And so another series of Doctor Who begins thanks to the magic of the Internet and bit torrent software! Spoilerphobes beware, because I consider information up to and including this premiere episode to be fair game!
Resuming the story quite literally right where we last left off, the “best show on television” comes roaring back onto our screens with an intensity that…doesn’t quite sustain the dramatic and emotional heft of the outlandish and outrageous third season finale, which saw both the delirious return of Katee Sackhoff’s Starbuck and the revelation that four long-running characters, including at least two fan favorites, are Cylons.
It was nice to see Katee Sackhoff’s name returned to its rightful place in the credits following Edward James Olmos and Mary McGovern. This was no surprise, but seeing it was so had the effect of restoring some of the equilibrium that had been thrown out of whack after Starbuck’s “death” late last season.
Continue reading ‘Battlestar Galactica 4.1 - “He That Believeth In Me”’
Last night’s episode of How I Met Your Mother was so good that I think maybe I’ve been too easy on other recent episodes.
Numerous first rate gags on hand this time, from Robin’s sixteen “no’s” in reaction to Blah Blah’s insinuation that she and Barney were a couple (protesting so much, in fact, that I think an eventual Robin/Barney pairing is now inevitable), to the running jokes involving Ted’s bad kissing habits and the technique of saying “come on” in a low key but condescending tone to get people to admit sexual secrets.
Continue reading ‘How I Met Your Mother 3.5 “How I Met Everyone Else”’
About halfway through “Dummy”, I fell in love with Kristin Chenoweth. And Digby the dog.
I’m starting to get a good feeling about this show, and that became clear the moment that Chenoweth’s Olive Snook brook into song, spontaneously singing “Hopelessly Devoted to You” to express heartache over her inability to snag the attentions of Lee Pace’s Ned. But it wasn’t just the fact that Pushing Daisies gave us a musical number in the middle of its second episode, it’s the fact that it did so in such an idiosyncratic fashion, with Olive being interrupted several times and freezing up in embarrassment for her excessive keening, only to resume at the earliest opportunity. Kristin captured perfectly that sense of humiliation so many of us have felt at one time or another over being caught exposed and vulnerable in front of the wrong people. In a series so quirky and twee (I love that word!), it was a remarkably down to earth moment, and its insight into basic human nature was an unexpected answer to earlier criticisms that Pushing Daisies might be a bit too bubbly for a show so rooted in painful, complicated and seemingly insurmountable problems, like not being able to touch someone without killing them.
Carpoolers is the best surprise of Tuesday nights so far. I only hope it doesn’t get sucked down the drain by Cavemen.
In fact, Cavemen is such an off-putting concept (hated the Geico commercials, completely uninterested in a sitcom expansion) that I almost didn’t even bother giving Carpoolers a look. On paper it sounds unremarkable: the adventures of 4 guys who share a carpool lane, but it’s filled with funny, interesting characters and a plethora of winning actors.
10
Oct
Reaper 1.3 “All Mine”
Please please please put a sock in it, already!
Seriously, “All Mine” is an improvement on several levels, and creators Tara Butters and Michelle Fazekas deserve praise and support for that.
So why am I including a large picture of the lovely, lovely Valarie Rae Smith at the top of this post? For two reasons. No! Make that three reasons:
An outstanding and sexy return to form after the alarming lameness of the previous episode!
In fact, the track record of How I Met Your Mother is so strong that one should probably look at the lame episodes as a sort of breather, a chance to catch your breath between the dizzying heights of the usual installments.
Tonight we had a mini Freak and Geeks reunion with Busy Philipps showing up as Rachel, playing off a leggy Danica McKellar making a welcome return after last season’s “The Pineapple Incident.” It’s always a pleasure to see Busy; she remains one of the sexiest girls on TV whilst always seeming approachable, even when the characters she’s playing aren’t. She deserves to be a much bigger star, and the only disappointment in her appearance was that we didn’t get to see her and Jason Segel interact. That would have been special.
It’s the open-hearted abandon of My Name Is Earl that keeps winning me back.
I was an early fan during its first season, but back then I still got the sense that it was bordering on the snide just a little too much. There was just something about the idea of Ivy League graduates and millionaire movie stars playing white trash (and often in the crudest, last appealing possible light) that made me pause. I couldn’t deny it was funny, but I wasn’t sure whether it was also being condescending. As the season progressed, the writing sharpened. The characters became deeper, arguably more sympathetic, and it became easier to empathize with their points of view. Eventually, I felt like I was laughing with them rather than at them, and that’s the point at which My Name Is Earl hit its stride.
Continue reading ‘My Name Is Earl 2.3 “The Gangs of Camden County”’
I wanted to like Pushing Daisies a lot more than I did, but I’m not giving up on it, either.
I’m committed myself to at least six episodes, though my gut tells me that there’s no way this show lasts that long before ABC pulls the plug. Reports that the network is already demanding the kinds of budget cuts that could end up neutering the show’s distinctive visual style are also not encouraging, as this is the kind of series that is desperately going to need an unusual palette to succeed.
Now that’s more like it!
Truth be told, I liked Bionic Woman’s pilot a lot more than others, though many of the complaints were valid. It was too dour, too mopey and Sackhoff upstaged star Michelle Ryan every time they were onscreen together. It’s not that I agreed with the notion that Michelle Ryan was bland, it’s just that Katee Sackhoff is a dazzling charisma generator in her own right. That was less of a problem this week, as Sackhoff ’s rogue bionic woman Sarah Corvus was kept seperate from Ryan’s Jamie Sommers, and that distance allowed Ryan to find some more confidence as the center of the show. Without having to compete with Sackhoff, Ryan’s Jamie Sommers was relaxed, amiable, endearing and even appreciative of her new status as a super hero and eager to put it to good use. That’s a definite move in the right direction, as any more scenes of Jamie horrified by her new body would really have been a drag.
