Dexter on DVD, Bones in a Book

The first season of Dexter is now available for pre-order on DVD. This is a very good series and I highly recommend it. Not for the faint of heart, though. Lots of blood and gore. And really good writing, acting and character development. And Julie Benz!

Also newly available for pre-order is the Bones Season One and Two companion book. It includes interviews with the cast and crew, an episode guide, and background on real-life forensics. Looks like a must for Bones fans.

Jericho—Why We Fight

Okay, first off, I'm really confused already from the episode title because I keep expecting to see a submarine and David Boreanaz in a mock turtleneck. But I digress.

We open at a wedding, six years ago. It's Eric and April's wedding. Then we segue, abruptly and sneakily, to present day Jericho, where things are getting tenser. Jake is scruffy. Yes, scruffiness is always a plot point. They're planning how to stand up against New Bern, who's begun seizing farms. New Bern has a lot of people and a lot of trucks lined up to move in. Dude, Jericho is so screwed.

The story continues to cut between the wedding, six years ago, and the present. Jake and Eric, estranged at the wedding, work smoothly together, with obvious respect for each other, in the present. Heather's fate is revealed--she's found unconscious in a car wreck by a military contingent in Nebraska. Hawkins endangers himself by using his satellite feed to track New Bern's troops movements. Initially able to hold off New Bern's attack with a single mortar and the tank, Jericho faces greater odds in the next wave. Johnston falls in battle, leaving his sons to lead the town.

In the meantime, Heather, trying to help Jericho, calls in assistance from her rescuers in Camp Liberty, Nebraska, who are taking orders from the new Federal government in Cheyenne, Wyoming. But the help she secures proves to be the former head of Homeland Security, who's gunning for Hawkins.

With Jake and Eric left in charge, Mayor Gray shuffled back to town for his own protection, and help arriving from quarters who do not have Jericho's best interests at heart, the season ends on a cliffhanger.

Dammit. They'd better hope they get a renewal now.

Jericho on iTunes:

TV Guide Channel on Veoh

Most online video links take you to YouTube these days, but there are other options. Veoh has been adding more and more content. Today in their newsletter I noticed a link to a TV Guide channel. Check it out here--there's lots of clips from the TV Guide cable channel available on demand.

Supernatural—All Hell Breaks Loose Part I

Please tell me I'm not the only one flailing like an insane person after this episode... (Goes to check LJ. Nope.)

Good grief. Sera Gamble, you have Killed me Dead. And I'm sure Kripke had a hand in that, too. I really don't want to have to wait another week to see how this plays out, but I guess I have no choice. Man, TV sucks.

Our "Then" segment revisits the Winchester boys' previous visits to the Chosen Children, including Ava, Andy, and Max. In the "Now," Dean wants pie. Then the radio acts up while playing Boston, and when it straightens out, something horrible has happened in the cafe where Sam went to not get Dean any pie. Two people are dead inside, throats slit, and there's sulfur on the windowsill. And there's no sign of Sam.

Elsewhere, Sam awakens in an unknown location. It appears to be an abandoned town. Well, abandoned except for Andy, who also doesn't know where he is. Then they find Ava locked up in one of the buildings. She doesn't remember anything from the last few months, since last she saw Sam. She doesn't know her fiance is dead. A couple more folks, Jake and Lily, join the party. Lily is bitter about her powers--she kills people when she touches them. I think I'd be bitter about that, too. Jake isn't forthcoming about his powers. Sam tells them all about the demon.

Dean hooks up with Bobby to try to track down Sam, but there's been no paranormal activity at all for him to track. Dean has Ash on the job, as well. Ash has found something, but he won't tell Dean over the phone. Dean and Bobby head for the Roadhouse.

Jake seems skeptical about the whole demonic apocalyptic war thing, and abandons the others to work things out on his own. He's attacked by a little girl demon in one of the abandoned buildings. Sam comes in and takes her out with a poker. Jake kinda believes in demons now. Based on a landmark, an old bell, Sam determines they're in Cold Oak SD, a town so haunted that everybody left it. I thought the place looked a lot like the town from "Croatoan." Same sets, maybe? Lily is next to depart the group, and she's acting kinda sneaky. I don't trust her.

Dude! The Roadhouse is gone! Looks like it was blown up. This can't be good. The place is filled with burned bodies, one of whom appears to be Ash. Ash? No! That's just wrong. I am officially grumpy about that.

Andy finds a supply of salt. They realize Lily is missing and go to look for her. They find her hanging from the windmill. Sam thinks Lily was trying to leave and the demon stopped her. Andy tries to use his powers to contact Dean by projecting an image into his head. It works, though painfully, and Bobby is able to work out where Sam is from Dean's vision of the bell at Cold Oak.

And then the YED shows up, appearing to Sam in a dream to clarify some things. He's brought everyone here for a competition--only one of them will make it out alive. The demon only needs one of them to lead his army, and he wants Sam. He treats Sam to a flashback of his life, to the night when his mother died. Sam was fed demon blood, and Sam's mother recognized the demon. Okay, there's a twist. What was up with that? Did Mary make some kind of demonic deal before Sam was born?

Jake wakes Sam up. Ava is missing. But she's really evil. She breaks the salt line and allows a demon to come in and eviscerate poor Andy. Ava plays innocent. Sam notices the broken salt line and puts the pieces together because of how he's not a complete idiot. Ava's been in the town for five months, and has been killing other gifted kids as they have appeared. She's the current demon child champion, and has greatly increased her powers. She can control demons, and brings one in to take Sam, but Jake comes in and kills her. I'm kind of bummed by this, because I really liked Ava.

And so arrives the Impala. Dean and Bobby have to leave it behind and walk the rest of the way into the town. Sam says he and Jake have to leave, but Jake proposes that Sam sacrifice himself so Jake can kill the demon, since Jake has soldiering experience in Afghanistan, plus super strength. Sam tries to convince him otherwise, to no avail. Jake attacks Sam. Sam bests him, but can't bring himself to kill him.

Dean and Bobby arrive on the scene. While Sam is distracted by his brother's arrival, Jake comes up behind him and stabs him. Sam collapses in Dean's arms.

Okay, we know Sam can't be dead--or at least not permanently dead--because there's not going to be a show without Padalecki. But I have no idea how they're going to get themselves out of this one. Judging by the previews, next week is going to be a hell of a ride. No pun intended.

Note on the music--I'm almost positive the song in the cafe was not "Stand By Your Man," but other people seem to think it was, so I'm including the link. If I figure out what it really was, I'll link to that. But the lyrics I was able to catch in that scene were not "Stand By Your Man." And they're not coming up on Google, either, so I'm stumped for the moment.

Foreplay/Long Time--Boston


Stand By Your Man--Tammy Wynette

Bones—The Glowing Bones in the Old Stone House

An interesting note to tonight's episode--it was directed by Caleb Deschanel, Emily Deschanel's dad.

Booth and Brennan go to investigate some glowing bones in an old stone house. Wow. Imagine that. I never would have guessed that from the episode title. Booth is wearing a (tight) T-shirt that says "Killer" on it. This amuses me for no really good reason. The team takes precautions against radiation, but in spite of the glowy bones, there is none. The victim was stabbed to death.

While reconstituting a dead finger with fabric softener, Cam and Booth discuss relationship issues and whether ot not Jack is okay after Angela shot down his marriage proposal. They are very cute in this scene. I wish they'd get back together. The victim turns out to be Carly Victor, celebrity chef. Brennan knew her--Carly was going to teach her how to cook. And apparently she made extra fabulous mac and cheese. A series of restaurant robberies provides a possible explanation. Then there are Carly's husband and their business partners, Dan and his girlfriend Abby. As it turns out, Abby is missing, as well.

Hodgins thinks the glowing is due to a phosphorescent bacteria that could be traced to sushi--sea urchin specifically. That seems like an awful lot of phosphorescence. How much of that stuff did she eat? Oh, it got into her bloodstream. Still seems a little fishy to me. (I'm really sorry I just said that.) The sushi clue takes them to Ernie, Carly's ex, who was teaching her to make sushi. But his knives don't match the wounds.

The next series of clues lead back to Dan, the husband, who took out a huge life insurance policy on his wife. Dan makes a bad move by attacking Booth when Booth confronts him with the evidence. Or maybe it was a good move, since it gave Booth the chance to be all badass and hot.

Hodgins goes to Booth again for advice about Angela, in a scene that ends with an awkward man hug. Booth decides he'd rather shoot things than discuss emotional issues with Hodgins.

Abby is found in the trunk of her own car, barely alive. She wakes up and says whoever attacked them was hiding in the back seat wearing a mask. The evidence on the body and in the car, however, doesn't add up. Carly suffered whiplash, and there is evidence of a sexual encounter in the back seat involving Carly and Ben. The murder, as it turns out, was a setup by Abby, because Carly was having an affair with Ben in the back seat of Abby's car. Dude, that's harsh. Also kind of obvious. That's two weeks in a row I've figured out the killer, and I'm generally kind of stupid that way.

In a charming coda, Hodgins uses phosphorescent fish-bacteria to not-propose to Angela. In response, Angela proposes to him. Hodgins accepts. In the meantime, Brennan cooks dinner for Booth--gourmet mac and cheese. Booth has an uncomfortably intimate moment with his dinner.

This was a pleasant episode, if a bit too predictable. I didn't have time to look at all the online clues, though I thought it was a cool idea. Did anybody guess the killer from the website information? If so, brag. If not, lie about it and brag anyway.

Damien Rice--Cannonball

New at iTunes

House, M.D. Seasons 3 and 2 available now, with Season 1 to come.



Hannah Montana. My daughter loves this show, thus the plug.

Some Good News

Lifetime has picked up 9 more episodes of Blood Ties. From the wording of the article, it's not clear if this is 9 additional episodes, or the back nine from the initial deal. In any case, the show will continue past the first run of 12 episodes.

Lost has been picked up by ABC for three more seasons--with a catch. The seasons will be 16 episodes each, for a total of 48--the equivalent of roughly 2 seasons at the traditional US 22-25 episodes per year. I've said before that I think this is a good idea--it gives the writers a goal to shoot for to tie up the increasingly convoluted storylines, rather than motivation to continue to string them out until the ratings fade.

Still waiting for news on Supernatural and Jericho, but rumor has both of them in good positions for renewal. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

What Happens When You Watch Too Much TV...

You prepare for a nice morning exercising on your stationary bike while watching Season 1, episode 2 of Gilmore Girls. And then freak out because Rory's teacher is the doctor guy from Angel who kidnapped Nina and tried to feed her to all his friends--or wait! Maybe he's the other doctor guy from Enterprise! No! He's both! And Lorelei! Don't date that guy! He's a serial killer and he'll wash your hair and steal your fingernails!

Then Chad Michael Murray started hitting on Rory and my head exploded.

Not to mention my confusion last week when everybody was inexplicably calling Sam Dean.

Heroes—The Hard Part

After last week's super extra cool episode, this week was a bit of a let down, not just in comparison, but because it was mostly a filler sort of episode, in which things happened to bring us up to where we need to be for the season finale. They did seem like good plot progressing sorts of things, but also not all that exciting overall. Plus Peter? Not nearly as hot this week. This makes me sad.

Hiro and Ando have returned to present day New York. Hiro plans to use Isaac's comic book as a guide, but there's no dialogue in the talky balloons. He says they'll go ask Isaac. Which'll be hard since Isaac is dead. They go to the loft and find Isaac's body, as well as Sylar. They tail Sylar and tiff a bit about whether to go ahead and kill him, or try to stick to the timeframe of the comic.

Sylar goes to visit his mom. (Ellen Greene, collecting snow globes instead of carniverous plants.) Apparently Mom has contributed to Sylar's craziness. Sigh. It's always Mom's fault. He demonstrates some of his powers, but when he hurts his mother, she hides in the bedroom. Sylar seems genuinely shaken by his role in the coming destruction of New York. Mom isn't very sympathetic. She threatens Sylar with a pair of scissors. In the ensuing struggle, Mom Sylar is killed.

Hiro comes in and freezes time to kill Sylar, but is unsuccessful. Sylar breaks Hiro's sword. Hiro and Ando teleport away. They have two days left to eliminate Sylar. Sylar paints the explosion on the floor with his mother's blood. (Um, ewwww.) He aspires to be president, just like Mommy wanted.

Matt, Ted and Bennet are still teamed up. Ted seems to have gained some control over his powers--he can thaw out and jumpstart cars now instead of just blowing things up. Micah remains in Linderman and Candice's custody, while DL and Niki discover secret records hidden in Linderman's secret archives.

Thompson introduces Mohinder (still all scruffy, by the way) to Molly Walker, a little girl who has the same disease as Mohinder's sister, who died from it. Molly needs the cure Mohinder's father developed. According to Thompson, Molly is the only one who can stop Sylar. She can find people, and apparently has a bead on Sylar, but her power isn't working right now. Mohinder finds the antibody in his own blood, and is able to cure Molly.

Claire, back with the Petrellis and her regular annoying hair, prepares to go to Paris. Peter convinces her to stay, to help stop Ted. Peter asks her to kill him if he gets out of control. Wait, I thought Dean was doing that. Oh, sorry, got my shows mixed up again.

Mom Petrelli speechifies Nathan about how he has to continue with Linderman's plans, which includes allowing New York City to be blown up. Looking for Ted, Claire is reunited with her father. Peter starts to absorb Ted's powers. As we all know by now, this is not a good thing.

Overall, not a bad episode, just a dialing back of the pace in preparation for the finale. I'm not sure I liked the bits with Sylar's mother, though. It seemed like a bit of a cop-out to fall back on Mommy Issues to explain Sylar's psychosis, and her accidental death also played into that usual pattern. It would have been nice if they'd tossed in an extra twist of some kind there. As it was, it was okay, but seemed too much like the usual stereotypical treatment of nutty megalomaniacs.