Ringer - Episode 4

No good deed goes unpunished. At least that's how it seems in this show. Despite the terrible acting by Sarah Michelle Geller, I am very much pulled into this show and I can't wait to see what the next episode brings, though if it keeps getting steadily worse, I might have to turn it off.

Though Bridget is slowly repairing the relationship with "her" step-daughter, that is about the only good thing happening in the entire show. Poor Malcolm is held captive by criminals that keep junking him up. All of this could have been avoided if Bridget had just testified against the murderer, though then there wouldn't be a show.

When Gemma overhears Bridget and Henry talking about the product of "their" (actually Siobhan & Henry's) love affair, she acts out and confronts Bridget who wildly defends herself by finally admitting that she is not Siobhan. Gemma at first doesn't believe her, but is convinced after realizing that Siobhan had a scar that Bridget didn't have. Instead of taking this opportunity to start a new friendship, she instead blackmails Bridget into sleeping with her husband so that she can get full custody of the kids and not have to pay Henry a penny with the impending divorce.

Bridget goes to try and convince Henry to love his wife again, mentioning Gemma's plan to show him the seriousness of the situation. Instead of taking her advice, he gets angry and tells Gemma not to bother coming home. Gemma calls Andrew with a desperate plea for him to come and aid her in an emergency, which the audience might assume is because of the further "bertrayal" felt by Bridget. When Andrew shows up, Henry refuses to let him in, and tells him to either try the office or call again tomorrow. Andrew, a little confused, turns and heads home. Apparently Henry had gotten violent, as can be seen by the broken vase and what we assume is blood all over the wall. No body is shown, so we don't know if it is Gemma or someone or something else. In any case it is very suspicious. The new episode airs tomorrow night on Global.

Food, Inc.

I love documentaries.

When I was doing my month-long apprenticeship at Rio Muchacho Organic Farm in Ecuador, we watched one almost every evening. It is amazing how much there is that goes on that we don't know about.

The problem with documentaries is that they can be extremely biased. It is hard to weigh both sides fairly if one side is being demonized. I do think it is important to consider both sides before making a decision.

The industrialized food system, like industry itself, has its merits and its problems. Nothing is perfect, nothing will ever be perfect.

It appears to me that the problem started as a question "How are we going to feed all these people?" a.k.a. how are we going to meet the demand?

It was interesting how they mentioned that there was a time when the meat packing industry was one of the best industries to work in; the equivalent of working at a car factory. It doesn't have to be the way that it is now. We have this false illusion that factory food is cheap. The reason it is cheap is because it is subsidized by the government and there is a toll being taken on the environment, the animals, farmers, and even the food itself. What it lacks in quality, in humanity, it makes up in price. But then again, if you are an American citizen who pays taxes, you are also paying for the subsidization and the efforts to clean up the environment, for the lawyers battling bills, for the illnesses, etc. In the end, it really isn't that cheap. It is an illusion, just like many things in our lives.

I watched the movie with my father, and to my anger at the injustice that these money-laden giants were causing against farmers, he made the remark that it is the whole justice system that is at fault. Petty cases should not be clogging up the court system. Companies should not be able to get away with making stupid charges. Well, in the end, people, should not get away with making stupid charges.

Unfortunately it is worse in Canada. Check out this article from the Vancouver Sun: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Alberta+farmer+shot+thief+sentenced+days+jail/5521407/story.html Man defending his property gets 90 days in jail. The thief gets 30 days. Hmm....

There are always many ways to spin things, but I think it comes down to common sense, which there doesn't seem to be a lot of these days.

Back to the food...

In Canada, we don't have a lot of the farming problems that they have in the USA. We have a lot of land and relatively not that many people. All the beef farmers I know have their beef on grass for the majority of the year. Even a lot of dairy farmers (based on visual evidence since I live in the "country") have their cows out on grass most of the days, most days of the year. A few like to keep theirs in barns, especially the larger farmers. The difference, however, is that in this area, an average dairy farmer has about 100 cows. In the USA, I have heard that the average dairy farmer has about 3,000. Big difference. But out here, most farmers grow their own fodder for their cows, whether it be corn, grain, or grass (usually in the form of silage). People might say "You can't get enough milk for the population if all the farmers only have 100 cows. How are the farmers to make money?" I don't know the details, but when I was studying agriculture at (what was UCFV) in Chilliwack, the majority of the class were dairy farmers (or children of dairy farmers) that said they often had to pour out milk because they are not allowed to exceed the monthly quota.

Back to the movie...

I think one of the most important things said was that we do have a choice. We can vote with our dollars. Unfortunately the organic industry is quite the fad these days, and they exploit that to the max. It is very costly to buy many organic products. The more that this becomes the standard, however, the cheaper it should get as the market becomes competitive. In the meantime, you can always start with one or two things. If you have the time, you can start making homemade things, much like our grandmothers did. I am slowly doing this. I make my own jam, I started a small jungle-like garden this year and planted some fruit trees. I usually make my cookies from scratch, pies from scratch, bread in a bread maker. (I made hand-made bread once and although it was much tastier, it's too much work). I canned a lot of applesauce last year. The best thing about making things yourself is that you know exactly what is in it. My jam had fruit, vinegar and sugar. Though I don't know how the vinegar and sugar were processed, the fruit was all fresh picked from my garden, my mom's garden, and the fields just down the road. Best part was it was delicious. I need to make some more.

I would definitely recommend the movie, especially to people who have little to no access to knowing first hand where their food comes from. That package of meat used to be a cow. That extra large chicken breast used to have a heart beating inside. What the food is treated with, and how it was treated while growing are very important if you have any heart at all.

Unforgettable

This one is on CTV.ca

Unforgettable is about a former detective that has a medical condition that can either be taken positively or negatively. She remembers everything and forgets nothing. Well, almost everything. There is one thing that she has difficulty remembering the details of: when, as a child, she discovered the body of her sister murdered in the forest. Up until this point she has not remembered stumbling upon the body, but now that she is the key witness to crime that happened in her apartment building, things are starting to come back. Though she may not want to use her incredible memory and detective skills to benefit society, she is realizing that it may be the best thing for her.

This show is very slow and only vaguely interesting. I had more elaborate expectations for this, but am slightly disappointed. It is interesting watching how she "remembers" things and picks up details that she hadn't considered. This is the kind of show that I would rather not watch it again until the last episode, when hopefully the main issue of the season is solved.

A Gifted Man

Wealthy, brilliant, successful Dr. Holt lacks compassion for his fellow citizen, unless they have the insurance or cash to pay for his services. That is until is ex-wife, whom he hasn't seen in 10 years, shows up. Both doctors, they had entirely different views of life. She spent her time helping the neediest individuals while he moved on to be one of the top 10 surgeons.

She happens to run into him unexpectedly so he invites her over and they have a little chat. She leaves rather hastily while he answers a phone call, and he is left to ponder over their previous marriage and what it might be like to see her again. The next day he calls the clinic where she works only to find out that she passed away two weeks prior. It isn't long before he figures out that she is a ghost that he can't seem to get rid of. Not that he entirely wants that, either. Though he is quite perturbed by her random appearances in the most inconvenient of situations, deep down he does not want to let her go. When given the opportunity, he cuts the "extraction" short, lying to the shaman and saying that it was all over with.

Her reappearance in his life gets him thinking about what is truly important in life. She constantly is questioning his decisions and offering him different ways of looking at things in life. I sense some predictable, but great character development for his character. I don't know how long the series will last without the idea getting old quickly, but these first two episodes have been thoughtful and entertaining.

My absolute favourite character so far is Anna Paul, played by Jennifer Ehle. She has such a radiant smile, and is almost constantly smiling, except when her ex is about to make a bad decision. I love the way Ehle plays this role. She is just so lovely as a ghost, not preoccupied about unimportant things of the present since there is nothing she can do about them anyway. That is, she can only do one thing, and that is to request help from her ex-husband who has very different ideals than she does.

I look forward to seeing more episodes.

Flashpoint

Being a Canadian, it's always exciting to see shows that take place in Canada. Although many shows are filmed in Canada, few take place here. Flashpoint is one of the few.

My husband and I both really like this show. We are watching season 4, which is the first we've seen. My brother told me about it a few years ago, but since I don't really watch TV, I didn't pay any attention to him. Now before bed my husband and I like to watch something before we fall asleep. First it was House, but it didn't take long to watch all of the seasons. We are now currently up to date (except for tonight's episode). Then he and I, mostly I, watched the current 90210 because Jessica Lowndes is one of the main actresses and I went to school with her. I enjoy watching shows that I am either directly or indirectly involved in. But globaltv.com doesn't have any of the current episodes and iTunes is charging $3.45 per episode. CWTV has it, but you have to have an American IP address to watch it.

Back to Flashpoint. I really like the cast. I think they work well together. I'm usually not a fan of all-white casts because they don't reflect reality, but these guys have chemistry, and Clé Bennett is a colourful new addition. I'm actually not a fan of his character so far, but I've only seen him in 2 or 3 episodes, so he might grow on me once I figure him out a bit more. It might be because the first episode I saw him in he was doing some shady business and I can't tell if he was purely undercover or succumbing to the world he was undercover in. He has saved the day a few times already, so there are some bonus points in his books.

There is usually a lot of action in these shows. They give you a sneak peak at the end at the beginning, and then fill in the details of how it got to that point through the rest, and then end it off. When I first watched it, I thought there would always be a happy ending, but this is not the case. There is a good balance in how much good and bad happens in each episode.

Like many series, there is a background storyline that follows the characters through the episodes, which has its own ups and downs and reveals bits and pieces about the characters and their lives.

It's not a perfect show, but it is an enjoyable one. I may have to go back and watch the previous 3 seasons.

Paris Hilton's My New BFF

The only reason I watched the first episode is because I couldn't believe that this even existed. Be best friends with Paris Hilton? Obviously it's just a publicity ploy and some nobodies crack at being famous.

I'm not a big fan of reality shows. Period. They are not based on reality at all. They choose people based on their ability to get ratings. They crazier the people, the greater the excitement, the bigger the ratings. Who would want to be Paris Hilton's best friend anyway? In this show she humiliates, interrogates, demands them to change themselves, ignores their preferences, and spies on them. Who would want a best friend like that? They may end up being Paris Hilton's "best friend", but it's highly unlikely that Paris would ever be theirs.

Pan Am

Since I have been sick the past couple of days, I have spent my time watching shows on globaltv.com and ctv.ca. One of the new shows on CTV is called Pan Am. I was reluctant to watch it at first, I mean, how entertaining can a show about planes and stewardesses be? Truthfully, however, I was surprised.

Set in the Cold War era, Pan Am is set with beautiful stewardesses and beautiful locations. At first I had a hard time telling the stewardesses apart, considering they were all white, had similar makeup, similar hair and the same uniform. After one episode, once the characters began to take shape and get more familiar, differentiating them became less troubling.

The unique setting allows for a more interesting storyline than just what happens on a plane. After all a Pan Am stewardess is the perfect cover for international spying during the cold war, is it not? From spies, to family, to relationships and the hazards of the job, this show is endearing, uncomplicated, interesting and artistically intriguing. I look forward to seeing more episodes as they come.