Category: TV Dramas (Page 186 of 235)

Jericho, Episode 21: Bombs dropping down, please forgive our hometown in our insignificance…

May 3, 2007 /

(Anyone recognize the subject line…? Without Googling the lyrics, I mean…)

Again with a great episode? Wow, you’d think the producers of “Jericho” wanted to come back next season or something…

So, basically, Phil Constantine is a dick. He sends over a lackey (was he actually his son, or did he just use “son” as a generic term?) with a walkie talkie, so that there’s a line of communication between Jericho and New Bern, then says, “Turn over this, this, and this, or we’re kicking the living hell out of your town.” And when Mayor Anderson refuses, it’s Mortar Time! So Mr. Mayor sends Stanley and a bunch of dudes over to New Bern to ambush ’em…and, whoops, Stanley’s basically the only one who makes it back. As if the bombs weren’t bad enough, given that Gail Green was caught in one of the explosions, this was really rough stuff. Suddenly, Grey Anderson begins to have a major emotional freak-out…and, frankly, who can blame him? He’s just sent a bunch of townfolk to their death…! The Mexican stand-off was a great, tense moment; I don’t care how many times you see it done in movies and on TV, you just can’t beat a Mexican stand-off for tension…

So Hawkins reunited with his family and, at last, he’s decided that Jericho is officially his new stomping grounds. That was a great moment when Jake was incredulous that Hawkins hadn’t offered up any of his guns before, and Hawkins said, “I didn’t think I was going to make Jericho my home.” Now that he has, look out! I was a little uncertain about Dale’s move to invite the refugees into co-ownership of his farm – I had visions of Jonestown, for some reason – but it looks like it’s gonna pay off for Jericho as a whole. The disgusted expression on Emily’s face when she watched her dad kill the grounded New Bern guy in cold blood was also a good, if sad, moment.

The use of the acoustic version of the Foo Fighters’ “Times Like These” served as a final way of proving how far “Jericho” has come this season. Remember all of my complaints about their god-awful music selections for the episode-ending montages? (My personal favorite: “The choice of pop songs for the soundtrack sucks ASS.”) Well, this one was an absolutely perfect choice. Watching the entire town arm themselves for the coming battle against New Bern definitely left you wondering: when the new day is rising, who’ll be left standing to greet the dawn?

I have to say, though, that despite the sight of Heather resulting a slight eyebrow raising, the phrasing sure sounded ominous in that voiceover during the preview for next week’s season finale; I have a bad feeling about the chances of that second season…but, by God, I’m not giving up hope. (If you thought I was going to add something cheesy like, “If the people of Jericho aren’t giving up, I’m not, either,” well, I admit, I was sorely tempted…but I’m restraining myself.) With each passing episode, “Jericho” proceeds to get better and better. As I’ve said before, if the show doesn’t get picked up for a second season, it has no-one to blame but itself for the slow start and rocky middle of Season 1…but, damn, you can’t say they haven’t been trying a Hail Mary pass with these last several episodes. I mean, you have to hate the fact that it’s beating “Friday Night Lights” in the ratings, given that that show’s pretty damned good, too, but surely we can all agree that it’s a public embarrassment that both series are being stomped by…”The George Lopez Show”?

Come on, America, give us a break…

External Entertainment, External TV, Jericho, TV, TV Dramas

Heroes, Week 20: You Dropped A Bomb On Me

April 30, 2007 /

C’mon, did you really expect any other subject line?

You know, for all the talk about how Mr. Linderman’s plan to drop the bomb (so to speak) and destroy New York smacks of Ozymandius’s endgame in “Watchmen,” I dare say this week’s episode will have people saying, “Is it just me, or is this a whole lot like like a cross between the ‘Days of Future Past’ saga in ‘The Uncanny X-Men’ and the plot of ‘X-Men 3‘?” And they’ll be right. I mean, seriously, you go check out those Wikipedia entries, then come back here and tell me that I’m wrong…

Also, am I the only one who, at approximately 43 minutes into the show, uttered an obscenity under their breath? Holy mother of God, was that some shit or WHAT? But we’ll get to that…

So it’s five years in the future. What’s everybody’s story?

* Peter’s a major-league badass. Nice to finally see that scar Future Hiro spoke of so many episodes ago.
* Nikica’s a stripper AND Peter’s girlfriend. (Moral: being a badass has its benefits.) Oh, yeah, and she’s also not Nikica anymore. She’s just plain Nikki. Her husband’s gone, her son’s gone, Jessica’s gone…and we don’t really know for sure what happened to any of them, except that Micah’s demise is directly related to the explosion in New York.
* Mohinder is the advisor to the President of the United States on all things Hero-related, but despite everything that’s gone on during the last five years, it’s nice to see that he’s still naively hopeful about the chances for the future…to the point that he’s willing to commit murder to achieve it.
* Matt Parkman’s working for Homeland Security (along with Brother Voodoo), and he’s become a complete and total dick.
* HRG’s rustling cattle in Texas…okay, well, not really. But that’s the phrase Nikica used, and it made me laugh. It appears that he’s actually part of an underground movement to keep Heroes safe from the government by providing them with false identities. He’s also given up his trademark glasses! What the hell…?!?
* Claire’s a waitress who’s changed her name and her hair color and is on the verge of getting married.
* Hiro’s a fucking terrorist.
* And Ando…well, let’s not discuss Ando’s future fate. It makes me sad.
* Nathan is the President of the United States…though, of course, we knew that was coming…but did we really imagine that he’d become pro-genocide, especially given that he’s a Hero himself? Why would he do that?

Oh, wait, I know why he’d do it: because he’s SYLAR! HOLY CRAP!

There were a lot of great moments in this episode, but a very small one particularly stood out for me: how sad was that pitifully honest thought of Hiro’s that Matt caught? “I just want to be a hero.”

I also loved this exchange:

Parkman: So he’s a time traveler…?
Mohinder: Is that any different than being able to read minds?
Parkman: Uh, yeah. Yeah, it is.

Other nice moments: a newscaster’s reference to “the Linderman Act,” the way Parkman yelled “WHAT?” after Peter busted in, stopped time, and swiped Future Hiro and Ando from underneath his and his people’s noses, and the sheer depth of Parkman’s assholosity, when he thanks HRG for saving his child, then proceeds to threaten his life and go after his adopted daughter. Hey, if you’re gonna become an asshole, don’t do it in half measures, right? Which is why he goes on to kill Future Hiro before the episode’s over.

Okay, so the battle between Sylar and Peter had way too much of a Darth Vader vs. Obi-Wan Kenobi overtone to it, with the red and the blue lights. I still found myself thinking, “This is AWESOME!”

“Now, the hard part,” indeed. These three last episodes are going to be something else. I say again: there’s no other show on TV that’s as must-see as “Heroes.”

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

Just what Tony needs: another vice

April 29, 2007 /

I’ve got to start this week by giving props to BF, the reader who pointed out last week that I failed to mention Tony’s gambling. Clearly it’s become a serious problem, as BF predicted, to the point that Tony considered clipped Hesh rather than having to pay him the $200k he owed him. But then Hesh’s girl Renata died and Tony, ever the caring friend, showed up to offer Hesh his condolences and a paper sack filled with cash. Of course, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who thought Tony had Renata killed up until he showed up to pay Hesh his money.

This is the first episode of the new pseudo-season that fell a little flat for me. Obviously, Tony’s gambling has suddenly become a big storyline, and you’ve got to wonder just how big of a role it plays in these final five episodes. Tony was out of control this week, losing $20,000 on a horse named Meadow Gold and then, after caving in and deciding to give widow Spatafore the $100k she asked for to give her and, more importantly, her deranged son (more on that later) a fresh start, he took that money and bet it (and lost it) on the Eagles because the Dolphins had to rely on a rookie kicker. The interesting note about all of this was the reaction Chris had when Tony decided to throw that money at the Eagles; if anybody knows dangerous addictive behavior, it’s Chris. Is he going to try to help Tony? Will that drive a wedge even further between the two?

Of course, the central problem was the fight between Tony and Carm after Carm refused to roll her earnings from the spec house into a bet on the Jets over the Chargers. Tony had inside info on the game and wanted to turn her windfall into a million-dollar payday but she refused, saying it’s her money and that she’s determined to not end up like Ginny Sack once Tony’s gone. Well, the Jets roll 42-10 and Tony’s pissed because he “only” put $10,000 on the game. “When I’m gone, you can live in a fucking dumpster for all I care,” Tony says after Carm chucked a vase at him. Yikes. He smoothed things over later, at least temporarily, but as well as things seemed to have been going between Tony and Carm so far, you knew something was bound to happen. I just figured it would be the Adriana questions, though I’m sure those will crop up again soon enough.

As for little Vito Spatafore…dude, that kid’s screwed up. Going hardcore Goth is bad enough, but taking a dump in the school shower? And then stepping in it?! Ewwww! As is often the case with this show, I’m not entirely sure where this storyline is going to go or what its purpose will be, but it may be as simple as the added tension it’s added to Tony’s relationship with Phil. If somebody should be stepping up to set the kid straight, it probably should be Phil since he’s Vito’s uncle or cousin (or whatever), and since he’s the one who offed papa Vito last season. But since Tony’s the one cleaning up the mess, you can bet he wasn’t lying when he told his guys he wouldn’t forget that Phil refused to step up.

Then there’s AJ, who finally looked to be getting his life in order. He’s got a woman he loves, a decent job (pizza shop manager, baby!) and, finally, some motivation. He asks Blanca to marry him and when she hesitates, he tells her that he’s going to keep moving up the ladder at work and in a couple of years, he’ll own his own restaurant. You had to feel sorry for the guy when she turned around and dumped him a couple days later, but I think another reader made a great observation a couple of weeks ago: Blanca’s pregnant. This one is obviously a guess but she’s been acting strange all season and, when Meadow mentioned that someone was expecting a baby, she looked very uncomfortable. Hmm….

Finally, two small notes. First, it looks like the two Arabs from the Bada Bing are going to finally come back into play. I’ve been waiting for this for a while. And Tony had a nice little callback to last season when he was talking to Vito, saying, “You go about in pity for yourself.” If you remember, that was a saying someone pinned to the bulletin board in Tony’s hospital room after Junior shot him, and he said the same thing to Artie a few episodes later. With the gambling issues and the general problems he’s been having recently, it seems Tony’s the one indulging in a bit of self-pity.

External Entertainment, External TV, The Sopranos, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas

TV DVD QT, Vol. 7

April 29, 2007 /

Walker: Texas Ranger: The Complete Second Season – Honestly, we really shouldn’t even cover this release, given how poorly the poor bastard did in our Badass Bracket. I mean, honestly, it was shameful…almost as shameful as the fact that there ain’t a single special feature on this seven-disc set. Then again, if you’re enough of a fan of the adventures of Chuck Norris’s Texas-based Martial Arts master, you probably won’t care, anyway.

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea: Season 2, Volume 2 – So tired…so very, very tired…of this show coming out on DVD. If they cared enough to release the first two seasons on DVD, why in God’s sake did they feel obliged to stretch it into four separate sets? I mean, good lord, they’re releasing “Land of the Giants” (another Irwin Allen series) in a Complete Series set. They couldn’t at least put each season of “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” in its own box? Oh, well, the DVD producers at least deserve some credit for stretching out the special features as well, so that each set gets some; this time, you get still galleries as well as interviews with David Hedison (Captain Crane).

Moonlighting: Season Five – It’s nice of Lions Gate to finish up the release of “Moonlighting” by getting the show’s final season into stores, and it’s even nicer that we continue to get special features – audio commentaries (one with producers Glenn Gordon Caron and Jay Daniel on the season premiere, another with director Dennis Dugan on the series finale) as well as the original screen test of Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd as an on-screen couple – but we could’ve done with a little more details as to where to find them. The accompanying booklet provides in-depth episode synopses and a reference to the existence of the special features, but no clarification as to what features are on what disc. If you’ve forgotten how the show ended, David Addison returned to the offices of Blue Moon Investigations after Bert and Agnes’s wedding, only to find an ABC executive packing things up. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but you’re cancelled.” After tearful goodbyes are said, we get a closing title card which reveals that the agency ceased operations on May 14, 1989, and the Anselmo case was never solved. Damn!

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External Entertainment, External TV, Reviews, TV, TV Action, TV Comedies, TV Dramas, TV DVDs

Jericho, Episode 20: Everything’s Gone Green

April 26, 2007 /

Damn. Why wasn’t this show as good at the beginning as it is now? Maybe the producers are panicking a little bit about the uncertainty of a second season and have decided to pull out all the stops. Whatever the case, this week continues “Jericho”‘s roll of excellent episodes.

This was a very Green-heavy week – Jake and Eric are still in prison, Johnston finds out about it and goes after them, and Gail gets a lot of face time both as a result of her work in the hospital and her sketchy relationship with Eric’s girlfriend, Mary – but, of course, Hawkins gets some face time as a result of having gone with Jake to rescue Eric, and we also visit with Dale and Skylar for a bit, too.

The Greens

I gotta say, I spent a decent amount of the episode not entirely sure that Eric was going to still be among the living by the time the closing credits rolled; I really liked the way they kept things uncertain on that front. I’m also consistently amused by the fact that, although Jake’s clearly the bad boy of the family, his dad is clearly still the biggest badass in the gene pool; Gerald McRaney has been consistently impressive with the way he walks that line between being a good ol’ boy and being a guy you’re rather intimidated by. I have to say, though, that what I wasn’t overly impressed with was the return of Maggie; she seems a lot less witty and entertaining now than she did in her initial appearance. As far as Gail and Mary, I’m glad that they didn’t just provide an automatic reconciliation and an instant happy ending; that it’s taking awhile for them to have some respect for each other actually feels rather realistic.

Hawkins

Actually, I guess he doesn’t necessarily need his own individual write-up here, since his appearances were all tied in to the Greens, so I’ll just say that, as an agent, I would’ve expected him to be a bit more skeptical about Maggie’s story when she came running up to them. But whatever.

Dale and Skylar

Damn. Dale’s just got the look of one of those guys you’d describe as “quiet, kinda kept to himself a lot” after he’s done something really, really awful…and he’s only getting more bitter. That whole “you and me against the world” attitude is gonna get him killed soon. I just sense it. Meanwhile, Skylar’s becoming more and more sensitive since the incident with the Mayor about trying to declare her parents dead. How long ’til they come back? Because you know that at least one of them will. You just KNOW it.

Anyway, next week looks to be another nice, dark episode as well. New Bern vs. Jericho, winner takes all. All I’m saying is, they better wrap this shit up in the season finale, because if there’s no second season, I’m gonna be pissed if things end in a cliffhanger…

Closing note: I went to the show’s Wikipedia entry to confirm the name of a character, and, um, did anyone else realize that the morse code you hear when the show’s title card pops up is different each week? There’s a separate Wikipedia page for each episode, and they indicate what’s been said in code. This week’s was “We Pledge.” Is this information being posted elsewhere, or is there just a morse code expert out there who’s writing up the entries each week…? Either way, it’s a pretty cool maneuver by the producers, and I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to become aware of it.

External Entertainment, External TV, Jericho, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas

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