As we settle in to watch the season finale of Person of Interest, we're warned right up front that the episode contains content that may be objectionable to some viewers in light of recent events.

I get that many people may not keep up with recent events. For instance, our kids don't always do so. But to splash a warning like that in front of a show that provides a reasonable amount of suspense does only one thing, and it isn't to provide a warning about the content.

it ruins the surprise.

Rob Mariano may be one of the most loved and most hated players of Survivor. He is also arguably the most strategic, and I have no doubt that he garnered some of the best ratings for the show because he would get people talking. But regardless of how you felt - or even how you feel - about the guy, one thing is true: He knew how to play the game.

On Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, Rob may have effectively pioneered the split vote strategy to flush out a hidden immunity idol. Unfortunately, it worked against him, because Tyson didn't believe in the strength of the alliance, but that does not mean that it was not a valid strategy, and in fact it has been employed many times since - and there are other times since where it could have been employed.

While there is little argument that Silence of the Lambs is an excellent movie, and the genre that it focuses on (that would be serial killers) is one that has a built-in following, this new incarnation may leave a little something on the table.

The style is interesting - it has elements from Dexter (blood splatter), Elementary (crime scene analysis) and eminently forgettable Unforgettable (visualization of the scene itself) - and putting those pieces together makes the scenes then become interesting, because as profiler Will Graham dissects the scenes, he effectively becomes the killer, an interesting technique.

All too often for a story, continuity is sacrificed for the story. Or perhaps it is just ignored. Maybe it's just me, but there are so many places where these things just fall through the cracks that it's getting a bit ridiculous.

In the television show Continuum, an early episode sees the character Kiera tell Alec (future employer/friend/mentor/whatever) that even the simple things, like eye shadow, will be so much simpler, because they are dispensed in a "dose" by an applicator in the perfect amount. Yet later in the season, we see said applicator, and as the makeup is applied, she has to move her hand from left to right (or perhaps right to left, since the shot involves a mirror).

This would imply that if she did not move her hand, the applicator would not apply the "perfect" amount. That means that it's not unlike today's airbrush makeup. Now it is true that those applications are probably more limited to certain markets, such as the entertainment industry, but it shows that while a neat piece of technology may exist, it isn't as described initially, and we are left to ignore the continuity error. This is also certainly not the only example.

On Monday, November 5, the Writer's Guild of America decided to strike. Because of this, the current season may be a bit bumpy. Productions that are already completed should probably be shown, but at most that will likely only be a few weeks (for those shows that come on weekly). Other shows that are in production will shut down by the middle of December.

For shows that are produced more frequently, such as soap operas, it could be disastrous.

In the latest version of The Amazing Race, we encounter another first right at the beginning: The Playboy Mansion. Not a bad way to begin a race, but you have to wonder if it wouldn't be a better place for a finishing line, as the celebration would be off the hook.

Unfortunately, there isn't much else to like about this season. Sure, Kynt and Vyxsin (really - where do they find these people?) are interesting, but they are not particularly likable, and Kynt especially can be something of a whiner. The race is really going downhill and could use something to freshen it up, because despite the amazing scenery it just gets a bit old, you know?

Eating competitions have always been like the red-headed stepchild of, well, just about everything. Sure, we have had the Nathan's contest in Coney Island for nearly 100 years now. But still - a bunch of people (mostly men) shoving food into their mouth at a prodigious pace is generally not something most people want to watch. Or at least, that they want to admit to watching.

Spike is out to change all of that.

Extreme sports are taken to a new level in this show from the Discovery Channel. Six athletes from a variety of pursuits are taken to destinations around the world to compete in challenges that most "Westerners" will never see, let alone be allowed to join. To be fair, I'm not sure that most will ever want to do so.

Unlike many other shows, there is no prize here. No trophy (at least, not what you or I would typically consider a trophy) and no real "winner". For these six competitors, the journey itself is the competition, and they will travel into completely new arenas - some simply circles of dirt on the ground - in order to grow themselves. In one way it's utterly bizarre. In another it's totally compelling.

We actually thought this was the show we were going to watch when we watched Reaper. It's not that they are terribly alike - but in an odd sort of way they are in that they both deal with death in unusual ways. Wait, that's not exactly true. Reaper doesn't really deal with death - there is death in it, but it's not a subject of the show. This one has death all around.

Ned, what you could call the hero of the show, found out at a very young age that he had the power to bring things back from the dead. But to make matters confusing - especially for someone so young - if he keeps them alive too long (just a minute), something else had to die to take their place. And just to throw another curveball at the premise, if he touches the thing one more time, they die again and they can't come back. Ever. Confused yet? It's actually not as bad as it sounds. Plus, there are pies.

Nick George (Peter Krause) grew up around money. His father was the lawyer for the Darling family. He watched it tear apart his mother and father, and he's determined that it isn't going to do the same to his young family. He has promised his wife that after he settles the affairs of his father, that he's done with the Darlings.

Of course, money has a way of turning little tricks on your plans. When Nick meets with Tripp Darling (the inimitable Donald Sutherland) after drawing up the papers for the trust that the Darlings are creating in his father's name, he gets an offer that he can't refuse. So he does what anyone would do: He doesn't refuse it.

The story of the Duque family is something of a soap opera, but a lot darker than most. As far as I can tell, a generation (or more) ago, the Duque family and the Samuels family were something like the Hatfields and the McCoys, only they fought over sugar cane fields. The Duque empire has recently been branching out, however, and now they have a significant investment in rum, in fact it is so significant that they might even want to get out of the sugar business.

However, this isn't their only issue - it seems that the Samuels want to take over all the sugar fields, and the eldest Duque son wants to sell to the Samuels. Of course, the fact that he's sleeping with one of the Samuels' doesn't have anything to do with it. When the reins of the Duque family business are passed down from the father to the son-in-law, passing over the blood lines, it's not looking like things are going to end well.