Once Again, Heroes is Good

Earlier this week boasted the return of one of my favorite shows, Heroes. And when I say favorite shows, I mean the show that has so much going for it, but has really only had a single good season, and that was the first season. Heroes has certainly caught a nasty bought of the sophomore slump, and then some, for a lackluster season/volume 2 (Generations) and an only slightly better story arc that made up the third volume, (Villains) and first half of season 3. Heroes is now into its fourth major storyline, and it seems like the creators have finally realized what was wrong with the show. Too many heroes, too much time travel, too many unnecessary and pointless storylines all going every whichaway until they reach the last handful of episodes and things come together at the finale.

Volume 4: Fugitives opens some time (a couple months) after Villains ended, and we see that Nathan Petrelli has really gone to the dark side as a new Senator heading up Homeland Security. As Annalee Newitz points out in her review for io9.com the political side here is much behind the curve. The senator is saber-rattling, talking about threats to the nation, and while everyone is looking towards the old standby, terrorism, we know it’s not. We go further, to the point where our favorite Heroes are captured, drugged, placed in orange jump suits and sent off to a remote air base where they’re being transported somewhere else.

Science Fiction has always been heavily dependent on politics and national events for their storylines. The rebooted version of Battlestar Galactica could not have happened without the events of September 11th, and it would seem that we’re now seeing the repercussions of the Guantanamo Prison into the genre, as the heroes are dragged from their homes and detained, to be sent off who knows where. This isn’t the first time that we have seen governmental types taking control of capes when a couple of lawmakers realize the truly destructive nature that super-powered beings can present to the civilian population at large. Marvel Comics did it with the Days of Future Past, and again with the Civil War story arc just a couple years ago. The storyline is also touched upon in Watchman, which the general public will get to see in a month or so.

As Annalee, and most likely other viewers, mentioned, this feels behind the curve, better suited for the political events two years ago. I agree, but I have to wonder if this storyline was conceived of, at least in raw form, earlier on. Indeed, given the general feeling of the country in the months after the election of the Obama administration, which has signaled a sharp turnaround from Bush Administration policies regarding POWs and governmental transparency, the episode doesn’t feel as relevant, although as long as the Guantanamo Prison is in operation, it will remain so. If this had been the second volume, the numerous complaints about the show just wouldn’t exist.

This episode is in stark contrast to the prior two volumes of the show, and hearkens back to the original season. Season one took the concept of the superhero and brought it to everyday levels. Heroes weren’t people who were walking around in spandex bashing comical villains over the head and sending them to jail; they were everyday people who had powers, struggled to find their identity and their place in the world, something that is easily identifiable to most everyone. The following volumes were essentially mere momentum, with little to identify with. Fugitives represents a departure from that trend, and seems to reset the story and direction of the series. The episode feels stripped down, stark, to the point, while clearly defining the entire theme of the upcoming storyarch, while bringing in a foreboding sense of direction for the show. Writers from Pushing Daisies and Battlestar Galactica are in on the show and it shows. This new arch is back to a practical, tangible problem, one that is rooting in tangible and recognizable problems that viewers can relate to. This is what the show should be, and I really hope that this means that the show is back on track, that we will have a solid story arc that will restore this show to the levels of quality that we know it can achive.

Top Geek Things of 2008

It’s coming up to the end of the year, and looking back, 2008 has been a very fun year for geeks everywhere – in books, television programs and films, among other things. Over the past couple of days, I’ve been thinking back over the year to see what was the best and worst of 2008.

The Best:

Starbuck returned from the Grave; The Fleet reaches Earth. (Battlestar Galactica Season 4)

The third season of Battlestar Galactica was a little rocky in the middle, but the last episodes set up a real bang. Starbuck was presumably killed, only to turn up during a major confrontation of the Human and Cylon fleets. Season 4 opens even bigger, with one of the best space battles that I’ve ever seen. Our four new cylons are freaking out, Starbuck’s back and everything culminates in the discovery of Earth in episode 10.Galactica has long been one of my favorite shows, and with a certain end point in mind, Season four was where Galactica got somewhat back onto the tracks, with a fairly tight story arc, only to get to another long wait for the final ten episodes. It’s been well worth it though.

Pushing Daisies… back from the Grave, and back to it

After a long hiatus due to the writer’s strike (more about that in a bit) my favorite show of 2007-2008 came back with a new set of episodes. There are not enough good things that I can say about this show. We left off last year with Chuck learning that it was Ned that killed her father, only to end up at the end of this season with him being awoken. It was another season of fantastic storytelling, character development and extremely fantastic dialog. Unfortunately, the show has been axed due to low ratings. Fortunately, Bryan Fuller will be going to Heroes for the latter half of Season 3.

Lost Gets Better – Again.

Here’s the situation. LOST season 1 blew everyone away. Season 2 drove them away. Season 3 brought some people back, and Season 4, everything got interesting again. This season was the best since Season 1, in my opinion. We had several new characters (my favorite was Daniel Faraday, the physicist), and a couple people killed off. We started seeing flash-forwards, where Jack has a beard and addicted to pain pills, Hurley’s in a mental institution and Sayid is channeling Abram’s Alias. Oh, and they get off the island. Then the island vanishes.

I have Leonard Nemoy’s DNA? (The Big Bang Theory)

This show started in 2007, where I was annoyed by its laugh track and annoying characters. But this year, I started watching it and enjoying it. While it’s certainly a very stereotypical portrayal of nerds and geeks, it’s fun, because the creators have put in place a series of fun characters, and the writers make some jokes that are actually funny. This week’s episode was absolutely priceless, when Sheldon gets a napkin signed by Leonard Nimoy. Now, if they’ll just ditch the laugh track. This show’s likely to be around for a while longer – it’s been getting better and better ratings as the year goes on.

Back in a Nick of Time (Life on Mars)

One of my absolute favorite shows of all time was Life on Mars. Up until this year, it was only a BBC drama, until ABC picked it up and made a pilot. That pilot sucked, horribly, so the cast was ditched, except for Jason O’Mara, and the show was redone, set in New York City, given a good cast and started up. The result? A solid TV series that’s mirrored the original (but it’s starting to diverge a bit now), a wonderful soundtrack of classic rock and a story that’s actually interesting. I can’t wait for its return in 2009.

The Joker raises worldwide GDP. (The Dark Knight)

First, there was excitement when it was announced that the Joker was going to be the villain. Then Heath Ledger signed up for the role. Then he died earlier this year after filming was completed, leaving some people to wonder if the film would be released on schedule. Then Warner Brothers covered every surface they could find with Dark Knight ads. When the film was released, it went on to gross $996,680,514 in theaters. The film was a huge success, and a fantastic film at that. It was a comic book movie with true darkness, some real symbolism and good storytelling throughout. It’s a pity that we won’t see Heath Ledger reprise his role of The Joker, because he’s done the best portrayal of a villain in recent film memory.

I am Iron Man (Iron Man)

Before The Dark Knight blew the doors off the box office, there was Iron Man. Iron Man has long been a favorite marvel superhero of mine, and everything fell into place for this film. Good story, well directed, fantastic casting (Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark was brilliant) and of course, the Mark II set of armor. Marvel proved that they could make a good superhero movie, one that was relevant and not stuck in the low-humor that characterized other comic book adaptations. Already, I can’t wait for Iron Man 2. And Iron Man 3. And The Avengers.

Eeeeevvvvvaaaaaa (Wall-E)

Pixar has released what is possibly their best film to date. (Except maybe Toy Story and The Incredibles). Following a robot far from home, Andrew Stanton has presented a film with a cute, romantic science fiction story with some social commentary (said to be unintentional) woven into the CGI. Wall-E is easily the most appealing robot since R2-D2 hit the big screen in 1977, and his antics as he’s pulled along for the ride (literally) are cute, heartbreaking and funny.And with very little real dialog.

Roar. Crunch. Repeat. (Cloverfield)

Monster movies meets social networking video and America gets its own monster. This film was brilliantly shot with an extremely fun concept. A monster comes and plays t-ball with the statue of liberty, and it’s caught on camera by a bunch of twenty-somethings as they escape. The project was conceived of by LOST creator J.J. Abrams, and his fingerprints are all over it. From the lack of explanation of everything to the weird stuff, this is a very fun film to watch. Rumors are that there’s a Cloverfield 2 being talked about.

With My Freeze Ray I Will Stop… The World (Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog)

This project was a huge success for Joss Whedon & Co. Conceived of during the Writer’s strike, Whedon presents an aspiring supervillian, Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris), his buddies and his quest to finish his freeze ray, avoid Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion) and win over Penny (Felicia Day). We’re treated to musical numbers, crazy plots and a fantastic venture to prove that the internet is a viable place to release content.Take a look here.

Up, up and away! (When We Left Earth/NASA)

This year was NASA’s 50th year in operation, and the Discovery channel released a fantastic documentary entitled When We Left Earth that touted its major achievements and failures throughout the years, bringing viewers some of the most incredible footage of space that I’ve ever seen, and telling a fantastic story of how NASA has come to be, with interviews with astronauts and support personnel. I get chills when I watch it, and wonder when we’ll return to the moon and beyond.

Hobbit’s Labyrinth (The Hobbit)

After long rumors, production problems and drama with Peter Jackson (who directed Lord of the Rings), Guillermo del Toro signed on to direct the upcoming Hobbit film and prequel. (Or two Hobbit films?) This is extremely good news, because the people who can adequately fill Jackson’s shoes after LOTR are few and far between. del Toro is the perfect director for this project, and has already proven that he can do fantasy brilliantly, with his masterpiece Pan’s Labyrinth. Plus, he can play in other people’s universes, as per his work with the Hellboy films. (Which weren’t as good, but fun)

Watchman Trailer (Watchman)

What’s called the greatest graphic novel ever is coming to the big screen, much to the annoyance of its creator, and to FOX, apparently. A trailer for Watchman aired with The Dark Knight, and it made fanboys everywhere sit up and take notice. There’s still complaints about how it’s unfilmable and that it’ll be too short or too long, but from my eyes? This looks like it’ll be THE comic book film to see next year. It looks like it captured the feel of the comic book pretty well, and it’s embellished a bit to look badass. Plus, Rorschach looks dead on. Just like I thought he’d be like.

Large Hadron Collider (Science)

The Large Hadron Collider was turned on on September 10th, to many worries about the world ending. Contrary to popular opinion, the earth didn’t vanish in a tiny black hole. It was set to uncover the mysteries of the universe, but then it broke down again nine days later and won’t be up online until 2009. But, it’s still cool!

Geeks in Politics (Obama [spiderman, conan, superman] Patrick Leahy [Batman Cameo])

There’s been a lot of geekiness in politics this year. No lightsaber waving from McCain this time around, but President Elect Obama has claimed to be a big Spiderman and Conan fan, and did a superman pose in Metropolis, IL. In addition to him, VT senator Patrick Leahy, a huge batman fan, had a cameo in The Dark Knight. He’s also the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Ironic.

Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy (Costumes)

The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted an exhibit earlier this year (it’s since closed) called Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy. It featured a number of costumes from a number of classic films, such as the original Superman and Wonder Woman films, but also things as recently released as The Dark Knight and Iron Man. The fashion section was a bit of a miss for me, but the exhibit as a whole was just outstanding. Plus, they had several original copies of Superman and Batman, Spiderman and Iron Man on display. Covered in a plastic shield of course…

Star Wars Encyclopedia (Star Wars)

Del Rey released a new and expanded Star Wars Encyclopedia this year, one that is not only complete, but still remarkably up to date. That’s not likely to last as long, given how fast LFL churns out canon material, but it’s a beautiful repository of information in the universe. I can spend hours just paging through reading things.

“Anathem” By Neal Stephenson

I actually have yet to read this book, but it’s caught my eye, and it’s made a splash when it comes to the sci-fi literary world. All I really know about it is that it takes place on an earth-like world, and doubles as a philosophical text for knowledge and religion. I’ll have to pick it up, and only expand my to-read list further.

A Game of Thrones picked up by HBO (Song of Fire & Ice)

Another book that I have yet to read, but I actually own this one. HBO has picked up the book for a series. If there’s one thing that HBO does well, it’s TV shows, because they can pour money into them and get a good result. And, they have a good track record with adaptations, with things such as Band of Brothers and John Adams. I’ll watch this when it’s released.

We’ss Har Wars End (Karen Traviss)

Several years in the making, Karen Traviss has finally finished her Wess’Har Wars series with book 6, Judge. Starting back in 2003, she introduced readers to a fantastic story of first contacts filled with alien races, political commentary and expert storytelling. Judge didn’t deliver quite as well as I’d have liked (It certainly wasn’t the strongest of the series), it carried the momentum well, and proved to be a good read, one that finished up one of my favorite series satisfactorily. Hopefully, Karen will be back to writing hard scifi again, because she’s incredible at it.

Trooping (501st)

This year I got back into trooping with the 501st Legion. All in all, I did a total of 30 or so events, ranging from small affairs here in VT to much larger ones. The most memorable ones were the Boston St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Burlington Kid’s Day, the Weird Al Concert,  St-Jean-sur-Richelieu Balloon Festival, Walk for Autisms, and the 2008 Woburn Halloween Parade. All my events are listed here.

With all the good things that have happened this year, there’s the other side of the coin, and some letdowns, disappointments and pure flops.

Worst:

Writer’s Strike

Okay, this started in 2007, but it messed up television for the foreseeable future, by ending some shows and putting others on a long hiatus that has really hurt ratings. Pushing Daisies was one casualty, Terminator was almost one, LOST was put off for a year, as was 24, and already, we’re on the eve of another major strike over pretty much the same issues – internet distribution. Hopefully, some lessons will be learned.

Surviving a Nuclear Detonation (Indiana Jones)

Indiana Jones came back, and he came back bland. Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull was an impossible undertaking to fill the hopes of fans for the past twenty years. While it’s not a horrible film, it’s nowhere near as high quality as Raiders or Crusade (although I did like it better than Doom). There was no passion, a crazy storyline and some annoying characters. It does have its moments, but they are few and far between.

Skyguy/Snips/Roger Roger (The Clone Wars)

Star Wars was another big LFL franchise that came back this year, and while The Clone Wars certainly had its moments, even high points, this film just extends the image of money grubbing that LFL is involved with, which is a shame. There’s too much bad dialog, characters and situations to make this a good part of the Star Wars universe, but the TV show has been making some improvements. The animation is stunningly good, some of the stories are actually good, but every time the battle droids start talking, I want to throw something at my TV.

Michael Crichton Eaten by Cyborg T-Rex and Flesh eating Space Bacteria from the Past.

While my interest in Michael Crichton has waned over the years as he began to write crappy books (Such as Prey and State of Fear), there’s no doubt that he’s shaped my reading. I’m still a huge fan of Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain, Terminal Man and a number of his older novels. He’s one of the most popular scifi authors (although he’s resisted the genre title) out there with his works, most of which were made into films. It’s a shame that he’s passed – I was always hoping for another good story from him.

Gary Gygax failed his saving throw

Geek-God Gary Gygax likewise passed away this year, leaving behind a legacy that has shaped nerd-culture in the US forever. His creation, Dungeons and Dragons, along with co-creator Dave Arneson, was one of the defining features of geeks everywhere, something that I got into back in 2001. Along with giving geeks something to do in groups, it helped define a generation’s activities, reading materials and conceptions of fantasy through to this day.

Arthur C Clarke becomes the Space Child

Arguably one of the greatest science fiction authors ever, Clarke’s death hit the world hard. He helped to define the literary genre, and the actual science behind it, and was responsible for such classics as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Rama, Childhood’s End, and numerous others, as well as the telecommunications satellite. He will be sorely missed, and is one of the last of the golden age of science fiction to be with us.(Today would have been his 91st birthday)

CNN Hologram technology

On election nigh, CNN touted their new thing in news casting, a hologram of Will.I.Am. Looked cool, and it looked like a hologram, but it was nothing more than a lot of cameras and empty space plus some CGI. Blah. Let’s see some real technology in action please.

Close the Iris! (Stargate Atlantis)

I was a huge fan of Stargate SG-1, and same with Atlantis for the first couple of seasons. This season has just plain sucked. It’s a shame, because there’s a good concept there, amidst the horrible characters, stories and situations. Not long now, because Atlantis has been canceled, and will be replaced with Stargate Universe next year.

Even more Confusing and Confounding! (Heroes Season 3)

Heroes Season 1 was brilliant. It introduced a new spin on superheroes, only to fall to its own success and have a fairly slow and boring second season. (To be sure, the writer’s strike had something to do with it, because it got better). Season 3 was promised to be bigger and better. And it was certainly bigger, with heroes coming back from the grave, more time travel and action, but none of it really made the same impression that season 1 did. I’m still behind episodes, but apparently it’s been getting better. Now that Bryan Fuller’s returning to the show, can we PLEASE start off really good and get better? Please?

Weird Science (Fringe)

I was really excited for Fringe, the latest show by JJ Abrams. It was a fun concept, and had a good couple episodes at first, but just became so dull that I stopped following it. I might pick it up again at some point, but only when I can marathon the entire thing at once.

Forrest J. Ackerman Dies

Forrest J. Ackerman, one of the first science fiction fans out there recently passed away. He was a key element of the spread of science fiction fandom, and he helped to found the LA Science Fantasy Society, among other numerous achivements, as well as influencing numerous authors over his long life.

Borders Downsizes SciFi Sections

I ranted about this earlier, as did a number of authors. Borders has been downsizing their sci-fi sections. While it’s understandable that they have to sell items, and that they can’t put everything on the shelf, you can’t predict what the next big hit will be, and you can’t know that until you actually start selling things.

That’s it for this year. Next year, there’s already quite a bit coming up. Should be a fun year.

Veronica Mars : Hero

This is a bit of casting information that I didn’t expect: Kristian Bell, aka Veronica Mars, will now be starring in Heroes.

Whoa.

The Best TV of 2006

Now that Christmas is over and it’ll be the New Year tomorrow, I figure I’d do a bit of looking back on things. So, the best TV of this year:

New TV

This was the year that the television networks picked up on the fact that serialized TV might sell really well. Following the sucesses of LOST and Prison Break, it seemed like a no brainer. Odd thing is, it didn’t really work as well as people’d predicted. Critic favorites like the Nine and Six Degrees bombed and were cancelled, although a couple held on nicely.

1- Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip – I like TV, the industry, writing, everything. I’d heard about the show earlier on in the year and thought that it sounded bad, but when I saw the pilot episode online, it hooked me from then. This show’s the most important one on there. It takes on religous, governmental, politics, broadcasting theory and ethics in its episodes, stuff that you don’t really see. This is smart TV. The dialogue, characters, plots, all fantastic stuff, and it’s a shame that this show didn’t catch on as well as it should have. Hopefully, we’ll see a season 2 to this.

2- Heroes - This is a fun show. Can’t take it too seriously, but it’s just one of the best geek shows out there. There’s a good kick back to the community with references and things like that that makes it fun to watch, as well as a really cool storyline and characters to match it.

3- Day Break – This was cancelled just the other week, which makes me very unhappy. The good news is that this show’s got all the 13 episodes filmed, or so I heard, so they’ll be out sometime. Detective Hopper’s reliving the same bad day, and while this show couldn’t last very long, it’s got the strongest of all the storylines of any tv show. They should have just billed this as a miniseries or something.

TV That Came Back

Battlestar Galactica – I didn’t think that it could get any darker, but it did, and man, the opening five episodes just blew my mind. There’s been a couple of episodes that I wasn’t thrilled with, but on the whole, Battlestar’s back and kicking ass. Can’t wait to see the next ten episodes. As far as Season 2 went, this year’s half of the episodes was weaker than season 1 and the first half, but they really pulled themselves together towards the end.

Veronica Mars – Season 3’s on a new network and doing pretty well, although they’re not going to be doing an overall mystery this time around. The rape mystery was brought to a conclusion, which was pretty good, and the writing and characters are just as good this time around. Can’t wait to see the next half of the season.

House, MD – House was cured! Sort of. After getting shot, he could walk for four months. Then he’s back to drugs again, and he’s got a cop after him, a former actor from the show Hack, who’s one of the cooler new characters that’s been in the show, much better than Vogler from season 1. House is sarcastic still, and downright mean at times, and they’re really pushing his character around, which doesn’t happen that often.

Prison Break – Okay, they broke out of Fox River, and they’re on the run. A good chunk of them have been killed, right from the first episode. It was good to see the show change gears so quickly, but I don’t think that this has much life left in it. While they’re still alive, they’re still running, and they’ve done a terrific job with it.

Other good ones this year – Supernatural, LOST, Stargate SG-1/Atlantis. Supernatural’s gotten into more of an arc, which is interesting, and they’ve really forced some characterizations out of the brothers, LOST has been interesting and Stargate’s really gotten into it’s stride again, only to be cancelled.

Foreign TV

1- Life on Mars – Aired earlier this year on BBC1 while I was over there. I didn’t catch the show while I was in England, but I did recently. It’s one of the more imaginative and interestin series that I’ve seen, mixing police drama with science fiction and the 1970s. Brilliant show.

2 – Green Wing - This show is hilarious. Simply brilliant show, great acting, really fun sense of humor there.

Misses this year were The Nine, which should have been a movie, Six Degrees, which had an interesting concept, but handled poorly with some bad characters. Smith was promising, but it never took off, which was a shame, that one I actually liked.

In the upcoming year, I’m only looking forwards to one show, and that’s The Dresden Files, airing on SCIFI in January, based off of the books by Jim Butcher. It looks really good, and I can’t wait to watch it.

TV Recap – November 27

This week’s TV. This week seemed to be the one of surprises, at least with Heroes, House, Veronica Mars, Prison Break and Studio 60:

Prison Break, 213: Just when you start to think that a show might start stagnating, it comes back to bite you. Amazing episode this week at the midseason break. The episode was full of surprises, from Lincoln and Michael getting captured in the beginning by Mahone and the Border Patrol, to Bellick getting sent to prison: Fox River, to be precise. That’ll be really odd in upcoming episodes. Plus, Kellerman turns on the company and helps the brothers escape. I didn’t see that coming, although I’ve been guessing that he might turn at some point, ever since he was forced out of the loop. T-Bag finds his old girlfriend, kills another woman, Sucre is in Mexico after bailing out of his airplane. And Mahone was shot, and presumably, killed by Kellerman. I didn’t see that one coming. Gah, I don’t want to wait until January to see the next episode!
Heroes, 110: The flashback episode. The save the cheerleader, save the world arc seems to be somewhat over, and we found out what happened to Hiro when he went back. (Couldn’t save the girl, unfortunently) and talks to himself by mistake (Great Scott!) which was priceless. We also finally get to see Sylar, and the orgins of all the other heroes, Nathan’s car crash, Claire’s accident, Matt meeting up with that girl who can influence people’s thoughts. Great episode, and it really answered some questions.
My prediction – all the Heroes have a gene that allows for mutations, and it’s their own actions that allow the gene to be expressed, due to their circumstances. Claire was injured, Nathan had to jump out of the car, etc. Should be interesting to see how that plays out, if that’s how it happens. It’d fit with the entire adaptation thing that they’ve been pushing. Can’t wait for next week’s, then the midseason finale.
Studio 60, 109: This episode was good, but not as good as the last couple. They take some stabs at the public reactions to box office totals and internet users, and Amanda Peet’s character reveals that she’s pregnant, which pretty much everyone who watches knew, because she was showing last week. The writing crew is down to two people and the cast is downed by the Flu. It was nice to see the show take a very prominent part of the episode this week, down to the writing and acting. Next week’s should be interesting.
Veronica Mars, 309: Last episode of the Herst Rapist. Fantastic episode, I thought. We opened with Veronica very frightened and running away, and then did a two day later cut. The Greek System is reinstated on campus, and they’re doing a bit party, and the rapist posts a message up saying that he’ll be there too. Veronica and company go out, armed with drink mats that can detect roofies and try and find those who’ve been drugged. In the meantime, Dean O’Dell finds that his wife has been sleeping around, thanks to Veronica and her dad doing some looking around, and he goes to confront them with a gun. By the end, we find that it’s Moe and Mercer who were working together, and that there were some tale tell things earlier in the season that tipped us off – The prisoner/guard experiment in a class, which both were in, led to Stalkholm syndrome, and Patty Herst’s casting did the same thing. I thought it came off nicely. The acting and camera for this episode was fantastic, and I believe that it was Rob Thomas at the helm this time. Plus, the next murder is brought in with the murder of Dean O’Dell, which should be interesting.
House, MD, 309: Good episode, as House is getting increasingly irritated at Officer Tridder and Cuddy for keeping him on a leash with a very limited Vicodin Supply, and finally stumbles. A girl is brought in who appears to be allergic to everything. Her body is shutting down and they think that they have the answer with a sort of flesh eating bug, and were about to amputate her arm and leg when Chase came up with the proper diagnosis, which House missed. That was a big moment, and Wilson goes to Tridder with information. Looks like next episode should be very interesting.
Daybreak, 104: Another fantastic episode, I just wish that the ratings would follow this show better. Another day, an Hopper goes to help out his partner, who accidently killed another cop in an argument. This happens a couple of times, and we find out why Andrea was going before Internal Affairs, for giving drug dealers money to keep Eddie safe. We find the significance of the hourglass and that there was a second package – this one with a murder photograph from 1991, which Eddie was on. There’s more things that are linked here, and I love it. And Andrea is starting to carry things over day after day, which is very interesting. Can’t wait for next episode.
Jericho, 110: This was a slightly better episode than usual – There’s still the petty relationships and town things, an election, and the aftermath of Gracie’s death. People in the town go vigilante and finally catch Jonas (?) who has been implicated in the killing. He didn’t do it however, and he’s exiled. Hawkins has some people watching him with a satellite, and apparently people’re coming to meet up with him, which is interesting. Plus, people from a plane crash wander into town, which should be interesting. New episodes in two months, and hopefully, they’ll be focusing more on the bombs and things.
Battlestar Galactica, 309: Very interesting episode this week. Adama sets up a boxing match to get out some agression (And there’s a lot, seeing how many people beat the crap out of each other) and through it all, there’s a ton of flashbacks to life on new Caprica. We learn why Lee and Kara are pissed off at each other – they had a one night stand before Kara went and got married, and a bunch of other random things. It was interesting to see life on New Caprica when it was a hopeful time, and before everyone got angry. The episode really worked in that respect, and it seems to me that this is the last that we’ll see of New Caprica. I suspect that this’ll be a lesser favored episode by fans, due to the standalonish nature of the episode, but it did have some interesting implications, but also some rather silly scenes, such as Lee yelling out into the night sky that he loved Kara. There’s more to that storyline, I’m sure.

TV Recap: 11-20

Bit of a light week, with no Battlestar and Supernatural this time around, but still some interesting stuff out there:

Prison Break, 212: The show’s dragging a little, but it’s still got some momentum. C-Note’s wife is captured, and Mahone finally gets Linc and Michael while Sucre gets away by plane. I wonder if that jet caught up to them? Bellick almost found a love interest. I would have completely believed that if the woman didn’t dig further into his actions in the place. And Michael/Linc’s dad is shot and killed. I thought that was a bit of a waste, but he was an awefully convinent character to have around, but it makes me wonder what they’ll be doing with that storyline now. It was also really good to see Michael really twisting over how everyone’s died thus far and how it’s been his fault. Sara ironed Kellerman, that’s gotta hurt, and it’s good to see that she’ll be around longer.
Heroes, 109: Major fangasm here. This show rocks, and we finally get to the Save the Cheerleader, Save the World thing, and we don’t have to twist over that too much. Peter gets to Texas and finally links up with Claire, and Hiro’s friend is hanging around as well. Claire’s dad is still trying to protect her, and his buddies get Syler, which should prove to be interesting. Nathan’s still an ass, and Nikki’s family are running from her, for good reason. This show is also really seeped in fandom. I could have sworn that I saw a Battlestar Galactica T-Shirt in there somewhere, and the scenes with the Freaks & Geeks was great. And Claire punches the other cheerleader. This show just goes to prove that most cheerleaders are evil. CANNOT wait until next week.
Studio 60, 108: AMAZING episode tonight. They not only knock down Jessica Simpson (A gag about her wishing for peace in the MidWEST) and FOX, about a show that’ll likely get cancelled, but they also go into NBC’s recently announced budget cuts, which makes me wonder if they’ve written it in, or if that’s just a coincidence. Matt and Danny fire a couple writers, and discuss product placement, which was a fantastic storyline, with some great points brought up. Harriet’s storyline about a photospread was also pretty interesting. Next week should be interesting.
3lbs, 101: The pilot for this new show came online at iTunes for free, so I checked it out. Basically, House MD – Lite. It’s about two brain surgeons with conflicting personalities, and yep, one of them is dark and brooding and has some injury, as seen in his own brain scans that he doesn’t want anyone to know about. Looks slick, but there’s way to many similatities between this and House, that I’ll pass on it.
Veronica Mars, 308: Great episode tonight! Veronica’s paranoid after being drugged, and does some searching for the granddaughter of the founder of Herst College when she goes missing – right before a vote on the fate of the Fraternities on campus. In addition, Chip (Who was seen earlier in Season 2 Rapes of Graf and 301), who’s had his own head shaved and it’s turning out that a number of the rapes were faked in revenge for something that happened a couple years ago. Wallace was back in his helpful role, which was nice to see, and Veronica’s and Logan’s relationship is in the rocks. Lamb was dumped on again, and his scene when Veronica was pretending to be a newscaster was just brilliant. Next week ends the rape storyline, and starts the next mystery, a murder. Can’t wait.
House MD, 308: Good episode tonight. The cop wasn’t around, but people’re certainly being affected by his actions, mainly Wilson, who can bearly perform his job. He and House are at odds with each other now, which I’m guessing will have some lasting repercussions. In the meantime, a kid is brought in with a huge number of things wrong with him, lots of infections and various other problems that just won’t go away. Boo to Fox for the previews for this episode, really bad. House had some great moments, like when he swapped out canes with the other guy, and a couple of other random moments. This episode didn’t really stand out, but it was interesting.
Daybreak, 103: Wow, I’m really enjoying and surprised by this show, it’s really something. Hopper is still reliving the same day, which makes this easy because the plot’s essentially the same. Here, he’s getting used to it a bit more, adapting, and trying to get to the bottom of things. He manages to save the girl again, twice, once by stopping her with some questions and the other time by calling her, and preventing her from getting hit by the bus. He also finds that one of his partners is messed up with the guys who are following him in the black cars, and that he’s also helping him out with the secret case that he’s coming up with, and that Garza sent him the package and hourglass. It’s complicated, but I can’t wait to see what happens next. Great songs being used here, which makes me happy, and it’s looking like this is a sort of 13 episode miniseries, which is fantastic. No open ended story – nice ending, etc. If you haven’t checked this out, you can watch both episodes through ABC.com, where the first three are up.
Jericho, 109: Decent episode this week. The town has food, medical supplies, a generator and some other things like that dropped on it, with Chinese writing on the side, in Russian planes and with American tracking devices on them. What the hell? If they were to focus on this sort of thing more, this would be a helluva show. Instead, we have to worry about Eric’s cheating on his wife, a bunch of other relationships and other things like that. Not all that interesting, which is a little irritating. Shop keeper was stabbed though, so I guess that’s one irritating character down, another to go, although we haven’t seen much of bitchy!girl lately. That’s a good thing.
Supernatural: Rerun this week.
Battlestar Galactica: Returning next week.

You only get what you give

Mundane day today, with an evening filled with many interesting things that will be listed. I puttered. I changed out all of the lightbulbs in my house with energy savers, finished out a couple more loaves of bread and fullfilled my obligations for Thanksgiving dinner, watched some more of Veronica Mars, did a little reading and yeah. No major progress on my reports or other readings, but that’ll be coming soon. Hopefully.

Interesting / Noteworthy things:

• Prison Break, Heroes and Studio 60 were on. Prison Break was decent, but Heroes and Studio 60 were brilliant.
  
• Studio 60 made fun of Jessica Simpson and FOX and really dug at the network for product placement.
  
• Veronica Mars has been picked up for a full season, or twenty episodes.
  
• Steven Spielburg told people today that he’ll be working on a Tintin miniseries and a new WWII one.
  
• The trailer for Harry Potter 5 came out, and it actually looks good.
  

Bad things:

• Peter Jackson isn’t going to be directing or working on the upcoming Hobbit movie. Between financial things between his studio, Wingnut Films and New Line Cinema, over the gains from LOTR, they’re not being asked back. Between that and the Halo movie, he’s not having a good fall.

Also, I’m jointly posting on this blog and the livejournal that I’ve sorta, kinda, not really kept up for about the same amount of time.

TV Recap – November 13

This week’s episodes:

Studio 60, 107: Wow, this was a fantastic episode. I love the guy who played the Judge, and how he didn’t take any crap from the suits. Very good performance. And they made fun of Ann Coulter! That was one of the many highlights of the episode. (I hate that bitch). Harriet and Matt tangled up with the religion and anti-homosexuality arguments, bringing out some really heavy hitting things, and exposing some of the flaws that a lot of anti-gay marriage supporters throw out there. (“How does it matter to you if you’re married and the couple two doors down also happen to be gay and married?”) Harriet, and the religious right didn’t have an answer to that. Not to say that this is a purely leftist show, it’s not. They poked some fun at democrats with Matt sputtering about them at some point. I’m loving how political and accurate this show is. Tom got out of jail because of finally explaining why he was going a 125 mph which landed him there in the first place, and even Jack stood up for the group. That was a pleasant surprise. Can’t wait for next week’s episode. And holy crap! The girl who plays Harriet was in Serenity. Whoa.
Prison Break, 211: More company stuff, Linc and Michael are reunited, and we learned what Michael needed the nitro for, which was interesting. Mahone is still on their trail, and from the looks of it, he’s always just a little behind. We see the tattoo CGI magic again, turning into what the letters/numbers mean and then transpose onto something real, something that we haven’t really seen a whole lot of since the first season. T-Bag’s down a hand again, which was coming too him. Hope that it hurt. Plus, Sara’s getting tortured. By the looks of it, she might bite it this coming episode, although I’m suspecting that’s not gonna happen.
The one concern that I have is how fragmented the series is coming, between two storylines, the actual escape and the government conspiracy story, with the two of them running together, but not really interacting. It’ll be interesting to see how they’ll eventually work together, if that happens at all.
Heroes, 108: Whoo, another interesting episode – Some clues about why everyone’s getting the powers that they have, that there might be some sort of connection. We see Sylar in action, which was kind interesting, and saddening to see the waitress with the perfect memory die. But it does open some very interesting points up for the next episode. More with Greg Grunberg’s scenes, hopefully he’ll meet up with the rest of the group later. Where was Nikki and Peter this episode? They were curiously absent, although hopefully they’ll be around next week. Next week’s episode looks to be a lot of things happening all at once, with everybody converging on Claire. That’ll be cool.
Veronica Mars, 307: This was a good episode, but where’s Weevil, Wallace and Tina? Veronica helps out a girl who’s boyfriend goes missing in this ep, usual chasing leads around, she gets an application to work for the FBI, and has some issues with her father and Logan. It was cool to see the Fitzpatricks again, and Vinny, who hasn’t been seen much of at all. Plus, Lamb’s getting to be a likable character now. That’s a surprise.
The ending was the big shocker – Veronica was drugged and almost assaulted, before Logan finds her. That was a scare. I’m getting a little annoyed at how fragmented the cast is – Wallace was nowhere to be seen this episode.
House, MD, 307: Wow, this was a troubling episode. House is in with a vegatative patient, when his son comes down with an illness. To get information, House revives the patient,, who’s been under for ten years. Happy about his newfound wakefullness, he gets House and Wilson to go to Atlantic City for a sandwich, all the while House is asking him questions. They find one thing that might be the cause of the son’s illness, but that didn’t pan out, until the son developes heart problems. The father commits suicide, in order to give his son his heart, after Cuddy had told them that they can’t kill him for it.
This was a troubling episode, but it didn’t feel like it. It was a House and Wilson episode, something that really hasn’t been around for a little while, and seeing the two of them work together was pretty good. Plus, there were a couple of great Houseisms “I guess you wouldn’t have heard that the latest Star Wars movies were dissapointing”. Even the coma guy (sorry, vegatative guy) had a couple. “What’s this? It says ih Pod.” And the cop’s back, hounding the team and freezing Wilson’s bank accounts. Good episode.
Daybreak, 101/102: A cop, Brett Hopper, is havin the worst day of his life, and he’s repeating it every time he goes to sleep, waking up again the same morning. He’s having a bad day because he’s been framed for killing an assistant DA. Adam Baldwin (Jayne from Firefly) is in this, so it’s good to see another Firefly alum working in a show as well as Mitch Peggli, from Stargate Atlantis. Plus, it’s looking like they’ve really done some work on the cinematography here, with some stunning imagry. Hopper has to find out why he’s being framed, who’s behind it and trying to save those closest to him in the process. It appears to be ABC’s version of 24, mixed with some Prison Break and a couple other random shows. I like it, and will definently tune in next week.
Jericho, 108: Give me a break, please. After I was hoping that we’d have a good run of episodes after last week’s, we’re back to the usual drugery of characters making stupid decisions and pointless arguing. The Raven Wood unit advances on the town and the argument is whether to blow the bridge or not. The mayor argues that they’d be cut off if they blew it up. What? Are they on an island? I’m sure if they went down and around a bit, they’d find another bridge or place to cross. I’m also not buying the Ravenwood guys backing down from an additional three people showing up with guns behind them. The entire storyline with the girl having visions of her fiancee and wedding day was equally pointless. Next week’s looks better, as it appears that the Chinese will be dropping things on the town, and someone’s gonna die.
Supernatural, 208: More deals with Demons. Dean and Sam investigate a rash of people dropping dead after seemingly going crazy, and after all of them having ten productive years. Turns out they’d all made deals with various demons, and the brothers go off to try and save at least one of them. This felt like one of the more arcy episodes dealing with the Demon and their Father, as Dean was tempted to trade his life away to bring John Winchester back. He also found a really fun way to trap a demon. They seem to like trapping them this season. There wasn’t as much research or any of the very typical elements of the show in this episode, but it stood up nicely. It was a good episode though. The reference to the Musician was also paticularly cool. They’re really pulling out the real world references this time around. Check out the guy’s music, it’s really quite something.
Battlestar Galactica, 209: Wow, this was a heavy episode, as it might as well have been entitled guilt. The episode opens with Adama’s speech way back in the miniseries, about not being able to hide what you’ve done. Back in the present, the fleet comes across a surprise, Bulldog, a pilot thought dead, having recently stolen a Raider and escaped captivity on a Basestar over the past three years. He’d been shot down during a Black Ops mission into Cylon Space, violating the treaty, and in Adama’s mind, starting the entire mess that they were in. The worse thing is is that Adama himself ordered Bulldog to be shot down to avoid detection. When he learns this, Bulldog flips, and tries to kill Adama before Tigh stops him, having been warned by Kara.
This was a really well done character driven episode, really looking into the character of Adama. We can just see his guilt at this, especially when he learns that Bulldog is alive. It’s also nice to see Adama and Tigh back on good terms, although Tigh was a bit of an ass throughout the episode. Kara also seems to be back to her normal self, which is nice, and Roslin was paticularly good as well.
Who was also interesting to watch was Bulldog, from the brilliant introduction that they started with, and with Carl Lumbly’s performance. It was outstanding to see him, and I’ve been a fan of his since I’ve seen him in Alias, as Marcus Dixon.
The idea that Adama was the cause of the war is something that’s really dark, and something that I’m hoping that they might bring up again, although I suspect that this will be one of the more standalonish episodes, but hopefully, Bulldog will be back as a recurring character.

TV Recap – November 6th

An interesting week of programs:

Studio 60, 106: This episode started off kinda slow, but then grew to another really good one. Tom, one of the actors on the show, was arrested after defending Harriet after being confronted by a pair of gays who were offended by her views. The episode starts with Tom (dressed as Jesus Christ), Simon, Cal, Jack and two Chinese visitors in a backwater Sheriff’s office, waiting for a judge. The episode goes back to flashbacks, and involves Jesus being made the head of the NBS (or a portion of it) and the sketch for the week would have been part of that. The Judge doesn’t like the show, and they are on a very limited time limit before Tom’s due back on the show. It was a fun episode. Not my favourite, but next week’s (this is a two parter) is looking funny.
In other good news, the show’s been picked up for a full 22 episodes!
Prison Break, 210: I’m starting to get a little nervous with some of the directions that the show’s taking. Lincoln and LJ were captured, but freed by Linc’s dad, and we enter back into the Company territory again, which is the part that could drag this down a little. Michael and Sara meet up, talk, and are tracked down by Mahone, and after a brief cat and mouse stalking match, Michael traps Agent Mahone in a cage with a propane line open, preventing the agent from shooting him. Sara walks out on Michael, only to be caught by Kellerman. It’ll be interesing where that story leads, although the convinience of Linc’s father coming and rescuing them is a little suspect. Plus, seeing T-Bag get beaten up more is even better, because the punk had it coming. Who’s going to bet that he’ll rip off his hand getting out before the police arrive?
Heroes, 107: I love this show, and I’m loving that they’re starting to get some of the main characters together, more so than before. Greg Grunburg’s character is still fairly isolated, but hopefully, they’ll be bringing him into the fold soon. Peter’s brother is a dick, and annoying me. I bet he’ll become a villian, and Scyler is proving to be an interesting plot point, although I hope that they show him soon. The fact that there’s a number of other people out there with powers is interesting, and I’m excited to see who else they will eventually show. This show rocks, hardcore.
Veronica Mars, 306: Okay, this was a fun episode, but not as good as last week’s episode. Plagerism is the theme of this week’s episode – Remember what happened to Wallace last week? Well, that’s more of a central focus, and resolved – Wallace is still in class, but buckling down and drawing out of sports. Veronica is accused of cheating on a paper of her’s, which leads her around to find some interesting things about a professor, and gets to be buddy/buddy with the Dean, who seems to have chilled a bit for this week. Lamb has a surprising appearance when Veronica goes to him with some information, although his reaction to Veronica is hilarious, as usual. Her father was hit by a car! I thought that they’d seriously hurt him, but looks like he got really lucky, twice. And finally, Piz has a more central role, and Veronica makes some headway on the rape case. So, fun, good episode. Hopefully they’ll give this the full season order again. EDIT: As of Friday, the CW has given an order for three additional episodes, which is a step in the right direction.
House, MD, 306: House is still in hot water, and they have a 500 lbs patient who claims that his recent coma wasn’t due to his weight. I liked him, finally, a patient with some brains and really rationalised the fact that he was obese. Cameron is turning into a more interesting character by the episode, more sarcastic. I suspect that House is rubbing off on her a bit. And Chase was being really annoying, but where did he go? He vanished mid episode. David Morse’s character is also annoying, but he’s not wrong about some of the things that he says. That being said, I still don’t like him very much. Next week’s episode should be interesting, but I really wish that FOX would stop with the “In their most controversal/challenging/puzzling case yet.” No shit sherlock- They’re hard cases, that’s why House gets them.
LOST, 306: Gaaah! If there’s anything that LOST is good at, it’s making people jump up and yell at the TV. That was my reaction to this episode, especially at the end. And, NATHAN FILLION aka MALCOM REYNOLDS, from FIREFLY. YAY! No obvious Firefly nods, but it was good to see him again. Kate and Sawyer get it on, and you just know that sex kills on that island. I’m seriously wondering if they have the guts to kill either Kate or Sawyer. I doubt it, but I was seriously thinking that they’d kill off Sawyer this episode. And What was it that Locke paused about? Either that quote means something to him, or he just realised something about the island. And the Others really need to invest in Masterlocks. AND, Holy Cliffhanger Batman! This is going to be a very long 16 weeks.
Jericho, 107: Finally, an episode that’s probably the best since the pilot, if not better. This episode is how the show should be going. The brothers father is still ill, and they have to go to a city that’s about 90 miles away for meds. When they get there, they find that the city’s deserted, and that the hospital has been shot up – by a group of mercenaries. They meet up with a surviving merc, who’s wounded, and a doctor, get the meds, and have to shoot their way out. Meanwhile, back in town, Grey confronts Hawkins about his past, and they find an FBI badge. Somehow, I doubt that Hawkins is in the FBI. Although I thought that part of the story was a little heavy handed.
This episode worked because of several things: The pacing and editing was good, they’re focusing on the world outside the town, and it’s interesting to see that the government is still intact, to some extent, and I think we sorta found out where Jake was for five years (Iraq). I’m thinking that he was also a mercenary. Plus, Bitchy!girl didn’t make an appearance, nor did the store keeper. If they focus on the civil unrest and the actual bombs, that would be better than the interpersonal things in the town.
Supernatural, 207: Wow, this was a fun and pretty creepy episode, and it made some interesting changes. Over the past 30 or so episodes, we’ve seen Sam and Dean break the law a number of times, breaking into places, killing things, the whole nine yards. Now, the law actually catches up to them, and from the episode Skin, there were some repercussions. The brothers are caught after a spirit appears to have killed a couple of people, and they’re implicated. The two cops (I believe that they are alumni of major horror movies) and when the female detective also sees the ghost, she and Sam team up to track the spirit down. Turns out it’s not a vengeful spirit at all, it’s trying to tell them who the real killer is, and it’s the detective’s partner. Nice way to turn that around a couple ways. Light on the classic rock, but the soundtrack took an extremely creepy turn this episode, which was cool. The spirit was also pretty creepy – nice job with the CGI here. I’ll be interested if the events from Skin pop up again somewhere.
Battlestar Galactica, 208: This episode was both good and disapointing at the same time. Good, because it’s a darker episode – Roslin and a majority of the fleet consider genocide as they find out that the Cylons are able to catch and die from the disease. Disapointing, because this could have seriously been a major story arch, but only to have one character effectively kill it – with the cylons that were the carriers – off within the episode. The Galactica had a bunch of Cylons on board, ready to execute them in order to kill off the entire Cylon race. It doesn’t get any darker than that.
The ramifications of this are just as dark- Should the humans completely wipe out the race that’s been attacking them, destroyed their entire race and sent them flying around the stars with little hope for escape? Everyone except Helo I guess. The Cylons should have been killed off and the humans should have done everything in their power to do it, to maintain the fact that they’re still alive. Helo’s arguments were crap – There would have been very few tears shed for the Cylons, and maybe a historian or two to argue about the morality over it. I guess Helo just ‘forgot’ that humanity was almost completely wiped out. The nice thing is that they’re returned to the question that’s been asked a lot earlier in the seasons – How Human are the Cylons? Still unanswered.
The episode did have it’s strong points, and if Helo didn’t kill those Cylons, this may have been the start of one of the best episodes in the series. The team going into the Cylon Basestar was fun to watch, although I’m wondering about the desctuction, and where Athena’s allegences really lie (I suspect that she set off the self destruct on the ship). Lee’s realization with what the course of action should be sent chills down my spine.
And where was Tigh and Starbuck? They really weren’t in this episode at all.

Also, I’ve watched the remaining episodes of Smith, and I’ll try and post a review up shortly.

TV Recap: October 30

Some good episodes this week:

Prison Break, 209: Fantastic episode – Several surprises throughout. Lincoln was captured at the end. I didn’t see that coming at all. Mahone’s secret, the guy he’d been chasing buried in his back yard, which was a very nice tie in to where the guy was mentioned earlier in the season, which really makes Mahone’s character more interesting. C-Note’s bringing his family together was interesting, and finally, T-Bag runs into Bellick and gets knocked around a bit. The bastard finally has something of what’s been coming to him. There was a lot going in this episode, and the next episode should be good. This is definently one of the best shows on TV.
Heroes, 106: This seemed to focus mostly on Nikki, which I was a little worried about. She’s not my favourite character in the group, but this episode made me like her a little more. Her husband comes back, and we learn a bit of their background, and it was also interesting to see insane!Nikki and Hiro’s paths cross in the poker game. Claire’s father setting up the fake parents was interesting, as was the relevation about her illness as a kid. Peter and the Painter was interesting, advancing the story a little bit. And where’s Greg? I hope that he links up with the group sometime soon. Good episode though, still really loving this show.
Studio 60: This was on haitus this week, which annoyed me. NBC is assuring us that the show’s not going to be cancelled any time soon, but this isn’t the best of moves. I’m really waiting for next episode.
House, 305: I only caught the last half of this episode, but House seems to be back to normal, and he’s been arrested! Yikes. Hopefully, I’ll get more from the recap or find it on Youtube, but it’s good to have the doctor back.
Veronica Mars, 305: I love Veronica. Where last week’s episode was fairly lackluster, this one came back with a bang. Veronica went to find Logan in an illegal gambling room on campus, only to be there when two guys, dressed up in masks and fake guns stormed in, stole all the money and Veronica’s necklace – A gift from Lilly. Much of the episode is spent on solving that case, but there’s a little progression made with the rape case, as Veronica identifies the guy in the ATM photo, and on Keith Mar’s side of things, he helps the Dean of Herst College find a former husband of his wife’s, only to get tangled in a bit of a mess there. Couple of really funny things, Veronica using Weevil as a presentation in her class. “He said we could use audio/visual components. He’s audio, ‘Yo!’ and visual.” Lamb was pretty funny this episode, as was the interactions between everyone and himself.
The only weird thing was with Wallace. He’s clearly having trouble in class, but the entire storyline just didn’t fit with the rest of the episode. It was good to see a lot of the regular cast though, although Piz is still nowhere to be seen, and Logan had a pretty small role. Great episode though.
LOST, 305: Finally! A couple answers – we learn why Jack (At least sorta, kinda) was brought to the Other’s place, to treat Ben, but that there’s factions within the group. I’ll be interested to learn more about that in upcoming episodes. Plus, Ecko died, right with a great backstory on him. ‘Tis a shame, but I guess we’ve all sorta seen that coming since he was arrested for some sort of driving charge. It really is a curse. And we get another good look at the smoke monster! It’s back, and it can make a fist and slam people around. Weird and interesting.
Jericho, 107: Well, that sucked. This episode seemed to be “People taking a stand”. They’re still dealing with people being unlawful and hording food and things. Jake tries to deal with the guys, and they sort of come to an arrangement. We learn that NYC wasn’t nuked, and that they stopped the people before hand- We learned that this was the actions of three person teams in trucks, which is interesting. Bitchy!Girl is still here, and with more screentime than ever, which is annoying, as with the shop keeper. Even Hawkins wasn’t that interesting this episode. The dad’s about to die, and from the preview of next week, the brothers are going out to find meds, and run into soldiers, who’ve either gone crazy or someting random like that.
CSI, 705: I don’t usually watch CSI, becuase I find it too formulaic. However, Alan Tyduk was in this episode, as a child sex offender, which was really odd to see. The characters look a bit different from when I last saw the show. Two children went missing, and the CSI team goes out after them. Really creepy episode.
Supernatural, 206: Wow, I think this was one of the best episodes in the season thus far, if not the entire series. A lot of the episodes have followed a lot of plots and taken elements from horror movies, this one is the first that I can recall that takes the camera work to that level. Lots of handheld work, and it really was pretty creepy at times. In this episode, the US’s first Serial Killer, H.H. Holmes, (Who was real – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._H._Holmes) who was killed where there was an apartment building. He’s now gone to kidnapping and killing blonde women in the place. The Brothers are joined by Jo, who went against her mother’s wishes and tagged along, and ends up getting captured herself. They end up tracking the spirit down, but instead of killing it, they trap it in place in a ring of salt. Very cool plan, and the spirit definently didn’t like that. Plus, they made fun of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise.

Sam: What’s in Los Angeles?
Dean: Young girl’s been kidnapped by an evil cult.
Sam: Girl got a name?
Dean: Katie Holmes

Battlestar Galactica, 306: Another fantastic episode – We’ve left behind New Caprica, but there are repercussions. Tigh and Kara are bitter about their experiences, and I suspect that despite the talking to that they got from Adama. Baltar is with the Cylons, and being busy, and Lee lost all that weight that he gained. Finally, Sharon is now Athena, which is an interesting touch for her.
The most interesting part of this episode was the interior workings of the Cylons. There was a lot in this episode, from how the Cylons percieve things, the interiors of the Basestars, the Hybrids, the controls, some more information about the remaining five unknown Cylon models.
Finally, there’s the beacon from Earth, and the fleet seems to be on the way to Earth, and it could prove to be a race. That’s assuming that the Cylons aren’t wiped out by the disease, which is very interesting. Looks like the Humans on Earth are pretty advanced, to some extent. Next episode is looking good.
And did anyone get a Minority Repot vibe with the Hybrids?