Matthew Bomer

Pilot [HD]
$2.99
I am wondering what metrics go into determining a price of $3 for an hour long show. I watched this free on WB's website, and the quality of the picture wasn't significantly different, even compared to the HD version, even at 1920x1080. Sure, you get 5 15-second commercials. But free, as opposed to $3 PER EPISODE? Somebody must be buying it, otherwise Amazon wouldn't price it that way. I would think a collector would want something on disk with a package and cover art and the ability to play it anywhere anytime. A non-collector, someone just wanting to watch it on demand, has no motive to pay $3.

Tru Calling: The Complete Series
$59.98
This was a more-than-adequate series-- not absolutely amazing, but certainly a lot more watchable than most of the drivel on TV these days. They show reruns on Sci-Fi (I refuse to call it "SyFy") fairly frequently, but this is an insanely low price for the complete series! (It costs a lot more to buy the two seasons separately.) $24.49 would be a good deal for a season and a half of a BAD show, and "Tru Calling" is far from awful. I'm seriously tempted to just buy it right now, but Christmas is coming up and this would make a good gift for my grandma to give me... Oh, what the heck!
Now, back to my Shakespeare paper...

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Collection (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2003 / The Texas Chainsaw Massacre The Beginning)
$14.98
Studio: New Line Home Video Release Date: 09/15/2009 Run time: 187 minutes Rating: R

Chuck Versus the Imported Hard Salami
$1.99
"Chuck versus the Imported Hard Salami" is further evidence that this show, which started well, has continued to improve as it goes along. My initial concern was that the show would succumb to the temptation of embracing an episodic format. That fear is turning out to be unfounded. I should add that my own bias -- which amounts to a conviction -- is that the serial format is vastly superior to the episodic. Movies are by their very nature episodic. Television is superior to movies specifically because of its narrative advantage to film. Movie can tell a short narrative; television can stretch a narrative over years and take it to a degree of depth and detail that no movie can rival. So, to embrace an episodic format is to refuse to embrace television's natural superiority to movies.

The first few episodes of CHUCK were almost entirely episodic. Furthermore, I wasn't confident that there was much possibility of an ongoing narrative. But now we have some nice ongoing story arcs in play. One revolves around Bryce, Chuck's former Stanford roommate, who not only was responsible for Chuck getting kicked out of Stanford and for receiving the contents of the CIA database but also had a romance with Sarah. The other arc revolves around Chuck's increasing attraction to Sarah and her mutual, but hidden, attraction to Chuck. The final seconds of this episode dramatically complicates both of these arcs.

Both this and the previous episode were enlivened by a welcome guest appearance by Rachel Bilson, who previously starred on Josh Schwartz's first hit show, THE O.C. as Summer. Although her short arc was wrapped up it isn't impossible that she could return from time to time.