Talkin' 'Bout TV

Battlestar Galactica--Finale

2009-04-03T18:30:00.001-06:00

I was never a huge fan of the retooled Battlestar Galactica, not because it wasn't a good show, but because it didn't entertain me the way I want to be entertained. Overly complicated, often too preachy for my tastes, and with no sense of humor about itself or anything else, it just never quite managed to be my kind of show. By the time the last few episodes rolled around, I had lost interest in all of the characters, because there was nobody left that I found likeable at all. But then the plot started drawing me in, so that I had to stick around just to see how they managed to tie everything up.

Happily, they wrapped things up fairly well. The seemingly incomprehensible plot threads that were strung out in Season Three actually managed to weave together in some semblance of order, and the final ending brought everything nicely full-circle. I wasn't entirely sure what the final message was meant to be, though. Would the changes and knowledge that occurred during the Galactica's journeys prevent history from once again repeating itself, or is humanity following the same path of hubris and segregated prejudice that led to the original Cylon War? The answer remained unclear, and I'm still not sure if that was deliberate or a slip-up in otherwise fairly solid storytelling.

Friday Night Lights

2009-01-27T17:14:00.001-07:00

While Friday Night Lights seemed to suffer less from last season's writers' strike than many other shows, it still faced the specter of cancellation due to low ratings. Due to an innovative agreement between NBC and DirectTV, though, FNL returned for a third season.

Aired on DirectTV starting in January, Friday Night Lights returned to NBC January 16th with a return to its first season mix of realism, poignancy and, yes, football. After plot mishaps of last year that seemed to be trying to turn FNL into yet another teen melodrama, it's nice to see the show playing to its strengths again.

Leverage

2009-01-23T11:32:00.004-07:00

Leverage, TNT's new caper drama, has grabbed me right off the bat. It's a fun, flashy show with great characters and a good heart.

Timothy Hutton stars as the leader of a team of con men who specialize in getting revenge for the everyman. Featuring past favorites Christian Kane (Angel) and Aldis Hodge (Supernatural, Friday Night Lights), the cast carries this show into an hour of pure fun and entertainment every week.

Absence

2008-02-06T06:25:00.000-07:00

I suppose I should comment on the fact that I haven't posted here in ages. Truth to tell, the writers' strike, the lack of new programming that comes with it, and the general draw of other writing projects has taken the fun out of it, at least for now. I hesitate to shut the blog down completely, because I just have a hard time doing that in general, but for now my energies are focused elsewhere. I ran this pretty regularly for a year, and I'm happy about that. Thanks to everyone who's dropped by, especially regular visitors who put up with me. :-) Maybe I'll see you all again somewhere down the road.

Bones—The Knight on the Grid

2007-11-20T20:13:00.000-07:00

I've been waiting for a strong return to the Gormogon case, and tonight's episode was exactly that. I enjoy a good ancient religious conspiracy theory almost as much as Jack does, and this one's coming together nicely, with lots of yuckiness and, well, ancient conspiracy stuff. Also, it's great to see Russ again, and I liked the introduction of his girlfriend and her daughter, who we heard about all the way back in 1-22, The Woman in Limbo.

However, while I think the last few episodes have been the strongest of the season so far, Sweets is really getting to annoy me. I liked him as Booth and Brennan's therapist. While I preferred Stephen Fry's Dr. Gordon Gordon from last season, I don't think the dynamic between B² would have been quite as strong or as intimate as it has played out in the therapist's office this season. But the minute they let Sweets out of his office, he started to grate. I feel like he's being shoehorned into the casework. There are plenty of folks on the team who can put the psychological pieces together, particularly Booth and Cam, so why do we need his input? Also, he performed a pet TV peeve of mine tonight, which was to walk into a room and start spouting information about things that were discussed before he came in.

But here's an idea--what if Sweets is the apprentice? I'm starting to think it's a plausible theory. And while my slow-motion scan of the last scene didn't confirm anything, the guy did look just about enough like Sweets that it could be him, and if the producers are smart, they'd be sure slow-motion and freeze frames on high definition TVs wouldn't give away the secret.

Heroes—Cautionary Tales

2007-11-19T21:05:00.000-07:00

Just some comments tonight rather than a full recap.

Elle? Still really annoying me. I think it's because she's over the top and insists of pawing everybody. And sweetie? Mohinder's personal bubble is my personal bubble. So stay out of it. And her over the topness isn't countered enough by Kristen Bell's performance. Yeah, I know she's supposed to be over the top, but she's really not working for me. Although I did approve of her being knocked unconscious and then tortured. And the parallels set up between her and Claire were fairly well-done, and fleshed out Noah a bit more.

Mohinder, hon, you really gotta lose the nose strip. And get your normal brain back, cause the one you have now doesn't seem to be working too well. But you're still pretty. Seriously, though, Mohinder's changes in loyalty don't make sense to me given his established character. I don't feel like his arc is working well at all this year.

Noah, you are such a badass. I stil think killing the old mentor went too far, but this week you're kicking ass and taking names, and I like it.

All the heroes seem to be gaining finer control of their powers. Most notably in this episode are Hiro and Matt. Matt, please don't use your new Jedi Mind Trick for evil.

Wehn al the characters are speaking the same language, why can't they just borrow a page (no pun intended) from the comics and just make a note that they're translating from Japanese and let the actors speak English? That way I wouldn't have to read my TV all the darn time. I lack the proper attention span for subtitles.

The reveal on Nakamura's murderer wasn't much of a surprise. Well, it was to Hiro, but not to anybody else. The Horn Rimmed Glasses Guys showdown, though, while telegraphed, played out nicely, and the twist at the end was nicely done, as was Hiro's father's funeral and the intercutting between that and Noah's death. And I particularly liked Noah's reaction upon awakening, harking back to Claire's "Holy sh--" from last season.

I was expecting another fairly lackluster installment, but instead it seems like the season is finally hitting a bit of a stride. That this episode held my attention with minimal Petrelli family involvement is a good sign. With only two episodes before the hiatus, it'll be interesting to see which direction they go, and whether or not they resort to the rewritten ending for episode ten.

Blogger is at it again...

2007-11-17T08:15:00.000-07:00

Blogger's not allowing me to edit individual posts, so the Unbox links will stay up on individual reviews until I can get in to remove them. Just don't go buy 'em, mkay?

*smacks Blogger with a stick*

Writers' Strike

2007-11-17T08:02:00.000-07:00

This banner is from wga_supporters and was made by itzaimster.

In support of the WGA strike, I'm going to pull all my ads for TV shows on iTunes and for Amazon Unbox. I also won't be linking to any more streaming video until this is settled. I'm very much in favor of legal online distribution of TV shows, but not when the writers get no residuals for their contributions to it. I don't think it's going to be too far in the future when online distribution becomes the major, or even only, means of distributing TV shows (and then they won't be TV shows anymore, but I digress), and if the writers get cut out of that pie now, they'll be relegated to flat fees and no residuals when that happens. That's unacceptable, which is why I support this strike.

According to recent reports, both parties have agreed to go back to the table on the 26th, so let's all keep our fingers crossed that they come up with an equitable settlement.

In addition, I'm getting a bit bored with doing recaps, so I'm going to see if I can come up with other ways to talk about TV. Watch this space--I'm just going to let the muse lead where she will.

Dean Winchester Would Approve

2007-11-14T19:43:00.000-07:00

Heroes—Four Months Ago

2007-11-12T21:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the abbreviated review tonight--real life intrudes, as does NaNoWriMo... Unfortunately my blog words don't count for my NaNoWriMo totals.

In tonight's episode, we scoot back in time four months to find out what happened after last season's finale. Truthfully, I wish they'd started with this, instead of having the flashback setup. This whole episode was much more interesting and satisfying than just about anything they've done yet this season, with one glaring exception. That exception being Elle. I do not like her. In fact, I can't stand her. Her crawling over Peter made me want to just smack her right off my TV screen. I'm still not finding Maya and Alejandro's story particularly interesting, but Adam... Wow. What a difference a few centuries make. My only complaint about him as a new character is how much time they wasted on his earlier incarnation, because this one is a very strong addition to the current cast. Also addressed were Heidi's departure from Nathan's life, Peter and Nathan's return to earth, Nathan's healing, what killed DL, and how Peter ended up half-naked and handcuffed to the inside of a shipping crate. Overall, a very strong entry, and more like what I expect to see from this show.

Supernatural—Red Sky at Morning

2007-11-08T21:09:00.000-07:00

Cruising along in the car, Dean interrogates Sam about the missing bullet in the Colt. Thus confronted, Sam confesses to killing the Crossroads Demon. Dean's not happy, saying Sam took too much of a risk. The victim's aunt flirts with Sam, though she's old enough to be their grandma. I like her. The ghost ship lore connects it to strange dry-land drownings. Dean has a panic attack when his car disappears, but then Bela shows up to confess she had it towed. Sam tells Dean he can't shoot her, at least not in public.

Investigation of the ghost ship keeps the Winchester boys crossing paths with Bela. Bela determines to take out the ship, while Sam and Dean try to protect the next victim, but he drowns in his car. The loss hits Sam hard. Bela proposes a plan which gets Dean into a tux and yeah, did anything happen after he walked down the stairs looking all freaking HOT? Dean doesn't really know how to behave like a tux-wearing sort of person, which is ausing given his past ability to blend in with about any crowd. Sam gets to date Gert, the aunt, who's quite happy with the arrangement.

Anyway the plan involves stealing a Hand of Glory that was made out of the sailor who's drowning everyone. Dean and Bela make a good team, with Bela bossing Dean around and Dean whining a lot. But of course Bela has her own reasons for wanting the hand--namely so she can sell it--and when she sees the ghost ship herself, she's forced to go to Sam and Dean for help.

Since the spirit is only going after people who shed their own family's blood, and since she stole the hand from them, they're not too inclined to help her, but they do, anyway, summoning the sailor's spirit. There's a lot of rain and a lot of Latin, and Bela nearly drowns, but in the end the spirit faces the spirit of the brother who hanged him, and they blow the special effects budget in a final, watery confrontation between the two ghosts. She gives them part of her take in return. Dean decides to take the money to Atlantic City. I've been there, Dean--it's kinda boring.

Then we wrap up with another confrontation between the brothers, Sam angry with Dean for not caring about his impending death, Dean obviously caring so much about it he's scared shitless and far beyond talking about it.

So, a bit of angst, a good ghost story, a large dollop of humor, and Dean in a tux. In a lot of ways this wasn't a stellar episode, but it was very entertaining. The drownings harked back to "Dead in the Water," maybe a little too much, especially in the tub scene, and the final confrontation was strongly reminiscent of the final confrontation with the ghost in Angel's Season One episode "Rm w/a Vu." I very much enjoy the dynamic between Bela and the boys, especially Bela and Dean, and any excuse to get Ackles into a tuxedo is fine by me.

Bones—The Intern in the Incinerator

2007-11-06T20:05:00.000-07:00

A female body is found burned crispy in the incinerator at the Jeffersonian. Angela is able to ID the skull just by looking at it, because she knew the victim. She was a Jeffersonian intern, Kristen Reardon. She had been having an affair with a married man who also worked at the Jeffersonian. Kristin was involved in authenticating the artifacts from the serial killer case, which appear to be from an anti-Masonic, anti-Illuminati group called the Gormogon. Booth finds a suspect in Kyle Aldridge, the married man Kristin was having an affair with. Cam tells the gang they're trying too hard to connect the murder with the serial killer case. In the end, the murder proves not to have been related to Gormogon, but to a smuggling ring working within the Jeffersonian.

In a well-played and funny subplot, Cam asks Booth to accompany her to her dad's birthday party, as her fake boyfriend, since they don't know he and Cam broke up. Cam's sister makes moves on Booth when she thinks he and Cam might be having relationship issues. Booth goes to Hodgins for advice on what to do about Cam's sister, but all Hodgins can do is giggle at him. Finally, Booth confesses to Cam what happened. The sisters admit neither of them wants Booth, and reconcile in a sisterly alliance against him.

The case tonight was well-constructed, and the character-related subplots were really well-done. I was glad to see Cam with a larger storyline this week, as I really like her character and love the way she interacts with Booth. I also liked the interaction between Booth and Brennan. The scene involving Booth knowing Brennan's passwords, and the reflection over Dixie cup shots at the end, both displayed more bonding and intimacy than any traditionally "romantic" interaction between them ever could.

Heroes—Out of Time

2007-11-05T21:28:00.001-07:00

Back in the past, Kensei has gone totally evol, keeping Hiro drugged up on opium fumes so he can keep the girl. Yaeko frees herself and Hiro teleports them out. Somehow Hiro still things Kensei has a heart of gold. I think Hiro's being just a little too good-hearted here. He gives Kensei a second chance to help him destroy all the guns. No go. Kensei is still bad. And goes boom with all the guns, as Hiro teleports out of the storage building.

Hiro has taken Kensei's place in history, but Kensei's story doesn't have a happy ending. He resolves to return before he messes history up even more, and makes with the smoochies with Yaeko before he goes. He appears in Ando's cubicle, back in the present. Ando breaks the news about Hiro's father. This story was best, I think, in its conclusion. Obviously Kensei's been set up for later movements on the chessboard, revealed later in this episode. It's too bad the story seemed to drag so much before finally getting to the point.

In the Ukraine, Bennet takes pictures of the new paintings. It's a series that leads up to his own death, one of which shows Mohinder with a just-fired gun. A Company-issued gun. Mohinder isn't too sure about his alliance with Bennet now that Bennet seems to have gone kind of apeshit. I'm not too sure about Bennet now, either. He seems to have left his character behind back in episode two or so and is now being inhabited by somebody else.

Nathan and Matt show up to warn Bob of his imminent death. Bob suggests they inject Maury with the virus, and charges Matt with this task since he shares his father's abilities. Bob tells Nathan Peter's alive. Except oops, they lost track of him. Nathan is Not Impressed.

Niki sees DL--vision or real life? Maury has been fiddling with Niki's mind. She injects herself with the virus, thinking it's the only way to save herself.

Matt drops by to see coma!Molly. Caught in Molly's dreamscape, Matt drags Maury in after him. Matt escapes the dreamscape with Molly and leaves his dad behind, effectively incapacitating Maury and rescuing Molly. Oh, by the way, we've got another M there with Maury. Mohinder tries to cure Niki, but she has a new virus strain that can't be cured by his blood. There's no cure for this version of the virus. Bob suggests Claire could help heal Niki, and sends Mohinder out after Mr. Bennet. With a Company-issued gun. Mohinder's surprised by the murder in the Ukraine--enough so that he spills to Bob that he's been working with Bennet. Apparently that smack in the nose affected his brain. He's still awfully pretty, though, although the big white Band-Aid is a dubious fashion statement at best.

In future (2008) New York City, Peter and Caitlin find themselves alone, as the city has been evacuated. Apparently this has something to do with an epidemic, because people in HazMat suits show up and drag Peter off to decontamination, where he is stripped and hosed down. Yeah, that was nice...*rewinds DVR* Caitlin's deported back to Ireland. The population has been decimated by the Shanti virus. I get distracted thinking about The Stand. Peter is reunited with his mom, who of course he doesn't recognize. She tells him Nathan is dead--he died in the first outbreak of the virus. Peter starts to regain his memory. Seeing Caitlin being dragged away with other folks being deported, he freaks out and accidentally teleports himself again. To a place where he meets up with Adam. Who's Kensei. The plot thickens. Finally.

West drops by Claire's house with waffles. Dude, he has totally gone stalkeriffic. I don't like him. I think I mentioned that already. Their prank has made the local paper. I have a moment of hope Claire is coming to her senses, but then she kisses West. Damn. West freaks out when he sees Bennet. Maybe that'll scare him away permanently. *crosses fingers* Bennet finds out about West and tells the family they're moving. Claire puts on her teenage rebellion shoes and says she's not going.

I thought this week's episode was considerably stronger than last week's, and there's some serious groundwork being laid for the future plotline. I didn't miss Maya and Alejandro and Elle a bit--are you surprised by that? This show is strongest when it focuses on the central story, and this week all the plotlines converged on that central story, which is a good thing.

Next week, we find out what happened in the four months between "How to Stop an Exploding Man" and "Four Months Later." I'm intrigued.

Friday Night Lights—Let's Get It On

2007-11-02T21:36:00.000-06:00

Heeding Tim's plea of last week, Lyla arrives in Mexico, much to Jason's surprise. Tim continues to wear sleeveless sweatshirts, and his arms are really distracting. Honestly, this show doesn't need a plot when Tim's arms are around. Lyla is upset and starts to leave, but Tim has a PLAN that involves a booze cruise. Nice work there, Timmy. But he figures if they take Jason out away from other folks he'll talk, which kind of makes sense. Tim's determined to stop Jason from having the procedure, so they hold an intervention on the boat. It doesn't go well, and Jason jumps off the boat into the water. Fortunately they're close to shore. Lyla and Tim catch up to him on the shore--this was a little strange because I'm not sure how they got to the truck after the boat backed up. Then again I was really distracted by Tim's arms.

Having had an epiphany in the water, Jason finally decides he won't go through the procedure, and their section ends with a drunken threesome. Okay, not quite but man, it was close. And that was even more distracting than Tim's arms. These three are breaking my heart in a good way. Tim's direct confrontation of Jason, with his heartfelt, "I love you," was such a wonderful piece of writing. I love the way Tim has been written throughout this storyline. Frank, sincere, passionate, and then at the end of almost every scene he manages to undercut himself with a throwaway line. Really well-done, both the writing and the performance. I'm almost sad they're coming back to Dillon next week, because the time in Mexico has been so involving.

At the all-important six-week post-partum date, Coach Taylor plans for some nookie but Tami's more interested in a good night's sleep. Been there, done that. Practice goes just about as well, because the team is all tense and freaked out. Matt and Smash have a bit of a dust-up. Coach MacGill gives Coach Taylor advice on his floundering sex life, which seems to make Coach want to spork his own eyes out. Baby Grace continues to be really odd-looking.

Coach follows MacGill's advice in his usual overboard kind of way. His attempts to work things out with Saracen and Smash work about as well as his attempts to get Tami into bed. And the game doesn't go so well, either, with Smash and Matt both on the bench, until they bury the hatchet and the team gels again in the second half, with Landry's help. And after the game, Tami finally perks up and decides she'd like to fool around. This was a funny sequence, and the whole subplot was made even funnier by its sheer realism. Yep, boobs like concrete. I remember that well.

Matt and Julie have an awkward conversation in the cafeteria. Landry has a nice moment here where he's still Landry. Julie asks Matt to the Decemberists. Hey, she's kinda dumb about boys but at least she has good taste in music. Matt turns her down in the end, though, and tells Julie exactly how he feels about how she treated him. Good for you, Matt. And maybe Julie will finally realize how badly she screwed up.

The police consider Tyra a person of interest in the murder case, but I think I might ignore that and pretend that whole plotline isn't even on the show. Although Tyra and Landry are kind of cute together when the other part of their story isn't in play. Anyway, Tyra breaks up with Landry per his father's demands, because Dad Clark has realized Landry's lying to him about something, and blames Tyra for it. While Landry had some great moments on tonight's show, he's still being terribly undermined by this plotline. Not going to harp about it anymore, though.

Did I mention Tim has really photogenic arms?

Supernatural—Bedtime Stories

2007-11-01T21:12:00.001-06:00

Sam and Dean make their way to a town where fairy tales are being brought to life in all their original gory glory. Glory gory? No, I got it right the first time. On their way, they have a very impassioned conversation about the Crossroad deal, since they have distinctly different ideas about how to deal with it at this juncture. Dean yells a lot. He's hot when he's mad. They think the first attack in town might be a werewolf, but the evidence doesn't add up.

Our next victims are Hansel and Gretel with Power Bars, all lost in the woods. They find a house and a sweet little old lady with pie. Poison pie. That's just wrong. And the she gets all stabby with a big knife, which is even wronger. Sam puts two and two together and comes up with the fairy tale connection. The next victim appears to be Cinderella, and all the victims are being stalked by Snow White. All this is way creepier than it sounds. Even the sudden strong saturation of color in this normally undersaturated show is creepy.

And tonight even the commercials have a fairy tale theme.

As it turns out, Snow White is the spirit of the local doctor's comatose daughter, and he's been reading her Grimm's fairy tales. Her spirit is seeking revenge for her stepmother's having poisoned her when she was eight, putting her in the coma, and the angry spirit is lashing out through the fairy tales. The latest is Little Red Riding Hood, and Dean goes to rescue the granddaughter, since grandma has just died of Big Bad Wolf mauling in the hospital. Sam confronts the father, to stop the haunting, and is surprised when the doctor believes him--he's sensed the girl's spirit, too. While he tries to convince the doctor to listen to Callie's spirit, Dean throws down with the big bad wolf (actually a human who's being driven by Callie's spirit). Once the doctor hears his daughter's story and believes her, she passes on.

And there's still fifteen minutes to go... Hm. There was a lot of arguing about the Crossroads Demon at the beginning--want to bet we see something else about that here at the end?

Well, DUH, cause later at the hotel, Sam sneaks out and summons up a crossroads demon, who turns out to be Jared Padalecki's girlfriend Sandra McCoy, Awkward much? He threatens to kill her if she doesn't let Dean out of his deal. She plays mind games with him, telling him part of him will be relieved when Dean's gone. Killing her won't break the deal, though--there's a higher power who holds the contract. She won't tell him who the boss is, so he kills her. Ooo, they'll be having fun dinner conversation about that for months. "Honey, remember that time you shot me in the head and my eyes went all glowy and you could see my skull through my face? That was fun, wasn't it?"

This was a solid episode, though the framing for the Crossroads Demon sequence was a little blatant. Still, Dean looks hot when he yells and Sam looks hot when he shoots demons, so it's all good. And what is up with Sam shooting the demons? Good that the demons are dead, but the human hosts go down with them and that's been a bit of a moral quandary for him in the past. Doesn't seem to be bothering him much now. I'm really intrigued about what the writers are thinking about what's going on inside Sam's head these days.

Another interesting note--the Colt is not the same gun anymore, and the Crossroads Demon knew Ruby not as a compatriot but as a pain in her ass. More intriguing bits of information that I hope will play out in the future.

Bones—The Mummy in the Maze

2007-10-30T19:56:00.000-06:00

Tonight, Bones has its first Halloween episode. It opens at a corn maze. I hate corn mazes. Poor little kid lost in the corn maze. And he finds an actual dead dessicated body, which makes it all even worse. Looking for the body, Booth and Bones and the coroner all get lost. Seems like if they find a dead body in a corn maze they could probably get permission to just doze down the maze to get to the body. Which Booth finally does with his body, which is kind of hot.

The body proves to have been actually mummified, with lacquer and cedar oil. Then another body is found at an amusement park, in a haunted house, just past the killer clown. The clown makes Booth squeal like a girl. The details of the deaths are extra gross tonight and involve tarantulas. Ew. Thanks to many disparate pieces put together by the Squint Squad, Booth and Bones are able to save the final victim from the killer clown. No, seriously.

Jack and Angela consult a private investigator (Azura Skye, who was the argot-afflicted Russian patient on last week's House). She finds out all kinds of interesting things about Angela. And she's found the ex-husband in the Florida Keys. He doesn't want a divorce, and he built Angela a house.

The highlight of the episode is the costume party, although it was really kind of disturbing how hot Boreanaz was done up like a geek. The private investigator was quite amusing in her attempts to be sure Angela really wanted to be with Jack and not with the apparently ridiculously good-looking and still-devoted ex-husband (although one must wonder how much of that she made up as part of her "test"). And the Halloween costumes were great. Overall, another solid outing.

Heroes—The Line

2007-10-30T18:29:00.000-06:00

I think it's safe to say a show has entered a sophomore slump, at least for me, when I find myself more interested in playing Tetris than paying attention. Last night's episode did very little for me other than to annoy me. Mr. Bennet had some intense moments, but I'm not sure I buy his extreme measures--it's like he's a Company man again, but working against the Company, and I know that's the point, but it feels out of character to me. The Maya/Alejandro/Sylar thing is doing nothing for me, nor is Hiro/Yaeko/Kensei. Mohinder is being a bit of a dumbass, in my opinion, although he's been kind of hot lately. And Claire and West? Still not working for me. The prank on Debbie was mean, even though she kind of deserved it, but Debbie seemed really over the top as a character.

Anyway, going lukewarm on this show right now, and really hoping it picks up again soon.

Reaper

2007-10-28T13:43:00.000-06:00

I've just spent a lazy Sunday afternoon catching up with Reaper, and I think this show has emerged as my favorite of the new fall series. When he turns 21, Sam (Bret Harrison) discover his parents sold his soul to the devil before he was born, so now he has to work as a bounty hunter for Satan for the rest of his life. His job is to return escaped souls to hell where they belong. With the aid of his friends, Sock (Tyler Labine) and Ben (Rick Gonzalez), he uses various devices as "vessels"--a Dirt Devil, a remote control car, a toaster--to bring back the demons based on often obscure clues from Satan (Ray Wise). Also in the cast are familiar faces Missy Peregrym (Heroes) as Andi, Sam's unrequited love interest, and Valarie Rae Miller (Dark Angel), Sock's ex-girlfriend and often unwitting accomplice. The premise is quirky, the execution even quirkier, and the show overall funny, entertaining, and not stodgy or predictable.

Ratings for Reaper have been fairly solid for the CW so far. It seems to me that it might be a good programming move for the CW to pair it up with Supernatural next season, since Smallville will reportedly be coming to a close.

The soundtrack is cool, too. Here--have some songs:

Lazy Eye—Silversun Pickups (Episode One)

The Bravery—Believe (Episode Two)

The Perfect Crime #2—The Decemberists (Episode Three)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus—Volume One

2007-10-28T08:30:00.000-06:00

In the wake of the arrival and consequent crazy-good sales of Buffy: Season Eight in comic book form, Dark Horse Comics is now re-releasing the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics in trade paperback format. I'm glad they're doing this, because the original comics are a bit hard to track down now, and buying all the paperback compilations is expensive, plus not all the comics were rereleased in this form.

The other thing I really like about the new compilations is that they're not in publication order, but in chronological order. The original Buffy comics jumped around on the timeline, with some set pre-series, and others set during various seasons of the show, in somewhat random order. In these new omnibus editions, the comics have been reordered to fit the series timeline.

Volume One consists entirely of pre-series stories, some of which I had read and some of which I hadn't. All of them are solid stories, and I enjoyed the book quite a lot.

The book starts off with All's Fair, a Spike and Dru series set during the 1933 World's Fair. It's an enjoyable story, but I found it to be the weakest of the set. The next series is the strongest. Buffy: The Origin is an adaptation of Joss Whedon's original script for the Buffy movie--i.e., this is what the movie would have looked like if studio suits and egomaniacal actors hadn't stuck their fingers in the pie. The Origin leads directly into Viva Las Buffy!, in which Buffy fights vampires in Las Vegas with Pike, her boyfriend from the original movie. This series and Slayer, Interrupted, in which Buffy ends up in a mental institution, fill in a good bit of the timeline between the movie storyline and the story that picks up with the pilot of the TV series. Also included is backstory on Giles, with a much-appreciated cameo from Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. Sandwiched between these two stories is the one-shot Dawn and Hoopy the Bear, in which an attempt to kill the Slayer affects her little sister, instead. Her arguably non-existent in this time-frame little sister.

The inclusion of Dawn in these comic sets was a conscious decision by the writers, since Season Four through Seven canon includes the character not only in the present but also in the other characters' manufactured pasts. It makes sense given when these comics were written, so I don't have a problem with it, but it'll make your head explode if you think about it too much.

Overall, this is a very enjoyable read, and I plan to follow this series as it's made available. Volume Two is already out--Borders here I come! With coupons, of course.

Preorder

Friday Night Lights—Backfire

2007-10-26T20:42:00.000-06:00

Road trip! Tim and Jason are bound for Mexico. Well, okay, actually they're IN Mexico now, in pursuit of experimental surgery for Jason, but their plans go awry when Tim's natural charm gets him arrested. But he schedules the treatment, and their journey continues with drunken karaoke. Afraid for Jason's life if he goes through with the treatment, Tim calls Lyla and asks her to come to Mexico to help him change Jason's mind.

On the football field, the Panthers continue to struggle as the "throw the ball to Smash all the time" strategy doesn't work so well. Garrity fires MacGregor, who doesn't take it well. Neither does Taylor's boss, when he quits the TMU job. And then he returns to Dillon to discover he doesn't quite have his old job yet, because MacGregor's being obstreperous. MacGregor's finally ousted, and confronts Taylor on the way out of town.

Lyla goes to witness--poorly--at a juvenile prison, and gets too personally involved with one of the young men when he's released. Buddy sticks his nose in and interviews the kid for a job.

Julie continues to act like a horrific brat. I have no sympathy for her at all at this point, and her squeaking selfishness is really getting on my nerves. But when the Swede finally shows his true colors, she at least makes the right decision, so maybe things will smooth out with her soon. On the other hand, Tyra and Landry's over-the-top subplot continues to be over-the-top and also annoying. It's unrealistic and the whole plotline feels like it's patched into this show from some other show that I don't want to watch.

Supernatural—Sin City

2007-10-26T17:21:00.000-06:00

I'm under the weather and not really up to doing the kind of review this episode deserves, so I'll do a quick drive-by. Hopefully I'll have something to say about Friday Night Lights later tonight.

I love the work Bob Singer did in this episode, laying down storylines that'll undoubtedly drive at least the rest of the first half of this season, if not the rest of the year. Sam's refusal to become the Yellow-Eyed Demon's right-hand man, not to mention killing the demon, has thrown the demon world into a chaos possibly worse for mankind that what might have played out if Sam had just stepped up to his demonic destiny. And now we know he was Azazel, not just any ordinary demon, and after the havoc that boy wreaked on Hex I'd keep an eye out for him, boys. Now the demons are all jockeying for power, as well as trying to set up shop in human bodies Earthside. What is Ruby's role in this? She helped Bobby set the Colt to rights, and has promised to help Sam save Dean from Hell. But what will she demand of Sam along the way? All signs point to bad.

Run Through the Jungle—Creedence Clearwater Revival

Bones—The Secret in the Soil

2007-10-23T20:33:00.000-06:00

We begin with Bones and Brennan attending therapy with Dr. Lance Sweets. Which is kind of a dorky name. And neither of them is happy with the situation, but the FBI is demanding their partnership be evaluated. On their way home from therapy, they're called to go check out a dead body. Mmmm, greasy bones. Cam and Brennan examine the body while Booth reminisces over old romantic conquests. Nice timing there, Seeley. The body temperature is abnormally high--the body was cooked before it was dumped. Okay, um... ew. I wonder if this is going to tie in to the cannibal dude from the season premiere?

Jack has the same thought I did. Which means either I'm really smart or I'm a freaky conspiracy theorist type. Considering I watched The X-Files all the way through to the series finale (every single freakin' episode, people), I'll go for the latter. The victim is a Franklin Curtis, an organic grocery mogul. Mr. Organic's body is covered in pesticides. Denise Crosby plays his wife. Hm... where did I see her last? X-Files? Seems like she popped up somewhere else since she was Scully's gynecologist. Ah, it was Dexter. Thank God for imdb. Apparently Curtis was a bit heavy-handed in his pursuit of organic farming, thus giving us a potentially huge list of suspects, since he drove other farmers out of business. Brennan comes up with an argument in favor of organic farming that seems to affect Booth--pesticides can make your genitals shrink. The interaction here is priceless.

The first suspect, Andy, is a tobacco farmer--they think Curtis might have been cooked in the tobacco curing barn, but apparently somebody else was cooked along with him. Gracie from Jericho is the suspect's wife. Curtis made passes at her, apparently, trying to get his hands on Andy's farm. Curtis seems to have been a bit of a horndog.

While they're investigating the next suspect, another organic farmer growing pineapples in a hothouse, a waft from the compost compound nearby initiates an amusing "Who farted?" exchange between Booth and Brennan. The compost smell, though, constitutes another clue. They go to search the compost facility for more dead bodies. Of course they find one--a female body that's been dead about the same amount of time as Curtis. The assumption is that they're lovers, but later evidence shows they're father and daughter.

The case this week had some nice twists, with the final reveal both logical and emotionally fraught. The environmentalist theme seemed like it was going to be heavy-handed at first, but after the first act or so it began to fade more into the storyline, as it should be. While there wasn't a great deal of screentime for the Squint Squad, everybody had at least one good moment. Jack's enthusiasm over bugs and compost, Angela's observations regarding Booth and Brennan's bickering, Zack's observation that he's occasionally wrong--all these were welcome, enjoyable, and spot-on moments for them.

I've been hearing about the "couples counselling" plotline for a while, and had my doubts about it. Seeing it play out, though, I think the writers have found a sneaky way to explore the depths and breadths of Booth and Brennan's relationship without tossing them into bed. If they do this right, it could verge on genius in that respect, and so far so good. The moments toward the end with the two of them in Sweets' office were very revealing without being treacly or corny or treading too close to that deadly romance line. My only disappointment is that they have a new doctor, rather than Gordon Gordon, but the dynamic would have been vastly different with him, and possibly not as revealing as it's been with the considerably younger and less dominant Sweets. Kudos so far for this twist--I'm looking forward to seeing more of this plotline.

Heroes—Fight or Flight

2007-10-22T21:11:00.000-06:00

Molly is still unconscious, with her two daddies tending to her. Matt departs to go find his father. His first stop is Angela Petrelli. Nathan isn't happy about Matt questioning his mom. They end up going to Philly together to hunt down Matt's dad. Nathan isn't pleased with Matt's suggestion that they fly there together. Nathan is all scruffy. This is infinitely better than the beard. They find Matt's dad and discover, predictably, that he's also received a photographic death token. Matt tries unsuccessfully to read his dad's mind, and Dad promises to tell him "everything." Matt's dad double-crosses him with a door that takes Matt to prison and Nathan to nuclear holocaust New York. He must have that key from The Lost Room. Or maybe just some mind manipulating abilities. Either way I think Matt and Nathan are in some serious trouble. In the apocalypse-world, Nathan faces his own burn-scarred self, while Matt finds himself imprisoned with his ex-wife and her baby. So they're both facing some kind of inner struggle with conscience thing in a dreamscape. And everybody knows inner conscience-struggles are never complete without a little headbutting. Matt manages to break them out of the dream, in which they've actually been headbutting each other. They discover Bob's death token--looks like he's next.

Mohinder calls Bennet. He's planning to take Molly in to the Company to get her some help. Mohinder takes Molly to the Company. Mohinder, sweetie, why are you being so dumb? His Company boss, Bob, sends him out into the field with a taser to bring in someone else. Jessica shows up and beats the hell out of everybody until Mohinder tasers her. Mohinder tries to rescue her once she switches back to Niki and discovers she's there of her own volition, looking for a cure.

Monica tells the cops about what happened at the restaurant. This show has a preponderance of characters with names that start with M. Matt, Mohinder, Molly, Monica, Maya, Micah, Mr. Muggles... Mr. Bennet, except I guess that doesn't count because his name's really Noah. But I digress. Monica has the usual I don't know what's happening, nothing makes sense anymore, blah blah reaction to her new powers. Yawn. Pardon my boredom with the new characters, but jeez, they have enough regulars in this cast to populate a small country. Micah plays the piano. That reminds me of when Noah Gray-Cabey used to be the obnoxious piano-playing kid on My Wife and Kids. Monica can mimic his playing just by watching. Micah puts the pieces together and tells Monica about his powers to get her to open up to him. He gives her a 9th Wonders comic about a Copycat talent to help explain. She begins to experiment with her powers. And then Mohinder shows up at her door. Hm. It's like when Xavier shows up at your door to invite you to X-Men school.

In Ireland, Peter and Caitlin make with the smoochies in the bar. Have I mentioned I like Peter's new haircut? Caitlin encourages Peter to see what's in the Mysterious Box O' Doom. Peter decides he'd rather take her to his room for tea and crackers. Elsewhere in Ireland, Veronica Mars shows up looking for Peter. She was a pretty good private detective for about a season and a half there--Peter might be in trouble. And now she can make lightning. I wonder if that's how Peter picked up that skill? He didn't have that before. So maybe they ran into each other before Peter got his brain wiped clean. Caitlin's brother offers to take care of Veronica Mars while Peter hides with Caitlin. At Caitlin's flat, Peter admires her paintings, and finally decides to open the box. He confesses his devotion to Caitlin first--we know that won't end well. The box doesnt' really have anything all that interesting in it. So much for that buildup. Peter has a precognitive flash and uses Caitlins painting supplies to use his Isaac-powers. Veronica Mars continues to be obnoxious. I'm really not liking her character much so far, which is probably why I can't seem to be bothered to look up the character's name on imdb. Anyway, she zaps Caitlin's brother. That's just rude. Her daddy, who she's reporting to, isn't too happy about it, either, and she's ordered home. I hope you get all your allowance cut off, Veronica. Peter and Caitlin try to interpret the painting he just created, and Caitlin gets news of her brother's death. Peter determines to find the bad guys.

Ando takes his teeny scrolls to an expert to have them analyzed and repaired so he can continue reading them. The expert says they're genuine, and repairs them so we can head into another flashback with Hiro and Kensei and Yaeko. They're off to defeat White Beard, and Kensei and Yaeko seem to be getting along swimmingly. But it looks like the three of them are facing off against an entire army, and after that the scrolls are too damaged to read further. Yeah, Ando, I hate those cliffhanger endings, too.

Tonight's episode felt disjointed to me, as if they were trying to cram too much into a small space. Which, point of fact, they were, and are, and sort of always have. It just seemed a little more like that tonight than usual. I'm sure they're doing setup that'll play out later on down the line, but I still wish they'd streamlined the show a bit more rather than making it more complicated. I know I keep harping on that, but I really think it's made this show harder to watch.

Chuck, Burn Notice

2007-10-22T19:47:00.000-06:00

I still enjoy Chuck. I think it's fun and quirky, but for some reason I have almost no ability to pay attention to it while it's on. Weird quirk of the brain, I guess. Anyway, have they always done that random freeze-frame thing, a la Burn Notice, and I've just missed it, or is that new?

Speaking of Burn Notice, I finished watching the full season over the weekend. Again, a fun and quirky show that I have a hard time fully focusing on. I really have to recommend it, though. Not only is it quirky and fun and has Bruce Campbell in it, but you can learn how to make listening devices and fake plastic explosives if you pay attention. And, seriously, how can you not love a show where they use a vibrator to counteract the bad guys' attempts at surveillance?

TV Online—Amazon Unbox and Netflix Watch Instantly

2007-10-20T12:33:00.000-06:00

After a lot of waffling, I finally decided to take the plunge and try out Amazon's Unbox, as well as Netflix's Watch Instantly service. Overall, I'm fairly pleased.

The bad: The waffling came about because of system requirements. Netflix requires Windows Media Player 11, with all its DRM "improvements," which had me leery. I don't really trust Microsoft to have my best interests at heart as regards management of my digital media, so I didn't really want to install their upgrade. However, on reflection, I realized I don't use WMP that much, anyway, so I figured it wouldn't be an issue. The biggest problem I have with Netflix, though, is that it requires use of Internet Explorer as a browser in order to watch their offered video. I'm a dedicated Firefox user, and IE frankly gives me hives. But if it's just for that service, I can deal.

It was my understanding that Unbox requires use of the latest WMP version, as well, though I don't see it on the system requirements list at Amazon. In any case, it at least doesn't force me to use IE, since their player is independent of the browser. While Netflix runs streaming video, Unbox works with downloads, which are limited to use on 2 computers. Neither system is Mac compatible (boo).

The good: Netflix has a very good selection of movies and TV shows available for viewing--over 5,000 according to the website. If you're a member, you can use one hour of viewing time per dollar you pay for your monthly membership. So if you have one of their basic subscriptions, you're looking at 5-10 hours of viewing/month. If you're a spazz like me and have a grandfathered (from *ahem* years ago) super duper membership, you're allowed, well, a lot of viewing time. I'll never use it all up, but at least it adds a bit more value to my membership, since I have a bad habit of leaving movies laying on top of the DVD player for months before I get around to watching them.

Anyway, I first set the system up on my son's computer so the kids could watch the Sonic the Hedgehog animated series. They finished that up and then apparently couldn't find the time to look through for other shows they might enjoy, so I went ahead and set up the system on my own computer and started watching The Office from Season One. The software was easy enough to install once I'd gotten my Windows updates finished, and runs pretty smoothly. Netflix seems to feel my DSL connection is on the low end, speedwise, so it delivers the lower quality versions of the available movies, but it's not bad--definitely on a par with the free streaming service offered by the network websites.

Also at Netflix, they're offering new episodes of Heroes the day after network broadcast, I guess to make up for NBC's pulling the show from iTunes. They also offered the premiere of Californication before it was broadcast on Showtime, and Dexter's Season Two premiere for a limited time.

At Amazon Unbox, you can download episodes of a good number of TV series for $1.99 and episode--the same price as at iTunes. NBC's shows will continue to be available here even after they pull everything from iTunes at the end of this year--I guess NBC was happier with the DRM at Amazon than they were at iTunes. They also have movie "rentals" for $3.99 each. These have to be viewed within 30 days or they will explode. Actually, they automatically delete themselves. Once you start playing them, you have 24 hours to finish watching, so if you have to leave on an emergency trip to Zimbabwe in the middle of your movie and you won't be back for a month, you're out of luck. If you have a TiVo, you can watch downloads on your TV. You can also hook the TV into the computer to watch, or watch downloaded video on a select number of portable devices (iPod not included--another boo). Portable video files come with your download.

My experience with Unbox so far has been limited to free content. I "purchased" (can you call it purchasing when it's free?) three supplemental videos for Bones ("Couples Counseling" videos--short and fun little asides to the story as it's playing out on the series). At first I had some difficulty using the software--it wouldn't download my videos. I had a suspicion I'd entered the wrong password, but couldn't find an option in the software to correct the issue. After an uninstall and reinstall, I was able to enter the right password and download the videos. All that went swimmingly, so I suppose my difficulties could be attributed to user error. It was a bit frustrating, though, to not be able to figure out how to fix my password without uninstalling.

In any case, both these options seem to be very viable for catching up with shows online. If you want DVD quality viewing, you're not going to get it here, but if you can't wait for the DVD releases, both Unbox and View Instantly can help you keep up with your viewing, or check out samples of shows you might not watch otherwise due to scheduling conflicts.

Friday Night Lights—Are You Ready for Friday Night?

2007-10-19T21:19:00.000-06:00

In tonight's episode, Tim wears sweat pants hanging so low they would fall off if he breathed wrong. This makes me happy. Very happy.

Oh, and then there's plot. Because the new coach, while being more poetic, is still mean, and works Tim so hard Tim has to be taken to the hospital.

Dear Mr. Mean Coach--Do not mess with My Boy Tim and his Fabulous Sweatpants of Guh. I will cut you. No love, TC.

Lyla continues to be annoying in her attempts to recruit Tim to her church. Tim's at the end of his rope--he's drinking heavily again, Billy has taken up with Jackie, and Jason, trying to do his job as assistant coach, tells him he's a screw-up. So Tim goes to church with Lyla. He seems to have found God now. Which is okay as long as he still wears the Fabulous Sweatpants of Guh. But in the end, he heads off on a road trip to Mexico with Jason, who's not getting along with Coach McMean, either.

Coach Taylor continues to struggle with his job and family obligations. Friction grows in the team as Smash aggrandizes himself to reporters. MacGregor has established him as go-to guy, and his coaching techniques are tearing the team apart rather than pulling it together. Buddy Garrity tries to reassert his power over the team. He pulls Coach Taylor in on this scheme, using some pretty low tactics. Unfortunately, what he says about Tami and Julie is true--they really are having a hard time without the Coach. And so is the team, as Taylor witnesses when he watches the Panthers play from the sidelines. But it's Tami finally allowing herself to fall apart that makes up his mind--he's going to take Buddy's deal and get his old job back. Wow, I didn't see that one coming...

Landry and Tyra remain great characters stranded in a bad plot, unfortunately. I still hold out hope that this will improve, but at least by now it's become a relatively minor blip in a show that's starting to look like my old Friday Night Lights again.

Viva Laughlin

2007-10-19T18:59:00.000-06:00

Okay, so, what is this show? It's a drama about a guy trying to get a casino built in Laughlin, Nevada (or at least the pilot is--I assume the casino gets built at some point), and every once in a while people burst into song. Except apparently the producers don't trust the actors to carry the musical aspect of the show, because they sing over the original produced performances of the songs so you can't really hear the actors singing at all. I don't get it. I mean, if you're going to do a musical, then get people who can sing. Or, more to the point, they have people who can sing so let them. Hugh Jackman can sing his tight little silver suited ass off and we all know it, so let the dude sing ferpetesake.

As far as the characters and the story and such, that's all fine, but really, they just lost me by not having the balls to actually, you know, do a musical.

Oh, but Jackman? Smokin' hot. And so is DB Woodside.

Supernatural—Bad Day at Black Rock

2007-10-18T21:58:00.000-06:00

Tonight's episode is by Ben Edlund. I really shouldn't have to say anything else about it. I mean, this is the guy who brought us "Simon Said," and "Hollywood Babylon," and, a few years ago (has it really been that long?), turned Angel into a puppet. And tonight he's going to construct an entire Supernatural episode around a rabbit's foot. Which seems odd, but not as odd as turning Angel into a puppet, and that was one of the highlights of my TV viewing history. So yeah, looking forward to this one.

Before we get to the bunny toes, we catch up with Gordon, who's still in prison, but getting outside info from another hunter about the devil's gate fiasco at the end of last season. Gordon still seems to think Sam needs to die. But didn't he do that already? The hunter, Kubrick, joins forces with another hunter and goes in pursuit of Sam, who's collecting more Satanic nicknames as Kubrick starts calling him the Adversary. I think he paid a little too much attention in Sunday School. Heck, by the end even Gordon thinks Kubrick is taking his whole mission from God thing a little too seriously, and when Gordon thinks you're off your nut, you probably have some serious issues.

Dean isn't too happy about Sam's chatting up Ruby the demon last week. I'm kind of surprised Sam told Dean about that. It seemed like he was playing his research cards close to the vest since Dean told him about the loophole. Although it's probably good he's opening up to Dean. At this point I'm wondering, though, if he's told Dean about Mary's history as revealed last week via Ruby.

They get a call on John's old cell phone about a storage container being broken into. They go to investigate and find the container filled with childhood memorabilia (Sam's soccer trophy, Dean's first sawed-off shotgun) as well as a potentially useful arsenal and a collection of curse boxes filled with bad mojo, locked away for protection. One of them has been stolen. I liked this scene and what it revealed about John and his love for his sons. I also liked that John is in many ways still an active character in the show, much as he was in the first season before the boys caught up with him. Tying family backstory into this episode was a great move on Edlund's part--it added a layer that made it feel that much more accessible.

Sam and Dean chase down the thieves and aquire the rabbit's foot that was inside the curse box. Dean, seeing the effects of the artifact, buys lottery tickets, because he's Dean. Sam, though, is certain the artifact is cursed. Which of course it is, as evidence by the really gross death of one of the men who initially stole it. Seriously, how do they come up with all these inventive yet really repulsive ways to kill people off? And this one had the added bonus of being funny. Anyway, the bunny foot was made to kill people--when you lose it, you die in less than a week.

And a waitress in the restaurant where they stop to eat lifts the rabbit's foot out of Sam's pocket. Sam and Dean now have to figure out how to break the curse so Sam won't die. And the restaurant's publicity shot of Sam and Dean as their one millionth customer leads the hunters straight to their prey.

Poor Sam gets saddled with the bad luck, which leads to lots of pratfalls for Padalecki, who is as hysterical in this turn as put-upon Sam as he is scary when he gets to tackle demon-possessed Sam. Seriously, I've been watching Gilmore Girls and Padalecki has come a long way, and is developing some serious talent. Fearing for both their lives, Dean leaves Sam in the hotel room ("Don't even scratch your nose"--so of course Sam's nose immediately gets itchy) and pursues the thief, a new hot chick named Bela who apparently specializes in this sort of thing.

While Sam is afflicted by more and more off-the-wall accidents (the air conditioner catches fire while he just sits there trying not to do anything dangerous), Dean regains the rabbit's foot and manages to make me laugh hysterically while at the same time being completely hotass. "I'm Batman." Yes, I rolled right off the chaise. Sam's death seems to be inevitable when Kubrick catches up to him, but Dean makes use of the rabbit's foot's powers while luck is still on his side. It's this kind of assured competence in the most bizarre of situations that makes me want to lick Dean all over. Did I say that out loud? In the end, he tricks Bela into touching the rabbit's foot, so she'll be forced to let them destroy it. But she gets her revenge by pickpocketing Dean's scratch tickets.

I have to say I'm very happy with my show so far, even with the changes that have been introduced. I had high hopes for the new cast additions when rumors first hit the internet over the summer, and so far Bela and Ruby are playing out quite nicely. I was afraid Sam's storyline might fall by the wayside, but instead it's just gathered more layers. And Dean's impending death, while it continues to color the tone of the show, was more or less set aside this week, which I think was a good thing. While it's an important subplot, it doesn't need to be explicit in every episode. Kudos once again to Edlund for a stellar hour (well, okay, about 42 minutes) of TV.

Heroes—The Kindness of Strangers

2007-10-15T21:22:00.000-06:00

(Blogger won't let me upload an image tonight so picture Naked Peter in this space.)

Mr. Bennet is still freaking about the painting of Claire, and Mr. Muggles is apparently a power-walking Pomeranian. That dog is scary. Dad gives Claire the "outsiders are a threat" speech again. Claire reassures her dad that there's no boy for him to worry about. At school, she's still being pursued by the cheerleaders. Their lockers are outside, and I swear I've seen this school before in another show or a movie. What do they do when it rains, if the lockers are outside? See? I remember thinking the same thing when I saw this school before. West and Claire have an awkward conversation with lots of subtext, but he asks her out anyway. Claire says she's going to the library to study for a paper and sneaks off to see West. Her dad stalks them but doesn't see West and Claire flying away. They sit on the Hollywood sign and chat. West tries to convince Claire she should trust him. I don't trust him. I think he's kinda creepy. He convinces her to jump off the sign to prove her trust. Of course he catches her in mid-air. Maybe this is all supposed to be romantic but he still seems kinda stalkery to me. They stay out too late (there's a shocker), and he encourages her to lie to her father to cover up. Claire tells her dad she made the cheerleading team, instead of telling him she was out with Creepy Flying Boy. In fact, she's all manipulaty about it to get Dad to let her be on the team. He says she can cheer but she can't date. Hm. How is that gonna work? I think Claire and Julie Taylor (Friday Night Lights) should hang out, because they're both being annoying with the teenage rebellion stuff. The Haitian arrives and says he and Bennet have to go to Odessa, in the Ukraine, to follow up on the paintings. They still haven't given the Haitian a name, have they? Maybe we can call him Mr. Haitian McHottypants.

Maya and Alejandro are still traveling with Derek, who speaks English, which allows us to abandon the subtitles, thank God. They're slightly less annoying without subtitles. They find a body in the road. Oh, and I spoke too soon. More subtitles. The body in the road is Sylar. Whee! Boring characters + interesting character =.... well, I guess we'll find out. Maya shows Sylar the book and Sylar gets all curious and creepy and offers to help them find Dr. Suresh. Hm. Nice trick since Sylar killed him. Derek finds a "Wanted" ad (as opposed to a want ad) in a newspaper with pictures of Maya and Alejandro and shows it to Sylar, who says "golly." Derek goes to call the police while Sylar confronts them with the newspaper. Maya gets agitated and starts to infect Sylar, but Alejandro calms her and stops the process. Sylar is, of course, very intrigued by all this, and helps them escape. In the meantime, Derek has dropped dead of brain hemorrhage...okay, how did that happen when he was quite a distance away from Maya when she had her meltdown?

Elsewhere, Micah is being tormented by the other kids living with Lieutenant Uhura, who is apparently Micah's grandmother, so I guess the other kids would be his cousins. Micah uses his powers to get his cousins Pay-Per-View so they'll stop tormenting him. Cousin Monica has tested into a management training program so she can go to school to help her family recover from the hurricane. It appears she might have some power, but it involves cutting tomatoes into roses and I don't see how that's all that useful. Maybe she just learns things really really fast. Anyway, she doesn't make it into the management program. And her friend looks like somebody cloned Molly Ringwald. Monica is attacked at the hamburger joint and takes out the burglar using a move she saw on TV. Yep, apparently she learns by watching. Handy skill.

Molly wakes up screaming after a nightmare and is comforted by her two daddies Matt and Mohinder. Nathan sneaks a visit with his kids, who mock his beard. Poor Nathan's not allowed to be around his kids. That's not good. I wonder what pieces we're missing here. Angela Petrelli confesses to the murder of Mr. Nakamura to Matt, who's interrogating her in the hospital. She tells Matt telepathically to accept her statement and let it go. Otherwise, digging into the case will expose our Heroes. Nathan, who has shaved now--yay!--confronts Matt about his mother's "confession." I guess Nathan took his kids' mockage seriously. Matt tells Nathan about Molly's dreams and the symbol common to the dreams and the investigation.

Nathan goes to chat with Mom. Mom mocks his shaving. Wow, he can't win with the whole facial hair conundrum, can he? Angela sticks to her guns about her confession. Nathan and Matt compare notes about the older generation of folks, including Angela, DeVeaux, Linderman and Nakamura, and find a picture with a good number of them all together. We get a bit more information about Matt's situation--his wife's baby wasn't his. Back at 3M HQ, Matt tells Molly and Mohinder that he needs Molly to help him find his father. Molly is freaked out by the picture and says Matt's dad is the nightmare man. Okay, there's an interesting twist. Nathan continues to see visions of Peter with his face horribly burned. Matt pushes Mohinder to let him get Molly to continue to help track down his father. Mohinder doesn't like the idea, but Molly says she'll do it. She does, but comes too close, and is thrown into shock, but Matt can still hear her screaming.

Wow, what a freaky way to end it. Most of the storylines seem to be ramping up nicely. I'm most interested in the 3M team and the Petrellis right now. I missed Peter tonight but I can't say I missed Hiro. His storyline isn't doing much for me right now, and I hope when he comes back they've added something to that plot to make it a bit more interesting. Maya and Alejandro are still boring to me but adding Sylar to the mix at least adds some interest there. I'm still not terribly invested in Micah's situation, or in Monica yet, and Claire is really annoying me. Although I'm starting to really like Mr. Muggles. He should get a spinoff.

Angel Script Books

2007-10-13T08:06:00.000-06:00

I thought I had blogged about the Angel Script Book Volume 1, but I can't find an actual post about it, so if I'm repeating myself please forgive me.

IDW Publishing started putting out original shooting scripts of Angel shortly after the series was canceled. Apparently they didn't sell well, because they only did a few, then compiled the existing one-shots into a TPB edition. The second volume consisted of the last few one-shots plus an additional episode that hadn't been published in one-shot form. I don't think they have any plans to publish any more paperback compilations, but I suppose that could change if Angel: After the Fall does well enough.

Volume One consists of the series premiere, "City Of...," by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt, "A Hole in the World," "Waiting in the Wings," and "Spin the Bottle," all by Joss, and "Five by Five," by Jim Kouf. And they're in that order, too. Seasons 1, 5, 3, 4 and 1. That's really my only complaint about this series. The chosen scripts seem a bit scattershot and aren't in order. Of course I wouldn't have been totally happy with anything but all 100+ shooting scripts printed and bound and all in order, because I'm a little weird that way.

Going on to Volume Two, we have "In the Dark," by Douglas Petrie, "I Will Remember You," by David Greenwalt and Jeannine Renshaw, "Convinction," by that Whedon guy, "You're Welcome," by David Fury, "Smile Time," by Ben Edlund (oddly much less funny in script form than the final product was), and the series finale *sniff*, "Not Fade Away," by Whedon and Jeffrey Bell.

I always enjoy reading original shooting scripts as a rule, because it's fun and I learn things about writing scripts. Having them packaged in a nice paperback so I don't have to print them out or read them off the computer is a plus, too. The way these books are packaged, though, is more reader-friendly than script-studying friendly, since unlike the Buffy scriptbooks they don't follow the exact page breaks and page formatting of the original scripts. Still a minor quibble, though, and I'm just glad they're available. IDW? We can has more, please?

Friday Night Lights—Bad Ideas

2007-10-12T21:05:00.000-06:00

As we cruise into our second episode, nobody seems to be settling into their new roles. Coach Taylor's having trouble settling into his new job at TMU. Landry and Tyra struggle with the aftermath of last week's justifiable manslaughter, and Tammi's having difficulty juggling baby Grace, rebellious Julie, and her needy replacement guidance counselor Glenn, who sticks his nose in places it doesn't belong. The new coach continues to alienate Buddy Garrity, which strikes me as a bad idea given the funding his business probably provides the team. Lyla continues to be annoying, while Tim continues to be a smoking hot purveyor of depraved hedonism. I approve. Of Tim, not Lyla.

At football practice, the new coach also continues to be mean to Tim. He needs to stop that cause we like Tim. Jason sees improvement in his hands, but the doctor quashes his hopes of ever walking again. A nurse sent to help care for Matt's grandmother creates chaos in the household, and tensions continue between the not-quite-divorced Garritys. And, just to round out the drama, the Swede continues to pursue Julie in spite of his apparent rejection last week. I don't like him. Julie seems to, though. I think Julie's on a bad path.

This week's episode felt a bit more like what I expected to see from this show than the premiere, and seeds have been sown for potentially interesting storylines to develop as we continue into the second season. I highly disapprove of tonight's lack of Tim, though. Let's hope we see that remedied in future episodes.

Supernatural—The Kids are Alright

2007-10-11T22:10:00.001-06:00

After an arguably weak debut, Supernatural comes back this week with all cylinders firing in an episode that's laugh-out-loud funny and keep the lights on all night horrifying at the same time.

We open with the grossest thing I've seen on Supernatural since the whole arm in the disposal thing back in Season One ("Home"). Cause seriously. Ewwww. I knew there was a reason I never use power tools.

Anyway, creepy little kid + power saw = dead dad, which also = case for our boys to pursue. Dean, though, has an ulterior motive for going to Cicero, Indiana. Apparently he had a really inspiring encounter with a yoga teacher there eight years ago. Hey, Dean, hon. I do yoga. Seriously. And I'm sure my kids could use an exorcism. I mean, don't all teenagers? Upon dropping by to visit Lisa, the very bendy ex-flame, Dean discovers she has a cocky little AC/DC loving skirt-chasing son who's -- you guessed it -- just about eight years old. Also, the freaky girl from the teaser is at the party, and her mom's concerned there's something very wrong with her. I think she's right. Little Katie has got an extremely high creep factor going on there.

Elsewhere, Sam is approached at the diner by Blonde Girl With Cool Knife, from last week. Apparently she's still stalking him. And stealing his food. She's got an attitude. She likes him because he's tall and might be the Antichrist. As good a reason as any to stalk a hot guy, I suppose. Sam seems to have lost his psychic ability. And Blonde Chick knows something about Mary Winchester that we don't know and neither do our boys. Interesting. What kind of pals did Mary have, anyway?

Lisa's neighborhood in Cicero has been plagued by freak accidents, aside from the gross power saw thing, all witnessed only by children just as creepy-weird as Katie. Many of the children appear to be possessed by... something, their true natures only showing in mirrors. Turns out they're Changelings, and there was one in each house where a death occurred. They're feeding on the moms, and the Winchester boys have to figure out how to get rid of them and also save the real children. And now Ben seems to have been swapped, as well, leaving Dean to work out how to rescue the child he seems convinced is his own son, even though Lisa's told him he's not the father.

I don't even know where to start with this episode. Everything was just damn near pitch-perfect, from the humor to the horror. The isolation of Katie's mother, driving her to unthinkable actions to escape what she knows is a threat. Dean's yearning for a normal life, embodied in a ready-made family, and his endearing if ephemeral relationship with Ben. And Jensen Ackles... Wow. The last scene between Dean and Lisa was beautifully played.

And then we have the coda with Sam and Ruby. Ruby the -- holy crap I didn't see that one coming -- DEMON GIRL!! A demon who wants to help Sam find out the truth about himself, and with all of Mary Winchester's friends systematically slaughtered, that truth seems to be no small thing. And on top of it all, Ruby can help Dean. Yes, I made flaily hands at the TV. I'm even more excited about this season now than I was last week. Maybe even more excited than I was after last season's premiere, and I didn't think that was possible.

Bones—Death in the Saddle

2007-10-09T20:25:00.001-06:00

In a charming opening to tonight's episode, a boy scout sort goes to take a leak and finds a dead body swarming with maggots. Fortunately I remembered not to have snacks tonight. Mr. Dead Guy has no feet--they find them buried a short distance away. Brennan fusses because there's still lots of meat on the bones, which means it's not her job. This leads to some clunky exposition between her and Cam to catch us up with previous episodes.

Angela is planning to be hypnotized to remember her ex-husband's name. The name she remembers was a nickname that means "little flute." This makes everyone smirk and also makes Hodgins very happy.

The body has sunscreen on it that's meant for horses, and the teeth show evidence of usage of a bit. Plus Mr. Dead Guy's stomach is full of raw oats and things horses would like to eat. And his name is Ed, so of course they start calling him Mr. Ed. Which turns out to be his pony play name.

Ed's wife says he was a fine, upstanding sort of person and doesn't seem to know anything about the horse connections, which leads to a rather awkward bout of questioning for Booth, who is also regaled with terrible horse jokes by Brennan, who of course hasn't heard any of them before.

Angela is skeptical about the hypnotism, since she worked for a magician once. That sounds like a very Angela-type job. Cam gives her a pep talk.

Booth and Brennan follow Ed's credit card trail to a pony play resort, where Ed was a pony. One of the women there is Annie Oakley (her fetish community name), played by Christina Cox--Vicky from Blood Ties. I guess she got tired of vampires. Although if she's tired of vampires why is she hanging with Boreanaz? Anyway, she was Mr. Ed's last "rider." Booth engages in more awkward questioning peppered with sarcasm, which Annie Oakley finds offensive. Annie says Ed's wife showed up at the resort and Ed disappeared the next day.

On the return trip, Brennan delivers a history of pony play. Typically, she's accepting of it from an anthropological point of view, while Booth is appalled.

They question the wife, who is also appalled by Ed's fetish. She was tipped off by a phone call from a man with an accent, but she says she went straight home after catching Ed and Annie together. Brennan doesn't think the wife did it because of the condition of the body--everything about the murder fits into the pony culture, and the wife wasn't involved in that.

Zack works on identifying the murder weapon by making casts of the head wound that killed Ed. Booth and Brennan return to the pony play resort to find the mystery caller. They question Calvin, the caller, who admits to making the call but not to killing Ed.

Ed was murdered with a hoof knife, and the wound inflicted in the forehead parallels the way horses are normally slaughtered. Hodgins proposes to find the killer by tracing the baling twine used to tie Ed's hands.

Angela's hypnotism doesn't work because she wasn't relaxed enough. She obviously has issues about the husband.

Booth interrogates Lucky, who runs the resort, as regards the twine, as it was traced to his ranch. Lucky's ex-wife is Annie Oakley, thus providing motive, but it's only twenty till so I don't think it's him. Booth seems skeptical of Lucky's story. The feet were severed with the hoof knife. Hodgins is bummed because Zack figured this out at the same time he did. Booth and Brennan follow another suspect to a butcher shop. He runs. That's suspicious, I think, but he doesn't seem to know anything about Ed's death, either. In fact, he was a fan. Also a National Guard deserter (thus the fleeing) and a proponent of eating horsemeat as an extension of the pony play fetish.

Angela tries the hypnosis again. This time it works, but instead of seeing her husband she's attacked by a giant dream wasp. This makes her peevish.

Brennan determines Ed's eyes were gouged out. Okay, now we're doing Equus. They go to question Lucky and Annie Oakley, who apparently is a doctor in her day job. Annie turns out to be the killer/jealous lover. A bit predictable, that.

Angela makes a connection between the wasp and the book where she left the Polaroid from her wedding, which has her husband's first name written on it, and she remembers his last name. Hodgela smoochies ensue.
Brennan and Booth have a heartfelt conversation about vegetarianism and lovemaking. No, seriously.

This episode seemed to be trying to walk that line between over-the-top and serious forensics. I don't think it quite succeeded, because it landed a bit too far on the over-the-top side. And yeah, Bones is generally a bit OTT, but the presentation here seemed a little too tongue-in-cheek to quite work the way they seemed to want it to work. Angela and Hodgins had some nice scenes, but Zack seemed flat, almost a caricature of himself. The two scenes at the resort rehashed basically the same conversation between Booth and Brennan, which in many ways was a rehash of their conversation regarding BDSM in "The Girl in the Fridge." The best part, I thought, was Booth's closing monologue about crappy sex versus lovemaking. It was a bit poetic and heartfelt and yeah, kinda hot...

Anyway, overall not the strongest episode, but amusing.

Heroes—Kindred

2007-10-08T21:12:00.001-06:00

Okay, EWW, why do they have to show the toe-cutting again in the Previouslys? It was gross enough the first time.

We open with Peter trying to figure out how to get the the mysterious box of DOOOOM!! back, while Dominic Keating tries to look inconspicuous at the bar behind them, but Peter can read his mind. I wonder if he can telepathically hear all about Dominic's adventures on the USS Enterprise. Nope, all he hears is that Will is planning to doublecross the others. Later, shirtless Peter tries to use his powers. There's really no good reason for him to be shirtless here. I like that. Gratuitious shirtlessness is good. I think Caitlin was in that scene, too. Peter goes out with the gangster types and serves as decoy for their robbery. Will turns traitor just like Peter heard in his naughty thoughts. He shoots Peter, but of course Peter heals up and saves the day. He's accepted into the gang, Celtic tattoo and all--except he can't hold a tattoo because of his healing powers. And he gets his box back. Peter is reluctant to open it, for fear he won't like what he finds. Doofus. Oh, and kissing Caitlin is more fun than looking in the dumb box, anyway.

Maya and Alejandro continue their run for the border, this time stealing a car to facilitate the journey. Or trying to. Unfortunately they're crappy car thieves and the police catch Alejandro but not Maya. I think at this point we've established that separating these two is bad so why do we keep doing it over and over? Yet somehow Maya is able to come into the police station to try to get Alejandro out of jail without killing anybody. Or maybe the eye bleeding only manifests when she's threatened? That seems to be the case, as she goads the guards into attacking her, and they drop. Then Alejandro heals her, as well as the others. They escape along with Alejandro's cellmate, who has a car.

Niki and Micah visit DL's grave. Apparently he didn't make it through the final confrontations last season. That's too bad. He was really hot. Or maybe he's not dead, based on how Niki's talking about him. Let's hope. Niki leaves Micah in New Orleans with Lieutenant Uhura while she goes off on some unspecified quest.

And somewhere on a beach, Sylar is having a scruffy unshaven snooze. He's with Candice, now going by Michelle. She's trying to make things happy for him with her illusion skills (beach=fake), but he's in pretty bad shape and they're not in a very sanitary facility. Later, he has some breakfast, but he can't make his mug move telepathically. He seems to have lost his powers. Candice says she'll help him get them back when he's done healing. But Sylar has a better idea--he'll just get his powers back the old-fashioned way, by killing people, starting with her. Except his usual methods don't work, and he's now all alone out in the middle of the jungle.

Claire and her dad have a heart-to-heart. At school, Claire warns West to quit stalking her. He brings up regenerating lizards in class and annoys Claire, who walks out. West confronts her and she spills her secrets to him. So he takes her flying, since they're both freaks. Later, they sit on the beach and have a chat about their powers. And smooch. And then Claire notices that West has the tracker marks on his neck. Describing his abduction experience to Claire, he mentions the "guy with the horn-rimmed glasses." Uh-oh. Dad's busted.

The 3M team are having a bit of trouble with their domestic bliss as Mohinder and Matt have a tiff about Mohinder's spy activities and how they could endanger Molly. Mohinder visits his new lab, which was built in what used to be Isaac's loft. Mohinder seems to have given up shaving. His boss takes a phone call, which turns out to be from Niki, who's making a deal with the Company for a cure. Mohinder looks around the loft for the paintings. He finds one and sends Bennet a camera phone picture of it. It's the last picture in the series, and shows Bennet being killed by Claire. Oops.

In Tokyo, Ando gets busted playing games on his computer at work. Aww, he mises Hiro. He finds a message on the hilt of the samurai sword. Inside the hilt of the sword are some little scrolls with notes in them from Hiro in the past, describing his adventures with Kensei.

In the past, Kensei is freaked out by his sudden ability to heal and thinks Hiro has cursed him, so he hightails it out of there before Hiro can curse him some more. When they meet up again, Kensei is plotting how to use his powers for Fun and Profit instead of for the good of mankind. Hiro is not amused. He teleports Kensei to a temple where he's supposed to perform one of his great historical quests. Kensei succeeds. Hiro is all sad because he's in love with the swordsman's daughter whose name I can never remember. The whole Cyrano de Samurai thing isn't really paying off. With Kensei established as a hero, Hiro prepares to return to his own time so he won't break history anymore. But he changes his mind at the last minute. I'm sure this has something to do with Kensei smooching the girl and doing the cheesy cherry blossom thing.

I'm not finding Maya and Alejandro any more interesting. In fact, I can barely be bothered to read their subtitles. The same thing seems to happen to them every week and it's not engaging me at all. Hiro's story isn't doing much for me, either, and this week's narrative structure, with Ando reading the notes from the sword, effectively compressed the action in that storyline and thus made it even less interesting to me.

On the other hand, Sylar is back and creepier than ever. I loved that Candice thought he might like to spend some, um, quality time with, um, himself. Those illusion-crafting types are just a kinkfest, aren't they?

Next week--Nathan shaves!!

Chuck—Flyby

2007-10-08T19:08:00.001-06:00

I decided not to do a blog post for Chuck tonight, but I just have to mention the new theme song, because it's "Short Skirt, Long Jacket" by Cake and I love Cake.

That is all.

P.S.

I also love Adam Baldwin. Seriously. He just took out two bad guys with kitchen appliances.

A Bone to Pick with NBC

2007-10-08T18:57:00.000-06:00

Friday night, I watched the season premiere of Friday Night Lights on a big screen the way it was meant to be seen. I've already posted my thoughts on the show, which haven't changed, but I did have something to say about a dirty nasty trick NBC pulled during the broadcast.

At one point, there was an advertising bug along the bottom of the screen proclaiming in gigantic letters, "GET YOUR OWN TIM RIGGINS." Well, naturaly I was quite excited by this, since I would very much like to have my very own Tim Riggins. But in teeny tiny letters under that it said, "jersey at nbc.com." So it's not your very own Tim Riggins. It's just a dumb shirt. This made me very sad.

Curse you, NBC.

Supernatural—The Magnificent Seven

2007-10-07T19:34:00.001-06:00

I know you're all wondering why I haven't reviewed the Supernatural season premiere yet, since I'm usually pretty prompt with that, what with it being my favorite show and all. (Of course I could assume you all have way more important things to wonder about, but where's the fun in that?) Well, the answer is that instead of watching "The Magnificent Seven" from my cozy chaise in Colorado, I flew all the way to Illinois to watch it with a group of fans, including my best friend, who kindly put me up on her Comfy Couch (with fluffy duvet) for a couple of nights and fed me Cheetos, peanut M&Ms and pie, in true Winchester family fashion.

While it's a little pricey to fly almost 1,000 miles to watch a season premiere (although, hint--if you visit your mom, too, sometimes you can get her to pay part of your airfare), I have to highly recommend the whole communal watching experience. It's just plain fun to watch a show with a room full of people waiting with anticipation as breathless as your own, who howl at the same jokes and get weepy at the end. The best part of fandom is the sense of community, after all, and to experience that in person rather than over an Internet connection makes it that much better.

Anyway, on to the actual show.

This season's premiere had a very different feel to last season's. Lacking the emotional impact of "In My Time of Dying," "The Magnificent Seven" concentrated more on the series reboot introduced in "All Hell Breaks Loose," last season's finale. Dean has made a deal to bring Sam back from the dead, and has only a year to live. Of course he's living it up, eating bacon cheeseburgers for breakfast and enjoying tea and crackers with the "Doublemint Twins." (What? You don't think they were having tea and crackers? Well what were they doing, then?) Sam's tolerant reaction to Dean's depraved hedonism was amusing and an interesting shift to their relationship. Obviously Sam is, for the moment, willing to put up with a lot more from his brother. I expect him to snap any minute, though. I expect Dean to snap, too. Sooner or later he'll realize exactly what's coming, and the heartfelt conversation at the end of this episode foreshadowed that nicely. Next week, I bet...

I was thrilled to see Bobby again, and I hope he continues to be a regular or semi-regular in the series. And one of the funniest moments of our viewing party was when Bobby showed up in a suit and all of us stared at the TV and then a few finally went, "Oh! That's Bobby!" He cleans up well...

And there's another regular or semi-regular character. Miss Blonde Thang with Freaky Knife had a very brief introduction in this episode, full of whiz-bang and special effects and a very cool shot of said knife glowing through the victim's wide-open mouth. While I have to wonder why she showed up (stalking Sam the Boy King?), and why she's so terribly competent, she definitely caught my attention, and I'm interested to learn more about her.

Tamara and Isaac proved interesting foils, as well, with their reluctance to work with the Winchesters and their attitude about the boys' role in opening the Gates of Hell. Apparently now the brothers are on the outs not only with the FBI and the demon hordes, but with their fellow hunters, as well. And with Sam being spoken of as the now-dead YED's Chosen Boy King, it looks like a lot of folks are out after our boys' asses, and not in the good way that involves depraved hedonism.

With all those plotlines to lay into place, there wasn't much room for the titular Seven Deadly Sins. This, in fact, was my only quibble with the episode (well, aside from some pacing issues through the last third but that's me being uber-picky). The Deadly Sins were introduced as powerful like woah! with a little temper tantrum from Bobby to reinforce the point, and yet they were dispatched remarkably quickly, albeit with the help of Miss Blonde Thang with Freaky Knife. I think it would have been nice to have explored the concept more deeply, possibly over more than one episode, especially as regards Dean's likely relationship with Lust and Gluttony. I particularly would have liked to have seen the Lust Meets Dean show. They could have a lot of fun having tea and crackers.

Overall, though, I have to say I enjoyed this episode quite a lot. With a very different tone from last season's opener, it's starting us off on the show's new arc with several things to think about, from Dean's deal to Sam's Boy King status to our new mysterious blonde hunter. I'm very much looking forward to next week, and to the rest of the season.

MUSIC:
Oddly, iTunes doesn't seem to have much in the way of AC/DC, but we all know that was Hell's Bells, right?

Mean Little Town—Howling Diablos

You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet—Bachman-Turner Overdrive

"I Shall Not Be Moved" was performed by J.B. Burnett according to the CW website, but iTunes doesn't have him, either. Here's a version by Johnny Cash, because Johnny Cash is totally cool:

iTunes Freebies

2007-10-03T20:46:00.000-06:00

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

2007-10-02T19:31:00.000-06:00

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

2007-10-01T20:03:00.000-06:00

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

2007-10-01T19:17:00.000-06:00

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

Bionic Woman—Second Chances (Pilot)

2007-09-29T20:10:00.000-06:00

I rarely think remakes are a good idea. I was appalled when they decided to redo Battlestar Galactica. When I finally gave in and watched it, though, I got sucked in (though I do have some issues with that show) and had to grudgingly admit it was a good chunk of television. So when I heard they were going to remake Bionic Woman, I was equally dubious, and then when I found out it was being remade by David Eick, I decided to give it a chance.

It seems a little odd, really, to remake Bionic Woman. After all, it was a spinoff. So why didn't Eick decide to start with The Six Million Dollar Man? Maybe he just prefers to rework shows that weren't quite as hot the first time around? I suppose I shouldn't complain about that detail, since this way we get a show with a female lead (Michelle Ryan). A British female lead, faking an American accent, which seems to be a trend for NBC this season. See Journeyman. Okay, he's not female, but he's definitely faking an American accent. Like Dan, Jaime is going to have a job of work hiding her accent and her freaky new powers. And it was a little disconcerting seeing Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff, playing Sarah, the first Bionic Woman--wait I thought that was Lindsay Wagner) and Chief Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) popping up. Oh, and that guy from Firefly (Mark Sheppard). Freaky. They must be filming in Canada.

Anyway... This show struck me very much like Battlestar Galactica does. It seems solid, and involving, with decent writing and good acting and lots of intrigue and menace lurking around the edges. What it's missing, though, is a sense of humor. Again, like Battlestar, the unrelenting grim seriousness is probably going to make it hard for me to relate to this show on a regular basis. Also, I expect the writers will follow a similar arc, with the characters being so gray and flawed that it's hard to really identify with any of them, another issue I have with Battlestar. I like my heroes heroic, thanks. Jaime didn't get much characterization in this hour, other than to go from insecure waitress with incredibly bratty sister to kickass chick with superpowers. And her boyfriend--wow. Talk about a control freak. "Look, you got broken so I fixed you! Oh, sorry I didn't ask first." Yeah, I don't like him. Although I have to give him (minor) props for having sex with Jaime after her transformation, since she obviously could have crushed him to a painful and messy death with her bionic thighs. Kind of wish she would have, actually.

So I see some things here that might make this show not a favorite in the long run. But since I've got nothing else on the schedule for Wednesday nights, I'll probably give it a chance.

Journeyman—Pilot

2007-09-28T20:14:00.000-06:00

Yes, I know I'm late. Believe it or not, I can only watch so much TV at a time, and Monday night I burned out after Chuck and Heroes. But due to the magic of the DVR, I can start commenting on some other pilots I took a look at.

Journeyman appears to be the kind of show that I want to watch with about half my attention while doing something else a bit more interesting. Which doesn't bode well for me for long-term devotion, but I need shows like that. You know, the ones you just flirt with but don't have a serious relationship with. So that's fine.

First, Kevin McKidd is damn hot. Not as hot as he was in Rome, and not nearly as hot as he is when they let him cut loose with that gorgeous Scottish burr, but still damn hot. The show, though, strikes me so far as a bit mediocre. Several time travel cliches are trotted out--I think I complained back during Day Break about that whole using a sports event to indicate time travel thing--just to be sure we know our intrepid hero is traveling in time. And of course he bounces about in time to Put Right What Once Went Wrong, a la Sam Beckett, but without the skunk streak and the endearingly obnoxious hologram companion. Instead he has an ex-fiancee who pops up and apparently knows more about what he's doing than he does. And he actually tells his wife what's going on. Dude, nobody who time travels ever just tells everybody. They'll think you're nuts. Fortunately, the wife in this case is pretty understanding. Well, in this episode at least. I imagine, "I was back in time saving a puppy," is going to wear thin after a while.

And lastly, what is the deal with Moon Bloodgood getting stuck with guys who travel in time? I mean seriously. That poor girl.

House—Alone

2007-09-25T20:54:00.000-06:00

House starts out weird tonight, and while I'm completely in favor of the whole vintage Han shot first Star Wars thing, the weird handheld camera push-ins that look like they came out of The Office I could do without. Seriously, that stuff gives me motion sickness.

Oh, and then a building blows up, with Miss I Don't Really Like Star Wars inside. Not to be judgmental, but that's what you get when you voice that kind of blasphemy. But she survives, and makes it to Princeton Plainsboro, where House is jamming on his electric guitar in his office. She has a fever, and it seems like she was hallucinating before the explosion. If I ever have hallucinations I hope they're more interesting than Office-like push-ins.

Cuddy isn't happy with House--so what's new?--because he hasn't hired a new team yet. (Remember how everybody quit last season?) House sets out to prove he doesn't need a team.

In the midst of the usual medical mystery, Wilson kidnaps House's guitar and holds it for ransom--he'll give it back if House interviews candidates to hire. Seems like everybody wants him to bring on some actual doctors instead of the janitor he's recruited to bounce ideas off. House retaliates by threatening to delete telenovelas off Wilson's TiVo. Then Wilson hurts the guitar so House kidnaps Wilson's patient. In the end, House finds his way to a heartbreaker of a twist ending, and finally relents and interviews a roomful of candidates for his new team. And the guitar returns happily intact, which is a relief.

I've missed the lighthearted House/Wilson interaction and really enjoyed it tonight. Oddly, though I, didn't miss the rest of the team that much. I'm sure I'll enjoy them all when they come back, but in the meantime House the loner with Wilson nipping at his heels is plenty of entertainment for me.

Bones—The Widow's Son in the Windshield

2007-09-25T20:46:00.000-06:00

Tonight's mystery involves a skull which bounces off (or is thrown from) an overpass into a windshield. The skull turns out to belong to a concert violinist who liked to sleep with older women. I like him already. Well, except he's dead, and he's been cooked and had his face eaten off by cannibals. Which really is not what you want to be watching while you're eating a grilled chicken sandwich, let me tell you. Obviously during hiatus I forgot the cardinal Bones rule, which is never to eat while watching.

Anyway. The skull contains stone particles that lead the team to a bank vault filled with museum pieces that seem to be related to various occult subjects. Among these is a silver skeleton with various parts replaced by real bones, one of which is also from the dead violinist. Other parts, though, are from other people. It looks like someone is assembling the skeleton with each bone coming from a different body. After they're cooked and chewed on by the cannibal, of course. Which turns out to be cannibals, one of whom is a really creepy kid with a diamond tooth. Hodgins makes connections to the Illuminati, and as the evidence mounts, it seems he might be on the right track, after all, as there are many parallels to secret societies.

In the meantime, Hodgins and Angela search for Angela's mystery husband so they can have her previous marriage annulled. Booth, disturbed by Brennan's sudden habit of not calling him in on cases, tries to get to the bottom of her withdrawal. Brennan blames it on Zack's absence, while Angela feels it has to do with Brennan's unacknowledged feelings for Booth. Booth thinks it has to do with his not telling Zack not to go to Iraq. Brennan refuses to hire anyone to replace Zack, which turns out to be fortunate, because Zack comes back mid-episode, with a buzz-cut and something of a mystery behind why he was sent home from Iraq.

In atypical fashion, tonight's episode ends without a resolution. Jason, aka creepy cannibal diamond tooth guy, is murdered in his cell (or perhaps committed suicide, but the death is ritualistic enough I'm betting on murdered), but the bones bear the marks of another person's teeth, so the underlying cabal or whatever it turns out to be remains to be discovered. It's my understanding this case will play itself out through the entire season, which is a neat twist to add to the show. I'm looking forward to seeing how it progresses.

Overall, I really enjoyed this premiere. The show picked up the loose threads from last season nicely, and the multi-season arc with the silver skeleton looks like it's going to be fun. The character interplay continues to be fun, with some new undercurrents between Booth and Cam, and a sightly elevated level of sexual tension between Booth and Brennan. The latter could be too cloying if played too hard, but in this episode it's cute and fun to watch. Hopefully the rest of the season will be as engaging as this very enjoyable premiere.

Heroes—Four Months Later

2007-09-24T21:15:00.001-06:00

When last we saw our Heroes, they'd just stopped New York City from exploding. Baddie Sylar had escaped, while good guy Hiro had dropped into feudal Japan and the Petrelli brothers had gone "boom" in the stratosphere.

As we open, Mohinder is speechifying about the virus that killed his sister, and made Molly sick. A mysterious bald fellow offers Mohinder a job with the Company. Which is good because that's what Mohinder was after.

Maya and Alejandro run away from a big truck. These must be some new folks. As if the cast weren't big enough already... Oh, and they speak Spanish so yay! More subtitles. They're wanted for murder and are making their way to the US border. They're reading the Senior Suresh's book and hoping to find a cure. Apparently Maya kills people when she's separated from Alejandro. (Bleeding eyes! Cool!) That's not fun. No wonder she wants a cure.

Claire has moved with her family to Southern California, where she's getting ready to start her Junior year of high school while staying in deep cover to hide from the Company. Also, her hair is slightly less annoying. But she still likes to dork around needlessly with her powers. Which is noticed by West, a classmate who seems to take a shine to her. Or maybe he just likes her slightly less annoying hair. She has a hard time remaining inconspicuous, as does her dad, who goes badass on his nerdy boss at the faux Kinkos. Mom continues to be a little whacky, and holds Mr. Muggles at the table, which seems unsanitary. Mr. Bennet is teaming up with Mohinder in his Taking Down the Company project.

We revisit Hiro's arrival in 1671 Japan, where he's in some trouble. There's a solar eclipse, and Hiro uses his powers to teleport out of danger. One of the warriors is Hiro's hero Kensei, whom Hiro is ecstatic to meet. Elsewhere, Ando and Hiro's dad discuss Hiro's disappearance. The symbol pops up again, this time in what appears to be a threat against Mr. Nakamura. Back in the past, Kensei turns out to be a weenie-looking British guy. Surprise! He's also a mercenary and a lush, not a hero. And Hiro's interference has apparently put history off track. That can't be good.

Matt Parkman continues his police work, trying to defuse a hostage situation in Manhattan. Dude, he kinda went badass during the hiatus. I approve. Except it's not a real hostage situation--it's a simulation. And he's finally gotten his promotion to detective. Molly seems to have joined his family, and she's having some issues with bad dreams. But he's split up with his wife. That makes me sad. Molly's drawing pictures with the symbol and lots of scary eyes. And she really, really doesn't want to talk about it. Oh, and Matt apparently left his wife to move in with Mohinder. No comment, though I titter. He uses his telepathy to eavesdrop on Molly's dreams. A Big Bad approacheth, presumably the one Molly hinted at last season.

Nathan Petrelli has a scary beard and is hanging out with his mom in Peter's old apartment and drinking a lot. Mom says Peter's dead, but Nathan says he's not. Nathan tells Mom she's evil and throws her out. Nice to know those Petrellis haven't gotten any less dysfunctional during hiatus. Angela receives a picture with the symbol on it, just as Mr. Nakamura did--portending her death, as well, I assume. She and Mr. Nakamura meet on the pigeon-balcony of yore to compare death threats. Mr. Nakamura hangs around, and for his trouble is flung off a building by a guy in a hoodie.

In Cork, Ireland, we meet some more unfamiliar folks who are poking around a bunch of transport containers looking for one in particular. But it's empty. Oh, except for a guy in the back. Who happens to be Peter, half-naked and chained to the corner, wearing the symbol, and having amnesia. And a haircut. Again, I approve.

So far I'm most interested in the Petrelli storyline. Hiro's travel to the past isn't doing much for me. Mr. Bennet being badass was quite nice, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with his and Mohinder's plans to bring down the Company. I don't think adding even more characters to an already crowded cast is the best idea, and frankly tonight's episode had way too many subtitles. But with Peter half-naked and chained up, I can forgive quite a lot.

Chuck—1-1

2007-09-24T19:53:00.000-06:00

The season premiere of another show with Adam Baldwin fills me with both happiness and trepidation. Happiness because hey, Adam Baldwin. Trepidation because dammit his last three shows have been canceled prematurely. And this makes me sad.

Anyway, we'll see how Chuck goes.

The titular character of this new NBC series is not Adam Baldwin, but some nerdy type who's much younger than Mr. Baldwin and not nearly as hot. While he's crashing and burning at a party, some rather hotter, blood-covered chap engages in nefarious operations at what appears to be a government facility. So what does Blood-Covered Boy have to do with Nerdy Man? Well, with what appears to be his dying breath, after being shot by Mr. Baldwin--who is, yes, still hot--he sends a text message to Chuck. Appears they were old gaming buddies back in the text RPG days. Though honestly neither of them looks old enough to have kicked it quite that old school. Chuck's response to the text message puts a bunch of top-secret info into Chuck's head. Which helps him avoid cops but makes him a target of both the CIA and the NSA, who seem not to like each other very much. Of course, with all that supr-sekrit stuff in his head, Chuck is of value to both organizations, and so in the end they opt to leave him alive and use his brain and all the stuff inside it to their own advantage.

Directed by McG, of Supernatural fame (and I think he had something to do with Charlie's Angels or something), the pilot proceeds at a nice pace, more comedy than drama. Chuck is endearing, and the NSA/CIA folk are just campy enough to fit the overall tone without being too over-the-top. Well, at least not any more over-the-top than any of the rest of the show. Overall, an engaging and well-executed pilot.

Friday Night Lights 2x01

2007-09-19T19:59:00.000-06:00

So, as mentioned, the Season Two premiere of Friday Night Lights is up on Yahoo tv. So of course I had to watch it.

Please note: SPOILERS below.

If you watched all of Season One you know there were big changes in store for Coach Taylor, et al. The second season opens eight months after the state championship, and Coach's "defection" to TMU.

First the important stuff: Tim Riggins is still hot, and he is shirtless in the pool and later wears a sleeveless sweatshirt. High marks for that.

A couple of things bugged me in this episode, though. First, Lyla, whom I really didn't think could get any more annoying, becomes more annoying by becoming "born again." And even more self-righteous than she already was. This of course annoyed me even more because, as I've mentioned, the whole self-righteous judgmental whacko Christian stereotype peeves me quite a lot. There are plenty of Christian folk who aren't intolerable to be around. I'm sure at least a couple of them even live in Texas.

The other thing that bugged me, even more than Lyla, is the plot twist involving Tyra and Landry and Tyra's attacker from last season. It seemed like it had been transplanted from another show, where things are over-the-top. Friday Night Lights is not an over-the-top show, and this bit just didn't feel right to me at all. I hope they resolve that plot thread quickly and a bit more quietly than it was introduced.

Overall, though, I'm still feeling deep affection for this show, so I hope things continue to go well in the second season.

Friday Night Lights Season 2 Premiere

2007-09-19T17:55:00.000-06:00

...is available in its entirely on Yahoo tv. Go forth and watch!!

Finishing off the Summer

2007-09-14T07:58:00.000-06:00

Like any good TV junkie, I've been mainlining DVDs the past couple of weeks, as well as catching up on some shows on my TiVo (mostly Eureka at this point). I'm a third through the Heroes box set, halfway through Season 4 of Smallville, a third through Season One of Queer as Folk, which I'm rewatching, and about halfway through Season Two of Gilmore Girls.

But my brain has been eaten by an unexpected show that came out of nowhere like a big fullback with long hair, smashed me to the ground and had his way with me.

Yes, the show is Friday Night Lights, and the fullback is Tim Riggins. Although the coach is really hot, too, and I adore his wife. I had no idea I would enjoy this show until I was dragged kicking and screaming into watching it and found myself watching episode after episode and really not wanting to stop. I think anybody who's grown up in a small town anywhere in the midwest, football or no, will have a similar reaction. Heck, anybody who's grown up in America anywhere is likely to find resonance somewhere in this show. I cannot recommend it highly enough. The first season is only $20, with a money back guarantee. If you're still not sure, but you're a Heroes fan, if you get the Heroes box set at Wal-Mart, you'll get the first 4 eps of FNL along with a preview of the Bionic Woman for free. But seriously, get out and buy this show, and tune in for the second season premiere on October 5th.

Why are you still here? GO BUY IT!!

Heroes

2007-09-08T07:28:00.000-06:00

For those who might be worried they won't be able to get their Heroes fix because of the NBC/iTunes breakup, Heroes will be available for download through Amazon Unbox. Of course, Unbox is DRMed out the wazoo, and you have to have the DRMed out the wazoo WMP upgrade to use it, but it's an alternative. If, you know, you don't have a problem with DRM.

Ahem.

Anyway, I'm rewatching Heroes via the DVDs I picked up last week. I was home sick and working from home while sick so I plowed through about the first third of the series before I got un-sick and had to actually work at work where watching DVDs while working is rather frowned upon. But the point is--yes, I did have one--I'm really enjoying revisiting this series. I have to admit I didn't pay very close attention to about the first third of the series, because while I enjoyed it, I found the sheer volume of characters to be overwhelming, and had a hard time following the storylines. When I started blogging the show that helped a lot because I was forced to pay attention so I could write halfway intelligently about it (and probably failed but that's okay because people who know me know I'm really only about a quarter intelligent on my best days). But rewatching now and knowing how the pieces fit together, I'm finding myself nodding along and going oh, yeah, yeah, yep yep. Nice work, guys!! It's really pleasing to find a group of writers who can maintain a serialized show like that and have it be cohesive when you put all the pieces together after the fact. (And while there's an occasional--wait, but...this happens later so that bit doesn't quite fit--they're few and far between and seem to be decreasing as the season progresses.)

I'm really looking forward to next season--I can't wait to see what else this talented bunch of folks has in store for us.

Dr. Who Wins Hugo!

2007-09-01T12:18:00.001-06:00

The Doctor Who episode "Girl in the Fireplace," from Season Two, has won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation--Short Form.

Congrats! This was a wonderful episode.

No Dr. Who

2007-08-31T16:59:00.000-06:00

Weh. I was going to settle in and watch the second half of the Dr. Who two-parter that started last week, and write something about it, but apparently they're having a Stargate SG-1 marathon. So instead I'm going to watch the Tim Kring cut of the Heroes pilot, off the minty-fresh Heroes DVD set I bought yesterday.

NBC=Kinda Dumb

2007-08-31T16:36:00.001-06:00

In a debatably really dumb move, NBC has decided to stop selling its shows on iTunes. Apparently $1.99 a pop wasn't enough for them. Plus they claim to have concerns about piracy, yadda yadda yadda.

Seems to me having your shows up at iTunes for $1.99 is more likely to hedge against piracy than to cause it. Rumor has it they wanted an amount that would have driven the price up to $4.99/episode. Which is outrageous when you can get an entire season on DVD for $19.99 in some cases.

I hope they see their dumbness and change their minds, but we shall see. In the meantime, anything from NBC or SciFi won't be available for purchase anymore.

Fall is Near!

2007-08-22T19:10:00.000-06:00

Hard to believe summer is almost over. But that means only a few weeks until my favorite shows come back on the air. I have to admit that, aside from Dr. Who, which I've loved for ages, none of the summer shows have really captured me. Saving Grace isn't bad, but I haven't really warmed up to it the way I hoped I might. Eureka is fun but has always struck me as a bit shallow. Burn Notice I've really enjoyed, and it's come the closest to dragging me in, so that show will probably get some repeat viewings. Overall, though, I'll be happier when Bones and Supernatural and Heroes all finally return.

I'm also looking forward to some of the new fall shows, although I don't know how many I'll be able to squeeze into my already full viewing schedule. I went to see Stardust this last weekend (awesome movie, by the way), and they showed previews of Bionic Woman and Journeyman, both of which look interesting to me. I'm also very interested in seeing Viva Laughlin. So it's looking to be an interesting and entertaining fall.

High School Musical 2

2007-08-17T21:33:00.000-06:00

Tonight instead of Doctor Who I was forced to watched High School Musical 2. This is a disadvantage of having children. I found it amusing here and there, though I wasn't paying the greatest amount of attention to it. Both of my kids, though, said they liked it better than the first one. My son, who hates High School Musical, actually sat all the way through it and said he thought it had a lot more emotion than the first one.

I'm trying to ~~force~~ convince them to write reviews for me, but I'm not sure they're going to cave. Maybe if I offered them more allowance?

Burn Notice

2007-08-16T20:39:00.000-06:00

I'm back from a well-deserved vacation, and just wanted to drop in to say that I'm still really enjoying Burn Notice. Not blogging it, but really enjoying it. And in spite of the fact that I like it, it's been renewed for a second season.

Saving Grace—Bless Me Father, for I Have Sinned

2007-08-07T20:40:00.000-06:00

After a remarkably weak beginning, this week's episode grew into another enjoyable hour. Throwing priests in Grace's path--one of whom is her brother, whom we've already met--made the questions of faith far too texty rather than subtexy, at least in the beginning. As the story progressed, the presentation became more subtle, though it was still anvilicious at points. I do like the fact that Earl doesn't seem to be locked into a Christian belief system. His confession to Grace's brother was very nicely done. I also liked that Grace's brother the Father apparently has a checkered past with Rhetta (Laura San Giacomo). In any case, the murder mystery part of the plot seemed more certain of itself. It seems like the show just hasn't quite figured itself out yet. As long as it stays entertaining in its quest to find itself, though, I'll keep tuning in.

In other notes, we had the return of the Jesus cow, and I just noticed that Bailey Chase, late of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is one of Grace's fellow police officers—the third leg of last week's love triangle, in fact.

Dresden Files on DVD

2007-08-04T07:59:00.000-06:00

In better news on the Dresden Files front, the first season DVD set is now available for pre-order at Amazon. This of course doesn't make up for the cancellation, but at least they're going ahead with a DVD set.

Doctor Who—Evolution of the Daleks

2007-08-03T20:29:00.000-06:00

Before I go on, I just have to mention that I love the way the TARDIS comes out of the one wormhole thingie and then pauses before it goes down into the other wormhole thingie in the beginning credits. That's just cool.

Our human-dalek hyrid guy orders the other humans present to be hybridized into Daleks, as well. Dalek-Sek is a little put off by the human side of his new self. Also? His tentacles are really gross. The Doctor uses the sonic screwdrier to make a radio create intense sonic blasts that knock the Daleks silly. Daleks pursue the Doctor and Co. to the tune of the Dalek Demonic Chorus. They meet up with Tallulah, still lost in the sewers. That girl has a worse sense of direction than I do, and that's just sad.

The Doctor tells Solomon to clear out Hooverville, as the Daleks are probably planning to use the Hooverville folks as breeding stock for their continued metamorphosis. I'm not sure how that's supposed to work if there are only four Daleks to start with, unless they plan on slicing and dicing the other three instead of doing a one-to-one merging thing like Dalek-Sek did. Hm. I think I mentioned that last week.

Pig people descend on Hooverville and create chaos. The Doctor and Co. are cornered along with the residents of Hooverville. Daleks arrive via air to take over Hooverville. Dude, flying Daleks are somehow incredibly cheesy and freaky scary at the same time.

Solomon confronts the Daleks and tries to convince them the're all outcasts, so they should hang together. The Daleks aren't impressed by his speech, and shoot him. Speechifying never works with Daleks. The Doctor tells the Daleks to just kill him instead of killing the humans. He's a little freaky batshit crazy here. That's hot. But Dalek-Sek wants the Doctor alive--he wants to use the Doctor's genius to help save the future of the Daleks.

The Doctor confronts Dalek-Sek, who says killing Solomon was wrong. His human part seems to be influencing him. He shows the Doctor their big collection of unconscious people waiting to be reprogrammed as Daleks. It's like Coma but higher tech. They're using the conductor panels on the Empire State Building to bring in power to revive the people as Daleks, administering Dalek-Sek's DNA to all the bodies. Dalek-Sek thinks Daleks need to return to the flesh and the heart, and no longer be the supreme beings, because the quest for supremacy has led to their downfall and they need to change. He's a very progressive Dalek.

The old school Daleks override Dalek-Sek's plan, changing the genetic feed to make the unconscoius humans into pure Daleks instead of hybrids. The Doctor has to remove the Dalekanium from the Empire State Building before the gamma radiation hits. While he climbs up to the spire to remove the panels, Martha and the others stay behind to fight. Laszlo collapses. A lightning storm approaches as the Doctor works to remove the Dalekanium panels.

The Doctor hangs onto the spire when the gamma energy strikes. The electricity kills the pig dudes, but the unconscious people begin to wake up. These newly awakened human Daleks are prepared to conquer Manhattan. The Doctor is unconscious on top of the Empire State Building, on the building platform. Martha wakes him up to return his sonic screwdriver. The old school Daleks take over, and have Dalek-Sek in chains.

The Doctor and Co. head for the theater. Tallulah seems to think the Doctor is gay. Laszlo is worsening. The Doctor draws the Daleks to him, but Dalek-Sek tries to convince them not to kill him and sacrifices himself to save the Doctor. The Dalek humans can't follow the order to kill the Doctor. They want to know why, which isn't very Dalek-like. Turns out the Doctor got in the way of the lightning strike and they got some Time Lord DNA instead of only the Dalek DNA they were supposed to receive. The Daleks begin to kill the Dalek-humans, who fight back. The Daleks are destroyed. The last remaining Dalek tells the Dalek=humans to destruct, and they all drop dead. The last remaining Dalek escapes. So now we can have a Dalek episode for next season, yay!

Laszlo is in a bad way from his transformation into a pig slave. The Doctor goes batshit--again, and also? still hot--and uses the Daleks' genetic laboratory to save Laszlo. He still has a pig face, but the people of Hooverville agree to provide him with a home. The Doctor and Martha depart.

Dresden Files News

2007-08-03T13:16:00.000-06:00

According to SyFy Portal, The Dresden Files has been canceled.

This makes me sad. :-(

Californication

2007-08-01T18:32:00.001-06:00

I Netflixed the premiere episode of Californication and I have to say I enjoyed it quite a bit. Not for the faint of heart, it's chock full of sex and bad language and nekkid people (including David Duchovny). And also sharp humor, good acting, and great character development. Duchovny's portrayal of Hank turns a deeply unlikable guy into somebody you can really sympathize with on a number of levels. If you enjoy Weeds, you'll likely enjoy Californication. I think they're going to make a good team for Showtime.

Saving Grace—Bring it On

2007-07-30T21:20:00.000-06:00

Tonight on Saving Grace, we are introduced to more of the supporting cast, including Grace's dog and several of her co-workers. Grace shoots a deer, has two men fight over her, and wrestles an angel. Oh, and James Marsters (Buffy, Angel) appears, in a small but pivotal role. In fact, considering the importance of the role to the story, it seemed like he should have had more screen time, as his throwaway scene near the beginning didn't give us a lot to build on as the murder mystery was constructed.

This show doesn't seem to be trying to take itself too seriously, and I like that. On the other hand, some serious drama develops in this week's episode, culminating in a surprise ending that was sufficiently set up to make sense, but not so out of left field as to feel contrived. Earl seemed a bit superfluous this week, but the story of Grace's angel was woven in much as it was last week, with Grace still trying to decide if he's even real or not.

Saving Grace on iTunes:

Doctor Who—Daleks in Manhattan

2007-07-27T19:19:00.000-06:00

We open on a Broadway review. Tallulah macks on some guy in her dressing room. She's kind of annoying. The guy, apparently her fiance or at least a serious boyfriend, goes to investigate strange noises--which nobody should ever do on this show--and is attacked by um...a giant pig?

The TARDIS arrives by the Statue of Liberty, which oddly isn't crowded at all. Man when I went there the place was packed. Also, the Empire State Building isn't finished yet. It's 1930. Something hinky is going on in Hooverville, a sort of Depression homeless camp. The folks in Hooverville have pretty convincing American accents. We pause for a bit of political commentary. Which, unfortunately, is just as relevant to today's world. We move on to some people working on the Empire State Building, where the NY accents aren't quite so convincing. Oh, and the whole operation is being run by Daleks and giant pigs. That can't be good.

People are disappearing from Hooverville. The Doctor chats with Solomon, who's nominally in charge of the place. He says people are being taken.

Mr. Diagorus, whose running the Empire State Building building, comes to Hooverville to recruit people to go down into the sewers for a dollar a day. He needs a group to go down to find a collapse. The Doctor volunteers. Solomon and another man, Frank, go with, as well as Martha. The sewer party finds a glowy stinky jellyfish thing in the sewer. The group can't find the supposed collapse.

Diagorus has some funky Dalek looking plates to attach to the mast on the Empire State building, and it has to be done immediately, at night, which the workers say is impossible. Diagorus insists it will be done or the workers will be replaced.

The Daleks are planning the Final Experiment. They like Diagorus, and say he will be rewarded. He's brought before the Leader Dalek, who's shinier than the other ones. The pigs are ordered to secure him.

The Doctor's party hears piggie noises. That can't be good, given the prevalence of giant pigs in this episode. Poor Frank has a very bad Southern accent. They encounter a pig-guy hangin' out down in the sewers. The Doctor goes to chat with him and offers to help him get back to the surface. More pigs show up--a whole piggy army.

They run away and are pursued by the pigs. The pigs take Frank. The Doctor, Solomon and Martha end up in Tallulah's dressing room hearing about Laszlo, her disappearing boyfriend. Solomon goes back to Hooverville and rallies the inhabitants.

The workers put the Dalek panels on the spire of the Empire State Building. Diagorus is prepped for the Final Experiment. There are only four Daleks left. They have a bit of an argument about the experiment, regarding maintaining Dalek purity. The plan is to absorb Diagorus and make him a Dalek, producing a new Dalek form.

The Doctor experiments with the jellyfish thing from the sewers. Tallulah goes on stage for her nightly show. Martha sees a pig man watching from the wings--Laszlo. She sneaks across the stage to go see what's going on. Not very stealthily, though. The Doctor figures out that the jelly fish thing is from Skaro, the Dalek planet. I remember that from "Genesis of the Daleks" back in the day. Martha chases down pig-Laszlo. Another pig man grabs her just as the Doctor comes after her. The Doctor heads back down into the sewers and spots a Dalek in the sewers.

Dalek-Sek, the head Dalek, is failing--the experimental absorption of Diagorus isn't going well. The Daleks are trying to evolve. Hm. That'll probably work in real well with next weeks' episode, "Evolution of the Daleks..."

The Doctor corners and questions pig-Laszlo. He escaped before they transformed his mind, but he's still got a pig-face. Tallulah finally recognizes Laszlo--she's obviously kinda slow. Laszlo takes the Doctor to the Daleks.

The Daleks are scanning the prisoners for intelligence. The not so smart ones go to become pig slaves. The smart ones go to the laboratory for the Final Experiment. This is kind of confusing because it looks like there are way more humans than Daleks. Martha goes into the latter group. The Doctor falls into their group. Tallulah's left kind of stranded. Laszlo won't go with her and she gets lost.

Dalek-Sek is entering the final stage of evolution. A hybrid Dalek/human emerges from his Dalek shell. Dude, you fugly.

To Be Continued....

Saving Grace and Burn Notice

2007-07-25T18:12:00.000-06:00

I was about to give up on this show ten minutes or so in, but I decided to stick it out. I don't think this is going to be a new favorite, but I did find the premiere hour enjoyable. The premise--Grace Hanadarko (Holly Hunter) is headed for hell, presumably for sleeping with her married partner and driving drunk. Hopefully not for slugging the obnoxious cattle baron who felt her up without her permission, because that was a good move on her part. Anyway, God sends a scruffy tobacco-chewing angel named Earl (Leon Rippy) to get her back on track. Of course she doesn't believe he's really an angel because she doesn't believe in angels. But in the end she starts to straighten up her act a bit, after slugging the cattle guy again and stealing his cow, which has markings on it that look like Jesus--no, seriosuly.

Mainstream reviewers have criticized the series' paranormal elements, i.e. Scruffy Winged Earl, but without that I wouldn't have been interested in the show at all, so I won't criticize that. Well, okay, maybe it was all a tad heavy-handed, but not nearly as heavy-handed as Bruce Almighty, which was supposed to be a light comedy, but I suppose that's another post for another blog.

In any case, not a bad show, although possibly not compelling enough for me personally to keep me tuning in. We'll see if I remember to watch it next week.

On the other hand, Burn Notice is a very fun show. I won't go into details yet, because I came in on episode two and I haven't quite sorted everyone out yet, but it interested me enough that I'll likely be huntin gup the episodes I've missed, and I've set up a pass on my DVR to catch it from here on out.

Which reminds me... I really need to clear off the DVR...

Eureka and Doctor Who

2007-07-23T19:49:00.000-06:00

I was trying to catch up, and am just not happy with either of my reviews for these shows last week. Suffice it to say that Eureka was fun but a bit shallower than last week, and Doctor Who was very cool, with the Face of Bo and Macras both coming to visit from earlier Doctoral incarnations. Sorry for skipping--it was just a very hectic week.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Tonight's Eureka

2007-07-17T20:44:00.000-06:00

I completely forgot Eureka was on tonight. Bad blogger, no cookie. In my defense, I had lots of second-job stuff to get done, so my focus was on something else. Anyway, thank God for the DVR. I'll watch and blog tomorrow night. Sorry!

Some News— Drive and Farscape

2007-07-17T08:03:00.000-06:00

After scheduling and de-scheduling them twice, Fox has decided not to broadcast the last two episodes of Drive at all. Instead, they are available at www.myspace.com/driveonfox for online viewing.

Sci Fi has announced they will be doing a 10-part Farscape web series, live action. This has me kind of excited. I loved Farscape, and still haven't forgiven Sci Fi for cancelling it the way they did. With Ben Browder and Claudia Black both having been recently active with the Stargate series, I wonder if they'll be making appearances in this new incarnation of their previous (and, imo, far superior) show.

Doctor Who—The Shakespeare Code

2007-07-13T19:14:00.001-06:00

In London, 1599 some troubadour sings to that chick from Hex. And it looks like he's gonna get some. Or not. Cause Chick from Hex is Lilith, who turs out to be a witch/demon type. Poor girl's getting typecast. The three witches attack Mr. Troubadour and apparently tear him to pieces. Not very hospitable.

The Doctor and Martha arrive in, you guessed it, 16th century London. Martha's worried about fitting in. They go to the Globe Theater. They attend a play and get to see William Shakespeare himself. Will's kinda hot. Imagine that. Lilith is hanging around in the wing with a gris gris or something. Okay, not gris gris--wrong magic system. Will performs crappy standup. Lilith hexes Bill. He promises a sequel to Love's Labours Lost called Love's Labours Won, which is a lost Shakespeare play. The Doctor decides to stick around to see what happened to it.

Will's staying an an inn where Lilith's mum is the innkeeper. He has one more scene to write to finish LLW. The Doctor drops by and Bill is about to throw them out until he sees Martha and goes sproing. The Doctor's psychic paper doesn't work on Will. Lynley, the Master of the Revels demands that Will have his play approved by him before it's performed. He must be the sixteenth century Network Censor, or MPAA. He also uses a dangling participle. He's determined that LLW won't ever be played. Gee, must be something really offensive in there. Too bad we never got to read it.

Lilith grabs something off the Master of Revels--some hair, I think. So he's in trouble now. The witches are determined that LLW be performed tomorrow. Lilith drowns Lynley with a poppet. Martha tries unsuccessfully to revive him. The Doctor recognizes witchcraft was involved in the death.

The witches want Shakespeare to "free" them. Somehow LLW is part of this plan. The Doctor and Martha board in the same bedroom, with a really small bed. Martha focuses on the awkwardness of this while the Doctor remains unaware of it.

Lilith blows green smoke at Will and does some more magic on him so he can write faster. I could use some of that mojo, especially when I'm on deadline. Thanks to the magic, Will finishes the play. Lilith kills the innkeeper and then flies away on her broom.

The Doctor chases down the architect of the Globe Theater, who's currently crazy in Bedlam Hospital, babbling about witches. Shakespeare is a horn dog. Although I think we knew that. He also seems just as interested in the Doctor as in Martha. Hmm. He and Captain Jack should get together.

The actors rehearse the new play. It appears to be some kind of a spell, its power enhanced by the shape of the theater. A spirit is summoned by the rehearsal.

The Doctor, Martha and Will go to Bedlam. They visit Peter, the Globe Theater architect. Lilith views the visit in a scrying bucket with the other two witches. Peter tells them about the witches, then one of them shows up and kills him before he can say anything else. The Doctor makes her disappear by stating her name. She's a Carrionite, planning to end the world. The Carrionite "witches" plan to destroy the doctor. The Carrionites want to take over the Earth. Dude, everybody wants to take over the Earth. Aren't there other planets to take over? The Doctor realizes LLW is a sort of spell composed to concentrate energy in the Globe for the Carrionites' particular purposes. The Doctor heads for All Hallow's St. to find the Carrionites while Will goes to stop the play.

He stops the performance midstream, to the annoyance of the witches, who knock him unconscious with a poppet and continue with the play. The Doctor and Martha find the witches, mostly because the witches want to be found. Well, just Lilith, since the other two witches are at the play. Martha tries to name her, but can't. Lilith is unable to suss out the Doctor's real name to name him. She tries to use Rose's name to rattle him but it doesn't work. She grabs a bit of his hair to use with her doll. It's a DNA replication module, not a poppet per se. Martha revives him. He's down to one heart, though, and Martha starts it back up.

The play continues. The actors speak the last line, which activates the Carrionites' crystal to open the portal for the rest of their people to descend to earth. Carrionites descend on the Globe theater, then fly out into London. The Doctor drags Will out to reverse what's happened, since he's the wordsmith. That's a lot of pressure to put on a writer. Will starts orating with a little help from the Doctor, including JK Rowling references. The Carrionites are sent back where they came from and the world is saved. The three wtiches are trapped in a globe (not the Globe). Will flirts some more with Martha. The play is lost in the maelstrom, which is why I never had to read it in college. Will writes Martha a sonnet (the Dark Lady sonnet).

The Queen shows up to see Will's plays. She greets the Doctor as her sworn enemy and orders him beheaded. The Doctor and Martha hightail it out and escape on the TARDIS.

Eureka—Phoenix Rising

2007-07-10T20:21:00.000-06:00

Henry revisits Kim's death in a hologram. Seems like he might need some therapy. He and Jack are both having problems dealing with their memories of the alternate timeline from last season. In the meantime, Nathan remains a bit obsessed with the artifact.

A solar eclipse captivates the town, with references to the Phoenix floating about from Taggert. Then a guy spontaneously combusts. A random guy, because we can't have main characters spontaneously combusting.

Combusting Guy turns out to be Kevin's occupational therapist, Wayne, which of course upsets Allison. Jack suspects Vincent's chili, but Lupo suggests a connection to Taggert's phoenix. Jack sends Lupo to question Taggert, which makes her a little nervous because of how she made out with Taggert last season.

Beverly talks to Kevin, who says something about "another man." Nobody knows what he's talking about. Jack discusses the "phoenix effect" with Taggert--it has to do with solar flares. He "proves" his theory by performing an experiment on skin graft tissue, which, ewww.

Allison calls Jack, who's in the shower, and via his unexpected video phone gets to see him naked, but none of the rest of us do. That's just wrong.

Jack and Lupo go to talk to Dr. Matthew, who proves to have also gone kerblooey. Henry's examination shows that the combustion began in the brain. And the two doctors had been speaking with each other before their respective head explosions.

Allison attempts to defend Nathan for his faux pas with the artifact, but the higher ups decide to replace him. With Allison. Okay, that's awkward. And it doesn't go over well. Another doctor, Dr. Brock, also appears to be connected to the combusted doctors, as well as to the artifact. Trying to depend on his memories of the alternate timeline, Jack makes some missteps. Dr. Brock combusts, and they're unable to save him.

Jack makes a connection among the victims and goes to talk to Henry. He asks to see the hologram again, from Kim's death. Brock and Matthew are both present in the hologram. Jack suspects Henry, who denies everything, then Jack makes a few more connections and surmises that the other doctors were exposed to the particulate radiation that killed Kim. Although nobody can figure out why Wayne, Kevin's therapist, was in Brock's office at the time. Nathan was also exposed, and he's not feeling so well. They take him to cryogenics to try to waylay the combustion. Henry proposes electroshock therapy to disrupt the misfiring inside Nathan's brain. They throw the switch...and then have a commercial. I hate when they do that.

When we come back from the break, Nathan is all better. ("It was only a flesh wound!") He and Allison share a bonding moment at his hospital bed, which bums out Jack, who still remembers being married to Allison on the alternate timeline. Angst! Henry proposes a memory wipe for both of them, largely because he blames Jack for Kim's death. Jack is reluctant, but Henry blasts him with the memory wiping device when it appears he's decided to go ahead with it. And then Henry destroys the device, still unforgiving of Jack.

Henry applies for a job at Global Dynamics. Beverly reports to Farraday that the artifact appears to be dead. But Farraday says this isn't possible. The energy has to have gone somewhere.

And it reconstructs itself out of modeling clay in Kevin's room. That just can't be good.

So our second season opener has laid the groundwork for what promises to be some interesting developments over the next several weeks. I'm particularly concerned about Henry--he seems to have gone a little off the deep end. Understandably so, but that little power dynamic shift doesn't bode well for Jack.

Doctor Who—Smith and Jones

2007-07-06T20:17:00.000-06:00

As we begin Season Three, we're introduced to Martha (Freema Agyeman), a normal young woman who makes lots of phone calls. I hope she has a good plan with lots of minutes. Or do cell phone plans work that way in England? I have no idea. Then she runs into the Doctor who mysteriously shows her his tie. And then she runs into a guy without a face, which on this show is never good.

Our new friend Martha is apparently a med student. Or an intern. Something like that. I'm not even sure how all that works in the US, much less in the UK. Anyway, so the Doctor is the Doctor, and Martha is almost a Doctor. Heh. Lots of guys without faces are runing around the hospital. Oh, and the doctor is in the hospital, too, complaining of abdominal pains. Martha's a pretty sharp student--she notices our dear Doctor has two hearts. Also there's a lot of static electricity in this hospital. I hope it doesn't short out any monitoring devices or accidentally defib somebody. And there's a thunderstorm right on top of the hospital and nowhere else. Oh, and the rain is going up instead of down. Dude, that's weird. And then there's an earthquake. The entire hospital is transported to the moon. This could be a problem. I'm not sure my insurance would cover that, though, again, not sure how these things work in the UK.

Everybody in the hospital starts to scream and wail. The Doctor clues in that Martha is fairly sharp, and recruits her for help. Martha lost a cousin in the Cybermen fiasco of last season. I like that they maintain that kind of continuity in this show, rather than having all the humans unaware of what's going on in the Doctor's world. The hospital is, inside a force field that's holding the air in. Of course, this means they have a limited supply. The hospital has been abducted by the guys in the shiny suits and motorcycle helmets, and one of the old lady patients is after the blood of one of the hospital administrators. She even has a straw. Eww.

The aliens enter the hospital. They're like big rhinos in black leather. Kind of disturbing, frankly. They run around "cataloging" everybody by drawing black X's on their hands. I guess that's so they can get back into the hospital later if they leave. They also kill one of the patients when he attacks one of them. So not cool.

The Doctor tries to work out what's going on, whilst making his own hair messier and messier. Seriously, it's like its own character this episode. Martha walks in on Old Lady Ms. Finnegan having her sip o' blood. Pursuit ensues. They kill one of the aliens with an X-ray machine. The Doctor dances around like a dork to get the radiation out of his body. The Doctor's sonic screwdriver gets screwed up. He's sad. Martha tells him about Ms. Finnegan snacking on the hospital administrator. The rhino people--Jidoon--are looking for someone who looks human but isn't. The Doctor figures it's Ms. Finnegan, who's a plasmavore, assimilating blood so she can pass as human. They catalog the Doctor as non human.

As the Jidoon descend again, the Doctor smooches Martha, then pursues Ms Finnegan. His kiss residue makes her register as not-quite human, which distracts the Jidoon while they scan her. The Doctor uses the word Ginormous. Heh. Ms. Finnegan is rigging the MRI machine to kill off everybody on the moon and the moonside of the Earth. They never do that on House. The Doctor scams Ms. Finnegan into assimilating his blood. She uses a bendy straw. This is hysterical. The Doctor drops dead. Supposedly.

Of course now Ms. Finnegan scans as non-human. Ms. Finnegan is totally busted. She starts the MRI explosion, but the Jidoon shoot her with their big rhino ray guns. The Jidoon decide to evacuate without bothering to fix the MRI or take care of the hospital's lack of air. Martha administers CPR on the Doctor, and remembers to do compressions on both his hearts. He revives. The Doctor manages to shut down the MRI, even without his sonic screwdriver. As the Jidoon depart, they reverse the transportation of the hospital, and it's returned to Earth. The Doctor departs.

Martha's family party goes awry, largely due to her dad's slutty girlfriend. The Doctor reappears and makes come-hither eyes at Martha. She meets up with him and takes him up on his offer to travel with him.

This was a very strong and completely fun introduction to the third season. The outside-looiking-in perspective served very well for the introduction of a new companion, and Martha is a great addition to the cast. I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of this season.

Dr Who—The Runaway Bride

2007-07-06T19:48:00.000-06:00

When last we left the good Doctor, he had just been forced to abandon his latest companion, Rose, on a planet in another dimension where he would never see her again. Everybody cried. Yeah, I did, too, a little.

Now we renter the Whovian world with a wedding. No, not the Doctor's, that would be wrong. It's Donna Noble's (Catherine Tate). And she turns all gold and glowy and disappears through the roof. And reappears on the TARDIS. I think I would have liked it if that had happened at my wedding.

Donna, the abducted bride, is pretty irate about her current fate. The Doctor, still broody about Rose, tries to explain, but she's not buying it. Then she opens the doors of the TARDIS. This seems like a really bad idea, although apparently you don't get sucked out the TARDIS doors like you would if you say, opened up a docking bay door on the Battlestar Galactica.

Back at the wedding, Donna's mother thinks she's pulling some kind of stunt. In the meantime, the Doctor and Donna run all over London trying to get Donna back to her wedding. Donna is abducted by creepy Santas who turn out to be bug-type aliens. What follows is one of the best Dr. Who action sequences EVER, as the TARDIS spins and flies through traffic to catch up with Donna's car and drag her out of it. Dude, Tom Baker never did anything quite this cool. Of course, the special effects budget wasn't quite as good back then, either.

By the time all that's done, Donna has missed her wedding, so she's bummed.The Doctor interrogates her, trying to figure out why the aliens abducted her in the first place. They finally make it to the reception, where her fiance Lance is happily dancing with another woman.

The Doctor appropriates a guest's cell phone to look into her place of employment, which is apparently connected to Torchwood. (Premiering in September on BBC America--don't miss it!) He also gets a look at video of Donna's abduction from the wedding. He thinks it has to do with Huon particles, but Huon energy doesn't exist anymore. Except wait!! It does! And somehow it's connected to Donna's abduction, as the crazy Santa-bug-aliens arrive again. They make all the pretty shiny Christmas decorations float off the trees and ASPLODE. All backed by a jazzy rendition of Jingle Bells. The Doctor incapacitates the robots with a combination of his sonic screwdriver and the sound system. He goes to trace the robots' controllers. Donna follows.

The robots are being controlled by something that looks like a giant female spider in a ship above the Earth. Donna has been dosed with Huon energy. The only Huon energy left around is a small amount in the TARDIS, which is why she was pulled into it.

The Doctor also finds a secret floor in the H.C. Clements building where Donna works. They go down to the Lower Basement and ride around on Segways until they find a secret Torchwood base where Huon particles are being manufactured. Donna is a sort of catalyst to activate the particles. The giant spider woman teleports into the basement. She's the Empress--and the last--of the Racnoss, a race from billions of years ago. And Lance is in cahoots with her, and fed Donna the Huon particles in her coffee to prepare her . There's also a really, really deep hole in the ground. The Doctor uses the Huon particles to bring the TARDIS to them and escape to go find out what's at the bottom of the hole, which goes all the way down to the Earth's core. They go back to the creation of the Earth, 4.6 billion years ago, and discover the earth was actually formed around a Racnoss ship.

The Empress uses Lance to pull the TARDIS back by flooding him with Huon particles. She abducts Donna and uses the Huon particles in Donna and in Lance to open the Racnoss ship at the center of the earth. It's full of Racnoss babies that plan to crawl up out of the center of earth take over the place. Seems like all the aliens on this show want to take over the planet. Aren't other planets they could take over?

Anyway, the Empress' ship comes down and shoots up London. The Doctor offers to find the Racnoss a place where they can live in peace, but she declines. He uses some of the asplodey Christmas tree balls to flood the Lower Basement, as well as the big giant hole that goes to the center of the earth. That's a lot of water. Good thing the Thames is a big river. The Empress escapes, but her ship is blown apart by tanks.

Making his farewells to Donna, the Doctor makes it snow. He invites Donna to join him, but she declines. The Doctor is off again, on his own.

But not for long, as we'll find out in the next episode.

This "supersized" Dr. Who originally aired as a one-shot special last Christmas season in the UK, and it was a bit odd watching it in the middle of summer here. But no matter--I enjoyed it quite a lot. Donna made a great foil for the Doctor, and I was glad to hear (SPOILERS) that she'll be joining him as a permanent companion in the fourth season. The pace of this episode was frenetic, as was a good deal of the music, but it fit the story well. All in all, a fun show.

Californication Preview

2007-07-06T16:44:00.000-06:00

Netflix is offering a sneak preview disc of the first episode of Californication to its subscribers. It'll be available starting July 24--get it into your queue early!

Dr. Who Is Coming!

2007-07-01T17:15:00.000-06:00

The third season of the retooled Dr. Who starts on the Sci Fi channel this Friday with the Christmas Special, The Runaway Bride, followed by Smith and Jones. And yes, I will be blogging it.

Next Tuesday, look for Eureka's second season premiere, also on Sci Fi. I'm looking forward to this one, too.

The Tudors—1-2

2007-06-27T18:31:00.000-06:00

In episode two, Henry continues to defy all natural law by looking hot while wearing clothes that look like they were made out of couch upholstery.

The actual plot begins with a summit in France, where Henry and the French king are planning to sign a peace treaty. But the French king brags too much, and Henry challenges him to a wrestling match. Henry gets his ass kicked.

He's not too happy about this, but his mood is improved somewhat when he's introduced to Mary Boleyn, who drops by his bedchamber to show him some fun things she learned to do while in France.

In other political machinations, Buckingham continues to press his claim to the throne and plans to off King Henry, but Dad Boleyn rats him out to Wolsey. Buckingham is tried for treason and sentenced to death. So there's a rival to the throne out of the way.

Back in London, Mary has joined Henry as his latest mistress, since Lady Blunt is out of commission, but Henry tires of her and her French talents, so Dad Boleyn suggests to his other daughter Anne that she might want to take Mary's place in Henry's affections. Lady Blunt gives birth to a son, whom Henry recognizes as his offspring. The kid's name is Henry Fitzroy--does that mean he's the one who grows up to be a vampire?

Henry plays Funny Tennis in Pantaloons again. Apparently this is an important political activity, like golf is today.

And to round off the hour, being passed over for Pope makes Wolsey cry, Catherine prays to Mary for a son, and Henry allies with the Holy Roman Emperor to overthrow the king of France.

Dude, Ellen's a Cylon!

2007-06-22T19:00:00.000-06:00

Okay, she's not. She's a Viper pilot. But it's still Samantha Ferris, who plays Ellen on Supernatural, in the uniform.

Yep, I'm catching up on Battlestar Galactica. I had fallen behind by about a half-dozen episodes, so I thought I'd finish off Season Three. Next season, as we all know by now, will be this show's last, and the showrunners promise a wrapup of the storylines, and possibly a spinoff prequel.

In the meantime, I'm noticing fandom collisions. Aside from Samantha Ferris, there's Kandyse McClure, who plays Dualla (aka Mrs. Apollo). She played Annie, Joshua's doomed love interest, in two episodes of Season Two of Dark Angel. And Nickie Klyne, Callie on Battlestar, was Fixit in another Season Two Dark Angel episode. Grace Park (Sharon), also did a brief turn as a transgenic on Dark Angel. Maybe she's typecast as a genetically engineered person? That could really limit an actor's career.

Now...off to find out what the heck is up with Starbuck.

The Tudors—1-1

2007-06-20T19:59:00.001-06:00

The show opens with the assassination of a political figure in Italy, stabbed to death by several French people in a scene reminiscent of Julius Caesar's murder at the end of the first season of Rome. Except, you know, for the French people. This person turns out to be King Henry's ambassador and uncle. King Henry is Jonathan Rhys Myers, and the fact that this role requires him to wear tights strikes me as a very good thing. I wonder if he knows one of his kids is going to be a vampire. Oh, sorry. Wrong show.

Catherine of Aragon (Maria Doyle Kennedy), Henry's wife, pines rather for her husband while he tumbles other women, most of them blonde, and plays some kind of tennis whilst wearing funny pantaloons. In the meantime, the Duke of Buckingham plots to gain Henry's throne for himself. Cardinal Wolsey (Sam Niall) spends a good deal of time cleaning up Henry's messes, like the fact the king has knocked up Catherine's lady in waiting. He also tries to convince Henry not to go to war with France, and to secure his place in history by forging peace, instead. Although when it comes down to it, Wolsey's kind of a badass. And also could become Pope Badass. Elsewhere, other plots begin to unfold as Anne Boleyn's father works up his own political intrigue.

Overall assessment: Guys in tights and big boots! And? Jousting! What's not to love?

Weeds—Cooking With Jesus

2007-06-17T19:49:00.001-06:00

One of the fun things about Season Two of Weeds is that each week the title song, Little Boxes, is performed by a different artist. It's worth checking out the different renditions at the Showtime website. For this episode, the song's performed by Death Cab for Cutie.

Nancy continues her quest to become a grower without Conrad. Conrad, in the mean time, tries to find a financer to back his own quest to grow his own strain. He finally returns to Nancy's fold when Nancy assures him she's broken things off with Peter and Peter knows nothing.

Celia continues her quest for City Council election, but her family isn't cooperating.

Megan gets accepted into Princeton. Silas decides, with Andy's encouragement, to drop out of high school and follow her to New Jersey. But Megan shoots him down, and they break up.

Andy continues his quest for Hebrew School by comparing his Judaism to Ghostbusters. He finally makes it into Hebrew School, provisionally, with an essay he writes while high in the girls' bathroom at the marijuana expo.

Peter refuses to accept the breakup, and tells Nancy he knows she's a drug dealer.

This episode seemed a little less funny than previous episodes, with time spent laying down groundwork for plotlines that will undoubtedly be built on later down the road. I'm interested to see how things will pan out with Peter, since that's a major not-good development.

Rolling Stone From Texas—Don Walser

Jah Be For Us—Rocky Dawuni

Jammin Nation—Rocky Dawuni

Crazy Dazy—Chris Ligon

Weeds at iTunes:

Moonlight—Early Thoughts

2007-06-17T17:35:00.000-06:00

Moonlight is a new show for CBS, premiering this fall, about a vampire private investigator. I have my doubts about this one. First, I loved (deeply) and lost (painfully) a show about a vampire private investigator (Angel), and nothing will ever compare. It just won't. The fact David Greenwalt is on board with Moonlight is either good or painfully ironic.

From the video clips, this show looks rather nice. Alex O'Loughlin, an Aussie actor, is pretty enough as Mick St. John, our vampire PI. The cinematography looks nice, although several of the cityscapes, and the way they're being used, is a bit too much like Angel for my immediate comfort. My biggest problem with this show, though, comes from the script excerpts I ran across a few days ago. The scenes in question are, in my opinion, bland and cliche-driven. Nothing about them struck me as particularly original or compelling.

Realizing this might not be a fair representation of the final show, I'll give this one a shot, if only because of my love for vampires in general, and because Greenwalt has a hand in it. Moonlight will be airing Friday nights at 9 Eastern on CBS.

Check out the preview clip here: Moonlight
Note: Must have popups enabled, and there's a brief ad right before the clip.

Californication—Early Thoughts

2007-06-14T19:33:00.000-06:00

In spite of being a big David Duchovny fan--of his acting, his writing/directing and his general hotness--I've been feeling a little meh about his upcoming new Showtime series Californication. From the promotional materials, it seemed a little over the top as far as content and subject matter. A quick peek at parts of some early scripts, though, has me a bit more enthusiastic. Yes, it's over the top, but so are Weeds and Dexter, and I didn't expect to like either of those shows, either. The excerpts are quick and witty, and made me chuckle a couple of times, which is always a good sign. I was planning to tune in just to check it out, but this makes me want to a bit more than I did before.

Californication premieres Monday, August 13th at 10:30 EST on Showtime.

And I'll have some early thoughts on other upcoming shows over the next few days.

More on Jericho

2007-06-13T20:08:00.001-06:00

According to this articl e Jericho's continued presence on our TVs next year depends on people watching it. Live. No recording. No DVR. No download, regardless of whether it's legal, or if you pay good money to download.

"Nina Tassler, the president of CBS Entertainment, told the New York Times that if fans want the show to live, they need to watch the broadcast because that's how the money gets made. Stressing that live viewing is 'of primary importance,' Tassler said that 'We want them to watch on Wednesday at 8 o'clock... and we need them to recruit new viewers who are going to watch the broadcast.'"

My opinion? This is unbelievably short-sighted on the part of the network. According to next week's TV Guide, "Jericho was the second most popular CBS program on iTunes and online after CSI, and got an 8 percent ratings boost from people who recorded it." Basically, CBS is saying that viewers need to watch the show the way they want the viewers to watch it, or the ratings don't count.

The landscape is changing, folks. The networks need to change with it. Stamping their feet indignantly and demanding that everyone watch shows live instead of recording them is just not a viable business model. The Neilsen ratings have been obsolete for quite some time now, but the networks still cling to them. Networks and advertisers need to work out new ways to capture the viewers' attention. What CBS is saying in regards to Jericho is not it. Kudos to them for the renewal, which may have been prompted by download numbers, but opposite of kudos (whatever that is) to them for insisting on live viewage instead of trying to get a little creative.

Summertime

2007-06-11T19:07:00.000-06:00

It must be something about the weather turning warm (finally), but I have all these new TV shows to catch up on and all I want to do it rewatch old things I've seen over and over and, as for instance, over. Maybe it's hardwired into me to watch reruns over the summer, I don't know... In any case, I'll get it out of my system and get back to reviewing things. I hope to finish Season Two of Weeds, and catch up on The Tudors and Rome, at the very least.

Wish me luck!

Weeds—Corn Snake

2007-06-09T19:51:00.001-06:00

When we left Nancy Botwin at the end of last season, she had just found out her new, charming boyfriend is a DEA agent. Which sucks, since she's a suburban drug dealer. Not exactly a match made in heaven. So poor Nancy's got a bit of a conundrum. On the one hand, he's a DEA agent. On the other hand, he's kinda sweet and he likes her big feet. But she's moving ahead with her plans with Conrad to grow their own weed. Except Conrad isn't happy about Nancy sleeping with the DEA agent, and says he's bailing on the deal. And then the bakery catches on fire.

In the meantime, Celia has a car accident and goes on a crusade to get a light installed at the intersection, which leads her to run for City Council against Doug. Andy applies to rabbinical school to keep from having to go to Iraq, and Shane catches Silas in bed with Megan.

They cover a heck of a lot in a half hour on this show. And they do it well. I didn't realize until I started watching Gilmore Girls that Jenji Kohan used to work on that show. It seems like a big jump from Gilmore Girls to Weeds, subject matter-wise, but the shows share a masterful use of quick, clever dialogue. Weeds might even be better with that element, because it sounds less "written" than the dialogue on Gilmore Girls sometimes does (bear in mind I'm only about 2/3 of the way through the first season of GG, so that might not be a fair assessment of the series throughout its run).

F*k Was I--Jenny Owen Youngs

Bathtime in Clerkenwell--The Real Tuesday Weld

Weeds at iTunes:

Pilot Episodes—the Hard Way

2007-06-09T16:53:00.001-06:00

Just a little reflection on pilot episodes.

Many pilots use a lot of introductory techniques to pull the watcher into the story. Most commonly, the pilot occurs at a shifting point, where a character is dropped into a new situation, and has to learn about what's going on. See Dean dragging Sam off to hunt demons after Sam's hiatus from the family business in Supernatural, or Farscape, where John Crichton is suddenly dropped into an unfamiliar world, or Buffy coming to a new school. This usually works really well, because the viewer can learn about the new setting along with the central character.

But let's talk about a couple of shows that didn't do that.

Gilmore Girls and House both start in the middle of an established setting. Rory and Lorelai already live and work in Stars Hollow, they know everyone around them, and they've been established in that community for years. House already works at Princeton Plainsboro. In both cases, the viewer was dropped right in the middle, and the pilot episodes felt very much like mid-season episodes. The exposition was kept to a bare minimum, with no voice over to explain things (my issues with voice over should be a separate post because I could go on and on). But in both cases, everything was set out quite clearly, without awkwardness or apology or painfully shoehorned exposition. I found this impressive on both counts. This is probably the most difficult way to approach a pilot episode, and in both cases it was accomplished very well.

Day Break—Final Wrapup

2007-06-06T19:09:00.000-06:00

What if He Walks Away?

Fed up that his day is still repeating (and I don't blame him, because it really doesn't make any sense anymore now that he's solved the case), Hopper takes Rita to Vegas. And then Mexico. Over and over. When he finally goes back, he's arrested not only for Garza's murder, but also for the murders of Chad and Rita.

What if She's the Key?

The mystery surrounding Rita deepens as Hopper tries to find out what she's hiding from him, and how it fits in with the Garza case, in order to prevent her death.

What if It's Him?

The last pieces of the puzzle come together as the truth comes out about who really set Hopper up for Garza's murder. In addition, Hopper discovers the truth about his father's death, finally makes it into tomorrow...and beyond.

I really like that they wrapped up this storyline in the 13 produced episodes. There were a few missteps along the way, I thought--things got a bit too convoluted, and the last three episodes really felt like added on padding, especially Rita's subplot, but overall it made for a satisfying, complete story. Of course there were a few loose ends--why was Hopper repeating, and could it happen to him again being the main question--but only enough to allow for the story to have continued if the series had been picked up. The last shot, of the formerly crazy inmate who was apparently also repeating days, now cleaned up and looking like he knew something about Hopper, was a nice way to segue into what could have been more story.

Overall, an enjoyable show. It's too bad it didn't do better in the ratings. I haven't heard anything about a DVD release, but I hope they do go ahead and make this available.

Jericho Picked Up

2007-06-06T16:27:00.001-06:00

Looks official! Jericho will return mid-season with 7 new episodes, and there'll be online content until the new episodes begin. If the ratings are good with the new episodes, there'll be more.

Here's the link, at the Jericho wiki.

Creature Comforts—Animal Magnetism

2007-06-05T19:55:00.000-06:00

Creature Comforts is a show produced by Aardman, the folks behind Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run and Flushed Away. It's been broadcast on BBC America, and last night its American incarnation premiered on CBS.

From the CBS website: "In this new half-hour, stop-motion animated series, excerpts are culled from real person interviews and placed in the mouths of a wide variety of animated animals to produce humorous, charming and insightful commentaries on everyday life."

In tonight's episode, claymation animals talk about what attracts the opposite sex. No, really. And claymation pug dogs talking about their sex lives is one of the funniest things I've seen on TV in a long time. I found this show hysterical in a sneaks up and smacks you with the funny when you least expect it kind of way. The humor is often in the detail on the claymation characters--expressions of the character in the background, or even a character not involved in the conversation--are often what sends me rolling off the chaise laughing. My only complaint is that it seemed really short due to commercial overload--unfortunately a growing trend.

The official Creature Comforts website: http://www.creaturecomforts.tv/

The US production blog: http://eyeballsandfishlips.blogspot.com/

The first two seasons of the original British version of this show are available on DVD.

24--Day 0

2007-06-05T19:39:00.001-06:00

In TV Guide this week, there's a sidebar article about 24-Day 0, an animated web series from the producers of 24. Set before Day 1 (i.e., Season One of 24), it's voiced by the show's stars. Check it out at http://dayzero.com

Jericho Rumors

2007-06-05T18:22:00.000-06:00

This isn't exactly News news yet, but SyFy Portal and TV Squad have both reported that TV Guide's Mike Ausiello has reported (yes, I'm like fourth-hand at this point, but that's okay) that CBS is in talks to produce another eight episodes of Jericho, possibly to air mid-season next year. This would be nice--it'd at least give them a chance to wrap up the story, or possibly to bring in some good ratings to give us more shows. Hey, a girl can hope.

Blood Ties—Wrapup

2007-06-03T20:58:00.001-06:00

A quick wrapup of the season, since I fell behind in this series, as well.

Necrodome
This might have been more interesting if I hadn't already seen this plot done to death on so many other shows. An interesting twist on the Fight Club premise, though--raising professional fighters from the dead to fill the fighting ranks.

Post Partum
Mike and Vicki pose as husband and wife to get the scoop on magical goings-on at a fertility clinic. Apparently another popular starting point for episodic TV, as we saw this on the Dresden Files, as well. This episode had some cute scenes between Vicki and Mike--and Mike was much more likeable than he has been--but overall seemed slow to me.

Norman
The "Season Finale," aka the last episode they're running straight in a row because they're saving the second part of the season for fall. Vicki's tattoos start to bother her when Norman, the demon-summoning geek from the pilot episode, returns. This time he has shapeshifting abilities. Whackiness ensues. This actually worked surprisingly well as a "finale," bookending Vicki's story nicely. Maybe they planned it that way, after all.

Blood Ties returns with the back nine of the extant 22 episodes in the fall.

Spotted at Best Buy

2007-06-03T16:17:00.000-06:00

Best Buy has Season One of The L Word marked down to $28.99. And on the shelf next to it was a free DVD featuring "teaser" episodes of Dexter, Weeds and The Tudors, with a $5 coupon on the back for box sets of Brotherhood, The L Word, BS, Queer as Folk, or Sleeper Cell. I didn't check out the other box sets, but because of the markdown I got The L Word for $23.99 (well, actually I got it for $3.49, but that was because of my frequent shopper coupon...).

Anyway, worth checking out, both for the coupon and the free "teaser" episodes on the DVD.

Angel—Auld Lang Syne

2007-06-02T12:29:00.001-06:00

by Scott Tipton, art and colors by David Messina.

Another five-issue Angel miniseries from IDW, Auld Lang Syne finds Angel and Spike teaming up, post-series, to battle a mysterious foe who's rattling them both by causing the appearance of people from their pasts. The highlight of the story is a vicious knock-down dragout confrontation between the two vampires. Those are always fun. And seriously, it's a big fight. It takes up almost all of issue #3.

This wasn't a bad comic, and had some nice moments, including the reappearance of some long-lost characters like Darla in order to mess with our vamps' heads. However, I felt the storyline was too much like Old Friends, and the final conclusion, as far as who was behind the plot to unsettle the Soul Boys and how she was defeated, wasn't entirely satisfying.

The trade paperback version, with all five issues under single cover, is available for preorder.

Day Break

2007-06-01T19:56:00.000-06:00

When last we saw Detective Brett Hopper, he was still having a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, over and over and over. But he'd finally gotten Chad to think maybe he wasn't entirely nuts, and had managed to change a couple of things permanently, which could be considered progress. Then ABC rudely canceled his show, leaving him stuck in limbo forever and ever.

But lucky for us, we have the Internet now, and the remaining episodes of Day Break were made available on abc.com not long after the cancellation was announced.

In the additional, unaired episodes, the story continues to build, with various pieces falling together as the day changes based on Hopper's activities.

What If He's Not Alone?

Hopper's starting to lose it as the constant repetition begins to wear on him. Hopper meets another man who's also reliving days--a man he encountered earlier in the police station, who appeared to be crazy.

What if She's Lying?

Brett looks for a medical reason for his experiences. Jennifer's involvement with Detweiler is revealed; she's in possession of a briefcase with incriminating evidence about the Isabella Contrares case.

What if They're Connected?

The day changes again as Jennifer asks Brett for help straight off, thus taking her out of danger. Isabella's murder is traced to Tobias Booth, a political figure who had her murdered because she was pregnant. Brett finds evidence Garza's murder is tied to a building gang war.

By the end of this episode, it seems Hopper has made significant progress toward clearing himself of Garza's murder.

What if He's Free?

Brett finally proves Miguel Dominguez killed Garza, and clears his own name. Relieved, he waits for tomorrow to finally come...but it doesn't. We should have known things would go bad when the Yellow-Eyed Demon showed up (Frederic Lane in a guest role).

I have a feeling that having Harper's day start over yet again, even after he's solved the Garza case, is going to be a bad move, story-wise. We'll see. There are still three more episodes--I'll talk about them in an upcoming post.

DVD News

2007-05-30T18:13:00.000-06:00

	Supernatural Season 2 is available for pre-order at Amazon.com. It'll be released on 9-11. Season 2 of Bones will be available 9-11 as well, but isn't up for pre-order yet.
	Season 1 of Dexter is also available for pre-order, releasing 8-21.
	Season 1 of Heroes releases 8-28, in standardand HD formats.

House—Human Error

2007-05-29T21:03:00.000-06:00

A Cuban refugee wants to see House to have her medical condition diagnosed. Unfortunately, her medical records were lost in the ocean. The team tries to convince House to talk Foreman into staying, but House isn't interested. The Cuban woman's condition of course proves to have convoluted and weird symptoms, including spontaneous heart stoppage (although she can still talk), and House is cantankerous about Foreman and the rest of the team, to the point of firing Chase (which Wilson thinks is a ploy to get Foreman back). By the end, House diagnoses the mysterious ailment as a heart defect, fights with God for credit, and all of House's team has either resigned or been fired except Wilson. Well, that's not too likely to continue into next season, since as far as I know nobody's leaving the show. I think that's what we call a non-cliffhanger cliffhanger. As far as a season ender, kind of meh, but still overall a stronger last third of the season, as I said in my Catching Up post.

Josh Ritter--Good Man

Christian Kane's New Blog

2007-05-29T07:23:00.001-06:00

Found via Whedonesque.

Christian Kane (Angel, Close to Home) and his band Kane have set up a new blog with news about what they're up to. It's called Smoke Signals. Check it out. And if you haven't taken a listen to their music, check that out, too. Unfortunately, they're not available at iTunes, but there are links to Kane's main site on the blog. They're a fun band, and very much worth a listen.

House—Catching Up

2007-05-28T07:37:00.000-06:00

Yes, I know that's not an episode title--that's just me, you know, catching up.

With the long weekend proving to be happily productive on other fronts, I decided to indulge in some catchup TV viewage. Since I was a few episodes behind on House, I buzzed through the DVR listings and finished up the episodes waiting there to be watched. And there's still one more, with House's season finale airing tomorrow night.

I have to say I think the last third of this season has been far stronger than the middle third was. So, in my estimation, this season went--good first third, weak middle third (with the long arc involving House's Vicodin addiction), good last third. Which is not too bad, and has made for some good entertainment overall. I'm hoping to finish watching Season 2 over the summer (I've watched about half of it), so I'll check in later with progress reports on that front.

For those keeping score, the episodes I watched yesterday were "Fetal Position" (I held this one back for quite a while because of the subject matter), "Family," and "Resignation." I caught "The Jerk" when it aired because I was at a friend's house at the time, so that leaves me with just the season finale to watch tomorrow.

Season Three on iTunes:

The Hard Easy—Review

2007-05-27T20:11:00.000-06:00

The Hard Easy is a direct-to-DVD movie starring David Boreanaz, which was released this week. Of course I had my copy preordered, just waiting for the long weekend so I could pop it in and watch it in a leisurely fashion. Well, as much of a leisurely fashion as I can manage, anyway.

The plot goes thusly: Down on his luck gambler Paul (Henry Thomas) needs money--a lot of it--because, well, he's down on his luck, and owes people a ton of money. Stockbroker Roger (David Boreanaz) needs money--a lot of it--because a scheme concocted by his marginally insane boss ~~Buckaroo Banzai~~ Ed (Peter Weller) went sideways. Both of them end up involved in a plan to rob a jewelry store of a shipment of diamonds. Unfortunately, it's the same jewelry store, and the same diamonds. ~~Hilarity~~ Chaos ensues.

In spite of a few rather annoying (and unsuccessful) attempts to make itself look like a Guy Ritchie movie, The Hard Easy is a fairly solid caper movie, with plenty of plot twists, most of which actually even make sense--always a plus. The last act is almost absurdly violent, although that's pretty common for this type of movie, but it never quite veers dark enough to jar the slightly smirky tone established from the beginning. Overall, not a bad movie, and well worth a watch.

For Boreanaz fans, there's a long expository scene between Boreanaz and Peter Weller which is conducted with Boreanaz shirtless throughout for no really good reason. Kudos to the screenwriters for gratuitous Boreanaz shirtlessness. It makes any movie better.

Rated R for pervasive naughty words and lots of people getting shot.

Also starring Vera Farmiga, Bruce Dern, Nick Lachey and Gary Busey.

Robin Hood—A Clue: No

2007-05-27T13:55:00.000-06:00

For the second half of the season finale, we pick up where we left off, with the sheriff approaching Robin's hideout and Robin mourning over Marian's body. Unfortunately, Robin has yet to perfect the Dean Winchester Single Perfect Emo Tear of Man Pain®, and has settled for his own patented Grim Scowl of Determination. Much and Little John hold off the Sheriff and his men. John says it's a good day to die--when did he turn into a Klingon? Robin joins the fray, and I have to say he's hotter when he's shooting things, especially with that nifty multiple arrow technique. With Marian dead, Robin has pretty much turned into Screaming Berserker Man. In spite of the bad odds, Robin and his men--with Alan and Will returning--wipe the forest floor with the sheriff's men, while Guy stands around gaping in astonishment.

With that little confrontation taken care of, Robin tries to deal with the practicalities of Marian's death. The Merry Men deliver lovely eulogies, like, "She was all right," "Her, we liked," and finally, "She's breathing." Apparently Djaq overdosed her with sedatives. Ah, well. Sedatives can be tricky.

The sheriff informs Guy that the king really isn't coming at all. He's bringing a fake king to town to ferret out all the plots against him.

Robin and his buds bring not-dead Marian to her father. Dad has a plan to defend the king, but it involves leaving Marian to marry Guy, which Robin, having his priorities in order as usual, isn't crazy about. He proceeds to drive off everyone around him with his single-minded focus on Marian, including Much, to whom he's unnecessarily nasty.

Marian has her own plans, and somehow is back on her feet merely hours after primitive abdominal surgery with no antibiotics. She goes to speak to Guy and asks him point blank if he tried to kill the King in the Holy Land. He equivocates. Marian buys it even though he never really quite answers her question. I think she's distracted by the leather and the eyeliner.

Robin's men join with Marian's father, since Robin is just sitting around in the field moping while Marian meets up with Guy for the wedding.

As the Merry Men and Edward put their plan into place, Much bugs out and goes to find Robin. On the way, he runs into the faux king and realizes he is, indeed, faux. One would think the sheriff would have known this ruse wouldn't work--he knows Much and Robin fought in the Holy Land, so why would he assume they wouldn't notice a faux king? But I digress.

Faux King orders the sheriff arrested. The trial proceeds as the king takes "French evidence" from the townsfolk. They go into other rooms to give their private evidence, but if they choose the "testify against" room, the sheriff kills them.

Much barges in on the wedding, announcing that the king is faux. Guy is totally busted. He coerces Marian into continuing with the wedding by threatening her father. But she slugs him in the face with his own wedding ring and escapes. She's surprisingly hearty after that whole abdominal surgery thing. Yes, I continue to harp on that.

Marian runs off to be with Robin even though he's been a brat for most of the season. Robin barges in on the sheriff's setup. Much exposes the faux king and the merry men create general havoc, as usual. They're about to make their escape when the sheriff grabs Much. Robin rescues Much with some fancy schmancy shootin'. Robin and the Merry Men finish the episode--and the season--with a power shot. There is much rejoicing.

The Summer Hiatus Begins

2007-05-26T10:13:00.000-06:00

Well, it's that time of year again, when the fall season ends and the networks go into reruns. Well, they used to--now they do summer programming. Not much of it looks really interesting to me at the moment, though, so I'll likely be drifting off network TV for the summer.

What do we have to look forward to in the next few months?

Torchwood arrives on BBC America this summer, as does the third season of Dr. Who. I'm totally there for both of these. Eureka should be back around August-ish, I believe. Plus I've got a lot of stuff to catch up on, namely Rome, The Tudors, and whatever else I can think of.

Right now I'm watching Season One of Gilmore Girls and being terribly amused at Jared Padalecki's baby-face and how he's still taller than, well, everybody. This is quite a fun show. I'd watched some of it back when Gilmore Girls: Beginnings was on on Sunday nights, but I hadn't come back to it. I'm really enjoying it so far. Although I still think Stars Hollow should have an apostrophe in it somewhere...