Wanna See Something Really Scary?

Do you know what character I think would make for a really scary Halloween costume?

Jessica Fletcher.

I'm serious. That old broad brought death and destruction everywhere she went. At first, her evil was contained to the sleepy New England town of Cabot Cove, but eventually she ran out of people to kill there. (Eventually word had to get around of what was going on, and once that happened, not even the best tourism board in the world could keep up the influx of has-been, B-list, elderly celebrities who regularly made trips to the town.) The Angel of death spread out, bringing death to the streets of New York, and even plaguing Magnum PI on at least one occasion. The worst part is, no one ever caught on to her game. Jessica Fletcher continued her killing spree beyond the confines of her show and into several television movies.

How Come the Stripper Doesn't Get to Be an X-Man?

Now that we have met Nikki's husband, on last night's episode of Heroes, I'm a little upset that she's not a Colossus rip off since he's the Kitty Pryde of the show. (He should have tried phasing a baseball bat through Nikki's head. That's apparently how Kitty would deal with a betraying spouse.) My big revelation from last night was actually that Nikki seems to be a take off on The Sentry, what with the multiple personalities and all, though her powers aren't as close to those of The Sentry as the other characters are to their corresponding X-Men characters. Maybe I am missing someone and there is an X-Man with a super strong alternate personality.

The other big non-surprise of the night was that Mohinder's annoying neighbor s orkin for Claire's dad. That was so obvious.

The past couple of weeks haven't been as good as the previous episodes, but I am by no means disappointed. This show rocks. Also, November sweeps will have started by next week, so I am expecting things to really amp up, because that is what happens during sweeps.

Where the Hell is Jesus on This Thing Anyway?

A few authors got together and wrote this book of the 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived. It's a list of the most influential fictional characters ever.

I haven't read the book, so I can't judge the authors' reasoning, but the list seems a bit wonky to me. For one, no matter what my personal opinions of the characters, I do think Superman (#64) has been more influential than Buffy the Vampire Slayer (#44) and Batman (#60). Is Buffy even old enough to really judge it's level of influence? Also, so many of these characters feed off the other characters on the list, or off of characters that don't even make the list. Isn't it a bit redundant to have both King Arthur and Luke Skywalker on there. Since Luke is more clearly derivative of traditional allegorical figures, wouldn't Han Solo be the more influential character since you can't throw a stone in the sci fi world without hitting one of his clones.

As for characters that were influenced by characters that didn't make the list, Batman borrowed a lot from The Shadow, so where's he? If you're going to include superheroes, where's Spider-Man, a character that, while definitely drawing upon and reacting to what came before him, turned that stuff on it's head? And I daresay Buffy would not exist if Peter Parker hadn't existed first.

Furthermore, I can not think of a single reason why the Marlboro Man came in at #1, especially when they have Joe Camel selling the smoking image at #78 and the American Cowboy selling the Western hard-man image at #19. Isn't the Marlboro Man just a derivation of the American Cowboy used to sell cigarettes. I won't even go into the irony that the Marlboro Man was developed as a way to start marketing a brand to men after the release of milder cigarettes with filters became preferred among the women the brand originally targeted. Essentially, the Marlboro Man is the result of a corporate sex change.

I can't really comment on the more literary and mythological figures. I will just trust that they deserve their ranking.

"Welcome Wagon"

Veronica Mars is back! Finally!

The premier was so good, better than the season 2 premier. We met a few new characters, like Parker and Piz. I can already see how the Neptune sheriff's department is going to handle the rape investigation, because, as we know, Lamb is a complete ass and will surely hold Parker's sexual history against her. I immediately liked Piz. He is adorable and is clearly going to come between Veronica and Logan. The fact that he is so immediately lovable also makes him immediately suspicious. He can't be the Hearst rapist, because he wasn't at Hearst last year, but mark my words, by the end of the season I am sure we will find out something really bad about him. After Beaver Casablancas, I don't trust anyone.

I will also go on record right now as saying that I do not think Dick is the Hearst rapist. (He is an eligible suspect because while he wasn't at Hearst last year, he was in Neptune.) After that ending, it would be far too obvious. I do wonder what he did though. Also, I think that Logan's friendship with Dick will come between he and Veronica also. As much of an idiot as Dick is, he stood by Logan through everything. Logan's not likely to forget about that, and Veronica isn't likely to cut Dick much slack if she suspects him of something.

Fun Fact: The criminology professor, who Veronica's classmate was drooling over, was also the hot anthropology professor on Saved By the Bell: the College Years. By the way, how funny is it that Veronica is taking an introductory criminology class? I'm guessing she'll do well.

Finally, I was so happy to see some of my favorite recurring characters get bumped up to regular status this season. I'm looking forward to seeing more of Tina Majorino (Mac) and Michael Muhney (Lamb) this season. Unfortunately, I am not digging the new credits. I get slowing down the theme song (again) to accommodate the ever expanding cast, but I really miss the sketches. I guess I will just start fast forwarding through the credits now. Eh, whatever, my favorite show is back. Woo hoo! I can't wait to see what happens next.