Ratigan's Financial Reform Honor Roll

Discover which people truly understand how to police Wall Street

OPINION

Dylan Ratigan highlights specific politicians and media personalities who understand, educate and resurrect investor innovator capitalism, aiming to close the government subsidized casino the banking system has become over the years.

NCIS' Sean Murray and Wife Welcome Second Child

NCIS star Sean Murray and his wife, Carrie, have welcomed their second child, People reports.

Son River James Murray was born on April 22 in Los Angeles, weighing in at 7 lbs., 11 oz.

Check Out Photos of Sean Murray

Murray, who plays special agent Timothy McGee on the CBS crime drama, and his wife also have a daughter, Caitlyn.

"Carrie and I are pretty Zen'd out right now," the 32-year-old actor told People. "[But we know] our 3-year-old will bring us back to reality soon enough!"

Murray and his wife, a teacher, have been married since 2005.

Firewall & Iceberg podcast, episode 12: Conan to TBS, Doctor Who, Glee and more

A late night edition of the Firewall & Iceberg podcast this week, and you can find the relevant links, files and running times over at NJ.com. Normal schedule should be restored next week.

Lost, "Everybody Loves Hugo": Throw the Scot down the well

Still off through the end of this week, but I can't help myself from writing about "Lost," so a quick review of tonight's episode (along with some thoughts on where we are in this final season) coming up just as soon as I'm well enough for a fajita field trip...

"Whoa. Dude." -Hurley

Well, we're clearly cooking with gas at this point in the season. Desmond's return has goosed the narrative stakes in both the sideways universe and the real one, two of the three island factions have finally come together(*), stuff blew up left and right(**), Des and Locke are trying to kill each other in the two timelines, and the sideways world again was used well to bring back a character whose time on the show felt like it came to too abrupt an end in the real timeline.

(*) Albeit in an episode that saw the creation of another faction in the Richard/Ben/Miles group, since groups on "Lost" are forever picking sides and walking off, going all the way back to when Jack took half the Oceanic survivors into the caves back in season one.

(**) Albeit with explosions that continued this season's trend of unimpressive CGI work. Whatever cuts ABC's made in the show's budget the last couple of years, the digital FX department has definitely been a big victim.

My fear, though, is that it's taken us too long to get to this point.

In the early years of the show, a "Lost" episode and a "Lost" season tended to be constructed the same way: an exciting beginning, then a lot of narrative throat-cleaning, and then an exciting finish. Once Cuse and Lindelof got permission to set an end date and knew what they were moving towards, seasons 4 and 5 became much denser, both from week to week and over the course of each season. Season 6, on the other hand, has felt like a throwback, not just with the return of old characters like Charlie and Boone and, now, Libby, but with the way that we're heading into the home stretch with material that it feels the show would have been better-served to deal with sooner.

Though some of the early sideways stories were entertaining through the sheer force of personality of the actors/characters being spotlighted (Locke, Ben), there was nothing all that interesting about the sideways world itself until last week. By making Desmond aware of the wrongness of the world - and introducing other characters like Charlie and Faraday who also recognized this - we finally tied that world to the one we care about, and created some urgency to our visits to LA. But I'd have rather see this happen a few weeks into the season and not now, not only because it would have given greater purpose to some of those meandering flash-sideways stories like Jack's son or Jin's amazing adventure in the freezer, but because it feels like now that we have a sideways story arc (Desmond tries to nudge the Oceanic passengers into realizing that this world isn't right), the resolution of it is going to feel rushed.

But Cuse and Lindelof have earned some trust over these past few years. Even if I didn't love a lot of the first half of this season, I want to believe that they know just how much time they need to tell the remaining story, that even if "What Kate Does" hasn't retroactively gotten better, that we're heading towards a finish close to what a series this great deserves. Because I don't want the season to turn into one big dead end like Ilana ultimately was.(***)

(***) Even in death, Ilana amounted to little, as Arzt beat her to that particular punchline by five years. The Ajira crew ultimately added about as much to the series' larger mythos as the tailies - Richard or Jacob's ghost could have very easily explained the candidate thing with just as much detail as Ilana ever offered - and the tailies at least gave us Libby's romance with Hurley and Mr. Eko and his Jesus stick for entertainment value.

And in the meantime, Desmond's actions, as well as the resurrected Libby's awareness of her other too-brief life, gave Hurley's sideways story some juice, along with giving Jorge Garcia another chance to show he has far more to offer the series than comic relief.

In sideways world, Hurley's a man who seemingly has everything (his version of the happy ending deal all the island folk apparently got) but is incredibly lonely. In the real world, he's lost so many people while standing on the sidelines that he once again asserts himself and takes a surprising leadership role on the island. (And Jack, finally after all these years learning that he can't fix everything, seems okay with playing Hurley's sidekick for once, in a nice role reversal and good moment for the character.)

Garcia had a lot of good moments in this one, but my favorite came early on, when he tells Ilana that Libby was "murdered," and this tone of pained disbelief comes into his voice as he says the word. One of Hurley's most recognizable traits is his ability to discuss the most ridiculous events of the series in the most matter-of-fact tone, but with his delivery of that one word, Garcia makes it clear just how much this one particular event continues to rock his world, years later.

Libby's return didn't explain what she was doing in the mental hospital in the real world, and I suppose that's one mystery I can live without them explaining. But I'm hoping we'll get more of Cynthia Watros in the coming weeks, along with more Dominic Monaghan and Jeremy Davies and even Ian Somerhalder. Because if alt-Desmond's mission is to bring an end to sideways world so the real world can be saved, a bunch of people are going to have to accept that they're going to die again, and there's a lot of good material to be mined there - assuming there's both time and available actors for that.

As for the Locke/Desmond mutual attempted murder game going on in both timelines, I'm not assuming either real Des or alt-Locke are dead just yet. Desmond's fall down the electromagnetic well is one of those classic comic book-style "if you don't see a dead body, you don't have a dead character" moments, and alt-Locke is still breathing (and looking remarkably like Locke on the ground after his father threw him out the window in "The Man from Tallahassee"). I am curious, though, if alt-Desmond has a specific reason for targeting our poor, self-actualized substitute teacher - perhaps recognizing that damaging Smokey's host body in the sidways world hurts him in the real one - or if alt-Des is going more by instinct, and somehow knows in his gut that the man with John Locke's face has just tried to hurt him.

Anyway, we'll have more time to speculate on all of that once I'm working full-time again (and less sleep-deprived), so in the meantime, some other thoughts:

• Couple of notable guest stars this week: Samm Levine (from my beloved "Freaks and Geeks" had a brief appearance as the Mr. Cluck's employee who recognizes Hurley (and I thank the "Lost" producers for giving him more dialogue than Quentin Tarantino did in all of "Inglourious Basterds"), Bruce Davison reprises his role from season two's "Dave" as Dr. Brooks.

• So the whispers were the voices of all the souls trapped on the island because of the actions they committed there while alive. On the one hand, that's not a surprising answer; on the other, that's sort of the risk Cuse and Lindelof face in giving us answers to questions like that at this late date. After six years of speculation, of course most of us are going to have come up with an idea like this to describe the whispers, just as I'm sure the identities of Adam and Eve will wind up being something that's already mentioned on Lostpedia. But by tying the answer to a character moment - Michael asking Hurley to apologize to Libby for him - the revelation merited more than a shrug.

• I swear, every time a character with a gun talks about getting in an outrigger (here it was Richard), I turn into Millhouse in "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" whining, "When are they gonna get to the fireworks factory?!?!?!?!"

• Another possible "Lost" spin-off: a game show called "How Do You Break the Ice with the Smoke Monster, Anyway?"

What did everybody else think?

Justified, "The Lord of War and Thunder": Raylan at the bat

A review of tonight's "Justified" coming up just as soon as I get my dignity back...

"But our stories are our own, huh? We all got our cross to bear." -Arlo Givens

The early episodes of "Justified" dropped so many ominous hints about Raylan's father that the episode introducing Papa Givens was going to have a lot to live up to. Fortunately, "The Lord of War and Thunder" was up to expectations, thanks in part to the casting of ace character actor Raymond J. Barry as Arlo, in part due to Timothy Olyphant putting Raylan's more laid-back qualities aside for an episode and unleashing that anger we all know he plays so well.

In particular, I loved the scene where Raylan goes to Perkins' house and tells the story of his childhood. It wasn't because of the content of the speech, since a lot of the Givens family backstory was already strongly implied (as I've said, Graham Yost characters tend to spell out more than is necessary), but because of how Olyphant played it. In that scene, Raylan wasn't talking to Perkins, and was barely even talking at him. In that moment, Raylan was alone with the ghosts of his childhood, and anyone else in the room was irrelevant, except as someone whose ass Raylan could kick if they were dumb enough to make him.

And it's also a mark of both Olyphant's performance and the way Yost and company have written the character that he did not, in fact, go off on Perkins or his nephews when the opportunity arose. Raylan's angry, but he grew up in the home of a man who couldn't control his anger. And just as Arlo vowed to be the opposite of his own father, Raylan the son of a criminal not only went into the law, but made himself into a man with a tight leash on his own fury. He can let it out when necessary, but usually he does it in a controlled manner. He has his code, and he makes sure his opponents know it; if they follow his rules, they get a pass, and if they don't, he can always tell himself it's their own fault they're dead.

(And, really, can you blame him after seeing the little cemetary outside his childhood home? We all figuratively have a gravestone waiting with our name on it, but Raylan had to grow up looking at a literal one. It'd make any man angry and death-obsessed.)

After the last few episodes were largely self-contained adventures of Raylan and the other Marshals, "The Lord of War and Thunder" suggested that "Justified" may have room for some longer-term storytelling, after all. Not only does Raylan vow to put Arlo back in prison, somehow, but we're reminded that Boyd has a very large family, and most of them - including papa Bo (who will also require great casting, after the build-up here) - aren't too happy with either Raylan or Ava. And I liked the way this episode flipped the format, with the more serialized and personal plots taking the forefront but with an engaging, and brief, episodic story about Raylan playing gardener to catch a fugitive. If the series can be fluid about its format - standalone-only if the story's good enough to carry the hour (like last week's fugitive dentist plot), and a mix when it's not - I'll be very pleased.

A few other thoughts:

• These days, with most shows operating on a tight budget where only a handful of actors are budgeted to appear in every single episode, the idea of who is or isn't a "regular castmember" is less aesthetic than it is contractual. Still, when Winona turned up in the scene where Ava met U.S. Attorney David Vazquez, I shrugged and said, "Oh, yeah, Natalie Zea is on this show." She appeared briefly in the pilot and the second episode, wasn't in episodes 3 and 4 at all, and did a scene and a half here. I like Zea fine, but I enjoy Olyphant's chemistry with Joelle Carter so much that I don't exactly miss her when she's not around.

• Yost brings in another familiar face from a past project, casting Rick Gomez (who was wisecracking George Luz in "Band of Brothers," as well as the older brother of Josh Gomez from "Chuck") as Vazquez. Given all the talk about both the Crowder family and the legal problems that would come from Raylan and Ava having a relationship, I'm expecting/hoping to see a lot more of Gomez down the road.

• Couple other guest stars of note: Eddie Jemison from the "Ocean's Eleven" films (but better known in the Sepinwall household for this series of Bud Light commercials) as Glen Perkins, Linda Gehringer as Raylan's knife-wielding stepmom, and Brent Sexton (Damian Lewis's ex-partner from "Life") as the cop from Raylan's hometown.

What did everybody else think?

30 for 30, "No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson": No definitive answers

"30 for 30" is back on ESPN proper tonight at 8 with Steve James' "No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson." James directed "Hoop Dreams," one of the greatest documentaries ever made (about sports or otherwise), and he and Iverson grew up in the same hometown of Hampton, VA, so I had high expectations for this match of filmmaker and subject. I was not disappointed. A few brief thoughts after the jump...

As the subtitle suggests, "No Crossover" focuses on the bowling alley brawl Iverson was involved in as a 17-year-old. But in a broader sense, the film is about the divide between the black and white populations of Hampton, as seen through the lens of both the trial and James's own upbringing. Some of the film's most affecting moments involve detailing little-known pieces of Iverson's biography, but just as emotional are ones where James talks to his mother, or about his father or, in one case, engages his African-American cameraman in an impromptu dialogue on race. There are documentaries where it feels like the director has inserted himself into the story for the sake of self-promotion, but here the two stories blend together beautifully. (And the whole point of "30 for 30" has been to let the directors tell stories they have a personal stake in, whether they include themselves in the action like James and Peter Berg, or not like Dan Klores.)

For those assuming "No Crossover" will be an apology for Iverson, it is not. Nor is it a condemnation. It looks at the case, and at his life, and lets you choose your own answers about The Answer. Iverson's not always a model citizen (and the film was made before some of the latest bizarre/sad twists in his story), but James tries to place his life and behavior in a greater context, to try to find some truth not only about the bowling alley trial, but so much of AI's story. It's a wonderful film, one of the best of this terrific film series, and I highly recommend it.

Watch it tonight and feel free to discuss it here.

United States of Tara, "You Becoming You": The talking cure

A review of tonight's "United States of Tara" coming up just as soon as I crack the spine...

"Is Joel Gretsch going to be back as Tara's therapist next season?" -Me, August '09
"No, Tara will have a new therapist." -Diablo Cody
"Oh? Who'd you cast?" -Me
"I can't tell you yet. I promise I'll tell you when I can." -Cody

"Back in the summer, you said you couldn't tell me yet who will play Tara's therapist this season." -Me, January '10
"I still can't tell you." -Cody
"Seriously?" -Me
"Nope. I'll tell you when I can." -Cody

For a while, I assumed the mystery surrounding the new therapist was one of those Clooney-returns-to-"ER" deals, where the actor had enough clout (and enough disinterest in hype) to insist his or her casting not be announced in advance. Then I came to the end of "You Becoming You," and I understood exactly why Cody wanted/needed to keep this particular secret: because the "new therapist" was actually Tara's newest alter, Shoshana, modeled on gay neighbor Ted's real therapist Shoshana in New York.

Of course, sometime between January and now, either Cody or someone at Showtime who outranks her decided to not keep it entirely a secret. Shoshana has been in a lot of the promotional art, and after I watched this episode a few weeks back I saw a couple of interviews with other "Tara" producers that gave away some details about the character, but not necessarily that Tara's psyche created her in lieu of finding an actual therapist. Still, I'm glad I got to be fully surprised. I assumed Tara was lying to Max about talking to the real Shoshana, but only to get him off her back after the Pammy fiasco, so I was nicely dumbfounded when Max walked in on the reality of the situation.

But because Shoshana only appears briefly (while I've seen several more episodes), I'm going to set her aside and focus on some other parts of "You Becoming You," other than to say my eyebrows raised very high when I got a good look at the very Alice-like dress and red heels being worn by the woman in Tara's flashback.

Marshall's storyline continues to maybe the show's strongest blend of comedy and angst, and always wonderfully played by Keir Gilchrist. The Gregsons have always treated Marshall's sexuality as something that's understood but never really addressed head-on, and therefore it felt right that he should finally come out of the closet to his dad in the wake of his failed attempt to prove his heterosexuality with Courtney. Max's completely unruffled response to the announcement - "Good. So, you want anything?" - was a very John Corbett moment at a point in the season where Max is becoming less Corbett-like, and it turned out to be exactly the reaction Marshall needed. He needs to be accepted, but he doesn't really want to talk about it, and certainly not with his parents.

Charmaine, meanwhile, is pregnant, and after she and Tara started talking about the date of conception, my first thought was, "So, it's Neil's baby, right?" Whether it is or it isn't, I hope this story leads to more Patton Oswalt. And Kate's car trouble leads to the first of what should (if the writers were paying attention to how good Viola Davis is with what's so far a tiny part) be many meetings between Lynda and Tara.

What did everybody else think?