Shock Therapy

It's rare that I talk about American television. I talk about Lost occasionally, but that's about it. Thursday is my TV watching night with my main girls, theCallowQueen and her roomie. We watch Apprentice, and Alias and Lost from the night before. I have choir rehearsals on Wednesday nights so my Lost watching schedule is difficult.

Anyway, it's no secret that Alias has been disappointing me big time over the last season and a half. I have been disgusted with the shallow plot, the half-assed way they tried to "wrap up" the Rambaldi plot which had been my main interest in the show from the beginning and the degradation of the characters into two dimensional mindless zombies. In the case of Nadia, she actually did become a zombie. Nevertheless, I continued watching while Vaughn died unnecessarily (perhaps very necessarily for the heartbroken actor) and Weiss left and Sloan played a regurgitated plot role and Marshall became nothing more than the comic relief. I was sad, but it had become tradition to watch Alias. This season I found myself not minding the new characters too much. I even thought Tom was pretty cool though I realized it was unlikely that we will ever see his backstory. But, for the most part, I've learned to prepare myself for disappointment with the way Alias is now.

Last week's episode was pretty fun with Sark's reappearance. He brought back some of the flavor fo Alias as it used to be. And then there was last night's episode. I thought they were going to pull another one of those, "Oh you thought he was dead, but he's really alive. Ha ha" tricks that they've pulled almost every time someone dies. But instead, they brought Michael Vartan on the show only for an episode that dealt with Sydney's memories of Vaughn and forced her to say goodbye to him. It was touching and sweet and made me remember just how cool the show used to be. The scene in which Sydney "threw her cell phone into the Pacific...twice" I enjoyed especially. I think that psychological stuff like this is one of Alias' strengths (and one of my personal interests) so I enjoyed seeing Sydney take a jaunt through her mind even if it was forced upon her by some evil doctor and even if her lips were so puffy they looked like they were going to eat her face. Vaughn was the old Vaughn I loved before he suddenly--at the beginning of the season--had a prior life, another name and an obsession with Prophet 5. (All I have to say about Prophet 5 is that it better have something to do with Rambaldi, even though that will make it even more of a plot regurgitation.)

So, I was really enjoying the episode--especially the return of the hardball Jack and his interaction with Rene who has a very similar style--and then, in the last thirty seconds, it went from really good to OMGWTF?! Irina Dorevko, spy mommy as she is lovingly called by many an internet Alias fan, showed herself as the one who was holding Sydney captive and ordering the doctor to sift through her memories. It was a complete surprise. There was such a hullabaloo last season about the actress being unwilling to come back on the show, but they finally got her for the last several episodes. Still, I didn't expect her to come back again, at least not without a bit of warning. It was awesome! She is so cool. Even if she is after her own grandbaby.

So, then we watched Apprentice. And I had my second shock of the evening, this time an unpleasant one. I had loved Randal all throughout the show and I was really torn between him and Rebecca at the end. I wanted both of them to be hired, and I really thought the Donald would do it. Then, as the show went on, Randal acted very out of character from what I expected. He was disrespectful to Rebecca and rather cut throat. I was surprised and very disappointed, but I can only think that he was influenced by friends and family during his break from the show to stop being a nice guy and make sure he won at any cost.

Then, the moment of truth came: Randal was the new Apprentice. But then the Donald mentioned hiring Rebecca also, as I had expected. I got excited. I clenched the blanket I was huddled beneath and held my breath. And what did Randal do? He completely lost all of my respect and stabbed Rebecca in the back. She may not be perfect, but few people deserve the abuse everyone put her through. It was disgusting. I'm also peeved at the Donald for just letting Randal decide whether or not to hire Rebecca. I mean, who's the boss here? I really feel no desire to watch the Apprentice again. I'm soured on the whole show.

So, last night was a rather traumatizing night for me with all the shocks. I'm not sure why they affected me so strongly, but it was certainly exhausting. I get way too into my television, don't I? This is one of the reasons why I watch so little TV. The main reason, though, is that most shows on TV right now suck. But every now and then you find a little jewel.

So, how many weeks until we get a new episode of LOST?