Y’know, I just realized that Michael Scofield is a modern-day MacGyver. He’s not as quite as over the top as his predecessor, turning a rubber band, a matchstick and a basketball into a pogo stick, but it seems like every other week he’s putting together some kind of concoction to improve his lot in life. When he asked the kid about the water situation, I figured it was going to come into play, either in this episode or in the future. I’m still a little fuzzy on how sending an alcohol bomb into the pipes is going to turn the water back on, but I guess there was some sort of blockage that had to be cleared.
Anyway, the water is running again, so kingpin Luchero shows his gratitude by calling off the bounty on Whistler’s head. According to “Susan,” Michael still has just a week to become the first person to break out of Sona. No more.
The whole Sucre/Maricruz/Bellick storyline was wrapped up a little too neatly and quickly for my taste, but it got Sucre to Panama and back in the fold. I’m not sure how he’ll figure into Michael’s escape, but I’m sure Linc will get him involved somehow.
Speaking of Linc, he pulled the ol’ (now infamous) “Prison Break” switcheroo – the first one this season – with the little bird watching guide. That took some serious foresight, which is not something Linc is known for. Maybe Michael is rubbing off on him. (On a side note, it really seems like Linc and Susan have some serious sexual tension, doesn’t it?)
It looks like this season, or at least the first part, will be about Michael and Whistler, and their goal to break out of Sona. Mahone, T-Bag and Bellick will do whatever they can to put Michael into a position to take them with him. Mahone and Bellick will probably help him along the way, but T-Bag is the wildcard. He has a knack for self-preservation, so I doubt he’d shoot himself in the foot if he thought he could tag along on Michael’s escape, but there is a load of contempt between the two men and it would take a lot to get them to come together again.
Like any good drama, “Ugly Betty” said its springtime goodbyes in grand fashion. Betty’s father was left in Mexico awaiting his immigration papers, Henry left for Arizona to be with a now-pregnant Charlie, Wilhelmina was busy planning her wedding, Claire Meade broke out of prison, Daniel and Alexis became Crash Test Dummies, and Amanda discovered that she might be the daughter of Fey Sommers. And let’s not forget about poor Santos who, while trying to play hero during a robbery at the local convenience store, is shot dead… or is he? Quite a lot to wrap your head around in only three months, and though the season two premiere doesn’t quite tie up all the loose ends left lying around, it does show great initiative in getting to the point.
The first episode of the new season picks up three weeks later, and Betty is stressing out more than ever. When she’s not being hounded at home by cousin Justin’s complaints about attending summer camp, she’s forced to deal with much bigger problems – like the fact that Wilhelmina is using Daniel’s hospital stay as a means to take over at Mode. Daniel is doing just fine, but when Alexis awakens from her coma thinking she’s still Alex, well, it yields some interesting results. Amanda, meanwhile, has put on a few pounds while stressing about the whole Fey Sommers debacle – a point made only more worrisome when Mark suggests that Bradford Meade might be her birth father. This will surely become a major subplot throughout the rest of the season, but admirers of Becki Newton needn’t worry – the actress ditches the fat suit before the next episode.
The other players help to keep things light in episode two; namely Michael Urie as Wilhelmina’s lapdog, Mark – making the most of his new promotion when he’s put in charge of the summer interns. Trumping the witless peons as the only intern worth his salt is teenage fashionista Justin, a veritable carbon copy of Mark who works well enough with his older counterpart that one can only hope the creators will find another reason to get the pair on screen together. How a kid Justin’s age got a job at a prestigious magazine like Mode is beyond me, but he serves as a welcome replacement when Amanda is too busy to play along.
And what of Santos? Well, you’ll have to tune in to find out exactly what’s happening on that front, but let’s just say it’s a bittersweet moment that may leave viewers perplexed as to why it was even included. Will you necessarily like their decision? Probably not, but though the series has never been flawless, one thing’s for certain: the magic is still there. And to think, Freddy Rodriguez doesn’t join the cast until week three.
I might have some bad news for anyone who walked out of my Fall TV Preview thinking that “Bionic Woman” was going to be one of the best shows of the new season. Not that I’d blame you for thinking that, given that I offered the very dangerous claim that “it’s hard to imagine this not being the ‘Heroes’-like break-out series of the 2007 season.” But now that I’ve watched the recast and slightly-retooled pilot, I find that I’m not nearly as excited as I was when I watched the original pilot…and, ironically, the reason why doesn’t really involve the things that have been changed!
But, okay, even so, we should first focus on what has been changed. In the original pilot, the character of Jaime Sommers’ (Michelle Ryan) sister, Becca, was played by Mae Whitman (“State of Grace,” “Arrested Development”), but she’s since been replaced by Lucy Hale. More importantly, though, Becca used to be deaf; now, however, not only can she hear, but she’s also developed a talent as a computer hacker. Hmmm…maybe it’s just me, but this feels like one of those cases where someone in Research & Development said, “Yeah, here’s the thing: deaf characters don’t play real well in the sticks, but, hey, you know what does? Super-cute, super-smart teenage girls who have a natural aptitude that meshes well with their older sister’s newly-acquired bionics!” A deaf character would’ve been extremely interesting, but as it stands right now, this revised version of Becca feels less like a character than a plot device.
Yet, as noted, the change to Becca really isn’t what made me start to feel less confident about my initial assessment of “Bionic Woman.” No, basically, what happened was that as I watched the revised pilot, I began to realize that I’d been so taken by the awesomely kick-ass fight scene at the end of the show that I’d essentially forgiven it for anything and everything that had happened before it. This time around, however, I realized that even though it still has a dark look and feel to it that makes for good viewing, it’s riddled with way more cliche-ridden dialogue than I’d remembered. Also, Katee Sackhoff’s attempt to deliver the lines of her character – Sarah Corvus, the first bionic woman – like she’s a too-cool-for-school bitch actually plays more like she’s reading off cue cards. I did not, however, share the feelings of some of my fellow Bullz-Eye / Premium Hollywood contributors about Ryan’s performance; they didn’t think she had much in the way of charisma…and, somehow, I don’t think my suggestion that she reminded me of Ione Skye did do my contrary opinion any favors. But my take on Ryan’s take on the role, however, is that Jaime Sommers is a normal, ordinary woman who’s been placed in an extraordinary situation, and it’s gonna take some time for her to step up to the plate and become a larger-than-life heroine type…and, okay, admittedly, once she gets to that point, I hope she develops a more confident and threatening delivery than she has at the end of the pilot when she utters her farewell line to Jonas (Miguel Ferrer), the director of the bionics program. (Even *I* groaned at that.)
So, anyway, if you’re taking notes, here’s my new, revised opinion of the new, revised “Bionic Woman” pilot: I get the feeling that someone at the network might be pulling the strings to produce a show that’s focused more on thin characterizations and action at any cost than it is on the more interesting possibility of an intellectual technology-centered drama…and the fact that Glen Morgan has evacuated the project makes me even more concerned that that’s the case. Also, as the turmoil with CBS’s “Moonlight” has shown us, there’s nothing like the departure of a member of a show’s creative team to totally screw with its creative direction…and, unfortunately, that’s generally an ailment that all the nanite technology in the world can’t repair.
In closing, here’s a trailer for the show for your viewing pleasure:
Man, Kristen Bell’s voiceovers sure are comforting. The creators of “Gossip Girl” were smart to enlist Bell to be our unseen guide through the happenings of the teenage elite in Manhattan. Her blog is the proverbial finger on the pulse of all the social happenings at a ritzy prep school in the Upper East Side. Think “Cruel Intentions” for the CW set.
Bell’s aural presence draws fans of “Veronica Mars” in, but “Gossip Girl” is lacking her old show’s depth. Granted, it’s just the pilot, but the character of bad boy Chuck is written thin, an amalgamation of every soulless rich boy we’ve ever seen on TV or in film. Even at their worst, Logan Echolls and Dick Casablancas were funny, witty and somewhat charming. Chuck is none of that.
In “Gossip Girl,” too-familiar triangle of personas exists within each gender. There are the evil and shallow (Chuck and Blair), those floundering in the middle (Serena and Nate), and those goodhearted souls that are simply struggling to fit in (Dan and Jenny). There were a few good lines in the pilot, and by the time the credits roll there are heroes and relationships you can root for, but it lacks the intrinsic charm of “Veronica Mars.” Maybe it’s not fair to compare the two, but when the same network cancels one and develops another, using the star of the former as its invisible poster girl, the comparisons are inevitable – especially to a still-bitter “Mars” devotee, like myself.
I’ll tune in for another week or two, but I don’t get the feeling that I’ll still be watching “Gossip Girl” in a month.
What did you think?
For another (more extensive) take, be sure to check out Will Harris’ review. If you missed the premiere, the CW is airing it again in most cities this Sunday.
You wouldn’t have expected a show about an egotistical doctor who’s not only a curmudgeon but also a full-fledged drug addict to have a whole lot of staying power. In fact, way back when I received an advance copy of the pilot for “House,” these were the opening lines of my review: “Infectious diseases specialist Dr. Gregory House isn’t particularly likable; in fact, at times, he presents himself to others in such a fashion that it’s almost impossible to stand him.” The entire thrust of my piece was that the show was great and deserved to be a success, but I was highly skeptical that viewers would be willing to embrace such a unabashed anti-hero.*
Whoops. My bad.
(Actually, I hadn’t looked at that review since I wrote it, but now that I’ve scanned it again, I’d like to share another line, one which I’m quite proud of: “[House is] consistently grumpy as hell, walks with the aid of a cane as a result of a past malady, and pops Vicodin like they’re the jellybeans that he surreptitiously prescribes to a hypochondriac in the pilot episode.” Damn, you’d think I actually wrote for a living or something!)
By the end of Season 3, Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) had managed to alienate his team – Drs. Foreman (Omar Epps), Cameron (Jennifer Morrison), and Chase (Jesse Spencer) – to the point that all three of them had made the decision to get the hell out; he also hadn’t exactly endeared himself to Drs. Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) or Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), either, but at least they had the advantage of not having to work directly under him. As Season 4 picks up, House is still flying solo, which is bad on a couple of different levels; for one, he can’t accomplish nearly as much without a team, and, worse, if he continues to be able to work just as well without a team, his ego will inflate to a heretofore-unimagined size. (Unsurprisingly, it’s Wilson who’s most concerned about the latter, since he pretty much lives to keep House’s ego in check.)
After realizing that isn’t nearly as easy to maintain his reputation as a genius without having other doctors to bounce theories off of (and finding that the janitor’s ideas just don’t match up to those of Foreman, Cameron, and Chase), House eventually concedes that it might be worth his while to dig up a new team…but, unsurprisingly, he does it on his own terms, weeding out the possible candidates by using a method that’s equally reminiscent of “Survivor” and “The Paper Chase.” Here’s a hint about the proceedings: he refuses to learn any of the candidates’ names…but he finds a way around needing to. By the way, one of the would-be team members is Dr. Lawrence Kutner, played by Kal Penn; we’re not telling whether he makes the cut or not, but we will say that, even in the one episode in which we’ve seen him, he’s already been better utilized than he was in his entire stint on “24.”
Will we see House’s old team again? Obviously. Will we see them sooner than later? Probably, since they’re still in the opening credits. The bigger question is, when we see them, will we really be seeing them? (Wow, how enigmatic of me.) Funny thing is, I’m not even in all that big a hurry to see them pop up; watching House interacting with fresh meat…uh, I mean, with new doctors…is a lot of fun. Also, I’m a little nervous about watching Chase and Cameron together again; Spencer and Morrison had been a couple in real life as well, but they recently broke up, and to see them still playing a couple on the show…I mean, how can you not think, “Wow, that’s gotta be weird for them”? I am, however, interested to see how the producers are planning to bring Foreman back into the mix, given that his departure seemed so definitive. I’d like to think it’d be too predictable for him to just realize that he misses the medical challenges he had while working with House, so I’m hoping they at least have some kind of twist to it. (I’m thinking maybe it’ll have something to do with Foreman’s mom, who’s battling mental deterioration…but that’s just a guess.)
Whatever else happens this season, at the very least, things are definitely starting strong for “House.”
