Did You Guys See My Dad in There?

Shameless and Californication ended their seasons yesterday. Personally I’m pretty sad about seeing Shameless go, but I take solace in the fact that it got renewed and I still get all the HBO and Showtime channels in my Movie Network package. Actually, come to think of it, my life is awesome!

Spoilers...

Shameless – “Father Frank, Full of Grace” (A-)

A fitting ending to a terrific inaugural season. Shameless is really the first series where I’ve reviewed an entire season from start to finish, and I think if you were to read back through this blog it would tell you a story, of a young aspiring writer falling in love with a scrappy little series with a lot of heart. Yes, I’ve really enjoyed my time writing about Shameless and I can’t wait to watch next season a year from now, primarily because of where this finale left us.

Now it wasn’t an ending with a ton of cliffhangers, but the ones they did give us were good enough peak my interest for next season. The main one was Eddie’s suicide. When he was running around trying to kill Frank I figured they were just going to go for the traditional I’m gonna get him type storyline, with maybe Sheila finding out in the end. The suicide through me for a bit of a loop. I thought Karen was dark and stormy last week so I can only imagine what she’ll be like when she finds out her actions led to her dad’s suicide.

Which is too bad because I quite enjoyed her and Lip’s reconciliation. Lip’s arc in this episode was actually probably its strongest component. I liked his scene with Ian where he tells him that he was falling in love with Karen. The way he retorted all of Ian’s attempts to trivialize Karen was sweet. It was a very smart way for the writers to really cement that these two are meant to be together.

But the highlight of Lip’s storyline was his final scene with Frank. For once it seemed like Frank was legitimately sorry for something he’d done. Now I know, he went about making excuse after excuse for pretty much the entirety of the episode, but when he went back to let Lip pee on him it wasn’t just one of the funnier parts of the episode, it was an admission that he deserved it. What’s funny too is there was this tiny little moment at the end of the sequence where both Frank and Lip couldn’t help let out a smile. There’s hope for that relationship yet I tell you.

Fiona had a pretty heavy episode herself this week. Her with Ian where he admits to her that he’s gay was another terrific dramatic moment for this episode. Her matter of fact approach to the subject matter was quite a touching way of letting Ian know she accepts him no matter what. And that right there is good writing. When the writer doesn’t need to spell it out to the audience in overly sentimental dialogue to get their point across you know you’re watching something special.

But the real drama in Fiona’s world this week was whether or not to run off with Steve or take the job that Amy Smart’s character was offering. I didn’t think Fiona would be able to leave the family, even for a short period of time, and to be honest I think I agree with the decision she made. That’s not to say it was easy. She said it herself, she thinks she’s falling in love with him. But while Fiona is a character who is trapped by her circumstances, she would be just as trapped by guilt if she left her family. The job offers her the chance to move up while maintaining her independence.

Obviously that’s going to throw a wrench into her relationship with Steve, but I guess that’s just another reason to watch season 2. I’m interested in seeing whether Tony will get an expanded role as well now that he lives next door to the Gallaghers, and I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of Amy Smart’s character (I’m still not entirely convinced she doesn’t have something weird going on with her). Either way, it should be fun watch.

Californication – “...And Justice for All” (A-)

A quality ending to a quality season.  That was 6 hours of my life well spent.

This episode gives us very few glimpses into the future and leaves the state of affairs in Moody's world open to interpretation for next season.

Hank is given 3 years probation, Becca and Karen leave on a road trip with Ben and his daughter and Hank gets to work on the movie.

The scene this week at the dinner table where Charlie gets stabbed in the hand, Marcy admits that it is Charlie's baby and Eddie Nero continues to be a crazy nut bag is a real winner for me.  It managed to capture everything that was good about this season; Hank struggling with maturity, the plot line with Marcy and her baby-having love triangle, Eddie Nero, and Charlie's crazy girlfriend/quest for 100.

It was a great ending but I would have liked a bit more about Charlie and Marcy.  It leaves the plot open for next year, but I would have liked to see what happened between them after Marcy came to Charlie's defence at dinner.  I think it was good that this season ended on a positive note.  Last season's ending was really dark and was very troubling to me for whatever reason.  This season leaves us in a happier mood, thinking things will be alright.

It kind of looked like Hank was driving to New York at the end there.  Who knows what the next season will bring, but it will be good.  That I am sure of.

Fringe – “Bloodline” (A-)

I watched Fringe this week with a friend who hasn't watched since the first few episodes. He didn't really care for learning all of the Fringe mythology second hand and it was a pretty interesting episode to have that experience with. It goes without saying that I did a lot of explaining in the first 10-15 minutes of the episode. The idea of Fauxlivia and the red universe was not understood very easily. Also, it’s kind of weird to explain these kinds of things without reference to "the blue universe" or "the red universe." I had to refer to everything in very nondescript terms.

One of the reasons that I thought this episode was particularly interesting to watch with someone that has seen a few of the early episodes but not the majority of the series is the incorporation of old plot points in this episode. It’s cool that Fringe is still driving mysteries through the observer. Much like the X-files used the cigarette smoking man in early episodes to convey the message of a broader conspiracy, the observers in Fringe remind us that despite all we know, there is so much that we don't. In addition to this common theme, "Bloodline" brought back some "technology" from an early Fringe case we saw in the blue universe. Accelerated pregnancy.

"Bloodline" takes place in the red universe and centers around Fauxlivia (now pregnant with Peter's baby) being kidnapped by a group of people who appear to be doing experiments on her using a technology seen in an early episode of the series where pregnancies are accelerated in women. In the early episode, these pregnancies result in the woman's death and a malformed fetus, so it creates some suspense in the episode, especially coupled with the fact that Fauxlivia may have a virus that causes her own death as well as that of the baby during labour.

So to find Fauxlivia and get her back safely, Walternate must disclose to agent Lee and Charlie that the Olivia's were switched and that Fauxlivia is carrying Peter's child. In the end, the child is born safely with the help of Bubbles the cab driver (I don't know what his name is in this show... Henry maybe). Apparently the technology has been perfected and the accelerated pregnancy did not let the virus replicate enough to cause any damage to mother and child.

So that brings us to the big reveals of this episode. Let’s do it in list form, since those first 3 paragraphs are complicated enough.

1. Fauxlivia is now the mother to Peter's baby.
2. Lincoln and Charlie are very suspicious about Red Universe Broyle's disappearance. They realize that Walternate is hiding something.
3. Walter was behind Fauxlivia's kidnapping. We don't really know why yet but I will bet you an apple with a fetus inside it that it has to do with the machine. I would bet that he believes that the child will either be able to help get the machine to work, or that he will be able to cross over in some way like his mother.

Honestly this episode should have been an A. It was absolutely fantastic. The only thing that held it back was the fact that all of a sudden the pregnancy acceleration technology doesn't kill people. It killed people in the blue universe. How did they suddenly perfect it? Oh well, it’s still the best show on TV.

The Event – “Face Off” (B) by Brian

I was contemplating last week a bit about whether this new information regarding the NTB’s home planet would make one of their feuding leaders redundant. Now just a single episode later Thomas is dead and, judging by the previews for next week’s episode, Sophia is taking up his cause. And therein lie my problems with “Face Off” – the ending just didn’t live up to the episode that preceded it.

The ideological differences between Sophia and Thomas, not to mention the personal bad blood between the two, was just too much to remedy in a single episode. That made what was supposed to be an emotional self sacrifice feel canned and stupid.

And what was up with those choppers at the end of the episode. It was exciting watching the President figure out he had the upper hand again, but to just straight up attack them without trying to capture them first was far too aggressive in my books. Now don’t get me wrong – I like that the President is starting to take the initiative, but I warned in an earlier review that they have to be careful how they play this. I’d rather see smart than aggressive. That doesn’t mean the President doesn’t need to act, but I don’t like seeing him make a bunch of anger fuelled reactionary decisions like he did at the end of this episode.

Plus, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t take that long for a helicopter to take out three buses. Yes, I know – it’s supposed to be suspenseful, but all I could think of in that moment was why that chopper wasn’t shooting at them.

So that was a shame, but like I said, I thought the previous two thirds of the episode were actually pretty well done. Sterling and the President had a great moment where Sterling revealed that Simon was a sleeper agent (we need to see more Sterling), and watching the secret service’s reaction to the attack on the Washington monument was kind of cool as well.

And more than anything, I’m really happy with the way the writers have managed to completely turn around Sean’s storyline. He went from chasing down Leila’s sister in a storyline that had very little relevance to the overarching plot of the series, to chasing down one of the more interesting mysteries on this show, which is exactly what I’ve been saying they should do all along.

This is due in no small part to Dempsey (the old guy looking for the ultimate wrinkle remover), who finally made himself a character worth chasing. I don’t know what it is about ancient archaeological digs that gets me so excited, but they do. The execution of the scene may have been a little off – the whole I-need-to-shoot-you-to-guard-the-secret thing was a little cliché, and I didn’t really care for their veiled talk about guardian angels – but the idea that this somehow plays into the NTBs creates an interesting mythology, which makes Sean and Vicky’s quest to find this guy something I want to watch.

Here’s my theory – Ryan mentioned in his review of last week’s episode that they’ve never managed to explain why the NTBs are so biologically similar to humanity. It’s definitely something the show needs to address to maintain any sort of credibility. Well what if somehow the NTBs had a part in bringing humanity to Earth, and we’re all some sort of evolutionary off-shoot of them. The cave would be some sort of artefact to show they were there, or a beacon of how to get to back, and perhaps maybe there are several factions of humanity (Battlestar Galactica!) and the NTBs are just retracing their steps looking for a suitable new planet. There are definitely some kinks in that theory – it’s rough at the moment – but something along those lines would be pretty cool.

The Event – “Face Off” (B) by Ryan

Holy shit did you read that right? Yes, yes you did. I just gave the Event a B. Makes me look pretty dumb for everything I ripped them for last week but really this episode was sweet.

First, I would like to say that I still think the Event has some kinks to work out, but this episode on its own was a) the best yet from the show and b) incredibly entertaining.

Second, Jason Ritter is still a terrible actor. The guy who played Thomas was bad, and they killed him. Please kill Sean Walker. It annoys me that he is now integral to one of the most interesting plot lines and is such a bad actor. When he was telling Vicky that "She is done when he says she is done" I thought, wow, my dog would play a more convincing leading man than you. Oh well. It’s just one of those painful things I’ll have to live with. Is this what it was like for Lost fans who hated Charlie? I always liked Charlie. Is there anyone out there who likes Sean Walker who wants to come to his defence in the comments? Please do. I would love to be convinced otherwise.

So as I suspected the NTBs made it out of the church, but I did not see them getting their numbers cut to a third of their original strength. Then again, do they all live in the San Francisco area to be able to come to this meeting? How many are still out there? Seems like it was a big space ship that crashed to have this many people. Although I would guess that some were here before Sophia's ship crashed.

I really liked the way the church piece was resolved and that Simon was found out. I think that adds a good twist.

Also, the mythology they are starting to get into with Dempsy seems like it has some potential.

There is one problem with mythology built like this though. It is very Lost like right? I think most people see that. As I have always said, I think the show is a bastard child of Lost and 24. So the mythology with the cave and whatnot are the Lost half of that and I am worried that they are trying too hard to create the mythology. In Lost, the mysteries seemed to naturally unfold over time, from a giant monster that sounds like a T-rex, to Smoke monster, to taking the form of people, it was a mythology that grew over the course of the show.

There is potential in the Event's mythology but I worry that they are going to try to force it like the entire first half of the season. I think that this episode shows that the ideas for this show were interesting from the beginning, but the writers tried really hard to push all their ideas too quickly in the first half of the season and that got them into a lot of trouble. The show unravelled too fast, and became insane and driven by ridiculous premises backed by even more ridiculous acting. Now they are in damage control.

I have to give credit to Brian who was able to see past the initial failings of the show and identified the new look much quicker than I did. Also, I ripped him in the initial edit of my post from last week which never made the site and I was wrong. He is correct, this show is showing potential. The issue as I see it now is what Brian pointed out a few weeks ago – the show is fixing the criticisms it had early on but I am worried that they are building the mystery to no avail. What are the chances they will get renewed for next season? And even if they do, will they force the mythology instead of letting it build. It’s a tricky balance

I also owe my aunt and uncle an apology (Not that they will ever read this, I should probably send them an email). I told them at dinner on Friday that they were crazy for watching this show. Based on this episode, I will be back next week. So either I'm crazy too or the show has done something to redeem itself. Maybe I'm still on a Californication high from the happy ending to that show, but hey for once I enjoyed The Event.

Castle – “Law and Murder” (B+)

I don't have much to say about Castle this week. It was a good episode as usual. It does everything it does well on a weekly basis and it made up for what I was pissed off about last week. Castle and Beckett finally didn't get interrupted and spent some time together at the end of the episode. Sneaky move Castle. Sneaky, yet awesome.

Nathan Fillion was funny as usual. That’s really all there is to say.

GOOD WORK CASTLE.

Also, the John Grisham references were great. It was interesting to hear a "writer" reference another writer. Kind of a cool idea.