What A Random And Not Helpful Fact

No new episodes on Thursday night, so this is it for the reviews this week. I’ve got a very special song of the week coming up tomorrow though so stay tuned. In the meantime here are some long awaited reviews of Modern Family, Castle, Off the Map, The Cape, and V. Enjoy!

Spoilers ahead.

Modern Family – “Two Monkeys and a Panda” (B+)

Oh Ty Burrell, you just get me.

Phil at the spa – hilarious. I really enjoyed that entire sequence. Ty Burrell just played it so perfectly. His conversation with the women at the spa was really funny, and then when he came home and used what he’d learned on Claire, it just flawlessly capped off the entire story arc for me. Phil’s passive aggressive storm off was priceless.

Jay and Gloria also had a pretty good week. When two of them start making decisions about where they’re going to be buried when they die, it gets Jay thinking about the prospect of Gloria remarrying. It was an interesting idea for a story and the writers executed it quite well. My favourite part of this storyline was Manny’s attempts to cheer Jay up. It was both funny and charming, exactly the ingredients that makes this show better than your average sitcom. Of course the reassuring nature of their conversation didn’t mean Manny couldn’t get in one little dig before he left.

JAY: I thought you liked me when I first showed up.
MANNY: Please, for the first month I didn’t even bother to learn your name.

My favourite storyline of the episode however was Cam and Mitchell’s. It produced a few great one liners (my favourite being Mitchell’s subtle barb at the size of Cam’s head) and I really liked Cam’s freak outs (both prior to getting Lily and in response to Mitchell not hyphening Lily’s last name), but what really set this story apart was its ending. Mitchell’s children’s story (and the episodes namesake) was a wonderfully touching way to finish off the episode. Props to the writers for two great weeks in a row.

Castle – “Setup” (A-) and “Countdown” (B+)

This week I’ll be reviewing the past 2 episodes of Castle which combine to make one complete story.  Last week's episode called "Setup" ended with a "To be continued" and this week's "Countdown" finished off the story in a fairly decent way.  I found Setup to be an excellent episode, full of intrigue, wit and centered around a great plot idea.  Countdown however left something to be desired in the way it concluded.

These episodes tell the story of a terrorist plot against New York. A plot which Castle and Beckett get caught in the middle of when they investigate the murder that sets it off.  I don't really like giving recaps of the story point by point – there are enough of those out there – so I'll give you the basics and tell you what I enjoyed and what left me wanting more.

Basically Castle and Beckett investigate the murder of a Syrian cab driver. Their investigation leads them to a storage facility where nuclear material was being stored. It turns out someone built a dirty bomb in New York and was going to set it off.  The feds send in agent Fallon (Adrian Pasdar of Heroes fame) to liaison with the NYPD due to the nature of the case.  Castle believes that the Muslim cab driver and his brother are being set up by someone to make it look like they’re planning a terrorist attack.  He goes rogue, talks to a Syrian ambassador and gets himself and Beckett kicked off the case.  But in typical Castle style, they continue to work the case on their own and get trapped in a large freezer/refrigerated shipping container after they find a bomb in a warehouse and the bad guys open up on them.  That’s where "Setup" ends.  

In countdown, they get rescued and save the day.  It turns out that ex US marines are trying to frame a dirty bomb on the cab driver and his brother so people don't forget about the Afghanistan war.  These are your typical disillusioned patriots.  There are a lot of Timothy McVeigh references etc. etc. Their plan is to blow everyone up, but to have a Muslim drive the van that holds the bomb so that it is all blamed on her.  They kidnap her daughter to make her do it.  Castle and Beckett catch the van on its way to the location and Castle disarms the bomb by ripping out all the wires at the same time when the timer is almost at zero.

So I liked the plot, but I didn't like the ending.  If you could stop a bomb by pulling out all the wires diffusing a bomb would be really easy.  That being said, Nathan Fillion's acting when he succeeds is priceless.  He does a fantastic job of selling the fact that he just magically saved the city.  

Overall it was a good two episodes. The only thing I would have liked to have seen is a more realistic ending.  We also get the typical Castle is about to ask Beckett out at the end of the episode but he is interrupted by the arrival of her boyfriend.  They obviously love each other.  Can one of them go into a coma soon so they can wake up to find the other waiting by their bedside? It’s getting silly.

Off the Map – “It’s a Leaf” (B)

Not a whole lot of sweeping new developments in this one but I still enjoyed it nonetheless. I’ll start with Clark’s story this week as she didn’t get a whole lot of screen time. I can’t really peg what they’re going to do with her heart failure storyline, whether it’ll be a recurring problem for her character throughout the series or whether they’re going to go for a quick fix. Keeton wanted her to return to New York in this episode, and Clark did eventually agree to do so, but I don’t see how they can send her away and still keep her a regular part of the series. Something’s gotta give. I feel like they can get away with her taking the pills for a while. Maybe that’s how they’ll write it.

I thought Mina’s storyline was absolutely hilarious this week. After absent mindedly cutting the umbilical cord of a local woman’s baby, she’s forced into becoming the god mother of the child. This produced numerous hilarious one liners, none funnier than this little exchange:

MINA: There’s gotta be some way out of this.
ZEE: Not without insulting their culture.
MINA: I can live with that.

I also loved her get up when she went to what she thought was a very formal baby naming ceremony, which turned out to be quite casual. I think this may have been the funniest episode from this show so far, and Mina’s story had a lot to do with that.

I wasn’t as keen on the Tommy/Mina kiss at the end of the episode however. I like both characters a lot, and I like the pairing too. It just seemed like too much of a step back for Tommy’s character. I’ve become invested in his relationship with Alma and his attempts to grow as a person, and the writers through a wedge in that relationship a little too quickly for my tastes. I mean after chasing Alma for that long, NOW he decides that the language barrier is too much?

Still, I can’t be too unhappy. They are two of my favourite characters. And it should be fun watching them awkwardly figure out what their little hook up means. If I recall back at the start of the show Mina was telling Tommy there was no way she would ever sleep with him, so I can only imagine how she’s going to feel after this. Could be fun to watch.

We also saw the end of Brenner and Mateo’s relationship this week. I was a little surprised at how quickly they breezed over this storyline. They really only had 2 or 3 scenes involving these two, and considering it was the cliff hanger to last week’s episode I really thought there was going to be a bit more fallout to this one. But alas I was wrong, and Brenner ended the relationship on a whimper... for now anyways.

And of course last but not least, Zee and Cole finally got back together. No real surprises here. I think we all knew they would eventually work things out. I wasn’t a huge fan of this couple before they broke up, but I did like their scenes together in this episode. I thought the final sequence where Zee was giving him the eye test was a sweet moment. I only hope that the second time around for this couple will be a little less nauseating than the first.

The Cape – “Razor” (B+)

Summer Glau is losing her MIND!!!!

A couple things before I start this review, I had the pleasure of having a beer, in person, with Brian last weekend (well I had a beer, he had a coke).  It was quite nice to actually see the boss himself instead of just talking over email.  He informed me that the Cape's episodes were cut.  That is never a good sign folks.  Looks like this one could be leaving us after this season.  If that happens I am going to try to write an ending to The Cape in a comic book form.  Since it takes me a week to write a review, expect a comic version in 2015.  Seriously, this show has a good premise, some really interesting characters that I would like to see explored in more depth and therefore great potential.  But alas, not everyone in the world is a comic geek like me, so the Cape remains an untapped pool of potential.

The other thing I learnt from my conversation with Brian is that whenever I drop Summer Glau's name in a post our page hits increase dramatically.  That tells me that people love Summer Glau.  I love Summer Glau.  Does anyone else find it weird that Summer's best role was playing a character named River?  But I digress... Razor...

Razor is a good episode.  It centers around Scales being given the keys to the outskirts of the city by Ark corporation.  Essentially, he is the godfather of crime now. He wants all the other criminals to pay him dues on all their scores, and in turn he pays Ark to keep off their backs.  But Max Malini won't sit in line, so Scales makes a move against him and tries to get a man named Razor to blow him up.  But Vince moves in and takes Razor's place to spy on Scales and avoid Max getting killed.  Eventually he’s found out though when Razor escapes from the cage the Circus people have him in and Vince is almost killed.  Max dresses up as the Cape and saves the day.  

As usual the most interesting parts of the episode come in the little pieces we are given that help to build the universe they live in. (As a side note, the ideas of comic book universe construction are explored here in a really neat way.)  First, Chess, the alter-ego supervillain of Peter Flemming and head of Ark corporation is starting to pop up again in Peter's mind.  He really draws more and more parallels to Norman Osborn. Both are inherently bad people (Norman was really awful when he ran the world in Dark Reign and Peter is a criminal at heart who wants to use paramilitary forces to run Palm City), but have even worse alter egos.  The Green Goblin and Chess are both evil in the strongest sense of the word.  So when Chess starts to make unannounced appearances in Peter's conscious his doctor steps in and decides he wants to speak to Chess.  Peter lets Chess take over his mind and have a conversation with the Doc.  A conversation we don't get to hear, but which I think went a little something like this:

DOC: Listen I know you are awesome Chess, and you want to run the world, but guess what I need Peter.
CHESS: What are you talking about, you are a weak doctor.
DOC: No actually I'm a supervillain too (or I work for one). In fact I'm the head of Tarot and we need Peter to go a little further in this world before we let you loose to destroy it.
CHESS: Oh in that case I'll be quiet and wait for your orders.
DOC: Thanks.

I'm convinced that’s exactly how it went.  So... we find out that the doc is evil.

Also, Max has a hidden agenda for Vince.  He needs him.  Probably for a big score.  Sneaky Max.

Also... SUMER GLAU IS GOING CRAZY... after marrying the Litch last episode, Summer has gone a little nuts.  Which is genetically accurate since her father (Chess) has mental health issues of his own.

So the Palm City universe is a little richer after this week's episode.  I hope it doesn't get cancelled because there are some cool places this show could go.  It’s nice to have a new superhero universe to tune into every week. 

V – “Uneasy Lies the Head”(B-)

I’m really tired complaining about this series, and I’m sure for the few of you still left watching, you’re tired of reading those complaints, so I’m going to keep this short. This episode had all the normal problems plaguing V – an overreliance on clunky dialogue, snail like pacing, and a lack of any true direction. I’m not going to go into a long rant about it this time. Just remember that it’s all still there and we can get on with our lives (more specifically I can get on with my life).

With that said they have finally started doing some of the things they should have been doing a long time ago. I like the new Erica. Not because I agree with her all the time, but because she’s finally acknowledged that she’s in a war and that it may require her to make some difficult decision. It’s pretty much a full 180 from where she was only 2 episodes ago, but I guess losing Tyler to Anna has made her a little more cut throat.

And I like that her newfound leadership position has begun to wear on her. Hobbes made a good point when he said that being the decision maker is a lonely position, and to be honest it’s far more interesting to watch Erica struggle with the trials of leadership than it is to watch her worry about her son. I’m not a huge fan of her and Hobbes getting together though, considering she just lost her ex-husband and not two episodes ago Hobbes was blowing up a building for the wife he apparently believed was alive. I guess I’ll just take what I can get.