iTunes Freebies

The pilot/series premiere of Moonlight is available for free at iTunes. In addition, the season premiere of Supernatural is also up for free download (poke around, it's a bit hard to find) even though it's not airing until tomorrow. I will not be reviewing the show early, though, as I'm watching it live with a bunch of folks and don't want to ruin the fun.

Bones—The Soccer Mom in the Minivan

Okay, first of all, I am on occasion a soccer mom in a minivan, and frankly my minivan is way cooler than the one on this show. It's never blown up in a huge fireball, either.

Arriving on the scene, Bones and Booth bicker about Bones' impending prison visit with her father, then Bones gets snippy with the explosives experts about the disposition of the remains, which are seared all over the inside of the van. Eww. Thankfully, I remembered not to eat through the first part of the show this week. So, Soccer Mom is blown into bitty pieces which are being sorted at the Smithsonian. The explosives experts person is boobalicious and catches Hodgins' attention a bit too thoroughly.

Brennan goes to visit her dad in prison, during which visit they discuss a bunch of exposition so new viewers understand what's going on. Smack me with that exposition stick, baby.

Booth interrogates Mr. Nash. Zack gets to use his chewy bugs again to clean up the burned body bits. Angela works on the iconography from last week's case and Hodgins grovels to her because he's way too interested in Agent Frost with the big boobs. Angela is remarkably understanding, lucky for Hodgins.

Angela identifies Mrs. Nash as a long-missing NLA type, June Harris, from a homemade tattoo on her back. She was about to turn herself in in a deal made with the lawyers. Sam, who's been working on the June Harris case, was Booth's mentor, and doesn't like the deal, especially since nobody bothered to tell him about it. Caroline gives him the what for. We like Caroline, yes we do.

As the case unwinds, several suspects come to the fore, including Booth's old mentor, but in the end the killer proves unexpected. Well, unexpected to me. I found the case to be nicely twisty, though many of the "subtexty" parallels, especially involving Brennan's father, were fairly anvilicious. And again the episode ends with a nice moment between Booth and Brennan. Some nice character interactions here, and I liked the brief visit to last week's continuing case.

Heroes—Lizards

We open on torture of naked Peter. Okay, I'm done. That's all I need to see for the rest of the evening. Oh, wait there s like story or something going on here.

Okay, apparently Peter's big shipping crate was supposed to be ful of iPods, not naked Peter. I already have an iPod so I'm happy with the naked Peter. In fact I wouldn't have objected if they'd sent me naked Peter in my iPod box. An Irish chick named Caitlin shows up to mop up his blood. She should leave that on—it looks good on him. Plus after she cleans him up she discovers he's all healed up already. Peter ends up in the back of her brother's bar, still all tied up and naked. Actually I think that happened earlier but I was too distracted by the nakedness and bondage to notice. Anyway, he escapes just in time to use his power to take out some bad sorts who attack Caitlin. Unfortunately they have a longstanding feud with Caitlin's brother, and this just makes it worse. The brother--no I didn't get his name did I mention naked Peter is really distracting?--tells Peter he has to help with a "job" before he'll give Peter a box full of everything Peter had on him when he was discovered in the crate. Apparently we're supposed to be really excited about this box. I'm not. What's it got in it? Credit cards? A driver's license? A couple quarters and a condom? Yeah, not getting excited.

The Bennet family continues to have issues blending in. Mom is a little more cognizant than she was at the end of last season, and Mr. Bennet doesn't find Mr. Nakamura's death unexpected. Apparently Isaac left behind 8 paintings that hadn't come true yet, and one of them presaged Nakamura's death. Claire struggles with her place at school, and her curiosity about the limits of her powers. Finally she cuts off her own toe with a pair of scissors (EWWWWW), and it grows back. Unfortunately, West sees this through her window.

Matt investigates the Squished Nakamura crime scene, where he unwittingly meets up with Ando, who explains the symbol. Matt interrogates Angela Petrelli, who senses and doesn't appreciate Matt's telepathic addition to the questioning. He then talks to Nathan, who still has the scary beard. Angela is attacked in her holding cell and a picture of her is left behind with the symbol on it.

Hiro continues to try to get Kensei back in order, without much cooperation from Kensei himself. So Hiro puts on the armor and heads out to go be heroic himself. He finds the swordsman's daughter fighting off a gang of mean Samurai bullies, and uses his powers to best them, with much mwa ha ha-ing. Afterwards he shares a cheesy moment with the swordsman's daughter in a cherry orchard. He goes back to fetch the real Kensei so they can go rescue the swordsmith. Kensei is shot down by the renegade samurais...but his wounds heal as Hiro watches.

Mohinder shows up for his first day on the job with the Company, looking tres fine in a linen suit. They send him to Haiti to look at a man they think has the virus. In Haiti he finds... wait for it.... the Haitian! Who'd've guessed? Anyway, apparently he's sick. Mohinder cures him and gets his memory wiped as thanks. back home with new housemate Matt, he checks in with Mr. Bennet. And then the Haitian shows up at Copy Kingdom.

Maya and Alejandro find shelter with an old friend. A fortuneteller is freaked out when she reads Maya's palm. As they get closer to the border, they get separated again and the eye-bleedy thing is released. Alejandro comes back and cures it, but their guide abandons them.

While Hiro's story is getting a bit more interesting, noobs Maya and Alejandro still aren't doing much for me. Claire's actually proving more intriguing to me this season so far than last. I think it's because her hair isn't so annoying. But overall? I'd like to request more tied-up Peter.

Chuck—Chuck vs. the Helicopter

Okay, first—I really hope they're not going to do the voiceover explanation/flashbacks every week. Also, I can't imagine the pain of a CIA operative forced to go undercover working at Weinerlicious. Casey, though, seems to be settling in pretty well at Buy More, tackling shoplifters and walking around looking large and in charge in his bright green shirt.

Casey and Sarah have hired a doctor of some kind to try to remove Chuck's important government secrets from his head. Sarah's posing as his girlfriend, and there's a plan to have dinner with Chuck's family. And poor Chuck--he really likes her. Well, who wouldn't. She's kinda hot.

Anyway, the doctor shows Chuck a bunch of pictures and tells him to say what he sees. On the picture of the rose, he starts spilling, including some information of interest to Lost viewers--Oceanic flight 815 was shot down!! Gotta love the cross-network shoutouts.

The doctor's car is blown up while he's leaving his examination of Chuck, so I guess he won't be doing any secrets-removal procedures on our curly-headed hero. Casey and Sarah remain suspicious of each other while Casey remains Adam Baldwin-y. Their suspicions lead to an amusing showdown at Wienerlicious, in which Sarah totally pwns Casey. Of course both operatives have to make their case to Chuck as to why the other is obviously the bad guy. Convinced it's Sarah after Casey's car blows up, Chuck runs to save his family from her nefarious schemes and ends up murdering Sarah's souffle. Most ladies don't take well to that.

But as it turns out, Dr. Zarno's not dead, and he abducts Sarah. Right about here is where I looked at the clock and went wow this show has only been on for half an hour. That doesn't bode well. Anyway, Chuck gets into a lot of trouble, and ends up flying a helicopter—thus the title—guided by Sarah, who tells him to visualize it as a computer simulator flying game. Don't try this at home, kids. In the end, ominous things seem in store for Chuck, as Casey's high-ups indicate he will eventually have to do away with our titular hero.

Chuck remains a show that doesn't take things too seriously, but I'm still wavering as to whether to keep it on my schedule or not. It might become background noise while I do something else while waiting for Heroes to come on. Watch this space—if Chuck disappears from the lineup it's likely because it's no longer keeping my attention, cute or no.


Gone Daddy Gone—Gnarls Barkley