This Week in Television - Apr. 19-23, 2010

Lost
This episode felt a little like filler so I don't know what to say here, but I like that everyone is gradually coming together in the flash-sideways timeline, and that on the island an escape attempt is happening that kind of echoes the first time the Oceanic 6 left. Jack even jumped out of the boat the exact same way that Sawyer jumped out of the helicopter.

Glee
Ok, so first of all I abhor "makeovers" because they're so offensive to the subject involved and they end up turning that person into someone fake, and secondly when Sue was made over to look like Madonna and star in a music video reshoot of "Vogue", my reaction was just "WTF...?" Actually my first reaction was to laugh, but as it went on I just felt that it was so oddly out of place (and with production values impossibly high for a crappy high school video project). As awesome as Sue is, and as nice as it was that they were able to make use of Jane Lynch's pre-existing singing abilities, and even given her supposed obsession with Madonna that only surfaced this very episode, it just felt too widely out of character for Sue Sylvester to participate in something that borders on glee club territory, which she so passionately hates. Also Brittany's dumb lines are classic: "When I pulled my hamstring, I went to a misogynist." Not just what she says but the way she always says these lines quietly, as if she knows it's stupid but is saying it anyway.

V
I'm still having trouble buying Tyler and Lisa's "love" because I haven't really seen anything between them that I found touching. Mostly they probably just find each other attractive because that's about all I can see right now. Shouldn't Anna have Joshua take the empathy test too? I realize that the writers probably need him and all, but it's not really like Anna to overlook that kind of thing. And Valerie's neglecting to at least ask Ryan questions about the thing growing INSIDE HER is creating the same problem that I had with The Thing's wife in the Fantastic Four movie. It makes it hard for me to sympathize with Ryan if he loses her.

Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
Goddammit, I can't stand Parvati. I mean, yes, she made a very smart move, but she spent most of the episode (and basically the season, too) bragging about how amazing she is, calling herself the queen of the game, and complaining that nobody came to talk to her when the tribes merged. I don't care how brilliant a player you are, that just spells spoiled brat. At least Jeff Probst called her out on it at tribal council. I'm disappointed that a Hero went home, but I'm glad it was JT because he deserves it after his extreme stupidity set all of this in motion. Also props to Rupert for finally catching on to what's really going on, although he is an episode too late.

Flash Forward
I just about died laughing when, for some reason, they decided to throw in an old gag from The Simpsons and have Demetri's photo get shot instead of Demetri himself. I'm not sure if it was meant to be humourous or not, but either way it was an odd thing to put into a tense moment in a drama show.

The Office
Kevin as Cookie Monster was even better than the time he made the Kool-Aid Jug face. Erin's reaction to the bad news at lunch was also hilarious thanks to Ellie Kemper's performance.

30 Rock
Double episodes this week! I wish our Canadian channels wouldn't "hijack" the American networks, because even though my satellite was tuned to NBC, I was watching 30 Rock on CityTV, and they pasted an annoying promo over some subtitles in one scene so I probably missed a joke. Loved the randomness of Tracy attempting to bring his wife a sandwich but ending up at a strip club instead. Apparently the second episode with the janitors was meant to be a parody of the Conan/Leno situation, but since that was resolved months ago it literally went over my head. Looking back on it now when there was discussion of 10:00 and 11:30 shifts and one of them had a name similar to Conan (Khonani), I feel stupid for missing it. But that being said, the episode was still funny without that extra layer. Like Jack, I'm not sure if I prefer Nancy or Avery either.

Fringe
Oh, okay, so Mrs. Bishop was the reason Walter couldn't tell Peter. I'm not sure if they'd mentioned in a previous episode that she committed suicide. But I like that they went with Peter figuring it out on his own during the universe fluctuation bridge exchange thing. Makes it more interesting than Walter or Olivia flat out telling him.

Hero of the Week: Jack Donaghy from 30 Rock wins for his second time, because both of his dates are so cool that he spent two episodes agonizing over which one to choose and still hasn't picked one. I feel your pain, brotha.

Douchebag of the Week: Parvati from Survivor, also for the second time. It would have been hilarious if she'd given her two idols to Jerri and Sandra and then the Heroes voted for Parvati anyway, but alas that did not happen, and now I'm going to have to hear her boast about being "the queen" again next week. *Facepalm.*

Cold Souls

Impressions before seeing it
It sounded interesting because I'd heard it was about somebody stealing Paul Giamatti's soul. I'm always up for new ideas so I was excited to see it.

How was it?
So Cold Souls has Paul Giamatti (playing himself) wanting to "unburden" himself so that he can perform in a play, so he extracts and stores his soul. Craziness ensues. I didn't realize it was a comedy going in (I was thinking smart and creative, which it also is), but I laughed a few times and that just added to my enjoyment.

But what I loved about Cold Souls is its exploration of what a soul is. The most telling scenes, I think, are when Paul is soulless, because then we can identify what a soul is by looking at what it's not, and what it's like when it isn't there. Without a soul, Paul seems almost void of emotion, passion, social skills - things that separate us humans from, say, androids. Then he rents out the soul of a Russian poet and an engorged amount of passion seeps into his acting. But he's still not himself. The differences in the versions of Paul tend to be subtle, but very well played by Giamatti (the entire cast is quite strong, in fact). The guy at the soul company (played by David Straithairn) describes the soul as being "like an organ", but not many organs affect one's personality. Maybe it was more for the benefit of the way souls are removed and are physically tangible. I would be curious to watch a commentary on this to see the writer's thoughts on souls and how much of Paul, while playing himself, is fictitious in the movie.

Recommendation
Cold Souls is almost like a companion movie to Being John Malkovich, or perhaps even the opposite in terms of concept. They're both smart, original, and wildly fascinating - three things I love in a movie. If you enjoyed one, definitely see the other.

This Week in Television - Apr. 12-16, 2010

Lost
It was kind of nice that Hurley and Libby finally got their picnic date. Good for them. I suppose love is going to bring the two timelines together. Unless you're Locke, in which case it's being run down by Desmond. My theory is that he was trying to kill him so that Locke would be dead in both timelines for synchronization purposes, but it could also be that he only wanted to injure him to force him into getting fixed by Jack, or that he wanted revenge for being tossed down the well. I really don't know which one. P.S. Hurley's mom is always funny.

Glee
Sue is back and dishing out more insults about Schuester's hair. I like it. But I found it weird that Schuester would make out with the coach from Vocal Adrenaline while dating Emma when he wouldn't do anything with Emma while still with his wife. I guess he's just more of a horndog than I thought. Speaking of horndogs, Finn's three-way date with Brittany and Santana was kind of funny. As opposed to "Schue", I did buy that Finn would ditch Rachel for them because he's already made it clear that he thinks with his groin as per his intentions with Quinn at the beginning of the series.

V
Hmm, I think V may be slowly becoming a better show than Flash Forward. It started off slowly but now it's got my interest again, and I think this is because they apparently have a new executive producer behind the show. I do think they need to work on characters though, because I can't say I like most of them, or even know most of them well enough. But Chad Decker was cool this week when I was previously indifferent to him, because he finally had Anna by the balls and made her sweat a little. I'm also interested to see the Anna egg-birthing story play out. And I hope there is a better reason for Tyler finding out his father isn't his father than just to create drama and tension between him and Erica. Because that would only work if I liked Tyler.

Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
I want to root for the Heroes tribe, but they make it hard when they pull stupid stunts like giving Russell an idol. Was it really so important to save him from a supposed women's alliance that an extremely risky move was appropriate? It would have been easier and more practical to just try and convince someone to flip once the merge happens - especially with the idol in hand, which they could have used to their advantage to win over a 5-5 vote. And even if they don't know Russell's game being that his season was too recent, they should have figured that he was on the Villains tribe for a reason and therefore was probably not trustworthy. Now Russell and Parvati both have idols. Ugh.

Flash Forward
Oh snap, Demetri is Janis's baby daddy! Oh snap, Lloyd and Olivia are hooking up! Oh snap, Aaron gets guns and FBI assistance to rescue Tracy! Oh snap, D. Gibbons kidnapped Demetri before his wedding! Nah, it wasn't really that exciting. I'm going to keep watching but I don't expect Flash Forward to return for a second season, it looks like the ratings have been steadily declining each episode.

Fringe
Peter Weller is looking old. This was a cool episode though - I enjoyed the time travel resets and the subtle differences between the multiple viewings of scenes. I'm not really sure why Peter would be so mad at Walter though if he found out he was from the other side.

Hero of the Week: Alistair Peck (Peter Weller) from Fringe, for doing the right thing in the end, and because all of the crazy machinery beneath his flesh was almost like a throwback to Robocop. Almost.

Douchebag of the Week: I'm not sure whether to be more angry at JT from Survivor for suggesting such a horrible plan, or the rest of the Heroes tribe for agreeing to it, so I'm giving the Douchebag award to the entire Heroes tribe, including JT. And with that the Heroes tribe become the first television characters to be both Hero of the Week and Douchebag of the Week.

Road to Perdition

Impressions before seeing it
Tom Hanks as a fedora-wearing hitman? Sounds cool.

How was it?
First off, and I know this may be a tad ludicrous, but I was distracted by the casting of Michael Sullivan's (Tom Hanks) oldest son. When two actors are cast as relatives, I always think about whether they look alike and if I could believe that they share the same genes. This kid doesn't look a thing like Tom Hanks. However, he does look like Ray Liotta, to the point where I kept expecting (wishing, even) for Ray Liotta to appear and say he had sex with Sullivan's wife just so I wouldn't have to complain about the casting.

But apart from that it was a decent film. I was under the impression that Hanks would be playing a villain, but in spite of being a hitman he was still a good guy. I was looking forward to that because I don't think he's ever played a villain (unless The Ladykillers counts, but I don't think many people want to remember that one.)

I didn't really find it exciting though. I liked it, but for a movie about a man and his son fleeing for their lives I didn't feel the sense of urgency. Not sure why (maybe it was Little Liotta). Really liked the ending though, as disturbing as it was.

Recommendation
Now that you've read this, you might get distracted by the Ray Liotta resembance, too. Try to watch it for the well made movie that it is.

This Week in Television - Apr. 5-9, 2010

Lost
I like Desmond and it was nice that this episode touched on the importance of love, but being that it took place almost entirely in the alternate timeline, it didn't move the story along that much so I don't really know what to say about it. I did like the eerie scene where Charlie and Desmond replicated the season 3 finale moment in the Looking Glass station. I think Charlie knew what he was doing, he had that look on his face.

V
This was probably the best episode so far, which isn't really saying a lot but I hope the show continues to improve. But I don't understand why Ryan thinks he can hide an alien baby from his woman when it's inside her stomach. You might as well tell her now, dude, because she's going to notice when it comes out of her. Anyway, it looks like the war is slowly getting on its way, and that's what made this episode good. It was cool of Georgie to sacrifice himself. He shouldn't have gone to the ship in the first place, although if he hadn't then Ryan would've gotten busted. But then Ryan shouldn't have been constantly looking around him every second he was on the ship, because that was idiotically conspicuous. Is this show full of idiots? I mean Valerie almost ate a rat and she didn't even wonder why. In spite of my complaining I don't mind this show, but I don't think I've seen anyone make any brilliant choices yet.

Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
Amanda and Sandra were the stars of this week's episode. Amanda because she caught JT redhanded with the immunity idol and won the bowling challenge for the Heroes, and Sandra because she brilliantly ran the show by running Russell in order to give Coach the boot. Dragonslayer slayed! But I hope the Heroes will put a stop to JT - if next week's preview is any indication, I smell a future Douchebag of the Week!

Flash Forward
This episode was alright, but the ending with Janis turning out to be a mole seemed like it was in there for shock value and not because it would make any sense. When you put in a plot twist, it's supposed to be logical but not predictable. This one was unpredictable, but only because there was no precedent for it - in other words, it's not something where you could look back at previous episodes and notice that they have been hinting at it all along, because they haven't been.

Fringe
Another movie inside joke this week, with Diane Kruger guest-starring and dropping the name "Gorlami" for the Inglourious Basterds fans. Nice to see Walter making taffy after a short hiatus from food obsessions.

Hero of the Week: Desmond from Lost, because every time the universe tries to keep him away from Penny, he defies time and space to get her back again.

Douchebag of the Week: Let's say Ryan from V. He can be a cool character, but this week he was dumb.

Amos & Andrew

Impressions before seeing it
Would never have heard of it if my buddy Corey hadn't mentioned it to me. But it sounded funny, and how can you pass up an early film with Nicolas Cage and Samuel L. Jackson?

How was it?
Much of the comedy comes from everyone in this movie being a huge moron except for Amos and Andrew. It starts with some pre-9/11 racial profiling and escalates into a ridiculous hostage situation brought on by an egomaniac trying to preserve his reputation. But there are some clever bits, like some of the characters smearing dark disguise paint on their faces so that they end up being in "blackface" when going in to deal with Andrew at the beginning. And I guess the entire movie is a message about how stupid people can be when it comes to stereotyping and how quickly they jump to conclusions. But this was made in 1993 and as I hinted above, it might have been even more relevant had it been made in 2002 when racial profiling was all the rage. But it's a fun movie, and almost a hidden gem because not many people are probably aware that these two box office stars did a movie together back when they weren't as big as they are now.

Recommendation
It's a little fun and crazy and a time capsule for Cage and Jackson, and that makes it an interesting watch.

This Week in Television - Mar. 29-Apr. 2, 2010

Before I get to the shows, I just want to say one thing about the countdown timer for V that was in the corner for the entire duration of Lost. I know a lot of people were complaining that it was annoying and distracting, and while that is true, my biggest problem was the countdown itself. A countdown worked when they used it for the season 6 premiere of Lost, because Lost has become an epic show with a huge fanbase. V has neither of those things going for it, and so a countdown does not reflect viewer excitement and certainly isn't going to create any. All it did was piss off Lost fans.

Lost
I was actually kind of surprised when Widmore revealed his intentions were good. But I suppose it makes sense because, while he is often a dick, I do believe that he loves his daughter. It was interesting seeing Sun and Jin being much happier in a relationship that is a secret affair rather than a marriage. And it's been a while since we got an episode that has Keamy, Mikhail, and Desmond. So the man in black needs all 6 candidates before he can leave, because then there's no one left to replace Jacob. But he still doesn't realize Kate is a secret candidate, so all she has to do is sneak away from his group and he's boned. Last week's episode was a very tough act to follow, but this one was still cool.

V
The return episode this week was a little better than some of the previous ones, but I still haven't been able to drum up a ton of enthusiasm for this show. To be honest I'm actually more excited for the return of Glee than I was for V, and Glee is also somewhat near the bottom on the hierarchy of shows I enjoy. Elizabeth Mitchell's character is cool, but no one else is that interesting and her son is still a tool. Anyway, as for this week's episode, it was kind of painfully enjoyable to watch Erica trying to warn people about the V's but constantly having to backtrack and bite her tongue because of the V's keeping watch on her. And of course the disturbing ending where Anna devours her mate.

Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
I kind of thought the Rob vs. Russell battle would draw on longer than that. But like last week, the plan got screwed up by one person alone, and that one person was Coach, who felt he owed loyalty to both alliances so threw away his vote, thereby voting out Boston Rob without actually voting for him. And then Rob snubbed him on his way out. Nice. It's good for the rest of the tribe though, because whenever we're watching the Villains camp it's always the Rob, Russell, and Coach show and nobody else gets much screen time.

Flash Forward
The revelation here is not that Mark dies, because I don't entirely believe he will (all flash forwards take place at the same time, and Mark didn't die in his, although he may have been about to when the men with guns snuck in), but it looks like Demetri's new partner is responsible for those men, or is at least in on it. Maybe he's also the one to kill Demetri. And once again Flash Forward thinks it's Lost by throwing in something similar to a Dharma orientation video inside something similar to a hatch interior.

Fringe
This was one of the strongest episodes so far. While telling a story we sort of already knew, we got some cool revelations like how Nina Sharpe lost her arm, how Walter intended to bring Peter back but couldn't bear to, and we saw an Observer make a mistake. Also an amazing and touching performance from John Noble and an awesome inside joke about Back to the Future for the movie nerds. Yes, I think this has become my favourite episode so far.

Hero of the Week: Walter Bishop from Fringe. Because who else can jeopardize the fate of two universes and still be that awesome?

Douchebag of the Week: Coach from Survivor. I didn't really hate anyone this week, but Coach is always a douche and practically wrote it on his own forehead this week anyway. Also he gets the dishonour of being the first person to make Douchebag of the Week twice. Way to go, dick.