Monsters of Television

“I believe I have outgrown the name Aqualad. And anything resembling regret.”

Pardon me while I try not to get my hopes up too much.

Probably for the first time since “Usual Suspects” did I really enjoy and legitimately like an episode of Young Justice. I mean, sure, there’s the Mal-Karen thing in Ivy Town, but it was just more of a narrative contrivance that didn’t do much to undermine the otherwise strong episode that legitimately raises the stakes of the invasion storyline (even though I still think it’s pretty of muddled as a whole). Read more »

“What was that? Suddenly I’ve got Columbo on the jury?”

For the record, I had no idea that Maddie Hayward, Maura Tierney’s character who debuted in this episode, was going to just keep the feminist ball rolling this week, and make it even more explicit.

While last week’s review was a sort of a large, over-arching, “here’s an idea I’m having, let’s talk about it” sort of post, this week’s will be a bit more nuts-and-bolts, and more focus on the episode than the broad overview I gave the premiere. If anything, hopefully, this will convince people at Television Without Pity that my response to the Kalinda plot last week was not due to me hating her (which seemed to be common take-away, oddly, and ignoring the parallels I was attempting to draw). Read more »

“I felt like Jimi Hendrix there for a moment.”

There comes a time in everyone’s life when you have to eat your words.

I’m big enough to admit when I’m wrong – or at least when my instincts are – and I was wrong about Elementary. I was concerned that it would be a cheap rip-off of the popular Sherlock. I was concerned it would be a poor retread of well-trod ground. I was concerned that it would be lifeless and boring and a joke. In short: I thought it would suck.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to say with full sincerity and humblest nature: I was wrong.

While there are similarities between Elementary and other Sherlock-inspired enterprises (as is to be expected given they share source material), the show is doing a great job of differentiate itself from the pack. It has a clear idea of who its main characters are individually and together, and who it wants them to be in the future. And while the cases haven’t been revolutionary so far, they have been interesting and (even though we’re only two weeks in), the “quality” of the case has increased from the pilot to this episode.

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“This isn’t about the ’50s, and it’s not about women. It’s about me.”

I don’t know that many dramas do better season premieres than The Good Wife.

It’s not that “I Fought the Law” is necessarily a crazy episode but that it is, now in its fourth season, can effortlessly do these sorts of establishing episodes with not only aplomb but with enough little touches that it didn’t miss a step over the break.

But there’s also a lot of promise in this premiere. It’s par for the course for the series, one that likes to juggle lots of different elements. These elements don’t always pay off (Remember how excited I was about Lisa Edelstein last year?!), but it’s a sign of the show’s ever-increasing ambition that it actively pursues these elements. And I think the plots points presented here, the law firm troubles, Peter’s campaign, Kristen Chenoweth’s reporter, and another new Kalinda subplot, all show promise. Read more »

“What is it you really want? Revenge, or satisfaction?”

Young Justice is back. Yaaaay?

I kid. Sort of. I actually rather enjoyed “Satisfaction” (some issues aside). At this point in the season, and thanks in large part to the hiatus, I’ve managed to internalize and (somewhat) accept the time skip and the myriad of problems it ended up creating for the series. Read more »

“I hate endings.”

Companions tend to divide audiences like no other aspect of Who. There’s a lot of love-hate to go around with companions, and the Ponds are definitely no exception.

My journey to loving Amy and Rory was a bumpy one. I’ve gone from loving one and being ambivalent about the other to liking them both, to disliking one and liking the other, to loving one and hating the other, to finally loving them both as individuals and a couple. I like Amy. I like Rory. I like the Ponds. And I like the Ponds with the Doctor. So here, coming into their last few episodes, I wanted desperately for them to have the kind of satisfying and completing end such long-time companions deserved.

I’m not entirely sure this is what I was looking for.

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I have a confession to make.

I’m not that well-versed in Sherlock Holmes. I’ve never seen any of the “classic” productions of the detective’s tales and I’ve only read two of the stories, and that was so long ago I remember almost nothing about them. My knowledge of Holmes comes about mostly by virtue of cultural osmosis and things like The Great Mouse Detective. It was until recently – through the Sherlock Holmes films and BBC’s Sherlock, that I really became acquainted with “actual” Sherlock productions.

As such, I have no beloved impression of what Sherlock Holmes should be. I can take what I’m given as it’s presented (within reason). That being said, I did have reservations about Elementary. Some of those reservations still stand. But, for the most part, I rather enjoyed the pilot episode.

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“We didn’t ignore anything. We questioned.”

Last Resort is probably the only new drama I’ve been looking forward to this fall. I mean, sure, I’m interested in Elementary, Arrow, and 666 Park Avenue, but if those shows never happened, I wouldn’t have been too disappointed. If Last Resort hadn’t happened, I would’ve been disappointed.

Thankfully, the pilot for Last Resort instills some confidence, even as the premise can seem a little short-lived. But then again, I think we all thought the same thing about Revenge last year, and that show managed to pivot nicely from a “revenge procedural” to a sudsy primetime drama in the vein of The Vampire Diaries in its narrative burn. I don’t mean to suggest that Last Resort will go that way, but I do think there’s likely more than a season in this show (though a well-executed, single season would be perfectly cool with me, too).

But since it’s the pilot, we should take everything with a grain of salt. Adjustments get made, shows find themselves, and given all the balls in the air (or is that missiles?), Last Resort may need some time to get everything properly fleshed out. Read more »

“Burn it. Burn everything.”

Last week on Revolution, Charlie said “family” so many times, the word lost all meaning. It was a very clear message that “family” in the post-apocalypse was going to be an important theme for the show as the core motivation for why anything happened. Unfortunately, whenever I hear the word “family” now, I roll my eyes, even when Revolution isn’t involved.

We’d hoped that this was just a growing pain from the pilot, an issue of establishing themes for the series in a limited amount of time by beating them into our heads (as pilots are wont to do). But, while the second episode isn’t bad, they double down on the discussion of post-civilization morality in a way that is so transparent each segment is like a vignette of thinly-veiled discussion on our modern hot-button issues.

I’m starting to feel like this show is going to desensitize me to ethical debate.

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The thing about watching Doctor Who for any length of time is that you begin to be suspicious of everything.

It’s the same with any television show – since shows tend to follow a pattern in their storytelling, viewers pick up on the similarities from episode to episode and season to season and therefore expect certain things to happen (or not happen). At an even more subliminal level, it’s how musical cues and lighting affect how we feel about what we’re seeing. It’s the very basis of acting! We’re conditioned from birth to match facial expressions to corresponding emotions, thereby accurately depicting our own emotional states – and interpreting those of others.

We act and react according to what we’ve learned. And with television, because we have been conditioned by long-term exposure, we tend to expect certain outcomes (story resolutions) based on certain outputs (previous episodes).

So this gentle letting go Who is pulling for the Ponds feels like it’s leading to some sort of horrific end.

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