It's hard to get excited about The Walking Dead these days. The episodes seem to have progressively more grating moments as the season goes on. Take this week's episode. The theme of the episode--what to do with a potential dangerous prisoner--isn't exactly exciting, but it's workable. What results, however, is an hour where all the debates turn into annoying screeds from Dale who flits from one person to the other, trying to explain to them why they would support his position. It's fairly tedious as it drags on, nestled between an even dumber plot, Carl being an idiot. In an obscenely telegraphed scene, we see Carl lure out of the mud the zombie who eventually gets Dale.
What struck me about this week's The Good Wife episode is how much the show is dependent on a really good law plot. The suicide video was pretty good, but it never grabbed me in a way the main plots often do. There were no moments when I was on the edge of my seat, gleefully thinking how great it was. The twists were few and not very potent. So I found myself apathetic to the episode even though I found the rest of the plots quite interesting, though obviously not the best the show has given us. The show is still setting up the plots for the end of the season and we can see all the complications arising, from Peter's political aspirations interfering with professional and personal codes to Alicia's potential jealously (not sure if that's the right word to use) of Caitlin.
For all of the controversy over GCB's previous name--Good Christian Bitches--the show was a lot less crass than I expected it to be. In fact, the show really doesn't seem that noteworthy. There are the typical soap opera plots and then the religious stuff is tacked on in an attempt to show some contrast. The result is a show which is actually not that bad, but definitely not must-watch television.
Okay, so Once Upon a Time delivered yet another underdeveloped yet supremely sappy love story, but I have to comment on one thing: dwarves coming from eggs. How great was that?
Charlie's death at the end of Breakout Kings season two premiere sets the tone for the rest of the season--that this is serious business--but it's hard to say whether this was an inspired creative decision or simply a budgetary matter or Laz Alonzo wanting out. But what we end up with is a smaller cast, allowing for slightly more focus on the remaining characters and a criminal on the loose. Breakout Kings will never be that special of a show, especially in comparison to other offerings on Sunday nights; what it offers, though, is a decent procedural on Sunday for those who don't want to slog through CSI: Miami.
The theme of Spartacus was woman issues. It all seems rather unrealistic--as most of the show is--but I guess that's never really the point of the show. So we got some interesting scenes with the women and a couple advancements of plot.
I'd like Grimm to, just once, explain to viewers what the characters on the show actually see. From what I can tell, it's arbitrary what the rules are. Mainly, I want to know whether wesens can instantly recognize Nick as Grimm and if not, how they eventually tell, and whether Nick sees them in creature form. I don't even want to know who the captain is! It bothers me so much to see all this stuff going on that seems to be for cheap effects for the audience and not for the characters.
I'm ready to call The Office's Sabre Florida experiment a bust. It's far too wacky to be taken seriously, and none of it is really that funny. One thing the plot could have done is to allow the people back at Scranton something worthy to do, but instead they're just as silly those who went away.
Parks and Recreation was very fun with the arrival of Kathryn Hahn's character and unique way Pawneeans drink from the water fountain.
Psych's return reminded me of how fun the show is. The Indian Jones-esque plot was good and Despereaux return, death, revival, and escape was all nicely done.
I haven't really said much about Criminal Minds this season, mostly because there hasn't been much to say, but last week's episode was notable for its sheer awfulness. Criminal Minds writers and directors sometimes get caught up in this idea that people pretending to be normal can be more terrifying than people killing others, and we get these shots of people's blank faces and we're supposed to understand that there's something dark and sinister hiding underneath the eyes. This is fine--as long as it doesn't take up the whole episode. Unfortunately, last week's episode had a whole lot of people's faces and not much else.
Justified: Quarles is a great villain. On the outside, he seems like a cool, level-headed guy, with a mechanical contraption to make carefully executed kills. However, as we learn more about him, he doesn't have to all together.
Breaking Bad's Badger as Agent Dorneget on NCIS was hilarious and he meshed well with the rest of the team. This is his second time on the show so I hope we see him more often.
Smash's fourth episode seem a bit different than the previous episodes, more flowery and unrealistic, almost Glee-like. Ivy being mean to Karen could have been expected, but two parts--Karen getting new friends and them teaching her things and performance at Lyle's place with Lyle helping--were far more than the grounded show we saw before.
Castle can be quite a dynamic show in the number of weird/funky scenarios it throws at the audience in one episode. Last week's episode dove into fairy tale world (possible in an attempt for some cross-promotion with Once Upon a TIme) and into the past, and it came together nicely in the end.
I like that How I Met Your Mother is finally moving Ted forward. It looks like it'll be a while before we learn who the mother is, but we're getting there, slowly but surely.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
Reviews 2/20/12 - 2/26/12 (added Awake)
I forgot that Awake was airing this week since it's been online for over a week, so here's an addendum. Awake is a nifty show that manages to do what Touch doesn't--feel real. There are almost no moments when the writers try to artificially inject pathos into the story, the main problem Touch suffers from. From the onset we know exactly what's going on--a detective's wife and son dead in separate worlds. He goes from one to another, not knowing exactly what to do. At the same time, the procedural aspect of the show focuses on the similarities between worlds and how they help solve seemingly separate cases. It all comes together nicely in neat package that gives us a good look at every character while never getting bogged down.
With the second season of The Walking Dead coming to a close in three weeks, it's hard not to think that the show has stagnated at the farm. Beyond the immediate character conflicts--which still have not resulted in any significant developments--the characters have stayed safe at the farm, going about their regular tasks. They're quite safe unless they choose to put themselves in a position where it isn't. As for the character conflicts, Rick and Shane's is easily the most compelling, based upon events of the past that they continue to grapple with. On the other hand, Lori being a stupid bitch is getting silly. She's descends into a staunch supporter of traditional gender roles, telling Maggie to get behind Glenn, and yelling at Andrea to get back in the kitchen. Her self-righteousness is incredibly off-putting.
Spartacus delivered in a truly incredible episode--not just in its own bubble but television in general. We see all the various conflicts that have been developed over time, through Blood and Sands, Gods of the Arena, with all these forces colliding. The melodrama is real, rooted in love and death, never blindsiding the audience with behavior that is not plausible. Indeed, the writers realize that characterization comes about from what has happened in the past. This culminates in a glorious final scene in which gladiators--including Oenomaus and Gannicus, once brothers but now enemies--fight for their live, Spartacus tries to exact revenge on Glaber, and Mira brings down the arena in a blaze. It's a magnificent 10+ minutes, the action and drama equally compelling. What's best is that this isn't a one-time scene. Every part is implications for the future, and the future remains even more clouded for every characters.
Fringe finally cleared out a question everyone has had: who are the Observers? Now we know--they're humans from the future. While this may at first rather inconsequential--even similar to Star Trek: Enterprise's underwhelming time travel stories--the implications are highly interesting. Here Peter is, looking off towards an unknown future which September claims is somehow wrong. Just when he thought things were getting back on track and he accepted that this Olivia is close enough to the one he knew, the gets this new piece of information. Immediately, he questions his every move and arrives at the conclusion that he should get involved with this Olivia, lest anything bad happens.
I don't want to call The Office's Tallahassee adventure a bust just yet, but from the two two episodes, I'm not getting my hopes up. Instead of a meaningful plot related to their new location, the episodes have been about things that could have happened back in Scranton. Dwight acts silly and Jim is Jim while Kathy comes on to him unsuccessfully.
Parks and Recreation makes couples work. Whether it's Andy and April, Leslie and Ben, or even Chris and Ann, the show has an ability to make us like couples. Ann and Tom, however, is an entirely new beast. Tom has always been a bit obnoxious, a bit too arrogant. It looks like it'll take a while for them to start clicking.
One of the oddest things about The Finder is Willa and the gypsy stuff. Even after six episodes, the plot doesn't feel like it belongs. While Walter is off being quirky and findy, she deals with this flat family drama. It seems like a really big waste of time.
Royal Pains took an interesting turn in its season finale when the conflict between Hank and Evan, which was a great problem through various parts of the season, finally came to a head, with Evan making some decisions without Hank and Hank blowing up. Evan buying Divya's shares was shoehorned nicely into the episode, as Evan now has two-thirds of Hank Med while Hank has the rest.
Needless to say Glee was awful. Not just regular awful, but awful awful, even for Glee standards. The episode begins like it's going to be about suicide with Karofsky swallowing pills before being found. The show even tries to make Sebastian and Sue sympathetic in the aftermath. Suicide is, after all, a big deal and the spate of gay teen suicides these past few years surely makes it an important issue. Well, the Glee writers tell us, it's actually not. The episode moves on to regionals and the unemotional, uninspired music commences. So New Directions wins as expected and then... the cliffhanger.
The big thing about last week's NCIS episode was Jaime Lee Curtis. The plot was pretty average, but there was certainly something going on between her character and Gibbs. Whether this means anything long term is another story. At this point, you can kind of condemn all of Gibbs's relationships to failure.
The finale of Castle's two-parter had an even more ridiculous plot than the Hawaii Five-0 episode in which the team flew into North Korea. The so-called linchpin was actually a little girl. If it seemed like the CIA targeted her, her father who is influential in the Chinese government and is apparently one of the few people urging the government to buy American bonds would stop trying to help America. Then the world crumbles and certain people profit... like the Russian spy... Yeah, so I don't know what any of that's about or what kind of fandangled economics was behind all that. At least the episode moved at a nice pace.
I can't wait until we get to the end of this season of Justified. Quarles and Limehouse are both great villains, but as we're only halfway through the season, they're not on screen as often as they would be if Harlan blew up into total war--which is clearly where everything is headed.
The new partnerships on Southland have probably been my favorite of the entire series. Cooper and Tang are a good, earnest team, and Lucy Liu has really defied all expectations. Ben and Sammy are also enjoyable, with their ability to play games with each other and also their serious sides as was the case in this week's episode in which Sammy's brash attitude gets significant suspicion from Ben. The weak link, sadly, is Lydia and Reuben who are a typical detective team. With Reuben gone for the week, Lydia was still the worst part of the episode, running around the place while pregnant before going to the hospital.
I'm beginning to think that The River might be too episodic for its own good. In trying to create singular stories, it has to grasp for a solution, as was the case with the cell phone stuff, and the overall story of finding Emmett and the Amazon setting is relegated to the back.
Smash's ratings have quickly fallen down to 2.3 while The Voice is still getting 6.0, so the show clearly isn't clicking with viewers. Perhaps the show doesn't have the bright, glossy sheen of Glee to cover up the flaws. What I like about Smash is that it actually feels like something is getting made. We get glimpses of the production progression and it seems like a long process where the characters are building something and it's quite fulfilling. I think the biggest problem with the show right now is that there are so many characters that it's hard to develop them individually while balancing them with everyone else. This is most evident in Ellis, who is just a scummy guy without much else.
How I Met Your Mother: Was the nail really, really, really, really put in the coffin of Ted and Robin? Maybe, and maybe not. The writers seemed to think the last episode was somehow necessary to show that Robin and Ted don't belong together. Mainly, it seemed like a waste of time.
With the second season of The Walking Dead coming to a close in three weeks, it's hard not to think that the show has stagnated at the farm. Beyond the immediate character conflicts--which still have not resulted in any significant developments--the characters have stayed safe at the farm, going about their regular tasks. They're quite safe unless they choose to put themselves in a position where it isn't. As for the character conflicts, Rick and Shane's is easily the most compelling, based upon events of the past that they continue to grapple with. On the other hand, Lori being a stupid bitch is getting silly. She's descends into a staunch supporter of traditional gender roles, telling Maggie to get behind Glenn, and yelling at Andrea to get back in the kitchen. Her self-righteousness is incredibly off-putting.
Spartacus delivered in a truly incredible episode--not just in its own bubble but television in general. We see all the various conflicts that have been developed over time, through Blood and Sands, Gods of the Arena, with all these forces colliding. The melodrama is real, rooted in love and death, never blindsiding the audience with behavior that is not plausible. Indeed, the writers realize that characterization comes about from what has happened in the past. This culminates in a glorious final scene in which gladiators--including Oenomaus and Gannicus, once brothers but now enemies--fight for their live, Spartacus tries to exact revenge on Glaber, and Mira brings down the arena in a blaze. It's a magnificent 10+ minutes, the action and drama equally compelling. What's best is that this isn't a one-time scene. Every part is implications for the future, and the future remains even more clouded for every characters.
Fringe finally cleared out a question everyone has had: who are the Observers? Now we know--they're humans from the future. While this may at first rather inconsequential--even similar to Star Trek: Enterprise's underwhelming time travel stories--the implications are highly interesting. Here Peter is, looking off towards an unknown future which September claims is somehow wrong. Just when he thought things were getting back on track and he accepted that this Olivia is close enough to the one he knew, the gets this new piece of information. Immediately, he questions his every move and arrives at the conclusion that he should get involved with this Olivia, lest anything bad happens.
I don't want to call The Office's Tallahassee adventure a bust just yet, but from the two two episodes, I'm not getting my hopes up. Instead of a meaningful plot related to their new location, the episodes have been about things that could have happened back in Scranton. Dwight acts silly and Jim is Jim while Kathy comes on to him unsuccessfully.
Parks and Recreation makes couples work. Whether it's Andy and April, Leslie and Ben, or even Chris and Ann, the show has an ability to make us like couples. Ann and Tom, however, is an entirely new beast. Tom has always been a bit obnoxious, a bit too arrogant. It looks like it'll take a while for them to start clicking.
One of the oddest things about The Finder is Willa and the gypsy stuff. Even after six episodes, the plot doesn't feel like it belongs. While Walter is off being quirky and findy, she deals with this flat family drama. It seems like a really big waste of time.
Royal Pains took an interesting turn in its season finale when the conflict between Hank and Evan, which was a great problem through various parts of the season, finally came to a head, with Evan making some decisions without Hank and Hank blowing up. Evan buying Divya's shares was shoehorned nicely into the episode, as Evan now has two-thirds of Hank Med while Hank has the rest.
Needless to say Glee was awful. Not just regular awful, but awful awful, even for Glee standards. The episode begins like it's going to be about suicide with Karofsky swallowing pills before being found. The show even tries to make Sebastian and Sue sympathetic in the aftermath. Suicide is, after all, a big deal and the spate of gay teen suicides these past few years surely makes it an important issue. Well, the Glee writers tell us, it's actually not. The episode moves on to regionals and the unemotional, uninspired music commences. So New Directions wins as expected and then... the cliffhanger.
The big thing about last week's NCIS episode was Jaime Lee Curtis. The plot was pretty average, but there was certainly something going on between her character and Gibbs. Whether this means anything long term is another story. At this point, you can kind of condemn all of Gibbs's relationships to failure.
The finale of Castle's two-parter had an even more ridiculous plot than the Hawaii Five-0 episode in which the team flew into North Korea. The so-called linchpin was actually a little girl. If it seemed like the CIA targeted her, her father who is influential in the Chinese government and is apparently one of the few people urging the government to buy American bonds would stop trying to help America. Then the world crumbles and certain people profit... like the Russian spy... Yeah, so I don't know what any of that's about or what kind of fandangled economics was behind all that. At least the episode moved at a nice pace.
I can't wait until we get to the end of this season of Justified. Quarles and Limehouse are both great villains, but as we're only halfway through the season, they're not on screen as often as they would be if Harlan blew up into total war--which is clearly where everything is headed.
The new partnerships on Southland have probably been my favorite of the entire series. Cooper and Tang are a good, earnest team, and Lucy Liu has really defied all expectations. Ben and Sammy are also enjoyable, with their ability to play games with each other and also their serious sides as was the case in this week's episode in which Sammy's brash attitude gets significant suspicion from Ben. The weak link, sadly, is Lydia and Reuben who are a typical detective team. With Reuben gone for the week, Lydia was still the worst part of the episode, running around the place while pregnant before going to the hospital.
I'm beginning to think that The River might be too episodic for its own good. In trying to create singular stories, it has to grasp for a solution, as was the case with the cell phone stuff, and the overall story of finding Emmett and the Amazon setting is relegated to the back.
Smash's ratings have quickly fallen down to 2.3 while The Voice is still getting 6.0, so the show clearly isn't clicking with viewers. Perhaps the show doesn't have the bright, glossy sheen of Glee to cover up the flaws. What I like about Smash is that it actually feels like something is getting made. We get glimpses of the production progression and it seems like a long process where the characters are building something and it's quite fulfilling. I think the biggest problem with the show right now is that there are so many characters that it's hard to develop them individually while balancing them with everyone else. This is most evident in Ellis, who is just a scummy guy without much else.
How I Met Your Mother: Was the nail really, really, really, really put in the coffin of Ted and Robin? Maybe, and maybe not. The writers seemed to think the last episode was somehow necessary to show that Robin and Ted don't belong together. Mainly, it seemed like a waste of time.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Reviews 2/13/11 - 2/19/11
This week's Shameless was a relationship episode, and as relationships in Shameless are generally dysfunctional, there was lots of diversity and weirdness to go around. There's Karen and Jody who are over, Jasmine and Fiona which took a wrong turn, Lip and Ian who finally get back on the same page, Kevin, Veronica and Ethel 1/2, and of course Frank and Peggy. The only thing that was too far out there was Karen, who is always crazy.
Pan Am ended the season (and series, unless a genuine miracle happens) on a hopeful note, moving into 1964 and putting all worries aside. There would surely be more drama ahead, as Amanda revealed she was pregnant, but for this moment the characters were together and happy. With that, it made me feel bad that we won't be able to see what happens next. So what went wrong? It started with 11 million viewers and a 3.1 18-19 rating, falling to 3.88 million and 1.2 last night, not to mention the even lower 2.57 million and measly 0.7 the week before. The main thing I'd point to would be the lack of ambition in tackling relevant storylines to the time period. The look the show nailed down, but there was never really a sense of the times. In the end after the amazing pilot, the show slipped into a comfortable position which was charming but never that interesting. Do these faults deserve the low ratings it eventually got? Looking at Once Upon a Time, not really. Maybe if Pan Am pretended it was grander than it actually was, more people would have hung on.
The Good Wife is in another transition period with the firm not under investigation and Will temporarily out the door. What this bodes for Alicia isn't clear yet, and the episode didn't really give us indication of what's up next, whether the plots of the episode are about tying up loose ends or if they will have more traction in the future.
Spartacus and complex aren't exactly two words that go together, but the show did a nice job mirroring what happened over the course of a night. Spartacus and his small band hid out in the woods, trying to evade Roman soldiers while shorting through their own problems. On the other side, we see Lucretia and Illythia scheming against each other, against other people, and gaining allies.
With waning ratings, it's great to see Nikita pushing the story from all fronts with Carla and Alex, in what may be its final episodes ever.
It was cool to see Supernatural return to the past with a bit more grit and craziness than the later seasons have been. There were no long-term implications, but I was a welcome change of pace.
Without a cool plot and setting like in the previous episode, Fringe seemed to be back on that shaky ground where things are happening but the audience has no clue why. Again, it's probably because the writers make things up as they go along.
The Office characters going to Florida sounded like a good idea but apparently it actually isn't. The episode started off well with a couple laughs, before diving off in Dwight-land, where he's making a fool out of himself. Maybe Jim should have been in charge of the team so that we wouldn't have to suffer through Dwight being an idiot. It's one thing when all the characters are being silly, but it's too much when one character is making a mess while the others are being normal.
The Secret Circle has been building up to the point where Blackwell, Cassie's supposedly dead father, returns. We've heard how powerful and how evil he was, and even saw him set things on fire in the flashback. Seeing him for the first time was actually boring. He's kind of just standing there, talking about how he wants the medallion and wants to protect Cassie. It's all standard stuff.
In the previous episode, The Vampire Diaries had set it up so that Esther was preparing to kill her offspring. That's good, since Klaus has been terrorizing Mystic Falls for over a season now. But what do the writers do? Immediately put her plan into motion, initiating the ritual in the very next episode. The plan fails and we're back to square one. So what was the point of that? After all these foiled plots to kill Klaus, it's getting really tedious.
Holy crap was Morena Baccarin good on last week's Mentalist.
Revenge finally reached the moment which began the series, Daniel seemingly being shot. It's something I've never really been keen on, as a straight reveal of Daniel being shot in this episode would be shocking in its own right. Perhaps fewer people would have talked about the show up to that point, but making big decisions out of insecurity is a bad move, in my opinion. In any case, it was handled well with rising tension until the reveal--that it was actually Tyler and not Daniel who was shot. Now, with everything torn asunder only 15 episodes into a 22 episode season, Revenge has a chance to reinvent itself.
Royal Pains is such a leisurely show that I hadn't realized it was close to the end of the season until Jack died. I'm guessing that's what's going to keep Jill in town. Other than that, the Boris stuff was a wash. Does anyone care about his family drama? I don't.
Southland had a really strong episode with Cooper and Tang, as usual, with some funny Dewey and Sherman behind it. Michael Cudlitz was on fire in the episode.
Justified: Timothy Olyphant got a breather these past few weeks, as there's been focus on previous background characters like Devil and Dewey. In the end, Dewey doesn't actually die and we got to see him bumbling around, thinking his kidneys had been taken. Also, it was cool to see Maggie Lawson in something other than Psych.
In the first two episodes of The River, there were at least attempts to find clues and move ahead in the jungle. In the third episode, however, it's basically a stand alone horror story--jungle natives poisoning them and then trying to find the cure. It's a little scary, but pointless on the season as a whole.
The way Hawaii Five-0 handled Lori was nothing short of laughable. They randomly insert her on the team, give her nothing interesting to do, a generic personality, and then drop her midway through the season. She was kind of just there, not intrusive but otherwise not important.
The first part of Castle's two-parter was not the super-serious episode we've come to expect. It had the tone of a typical episode except a more juiced up plot and Jennifer Beals. I'll have to go back and check, but I think Castle only does serious episodes when it relates to Beckett's mother.
Smash had a lot of dumb moments in its second, but none more dumb than when the teenage son asked about his potential sister in China and asked, "What is going to happen to her if we don't go get her?" What the fuck is that supposed to mean? I made more comments on Twitter about this if anyone's interested.
I liked that Alcatraz tried to make things a little more dangerous, but the show is still bland from the characters to plot.
House at long last did a Chase episode. It wasn't anything special, but I liked it.
How I Met Your Mother: After all the back and forth Ted and Robin have done over the years, why again? What hasn't been covered already?
Pan Am ended the season (and series, unless a genuine miracle happens) on a hopeful note, moving into 1964 and putting all worries aside. There would surely be more drama ahead, as Amanda revealed she was pregnant, but for this moment the characters were together and happy. With that, it made me feel bad that we won't be able to see what happens next. So what went wrong? It started with 11 million viewers and a 3.1 18-19 rating, falling to 3.88 million and 1.2 last night, not to mention the even lower 2.57 million and measly 0.7 the week before. The main thing I'd point to would be the lack of ambition in tackling relevant storylines to the time period. The look the show nailed down, but there was never really a sense of the times. In the end after the amazing pilot, the show slipped into a comfortable position which was charming but never that interesting. Do these faults deserve the low ratings it eventually got? Looking at Once Upon a Time, not really. Maybe if Pan Am pretended it was grander than it actually was, more people would have hung on.
The Good Wife is in another transition period with the firm not under investigation and Will temporarily out the door. What this bodes for Alicia isn't clear yet, and the episode didn't really give us indication of what's up next, whether the plots of the episode are about tying up loose ends or if they will have more traction in the future.
Spartacus and complex aren't exactly two words that go together, but the show did a nice job mirroring what happened over the course of a night. Spartacus and his small band hid out in the woods, trying to evade Roman soldiers while shorting through their own problems. On the other side, we see Lucretia and Illythia scheming against each other, against other people, and gaining allies.
With waning ratings, it's great to see Nikita pushing the story from all fronts with Carla and Alex, in what may be its final episodes ever.
It was cool to see Supernatural return to the past with a bit more grit and craziness than the later seasons have been. There were no long-term implications, but I was a welcome change of pace.
Without a cool plot and setting like in the previous episode, Fringe seemed to be back on that shaky ground where things are happening but the audience has no clue why. Again, it's probably because the writers make things up as they go along.
The Office characters going to Florida sounded like a good idea but apparently it actually isn't. The episode started off well with a couple laughs, before diving off in Dwight-land, where he's making a fool out of himself. Maybe Jim should have been in charge of the team so that we wouldn't have to suffer through Dwight being an idiot. It's one thing when all the characters are being silly, but it's too much when one character is making a mess while the others are being normal.
The Secret Circle has been building up to the point where Blackwell, Cassie's supposedly dead father, returns. We've heard how powerful and how evil he was, and even saw him set things on fire in the flashback. Seeing him for the first time was actually boring. He's kind of just standing there, talking about how he wants the medallion and wants to protect Cassie. It's all standard stuff.
In the previous episode, The Vampire Diaries had set it up so that Esther was preparing to kill her offspring. That's good, since Klaus has been terrorizing Mystic Falls for over a season now. But what do the writers do? Immediately put her plan into motion, initiating the ritual in the very next episode. The plan fails and we're back to square one. So what was the point of that? After all these foiled plots to kill Klaus, it's getting really tedious.
Holy crap was Morena Baccarin good on last week's Mentalist.
Revenge finally reached the moment which began the series, Daniel seemingly being shot. It's something I've never really been keen on, as a straight reveal of Daniel being shot in this episode would be shocking in its own right. Perhaps fewer people would have talked about the show up to that point, but making big decisions out of insecurity is a bad move, in my opinion. In any case, it was handled well with rising tension until the reveal--that it was actually Tyler and not Daniel who was shot. Now, with everything torn asunder only 15 episodes into a 22 episode season, Revenge has a chance to reinvent itself.
Royal Pains is such a leisurely show that I hadn't realized it was close to the end of the season until Jack died. I'm guessing that's what's going to keep Jill in town. Other than that, the Boris stuff was a wash. Does anyone care about his family drama? I don't.
Southland had a really strong episode with Cooper and Tang, as usual, with some funny Dewey and Sherman behind it. Michael Cudlitz was on fire in the episode.
Justified: Timothy Olyphant got a breather these past few weeks, as there's been focus on previous background characters like Devil and Dewey. In the end, Dewey doesn't actually die and we got to see him bumbling around, thinking his kidneys had been taken. Also, it was cool to see Maggie Lawson in something other than Psych.
In the first two episodes of The River, there were at least attempts to find clues and move ahead in the jungle. In the third episode, however, it's basically a stand alone horror story--jungle natives poisoning them and then trying to find the cure. It's a little scary, but pointless on the season as a whole.
The way Hawaii Five-0 handled Lori was nothing short of laughable. They randomly insert her on the team, give her nothing interesting to do, a generic personality, and then drop her midway through the season. She was kind of just there, not intrusive but otherwise not important.
The first part of Castle's two-parter was not the super-serious episode we've come to expect. It had the tone of a typical episode except a more juiced up plot and Jennifer Beals. I'll have to go back and check, but I think Castle only does serious episodes when it relates to Beckett's mother.
Smash had a lot of dumb moments in its second, but none more dumb than when the teenage son asked about his potential sister in China and asked, "What is going to happen to her if we don't go get her?" What the fuck is that supposed to mean? I made more comments on Twitter about this if anyone's interested.
I liked that Alcatraz tried to make things a little more dangerous, but the show is still bland from the characters to plot.
House at long last did a Chase episode. It wasn't anything special, but I liked it.
How I Met Your Mother: After all the back and forth Ted and Robin have done over the years, why again? What hasn't been covered already?
Monday, February 13, 2012
Reviews 2/7/12 - 2/13/12
I don't have enough time for Luck, especially since it takes a while to reacclimate to the show's style, so I'm putting it off until I can watch several episodes in a row, as I did with Boardwalk Empire.
I found myself enjoying The Walking Dead's return even though nothing really happened. Two things stuck out to me. Lori getting in the car crash was ridiculous. Do the writers really want her to be an idiot, or do they not realize how stupid her thought process was? Second, Michael Raymond-James killed that final scene. He's sitting there, perfectly calm, speaking in a manner that isn't overtly threatening. But there's something there, just slightly, that indicates something is not right. Indeed, this is confirmed as Rick shoots Dave and Tony, a good ending to the episode to reinforce the realities Rick must face.
Shameless: The thinking behind Frank and his mother is that their unpleasantness and situations they're in magically will be funny. I don't know about other people, but their perpetual meanness is off-putting. They're not just dickish like House of Lies characters--they're bad people with no hope of redemption. What the introduction of his mother did do, however, is to partially explain why he's the way he is. It by no means absolves him of anything, but we get a better idea of why he's a mean drunk. The rest of characters didn't get particularly good plots in comparison to last week's, with Steve's awkward return and more Lip pouting. Ethel and Malik running off was great, though.
This week's Pan Am episode was aired far out of order, belonging after the sixth episode rather than the twelfth. It's actually a fairly important episode, showing what happened to Ginny and Laura's nude photoshoot (which, embarrassingly, was a major plot point in the previous episode). But you can see why ABC chose to put off the episode during November sweeps--it's pretty bad. Ginny becomes crazy in an instant, the Charlie story is horrendous, and Kate's plot gets sidelined by most of the episode and is rendered useless, despite the greater implications. Putting another nail in Pan Am's coffin, last night's ratings: 0.7 18-49, 2.662 million total. Yikes.
Once Upon a Time continues its tedium with another fairy tale story--Beauty and the Beast--wrapped in a different context than we're used to seeing. The big reveal is that Mr. Gold knows he's Rumpelstiltskin and has a face off with the Queen. What will come of this? Probably nothing until the end of the season.
I've been hard on Fringe this season, but last week's episode was really good. It places the characters in a frightening yet intriguing situation where people in this town are merging with their other selves. It's freaky and dramatic right up until the end. Perhaps it was a little too transparent in reflecting the situation with Peter, Olivia, and Walter. Still, with Olivia remembering things she shouldn't be, it'll be interesting to see where the season goes and whether Peter really does have to go back.
There comes a point when you resign yourself to the fact that a show can't be as good as it used to. I've come to that point with Supernatural. So yeah, the overarching story is lame, Bobby potential, maybe, could be a ghost is lame, but the clowns were a good distraction.
In an episode which had relatively less violence than usual, Spartacus amped up the drama, ending with Crixus being taken and Naevia freed.
I'm about ready to give up on Grimm. Amy Acker is awesome and all, but the plots and Nick's boringness are going nowhere.
Nikita took another wild turn when it's revealed that Carla, the one who took Nikita in, was actually the person who started Division.
Last week's Vampire Diaries was hardly the most action packed or twist-filled episode, but it put all the Originals together and got the ball rolling for the next part of the season, Esther plotting to kill them all.
The Secret Circle had an all-around solid episode following a real stinker of an episode. It had plenty of funny parts with Diana and Melissa on devil's spirit, and some genuinely scary parts with the hooded dead witches haunting Cassie.
Is The Office finally going somewhere? Looks like it, with Jim, Dwight, and others heading off to Florida. What's more Cathy, the rarely seen new girl in the corner, is revealed to be a villain. Progress at last!
Sheldon hanging out in Amy's lab was good for The Big Bang Theory standards--an actual change in scenery beyond the apartment, restaurant, or office scenery--but there wasn't anything particularly funny.
Revenge continues to surprise with its unrelenting forward movement and delivered another stellar episode where we see Emily tracking Daniel in flashbacks and the ending in which Emily discovers someone is onto her.
The River was really cool. The concept is good and it had enough scare to keep me interested. What differentiates the show from Lost--which seems to be the main comparison people are making--is that The River answers questions without leaving anything hanging. Mainly, you have to start with the fact that there is deep magic about. Magic, by nature, isn't confined by strict rules. Thus, supernatural things, like the dead spirit in the first episode or the doll tree in the second, are directly explained. There is a causal relationship between magic and human events which leads to these freaky things. After that, there's no mystery anymore about the scary happenings. What mystery remains is true to the entire premise of the show, where Dr. Cole is.
Glee may have hit its stupidest point yet when it was revealed that Will knows no Spanish--and he wants tenure. So this supposed "teacher" was getting paid while he taught nothing (except for glee club) and made no attempt to learn what he was supposed to teach. And then he wants tenure and collect even more money. Basically, Glee writers are telling us that Will is a piece of shit. But isn't Will supposed to be a good guy character? Oh well, I'll just called Will a piece of shit from now on.
NCIS's 200th episode was really sad. Like Chuck, it's a sad show shrouded in a funny tone. Shannon explaining to Gibbs why she and Kelly had to die is a tragic sentiment.
Castle's noir episode could have used some work. Stana Katic was flat out bad trying to be the femme fatale and it was hard to stomach her scenes. The overall mystery was pretty good, however, so it wasn't all bad.
How I Met Your Mother was really lazy last week. The plot--if you could even call it that--took up about 5 minutes total since nothing really happened. What the writers do is to chop the episode in piece, from the perspective of various rooms in the house, so we see the same things over and over again until we get the complete picture of what happened.
House had another one of those "special" episodes, probably the last before the final episodes, and I liked it, though it was overhyped. After the first couple interviews, it was evident that Chase was missing so he had to be the center of discussion. It was cheap how House got out of it so easily, but his apology to Chase was something new.
I found myself enjoying The Walking Dead's return even though nothing really happened. Two things stuck out to me. Lori getting in the car crash was ridiculous. Do the writers really want her to be an idiot, or do they not realize how stupid her thought process was? Second, Michael Raymond-James killed that final scene. He's sitting there, perfectly calm, speaking in a manner that isn't overtly threatening. But there's something there, just slightly, that indicates something is not right. Indeed, this is confirmed as Rick shoots Dave and Tony, a good ending to the episode to reinforce the realities Rick must face.
Shameless: The thinking behind Frank and his mother is that their unpleasantness and situations they're in magically will be funny. I don't know about other people, but their perpetual meanness is off-putting. They're not just dickish like House of Lies characters--they're bad people with no hope of redemption. What the introduction of his mother did do, however, is to partially explain why he's the way he is. It by no means absolves him of anything, but we get a better idea of why he's a mean drunk. The rest of characters didn't get particularly good plots in comparison to last week's, with Steve's awkward return and more Lip pouting. Ethel and Malik running off was great, though.
This week's Pan Am episode was aired far out of order, belonging after the sixth episode rather than the twelfth. It's actually a fairly important episode, showing what happened to Ginny and Laura's nude photoshoot (which, embarrassingly, was a major plot point in the previous episode). But you can see why ABC chose to put off the episode during November sweeps--it's pretty bad. Ginny becomes crazy in an instant, the Charlie story is horrendous, and Kate's plot gets sidelined by most of the episode and is rendered useless, despite the greater implications. Putting another nail in Pan Am's coffin, last night's ratings: 0.7 18-49, 2.662 million total. Yikes.
Once Upon a Time continues its tedium with another fairy tale story--Beauty and the Beast--wrapped in a different context than we're used to seeing. The big reveal is that Mr. Gold knows he's Rumpelstiltskin and has a face off with the Queen. What will come of this? Probably nothing until the end of the season.
I've been hard on Fringe this season, but last week's episode was really good. It places the characters in a frightening yet intriguing situation where people in this town are merging with their other selves. It's freaky and dramatic right up until the end. Perhaps it was a little too transparent in reflecting the situation with Peter, Olivia, and Walter. Still, with Olivia remembering things she shouldn't be, it'll be interesting to see where the season goes and whether Peter really does have to go back.
There comes a point when you resign yourself to the fact that a show can't be as good as it used to. I've come to that point with Supernatural. So yeah, the overarching story is lame, Bobby potential, maybe, could be a ghost is lame, but the clowns were a good distraction.
In an episode which had relatively less violence than usual, Spartacus amped up the drama, ending with Crixus being taken and Naevia freed.
I'm about ready to give up on Grimm. Amy Acker is awesome and all, but the plots and Nick's boringness are going nowhere.
Nikita took another wild turn when it's revealed that Carla, the one who took Nikita in, was actually the person who started Division.
Last week's Vampire Diaries was hardly the most action packed or twist-filled episode, but it put all the Originals together and got the ball rolling for the next part of the season, Esther plotting to kill them all.
The Secret Circle had an all-around solid episode following a real stinker of an episode. It had plenty of funny parts with Diana and Melissa on devil's spirit, and some genuinely scary parts with the hooded dead witches haunting Cassie.
Is The Office finally going somewhere? Looks like it, with Jim, Dwight, and others heading off to Florida. What's more Cathy, the rarely seen new girl in the corner, is revealed to be a villain. Progress at last!
Sheldon hanging out in Amy's lab was good for The Big Bang Theory standards--an actual change in scenery beyond the apartment, restaurant, or office scenery--but there wasn't anything particularly funny.
Revenge continues to surprise with its unrelenting forward movement and delivered another stellar episode where we see Emily tracking Daniel in flashbacks and the ending in which Emily discovers someone is onto her.
The River was really cool. The concept is good and it had enough scare to keep me interested. What differentiates the show from Lost--which seems to be the main comparison people are making--is that The River answers questions without leaving anything hanging. Mainly, you have to start with the fact that there is deep magic about. Magic, by nature, isn't confined by strict rules. Thus, supernatural things, like the dead spirit in the first episode or the doll tree in the second, are directly explained. There is a causal relationship between magic and human events which leads to these freaky things. After that, there's no mystery anymore about the scary happenings. What mystery remains is true to the entire premise of the show, where Dr. Cole is.
Glee may have hit its stupidest point yet when it was revealed that Will knows no Spanish--and he wants tenure. So this supposed "teacher" was getting paid while he taught nothing (except for glee club) and made no attempt to learn what he was supposed to teach. And then he wants tenure and collect even more money. Basically, Glee writers are telling us that Will is a piece of shit. But isn't Will supposed to be a good guy character? Oh well, I'll just called Will a piece of shit from now on.
NCIS's 200th episode was really sad. Like Chuck, it's a sad show shrouded in a funny tone. Shannon explaining to Gibbs why she and Kelly had to die is a tragic sentiment.
Castle's noir episode could have used some work. Stana Katic was flat out bad trying to be the femme fatale and it was hard to stomach her scenes. The overall mystery was pretty good, however, so it wasn't all bad.
How I Met Your Mother was really lazy last week. The plot--if you could even call it that--took up about 5 minutes total since nothing really happened. What the writers do is to chop the episode in piece, from the perspective of various rooms in the house, so we see the same things over and over again until we get the complete picture of what happened.
House had another one of those "special" episodes, probably the last before the final episodes, and I liked it, though it was overhyped. After the first couple interviews, it was evident that Chase was missing so he had to be the center of discussion. It was cheap how House got out of it so easily, but his apology to Chase was something new.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Reviews 1/30/12 - 2/5/12
Smash debuts tonight, but it was released a while back, so I'll review it now. The show starts off with some really questionable scenes involving Tom's assistant and the leaked video, but once Katharine McPhee's character Karen gets more involved, the episode takes off and there's a lot to like about it. It's an ambitious show and the stakes are real for these characters who want their shot at stardom. Of course, the danger in a show like this is that it overextends itself in "fan favorites" as Glee has done and becomes a mess. But the biggest danger to the show is people's fear of NBC. Plenty of people tune into the mediocrity of FOX's Alcatraz or ABC's Once Upon a Time, making them into hits, but NBC again finds itself floundering. Will Super Bowl advertising be enough for Smash?
I rewatched a bunch of scenes in Luck's second episode multiple times, so I generally got what was going on in every part of the episode. It bothers me when I don't understand what's going on, which is why I'm willing to spend extra time listening to barely decipherable dialogue. It feels like a chore, but it should get better as the season goes on. Without multiple plots riding on a horse race, as there was in the pilot, the second episode felt dry. Every character is developed a bit more--Jerry gambling, Renzo wanting to buy the horse, Ace plotting, Escalante taking risks and losing, Rosie losing the chance to ride Gettin' Up Morning, and Walter being sympathetic--but nothing really stood out.
Surprisingly, we're only one episode away from the midway point of Shameless's 12-episode second season. What we see from this week's episode and the season as a whole is that the show has become less involved in money-making schemes. There's still stuff going in the background, but nowhere near the level in the first season, when characters were engaged in episode-long cons. The focus on the characters this season is turning out great, as it feels natural that the characters are changing as they grow older. Ian looks forward in his life, but finds West Point an near-impossible goal. Debbie is hitting that age when she cares about boys. Fiona tries to find her purpose in life and decide what she wants to do with her personal life and then Steve arrives. Lip is thrust into a position where Karen is pregnant and the baby could be his, throwing his life into even more turmoil.
Fringe writers should have had an Astrid episode long, long before--especially since they had those Bible episodes in the second season which were never revisited (probably the greatest proof they make things up as they go along)--and now in the likely final season we get one when the writers should be trying to tie things together. Okay, so the situation is far from ideal, but Jasika Nicole is pretty awesome and the plot was solid, covering the spectrum of Astrid and her counterpart from the other world, Neil and his deceased brother, and Walter and Peter.
In the middle of the season, we couldn't expect Nikita to have another monumental change and have everyone inside Division die, so as expected everyone turns out fine. The biggest change is that Percy is now out and free to execute his evil plans.
I kind feel bad about being so uninterested in Supernatural these days. I want to like it, but there's little I get from it these days, other than being occasionally amused by the Winchesters. The Amazons were badly developed, the daughter twist obvious, and the Bobby ghost thing going nowhere. Every scenario with Sam and Dean has been done already, so their conflicts no long feel fresh, just rehashes of stuff in the past.
Grimm had genuinely freaky creatures last week and Juliette was outside for an extended period of time! The stuff with the captain is still terrible, but maybe Juliette being involved is a sign of things to come.
Last week's Office episode blew by quickly. It started and then was over before anything really happened. There was one big development, the reveal that Angela's baby might by Dwight's--possibly as a prelude to Dwight's spin-off--and the rest was filler. The filler actually took up most of the episode, as Jim made up excuses after excuse after excuse, ad nauseum.
I don't think Up All Night will every reach the level of Parks and Recreation, but last week's episode with Chris and his brother was probably the best plot thus far, showing the squabbling part of a sibling relationship and resolving it as well.
The reason why I rarely have anything to say about Parks and Recreation is because there's rarely anything wrong with it. During the episode, I laugh and think about how great every character is. There wouldn't be much I could say, other than listing funny scenes, which would take too much time.
Until the end, last week's Secret Circle episode was the most boring episode. Even after the psychic stabbed and then got killed herself, the episode, on average, was probably still the most boring. There was more non-committal love triangle/quadrangle, mild drug use, and all of time-wasting. Doesn't the show have another gear?
The Vampires Diaries showed why is several steps above The Secret Circle. The episode had movement in all direction with Caroline's father dying, a killer scene with Caroline and Elena, and then Alaric is found stabbed in the darkened house with blood everywhere. Finally, all the Originals are gathered and most aren't happy about Klaus. There's lots of uncertainly right now with the Originals, and there's an unknown killer on the loose.
In its third episode, Justified gives a fuller introduction to Limehouse, rounding out the villains and showing us the various factions in Harlan who will be fighting for turf and money while Raylan and the Marshalls trying to keep them under control.
Glee's Michael Jackson episode was a bit better than previous theme episodes but not by much. First, the one positive: the application plot was relevant and something was actually on the line. And the big negative: in evil Sue's absence, this Sebastian guy became the ultimate evil, completely unrealistic and malicious for no reason.
Reading the description of last week's Alcatraz episode, I thought the hostage problem would take up most of the episode, where Rebecca learns more about the prisoner as she tries to defuse the situation. Instead, the episode played out its usual procedural before the tepid bank robbery. I'm surprised to see the ratings for the show are still really high, as the show has not indicated it's anything other than another supernatural procedural.
Being Human (UK/US): I want to talk about both shows because the fourth season premiere of original aired on Sunday (which you can find online if you look hard enough...), and it took the show in a dramatically new direction. Without spoiling anything, the DNA of the show has been changed. Going back to the US version, it introduced Josh's ex-fiancee Julia as the doctor Aidan hooked up with. It looks like the shows have completely diverged.
I rewatched a bunch of scenes in Luck's second episode multiple times, so I generally got what was going on in every part of the episode. It bothers me when I don't understand what's going on, which is why I'm willing to spend extra time listening to barely decipherable dialogue. It feels like a chore, but it should get better as the season goes on. Without multiple plots riding on a horse race, as there was in the pilot, the second episode felt dry. Every character is developed a bit more--Jerry gambling, Renzo wanting to buy the horse, Ace plotting, Escalante taking risks and losing, Rosie losing the chance to ride Gettin' Up Morning, and Walter being sympathetic--but nothing really stood out.
Surprisingly, we're only one episode away from the midway point of Shameless's 12-episode second season. What we see from this week's episode and the season as a whole is that the show has become less involved in money-making schemes. There's still stuff going in the background, but nowhere near the level in the first season, when characters were engaged in episode-long cons. The focus on the characters this season is turning out great, as it feels natural that the characters are changing as they grow older. Ian looks forward in his life, but finds West Point an near-impossible goal. Debbie is hitting that age when she cares about boys. Fiona tries to find her purpose in life and decide what she wants to do with her personal life and then Steve arrives. Lip is thrust into a position where Karen is pregnant and the baby could be his, throwing his life into even more turmoil.
Fringe writers should have had an Astrid episode long, long before--especially since they had those Bible episodes in the second season which were never revisited (probably the greatest proof they make things up as they go along)--and now in the likely final season we get one when the writers should be trying to tie things together. Okay, so the situation is far from ideal, but Jasika Nicole is pretty awesome and the plot was solid, covering the spectrum of Astrid and her counterpart from the other world, Neil and his deceased brother, and Walter and Peter.
In the middle of the season, we couldn't expect Nikita to have another monumental change and have everyone inside Division die, so as expected everyone turns out fine. The biggest change is that Percy is now out and free to execute his evil plans.
I kind feel bad about being so uninterested in Supernatural these days. I want to like it, but there's little I get from it these days, other than being occasionally amused by the Winchesters. The Amazons were badly developed, the daughter twist obvious, and the Bobby ghost thing going nowhere. Every scenario with Sam and Dean has been done already, so their conflicts no long feel fresh, just rehashes of stuff in the past.
Grimm had genuinely freaky creatures last week and Juliette was outside for an extended period of time! The stuff with the captain is still terrible, but maybe Juliette being involved is a sign of things to come.
Last week's Office episode blew by quickly. It started and then was over before anything really happened. There was one big development, the reveal that Angela's baby might by Dwight's--possibly as a prelude to Dwight's spin-off--and the rest was filler. The filler actually took up most of the episode, as Jim made up excuses after excuse after excuse, ad nauseum.
I don't think Up All Night will every reach the level of Parks and Recreation, but last week's episode with Chris and his brother was probably the best plot thus far, showing the squabbling part of a sibling relationship and resolving it as well.
The reason why I rarely have anything to say about Parks and Recreation is because there's rarely anything wrong with it. During the episode, I laugh and think about how great every character is. There wouldn't be much I could say, other than listing funny scenes, which would take too much time.
Until the end, last week's Secret Circle episode was the most boring episode. Even after the psychic stabbed and then got killed herself, the episode, on average, was probably still the most boring. There was more non-committal love triangle/quadrangle, mild drug use, and all of time-wasting. Doesn't the show have another gear?
The Vampires Diaries showed why is several steps above The Secret Circle. The episode had movement in all direction with Caroline's father dying, a killer scene with Caroline and Elena, and then Alaric is found stabbed in the darkened house with blood everywhere. Finally, all the Originals are gathered and most aren't happy about Klaus. There's lots of uncertainly right now with the Originals, and there's an unknown killer on the loose.
In its third episode, Justified gives a fuller introduction to Limehouse, rounding out the villains and showing us the various factions in Harlan who will be fighting for turf and money while Raylan and the Marshalls trying to keep them under control.
Glee's Michael Jackson episode was a bit better than previous theme episodes but not by much. First, the one positive: the application plot was relevant and something was actually on the line. And the big negative: in evil Sue's absence, this Sebastian guy became the ultimate evil, completely unrealistic and malicious for no reason.
Reading the description of last week's Alcatraz episode, I thought the hostage problem would take up most of the episode, where Rebecca learns more about the prisoner as she tries to defuse the situation. Instead, the episode played out its usual procedural before the tepid bank robbery. I'm surprised to see the ratings for the show are still really high, as the show has not indicated it's anything other than another supernatural procedural.
Being Human (UK/US): I want to talk about both shows because the fourth season premiere of original aired on Sunday (which you can find online if you look hard enough...), and it took the show in a dramatically new direction. Without spoiling anything, the DNA of the show has been changed. Going back to the US version, it introduced Josh's ex-fiancee Julia as the doctor Aidan hooked up with. It looks like the shows have completely diverged.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Reviews 1/24/12 - 1/29/12
Luck isn't exactly the easiest show to get into. The audience, from the very beginning, is tossed into another world--horse racing--without much guidance and it's a lot like swimming for the first time Characters are using obscure terms and we go from scene to scene without much semblance of structure. The first half of the pilot is a bit uncomfortable to watch, as it's not exactly clear what's going on. That's David Milch's style. But despite being tossed into this great expanse, everything starts jelling around the halfway point. We may not know characters' names or the details, but we get a general sense of who's who and what they're doing. What really shines are the horse races, the one thing that connects all the characters. They are pure beauty and generate a sense that a lot if riding on it, for the random spectators in the crowd, for the gamblers who stand to earn millions, and for the audience at home.
I wonder what Shameless would be like without Frank and I think it would be better. He's mostly deadweight as a character, much like he is to his family. He's a mean-spirited drunk who interacts with few people other than Sheila. Unlike all the other characters, he has no intentions of changing and instead does whatever it takes to keep drinking. There's nothing redeemable about him nor is there any insight from his character. I'd be perfectly fine without him. Aside from the usual Frank mess, I like where this season is headed. All the characters have their personal problems and it wasn't overly dramatic or wacky in this episode.
I said I wouldn't review House of Lies again until it changed, so I'll say it did change this week. With Roscoe coming with the team, the job of the week was pushed to the background, and we got to hang out with the characters much more than we usual do.
The culmination of The Good Wife's "Will might get indicted" arc came to an end, with both triumph and a sense that everyone got off too easily. After all the wrangling and Wendy Scott Carr coming back, beating her proved to be pretty easy, as she wasn't on top of everything and Kalinda had actually been on Will's side the entire time. Still, if Will and the firm did get off easy, the inquiries did shake the actual tenuous foundations of Lockhart Gardner and we know more trouble is coming.
Now the big ticket item, Chuck. In my mind Chuck was a happy show. It had its ups and downs, but mostly it was a happy show. Thus, I always envisioned the series finale, or at least the last 10 minutes, to be happy all-around. As any who watched the final episode can testify, it was anything but happy. Bittersweet maybe, soul-crushing even. We watched Sarah grow over the course of five seasons, from when Chuck was only a mission until she was his wife. And what happens in the last two episodes? She loses her memory and isn't the same person. We didn't get to see the Sarah we've come to know one last time.
Rationalizing, we can, with much optimism, presume that Morgan's kiss theory was right and that Sarah did regain all her memory. (In fact, I thought it would be really cool if they took all 3600+ minutes of the show and quickly played through it to show fans that we did remember). Or maybe Sarah would eventually remember everything, as she did remember some things from her past. But the alternative, Sarah remembering nothing or very little, and having Chuck tell her these stories, is incredibly sad. It just wouldn't be the same.
I began thinking afterwards and realized that Chuck was really sad, once the fun and humorous tone was taken away. The further into the spy life any character went, the more their personal life got destroyed. Casey, Stephen and Mary, Volkoff, Jill, Sarah, Bryce, Chuck, and everyone else. The highs of the show were really high and the lows were really low, and the final moments of the show captured this perfectly. There is hope that Chuck and Sarah will pull through and there's a chance they might not. Like the final scene of the pilot, they are on the beach and the future is unknown, except the roles are reversed this time.
The substance of the two final episodes was mostly a mixed bag. Quinn was one of the worst villains of the show, in his lack of menace, action, and gravitas. Beyond that, though, the recalls to the first episode were great, bringing everything full circle before the end. It rekindled my interest in Chuck, which has be waning for some time, and I want to go back and rewatch the show. All in all, the final two episodes were fantastic.
Spartacus is in the midst of big changes. On a story level, the gladiators have escaped, but they, and Spartacus, aren't sure what to do. Quintus is dead and Lucretia is miraculously still alive but damaged. Nobody is sure of what's coming next. On a production level, Andy Whitfield's tragic death means that his replacement, Liam McIntyre, must be able to fill in big shoes. The second season premiere sets up the situation and then ups the stakes by killing off Aurelia, so there's the vengeance that will carry through the season.
Fringe: In the middle of Peter showing up in this other world, I don't want to see even more elements introduced. Unfortunately, there is a new plot about the Observer telling Olivia she has to die and it's not a one-off thing. Olivia's fears came to a head in last week episode, where they find a girl who can see people's future deaths. This is important to Olivia, of course, but we still don't get a good idea of what anything has to do with the overall picture. It's clear the writers are making stuff up as they go and with the show possibly coming to an end this season, it's hard not to be wary of these new developments
Fox previewed Touch after American Idol, and it was pretty bad. I described it as "a bunch of pointless, transparently manipulative threads tying together," on Twitter. You can imagine how quickly the show devolves into a procedural. Each week new people are introduced and we see how they are interconnected by the end of the episode. Meanwhile, Jack Bauer hangs out with his son and restrains himself from beating others into a pulp.
Art got lots of actions scenes in Justified for a change, Carla Gugino's character was introduced, and the other bad guy from Limehouse was also introduced.
Southland: With the badass new captain who wants to get things done, there was lots of talk about the proper way to go about police business. Ben crossed that line, possibly motivated by the senseless shooting in the season premiere, while Lydia tricked the granny in order to get evidence, which she thinks was ethical.
Alcatraz continues to play out like an average procedural, which is probably not what people were looking for in the show. The big thing of the episode is that the doctor looks the same as he did in the past. Spooky.....
I wonder what Shameless would be like without Frank and I think it would be better. He's mostly deadweight as a character, much like he is to his family. He's a mean-spirited drunk who interacts with few people other than Sheila. Unlike all the other characters, he has no intentions of changing and instead does whatever it takes to keep drinking. There's nothing redeemable about him nor is there any insight from his character. I'd be perfectly fine without him. Aside from the usual Frank mess, I like where this season is headed. All the characters have their personal problems and it wasn't overly dramatic or wacky in this episode.
I said I wouldn't review House of Lies again until it changed, so I'll say it did change this week. With Roscoe coming with the team, the job of the week was pushed to the background, and we got to hang out with the characters much more than we usual do.
The culmination of The Good Wife's "Will might get indicted" arc came to an end, with both triumph and a sense that everyone got off too easily. After all the wrangling and Wendy Scott Carr coming back, beating her proved to be pretty easy, as she wasn't on top of everything and Kalinda had actually been on Will's side the entire time. Still, if Will and the firm did get off easy, the inquiries did shake the actual tenuous foundations of Lockhart Gardner and we know more trouble is coming.
Now the big ticket item, Chuck. In my mind Chuck was a happy show. It had its ups and downs, but mostly it was a happy show. Thus, I always envisioned the series finale, or at least the last 10 minutes, to be happy all-around. As any who watched the final episode can testify, it was anything but happy. Bittersweet maybe, soul-crushing even. We watched Sarah grow over the course of five seasons, from when Chuck was only a mission until she was his wife. And what happens in the last two episodes? She loses her memory and isn't the same person. We didn't get to see the Sarah we've come to know one last time.
Rationalizing, we can, with much optimism, presume that Morgan's kiss theory was right and that Sarah did regain all her memory. (In fact, I thought it would be really cool if they took all 3600+ minutes of the show and quickly played through it to show fans that we did remember). Or maybe Sarah would eventually remember everything, as she did remember some things from her past. But the alternative, Sarah remembering nothing or very little, and having Chuck tell her these stories, is incredibly sad. It just wouldn't be the same.
I began thinking afterwards and realized that Chuck was really sad, once the fun and humorous tone was taken away. The further into the spy life any character went, the more their personal life got destroyed. Casey, Stephen and Mary, Volkoff, Jill, Sarah, Bryce, Chuck, and everyone else. The highs of the show were really high and the lows were really low, and the final moments of the show captured this perfectly. There is hope that Chuck and Sarah will pull through and there's a chance they might not. Like the final scene of the pilot, they are on the beach and the future is unknown, except the roles are reversed this time.
The substance of the two final episodes was mostly a mixed bag. Quinn was one of the worst villains of the show, in his lack of menace, action, and gravitas. Beyond that, though, the recalls to the first episode were great, bringing everything full circle before the end. It rekindled my interest in Chuck, which has be waning for some time, and I want to go back and rewatch the show. All in all, the final two episodes were fantastic.
Spartacus is in the midst of big changes. On a story level, the gladiators have escaped, but they, and Spartacus, aren't sure what to do. Quintus is dead and Lucretia is miraculously still alive but damaged. Nobody is sure of what's coming next. On a production level, Andy Whitfield's tragic death means that his replacement, Liam McIntyre, must be able to fill in big shoes. The second season premiere sets up the situation and then ups the stakes by killing off Aurelia, so there's the vengeance that will carry through the season.
Fringe: In the middle of Peter showing up in this other world, I don't want to see even more elements introduced. Unfortunately, there is a new plot about the Observer telling Olivia she has to die and it's not a one-off thing. Olivia's fears came to a head in last week episode, where they find a girl who can see people's future deaths. This is important to Olivia, of course, but we still don't get a good idea of what anything has to do with the overall picture. It's clear the writers are making stuff up as they go and with the show possibly coming to an end this season, it's hard not to be wary of these new developments
Fox previewed Touch after American Idol, and it was pretty bad. I described it as "a bunch of pointless, transparently manipulative threads tying together," on Twitter. You can imagine how quickly the show devolves into a procedural. Each week new people are introduced and we see how they are interconnected by the end of the episode. Meanwhile, Jack Bauer hangs out with his son and restrains himself from beating others into a pulp.
Art got lots of actions scenes in Justified for a change, Carla Gugino's character was introduced, and the other bad guy from Limehouse was also introduced.
Southland: With the badass new captain who wants to get things done, there was lots of talk about the proper way to go about police business. Ben crossed that line, possibly motivated by the senseless shooting in the season premiere, while Lydia tricked the granny in order to get evidence, which she thinks was ethical.
Alcatraz continues to play out like an average procedural, which is probably not what people were looking for in the show. The big thing of the episode is that the doctor looks the same as he did in the past. Spooky.....
Monday, January 23, 2012
Reviews 1/16/12 - 1/22/12
For its third episode, House of Lies continues on the same path--crude jokes, little story, and good acting. I probably won't say more about the show unless it changes.
Shameless: Frank is surely a bad person, but last night's episode took it to an extreme, as he denied Dottie a heart she should have had. Then she pays him to essentially kill her, and then he steals from the church. It's hard to stomach watching Frank each week when we know he deserves a lot worse than he gets. It's far more interesting to watch a character like Fiona--someone with an actual conscience--grapple with the decisions she makes. And that leads to the return of Steve, plastered in front of a completely unrealistic beach. (Seriously, that was comparable to the boat scene in the pilot of Ringer.)
It kind of feels like Once Upon a Time painted itself into a corner with this week's episode. In the fairytale world, Snow forgets about the prince at the end of the episode, and as we know they got married at the beginning of the series. So it's a long way before we reach that point, and when we can figure out more about the spell which sent them to Storybrooke. How much longer do we have to wait?
Sometimes, it's a good idea to look at the big picture of a show and evaluate where the show is. In Fringe's case, all we have to look at is the episode number, 9. 9 episodes into the season and the viewers have no clue why things are happening. Peter's stuck in this alternate place, by himself and with familiar but ultimately different characters. Now he's trying to get back, but it doesn't seem like he'll be getting home anytime soon, what with the new shapeshifters and other roadblocks in the way. So we stuck watching these characters who are different than the ones we watched for three season. But why are watching them? Because the show points out time and time again that they are different, it's hard to have any attachment for them, knowing they're part of a bigger plot device. While we get plenty of great scenes in the episode with Peter's mother and Walternate, it's hollow knowing something is dreadfully wrong with the position Peter is in. It demands Peter go back to where he belongs and leave behind these characters we've known for 9+ episodes.
If you needed confirmation that Grimm resets itself and the end of each episode, look no further than last week's episode. Following an episode in which Nick gets battered in his own home and sent to the hospital, everyone seems to forget what happened. Juliet is worried about the car parked outside, but it's no big deal. The main point of the subplot is that she's curious, not scared or worried or any feelings you'd expect after last week's episode. The writers don't do much with her character when she's the most disposable character on the show, and we end up with half-baked subplots.
After weeks of feel good episodes, Chuck dived back into the angst before its final hurrah four days from now. Sarah remembers nothing--oh noz! There's going to be a happy ending, of course, but not before serious problem solving. The sad thing is, this arc could have been switched with any number of arcs from earlier in the season. All had the same format--everyone's happy at the start, major problems in the middle, and back to being happy.
The Mentalist revisited O'Laughlin and gave him a final send off for Grace. We'll never really know what went on in his head--maybe when Red John is caught--but Van Pelt got the absolution she needed. As for the idea that the necklace has some embedded electronic device, I highly doubt it. It would really cheapen that final scene and the necklace must have been inspected before going into evidence.
The Finder, even airing after American Idol, got very average ratings. Unless its ratings stay perfectly stable at where it is, which is highly unlikely, the show will be canceled. The second episode suffers the same problem as the backdoor pilot, too much Bones. If we want Sweets, we can watch Bones. We know need his psychoanalysis and random comments about Walt.
There's not much to say about The Office. The pool stuff was okay, but Robert California was insufferable as always. I still don't get.
The Secret Circle took a big step, allowing Cassie to actually see the events of the infamous fire. And a lot of what she saw contradicted what people told her had happened.
The Vampire Diaries didn't really have that much going on other than introducing Bonnie's mother, but the episode ended with Elijah's return, so I'm happy.
Royal Pains has gone back and forth with Jill and Hank so many times. They like each other but work gets in the way, blah blah blah. Can't the writers just choose something so we don't have to watch the same dynamic repeat itself?
As always, the subplots on Criminal Minds are painfully underdeveloped, but the episode was bolstered by the most interesting case in a long time.
Modern Family: The whole deal with Lily cursing was stupid. The words were bleeped out since the writers don't want to be fined, and the situation was realistic enough. That said, Cam and Mitchell again had the worst plot. Balancing it out, though, were the other two plots--the hilarious doggy suicide and Claire failing during the debate.
Southland's return was better than Justified's, in my opinion. Lucy Liu was surprisingly good as a cop, and dash camera video was hard-hitting.
Justified introduced its new batch of villains and gave Winona a great incentive of getting out of town, being held at gunpoint. The loss of Margo Martindale will be big, so we'll see if the new bad guys can make up for that.
Glee's proposal episode was horrible--a musical spectacle with all the dumb platitudes one might expect and zero heart.
Castle took a fun turn when they busted into the phone sex place, but the episode took a dark, dumb turn into conspiracy land. Castle simply isn't good when it's in plot-heavy, serious mode.
I think it was a mistake to air two episodes of Alcatraz. The first episode had enough mystery and exposition to mask the fact that the show was just another supernatural procedural a la Grimm or Haven. Yeah, we could see the framework of a procedural, but it wasn't clear whether the writers would proceed in that direction. Then, the second episode aired and it was clear the show would have a procedural format, with each episode focusing on a time-traveled convict. This isn't bad or anything, especially with the revelation that Rebecca's grandfather killed her partner, but the procedural idea certainly takes away from the allure of a show about Alcatraz and time travel.
The second season premiere of Being Human was a lot less on the angsty side than I remember, which is probably a good thing, since I like the premiere and how light it felt.
Shameless: Frank is surely a bad person, but last night's episode took it to an extreme, as he denied Dottie a heart she should have had. Then she pays him to essentially kill her, and then he steals from the church. It's hard to stomach watching Frank each week when we know he deserves a lot worse than he gets. It's far more interesting to watch a character like Fiona--someone with an actual conscience--grapple with the decisions she makes. And that leads to the return of Steve, plastered in front of a completely unrealistic beach. (Seriously, that was comparable to the boat scene in the pilot of Ringer.)
It kind of feels like Once Upon a Time painted itself into a corner with this week's episode. In the fairytale world, Snow forgets about the prince at the end of the episode, and as we know they got married at the beginning of the series. So it's a long way before we reach that point, and when we can figure out more about the spell which sent them to Storybrooke. How much longer do we have to wait?
Sometimes, it's a good idea to look at the big picture of a show and evaluate where the show is. In Fringe's case, all we have to look at is the episode number, 9. 9 episodes into the season and the viewers have no clue why things are happening. Peter's stuck in this alternate place, by himself and with familiar but ultimately different characters. Now he's trying to get back, but it doesn't seem like he'll be getting home anytime soon, what with the new shapeshifters and other roadblocks in the way. So we stuck watching these characters who are different than the ones we watched for three season. But why are watching them? Because the show points out time and time again that they are different, it's hard to have any attachment for them, knowing they're part of a bigger plot device. While we get plenty of great scenes in the episode with Peter's mother and Walternate, it's hollow knowing something is dreadfully wrong with the position Peter is in. It demands Peter go back to where he belongs and leave behind these characters we've known for 9+ episodes.
If you needed confirmation that Grimm resets itself and the end of each episode, look no further than last week's episode. Following an episode in which Nick gets battered in his own home and sent to the hospital, everyone seems to forget what happened. Juliet is worried about the car parked outside, but it's no big deal. The main point of the subplot is that she's curious, not scared or worried or any feelings you'd expect after last week's episode. The writers don't do much with her character when she's the most disposable character on the show, and we end up with half-baked subplots.
After weeks of feel good episodes, Chuck dived back into the angst before its final hurrah four days from now. Sarah remembers nothing--oh noz! There's going to be a happy ending, of course, but not before serious problem solving. The sad thing is, this arc could have been switched with any number of arcs from earlier in the season. All had the same format--everyone's happy at the start, major problems in the middle, and back to being happy.
The Mentalist revisited O'Laughlin and gave him a final send off for Grace. We'll never really know what went on in his head--maybe when Red John is caught--but Van Pelt got the absolution she needed. As for the idea that the necklace has some embedded electronic device, I highly doubt it. It would really cheapen that final scene and the necklace must have been inspected before going into evidence.
The Finder, even airing after American Idol, got very average ratings. Unless its ratings stay perfectly stable at where it is, which is highly unlikely, the show will be canceled. The second episode suffers the same problem as the backdoor pilot, too much Bones. If we want Sweets, we can watch Bones. We know need his psychoanalysis and random comments about Walt.
There's not much to say about The Office. The pool stuff was okay, but Robert California was insufferable as always. I still don't get.
The Secret Circle took a big step, allowing Cassie to actually see the events of the infamous fire. And a lot of what she saw contradicted what people told her had happened.
The Vampire Diaries didn't really have that much going on other than introducing Bonnie's mother, but the episode ended with Elijah's return, so I'm happy.
Royal Pains has gone back and forth with Jill and Hank so many times. They like each other but work gets in the way, blah blah blah. Can't the writers just choose something so we don't have to watch the same dynamic repeat itself?
As always, the subplots on Criminal Minds are painfully underdeveloped, but the episode was bolstered by the most interesting case in a long time.
Modern Family: The whole deal with Lily cursing was stupid. The words were bleeped out since the writers don't want to be fined, and the situation was realistic enough. That said, Cam and Mitchell again had the worst plot. Balancing it out, though, were the other two plots--the hilarious doggy suicide and Claire failing during the debate.
Southland's return was better than Justified's, in my opinion. Lucy Liu was surprisingly good as a cop, and dash camera video was hard-hitting.
Justified introduced its new batch of villains and gave Winona a great incentive of getting out of town, being held at gunpoint. The loss of Margo Martindale will be big, so we'll see if the new bad guys can make up for that.
Glee's proposal episode was horrible--a musical spectacle with all the dumb platitudes one might expect and zero heart.
Castle took a fun turn when they busted into the phone sex place, but the episode took a dark, dumb turn into conspiracy land. Castle simply isn't good when it's in plot-heavy, serious mode.
I think it was a mistake to air two episodes of Alcatraz. The first episode had enough mystery and exposition to mask the fact that the show was just another supernatural procedural a la Grimm or Haven. Yeah, we could see the framework of a procedural, but it wasn't clear whether the writers would proceed in that direction. Then, the second episode aired and it was clear the show would have a procedural format, with each episode focusing on a time-traveled convict. This isn't bad or anything, especially with the revelation that Rebecca's grandfather killed her partner, but the procedural idea certainly takes away from the allure of a show about Alcatraz and time travel.
The second season premiere of Being Human was a lot less on the angsty side than I remember, which is probably a good thing, since I like the premiere and how light it felt.
Monday, January 16, 2012
1/9/12 - 1/15/12 Reviews
Shows are beginning to pile up, so there are a lot of shows missing and a lot of one-liners. Maybe I'll adjust the schedule of posting in the future.
House of Lies's second episode is a lot like the first. The characters are assholes who get the job done. It's amusing at times, but the content isn't anything to write home about.
A mix of Shameless's season premiere and this week's episode, bridging the gap between crazy behavior and actual drama, would be a solid episode. It would have all fun of the pot plot from last week while introducing the plot of the Gallagher's crumbling foundation as the younger ones grow up. As it stands, each episode is incomplete, with good stuff altogether but not as individual episodes. But I think that's the hardest thing for the writers. There isn't really an ongoing plot for the episodes to hang on, so the episodes maintain stand alone qualities, which will have the wackier behavior. At the same time, as we see in this episode, the writers want to add some drama to the family, something that might not happen if they're off making money.
With great awkwardness and spotty character building, Hell on Wheels finished its first season. Am I impressed? No. Do I think it's better than The Killing? No, actually. However, I think the show has more promise than The Killing. The cast is good, sets are great to look at, and there are plenty of story to tell.
Leverage brought back some old friends/enemies from the past to help with the last con of the season. It was supposed to be dramatic or something, but I found it mostly tedious since the plot sprang up out of nowhere. In fact, I think the overarching plot for this season was handled worse than Burn Notice's, as bad as it has been. So Nate gets justice and doesn't have to kill anyone, and they're back to their merry selves.
Once Upon a Time: How long will the exposition continue? How long with humor be barred from the script? The ratings are still exceptional, but man are the writers taking their time to develop whatever they want. Surely they can't introduce a different fairy tale character every week.
The Good Wife had another ripped from the headline story with a Bitcoin episode and while it wasn't as good as last week's plot, it was still enjoyable. Another fun thing was the three Mr. Bitcoins, one of whom was an "econophysicist." If you want to do physics, do physics, and if you want to do economics, do economics.
Pan Am's trip to Moscow was pretty funny. The Soviets are out of control authoritarian and is prepared to imprison Laura and Bridgett forever, but Kate manages to slip past them and save the day. Problem solved!
I think I'm done with Blue Bloods. Its Reagan elitism and in elitism in general is too nauseating to bear on a weekly basis.
Fringe is getting back into the swing of things (finally) with Lincoln and Peter heading to the alternate universe. Walternate might not be evil? Lots of thoughts to chew on during the episode which was equal parts exciting.
Ignoring the time travel mechanics, Supernatural's time travel episode was awesome from beginning to end.
The most important thing about last week's Grimm episode was Eddie finding the Grimm stash and using the rifle. But it's importance towards the show at large is dependent on what the writers want it to be. It seems like, from the dropped storylines (the captain, Eddie about to attack Nick's aunt at the hospital), all the writers want the show to be is a police story where they hunt fairy tale characters. At this time, I'd say it's a bit better than OUAT, which has less interesting stories and has globs of exposition.
Argh, we'll have to wait until February for Nikita's return when we'll find out what happens at Division. Nikita and Michael will probably be fine, so the writers, at least with them, are not going for a status quo change. On the other hand, plenty can happen with Oversight or Division... or not.
Chuck pulls another big bad out of nowhere... Yeah, yeah, he has parallels with Chuck, etc, becomes deranged and will have to be defeated. There's only two weeks left, so we can stop walking around in circles soon and end our dizziness.
The Mentalist showed its limitation, trying to balance Red John stuff with a crime story. The crime story was far too brief to get anything from it, with Jane popping in at the last second to save the day. The stuff with Jane getting Darcy off Red John's trail was great, though.
After the terrible backdoor pilot to The Finder last year, the actual pilot of The Finder was surprisingly refreshing. The story moved nicely and the setting was much different than usual procedurals. Add Geoff Stults portraying Walter's quirks and the pilot was quite good.
Bones once again managed to infuriate me. The plot was epic, if not completely implausible, with an evil genius as a villain, unseen since the great Gormogon days. Then there was Booth and Brennan. They're so annoying. Booth should just suck it up and realize that Brennan is loaded and can buy any house. That means she can buy whatever Booth wants and more. Choices, Booth, choices. No need to be a character from ABC's MAN comedies.
Caroline is my favorite character on The Vampire Diaries, so I hope Klaus doesn't damage her irreparably
The Secret Circle needs to kick one of the plots into high gear, because the teen drama isn't cutting it. And Jake returning isn't exactly not teen drama (double negative, I know).
The Office took a trip out of the office, and it was lots of fun, like most of the times when they're out of their usual setting. We got to see different sides of the characters and for once we see that the "dumber" characters might just have different skillsets.
Leslie's campaign on Parks and Recreation kicked off with her team and it wasn't pretty. But it was very, very funny and that's why we watch.
Rob is a show where Rob Schneider makes Mexican jokes and Mexicans made Rob Schneider jokes. Yeah, I don't think this will work.
Revenge returned to the target of the week format and Emily took down an author. Meanwhile, the other elements of the show continue to be developed, with Daniel wanting to marry Emily for money reasons and love, Conrad and Victoria plotting against each other, and Amanda possibly getting in big trouble soon.
It's been a few days short of a week since I watch Are You There, Chelsea? Honestly, I don't remember much about it other than talk about sex and alcohol, and very few laughs.
In the easiest possible twist to get rid of a romantic rival, NCIS ditches CI Ray by making him the murderer. Now that gives Ziva an easy choice...
Castle laid on the Castle/Beckett marriage stuff really thick, in an otherwise enjoyable episode.
House of Lies's second episode is a lot like the first. The characters are assholes who get the job done. It's amusing at times, but the content isn't anything to write home about.
A mix of Shameless's season premiere and this week's episode, bridging the gap between crazy behavior and actual drama, would be a solid episode. It would have all fun of the pot plot from last week while introducing the plot of the Gallagher's crumbling foundation as the younger ones grow up. As it stands, each episode is incomplete, with good stuff altogether but not as individual episodes. But I think that's the hardest thing for the writers. There isn't really an ongoing plot for the episodes to hang on, so the episodes maintain stand alone qualities, which will have the wackier behavior. At the same time, as we see in this episode, the writers want to add some drama to the family, something that might not happen if they're off making money.
With great awkwardness and spotty character building, Hell on Wheels finished its first season. Am I impressed? No. Do I think it's better than The Killing? No, actually. However, I think the show has more promise than The Killing. The cast is good, sets are great to look at, and there are plenty of story to tell.
Leverage brought back some old friends/enemies from the past to help with the last con of the season. It was supposed to be dramatic or something, but I found it mostly tedious since the plot sprang up out of nowhere. In fact, I think the overarching plot for this season was handled worse than Burn Notice's, as bad as it has been. So Nate gets justice and doesn't have to kill anyone, and they're back to their merry selves.
Once Upon a Time: How long will the exposition continue? How long with humor be barred from the script? The ratings are still exceptional, but man are the writers taking their time to develop whatever they want. Surely they can't introduce a different fairy tale character every week.
The Good Wife had another ripped from the headline story with a Bitcoin episode and while it wasn't as good as last week's plot, it was still enjoyable. Another fun thing was the three Mr. Bitcoins, one of whom was an "econophysicist." If you want to do physics, do physics, and if you want to do economics, do economics.
Pan Am's trip to Moscow was pretty funny. The Soviets are out of control authoritarian and is prepared to imprison Laura and Bridgett forever, but Kate manages to slip past them and save the day. Problem solved!
I think I'm done with Blue Bloods. Its Reagan elitism and in elitism in general is too nauseating to bear on a weekly basis.
Fringe is getting back into the swing of things (finally) with Lincoln and Peter heading to the alternate universe. Walternate might not be evil? Lots of thoughts to chew on during the episode which was equal parts exciting.
Ignoring the time travel mechanics, Supernatural's time travel episode was awesome from beginning to end.
The most important thing about last week's Grimm episode was Eddie finding the Grimm stash and using the rifle. But it's importance towards the show at large is dependent on what the writers want it to be. It seems like, from the dropped storylines (the captain, Eddie about to attack Nick's aunt at the hospital), all the writers want the show to be is a police story where they hunt fairy tale characters. At this time, I'd say it's a bit better than OUAT, which has less interesting stories and has globs of exposition.
Argh, we'll have to wait until February for Nikita's return when we'll find out what happens at Division. Nikita and Michael will probably be fine, so the writers, at least with them, are not going for a status quo change. On the other hand, plenty can happen with Oversight or Division... or not.
Chuck pulls another big bad out of nowhere... Yeah, yeah, he has parallels with Chuck, etc, becomes deranged and will have to be defeated. There's only two weeks left, so we can stop walking around in circles soon and end our dizziness.
The Mentalist showed its limitation, trying to balance Red John stuff with a crime story. The crime story was far too brief to get anything from it, with Jane popping in at the last second to save the day. The stuff with Jane getting Darcy off Red John's trail was great, though.
After the terrible backdoor pilot to The Finder last year, the actual pilot of The Finder was surprisingly refreshing. The story moved nicely and the setting was much different than usual procedurals. Add Geoff Stults portraying Walter's quirks and the pilot was quite good.
Bones once again managed to infuriate me. The plot was epic, if not completely implausible, with an evil genius as a villain, unseen since the great Gormogon days. Then there was Booth and Brennan. They're so annoying. Booth should just suck it up and realize that Brennan is loaded and can buy any house. That means she can buy whatever Booth wants and more. Choices, Booth, choices. No need to be a character from ABC's MAN comedies.
Caroline is my favorite character on The Vampire Diaries, so I hope Klaus doesn't damage her irreparably
The Secret Circle needs to kick one of the plots into high gear, because the teen drama isn't cutting it. And Jake returning isn't exactly not teen drama (double negative, I know).
The Office took a trip out of the office, and it was lots of fun, like most of the times when they're out of their usual setting. We got to see different sides of the characters and for once we see that the "dumber" characters might just have different skillsets.
Leslie's campaign on Parks and Recreation kicked off with her team and it wasn't pretty. But it was very, very funny and that's why we watch.
Rob is a show where Rob Schneider makes Mexican jokes and Mexicans made Rob Schneider jokes. Yeah, I don't think this will work.
Revenge returned to the target of the week format and Emily took down an author. Meanwhile, the other elements of the show continue to be developed, with Daniel wanting to marry Emily for money reasons and love, Conrad and Victoria plotting against each other, and Amanda possibly getting in big trouble soon.
It's been a few days short of a week since I watch Are You There, Chelsea? Honestly, I don't remember much about it other than talk about sex and alcohol, and very few laughs.
In the easiest possible twist to get rid of a romantic rival, NCIS ditches CI Ray by making him the murderer. Now that gives Ziva an easy choice...
Castle laid on the Castle/Beckett marriage stuff really thick, in an otherwise enjoyable episode.
Monday, January 9, 2012
1/3/11 - 1/8/11 Reviews
Part of me wants to believe Hell on Wheels is supposed to be a parody, poking fun at Westerns and the themes that often arise in them. Surely, no sensible, serious writers would serve us what we've seen thus far without it being a joke, would they? The opening scene seems to support this, in which the characters get in a big fight following last week's cliffhanger. It's a freaking montage, with song playing as the main characters defeat the Indians who have no clue how to fight and the extras die randomly. The fight comes from old action movies where the villains are big but dumb while the main character can't die despite the circumstances. But the music indicates this isn't any mere fight. It's an artsy fight, you see.
House of Lies is about what you can expect from Showtime these days and the perfect show to follow Shameless. The cast is credentialed and charming, the jokes are mostly crude, and it's about morality ambiguous people doing morality ambiguous acts, in ways people will find funny. There's no big message to glean other than that consulting has a bunch of douchebags (and who didn't know that already?).
The second season of Shameless isn't much different from the first. The Gallaghers break the law, have tons of sex, and drink. There's plenty of rambunctious fun, to be sure, but it's a show where nothing too important is going on and you'd probably be fine not watching all the episodes.
Pan Am is almost certainly going to be canceled, but I'm still watching. Unlike with Hell on Wheels, Pan Am rarely bothers me to the point where I question what the writers are thinking. It's clear what the show is. The gorgeous sets and costumes, Blake Neely's lush, full-bodied score, and the quick pacing lets the audience indulge in the time period rather than force them to dwell on the plot specifics of the week. And the plot specifics were quite good this week, with Colette and Kate each put in difficult situations.
Once Upon a Time needs to get out of exposition zone. We're eight episodes into the show and the writers are still setting the backstories of the characters one at a time. Yeah, it's cool to see where Rumpelstiltskin got his powers and his conniving political mind in the real world, but the plot is going nowhere.
The Good Wife delivers again. Alicia is tugged in numerous directions in the episode and you can tell she's definitely frazzeled and increasingly disillusioned with this world. She has loyalty to the firm, loyalty to the truth, loyalty to the law, and loyalty to herself. These loyalties aren't often in conflict as they were in the episode, but she made her choices as she saw fit.
The pilot of The Firm reminds us why television dramas are an hour long. It begins decently enough with two suited men chasing another suited man. Sure, they aren't running particularly fast, but it's a chase scene. After that, however, the episode devolves into generic legal drama land. The middle sections, probably taking up an hour forty, are a tedious bore. Other than a few key flashbacks it's stagnant and uninteresting. Then the end finally comes around and there's the twist we've been waiting for. If the pilot's going to be two hours long, there should be a very good reason. Either there has been be lots of exposition, because the setup is complicated--as was the case with Terra Nova--or the plot can actually fill the entire two hours. But no, introducing the characters and the backstory could have taken 15 minutes tops while the rest of the hour could be spent on the simply case of a teen killing another teen and a bit of the conspiracy.
Leverage is a fine show, but it should stop having these season-long enemies like Moreau last season or Lattimer this season who show up for 20 seconds to speak two ominous lines and leave. What's the point? Even worse, why bring back Saul Rubinek's character from the pilot who no one remembers?
I guess Bobby really is dead on Supernatural. Now, Supernatural is left with the brothers, whose drama has reached its end, and the Leviathan plot which remains boring. I used to be a big supporter of Supernatural--even last season--but Sera Gamble needs to do something to spice up the show soon.
Nikita's "twist" of Alex's mother being complicit was really obvious, but it fulfilled its role in bringing Nikita and Alex back together.
It looks like Chuck, after the defeat of Shaw, is taking an extended victory lap(s). There is some drama, but it's at a bare minimum, as all the characters get to be as happy as possible. Honestly, I don't really care anymore. The show hasn't been top-notch for years, so to end with this laxness won't be a deviation.
The Secret Circle upped the ante by making it abundantly clear that Cassie isn't just a pint-sized blond who can do magic. She's powerful and very dangerous--against her will. Good stuff for the future.
The Vampire Diaries again splits its season cleanly in half. Last week's episode felt like a season premiere, with the characters struggling to figure out what happened in the previous episode. By the end of the episode they realize the new paradigm, and move ahead. For Damon and Elena, that means the kiss everyone's been waiting for.
Revenge remains awesome. Whatever crazy things may happen, Emily always has an angle to exploit and it's always very fulfilling to watch.
How many times did Body of Proof bash us over the head with its message about body image?
Work It is simply awful. It's the third, and hopefully, last in ABC's line of MAN comedies. Between the unrealistic drag, unfounded jokes about women taking men's jobs, and general stupidity, there was literally nothing to like about the show. Usually, you can point out something about a show that makes it viable to see the light of being broadcast. Not with Work it. Think about how many steps it takes for a television show to get to air, from conceptualization to writing to casting to filming to editing to being aired. Along the way, no one high up at ABC looked at this atrocity, put his/her foot down, and said "no." Unbelievable.
House of Lies is about what you can expect from Showtime these days and the perfect show to follow Shameless. The cast is credentialed and charming, the jokes are mostly crude, and it's about morality ambiguous people doing morality ambiguous acts, in ways people will find funny. There's no big message to glean other than that consulting has a bunch of douchebags (and who didn't know that already?).
The second season of Shameless isn't much different from the first. The Gallaghers break the law, have tons of sex, and drink. There's plenty of rambunctious fun, to be sure, but it's a show where nothing too important is going on and you'd probably be fine not watching all the episodes.
Pan Am is almost certainly going to be canceled, but I'm still watching. Unlike with Hell on Wheels, Pan Am rarely bothers me to the point where I question what the writers are thinking. It's clear what the show is. The gorgeous sets and costumes, Blake Neely's lush, full-bodied score, and the quick pacing lets the audience indulge in the time period rather than force them to dwell on the plot specifics of the week. And the plot specifics were quite good this week, with Colette and Kate each put in difficult situations.
Once Upon a Time needs to get out of exposition zone. We're eight episodes into the show and the writers are still setting the backstories of the characters one at a time. Yeah, it's cool to see where Rumpelstiltskin got his powers and his conniving political mind in the real world, but the plot is going nowhere.
The Good Wife delivers again. Alicia is tugged in numerous directions in the episode and you can tell she's definitely frazzeled and increasingly disillusioned with this world. She has loyalty to the firm, loyalty to the truth, loyalty to the law, and loyalty to herself. These loyalties aren't often in conflict as they were in the episode, but she made her choices as she saw fit.
The pilot of The Firm reminds us why television dramas are an hour long. It begins decently enough with two suited men chasing another suited man. Sure, they aren't running particularly fast, but it's a chase scene. After that, however, the episode devolves into generic legal drama land. The middle sections, probably taking up an hour forty, are a tedious bore. Other than a few key flashbacks it's stagnant and uninteresting. Then the end finally comes around and there's the twist we've been waiting for. If the pilot's going to be two hours long, there should be a very good reason. Either there has been be lots of exposition, because the setup is complicated--as was the case with Terra Nova--or the plot can actually fill the entire two hours. But no, introducing the characters and the backstory could have taken 15 minutes tops while the rest of the hour could be spent on the simply case of a teen killing another teen and a bit of the conspiracy.
Leverage is a fine show, but it should stop having these season-long enemies like Moreau last season or Lattimer this season who show up for 20 seconds to speak two ominous lines and leave. What's the point? Even worse, why bring back Saul Rubinek's character from the pilot who no one remembers?
I guess Bobby really is dead on Supernatural. Now, Supernatural is left with the brothers, whose drama has reached its end, and the Leviathan plot which remains boring. I used to be a big supporter of Supernatural--even last season--but Sera Gamble needs to do something to spice up the show soon.
Nikita's "twist" of Alex's mother being complicit was really obvious, but it fulfilled its role in bringing Nikita and Alex back together.
It looks like Chuck, after the defeat of Shaw, is taking an extended victory lap(s). There is some drama, but it's at a bare minimum, as all the characters get to be as happy as possible. Honestly, I don't really care anymore. The show hasn't been top-notch for years, so to end with this laxness won't be a deviation.
The Secret Circle upped the ante by making it abundantly clear that Cassie isn't just a pint-sized blond who can do magic. She's powerful and very dangerous--against her will. Good stuff for the future.
The Vampire Diaries again splits its season cleanly in half. Last week's episode felt like a season premiere, with the characters struggling to figure out what happened in the previous episode. By the end of the episode they realize the new paradigm, and move ahead. For Damon and Elena, that means the kiss everyone's been waiting for.
Revenge remains awesome. Whatever crazy things may happen, Emily always has an angle to exploit and it's always very fulfilling to watch.
How many times did Body of Proof bash us over the head with its message about body image?
Work It is simply awful. It's the third, and hopefully, last in ABC's line of MAN comedies. Between the unrealistic drag, unfounded jokes about women taking men's jobs, and general stupidity, there was literally nothing to like about the show. Usually, you can point out something about a show that makes it viable to see the light of being broadcast. Not with Work it. Think about how many steps it takes for a television show to get to air, from conceptualization to writing to casting to filming to editing to being aired. Along the way, no one high up at ABC looked at this atrocity, put his/her foot down, and said "no." Unbelievable.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Reviews 12/27/11 - 1/1/12
Hell on Wheels
It's tiring to see the writers do everything in their power to create "anti-stereotypes." The former Confederate soldier is actually not racist--in fact, the Union soldier is--and he's only a tortured soul trying to get justice. He even teaches the black guy how to shoot! There's Lily, the pretty British woman who is not a damsel in distress but someone who can stand the wilderness, and the prostitute who is so nice she'll sleep with a black guy. Individually, these characters aren't that bad--heavy-handed but workable to an extent. Altogether, they form a painful bunch of characters, so cliched it's impossible not to laugh.
In the post Mad Men, Breaking Bad era, AMC has been seen a paragon of basic cable programming, able to challenge HBO and the best of premium cable. After The Killing and Hell on Wheels, though, I'm ready to say the first two critical successes were mere flukes on AMC's part, lucky guesses which happened to pan out in the best ways possible. Mainly, it seems like the problem is that the showrunners aren't particularly experienced. Looking at various showrunner's IMDB pages--Veena Sud (The Killing), Tony Gayton (Hell on Wheels), Jason Horowitch (beginning episodes of Rubicon)--it's obvious they don't have the experience as Matthew Weiner (Mad Men) and Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad), especially with regards to serialized television.
Leverage had a fun con with Hardison running the team for a change and failing. While his gimmicks are lots of fun, setting up a video game situation for the marks, the marks see through the plan. Nate saves the day with a far easier plan and it's all good.
Sanctuary hasn't been renewed for a fifth season yet and I'm not sure I really want to see another season. The show's really spiraled out of control since the beginning of the fourth season with plots and characters coming from nowhere. The situation with the abnormals from Hollow Earth isn't explained well, like where they're staying where no one would notice, and plots and characters pop up from out of nowhere. Damian Kindler certainly has good ideas, but the sloppiness is clearly evident.
The most annoying recurring plot device of Chuck are when the characters keep secrets from each other which leads to bad things happening. Even more annoying is in last week's episode, where Chuck knows Sarah has a secret, Sarah tells him she has a secret, and then she doesn't tell him. Come on... you'd think they'd learn by now, especially since they're married. But no, the ridiculous secret keeping leads to major drama.
It's tiring to see the writers do everything in their power to create "anti-stereotypes." The former Confederate soldier is actually not racist--in fact, the Union soldier is--and he's only a tortured soul trying to get justice. He even teaches the black guy how to shoot! There's Lily, the pretty British woman who is not a damsel in distress but someone who can stand the wilderness, and the prostitute who is so nice she'll sleep with a black guy. Individually, these characters aren't that bad--heavy-handed but workable to an extent. Altogether, they form a painful bunch of characters, so cliched it's impossible not to laugh.
In the post Mad Men, Breaking Bad era, AMC has been seen a paragon of basic cable programming, able to challenge HBO and the best of premium cable. After The Killing and Hell on Wheels, though, I'm ready to say the first two critical successes were mere flukes on AMC's part, lucky guesses which happened to pan out in the best ways possible. Mainly, it seems like the problem is that the showrunners aren't particularly experienced. Looking at various showrunner's IMDB pages--Veena Sud (The Killing), Tony Gayton (Hell on Wheels), Jason Horowitch (beginning episodes of Rubicon)--it's obvious they don't have the experience as Matthew Weiner (Mad Men) and Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad), especially with regards to serialized television.
Leverage had a fun con with Hardison running the team for a change and failing. While his gimmicks are lots of fun, setting up a video game situation for the marks, the marks see through the plan. Nate saves the day with a far easier plan and it's all good.
Sanctuary hasn't been renewed for a fifth season yet and I'm not sure I really want to see another season. The show's really spiraled out of control since the beginning of the fourth season with plots and characters coming from nowhere. The situation with the abnormals from Hollow Earth isn't explained well, like where they're staying where no one would notice, and plots and characters pop up from out of nowhere. Damian Kindler certainly has good ideas, but the sloppiness is clearly evident.
The most annoying recurring plot device of Chuck are when the characters keep secrets from each other which leads to bad things happening. Even more annoying is in last week's episode, where Chuck knows Sarah has a secret, Sarah tells him she has a secret, and then she doesn't tell him. Come on... you'd think they'd learn by now, especially since they're married. But no, the ridiculous secret keeping leads to major drama.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
12/19/11 - 12/27/11 Reviews
Agonizingly, The Closer ended the first half of its final season without revealing who Goldman’s leak was. At this point, it’s almost impossible to know who it is. The ones who “shouldn’t” be are Sanchez, Tao, and Provenza (and maybe Flynn too), while the ones who “could” be are Gabriel, Taylor, and Pope. My money’s on Gabriel, for what it’s worth. Although we didn’t learn who the mole was, Goldman got put in his place several times, which was a plus.
This week’s Leverage was very simplistic, the con barely entailing more than 3 steps, and even then, the job probably could have been done with even less effort. Without any advanced security system or dangerous enemies, it was easy pickings for the crew.
This is the kind of thing Sanctuary has been building towards since the beginning—the rest of the world knowing about abnormals—but the writing for the episode was painfully weak. Most notable, Magnus wants Will to join Baldouche, telling him he can feed her information. In the very next scene, Will is sitting at his new desk, and then all hell breaks loose and Will has no clue what’s going on. Qhat the hell? Will doesn’t know what Magnus is doing and neither does the viewer.
Last week’s Chuck episode got tons of hype—in my memory the most since the second season—but I was disappointed with it. That’s not to say it wasn’t a good episode, which it was, just my expectations were high and it didn’t live up to them. The problem with the episode is the same with all other Chuck episodes, and especially those of the final season—it doesn’t make sense. Without a stable, fully understandable plot, the episode is shaky, as the plot creaks forward and it soon dawns that the writers either made it up as they were going or have no idea how to create a season-long story where the ongoing story isn’t linked solely by the beginning and ends of each episode. Instead of a single, cohesive story, the story is tediously strung together by cliffhangers. A problem arises at the end of each episode, often sprouting out of nowhere, it’s fixed in the next episode, and then the new problem arises. This kind of plotting, when the writers want to make it seem like a big conspiracy is afoot, is awkward for the viewer who tries to piece things together. And when the viewer does piece things together, the idea that there is a long chain of villains and events leading up to the climax is pretty dumb. The Omen virus turned out to be a massive plot device which was hazily defined by the writers and served its purpose to get rid of Shaw’s Intersect.
But I can understand why this episode would stick out. First, it’s a Christmas episode and it’s a perfect holiday for a show that emphasizes family. Secondly, Shaw makes a better villain than the grab bag villain of the week, with his history and recognizable personality. There’s real danger in the episode several cool fights. In the end, however, plot is a critical part of television. It’s probably less important than in movies, but still something everyone pays attention to. No matter how great the characters are, there has to be a feasible plot to be a top episode.
The first season of American Horror Story was bizarre to say the least, and the season finale was no exception. There were little frights in the season finale, the majority taking place in the first half of the episode when the Harmons were chasing the new family away. The rest of the episode was rather mellow, with Christmas and the oddly soothing idea that they are happier dead than alive. So everyone ends up dead while Constance raises the Antichrist who is already killing people. Thus ends a truly batshit season of television. American Horror Story, for the most part, was terrible. The underpinning of the show is that anything messed up that’s sex or death related should happen, regardless of how that point is reach. Random crap happened and then, “Oh, they’re having sex. Oh, she’s killing him.” It’s not particularly imaginative.
If Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck were providing commentary on the current state of American horror movies, which are mostly mindless scares, then I’d probably be more lenient. This was no parody or commentary, only rehashed content revolving around sex and killing. It is this tone-deafness which has turned Glee into a farce and will likely continue.
The good news, announced the next day, is that the second season will not be a continuation but rather something completely different with some of the same actors playing different characters. Hopefully the writers will try out new things and less of the sex and murder. Ryan Murphy also said there was a hint in the last three episodes where the second season would take place. The obvious guess would be Roanoke, which would be very cool since the best parts of the season were the flashbacks with the Montgomerys.
