enemy that they hated so much. The most interesting one was Saul Tigh, since he was the biggest Cylon hater on the show. I also loved seeing the reactions to them finally revealing who they really are to the others in the mid-season finale, especially the scenes with Adama after he found out that Tigh was a Cylon (it was so great seeing him go through the different stages of anger, despair, drunkeness, and finally seeing him broken down so that Apollo, and later Roslin had to help him get better).

Another thing I liked about the season was the continuation of Gaius Baltar. A lot of people hated the "religious" stage that he went through in this season, but I thought that it was great. Throughout the series, Gaius has gone through many different stages of insanity. This is what has made him my favorite character of the series, since this has been played out in so many interesting way. This story showed him at the most insane moments yet, having him hit rock bottom right before his recovery in the last few episodes. I loved seeing his scenes in the last couple episodes, especially in "The Hub." I loved how, after three and a half seasons, he FINALLY admitted his involvement in the Cylon attack that killed most of the humans.

I've also gotten to like Laura Roslin a lot more than I did before. I have liked her since the middle of season 1, but after watching "The Hub," she's gotten to the point where she is even the same degree of greatness as Gaius. I love how she has to deal with so much, even now that she's not president anymore. I love the decisions that she's had to make, I love her relationship with Adama, I love her having to deal with her cancer, I love her visions. That's a big part of the reason why my favorite episode of the season is "The Hub," since it dealt with all of these aspects, and more. She's such a complex, and interesting character, and can't wait to see more of her in the future.

Finally, one of the most interesting things about the season is how it left off with the mid-season finale. It felt so much like a series finale. Now so many things seem to be wrapped up. The humans and Cylons are at peace, and they've found Earth. There are a lot of questions still left unanswered though. Who is the final Cylon? What do the visions mean? What will be the importance of the children? What will they do now that Earth is in ruins? But most of all, I just want to know where the series is going to go after this. They'll obviously end up answering these other questions, but what else will happen in the second half of the season, now that the Cylons and humans are at peace, and they've found Earth?

While this season hasn't been my favorite one, it has had a lot of great moments, and I can't wait to see the second half of the season to know how it all ends.

OK, first of all, I have Guitar Hero 2, and just got Guitar Hero 3 for the 360. I think that both of them are very good games. However, I am concerned about the direction that they are starting to take with the series. Two specific things come to mind which are taking the series away from what it is supposed to be.

First being the additions of other instruments in the future. I do understand why they are doing this. They are trying to "catch up" to the game Rock Band. However, I think that this is completely pointless. If people wanted Rock Band, they would already have Rock Band. If they don't, and just want a game which is based solely on playing guitars, they'd buy Guitar Hero. That is what was great about the fact that there were two distinct games out there. It gave people a choice about whether they wanted a game based on playing in a band, and one based on playing a guitar. With this new direction, they will be pushing away more fans than they will gain, because, as I mentioned, the people who wanted a game based on playing in a band would get Rock Band, and the majority of those people probably would view this as a lame attempt at copying the original Rock Band.

The second problem I'm having with the new direction that they are taking is the games based on specific bands. They're about to release the game Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, and recently announced Guitar Hero: Metallica. I like both of these bands, and plan to get these games, but only after they both drop down in price. Why wait if I like both of the bands? Because Guitar Hero is supposed to be a game based on a variety of music. We have some stuff from the 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, and musice from the new millennium. I love that about the series. While not all the songs are ones that I like, at least there's a big variety of them, from different bands and different eras. These new games take away that variety in order to service a small group of fans. And granted, I am one of those fans for both bands, and will end up buying the games, I would rather have a new game, with a bigger variety of music.

Both of these factors are taking away what makes the series so great. I feel as if the series is losing its greatness ever since Harmonix and Red Octane split up and Activision got their hands on the series. If the series keeps going the way it is, I might just stop buying the games all together, because I will have lost all interest in the games.

Yep... Been watching a lot of TV. But it's been great TV.

Dexter season 2

Season 2 of Dexter took a different route than the first season. Instead of having a killer that knew Dexter, it had a killer that Dexter knew, because he was the killer. This brought a very different mood to the season than the first, because now instead of mind games between him and the killer, we got to see him struggle to stay hidden. Overall, I preferred the previous season, because I loved the mind games between Dexter and the killer. But this one was great in its own way.

As I mentioned in my last blog, my favorite character besides Dexter is Doakes. I love how he's the only one who knows who Dexter is. He doesn't know specifically what he does, but he knows enough to keep an eye on him. In this season, Doakes' story was MUCH better than the first. I love how much the story escelates throughout the season. And in the last few episodes, some of their scenes together were amazing.

By far, my least favorite character of the season was Lilah. She started out OK, but as the season went on, I just wanted Dexter to kill her. But as much as I hate her, she was an important part of the season, especially in terms of what she does to Dexter's character. She helps contribute to the conflict that the season sets up for Dexter.

Even though it wasn't quite as good as the first season, this was still a great one. I'm excited to see what happens in season 3, when it airs later this year. I'm not sure what they can do with it, but it should be great.

Battlestar Galactica

When I started to watch the show, I watched for two reasons. The first being the situation that everybody was placed in. The Cylons attacking the humans, severely lowering the population. The humans struggling to stay alive, and find a way to Earth, which hasn't been seen in a long time, and believed to be a myth. And the Cylons have a total of 12 differend models, which can prestend to be human. The second reason is the character Gaius. I loved his story of being used by the Cylons, and then having to struggle to keep his secret and survive. Also, I loved the fact that he always saw one of these Cylons in his mind, as if she was really there even though she wasn't. Since then, I how his story has shifted directions throughout the series, usually at the perfect time. I love most of the scenes that he has been in throughout the seasons.

At first, I didn't really care for the other characters on the show, but as the series went on, the characters started to grow on me, and I started to love some of them as much as I loved Gaius. And the more connected I was to the characters, the more I loved the series.

The series is one of the most interesting, well-written, and exciting shows on TV. It isn't so much exciting because of the action it has (although it does have enough of that). It's exciting because of the character interactions, the mystery of who the different Cylons could be, and some of the briliant scenes on the show

Wiliam Adama is a very interesting character and leader. I love a lot of the different conflicts that he is placed in, and how he deals with them.

Saul Tigh was OK for the first season and a half, and really started to grow into a great character starting towards the end of the 2nd season and into season 3. I love his hatred for the Cylons, and the way his character's story goes at the end of the 3rd season.

Starbuck took a while to grow on me, but now she's one of my favorites as well. I just love her attitude.

I really liked Boomer since we found out more about who she was. She isn't my favorite character out of all of them, but she is a very interesting one.

I didn't really care for Laura Roslin until the end of the first season, when she started to have visions. Since then, I have liked her character, and the different stories that she's gone through.

The rest of the characters are mostly very good as well, and add to the show.

I thought that season one was a great start to the show, but since I didn't know the characters that well, and some of them didn't get interesting until later, it was my least favorite of the three so far. It did have some great episodes though, as well as great character development.

Season 2 took what season 1 did, and brought it to a whole other level. It brought more great character development, lots of great twists.

I loved the direction that season 3 took. The first half was a nice change of pace, and the story after things started to return to normal was great as well. Unfortunately, things slowed down towards the end, but it was still my favorite season so far.

I have caught up with season 4, but I'll save that for a different blog.

Lost season 4

Season 4 was very different from the first 3 seasons for a few reasons. The first being the fact that it used flash-forwards instead of flashbacks. This was introduced in season 3's finale, where we saw Jack in a suicidal state, and wanting to go back to the island Season 4's flashbacks are used as pieces of a bigger puzzle, trying to fill in the pieces from when the "Oceanic Six" get off the island to the season 3 flash-forward where Jack wants to go back. In my opinion, this was a great idea, since it showed us things that we would otherwise have to wait a few seasons to see. Also, the flash-forwards were interesting themselves. My favorites being Hurley's, Ben's and Sayid's.

Another reason for the difference is the change of pace, specifically after the end of the writers' strike. The answers were starting to be developed at a much quicker pace than usual. This is partly due to the writers' strike itself, since they had to bring the viewers back in pretty quickly before the finale, but also has to do with the fact that now they know when the series is going to end. Now it seems like they are going to start building to the end. Even though they are still introducing many questions (like those brought up in the season finale), it seems to be leading to a specific end. They already developed the characters's pasts, and their relationships with each other in the past 3 seasons, and now they're done with that. They basically wanted to take what we know, and build upon it. Introduce new twists and turns, start bringing things together, and work towards the end. This was one of the biggest reasons why the season was so different since instead of working towards character development of the past, it worked towards developing their futures, which lead to more of an action-packed, exciting version of the show we've been watching.

There were some stories that I loved in this season, some that I didn't care for, and some which are, so far, missed opportunities. My favorite story this season is Ben. He was great in the last 2 seasons, and he's even better now. We saw more emotion from him, with the scene with Alex, and we saw just how cold he can get, with the "so?" scene in the season finale. I loved him on the island, and loved him in the flash-forwards.

A surprisingly great character this season was Hurley. He wasn't exactly the most prominant character of the season, but he was great. Considering how much of a comedy relief character he's been in the past 3 seasons, it was nice to see him become a pretty big role in the series. I loved his scenes in the mental hospital. And I love the fact that, while he was much more serious in this season, he could still have some great comedy moments (even if they were much more subtle), like the candy bar scene with Ben, and the chess scene in the season finale.

Desmond's character wasn't as important this season as he was last season. However, he had one of the better episodes of the season, "The Constant." I loved the idea behind that episode, traveling back and forth between two time periods, and it was a great Desmond/Penny episode.

I thought that Michael's role in the season was great as well. I liked him in season 1, didn't care for him as much in season 2, but this season was great for him. I especially liked the episode "Meet Kevin Johnson." The only thing that I didn't really care for was the predictability of the way his story ended, which I saw coming since "Meet Kevin Johnson." It was still a great story though.

I wish that Locke would have been in the season more than he was. He was such a minor part of the first half of the season, and only started to become more prominant in the second half. I did love some of his moments in the second half of the season though, especially in the episode "Cabin Fever." It was a nice use of one of the rare occasions of flashbacks in the season. The only thing I didn't care for was the fact that the Walkabout wasn't his own idea, which hurt the episode "Walkabout," but not enough for it to stop being my favorite of the series. I hope to see more of him in the next couple seasons, especially to fill in the gaps between the Oceanic Six getting off the island that the part in the season finale.

One of the biggest wastes of opportunity for me was the freighter people. This season, the two best characters from them were Keamy and Frank Lapidus. Keamy was a very interesting, evil bad guy, and I loved a lot of his scenes (he is no Ben though ). I loved the character Frank, especially towards the end of the season. The characters Miles and Daniel were both very interesting in different ways. I loved Miles' psychic ability, and the posibilities of that. The scenes where he gets his psychic visions were great. I liked Daniel's personality, and the possibility of him also needing a constant, like Desmond. However, both of these characters were under-used this season. Hopefully they both are developed more in the next couple seasons, because they both have great potential. I'm not too thrilled with Charlotte at the moment, but she could become more interesting if they developed her more...

Two characters that seemed to have very small, but very important roles in this season are Richard Alpert and Abaddon. I think that whenever either of these characters are brought on screen, the scenes are very interesting. Both characters are a mystery, and hopefully they'll be in more episodes in the future, so that they can be developed more.

One of the biggest mysteries right now for me (not the biggest, but one of the biggest) is Claire and Christian. Seriously, WTF is going on with those two?! One moment Christian comes up to Claire in the woods, then Claire's missing with the baby on the ground, and later we see both of them in Jacob's cabin, with Claire looking high, and then Claire in the dream........... And what will happen with Aaron? If they "all" have to go back to the island, but Claire said "Don't you dare bring him back!" It's about time we got an interesting story going with Claire. It's been so long since she has had one...

Overall, it was a great season, even if it wasn't what I had been used to. I'm glad that we're finally getting somewhere, even if we are still getting millions of questions. I can't wait until season 5. I can't believe it will be over in 2 years. I know 2 seasons is a long time, but with a show like Lost, they'll need all of that time to bring us all the answers, even to the ones that are sure to be brought up in the future.

The show Dexter is a crime drama about a guy who works for the police, analysing the blood at crime scenes in order to solve them. However, Dexter isn't a normal investigator, as we learn very on, he's actually a cold, emotionless killer himself. This aspect of the show is what sets it apart from most crime dramas for me, and adds so much to the show which wouldn't otherwise be there.

I love the way the show sets up a strong contrast between what Dexter appears to be to other people, and who he really is. His relationship to his girlfriend Rita and her kids, his step-sister Deb, and the people who he works with is portrayed extremely well by the writers and by the actor Michael C. Hall. However, this is contrasted by his scenes as a killer. These are presented with him as a disturbingly calm and controlled killer. It took me a little while to really appreciate the way this is presented within the show, but after I did get used to it, I asolutely loved it.

Another thing that I love about Dexter is his history of being a killer. His past is presented in some flashbacks to different points in his life. He was raised by his step-father Harry, who was a cop that knew about Dexter's true nature. Instead of letting Dexter going down the same road as most killers, Harry teaches Dexter to control his instincts, and only kill people who have done something bad. Throughout his life as a killer, he follows this "Code of Harry," which he uses in order to ony kill those kinds of people.

Of course, there are other aspects to the show as well. Throughout the first season, it has Dexter working on a case, which lasts the whole 12 episodes of the season. There's a killer who seemingly knows Dexter, and is sending him messages through the crime scenes. I loved this aspect of the show, and the mind games that the killer played with Dexter.

However, there are also some more minor crimes that Dexter also investigates within certain episodes. Most of these are interesting in their own way, and sometimes say something about Dexter. My favorite one deals with a teenage boy who is starting to go through the same thing that Dexter did when he became a killer, and the strong bond that he felt towards the kid.

The secondary characters in the show are very interesting. Some of the characters were ones that I started off hating, but when we learn more about them, they become a lot better. The best case of this is the character Doakes. When we first see him, he is presented as a kind of over-the-top, foul-mouthed character that had it in for Dexter, and was the only person who knew who Dexter really was. I liked that he knew who Dexter really was, but everything else about him kind of annoyed me. However, as the season goes on, his character goes past the over-the-top, foul-mouthed aspects that he started out with, and grew into a much more interesting character, and probably my second favorite after Dexter himself.

The season did a very good job at setting up everything for the first several episodes. But it is once it gets past this set up that the series goes from being very good to great. Starting with the episode "Return to Sender," the show becomes great, and sometimes briliant and creepy.

I don't really care for crime dramas that much, with the only other exception that I've seen being Millennium. This one is very different from that, and it's hard to compare one kind of briliance to another. If I had to choose, I'd say that Millennium is better, but this comes pretty close. Both great examples of what crime dramas could be.

Lost season 3

I finished watching the 3rd season of Lost about a week ago, and even caught up to the current season (I'll write a blog on that when the season is over).

While the start of the season was a bit slow, it was a much better beginning than the 2nd season. I liked how it started off with just the Others' camp, with Jack, Kate, and Sawyer in their cells, and slowly moved back to the boat, and then finally back to the main island. This helped to reduce the claustrophobic feeling of the beginning of the 2nd season, and allowed them to reveal the main story at a fairly steady (but still kind of slow) pace.

This did make me wait to find out what happened after the events at the hatch, but once we did get back to the island to find that out, I loved how it developed.

I loved how Locke got his faith back after he comes back to the camp. His flashbacks were both very good (even though his first one was my least favorite flashback of his, I still thought that it was good). And his background story with his dad comes to an end in the great episode "The Brig." If they ever do a flashback about Locke again (which is doubtful with the changes made in the series), I'd like to find out more about how he got involved with the people in the episode "Further Instructions." His on-island story is also very good.

I liked the development of Desmond, and the story with Charlie. It was played out very well, despite being stretched out throughout most of the season. It produced two of my favorite episodes this season, "Flashes Before His Eyes," (2nd favorite of the series behind "Walkabout"), and "Greatest Hits" (great Charlie episode, with a lot of nice moments), and also played a key role in the final episode. It also set up Desmond as a great character.

I loved the character Mr. Eko in season 2, and this season's episode "The Cost Of Living" alone made the character a much more enjoyable character. I loved his dark past, and his scenes on the island, showing what happens on the island when they don't overcome their past.

This theme was also nicely shown on the episode "Exposé," which wasn't one of the best episodes of the season, but wasn't as bad as others have made it out to be either.

I loved the continuation of Ben as a very manipulative character. In season 2, he did a great job at manipulating some of the events, and in this season, this becomes a lot more interesting. Some of his interactions with Sawyer, Jack, and Locke help to set him up as one of my favorite characters on the show.

Finally, while I'm not a huge fan of Jack, I thought that the season finale was a great way to end the season. The introduction of the flash-forwards is a great way to propel the series forward. The episode itself had a great contrast between the on-island Jack and the future Jack, and does a good job at setting up the next season (which sets up how the present Jack becomes the future Jack, which we are just starting to understand).

Overall, it was a great season, despite the fact that it includes the worst episode of the series so far ("A Stranger in a Strange Land").

Millennium Season 3

After the brilliant season 2, I was prepared for yet another change in the series, due to Chris Carter's hatred of the 2nd season. While I didn't agree, I could easily understand why he felt that way about that season.

The third season started off very shaky because of the uncertainty of what to do with it. They wanted to go back to the dark crime drama that season 1 was, but didn't want to anger the fans of season 2 either. There still weren't any terrible episodes in this period of the show, although both "... Thirteen Years Later" and "Human Essence" are among my least favorite episodes of the series (I love what "... Thirteen Years Later" tried to do, and actually succeeded in doing, but the intentional corniness of the episode really hurt it). It even had probably the only dated episode of the series, "TEOTWAWKI," which dealt specifically with the ideas behind Y2K. Before then, the end of the world stuff was dealt with in such a way that I could easily look past the fact that the world didn't really end in 2000, because similar stuff is still going on (*points at the 2012 people*). This part of the series did have some great episodes ("Skull and Bones," "Through a Glass Darkly," and "Omerta," which was actually better than its own plot), but I couldn't help feeling that the season could have had a much better start if they knew what they were trying to do.

Luckily, they did finally realize that they couldn't keep going the way that they were going. After "Omerta," they took their own advice from that episode, and started a new life for the series. The episode "Borrowed Time" was a great episode that showed just how much Jordan means to Frank. Within the last couple of seasons, everything that has happened to Frank has taken away his hopes for a happy home, and this episode nearly takes away his only hope to salvage those dreams, and shows Frank at his weakest, and most desperate. "Collateral Damage" is a great episode dealing with Peter Watts. It shows how, even though they have their differences, and are on opposing sides, they are willing to put aside their differences in certain situations. It also sets up the differences between the two, and uses "Borrowed Time," the episode before it, as a way to do so. "The Sound of Snow" had me a bit worried due to its plot, but towards the middle, it starts to pick up steam, and becomes a great episode dealing with the events of the 2nd season finale.

"Antipas" is a Lucy Butler episode, and anybody who watches Millennium knows that those episodes are always great. It sets up a very creepy atmosphere from the start. I love the imagery in the episode, and especially within the opening scenes. And the last scene with Lucy sets up an nice threat for future use. "Matryoshka" was a step down from the previous set of episodes, but it had some great parts to it. I love the idea of humans playing God without being ready for the consequences, and there's a nice moment for Peter Watts in there as well. For any other series, this episode might be one of the better episode, but for Millennium it was kind of weak. "Forcing the End" had a pretty good story, with lots of great character moments. It continues Peter Watts' and Emma's stories in a very interesting way. "Saturn Dreaming of Mercury" was a great episode that focused on Jordan (not many episodes focus on her, and none have done so as much as this episode). I thought that it was a great story, and helped to develop the pretty sad story of Jordan's life, living with her "gift." The ending of the episode was great, and added a whole new layer to the episode.

"Darwin's Eye" was a great episode by itself, with a great story. I loved the murders in the episode, and the way they were depicted, especially at the end. The killer was very unique, and I loved the "purity" aspect to it. It doesn't quite live up to many of the great episodes of the 2nd and 3rd seasons, but it was still a great episode when judged on its own. "Bardo Thodol" would have fit in with the initial group of episode. It still would be one of the weakest episodes of the season, and of the series, but at least it wouldn't have been in the middle of so many great episodes. It did have its moments, but it had a pretty weak story, and over-simplified the character of Peter Watts. Again, I don't think this (or any episode of the series) is truly bad, but this is one of the closest to being bad of the entire series. "Sevens and Ones" was a story that I've seen many times before, with somebody trying to discredit Frank by saying that he was crazy, and it had several elements that I've seen before in other shows. But it manages to turn these unoriginal ideas into something that actually feels very fresh, and I thought that it was a very good episode. "Nostalgia" wasn't as good as some of the other episodes of the season, but was still very good. I thought that the killer in the episode was very interesting, and the episode had some very good moments.

The finale episodes, "Via Dolorosa" and "Goodbye to All That" were great episodes. I loved the very creepy killer in the episode. The season-long storyline comes to a nice close in the second episode. And there were some great moments in each of them. I especially loved the great moments between Frank and Peter, which have been missed throughout the season (there were a couple episodes that had some good moments between them, but overall it wasn't nearly as much as the 2nd season). I kind of wish that they had a 4th season, because even though the season's story came to an end in the episode, there were some questions left unanswered that I wanted to see play out, but overall it was a great way to end the series. And part of me is glad that they stopped when they did, so that they didn't run the risk of running out of steam. This way, there are three very strong seasons (despite the stumble at the beginning of this season, which is made up for due to the great episodes later in the season).

I just finished the 2nd season of Lost, and thought that it was very good, but not quite as good as the first season. At the start of the season, it was too confined between the hatch and the cage that Michael, Jin, and Sawyer were held in. This made the story telling more confined until they revealed more answers, and allowed the story to go outside of those two places more.

In addition to that, the season introduced many new characters, which was both a good thing and a bad thing. The characters that were introduced were all great in their own ways, and added a lot to the show. Desmond was very interesting from what little we saw of him. Mr. Eko was great, with a good group of flashbacks, and I loved his personality and role on the island. Ana Lucia was a very good, and I loved her strong attitude. Libby took a while to get going, and at first I didn't really care about her one way or the other, but after a while, especially after the episode "Dave," I really started to like her, and liked her relationship to Hurley. Ben was a great character, and I loved his interactions with the different characters in the hatch. And finally, even though they weren't in it that much, I thought that Rose and Bernard were both great characters, I loved their relationship, and thought that it was great to see another person who believed as strongly in the island's goodness as Locke did. However, with the fact that they introduced so many characters in addition to the already big cast, it started to hurt some of the characters' screen time. There were some episodes where I wondered where different characters were, and sometimes forgot about them completely until they showed up. The juggling act between characters wasn't handled as well as it was in the first season because there was a lot more to juggle.

With that being said, there was a lot that I liked about this season. The tension between Locke and Jack was great, pitting the man of science against the man of faith (bringing it back to Locke's backgammon speech in the pilot episode). As mentioned before, I liked Ben's role in the season, and his interactions with the other characters. I also thought that Locke's change of faith was very interesting, led to some great scenes.

I can't wait to see season 3, since there's a lot to work with. I'd love to see the Jack/Locke conflict continue, and see what happens to Jack, Kate, and Sawyer next season. I also can't wait to see what happened after the incident in the hatch. And I'd love to see more of the new characters, and how Mr. Eko's relationship with Locke is affected by what happened in the last episode.