You’re Right, Much Better

Two more season finales, this time for House and The Event. Be careful of the House review if you don’t want anything spoiled for next season, the sixth paragraph has some sensitive information. It’s all in the article though. Enjoy!

House – “Moving On” (B+)

Moving on may be a bit of an understatement. When House acknowledged something needed to change last week, I honestly didn’t think it would mean car through Cuddy’s dining room. That ending certainly is a game changer for the series, and I really don’t know what’s going to happen next season. I’m pretty sure House isn’t going to be allowed back in the hospital for a while. I’m also pretty certain that trying to do so will get him arrested.

Of course that wasn’t really the ending. “Moving On” actually started with the fallout from House’s actions, and that fallout framed the episode from there on out. It’s a pretty classic narrative technique, it’s just unfortunate that the writers thought it would be enough to carry what was otherwise a fairly bland episode through to its much more exciting conclusion.

I mean ending aside, this was a pretty standard episode of House. The patient may have had a few quirks, but for the most the part she was just the typical case of the week, and to me that just doesn’t cut it for a season finale. Last week’s episode may not have had the same shocking ending, but at least it tried to do something different. I would have liked to see a little more of the inspiration in this one (though to be fair House’s injury from the last episode is probably what kept us confined to hospital).

I do like that House left the country though. Actually, if he hadn’t done it because he was running from the authorities it would have been a nice way to conclude his character (and obviously the show). He looked so calm as he walked along the shoreline.

I really hope that the writers use this ending to shake up the show next season. Don’t just somehow explain his way back into the hospital. Break the mould a little. Keep him in the tropics, or throw him in a prison if you have to. Or back into the mental hospital, one of the all time great episodes of this series.  Even getting him a job at a different hospital would at least be a change of pace. But whatever it is, use it to change the formula. There’s always going to have to be a medical aspect to House, but that doesn’t mean it has to be the same formula. House is an interesting character with or without the mind bending patients. Use that.

** Major spoilers for next season **

The one sad note of this ending is that it means House and Cuddy likely won’t see each other again. If you haven’t heard already Lisa Edelstein won’t be returning next season, so unless she decides to do a guest appearance to write her character off, Cuddy’s story will likely end with her finally giving up on House. It’s not as if she was super important to the show anymore – these days she barely even puts up a fight when it comes to House’s hijinks – but I still would have liked to see the two of them end on at least somewhat good terms.

But again, with change comes opportunity. This was a very up and down season of House, and it’s pretty clear to me that if they stick to the traditional format come September this show won’t last much longer. Hopefully this finale gives House the creative shot in the arm it so desperately needs.

The Event – “Arrival” (B)

So it all ends in a giant cliffhanger... how unfortunate. I’ll admit, I was pretty intrigued by the sight of a whole planet coming through the wormhole, especially the part where the First Lady called it home. (I knew she was an NTB!) I might have liked to see how next season played out.

Still, it’s easy to set up cliffhangers, it’s much harder to pay them off, and as interesting as the ending was, the episode was still plagued with many of the same problems evident throughout the series. The plot to stop Sophia’s rollout of the virus was a perfect example. The set up was way too convenient, explained mostly in expository dialogue, and for some reason Sophia herself was involved with the implementation of the virus. That last one makes absolutely no sense to me. There were plenty of other NTBs who could have done that job, why would they risk losing their leader for nothing?

The other thing that had me a little annoyed was Simon’s teaser to Sean about the true background of the NTBs. It’s always annoying when a character starts to reveal a secret and then gets interrupted, but this whole figure-out-how-to-read-the-scroll thing Simon threw into that mix was especially irritating. One because we’ll probably never get the answers, and two, because if he already knew what it said than why couldn’t he just tell him?

As for the rest of the episode it was fairly hit or miss. It was nice to see the President finally stick it to Jarvis. That was certainly a long time coming. I was a bit more wary about Leila being pregnant though. It didn’t come as a huge shock when the doctor told her they’d found something in her blood work, but is that even possible? I can’t really speak for the timeline of this series, but it feels like it’s been too long since those two saw each other for that to happen.

Either way, it’s been a tumultuous run for the series, and frankly I’m not entirely sad to see The Event go. There have been talks of Netflix potentially picking up the series ala the Friday Night Lights formula, but regardless I probably won’t be watching it, so this is it for me. Farewell, The Event... I wish I could say it’s been fun.

Get Sick, Get a Free Gallon of Soup

Spoilers...

How I Met Your Mother – “Challenge Accepted” (B)

I was expecting a lot from “Challenge Accepted”, maybe a little too much. We got a few big revelations – I’ll touch on those in a sec – but still I was left a little disappointed. Now I’d be the first to argue that How I Met Your Mother has become a lot more than Ted’s quest to find his future wife. Saying otherwise would be ignoring the great ensemble cast on this show. But still I can relate to some of the fans out there who say that it’s hard to get invested in any of Ted’s relationships anymore knowing that they’re doomed to fail. That’s what I hoped this episode would address and therein lies my disappointment.

Now I know, it’s not fair to expect the writers to cater to every individual expectation. This isn’t criticism of the episode per se, just a commentary on the direction I’d like the show to take. I’ve had few theories on what the writers would do with the mysterious wedding shown at the start of the season – the wedding where Ted said he first met his wife – and mainly what I was hoping they would do was finally give Ted a few relationship possibilities that could actually end up working out. It didn’t necessarily have to be in the way I suggested, but I like the idea of getting to see the mother character before we know that she’s the mother. I think one of the big problems with Zoey was that we knew from early on it wasn’t going to work out. It makes it hard to care about the little moments in a relationship when you know it isn’t going anywhere.

The real irony here though is that the writers actually did exactly what I was just talking about in this episode, just not with Ted. The big reveal that the wedding was in fact Barney’s was a great plot development, especially the way the writers so skilfully reintroduced Robin as one of his possible brides (that conversation in the car was more about the two of them than it was Zoey and Ted). It’s going to end up making Barney’s story infinitely more interesting as we try figure out who he’s going to marry (I’m still hoping for Robin) and what all of a sudden made him the marrying type.

The other mini-revelation in this episode is that Lily is pregnant. It didn’t come as a huge surprise as the writers had already foreshadowed that event before this episode but it did give us a hint of what to expect for next season. I really hope the How I Met Your Mother staff can come up with a few new takes on the traditional pregnancy storyline.

Now the one the thing this finale did lose marks on was that it wasn’t very funny. They get a bit of pass because I’d rather my finales have plot movement, but in certain parts of this episode it was hard to ignore. I didn’t really like the bit where Marshall was shown disgusting pictures by his potential employer nor was I a huge fan of Lily’s Velociraptor vomiting. I was also kind of hoping that after the great way they ended things between her and Ted in the previous episode Zoey wasn’t going to be back again this week.

But still, while the episode may not have been exactly what I was hoping for, the show finished its season with a few promising possibilities, and there’s not a lot more you could ask for than that. “Challenge Accepted” should give them a lot to work with next season.

Line of the episode:

ROBIN: Guys, I dated you both, and neither of you is good at pressing or even finding the button. After some awkward pawing around that building is going to fake an implosion, say “baby that was great”, and go to sleep.

The Event – “The Beginning of the End” (B-)

As I mentioned in my last post this show just got cancelled, so I’m not going to spend a whole lot of time on it. To be honest, having watched it from the beginning I can’t say I’m surprised it didn’t make it. From a creative standpoint it was never really able to gain its footing and ended up being quite frustrating because of that. The real question now is whether or not the show will end on a satisfying conclusion or a cliffhanger.  Unfortunately, with one episode left I’m guessing it’s probably going to be the latter.

The big reveal in this episode was that the NTBs were here even before humans. I’d theorized a little on that point before but it made me happy to see that there is some explanation for why the NTBs are so human like (I assume that’s where they’re taking it anyway). It was also pretty cool to see Simon hook onto that scroll that Sean’s been carrying around. If anything I’d like to see the full back story of the NTBs before the show bites the dust.

I liked that the writers decided to pair Sean and Vicky with Sterling and Simon to create a super team. It was kind fun watching them all bond over their shared expertise, even if there were a few cheesy lines thrown in here and there. More than anything though it was just nice to see some of these characters meet each other for the first time. Honestly, how has something like this not happened sooner?

I’m also glad to the see the President up and moving again, just so we didn’t have to spend an entire episode watching him lie in a hospital bed again. Martinez is still plagued by a few annoying character traits, but I like that we finally have someone who can get Jarvis out of power. I really hope we don’t have to spend the whole finale watching him try to get the Presidency back though.

House – “After Hours” (A-)

This was one of the best episodes of House I’ve seen all season. Certainly the best since Thirteen walked out of that prison. I apologise if I keep harping this point week after week, but the best episodes of House these days seem to happen when the writers ditch the traditional patient of the week formula and try something new.

Last week, when I speculated that House would end up as a patient before seasons end, I kind of expected he would have a part in his own diagnosis. It’s House after all. There was no way he was going to completely give up control. What I didn’t expect though was that he would have a part in his own surgery.

The bathtub scene was brilliant. His pale complexion, shaking hands, writhing in pain with each cut of the scalpel. It may not have been for the faint of heart, but it was hard to deny the intensity of the sequence. And what I liked most about the ending was that it seemed to be a real wake up call for the character. His admission to Wilson that he knew something needed to change was understated but quite powerful. I’m hoping that sentiment more than anything guides the season finale next week (Disclaimer: I didn’t see the preview for it, so I have no idea what’s coming).

With House operating on himself, Thirteen and Chase ended up getting what most would consider the patient of the week. Of course their story was about a lot more than just diagnosing a patient. Since his divorce with Cameron Chase has become almost a caricature of his former self, sleeping with hordes of women and generally being relegated to comic relief. But often forgotten is the fact that Chase actually killed a man on purpose only a season ago.

Thirteen on the other hand just got out of prison for euthanizing her brother, and while she’s had a fair amount of screen time since her return we still hadn’t seen her discuss her feelings over what she’d done. Which is why watching Thirteen and Chase connect over their shared experienced was an extremely compelling moment for both characters. Chase gave Thirteen an outlet to express her grief and Thirteen gave Chase a little substance for the first time in almost a season and a half. It’s a great pairing and I sincerely hope the writers continue the bond between the two of them going forward.

Lastly, we had Taub and his surprise pregnancy storyline. Earlier in the season the writers looked to be making a concerted effort to make Taub a more likeable character, but after Thirteen’s return they sort of forget about that storyline. Well they picked up on it again in this episode and I like where they seem to be taking his story. Foreman’s right, Taub would probably make a horrible father, but at his core Taub is a good person – just look at what he was willing to go through to make sure that stripper was alright – and I think having a kid would be an excellent opportunity for the character to grow. I just wonder if it means Taub is going to move out of Foreman’s apartment. How funny would it be watching the two of them try to raise a kid?

No Ninja’s Getting a Jump On Me

Spoilers...

How I Met Your Mother – “Landmarks” (B)

“Landmarks” was a good episode. From a straight up comedic perspective it wasn’t the funniest, but a large part of the reason why How I Met Your Mother has been as successful as it has is because they know how to capture the ups and downs of modern dating, and this was one of those episodes that did that brilliantly. I’d certainly rather watch a thoughtful episode like “Landmarks” over last week’s gimmicky, uninspired offering.

There were two scenes in particular that really caught my attention, both between Zoey and Ted. One was their late night conversation in front of the Arcadian, and the other was the scene that closed out both the episode and their relationship. Now I know there are a few people out there who haven’t liked the Ted/Zoey relationship at all, but I was really impressed with the way they handled it here. Ted’s late night conversation with Zoey was a very well written scene and great way to preface his decision not to defend the Arcadian. And likewise, his final words to her managed to hit on a much larger theme, like many of the best episodes in this series do.

TED: Sometimes things have to fall apart to make way for better things.

And to me that made up for some of the comedic missteps. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Barney’s eerily accurate drawing of Lily’s boobs and I didn’t mind the groups’ idea for a judicial themed bar, but a lot of the other jokes just weren’t as sharp. Arthur in particular was off. He’s funny as a ruthless boss. There was never any need to expand the character past that.

I did find it surprising though that there was no mention of the mysterious wedding from the start of the season. I thought for sure with the season finale next week that we’d get at least some foreshadowing on that front, which probably means the wedding will be Punchy’s rather than Robin or Barney’s. A wedding involving one of the major characters was always a bit of a pipe dream but I was still holding out some hope that it may happen. Of course that doesn’t mean something else big won’t happen in the finale. You can check out some of my many theories here.

Some of my favourite lines:

MARSHALL: If you end an argument with a rhyme, it’s convincing all the time.

LILY: Wait, she’s going to let you name your kids Luke and Leia?
TED: Not if I knock down her favourite building she isn’t.

TED: Okay, first of all, no ninja’s getting a jump on me. I have the reflexes of a jungle (Robin slaps him) --
LILY: Tree?

And line of the night:

BARNEY: I can’t be unemployed Robin. My job is my identity, it’s who I am. It gives me the confidence I need to convince girls I’m a fighter pilot.

The Event – “One Will Live, One Will Die” (B-)

If Sophia is so tortured over what she has to do to the human race than why does it seem like every time she does something evil she’s holding in a maniacal laugh? Or for that matter, why did NBC decide to put the cliffhanger of this week’s episode in the preview from last. Needless to say, there were more than a few questionable decisions in this one.

The episode was primarily split between two main storylines – Sean and Vicky attempting to stop the release of the Spanish flu into a mall, and Simon and Sterling’s attempt to get Martinez an antidote. Sophia was kind of poised between the two, carefully watching the progress of her mall experiment while delightfully hamstringing now President Jarvis, all while seeming really torn up about the whole thing. Of the two I liked the former more than I did the latter.

Sean and Vicky, who have had a few decent weeks in a row now, struggled a bit in this one. Their mall storyline ended up devolving into a series of action clichés. The central command station in the mall was pretty stupid, as was the whole gunshot followed by a couple seconds of silence so we wonder who got shot (somehow I guessed it would be the anonymous henchman). And why did the virus release mechanism need a timer? It’s not a bomb, and they already established that the NTBs were immune to the virus.

Sterling and Simon’s storyline was a lot better, primarily because Sterling showed off some of the smarts we all knew he had. I particularly liked the way they escaped from Sterling’s residence by calling the cops on the CIA assault team. It was kind of the exact opposite of all the problems with Sean and Vicky’s story this week.

That’s not to say it was perfect. I don’t think anyone was really fooled into believing the predator strike from Jarvis killed Sterling and Simon, nor do I think it was a huge surprise that the massive arrangement of flowers the First Lady was carrying was hiding the antidote. But I’m choosing to ignore those flaws, a) because it was pretty damn satisfying to watch Jarvis get his comeuppance, and b) because it finally puts an end to all those Martinez in a hospital bed scenes they keep forcing us to watch.

The episode ended with Sophia infecting Leila with the Spanish Flu. This was of course the moment I was talking about in my opening that NBC managed to ruin with a misguided preview. I’m not entirely convinced that they’re going to kill Leila off, but it would set things up for Sean and Vicky to finally hook up, which the writers have clearly been hinting at the last few episodes. Plus, it would eliminate a fairly boring character, so win win. It probably doesn’t matter anyway though. I don’t see this show getting renewed.

House – “The Fix” (B-)

I’m starting to get to the point now where the patient stories aren’t doing it for me anymore. It’s really no one’s fault, certainly not the writers. After 7 seasons there’s just not a lot of ways they can surprise me anymore. Almost everything has already been done, and done to death. And honestly, I think the writers realize this as well. This week we got a double dose of patient stories. One encapsulated exactly what I just mentioned, the other was a surprisingly fresh take on the familiar formula.

Of the two patients I found the weapons manufacturer to be the most disappointing. I’ve seen the poisoning storyline before on this show, and nothing that came before that resolution was really all that inspiring. They barely even acknowledged the patient’s experience, tossing away a few throwaway lines about her occupation and then largely ignoring her for the rest of the episode.

House’s story with the boxer on the other hand was much more entertaining. It was funny, largely because House’s reason for wanting to help him was purely selfish (he lost a bet to Wilson), and far more interesting, because this patient was a reluctant participant in House’s diagnosis. House’s lack of access, both to hospital resources and the patient, raised the stakes each time he tried to make a diagnosis and kept the whole story feeling fresh.This is the kind of creativity the writers need to employ to give the traditional patient story a boost.

The real development in this episode though was House’s use of an experimental drug that regrows muscle tissue. My guess is that House’s leg experiment will end up playing some part in the season finale. With the episode ending on the ominous shot of a dead mouse that was on the drug, it’s not too far of a stretch he’ll end the season as patient instead of a doctor. I’d certainly watch that.

I'm Not Paying For Gas

My take on Monday night’s TV.

Spoilers...

How I Met Your Mother – “The Perfect Cocktail” (C+)

I’m going to give the writers of How I Met Your Mother a pass on this one. Cleary their minds were more on the upcoming season finale than on this episode. “The Perfect Cocktail” lacked the substance that’s made this season of the show so engaging, and because of that it ended up scattered, inconsistent, and gimmicky (well more than usual).

The main story revolved around Lily and Robin using drinks to solve a feud between Marshall and Barney. Apparently each different alcoholic beverage fosters a different reaction in each of the guys, and put in the right order can solve just about any disagreement, hence “The Perfect Cocktail”. Here’s my problem with that – we’ve been watching these characters drink since the inception of the show (at least once an episode) and never have we seen any of these reactions. Now don’t get me wrong, some of the jokes definitely worked – like Marshall’s mirror gag – but the quality between each phase (or drink if you would) was incredibly inconsistent.

The other major storyline in this episode was Ted and Zoey staying the night in the Arcadian. From a comedic standpoint it didn’t do much better than the previous storyline, consisting mainly of jokes surrounding the terrible disarray of the battered hotel. There was one significant development in the storyline however – Ted, seemingly out of nowhere, decided to join Zoey in protecting the Arcadian. It wasn’t a huge boost to the episode but it could end up playing a significant role next week.

It’s also worth noting that this episode featured two fairly prominent call backs to a couple of first season episodes. First, taken from “Milk”, was Barney’s method of pranking Marshall via photographs of disgusting things he’d done to poor Marshall’s stuff. And second, going back to “Matchmaker” was the return of the cockamouse, who is now apparently living in the Arcadian. Neither were huge, but I always like a good call back so long as they’re used responsibly.

But call backs alone weren’t going to save this episode. In the end “The Perfect Cocktail” felt like one of those episodes where they bent the characters to the concept more than the concept to the characters, and for that reason the comedy seemed forced. The episode could have benefited greatly from a little more substance in its plot, but I think lack of substance in general is what drove them to such a gimmicky plot, and that’s where I think the writers deserve a break. They’re coming off an episode where Barney spent a ton of time getting to know his father, a pretty significant event for his character, and next week they’re moving into season finale territory (there’s actually two episodes left, but both are written by Bays and Thomas who tend to take the more important shows). They clearly needed some sort of transition episode and unfortunately I think that’s what we got here. It doesn’t excuse the episode, but it understandable to say the least.

The Event – “Us or Them” (C+)

The word mediocre comes to mind. I’m sure I’ve said that before about The Event, but it’s sort of a recurring theme with this show. The characters aren’t compelling, the storylines are inconsistent and dry, and worst of all, there doesn’t seem to be anyone on that writing staff who knows how to give The Event any sort of direction.

Sterling’s story in this episode was one example. Sterling’s a smart guy, so in last week’s episode when he found evidence of the Vice President’s involvement in the assassination attempt on the President I was looking forward to watching him build his case and outsmart Jarvis. After all, that’s the kind of thing his character seems to do best. But instead, we saw him dim-wittingly accuse the VP to his face, get himself fired, and drag out an already tired storyline in the process.

One of the worst things I think a show can do is to try and draw out storylines by having characters make unintelligent and poorly motivated decisions. I understand why they want Jarvis to continue on as President – with somebody incompetent running the country it puts more emphasis on the supporting characters – but if you don’t have an intelligent reason why it should happen it hurt more than it helps. Sterling’s much too smart for his actions, and now his uncharacteristic reaction is a fundamental component of the plot. They’ve built the story around a pillar of incompetence, which now taints almost everything that comes next.

And because they wanted to keep the VP in the hot seat for at least one more episode, the President’s story didn’t move at all. Now I know, he’s in a coma now, but that’s hardly a big change from last week. The last two episodes have both finished on down endings where things didn’t look good for Martinez and they’ve consisted almost entirely of doctors working while his wife stands idly by.

Leila and Michael weren’t much better either. Michael death was certainly a huge change up, but that doesn’t mean it was an effective story beat. We never got to know Michael enough to really understand his motivations. He flipped flopped so many times over the course of this season that he wasn’t much of a character at all. First he was innocent pilot forced into an assassination attempt on the President, then he was an NTB enforcer, then he was a father trying to save humanity. And that’s not him being a multi-dimensional character either. He was used as a plot twist so many times we never really got to know exactly what made his character tick, and thus we never got enough depth from him to make his death (or potential death) feel meaningful.

The one bright spot in this episode was Sean and Vicky. You may recall I didn’t have high hopes for their storyline after last week’s episode, but they managed to impress me with the surprising intensity of the airplane sequence in this one. They do need to make sure though that next episode they make some sort of progress in stopping Sophia. They failed this week and that’s fine, but if they miss their opportunity again next week they’re going to become tiresome. Oh and Vicky totally wants Sean. I called that.

House – “Changes” (B)

“Changes” was about as average an episode of House as you can get. A typical patient story with some inter-team hijinks and some House/Cuddy friction sprinkled on for good measure. Perhaps we’ve been spoiled a bit of late with Thirteen’s return and Masters’ subsequent departure, but the stakes in this one just seemed lower. I will however give the writer of this episode some credit, because despite following the familiar formula, they did write a fairly entertaining episode.

Having Thirteen back on the show certainly helped. Finally House has someone on the team that can dish it out almost as well as he can. She didn’t have as much time on screen as I thought she would but her discussions with House about lotteries and fatalism were certainly some of the episode’s highlights. I also enjoyed some of her smaller moments, like the way she perfectly described how Cuddy always gives in to House as she went about discharging the patient, and how she talked the team into ignoring House’s orders by calling out one of the show’s conventions – “worst case we’re right and he’s impressed we defied him.”

House and Cuddy’s legal battle with her mother this week was a little more over the top, but entertaining nonetheless. I quite enjoyed all of their scenes with Wilson, especially the trios visit to Cuddy’s mother house and House’s, according to Wilson, B+ apology. I did roll my eyes a bit though when I found out the only reason Cuddy’s mother was doing all this was to get House and Cuddy back together.

I also thought Chase and Foreman’s little wager made for an amusing distraction from the conventional patient story. There were certainly a few good quips that came from that blood pressure monitor. My one complaint is that Chase in bed with the girl at the end there felt a bit tacked on. Was that supposed to mean something or was it just one more punch line at Foreman’s expense? I honestly couldn’t tell.  

Remember to Remove Placeholder Title

Just The Event today folks... sorry about that.

Spoilers...

The Event – “Strain” (B)

I really don’t know what to think of this show. It seems to seesaw back and forth between terrible and semi-competent on almost a weekly basis. I liked “Strain”. It wasn’t perfect, but it was engrossing enough to keep me interested through the entire hour. The problem is, so far the writers haven’t been able to maintain momentum in their storylines for more than one or two episodes and I end up taking everything good I see with a grain of salt, understanding that next week I’ll probably end up being disappointed by another boring and inconsistent affair.

“Strain” cut back immediately to the cliffhanger from last week – the frozen body of the poor dead soldier. Going into this episode that was the story thread I was most interested in, and I’ll admit I enjoyed uncovering the mystery of what the NTBs wanted with the body. I figured it would be some sort of biological weapon and the Spanish Flu explanation worked for me enough that I was satisfied with the answer.

I do have two problems with that resolution however – minor problems, but problems nonetheless. First, is in the giant inconsistencies with the last episode. I didn’t talk about it that much in my last review, but last week’s episode (the last few weeks’ episodes actually) started with a fairly intriguing premise, with a scientist testing ice samples and eventually committing suicide to protect his research. It was clearly meant to pique our interest in the weapon the NTBs were trying to find. Now that we know what that weapon is, I look back on that scene and it makes very little sense. Why would a scientist be taking ice core samples in order to look for a body? I mean I’m not a scientist but something doesn’t really add up there.

It’s exactly that type of short sited writing that is killing this show. Lost used to stylize episodes, but usually there was some substance in the resolution. I look at that opening sequence now and it just seems hollow. And really, it’s hard to trust the writing staff to follow through on anything anymore. Even when I’m watching something cool, in the back of my mind I’m still thinking “can they back this up”, which seriously hampers my enjoyment.

The other problem I had with the resolution is that now that Sean and Vicky have found out exactly what the NTBs were using the body for, there isn’t any mystery left in the storyline. Now granted, they may add something new in next week (they do still have that parchment), but at the moment I care very little about them finding the courier because at best it’s probably going to be primarily action based and without a compelling story to back it up I tend to find straight action to be a little monotonous.

One question I do have – and I could just be looking a little too into this – are Sean and Vicky starting to become an item. I’d be interested to hear your opinions in the comments about this, but I felt as though Sean and Vicky’s frequent conversations about why she was still helping him were pointing towards a more romantic connection. At one point Vicky asked Sean “why do you think I’m here” and it looked to me at least like she wanted him to realize that she liked him. She ended up playing it more like she was telling him just to stop asking, but I saw that longing gaze. I know what she’s looking for... probably.

I thought the President’s assassination storyline was decent this week, if only because we got to see a little more of Sterling. He’s been kind of quiet these last few episodes, which is unfortunate as he’s one of The Event’s more interesting characters. I did laugh a bit though when the writers had to stumble over the fact that Martinez’s Chief of Staff just sort of inexplicably showed up in the middle of the season and for some reason wasn’t around for the first attempt on the President’s life.

Anyways the two of them made a good team, and I enjoyed watching them try to figure out how to prevent Jarvis from becoming President. I’m interested in seeing what Sterling does with the evidence on his shirt sleeve. I’m assuming now that Jarvis is acting President it’s going to be a lot harder for Sterling to expose him, I just hope the writers can come up with some sort of semi-interesting way to play out that storyline.

I do have a theory about they’ll reverse the President’s condition however. There was a scene in this episode where his wife Christina broke down by his bedside. Now obviously that could be nothing. She’s a grieving wife watching her husband slowly die. What got me thinking was why the writers spent so much time portraying such an obvious character reaction. If you go back to last week you’ll remember there was some suspicion over whether Christina was an NTB or not. My theory is that she is, and her breakdown was meant to show that she legitimately cares for him despite being a sleep agent, in which case she may know how to counteract the poison and save the President. I’m probably wrong, but I mean what a call if I’m right... right?

Anyways, moving on... the last storyline of this episode – Michael and Leila covering up the murder of the man tasked with watching her – was probably the weakest.  I didn’t mind watching Sophia’s tense visit, but honestly, of the three arcs in this episode this was the one I was least interested in. If Sophia does eventually find out about Leila stealing the phone it may make these two characters a little more interesting, but at the moment the show tends to drag whenever they’re on screen.

Wow, I Have Not Lived a Hard Life

This is a sad, sad day for me. My TV, the one that’s served me faithfully since my days as an undergrad, died unexpectedly this morning. I could never express in words how much he’s meant to me other than to say he was irreplaceable, and he will be missed... *pours malt liquor on the floor*. Godspeed Tubey, Godspeed.

Spoilers...

Cougar Town – “Walls” (B+)

It feels like forever since the last time I was watching an episode of Cougar Town. I almost missed this episode being that it was aired on a Monday night (to capitalize on the Dancing With the Stars crowd according to the title card), but I’m glad that I’m not going to have to wait too long on that Travis proposing cliffhanger. Mostly I was just happy that I was back watching the unique energy this show has to offer.

First up on the docket we had Jules trying her best not to interfere in Trav’s life. I really like the storyline for her character because as anyone who’s ever watched this show knows, Jules is a meddler. So to not stop Trav from proposing to Kirsten (who is pretty hilarious so I wouldn’t mind seeing it happen) it’s a pretty trying moment for her character.

I’m really interested in seeing whether Trav actually does propose. At the start of the episode I thought for sure he wouldn’t, but the fact that they left this as a cliffhanger has me questioning that judgement. If I were laying bets down I’d say he’s not going to do it and that it’s probably just a ploy to get some of that Dancing With the Stars audience to follow them back to Wednesday night, but you never know. I could also maybe see him proposing and Kirsten turning him down, leaving Jules to pick up the pieces. It’s only two days away so we’ll find out soon enough.

And no matter how it turns out, the storyline had some pretty funny moments to make it all worthwhile. I loved Ellie’s truck ghost (who ended up just being Jules messing with her, but Ellie still doesn’t know that) and the fact that over the course of the episode every inch of Jules’ lawn was dug up looking for that time capsule. Oh and of course everyone continuing to rip on Tom. I love ripping on Tom.

JULES: Hey Trav, did you happen to find any of Tom’s business in those holes?
TRAV: Let me check, no.
JULES: Sorry Tom, none of your business over here.

I think my favourite storyline of the episode though was Bobby and Laurie’s penny can venture. These two just have fantastic chemistry with each other. They are endlessly quotable together. It’s been a while since I’ve written anything for this show so I can’t remember if I’ve said this before, but I wouldn’t mind seeing them potentially paired up as a couple, provided they can keep this same energy.

They stole this episode. I loved Laurie’s description of the screenplay she’s working on and her radio jingle had me laughing out loud. And the way the two of them, along with Andy, decided to change the meaning of “kicks ass” was hilarious. Of course you’ll be able to find all of these examples in the quotes section below:

LAURIE: Oh! We could give her a puppy that would blow up if she took it across town lines. It’s from my new screenplay, The Blow Up Pup. It’s a prequel to Speed.

ANDY: (demonstrating the concept of forbidden fruit) Laurie, what if I was to tell you I had an apple in my pocket from lunch?
LAURIE: So what, who cares.
ANDY: What if I was to tell you this apple is so special you couldn’t even look at it?
LAURIE: What’s so special about it? I want to see the apple! Gimme.

BOBBY: I just earned $600 from borrowing it from Andy and Jules.

BOBBY: (receiving bad news) Oh that really kicks ass!
GRAYSON: No when something kicks ass it’s a good thing.
BOBBY: How? Every time I’ve had my ass kicked it’s been horrible?
ANDY: We’ve been misusing that phrase for years. So all agreed to change it?
LAURIE: Absolutely.

BOBBY: Man, my names got a lot of B’s in it.
LAURIE: My name doesn’t have any B’s in it.
BOBBY: Oh I’m sorry I brought it up.
LAURIE: It’s okay.

BOBBY: They give out awards for radio ads right?
LAURIE: Well they better! We worked on this for well over an hour.

And of course the line of the night, Laurie’s radio ad:

LAURIE: (sirens) Calm down, it’s not the real police, it’s the fun police! And we’re bringing you the greatest coin-based game since heads or tails. Do you love having a good time? Then call 1-855-PENNYCAN. Hold for an operator, then ask for Carol. Say you’re ordering penny can, and not any weight loss products or sexual aides and she’ll contact us with your order. It’s that simple! Ask for Carol, no sex stuff, Penny Can!

How I Met Your Mother – “Hopeless” (B-)

The return of John Lithgow. I enjoyed his last appearance on this show so I had some high expectations coming into this one. There were a few funny moments in the episode – the whole gang pretending to be a band in place of the opening credits, Barney and Jerry’s drunken night on the streets of New York – but for the most part “Hopeless” seemed a little light on the jokes, or at least the laugh out loud variety. Once again, what I found most interesting was the more dramatic and story based elements of the episode.

The car ride home between Jerry and Barney was another great moment in Barney’s development. Barney’s admission that he felt like he was just “too far gone” when it came to settling down was a poignant moment, but even more interesting was his response to Jerry’s comment about meeting the right girl. The writers were playing pretty fast and loose with the Barney and Robin hints in this one, but Barney’s “maybe I’ve already met her” response to Jerry’s advice seemed less like a hint and more like a giant pointing arrow in the Barney and Robin direction.

With the wedding shown at the beginning of the season fast approaching (assuming it’s the subject of the season finale) the renewed talk of Barney and Robin as a couple again has me super pumped. Though that’s not to say the wedding will be for the two of them. The writers have been throwing out a lot of red herrings (though I guess they’re only red herrings if they don’t pan out) and in this episode that included Robin’s guy crush, which narrator Ted commented isn’t quite over with.

I think maybe the more likely scenario is Robin will attempt to get married and Barney will rush to the altar to stop it. Barney putting himself out there like that would be a major step forward for his character and fits perfectly with his current arc. Along those lines, another possibility would be that it’s actually Barney’s wedding and he’s marrying that Nora girl from earlier in the season, but since I’m rooting for Barney and Robin ending up together I kind of hope that’s not the case (I don’t see Robin rushing to altar to get Barney back). Of course, it could just be Punchy’s wedding, but that would be pretty boring.

A few other closing thoughts on the episode. Marshall’s impression of a playwright was hilarious – “we’re all writers, just some of us don’t know our story yet” – and I loved the call back to Ted’s red cowboy boots.

Unfortunately this show is going on another two week hiatus before finishing out the season, so we won’t get any more answers on any of those lingering questions for a little while at least. What that does give us though is time to speculate, so if you have a theory please post it in the comments.

Oh, before I forget, the line of the night:

ROBIN: (responding to Ted being a hypocrite) So get off the field at the Super Dome, because you ain’t no saint.

House – “Last Temptation” (B)

And Masters takes her final bow. I’m a little disappointed to see her go after spending so much time getting to know her. Now that I know she probably won’t be back I feel a bit letdown by the character in general (for those of you who don’t know Amber Tamblyn has signed on to another Fox pilot). I thought the writers were going to build to something a little more, and now that the character’s gone I’m just left with an empty feeling.

That’s not to say her exit was bad. I think this show does a lot better when the focus is on the characters more than the case. This was another one of those episodes told from the point of view of a character other than House, and like the show’s previous few attempts at this type of episode, the results were a refreshing take on life at Princeton-Plainsboro.

I think once the suddenness of Masters’ departure wears off (I didn’t know she was leaving until after I watched the episode) I may warm a bit to the way her character was written off. We’ve seen plenty of examples over the years of the way House’s influence can corrupt even some of the most idealistic doctors, so it is nice to finally see one of them leave him rather than let that happen. Even I’ve complained in the past about Masters’ lack of response to House’s bullying (I just thought she would be sticking around a little longer) so perhaps this was the right way for the character to go.

Despite the obvious focus of Masters’ departure, “Last Temptation” was actually one of the funnier episodes I’ve seen this season. House and Wilson’s chicken war was pretty hilarious. I’m happy that most of the damage Wilson’s chicken received was emotional, despite the fact the way they filmed it made it seem like exactly the opposite. I also really liked House’s rehab explanation for Thirteen’s absence and the fact that now she can’t drink around any of them, which according to her is her “main bond with Chase.”

I’m looking forward to next week and the opportunity to explore Thirteen’s return a little more, but I will admit, I am going to miss Masters. Farewell Amber Tamblyn.

Fringe – “Lysergic Acid Diethylamide” (A+)

Look, I don't have much time. As much as I wish I could spend it thinking about television all day I need to learn the histological structure of like 1,000 organs by Thursday. That being said, I have found time to watch many of my shows over the past few weeks. When I looked up whether there was a new Fringe last Friday and saw that the episode was named after LSD, I knew it was an hour that had to be spent watching TV. So I watched, and I never wrote about it.

But that lack of commitment has been bugging at me. Not because I feel a deep seeded obligation to Brian or you, my readers. No offence to any of you. I do feel like we have this special bond where I write things and the world completely ignores me, and I appreciate you all for it. However, I feel like I need to review it because it was hands down the best episode of TV I have watched since Richard's back story on Lost.

The reasoning is simple. When a SciFi/Drama is able to write half of the episode as a cartoon and not make it seem absolutely ridiculous, but instead a logical progression of the show, it deserves an 'A'. Second, when a show drops a cliffhanger on you with the words "I'm not sure, but I think he's the man who is going to kill me" it deserves the 'plus'. That’s it. Sweet and simple. Now the thyroid follicles and zona fasciculata require my attention. Good day blue universe.

The Event – “Cut Off the Head” (B-)

So Sean is the chosen one. I guess I should hand it to the writers for taking my advice yet again and giving Sean something important to do, I just sort of wish they didn’t kill off the one person with any sort of information about the sentinels. Pretty sneaky writers. But hey, I guess now that he has that tapestry he can slowly uncover their secrets in small manageable pieces.

And I guess no one’s doubting Dempsey’s allegiances anymore either. There was something a little unsettlingly about the way his character was killed off. I’ll admit, I didn’t see it coming at all. And while they managed to kill him off in a way that gave his normally veiled character a very clear ideology, I couldn’t help but feel as though we’ll never truly understand why he was doing what he was doing. For example, what did any of this have to do with those age experiments? They very well may explain this (that is if they don’t get cancelled), but my gut is telling me they won’t.

The rest of the episode was spectacularly mediocre. I’m still not loving Sophia’s new attitude. This week she was trying to manipulate the Vice President into assassinating the President and you could notice a stark contrast from the Sophia of old. She just seems evil now. She talks about killing off the human population without even a hint of remorse and at the same time gleefully manipulates the people around her. It bothers me because this is just not the character I’ve been watching over this past season. They can easily justify what she’s doing – her whole species is at risk of extinction – but what they can’t justify is her lack of conflict over it.

I wasn’t that into the President’s story this week either. If his wife had ended up actually being a sleeper agent I would probably be singing a different tune, but they really didn’t have my interest with this storyline until right when he confronted her, and then it didn’t take long for her name to be cleared. Of course if she somehow still is a sleeper agent, then bravo writers.

Even though some of Sean’s story was interesting and I liked the reveal of the frozen dead guy at the end of the episode, my interest is really starting to wane on this series. I really don’t see them getting renewed and while they’ve improved the show from its lackluster beginnings, it’s still not where it needs to be.

Does Anybody Know Any Jokes?

It’s very late, so forgive me if this post is a little incoherent. It was another slow Monday night, but we do have The Event and Castle for you. Enjoy.

Spoilers...

The Event – “You Bury Other Things Too” (C+)

Perhaps they should have taken their two week break after the last episode, because this week’s was not the best one to go out on. Not only was it was a transition episode to the core, but it managed to accentuate one of this show’s glaring weaknesses – their ability to develop storylines at an organic pace.

Simon’s story in this episode was the most glaring example. I really didn’t like how quickly they brought him from witnessing the deaths of his fellow NTBs to being back on the side of humanity. His escape scene was not handled well. Is it just me or does it seem like whenever the NTBs need to accomplish something for the story to move forward, the military or the Secret Service just become incredibly incompetent? The Secret Service (or whoever the suits were) just watched him drive away. So he got into a car. Isn’t there some way you could chase him? Like say, in another car?

One awkward time cut away and he’s somehow made it back to all the other NTBs. Now he’s free to disagree with Sophia’s new directive and get betrayed by his own people. As an audience member it feels like I’m getting jerked around. Like I’m not watching the storyline the writers want to tell, I’m watching them force the one they do want to tell. It cheapens the episode in my opinion. I understand the need to transition to new storylines, but you can’t cram it all into a single episode without making things feel rushed. And I really thought there was a promising storyline in the President discovering Simon’s true identity. I was looking forward to a confrontation between the two of them, but didn’t get that here. Though I have a feeling that Leila is going to help Simon escape, so who knows – he may be back on the government’s team in an episode or two.

I also have a problem with Sophia’s sudden change of heart regarding the NTBs prime directive. She has plenty of reasons to change her mind about the way she deals with humans. The President killed a lot of her people and her species is doomed to extinction if they can’t find a new planet. My problem lies in the fact that she’s seemingly doing it out of anger over Thomas’s death. Thomas killed a ton of her people too. The President’s attack on the NTBs was a direct response to his attacks. Now all of a sudden Thomas is a saint and you have to carry on his work. Come on.

That’s not to say that I’m entirely thrilled with the President at the moment. This episode was exactly what I was worried about when they started to makeover his character. I said this last week too but the problem with his character before wasn’t necessarily that he wasn’t aggressive enough, it was that he wasn’t smart. Now he’s a jerk who’s still not very smart. That’s even less likable.  Maybe this is all just a planned character arc by the writers, but the shortcomings of their execution are starting to hurt the character.

His decision in this episode to test every American’s DNA was ridiculous. Logistically, that’s just plain impossible and I really don’t understand why Senator Madsen’s involved. Last time we saw her she was publically challenging him on national television and now all of a sudden she’s more than willing to run an incredibly illegal operation for him. Certainly finding out about the NTBs couldn’t be that game changing for her.

And last but not least we had Vicky and Sean, who failed to live up to their momentum from the week before. The shoot out and Vicky’s subsequent capture was fine, but I didn’t like their scenes with each other before that happened. Vicky’s this is what happens when you kill people speech was a little over the top for me and I’m not sure if I completely buy her coming back after Sean released her. I guess they haven’t entirely worked the bugs out of Sean’s storyline yet.

Castle – “Slice of Death” (B+)

Castle was Castle again this week.  I feel like I say the same things every week. "This show is good, I really liked the episode."  This week I'll give you a little taste of the plot and drop some themes from the episode that I really liked.

The case this week was based on a body being found in a pizza oven.  A charring sight to say the least.  (You see what I did there? That’s called a pun.)  Anyway, the pizza joint in question is one of 4 pizza places with essentially the same name.  Throughout the episode I never got them straight.  There is Terrific Nick's, Authentic Nick's, Terrific Authentic Nick's, Authentic Terrific Nick's.  At least I think that’s what they were called.  There were some combinations like that.  And none of the guys who own the places are actually named Nick.  Anyway, these pizza places are "at war" with one another and this war took its first casualty.

Initially, the team looks into the other 3 pizza places, as well as the proprietor of the one where the body was found, but it doesn't add up that these guys would go from putting soap in each other's sauces to killing someone and sticking the body in an oven.

When the body is identified as a popular writer for a local paper doing a puff piece on Pizza wars, the team starts to look at other avenues.  It looks like the writer, who used to do investigative journalism before a personal tragedy, found something bigger than just feuding pizza parlours.  He found heroin dealers.

So the guy got whacked for finding out too much, and eventually Castle and Beckett put it together and figure out who "Cavallo" the mythical heroin dealer is.  It’s a good twist.  A little predictable, but solid none the less.

As far as the themes from this week go, I really liked the parallels between the dead reporter who lost his daughter and Castle’s struggle to defend his daughter against a bully at school.

In other news, for those of you who read some of my stuff at the beginning of the year on my own blog I wrote a review of why I like Castle so much and talked about the characters and actors, etc. etc. One of the things I said was that Molly Quinn (Alexis) should be cast as Clary if they ever make a movie of the Mortal Instruments series.  Well the other day she tweeted something about the new Mortal Instruments that I didn't really understand.  It turns out that she was cast for the series, but as the narrator of the audiobook.  So they are making a movie of the series, but didn't cast her, even though she’s a fan of the books and clearly looks the part.  Anyway, I care little about teen fiction for young women and their cinematographic counterparts but I was hoping to cash in on a percentage of that casting cheque.  Seems like Hollywood dropped the ball on that one.  How mundane of them (that is also wordplay, but none of you get it, and it’s better that way).

Well that’s all for today folks. I've got a big day tomorrow.  Going to Home Depot, maybe Bed Bath and Beyond.  I don't know if we’ll have enough time.  Actually, I'm studying for exam 4 of 11.  Peace.

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.