Jibba Jabba

Another melange of topics today, mostly Heroes and Hockey. You've been warned.

Bubbled 4th in The Hoy last night. I played okay, but mostly just played my cards, which has been an unfortunate trend of late. I think my shortstack play is still alright, but it's hard to win by staying short. I did a few REALLY weak things, and I think it hurt me in the long run. Frankly, I was surprised I got the action I did on my strong hands. Right now my cards are okay, but my play is generally sub-par. I need to pick that up.

Before that though, I watched Heroes. Warning: Here be spoilers (highlight to read):

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Okay? So the episode wasn't bad, but other than ONE moment, it was predictable and lacked any of that "awesome" factor that last season's episodes had. It felt like everyone was going through the motions.

The commercials gave it away, but Nathan and Peter are still very much alive. Nathan looks ridiculous with his "grieving my brother for 4 months and become a drunk who's family left him" beard. It looks completely pasted on. Peter has amnesia? Okay. The commercials showing him alive pretty much destroyed any surprise or drama that would have resulted from him appearing at the very end of the episode. Bravo NBC marketing department, you've fucked up once again with this show. No wonder nobody watches your network.

Parkman is a detective, yay Matt! It's about time he figured out how to leverage his power to his advantage. He was actually far less annoying than last season, and him being Molly's guardian just works. Of course, now he's divorced too. So that's two of the married Heroes that are now single. Guess NBC realized that having them save the world with families back home would be difficult to pull off. Once again, I can't help but think that the guys in charge when the show started could pull it off. The families make them different - they make them real. If everyone ends up single and alone, then you might as well make them full underwear perverts (look it up) like Marvel and DC heroes.

Molly is still adorable though, what a great actress.

Bennet and Mohinder are working to take down the company, eh? With Mohinder getting inside again. The guy who can changed metals into gold definitely has his uses. Where do they take this? I imagine they'll be caught before long, and it won't actually be a season-long subplot. Or maybe it will be with many twists and turns.

Speaking of the Bennets - Claire is still an idiot. "Don't do anything to draw attention to yourself." So she sticks her hand in a bunsen burner, and then does a flip off a tower and breaks her legs. Lucky for her she's only being figured out by that one guy so far.

The whole family is obviously miserable, but Noah had the one kick-ass scene of the whole show, when he takes down the most annoying manager character seen in a long time. Like he has time for that shit.

No Nikki/Jessica and family so far. That's okay.

They killed Sulu? We don't even know what his power was! Maybe it's to fake death.

So all the Company's founders have powers? Well we know that Nathan & Peter's dad didn't (read the comics), and we know what Linderman's was. What about Momma Petrelli? Eric Roberts' character? Shame they didn't let us in on that.

Maya and Alejandro could be an interesting dynamic. Which way do they go? What exactly is her power?

And finally, Hiro in the past. We knew Kensei was white from the casting, being British is kinda cool too. Being a mercenary coward drunk is pretty much par for the course, and now Hiro will maybe make him a hero? Who knows.

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All-in-all, an "eh" episode. I really wanted to like the premiere, and I really wanted it to suck me in again. Of course, last season started off weakly and picked up about 3 or 4 episodes in, so I'll give it a chance. The preview for the season managed to give us nothing to entice me, but let out a few more surprises that would have been so much better as, you know, SURPRISES.

I don't have a marketing or advertising degree, but here NBC, some free advice. FIRE YOUR FUCKING MARKETING DEPARTMENT. Heroes is a show that extends a story for an entire season. What kept people coming back last year were the "holy shit!" moments, when an actor appeared, or a character died, or some huge plot twist occurred, which kept us interested in next week. We knew New York wasn't going to explode (but we all kind of hoped), but the question was what ELSE would happen. Of course, the answer is "nothing." When you finish a season with 3 main characters possibly dead, the absolute most moronic thing you can do is SHOW THEIR FACES IN THE PREVIEWS. Are you so paranoid that nobody's going to watch that you decide to give away the farm in the previews to entice them? Guess what? It has the opposite effect. No wonder nobody watches your channel.

Oh, and Journeyman? Kinda sucked. It's a shame, because the lead seems decent. Quantum Leap did it far better 18 years ago. I don't think I've seen a cast I could care less about.

Where's my Battlestar Galactica? Oh yah, that's right.. not until 2008, and then after half a season we get to wait ANOTHER year for the 2nd half. Bravo Sci-Fi.... hey wait, isn't that part of NBC too? NBC Universal sucks balls. Keep it up and my TV schedule will be strictly the Stewart-Colbert double-bill every Monday-Thursday at 11 and the Leafs.

Hors D'Oeuvres are picked. Tonight I start putting together music and cleaning up.

And now, hockey! All you fantasy football junkies can bite me. Seriously, I couldn't care less... I watch the Superbowl, and that's about it. Yah, I'm that guy, wanna fight about it?

Hockey season kicks off next week. For us fans in Toronto (and the rest of the Leafs nation around the world) it's been a loooooong off-season, what with the Leafs sucking like a Hoover and missing the playoffs by one point. Spare me the crybaby story about New Jersey not trying against the Islanders, the Leafs win ONE more game and they're in the playoffs, but they didn't have the stones to pull it off.

And this season? They're gonna suck just as much. 11th place in the conference is my predicition. And I've been a fan since Brad Marsh and Gary Leeman were our big guys and Bester and Ing were letting pucks get past them. I almost miss the Brophy years. At least nobody pretended like the Leafs had a shot then.

Let's look at the off-season acquisitions: Jason Blake and Veska Toskala. I KNEW we'd get Blake. Why? Because he's an overpriced old guy who had a career year on a crappy team and we just HAD to overpay him for 5 years. No way he gets 40 goals again this season. I hope I'm wrong.

Toskala - best backup in the league last year. Should have been a starter apparently. Well, he'll get his chance. Especially since Pogge is still too young and Raycroft his showing his usual "brilliance" between the pipes. Guy's looked shakey so far.

So maybe Toskala is the next Sawchuck, Roy, Brodeur, or Hasek. Hell, I'd be happy with the next Khabibulin or Irbe. And maybe Blake gets 30-40 goals and works with Sundin and the Leafs get into the playoffs. I certainly hope so.

Or maybe 11th will be looking good. Fucking Leafs head office. Fire that no-talent loser of a GM Ferguson and while you're at it, kick Peddie to the curb with him. That guy has done more damage to the properties of MLSE than I thought possible. Look at the Raptors - as soon as they told him to get his fucking hands out of that cookie jar and they replaced his dumbass GM hire with the best GM in the league, the team turned around in ONE season. Do you think maybe 40 years of loyalty from your beleagured (and huge) fan base could warrant someone who knows WHAT THE HELL THEY'RE DOING in charge? Of course not, because Leafs fans are sheep who will keep paying hundreds of dollars for a seat despite not getting a sniff of the finals for 14 years. It could be worse, we could be in Chicago.... or Mets fans.

Go Leafs Go.



4 days left.