Farewell V... Please Don’t Write

Just a short post today, but I figured I’d get it out of the way before tonight’s barrage of shows.

Spoilers.

Off the Map – “I’m Home” (B)

Mateo’s back. I can’t say I’m surprised, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy watching Brenner and him interact as she went about treating his mother – who by the way is an extremely interesting character in her own right. I think my favourite scene in this storyline was the scene where she rationalized why she started growing cocaine to Lily. It was a kind of complexity I honestly didn’t expect from this show. Brenner put it best – “I’ll probably never agree with it, but I get it.”

They also followed up on the Tommy and Mina hook up again this week. It was really funny watching all their awkward sexual tension with each other. Both Zach Gilford and Mamie Gummer had some great facial expression, and a few killer lines. I loved Tommy’s discussion with Brenner about how he can’t stop picturing her naked. It led to a great exchange between Mina and Brenner later on.

MINA: He keeps staring at me. What is he staring at?
LILY: Not your boobs.

In the end the two of the decided to try and go back to being friends. It was a good bonding experience and I like that our original 3 jungle newbies are starting to become good friends.

Keeton and Clark returned from New York this week as well. I was a little surprised that they decided to skip over New York altogether. I mean they shoot in Hawaii so it’s probably the cheaper alternative, but I figured they would use Keeton’s absence from the clinic as a story premise for this episode. Well either way, they didn’t do that, but we were left with wasn’t bad either.

It was really a story about Clark learning her limitations. She kept pushing her limitations throughout the episode (I liked it when she tripped up the huge prisoner), eventually collapsing in the middle of an operation. The ending was fine, but I didn’t particularly like it when Keeton freaked out on her. I’ve been quite happy with the way they’ve written his character so far. He doesn’t have a huge ego like many of the attendings on other medical dramas, but his explosion in this episode wasn’t a good moment for his character. He quickly apologised after, but I could have done without that one particular scene.

And last but not least we had this week’s patients. The story of the two prisoners talking between cells was sweet, but there were moments where it felt a bit slow. I did enjoy their final sunset together however, and Cole and Zee, who were the doctors involved in this particular storyline, had a good week with each other – there wasn’t any nauseating dialogue to be heard of. I also really liked Cole’s line to the American girl as she thought about escaping:

COLE: Don’t mix up running with being free.

I’m sure that works on a few levels with this show.

V – “Mother’s Day” (B-)

Wow, they really let the bodies fly in this one. It was probably too little too late, but they did not hold back. It’s odd that this will probably be the last episode of the series because the way the writers have set it up they’re clearly looking to retool the show and try again next season.

And you can tell because they’ve attempted to eliminate as much dead weight in this episode as they could. Both Ryan and Tyler seemed to drag the show down this season, and both of them got eliminated in this finale. The funny thing is though, usually when a show has a major character death you... hmmm, what’s the word I’m looking for here... care. But none of these deaths felt all that meaningful. There were no heroic sacrifices – everyone’s death came as they fell victim to Anna’s wrath. Even for characters that weren’t all that liked it felt very anti-climatic.

The other thing I find interesting, is that despite repeated criticism that this show never lets its main characters win, they allowed them to fail again in this episode with yet another attempt on Anna’s life. I thought for sure in the finale they would give the Fifth Column some sort of win, but it was all Anna in this one.

I think that’s one of the fundamental reasons this show has never been able to truly get its footing. The writers really can’t ever allow the Fifth Column to succeed because they’re goals are always quite high. They’ve had at least two attempts on Anna’s life this season alone, which of course failed. They were given such close access to Anna so early on in the series that they’ve never given the organization any room to grow. There are no incremental accomplishments. Since the start of the second season it’s been all or nothing, and because all means the show is over, it’s always ended up nothing.

I will hand the writers this though – Anna’s revenge on Lisa was quite well done. It was chilling the way she made her watch new Lisa have sex with Tyler and then kill him. It’s only too bad that came after she foolishly allowed Anna to live in a very poorly executed standoff in an abandoned warehouse.

They certainly did their best to end the show on an exciting note but I wasn’t buying the whole project Ares thing. It seems kind of foolish that we’re only finding out about this huge governmental task force now, and from the brief glimpse we got of the organization its already looking supremely stupid. Case in point, and I’m paraphrasing:

“Hey everyone, gather round. This computer’s telling me something’s happening to people.”

No, I think I’ll be alright with this one getting cancelled. They gave it shot. They had a few promising plot developments that never really paid off. But now I guess it’s time for this show to make its exit. So long V.

You’re Like This Legend of Weirdness

This week’s reviews of Off the Map and V. Enjoy!

Spoilers.

Off the Map – “There’s Nothing to Fix” (B+)

Oh Mina, how I adore you so. I’m sorry I keep rehashing this point week after week, I really am. I’d love to talk about something else in these reviews but quite frankly each week she just ups her game. I’m probably biased but there just aren’t enough characters on TV portraying emotional shut-ins like myself. We finally have a voice. An awkward, monotone voice.

And being that I’m also a fan of Ryan – who just happens to be the exact opposite of Mina – I had a good time watching them pair up this week to deal with a jerk patient. There was so much I loved about this pairing I made a list, and, since you’re already reading, I guess I’ll share it with you.

-          The part where Ryan tells Mina that the pizza joint the patient owns is just a place where Americans go because they’re too afraid to try the local cuisine, and Mina responds “the pizza’s actually not that bad.”

-          When the angry patient tells Mina her chicken is the only thing that depends on her and she responds “that’s not true, I have a god daughter.” Great call back to last episode.

-          The sweet ending scene between Mina and Ryan abruptly ended with an “okay bye” from Mina.

-          The entirety of the funeral scene – “Come on! I basically yelled the guy to death.”

Tommy’s story on the other hand was all over the map this week, or should I say off the map (huh, see what I did there). I couldn’t really peg it. At times it was great, like when he gave his own blood to save the patient, and at times it wasn’t so great, like his freak out upon first discovering the patient. Overall I’m glad they showed his remorse over cheating on Alma, I was just a little iffier on the execution.

I still don’t like Cole and Zee as a couple. I enjoyed the way they got back together last week, but together there’s just something grating about the two of them. I think Valerie Cruz does a great job with her character, and Cole seems to be alright when he’s on his own, it’s just the writing for them when they’re together doesn’t do either of them justice. Take this week’s story for example – it is way too early in that relationship for them to be talking about babies. I know they probably had a history before the show began, but they just got back together. Give it a week.

The subject of having kids was clearly brought up more so they could relate to the patient story, but what it ended up doing was making Cole seem irritating. It may have set up a nice future storyline for Zee’s character, but there were a number of ways they could have introduced the fact that Zee can’t have children, and the way they ended up doing it weakened the episode.

And of course last but not least there was Brenner, who this week was pretty much all on her lonesome. Caroline Dhavernas is such a wonderful actor (actually there’s a lot of strong acting on this show), and she did a pretty decent job of playing how devastated Brenner was over the loss of her patient (and I suspect a little over the loss of her relationship). Her breakdown at the end of the episode was a little out of nowhere, but Dhavernas sold it. It could have been a lot worse.

It should be interesting to see the clinic without Keeton next week. I can’t wait.

V – “Devil in a Blue Dress” (C+)

Is it just me or has this show devolved into a formula?

It seems like every week our team comes up with some sort of plan to attack the visitors, almost always explained through some horribly clunky dialogue, attempt to execute that plan, fail, and then start getting ready for the next week when they’re really going to bring it to the Visitors. It’s actually becoming so bad that it’s come right back around to being funny again.

This week was more of the same. First we got an incredibly forced scene where Sid, our local scientist, describes Concordia, the visitor’s brand new power plant. The writers of course set up the mission, what would be the obstacles, what would be the reward, all in expository dialogue so unnatural you couldn’t possibly misunderstand them.

My favourite part of the episode was when Sid, simply by touching two small blue energy balls together concluded that blue energy was a “particle anti-particle construct.” Are you kidding me? You got all that from a light show?

And then there was Erica’s freak out after the mission failed. First off, you’re the one who ordered to abort the mission, so you really shouldn’t be taking it out on your entire team. And second, can you explain to me why the rest of the Fifth Column leadership, who doubted your ability to lead not two episodes ago, continue to follow you despite failure after failure?

I assume the ending scene with Diana was supposed to be exciting – all the Fifth Column in the same room – but it didn’t really feel that way. Next week is the season and most likely series finale. Just judging by what I’ve seen up to this point, my guess is this show will go out on with whimper rather than a bang. Oh well, I still love you Elizabeth Mitchell. We’ll always have Lost.

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.

Happy Valenbirthiversary!

Posts 4 days in row! Way to go me. I don’t know what’s more impressive – that, or the fact that I’m still doing recaps of V. Probably the V thing. Well luckily I also have reviews of last night’s episodes of Modern Family and Off the Map.

And stay tuned again tomorrow when I reveal my Oscar picks for this weekend. I’m hoping to get a little competition going so get your own picks ready.

You know how this works... spoilers.

Modern Family – “Regrets Only” (A-)

The theme of last night’s Modern Family was communication. Claire and Phil have a fight, only Phil has no idea what over. Cameron thinks Mitchell doesn’t listen to him, which is exacerbated by the fact that Cameron forgot to mail the invitations to Cam’s big charity benefit. And Jay doesn’t have to heart to tell Gloria he wants her to stop using the Karaoke machine he got her for her birthday (she has a particularly great rendition of Angel of the Morning).

This episode had the kind of intermingling I love to see from Modern Family. I don’t know what it is about these odd couple pairings, but this show is almost always better when they break out of the familiar family dynamics. Phil and Gloria were perfect examples. I loved their hair cutting scene, where Phil goes through all the reasons why Claire might be mad, only to end with Gloria telling him “I kill you” if he were ever to do that to her.

And who would have thought pairing Cam and Luke together would be so hilarious (I guess probably the writers). The contrast between them was played for some great laughs, and Luke’s misunderstanding of pretty much every instruction given to him really highlighted how funny Cam is when he’s in party throwing mode. The head sets were a particularly nice touch here. But my favourite exchange between these two came as Cam was freaking out over how he was going to salvage his benefit.

CAM: What are we going to do?
LUKE: I could start a fire.
CAM: No... well keep that in your back pocket.

Everything of course ended on a positive note, starting with Phil and Claire. It turns out Claire was mad at Phil because she felt like he’d never taken any of her suggestions. So to show her that he does in fact value her opinion, he brought out a photo album and went over all the ways Claire has put her stamp on his life, including getting rid of a pony tail and changing his major away from forestry (one of the most hilarious of majors).

And just like Phil with Claire, Mitchell came through for Cam with some last minute party guests.  Their joyful reunion after the fact was hilarious, especially when Cam yelled at the harp players for not scoring the moment. I also thought it was great that despite more than half the seats in the room being empty it was still double what the music society got last year for “cello submarine”.

And I have to quickly mention Manny, who was relatively quiet throughout the whole episode only to come in and steal the show in the final minutes. His ending breakdown over the karaoke machine was great, but it was his final line during the ending credits sequence that absolutely stole the entire episode.

MANNY: (after unplugging the karaoke machine Jay was singing with) You keep this up and this won’t be the last plug I pull.

Off the Map – “Es Un Milagro” (B+)

When the chopper went down at the end of the last episode, you knew this one was going to be a good one. “Es Un Milagro” may not have been as intense as I’d envisioned – that exploding chopper didn’t do it for me – but what they gave us instead was equally enjoyable. I think it may be because they managed to focus on my three favourite characters in this episode that made it so enticing.

First off, how awesome is the Charlie/Tommy bromance? These two are hilarious together. Charlie in particular had a great episode. As unrealistic as it was for Tommy and Keeton to use him in that surgery, I couldn’t help but love the scene. I also love that he’s training himself to be a surgeon. It kind of reminds me of The Cider House Rules a little, and I wouldn’t mind seeing the writers delve a little more into this storyline. Also funny was the reveal at the end that Charlie basically lives in a mansion. It was way nicer than Tommy’s place, which makes his “I need to know you’re not living in a cardboard box” comment all the more funny.

Clark’s story this week was a good one as well, revealing a few more details about her looming health problems. Her scenes with the little girl were all really sweet, and in all honesty I’m absolutely falling in love with her character. Kudos again to Rachelle Lefevre for bringing such a wonderfully upbeat character to life.

The revelation at the end of the episode that she was going into heart failure really put the heat on this storyline, and I can’t see a quick resolution to it. Perhaps they put her on restrictive duty or something. Oh! But then for some reason she has to go out into the field, and it’s all dangerous and what not. Huh? I really should be writing these things. Well whatever they do they better not kill her off. Mark my words, I will not be happy.

Mina was also involved in a pretty heavy storyline this week, as she was forced to confront a similar situation to the one that got her kicked out of her previous residency. Her quiet desperation as she worked to save her patient only made the patient’s death all the more painful. Her final breakdown was well played by Mamie Gummer and I can’t wait to see the repercussions of this storyline in next week’s episode.

And of the course the episode concluded with Brenner finding out her new boyfriend Mateo happens to be a cocaine farmer. It wasn’t exactly a shocking turn of events considering he came into the clinic with a gunshot wound a couple weeks ago, but the reveal was still done well. It should be interesting to see the fallout from that discovery. I can’t imagine Mateo’s employers being too happy about Brenner finding out about the farm.

V – “Birth Pangs” (C+)

I know I ripped into this show pretty hard last week. I haven’t changed my mind about what I said either. I’m tired of the apparent lack of planning when it comes to the writing on this show. This week’s episode did a little better on the writing front, but not anywhere close to where it needed to be. I think it may be time for V to die a quiet peaceful death.

There was some hope for this show in last week’s episode, with Erica taking over the reins as the leader of the Fifth Column. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to capitalize on that momentum this week. With Eli’s contacts not confident in her ability to lead, Erica sets out to prove herself to them – by breaking into her former doctor’s apartment... for some reason.

These are the kind of sequences V does very poorly. They set up a bunch of seemingly random obstacles for our characters to overcome in an attempt to evoke some tension, but they do their set-ups so haphazardly that it completely defeats the purpose. The audience knows if you’ve hastily thrown it together within the episode, the characters are in no real danger of getting caught or having any permanent repercussions. And that’s exactly what happened here. Why would the police have video surveillance on an apartment building? Why do they only have 15 minutes before the camera resets? It’s all completely arbitrary, which makes the sequence feel arbitrary.

And speaking of Erica and Hobbes, was it just me or were the writers trying to set the groundwork for a future romance between them? I really hope not considering Erica’s ex-husband died LAST EPISODE, and that was already an incredibly forced romance in its own right. If they really wanted us to believe that her feelings for her ex-husband were real, instead of just an artificial way to make his death meaningful (which is what it was) then you’ve got to give her character time to mourn. Don’t just throw her into another forced relationship.

You know she's serious -- she's wearing sunglasses!

The other annoying thing about this episode, like every week, was the storyline surrounding Tyler. After spending the entirety of the first two season’s trying to take him from his mother like the survival of her species depended on it, Anna gets Tyler on board her ship permanently only to decide that he’s no longer useful to her (or some crap about phosphorus). You know, pretty much a complete betrayal of everything that came before this episode. If Tyler was completely replaceable all along, there is absolutely no reason for Anna to go to the lengths she did to get him to trust her. Really stupid.

The one saving grace of this episode was Lisa, who not only stood up to her mother for the first time this week, but delivered some actually interesting information to this series for the first time. According to the information she acquired for Chad, the Vs go from planet to planet taking the best genes from every species they encounter in an effort to speed up their own evolution. Finally you can see why the Vs care so much about human emotion. For a species that absorbs all the best genes of other species, which genes work and which don’t would be incredibly important. Although all of this is based on the assumption that out of all the species they have encountered in the universe, humans are the only ones with emotions.

Never Break Character. Never. Ever.

Here are my thoughts on Tuesday and Wednesday’s Modern Family, Off the Map, and V. My review of V may have turned into an explosive rant. I’m not sure, I kind of blacked out while I was writing it.

Spoilers are coming. Prepare yourself.

Modern Family – “Princess Party” (B)

Modern Family has kept each of the families fairly separate over the last couple of episodes, so when I heard that this week’s episode would feature Lily’s birthday party I was excited to see the whole Pritchett clan back together again. Throw appearances by Fizbo the clown and Shelly Long as Mitchell and Claire’s unstable mother Dede into that equation, and you have what was a fairly enjoyable episode.

My favourite scene from this episode was Jay, Gloria, and Manny trying to record the book for Lily together. From Gloria’s weird voices to Manny playing the part of a baby girl bear, the result was an appropriate disaster, and a hilarious one at that. I was really happy that the little after the credits moment was Mitchell and Cam playing the book for Lily. Cue the gasp.

I also enjoyed watching Dede undermine Claire in front of her kids. The joy on Hayley’s face after each subtle barb at her mother was more than enough to make that dinner scene hilarious but Claire’s frequent glances to the camera certainly didn’t hurt. I hate to say it though, but I think this may be the first time where I haven’t liked Luke’s part in an episode. His cuteness routine just wasn’t working for me.

Cam’s attempts to bring back Fizbo the clown were certainly good for a few laughs as well. I loved how offended Cam got when Mitchell passive aggressively suggested he just didn’t respect party themes. Also funny was Cam prodding the poor Princess performer to break character, only to freak out on her for doing just that.

The birthday party itself was a fairly good sequence, although somewhat up and down. The party was the first time the rest of the family got a taste of Dede’s craziness, and I thought it was clever that each character suspected her behaviour was somehow directed at them. I also liked the subtle “I’ve got Gloria” call back to the last time Phil tried to break up a Dede and Gloria fight on the show.

What I didn’t care for though – why was it necessary for Gloria to be drugged up at the party? I know they explained her apprehension earlier in the episode, but it didn’t really add anything to the scene, and it detracted from what was an otherwise stellar outing for her character. Still, this was an entertaining episode that brought back the inter-family storylines I love so much, so it’s a minor complaint at best.

I’ll leave you with my favourite lines.

GLORIA: What? I’m going to miss Alex’s graduation, all of Hayley’s weddings, just because of Dede?

HAYLEY: Ew dad gross! Your hand smells like cheese.
PHIL: I didn’t want to dirty a knife.

CLAIRE: Mom didn’t mention that I’m married with 3 kids?
ROBBIE: No, all she said was that you were still trying to figure out your life.

JAY: What kind of voice is that?
GLORIA: I am a bear.
JAY: A bear? I was going to get a crucifix.

V – “Siege” (C-)

This episode was downright stupid. V has never been what I would call a “good” show. It’s had its moments, which I’ve mistaken for potential, but it’s never really materialized past that. Well this week’s episode had to be a new low for the series, full of glaring plot holes, weak character motivations, and stupid story progressions. Oh and did I mention forced romances? Those too. The plotting for this episode was so bad it made it feel like they don’t plan this show past the episode they’re writing.

Let’s start with Tyler’s father Joe. When Anna finds out Erica has been taken hostage by the Fifth Column (not knowing Erica was in on this) she sees it as an opportunity to get rid of Tyler’s mother. Fine. But according to her, getting rid of just his mother isn’t enough, so she decides to get his father involved. This is where the writing gets ridiculous. So Joe shows up at the site where Erica is supposedly being held hostage, and decides, despite all the FBI agents around him, to enter the building through an entrance he found on a map left lying around by a fake FBI agent.

Let’s count all the things wrong with that. First off, why enter the building at all? You’re unarmed, and according to their later conversation he had no idea that Erica was working with the hostage takers at all. What could you possibly accomplish by going in there? And am I seriously supposed to believe that Anna’s fool proof plan to get him into the building was to leave a map lying around where he could see it? Really? All that was holding him back from going into the building was that he didn’t have an entrance. See above for all the reasons why that’s ridiculous.

And then we had what had to be one of the most forced romances I have seen in a very, very long time. Joe showed up LAST EPISODE. He and Erica have had extremely limited screen time together. Do they expect us to buy that in that short time together they completely rekindled their romance? I think the more obvious explanation is that they needed a reason to make his death meaningful to Erica, and they foolishly believed that having them make out a few minutes beforehand would accomplish this feat. Instead all it did was point out how ludicrous this relationship was in the first place.

Eventually the death of his father sends Tyler running back to the Vs, leaving Erica appropriately devastated. Of course, as is usual with most of Tyler’s storylines, all of this could have been avoided if Erica just told Tyler the truth. And I know, she was trying to do just that at the end of the episode, but being that the plot of this show is held together by thread, the writers made the foolish decision to have Tyler blame her for the death of his father, a weak association at best and terrible way to move the story forward.

Then there was Hobbes, who one week after assassinating the V’s second in command was working for them. But wait, he had a good reason. He has a suddenly invented wife that the Vs are apparently holding. And you know it’s true, because they made a call and it was her voice on the phone. You can just take their word for it that it’s not a recording.

Oh and why is it the Vs couldn’t send any of their own people to stand outside a building and flip a switch? Is there some reason they need to keep recruiting their bitter enemies to do all their dirty work for them?

In the end Erica takes over as the leader of Cohn’s Fifth Column cells. Luckily there was this second guy who could do everything Cohn could do without being Cohn (the real Cohn had to die for some reason). In her final speech to the rest of our local chapter, it sounded as though the Fifth column would be taking a new and exciting direction in their fight against the Vs. Somehow I doubt this though. So far every time this show has given us any sort of promising storyline, they’ve managed to quash it by the next episode. Why would this one be anything but the same?

Off the Map – “It’s Good” (B+)

The clinic was robbed in this week’s episode of Off the Map, sending our doctors scrambling to find the supplies they need to keep their patients alive. It was a particularly good episode for the series, following up quite nicely on the events of last week’s episode.

It seems like I say this every week now, but Mina continues to be one of the break out characters on this show. I really liked her opening scene where she (and more importantly the writers) acknowledged Keeton’s favouritism towards Brenner, and I totally bought that Mina may not want to stick around in the jungle that much longer because of the way she’s been treated up until this point. I think we all knew she would come around by the end of the episode, but that doesn’t mean her journey getting there was any less enjoyable. Her heroine buying scene was executed quite nicely, and while her conversation with the owner of the jungle inn was a little on the nose, it didn’t take away too much from an enjoyable arc for her character.

I also liked that Keeton called out Brenner for putting the clinic in danger for the last two consecutive weeks (he only blamed her for last week’s fiasco but still). I know he later admitted it was no one’s fault, but it’s good that this show doesn’t forget the consequences they themselves laid out.

With Keeton returning to Clark this week and Brenner finally hooking up with Mateo, it’s clear it’s going to be a few more episodes (I’m thinking maybe season finale) before these two finally get together. The complicated relationship here is between Clark and Keeton (Brenner and her Spanish soap opera companion won’t last). Once he finds out she’s sick it’s going to be hard for the writers to break the two of them up.

Clark’s illness is actually a lot more serious than I thought it would be. Cole was talking about transplant lists so I’m quite interested in seeing where the writers go with this. Like Mina, we didn’t get to see much of her in the early of episodes of the series, but she’s slowly turned into one of my favourite characters on this show, so they better not kill her off. I would be super pissed... and a little sad... mostly sad... I would be devastated.

Tommy’s story was strong in this episode as well, with the show continuing to build upon his jungle evolution. Lacking the medicine he needs to treat his meningitis patient he goes to his old friend the medicine man for help. I found it a little odd the medicine man all of a sudden knew a bunch of technical medical terms, but it didn’t really matter as the heart of this storyline was in his advice on how to handle Alma’s father. Respect where you are, he tells him, summing up perfectly what this show has been selling since its inception.

Cole had a much stronger episode this week too, as they finally dove into his drug problem. I thought they handled the storyline quite well. I don’t know much about drug addiction, but I have heard that many addicts relapse more than once before they get completely clean. My only complaint would be the argument he and Keeton had over whether he could be in the operating room when they administered the heroine. Your patient is in some serious pain on the table, so maybe your focus should be getting him the drugs first.

And of course I can’t leave without talking about that shocking twist ending. I had a hunch the helicopter might crash when they told Ryan they didn’t have room for her, but by no means am I saying I called that. Considering who they had on board I can almost guarantee that next week’s episode will be intense.

Oh and I have to give a quick shout out to Judy Reyes and her part this week as the mother of the two young girls. I’m glad she’s doing well and I look forward to seeing her again next week in an expanded role. Scrubs for life!

My god I’m lame.

You Look Hot Enough To Cook A Pizza On... In

Here’s the rundown from Tuesday and Wednesday.

Spoilers.

Modern Family – “Bixby’s Back” (A-)

Modern Family was back this week with another hilarious Valentine’s Day episode. This show really knows how to commemorate the special occasions, and for a show centered around three couples Valentine’s Day constitutes as a special occasion. Luckily for us, each couple brought something funny to the table in this episode.

Phil and Claire brought back Clive and Julianna again this year, and the result was just as disastrous as the year before. Phil was absolutely hilarious in this episode. Ty Burrell basically put on a clinic in physical comedy, with Phil tripping and falling over pretty much everything. My personal favourite was the champagne cork popping as he was trying to explain to the old lady why he’s naked in her room. I also loved watching him drive around in circles on the old man’s scooter, in the process convincing Claire that they needed some more excitement in their marriage.

And while they were mostly relegated to the sidelines this week Cam and Mitchell’s argument over who Mitchell’s assistant had the crush on was great too. Eric Stonestreet really stole the show here, playing the passive aggressive Cameron to perfection. My favourite line:

MITCHELL’S ASSISTANT: Did I validate you?
CAMERON: Oh yes.

Also in this episode, Jay and Gloria demonstrated one of the foundations of any great relationship – the calculated manoeuvring to win. And yes, in case you were wondering, I have been single for a very, very long time. Nevertheless, the storyline was hilarious, with each of them coming up with a few hilarious lines around that theme.

JAY: Honey, I love all this, but you can’t win Valentine’s Day. I mean you defeat the whole idea if you make it into some silly competition.
GLORIA: Shut up I win.

You tell him Gloria.

But my personal favourite moment of the episode was the return of Dylan. This is the second hilarious song that Dylan has given us and blasting it through the whole neighbourhood had to be the perfect way to debut it. Claire’s reaction was the best:

CLAIRE: Am I a bad enough parent to ignore that?

I’m glad Dylan and Hailey are back together. I miss those two and their crazy shenanigans.

Off the Map – “I’m Here” (B+)

The problem with pilots is they are generally a terrible way of gauging how good a show will be. Good pilots are certainly a good sign, but there’s no way you can really see the ins and outs of a series from just one episode. Now that we’re 5 episodes into the run of Off the Map, I’m starting to see a clearer picture of what the show is turning out to be.

Off the Map doesn’t add much to the genre, but it takes all of its familiar elements and does them really well. One of those elements has to be the crazy patient of the week, and this week’s episode had one of the craziest – an underwater amputation. The scene where they had to explain to the young girl (underwater) that they were going to have to amputate her leg was a particularly great scene. I couldn’t imagine losing a limb awake without the doctors who were performing the procedure able to tell me what they were doing. I guess that’s what made the young girl’s realization all the more painful.

As consequence from this daring procedure Clark got the bends, which might I add, I diagnosed before any of the fake TV doctors, further proving that I shouldn’t need one of those pesky medical degrees to practice medicine (stupid board of physicians). Anyways, because of the mysterious circumstances surrounding the development of her symptoms we learned that Dr. Clark is hiding some sort of medical ailment. She’s quickly becoming one of my favourite characters so I hope it’s nothing too serious. I’m sure she’ll be fine (that’s my medical opinion).

Brenner also had a good story this week, when she finds out that the man she’s been crushing on may be a criminal. “When did your life become a Spanish soap opera” asks Mina, causing Brenner to wonder that very question. Eventually she found herself lying to the police in an attempt to protect the guy, with Keeton covering for her with the cops.

After this episode it looks like the two of them won’t be getting together any time soon. Or who knows, maybe the turmoil in each of their lives will drive them together... and then apart again... and then probably together after that. That’s not a metaphor for sex either, that’s just generally how these things go.

And again this week Mina proved herself to be one of the more interesting doctors on this show. Her defence of the amputee girl’s father, a character a lot of shows would villanize, was a highlight for me. I think a lot of people would compare Mina to Christina from Grey’s Anatomy because of her self described coldness, but I think the comparison is misguided. Christina is cold because of her competitiveness, where as Mina seems to care quite a bit about her patients, she just has trouble expressing it. I said this last week too, but it’s nice to see this type of character being represented on a show like this, where characters are quite often on the opposite extreme. Plus I laughed at this little exchange:

MINA: I just had a conversation with a hat.
LILY: What?
MINA: I don’t want to talk about it.

Well done by both actresses.

And I can’t leave without at least mentioning Tommy’s vow of celibacy. It was a great recurring gag throughout the whole episode, and I loved the way it kept creeping into all the other characters’ storylines. The final scene in the bar was awesome too. I thought it was hilarious the way the group (including Charlie, the like 12 year old interpreter) lambasted him over sending his girl away.

CHARLIE: You got to hit that.

V – “Concordia” (B)

After discussing much of my displeasure about Tyler’s character in last week’s review, I was far from thrilled when I discovered this week’s episode would be centered on Travis’s 18^th birthday. And early on in the episode, this storyline was true to form, with plenty of ridiculous scenes to prove it (including an unintentionally funny scene where all the big players in the V hierarchy were huddled around a monitor discussing Tyler’s birthday gifts).

But then the gala happened, and the awkward scenes early in the episode all started coming together. The assassination attempt was an exciting sequence, and the fact that they actually got Marcus (though I’m sure he’ll be fine in the same way that Joshua is up and moving again) lent the storyline some legitimacy.

I was glad to see Erica come back to Cohn with some conditions rather than simply trying to thwart his attempt at the assassination.  Each week Erica and the gang seem to move closer and closer to all out working with Cohn which I think is a good thing. Like I’ve said on numerous occasions, this show is better when its heroes flirt with questionable moral decisions.

Ryan also had a good part in this episode, organizing the assassination attempt only to sabotage it later in the episode. Ryan’s motives have been questionable for the last couple of episodes now, but this is the first time he’s actively betrayed the group in favour of helping his daughter.

Which brings me to my next exciting development – the return of Hobbes. Just last week I was commenting on how soft he had gone this season. Well he’s soft no more, and from the looks of it he and the like minded Cohn will be looking for a little revenge on Ryan. Obviously I don’t want them kill him or anything, but just the fact that these relationships are becoming more complicated is a good sign for the show. Now all they have to do is send Tyler on his motorcycle trip and we may have something here.

What's A Showman Without A Show? Just A Man...

Here’s the rundown from Tuesday and Wednesday. Now I prepare for the storm that is Thursday night. Enjoy! 

Spoilers.

Cougar Town – “Cry to Me” (B)

I really like Kirsten. Every time she’s on the show she’s good for a few laughs. I think it’s the way she brings out all of Travis’s insecurities that makes her so funny. That or the fact that as I’ve mentioned she’s an outsider looking in on this bizarre group. Either way, her appearance in this episode was the highlight for me. When she asked Trav for a sexy picture I knew it was going to be good, but I never anticipated that the picture itself would be so funny. I also loved the little exchange between her and Grayson at the start of the episode.

GRAYSON: (pulling out flowers) Happy day before Valentine’s Day Kirsten. You know just in case Travis forgot.
KIRSTEN: He did.
TRAVIS: Forget what! It’s not a thing.

Poor Trav.

On the Jules/Grayson front this week Jules decides that Grayson doesn’t open up to her enough and goes on a quest to see him cry. The story itself wasn’t the funniest, but I did enjoy the banter between the two of them. I particularly liked Grayson’s “why are you always trying to change me” line. That was a long time coming considering Jules is Jules. As a fellow emotional cripple it was nice to see Grayson finally get respected for who he is, although he does make a compromise by letting her watch him watch Field of Dreams.

There were also a few random moments that I can’t leave without talking about. I love that Bobby and Andy penny canned a proposal. I love even more that the guy proposing laughed out loud at the penny being from 1969.

And who could forget the phenomenal closing sequence where Bobby and Laurie fake a break up to get a free meal. Busy Philipps is sooo good at playing that character. Her hysterical fake freak out was absolutely legendary. Bravo madam, bravo.

I’ll leave you with my favourite Andy quote of the week (also the name of this post):

ANDY: What’s a showman without a show? Just a man...

Off the Map – “On the Mean Streets of San Miguel” (B+)

Wow. Keeping your wife alive in a coma so you can continue to fund your South American jungle clinic – I did not see that coming. I like that they’re portraying Keeton as a tortured hero. I was worried when the show started that his character may show a lack of depth, so it’s nice to see them give him a complicated back story. It also throws a nice little bump into the budding Lily/Keeton relationship (I mean on top of the fact he and Ryan are still making out).

Speaking of Lily and Keeton, this week instead of trouncing out into the jungle again they took their weekly trip together to the city of San Miguel. I really enjoyed watching Lily’s trip through customs, as she stumbled from department to department trying to get medicine for her patient. Her final freak out at the end of the ordeal was well done, and certainly put a smile on my face.

I was also a fan of Mina’s plotline this week. As patient stories go this was actually a really cool one. As it turns out, the gentle old man loved by all that Mina started treating, was actually a Nazi escaping prosecution. Incredibly enough, this does still happen, so kudos to the show for picking up on it. There was definitely an interesting debate between Ryan and Mina over what to do with the old guy, and watching Mina try to keep him alive made for some good drama. It’s nice to see Mina finally shining through a bit more – she kind of got lost in the clutter of the opening few episodes and think she’s turning into a great character.

I wouldn’t mind seeing the Zee and Cole relationship end though (the speed bump in this episode clearly won’t last). Both of these characters are fine on their own – Zee had a great speech to Tommy in the middle of the episode, and I know I’ve expressed my dislike for Cole, but most of that stems from his scenes with Zee. It’s just when they’re together they’re really annoying. The first scene of this episode was a prime example.  “Not if you kiss it better”— seriously?

V – “Unholy Alliance” (B-)

V returned again this week with another uneven offering. This episode had Erica and the gang (this should be their permanent nickname) searching for the elusive Eli Cohn – a Fifth Column leader with more questionable methods than our local chapter.

I have to say, I was a little surprised at how reluctantly Erica entered into the deal with Cohn. I don’t condone what Cohn did – it was a truly jack ass move. But still, you’re fighting a war against a technologically superior enemy, and right now you have like six people. You don’t always have the luxury of choosing who you work with. Cohn’s methods may be highly questionable, but they could desperately use his resources.

It’s like those early season three (I think) episodes of Battlestar, when the humans were under Cylon occupation. The human resistance resorted to a lot of questionable tactics to fight the Cylons – including killing fellow humans. You may not have agreed with their tactics, but putting your heroes on shaky moral ground provokes thought, and makes for some truly compelling television.

I was a little disappointed with Hobbes this week as well. Last season he was filling the role that Cohn is filling now – a skilled soldier with questionable methods.   If he didn’t like a decision the group was making, he would take matters into his own hands. Now he just defers to whatever Erica and Ryan decide. Come on Hobbes – when did you get so soft?

As I said though, they do end up working with Cohn, who agrees to set up two of his men – the two men responsible for killing three Peace Ambassadors at the start of the episode – for the murder of agent Malik. I noticed they decided to go with the Breaking Bad method of disposing bodies. If Breaking Bad has taught me anything though (other than science teachers make great meth dealers), it’s that there’s no way that bathtub would be able to withstand that acid. There should of been a giant hole in that thing.

I’ve also gotta say that I am not in any way a fan of Tyler’s character. He’s so irritating to me that every scene he’s in is hard to watch. They’ve kept him pretty oblivious for the sake of Erica’s character, but it’s turned him into an almost unbearable character in his own right. I think it’s that he’s just so reactionary that annoys me the most. And for the record, it’s never a good idea to film yourself vandalizing things. That will only get you caught.

I was a fan of Erica’s new partner however. I like that the FBI is finally investigating Erica, and the fact that’s it’s being done by an old friend of hers makes it all the more intriguing. When he finally uncovers that she’s Fifth Column, will he turn her in, or listen to what she has to say? If he could be turned, he would become a powerful ally (isn’t Star Wars awesome). I look forward to seeing where they take it.

Spoon Full Of Sugar... Grow Up

Another week, another gigantic post. Enjoy!

Spoilers follow.

How I Met Your Mother – “Last Words” (A-)

What a great follow up to last episodes emotional ending. I was really wondering what they were going to do with this episode considering the tone of its subject matter, and I think they struck the perfect balance between comedy and addressing the obvious elephant in the room (Marshall’s dad died).

Robin’s role as “vice girl” was definitely the comedic highlight of the episode for me. Watching her slowly turn into a dealer was hilarious, especially how excited she was about it.

ROBIN: I’m gaining a reputation!

So perfect.

I also really liked Marshall’s somber lawyereds as each character went through the last words their fathers said to them. Robin’s excitement that her dad remembered her birthday was a great follow-up to her story (Cobie Smulders was really on her game this week).

And it all led to what was a very satisfying ending. While I think it was obvious that Marshall’s dad would eventually say something after the pocket dial, it didn’t make it any less enjoyable for me. I particularly liked that he saved his father’s last words for himself and made his eulogy funny instead. I’m a fan of a little levity at funerals. Marshall’s dad was right too – Crocodile Dundee 3 totally still holds up.

 Californication – “Suicide Solution” (A-)

What a great episode.  Hank's continued troubles with the law drive him further down a self destructive path than we‘ve seen in quite some time.  After finally getting his reunion with Becca, he comes to the realization that she loathes him for what he’s done and that redemption can’t come in the form of a brand new Les Paul.  Hank continues work on the film adaptation of Fucking & Punching and meets with actor Eddie Nero (Rob Lowe) to play the role of "Hank" in the film.  The addition of Rob Lowe to the cast this season is an impressive casting call and the role that Lowe plays truly speaks to his versatility as an actor.  The normally clean cut Lowe is decked out in the Brad Pitt style beard and "rock star" style clothing, a serious variation from his normal on-screen suit and tie.  I have been a Lowe fan since the West Wing days and thoroughly enjoyed his cameo in Thank You For Smoking, so I have high hopes for him this season.

As Hank's serious legal troubles continue, so does the sexual tension with his lawyer Abby Rhoads (Carla Gugino).  With Hank formally being charged with statutory rape, Rhoads' role in the series becomes a lot more interesting. Carla Gugino has done a fabulous job on Entourage for the last few seasons (a show I will be covering for Stuck on a Channel once it returns this summer... look forward to that sports fans.)  Her feud with Ari Gold as Amanda Daniels, Vince's one time lover and former agent, is one of the great on screen rivalries.  She plays the power suit better than any woman I can think of (our friend @Maxmillien, writer for SportsHaze and fantasybasketball.com, is all over that – man loves the ladies in power suits),  so who better to play the female 'suit' in Hank's life than the sexiest business woman in showbiz?

The legal troubles plaguing Hank this season also provide a nice opportunity for the writers to discuss an ongoing theme throughout modern day Hollywood.  Athletes seem to consistently find themselves in sexual scandals and while I cannot think of a Hollywood star who has committed statutory rape, I can think of countless stars in some kind of trouble with the law.  Whether the writers will take that route and create some kind of social commentary remains to be seen.  The show in itself is often a commentary on the plagues of success.

This episode ends on a seriously dark note as Hank steals pills from Sasha (playing Mia in the movie and his current tryst) and takes way too many while writing his apology note to Becca.  The note itself is a fabulous piece of writing, ending with the line "its getting dark, too dark to see" from 'Knocking on Heavens Door'. The narration done by Duchovny while his character is literally spiralling downwards towards the floor is fabulous.  Since there is still a whole season to go, I have no fear that Hank is dead.  However, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the show end with a dead Hank one day.  Duchovny said on the BS Report that they are never sure whether they’ll get another season, so the writers try to wrap each season up as if it were a series finale rather than just a season finale.  Since last season they were willing to let him go to jail as an ending, I worry that a happy ending is not in store for Hank.  Personally I want to see him back with Karen and Becca but that seems entirely unlikely.  Maybe Carla Gugino's character offers Hank his best shot at redemption.

Shameless – “Frank the Plank” (B)

I think I’m finally starting to get an understanding of what this show’s all about. I was a little confused about where last week’s episode was taking the series, but clearly it’s not meant to be as serialized as I thought it was. That’s okay though, as what they’ve brought to the table is still interesting and more importantly, quite funny.

In this week’s episode we got a better look at Frank (William H. Macy) as we watched him wake up on a park bench in Toronto (woo Canada). I thought it was a pretty funny bit, and I laughed pretty hard when they revealed the CN Tower in the background. For the record though, Canada doesn’t have Mounties roaming around the streets on horseback. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that.

The one sequence I particularly enjoyed was watching Frank rant about all the things he pays for only to have Lip calmly refute everything he says. On top of being pretty hilarious it’s a perfect character moment for Frank (of course he feels like he’s the victim), and also demonstrated just how self-sufficient these kids are.

Also funny was the fact that this family only seems to watch the Discovery Channel – I love how into Deadliest Catch they are – and when they cheered as they discovered the dead body wasn’t Franks.

The last thing I want to briefly mention is how good the music on this show has been. Apparently their music supervisor and I have really similar tastes because I’m pretty sure so far somewhere around 90% of the music that’s been played on this show is already on my iTunes.  Keep up the good work.

Episodes – “Episode 2” (B-)

Episodes is not doing that much for me.  There are more funny moments in the second episode than in the first, but none of them are laugh out loud funny.  Matt Leblanc seems good in his role.  They gave me the Joey joke I was looking for which made me chuckle and his character seems to have potential to save the show from the mostly dull humour of its British leads.  Their shock at Hollywood culture got old very fast.  The recurring joke about their gatekeeper not knowing who they are is the funniest dialogue they seem to engage in. All the rest seems to drive the plot of them getting screwed over and has very little comedic relief.  Again I will tune in once more next week to see where the show is going.  I was listening to an AV club podcast and one of the contributors had seen the whole season and claims that the show gets much better after the pilot.  So for that reason I am willing to hang on for at least one more week.

House – “Larger Than Life” (B)

I know a lot of you would write House off as your typical patient of the week show, and you wouldn’t be entirely wrong either (it has an obvious formula), but for my money House is still one of the most interesting characters on television. Now sure, he’s maintained his familiar gruff exterior, but don’t mistake that for a lack of character development. His characterization may have remained the same, but over the past couple of seasons (starting with a phenomenal episode in a mental institution) House has slowly started turning his life around. This was capped off in last season’s finale, in which House and Cuddy finally started a relationship.

Which leads me into this week’s episode, where House got the unfortunate experience of meeting Cuddy’s mother (Candice Bergen) for the first time. This show has gotten really funny in recent years (I watch it for the comedy almost as much as I do for the medical drama), and I can’t think of a better example of how hilarious this show can be than watching House drug both Cuddy’s mom and Wilson at Cuddy’s birthday dinner. I especially liked how Wilson started defending the drugging right before he realized he was drugged himself.

I also have to say I’m enjoying the new med student Masters (played by Amber Tamblyn). I like the dynamic she has with the other characters. She can compete with House on an intellectual level, but at the same time she’s also a med student, and needs one of the other doctors to be with her whenever she’s performing a procedure. It led to a great moment in this episode where Forman and Chase realized that even though they didn’t support her theory (and she was annoying the crap out of them) one of them had to go with her to test it.

Now I want to talk about one last thing that’s a little off topic (they let you do that on blogs) – I had read before that House was based in part on Sherlock Holmes, but it never really hit me how much they were alike until I watched the Sherlock Holmes movie the other day. There were times where it felt like Robert Downy Jr. and Jude Law were almost channelling House and Wilson in their performances (obviously Sherlock Holmes the character came first, but House came before that movie). I just thought it was cool – if you get a chance check it out and let me know if it’s just me who sees it.

The Cape – “Kozmo” (B+)

This week we saw the writers of The Cape plant some potentially massive plot points.  Orwell (Summer Glau) appears as if she could be Chess' daughter and Vince's wife is starting to find the trail of his framing (obviously with a little help from The Cape himself).  We received some more information on the origin of the cape and a second villain (distinct from the Ark crime contingent) has been introduced. 

This week in Palm City we found ourselves confronted with the former owner of the cape, Gregor the Great, an escape artist trained by Max.  But the cape brought out the evil in him and he went to prison.  Being an escape artist that obviously did not last very long, so Gregor returns to Palm City to find Max and retrieve his cape.  Obviously, he can't have it back as it has a new owner and who’s using it for more noble purposes.  The Cape wins out in the end, but it is understood that Gregor will be back for his cape.

With this type of storyline, The Cape is further defining its role on television.  On the same podcast I mentioned in my Episodes review, they also discussed The Cape.  They hated it much like every other critic I have read but one of the contributors did mention an article that discussed why television super heroes rarely succeed and if I understood it correctly it’s because the shows try to appeal to too wide an audience.  The Cape is succeeding in my opinion because it is not trying to take it too far.  It knows what it is – a fun, action packed superhero show.  It sticks to the superhero formula and introduces new characters and plot points at appropriate intervals.  This is not the Oscar winning Dark Knight, but it’s also not the old school Adam West Batman either.  The show has enough of a dark side to appeal to modern audiences but still has enough of the old school comic mentality to appeal to that niche audience.  The Cape is truly bringing the comic book format to the screen.

For those of you who do not understand how comics work I will give you a little rundown.  Comics are published monthly or sometimes twice a month (The Amazing Spiderman is one of the only titles I can think of that’s published twice a month).  The story arcs go for about 3-6 issues, but sometimes if it’s a major "event" they’ll go a bit longer.  An "event" is something that shakes up the comic book world, like Marvel's superhero civil war, or DCs Blackest Night.  The storylines are self contained but follow within the timeline of a given character.  For example, a recent Spiderman storyline had him fight against the Kraven family (Kraven the Hunter's wife and children) as they hunted all of the "Spiders" (Spiderman, Spidergirl, etc etc.) in an effort to prevent Kraven from coming back to life.  Some heroes die, Kraven comes back, and Spiderman fights him off in the end – all in all a typical story arc.  I know how cheesy that sounds, but it was a good fun read.   It’s not about the dialogue – it’s about interesting plots and great imagery.  

The Cape does the same thing for TV.  Each episode is a mini story-arc that follows within the overall timeline of The Cape.  There are the main arch villains (Chess) and the mini villains (Scales, Gregor and likely more to come).  In each episode there are on-screen titles which dictate the chapters of the story arc or the individual issues.  Each one provides us with a little insight on Cape and pushes the plot forward toward a culminating event, probably a fight scene with the villain of the day.  If the Cape fails to get rid of a villain for good, we know they will be back some day.  We know what his overall goal is and this is how each episode fits into the timeline of The Cape.  Like Spiderman wants to live a normal life and Batman wants to rid Gotham city of evil, the Cape wants his family back.  Each episode will bring us closer to that point, but the path is not a straight line.  We will get more cape lore, more understanding of the background and depth of the characters, and we will continue to be immersed in the Palm City world.

My hope is that Chess will be defeated by the end of the year, but that Tarot (some crime contingent they mentioned in episode 2) will emerge as the overall target for The Cape.  The nice part about a superhero story is that it can evolve in any number of directions. By season’s end Vince could be back with his family and acting as Palm City's guardian angel.  More likely is that his wife falls in love with her boss, but that is another story all together.  By season 4 we could jump ahead 20 years to where Vince is training Trip to be the new cape, just like how Robin is now Batman, and Bruce Wayne is now creating a global Batman army (yes this is the real, current, Batman storyline).  This is what’s wonderful about creating a superhero.  The lore of the cape is what can drive the show.  That is what makes people fall in love with certain heroes.  

Wolverine is my favourite because of where he comes from and what he stands for (and also because he is the best there is at what he does, bub).  Spiderman is still one of the most popular comics out there because of his back story, what he stands for, and because twice a month people know they can pick up a book and simply be entertained.  I know that barring any serious plot writing catastrophes or plummeting ratings, I can tune in every week and simply be entertained by The Cape, and that’s exactly why I will continue to watch.  The Cape is a good comic book show and I'm kind of tired of hearing otherwise.  So I'll see you next week, same cape time, stuck on the same channel. 

V – “Laid Bare” (B-)

This show gained points this week for doing all the things I hoped it would do in my last review. First off, the writers had our local chapter of the Fifth Column finally start making some more difficult decisions. I really liked that the show brought our characters into a more morally gray area, specifically in Erica and companies decision to torture an undercover V agent for information. You may remember this is exactly what Anna did last season to an undercover Fifth Column member. I like that this show is comparing the methods of its heroes with its villains – it keeps both sides accountable and makes for a far more thought provoking hour of television.

Lisa’s story this week was along these same lines. She had to essentially torture a human to death or risk exposing her secret Fifth Column leanings to her mother. This led to what I thought was a very well done ending, where each of Erica and Anna’s respective children went to the other for comfort. The juxtaposition of these two relationships was a great stylistic choice, while simultaneously setting up a chilling image of what’s to come. Major props to whoever came up with it.

The other development I liked in this episode was the addition of Chad to the Fifth Column. Not just because this finally gives his character something interesting to do, but because this group desperately needed to increase its membership. His eventual introduction to the rest of our main characters was a promising scene, and Chad’s increased proximity to the main storyline will hopefully help make his character a little more noteworthy.

The only reason this episode didn’t score even higher for me is because V continues to spend a huge amount of its time covering up for its various plot holes. V DNA starts to disintegrate, so you can either find out her mission or help your son. She’s been drugged, so she will conveniently never remember any of this. Please start using more natural plot progressions so you don’t have to spend half the episode covering up your holes in logic.

Bob's Burgers – “Human Flesh & Crawl Space” (B+)

This review will be short and sweet.

Watch Bob's Burgers.  Seth McFarlane doesn't need another TV show (Family Guy is great but the other 2 take the formula and beat it to death), the Simpsons are almost out of ideas and South Park cannot carry us forward forever.  We need another comedy, so watch this show.  It’s fresh and I really enjoyed the first 2 episodes.  It has some really great subtle moments like the sign in “Human Flesh” that says "Don't taste me bro" or the Child Molester Burger that comes with candy on the side.  The most you can say for any pilot is that it has great potential.  This show has great potential so give it a watch.