I was surprised to see a box of Alpha-Bits in the background during the opening scene of this week’s Covert Affairs. Used to be one of my favorite cereals. Then, all of a sudden, it disappeared off the shelves. Apparently it did a “New Coke” reformulation that was just as successful as that failed experiment. I’ll have to dig around and see if I can find some. Hopefully they’re just as good as they were back in the day.
This was a good episode of Covert Affairs, as it had Annie realizing the consequences of what she did. There were loose ends that the agency tried to cover up with maximum prejudice, collateral damage and it served as a cautionary tale to all involved. Good to see Lauren Holly, who met a violent end in NCIS a few seasons back. I read that the series has been renewed for a second season.
Fun developments on Big Brother this week. Brendon got screwed over when he opened Pandora’s Box. True, he got a nice day to himself in a mansion with all the conveniences, but he thought he was going to be there with the love of his life. Instead, she was inflicted on the House for the same 24-hours, which led to fireworks between her and Ragan. Matt did a great job of ad-libbing when his diamond veto fell apart when he yanked it from his pocket. Dude can think on his feet. I wonder who Brittany will nominate–it’s getting to the point where there aren’t many candidates any more, and they’re all pretty chummy. If she were smart, she’d put up two of the brigade, except she doesn’t really know there is such a thing.
We watched The Last Station last night. Christopher Plummer plays Tolstoy during the last year of his wife, Helen Mirren is his long-suffering wife Sofia, Paul Giamatti is the weasely head of the Tolstoyan movement who wants the author to sign over the copyright of all his works to the Russian people, and James McAvoy is the new private secretary who is dropped into the midst of all this intrigue. Plummer is a great Tolstoy, striding around, pontificating but solidly aware that his followers think that he’s a much greater man than he really is. He doesn’t believe in the same things they’re using him to symbolize. He may preach abstinence, but he’s never practiced it. The private secretary starts out wanting to follow the Tolstoyan philosophy, but he meets a fetching young woman who seduces him (her name is Masha, which I heard as “Marsha” throughout the entire movie. She bears a passing resemblance to Marsha Brady, hence today’s title, and she’s the film’s sole fictional character) and opens his eyes to the reality–or rather the artifice–of what’s going on around Tolstoy. I kept thinking “Queen Elizabeth” every time I saw Mirren, but Sofia was a much less assured character, feigning illness and making feeble suicide attempts to keep Tolstoy’s attention. The title is a reference to the place where Tolstoy died, a southern Russian train station.
