What WAS I watching: The Big Donor Show.... did they play the press and public opinion like silly putty . Have had on me since age 18 a codicil and steel marker with blood type details and a bright orange sticker in my ID card and a registration at Eurotransplant. Donorship works both ways.... Don't Ever expect to be a candidate in receiving a donor organ or tissue if you are not prepared to donate your organs and tissue when time has come for the rescue of another human being.

Lot of crud in US too, but I think overall there's been a lot of improvement. There aren't a lot of original ideas though. Hero's and Painkiller Jane seem like X-men ripoffs. The cop shows are starting to wear thin. Stopped recording Criminal Minds mainly because the characters just had none. Stopped recording Numb3rs because some of the plots were just too bogus.

I agree about Homicide Life on the street. I watched the entire series last summer. Haven't decided about the Sopranos. I live in New Jersey and I'm part Italian so we know about the mafia. It's not something fascinating or glamorous from my point of view and it perpetuates certain stereotypes. But I've seen a few episodes and it seems to be a well crafted show. I have the first 4 seasons on a hard drive somewhere, so I might still get to it.

I had seen somewhere that the Thank you for smoking movie was actually written 10 or 20 years ago when the tobacco companies were still claiming - with a straight face - that nicotine wasn't addictive and cigarettes didn't cause cancer. I was reluctant to see it because I thought it would be dated - did it seem that way to you? Also, I never smoked very much but now I'm seriously addicted to the Nictrol nasal spray. It uses the most biologically active isomer of nicotine and I'm more hooked on that than I ever was on the ciggies. Even so, guess it's better than coughing up chunks of my lungs.

Can't wait for Battlestar, Torchwood and Dr. Who to start up again. Going to be sad to see Stargate SG-1 go, but I have to admit it's probably time - they had a good run.

Sek - good advice about the donor cards. I think people don't do it for the same reason a lot of people don't make out a will or get life insurance - it sucks to face one's own mortality.

"The Closer" with Kyra Sedgewick
http://www.tnt.tv/title/0,,612019,00.html
new season starts June 18th.

Hola, J P!

The Closer is a good show. For those who haven't seen it, the main character (Sedgewick) is an asst. chief in LA. Everyone thinks she was hired because she had previously had an affair with her new boss, the Chief of Police. But this was many years ago in a municipality far, far away. She transferred in from Atlanta and has a rather endearing southern (US) drawl. The first season was partly about winning over the people under her and her peers. Obviously a lot of other people who thought they were deserving got passed over in favor of the boss' booty call - even though they no longer have any kind of relationship anymore.

She's known for being able to convince people to confess to crimes they've committed. Sometimes by weight of evidence, sometimes through charm, sometimes by being incredibly devious for someone who seems to be so prim and proper.

The individual characters have some depth although we are talking in the context of a television serial so . . . .

The plots are interesting and generally not predictable. Even when you happen to predict where things are going, there are still usually a couple surprises around the corner.

I think it's worth watching but I wouldn't rate it quite as highly as the series Monk - also on USA network. This is a quirky and humorous crime show where the "defective detective", a former cop and now consultant with San Francisco PD, has an incredibly bad case of OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). Each show can stand on it's own, so you shouldn't be lost if you watch it for the first time.