- Last night was a jam-packed night of TV for me, but as much as I enjoy Heroes, 24 and Chuck, the return Greek on ABC Family was also a lot of fun. With everyone ending their various summer plans and heading back to Cyprus Rhodes, things were bound to get interesting. Rusty Cartwright wrapped up his summer as a camp counselor, said goodbye to the annoying, bratty kids he’d been in charge of and headed back to campus and to his new home at the Kappa Tau house. Life in the house didn’t turn out to be quite what he’d expected in several ways. First, the odd schedule and habits of his KT brothers threw Rusty for a loop. Their total disregard for academics, frequent midday naps and extremely bad eating habits all threatened to derail his own, more traditional approach to college. To that end, he made serious modifications to his room, soundproofing it and turning it into his own personal “oasis.” He felt the oasis would allow him to be both a full-time KT brother and full-time engineering major, but those plans lasted less than a day. Cappie and Beaver came bursting in in the middle of the night, doing some construction of their own - to turn Rusty’s single room into a quad. With two bunk beds instead of one single bed, Rusty was in a bind. He elected to try and sleep in the shed, out behind the KT house, but the creaky and dirty atmosphere - plus a resident opossum - forced him to reconsider things again. With his living situation weighing on his mind, he overslept one day, got no sleep another night and nearly missed out on getting in line for the rush of engineering students waiting to get the best deals on textbooks for the classes they all were required to take for sophomore year. Big sister Casey is having her own dilemma, returning from her summer internship working for a congresswoman in Washington and lying to everyone about how great her summer was when in truth, it sucked. She and boyfriend Max arrive back at CRU and Casey continues to tell everyone what an amazing summer she had. However, as BFF and new Zeta Beta Zeta president Ashleigh welcomes her home, Casey is secretly planning to move out of the ZBZ house because she believes that she needs to focus and become more serious for her senior year. Ashleigh is trying to keep ZBZ afloat in the wake of mass defections to follow ex-ZBZ president and sister Frannie’s defection to start her own sorority - Iota Kappa Iota. Rebecca Logan has left with Frannie, working to establish IKI on campus. Ashleigh and Casey plot to build ZBZ back up with a new pledge class to be recruited during rush week, but Frannie has a devious plan to outdo them. Although IKI’s accommodations aren’t great - a creaky old rental house with a cigarette-smoking, booze hand landlady living in the attic - Frannie has an advantage because IKI is not an official sorority and member of the school’s Pan-Hellenic council yet and thus not subject to its rules, specifically those governing rush week. Frannie and Rebecca pay visits to select incoming freshman they want to recruit to IKI and invite them to a special weekend lake retreat. There, they try to show off what IKI is all about, but when they call for the men of Omega Chi to come out and show their new recruits what kind of company they can expect to keep for parties and mixers, Frannie and Co. get a surprise. Casey and Ashleigh have managed to infiltrate the party and have conspired with the Kappa Taus to crash the event. While KT brother Jeremy poses at the bus driver taking the Omega Chi party bus to the lake and delays their arrival, the KT’s bum rush the IKI gathering, horrifying the pledges and IKI sisters in the process. As the potential pledges flee, Casey, Ashleigh and their ZBZ sisters are waiting at a party of their own and promise that although Pan-Hellenic rules prevent them from talking now, they look forward to meeting the girls during rush week. The KT’s add one final touch to the plan by stealing the party bus the Omega Chis arrived on and speeding away. With the KT’s is Andy, a new freshman and old high school football teammate of Omega Chi brother Calvin Owens, who is also a good friend of Rusty. Andy was already thinking about how cool the KT’s were after visiting their house with Calvin to catch up with Rusty and seeing the KT’s indoor slip-and-slide, beer-flavor popsicles and hot girls on hand. When he gets caught on the party bus as the KT’s steal it, Andy then spends the ride back with Cappie and crew and comes to admire them even more. Thanks in large part to a speech Rusty makes about what the brotherhood means to him, Andy seems clearly on the fence about which frat to rush. And what would a season premiere be without the ever-annoying Dale? Rusty’s roommate fro freshman year is having a tough time adjusting to his new roommate, who just happens to be Canadian. Dale can’t seem to tolerate sharing a dorm room with a “foreigner” and turns to Rusty for help. As it turns out, fate hands them a nice solution when Rusty decides that he can still be a full KT brother without living in the KT house. He finds himself in need of a place to stay and after one night crashing on the floor of his old RA/big sister’s boyfriend Max, Rusty gets a break when Casey reconsiders her plans to move out of the ZBZ house. Because she’s already signed a lease on a new apartment and Rusty and Dale need a place to live, they step in and take the apartment. So Rusty and Dale are once again roomies, good times. The last bit of news from the episode comes near the end, when Casey is pulled into a bizarre, impromptu meeting with Ashleigh and Rebecca in a bathroom stall. Ashleigh reveals that Rebecca never actually left ZBZ and is simply posing as an IKI spy to trick Frannie and get the low down on the new sorority. Like I said at the top, a fun episode and a great kickoff to a new season for Greek, I’m looking forward to another great semester on campus at Cyprus Rhodes…….
- All right, now it’s gone too far. I was already against child pornography charges for teenagers who received nude pics of friends, girlfriends, etc. on their cell phones, but this is taking it one step further to a very, very unsavory place. A 14-year-old girl from New Jersey has been arrested after uploading 30 explicit images to the noted pedophile haven MySpace. Don’t get me wrong; MySpace is still really, really lame and creepy, but how anyone - regardless of age - can be arrested for posting pictures OF THEMSELVES is absurd to the nth degree. The idea that you don’t have total say over your own likeness and how you use it is ridiculous, even if you are 14 years old. This isn’t sex, where a 14-year-old girl might do something she will later regret and can’t take back the irrevocable effects of. She’s posting pictures of herself on a website "because she wanted her boyfriend to see them," according to her statement to police. That some loser took the time, stuck his or her nose where it didn’t belong and tipped the police off to the images is sad. Yes, anyone who friended her on MySpace could have seen them, but again this girl has the right to approve or reject any friend request that comes along. Now, because of this gutless, anonymous tipster this New Jersey girl faces up to 17 years in jail if convicted of possession and distribution of child pornography. Oh, and she could also be placed on a state register of sex offenders - FOR POSTING PICTURES OF HERSELF! I CANNOT EMPHASIZE THE ABSURDITY OF THIS ENOUGH - PICTURES OF HERSELF. If you don’t think something is horribly wrong with a person being put through all of this for using her own likeness in the way she wants, teenager or not, you have a problem with yourself……
- Heroes went south of the border last night, and no, it wasn’t a nice Tijuana run. Nathan and Claire, daughter and biological father, were on the run after Nathan’s cover was blown and his power to fly revealed by Emile Danko two weeks ago. After saving Claire from agents who stormed her house because her “free pass” from Nathan that other PWP (people with powers) didn’t get had been revoked, Nathan flew the two of them just south of the border to escape. After holing up in a grungy motel in the town of Patzcuaro, they hit the local cantina for a meal and Claire also makes a side trip to sell a necklace given to her by adoptive dad H.R.G. to get them some extra cash. Nathan has his own ideas for fundraising, challenging a trio of vacationing fraternity boys to a drinking game. They down shot after shot of tequila, but by the 22nd round Nathan is out and his money seemingly lost - until Claire steps in. With her power to heal and regenerate all of her tissue, she’s impervious to the effects of alcohol (a nice fringe benefit) and wins the contest in place of dear old dad. Back at the motel room, a drunk Nathan vows to fix the mess he’s created with Danko and the persecution of PWP, along with admitting that he gave Claire her free pass because he hoped it would make up for his years as an absentee dad. The next morning, he quickly reneges on his promises and dismisses them as drunken ramblings, which angers Claire. She chastises him, saying she expected more, for him to “be Superman.’ As Claire waits for the next bus back to San Diego, Nathan gets himself together, manages to pawn his own valuable watch to get her necklace back and convinces Claire to forego the bus trip and fly back to the U.S. with him. As for Nathan’s’ brother Peter and his mom Angela, life is equally stressful back stateside. After saving Angela from agents in New York last week, Peter and his mom fly to a Gothic-looking, huge church where she claims she’ll find answers about what their next move needs to be. Inside the church, she explains that she’s always been able to find peace in this very place, having been married here and been to many other meaningful events. To figure out the next move, she must be able to relax, sleep and dream, for dreams are where her visions of the future come. Sleep has eluded her of late, she tells Peter. As the church service ends and everyone leaves, Peter and Angela remain behind. They hunker down and appear to be trapped when agents storm the church in search of them. The only escape is hiding in a confessional booth, but that seems doomed as agents scour every inch of the building. Fortunately for Peter and Angela, H.R.G. is the agent who checks the confessional booths and because he’s in league with Angela, he doesn’t give up their hiding place. The agents leave, Angela eventually finds sleep and dreams to figure out what to do next. When she awakes, she informs Peter that the next step is to find Nathan and Claire, reunite their family and “go see her sister.” That will be the big storyline next week, but this week’s most interesting development came when everyone’s favorite serial killer Sylar finally got back on the screen after a conspicuous absence last week. With Danko and his team hunting a PWP named James Martin and his unknown power, Sylar is lurking not far away. Martin manages to escape the agents who raid his Alexandria, Va. home and Danko can’t figure out how. In his car outside the house, Danko tries to clear his head and shake off the deaths of three agents when who appears in the back seat but Sylar. Sylar offers to help Danko catch Martin, but before Danko can draw his weapon and try to shoot the most wanted man for his team, Sylar is gone. Danko heads back to the office and consults with his team and specifically H.R.G. about how to find Martin, but when a cell phone inside a mysterious package delivered to his office rings, Danko gets some unexpected assistance. Sylar is calling, having found another dead body killed by James Martin. He then explains that the reason Danko couldn’t catch Martin was because Martin’s power is shape-shifting, i.e. he can change his appearance to become a different person. To prove the point, Sylar left the head from the corpse he found in the box he placed inside Danko’s office. At the sight of the head, Agent Jenkins, who was in Danko’s office prior to the phone call, takes off running. Danko realizes the man who looks like Jenkins must actually be Martin and gives chase. However, Martin changes his appearance again while fleeing through the parking garage and disappears onto the crowded street. In an attempt to get the jump on Martin, both Sylar and Danko both head to his apartment in hopes of gaining insight into Martin’s world. Both go on their own, with Danko arriving first and waiting on Sylar with the intent of putting a bullet in the back of his head. However, Sylar is able to talk his way out of that predicament and tells Danko that the flaw in his plan is that he can’t catch Martin on his own. Sylar and Danko reach something of a truce and begin rifling through Martin’s belongings, finding a bizarre collection of outfits - doctor, lawyer, police officer, priest - in the closet and a collection of pictures with what appear to be completely different men, each shown with an incredibly hot woman. Sylar uses his ability to get inside people’s mind and understand what makes them tick to realize that all of Martin’s outfits are ones that allow him to assume a position of power. He then theorizes that the men in all of the pictures are actually one man - Martin. He assumes identities that will make him appear to be a man of power and thus get all the women he wants. Finding Martin becomes easier when Danko and Sylar find multiple books of matches from a bar called the Garden of Eden lying around the apartment. When they show up at the bar, Sylar spots Martin immediately and the sight makes him smile, as Martin has assumed a new identity that hits close to home. He’s now posing as Danko, to which Sylar cracks, “He’s a better you than you.” Trying to apprehend Martin proves difficult and he’s soon lost in the crowd, but as Danko observes from a balcony Sylar sidles up to him and they decide to call it a night. As Sylar exits the club with Danko behind him, Danko puts a bullet in his back. Just when it seems that he’s done the impossible and killed Sylar, the truth is revealed as the real Sylar comes out the door. Danko has killed Martin, who had assumed Sylar’s identity. The sight of Martin in front of him causes Sylar’s eyes to light up because he wants to steal the shape-shifting power. He prepares to slice Martin’s head open but Danko asks if he can do it without the head-slicing. Using lessons learned from his disastrous visit to his father earlier this season, Sylar is able to take the power with no bloodshed and it immediately proves useful. To conceal their new partnership, Sylar and Danko stage a phony crime scene with Martin/Sylar lying prone on the ground, a knife in the back of his head in the one spot where the real Sylar is vulnerable. H.R.G. shows up, views the body and apparently believes it’s Sylar, although I’m not so sure he is convinced. But the medical examiner covers the body back over, then walks over to Danko’s car and gets inside. Once there, the ME shape-shifts back into Sylar, who has clearly mastered his new power. He and Danko speak of their new partnership, to which Danko replies, “If we do this, you’ll be the only one left.” Sylar’s reply? “Funny how that works out.” So is Sylar going to turn on his fellow PWP and help Danko hunt them down? Seems like a sick twist on H.R.G. and the Company’s old strategy of “One of us, one of them.” Next week, it’s a road trip for the Petrelli family to visit Angela’s sister and find out more of their back story, but that’s all for this episode……
-Props to you, video game dorks. With most of the gaming world gathering for the Convention of Dorks, er, the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Calif., there was a lot for these nerds to look forward to. Among those things was the Game Design Challenge, which threw down the gauntlet to dorks to create concepts for a game about "your first time." Right, because who better to create a video game about having sex for the first time than losers who play video games all day in their basements, never allow the light of the sun to touch their skin and have yet to hold a girl’s hand, let alone have sex with one? This was the sixth straight year of the design challenge, hosted annually by New York-based game developer Eric Zimmerman. Previous contests have brought in top-tier game designers like two-time winner and Spore and The Sims creator Will Wright, Deus Ex lead designer Harvey Smith and Leather Goddesses of Phobos creator Steve Meretzsky. This time around, the dorks were tasked with creating a video game concept about something none of them have ever experienced and the winner was the two-woman team of Heather Kelley and Erin Robinson, who won with just 36 hours of preparation, while their competitors had weeks to come up with ideas. There were only three competitors, so it’s not as if this was a deep, talented field of dorks looking to battle it out. Kelley and Robinson battled Meretzsky and Habbo Hotel lead designer Sulka Haro. The two women came up with a concept for "Our first times," and presented it as a two-level game, one level for Kelley's experience and the other for Robinson's. They theorized about a series of mini games that could be played on Nintendo's Wii, or possibly on Apple's iPhone. Zimmerman claims that the purpose of the challenge is "to think about how we can create games that really break away" from what's been done before, which is great because whose life hasn’t been touched by the sheer creativity, passion and thought-provoking complexity of video games? Not that this dork-sex video game concept will ever see the light of day, but here’s how Kelley describes she and her partner’s vision: the game would commence with the player having to pick an outfit for a date that was intended to conclude with their deflowering, followed by a mini game in which players would have to shave their legs, go to dinner and make sure to remove all the garlic from the meals, followed by the next mini game that would revolve around choosing the proper mood music from a selection of LPs, after which the player would be challenged with "not falling off the top bunk" in a college dorm room," followed by the final task would involve flicking off the smirking roommate. Great idea, except that none of the losers you’d theoretically market your game to would have a clue about any of this……
- Not a great weekend for the NCAA Tournament. Following an underwhelming opening weekend last week, I had high hopes for this weekend when it came to the best event in all of sports. And while there were a couple of high points and dramatic moments, by and large the games were once again a ginormous disappointment. Dramatic moments included Michigan State trailing nearly the entire game against Kansas in a Midwest regional semifinal before rallying to tie the game and take the lead on a driving layup by guard Kalin Lucas in the game’s final minutes, Pittsburgh’s knock-down, drag-out 60-55 street fight of a win over Xavier and of course, the uber-dramatic Pitt-Villanova game that was back and forth all game long before Pitt tied the contest on two LeVance Fields free throws with 5.5 second left and ‘Nova guard Scottie Reynolds drove the length of the floor for the winning layup with less than a second left. Those things notwithstanding, there were far too many blowouts and games that were never interesting from nearly the opening tip, with Oklahoma (defeating Syracuse 84-71), North Carolina (crushing Gonzaga 98-77), Louisville (thrashing Arizona 103-64) and Villanova (b*tch-slapping Duke 77-54) the more notable mismatches of the weekend. Couple those blowouts with the fact that 14 of the tournament’s top 16 seeds were playing and you have a subpar weekend of basketball. There were no Cinderella stories and knowing that, you had to at least hope for a lot of competitive games between teams that should have been evenly matched. Instead, none of those possibilities materialized and I was left to watch what might have been the worst second weekend of this tournament in all the years I’ve been watching it…..
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