The O.C.: Blood brothers

Penultimate "The O.C." spoilers coming right up...

Well, how about that? The last few episodes had me worried that Josh and company were just limping to the finish line, and even the first third or so of last night's episode had me thinking, "They're spending their next-to-last episode ever on this?" But somewhere around the point where Julie and Kaitlin had their Bob Seger duet and Seth started Ryan on a trip down Punchy Memory Lane, I just went with it, and by the time everyone was hugging in the hospital, I was getting choked up.

One of my few major complaints about this season has been how subdued Seth has been throughout. Adam Brody arguably went too far in the opposite, mugging direction in the middle seasons, but if there was one part of last week's "Summer worries that Seth doesn't care about anything" subplot that rang true, it's that Seth seems to be on Lithium or something equally personality-muffling this year. So it was very welcome and funny and touching to have him go so meta throughout his rescue attempt, to have him bring up so much of the good (Ryan punching Luke a whole lot), the bad (Johnny and company) and the abruptly-forgotten (Lindsey and Sadie), and the whole body-switching line was the icing on the cake.

Some series devote a week to a clip show right before the end, and in a way, this one felt like a clip show, not just with all of Seth and Ryan's nostalgia, but Taylor referencing Jimmy Cooper, the nod to the instability of the Balboa Wetlands (subject of an early Caleb Nichol plot), Julie's Seger love and other bits of mintuiae for the die-hards.

And, at the same time, it played like something that would have been perfectly appropriate as a series finale. After four years of having his bacon saved by Ryan, Seth finally gets to return the favor. Julie and Kaitlin finally reach an equilibrium and genuinely enjoy each other's company. Taylor makes peace with her mother (after the most awesome roll-and-shoot in the history of roll-and-shoots). The Cohens will have a daughter to join their two fully-grown sons. And the McMansion -- Ryan's salvation from his dead-end childhood, the site of so many good and bad and funny moments for him and the Cohens -- collapses. (And, in the process, gave Peter Gallagher yet another moment to shine, as you could see so many things flashing across his face as he surveyed the wreckage, not the least of which was the realization of how lucky they were to have been out at the time of the quake.) When the preview for the finale boasted, "All your questions will be answered!," I turned to my wife and said, "I'm not sure I have any questions left, really."

Which doesn't mean I won't be glued to the couch next Thursday night at 9, blowing off "Grey's" and the NBC comedies and maybe even sitting through some commercials if I have to, to say goodbye to this wonderful roller coaster ride of a show.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

The Office: Good night, Mary Beth, whoever you are

Spoilers for "The Office" just as soon as I put "Lost Boys" in my Netflix queue...

Of course they gave Joss Whedon the episode where Jim turns into a vampire. Of course they did, even if it was already written (or at least planned) well before Joss offered to direct, even if they didn't tell Joss about that particular subplot, even if everyone who works on the show does a pinky swear that this is all some brilliant coincidence.

But I'll get back to Undead Jim and Dwight beating on the bat (with a bat? I forget what implement he was using at the end) in a bit. I want to start at the end, with that incredibly sweet scene at the art gallery between Michael and Pam. As Pam's gallery ordeal just got worse and worse -- I think Roy shamelessly trying to use it to get laid was worse than what Oscar's roommate said -- I assumed that Jim would show up to sort of save the day as he always does, only he'd have Karen with him, so it would be bittersweet. Instead, Michael got to be the hero, without even realizing it -- and then almost ruined the moment with a leftover prop from his lecture. (It was both a more poignant and funnier version of the Dwight/Pam scene from "Back from Vacation.")

The writers have done some interesting things with Michael and Pam this year: her directing her bird funeral eulogy at him, her driving him home from the Diwali celebration (after totally shooting down his advances), and now this. Most shows would keep playing the one easy note of Pam being rightfully appalled by Michael, but these writers have the wisdom to know that human being are more complex than that -- even overgrown eight-year-olds like Michael Scott -- and so they can occasionally show Pam feeling protective of Michael, or in this case Pam feeling grateful towards him. And it was so perfect that the drawings he loved were of their office and things in it, because Michael is such a purely literal person. She drew their office -- the be all and end all of Michael's existence -- and she drew it accurately in a photo-realist style. Was there any way he wasn't going to be over the moon for that stuff?

I complained last week that Michael's behavior at the wedding made me uncomfortable, even if it was in character. He made just as big a fool of himself in front of Ryan's class, but this one didn't have me squirming nearly as much, because the stakes were lower. Michael was on the verge of ruining Phyllis' wedding day, a big deal in any woman's life, whereas he wasn't doing any real damage to anyone but himself in that lecture hall. (If anything, Ryan's professor probably gave him extra credit after seeing what Ryan has to deal with in the real business world.) The storyline was evocative of a couple of Brit "Office" plots (David taking over the company seminar, and David the disastrous motivational speaker), but in a good way. Best parts of this plot: Ryan's complete lack of conviction as he said "it would be stupid not to do it, right?" and Michael coming up with a far wiser, fairer and meaner punishment than firing for Ryan.

Now, onto the real reason the great and powerful Joss was so clearly hired: Schrute Vampire Slayer. This was very broad in parts, though no broader than "The Injury" or "The Fight" or "Gay Witch Hunt," and when you have an episode end in genuine tears, I think it's very fair to go broader on the other storyline. Loved how quickly Creed fell into an alliance with Dwight, and how he had stake-sharpening tools at the ready. (I hear Creed Bratton once stabbed a man in Reno just to watch him die.) Loved how seeing Pam back with Roy has Jim finally committing to Karen not only as his girlfriend, but as his prankster sidekick. Loved that, for once, one of Jim's pranks didn't have any real negative repercussions on anyone, including Dwight, but was just a way to amuse himself while engaging Dwight's fantasies about the paranormal. And I loved the garbage bag-errific climax.

And speaking of which, some other thoughts:

• Hey, Meredith got something semi-significant to do! Woo-hoo! I'm biased, because Kate Flannery's really nice and wicked funny in person, but I've felt really bad this season at her minimal screen time compared even to the other second-tier characters. As I wrote in the comments a while back, the problem with Meredith is that her job doesn't automatically put her into contact with the other characters, and her defining characteristic as the office lush doesn't make her a go-to joke machine, the way Stanley's crabbiness or Creed's creepiness can be applied to any situation.
• With Ryan banished to the Chatty Annex, does that mean Jim gets his old desk back? And what will having both of his women in his sightline do for that awkward dynamic?
• At first, I assumed Toby's desire to ditch his daughter's play to go to Pam's show was a continuation of his lame attempt to ask her out earlier this season. Maybe it was that, too, but his line about kids plays and how "what they do is not art" had me rolling -- and crying just a little, since I'm not too far away from having to attend elementary school plays on a regular basis.
• The "write that down"/laptop gag was nicely done, and reminded me for some reason of the bit in "Life of Brian" where Brian tells the mob of worshippers that they all have to think for themselves, and they say, "We have to think for ourselves! Tell us more!"
  
• "Poop is raining from the ceilings! Poop!"

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Grey's Anatomy: Lady in the water

Spoilers for "Grey's Anatomy" just as soon as I look up the airfare from Seattle to Costa Mesa...

Okay, here's where being a guy who's paid to watch TV obsessively and exhaustively gets in the way of me enjoying a moment the way I would if I were a regular viewer. Already, I'm inclined to be cynical about the possibility of Meredith dying, because I know the way the TV business works, and I know how Shonda Rhimes practically breathes through Meredith Grey, and then comes the Big. Shocking. Moment. when Meredith is ice-blue on the table one second, and a healthy pink the next, looking up at Dylan the blowed-up bomb squad hunk and the late Denny Duquette...

...and all I could think was, "'St. Elsewhere' already did it." Followed by "And so did 'The Sopranos' -- like, nine months ago."

(For you non-tube historians out there, one of the greatest achievements of "St. Elsewhere" was an episode called "After Life," in which Wayne Fiscus was shot in the ER and journeyed through Purgatory, Hell and Heaven -- meeting a God who looked exactly like Wayne Fiscus -- while the surgical team -- including the hotshot heart surgeon still recovering from a potentially career-ending hand injury, mind you -- struggled to save him. End history lesson. Now go wait for the season 5 DVD to come out so you can go watch it -- but not before you sit through the "Time Heals" arc from season 4, or the rape arc from seasons two and three, or the one where Boomer's wife dies, or...)

Point is, I'm sure that cliffhanger was immeasurably cool to a lot of you -- especially those of you who pay no attention to spoilers or even hinted-at spoilers -- as it probably should have been, but as the man who knows too much, it left me flat.

Now, "Grey's" has never been about reinventing the medical show wheel, and I'm sure Meredith's brief visit to the afterlife -- and I have absolutely zero doubt in my mind that brief is what it shall be, that she'll be alive, if not kicking, by the end of next week's episode -- will be different than Fiscus meeting God, or Tony Soprano going to the Finnerty family reunion. But when Shonda boasts that "I’m not entirely playing by the rules of TV here," it suggests that either she doesn't watch a lot of TV or she has a gift for hyperbole.

Beyond the cliffhanger -- and, even though I wasn't blown away, I'm all in favor of anything that might send even a handful of viewers to go check out Kyle Chandler's new show -- I'm still not feeling the ferry crash storyline. Izzie with the drill was cool, and the closest the show came to "ER" disaster episode intensity, but then she had to go and ruin my goodwill by turning her inspirational speech for Cristina into another excuse to be a total bitch about Callie. I also liked McSteamy putting his hand on McDreamy's arm in what felt like a very earned moment.

What a strange, frustrating, compelling show this is. What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Friday Night Lights: Let's go to the strip club (today)

Spoilers for "Friday Night Lights" coming up just as soon I speculate on how long the producers had to argue with NBC to show that one JV kid's acne...

A very strong episode, with one caveat that I'll get to in a bit. Let's take the silly before the serious.

Landry Clarke at a strip club? Absolute comic genius. The writers and Jesse Plemons have done such a wonderful job of establishing the ABC's of Landry that I started laughing at the very idea of him going there, well before he actually wound up in the dressing room. (Nice garnish: that one stripper nodding enthusiastically at Landry's speech about how they work hard for their money, so you better tip them right.)

The preview for this episode tipped off most of Coach and Mrs. Coach's scene, especially the "Is there anybody else I can talk to?" punchline, but it was still funny in context, plus there was a new capper with his reference to all three of them being scary. The Taylors have one of the most realistic, honest and entertaining marriages on TV. And am I the only one who keeps flashing back to Tami telling Tyra "I used to be like you" (or words to that effect) in an early episode? While Tyra's absolutely a bad influence on Julie, I also think Tami is protesting so vehemently because she identifies too much with Tyra.

Now, for the serious. I was so pleased by the nuanced way the show dealt last week with the Mac plot until now, how Mac's comments were unpleasant but not Tim Hardaway-level automatic proof of violent biogtry, how people like Coach and Riggins let their focus on the playoffs blind them to what needed to be said and done to defuse the situation, Smash's gradual awakening, etc. And I liked a lot of the material here: Mac's confession that he picked up some attitudes from his old man that he wishes he hadn't, Mama Smash's speech, Riggins finally standing up for Smash (and why didn't he tell Coach about the "tarbaby" comment after the fact?), the team being pelted with garbage while walking to the bus in full uniform, and that scary-ass traffic stop.

But I also feel like the show took the easy way out on Mac, both with Coach's line about him being the one who integrated the team and him saving the day with the redneck cops. First of all, if Mac was really the man responsible for integrating the Panthers, shouldn't that have come up really early in the whole media firestorm? Second, both bits -- and the nasty depiction of the rival team and its fans -- seemed to be a case of the writers trying to say, as Rich Heldenfels put it to me, "our racist is better than your racists." It was like the show went to a place that was really complicated and scary, and someone -- either the writers or NBC -- decided it was a little too scary to stay very long, so they wrapped things up neat and tidy. Rich wants to give the show the benefit of the doubt and assume that Smash and Mac's relationship will be an ongoing subject, but it looked from this seat like they put a bow on the whole thing.

Still, if there's any network show right now that deserves some benefit of the doubt, it's "Friday Night Lights." What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

I've made a huge mistake

So, today's column starts off with a little speculation about tonight's "Grey's Anatomy" while repeating my complaints from here about last week's show. But really, the entire column is an excuse to run this paragraph:

Yesterday's negative review of the conservative comedy news show "The 1/2 Hour News Hour" left out a crucial piece of information: where you'll be able to see it. Liberal bias? More like stupid omission made while copying and pasting two different versions of the review together. Sorry, folks. For those who like their political humor as stale as possible, it'll be on the next two Sunday nights at 10 on Fox News Channel.

So, basically, I'm an imbecile. Not that this is news. Click here to read the full post

Lost: Billy Pilgrim goes to the movies

Spoilers for "Lost" coming up, but the short version is I'm pleased...

There? How hard was that? You devote your flashback to a relatively unexamined character, you pay off a mystery that you've been dropping clues about for only a few episodes (albeit ones that aired months ago, due to the hiatus), and you end with a cliffhanger that actually means something for both the audience and the characters. I would've liked more present-day island action, but beyond that, a vast improvement over "Not in Portland."

So, questions and other random thoughts:

• Back when the show began, Lindelof used to say that everything that happened on the show could be explained by non-supernatural means, no doubt to give the writers options on their Grand Unified Theory. Now that they've definitively established Desmond as unstuck in time -- not to mention the physics-defying smoke monster -- I'm wondering at exactly what point the show abandoned that philosophy.
• So who's Fionnula Flannagan supposed to be? A hallucination? A fellow (time) traveler? Sawyer's mom?
  
• Given that the producers have said someone else is gonna die soon, and given Desmond's revelation about Charlie, will it be lame if they don't kill Charlie or lame if they do? I go with don't, largely because Charlie is the most insufferable person on the island this side of Jack, if not worse than Dr. God.
  
• What's with all the movie references? You had Desmond throwing down his tie, Jack Foley-style; the man with two red shoes suffering the fate of one of the Wicked Witches; and Desmond trying to pull a Frank Sullivan by using a sporting event on a nearby TV to prove the existence of time travel.
• Where this week's "Studio 60" beat you over the head with references to 1999, I like how this one was vague about how long ago Desmond and Penny's courtship took place, though I'm sure some music or soccer buff is going to tell me how bleeding obvious it is that she moved in with him in, like, 1997.
  
• Speaking of which, people at several sites pointed out last week that, according to the show's chronology and Juliet's explanation of how long she's been on the island, she would have had to leave for "Portland" on or around 9/11. Hasn't Desmond also been on the island roughly the same length of time? And how icky would it be if the show goes there?
  
• Because I didn't get my plasma TV until December, and because I got a screener of "Not in Portland" that I watched on my laptop in January, this was the first episode I've ever seen in HD, and the show -- particularly the beach scenes -- look amazing in high-def.
• The promo amused me. The show used to try to pull in viewers by promising a death; now they've realized that promising answers is the better way to go.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Gilmore Girls: Cleaning up Amy's mess

"Gilmore Girls" spoilers coming right up...

Well, gee, that only took Rosenthal and company 14 episodes to fix -- kind of.

I give the new team credit for not sweeping the idiotic Christopher one-night stand cliffhanger under the rug, and for trying to play it out as the characters might, but 14 episodes? Out of 22? In what may or may not be the show's final season? The writers had to spend that much time on Lorelai realizing once again that, when push comes to shove, Chris is a selfish loser? I'll grant you that we didn't spend every single one of the 14 on this arc, but it's pretty close. Some very fine acting by Lauren Graham at the end, but I could not be happier to see the back of this storyline.

In our other major relationship, things are going so well, everyone's behaving so maturely, that one of two things has to be going on. Either the writers are using Rory and Logan as a counterpoint to how messed up Lorelai and Chris have been, or they're setting them up for a major fall. At first, I assumed Hunky TA would cause some trouble, but Rory ratted herself out on that one almost instantly. After last week, a few of you guessed that Logan was about to go broke and that would put strain on the relationship if Rory was the rich one. I don't know, but I'm glad to see Logan no longer being an ass, even if I don't totally buy the transformation from Point A to Point Z.

It's late and I'm tired, so let me open the floor already. What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

There yesterday, gone today

The last time I ran a mailbag question that depended on my allegedly encyclopedic knowledge of this business we call television, you lot immediately filled the comments section of that morning's blog entry with examples I had completely forgotten. In that case, the topic was stars who played wildly different roles in two series. For the next mailbag, I'm going in the opposite direction:

Dear Alan: Just saw a commercial for a law firm featuring a much aged Daniel L. Travanti. Got me thinking about all the popular stars who had one long running series and then vanished. Sherman Hemsley and Bonnie Franklin also come to mind. You can probably come up with dozens more.

So rather than be chided after the fact for forgetting really obvious ones, I figured I'd open the floor in advance. Fire away, fellow geeks.
Click here to read the full post

Veronica Mars: Thank (Little Girl) God

"Veronica Mars" spoilers coming up just as soon as I come to terms with having actually heard a Nick Lachey song for the first time ever...

A two-part Mystery of the Week(s)? Can they do that? Very cool, not just because it was unexpected, but because it gave the episode room to significantly advance the Dean O'Dell mystery, give Logan a decent character subplot, and not have to rush to wrap up Veronica's case all neat and tidy.

The LoVe stuff rarely does anything for me, but Juliette Goglia (aka Little Girl God from "Joan of Arcadia") was wonderful as Logan's pint-sized new BFF. With most kid actresses, the character would have been insufferably cute and wise, but Goglia played her as a real girl who just happened to have a few useful insights. The elevator scene was a scream, what with Heather's star-struck reaction to Veronica and Veronica trying to make some sense of why some little girl was wearing her clothes and palling around with Logan. Also, any episode in which Dick repeatedly outsmarts Logan gets bonus points from me.

I don't want to comment too much on the coach murder until it's resolved, but a few brief thoughts on it:

• If they're going to keep doing Wallace on the basketball team stories, the coach had to go, because that actor was terrible. I was embarrassed watching the locker room scene.
  
• Okay, so they've got money in the budget for Percy Daggs in this episode, and the case involves Veronica investigating the murder of Wallace's coach. So why did Wallace get only a token cameo at the beginning? It's better than nothing, but still feels like a waste.
• Loved the direction and photography of the scene on the cliff. Not only did it seem for a second like Veronica was about to join Meredith Grey by going into the water, but it evoked memories of the bus crash. (The bus crash mystery was problematic, but I always loved that shot of Veronica standing at cliff's edge staring down at the wreck.)
• Speaking of cliffs... Cliff! I love that guy.
• I appreciate any efforts to get people to watch this show, but can someone please explain to the CW promo department that putting the final scene of an episode prominently into all the ads kind of ruins all the fun?

As for the O'Dell murder, I'm glad they spent so much time on the case, as I was starting to lose interest. In particular, Cyrus' recommendation letter from beyond the grave was a nice touch; I had already liked the dean, but it was good to get a reminder that Veronica should care about what happened to him. (Season two's "I Am God" tried to accomplish the same thing, but came way too late in that story.)

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Heroes: Let Hiro be Hiro

"Heroes" spoilers coming right up...

Kind of a dud episode last night, particularly the ongoing waste of Hiro. Hiro's one of only a couple of characters to be in every episode (contrary to what I wrote last week, Peter's not one of the others, and I'm not even sure Niki's been in all of them), so the producers clearly recognize his popularity and storytelling usefulness. Unfortunately, ever since he came back from the past with his powers gone, much of what makes him such a unique, entertaining character is gone. Enthusiastic, giddy, time-stopping Hiro? Awesome. Glum, adrift, powerless Hiro? Not so much. I realize they need to give him something to do between now and the final showdown with Sylar and/or Radioactive Man, and I also realize that he was running the risk of being too powerful and making the other characters superfluous, but there had to be a better, more Hiro-appropriate way to handle both of those issues. Even if his full powers don't come back right away, I want him to get the sword already and get back to being the main reason I watch this show.

At the moment, surprisingly, that designation falls to Niki/Jessica. Actors always talk about how evil is more fun to play than good, and Ali Larter is having a lot of fun playing Jessica. An entire subplot in which she beats on Parkman and makes him look foolish? Sign me up, please.

Some other random thoughts:

• I didn't miss Peter by himself, but I missed Claude and I missed Peter learning how to use his powers. Again, that's one of the things unique to this show, and something I'd rather they focus on than wacky Vegas hijinks.
  
• I'm looking forward to HRG's reaction to his wife's Haitian-induced senility. As I've said, he can justify a lot of what he's done as protecting his family, but that excuse is about to fly the coop.
  
• Some nice acting by Hayden However-You-Spell-It and Adrian Pasdar in the final scenes, even though they never played off each other.
  
• Sylar and Mohinder, eh? Too bad Suresh the elder didn't bother putting photographs in his files. Also, while melting stuff is a semi-useful power, I wonder if Sylar's ever run acrosss someone with an ability so lame that he just leaves the guy (and his brain) alone.
  

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Early siesta for 'Studio 60'

NBC just announced that "The Black Donnellys" will premiere a week early, on Feb. 26 instead of March 5. That gives "Studio 60" just one more airing before it goes on hiatus, before it "will return to the schedule later this season on a date to be determined" -- loosely translated, "if Haggis' show does significantly better, get ready for a bunch of unaired episodes on the 'Studio 60' DVD set."
Click here to read the full post

Studio 60: In praise of Matthew Perry

Spoilers for "Studio 60" coming right up...

There's so much to trash about last night's episode, from the usual soul-sucking nature of the Matt/Harriet scenes to the ongoing grossness of Jordan/Danny to the sledgehammer references to 1999 to the even more sledgehammer-y attempt at pulling a "Bruce Willis has been dead since the first scene!" twist that I really hope you all saw coming from 12 miles away.

But either I'm in a charitable mood or I'm getting bored with the weekly negativity, so let's turn the focus for this post on the bright, shining aspect of this show: Matthew Perry.

In my review of last week's "Scrubs," I noted that John C. McGinley probably didn't have to dig too deep to find motivation for a scene about fearing for his unborn baby's health. Similarly, it's not exactly a stretch for Matthew Perry to imagine himself as a pill-popper, anymore than John Spencer knew how to play a drunk or how Sorkin or David Milch know how to write about addictive behavior. But these men in general and Perry in particular bring more than personal knowledge to the table.

Even in the midst of the telegraphed silliness about Matt Albie's imaginary anagramically-named friend Tim Batale (props to the fine people at TWoP for pointing this out, I wouldn't have spelled Batale that way, and am generally not great at word puzzles), I found myself really interested in what Perry was going to do next, how he would deliver a line, or look at a co-star. He's not infallible -- even he can't make me give a toss about the Matt/Harriet relationship or not think that Matt acts like an ass at every turn of that storyline -- but overall it's a revelatory dramatic performance, and one that makes me want to see what he does after this show gets canceled.

A few other thoughts:

• So Luke worked at "Studio 60" too, huh? Between him and Matt and Danny, why does it seem like all the writing alums have, instead of producing broad sitcoms or movies, have all gone the art film route?
• Where were Ricky and/or Ron? During the set visit last month, Sorkin lamented having a tighter budget for the rest of the season, but I can't imagine that either of Evan Handler and Carlos Jacott cost significantly more than Stephen Tobolowsky. Then again, Tobolowsky was there more as a substitute Wes (Ricky and Ron would've been low on the totem pole, assuming they were even with the show at the time), and I'm guessing the "Numb3rs" people are balking at making Judd Hirsch too available.
• Tom and Dylan going in circles on their metric system sketch felt very recycled Sorkin -- the sort of scene that Casey and Danny or Sam and Toby would have been in -- but not in a bad way. I laughed a few times, particularly when McKinney ripped them for their bad Canadian accents.
• Okay, so it's 1999, and Harriet is still working on her Juliette Lewis impression? It would have been dated even back then. And her Julia Roberts sounded exactly like Sarah Paulson's regular speaking voice.
• If I hadn't been watching the episode at the office on NBC.com, where the media player throws a hissy fit anytime you try to fast forward, I would have skipped past every Danny and Jordan scene, and especially any Jordan and Hallie scene. There is no way that, in 2007, any network would try a show like "The Reckoning" -- not because it's in poor taste, but because the mass audience for that sort of thing doesn't exist anymore, and hasn't for five or six years, if ever.
• As I joked last week, Perry in the baseball cap didn't look seven years younger, but at least Schlamme or Sorkin had the good sense not to even attempt to make Brad Whitford look younger, instead hiding his face in his flashback cameo.
• And speaking of Schlamme, and/or the editor, nice work on the cut from flashback Matt bouncing the ball to present day Matt catching it on the rebound.

What did everybody else think?

Click here to read the full post

24: You know the drill

Spoilers for "24" coming up just as soon as I make a run to the hardware store...

Always interesting when Fox schedules a "24" two-fer. Usually, it seems done to compensate for a slow episode by following it with a slam-bang one, but this double feature flowed in the opposite direction. Lots of guns, ammo and power tools in the first hour, then a second hour where characters mostly stand around and talk about their feelings until the final five minutes.

Like Fienberg, I'm really curious about what kind of training program you have to go through to become a CTU data analyst. Morris holds up under torture for quite a while, then Milo turns into a master of defensive driving and demolitions at the end of hour two.

(Oddly enough, "24" wasn't the first show I saw yesterday that used a power drill as a torture implement, since I spent my afternoon going through my screeners of BBC America's "The State Within," where a minor character also suffers badly from a cordless tool. One more and we've got a trend, kids.)

Because I didn't comment on last week's episode, and because several critics have started condemning this season as some kind of fiasco, a few e-mailers have wondered if that means I've given up on the show. Absolutely not. I got to watching the previous show so late in the week that I didn't feel I had anything to say on it, and I don't see this season as being substantially worse than any other. Sure, the supporting cast is almost universally-lame (lowlighted by D.B. Woodside failing to fill Dennis Heysbert's shoes), and we're seeing the same devices used again and again (incompetent security on CTU's part, aides plotting against the president), but all of these flaws have been around from the start. The pre-Chloe supporting cast wasn't exactly riveting; they were just there from the beginning, and occasionally someone got a standout moment. (George Mason, RIP, remains my favorite.) And if you're still willing to watch into the sixth season, it seems silly to complain about "24" repeating itself, when it's been doing that all along.

Admittedly, I may have a higher tolerance at the moment because I skipped large chunks of seasons 3 and 4, but I think "24" is shark-proof. You may tire of it, but the show hasn't changed significantly. Cool stuff happens, then stupid stuff happens, and hopefully another cool thing is another 20 minutes, an hour at most, away. The beauty of them making it up as they go along, as I've said, is that it gives them the freedom to ditch plots and characters that aren't working, without having to worry about how this will mess with the (non-existent) master plan.

That said, I think we're another episode or two away from needing to ditch Papa Bauer. I love James Cromwell, and I like the idea of giving Jack a personal stake in what's happening, but I'm already getting bored with daddy getting away with stuff because no one at CTU can be bothered to put a body on the old man or secure a damn room. And I know I just said the show has had these faults from the start, but, again, when the show's on its game it moves past that kind of contrivance. Maybe having Rena Sofer give Jack the 411 on his dad will change the dynamic enough that I'll get back into it, but I groaned when we saw Philip deleting the cell phone contacts (as if all of Graem's effects wouldn't have immediately been given to a techie to analyze), and I groaned when he offered to take Jack's son/nephew for a ride.

A few other quick thoughts:

• Liked Jack and Chloe's emotionally-stunted reunion "I'm really glad Fayed didn't kill you this morning."
• Any theories on what Chad Lowe's planning? My guess is they try to assassinate Wayne and make Assad the fall guy.
• And speaking of which, how fast does a military transport travel, exactly? He seemed to make that cross-country flight awfully quick.
• The lack of any logistical ramifications -- no traffic jams, or any kind of seeming panic in the streets -- to the Valencia detonation still bugs me. The show could have gotten a whole lot of mileage out of Jack trying to save the day in a city that's completely paralyzed by fear, but instead it's like the nuke never went off. Waste of a perfectly good plot twist.

What did everybody else think?

Click here to read the full post

The Class: Are you kidding me?

I'm not sure if this was the first episode where Lucy Punch was excised from the opening credits, but I'm just stunned that, even after wisely dumping her, Crane and Klarik still found an excuse to bring back Sam Harris as Holly's flaming husband. Stunned. Not that Holly wasn't an irritating caricature even without having the blatantly gay spouse, but he was the worst part of her, and he's still around? Click here to read the full post

HIMYM: Legs aren't broke, but they're broke

Spoilers for "How I Met Your Mother" just as soon as I get that damn Flaming Lips song about Vaseline out of my head...

Let's start with the last scene first. Why the flash-forward glimpse of Ted marrying The Mother? My guess, and it's only that, is that they made this episode while "Monday Night Football" was still in contention to air after the Super Bowl, meaning this would have been the first episode to air after that exposure to a potentially huge new audience, meaning they would have to throw that audience a little bone about what the show's really about. Either that, or we've now entered the beginning of the end of Ted and Robin's happy l'il relationship, and we needed the reminder that Ted's destined to end up with somebody else.

Liked that the episode played both as an anthology and as the show's own backwards equivalent of Pinter's "The Betrayal" (or Seinfeld's "The Betrayal"), and my preference for the four stories was directly chronological, with Mr. Barney's Wild Ride as my favorite and Ted's boring penny my least favorite (though it was also the briefest). I was impressed by how much food all the brides-to-be had to throw at Car Alarm Guy, by the way.

Very solid episode. What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

For a story I'm working on...

... other than "Galactica" and a bunch of NBC shows ("The Office," "Friday Night Lights," etc.), are there any shows you watch that make deleted scenes available on the official show website? Click here to read the full post

Battlestar Galactica: Blinded me with Christian Science

"Battlestar Galactica" spoilers coming up just as soon as I set up a Pyramid basket next to my garage...

Well, it wasn't "Black Market," but "The Woman King" suffered the usual problems of self-contained "Galactica," even though -- or, I think, because -- it wasn't originally made as such.

Moore explains on the podcast that there was to be a season-long subplot about the Sagittarons and something bad that Baltar, Zarek and Gaeta did to them back on New Caprica. By the time they were shooting the trial of Baltar episodes, Moore decided this aspect of the trial didn't work and cut it. And since they weren't going to pay it off in the end, they had to go back and excise all reference to it from earlier episodes, notably this one.

The problem is, once you delete that ongoing aspect to the story, all you're left with is a parlor mystery crossed with every episode any medical drama has ever done involving Christian Scientists. With Bruce Davison -- who, according to SAG law, is no longer allowed to play non-evil roles -- cast as Dr. Robert, there wasn't even much of a mystery. (Davison needs to go on a two or three year run of nice guy roles before he's willing to play another sleazy defense attorney on "Law & Order.")

The show didn't even work that spectacularly as a Helo character study, in spite of all his stilted talk of "my defining characteristic." We already know that Helo is the conscience of the show, the guy who will always make the right, albeit unpopular, choice. What would have been interesting was if they had followed those impulses to their extreme conclusion and had Helo be absolutely, 100 percent wrong about Dr. Robert. (I don't know how you'd prove that negative, though; maybe there's some kind of Sagittaron extremist killing his fellows to make a political point.) Then you've really got a vehicle for self-examination instead of another validation of Saint Helo.

Again, some of this falls down because of material that was cut from other episodes, as Moore was trying to establish that Helo had been on the outs ever since he killed the infected Cylons before they could resurrect, and that this was some measure of redemption for him in the eyes of Adama and the others. But without that set-up, I don't care about the payoff.

Another problem with the storyline is the way it ignored the unique realities of life in the rag-tag fleet. There are less than 50,000 human beings left alive, and every life is precious, even if it's the lives of those damn dirty Sags. Where's Roslin during all this to demand an investigation? Also, not only is medicine limited, but so are doctors. I was under the impression in the first couple of seasons that Cottle was the only doctor in the fleet, which made his cigarette habit seem blackly comic. I'm okay with the existence of another doc here or there, but it should still be a big deal that one of the small handful of them is about to be thrown in jail; there could have been some mileage out of, say, Tigh suggesting that it was worth ignoring whatever happened to the Sagittarons because a doctor was more valuable to life going forward than a bunch of religious extremists.

And I see that I've now spent a whole lot of words slagging an episode that kept me fairly engaged throughout. A lot of credit for that goes to Tahmoh Penikett, who's really matured as an actor as the series has gone along and was able to carry a fairly trite and predictable storyline. I also thought the production team, headed in this episode by director/producer Michael Rymer did a fine job of establishing the claustrophobic atmosphere of the refugee camp; after about 20 minutes, I was starting to feel sweaty and stinky and disgusting, and my hygiene's pretty decent overall.

Some other thoughts:

• I'd have to go back and watch the first few Tom Zarek episodes of season one, but he seems even less like a typical Sagittaron than Dee. I suppose you could argue that he's a terrorist who took advantage of his people's fundamentalists beliefs to cause some trouble, but his issues always seemed to be political, not spiritual.
• Also, interesting to see that Laura kept her bargain and appointed Tom as her VP, even after she found out about the secret tribunals in "Collaborators."
  
• Chip-Baltar returns! Huzzah! I wondered how they were going to deal with having to shave James Callis for these scenes while keeping him Jesus-like as the real Gaius, but Moore said Callis's beard-growing abilities are Homer Simpson-esque. Good on him.
  

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Extras: Whisk-y business

Spoilers for "Extras" just as soon as I see what happens if I jiggle the handle...

I learned a long time ago not to try to make comedians or comedy writers laugh, because the odds of me actually succeeding are far outweighed by the likelihood of me annoying them. So it was with some measure of shock and delight that I induced a prolonged, red-raced giggle fit from Ricky Gervais -- though, of course, I was quoting his own show back to him. While we were discussing Stephen Merchant's acting contribution to "Extras," I mentioned the scene from this episode with Darren, the toilet and the whisk, and Gervais just lost it. I had never seen anything like it among a comic of his stature -- even their own material doesn't generally affect them that deeply, that long after the creative process began -- and I think it's a measure of Gervais' affection for his partner, not to mention the power of a good joke about poo.

Darren's triple-flusher (another fine example of his complete single-mindedness, ala his attempt to unload the flatscreen) was the best, but far from the only example of juvenile humor running through this episode. Andy retreated into being a teenage boy at the sight of the BMOC from his schooldays (played by Jonathan Cake, TV's go-to Handsome Bastard of the moment), becoming even clumsier than usual, in every respect. I don't know exactly what you call that bit with him and the exploding seltzer bottle -- an anti-spit take? -- but I was a little awestruck by it. And, of course, there was the whole 12-year-old "Ewww! Boys kissing!" attitude towards Sir Ian's play, with Andy's fear of being mocked by the cool guys from school causing him to completely bollix up his opening night.

McKellen's cameo felt a little too much in the vein of Patrick Stewart's last season, but I still chuckled at how he expected Andy to view his words as a stunning revelation akin to Morpheus explaining The Matrix to Neo.

One more episode to go. What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

What's Alan watching on a long delay?

Weekend catch-up post, with comments on, in order, "Grey's Anatomy," "The O.C.," "30 Rock," "The Knights of Prosperity" and "House" coming up just as soon as I get dressed for my pylon-lifting class at the gym...

Back when ABC did a "Grey's Anatomy" press conference shortly before the Super Bowl bomb two-parter, we weren't allowed to see the episode in advance (part of Shonda's quest to stamp out all spoilers), so all we had to go on was a vague trailer that looked an awful lot like an ad for one of those Very Special "ER" sweeps episodes where a tank crashes into the emergency room while the Symbionese Liberation Army holds Peter Benton hostage and forces Carter to perform elective surgery on their leader. Somebody asked Shonda whether she was comfortable with her show entering territory so close to "ER," and she flashed her usual Cheshire grin and said that, while the stakes were higher, it would still clearly be an episode of "Grey's," with the focus on the emotional journey of her characters more than on pyrotechnics.

She was true to her word then, and she's been largely true to her word on the sweeps disaster episodes since, but this week's episode felt exactly like something "ER" would do, with one exception: "ER" would have done it better. Whatever morbid problems that show has suffered in its decline phase, they still produce the hell out of all those plane crashes and train crashes and kielbasa stand crashes, to the point where even if I hate every single character remaining on the show, I still get excited when stuff starts blowing up real good. "Walk on Water" felt like it was trying to quicken my blood in that way, but it never got there. Even Alex's rescue of the crush injury woman (and bravo to the makeup department for their work on her) came and went too quickly.

Now, if the emotinal journey stuff had been more interesting, I could have let the lack of goosebumps slide, but I didn't really care what was happening to any of the regulars this week, with the possible exception of poor Chief Weber. That scene in the elevator where Addison dressed down the male attendings was priceless, and the only part of the hour that actually felt like "Grey's Anatomy."

The third-to-last episode of "The O.C." had me wondering: if the Internet is for porn, then how much of it is for clown porn? After the furries gag a few episodes ago, what's next? A rusty trombone joke? (Oh, wait: that's "The Loop" territory.) This was another fairly aimless episode, with the Seth/Summer plot feeling particularly strange. Summer complains that Seth doesn't feel passionate about anything, when Seth's defining quality is that he feels too passionate about things: comics, sailing, Summer, Asian cinema, video games, comics, emo music, comics, etc. Those may not be worthy enough subjects for the worldly new incarnation of Summer, but the guy does care about things.

"30 Rock" has been on a real high of late, so I suppose it was inevitable they'd put out an a'ight-blah episode right about now. There was some hilarious Jack stuff, notably the sequence of him getting progressively drunk (loved the way it was edited so he would always be holding his new drink in the final shot of the old scene) and he and his ex getting hot and bothered while arguing about their Arby's franchise in Telluride, but the rest of the episode fell flat. Tracy was too sane, Pete's story didn't have an ending, Liz seemed trapped in her own subplot, and outside of Jenna's brilliant Vagina Day monologue, I didn't like her storyline with Frank. Even Kenneth didn't make me laugh (outside of the "16 Candles" shout-out with his underpants, and what's with two shows on at the same time doing "16 Candles" refs?), and he's usually the show's secret weapon.

I've had some requests for "Knights of Prosperity" commentary, and I really wish I could say kinder things about the show, as I'm usually a fan of the comedy stylings of Burnett, Beckerman and Logue. But each episode inevitably fades into background music for me after five minutes or so, and I only feel really compelled to look at the screen whenever Rockefeller is talking. (Kevin Michael Richardson is proof that voice actors don't get enough respect in this business.) The cover version of "Cats in the Cradle" was a nice touch, but it's also typical of the way "Knights" uses pop culture references as its dominant source of punchlines. I don't feel like the characters are clearly established enough for me to laugh at them for their own sake, as opposed to when they're name-checking some heinous '80s movie.

"House" gets back to basics, and I couldn't be more pleased. Loved that he was so insistent on winning the bet with Cuddy that he rolled his chair down a flight of stairs. Foreman's always been my favorite of the three sidekicks (he's House's favorite, too), so I'm glad anytime he's the lead on a case. Raise your hands, anyone who doesn't believe House and his pretty new wheelchair-bound rival will get involved, however briefly and disastrously.

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

Scrubs: Baby talk

The morning column link: a look at how "Brothers & Sisters" -- this season's Show in Trouble poster girl -- has turned out to be pretty decent.

Meanwhile, spoilers for "Scrubs" coming right up...

Historically, I've been ambivalent about the show's dramatic leanings. Sometimes, the heavy stuff works beautifully ("My Old Lady," Brendan Fraser's episodes), but more often those scenes feel like the writers have just come down from an all-night "Wonder Years" marathon. ("And that was when my life changed, forever... until the next day, when it changed right back.") Where the comedy half of the show was consistently great all those years, you never knew whether the dramatic half would be worth the time.

Even last night, the show only batted .500 on the serious material. Cox's reaction to news of the baby's troubles, and then to learning he would have a girl? Absolutely perfect. Kim pulling a Theresa from "The O.C." and lying to J.D. about a miscarriage? Awful, awful, awful.

In real life, John C. McGinley's son Max has Down syndrome -- a fact he and the mom didn't discover until the day Max was born -- so he didn't have to search very far for his motivation on this one. I'm not ashamed to admit that he and Donald Faison made me cry in that last scene in the break room. Very nicely done.

The Kim twist, meanwhile, was the latest disaster in a storyline that's been nothing but. I remember talking to Bill Lawrence the morning before last season's finale aired, and he could barely get through a description of the knocked-up development without laughing hysterically. I just think he and the writers were so fixated on how humiliating it would be for J.D. to get a girl pregnant on the very first shot that they didn't think through the implications, and a lot of this season has been devoted to cleaning up that mess, while accomodating Elizabeth Banks' movie career. I think if she had genuinely miscarried, it would have been okay, and they could have even found an excuse to bring Kim back if Banks had a hole in her schedule (she was very funny in her first episode), but this was not a good idea, especially if it means we're going to drag this thing out even longer.

And I realize that I've gotten through an entire post without discussing any of the comedy, so I'll mention my favorite bit: J.D. and the Dudemeister wistfully imagining a world where Elliott was sold into white slavery.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post