The Collected Writings of Sardonicus

Quick Books:
- Hegemony Or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance (2003) by Noam Chomsky
Insightful. Controversial. Articulate. Although it gets a big redundant, it's mandatory reading. A-
- His Excellency (2004) by Joseph J. Ellis
A respectable intro to our first post-Constitution American President. Extremely boring though... and nothing was written that you can't find anywhere else. B-

Quick Movies:
- Marie Antoinette (2006)
A surprisingly good movie. I wasn't expecting to see what I saw at all. But the movie limited itself to Marie Antoinette's early years as Queen of France, so I was a bit frustrated that it left out some of the more interesting events in her life. B Somewhat recommended.
- The Prestige (2006)
A poor man's Illusionist. Skip it. C+

Quick Television DVDs:
The West Wing First Season DVD: A- Buy it.
The West Wing Second Season DVD: A+ Seriously... Buy it. One of the greatest shows ever.
Arrested Development Season One DVD: B+ Good
Arrested Development Season Two DVD: A Man, this was so funny... it's criminal that it was cancelled.

Movie Review
The Departed (2006)
Directed by Martin Scorsese

Wow... a whole lotta shock value. But, admittedly, not to the point in which it needs to rely on its excessive violence to compensate for an otherwise weak script. Everyone: Jack Nicholson, Leo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Alec Baldwin, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, etc., all stepped up to play their role, and although I might not have enjoyed it enough to want to buy it on DVD, I can't see any reason why this movie won't do well this Oscar-season. I little to violent at times for my taste, but c'mon... I shouldn't have even tried to expect any different. A

Reviews - Television Shows
2006 Fall Television: What I'm Watching! - SPOILER FREE

LOST: Season 3 - Episode 01 Premiere
(ABC) October 4, 2006 - Thursdays 9PM

YES! "Lost" is finally back!! And the first episode was quite a doozy... At last, we start to learn more about the "Others," although, naturally, all answers simply raise more questions. The premiere focused exclusively on the "Others" and the three survivors who were taken prisoner at the end of the last season - Jack, Sawyer, and Kate, which means that we have yet to see how the other survivors are coping now. I imagine we'll start to see some of them in the next episode. Can't wait to see where this is going. And this level of commitment is necessary for watching a serialized mystery/drama program like Lost. And I'm more than happy to commit... at least until this show starts to let me down. But it hasn't yet - A-

Veronica Mars: Season 3 - Episode 01 Premeire
(CW) October 3, 2006 - Tuesdays 9PM

New episodes of Veronica Mars = me happy. A nice first episode to re-establish the old characters and introduce the newbies. So far we see two likely new additions among the reoccuring characters as Veronica & Gang start their college careers- Piz (Wallace's roommate) and Parker (Mac's roommate). Parker is extremely annoying (although that's intended), but Piz is a pretty cool addition to the cast. Looks like he has the hots for Veronica though... but in his defense, who wouldn't? Logan's back, and once again, he's the boyfriend... how many times does V swing back and forth. Just make a decision and stick with it! It's starting to get annoying that she keeps on leaving and running back to the same jerks over and over again. It makes it very difficult for me to respect her character when her love life is so messed up all of the time. Anyway, we get a brand new mystery for V to solve by the end of the episode, but it seems to be retreading old material. Plus, although shaving a girl's head while she's asleep is pretty despicable, it hardly seems to measure up to the murders from the previous seasons. Still, a fun episode and I sincerely missed Veronica's quick wit and sarcasm. B+

Boston Legal: Season 3 - Episodes 01-03
(ABC) September 19 & 26 and October 3, 2006
Tuesdays 9PM

The season premeire reminded me why I love this show so much. I was bombarded with both funny AND sentimentality. Particularly the last scene... perhaps seeing weakness in characters is not a big deal... heck, virtually every tv show centers around the same themes, but it's much more powerful when you see characters that you become so used to thinking of as so ridiculously self-confident and brilliant... look so completely helpless and vulnerable. A great, standalone first episode. A-
The third season storyline really starts to take off in the second episode... two new attorneys and a huge new case. The two newbies are awesome characters that could probably have carried a whole new shows, but it's difficult to believe that yet two MORE quirky personalities find themselves at Crane, Poole and Schmidt. I'm all for coincidences... but that's just unlikely. Big, outrageous characters begin to lose their punch when virtually everyone around them is also outrageous. But i guess I can't complain... I'm digging them so far. The case: the murder of a judge's wife, is minimally interesting and I hope they don't draw it out for too much of the season. B+/B

Heroes: Season 01 - Episodes 01-02
(NBC) September 25 and October 2, 2006 - Mondays 9PM

Yeah... Not digging this show. Which is unfortunate because it seems to be just the type of show I WOULD like... but I don't. Interesting premise - absolutely horrible execution. I feel absolutely no suspense and no emotional attachment to any of the characters. A few times I actually found myself hoping that the bad guys would succeed in killing whichever one of the "heroes" they were up against. But the second episode was admittedly a vast improvement from the first, so perhaps I'll check out one more before I make a decision. But I gotta say, I doubt very very much that I'll continue with this. C/C-

Jericho: Season 1 - Episode 01
(CBS) September 20, 2006 - Wednesdays 8PM

Okay. Don't waste your time. Basic premise: Jericho, Colorado is cut off from the rest of the world because of a nuclear bomb that exploded in Denver and took out their communications. They slowly begin to realize that it was a nuclear attack after discovering that another major US city was also destroyed by nuclear attack. Man with mysterious past, unloving father, brat brother, unruly townfolk, blah blah blah. No interest to watch any more of this whatsoever. C-