Monsters of Television

“FROM ONE PAWN TO ANOTHER.”

“THEY HIDE IN PLAIN SIGHT.”

Rubicon thus far, is an interesting study in just how much genre and style matter. Its slow burning, methodological pace and meandering characters reminded me of Mad Men in a number of ways (no idea if this is an AMC thing since I haven’t seen an episode of Breaking Bad, but now have plenty of time to catch up on it). Mad Men‘s high modernist-influenced slice of life approach infuriated me to no end because it wasn’t that nothing happened, but that so little happened that I cared about to characters I couldn’t care about, and it happened very slowly.

Rubicon, on the other hand….well…there’s nothing to spoil because nothing has happened, also kind of like Mad Men (consider that my comment on Matthew Weiner’s idiotic mentality toward spoilers). But I find myself engaged with these two episodes even though very little happens, and the characters are not exactly complicated or willing to say things out loud. From it’s set design to its sound mixing (which has been accused of looking cheap, but I say is very purposeful) to the drab costuming and opaque plot developments, Rubicon embraces the 1970s spy thriller film, and doesn’t look back (or at least I hope it doesn’t). Read more »

“Knowing when to walk away is harder than you think.”

This episode was a little bit like Christmas. Vaughn comes back to do something shady, and the lovable FBI duo of Lane and Harris also return, asking for help. All this episode needed was Barry and/or Larry Sizemore, and I would’ve been a very happy camper. On the character front anyway. On the plot front…well, meh.

“Center of the Storm” kind of dropped the ball a bit this week, with a lot of interesting elements that ultimately get bogged down by the episode’s hitman with the heart of gold plot. And I can’t decide if this was quickly re-written to accommodate the shift in episode counts (though I don’t think this was the case), as next week’s episode seems like it could’ve been the mid-season cap episode, or that the writers simply decided to let the serialized elements stay too far in the background, but it made for a bit of a messy episode. Read more »

“What do cats need with that much yarn and cobalt?”

After two very strong episodes (well, one very strong episode in “The Late Philip J. Fry” and the last few minutes of “Lethal Inspection” added the necessary punch to ramp up an otherwise decent episode), it would appear that Futurama had requisitioned its groove back. As a result, so much rested on “The Darn Katz!” to deliver on the momentum of the last two episodes.

While the episode doesn’t have the poignancy the previous two episodes had, “The Darn Katz” does deliver on the laughs and continues the season’s excellent, outside the box pairings that end up generating much of the humor that isn’t generated by jokes about cats and academia, two things near and dear to my heart. Read more »

“You’ve seen the act before. How dull for you.“

After last week’s smashing premiere episode, Sherlock made it it difficult for itself to follow it up with anything just as shiny and fun. It isn’t that 90 minutes of a single episode exhausts all the story elements, or that we’re no longer interested in Holmes and Watson, or that the flourishes that allow us entry into Holmes’ mind have grown old, or that we’re simply tired of this diegesis. Indeed, the great feat that “A Study In Pink” achieved was that after 90 minutes was that I was left wanting a lot more.

“The Blind Banker” kind of made me wonder why I wanted more. Read more »

“I bet it’s your brother! I knew I should have abandoned him at the mall when I had the chance.”

Earlier in the season The Boondocks gave us its take on Asian cinema with “The Red Ball” and now we are treated to an apocalyptic episode with “Fried Chicken Flu”. Besides being an excellent take on the genre, this episode allowed the show to do a few things that had been noticeably absent from this season as a whole. Most notably would be the focus on Huey and his conspiracy theory personality traits.

There have been a few Huey centric episodes this season but none have hit at the heart of Huey’s character much like this one. Even before the flu breaks out, Huey is hard at work building a generator in the garage, preparing for the survival of whatever imminent disaster is heading his way. Jazmine marvels (as she so lovingly does) at Huey’s drive and comments on how smart he is. She has always been the only character to really appreciate Huey’s radical beliefs and ideas. Until trouble starts anyway.

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Well, that was something.

I wasn’t crazy about this episode. It felt a little a lazy, from the Camera Challenge (a re-tread of an earlier challenge, though it does serve a purpose) to the kind of silly Star Challenge (dish inspired by an emotion). This episode was pretty “Meh.” across the board, which leaves me with little to say about it beyond the rather surprising dismissal. And by “dismissal” I mean the fact that Giada isn’t going to be on the show until the finale. That’s four episodes with my precious Italian goddess. Why are they doing this to me? WHY?! Read more »

“I’m not a psychopath. I’m a high functioning sociopath. Do your research.”

I had to leave Sherlock, the new BBC series created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, during the last 20 minutes due to dinner plans, so I left the episode’s climax hanging. But it gave me time to start thinking about the episode before I sat down to write, something I appreciate having depending on the show. The conclusion I came to was that I was surprised that it has taken this long for Sherlock Holmes himself to fully return to popular culture.

For a while, the Sherlock Holmes format has been used in a variety of other shows recently, like House, Monk, The Mentalist, and to an extent, CSI and Law & Order: Criminal Intent (specifically Goren). House is probably the clearest example, as Gregory House is essentially Sherlock Holmes (at least in the first couple of seasons)  but with a prescription pad. But where was Sherlock? Why hadn’t anyone decided to bring him back to TV or film? Read more »

“We’ve got intruders!”

A couple of weeks ago, I was dozing while watching some special on History about death masks, and in between my dozing and finding out that George Washington was vain, I saw promos for the The Colony, a show on Discovery Channel. Judging from the promos, it was the answer to the question many started asking after Survivor had gone through a few cycles: “Why isn’t there an urban survivor? Let’s see them try and eek out a living in a rough neighborhood.” And some producer heard that idea, liked it, and, being a producer, added, “Let’s make this rough neighborhood actually a ‘safe zone’ after something pretty apocalyptic has wiped out most of the human race!”

Thus The Colony was born.

I wasn’t aware, when I saw the promos, that the series had actually already done a season last summer (I don’t watch a lot of Discovery Channel, History, etc.), but as it’s a reality show, and only in its second season, there’s not a huge need to go and catch up on season 1 (though I can grab the last 5 if I want). Already with one episode, I kind of get the jist of what each episode will be like. Read more »

“I know what texting is. Also iTunes and color television.”

A very relevant Twitter conversation took place between Nick, Noel and myself yesterday on the troubles of fandom and criticism. Analyzing a popular text as anything but godly is often met with harsh opposition from said text’s fan community. That makes this review of last night’s Warehouse 13 somewhat difficult for me. I love Warehouse 13, it’s probably my favorite new addition to my television roster as of late, but “Age Before Beauty” has some points that should be addressed. And they’re not pretty.

“Age Before Beauty” is a very Myka and Claudia (hooray!) centric episode. While Myka and Pete track down an artifact that is sapping the youth from fashion models, Claudia prepares for her date with Todd, the hardware store kid from last week’s “Beyond Our Control”. This episode was poised to be a great girl-power sort of story but that is not what unfurled. Instead we get a (what I will deem as accidentally) misogynistic view of our lead female characters running to their male counter parts with their problems and insecurities. I sure hope no one from the Syfy message boards is reading this…

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“You have a nice little practice going?”
“I do all right.”

“How do you expect to fool them into thinking it’s me?”
“By using another black man and the assumption that all black men look the same to the upper-middle class.”
“That’s dash cunning.”
“We know.

So White Collar is starting to remind me of Chuck and it’s not just the Bryce Larkin connection.

Chuck has been a spy for over three years now and, though he’s supposed to be a “secret” agent, he’s been implicating his friends and family into his web of subterfuge and awkwardness little by little since then. The very people he explicitly stated that he never wanted to affect with the job that fell in his lap are now either knowledgeable of what Chuck does or actively participate in missions, exposed to danger exacted by enemy agents and even Chuck himself.

While I don’t think Neal is carelessly exposing his loved ones to danger, he does implicate his criminal friends into FBI cases and missions in exchange for immunity, passes, and what I can only assume is healthy compensation from Uncle Sam.  Mozzie doesn’t seem like the type to work pro bono for the Suits. And now even Alex is involved.

Who’s next? June? Dead Kate Who Is Not Really Dead? Is there anyone Neal has left in his life that is still a criminal? And, if not, with his solving crime and everyone he knows being in cahoots with the Law, what gray area is left for him to raise the stakes?

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