WHAT HAPPENS WHEN NBC NO LONGER TRIES ANYMORE? THE EVENT!

I usually don’t use exclamation marks. I find they’re generally reserved for psychotically energetic girls that just wanted to say “hey!”, “what are you doing?!!”. But this show is so bad, so formulaic, so unoriginal in its attempt to be original, that I felt compelled to use it. Here goes...

As a recap for those of you who weren’t able to watch “The Event”, here is a quick synopsis of the first episode (also known as many people’s last episode):

Boy and Girl are on vacation. Girl vanishes. Flash-forwards show Boy later hijacks plane. Flashbacks reveal Boy didn’t mean to hijack plane. Boy tries to save plane from crashing into the President of the United States' Florida compound (I know…). Even more flashbacks reveal the President’s discovery of 97 mysterious prisoners kept by the government in Alaska (really, not 100?). Prisoners have been there for roughly 60 years (ok, got it!). Strong-willed President overrides advisers and seeks to announce the existence of those mysterious prisoners to the world! As President begins TV address to the nation, plane soars directly towards President’s compound. Flashbacks reveal Girl’s Dad is the pilot steering the plane towards impact (Wow!). More Flashbacks reveal that he’s only doing it because a secret group of people have killed his wife and threatened his family. A flash-forward from the flashback to present time shows Boy and passengers bracing for impact. President and entourage race to safety. Incoming plane they say! Portal opens up in the middle of the sky. President saved. What the #@!&?

There you have it NBC, another hit! You’ve managed to combine flashbacks, flash-forwards, aliens, portals, government cover-ups, plane crashes, bad acting, regular folks, the President of the US, his stereotypically secretive and manipulative military adviser, kidnapping, Alaska and Florida.

Thanks NBC!

AND I, LEARNED SOMETHING THIS WEEKEND

For most New Yorker's, living with roommates is just a standard way of life. You graduate college, move to New York for that PERFECT associate job which in no way uses information you learned while getting your undergrad, and you find a couple of random roommates on Craigslist who enjoy the similar interests. If the don't have the similar interests, well that's fine, it happens - as long as they don't have a shotgun rack in their living room, or more than four, no three, no, two pets.

But living with these roommates is often harder than finding them. One night you're drinkin' beers with you supposed "new buddies" and the next thing you know you wake up on Saturday morning only to find you were to first one to pass out and your "roomies" emptied the entire contents of the refrigerator on top of you and your bed.

Well last week, along with Barry's fabulous links, we've learned how to make that roommate relationship just a little bit smoother. B Dan shared some insight into his never-before-seen private roommate life, and brought us our first room mate poll on the site.

We've all been there before, at some point in our life. You grab a cold one, make that turkey sammy and sit down to watch your favorite DVR'd show....only for your roommate to walk in 10 minutes later and demand you restart it.

RESTART?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Well, New York you hit the polls, and you hit them hard. All 18 of you voiced your opinion, and in a close vote, 44% of you said that if you are less than 12 minutes into the show, restarting is not only the polite thing to do, it's the right thing to do.

So the next time you're home "sick" on that random Tuesday watching your DRV'd Price is Right and your loser roommate walks in....restart it. For the both of you. C'mon...Drew Carey isn't half bad.

Who am I kidding? He sucks.

ROOMMATES 101 - THE TV SHOW STARTOVER

So last night, just like every Tuesday night, I watched LOST. Best show ever. And no, I have NO idea what's going on in the show. Am I supposed to know? No. THAT'S THE POINT PEOPLE. They're screwing with our heads. And you know what? I kinda dig it. I like being totally toyed with by these writers. Plus, Kate (not Evangeline Lilly - dirty, baby-stealing, conniving Kate) is crazy hot, so there's always that to keep me tuning in.

I always watch Lost with a small group of people. That way, when something monumental happens, we totally geek out together. Makes for a much better show when you can be super nerdy with someone, recall past episodes, and spout out random facts trying to out-prove each others Lost-fan-ness.

So we're about 10 minutes into the episode, and the first commercial break hits. In other words, the word "LOST" has just appeared on the screen, and our mind has been blown for the first time in the episode. I grab for the remote and start fast forwarding. Suddenly, we hear the door open, and my roommate walks in. Roommate is a Lost fan also, and says "Oh man, is this Lost? Can you start over?"

Now, I'm all for equal opportunity TV watching. We all pay for cable. We all should be entitled to watch TV, I'm willing to admit that. I've been scolded for not restarting a show a few times, so I won't even ask the question of if I'm supposed to do it as a whole. Obviously, to a certain point, you are expected to restart a program, and it depends on a wide range of elements. For easiness sake, I'd say there are two main factors:

First, length of the program. Restarting a 30 minute show at any point is a lot different than pushing the "Start Over" on a Lifetime Movie (ed. note: do a Google image search for "Lifetime Movie" - its HYSTERICAL. The tag lines on these movies have got to be the biggest inside joke for this network's writers).

The second factor is obviously how far into the program you are. If you're 2 minutes, you should always restart the show, obviously. 30 minutes into a show is asking a bit much of even the best of roommates.

For this example, let's say you're watching an hour long program. Here's my question people:

How far into an hour long show am I still supposed to restart the program?