Category: TV Action (Page 123 of 145)

Heroes, Week 14: “Well, it’s a start.”

February 5, 2007 /

So Doctor Invisible is really giving Peter some major trial-by-fire education in maintaining the super powers he borrows from other people. First, the Doc swipes a purse, hands it to Peter, and leaves ol’ Pete to either step up and stay invisible or get stone cold busted. (It’s the latter.) Then, he throws Peter off the roof of Isaac’s apartment, down several stories, and onto the roof of a taxicab. Ouch. But, dammit, it works, and Peter survives. He also proceeds to almost fulfill his destiny and explode, an event the Doctor nips in the bud, along with offering one the episode’s best lines. (The Doc also made me laugh when he tells Peter that he’s spent a lot of time around people when he’s invisible and, for the most part, they’re all “selfish, deceitful, and gassy.” Hee, hee.)

Niki’s therapy begins in earnest, though it’s none too surprising when she clears her mind and is immediately thereafter taken over by Jessica, who promptly breaks free of her chains and tasers the living shit out of her therapist. “Take me back to my cell!” screams Niki, after she comes to and realizes what’s happened…only to get a baton upside her head. Can’t really blame the guard, though…so you can imagine how pissed off he is when, despite her actions, she’s basically thrown out of the asylum, courtesy of Mr. Linderman pulling some strings. But who’s this guy on Death Row who’s supposedly taken the blame for Niki’s / Jessica’s crimes? Whatever the case, by episode’s end, Niki’s still imprisoned…in her own mind, with Jessica taking the reigns.

Claire’s dad get a whuppin’, Sylar-style; it’s an unexpected move for Sylar to leave Daddy alive…until you realize that he’s doing it to make him suffer. Sylar proceeds to head over to the homestead, claiming to be delivering paper to the house. Claire’s mom falls for his ruse, making me wonder if Brother Voodoo has done her synapses permanent damage with all the time he must’ve wiped her clean. After Sylar knocks the living hell out of Claire’s mom, Daddy bursts in with Brother Voodoo in tow, screaming, “HE DIES!” Predictably, Sylar gets away…and Brother Voodoo burns off another layer of Mom’s brain.

Isaac gets confirmation from Simone that their relationship is definitely over…in almost the same breath that she asks him to find Peter for her. A bit later, Isaac paints the taxi cab…the one Peter later falls on…but he also paints a picture of he and Simone kissin’, which comes true while Peter and Doctor Invisible are standing nearby, unseen. Of course, Peter’s soon too busy plummeting to worry about being jealous…

Claire sticks with her manatee-report story for another week, setting the stage for her and Zach to sneak off and meet her birth mother. The meeting between her and her mother begins rather anticlimactically, mostly because our concern’s mostly for what Sylar’s doing back at her adopted parents’ house. (I must admit, I really thought for sure Claire’s birth mom had slipped her newfound daughter a mickey.) But it was a really nice moment when Claire revealed her powers and her mom smirked, said, “Some family,” and lit a fire in her palm.

We do finally find out exactly how Hiro’s gotten away with being away from work for this long: his dad owns the company! Hiro’s dad “always looks angry,” according to Hiro, but, damn, George Takei’s looking fierce. Ando’s right, though, Hiro’s sister is hot. Hiro ends up soul-searching because he’s presented with a concern that no good Japanese son can ignore: family honor. His solution, however, is to pass the buck to his more-than-worthy sister to serve as his father’s successor…a suggestion which makes his father growl and grumble, though he agrees to the premise.

How about that closing shot? Nathan is Claire’s real dad…?!?!?

Holy shit.

I totally didn’t see that coming. Not at all. Not even remotely.

External TV, Heroes, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas

Rome: “Testudo Et Lepus”

February 5, 2007 /

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?

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

Heroes, Week 13: Manatees, ahoy!

January 30, 2007 /

So Niki’s still chillin’ in the rubber room when she opens her eyes and has a psychological counselor inform her that she’s suffering from multiple personality disorder. (Most likely reactions to this diagnosis from viewers: “Wow, it’s like she’s known Niki all her life!” or “Good work, Sherlock!”) A little later, her ex swing by, having finally gotten around to using his intangibility skills to visit. This occurs at approximately the same time that D.L.’s inability to realize that he actually has to go out and get a proper job infuriates Micah to the point where he uses his powers to knock over an ATM.

Surprisingly, Matt and his wife seem closer than ever now that he’s revealed his abilities to her, so much so that she takes in stride his announcement that he’s been laid off by the police force for six months. She also drops the bombshell that she’s pregnant. I don’t want to be a doomsayer, but I don’t see that pregnancy going to term…

Claie continues to tempt fate by hanging out with Zach. Come on, don’t tell me her dad doesn’t suspect something’s up! Manatee report, my ass. And then she goes the extra mile to get busted by calling for a meeting with Brother Voodoo. Mind you, he does manage to provide her with enough details, hints, and clues to send her on the path that successfully leads her to finding her birth mother…but he also assures her that this will be his last time meeting with her. Yeah, we’ll see about that…

Hiro remains powerless, which makes for a few funny scenes as they try to dodge some strangers who are trying to catch up with them. (The shot of them lying on the asphalt after the vehicle they were hiding under drove away was classic.) Of course, as virtually every viewer already figured (or, at least, those who pay any attention to the media), the “boss” who was after them was Hiro’s dad, played by a decidedly angry-looking George Takei. Oh, my!

Nathan and Mohinder have a nice little bonding session, which leads them to hunt up Peter, who’s been busy trying to sway the invisible man to join forces with him. Peter refuses to come along with Nathan and Moninder, however, and seemingly vanishes, making the last scene of that segment, with Mr. Invisible holding his hand over Peter’s mouth, particularly effective.

And, lastly, wow, shocking, Sylar didn’t actually die like Claire’s dad’s underling said he did. Everyone who saw it coming, please raise your hand…

External Entertainment, External TV, Heroes, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas

“24,” Hour 6: That’s Dr. Evil, thank you, not Dr. Romano

January 30, 2007 /

Well, that didn’t take long. Mr. “I swear on my family’s life” sold out both his Dudley Do-Right brother and morally ambiguous father at the drop of the hat, and by playing the family card, no less. Here’s the thing, though: if the plot didn’t require it, Jack Bauer would never, ever have thrown the handcuff keys to some hired goon that, only moments before, was about to unload an entire clip into his skull. Dr. Evil’s pleas to Jack about protecting family seemed desperate and hollow from the very beginning, and we now know just how meaningless those pleas actually were. But come on, of course they were meaningless to him. He’s been raising Jack’s son as his own. But that conspiracy theory will have to be put on hold for now.

So my left-field theory about Walid being a spy turned out to be dead wrong. But my observation in the first week about the FBI, and how they must be either incompetent or corrupt to allow such chaos to take place on American soil, could be dead on the money. After all, their plan to implicate the alleged terrorist detainees required Walid to do two simple things:

1) Steal the guy’s cell phone without him knowing
2) Return his cell phone without him knowing

You’re kidding, right? Pickpocketing someone is one thing, but giving back something without them realizing it is another thing entirely. There isn’t a single intelligence bureau working under our jurisdiction that would ever dream of doing something so boneheaded.

Which brings us to Karen Hayes’ sudden resignation from President Palmer’s staff, and subsequent request to join CTU in Los Angeles. I found Karen’s willingness to roll over so quickly a bit out of character, especially when it’s the Biscuit that’s asking her to roll over. She had a good game face when he challenged her with the supposed checkered past of her and hubby Bill Buchanan, so what made her change her mind so quickly? The plot, that’s what. Jack acted out of character, the FBI acted out of character, and Karen acted out of character, all because it was required of them. They would be wise not to make a habit of this in the coming weeks. Tony Kornheiser said earlier tonight on “Pardon the Interruption” that he thinks “24” is jumping the shark this very moment. I’m not ready to hop on that bandwagon yet, but episodes like this are only going to fan those flames.

And now, your conspiracy theory of the week.

If your mind is remotely as warped and suspicious as mine, then you watched Milo hand his login info over to Natalie and thought, “Big mistake.” They are setting up one of two things here: either they are paving the way for Milo’s exit – Eric Balfour, deservedly or not, has developed a rep as a show-killer of Ted McGinley-esque proportions – or they are about to expose that CTU has yet another mole bringing them down from the inside (my gosh, who screens the candidates there?). Given that Marisol Nichols is ten times the actor that Balfour is, the former theory would be better for the show, but that is no guarantee that they will do what’s best for the show.

Since the bomb dropped, the show has kinda fizzled. Time to turn things up a notch, guys. “Heroes” is beating you in the Neilsens. There’s a bull’s-eye on your back. Quit playing it safe and start killing people, stat.

24, External TV, TV, TV Action

Prison Break: “The Message”

January 30, 2007 /

Did anyone else get the feeling that between the last episode and this one, the writers decided against having Agent Eisen and the brothers escape out the back door? A couple of quick lines at the beginning of this episode (“next time, pick a hotel room with a back exit”) buttoned up that plot hole and the trio proceeded to head out the front door to take a hostage and commandeer a car.

The show is struggling with keeping the subplots interesting. Last week, the storylines of C-Note and T-Bag were pretty tedious and this week Sucre and Haywire had their chance to bore us. It’s smart that the show is staggering them so that each week, a majority of the show is about the brothers and their quest for justice, not about Sucre stealing a car from an old Mexican dude or Haywire making friends with a troubled teen.

Agent Mahone is back at work, which is surprising since he killed Agent Blonde. Mr. Kim must be overlooking that little detail now that Mahone has agreed to return to duty. I thought Mahone would go rogue, but he seems to be back in the saddle. That scene where he and the other FBI agents were breaking down the video was probably the best scene in the episode. The game of cat and mouse between Michael, AE and Mahone is pretty interesting to watch. The fake Morse code line – “the water is warm” – was especially cool, even though Mahone was too smart to fall for it.

Lincoln brought up a good point when he asked Michael about AE’s motives in finding Sarah. I think AE was serious about helping the brothers until the President called. Now that option is back on the table.

External TV, Prison Break, TV Action, TV Dramas

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