TV week in Review: Quick Thoughts

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TV week in Review: Quick Thoughts

18 October 2009No CommentPosted by Phil

Quick Thoughts on Heroes, Fringe, Flash Forward, Eastwick, Supernatural, SGU, and Star Wars: TCW, Smallville, Sanctuary.

Phil: Heroes, Fringe, Flash Forward, SGU, Star Wars: TCW

Chris (in gray): Heroes, Flash Forward, Eastwick, Supernatural, Star Wars: TCW, Smallville, Sanctuary.

HEROES:

Hysterical Blindness

Phil:

I don't even know where to begin. I could probably write a full article on why this episode is absolutely terrible, starting off with one word: boring! Hysterical Blindness did nothing except deal with a zombie Sylar that can't remember who he is and is now rediscovering his powers, .... AGAIN! Then we got to see Peter and the deaf girl play with colors from sound. Umm, who cares. Finally, Hayden Panettiere's big lesbian scene, ... it was a kiss, that's it. Nothing more, nothing less. It wasn't like they slipped the tongue and ripped each others cloths off, although that would have made it the best Heroes episode of all-time, but that wouldn't ever happen.

(click to enlarge image)

Oh, and one of the girls from Claire's college is apart of the Carnival idiots and she can turn invisible. I'm really getting sick of this show and I don't know how much more I can take. The only part that caught my interest was Hayden Panettiere bending over in tight jeans in front of the camera. Let's take a look at the preview for next week.

CHRIS:

Heroes this week was, I hate to say it, flat-out awesome. First off - Ernie "Winston Zeddemore" Hudson was in it?!! HELL YEAH! Secondly, Amnesia!Sylar! Great stuff.

I'm loving the Samuel character. He's convinced that he's going to rebuild his family, but he obviously has other agendas too. Sylar's slow build from amnesiac to someone trying to escape was also fun! It's nice to see Sylar as sympathetic, and I'm still infuriated that he killed off Kristin Bell last year.

The more interesting thing is, I'm actually intrigued by Emma, the deaf filing clerk. She's going through a journey, and it's making Peter more interesting as the two of them bond.

Of course, I enjoyed Claire's journey through paranioa to discovering that her roomie has a crush - and I have to say, for once, I was shocked at who was helping Samuel. It takes a lot to prove me wrong when an episode arc is playing out, but that was good. Who saw that coming?

All in all, I hate to say it, but Heroes is finally getting good, and it's almost certainly going to be cancelled, which is a shame. This is the first time since Season 1 it's felt like a real TV show, taking characters on real journeys, instead of almost a cartoonish mockery of itself. It takes a lot to get me to admit I'm wrong, but I think I was wrong, this show is getting better!

Oh yeah - the part where Peter tried to run and the theme music kept whirrring to a halt was funny as heck.

FRINGE:

Dream Logic

Phil:

Olivia, this week, is still trying to deal with the death of her friend Charlie and we as fans are still annoyed by it, at least I am. I gotta say, I'm really taken with Anna Torv; I find her incredibly adorable.

This week's episode of Fringe seemed to be more stand alone as I didn't see any connection to the mythology of the series. What I did see was Walter picking at a brain, literally. That, my friends, was nasty granted that wasn't as gross as past episodes. The point; I've learned not to eat while watching. The important thing that the episode showed was that Peter, apparently, seems to remember his abduction from an alternate universe by his father, however, he thinks it's only a dream but we know better. That still seems to haunt Walter, kidnapping a child even though Peter is his son, ... sort of. Do you want to know my theory? Sure you do. I'm betting that the reason the Observer's are targeting Walter and why this "war" is coming is because alternate Walter wants his son back and his looking for revenge against our Walter. I'm willing to bet that Walter has started this war, but we won't know those details for a long time I fear.

The bowling ally guy had Olivia looking for business cards with anyone wearing red. Every time Olivia asked for a business card, I couldn't help but find her totally adorable - oh, I said that about her already, sorry. What I'm trying to say is, is this what we're going to get with this guy? Is he only going to be Olivia's shrink or is there more to this?

I think we're already getting a break from Fringe because the preview says "This November". Even so, Stargate SG-1's JR Bourne is guest starring and looks to go head to head with Broyles. AWESOME! Take a look at the preview:

FLASH FORWARD:

Black Swan

Phil:

Battlestar Galactica's Michael Rymer steps in to direct another episode of Flash Forward. The episode is more of the same, but it's still so damn entertaining, at least from my point of view. We're still dealing with and trying to figure out Demitri's possible death as it's really starting to effect his job and possibly his judgement. We also see more of Olivia's relationship building with Lloyd, her possible future lover.

Do you remember my premiere review, when I spoke about how this series is predictable? The first two episodes gave me the impression that Lloyd played by Pirates of the Caribbean star Jack Davenport was somehow involved with the flash forward event. The reason being, during Olivia's flash forward, she dreamt Lloyd talking on the phone and sitting on the couch looking very troubled. We now know why, as Charlie, .... no, Merry, ... damn it, Simon played by Dominic Monaghan is introduced saying something along the lines that they're the reason for mankind's biggest disaster. Did they say the flash forwards specifically? No, not exactly but I'm only assuming. So that's a big development but I'm curious to see what that'll do to the rest of the season. It might be a little to early for this but maybe not. I don't know.

The bottom line is that I'm really enjoying the series and so is everyone else as the series has been solid and steady in the ratings with over 9 million viewers. Next week looks very exciting; take a look:

CHRIS:

This was a very interesting show this week. The core plots revolved around Sulu - I mean Cho - trying to fight his own future and freaking out a little bit, while on the flipside, our good lady doctor encountered something that confirmed the future for her, which scared the crap out of her.

I love shows that argue over predestination - I love them. The concept of predestination versus free will is something a lot of shows I'm a fan of have contemplated. Most especially Angel, Buffy, and a few others. The central core of this episode was a man who endured the flash forward while in a flooding bus, and got hurt. He was mellow, relaxed, and he said that in his flash-forward, he was black. The medical mystery was - how does a guy turn from white to black? Ultimately, he needed surgery for an injury he suffered during the bus crash, and the doctor in charge was Olivia - she was convinced that her flashforward was a lie, a dream, something that she can prevent, but when it turned out that his turning black was a medical condition that affected his surgery, at the last minute she bit the bullet and accepted what he saw.

It was unfortunate that it took him nearly bleeding to death to accept what happened, but she did the right thing when he started to flatline. And as for Demetri, it was good to see someone rallying against the truth, even if he was going about it the wrong way. He kicked and screamed and fought against what was coming, and ended up finding out something important - the gorgeous blonde they took into custody during the premeire, knows something about why the FlashForward occurred. She tricked him into feeding his own paranoia, and at the end of it, Mark realized that interrogating her could give him insight into what's going on.

I can't wait for next week.

EASTWICK:

Fleas and Casserole

CHRIS:

I promised to write reviews about this from episode one and I forgot - to anyone who was looking forward to reviews to determine if the show was worth watching, I sincerely apologize. You can probably still watch full episodes on Hulu or ABC if you look.

This show is good. It's not great, but it's good. Make no mistake - it's clearly geared more towards women than men, but it's still entertaining enough to hold my attention, and the twists and turns of the are actually pretty fun.

The basic story, for those of you who don't know from the previews, is three women bond one night over some bad things happening in their lives, and are slowly discovering that life in Eastwick is taking on a decidedly supernatural tone. They haven't really figured out that witchcraft is involved yet, but one of them knows that she can look people in the eye and tell them what to do and they will do it.

This week's episode gave us some insight into Mia's upstairs roommate, he may be "Bun"'s son, the old 'witch' that is now obsessively drawing the trianguluar symbol in all her books. Joanna had to deal with her ex coming back into town and then admitting that he basically thought of her as a douche until she cleaned up in the last few years. She kicked him to the curb and rightfully so.

One thing this episode didn't have a lot of was Darryl, which is a shame because he's probably the funniest character in the show. He knows what the girls really want and he wants to empower them, but he is likely a demon or devil. Very little is known about him.

If you're looking for action packed adventure, it's not here, but this show is very, very funny, and entertaining, and that pretty much has my attention.

STARGATE UNIVERSE:

Darkness

Phil:

As you know, I wasn't impressed with the pilot (AIR Pt. 1 & 2) of SGU and the following episode which is also the conclusion of the series premiere. I'm willing to continue to watch because SGU has a lot of potential as it needs to find it's footing like any new show, that and also the fact that I love Stargate.

The new Episode Darkness is directed by Peter DeLuise, a long time Stargate director. He'll also direct the next episode and a late season one episode. The point being, DeLuise directed a really good episode as he toned down over the top pointless drama and just told a story. I give him total credit for the episode.

Robert Carlyle's performance as his character had a nervous break down is pretty damn impressive. You can tell from his acting that he is very passionate about this role and I respect that. Also, all other performances in the episode seemed to be toned down a little and I think it's better for it. As the saying goes, "less is more".

I haven't mentioned yet and I really should have in my premiere review, but the visual effects for SGU are phenomenal. Vis effects really have come a long way for television and shows like Battlestar Galactica and SGU really have had the best. The Destiny itself looks incredible and so real. Yes, they'll never win an Emmy for it as this past Emmy for Visual Effects went to Heroes, ... it beat BSG and how it did that, I'll never know.

Finally, actress Julia Anderson; in short, holy shit - my television wasn't big enough.

Here's the preview for next weeks episode, Light:

SUPERNATURAL:

I Believe the Children are our Future

CHRIS:

Wow this week's episode was cool. SPOILERS AHEAD: This week, all kinds of wive's tales started to come true - a girl got hit with itching powder and scratched herself to death, a man used a joy buzzer and it actually electrocuted someone, and all kinds of other lies turned real. The boys traced it back to a little boy in Nebraska who was basically controlling reality.

It turns out - a demon pregnancy took place, the demon posessed her for nine months and popped a baby out. The baby was the prophesied coming of the AntiChrist. -- eep.

Promptly, Castiel showed up and told the boys they HAD to kill the child. Had to, because the child had the power to wish heaven out of existence. Ultimately, Castiel tried to kill the boy himself, but the child turned the angel into an action figure, standing on the floor.

Shortly afterward, the demon who birthed the child as well as the Winchester boys showed up, each trying to convince the boy to go their way. Ultimately, the writers did something cool here - they had the boy choose to vanish entirely. Castiel was turned back into an angel, and the boy vanished entirely. There's no telling where he went.

It was a brilliantly written episode, and again, I urge everyone out there who's not a fan to buy the Blu-Rays or DVD's and catch up.

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS:

Senate Spy

Phil:

Does anyone care about the marital relationship between Anakin and Padme? No, I'd guess not. Even so, the episode follows those two as they spy on another Senator as he is believed to be a traitor to the Republic.

In short, they spy, they accomplish their mission, and they love each other. Sadly, there wasn't the usual action that I enjoy but I still found it half-way fun.

The next episode looks high on action. Take a look at a clip that's been release for next week:

CHRIS:

This week's episode was far better than your average week's. The Jedi Council asked Padme to investigate a senator that might be colluding with the separatists, and Anakin got really jealous over the guy. He was a smooth operator, and Anakin didn't want to see that, so he often tilted the ship and jerked it so the man couldn't land a kiss. It was cute.

Ultimately, the senator was betrayed by his own colluders, but he actually showed a little heart as that took place.

I don't really have much to say other than it was very well done and I enjoyed it.

SMALLVILLE:

Echo

CHRIS:

This episode was very well done. Clark got a new power - telepathy - and realized that he was hearing Lois's thoughts - which of course he used to ask her out. Jor-El said that he gave Kal-El this power so he would begin to understand that he needs to pay attention to the subtleties of humanity, and to stop underestimating them.

But in traditional Smallville fashion, the date got overridden by a threat to a friend's life, because Clark really can't be allowed to date. However, the intricacy this time was that it was Ollie's life who was in danger. Ollie has started a drinking binge through Mexico, and Tess suddenly showed up with an uzi to save him from himself and invite him back to give a speech to the now-failing Queen corporation.

Ollie's conscience is gnawing at him because he's seeing Lex's face in the mirror, and the death of Jimmy didn't help either. When Tess convinces him to come back to America, ToyMan shows back up, pissed off that Ollie blamed him for the death of Lex Luthor, and prepares a trap to blow him to hell unless he confesses his sins.

Ollie does it, and when he realizes he's hit bottom is on stage, admitting it to everyone, and then he sets off the booby trap, hoping to die. What he doesn't realize is the trap was just a timer, and Clark disabled it. Clark then admits that he wasn't listening, wasn't paying attention, and promises to help Ollie out.

Though of course, in the process, he loses his romantic chances he had with Lois. All in all, a damn fine episode.

SANCTUARY:

End of Nights

CHRIS:

Wow, that was unexpected. I won't spoil anything about the end of this episode because it was fantastic, but this was very well written.

If you were watching last week, you know that the Cabal kidnapped Dr. Magnus's child and used the source blood to alter her completely. She became nigh-indestructible and the Cabal began using her and those like her to attack all the Sanctuary sites.

Magnus tries to tell Tesla to create a weapon to only disable Ashley, but ultimately that proves impossible. She overcomes the effects of the weapon too quickly, and Magnus has to accept the fact that she may have to kill her daughter to survive.

I can't give anything else away, but this was brilliantly written, and brilliantly executed. I can't wait for next week.