Word is, this is going to end up being the last season for 24. Based on what we've seen this season, I'm thinking that wouldn't be such a bad idea, especially if it allows the show to just get it over with and become a movie franchise.

Brian Hastings (Mykelti Williamson) and Dana Walsh (Katee Sackhoff) do counter-terrorist stuff at CTU in season eight of "24."

24 as a series has gotten awfully long in the tooth, and clearly it has simply run out of ideas. The question is not whether the show will surprise us, but whether the show will be entertaining enough in recycling itself to deliver respectably for an hour. I'm not sure what's worse: The general malaise of this season, or the haphazardly messy multiple shark-jumping of season six. Season eight has so far merely alternated between the typically competent 24 action moments, plenty of mediocre beats, and lots of filler.

But by far the worst thing about this season has been what about the last thing any fan of Battlestar Galactica like me would've expected: that any scene featuring Katee Sackhoff, as CTU analyst Dana Walsh, would immediately lead to eye-rolling and infuriation. Sackhoff occupies a subplot that sucks beyond belief and is stupid beyond words. Even in the world that is 24, which we know and expect (and generally accept) to be endlessly contrived, this storyline defies sense at every turn. (Read more...)

I've about reached the end of my patience with Danica Patrick. Specifically, Danica Patrick teamed with Go Daddy to be an annual Super Bowl institution excercising tired and unfunny assumptions about the Lowest Common Denominator. Has anything ever played on such a dumb and repetitive brain-dead premise ("Hey, guys who watch football also like hot chicks in tank tops! You know, like at Hooters!) and so quickly become so utterly forced, predictable, and eye-roll worthy?

Hi, I'm Danica Patrick. Check this shit out (Fig. 1): I will now sell you a domain name by staring intensely at you through your computer screen and hypnotizing you with my extremely undeniable Danica Patrick-ness. Because nothing says "domain names" quite like generic girls in tank tops, me, my awesomeness, and auto racing. Boo-yah.

(The answer to that question, by the way, is: Why, yes, of course about a million things have achieved a similar feat of comparable eye-rolling lameness. This is just one such excellent example.)

I don't remember when Go Daddy first rolled out its chicks-sell-domain-names ad campaign for the Super Bowl, but it's probably been at least five years now. Or 10. Or 50. (How old is the Internet again?)

The campaign the last two or three years has been a lame cutaway from an "escalating" situation of Extreme Supposed Hotness, as a girl rips off her shirt to reveal a Go Daddy tank top underneath, accompanied by a sudden cut to a black screen with the Go Daddy logo, and a promise of "seeing more" at GoDaddy.com. Always, the references to the online continuation implores us to exercise extreme caution: "WARNING: WEB CONTENT UNRATED!" Because it's just too hot for TV, we tell ya! These ads are not edgy. They are the opposite of edgy. (Read more...)

If you haven't already seen it, here it is. The Demon Sheep YouTube ad put out by Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina, attacking her "FCINO" (Fiscal Conservative In Name Only) rival Thomas Campbell in a California primary race.

I'm not sure if their goal was for it to be this absolutely, stunningly, unintentionally hilariously over-the-top. (It plays exactly like a parody that you would see on The Daily Show or The Colbert Report.) But let's put it this way: Lots of people are talking about it. (Read more...)

Jammer's Reviews were created by Jammer. They evolved. They rebelled. Some were written to think they were dissertations. And Jammer has a plan — to curtail them moving forward.

When I launched Jammer's Blog (JB) eight months ago, my mind was already churning away, looking ahead to the future of Jammer's Reviews (JR) as a viable web site, and more specifically toward a Jammer's Reviews & Blog (JRB) hybrid site where one would feed the other. (Read more...)

Last year, I posted my position that was not exactly anti-Twitter, but certainly not at all for it, either. I wondered whether it was a fad, and questioned its utility as a worthwhile endeavor on the Internets, where we use the Google and stuff.

Twitter. A-holes. Silly bird and cartoon T make me feel compelled to tweet. Too bad Conan's Twitter Tracker is no more; now he can't follow me.

Even then, I knew that post was the blogging equivalent of ice-skating uphill and revealing myself as an out-of-touch fuddy-duddy.

I think that column reveals more about me personally than about the Way We Live Now. I also think that it's time to backtrack and take advantage of The Way We Live Now, rather than fighting it merely because it allows me to be a quieter and less plugged-in procrastinator. I should opt to be a noisier and more technologically dependent procrastinator.

Twitter, of course, represents a format of brevity and here's-what-I'm-thinking-right-now. I've always assumed that people don't particularly care what I'm thinking right now and would rather wait until I have a more comprehensive and organized collections of written-down thoughts that can be consumed over the course of 10 minutes rather than five seconds. You know, something that would necessitate — oh, I don't know — at the very least 200 words, and more likely my more typical 2,000. (Read more...)