Everybody Loves Saturday Night

Hello, 2008. Goodbye to TV?

The strike is really too depressing to talk much about.  Let's just say: a) the writers are completely in the right, I mean COME ON, they make 7 cents off a DVD and NOTHING off Internet?  and b) all joy is gone until the big corps get off their butts and realize the # of people who will actually watch reality TV every stupid night is far smaller than the amount who appreciates well-written TV.  Right?  Fuck, I hope so.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles started last night / continues tonight.  I loved it.  A little backstory / some good fights.  Everyone is beaten down and miserable and barely keeping it together.  Good performances by the three leads.  I'm looking forward to more, although if you read the article in the latest EW, I do have concerns given the actors all seem a bit lost without the writers there during the majority of the filming (9 eps written out of 13 pre-strike, but the writers not around to discuss even what was already written).

And as for a mid-season (but potentially end-of-season) review of everything else I'm watching:

Brothers & Sisters. I still enjoy the repartee, and still enjoy watching Justin and Kevin... but I think it's pretty lame that EVERY marriage has to wind up with infidelity on this show. Same old, same old. Watch out, Calista & Rob, you're next!

Heroes.  First half of season sucked ass. Last four eps were fairly awesome, at least up to season 1 standards.  Not thrilled to be getting sucked back in...just in time for the strike.  But this is definitely one of the shows I enjoy more on DVD (as with LOST).

K-Ville.  Predictable and overly melodramatic. But enjoy the two leads and their buddy/partner chemistry.

Bones.  MY FAVORITE SHOW OF THIS SEASON (even over #2 FNL knocked out of the top spot and #s 3 Pushing Daisies/Office tie and #4 Life) Loving it. Loved every minute of this season. So sad not to be seeing new episodes right now.

Reaper.  Up and down but for the most part I do enjoy each episode even when afterward I think "What was the point of that / or they forgot about this / or they dropped the ball on that".  None of it has lived up to the Kevin Smith-directed premiere for me. Ep 3 was close but all else has been mediocre in comparison. Still laugh at it though, so find it worth watching.

Gossip Girl.  At first I was only watching this on iTunes but since it's one of the few with new eps left, I've moved to watching it in real time.  A guilty pleasure, indeed.  It's like The OC but without the annoying attempt at seeing real life next to the rich kids.  Even Dan and Jennie are not Ryan Atwood poor.  There are no well-meaning, morally upstanding (despite being rich) parents (Sandy Cohen, I'm talking to you). It's all boys, bitches and bling. What's not to like.

Pushing Daisies.  My #1 new show of the season.  The sweetness and charm, and the retro rich colors of the filming.  So much to love.  (So much to miss.)

Life.  My #2 new show of the season.  Love the lead, love the partner chemistry with both his old & new partners, love the fight to lead a zen life vs. the fight to get revenge. Love the creepiness of the bad cops and the bad non-cop dudes. Love it all.

The Office.  Continued to be brilliant. Funny and crass and yet sweet and kind, all at the same time.  Nobody does that better.

30 Rock.  As funny as the Office with a little less sweetness (there really is no situation comparable to Pam/Jim on this show, in my opinion).  Comedic actors doing the type of brilliant work they would never get recognized for on the big screen.

Grey's.  Sucks.  Contrived. Ridiculous. Trying way too fucking hard.

Friday Night Lights.  (STILL HAS AT LEAST ONE OR TWO NEW EPS LEFT) Still love some of it.  Still has these just blindingly beautiful moments of true feelings / true situations / bitingly real scenarios.  At the same time, so much of it has been very contrived this year (and not just the murder mystery).  Some of the really good bits are starting to be overshadowed by the ridiculous bits.  Peter Berg, would you please step back in and get control of these writers (when the strike ends, I guess) as almost none of the episodes have held a candle to last year's.  It's like they actually didn't know which parts made them a success and have gone off in the wrong direction. (And p.s. let's have dinner, you and me.)

NUMB3RS.  Still not what it once was. But last few episodes have had some nice tension and some nice scary-without-a-zillion-shoot-em-ups bits.

I think that's all I've been watching in real time.  Isn't it?  Man, can't even remember, now that most shows have gone dark.  Still catching up with How I Met Your Mother on iTunes, I'm somewhere in the second season. 

And looking forward to the beginning of Lost and Jericho, although I don't think there's a full season written of either one, is there?  Didn't watch last season of The Wire because the schoolroom focus was just too painful to watch. Will probably try to watch it on DVD at some point so going to save the current season for then. I do love me some James McNulty though.

Heroes quickie

Y'all, I don't even know what happened for the first 45 minutes of last night's Heroes. All I know is that when that idiot Mohinder fired the gun and freakin' SHOT Bennett, I screamed. I cried. I was so pissed off, and so sad.

I went through all stages of grief during the commercial break, ultimately arriving at acceptance. After all, Bennet had basically passed the torch to West (who, ok, may not be evil at all, because he pretty much rocked the house last night...and yet a hint a suspicion remains) so Claire was still going to be protected, and I can see in a Grand Narrative way how she needs to be free of parental authority in order to come into her own, but it still blew. My favorite character, basically, was gone. And that really, really, really sucked.

And then he woke up in a Company-like cell with his eye regenerated and what. The. Fuck. We're supposed to think that's Claire's blood, right? But...how did he get there? And where is there, exactly? Who is helping him? The only two people who could jump distances like that (that we know of) are Hiro and Peter. It would make sense for Peter to save Bennet, come to think of it. And then maybe that's Adam's blood, not Claire's.

Holy. Shit.

Heroes: Four Months Ago (or whatever)

Dear Carolyn,

You just wrote about turning the corner on Reaper; I feel that Heroes has gone the same way. It was a rocky start, marred to me in particular with the duo some are calling the Goo Twins. While most people hated the way everyone was scattered around again, almost like the show went right back to Square Zero, I thought it made sense, I wanted to see how people would come back together, and was willing to give the show a lot of room. I do think it took too long to get to this point, Monday's Lost-Season-One-good episode, and it's all the more bittersweet given that the writers' strike doesn't look like it will be over any time soon. So let's enjoy these last few episodes, shall we?

I want to get the blah out of the way: Goo Twins? As boring in the past as they are in the present. Didn't tell me anything I didn't already know about them, except that Alejandro was married to a skanky version of his sister before his sister killed everyone.

I also did not care for DL's death one bit. If he is dead. I mean, they did the whole burial and everything, and there was a *moment* between Nana Dawson and Bob, but we never saw DL actually DIE. Fits in with my other pet theory, that Mr. Petrelli isn't really dead either.

OK, so. Peter gets himself imprisoned by the Company just after the explosion because according to Bob, Peter is a danger to himself and others. This is where I pretty much decided that the Company is not good, because there are ways Peter can learn to control his more dangerous abilities without resorting to taking pills. The Company seems to be more interested in suppression, not protection. Because hello, Elle? Shouldn't she be taking the pills as well?

(Sidebar: thinking back to the first Elle episode, I think "Daddy" is Bob but in an ironic way--if she's spent most of her life inside that place, then Bob's the only Daddy she knows. It would fit her character to call him that, I think.)

Doesn't mean I think Adam is wholly good, though. I don't know exactly what to think about this--either he's completely playing Peter or...no, actually, I think he's completely playing Peter. Poor Peter. Poor hot, shirtless Peter.

Once I thought about it (and watched S1), I get why Peter didn't explode with radiation. Ted didn't, when he blew up Claire's house.

I loved how Nathan's disfiguration and regeneration was explained. Adam's blood has healing powers. So Claire's blood might heal as well, right? And in a different way than Mohinder's. So maybe Claire will be the key to preventing an outbreak of the Shanti virus.

But that's too easy, so it must be something else.

Did you catch Angela's power? Persuasion! I love it! Last week she wasn't putting memories back into Peter, she was persuading him to remember her. This week, the way the camera focused on her touching Heidi while telling her what to do...made me want to watch S1 all over again, even though I'd spent the whole weekend watching it, just to get the scenes where she's talking to Nathan and Peter. Does she touch them a lot?

That's all I got right now. Smooches!

Heroes: Well, hello, I wasn't expecting that.

Dear Michelle,

This show is so uneven. But I don't really blame that on this season since that's one of the reasons I originally stopped watching it in season one (which I then of course whipped through on DVD). And I hate having to watch an entire episode to get to HUGE reveals in the last five minutes. (Why can't we have those in the beginning or middle and then make something of them? Why does it always have to be a cliffhanger?) I was kinda bored even though when I think about it, a LOT more went on in this episode than in most of the season. And admittedly, no Maya & Loser Brother so it wasn't as boring as it could have been.

So - the ending. Hello Sark in the future as "Adam." Does that mean that Sark in the past as "Kensei" was really some sort of diabolical plan to make Hiro... to make Hiro screw up the future? Or was he there to help Hiro save the future? Was there something that had to be fixed back there? The company is claiming he's bad, and he did kinda seem that way, but it is admittedly hard to see that actor as all-out good. Is it possible that HRG is wrong and the Company actually IS good in some way? Did it seem that Bob was implying to Nathan that Peter left on his own? When is Veronica Mars coming back?

I am bored by Parkman although it was nice that he ramped up his abilities and got Molly out of confinement. I am bored with Suresh's moralizations. Everything going on is questionably gray, not just Bob's actions. Nice to see DL although sadly it was just an illusion.

And as you know, I love West. He's impish and cute and sparkly and even if he does turn out to be evil (which his reaction to finding out about HRG didn't make him seem to me), he's the only character - other than Hiro of course - who has really embraced his abilities and had some fun with them. Oh, OK, I guess Mica and Monica are doing that too. But he seems positively gleeful about it and they seem more like it's hard work.

This show is a lot like Lost to me in that it works much better on DVD when you are whizzing through three or four episodes a night. It just seems like things happen in a way they don't when you are waiting a week between each one, then getting only a few tiny moments with the characters you do like, and lots of time with characters you don't...

Did you read that they have an alternate ending to a December episode so if the writers' strike isn't resolved, they can just END THE SEASON there instead of just ending that story arc. I can't decide if that's good or bad to know.

So...what did you think?

Smooches!

Heroes: The Line

Dear Carolyn,

So much going on and I can't decide how I feel about it. I was confused while watching, then I thought about it and decided I didn't like the episode because it was so disjointed and all over the place, but then I watched it again last night (fast forwarding through some stuff) and realized that while it was all over the place, there were some pretty good moments.

Claire plot: I have to say that the cheer "R-E-C-Y-C-L-E; it's our planet, let's plant a tree!" was hilarious. But the whole bitch head cheerleader story is so played out. Boring!

Monica plot: OK, thanks to the G4 Heroes S1 on Sunday I remembered that in the future "five years gone" episode Mohinder is placed in a similar situation, where he is asked to inject someone with something that will take away their abilities. And I see why the Company thinks Monica is a threat--as a musclemorph or whatever they're calling her, she is basically as dangerous as Sylar or Peter, hypothetically. And now she's back in NO, with a video iPod...huh? Obviously we're supposed to be suspicious of Bob's change of heart, but...huh?

Mohinder plot: Oh, Mohinder, so green at this espionage thing. And now he seems fully ensconced in the Company, as the "normal" partner with Niki...except that's totally Jessica. Interesting. It's funny--I got really bored with the Jessica/Niki thing last year but now I am so glad she/they're back in the picture. Does Bob know it's Jessica? See, this is why Stephen Tobolowsky is the perfect casting choice for this part. He's got a face you want to trust, but it's almost too trustworthy a face which makes me suspicious.

Noah Bennet plot: I applaud his return to that morally gray area he functions in. He's been kinda cuddly since the end of last season (ever since "Company Man") but this episode showed that he is still ruthless. Plus, he spoke Russian, and that was pretty hot.

So now he's seen the paintings. I saw one of Peter looking evil (that was a quick shot), one of someone pointing a gun, and it's either Mohinder or Peter or maybe Sylar? But why would Sylar need a gun?, one of a vial, one of a blond woman (Jessica/Niki? Elle?) trapped inside a box, one of Hiro fighting Kensei (does that mean, oh please god, that this story will finally have relevance?), and then the one showing Bennet dead. The vial = Shanti virus variant, I'm guessing. (still, that's only 6 paintings, we still need to see the other 2.)

Sylar plot: did you hear the watch parts clicking? I'm not saying I'm rooting for him, but if he were to unzip Maya's head and take her brain? I would not stop him. Good god, this storyline is tiresome. Beyond tiresome.

Ando/Hiro plot: enjoyed Ando reading the scrolls. Am intrigued by "the kiss that fractured time." Am willing to see this story turn very dark. Still pissed that Hiro is still in Japan.

Peter plot: Niiiiiiiiiiice. He goes to Montreal with Caitlin and enters this warehouse space with the symbol above the door, and someone knew he was going to be there and left him that note. That's what I'm talking about.

Loved that he teleported to Times Square after the city was evacuated, eight months from now. Is that an evacuation based on the Shanti virus? or because Maya unleashes her black goop? Or Sylar does, after he takes Maya's power?

And Adam Monroe. He left the note for Peter and the Company has a file on him. The Company thinks he's a threat, but based on his note to Peter he would appear to be a good guy. Is he also someone who can bend time/space? Who the hell is he?

Based on the previews for next week, it would seem that this show is finally getting to the point. I said before that I didn't mind that it was finding a different way to tell a story, but I am eager for things to come to a head.

Heroes: Fight or Flight

Dear Carolyn,

I am still catching up on TV; haven't been able to watch Pushing Daisies or Friday Night Lights but will soon so I can post comments to your awesome posts (which I've read, because I've done a 180 on my attitude toward spoilers, but that's another story). I'm just going to jump in with a fresh week's worth of shows.

I was a little surprised to read EW's C+ review of Heroes just after the episode I thought displayed a return to Heroes S1 form. I'm still a little confused as to why everyone from professional critics to amateur couch potatoes like ourselves is so completely unsatisfied with Season 2 so far and not willing (at least, as far as I can tell) to give the show its space to develop a different way of telling a story than it did last year. I have absolutely no problem with there not being a "World in Peril" storyline right now. I have no problem with the heroes being scattered around after coming together to save the world at the end of last season. 90% of the heroes have no idea what they're doing to begin with, so it's a little much to expect them to band together immediately. It's not like Peter and Nathan would shoot up in the air, save NYC, and then everyone else would look at each other and say, "Right, shall we find our Hall of Justice now?"

I think there is a fair amount of banding together now. There's Parkman, working with Mohinder and Molly on one hand and Nathan and Angela on the other. Another reason that I don't mind the lack of group work here is that there's an awful lot of loss and mourning going on with a number of our characters. I think it's fitting that they're all doing their own things right now, because what happened at the end of last season was incredibly tragic, saving the world aside.

Heroes: Kindness of Strangers

Dear Carolyn,

Hang on while I write a couple short notes.

[Dear Jenn: You shoulda been over to watch last night.]

[Dear Cassie: Start watching again.]

OK, I'm back.

WOW. This episode was loaded with "Holy Crap!" moments. More after the break.

Heroes: Kindred

You want to know what I thought of Heroes, Carolyn? Well, let's see...so far I think the sophomore season is going splendidly, for the most part. I have some quibbles with it but for the most part I am willing to see what the writers have cooked up for us.

I'm not exactly sure what they're doing with Hiro's story right now. I think I was so willing to believe that Hiro would actually be Kensei that I was thrown when Kensei started to be Kensei, with Hiro's prodding. I did love when Hiro transports them both to the Fire Scroll place and the Ninety Angry Ronin, and Kensei's all "How angry are they?" And I liked that Hiro writes to Ando and hides the scrolls in the sword. That Hiro decides to stay in 1671 Japan makes me think that there's still a chance for him to "rewrite" history--or write history the way he knows it--because otherwise there's no reason for the writers to set the story up so that we know the real Kensei to be rather undeserving of the "hero" title and the girl. Right?

On to Peter's story. I don't know if anyone reads the graphic novel companions to the show on NBC's site. They're here if you have no idea what I'm talking about. I started reading them this season and they provide a tiny bit more insight into the show, without giving away major plot points. (Someone in the comments pointed them out to me, so thanks for that.) The installment this week is about Peter and Caitlin and the story of Cuchulainn--another hero with a sword. I doubt this is going to make it into the show, but I thought it was a nice connection to Hiro's story.

But back to Peter. I told Jenn yesterday that I never thought, in Season 1, that I would say the words, "I find Peter's situation compelling and intriguing," but there it is. Whereas Peter in Season 1 was racked with self-doubt which prohibited him from calling up whatever power he needed, amnesiac Peter doesn't doubt that he can, he just doesn't know how it works, which is not the same thing. So I think the reason Peter is so powerful right now, or one of the reasons, is that he's not aware that he ever lacked the confidence to do things, or that he acquired these powers one by one. He's using his power on instinct alone, and I think it's very interesting that he had to lose his identity in order to learn how to do that. I also think we saw a glimpse of Jessica in Peter when he was choking the traitor.

The Peter/Sylar connection is also interesting--they're two sides of the same coin. I don't think what happened at the end of S1 was that Peter somehow became Sylar, though. Peter absorbs his powers, Sylar has to forcibly take them. Peter has all these powers but doesn't really know it yet, whereas Sylar seems to have lost all his. That was awesome, by the way. Was Candace (RIP) right, that when Sylar heals he'll be able to regain what he lost? Does he need the Company to help him? How's he going to get off the Lost island?

Maya/Alejandro: meh. This is one of my quibbles--I don't like this story. It's not that I don't like having new characters introduced, it's the power itself that I find distasteful. Every time that black stuff appears in Maya's eyes I am painfully reminded of The X-Files. At least next week they'll conceivably be in the US. Of course then they'll need to get from the border to New York...it's just an interminable story line and it's really boring.

Thought: why did they zoom in on the "Go! Conquistadors!" bumper sticker on the getaway car? I read somewhere that it was Claire's car, but I thought she had something older and SUV-like. Am I misremembering, and the dude with the car is the one who stole it? I can't see why that would be important, unless it means that the guy is going to drive them to Costa Verde, where they'll meet Bennett, and something real will happen with this story. Please.

 

Claire/West: OK, so yay for Claire finding another someone else like her and not feeling so alone. I don't like West, though. The fact that he can fly doesn't erase the fact that he's an asshat. Is it me, or is it clear that his family moved to CA for the same reason as Claire's? He says he used to live in St. Louis, but that's where he was found by Claire's dad (it's not quite Romeo and Juliet, but it's a nice twist). Still, it's not like Claire should be surprised by the scar on West's neck. She knew what her dad did. Or is she just pissed that she can't bring him home now?

Bennett: That painting gives me the wiggins. Bennett is shown shot through the eye while Claire is being kissed by a shadowy figure? WTF? I'm fairly confident that this is one of those "we can't let that happen" paintings like the one of exploding NYC. I would not want Bennett to die.

Final thought: Nichelle Nichols looks DAMN GOOD.

Heroes: Four Months Later

Wow, Heroes, way to just jump right into everyone's story without any explanation for how last season ended. I'm not complaining, I think it's fine, but I still feel confused about a lot of stuff.

1. How in the name of great muppety Odin* did Nathan survive? I have this image of him flying into space with Peter, then pushing Peter away on his own trajectory and then zooming the hell away from the explosion. That's the only way I can make sense of it, and what an asshole thing to do. Love will save us all my ass.

2. See above, for Matt Parkman. He can read thoughts, he's not bulletproof. He took FOUR BULLETS to the chest and FOUR MONTHS later he's cheating on his detective's exam? I think not.

3. OK, fine, it's a comic book show. I need to remember how to suspend my disbelief again.

4. who is this bogeyman that Molly fears so much? Last season I thought it was Sylar and now I think it's someone else.

5. Speaking of Sylar, was that him that pushed Hiro's dad off the building? (P.S., harsh!)

6. I am still so rooting for the Bennets. All of them. Especially you, Mr. Muggles.

7. Casting David Anders as Kensei was brilliant. Genius! He's marvelous, too. (Would he make a good Doctor? Not that I want Tennant to leave any time soon but now I can't look at any male British actor without wondering what he would be like. Anyway. Sidebar. Moving on.)

8. I really liked that Hiro's hero isn't heroic at all. Jenn raised the possibility that because Kensei is a sloppy lazy drunken letch, that it's Hiro who does all the heroics, and Hiro is actually Kensei. I love this theory.

9. Oh, and we got a couple of new characters: Alejandro and his creepy sister Maya. Well, Maya isn't creepy so much as her power is. No wonder they're trying to get to NY to find a cure. I wouldn't want to make people bleed from their eyes, either. I did like that they were reading Papa Suresh's book in Spanish. Nice detail. And so I guess they have to stay together because he keeps her from making people's eyes bleed? Is he like a power-holder in general, the way Peter's a power-absorber? Would Alejandro be able to stop, say, Claire from healing? That would be interesting. He'd then be able to stop Sylar (again).

10. I am less confused with Peter's ability to survive the blast. That one makes sense. And while I was confused by the end of the episode last night, it now also makes sense that the impact of the explosion would trigger amnesia. I don't know how he got chained up in a storage space in Cork, though.

* thank you Joss Whedon, for that gem of a phrase.

Heroes Jumps the Shark

I was there with them.  I was loving how everything tied together!  Parkman saved Molly!  Micah fixes the election!  Nicki's whole annoying existence was justified when she gave Peter her powers and he kicked the shit out of Sylar and then started to go nuclear!

And then... LAME.  As of the moment Nathan showed up to save the world, this show is dead to me.  Even Hiro in the past is not enough.  I'm done.