Down with the H.R.G.

Sitting here in the newsroom on election night -- seven hours of boredom followed by an hour and a half of screaming and gnashing of teeth.

So how better to kill some time than with a rambling post about something I watched on TV last night while drinking delicious Wild Turkey?

As I may have mentioned before in this space, I have gotten into the show "Heroes" in its second season. As it has progressed I have slowly been able to determine what the hell is going on. Although not having the first season as background means I make the confused dog noise (Aroo?) at least twice an episode.

Another plus is that shit finally started going down this week. Hiro returned from fuedal Japan, but it turns out the guy he taught how to be a hero and then stole his girl and then thought he killed is actually still alive and hasn't aged at all in 400 years. Oh healing ability, is there anything you can't do?

Anyway, one of the best (and by best I mean most confusing) characters is horned rimmed glasses (aka HRG). Dude is the father of Claire (the indestructable cheerleader who I guess is the key to it all). I especially enjoy the Dawson's Creek style dialogue they have i.e. "You cannot date!" "You're not the boss of me!" and so on.

Anyway, he's pretty badass. He shot some Russian guy last week, after using "The Haitian" to torture him via memory loss. I imagine if you do not watch this show, none of this makes any sense whatsoever, so lets switch it up.


The writers in Hollywood went on strike this week. This means new episodes of all your favorite shows like "The Big Bang Theory" and "Back to You" will be running reruns. And Heroes supposedly will end its season in December. What a shame.

As to be expected, gentle members of the press are all over this story. FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST, WHAT WILL WE WATCH they say, and then answer their own question: Reality TV writers are non-union.

But the good thing is some are having a bit of fun with it. Take for example Frazier Moore of the AP, who had this to say:

Sure, the impact of the strike so far has been limited to late night, instantly banishing comedy-and-talk shows into rerun purgatory. But how are you supposed to know what's happening in the world without Jon Stewart and "The Daily Show" mocking current events? How will you keep your grip on contemporary life deprived of David Letterman's nightly Top Ten List?
The prospect of a strike was a wake-up call for viewers. Last Friday, "Late Night" host Conan O'Brien dispelled the popular belief "that I make the whole show up." Not true, viewers learned. "Believe it or not," confided Conan, "some of the show is scripted."
But that was then. On Monday, writers who once scripted "Late Night" and so many other shows (and movies, too) were picketing outside NBC's Rockefeller Center headquarters.
"Hey, hey, ho, ho, management can't write the show," they chanted, demonstrating that their own writing skills don't include poetry.
The dispute between Writers Guild of America members and the networks and studios that employ them centers on issues like Internet royalties for TV shows. But it's you caught in the middle. As a pitch for "Jimmy Kimmel Live" put it so vividly, "The more I Jimmy, the better I feel." With the strike going on, you just can't Jimmy like you used to.
And things could get worse. If the strike drags on (and the last one, in 1988, went for 22 weeks), the reservoir of new scripted shows could run dry.

Indeed. As a fellow writer, who is way lowerly paid, I feel somewhat sympathetic to those writers who come up with the comedy gold that is "Two and Half Men" I guess. On the other hand, this guy.