It's My Party

Posted 12:30 AM by Gerald So

Not a political post. Today is my birthday and a traditionally significant one at that. I always have such expectations for my birthday, they're almost never met. I'd like to think being a little selfish on the day is fine, but I also wish the day would pass into the rest that are in no way about me.

I'm grateful to be here, to have not noticed how long I've been here. Instead of lamenting anything I may have lost to time, I consider everything I'm able to do today that I wasn't yesterday, last week, last year, five years ago...





Update: On his way to visit his daughter in Connecticut, my friend John Ricotta surprise-dropped by, representing my best friends from Hofstra, and delivered a gift card, wildly exceeding expectations:

Photo by Kelly Ricotta

The Misdirection of MATLOCK

Posted 8:30 AM by Gerald So

Sunday night CBS gave a sneak peek of its Matlock series starring Kathy Bates. Madeline Matlock presents herself as a do-gooder attorney cheated and mistreated by her ex-husband and in need of money as a result.

She hustles her way into a job with a New York firm and proceeds to help the firm with a case. Toward the end of the pilot, though, we learn "Matty" is not at all who she appeared to be.

I'll leave it at that to avoid spoilers. Clever as the twist was, I felt egregiously hoodwinked, made to empathize and root for Matty based on an utterly false backstory, down to her use of the earnest, folksy Matlock name. This show shouldn't be called MATLOCK.

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ABC's HIGH POTENTIAL

Posted 7:30 AM by Gerald So

Based on the French TV series HPI, ABC's HIGH POTENTIAL sees Kaitlin Olson play Morgan, single mother and night janitor for the LAPD. In the pilot, Morgan happens to spot a problem on an investigation board and alters the board to point police in the right direction. This annoys the lead detective (Daniel Sunjata) but impresses the captain (Judy Reyes). Under pressure from recent department failures, the captain orders the detective to work with Morgan.

The pilot depicts the friction between the police and Morgan and between Morgan's home life and potential new work. The show reminds me of MONK and PSYCH, but just as Adrian Monk is different from Shawn Spencer, Morgan is different from both, and I think Olson will keep her engaging.

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