I’m going to try to be vague here about what I discuss, but I’m sure there will be inevitable spoilers so, beware.
Ending #1: The season finale of Desperate Housewives last night. I thought they did a very good job of wrapping up the major plot lines, while still leaving enough open to carry us through the summer into season two. It wasn’t a Who Shot JR ending, which I appreciated. I liked the way they recapped everything we knew about the Mary Alice situation from her point of view at the beginning. Put everything into context in a way we hadn’t really seen before, and at the same time glossed over a few things we thought we knew but didn’t, to surprise us at the end.
The Rex/Bree plot development was a surprise. Some people speculate that it may be a trick on the doctor’s part because of his suspicions. That wasn’t something I considered when I saw the episode, but it would make for a good plot twist even if it means that the preview cheated a little.
While less critical, the Lynette plot twist leaves some interesting possibilities for next season, too. At some level, it seems to be what she wants, but now that she has what she might have wanted, how will things work out?
A very nice, potentially Oedipal ending for the Zach/Dana plot, and ominous foreshadowing from Mary Alice as Mike goes home. All in all, I feel satisfied by the way the writers delivered.
Ending #2: Star Wars III: I saw this on Saturday morning (for $4.25!) in a packed stadium theater.I saw Episodes I in the theater but Episode II only on DVD, so it was good to be back in the megastadium and see all those wonderful special effects on the big screen. Many have commented on the dialog and the relative merits of the acting, so I won’t rehash what’s already been said. It seemed at times that Lucas was trying to corral a runaway locomotive to try to get the story to lineup with what happens in Episodes IV-VI, but all in all it seemed to proceed organically. The big character reversal with Anakin didn’t ring true for me, though. It was almost like a sigh and a shrug of his shoulders as he says, Okay, the Dark Side sounds good to me.
R2-D2 kicked serious butt in this film and was much more involved and animated than in IV-VI, which is a bit of a discrepancy, one of the hazards of developing technology in prequels. The droids were the most useless creatures in the entire galactic empire. Did they ever actually shoot at something and hit it? General Grievous was just two shades paler than Jar Jar Binks in terms of having annoying affectations, in my book.
However, all that being said, I enjoyed the film. I didn’t notice it’s prodigious length, which was a good sign, and was mostly caught up by the story and appreciated seeing the last pieces of the jigsaw puzzle falling into place.
Ending #3: A Short History of Almost Everything by Bill Bryson. I highly recommend this book if you want to look at the universe at large, the atom at small, and the earth from inception to now, along with everything that occupies all of the above. More than anything else, I learned how little we really know, and how much of what we think we know is based on flawed and shaky assumptions. I also like the way Bryson breathed life into the historical figures whose discoveries form the basis for so much of our science. Some of them were weird and eccentric, many of them were dedicated (sometimes dedicated to simply becoming legendary!), but it adds depth to some stories we’ve heard often. Because of the way Bryson adds a tinge of skepticism to many of his discussions, we must also take a lot of what he says with a grain of salt, but it is a very thought-provoking book.
