"All New"

Have you ever noticed the promos for an upcoming episode of a TV show? They always say next week on an all new episode of (insert your favorite TV show here) and then go into the trailer for next week. To me, this "all new" saying makes no sense.

There is very little chance the show will be all new. I bet big bucks that at least one character is the same. Unless there is a show out there that has an entirely fresh cast every episode, then something is not new. If the show is serialized, such as Lost, Heroes, 24, etc., I would again wager large dollar sums that something from the plot line of a previous episode is going to carry over into next week's show.

I first noticed the "all new" saying when I was younger and watching Law & Order. They would always say "next week on an all new Law & Order, a crime so big it will blow your mind," or something to that extent. After watching the show the next week I would discover that not only did my mind not explode, but Sam Waterson was still playing Jack McCoy, what exactly is new about that?

They should either say "on next week's new episode of (insert favorite show here), Timmy falls in the well," or come up with some other means of conveying that an episode is not a re-run, because unless it is the series premiere or the entire cast got wiped out in last season's finale due to a bizarre outbreak of chicken pox, the upcoming episode will not be "all new."

The Real Best Movie of the Year Got Hosed

The Oscar nominations were announced today, and it seems that just about every other year these awards are a joke. Last year they got the big award (Best Picture) right in my mind. They chose Crash, and well they should have. This year, a mockery has been made of the awards. As soon as the nominations were announced, everyone was saying Dreamgirls got snubbed for Best Picture by not being nominated. You want to know what really got snubbed? Blood Diamond.

Without a doubt, that is the Best Picture this year in my mind. The Academy did do a pretty good job of picking the Best Picture nominees, and I have to admit that I have only seen one film of the five. That film being The Departed, which I enjoyed very much. But I don't think it was a better movie than Blood Diamond, so the Academy could ax that and be okay in my eyes.

But my real beef is with Letters from Iwo Jima. I didn't see the movie, but it seems that when the Academy is in a fix they just nominate something from director Clint Eastwood. And I don't really see why. Plus I don't think he should get a shot because he put out two movies on the same subject. Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers are about the same thing, the Battle of Iwo Jima. I mean, c'mon. Just cause one is about the six men who raised the US flag there and the other is told through the eyes of the Japanese doesn't mean that they are not about the same thing. They are, and they should have been marketed that way. If so, I would be fine with the two (like Kill Bill Volumes 1&2).

Side note: I applaud the Academy for nominating the film Borat for best adapated screenplay. Too often it seems that the Academy brushes off films because of the genre they are in. Comedies and action films tend to get dismissed no matter how good they are, I'm glad to see that is changing a little bit.

The Trap Semester

Well, Winter Break is coming to a close, which means every college student is about to enter what I am terming the "trap semester." The name stems from college sports where teams run into "trap games." Example: Michigan plays Ohio State in the last game of the season every year. The teams are huge rivals, if there was a talented, yet underachieving team on the schedule the game before the two teams meet, that would qualify as a "trap game." Michigan or Ohio State might get caught looking ahead to the big game the next week and play poorly or perhaps even lose in the week before it.

That brings me to second semester. If the rest of the college world is like me they have been partying with their friends and playing NHL 07 on PlayStation 2 for the majority of break. The only thought that I have had of school was when I looked up whether or not I got Martin Luther King Day off (And I do. Hurray!). I don't remember anything I learned this past semester; my brain has basically turned to mush.

Second semester becomes a time where it is easy for college kids to fall off the radar. After not doing anything for a month but hang out with friends, going out on a Tuesday night doesn't seem like such a bad idea. A season of NHL 07 on the dynasty sounds a whole lot better than Econ 4000. It's a trap to make college students squirm.

I can see the college schedulers now: "Give 'em a month off. Then when they come back the weather gets warm and there is no way they will be able to focus on school work. They will fail or do poorly in at least one of their classes and either have to or want to retake it, and we'll charge 'em all over again. MMMWWWAAAAAHAHAHAHA"

Beware fellow students, this upcoming semester can be real tricky. We have to shake off the haze of Winter Break (or is that still a hangover from New Years?) and focus on the classes. It pains me to say it, but it's time to go back to work. Fortunately, in the college years, work also includes a ton of play.