The Futon Critic - It’s official: NBC has pulled the plug on “Kidnapped.”

Repeats of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” will take over the show’s Saturday, 9:00/8:00c home beginning November 4.

Welp, here’s the first casualty of the new season for a show that I was actively watching. I’ve been saving Smith & Runaway, two other series that have been early casualties - but I haven’t watched more than the pilot for those as yet. And I figure I’ve got plenty of time to catch up on them down the line. I’m sad to see Kidnapped go. It was a pretty good series. It’s definitely superior to the similarly themed Vanished on Fox, though word has it that Fox has also sent down word to that series to wrap things up at episode 13 as well. Oh well, hopefully Kidnapped will get a DVD release or at least secondary network airing to show the rest they managed to produce. Would be nice if they made it to 13, with some kind of wrap up. I’m following quite a few shows this season, so it’s expected to have some of them nailed. If they kill Studio 60, The Nine, Jericho or a few of the other new shows I’m really loving, then I’ll be quite annoyed. Kidnapped was good, but I can get too annoyed at them for killing it. If they had to kill one, that’s one I can live with.

The Inquirer - Online retail giant Amazon.com says the MP3 player was invented as far as 1973. Not only that, the interweb store was apparently operating even before the commercial Web became a reality. Shurely shome mischtake.

Amusing screw ups. Wonder if it’s a date formatting mistake, data entry mistake or the time machine effects that the story wonders about.

Whedon.info - Looks like Drive has been picked up. When posting at Buffistas Tim said the following:

So it looks like for my birthday I might be getting a shiny new TV series. With cars.

Given Tim Minear’s history, of course all of us fans have to take this news with a grain of salt. Perhaps this time will be the charm. Minear has had number fantastic shows killed fast by Fox (Firefly, Wonderfalls, The Inside). I’m not completely sold on the idea for the series, but given those involved I’m sure it’ll be great.

TrekMovie.com - CBS are giving themselves options by creating all the new CGI effects in HD 16:9 wide-screen. However no decision has been made on whether they will ever actually see the light of day. The issue is that the live action shots are all in 4:3. Therefore in order to make a fully wide-screen version of the show, the live action shots would have to be cropped using what is called ‘pan and tilt’. For now the HD masters of the show are ‘pillar boxed’ (black bars on the left and right) so you see the full frame live action and the extra CGI shots are cropped to fit.

This article pretty much confirms what I would have assumed anyway. It makes sense that they cover their options by doing the new shots with both 4:3 and 16:9 in mind. As they state, though, to go 16:9 with the actual episodes themselves, they’d have to crop down to that ratio. I’m for keeping the original 4:3 ratio as it was intended, but I think it’d be interesting for them to do an alternate video stream (an “alternate angle” in DVD terms) with the 16:9 as well, on whatever HD format on which they eventually end up released. While they’re at it, they could use seemless branching and alternate angles to keep the original effects in the 4:3 version as well. I know it sounds like lofty wishes, but so far they seem to be approaching this project with the right intentions and genuinely respectful effort. Who knows, perhaps we finally can get an “ultimate” version of something the way us fans really want it. Either way, it’ll be a while (and understandably so - it’s a lot of effort to do these right).

Engadget - Benjamin Heckerdorn — that oh-so-crafy modding guru we love to love — is at it again with his console-morphing antics, and this time the victim is the ill-fated “64-bit” Atari Jaguar. The mission? To create a portable, all-in-one, battery-powered version of Atari’s flailing attempt to make it in the ever-competitive console market.

Cool. Yeah, I’m an Atari nerd. I’ve got a Jaguar. Heck, I’ve got a Jaguar CD unit, and a few of the games for it (meaning about half of them). The design of this portable unit is amusing. A little bit kludged, but certainly fitting with the Jaguar design motif well enough. Jeff Mintner’s Tempest 2000 was a game so fantastic that it was worth the existence of the Jaguar all by itself. There were a handful of other good games for the system (and a fair share of total lemons, too). It’s was on of Atari’s final gasps for breath before they were pulled under. I have fond memories of the machine. Great, now I feel like firing it up and playing some Tempest 2000…

SoundtrackNet - For his score to the film, Silvestri conducted a 101-piece orchestra, which included eight French horns and six percussionists. A choir was also recorded later in the week, heightening the dramatic adventurous material.

Nice to see Silvestri get a nice, big, fun scoring job. I’m still not sure what I think of the movie itself (but hey, Dick Van Dyke is in it, so I’ll see it just for that). If it give Silvestri the opportunity to cut loose and have some fun with a huge orchestra at his disposal, it can’t be all bad.

BetaNews - After a brief delay, Microsoft on Monday made available Windows Media Player version 11. The update includes several enhancements, including a new user interface, improved syncing, and integration with the URGE music service.

The next month will see all manner of Microsoft products going into final versions. Today, Windows Media Player 11 hits the streets in final form. I’ve been using the last couple beta versions for some time now, and they have worked well. Just installed the final.

Microsoft - We believe people everywhere have great ideas. But they do no good trapped in your head. We want to help you turn them into a flourishing business by taking the hassle out of accounting and business management. So we’re offering Microsoft® Office Accounting Express 2007 software absolutely free! No strings attached. Get your free download here.

This is a smart move on Microsoft’s part. Take a nice, new, fairly-feature-rich-looking application and put it out there for free. The big money is in the more robust systems, and Microsoft is going up against Intuit in both small and large accounting systems (as well as against other systems). To put a fairly powerful app out there for the smaller business market for free helps establish their foothold in the market, and get them a leg up in becoming an industry standard. I think it’s a wonderful gesture to the small business operators out there, such as the E-Bay sellers that they specifically mention and target. And tying things into Office 2007 directly is also a nice benefit. Now they just have to get the word out there about this nifty freebie (guess I’m helping with that). I haven’t used it, but the brief flash demo does make it look pretty nice.

After last episode’s breakneck action, we are treated to this astounding character episode. After stating that last week’s episode was one of the best the series had done, we get this episode that is easily as good, and is without a doubt one of the best episodes this series has done. If last week’s episode should be enough to finally get Battlestar their much deserved visual effects and directing Emmy awards, this episode should be easily enough to get the show a writing Emmy. Of course, those are assumptions based on the Academy actually being filled with people who know what in the world quality television really is. So, in other words, highly unlikely. As even Ron Moore admits in his podcast, this episode is about as dark as the show can get. I agree. Not only is it dark, it’s an episode of television that I simply haven’t seen before. This is characters living every shade of gray, lost in a haze of ambiguity and disillusionment. There aren’t heroes and bad guys to this story. This is the characters of the show in a state of apathy and confusion, seeking vengeance wherever they can get it. The opening of the episode is such a starkly dark open you know you’re in for one heck of an episode. By this point, I’m convinced that the Sci-Fi Channel is 100% behind this show. Any network that wasn’t completely committed to a show wouldn’t produce and put an episode like this on the air. This is brave television. This is brilliant television. This is what the medium should be used for.

It’s extremely clear (to me, anyway) just how versed in history the writers of this show are. Or more to the point, how versed they are in the history of warfare. There are many allusions to post WWII (and numerous other conflicts) fallout, with hugely difficult questions raised. And they have the bravery to not really answer the questions, choosing instead to show both sides of the problem, and admitting that neither side of the argument is a clear cut moral high ground. The final solution, if you want to call it that, is a smart choice. When Roslin and Adama confront Zarek about his tactics, clearly assuming themselves to be in the right, he comes back at them with a great many insightful points. Raising the notion that public trials for stuff like this will become a baseless witch-hunt, more so than his appointed squad of justice, Adama and Roslin are faced with the fact that he’s right about that. I mean, if you look at the history of war crime trials, you realize that things become so buried in revenge and blind remorse that it’s likely more just and better for society as a whole to have a small set of people take care of it all discreetly. This episode is filled with intense character development, to an almost pathological intensity. Aaron Douglas beautifully portrays a Chief Tyrol who has completely lost his bearings, who can’t figure out what he’s supposed to be doing. What’s the right call? He has no idea, and he knows it. Tigh’s point of view is even more stark – coming from the angle that if his wife had to face justice, why should anyone else be shown compassion. Ellen’s final fate is something that was shrouded in questionable action, and in retrospect is much more interesting after watching an episode like this. Then there’s the cast, who bring this story to another level. Aaron Douglas is yet again a major standout talent on the show. Michael Hogan brings out the truly raw side of Tigh. Katee Sackhoff keeps Starbuck spinning out of control, a talent which she has in spades. Richard Hatch makes a very challenging situation for his character of Tom Zarek work – he is completely convincing as a character who is doing very harsh things, almost intolerable, for the right reasons. Plenty of the other cast members do fantastic jobs as well.

This episode is intelligent TV of the highest order. It deserves and Emmy. It deserves another Peabody. It deserves higher ratings. The Sci-Fi Channel has the best show on TV, and they are stopping at nothing to keep it that way. They are not pulling any punches, and are giving the writers and producers of the show something that is so completely rare on TV – a nearly free reign to present challenging storylines, full of unanswerable questions and questionable action. This episode is not easy to watch – which is in no way a criticism. There are so few examples of episodes like this in the history of television. Epsiodes like Buffy’s “The Body” (which is quite different from this episode, but is another example of an unflinchingly dark story told without sugarcoating or apology). This just leaves me with mentioning the small introductory bits of Baltar’s new storyline, on the basestar. We are only teased with that storyline, and what’s there is good. There’s much more of that storyline to come, and much of it already sounds promising. We’ll be seeing far more detail of the until-now elusive basestar interiors in episodes to come, and I look forward to what the writing/design teams have come up with. So, to sum up, I consider this one of the strongest episodes of any show in recent years, right on the heels of last week’s phenomenal episode. Stunning stuff, guys. Keep up the fantastic work.

I was expecting to like this movie a bit more, given its pedigree in front of and behind the camera, as well as the fact that I really liked the other “magic movie” this year (The Illusionist). While there were a number of elements to this movie that I rather like, it’s the convoluted nature and rather detached approach to the movie that didn’t particularly work for me.

Writing: Unlike The Illusionist, the semi-predictable nature of this movie works against it. The Illusionist was very enjoyable for me, even though I pretty much had the ending figured out way ahead of time. It’s really not trying to pin too much on the twist at the end, and is just as much about character and performance. It also leaves some mystery to things, leaving thing unanswered. The Prestige relies heavily on the convoluted plotting and backstabbing natures of all the characters. Frankly, if not made by such a talented production crew and fantastic cast, I don’t think I would have liked this movie all too much.

Production: Director Christopher Nolan lends some style to the film (though also not quite as much as The Illusionist has), and other departments do a good job, such as the visual effects team. Some of the Tesla lighting stuff looks fantastic, and the period setting is well established.

Cast: Here is the strongest aspect to the film. When you have cast members like Michael Caine involved, you immediately get a good amount of quality (think of all the crap films he has made at least slightly bearable). Nolan also carried over Christian Bale from Batman Begins to this film, and he does a pretty good job here (though not quite as good as he did in Batman Begins). And, just like teaming up Caine & Bale from their previous film, we get Scarlett Johansson & Hugh Jackman teamed up (from their previous Woody Allen movie Scoop). Supporting roles are filled nicely be people like Piper Perabo.

Music: Nolan again uses composer David Julyan. His score is incredibly downplayed, to a fault actually. Nolan seems to prefer very low key, almost non-existent music scores. He tied Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard down on Batman Begins, and gets an even more downplayed effort out of Julyan here. The score is near impossible to listen to on CD. It does OK in the film, but it could have been far more interesting. Phillip Glass, on the other hand, turned in the best score of his career for The Illusionist. Sorry I keep comparing this movie to The Illusionist. I just can’t help it.

This is a mildly amusing buddy comedy. There’s not a lot of originality involved, to be sure. All things being equal, I’d probably give this a 6 out of 10 if it weren’t for having seen it in the rather fun IMAX 3D format.

Writing: Like I said, the writing on this film is nothing to write home about. It’s completely generic, and completely falls to escape the trappings of the genre. I will give it some credit for some fun running jokes (a particularly favorite kind of humor for me).

Production: The animation in the film is well done. Not spectacular or anything, but certainly good enough. It’s the 3D rendering that’s most impressive, particularly in the spectacular IMAX resolution. Things like sound design and editing are pretty well done.

Cast: One’s not exactly shooting for the stars with the likes of Martin Lawrence and Ashton Kutcher. I’ve thought that Ashton Kutcher is a bit underrated, actually, and he does a pretty good job, but this isn’t a particularly notable role for him to sink his teeth in to. It’s charming, sure, but pretty much just that. Others like Debra Messing, Gary Sinise and Billy Connolly help add some life and dimension to the supporting characters.

Music: Ramin Djawadi turns in a serviceable score. But like the movie itself, it’s entertaining enough but not particularly brilliant in any particular way.

The Smoking Gun - As if you need another reason to love Iggy Pop, the veteran rocker (and his band The Stooges) have the single most entertaining concert rider TSG has ever obtained. The document–all 18 pages of which you’ll find below–describes Iggy’s requirements in terms of amplifiers, security, lighting, stage set up, and dressing rooms. But unlike most similar documents, Iggy’s rider is written in a rollicking, stream-of-consciousness fashion that delivers multiple laughs per page.

One of my favorite parts of the excellent Smoking Gun site is their Backstage area, where they display all the wonderfully bizarre “rider” requests that entertainers give to venues at which they will be performing. Many are full of superficial weirdness, typically from the diva type performers. But this one from Iggy Pop’s tour is absolutely hilarious. The whole thing is truly funny (if you have my sense of humor). Be warned that there’s some language in it (big shock).

Google Image Labeler - Welcome to Google Image Labeler, a new feature of Google Image Search that allows you to label random images to help improve the quality of Google’s image search results.

OK, this one is oddly fun and surprisingly addictive. And hey, you almost feel slightly productive while doing it. It’s a rather fascinating concept. Surely this must be one of the always-fun 20% projects at Google. Very cool. Racked up my first 10,000 points already. Will have to work my way up the list…

The Dilbert Blog - As regular readers of my blog know, I lost my voice about 18 months ago. Permanently. It’s something exotic called Spasmodic Dysphonia. Essentially a part of the brain that controls speech just shuts down in some people, usually after you strain your voice during a bout with allergies (in my case) or some other sort of normal laryngitis. It happens to people in my age bracket.

Still haven’t completely caught up on all the Dilbert Blog posts, but this one from today is quite impressive. It’s absolutely worth reading all the way through. It’s a very interesting method he discovered to such a strange condition. What’s interesting is that it makes a certain kind of sense as a method of therapy for the problem. I’d bet the brain autopilots the act of speech a bit more when working with stuff like rhymes. But as he says, who knows hwo permanent the solution may be, but if nothing else it’s a nice reprieve and is certainly a helpful clue. Very interesting, indeed.

BetaNews - The CPSC said the total number of batteries worldwide affected in Monday night’s recall could reach 3 million. Last week, Sony said the number of faulty batteries had surpassed 10 million units.

Eeeeek. Man, Sony is so screwed. Between this battery fiasco and their constant PS3/Blu-Ray problems and delays.

CBBC Newsround - Dr Who is one of TV’s biggest hits, and now some of the show’s music will soon be released on a special album.

It should be in the shops before Christmas, and insiders say it might be ready by the third week of November.

Excellent news. Somehow this had been quasi-official news since as early as July, and I had missed it. I’m thrilled to hear that this would be seeing a release soon. I’ll admit that at first I wondered if I liked the outlanding approach that composer Murray Gold was taking with the show, during the first couple episodes anyway. But since I’ve come to really love the work he’s done on the show. Actually, as I watch the first couple episodes of Torchwood, I’m also quite impressed with his work on that show, too. It’s a rather different sound to what he does for Who, but still feels slightly similar. It has more of a Mark Snow feel to it (which isn’t surprising, given the X-Files influence of the show). Though it’s more aggressive than Snow’s average scores (though Snow’s scores to the Harsh Realm series episodes was more along this line as well). Anyway, I look forward to the soundtrack release for Gold’s material to Doctor Who.

Miguel Carrasco’s Real World - Over the years, computers have changed the way we live today! In order to get us there, many hardware and software companies have pushed the envelope to create what we use today. Although we currently live in an age of amazing hardware and software achievements, these products did not come at no cost. Below is a list of some of the worst flops in computer history.

Yeah, there are some classics in the list. I’ve played with Bob before, and it was right to fail. The Alto is a legend, to say the least. Xerox *REALLY* dropped the ball on that one (their company history would be COMPLETELY different if they would have realized what they had). Yes, the PCjr sucked. So did the Newton. I actually liked OS/2 Warp (and used it on and off for a while), but the driver and software support for it were a complete and total joke, thanks to IBM’s awful marketing…

First, let me note that I’m going to try and do single episode-by-episode reviews of 2 shows this season: Battlestar Galactica & Veronica Mars (my 2 current favorite shows). I’ll fill in the previous three Battlestar reviews shortly. Anyway, on to this episode. And there will be ample spoilers to follow. Simply put, holy cow. What an insane episode. This episode must have hemorrhaged budget from the show’s production. Gary Hutzel and his effects team continue to raise the bar. These guys continue to push out visual effects sequences that make feature film productions green with envy, on a TV schedule and budget – on cable no less. Seriously, the visual effects work in this episode is unprecedented on TV, period. On that subject, I also have to again complement Ron Moore’s podcast commentaries. As usual, his commentary for this episode is great. For instance, how about this statement, “I love this. This is tremendous effects work by Gary Hutzel and his team … this is like visual effects-a-go-go, and we better win the f#*@ing Emmy for this this year…” (Battlestar was robbed for last year’s vfx Emmy). The scene he’s talking about it Galactica FTL jumping into the atmosphere of New Caprica, frantically launching vipers as it falls like a flaming brick, and jump back out shortly before it hits the ground. It’s insane stuff. Wonderfully insane stuff. And there’s more insanity to come. There’s two moments of wonderful surprise in this episode that in retrospect I’m kind of annoyed with myself for not seeing coming. First is Pegasus tearing into the shot, gun batteries firing as fast as they can. It’s SUCH a cool moment. The second moment is the (rather conveniently coincidental) moment of Casey’s real mother revealing Casey to not be Kara’s daughter after all. It was all a rouse by Leoben after all. When it comes to both Pegasus and Casey, we had been kinda lulled into the idea of them being something permanent, despite all initial impressions one would get when they were introduced. They string the plots of them along long enough that you forget that you originally expected them to be off the show again soon. And WHAT a death Pegasus has. There are TONS of wonderful moments in this episode. Way more than I could describe without simply transcribing the script. Character moments with Laura back on Colonial One. Tigh killing Ellen. Gaeta confronting Baltar. The final moment with Adama shaving his mustache engaging life again, with renewed hope. It’s a perfect end to the episode…

I’ve still got a few other reviews to post, but I thought I’d go ahead and get this one up in a timely fashion. I’d been looking forward to seeing this movie for some time. I’d been particularly keen to see it after reading the Cinefex article about the visual effects. All in all, I thought the film was fantastic. Totally worthy of joining the ranks of other modern World War II productions such as Saving Private Ryan and Band Of Brothers. This one is produced by Steven Spielberg, so it has no trouble being grouped with those mentioned anyway. The reality of the combat and situations is played without flinching. It’s both disturbing and amazing. In fact, there is one specific scene which is one of the most disturbing I’ve seen in quite some time – and it achieves this by actually leaving it to your imagination (you’ll know the scene I’m talking about when you see it).

Writing: I’d like to think that William Broyles Jr. had more to do with the strengths of this screenplay than Paul Haggis. Paul Haggis is a writer behind some movies I truly hated (Crash, The Last Kiss, etc). Perhaps the fact that it’s based on history and somebody else’s book helped keep the script on target. That, and you’ve got Clint Eastwood at the helm to keep it under control.

Production: If there’s any one thing that deserves to be singled out above all else for this film, it’s the visual effects work. If this movie doesn’t win the visual effects Oscar, it will be criminal. If it doesn’t get a nomination, I will boycott watching the Oscars (something I’ve watched every year since I was a kid). From the shots that are clearly visual effects shots to the subtle moments, every single piece is done to such levels of perfection and detail it is simply breathtaking. The shots of the naval fleet are jaw dropping. The first person sequences in the fighter planes are stunning. All the painstakingly rotoscoped invasion visual effects, dealing with cameras that are constantly on the move, are flawless. And all the period adjustments back in the States, recreating the time and scale, are beautiful. Other departments turn in some fine work, from cinematography to editing.

Cast: The movie is populated with a number of fine actors in the smallest of roles, which is a telling sign of the respect this movie had. You have actors who are often leading cast members taking roles with a couple scenes and a few lines. The lead actors are those playing the 3 “heroes” – Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford and Adam Beach. Phillippe does a particularly excellent job in his performance. This is not the first lead role in a huge World War II movie for Beach. He played a key role in John Woo’s rather good World War II film Windtalkers. Great to see plenty of fine supporting cast members, like Barry Pepper, Neal McDonough, Robert Patrick and many more. To put things simply, the cast is excellent. There’s a special little surprise for all you Monk fans out there, with Jason Gray-Stanford in a small role in the film.

Music: Eastwood continues to do more and more of the music himself for the films he directs. Long-time collaborator Lennie Niehaus does the conducting and orchestrating for Eastwood. The music is elegant, simple and rather memorable. Some really nice thematic piano material is a highlight.

BetaNews - Microsoft late Wednesday released the much-anticipated final version of Internet Explorer 7, the first major update to the market-leading Web browser in five years. The company has high hopes for the release, which arrives amid growing competition from Firefox.

Some steps in the right direction by MS. I’m still primarily a Firefox user. Were IE to get an Extensions system as great as Firefox, and a community of users writing such great extensions for it, I’d consider IE as my primary browser again. But at the moment, I continue to use Firefox…

The Dilbert Blog - Yesterday I gave a humorous talk to a group of business people. Afterwards, a number of Dilbert fans asked for autographs on their program guides. I’m happy to sign autographs in person, but I feel bad doing it because I’m turning a perfectly good piece of future garbage into something the person will have trouble discarding.

If I were more famous, perhaps people would frame my autograph and display it. Or maybe they would sell it on eBay, or trade it with other autograph collectors. But I’m not that famous. The best I can do is turn something that you could easily discard into something that will make you feel bad when you do.

Too funny, and too true. Wonder what the statics of his autographs’ longevity really is.

The Dilbert Blog - Today I heard on the news that Michael Jackson is going to open a leprechaun themed amusement park in Ireland. Seriously. If you don’t believe me, go Google yourself.

Let me pause for a moment while your brain connects the dots.

Gotta love it when Scott Adams throws caution to the wind. Such refreshingly un-PC stuff. Too funny.

The Dilbert Blog - My favorite story of the week is about Pope Benedict inadvertently insulting Islam in a speech. He quoted a Byzantine emperor who called Islam “evil and inhuman” but made it clear that it wasn’t his own opinion.

In response to being labeled evil and inhuman by a dead Byzantine emperor, a group of Muslims did what anyone would do in that situation: They firebombed two churches in the West Bank.

This is funny on so many levels that I hardly know where to start. But let me begin by saying WHAT THE HELL ARE CHURCHES DOING IN THE WEST BANK?????????

I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve fallen WAY behind on reading The Dilbert Blog. I’m working to rectify that. So, there may be a few posts referencing entries from that site…

Anyway, this is another classic Scott Adams post. One does have to wonder.

One of my other favorite new shows this season so far is Jericho. It’s one of them that is doing well in the ratings (along with Heroes – which I haven’t liked a lot so far, but more on that in my forthcoming Heroes review).

What’s interesting about Jericho is how they are able to tease out such a massive plot. Sure, the show owes a certain amount of deceptiveness and casual story development from shows like Lost. It also owes a certain amount to obvious sources like Stephen King’s The Stand and other recent Lost-influenced sci-fi shows like the underappreciated Threshold and the not-so-great Invasion. Casting on the show is solid across the board. Somewhat centering on Skeet Ulrich’s quasi-mysterious, prodigal character, we also have a well rounded cast filling out the rest of the characters. There are talented main-stay cast members like Gerald McRaney and Pamela Reed who bring a wide range of experience to the show. Then there’s cast members like Ashley Scott, who’s been on the verge of becoming a breakout star for some time. Then there are ones that I wasn’t previously familiar with, like Sprague Grayden, who have stepped up to the plate.

The plot to the show is ambitious, to say the least. And so far, they have been able to pace things out about as slowly as they can probably manage while still being able to keep some tension and mystery. It’s a delicate balance, and is one that amidst chaos on such a huge levels continues to center primarily on character. Not everything they have tried so far has completely worked – but then some of it is the stuff shrouded in mystery, so it may work better in retrospect down the road. Lost has the same problem (and they don’t always succeed in retrospect, either).

The pilot episode is well put together, featuring some striking images (like the one posted on this article) and some interesting ideas and situations. In the end, the pilot is little more than one giant launching pad for the story – the kind that makes it clear that there are many plots being put into play. The urgency they get to play with in the second episode, Fallout, is one of those ticking clock kinds of stories that lends well to the drama. The third episode, ironically titled Four Horsemen, is an interesting kind of “now what do we do” downplayed episode that works well following up the action episode that came before it. The fourth episode, Walls Of Jericho, puts for some interesting questions, and definitely raises the mystery/conspiracy level a notch. It’s not quite as good as the episodes that came before it. It does feature a fairly striking closing scene. Then there’s the most recent episode, Federal Response. I think it’s the strongest episode since the pilot. Some of the action is slightly forced, but it works well enough. It’s the individual moments in this episode that really make it work. Ultimately, is the closing of the episode that is the most impressive, featuring another brave and visually striking sequence that actually caught me a little by surprise. I honestly wasn’t quite expecting the show to make a move like it did (which I won’t reveal), and it definitely raises the scope of the mystery and overall circumstance of the drama.

I’m hoping CBS can keep this series doing well in the ratings (here’s a hint, guys, don’t bounce it all over the schedule). If there’s one specific criticism I’d make against the show, it’s against the music score. If it’s not being a bit too overdramatic, it’s doing unmistakable temp score knock-offs of scores like National Treasure (and why not, it’s a movie directed by Jon Turtletaub, who produces Jericho).

Please excuse the mess as I overhaul my site. It should remain at least partially functional during the next couple days…