Holy smokes! Everything seems to be coming back this week so you can expect a flurry of reviews coming your way. Today we’ve got new episodes of Shameless, Fringe, The Event, Californication, House and The Big Bang Theory.
Enjoy!
The Big Bang Theory – “The Prestidigitation Approximation” (B+)
Not a bad episode, but not their best. There were fewer awesome pop culture references and more plot in this one. That’s never a good thing for this show. Maybe they’re suffering from the drama surrounding their "brother from another mother" Charlie Sheen. Well don't worry Big Bang Boys, he’s fine. In fact he’s winning. Now you gotta get back to making awesome Raj driven pop culture reference laden episodes so you can win too. I won't accept this mushy mumbo jumbo.
Probably the best line of the episode was when Leonard asked Pria if it was racist for him to go for Indian food with an Indian woman. That was a pretty good exchange.
Now don't get me wrong, I like Pria. She is a talking Raj, which is nice because I like when Raj talks, but I don't see what she adds to the show anymore. In fact now all she adds is plot drama and I don't know if this show needs that. It doesn’t thrive on it because the characters can't drive through it with moving dialogue. In fact the show just seems to end whenever there is a big issue and picks up after that issue has been resolved. The same things happened here. Pria wants Leonard to cut the cord with Penny. Of course he can't but lies about it and Pria gets mad. But instead of seeing how that resolves I am assuming that next week we will get the standard "Oh yeah Pria is still mad at me about that thing with Penny" line.
For many shows this would be a killer. The cut fastball that strikes it out every time at the plate. But for the Big Bang, it’s just another sac-fly on the way to hilarity. The episode sucks for now, but I know they will come back with more. The question remains though about what Pria adds. If she just adds drama and the show keeps "popping out" then they will never be in position to get a sac-fly – they’ll all just be fly outs.
Shameless – “Nana Gallagher Had an Affair” (B)
So it turns out Monica has a heart. It certainly was an emotional finale to an episode – maybe not as gripping as the week before but emotional nonetheless. The final scene between Monica and the children was especially well done, with Monica conceding to their wishes to keep Liam and be left alone. I don’t think anyone with a functioning heart could make it through that scene without feeling a little sympathy towards the Gallagher’s mother. Even Fiona gave her a nod.
I have to commend the writers for coming up with a good three dimensional character for the mother of the Gallagher children. It would have been very easy to write her an absolute deadbeat runaway mom stereotype, but they resisted that urge and instead gave us an enormously flawed woman, but a woman who definitely still cares about her kids.
The storyline wasn’t without a few blemishes though. It was a little muddled with all the paternity testing – I didn’t particularly care for Liam being Frank’s child (they threw that aside way to quickly). I guess what it was really meant to do was to get Lip and Ian to the testing center, but even the advent that Ian wasn’t Frank’s child didn’t really add up to a whole lot in the end.
Frank had a very funny week however. He had a few distractions of his own in this episode, but all of them were funny. His reaction to Carl telling him he had a broken arm was hilarious, as was his use of poor Carl’s situation to get rid of the guy following him for his disability cheques. I also liked the fact that he still doesn’t know who Steve is, despite the guy having dated his daughter the entire season.
The real comedic gem of this episode was the dinner sequence though. Frank was just killing through the entire scene. I especially loved his reaction to finding out Monica cheated on him while she was on PCP.
FRANK: You did PCP... without me? You promised we would do that together!
With the Gallaghers dealing with their family issue it left Sheila and Karen off on their own this week. I really enjoyed the ending of this storyline as well. I thought it was sweet the way Sheila stood up for her daughter and without realizing it stepped outside. It was a great way to help get her over her agoraphobia and it spoke volumes about her character.
What I was a little more confused about was Karen’s motivations. I had originally assumed that she was just going to this purity ball thing so that she could get his car. I never expected her to take what her dad said so personally. Even when each of the girls were describing their sexual indiscretions (the pipe girl was especially funny), I thought it was all going to be a big set up for Karen to stick it to her dad with her own confession. Am I wrong here, or was it obvious she was feeling closer to her dad?
Steve was remarkably quiet in this episode, but I feel like a storm is brewing. This show has a lot of rogue elements which makes it very hard to predict, but I’m going to take a shot at a theory and we’ll see how it goes. It’s clear Tony isn’t all that happy about Steve dating Fiona (for obvious reasons), and in this episode they showed him pulling Steve over. I feel like they’re setting the groundwork for Steve to get caught, perhaps with Lip, by Tony in the season finale. With Shameless getting picked up for another season, it would be a great way for the show to go out on a bang. Just a thought – let me know what you think in the comments.
Fringe – “Os” (A)
Great episode this week. I don't really want to write a spoiling review because I feel that not many readers watch this show and so there is no point in talking about each plot point in detail. I do want to say three main things though.
1. Fringe does an excellent job of moulding its cases of the week into the plot of the show. The "bad guy" in this episode being a man who is blurring moral lines to help his son is an elegant parallel to our protagonist's lives. When his son turns away from him with disgust once he’s been caught it’s another parallel to the differing moral compasses of father and son that are so entrenched into this show.
2. This part is a bit of a spoiler so skip it if you haven't seen it. The piece with William Bell and the Soul Magnets (great band name) is kind of odd to me. I like it in that I think it is a cool idea to bring that character back without needing to bring back the actor and it is unique in terms of a plot device. What I don't get is why they chose Olivia. Wouldn't an interaction between Olivia and Bell be a good one? Their interactions are what started Fringe on a path to greatness. Before Olivia gets transferred over to the other side in Bell's office, the show was just your average sci-fi piece. That scene, where we start to understand the complexity of the universes began Fringe on its fantastic journey. I would think that having them interact again would be sweet. However, it shows Anna Torv's range, something I didn't think she had at the beginning of the show but has really come to show us with the addition of Fauxlivia and now William to her repertoire. So I am very divided on the decision to bring him back in her. I wonder where it will take us. Am I to believe that the cortexiphan is the magnet? Will Olivia ever come back or is Bell's consciousness permanent now? That is a neat way to eliminate one of the Olivias.
3. This show is going places I’ve never seen before. The thing with Olivia and William Bell is just one example. THIS IS FANTASTIC!
The Event – “Turnabout” (B-)
Honestly, The Event had been gone for so long I didn’t remember anything save for the basic premise of the show. But I figured with Ryan and I sort of sharing writing duties on The Event I’d jot down a few thoughts on how I’ve felt about the show since its return from hiatus.
I actually think I enjoyed last week’s episode a lot more than Ryan did. That’s probably because I forgot most of the details of what happened in the first half of the season (well played NBC). I’m sure if I remembered more I would be a little more frustrated with the continuity, but what the heck. I’ll give the show another shot.
You can really tell they’re trying hard to address all of the show’s early criticisms. They promptly wrapped up Sean and Leila’s pursuit of finding her younger sister last week, and this week they tried to address President Martinez perceived weakness when it came to his dealing with the NTBs. They’ve also added a much more distinct action element to the show. Thomas leads a lot of assaults these days.
But the problems aren’t entirely fixed. They still have no idea what to do with Sean and Leila. They had almost an entire sequence to themselves this week (from commercial break to commercial break) and it was, at times, eye rollingly bad. I thought when Leila went with her dad it would put her in the middle of the action a little more (figuratively – I don’t expect her to start shooting people anytime soon), but she spent most of this episode on the sidelines.
And I don’t know what they were thinking with Sean but he’s even farther removed from the main story than he was before. Perhaps they needed to take him out of the mix to team him up with Vicky but his storyline in this episode suffered because of it.
My suggestion – have him discover some actually important information with Vicky and get him working with the President’s team or something. It’d be nice for his character to gain some sort of importance in the battle between the government and the NTBs. They need to throw him into the loop of a storyline that the audience actually cares about, where he’s obtaining information at the same rate as everyone else on this show.
I’ll commend the writers for finding a quick way to make a change in the Presidents attitude, but making the President angrier doesn’t necessarily make him a better character. They have to be careful how they play this. If his character becomes super reactionary he’ll become even worse than he was before. It’s a balancing act, but what I saw this week has me a little nervous.
Oh and by the way. Two cars escorting the nuclear rods – are you kidding me? I get that they were trying to look inconspicuous but come on. Martinez is the President of the United States. He wanted to set a trap not minutes before this sequence. He could have had a chopper escort ready and waiting. There’s no way Thomas should have been able to get away with a ground assault on the convoy. That’s just sloppy writing.
I do like Michael Buchanan’s expanded role however, and I think Sophia attempting to collaborate with the President is full of potential. And I’m also in agreement with Ryan that Sterling is one of the better characters on this series. Having just finished watching the first season of Damages I’ve become a huge fan of Zeljko Ivanek.
I certainly don’t have the same strong dislike I used to have for this series. Like I said before, chalk that up to time apart, but if they can manage to string together a few good episodes to close out the season maybe they’ll do the impossible and salvage what’s left of this series. I really don’t know if it has a realistic shot at renewal but I’d be happy with just an entertaining finish to the season.
Californication – “The Trial” (A)
A good episode with some good back stories. Getting to see Hank in his spiral was a great way to go about the testimonies in the trial. Charlie did a great job in this episode and was very funny despite not sleeping with any odd women.
Overall I don't have much to say, just that I enjoyed the way they did this and once again everyone hates Hank. It’s a great yo yo trick that he pulls.
The X-Files reference at the beginning was great for any fan of Duchovny's work.
As I have said all season. I am rooting for this guy. I'm thinking he's going to jail for at least some time though.
Good luck Hank. Don't drop the soap.
House – “Out of the Chute” (B)
It was a mixed bag of an episode this week. I was initially unimpressed with how they went about handling the House/Cuddy split, but his hotel stay did grow on me. He certainly had a few funny scenes with the hookers and his main man at the hotel Carnel (not sure how to spell that). I always enjoy when he holds his diagnostic sessions in horribly inappropriate places, and you can add naked in a hotel bed with a hooker to the list of my favourites.
I also really enjoyed two main scenes that book ended the episode. The introduction to the patient is standard in pretty much every episode of House, and I thought that this one was the best ones I’ve seen in a while. Actually, I really liked the patient this week. He had a really neat bravado to him. I thought his scene in the MRI was pretty intense, and his scene with House where he told him he’d just find something else to love was a particularly strong addition to the episode.
The other sequence I am referring to is of course House’s balcony jump. First off, I love the Arcade Fire, and I love “My Body is a Cage” in particular. I hadn’t heard Peter Gabriel’s version before now but it did an excellent job of setting the mood of the scene. I think a lot of people may have felt cheated by House landing in the pool but I don’t really see it that way. In a sense it was a sort of metaphorical suicide. House is giving up on his life as it was, and turning down a much darker path. That’s why watching Wilson walk away at the end was so powerful.
What I didn’t think worked here though was all the manoeuvring and gauging of how everybody was feeling. Normally I like House’s discussions with Wilson as they’re both excellent counterpoints to each other, but this episode ended up feeling like a high school breakup with the way Wilson kept bouncing back and forth between Cuddy and House.
I also didn’t really like Masters crush on the patient in this episode. I mean, it’s hard not to have a crush on the guy – he’s pretty dreamy – but the way they set it up in the script made it feel really put on. Masters is normally a bit bumbling, but she’s not a giddy schoolgirl. Her conversations with the patient were just way to transparent for my liking.
So like I said, a mixed bag this week. The one thing I will say is that this show needs to make sure that wherever this storyline ends up, it ends up with some real character development. They can’t keep spinning their wheels. They need a new direction to keep this show fresh, even if that means changing the status quo a little.
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