Vulture

Week In Review: Team Volturi!

Mark Graham — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:45:00 GMT

How many ways is New Moon (the movie) better than New Moon (the book)? We ran the numbers, and the answer is 34. This is less a testament to the vagina-less Chris Weitz than it is a credit to Kristin Stewart's much improved demeanor and Taylor Lautner's not-at-all restless abs. Besides, the tweens of America clearly didn't care how crappy the CGI werewolves looked, they just wanted to feast their eyes on Robert Pattinson's sparklechest.

So, what else happened this week? Well...

On the same day that Oprah pledged to leave daytime (and Chicago) in her rear view mirror, James Franco stepped in to save it. January Jones bombed while Jason Segel crooned. Radiohead got judged and Anvil got snubbed. David Lynch and Aaron Sorkin returned, while Noel Gallagher stayed gone.

Modern Family's Julie Bowen and Sofia Vergara beefed. Wes Anderson got picky while everyone else got stoned. Bob Weinstein wants his name back, but Barney doesn't want Robin back (yet). Movie theater popcorn will get you fat, but Courtney Love remained thin. Miley Cyrus stayed mute on film but not in real life. British television actors tried American accents on for size, but Werner Herzog's accent will never change.

And lastly, Ken Ober died but Michael Jackson was born again. Circle of life, people.

Grey’s Anatomy: Happy New Year!

Katie Goldsmith — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

This episode blasts us through Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's faster than you can say "Meet me in the on-call room." It's a whirlwind of illegitimate children, unrequited love, an alcoholic chief, and a disapproving father. And, as usual, McDreamy magically saves some lives, too.

Now that the Chief's taking a break from the operating room, he has extra time to mentor Meredith, not that he's giving her special treatment because he used to sleep with her mother or anything. In fact, he tells Meredith that he never really had a drinking problem. It was just that her mother drove him to alcoholism, but now that she's out of the picture, he's fine to throw back a few.

Meanwhile, Cristina interrupts her steamy make-out session with Owen to respond to a page from "Desert Storm Barbie" Teddy, who has to remove a young woman's heart. The heartless patient, Kelsey, knowing she could die at any moment, says the one thing she wants in the world is to see snow. So Teddy carts her (and her life-sustaining medical equipment) outside, all the while gushing to Yang about how Hunt brought snow to soldiers in Iraq for Christmas, rubbing her face in the past that she and Hunt share. Meanwhile, Yang, Hunt, and Avery watch Kelsey stare up into the snow in a moment of pure elation, right before she collapses to the icy ground and chaos ensues. Nice move, Teddy — the girl practically died out there. You couldn't have brought a little cooler of snow into her hospital room?

Down in the ER, Mark Sloan's in the middle of torturing some poor guy with seared flesh, when a busty young blonde pops in (Hello, hospital security?), and chipperly announces, "I'm pretty sure you're my dad." Oh, and her first name is Sloan. Clever, right? Callie interrupts the awkward moment by suggesting a paternity test, and whips out a kit that she just happened to have on hand. As luck would have it, Sloan is his daughter, and she's moving in with him and Lexi. Lexi, in the middle of cooking Thanksgiving dinner, nearly chops her finger off when she hears the news.

Suddenly, it's Christmas, and we're sad to have missed out on Sloan's first month with her new Dad. Did they have casual chats over breakfast cereal? "Hey, remember how you paid my mom a few hundred dollars to get an abortion and fled?" We guess not. Lexi encourages Mark to find out how much longer she'll be residing with them, and as he gazes over at her, she looks up and says, "What are you looking at, Old Perv?" Charming.

Back at the hospital, Dr. Bailey has to perform a laparoscopic bowel-repair on Kelsey while she's awake on the table (something about her not having a heart prohibits her from going under general anesthesia). To ease her nerves, Bailey initiates a mid-surgery chorus of "Let It Snow," forcing an unfestive Alex and apparently-Jewish Cristina to join in the holiday spirit. (See the video below!)

Dr. Bailey's dad also shows up for the holidays, so Bailey has to break the news that she got a divorce without telling him. He disapproves of her hardworking lifestyle, claiming her long hours and failed marriage "broke their family." He kindly tells her this over Christmas dinner at Meredith and Derek's. Callie, meanwhile, compares the news of Bailey's divorce to her recent switch over to lesbianism.

And speaking of meddlesome fathers, Meredith's Dad walks into the kitchen and sloppily asks if Richard (the Chief) is drinking again. Despite the fact that he is, Meredith defends him: "Were you drinking when I was a kid? When you left me with my mother and found another family and never looked back?" "No," he responds, "I didn't start drinking till much later." And back: "Well then, we can't blame the world's evils on alcohol, can we?" Except that the Chief actually does have an alcohol problem, and later stumbles around the bar in a sad, drunken state, plopping his arm around Meredith and asking for another "club soda."

But it wouldn't be Grey's without Derek performing some sort of miracle, so he develops a new surgical instrument just in time to save a boy's life. Meanwhile, none of the surgeons will be receiving bonuses this year, which is a refreshing glimmer of reality in the world of Seattle Grace-Mercy West. Before we know it, it's New Year's Eve, and Lexi says she won't have sex with Mark until he gets Sloan out of the house. Except Sloan's preggers (like mother, like daughter!), she has nowhere else to go, and Mark, in a shockingly paternal move, cradles her and tells her everything's going to be alright. Guess he won't be getting any for a while. And neither will Teddy. She tells Owen she's still in love with him (didn't she already do this?), but he says he loves Cristina. And that's all the Grey's drama we can handle, at least until 2010.

More Recaps:
Jennifer Armstrong at EW.com knocks Derek, Arizona, and Mark for still expecting their holiday bonuses.

Glenn Diaz at buddytv.com suggests that Bailey's dad sit down with Callie's dad to discuss their surgeon-daughter-issues.

Community: Salsa Verde

Andy Greenwald — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:50:00 GMT

It’s Green Week, everyone! Yes, that hilariously contrived Ben Silverman idea that NBC is actually continuing after Silverman’s unamicable departure (as opposed to “Pumas On Hovercraft Week” and the equally ill-fated “Bikini Models With Lasers Week”). Green Week works, partly because it offers the Thursday-night comedy lineup an enormous opportunity for parody — something the producers of Community were clearly eager to run with. Last night’s “Environmental Science” wasn’t just the funniest Green Week-inspired sitcom since 30 Rock’s David-Schwimmer-in-a-bodysuit “Greenzo,” a few years back, it was also the best episode yet of Community’s young life.

The jokes start coming fast and furious when sniveling Dean Pelton announces his own Green Week on campus by changing the name of Greendale to “Envirodale” — which annoys Pierce not because it’s ridiculous (“Green” is already in the name!) but because he feels devoting an entire week to Irish awareness is a bit much. Aside from a predictable but still effective joke about “Greene Daye” — a Lucky Charms tribute band, apparently — performing at the school, the rest of the episode wisely lays off the Inconvenient Truth comedy train in favor of the tried-and-true: Ken Jeong as cranky Spanish teacher Señor Chang and his outrageous homework demands, namely a twenty-page essay due Monday, even though the students only know how to say “hello, tomorrow, and that tables are female.”

Jeff, being both the most effective arguer and the, y’know, star of the show, is selected by the study group to try and convince Chang to lighten up. (“You’re the one with a silver tongue,” says Annie. “Yeah, go tongue Chang,” deadpans Pierce.) In Chang’s sensually-lit office (where he sits underneath a truly impressive “El Tigre” poster), Jeff correctly intuits that Chang is venting on the class because his wife has left him. The clues? Bad attitude, yes, but also wearing the same shirt twice in one week and gluing a Post-it-note dialogue-balloon over a photo of the formerly happy couple saying “Enjoy It While It Lasts … ” Teacher and student are soon bonding, hanging out at strip clubs, and — see the video below! — digging into Chang’s giant jar of pickled bull testicles (“Are you offering or collecting?” asks Jeff when the jar first comes out).

Jeff and Chang’s bonding (and Chang’s disturbing fixation on Jeff’s pecs) results in Jeff getting preferential treatment in class and being exiled from the study group. It also leads to a hilariously racist lesson on the differences between “tu y Ud.” Elsewhere, Abed and Troy lose their test rat, Fievel, and attempt to find him again by serenading the hallways with a tasteful duet of “Somewhere Out There” while Shirley is bad at giving an oral presentation about Brownies (but good at bugging her eyes for the camera!) and needs Pierce’s help regarding sandwich-offering and the dangers of stiff posture (“Do you know what happens when you lock your knees?” he asks. “You die!”). All this general wackiness actually pays off as Jeff contrives to reunite Chang y Señora Chang via a salsa dance-off to the dulcet, pan-flute-involving sounds of Greene Daye. We’re suckers for shows that end with the cast enjoying the pleasures of a good jig.

And so: Bravo, Community! And bravo to writer Zach Paez, who manages to hit outrageously zany comic highs both verbal (Pierce acting like Jeff because he’s sitting in his chair) and physical (Pierce pratfalling backwards out of said chair) while maintaining the line between quirkiness and cartooniness that the show has struggled with in the past. (Paez also seems to maintain a funny Tumblog. One of us! One of us!)

More Recaps:
Alan Sepinwall agrees with us that this was a “strong, very satisfying episode” (One of us! One of us!):
At the A.V. Club, Todd VanDerWerff thinks the show is on a roll.
But John Young at EW.com wasn’t feeling things until Abed and Troy started singing.

James Franco Debuts on General Hospital

Lindsay Robertson — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:45:00 GMT

James Franco, bitches.

11/20/09: The day people who had never watched General Hospital before in their lives watched a little bit of General Hospital, just to see James Franco. Never forget! Turns out, it's not very hospital-y, at all, and it's about the mafia and the art world and a lady having a meltdown in her living room. But also, at least for now, starting today, it's about Franco, a famous artist whose art is killing people or maybe rearranging them after they die, or something, and whenever he's on the screen, the piano part from that song “Mad World”, popularized in a cover version on the Donnie Darko soundtrack plays. The best part was at the end, when James Franco reveals his beautiful, glistening face and kisses a lady. Here's that part. James Franco!

Oprah Invites Us on an Eighteen-Month-Long Journey

Lindsay Robertson — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:30:02 GMT

Don't shoot the messenger.

Oprah Winfrey officially announced today that her show will not continue indefinitely exactly as it is now, and the world reacted with screams and sobs. In her tearful announcement, Oprah said that 25 years felt like the right number, and invited her audience to continue with her on the eighteen-month journey to the show's finale in 2011. It's kind of hard to muster much excitement about this, because eighteen months is an unbelievable amount of time (you could conceive a BABY today and it could be TALKING during Oprah's last show) but also because, come on, Oprah is like energy: She can't go away, she can only change form.

John Woo on Red Cliff, Returning to Asia, and Why He’s Not a Hustler

Bilge Ebiri — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:00:09 GMT

Director John Woo’s career in Hollywood began with the 1993 Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle Hard Target, and went on to encompass such massive hits as Mission: Impossible 2 and Face/Off. Now, after fifteen years of toiling in the Hollywood machinery, Woo has returned to Asia, with the medieval war epic Red Cliff, based on a famous battle between three warlords at the end of the Han Dynasty in China. The film, which features some of the most spectacularly elaborate battle scenes that anyone has ever put on film, was released in two two-and-a-half hour parts in Asia, where it broke box-office records. Woo has cut it down to a svelte two-and-a-half hour version for U.S. release. Vulture caught up with him in a SoHo hotel to talk about the importance of Red Cliff to his career, as well as his impressions of his own Hollywood legacy.

Why did you decide to make a shorter cut of Red Cliff for American audiences?
We planned this before shooting. Asian audiences, of course, want to see more — it’s their story. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean audiences are familiar with this part of history, so we could develop more characters, and pursue more about their relationships. Americans are not as familiar with it. So, we decided to focus on the main storyline and the key characters for this cut. We had some difficulty trimming it down. Also, I’ve been told that Western audiences prefer foreign films with subtitles that aren’t much longer than two hours.

How would you rate your American period? Some big fans of your Hong Kong period were disappointed in some of your American films.
I’ve had a good experience in Hollywood, and I think I’ve made a couple of quite good movies. But I do feel a little frustrated with it. It’s really hard to do the things I really want. And also to have the same freedom I had in Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, in China, the director is everything. Same with Europe. Same everywhere, actually, except Hollywood. You can use your own imagination, without any disturbance. In Hollywood, you have to listen to so many people. People in Hollywood, they love to talk. You have to hustle. I’m not that kind of person.

So do you feel like you have more freedom now that you’re in China?
It’s definitely more simple. I walked into the office, let them know I wanted to make a movie called Red Cliff, and they said okay. I didn’t even have to show them a script. I didn’t need to take “advice” from anyone. I just shut my door and did my own work

What came first, your decision to work in China, or your decision to make Red Cliff?
I’ve been dreaming of making this story for years — I grew up with it. I’d admired all these characters for so many years. About five years ago, I thought it was about time to take what I‘d learned from Hollywood about making big movies into Asia. Young film-people in China, besides having a great passion for movies, are all eager to learn. They want to learn how to make a big-budget Hollywood movie. For a topic like Red Cliff, this was a great way to learn. For example, I brought a special-effects team from America, and a special-effects team from Korea, and I let them work together and learn from each other.

You’ve spoken before about feeling artistically burnt out before A Better Tomorrow came around and revived your career in Hong Kong. It seems as if your career has gone in progressions. Do you think you’re entering a new period now?
I think so. I’m glad I can keep making movies in China, because I have so many stories to tell. But I do also want to make some other American films. The thing is, in my Hong Kong films, and in my American films, I used to like the tragic hero. Most of the time, I was thinking of myself. Now I’m getting older, more concerned about the world, about other people. I have three lovely children. So Red Cliff is quite different from what I’ve done before. It’s a movie about other people. Usually, my films have been about one or two people. This film is all about working together, about friendship, brotherhood, teamwork. So, even though it’s about war, I feel that it gives an optimistic message to young people, that if they work together, they can overcome any obstacle. This is also very different from other Chinese historical films.

James Toback Isn't Taking His Oscar Snub Well

Mark Graham — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:45:01 GMT

In an interview with the New York Times, enigmatic director James Toback went to great lengths to assail not only the reputation of the committee that selects the shortlist for the Best Documentary award, but also the fairness of their selection process. “How is some tiny, dirty covert weirdly protective little group within the Academy going to be immune?,” he posed to Michael Cieply, before adding that he experienced something during the selection process “which I put fully in the category of extortion that I did not go along with.” [NYT]

Ang Lee and James Schamus Discuss the Mistakes They Made With Taking Woodstock

Jada Yuan — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:30:02 GMT

On Wednesday night, the National Arts Club awarded its Medal of Honor in Film to director Ang Lee and his longtime collaborator, Focus Features president James Schamus. It was, the two frankly admitted, probably the only accolade they’d get this year, given critics’ — and audiences’ — tepid reaction to Taking Woodstock, which Lee directed and Schamus wrote. The two of them spoke with Vulture in the drawing room, after the entrée, but before the dessert.

Taking Woodstock got criticized for not having the concert footage. How do you respond?
Ang Lee: We didn’t want to do the concert. We wanted to do not only the outskirts, but the spirit of Woodstock, and take that to heart. That’s what “Taking Woodstock” means, or so they explained to me. It’s cheaper that way, but it’s not the entire reason.

Was it part of the reason, though?
AL: Sure. But Woodstock was so much bigger than the concert. The concert was kind of not that great. Concert-wise, a lot of musicians went. Most of them did bad performances because conditions were really bad. Unless you’re a documentary filmmaker, not a whole lot of people see the stage very well. That’s not the experience of Woodstock. The author, he tried, he never got even close to Woodstock. So that was the story. [James Schamus joins us]

We were talking about not seeing the stage in Taking Woodstock.
James Schamus: Which is absurd, because if you were at Woodstock, you know, Janis Joplin would have been the size of a pea, you wouldn’t have heard anything anyhow, and you would have been having sex in the tent while on acid in the mud. That’s what happened.

I made two big mistakes. I put “Woodstock” in the title, and I put his name on the poster. Because, you know, everybody who goes to an Ang Lee movie, you want to be sublimely depressed by the end of the film. And if you have Woodstock in the title, you think you’re going to be seeing Joe Cocker screaming onstage. [Turns to Ang, pats his shoulder] So it was my bad. I’m sorry.

You feel like people want to come out of your films depressed?
AL: No, I mean, didn’t start out my career that way. The first full movie was very uplifiting, and three of them are comedies. [Woodstock] did better in China.
JS: It opened No. 2 in a lot of Asia. It was a big commercial film in a lot of the rest of the world.

It lost money?
JS: What can I tell ya? It didn’t do well at all. The great news is, we can actually come to the National Arts Club and get an award, and it has nothing to do with an Oscar campaign because nobody’s going to freaking vote for your movie for the Oscars, I hate to tell ya! [Slaps Ang’s back, who is laughing]
AL: It’s fine. Whatever.

But money is becoming a big issue in independent film.
JS: Oh, I’d say. Look, we’re in our eighth year at Focus. We’ve been profitable every year. We just passed the billion-dollar mark in domestic box-office. We’re making money. We’re having fun. We’re working with really cool filmmakers. So it’s stupid of me to sit around and complain. On the other hand, I live in the real world, and things are tough out there, and I’m not immune to that. We keep making movies that we believe in. Some of them work, like Brokeback. Some of them don’t work commercially, like Taking Woodstock. And you gotta take your lumps. Look, I got whooped. Honestly, it’s embarrassing. I’m the head of the studio, and then I write and produce a film. But I’ve worked in the business long enough to know that if you can’t get a good ass-kicking every once in a while, then you shouldn’t be in the business.

Blake Lively Isn't the Least Bit Worried About Being Attracted to Alan Arkin

Emma Pearse — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:00:01 GMT

"Apparently naked, not fully naked. I was lying partially naked on Alan Arkin, but strategic body parts were covered. It's always scary when you're in front of strangers half naked, but the fact that it was with Alan, honestly, didn't make it any weirder. I think being with a young dude would have been more awkward because I might have been like, 'Well, does he think I look cute right now?'"—Blake Lively on not caring what Alan Arkin thought in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee [Parade]

“I don’t think I could be here without her. I think she has blazed a trail. She is an amazing woman. She will always be the Queen of daytime television and she also said she is leaving me all of her money. I was like, God, thanks Oprah, thank you.”—Ellen DeGeneres on Oprah's announcement [EllenTV]

“Yes, it happens in The Runaways. Yeah. We’re playing Joan Jett and Cherie Currie, and they’re best friends in the film and became really close in real life. And that’s something that went down back in the ‘70s.”—Dakota Fanning on a passionate kiss between she and Kristen Stewart [Access Hollywood via Advocate]

“I'm very embarrassed about my golf habit. It's awful. I wish it had never happened to me. I used to have a well-rounded personality, many interests, and now I don't really care about anything except golf. I went as a joke [12 years ago]. But I quite liked it. I used to be a big reader. Now I read Dave Pelz's Putting Bible.”—Hugh Grant on his golf addiction [Parade]

“She died at the age of 46, not of anything sudden; she was one of the most spectacular victims of the revolution. It would have needed the Taliban to protect her.”—Martin Amis on his sister, about whom his latest novel is based [Guardian UK]

“I don't drink, and karaoke is something you should only do drunk. But I'm obsessed with Adele. I put on ‘Chasing Pavements’and sing it in my apartment. The great thing about Adele is if you put her on top volume, you actually sound like her while you're singing. I've gotten a few complaints from the neighbors.”—Twilight's Nikki Reed on her version of drunkenness [Spin]

Sorry, Kellan Lutz Won’t Let You Lick Him

Bennett Marcus — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:30:01 GMT

When we caught up with Twilight star Kellan Lutz at the premiere for New Moon last night, we wondered if Twilight Moms and other older women are suddenly taking an interest in the 24-year-old. "Yeah, a few pumas, a few cougars," he confessed. "You know, it’s always great when you get fan mail of one clothed picture and then on the back it’s quite the opposite. A Twilight mom once asked if she could lick my face, and I was like, uh, that’s all right." Also, see Robert, Taylor, Kristen, and more at the premiere in our Party Lines slideshow.

Jonathan Ames Loves His Bored To Death Vaporizer

Molly Friedman — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:15:05 GMT

When Vulture attended the Bored To Death panel discussion at the Paley Center a few weeks back, show creator (and "drowned ghostly ship's captain" resembling) Jonathan Ames played it coy when an audience member asked him about the role marijuana plays in the show's creative-development process. As he put it, "I think it can be a lovely drug, from my memory of it." Well, we caught up with Ames at the Moth Ball the other night, and he was singing a bit of a different, sweet-smelling tune. "You know that vaporizer they use [on Bored to Death]?," he asked us. "I was given that by the production, yeah. So fucking good. They gave us a vaporizer. Yeah … it's really good. Was yesterday Monday? So Sunday, I vaporized mid-day. I love it. I love my vaporizer. One bag, it's like getting heroin." Guess you can chalk that up as yet another reason why a good number of TV creatives choose HBO over Showtime.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story contained an inaccurate quote about the Bored To Death producers, Jonathan Ames and marijuana. We have corrected the quote and we regret the error.

Amanda Seyfried’s Letters to Juliet: The Dumb Man’s Amelie

Lindsay Robertson — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:45:01 GMT

Don't strain yourself, Amanda!

Okay, that's too mean, but there are some similarities between the French masterpiece and the lighter-than-air Amanda Seyfried vehicle Letters to Juliet, in which a young woman on vacation in Verona, Italy finds an old letter to Juliet Capulet and sets off to reunite its writer (Vanessa Redgrave), now old, with the true love she jilted half a century before. As Cinematical points out, this trailer is a particularly egregious example of the trailer that shows the entire movie, but, hey look, it's from Summit Entertainment, and it came out today — they gotta grab those famously uncritical Twilight Saga eyeballs while the butts are in the seats.

Letters to Juliet Trailer: This Time, You Really Have Seen the Whole Movie [Cinematical]

Fringe: Observing the Detectives

Tim Grierson — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:30:02 GMT

They usually just lurk in the background, but last night, the hairless Observers took center stage. While the episode unveiled some juicy information about their origins, the writers continued to pursue a theme they’ve developed over the series’ run: the fear of losing those closest to us.

The Evil: In Boston, a college student named Christine is abducted by an Observer.

The Determination: The Fringe team thought there was only one Observer, but in fact there are several of these pale-skinned, gray-suited figures. The emotionless Observers have been alive for centuries, monitoring momentous periods in human history but never interfering. But this particular Observer, August, has captured Christine to stop her from boarding a flight that is destined to crash.

Wacky Factor: Walter at first seemed preoccupied with his quest to make the perfect milkshake, but once the rest of the team started investigating August, in particular, his notebook filled with mysterious symbols, we knew that the good doctor was hiding something. Sure enough, Walter realized that August’s series of symbols were coordinates for a secret location where the two could meet. At that rendezvous, we learned that the Observers helped (or at least allowed) Walter to snag Peter from the parallel dimension after the boy’s death. As with last week’s episode, Walter is acting less like a zany eccentric and more like a doting, loving father — one who seems to be increasingly concerned about losing his son again.

Paranoia Level: Medium-to-High. The revelation that the Observers are always peeking in on our species when something important is about to happen was a fun plot tidbit, but the episode was more valuable for the information conveyed than for its storytelling. Initially, August’s decision to intervene and save Christine’s life had the potential for an intriguing moral debate: Is it heroic to rescue one person from disaster when you let 200 other passengers on the same flight die? But the episode instead turned into a standard cat-and-mouse chase between August and his associates’s hired hitman. Also a bit disappointing, the explanation for August’s decision to save her was no more profound than an unexpected rush of feelings for the young woman. It’s a sweet sentiment but nothing new when you consider that everything from Superman: The Movie to Wings of Desire has already milked the concept of powerful otherworldly figures who can’t help but affect individual humans’ lives.

But even if the central story was a little flat, the peripheral elements were enticing. Walter’s growing anxiety about Peter’s safety seems to foreshadow some danger that will soon befall his son. Also, the return of Dunham’s young niece Ella helped humanize the perpetually frigid Dunham, while at the same time drawing a connection between her, Ella, and Christine, who are all the product of unhappy childhoods. Almost everyone on Fringe is either coping with loss or trying to keep from losing someone. That’s part of the reason why Dunham was so happy to solve this week’s case and get back to spending time with her niece. It’s also why, when the Observers at the end of the episode note that “It’s a shame things are about to get so hard for her,” it’s doubly scary — we don’t know if they mean Dunham or her beloved Ella.

More Recaps:
The A.V. Club’s Noel Murray uses the episode as a springboard for a discussion on the nature of observing and how emotion can influence what we see.
IGN’s Ramsey Isler glumly concludes that “although it is an interesting look into the lives of the Observers, for the most part this episode was just plain average.”
TV Fanatic’s M.L. House takes the show to task, rightfully so, for the Ford commercial it none-too-subtly threw in during the middle of an intense scene. (But, uh, House, isn’t the Observer’s name August and not Artist?)
And kudos to TV Squad’s Jane Boursaw, who seems to be the only person other than us who suspects that the Observers’ cryptic comment at episode’s end could be aimed at Ella and not Dunham. We’re supposed to assume they mean Dunham, but the writers may be trying to set us up for a surprise.

FlashForward: Bryce Yourself

Jay Barmann — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:20:13 GMT

When it comes to supporting characters, FlashForward is just as stingy as Lost in the doling out exposition. It's taken nine episodes to get anywhere with Bryce, the previously-suicidal-but-now-optimistic surgeon who works under Olivia at the hospital. But now's his shot: The Bryce Episode. And it's not a bad one to have: right before we take a two-week hiatus for Thanksgiving, and leading up to the winter finale. (Incidentally, the A.V. Club has a theory that we should only be watching the odd-numbered episodes of this show, because it's the even-numbered ones that have been crap.)

“You're dead!”
The episode opens four weeks before the blackout. Bryce is meeting with another doctor and looking at some brain scans, which turn out to be his own. He has stage-IV cancer, with several tumors in his brain, and his own doctor doesn't sound all that confident about going forward with more treatment. No wonder he was trying to off himself! Cut to Bryce in the parking garage, backing into some poor, yuppie schmo's "cherry '63 T-bird" several times before walking away from the scene. (See the video below!) "You're dead!" the guy screams. Ah, television writers and their jerky stabs at irony …

“I think you need to think seriously about whether or not you're committed to this profession.”
Two weeks before the blackout, Bryce totally flubs the preparation for a surgery — Olivia calls him out for not checking into an alcoholic woman's medical history before they cut into her, because, apparently, you “ooze” a lot if you're a boozer. She then delivers the line above, and Bryce is shamed.

Coincidentally, his soon-to-be girlfriend is shown in Japan, insecure about her own professional position, interviewing for a job at a robotics firm. We see her in a conference room telling a bunch of non-plussed Japanese executives that she's really into Jimi Hendrix, because, you know, she plays guitar? Strangely, she gets the job, and her family throws her a surprise party (her mother is predictably trying to fix her up with a couple of respectable dudes her age). We see her at her desk, with a little robot whose only function is to pick up candy, watching a downloaded video of Bob Dylan's live performance of "Shelter from the Storm" at his Hard Rain '76 concert in Fort Collins, CO. But, being the only woman in a male-dominated field in already patriarchal Japan, she ends up being called in to an important meeting only to find out they want her to serve the tea. Ah, television writers and their clichés about Japan … Also, we see her going to get the wrist tattoo of the kanji (for "Believe") that she saw in her flash.

“Go to Houston. You need a coupla days, take a coupla days.”*
Then, finally, we're back in the present, where Bryce is sick from his ongoing chemo, and still drawing pictures of his mystery lover. We see more of his flash now, and before she walks up and he says, "It's really you," he's making an order to a waitress. It's a sushi restaurant.

Bryce shows one of his drawings to his older Japanese-woman patient, who tells him the T-shirt he's drawn on her has the logo of a specific sushi restaurant just outside of Tokyo. Olivia then calls him out again for looking pale and stumbling around, and she ends up finding the "central line" shunt in his chest that's being used for the chemo. He tells her the sitch, and she quickly gets him into an experimental trial in Houston for a drug he seems to think might kill him.

Cut to him landing in Tokyo. He finds the sushi restaurant, fumbles with his Rosetta Stone Japanese and ends up getting directions to the home of Keiko, who turns out to be the daughter of the restaurant owners. Sadly, he gets there right after Keiko's had a fight with her mother and left the house, so her mother just shoos him away and says nothing.

“It's just a glass of wine.”
Meanwhile, in the life of AA-sponsor Aaron, recently found daughter Tracy is drinking herself to sleep every night with a fifth of vodka, and downing red wine at dinner. He can't handle it, because as an alcoholic who's now sober he's, naturally, unable to be in the same room as someone who's drinking. (Note: We're pretty sure only asshole alcoholics are like this.)

He's also faced with his sponsee Mark Benford accusing him of texting Olivia that fateful message about Benford drinking during his flash. Aaron tells him to go find a new sponsor if he can't trust him, but later softens up and says, with all this drunk-daughter crap, that he still needs a friend — but still can't be his sponsor. Also, Mark fails to get him any information about Jericho, the evil military contractors who tried to kill Tracy, because he doesn't have high enough security clearance. But they do figure out that Jericho's got an office right nearby in Santa Monica.

“It plays every night in Hong Kong Harbor.”
Agents Vreede and Benford work with Audio Forensics to analyze the tape of the phone call Demetri received from the woman telling him he was going to be murdered — which it turns out the NSA had a wiretap recording of all along, because even FBI agents get their calls tapped, apparently. Just as on regular procedural television (we're thinking of you, CSI), there's a bit of background noise that exactly identifies the location of the call: Hong Kong Harbor, with it's cheesy electronic soundtrack, "Symphony of Lights," played nightly. "We're going. Hong Kong," says Benford, ignoring bossman Wedeck, and thinking of that CIA agent a few episodes back suggested the Chinese were behind the blackout.

“Sometimes you have to be patient.”
Bryce calls Nicole, the candy striper who's also the Benfords' nanny, to tell her about his spontaneous trip to Japan. He's thinking he was stupid to go to Tokyo all because of a T-shirt — and we're thinking he's stupid for going there four months early when he knows damn well he's supposed to meet Keiko on April 29th. Long story short (too late!), he flies back to L.A. without meeting her. But, magically, as Bob Dylan sings "Shelter From the Storm," we see Keiko stepping off the same plane a few steps behind him. We're then shown the puzzle piece to tie it all up, and tide us over until after the holiday: Keiko's flash shows her approaching the sushi restaurant where she meets Bryce — and it's got a "Best of Los Angeles" post outside the door.

The Only Evidence About the Blackout In This Episode: The lady from the NSA who came to deliver the news about the Suspect Zero footage doesn't have a lot to offer, especially when it comes to the guy's face. But just like on regular procedural television, they were able to enhance something in the image: his ring, which has a Greek alpha on it. Remember the case full of rings that got handed to Ricky Jay in the last episode — the one that had a ring missing?

*See our review of Sonya Walger's American accent.

Addendum: In the November 27th issue of Entertainment Weekly (and hopefully soon on their website), Jeff Jensen has an impassioned feature about the show in which he wonders about that damn kangaroo, and lays out his theory about what caused the blackout. He points to quantum entanglement, and says that Simon and Lloyd were probably working on a device or system for teleportation, which turned out to be better at moving brain waves through time rather than people through space. He further theorizes that Suspect Zero and villainous Ricky Jay are bad-guy conspirators who stole the technology for their own greedy gain. He also has a super-complicated theory about how the creators are planning to get a season two out of this, which makes our head hurt just reading it.

America’s Teens Break Curfew in Record Numbers for New Moon Debut

Mark Graham — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:55:03 GMT

While no one quite knows exactly how much money New Moon took in during its 12:01 a.m. screenings last night, everyone is acknowledging that it almost certainly broke the midnight-screenings record set by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince this July. Vulture buddy Nikki Finke's sources are telling her that it made $23–$24 million last night, while the Los Angeles Times is saying that it raked in between $22.2 and $26 million. Either way, that's a lot of babysitting money that just got pumped back into the economy. UPDATE: Finke deleted her previous estimate that we quoted earlier, but now it turns out that the film grossed $26.27 million last night. [DHD, Company Town/LAT]