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24: Day Six, 1 - 2 a.m.The best part of this week's 24 is the surprise return of Secretary Heller. Heller comes in, sees Audrey and then tells Jack to keep clear of his daughter since Jack is, as he puts it, cursed. Nice scene. William DeVane did a nice job, though I wonder how long Jack will respect Heller's wishes to stay far away from Audrey. Seems as if Jack is the only one who can reach Audrey to get any information on Chang's potential whereabouts. Other than that, not a lot really exciting going on this week. Turns out Lisa Miller is not just fooling around with the vice-president but a powerful lobbyist who just happens to be working for the Russians. I guess it's supposed to be a twist on the cute female spy sleeping with someone high up who is male, but honestly it wasn't all that interesting. I kind of felt sorry for her in that the whole encounter with Daniel Jackson (guy from Stargate) lasted approximately two minutes. The good thing is this plotline is not strung out. We quickly find out Lisa is the leak and how it's done. Daniels has to fess up to Tom Lennox that he's also sleeping with Lisa, which now puts the embarrassing things you can hold over the other person's head at 2 for Tom and none for Daniels. Were it not four hours from the end, I'd look to see Tom use this somehow as leverage over the VP. Oh wait, I just thought of it--this is how Karen and Tom will get Bill back in charge of CTU. Man, I should be writing for this show... Speaking of CTU, Nadia is not doing a very good job of leadership. Apparently her leadership style is doormat--as in letting everyone else walk all over you. Unless you're Morris and then she goes into total uber-pyscho mode and tells him he's not transferring because she said so...nyah, nyah, nyah. Poor Morris...he's had a rough day. Made even rougher when he decides that Chloe went too far in chiding him about giving the ability to arm nukes to terrorists. Man, relationships at CTU just do not EVER work out, do they? You'd think they'd keep footage of all these bad break-ups to show to people who go out on a date...just to maybe save them some heartache in the long run. Again, it's another week where we have a lot of focus everywhere but Jack. Doyle allows Jack to overpower him so Jack can take Audrey and find out info. And Doyle also helps Nadia realize she has to stand up for herself and assert some leadership or else no one will take her seriously. And then she does and we get an after-school special like moment when Doyle gives her the verbal high five. Man, you have to think Milo is going to be annoyed at Doyle making a move on Nadia like that. There must be something in the water at CTU that just heightens the sexual tension between co-workers. I think they're on the same water supply system that used to run into the FBI basement. ( X-Files reference!) And I haven't even got to the fact that Russia is able to mobilize for an attack in under ten minutes and that the component is damaged. I have no idea where any of this will all lead in the final four hours of the day, but I can only hope it manages to do something interesting. Or maybe have Jack be the focal point of an episode. Or both. Yeah, that'd be kind of fun. TV Thoughtsposted on other sites: Doctor Who: Daleks in Manhatten (Part 1 of 2) Doctor Who: Evolution of the Daleks (Part 2 of 2) The Shield: Haunts Veronica Mars: Un-American Grafiti Labels: 24, Doctor who, The Shield, tv shows, veronica mars
posted by Michael Hickerson at 5/02/2007 09:19:00 AM |
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Lost: One of Us
Oh those wacky Others--they're always toying with your head when you're not looking. Or even when you are looking.
Man, that Ben is one manipulative guy. So, in the course of this episode's flashbacks, we find out that he's manipulated Juliet into staying on the island long after her tour of duty was completed. I guess if you have control of the submarine and all access off the island, you can do that. Plus that whole threat of bringing back the sister's cancer probably had a lot to do with it. Though you'd think Juliet might try to figure out what magic secret Ben has that allows him to cure cancer and maybe smuggle some of that back. She could have tried this when Michael and Walt left. Of course, this is Lost, so she could have tried to do that and it didn't work. I bet we get a flashback episode about that.
Anyway, Juliet heads over to the camp of our heroes and immediately finds that everyone is pretty mistrusting. Yeah, having your people kidnap and terrorize all of the castaways will tend to make them less than trusting. But we find out Jack trusts her and so he feels that everyone should totally accept Juliet because of that. Never mind that Jack stayed behind with them of his own free will and struck a deal with their leader to go home. I am thinking thse guys missed that episode of X-Files where Deep Throat told us to "trust no one." I do find it odd that no one once questions why Jack was held and why he stayed behind of his free-will. Instead, he just throws around his weight as the leader of the tribe and tells them all to accept Juliet.
Oh yeah, and no torturing her...at least not yet.
But it seems that faith is totally misplaced. Man, Jack can't win for losing with women, can he? Everyone he opens up to hurts him in some way. I wonder if he's starting to delibarately pick unavailable women after the break-up with Sarah to keep himself from getting hurt again.
So, Juliet is part of some super secret plot with Ben. She's going to gain the trust of the camp, heal Claire and then figure out secrets in a week before the rest of the Others come. So, is that why they took Locke? Did they fear Locke's natural, uber-man, back-to-nature superpowers of doom and Ben is playing him to keep him away from the group? Would an alliance of Jack and Locke be just too much for the Others to handle? And can anyone recall if Sawyer still has the gun stash hidden? If so, seeing Juliet make a move to try and get him to reveal where they are is only going to not end well when Jack catches wind of it. And you know he will....
The Shield: Baptism by Fire
The tag line for last season was "Conscience is a killer."
Interesting to see the tag line apply to the "villain" of the season and not to Vic.
In the end, Kavanaugh bends the rules to set up Vic and is taken down by his own ethical code. He wants to bust Vic so badly he loses sight that it has to be done the right way and, in the end, Vic gets the victory. Of course, at some point, you have to wonder just when the Teflon coating on Vic is going to wear off and something is going to stick. I begin to wonder if he'll be taken down for something minor just like Al Capone was taken down for tax-evasion.
Until that happens, this show is still compelling as all get out to watch. Watching Vic's ragged determination to find Lem's killer and bring him to justice has been the driving force in these firt two episodes. I also love watching Shane squirm everytime Vic's obsession with Guardo comes up. Oh, that is going to be a killer scene when Vic finds out that Shane killed Lem.
Friday Night Lights: State
The first season ends on a high note and leaves me hoping and crossing my fingers we'll get more.
The Panthers compete for the state title, facing off against VooDoo. Seeing them fall down by a large chunk in the first half was to be expected, as was the huge rally to win it all. Seeing the trust that Eric has in Sarcasen was a great moment in an episode full of great moments. That the play worked was not a shock, though as it unfolded I wondered if it might be like the Titans in the Super Bowl a few years back--one yard short.
Meanwhile, I'd like to thank the NBC promo department for ruining the reveal that Tami is pregnant. Good job there, guys. At least they didn't show us the entire scene between Eric and Tami. Again, another great scene among many.
I think my favorite thread was the Landry is going to the game with Tyra. His elation soon turns to horror as he gets to take Tyra, her mom, the sister, Matt's grandmother and Lillah. The scenes in the car were a riot.
That said, did we have get any consequences to Lillah taking out three or four cars at her dad's dealership a few weeks ago? I am guessing not since I doubt her dad would give her a new car if he knew it was her. That said, we never saw any follow-up on that....
Man, I hope this show gets another season. I heard a rumor it may go to HBO (there was an LA Times article this weekend about it). Not sure if that's a great fit, but anything that keeps the show going is good by me.Labels: friday night lights, Lost, The Shield, tv shows
posted by Michael Hickerson at 4/16/2007 07:00:00 AM |
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Lost: Left Behind
After the giddy heights of the past weeks, we get an episode that is, well, just OK. It wasn't necessarily horrible, but it wasn't quite as great as I'd hoped.
Kate and Juliet are knocked out, drug off into the jungle and handcuffed together. They make their way back to the Others base, only to find they're being pursued by the giant smoke monster. We find out the purpose of the barriers we saw a few weeks ago (it apparently keeps the smoke monster at bay), but we also (maybe) find out that the Others aren't in control of this. Or it could be that Juliet is lying, playing some kind of game at Ben's behest--though the question becomes what is the game and why are they playing it?
I do wonder if the Others really do or don't have control of whatever the smoke monster is. Is it some elaborate security system? Is it something more? Is it somehow connected to the island?
Thinking back on the overall run of the show, the only person who has seen the monster and not been attacked or hurt by it is Locke. Which bring up the question of does Ben know this? And if Ben does know, is that why Locke is being allowed to go with the Others wherever they're going? Also, it's interesting how quickly Locke is being allowed to become part of the group that is the Others. We've seen that he and Ben have an affinity and desire to stay on the island, so will this make them uneasy allies as the rest of the season progresses?
But, back to Kate and Juliet...so in the flashbacks we find out that Kate hooked up with the woman Sawyer conned to help get to her mother. Kate was hoping Mom would at least be grateful for Kate killing the guy who was hurting her, but apparently not so much. Mom loved the guy, even if he wasn't exactly a nice guy. And so that's why she turned Kate in.
Seems that Kate and her mom just can't quite pick the right guy. Which I guess is the whole point of this since it seems Jack has moved on to Juliet. Though you'd think that someone as self-aware and savy as Juliet wouldn't want to the rebound girl if Jack is indeed trying to get over Kate.
That said, it should be interesting to see how everyone reacts when they show back up with the central group and Juliet is part of the deal. Honestly, I think she's got some other agenda (no pun intended).
Meanwhile, Hurley decides to make Sawyer accept his role as reluctant leader. The thing with this one was I saw that there was more to it than the tribe wanting to banish Sawyer. I guess Hurley just wanted to play Jeff Probst for a few hours or something. Anyway, I can't imagine the group would banish Sawyer since he seems to have his stash of all this stuff--plus, doesn't he know where all the guns are? Did we hear he'd given them all back or given up their location at some point? I am pretty sure I don't recall that, but I've been known to be wrong before.
Friday Night Lights: Best Laid Plans
And here we have everything that I love so very much about this show, all encapsulated in one superb hour.
NBC, if you cancel this one I am going to be upset. And then I'm going to buy this DVD set, watch it over and over again.
OK, let's start with the one negative. The whole Street kisses Suzy just as Lila shows up was pretty cliched. But even as out of the soap opera writers handbook as it was, the scene still underscored a fundamental character development for Lila. The poor girl's faith in men is being shattered. She's lost faith in her dad, she's lost faith in Street. Looking back to the pilot, it's interesting to see Lila being now in the place Tyra was when the season started out.
It's also interesting that the last two guys who you thought would be stable and good for Trya when the series began are the ones that came through for her in the clutch. In a show where I have a lot of favorite characters, Landry stands out as one of the best. His suffering to do the right thing, his taking the brunt of Tyra's shame and rage and his speech to her at the end...what started out as a sidekick to Sarcasan has blossomed into one of the best characters on this show. And this show is filled with great characters.
That said, I'm afriad of where the Taylor's storyline is headed. I am hoping it won't lead to some type of seperation. I loved the final scene where we go from a sense of relief and joy that this fight is resolved to the utter look of horror on Eric's face when Tami annoucnes she's staying in Dylon. Wow, what a great scene. Suddenly, the whole outcome of the game next week takes on new meaning and new shades. Will this be the professional triumph he's worked so hard for, only to have him lose everything that he holds dear?
The thing is, I have no idea how any of it will turn out. I can't even begin to guess--and that's why I love this show. We've got a huge bunch of rather standard situations, but the writing and acting have made them all so real and authentic that it feels different and unpredictable.
If you've not watched this show, please do so this week. I think the show's fate depends on a good showing. I've heard that NBC wants to renew the show but isn't sure what to do with it or where to place it on the schedule. Please, please, please tune in this week....
The Shield: On the J0nes
It's been far too long a wait for new episode of The Shield. That said, the wait was worth it.
Picking up one week after Lem's stunning death at Shane's hands in last year's season finale, this one opens with Kavannaugh more obsessed than ever with bringing down Vic. What fascinates me about this show is how Vic corrupts everyone who comes into his sphere of influence--even Kavannaugh, a guy who brought down dirty cops has become one. At one point Vic reveals how he does it--he changes the rules and makes the person he's going after panic. And he's done that here....to the point that Kavannaugh will break in and plant evidence. I have to wonder if he'll be caught. I think Dutch will be instrumental in destroying the foundation of Kavannaugh's case against Vic in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, the departments tries to force Vic out, all the while making Lem the poster boy for cops gone wrong. Which only brings Vic back into the fold and more determined than ever. I've wondered since the beginning what might be Vic's downfall and it may be the death of Lem is the beginning of the end. When Vic finds out Shane killed Lem, that can only get ugly. And that will lead to Vic feeling more and more alone, more and more trapped by his own deeds and his own corruption. I can't see Vic trying to go out in a blaze of glory or try some insane act of redemption for his guilty conscience like Shane did here (which I think we may see all season).
I don't know where it will all go, but I'm certainly hooked. And the thing is, this like Friday Night Lights is one of those shows I watch unfold and can't believe an hour has passed so quickly.Labels: friday night lights, Lost, The Shield, tv shows
posted by Michael Hickerson at 4/08/2007 04:30:00 PM |
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