Fall is Near!

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.

Eureka and Doctor Who

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

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!

Eureka—Phoenix Rising

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.

Eureka

Eureka is a SciFi Channel original series that aired on Tuesday nights starting July 18th of last year. The first season featured thirteen episodes, and it's been renewed for a second season. There's also a series of seven webisodes up at the official website.

I of course missed it the first time around, and had to scramble to catch up. But Eureka proved worth the effort.

The premise--U.S. Marshall Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson), through a series of unexpected events involving a stray dog and a tachyon accelerator ends up serving as sheriff to the small town of Eureka, which may or may not be in Oregon. The town is a sort of think tank, housing all the best scientists in the US and providing them with a place to conduct high-powered research. A down-to-earth, regular, non-genius kind of guy, Carter's a fish out of water in Eureka, but as time passes he and his semi-delinquent daughter Zoe (Jordan Hinson) begin to make a place for themselves.

The cast of characters is about what one would expect. There's Allison Blake (Salli Richardson-Whitfield), the hopefully-love-interest-to-be, her not-quite-ex husband Stark (Ed Quinn), Carter's hot deputy Jo Lupo (Erica Cerra), and Taggert, a nutty animal control type (Matt Frewer, whom I remember fondly from the Max Headroom days) a la the late Steve Irwin. And then there's Henry (Joe Morton), ostensibly the owner of the local garage, but also a genius scientist in his own right, Beverly (Debrah Farantino), the hot local shrink who's moonlighting for the possibly evil Consortium, and SARAH, Carter's sentient house, which gets miffed when he's late and doesn't call. The storylines are amusingly outlandish, but not so outlandish as to be stupid, and the whole show holds together very well.

In short, Eureka is a fun, light-hearted show with an eccentric cast of characters and pleasantly kooky plotlines. It doesn't try to make any grand statements or thinky arguments about the state of humanity--it's just good entertainment. Now that I've managed to work my way through the first season, I'm glad it's been renewed, and I look forward to catching Season Two in real time.

Trivia:
Kim, Henry's love interest, who shows up a bit later in the series, is played by Tamlyn Tomita, who played Sam's love interest in the Season Four Quantum Leap episode and personal favorite of mine "Temptation Eyes."