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“V: There Is No Normal Anymore" Means Trust No One

noreply@blogger.com (I Like to Watch TV) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:22:00 +0000

Photo from ABC

The second installment of ”V” “There Is No Normal Anymore” continues the story right where we left off in last week's “V” pilot episode. This is a refreshing change from shows that lately feel the need to go backwards or forwards in time in order to advance their story. At least for now, the present in “V” is all that is important. The main characters seemed well developed in the first episode, so it is actually very easy to jump right back into the story without being confused as to what is going on. But the show quickly establishes that mistrust and paranoia are going to be the order of things down the road.

This episode emphasizes for Agent Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell) and Father Jack Landry (Joel Gretsch) that they may not be able to trust anyone. When Erica decides to make an anonymous call to police to report the massacre in the warehouse, she finds that even a public telephone can’t be trusted when a flying object – the same kind that disrupted their meeting and killed many, hones and in them and chases them down. Erica manages to bat it down. She comes to the conclusion that since her work partner of 7 years - Dale - was one of them and operating right under her nose, she knows no one can be trusted. She tells Jack to go home and act as if nothing happened. (By the way, I was amused at the address number of the warehouse – 4400 – which seems like a tip of the hat to both Scott Peters, “V” writer, and Joel Gretsch, both who were involved in the series The 4400.)

Erica comes home and begs her son Tyler (Logan Huffman) not to get involved with the Vs. He promises her that he won't, but it’s actually too late, he’s already signed up to be one of their peace ambassadors. Later, though, V Lisa (Laura Vandervoort) tells him he’s now out because he and his friend Brandon (Jesse Wheeler) got into a fight with some people giving them a hard time, and Tyler punches one of them. But it seems that Tyler still has feelings for Lisa, which could be his undoing. I find Tyler's storyline the least compelling right now.

Ryan Nichols (Morris Chestnut) is still trying to figure out what to do since his girlfriend Valerie Holt (Lourdes Benedicto) found the engagement ring in the last episode. He also has to figure out how to fix that horrible gash he got at the warehouse which shows his lizard body underneath. He gives Val a line that he cut it on a file cabinet, and then hunts down someone at Al's Garage named Angelo Russo. The mechanic who is under a car says he's never heard of him, but Ryan knows it's him and yanks him out from under the car. Angelo is not happy to see Ryan, but he heard about the warehouse incident and brings out the equipment to fix him up. As he does so, he lectures Ryan and then seems to have drugged him, saying he can’t trust Ryan. Later, with Ryan coming to and running home, he finds Val is not there. Angelo calls him and tells him if he really loves her, he will stay away from her, and if he can find out about her, so can the Vs. When Val gets home later, she checks out Ryan’s wound which now just looks like a very long scratch. She notices a photo on the mantle is upside down, and underneath is a card with the name Cyrus and the address 51509 Gibbs Ave. He says it was some guy he used to know, and she seemed to buy it. Of course, since I am not sure who can be trusted, I find myself wondering if she already knows who that is.

While all this is going on, Erica and Jack find themselves being separately questioned by the FBI. Erica is questioned on her missing work partner Dale, and Jack about the dead man in the church (from the previous episode). When Jack cooperates and gives the pictures that the now dead man gave him, he is shocked to find that Erica works at the FBI. She is shocked to find out he is a priest. They argue over trust, and Jack thought that since Erica told him to pretend things didn’t happen that he was on his own. Bottom line is that Erica convinces her boss that Dale was involved with “terrorists” but doesn’t let on that he is a V. Erica later approaches Jack saying he is the only one she can trust, but he wants no involvement, saying he’s just a priest. But when he later hears the announcement that the US has agreed on diplomatic relations with the Vs, he says this made him sick, and now he seems to be back in. Erica, likely with the same feelings, tells him she stole a list of every person that has contacted the FBI about aliens. It’s a huge list, and they hope that they have some people on that list they can recruit to fight the Vs.

News anchor Chad Decker (Scott Wolf) decides that he isn’t going to play Anna’s (Morena Baccarin), the leader of the Vs, game. He has a television interview that seems to encourage opposing views to the Vs, but later, when confronted by Anna on the issue, he says that he actually helped her cause as more people are now on the side of the Vs and he thinks that they will now get the diplomatic recognition they want. And they do, likely giving Chad a feeling of a little more power in their relationship, but he’s just a little too self assured. I find myself wondering if he is just playing right into her hands, seeing that she thinks she understands human being so well.

Something about Jack’s pastor is creeping me out a bit, and I suspect he’s working for the other team, likely one of the Vs who has been on earth for years. He seems too supportive of the Vs and seems to be cautioning Jack a little too much.

Back on the V ship, Dale’s body is laying on a slab – and then comes back to life. No surprise here.

The “trust no one” theme is certainly not new, the phase being the centerpiece of The X-Files and linked with that series' main character, Fox Mulder. But with V, the audience may find themselves taking that philosophy to new heights, as, unless they cut into someone, it will be hard to tell if they are a V or human. Even then, as with the case of Ryan, some of the Vs are working on the side of humanity. It will be a guessing game for the viewers on who to trust, and right now, maybe with the exception of Jack, Erica, and her son Tyler, everyone is fair game. The main weakness for V is that it is a remake, and that they revealed fact that they have lizard bodies underneath their human skin, both which takes a lot of the mystery out of the series. The issue will be if they can make paranoia and trusting no one into a sustainable series. So far they are off to a good start. They will need a new twist in order to keep viewers intrigued and coming back, seeing that after the show’s 4 episode run, the series won’t be returning until after the 2010 Winter Olympics. Let’s hope they have enough of a cliffhanger to encourage fans to wait.

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House “Known Unknowns” A Weird Episode

noreply@blogger.com (I Like to Watch TV) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:32:00 +0000

Photo from Fox

After an absence due to the World Series, House (Fox) finally returns with an episode that can best be described as weird. The pacing was off, the storyline was off, the dialog was off, and the whole thing was just a mess.

The patient of the week was a young girl who becomes ill after managing to get into an after concert party with her friend. The day after the concert, she tells her other friends that she managed to hang out with one of the bad members, and when they notice her feet and hands swelling, she collapses. She finds herself in Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, where, as usual, they poke, prod, test and treat her to find out what is wrong. Coming up with the correct diagnosis is hard as her condition causes her to lie about everything. It’s a rather dull case that House will solve – later, of course, because that's the formula for this show. It’s a given that the patient is always just a backdrop for House’s own storylines and I am OK with that, but for some reason this patient didn’t seem to enhance the story at all.

Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) has plans for House (Hugh Laurie) to accompany him to a medical conference. House doesn’t want to go. When House gets to the hospital, he goes to see Dr. Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) who is in an unusually low cut top, and we get various shots of her cleavage, and her backside that is outfitted with a skintight skirt. We get the usual sexually demeaning comments from House, something that doesn’t seem to rattle Cuddy. The problem is, it should. This is one matter where I continue to voice my disappointment with the show, and their need to paint Cuddy as strictly a sexual object. They repeatedly do not show her the respect she should have for her role as the hospital’s head administrator. I would have less problem with it if they made Cuddy into a character who was a little stronger in presenting a positive image as a woman as a professional, not make her into someone whose main goal is to find a man , and who dresses not for work, but for a night of clubbing.

When House and Wilson go to leave, House finds out that Cuddy is also going to the conference, and he decides that he’ll attend after all. Of course, while agreeing to do so has to throw in another comment about her being some sort of trollop. I can’t recall if that was his exact word, but if not, you get the idea. Cuddy has to being her baby to the conference too, which I also thought was a little unrealistic but we will later find it is just a plot device. When House gets to the conference, he takes the ID of some other doctor. This will come in handy later.

Making matters worse, this medical conference – the complete contents outlined in a tiny 3-page pamphlet, very unrealistic for a real medical conference – has some sort of 1980’s themed party. House arrived dressed up for the 1780s. I guess it must be very easy for someone to get a costume like this on a moment’s notice, seeing that House wasn’t even planning to go to the conference to begin with. His appearance in costume would have been better had he actually dressed for the 1980s. Cuddy, of course, is dressed in provocative attire and she and House dance. We are then assaulted with horribly written dialog about their early times together, and I find that my mind is tuning out. These are two adult talking like they are teenagers at a high school dance, and it seemed rather forced. I found the whole scene silly.

Meanwhile, Drs. Chase (Jesse Spencer) and Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) are having marital problems. She thinks he’s cheating, we all know it’s because he killed Dibala a few episodes back. This actually could have been the more interesting story line of the episode but it only received very clichéd treatment of a couple having marital problems.

When Cuddy has babysitter problems, Wilson convinces House to help Cuddy baby sit her daughter. When he goes there to offer his services, she lies to him and tells him the baby is in day care. But, when cries from the baby come from inside Cuddy’s room, House enters and sees that Lucas (Michael Weston), the weird private investigator House previously hired, is there taking care of the baby. She needs someone who she can depend on, and Lucas seems to be that guy. I am unimpressed because I didn’t like the character of Lucas when he first showed up on this series, and think that Cuddy must really have issues if this is the best man she can get.

House, however, is very worried about Wilson when he finds out that Wilson is going to address the medical conference to talk about euthanasia – in favor of it and even admitting that he’s done it. Of course, House’s answer to this is to drug Wilson so Wilson can’t give the speech. Where did House get the drugs I wonder? Shouldn’t that be of some concern that an addict like him can still get his hands on something that can knock out Wilson?

House then gives Wilson’s speech under the name of the stolen doctor's ID. Wilson comes in at the tail end of it, finally waking up in time. Wilson is upset but House says he got Wilson’s ideas out there without Wilson actually having to risk his job and career to do so. What I find strange is that Wilson’s opinion about euthanasia seemed to just drop out of the sky. He’s always been someone who seems to be very open about his feeling about treating his patients, and it was odd that his feelings on this issue seemed to go unnoticed by his closest friends.

While House and Wilson argue about what House did, Wilson says a trigger word – there has to be a trigger word in every episode – that gives House the diagnosis for the patient of the week. She is, of course, diagnosed with vibrio vulnificus and hemochromatosis and then cured. I find that I could care less.

Afterwards, House and Wilson have lunch with Cuddy and Lucas, and Cuddy admits that she hired Lucas to investigate an accounting problem and one thing led to another. She says she kept the relationship secret, as she doesn't like to advertise her personal life. I am thinking that she sure loves to advertise her body, though, so what would be the big deal in talking about a relationship? I have come to the conclusion that Cuddy is messed up in the head. Lucas then starts running at the mouth, and for someone who is a PI he sure seems to be a little too chatty about personal things. It seems clear to me that the Cuddy is a poor judge of people and appears to have some self esteem problems. In her position in the hospital, one would think she would have professional contacts in her field that would make better candidates for a relationship than Lucas. With every passing episode, I feel like Cuddy is becoming more and more of a mess of a character and more insulting to women everywhere.

At the end of the episode, the only evidence of drama is when Chase admits to Cameron that he killed Dibala.

“Known Unknowns” was a bit of a train wreck, being a collision of a bad medical case, an “out of the blue” revelation about Wilson and euthanasia, Cuddy’s continued morphing into a bimbo, and House just being up to his old tricks. It was a shame that after having to wait so long for a new episode, that viewers had to sit through this episode, which seemed poorly conceived and poorly written. Viewers deserved better.

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Mad Men “Shut the Door, Have a Seat” A Smashing Finale

noreply@blogger.com (I Like to Watch TV) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:17:00 +0000

All photos from AMC

Mad Men (AMC) proves itself yet again as the best drama on television these days in the season finale, “Shut the Door, Have a Seat.” Everything this season has been building to this final episode, and it means big changes for the people at Sterling Cooper. It also means big changes in the lives of Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and his wife Betty (January Jones). Not only is Don’s marriage on the rocks, but he finds that Sterling Cooper is also on the rocks as well.

This episode not only means the reinvention of Sterling Cooper, but also a reinvention of Don and Betty’s lives. I laughed, however, when Don had the nerve to call Betty a whore, seeing that Don is probably the biggest whore in the history of television drama. It is clear that Don is a chauvinist and thinks that it’s OK for men to cheat and sleep around, but not women. Betty also knows of his past, and even with a divorce, she can wield a lot of power over him.

The episode also seems to be setting the stage for women having a stronger influence. Peggy doesn’t back down with Don when he seems to demand she join his cause, and one can only hope that his respect for what she does is genuine. It’s hard to tell with a salesman such as Don when he means something and when he is just saying it to get what he wants. I was amused when Roger asked her to get her coffee and she refused, much to his surprise.

It is also great to see Joan back, and it is clear that she’s probably the one who is really running the company. Sure, Lane knows the ins and outs of cash management, but Joan knows where all the proverbial bodies are buried. I hope that her value to the company eventually translates to a nice title with some real power.

In case you missed the episode, here’s what happened:

When the episode begins, it’s a few weeks before Christmas, 1963. Don is at home, waking up in Gene’s room. He arrives late to an appointment with Conrad Hilton (Chelcie Ross), who drops the bomb on Don that not only is Sterling Cooper being sold, but so is their parent company, Putnam, Powell, & Lowe. The company buying them is McCann-Erikson, and Don does not want to work at what he called a “sausage factory." Don is miffed that Hilton also seems to be cutting him loose because of that same fact, and thinks Hilton has been messing with him all along, especially by referring to Don as “son.” Hilton tells Don he was a self-made man, not a crybaby, and he though Don was the same. They shake hands and Hilton tells Don some other time they'll try again.

When Don walks into the Sterling Cooper offices, he sees a secretary crumpling up some paper, and has a flash back to when he was a boy and his father was complaining to his co-op about low crop prices. His father tells the co-op that he’s out.

Don tells Bert Cooper (Robert Morse) what he’s found out about the sale of PP&L, and even though Bert seems to have no desire to risk what he has, Don convinces him that the should buy Sterling Cooper themselves. They approach Roger Sterling (John Slattery) and tell him what’s going on. At first, Roger doesn’t seem to care, and Bert tells Roger that sold his birthright to marry that trollop. Needless to say, Roger is not impressed with their sales pitch, but Don admits he was wrong and that he does see the importance of account men, and he does value his relationship with Roger. Bert implies that when people leave their jobs because they’ve lost the appetite for it, they're dead shortly thereafter. Roger asks if this means join or die? Needless to say, he’s in.

But when Don gets back at home, Betty sends the kids to bed, and then tells Don she wants a divorce. He patronizes her, and she knows it. She says she isn’t the one who broke up the family.

Back at Sterling Cooper, Bert, Don, and Roger meet with Lane Pryce (Jared Harris) and they tell him what they know about McCann buying PP&L. They offer Lane the original purchase price plus 12%. But Lane basically laughs off their offer.

Meanwhile, Betty has taken Henry Francis (Christopher Stanley) to her meeting with her divorce lawyer, who tells her that New York doesn’t want people divorcing, that’s why everyone goes to Reno to do it. She has to go there and establish residency for 6 weeks, and after that it is a snap, Don only has to consent, he doesn’t have to go. When he asks what she wants as a settlement, she says to whatever she's entitled. But Henry says she doesn't need what Don can provide, but she reminds him of her children. Henry promises to take care of her and them and doesn't want her to owe Don anything.

Lane calls Lane calls St. John and tells him that people know about McCann buying Sterling Cooper, but is shocked with St. John confirms that McCann is buying PP&L. He also gets a jolt when St. John basically has included Lane with that deal. Lane thanks him in a controlled voice but then slams down the phone.

When Don gets home, he sees Sally sleeping in bed, and has a flashback to his childhood. His father is drunk and wants to go to Chicago to sell his crops. It’s raining with lightning, and young Dick Whitman takes a swig of booze from his father’s jug, making a face. But a horse is startled by the lighting, and kicks his father in the face, knocking him to the ground. He looks dead. Back in the present, Don looks back at Sally and climbs into her bed and puts his arm around her.

Back at Sterling Cooper, Don meets with Bert, Roger, and Lane. Lane doesn’t want to be involved in a conspiracy and says he should just fire them all. Don tells him to go ahead since that's all he did well here anyway, but Lane objects, saying he did a great many things at Sterling Cooper. Don has an idea; as Lane has absolute authority to fire anyone, he tells Lane to fire the three of them and vacate their contracts. Lane asks why would he do that, and Don reminds him that when Lane gets to McCann he'll get be thrown overboard like a corpse knocking against the hull. Lane comments that nothing good comes from seeking revenge, and Bert says they will make him a partner. Lane thinks he’s worth more than that, and Don is happy that Lane is showing he can negotiate and then says they will put his name on the door. When Roger seems to balk at that, Don asks if he knows how to do what Lane does? Bert says he doesn't know either, and with the look on Roger’s face it seems like Lane is in.

They outline their plan of attack. Lane says they will need accounts, and then says if he sends a telex to PP&L after noon New York time saying he’s sacked them all, it will be after the offices close in London and they won’t see it until Monday. Then can spend the weekend getting (stealing) accounts and all the other necessary support material. They raise their hands in agreement, and in doing so, Lane says they are now fired. Roger adds, "it's official, Friday Dec. 13, 1963, four guys shot their own legs off." They exit the office in a rush, Don telling his secretary that the office will be closed over the weekend for carpet cleaning, and yells for Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) to come into his office.

She comes in, thinking it’s about Western Union, but when Don clues her in to what is really going on, she’s a little miffed that he seems to think she will do whatever he says. She doesn’t bite, seemingly wanting Don to ask in a better fashion. He says he won’t beg, and she says she doesn’t want to make a career for being there just so he can kick her when he fails. She walks out.

Roger and Don head to Pete’s (Vincent Kartheiser) who wasn’t at work, he faked being sick. Roger and Don tell Pete what is going on and Pete wants to hear Don say why he wants him to come with them. Don says Pete is able to see what is coming better than they can. They say they will make him a partner, but when he asks for his name in the lobby, Don says there won’t be a lobby. Pete has files for about $8 million in accounts, and say Pete will be in if he can deliver all of them by Sunday. Pete is in.

Don and Roger share a drink at the bar, and when Don tells him he and Betty are divorcing, Roger mentions Henry Francis. Don has no idea who that is, and Roger tells him that Margaret is friends with Henry’s daughter and they know something is going on between Betty and Henry. Roger thought Don knew, and is apologizes to Don.

Don comes home, drunk, and asks a sleeping Betty who is Henry Francis. She plays dumb, but then they begin to fight loudly over it. She asks why he cares and he says it is because she's so good and everyone else is so bad. He accuses her that all the while she's been building a life raft. When she tells him to get out, Don says she got everything she ever wanted, she loved it and now he's not good enough for her, adding Betty won't get a nickel and he'll take the kids and they'll be better off. She counters that she's going to Reno and he's going to consent and to not threaten her, and adds she knows all about him. He grabs her and calls her a whore. When the baby starts to cry, Betty picks him up and says she wants Don out of the house.

The next day, Pete is in the elevator heading to the office and Harry (Rich Sommer) rushes in. Pete almost let on to Harry what is going on, assuming that Harry knew. But he didn’t, and when Harry arrives, he finds that unless he takes the offer to join them, they will have to lock him in the storage room until morning. When they realize that they don’t know where all the things are that they need to take with them, Roger says he’ll make a phone call. It seems he knows the perfect person to help.

Don, however, isn’t there, he is at home while he and Betty break the news of their father moving out. Sally take it very hard and runs off, Bobby grabs on to his dad for dear life. Betty is clearly rocked by the kids’ reactions. He then goes to Peggy’s place and uses his best sales skills to make Peggy feel valuable, and asks if she will help him. She smiles but seems upset, saying what if she says no, he'll never speak to her again. He hardens and says he won't spend the rest of his life trying to hire her. Needless to say, she is in.

Back at the office, it is controlled chaos when Joan (Christina Hendricks) arrives and whips everybody in to shape, as she knows where everything is and what needs to be gathered. Don has to kick in the door to the art department because no one has the key. While Roger is working, he asks Peggy to get him some coffee and she says no. As movers haul everything out, Don asks Joan to find him a furnished apartment. She is sorry, as she can deduce what is going on there. When Don and Roger look back at the office Roger asks him how long he thinks it will take them to work in a place like this again. Don responds that he never saw himself working in a place like this. When they leave, Don moves to lock the door and Roger tells him not to bother.

The next morning Allison (Alexa Alemanni) walks in to Don's office and seeing it look emptied and in disarray, screams they were robbed. Meanwhile, St. John calls Lane, who is in a happy mood, but St. John is having a complete meltdown for how much Lane has cost them, and fires him. Lane could care less.

The new company is set up in a hotel room, and Joan is reading out a set of operating rules. When the phone rings. Joan answers “Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Pryce.” But it’s only Harry, looking for their room number.

Back at the Sterling Cooper office, Allison is crying that Don left without saying goodbye, and Ken (Aaron Staton) adds that Pete tried to poach John Deere. He realizes he must have gone with Draper. Kinsey (Michael Gladis) gets a worried look and opens Peggy's office door and sees she's cleared out.

At the hotel, everyone is hard at work. Pete’s wife Trudy arrives with lunch and a cake and she seems pumped. When Don goes into the bedroom where Harry is working and tells him there is food, Harry races out, leaving Don alone in the room to call Betty. He tells her he is not sure where he will be staying but will be working out of the Pierre. He says he won’t fight her and hopes she gets what she always wanted. She says he will always be their father. They say their goodbyes and he walks back in to their new “office” where there is a lot of activity, and Lane has arrived.

We close as Betty is on a plane with the baby, and with Henry Francis, likely to Reno. Carla, meanwhile, is at the Draper home with Sally, Bobby, and the dog as they are glued to the TV. Don is walking up the steps to his new apartment in the city as the screen fades to black.

This was an excellent close to the season, all the storylines neatly wrapped up. Yet it left viewers with their interest piqued on when the show will pick up next season. Will Betty and Don already be divorced and Betty remarried? Will Sterling, Cooper, Draper & Price been on solid ground and will they be working out of a real office? Will Joan have duped that loser husband of hers, and will Roger still be happy with Jane? There are so many directions where this show can go, and I’m just sorry that viewers have to wait so long to find out!

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Fringe “Earthling” An Ashes to Ashes Mystery

noreply@blogger.com (I Like to Watch TV) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:45:00 +0000

Photos from Fox

The episode of Fringe (Fox) titled “Earthling” put the focus on Agent Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick) and gives the usually secretive mystery man a little back story. It seems that the case the Fringe team is called in to work on is a case that Broyles became so obsessed that it broke up his marriage. He got involved in these types of cases to keep his family safe, but Broyles admits that it actually drove his family away.

X-Files fans may recognize the near morphing of two X-Files storylines into one in “Earthling.” The first episode that comes to mind is the episode called “The Soft Light” where an experiment goes wrong and a scientist (played by Tony Shalhoub) is altered in a way that if his shadow touches someone, they turn to dust. The other X-Files episode was from their first season, “Space,” and was about an astronaut who, while in space, seems to have gained an alien presence in his body, one who seems to be sabotaging the space program. While there are many comparisons to X-Files, Fringe makes what seems like some of the same types of strange encounters seem fresh and new. I think a good part of that is the great cast of Fringe, specifically John Noble as the genius yet slightly mad scientist Walter Bishop.

In “Earthling,” random people are being killed by being turned into dust. We are shown a shadowy figure with the first killing, and when the body is discovered by the man’s wife, he begins to collapse into a pile of dust and ashes. This was an excellent special effect and I have to say that whoever created the bodies that were half formed and half ash did a fabulous job. And Walter (John Noble), upon examining the body, asks for a Dust Devil – lots of them. (He also gives us the tidbit of information that Peter used to draw genitalia on the Christmas reindeer decorations, and Peter give him that "too much information" look.) Broyles wants to know if they can find if the dead man spent any time in a hospital, as he’s seen this thing happen before. It was four years ago in Washington DC and five were dead.

Broyles takes Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson), Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) and Walter to a storage locker where he gives them information on his past case that included a strange chemical formula. He had received a call from an Eastern European man who said he'd tell them about the deaths if they could decode his formula. The scientists failed, but the killings later stopped. Olivia had found that the recent victim had visited Latchmere General the day before. Olivia and Broyles visit that hospital the next day, looking for an employee of Eastern European descent who also worked in Washington DC. Walter, meanwhile, is still working with the ash and finds it is not radioactive as it should be. He’s also working on the equation that Broyles had in his files.

Back at the hospital, the shadow seems to be on the loose, and we find he’s taken another person’s life when a fly lands on a patient and the slight pressure causes the patient to disintegrate into ash. The nurses saw no one in the room or the area. Olivia and Broyles find that there was a man who fits the description of an Eastern European who worked in DC, his name is Tomas Koslov (Ravil Isyanov), and he also didn't come in to work that day. They found a finger print, and also find electrical components, one with Cyrillic writing on it and later suspect this is a link to some sort of Russian fringe science.

While Broyles has his team working on the case, Broyles gets a call for a face to face with Senator Van Horne in DC, who tells him that the Russian government may be involved and that Koslov may have stolen something. But he also tells Boyles to back off the case. Of course, Broyles does not, and he tells Olivia to keep working on it but not put anything in writing. While they are talking on the phone, she sees the shadow image on the hospital surveillance camera. Walter suspects that Tomas may have stolen Russian technology that the Russians are trying to get back.

Later, Broyles gets a helpful, top secret file from the senator, who assumes that Broyles didn’t stop working in the case. It seems Koslov’s brother was a cosmonaut and has been in a coma since his return from space. We find that Koslov did not steal technology; he stole his brother, and inside his brother is an entity that he picked up while he was in space. The entity needs radiation to survive and of course there is plenty of that in hospitals. The first man in the episode was killed because he also had been flying in a plane the day before sitting in a window seat and received an extra dose of x-rays just from that activity.

Koslov drugs a nurse and gets his brother out of the hospital and into a hotel room, where he tries to contain the shadow being by charging his brother with electrical currents. It seems he needs more and more electricity in order to keep the shadow in, but that it is not enough. Broyles had left Koslov a voice mail message, and while Koslov returns Broyles' call (which is being traced), Broyles tells him that they know what is going on and they can help him. But when Koslov quits talking and the phone line remains open, viewers see that a fan lightly blowing on Koslov starts to blow away part of his face into dust.

Walter, meanwhile, is still working on the formula and goes home with Peter to recreate it using Tinker Toys. Looking at that physical representation, Walter comes to the conclusion that the entity, and Koslov's brother, have become one and are permanently linked and there is no way to get the entity out for good.

Going to the location of Koslov’s traced call, they find themselves at a motel and see the remains of Koslov. They also find his comatose brother in a van, and it seems the entity is out looking for more energy. While Walter thinks of a way to harm the body to draw the entity back in to it, they hear a child scream – it appears the entity is in her hotel room. Broyles takes matters into his own hands and shoots the cosmonaut in the head, causing the entity to disappear from the girl’s room. The girl looks like she’s been frozen in the ash form, but it seems she was literally scared stiff, telling her mother she saw a shadow man.

Later, the Russians take away the cosmonaut’s body in a lead case.

Broyles goes to visit his ex wife and tells her that he solved the case from 4 years ago, and when she invites him in to join her and her husband for dinner, he declines. But as Broyles returns to his car, a man calls to him, and says that Broyles has a real friend in Senator Van Horne. He also tells Broyles that when the CIA says to cease and desist, they mean it. He wants to make sure that Broyles isn't going to prepare any report. When Broyles asks what they did with the cosmonaut, the CIA man says they had no choice once the cosmonaut started breathing again, and points towards the night sky filled with stars.

Like the X-Files, not every episode of Fringe follows the core mystery behind what they call “the pattern”. That is a good thing because it gives the show the opportunity to branch into many more story lines than just trying to solve one mystery alone, which sometimes can trap a show. With every episode, I find myself watching not just for the cases, but also to see what Walter Bishop will say or do. While “Earthling” was a relatively tame episode, it did provide a bit of a back story for the usually stoic Broyles and made him seem more like a normal human being with normal feelings.

Fringe continues to be one of the few shows that I never want to miss and – this should make advertisers happy – I actually watch it live and DVR CSI instead. I’ve found that I can delay my CSI fix, but not my Fringe fix!

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The Verdict on V = Very Intriguing

noreply@blogger.com (I Like to Watch TV) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:21:00 +0000

All photos from ABC

Last night, ABC aired the ”V” pilot episode of the re-imagining of the 1980's miniseries of the same name, and it was an hour packed with action and suspense. The “V” stands for Visitors, and the show chronicles the arrival of aliens who call themselves The Visitors. They seem to be friendly and say they only want something from us that we have in abundance in exchange for some of their technology and other advances such as cures for certain human ailments. Even if you don’t know anything about the original 1980s series, you have a feeling that their niceness is phony and what they want from earthlings is far more than they let on. Pilot episodes usually try too hard to fit too much information into the initial outing, but in the case of “V”, they were able to establish the premise very quickly and move into the story without leaving viewers with a feeling of confusion.

The arrival of the aliens may have seemed like an earthquake to some, but when the reflections of something large in the sky begin to show up in the glass buildings, and a huge spaceship appears overhead, it becomes quickly obvious that this is no earthquake. Alien ships have appeared in all the major cities across the world in the same fashion. When the bottom of the ship, which faces the ground, transforms itself into a giant video screen with the image of a woman, everyone is transfixed. She looks human but she is not, she’s Anna (Morena Baccarin), the leader of the Vs. She tells the residents of earth – in all their native languages at the same time - that the Visitors have needs and are willing to exchange their advanced knowledge for some of our resources, and says they have arrived in peace. It’s the repetitive reinforcement of the “we come in peace” messages that makes me suspicious.

While some embrace the Vs and what they can do for humanity, such as cure many of our diseases; others do not have open arms. Two key characters, FBI Counter Terrorist Agent Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell) and priest Father Jack Landry (Joel Gretsch), are on the side of the cautious. Erica finds her son Tyler (Logan Huffman) jumping on the V bandwagon a little too quickly. He becomes smitten with one of them named Lisa (Laura Vandervoort) and signs up to join the Vs, forging his mother’s signature on a permission form to do so. Erica, while working counter terrorism, thinks she’s found a sleeper cell that seems to have ramped up activity at the same time the Vs arrived, gets her work partner Dale Maddox (Alan Tudyk) involved in trying to track them down.

Meanwhile, Father Landry is dealing with a church that suddenly is full of worshippers, and a pastor who wants Landry to tow the Vatican line and accept the Vs. But when a churchgoer comes into the church with a fatal injury he said was dealt to him at the hands of the Vs, the man hands Landry an envelope and tells him to go to a meeting with the envelope. Landry, suspicious of the Vs, decides to go.

In the background of all this is Ryan Nichols (Morris Chestnut) who is planning on proposing marriage to Valerie Holt (Lourdes Benedicto). But when a friend of the past tries to rope him into some past activity that we don’t find out what it is right away, Nichols seems to want to back away from him.

News anchor Chad Decker (Scott Wolf), gets pulled into the Vs plans when he connects in a brief Q&A with Anna and she decides he’s the one she wants. We later find she wants him to do a one on one exclusive interview and be the mouthpiece between the Vs and the TV audience. He balks when she says he can’t ask any questions that paint the Vs in a negative light, but when Anna reminds him this is his chance to make himself known world wide, he goes ahead with the interview, caving to her wishes. Clearly he compromised himself, although I think he now has serious doubts about the Vs.

Erica and Dale close in on what they think is a sleeper cell, but the cell always seems to be a step behind them. When they uncover what appears to be a meeting place, Erica goes in and is admitted without problems. Father Jack is also there with his envelope. Ryan’s friend is running the gathering, and it becomes clear quickly that this is no terrorist cell in the manner that Erica first thought – this is an anti-V cell. Each person must get a V-shaped cut behind their ears, and they are told that this is to prove they are not V infiltrators, as the V people have been here for years and they have lizard bodies underneath their human form. Erica is skeptical and asks for proof that the Vs have been here, and Father Jack brings out the envelope of photos, which include a photo of a person Erica thought was part of a sleeper cell but of whom they were unable to find any record of their existence. A mysterious object floats into the room, and after shouts to get down, the object shoots out some sort of projectile in an attempt to kill the meeting attendees. More people invade the meeting and a fight ensues, and Erica is shocked to see on of the people she is fighting is none other that her work partner, Dale. He is injured in the process and she sees a lizard form underneath his skin. She kills him on the spot (or so we think – he seems to appear in the show’s preview for upcoming episodes).

Ryan also comes to help save the day, much to his friend’s shock, seeing that Ryan didn’t seem interested in helping him before. But his friend is in for a shock when Ryan shows him a cut on his arm and lizard skin underneath. Ryan reassures his friend that he is not on the same side as the Vs and there are more of him there that do not support the Vs as well. Ryan decides he can’t propose to Valerie with all that is going on, but when he gets home, those plans get messed up when Valerie finds the engagement ring.

The cast seems solid, with Elizabeth Mitchell and Joel Gretsch both being very believable in their roles. Scott Wolf, as the anchor who now seems to have compromised himself by agreeing to Anna’s rules, looks more like a man-boy rather than a news anchor. I can’t help but thinking he looks like someone took the faces of Michael J. Fox and Tom Cruise and morphed them together. It’s the only person in the show that I felt just did not look the part. Morena Baccarin, on the other hand, is perfect as the cool and controlled Anna, with a face that can look almost uncomfortably calm and peaceful. But Erica’s son Tyler is a character that I have tired of already.

The effects are very good for television and they are able to convey very well the technological advancements of the alien beings.

The show tries to diffuse viewer comments that the series is just like other alien invader shows by bringing out the event’s similarities to the movie “Independence Day” or other sci-fi shows. It is very true there have been many TV shows and movies, V’s own 1980s series being one of them, which show aliens arriving in big space ships. The theme of aliens coming in peace, gaining trust, and then taking something from humans that they normally would not give is also not uncommon. V’s success will be how well they can develop its main characters and if they can weave a story that may be different than the first TV show of the same name. Despite the predictability, the series made a good start, and I am sure viewers will come back for more. However, I hope that the show doesn’t get too heavy handed on the social commentary, which seems to have crept in several scenes in this first episode, mostly with Erica and her son. The act of aliens arriving on earth will mean unavoidable references to the issue of how people accept foreigners so I don’t think they can avoid that issue. Current social and political issues probably will be raised often, so as long as the series doesn’t make these references too heavy handed or too obvious it should not drag down the show.

All in all, the pilot episode of V was a great start and I can see the series going in many directions that the original series could not go. With FlashForward still trying to find it’s way, V looks like it will be a winner for ABC.

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NBC’s Heroes: A Confused, Pointless Mess

noreply@blogger.com (I Like to Watch TV) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:32:00 +0000

Photo from NBC
Last season, NBC’s Heroes started adding many new characters and, as a result, diluted interest in the core characters. In this season, the practice has continued to the point that now Heroes is a confused, directionless mess.

Last night’s episode, ”Once Upon a Time In Texas” made matters worse by going back three years to have Hiro (Masi Oka) save Charlie (Jayma Mays) who he thinks is his one true love. Sylar (Zachary Quinto) killed her three years ago and Hiro thinks he can stop it from happening. But Samuel (Robert Knepper) a weird guy who as far as I can tell lives in some sort of imagined or cloaked carnival, has some person at the carnival who can also time travel like Hiro, and he gets this guy to also transport him where Hiro is located in the past. Oh yeah, Samuel seems to be able to inject some kind of ink into some woman and then she reads the tattoos that magically form on her body. After the watching the creepy Knepper on Fox’s “Prison Break” I am not interested in seeing him play just another creepy character.

Since we’re back three years, we also see Noah Bennet (Jack Coleman) interacting with his daughter Claire (Hayden Panettiere) who is, at that time, still a cheerleader. The episode seems to spend too much time on pointless dialog between Claire and her father. This highlights another problem Heroes has this season – spending too much time on scenes that do nothing to advance the storyline or add interest to the episode.

Noah also is at the same diner where Hiro is trying to save Charlie, and he is meeting up with a woman that he works with, Lauren (Elisabeth Rohm). She thinks that there is something between them, based on the fact that they keep meeting at this out-of-the-way diner. Since he hasn’t made the first move, she decides to do so by getting a room at a local hotel. Rohm, who was frequently – and deservedly – panned for her lack of acting skills while she was on NBC’s Law & Order, also seems "forced" in this role. It seems that almost every line she delivered included some sort of laugh. I find that I could care less about Noah Bennet’s past as his character ceased to have any mystery, or any real purpose, long ago. Another problem with this whole scenario is that I though that at that time 3 years ago that Bennet already knew what Sylar and Hiro looked like, so how can these people walk past him or be in the same place as him and he has no knowledge of who they are? But I guess he doesn’t know Sylar because later he goes to see Isaac – the guy who painted the future – and asks him to paint Sylar.

Meanwhile, Hiro tries to prevent Sylar from killing Charlie, and Samuel tries to get Hiro to understand that unless he does it just right, Hiro may change the future. Well, he WILL change the future if he saves Charlie, it is as simple as that, seeing that she won’t be dead. Hiro thinks that if he gets himself back in a picture of Charlie that is posted on the diner bulletin board, he thinks all will be OK. When Hiro dangles the knowledge of the future in front of the Sylar of the past, suddenly the Sylar of the past - who we knew only wanted other people’s powers and killed at the drop of a hat - seems to want to help Hiro. Not only that, but now Sylar seems to have the power not only to remove people’s powers via cutting through their heads, but now he can fix Charlie’s brain tumor with his finger with surgical precision. When did he get that power? Sylar then appears to go right back on his quest from three years ago to get Claire’s power, and since Hiro knows the cheerleader was already saved, he doesn’t seem to care. But how does he really know that, since it is clear he changed the past, and who knows what ripple effects have occurred? Hiro also tells Ando (James Kyson Lee) to wait for him in the diner because he is future Hiro and the present Hiro will be by soon. I am so confused.

Lauren and Noah meet at the hotel room, and despite her flirty attempts to get Noah interested in her, he really doesn’t seem to want to get into a workplace thing. He says he still loves his daughter and family and hopes to one day be able to tell them the truth. Actually, he looked like he couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there, and she says, “let’s get back to work.”

Later, back at the office break room, Lauren hands Noah an envelope that she said was left on her desk by accident. He opens it and finds the hotel room key and she asks him if he is planning a stay. He looks at her with an odd face and he asks her if they're now pretending they've never been to the "Burnt Toast" diner. Now she looks at him funny, but then he reads the note with the hotel room key that says "Noah, gone Haitian, wiped my memory, better this way, more professional, love, Lauren." I find myself wishing that the Haitian would wipe my own memory of this episode as well.

Samuel’s appearance in the past was more than to just warn Hiro that his messing with the past can mess up the future. Once Hiro saves Charlie, Samuel transports Charlie to his carnival (I think by using the man he already has that can time travel). Samuel wants to use that fact to get Hiro to come back with him because Samuel’s time travel guy is dying and he needs Hiro to take his place. Hiro take Samuel there and then realizes he is trapped, and Samuel says he needs Hiro to fix a mistake he made 8 weeks ago. I find that I no longer care.

Since we probably haven’t traveled through time enough in this episode, we are taken to a place 8 weeks prior to the present (!) with a dead man lying on the floor. Samuel is saying he is sorry, and the man on the floor is Mohinder (Sendhil Ramamurthy). I am underwhelmed.

I am convinced that the creative minds behind this episode are just making things up as they go along. They drop new characters in to the show rather than develop the core characters that they started with, and those were the people that made the show popular. Heroes seems to be dropping rapidly in the ratings each week, likely because the show seems to be jerking between aimless story lines that seem to have no cohesive theme or purpose. My guess is that this is the last season for Heroes. I don’t think there is any effort heroic enough that anyone can make at this point in time to save the show.

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Mad Men “The Grown Ups” An Assassination Rocks Their World

noreply@blogger.com (I Like to Watch TV) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:42:00 +0000

All Photos from AMC

Mad Men “The Grown Ups” seems to have been building to this point all season: the country gets the horrific news that President Kennedy had been assassinated. Anyone old enough to have lived through that day can remember it vividly. I was 8 years old and in class when the news came over the public address system. Even at that young age, we all knew that this news was serious business. I also can recall sitting glued in front of the TV for days watching the news coverage. “The Grown Ups” was a perfect episode for people like me who saw the event through a child’s eyes – not unlike Sally and Bobby Draper – but now had a chance to see it through the eyes of the grown ups who still had to go about their daily lives. I also found it interesting that the episode showed other coverage besides the usual Walter Cronkite video of the event. Our household was an NBC household so we were glued to Chet Huntley and their coverage the entire time.

In “The Grown Ups,” before the assassination happened, Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) got the news from Lane Pryce (Jared Harris) that Ken Cosgrove (Aaron Staton) was given the title of Senior Vice President of Account Services, and Pete would be had of account management . Needless to say, Pete takes the news calmly while in Lane's office, but then leaves for the day to wallow at home in his perceived failure. Pete’s wife Trudy (Alison Brie) tries to look at the situation with Pete’s job rationally in order to calm him. But when he later says he doesn’t want to go to Margaret’s wedding after the assassination has occurred, she agrees with him and stays home with him.

Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) arrives at work with her new roommate Karen Ericson (Carla Gallo) and they talk about men. Her roomie doesn’t like Duck, saying that his cologne lingers too much. Later, Duck (Mark Moses) calls Peggy for a “nooner” and on her way there, Duck hears the news on TV that Kennedy has been shot, and while he seems rattled about it, he unplugs the TV to likely keep the news, and the distraction, away from Peggy and his planned afternoon delight. When he finally turns on the TV, the news that Kennedy is dead shocks both of them.

Roger Sterling’s (John Slattery) daughter is getting married that weekend, and Roger's wife Jane (Peyton List ) gives Margaret (Elizabeth Rice) a gift of beautiful earrings in an attempt to make peace with Margaret. But this only incenses Margaret more, who throws a tantrum with her mother, Mona (Talia Balsam). When Margaret drags Roger into her drama, Mona tries to calm the situation further with Margaret so the wedding can go on. Roger, however, rants to Jane about why she even got involved when he told her to stay away from Margaret. As the wedding gets close and news of the assassination comes out, Margaret sobs uncontrollably, her worst fears about her wedding being doomed coming to reality.

At the office, everyone goes about their normal workday, and when Pete is talking with Harry Crane (Rich Sommer) they are so engrossed in the discussion that they don’t even see the news bulletin come across the TV screen. When it seems that the entire floor of employees for Sterling Cooper descends on Harry’s office to see the news bulletin, Harry and Pete are shocked. Don Draper (Jon Hamm) meanwhile is battling with Lane about hiring a replacement for Sal. When Don doesn’t like Lane’s answer, he says that Bert Cooper still has a say in the company, and Don storms out. But when Don hears all the office phones ringing and everyone seems to be collected in Harry’s office, he then hears the grim news. Betty Draper (January Jones) is at home, and already crying over the news when Carla (Deborah Lacey) comes home with Sally (Kiernan Shipka) and Bobby (Jared S. Gilmore). Betty is already in a funk after finding out about her husband’s secret past life, and this new news rocks her world even further.

When Don arrives home and finds the kids glued to the TV, he tells Betty he wants them away from it. But when she wonders how she can keep it from them, his answer to her is to take a pill and lie down. He proceeds to sit down with the kids and seemingly becomes glue to the TV just as they were. Later. with Betty already in the darkened bedroom lying down, he takes a pill himself.

The day of Margaret’s wedding, everyone seems to struggled with whether they should attend the reception or not attend. Pete and Trudy decide to stay home. The Drapers, however, decide to go, but it’s clear that many people were no shows by the look of all the empty seats. Roger tries to salvage a bad situation the best he can despite the fact that he finds out there is no wedding cake and his wife seems to be stuck in the ballroom kitchen glued to the television.

Betty gets a surprise when she sees Henry Francis (Christopher Stanley) show up at the reception, and he meets with a young woman. She is relieved when she overhears the woman is Francis’ daughter Elanor (Veronica Taylor). Elanor later notices that her father can’t keep his eyes off Betty. Don and Betty are also dancing, and he kisses her and tells her everything will be fine.

After the reception, Roger carries a drunk Jane into the bedroom and flops her on the bed, and when he seems sure she is out cold, he picks up the phone and calls Joan (Christina Hendricks). It seems clear that Roger still has feelings for Joan and I wonder what will happen with those two during the season finale.

Back at home the next day, Betty is watching TV and screams loudly as she watched on live TV the assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald. But when Don tries to reassure her, she says "Leave me alone," and pushes him away and leaves the room. When Sally enters and asks. "What happened?" Don says "Nothing," which is typical for Don, who seems to think that he can just sweep everything away with a few words.

When Betty wants to go for a drive alone to “clear hear head,” Don seems perplexed. I guess he doesn’t quite know what it’s like when someone keeps secrets from him. Betty meets Henry Francis in a parking lot, and he stuns her by saying he wants to marry her. They share a kiss. He thinks he can make her happy (and I think to myself, “good luck with that”).

Back at home, Betty tells Don she is upset at him for ruining all of this, and then says she does not love him. She goes on to say that when he kissed her the day before she felt nothing. Don tries to blow her off as he always does, saying she will feel better tomorrow. She says he can’t even hear her right now, and he says she is right.

The next day, it seems like business as usual at home, with Don going to work and the kids having breakfast, but he and Betty do not speak. No businesses were open that day for Kennedy’s funeral. When Don gets into the office, he finds Peggy there, who also seemed to have the need to escape her own place, as her roommate brought in a whole group of people to watch the funeral and to write letters to Jackie, and her mother and sister are at home crying and praying. She decided to go to Bert Cooper’s office to watch the funeral, and Don heads to his own office for a drink.

I thought this episode used the events of the Kennedy assassination with the right mix of television coverage – just enough to show how the people reacted to the news, but not too much that it overpowered the episode. It was clear that everyone’s lives were due for a shakeup anyway, and this event may have rocked their worlds enough that they will use it as an excuse to make changes in their own lives. But when Henry Francis said he can make Betty happy, I find myself wondering if he is aware of what a cold fish she can be? I am not sure that anything can make Betty happy, and while she has taken the big step of confronting Don about her lack of feelings for him, I still sense she is conflicted over the whole matter and I wonder if Betty is just one step away from going off the deep edge?

Pete is getting to be a bit of a whiner. He seems almost too insecure about things that he appears immature. He’s another person that I sense is one step away from something – maybe it’s making a bad career move. The smarmy Duck wouldn’t be good for Pete, and I also question his motives with Peggy.

It was a great episode with plenty of drama with all the key players, and hopefully it will lead to a very exciting season finale next week. I can’t wait!

Video Recap: Mad Men “The Grown Ups”

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FlashForward: “Scary Monsters and Super Creeps” Not Scary or Super

noreply@blogger.com (I Like to Watch TV) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:15:00 +0000

Photo from ABC

Last night’s episode of FlashForward titled “Scary Monsters and Super Creeps” was neither scary nor super nor creepy. Instead, it was somewhat mundane.

Charlie – er, I mean Simon (Dominic Monaghan) is supposed to be half mad scientist and half James Bond as he tries to pick up a woman while riding the train. His attempts at being sexy and mysterious were laughable as Monaghan is neither. He says he knows what caused the flash forwards, but seems to joke about it. While entangled in bed with this woman (somehow, the sight of it makes me laugh even more) he reveals to her that he choked someone to death in his flash forward. What nice pillow talk.

Meanwhile, Agent Janis Hawk (Christine Woods) is in emergency surgery from her gunshot wound from last week’s episode ”Gimme Some Truth”. Of course, with the many surgeons in Los Angeles, she is coincidentally operated on by her colleague’s wife, Dr. Olivia Benford (Sonya Walger). Janis pulls through the first operation – I find myself thinking they spent way too much time on the operation, by the way - and she worries that her flash forward of having a child may not come true. Her boss, Agent Stanford Wedeck (Courtney B. Vance) remains at her side while he sends the rest of the team off to relax from their own trauma from the previous week. But later, Janis starts to have more problems and she is back in surgery, with Olivia tending to her again, trying to be mindful of Janis’s flash forward of being pregnant. Janis survives this second operation, but she reveals that it may be impossible to have a baby. I can’t remember her exact wording, but I chuckled that it seemed to be phrased that there is a slim chance she could still get pregnant, which means she probably will because after all, the impossible is much easier to occur on television.

Agent Demetri Noh (John Cho) meanwhile, ignores Wedeck’s instructions and decides to work on finding the men who shot Janis. He and Agent Al Gough (Lee Thompson Young ) use information from their flash forwards and from the clues that Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) saw on his board in his office during his flash forward. In the morgue, when Demetri sees an image of a blue hand on one of the men Janis shot, he realizes this is a clue from Benford's flash forward of his board of clues, and he also remembered the word Baltimore next to it. This seems to connect him to a Baltimore Street, where he and Gough find a figure of a blue hand pointing on a stop sign. Some of the fingers are missing and they somehow guess this is the number of streets to follow to the next sign, and so on, until it leads them to a house where the find several dead bodies, with blue hands. I assume these were the men that shot Janis? It all seemed a bit too easy.

Meanwhile, Agent Benford continues to go from scene to scene just exuding his own special angst, which I still think looks more like a bad case of indigestion. He goes trick or treating with his daughter Charlie (Lennon Wynn) and, after seeing a rogue kangaroo go by that he also saw after the flash forward, he sees three men in masks just like he saw in his office during his flash forward. He assumes the worse and yells “FBI!” and chases after them, drawing his gun even though there is no evidence they did anything wrong. When he catches up with one of them and yanks off the mask and sees it is just a young guy who was worried Benford was chasing them for their hand in a Halloween prank, Benford looks annoyed. He gets a call to come home, never apologizing for pulling a gun on someone for no reason at all.

It seems that Dylan (Ryan Wynott ) who is hospitalized but somewhat upset about going home, continues to repeat the phrase that it is his house too. He sneaks out of the hospital and ends up on a bus and wants to go to 25696 Sawyer Court, which we find is the Benford home. Of course, the bus driver just takes him there, his only worry is getting the boy to pay the fare, and does not call the police or anything like that, which would have made more sense. Nicole (Peyton List), wearing a Halloween costume that I wasn't quite sure who she was supposed to be, calls Mark to come home. Dylan also seems to know Charlie and they seem very comfortable with each other. When Dylan’s father Lloyd Simcoe (Jack Davenport) gets called to the house to retrieve Dylan, he walks in and recognizes the house from his flash forward. He now knows who the woman is in his flash forward, and when Olivia walks in, the look on her face confirms it to everyone. Trouble ensues. After Lloyd and Dylan leave, the Benford’s argue about the flash forwards and the truth, Mark finally admitting he was drinking in his flash forward. After chastising his wife for an affair she hasn’t had yet, when she comments about his drinking the future, he says:

Mark: Don't condemn me for something I haven't done yet.
Olivia: Do you even care what you just said?

Yes, it is clear now that Mark thinks he is Mr. Perfect and the world revolves around him and his own flash forward. He doesn’t seem to see that her imagined affair doesn’t correlate to his real past history with drinking. It also seems clear that their flash forward is doomed to come true because, well, the vision of the flash forward likely causes the rift between the two of them. Get it? Yes, it sounds a little confusing, but it is obvious that everyone's vision of the future is having a huge effect on their actions in the present, and possibly had they not had the flash forwards, their lives would not have had those same outcomes.

Later, after Lloyd returns Dylan to the hospital, he gets in his car and Simon is in the back seat. Simon tells him that both he and those that he works for are not too happy that Lloyd disappeared. Lloyd seems to have a problem with the fact that their "experiment" has already killed 20 million people. I think that scene was already shown either in a TV promo or in a “tease” after last week’s episode, so it was no surprise. It seems this show doesn’t want any suspense or drama; sometimes I think they would leave things like this out of their promos.

The only items of interest revealed in this episode are the blue hand, and the fact that Simon and Lloyd conducted some kind of experiment that causes the flash forward. I remain underwhelmed.

Along with mediocre acting, the background music choices that FlashForward uses are questionable. It never seems to fit the mood of the scene. Dominic Monaghan’s introduction was ill-fitting and the whole seduction scene was comical, and I don’t think that was the intent. Has this role been miscast? Only time will tell. But the whole show seems miscast, with Joseph Fiennes being far to stiff and lifeless for a role that seems to be better suited to someone who can actually emote. Either that, or the writers need to give Fiennes better dialog and scenarios which allows him to show his acting ability. Unless the show is able to better deliver characters that are believable, dialog that doesn’t seem forced, and a more suspenseful show, viewer interest may die off over time. I think the premise of the show has possibilities, I hope that somehow they find a way to pump up the drama, and the mystery, before the season ends.

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Lie to Me “Grievous Bodily Harm” Too Predictable

noreply@blogger.com (I Like to Watch TV) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:03:00 +0000

Photo from Fox

Lie To Me (Fox) is one of those shows I watch that I am not quite sure why I watch it. After seeing last night’s episode “Grievous Bodily Harm” I decided to look in to the reasons why I keep watching this show despite the fact that something is just off about it.

In “Grievous Bodily Harm”, the show opens with Cal being shot, and then we quickly move back about a day earlier in time. An old fried of Dr. Cal Lightman’s (Tim Roth) comes for a visit and needs Cal’s human lie detector abilities in order to help him get out from under a gambling debt. It seems that Terry (Lennie James) got in over his head with a gambling debt and needs Cal to help him win it back in a poker game. But this leads to Cal being forced into helping Terry’s gambling associate to verifying the quality of counterfeit money. It was a little too obvious that when Cal got shot at the beginning of the show that it was either some kind of ruse or that he would survive. There was really no suspense there – a show doesn’t kill off his lead character especially when they still have several more episodes to go in the season. It was also obvious that once Cal got involved with Terry that it wouldn’t end with the poker game. Either the show is too predictable or I am also an expert in reading a person’s body language and behavior, but it was obvious that the security guy was some sort of plant for the Feds, especially when it seemed that Cal’s presence at the illegal poker game was well known to Agent Ben Reynolds (Mekhi Phifer).

While this is going on, the rest of Cal’s team works on a video threat received by a school that threatens a homicide. Dr. Gillian Foster (Kelli Williams) misreads the body signals of one of the students involved and thinks that the student is the one guilty of the homicidal threats, instead, the girl was talking suicide, and she attempts suicide in the Lightman Group restroom. While Torres (Monica Raymond) and Locker (Brendan Hines) continue to work the case with Foster, they collectively figure out that it was one of the instructors who seemed to be fueling the conflict between students and fostering the student’s negative feelings to the girl who had later attempted suicide. In my opinion, it was obvious the minute the teacher became involved in observing the inquiry that he was someone the one who initiated the whole mess. I think I am getting too good at reading body language.

Besides it being almost to easy to figure out the outcome of each story arc, I realized that Tim Roth bounces and sways a lot when he walks and it seems too comical. I am not sure if that is how Roth walks or if that is how Cal Lightman walks, but either way, it is somewhat distracting, as his body movements seem to monopolize the whole scene when he is on screen. He also seems to quickly move to get into people’s spaces, which I think is probably a method that Lightman uses to get people off guard so he can read them better. Another problem is Roth’s accent when speaking, which at times makes it hard to understand what he is saying. I think as I watch more of the show I become more accustomed to it, but in last night’s episode with Cal’s accent and Terry’s accent, I was having a spot of trouble understanding them.

The other issue is the chemistry with the cast. There is something just not right and I can’t quite figure out what – or who – it is. Tim Roth seems fine as Lightman, but the rest of the cast seems flat. In the first season of “Lie to Me” I was initially intrigued by Dr. Foster, but after watching the series for a while, she seems to be rather one dimensional and I don’t think the writers have done as good of a job in developing her character as they have with Lightman. Likewise Loker and Torres are becoming too repetitive in their behaviors and there doesn’t seem to be anything compelling going on with either of them. Making matters worse, while the main characters still remain underdeveloped, they’ve added the new character of Agent Reynolds who seems to be the stereotypical FBI agent who mistrusts everyone and just gets in everyone’s way.

I still watch “Lie to Me” because I have hopes that someday everything will begin to click, but I won’t wait forever. Right now the show is fortunate to run on Monday night right after “House”, but if the show moves to another day and time without the strong lead in, I am not sure if the show has enough going for it in order to survive for very long. I am afraid that without more character development, and without some more compelling cases for the Lightman Group, this may be the series last season. And that’s no lie.

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NBC’s “Trauma”: So Bad it Will Traumatize You

noreply@blogger.com (I Like to Watch TV) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:28:00 +0000

On Saturday night the AL Championship baseball game was rained out, and as my DVR was empty of any recorded programs, so I decided to give the new NBC series ”Trauma” a try. A previously aired episode titled “Stuck” was airing, and after 15 minutes of watching it, I too felt stuck – in TV hell. I watched for 5 more minutes before turning to my husband and asking, “Is this show awful or is it me?” I was relieved to know that it wasn’t just me. We quickly changed the channel, so my review will be brief.

This episode of “Trauma” contained a series of events where it seemed the writers wanted to outdo themselves on what kind of awful or gross scenario they can create for viewers. One guy had his arm severed. A rescue paramedics threw up in a helicopter as they were transposing a person who fell while biking on a hilly dirt trail. Another person was beat up after complaining that someone cut in line in front of him, and apparently had lost part of his tongue in the process. An insensitive EMS person goes looking for the guy’s tongue and was rambling off some stupid comments about it while he was searching. After being assaulted with horrible dialog delivered with the acting skill of the cast of a high school play, I realized that this show was doomed to fail. The scenes were so disjointed that the show seemed like a series of random activities, not tied together by anything except there was some sort of situation that required medical help. I had no reason to have any interest in these characters and there was nothing that made me want to spend any more time trying to find a reason to watch any longer.

Needless to say, I won’t watch Trauma again, and if you haven’t started watching it, don’t bother. This also begs the question – Why did NBC cancel ”Southland” which was 100 times better than “Trauma”? After watching 20 minutes of Trauma, I’ve come to the conclusion that whoever is making these programming choices at NBC need to be fired, stat.

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FlashForward “Gimme Some Truth”: Truth Is, It’s Awful

noreply@blogger.com (I Like to Watch TV) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:28:00 +0000

Photo from ABC

They asked for some truth, and they will certainly get it from me. ABC’s FlashForward is s good story being told very badly. “Gimme Some Truth” was probably the worst episode so far, filled with stereotypical characters and scenery-chewing actors, not to mention a lifeless storyline. Joseph Fiennes is horribly miscast as Agent Mark Benford, who most times looks like he is suffering from a bad case of indigestion. It also seems that he is going for the world record to best David Caruso for the longest amount of time he could keep his hands on his hips for one scene. The biggest failing of the show is that despite a story that could be filled with drama and suspense, I find that the dialog, the scenarios, the one dimensional and stereotypical characters, and the acting literally suck the life out of the story.

The episode opened with Agent Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes), Agent Stanford Wedeck (Courtney B. Vance), Agent Demetri Noh (John Cho) and Agent Vreede (Barry Shabaka Henley) in Washington DC. They quickly find their car being hit by a black SUV, and their car explodes. This was the episodes own flash forward, as we are immediately taken back 39 hours before all this took place.

It seems that the agents are in DC going through polygraph tests to verify their real flash forward experiences. After Benford goes through his test, he calls Mark and when Benford tells him he is feeling the pressure, Mark suggests he check a local AA meeting. Benford’s wife Dr. Olivia Benford (Sonya Walger) overhears the conversation and later confronts Mark about the matter, Mark blowing it off as nothing to worry about.

Wedeck, meanwhile, is feeling the heat as he tries to get more funding for Mosaic. He has a friendly one-on-one basketball game with an old friend Dave Segovia (Peter Coyote) and asks for his support. Dave tells him to tread carefully, and Wedeck finds out that the person in charge of the Senate committee on funding is none other than an old nemesis, Senator Clemente. We later find that Dave is the President of the United States. No shock there.

Overlaying all this activity is Agent Janis Hawk (Christine Woods) and her relationship with female restaurateur Maya (Navi Rawat). (I laugh, as I wonder what Charlie Epps (from CBS’s Numb3rs would think of this!) They discuss their flash forwards over dinner and Janis is evasive. After the gratuitous lesbian kissing scene the next morning in Janis’ place – you know if there are lesbians on the show they just have to kiss, it is a TV rule – Janis leaves Maya there when she has to head off to work, telling Maya she can go through her stuff. Later, on another date, Maya tells Janis that she checked into her flash forward on the Mosaic site, and knows Janis’ vision was that she was pregnant. Janis seems to feel violated – yes violated! – that Maya did this. Keep in mind she told Maya to go through her stuff earlier in the day, but I guess she didn’t mean public information that she herself put on the Internet for the whole world except Maya to see. I found Janis’ upset over the matter laughable.

Janis is also working on checking into the 1990 die off of crows in Somalia as it seems to relate to the present time flash forward, and is shown a satellite image of what looks like tall towers or pylons being constructed in the area before the 1990 incident.

Meanwhile, President Dave has a press conference and tells the media that they are coordinating their efforts to properly fund the correct agencies that have the best shot at providing leads to the cause of the blackout. He adds that like other world leaders, he will not reveal his own flash forward, although we later see it involves a Secret Service agent waking him to tell him something has happened. I am underwhelmed.

After the press conference, Wedeck meets with President Dave in the Oval Office and Dave reminds Wedeck that he alienated the wrong people years ago which forced the President to banish him out west. But Dave wants to bring Wedeck back into his fold, and offers him a cabinet position as Director of Homeland Security. Wedeck looks underwhelmed.

Cut to the hearing, where Senator Clemente (Barbara Williams) is the stereotypical bitchy female senator who puts the screws to Wedeck. Later, outside the hearing, she gets in his face, accusing him of ruining her shot for the presidency. She tells him she saw herself as president in her flash forward, so she’s feeling powerful. It’s a foregone conclusion that she wants to make him pay but grilling him on his work with Mosaic and likely has no intention of giving him any funding at all. Later, Clemente orders Benford to take the stand and testify about his work and his own flash forward. Benford takes the classic Horatio Caine “hands on the hips” stance, thinking that this will likely scare Clemente; of course, it does not work. Benford’s account of his experiences – including the crow die off, the attack on his FBI office, his board filled with pictures and details – makes him come across sounding like a crazy to Clemente. The way this scene was written, he sounded nutty to me too. Since we all know he had been drinking in his flash forward, he can’t explain to Clemente why he can’t recall every single detail clearly like other people. When Clemente implies Benford’s office is trying to pull a fast one, Wedeck gets disgusted at Clemente and storms out, leaving Benford to flap in the wind. After the hearing, even Demetri says Benford sounded nuts. They need more evidence, and the towers and the crow incident seems to be the thing that may help them.

But Wedeck has other ideas, and decides to play hardball with the President. He brings out an old photo of a woman named Renee (Mieko Hillman) with whom the President had an affair and also a son. It seems that Wedeck made the payoff to the woman in the past for Dave before he was president, and now uses that as leverage to get his funding. When he plays his trump card with the President, the President says, “You know why I liked having you around so much, Stan? You weren't just comfortable in the mud. You enjoyed being there.” Of course, Wedeck gets his funding.

Later. with the agents in s bar doing some awful Karaoke, Benford hasn’t been drinking, but I am considering it, seeing that the singing – and the acting – is so bad. Wedeck comes in to talk to Benford. Benford is angry that Wedeck abandoned him, but Wedeck has a cow when Benford admits he can’t recall all the details because he was hammered at the time. Wedeck is angry that he put his career on the line for Benford’s flash forward that was compromised by intoxication. While they keep this a secret between themselves, someone else knows, because they anonymously texted the information to Benford’s wife, Olivia.

As they go to the parking garage, they find that Dave selected Senator Clemente for the VP slot to replace Vice-President Pratt, who was killed in the blackout. This is of some concern to Wedeck, who knows that Clemente saw herself in the flash forward as president. Benford is on the phone with Janis who is walking home with the stereotypical paper bag brimming with groceries, and while they talk, the black SVU rams into their car, cutting off the car. The agents exit the car before it explodes, and a gunfight erupts, with the most ridiculous background music of “Like A Rolling Stone". I have no idea why they chose this song or what it was supposed to mean, but it seemed silly considering this was a shoot out. While this is going on, Janis is also facing two attackers with guns, one of which shoots her. As she drops to the ground, she remembers in her flash forward that she will have a girl. This was the only question of any interest in the episode – does she die, therefore showing the future can be changed? Or does she live and the scene means nothing? I suspect that I will be watching FlashForward not for the mystery, but to see just how bad this show can get. And that’s the truth.

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House “Brave Heart” Is All In the Head

noreply@blogger.com (I Like to Watch TV) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:26:00 +0000

Photo from Fox

Last night’s episode of House “Brave Heart” was delayed by a MLB playoff game going into overtime. For those people who DVR the show, I hope they were able to change their programming in time so as not to miss a good chunk of the episode. I wish that DVRs could automatically adjust their recording times when shows run over and mess up the schedule.

This episode of House brought the team a patient that really shouldn’t have been a special patient. Donny (Jon Seda), who works law enforcement, got into the hospital because he fell 30 feet while chasing a suspect. But when he tells Dr. Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) that he thinks he will die soon because he is reaching 40 and his father and grandfather died at that age, she decides to get the diagnostic team involved. I found myself not even caring about the patient, as I saw that his condition didn’t warrant the time and related expense from such a high-powered team. The case only gets interesting when House (Hugh Laurie) uses candy/sugar pills to treat the patient, thinking the problem is all in his head. The patient dies shortly thereafter. When Foreman and House want to autopsy the body, the patient comes alive, screaming, as Foreman begins to slice into his chest to look at his heart. Based on the previews for the show this was really no surprise, but it was amusing. Later, when House is talking with Dr. Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), he has his usual epiphany and realizes the problem is not with Donny’s heart, it’s in his head. The team fixes Donny’s head problem, and also fixes the same problem in Donny’s son - a son that he just discovered that he had. It seems House wasn't completely wrong when he thought Donny's problem was in his head.

Dr. Chase is still struggling with his murder of Dibala, and continues to keep his secret from Cameron. She knows something is wrong, and she begins to pull away from him as he pulls his problem further inside himself. He has a problem going into the ICU as this is where he killed Dibala, and Foreman knows that Chase has to come to grips with the issue fast. When Chase seeks the confessional for absolution and the priest tells Chase he has to turn himself into the police, Chase does not see that as an option. Chase believes he did the right thing and did the world a favor by killing Dibala. The problem with Chase is that he wants to have his cake and eat it too – he wants to be forgiven and absolved without having to pay the price. I suspect that either he will eventually tell Cameron and she will leave him, or he will keep his secret from her and that will create a further rift between them and she’ll leave him. No matter what Chase does at this point, I suspect his marriage will pay the price in some shape or form.

House, meanwhile, is still living with Dr. Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), and he is sleeping on the couch. When Wilson decides to turn a part study/part shrine to Amber into a bedroom for House, House takes him up on the offer of a real bedroom. But House begins to hear voices at night. He can’t tell where the voices are coming from, but he initially looks for rational reasons, like having his hearing tested. He does seem to hear the voices at the hospital once, so he may suspect that he is having mental problems again. But when his hearing tests fine, he decides to examine the bedroom more carefully when he hears the voices, and finds that the voice he is hearing is Wilson in the next room, talking out loud to his memory of Amber. He goes back to sleeping on the couch, and when Wilson is startled to see him there, he tells Wilson he may have to go back into the mental hospital as he is hearing voices in the bedroom at night. When Wilson seems too agreeable to this, House gets angry with him and Wilson admits he knows House knows about his talking to Amber. Wilson convinces House to try the same method and talk to his dead father as he lay in bed. House tries it but then yells out to Wilson that it isn’t working, much to Wilson’s glee.

This was a decent episode but a little flawed. The patient should not have been given such special attention by the team when he was first admitted. I am not saying that his problem wasn’t worth investigating, it’s just that I don’t see why he couldn’t have been handled as an outpatient. I can’t imagine real hospital taking on a patient like this with such a high-powered diagnostic team while the person stayed in the hospital. I suppose that while he was recovering from his injury it was probably OK for them to check out his other issue at that same time, but House shouldn’t have had to play the old “sugar pill” game with him to get him discharged.

Since the news has been out for some time that Jennifer Morrison is leaving the show, I suspect that somehow Chase’s murder of Dibala may come into play, possibly causing a rift in their marriage. I can’t imagine Chase ever openly confessing to the killing. Besides, I think Chase truly believes he did the right thing and isn’t likely to admit to the killing and have to pay the price.

The issue with House hearing the voices has one problem – he seemed to hear the voices at the hospital when he was in his conference area. House may still be having some problems and I wonder if all those voices he heard in the bedroom really did belong to Wilson? Is the Wilson talking to Amber explanation House's own version of a sugar pill? As with his patients, House’s first diagnosis is often not the correct one, so it’s highly possible that his explanation that it was Wilson’s voice every time may not be the right explanation either. It could also be nothing – his mind may have been in overdrive just thinking that he could be relapsing into mental illness, which cause him to hear those voices in the hospital. As in most cases with House – only time will tell.

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Mad Men “The Color Blue” Has Betty Seeing Red

noreply@blogger.com (I Like to Watch TV) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:03:00 +0000

Photo from AMC

There are only three more episodes left of “Mad Men” this season, and the episode “The Color Blue” seems to be setting up viewers for a rocky finish. The events in the episode follow many of the previous episodes: Don sleeps with another woman, people drink and smoke a lot, Roger is jealous of Don, Betty seems conflicted, and business continues to go on at Sterling Cooper. But the events of this episode hint at big trouble for the Drapers and more changes down the road at Sterling Cooper.

Don Draper (Jon Hamm) continues his affair with teacher Suzanne Farrell (Abigail Spencer). While in bed, Suzanne tells Don about a student who asked how she knows the color blue looks the same as it does to him. She told the student she didn't know, but was glad he made her think about it again. Don said if he had to respond to that question, his job was to boil communication down to absolutes. There was an idea of blue that at least 45 percent of the population agreed was blue. He said that people don't see things differently because they want to. A very clinical response, to say the least. Don also meets her brother Danny (Marshall Allman) when he drops in unannounced. He has epilepsy and as a result, has a hard time keeping a job. Suzanne finds him another job, and Don helps out by driving Danny there. When Danny wants to get out of the car and take off before getting to his destination, Don gives him some advice, some money, and a business card before Danny exits. While Don gave Danny his business card for him to call him if he needs any help in the future, I suspect that his business card will trace back to Don in a way that maybe Don will not want.

Suzanne Farrell is also giving off the “crazy clingy mistress” vibe, when she surprises Don by getting on his train going in to work. Something about her strikes me as being a little too needy, and while she denies calling Don’s home and hanging up, she strikes me as the type that would do exactly that. Don seems to care about her, but if she were to endanger his “real” life, I suspect he would cut her lose in a New York minute.

Betty Draper (January Jones) is going through her normal daily routine. By the way, we find out the Drapers are not frequent churchgoers. Betty also wonders about the phone call that was a hang up and calls Henry Francis (Christopher Stanley) to ask if it was him. He thinks she made this up as an excuse to call him, and while she didn’t make up the hang up call, I am sure in the back of her mind she felt it was a good excuse to call him. But Don’s secrets may be in real danger when he puts the money from his signing bonus into his locked desk drawer, and he accidentally leaves the key in his bathrobe. Betty finds it while doing the laundry when she hears it clanging around in the clothes dryer. Temptation taking over, she opens Don’s Pandora’s box, which includes the shoebox of photos and papers he has in that desk drawer, along with a bunch of money. The photos are one thing, but the deed and divorce papers to an Ann Draper are quite another issue. When Carla (Deborah Lacey) and the kids arrive home, she drops the box of photos on the floor, and tells Carla to take the kids out somewhere and not bring them back until dinner. Later, Betty stews while she waits for Don to come home, the box with her. When he doesn’t come home, she puts the box back in the drawer, puts the key back into his bathrobe, and goes to bed, alone.

Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss) and Paul Kinsey (Michael Gladis) are working on ad campaigns for Aqua Net and Western Union. When Paul thinks Peggy stole his thunder with the idea for Aqua Net, he vows to show her up. But while Peggy works on her ideas for Western Union with a clear head, Paul works in his office, using lots of alcohol, music, and maybe even a little bit of “pleasuring himself” in order to come up with the idea. When he runs into the janitor who is named Achilles, he gets what he thinks is the best idea of his life. Rather than write it down, however, he has more to drink and then passes out on the couch. Lois wakes him at 9:00 AM – why is Lois still working there after she ran over Guy’s foot with the lawnmower in the office in the episode ”Guy Walks Into An Advertising Agency” ? When Paul can’t find his great idea from the night before, he realizes his big one got away. When Peggy hears this she seems sympathetic, and when confronted with Don’s displeasure that they have no good ideas, she gets Paul to admit he had a great idea but forgot to write it down. Even Don seems sympathetic, indicating it happens. But Peggy builds on a comment that Paul made earlier, and comes up with a great idea. Paul seems dejected but at the same time, may be now understands Peggy’s methods and how she can come up with ideas on the spot.

Also at Sterling Cooper, they are readying for a 40th anniversary party for the firm. Don is to receive a special honor, much to Roger Sterling’s (John Slattery) annoyance. Bert Cooper (Robert Morse) doesn’t want to attend at all. Lane Pryce (Jared Harris) finds out that Sterling Cooper is doing so well it is up for sale, something that clearly makes him unhappy but which brings joy to his homesick wife Rebecca (Embeth Davidtz). Lane manages to use Bert’s vanity to get him to attend. When Don calls Betty to tell her when he will be coming home to get her for the party, she doesn’t want to go, saying she feels sick. But Don blows it off, telling her to get into bed for a while and adds that he wants to show her off. Of course, she looks stunning, but at the same time, cold and stiff. After Roger gives a very flattering introduction for Don at the dinner – I am sure he was choking on every word – Don rises to the thunderous applause, and Betty looks as if she could care less.

As there are only 3 more episodes left, one has to think that Don’s past, and his cheating ways, will catch up with him. How much damage will be done to Betty in the process we can only guess, as she seems on the edge herself. As Betty assumes that Don himself was divorced – not Dick Whitman, to whom she is really married – will she just use that as her excuse to take the initiative with Henry Francis? Does she have any inkling that the problem isn’t the just divorce papers in that shoebox but the people in the photos? Will Suzanne Farrell get a little too clingy for Don and start showing up in other places like his work? Somehow I see a “fatal attraction” thing coming, it’s just that Suzanne seems way to needy for someone like Don. Regardless, with 3 episodes left, the stage is set for some big trouble.

AMC’s Video Recap “The Color Blue”

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Fringe “Dream Logic”: What Dreams May Come to Peter?

noreply@blogger.com (I Like to Watch TV) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:29:00 +0000

Photo from Fox

Fringe (Fox) “Dream Logic” was about those often-illogical dreams and nightmares that we’ve all had, but this time someone is out there who is feeding off of them. It seems that people who were involved in a sleep study begin to suddenly have their nightmares while awake, and in the process these people kill. Adding to the mystery: afterwards they almost immediately age, their hair turning white, as they themselves die of what is believed to be exhaustion. It was an excellent episode which provided an intriguing stand alone story of its own, plus deepening the mystery surrounding the effects on Peter of being pulled from another timeline without his knowledge.

Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) is also still trying to cope with the death of her work partner, Agent Charlie Francis (Kirk Acevedo). She is getting help from Sam Weiss (Kevin Corrigan), who has apparently told her to get business cards of people she meets in the course of her work that are wearing red.

When Olivia and Peter (Joshua Jackson) and Walter Bishop (John Noble) are called to Seattle to investigate the death of person at the hands of the first crazed killer, Walter seems very uncomfortable and won’t go in the room with the patient while he comes out of his deep sleep. When the man ages in a matter of seconds and dies, Walter enters the room. He wants to take the body back to his lab, because he thinks Seattle feels and smells like his time in the mental institution. (I find myself thankful that they didn't place the episode in Cleveland. Te city gets too much unfair press as it is.) Peter gets FBI Agent Kashner to escort Walter home.

While Olivia and Peter investigate more similar deaths in Seattle, Walter finds that some sort of chip has been implanted in the thalamus of the first victim, who had been under treatment at the Nayak clinic. Dr. Nayak (Ravi Kapoor) agrees to help Olivia and Peter, but when they get to his office, they find all his critical computer equipment that he used to monitor the implants has been stolen. Later, an unsuspecting Agent Kashner (Travis Schuldt) is victim to one of Walter’s tests, and as a result, Walter finds out that someone is using the chips to steal people’s dreams. Since they aren’t really getting the benefit of dream sleep, he believes this is what causes the quick onset of exhaustion.

While Olivia and Peter find ways to track down the other patients who had these implants inserted by Dr. Nayak, Peter tells Olivia he used to have terrible nightmares himself. He said Walter helped him get through it by reciting a mantra before he went to bed, saying, “please don’t dream tonight.” Peter also says that from the age of 8 to 19, he had no dreams at all. Since we have the benefit of knowing that this Peter Bishop was taken from another timeline, it could explain why Walter was so intent on not wanting Peter to remember his dreams.

Meanwhile, Sam has called Olivia and asks her if she got the business cards, and she tells him she has eight. He asks her if everyone she saw was wearing red, and she confirms it. He then tells her to circle a letter in each name, first and last then write each letter down, and solve the jumble. When she seems perplexed at these instructions, he says she will be looking for whatever she needs to hear, and she will figure it out.

When one of Nayak’s workers doesn’t show up for work, Peter and Olivia head to his house and find him dead. Dr. Nayak finds a threatening letter in his office telling him to quit talking to the FBI, but he turns it over to Olivia and Peter anyway. After they leave, Nayak calls someone and tells them he gave them the letter so the person should just stop. But after hearing that Walter says someone is stealing dreams, Olivia and Peter believe the threatening letter to be written by Nayak himself, and that it’s Dr. Nayak who is stealing the dreams. They believe he has an addiction to feeding off the dreams of his patients. They catch Nayak in the act back at his home, and Olivia must shoot at the computer server in order to stop him from feeding off his latest subject. Nayak dies in the process.

Back in Boston, after Olivia has visited Charlie’s grave, she takes out the jumble of letters from the business cards which says: OAUGENYIRENBEFON. After writing out a few suggestions, she comes up with “YOURE GONNA BE FINE.”

But Peter may not be fine, as after he and Walter moved in to their new home, Peter has had a bad dream. He dreams that he sees his father in his boyhood bedroom, seeing him in a reflection in the mirror. Suddenly he dreams he is ripped out of bed. When he wakes up, he sees Walter standing there, looking slightly concerned, saying that Peter was talking in his sleep. Peter can only remember bits of his dream, but nothing more.

I am sure that Olivia will be fine. But clearly Walter has concerns that Peter is starting to recall some things that are best kept buried. Are Peter’s nightmares leftovers from his life in the alternate timeline from which Walter had taken him? I find it interesting that Peter saw his father in his dream as a reflection of him in a mirror. Maybe Peter’s subconscious knows that he was taken “through the looking glass” himself, and his dreams may be the clue to him recalling from where he came. If Peter ever does remember, Walter will be in more trouble than he himself can dream.

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NCIS Los Angeles: More Of The Same

noreply@blogger.com (I Like to Watch TV) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:25:00 +0000

Photo CBS

The spin off of CBS’s late bloomer, "NCIS", the new NCIS Los Angeles seems to be a big hit, reportedly the top new show on television this season. I wonder - does it have enough to keep its great ratings as the season progresses?

It took years for the original NCIS (the show was a spin off of another CBS series, “Jag) to build viewership, possibly because it ran against other strong shows – like American Idol – at times. But over time, the cast with quirky and sometimes immature characters seemed to lure in viewers who were looking for crime shows with a lighter twist. It helped that it had Mark Harmon and Michael Weatherly, who seem very popular with female viewers. It also had old favorite David McCallum in a role as the medical examiner, Dr. “Ducky” Mallard, and Pauley Perrette as the over-caffeinated, Goth tech whiz, Abby. All made for a cast with great chemistry and fit perfectly for a show about crime mixed with humor.

But for me, NCIS Los Angeles, which airs immediately after the original recipe NCIS, just doesn’t seem to have that same kind of cast or the same kind of magic. Chris O’Donnell, who plays the agent with an initial for a first name, “G. Callen” is just fine, but the rest of the cast seems devoid of personality and interest, and LL Cool J simply cannot act. Worse, because it airs right after NCIS, I find that two hours in a row of the same formula becomes boring. Ennui sets in for me at about 20 minutes in to the show. An article in the recent Ad Age says:

Taking the cookie-cutter route will only get them so far, executives said. Over time, said Ms. Tassler, the characters will grow and develop, allowing for some degree of originality and creative choice-making. The original show features actor Mark Harmon driving a group of investigators, while the new version is more of a "buddy" show, said Mr. Brennan, with LL Cool J and Chris O'Donnell as leads. He likens the concept to the interaction between "Miami Vice's" Crockett and Tubbs or the leads in "Starsky & Hutch." Even so, both programs feature broad teams that include a veteran actor -- David McCallum for "NCIS" and Linda Hunt for "NCIS: LA" -- who offers advice and counsel.

"You can't introduce a new show with new characters and have the audience hold them up in comparison to the characters on 'NCIS,'" said Mr. Brennan, who suggested he wouldn't stand against the development of a third "NCIS" program if there were demand for it. "The trick is to make sure if there is a third one that it has strong characters and once again shines a light on [the concept] that doesn't repeat what [viewers] have already seen on 'NCIS' and 'NCIS: LA'."

Is it possible that the current success of NCIS Los Angeles is due to the fact that there aren’t any scripted dramas running against it at this time? Will the show tail off one American Idol starts up? Since American Idol has been off my viewing list for a while, and seems to be dropping in viewership with every subsequent season, NCIS Los Angeles may have plenty of time to work out the kinks and develop the characters before AI starts back up and threatens to suck away viewers from NCIS LA. For me, I am willing to give the show more time, but won’t give it forever.

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House “Instant Karma” Comes Back to Bite Them

noreply@blogger.com (I Like to Watch TV) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:55:00 +0000

Photo from Fox

“Instant Karma” felt very comfortable, like the earlier episodes of House(Fox). The original team is back working together and House (Hugh Laurie) is back with them, although he can’t technically practice medicine. The patient of the week is the son of Roy (Lee Tergesen), a ultra wealthy man who can seemingly buy anything he wants except a cure for his ill son. Drs. Chase (Jesse Spencer) and Foreman (Omar Epps) have trouble looming when Dr. Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) tells them that the death of Dibala (from the previous episode ”The Tyrant”) will be discussed at the next Morbidity and Mortality (M&M) meeting. Since Chase killed Dibala and Foreman covered it up, one can understand their concern.

As always, the patient of the week is a backdrop to the personal drama between the doctors. They run the usual battery of tests on the young patient, they try a few failed treatments, and House has an epiphany, which later gives him the correct diagnosis. Too bad it was after he already told Roy that his son was going to die. Roy thinks he is a victim of bad karma, and he is getting payback for having enormous wealth and his son’s illness is balancing things out. He has a team of lawyers in the hospital to sign papers, which will essentially destroy his business and bankrupt himself. I don’t understand how one can do that so quickly with one swipe of a pen. His son is cured and Roy is broke. Too bad that Roy completely misunderstood karma – it isn’t a balancing out like he explained, it means if you do something bad in life, bad will come back to you, and vice versa. It doesn’t mean that if you are wealthy, that your family will have nothing but pain and suffering. If he would have realized this, maybe he wouldn’t have given away all his money, especially now that House’s correct diagnosis means his son will live. Now how will he pay all those hospital bills?

Meanwhile, Chase and Foreman are trying to figure out what to do at the M&M to prevent Chase’s actions with Dibala - the fact that he murdered him - from coming out. Chase seems to think that it’s up to Foreman to fix it, which I thought was a little nasty of Chase. Sure, Foreman did cover things up and he has a lot to lose, but Chase is the guy why actually killed Dibala. Things get complicated when the blood Chase used to test for Dibala has abnormal cholesterol levels, something of which Chase was not aware. He enlists Foreman to tell more lies to cover that up, and instead, Foreman tries to get out of doing the M&M. No luck; Cuddy tells him he must do it, but wonders what is going on. Even Cameron noticed Chase’s weird behavior and calls him on it, and he explains it away. Chase gets dangerously close to confessing to Cuddy but is interrupted and never gets the words out. Lucky for Chase and Foreman that House appears to have figured out what happened and secretly leaves a file for Chase that indicates one of Dibala's previous doctors had been prescribing drugs for high cholesterol. This gives them an explanation for the cholesterol readings and gets them off the hook for the M&M. When Chase finds out it wasn’t Foreman who left the file, he goes straight to House, who then tells Chase "better murder than a misdiagnosis."

Intermingled with these stories is Thirteen, who tells House she is planning to travel and head to Thailand. On her way to the airport, she finds that her reservation was somehow canceled. She blames House but he denies it. Cuddy tells House that Thirteen also talked to her about it, and she also asks House if he really wants Foreman running the team. He seems to be comfortable with his role of advisor without actually having the power to lord over people. Thirteen later tells Dr. Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) that she found her computer was hacked and the email to cancel her flight came from his computer. He gives her the appearance that he did it, telling her that she is good for House and he doesn’t want her to throw her career away over a bad break up. Wilson tells House that he confessed to doing it and of course House admits that he knows he didn’t do it, because House did. No matter, Thirteen gets on a plane, and I can only hope she never returns.

At the end, as the penniless Roy now has his healthy son, and Thirteen gets on her plane, Foreman is at the head of the conference room for the M&M. It looks like crisis has been averted.

It was a satisfying episode, with it familiar formula: several misdiagnoses with a cure at the end, conflict with the doctors, Cuddy in tight clothes and cleavage, Wilson and his attempt at fixing things that he didn’t break. The only difference is a more tempered House, but make no mistake, the edge is not gone. Hopefully House’s painful rehab was his “bad karma” coming back at him, and he can start fresh. But for Chase and Foreman, while they managed to get through the M&M, bad karma may still be forthcoming.

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Mad Men “Wee Small Hours” Real Big Trouble

noreply@blogger.com (I Like to Watch TV) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:09:00 +0000

Photos from AMC

In the “Wee Small Hours” episode of Mad Men, a lot of trouble can happen. Salvatore Romano (Bryan Batt) tries to keep his cover of being gay, and in doing so, threatens one of Sterling Cooper’s largest accounts. Conrad Hilton (Chelcie Ross) and his annoying habit of waking Don up, coupled with his demanding and narrow attitude is giving Don Draper (Jon Hamm) grief. Don uses Conrad as cover to start a fling with Sally’s former teacher, Suzanne Farrell (Abigail Spencer). Betty Draper (January Jones) seems to be leading on Henry Francis (Christopher Stanley ) from the governor’s office, but then seems to get cold feet. This is all over a backdrop of civil rights and segregation commentary. Mad Men remains the best drama on television, as it weaves personal drama in with the culture and the events of the day to create a rich tapestry of life in the early 1960s.

Things are tough for Sal when working on a commercial for Lucky Strike, Lee Garner Jr., (Darren Pettie) the son of the cigarette magnate, makes a flagrant pass at Sal while in the editing room. Sal rejects Garner’s advances, using the excuse that he is married. But Garner, who previously addressed Sal as “Sally”, knows very well that Sal is hiding behind his marriage. Garner contacts Harry Crane (Rich Sommer) and demands that Sal be fired, and Harry, picking up on the fact that Garner seems drunk, decides that since it’s not really his call to fire Sal, and since Garner told him not to tell anybody, he decides to do nothing. This blows up in his face when Garner comes in to a meeting at Sterling Cooper and sees Sal there, and storms out. Roger Sterling (John Slattery) fires Sal on the spot, and then tells Harry to have Don fix the mess. When Harry and Sal come to Don, Don is clearly not pleased, and when alone with Sal, says that the loss of Lucky Strike could turn out the lights at Sterling Cooper. He tells Sal that it just has to be, and tells Sal he will find something. At some later day and time, Sal calls his wife from a phone book in what looks like the park, faking that he had to work late. Clearly he hasn’t told her he was fired.

I felt horrible for Sal, especially when Don, who knows Sal is gay, chastises him and says, “You people.” Don appears unable to see that he is no different than Sal in keeping secrets. Considering Don’s philandering has created problems with accounts before, he has a lot of nerve implying that because Sal is gay, that Sal’s issues are different than Don’s. It is almost as if Don looked down on Sal in the same way that he has looked down on Peggy in past episodes – that because Peggy is a woman or because Sal is gay, that their issues don’t have the same importance as Don’s, a heterosexual male. I wonder what Don would have done if Garner would have made a pass at him? Don’s attitude is reflective of the opinions people had of gays in that era, and sadly, these days, gays can still be unfairly stereotyped.

Meanwhile, Betty starts writing letter to Henry Francis in the governors office, and he responds. Henry then drives to the Draper home to see Betty, and when Carla (Deborah Lacey) comes back home, Henry makes up that he came there about using Betty’s home for a fundraiser. Betty seems to think that Carla is ignorant to what is really going on, but Carla is no dummy and reads accurately that Henry was not there for a fundraiser. When Betty decides to go through with it – maybe she came to the conclusion that she had to keep up the cover story so there would be no issue with Carla, Betty is crushed when Henry doesn’t attend and instead sends one of his staff to speak in his behalf. When she brings the money from the fundraiser to Henry’s office, she throws the cash box at him, angry that he humiliated her and she waited for him to come. Henry said that she had to come to him because she is married. When he locks the door and kisses her, Betty pulls away, saying that meeting there or even in a hotel is “tawdry.” Henry is confused by her behavior and doesn’t know what she wants. Frankly, I am not sure what Betty wants either, but it seems that she wants to be the one that is desired, and not be the one that desires someone else.

Don, on the other hand, seems to have no concerns about anything being tawdry. When he gets a call from Hilton in the wee hours and can’t fall back to sleep, he decides to head into work. On the way there, he sees Suzanne Farrell out for an early morning run. He offers to drive her to her place, and when they get there, he asks her to join him for a cup of coffee. She knows it’s not coffee he wants, and she blows him off. Later, at work, he finds that Hilton has summoned him again. He meets him at Hilton’s place and, over some prohibition alcohol, Hilton gives Don the chance at his international business, saying the he even wants to have a Hilton on the moon. Hilton wants Don’s ad campaign to reflect that. Hilton also calls Don "my angel" adding that Don feels like "more than a son" to him because he didn't have the advantages Hilton’s Connie's own boys had.

Back in the office, Don is unhappy with what Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) and her team have come up with, even though they are based on Draper’s own ideas. At a later date, Don presents the campaign to Connie: How do you say "Ice Water" in Italian or "Hamburger" in Japanese? Hilton. When Hilton wants to speak to Don alone about the campaign, he’s angry, saying the campaign is good but Don had nothing about Hilton on the moon, and "When I say I want the moon, "I expect the moon." He storms out. Afterwards, Roger enters Don’s office, and says that two huge clients stormed out of their office this week, adding, "You've got your face so deep in Hilton's lap, you're ignoring everything else. You're in over your head."

But Don’s answer to his predicament is to get even further in over his head, when he fakes that Hilton called him in the wee hours again, and tells a sleepy Betty that he has to go in to work. He doesn’t head to work, though, he heads to Suzanne Farrell’s place, and she tells Don she knows exactly where things are headed. He could care less, and forges on with a starting the affair anyway, and he spends the rest of the night in her bed.

Sal, the only person who was cautious about having an affair is the one who suffered the most punishment, having lost his job because he rejected the advances of a client. His situation was no different than sexual harassment that women also faced in that area when they refused the advances of a boss or client, but for Sal, it seems even worse because there was zero tolerance for gays during that time. Betty is no more than a tease, and she is playing dangerous game with Henry, whether she realizes it or not. I don’t blame him for being confused as to what she wants. But if Betty only knew what Don was up to, she wouldn’t have any doubts about making an overt move for Henry. Don is becoming more of a cad each week. He’s riding high with his ego in getting the Hilton account, and is acting as if he is untouchable. His fling with Suzanne Farrell – who leaves nearby and can see Betty or the kids in the normal course of a day – is literally too close to home. Don’s behavior seems to get riskier with each passing day. The question is, at what point will his luck run out, and will he take one risk too many which will blow it all for him? Since we know that Bert Cooper (Robert Morse) knows who Don really is, and Roger seem to be out to take Don down a few notches, it may only be a matter of time before Don’s risk taking works against him.

Video Recap “Mad Men: Wee Small Hours”

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It’s Criminal – NBC Cancels Southland

noreply@blogger.com (I Like to Watch TV) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:57:00 +0000

It’s criminal, I tell you. Finally, a new show emerged last season on NBC that had a great cast, it was edgy, it was different. Now it’s canceled. Despite earlier reports that the new Los Angeles police drama “Southland” would have their season premiere delayed until late October, now it won’t happen at all.

The “Jay Leno Effect” has already hit the network in a bad way. Law & Order SVU’s ratings have dropped significantly since moving to its new day and time (Wednesday at 9:00 PM ET). Spotty reports are surfacing from some local NBC affiliate stations across the country that their 11:00 PM newscasts are losing viewers at a steady clip because of the poor lead in from Leno.

Southland was a ray of hope in scripted dramas. It offered story lines and characters that were real. The camera work also made it look and feel real, as if viewers were riding along with the police as events unfolded. I wasn’t sure if I liked the show the first time I watched – the constant “bleeping” of profanities was overdone. But the show grew on me, and by the time the season ended – with a literal “bang” – I wanted more. I was also looking forward to seeing the show paired with Law & Order on Friday night. Now, I have concerns that the absence of Southland will bring even less attention to Law & Order, now in its 20th season but still producing compelling episodes.

The New York Times reported that Southland “was largely distinguished by gritty police work and sometimes dark, troubled characters — not unlike previous NBC hits like “Hill Street Blues.” That apparently became an issue for NBC: several network executives have said that they do not believe darker shows can be successful on network television right now. Oddly, NBC’s production studio, Universal Television, produces one of television’s biggest hits, the drama “House,” for the Fox network, and it has explored some of the darkest themes on television in recent years, including drug addiction and mental illness. Last year, one of the show’s main characters committed suicide. Ratings have been up for the show this season. "

NBC’s move away from scripted drama at 10:00 PM to lighter far such as Jay Leno is having a ripple effect. Despite the claim that scripted dramas are more expensive to produce than Leno’s show, in the long run, Leno may be costing the network far more in lost revenues from fewer viewers and lower ratings, which translates to less advertising dollars. The network is penny wise, but pound foolish, as the old axiom goes.

In my opinion, rather than add that extra hour of The Today Show – a show that will
eventually run all day, I suspect – they should have created an 11:00 AM show with Jay Leno to compete with The View. While I won’t watch Jay at 10 PM, I would be more than happy to watch him at 11:00 AM. I think he would be great competition for The View and could draw in more viewers than that horrific extra hour of The Today Show, which I will only watch if someone ties me to a chair and forces me to watch. (Note to NBC – don’t get any ideas.)

It’s a crime what NBC has done to Southland and to scripted programming. Hopefully, Southland will find a home on a cable network. If it does, I will be watching.

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House “The Tyrant”: Murder By Doctor

noreply@blogger.com (I Like to Watch TV) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:22:00 +0000

Photo from Fox

The show I love seems to be back, as it seemed like old times in last night’s episode of House, “The Tyrant.” House (Hugh Laurie) is back at Princeton Plainsboro, but he can’t officially practice yet. With Taub and Thirteen gone, Foreman (Omar Epps) is still in charge of diagnostics, and he brings in Drs. Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) and Chase (Jesse Spencer) to help him out with an usual case. House is still creating problems for Dr. Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) when House’s antics make life difficult for another tenant, and as a result, for Wilson as well. But things are not quite as normal as they seem, as the case ends with a shocking murder, one that appears will come back to haunt the team.

The case facing the doctors involves a foreign head of state, Dibala (James Earl Jones) who appears to be vomiting blood. Cameron has issues with treating Dibala because he is being accused of genocide and crimes against humanity. Based on some of the things Dibala says, it’s clear that the accusations are true. Cameron would rather have him dead than treat him. Chase, meanwhile, wants to do his duty as a doctor.

Foreman, meanwhile, is trying to patch things up with Thirteen, after firing her in the previous episode ”Epic Fail”, using the excuse that he did it to save their relationship. She’s not buying it, though. After she agrees to meet him for dinner, and after she questions why Foreman didn’t decide to step down rather than fire her, she comes to the conclusion that Foreman was going to put his needs and wants first, and she walks out on him.

House can’t get directly involved with the patient, but he is able to give the staff advice on how to treat Dibala. In a scene perfect for the acting talents of Hugh Laurie, House communicates to his staff using facial expressions and hand signals. It was the first time in a long time that I genuinely laughed during an episode of House.

House is also stirring the pot at Wilson’s apartment by getting into it with Wilson’s downstairs neighbor, a Vietnam War vet missing his hand/arm. The tenant is a cranky as House for the same reasons – he feels unending pain. In the case of the tenant, it is a phantom limb. The tenant is sick and tired of hearing the constant noise from House’s cane as he walks in the apartment above, and is also sick and tired of the cooking smells, and he wants House out. House thinks that he can intimidate the tenant to back off. The plan backfires horribly when House’s attempts to expose the man as a fake Vietnam vet is foiled by the fact that he really is a vet - a Canadian vet who had been sent to Vietnam to uphold the peace. The man is in horrible agony from pain in his hand/arm that he no longer has. Despite the fact that House still has his own leg but suffers from pain, he seems to develop sympathy for this man.

Meanwhile, treatment continues on Dibala’s mystery illness. Chase is approached by a man, Ruwe (Garikayi Mutambirwa), who wants Chase to forgo curing Dibala because of his killings of their people and explains how Dibala’s government is guilty of rape and torture of his own wife. Later, when Chase sees Ruwe approach Dibala’s room disguised as an orderly, Chase warns the guards and an assassination attempt is foiled and Ruwe is beaten. When Chase chastises him for his actions, he tells Chase he lied about having a wife who was attacked; rather he was made to torture women by Dibala's soldiers. He impresses on Chase that worse things will happen to the people of his country at the hands of Dibala, and a massacre is coming.

Cameron isn’t thrilled that Chase warned the guards that Ruwe was coming. Later, she uses an opportunity where Dibala seems to be confused in the head and she tries to implant an idea with his chief advisor that he may never know when Dibala will be able to give commands with a sound mind. It’s clear that Dibala was later made aware of this, when he confronts Cameron as she was about to inject him with a drug to treat him, saying all she needs to do is inject an air bubble and he will be killed. He knows she wants him dead but he tells her if that’s the case she should do it herself. Of course, she doesn’t, but something in Chase’s mind has already clicked over to the “dark side.”

During their assessment of Dibala, House thinks he has Scleroderma, but Foreman thinks it is Blastomycosis, and he tells Chase and Cameron to treat Dibala as such. Later, Cameron asks for a blood test that seems to confirm House’s diagnosis of Scleroderma, and she convinces Foreman into changing his mind and treating Dibala with steroids.

Meanwhile, House manages to knock out the neighbor by injecting him with some drug, and then restraining him with duct tape, covering his mouth as well. When the neighbor comes to, he is terrified, and one can only wonder if House has gone off the deep end. But there is a method to House’s madness. He has the neighbor place both arms into a box with a mirror, giving the illusion that he has two arms. (Mirror therapy is used often to reduce phantom limb pain.) After getting the neighbor to squeeze and release a fist, House relieves the man's phantom pain for the first time in decades. The man is grateful to House. Later, Wilson is suspicious when the neighbor has no further problems with House and as an added bonus, approved a request for an upgrade of the facilities’ garden.

Back at the hospital, problems ensue when Dibala begins to bleed through his lungs and dies. Foreman is dejected over the event, and he wonders if House’s diagnosis was correct. House tells him to go to the morgue and find out. When Foreman can’t get access to the body, now under guard, he finds that Chase had signed in to the morgue earlier in the day and questions Chase about it. He knows that Chase was there to draw blood from another patient who had Scleroderma, and gets Chase to admit that he drew that blood to be tested to provide a false diagnosis for Dibala. Foreman is horrified that Chase essentially has killed Dibala, and he thinks Chase will have to answer for it. Chase just asks that Foreman give him some notice before he gets the police involved.

Later, as Dibala’s son grieves over his father’s body, we see Foreman burning the paper which is the evidence that Chase has been in the morgue earlier that day.

Despite the ending, this episode was comfortable, like the episodes of previous seasons where the old team was together. House seemed more relaxed, though, yet he still kept his slightly darker side with his rather unusual treatment of an unwilling patient, Wilson’s neighbor. But is House correct in his assessment that Foreman and he are alike? There are some aspects where they are – they both seem to enjoy being in positions of power and authority. They are different in the fact that House would probably not dump the woman he loved in order to advance his own career. Foreman wouldn’t tie someone up with duct tape to cure him or her. Would they both cover up a murder at the hands of one of their own doctors? Hard to say. Clearly, Foreman is motivated to do so not because he feels for Chase, I believe he is doing it to cover a murder that happened under his watch. Foreman is insecure and likely thinks that the discovery of Chase’s actions would reflect badly on him and his future. House, on the other hand, doesn’t have to worry about his standing in a leadership role as he’s gone through drug addiction and rehab and the hospital still wants him back. I also think House would have probably found his own way to kill Dibala if he felt it was the right thing to do – and without living an obvious trail.

All in all, this was a fantastic episode which brought the team back, but only to create a sticky problem that, according to the previews, will come back to bite them. While the title of this episode was called “The Tyrant” we saw more than one of them – Dibala, Foreman, Wilson’s neighbor. Two of them were changed during the course of the show – Dibala is dead, Wilson’s neighbor is cured. Foreman doesn’t seem to have changed at all, and I don’t suspect he will, any time soon.

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Fringe “ Fracture” A Fractured Fairy Tale

noreply@blogger.com (I Like to Watch TV) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:36:00 +0000

Photo from Fox

Things were certainly explosive on last night’s Fringe (Fox) episode titled “Fracture.” It seems that someone can make human bombs without the traditional explosives. The Evildoer Of The Week has found a way to crystallize a person’s body and then cause it to explode – the human shrapnel killing anyone nearby. The first victim is an Officer Gillespie, who blows up in a train station in Philadelphia. The Fringe team is called in, but they don’t know that’s the source of the explosive until Walter Bishop (John Noble) finds a crystallized ear. There is a problem, though; something interfered with the recording of the event on the security tapes so they can't see the event.

Walter Bishop decided that he is going to get as many pieces as he can to attempt to reassemble the body. (By the way, I think that Walter Bishop is one of the most enjoyable characters on television today – he seems to be going through life as part genius scientist and part child. It’s that childlike side of Walter that is so much fun to watch and John Noble is perfect for the role.) I admit that I was a little worried when Walter asked his son Peter (Joshua Jackson) if he recalls putting puzzles together as a child, because we don’t know if who we believe to be an “alternate universe” Peter will have the same memories than Walter thinks. Peter does eventually remember putting puzzled together with Walter when he realizes it was a puzzle of a Playboy centerfold. Walter must have been one wacky dad.

Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) is still trying to recover her memories of what happened that led up to her car accident. She knows she was somewhere else and was supposed to come back and do something important, but it’s just not coming to her. Nina Sharp referred her to Sam Weiss (Kevin Corrigan), who starts off helping by having her remember how to do mundane tasks like tie her shoes and keeping bowling scores for a kids bowling league, the latter to teach her some patience. She is getting very frustrated that he doesn’t seem to be directly helping her with her memories. He asks her if the headaches have started, and while they haven’t he knows they will. Illness strikes Olivia while she and Peter are questioning Office Gillespie’s wife, and Olivia’s hands shake and she rushes to the bathroom to throw up. It must be fate, because when she picks her head up from the toilet, she sees a tile that appears to be loosened, and finds what looks like kits for injection of some chemicals. Gillespie’s wife has no idea what they are, so they take the kits to Walter.

Walter has already noticed many needle marks on the part of Gillespie’s foot that he’s reassembled, and determines that this chemical appears to be part of a regimen which turns the person into a bomb. Astrid (Jasika Nicole) finds Gillespie's military record and finds a mention of a chemical weapon that his whole unit was exposed to, and it should have killed them. The classified project was called Tin Man. The also have discovered that whatever interfered with the security cameras may have actually been the trigger.

Meanwhile, there is a woman who seems to have the same kit and is also injecting herself. It looks like it’s another human bomb in the making, and a man approaches her later and tells her she’s moving to active status, telling her that the "Tin Man parameters are in effect."

While Walter experiments on a watermelon and finds the frequency to make it explode,
Olivia and Peter head to Iraq, where Gillespie had done two tours. Peter has a connection that he thinks can help. The connection arranges them to meet a doctor, now working in a kitchen, and he tells them they developed a treatment that is injected daily to counteract the chemical weapon. Only four people in the program survived, and one of them was Diane Burgess – this is the woman who is currently injecting herself. He also says that an unintentional byproduct of the serum was that it turned people into bombs. He tips them off about a Colonel Raymond Gordon (Stephen McHattie) who wanted to continue the program, and Gordon is one nasty guy.

Lucky for the team, they are able to track down Diane Burgess in Washington DC and catch Gordon in the act by triangulating his signal and then jamming it just in the nick of time. He tries to flee, but Peter knocks him to the ground.

Afterwards, back at the lab, Walter brings Peter a newspaper ad for another apartment, as at the beginning of the show, Peter was having a hard time getting Walter to move into sharing a two bedroom apartment. Astrid had later helped Walter to realize that he can’t find new things unless he learns to widen his scope. Finally, it seems, Peter may hav a chance ro get a good night’s sleep.

Olivia is back at the bowling alley, and Weiss measures her hand, telling her he wants to find her the perfect bowling ball, and tells her to go home. But her patience runs out and we see her pointing a gun right at his head. But he’s happy to see this, because she is standing on her own two feet without the use of a cane, and she seems to be back as Agent Olivia Dunham. He tells her he’ll see her tomorrow.

Elsewhere, though, Gordon tells Agent Broyles (Lance Reddick) that the end is coming and they had to take matters into their own hands. He adds "they" are here, collecting data, making observations. That's what's in the briefcase that was being passed to the people that were exploding. While he is talking to Broyles, we see the man Burgess tried to stop at the train station bringing his briefcase to someone at a diner of sorts, who dumps tons of pepper on his food. Gordon tells Broyles whatever is in the briefcase is going to destroy us all. But as the camera pulls back, we see the man who now has the briefcase eating all that peppered food is the “Observer” (Michael Cerveris) and he is leafing through many pictures of Walter that had been in the briefcase.

One flaw with Fringe is that they seem to move about the country and the globe with lightning speed. It is almost as if they blinked and they went to Iraq and back. But you can’t just beat the humor. The scene where Peter eats a hamburger in the lab and the cow moos in objection – on cue no less – and seeing Peter’s reaction - was hilarious.

The questions we are left with are: Is what Gordon says true and are we being led to believe that Walter – whose pictures are in the briefcase – will destroy us all? Are the Observers here to help us or to hurt us? Since Walter was able to successfully bring an “alternate” Peter over from the other universe or time line, will this action later prove to cause larger problems for the time in which Peter currently exists? What is it that Olivia was sent back to this time to do – and is this really the same Olivia that left? Her memories seem the same, but so do many of Peter’s from his own alternate childhood. One thing is for certain, the Observer may have taken on a new meaning for viewers, since now we are led to believe that they are here to do more than just observe – they are here to possibly affect an outcome. Maybe the child like side of Walter is just lulling viewers into a false sense of security, and it’s Walter’s genius that spells trouble?

The preview for next week featured Leonard Nimoy, so you know it will be good. It sounds too good to miss!

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CSI: NY - A Deadly “Blacklist”

noreply@blogger.com (I Like to Watch TV) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:55:00 +0000

Mac Taylor - Computer airbrushed, or spackled? (Photo CBS)

A hacker who uses his skills to murder is the theme behind CSI: NY “Blacklist.” His murderous intentions include a personal ‘cat and mouse” game with Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise). One thing is for certain, one can always count on the CSI franchise's incredible manner and speed in which they solve crimes. Before I chop the episode apart, I want to state that despite its flaws, I found it to be an enjoyable hour of television.

The murders start when a man finds himself in a bad area of town because he put all his faith in his GPS, which lead him to the Bronx instead of mid town Manhattan. For me, whenever I travel someplace new, I always look at an on-line map first just to be sure I know where I am headed. But not this guy. Not only had someone hijacked his GPS, but his emergency calls, and the operation of his car. When the hacker turns on the car alarm that caused the horn to blare and the lights to flash, he becomes a sitting duck for robbery and murder - because we know that everyone in a "bad neighborhood" will rob and murder at the slightest chance.

The second murder involved the hacker managing to access a restaurant ordering system so he could make sure that his targeted diner would be eating something that included peanut, which drove the diner into an allergic shock. The hacker was also able to hack into the 911 call and have it diverted to his own phone.

Meanwhile, the CSI lab uses all the electronics at its disposal in order to not only use facial recognition to pick out the identities of suspects from grainy security video, but also to attempt tot track the location of the hacker. It all looks so easy, that for a minute I think I am watching an episode of CSI Miami.

But things get personal – you know, criminals out there always want to make it personal – when the hacker – who was called the Grave Digger, decides to taunt Mac. During this process, we are given a diatribe on all the ills of the health care system these days. I don’t mind when shows insert some political commentary in their themes, but I think I like them to be a little less obvious or flagrant. We also see flashbacks of Mac when his own father was dying of lung cancer, and I found myself laughing at what was either a computer enhanced face, or makeup done by a mortician, on Mac Taylor to make him appear younger. His face looked either electrically airbrushed, or filled with spackle - you decide. It was both funny and creepy to say the least. So while Mac is recalling coming back from the service to be with his dying dad, I was distracted by that weird looking face they gave him.

By the way, it seems that Danny (Carmine Giovinazzo) is back to work, but still in his wheelchair, Lindsay (Anna Belknap) is back to work but the baby (I think) spit up on her clothes, and Flack (Eddie Cahill) is still trying to work through Angell’s death. But all three of these stories take a back seat to Mac in this episode, seeing that criminals always seem to want to target the boss.

While they make the connections to the first two murder victims, they realize who will be the next target: Lisa Kim, who worked at the medical facility where Grave Digger had been turned away for health care after his insurance ran out. Despite the fact that she is described as extremely claustrophobic, she gets into an elevator, and freaks out quickly when she realizes that she is trapped. If she was that claustrophobic, I can’t see her even stepping in to an elevator in the first place. She began to panic quickly and seemingly neared death from her own fright within seconds. It was hard to believe. But of course, the CSI NY team had managed to track her down and Mac got there with Hawkes (Hill Harper) to save her before she died of fright.

Eventually they catch up to the Grave Digger and get him to the hospital before he dies on them. Mac has saved the day again.

While this episode kept me entertained for an hour, I wouldn’t say it was one of their best. I don’t understand why crime shows have to create criminal characters that always want to target someone on the law enforcement team and make it personal. CSI NY is not the only show that does this, which is why it seems like such an overused theme. Another overused theme is flashbacks, especially when they try to make the person who is flashing back look a lot younger. It’s distracting, and a younger Mac Taylor looked a little creepy. Otherwise, it’s nice to know that the CSY NY, like all the others in the CSI franchise, can solve crimes with lightning speed. Maybe we should let Mac Taylor and his CSIs loose on the health care system?

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NCIS “Reunion” Boring Case, Ziva Reunites With Team

noreply@blogger.com (I Like to Watch TV) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:59:00 +0000

Photo from CBS

The one thing about NCIS (CBS) is that by the time the NCIS team has worked through a case, you find you really don’t care about the case at all. In fact, by the time the murder case was solved, I realized that I still wasn’t sure who did it and why, because I was so distracted by events surrounding Ziva’s (Cote de Pablo) return to the NCIS team and the dumbed down script. I also can’t tell you who the murderer was because I actually fell asleep watching the last five minutes of the show, that’s how disinterested and bored I became.

Ziva has always annoyed me, and every time she seems to be going off the show, I hope and pray that she doesn’t return. Of course, I know that this is not going to happen any time soon, seeing that the show seems to have gained in popularity over the last year and I can’t see anyone wanting to mess with that success. Still, after all the time she’s been in the United States, she still seems to talk like Commander Data from Star Trek The Next Generation, who couldn’t – or should I say “could not” - use contractions. This can get on anyone’s nerves after a while.

It seems that the NCIS team – that is, besides Special Agent Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) - is unable to function properly without Ziva. Special Agent Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) behaves in such an immature and juvenile fashion, and Special Agent Timothy McGee (Sean Murray) is so spineless, that Ziva’s replacement hands in her resignation after only working there a very short time. Yes, she has them pegged.

But the episode falls into silliness quickly when Abby (Pauley Perrette) berates Ziva and then welcomes her back all at the same time, in a scene that I found to be too staged and too overdone. I enjoy Abby but sometimes she seems like a total idiot, and this was one of those times. Likewise, the scene where DiNozzo has to go to the bathroom and Gibbs makes him hold it until Gibbs has the information he needs from Tony was probably one of the biggest scenery-chewing scenes in the history of the show. It was hard to watch, that’s how bad it was. Weatherly can really ham it up, and this time it was too much.

Another ridiculous scene was when Tony goes to meet a suspect and that guy is conveniently shot, then conveniently drives his car (he was already dead, which I guess makes it DWD – “driving while dead”), weaving around the street and then conveniently hits the phone booth where Tony was waiting to meet him. How did that car manage to drive all over and then hit the phone booth squarely where Tony was supposed to be is beyond me.

Ziva decides to approach Gibbs directly about returning to her job, walking right into his basement and….wait, how does Gibbs get those boats out of there?….she gives him a gift of a chisel and then talks to him about returning to the team. He tells her she has to convince NCIS Director Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll), the man who rarely blinks. She meets with him and he is unsure of her loyalties so he makes her undergo psych testing. To make a long story short, she gets back on the team.

This episode seemed to be written to appeal to viewers in the 13-18 year old range. Maybe this is the demographic they are trying to grab, and if so, they did a bang up job. But the episodes of NCIS that I enjoy the most are those with a little less overacting and fewer scenes where the character such as Tony and Abby act like juveniles. This is one “reunion” that should have been avoided.

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House “Epic Fail” Epic Boredom

noreply@blogger.com (I Like to Watch TV) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:15:00 +0000

Photo from Fox

Greg House (Hugh Laurie) is trying to get his life back together after his stint in rehab in last night’s episode of House (Fox), “Epic Fail.” There was nothing particularly memorable in this episode, despite the fact that a lot had happened. After last week’s episode (“Broken”), which was full of angst and drama, “Epic Fail” almost seemed to drag. Maybe part of my problem is that so much time was spent on Foreman (Omar Epps) and “Thirteen” (Olivia Wilde), a couple that seems to have no real chemistry, well, except now maybe the kind of chemistry that blows up.

What happened in this episode? Here’s a list of events:

1. House quits because he doesn’t want to come back to the place that he thinks drove him deeper into drug use. He undergoes more therapy with Dr. Darryl Nolan (Andre Braugher) who tells him to find a hobby to take his mind off the pain in his leg. House tags along with Dr. Wilson’s (Robert Sean Leonard) in his cooking class. As driven as he is, and now even more so to distract him from pain, House becomes a great cook but he is almost obsessive about it. But the pain is still there, so House, currently living with Wilson, goes back to his old place and finds a bottle of pills hidden in a shoe. Doe he take some? We don’t know, bit his pain is suddenly gone. Compounding the matter is when Wilson rigs up the toilet so he can capture some of House’s urine to test for drugs, and Wilson is foiled when he and Cuddy find that House is on to them and substitutes dog pee. (We don’t want to know how he got dog pee.) Nolan tells him maybe he needs his job at the hospital, telling House “The only thing worse for you than going back to diagnostic medicine is not going back." As if anyone really expected House would stay away.

2. Foreman begs Cuddy to let him take House’s position as head of diagnostics, and Taub (Peter Jacobson) and Taub now report to him. But Taub quits, saying he came there to work for House. My guess is once House comes back, Taub will want to un-quit.

3. Foreman and Thirteen work on the annoying patient of the week, who is admitted into the hospital because his hands burn and because he heard the genius House works there. Yes, sure, let’s give this guy special attention for a non life-threatening illness. But since House isn’t there, Foreman, Thirteen and Taub plunder through the case, with the patient making matters worse by getting people from the internet involved. After the doctors ridicule people getting and giving medical advice over the internet, it turns out the Thirteen gets the real diagnosis from someone who submitted their diagnosis on the internet. We find out later that this person was Greg House. No surprise here. By the way, the patient had Fabry disease, and I found that I could care less.

4. Foreman and Thirteen, now that the relationship is boss and subordinate, have a little friction develop between them. (Snore.) They seem to patch things up and then Foreman surprises Thirteen when he fires her to save their relationship. Yeah, now that relationship is going to work (note sarcasm).

5. Somewhere in this episode we see Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) and Chase (Jesse Spencer); two characters that used to be far more interesting but have been woefully underused in the last few seasons. Since it is no secret now that Morrison will be leaving the show part way through the season, I think this series should seriously consider adding another doctor who actually has some spark because, outside of House and Wilson, nobody has it right now. Too bad they killed off Amber (Anne Dudek).

6. Comic relief was when Dr. Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) came to visit House at Wilson’s and an Asian woman speaking Chinese (I think) comments that Cuddy dresses like a whore. She said what I and many other fans have been thinking for the past few years. I was nice to have that validated.

While this episode wasn’t horrible, it offered no drama and as a result, I failed to care about any of the characters, with the exception of House. I think that fans all know that Foreman will never be a great diagnostician like House and it is getting rather repetitive seeing Foreman not measure up every chance he gets. But I am not sure that Foreman's plight is the “Epic Fail” to which this episode refers. I wonder if House has fallen off the wagon. I would like to think that he hasn’t, but honestly, this failure of Foreman’s can hardly be considered epic. Hopefully once House gets back into the swing of things, things will get back to normal for him. But what is normal for House may not be what is good for House, and this could spell trouble.

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Mad Men “Seven Twenty Three” Bad Day For Don Draper

noreply@blogger.com (I Like to Watch TV) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:29:00 +0000

Don Draper – Is That Dick Whitman looking back at him?
Photo AMC

Last night’s excellent episode of Mad Men “Seven Twenty Three” speaks to a significant date in the life of Don Draper (Jon Ham). What leads up to it makes it so, and it seems that everyone is compromising themselves to varying degrees during these few days.

The episode was more about Don’s important date. We are given a glimpse of the events leading up to the day, when the show opens with Peggy (Elizabeth Moss) waking up in bed with another man whose face we can’t see; Betty (January Jones) laying on a fainting couch in a beautiful frock; and Don is walking up on the floor of a motel room and he’s been beaten.

Peggy’s days leading up to 7/23 involves getting an expensive Hermes scarf from Duck as an enticement for her to come to work for Grey. Pete (Vincent Kartheiser) also got cigars, but he is sending them back and urges Peggy to do the same with her scarf. Peggy hates that Pete comes into her office and tells Pete he is infecting her with his anxiety. But Pete has good reason to worry as he thinks Duck is just trying to use them to strike back at Don, who helped force Duck out of Sterling Cooper. When Peggy calls Duck to tell him she is returning the gift, he invites her to the hotel where he is meeting with Hermes and tells her to sop by at 6 to meet them. She doesn’t intend to go, but things change when she later finds an excuse to approach Don and brings up the Hilton account he just landed and asks to be involved. He rips her, asking her what else she wants from him, saying she is always in his pocket, adding he resents her pretending to have something for him to sign off on something when she just wants something like a raise or an office. He wounds her even further by saying r there is not one thing that she's done there that he couldn't live without, saying she's good but she needs to focus on getting better and stop asking for things. She comes close to tears, and saying she is sorry, she leaves.

Later, she arrives at Duck’s hotel room, too late to see the Hermes people, but she comes in to have a drink with Duck. But he then comes on to her, and they wind up in bed, and this is the man we saw her waking up in bed with that we saw at the beginning of the episode. One is forced to wonder if Duck really was as attracted to Peggy as he told her, or is this the way he found to get at Peggy so he could get back at Don? I suspect that Duck’s motives have nothing to do with an attraction to Peggy.

Betty’s days start with an interior designer showing her and Don the changes she made to their living room. Late, she has a meeting there with the Junior League, and the issue on the table is a new 3 million gallon water tank that is planned for their area, and they are worried it will ruin the natural beauty of their area and destroy property values. The want to get the Governor’s attention on the matter, and Betty remembers meeting someone from the Governor’s office (she met him at Roger’s party in the episode ”My Old Kentucky Home” ) and they find his full name of Henry Francis (Christopher Stanley), who is an advisor to the governor. She calls his office and he calls right back. She tells him about the issue and they agree to meet at a local diner on Saturday. He seems to be taken with her, and Betty seems to be trying to hide her attraction. He tells her he will look into the matter but makes no promises. When they walk out of the diner Betty says she feels faint, but it is probably her attraction to Henry. When they pass a furniture store, Henry points out a fainting couch and explains that Victorian women used it when they become overwhelmed. Betty, worried that this is a small town, rejects his offer for a walk to her car, and they shake hands instead. Roger later calls under a false premise and spills the news to Betty on an issue with Don’s contract, and she and Don fight about the contract (more on this later). We then find that Betty has purchased the fainting couch and moved it into the living room, to the horror of the interior designer. It seems to me that Betty is getting restless and unhappier with her marriage, and Henry Francis may be just the ticket.

Don’s day is the most complex and ends the worst. He arrives to work late to find the office abuzz as Conrad Hilton (Chelcie Ross) is waiting in his office, sitting in Don’s chair. He lectures Don on Don not having family photos or a bible on his desk. He tells Don he wants him to handle the New York area Hiltons, and his method of contact with Don will stay the same, but he can’t say the same for the lawyers. Of course, since Don has no contract, he is called to meet with Bert Cooper (Robert Morse), Roger Sterling (John Slattery), and Lane Pryce (Jared Harris) where they tell him the lawyers for Hilton insist on Don having a contract. Don pushes back, and seems upset that they are not pushing back with the lawyers for him. They offer him a three-year contract with a signing bonus and tell him to take it home and think about it.

What Don seems to be thinking about at one point is not the contract, but Sally’s teacher Miss Farrell (Abigail Spencer). The kids are all in the park getting ready to see the eclipse of the sun as it skirts the area. Miss Farrell is showing the kids and the dads there how to set up their “camera obscura” which are cardboard boxes they cut out to allow them to view the eclipse safely. When Don strikes up a conversation with Miss Farrell, she assumes he is hitting on her, because she says they all do it. He puts on the innocent act. When she walks off to look at the eclipse with one of the kids, Don stares right at it, the only thing protecting his eyes are his sunglasses

Back at the office, Roger comes in and quizzes Don about the contract, and tells him all they need is a letter of intent. When Don isn’t responsive, Roger leave and asks Don if he simply doesn't want to do it here or just not at all. When Roger leaves, Peggy walks in, and using needing his signature as an excuse to get in to see him, she asks about the Hilton account and this is when Don demeans her. Keep in mind that Don met with some of the account guys earlier and they also brought up the issue, one has to wonder why Don is being so prickly with Peggy – Don’s sexism is coming out.

Roger then makes that phone call to Betty under a false pretense, and then tells her about the contract issue with Don. Betty is annoyed with Roger and hangs up on him. Later, she rips Don about why he didn’t tell her, and he takes the drink he just poured for himself and walks out. While he is driving, drink in hand, he picks up two young hitchhikers who ask to be taken to the nearest motel. They say they are going to Niagara Falls to get married, as they heard a married guy wouldn’t get drafted for Vietnam. Don continues to drink, and they offer Don “reds” – Phenobarbital – and he takes two of them. They arrive at the hotel, and Don parties with them by drinking while the two of them make out. Don hallucinates, seeing his father sitting in the corner of the room with a rocker and his jug of whiskey. When Don seems to get drowsier, they couple wonders why the pills haven’t knocked him out yet, and the guy strikes Don on the head, putting him out cold. Don wakes up on the floor, bloodied, and finds a note from the couple that essentially says they robbed him but left him his car – and one dollar. How nice of them.

When Don walks back to the office, face swollen and with a bandage on his hose, he says he was in a fender bender. When he walks into his office, Bert Cooper is waiting for him, sitting in Don’s chair. He tells Don a story, saying that Sacagawea carried a baby all the way to the Pacific Ocean, and it thought it discovered America, adding that Don has been standing on someone's shoulders. Bert is annoyed with Don, saying that they brought him in and nurtured him like family, and now is time for him to pay them back. Bert pulls out the contract and asks a bombshell of a question: "would you say I know something about you?" Don knows that Bert is on to his real identity of Dick Whitman, so Don answers Bert that he would. Bert uncaps the pen, saying, "then sign" adding, "after all, when it comes down to it, who's really signing this contract anyway?" Don signs, but insists that he doesn't want any more contact with Roger Sterling. The date on the contact is 7/23/1963.

It seems that Peggy is literally sleeping with the enemy. One has to wonder, is she doing this to get her foot in the door with Duck, or can she use what she finds out from him to get the advantage – and Don’s appreciation? Is Betty playing with fire with Henry Francis and will he expect more from her in exchange for his help with the water tower? And now that Don is in to Sterling Cooper for 3 more years, will he feel even more trapped and will his behavior get more erratic? What will the office be like if he refuses to have contact with Roger? And what about the over-controlling Conrad “Connie” Hilton? Will he be the best thing that ever happened to Don, or will he smother Don with his overly conservative, narrow views? And if Bert knows about Dick Whitman, who else knows, and will this come back to haunt Don in the near future? I believe that Don’s days where he could look at the sun with little worry are over. Not only is Conrad Hilton and Bert Cooper sitting in his chair, so is Dick Whitman.

Mad Men episode video recap

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ABC's "FlashForward": An Uncertain Future?

noreply@blogger.com (I Like to Watch TV) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:35:00 +0000

Photo from ABC

I had high hopes for the new ABC series “FlashForward” . It seemed like an interesting premise: the entire world loses consciousness for 2 minutes and 17 seconds, and while unconscious, many people have visions of their future.

But the premiere episode “No More Good Days” left me wanting. It also left me with a lot of questions, not necessarily questions that the show creators would want me to have. The big glaring problem is if the whole world was unconscious for 2 minutes and 17 seconds, things would be in a bigger mess that the episode seemed to indicate. It seems that life for the most part almost went on like normal for the main characters. For example, there didn’t seem to be any crisis at the hospital with patients flooding in or doctors flooding out to care for others on the street, yet we see injured people everywhere. The issue with the hospital seemingly being little affected by the massive event was something I could not get past.

Another issue I couldn’t resolve was the FBI’s behavior. They seemed to treat this like a normal everyday issue with a normal sit-down meeting about what caused it to happen. Frankly, I would have expected them to be out on the street helping law enforcement. Yet, we are let to believe that main character Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) was given the lead on such an immense issue, just because he felt his personal “FlashForward” vision tied into the event. Sorry, but an event of this magnitude would have people at the very highest level of office probably running point and calling the shots. It seemed that Benford’s boss Stan Wedeck (Courtney Vance) washed his hands of the matter far too fast.

Another nit pick was that I had a hard time getting my arms around how much time had passed as the episode progressed. If I recall correctly, toward the end of the episode a woman commented about going through a huge number of security camera footage to find one lone person that didn’t seem to be unconscious in that 2-minute time frame. How did she get the video feeds so fast and be able to look through as much of it as she said in what seemed like a short time?

The episode also was a little choppy as it introduced characters. I think I may have preferred a 2-hour episode where for part of the first hour, we got to learn a bit about the people, and the second hour, they began their efforts to pick up the pieces and find out why the event took place. They crammed far too much into that one hour that it seemed to take any mystery or drama out of the reveal that they had a shared vision.

The cast itself seemed wooden, the only one seeming to fit his role was Courtney Vance, who always does authority figures well. Joseph Fiennes was a disappointment, his acting wooden. If he is going to be the lead in this effort to understand why this event took place, I may get bored looking at his somewhat stony and unfeeling facial expression.

Bottom line – a show I was excited about watching I now have some serious concerns about it's survival. I will give it one or two more episodes. If I see more of the same issues I saw in the pilot, it will be off my viewing list, and that’s the vision I had watching FlashForward.

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