Monsters of Television

“Fate caused us to collide.”

That was a big roller coaster now wasn’t it?

I’m going to keep my thoughts pretty focused on just these two episodes since I have a wrap-up post over at TV.com (and if you’ve been following along here, you generally know what I’ve been concerned about and also enjoying). Which is good since there’s a lot of stuff to talk about just within these two episodes that this post might’ve gotten a little unwieldy if I tried to incorporate season ending thoughts as well. Read more »

“I didn’t know.”

It’s weird to write about The Killing in this space, not because we haven’t in the past (we have), but because when I think about this finale, and the season as a whole, I don’t separate it from the first season. I think of both seasons actually as a single, 26-episode season. Like, you know, on broadcast TV! Exactly what Veena Sud didn’t want!

This is a little unfair, of course. The Killing strode for something slightly more ambitious than your normal crime melodrama in its effort to show the ripple effect of this single girl’s utterly pointless murder. It wanted to explore the ramifications on the police, the victim’s family, power brokers, and, at least the first season, other people who knew the victim. It most cases, the show was wildly unsuccessful in its attempts to do this as it saw these ramifications as not only subplots but as red herrings into a murder that it, ultimately, never really cared about.

So I’m going to talk about the episode and this season, and then some brief thoughts on where the show can possibly go from here.

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“I made it very clear: I don’t know how to drive.”

Action-heavy episodes like this one are among the worst things to write about it. I can highlight the excellent direction by Joaquim Dos Santos (aka Dr. Fight) and Ki Hyun Ryu, but you already know they’re excellent. And you can’t not mention the storyboard artists who routinely deliver dynamic work that is then brought to life by Studio Mir and their animation director Han Gwang Il.

And it’s all great. Action sequences on Korra are never incoherent and show a knack for cleverness (how awesome was it when Mako re-directed the mecha’s electrical charge back to it? Answer: Very awesome) that I really don’t think any show matches it (if there is one, please let me know so I can watch).

It does mean, however, that there’s not too much to dig into, so if this is a little short, I apologize in advance. Read more »

“Don’t believe me, do you?”
“Excuse me, brother, but no, I don’t.”

I’ve never seen a single episode of the original Dallas. I was only six years old when it ended it’s 14 season run in 1991 (plus various TV movies and reunion specials), and the series was never really on my syndication radar (I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in syndication, though it has been syndicated in limited capacities). I’m familiar with it, then, only in reading TV histories, clips of the series in “TV’s best [whatever]…”, and pop culture parody and homage.

Which doesn’t exactly make me the best person to talk about the show since TNT’s Dallas is more of a continuation than a reimagining or reboot of the original series. But that doesn’t mean I don’t recognize its influences. Dallas popularized the use of the season-ending cliffhanger after the “Who shot J.R.?” season finale, and as we’re all aware now, the cliffhanger is pretty much way to end lots of shows, even sitcoms sometimes, these days (his likely explains, by the way, the show’s lack of syndicated presence following its conclusion).

As a result, I’m more likely to discuss ways in which this new Dallas feels a lot like other shows that are, in turn, likely indebted to the original Dallas. If anything, this version of Dallas perhaps represents the final segment of a snake eating itself. Read more »

“As long as my face doesn’t look like Chris Hansen, your guests will be fine.”

So as you may or may not be aware, Nick and I are huge fans of Gilmore Girls. We find nothing embarrassing about this because Gilmore Girls is a damn fine show. Stop judging us. YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND OUR LOVE.

Anyway.

We were both understandably intrigued by Bunheads when it started circulating given our Amy Sherman-Palladino love (and it didn’t look like Jezebel James, which was a plus). So we both watched it and then discussed it in a small chat session, hence the more conversational tone.  –Noel Read more »

“Not every little girl gets to do what they want. The world could not support that many ballerinas.”

The five partners audition for a part in Dark City. Later, Roger goes the extra mile.

That was a finale?

Call me jaded or spoiled but I expect more of a cliffhanger or at least something a little more shocking in my Mad Men season finales. There were no major shifts with the business (adding real estate doesn’t count). No head-scratching proposals. No dynamic changes at all.

With last week’s shocking (if not surprising) episode, it almost felt like we got a breather week but with nothing afterward. That’s not to say that this week’s episode wasn’t good-to-great. Upon further inspection, you can see that it wraps up the season-long thesis of loneliness. Everyone’s life sucks and they’re isolated and they’re alone because no one understands them in this world that’s leaving them behind. Come back for more!

We may leave this season without shocking revelations but we find them in greater misery than they were at the end of any other season. The show plumbs new lows in order to establish that this is the darkest timeline. And the end-of-episode montage tells me that this was the end of the season. It just doesn’t feel that way.

Let’s take a tour of the sad.

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“You’re safe now.”

Well, we were due for something of an even episode after the general air of intensity we’ve been experiencing since “And the Winner is…”. The episode isn’t bad, but it doesn’t have the same dynanism as even “The Aftermath” had. But perhaps this is because I’ve come not to like episodes that are focused on answering questions instead of telling a story (I blame some of Lost for this).

“Out of the Past” also has the unfortunate position of needing to resolve the Tarrlok story so the remaining three episodes of the season can focus fully on the last push against Amon. (Did you catch those previews for the 1-hour (meaning 2 episodes) finale? Cray-cray.) As a result, the episode feels more like a prerequisite than a strong unit of narrative in the grand scheme of things.

But at least the last five or eight minutes were pretty good. Read more »

“There’s no static on a psychic link!”

Sorry if you were hankering for a post about last week’s Flash-tacular episode. Between Impulse (my exposure is limited to last week’s episode and the current Teen Titans comic, and in both cases I don’t really like Bart) and time travel (an unnecessary attempt to raise the stakes for characters we barely know/haven’t developed a relationship with) I didn’t have much to say about the episode that I didn’t just say in a few words.

“Depths” on the other hand does offer something to talk about, whether we like it or not, and perhaps serves as a minor corrective to the issue of not knowing/haven’t developed a relationship phrase I used above (though I’m sure that a nuclear apocalypse isn’t going to happen, so it’s still unnecessary stake raising), though I’m not sure how much I even care now. Read more »

“Last night never happened.”

What this show is all about: schemes, remembering, sleuthing, modesty.

You know, maybe people would stop calling you liars if you stopped doing shady crap.

It’s been five months since these attractive diminutive fibbers unmAsked and committed their bully to Rosewood’s Arkham Asylum but none of them have really learned anything from their trials. Nothing’s really changed for them, other than attempting to convince each other of safety. But not one of them has been able to let go of the trauma and detective work that dominated the last year (it’s only been a story world year?) of their lives.

Well, maybe Aria. But we’ll get to her grossness.

The season premiere is all about the difference between what people say to each other and what they actual think and do. The girls present with the illusion of safety while constantly investigating everything that undermines that illusion. Sadly, their investigations are about the modern-day equivalent of a Scooby-Doo operation.

And something tells me that the new attacks aren’t coming from a person that will blow up in a self-righteous, self-important rage that reveals all the secrets. The girls will actually have to do something this time.

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“No, I don’t want to be a partner. I’ve seen what’s involved.”

Lane in his usual pose of World's Most Pathetic.

I didn’t expect to see it.

Everything about Lane since getting into bed with S, C, and D has been hard to watch, like watching someone voluntarily get hit in the stomach after asking for another. He’s not like the others when they make their mistakes. Pete’s humiliations, Don’s scrapes with being discovered, Roger’s conjugal buffoonery — they’re easier to watch because you know they’ll bounce back. Maybe they won’t be the same or they’ll lower their own expectations for themselves but they bounce back. Lane never seemed to have the constitution to be one of those people.

And so, this season, he sinks lower and lower. His wife goes from homesick harpie to ever-supportive which makes the unfortunate series of bad decisions by Lane so much more awful. He doesn’t have the charisma, the stamina, the wherewithal that the other partners have and season 5 for Lane Pryce is about how, while others flourish in the chaos of a fledgling enterprise, he flounders but is too prideful to admit he can’t keep up.

I just didn’t expect to actually see it.

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