What was on TV? Fri, April 29, 2005

20 years ago, the NSA had been illegally surveilling people for almost four years. Let's see what was on TV.

8:00 Avatar: The Last Airbender

1x09 "The Waterbending Scroll"

I really identified with Katara in this episode. Ang wants to master waterbending and Katara offers to teach him. But when they find a scroll with special scroll full of waterbending techniques, Ang picks then all up right away and Katara very much does not. Every kid has felt like Katara at some point, envious and embrassment in the face of someone's natural talent. It sucks big time. So it was cool to see her reckon with that in this episode. When she realizes that she can learn from Ang, she actually does learn some cool moves, even if it takes her longer. It's a little bittersweet, but nevertheless very satisfying. And Katara's big heroic waterbending moments are all going to hit so much harder after this episode.

8:30 Everything You Want (recorded)

If you like rom-coms, you owe it to yourself to check this one out. The premise is nutty: Shiri Appleby likes Nick Zano, but she can't let go of her imaginary friend-turned-boyfriend from childhood. But Appleby sells it, and the script takes the childhood loneliness that led her to create this imaginary friend seriously.

And if you can go with the premise, there is so much fun to be had here. Appleby and Zano are so perfect for a movie like this, and they have nice chemistry. The rom-com setpieces are all fun: ice skating mishaps, having fun on swings in the park, goofing around in an art gallery. In fact, they meet in an art appreciation class, and whoever wrote this script was putting some art history college courses to good use, and I enjoyed it. Alexandra Holden and Will Friedle are wonderful as the friends. In fact, I might put Friedle in the rom-com best friend hall of fame! His character is ridiculous and Canadian, and he sells it, very much in the tradition of Rhys Ifans. There's an awesome scene in which Friedle and Zano pretend to be corporate bigwigs for Borders Bookstore to convince Alexandra Holden's terrible ex-boyfriend to re-hire her. Because yes, one of the major settings in this movie os the Borders Bookstore where Shiri Appleby works! If you want 2000s nostalgia, you cannot do better than that.

10:00 Numb3rs on CBS

1x11 "Sacrifice"

Back in the 2000s, when you wanted to make fun of CBS and its endless array of crime procedurals, Numb3rs was always the easiest target. The title did most of the work for you. And this was a show about solving crimes with math? Come on.

But color me surprised. This episode of Numb3rs actually had something to say. Our math geniuses, including hunky David Krumholtz and that girl from Sports Night, discover that the victim in the week was researching sabremetrics and there's a lot of baseball banter. But then surprise, he was using sabremetrics to measure the potential of ordinary people, so people could decide which schools, libraries, and communities to invest in. Obviously, this is the way many powerful people think about the world, then and now. And it's nothing new, you can dress it up as sabremetrics but it's basically eugenics! I was horrified.

At the end of the episode, it's revealed that Mr. Sabremetrics' protege Joseph Gordon-Levitt murdered him. You see, JGL grew up in West Oakland, and knew his community would have never received the computer lab that changed his life or any other investment with his boss' research. He goes further, actually using the word "eugenics" and invoking "Nazi Germany!" JGL recognized the danger, so he crushed his research and killed him, hoping to stop this evil in its tracks (if only it were that simple, JGL). Krumholtz is horrified, but JGL has words for him too: he works for the NSA. Does he really think all his fancy mathing is being used for the greater good.

Calling out eugenicist tendencies in the tech industry AND the NSA? Numb3rs, you have my attention! I will be checking in again (and not just to stare at dreamy David Krumholtz).

What Else Was On

• The military cop procedural JAG came to an end on CBS (its spinoff NCIS, is still on the air).
• Someone was held hostage by a man convinced he was a vampire on Third Watch. Yeah, it was time for that show to end.
• The Fox Friday movie was Spider-Man, which the network also aired during the November sweeps.
• Special Sweeps Guest Stars: garbage human Dean Cain on Hope and Faith,

Late Night

I've been thinking a lot about the Star Wars prequels, since Revenge of the Sith was about to come out in May 2005. It sounds like making those movies was a miserable and bizarre experience, dreadfully boring and filled with green screen. But the actors spent the next 20 years getting approached by wide-eyed children who look at them like they're gods. And that will wash the bad taste away.

Which brings us to Gene Wilder. In this interview, he describes the experience of getting recognized as Willy Wonka by kids on the street. He obviously treasures the experience and takes the responsibility of being Willy Wonka seriously, even all these years later. And you can tell that he likes kids. He pays such close attention to these kids, observing that they only start recognizing him at "4 and a half," when their mothers feel it's safe to show them the movie, and that they never approach him, just stare at him in awe. And he speaks so beautifully about the appeal of Wonka and how kids understand it better than adults. What a wise and kind person. At the end of the interview, he says he's the happiest he's ever been. He deserved nothing less.

TiVo Status

TV movie Sucker Free City and two episodes of Mystery! 4 hours.

Books, 20 years ago

Remember The Royal Diaries? I was obsessed with those books. A couple of years ago I discovered that Edwidge Danticat wrote one, in which a Taino princess in Haiti faces the European invasion! I definitely ignored this one when I was a kid. I was more into the white people whose names I already knew, and I would have assumed that "Edwidge" was a stuffy old white man, which would have been another mark against it. Little did I know this book was written by a Black woman and a generational literary talent! These books are sadly out of print, but I definitely need to track down Anacona: Golden Flower and read it for myself.