Grab Bag Post

Just watched the 13th episode of the show, the finale of the first season and while I have enjoyed every minute of it, I really, really didn't appreciate what they did with the last few minutes. I mean, I'm all for cliffhangers but, gah!
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Falling Skies, on the other hand, met my expectations beautifully.

My biggest concern was that this would be another scifi show that'd burn me. First was Flash Forward which started out with an amazing premiere that quickly petered out into a meaningless parade of boring subplots. V at least had the decency to be terrible from the very beginning but, still, it was terrible in ways that I haven't seen outside of B movies. And then The Event, which started by having a plane disappear in midflight and went on its mid-season break by showing us that - gasp! - villainous Hal Holbrook* likes to play Calvinchess.

What Falling Skies seems to have learned, and learned well, is that good shows show rather than tell, but they show in increments, building story and character rather than worrying about whether their plot points are flashy enough. Given the pedigree of the show, this shouldn't be too surprising. I'm hoping it can sustain what's it built up so far.
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 On Thursday I'm going to get a chance to teach a group of 3rd and 4th grade boys about the 139th Psalm, a personal favourite. I've spent quite a lot of time getting this lesson ready, so I'm hoping it goes well.
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Every night, I put Brandon down to bed. Before I go downstairs, we pray, and as part of that prayer I thank God for something I love about Brandon. It's a bit of a ritual, but I think it's important for kids to know that they are special and wonderful.

Anyway, tonight, I thanked God for Brandon's curiosity. I hardly got to see him at all since I left for work shortly after waking up and then tonight was our church softball game, but the entire time we were there he spent exploring a giant broken log along with a bunch of other kids. He was poking it with sticks, putting his head through holes and generally making himself very, very dirty.

After we prayed, Brandon asked, "Dad, what's curdi . . . curiotis . . . that thing you were talking about?"

Love that kid

Why I am no longer interested in watching Law & Order: SVU - Caution: Explicit Content

I am a fan of the L&O franchise. I even liked the redheaded stepchildren of the genre, the shows that never really got a chance to catch on or, if we want to honest with ourselves, kinda stunk. That "chung-chung" sound is enough to make me sit in a chair for an hour and come away entertained and, in some cases, kind of thoughtful.

In the past few years, though, I noticed that, for whatever reason, I was no longer able to sit through an entire episode of SVU. It wasn't the nature of the crimes - I'm a grown man, and a fan of true crime and books on crime and punishment, I know people do horrible things to other people - but I just found that whenever the show was on, I'd find a reason to be elsewhere, even if all that meant was reading a book while sharing the living room with my wife.

I know I wasn't interested in the show, that something was actually driving me away from it, but I couldn't put my finger on it until tonight.

I never really caught the plot of the episode, but at the end some college boy who bribed another girl to hide up the fact that he raped and apparently murdered a girl is told by an assistant district attorney that in prison, he'll learn what it's like to be raped on the bathroom floor.

The implication is clear, and it disgusts me.

I'm not a fan of criminals, nor am I "soft on crime." I just think that an office of the law being pleased at an impending act of sexual assault, regardless of the repugnant nature of the person it's going to happen to, is an offence. I appreciate the desire to see the bad guys get their comeuppance, to "get what they deserve," but the purpose of justice isn't vengeance, or at least shouldn't be.

So, sorry L&O:SVU. If it makes you feel any better, thanks to you I'll probably finally get around to finishing House of Leaves.