Chicago -
By Pat Bataillon
I was looking for some filler to pass the time between commercials while watching Mythbusters last night when I stumbled upon a little primetime gem called Rock Star: Supernova. Rock and roll may never die, but it just came awfully close.
Posted on August 31, 2006
By Pat Bataillon
After writing this column for about a month now, I have learned something about television. That is that Monday nights are terrible and that is a shame.
Posted on August 29, 2006
By Pat Bataillon
Politics and lying seem to go hand in hand these days and it doesn’t bother all that many people.
I watched Surviving Katrina on Discovery last night and learned just that. Our current governmental scheme is totally incapable of telling any truths. All of the leaders in this country lied directly to the face of all the onlookers and sufferers of Hurricane Katrina. Lying about a war and an election and intelligence and terrorism and other politicians seems to be acceptable these days, but letting Americans die and lying about it? That’s bullshit.
Posted on August 28, 2006
By Pat Bataillon
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It rained in Phoenix and it is flooding there! It never rains in Phoenix! Oh my God! The world is ending! Does this have something to do with global warming?!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
President Bush is in Kennebunkport on vacation! Does he approve of the FDA’s decision to make the day-after pill available over the counter?! He does! Oh my God! The world is ending! Does this mean that the President has lost control of his appointees?! Will he golf with his father in Maine this weekend?!
!!!!!!!!!!TERROR LEVEL ELEVATED!!!!!!!!!!!!!TERROR LEVEL ELEVATED!!!!!!!!!!TERROR LEVEL ELEVATED!!!!!!!!!!
Posted on August 25, 2006
By Pat Bataillon
There is a show on the Discovery Channel called Myth Busters, and on this show the solvers of myths and legends do just that. They bust myths.
I have enjoyed this show since it started, but lately the show has not been solving myths.Last night they tested security devices. Security devices are not myths. They are proven to deter would-be criminals and to prevent mischief. Thermal, sonar, and motion alarms were all put to the test and all failed with a little ingenuity. A safe was cracked with explosives and water, simple enough.
Posted on August 24, 2006
Pat Bataillon did not watch TV last night. He went to the Cubs game.
You can catch up on previous What I Watched Last Nights here.
And if you saw Vanished last night, you know how dead-on Natasha Julius’s take on it is. Even more so than new Tribune TV critic Maureen Ryan’s.
Posted on August 23, 2006
By Natasha Julius
In the 8:00 hour I settled in to watch Fox’s new far-out conspiracy thriller, Vanished. I’m now beginning to suspect that the far-out conspiracy thriller well may be running dry. How do you go about making a centuries-old secret society reaching to the highest levels of the government boring? Well, for starters, you can promote the hell out of said plot developments and feature none of them in the pilot. Then, you can write a slate of characters that never rise above two dimensions and assemble a cast uniformly committed to staying within the established glowering geometric plane. Finally, you can shoot the whole thing through a blue filter and introduce a maddening act-out grainy screen fade that keeps popping up without regard to commercial breaks.
Posted on August 22, 2006
By Pat Bataillon
Our brains have been programmed so conveniently. This is a gigantic step back for society. Back in the primitive days of humans, males would fight each other for power, and when that was established they would build a fire or shelter. Now, equally large men fight each other for dominance in some sort of testosterone-filled cage, and when that is established they hug each other. This is the premise for Ultimate Fighting Championship. The premise for American Chopper is the building part without the physical fighting. They yell and scream about arbitrary pressure they are coping with and then build a motorcycle.
Posted on August 22, 2006
By Pat Bataillon
Last night, Sunday, went like this:
Dirty Dancing. Dirty Dancing really doesn’t carry the same family feature weight as a Tim Allen Christmas flick, but it won the coveted Sunday night movie slot last night on ABC Family.
Posted on August 21, 2006
