I really wanted to watch it, but missed the first half hour, and then was busy tonight and couldn't see the re-broadcast either, but thanks to breenthumb's mention of watching it online, I managed to see the first half. The show seemed quite ambitious: trying to build an entire coherent futuristic world, introduce a half dozen main characters and present some history and motivations for the characters, and establish the main plot as well as two or three sub-plots, all without resorting to clumsy narration and minimizing the ham-handed exposition. Some of the characters had so little screen-time they seemed a little more like caricatures: The sinister administrator guy conspiring with the eccentric corporate billionaire; the doctor-friend keeping something so momentous secret; even the brilliant scientist guy being unable to stifle his atheistic views enough to avoid repeatedly insulting the people he is asking to fund his research. I also had some quibbles with plot points: Why have only one person on the large space station, especially when the previous astronaut supposedly flipped-out and killed himself? Why wouldn't the husband have at least some ready answer to deflect an obvious and expected fear-motivated line of questions? Why would they even make it possible to delete the video feeds on the space station? I did notice a couple of nice touches in the sequences on the space station: When the power goes out and she is on the rim of the station where there is some "gravity" due to the rotation of the station, and she climbs "up" towards the central hub and experiences less and less "gravity" until she is in free-fall at the hub. Then later when she see see the guy in the airlock, she is floating weightless holding on to a handhold and she then "sees" the guy come walking out which seems to clearly indicate he's a hallucination. All-in-all, despite the above quibbles, I think the show worked pretty well, and has a lot of promise.

I had to go to the AGT website to read Grace's 'story', as I didn't remember hearing or seeing it at all. Apparently she's quite the musical prodigy. But perhaps she would come across a little better when she gets a little older and her voice has a chance to develop more. I always try to imagine myself in one of the judges' seats (yes, pompous, I know), and 'judge' by the quality of the performance, not by my personal likes or dislikes. That's harder to do then one would think! My personal tastes always win out! And that's why I wasn't bothered in the least by the 'glitzy suit' performer being sent home. The background stories are influential, too, Although sometimes I think they dramatize and overplay the sob stories more than they should. But you can't help but admire someone who's pulled themselves up by their boot straps, and is doing their best to have a positive influence on life. They deserve the chance. The talent on this show seems to get better every year! I'd be willing to bet a dollar to a hole in a donut that a number of the contestants will be discovered and move on to bigger and better things, regardless of how they finish up here. Rusty

I wonder what happened to Nick? Anyone know? He did such a good job on that show, so talented, and I loved the way he would get on the stage and 'rescue' a contestant when things got too awkward. Wonder if Tyra will be able to do that. I'd never even heard of Tyra Banks before, don't think I was missing much. To me it seemed like she was trying to imitate Nick's expressions, reactions, etc., but it didn't come across as very natural. I missed his antics a lot. But I love the show more than I disliked Tyra, so I will get used to her. I hope. The chicken surprised me, I thought it was a definite buzzer act, but it was pretty good once it decided to do its thing. It will be interesting to see how they upgrade that act for the next level. Just how entertaining and talented can a chicken be? ? ? I'm with Simon on the clowns, I most definitely do NOT like them! And I thought Puddles deserved the buzzers he got! But that voice was a big surprise! And the brother-sister dance team! Wow! How in the world can anyone spin that much that fast and not be falling down dizzy? Rusty

My mistake, 'Creepy' did go through. I guess there are those who like that type of thing, but I'm not one of them. To me she seems, I don't know, depressing? Sinister? Even kind of evil. And she did win in Asia. I've got mixed emotions about someone winning the show in one country, then coming to another country and entering the same show. Doesn't really seem quite fair to me. And I've always had a question in my mind about rules for contestants. I wonder what, if any, qualifications they have to meet in order to audition. The group that got the Golden Buzzer were fantastic! I can easily see them winning the whole thing! And I actually laughed out loud at the lady stand-up comedian, she was really funny! I have seen trained cats before, once at Fiesta Texas, and once in a Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey circus matinee. But neither act was any where near as good as last night's cats were. Looks like some really tough competition this year! Rusty