The TV Obsessed

Reviews 1/16/12 - 1/22/12

2012-01-23T15:19:00.000-08:00

For its third episode, House of Lies continues on the same path--crude jokes, little story, and good acting. I probably won't say more about the show unless it changes.

Shameless: Frank is surely a bad person, but last night's episode took it to an extreme, as he denied Dottie a heart she should have had. Then she pays him to essentially kill her, and then he steals from the church. It's hard to stomach watching Frank each week when we know he deserves a lot worse than he gets. It's far more interesting to watch a character like Fiona--someone with an actual conscience--grapple with the decisions she makes. And that leads to the return of Steve, plastered in front of a completely unrealistic beach. (Seriously, that was comparable to the boat scene in the pilot of Ringer.)

It kind of feels like Once Upon a Time painted itself into a corner with this week's episode. In the fairytale world, Snow forgets about the prince at the end of the episode, and as we know they got married at the beginning of the series. So it's a long way before we reach that point, and when we can figure out more about the spell which sent them to Storybrooke. How much longer do we have to wait?

Sometimes, it's a good idea to look at the big picture of a show and evaluate where the show is. In Fringe's case, all we have to look at is the episode number, 9. 9 episodes into the season and the viewers have no clue why things are happening. Peter's stuck in this alternate place, by himself and with familiar but ultimately different characters. Now he's trying to get back, but it doesn't seem like he'll be getting home anytime soon, what with the new shapeshifters and other roadblocks in the way. So we stuck watching these characters who are different than the ones we watched for three season. But why are watching them? Because the show points out time and time again that they are different, it's hard to have any attachment for them, knowing they're part of a bigger plot device. While we get plenty of great scenes in the episode with Peter's mother and Walternate, it's hollow knowing something is dreadfully wrong with the position Peter is in. It demands Peter go back to where he belongs and leave behind these characters we've known for 9+ episodes.

If you needed confirmation that Grimm resets itself and the end of each episode, look no further than last week's episode. Following an episode in which Nick gets battered in his own home and sent to the hospital, everyone seems to forget what happened. Juliet is worried about the car parked outside, but it's no big deal. The main point of the subplot is that she's curious, not scared or worried or any feelings you'd expect after last week's episode. The writers don't do much with her character when she's the most disposable character on the show, and we end up with half-baked subplots.

After weeks of feel good episodes, Chuck dived back into the angst before its final hurrah four days from now. Sarah remembers nothing--oh noz! There's going to be a happy ending, of course, but not before serious problem solving. The sad thing is, this arc could have been switched with any number of arcs from earlier in the season. All had the same format--everyone's happy at the start, major problems in the middle, and back to being happy.

The Mentalist revisited O'Laughlin and gave him a final send off for Grace. We'll never really know what went on in his head--maybe when Red John is caught--but Van Pelt got the absolution she needed. As for the idea that the necklace has some embedded electronic device, I highly doubt it. It would really cheapen that final scene and the necklace must have been inspected before going into evidence.

The Finder, even airing after American Idol, got very average ratings. Unless its ratings stay perfectly stable at where it is, which is highly unlikely, the show will be canceled. The second episode suffers the same problem as the backdoor pilot, too much Bones. If we want Sweets, we can watch Bones. We know need his psychoanalysis and random comments about Walt.

There's not much to say about The Office. The pool stuff was okay, but Robert California was insufferable as always. I still don't get.

The Secret Circle took a big step, allowing Cassie to actually see the events of the infamous fire. And a lot of what she saw contradicted what people told her had happened.

The Vampire Diaries didn't really have that much going on other than introducing Bonnie's mother, but the episode ended with Elijah's return, so I'm happy.

Royal Pains has gone back and forth with Jill and Hank so many times. They like each other but work gets in the way, blah blah blah. Can't the writers just choose something so we don't have to watch the same dynamic repeat itself?

As always, the subplots on Criminal Minds are painfully underdeveloped, but the episode was bolstered by the most interesting case in a long time.

Modern Family: The whole deal with Lily cursing was stupid. The words were bleeped out since the writers don't want to be fined, and the situation was realistic enough. That said, Cam and Mitchell again had the worst plot. Balancing it out, though, were the other two plots--the hilarious doggy suicide and Claire failing during the debate.

Southland's return was better than Justified's, in my opinion. Lucy Liu was surprisingly good as a cop, and dash camera video was hard-hitting.

Justified introduced its new batch of villains and gave Winona a great incentive of getting out of town, being held at gunpoint. The loss of Margo Martindale will be big, so we'll see if the new bad guys can make up for that.

Glee's proposal episode was horrible--a musical spectacle with all the dumb platitudes one might expect and zero heart.

Castle took a fun turn when they busted into the phone sex place, but the episode took a dark, dumb turn into conspiracy land. Castle simply isn't good when it's in plot-heavy, serious mode.

I think it was a mistake to air two episodes of Alcatraz. The first episode had enough mystery and exposition to mask the fact that the show was just another supernatural procedural a la Grimm or Haven. Yeah, we could see the framework of a procedural, but it wasn't clear whether the writers would proceed in that direction. Then, the second episode aired and it was clear the show would have a procedural format, with each episode focusing on a time-traveled convict. This isn't bad or anything, especially with the revelation that Rebecca's grandfather killed her partner, but the procedural idea certainly takes away from the allure of a show about Alcatraz and time travel.

The second season premiere of Being Human was a lot less on the angsty side than I remember, which is probably a good thing, since I like the premiere and how light it felt.

1/9/12 - 1/15/12 Reviews

2012-01-16T18:44:00.000-08:00

Shows are beginning to pile up, so there are a lot of shows missing and a lot of one-liners. Maybe I'll adjust the schedule of posting in the future.

House of Lies's second episode is a lot like the first. The characters are assholes who get the job done. It's amusing at times, but the content isn't anything to write home about.

A mix of Shameless's season premiere and this week's episode, bridging the gap between crazy behavior and actual drama, would be a solid episode. It would have all fun of the pot plot from last week while introducing the plot of the Gallagher's crumbling foundation as the younger ones grow up. As it stands, each episode is incomplete, with good stuff altogether but not as individual episodes. But I think that's the hardest thing for the writers. There isn't really an ongoing plot for the episodes to hang on, so the episodes maintain stand alone qualities, which will have the wackier behavior. At the same time, as we see in this episode, the writers want to add some drama to the family, something that might not happen if they're off making money.

With great awkwardness and spotty character building, Hell on Wheels finished its first season. Am I impressed? No. Do I think it's better than The Killing? No, actually. However, I think the show has more promise than The Killing. The cast is good, sets are great to look at, and there are plenty of story to tell.

Leverage brought back some old friends/enemies from the past to help with the last con of the season. It was supposed to be dramatic or something, but I found it mostly tedious since the plot sprang up out of nowhere. In fact, I think the overarching plot for this season was handled worse than Burn Notice's, as bad as it has been. So Nate gets justice and doesn't have to kill anyone, and they're back to their merry selves.

Once Upon a Time: How long will the exposition continue? How long with humor be barred from the script? The ratings are still exceptional, but man are the writers taking their time to develop whatever they want. Surely they can't introduce a different fairy tale character every week.

The Good Wife had another ripped from the headline story with a Bitcoin episode and while it wasn't as good as last week's plot, it was still enjoyable. Another fun thing was the three Mr. Bitcoins, one of whom was an "econophysicist." If you want to do physics, do physics, and if you want to do economics, do economics.

Pan Am's trip to Moscow was pretty funny. The Soviets are out of control authoritarian and is prepared to imprison Laura and Bridgett forever, but Kate manages to slip past them and save the day. Problem solved!

I think I'm done with Blue Bloods. Its Reagan elitism and in elitism in general is too nauseating to bear on a weekly basis.

Fringe is getting back into the swing of things (finally) with Lincoln and Peter heading to the alternate universe. Walternate might not be evil? Lots of thoughts to chew on during the episode which was equal parts exciting.

Ignoring the time travel mechanics, Supernatural's time travel episode was awesome from beginning to end.

The most important thing about last week's Grimm episode was Eddie finding the Grimm stash and using the rifle. But it's importance towards the show at large is dependent on what the writers want it to be. It seems like, from the dropped storylines (the captain, Eddie about to attack Nick's aunt at the hospital), all the writers want the show to be is a police story where they hunt fairy tale characters. At this time, I'd say it's a bit better than OUAT, which has less interesting stories and has globs of exposition.

Argh, we'll have to wait until February for Nikita's return when we'll find out what happens at Division. Nikita and Michael will probably be fine, so the writers, at least with them, are not going for a status quo change. On the other hand, plenty can happen with Oversight or Division... or not.

Chuck pulls another big bad out of nowhere... Yeah, yeah, he has parallels with Chuck, etc, becomes deranged and will have to be defeated. There's only two weeks left, so we can stop walking around in circles soon and end our dizziness.

The Mentalist showed its limitation, trying to balance Red John stuff with a crime story. The crime story was far too brief to get anything from it, with Jane popping in at the last second to save the day. The stuff with Jane getting Darcy off Red John's trail was great, though.

After the terrible backdoor pilot to The Finder last year, the actual pilot of The Finder was surprisingly refreshing. The story moved nicely and the setting was much different than usual procedurals. Add Geoff Stults portraying Walter's quirks and the pilot was quite good.

Bones once again managed to infuriate me. The plot was epic, if not completely implausible, with an evil genius as a villain, unseen since the great Gormogon days. Then there was Booth and Brennan. They're so annoying. Booth should just suck it up and realize that Brennan is loaded and can buy any house. That means she can buy whatever Booth wants and more. Choices, Booth, choices. No need to be a character from ABC's MAN comedies.

Caroline is my favorite character on The Vampire Diaries, so I hope Klaus doesn't damage her irreparably

The Secret Circle needs to kick one of the plots into high gear, because the teen drama isn't cutting it. And Jake returning isn't exactly not teen drama (double negative, I know).

The Office took a trip out of the office, and it was lots of fun, like most of the times when they're out of their usual setting. We got to see different sides of the characters and for once we see that the "dumber" characters might just have different skillsets.

Leslie's campaign on Parks and Recreation kicked off with her team and it wasn't pretty. But it was very, very funny and that's why we watch.

Rob is a show where Rob Schneider makes Mexican jokes and Mexicans made Rob Schneider jokes. Yeah, I don't think this will work.

Revenge returned to the target of the week format and Emily took down an author. Meanwhile, the other elements of the show continue to be developed, with Daniel wanting to marry Emily for money reasons and love, Conrad and Victoria plotting against each other, and Amanda possibly getting in big trouble soon.

It's been a few days short of a week since I watch Are You There, Chelsea? Honestly, I don't remember much about it other than talk about sex and alcohol, and very few laughs.

In the easiest possible twist to get rid of a romantic rival, NCIS ditches CI Ray by making him the murderer. Now that gives Ziva an easy choice...

Castle laid on the Castle/Beckett marriage stuff really thick, in an otherwise enjoyable episode.

1/3/11 - 1/8/11 Reviews

2012-01-09T17:01:00.000-08:00

Part of me wants to believe Hell on Wheels is supposed to be a parody, poking fun at Westerns and the themes that often arise in them. Surely, no sensible, serious writers would serve us what we've seen thus far without it being a joke, would they? The opening scene seems to support this, in which the characters get in a big fight following last week's cliffhanger. It's a freaking montage, with song playing as the main characters defeat the Indians who have no clue how to fight and the extras die randomly. The fight comes from old action movies where the villains are big but dumb while the main character can't die despite the circumstances. But the music indicates this isn't any mere fight. It's an artsy fight, you see.

House of Lies is about what you can expect from Showtime these days and the perfect show to follow Shameless. The cast is credentialed and charming, the jokes are mostly crude, and it's about morality ambiguous people doing morality ambiguous acts, in ways people will find funny. There's no big message to glean other than that consulting has a bunch of douchebags (and who didn't know that already?).

The second season of Shameless isn't much different from the first. The Gallaghers break the law, have tons of sex, and drink. There's plenty of rambunctious fun, to be sure, but it's a show where nothing too important is going on and you'd probably be fine not watching all the episodes.

Pan Am is almost certainly going to be canceled, but I'm still watching. Unlike with Hell on Wheels, Pan Am rarely bothers me to the point where I question what the writers are thinking. It's clear what the show is. The gorgeous sets and costumes, Blake Neely's lush, full-bodied score, and the quick pacing lets the audience indulge in the time period rather than force them to dwell on the plot specifics of the week. And the plot specifics were quite good this week, with Colette and Kate each put in difficult situations.

Once Upon a Time needs to get out of exposition zone. We're eight episodes into the show and the writers are still setting the backstories of the characters one at a time. Yeah, it's cool to see where Rumpelstiltskin got his powers and his conniving political mind in the real world, but the plot is going nowhere.

The Good Wife delivers again. Alicia is tugged in numerous directions in the episode and you can tell she's definitely frazzeled and increasingly disillusioned with this world. She has loyalty to the firm, loyalty to the truth, loyalty to the law, and loyalty to herself. These loyalties aren't often in conflict as they were in the episode, but she made her choices as she saw fit.

The pilot of The Firm reminds us why television dramas are an hour long. It begins decently enough with two suited men chasing another suited man. Sure, they aren't running particularly fast, but it's a chase scene. After that, however, the episode devolves into generic legal drama land. The middle sections, probably taking up an hour forty, are a tedious bore. Other than a few key flashbacks it's stagnant and uninteresting. Then the end finally comes around and there's the twist we've been waiting for. If the pilot's going to be two hours long, there should be a very good reason. Either there has been be lots of exposition, because the setup is complicated--as was the case with Terra Nova--or the plot can actually fill the entire two hours. But no, introducing the characters and the backstory could have taken 15 minutes tops while the rest of the hour could be spent on the simply case of a teen killing another teen and a bit of the conspiracy.

Leverage is a fine show, but it should stop having these season-long enemies like Moreau last season or Lattimer this season who show up for 20 seconds to speak two ominous lines and leave. What's the point? Even worse, why bring back Saul Rubinek's character from the pilot who no one remembers?

I guess Bobby really is dead on Supernatural. Now, Supernatural is left with the brothers, whose drama has reached its end, and the Leviathan plot which remains boring. I used to be a big supporter of Supernatural--even last season--but Sera Gamble needs to do something to spice up the show soon.

Nikita's "twist" of Alex's mother being complicit was really obvious, but it fulfilled its role in bringing Nikita and Alex back together.

It looks like Chuck, after the defeat of Shaw, is taking an extended victory lap(s). There is some drama, but it's at a bare minimum, as all the characters get to be as happy as possible. Honestly, I don't really care anymore. The show hasn't been top-notch for years, so to end with this laxness won't be a deviation.

The Secret Circle upped the ante by making it abundantly clear that Cassie isn't just a pint-sized blond who can do magic. She's powerful and very dangerous--against her will. Good stuff for the future.

The Vampire Diaries again splits its season cleanly in half. Last week's episode felt like a season premiere, with the characters struggling to figure out what happened in the previous episode. By the end of the episode they realize the new paradigm, and move ahead. For Damon and Elena, that means the kiss everyone's been waiting for.

Revenge remains awesome. Whatever crazy things may happen, Emily always has an angle to exploit and it's always very fulfilling to watch.

How many times did Body of Proof bash us over the head with its message about body image?

Work It is simply awful. It's the third, and hopefully, last in ABC's line of MAN comedies. Between the unrealistic drag, unfounded jokes about women taking men's jobs, and general stupidity, there was literally nothing to like about the show. Usually, you can point out something about a show that makes it viable to see the light of being broadcast. Not with Work it. Think about how many steps it takes for a television show to get to air, from conceptualization to writing to casting to filming to editing to being aired. Along the way, no one high up at ABC looked at this atrocity, put his/her foot down, and said "no." Unbelievable.

Reviews 12/27/11 - 1/1/12

2012-01-02T16:50:00.000-08:00

Hell on Wheels

It's tiring to see the writers do everything in their power to create "anti-stereotypes." The former Confederate soldier is actually not racist--in fact, the Union soldier is--and he's only a tortured soul trying to get justice. He even teaches the black guy how to shoot! There's Lily, the pretty British woman who is not a damsel in distress but someone who can stand the wilderness, and the prostitute who is so nice she'll sleep with a black guy. Individually, these characters aren't that bad--heavy-handed but workable to an extent. Altogether, they form a painful bunch of characters, so cliched it's impossible not to laugh.

In the post Mad Men, Breaking Bad era, AMC has been seen a paragon of basic cable programming, able to challenge HBO and the best of premium cable. After The Killing and Hell on Wheels, though, I'm ready to say the first two critical successes were mere flukes on AMC's part, lucky guesses which happened to pan out in the best ways possible. Mainly, it seems like the problem is that the showrunners aren't particularly experienced. Looking at various showrunner's IMDB pages--Veena Sud (The Killing), Tony Gayton (Hell on Wheels), Jason Horowitch (beginning episodes of Rubicon)--it's obvious they don't have the experience as Matthew Weiner (Mad Men) and Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad), especially with regards to serialized television.

Leverage had a fun con with Hardison running the team for a change and failing. While his gimmicks are lots of fun, setting up a video game situation for the marks, the marks see through the plan. Nate saves the day with a far easier plan and it's all good.

Sanctuary hasn't been renewed for a fifth season yet and I'm not sure I really want to see another season. The show's really spiraled out of control since the beginning of the fourth season with plots and characters coming from nowhere. The situation with the abnormals from Hollow Earth isn't explained well, like where they're staying where no one would notice, and plots and characters pop up from out of nowhere. Damian Kindler certainly has good ideas, but the sloppiness is clearly evident.

The most annoying recurring plot device of Chuck are when the characters keep secrets from each other which leads to bad things happening. Even more annoying is in last week's episode, where Chuck knows Sarah has a secret, Sarah tells him she has a secret, and then she doesn't tell him. Come on... you'd think they'd learn by now, especially since they're married. But no, the ridiculous secret keeping leads to major drama.

12/19/11 - 12/27/11 Reviews

2011-12-27T21:25:00.000-08:00

Agonizingly, The Closer ended the first half of its final season without revealing who Goldman’s leak was. At this point, it’s almost impossible to know who it is. The ones who “shouldn’t” be are Sanchez, Tao, and Provenza (and maybe Flynn too), while the ones who “could” be are Gabriel, Taylor, and Pope. My money’s on Gabriel, for what it’s worth. Although we didn’t learn who the mole was, Goldman got put in his place several times, which was a plus.

This week’s Leverage was very simplistic, the con barely entailing more than 3 steps, and even then, the job probably could have been done with even less effort. Without any advanced security system or dangerous enemies, it was easy pickings for the crew.

This is the kind of thing Sanctuary has been building towards since the beginning—the rest of the world knowing about abnormals—but the writing for the episode was painfully weak. Most notable, Magnus wants Will to join Baldouche, telling him he can feed her information. In the very next scene, Will is sitting at his new desk, and then all hell breaks loose and Will has no clue what’s going on. Qhat the hell? Will doesn’t know what Magnus is doing and neither does the viewer.

Last week’s Chuck episode got tons of hype—in my memory the most since the second season—but I was disappointed with it. That’s not to say it wasn’t a good episode, which it was, just my expectations were high and it didn’t live up to them. The problem with the episode is the same with all other Chuck episodes, and especially those of the final season—it doesn’t make sense. Without a stable, fully understandable plot, the episode is shaky, as the plot creaks forward and it soon dawns that the writers either made it up as they were going or have no idea how to create a season-long story where the ongoing story isn’t linked solely by the beginning and ends of each episode. Instead of a single, cohesive story, the story is tediously strung together by cliffhangers. A problem arises at the end of each episode, often sprouting out of nowhere, it’s fixed in the next episode, and then the new problem arises. This kind of plotting, when the writers want to make it seem like a big conspiracy is afoot, is awkward for the viewer who tries to piece things together. And when the viewer does piece things together, the idea that there is a long chain of villains and events leading up to the climax is pretty dumb. The Omen virus turned out to be a massive plot device which was hazily defined by the writers and served its purpose to get rid of Shaw’s Intersect.

But I can understand why this episode would stick out. First, it’s a Christmas episode and it’s a perfect holiday for a show that emphasizes family. Secondly, Shaw makes a better villain than the grab bag villain of the week, with his history and recognizable personality. There’s real danger in the episode several cool fights. In the end, however, plot is a critical part of television. It’s probably less important than in movies, but still something everyone pays attention to. No matter how great the characters are, there has to be a feasible plot to be a top episode.

The first season of American Horror Story was bizarre to say the least, and the season finale was no exception. There were little frights in the season finale, the majority taking place in the first half of the episode when the Harmons were chasing the new family away. The rest of the episode was rather mellow, with Christmas and the oddly soothing idea that they are happier dead than alive. So everyone ends up dead while Constance raises the Antichrist who is already killing people. Thus ends a truly batshit season of television. American Horror Story, for the most part, was terrible. The underpinning of the show is that anything messed up that’s sex or death related should happen, regardless of how that point is reach. Random crap happened and then, “Oh, they’re having sex. Oh, she’s killing him.” It’s not particularly imaginative.

If Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck were providing commentary on the current state of American horror movies, which are mostly mindless scares, then I’d probably be more lenient. This was no parody or commentary, only rehashed content revolving around sex and killing. It is this tone-deafness which has turned Glee into a farce and will likely continue.

The good news, announced the next day, is that the second season will not be a continuation but rather something completely different with some of the same actors playing different characters. Hopefully the writers will try out new things and less of the sex and murder. Ryan Murphy also said there was a hint in the last three episodes where the second season would take place. The obvious guess would be Roanoke, which would be very cool since the best parts of the season were the flashbacks with the Montgomerys.

The unambitious Terra Nova

2011-12-20T11:04:00.000-08:00

With all its resources, Terra Nova should have been amazing. Big budgets, big sets, big names, big expectations. But no, Terra Nova turned out to be a unvarnished turd, neither engaging the audience with plots or nor creating distinguishable characters. I would attribute this to a lack of ambition on the writers part--a general agreement not to exit a tight, comfortable box.

This is immediately evident in the heart of the show, the Shannons. Jim was jailed for several years, then illegally crossed into Terra Nova. Surely this would cause problems. His kids would hardly know him, his wife wouldn't have seen him for a long time and they'd likely be more distant, and the Terra Nova authorities would hold something against him. There could have been plenty of conflict and drama with Jim. Instead, after a few episodes, Jim is great with his kids, wife, and Taylor. Problems solved! From there it gets worse. Elisabeth is a doctor and does doctor duties. That's it. In the third episode, the writers introduced Malcolm as a potential rival with Jim for Elisabeth, but that was resolved instantly, and he became the pointless lab monkey. The kids, while doing stuff on occasion, are actually worse than Elisabeth--they're actively annoying with bad dialogue and unlikable traits. Josh is a douche who cares about this 2149 girlfriend we met for two seconds in the pilot, Maddy is a generic girl who likes this guy, and Zoe says five-year old things.

The rest of the characters follow roughly the same trajectory. Taylor is the hard ass commander who has problems with his son, but really has a heart of gold. Washington is the generic second in the command who we never get to learn about. She dies and it's supposed to be sad, but what has she done besides do her job? She's even replaced by another female soldier soon afterwards. Lucas got the plot rolling, but it's not like he amounted to much. He was more crazy than scary, and then died after stabbing Taylor who survives. The "best" character is probably Skye, oddly enough. The stuff with her mother wasn't actually bad, with her allegiances being pulled in different direction. That's more than you can say for every other character. Unfortunately, the writers treated her mother like a plot device and abandoned her in the final two episodes. You'd think Skye would be concerned about her amidst all the chaos.

Aside from momentary conflicts in the middle of random episodes, the characters never fought, rarely disagreed and always ended up happy at the end of the episode. So they travel from 2149 to the distant past and now they're happy. Basically, the conflict lies in the setting of 2149, not the characters. And since the show isn't set in 2149, they're perpetually happy.

You can see why the writers would want it this way. Believable drama is hard, and some shows that really try fall flat and seem worse than if they didn't do any drama at all. Stringing together character dynamics from one episode to the next, with varying plots, while balancing the characters is probably the hardest part of television. Though there is great difficulty, we've seen it accomplished, sometimes spectacularly, in the past. However, the Terra Nova writers took the easy way out. If everyone is happy at the end of the episode and nothing changes between the characters, writing the next episode is easy. They start with the same slate of generic characters and start again. For all the money spent on the show, the writers decided they didn't want to deal with character difficulties and bailed out on any attempt to give them nuance or shade them any differently. Trying would at least earn my respect, but not trying at all is just pathetic.

Thoughts on shows 12/12/11 - 12/18/11

2011-12-19T15:58:00.000-08:00

This week, I'm bolding shows' names for reading convenience.

After not watching Boardwalk Empire since the seventh episode, I finally caught up last week. It's really a show that gets better as you keep watching episode after episode. The first couple episodes felt sluggish and I was just waiting to get the episodes done, but by the season finale, I was disappointed there were no episodes left.

Of course, I also have a bunch of criticism. First, the show is somewhat inapproachable in that none of the characters are likable and it feels as though the viewer is always at arm's length from the show. Nucky is a cold, deceitful gangster, and the other characters mostly fit into the mold. Cold and deceitful isn't always a losing combination, but Nucky isn't charming or menacing either. He's just mean. Probably the most expressive character, Jimmy, always has something on his lingering in his mind that he's distant most of the time. The only character who seems like a good person is Margaret, but she's only one character out of many. These characters being unlikable is hard to swallow when the plot isn't exactly moving fast.

Second, the decision to kill off Jimmy seemed a bit much. While I understand how this is a huge step for Nucky, killing off his adopted son as a signal to those watching, Jimmy was a great character. He'd inject life into the show, when other characters were being their calm selves, and Michael Pitt was a clear stand out. Without Jimmy, the show will be very different.

Homeland's excellent season finale capped a terrific first season, paralleled by few shows. There are actually some criticisms out there, so I wanted to make some points.

1) Homeland is a character-driven show. The show isn't about unlocking Abu Nazir's web of conspiracies, finding his lair, and killing him. The show isn't about gun fights and explosions. It's about characters dealing with the unique situations given to them. It doesn't matter how Abu Nazir formed his plan, how long he's been planning the specific plot. Yeah, it seems a tad far fetched, but we don't know the details. In place of plot machinations, we got an intimate glimpse into the War on Terror, Saul, Brody's family, Brody, and Carrie.

2) Brody must live. The writers don't want Homeland to be 24. There aren't moles in every corner, or an evil, white villain glaring from atop a skyscraper. Think what happens if Brody does die. A new villain? That's... original. By keeping Brody alive, the writers can continue to push the Carrie-Brody plot--something that has as much potential now as it did in the middle of the season--in addition to the billion other unexplored things about Brody. And who doesn't want to watch Damian Lewis for another season?

3) The vest malfunctioning was a big plot device, yes, but a plausible one. The vest wasn't exactly an expensive, machine-manufactured suicide vest--as there are none. It was built by hand in a basement and has exposed wires all over the place. Obviously, while Brody was jostled around, the wires got loose.

4) The season finale of The Killing is much different than Homeland's. Does it matter who killed Rosie Larson? The answer, emphatically, is no. There was literally a suspect a week and by the end, after all the tedious runarounds, anyone could have been the murderer. In Homeland, we know the linchpin of the plot is Brody. He was ready to kill himself, actually flipped the switch, but later decided to save himself, ready to take the political mantle in the second season. Things will definitely change, in line with the idea that a second season should be different than the first. On the other hand, the second season premiere of The Killing could well serve as the next episode of the first season.

I was surprised to learn in Hell on Wheel's preview that there are only three episodes left this season. Is that it? This piece of information compounds everything wrong with the show. Nothing's really happened. Troubles randomly pop up, troubles are solved, and it's all good. The drama, conflict, and backstory feel so manufactured, I'd argue they're worse than in Dexter.

Speaking of Dexter, the season finale fit with the rest of the season. It was bad. Travis was more goofball than villain, and the plot was tepid. The season did end with a good twist, though, with Deb spying Dexter killing Travis. But that couldn't make up for a season of missteps and continued mistakes from previous seasons like the terrible supporting characters. This interview with showrunner Scott Buck just about summarizes how clueless he is. Worst of all he says this of Deb-Dex: "I’m not aware that there’s an ick factor, but that’s certainly not going to affect where we go with that story." Really? Really?? Really??? Really???? Dexter and Deb have been brother and sister since they were kids. They're not biologically related, but obviously there is a social stigma related to incest regardless of blood. Maybe he's saying that to absolve something from his own life... or Professor Gellar is in his mind too.

The counterpart to last week's Leverage episode was the male-centric episode and while the main plot wasn't as good, I liked seeing how everything fit together. It's a cool way of telling stories, a two-parter of sorts where the pieces intersect occasionally.

Chuck had a plot-heavy episode and like previous of the type, it wasn't good. It was exactly bad, but I don't watch Chuck for plot and there weren't that many character interactions in the episode.

Grimm had a poorly-constructed episode which was out of character for the show. The girl in the woods with the long hair, the Grimm version of Rapunzel, could have had potential, but led to an episode where there were way too many extra characters and parts that were never dealt with.

My memory with regards to when I last commented on The Mentalist is hazy, but I have some general comments on this season since the show won't be back until January. The fourth season isn't as strong as the third season, which started with a heavy emphasis on Red John, and has generally stayed with the standalone cases. That said, Jane is must less of a dick than he was in the second season. Last week's Mentalist episode was about Jane being a dick after losing his memory. His roughish behavior hasn't exactly changed, but the end result--which for him is usually positive--is very mean towards the Lisbon, Cho, Rigsby, and Van Pelt who were trying to help him. The sad thing is that he needed his family to die for him to be a good person and productive member of society. I'm curious to see whether Jane will remain the way he is, without memories, for a few more episodes, or whether seeing the Red John face brings him back to normal.

I guess Viven dying on American Horror Story was something worth talking about. Other than that, it was more or less the same. The writers don't specify the rules by which the house operates, so they make up whatever shit they want as they go, under the guise that the house is haunted.

Glee's Christmas episode was..... crap. There was zero plot other than random references to things and the whole thing stunk of indulgence. The characters became dolls to participate in a generic medley of computer generated Christmas music.

Enlightened ended its first season without much fanfare in the media, but I'll admit that I was enlightened. When the series first began, I remember not knowing what the show was or what would happen beyond the introductory pilot. Even after watching 10 episodes, I don't know another show like it, with little plot movement but so many somber moments.

Terra Nova remains shockingly boring. Between "I need to do homework!!!!" and Skye being caught and given a slap on her wrist, there's hardly anything worth watching anymore. From the outset, the writers made a couple critical mistakes. None of the characters ever went beyond their stereotypes and nothing surprising ever happened. There was always a happy ending, no matter what happened. From there, when things did get rough, there were still no consequences for the notable characters. Everyone's still fine, doing their boring things.

I got around to watching the Bag of Bones miniseries and it was better than I expected, though my expectations were pretty low. The novel didn't have a strong plot anyway, relying more on imagery than tangible things happening, and while the adaptation tried to put more meat on the story, it didn't really work. Four hours was just too long for what paltry plot was there to be sustainable.

12/5/11 - 12/11/11 Reviews

2011-12-12T18:35:00.000-08:00

Weekly reviews again! Again, I'll go backwards in the week and I'm not covering everything I watched--just whatever comes to my mind (and, yes, that means shows later in the week will have a greater chance of being remembered). No, I still haven't caught up on Boardwalk Empire or watched Luck, but I will have a post on them when I do, hopefully later this week.

Homeland: Claire Danes has been very impressive thus far, but I suspect last night's episode will be her Emmy submission. It begins with her going right off the edge of the cliff--after being on the edge for most of the season--before she mellows out during the middle part of the episode. It is at this point when everything hangs in the balance, and then she calls Brody, which leads into everything going into ruin and the brilliant final scene where everything explodes. If Carrie had just been manic in the way she was the first minutes of the episode, Claire Danes probably wouldn't have gotten as much praise from me. But as the episode progresses, so does her behavior once she starts coming to grips with herself and the medication kicks in. One of my favorite parts of the episode is how people react to her: they treat her like a normal adult, not someone who needs to be locked up, despite her erratic behavior. The sad thing about all this is that Carrie is right--Abu Nazir has a huge plan brewing.

Hell on Wheels continues to be weird and infuriating. This week it featured a bunch of cookie cutter Native Americans and religious people, while sidelining Bohannon, easily the most interesting character on the cast who isn't cut from the same stereotype cloth most other characters are. Worst is these awkward spectacles in each episode. Last week, it was the fight lasting half the episode and this week was the John Henry moment where the Native American on a horse races the train. What is that supposed to tell us? That trains are faster than horses? That machine prevails over nature? Duh?

Dexter: I think most people would agree how horrible Travis is. But take a moment a think about the other plots potentially worse than Travis. Deb in love with Dexter, video game/hand guy, LaGuerta being a bitch for the 100000 time.

I liked how Leverage let the girls have an episode for a change and brought back Tara. Fun stuff as usual.

The Good Wife has had some interesting cases as of late, and last night's episode was no exception, with the plot about potential jury tampering. On top of that, Wendy Scott Carr using her position as special prosecutor--appointed by Peter--to investigate Peter played out nicely.

I haven't said anything about Once Upon a Time on the blog, so I'll repeat what I said about it on Twitter last night. I like the tone of the show--the grand, majestic sweeping fairy tale kind versus the humerus fairy tale. There isn't anything overtly funny, but it has enough charm not to be depressing. Each episode moves along quickly, and is enjoyable to watched, granted you don't think too carefully. My biggest problem with the show is the lack of nuance with the characters. Sure, these characters' origin stories are different than the ones we know them by, but that's all that's different. Their characterizations are generic and what they do is as expected.

I haven't said anything about Grimm, the other fairy tale show, so here are some thoughts as well. The twists on fairy tale characters combined with the police work is turning out pretty good. What stands out on the show is its use of darkness and shadows, which provides a tone the show wouldn't otherwise have. I'd say Grimm gets the most value added from its lighting than almost any show out there. The Pied Piper violin episode was good as was Friday's episode, but I have a small quibble about it. It seemed like Nick was more lenient towards Angelina than the pig.

Boss's first season ended, and while it has already been renewed for a second season, I'm not exactly holding my breath for it. It seems like producers and directors were far more interesting in a distinctive visual style than telling a good story. Kane's wife was barely developed--at least not enough to explain her devotion to Kane--and his daughter, a plot device.

I like this season of Chuck so far. Sure, the plot still makes zero sense, but that's been the case since day one. What has changed, though, is that Chuck and Sarah are firmly together and it doesn't diminish how likable they are, as individuals and as a couple. Quite impressive, considering how painful Bones has handled Booth and Brennan.ly

The Office's Christmas episode wasn't as painful as previous weeks' episodes, because Robert California seemed almost normal in the episode. That said, it was as aimless as ever, with Andy being a dufus and other people do what they usually do.

Now on to the good Christmas episodes! Both Community and Parks and Recreation, while vastly differing in styles, were awesome. Community had the musical episode poking fun at Glee, and Parks had a very heartwarming episode with all our favorite characters pitching in for Leslie's Christmas present.

American Horror Story continued with the "a bunch of crap happens each week" format, but I actually liked the way they revealed Violet's death, making it overwhelmingly meaningful to Violet, even if viewers had already figured it out.

Suburgatory's Christmas episode was another strong episode, compared to Modern Family which was again pretty bland. Suburgatory has rather simple formula--put likable, recognizable characters in awkward, semi-realistic situations--and it works well.

Sectionals on Glee wasn't that bad, but it's clear that some moves, like bringing back Mr. Trouty Mouth, was purely to placate the fans. Okay, fine, I'll admit it. It was crap, especially Mike Chang's resolution. I've actually thought of some ratios Glee sticks by. 1) Every conflict must be resolved in three scenes or less. 2) For every good episode, there must be seven bad ones.

I think Syfy should stop doing these holiday episodes. The ratings were below what the shows would normally get and the episodes aren't that good themselves.

I've been watching Covert Affairs, but nothing has really stood out about its second season. I really liked the first season, which had Annie stepping into a huge, unknown world and trying to make her way in it. The second just had Annie doing her spy thing, with some boring office subplots thrown in.

The biggest disappointment--and I think everyone else's too--was the season finale of Sons of Anarchy. It started badly with the hilariously bad deux ex CIA, and promptly plunged into Plotdeviceville, where Potter saves Charming through sex toys.The episode ends with Jax taking over, the implication that Tara is becoming Gemma, and Clay alive and kicking.

Castle and Beckett handcuffed together made for a fun episode. The writers could have turned this into another one of those episodes where they almost kiss in the face of imminent death, but instead made it funny.

Enlightened took a delightful turn when it focused on Amy's mother, Helen, in the same way an episode would focus on Amy. We get to learn about her backstory and her reflections on her daughter.

How I Met Your Mother was widely talked about on Tuesday, and for good reason. The episode was heartbreaking in many ways, as we learned Robin would never have children. It was, however, a very uneven episode. It fluctuated wildly, from "wow, this is really sad and Cobie Smulders is a great actress," to "fuck you, writers, for playing around with us again." There was the sex twist, then the pregnancy twist, to the no kids twist, and many in between. How long until there's a new twist, destroying the one before it?

Thoughts on shows from 11/28/11 - 12/4/11

2011-12-05T13:29:00.000-08:00

I'm going backwards in the week like I did last week. And no, I still haven't caught up on Boardwalk Empire.

The Good Wife was rolling along just fine, with a case about a professor fired, possibly, for religious reasons, the return of Michael J. Fox, and the investigation into Will getting a little deeper. But the episode takes a wild turn past halfway into the episode, as it's possible that Grace has been abducted or something like that. As one could expect, all hell breaks loose and everyone scrambles to find Grace. Only, nothing happens in the end. Grace is fine--more than fine, actually. She's being baptized! While this brief but tense episode provides Alicia perspective on her parental role, I can't help but feel cheated--that the writers would gin up this situation only to have it resolve so easily.

Hell on Wheels is starting to lose me. This week, Bohannon and Elam have a fight lasting the entire second half the episode. So what? One the Irish brothers cheated to win lots of money? Meanwhile the main dramatic force seems to be the Indians, basically the generic outsiders who speak funny and are there to disrupt things.

Leverage's Office was a good bit of fun. There were some parts of the episode where it looked identical to the place where Jim and Dwight sit in Dunder Mifflin.

It's increasingly clear that Dexter has nothing left. The bad guys are boring--and even laughable--the side characters are still boring and laughable, and Dexter is becoming boring.

Boss is seemingly written in the "fictional but possibly realistic" style, but this week's episode clearly strayed from that. Kane turned into the Devil himself, crawling from the asehs and busting out all sorts of information that saves him. He destroys his daughters life and magically has incriminating pictures Zajac. Just like that he's back in business.

Is Bobby really gone on Supernatural? After Jim Beaver put up a great performance, it'd be a shame to see him gone for good like other great characters in the past, namely Cas.

Nikita's midseason finale ended with a big shocker, Alex's mother still alive. On a show where family bonds are fraught with many complications, it'll be interesting to see where this all goes.

I still don't understand Robert California on The Office. He shows up in the office, yells at Andy not to hire his wife, then spends the rest of the episode trying to get his wife hired. He makes no sense.

Parks and Recreation was a little sappy, but as a Leslie and Ben fan, I liked how the episode played out.

It's a shame no one watches Community, because it had another top-tier episode, with both the Dark Knight DVD and foosball plots.

American Horror Story is a bad show. It's like the writers never sat down for more than two minutes to actually discuss what the show is about. But that's part of the allure of the show--that there's a certainty random crap will happen each week. The episode ended with a hilarious revelation about the Pope and the Antichrist. Horrible? Yes. Horrible enough to be interesting? You betcha.

Psych had another good episode in this very strong season with the arrival of Juliet's father. Once again, though, the show's central premise of Shawn lying about psychic abilities is troubling. Juliet's father is a conman, someone who consistently let down his father. What about Shawn and his constant lies? Surely this subject has to be touched on eventually.

All the secrets got revealed on Sons of Anarchy, setting up what is sure to be a doozy of a season finale. Jax will have to kill Clay, right?

Sanctuary continues to have bad ideas, featuring a virtual world where Adam Worth's avatar resides. That makes perfect sense.......

New Girl finally gave Winston something to do!

Glee continues to burn off its goodwill from "The First Time" with yet another horrible episode. Can't say I'm surprised.

One episode away from the season finale, Terra Nova serves up an episode as boring as the ones at the beginning of the season. It's truly awe-inspiring to see the writers bumbling around such fertile ground.

Thoughts on shows from 11/18/11 to 11/27/11

2011-11-28T14:57:00.000-08:00

I guess I'll make this a weekly thing, commenting on various shows that come to mind. As always, I have more to say on Twitter, so check that out. Last week I started from Sunday and went forward, but this week I'll start from yesterday (Sunday) and go backwards.

Dexter was awful. There is a problem with the twist and these "identity twists" in general. When 24 did these twists, everyone was surprised, and for good reason. These twists came out of the blue, with zero indication of something amiss. This is problematic, because you'd assume a mole would exhibit mole-like characteristics prior to the viewers finding out. Then there's the way Dexter did it, showing viewers large hints, but never explicitly telling us until now. Those of use who caught the hints were not only unsurprised but disappointed. Even master-sycophant Michael Ausiello was disappointed.

Neither of these options--popping it on the viewers randomly and genuinely surprising them, or giving viewers hints and not surprising them--are particularly good. Both have their flaws and few remedies. I will say, though, that the first option would probably be a better choice. 24's earlier identity twists were pretty good, shocking and fitting with the "anything goes" attitude of the show. Their weaknesses came in the later seasons, when viewers could already expect such twists.

For Scott Buck to treat the viewers with such impunity is a shame. Did he really think it'd be a good twist, 9 episodes into the season, after showing us hint after hint in each episode?

I don't get Hell on Wheels. Bohannon has a shoot out with Harper, then returns, while the rest of the characters continue to mill around doing nothing.

Once Upon a Time has been quite enjoyable, but its format is troubling. Each week's episode has a familiar pattern, the fairy tale story filling in the background of a character while the modern plot moves very slowly. Some deviation would be nice.

I don't want to sound all negative, but, yes, I have complaints about Homeland as well. A good part of Homeland was built upon this abstract idea that Brody was in Iraq and somehow turned. While there have been some twists here and there, this remains true--up until the last episode. Everything was peeled back, as we learned Brody's exact motivations, revenge for Abu Nazir's son. Is it compelling? Kind of. Is it hammy? I'd say so. The biggest problem is that Brody is now far, far less mysterious. I guess this is the natural progression of a show, but it shattered one of the illusions surrounding him.

The first half of The Walking Dead's second season hasn't been great, and has largely been hindered by the characters staying at the farm for so long, but the final scene was perfect. There's Shane, yelling like a crazed man--except he makes sense. They're living in a horrible world, with horrible conditions, with horrible zombies trying to eat them. What's left? So he opens the barn, letting out the zombies and everyone is forced to slaughter them all. Meanwhile, we can imagine how Herschel is feeling, as he clearly expressed his thoughts on zombies earlier. After they're done killing the zombies, out comes Sophia. The girl they're been looking for for weeks is not only dead but a zombie, feral, slowly walking towards them. The characters are stunned as should be every viewer. While Rick has been hanging back the whole time, wishing to respect Herschel, he finally gives in, blowing out Sophia's brains.

The Sanctuary musical episode was really bad. The writers have never been particularly skilled and it definitely showed. They don't have the creativity or finesse to pull off a musical episode that is both plausible and fun.

Suburgatory's Thanksgiving episode was fun and crazy, and remains a great pleasure to watch.

Opie finally snapped on Sons of Anarchy, putting a couple bullets into Clay. Whether he dies is something to be seen later, but there's no doubt that things will change.

Castle had the kind of serious episode is needs to have more often--not the trumped up, "will everyone die???" kind but the psychological one. The episode was by no means perfect, but it was better relative to the previous serious episodes. Excellent acting by Stana Katic in the scenes that demanded it, which is saying something, because she's usually very wooden.

Hawaii Five-0 was crazy and incredibly entertainly. Rebels in North Korea, taking a helicopter to North Korea, Jenna being a total idiot? What part of the episode made sense? But the episode had a plenty of action and amazing cinematography, so it was all good, in true Hawaii Five-0 spirit.

Terra Nova was more interesting than usual since it touched on Taylor's son and the mystery, but it's still not that interesting.

Thoughts on last week's shows

2011-11-21T13:59:00.000-08:00

While I'm not doing reviews anymore, I still want to provide some thoughts on the shows of the week, some of which I've already said on Twitter. Basically, I'll write a sentence or two about the show that comes to mind, so I may not cover all shows if I don't have anything good to say. Also, I haven't watched the past three episodes of Boss or Boardwalk Empire. The episodes discussed, unless otherwise specified, will be from last week only. I'll try to keep the order in which they were aired.

Homeland remains the best new show on television and one of the best shows period. Each week the show is flipped on its head, all while the characters are richly developed to the fullest extent. Last week, Carrie hung out with Brody and we got all the explanations for his odd behavior, then learned of Walker still being alive. This week, Walker escapes and we see that Brody knows more than he's telling.

Dexter continues to be very boring. It seems like the only thing the writers have left is the eventual reveal that Gellar isn't actually there, something that's constantly been hinted at.

The Good Wife having less focus on Alicia is good. It allows for interesting plots like Will being the center of a big corruption investigation.

Hell on Wheels is visually gorgeous, but is otherwise lacking. It's never bad, as I would occasionally describe The Walking Dead or Dexter, but it's certainly awkward. The episodes are choppy and don't flow well, both plot-wise and thematically. A couple things I noted on Twitter earlier about last night's episode: Weird music at times, Bohannon randomly stumbling on Lily on his way to find Harper, acting on Johnson's tip a whole episode after getting the information, super explicit dialogue that would make Dexter blush.

The Walking Dead has gotten better since the opening episodes of the season. It's clear the writers are holding back the plot, but the farm setting has improved the viability of character development.

Terra Nova remains the most underwhelming show, using generic plot after generic plot, with the worst sci-fi tropes around. I wish someone would stand up in the writers room, toss all the papers to the ground, and tell everyone the truth: it's not just crap, but boring crap.

NCIS's two-parter ended with a whimper. There was hardly any plot and Gibbs's flashbacks were completely random.

After a great episodes two weeks ago--which was rightly touted, for once--Glee came back with an awful episode, reminding us why we shouldn't trust the show. Half the characters were crazy bitches in the episode and the other half was just crazy.

Sons of Anarchy has been great as it heads towards the end of the season. The lines are being drawn and it looks like a monumental shift will happen some time soon. It's funny that Kenneth Johnson got blown up again by Kurt Sutter.

Covert Affairs tried to do this big emotional episode with Annie and Eyal, but it was more cheesy than anything else. It stems from the fact that Eyal's role in the previous episodes was to be the smooth, foreign spy. Here, the writers try to make him something he isn't, with far too much fake emotion compared to who he is.

The Ava from Up All Night's pilot return and it wasn't pretty. Too screechy, too in your face, too much.

Psych had Shawn in a psych ward, which obviously had funny results.

American Horror Story still makes no sense, but I watch it each week because there are the occasional interesting flashback or something really freaky.

The identity mixing on Revenge is pretty fun.

Sadly, another awesome Community episode was predicated on the fact that it isn't on NBC's midseasons schedule. The episode works so well because we know these character intimately. The documentary format following Dean Pelton's madness is genius.

Parks and Recreation is on the midseason schedule, so that's something. Andy going to college with Ron was funny, and Amy Poehler showed her versatility in the episode.

Bones last week was better than the previous two episodes of the season, with less emphasis on Brennan doing something obviously objectionable and a better investigation. Hopefully the season will pick up from here.

The Office hasn't exactly been appointment TV for a while, but this season is embarrassing. Occasional, over the top silliness is fine, but every plot every week is the characters being buffoons.

The Mentalist had on okay case and some Cho scenes we always like, but I wish there was more follow-up on Red John. Lisbon wants to talk about it, but that's all the discussion there is.

Chuck, in the fourth episode of its final season, finally hit that familiar balance we've come to love.

Grimm is getting more interesting and the tone of the show is good, but Nick could use a big dose of charisma.

Fringe had another solid episode with an interesting, touching plot. Peter is still off on the sidelines--invisible, like the "bad guy" in the episode--which was fitting for the episode, but not necessarily conducive to the overall narrative.

Supernatural had the best plot in a long time, with plenty of icky shots and funny moments. The Leviathan twist was expected, though, and they aren't good enemies.

Blue Bloods is well-acted and well-made, but it's too damn perfect. There's zero flaws with the Reagans. Every problem they have is mostly resolved at the end of the episode, even if the episode begins with something major. With nothing on the line in every episode, it's hard to care what happens to the characters.

Sanctuary is quickly becoming something not worth watching. The Hollow Earth arc in season three--from episode to 7 to 10--was truly great, filled with wonderment, action, and a grittiness we rarely see on the show. After that petered out, the show went back to the lame, cutesy plots. Laughably, last week's episode tried to make us care about some characters we saw about one time total, and was a rehash of the 5th episode of the series. And the week before that featured the two flying abnormals--characters that were either introduced awkwardly or I'd forgotten about them.

Thoughts on Fringe Season 4 Episode 6 And Those We've Left Behind

2011-11-12T14:08:00.000-08:00

I've officially stopped blogging regularly, so I'm just going to point something on last night's Fringe episode.

What's most interesting to me is Peter basically admitting that he doesn't belong and will try to get back to his own world. Are the writers considering sending him back to a perfect world, where Walter and Olivia know him? If not, there are still enough episodes left in this season, probably the final, for Peter to get reacquainted with everyone.

The End is Nigh

2011-11-12T14:07:00.000-08:00

I don't know how else to begin, so I'll start off with a statement: I'm going to stop blogging regularly.

When I first blogging, I envisioned writing long recaps from the shows I watched, TWoP-style, with quips to go along with summaries. You can easily tell how sloppy the writing was and how I was trying to spit out words as fast as possible with some dumb jabs littered through the reviews.

But I had a mandate which, I think, has served me well: I'd only review shows I'd watched every episode of and I'd review every show I watched. While the second part of the mandate changed and I don't review everything I watch these days, the first has held true. The underlying principle is that I wanted to fully know about the show I was reviewing. So, yes, I've watched around 200 episodes of NCIS and hundreds, if not thousands, of episodes of the other procedurals I review. (Next time you find a typo, remember to blame the procedurals which rotted out my brain.)

Back to the story, after a few months of review, I realized I didn't have enough time for recaps and instead did more reviewing and less recapping. Good reviews should be about as long as good recaps, covering each part of the episode with some critical thought. Since my constraint was length, I was fine doing short reviews because the alternative would be short recaps. I got a much better understanding of television as I blogged, able to put a bunch of random thoughts into tangible words.

Flashforward to today. I don't have time to write reviews anymore. I'm having a hard time watching all the shows I've been watching let along write reviews. I haven't read the comments on this blog for a very long time (in part because I can imagine all the mean comments and spam) and I don't really check my email anymore either. As one can tell, the reviews for a number of months have been pretty poor, either too short or just plot summary. The time, effort, and concentration isn't there.

The television landscape is growing, with more basic cable and premium cable networks vying for a piece of the scripted show audience. If I could watch only 10 shows, review them, and be fine, that would be great. However, I don't want to half ass things. One can't critically say Breaking Bad is the best show on television when watching a couple shows regularly and random episodes here and there. There is a lot of comparison going on--albeit much of it subjective--and there must be established points of reference. I think it's a disservice when people review shows and make sweeping comments about them without knowing much of other shows. (I'd generally say this applies to Dexter fans, no offense.)

At the end of the day, I'd say I feel good about what I've done, if only for the sheer volume of reviews. According to the tags, I've written over 2000 reviews, which is pretty crazy. Yes, there are tons of misspellings, typos, omitted words, grammar errors, but I also think there are some good reviews somewhere in those 2000, however few there may be. I watch between 50 and 60 shows (which are still not canceled, though not necessarily airing right now), so I feel like I watched enough to give informed opinions.

If anyone is saddened for my departure, I'll probably be tweeting on Twitter more often, giving one or two line assessments for the shows I watch. (Recent sample: "See, Glee, this is why you don't have a string of bad episodes. This week's episode was very solid, but I said I'd stop reviewing Glee.") Those who still haven't hopped on the Twitter train should really consider it. It's less personal than Facebook and more oriented towards information, which, as they say, is power.

Have fun, everyone, and remember to watch as much television as you can!

Review - Chuck Season 5 Episode 3 Chuck Versus the Frosted Tips

2011-11-12T00:07:00.000-08:00

The way the writers handled the plot was impressive, considering how dumb the ending of last week's ending was. They managed to bring everything together, resolving Morgan's Intersect problem, creating an explanation for it, and ending the episode on a solid, if implausible, cliffhanger. That and the hilarious subplot where Awesome brings Jeff back to normalcy were enough to make the episode enjoyable.

However, the character stuff with Morgan didn't work. We're supposed to believe that Morgan acted the way he did in part because he was a little douchey himself, not just because the modified Intersect made him that way. This is problematic, because there aren't any well-defined lines on how the Intersect works on his brain. When the Intersect kick in and take over Morgan? The hazy ideas behind how the Intersect works makes the character development also hazy, as we don't know anything concrete.

As an aside, Chuck's ratings have been horrible, even for NBC standards. Do not expect a save like in previous years.

Score: 8.7/10

Review - The Secret Circle Season 1 Episode 9 Balcoin

2011-11-11T17:04:00.000-08:00

By its ninth episode, The Vampire Diaires had turned the corner and departed from the boring teen angst for batshit crazy vampire adventures. The Secret Circle, unfortunately, has not reached that point yet--far from it. The majority of "Balcoin" is spent on Jake and Cassie and their doomed romance. While Jake continues to be suspicious, Cassie remains oblivious and silly. Then, Jake reveals who he is and floats away on the boat at the end of the episode. Great...

Score: 7.6/10

Review - The Vampire Diaries Season 3 Episode 9 Homecoming

2011-11-11T16:35:00.000-08:00

I'm ready for Klaus to be killed. He survived Elijah's plan last season and now he's killed Mikael as well. It's getting a bit tiring to see these big, planned schemes fail. In "Homecoming," there's this huge plan involving all the characters and then it blows up in their faces. There's no "so what?" moment when the writers justify what they went through the motions to reach this point.

Mikael is dead, but what more did we learn about him? Nothing. Katherine loves Damon? Okay. Now freed Stefan is taking revenge on Klaus? Alright... All of this feels like wheels. We'll see what happens when the show returns in January.

Score: 8.0/10

Review - Bones Season 7 Episode 2 The Hot Dog in the Competition

2011-11-11T16:19:00.000-08:00

The characters of Bones are generally fun and well-meaning, but boy were some of them mean. The new intern Finn might have a distinctly Texas accent and a juvenile record, but Hodgins and Caroline really overreacted. Maybe that was the drama the writers were looking for, but good drama does not come from likable characters being dicks. Likewise, Brennan being inhuman for the thousandth time without any character growth or understanding gets old. Of course Booth wanted to be there when she saw the sex of the baby.

The rest of the episode was about what one would expect. Everyone becomes friendly under the backdrop of a case involving competitive eating. After a rough start, people accept Finn and all is well.

Score: 8.2/10

Review - Parks and Recreation Season 4 Episode 7 The Treaty

2011-11-11T00:31:00.000-08:00

"The Treaty" is a good reminder that Parks and Recreation has a heck of a lot more continuity and overall story than The Office these days. The episode continues from last week's episode with plenty of Leslie and Ben drama as well as Tom getting his old job back after the crash of Entertainment 720. I like Tom in a more serious role, being semi-useful, in contrast to constant Entertainment 720 hyping.

The main thing I wanted to comment on was Chris. He's the most problematic character on the show--oblivious yet not as heartwarming as Andy, visible yet not contributing to the main stories. In "The Treaty," he feels more complete. He's able to notice sarcasm and, for once, is able to sit down and have a meaningful conversation. As a plus, the person he sits down with is Ann, who was in a relationship with him and is still troubled.

Score: 8.9/10

Review - The Big Bang Theory Season 5 Episode 9 The Ornithophobia Diffusion

2011-11-10T23:09:00.000-08:00

Episodes like "The Ornithophobia Diffusion" feel like tests. In the case of this week's episode, the writers are testing the boundaries of how antagonistic Penny and Leonard can be with each other and how nonsensical, illogical, and silly Sheldon can be. If you usually like these things, then the episode was probably fine. If not, the episode is painful.

The Leonard and Penny stuff I could live with. Though on the mean side, the plot did explore their relationship which was sorely unexplored when they were actually together. From the way they were acting, they probably won't be getting back together anytime soon.

The Sheldon plot, however, was pretty dumb. Sheldon's supposed to be neurotic genius whose intelligence is often overshadowed by his social awkwardness. Here, he's just neurotic, devoid of any character besides his phobia.

Score: 8.4/10

Review - Community Season 3 Episode 7 Studies in Modern Movement

2011-11-10T22:55:00.000-08:00

"Studies in Modern Movement" is a funky episode that didn't really feel like a Community episode. The characters are out of their normal school setting, and there are three separate plots versus the two which have been the norm this season. Though this kind of episode might have seemed less palatable earlier in the show's run, we come to know and love these characters so much that it's funny regardless of what's actually going on.

The three plots have little to do with character growth or anything, but give us a charming look at their lives. Abed and Troy act very weird and a little rude to Annie when she moves in, so she finally snaps, understandably, and gives them a piece of her mind. Dean is a creeper as usual and drags Jeff into a music video. Britta and Shirley ride together, arguing about religion before they pick up a hitchhiker who believes he's Jesus. The central theme is that these character can live with each other even when they're not part of the bigger group. It doesn't work as well as episodes where they're all together, but it works fine for its purpose.

Score: 8.8/10

Review - Psych Season 6 Episode 5 Dead Man's Curve Ball

2011-11-10T10:51:00.000-08:00

I think I've been suffering from Psych withdrawal, because I really liked the first five episodes of this season more than I usually do. "Dead Man's Curve Ball" is an episode where Shawn and Gus are just doing silly, ridiculous things while the plot flounders. But Psych isn't a plot-oriented show anyway, and the episode turns into a big laugh riot with lots of physical humor.

Score: 8.7/10

Numbers of Interest - Television Ratings for Tuesday 11/8/11

2011-11-09T14:42:00.000-08:00

CBS won with NCIS (4.1), NCIS: Los Angeles (3.4), and Unforgettable (2.4).

FOX was second with Glee (3.1), New Girl (3.5), and Raising Hope (2.1). Glee continues to go up and down, but it's almost certain that it's nowhere where it used to be.

NBC was third with The Biggest Loser (2.4) and Parenthood (2.0).

ABC was last with Last Man Standing (2.6), Man Up! (1.7), Dancing With the Stars (2.8), and In the Spotlight with Robin Robert (1.7). Man Up continues to slide towards cancellation, and Last Man Standing

Numbers of Interest - Television Ratings for Monday 11/7/11

2011-11-09T14:34:00.000-08:00

CBS won with How I Met Your Mother (4.4), 2 Broke Girls (4.6), Two and a Half Men (5.2), Mike & Molly (4.2), and Hawaii Five-0 (3.1).

ABC was second with Dancing with the Stars (3.4) and Castle (2.4).

FOX was third with Terra Nova (2.6) and House (2.8). Terra Nova's ratings, while underwhelming, should be enough for renewal. House's, on the other hand, may not be enough after 8 seasons.

NBC was last with The Sing-Off (1.5) and Rock Center with Brian Williams (1.0).

Review - NCIS Season 8 Episode 9 Engaged (Part I)

2011-11-09T08:46:00.000-08:00

NCIS is generally a light, fun show, but it knows how to do serious as well. When it does serious, it doesn't do the played up false tension that's so prevalent on Castle. And when it does do the tension, people actually get hurt as we've seen numerous times in the past. The trade-off is that the seriousness comes out of a certain melodrama or darkness.

"Engaged" is one of those melodramatic episodes, playing up the military aspect of the show as much as possible. Given that it is a two-parter, the plot moves slowly and sets up for next week's episode. Other than that, a bit too much pandering and not enough of the normal stuff NCIS needs.

Score: 8.5/10

Review - Covert Affairs Season 2 Episode 12 Uberlin

2011-11-09T08:35:00.000-08:00

I didn't review last week's fall premiere because the episode contained the worst parts of the show, basically anything to do with Jai. Normally, a show might retool things that didn't work in the first season, cutting them out entirely or radically changing them. Covert Affairs, however, doubles down: more Jai, this time with a different job within the CIA.

"Uberlin" places Jai off to the side and instead focus on Arthur's past. He and Joan have been underdeveloped, so it was good that we got lots of backstory on him as well as seeing him doing spy world. While this will certainly not be a normal occurrence, Arthur was a lot cooler than he's been and worked well with Annie.

For the second week in a row, Covert Affairs was partially shot on location. There's really a marked difference seeing the real Venice and real Berlin compared to the lame green screen we usually have to see. Unfortunately, the show doesn't have the budget to fly all around the world, so we probably won't get another episode like this for a while.

Score: 8.8/10

Review - Sons of Anarchy Season 4 Episode 10 Hands

2011-11-08T22:05:00.000-08:00

Wow. So much happens in "Hands" that it's impossible to turn back. Looking back at the previous 9 episodes, the cartel business was reversible to a degree. The Sons could have backed out before things got too deep or maybe shot their way out. We'll never know if it would be possible since they don't even try, but now it's too late. The cartel does things their way, despite Clay's urgings to call off the hit, and that's that.

Clay beats the shit out of Gemma and Tara gets her hand crushed by Clay's hired hitman. If Clay shooting Piney wasn't enough, those two evens were the nails in the coffin. Clay's not going to make it out alive, and if he is, he'll be very marginalized. With four episodes left in the season (an extra added earlier this week), Jax has plenty of time to deal with Clay.

The most powerful part of the episode is Tara getting her hand crushed. Being a surgeon is the one thing she has which keep her tethered to the outside world, the one skill interchangeable in Charming and anywhere else in the world. Her hand, crushed, represents any hope Tara has of leaving Charming. She has nothing now but Jax, the kids, Charming, and the club which doomed her career. After 9 episodes of not getting much to do, Maggie Siff is simply amazing in the episode, in her calm and anger.

And what can Jax do? Apologize, say sorry? He's out of luck, with nowhere to turn, and he still doesn't know the half of what Clay has done.

Score: 9.5/10

Review - New Girl Season 1 Episode 5 Cece Crashes

2011-11-08T20:21:00.000-08:00

The possibility of Jess and Nick hooking up has been floating out there since the first episode, but not explicitly addressed until tonight's episode. Them getting together could lead to lots of easy plots for the writers, but it would also mean submitting to an obvious sitcom trope. Nothing happens in the episode and we don't know how often the writers will press the issue, so I'm in wait and see mode.

The episode title, "Cece Crashes," really hits the point. Cece crashes into the show, disrupting everything about it. She's nice to look at, but is otherwise a big, annoying nuisance without any positive qualities. We can accept Jess's quirkier traits because we know she means well. With Cece, she's kind of just doing whatever she wants.

Score: 8.3/10

Review - House Season 8 Episode 5 The Confession

2011-11-08T00:40:00.000-08:00

It's safe to say the writers have accepted that House is a silly show and aren't interested anymore in realism. The return of Chase and Taub isn't anything spectacular, but it introduces some more fun dynamics--new team and old team, old team plus Foreman as boss, and old team dealing with House. They work well in "The Confession," an episode without a good medical mystery, but has significantly more joking than in previous episodes.

Score: 8.4/10

Review - How I Met Your Mother Season 7 Episode 8 Disaster Averted

2011-11-08T00:29:00.000-08:00

HIMYM has built up so many gags over the years that it can pull them out from time to time with great effect. Ducky tie, slap bet, Barney and Robin--lots of old favorites in one episode. "Disaster Averted" moves very fast, as Ted tries to tell a story about boogie boarding which wanders off into Hurricane Irene, with the majority of the story spent showing how fun the group is together. Between Ted telling the story, Barney wants to get rid of his tie, because he'll be meeting Nora's parents. Barney trades three more slaps on top of the one Marshall already had--and promptly receives two slaps. This leads to Barney and Robin kissing in the cab, something that should drastically alter what's been going on this season, in particular with Nora.

The episode is odd because it's almost entirely comprised of a flashback. It's some time in the past, probably near the beginning of the season, but we not know exactly how it fits exactly into the show's timeline. Once the episode starts rolling, however, it's more of an afterthought when the events occurred.

Score: 9.1/10

Review - Terra Nova Season 1 Episode 7 Nightfall

2011-11-08T00:14:00.000-08:00

Trying to ignore expectations for Terra Nova is a near impossible task. The characters are millions of years in the past, surrounded by dinosaurs, and there hasn't been one interesting plot yet. I think part of the problem is that their living conditions and way of life is actually really good and their lives unchallenging. We can't help but want more from the show, given its premise.

Even with dumbed down expectations that the writers have no good ideas, "Nightfall" isn't a particularly good episode. At this point, I'd say that the random, cutesy subplots are actually better than the A plot, as unbelievable as that may sound. The episode starts with the plot device, a meteor hitting the atmosphere and creating an EM pulse, which knocks everything out. Why it knocks everything out is a mystery. The archives actually has shielding against the pulse and Alicia even describes how the Russo-Chinese used it in Somalia, so it's not like they don't know about the threat. In any case, it leads to a series of misadventures until the box is stolen. The plot is better than the generic ones that began the season and had a cool sequence where Mira uses a dinosaur to attack Terra Nova, so I guess that's something.

The revelation of what's in the box isn't much. It has pretty colors, but is otherwise unimpressive. The writers don't even give us a clue what it's for, unless you want to speculate what the various diagrams and shapes are. On the plus side of the plot, it seems like Mira follows Lucas, Taylor's son. That's a new development at least.

Worse than the main plot, though, is the tale of the worm. Just a bunch of horse shit with Skye and a random roomie who confesses his love to her. Could someone please teach the writers how to write serialized television?

Score: 8.1/10

Review - Dexter Season 6 Episode 6 Just Let Go

2011-11-07T09:45:00.000-08:00

Okay, I think I'm done reviewing this season. I remember previous seasons being mediocre and I even didn't watch the end of the third season, but I don't remember a season with this many boring ideas. Maybe Brian showing up and Dexter going full-on serial killer will change things, but I'm not confident about that.

I don't even want to comment on the rest of the episode, but I have a question. Did the writers include Ryan's theft of the Ice Truck Killer's hand earlier in the season solely so we'd remember who Brian was when he did pop up? I actually wouldn't be surprised if they did, given their continuing incompetence.

Score: 7.5/10

Review - Hell on Wheels Season 1 Episode 1 Pilot

2011-11-07T09:34:00.000-08:00

Well, that wasn't what I expected. The pilot of Hell on Wheels is well-shot and looks great, but it's missing something every good Western needs--good characters. Aside from the main character Cullen, who's harboring lots of darkness, the other characters are drawn very poorly.

There's Elam played by faded rapper Common, who acts as a major plot device. Right as Cullen is about to learn from Daniel the name of the sergeant who killed his wife and, conveniently, is in the same exact camp, Elam kills him. With that, Daniel is made into a plot device--the necessary impetus for Cullen to continue his search to exact revenge--and Elam is turned into the guy who has ridiculously bad timing.

Colm Meaney is good, but his scenes are just bizarre. He spouts off these long monologues with flowery speech to no one in particular, with no goal in mind. While the other characters have conversations and walk around, Thomas Durant sits and talks about making money and railroads. Really unnatural and baffling.

Oddly packed into the episode is Lily and her husband drawing maps for the railroad company. There is an Indian attack leaving everyone but Lily dead and she's left wandering out there. It seems to me like it'd be better to place her story in the second episode, so there'd be better focus on both ends.

Although there is little to like of Hell on Wheels so far, there are distinct reminders of Deadwood. Yes, there's almost no chance it'll ever be as good, but one can hope.

Score: 8.3/10

Review - The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 4 Cherokee Rose

2011-11-06T23:39:00.000-08:00

I actually like the style of "Cherokee Rose," a relatively laid-back episode without much of a central plot and a lot of quiet moments for the characters. There's no overbearing sense of false urgency, just people doing what's required of them and nothing more.

My main complaints with the previous episodes were that the tension didn't match the eventual plot outcome, very small increments. This week's episode is completely different, with individual groups off doing their own thing. Everyone convenes to get the zombie out of the well, which ends in a glorious splatter, before going of to do their own thing. Maggie and Glenn get supplies from a pharmacy and hook up. Shane talks to Andrea about shooting. Rick wants Hershel to let them stay. Darryl tries to comfort Carol about Sophia. Lori confirms her pregnancy. There's nothing spectacular, and the dialogue could still use lots of work, but for its purposes, the episode worked.

Score: 8.7/10

Review - Homeland Season 1 Episode 6 The Good Soldier

2011-11-06T23:07:00.000-08:00

The usage of the polygraph in "The Good Soldier" is very unsettling and leaves a multitude of questions that need to be answered. The first major, and perhaps most important, polygraph incident is Saul flubbing the first test when asked whether he slipped razor. This could indicate a lot of things. The most obvious would be Saul as the mole. But if he were truly this good of a mole, would he have failed so easily the first time and passed the second? Then again, if he was the mole, he did get away unscathed. Another thought is that the writers used Saul as a benchmark before Brody's test, to show that the test can go in any which direction depending on the disposition of the subject. If Saul can have different answers at different times with different results, then so can Brody.

Carrie and Brody hook up in the episode, and it's fairly interesting. They seem completely at ease with each other, and Brody certainly has no problem performing with Carrie as he does with Jessica. Carrie's behavior stays consistent, though. She's able to instantly disconnect from the sex, using it as a tool. It seems like she blew her cover at the end of the episode, asking about Brody cheating on his wife, leading to Brody telling her to get in his car at the end of the episode. Will he know?

Despite Brody passing the test, all signs still point to him being a sleeper. We're reminded during the service for Walker that Brody, in fact, beat Walker to death. Then, Brody gets through the polygraph--including the question about cheating on his wife which he obviously just did with Carrie.

The people outside of Carie's immediate life continue to have short lifespans. Faisel and Aileen have barely been introduced and now Faisel is dead, killed by their handlers. We get to see how scared Faisel is and how Aileen was the original terrorist, but not enough time was spent on them to really build anything. Still, I'm not sure I would like more time spent on these other plots. Carrie being the central pillar of the show works very, very well, and disruption to that may not beneficial.

Score: 8.9/10

Review - The Good Wife Season 3 Episode 7 Executive Order 13224

2011-11-06T19:47:00.000-08:00

"Executive Order 13224" is about as packed as an episode can get without going overboard. There are so many things flying around during the episode that the episode could have gotten out of hand under less capable writers. However, the episode is tightly plotted, so the episode more dense than anything else.

Put under personal threat, Alicia hires her own lawyer, Elsbeth Tascioni, Peter's old lawyer played by the very impressive Carrie Preston, who is nothing short of delightful in her attitude and tricks. The case of the week was probably the strongest of the season, with hilarious redacted reenactments (which, I presume, were going on in Caitlin's head), and thorny issues regarding the post-9/11 world.

In another strong plot, Peter tries to go after Lamont Bishop through information on Will provided by Blake. It leads to a confrontation between Peter and Will which almost reached an apex before calming down. It looks like Dana will stay on the show, as the law firm was just using her to lure the person they really wanted.

For the n-th time, Grace had a subplot and it was awful. The writers have been so off-base with the children since the first season that we shouldn't expect more. Grace is back to her idiotic ways, learning about religion through the internet. I understand that teenagers can be dense at times, but it's pathetic how dumb Grace is. She hears that Jesus never said anything about gays but spoke against divorce on numerous occasion, and her thinking changes instantly as she tells her father getting divorced would be bad. As bad as the plot was, it became an afterthought in an otherwise strong episode.

Score: 9.2/10

Review - Once Upon a Time Season 1 Episode 3 Snow Falls

2011-11-06T19:27:00.000-08:00

Three episodes in and Once Upon a Time is still in the table-setting phase. Each episode switches back and forth between the two worlds--the fairy tale part explaining backstory while the modern part moves at one slow step at time. While the tone of the show remains solid along with the great CGI (which put Grimm's to shame), the premise of the show has stagnated.

Everything is one-dimensional to the point where we can expect almost everything that happens next. Snow White and Prince Charming had love at first sight, despite Snow saying the opposite. The one-time use spell in a bottle is used to save the prince instead of killing the Queen. See how much she cares about him already?

In the modern world, it isn't much different. Comatose John Doe responds to Mary's touch and snaps out of it eventually. But John Doe has a wife! Mary cries afterwards, seeing her true love with someone else. Henry continues to blather on about the fairy tale while Emma and Mary indulge his ideas for the time being. When will the story pick up?

Score: 8.2/10

Review - Nikita Season 2 Episode 7 Clawback

2011-11-06T13:07:00.000-08:00

I'm beginning to get worried that Nikita is overextending itself. There are already several major conflicts going on between the various factions we know, with interests colliding and crossing at every turn. "Clawback" introduces yet another one without resolving any of the previous conflicts: Division vs. Oversight. Now, it may turn out that all the conflicts get resolved in one fell swoop, so it doesn't matter in the long run, but it's worrisome that so much is piling up without anything be dealt with first.

At the same time, with Ryan presumed dead and working for Amanda, there will be plenty of plots available in the future. There are definitely more moving pieces this season than in the first, so pretty much anything could happen.

Score: 8.7/10

Review - Grimm Season 1 Episode 2 Bears Will Be Bears

2011-11-06T10:58:00.000-08:00

The second episode of Grimm exposes some glaring holes in the show. The most obvious is the CGI. There are a few scant glimpses of bear faces (which could have been anything), some hazy, brown blobs going through the forest, and a half-second of a whole bear. If the show doesn't have enough budget for solid CGI already, it's troubling to think whether the show can ever be more without showing the monsters in full for an extended period of time.

Then there are the structural problems. Nick's girlfriend is living plot device, intended to show the things Nick may have to give up. Hopefully the writers do something interesting if her character--either give her something to do or get rid of her entirely. The trailer is also a big plot device. It conveniently provides all the answers if Nick just looks--and quite quickly, I may add. It's parked right outside his house, but his evil boss still has no clue about it.

Score: 8.0/10

Review - The Mentalist Season 4 Episode 7 Blinking Red Light

2011-11-06T00:07:00.000-07:00

The Mentalist always becomes a different show when Red John is in the picture, because the kill is revealed at the beginning or middle of the episode. "Blinking Red Light," however, goes along like a regular episode for the vast majority of episode. First, there's the obvious suspect who isn't the serial killer, followed by Jane narrowing his scope to the reporter. The timing of Jane's trap comes earlier than usual, and his plan is quickly foiled.

Instead of using another scheme, Jane comes up with an even more devious way to get rid of Panzer. He baits him into insulting Red John and, lo and behold, Red John kills Panzer. With one move, Jane deals with the current serial killer and gets the proof that Red John is still out there. It's a disturbing that Jane would do this--that he'd take a calculated move like this--but The Mentalist has never shied away from the darkness inside Jane and it's very fitting.

Score: 8.8/10

Review - Supernatural Season 7 Episode 7 The Mentalists

2011-11-05T14:12:00.000-07:00

I don't know if it's just me being tired with Supernatural, because "The Mentalists," a typical monster of the week, left me wishing for more--not necessarily Leviathan more, but something the season can really grip on. It's nice that we get a funky ghost story, which had plenty of funny lines and the most solid plot in a long time, but the Sam and Dean conflict, running underneath this episode and season, was again not very inspiring.

Score: 8.6/10

Review - Fringe Season 4 Episode 5 Novation

2011-11-05T13:58:00.000-07:00

After four episodes sans Peter, "Novation" is a pretty low-key episode considering the circumstances. Peter is off to the side for majority of the episode, interrogated a couple times but in his cell the entire time. The characters' response to him is actually realistic; they have no clue who he is, but he's not an imminent threat, so they don't make a big deal out of him. It's also good that Peter is a smart guy and figures the situation out almost instantly, and does cause a big raucous trying to convince everyone they know him.

The problem with the episode, though, is that the new shape-shifters don't really make good enemies. I like that Peter helped on the case, but the conclusion of the episode is rather tepid: now they can't know who's a shape-shifter unless they perform surgery on them. I'm sure they'll come up with a solution sooner or later. The larger problem is that they're part of the larger mythology of the show--something that's always been nebulous at best, changing at the writers' whims. It's pretty obvious the writers make stuff up as they go--evidenced by the random forays into the pattern, the Bible, etc--so it's hard to gauge anything about the plot.

Score: 8.7/10

Review - Chuck Season 5 Episode 2 Chuck Versus the Bearded Bandit

2011-11-05T02:39:00.000-07:00

Seriously? "Chuck Versus the Bearded Bandit" sets up Morgan as the worst person version of himself--wildly overconfident, annoying, and bone-headed. The episode ends in a horrible, unforgivable place, Morgan going to Gertrude Verbanski. Then, "surprise!!" Morgan doesn't remember who Skywalker is--there's a problem with his brain, not a simple problem of character.

The problem would have worked much better if Morgan had been toned down a notch or two and the cockiness resolved by the end of the episode. Another solution would be to build up Morgan's new attitude slower, stretching it out over two episodes, and focus more on the case. There are elements of the episode that work, like Chuck tasked to become Morgan's handler. But with Morgan going crazy, there wasn't any exploration into that.

The spy mission usually doesn't make sense, but I found this week's to be more incoherent than usual. The writers make it a point to verify the story of the brother being kidnapped, but the story is completely wrong. All Morgan had to "zoom" on was that he's in witness protection. Does Carmichael Industries not have the capability to find out something as simple as that?

Score: 8.1/10

Numbers of Interest - Television Ratings for Thursday 11/3/11

2011-11-04T15:27:00.000-07:00

FOX won with The X Factor (3.7) and Bones (3.3). Strong return for the delayed season premiere of Bones.

CBS was second with The Big Bang Theory (5.4), Rules of Engagement (3.7), Person Of Interest (2.7), and The Mentalist (2.9).

ABC was third with Charlie's Angels (1.2), Grey's Anatomy (3.6), and Private Practice (2.6).

NBC was last with Community (1.7), Parks & Recreation (2.1), The Office (3.2), Whitney (2.1), and Prime Suspect (1.2). Prime Suspect hasn't been canceled yet, but I can't see it lasting much longer.

Review - The Secret Circle Season 1 Episode 8 Beneath

2011-11-04T01:00:00.000-07:00

"Beneath" lays off on the plot-heavy aspect of the show and allows the characters to be themselves. This leads to one of the most tightly woven episodes so far. It pulls together Henry's death, the theft of Jane's crystal, and the various feelings that have been floating around as Cassie kisses Jake twice.

Faye has been the most exciting character (though the other characters are pretty boring so it's not a huge complement) and she gets more emotional content this week, reminded of her childhood by the girl running around in the darkness. Like in her more playful scenes, Faye expresses more than the other characters and breaks down over the girl--before seeing her grandfather dead.

As far as the overall mystery goes, all the factions are in the same place but missing each other. It's kind of funny, actually. Each faction knows specifically about only one of the other factions. Jake being ordered to kill Cassie should shake things up. My guess is that he'll become a good guy and spill the beans, but the writers could kill off another character.

Score: 9.0/10

Review - The Vampire Diaries Season 3 Episode 8 Ordinary People

2011-11-04T00:43:00.000-07:00

It's times like these when I wish The Vampire Diaries had a larger budget. While the flashbacks are nice and give some perspective, Rebekah having to narrate a majority of the story showed the clear limitations of what they could do. Imagine if, at the end of the episode, we see Klaus ripping the heart out of his mother's chest. Now that would be crazy. Furthermore, there wasn't even enough money to hire a language person, so we had to listen to Vikings speak English.

Even so, "Ordinary People" fills in the blanks of the vampires' origins--how they'd become vampires to fight off the werewolves, how Klaus's mother had an affair with a werewolf which resulted in his hybridation, her shunning of him which led to him killing her, and finally Klaus's deception, which, when revealed, leaves Rebekah in tears.

The only other plot in the episode was Stefan and Damon hanging out at a bar before Mikael talks to them about luring Klaus back to Mystic Falls. The episode ends with a sentiment that pushes Elena out of the picture: Stefan will saved himself not because of his love for Elena, but for Damon

Score: 8.8/10

History lesson of the week: Vikings had Hebrew names and drew cave paintings!

Review - Bones Season 7 Episode 1 The Memories in the Shallow Grave

2011-11-03T23:55:00.000-07:00

Six season of will-they-won't-they, the final three marred by Hart Hansen's bad decision making. Six seasons of Bones being distant and cold, the last seasons filled with Booth pining for Bones. Then at the end of last season, bam!, it all changes. Bones is pregnant, she and Booth are together, the pining is over. It's a bit sudden.

Honestly, I'm not sure the writers had a better choice, what with Emily Deschanel getting getting pregnant. Her pregnancy already delayed filming the show, and hiding her pregnancy, or avoiding it completely, would delay the show even more or create an unnatural situation where the director is constantly trying to hide the baby bump. There are very few options.

That said, the handling of the pregnancy thus far hasn't been good, though this is only the first episode of the season. The jump from last season--when the relationship was going nowhere fast--to this season--Booth and Bones living together--is way too sudden. While the relationship of the past few seasons was stagnant, at least it was consistent. All the problems of the past are washed away, stricken from the record.

And the relationship problems haven't really gotten better with the pregnancy. The prime squabble of the season premiere? Booth wants a permanent residence for his family, but Bones is unwilling. On top of that, Booth, idiotically, wants to split their money 50-50 for the house. Booth, do you want to split 50-05 and have a tiny house because you have no money, or don't split and have a massive house paid by a small portion of Bones's wealth?

Another problem is that the pregnancy focus took away from the case. The pacing is languid, the suspects minimal, and the case is tossed around until it's solved.

I like Bones a lot--the characters, the cases, the bodies. But Booth and Bones, who are the heart of the show, have been very problematic characters when the writers focus on their relationship. Normally, there relationship episodes and normal episodes, with normal episodes as the majority. I worry, however, that the pregnancy will convert every episode into a relationship episode.

Score: 8.1/10

Numbers of Interest - Television Ratings for Wednesday 11/2/11

2011-11-03T21:02:00.000-07:00

FOX won with The X Factor (4.0).

ABC was second with The Middle (3.0), Suburgatory (3.1), Modern Family (5.7), Happy Endings (3.4), and Revenge (3.0). All 3.0+ for ABC!

CBS was third with Survivor (3.6), Criminal Minds (3.7), and CSI (2.7).

NBC was last with Up All Night (1.8), a repeat of Up All Night (1.2), Harry's Law (1.1), Law & Order: SVU (2.0). Up All Night continues to slip and Harry's Law continues to do poorly. It's NBC...

Review - The Big Bang Theory Season 5 Episode 8 The Isolation Permutation

2011-11-03T20:25:00.000-07:00

While things rarely change on The Big Bang Theory, and even less for the male characters, the addition of Amy to the show has been great. She can be equally annoying as Sheldon, but she has girly qualities which make her seem more human and likable.

"The Isolation Permutation" puts her on full display when she's left out of trying on bridesmaid dresses. She cries, cuddles with Sheldon, and gets drunk outside a liquor store. It's all very funny, yet cute, behavior. At the end of the episode, she gets to be maid of honor, so we actually get a good indication the wedding is coming sooner.

Score: 8.7/10

Review - Community Season 3 Episode 6 Advanced Gay

2011-11-03T20:15:00.000-07:00

I don't like Pierce, so a lot of my enjoyment of "Advanced Gay" came mostly from the other characters. Jeff and Britta were on point the entire episode, with Britta talking about the "Edible Complex" the entire episode, and the use of the gay community was pretty clever. On the other hand, the episode did little to change my opinion about Pierce. The introduction of his father shifts part of his personality problems away from him, but it also makes Pierce seem very weak. Then, the episode gives an easy out once his father dies--problem solved!

Troy choosing between air conditioning and plumbing was hilarious stuff, the best side-parody this season. The bizarreness is certainly there and the plot actually moves, as Troy decides not to join the easy life of air conditionering. Hopefully John Goodman will stick around on the show long enough so we can revisit the plot.

Community episode titles always (like 90%) have something to do with education and learning, so the title for tonight's episode, "Advanced Gay," caught my eye. Advanced Gay what? As it turns out, the missing word didn't matter much.

Score: 8.9/10

Review - Parks and Recreation Season 4 Episode 6 End of the World

2011-11-03T20:03:00.000-07:00

An episode about end times probably would have been more fitting back in May when Harold Camping was getting more attention relative to how much he got two weeks ago, but "End of the World" is still a fun episode, mixing the kookiness of the people with some great character beats--Ron profiting from them, Chris discussing reincarnation, and Leslie trying to deal with her feelings for Ben.

Entertainment 720 goes out with a bang as Tom and Jean-Ralphio blow the rest of the their money on a lavish party. I'm pretty sure they spent more than the 10K they actually had, so their finances are in even worse shape than they think. Generally, Entertainment 720 added nothing of value to the show and was there only to show Tom and his lavish parties. It didn't really affect anything going on in the Parks Department. Now that Tom will presumably be back with the rest of the characters, hopefully he'll be better integrated into the show.

April and Andy are off in their own end of the world events as they try do as many items on Andy's bucket list. Most of the stuff is funny and April's involvement beyond her usual passive self is very sweet.

Score: 8.6/10

Review - Revenge Season 1 Episode 7 Charade

2011-11-03T10:33:00.000-07:00

Revenge now has had two non revenge of the week episodes after beginning the show with five. Mainly, these two episodes have dealt with Frank and his investigation in Emily. At the end of the episode, Frank is dealt with and no specific knowledge is leaked, though Victoria will surely be more suspicious than ever.

We learn how the real Emily Thorne swapped places with the real Amanda Clarke (the Emily we've been following), and now the real Emily is at fake Emily's house. Yeah, this is going to be more than awkward. Undoubtedly, it'll be very hard to keep things under wrap, especially with Victoria poking around.

Of all the characters on Revenge, Declan is easily the most unlikable. The writers want to make it so that Declan's the only honest guy and that may be true, but being honest doesn't mean he has to be a prick. He doesn't need to that outraged, offensive tone whenever he opens his mouth. How would he like it if everyone told him the truth every time they see him that he's an idiot?

Finally, we learn explicitly what's going on with Tyler. He's gay and Nolan is as well. While Tyler believes he can quell Nolan with sex, Nolan instead tapes it, giving him plenty of future control over Tyler.

Score: 8.8/10

Review - Up All Night Season 1 Episode 7 Parents

2011-11-02T22:46:00.000-07:00

Despite all my impulses telling me that the relationship between Reagan and her mother was too dysfunctional for so long for a quick resolution, the ending got me. It felt completely earnest and heartfelt. In retrospect, it probably shouldn't have been that easy--her mother picking up Amy to let Reagan sleep--but I really bought it.

Ava in the backdrop worked fine this week, as she wasn't obnoxious and the plot fit in with Chris worrying about dying. I hope the show continues to use Ava this way.

Score: 8.8/10

Review - Suburgatory Season 1 Episode 6 Charity Case

2011-11-02T22:15:00.000-07:00

Every show, even a satire like Suburgatory, needs reasonable characters, people who have brains and are somewhere in the ballpark of real life people. "Charity Case" goes waaaaaaay overboard in making the supporting characters dumb, and gets lame quick. The school is clueless and ignorant to no end while Tessa, clearly the only sane person, tries to teach them something. The episode is filled with these silly, stupid moments, topped off with Tessa sort of understanding where they are coming from when she doesn't want to stuff people give her.

Plenty of sitcoms feature exaggerated characters and worlds, but the good ones manage to dial it back just a bit to let the human elements shine through, making one dimensional characters more than they are. Suburgatory, however, still has a long ways to go if "Charity Case" is not an aberration.

Score: 7.7/10

Numbers of Interest - Television Ratings for Tuesday 11/1/11

2011-11-02T15:11:00.000-07:00

CBS won with NCIS (3.9), NCIS: Los Angeles (3.4), and Unforgettable (2.3). Not good numbers for Unforgettable. We'll see if it can get higher ratings later in the year, as it was given a full season.

FOX was second with Glee (3.0) and New Girl (3.6). Glee continues to get nowhere near where it got last season and the huge break for New Girl didn't help. Still, despite the risky move not to air any new episodes of New Girl for a month, it got healthy ratings last night.

ABC was third with Last Man Standing (2.7), Man Up (1.8), Dancing With the Stars (2.8), and Body of Proof (1.9). Man Up! continues to slip while Body of Proof still isn't doing well.

NBC was last with The Biggest Loser (2.3).

Review - Sons of Anarchy Season 4 Episode 9 Kiss

2011-11-02T09:08:00.000-07:00

Given that Kurt Sutter has stated he wants SOA to have 7 seasons and the ratings for the show continue to climb, it's hard to believe that Jax would really walk away from the club, despite his own declarations. Likewise, it's hard to believe that the club won't get out of bed with Galindo. So all the movement in the episode--Jax realizing how bad the situation is and wanting to leave with Tara, the reappearance of the Niners as partners with LS, Potter going to Otto--is conditional on how this season actually turns out. We'll have to see if there really is a big payoff at the end of the season which stays faithful to the characters and extricates them from the cartel.

I don't believe Tara will be killed, but if she does, I don't think it'll be too big of a loss. Tara hasn't had much to do since last season, so her impact on the show if she dies will be how others react to her death, not a loss of what she was doing (which was essentially raising kids and reading letters).

On the other hand, I can envision Clay being killed or severely marginalized by the end of the season. Gemma and Uncer pretty much conclude that Clay can't be saved, and all Gemma can do is keep Clay close to try to sway his mind. Then, Clay immediately defies Gemma and calls the hitman. With this, Clay is past the point of no return, if he hadn't been already. If she is so forgone, what kind of character growth will he have? Probably none. And if so, why would remain on the show, if not for being a plot device?

Score: 8.8/10

Review - New Girl Season 1 Episode 4 Naked

2011-11-01T22:03:00.000-07:00

The plots of "Naked" don't have much substance--one revolving around the "p word" and the other around American pop culture--but the show proves that it has enough charm regardless of the plot. Zooey Deschanel's high-energy acting meshes well with the other actors and the show moves on quickly without dwelling too much on how oblivious Jess can be.

While I've liked the other characters more as the show has progressed, I want Winston to get a more solid plot, preferably one which has him talking with another adult beyond his roommates. All he did in the previous episode was have a dance off with a kid and this week he catches up on American pop culture (because Latvia apparently doesn't have internet or something like that). Both Nick and Schmidt have done things with people outside their group, and it's about time for Winston.

Score: 8.6/10

Review - Glee Season 3 Episode 4 Pot O' Gold

2011-11-01T20:59:00.000-07:00

I think I'm done reviewing Glee, and possibly done with the show entirely. Each episode is increasingly filled with random horseshit that the good moments are harder to find; in "Pot O' Gold," there are literally none to be found. Because of all the terribleness, I want to dissect the episode and point out each piece of crap. The problem is, I don't have the time. So I'm probably going to continue to watch the show, but not bother saying anything about it.

In general, a review of any random Glee episode will consist of the following: There are a bunch of stories and most don't work. The songs are generic pop songs and add nothing to the episode other than adding a song. A couple characters are batshit insane and inhuman, but the writers keep writing them like that. There are multiple lapses of continuity, leading to questions about character motivations.

"Pot O' Gold" somehow combines the very worst of everything Glee does, and rolls it up into one stinking episode. From what we've seen in the past, Glee could be a very good show, combining humor and drama effectively. The writers, however, are far too lazy to do that on a consistent basis.

Score: 5.0/10

Review - NCIS Season 9 Episode 7 Devil's Triangle

2011-11-01T18:00:00.000-07:00

Gibbs and Fornell are always a fun duo, especially when their love lives come into focus. They're dysfunctional people, perfectly fit for each other, but beneath the humor is a melancholy feeling. Things get weird when their shared ex-wife wants their help finding her current husband. Old feelings are brought back--she having cheated on Fornell, and Gibbs being her Shannon--which probably won't matter in the long run, but add additional information to the characters.

The investigation ends on an ambiguous note, with the "beware the Military-Industrial Complex" line said after it's surmised that someone opposed to the military draw down targeted officials at the football game. Hopefully the investigation will be closed in a future episode and not obliquely referenced in the middle of a random episode.

Score: 8.7/10

Numbers of Interest - Television Ratings for Thursday 10/27/11

2011-11-01T14:41:00.000-07:00

FOX won with game 6 of the World Series (6.5).

CBS was second with The Big Bang Theory (4.6), Rules of Engagement (3.3), Person Of Interest (2.7), and The Mentalist (2.5). Person of Interest was given a full season pickup. Whether it gets a second season is shaky, however.

ABC was third with It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (2.3), Grey's Anatomy (3.7), and Private Practice (2.4). Charlie Brown pummels Charlie's Angels.

NBC was last with Community (1.4), Parks and Recreation (1.8), The Office (2.9), and Prime Suspect (1.1). Community continues to struggles, Parks and Rec isn't doing great, The Office is getting sub-2.0 and Prime Suspect is surely dead.

Numbers of Interest - Television Ratings for Monday 11/1/11

2011-11-01T14:37:00.000-07:00

CBS won with How I Met Your Mother (4.2), 2 Broke Girls (4.3), Two and a Half Men (4.7), Mike & Molly (3.7), and Hawaii Five-0 (3.0).

ABC was second with a repeat of Scared Shrekless (1.7), Dancing with the Stars (2.8), and Castle (2.7). DWTS still way down from last year but Castle holds up.

FOX was third with Terra Nova (2.1) and House (2.5). Soft return for Terra Nova and House after baseball. We'll see if they rebound next week.

NBC was last with The Sing-Off (1.4) and Rock Center with Brian Williams (1.0). Nothing unexpected here.

Review - Enlightened Season 1 Episode 4 The Weekend

2011-11-01T09:59:00.000-07:00

Wow, that was a very good and unexpected episode from a show which has only coasted along thus far. On a show that's billed as a comedy, its best episode is also the most serious. "The Weekend" is a sad episode--shockingly sad the more you think about it--and yet it never gets into depressing territory. Amy's eternal optimism shines through even when her words at expressing the exact opposite.

We intimately see and hear Amy regarding Levi, and she really cares about her. It may be nostalgia, but it doesn't make her feelings any less valid. And Levi, as we see, is perhaps an unwinnable case, which he states himself. Amy, however, remembers those times with him and continues to believe he can be better.

Score: 9.0/10

Review - Castle Season 4 Episode 7 Cops & Robbers

2011-11-01T09:39:00.000-07:00

An easy way to create drama on television is to subvert the viewers' expectations. After so many episodes, most people have a good idea what's coming, especially when it comes to Castle. Creating a completely unexpected event can be cheap, but none cheaper than what happened on Castle. Unfortunately, the writers still have not figured this out. When they have a gun pointed at Castle's head, everyone knows nothing will happen, but the writers linger on this forever, trying to get any tension out of the moment. But from the beginning, without the possibility of Castle getting shot or something weird happening, there was no tension. The explosion was probably the only thing that was unexpected, because it happened in the midst of other events and wasn't telegraphed completely.

I liked that the plot went beyond the normal "take the cash" scheme, but the eventual conclusion--the mastermind using the heist to find his ex-wife and son--seemed awfully elaborate. I guess some people will go to super crazy lengths to get their children back. With that kind of planning, though, you'd think he could hatch a plan that wouldn't require drawing so much attention.

Score: 7.7/10

Review - House Season 8 Episode 4 Risky Business

2011-10-31T22:58:00.000-07:00

It's not surprising that House's eighth season serves up another middle of the road episode. Expectations of a new and improved show are gone, replaced by expectations of the same stuff, represented by Chase and Taub coming back next week.

"Risky Business" has a boring medical case with the CEO of a company sending jobs to China, which Dr. Adams expectedly objects to. (Dr. Park's point about her cousin echoes a point Paul Krugman made a long time ago before he became a left-wing crank.) House solves the mystery and also the solvency problem, buying shares of the company knowing he'll save the CEO and raise the price.

Park's disciplinary hearings aren't exactly interesting, but Park is a fun, quirky character who is different than the other characters, especially Adams, who remains very boring.

Score: 8.1/10

Review - How I Met Your Mother Season 7 Episode 8 The Slutty Pumpkin Returns

2011-10-31T21:06:00.000-07:00

Katie Holmes hops into the ranks of other famous women to guest star on How I Met Your Mother and she fits along with them: she doesn't really belong, but the writers don't give her anything demanding. The slutty pumpkin from all the way back from the first season is revealed, and after 10 years of waiting, it's a disappointment for both parties. They both want to make it work after so much longing, but in the end they know it isn't right. Thus, ends another chapter in Ted Mosby's never-ending quest to find the Mother.

Barney turning out to be Canadian was kind of pointless, but the writers laid it on thick and Robin pokes fun enough times to make it worthwhile. I'm a big fan of the Canada jokes, so it had me very amused. Likewise, Lily being crazed won't have any affect on the future, but she eventually realizes the suburbs aren't where she belongs, and the show returns to equilibrium.

Score: 8.6/10

Review - Terra Nova Season 1 Episode 6 Bylaw

2011-10-31T20:49:00.000-07:00

I'm continually astounded by all the mundane things that happen on Terra Nova. Here are these characters, millions of years in the past, surrounded by dinosaurs, and what do we get? A sci-fi'd Hawaii Five-0 plot with a generic love story backdrop. Really, that's it?

Meanwhile, Skye, for reasons unknown, really wants Josh to get Kara back, and Josh is his douchiest yet. His big mission to talk to Mira turns out to be nothing, as she says two things to him and sets him loose. So what was the point of that again? Malcolm continues to put the moves on Elisabeth while she saves the dinosaur, but things are so fluffy with her family that the flirting is rather pointless (until the writers realize the show isn't interesting and throw in a twist).

Score: 8.0/10

Review - Pan Am Season 1 Episode 6 The Genuine Article

2011-10-31T14:59:00.000-07:00

So Maggie's a weasel? Huh... that doesn't jive with her behavior in the previous five episodes when she was a hippie in the pilot and fawning over Kennedy in the third episode. She lied to take a college class, she lied about speaking Portuguese, and now she rats out Dean. Maggie's spunk was fun for a while, but she has to be held accountable for her actions. None of the other characters have done anything as devious as she did, even if they are dicks on occasion.

While Maggie as a person has been taken down several pegs, I do appreciate the increased stakes versus last week's episode in which nothing important happened. Kate's spy story was a bit more interesting than usual, with something beyond the task Kate is given. I thought Niko was going to be on three episodes, but it seems like he left for good.

I'm guessing Pan Am will be canceled. The ratings have been below 2 for a while, which is not enough for Sunday nights.

Score: 8.4/10

Review - Dexter Season 6 Episode 5 The Angel of Death

2011-10-31T13:55:00.000-07:00

I was going to begin my review by stating that Brother Sam was wearing thin, but then he got shot and I'm waiting to see what happens with him. While Mos Def has been great, the only bright light in an otherwise bland new characters, the writers didn't give him anything to do other than repeat religious platitudes. It was the doomsday end of the world stuff from Gellar, but the generic statements everyone knows by heart. Maybe Sam getting shot will improve his character--or maybe he'll die and that's the last we see of him.

Generally, Dexter is the smartest character and doesn't do anything stupid other than think the most obvious things during his voiceovers. In this episode, though, it seemed like he was competing with Quinn for dummy of the week. First, Dexter finds it necessary to compare Travis's Bible pages to the rectangle cutouts, when it would be plainly obvious to anyone that they were the same. Even then, all Dexter does is look at the rectangles without even taking them to try to fit into the cutouts. So why look at them in the first place? But Dexter decides to be even more stupid, letting Travis go after he says Gellar's been killing. While that may be true, how about some extra digging. Dexter always gets the truth when he's on the hunt--except when it comes to main villain. Come on, writers.

Score: 7.8/10

Review - Homeland Season 1 Episode 5 Blind Spot

2011-10-30T22:34:00.000-07:00

Wow, another impressive episode of Homeland. While The Walking Dead hasn't exactly lived up to be a worthy replacement for Breaking Bad on Sunday nights, Homeland has filled the role nicely. The show has also been renewed for a second season, so we'll be seeing a lot more episodes before it's all over.

"Blind Spot" takes a great focus on the intelligence world than the previous episodes, which maintained healthy splits between the Brody family and the intelligence, and it's thrilling from beginning to end. A prisoner, one of Brody's guards, arrives from Pakistan, and Carrie and Saul are given the opportunity to investigate themselves. Once again, it's fascinating to stare at the characters' faces, trying to see their reactions, trying to figure out what's going on behind the stoic faces.

Eventually, the shit hits the fan, and it's a wonderful moment. The prisoner is dead from suicide by razor and professor, whose email is the one provided by the prisoner, is nowhere to be found. The viewer--and Carrie--instantly realizes it was Brody.

But there's little Saul and Carrie can do about it. Brody was so meticulous that he transfered the razor in the blind spot of the camera. So Saul doesn't want to do anything and lets Carrie go on her own and make her wild claims. In the final act, Saul is dealt two devastating blows as firsthis wife tells him she wants to put down her own roots--go back to India to run her parents' slums project--and then Carrie shows up and after he tells her he doesn't want to make the Brody thing official, she berates him, calling him a pussy to his face.

While Saul and Carrie have proven to be competent with their jobs, David Estes has been mediocre and drops the ball in this episode. David plays the befuddled CIA superior, representative of those at the CIA who missed 9/11. He's not actively trying to hurt anyone, but he's just has other priorities--like appeasing a hero like Brody.

Score: 9.5/10

There seems to be some opinions floating around on the internet that Saul is the mole, opinions partially motivated by Saul "speaking in Arabic" while he was actually speaking Hebrew. And Saul hasn't shown any signs of being a mole yet. The writers haven't followed the 24 format at all and I don't think they'll do it in the future.

Review - The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 3 Save the Last One

2011-10-30T20:44:00.000-07:00

I'm glad Carl is better, because this opening arc of the second season hasn't exactly been exciting. Between Carl getting shot and Sophia still missing, the characters, with the exception of Shane, pretty much stayed in the same locations and talked to each other. Talk is fine, it never felt like the conversations were going anywhere. Luckily, "Save the Last One" is the strongest episode of the first three episodes.

The dialogue and actions in the episode are more specific than the "we're screwed" dialogue of the first two episodes. Lori expresses a troubling sentiment that it would be better for Carl if he died. We know Carl won't die, but Lori thinking these ideas is enough. Then, there's the big reveal of how Otis died. Shane shoots him and leaves him for the zombies as decoy! Now that's scary shit.

Score: 8.8/10

Review - The Good Wife Season 3 Episode 6 Affairs of State

2011-10-30T19:17:00.000-07:00

While Eli is great as the funny, charming lawyer, it's nice to see his serious side as well. It rounds out his character and gives him the depth often times hidden behind his hilarious outbursts. This side is in full display when his ex-wife, played by Parker Posey, wants to run for state senate. Her scenes bring up lots of old wounds when it's revealed that she slept with a bin Laden relative while married to Eli--during their two happy years--and Alan Cummings rocks the scenes as expected

The whole diplomatic angle of the episode and the case at large didn't work so well. There are references to the One China policy as appeasement to the Chinese government, but the episode doesn't go much beyond that. Also, the case is hardly complicated and ends with the easy conclusion of the Taiwanese guy running around, for presumably being guilty, and caught at the airport. I didn't like we got to see lots of Caitlin, though. Despite the initial way she arrived, she's certainly not stupid

Will meets Zach in the office and it's a little more than awkward. I'd reckon this is the most flustered we've ever seen Will. He's fine in front of a courtroom when thousands or even millions of dollars are on the line, but when it comes to personal issues, he's quite inadequate.

Score: 8.6/10

Review - Once Upon a Time Season 1 Episode 2 The Thing You Love the Most

2011-10-30T18:04:00.000-07:00

The pilot set the stage of Once Upon a Time, introducing the two separate worlds and the character counterparts, all in a very broad sense. "The Thing You Love the Most," though, focuses on Regina/the Evil Queen, and gives the audience a real enemy to root against. It's firmly established that the Queen, in both the fairy tale and the present, is heartless and there is little question who the bad guy is at the end of the episode.

By the end of the episode Henry and Emma are on board with "Operation Cobra" and have their targets set. Emma, motivated by Regina's duplicity, is now much more invested than she was last week. What remains to be seen, however, is whether she really believes Henry's stories or is just going along so he doesn't think she thinks he's crazy.

Score: 8.6/10

Preview of Week 10/30/11 - 11/6/11

2011-10-30T16:06:00.000-07:00

Covert Affairs - USA, Tuesday, November 1, 10:00pm ET

Covert Affairs return for the last half of its second season. As one would expect, it's the same show as always.

Bones - FOX, Thursday, November 3, 9:00pm ET

Bones is finally back!!!! After the bombshell baby revelation last season, I've been eagerly awaiting to see what's going on.

Burn Notice - USA, Thursday, November 3, 10:00pm ET

I believe I said in my last review of Burn Notice that I wasn't going to review the show anymore. If time permits, I'll watch the new episodes, stare at the explosions, and keep my mouth shut about the plot.

Review - Sanctuary Season 4 Episode 4 Monsoon

2011-10-29T22:06:00.000-07:00

"Monsoon" has a pretty cool plot, with a set of bad guys and Magnus battling them on her own, but that's not what the audience will remember the episode for. What they'll remember, of course, is Magnus's kiss with Charlotte at the end of the episode.

I guess it actually makes sense given the theme of the show--a set of different people/beings who should be treated like everyone else--but it really caught me by surprise, and I'm not exactly sure whether the gender made a difference. Yes, television kisses are almost always heterosexual, so that's one aspect of that. But there's also the fact that Magnus has rarely, if ever, been shown in a sexual situation. She's thrown errant pieces of dialogue about her love life, but I can't remember the last time we actually got to see her with someone. So that's another component to my surprise. I probably would have been surprised if she kissed a guy, and that she kissed a woman added to that.

Seeing as Kate is gone (for now) and Abbey is hunting abnormals for the FBI, I have a good feeling she'll be working at the Sanctuary by the end of the season. I'm sure Will will be very happy about that.

Score: 8.7/10

Review - Boss Season 1 Episode 2 Reflex

2011-10-29T21:38:00.000-07:00

The second episode of Boss reinforces the strong points of the pilot, that Tom Kane is powerful and capable, all while watching his own demise. Meanwhile, within Kane's orbits are the other characters with their own things. None of it is too interesting at this point--and Emma drug plot seems very detached from the rest of the show--but there's potential.

Kitty once again has sex with Zajac, in an even more public place than last week's stairwell. I'm curious to see how much Starz will up the ante with the sex. I mean, they did it in partial view of Zajac's wife and kids, and this was only the second time. Spartacus level by the end of the season? About the actual plot, their activities obviously spell trouble whether or not they becomes public knowledge.

Score: 8.8/10

Review - Supernatural Season 7 Episode 6 Slash Fiction

2011-10-28T23:48:00.000-07:00

Okay, now I'm worried. The major, season long villains of Supernatural always had a greater agenda than what they were doing week to week. Whether implied or explicitly stated, the various demons and enemies we've seen through the years had something up their sleeves. This drove the seasons forward as the Winchesters dealt with their internal problems.

This season, however, there's little of that. The Leviathans are formidable enemies, to be sure, but they lack the deviousness of the demons, the long-term planning that leads to great arcs towards the end of the season. While they've proven themselves very capable of causing havoc, the consequences of what they do don't seem to be adding up. Who's to say the Winchesters would be fighting less if the Leviathans weren't around?

The problem with "Slash Fiction" is that it begins with events so shocking the writers had to hit reset at the end of the episode. The Leviathans pose as Sam and Dean and start slaughtering people on camera. This leads to a nationwide manhunt, which puts the brothers in crisis mode. This leads to a sticky situation where the brothers are arrested at the police station. However, the writers decide not to have Sam and Dean chased by police for the whole season, so they create an easy solution involving Bobby's sheriff friend who stumbles upon a way to combat Leviathans with borax. So Sam and Dean are declared dead, the actual brothers escape, and they're fine except for Sam knowing about Dean killing Amy. All too convenient if you ask me.

Score: 8.3/10

Review - Chuck Season 5 Episode 1 Chuck Versus the Zoom

2011-10-28T20:55:00.000-07:00

Somehow, Chuck has reached its fifth season. Through all of NBC's recent and continuing tribulations, it was able to survive due to not-awful ratings and a small but fervent fan base. I can't say the show is nearly as good as it was in the second season, but it remains a fun show.

"Chuck Versus the Zoom" represents a new start to the show and the features both the old and the new. Chuck and company are still spies so main plot is a mission. The specifics for missions have never been strong and it seems like the writers have gotten lazier over the years. What's great about the missions is all the fun that can be packed in it and the season premiere has a fair amount of it.

The most obvious change is Chuck not having the Intersect anymore and Morgan having it. Compared to the season one Chuck, the season five Chuck is much different, more mature and sure of himself, able to do spy tasks without special powers. In fact, Chuck without the Intersect is about on equal footing with Morgan, who doesn't have a good grasp of his powers yet. But the writers make sure that Chuck does feel something about losing the Intersect. After all, he had it for years and without it, it makes him feel inadequate.

On the character side of things, lots of good stuff with Chuck trying to buy a house for Sarah. She eventually tells him what she wants--a cozy home with a white picket fence--and unfortunately, the CIA freezes their money. The show that sets off in a new direction: Chuck still has the spy company and the Buy More and he endeavors to earn enough money through both. With this, the show now has a goal and the Buy More will be relevant once more.

Chuck's mythology has never been its strong suit and it's a glaring problem in the episode. Decker and the CIA in the background are basic plot devices. Decker takes away the Intersect from Chuck and then takes his money, both game changing twists. But why? It's all shrouded in mystery, so we have no clue why Chuck is in the position he's in now.

Score: 8.7/10

Review - Grimm Season 1 Episode 1 Pilot

2011-10-28T19:00:00.000-07:00

Grimm is a procedural with supernatural elements, not a fantasy show with procedural elements. This distinction is actually pretty large, as the majority of the pilot is spent on stuff you'd see on numerous other procedurals through the week--CSI, Criminal Minds, NCIS, etc. And even then the procedural aspect of the show isn't that strong, mainly generic strings of clues leading to the ending.

What sets the show apart from other is the fantasy elements that show up from time to time. They aren't seamlessly molded into the show as they should be, but they're there, if that counts for anything. The main character Nick is in the lineage of Grimms, who hunt down storybook characters like big bad wolves. It's a concept that will get the writers lots of mileage within the procedural format. Beyond that, though, the show doesn't have much else in terms of characters or writer.

Score: 8.2/10

Review - The Big Bang Theory Season 5 Episode 7 The Good Guy Fluctuation

2011-10-28T15:14:00.000-07:00

The most generic Halloween plot is when a character gets scared and spends the rest of the episode getting back, and that's exactly what half of "The Good Guy Fluctuation" consists of. Sheldon is turned into a stock "Halloween character," who makes himself into a fool trying to scare others.

The other plot was a bit better since it dealt with a serious matter and was funny in its own right. Still, it didn't negate how useless and dumb the other plot was. Hopefully Priya and Leonard are done for good. Leonard made out with a girl and Priya slept with her ex. The story has gone on far too long already and needs to be over. I'm not confident it is over, though.

Score: 8.0/10

Review - The Secret Circle Season 1 Episode 7 Masked

2011-10-28T15:03:00.000-07:00

The characters on The Secret Circle seem especially dumb compared to average television characters. Enemies have been in their midsts since the first episode and after 7 episodes they are none the wiser. Cassie even finds Jake's big knife and does nothing. So, while the new witch hunters are cool enemies, the tension is less than it could be because can't figure out anything on their own and are getting by through sheer luck. "Masked" has both stronger villains than usual--far better than Faye and Diana's parents--but it also has a lot of the near-sightedness that plagues all the characters.

Score: 8.6/10

Review - The Vampire Diaries Season 3 Episode 7 Ghost World

2011-10-27T23:28:00.000-07:00

The first 5 episodes of this season were spent focusing on Stefan and Klaus, as their roles represented the major shift in story. The ghost plot hung in the background, never occupying much time and also never really going anywhere. And since Jeremy was the only one seeing ghosts, there wasn't much involvement with other characters. With Matt having to get rid of Vicki last week and Klaus gone, the plot ramped up a lot and now it's over seemingly before it began.

My problem with the episode is that people were missing and it was wrapped up too easily. Where was Tyler, especially since Mason was around? And why didn't Jenna show up? It seems like the writers could have stretched this out at least another episode and added more. The tomb vampire ghosts attacking people was a threat for all of 10 minutes before the spell was done.

But if we treat this episode as a standalone episode without bigger implications, it was generally fine. Mason returning to haunt Damon was plenty of fun, and Lexi's return was very satisfying. I thought the writers killing her off was a misstep, so seeing her again was great. The final scene hammered home the sense of loss everyone has experienced, as all the ghosts disappear and with them the dream of being with them once more.

Score: 8.6/10

Review - The Office Season 8 Episode 5 Spooked

2011-10-27T21:13:00.000-07:00

If there ever was an episode which you could describe as "stuff happens," it's "Spooked." Stuff happens. There are some ideas floating around--Pam believing in ghosts, Erin and Andy, Robert California being there--but there is no story, just people doing small things here and there. As with all Office episodes, there are fun moments in the episode with the vast array of characters, but there has to be something more than that, and at this point it seems like the writers aren't even trying.

Score: 7.5/10

Review - Parks and Recreation Season 4 Episode 5 Meet 'n' Greet

2011-10-27T21:03:00.000-07:00

Tom is usually self-centered guy, taking everyone else for granted and making himself look much better than he actually is. But he can be a normal guy at times, sympathetic even, so he's still likable. He's probably at his least likable moment yet in "Meet 'n' Greet," when he completely takes advantage of Leslie and hijacks her campaign to promote Entertainment 720, his mismanaged, misguided business. Leslie notices this immediately and it surely took great restraint for her not to hurt him.

The writers salvage Tom's character with the reveal that Entertainment 720 is broke, which makes us feel bad for him and the predicament he's in. Still, it feels a bit like the boy who cried wolf. Tom has been a dick, especially when it comes to his company, like when he invited Ben to look around. How will Tom act the next time he's back in a corner? Probably the same way he's always acted.

Completely divorced from Leslie and Tom was a Halloween episode which had a little of everyone. There are good moments when Ron and Ann fix up Andy and April's place, but the rest of it just played up the usual character beats.

Score: 8.6/10

Review - Community Season 3 Episode 5 Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps

2011-10-27T20:33:00.000-07:00

"Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps" would have appeared to be a much stronger episode had it not aired after "Remedial Chaos Theory,” both featuring different stories told from different perspectives, but it's another strong episode nonetheless. Scheduling does weird things sometimes and this was one of the instances.

The core of the episode is the characters telling a scary story. Most of them are not good storytellers, with only Annie and Troy telling remotely interesting stories, but the stories are very funny because we can immediately recognize the personality behind the stories and there is plenty of gruesome images throughout the episode

Like most Community episodes, "Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps" ends on a positive note, as the fighting which spread until the end of the episode is resolved. There's no psycho in the group and everyone is happy with each other.

Score: 8.9/10

Numbers of Interest - Television Ratings for Wednesday 10/26/11

2011-10-27T18:28:00.000-07:00

ABC won with The Middle (3.2), Suburgatory (3.4), a repeat of Modern Family (4.5), Happy Endings (3.5), and Revenge (2.7).

CBS was second with Survivor (3.5) and repeats of Criminal Minds (2.8) and CSI (2.0).

NBC was third with repeats of Up All Night (1.1), Whitney (1.1), Harry's Law (0.8), and Prime Suspect (0.8).

FOX was last with repeats of Glee (0.7, 0.7).

Review - Revenge Season 1 Episode 6 Intrigue

2011-10-27T00:11:00.000-07:00

Thus far, Revenge has ridden on a wave of revenge plots, Emily getting back at people in satisfying ways. This week, however, the Emily revenging plot is stretched broadly and instead the episode focuses on the characters. Intriguing they are not.

The love triangle of Emily, Daniel, and Jack is bland at best, with Jack telling Emily what he feels before she turns him down. It puts some stitches into Emily's plan, as she considers what she feels versus what she's obligated to do, but there really aren't any imminent consequences. Unless Emily somehow tells Jack about her plans, I don't see how he could get too involved in the overall plot.

Then there's Nolan, hanging around Emily and Jack as usual. The problem with his character is that we only see him in relation to Emily and Jack, not as a person doing his own thing.

Most bizarre is Tyler. I no clue what he's up to, stemming from his initial lie to Daniel about Emily a few weeks back which was easily figured out. I would hazard a guess that he's gay for Daniel based on the way he straddled him, but then what was the creepy head bashing thing into another lie to Amanda? Hopefully things come together eventually, because his character is just a whole bunch of randomness right now.

The worst character is easily Declan, whose incessant whining isn't doing favors. It also doesn't help that he's a moron who's fine poaching and destroying the livelihood of other non-rich people so he can have some extra money. Tip: ultra-rich girl doesn't care about the difference between $0 and $200.

On the revenge front, Nolan sends the video to Conrad and creates the expected dissent. Frank is out, but he manages to get Amanda thinking about what role Conrad had in this. The audience knows Conrad receive the video from an anonymous source, but Amanda, based on prior experience, isn't fully trusting.

Score: 8.0/10

Numbers of Interest - Television Ratings for Tuesday 10/25/11

2011-10-26T20:17:00.000-07:00

FOX won with The X Factor (4.4).

CBS was second with NCIS (4.1), NCIS: Los Angeles (3.7), and Unforgettable (2.5). Unforgettable was reward for its stable ratings with a full season pick up.

ABC was third with Last Man Standing (2.8), Man Up! (2.0), Dancing with the Stars (2.6), and Body of Proof (1.8). Man Up! took a fairly precipitous drop from the premiere and Body of Proof continues to get less than 2.0.

NBC was last with The Biggest Loser (2.0) and a repeat of Prime Suspect (0.9). I still can't believe how low TBL has gotten.

Review - Psych Season 6 Episode 3 This Episode Sucks

2011-10-26T20:00:00.000-07:00

Another fun episode of Psych, this time a Halloween episode. I like that Lassiter has been mored inclined to work with Shawn this season--whether it's because he may have killed someone while drunk or because he's initially believes the vampire story. While Lassiter isn't quite himself in the episode and Juliet is the only person with a clear head, we can immediately see the Lassiter traits that make him a good character.

With the recent glut of "Man" shows from ABC, I noticed that these kind of men--like Casey from Chuck, Ron for Parks and Recreation, or Lassiter--are much better characters when they are off to the side rather than the main characters.

Score: 8.9/10

Review - NCIS Season 9 Episode 6 Thirst

2011-10-25T22:15:00.000-07:00

Come on...

The first three-fourths of "Thirst" is a snore, with little investigating and tons of commenting on Ducky's love life. We get to know Mary and she seems to be a wonderful person until the writers spring the trap. She's a psycho! That explains why the rest of the episode was so boring and uneventful.

I would probably like it more if the twist were any good, but it's awful. For the hundredth time, the love interest of a character turns out to be a bad guy. That Mary is completely crazy makes it worse. I know it's the ninth season and the writers may be getting short on ideas, but some creativity would be nice. How about happy relationships once in a while instead of the constant stream of dysfunctional ones?

Score: 6.5/10

Review - Sons of Anarchy Season 4 Episode 8 Family Recipe

2011-10-25T21:58:00.000-07:00

Clay killing Piney could be seen from a mile away, but man was it sad. After all Piney's done for the club--described numerous times during the episode--Clay ends his life just like that. We know Clay is a bastard, but it's been a long time since a character was killed (the last, I believe, was Half Sack back in the second season), which amplifies the impact of the killing. Then again, one could argue that Piney doesn't do anything and wouldn't be a big loss, and that Clay killing him wasn't shocking based on a pattern of behavior.

"Family Recipe" dangles a bunch of disparate threads with no resolutions, and we get a good sense where the last part of the season is headed. Tara is headed out of town, Charming may be wrested from Hale with help from Roosevelt's wife, and Chibs now knows about Juice's suicide attempts.

Most important, the cartel violence is a daily part of their lives. Everyone is scared of what may happen, and I can't blame them considering the level of brutality. It does seem a little convenient, however, that no one in SAMCRO has been touched yet. And, given that Piney just died, it's unlikely any of the principles will be killed. Clay pinning Piney's murder on Lobos Sonora seems like a big catalyst, but the characters should be able to sniff out that the murder was not in the same style as the other murders.

Score: 8.7/10

Numbers of Interest - Television Ratings for Monday 10/24/11

2011-10-25T18:04:00.000-07:00

CBS won with How I Met Your Mother (4.3), 2 Broke Girls (4.5), Two and a Half Men (5.5), Mike & Molly (4.2), and Hawaii Five-0 (3.1). Great numbers for CBS again.

FOX was second with the World Series (4.2 average including past 11 which is why CBS beat FOX).

ABC was third with Dancing with the Stars (3.2) and Castle (2.4). Wow, DWTS heading lower and lower.

NBC was last with The Sing Off (1.5) and a repeat of Prime Suspect (0.7).

Review - Castle Season 4 Episode 6 Demons

2011-10-25T00:26:00.000-07:00

I hadn't expect a Halloween episode this soon, because next week's episode, after all, airs on Halloween, but I'm always game for Halloween episodes, especially on Castle. We get a decent ghost story, full of Castle wanting it to be true followed Beckett's usual denials, and some good scares along the way. This is the kind of Castle episode I want to see each week, one that can balance the humor with serious issues.

Score: 8.8/10

Review - Enlightened Season 1 Episode 3 Someone Else's Life

2011-10-24T22:31:00.000-07:00

The focus in "Someone Else's Life" was something we hadn't seen in previous episodes, and I liked the episode more than the first two. Although there is still little dramatic force from episode to episode, the things during the episode are quite enjoyable. Amy is on the verge of breaking down after being trapped in the soulless pit of Abaddon's basement, and while she doesn't get a new job, just seeing the homeless people and those working there gives her a new perspective. She blows off Krista and proceeds to lunch with Tyler. Very nice.

Score: 8.5/10

Review - How I Met Your Mother Season 7 Episode 7 Noretta

2011-10-24T20:04:00.000-07:00

Maybe this is just me being lazy on a Monday, but I don't really feel like reviewing How I Met Your Mother on a weekly basis anymore. Aside from big things happening--like Robin and Barney getting back together, or Ted on the hunt for the Mother--I'm not really interested in whatever random thing is going on. This is mainly due to the fact that I don't care about Kevin or Nora. I don't find them funny and I continue to think they're plot devices being used to comment on the characters.

That said, "Noretta" had some funny moments when the parents replaced the significant others. It's a subject broached on plenty of shows, but HIMYM is a visual show and isn't afraid of putting the characters in very awkward positions.

Score: 8.6/10

Reivew - Pan Am Season 1 Episode 5 One Coin in a Fountain

2011-10-24T12:35:00.000-07:00

"One Coin in a Fountain" has a very lax quality to it, proceeding as if nothing is important. Plenty of things happen--Kate meeting a guy on her next assignment, Dean meeting a girl, Ted and Laura getting closer--but there are zero consequences afterwards. They fly around, things happen, and it's all good. The way it plays out right now is fine, but the show could have a lot more meat--something it proved it could have with Colette's episode.

Score: 8.2/10

Review - Homeland Season 1 Episode 4 Semper I

2011-10-24T08:54:00.000-07:00

After four episodes, I'm ready to declare Homeland to be the best new show of the season--nothing even comes close. Carrie's scene with Brody at the end of the episode is quite fascinating. She spends the episode lamenting the loss of her surveillance after following Brody for weeks, and now she actively finds him out to insert herself into his life. Following with her history of sexual behavior with David and her advances on Saul, it's hard not to think something will happen between her and Brody. It brings into question her state of mind, whether she can control the crazy when with him.

Since her warrant on Brody expired, Carrie moves on and actually tails the professor for a while. When we think she's going to stumble on something big, however, there's an awesome twist in which the professor's wife gets a call telling her to ward the professor away from the house. She quickly puts an American flag outside the window and the prof drives past and to his listed address.

In the Brody household, the turmoil comes to the top when Brody shoots a deer with people at their home. After acting weird the entire episode, Brody really goes over the top and we have to wonder exactly how clearly he's thinking. If he has been turned, is it a conscience decision?

Score: 9.2/10

Review - Dexter Season 6 Episode 4 A Horse of a Different Color

2011-10-23T22:46:00.000-07:00

The religious theme for this season of Dexter is very broad, and I guess you could say that about any show that randomly drops in on religion six seasons into its run. The previous seasons of the show had themes that were intimately tied to Dexter whether it was a serial killer with a family or a serial killer someone could accept. All the conceptualizing more or less pointed directly to Dexter, much like the religious themes on Big Love would point to the Hendricksons. Here, though, characters are talking about religion, but none of it is particularly relevant to Dexter's religion The writers contrive an entire scenario surrounding Harrison in order for Dexter to pray, and it feels really, really cheap.

The useless Dexter subplot may have hit a new low with Batista and Quinn smoking it up. It's kind of funny, but they're supposed to be cops, not Harold and Kumar. As an aside in last week's review, I said that Ryan might have stolen the Ice Truck Killer stuff to for serial killer black market, and it actually turned out to be partially what happened. It's one of the most boring things that could have come from the theft--that Ryan needed money and thought no one would notice its disappearance.

Travis and Professor Geller continue to do what they've been doing. It's obvious Geller is the one in charge while Travis dutifully follows, even if he harbors some initial reluctance. There was some evidence indicating that Geller is a real person rather than a ghost, as he binds the woman while Travis is sleeping, but Travis could also be doing things unconsciously. I'm hoping Dexter spotting Travis, who is stupid enough to hang around, will lead to more answers about them next week. Even though we don't know much about them, I have to say, the way they stage bodies has been pretty cool.

Score: 8.4/10

Review - The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 2 Bloodletting

2011-10-23T21:23:00.000-07:00

As much as the writers want us to care about the characters alongside the zombies, it's not helping much. After two episodes with great focus on the characters, I still don't care too much about them. It surely doesn't help that most of the dialogue is a variation on "look around us, we're fucked."

The plot this week revolves around Carl getting shot at the end of last week's episode. We meet the Greenes, and luckily Hershel is a doctor... of animals. Rick and Lori fight, Shane and the new guy Otis go to get medical supplies, and the rest of the people meet Maggie, who's riding on a horse, then make it back to the highway. There's okay stuff in there, like Rick and Lori's conversations, but nothing exceptional.

The cold open of the episode was Lori talking with a friend about her marital troubles before Shane pulls up to tell her about Rick getting shot. It mirrors the conversation Rick and Shane had at the beginning of the pilot, and doesn't add anything particularly new. It's not exciting like a zombie opening would be and it's doesn't shed light on anything either.

Score: 8.3/10

Review - The Good Wife Season 3 Episode 5 Marthas and Caitlins

2011-10-23T19:39:00.000-07:00

The case in "Marthas and Caitlins" is paper thin, featuring a problem with plane, and is mostly an opportunity to revisit an old character in Colin Sweeney, played by Dylan Baker, who recently finished up a stint on Damages as, you guessed it, a creepy guy. Sweeney, who we haven't seen since the first season, remains a creepy guy who is also indispensable. He likely killed his wife and probably has tendencies along those lines, but he has useful assets, though may be a stretch that he just happened to have the key information for the case. In any case, he proves himself very capable of getting information out of prison thugs for his own release, and then testifying for the case.

Alicia's conflict with David Lee is great stuff, showcasing her place in the firm--both as the low man of the totem pole and as a Caitlin, the one who got in not by merit but by connections. Seeing all of this puts things in perspective for her: no matter how great she thinks she, she's still a lowly third-year associate; and more, she'll always carry the stigma of being in the firm because of Will.

From what I've read, that was Lisa Edelstein's last episode on the show as Celeste. Although she isn't critical to the show, she represents a foil for Alicia, a woman who is different but also feels something for Will. It gives Alicia a great deal to think about, wondering what makes her similar to Caitlin to have the same tastes in men.

Score: 8.9/10

Review - Once Upon a Time Season 1 Episode 1 Pilot

2011-10-23T18:01:00.000-07:00

Much of Once Upon a Time's pilot is spent setting up everything, because it's actually pretty complicated despite the friendly nature of fairy tales. Even at end of the episode there are tons of questions left at the end of the episode, but we get a decent idea what happened. What the pilot doesn't answer, however, is how the show will proceed in later episodes.

The setup in a nutshell: Familiar fairy tale characters, like Snow White and Prince Charming, get their memories wiped by the Evil Queen and are sent to present-day Storybrooke. The mayor the town is the Evil Queen, who also had her memory wiped unless there's a twist later on. The mayor's adopted son, Henry, is biological son of Emma, the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming who is supposed to save everyone. Henry tracks Emma down in Boston, and Emma brings Henry back to Storybrooke where she decides to stay.

With the rest of the fairy tale characters sans memories, there are lots of pieces the writers can work with. But the pilot doesn't offer much in terms of a story. Things happen, but it's all introduction, showing viewers the fairy tale characters and modern counterparts. We don't get any idea how the fairy tale affects the modern world or how Emma is supposed to save everyone. Given that the show is written by Lost writers, clear answers may be hard to come by.

Score: 8.5/10

Catching up on A Gifted Man

2011-10-23T16:26:00.000-07:00

My schedule has been very busy this year, so I haven't been able to watch certain procedurals on the day or day after they air. I got a little extra time this weekend and watched the three episodes I hadn't watched.

Mainly, the show has its moments, but is nothing spectacular and is sometimes mind-numbing. While it's clear Michael gets more involved with the clinic each week, the writers find it necessary to have him declare how he's never touching the clinic again, only to have Anna pop up and convince him otherwise. With no subtlety, the writers desperately try to drill into the viewers' heads that Michael, with Anna's help, is fighting these impulses to be self-centered.

One thing that really caught my attention, the gunshot in the last episode. I've heard plenty of guns shot on television, but for some reason that one was loud enough to shock me.