Catching Up on TV

My Jericho reviews are always really long, because I actually go back and read them to remember what's going on. Unlike a show like Lost where I pay super close attention, I don't even remember all the characters' names on Jericho, and I'm never 100% engrossed in the show, so writing something closer to a recap helps me keep up with the story. So that means more spoilers than usual are included past the jump, plus some quick thoughts on Penn & Teller: Bullshit:

• Jericho: Hawkins continues to be a part of what I gather is a large number of guys who pretend to be women on computers. He tells the big evil scary guys to meet him at a warehouse, and about a dozen guys with rifles show up. And then he leads them away with another fake text message. So as far as I can tell they had that whole sequence just to show us the bad guy's face. He heads back home to share a moment with his daughter, who is apparently a chip off the old block, not feeling a bit of remorse after killing a woman.
  
  Skylar and Dale continue to play a sort of post-apocalyptic Bonnie and Clyde. It continues to be boring. But at least we get a scene that shows they're prepared for retribution, since they've hired some muscle to guard their supplies. But of course in this situation, I have no idea why they expect the hired goons not to turn on them and take all their stuff. But since they're faceless thugs at this point, I think we're not supposed to care.
  
  Some kids discover the hidden tank, so everyone finds out that the marines aren't coming back with supplies. The panic over resources leads them to decide to kick out the refugees. And they bring two cops to throw about 50 people out. Apparently they figured the refugees would be quietly and happily escorted into the radioactive wild.
  
  
  Mayor Gray goes kinda nuts and gasses the refugees. This pisses some people off, naturally. Roger tries to reason with him, then tries the "I'm holding a gun" brand of reasoning, and we're supposed to get the impression, I think, that he doesn't plan on using it, but of course a struggle ensues and the gun goes off. Roger takes the hard line, he's not going to let Gray get treatment for his wound until he gives his word that the refugees can stay. I liked him better with the stupid fake beard. Deputy Bill pulls out a rifle and tries to take out Roger to save the mayor, but let's just say he's no Mark Wahlberg.
  
  The craziest of refugees takes Jake's mom hostage, and they share a nice hostage/captor moment, giving her extra sympathy for all the refugees, and rallies the townspeople to share their rations with the people about to be kicked out. So Roger gives himself up, and the dramatic hostage situation ends not at all dramatically. And the "we don't have enough food to support the town and the refugees" problem now becomes "we don't have enough food to support the town with it's newly adopted extra citizens." Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, but it sure gives everyone warm fuzzies. Except Roger, who gets kicked out. If he shows back up, the fake beard will return!
  
  The last scene shows everyone gathered around the radio they took from the fake marines, and a news broadcast pointing out that the people who were going to blow up New York were carrying "near perfect fake FBI badges," and the sheriff immediately thinks of Hawkins. So that might be interesting.
  
  I liked the episode ok, but I feel like the show always comes close to being edgy, but backs off at the last minute to be family friendly. And some of the side stories are kind of dull. Plus, I miss Sprague Grayden.


• Penn & Teller: Bullshit: This week, a very interesting episode about breasts. Why can guys walk around the beach with no shirt, but in many places women get arrested for the same thing? Why are so many people offended by the perfectly natural act of a mother feeding her child? I'm as big a fan of the female form as anyone, but I've often wondered if men's fascination with breasts is directly related to the fact that they're kept hidden. The forbidden fruit, in this case, are melons. But since this is a Showtime show, there's nothing forbidden about them, so there were plenty off them.
  
  Another really interesting topic they touched on was breast cancer. Apparently all the pink ribbons and walk events put the majority of the money they raise towards awareness, and not that much towards actually finding either a cure or an underlying cause. Early detection seems to be the best thing for any kind of cancer, so awareness is good, but that does seem kind of bullshitty. Just isolating the factors that put women at risk would make an enormous difference. A doctor saying "you should have regular mammograms" carries a lot less weight than "you have gene X, so you will probably get breast cancer. You need to have regular mammograms." But that's just one man's opinion, and on the topic of breast cancer, I don't think a man's opinion counts for much.