Full Power to Shields

I don't know if I'm just being systematically desensitized or what, but the incineration of two Latino drug dealers and the rape of a 10-year old girl didn't really grab me in the much-ballyhooed season premiere of The Shield. It's a good show, don't get me wrong, but the shock value just wasn't working. I was much more interested in the emerging tensions between Captain Aceveda and Vic Mackie, and between Mackie and Shane. We're now up to three shows on three different channels on Tuesday nights, so it's a good thing I figured out that whole remote control deal.

Speaking of Tuesday nights, we've got a week off before we get to revisit the question of whether or not Giles is dead on Buffy The Vampire Slayer. I'm back on the fence after being pretty sure he was gone. That said, if anyone will know, it will be the recently freed Spike, and he's insane enough that maybe noone would believe him anyway.

Finally, I noticed this week that they changed the Lite beer commercial with the two buxom women fighting over whether the beer tastes great or is less filling. The fantasy of two guys at a bar no longer has the "let's make out" line at the end. I noticed this during the weekend's football games, so for a moment, I thought it might just be a time of day thing, but I just saw it again at 9:30pm, and the line was gone there, too. Looks like there was some pushback from somewhere.