A month ago I was waiting for my friend to show up to go see Superhero Movie (which so bad that the best part was the end credits).  I heard the usual rap-a-tap knocking and opened the door without looking through the peephole.  A Comcast representative stood on the other side to tell me about the new rewiring that's been done in the complex, and why I haven't signed up for their wonderful service.  I restrained myself from giving an honest answer.  The rep was astonished when I told him that I don't watch TV and closed the door.

Neither Comcast service nor the pricing has ever been that great.  All the recent advertisements I got in the mail has been for the Spanish-language channels.  (Ever noticed that on the Mexican soap operas there's always one guy being shot in the stomach by an emotionally distraught woman with a gun?)  I would still have to go down to the local office to prove that I wasn't the previous resident who skipped payment nearly three years ago.  I spent an hour arguing with a service rep in India over why a cable company treats their customers differently than the phone or electric company.  Turns out that other utility companies don't have thieves for customers.  Go figure.

Seriously, I haven't watched TV in over 15 years.  What little TV I do watch is downloaded from Amazon Unbox.  That's a lot cheaper than a monthly subscription for 500 channels that I don't have time to watch.  Two of my favorite TV shows are Top Chef and Battlestar Galactica.

This is the fourth season for Top Chef.  I been a big fan of this cooking competition when it first came out.  Season One was perfect because no one knew what to do beside cook great food.  Season Two was a terrible mess since the show and the contestants distilled the previous season into a generic reality TV show.  Viewers made their opinions known loud and clear on the show blog.  Season Three was respectable as the show focused on what works and the contestants were more serious about cooking.  As for newest season, I give a thumb up for the show and a thumb down for the contestants.

The contestants for the past three seasons usually sort themselves out with a few on top and at bottom, with everyone else in the middle. Hiding in the middle was the usual complaint by the judges.  The Season Four contestants are quite different.  There's absolutely no middle to speak of whatsoever. Everyone is at top or on bottom, with a few going back and forth on each show.  Although the contestants each come from an impressive restaurant and possesses the right credentials to be in the competition, together they are such a bland group that it shows up in their cooking.

This becomes more glaring since the show is focusing on the basics with a tilt toward classical French cooking.  As head judge Tom Colicchio mentions to the San Jose Mercury News, what he was taught in culinary school years ago is no longer being taught these days.  (Just like how the three R's are no longer taught in the K-12 schools.)  The contestants are left to dance on a hot skillet because they're missing the obvious.

Worse, I have no personal favorite among this group. I really don't care who stays or pack their knives.

The other TV show I'm watching is Battlestar Galactica, which is also in Season Four.  This dark series focuses on the human drama of people fleeing the machines they built to find a mythical planet called Earth.  Since this is the final season, it supposed to get darker still.

That became obvious with the recent episode, "The Ties That Bind", where my favorite character, Specialist Cally Tyrol (Nicki Clyne), was murdered when she discovers that her husband, Chief Galen Tyrol (Aaron Douglas), is a sleeper Cylon agent.  I was jumping out of my chair screaming when she got spaced out of an airlock.  (When a show has numerous flashbacks to previous scenes, you know something bad is going to happen.)  Cally was my kind of woman: petite with a cute personality and an unbreakable spirit in the most challenging situations.  The most poignant scene was at the end with Admiral Adama (Edward James Olmos) sitting down with the stunned Chief to explain the apparent suicide of his wife.