definitely, possibly, maybe

it's taken a week for my thoughts on "lost" to settle. that's how mind-blowing the premiere was. as last season came to a close, i was adamantly against a reset. for one thing, i felt it would eliminate the five seasons that came before. i should have realized that there didn't need to be an either/or situation for the producers. because lost has excelled at training it's audience to follow two completely disparate storylines, showing us a reset of flight 815 and the continued story from the island is simply brilliant. the new flash sideways structure allows us to explore both possible outcomes to the hydrogen bomb's detonation, and ultimately i think that was the absolute right decision for the show. lost will struggle to find the absolute right ending, or rather it will struggle to find the absolute right ending that will satisfy one and all. but these first two hours of the final season proved that the writers know what they're doing. and that the b...

after last season's surprising turn of events and unexpected renewal, there were, at least in my mind, a lot of questions about what would happen next on "chuck". how would this show manage to evolve without losing what made it so charming in the first place? i have a well-documented love of spy shows, see "alias", and it's also no secret that when i was little, in the height of the cold war, i thought that being a spy would be a cool career. which all feeds into why i love "chuck" so much. the premise that a regular guy gets involved with a spy world that is over his head is an excellent fodder for both drama and comedy. but when chuck downloaded the intersect 2.0 into his brain, giving himself a whole new set of abilities that make him an even more powerful asset for the u.s. government, you had to wonder where it was all going to go. what is great about the writing staff on this show is that they recognized that their characters needed to evolve...

the start of the year is always so hectic, you both want to start things fresh, but you have so many things hanging over your head from the previous year. that's why it's always nice to reflect on things. 2009 was a strange year. a lot of celebrities died unexpectedly. life itself has been insanely busy. i traveled so much, that now as i face a year with less travel, i'm not exactly sure what i should do with myself. the nice thing about a new year is that you get to figure it all out. but before i get to that, here's the good, the bad, and the ugly of 2009: the good grey's anatomy's creative resurgence at the end of 2008, grey's had sunk pretty low. izzie was having sex with visions of denny. the show had ceased to be compelling. but then, a turn-around marked by the new year, izzie's cancer storyline went full steam ahead, the character's suddenly grew up, with meredith and derek finally committing to each other in a meaningful way, alex and izzie...

and here's part two. merry christmas to those who celebrate it! ( part one posted yesterday, in case you missed it.)

hmmm, i thought this one was a challenge, but i must have simply been inspired to write a roswell christmas tale. this one focuses on kyle and maria, and of course, michael and liz. this takes place sometime during the final season, since isabel is married to jesse. it's a cute little story, so i hope you enjoy it. i'll post part two tomorrow, in the spirit of the holidays. by the way, happy holidays to all! and enjoy the story after the break.

so here is part 3, which gives all the other characters a chance to chime in. hopefully it isn't too repetitive. also i've found a holiday story i wrote as part of another challenge. i'll post that around christmas eve & christmas day. it will give me something to do while at the in-laws. enjoy. anyway you can read the third chapter after the break. if you need it here are links to chapters 1 and 2 .

i know i've said this before, but when the new 90210 started i watched for a while and then gave up on it. it was boring. the lead guy [i forget his name, it was ...who knows, he left the show] was cute but boring. the lead girl [annie] was annoying and just terrible at acting, which made her interest in said profession all the more preposterous. the main arch-rival [naomi] was written inconsistently. the parents [deb and henry] were no jim and cindy. but now, while deb and henry are still no jim and cindy. and annie, who seems to have been demoted from lead status to supporting player is still as terrible and annoying as ever. however, at least her storyline now works with the terrible-ness and annoying-ness of her character. meanwhile, naomi has been given more to do. and we've been able to see her softer, more vulnerable side, while at the same time maintaining a high level of ridiculous fashion and boy craziness that makes her character really fun to watch. and adrianna, th...

chapter two picks up the story from liz's side of the story. one of the challenges of writing this particular story was that i had to make sure that i was making each journal entry in each character's distinct voice. i'm pretty sure i did okay with michael and liz, but the others i'm not so sure about. we'll see what you think when we get there. anyway you can read the second chapter after the break. catch up with chapter 1 here .

last year i probably would have said that " how i met your mother " and " the office " were my top two half hour comedies. it doesn't take too long for things to change. the fall season's fresh crop of comedies--" modern family ", " cougar town ", and " community "--have proven to be enjoyable, smart, funny shows. even as the shows grow into their own in fits and starts, the writing has been working on a consistently higher level on these three shows than on either "the office" or "how i met your mother". maybe it's that they've hit the fifth season slump, but while i still make both shows appointment tv, more often than not i am let down by the episodes. one of my favorite things about how i met your mother last year was the barney-robin romance, this season there were so many ways the writers could have gone about addressing the pairing as a couple. unfortunately for us viewers, they picked the wors...

so back when i wrote fan fiction i penned it under the name etoile1. this story is a challenge i took up from another roswell fan named CarolRoswellFan and the conditions were as follows: the story needed to be set after the "viva las vegas" episode and it needed to explore the relationships of max/tess, maria/alex, kyle/isabel, michael/liz. i remember really liking this challenge because the conditions weren't too tough, and because it required tackling relationships that included all the teenage characters on the show, i decided to use a journal-style narrative. and because i was (still am) a michael and liz fan, i spent more of my time on them. anyway, so this story is called "after vegas" and at the time i rated it r for language, though i think now-a-days it's probably a pg-13. anyway you can read the first chapter after the break.