TV Tyrant

24: The President Smarm vortex

April 29th, 2010 | by | 24, fox, jack bauer, jericho, tv shows

Apr
29

So, I wasn’t gonna write about 24 this week. Not because of anything with the show, but because I have been cranky, distracted and have got a to-do list a mile long before I move next week. But you what? 24 is almost over, and how many chances will I get to write about one of my favorite all time shows? So here we go with hour 10am – 11am.

I hate to nitpick the show, but those helicopters got in the air and caught up to Jack pretty fast, eh? I do love how Jack steals a heli just to fly over the river and land on a building in Manhattan. Shortest.hijack.ever.

I was worried that Chloe being in charge would put a wedge between her and Jack, and I am fairly desperate to see that friendship continue, seeing that Jack has almost no one to trust anymore. I was sure, for drama’s sake, they would have Jack be betrayed by her. Thank goodness they played it like they did, with Jack being wise to the trap, and not blaming her for doing her job.

Chloe is doing her job well, even though she still used a little of her tech-fu to get the location of the actual safehouse off of DB Sweeney’s phone so Cole had the info for later. (Hi DB!! I see playing an evil head of a private security firm on Jericho has stuck with you, even though on 24 you had a mustache instead of a goatee).

So Jack does what he does best, takes down a bunch of highly trained agents, and easily convinces Cole to go with him to expose the Russians and get Dana and whatever. Good. I wanted this whole season to be Jack and Cole together, a la Jack and Chase in the virus season. I will take them together for the last few hours.

The most unusual thing for me this episode, is my interest in what was going on with the Presidents Taylor and Logan. For me, the White House portion of the show has always been the weakest and/or most annoying bits. But put together Cherry Jones and Greg Itzin, and we get TV gold. Logan is one of the best characters ever on this show, and to have him back to his evilly goodness, and bending and warping a President who has such strong convictions is great fun to watch. Totally tragic to see it happen to her, and it is gonna get messy, and we may have lost our lovely and awesome Ethan in the process, but I can’t wait to see what they do with all of it. Cherry is totally earning that Emmy she won last year.

Michael Madsen showed up this week, perfectly cast too, as a shady, old friend of Jack. I am guessing he won’t be the last of the fun guest casting for the last few episodes.

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Time of the Angels

April 26th, 2010 | by | tv shows

Apr
26

Steven Moffat, Doctor Who’s new showrunner, seems to be working overtime. Having written 75% of the season thusfar, each of his entries are solid, if not superlative. Two weeks from last Saturday, the Doctor’s past will meet with his future, thoroughly confusing his present companion. Confused? So was I, but in a good way.

“The Time of Angels” heralds the return of River Song (as opposed to Riverdance; no step dancers here), the mysterious professor from last season’s “Silence in the Library” by Mr. Moffat. River is interesting to the Doctor, and a bit scary, because he keeps meeting her in the “wrong order” in time. The last time they met, Mr. Moffat’s “Silence,” River died. This is further back in River’s timeline (obviously) but further forward in the Doctor’s. They each know each other’s future, and neither are talking. Still confused? Good.

The story also heralds the return of the Weeping Angels, statues that move when you’re not looking. Ooh, shiver. Two seasons ago, Doctor Who introduced us to the Angels (and to Academy Award nominee Carey Mulligan) in the exquisitely creepy “Blink.” I won’t say how, but “Time of the Angels” ups the ante considerably in making the Angels more deadly than ever.

The story’s well-paced and full of the creepy-factor we’ve come to expect from a Steven Moffat story, though the story suffers somewhat from a rather boring cadre of special forces operatives from the “Church” of the 51st century, a “Bishop” and his “clerics.” They seem somewhat ancillary to the story and succeed only as bodycount, as a couple of the cannonfodder clerics fall to the eponymous Angels.

Matt Smith continues his fine performance, somewhat more petulant than the last Doctor, and in some cases downright flirtatious. Alex Kingston is in fine form as the puckish River Song. And Karen Gillan continues to delight, particularly with her room-lighting grins.

And it still delights the family. My son, four years old, was giddily cowering behind the couch, just scared enough to run behind the furniture, but not scared enough to cry or beg me to turn the TV off. The pitch is just right.

Unfortunately for my son (and for me) the episode ends on a cliffhanger, and I’ll have to wait a week to see what happens. You’ll have to wait a few more. Wait with giddy anticipation – the episode’s a good one.

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Supernatural: A plan. Finally!!

April 26th, 2010 | by | tv shows

Apr
26

I have magical powers! Last SPN post I asked for the return of Lucifer, and guess who showed up this week? So, I wish for a miiiiiiiiiiiiillion dollars…

The CW promo’d this one as a stand alone, and if it was gonna be one at this late date, I would have been so mad. But, as the episode opened, and those beautiful brothers Winchester showed up at a swanky hotel outside of Muncie, IN of all places, I had a feeling something was up. The boys were no doubt too weary and beaten to be suspicious of all that grooviness at first, but they soon got in touch with their instincts, and we got an awesome revelation that this place was a trap by a host of Pagan gods, all disgruntled at the dominance of the Judeo-Christian gods (angels and demons) running the show. Hee.

We got some good ones too! Odin, Ganesh, Mercury, Zao Shen and Kali (played by Tori from BSG – why is she always playing characters I can’t stand?). Then. Then!! Our old friend the Trickster/Loki/Gabriel shows up, who is all in with the Pagans at first because he still loves Kali, but Dean convinces him to help the Winchesters instead in a most amusing way out in Metallicar. Lucifer shows up and there is much gore and killing. I am guessing the Judeo-Christian ‘gods’ are more powerful that the old Pagan ones, because of the sheer number of believers, right? That’s how I saw it anyway.

I am not a religious person, but I have a real interest in religious lore, so stories like this are tons of fun for me. The idea of a bunch of bitter gods getting together to fight the all powerful ones is not that different than thousands of David and Goliath stories told over the ages. You know we all like a good underdog story, right?

Last post I complained about the sadness and weariness of Dean and Sam for a good chunk of this season. It has been a depressing (and sometimes trying) bunch of drama, but this episode was a bit of a return to classic Sam and Dean. As annoyed as they were about having their one night off interrupted, we got Dean with the silly quips and Sam being all smart and research-y. I liked having that old rapport back between them. Finally!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot the best part! We finally, FINALLY have a plan to get Lucifer, brought to us by poor now dead Gabriel, smited by his own sword and brother. A quest for the four rings of the Horseman will bring us on to Pestilence (played by Matt Frewer, which is a brilliant piece of casting), and Death. Excellent.

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Lost: The pieces are falling into place

April 23rd, 2010 | by | lost

Apr
23

I had a sudden moment watching Lost tonight (first chance I had to sit down and watch!) that made a whole heckuva lot of things make so much more sense.

(Insert usual spoiler alert, blah blah blah.)

The cabin that Ben used to visit Jacob at wasn’t Jacob’s cabin at all. Jacob had trapped Smokey there.

Before I continue, I want to say two things:

1) Bear with me; I know that there are some inconsistencies with this, as we saw Smokey around the island anyhow in this time. But I may have the answer to that. Or, at least, a partial answer.

2) I am just not that smart sometimes. This theory is more than likely all over all the message boards and blogs already, but I haven’t been reading the lately because I really have been trying to absorb Lost myself this season. So apologies if my epiphany is a bunch of, “Really? You just recognized that?” I may very well be pathetically slow to pick up on certain things.

OK, so: Why Jacob’s Cabin was really Smokey’s Cabin, by Amy Vernon:

Read full story

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glee: Madonna Mania!

April 22nd, 2010 | by | fox, glee, tv shows

Apr
22

Up until a few years ago, I would have never considered myself a Madonna fan. That is until one day when I was going through my CD collection, and I realized I owned almost every Madonna CD that existed at that point - including the soundtrack to “Dick Tracy”. So, as you can imagine, I really enjoyed this episode.

I am generally wary of shows that are running high on the hype, and we ‘gleeks’ have been salivating over the Madonna episode from the second we found out about it. It totally lived up to the billing.

This was an episode where Jane Lynch got to shine, and we get the story of her Nazi hunter, absentee parents as the instigator of why she hates Will’s hair. A story so completely ridiculous that is told with such a straight face, you almost believe it. Either way, those jokes are one of my favorite running gags of the show, and the addition of stilts to the cheerios was hilarious.

I loved how ‘Like A Virgin’ was used, which was funny and touching. Using the empowerment of women as the focus of all the story lines was a fantastic way of making Madonna relevant to the show and the glee club.

Right now glee is in that wonderfully giddy spot, a hit show in it’s first, glorious year. With some of my favorite shows ending this season, it makes me nostalgic for the excitement I felt that first season of Lost; the anticipation for each new episode of 24 back on that first horrible day for Jack Bauer. It’s nice to have a shiny new show to be all goofy about again.

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24: Always been a fan of recycling

April 21st, 2010 | by | 24, fox, jack bauer, tv shows

Apr
21

Listen, I hear all of you, I do, retread, recycled, done to death, here we go again… but you know what, I still like it. I just can’t help myself. Jack goes off all cocksure and angry, it just gets me every.single.time.

So, along with the expected move of Jack stealing the helicopter (from his biggest fan, no less!), we got one of my favorite pairings in the history of 24. Cherry Jones and Gregory Itzin ruled every moment of their scenes together, and mad props to Bob Gunton for holding his own as the’ Good’ shoulder angel. It was interesting to see a character as idealistic as President Taylor be vulnerable to the brilliant smarmy-ness of President Logan. It was delicious to watch.

I know this may make me a bad person, but watching Jack smack Dana around was satisfying, as I wanted to do that to her for most of the season. Also, not only was she a bad spy, but she sucks at holding immunity too. Everyone gets immunity on this show! Poor, dumb, Dana.

While I was excited that Chloe was given temporary rein of CTU, I did wonder if her and her personality disorder could handle it. I thought she jumped right in and did great. I just hope it doesn’t end in another one of Jack’s BFFs having to break up with him.

All in all, even with a rickety Russian conspiracy plot bolstering the story, I am excited for the last few episodes… ever!

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Supernatural: Kiss and Man Up

April 19th, 2010 | by | supernatural, tv shows

Apr
19

I would like to admit up front that I have always felt that Supernatural is really Dean’s story. Don’t get me wrong, Sam is vital, but I feel like the whole story of the Winchester’s is all about Dean’s journey more than anything.

So this week, we had to put up with sad, vaguely annoying Dean for half of the episode, as he whined about how useless it all was, and how he was just gonna let Michael have his way with him. Quite frankly, feeling-sorry-for-himself Dean is no fun. Imagine my happiness when Castiel showed up and kicked Dean’s ass all over that dark alley!

I like the addition of making BabyWinchester Adam part of the mix. Once he was dead, it never occurred to me that he might be brought back, but that Zachariah is a wily one! I thought it was pretty clever, because Dean just can not resist the family thing, especially someone he sees as an innocent.

So, we end up in Van Nuys, of all places, in the Angel room. After Castiel once again shows us his mad Angel skillz, Dean and Sam crash in on Adam and Zach, and all kinds of gory business takes place, resulting in the spectacular ganking of Zachariah, and the mildly unexpected taking of BabyAdam by Michael (who is a big, loud Angel, it seems!).

The best part of this episode, is that Dean finally stops feeling sorry for himself, and it looks like he is ready to embrace Sam again. Hooray! Hopefully, this is gonna be a race to the finish line of this apocalypse, our brothers fighting shoulder to shoulder.

I know that Lucifer is busy being Jacob over on Lost, but I sure hope we get to see him again soon.

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Barely Whelmed

April 17th, 2010 | by | doctor who, tv shows

Apr
17

The latest Doctor Who, Victory of the Daleks, is not a terribly original or interesting entry into the series. Mark Gatiss, member of the superb comedy troupe the League of Gentlemen, gives us a very pedestrian entry mixing two of the more tired elements of Doctor Who throughout its history – Daleks and historical bigwigs (this time Sir Winston Churchill).

This could have been any Doctor, with any companion, and the new Daleks look like they’re candy-coated. We’d say they look like M&Ms, our friends across the pond would call them Smarties. Either way, it’s far less frightening to run from candy than the dirty, war (and Doctor) scarred pepperpots of old.

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glee: Welcome Back!

April 15th, 2010 | by | fox, glee, new season, tv shows

Apr
15

Oh, glee, how I love you. Why did you stay away for so long?

I take no shame in my unabashed love for this show. From the very first moment of the pilot, I was enthralled, and my love grew and grew, right up to the big sectionals episode. Then, in their infinite wisdom, Fox took glee away from the adoring throngs, and made us wait. A not uncommon move by a network these days, but annoying nonetheless.

Anyhoo, as much as I love, I was fully prepared to not be thrilled with the returning episode. I knew it would be a huge set-up episode for the rest of the season and the road to regionals, and those kind of episodes have a way of being disappointing somehow.

But no! I was mostly wrong. Jane Lynch’s Sue Sylvester was awesomely horrible, Mr. Shue was adorable and didn’t sing any stupid rap mash-ups (thank god), Rachel was her usual self centered self, Finn was a perfect representation of the clueless teen boy (and still perfectly cute), and we got to see into the shallow and hilariously empty minds of Brit and Santana (“Did you know dolphins are just gay sharks?”). With the exception of having to hear “Hello, Again” at all, I enjoyed all of it.

Also, we got the wonderful addition of Broadway lovlies Idina Menzel and Jonathan Groff as potential villian members of Vocal Adrenaline, the main competition to our New Direction glee-ers. Fun!

If you haven’t seen the glorious Sue Sylvester version of Madonna’s “Vogue”, get on that right now, because next week? Madonna week!!

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