Fall TV Preview: Monday and a few thoughts on 9/11

Worth Checking Out:
Heroes- 8pm CST/NBC: Think X-Men meets Lost and that’s supposedly what you have here. Random people around the world wake up with superpowers while the connections that bind them slowly come to the surface. On paper this sounds like a great premise but luke warm preview screenings have diminished my excitement. Still I figure it might be worth taking a look at.

Required Viewing:
24-8pm CST/FOX: Sure it doesn’t come back until January but who isn’t jonesing for their Jack Bauer fix. Will he be all Manchurian Candidate if and when the Chinese release him? Will Audrey still be waiting now that she’s on another show? Will the ghost of Soul Patch Tony return to haunt CTU? So far the only news that’s come out is that DB Woodside who plays President Palmer’s brother will be back for another day. Could we be looking at another Palmer in the White House?

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip-9pm CST/NBC: If you’re new to the blog then you’ve missed me pimping this show hard for the last 6 months. A new Aaron Sorkin show is just what the doctor ordered for the new season and after previewing the pilot thanks to Netflix all my pimping was well deserved. Look for Matthew Perry, Bradley Whitford and Amanda Peet to claim Emmy’s next year because it’s just that good. Plus, it should be a blast to see a rotating list of celebs play fake guest host every week ala SNL.


So today’s the 5 year anniversary of 9/11. I think most of us will always remember where we were that day. I was at work at the Credit Union in the basement of the Supervalu Foods warehouse when employees slowly started passing along info. Being that I lived the closest I ran home to grab my portable TV and bring it back to the office. While I was at home I saw the first tower collapse. I think I stood there for at least 10 minutes before I realized I should probably get back to work. My then wife called me and said her bank was closing up and that she was on her way home and within an hour my work shut down as well. Like all of us I spent the next week on CNN overload. I consumed every new detail as they came in. My parents were on vacation in Paris at the time and thanks to all the travel restrictions were actually trapped there for an extra week. I know, Paris what a horrible place to be “trapped” in. Still I had worry for them because nothing felt safe in those first few days. I remember trying to get a hold of my friends in New York. I didn’t know anyone that worked at the WTC but still until you heard from them the question of safety was out there.

Most of all I remember the anger that I felt. Who were these terrorists and how can we hurt them? I’m about as liberal as they come and I’ve never felt that any of the military activities our country has embarked on in my lifetime were righteous but when the Afghanistan invasion started I cheered on our troops with a vicious tenacity. As a country we felt united and strengthened but then it all went to hell. The Patriot Act, and the inevitability of the Iraq war ruined any patriotic fervor I had. How GW could take the tremendous amount of good will towards America from the world and poison it is still amazing to me. What about the goodwill inside of the country? The very idea that these attacks would have spawned conspiracy theories connecting our own leaders to the attack seemed ludicrous five years ago. A competent and open investigation should have been done but thanks to this presidency there is now a cloud of suspicion that really has no right being there. Do I believe our government perpetrated these attacks? No, but the fact that some legitimate questions have still not been answered are inexcusable.

Bush has ridden 9/11 to reelection, 2 wars with no end in sight, massive changes in our privacy, and an imperialistic presidency. Say what you will about dumb George, but the man certainly knew how to pull the public’s strings in the months and years following the attack. Now we sit here 5 years later and our safety seems no better or worse then it did back then. 9/11 has been reduced to just another unofficial holiday filled with retrospectives, merchandise, and yes even bar specials. One of my local watering holes is giving away free flags and $4 pitchers all day long. USA! USA! USA!

I actually sat down last night and watched the 9/11 documentary by the 2 French brothers who happened to be doing a doc on one of the nearby firehouses when the attacks happened. It’s one of the truest pieces of work about the attacks because it captures what we should remember: the terror, the fear, the humanity, and the heroism. Watching that film you remember the heroism and unity the attacks spawned in our country and it pains me that all of that has been lost just 5 short years later.