Grey's Anatomy: Remember when it was good?

Seriously, remember when Thursday night everything stopped for an episode of Grey's Anatomy? When the drama between Christina and Burke was so thick nothing else seemed to matter? When you actually gave a damn about what happened to Meredith and Derek?

Then, there was the dismantling. The removal of Isaiah Washington and thus, the end of Christina and Burke. Kate Walsh leaving Seattle Grace to launch the insanely pathetic Private Practice spin-off. Ellen Pompeo did something to her face and she was no longer remotely interesting to watch. And Katherine Heigl and T.R. Knight got really, really annoying, on and off camera.

As the producers and writers spend the summer months trying to write themselves out of a season finale that left two major characters on the brink of death and the others kind of not doing anything interesting, I propose the following to breath life back into the show:

• Bring back Burke. The reintroduction of Washington's character would lend the show some much-needed dramatic gravitas and provide for an interesting set of complications now that Christina has moved on with that guy who was in HBO's Rome.
• Kill George and Issie. They spend the last season not doing much, and we hate them and rather Seattle Grace find interns we actually care about.
• Fix Ellen Pompeo's face. Okay, that was just mean. But seriously, the Meredith Derek thing is stale. Her family dramas were much more interesting.
• Let Bailey get her groove back. Why hasn't this powerhouse actress been given a romantic storyline. She's getting a divorce, so she needs to now have some fun. Give her an intern or two to play with. That might be fun.
• Let some patients live. E'rbody been dying this season. Don't they remember that Deny's story was interesting because they gave him room to grow as a character before killing him (ditto with the crazy chick who had to get a new face). Bring some folks on. Let em hang a little bit, then kill 'em in sweeps. We'll appreciate it.
  

Return of the Slayer?

So, two of the producers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer are talking about rebooting the franchise. This would awesome considering the UPN show and its spin-off Angel were, shall we say, seriously kick ass escapism. The problem, though, is the absence of idea man, Joss Whedon. Now, we admit Whedon's newest series, Dollhouse, was some stupid sh*t, but the Buffyverse he penned was top-notch genre TV with smarts. What has Fran Kazui done since Buffy (and did you even know the name before I asked this question)? Well, she and her husband, Kaz, bank-rolled Angel (also Whedon's idea) and produced nothing else, according to IMDB. If they don't bring Whedon in on this reboot, I pray they get no support and their idea dies where it now stands.

Terminator Salvation

Terminator Salvation is cold and gray, dusty and loud. People die. Machines reek havoc. And the only hope for mankind is John C ... I mean, a new guy whose name I can't remember.

The only thing that annoyed me about this movie was the presence of this newest character. I won't tell you why he's important, just in case you haven't seen it already. But his presence makes no sense to us.

Everything else about the Terminator mythology remains intact. John Conner is alive. He's morphed from Nick Stahl to Christian Bale and is leading a band of resistance fighters. His wife Kate (Claire Danes in Rise of the Machines, but here, a pregnant Bryce Dallas Howard) is by his side. His mother, Sarah, is present too, but only in voice; he listens to her "chronicles" on cassette tape for inspiration and direction. John's father, Kyle Reece, is present as well, but he's yet to grow into Michael Beihn and is a teenage Anton Yelchin.

Half of mankind believes John is their salvation. The other half think he's full of shit. The machines, though, know better. They've got John and Kyle on the top of a termination list, and they've set about a complicated plot -- which includes some time travel (you knew there would be time travel, for god sakes, this is Terminator), brainwashing, bombs, missiles, explosions, and the California governor, either in a cameo or just some look-alike CGI.

Salvation is not a think film. It doesn't tug at the heart like T2; but it's a decent action flick, enjoyable... much more than, say, the third movie in the series, which blew so desperately hard the negatives should be erased.

Star Trek: Time, money and a sense of humor does an idea good

I'd never understood the phenomenon. Stories of boys and girls glued to TVs to watch Cap. Kirk and his crew boldly going where no man has gone before. Pointy-eared first mates who subdued enemies by pinching nerves in their shoulders. Scotty beaming folks from point A to B. Hogwash! And that damn theme song. Jesum Petes! It got on my nerves. Gave me reason enough to make the trek across our living room to switch the channel. When I was a kid, watching the news or, lets say, blades of grass growing, was more interesting than watching any a new Star Trek movies or television show. Didn't matter if they added Kunta Kinte to the crew, Woopie Goldberg, or Iman in a major movie. Star Trek, in my estimation, was something I never ever wanted to experience. Ever. (I did, in the interim, see the In Living Color sketch with Jim Carrey. Seriously funny shit.)

Then I saw the trailer.

No cheese there. Familiar, somehow. Explosions like Star Wars. Action like Star Gate and Transformers. A killer cast that includes Zoe Saldana and Zachary Quinto (aka Syler).

The new Star Trek flick benefits from a big budget and the innovations of its successors. This time they got it right. This time they created assessable, entertaining fair. It was funny. It was dangerous. It was sexy in a way its predecessors were not.

The writers even paid homage to that In Living Color sketch. In one scene, Doc Whats-His-Face sounds just like Jim Carrey when he says: "Spock, are you out of your Volcan mind." Check out the scene BEFORE you see the movie (or right now if you've seen it already).

The summer begins: Wolverine kicks butt at box office

Screw the critics. Since when did you last watch a movie based on Marvel comics for the drama? And when did we say we were interested in Wolverine because his character was so complex? We like the X-Men comics, cartoons and films because things blow up, mutants do bad things, and Wolverine kicks ass. Why do you think X2: X-Men United was more entertaining than the first in the series? It's because of that one scene, when he leaps off the second floor landing to the first, two masked men impaled on his claws.

If you're with me so far, you'll probably enjoy X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The movie pulled $160 million (worldwide) at the box office this weekend despite stupid reviews like this from the Star Ledger: "If it's truly an 'Origins' tale, as advertised -- well, where are the explanations?" Is Stephen Witty seriously that daft? The story isn't so complicated that a college-educated man can't follow. Entertainment Weekly, though, got the point: "Heroes and villains clash, then rise up to clash again, just because that's what X-Men do. The truth is, it doesn't matter Y."

My only critique: Gambit was missing the signature Cajun accent that made his character in the Fox cartoon series.