Beware of spoilers in this post.

Quick thoughts on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Heroes, Fringe, Knight Rider, The Clone Wars, True Blood. 

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - Allison from Palmdale

The preview for last weeks TSCC episode showed us it was going to be a heavy Summer Glau episode. We were finally going to get back story on Cameron, a character that almost has no back story; just a little shown from the first seasons Dungeons and Dragons. So since it was going to be a heavy Cameron story that took place in the future, I figured we would be seeing the coolest episode of the season so far. I was wrong, to put it simply. It's not that Allison from Palmdale was a bad episode, it wasn't by far, but it just wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be. Everything with Cameron or should I say Allison from the future was great. Basically everything that had Summer Glau in a scene was great and it adds to her back story and possibly sets stuff up for future episodes if the series doesn't get cancelled. The problem I had was everything else.

What's the deal with the pregnant chick and her cop baby daddy? Seriously, who cares. Why those characters were ever used for an episode will escape me, unless there is a purpose to them in which I don't see how. If it was meant to show a different side of Sarah they could have done it with something more... interesting.

The Ellison part of the story went half and half for me. I like the scene with his ex wife because it built for more character development for our favorite FBI agent on TV, or at least mine; sorry Anna Torv (Fringe). I like how his ex wife knew that he was going through a change when she mentioned he's not wearing his cross. She thinks it's because of the 22 FBI agents that got killed. Man... only if she knew who killed them. So we can see that Ellison's life is beginning to change because of the Terminators. The other half with Catherine Weaver... can we get on with it please. Don't spend too much time on the development of that relationship. Let's get it moving. We only have 13 episodes to work with for season 2. I want to see progress.

Other than those two issues, overall Allison from Palmdale was really cool. I felt horrible when Allison got her self killed by herself....err.. Cameron, the one who becomes Cameron. Damn it, watch the episode and you'll understand. The visual effects shot of Allison on the Aircraft Carrier was really damn cool, wasn't it?!? It was also kind of scary but I can't explain why I felt that way. Maybe it's because when you see a Navy ship you think of how powerful it is. Now in that time and world, humans don't control it anymore, Skynet does and we're just prisoners in it.

Tonight looks like it will be an exciting episode. We'll see more of Derek who wasn't in this last episode and it looks like it will be a John heavy episode. Take a look at the promo below for tonight's episode; he's got a lot of balls telling a Terminator who he is...

Heroes - One of Us, One of Them

It's no secret that I wasn't impressed with the season opener. I thought it lacked just about everything it needed to open a season with a bang, especially since last years WGA strike brought the second season to a halt. Just because I was disappointed with the season opener doesn't mean I wasn't going to keep on watching. So last week we tuned into One of Us, One of Them. The title refers to the new partnership of Noah Bennet (HRG) and Mr. Spo..... Sylar, the apparent brother to Nathan and Peter.

By far, HRG and Sylar was the coolest thing about the episode. I guess maybe the WGA strike cause the opener to be weak in a way because the second episode seemed to be back in Heroes form. It turned out to be a really good episode and a big improvement over ep. 1 and 2. Seeing HRG and Sylar working together was exciting. I just wished that Sylar had a better fight with the level five villains. I wanted to see him kick there asses but instead we got the Darth Vader throat choke... which is still cool. The first outing with the new Company team seemed to be a success even if Sylar stole the power of... whatever his name was, Jesse I think. The very end when Noah told The Haitian that he's going to find Sylar's weakness and then kill him was pretty awesome.

We also got to see present day Peter deal with the situation when the level 5 villains were robbing the bank. That was cool and all but I'm really excited on what future Peter is going to show him in his time line. It looks like from the promo that future Peter buys it from future Claire and now present Peter has to deal with the dark haired hottie... did you follow me on that.

Speaking of Claire. At first I wasn't all that interested in her story because the premiere just didn't convince me but the scene with her mother, biological mother, in the big metal container was cool. The bitch tried to kill her... not really kill her but teach her a lesson. Claire seems like she really wants to go after the villains but what good can she do. I know she can't die or feel pain but she doesn't have any training to speak of, not like her father at least. With luck he'll take her under his wing at some point and things will really start to happen.

Ali Larter clones!!!!! I want one!!! That's all I really have to say about that. I hope that was the last we've seen from Micah, seriously. What's the deal with the doctor that created her and her clones... he's a mad scientist. A modern day Dr. Frankenstein. At least he brought to life a hottie with long legs that looks great in a bikini. Look HERE!

Hopefully tonight ep can keep the pace of the last episode if not pick it up and raise the season bar even more. Take a look at tonight's preview below.

Fringe - The Arrival

Who is the Observer? He's got some diet. What's the deal with the cylinder? Who or what is The Pattern? Only JJ Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman knows; or do they. Some people have said that Fringe started out somewhat slow but people are still watching, hence for the full season pick up. People are saying that the series is starting to live up to its potential but from the beginning I liked Fringe, so there wasn't any convincing for my part.

This weeks episode was more stand alone than the rest of the episodes so far. The first, second and third episode might have had stand alone story's but they were all connected in a way. The Arrival, still connected to the other episodes, had brought in a stand alone feeling. I know that's confusing but it makes sense to me... I don't know if I can explain it better. The other episodes dealt with some sort of terrorism where this episode.... jeez, I couldn't even tell you. I have no idea what was going on in The Arrival, I just know it was the best ep out of the 4. The guy who played The Observer was really good and really weird. Who was he talking to on his phone? Is this guy an alien? What's the deal???

The Pattern seems to be the overall arc of the season and it seems like The Observer is part of that. If he's part of the Pattern or not we don't know but I hope we will as the season goes on.

This episode of Fringe is so confusing to explain and I'm not going to try. I'll just say again what I've been saying. If your a science fiction fan you really should check out Fringe... before FOX cancels it. We know they have itchy fingers.

How about that ending!! Is she dreaming or is John really there? Is he alive? Did Massive Dynamic some how revive him? Maybe they still have a mind connection from the pilot. Soo many questions; non can be answered.

Well until the next episode (in two weeks), take a look at the preview.

Knight Rider - Journey to the End of the Knight

I'll start off by saying it was very difficult for me to actually watch the second episode of the series. After the TV movie pilot and the really bad season opener, I almost didn't watch the new episode this week... but in the end I did. Would you be surprised if I told you I didn't think this weeks episode Journey to the End of the Knight wasn't all that terrible? Believe me!! It's still an awful series but it actually wasn't as bad as the first ep and the pilot.

This week we saw Mike Tracer/Michael Knight try and find illegal stuff... whatever. He raced in the episode, got beat up, beat up other guys... things like that. The episode is pointless. There isn't a narrative; it was basically eye candy and action. I can't say that's a bad thing but it lacks a charm and by today's standards, charm doesn't win over audiences. The original series with The Hoff had a special charm that caused people to love it, as it became an iconic series. I like to call it The 80s charm. It's a quality a lot of TV shows and movies had back then. We don't have it anymore.

Part of me likes the format of having different missions each week and not following the typical season arc story. Each week it's not a different adventure leading up to a certain goal; it's just different shit each week basically leading up to nothing. That is actually refreshing to me. It's just to bad the show is so badly written and told.

As usual, I'll keep on giving it a chance and I'll keep watching but I think there will be a point where I'll stop. That's all I have for this week... it's not even a review about the episode, not that I review things. I just get shit off my chest.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Ambush & Raising Malevolence

Looking back to what I wrote about The Clone Wars when it hit theaters, I still stand by it. Sort of. As a theater experience shown in a movie format The Clone Wars is a 5 out of 10, however, after watching the first 2 episodes of the TV series I can say that I really like The Clone Wars. Think about it; all it really is, is a half hour cartoon. To me it feels like cartoons did when I was a kid and I'd come home from school. It's a half hour kids show.

The first ep Ambush was basically a Yoda centric ep. It's not a bad way to lead off the series. It's about Yoda and a couple of clone troopers who are being attack by Ventress's troops while trying to get to the King of the planet to negotiate a treaty. In short... Yoda kicks ass. He kicked the crap out of all the droids and basically bitched slapped Ventress in the face so to speak. He used the force to take her lightsabers.... she felt like a loser and it was actually funny. The coolest thing was that the episode was full of the Yoda theme score from the films. The Clone Wars movie seemed to move away from the original music of the live action films but for the series they brought it back even if it's a little different.

The next episode was about Jedi Master Plo Koon and his Star Destroyer fleet looking for a new secret weapon that the separatists created. We find out that it's an ion canon that fires strangely like the Death Star's main weapon. After his fleet is destroyed and only Koon and a couple of his troopers survived, they wait for rescue before General Grievous finds them and kills them. Meanwhile Ahsoka and Anakin look for them. It's another fun filled episode. Plo Koon is a character that was never explored in the live action films. His biggest scene was when his clones killed him during order 66. There isn't much to be said about it except that it's fun to watch.

If people say that it's not a good series that's probably because they don't really get it. It's a kids show basically... but since I'm a big kid, I like it. I'm going to keep on watching!

Yoda is a bad ass, take a look at this.

True Blood - Sparks Fly Out

True Blood is getting better and better as the weeks go by and I'm really starting to enjoy this series.  This week we learned a lot about Bill's past, specifically when he was a Confederate soldier during the American Civil War and when he became a Vampire just as the war ended.

All of the Civil War stuff was cool to see especially since I'm a fan of some of those Civil War films.  The most important thing to come from that is how he became a Vampire.  I don't want to go into major details because some people may haven't have seen the episode yet but you really have to feel for him.  All he wanted to do was go home to his family and just when he was so close the bitch vamp took everything away from him.  It explains why he always looks so sad.  I suspect that there is going to be a lot more with the woman character that took his life away.  it should be interesting.

I want to mention that I think all of the town folk are great.  They're all so funny.  Examples are from the scene in the church when the old lady was trying to take the cross down.  She made me laugh.  The funniest part of that church scene was when they put up the Confederate flag and Tara looked like she was going to kill someone.

The biggest surprise is definitely at the end of the episode when Sookie found her grandmother in a pool of her own blood.  I'm going to bet that it's the dog that's killing everyone.  I bet the dog is a Werewolf and he's trying to frame the Vampires.

All in all, this week turned out to be a very good episode and each episode seems to top the last.  I'm looking forward to next week.

 -Phil

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