(S03E03) This was an interesting episode. When Allison 'woke up' from the first dream, I wasn't sure about the whole groundhog day idea. It's something we've seen before, my favorite version being "Run Cleo Run" from Cleopatra 2525, but it holds the potential to get boring. As the mystery unfolded though, this version of the story turned out to be pretty good. The changes between the different versions of the day were big enough that things didn't feel repetitious.

Unfortunately, I was spoiled on the aftermath of the car crash from the first dream. Glenn Gordon Caron mentioned it in his live blog for the premiere last week. I'm sure it was much better for those that didn't know it was coming, but even knowing, that was a nice bit of effects work with the amputation. The car crash that led to it was good too, but points out two things I had issues with in the episode.

As we all get ready to eat way too much pie and nap/shop (choose your own adventure) away a couple days it's time to give thanks for that which is good in television land. So, this year, I'm thankful for...

1: Tivo. I resisted the siren's call of Tivo for a long time, opting instead to stick with the complex system of tapes, VCR's and my computer that had kept me up to date for years. But finally, after hearing again and again from the TV Squad readers to just get a Tivo already, I did. And it has been as good as everyone said it would be. I'll say it. You were all right. I was wrong.

I'm still hoping for all the goodies to work with OS X, or dare I say, Ubuntu, but for now I can begrudgingly run Windows. The ability to archive shows to another machine is fantastic, and if you do the math, it works out to about the same price as using tapes for storage anyway.

• Remember Earth 2? It was a short-lived sci-fi series on NBC in 1994 that starred Debrah Farentino, Antonio Sabato, Jr, Clancy Brown, and Rebecca Gayheart. It was actually a pretty good show, rather unpredictable and engrossing, and I'm happy to see that the complete series is being released on July 19. 
• Welcome back, Welcome Back, Kotter! (Admit it, you knew that line was coming.) Warner is releasing a set later this year. Alas, Sweathoggians (Sweataholics? Sweathoggers?), it's only a "Best Of" and not the first season set.
• This is truly bizarre: Universal has been pretty slow in releasing their TV shows on DVD (and when they do it's hit or miss as to whether there are any extras, photos, etc), but what do they have coming July 19? Cleopatra 2525. Wow, remember this show? It was the syndicated action series from Sam Raimi (Hercules, Xena, the Spiderman flicks and Evil Dead trilogy) about a dancer named Cleopatra who was frozen in present day and revived in the year 2525 to fight the bad guys with two other smokin' chicks dedicated women who swore to protect the world. It was rather terrible, but good if you found yourself in the right mood at one in the morning or a sleepy Sunday afternoon.
• And don't forget that season one of both Lost and Desperate Housewives come out in September!