Any Human Heart Episode Three

by Courtney Hilden

I am usually sad to see a miniseries come to an end on Masterpiece Theater, Classics Edition, but here I found I was desperate to see this particular story, with increasingly wonky structure, no discernible meaning, and despicable characters, end, so then finally, blessedly, I would never have to revisit this work.

The first two episodes were relatively simple: Logan, the main character, moves between a netherworld where all his former selves reside, the story of his life, and then his old age self. Episode three found the story also moving between several stories of the older self (played by Jim Broadbent), and this became particularly confusing, as it wasn't exactly clear when things were happening. (When exactly, in the chronology, was Logan at the beach? He was suddenly in the cabin burning things, then we cut back to the beach scene, where he's drinking a beer and looking miserable.)

Midway through the episode, Logan asks himself "is my luck running out?" What I find myself wondering is when he ever had luck. His entire life was just one mistake after the next, and the fact that he spends his entire life thinking it's luck, when it's clearly all about the decisions he makes (and, the decisions other's make), his continued illusions just make him seem far too stupid. (The only thing easier to see through is the makeup that the various young actors had to put on.)

But all these things are tiny quibbles next to the various problems of the work as a whole, which I found myself struggling with. The place of women within the story was troublesome. Logan spends his entire life treating women poorly. He sleeps with women he knows are involved with his best friend, Peter. He marries two separate women because he wants to be in a relationship, not because he loves them. When one tells him she's divorcing him, he throws an abusive fit at her. He longs for children, but never to really be there or do anything remotely supportive, he just wants their love and affection, particularly the love and affection of female children, in what is an obviously creepy role. And then he sleeps with whatever he can. And yet, the work never passes any judgement on his poor behavior, never reveals the obvious misogyny and patriarchy that destroys several of these women's lives. If nothing else, it seems to revel in Logan's relationships with women, even depicting them as the underpinning of his life. But, of course, Logan's life is not about how much he loved these women, it's about a pathetic man too oblivious to realize how much harm he does and how treating women badly is impractical because it just leaves him feeling empty and hopeless, which just causes him to repeat the cycle of lovelessness all over. The work glorifying him as a model is problematic because there is nothing really good about him, just selfish, pathetic, or both.

The other troubling depiction is of the socialist collection Logan works for in this particular episode. Like other parts of this story, this just seems to be another way for the work to show how important its star is ("Look!" the works says. "There's the former King of England, there's the second World War, there's a reference to "Hills Like White Elephants." Please. Let's not pretend that this isn't just a cherry picking of historical events to make the audience feel as if somehow Logan is important, when the truth of someone's life within historical events is often far more complicated and rarely so involved in things only a Masterpiece Theater audience would be familiar with.) This socialist collective could have been fascinating, a critique of the collective's most anti-woman, racist leanings, which is vaguely danced around. Instead, it became a series of jokes, poorly made and apolitical. This miniseries might leave you to believe that the collective was ridiculous to have security measures, but the truth was that organizations like this were under constant watch from various governments, and they did work, through spies to infiltrate and disrupt their activities. (Whole books, yes, whole books, have been written on the subject, and yet this miniseries, with its dedication to HISTORY, is ignorant of them.) Two girls who engage in lesbian sex are depicted as evil, mean and stupid, and just another attempt to make lesbians villains. Moreover, this part of the episode totally brushes over what the collective was trying to do, making it into a silly game of silly young people, instead of important work to end oppression, work that still, in various ways, goes on today. It is an insulting depiction of activists. If you think that activists are unimportant, then clearly you haven't been paying attention to the work going on in Egypt.

Overall, the work was toggling between boring and offensive. I would much rather seen the life story of almost every female character than Logan, and I would have much rather seen historical events depicted in the way they happened, not from a reactionary, simplistic point of view. The only thing that I liked about this miniseries is that it is over and that, unlike say, Downton Abbey, there isn't talk of a second season.

Two Stories

Spoiler Alert!: This review spoils all the best treats of this episode.

by Courtney Hilden

Enough time has elapsed that most people probably don't remember "Three Stories," which took place in a similar context: House talked to students (that time, the kind getting medical degrees, this time, the kind learning long division) using several medical stories, with the big reveal at the end (what happened to House's leg and, apparently, attitude.)

It's this lack of revelation that made "Two Stories" such a disappointment. The three stories wove around and then showed the audience what was unexpected but necessary to understand; here the stories wove around and the payoff was nonexistent. The actual case (about a young man who had food quite literally go down the wrong pipe), was so clearly the sideline that it could have been absent and unmissed. The storyline that we should have cared about, over Cuddy and House's relationship, was equally lacking. It is hard to believe that Cuddy would only now realize that House's jerkiness extents to petty things like slamming the door and using someone else's toothbrush. And then he says he's sorry, and that's it. If the payout from this had been better (it wasn't really the toothbrush, it is that he is selfish and uncaring and that maybe those qualities are more problematic because, um, Cuddy needs someone responsible and thoughtful enough to think of her/them/Rachel, and maybe she's pregnant...I'm just brainstorming here, and even on a stomachache in a end-of-the-work-week haze I can come up with more reasonable or sane reactions from her.)

House fans have quickly become apathetic about House/Cuddy (and, from what I can tell, even Huddy fans aren't really enjoying the glow). I know I'm apathetic, just because the relationship, which could encourage a certain amount of emotional growth from House has allowed him to plateau all over again. House is always at his best when he's forced to confront himself or being funny. This episode featured none of the former and only some of the latter; it's time to get back to the formula that works and actually has story potential.

Threat Level Midnight

by Courtney Hilden

"Threat Level Midnight" was not just the title of the episode, but the title of Michael's movie, that he apparently spent eleven years on. The episode is the movie (an abbridged version, sadly) and the office watching it.

This episode is possibly the best idea the writers have had for an episode. It plays off of already established information (Michael's bad movie script from so many years ago.) One of the best parts of the episode was that it brought back multiple characters that have since left the show (mainly, Michael's ex-girlfriends, Jim's one ex-girlfriend, and that goofy friend of Michael's that no one likes.)

This episode highlights what the show does best: silly situations and Michael's huge, unreasonable ego. All of the actors did a great job acting in the various parts of the movie, perfectly playing both their characters and their character's characters. Andy totally nailed it as a bad actor playing a Jersey man. I also loved how Holly saw how Michael's goofiness, although sometimes fun, is also out of control and frequently is the most obviously immature thing about him. Michael might want to get married, but he has no idea what that would really mean, and Holly is hopefully realizing that the desire to get married does not necessarily make him compatible for her.

Honestly, I would watch a whole episode of just Michael's various movies. Jim's Goldface character was possibly the best villian of all time. Could we please have a sequel episode of Goldface's evil behavior? Please?

Chuck Versus the C.A.T. Squad

by Courtney Hilden

Last episode, Chuck realized that Sarah did not have the kind of family and friends to come to their wedding, so he begins to search for her colleagues from the CIA. Chuck comes across a group of girls called the C.A.T. Squad, and you know that means an episode filled with bad jokes.
Obviously the C.A.T. Squad was meant to be remind viewers of Charlie's Angels, but like so many of the sexist concepts on the show, this fell flat. Sarah's already a hottie, we get it, it's hardly as if anyone needed reminding. The only good thing was that the writers were competent enough to give each of the girls motivation, even if it was pretty two dimensional and predictable. (The Party Girl was clearly the cutest and most likeable, like a Reese Witherspoon-esque character, which of course also meant she had to be the villian.
What was the point of this episode? Of this entire storyline? What the show should be doing is exploring Sarah's past, especially since she is the second most important (and one of the more interesting and engaging) characters. Sarah deserves to have as many episodes exploring her past as Chuck as had for his. This episode just felt like a waste of our time and excuse for a bunch of sexy women to bounce around. The strengths of this show are their storylines and character development, and that is what the writers should be focusing on.

The Daredevil in the Mold

Spoiler Alert!: This review gives away all of the events of this episode, and some of them are big.
by Courtney Hilden

In this episode of Bones, Booth and Sweets get drunk and decide to propose to each of their girlfriends, while Cam struggles with her own love life, and the rest of the team investigates the murder of an extreme sportsman.

The theme of the episode, extreme biking, was fairly well-d0ne. One scene involved the coordination of several bikers doing stunts amongst the actors, all of which was handled flawlessly and looked fluid and natural on the screen. The subject also gave us the chance to enjoy some fun guest actors and their characters, including Naul (with possibly the weirdest name of all time). Anglea chasing people down to interrogate them was also fun to watch. (Can we please have more of the squints go out in the field to interview subjects, espeically the otherwise-annoying interns? There's something fun about their reactions to the world outside the lab.)

In terms of goofs, Cam would never have had a problem with a discussion of dog vomit slime and bed bugs, since she works with dead bodies all the time.
And finally, the most important thing about the episode: Booth's proposal to Hannah. So much of the proposal was rushed, from Booth's decision to while drunk (which felt totally false and far-to-pat) to Booth buying a ring with Sweets. On a normal episode of Bones, all of this would be drawn out enough that everything would feel genuine. Usually on this show, a case gets one of the characters to change their point of view, like it did when Bones saw herself in a victim. If the writers were not in such a hurry of getting rid of Hannah (who really has grown on me), she would get sucked into a case (another gang deal gone bad? a hostage situation?) and then Booth would realize that he loved her so much he wanted to marry her. And then, of course, she'd let him down.

It seems obvious that Hannah is not the right person for Booth. I hate to reference a certain line, but: Booth loves Hannah but is not in love with her. What a relief that Hannah said no, but not really because it gives Bones a chance at Booth. I love that Hannah knows herself well enough to know that getting married is a bad idea. But Booth was totally acting like Hannah was the problem, instead of recognizing that making her marry him would never work.
This is not to say the Bones is really a good choice for Booth. As this season has gone on, it seems clear that Bones, despite the occassional pang of lonliness, doesn't really need anything at all, and I'd rather like to celebrate that instead. Booth increasingly doesn't deserve her, and I'd much rather see us move on from that.

The montage at the end of the show, after Hannah rejected Booth's proposal, featured Booth getting drunk at the Founding Fathers, was totally boring and unnecessary and just filler.

Given the events of this episode in terms of the long story arc, this was all big stuff, yet it felt thrown together instead of the event that it should have been.

Family Practice

by Courtney Hilden
Spoiler Alert!: One of the turns in the case is revealed in this review.
On this very special episode of House, Cuddy's Mom was having a heart problem. This meant that House was going to have to help. This meant House would even dress up in a doctor coat. There was something slow about this episode. I still can't decide if it was boring or not.
The highlight of the episode was the possibility that Cuddy's Mom was an alcoholic (which, in fact, turned out not to be true.) Making Cuddy's Mom an addict was a fascinating turn of events. It makes Cuddy's relationship with House all the more fraught with pitfalls, since, as viewers know, House is himself a recovering (and sometimes not-so-recovering addict.) Hopefully, the show will continue to explore this facet of the House/Cuddy relationship and Cuddy's relationship with her Mom.
In the B storyline, Taub attempted to make more money working for his ex's brother. You knew it was going to turn out badly, but it became another attempt by the writers to make Taub likable. By the time the writers figure out how to make that happen, the show's going to be over.

Chuck Versus the Push Mix

Spoilers Alert: There's only one spoiler in this episode, and it involves the antics of Jeffster.

by Courtney Hilden

This time on Chuck, our hero demands that Sarah be brought back home after she pushes Casey out a window, nearly killing him. As usual, the General refuses. Sarah, meanwhile, is working with Chuck's Mom to bring down Volkoff. Which would probably happen without Orion, back from the dead, showing up.

Chuck frequently has episodes that are about pushing the storyline farther. It is actually one of the nice things about the show, since it means we do not dawdle with storylines and instead go from one necessary event to the other. So even though this episode had some important events, for the most part it was not as fun or as engaging as the show usually is. (Though, it still manages to be one of the best written shows on television and definitely the best planned.) The highlight of the night? Jeffster singing "Push It."

I was truly afraid that the laser chamber was going to feature extremely distasteful images of Morgan. It was bad, but not as bad as it could been, and I appreciate that.

As much as I am enjoying the Alex and Casey scenes, I wish we'd see more of Alex's Mom. I would much rather see a Casey/long-lost love romance then this creepy and inappropriate Alex/Morgan thing.

In terms of other great characters, the General is the most unsung character on this show. She manages to be perfectly respectful and adorable at the same time. It's too bad we only see her so frequently doing her broadcasts to Castle and not in person.

Sarah is starting to look a look like Prue from Charmed with her black hair, so I guess it's a good thing that she is done with her mission and will be back to normal with her typical blond hair. Giving Sarah black hair to represent her "turn to the darkside" was lame, especially since the audience and other characters know who she is.