A Blow Against the Mercury Causes Autism Conspiracy

Many celebrities and influential people have concluded that mercury (poisoning) is the cause of autism. In fact, Congressman Burton has been heavily involved with the campaign to link the two and used his Chairmanship of the Government Reform Committee as a pulpit to preach that view.

It now turns out that he was wrong.

Minus one for the Autism Conspiracy.

Jericho Returns! Vanished resurrected (temporarily)

I just learned that fans ov Vanished can watch the complete season (though cancelled) on the web. I am very excited to see this show unwind.

Jericho finally returns this on Wednesday. Last week CBS aired a composite episode to bring new fans up to speed and to remind current fans of the intricacies of the plot and conspiracy.Whose side is Hawkins on? . . .

Jericho has done a good job of integrating its website into the show (especially during the looooong hiatus). That has allowed the curious viewer to carefully review Hawkins' actions and determine which side he is on. It currently seems as if he is some part of Homeland Security (the successor Department of FEMA as the new bugaboo for some conspiracy theorists).

Regardless, I am anxious for the 12 new episodes in a row, but anxious that that may indicate there will be no second season. But really what you do with a second season except stretch it into a big rebuilding America thing and morph the show into some type of Peacemaker-type drama). And if there is a second season, I'll be watching.

Conspiracy Entertainment 2006-2007

This TV season has been especially good for conspiracy/paranoia entertainment, and featured three new shows. First we had the now-cancelled Vanished which looked to be a cross between the Da Vinci Code, Numb3rs and the X-Files (just the conspiracy of powerful string pullers, not the alien or supernatural aspects. It was quite good until cancellation. Next we had The Nine, which definitely had conspiratorial elements to it. Finally we had Jericho, the only of the three to survive. Possibly, because it centered on a very real fear: nuclear attack and what happens when communications collapses (not to mention the government).

And of course, the inimitable 24 which has returned with a fifth conspiratorial nightmarish day for Jack Bauer.

Of these four, the only two which are still on are ones that explicitly address the threat of terrorism, much in the same vein that Cold War films and TV mini-series were popular in the '80s became hits. It seems conspiracy's that ensnare government officials in non-terrorist activits is ok for our downtime reading, but the anti-terror alpha waves better be conveying terrorist-related conspiracies.

_________

PS Threshold made a short return on the SciFi Channel, but one year of episodes is not really enough to become a regular show without the creation of new episodes.