tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60547576907006604222024-02-07T13:15:44.287-08:00The TV ObsessedTelevision reviews, ratings.TV Obsessedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09117251732141325156noreply@blogger.comBlogger2886125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054757690700660422.post-37337168594927715532012-10-13T22:06:00.005-07:002012-10-13T22:12:55.890-07:00More reviews!My schedule will be wonky for a while until I catch up on everything I've missed. Here are a couple reviews.<br />
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<strong>Strike Back's</strong> third second (the second co-American season) was a mixed bag for me. While the visuals were stunning and the action frantic, the plot never took off. There was Knox and his wacky plans and not much else. Twists never really came and individual multi-part episodes weren't as good.<br />
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Yep, <strong>Grimm</strong> is going there with Renard and Juliette. That was the most predictable thing that could have happened and the writers choose it.<br />
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<strong>Beauty and the Beast</strong> is a misfire from the CW. The dialogue is horrible, the acting is horrible, and it's just boring. For all the sexiness littering the script, the pilot is just lifeless with Kreuk just going on with the flow when she's supposed to take charge. What's going for the show is that it follows The Vampire Diaries and it has a very similar setup to TVD, the main character being saved by a mysterious "beast" with a dark past. Also, the actors/actresses are good looking...<br />
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<strong>The Vampire Diaries</strong>: I was done with Klaus when the team failed to kill him midway through the third season. He'd already gone a whole season as the big bad, killed Jenna, and he's still here. From then on, I was annoyed by Klaus's existence. When he died in the season finale but showed up in Tyler's body, I was even more annoyed, and you can guess my reaction when he returned back to his body in the season premiere. Without Elena blood, he's not much of a supervillain anymore, unable to create the hybrid army he wants. Now what, more chasing Caroline? Most of the episode, consisting of Elena becoming a vampire while dealing with the council, was solid. The writers didn't cop out of turning Elena and there are some really good moments. The council part was a little more iffy, as a bunch of random people come out of the woodwork and cause lots of trouble for the vampires. Then the rev blows them all up. Um... okay?<br />
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Ranking the three <strong>Last Resort</strong> plotlines, I would say sub > DC > island. The sub part actually make sense because militarizes about the world want to get rid or steal the Colorado, which makes for some tense action scenes. In DC, Kylie poking around makes business sense, even if there is no personal reason why she's looking in places she shouldn't be. Then there's the island, which makes no sense. Between the flat SEAL and Dichen Lachman parts and Julian irrationally pissing off Chaplin, the island parts are just weird and seem to belong in another show. Another problem is that the show isn't describing anything else that's going on in the world. What happened after the nuclear missiles hit Pakistan? Shouldn't Chaplin be following this, in case there's an opportunity out there?<br />
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<strong>The CW </strong>is doing something right. Arrow managed to get good reviews and ratings (for the CW). It's a dark comic book adaptation with shades of the recent Batman trilogy, while keeping with the requisite CW sexiness. The pilot sets up Oliver Queen as the Green Arrow, and there are plenty of cool action scenes. There is plenty of eye candy with Stephen Amell's chiseled abs out in the open and Katie Cassidy who's a lawyer instead of Black Canary. Arrow has a mystery in it, the island where Oliver learned all his tricks.<br />
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I'm not counting out <strong>Supernatural</strong> yet, as there's been nothing in the first two episodes that are particularly concerning, certainly nothing on the level of the Leviathans. Kevin and his mother are great characters, funny at times and also very human when they need to.<br />
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<strong>Nashville's</strong> pilot does just about everything right. It's a sprawling drama with plenty of characters but also a very clear identity. We see the stratification of the music scene, from the aging superstar Rayna James to the hot upstart Juliette Barnes to Scarlett, a newbie who isn't even writing songs yet. There is also political drama brewing with Rayna's husband, a failed businessman running for mayor with Rayna's father's help. It's all a bit to take in, but the pilot does an excellent job with Rayna, giving her enough historical foundation so we can really understand her. Juliette, meanwhile, is given extra layers by having her mother having big problems. And Hayden Panettiere, despite the criticism, is quite good, pulling off Juliette's shiny veneer with ease while also doing the private scenes pretty well.<br />
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<strong>Chicago Fire</strong> premiered badly and probably won't last very long. I think I'll watch some more, because, well, the fires were quite impressive. That's pretty much all I have to say. The rest of the show is as generic as it comes.<br />
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Once again, <strong>Vegas</strong> procedural plots leave much desired when across town Vic Mackey, Savino rather, is handling the guys from Chicago. Savino has proven to be a savvy guy, not an angry thug like Rizzo. He has a legitimate business plans, knows how to handle problems diplomatically, but also knows when to get his hands dirty.<br />
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<strong>Revolution</strong>: Well, there goes Maggie. We didn't get to know her well, but there was enough weight behind her death, as the flashbacks reveal some information, up until her final, sad breath that it wasn't a complete waste. However, her death could have been far more effective if the writers had spent more time building up her character, especially her relationship with Charlie. Instead, all we get is a brief explanation, some short flashbacks, and tears from the girl who always cries. Up until the last minutes, we never saw Maggie and Charlie being particularly close or anything beyond friends. But the last minutes worked, which is mostly what people will remember.<br />
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As <strong>Homeland</strong> progresses, I predict there will be more instances where the writers have to really stretch the realm of possibility. The problem is that we know all the players and the general situation, so it's hard to come up with a serious twist. The second episode of the season ended with an impossible twist, Saul finding a memory card with Brody's confession hidden in the bag Carrie took from the house of the Hezbollah guy. The chances of this happening are close to zero, and no viewer could have figure this out. And yet the twist works in the narrative, because it puts Saul on Brody's trail. The downside is that the show becomes even more unrealistic, if that matters to anyone. The bulk of the episode is the tense operation to nab Abu Nazir. It plays out with Carrie and Saul waiting in Beirut while Brody watches it at the Pentagon. Brody foils the plot, but it's confirmed to be Abu Nazir which gives Carrie plenty of confidence. She may be home now, but with her appetite for the spy world whetted, it's only a matter of time before she returns to the game.<br />
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<strong>Dexter</strong>: Deb finding out about Dexter being a serial killer is the saving grace of the show. The rest of the show is still pretty shitty as we found out in the second episode of the season. The stuff with Louis is plain stupid, with no tension unless Louis turns out to be more of a psycho, in which case Dexter can easily dispose of him. And who gives a fuck about Quinn? Dexter, like The Office, has ruined so many of its characters that even if some parts are good, there will still be serious problems left over.<br />
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Okay, what is <strong>The Good Wife</strong> doing with Kalinda? She's basically become a generic sex kitten. The last time she had any real material was when Alicia found out about her and Peter. This thing with her ex-husband hasn't gone anywhere yet and there's no indication it will.<br />
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<strong>Revenge</strong>: The bitch is back. Victoria pulled out no stops in reinserting her back into everyone's lives and positioned herself to gain even more. I love the way Revenge just throws this massive twist right into the middle of the episode and essentially resets everything.<br />
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<strong>Alphas</strong> is awesome. I've said this plenty of times, but it needs repeating. Even more awesome is Kat, currently my favorite television character. The writers have an exact bead on her character and give her the best line. It always helps that there is depth to her character, explored in the heart wrenching reveal that the woman in the blue dress was from a TV commercial. Meanwhile, Rosen is becoming more and more disturbed, further blurring the line between the good guys and bad guys. Maybe Rosen is on the right side, but he's quickly becoming a sociopath.<br />
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<strong>Castle</strong>: Stana Katic has surprised me. After her complete failure in the 1940s flashback episode, I was worried she wouldn't be able to pull off the flirty banter. But indeed she did, putting new life in a show that's been sputtering for a while.<br />
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I don't have much to say about <strong>Hawaii Five-0</strong>, but I'm wondering why Michelle Borth was made a regular when there is no indication Catherine is leaving the Navy and joining the team. Is she really just going to help the team in her spare time? Surely she can't be searching for McGarrett's mother every week.TV Obsessedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09117251732141325156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054757690700660422.post-80133749569668750292012-10-07T22:00:00.004-07:002012-10-07T22:00:58.288-07:00A couple reviewsBehind on television again so short reviews and a lot missing. :(<br />
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No ragging on Fringe's overall plot incoherence this time. I'll think of the show as an anthology, each season a different story with the same characters. In this particular iteration, people from the future have invaded, the characters we know have been frozen for two decades, while Peter and Olivia's daughter have been growing without them. Her development in this twisted world has gone way off the mark Olivia envisioned, adding an extra layer to an already torn world. The character dynamic in the episode is remarkable stuff and it's been the strength of the show through all the seasons. The plot, on the other hand, felt video game-y, like a quest to collect a couple items.<br />
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Grimm made progress last week, sort of. Monroe finally explains the whole shifting deal to Hank, and at long last the viewers aren't confused about the mechanics of the magic (took long enough, writers). The plot is pretty resonant this week, putting Monroe front and center. But then there is Renard doing his usual mystery business. Hint to the writers: without explaining anything, I don't give a crap. So as usual, Renard and this blond woman are talking in circles, skirting around the words that would actually shed new light on the situation.<br />
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It looks like the final season of the The Office is going to be a mixed bag. The two regular characters, Pam and Jim, are going to have a solid story to finish off the show while the others continue their sad existences. That's the problem when the show relied on gags for so long. The characters outside of Pam and Jim don't even have the possibility of a good plots because they been marginalized over the years.<br />
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Last Resort's ratings started off pretty low and went down in the second week expectedly. If it wants to stop bleeding viewers, it should pulling the gimmicks it did in the second episode. First, the RUSSIANS!! twist is too easy of a way to avoid any hard choices and then there's the reluctant SEAL comes to save the day "twist" to get out of yet another sticky situation. Beyond that, we get some good, needed backstory on the characters. Maybe the second episode exposed the limitations of the show, with the single island and single ship.<br />
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Supernatural hasn't been the same since the end of the fifth season. Years of plot and twists came together and once that was resolved, there was nothing left, as much as the writers tried. The Leviathans in the previous season were a complete bust, boring beyond belief. It's hard to get excited about this new season. It's an amalgamation of stuff we've seen before. Dean's been in Hell before, Sam's been in Hell before, and Dean's tried the domestic thing before. Shuffle around the names, and you get the new situation, Dean having been in Purgatory and Sam having tried the domestic thing. The season premiere dispenses with all this information as fast as possible in order to get the boys back on the road, so there are a bunch of flashbacks and not much else. I'm sticking around, but the show doesn't have much left.<br />
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If the rest of Vegas plays out like the second episode did, I'll keep watching. There's Lamb solving a case, Savino doing dirty work, and the two butting heads from time to time, all good enough for me.TV Obsessedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09117251732141325156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054757690700660422.post-66817078489300190432012-10-04T11:09:00.002-07:002012-10-04T16:50:46.818-07:00Reviews 9/30/12 - 10/2/12I'm way behind on television again, so here are some reviews. I'll see if I can add more on Sunday.<br />
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Alphas needed a cool down episode after all the action in the previous weeks. It's not a bad episode, certainly not in comparison to other shows, but it wasn't up to the extreme standards set this season and in the previous one. Besides, the Rachel stuff, which was flat as always, there wasn't much objectionable to the episode. Gary was awesome as always and Rosen had some good moments. Next week, Kat!!!<br />
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Revolution is really trying to underwhelm, isn't it? These latest episodes have worked like clockwork. There's a problem, Charlie is incredibly naive yet handy (which makes her all the more annoying), a flashy action scene, some flashbacks, and then a twist at the end. The characters remain boring and it's getting pretty tiresome at this point.<br />
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When Warehouse 13 pulled the same obvious trick Dexter did in the previous season by making Brother Data part of Artie's mind, I rolled my eyes. The show has hit a creative dead end, and this was the final nail in the coffin, confirmation of the show's dead end. Myka and Pete had become a squabbling sideshow, Claudia and Steve don't have anything special after fixing Steve's problem, and Artie is under influence of an artifact, of which the level of influence is unknown so we can't differentiate Artie from the artifact. All in all, these artifacts and the characters have remained the same, and there's not much left in the show. Maybe the show will become more interesting in the second half of the season, but I'm holding out hope.<br />
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When Homeland won all those Emmys the other day, I wasn't sure it really deserved them, having watched both Breaking Bad and Mad Men much more recently. But when Homeland returned, all the memories came back and I immediately remembered what made the show so great. The episode sets the pieces for the season, showing us where all the characters are months after the end of the first season, before turning everything up a notch. The smile the episode title refers to is the turning point of the episode, and it's an iconic moment of television, crystallizing who she is, her desire to get down and dirty with these world events. Her demeanor, restrained earlier in the episode, completely changes as does the direction of the rest of the season.<br />
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Dexter ran out of good ideas seasons ago, culminating in the sixth season, the godawful batshittery overflowing with obvious, twists, and pointless side adventures. The big question going into Dexter's final two seasons was whether the show could reinvent itself enough that it could reclaim, if partially, the glory of the beginning seasons and not end up like Weeds, forever scorned after a promising start. The signs in the seventh season premiere are hopeful. There is lots of progress with Dexter's life for once, with Deb recalling things that happened to her, doing a little digging, and discovering Dexter's secret. And after lying for a majority of the episode, Dexter comes clean in the end.<br />
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Once Upon a Time is a show about magic where anything and everything can happen. As such, the writers make stuff up as they go and there is still some logic left over. Throw in fairy tale characters everyone knows and they have a hit. The second season resets the show without rhyme or reason, but promises interesting things will happen with new characters as well everyone's memories back.<br />
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Revenge started off a bit like a procedural, Emily x-ing off people each week while working a larger plan. Soon, though, that changed, and Revenge became one of the big surprises last season with its twists and solid characters. Its second season remains ripe for reinvention, as Victoria is shown to be still alive while revelations about Emily's mother have raised another can of worms. One complaint: the old Takeda looked cool and the new one really does not.<br />
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Positioned at Sunday 10PM after Once Upon a Time and Revenge, 666 Park Avenue was in the right time slot. It has magic going on like in Once Upon a Time, but also the darkness of Revenge. And Terry O'Quinn knows how to be this devlish kind of villain perfectly. The pilot is a solid piece of television, never slowing down to a crawl, and delivering some genuinely scary scenes in the vein of those you'd see on Supernatural. Along with good looking characters and the mystery of the setting, the show is near the top of new shows this season.<br />
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The Good Wife sort of fell off the map to a degree last season, moved to Sunday and not having anything too compelling happening during the season. Sadly, the season premiere doesn't indicate anything too big will happen this season. Lockhart Gardner has money problems and the campaign is getting more press, but the show still feels too comfortable for every character, except for Kalinda, who's off with her own wacky plot.<br />
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I'm not sure what to say about The Mentalist's season premiere. The CBI squabbles with the FBI, Jane pulls his usual tricks, and Red John gets to Lorelei. Nothing particularly interesting happens.TV Obsessedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09117251732141325156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054757690700660422.post-14513538173756780842012-09-30T17:54:00.000-07:002012-09-30T20:08:56.552-07:00Reviews 9/25/12 - 9/29/12My new plan is to writer reviews on Tuesday and Sunday to lighten my load and so I remember more things. It's the beginning of the season, so I'm covering every premiere I watch, but after the premieres, they will definitely be less shows and words.<br />
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Starting from the pilot, <b>Fringe's</b> mythology makes zero sense. From the Pattern to the Bible stuff to alternate universes to Peter and Olivia in the fourth season to the Observer invasion from the future, nothing really fits together. In fact, Lost probably fits together better. The only constant between all the rambling storylines is the characters, and that's really all the show needs. The characters are so good that the show works regardless of how convoluted the plot is. So here we are in the fifth and final season, with the Observers taking over the world and our old buddies ambered for 20+ years. Does it correspond with any part of the show other than the single episode last season? No. Does it matter? Not really. The season premiere reassembles the crew and then looks towards a future which may be fixed. Fringe has always manages to pull the right kind of pathos out of thin air when it needs to and the premiere has plenty of it, with reunions abound. Fringe has also done amazing things with Walter Bishop through the years, and the premiere gives us plenty of good Walter content. Basically, the season premiere hits all the right marks, while ending with glimmer of hope as Walter sits in the car listening to music.<br />
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I have no clue why someone at CBS thought <b>Made in Jersey </b>would make it onto TV, but it somehow found its way onto Friday nights with a fair amount of promotion. But as the ratings for the first episode show, people aren't interested in watching Jersey Show meets The Good Wife.<br />
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For a CBS show, <b>Elementary's</b> main characters have surprising amounts of vulnerabilities, and the pilot doesn't shy away from them. Both Holmes and Watson have dark pasts and while they can solve crimes easily, they also have to contend with their own inner demons.<br />
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While I trust Eric Kripke to make Revolution work eventually, I have even more trust that Shawn Ryan will make <b>Last Resort </b>work, especially after an undoubtedly good series premiere. Okay, it's not the pilot of The Shield (seriously go watch it if you haven't), but it's pretty impressive stuff. The episode moves very quickly, skimming over certain parts like the SEALs and islanders, pounding the message home with scary ferocity. Broadly, the show deals with this issue of information and channels of communication. The USS Colorado has specific orders how to deal with from a certain channel, which blows up in their face and we can see the pitfalls in authority given limited communication. Then, the world is misled to believe Pakistan attacked the Colorado, and we can see how easily everyone can be manipulated to believe certain things. It's another manipulation of information when Chaplin shoots a nuclear missile at DC, making the bombers turn away. All the mysteries and plot entanglements, not to mention the tropical island, give whiffs of Lost, but Last Resort is far more grounded in the world and reality. The bad news, unfortunately, is that the ratings, like ABC's recent offerings in the Thursday 8PM slot, were weak for a premiere. Maybe the ratings will stay the same over time, but it's looking bleak for now.<br />
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In its sixth season, it's clear <b>The Big Bang Theory</b> is not about geeks making fun of themselves in a friendly way. It's more normal people making fun of geeks in a mean-spirited way. This is no different than CBS's other comedies in which various stereotypes get made fun of--different races on 2BG, fat people on Mike & Molly, gays on Partners, etc. We shouldn't be surprised when Howard is put on full display in the season premiere, shown to be as pathetic as ever.<br />
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<b>The Office's</b> second episode of the season expanded on the good parts from the season premiere, giving Pam a reason to want change as well, but the rest of the episode reminded us why The Office was so unwatchable last season. There's this other story with Clark, Erin, and Andy which is maddening. Clark turns out to be a creep, Erin remains a slimmer, perkier Kevin, and Andy becomes Michael, a buffoon, following his stint as Robert California in the season premiere. I don't even want to get into the hand-chopping business.<br />
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<b>Up All Night </b>spent another episode figuring out what the show is supposed to be in the second season with Chris working at home. Reagan has parenting trouble, Ava is being her usual self-centered self, and Chris isn't really doing anything. There's not much to say about the episode.<br />
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If <b>Parks and Recreation</b> were a more serious show, say, The Newsroom, then I would have a huge problem with Leslie and her soda tax which was aimless and stupid. (Pawneeans seem to be addicted to sugar, so taxing soda would have little effect on their consumption, which was Leslie wanted, and she doesn't mention anything about revenue.) What's more important is how she goes about doing her job and sticking to her beliefs. Even if she's being dumb, her can-do attitude is all that's needed.<br />
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I find it interesting how <b>Criminal Minds</b> manages to lock down big name actors and actresses so often. Now they have Jeanne Tripplehorn to replace Paget Brewster, which is a pretty even trade, even if Brewster probably belongs in comedies more than dramas. The problem, however, is that Criminal Minds has some of the most stilted, awkward writing out there, wasting the abilities of the people on the show who we've seen can shine if given the chance. The season premiere starts off with one of these moments when Garcia falls into the overdone talking about someone when they're behind you trap. The rest of the episode sets up Tripplehorn's character, Alex Blake, having her butt heads with Morgan as well as teasing the past between her and Strauss. Like the rest of the characters, she's not particularly interesting--standard Criminal Minds in order words.<br />
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<b>The Neighbors</b> is a really weird show about regular people living in a neighborhood of aliens. Its humor comes from how different the aliens are from humans with their customs and behavior, but there's nothing too funny. Then there is an attempt to humanize the aliens by showing how they have some of the same problems humans do. The show isn't bad, but I'm not watching another episode.<br />
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<b>Modern Family</b> picked up a slew of Emmy wins last Sunday once again signaling its hold over the awards shows. And its season premiere ratings were once again very high so we can expect plenty of years ahead. As for me, I haven't thought much of the show since the first season. It's a pleasant show, but it's also a static show, with minor changes once in a while which don't matter much on a greater level. I'll continue watching the show, but don't expect me to say anything about it each week.<br />
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<b>Sons of Anarchy: </b>After the CIA magic last season, I couldn't understand why the CIA couldn't step in this time and save Jax and the others. If Galindo is going to commit foot soldiers in prison to protect them, why not the big boys in the CIA? The problem with this line of thinking is that Kurt Sutter already decided Opie would die in that particularly manner, regardless of the situation. He has Opie ask Lila to take care of his kids, put himself in prison, and that's that. There is no particular logic behind any of this other than that it results in Jax's best friend killed, and Tig once again getting other people killed. This fully positions Jax to take the reins of the club and go wild.
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<b>Vegas</b>, from the previews, appeared to be pretty exciting with Michael Chiklis as a bad guy and Dennis Quaid opposing him. I imagined the pilot would set up this conflict between them, propelling the show forward. Instead, the majority of the pilot is spent setting up a procedural. Perhaps CBS, after the failures of The Playboy Club and Pan Am, wanted more of a weekly backbone to the show. Even then, why have a pointless murder which is wrapped up in a tidy fashion? Why not start with the murder that the episode ended with?<br />
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<b>NCIS's</b> current arc never impressed me, and the season premiere was no different. The episode starts with all the main characters being safe from the explosion, as all the contract problems were worked out during the summer. The season premiere is as standard as it gets. The hunt for Dearing goes wrong when he escapes out of a window (which was stupidly obvious) and blows up FBI agents. Then he fakes his death in a car explosion before the team catches on and Gibbs kills him for good. Every was way too obvious for there to be any suspense. I can't remember the last time there was any episode with so many obvious "twists."<br />
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<b>The Mindy Project's </b>pilot isn't quite clear with the franticness from the start of the episode to the end, but there is nothing objectionable in the pilot and Mindy Kaling gets a lot more to do than she did on The Office. I'll wait a bit before making much judgment about the show.<br />
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<b>New Girl </b>is a fun show that doesn't really need a review each week. The characters are great together and episodes don't need complex plots to be good. Have them interact together in some way, and it's usually fine. New Girl changes things up by having Jess laid off and the first two episodes seem to imply that the rest of the season will be different for Jess.<br />
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<b>Ben and Kate</b>: With NBC churning out stuff like Guys with Kids and Animal Practice, FOX has turned into the new comedy leader. Ben and Kate starts with the annoying brother one might find in a CBS sitcom, but by the end of the episode, the sense of family comes through and annoying becomes heart-warming.TV Obsessedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09117251732141325156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054757690700660422.post-51297674306026242502012-09-25T23:05:00.001-07:002012-09-25T23:05:20.674-07:00Reviews 9/18/12 - 9/24/12Looks like Blogger finally switched everyone to the new layout and it's quite a bit different (the old one worked fine) so if there are any differences in formatting that's Google's problem. Also, I'm thinking about writing 2 review posts a week, on Saturday and Tuesday to lighten my load on Tuesday and so I don't forget too much.<br />
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Oh hey, <strong>Alphas</strong> had another awesome episode. That's like 20 in a row now. The episode starts off weird with these flashbacks and time skips, then jumping straight into the action, and I was actually uncomfortable for a few minutes. But the writers, as they always do, manage to put all the pieces together, and the episode comes together brilliantly. Dani is locked up, Hick pretends to be with Parish's plan, and Parish has these super DARPA grenades which can kill millions if used in a certain way. We get to see some other alphas and their powers, deepening our view of the alpha community. The episode ends with Dani killed and a lot of sad people, although it was a bit silly that Dani, without much combative powers, would put herself in situations like that. One complaint: Parish does comes off as a legitimately scary guy willing to kill millions which ups the stakes; however, he has this stupid Malthusian logic which makes him seem more insane than brilliantly villainous. No Kat this week, but with Dani's arc over, we should be seeing more of her soon, hopefully with FBI training.<br />
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When <strong>Hawaii Five-0</strong> really wants to, it can be a live-action cartoon, which was pretty much what the season premiere was, starting with Wo Fat's escape which was silly and ridiculous but also very slick. The rest of the episode makes little sense with McGarrett's undead (not the zombie kind) mother in a safe house along with Catherine, a Navy lieutenant, who will somehow be on the show much more, now that Michelle Borth is a regular. Then after McGarrett's mother leaves, they find out that she shot the ground instead of at Wo Fat. The parts with Chin were solid, though, and almost balanced how silly the rest of the episode was.<br />
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Serious <strong>Castle</strong>, amping up with the Big Mystery, is a pretty bad show, without the acting needed to push things enough and without the humor that made the show likable in the first place. Luckily for us, this only happens a few times a season when Andrew Marlowe puts his serious boots on. The season premiere has a few cute moments between Castle and Beckett, but it soon turns towards the overly dramatic, plot-heavy stuff that never resonates and isn't particularly interesting with the usual big-time politician behind it. I'm guessing next week's episode will be better.<br />
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<strong>Revolution</strong> is okay. It's not terrible like Terra Nova, but I also don't think it's as exciting as certain episodes of The Event. The main theme of the show, from the second episode, is the United States, or at least its flag used a symbol by the rebels. Included is the Monroe Republic confiscating all guns. The characters remain iffy. Charlie is a pretty bad character with her do-goodery and impulsiveness, but at least she can think on her feet. Then there's the mystery of electricity and Elizabeth Mitchell alive. Well, I hope everyone's in for the long haul.<br />
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CBS comedies are filled with caricatures of all sorts of people, but no gays until <strong>Partners</strong>. As it turns out, the gay caricature is the most annoying one yet, making even The New Normal look good.<br />
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If not for Max and Caroline (and Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs), <strong>2 Broke Girls</strong> would be a pretty terrible show. The racial stereotypes are stupid and the jokes aren't smart. Still, those two girls make the show very watchable. The show won't get better, as long as the diner remains, but it's probably not going to get worse.<br />
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<strong>How I Met Your Mother</strong> has been dragging out the Mother reveal for so long that those still watching probably don't care too much. There is still plenty to like beyond Ted and his problems. The season premiere sets up the end point, with Robin and Barney getting married and Ted finally meeting the Mother. In the present time, though, there's Quinn and Victoria, so we know exactly where the season is going.<br />
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<strong>Treme</strong> is actually more direction-less than Boardwalk Empire. A lot of the characters don't even interact with each other on a regular basis, and the show has never had a real direction, even by seasons's end. Still, the common thread holding characters together is far more vibrant and alive than anything on Boardwalk Empire. The way New Orleans is portrayed and viewed by characters gives it an essential texture that emerges into this world. Contrast that to Boardwalk Empire, where the sets are detailed and pretty but ultimately hollow.<br />
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I've rarely commented on <strong>Haven</strong>, but I've kept watching. It's been a long time since the show's aired, so I'll add a few comments, which are actually a restatement of my usual complaints about the show. The Troubles. What are they, exactly? No one knows, and yet that's how every single episode is resolved. Something funky happens, Audrey and Nathan investigate, then a bullshit explanation of the Troubles combined with a personal problem and it's fixed. Rinse and repeat. The season premiere actually has something cool going on--aliens. But alas, it's the Troubles again. Then there's the mystery man and life goes on.<br />
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<strong>Wilfred's</strong> season finale made fun of Battlestar Galactica and it made fun of Lost in the previous season, making explicit references to the two shows which led viewers down an unending rabbit hole. Along with the random Amanda being crazy twist, the show seemed to resemble Children's Hospital, a parody with no sense or reason to the plot or continuity. I still have no clue what the show is supposed to be, whether it's supposed to be a legitimate exploration into Ryan's disturbed mind or just a funny show about a guy in a dog costume. Regardless, I like watching the show for all the amusing moments.<br />
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<strong>Parks and Recreation's</strong> season premiere had funny moments, but it couldn't have this joyously funny tone throughout, because the underlying problems with Leslie in Washington were laid bare as the episode continued. She came to get things done, instead realizing the impossibility of everything, the largeness of DC and how puny she is compared to everything else. She goes back to Pawnee and promises to get things done herself. The Ron story was a bit odd, as he was in charge of an event and failed to deliver, but we saw a smidgen of caring somewhere in his meat-loving heart.<br />
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For the first time in a very long time, it felt like <strong>The Office</strong> was going to have a good season. This is likely only because this will definitely be the final season, but it's never too late to change things and give something good for those fans sticking around (however little may be left, looking at the pathetic ratings). For starters, there are no new people other than the two inconsequential newbies, meaning we won't have another Robert California disaster this season. And after some thinking, Jim gets on board with his friend's business. Change is on the way for everyone.<br />
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<strong>Up All Night </strong>went through a major retooling, putting Chris back to work and canceling the Ava show which put Reagan back at work. I'll have to watch more episodes to decide whether this was a good move or not, but the initial concept of Chris staying at home while Reagan runs the Ava Show had to go dry eventually. Maybe such a dramatic overhaul wasn't needed, but there's certainly a limited amount of things that can happen in the original conception.<br />
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<strong>Glee</strong>: Britney 2.0 wasn't good, as one might expect. I don't think I'll say something about Glee every week, because thinking about the show just makes my blood pressure high.<br />
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I watch <strong>Royal Pains </strong>every week, but I never really have much to say. The Boris episodes are dumb in their attempts to be serious and drum up some drama. The characters developments are usually superficial, as guests sometimes stick around for a while then move on. Royal Pains still has that summer vibe that<br />
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<strong>White Collar</strong> hasn't been particularly interesting this season. While the show went into Neal's past this season, we haven't really learned anything too relevant about him that changes, or even enhances, what we know about him. Sam is Neal's father... so what?<br />
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The first season of <strong>Covert Affairs</strong> is one of the best first seasons of a television show in recent memory. The show felt fresh and Piper Perabo did a great job portraying Annie as a new agent still figuring out how to do the job. Then the second season came around and it was flat out boring. The third season captured the glory of the first season, putting Annie in a interesting situation with Simon. Annie proved herself multiple times and has confidence she didn't have earlier, and this can-do attitude pushed her forward. At the same time, though, she'd never do anything like this before and took a big risk like this. In the end, it all blew up with Lena being the mole and Annie gets her revenge. With all that happened to her this season, Annie should take stock and learn some lessons.TV Obsessedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09117251732141325156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054757690700660422.post-32463855943075063062012-09-18T23:06:00.000-07:002012-09-18T23:06:12.708-07:00Reviews 9/11-12 - 9/17/12<strong>Revolution</strong>: Eric Kripke is one of the best showrunners out there. He made Supernatural into a top-tier show (at least before the last two seasons), allowing it to go far beyond its horror roots. Despite this, the pilot of Revolution is pretty bad. It's all mystery and little else. In fact, I would have guessed JJ Abrams wrote the pilot if I didn't actually know Kripke was the writer. Revolution is supposed to be about science. All electricity stops working one day, but everything else continues to work. To continue watching, the audience has to accept this despite what real science says. So okay, years after this happens, humans are miraculously still alive, able to form peaceful communities and militias. Again, we have to accept that this happens even if it doesn't make sense and none of this is explained. Beyond the electricity part of the show are the characters--<em>teenage</em> characters. Teenage characters, by and large, suck. The writing is usually shoddy and the acting isn't much better. Not all of the characters are teens, but there are enough to be off-putting.The pilot gets off to a bad start with Generic Stupid Teen getting his father killed, and the main objective of characters is to rescue this idiot. Well, it's up to Kripke to make this work and the ratings started off very high (4.1), so he should have enough time.<br />
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I watched the last half of <strong>Boardwalk Empire's</strong> second season in succession after a long break from the show and I got more into the show than I had watching it week by week. The dialogue becomes more familiar, and the little things the show does become more recognizable. Months after catching up, the third season premiere came around, which I watched and I was struck by how little I cared about the characters. Stuff is certainly happening--characters being despicable, violent, wistful, people getting killed, deals being made--and yet I'm not eagerly awaiting next week's episode. I don't have any problems with the show, and I'm a lot more positive about Van Alden now that he's crossed paths with Capone, but the show leaves me cold. Maybe I'll do the same thing I did with the previous season.<br />
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<strong>Alphas</strong> was awesome once again. I don't think there have been any duds this season which makes the low ratings ever more disappointing. There was tons of Kat this week and lots of her spunky cuteness (and more squabbling with Gary!), but there was also introduction to her past, which was sad and scary. The other part of the episode is Rosen confirming that Dani is involved with Parish which ends with a gut-wrenching scene with Dani in interrogation, asking for a chip in her head. I don't know how Alphas continues to do it every week, but everything the writers wanted landed squarely in the right place.<br />
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There are times in <strong>The Mob Doctor's</strong> pilot when it seems like it won't just be another medical procedural, when the main character, Grace, might actually do something unforgivable and get caught in a deeper mess. But by the end of the episode, everything is fine, the mob boss is dead, and Grace is indebted to a seemingly nicer mobster who knows her well. All signs point to normal procedural stuff in the next episode.<br />
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The Gormogon arc is by far the coolest arc of <strong>Bones</strong>, with an interesting mystery to go along with the crime solving. That was seasons ago, and Hart Hanson is still trying to recapture that, introducing the sniper Broadsky and now Pelant. The problem is, the Gormogon arc was about history with a certain tradition through the ages, bringing a National Treasure vibe to the show along with the murders. The Pelant arc is about computer magic. He uses computer magic and Angela fights back with her own computer magic. And of course the only way to communicate computer magic is through dialogue, which is more or less rubbish. Worst, the fun of Bones is sucked out because Pelant is so dangerous, and an unfun Bones is not something I want to watch.<br />
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When <strong>Weeds</strong> returned to Agrestic, now called Regrestic, in the penultimate episode, I believed the show had turned a corner and would deliver a good series finale. For a show that went cuckoo years and years ago, this was a hopeful, but not entirely unrealistic, idea. As it turns out, the series finale wasn't great but it also wasn't awful. It's way too long, an absurd amount of time spent on Doug's pointless cult while taking far too long to reach the critical points. Finally, we get to the main point: Nancy is alone by her own doing. Silas has a kid with Megan, who won't let Nancy hold the baby. Shane is an alcoholic. Andy has finally moved on and has his own life now. And really, Nancy deserved it all, maybe more. This time, Nancy can't bat her eyes and take a sip from her drink. This is her life now and she has to live with it.<br />
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Three-fourths of the way through <strong>Damages's</strong> series finale, I really wasn't feeling it, as the case never interested me. The last part of the finale, with the rush of the reveals, is nothing short of brilliant. The ominous shot of a bloody Ellen on the ground is actually her miscarrying and Patty looking worried at the police station is because of Scully killing Michael. Ellen also manages to beat Patty at the custody trial, giving her two big wins over Patty, which would seem to be good news. There is this lingering tension, however, about who Ellen has become, how she betrayed Chris and got Rutger Simon killed. It seemed as though she would become Patty in the end. Then the coda, a lovely 5 minutes of television--some of the best I've seen--that manages to exactly define what Damages is about. Ellen has a daughter, is with Chris (the VA comment being the hint), and is no longer a lawyer. Patty has a job, possibly the Supreme Court one (as implausible as it is), and is sitting in her car. Ellen comes up to talk, even thanking her, and introduces Patty to her daughter, with smiles all around. But it's one of Patty's visions. Ellen is still in the store and Patty has no one to talk to. The show ends with the camera lingering on Patty's face and we all understand: Patty is alone. How the writers handled Ellen's conclusion was great. There were immediate parallels between Ellen and Patty regarding their fathers and childhood and their approach cases. In the end, however, Ellen turned out different, because, as Patty's vision suggests, Patty taught Ellen important lessons. Ellen was able to see who Patty really was and the path she was on. Patty never had that and she never learned. Sometimes all it takes is a lesson to get on the right path before it is too late.<br />
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<strong>Sons of Anarchy</strong> certainly grabs me more than Boardwalk Empire, with its visceral nature and more explosive storytelling. It's also a more flawed show, while it's hard to nitpick at Boardwalk. The greatest problem is that the show still feels the same as it has in previous seasons even though lots of bad shit has gone down inside the club. The club members are more or less the same after all this time and Clay is still around. Meanwhile, there's this new big bad this season, Pope, who's as vicious as they get. We can already see that he's going to be the guy the club bands together to fight even if they should be at each others' throats.<br />
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NBC has given us comedies like Parks and Recreation and Community in the not too distant past and The Office and 30 Rock further back. Was it all a fluke? The latest batch of comedies, including the awful Guys With Kids, indicates a shift in philosophy. Comedies like Whitney, The New Normal, Go On, and Guys With Kids confront broad topics with characters of certain types. They're supposed to have a "point" to tell, usually something obvious, and the characters and story lag far behind.<br />
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<strong>Glee</strong> would be a much better show if it weren't so schizophrenic. The show is about so many different things that every episode is all over the place with the plots and the songs. Sometimes it seems like the show wants to have a lesson about something, but then it veers off into another galaxy. This happens with a multitude of plots as well. Something seemingly important happens but is forgotten in the next episode. Remember Karofsky and the bullying episode? The characters don't. Lately, I'm beginning to wonder if there is a reason beyond bad writers to explain why Glee has become so terrible. iTunes. "Born This Way" coupled with Autotune and makeup. Or Rachel telling Tina to wait for her turn the next year before Blaine takes the spotlight. Or "Call Me Maybe" being Rachel's song (with all the people not in Lima, the writers couldn't even use the song properly?). At some point, one could wonder whether the bad writing of the show is due to the commercial interests of the show. Maybe the writers aren't so bad after all and are slavishly tailoring the show to hit certain songs. If that's the optimistic way of looking at things, then we could also face reality, which is that Glee has become a bad show--not a flawed but overall enjoyable show as it was in the first show, but simply bad. There's the guy singing in the shower again, tough love teacher, new characters with their notable problems, Unique awkwardly moving to McKinley, and Sugar and Tina, still not doing anything. The one thing I liked: Rachel and Kurt at the end of the episode.TV Obsessedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09117251732141325156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054757690700660422.post-941850230810276202012-09-11T21:27:00.001-07:002012-09-11T23:38:06.543-07:00Reviews 9/4/12 - 9/10/12Alphas has had several very dense episodes this season, with the latest one being one of the most dense yet. The show could have just resolved the hive mind plot the way it did, Rosen talking down Jason Miller and everything being fine. But the writers have always pushed for more and they toss Stanton Parish into the mix, making the episode much more complicated. We get some cool background on him, like him fighting in WWII, and the rest of the team gets to meet him. And finally, Dani is exposed, making the next episodes have even more to look forward to.<br />
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I believe I already made a post about Go On, but I don't think I have said anything about The New Normal yet. When The New Normal tries to be a normal show--you know, with characters and plot and the like--it's perfectly fine, even charming. Too often, though, it descends into preaching zone and it's like Newsroom without the gravitas. Characters make these big speeches and it's gets really stupid with how the "new normal" is showed. Show, don't tell, please.<br />
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Leverage sticks with its format every single week, so I became more amazed as each second passed. Parker got her own episode! This is a big deal on a show which runs on routine and regularity. While the plot wasn't all that impressive, Beth Riesgraf is just wonderful and made things fun.<br />
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Copper was chugging along nicely, and then Eva kills Molly at the end of the last episode. Didn't see that coming. The show is still defining itself and this shocking new development definitely changes things. I'm curious to see what the show looks like at the end of the season.<br />
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This final season of Damages hasn't grabbed me like previous seasons have. The people involved in the case just aren't interesting and I could care less about the eventual outcome. At the same time, Ellen seemingly dead isn't too interesting, with only one episode left. Maybe she'll actually be dead, but there's really no huge threat looming after the fake out at the end of last week's episode. So there's no actual tension involving any other characters. That all we have left is Ellen on the ground, blood pooling, is, quite frankly, far below what the show is capable of delivering.<br />
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Covert Affairs ended with the surprising twist of both Annie and Simon being shot by Lena, bringing up a load of questions. At least one load of questions was answered, as we learn Simon knew about Annie and the CIA, and isn't playing her.<br />
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Okay, I'll dispense with the Coma puns that can be made. I don't get Coma. It's a two-part miniseries, each part being way too long, and nothing really happens. In short, people with certain genetic markers are put into comas for medical research. It's that simple. None of the characters stand out, so it's not like there's anything to say about them. There is this message about the role of doctors and medical research, but it's understood within the first 30 minutes. The rest of the time is spent on non-tension filled tension, with an ambiance that's supposed to put you on the edge of your seat. Except nothing ever comes of these scenes and the miniseries crawls to the end.TV Obsessedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09117251732141325156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054757690700660422.post-18406993657013614812012-09-04T14:09:00.000-07:002012-09-04T14:09:00.013-07:00Reviews 8/28/12 - 9/3/12I finally caught up on The Newsroom. It's an absurd show. The show was designed solely to attack the Tea Party, as if the Tea Party is the most important news event in the history of the world. Worse, good journalism, according Aaron Sorkin, seems to be airing sound bites of a bunch of people. There is no rigorous analysis, any attempt to pin down the size or scope of the Tea Party, what most of its members believe, what most think is important. They treat the Tea Party as a monolithic group of dishonest dummies. That may well be true, but The Newsroom sure as hell doesn't come close to proving that. The funny thing is, Will accuses the Tea Party of being against science and yet it's these journalists who make conclusions with no scientific rigor. You can find more of my rantings on Twitter. What I wonder is whether Sorkin himself was out to "civilize," because The Newsroom will only make conservatives hate liberals more, and make liberals hate conservatives more.<br />
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I also caught up on Copper. While the setting and tone of the show is nice, the characterization of Corcoran has been sketchy, often contradictory. He's set up to be a good guy sometimes, in the vein of cops you'd see in modern procedurals, but at other times it seems like he's just another guy living back then with all the stuff they did.<br />
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Grimm made big advances with Hank fully accepting everything Nick tells him. He takes it all in stride, and the episode doesn't slow down for those "show me the evidence" moments. It also looks like Juliette may be learning soon, as she at least hears the word Grimm. Beyond that, Monroe and Rosalie are as great as ever. Things are looking up this season.<br />
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Breaking Bad: Every viewer knew the other shoe would drop in the midseason finale. There was no way Breaking Bad would end the summer without a final bombshell leading to Walt's demise. So the episode is winding down and nothing happens yet. Are bullets going to fly into the yard and hit Holly? No, it's Hank taking a shit. The great Heisenberg, ruined by a bowel movement. Walt's arrogance and carelessness has led him to this point when he allows this book to do him in. The rest of the episode was fun stuff with two great montages showing how Walt got to the now. Now we'll have to wait for the final 8 episodes next season and Walt's final downfall.<br />
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Damages comes to an end in less than two weeks and those ominous images of Ellen dead appear related to Patty's attempt to kill her. The past two episodes have spent a great deal of time on this issue--first Patty stating she wasn't behind the attempted hit, then Ellen looking deeper and finding the guy. Another big issue which could cause problems is Chris getting the PTSD information to McClaren. It's kind of a random plot right now, I could see Ellen having to sell Chris out for one reason or another, becoming Patty in the process. The details of the case are still murky, but with Torben in the picture and Gitta going behind Ellen's back, stuff has to get going soon. We learned some of Patty and Kate's backstory, though I'm not sure if any of it is relevant or even particularly interesting. I guess extra bits of information don't hurt.<br />
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Covert Affairs: Annie's greatest asset as a spy is her ability to connect with people. Unfortunately, it's also her greatest weakness. Simon has to be playing her, right? Lena keeps hyping him as a master spy, so Annie fooling him would be way too stupid. Unless of course he's actually undercover and a good friend of Ben, and the two of them killed Jai on Arthur's orders and Joan, somewhat unwillingly, has been subtly pushing Annie towards Simon, using Lena as a proxy, which explains why she's been standoffish towards Arthur. Okay, probably too complicated, but I expect big shenanigans to happen.TV Obsessedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09117251732141325156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054757690700660422.post-9724813721998072532012-08-28T13:57:00.018-07:002012-08-28T14:15:29.161-07:00Reviews 8/22/12 - 8/27/12Did I already say that Alphas is freakin' awesome? Last night's episode was on the messy side, but there was lots of interesting content. We saw one side of the alpha world with the fight club and now we see the other side, with alphas trying to live on their own, far away from everyone else. Hurricane Rosen rolls in and messes things up like he usually does. Rosen's approach to this war with Stanton Parrish has been really poor as this episode highlights. He wants a direct resolution--finding out about the device, no matter the costs--while Stanton Parrish is playing a longer game. While Parrish isn't making any friends either, he provides an alternative to the single-minded Rosen and the government. Rosen doesn't offer much right now, and while he may be the good guy from a story perspective, few alphas seem him as one. Skyler fit right into the war, wanting the best for her daughter and also knowing that Rosen isn't the answer. Is Parrish? We could see her on the other side the next time we see her. Kat Watch: Not in the episode. Rosen said he had her take apart the machine but she didn't find anything. Boo! In hindsight, it was probably for the best she wasn't in an already cluttered episode.<br />
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Breakthrough on Grimm! Hank finally learns about Nick's Grimmhood! This is amazing stuff for a show which painfully and ploddingly tried to keep everyone in the dark every episode. Now there's only the Juliette problem, which is turning into more fail from the writers.<br />
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If people didn't already know Walt will be screwed. In this week's episode, the third to last of the first half, we see the height of Heisenberg--the cold-blooded drug boss who can look anyone in the eye and make demands--and the low of Walt--the angry, vindictive man who berates Jesse and later shoots Mike then pathetically apologizes. Walt, in the end, is not Gus, nor will he ever be, not even close. Gus ran a tight ship, controlled and unremorseful, every move serving a distinct purpose. Walt can't be like that. He's a dead man.<br />
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The season finale of True Blood was relatively better than the season finale in previous season, and the rest of the season was as well, so I'd call Alan Ball's final season a success. Now, his tenure has been rocky to say the least, but he pulled it out in the end, leaving the show on firm footing for the final season. What made the season finale particularly good was its separation of the important and unimportant (well, except for the Alcide stuff which was out of place as usual). There isn't any time dawdling around with Russell. He's dead within the first few minutes, making his existence this season more of a funny story on the side for the audience to smile at. Same with Maurella popping out babies. It's funny but isn't important to the main plot of the episode. Then there's the actually important parts of the episode, the raid on the Authority HQ, Lots of blood and exploding vampires which is always fun. And then the end, Bill dying and reforming as Lilith (or Billith as people are saying) which was surprising. Bill was already the bad guy for most of the season and for him to continue on, as an even more dangerous creature, is a significant departure from the path the show seemed to be on. So the stuff I didn't like: Tara and Pam was completely forced, perhaps in an attempt to regain the LGBT viewership. Alcide became packmaster finally, after an uneventful detour for a few episodes. Cue the V problems storyline. In hindsight, the fire monster storyline seems even worse than it did before. Now it's 100% irrelevant.<br />
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The first season of Strike Back, the Sky1 production, focused a lot on how the CIA is a bunch of dicks. This third season is going back to this idea, with the CIA almost killing the team at the beginning of the episode. The rest of the episode was fairly interesting with the Tauregs. One of the things I like about the show is how the characters explore different regions and cultures around the world while chasing the bad guy.<br />
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For those who thought Suits would break the USA and transcend its initial case per week premise, think again. After a summer of twists and turns, plotting and backstabbing, Suits returned to where it was before the season began. No Hardman in the picture, Jessica back in charge, Harvey and Donna doing fine, Mike and Rachel not together, and no one liking Louis, although he's more hated now. There's stuff to clean up, but the characters are allowed to practice law in peace now. The bulk of the episode was perfectly fine, with lots of great scenes like Mike and Harvey stoned. But the introduction of Tess and what happened later reeked of plot device. Awful writing. The writers wanted to keep Mike and Rachel apart, so they introduce this never before seen childhood friend and have her and Mike sleep together, and Rachel sees. Terrible, lazy, even offensive. No other way to put it.<br />
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At this point, it's best to think of Burn Notice's overall plot (and some stuff in between) as a big farce. Burn Notice is a lot like NTSF:SD:SUV; stuff blows up, people get shot, and the plot makes no fucking sense. Just like in all the previous summer/season finales, this season's summer finale ended with a big shocker--another big bad! We're already 20 layers deep and it's just getting started, as the ratings are still good. 50 more big bads (when all actors/actresses in Hollywood have been used up), 20 more evil international organizations with no clear intent, and we'll probably end up at the final boss, Michael's father. Other than that, the episode had a cool setup, putting the team out on their own, so the action was pretty good. But the ending... expected yet disappointing every time.TV Obsessedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09117251732141325156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054757690700660422.post-9610802263053380472012-08-21T18:21:00.000-07:002012-08-21T18:21:02.493-07:00Reviews 8/15/12 - 8/21/12<strong>Alphas</strong> did it again, this time with a cool haunted hospital episode. And it's not a generic slasher haunted hospital. The characters confront what they manifest themselves, and it's not the same for everyone. Gary sees Anna, Bill fights himself (this was dumb, to be honest), and Rachel sees Nina. The rest of the episode was spent on Rosen getting Nina to start "pulling" people in order to extract a memory from a senator. Part of this is using Kat as a guinea pig, and Kat remembers glimpses from her 16th birthday after being pulled. As promptly as that happens, Rosen and Nina are off, leaving behind poor Kat, highlighting how bad of a therapist Rosen is and how fixated he is on finding Stanton Parish. One thing that bothers me, though, is why Rosen doesn't want Kat to help the team. He might not have time to help her, but she seems like she could be helpful when the team needs a person to do something very specific.<br />
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<strong>Grimm</strong> wraps up the two parter with more of the same stuff as the first episode. There is the fighting, the meaningless, mysterious dialogue, and once again lingering questions. We learn this week that Renard is a bastard, literally. So does this new fact go with anything we've seen in the past and can it help us answer anything? Not really. We now know that he's not in the inside circle of royalty, but that still doesn't mean much without more details. The plot moved forward, as Juliette is woken by a kiss from a purified Renard. But, surprise, she doesn't remember anything. *Collective groan* On the plus side, there was plenty of Monroe and Rosalee, an awesome duo and the best part of the show.<br />
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I don't think I'll be watching any more of <strong>Major Crimes</strong>. Between always complaining Rusty and always sucking up Sykes, the new parts of the show are too much to take. Provenza and Raydor fighting is fine, but the rest is too much. I'll wait until Provenza and Flynn get their own spin-off.<br />
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This week's episode of <strong>Breaking Bad </strong>was the best episode of the season, brilliantly following up on the train heist from the week before and the deadly shooting by Todd. It's about as complete of an episode you'll get, with lots of plot but also some really solid character work. First, Walt, Mike, and Jesse have to deal with the body and it's somewhat sickening, the crew slowly tearing down the bike then dissolving it (and they used plastic!) before moving on to the kid--thankfully that part wasn't shown. They decide to let Todd stay after Walt lays out the options. They, like Skyler, don't have much going for them, as paying him off or killing him would make their situation even worse. So they get back to business, and Jesse sees that side of Walt, the one which whistles gleefully in the aftermath of child's murder, further burdening his mind. Then there's Mike, constantly being pursued by the DEA. He's freaking Mike, but there's a limit to abilities, and there is no way he'll stay perfect. This all comes together when Mike and Jesse confront Walt; they're out, ready to sell they're share of the methylamine. Walt is pissed but he's Walt and, in his mind, he can do everything. However, Mike tries to sell the methylamine and hits a brick wall--they want Walt's share as well to take the blue meth off the street. Now logically Mike should be able to find another buyer, but ultimatums are good for storytelling. Mike and Jesse are forced into a corner. They want to cash out, but Walt is standing in their way. Jesse tries to convince Walt at his home, and Walt has to bust out the Gray Matter history. It's not about money or drugs for him--it's about <em>empire</em> building. Jesse always thought Walt wanted money for cancer and he's seen a different side of Walt over time, but this is the first time Walt has explicitly laid out what he wants. The hilariously awkward dinner with Jesse, Walt, and Skyler follows, before heading towards the end of the episode, which is action-y like the previous episode. Mike ties Walt down and goes to talk to the DEA before selling all the methylamine, but Walt manages to escape. He supposedly has a plan that allows Mike and Jesse to get all the money they want but also lets Walt keep his share of the methylamine. Great episode from beginning to end. So many problems and potential solutions, and all roads all leading to what all viewers can see as an unhappy ending.<br />
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I like this season of <strong>True Blood</strong>, much more than the previous two seasons. In the latest episodes, there have been surprising clarity to the show that hasn't been seen since the second season. There haven't been the stupid side-stories or quivering fools we've grown accustomed to. Mainly, every character with a significant part is a badass and the other characters don't have their own storyline. A great example of this is Sam and Luna. They have, personally, a huge task at hand, to save Emma, but no one wants to see them for half an episode. So instead of having them chase random creatures as they may have in previous seasons, they have Steve Newlin having Emma, which brings Sam and Luna to the Authority HQ where they get caught at about the same as Pam. Now Sam gets to ask Pam to help Luna, and Pam gets to say a funny line about not knowing who Luna is. We don't spend much time on Sam and yet he's getting stuff done. Meanwhile, the Lilith blood has driven Bill and the others crazy while Eric and Nora, both off Lilith, run off, but not before Eric kills the general which supposedly will draw the wrath of the military, which has yet unseen anti-vampire weapons. Then there's Russell who has a whole bunch of faeries ready to be eaten after he defeats the head faerie who actually sucks at fighting.<br />
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After two seasons of <strong>Falling Skies</strong>, I'm ready to say that Falling Skies will never be a good show. It'll have its moments, maybe twice a season, but it's not cut out of be a good show, not in the way Alphas is or even The Walking Dead to an extent. The writers are so interested in moving the plot in whatever direction they want that the characters and dialogue become afterthoughts. But it's those elements which separate the average shows from the rest, and it's clear we won't be getting anything worthwhile. The season finale is what you'd expect from Falling Skies--lots of plot development. General lets 2nd Mass go fight, Tom declines, gets tossed in jail, rebel Skitters come with mission, Tom and others go on mission, they get caught, rebels save them, Red Eye is killed, Tom kills overlord, they go back to Charleston, get ready to go back to fight, and finally another alien shows up. It's basically an hour of info-dump and cliches. Woman throwing up = pregnant; non-white soldier = dead; big twist = generic third-party alien; overlord alien = supersuperduperduperduperidest genius with massive, glaring flaws; 2nd Mass = fighters4lyfe; Hal waking from coma = a couple episodes with him plotting before the inevitable reset. You get the picture...<br />
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I haven't said much about <strong>Weeds</strong> this season, because, well, nothing noteworthy has happened. In its last season, Weeds is staggering to the finish line more than ever before, with some of the most pointless episodes of television I've ever seen. Stuff is happening--sex, a pregnancy which turns out to be fake, more sex, pot growing, pharmaceutical sales, more sex--but none of it means anything. You keep expecting a "so what?" to pop up, but it never comes. I get that these characters are terrible messed up, resulting in them doing messed up things, but there is nothing new, not even an attempt to return to the earlier seasons in some form.<br />
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<strong>Strike Back </strong>is the Cinemax equivalent of Starz's Spartacus. There is over the top violence and sex, and yet there is something oddly compelling about it. Call it trash if you want--you're still watching. Strike Back is a step towards serious programming for Cinemax, known mainly for softcore porn. There is an actual plot and the sex is not the main point of the show. In fact, the season premiere was shockingly restrained with only two sex scenes. The show's core retains most from the first season, a wholly British production. Toss in an American, a bit of 24, and you get the new Strike Back which aired last year. The third season is again a Sky1/Cinemax production and all the gungho kickassery one could want. The season premiere introduces the lovely Rhona Mitra as the new head of Section 20 after much deception, and she's already fighting with Scott. The writers got Stonebridge back into action rather quickly and, it seems, disposed of his wife so he'll be with Section 20 permanently. The plot in the first two episode has Section 20 in Somalia ttracking stolen nuclear triggers which go missing at the end of the episode, and there's this shadowy charity at the end of the episode to signal conspiracy.<br />
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<strong>Boss</strong> is a serious show. Most people figure this out pretty quickly. Tom Kane, played by Kelsey Grammer, grits his teeth and growls out his lines, as the camera lingers on his eyes, burning full with intensity. The ambient music grows, and the viewers is told, "We're not playing games." We're supposed to be impressed, thinking to ourselves, "Wow, this is SERIOUS!!" but it's mostly funny the way the producers try to hammer in the seriousness of certain situations. Okay, so Boss takes itself far too seriously and becomes comedic once or twice an episode when it's <em>really</em> trying to make a point, but it's the summer and there isn't much serialized television. I can see that the people on the show are trying hard, and the story isn't half bad, so I suppose there's nothing wrong with watching it each week. Watching Kane trying to create a legacy for himself is pretty interesting once you throw in the rest of the political and personal intrigue.TV Obsessedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09117251732141325156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054757690700660422.post-19294845820010507962012-08-15T21:55:00.001-07:002012-08-16T12:18:15.887-07:00Reviews 8/9/12 - 8/14/12I've basically caught up on everything I've missed. I'm debating whether to watch the rest of Political Animals. The date for the reviews include Tuesday, but I honestly don't have anything to say about Tuesday shows so I left them off.<br />
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<b>Major Crimes</b> continues right on from The Closer without much hesitation. The characters are basically all there except for Pope, Gabriel, and obviously Brenda, the look of the show is the same, and there's the Rusty kid from the finale. There's so much familiarity that anyone who watched The Closer not only for Brenda will find much to like. And yet, I can't help but think something is missing. The Closer began with Brenda finding herself in an antagonistic division with everyone trying to undermine her. Major Crimes is very similar in this regard, with everyone hating on Raydor (she's actually been a thorn in their sides for a while unlike Brenda who had just arrived), so we once again get that Prime Suspect vibe from the show. But after everyone came to respect Brenda, there was still plenty to watch. Brenda handled suspects like no other, using a mixture of anger and subterfuge to break them down, and it made for good television. Raydor's thing so far is that she cuts deals with suspects. Is that all she brings to the table? I hope not.<br />
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I don't like how <b>The Closer</b> ended. I don't want to be thinking, "What's Brenda Leigh Johnson doing today?" while we're following Raydor and her new crew, because we all know Brenda's going to be doing something interesting at her new job at the DA's office. I mean, is Brenda really going to give up crime solving and dead people? Something tells me she won't, unless she takes a big step back from this whole world for a while. Aside from that, the series finale went as one would expect. We get to see all Brenda's familiar traits one last time, she finally nabs Stroh (alas Croelick is still out there, following the reports that Jason O'Mara would not return), gets to shoot him a couple times, and the team says their goodbyes. It's not an overly sentimental affair, but it marked the end of an era. With all her quirks and mannerism, Brenda was one of the most distinct characters of the past decade<br />
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Of the shows currently airing, there are few whose new episodes I really want to watch immediately. Breaking Bad is one, <b>Alphas</b> is another. I don't care too much for the rest. The writers do such a superb job with the characters that I want to know what happens to them next. Some shows (Warehouse 13, Grimm, to name a few) would have bungled the flashback device, but Alphas dives right in. Nina's backstory is both sad and chilling. She intervenes in domestic issues as a child, keeping her father in the house, which ultimately results in him killing himself. It's the perfect backdrop for her actions in the present when she's basically unhinged, making Rachel kiss her (yes, gratuitous by the writers, but they make sure to let us know how much Rachel hated it), making Tommy leave his family, pushing Rosen again, and finally jumping off the rooftop. She's may be back at the end of the hospital, eyes cover and arms strapped down, but there's so much wrong with her. Although Nina's story was very dark, Kat balanced it out. She has tons of spunk and is incredibly likable. I hope she gets to stick around longer or maybe even become a permanent member of the team. But I suspect she, like Nina, has a dark past, one that has been forgotten, setting Kat up as Nina's foil. All the members of the team have their own specifics debilitations, while Nina has no clear one. It is in fact her memory that holds her back and her inability to let go of her past.<br />
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With horrible, worsening ratings each year, NBC tried something different this year with <b>Grimm</b>. The network decided to start airing it in mid-August, right after the Olympics and a month before all the other shows will premiere, and on a Monday, not on its regular night of Friday. This would seem like a risky move, as network ratings are decidedly lower during the summer... but it's not like anyone watches NBC anyways. The season premiere got off to an okay start, a 2.0 demo, better than the first season average and only a hair lower than the series premiere. Now if the goal of these moves were to attract new viewers, NBC failed pretty badly. The first season of Grimm was good when it focused on the procedural aspects of the show, the different Wesen and how Nick eventually dealt with them. It was at its very worst when it touched on the mythology. It did so in the most infuriating way, exemplified by Captain Rernard always using "mystery speak." Every character skirted around the core of the mythology--a few words here, an implication there--but never a fully fleshed out picture, and yet the mythology was always a big part of the show, used as motivation for actions many episodes. Characters would do something because of ____, but we don't even know what the hell _____ is.<br />
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The second season premiere focused almost entirely on this mythology aspect of the show. The plot device coins rear their heads once more, with this silly melting quest, and there is more of that useless mystery speak regarding Juliette, Nick, Renard. On the plus side, Nick's mother explains how the Grimms worked for the seven royal families, and how there's this thing out there that would allow the royal families to control the world, and Grimm knights hid the location by making a map and splitting it between them. The episode ends with a "To be continued," as Nick's about to get smacked in the face, but beyond that, there is little implication about what's really important. There are too many mysteries, too many magical objects out there that it's hard to tell what actually matters.<br />
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<b>Breaking Bad </b>became an action show this week with a full-on train heist with plenty of excitement to go around, starting from Walt bugging Hank's office and finding out that Lydia didn't actually plant the tracker. The heist is fun in usual Breaking Bad fashion, crafty rather than brutal. There are some hiccups late in the heist, but everything goes fine until the end. The kid rolls up on his bike and Todd shoots him dead. Normally if this were just Jesse and Walt, they would weasel out of it. It might take an episode or two, but eventually the kid would be alive and no problem. But there's Todd. He doesn't know how they operate, and he makes damn sure no one will find out about the heist. While Breaking Bad has action episodes from time to time, Walt and Jesse never shot anyone, nor were they ever comfortable shooting someone. And they are clearly not comfortable this time. Now what do they do?<br />
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Grudgingly, I went ahead and watched the season premiere of <b>Hell on Wheels</b>. Like the first season, the premiere was all over the place. All the characters are in different places and positions than they were in the first season, but still with no sense of direction. There is nothing cohesive in the little town that explains why exactly these characters are important to each other or the world around them, and why the writers have chosen to show them versus other people. Especially troublesome is Bohannon being the exact same as he was in the first season. While Anson Mount plays him with this greatly grim studiousness, Bohannon become tiresome after a while. He's told his stories, he's fought Yankee soldiers, he's wallowed in himself--and now, in the second season, he's doing it all over again.<br />
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I don't understand why <b>True Blood</b> can't be like this week's episode every week. No Arlene, no Terry, all the characters being active. Sam and Luna are actually doing stuff, trying to find Emma by changing in mice which was pretty funny. Sookie and Jason learn that Sookie belongs to Warlow contractually. Hoyt leaving for Alaska gave us some good moments from Jessica, stabilizing her for a while, and Jason, who's usually too silly to be taken seriously. There was movement at the Authority where things are getting crazier each week. Yes, the vampires are all really stupid, especially the way they handled Russell from the beginning (although it's dumb that vampire strength seems to be determined solely by age), but the story is moving forward. And Tara becoming a vampire has been a great move. She's no longer the quivering victim who mucks up the show!<br />
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Okay, time to make the <b>Falling Skies</b>-Walking Dead comparison. The second season of The Walking Dead was too slow; the second season of Falling Skies is too fast. The Walking Dead spent its past season on the farm with no serious threat to the groups existence, and the show really stagnated there. But at least there were hints of cracks as the season trudged along and the zombies always kept things interesting. On the other hand, Falling Skies is eager to get to the next plot point, always racing towards the new problem. There's no time to let anything develop. This is what I've complained about the past few weeks, and this week's episode was a great example of that. After so long to get to Charleston, there are a few minutes for viewers to get acclimated with the new setting before the first hint of trouble: the general doesn't want intelligence on the skitters. Then the contrivances come with Pope trying to escape and getting caught, Maggie getting caught trying to stop them, and Hal getting caught trying to escape with Maggie. It turns out that Terry O'Quinn's history professor character, leader of the Charleston group, is one of those dictator types.<br />
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<b>Longmire</b>, bizarrely, has dangled Walt's big mystery in front of us this whole season. There were this weird, stylized flashbacks which meant nothing and bits of dialogue which also meant nothing. When the reveal finally came, that his wife was murdered and Walt was involved in the murderer's murder, I didn't really care. No reaction. Does this change my view of Walt? Not really. He's always been one of those old timers who doesn't give a crap, no matter how rude or hypocritical. A bigger problem is that the reveal doesn't open up any new plot avenues other than Katie becoming more pissed. The good thing about Longmire is that the crimes, as unrealistic as they are, are Montana crimes, not LA crimes ported over. So we get to see different kinds of people, different cultures, and a different way of handling crimes.<br />
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NBC previewed <b>Animal Practice</b> while the Olympics closing ceremony was still going on, so it didn't start with much sympathy. Still, the premiere got massive ratings and NBC's goal of getting people to watch, even for a few minutes, was fulfilled. From there, though, the number of people sticking around depends on how many people like stupid humor. There's nothing smart or redeeming about Animal Practice. One of its main attractions is a monkey, which may be passable entertainment for some. We'll see where the show goes, but I don't have high hopes.<br />
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<b>Common Law</b>, off by itself on Friday nights, hasn't been a breakout hit for USA as have other shows (maybe USA could learn something from this and Fairly Legal) on the network. It has this gimmicky premise of two cops in relationship group therapy which enhances an otherwise boring show. The procedural side of the show is very plain, and with plenty of procedurals already out there, it brings nothing new to the table. The season finale takes us through the origins of the partners' original conflict, which should have been brought up earlier, and they resolve the case. If the show doesn't get renewed, this is a nice stopping point. They've resolved the immediate issue which put them into therapy in the first place and there aren't really any strings left hanging, except for Wes's ex-wife, if anyone cares.<br />
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As much crap as NBC gets, no one can say that it doesn't try with its comedies. <b>Go On</b> stars Matthew Perry as a sports radio host whose wife died which puts him in therapy. Not funny, you say? The writers jam as much comedy into the first half as they can before confronting the fact that <i>his wife just died</i>. It's some stupid bit about making a bracket for who has had the worst thing happen to them, and I was ready to hate the show. The second half is much better, and touches on serious issues while maintaining a humorous tone. I want to see Go On be more of the second half, which was funny at times without being over the top.TV Obsessedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09117251732141325156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054757690700660422.post-30761711970689473022012-08-09T16:33:00.001-07:002012-08-09T16:44:52.433-07:00Reviews 7/31/12 - 8/8/12I'm a couple days behind writing this, so I've included a few extra days of shows. It also helps that USA didn't have new shows for 2 days. I'm slowly making my way through the shows I've missed.<br />
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I'm going to be watching <b>Dallas</b> next season--not because any aspect of the show is any good, but because the twists are so wacky that you want to stick around to see what wackiness will follow. Dallas is a summer which shouldn't be taken too seriously, even if the writers try to drum up season-long storylines like Ann vs. her ex-husbands and the Venezuelans. The main draw of the show is how the regular characters interact with each other and what ridiculous thing they're hiding.<br />
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<b>Alphas</b> is getting quite interesting in its second season. We get to see the larger alpha community in the form of an underground fight club (I really like that there aren't people killing each other like in every other TV fight club), and Bill drawn to these people like him. Then there's Gary moving into the office which was done really well. Alphas has always done an excellent job with the characters and Gary's mother being in all those scenes was more than you'll see in most shows.<br />
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In its third to last episode, <b>The Closer</b> landed with a shocker that Brenda's mother had died, after all the cancer stuff with her father. Perhaps that would be the wakeup call for Brenda, after alienating everyone with her behavior. Somehow, Fritz stuck around long enough to see this happen. We can now see how the series will end according to various people on the show, with Brenda not a MC, still with Fritz, but also not in serious trouble. She'll prioritize her life, put family first, and leave crime solving behind. The penultimate episode finally reveals who the mole is, and it's Gabriel's girlfriend, first introduced only a few episodes ago. It's convenient to set it up like this, making her the mole so that there isn't any big fallout between the existing characters, and it is a cop out. But the series is just about finished anyways, so complaining doesn't really matter. The reveal does put into perspective Brenda's unwillingness to listen to others, as Gabriel expressed discontent over what was going on, yet was ignored.<br />
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<b>Breaking Bad </b>began with Walt's 50th birthday, While we've been watching Breaking Bad for years, and it feels like lots of time has passed, we're instantly reminded that Walt hasn't been in the drug business for a long time. He's not a grizzled veteran of the drug trade like Gus, and he sure as hell doesn't know much about running the business. But Walt thinks he's more than that. He's the big boss, the cook, the guy who makes the operation what it is; there would be no blue meth without him. Sure, there would be no meth without him, but Walt doesn't understand business and all the complications involved with it. He doesn't understand people, and really doesn't get Skyler. Skyler finally snaps, but Walt misreads the situation from beginning to end. He starts off not understanding why she would be upset, even though she had actually dropped hints prior to that, and when she does tell him, he can only come up with meager excuses about the nature of the business--which he really has no clue about. Finally, he can only be mean and threaten good. Yeah, good idea, Walt.<br />
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In an episode where there is no action and lots of talking, <b>Falling Skies</b> did okay for what the episode was. Given the level of acting on the show and the clunkiness of the writing, we could have had a lot worse. Yes, I'm not going to touch the episode again and at times I wanted to bang my head against the wall, but I managed to make it through the episode--progress! Aside from the usual lousy acting, what bothered me most was the fixation on Charleston. In previous episodes, there was so much else that was going on that Charleston became more of an afterthought, a place to go towards as they were dealing with other problems. In this episode, though, the writers turn on the Charleston hose. Every other scene has someone expressing how great Charleston will be and all the great things they have. And then at the end, strawberries!!!<br />
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<strong>True Blood's</strong> kind of off in bizarro land so I'm waiting a bit before making a big deal out of anything. Luckily, nothing is too terrible. At the same time, none of the stories are particularly interesting, especially with how silly all the stories are.<br />
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Harvey practicing law is a constant feature of <b>Suits</b>, so of course he would have to be saved at some point. Last week's episode solves the problem with the whole "skeletons in the closet" plot device which manages to save Harvey but leaves plenty of problems behind.<br />
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<b>Damages's</b> hacker story moved the plot forward, introducing the idea that there is a third-party out there who may have stolen the information. But the way in which is done reflects how far behind the media is when it comes to technology. The hacking scenes were awkward in the portrayal of the Samurai 7 hacker and the whole hacker magic thing was going on. This week's story spends more time on the character aspect of the season, giving us lots of McClaren to explain some of his behavior and dipping into the Kate-Patty connection. As much as we can now see why McClaren acts the way he does, he's still obviously a pretty scummy guy who seems to do things for no particular reasons and could still be involved in Naomi's death. Ellen is having disturbing dreams now, similar to the first season flashforwards.<br />
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<b>Covert Affairs </b>continues on its much improved third season by putting the characters in different positions than we've ever seen them. Auggie is out on his own--no Parker, no Annie, and an alien job. Annie is also out on her own now, and she falls into the arms of another man (you'd think the CIA would be more careful with her an romantic relationships, given her history). Looks like there will be lots of angst in the future.<br />
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<b>White Collar</b>: Well, there's Peter going back to his job. If my expectations for the show had been higher, I probably would have been miffed, but everyone saw this coming. The show needs to return to the same format with Peter and Neal having a case every week.TV Obsessedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09117251732141325156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054757690700660422.post-65573295828257452752012-08-01T20:11:00.000-07:002012-08-01T20:11:36.555-07:00Reviews 7/24/12 - 7/30/12In its second season, Alphas remains largely the same show it was last season with a group of superhumans capturing other superhumans. This is to be expected from Syfy, post-BSG/Caprica. The changes, however, do add an extra dynamic to the show that it didn't have in the first season. The team is far more fractious, with Gary often getting mad, Bill getting into it with Rosen, and Nina going off the rails. Of course, it doesn't help when government agents are hanging all over the team. This weeks episode featured an alpha who can move faster than anyone due to prior experiments which also cause him to age faster. He's knows Stanton Parish, so his capture is important, but someone shoots him right as he's caught. Immediately, we want to know who the shooter is, as it would be a tie to Stanton Parish, but there is no evidence. My best guess would be Hicks, who's been shown to make some incredible shots.<br />
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In my eyes, Warehouse 13 is on its last legs, struggling to find a worthwhile plot, while trying to maintain the grab an artifact per week theme. The major plots of the fourth season hinge on then potential for two artifacts to unleash evil after using them to save Steve and the Warehouse. We don't know what this evil is, so all we're left with is Artie and Claudia worrying about what might happen in the future.<br />
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Breaking Bad can pretty much do anything and I'd be entertained. Badger and Skinny Pete buying cases, Walt and Jesse cooking, Mike doing his thing, Saul whining. The show has such an engrossing visual style and the writing is so sharp that these seemingly normal situations turn out to be almost on the same level as when the something super crazy happens. This week's episode continues the creation of Walt's new drug business and it turns out to be different than he had imagined. They have a new places to cook--tented houses being cleaned of bugs--Mike to handle the business side, and no Gus. But it isn't what Walt wanted. Money has to go to this person and that person, people in jail who might squeal, and in the end, only a portion goes to Walt--less than what they got with Gus, though they are cooking less. Meanwhile, Skyler cracks and goes ballistic on Marie, which would be highly gratifying if not for the underlying possibility that Marie looks further into Walt's activities.<br />
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As True Blood heads into the home stretch, the show has thrown away any idea of a coherent narrative. Everyone is off doing their own thing. The vampires are being wacky, Sookie and Jason are looking for their parents killer, Alcide and his new girlfriend are doing... something, Lafyette is now helping Arlene and Holly with Terry, Luna shifts into Sam and it becomes an awkward/funny/touching situation, Tara bonds with Pam, and Hoyt saves Jessica but still doesn't like her. But like I said last week, this season isn't too bad because nothing is actively annoying me. I guess that's a start.<br />
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While I like that Suits usually deals with larger real-world implications than other USA shows, the whole trumped up poker storyline was too silly and stupid to enjoy. Louis and Rachel was fun, especially the recordings filled with Littisms.<br />
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Burn Notice: Well, Nate is dead, Anson is dead, and Fi is out. Was it Rebecca, and is there yet another big bad waiting out there? If there is another big bad, I'll be really pissed (yes, I know I said I'd stop watching the show last time something like this happened).<br />
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As someone who doesn't like whatever craziness surrounds Boris, last week's episode of Royal Pains was, well, painful. And what was up with Hank "only love interest for doctors can be other doctors" Lawson almost hooking up with someone? It looked like the writers wanted to do something with Star Trek, but Evan and Brady seemed more like pseudo-fans than anything else. There have been tons of weddings on Star Trek, far more than on other sci-fi shows, and the rote Enterprise bashing was lame. (I know people get all nostalgic about Star Trek, but Enterprise is at least as good as Voyager, and it at least had some lofty goals, even if they were missed spectacularly.)<br />
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This season of Damages is quickly diverging from the previous seasons. As Patty correctly states, there are no facts in the case, and it's not just the characters who are in the dark--viewers know just as little. The flashbacks, always a good source of information in a twisty manner, are all questionable, possible fictional constructs of McClaren or Rachel. We're left with nothing but a pure battle between Patty and Ellen, without any pesky facts or evidence to get in their way. This is pretty cool stuff, and it makes for compelling television when both characters are trying to outsmart each other in the courtroom when the normal procedures don't apply. After losing to Patty last week, Ellen struck a blow, calling in question everything Rachel has said, disabling most of Patty's arguments.<br />
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After a rather boring second season, Covert Affairs's third season is off to a much better start. For starters, Annie is working for a new person with new rules, and Auggie is also in a new place. Last week's episode raised stakes quite high when Auggie and Parker are captured by pirates, and it makes for an interesting, Auggie having just proposed and also having not told her about the whole CIA part of his life, all while Joan and Lena are grappling with each other and Annie tries to figure out what to do.TV Obsessedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09117251732141325156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054757690700660422.post-78876450536907478612012-07-24T23:22:00.001-07:002012-07-25T04:41:14.916-07:00Reviews 7/17/12 - 7/23/12<div class="MsoNormal">Way behind on television once again. :(<b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Warehouse 13</b>, being a fantasy dramedy, never had a grand vision of where the show would go. The mythology grew, villains plotted, but at the end of the day, the show is about finding artifacts. The end of the last season saw the Warehouse blow to pieces, Steve dead, and Peter, Myka, and Artie standing in the rubble. This would be a monumental shift if it had lasted for more than an episode, but no, there is of course an artifact that fixes things, except Steve is still dead. The artifact Artie uses supposedly creates something evil, which could be interesting if done correctly. I like HG being alive, as Jaime Murray is pretty great.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Alphas</b> was one of the biggest television surprises from last year. Sure it didnāt get nominated for any serious awards, and likely wonāt be remember 20 years from now, but it broke out of the mold of Syfy shows in the way it approached the characters and the situation theyāre in. The characters have their own, distinct limitations, their own powers, and different ways of thinking, and they really came together through the course of the season. The second season premiere begins eight months after Rosenās very public revelation about the existence of Alphas. Itās pretty clever how the writers get the team back together. We get to see the inside of Binghamton, how chips are placed in all the prisoners, while reintroducing Gary whoād hurt some being after being reassigned to the NSA (yes, the government is really terrible). Then, there is trouble in prison, andā¦ the guy in charge wants only Rosen! So Rosen is let out of the mental facility, he rounds up the team, and they save the day. As with Warehouse 13, the show has returned to its original premise, alphas catching alphas, but the changes from season to season are more pronounced. The characters have changed in the eight months, and itāll be a while before they get back into the swing of things. Whatās more, at least some people in the world believe in alphas, as much as the government tried to discredit Rosen, and Stanton Parish is executing his plans now that Rosen is out.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Unlike in previous seasons of <b>Breaking Bad</b>, the beginning episodes this season have largely been absent of those shocking events which make your heart stop. The show, however, remains eminently watchable, each minute as gripping as the next. The season premiere is contained in a small world, with Walt, Jesse, and Mike cleaning up their immediate problems from the previous season. The second episode does the exact opposite, showing us the whole world Walt has been in, and we realize just how small he is. From the opening scene, the hilarious sauce taste test, to the interrogations, we see that Gusās network extended far beyond Albuquerque or even Mexico. We see Mike trying to take care of the situation, reassuring partners, and even bringing this woman Lydia into the fold. In this context, Waltās actionsāreplacing the ricin cigarette, trying to get Skyler to come on board, restarting the meth businessāseem doomed to failure. There is so much going on, but Walt has no idea any of this is going on, nor does he want to learn more. He is the master of the universe, his small, insignificant universe.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">My criticism of <b>Falling Skies</b> last week, that plot developments happen too quickly and without notice, is again in play this week. Ben and Karen are somewhere out in the woods, Karen turns on Ben, then Tom saves the day and captures a tall alien in the process. Thereās no explanation how this comes about, but it immediately propels the episode in a certain direction. The stories each week are distinct and interesting, emphasizing that Falling Skies was never meant to be a completely serialized show. Other than the march to Charleston and Benās harness, we can see the divide between each episode, the clear episodic nature of the show. One episode, Weaverās daughter shows up, sheās forgotten by the next episode, then Weaver becomes gravely ill, heās treated, and now heās perfectly fine. This is actually fine, as a show like Walking Dead gets bogged down by serialization. Whether Falling Skies succeeds in the end are the plots, which have greatly improved this season. This weekās episode was one of the best episodes yet, featuring disgusting bugs like the episode a few weeks ago as well as real stakes with Jamil and Boone getting killed. Falling Skies needs this sobering reality, especially when the first season episodes had those ridiculous candlelight vigils. In terms of story, Iām a little miffed we learned nothing more when the tall alien was in custody. He seems to be giving the usual āwe know betterā spiel that all advanced aliens give when they invade.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Leverage</b> always does the āfight the rich, evil bad guyā thing, but this weekās episode was a little different. The bad guy isnāt rich and isnāt evil. Heās more willfully ignorant, with a son who wants him to get help. There is this other bad guy, the owner of the team, who doesnāt factor into the episode too much. The episode has lots of funny moments with Vlad the ex-hockey player, Nate, and Sophie. Of course, nothing could top the hilarious Jack the Bear name given to Elliotās hockey player character.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>True Blood</b>: I was surprised to see that weāre already at episode seven of this season, past the halfway point. Between the Authority HQ and Bon Temps, we havenāt been to many places this season. But the plot is slowly rolling along as the vampires, on Lilith blood, went rampaging. Okay, so none of this makes any sense, but stuff is happening, right? More importantly, unlike other seasons, there isnāt an explicit big bad causing trouble. Russell has become just one of many problems, and remains charming as ever. The rest of the episode was okayāSookie burning off her fae power, Jason shooting Jessica in the head, fire monster laughing at Terry, Lafayette going to wierdoland, Tara disowning her motherāand, surprisingly, nothing this season has really bothered me. There were lots of stupid stories in previous seasons, but not this season.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Suits is more dynamic than any other USA show. There are no easy answers to the multiple problems and there havenāt been those classic resets which show up on its USA counterparts every season. Last weekās episode went even further, following Donnaās discovery of the missing memo in the previous episode. After Donna shreds the memo and everyone finds out, sheās fired, but not before a lot of emotion. Donna and Harvey arguing was one of the most legit scenes Iāve seen on USA. Really good work from Sarah Rafferty since the start of the show and this episode. Weāll probably see her soon enough, because ditching a character right now doesnāt seem like a good plot choice.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">USA, the network where nothing changes. <b>Burn Notice</b> started the season of Fiona in jail and Anson on the loose. A few episodes and prison scares later, Fiona is out, after helping catch this bad guy. Weāre back to square one, with Michael and Fiona with the CIA instead of out on their own. The show will return to normal and the conspiracy story will continue going around and around in circles. The biggest change will be the size of Michaelās team with the new girl and Pearce. Compared to the first season when there was only Sam and Fiona, there are a lot of people and combinations now.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>White Collar</b> also did a rest, with Neal coming back safe and sound, having brought back the island boss buy from Cape Verde who turns to be a notorious criminal. The difference is that Mozzie isnāt around anymore and Peter is out of his job, although Iām sure they'll be worked into the fold eventually. While this was always inevitable, I wonder if the writers can come up with a situation that was as good as the one from the previous season, when Neal and Mozzie were sitting on all the art and they didnāt know what to do with it.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Damages</b>, in previous seasons, focused on the case primarily, and the cases determined where the plot went. This final season, though, appears to be going in a new direction, with Patty vs. Ellen driving the plot. The second episode manages to shed more light on McClaren, but the episode focuses on the legal battle between Patty and Ellen before the trial even begins. Ellen believes she is outmaneuvering Patty, going through these hoops to remove the judge who she believes is partial to Patty. In reality, Patty has complete control of the situation, preying on Ellenās founded paranoia and using her to remove the judge who was actually biased against her.</div>TV Obsessedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09117251732141325156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054757690700660422.post-25297045530270364682012-07-18T02:11:00.000-07:002012-07-18T02:11:24.094-07:00Reviews 7/10/12 - 7/16/12<div class="MsoNormal">Iāve fallen way behind on television once again. Iāve watched all the USA shows, but still need to watch multiple episodes of The Newsroom, Continuum, Common Law, and this weekās episode of Perception. Iām probably leaving out some other. The main point is, itāll be a while before I catch up.</div><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">Breaking Bad will go down in history was one of the greatest television shows ever. Its unrelenting pace, its distinct visual style, its monumental acting performances will forever be remembered. What I will remember most is Vince Gilliganās handling of the show, his impeccable planning and foresight. There are plenty of wishy-washy shows out there, which either make stuff up as they go or donāt have anywhere good to go. Breaking Bad stands out among all shows, with its ability to shock viewers at all turns at any time in a season, not just at the beginning and end. Each season flows in the next, setting up potential conflicts and characters relevant in the current season and also in the future. It is in this way that Breaking Bad reached its fifth and final season.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The fifth season starts with an ominous flash ahead to Waltās 52nd birthday. Heās at a diner in the northeast, far away from home, haggard with facial hair and a crestfallen demeanor. He buys a machine gun, cuing us into the fact that bad shit will go down this season. We go back to the present in the aftermath of Gusās death. Walt is running around, cleaning up after himself, getting rid of the poisonous plant among other incriminating items. This is all goodāuntil he realizes the biggest piece of evidence, the surveillance camera. He and Jesse drag Mike, who is still recovering, back to help them, as they are all doomed if they donāt do anything. They end up having to destroy Gus laptop which is in police lockup, and do so in a funny way, with a giant magnet from the junkyard guy. They end up getting away, although they have to leave behind the truck after it tipped over. The bigger problem for them is Hank, who recognizes the lab was exactly what Gale drew and is ever more determined to get to the bottom of Gusās operation. Meanwhile, we see what happened to Ted and itās not pretty. Heās paralyzed and bald, and wonāt tell anyone about what happened, or so he claims to Skylar. The season premiere ends with Walt hugging Skylar and telling her he forgives her. Sure, Walt, we believe you.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">I guess True Blood is finally getting somewhere. Yes, itās still all over the place with storylines flying by left and right, but the vampire story is going somewhere. The episode ends with Russell miraculously breaking free and killing Law & Order, a surprising twist since Christopher Meloni was the main new character. We still donāt know what the fuck is happening, but Russell is now on the loose and stuff will happen. The rest of the stories are okay, Hoyt getting dragged into a vampire killing crew, the fire monster, Sookie and Jason finding the faerie club, Tara-Jessica drama. </div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><br />
</o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">Political Animals is a confusing show. It airs on USA, not known in the past half-decade for having serious programming, and its lighting is similar to other shows on the network. But its subject matter and tone seem to be serious with the bulimia, homosexuality in the White House, infidelity, dramatic outbursts throughout the first episode. And yet, itās hard to take the show seriously. Right off the bat, itās obviously about Hilary Clinton, and the show goes out of its way to make this comparison so many times that it gets dumb after a while. Worst of all is CiarĆ”n Hinds's hideous Bill Clinton accent which is basically a parody. In many ways, the characters on the show are less competent than those on Veep, a parody about the Vice President and her staff. Barrish's staff is utterly confused about anything the Iranians do, and the antics with the Russian foreign minister are just childish, in an attempt to be playful. Altogether, the show tries to be super-dramatic like an HBO show while maintaining the fun of its USA counterparts. These donāt work in context of the Secretary of State, a crucially important role in the world where a mistake has real consequences.</div><br />
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">In an attempt to fix Falling Skies, new showrunner<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remi Aubuchon has taken the approach of having plot developments come very fast and without warning. A few weeks ago it was Weaverās daughter returning out of nowhere, this week is was Weaver falling ill and Karen returning out of nowhere. While these plot developments are fine, the way in which they are handled leave much to be desired. They randomly happened, so thereās no flow between episodes and at the end of the episode, the immediate problems are resolved. Ben and Karen run off at the end of the episode, but is there any indication what will happen next? Not really. The other change is that he's focusing more on relationships, and they're all pretty lame with lots of silliness like Tom suddenly calling Anne his dead wife's name.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">Now in its fifth season, there isnāt much Leverage hasnāt done yet. The show has always been fun, with elaborate schemes and funny characters, but none of the overarching, season-long plots have ever worked. The season premiere finds the team in Portland, after Boston got burned in the fourth season finale. They have a new place above a brewery, and quickly get to helping little people and bringing down the bad guys. The episode ends with Hardison and Nate up to something, reminiscent of the āmystery dialogueā that started all the previous arcs. Yawn.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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Suits continues to move along perfectly in its second season. We get to see more of Louis and Donna, and learn what they are about, while the overall plot develops to set the stage for a rich battle between the factions at Pearson Hardman. Now the firm is facing fraud charges and Donna knows the memo exists, trouble not only for the firm but also the characters individually. But WTF was up with Rachel's plot? Is there something in Meghan Markle's contract that says she has to be in every episode?<br />
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">I wasnāt planning on reviewing Louie and Anger Management this week, but I have to note how astounded I am that they are on the same network, airing on the same night. On the one hand, there is Louie, in which Louie goes off to Miami and has a good, eventually awkward, time. It diverges from normal episodes, but is similar to previous travel episodes and the audience can recognize what it is. Then there is Anger Management, which is just about the same every week. Charlie has the patients at his house, sitting on the couches, being weird. Charlie then is at the prison with the inmates, sitting in a circle, being weird. Charlie is then with Kate, sitting opposite each other, talking about sex.</div><br />
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If Damages had maintained the quality of its first season through four seasons, there'd probably be many more critics talking about it, and direct comparisons with Breaking Bad, also entering its final season. As it stands, the later seasons of Damages couldn't live up to brilliance of the first, and the show has fallen by the wayside. I feel like these problems are mostly by design. The setup each season is largely the same. There's Ellen, there's Patty, there's wrongdoing by corporate types, there's a case, and there are of course the flashforwards, flashbacks, and the occasional dream. There is much less room to move in this framework than in Breaking Bad, where anything can pretty much happen without fear of disrupting the next season. The fifth and final season of Damages is the Patty vs Ellen, a battle that has been coming since the first season and was teased at the end of the fourth season. The legal case revolves around a Wikileaks-like organization and is douchbag owner, and information that shouldn't have gone public. There are two twists that got my attention--Jenna Elfman's character getting killed so early and Ellen appearing to be dead or at least unconscious in the future--but the rest left my empty. It doesn't help that Ryan Phillipe is pretty boring, no comparison to Ted Danson, Željko Ivanek, Campbell Scott, Martin Short, John Goodman, or Dylan Baker, actors who elevated the show with the performances.<br />
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Royal Pains is like the exact opposite of Breaking Bad; its writers don't really know where anything is going and wing it until they have something that could work and let the rest fall in place. In their minds, there has to be a Boris story each season, so he'll randomly show up some point in each season and then a medical emergency will somehow arise. This time, it appears as though Boris detained an intruder and shot him, and the government is looking in it or something like that. Boris uses plenty of "mystery speak," jumbling up the order of sentences to sound cryptic for the sake of being cryptic.<br />
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Covert Affairs mercifully killed off Jai at the beginning of the third season. Let's face it--he was a useless character, never having a place on the show with the other characters other than the squabble with him on occasion. He reminds me a lot of Jill on Royal Pains, a character who was never given anything to do and then written off. He probably didn't need to die to change up the show, but the ultimate result of his death is that Annie and Auggie are sent off in new directions while Joan must struggle with her husband. Annie's new role gives her more leeway, as her boss is far for freewheeling than Joan, and she ends up sleeping with her target. Could this be a revival to a show which captivated me in the first season but bored me to tears in the second?<br />
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Although I've never been too keen on White Collar's overall plot machinations, always too random and filled with "mystery speak," when the actions gets rolling, it's hard to think of a show which comes close. I had to pause as Neal, Mozzie, and Peter were racing down the streets of Cape Verde from an incentivized mob and think how sick the scene was. One thing that really bothered me, the way Collins found out about Cape Verde, from Peter's papers in plain sight, was ridiculous. You'd think Peter would have learned by now that putting important evidence in an obvious place when someone crazy is looking for is a bad idea. I actually thought this was some kind of deception at first, because it seemed ridiculously easy for Collins to find the evidence and get to Cape Verde.TV Obsessedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09117251732141325156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054757690700660422.post-80669403287016179492012-07-11T00:56:00.002-07:002012-07-11T06:06:25.504-07:00Reviews 7/3/12 - 7/9/12I'll be busy the next few weeks, so I will fall behind on shows. I still have to watch Newsroom (will problem review several episodes at once), Longmire, and Continuum.<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">Perception is, like most shows, a procedural. It has a special twist to differentiate it from others, the main character has schizophrenia. But itās not a debilitating problemāno, it helps him solve crimes! Okay, so this show isnāt supposed to be realistic or meaningful about the disease, and there are probably schizophrenia advocacy groups writing up a press release if they havenāt had already. Eric McCormack manages to be charming enough as to be likable when heās being crazy, and the writers donāt go completely overboard with his quirks. What results is a passable summer drama, fitting in with TNTās slate.<br />
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">While The Closer will likely not be remember as a top show in an era already inundated with procedurals, its end closes what I think is an important part of TV history, big movie stars moving to television. Nowadays, stars mostly go to premium cable where special roles are more fertile, but Kyra Sedgwick pioneered it spectacularly. Brenda Lee Johnson is the kind of character you see a few times each decade. She is the complete package. Her disarming sweet Southern charm to lure in unsuspecting prey, her single-minded dedication to her job, her a willingness to get down and dirty with the worst criminalsāthese traits elevated The Closer above similar shows. And while Brenda often crossed the line, she also wasn't someone from The Shield; she never does anything for personal gain. The Closer begins its final sixth episode by returning to Phillip Stroh, the rapist attorney (both meanings), but he isn't caught, indicating he will return before the end. It's a solid episode with lots of bobbing and weaving from both sides, ending with the two rapists caught, but not Stroh, since he likely was not involved with this particular crime.</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Weāre getting a good ways in this season of True Blood, and itās abundantly clear the show is continuing on the path itās been on the past few years. Every character is given equal weight, each with their own story. Terry is off with the fire monster, Sam gets shot, Tara slowly realizes the fun she can have as a vampire, Lafayette going crazy, and Jason looking into his parentās murder. The fire monster is more interesting than the others, because monsters are always cool, but the other stories take way too much space. Long ago, the writers should have consolidated the character, at least sticking them together, so we wouldnāt have these disjointed stories which arenāt particularly interesting to begin with. Even still, itās not like the vampire plot is doing much better. Bill and Eric find Russell and learn that Nora helped dig him up, so at least the story moved along. But back at the Authority HQ, it was the same cooperate with humans speech weāve already heard in previous episodes.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Discerning between bad writing and bad acting is difficult when there are no direct comparisons. A line may sound cheesy, but we canāt really know what it would sound like if, say, Jon Hamm spoke them, even if we imagine it would sound marginally less cheesy. This bothers me most when I have an issue with Falling Skies. The dialogue, when spoken by the younger actors, will usually sound terrible, and I canāt tell you bears the most responsibility. In the second season, Hal and Ben have gotten larger roles, and with that more dialogue. Most of Ben's scenes aren't working, and neither did Rick's. I know, I know... kid actors. But reinforcing the bad writing idea is the awkward writing for all the romantic relationships. On the plus side, we learn that the Skitters themselves were enslaved by the harness. Generic, yes, but the story is at least moving.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Weeds tries to change things up with Nancy being all happy and content with not being a drug dealer, but at this point, itās hard to really care whether sheās changed or not. So much has happened that she canāt be forgiven, no matter how hard she tries. Some stuff actually happens this week, unlike the season premiere in which literally nothing happens. It doesnāt feel like an endgame, but itās kind of too late for that anyways.</div><br />
The rational part of my mind is telling me that Louie was raped in last week's episode, and it's also telling me not to make a big deal out of it. The setup to the ending was quite good with Melissa Leo killing it with her performance. They go from being antagonistic to blow job to smashed window to eating out. It's a weird chain of events, with Louie going with the flow despite a few roadblocks until the disturbing ending. Now, Louie is supposed to be a comedy, and while Louie's reactions were funny, it paints the idea of rape and sex as more gray than black or white, which could be controversial.<br />
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So... I went and watched the third episode of Anger Management. It's a fascinating show to watch, if you keep reminding yourself it's on FX and not CBS. It's also disappointing to think that Charlie Sheen, unconstrained by CBS and network television, can only recreate a CBS show. It's a typical multicamera comedy about a guy with a peculiar occupation, therapist in this case, and his slightly dysfunctional family and group of friends.<br />
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The main purpose of the exploration into Wilfred and Ryan's mind seems, on the outside, to be about a change of setting, not any deep message about the human psyche. The third episode of the season uses the new setting of the workplace to give Wilfred more people to interact with and more plots. This allows to see the same Wilfred we've come to love but also new situations which we wouldn't have seen had the show continued as the first season did.TV Obsessedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09117251732141325156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054757690700660422.post-36061763305669039812012-07-03T06:36:00.001-07:002012-07-03T06:50:34.626-07:00Reviews 6/26/12 - 7/2/12<div class="MsoNormal">After last weekās misstep, <b>Falling Skies</b> rebounded nicely with a quieter episode which had some great character moments, not necessarily because of the acting, but the writers actually came up with an interesting situation. My biggest problem with the episode is that the plot developments went by a bit too quick, and there wasnāt enough time to fully development things in one episode. We meet Weaverās daughter whoās living a with band of kids, and of course the writers play up the family drama angle up as much as possible. Again, I wish it went on for more than an episode, but there were genuinely good moments in there. Prior to the episode, Falling Skies didnāt emphasize the creepy nature of the skitters and their parasitic harnesses. This episode, however, embraces it fully, and gave us a stunning scene in which we see a bunch of kids about to be harnessed. Lots of gooiness, tendrils, and everything else icky. For those brief moments, I was freaking out over what everything looked like. Good job, prop, special effects, and visual effects guys.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><b>True Blood</b> isnāt exactly racings forward as previous seasons did, but there are enough interesting parts per episode to keep it afloat. The indisputable highlight of the episode was Pam and Ericās scene. Pam is an awesome character, always willing to let off the best one-liner insults, but also vulnerable enough when it counts. We root for her when sheās winning and feel bad for her when sheās hurt. With Eric and Bill on the verge of getting killed for not bringing Russell back, Eric lets her go in order to keep her safe by preventing her from helping him. I do wonder, though, whether the scenes would have been more potent had the flashbacks been in this episode rather than the previous one. The rest of the episode had a bit with everything like the funky fairy detour, so we know they havenāt been forgotten (unlike, it seems, the werepanthers). And oh yeah, Alcide and Sookie, known killer of Alcideās fiancĆ©e, kiss as Eric and Bill watch. Bon Temps, everybody. Needless to say, the brief Terry and Sam parts did nothing for me. Yeah, I want to know what happens next, but those measly few scenes are just too brief for anything to really come of them. The thing that bothered me most, though, was the kid vampire who was killed. There wasn't one time in all the episodes in which I didn't feel like he was just blurting out his lines. Surely there was a kid out there who could say the lines semi-realistically... or not.</div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><strong>Longmire</strong>: For all their efforts to be realistic, police procedurals in the end are about as unrealistic as 24. While the world we live in indeed has plenty of crime, the rates at which such fantastical murders and schemes occur are greatly overstated in these worlds. Imagine the public reaction if the Criminal Minds world suddenly became a reality. Widespread panic sweeps across the US, as crazed murderers rampage across the country, impeded only by a small group of FBI agents. But in the Criminal Minds world, the public is fine, accepting of their world where killers seem commonplace. Longmire, though framed in a grittier world than that of Criminal Minds, has its own set of problems. Itās located in a small town in Montana, and yet there seems to be an awful lot of wild adventures going on. Cartel members, child snatchers, major Native American conflicts, frequent shootoutsāa lot has happened in just 5 episodes in this dinky town with a couple sheriffs. This weekās episode lays it on pretty thick with the Native American stuff. Now, I realize the US government has screwed them since the beginning of time until present day, in every possible way, but Iām not sure a fictional television show is where this kind of activism, with an increasingly preachy tone, should happen. And besides, are there plenty of other plots already ongoing?</div><br />
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<b>Weeds</b> is one of those shows which should have ended long ago. Agrestic burning down pushed the show down a certain pass and it was all downhill from there. Now, there have been interesting developments here and there, but the show has grown tired, going from one twist to another in order to propel the family from one location to the next. At long last, the show will come to an end for a 13 episode final season. The eighth season premiere begins where the seventh left off, with Nancy getting shot. Nothing really happens in the episode except we learn that the shooter is Tim Scottson, the son of Nancy's second husband all the way back in the second season.<br />
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<b>Episodes</b> is a fun show for someone like me who constantly wonders what's going on in private in the television industry. There are times when you question how such terrible shows can end up on network television with millions watching, and Episodes provides answers, however fictional they may be. The writers--in the show Sean and Beverly--are well-meaning, genuinely funny people whose creation is ripped to shreds and built back up into a monstrosity by the desire for ratings and stupid network executives. This would be a comforting thought, that there really is talent out there, just the networks are destroying it. On the other hand, writers of Episodes would want us to think that, as they and their friends would take less heat if they make bad shows. Back to the matter of the show, it tries hard to make us like Beverly and Sean as they navigate their way through Hollywood, but I could care less about what happens to them.<br />
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For some reason the official season premiere of <b>Wilfred</b> was last week rather than the episode the week before, the super-trippy episode which explained how Ryan got to where he was. It makes in the sense that the official season premiere is more in line with what we've seen before. Lop off the final episode of the first season, change Wilfred's attitude towards Drew, add in Allison Mack, and you get the second season premiere.<br />
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<b>Louie</b> is one of those shows which doesn't really require regular viewing if you care about plot, and the season premiere doesn't exactly offer anything we haven't seen before (though his black ex-wife was a fun change). Sometimes things will carry over from episode to episode, but everything is so surreal that randomly watching a couple episodes is about the same as watching consecutive episodes. Thematically, you don't need to watch every episode either as you can gather tons of information about Louie from a single episode. In the season premiere you can see a lot of Louie's attitudes towards relationships in the episode as he tries his hardest not to be committed and yet be frustrated at his predicament.<br />
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On the onset, <b>Anger Management</b> presents itself as a CBS comedy; it definitely has all the right parts: the profession--psychology--a bunch of other quirky characters, the family, an overbearing laugh track, and obvious writing. So you wonder why this show ended up on FX, home to Louie and Archer, as esteemed as comedies can get, and you look deeper into the show. In the end, you conclude that the only reason it's on FX is because of Charlie Sheen and the viewers he'll bring. Indeed, Anger Managed debuted to stunning ratings and showed that even cable--FX!--can devolve the easy-thinking writing that dominates network television.<br />
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<b>Suits</b> really spread out its wings last week, with all the other characters having plenty of screen time, in addition to Harvey and Mike's usual legal work. There was Louis, trying to prove his worth and Jessica acknowledging it, and Donna and Rachel having drinks. It may not seem like much, but it looks like the writers are making a considerable effort to make the show into a real ensemble one. Mike got dragged into the office politics this week and while we know Mike won't be drawn in by Hardman, he's in the crosshairs now. This season is focusing on Mike's development as a lawyer and the fact that sometimes the "good guy" doesn't win. It's basically the opposite of Fairly Legal, where everyone wins once a mediator steps in.<br />
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<b>Burn Notice</b> continues to give the new characters a bit more to do with Pearce getting a lot to do for a change, interacting with all the characters. Although Michael and Fi will be separated for a while longer, it looks like the writers are pushing Jesse and Pearce together. At the beginning of the season, Burn Notice is working nicely right now. The team situation is changed up and we don't quite know what to expect week in and week out. Can the writers keep this up?<br />
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There was a bizarre <a href="http://www.tvguide.com/News/Royal-Pains-Jill-Exit-1049230.aspx">interview</a> with <b>Royal Pains</b> executive producers last week. They have several statements that make no sense, like Hank having to be with another doctor, and others which are a mark of unambitious writing, when they basically said that they had nothing more for Jill to do. The main problem with her character, from the very beginning, is that everything she did was defined by how it affected Hank romantically. There were attempts to broaden her character with the clinic and friendship with Divya, but ultimately, the writers did the will-they-won't-they thing with Hank way too many times and then ditched her. My thoughts after reading the interview was that this was an isolated incident. After all, Divya has grown plenty since the beginning, and even Paige eventually got something to do. Why the writers could never write anything consistent and long-lasting for Jill is quite baffling. I want to believe that Jill Flint is leaving because of something behind the scenes, out of hope that the writers are really more competent than their words indicate. But in last week's episode, there was another mark against the writers when the Hank and Evan conflict abruptly ended. Again, we see the writers unable to carry through with a plot in a meaningful way, ending things before they really begin. These brief half-season arcs begin with so much promise but always peter out this way. It's a matter of trust, and before long, viewers realize something which seems "big" really isn't.<br />
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With only 10 episodes this season and 4 episodes already aired, <b>Dallas</b> is rolling along nicely. Plot twists continue to come, information is revealed, and characters are continually backstabbing each other. For those who like the deception and intricate web of liars, Dallas pretty much hits the mark. For those looking for something more in terms of character, there is not much there.TV Obsessedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09117251732141325156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054757690700660422.post-80011967375195648372012-06-26T17:45:00.002-07:002012-06-29T00:35:08.233-07:00Reviews 6/19/12 - 6/25/12<b>The Newsroom</b> is supposed to leave viewers misty-eyed at the end of the pilot, reminiscent of a bygone era when Americans could trust journalists to give them the truth every night of the week. In this regard, Aaron Sorkin succeeds. He is a master of drawing pathos out of nowhere, after all. The massive problems quickly arise, however, when Sorkin thinks he has good ideas--which is about all the time. He's not a deep thinker, someone who really understands anything at all, and yet his ideological bent is so present that an outside viewer, with no knowledge of Sorkin, may mistake the show for a parody. This begins in the pilot's opening monologue when the main character, a news anchor, rants about why America is no longer the greatest nation.<br />
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In full he says, "We stood up for what was right, we fought for moral reasons, we passed laws, struck down laws for moral reasons, we waged wars on poverty, not on poor people. We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbors, we put our money where our mouths were, and we never beat our chest. We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and we cultivated the world's greatest artists and the world's greatest economy. We reached for the stars, acted like men, we aspired to intelligence, we didn't belittle it, it didn't make us feel inferior. We didn't identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last election, and we didn't scare so easy. We were able be these things and do these things because we were informed by great men, men who were revered. First step in solving a problem is recognizing there is one. America is not the greatest country anymore."<br />
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The first part about the past is, of course, a crock of bullshit by anyone who knows anything about history, and the second part about the "great men" is just dishonest pandering to the media elite. Fundamentally, Aaron Sorkin does not understand why America is the greatest country. Prior to the monologue, the main character rattles off America's rankings in various subjects, adding that the only thing America is first in is military spending. (Herein lies Sorkin's uncritical mind. More reasonable analysis would point out that America has by far the largest GDP in the world and that comparable countries spend a much lower share of their GDP on military expenditures. A statement like this would show that the US is indeed rich as fuck (the real reason for being #1) but also that perhaps the US does spend too much on the military. Stupid statements with no perspective, like pointing out that the US spends more than the next 26 countries combined, means nothing without context. (Journalists seem to love numbers--26, 40 quadrillion barrels, 100 thousand barrels--which hardly mean anything, and are adverse to percentages and comparisons.) But what do I know, I'm not a <i>journalist</i>.<br />
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The Newsroom keys in on broadcast journalism, and there are actually a few good moments in the pilot when everyone is scrambling after the Deepwater Horizon rig blows up and they are trying to figure out what happened. The tension in newsroom--the uncertainty of what happened and what's going to happen, whether the story will blow up in their faces--is exciting stuff. Unfortunately, it also shows what's wrong with journalism. Who are these journalists? Are they experts about anything? The answer, after seeing the characters interact for over an hour, is an emphatic no. These are regular people, spurned to action by proximity to computers with the AP wire, not education or special ability. Then they try to dig deeper. "Should government regulators have done more?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?" We see the uncritical eye of journalist and the problem with the 24/7 newscycle. They look for a simple answers to problems, thinking there are never tradeoffs between things. Suppose the rigs have a 0.001% chance of exploding in a year, and suppose checking them once a month reduces this risk to 0.00099% (either by catching a problem or companies being more careful as a result), then is there a clear imperative that they should be checked each month? What happens when a serious fault is found? Is there an incentive through a fine/punishment so companies make sure there are no problems, even minor ones? Shouldn't this be important information for these "great men?" (Obviously I have no clue about any specifics, but that's the kind of information I'd like to know.) At the most basic level, these journalists should recognize that no one wants an oil rig to blow up and that the risk of explosion may depend on how much things cost, but apparently no one cared to find out these things.<br />
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There is instant reaction to developing stories, regardless of all the facts. Journalists are so eager to get the story out and they know so little that they end up going on air, spouting off a few choice facts, getting into the faces of interviewees, entertaining the public, and suddenly they're supposed to be revered. That's horseshit and apparently what Aaron Sorkin is promoting.<br />
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I caught up on <b>The Killing</b> in the past week, and if there's one thing that was clear to me after watching episodes consecutively, it's that you can't keep the tone and lighting of a show so gloomy for 26 episodes. It's not the story that bothered me (though a good story could have helped) so much as the sluggishness and overall feel of the show. By the end, I just wanted it to be over with. As for the eventual reveal of the real killer Terry, I thought that came together fairly well. I believe in my first review of The Killing, I predicted the killer would be Jamie, thinking his crazy political aspirations would lead him to kill. Close enough, I guess!<br />
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<b>Falling Skies</b> hasn't changed, unfortunately. This week's episode featured one of the stupidest moments on the series, Tom volunteering to join the Berserkers right after they try to kill him. This is somehow supposed to make sense, but it just makes Tom look either stupid or too boy scout. The rest of the episode is a tad more sensible. Jimmy gets killed off kind of randomly and a plane supposedly from Charleston arrives. In the end, the group heads south for Charleston where great promises await. The characters didn't seem to mind that it sounded far too good to be true, though. I guess that never happened in Tom's history books.<br />
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<b>True Blood</b> always starts seasons quickly, but this season is quite different, with the third episode essentially repeating everything in the second episode, which was already a bit sparse. We get different looks at the same situation, but overall it was a bit surprisingly to see the season proceed in this manner. Maybe this means the end of the season will be exciting for change. The stuff that is usually good remained good, so Pam's flashbacks were great, as well as the exploration into vampire history. Of course there was the usual bad parts with Tara and the pointless Terry parts.<br />
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I have been reluctant to comment on <b>Continuum</b> since it doesn't air in the US, but by the time it reaches Syfy, I'll probably have forgotten everything. The show continues to expand on the future and it also dived into time travel mechanics, namely what would happen if someone's ancestor was killed. As we saw in this week's episode, killing one's grandmother does nothing to that person. Huge implications for the future and whether Kiera can actually return to where she belongs.<br />
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<b>Suits</b> builds on the discord sown in the season two premiere with more drama and setup for the future. This time we see more Rachel and how she fits in to Mike's life. Mike wants to be with her and honest, but Harvey recognizes that more people should not know about Mike's secret, and since Harvey has more power, Mike has to comply. They haven't reached the stage yet where Mike would be willing to blackmail Harvey, but that's definitely a possibility, given their predicament.<br />
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<b>Burn Notice</b> seems to have gotten a second wind in its sixth season, although it's yet to be seen whether it lasts. With Fiona dealing with people in prison and Michael not thinking straight, there are more elements which actually matter than in previous seasons when there was a random big bad to contend with.<br />
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<b>Wilfred</b> is a puzzling show and the second season premiere may be the most puzzling episode yet. It drags us back and forth between Ryan's work and the mental institution, both equally crazy places, before settling in a world where Ryan is still a lawyer, albeit a very tired one, Jenna is still there but is with another guy (Edit: it's Drew, actually), and the basement exists. At the end of the day, Wilfred is a show about a talking dog. It'll be delightful no matter what, regardless of the plot.<br />
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<b>Dallas</b> took a step down in the second week as we got to see how the show would go without the normal expository material. There is more of the shady dealings, backstabbings, and characters trying to control their feelings, but also a lot more of the clunky, juvenile science from the first two episodes. It's embarrassingly bad. Even the most seasoned actors wouldn't be able to make it sound believable.<br />
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<b>Royal Pains</b> is trying to go for more drama this season and I'm hesitant to say whether this was a good move. Admittedly, Hank and Evan fighting is more interesting than the usual storylines, but this constant sniping undermines their characters and makes them all look back, Divya included. One thing I'll say for certain is that the handling of Jill's story has been horrific. The writers drag out her leaving for a season, then abruptly has her job taken away right before leaving, and then in last week's episode gets a new, better job in Africa. WTF?TV Obsessedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09117251732141325156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054757690700660422.post-77456454435719741512012-06-19T23:32:00.000-07:002012-06-19T23:32:35.892-07:00Reviews 6/12/12 - 6/18/12The first season of <strong>Falling Skies</strong> was hit or miss--mostly miss. It has a cool idea, a band of humans fight back against aliens following a quick invasion, but the theme never realized itself into good television. The show tried, once in a while, to capture the post-apocalyptic feeling that should have been ever present given their horrible predicament; however, this would promptly be tamped by these mind numbing scenes when Tom strolls back into camp, has a reunion with his boys, and everyone is happy. Almost every episode ended with everyone happy, thinking that everything would be okay, and if all is well, then there's little tension from week to week. The cheese factor was far too high for any serious drama to exist. The second season premiere improves on these problems somewhat--I suspect, by virtue of plot density--and is more watchable than the previous season. Everything turns out fine in the end (this feature of the show is going to stay whether we like it or not), but at least there are several important difficulties which won't be resolved in next week's episode. There is actually distrust going on with Tom and his sons, and among them, and Pope isn't playing games anymore. On the mythology front, we learn that the skitters have this parasite/machine that can implant itself into people, bore holes in jars to escape, and fly back to a skitter and jump in its eye--that's it. The cliffhanger at the end of last season is mostly brushed away, with a tall alien giving out platitudes about surrendering and whatnot before letting Tom go and shooting the other prisoners. I'm hoping Falling Skies improves this season, but I love the idea behind the show so much that I'm sticking around for it no matter what.<br />
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<strong>Girls</strong> has been a very controversial show, and after watching the season finale, I think much of the arguing had nothing to do with the show itself. There is nothing about the show that warrants too much discussion. One side says something negative, the other feels compelled not only to heap unwarranted praise on the show (like saying the first season is the greatest thing ever) but also to start attacking the other side personally. From what I've read in the AV Club, negative discussion of the show would often end up in accusations of sexism...... because that's the only reason why you wouldn't like it. I mean seriously, is someone saying that Lena Dunham unattractive sexist? And is Todd VanDerWerff having a section on Glee's girls each week equally sexist? (The funny thing is, I clearly remember people complaining about it before but he and other gentlemen never cared. I suppose the lesson here is that objectifying not super-hot women gets a knee-jerk MISOGYNY cry while objectifying super-hot women does not.)You know what's sexist? The guy in India who cut off his daughter's head and paraded it around town. The Taliban poisoning the water supply of a girls' school. A ton of those Hollywood director who use the casting couch. You see these people white knighting on the AV Club, directing their vitriol random commentators to make themselves feel better, and it's pretty sad. Why not attack every show with a hot girl who can't act? Attack HBO for putting all that T&A in Game of Thrones.<br />
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About the show itself, Girls is a fun show, with enough unexpected events each week to keep viewers on their toes. But let's not pretend Girls is anything more than a quaint, quirky show that fits in with the rest of HBO's comedies. This isn't revolutionary or anything. The characters are unlikable, spoiled, and full of neuroses (a pleasant way of saying they're self-obsessed). Shoshanna isn't too bad, but her character seems to come from an NBC sitcom, not this warped reality. We never see them put effort into anything, nor are they particularly good people. Somehow, they manage to survive despite not doing anything of value. In this sense, 2 Broke Girls is actually more realistic. Girls tries to go deeper than purely work issues, to find something inside of the characters that viewers would be surprised to find inside themselves, but I think these glimmers of humanity never quite come through all the unlikable features, although there are some intersections. In the end, I like seeing what the characters do each week since the settings and situation vary so much, but there's nothing actually redeeming about any part of the show.<br />
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In week two, <strong>True Blood</strong> has already fallen into the trap of previous season--a couple interesting parts and the rest useless. The writers just love to keep 10 separate storylines, thinking each should be in every episode, when these protracted plots serve to make the episodes almost unbearable. (Is it too hard to do it Vampire Diaries style, putting off a couple plots for a a number of weeks, then bringing it back in full force, so viewers don't get bored?) Worse, the portrayal of the Authority leaves something to be desired. Although their rituals and religion are cool additions to the show, the Authority seems rather incompetent. They don't know anything about what's going on, or what Bill and Eric have been up to. For a group of seemingly powerful vampires, you'd think they'd have a massive database of information about every vampire, and spies everywhere. Instead, they're interrogating and getting nothing. And why would they need Bill and Eric to get Russell if they were so powerful themselves?<br />
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<strong>Suits</strong> is easily the most compelling drama on USA. I guess this isn't too much of a complement, considering how USA executives purposefully dumb things down, but I'd also say that Suits is more compelling than anything on TNT (maybe except The Closer). There is serious drama on the show--Mike lying about his education, Mike's girl problems, and now the other partner, Hardman, returning--and that USA slickness and carefree attitude we've come to know. All of this comes together in a nice package, and it makes Suits not only a good USA drama, but a good drama in general.<br />
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If you were to draw a string from one <strong>Burn Notice</strong> big bad to another, you'd notice something peculiar: it's one long chain. There's one big bad, then another, then another, each related only to the one directly before and after. It's this kind of storytelling which has driven Burn Notice for five seasons and is unlikely to stop, as Matt Nix basically <a href="http://tvline.com/2012/06/13/burn-notice-season-6-preview-matt-nix/">admits</a> that the network is the reason why the show is the way it is, if you read between the lines a bit. (Exact quote: For a lot of reasons, many of them having to do with how the show works on the network ā and Iām not blaming anyone for this ā our season premieres often have to hit the reset button fairly quickly.) It's a little different with Fi in prison for the time being, I'm guessing until the midseason finale, but the show can largely operate in the same way. Anson pops in once in a while, Jesse fills in for Fi, Fi has to survive in prison, and the rest of the parts fall in place.<br />
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I have a hard time caring about <strong>Royal Pains's</strong> ongoing stories. I barely remember what went down with Hank and Evan's father, and I've tuned out the Boris drama. But nothing irks me more than the Jill stuff. Since the very beginning of the show, Jill has been an ill-defined character, being part of the show only because she had a relationship with Hank. Slowly, this included Divya, but she's always been a pointless character outside of her interactions with the more important characters. The writers then tried to spice things up by having her take a position in Uruguay, and this dragged on for a season. But the writers hit a complete reset last week, having the job fall through. I get it, she doesn't have a job now and sets up a situation where she can help Hank with HankMed, but seriously, this kind of string pulling makes Burn Notice look good.<br />
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While the new <strong>Dallas</strong> isn't as bad as the recent Blue Lagoon remake on Lifetime (which is a serious challenger for the worst thing created in the history of forever), it's also not great television. The story is similar to the original, with JR, a billion years old, and his son John Ross scheming to no end while Bobby and his adopted son Christopher try to stay afloat. The first two episodes contain a multitude of twists, and by the end of it, we really get the sense that most of the characters are terrible people who have no morality and will stop at nothing to get what they want. One of the clunkiest parts of the show is when the writers are trying to be modern, bringing in this alternative energy angle. It's comes off as juvenile with discussion about Elena and Christopher's college degrees, as if an undergraduate education will be enough to compete with firms with millions of dollars who are hiring PhDs. Yeah, Elena can totally turn the tides of alternative energy!<br />
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<strong>Franklin and Bash</strong> is a silly, stupid show. Each episode has a court scene where everything goes bonkers and flies in the face of every other courtroom show. It's this kind of thing which sets the show apart from others and why I continue to watch it.TV Obsessedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09117251732141325156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054757690700660422.post-49153611097385043542012-06-12T13:49:00.000-07:002012-06-12T13:49:59.510-07:00Reviews 6/05/12 - 6/11/12<strong>Longmire's</strong> second episode once again brings the characters into another culture, Mennonites this week. It's a bit odd that both episodes would have these cultural backdrops, with several sections of exposition and explanations. Hopefully we don't go visit Montana Chinatown next week. The rest of the episode expands on the various plots for this season, the big mystery over Longmire's back and Cady sleeping with Branch. The latter is mostly fine, but the former is gives me pause with the whole "mystery dialogue" thing going on, where characters speak obliquely about things so viewers don't know exactly what's going on.<br />
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<strong>Mad Men's</strong> very strong fifth season ended with an episode that was just okay for a season finale. Now, okay for Mad Men would be a dream for other shows, but a lot of the episode seemed disconnected. First, Adam and the tooth--way on the nose. Overall, the episode lacked a central plot core outside of the character relationships. It has a little bit of everyone--Roger and Marie, Peter and Beth, Don and Megan--but not any chain of events that would constitute much of a complete plot. There has been relatively little advertising this season, and the season finale reflected this. Even the idea of expanding the office isn't played up to be a big deal. Actually, the episode felt a lot like the theme of the episode, the unobtainable. I'm reaching for the main plot of episode, but instead only find thematic connections. The episode ends with Don walking away from Megan and ending up at a bar. It looks like this seals the fate of their marriage, as Don is willing to let her go, even if he knows this will end their marriage. He tried to keep her close the entire season, but Megan didn't want to, and Don acknowledges that certain things just have to play out. Megan has actually been a pretty decent person through the season, despite concerns that she'd be conniving, given how she married Don. But we finally see that side of her when she screws over her friend and gets the role instead of suggesting her to Don. I don't think she'll be sticking around too much longer.<br />
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<strong>Veep's</strong> first season looks like it's going to end with Selina on top, somehow making the public like her despite all her gaffs. But then it all collapses and she's in worse shape than when the episode began. The thing about Veep is that we never really feel the full implications of the shitstorm of the week. There are never any permanent changes that really affect the makeup of the show. Overall, Veep's first season has been pretty entertaining, to see Selina and her staff scramble each week to fix problems only to create more, but I don't think the show ever reached the level of must-watch television.<br />
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The beginning of <strong>True Blood's</strong> seasons are always good. We have new plots, new characters, and a plate full of new problems. The fifth season premiere is no exception, serving up plenty of funny moments while keeping the plot moving. The most interesting plot, as always, is when vampires and involved. The Authority stuff is pretty interesting, complicated by Russell Edgington's return. On the other end of the spectrum is Sam's ongoing feud with the wolfpack. Sam hasn't been a relevant characters, except in his own little world, for so long that it's hard to care. Even Terry gets a more interesting story, with a military friend telling him how the rest of the squad members had fires burn down their houses. So it wasn't crazy ghost lady? The episode ends with Tara bursting out of the ground and she probably isn't too happy.<br />
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Unfortunately, quality of episodes waxes and wanes on the characters they focus on. Sooner or later, there's going to be a Sam episode and everyone will be bored out of their minds. Or maybe the season will devolve like it did last season and everything will be stupid. In any case, the writers have proven, unquestionably, over the past few seasons that their capacity for utter failure rises as the season progresses.<br />
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Going into <strong>Fairly Legal's</strong> season finale, I wonder why the writers decided to add Ben to the show. He's not a bad character, at least not in comparison to the others on the show, but he's not exactly an improvement. And what the writers are doing with him, making him Kate's love interest from afar, is a big stretch. I mean, are they trying to spice up the show? Give Kate something to do? To me, it seems like the writers are grasping at straws trying to make the show work.<br />
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<strong>Saving Hope</strong>: No, Daniel Jackson didn't die and ascend again. Michael Shanks plays a doctor in a coma who is floating outside his body, watching everyone at the hospital. You can quickly tell why the show was relegated to summer duty. Its filled to the brim with lens flares that would make Michael Bay blush, and the plotting is clunky, awkwardly moving from one patient to the next, with Shanks randomly sounding off about one thing or another.TV Obsessedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09117251732141325156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054757690700660422.post-45051347514960852692012-06-05T12:12:00.000-07:002012-06-05T12:12:11.264-07:00Reviews 5/29/12 - 6/4/12<strong>Longmire</strong> is quite impressive for an A&E show. It's not bombastic or cutesy, and doesn't have any huge lapses in logic. The pilot sets out a solid premise and gives us an idea of what conflicts we can see in the future. There is the contentious relationship between the sheriff's department and those on the reservation, one of the deputies running against him, and Walt dealing with his wife's death. Along with Robert Taylor's stoic yet damaged portrayal of Longmire, the show gets off to a good start, better than I predicted.<br />
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<strong>Mad Men</strong>: I'll wait to see how the season finale deals with the fallout if Lane's suicide before saying too much about it. For now, I'll just say that it did feel too abrupt. Mainly, his money problems have been really intermittent, only a big deal in one episode, and his personal problems not much more extreme than any of the other dysfunctional characters. Yeah, he was probably the most pathetic of the bunch, but Pete has been pretty terrible as well. Perhaps it would have been too obvious if the writers kept completely shitting on Lane each episode. As the episode progresses, Lane gets in worse and worse shape, Don firing him, the Jaguar not working, and then he's dead. Mad Men is a show that doesn't need this kind of shock value, especially when there are plenty of other interesting plots which don't require a death. I'll wait and see how things work out. The rest of the episode was a bit odd with creepy Glen as the focal point of the "life sucks" theme. Glen, seriously? At least we saw him in the season before this episode so it wasn't completely random.<br />
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<strong>Veep</strong> revealed what kind of it show it was in the opening minutes of this week's episode when we learn Selina had a miscarriage. It won't be a show with long, ongoing stories, and that's fine with me. The episode actually wraps up a couple stories that have been going on despite the potential for large changes. In the end, Amy takes responsibility for the birth control, sort of like the John Edwards situation, which also explains her behavior towards the Secret Service agent. Problems solved. From the episodes that have aired so far, this format seems to work fine, with a new problem each week and maybe some carryover from previous episodes. It's not like the show is trying to be realistic and imitate real life.<br />
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<strong>Game of Thrones </strong>has so many different plots in addition to definite paths it'll head in the next season that the season finale couldn't possibility bring everything together. It's forced to jump from plot to plot, from character to character, from location to location without much pause in order to fit everything into a single episode. Instead of listing the plot, I'll just mention how great Theon's scene was. It was reminiscent of Tyrion's speech in the previous episode, and Alfie Allen just enough crazy into the speech that it boils over and Theon gets thumped from behind. The execution of the scene was perfect, making it very funny while underscoring how out of touch he is.<br />
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Book spoilers: I've wanted to see how the show would tackle the House of Undying, the most obscure part of A Clash of Kings. Dany is instructed to always take the door on the right, so she keeps going up and up, with weird things happening all over the place, until she reaches the dragons and they burn everything down. The show portrayal is more palatable, with less hallucinatory qualities, and more grounding to reality.<br />
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When I realized that <strong>Magic City's</strong> first season would end last Friday, I was a bit puzzled. It seems like in the eight episodes, not much has happened. Yes, Ike is now in jail, Meg owns a portion of the Miramar Playa, Ben Diamond knows about Stevie and Lily, Vera is back to dancing, but the build up to these events never felt important. Instead of fully fleshed out plots leading to these moments, there were little droplets of plot points which eventually lead to the ending. Take Ike ending up in jail. It's just a series of coincidences and misfortune that lead him there. He makes a deal with Ben Diamond, who happens to be a bloodthirsty murderer, he keeps Judy alive by killing the hitman, and then FBI Albie Grant is also out of control like Ben. All these things happen to conspire against Ike. Oddly, we never really see what makes Ike a good businessman. He basically fails in every business dealing we see him doing. We're supposed to assume that he is, from all the events and whatnot at his hotel, but we never actually see him negotiating, leaving open the possibility that the hotel itself, not Ike, is the reason why the events come to the hotel. Another thing is how incomplete some stories are. Victor and Mercedes have been on the outskirts of the show, rarely important other than when Maria is being discussed or when Mercedes is with Danny. When Maria dies, we're supposed to care a lot after seeing so little of them. <br />
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This is not to say Magic City is bad. Far from it. Magic City, in Starz fashion, did not reach HBO level as was expected, but turned out to be a pretty good show, which very watchable even if the plot developments needed more. I'll be watching next season.TV Obsessedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09117251732141325156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054757690700660422.post-13200031788152961722012-05-29T18:25:00.000-07:002012-05-29T18:25:13.587-07:00Reviews 5/22/12 - 5/28/12<strong>Hatfields & McCoys</strong> is a lengthy, boring slog of nothingness. There are these two families, the Hatfields and McCoys, two family names synonymous with feuding, and History thought they should try dramatize their conflict (it's better than aliens at least!). But who knew feuding could be so lifeless? There is nothing about the miniseries that is memorable, no moments that stick up as exemplars of good television. The characters are blank, random people who go through the motions as one would expect. The only thing different about them is that they are explicitly called Hatfields or McCoys, Otherwise they are all the same, Southern men with these time-bound notions of honor and family. As far as the plot goes, the feud is equally lifeless as the characters. One side does something, the other retaliates, some try to stem the fighting, but it continues on through generations. Then there is this cliched Romeo and Juliet story which is unresolved as the first of three parts ends on a cliffhanger. I wouldn't have so much problems with H&C if it weren't so damn long. Two hours! Two hours for 5 relevant plot points!<br />
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Last week's episode of <strong>Girls</strong> focused solely on Hannah and this week's episode focused on a single location with all the characters. It was very cool to see how all the characters get in one place, when they typically are in many different places. The episode more or less follows the path of previous episodes, with serious flaws in each character and what they're doing. But it always turns out okay, sort of, with acceptance of what they have.<br />
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<strong>Veep</strong> took a big turn when it's revealed that Selina is pregnant. This would be a large change, even if the marriage proposal lies are believed. Part of me doesn't think the pregnancy will actually be true or come to completion. Previous public embarrassments are forgotten by the next episode, but an actual pregnancy, big belly and all, could change things. We'll see.<br />
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<strong>Continuum</strong> is a show which premiered in Canada only this Sunday. Luckily the internet is out there, so anyone is out there. A lot of it is what you would expect of Canadian sci-fi. The ideas are good, which are probably enough to carry the show far, the acting is solid but not great, many actors are familiar faces, and the scripts could use more logic. All in all, it has some good ideas with time travel and future tech, making it worthwhile to watch. I wouldn't be surprised if it showed up on the Syfy channel one day, as it fits the sci-fi lite billing well.<br />
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<strong>Mad Men</strong> has had really skeevy situations from time to time, but I'm not sure if it has ever had something like Joan pimped out by the partners to land Jaguar. Appalling behavior from the characters, especially from Lane and Pete. And Don, yes Don, turns out to be the only good guy left. Sadly, he talked to Joan too late to make a difference. The little fake out the writers did was funky, but it worked. In the end Joan gets a 5% share, but she's lost her dignity, and can only stare at Peggy leaving the firm she is ever more entwined with. Ginsburg once again proves to be an advertising king, coming up with the Jaguar slogan while Don pitched it. With two episodes left in the season, we could see plenty of changes, with Megan potentially going away and Peggy already out the door. With most of this season finished, it's pretty clear Mad Men's yearlong hiatus did nothing to slow its narrative power.<br />
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<strong>Game of Thrones</strong> doesn't have the budget of Lord of the Rings, but that doesn't mean a large-scale battle doesn't have to be spectacular. After a season of war drums, Stannis finally arrived at King's Landing in the battle of his life and what a battle it was. The camera stays at ground level so the viewer gets an up close view of everything, limbs getting severed, heads getting sliced, and everything in between. It's a brutal battle with thousands, not hundreds, of deaths, as Stannis says, and even the Hound runs off with his tail between his legs. At the same, Cersei hides with the rest of the women and all she can do is lament what's happened, unable to take up a sword and fight. There is a bit of drama with Shae, but the scenes are mostly for Cersei to show the women's role in Westeros. The fighting is over when Tywin and the Tyrells save the day and Stannis is driven off, leaving King's Landing with plenty of bodies and tears, but no new king.<br />
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Book spoilers: The entire episode focused on the battle, so on some level there weren't many deviations. I do have a complaint with regards to how the wildfire/Davos parts were handled. In the book, we see Tyrion, many chapters before the battle, telling the blacksmiths to stop making weapons and armor and instead build links. This leads to the eventual battle, Stannis's fleet with Davos sailing up the river where eventually another ship rams a Lannister ship filled with wildfire. Then, Tyrion orders the chain raised and a wall of wildfire blocks off all channels of escape and Stannis's ships have no choice but to land. The way the show portrays the battle undercuts the intelligence of Tyrion and Davos. Book Tyrion had the immense foresight to forgo all weapons and armor production just to build the chain, a risky and correct move. Book Davos was not in charge of the fleet so he didn't have any extra responsibility, and was smart enough to steer clear of the ship laden with wildfire while the arrogant lords were not. This speaks to the strengths and weaknesses of the books vs. television. George R.R. Martin is a master of the grand scheme, weaving together countless people into a seamless tale and the length of a novel allows him to do that. On the other hand, television can get to the nitty gritty of battle, showing the visceral impact of battle on a ground level that words simply can't show.<br />
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<strong>Awake</strong> ended with plenty of unanswered questions leftover, although not in the normal way a show would. I greatly appreciate Kyle Killen's vision for the show and television in general. Yes, he's failed twice with Lone Star and now Awake, but boy does he have a knack for making things work. The mysteries of Awake were always about the mind, never a human conspiracy. It was not like Lost where people's behavior couldn't be explained through any rational thought. The human brain is as complex as it gets, and no one knows the limits to it. Awake explores these ideas with the red and green (seriously, it looks blue to me, but Killen keeps saying green) worlds and the two shrinks who provided competing arguments over which reality was real. At the same time, importantly, Awake was a human drama about a man dealing with the deaths of his son and wife while living with him in alternate worlds, and Jason Isaacs really brought the emotional heft needed for the role. In the end, the everything in the red world falls apart, as Britten is caught and jailed halfway through the episode. This leads to a trippy sequence of events in which viewers can decided whatever they want to believe. Either the red world has been a coping mechanism and the blue world is real, or vice versa. It's hard to say which one is more plausible. Maybe the red one is real, but his brain convinced himself that the blue is real as a way to deal with being jailed. And then he wakes up in this yellow world--Rex and Hannah are still alive. For finality's sake, I'll choose to believe this world is real and the other two were just bad nightmares, but it's pretty clear the show would have a lot more to explore in the future.<br />
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As for why the show failed, it's hard to point at any one thing that failed it. The acting was top-notch all around, even Dylan Minnette who stands in stark contrast to the painful acting by teens in television. Awake didn't have the flashy draw of Alcatraz or the star power of Touch. Sadly these are the two things that would have made the show worse. Awake was a show about humans, not an island, and certainly Kiefer Sutherland would not be able to convey subtlety Jason Isaacs did. It was a solid show through in through, but network television is a tough bitch to crack and it didn't work out.<br />
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<strong>Revenge</strong>: Plan as Emily did, things just didn't go right for her. She was fighting for her father this whole time, and her father's words all those years ago turn out to be her undoing. She doesn't carry through with killing the white haired man and he goes on to ruin everything. Funny how these things work. Despite all her efforts, Emily was human in the end, affected by the feelings normal people have and she couldn't pull through. Looking ahead to the next season, there is plenty still going on. The organization the white haired man is working for is now the main target (hopefully this doesn't turn into Burn Notice where nothing ever gets resolved), fakeAmanda/realEmily is pregnant, and we still have to find out what happened to Victoria, Lydia, and Charlotte. I would be surprised if the writers killed off Victoria, considering how delightfully evil she is.<br />
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<strong>Modern Family </strong>has been relegated to the pleasant comedies section my mind, alongside TBBT and others. I don't look forward to watching a new episode each week. While I normally don't have anything negative to say about the show, the whole telenovela subplot in the season finale baffled me. I mean, I get that it's trying to draw a weird parallel between that situation and Haley moving in with Dylan, but the situation is so far out there that the consequences, Mitch and Cam not getting the baby, feels unearned.<br />
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I can't believe <strong>Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23</strong>'s first season is already over after 7 episodes. I know we'll be able to watch the show next season, but there are already 6 finished episodes ready to be watched! I'm not entirely sure James Van Der Beek should have his own plots away from June and Chloe, but the rest of the episode with the Japanese comic book of Chloe was the zany plots we've come to know. Krysten Ritter brought the spunk and indifference while Dreama Walker had the innocence, and together they make an likable team.<br />
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Okay, I'll say it: the <strong>Glee</strong> season finale was good. As it progressed from the first season, Glee became more of a fantasy, events flying by with no regard for consequences (remember the Quinn debacle earlier in the season when she was a total psycho?), and almost everything that happened to the characters was positive. Rarely did they have to confront reality for more than two consecutive episodes. However, the finale finally did what was necessary and injected some much needed reality into the show. Not everyone is a winner, and not everyone gets what they want. Everyone has dreams--only some reach them. Perhaps the writers played the long con, building up towards the season finale by having everything good happen to trick us into believing the season would end on a positive note as the characters graduated--though that's rather unlikely. Perhaps the writers realized they needed to continue with these characters so they could reap more money from albums, etc, as the cynic would say.<br />
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In any case, the final fourth of the episode is realistic and sad, and Lea Michele sells her scenes very well. Rachel gets into NYADA, but everything else goes wrong. Kurt doesn't get in, and not only is Finn not going with her, he's going to the army. Considering that they were going to get married before Quinn's car crash, this is a major game changer. As Rachel breaks down crying, we realize that three seasons of high school aren't going to end happily, that for everything Rachel and Finn have been through, things just aren't going to work out for them--until season four.TV Obsessedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09117251732141325156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054757690700660422.post-39672534210833155032012-05-23T00:16:00.000-07:002012-05-23T00:16:25.203-07:00TV News and Tidbits 5/23/12How Did Women Pilot Writers Fare For 2012? [<a href="http://www.deadline.com/2012/05/how-did-women-pilot-writers-fare-for-2012/">Deadline</a>]<br />
- This "analysis" is bad, cherry picking a few choice statistics and drawing the big picture from there. A few problems with her line of thought. 1) What are the percentages of scripts sent to the networks from men and women? If only 1% of the scripts were sent by women, then obviously very few scripts from women would be picked up. Shouldn't this be important information to know? And before anyone still says there should be a 50-50 split, it's pretty obvious that the more scripts sent, the more likely there will be a good script in there. Now if 80% of the scripts were sent by women, then the statistics cited would be a problematic. Without them, however, they're useless. 2) The networks' goals are to maximize profits. To say that all these networks are conspiring against women in lieu of making money is stupid. Yes, it's likely that most male network executives will have biases towards male writers, but that means they're missing out more deserving scripts written by women and not making as much money as they could be. Another possibility is that perhaps men just have better scripts, again because more men are writing scripts, so there are more good scripts written by men out there. Interestingly, her comment about the CW, "CW continues to be a leader, both in the quality of their pilots and how many are written by women (holding steady at 50% for the last three years)" would seem to suggest this, if we attribute viewership purely to script quality (something I don't believe). In the end, these numbers don't prove anything. As for her comment about writers of color, how about she, a white person, give me, a person of color, her job. That would be nice.<br />
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A bunch of people are leaving Smash [<a href="http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/05/22/smash-ellis-dev/">EW</a>]<br />
- I think the only people who really needed to leave the show were Ellis and Michael. They were simply too creepy and outlandish to serve any purpose. Dev and Frank, while boring for the most part, were suitable on the show.<br />
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Seth Gabel not returning for Fringe's final season [<a href="http://tvline.com/2012/05/22/fringe-seth-gabel-leaving/">TV Line</a>]<br />
- This makes sense for a story standpoint, as long as bridge can never be reopened.<br />
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Dan Harmon was fired from Community and it ain't pretty [<a href="http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2012/05/dan-harmon-responds-to-change-in-role-on-community.html">Paste Magazine</a>]<br />
- Yes, Dan Harmon seems to be a hard guy to work with, given what we know went down between him and Chevy Chase. But he's also a brilliant writer who shepherded Community through three amazing seasons with plenty of fresh ideas. It looks like the show is headed in a new direction, with a new slate of producers and no Dan Harmon to even lay out the next season. There was a trade off between having to deal with Dan Harmon and having his ideas, but in the end it was simply too much to keep well. What's weird, though, is that Robert Greenblatt would chose to lie about the situation just to calm the fans, when Dan Harmon, as he eventually did, could easily tell the truth.TV Obsessedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09117251732141325156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054757690700660422.post-42765558708607550622012-05-22T15:48:00.000-07:002012-05-22T15:48:54.753-07:00Reviews 5/16/12 - 5/22/12I watched every episode of <strong>House</strong>, all 177 episodes, so I wanted this finale to be good. For all the criticism of the show I've had over the years, Hugh Laurie remained steadfastly dedicated to the character and to his acting. Every wince, every movement, every limp was owned by him, and he's the main reason why I stayed around. But beyond that, I always thought the show had potential as a drama, as the first two seasons and the fourth season finale showed. There were exciting stories in those seasons, when things actually seemed to be on the line, before the later seasons came and the show descended into gimmicks<br />
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Even though this final eight season hasn't been particularly good, I held out hope that the writers would pull out something in the final episode worthy of Hugh Laurie. They didn't. The first forty minutes of the episode are a flat out embarrassment, with a framing device that would make Glee look subtle. House is hallucinating in this burning building and past characters are showing up to talk to him and guide him through the story of how he got there. It's blatant fan service at its worst, bringing back random characters to talk to him. So there's Kutner, Amber, Stacy, then Cameron, and they're all trying to talk to him and explore his psyche. I'm not sure if it would be possible for any writer to make something successful out of this, but the writing is rubbish, the characters weaseling their way into House's head with pure sophistry. Do we really need people to lay out, word for word, who House is? While it's painfully blunt, I wouldn't have so much problems with this had it not taken up so much time. I kept checking the clock, incredulous that the writers would drag this on for so long, but they did. Then, House somehow comes to a revelation that he should live, fakes his death, listens in on his funeral, rides off with Wilson, and the series is over.<br />
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As for the other characters, the patient, and the medicine, those were glossed over as they usually are. The returning characters have about a line each and they don't even talk to other people. The patient is part of the framing device, so he's kind of just there to guide House's flashbacks/storytelling. In the end, House was always a show about House and all attempts to give extra dimensions to the other characters fell to the wayside. The writers got so caught up in exploring House with pure dialogue that there wasn't anything left in the episode, no meat to backup what was going on.<br />
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Am I surprised the finale turned out this way? Kind of. I thought the writers would come up with something meaningful and not stilted. This was there time to shine and prove everyone wrong about the past seasons, but it seems like they either didn't care or were just lucky in the past.<br />
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<strong>Girls</strong> tried something a bit different this week, focusing on Hannah alone. It's a nice episode of television, showing us Hannah's past while comparing it to her present, and how it may be better if she returned to a familiar home where rent, among other things, is not a problem.<br />
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<strong>Mad Men</strong> is a thoroughly entertaining show. I know, it's obvious to anyone who watches, but seriously, I amazed each week how fun it is. This week's episode featured the return of Paul Kinsey who we haven't seen since season 3, I believe. And boy was it a return. He's in full Hare Krishna garb, with a wacko girlfriend, and has written a Star Trek script for an episode titled "The Negron Complex." Hilarious stuff all around, including Harry's reaction. The show can also turn around and crank up the heat, as Don and Joan's conversation at the bar was beyond smoldering. Megan and Don have a huge fight in the episode and it looks like their marriage is in trouble. Don's going to be done and Megan still thinks t<br />
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With the big battle looming next week, <strong>Game of Thrones</strong> tries to get everything settled before bodies go flying. Part of me feels like the episode was a throwaway since nothing crucially important happened that couldn't have happened in the season finale. The biggest developments are Cat letting Jaime go, Halfhand getting captured, Robb hooking up with Talisa, and Arya escaping, which have great implications for the future. What I liked the most, however, was Stannis's conversation with Davos, who In my opinion, we haven't seen enough this season. Stannis draws parallels between himself and Davos, two men who performed admirably when it mattered most. In Stannis's case, he was given little reward, while in Davos's case, Stannis made him a knight.<br />
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Book spoilers: So much was changed from the book that it's pointless to talk about differences. What was interesting, though, is how far the show dipped into the third book, A Storm of Swords, 8 episodes into the seasons with Jaime and Brienne leaving together.<br />
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Despite improving through the season, <strong>Grimm</strong> was never able to bring together the various pieces floating around like Renard and the Wessen world, and the season finale did nothing to resolve any issues. It even brought back the plot device coins. At the end of the day, Nick's mother is back, Juliette may or may not be the same, and the viewers are none the wiser about the mythology of the show.<br />
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Many times, it's good to take a step back when evaluating serialized shows like <strong>Supernatural</strong>, maybe even wait until the end of the season to cast judgment on certain parts. Now that the season is over, I will declare the Bobby ghost story, which I was mostly ambivalent about, to be garbage from beginning to end. When he died the first time, he was given a good, proper send-off fitting for his character. Then the writers decided to make him stick around as a ghost, and for what? To make him die again? Yeah, okay, we saw how ghosts lived and all, but it wasn't crucial to the larger storyline. That brings me to the Leviathan plot. It started off fine, as Leviathans were freaky villains, but it just became disorganized and random without any central point except that Dick Roman is trying to take over the world. In the end, Dick is dead and Dean is in alone in Purgatory with Cas possibly still in Purgatory. The ending is cool and sets up good possibilities for the next season, but given how shoddy the plotting for this season has been, I'm not holding my breath.<br />
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While the other season finales on Friday were disappointing, <strong>Nikita</strong> had that kick-assery we tune in to see, and significantly altered the state of the show. Percy and Roan is dead, the old parts of Division gone, and Nikita is now in charge. This is actually where the original La Femme Nikita series ended after five seasons, with Nikita taking over, only this time Michael is staying. Looking ahead, there doesn't seem to be any immediate threats other than Amanda and Ari. In fact, everything seems fine for all the characters. Alex is filthy rich and Sean is still alive, Nikita has Division and Michael is still there, and their main enemies are gone. My guess is that Amanda and Ari will leverage the black box to gain power and then oppose Nikita and Co.<br />
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<strong>The Mentalist</strong> doesn't seem to have a plan to reveal Red John's identity any time soon, but that doesn't mean the episodes are bad. It's fun to see Jane try to defeat Red John with his trickery, and then seeing the plan fail due to Red John's seemingly mystical powers. The fourth season finale wasn't as good as the previous season's, which had Jane killing who he believed to be Red John, but there were enough twists to make the episode worth watching.<br />
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In its penultimate episode, <strong>Awake</strong> pulled out all the stops in an exhilarating episode that propelled the plot further in both realities and had Britten again questioning everything he knows. We probably won't get all the answers we need in the season finale, but this ride has been pretty incredible regardless of the outcome.<br />
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Three new episodes of <strong>Community</strong> was like a dream come true, and these final episodes may be important now that Dan Harmon is out as showrunner. Next season's episodes may not be the same without him. The three episodes are vastly different from each other--the first a video game episode, the second a heist episode, and the finale a character driven episode where everything is on the table before getting resolved.<br />
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<strong>Criminal Minds</strong> is a wildly inconsistent show, but when the writers put some effort into their scripts, they can turn out something decent. The episode included the characters into the plot much more than they usually are, and the bank robbery was fairly interesting. The main thing people will remember is Paget Brewster leaving a season after she was booted off the show and then returned. Honestly, most Criminal Minds actors deserve better than what the writers can give them, so I'm fine with her leaving.<br />
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<strong>Suburgatory</strong> took a direction towards drama for the season finale and itk gave the show a little extra. There have always been heartwarming moments on the show or frustration from the various characters, but never the drama shown in the season finale when Tessa realizes what she's been missing. The comedy was still in episode and we got a glimpse of what we might see in the next season.<br />
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<strong>NCIS</strong>: This whole Watcher Fleet thing has been pretty bad, but the season finale at least made up for it by making Dearing a crazy guy who's fine blowing up the NCIS HQ.<br />
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<strong>Glee</strong>: New Directions winning Nationals was a foregone conclusion. It's a show that preaches "Follow your dreams, because they'll come true!" so of course they win in the end. Narratively, this doesn't mean it has to be boring and uneventful, even in the lead-up. Unfortunately, this is Glee, which wouldn't know a coherent plot if it got shot out of a cannon at it. Nationals was never a big theme through the season, and the club seemed to be doing fine. There were no ups and downs, at least with regards to their performance, so winning Nationals was par for the course. I liked the body swapping parts at the beginning of the first episode since it gave Tina more than 10 lines of dialogue, but the rest of the two episodes were otherwise empty. The worst moment came when Will was given an award for best teacher. This teacher didn't even know the subject he was supposed to be teaching for years, and he's being glorified? No wonder public schools suck.TV Obsessedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09117251732141325156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6054757690700660422.post-61087660365715400072012-05-17T22:28:00.000-07:002012-05-17T22:28:37.593-07:00CW its 2012 fall schedule [<a href="http://www.deadline.com/2012/05/the-cws-2012-13-schedule-supernatural-to-wednesday-top-model-to-friday-fall-launch-pushed-to-october/">Deadline</a>]<br />
- The notable are Supernatural moving to Wednesday and of course the new shows premiering in October, not September as usual. Not exactly sure about female MD Tuesdays, but at least the settings are different. It's cool to see the network try out different dates for releasing new shows. It might make a difference, though the big worry is that other news shows will get so much buzz that CW's shows will be afterthoughts by October. CW's offerings seem pretty good this year, although execution is always the biggest problem for the network.<br />
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Breakout Kings canceled [<a href="http://www.deadline.com/2012/05/aes-breakout-kings-cancelled-after-two-seasons/">Deadline</a>]<br />
- BK's ratings were quite a bit lower in the second season than the first. A&E can't seem to find a solution to scripted programming other than The Glades.<br />
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Unforgettable to cable? [<a href="http://www.deadline.com/2012/05/aes-breakout-kings-cancelled-after-two-seasons/">Deadline</a>]<br />
- TNT seems like a much better fit for the show than Lifetime. Maybe moving to cable would mean a reduction in cost and usage of the ridiculous camera gimmicks.<br />
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Variety grades the upfronts [<a href="http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118054216?refCatId=14">Variety</a>]<br />
- My impression is that NBC is trying to be as strategic as possible, knowing viewers don't tend to go to the network regardless of what's airing.TV Obsessedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09117251732141325156noreply@blogger.com