Beating a Dead Horse

I hate beating a dead horse.  It seems hugely pointless.  I mean, let’s face it, if the horse is already dead, why do you have to keep smacking it?  It’s possible that you simply want to use the dead horse as a sort of punching bag, a training aid if you will, but how long can you really beat it for until flies start swarming, the buzzards circle, and the smell becomes horrific?  Beating a dead horse just can’t work in the long term. 

I don’t think I’m there yet though.  The horse may be on life support at the present moment, but dead?  I don’t think so.  That being said, on with the show…

Please, I beg of you, explain to me why those nice folks on The Riches can’t just pick up and find a new family to pretend to be.  All this nonsense and trouble that they’ve gotten into with their ex-band of Travelers seems to be for no reason.  I wonder though if the producers haven’t realized that and started to clean up their mess.  Last night, Di Di  looked at Ken, after their wedding had sort of happened and said she didn’t want to marry him and he was fine with that.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but she’s pretty much been saying she didn’t want to marry him for a couple of episodes.  All of the sudden he’s fine with it and they act like this conversation has never happened before.  That I don’t buy, it feels like revisionist history, but if it moves the storyline to something more believable, I’m willing to accept it.

As for dead horses?  What’s with The Sopranos spending this entire past episode reminiscing?  And why didn’t Tony whack either Paulie or Bobby when he wanted to off both of them the past couple weeks?  Is this a kindler, gentler Tony who is going to try to get out of the life when the series ends?  I don’t think so, but maybe.  I’d bet more for the switcheroo, Tony tries to get out and Michael Corleone-style gets pulled back in, committing a brutal series of whackings in the finale (unlike Michael though, I imagine Tony will get his hands dirty). 

Surely, you ask, there are horses that are not so dead, right? 

Heroes is back, and if that show isn’t one of the most fun shows on television, I can’t imagine what is.  I was a little disappointed by the whole pretending like Peter was dead thing.  If Peter has the ability to heal, cheerleader-style, and Linderman can apparently bring things back from the dead anyway, did anyone really think Petrelli was dead with decapitation being involved?  Even so, I enjoy the show.  It moves at a good clip, is interesting, vibrant, and has a really solid comic book brought to life feel.  Take, for instance, Parkman and Bennet’s escape last night with Sprague setting off the EMP after Bennet was able to get Parkman to read his mind.  It’s all fantastic, in the unbelievable sense of the word, but it works.  Unlike The Riches, this show clearly operates outside of the real world, so they can get away with this sort of absurdity.  I must say though that I didn’t like the camera shot that focused on Bennet’s Primatech Paper business card with the web address that Suresh was holding, it felt too obvious to me. 

Enough with beating dead horses, it’s time to save the world…