Here’s what we watched from Friday to Monday... we really need to get lives.
Spoilers...
How I Met Your Mother – “Oh Honey” (B+)
I was really worried at the start of this episode that the recent upswing this show has been on would be over, that maybe the great writing present throughout the death of Marshall’s father would be an isolated event, a mere blip in a show otherwise on the decline. Well I’m happy to say that my first impression of this episode was wrong. “Oh Honey” was a delightful episode (yes delightful), making great use of How I Met Your Mother’s inventive use of alternative narratives.
I swear, if How I Met Your Mother developed a spin off series of Marshall during his high school years, I would watch that show. I loved all the interruptions from his mother and brother, I loved watching his brother break down the relationship between Ted and Zoey, and I loved the final strategy session where Marshall explained the situation to the two of them. It was just an awesome way to frame an episode.
And it was the great use of that framing device that led to this episode’s phenomenal conclusion. The phone call ending could have been really corny, but the way the show set it up was perfect. Watching Zoey’s face as she listened to Ted go on about why he “hates” her between the two phone calls was extremely satisfying, as was watching Ted light up as he got his own phone call. I know Zoey (played by Jennifer Morrison) isn’t everybody’s favourite character (nor is she likely the mother), but you had to enjoy watching them discover their feelings for each other were mutual.
I also have to quickly mention Katy Perry’s cameo. She wasn’t bad. Her acting was good enough that it didn’t distract from the story. Of the two main sequences she was in I found her second one – where Barney breaks down because she asks him “who’s your daddy” – to be the better scene. I don’t know if there’s anyone better than Neil Patrick Harris at playing over the top hysterical, but if he’s not the best he’s certainly up there (although now that I think about it Busy Philipps is also a worthy contender for last week’s Cougar Town).
Californication – “Freeze Frame” (A-)
This show makes me angry. Not because it sucks. In fact the show is awesome. It makes me mad because of how Hank cannot catch a break. I think I've said this before, but I have always been rooting for Hank. But bad shit follows this guy around like horrible retweets from Judd Apatow. It just keeps coming and coming.
Carla Gugino's character said it really well when describing Hank in Freeze Frame. He has all this really dark shit inside him, but he wants the white picket fence. I guess if I really had to analyze the character, I would say that this is probably very true. However, it’s the manipulative women in his life that put the "dark shit" there.
The only thing you really need to know plot-wise for this episode is that:
1. Runkle is most likely the father of Marcy's fetus (I say fetus because that’s what it is at this point)
2. At the beginning of the episode it looks like Hank will get off of the rape charge.
3. By episodes end it looks like he is going to jail for a long time.
Basically, Hank tries to be a nice guy when Mia is being all dark and moody. He literally talks her off a ledge. But then Mia and Sasha conspire to treat Hank like a piece of meat. They put him in a compromising situation, try to stick their hands down his pants, and some teenage hipster takes a picture of it. What is up with girls screwing with Hank? Why can't they be nice to him? He’s nice to them. He gives them orgasms. What is it about him that makes them need to ruin his life?
I really feel for Hank. I want his life to be OK., but I really don't think it ever will be, unless he stops all contact with women. But this is Hank Moody we’re talking about. That’ll never happen.
Fringe – “Concentrate and Ask Again” (A-)
Fringe brings mind readers into their lore this week with the case of a disgruntled militia who were inoculated against a biological weapon during the testing for it. Only thing is, now they can't have children. So logically, they have to kill everyone involved in the project with the same biological weapon. Just so we are clear, this weapon is a blue powder that disintegrates your bones.
So the Fringe team stops the men from killing 1/3 of their targets. The other 2 die. I don't know if I'd call that a win but it was a cool plot. They have to use an off the record Cortexiphan trial participant who developed the ability to read minds. But he can't control it, so he lives alone to avoid human contact. They ask him to help them and he risks the sickness he gets from being bombarded with everyone's thoughts to come to an event where the men are targeting a US senator who oversaw the weapons testing. He comes through and it’s a big win.
However... he throws a spike in the Peter/Olivia relationship. He reads Peter's mind and finds that he still has feelings for the other Olivia.
They also revealed what we already know, that Seamus WIles, is Sam from the bowling alley. He wrote The First Peoples.
Sam tells Nina Sharp that the machine has the ability to create and destroy, and that Peter is uniquely tuned to work the machine. AND... duh duh duh... that whichever Olivia he chooses will be the one whose universe survives. So, if Peter has feelings for the other Universe, that means that the one we know and love may be destroyed.
So this brings me to new theories. Only one this week.
The observers talked about how they now know that Walter will be willing to let Peter die when the time comes, so I think the observers are following the path of the Universe to see if both worlds can survive. Their plan is at odds with what the prophecies (or whatever you want to call them) say about the machine. The machine is made to destroy one universe, but, the observer wants to see both survive. That may mean that Peter has to die.
Shameless – “Three Boys” (B)
From proposal, to I’m married to someone else, to wedding in one episode. This show works fast.
I have to say I was a little surprised at the way this episode developed. The way they started with Fiona sort of covering for Kev I thought the episode would be about them keeping the secret from Veronica, but then Kev told her, and I thought the episode would be about the fallout from that. Well that was only a passing thought because Veronica took the news incredibly well. I guess it’s my fault for thinking a cable show would play out like a network show, but the randomness of this storyline gave the episode a sporadic feel, which made it less enjoyable than the previous few episodes from the series.
I also didn’t like the little detour they took with Vee’s brother. Anthony Anderson played the part fine, but it didn’t really add much drama to the wedding storyline (it was a fake wedding anyways), nor was it particularly funny. It just seemed like a bit of a ploy to kill time.
Steve was relatively absent in this episode, but despite this they covered a lot of ground with Fiona and him. I really like the way they’re developing this relationship. “That’s the problem with the exciting ones, their unpredictability” notes Veronica, probably the perfect summation of the dilemma facing Fiona. I’m glad they’re keeping Tony around as a viable love interest for Fiona – he’s a good character. Although I thought it was a little ridiculous that he was the one who pulled them over. What is there like one cop in Chicago?
Frank had a lot of the good comedic moments in this episode. I love how he assumes everybody at the doctor’s office is trying to scam their way into a disability cheque, and that he’s got the perfect system. I also thought it was hilarious that both he and Sheila immediately assumed he was dying (she even offered him a plot of land to be buried in) despite the fact he hadn’t even done the biopsy yet. But the highlight of the episode for me had to be watching Frank take part in a breast cancer support group. His attempts at “support” were so terrible you just had to laugh.
Speaking of Sheila (Joan Cusack), she’s actually turning into quite the heartbreaking character. It’s hard to watch her get herself all pumped up to go out only to get to the door and have a panic attack. I mean she literally made a dress for the wedding. She even made Frank a matching vest. Judging by the way they’ve set up her character I don’t foresee her leaving the house any time soon. I think the agoraphobia is just of a way of explaining why she would put up with Frank. Who knows though – this show seems to surprise me with something new every week.
House – “Family Practice” (B+)
This was a dark episode for the series, and I mean that in a good way. The majority of this season of House has been a light hearted affair, but in this episode the characters were pushed to their limits, and the drama was palpable.
It’s hard to find a scene that encapsulates just that better than House’s scene with Cuddy near the end of the episode. House was downright cruel in his approach, but you could still tell that he was acting out of concern for his relationship. “One day, maybe a week from now, maybe a year from, you’re going to decide that the man sleeping next to you killed your mother” laments House, in one of the better dramatic scenes I’ve seen from the show in a while.
But the drama didn’t stop there, with House also becoming locked into an ethical debate with Masters over the treatment of Cuddy’s mother. What House did to Masters was ruthless, but her response to it gave us her character’s first real payoff. I loved all of the story beats as Masters found out that House had set her up, processed that information, and ultimately risked her career as a doctor to do what she thought was right. It simultaneously portrayed her as a character with uncompromising morals (and guts), and a med student in way over her head, a complexity played perfectly by Amber Tamblyn. My only question is, why would she ever go back to work with him?
Taub also had a great storyline this week. Much like Masters, he risked his career because he couldn’t sit on the information that a young boy may be dying. He’s never been the most likable character, which makes feeling sympathy towards him over his divorce a difficult sell. But “Family Practice” showed us, that despite Taub being a terrible husband, deep down he’s still a good person. I really hope the writers don’t forget this aspect of Taub’s personality in future episodes. It makes his character wildly more interesting.
The Cape – “Goggles and Hicks” (B)
This episode brought another twist into the world of the Cape – the revealing of his secret identity. Not to everyone mind you, just a comedically dark duo of assassins who are hired by Peter Flemming (aka Chess, aka Orwell's father) to kill the Cape.
Reviewing The Cape gives me a chance to rack my brain for interesting examples of how the show parallels comic books. My brain is somewhat dead this morning since I watched The Cape instead of sleeping an extra hour last night. But you readers demand excellence, and part of excellence is timeliness, and if one is not on time, what is one? And if one doesn't know who one issssssssss........... *falls asleep at desk*
OK I'm awake again, I think my point there was that I’m sure I will miss some glaring examples of real comic book parallels in this week's episode but here goes my best shot.
From what I can make of it, the Cape's world grew with the addition of another villain in Palm City this week. I guess I should say set of villains, because this is Goggles and Hicks. Some serious names that’s for sure. They strike fear in my heart every time I hear them. Goggles and Hicks are an assassin team who hunt down Vince. In doing so they discover who he is and put all that information on a jump stick (why they don't make extra copies is beyond me). The Cape and Orwell go on the run from these assassins and end up putting the fat, wheel-chair bound one in jail at the end of the episode, only to have his brother trade the jump stick with Vince's identity for his brother's location. And that is it. The Cape lives to fight another day.
Oh and Goggles and Hicks are another part of Tarot, who is lead by someone Chess refers to as "The Master." Their card is "The Chariot."
Anyway, Vince's identity coming out reminds me of Spiderman. When the Superhuman Registration Act comes into play, as the fuel for Civil War, Tony Stark convinces Peter Parker to unmask and reveal his identity. This has some serious issues for Peter because all of his foes come out to get him and that puts his family in danger. I worry for Vince's family if word gets out that he is alive and is the Cape. Bruce Wayne is also known by Ras al Guul to be Batman I believe. It was this way in the movie, and in Hush (a great graphic novel for anyone interested in a fantastic detective story) Ras gets into the bat cave to leave Batman a message. Dangerous.
That’s all for today in Cape world. Still a really fun show.
Castle – “Lucky Stiff” (B+)
Lucky Stiff is a pretty good episode all around. The Castle Beckett love story takes a back seat to the crime in this episode and it sure is an intriguing one.
This is the story of a murdered lottery winner. Murdered for his money? Sort of, there is $100,000 missing. But what of his hundreds of millions? Still there, and the cops never play the "inheritance" card. Castle suggests it’s the butler (yes this man has a classic English butler). They track down what the guy has been doing and it turns out he has been giving most of his money away. Long story short, he bought the lottery ticket for his old neighbour, who died the day they announced the winning numbers. So the dude kept the ticket and the millions. Who killed him? The old dude's non-biological son (their relationship is sketchy at best, but the show makes it out that they were close).
An interesting sub-plot is what would you do with a lottery winning? Beckett has no answer the whole episode. Ryan would buy a winery, Espisito would also do something frivolous that I can't remember, the captain would buy a giant fishing boat, but Beckett has no answer. In the end Castle realizes that she would want to honour her mother's legacy, so Castle arranges to set up a scholarship in her name. Wow. Cute. They should get married.
Martha inherits a million bucks from her dead fiancé who she was going to break it off with. She keeps the money. Sleazy. She wants to honour him, so of course she sets up an acting school in his honour. The Martha Rodgers School of Acting. But don't worry, a portrait of him will hang in the foyer. Now that’s an honour.
No comments:
Post a Comment