I missed half of In Plain Sight, and all of Modern Family and SVU last week, so I'll try to get to those as soon as I see them. As for other shows, I don't understand the inconsistent airings of new episodes. Either show the season in its entirety, or just make the damn thing shorter. The British do it all the time, and cable channels have learned it's nothing to sneer at. I'm easily annoyed by this because I don't know whether or not next week's episode is going to be worth watching since it just might be a repeat. Peppering a new season, even a lagging second half, with episodes from the first half is nearly as bad as prolonging the hiatus of a show between seasons. I think viewers lose interest (I for one, do), and if you're trying to attract viewers, isn't this counterproductive?
Anywho, I have some shows to get to, let's see...what day did I leave off with?
Oh right. Thursday! Wednesday is moot at this point...
If last week's Bones was filler, this was the heavy duty meaty stuff. Pretty solid for a 100th episode, with David Boreanez directing. Entertainment Weekly had an interesting quote from Hugh Laurie regarding directing (he directed his fellow cast members in Monday's episode), that it's odd to step up to management and boss your co-stars around. Somehow that popped into my head when I thought of this episode, and it makes me wonder how the scenes between Boreanez's Booth and Emily Deschanel's Bones play out. It gave us some back story into the origins of Booth's distinctive flair (ties, socks) and an odd explanation for the sexual tension between our favorite B&B. So it seems, they started out amorous, nearly acted on it, and have been flirting with the notion ever since. I hope the writers don't have them pair up until the end of the series, because in most cases, this ruins "will they or won't they" couples.
Anything I could say about Fringe would pretty much be moot at this point, because it's hard to top an episode like "Peter." Still, "Olivia, In the Lab, With a Revolver" was a good follow up. The mystery of the week was interesting, we got a snazzy cameo from Diane Kruger, and it supplemented the greater mystery that's plaguing the Fringe universe. I love Thursdays. Gosh I do.
Merlin was and is a cheesefest. That's not an insult, mind you, I personally think shows like this are the icing on the cake. This week gave us prince and pauper-esque shenanigans with Arthur fleeing his courtly duties but not his haughtier than thou attitude and ordering Merlin and Guenevere around. The one thing I don't get about this interpretation of the Arthurian legend is how Guenevere is a servant in the Pen-dragon castle.... Care to explain?
Monday
The thing I love about Damages is that it truly lives up to its title. Both Patty and Ellen are ruthless, even when they have their hearts in the right place with good intentions. After learning of Tessa Marquetti's murder in Antigua, along with that of her trusted investigator, Patty vows to tear the Tobin family apart by turning them against one another. And right as rain, she lives up to that. Poor Leonard Winstone (ne one Lester Wiggens) gets ousted by Ellen, and disowned by the Tobins. Joe Tobin is turning out to be a real son of a gun, failing to see through Len's logic (even if he was scrabbling to keep his one position of power), and turning him away in a move that's clearly meant to come back and bite him in the ass. Next week is the finale, and I'm wondering how many more characters (Patty and Ellen excluded) are going to get axed.
I miss the back to back hour of comedy that CBS used to provide in having The Big Bang Theory follow How I Met Your Mother. Now I've got to sit an hour between shows, and tolerate a couple of unfunny minutes of 2.5 Men just to get to the Big Bang Theory. HIMYM has been pretty rocky this season, veering from the usual crazy into whiskey tango foxtrot territory, and they achieved the latter with this episode about Marshall getting mugged and then lying outrageously so as not to freak Lily out. I still love it though, which may be the reason I forgive its foibles so often. The same goes for The Big Bang Theory which seems to have taken a note from 2.5 Men this season, throwing in low brow frat jokes and, up to Monday night's episode, clinging to the utter FAIL of a couple that is Leonard and Penny. I'm inclined to like "The Wheaton Recurrence" because it gave us the destruction of L/P, brought back the spectacular Will Wheaton and Sheldon's unmitigated hatred of him, and had the boys dress up as female superheroes as the result of a failed bet. I'd say that sums up a laugh out loud episode.
Finally, I'd fallen off the Life Unexpected bandwagon for a while, I missed a week's episode, but wasn't really in any rush to catch up. As per soap opera de rigeur, Life culminated its first season with Cate and Ryan's wedding, and requisite wedding crasher, Baze. I'll admit that even though I'm fond of all of the characters, the constant "will they or won't they" of Baze/Cate/Ryan got kind of boring. Somehow, the love triangle lacks the charm that Gilmore Girls' Christopher/Lorelai/Luke had. I do like that the writers have allowed the trio of adults to grow, most notably Cate and Baze (Ryan seems pretty level headed and mature, certainly the only one out of the entire cast of characters). In spite of the wedding crashing, it was nice to see Cate successfully tie the knot with Ryan. Whether or not her feelings for Baze, and his tendency to realize things a little to late interfere with the newlyweds is yet to be seen. Can't wait for season two!
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