- The FBI reportedly knew about O.J. Simpson’s planned commando-style raid on a Las Vegas hotel room three weeks before it took place and did nothing, but I say you can’t really blame them. Memorabilia dealer Thomas Riccio says he learned of the Juice’s plan and reported it to the FBI, but the response was basically indifferent. Well of course it was indifferent. First, this is the world’s most famous double-murderer (allegedly) and yet he’s walking around a free man, so what law enforcement agency in their right mind would want to go after him? Clearly he’s made some sort of deal with the devil and is virtually untouchable on this earth, so you really can’t arrest him just because someone claims to have knowledge that he’s planning a crime. The LAPD had the bloody glove, they had the knife, they had the blood all over the murder scene with shoeprints from shoes O.J. was known to wear regularly, they had all sorts of evidence, circumstantial and otherwise, and they still couldn’t get a conviction, so why would the words of a single informant on a crime the Juice planned to commit be different? At least if you allow this plan to come to fruition, you have a small chance at a conviction, assuming you can get an audio tape of O.J. screaming at his captives and ordering men with guns to not allow anyone to leave the room and get two co-conspirators and other witnesses to roll over and testify against the Juice, both of which have happened. Who knows, maybe the FBI wanted to exact some revenge for the embarrassing blow O.J. dealt law enforcement by beating the murder charges and they did so by allowing him to fumble his way through an idiotic plan that they knew they could unravel and arresting him once he carried it out. Or maybe they just didn’t want egg in their faces like they knew they would have if they went after the Teflon Juice on the word of a single informant and he got over on them and beat their charges just like he beat the double murder rap. Either way, you can’t blame the FBI for its indifference, they were just playing it smart.
- Can we all finally agree that David Beckham coming to America to play in the MLS didn’t revolutionize the way soccer is viewed here in America – as a third-tier sport that little kids play to get exercise but that the country in general doesn’t give a rat’s a** about? Not only did Becks miss most of his team’s games and see his L.A. Galaxy squad miss the MLS playoffs with no one paying attention after his first game with the team, but now the Galaxy’s coach has quit, turning his back on the chance to coach Beckham for another season so he can return for a second stint in the illustrious position of coaching the rival San Jose Earthquakes. Frank Yallop, who helped guide the Galaxy to a thoroughly underwhelming season, is moving on and exactly no one gives a crap, least of all Beckham, who is far more concerned with playing for the English national team than he is with who coaches the subpar team he plays for in a third-rate bush soccer league in the United States. We now have all the facts in on the case and it’s obvious to anyone who takes the time to ook objectively that nothing, not the U.S. women’s team winning the World Cup, not the sport’s biggest star coming to the U.S., will cause Americas to view soccer with anything other than casual indifference. Thanks for nothing, Becks, you seem like a genuinely good guy and I don’t have anything against you, but your efforts are wasted here in the United States.
- So the saga of Kelsey Peterson and her 13-year-old student/lover ends, arrested at a shopping mall in Mexico. Peterson, if you recall, is the teacher from Omaha placed on administrative leave by her middle school after news of her affair with a student leaked out. Peterson and the boy then fled Omaha and were on the run for a week before a slip-up led to their capture. The eighth grader, a Mexican native living with family in Omaha before this incident, called his family on a pay phone from a shopping mall in the Mexicali region just south of the U.S. border, asking for money because he and Peterson were out of money. Good planning, by the way, going on the run but doing so when you’re about out of money and wanted by law enforcement, solid thinking, teacher. Her plan apparently began and ended with the dreamy notion of a romantic life in the boy’s home country of Mexico and included little or no actual thought as to how they would survive on a daily basis or even get to their final destination. You can’t blame the kid, either; he’s on the run, he’s probably scared and freaked out, so of course he’s going to call his family, he’s a freaking 13-year-old. Even with the slip-up that led to his capture and that of his lover, you can still argue that the boy was the real brains of the operation, because Peterson displayed the mental capacity and acuity of a Chia pet throughout this whole escapade. Enjoy prison, K., hope a few months of relational bliss with a 13-year-old was worth spending a decade or so in the hole.
- Quite a Monday night for TV, what with two full hours of Prison Break and an episode of Heroes. I actually had to tape the second PB and watch it later because it conflicted with Heroes, but all three hours of viewing were flat-out awesome. In hour number one of Prison Break, there’s a murder at SONA, and it’s the mysterious newcomer who seems to know Whistler. At first it seems Bellick is a suspect because the stranger embarrassed him in the food line by rejecting Bellick’s offer to be friends, but suspicion quickly turns to Whistler himself when the young prisoner who sports a Tracy McGrady Jersey and loves American sports is questioned by Lechero and reveals that he saw the murder victim go into the dark stairwell first, followed by Whistler a moment later. Lechero believes that Whistler is in fact the murderer and interrogates him as such, which puts a major hitch in Michael’s escape plan. Michael goes to lobby on Whistler behalf and T-Bag offers him an out by handing him a ring belonging to Sammy, Lechero’s right-hand man, to plant in the blood at the murder scene to pin the murder on Sammy. Michael can’t bring himself to set another man up for a murder when he knows the guilty part will be put to death, and he thinks he has his out when he finds a crude blade hidden under the mattress in Alexander Mahone’s cell. However, when he tries to tell Lechero that Mahone is the guilty party, it’s too late, because Mahone’s old buddies from the FBI have come to Panama and worked out a deal to get him out of SONA in exchange for his testimony against the company and former President Caroline Reynolds in the conspiracy to frame Lincoln Burroughs. Lechero becomes irate when he sees that Michael is trying to point the finger at Mahone, who is being released from SONA at that very moment, and turns to stab Whistler, only he doesn’t. He stabs XXXXXX instead, another of his posse who he realizes has been deceiving him and undercutting his authority. Michael and Whistler are let go, while Mahone is on his way to a hearing where he will testify to a panel about the Burroughs conspiracy, admit to all the men he has killed and in exchange receive a shortened four-year prison term at a minimum security facility back in the U.S. Also outside SONA, Lincoln and Whistler’s girlfriend Sofia are working to prepare the way for the escape once Michael and Whistler get out. Linc’s son, L.J., is warned not to be a hero and try to escape during the exchange, which he promises to do. Then Linc is off to SONA to visit his brother, and the episode ends with Michael challenging Whistler to one of SONA’s to-the-death fights after Lincoln visits and informs Michael that he’s been lying to him about Sarah and that she is in fact dead. Michael charges back inside SONA, finds Whistler, gives him the news and then throws down the chicken foot to signal the challenge. That leads us into the second hour, where…..Michael reveals to Whistler that he staged the fight challenge so everyone else at the prison would be out in the main yard and give them the cover they need to escape. They use the cell of two of Lechero’s men because it’s close to Michael’s old cell that the guards locked down, remove the window and use a rope ladder to climb down the side of the building at exactly 3:13, when one of the guards has been drugged using a chemical put in his coffee by Lincoln and Whistler’s girlfriend and the other guard on their side of the prison turns in the other direction for several minutes to avoid the glare off the roof of one of the prison’s tin-roofed outer buildings. Unfortunately, before both Michael and Whistler can scale the wall, make it to the fence and break through the portion Sucre has weakened using his chemical spray also used for the bodies of dead prisoners, a burst of clouds covers the sun and eliminates the glare from the roof, allowing the one conscious guard to turn back around just after Michael and Whistler reverse field and get back inside the prison. When the company realizes that the escape didn’t happen and the guards around the prison realize an escape has been attempted, things go haywire. The guards storm the prison, demanding to know who the guilty party is. They shoot one of Lechero’s men and figure they have their guy, but on their way out, the commander berates Lechero and basically ruins his authority over SONA. Lechero’s main man Sammy sidles up to him and points out that the real guilty party is likely Scofield, although when questioned by Lechero, Michael denies it. Then, in a shocking turn, Lechero says that Michael is going to break out of SONA and he’s taking Lechero with him, because now that the inmates no longer respect him, Lechero’s life is in danger. The company has its own reaction, pressuring Lincoln to find out why the escape didn’t happen and forcing Linc and Sucre to spring their own plan to free L.J. Sucre forces a car crash with the van carrying L.J., but when Linc tries to rescue his son, his plot is foiled when one of the men guarding L.J. takes him hostage with a gun to the head and forces Linc to let them get away. After that, things take an even more interesting turn when XXXXXX, who’s been Linc’s contact with the company during this ordeal, the one giving him orders, holding L.J. in captivity and killing Sarah, visits the prison and is surprisingly chummy with Whistler. Michael sees their conversation from afar and is suspicious. Whistler appears to be completely in on the company’s plan and using Michael as a means to escape, nothing more. Next week’s episode will show us where this tiwst is headed, and it should be a completely awesome hour of intense action. There’s the revelation of secret tunnels underneath SONA, a helicopter rescue attempt on the roof of SONA and an order to Whistler to kill Michael because he’s no longer needed….yup, this one is gonna be great. Over on Heroes, terror is in the air as Bob, Mohinder, Niki, Matt and others realize that Matt’s father Maury is at company headquarters and could be lurking anywhere, messing with people’s mind, making them see whatever he wants them to see and coming to kill Bob. Maury first messes with Niki, first making her see her dead husband D.L., who tells her she’s still sick, that she’s ruining everything and letting her son down, then causing her to try to kill Bob. Ultimately, just as Niki is about to charge in and kill Bob, she stabs herself with syringe full of the virus the company has been experimenting with to stop herself from doing any more damage. When Mohinder tries to treat her using his own blood, which has been an antidote for the virus, he finds that his blood no longer an antibody, that the virus has evolved and that Niki will die unless he finds another antidote. This leads Bob to suggest an unpleasant alternative; that he get ahold of Claire Bennet and use her healing powers to save Niki. Bob issues a company gun to Mohinder for the assignment, assuming that H.R.G./Noah Bennet won't give up his daughter willingly and at the same time fulfilling one of the paintings from Isaac Mendez which shows Mohinder firing a company gun and a second painting showing H.R.G. dead on the floor. Mohinder now has a choice, whether to go and get Claire or reject’s the order. Meanwhile, Matt Parkman is also trying to stop Maury, and visits Molly to let her know he loves her before embarking on his mission. Through this visit and also through words from Bob, he realizes he has the power to control people’s brain functions just like his dad and eventually uses these new skills to trap his dad in his own nightmare, just like Maury has done to so many others, and free Molly in the process. Now Maury is comatose and Molly is conscious again. Our friend and my fave hero Peter Petrelli and his new girl Kaitlin are still in New York in 2008, and they are taken into custody by Homeland Security because they may be contaminated by the virus. Kaitlin is deported because she’s not American, while a confused Peter is told that the Shanti virus (Mohinder’s sister who died as a small child) has killed 93 percent of the world’s population, including his brother Nathan, and that he was thought to be a dead man. He meets his mother, begins to remember who he is, tries to stop Kaitlin’s deportation but teleports back to 2007, where he meets Adam Monroe, who turns out to be…..Takezo Kensei (also he was Sark on Alias, for all you Alias fans out there). Adam Monroe/Kensei was involved in skirmish with Hiro in 1671 Japan after Hiro escaped from captivity with the help of Yaeko, who moved a bowl of opium whose fumes Kensei was using to sedate Hiro and keep him from using his powers. Hiro returns to White Beard’s camp, still trying to talk Kensei into going back to being a good guy, but Kensei refuses and once Hiro wins a sword fight and goes to escape from the burning tent full of guns and gunpowder where he and Kensei fought, Kensei refuses to leave with Hiro. Hiro thinks (not sure why, he does know that Kensei is has the same healing and regenerative powers as Claire does) that Kensei is dead. Hiro teleports to meet Yaeko under the cherry trees, tells her he can’t stay with her in 1671 and teleports back to 2007. There, Ando gives him the unfortunate news that Hiro’s father has been murdered. Meanwhile, Hiro is unaware that his old pal Kensei/Adam Monroe is right with him in 2007. Speaking of Claire, when her father Noah returns from his trip to the Ukraine after taking digitals pictures of all of Isaac Mendez’s eight paintings predicting the future and burning the original paintings, he finds out about Claire and West’s stunt to get revenge on the head cheerleader at school and decides his family is no logner safe where they are and need to move again. Claire refuses and says they’ll have to go without her, which should make for an interesting episode for the Bennet family next week. Also not feeling too safe and secure is West, who finally sees Claire’s dad and realizes that he’s the “guy with the horn-rimmed glasses” who abducted West a few years ago. He cuts off communication with Claire entirely, thinking the whole situation was some sort of trap and she was in on it. Next week’s episode is being billed as the one to go back and answer all of the questions that came up when this season began four months after last season’s end and all the characters had changed and their lives were very different. Now we get to go back and see what happened in those four months, which I’m looking forward to. Like I said, it was a jam-packed three hours of TV and even now it feels like I might be missing something because there was just so much action, but for now that’s all. Oh, and bad news for Prison Break fans. Instead of having the show do it’s usual weird “fall finale” and disappear for a couple months and then reappear in the spring, the show will go on hiatus after this coming episode and won’t be back until mid-January. Why the change? Well, due to production issues and the writer’s strike, 24 won't be ready to go in its normal January start slot, so PB will fill that spot instead, thus it’s premature fall ending and return in January. So lots of change, stay tuned as always….
- It happens so rarely, a legitimately good film topping the box office earnings list and raking in a great opening weekend’s worth of revenue. American Gangster, the crime thriller starring Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington (hard to miss when you’ve got those two on screen) brought in $46.3 million to easily beat down the competition and secure the top spot. Jerry Seinfeld’s Bee Movie, another good film, got the second spot with $39.1 million in earnings. Anyone who thought that a 2½ hour, R-rated crime drama couldn’t be a box office hit or that Jerry Seinfeld couldn’t be a family-friendly star in light of his adult-oriented comedic past was clearly proven wrong on this weekend. It was the highest-grossing opening weekend ever for a movie starring either Crowe or Washington and proves that these two ought to team up more often. So hopefully you saw one of these two movies, because most weekends the movies opening are total crap, so a weekend with two good pictures is a rare treat.
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