Sepinwall on TV: 'Grey's Anatomy' & 'Desperate Housewives' season five reviews

In today's column, I look at how "Grey's Anatomy" and "Desperate Housewives" are trying to reinvent themselves at the start of their fifth seasons: "Grey's" with a two-hour premiere that doubles as a mea culpa for some recent events, "Housewives" with the five-year time jump they showed at the end of last season.

I'm still not enough of a "Housewives" fan to watch or write about it regularly, but this does seem like a good move. As for "Grey's," I'm still here, and there was enough of the Good Shonda that it's going to stay in the rotation. I'll have a separate post up tonight at 11 to go into some specifics about the episode. Click here to read the full post

Desperate Housewives: (Flash) forward progress?

I don't blog on "Desperate Housewives" that often (haven't since this season's premiere, I believe), but as I did devote a good chunk of time to watching the finale, might as well offer up some thoughts, just as soon as I remember to always bet on Nathan Fillion in a fair fight...

So I watched the finale for two reasons: 1)To get a wrap-up to the Dana Delany storyline, which was one of the few things that had interested me whenever I checked out the show this year; and 2)To see how the writers would deal with the much-rumored time jump.

The first ended well enough, I suppose (with some pugilistic assistance from my man Fillion, and from Gary Cole playing one of those bad guys too stupid to keep his mouth shut when he's being held at gunpoint) but wasn't enough to compensate for how much I've grown to dislike the other parts of the show. Susan again winds up in a story (the baby-naming thing) where, rather than have an actual conversation with someone, she resorts to goofy, Ain't-I-Cute subterfuge. Gaby's as spoiled as ever (I recognize that's in the character's design; I just don't find her amusing enough to tolerate it). And even though I knew Lynette and her husband would find a way to stop his manipulative adultery-spawn, it's not something I wanted to sit through waiting for the denouement. (Again, I recognize that it's a soap and I'm not a standard soap fan; anytime one of these evil pathological liars shows up -- see also Michelle Trachtenberg on "Gossip Girl" -- I start to zone out.)

But Delany was very good, and Bree remains the strongest original character, the only one where the writers (thanks to Marcia Cross) usually get to have their cake and eat it, too, with making her likable and human in spite of her more extreme behavior.

As for the time jump, this is now the third series to do it in recent years, starting with the New Caprica arc on "Battlestar Galctica" and the institution of the flash-forwards this year on "Lost." Admittedly, much of the "Lost" action still takes place in what we consider the present-day, but at what point does advancing your characters past all the dead spaces in their lives (say, Gaby dealing with pregnancy and caring for infants) cease to be an interesting storytelling device and start seeming like the crutch of a TV show with too many narrative dead ends that need to be quickly abandoned?

If you're still watching the show, how happy were you with this Delany-augmented season? And does the time jump make you more or less likely to want to stick around come fall? Click here to read the full post

All TV: Enough 'Who's to make your head spin

Today's column looks at the "Doctor Who"-heavy weekend, which includes the season four Christmas episode (with Kylie Minogue), episode two of "The Sarah Jane Adventures" and the season two finale of "Torchwood." Minimal spoilers for all, in case you're worried. Click here to read the full post

Sunday! Sunday! Soap day!

Spoilers for "Desperate Housewives" and "Brothers & Sisters" coming up just as soon as I get a neck massage...

So it's been a recurring theme on the blog this week that I'm not in a soap opera mode of late. I watched the season's first two episodes of "Ugly Betty," for instance, liked them, and yet made no effort to set my DVR to record it going forward (even though there's a hole in the lineup now that I've ditched "Survivor: China"). And I'm more interested in seeing episode two of "Bionic Woman" than "Dirty Sexy Money," even though the latter was clearly a much better pilot.

Which brings me to "Desperate Housewives." I was never one of the critics who was over the moon about the first season, nor someone who thought the shark fin had been leaped over in season two. And I remember quite liking the first episode or two of season three that they sent me on DVD -- and yet skipping almost the entirety of that season, save the supermarket hostage show (which I think I also got in advance). So this may be the last thing I blog about the show this year, even though I liked several things that happened in it.

Start with the arrival of Dana Delany, who, as most everybody knows, was the first choice to play Bree but turned it down because she'd just done a comic mystery soap hybrid with "Pasadena." Delany gives good bitch here, in a very different way than Marcia Cross plays Bree. I just hope it doesn't become one of those Al Swearengen vs. Cy Tolliver things where the creator brings in his original choice for the part in an only slightly modified role, then runs out of stuff to give him/her once the initial rush of loyalty fades out. Also, I'd rather see Nathan Fillion in an action role, but the guy can do comedy, and anything that keeps him employed in a relatively high profile is okay by me.

But as far as the returning characters go, I've reached the point where I dislike all the main women, with the exception of Bree (where Cross' comic flair compensates for what's often a very caricatured part). And that, as much as any soap fatigue, means I probably won't be around moving forward.

"Brothers & Sisters" is a more elusive creature to me. I mentioned in a comment to a "Dirty Sexy Money" post last week that, for reasons I still can't quite identify (even though it's one of the things I'm paid to do), Greg Berlanti makes TV shows that I admire, often like a lot -- I never regretted an hour spent watching "Everwood" -- and yet ones that I never feel compelled to see every week.

I had a season pass to "Brothers & Sisters" last year and was really enjoying what it had become under Berlanti's watch -- the road trip episode was a particular highlight -- yet there came a point in the season where the number of episodes that were backlogged on the DVR became so high that I knew I was never going to get around to them all anytime soon, and so I deleted them to make room for a Giants game or something. (Football in high-def roolz.) I dug the premiere episode, particularly Rob Lowe's presence as the one man capable of bringing the Walkers down from their various pity parties (he arrived almost exactly when I tuned out last year, though for no reflection on his work) and intend to be more dilligent about catching the show this year than last, even if it means sometimes watching episodes on ABC's kick-ass streaming site... But I still have this feeling that, within a month or two, I'm going to be cueing up old underdog sports movies on one of the movie channels when I should be watching Rachel Griffiths play drunk.

Somebody want to psychoanlayze me on this? And what did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Brought to you by the letter D

So a couple of weeks ago, a reader sends me an e-mail complimenting Neil Patrick Harris for his ability to succeed playing a character so different from Doogie Howser, and whether I could think of other TV actors who had successfully reinvented themselves like that. I didn't have space in that week's mailbag, so I held the letter a week and put it into today's column -- not realizing, of course, that ol' NPH would come out of the closet over the weekend. Not that it invalidates anything I wrote, but on this Monday morning, the man's versatility isn't really the top subject people are interested in.

So in honor of Doogie -- and to compensate for a busy weekend that didn't give me much writing time -- quick hit spoilers coming up on, in order, "Desperate Housewives," "Dexter" and "Doctor Who," plus honorary D show "Battlestar Galactica."

Now that's how you do a Very Special Episode, "Desperate Housewives." I figured the much-publicized death would be of a non-regular, but the shooting of Nora happened so abruptly that it shook me, and this is a show that I generally consider a Take One For The Team selection. Some fine performances all around, but especially by Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross and Laurie Metcalf, may Carolyn Bigsby rest in peace. When even Teri Hatcher isn't annoying me at the moment, it's a sign that Marc Cherry and company really have gotten things back on track.

One of the best "Dexter" episodes so far, in which the creators' ability to make us like this guy have us suddenly rooting for a serial killer to escape justice. I thought the Patrick Bateman alias was a little too clever, but the tension between Dexter and Deb gave some weight to his scrambling. (Also, is this the first we know that Deb was Harry's biological daughter? I had been under the impression they were both foster kids.)

I didn't comment on last week's "Doctor Who" because so much of it was set-up for the Cybermen conclusion. And while it didn't move me on the same level as "The Girl in the Fireplace" or "School Reunion," it worked very well. Raise your hands, anyone who's ever read or seen another parallel universe story who didn't assume Mickey would stay to take Rickey's place. (And was I the only one wondering if Rickey and the blonde guy were a couple? Apparently, it was in the script but then got cut.) What I love about this series is how every character gets their turn in the spotlight, whether it's Mickey escaping tin dog status, Alt-Pete proving to be a swell guy, or, my favorite, Mrs. Moore becoming a character I liked and mourned in the space of about four minutes. (Until she got zapped by the Cybermen, Tennant was looking at her like he was ready to sign up another companion.) Hell, I even felt bad for the poor bride-to-be who got Cyber-ized, and she had, like, three lines of voice-modulated dialogue. Aside from the deux ex machina of using the TARDIS power cell to get out of the cliffhanger, another superb outing from these fine folks.

Ron Moore spends the latest "Battlestar Galactica" podcast discussing how much of this episode had to be saved in post-production, particularly the Cylon scenes. And it's a credit to the editors and writing team that very few of the seams showed in the final version. There was too much tell and not enough show in the subplot about Starbuck and Tigh sowing dissent throughout the ship, but beyond that, it worked. The use of dissolves and classical music lent the Baltar storyline just the right amount of unreality, and Adama's showdown with his surrogate brother and daughter was the best moment Edward James Olmos has had all season, St. Crispin's Day included. Interesting, the divergent paths that Kara and Saul take after that meeting. But then, the person who was taken away from Kara still exists -- as much as it may hurt at first, she can have some kind of relationship with Kacey -- where Saul has nobody and nothing to live for.

What did everybody else think about any of these? Click here to read the full post

Go, go, go, go for G

Better late than never, I got to "Grey's Anatomy" last night. I have to applaud Shonda Rhimes for following one of the first rules of drama: she brought a bomb onstage in the first act, and she made damn sure it went off by the last, even if it had to take poor Kyle Chandler with it.
(And here I was figuring Chandler was here to help prolong the inevitable Meredith/McDreamy reunion. Ah, well; guy was good enough that, between this and "King Kong," he ought to get a good pilot role. Since Matthew Perry's playing the Sorkin part in "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," maybe Chandler could play Tommy Schlamme.)

As implausible and over-the-top and "ER"-ish as this two-parter was, I was hooked for virtually all of it. (Again, the only moments throwing me out were when Meredith and Cristina started gabbing about their love lives in the middle of this.) I didn't even laugh when McDreamy pulled a Fonzie and brought Bailey's husband back to life with a well-placed fist to the chest. (On the other hand, I laughed for a long time when Bailey told George to stop looking at her va-j-j, or however you spell it.) This is a show that's firing on all cylinders right now, and I'm damn glad to see that it actually outrated "Desperate Housewives" this week.

"Gilmore Girls," meanwhile, took a trip to Martha's Vineyard by way of Bizarro World. So Logan is likable and Luke is a whiney jerk? When the hell did this happen? Rory's continued transformation into a Stepford Wife creeps me out (and I love how Rory and Logan piss and moan about Mitchum but don't have a problem staying in his home or using his money on a trip to Asia), and I want to slap Lorelai for not telling Luke that she wants to spend time with April. At this point, I'm longing for the Lorelai/Rory split portion of the season; at least then, we got lots of Richard and Emily.

If "Housewives" can be entered at the Emmys as a comedy, then maybe "House" should, too. The migraine medicine subplot -- and, especially, Wilson's horrified realization of what House was doing at that lecture -- was hysterical.

Back to "Sopranos"-land... Click here to read the full post