Category Archives: TV: 14 (Parents Strongly Cautioned)

Per the TV Parental Guidelines rating organization, a program designated TV-14 contains some material that many parents would find unsuitable for children under 14 years of age. Parents are strongly urged to exercise greater care in monitoring this program and are cautioned against letting children under the age of 14 watch unattended. This program may contain one or more of the following: intensely suggestive dialogue (D), strong coarse language (L), intense sexual situations (S), or intense violence (V).

Lost: TV series

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I just finished watching Lost on Netflix. It’s a 6-season, 120 episode series from J.J. Abrams.

70 airline passengers trapped on a deserted island after their plane is ripped in two mid-flight. There’s espionage, danger, secrecy, and more back-story and intertwined histories that can’t help but weave an intriguing story that leaves you waiting for the next twist. Hurley is my personal favorite – the lovable bear that just tries to be friendly and hold everything together, even though his curse keeps him alone and frustrated. Dr. Jack Shepherd is the typical thinks-he’s-God surgeon trying to “save the world” while taking charge of 40+ people both as physician and leader. Sawyer is the con man with an almost ridiculous perception of what property is – whining about his stolen stuff was stolen from him.

The first 4 seasons I was on the edge of my seat. I laughed, I cried, I was truly inspired and really enjoyed the series. And without painting too pretty a picture of it, season 5 went straight to crap. Being so emotionally invested – not to mention having devoted so much time into it (about 60 hours by this point) – I finished the series anyway, while slowly developing a true loathing for having started.

What a waste of time. Now I’m frustrated because it didn’t really answer some of the questions and it was obviously closed up just to tie everything together with a bow and without a thought for how the viewer felt about the characters. I fully expected the cast to sing Kumbaya at the end with the Locke/not-Locke characters carrying the bass range in perfect harmony of each other and Charlie ditching his Ovation guitar for a banjo.

The worst of this was that the it ended much like the TV series “Dallas” from the 80s. Oh how that entire series became a punchline overnight after the “Dream Sequence” ending. While Lost didn’t end as a dream, they did manage to tie the whole time-travel/alternate-reality chain together in much the same way in mind-numbingly-slow near 2-hour finale. Sigh.

Was it worth watching?

Yes. Watch the first 4 seasons. They’re awesome!

But stop after season 4. Seriously, if you continue through 5 and 6 you’ll have sunk another 25 hours into it and have only additional frustration to show for it. Don’t waste your time.

Is it any coincidence that season 4, where things started turning to crap, coincides with the 2007-2008 writer’s strike?

History of Tibet

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Robert A.F. Thurman on TibetI’ve spent the last several days watching, well really listening to the DVD . This three part video is a series of lectures Thurman presented on the history of Tibet.

I found this video quite facinating, Mr. Thurman is very knowledgeable on the topic, it helps that he’s actually been to Tibet. The majority of this documentary deals with history of Buddha and the Monks of Tibet.

The show is broken down into three parts and to be honest, I found the first session of his series the best, with much of the two additional sessions often repetitive. Thurman is easy to listen to for the most part, though he often mubbles and talks quite fast.

Amazon describes , …

Explore the history and culture of Tibet, from its ancient past to modern times, with Robert A.F. Thurman, Tibetan scholar, writer and translator, and a good friend of the Dalai Lama. Time Magazine, which chose him as one of its 25 most influential Americans, described him as a “larger than life scholar-activist destined to convey the Dharma, the precious teachings of Siddhartha, from Asia to America.”

In this three-part series, Thurman tells us, with humor and insight, the stories and legends of the ancient Tibetan kings, heroes, sages, saints, and adepts. We see how the Dharma progressed in Tibet and how a powerful renaissance spirit seized the nation and a life dedicated to evolutionary progress towards buddhahood became the prevalent model for Tibetans. 240 minutes.

While this video has not been rated, I would give it a PG13 rating, as some of his narrative isn’t really appropriate for young children, he interjects tales of animal reproduction and the like.

Those with an interest in Tibet will find this documentary interesting and informative.