Monsters of Television

“You’re hurting people I love. You’re hurting people you love.”

Sometimes when I find myself loathing a character and his/her every action I take a step back and really analyze them. I’ve come to find that in certain situations it means that character is very well done (see: Jack Shepard from LOST and Logan Echolls from Veronica Mars). After the events of season 3 I would certainly include Little J in that same category.

Little. Jenny. Humphrey. The poor nobody from Brooklyn who just wanted to be one of the popular girls. Well we’ve seen her rise to power and as the saying goes it does corrupt absolutely. This season she’s dated a drug dealer, become a drug dealer herself, attempted to steal her stepsister’s boyfriend, and tried to break up her father’s marriage. Now as of the finale she’s tried to destroy Serena further by sending a Gossip Girl blast that she slept with Dan. And she lost her virginity. To Chuck Bass (awesome!). Her stepbrother (oh, not awesome). This season for her has been very focused on destroying Serena and the funny thing about it is, she has become the very person she hates. The drugs, the betrayal: these are reasons Serena was sent away to boarding school. Read more »

“I think that bailiff from Night Court is spot on.”

Hmm. Something smells of herring.

The one thing I learned from this episode: despite my film degree, I have not seen a whole lot of Hitchcock. You would think after spending four years of taking film classes of every kind that I would be sick of Hitchcock, up to my ears in the bald man. But no. Even today, my familiarity with his oeuvre is limited to Psycho, most of Vertigo, Rear Window, North by Northwest and brief clips I’ve seen in passing. Now, base an episode on the Odessa Steps sequence or mimes playing tennis and I’m a freaking expert. But my education on Hitchcock was somewhat lacking.

Like House, season finales on Psych are usually formula-breaking, stylized events. Season 4’s ending brings back the Yin-Yang Killer from last season’s finale, a psychopath obsessed with Shawn that leaves clues around town for him to pick up on like a game only he can play. But, since Yang (the name by which she goes) is locked up in a high-security mental institution, this new string of murders can’t be her. In a twist that should really be no surprise to anyone familiar with the Yin-Yang symbol, Yang admits to having a partner that’s still at large. He goes by Yin.

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“Into the fire.”

Mozzie, tugging at the heart strings. Don’t cry, buddy.

It’s all come down to this. Neal, after working for the feds all season, and doing a good job (sometimes so good I wonder how Burke even caught him in the first place), is ready to possibly throw it all away for the dream of a girl he fetishizes and the proverbial “one last job.” Aided by the decidedly hotter Alex and the always faithful Mozzie, the team prepares a plan to steal the music box from the Italian consulate during a conveniently-planned gala. Peter knows Neal is up to something and crashes their planning party. Peter tries to talk Neal out of doing anything illegal but the smarmy look Neal always wears tells Burke that it’s going to happen anyway. Peter’s parting words: “Do the right thing, Neal.”

Central to this series is what Neal thinks is the right thing. He is a principled man, a cultured man, a man both polite and courteous, not even prone to jackassery. By all outward appearances, a gentleman. But then again, he’ll also rob people blind for motives that aren’t entirely clear. Does he only defraud those he feels can afford it? Does he rob just because he likes the nice things? Or does he buck society for some other deep-seated reason? In a binary world, he appears to ride the fence of good and evil, leaning toward one side or the other whenever it suits his purposes. For Neal, though, the world is not binary. It’s all gray. The right thing here is to save Kate. That is his responsibility. And, despite the woman right there that obviously still holds a torch for him, he has an obligation to see this through and chase the dream. The only way to do that is to skirt the law.

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