Wow, we haven't had a VCR Alert this exciting in months.
We start with a new, Wednesday edition of Survivor - Amazon.
Tonight, the girls
strip off their clothes for food. Hey, that sounds like a crime
in most states, but I
have to watch because Mrs. Bart is the biggest Survivor
fan in Joklahoma.
The second hour is the returh of West Wing, starring
my good friends Martin Sheen
and Bradley Whitford (He did not say it!) Tonight, Abby
hires Josh's girlfriend to
saboutage (damn those French) a piece of her husband's legislation.
I think the fight scenes
between Josh and Amy are among the best moments on that show.
Smart women are so sexy!
By the way, with West Wing back on the air, does
that mean the war is over?
Now, halfway into the sure-to-be-exciting West Wing,
Wanda's new show premiers,
hence the VCR part of the alert. I hope her show is as good as
it should be.
Then in the third hour, you have the always-good Law &
Order.
But at the same time, let's talk about The Shield.
The Shield is doing a cool thing. Their season finale
is next Tuesday, so between now & then,
they're replaying the entire second season, two shows per night.
Tonight's repeat of the season
opener is damn riviting. Vic and the gang go to Tijuana to kidnap
a Mexican drug lord, which isn't
all that easy to do. But the hard part is getting him past the
border guards and back to into California.
That's not easy to do with a car shot full of bullet holes. The
scene where Vic is talking to the border
guard is among the best this show has ever done. Calling Alfred
Hitchcock!
By the way, and here's the brutal language part - next week's
season finale should be a monster.
There are so many explosve plot lines that will all come together
at once. One of them involves Julien,
the gay, black cop who's also religiously insane. He went
to some church deal to "get rid of" his
homosexuality so he could marry a woman who has a ten-year old
son. To his credit, he told the woman
of his "past" orientation before they got married
When his old boyfriend got out of jail, he came to see Julien
and wanted to stay with him until he
got on his feet. Julien told him no, that he was married and
that he wasn't able to help.
(Hey, Julien, give the guy $300 and tell him to go away.)
But the old boyfriend commits an assault, so Julien told the cops
working the case his name and
where he could be found. When they dragged the guy into the cop
house, he starts screaming at Julien.
"You won't even admit who you are, Julien.
Your dick in my ass makes you gay.
My dick in your mouth makes you gay!"
That's frank and brutal talk, but it's the kind of language angry
people use.
It's part of what makes The Shield. one of TV's
best dramas.
You can imagine how that went down (pun intended) with the other
cops. One of the asshole cops
posted pictures of Julien on the cop bulletin board that said,
"Anal boy has AIDS," and stuff like
that,
then they called his house to tell the ten-year old that his
new daddy was "a queer," and Julien didn't like that.
Previews from next week show Julien, who's almost as big as Baldwin
on NYPD Blue,
tearing into the bastard cops - that'll be fun to watch.
In another story line, Vic and his gang are going to rob the Armenian
Money Train.
The Money Train is weeks or months worth of cash that the Armenian
mob is shipping back home.
They show the biggest pile of cash I've ever seen, probably hundreds
of millions of dollars - but things
go wrong during the armed robbery and people are killed.
Next Tuesday's The Shield oughta rule totally - catch the build up starting tonight.
So if you like cops shows that are real, and you haven't seen
The Shield, tonight would be a great time
to invest an hour. If you do, you'll stay for the also-riviting
second episode that follows the Tijuana premier.
But that's not all.
Times vary, possibly, but on HBO tonight, they're playing possibly
the greatest boxing match of all time.
Marvin
Hagler vs Tommy Hearns
If you're a boxing fan, you already know about this one.
THIS is one of history's greatest boxing matches, and it didn't
even go three rounds.
Unlike the Tyson bitefests that aren't even real boxing, when
the bell starts the first round, both of these
magnificent champions came to the center of the ring and started
slugging. Toe-to-toe, they traded giant
haymakers, one after another for three solid minutes. You
won't believe you're eyes.
I forget what words he used, but at the end of the first round,
the announcer says something like,
"Holy sweet Mother of Koresh - have
you ever seen a round like that in your life?"
It's that good.
Apparently both men had orders to not willy-nilly around.
Big, hard bombs landing on chins, one after another. Boom!
Boom!
The second round? Same damn thing.
Pounding like you've never seen unless you were watching
the pay-per-view back in 1985.
Hell, if you don't like boxing, this could turn you.
The third round was more of the same. Obviously, this fight wasn't
going to go 15.
Yes, Virgina, when men were men, boxing went 15 rounds.
Two minutes in the third round, one of the champions goes down.
But after this fight, you'll want to buy the loser a car.
Eight minutes of excitement that boxing just doesn't have anymore.
If you have to, go buy a VCR so you can catch this legendary
boxing match and The Shield.
If you don't have a VCR. watch the first three rounds of the
fight, then switch to FX.
You just don't get entertainment this good very often.