Friday TV roundup

Let's see...

In reality TV news, Nikko was the surprise boot from American Idol. I can't believe Scott Savol is still there. He was in the bottom three, but managed to survive somehow. What's worse is that his fans will probably freak out that he almost went home and then vote in record numbers next week to keep him safe. *sigh* I am really coming close to despising Ohio over this.

The background spoiler for Amazing Race holds steady with the elimination of the brothers. I'll miss 'em. They were a good team and pretty funny, too. My favorite comment last episode was one of them noting (heavily paraphrased), "We're not here to see if our relationship will make it. We're brothers and we'll still be brothers after the race. We're kind of stuck."

Onto TV in general. Is it just me or this one of the best seasons of television ever? Three shows keep me rivted to the TV each week - Lost, 24, and Battlestar Galactica. I can't decide which is my favorite. I've already devoted a whole post to Battlestar. 24 is consistently a standing-and-pacing-in-front-of-the-television-during-commercials show. And I was on my feet as Jack tried to convince the pilot not to shoot down Air Force One. The images of the president embracing his son on the plane as the pilot zeroes in had me screaming at the TV. I am still hoping somehow the President and his son survive.

And then Wednesday's episode of Lost was one of the most perfectly acted, directed, and written episodes ever. We've seen the one character dies as a baby is born a million times on network TV. It's cliche. But somehow they managed to reinvigorate the cliche to where I was shouting for Jack to figure out a way to save Boone all the time knowing the young guy was doomed. So many good moments... Kate pushes her utter panic and fear away to help Claire give birth. Jin calms Charlie during the birth scenes. Sun confronts Jack about cutting off Boone's leg. (Poor Jack - he so can't handle failure even when it's not his fault.) And the flashback scenes, which revealed Jack got married at some point, once again expand a character and help us understand who he is.

I can't believe how much good TV is on right now, both scripted and not scripted.