Author: John Paulsen (Page 54 of 79)

Battlestar Galactica: “The Woman King”

February 13, 2007 / John Paulsen

This series doesn’t have a lot of them, but this was a classic filler episode. It revolved around Helo, a supporting character, and didn’t advance any of the main storylines at all. Athena was only there as a sounding board for her husband and Tigh, Adama and Dr. Cottle served basically the same purpose. I thought it was a little out of character for Adama to come down so hard on Helo, but his apology at the end of the episode was rather poignant, a credit to Edward James Olmos’ acting skills.

We did get a short scene between Athena and Number Six, and it’s interesting to see – in times of trouble – that Baltar appears to her just as she appears to him. The two are certainly intertwined, but we didn’t learn anything about why they are so connected. The fact that she also has visions indicates that Baltar may not be crazy, which is what we were led to believe for most of the first three seasons.

In the brief scene in the bar, Lee and Dee’s kiss garnered a jealous look from Starbuck, which probably means that storyline is far from over. We also met two new (?) characters, Marge and Connor, who provided absolutely nothing to the episode’s storyline.

Other than that, there was a virus spreading amongst the civilians (zzzzz) and it turned out that Doctor Robert (not from the Beatles song) was killing all the Saggitarions.

Of all the episodes this season, this was the most useless. Let’s hope the show gets back on track next week.

Battlestar Galactica, External TV, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas

Rome: “Heroes of the Republic”

February 12, 2007 / John Paulsen

In the middle of last season, Cicero said that he wanted to retire to the country. For someone that was thisclose to retirement, he’s certainly back in the middle of things. After getting outsmarted by Octavian (which is becoming a trend, methinks), he tries to intimidate the young man by trumping up Brutus’ and Cassius’ army. He says they have 20 legions, but in reality, they have nine. Octavian realized that was enough to defeat his four, which is why Atia went to Mark Antony. If the two generals come to a truce, they could make life very difficult for Cicero and his pals.

But I’m not sure why Atia went to Octavian in the first place. It’s clear by the shifty looks that she’s up to something. Maybe peace between her son and Antony is her end game, but it’s doubtful. After her fumbling of the Servilia situation, she definitely needs protection.

Pullo’s wife admitted that she’s jealous of the bond he has with Lucius. That was a nice moment when Titus said that he’d definitely save her if the two were drowning. She seems to be warming up to him, and it’s probably a good sign that she’s jealous. At least he can be sure that she cares about him.

I sensed that Gaia was into Lucius, and I don’t think that the two are quite done. There’s a good chance that she’ll create some conflict between Lucius and his third in command. (I still haven’t caught his name.) She seems pretty intent on not being viewed as a prostitute, so Lucius forcing her to take the money may come back to bite him in the ass.

Finally, I loved the scene where Agrippa brought Octavia home from the orgy. Octavia’s drugged explanation was terrific – “So I was at an orgy. Who cares?” – and Atia’s mood changed from embarrassment to anger, and finally to amusement when Agrippa professed his love for her daughter.

Looking forward, Brutus and Cassius intend to wait for Octavian and Antony to weaken each other before they step in to take control of Rome. Man, are they in for a surprise!

External TV, Rome, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas

HBO's Rome Kevin McKidd Kevin McKidd Rome Lucius Vorenus Ray Stevenson Ray Stevenson Rome Rome blog Rome final season Rome last season Titus Pullo

The Office: “Phyllis’ Wedding”

February 9, 2007 / John Paulsen

Jim’s Pavlov-esque experiment that opened the episode was terrific. It’s amazing how the show can consistently come up with hilarious one-minute bits. Of course, whenever you have Jim messing with Dwight, it’s a recipe for success.

I think I’ve realized something about Michael and his antics. When he makes a complete ass of himself in front of his employees, it’s funny, but when he makes a complete ass of himself in front of a bunch of strangers, it’s just uncomfortable. That was the case tonight when he kept trying to inject himself into Phyllis’ wedding, creating a number of his patented “cover your eyes” moments.

Kevin’s transition from “…[Uncle Al] has dementia and his family is very concerned. This is a very serious situation,” into his horrible rendition of “Roxanne” was one of the best moments of the episode. It’s always great to catch a glimpse of Scrantonicity.

Did you catch Ryan coming in and batting the bouquet away from Kelly? I doubt he’ll ever extract himself from that relationship, though that would make for a great episode. On a side note – nice work, Toby!

It looks like my not-so-hard-to-predict prediction is going to come true. Pam was so beat down, first by Phyllis stealing all of her wedding ideas and then by seeing Jim dancing with Karen, that she succumbed (out of loneliness) to Roy’s subtle moves. They’re going to get back together before Jim realizes he still wants her.

But who knows, maybe one of them will have the balls to tell the other how they really feel. I think it’s Pam’s turn, but it doesn’t look like she wants to put herself on the line like that (or betray Karen). The only problem with a Pam/Jim romance is that I like Karen and I don’t want her character to leave Scranton.

Here are a couple of great quotes from tonight’s episode:

Dwight: (to Angela) “You look as beautiful as the Queen of England.” (What??)

Angela: (to Phyllis) “Your dress is very white. It’s so white my eyes are burning.”

External TV, The Office, TV Comedies

Prison Break: “Chicago”

February 6, 2007 / John Paulsen

Tonight’s episode had a few silly moments…

1. “The President” offers Agent Eisen the position of Chief of Staff in her administration. Yeah, right.
2. The gang sees the roadblock up ahead, but Lincoln has plenty of time to climb on the roof and eventually commandeer the train.
3. The fourth (is it the fourth?) switcheroo of the season, which was so unbelievably obvious since they didn’t show the faces of the runners in the woods.
4. C-Note, an escaped fugitive, has the bad luck of happening upon a robbery. What are the odds?

In other news, Agent Eisen just keeps getting cooler and cooler. He had a couple of great lines on the train:

(after Sarah tries to kill him) “One! You get one of those!”

(to the worker on the train) “You need to do what I just told you to do. You take the tickets; I’ll watch the fugitive. And you guys just continue to do bong hits or whatever it is you do back there.”

And I’m really digging his sunglasses.

The bathroom scene between Sarah and Michael was nice, but it’s clear from the final shot that she hasn’t completely forgiven him for getting her in all this trouble. He’s made some headway, though.

I thought it would be interesting to see more of Bellick on the inside, but that storyline must not appeal to the writers. It would involve developing a few more characters, which wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing considering we’ve lost a few along the way. By the way, the scene in the car with Bellick practicing his FBI introduction was pretty funny.

The show continues to suffer when it delves into the three supporting storylines. They tried to dress up C-Note’s week with an armed robbery, and it was a nice moment when he came back to help the blonde, but the whole concept was pretty lame from the start. Also, the “sick kid who needs her medicine” storyline is going to get really old really quickly. Meanwhile, T-Bag must be losing his mind, because he’s a millionaire yet he continues to try to force three people to love him. It ain’t going to happen, dude.

And poor Haywire, who never got to see Holland. How about Mahone talking him off the ledge, the wrong way? That was some cold stuff.

External TV, Prison Break, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas

Rome: “Testudo Et Lepus”

February 5, 2007 / John Paulsen

You have to hand it to HBO. When every other network either goes dark against the Super Bowl or has programming aimed at the fairer sex, HBO just goes about its business, airing new episodes of “Rome” and “Extras.”

I also like how they edit the previews together at the end of each episode. It’s an art, really. Show enough to keep the viewers coming back but don’t show too much as to ruin the surprise. These days, it seems that there are very few series that follow these rules.

Based on last week’s previews, I thought for sure that Atia would be poisoned, but they didn’t actually show her on the ground. One of her servants bit the dust, which allowed Atia to unleash her wrath on the assassin, and later, on Servilia. With the show delving into Timon’s life at home, it was clear that he was going to do something out of character. By letting Servilia go, he really put Atia in a tough spot. Of course, Atia made her own bed, so to speak.

She had a couple of great lines during the scene where her men tortured the assassin, calling Octavia’s friend a “bad influence” (now that’s the pot calling the kettle black) and later saying, “it isn’t a legal confession unless there’s torture.” It’s just another example of how much times have changed.

We met the new Octavian/Caesar, who is now played by Simon Woods. Max Pirkis did a great job building the role, and probably could have played it for a while longer, but Octavian’s break gave the show the perfect opportunity to make age. Agrippa appears to be Octavian’s most trustworthy friend. It looks like they are setting up an angel/devil scenario with Octavian’s two advisors. Agrippa’s budding romance with Octavia provided a few laughs, and is just another example of how little times have changed.

It’s good to see Titus and Lucius together again, because at its core, “Rome” is just a buddy story. I knew it wasn’t going to end well for the slave boss when he took them down that hallway with all the little rooms. You’re not going to get very far in life pimping out Lucius’ daughter, knowingly or unknowingly. I’m interested to see how Lucius plans to deal with his bastard son. It’s clear he’s got too big of a heart to kill an innocent kid, but will he be able to deal with the constant reminder of his wife’s infidelity?

Next week, Octavian and his army should return to Rome, which sets up nice conflict between he and Cicero. Speaking of the Senator, he sure has his swagger back, doesn’t he?