"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?
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.
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.
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.
This time, in the penultimate episode of Downton Abbey, the carnival comes to town! Which mostly means various couples try their luck with each other and fail (or in the case of Matthew and Mary, fail again.) Then Grandma has her revenge by knowing some medicine and letting poor Mr. Mosley win the flower competition. And if there was not enough cattiness between Grandma and Matthew's Mom, don't worry: Mary and Ingrid are still at each other's throats. If this makes it seem like not much happened in this episode of Downton Abbey, well, yes, not much did. Even though not much developed in the way of the story, not the way the previous two episodes did (or, the fourth episode hopefully will), it was a mostly enjoyable episode. Most of these characters are interesting enough at this point that just watching them interact together is enough. As usual, the politics of some of the things going on are troubling. Thomas must be the most hurtful person on earth, asking Daisy out, even though he knew that William was interested. But at the same time, there's something bothersome in the character of Thomas. He is a terrible human being, but because he is also interested in men, making him into a villain is just another way of making gay men evil, and really, there are enough villain-gay men in the world. Even one of the cooks described him as a "troubled soul," which, although slightly more forgiving than some viewers might be inclined, is still sad. Would it really kill this show to depict how both lonely and scary being a closeted gay man in a homophobic world? Or are they too busy making him into the bad guy, who, at this point, I have concluded probably had the Turkish gentleman poisoned in revenge. It is the sort of terrible thing this show would do. It is so nice, so refreshing, to have a miniseries that engages with the problems of women. Sadly, it is high class women that are mostly explored, but Mary's struggle to accept "just marriage" is sad to watch. It is interesting to note that Mary is not the one who takes up feminism, but her younger sister Sibyl, even though feminism has just as much to offer Mary as it does the other women. "The world is changing," Countess Cora says to Mary, "just not fast enough for you." Mary is right to be angry that no one wants to fight for her. The show also gave Mrs. Hewes a difficult choice: continuing her job at Downton or marriage to the man she spurred many years ago. She chose her job (and, in modern parlance, her career), but there was something sad about this. She too, is limited by the roles appropriated for women. She can be a career woman or a family woman, but she could never dare be both. Also interesting to note that she did not even consider love in her decision: she never said she loved her beau, just that he was "nice man." The cutest couple award for this show goes to Sibyl and Gwen. Sibyl, a budding young feminist, is all about helping out Gwen the maid become Gwen the secretary. So far there has not been any luck, but Sibyl's encouragement (and the lending of clothes) has been heartwarming to watch. They are both nice girls, and I would really like to see a full-blown romance develop between them.
In this latest episode of House, a man, spending time with his daughter, tries to desperately save a random woman from a train. Then he himself begins to have medical problems, opening up another round of cynical House and optimistic Masters. As someone who lives in New York, I can tell you that the opening sequence, of a man trying to save a woman having a seizure who is stuck on the subway track, is one of my nightmare's. The horror of fellow subway passengers, desperate to know if he was okay and their held breaths at the thought he didn't make it, rang all too true. House also brought the talent tonight, including Matthew Lillard (how is it possible that he is old enough to play a father?) and Sprague Grayden (from the cancelled-too-soon John Doe). Watching these two was watching a master class on chemistry. The history between their two characters was totally believable. Can someone make a show about this couple?
Other good things about this episode including the cinematography, which took a different take on the show, focusing in on characters as the scene runs. Usually a show this far in does not do anything different, especially for a normal episode, but here it was noticeable because so little else in the episode was. Sadly, none of these touches could make up for the overall show, which is saddled with an increasingly unlikeable character. House really does not deserve the people in his life. The nice thing about the show once upon a time was watching him struggle with kindness, but here House was, trying to get out of dinner with his girlfriend and her Mom on her birthday and then trying to get out of his best friend's festival. At this point, House is just spinning his wheels. And given Hugh Laurie's phenomenal performance, maybe he should just be teaching acting instead of trying to make something enjoyable out of this poor writing.
The episode, "The Doctor in the Photo," was heavier than a Thanksgiving dinner and surprisingly angst-y, though in a quiet way. Bones got a case involving a brilliant scientist who was murdered in a dangerous neighborhood. Like Bones, the victim had rejected the love of a coworker who was polar opposites from her, and probably regretted it. Bones begins to over-identify and spirals into a magical realism episode. This was an interesting opening, showing some of our characters, having Thanksgiving dinner. Don't worry, it wasn't a mushy scene, as Bones even had some time to use her forensic powers to tell how the turkey died. Watching Bones suffer through the love of her life's great love life with someone else, who is normal and slightly imperfect but impossible to truly demonize, was painful. Watching her struggle over how unmissed this episode's victim was torture. The team mostly went unaware of her unhappiness and there was something quietly sad about that too, especially Booth's ignorance of Bones's emotional state, though given the last year of this show, where Booth has struggled to understand Bones's emotionally, this is typical. "Doesn't anyone know me?" Bones asks Sweets when everyone does say something to him about her emotional state. Then Sweets gave us an analysis that anyone watching this show would be able to give us. (Can't we give Sweets more to do? Can't he say profound things that haven't already been beaten into the audience's head?) The person Bones really needs and wants to have these heart-to-hearts with his Booth, not Sweets, but to some degree, Booth is unavailable for them.
Possibly this is one of the best episodes of Bones, ever. It was a challenge to show, within the course of only one episode, her progression to the conclusions she made, but this episode handled it brilliantly and without the usual cliches. More episodes should have us diving into the psyches of the characters, and show how bizarre and thoughtful they are.
On the most recent episode of Chuck, Sarah tries desperately to find Chuck. Sarah became, in the words of Casey, "unpredictable." Casey discussed how he disliked Sarah pre-Chuck, which is really interesting, because it implies that Casey saw something good in Sarah and Chuck's relationship. It gives Casey's character an extra and interesting shade, since he's never said anything on the subject before and he so rarely says anything positive at all. The episode also showed off Sarah as emotionally invested and the actress's chops. She's always a strong character, and that's great, but seeing the intimate moment of her grief was a wonderful quiet moment in a show that usually is about the flash bang. The episode also featured far more of the other characters and not Chuck himself, again, a nice change up from the usual.
The best part of this episode is that it acknowledged Chuck's fear for marrying Sarah, who Morgan called "a big fish." But then we see that Chuck wants to get over that; he doesn't want his fear of a strong woman to stop him from being with her. It might not quite be feminism, since Sarah felt the need to say that she was nothing without Chuck, but the show positively depicts both a strong woman and the man who wants to be with her. Sadly, you don't see that on tv too often, so in this way, the show has not only done something unique but positive for how people see gender on tv. The only thing that isn't okay is that Sarah was in some ways "crazy" without her man. Casey acknowledged that, given the circumstances, she had the right to be upset, but Beckman still wanted her watched. It was borderline "hysterical woman" meme, and that's tired.
The dream sequence that the episode opened up on was delightful strange, especially considering that it featured the show's favorite freak, Lester. (Does Lester ever wear normal clothes, or is it only work uniforms and costumes for this guy?)
This episode also featured some great villians. "The Belgian" was so creepy, especially with his glasses magnifying his eyes so he looked like an insect.
In terms of disappointments, the episode tried hard to skirt around the issue of torture, which was really a pity. Torture has been such a difficult issue in American politics lately, that it seemed too easy for Sarah to just talk a Thai diplomat and terroritsts into giving pertinant information. Not that torture needed to happen, but the lack of dialogue over it was a little too American. The closest they got to dialogue on violence at all was when Morgan suggested maybe they shouldn't use guns. Again, Morgan has been aware of Chuck's situation for long enough that it seems strange that he is now opposed to guns. And that the dialogue was limited to Morgan not wanting to be sacrificed, so then of course he's okay with guns. And then even Casey had to admit that guns were unnecessary when they tried another tactic. The show only kind of deals with violence in a comical way, almost never in a serious way. Again, no dialogue on the subject.
The episode also discussed how as spies, Casey and Sarah didn't have juristiction over certain places. Why are we several years into this show and only now discussing bureaucracy? Usually it's the first excuse a show like this would use to justify certain actions and storylines.
It would also be nice for Casey to actually put his foot down and truly tell Morgan no. The show has already established how tough Casey is, so why doesn't he just throw Morgan into a cell or tie him up to a chair? Morgan trailing along on these missions is far too unrealistic. "I definetely know how to use this, dirtbags"? I would have riddled his body with bullets if he said that to me.
And, even though the show had some good pro-women moments, how disappointing that Sarah can't save herself. I would much rather watch her save Chuck without anyone's help. And there was no need for her to make herself wet, except for the male gaze. So even though yes, she's a strong woman, and yes, Chuck loves that about her, why is it her power is always being subverted by other things? Can't we just have her be a badass without everything els
e becoming an issue?
And wouldn't it have been great if Ellie got exposed to the Intersect when she got into that computer?
by Courtney Hilden Spoiler Alert!: Some of the early details of this episode are totally spoiled in this review. The crime itself, however, is not.
In this episode, where they "get the band back together," as it were, opened up on vacation clips of what various characters were doing. It was about as boring as actually vacation clips of characters doing things. It was sort of a lost opportunity, since the episode could have shown various characters doing legitimately interesting things in their various locales. Having a few episodes that focused on characters that were finding themselves deeply embedded in mysteries where ever they were and realizing they missed the work and their teammates would have been great. They would have given the actors, especially the lesser characters, a chance to have an episode all to themselves. Instead, they were just suppose to give us a taste of what they were doing, which was apparently exactly what you expected: Daisy still be annoying in Indonesia with Brennan stoically carrying on, Booth saving the day in Afghanistan, and Cam about to douse her career into flames. Why was Cam's apparently impending career fail the genesis for bringing these characters back together? Somehow, this felt totally false. The case felt like a reject case from lots of other police procedural shows. Another case, a much bigger case, should have brought the characters together, or even better, a character's death should have been the case that called all the characters back to D.C. (Maybe they could have killed off one of those annoying interns. I'd still vote for Daisy, who is still so annoying and socially clueless that it's a shock Sweets has not diagnosed her on the autism spectrum.) The episode was unrealistic in a lot of other ways. Daisy was beyond stupid to bring her engagement ring to Indonesia. She was dressed totally inappropriately with her skimpy underwear and cute clothes. (And was the camera's focus on her butt in an early scene necessary? No, it wasn't.) The only good thing about these Indonesian scenes is that Brennan was at least capable of wearing clothing that was practical for the environment and that did not do her any favors. The costume choices continued to be strange throughout the episode. Sweets looked terrible doing the jazz look, but this was hard to notice, giving his terrible facial hair. His new look makes him look like an extra from Shakespeare in Love, and not in a good way. On a feminism note, Brennan's comment to Booth that she had to beat people up because he "wasn't there to save her" was totally out of character, considering the pilot episode showed her perfectly capable of beating people up herself and not needing the least bit of help from Booth. What happened to that Brennan? Is she still lost out in the jungle? Cam's anger at Brennan for pursuing the career she clearly loves was uncalled for. It smacked of all that "women need to sacrifice everything for everyone else" rhetoric. If Brennan had been a man, no one would have blinked at the decision to go do research in Indonesia. It also just reeked of trying to create drama for drama's sake. And it was another example of how unrealistic this episode was. If a program was that important to both the Jeffersonian and the FBI, someone would have stepped in to keep it going. And, given the reputation that Brennan apparently has, forensic anthropologists would have probably fought over it. This doesn't mean everything in the episode was bad. For example, most of the interns are now out of the picture, leaving the least irritating one, Wendell. (Too bad about Nigel Murray. He had real potential.)
In this episode of True Blood, Bill revealed to Sookie that she was a fairy, Jason revealed to Tara that he had killed Eggs, Hoyt revealed his true love for Jessica, Crystal revealed her true nature to Jason, and Lafayette and Jesus revealed their mutual familiar histories with magic. Oh, and Eric may be a bad guy now since he appears to be sacrificing Sookie. The revelation that Sookie is a fairy was as bad as the other things involving Bill this season. In the books, it happens later in the series, and with such absolute casualty as to be funny. Here, it felt like they were reaching for something genuine and failed. It was the closest the show as ever gotten to feeling like a soap opera. Much of the rest of the episode felt like it belonged in a soap opera, since much of the episode dragged, had random craziness that made no sense, and had bad background music. Finally, there are some consequences for the murdering that Jason has made a habit of on this series. It was nice to see those flashbacks, as a reminder to the audience that Jason has never killed anyone that wasn't a minority in some way. That said, the best flashbacks on this show are the short ones, and even the flashbacks about beloved Sam were bad. Heartbreaking, of course, because so much of what happens to Sam is heartbreaking, (including all the tiptoeing that went on around him after his fight with Calvin) but still the flashbacks always slow down the momentum of the show, and not in a good way. Bill did do one good thing this episode: he promised to give up feeding on Sookie's blood to gain her trust. It was good to hear that, and the one redeeming feature of Bill. Speaking of trust, it's too bad that Crystal didn't decide to stay with Lafayette and Jesus, because I would trust them far more than Norris, who is far more of a racist on the show than in the books. Though maybe it's best that she didn't, considering that Jesus wanted to do V. This didn't make a lot of sense given that Jesus was angry at Lafayette for selling drugs. It makes even less sense when you consider that trippy drug scene was boring. The only thing that worked was that grin on Lafayette's face as they were walking into the second room. By far the worse and most boring episode of the season. A lot of this may be because they are setting things up for their two final episodes, but this was True Blood at its worse.
by Courtney Hilden Spoiler Alert!: Almost all of the surprises in this episode are revealed in this review. In the latest episode of True Blood, "Everything is Broken," Sookie and Hadley met up in an aquarium to see Hadley's son, Eric gave a testimony to the Authority, white womanhood continued to be the chief concern of Jason, Tara continued to heal from her rape, and Sam cut loose after another series of struggles over parenthood. First and foremost, our show's heroine: Sookie. It's interesting to note that even though Sookie would provide a safe sanctuary for Eric and Pam, he chooses someone else. Even though Eric has decided to get his revenge, he also is still loyal to Sookie. Sookie will probably never be able to appreciate Eric's loyalty, because, as the episode showed, she is too busy being happy with Bill. Her and Bill shared one of the show's few calm moments with an intimate shower between the two. Then Bill and Sookie had a conversation about the secrets Bill has been hiding from Sookie. She rightly asserted that she is not a thing and not something that needs protection, especially now when she has been through so much. It was a nice change of pace from the usual powerless Sookie that fans are always complaining about.
As discussed in the review of the last episode, there is a lot of defending white womanhood. A lot of it apparently centers on Jason, who this episode was taking care of Crystal, his new potential girlfriend. Parts of it were admirable, since Jason told Crystal's boyfriend that Crystal was allowed to do what she wanted. But parts of it weren't, since it quickly turned into him controlling her. Black womanhood, in the form of Tara, continues to be sidelined, though she too has gone through a terrible, traumatic event. (And unlike Sookie, recognizes how much danger she was in.) Sam wisely suggests that she consider a shrink. These scenes are troublesome because, again, it's a man protecting a woman, but nice in that they show that these characters do really care for one another. It was so wonderful to see Tara yell at Franklin for being a rapist. But again, as part of the whole "men saving women" meme on this show, Jason ended up saving Tara. For once, can a woman be the one to defend herself? I will credit the show for at least trying to be progressive. It was also great to see women coming together to support each other. Hopefully, this group will help Tara deal with her situation and save herself from further emotional damage. Women coming together to help each other and fight rape culture? That's feminism. It doesn't make up for the rest of this show, but it's a start. In terms of race, the show introduced a really interesting concept: snitching. Snitching has been an issue within minority races, particularly African Americans. But the connection between meth-doing, rapist shapeshifters and the African American community is a very dangerous one to make. The outside community doesn't understand why they are the way they are, but at the same time they beat Crystal. It's an unflattering portrait of people of color at best. One of the many nice things about this episode was the lack of Bill. Sadly, one of the scenes we did get with Bill included another romp through the heaven-garden, which was even more boring than the first time when it was Sookie running around. Eric and Pam's scene together afterward made up for it. Eric and Pam genuinely do care for one another and it was nice to see that. Eric is not just loyal, he's strong. And far more admirable than Bill. Finally, after waiting a few episodes, the audience got to see this mysterious Authority, which, unsurprisingly, is represented in the form of Nan Flanigan, the spokeswoman for vampires across America. This Authority is just as unfrightening as it sounded it would be, though Eric took it seriously enough. (Seriously, though, web cams? Those things are scarier in dystopian novels.) Eric has a lot on his plate these days, and Alexander Skarsgaard does a great job of making himself look like a scared puppy. (He even swallows dramatically.) Watching him rat out Russell was a joy, especially since giving this kind of information is usually a thankless task. Watching Russell becoming unhinged at the end of the episode was also a pleasure. His speech almost came off as a piece of slam poetry. And unlike the Authority, he was slightly scary. Sam is basically a parent now, and managing it better than Bill has done so far with Jessica. At least Sam tries to be a positive influence and guide his adopted kid to being a normal, successful citizens. It's too bad that parenting Tommy is such a thankless task. (Sam parenting Jessica would also be fun to watch, though she would probably realize what was for her own good.) Gross out moment of the night was brought to you by Talbot, whose remains were disgustingly pawed by Russell at the beginning of the episode. It was creepier than what happened later in the episode, when Russel started carrying around a jar with Talbot's remains inside. It's so macabre and strangely Victorian. Quote of the night goes to Andy, who discussed how he has an ulcer so big coffee was coming out of his bellybutton. The cutest nickname of the night award goes to Lafayette, who was referred to as "Lala" by his Mom. Aww. And the fashion moment of the night was also brought to you by Lafayette (who has by far the best wardrobe on this show) wearing a rosary as a necklace. Haven't seen that look since the late nineties with the Spice Girls. Nice. Also, as a final note, Holly seems like a wonderful and kind person, which means that she is probably really evil and about to destroy someone's life.
Usually, with the second part episode, it picks up exactly where the audience left off. Doctor Who decides to open in media res, with young Amelia, a believer in stars, goes to a museum and opens up the Pandorica. If you watched the last episode, you'd expect the Doctor to be inside. Instead, Amy is, flipping the audience back to Roman Britain, when Rory is given directions from the Doctor. The only bad thing about this episode was Amy's attire. It's too bad that given the controversy over Amy's wardrobe that she was forced to wear pants instead of her cute, and totally normal, skirts. This finale included some well-planned and perfectly executed time-travel. The writers behind the show must have realized how exhausting, and now boring, the quicken exposition is, so they took their time now, even joking that it wasn't slow enough for Rory. The episode also included a great reference at Richard Dawkins, saying that he was a cult leader. Somehow, that feels totally right, which was just like the rest of the episode. Cheers to the people behind Doctor Who for writing story arcs that go beyond just one season and for integrating all of our favorite things, including River Song. Can't wait to see more of her.
by Courtney Hilden Spoiler Alert!: The conclusion of this episode, and the massive twist, is given away in this review. "The Pandorica Opens" is the penultimate episode of this year's Doctor Who. The episode begins with Vincent creating a strange, unseen-by-the-audience painting that finds its way to Winston Churchill, who then tips off Dr. Song, who steals in from Liz 10. Dr. Song, using her knowledge of where the Doctor is in time, leaves him a message of the oldest of planets, Planet One, which sends the Doctor and Amy to Roman conquered-Britain, sometime after the death of Cleopatra, where they discover, indeed, that the Pandorica exists. Now they just have to figure out what's inside, why every great villain is showing up to meet it, and how to stop some unstoppable villain.
It's brilliant that they were able to wrap around various plotlines from earlier in the season to this. They also brought in Stonehenge, answering, at least for the Whovians, what's down there. What a great way of integrating Rory back into the mix as a Roman solider. (Poor Rory, not being remembered by Amy.) And the revelation at the end of the episode, that the Doctor himself was the ultimate weapon, was a great twist, though one that makes a lot of sense, given the trajectory of the last few seasons. Also, props for bringing back the most beloved guest characters, Dr. Song and Liz 10. Too bad we didn't get to see more of Liz 10, who they should really consider for a companion. The not so brilliant bits? Bringing the normal group of villains back, like the Daleks and the Cybermen. I've already mocked this most recent brand of Daleks by calling their leader White Chocolate Dalek. It's too bad that this show always has to use the same villains, instead of inventing new, and less grandiose, antagonists.
by Courtney Hilden Spoiler Alert: Though the murderer is not revealed in this review, other details are.
"The Blue Geranium" is a unique episode of the latest Miss Marple series. Instead of opening up solely with the crime, it opens up with the second crime, then moves forward in time by six months to the trial of the believed killer. Miss Marple, at home and doing some gardening, realizes that the wrong killer is on trial, and then tries frantically to get to the Old Bailey in time to save the day, since the killer, if convicted, will be hanged. The original short story, one which this episode is based, actually had Miss Marple telling the story to a group of friends and amateur sleuths at her home. Deciding not to introduce these characters, the episode opted instead for Marple to be narrating many of the events to an old friend. This is a nice change-up from the typical Marple episode, in which things are not told from any character's point of view. It also makes the mystery harder to solve, since changing from time to time means the audience has to put together a coherent timeline before even getting to the crimes. In addition to that, the audience has two murders to solve and two mysteries (who is the real killer and who is on trial).
The rest of the story is sadly not as interesting or as engaging as past Marple outings. Toby Stevens, playing the believed killer, Mr. Pritchard, and Claudie Blakley, playing his ex-girlfriend and sister-in-law Phillipa Pritchard, give serviceable performances. Sharon Small plays Mary Pritchard, Pritchard's wife, and she brings the crazy. People on the edge of insanity are often unbelievable, and this role is difficult because she has to be both irritating enough that the audience can see why Pritchard would hate her, but can't over do it. Small manages to make Mary unlikeable, but keeps the full-blown crazy to a minimum. More than anything, she's just unpleasant and paranoid, saying nasty things to the maid and harassing the police inspector. The costumes and set are decent, though the eagle decorated podium within the church was far too much.
The latest episode of True Blood continues each of the separate storylines the audience has been watching. Lafayette shows Tara what happened to his mother (and answering the question of what Lafayette does with all the money he makes off of V), Jason and Andy bust a meth lab, Sookie continues to search for Bill, and Sam reunites and bonds with his family. Lafayette's Mom was the most interesting part of the episode, since she brought a subtle crazy to her character. (And also illuminated why Tara's Mom is such a pain in the ass.) The friendship between Jason and Andy continues to be both funny and sweet. Meanwhile, the audience got to see a flashback including Eric and Godric. It's a pity Godric is dead, because he is far more interesting than so many of the other vampires, since he is so much more cool-headed than most of them. But Eric is no longer a one-note character, and beginning to see his vulnerability to Sookie, who he has some connection with but doesn't know how to express. The most boring parts of this episode? The main characters: Bill and Sookie. Bill has been kidnapped by the King of Mississippi and Sookie tries to desperately search for him. At this point, it seemed obvious that Lorena was going to show up, though not that he would try to burn her with what looked like a kerosene lamp. Although this episode is important in terms of setting up other storylines for the show, it was, for the most part, boring. It's almost too bad there are so many storylines in the air right now, because it would be better to just follow the interesting characters, and leave others to rot with the King of Mississippi.
“Vincent and the Doctor” finds our favorite Doctor running after a monster he sees in an Van Gogh painting, dragging companion Amy along. The entire episode was about image and impression, since the episode (visually) referenced Van Gogh’s paintings and contained a machine that could take impressions of things to find what they really were. The actor playing Van Gogh (Tony Curran) was delightful, sympathetic, elusive and intense. He has created some wonderful villains, and has such large, dark pupils it is possible to drown in them. Even so, it was hard not to think about the cartoon doppelganger of Van Gogh from Clone High. Bill Nighy, who played the art academic, was adorable and sweet. (Seriously, why didn't anyone consider him to be the new doctor?) As always, Karen Gillan brought a wonderful sense of delight and compassion, combining the best aspects of Rose and Donna. Matt Smith did a serviceable job as the Doctor. He's grown into the role, but sometimes he lacks any charisma to set him apart from previous doctors. (Though of course he has the hard job of following what might be the best doctor, David Tennant.) The episode still had tons of fun and well-delivered Doctorism, including the Doctor wondering if time really passed that slowly and in the right order. It was, as a whole, an uplifting episode less about the monster and more about art and loving life.
by Courtney Hilden Spoiler Alert!: Certain surprises within the episode are revealed in this review.
"Bad Blood," the first episode of this season of True Blood, picks up where the last episode left off, with Tara still reeling over the death of Eggs, Sookie looking for a kidnapped Bill, Eric trying to sell V (vampire blood used as a drug) to fund the Queen of Louisiana, and Sam out looking for his family. Although the episode was fascinating and moved all these storylines forward, like most episodes of the show, there wasn't much tying these things together.
The episode opened with what has to be the longest "previously on..." segment in the history of television. The show is juggling way too many balls at this point not to be confusing, even to those viewers who have been loyally following (including your's truly.)
It's good also to see some of the book's most interesting characters, including Kendra Jones. Kendra is always in the background of the early books, and in this episode she gets a brief cameo. Also seeing the Bellefleur cousins bonding over their mutual killer status was nice. No other character manages to both be badass and sensitive like Terry Bellefleur. That badass might be rubbing off on Andy, since he went through Jason's window. (Also: can someone make a techno song of Andy and Jason's mantra?) The only thing that's sad is to see Eric at his trashiest and horndoggediness. As a fan of the books, I want to see Eric like he is in the fourth or later books. Tara was also hard to watch. Tara's a great character, but seeing her act like a stereotypical black woman (crazy and violent) was disappointing, since this show is supposed to be all about subverting stereotypes, though the show has always struggled to do so with non-white, non-male characters.
The show, at this point, is espousing an atheist point of view, which would be fine, if this was a simplistic show. It would be nice to see the show to work to show an complicated answer to God. It's also sad that the characters often interested in God are stupid or African American. In the latter case, it's racist, but in the former, it's simple unimaginative. Also, in the case of race, is it necessary to make one of the few African American characters to be made a slave to white people and sell drugs, as they have with Lafayette? Aren't there enough of those stereotypes on tv? The only thing that was good about it was the interesting commentary about blood and drug use. The magistrate mentions that using vampire blood for drug use was "blasphemy," a word associated with this simplistic evangelist model. (The magistrate also mentioned that this situation was "moral anarchy.") Maybe the show will depict drug use as not so bad or terrible in the same way that sexuality is depicted by fundamentalist Christians.
Overall, a decent episode, one that was funny in its now-standard way and allowed all the characters the chance to naturally grow.
"Cold Blood," the latest episode of Doctor Who, picks up where the last episode left off, which finds our heroes, the Doctor (Matt Smith) and Amy (Karen Gillan), trying to negotiate peacefully with the Silurians, aliens that once inhabited the Earth and mean to go back. If the Daleks are meant to be the Nazis, then these aliens are apparently the Bush Administration, since they apparently "don't negotiate with apes." Points to the show for using science fiction as a way to discuss moral problems and political issues. This is where the show should go instead of recycling previous ideas from the last few seasons. It's possible to read the Silurians as not an alien species but as another race. It would be easy to see them, given that they were the original owners of the planet, as indigenous people. The Doctor at least encourages both sides to negotiate instead of out-right war between colonizers and the native people. Unfortunately, the humans, the colonizers, are weak enough to be goaded into killing one of the Silurians. What makes this problematic is that the hero, the Doctor, defends the humans, the colonizer, and not the oppressed group. It's also dangerous that the oppressed are depicted as unhuman, literally green and scaly. The episode was a solid entry in the series, especially since it ditches the overused plots and characters and goes for something different.
by Courtney Hilden
