Meh, Yeah, Meh

Three TV shows I watched last night.  The first hour of the Grammys (meh), the HBO serial Rome (yeah), and the Space soap opera Battlestar Galactica.

This is when I remember being concerned about the future of The Police:

You consider me the young apprentice


Caught between the Scylla and Charibdes.

When I first heard those lyrics in Wrapped Around Your Finger, I started to look for the large aquarium that housed the shark that The Police had jumped.  Not the kind of lyrics, I remember thinking, that a rock song should be made out of.  We lovers of rock don't want to have to buy the abridged version of the lyrics to understand the references.  Anyway, it didn't matter, since Synchronicity (the album the song was from) was their last.  Sting, of course, went on to a career full of such Thinking-Man's lyrics.  I liked my The Police punky and rocking.  Less jazz, more backbeat.

So, when I heard The Police were reforming, and would open last night's Grammys, I was excited.  However, which The Police would show up?  The Police where the lyric "chasm" might make an appearance as Sting forgo a stand-up bass for a bass-lute?  Or The Police where ears would be ringing a half-hour after they played an impossibly fast version of "Man In A Suitcase"?  Turns out more of the former, less of the latter.
They played only one song (was disappointed in that, was hoping for at least two), that song being "Roxanne".  After a kind of ugly and lame shout-out "We're the Police, and we're back!!" by Sting, they started playing.  First verse, I was thinking "Oh, how I've missed this sound!"  Second verse, they started getting a bit flowery with their rendition of the song.  "Uh oh, here comes the lute".  Fortunately, it wasn't too awful, and they ended the song pretty solidly.  Overall, though, it was a pretty "Meh" performance for the beginning of a "comeback".  Still, I'd love to see them in concert somewhere.  The rest of the first hour of the Grammys was pretty meh too.  Although, I got a little shiver of excitement when I saw Prince come out on stage.  Disappointed that he was only introducing Beyonce.  It would've kicked ass if a Prince performance was one of the "surprises" the announcer kept talking about.  What were the surprises anyway?

I only watched the first hour of the Grammys because I switched it over to watch a new episode of Rome.  I'm really enjoying this series, and last night's episode was great.  Full of some neat twists and turns in plot, and enticing in what its unfolding promises for the final few episodes of the series (this second season is supposed to be the final season).  So, a "yeah" from me for last night's episode of Rome.

A big "meh" from me, though, for last night's Battlestar Galactica.  In fact, for the most part, this whole season has been mostly "meh" with a few episodes of "yeah" thrown in.  Last night's show was not a must-see if you happened to miss it.  It was one of those totally self-contained contrivances that don't add at all to the overall arc of the show.  Barely any forward movement on the show's main plots, and a storyline that I totally didn't care about. 

So, just to make it easier for you to keep notes for the test that will be coming up later in the semester, it's a  meh yeah meh from me on the TV I watched last night.  Write that down:  meh yeah meh.



Technorati Tags: Grammys, The Police, Rome, Battlestar Galactica