Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol

by Courtney Hilden

Most of the episode's spoilers are unrevealed in this review.

By now, even Americans are well-aware that Doctor Who, the alien traveler who takes humans as companions, has their own Christmas special. This Christmas, the Doctor, Amy and Rory headed out to a strange planet where the clouds have to be controlled and where the sky swims with fishes and sharks. In an attempt to save a crashing spaceship, the Doctor has to work on the miserable old man who controls the sky by going back into his past and changing his childhood.
As usual, the crew who worked on set design deserve a huge award for the episode, which was beautifully constructed. The planet was phenomenal and strange. The fish were a wonderful touch to a planet that otherwise seemed like a vaguely steampunk remake of last year's Christmas speical Dickens-esque London.
The delightful episode had lots for older, sci-fi fans, like with the spaceship that was meant to emulate the Bridge in the most recent Star Trek movie. The nerd references continued, with discussion of how you can tame the sky (Firefly perhaps?) and with "Bored Now" (a classic quote from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.)
Matt Smith gave a wonderful, energetic, manic performance. His bon mots were inspired and delivered perfectly. Casting him and his Doctor as the Ghost of Christmas Past (and later Christmas Future) was a good idea, because, more than any other character, he lives in the past. Smith works magic with children, and his interactions with child!Sanders was more of two children talking to one another than an adult (alien) and a child. David Tennant's Doctor, for all his silliness, gave off the air of being adult and filled with adult desires. There is something strangely adolescent about Smith's performance, one that has desire but is still terribly confused by it. This is a fascinating touch to add to a character, one that has made watching the Doctor more psychologically penetrating.
Michael Gambon's performance, unsurprisingly, was made of win. He made a great Scrooge-like character. Unfortunately, the only sad thing about this episode was how little we saw of Rory and Amy, and the complete lack of everyone's favorite character, River Song.
The trading of a woman's body was incredibly creepy. Anthropologists have documented the way in which women's bodies have been traded throughout societies, and the unanswered question of what Mr. Sanders would do with this young lady's body went unanswered. They showed us where they went (a frozen storage facility.) Sanders strange infatuation with Abigail taken as "security" also emphasizes the anthropological theory of women as a sexual trading object.
As a finaly note: Does anyone know where I can get a sonic screwdriver to float in my fish bowl?

Colombo Oreo

by Courtney Hilden

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.

A Poetry Reading with Steve Healey and Linh Dinh

by Courtney Hilden

A writer in New York, even a terrible, aspiring, self-deprecating one like myself (especially one like myself) is required to make certain literary sojourns. I had considered what my first one should be. A visit to Melville’s grave? A lecture on Austen? Trying to crash a book party for Franzen? Decisions decisions.
Finally, I made one: a poetry reading. I am now a Poet (yes, capital ‘P’) and I am apparently meant to care about other’s poetry, so that’s how I found myself sitting in a church gathering room, bars on the windows, listening to Steve Healey read poetry.
This is probably bending the writer-in-New-York-literary-sojourn rule, since I actually had Healey, once upon a time/a year ago as a teacher. I had even heard him read once, once upon a time/about eight months ago.
Of course, now I had actually read his most recent book of poems, Ten Mississippi. I had been browsing in the poetry section of The Strand, another site for writers in New York. The poetry section was the only deserted aisle in the whole store, and I plopped down on the floor and let my fingers tickle the spines until I found myself holding his book.
I read it about a month ago, I loved the first part but somewhere after the section of ten poems on the Mississippi I found myself feeling like I had meandered on that river too long and that my mind was flying away to other places. This isn’t to say the book is bad, it’s not. By poetry standards it’s remarkable because these days you’re lucky to get a book of poems with two decent poems to juxtapose on a double page spread.
Hearing him read, now that I had done my homework (sorry, Sir, I didn’t do the homework the first time I went to one of your readings) was actually nice. I remembered things from my own reading of the material, and it was like running into a high school friend: we know each other, right? And then you look each other down, and yes, there is that thing that first scratched at the back hairs of your memory, but there’s also all these things that are totally foreign to you. You know what? Scratch that, I was just allowing myself to put a bias on these poems that isn’t necessary. Actually, hearing Healey’s poetry was like seeing Healey again: like seeing someone you had seen relatively recently, in the best way possible. His first poem was “Ketchup Over the Park” and it felt good to hear him say that “we know Macbeth is going to get fucked.” Can Healey please write a poem about that? I would listen to that. An entire poem about Macbeth, getting fucked.
He then read all ten Mississippi poems, which covers, yes, the river, yes, hide and seek, and yes, seeing old friends again and realizing you’ve changed (see, I knew I was thinking about that for a reason.) And also dead bodies, lots of dead bodies. The poems that work the least in the book are those that collage the news reports involving dead bodies being pulled from the river, but these are the poems that work best outloud.
He finished with a few other poems from the book, including “Consider There is a Person.” The only poem I wish I had heard? “While I Held My Breath Underwater,” which involved opera, swimming, fish fillet, and drowning, in that order and then in reverse. And then that was it. Really, a bit of a tease. There was no “Intelligent Design,” no “Among the Most Well-Educated Motherfuckers,” no “A Cat as King of the Fog.” (For shame, Sir, being one of those poems who writes a poem to Wallace Stevens. We get it: Modern poets like Stevens. You know how many poems people have written to that man? He’s in heaven now, swearing to the high part of it that he’s got enough to do in eternity as it is, he doesn’t need more poems to read.)
We had a seven minute break, and I spent the time going over my notes (not for this review because I only sometimes write notes for my reviews but my personal I’m-a-poet-ask-me-more notes.) I wrote two poems, one to a friend who ditched me to do something else instead of coming to this reading and another about what it feels like to sit alone and be the only person without someone else and why am I the only one who needs a seat between me and the next person? No one else here does. Suffice to say, those seven minutes flew by faster than my neurotic tendencies.
Next up was Linh Dinh who I have no experience with. I could have just left like the red-bearded dude probably from Minnesota did, but I decided to stick around since I had to pay eight dollars to hear poetry tonight, and I don’t have enough money to be throwing around eight dollars.
Linh Dinh first commented on the similarities between him and Healey, then said something about trying to out-sick him. If Healey’s sick we’re all dead of the plague, frankly and since my armpits have checked out for the normal amount of hairy, I’m going to come out and say it: Healey’s poetry is relatively calm as a river (not the Mississippi.) Dinh, on the other hand, is manic or dissociative or possibly both.
One of the first things he did was insult bloggers, and I’m sure if Dinh ever happens to stumble upon this than he’s probably expecting me to be all offended, but like I said, I’m this close to qualifying as apathetic about other people’s poetry. So it doesn’t really bother me, because, yes, my blogging is probably embarrassing, but if it’s the sort of humor that makes someone smile like you do at a comedian making fun of themselves, than I’m declaring victory anyway.
I’m not sure how much of that criticism I should take seriously anyway, because Dinh may have been speaking in persona. I say may because at first, I thought this was him, and then later on, when he read some prose poems I thought maybe not. So bully for him for making me believe he was an uneducated gangster-wannabe teenager. I quite enjoyed both this early part of the performance and that latter part, especially the prose poem about a prisoner who finds a dictionary and teaches himself a new language. Dinh’s right to call it a parable, because like most of the stuff in the Bible, I only get about half of it. But this is due more to my general, already-stated apathy for other people’s poetry and need to carefully consider a poem over multiple readings than it has anything to do with him.
The reading over, I decided to say goodbye to Healey. Another hug, a little nostalgia over last year’s class. (I can’t get over the kind of talent I was surrounded by in that class, though I feel that way about other classes, organizations and even the dorm I once lived in.) I kind of wished my favorite people from that class were around, except for Erin, who knows that I never want her around, especially when she makes me assert my senior superiority all over her on the first day of school.
Then Healey asked me about a guy friend in that class, and was liked stunned because it was one of those implications that was basically like “So, you two…” and then trailed off to imagine the possibility of us dating. This is the third time someone’s done that to me, the second time it’s been a professor. Apparently these teachers pay more attention than you would think.

Chuck Versus Phase Three

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?

The Babe in the Bar

by Courtney Hilden

In this episode of Bones a woman is discovered in a giant chocolate bar. Like many of the show's openings, this happened to have the gross-out moment where putrefied body liquid came out of the bar. Luckily (or maybe not) the body liquid looked like carmel and raspberry filing, not corpse juice.
Meanwhile, other characters were dealing with other storylines. Cam's daughter was about to apply to college, and decided she wanted to go to Central Maine State. It was so nice to see a character applying to a college that no one has ever gone to. Every time characters go to college on tv, they go somewhere well-known and usually prestigious, so showing a state school is a nice change. The not so good thing about this decision? Michelle's motivation for going to the school, which was where her boyfriend was going to be at. The storyline also emphasized Cam's lack of confidence in Sweets. When Angela suggested Cam talk to him, Cam said that she didn't want to "talk to a child about a child." Ouch. It was really unfair, considering that Sweets did make a reasonable argument for why Cam should back off. Of course, just because Sweets made a reasonable argument doesn't mean Cam listened, which includes applying for her adopted daughter.
Also, Hodgins finally decided it was time to announce his and Angela's pregnancy. You already knew how the baby surprise storyline was going to end, since the writers have been setting everyone up since the beginning of the season. Poor Hodgins had no idea that everyone already knew the surprise. Angela was forced into asking people into pretending they were surprise, which of course means they would accidentally tip Hodgins off.
As for the central storyline, I was hoping that the victim had lied to her family about training to be a chocolate maker. It was additionally strange that no matter what the size of evidence, there's always a table big enough to hold it, even when it's a giant chocolate lab. (And don't defend this by saying they had borrowed the table. Did you see how big that table is? Who has a table like that just so someone can borrow it?) Also lame? Making the victim, named Harriet, a spy.

Promises, Promises

by Courtney Hilden

Promises, Promises is a revival of an older Broadway show, starring Sean Hayes (in his Broadway debut), Kristen Chenoweth and Molly Shannon, amongst others. The show follows Hayes's Chuck Baxter, an accountant trying to move up in the large firm he works in. When he discovers that the easiest way to get favors from executives is to lend out his apartment to them so they can extra-marital affairs, he finds himself not only in a tough place morally but accidentally making it easier for his boss, Sheldrake to have an affair with Baxter's unrequited love, Fran.
Hayes and Chenoweth gives unsurprisingly great performances. Hayes makes Baxter just the right amount of neurotic without losing any charm. Chenoweth tones down her more squeaky voice to make Fran a lovely young woman. Chenoweth's Fran isn't stupid or a bimbo; she knows exactly what mess she is getting herself into by getting involved a second time with Sheldrake. The chemistry between Hayes and Chenoweth feels genuine, unforced, and earnest, and it's surprisingly realistic for a comedy with such dark elements underneath the surface. Shannon, who plays the ridiculous Marge MacDougall, is clearly having a ball with such a silly character. It's nice to see a cast who is clearly not working, but playing.
The set pieces were also suburb. Everything was period appropriate and beautifully created. When we finally see the apartment that has been so important to the story, we realize how ordinary and sweetly normal it is, just like Baxter. The music was perfect and everyone's singing was great. Overhall, a strong show for anyone who enjoys a well-told story but great actors.

Under the Gun

by Courtney Hilden

"Under the Gun" found Becket, Castle, Ryan and Esposito sleuthing around a man's death, which leads to a treasure map that no one but Castle believes is a treasure map.

Although there was a lot of delightful things about this episode, like most episodes of Castle, there was a lot about this episode that did not feel right. Using the radio devices, something the show never does, meant of course that it was going to reveal a clue. Even though the clue was important, the totally contrived way of finding it ruined it. It would be far more likely that Detective Ryan would knock the calculator off the desk, breaking the phone and revealing the bug in the process. In another totally expected moment, the old man suspect was faking his poor walking.
And in the most expected moment of the night, Royce, Becket's old friend, turned out to be apart of the plot, who removed Random and made sure he was never delivered to Central Booking.
And since I already mentioned there were good things about this episode, it is important to mention them. The bounty hunter calling Becket out on her ridiculous shoe choices (heels, natch) was a nice touch.
All the actors involved gave adequete perfromances. Brian Krause as a minister gave his typical subtle but strong performance. His character's story sounded totally suspicious and he managed to perfectly balance believeable and unbelievable as a suspect.

And in the nicest touch of all in this episode, when Royce called Becket and attempted to upset her and throw her off, she turned the tables on him and did the same. On another show, Royce calling Becket would have consisted of Royce psyching Becket out and screwing up the investigation. Instead, Becket psyched him out, telling him exactly what would upset him most and keeping him on the line longer to get a location. Too bad she cried at the end of the scene. It would have been nice to see some nerves of steel from this woman.
And finally "I can't based my entire case on your spidey sense" was a great line, but it was evocative of a certain line from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a show our beloved Nathan Fillion was once on. Castle and Becket are quickly becoming a Mulder and Scully pair, with Castle espousing fantastic ideas and Becket staying closer to reality. Unlike in The X-Files, however, Becket is usually closer to being right. And if that was not nerdy enough for you, the geek references continued, naming one of the suspects Random, also a character from Hitchhiker's Guide.