Sorry, I'm behind on my posts. Will catch up soon. It's finale week! Most of these shows ended this week so this is the last large TV post of this season.
Lost
The Sunday finale will be getting its own post, because I said so. As for this episode: Zoe was like a poor man's Tina Fey (you know it's true) and Widmore, like so many others before him, seemed to have outlived his usefulness once he turned to the good side, so it was acceptable for them to die (and even if it hadn't been, this is the second last episode so who cares?). I enjoyed the Ben-Alex-Danielle scene in the flash-sideways, and Michael Emerson's emotional performance upon being told that he was like a father to Alex. And it was cool that Hurley and Desmond were the only two people who know what's going on in the flash-sideways universe, as we were reminded when Hurley said to him "Oh, you didn't tell me Ana-Lucia was gonna be here!"
Glee
Like Kristin Chenoweth before him, Neil Patrick Harris was an excellent choice for a guest star due to his singing ability and comedic timing. His one scene with Sue Sylvester was awesome.
V
I was starting to like Joshua so it was disappointing (yet admirable) that he sacrificed himself for the Fifth Column. But then Marcus revived him at the end, which worries me because I doubt it's that Marcus is Fifth Column. I kind of like the idea of Anna experiencing a human emotion. I don't expect her to start empathizing with humans, but I do think it could make her a more threatening enemy if she starts to get better at manipulating them because of it. I hope Chad will stop being a douche now that he knows the truth about the V's, and I won't miss Valerie because I always found her character uninteresting and even a little dumb.
Flash Forward
This one was just meant to kill time before they show us whether everyone's flash forwards happen. It was a little frustrating that they kept teasing us by going on about how we were only hours away from the flash forwards and then the episode ended. I get that they needed to save it for the finale, but still, I think this episode suffered because of it.
Parks and Recreation
I wasn't really a fan of Wendy because even though her marriage to Tom was a sham, I felt that she was cold to him in spite of the green card related favour he was providing for her. Lucy seems way cooler, and now that Wendy is boning Ron I hope he doesn't develop Andy syndrome and start pining for an old flame when he's with a better girl. Speaking of Andy, I find it funny that this big, simple (albeit likable) oaf was at one point a loser living at the bottom of a pit and now he has two girls into him. Well done, sir. Also like Chris (Rob Lowe) being the unrealistic optimist who always brings unverified good news and then quickly lets Ben (Adam Scott) take it back. And it was very awesome of Ron to offer his own job to save Leslie's, and even awesomer that he invented a bacon-wrapped turkey leg known as "The Swanson". And finally, Leslie referring to Mark as "Brandanoquitz" was one of those puns that makes you laugh hard even though it's eye-rollingly terrible.
The Office
I loved when the IT guy owned everyone in the room for forgetting his name a mere ten seconds after he said it. And the ending was promising, because as terrible as Michael is with women, Holly was without a doubt his best match. I hope Amy Ryan does come back next season, and it would be funny if her boyfriend AJ came with her, because Michael would lose it.
30 Rock
I like Matt Damon and it was cool to see him appear as Liz's "dream man". His character could have been funnier but hopefully he will return to improve on that. Looks like Jack chose Avery after all, just like I said.
Fringe
Finally we got to see Walter reunite with William Bell! Too bad Bell sacrificed himself for almost nothing, because Walter and Peter will probably have to return to the other side once they realize their Olivia is trapped there, which I bet is exactly what Walternate wants.
Hero of the Week: Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation for accomplishing a lot of awesomeness: Being loyal to Leslie and pulling off an awesome grass slide in a frantic attempt to warn her, eating a Swanson, and finally sleeping with Tom's ex wife after previously hinting at his interest in her.
Douchebag of the Week: Walternate from Fringe. He's just not as cool as our Walter.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
This Week in Television - May 10-14, 2010
So Heroes and Flash Forward have both been canceled. I think I'm actually a little relieved, because as you can see my TV lineup is already up to 10 regular shows. But I'll miss them, even if they were going downhill.
Lost
I don't know if I would say I disliked this episode, but I was disappointed because, being about Jacob and the Man in Black, I was expecting it to be the mother of all episodes. It did have its share of revelations, of course, but as always it also created more questions that we probably didn't need seeing as how there are only two episodes left. And, dammit, I was so sure the Man in Black would have a name! Even he didn't ask what his own name was!
Glee
So Puck gets his Mohawk shaved off into a very respectable buzzcut and suddenly he's such a loser that nerds get away with throwing him in the dumpster? This is why I hate it when adults try to write about high school. They either have no clue how it works or take way too many liberties with what they do know. That being said, I did enjoy Brittany asking "Who is that guy?" when he walked into the room.
V
That was actually a tense scene when Lisa had to point out her "attacker" from the lineup. I get why she went with Anna's plan though. She needs to make her think she's still with her, and being Anna's enemy is much scarier than being Erica's.
Happy Town
Well, I like that this show takes crazy turns. I would not have guessed that having a bird crash through Henley's windshield (which I also couldn't have predicted) would lead to her having sex with a stranger, who then steals the special hammer thing she found. Also I believe a connection was implied between the disappearance of the writing in Grieves' notebook and the disappearances of people in town. I would still like to think that he is the Magic Man, but again that would be too obvious.
Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
Since this post is late I'm including the Sunday finale along with Thursday's episode. Colby yelling at his brother during the reward challenge was funny. I guess for once he had someone else to blame for his poor challenge performances. And Russell's anger at not being chosen to come along on the reward can probably just be attributed to his arrogance, because his rationale made no sense to me: "Terrible strategic move, she should have brought a guy!" Um, okay. As this season has progressed, Russell has become more and more of a tyrant who throws tantrums whenever things don't go the way he wanted them to. I don't think he was as bad last season, and that's because he actually was in control the entire time. Seeing Parvati squeeze through two more tribal councils in the finale had me seriously worried that she would win after all, but luckily it went to Sandra. Hell, I would've been okay with Russell winning too. As I said earlier, I was strongly against the idea of spoiled little Parv being rewarded the title of first Survivor to ever win twice. But of course that meant that at the reunion show we had to watch Russell and Parvati (mostly Russell) continue to insist upon their own greatness in spite of losing. Russ even went so far as to wave JT's letter around because "proving a former winner dumb makes me the greatest" and then proceeded to suggest that the game was flawed because it wasn't suited to stroking his ego. I thought he was furious last season, but that is some of the sorest losing I've ever seen. And I guarantee you he'll be back for the next all stars season.
Flash Forward
I'm wondering what Gabriel's motives are for wanting the events of flash forwards to play out as he saw them. I guess he just saw something he liked in one of them (Lloyd and Olivia's relationship, maybe?). I don't think Janis is going to kill Mark, and her refusal is why a team of men will be sent into Mark's office to do the job for her.
Parks and Recreation
I'd heard about Rob Lowe and Adam Scott joining the cast so I was interested to see how they would fit in. I liked Lowe's thing where he points at someone, says their name, and then holds for a long pause because it is a believable little quirk that I could see someone having. And Scott's backstory about being an irresponsible 18 year-old mayor was also a good gag, but mainly I like the potential storyline that these two have opened up: cutbacks in the parks department. Not that I necessarily want that to happen - or that I don't enjoy Ron Swanson's giggly delight over it - I'm just interested to see where it leads. Also Jean Ralphio trying to hit on April in front of Andy is not cool.
The Office
The montage of Dwight doing painful things to his groin to make himself sterile was fun, and the acting out of lining up Toby with Hitler and Bin Laden and shooting them all through the throat with one bullet, but overall this episode wasn't that memorable.
30 Rock
I'm starting to think that Jack likes Avery more than Nancy, firstly because he is a man of expensive and classy tastes and she's high society, and secondly because Elizabeth Banks is probably a more readily available guest star than Julianne Moore. Tracy's horrible childhood memories were the highlight of the episode though. "Our basketball hoop was a RIBCAGE!"
Fringe
Damn, I love this show. Starting in the alternate universe and then having a slightly different title sequence (like the 80's one in "Peter") was awesome. Wouldn't it be a really cool and unprecedented thing if there were a spinoff show airing at the same time, only the episodes were slightly different to reflect the two universes? Anyway, back to the episode. Rounding up some other Cortexiphan subjects made the group more like a superhero team, which would've been awesome because Peter looked like a supervillain in that trippy drawing where his eyes were smoking. I am so ready for part 2 of this episode.
Hero of the Week: Sandra from Survivor, because I was hoping she would win, and she did, and to top it off she threw Russell's trademark hat into the fire. You can say all you want about Russell and/or Parvati playing a better game than her, but Sandra used the exact same under the radar strategy as she used the first time, and it worked twice so she's gotta be doing something right.
Douchebag of the Week: Russell from Survivor, because his childish and arrogant behaviour at the reunion was rude and uncalled for. You'll never win with that strategy, so stop calling yourself the greatest Survivor of all time!
Lost
I don't know if I would say I disliked this episode, but I was disappointed because, being about Jacob and the Man in Black, I was expecting it to be the mother of all episodes. It did have its share of revelations, of course, but as always it also created more questions that we probably didn't need seeing as how there are only two episodes left. And, dammit, I was so sure the Man in Black would have a name! Even he didn't ask what his own name was!
Glee
So Puck gets his Mohawk shaved off into a very respectable buzzcut and suddenly he's such a loser that nerds get away with throwing him in the dumpster? This is why I hate it when adults try to write about high school. They either have no clue how it works or take way too many liberties with what they do know. That being said, I did enjoy Brittany asking "Who is that guy?" when he walked into the room.
V
That was actually a tense scene when Lisa had to point out her "attacker" from the lineup. I get why she went with Anna's plan though. She needs to make her think she's still with her, and being Anna's enemy is much scarier than being Erica's.
Happy Town
Well, I like that this show takes crazy turns. I would not have guessed that having a bird crash through Henley's windshield (which I also couldn't have predicted) would lead to her having sex with a stranger, who then steals the special hammer thing she found. Also I believe a connection was implied between the disappearance of the writing in Grieves' notebook and the disappearances of people in town. I would still like to think that he is the Magic Man, but again that would be too obvious.
Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
Since this post is late I'm including the Sunday finale along with Thursday's episode. Colby yelling at his brother during the reward challenge was funny. I guess for once he had someone else to blame for his poor challenge performances. And Russell's anger at not being chosen to come along on the reward can probably just be attributed to his arrogance, because his rationale made no sense to me: "Terrible strategic move, she should have brought a guy!" Um, okay. As this season has progressed, Russell has become more and more of a tyrant who throws tantrums whenever things don't go the way he wanted them to. I don't think he was as bad last season, and that's because he actually was in control the entire time. Seeing Parvati squeeze through two more tribal councils in the finale had me seriously worried that she would win after all, but luckily it went to Sandra. Hell, I would've been okay with Russell winning too. As I said earlier, I was strongly against the idea of spoiled little Parv being rewarded the title of first Survivor to ever win twice. But of course that meant that at the reunion show we had to watch Russell and Parvati (mostly Russell) continue to insist upon their own greatness in spite of losing. Russ even went so far as to wave JT's letter around because "proving a former winner dumb makes me the greatest" and then proceeded to suggest that the game was flawed because it wasn't suited to stroking his ego. I thought he was furious last season, but that is some of the sorest losing I've ever seen. And I guarantee you he'll be back for the next all stars season.
Flash Forward
I'm wondering what Gabriel's motives are for wanting the events of flash forwards to play out as he saw them. I guess he just saw something he liked in one of them (Lloyd and Olivia's relationship, maybe?). I don't think Janis is going to kill Mark, and her refusal is why a team of men will be sent into Mark's office to do the job for her.
Parks and Recreation
I'd heard about Rob Lowe and Adam Scott joining the cast so I was interested to see how they would fit in. I liked Lowe's thing where he points at someone, says their name, and then holds for a long pause because it is a believable little quirk that I could see someone having. And Scott's backstory about being an irresponsible 18 year-old mayor was also a good gag, but mainly I like the potential storyline that these two have opened up: cutbacks in the parks department. Not that I necessarily want that to happen - or that I don't enjoy Ron Swanson's giggly delight over it - I'm just interested to see where it leads. Also Jean Ralphio trying to hit on April in front of Andy is not cool.
The Office
The montage of Dwight doing painful things to his groin to make himself sterile was fun, and the acting out of lining up Toby with Hitler and Bin Laden and shooting them all through the throat with one bullet, but overall this episode wasn't that memorable.
30 Rock
I'm starting to think that Jack likes Avery more than Nancy, firstly because he is a man of expensive and classy tastes and she's high society, and secondly because Elizabeth Banks is probably a more readily available guest star than Julianne Moore. Tracy's horrible childhood memories were the highlight of the episode though. "Our basketball hoop was a RIBCAGE!"
Fringe
Damn, I love this show. Starting in the alternate universe and then having a slightly different title sequence (like the 80's one in "Peter") was awesome. Wouldn't it be a really cool and unprecedented thing if there were a spinoff show airing at the same time, only the episodes were slightly different to reflect the two universes? Anyway, back to the episode. Rounding up some other Cortexiphan subjects made the group more like a superhero team, which would've been awesome because Peter looked like a supervillain in that trippy drawing where his eyes were smoking. I am so ready for part 2 of this episode.
Hero of the Week: Sandra from Survivor, because I was hoping she would win, and she did, and to top it off she threw Russell's trademark hat into the fire. You can say all you want about Russell and/or Parvati playing a better game than her, but Sandra used the exact same under the radar strategy as she used the first time, and it worked twice so she's gotta be doing something right.
Douchebag of the Week: Russell from Survivor, because his childish and arrogant behaviour at the reunion was rude and uncalled for. You'll never win with that strategy, so stop calling yourself the greatest Survivor of all time!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Impressions before seeing it
Terry Gilliam is one of the most interesting directors in the business, and I love me some fantasy film.
How was it?
In a traveling stage show, Doctor Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) and his crew invite customers inside their magic mirror, where they can visit the worlds of their own imaginations and then sell their soul to either the doc or the devil (Mr. Nick, played by Tom Waits), who are competing for souls. They are lucky that Heath Ledger completed the scenes that he did before his untimely death, because it actually became more of a convenience than an inconvenience. Heath finished all of the "real world" scenes, so he only becomes one of the other three actors (Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell) after going inside the mirror, where imagination is allowed to change a face, so there was no awkward inconsistency that made Heath's death noticeable.
As for the movie itself, it has the kinds of things you can expect from Terry Gilliam: rich, imaginative visuals, some dark and twisted humour, and an underlying feeling that not everyone is going to like it. I did, though. The story was fun, and while Gilliam has admitted in the past that he is not the best at character creation, I think he did a fine job here; the personalities feel a little more fleshed out than in some of his earlier works.
Recommendation
You'll probably enjoy it if you are a fan of Terry Gilliam's films. It may even be one of his best. I've heard complaints that it is confusing and disorganized, but personally I did not find that to be the case.
The Bothersome Man
Impressions before seeing it
Never heard of it (I believe it's from Norway), but I was browsing around on Amazon one day and it sounded interesting, so I ordered it.
How was it?
I'm a big fan of things where something weird is going on but you don't know what that is until it's gradually revealed to you over time. The Bothersome Man started out like one of those movies, but by the end I still wasn't sure what I'd seen. When I looked around online, many said that the place Andreas is taken to is purgatory, but I didn't get that at all as I watched. Possibly because I'm a moron and nobody in the movie directly said it.
There are things that would certainly fit with that theory though, but since it's not mine I'll just talk about what I got from it. The opening scene actually tells us a lot about this weird city in the movie: a couple is making out on a train platform, but it somehow manages to be both passionate (open-mouthed) and strangely robotic because their eyes are open and their movements are mechanical. This is what the people there are like, they're like the aliens on V, not caring about each other but going through some of the motions because they know they should. Andreas watches the couple make out and then jumps in front of an oncoming train. When we see this scene again later, we know why: he can't get real love here. His first lover is so distant and stiff that when he breaks up with her, her only reaction is to complain that they have guests coming on Saturday. His second lover seems warmer but turns out to be seeing several other men at the same time and is unable to determine whether she likes any of them (including Andreas) better than the others. This world is also filled with a lot of dull colours (especially grey) and characters complain that food has no taste. But at the same time there doesn't seem to be any crime or unpleasantness. Like purgatory, it's not awesome and it's not horrible, it's just "meh". My reading was that it might have been about communism or conformism, especially considering where Andreas' actions lead him in the end (sorry, no spoilers).
Recommendation
If it was meant to be a purgatory film then I'm not satisfied with the ending, but if it's something else then I am. But I enjoyed the experience anyway. Check it out if you like movies that keep you guessing and make you think.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
This Week in Television - May 3-7, 2010
Lost
This week's episode of Lost was dark and sad, giving us three (possibly four) major character deaths, some injuries, and a Locke sob story in the flash-sideways universe. I have a possible theory that the Man in Black cannot become the smoke monster when he is wet, because after getting out of the water he pulled out a gun and shot those dudes instead of giving them the Mr. Eko treatment. Sawyer should've listened to Jack and left the bomb alone. If Richard had been there, he probably would have agreed given his dynamite experience with Jack at the Black Rock.
Glee
Whenever Mr. Schuester performs rap songs, they stand out as trying way too hard to be cool and appeal to a certain audience (namely the audience that wouldn't be caught dead watching Glee in the first place), so yeah, that never works. And obviously neither did Kurt and company's pathetic attempts at being bad, but at least that part was intended not to work. But scenes with Sue and her sister are always cute.
V
Chad Decker, you tool! I hope the Fifth Column deals with him. The best scene was Erica and Jack at the FBI station, where she was pretending to interrogate him. It's been done before, but I feel it is a step in the right direction toward the characters being cooler and more cunning.
Happy Town
Ok, so I was wrong about Sheriff Conroy killing the dude in the shack (surprised to see that answer revealed in the second episode), but at the moment I can still believe the rest of my theory to be true. It was highly ridiculous that Henley (Chloe?) was able to steal, mold, and copy a key in the amount of time that it took the old redhead to change her socks, but other parts of the episode were trippy and kind of cool, like the bird crashing through the car window at the end.
Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
Finally, Rupert and Colby made a smart move! Candice is still as much of a traitor as she always was, so I didn't mind seeing her go even though she was on the Heroes team. And even though I would've preferred Parvati gone, Danielle going home was also acceptable. And Sandra was the only villain I would've wanted to get the immunity idol, so that was good news too. Overall an episode that succeeded in not pissing me off in what has been an increasingly aggravating season.
Flash Forward
I kind of like Bryce and Nicole as a couple, if only because Nicole's clearly liked him for a while and Bryce only knows the Japanese girl from his flash forward. The second blackout better happen soon though, because I'm not sure Flash Forward will be around much longer.
Parks and Recreation
Being so unfamiliar with sports, I was unaware that Detlef Schrempf was a real person. His name was so hilarious-sounding that I thought it was made up. One thing I enjoy about Parks and Recreation is the various story ideas explored, especially in the second season. An episode about working the crappy late shift on a local cable access telethon was a fun one and a comedy goldmine. As awesome as Ron Swanson is, I wouldn't want to watch him caning a chair either.
The Office
We don't get Dwight pranks as often anymore, so it was nice to see one again this week. And it's always great when Darryl pranks someone because he has as much fun with it as Jim does (except when it backfired, as Andy turned out to be onto something and Darryl was suddenly involved in a serious matter). Also I saw it coming when Donna revealed she was married and Michael was the "mistress".
30 Rock
The two best lines in this episode: "...like a cantaloupe and a ziploc bag of mushroom soup" (Jack describing the difference between Jenna's mother's breasts); and "It's the daytime, idiot!" (Liz yelling at the moon with Buzz Aldrin).
Fringe
This week's episode was heavier on drama than it was on action or cool/weird sci-fi stuff, but I guess we needed one to see how Peter was doing on his end. "Walternate" is back! This could be cool, but I'm really, really hoping it doesn't lead to that cliche moment that happens every time there are clones or twins or imposters in a movie/TV show. You know what I mean: Both of them standing next to each other at gunpoint, going "Shoot him, I'm the real one!" "He's lying, shoot him!" I would hope that Fringe is above that.
Hero of the Week: Jack from Lost, because I cheered when he shoved Fake Locke into the water.
Douchebag of the Week: Chad from V, for being a traitor and putting his trust in Anna just because she claims to have cured him.
This week's episode of Lost was dark and sad, giving us three (possibly four) major character deaths, some injuries, and a Locke sob story in the flash-sideways universe. I have a possible theory that the Man in Black cannot become the smoke monster when he is wet, because after getting out of the water he pulled out a gun and shot those dudes instead of giving them the Mr. Eko treatment. Sawyer should've listened to Jack and left the bomb alone. If Richard had been there, he probably would have agreed given his dynamite experience with Jack at the Black Rock.
Glee
Whenever Mr. Schuester performs rap songs, they stand out as trying way too hard to be cool and appeal to a certain audience (namely the audience that wouldn't be caught dead watching Glee in the first place), so yeah, that never works. And obviously neither did Kurt and company's pathetic attempts at being bad, but at least that part was intended not to work. But scenes with Sue and her sister are always cute.
V
Chad Decker, you tool! I hope the Fifth Column deals with him. The best scene was Erica and Jack at the FBI station, where she was pretending to interrogate him. It's been done before, but I feel it is a step in the right direction toward the characters being cooler and more cunning.
Happy Town
Ok, so I was wrong about Sheriff Conroy killing the dude in the shack (surprised to see that answer revealed in the second episode), but at the moment I can still believe the rest of my theory to be true. It was highly ridiculous that Henley (Chloe?) was able to steal, mold, and copy a key in the amount of time that it took the old redhead to change her socks, but other parts of the episode were trippy and kind of cool, like the bird crashing through the car window at the end.
Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
Finally, Rupert and Colby made a smart move! Candice is still as much of a traitor as she always was, so I didn't mind seeing her go even though she was on the Heroes team. And even though I would've preferred Parvati gone, Danielle going home was also acceptable. And Sandra was the only villain I would've wanted to get the immunity idol, so that was good news too. Overall an episode that succeeded in not pissing me off in what has been an increasingly aggravating season.
Flash Forward
I kind of like Bryce and Nicole as a couple, if only because Nicole's clearly liked him for a while and Bryce only knows the Japanese girl from his flash forward. The second blackout better happen soon though, because I'm not sure Flash Forward will be around much longer.
Parks and Recreation
Being so unfamiliar with sports, I was unaware that Detlef Schrempf was a real person. His name was so hilarious-sounding that I thought it was made up. One thing I enjoy about Parks and Recreation is the various story ideas explored, especially in the second season. An episode about working the crappy late shift on a local cable access telethon was a fun one and a comedy goldmine. As awesome as Ron Swanson is, I wouldn't want to watch him caning a chair either.
The Office
We don't get Dwight pranks as often anymore, so it was nice to see one again this week. And it's always great when Darryl pranks someone because he has as much fun with it as Jim does (except when it backfired, as Andy turned out to be onto something and Darryl was suddenly involved in a serious matter). Also I saw it coming when Donna revealed she was married and Michael was the "mistress".
30 Rock
The two best lines in this episode: "...like a cantaloupe and a ziploc bag of mushroom soup" (Jack describing the difference between Jenna's mother's breasts); and "It's the daytime, idiot!" (Liz yelling at the moon with Buzz Aldrin).
Fringe
This week's episode was heavier on drama than it was on action or cool/weird sci-fi stuff, but I guess we needed one to see how Peter was doing on his end. "Walternate" is back! This could be cool, but I'm really, really hoping it doesn't lead to that cliche moment that happens every time there are clones or twins or imposters in a movie/TV show. You know what I mean: Both of them standing next to each other at gunpoint, going "Shoot him, I'm the real one!" "He's lying, shoot him!" I would hope that Fringe is above that.
Hero of the Week: Jack from Lost, because I cheered when he shoved Fake Locke into the water.
Douchebag of the Week: Chad from V, for being a traitor and putting his trust in Anna just because she claims to have cured him.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Fireball
Impressions before seeing it
Virtually none, because I'd never heard of it. It was a TV movie from 2009 that I found on TV recently.
How was it?
I don't know how it's possible, but parts of Fireball were great and parts of it were terrible. The movie is about a football player who goes to jail and then when the prison burns down, the steroids in his system react with the fire and he is suddenly able to shoot fireballs at will. Yes, that is one of the terrible parts. In fact any part of the movie that included that character was a big drag due to poor execution, cheesy directing, and bad acting by Aleks Paunovic.
The parts I really enjoyed, however, were the scenes between a fire inspector and a federal marshall (played by Lexa Doig and Ian Somerhalder, respectively) who are trying to chase down the flame-wielding criminal. They played off each other with a lot of fun, witty banter and I felt like their characters were fairly well developed and likable. I usually hate detective shows but I would totally watch a spin-off series about these two solving crimes. Needless to say, I was puzzled that these scenes could be so well written while the Tyler Draven (the criminal) scenes were so cringe-worthy.
Recommendation
It's a shame that there has to be some bad taken with the good, so I'm not sure I can recommend it unless you are one of those people who is okay with turning off your brain to avoid criticizing movie faults. But it's worth a look if you enjoy character interactions.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
This Week in Television - Apr. 26-30, 2010
Glee
Yes, Glee, I get it: be proud of who you are and don't try to be something else. I suppose we're eventually going to get episodes about each individual character learning this lesson (Sue had it last week after her Madonna makeover), but it's getting redundant. The show already has an after school special feel at times, but they could at least offer different messages instead of firing back the same one all the time. But it was cool to see Kristin Chenoweth come back, and Sue's line to Kurt and Mercedes ("How do you two not have a show on Bravo?") was classic.
V
I don't buy that Chad was going to have an aneurysm. The V's used it to gain his trust, and it clearly worked because after his supposed healing he stopped trying to challenge Anna.
Happy Town
New series! Since I don't currently watch anything on Wednesdays (Lost and Glee were both moved to Tuesday), I decided to check it out. There were parts of it that didn't work for me (anything that took place in the high school and some of the domestic scenes), but I was intrigued enough by the weird and mysterious occurrences. I understand that it is hard to create characters audiences can immediately bond with in a pilot episode so I will give it more time, but at the moment there aren't any characters I can say I care about except for Merritt Grieves (Sam Neill) and Sheriff Conroy (M.C. Gainey), and that's only because they're the most interesting. Anyway, I'm going to propose a very early theory, but I sort of hope it is wrong because it would be too easy: Grieves is the magic man, but never actually does any of the killing himself. Sheriff Conroy is the one who killed the man in the cabin at the beginning, but he doesn't remember it because Grieves has some sort of mind control over him via his wedding band, which is why Sheriff went to chop his hand off during his hypnotic rant. However I have no clue what Chloe has to do with anything.
Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
This show is starting to piss me off. The Heroes continue to stupidly place their trust in the Villains and screw up seemingly solid plans, and as a result I worry more and more that Parvati might win again. As I've pretty much made clear already, I am wholeheartedly against this because becoming the first person to ever win Survivor twice would ultimately make her more arrogant than Russell Hantz and Richard Hatch (hey, same initials!) put together, and I just don't believe in rewarding someone with her personality for any reason, ever.
Flash Forward
So now Janis is a good guy after all? I guess I'll have to go along with it, she was cool and it was disappointing when she was supposedly a rat, but if she's going to be a double agent I don't understand why she can't tell, say, Mark, and get his cooperation to help deceive the people who are trying to deceive the FBI so that she can gain their trust for the CIA. LOL Olivia has a stalker.
Parks and Recreation
An episode about Ron, who hates meetings, having to do 93 meetings in one day (or "a blood-soaked, nightmarish hellscape", as he calls it) can do no wrong. It was also a good contrast to Leslie's enthusiastic reaction and then her having to pile them back onto him due to her emergency gazebo situation. Also funny seeing April's kind (and wholesomely corny) parents and her clone-like sister.
The Office
I was with Pam in that Donna was interested in Michael, but only because of their interactions in a previous episode (where Michael became "Date Mike"). Had this been her first appearance I would have assumed otherwise. Jim and Pam aren't as likable when they're disagreeing with each other, but it does make the relationship more real.
30 Rock
I remember when I said the most disturbing 30 Rock ending was Frank dressed as Liz and kissing her cheek as she drooled uncontrollably, but this one may have topped it by having Jenna make out with her own impersonator. Also enjoyed Liz being "married" to Don Geiss's peacock, because it worked as a character joke pertaining to her continuing relationship misfortune.
Fringe
This week's episode was heavily advertised as being "the musical episode", but I would hardly call it as such seeing as how there are only about 3 or 4 quick moments where a character sings a few bars of a song, and then stops. Nothing in the entire episode would actually qualify as being a musical number. But since there was instrumental music in the background for most of the episode, I guess they thought they could get away with that label. Aside from that it was kind of interesting, using a film noir style for Walter's fairy tale and having things parallel the events from the series's actual plotline. But overall it was a very unnecessary episode.
Hero of the Week: Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation, simply for uttering the words "blood-soaked, nightmarish hellscape", because that is the awesomest phrase ever used to describe something mundane.
Douchebag of the Week: Parvati from Survivor for the hat trick. She didn't really do anything this week, but there were no other candidates and I just plain despise her. I was hoping she'd go before Amanda.
Yes, Glee, I get it: be proud of who you are and don't try to be something else. I suppose we're eventually going to get episodes about each individual character learning this lesson (Sue had it last week after her Madonna makeover), but it's getting redundant. The show already has an after school special feel at times, but they could at least offer different messages instead of firing back the same one all the time. But it was cool to see Kristin Chenoweth come back, and Sue's line to Kurt and Mercedes ("How do you two not have a show on Bravo?") was classic.
V
I don't buy that Chad was going to have an aneurysm. The V's used it to gain his trust, and it clearly worked because after his supposed healing he stopped trying to challenge Anna.
Happy Town
New series! Since I don't currently watch anything on Wednesdays (Lost and Glee were both moved to Tuesday), I decided to check it out. There were parts of it that didn't work for me (anything that took place in the high school and some of the domestic scenes), but I was intrigued enough by the weird and mysterious occurrences. I understand that it is hard to create characters audiences can immediately bond with in a pilot episode so I will give it more time, but at the moment there aren't any characters I can say I care about except for Merritt Grieves (Sam Neill) and Sheriff Conroy (M.C. Gainey), and that's only because they're the most interesting. Anyway, I'm going to propose a very early theory, but I sort of hope it is wrong because it would be too easy: Grieves is the magic man, but never actually does any of the killing himself. Sheriff Conroy is the one who killed the man in the cabin at the beginning, but he doesn't remember it because Grieves has some sort of mind control over him via his wedding band, which is why Sheriff went to chop his hand off during his hypnotic rant. However I have no clue what Chloe has to do with anything.
Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
This show is starting to piss me off. The Heroes continue to stupidly place their trust in the Villains and screw up seemingly solid plans, and as a result I worry more and more that Parvati might win again. As I've pretty much made clear already, I am wholeheartedly against this because becoming the first person to ever win Survivor twice would ultimately make her more arrogant than Russell Hantz and Richard Hatch (hey, same initials!) put together, and I just don't believe in rewarding someone with her personality for any reason, ever.
Flash Forward
So now Janis is a good guy after all? I guess I'll have to go along with it, she was cool and it was disappointing when she was supposedly a rat, but if she's going to be a double agent I don't understand why she can't tell, say, Mark, and get his cooperation to help deceive the people who are trying to deceive the FBI so that she can gain their trust for the CIA. LOL Olivia has a stalker.
Parks and Recreation
An episode about Ron, who hates meetings, having to do 93 meetings in one day (or "a blood-soaked, nightmarish hellscape", as he calls it) can do no wrong. It was also a good contrast to Leslie's enthusiastic reaction and then her having to pile them back onto him due to her emergency gazebo situation. Also funny seeing April's kind (and wholesomely corny) parents and her clone-like sister.
The Office
I was with Pam in that Donna was interested in Michael, but only because of their interactions in a previous episode (where Michael became "Date Mike"). Had this been her first appearance I would have assumed otherwise. Jim and Pam aren't as likable when they're disagreeing with each other, but it does make the relationship more real.
30 Rock
I remember when I said the most disturbing 30 Rock ending was Frank dressed as Liz and kissing her cheek as she drooled uncontrollably, but this one may have topped it by having Jenna make out with her own impersonator. Also enjoyed Liz being "married" to Don Geiss's peacock, because it worked as a character joke pertaining to her continuing relationship misfortune.
Fringe
This week's episode was heavily advertised as being "the musical episode", but I would hardly call it as such seeing as how there are only about 3 or 4 quick moments where a character sings a few bars of a song, and then stops. Nothing in the entire episode would actually qualify as being a musical number. But since there was instrumental music in the background for most of the episode, I guess they thought they could get away with that label. Aside from that it was kind of interesting, using a film noir style for Walter's fairy tale and having things parallel the events from the series's actual plotline. But overall it was a very unnecessary episode.
Hero of the Week: Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation, simply for uttering the words "blood-soaked, nightmarish hellscape", because that is the awesomest phrase ever used to describe something mundane.
Douchebag of the Week: Parvati from Survivor for the hat trick. She didn't really do anything this week, but there were no other candidates and I just plain despise her. I was hoping she'd go before Amanda.
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