Jason Unger

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Nina Myers couldn't do it. Stephen Saunders couldn't do it. Hell, even Habib Marwan couldn't do it.

It took a disagreement between the Writer's Guild of America and Hollywood executives to kill Jack Bauer, and it took way less than 24 hours.

When Fox announced they were shelving the 7th season of 24 because of the writer's strike, I expected them to have reversed the decision a short time later.

It didn't happen.

So what am I doing instead of watching 24? Catching up on another great show recently canceled, Veronica Mars. It's sort of like high-school Alias without the ass kicking.

Let's have a moment of silence for what would have been the premiere of the 7th season, normally a 2-night event starting on Sunday.

(image via IDWID)

I've got a Pioneer plasma at home, and I've never been shy about professing my love for it and how much better it is than nearly every LCD I've seen.

But, damn, Pioneer is blowing my mind again.

Here in Las Vegas at CES, Pioneer is demoing their "Extreme Contract Concept," which has the blackest blacks I've ever seen.

The picture above doesn't do it justice, but basically they're comparing this concept technology with their current line of Kuro plasmas. The Kuros are probably the best plasma I've seen, and this technology blows it away.

On the concept model, the blacks are just as black as the TV's bezel. The Kuro looks like it has a gray background.

On the concept, the picture floats. When the content on the concept doesn't fill up the whole TV, it literally looks 3-D.

It's just floating in the air. And my mouth is hanging wide open.

Since it's a concept, there's no launch date or pricing, but this is definitely going on my technology wish list — whenever it's available.

Do you watch Big Love? Even if you don't, you've probably heard about it.

The two-line recap: a family of polygamists in Utah try to live the normal, American life in the suburbs while keeping their beliefs and practices underwraps from their neighbors and the patriarch's business customers.

It's a really well done show (another hit for HBO), tackling a topic that apparently is really interesting to people. The stories are interesting, the characters are well-written and played, and, despite the oddities of polygamy, there's something that nearly every viewer can relate to.

The show has become pretty popular, even getting positive reviews from real polygamists (reg. required).

While the women said "Big Love" had too much skin and not enough religion or humor for their taste, they agreed that it portrayed the Henricksons like any other American family, especially in an era of mixed marriages of all sorts, gay partnerships, single parents and serial monogamy.

Presumably in response to the show's popularity, ABC's Primetime did a whole episode on polygamy, interviewing a polygamist family on camera, even though they could have been arrested.

And if you've been watching the new season of House, you know that one of the characters vying for a job — Cole, a Mormon — was dubbed "Big Love" by House.

Recently, Law & Order SVU highlighted polygamy (watch the video) through a Nigerian family.

Big Love's influence is everywhere.

This isn't the first TV show to affect many aspects of popular culture, and it certainly won't be the last, but given the subject matter, it's certainly interesting to follow.

Of course, Big Love's subject matter is also highlighted in the political world, as Mitt Romney, a leading Republican candidate for president, has had to address religion's influence in culture and his own Mormon faith.

Now, no legitimate critic would suggest that Romney is a proponent or at all in favor of polygamy, but for many Americans, that's what they know of Mormonism (however inaccurate it may be.) Romney had to give a speech just to address religion because it's a factor that hangs over him.

It's a really interesting phenomenon, at lot of it thanks to this one TV show.