A Few of My Favorite Television Moments (Just to Start)

In reference to my post Enjoying the Moment, here are few of my favorites from television: some exciting, some serious, some funny--
 
In Numb3rs, Season 3, "Burn Rate," a robot retrieves a bomb from a government office. It is set against sandbags and blasted with a saline spray. I have absolutely no idea why I like this so much. It isn't as exciting as blowing up a building, but I enjoy it every time.

As seen from Sarah's POV, the

lab appears to implode first.

CSI, Season 4, "Down the Drain" provides a similar robot scene to Numb3rs plus a blown-up building; CSI, Season 3, "Play with Fire" provides a blown-up lab! In general, as Mythbusters "proves," a bang is the best way to cap a show.

In Leverage, Season 1, "The Second David," Nate tells Blackpoole and Sterling he will only return the stolen items if Blackpoole is stripped of his job. "Extortion?" Sterling queries to which Nate responds, voice lifting slightly, "Oversight." Sterling (played by the marvelous Mark Sheppard) gives a half-shrug/half-nod of assent. That bare movement is utterly hilarious.

Back to Numb3rs, Season 4, "The Janus List," the father quotes from Siegfried Sassoon's poem:

Light many lamps and gather round his bed/ Lend him your eyes, warm blood, and will to live... But death replied: 'I choose him.' So he went/ And there was silence in the summer night/ Silence and safety; and the veils of sleep/ Then, far away, the thudding  of the guns.

Reading (rather than giving lines) is a different--and difficult--skill set. Judd Hirsch as Alan Eppes does a great job.

The compassionate Dr. Pandy

In NCIS, Season 2, "SWAK," Gibbs corners a scientist in a lab. Desperate to stop the plague killing Tony, he asks him what Tony's chances are. Stammering, the man responds that Tony is young, healthy, in much better shape physically than people of the medieval era: his chances of survival are much greater. "What was the survival rate [in the past]?" Gibbs demands. Hesitantly yet gently, the man responds, "15%".

Every time, I see this scene and hear that statistic, I tear up. To me, it is the classic example of why fiction impacts people so much more than non-fiction. Alongside Tony's struggle and Gibbs' urgency (the story of two individuals), 15% becomes a real, painful number. I ache for the people in the past. (In this case, I admit, meaning is evoked.)

My absolute favorite romantic scene--Bones, Season 1, "Two Bodies in the Lab," where Booth finds Brennan in the warehouse. Unable to lift her due to his broken collarbone, he ducks under the rope and lifts her with his whole body. I love the show, and I'm pleased Bones and Booth get married, yet nothing has ever surpassed this small, 2-minute scene.