So, today, I decided to stop watching The Inside on Fox. Part of it is that I never really found myself getting excited about the show. It never really turned me off, the way TNT's The Closer did, but it never really turned me on, either.

What pushed me over the edge, though, would be the London bombings. Once again, the darkness of the real world has made a dimly-lit, melodramatic, overwrought drama about serial killers seem that much more pointless. Everything about The Inside always seemed so heightened, so determined to really drive home the notion that it's a dark, dark, nasty world using manipulative filmmaking techniques. And then something horrible happens in the sunlight, and affects people who talk with real words using normal voices. And the rest of it all seems so unnecessary.

On the flipside, I'm sort of sorry that this season of Beauty and the Geek. There's a reunion/"Aftermath" episode on next Wednesday, and they're apparently looking for a cast for a second season (I'm planning on sending a tape), but that's it for this bunch. (If you missed the show, check your local listings; some WB affiliates are apparently showing a marathon this Sunday.) And the next paragraph has some spoilers for the ending, so if you plan on watching the reruns and don't want to know who wins, stop reading now.



I wasn't surprised at all to see Chuck and Caitilin in the final two, considering that they had won almost every single challenge throughout the show. Richard and Mindy were less certain, but since the show ended up being shaped into a battle between Richard and Chuck, that made for some nice closure. In the final episode, I particularly liked that the teams got to go out and show each other things that were really personally important to them. We've seen them working so hard outside of their comfort zones these past few weeks, it was nice to see them take the time to relax for a change. Richard seemed particularly at ease, until he started getting all worked up over the final elimination.

I was also pleased to see things get so close and down to the wire at the end. It proved that these were both teams who deserved to be in the finals, and it didn't seem so cheesy. In the end, though, I'm glad that Chuck and Caitilin ended up winning, because they did seem to be the two who had learned and grown the most over the course of the show.

Bring on season two (hopefully starring ME!)