Category: Reviews

Grey’s Anatomy Jumps the Shark

Reviews, Television

greys_anatomy.jpgMy wife and I first watched Grey’s Anatomy after last year’s Super Bowl. It was a re-cap episode that essentially caught us up with everything that had happened since then, and we’ve been hooked since. The show has ‘must see TV’ status on our Tivo. But tonight the show has surely Jumped The Shark. The hints were all there last week, when Meredith drowned, and the episode ended with her waking up in a hospital room surrounded by some of the key ‘previously departed’ from the show. My neighbor TJ saw it coming then, stating firmly last weekend that the show had jumped.

Now I recognize that this is just a prime-time medical soap opera. Others have joined and left our list, we used to watch ER, I guess that stopped when Dr. Green died. We currently watch House pretty regularly, but it is much more of a medical-CSI, while Grey’s is ALL soap.

Anyway, so tonight after her body lay cold on the table for most of the episode while she’s talking to the dead, her own dying mom shows up to tell her she’s proud of her and talks her back into living. And then the kicker, Dead Denny gets his farewell to Izzy… pu-leeze! My wife doesn’t want to admit it, and I’m sure we’ll continue watching the show on it’s inevitable downward spiral (which is further evidenced by the announcement of pending spin-offs), but TJ was right. This show has jumped.

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Chris Wins Survivor

Reviews, Television

SurvivorI’m doing a lot of reviewing lately, and tonight my topic is Survivor. When this show aired it’s first season, we didn’t watch it. And for weeks among family and friends and the water cooler we found ourselves left out of the biggest TV buzz of the season. And so, determined not to let that happen again, our family has become dedicated Survivor fans. Tonight, Chris has won the 9th season, Survivor Vanuatu, overcoming long odds from his balance-beam choke on episode one, to being the only guy left in a tribe full of woman.

What’s the staying power of this show to us? For one, Survivor has become the only must-see family television in our house. It’s a shared family pleasure to watch regular (and often irregular) people compete and scheme against each other for the chance to be on television and the possibility to win some serious money. We chose our favorites, and boo the villians, and it’s a good time.

The show is also a lesson in life. Strangers are thrown together, all there to play a game they know to be cutthroat, and they want to win the money. Yet over the days together, competing as teams, and working together in alliances, they form relationships, good and bad. And by the time the final vote comes about, there’s always a major boilover of emotions that cracks me up. Sure, it’s gotta hurt to be on the jury, coming so close and now having to chose which of the people that beat them will get the money. Some handle it well, and graciously acknowledge the victors. But others pull out the bitterness… boo hoo, you lied to me, I thought we were friends, you would say anything for the money… waa waa waa…

Certainly real relationships can develop on Survivor, hell, Rob and Amber are getting married (but that may have been Rob’s ultimate post-game play, right?), but to the Survivor cry-babies out there I’d like just say, “Get a grip. You were out-played, out-witted, and out-lasted. So save the tears and be a good loser”.

OK, so maybe I should get a life, but Survivor provides some harmless escapism and fun family TV time, and we’ll likely keep watching as long as they keep churning ’em out.

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Visit Udvar-Hazy, Really

Museums, Reviews

If someone encouraged you to visit the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, it would be understandable if your reaction was uncertain. Is that like Betty Ford? Is this an intervention? What is this place? Well, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy is a very wealthy guy who wrote a vey large check to the Smithsonian Institution in order to build a location at which the Air & Space Museum could put on display the very many large and wonderful items that are way to large to be displayed at the Air & Space Museum on the mall. The Udvar-Hazy Center, which is celebrating its one-year anniversary today, is well worth the visit. And Mr. Udvar-Hazy deserves to have his name on it for having helped bring it all about.

The place is enormous. Just imagine a hanger that holds a Space Shuttle, a Concord, the Enola Gay, an SR-71, and dozens of other air and spacecraft, many of which are hung high above your head, yet doesn’t feel crowded. And it doesn’t, the place is that big.

After wandering among the planes for a long time, we caught a chance to rest our feet and a great IMAX film, The Magic of Flight. It was a terrific overview of the story of flight that focused on early attempts and the historic success of The Wright Brothers, and the members of the Navy’s Blue Angels. A new IMAX movie,Fighter Pilot, opens today, and according to this review in the Washington Post, may rate a return visit. Despite the kids whining, we skipped the flight simulators, a decision re-inforced by the above Post review which described them in a word, “Lame”. If you want to ride a simulator, ride the ones that the Air & Space Museum on the mall has to offer.

So later in the evening on the day of our visit to Udvar-Hazy, I asked my pilot father the question, of all the planes we saw today, which would you most like to fly?

To fly, as in take a ride on, or to pilot?, he replied.

OK, Mr. precision… both…

The answers:

To take a ride on, any of the WWII era planes, particularly the Corsair. That makes sense, as a Navy pilot, dad would be interested in an earlier generation of the Navy’s carrier based fighter airplane.

To pilot, the SR-71 Blackbird. Another good choice. As a test pilot, dad would love some time in the high-speed, high-altitude spy plane. The last flight of the one on display at Udvar-Hazy arrived here after a record-setting flight from, Los Angeles to Washington, DC, in 1 hour, 4 minutes, 20 seconds. That’s an average speed of 2,124 mph. Yes, good choice on that one.

And a follow-up question. Which one would you not get into no matter how big a check Steven Udvar-Hazy was willing to write you?

Answer… any of the hang-gliders, like the Sportswings Valkyrie (why no photo? dang). No engine, no guns, only gravity, wind, and a kite to dangle from. Dad’s been plenty daring in his career in the air, but he’s not stupid.

It was a great day, a great place to visit, and great fun. My rating is two thumbs, way up.

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Miss Saigon

Reviews, Theater

The musical Miss Saigon is currently at the Warner Theatre in Washington, DC, and last night we joined a group of neighbors and took in the show from some great seats front and center in the orchestra. It was a good place for us to be, considering our special fondness for the orchestra. You see, my brother Kevin is the conductor. So you must expect some family bias to show through in this review of their production of Miss Saigon.

The MUSIC WAS AWESOME! An obvious product of superior conducting. It was absolutely masterful.

If you’re don’t know the story, think Shakespearian romantic tragedy set in Vietnam during and shortly following the fall of Saigon in 1975. I’m not going to re-tell the whole tale for you here, go see the play, or listen to the soundtrack, and you’ll get the story.

A sad tale, great music, and an especially great conductor. Two thumbs, WAY UP!

Still don’t believe me? Check the Washington Post’s review:
Warner’s ‘Miss Saigon’: Mission Accomplished
The Washington Post, November 12, 2004

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