TV Programme: Damages
Season: 2
Episode: 8
Date I watched this episode: 27/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 7 days.
I was glad after the last episode's ending that they decided to continue Pete's backstory through this episode. The character development arc for Pete can now span 2 episodes; which in itself is a breakthrough as there have been so many episode-long storylines this season. I think Pete is well and truly dead now though, it will be unlikely that he'll be brought back a second time: so in a way this entire episode was a bit pointless. The interesting thing is, what Patty's involvement was in this? It is not inconceivable that she could be complicit in another murder (as I'm skeptical about her being genuine during the scene at the pier). However, although the perpetrator called Patty just as he left the hospital, he also said to his friend "let's go before his boss finds out" which doesn't quite seem to add up.
The intertwined storyline about Patty's childhood was a good idea - this was teased at during last season when Patty and Tom were talking about him creating his own firm. However it was extremely repetitive: the same clip was shown several times with no added value. This method has been used before in last season's "Do You Regret What We Did?" but to added effect there due to the fact that each time the clip plays you get a little bit more and understand it better. Here the device didn't quite work.
Arthur Frobisher is once again messing about, and has become almost comical in his attempts at redemption. When he tells Rick Messer in this episode "Today, I walk without fear" Rick is absolutely speechless. I feel that it's necessary for Arthur's character to go around this journey so that he can end up more powerful and unscrupulous than he has ever been. It'll be interesting to see just how far Arthur will go, whether he will turn himself in as an escape to certain death at the hands of Messer's people.
It was good to see Noah Bean back in this episode. I like the idea of David's ghost guiding Ellen, and I hope we will see him return in future episodes. I don't think the thing about the wedding gift was well done though, I always guessed that Ellen didn't want to open it because she was clinging onto one last moment; I can imagine myself doing the same thing. They have built up this gift storyline over so many episodes that it will surely be an anticlimax.
Obviously a major revelation in this episode was the identity of the person in room 1910 - finally - it is Patty Hewes. This again is something of an anticlimax as it was the most likely person (though the idea that it was Frobisher was teased a bit). Quite a lot has to happen before Tom Shayes is going to help Ellen obtain a gun to shoot Patty though. It is still a pretty complex storyline that is slowly unravelling.
A bit more was revealed this week about Garrity and the energy trades. This is pretty complex and a lot of information was given on it all at once. Basically it seems that Garrity is going to release some dud formula which will manipulate the stock market in favour of UNR. But although this loses the lawsuit, I can't see quite how it ties in with the UNR merger.
The season is really picking up the pace now and there is a lot to explore. I wonder if Ellen recognised the man who tried to kill her? What is Lani (aka Suzy)'s agenda and what does she want from Hewes & Associates? What is Dave's agenda, why is he keen to create a conflict of interest and why does he want to help Phil Hewes so much anyway? And finally does Patty know about the FBI situation? It seems quite unusual for someone so on the ball as her to not have detected what is really going on.
Now onto our weekly title discussion, and finally I was actually right!! This line was spoken by Frobisher, admittedly to his spirtualist, but it's the closest I've got so far. Next week's is "You got your prom date pregnant". Wow they don't tend to make these easy do they? I'm going to guess Patty talking to Michael...but that doesn't really fit with the storyline, so I'm a bit stumped.
This season is doing well in its second half and has restored some hope in me; I just wish they could have got to this point sooner, as all that stuff with Danny Purcell seems so irrelevant now.
Saturday, 28 February 2009
Friday, 27 February 2009
[24H] Day 7: 5:00pm-6:00pm
TV Programme: 24
Season: 7
Episode: 10
Date I watched this episode: 24/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 7 days.
All 24 seasons have multiple parts to them, each with a key villain attached. Season 1 had Ira Gaines and Victor Drazen, Season 2 had Syed Ali and Peter Kingsley, Season 3 had Ramon Salazar and Stephen Saunders, etc. Since the initial part to this season was attached to Colonel Ike Dubaku, it was fairly obvious to assume that the next part would be run by General Benjamin Juma, Dubaku's boss. This episode was about the tying up of the Dubaku storyline and setting the scene for the new Juma storyline.
The set up scene was pretty rubbish to be honest. It was completely overdramatised, as if the writers intended to take the scene at the slowest pace possible for the maximum dramatic effect. This is admittedly a dramatic device which often works but it didn't work in this setting with these characters. In particular when Tony says "I need your help, Jack" this was a cringeworthy moment.
The capture of Dubaku involved a car chase, Jack was going the wrong way along some roads and driving across a park. This form of car chase has become so standard in 24 that it is pretty boring. You just really want to know the result and that's it. In fact I think there has been a very similar car chase earlier this season. Nevertheless, it was inevitable once Dubaku naively wanted to have his cake and eat it with Marika. It's intriguing to speculate what Marika's endgame was; whether she actually wanted to go with Dubaku or whether she was always intending to sabotage.
The Sean Hillinger mole storyline also found something of a conclusion in this episode. Erika's involvement was a bit silly - but I suppose once Sean was out of the FBI loop they needed to find a way to dispose of her character. She is incredibly annoying though and she almost completely ruined this episode, especially with her technobabble in the server room. The revelation of their working together, in the opening scene, was completely played down. The moment of revelation was when Sean said "you'll get us caught" and this was said so quietly you could hardly hear it.
The death of Erika in general, and the "erase all servers" piece, was a twist that eventually turned out to just be a time filler. It just all seemed too easy to get the data and make the arrests, as if the show had suddenly had to go in a different direction (kind of like the "Invasion" cancellation, in which an incredibly complex storyline was tied up in about half an hour, or [ALS] "Full Disclosure" as another example).
There were some glaring inconsistencies to this episode too. Would Jack really hand off the data disk to someone he had never met before (the copter pilot) - he didn't know if they would be working for Dubaku. Jack said he'd never seen anything like the data disk before but then Chloe was able to install it into a standard drive on a laptop. And Tony said he already has a tail on Burnett - but he is supposedly working alone now.
The good part around this episode was the chemistry between Jack and Renee. The long scene between them where she is hitting him and saying "do you feel that?" is quite well done, realistic and sufficiently dramatic/emotional. The character of Renee is being fleshed out quite well, her pulling a weapon on Jack Bauer was unexpected but also in keeping with the recent developments around this character.
Since this episode was really a setup episode, it is worth thinking about the future of this season. Tony says they don't know the exact target of Juma's attack so determining what this is is likely to be a big storyline coming up, with probably a major shock when it is revealed. Senator Maier's return is welcome, his personal crusade against Jack will add another dimension to the story to come. And as for Sean, well there is probably going to be much devoted to his arrest and interrogation in the next episode, while the Juma attack storyline picks up. I think there will be a redemption storyline now for Sean, especially with Rhys Coiro having a main cast credit. He will likely realise his mistakes and try to set things right - he doesn't seem to have the ruthless character of past moles such as Nina Myers.
In the final analysis, this was a wrongly-paced setup episode, which seemed generally out-of-place, and is probably the worst episode so far this season.
Season: 7
Episode: 10
Date I watched this episode: 24/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 7 days.
All 24 seasons have multiple parts to them, each with a key villain attached. Season 1 had Ira Gaines and Victor Drazen, Season 2 had Syed Ali and Peter Kingsley, Season 3 had Ramon Salazar and Stephen Saunders, etc. Since the initial part to this season was attached to Colonel Ike Dubaku, it was fairly obvious to assume that the next part would be run by General Benjamin Juma, Dubaku's boss. This episode was about the tying up of the Dubaku storyline and setting the scene for the new Juma storyline.
The set up scene was pretty rubbish to be honest. It was completely overdramatised, as if the writers intended to take the scene at the slowest pace possible for the maximum dramatic effect. This is admittedly a dramatic device which often works but it didn't work in this setting with these characters. In particular when Tony says "I need your help, Jack" this was a cringeworthy moment.
The capture of Dubaku involved a car chase, Jack was going the wrong way along some roads and driving across a park. This form of car chase has become so standard in 24 that it is pretty boring. You just really want to know the result and that's it. In fact I think there has been a very similar car chase earlier this season. Nevertheless, it was inevitable once Dubaku naively wanted to have his cake and eat it with Marika. It's intriguing to speculate what Marika's endgame was; whether she actually wanted to go with Dubaku or whether she was always intending to sabotage.
The Sean Hillinger mole storyline also found something of a conclusion in this episode. Erika's involvement was a bit silly - but I suppose once Sean was out of the FBI loop they needed to find a way to dispose of her character. She is incredibly annoying though and she almost completely ruined this episode, especially with her technobabble in the server room. The revelation of their working together, in the opening scene, was completely played down. The moment of revelation was when Sean said "you'll get us caught" and this was said so quietly you could hardly hear it.
The death of Erika in general, and the "erase all servers" piece, was a twist that eventually turned out to just be a time filler. It just all seemed too easy to get the data and make the arrests, as if the show had suddenly had to go in a different direction (kind of like the "Invasion" cancellation, in which an incredibly complex storyline was tied up in about half an hour, or [ALS] "Full Disclosure" as another example).
There were some glaring inconsistencies to this episode too. Would Jack really hand off the data disk to someone he had never met before (the copter pilot) - he didn't know if they would be working for Dubaku. Jack said he'd never seen anything like the data disk before but then Chloe was able to install it into a standard drive on a laptop. And Tony said he already has a tail on Burnett - but he is supposedly working alone now.
The good part around this episode was the chemistry between Jack and Renee. The long scene between them where she is hitting him and saying "do you feel that?" is quite well done, realistic and sufficiently dramatic/emotional. The character of Renee is being fleshed out quite well, her pulling a weapon on Jack Bauer was unexpected but also in keeping with the recent developments around this character.
Since this episode was really a setup episode, it is worth thinking about the future of this season. Tony says they don't know the exact target of Juma's attack so determining what this is is likely to be a big storyline coming up, with probably a major shock when it is revealed. Senator Maier's return is welcome, his personal crusade against Jack will add another dimension to the story to come. And as for Sean, well there is probably going to be much devoted to his arrest and interrogation in the next episode, while the Juma attack storyline picks up. I think there will be a redemption storyline now for Sean, especially with Rhys Coiro having a main cast credit. He will likely realise his mistakes and try to set things right - he doesn't seem to have the ruthless character of past moles such as Nina Myers.
In the final analysis, this was a wrongly-paced setup episode, which seemed generally out-of-place, and is probably the worst episode so far this season.
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
[PRB] Dead Fall
TV Programme: Prison Break
Season: 2
Episode: 8
Date I watched this episode: 24/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 2 days.
The brilliance of the last couple of episodes was just not sustainable in the long run, and I knew that eventually we'd get back to a standard episode. This episode was fairly boring to be honest. A lot of time was spent with Michael and Sucre trapped in a river, with no real surroundings and very repetitive attempts to get out. While I lauded the writers last week for throwing their characters into close quarters, we've had a huge amount of time with Michael and Sucre together (perhaps too much) and this entire sequence didn't serve much of a purpose, except perhaps to time-fill at low budget (and it didn't escape my attention that the bit where Michael drives the motorbike down the river bank was shot in a very amateurish fashion).
I also don't like the twist that Mahone now works for The Company. Over the course of this season the writers have developed a very dark, complex character in Alexander Mahone, and now they have seemingly blown all that away by giving some reasonable explanation to his actions. The Company is a great segment to the show's universe, and I really enjoy that element (although I think the fact that we hardly ever see Caroline anymore is a real shame); I think it would have been better if Mahone had enlisted The Company's help in working toward a common goal. It's no longer about a battle of the intellects, and more about hidden agendas and high risks, and that's not really what this season has been about. Nevertheless, the writing recently has been so top-notch that I'm prepared to give them a bit of leeway here to see what they can do with this storyline.
I'm also not best pleased to see Brad Bellick back again. Brad's character doesn't seem to serve any real purpose anymore. I don't like the character, the thug villain is not often used in stories for a very good reason. It was good to see him back for a few episodes, but now going on a wild goose chase - I'm not so sure I'm liking where this is going.
There were some good parts to this episode though. It started off well - the T-Bag quadruple-cross (or something) was unforeseen, and it was kept fresh by happening quite quickly, otherwise it would have seemed a bit ridiculous. Also I thought it was great the way Lincoln got in to see LJ. This reminds me of the episode "Otis" earlier this season. It's great when no one has a clue where the guys are and then they just turn up at the last minute, like performers coming into a show, or like in the beginning of V for Vendetta. So I'll hope to see more of that.
The Sara Tancredi storyline is getting interesting too. She is starting to work out where Michael is, and I'm sure there'll be a reunion at some point this season, though it's bound to be short-lived. I do think she was completely stupid not to immediately realise that that guy from her dad's office was a mole though. I hope Paul Kellerman gets fed up with The Company soon and turns against them. He'd work well on Michael's side, and this would be a good conduit to get Sara and Michael back together, as Kellerman has the final piece of the puzzle.
We got a couple of teasers this episode on what is going to happen in the next episode. Most majorly, Maricruz is back in the picture. This is great news - and could make for a very emotional reunion at some point. Also T-Bag is off to see his ex; but he seems to be in a good mood, so perhaps he will renounce his killing streak.
I think this episode had some good ideas and elements, but there was just too much filler packed in there that it was hard to follow the important points.
Season: 2
Episode: 8
Date I watched this episode: 24/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 2 days.
The brilliance of the last couple of episodes was just not sustainable in the long run, and I knew that eventually we'd get back to a standard episode. This episode was fairly boring to be honest. A lot of time was spent with Michael and Sucre trapped in a river, with no real surroundings and very repetitive attempts to get out. While I lauded the writers last week for throwing their characters into close quarters, we've had a huge amount of time with Michael and Sucre together (perhaps too much) and this entire sequence didn't serve much of a purpose, except perhaps to time-fill at low budget (and it didn't escape my attention that the bit where Michael drives the motorbike down the river bank was shot in a very amateurish fashion).
I also don't like the twist that Mahone now works for The Company. Over the course of this season the writers have developed a very dark, complex character in Alexander Mahone, and now they have seemingly blown all that away by giving some reasonable explanation to his actions. The Company is a great segment to the show's universe, and I really enjoy that element (although I think the fact that we hardly ever see Caroline anymore is a real shame); I think it would have been better if Mahone had enlisted The Company's help in working toward a common goal. It's no longer about a battle of the intellects, and more about hidden agendas and high risks, and that's not really what this season has been about. Nevertheless, the writing recently has been so top-notch that I'm prepared to give them a bit of leeway here to see what they can do with this storyline.
I'm also not best pleased to see Brad Bellick back again. Brad's character doesn't seem to serve any real purpose anymore. I don't like the character, the thug villain is not often used in stories for a very good reason. It was good to see him back for a few episodes, but now going on a wild goose chase - I'm not so sure I'm liking where this is going.
There were some good parts to this episode though. It started off well - the T-Bag quadruple-cross (or something) was unforeseen, and it was kept fresh by happening quite quickly, otherwise it would have seemed a bit ridiculous. Also I thought it was great the way Lincoln got in to see LJ. This reminds me of the episode "Otis" earlier this season. It's great when no one has a clue where the guys are and then they just turn up at the last minute, like performers coming into a show, or like in the beginning of V for Vendetta. So I'll hope to see more of that.
The Sara Tancredi storyline is getting interesting too. She is starting to work out where Michael is, and I'm sure there'll be a reunion at some point this season, though it's bound to be short-lived. I do think she was completely stupid not to immediately realise that that guy from her dad's office was a mole though. I hope Paul Kellerman gets fed up with The Company soon and turns against them. He'd work well on Michael's side, and this would be a good conduit to get Sara and Michael back together, as Kellerman has the final piece of the puzzle.
We got a couple of teasers this episode on what is going to happen in the next episode. Most majorly, Maricruz is back in the picture. This is great news - and could make for a very emotional reunion at some point. Also T-Bag is off to see his ex; but he seems to be in a good mood, so perhaps he will renounce his killing streak.
I think this episode had some good ideas and elements, but there was just too much filler packed in there that it was hard to follow the important points.
Sunday, 22 February 2009
[PRB] Buried
TV Programme: Prison Break
Season: 2
Episode: 7
Date I watched this episode: 22/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 1 day.
This was once again a really good episode in terms of character development (Mahone in particular), action, suspense, and pretty much everything I love about this show. It started off well, which I hadn't quite predicted (in my last review I talked down the cliffhanger), with that really tight suspense scene with the "cop" walking up the stairs to find Sucre and Michael. The fact that it was her daughter was a good twist, and added an original element to this sequence, because it wasn't just a "burst in and storm the house" generic scene, she actually didn't know anything was wrong initially. I was wondering "why is she wiping her feet on the doormat?" Incidentally the actress who plays this character also played Jane Saunders, Stephen Saunders's daughter from the third season of 24, and she is quite hot on both occasions.
The whole Mahone/Tweener storyline was also very non-generic and added a real extra depth to Mahone's character. This is a very complex guy, at least as complex as Michael, and gives a lot of possibilities. The ending to this episode was amazing and was one of those endings (like [CNV] "The River" or [OTH] "The Show Must Go On") that just left me speechless, just taking in the enormity of what had just happened as the credits scrolled past. The "Oscar Shales" storyline has seemed a bit out of place this season but it all just slotted into place. I think this is a guy who you just assume will succeed, and he has failed in this episode, he hasn't got what he wanted from Tweener, just like he failed with Oscar Shales.
As for Tweener, well I was sorry to see him go although I did predict it. Only 6 of the Fox River Eight remain now, and my favourites out of those are Sucre and to a lesser extent C-Note, so I hope they stick around for a while. Tweener really went out kicking though. For him, this episode was about redemption, but not redemption with the justice system, more a kind of personal redemption for his disloyalty to the Eight in the first place. So this was an emotional ending. And the fact that he'd gone to see that girl again was completely unexpected and a cool twist.
The other members of the Eight (except for Haywire, who seemed a bit superfluous in this episode) are fracturing from all sides in this episode. They must know that they have to stick together to see this through, and that turning on each other is going to lessen their chances of getting out, but still here we had C-Note and T-Bag at each others throats, Lincoln's emotional and dramatic departure (we all know he'll be back but it was a pretty amazing goodbye - the parting of the ways), and Sucre's ultimate betrayal at the end (which incidentally was pretty stupid, he is so close to losing everything he's fought for).
Sometimes in this show, things happen which have no obvious explanation at the time, but come to light later on. In this episode a comparatively huge amount of screentime was spent watching Paul Kellerman take his watch off and putting it back on again. It's unclear if this has any significance but just wanted to note it down here so I can say "I told you so" if necessary...
I'm not sure why Michael let the lady's husband leave conscious and in-tact after he'd acted so suspiciously with him. This will come back to bite him I think - and is likely a side-effect of Michael being too nice for his own good. But then again that's one of the great moral messages of this show, that you don't have to go in all guns blazing (metaphorically - I mean, Michael didn't actually kill anyone at the bank robbery) in order to succeed in a very messy situation.
All in all this was a great episode and I look forward to watching the next one in the very near future.
Season: 2
Episode: 7
Date I watched this episode: 22/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 1 day.
This was once again a really good episode in terms of character development (Mahone in particular), action, suspense, and pretty much everything I love about this show. It started off well, which I hadn't quite predicted (in my last review I talked down the cliffhanger), with that really tight suspense scene with the "cop" walking up the stairs to find Sucre and Michael. The fact that it was her daughter was a good twist, and added an original element to this sequence, because it wasn't just a "burst in and storm the house" generic scene, she actually didn't know anything was wrong initially. I was wondering "why is she wiping her feet on the doormat?" Incidentally the actress who plays this character also played Jane Saunders, Stephen Saunders's daughter from the third season of 24, and she is quite hot on both occasions.
The whole Mahone/Tweener storyline was also very non-generic and added a real extra depth to Mahone's character. This is a very complex guy, at least as complex as Michael, and gives a lot of possibilities. The ending to this episode was amazing and was one of those endings (like [CNV] "The River" or [OTH] "The Show Must Go On") that just left me speechless, just taking in the enormity of what had just happened as the credits scrolled past. The "Oscar Shales" storyline has seemed a bit out of place this season but it all just slotted into place. I think this is a guy who you just assume will succeed, and he has failed in this episode, he hasn't got what he wanted from Tweener, just like he failed with Oscar Shales.
As for Tweener, well I was sorry to see him go although I did predict it. Only 6 of the Fox River Eight remain now, and my favourites out of those are Sucre and to a lesser extent C-Note, so I hope they stick around for a while. Tweener really went out kicking though. For him, this episode was about redemption, but not redemption with the justice system, more a kind of personal redemption for his disloyalty to the Eight in the first place. So this was an emotional ending. And the fact that he'd gone to see that girl again was completely unexpected and a cool twist.
The other members of the Eight (except for Haywire, who seemed a bit superfluous in this episode) are fracturing from all sides in this episode. They must know that they have to stick together to see this through, and that turning on each other is going to lessen their chances of getting out, but still here we had C-Note and T-Bag at each others throats, Lincoln's emotional and dramatic departure (we all know he'll be back but it was a pretty amazing goodbye - the parting of the ways), and Sucre's ultimate betrayal at the end (which incidentally was pretty stupid, he is so close to losing everything he's fought for).
Sometimes in this show, things happen which have no obvious explanation at the time, but come to light later on. In this episode a comparatively huge amount of screentime was spent watching Paul Kellerman take his watch off and putting it back on again. It's unclear if this has any significance but just wanted to note it down here so I can say "I told you so" if necessary...
I'm not sure why Michael let the lady's husband leave conscious and in-tact after he'd acted so suspiciously with him. This will come back to bite him I think - and is likely a side-effect of Michael being too nice for his own good. But then again that's one of the great moral messages of this show, that you don't have to go in all guns blazing (metaphorically - I mean, Michael didn't actually kill anyone at the bank robbery) in order to succeed in a very messy situation.
All in all this was a great episode and I look forward to watching the next one in the very near future.
[SOP] Pax Soprana
TV Programme: The Sopranos
Season: 1
Episode: 6
Date I watched this episode: 21/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 8 months, 13 days.
Obviously I'm only just starting with this programme. This was the sixth episode ever produced, and this programme ran to 86 in the end, so it's only really scratching the surface. I've heard some very mixed opinions about this show. My friend Brian (who introduced me to many of my now favourite shows including The West Wing, 24, Smallville and Murder One) told me after watching the first two seasons that he found it a bit boring; he wasn't sure what all the fuss was about. On the other hand, my father has watched most of the episodes and he absolutely loves it. In addition, I do really like Mad Men, which was created by someone who served as an executive producer on The Sopranos (although admittedly not during the first season).
As for me at the moment, I have really quite mixed feelings about it. I find the episodes to be quite complex (not that that's always a bad thing) and generally I don't manage to follow the storylines too closely. This is probably partly due to my ignorance about organised crime in general, and partly just because the way they communicate with each other in a kind of Italian-American hybrid language goes over my head sometimes. I'm determined to persevere with it though at least through the first season. I've been wrong about things before - after watching the first few episodes of Farscape I was willing to give up with it, and now it is my favourite programme of all time. Additionally, I'll be forced to pay more attention now due to having to write these reviews.
Having said that, this episode in particular was actually quite simple. Basically it was about Junior trying to establish his position as the new boss, which he ascended to in the previous episode or two. Tony has come to an arrangement whereby he allows Junior to take control but still retains control to all intents and purposes without Junior's knowledge (I've only recently managed to work this out by watching the episode over and over...) In doing this, Junior has to make sacrifices on some of his well-known character traits such as blatant unfairness, in order to keep the "peace". Things got a bit ugly, and this arrangement that Tony has come to is now looking harder than it first seemed.
What I think first attracted me to this show was the psychology underlying the whole intricate story. The pilot episode blew me away with the whole thing about the birds swimming in Tony's pond. A crime boss with a shrink sounds a ludicrous proposal - but it works really well here. In particular, this episode saw the whole "Tony being in love with Jennifer" storyline come to a head. This was particularly well done, as it gave a reasonable and rational explanation to Tony's behaviour. The device of the psychologist actually allows the writers the luxury of doing some quite blatant character development without looking unrealistic.
I'm often a little confused as to who the main characters are supposed to be in this show. Obviously there are the central characters - Tony, Carmela, Jennifer, Junior, Livia. But there are so many others that it's hard to keep track of who is who and what the relationships are between them. Often I find that when reading about this show on the net, I find out things which I should already know from having watched the episodes, but haven't picked up on. In particular I have noticed Christopher around a lot, but don't really know where he fits in to all of this; I suppose I don't really know his character, but maybe I just need to rewatch the earlier episodes.
The girl Tony Soprano is spending time with during this episode is also a bit of an extraneous character. It's unclear what the situation is there - they clearly aren't just casual partners because she gets pretty upset with him. But on the other hand she doesn't seem to want to really talk about anything. So I don't even think the writers know what she is doing there!! Which makes it difficult to do any character development.
The involvement of the FBI in the final scene should add a new and interesting direction to this show. The FBI seem to be involved in pretty much every show I'm watching at the moment (and certainly in 24, Damages and Prison Break) which is quite surprising. Anyway it will add a new angle I think, and an extra degree of realism when the writers' free reign is put under scrutiny.
I know I haven't talked much about the actual episode in this review, but I'm still really coming to terms with this show. I think the episode worked well though in terms of developing Junior's character, setting the scene for the way things would be in the future, and progressing the Jennifer Melfi storyline. In summary, I am still open-minded about this show.
Season: 1
Episode: 6
Date I watched this episode: 21/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 8 months, 13 days.
Obviously I'm only just starting with this programme. This was the sixth episode ever produced, and this programme ran to 86 in the end, so it's only really scratching the surface. I've heard some very mixed opinions about this show. My friend Brian (who introduced me to many of my now favourite shows including The West Wing, 24, Smallville and Murder One) told me after watching the first two seasons that he found it a bit boring; he wasn't sure what all the fuss was about. On the other hand, my father has watched most of the episodes and he absolutely loves it. In addition, I do really like Mad Men, which was created by someone who served as an executive producer on The Sopranos (although admittedly not during the first season).
As for me at the moment, I have really quite mixed feelings about it. I find the episodes to be quite complex (not that that's always a bad thing) and generally I don't manage to follow the storylines too closely. This is probably partly due to my ignorance about organised crime in general, and partly just because the way they communicate with each other in a kind of Italian-American hybrid language goes over my head sometimes. I'm determined to persevere with it though at least through the first season. I've been wrong about things before - after watching the first few episodes of Farscape I was willing to give up with it, and now it is my favourite programme of all time. Additionally, I'll be forced to pay more attention now due to having to write these reviews.
Having said that, this episode in particular was actually quite simple. Basically it was about Junior trying to establish his position as the new boss, which he ascended to in the previous episode or two. Tony has come to an arrangement whereby he allows Junior to take control but still retains control to all intents and purposes without Junior's knowledge (I've only recently managed to work this out by watching the episode over and over...) In doing this, Junior has to make sacrifices on some of his well-known character traits such as blatant unfairness, in order to keep the "peace". Things got a bit ugly, and this arrangement that Tony has come to is now looking harder than it first seemed.
What I think first attracted me to this show was the psychology underlying the whole intricate story. The pilot episode blew me away with the whole thing about the birds swimming in Tony's pond. A crime boss with a shrink sounds a ludicrous proposal - but it works really well here. In particular, this episode saw the whole "Tony being in love with Jennifer" storyline come to a head. This was particularly well done, as it gave a reasonable and rational explanation to Tony's behaviour. The device of the psychologist actually allows the writers the luxury of doing some quite blatant character development without looking unrealistic.
I'm often a little confused as to who the main characters are supposed to be in this show. Obviously there are the central characters - Tony, Carmela, Jennifer, Junior, Livia. But there are so many others that it's hard to keep track of who is who and what the relationships are between them. Often I find that when reading about this show on the net, I find out things which I should already know from having watched the episodes, but haven't picked up on. In particular I have noticed Christopher around a lot, but don't really know where he fits in to all of this; I suppose I don't really know his character, but maybe I just need to rewatch the earlier episodes.
The girl Tony Soprano is spending time with during this episode is also a bit of an extraneous character. It's unclear what the situation is there - they clearly aren't just casual partners because she gets pretty upset with him. But on the other hand she doesn't seem to want to really talk about anything. So I don't even think the writers know what she is doing there!! Which makes it difficult to do any character development.
The involvement of the FBI in the final scene should add a new and interesting direction to this show. The FBI seem to be involved in pretty much every show I'm watching at the moment (and certainly in 24, Damages and Prison Break) which is quite surprising. Anyway it will add a new angle I think, and an extra degree of realism when the writers' free reign is put under scrutiny.
I know I haven't talked much about the actual episode in this review, but I'm still really coming to terms with this show. I think the episode worked well though in terms of developing Junior's character, setting the scene for the way things would be in the future, and progressing the Jennifer Melfi storyline. In summary, I am still open-minded about this show.
Saturday, 21 February 2009
[PRB] Subdivision
TV Programme: Prison Break
Season: 2
Episode: 6
Date I watched this episode: 21/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 8 months, 5 days.
Great to get back into this show, and hopefully it will be a trend to come. I really need to hurry up with some of these longer-running shows - as I need to free up slots in my watching portfolio for the imminent new seasons of The Apprentice (UK) and Peep Show. Well, Prison Break is the highest rated show that I'm watching at present, and it won't be difficult to motivate myself to carry on watching it.
Not a lot happened in this episode, but it was still an exciting episode. I didn't really realise that the title "Subdivision" refers to a sort of land arrangement in America. Most of the episode was spent there digging a hole (brings back memories...) or in the car. The point of the episode seemed to be, throw all these guys into a small room and see what happens. Kind of like [TWW] "No Exit", but not quite as extreme.
I did think it was a bit of a coincidence that Sucre and C-Note would just meet...and they managed to find the garage with pretty much no outside help. Forgetting that though for a minute, it is good to see the lads reunited. The amount of different directions in which they can take the character interaction has increased exponentially because of that.
Haywire is also back (though he wasn't referred to as such at any point in the episode, only by his real name "Patoshik"). It's a testament to the writers on this show that they manage to make a guy who is essentially a psychopathic serial killer, seem actually quite comical. It's believable madness too, the guy doesn't seem to just be doing random things. That's pretty hard to write and also hard to direct.
Since this is my first review of a Prison Break episode I'd just like to comment on Alexander Mahone in general. William Fitchner is a great actor in Invasion, which is where I saw him first, but here he is just light years ahead. It would have been easy to make him just a standard FBI cop (like the awful characters in Damages) but he has so much depth and calm intellect to him. This way, the writers are able to cast the chase as a strategic battle of the minds; Scofield versus Mahone. Mahone is a worthy opponent, and the resulting atmosphere is far beyond what we had seen in the first season with thugs like Brad Bellick being the major antagonists. (Having said that I do prefer the first season to this one...) The intellectual element to this season is prevalent in every episoode. I think in particular here I liked Michael's idea about the sunlight not having got to the trees. It was a clever idea which I doubt many viewers considered - and that's what makes it so good.
The lady who owned the garage was a pretty major character in this episode and most of the "episode-wide" storylines revolved around her. I think she was a little naïve to expect T-Bag to comply with her "request" after she had led him on so much, this wasn't very believable for someone like her who seemed to have had a lot of experience. In general I didn't like her character because she was pretty two-dimensional. But she did serve a purpose - I must admit that the episode might have been a bit boring without her.
I did feel a bit sorry for Tweener, as I always do. Especially about the guy he had to hit with the spade - he didn't really have a choice, and got blamed for it. Tweener is one of my favourite characters, but now he has been apprehended by Mahone, I feel he is not long for this world. Abruzzi was one of my faves too so they are dropping like flies!
I didn't think Michael and T-Bag played off each other as effectively as normal in this episode; Especially Michael's out-of-character anger in the car. I suppose Michael's character is feeling it now - as back in Fox River he always had a plan but now he is really on his own. But I didn't think he would have reacted in this way, it's not his nature.
This episode ended with Kellerman being possibly discovered by Sara in an almost Ethan Rom-type scene. Kellerman is going to be getting desperate soon, taking risks to get back into the inner circle. We also saw the cops arriving at the house. But this isn't a major cliffhanger - they've done worse things than kill a few cops before now...
All in all this was a good character development episode and setup episode, and I look forward to seeing how this plays out over the next episode or two, since they are so close to the conclusion of this particular plan.
Season: 2
Episode: 6
Date I watched this episode: 21/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 8 months, 5 days.
Great to get back into this show, and hopefully it will be a trend to come. I really need to hurry up with some of these longer-running shows - as I need to free up slots in my watching portfolio for the imminent new seasons of The Apprentice (UK) and Peep Show. Well, Prison Break is the highest rated show that I'm watching at present, and it won't be difficult to motivate myself to carry on watching it.
Not a lot happened in this episode, but it was still an exciting episode. I didn't really realise that the title "Subdivision" refers to a sort of land arrangement in America. Most of the episode was spent there digging a hole (brings back memories...) or in the car. The point of the episode seemed to be, throw all these guys into a small room and see what happens. Kind of like [TWW] "No Exit", but not quite as extreme.
I did think it was a bit of a coincidence that Sucre and C-Note would just meet...and they managed to find the garage with pretty much no outside help. Forgetting that though for a minute, it is good to see the lads reunited. The amount of different directions in which they can take the character interaction has increased exponentially because of that.
Haywire is also back (though he wasn't referred to as such at any point in the episode, only by his real name "Patoshik"). It's a testament to the writers on this show that they manage to make a guy who is essentially a psychopathic serial killer, seem actually quite comical. It's believable madness too, the guy doesn't seem to just be doing random things. That's pretty hard to write and also hard to direct.
Since this is my first review of a Prison Break episode I'd just like to comment on Alexander Mahone in general. William Fitchner is a great actor in Invasion, which is where I saw him first, but here he is just light years ahead. It would have been easy to make him just a standard FBI cop (like the awful characters in Damages) but he has so much depth and calm intellect to him. This way, the writers are able to cast the chase as a strategic battle of the minds; Scofield versus Mahone. Mahone is a worthy opponent, and the resulting atmosphere is far beyond what we had seen in the first season with thugs like Brad Bellick being the major antagonists. (Having said that I do prefer the first season to this one...) The intellectual element to this season is prevalent in every episoode. I think in particular here I liked Michael's idea about the sunlight not having got to the trees. It was a clever idea which I doubt many viewers considered - and that's what makes it so good.
The lady who owned the garage was a pretty major character in this episode and most of the "episode-wide" storylines revolved around her. I think she was a little naïve to expect T-Bag to comply with her "request" after she had led him on so much, this wasn't very believable for someone like her who seemed to have had a lot of experience. In general I didn't like her character because she was pretty two-dimensional. But she did serve a purpose - I must admit that the episode might have been a bit boring without her.
I did feel a bit sorry for Tweener, as I always do. Especially about the guy he had to hit with the spade - he didn't really have a choice, and got blamed for it. Tweener is one of my favourite characters, but now he has been apprehended by Mahone, I feel he is not long for this world. Abruzzi was one of my faves too so they are dropping like flies!
I didn't think Michael and T-Bag played off each other as effectively as normal in this episode; Especially Michael's out-of-character anger in the car. I suppose Michael's character is feeling it now - as back in Fox River he always had a plan but now he is really on his own. But I didn't think he would have reacted in this way, it's not his nature.
This episode ended with Kellerman being possibly discovered by Sara in an almost Ethan Rom-type scene. Kellerman is going to be getting desperate soon, taking risks to get back into the inner circle. We also saw the cops arriving at the house. But this isn't a major cliffhanger - they've done worse things than kill a few cops before now...
All in all this was a good character development episode and setup episode, and I look forward to seeing how this plays out over the next episode or two, since they are so close to the conclusion of this particular plan.
[DMG] New York Sucks
TV Programme: Damages
Season: 2
Episode: 7
Date I watched this episode: 20/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 5 days.
This was quite a good episode and the story is still picking up. The conspiracy around Walter Kendrick's merger is reassuringly complex and is slowly revealing itself. This week introduced the element of the "trader" who is presumably placing a trade for an exact amount at an exact time - but why? He is also apparently in a "unique position" which is intriguing. From his computer screen he appeared to be trading futures and spreads in a company called "Brent Oil".
Frobisher's discovery of spirituality is an interesting - and believable - turn for the character. In classic Arvin Sloane/John Abruzzi style though, he is likely to be pulled back into the fold. Like Rick Messer said, you can't go back. This should make for a good storyline. All the while, he is trying to regain his image (or "reputation" as he likes to put it). He seems like a desperate man, even has the bags under his eyes... The speech given by Patty just wasn't convincing and everyone watching must have known that.
The central storyline this episode was around Pete McKee. That ending was so, so grim. Almost reminds me of the ending to the film "House of Sand and Fog". Grim endings leave you feeling almost a bit shaken up (e.g. [CNV] "Babylon"). From a storyline point of view, again it kept the episodic feel by "trapping" the Pete McKee storyline within this one episode. Last season had a few of these single storylines too (e.g. "Blame The Victim") but this season generally feels disjointed because it has overdone it somewhat. It's a shame really because Pete's character was really fleshed out in this episode and then just killed off. I also thought the FBI guys worked really well here, and didn't seem just superfluous.
This episode was sprinkled with teaser storylines...what really happened with Tom and Gabriella? How jealous can Ellen get about Katie and Wes...jealous enough to kill someone? In general I think that Damages is regaining its subtlety.
Wrong again about the title, it was actually spoken by Kendrick's daughter. Next week's is "They Had To Tweeze That Out Of My Kidney." Perhaps Frobisher talking about his operation to Patty...or Larry Poplar? Who knows.
Yes, I enjoyed this episode and want to see some more like this. In general a slow pace is not a bad thing if you are slowly revealing a very complex plot, with continuity across episodes, and keep up that subtlety which I have come to love about this show.
Season: 2
Episode: 7
Date I watched this episode: 20/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 5 days.
This was quite a good episode and the story is still picking up. The conspiracy around Walter Kendrick's merger is reassuringly complex and is slowly revealing itself. This week introduced the element of the "trader" who is presumably placing a trade for an exact amount at an exact time - but why? He is also apparently in a "unique position" which is intriguing. From his computer screen he appeared to be trading futures and spreads in a company called "Brent Oil".
Frobisher's discovery of spirituality is an interesting - and believable - turn for the character. In classic Arvin Sloane/John Abruzzi style though, he is likely to be pulled back into the fold. Like Rick Messer said, you can't go back. This should make for a good storyline. All the while, he is trying to regain his image (or "reputation" as he likes to put it). He seems like a desperate man, even has the bags under his eyes... The speech given by Patty just wasn't convincing and everyone watching must have known that.
The central storyline this episode was around Pete McKee. That ending was so, so grim. Almost reminds me of the ending to the film "House of Sand and Fog". Grim endings leave you feeling almost a bit shaken up (e.g. [CNV] "Babylon"). From a storyline point of view, again it kept the episodic feel by "trapping" the Pete McKee storyline within this one episode. Last season had a few of these single storylines too (e.g. "Blame The Victim") but this season generally feels disjointed because it has overdone it somewhat. It's a shame really because Pete's character was really fleshed out in this episode and then just killed off. I also thought the FBI guys worked really well here, and didn't seem just superfluous.
This episode was sprinkled with teaser storylines...what really happened with Tom and Gabriella? How jealous can Ellen get about Katie and Wes...jealous enough to kill someone? In general I think that Damages is regaining its subtlety.
Wrong again about the title, it was actually spoken by Kendrick's daughter. Next week's is "They Had To Tweeze That Out Of My Kidney." Perhaps Frobisher talking about his operation to Patty...or Larry Poplar? Who knows.
Yes, I enjoyed this episode and want to see some more like this. In general a slow pace is not a bad thing if you are slowly revealing a very complex plot, with continuity across episodes, and keep up that subtlety which I have come to love about this show.
Wednesday, 18 February 2009
[24H] Day 7: 4:00pm - 5:00pm
TV Programme: 24
Season: 7
Episode: 9
Date I watched this episode: 17/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 1 day.
This was quite a predictable, but still enjoyable, episode. Sean is the mole!! Just as I thought at first. They tried to make you think it was Janis, but I never really thought that was likely. Janis's character is interesting in itself, but Sean needs something like this to add some extra depth to his personality. Despite this, I'm still bored by his character.
Another recycled storyline was the use of the police to capture Jack. Although here the capture was triggered by a mole rather than the police themselves, it's still basically been done before (e.g. in season 4), and I think the beginning of the next episode may turn out to be a boring rehash too.
Chloe's introduction into the FBI was interesting from a character development/interaction point of view. Chloe seems to have got a bit more confident, and her confident moody nature will not be well-received by Larry: but he's going to have to deal with it... (You never know, maybe this will be the start of a beautiful romance...)
This episode saw the return of two major recurring characters. Aaron Pierce, making his usual appearance as the only character other than Jack to be in every season (Tony has been in all but season 6). The other one was Morris O'Brien, who was in seasons 5 and 6. Both characters are looking in top form, and particularly Morris I hope we see again.
A huge amount of screentime in this episode was devoted to the Marika storyline, which again has been around in various forms for a long time (an innocent associate of the villain being drafted to help: Stephen Saunders's daughter, Alexis Drazen's girlfriend, Behrooz Araz, etc). There wasn't enough different about this situation. Renee reacted in the obvious way, although it would be true to say that this day is really catching up with her now, so I don't know where they're going with that part. Jack was convincing with her, although I thought his bluntness in saying that the man she loves does not exist, was a bit misplaced.
Dubaku on the other hand is showing he is streetwise about the mercenaries. This is not surprising given what he must have seen in Sangala. I hope we do get some more depth about that; there is not really any backstory to Dubaku at the moment, and we don't really know what the PFA (Juma regime) are fighting for. Also I think Dubaku is quite stupid at the end to let Marika continue to come to him: so he is not quite so streetwise after all.
That's it and I can't watch any further episodes of 24 til next week. 24 is a winning format - but let's not forget that the originality of the show was how it got where it is today. I just hope that something big can happen to make us remember this season for that rather than another "laundry list" of 24 plot elements.
Season: 7
Episode: 9
Date I watched this episode: 17/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 1 day.
This was quite a predictable, but still enjoyable, episode. Sean is the mole!! Just as I thought at first. They tried to make you think it was Janis, but I never really thought that was likely. Janis's character is interesting in itself, but Sean needs something like this to add some extra depth to his personality. Despite this, I'm still bored by his character.
Another recycled storyline was the use of the police to capture Jack. Although here the capture was triggered by a mole rather than the police themselves, it's still basically been done before (e.g. in season 4), and I think the beginning of the next episode may turn out to be a boring rehash too.
Chloe's introduction into the FBI was interesting from a character development/interaction point of view. Chloe seems to have got a bit more confident, and her confident moody nature will not be well-received by Larry: but he's going to have to deal with it... (You never know, maybe this will be the start of a beautiful romance...)
This episode saw the return of two major recurring characters. Aaron Pierce, making his usual appearance as the only character other than Jack to be in every season (Tony has been in all but season 6). The other one was Morris O'Brien, who was in seasons 5 and 6. Both characters are looking in top form, and particularly Morris I hope we see again.
A huge amount of screentime in this episode was devoted to the Marika storyline, which again has been around in various forms for a long time (an innocent associate of the villain being drafted to help: Stephen Saunders's daughter, Alexis Drazen's girlfriend, Behrooz Araz, etc). There wasn't enough different about this situation. Renee reacted in the obvious way, although it would be true to say that this day is really catching up with her now, so I don't know where they're going with that part. Jack was convincing with her, although I thought his bluntness in saying that the man she loves does not exist, was a bit misplaced.
Dubaku on the other hand is showing he is streetwise about the mercenaries. This is not surprising given what he must have seen in Sangala. I hope we do get some more depth about that; there is not really any backstory to Dubaku at the moment, and we don't really know what the PFA (Juma regime) are fighting for. Also I think Dubaku is quite stupid at the end to let Marika continue to come to him: so he is not quite so streetwise after all.
That's it and I can't watch any further episodes of 24 til next week. 24 is a winning format - but let's not forget that the originality of the show was how it got where it is today. I just hope that something big can happen to make us remember this season for that rather than another "laundry list" of 24 plot elements.
Monday, 16 February 2009
[24H] Day 7: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
TV Programme: 24
Season: 7
Episode: 8
Date I watched this episode: 16/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 1 day.
Once again this was an episode where they took a step back to regroup. It's not like there wasn't a lot of action in this episode - there was - but there wasn't a huge leap between where we were at the start and where we were at the end, except for the changes in "organisational structure".
So the president finally gets to meet Jack Bauer. This is cool in some ways as Jack now has the ear of the president once again (although given the ending it may not be a particularly happy relationship now) but also less cool as Jack is now no longer such a "rogue agent" (despite the fact that Allison used those words to describe him). Bill's character works well in this context, as a formal liaison for the rather off-book operations of Jack and Renee. Larry Moss is doing what his character was written to do, and giving an ethical outlook on the Jack Bauer approach. I wonder where his conscience will go over the next few hours. This rules vs results storyline is back in full swing.
I'm not sure where this Sean/Erica storyline is going, it seems weak at the moment but I still think Erica may well be the mole. I'm less convinced about Ethan now. The thing with Dubaku's girlfriend's sister was an interesting and unexpected twist. I expected it to go a different way, with Jack capturing Dubaku's girlfriend and using her as bait (it's been done before...) and this was a refreshing and original change.
I can't wait to see what happens with the First Gentleman. Henry is surely close to death, and we've seen credited cast die this early in a season before. I just hope they don't do any of this 25th amendment rubbish again.
The changes brought about by this episode were inevitable but interesting, and will hopefully lay the foundation for a very thought-provoking episode in the near future.
Season: 7
Episode: 8
Date I watched this episode: 16/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 1 day.
Once again this was an episode where they took a step back to regroup. It's not like there wasn't a lot of action in this episode - there was - but there wasn't a huge leap between where we were at the start and where we were at the end, except for the changes in "organisational structure".
So the president finally gets to meet Jack Bauer. This is cool in some ways as Jack now has the ear of the president once again (although given the ending it may not be a particularly happy relationship now) but also less cool as Jack is now no longer such a "rogue agent" (despite the fact that Allison used those words to describe him). Bill's character works well in this context, as a formal liaison for the rather off-book operations of Jack and Renee. Larry Moss is doing what his character was written to do, and giving an ethical outlook on the Jack Bauer approach. I wonder where his conscience will go over the next few hours. This rules vs results storyline is back in full swing.
I'm not sure where this Sean/Erica storyline is going, it seems weak at the moment but I still think Erica may well be the mole. I'm less convinced about Ethan now. The thing with Dubaku's girlfriend's sister was an interesting and unexpected twist. I expected it to go a different way, with Jack capturing Dubaku's girlfriend and using her as bait (it's been done before...) and this was a refreshing and original change.
I can't wait to see what happens with the First Gentleman. Henry is surely close to death, and we've seen credited cast die this early in a season before. I just hope they don't do any of this 25th amendment rubbish again.
The changes brought about by this episode were inevitable but interesting, and will hopefully lay the foundation for a very thought-provoking episode in the near future.
Sunday, 15 February 2009
[DMG] A pretty girl in a leotard
TV Programme: Damages
Season: 2
Episode: 6
Date I watched this episode: 15/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 10 days.
This was not a bad episode. I really liked the twist about Frobisher working for Patty. I also enjoyed the legal wranglings, including arguments before the judge and particularly Patty's TV appearance. The complex situation created by the writers is laudable. However, I have realised of late that I should really be holding this programme to a higher standard.
I have come to the conclusion that my main issue with this season of Damages is the number of random storylines explored. Some storylines only last across a couple of episodes and then vanish, seemingly a pointless time-filler. For example, the thing about Daniel being Michael's dad has not been mentioned for a while. Michael wasn't even in this episode, and Danny was only in one scene (incidentally I liked how Claire Maddox was manipulative in this scene, making sure Danny didn't have any further information before dumping him - Danny didn't really pick up on this). Then there is the Katie Connor storyline - great addition to this episode (and Anastacia Griffith is looking hot, might I add), but the previous scene with Ellen and Katie in an earlier episode was shown once and for all to have been completely pointless. The whole "Ellen revisits the apartment one last time" thing was also a pointless waste of time. It allowed the editors to cut in a lot of season 1 footage that we have seen before countless times.
From a storytelling point of view, there are a couple of weird things with this episode. Is it really believable that Arthur "the most hated man in America" Frobisher could just waltz into a ballet performance (and presumably the VIP area) without people turning their noses up at him? He is throwing himself into the public eye quite recklessly. Secondly, Ellen, who is supposed to be a master of persuasion, would not have used those words to Katie like "over your head" or "you wouldn't understand" - these are so clearly condescending.
Another thing is the character of Rick Messer. He worked really well in season 1 as a secondary villain to Frobisher, but now he can't really carry the episode on his own. He is too introverted to really be interesting, and the way he goes about things is just so calm and emotionless as to be not particularly engaging. Also, the end sequence here - where he goes into Ellen's apartment ready to shoot her - is kind of superfluous because we know that Ellen ends up with the upper hand.
I think I have started to hold this programme (which after all is currently rated as my 9th favourite of all time) to a higher standard. Maybe this is because I've been watching the season 1 special features and remembering how good it is, maybe it's because I have been watching 24 season 7 so much, which is a lot more convincing.
However there are some good signs for the future. A few questions were left unanswered in this episode - who is the guy "Dave" working for Kendrick; does he have some key involvement with the merger? What is that car for and what is at the GPS co-ordinates given (why is there only one dimension of co-ordinates too)? Who is the tattooed man Clare is seeing? This is along with the countless other questions which weren't even addressed in this episode; in particular, Wes did not appear.
The phrase in the title was said from Frobisher to Walter, something which again I didn't guess and couldn't really have as I didn't know these two would meet. Next week's is called "New York Sucks". Surely this is Frobisher saying this, given what he said in this week's episode? Anyone could be the recipient, probably not Patty but maybe Rick Messer?
I think this episode wasn't bad but wasn't that good either. More cool twists is what this show needs to stay afloat, together with a more consistent (less fragmented) storyline progressing towards a sold conclusion.
Season: 2
Episode: 6
Date I watched this episode: 15/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 10 days.
This was not a bad episode. I really liked the twist about Frobisher working for Patty. I also enjoyed the legal wranglings, including arguments before the judge and particularly Patty's TV appearance. The complex situation created by the writers is laudable. However, I have realised of late that I should really be holding this programme to a higher standard.
I have come to the conclusion that my main issue with this season of Damages is the number of random storylines explored. Some storylines only last across a couple of episodes and then vanish, seemingly a pointless time-filler. For example, the thing about Daniel being Michael's dad has not been mentioned for a while. Michael wasn't even in this episode, and Danny was only in one scene (incidentally I liked how Claire Maddox was manipulative in this scene, making sure Danny didn't have any further information before dumping him - Danny didn't really pick up on this). Then there is the Katie Connor storyline - great addition to this episode (and Anastacia Griffith is looking hot, might I add), but the previous scene with Ellen and Katie in an earlier episode was shown once and for all to have been completely pointless. The whole "Ellen revisits the apartment one last time" thing was also a pointless waste of time. It allowed the editors to cut in a lot of season 1 footage that we have seen before countless times.
From a storytelling point of view, there are a couple of weird things with this episode. Is it really believable that Arthur "the most hated man in America" Frobisher could just waltz into a ballet performance (and presumably the VIP area) without people turning their noses up at him? He is throwing himself into the public eye quite recklessly. Secondly, Ellen, who is supposed to be a master of persuasion, would not have used those words to Katie like "over your head" or "you wouldn't understand" - these are so clearly condescending.
Another thing is the character of Rick Messer. He worked really well in season 1 as a secondary villain to Frobisher, but now he can't really carry the episode on his own. He is too introverted to really be interesting, and the way he goes about things is just so calm and emotionless as to be not particularly engaging. Also, the end sequence here - where he goes into Ellen's apartment ready to shoot her - is kind of superfluous because we know that Ellen ends up with the upper hand.
I think I have started to hold this programme (which after all is currently rated as my 9th favourite of all time) to a higher standard. Maybe this is because I've been watching the season 1 special features and remembering how good it is, maybe it's because I have been watching 24 season 7 so much, which is a lot more convincing.
However there are some good signs for the future. A few questions were left unanswered in this episode - who is the guy "Dave" working for Kendrick; does he have some key involvement with the merger? What is that car for and what is at the GPS co-ordinates given (why is there only one dimension of co-ordinates too)? Who is the tattooed man Clare is seeing? This is along with the countless other questions which weren't even addressed in this episode; in particular, Wes did not appear.
The phrase in the title was said from Frobisher to Walter, something which again I didn't guess and couldn't really have as I didn't know these two would meet. Next week's is called "New York Sucks". Surely this is Frobisher saying this, given what he said in this week's episode? Anyone could be the recipient, probably not Patty but maybe Rick Messer?
I think this episode wasn't bad but wasn't that good either. More cool twists is what this show needs to stay afloat, together with a more consistent (less fragmented) storyline progressing towards a sold conclusion.
[24H] Day 7: 2:00pm - 3:00pm
TV Programme: 24
Season: 7
Episode: 7
Date I watched this episode: 15/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 4 days.
This episode got into gear quite quickly, with a tense infiltration by Bill's crew into the Dubaku headquarters. While this dragged out for quite a while, the plan revealed itself slowly, which kept me interested. It was good to see Jack and Renee out on an operation again, and the resulting gun battle was very satisfying.
While this was an exciting episode in general, it did tend to repeat a situation which has occurred before. Usually in 24, the terrorists are successful with their first attack, then fail on their second attack. I didn't even feel that Brunner's death was as emotional as I've come to expect from 24, although it clearly had a profound effect on Janis. In general this season has not been as brutal as previous ones so far, although the complexities of the storyline keep it interesting. Another repeated storyline which is very likely to emerge is that "Samuel"'s (Ike's) girlfriend will be used as a mole against him by the FBI at some point.
The resistance to the invasion of Sangala is just getting ridiculous. It's the same words repeated over and over in every single episode. Ethan is just getting boring. I'm still not sure where his loyalties lie though; he is now the only person apart from Allison who knows about Matobo's impending visit, so he may well be a leaker (we also still haven't discovered who the FBI mole is, this seems to have been somewhat ignored recently). Incidentally this is going to get very interesting, especially if Bill's crew is now officially recognised by the President, and what is Larry going to say when he finds out Renee is alive but working for Jack Bauer??
It's not very believable that Dubaku can just wander about undetected when his face is probably on TV a lot. But he just walked out of that Ritter building and is his own agent now. Hopefully we will still get to discover how Nicholls (now dead) managed to get involved and become a traitor to his own country in such a high-risk operation.
This was a good episode though, it was enjoyable to watch. Let's hope that there is an unexpected and brutal twist soon though to set this season apart from the rest.
Season: 7
Episode: 7
Date I watched this episode: 15/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 4 days.
This episode got into gear quite quickly, with a tense infiltration by Bill's crew into the Dubaku headquarters. While this dragged out for quite a while, the plan revealed itself slowly, which kept me interested. It was good to see Jack and Renee out on an operation again, and the resulting gun battle was very satisfying.
While this was an exciting episode in general, it did tend to repeat a situation which has occurred before. Usually in 24, the terrorists are successful with their first attack, then fail on their second attack. I didn't even feel that Brunner's death was as emotional as I've come to expect from 24, although it clearly had a profound effect on Janis. In general this season has not been as brutal as previous ones so far, although the complexities of the storyline keep it interesting. Another repeated storyline which is very likely to emerge is that "Samuel"'s (Ike's) girlfriend will be used as a mole against him by the FBI at some point.
The resistance to the invasion of Sangala is just getting ridiculous. It's the same words repeated over and over in every single episode. Ethan is just getting boring. I'm still not sure where his loyalties lie though; he is now the only person apart from Allison who knows about Matobo's impending visit, so he may well be a leaker (we also still haven't discovered who the FBI mole is, this seems to have been somewhat ignored recently). Incidentally this is going to get very interesting, especially if Bill's crew is now officially recognised by the President, and what is Larry going to say when he finds out Renee is alive but working for Jack Bauer??
It's not very believable that Dubaku can just wander about undetected when his face is probably on TV a lot. But he just walked out of that Ritter building and is his own agent now. Hopefully we will still get to discover how Nicholls (now dead) managed to get involved and become a traitor to his own country in such a high-risk operation.
This was a good episode though, it was enjoyable to watch. Let's hope that there is an unexpected and brutal twist soon though to set this season apart from the rest.
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
[24H] Day 7: 1:00pm - 2:00pm
TV Programme: 24
Season: 7
Episode: 6
Date I watched this episode: 11/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: Less than 1 day.
That's more like it! A great action-packed episode with some real drama to go with it. The conflicts between Tony and Nicholls, Gedge and Taylor, and Jack and Emerson were all really cool fights, and although I was sad to see Emerson go, his acting in that scene was awesome.
It's good to see that Renee and Jack are working together again, and this was a really interesting start to the episode (when Bill and Chloe picked her up). Jack and Renee have an ample amount of tension between them...has he really forgotten Audrey? She doesn't look quite as calm and collected as at the start of the season, though.
In amongst all this action there was some back story - particularly the news of Christopher Henderson's past involvement. It's good to hear this whole Tony being alive thing fleshed out. It is a difficult pill to swallow, and so the more realistic they can make it the better. Also I'm glad to hear Chloe's "stay at home mum" comment; it was a pretty major thing the end of last season to heard that Chloe was pregnant. It also casts hope on the fact that Chloe and Morris are probably still together and he is working for the family.
I still think the President has made the right call on this war thing and I wish that Ethan (and everyone else) would just shut up and fall into line. Their repeated arguments have got a little boring. However I don't think it will stop while Dubaku is still making attacks. Coming on to that, I thought the plane crash was weak; it was like a tiny dot on the picture. The production could have done something a lot more dramatic. Anyway I hope they don't do this whole 25th Amendment thing again this year, because that's got a little old.
I thought this was a really great episode with a good balance of drama and action. Hopefully this pattern will continue as the story charges on.
Season: 7
Episode: 6
Date I watched this episode: 11/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: Less than 1 day.
That's more like it! A great action-packed episode with some real drama to go with it. The conflicts between Tony and Nicholls, Gedge and Taylor, and Jack and Emerson were all really cool fights, and although I was sad to see Emerson go, his acting in that scene was awesome.
It's good to see that Renee and Jack are working together again, and this was a really interesting start to the episode (when Bill and Chloe picked her up). Jack and Renee have an ample amount of tension between them...has he really forgotten Audrey? She doesn't look quite as calm and collected as at the start of the season, though.
In amongst all this action there was some back story - particularly the news of Christopher Henderson's past involvement. It's good to hear this whole Tony being alive thing fleshed out. It is a difficult pill to swallow, and so the more realistic they can make it the better. Also I'm glad to hear Chloe's "stay at home mum" comment; it was a pretty major thing the end of last season to heard that Chloe was pregnant. It also casts hope on the fact that Chloe and Morris are probably still together and he is working for the family.
I still think the President has made the right call on this war thing and I wish that Ethan (and everyone else) would just shut up and fall into line. Their repeated arguments have got a little boring. However I don't think it will stop while Dubaku is still making attacks. Coming on to that, I thought the plane crash was weak; it was like a tiny dot on the picture. The production could have done something a lot more dramatic. Anyway I hope they don't do this whole 25th Amendment thing again this year, because that's got a little old.
I thought this was a really great episode with a good balance of drama and action. Hopefully this pattern will continue as the story charges on.
[24H] Day 7: 12:00pm - 1:00pm
TV Programme: 24
Season: 7
Episode: 5
Date I watched this episode: 11/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 1 day.
I think at the end of the last episode I was left thinking "how on earth are they going to get out of this one?" It's a fairly common, almost trademark situation of 24. The situation was heightened still further later in the episode, when it became clear quite how stubborn Motobo was. I wasn't too happy with the resolution here though, the earlier resilience of Motobo's wife didn't make it believable that she'd just break so suddenly.
Once Motobo and his wife were in the truck, there was a lot of screen time in that confined space. Credit to the writers for making this time interesting. The indignation of Renee could well have gotten annoying, but her coolness and the fact that she is completely helpless just added to the tension of this whole thing.
Larry's anger is a little surprising; I wouldn't see Larry and Renee as making a good couple. He is way too protective, she needs someone who gives her a little room. People are looking to him for leadership and he needs to get over this. Surely he should now also realise that FBI is compromised from that phone conversation? I am thinking that Erica is the mole right about now. But maybe that's a little too cliche.
In other news, Allison has made her final decision on the war. Really, Ethan just needs to stick with that. He's made his case and now he needs to fall in with the president's decision; surely he can see that there are arguments on both sides? Even myself, who was rather convinced by Ethan's "superpowers should protect themselves first" argument, am now swayed back the other way by the idea that superpowers aren't protecting themselves if they give in to terrorists. I'm also glad to see that Allison isn't naive enough to think that Dubaku will not launch the attack anyway.
I knew it about Brian Gedge too! But I'm getting a little bored of this storyline now. Henry Taylor is not the best character here, and I can't see much potential development for the character beyond a grief-stricken father. I am intrigued to know who Gedge is working for though.
Two of our main characters were thrown into peril in this episode and I'm unsure how they are going to be saved. Henry and Renee are both in mortal danger, and though I'm sure they will survive, quite how they'll survive is not so obvious right now.
This was not a great episode but it wasn't bad either. I hope the writers are building up to something big.
Season: 7
Episode: 5
Date I watched this episode: 11/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 1 day.
I think at the end of the last episode I was left thinking "how on earth are they going to get out of this one?" It's a fairly common, almost trademark situation of 24. The situation was heightened still further later in the episode, when it became clear quite how stubborn Motobo was. I wasn't too happy with the resolution here though, the earlier resilience of Motobo's wife didn't make it believable that she'd just break so suddenly.
Once Motobo and his wife were in the truck, there was a lot of screen time in that confined space. Credit to the writers for making this time interesting. The indignation of Renee could well have gotten annoying, but her coolness and the fact that she is completely helpless just added to the tension of this whole thing.
Larry's anger is a little surprising; I wouldn't see Larry and Renee as making a good couple. He is way too protective, she needs someone who gives her a little room. People are looking to him for leadership and he needs to get over this. Surely he should now also realise that FBI is compromised from that phone conversation? I am thinking that Erica is the mole right about now. But maybe that's a little too cliche.
In other news, Allison has made her final decision on the war. Really, Ethan just needs to stick with that. He's made his case and now he needs to fall in with the president's decision; surely he can see that there are arguments on both sides? Even myself, who was rather convinced by Ethan's "superpowers should protect themselves first" argument, am now swayed back the other way by the idea that superpowers aren't protecting themselves if they give in to terrorists. I'm also glad to see that Allison isn't naive enough to think that Dubaku will not launch the attack anyway.
I knew it about Brian Gedge too! But I'm getting a little bored of this storyline now. Henry Taylor is not the best character here, and I can't see much potential development for the character beyond a grief-stricken father. I am intrigued to know who Gedge is working for though.
Two of our main characters were thrown into peril in this episode and I'm unsure how they are going to be saved. Henry and Renee are both in mortal danger, and though I'm sure they will survive, quite how they'll survive is not so obvious right now.
This was not a great episode but it wasn't bad either. I hope the writers are building up to something big.
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
[24H] Day 7: 11:00am - 12:00pm
TV Programme: 24
Season: 7
Episode: 4
Date I watched this episode: 10/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: Less than 1 day.
After the mind-blowing previous episode, an episode to set the scene and move the general story forward was needed. The timing of it, while it doesn't bother me particularly, was surprising since this was the last part of the "4-hour premiere event" as the episodes were originally shown. I would have expected something a bit more thrilling to end this event and compel viewers to tune in again the following week.
Well, after gloating about my accuracy in last week's review, I am now rather forced to concede defeat. Tony really WAS a terrorist, and this is the real shock of the episode, certainly throwing Jack off guard. Fortunately, things that happened in the past don't tend to affect viewer's perceptions of a character, and so the writers can continue telling stories about Tony's past brutality, without destroying the persona they worked to create.
Chloe on the other hand seems to be somewhat naive this season. Since they have been working on this for at least a couple of months, you would have thought that Bill and Chloe would have faced some tough decisions, and that Chloe would know what was at stake. Her resistance to the idea of allowing Motobo's capture is not very believable.
Renee seems to have found it within herself to be a bit more brutal in her interrogations. She has found an inner anger with herself for trusting Jack (perhaps amplified by the fact that she's clearly interested in him) and is good at channeling this anger to push herself to a place that she couldn't have got to alone. Seeing this develop will be interesting, and I have no doubt she'll be back on Jack's side before too long.
Every time we have a new president, head of CTU, etc etc, they don't know what an absolute legend Jack Bauer is, and so tend to act in the wrong way until they have this figured out. It has happened so many times before that it's just getting boring. I wonder how long it will be until Jack gets on the phone with the president!!
Emerson really came into his own in this episode; he had been something of a background character before. I actually quite like him; he is a good villain, and not your stereotypical British actor on an American show. He is pretty believable, very intelligent, and has the potential to be very three-dimensional. I'll look forward to seeing more of him (now having said that he will probably be killed off in the next episode...)
There is something very suspicious going on with Ethan and Secret Service Agent Gedge. Either one of them might be a mole. I would imagine it's Gedge, as he has not been around for very long. If so then that's pretty bad because he's perfectly positioned to do pretty much whatever they want to the First Gentleman. I don't much like Ethan's character actually, it is a bit dry. I did like his argument though that a superpower should make sure it stays intact itself before worrying about anyone else. This makes some logical sense.
I couldn't finish without mentioning the reference to the law firm Gage-Whitney-Pace. This fictional law firm is a staple of Aaron Sorkin's, appearing in The West Wing and Studio 60. It's interesting to see it appear in a series Aaron didn't create, and perhaps a testament by the writers to Aaron's undisputed genius.
This episode set up story mostly, but you need those from time-to-time. It has given us some all-important answers, developed some characters, and generally paved the way for some first-class drama to come.
Season: 7
Episode: 4
Date I watched this episode: 10/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: Less than 1 day.
After the mind-blowing previous episode, an episode to set the scene and move the general story forward was needed. The timing of it, while it doesn't bother me particularly, was surprising since this was the last part of the "4-hour premiere event" as the episodes were originally shown. I would have expected something a bit more thrilling to end this event and compel viewers to tune in again the following week.
Well, after gloating about my accuracy in last week's review, I am now rather forced to concede defeat. Tony really WAS a terrorist, and this is the real shock of the episode, certainly throwing Jack off guard. Fortunately, things that happened in the past don't tend to affect viewer's perceptions of a character, and so the writers can continue telling stories about Tony's past brutality, without destroying the persona they worked to create.
Chloe on the other hand seems to be somewhat naive this season. Since they have been working on this for at least a couple of months, you would have thought that Bill and Chloe would have faced some tough decisions, and that Chloe would know what was at stake. Her resistance to the idea of allowing Motobo's capture is not very believable.
Renee seems to have found it within herself to be a bit more brutal in her interrogations. She has found an inner anger with herself for trusting Jack (perhaps amplified by the fact that she's clearly interested in him) and is good at channeling this anger to push herself to a place that she couldn't have got to alone. Seeing this develop will be interesting, and I have no doubt she'll be back on Jack's side before too long.
Every time we have a new president, head of CTU, etc etc, they don't know what an absolute legend Jack Bauer is, and so tend to act in the wrong way until they have this figured out. It has happened so many times before that it's just getting boring. I wonder how long it will be until Jack gets on the phone with the president!!
Emerson really came into his own in this episode; he had been something of a background character before. I actually quite like him; he is a good villain, and not your stereotypical British actor on an American show. He is pretty believable, very intelligent, and has the potential to be very three-dimensional. I'll look forward to seeing more of him (now having said that he will probably be killed off in the next episode...)
There is something very suspicious going on with Ethan and Secret Service Agent Gedge. Either one of them might be a mole. I would imagine it's Gedge, as he has not been around for very long. If so then that's pretty bad because he's perfectly positioned to do pretty much whatever they want to the First Gentleman. I don't much like Ethan's character actually, it is a bit dry. I did like his argument though that a superpower should make sure it stays intact itself before worrying about anyone else. This makes some logical sense.
I couldn't finish without mentioning the reference to the law firm Gage-Whitney-Pace. This fictional law firm is a staple of Aaron Sorkin's, appearing in The West Wing and Studio 60. It's interesting to see it appear in a series Aaron didn't create, and perhaps a testament by the writers to Aaron's undisputed genius.
This episode set up story mostly, but you need those from time-to-time. It has given us some all-important answers, developed some characters, and generally paved the way for some first-class drama to come.
[24H] Day 7: 10:00am - 11:00am
TV Programme: 24
Season: 7
Episode: 3
Date I watched this episode: 10/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 1 day.
Nothing could have prepared me for the AWESOMENESS of this episode. In fact, I was a bit uncomfortable before when my friend Paul was raising my expectations for this episode before I'd even watched the first one. But no matter how high my expectations were, this new storyline was a stroke of brilliance. 24 has truly proved that the demise of Joel Surnow has not left them stranded. It's not just because I was right too. Though, you have to admit, I was right. Tony wasn't really a terrorist, and the character profiles are still in-tact.
It's not like Jack hasn't gone rogue before. It's not like practically every single protagonist on 24 hasn't gone rogue before! In fact, the period toward the end of season 5 when Chloe and Bill are working at Bill's house is one of my favourite parts of the show. But the difference here is that this rogue operation has clearly been going on for months. None of the people involved have any rank. And the security breach is bigger than usual, stretching across who knows how many people. That said, we know some of the key players from Redemption. But it's still going to incredibly hard for four people to work against an entire country.
The initial revelation scene brought back memories of the Charles Logan revelation scene during season 6 (if you recall, Phillip Bauer gave Jack Logan's number). But it was so much cooler than this. Partly because Bill Buchanan is one of my favourite characters on the show, and partly because of the whole voice modifier thing. And the speed at which things unravelled after that (again, Abrams/Lindelof take note) didn't leave you waiting around for ages.
The way they got out was pretty cool. The car driving through a barrier thing had been on some early trailers and I'd seen that, but the seemingly-impossible escape of two people from an FBI headquarters was actually quite believable, and Jack and Tony still work well as a team (although I wouldn't be surprised if there is still some animosity between them after the interrogation).
Bill and Chloe are back to their good old selves. I liked Chloe's little awkward comment about how Jack looked good on TV. Her geeky hacker battle against Janis Gold was...um...interesting? It's a little different from a catfight anyway! Marshall Flinkman wouldn't have let that happen, he would have knocked them all down!
There were a couple of other almost-loose threads in this episode. Firstly the whole Henry investigating his son's death, which took seemed a little disjointed from the rest of the story. We know that there is a link there though (from Redemption) so perhaps we will see that emphasised more later on in the season. Secondly the whole "rules vs results" thing, and some of the FBI's feeble interrogation techniques (Janis's "is that comfortable for you?").
The mole story was also touched on but didn't get anywhere. Does it even matter now that Jack isn't working there anymore? Now that the FBI is "the enemy", it will be hard for the writers to make a mole story quite so dramatic. I couldn't even begin to guess though. Maybe it is Renee? That would be perhaps a bit too cliche though.
After Jack and Renee worked so well as partners, I was sad that he didn't take her with him. This was a mistake as far as I'm concerned; it would have added an extra dramatic sense of awkwardness to the reunion of old CTU agents, and I don't somehow think Renee would come off so well as an opponent. It will be hard for them to make this face-off dramatic too, especially as they have only known each other a few hours.
Surely now the terrorists must know that Jack helped Tony escape from the FBI, as they have people on the inside. Will Tony have to bring Jack in undercover? This will get very complicated, as Jack is exactly the man Dubaku wants revenge against.
All in all this is looking to be a very promising season.
Season: 7
Episode: 3
Date I watched this episode: 10/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 1 day.
Nothing could have prepared me for the AWESOMENESS of this episode. In fact, I was a bit uncomfortable before when my friend Paul was raising my expectations for this episode before I'd even watched the first one. But no matter how high my expectations were, this new storyline was a stroke of brilliance. 24 has truly proved that the demise of Joel Surnow has not left them stranded. It's not just because I was right too. Though, you have to admit, I was right. Tony wasn't really a terrorist, and the character profiles are still in-tact.
It's not like Jack hasn't gone rogue before. It's not like practically every single protagonist on 24 hasn't gone rogue before! In fact, the period toward the end of season 5 when Chloe and Bill are working at Bill's house is one of my favourite parts of the show. But the difference here is that this rogue operation has clearly been going on for months. None of the people involved have any rank. And the security breach is bigger than usual, stretching across who knows how many people. That said, we know some of the key players from Redemption. But it's still going to incredibly hard for four people to work against an entire country.
The initial revelation scene brought back memories of the Charles Logan revelation scene during season 6 (if you recall, Phillip Bauer gave Jack Logan's number). But it was so much cooler than this. Partly because Bill Buchanan is one of my favourite characters on the show, and partly because of the whole voice modifier thing. And the speed at which things unravelled after that (again, Abrams/Lindelof take note) didn't leave you waiting around for ages.
The way they got out was pretty cool. The car driving through a barrier thing had been on some early trailers and I'd seen that, but the seemingly-impossible escape of two people from an FBI headquarters was actually quite believable, and Jack and Tony still work well as a team (although I wouldn't be surprised if there is still some animosity between them after the interrogation).
Bill and Chloe are back to their good old selves. I liked Chloe's little awkward comment about how Jack looked good on TV. Her geeky hacker battle against Janis Gold was...um...interesting? It's a little different from a catfight anyway! Marshall Flinkman wouldn't have let that happen, he would have knocked them all down!
There were a couple of other almost-loose threads in this episode. Firstly the whole Henry investigating his son's death, which took seemed a little disjointed from the rest of the story. We know that there is a link there though (from Redemption) so perhaps we will see that emphasised more later on in the season. Secondly the whole "rules vs results" thing, and some of the FBI's feeble interrogation techniques (Janis's "is that comfortable for you?").
The mole story was also touched on but didn't get anywhere. Does it even matter now that Jack isn't working there anymore? Now that the FBI is "the enemy", it will be hard for the writers to make a mole story quite so dramatic. I couldn't even begin to guess though. Maybe it is Renee? That would be perhaps a bit too cliche though.
After Jack and Renee worked so well as partners, I was sad that he didn't take her with him. This was a mistake as far as I'm concerned; it would have added an extra dramatic sense of awkwardness to the reunion of old CTU agents, and I don't somehow think Renee would come off so well as an opponent. It will be hard for them to make this face-off dramatic too, especially as they have only known each other a few hours.
Surely now the terrorists must know that Jack helped Tony escape from the FBI, as they have people on the inside. Will Tony have to bring Jack in undercover? This will get very complicated, as Jack is exactly the man Dubaku wants revenge against.
All in all this is looking to be a very promising season.
Monday, 9 February 2009
[24H] Day 7: 9:00am - 10:00am
TV Programme: 24
Season: 7
Episode: 2
Date I watched this episode: 09/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: Less than 1 day.
24 has an addictive quality like practically no other programme on television. After watching episode 1, I felt compelled to watch this one. In fact right now I really want to watch episode 3, but I need to go to bed after writing this review.
The purpose of this episode seemed to be two-fold: first, it drew Jack and Renee (who, don't forget, had never met each other a couple of hours ago) closer together; and second, it drew the Tony Almeida storyline closer to some actual answers. In fact, just how close this got surprised me; Jack has Tony in custody after only 2 episodes. That has to be quite impressive: JJ Abrams could learn a lesson or two.
I think Renee is clearly impressed with Jack's methods and has become something of a partner for Jack during this season so far. She's torn with her loyalties to the FBI though (and she's not the only one; that guy in the front of her truck seemed to share her views), and this internal struggle will probably dictate the way she behaves going forward. Whatever her mindset though, her and Jack work well as a team, both on-screen and within the confines of the story. This is good to see, and I have some confidence in the characters of season 7. In other words, I feel the risk of completely re-inventing the cast has paid off.
Running parallel during this episode was Allison's tactics for dealing with the crisis. As I've said before, every president on 24 deals with these things in a completely different way. I see Allison in this regard as something of a dawdler, and I'm not sure she is in the right frame of mind to take aggressive action against the terrorists. However I think she will be challenged in that regard as the seasons draws on.
The idea of having a mole is nothing new. I don't know who it could be though. Usually a mole is someone we know already (e.g. Jaymee from season 1) and then they are killed off a few episodes later. However, all of the people at the FBI Washington Field Office are regular main cast members (Larry, Renee, Janis and Sean). I doubt it would be one of them because they are likely to have season-length contracts. So I don't really know what is going to happen there, intriguing!!!
So now we know who is really behind these attacks (or do we?) General Juma. It is admittedly odd to have the leader of a conspiracy revealed so early on in a 24 season though, so there may be more to this than we know. Dubaku (who somehow miraculously survived that landmine blast during Redemption) is co-ordinating the attacks. I doubt he would make any kind of deal to stop the attacks, he will just launch them anyway. Most of all he is motivated by revenge against Jack, which means it's personal: this always makes for a more interesting storyline.
Now that we know that truth, it doesn't fit with Renee's theory about Tony Almeida. Renee had said that Tony hated the USA and wanted revenge, but Juma is out to take back his own country of Sangala, so I don't quite see the connection here. In fact I am generally a bit surprised to see so many white Americans working for Juma. I suppose they are connected with the people we saw in Redemption.
I was thinking about this and I remembered that weird scene between Allison and Noah in Redemption. Noah implied that he knew a lot more than he was letting on. Perhaps this is it - Noah had sent Tony in on an off-the-books operation to infiltrate Juma's circle, and try to bring down the People's Freedom Army from the inside? I really don't want to believe that Tony is a terrorist!!
This episode was initially shown as the second part of a double episode and so it's perhaps appropriate that I break here because this was where the original break occurred (the third and fourth were shown as a second double episode the following night). Viewers watching "live" so to speak, would certainly have a lot on their minds as I do now. Tony is now in custody, and we can expect some serious answers to our burning questions in the near future.
Season: 7
Episode: 2
Date I watched this episode: 09/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: Less than 1 day.
24 has an addictive quality like practically no other programme on television. After watching episode 1, I felt compelled to watch this one. In fact right now I really want to watch episode 3, but I need to go to bed after writing this review.
The purpose of this episode seemed to be two-fold: first, it drew Jack and Renee (who, don't forget, had never met each other a couple of hours ago) closer together; and second, it drew the Tony Almeida storyline closer to some actual answers. In fact, just how close this got surprised me; Jack has Tony in custody after only 2 episodes. That has to be quite impressive: JJ Abrams could learn a lesson or two.
I think Renee is clearly impressed with Jack's methods and has become something of a partner for Jack during this season so far. She's torn with her loyalties to the FBI though (and she's not the only one; that guy in the front of her truck seemed to share her views), and this internal struggle will probably dictate the way she behaves going forward. Whatever her mindset though, her and Jack work well as a team, both on-screen and within the confines of the story. This is good to see, and I have some confidence in the characters of season 7. In other words, I feel the risk of completely re-inventing the cast has paid off.
Running parallel during this episode was Allison's tactics for dealing with the crisis. As I've said before, every president on 24 deals with these things in a completely different way. I see Allison in this regard as something of a dawdler, and I'm not sure she is in the right frame of mind to take aggressive action against the terrorists. However I think she will be challenged in that regard as the seasons draws on.
The idea of having a mole is nothing new. I don't know who it could be though. Usually a mole is someone we know already (e.g. Jaymee from season 1) and then they are killed off a few episodes later. However, all of the people at the FBI Washington Field Office are regular main cast members (Larry, Renee, Janis and Sean). I doubt it would be one of them because they are likely to have season-length contracts. So I don't really know what is going to happen there, intriguing!!!
So now we know who is really behind these attacks (or do we?) General Juma. It is admittedly odd to have the leader of a conspiracy revealed so early on in a 24 season though, so there may be more to this than we know. Dubaku (who somehow miraculously survived that landmine blast during Redemption) is co-ordinating the attacks. I doubt he would make any kind of deal to stop the attacks, he will just launch them anyway. Most of all he is motivated by revenge against Jack, which means it's personal: this always makes for a more interesting storyline.
Now that we know that truth, it doesn't fit with Renee's theory about Tony Almeida. Renee had said that Tony hated the USA and wanted revenge, but Juma is out to take back his own country of Sangala, so I don't quite see the connection here. In fact I am generally a bit surprised to see so many white Americans working for Juma. I suppose they are connected with the people we saw in Redemption.
I was thinking about this and I remembered that weird scene between Allison and Noah in Redemption. Noah implied that he knew a lot more than he was letting on. Perhaps this is it - Noah had sent Tony in on an off-the-books operation to infiltrate Juma's circle, and try to bring down the People's Freedom Army from the inside? I really don't want to believe that Tony is a terrorist!!
This episode was initially shown as the second part of a double episode and so it's perhaps appropriate that I break here because this was where the original break occurred (the third and fourth were shown as a second double episode the following night). Viewers watching "live" so to speak, would certainly have a lot on their minds as I do now. Tony is now in custody, and we can expect some serious answers to our burning questions in the near future.
[24H] Day 7: 8:00am - 9:00am
TV Programme: 24
Season: 7
Episode: 1
Date I watched this episode: 09/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 4 days.
After Redemption, it clearly wouldn't be long before I would be starting the seventh season of 24. I'm already 7 episodes behind, and am keen to catch up, since this is the first standard-format episode for almost 18 months, and has been hyped beyond belief. In the last few days I've watched the Making Of documentary for Redemption, and an official web series called "24: Dossier" which describes the crimes Jack Bauer is being charged with (mostly made up of archive footage from previous seasons, but still good to watch as I hadn't seen most of thos episodes for years).
As I've previously mentioned, season 7 is set just 65 days after "Redemption". Because of this, the premiere perhaps didn't have the scope for such shocks as there have been in previous season premieres (to name a few: Bill having got married to Karen, Kim having a job at CTU, and best of all Jack having a beard!!) Nevertheless this episode worked quite nicely, and set up the characters, storyline and setting for this season.
That's not to say it wasn't an action-packed episode. Not 2 minutes into the episode were two car crashes (starring John Billingsley, of Star Trek: Enterprise fame, no less), and it was quite an original stunt to have the car on top of another car, so this short-and-sweet action sequence worked quite well, grabbing you right from the beginning.
Perhaps they thought you'd miss it, but Carlos Bernard's name was on the main credits at the beginning. This is surprising since most "shock re-introductions" of characters don't receive an opening credit (being instead credited at the end of the episode, like with Nina in season 2 or Tony in season 4). But to be honest, I think you would be hard-pushed not to know that Tony is in season 7. It's pretty much the worst kept secret of all time, and even trailers released in early 2008 were showing Tony Almeida on them. But anyway, Carlos is obviously a very versatile actor, and his portrayal of "Tony the Terrorist" (yes, I made that one up myself) was really quite believable.
Obviously there were a lot more new cast members this season than there are usually, mostly due to the new setting. The new main characters are Renee, Larry, Janis and Sean. (There are also Allison, Henry and Ethan whom we've seen before, if only in Redemption). I think all these characters have some potential and were really well-developed in this episode. Renee is a professional who obviously has a bit of a dark side. Larry is a by-the-book, lead-from-the-front kind of guy, who has ethical issues. Janis...well, Janis is played by Janeane Garofalo, who played Lou Thornton on The West Wing. She obviously plays a very different character, again a professional lady but a bit quirky, in (might I say) a much sexier way than Chloe. And Sean, well he is the least well-defined at this stage. Sean clearly has a very dry and distinctive sense of humour, but that's about all we know about him. I do think these characters play off each other very well, and it's interesting to see the same writers doing scripts in a completely different context.
The entire theme of this episode (and possibly the season) seemed to be "rules vs results". This was apparent in Jack's Senate hearings, Larry's moral struggle and Allison Taylor's war decisions. Well I suppose this broad theme could be taken across much of 24's past seasons, but it will be brought out more starkly now due to the setting within a fully-audited government department. I do hope we see that senator again because the way Jack stood up to him was pretty cool. Also I think the whole way Jack and Larry play off each other works here. It'll be interesting to see what method Jack uses to speak to Larry once the stakes have been raised.
One thing I've realised recently (mainly from watching special features) is how much more emphasis 24 puts on set construction than other shows. Obviously, due to the setting across a single day, the look and feel of certain sets is crucial. The major sets in each season are very carefully constructed: think back to Logan's retreat in season 5, the bunker in season 6, CTU sets, and so on. Here I think we only got a glimpse of the FBI Washington Field Office, but the open-plan part didn't seem as exciting as CTU, especially from a lighting perspective without all those dark blue colours. But we'll see about that, and there are some good features to the set, such as the large meeting room.
Most of the storyline had been revealed extensively in trailers dating back months and months and so there wasn't a lot added here. (The court scene was a bit longer than in the trailers, but only a bit). However I don't think it was just because of this that I found the aeroplane storyline rather boring. It can be summed up in a couple of sentences, and this episode basically revolved around the terrorists getting control of the firewall, losing it again and gaining it again, and similar off-then-on problems occuring for the air traffic control guys. Not particularly thrilling story in there.
I have tried to avoid spoilers for this season even more than previous ones (last season was a particularly bad one for me, I knew weeks in advance about the whole Audrey thing). However one thing I did know was that Roger Taylor had died. I'm glad to see that this was revealed in the first episode and wasn't a particularly big twist later on. I'm sure that that businessman from Redemption would have had him killed, but in any case this entire thing was kind of played down during the episode. The point at which it was announced first, there wasn't any kind of spooky sound effects, it was just pitched like an everyday conversation, and this seemed a bit off to me.
This episode really did set things up going forward though. I'm fairly sure that Tony isn't really a terrorist, and is involved in some kind of deep cover operation; certainly there is more than meets the eye. Writers very rarely destroy their own characters into something completely different with no rational explanation. The viewing audience just wouldn't accept it (and you have your proof right here in this review!) So I'll be interested to see what happens next.
24 season 7 really does look set to be as thrilling a season as the programme has ever seen.
Season: 7
Episode: 1
Date I watched this episode: 09/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 4 days.
After Redemption, it clearly wouldn't be long before I would be starting the seventh season of 24. I'm already 7 episodes behind, and am keen to catch up, since this is the first standard-format episode for almost 18 months, and has been hyped beyond belief. In the last few days I've watched the Making Of documentary for Redemption, and an official web series called "24: Dossier" which describes the crimes Jack Bauer is being charged with (mostly made up of archive footage from previous seasons, but still good to watch as I hadn't seen most of thos episodes for years).
As I've previously mentioned, season 7 is set just 65 days after "Redemption". Because of this, the premiere perhaps didn't have the scope for such shocks as there have been in previous season premieres (to name a few: Bill having got married to Karen, Kim having a job at CTU, and best of all Jack having a beard!!) Nevertheless this episode worked quite nicely, and set up the characters, storyline and setting for this season.
That's not to say it wasn't an action-packed episode. Not 2 minutes into the episode were two car crashes (starring John Billingsley, of Star Trek: Enterprise fame, no less), and it was quite an original stunt to have the car on top of another car, so this short-and-sweet action sequence worked quite well, grabbing you right from the beginning.
Perhaps they thought you'd miss it, but Carlos Bernard's name was on the main credits at the beginning. This is surprising since most "shock re-introductions" of characters don't receive an opening credit (being instead credited at the end of the episode, like with Nina in season 2 or Tony in season 4). But to be honest, I think you would be hard-pushed not to know that Tony is in season 7. It's pretty much the worst kept secret of all time, and even trailers released in early 2008 were showing Tony Almeida on them. But anyway, Carlos is obviously a very versatile actor, and his portrayal of "Tony the Terrorist" (yes, I made that one up myself) was really quite believable.
Obviously there were a lot more new cast members this season than there are usually, mostly due to the new setting. The new main characters are Renee, Larry, Janis and Sean. (There are also Allison, Henry and Ethan whom we've seen before, if only in Redemption). I think all these characters have some potential and were really well-developed in this episode. Renee is a professional who obviously has a bit of a dark side. Larry is a by-the-book, lead-from-the-front kind of guy, who has ethical issues. Janis...well, Janis is played by Janeane Garofalo, who played Lou Thornton on The West Wing. She obviously plays a very different character, again a professional lady but a bit quirky, in (might I say) a much sexier way than Chloe. And Sean, well he is the least well-defined at this stage. Sean clearly has a very dry and distinctive sense of humour, but that's about all we know about him. I do think these characters play off each other very well, and it's interesting to see the same writers doing scripts in a completely different context.
The entire theme of this episode (and possibly the season) seemed to be "rules vs results". This was apparent in Jack's Senate hearings, Larry's moral struggle and Allison Taylor's war decisions. Well I suppose this broad theme could be taken across much of 24's past seasons, but it will be brought out more starkly now due to the setting within a fully-audited government department. I do hope we see that senator again because the way Jack stood up to him was pretty cool. Also I think the whole way Jack and Larry play off each other works here. It'll be interesting to see what method Jack uses to speak to Larry once the stakes have been raised.
One thing I've realised recently (mainly from watching special features) is how much more emphasis 24 puts on set construction than other shows. Obviously, due to the setting across a single day, the look and feel of certain sets is crucial. The major sets in each season are very carefully constructed: think back to Logan's retreat in season 5, the bunker in season 6, CTU sets, and so on. Here I think we only got a glimpse of the FBI Washington Field Office, but the open-plan part didn't seem as exciting as CTU, especially from a lighting perspective without all those dark blue colours. But we'll see about that, and there are some good features to the set, such as the large meeting room.
Most of the storyline had been revealed extensively in trailers dating back months and months and so there wasn't a lot added here. (The court scene was a bit longer than in the trailers, but only a bit). However I don't think it was just because of this that I found the aeroplane storyline rather boring. It can be summed up in a couple of sentences, and this episode basically revolved around the terrorists getting control of the firewall, losing it again and gaining it again, and similar off-then-on problems occuring for the air traffic control guys. Not particularly thrilling story in there.
I have tried to avoid spoilers for this season even more than previous ones (last season was a particularly bad one for me, I knew weeks in advance about the whole Audrey thing). However one thing I did know was that Roger Taylor had died. I'm glad to see that this was revealed in the first episode and wasn't a particularly big twist later on. I'm sure that that businessman from Redemption would have had him killed, but in any case this entire thing was kind of played down during the episode. The point at which it was announced first, there wasn't any kind of spooky sound effects, it was just pitched like an everyday conversation, and this seemed a bit off to me.
This episode really did set things up going forward though. I'm fairly sure that Tony isn't really a terrorist, and is involved in some kind of deep cover operation; certainly there is more than meets the eye. Writers very rarely destroy their own characters into something completely different with no rational explanation. The viewing audience just wouldn't accept it (and you have your proof right here in this review!) So I'll be interested to see what happens next.
24 season 7 really does look set to be as thrilling a season as the programme has ever seen.
Friday, 6 February 2009
[DMG] I agree, it wasn't funny
TV Programme: Damages
Season: 2
Episode: 5
Date I watched this episode: 05/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 7 days.
I was pleasantly surprised by this episode. The last couple haven't really gone anywhere (as I've said numerous times) whereas here there seemed to be a number of threads from earlier on (particularly episode 2) that were tied up, while others were revisited. For example Wes's gun cabinet, and the infant mortality case.
I've been worried in previous episodes that not every scene actually serves a purpose. But I did feel here that this problem wasn't present. A particularly good example was the party at Patty's apartment. While there was an interwoven sequence where Ellen remembered the attempt on her life, the scene was still useful as it made Ellen speak to lots of different people, whilst rekindling her fear and paranoia, leading her (in the natural story continuity) to the firing range with Wes. So the "storyboard design" if you like, was very well-done here. In fact, in general I think the Ellen/Wes relationship is developing fairly organically in the right direction, which is at least something to hold on to.
The episode kept you guessing more than previous ones. For example, we wondered who Pete and Wes were talking to on the phones. The revelations here, especially around Rick Messer (whom it is great to see back, by the way, and not in so much of a cameo role here), have far-reaching consequences across the story and set the stage for future events in a much more directed way than earlier on. It also opened the door for a return of Frobisher, which can't be a bad thing!!
The twist with Ellen becoming a "triple agent" as it were, is actually quite interesting and clever. I never would have guessed something like that, in fact the FBI agents were a bit stumped and this was the only true "WTF?!" moment in the episode as far as I was concerned. This will make for some great complex storylines coming up, I hope.
The Danny/Christine flashbacks are developing nicely. Danny seems much more professional now, and I can't work him out (whereas before I thought I had him worked out). I still think there has to be more than meets the eye here with Christine. I wonder if maybe her death was faked? It doesn't quite seem believable that Danny could be so calm as he was in that meeting with the Energy Commission, when his wife had just been killed by the very man he was speaking in favour of. Or, I wonder if Danny is more in on it than we can even see now.
Patty seems to be getting back to her good old self. The change in her moods is quite a signature of hers, and can come across as deliciously evil, like where in this episode she talks to Ellen about the infant mortality case and leaves it in exactly the place where Ellen will know that she is in trouble. Unfortunately for Patty, Ellen is always one step ahead (making it even more nail-biting when we thought Patty had "caught up").
As is usual this season, I didn't get the ending. Wes killed someone but who was it? I'm not meant to know, I hope.
The legal parts of this episode revolved around an almost Farscape-like crusade to kill a merger involving a huge multinational. Patty and Ellen single-handedly take on Walter Kendrick and his merry men. Somehow it didn't seem likely from the start. This part of the episode was weak, and used very standard Damages devices including fairly two-dimensional corruption. And I definitely don't get that gentleman's club thing, where Walter was dressed as a lady. Is this some sort of American tradition that I'm missing?
Where are Katie Connor, Andrew/Felecia, Patty's charity, Josh Restin, etc in this episode? Once again there seem to be storylines left hanging but this episode reassures me that these will be revisited at some point. Sometimes this season it feels like the writers have picked storylines out of a hat on an episode-by-episode basis, as some storylines are just ignored for a while and then picked up again.
As is tradition I have to say something about the title. I'll probably never guess these; I certainly never would have thought of Walter Kendrick as being the receipient here, and his character was developed a lot further in this episode than earlier, so I didn't really "know" him before. Next week's is called "A Pretty Girl In A Leotard". I think this is a Patty kind of thing to say.
In summary then, this episode tied up a few loose ends, while leaving enough open to make the show still interesting. It certainly made me feel better about the direction of this show in general. However, why couldn't they have just skipped the last two episodes and done this earlier? In a 13-episode season, there is no real room for dawdling.
Season: 2
Episode: 5
Date I watched this episode: 05/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 7 days.
I was pleasantly surprised by this episode. The last couple haven't really gone anywhere (as I've said numerous times) whereas here there seemed to be a number of threads from earlier on (particularly episode 2) that were tied up, while others were revisited. For example Wes's gun cabinet, and the infant mortality case.
I've been worried in previous episodes that not every scene actually serves a purpose. But I did feel here that this problem wasn't present. A particularly good example was the party at Patty's apartment. While there was an interwoven sequence where Ellen remembered the attempt on her life, the scene was still useful as it made Ellen speak to lots of different people, whilst rekindling her fear and paranoia, leading her (in the natural story continuity) to the firing range with Wes. So the "storyboard design" if you like, was very well-done here. In fact, in general I think the Ellen/Wes relationship is developing fairly organically in the right direction, which is at least something to hold on to.
The episode kept you guessing more than previous ones. For example, we wondered who Pete and Wes were talking to on the phones. The revelations here, especially around Rick Messer (whom it is great to see back, by the way, and not in so much of a cameo role here), have far-reaching consequences across the story and set the stage for future events in a much more directed way than earlier on. It also opened the door for a return of Frobisher, which can't be a bad thing!!
The twist with Ellen becoming a "triple agent" as it were, is actually quite interesting and clever. I never would have guessed something like that, in fact the FBI agents were a bit stumped and this was the only true "WTF?!" moment in the episode as far as I was concerned. This will make for some great complex storylines coming up, I hope.
The Danny/Christine flashbacks are developing nicely. Danny seems much more professional now, and I can't work him out (whereas before I thought I had him worked out). I still think there has to be more than meets the eye here with Christine. I wonder if maybe her death was faked? It doesn't quite seem believable that Danny could be so calm as he was in that meeting with the Energy Commission, when his wife had just been killed by the very man he was speaking in favour of. Or, I wonder if Danny is more in on it than we can even see now.
Patty seems to be getting back to her good old self. The change in her moods is quite a signature of hers, and can come across as deliciously evil, like where in this episode she talks to Ellen about the infant mortality case and leaves it in exactly the place where Ellen will know that she is in trouble. Unfortunately for Patty, Ellen is always one step ahead (making it even more nail-biting when we thought Patty had "caught up").
As is usual this season, I didn't get the ending. Wes killed someone but who was it? I'm not meant to know, I hope.
The legal parts of this episode revolved around an almost Farscape-like crusade to kill a merger involving a huge multinational. Patty and Ellen single-handedly take on Walter Kendrick and his merry men. Somehow it didn't seem likely from the start. This part of the episode was weak, and used very standard Damages devices including fairly two-dimensional corruption. And I definitely don't get that gentleman's club thing, where Walter was dressed as a lady. Is this some sort of American tradition that I'm missing?
Where are Katie Connor, Andrew/Felecia, Patty's charity, Josh Restin, etc in this episode? Once again there seem to be storylines left hanging but this episode reassures me that these will be revisited at some point. Sometimes this season it feels like the writers have picked storylines out of a hat on an episode-by-episode basis, as some storylines are just ignored for a while and then picked up again.
As is tradition I have to say something about the title. I'll probably never guess these; I certainly never would have thought of Walter Kendrick as being the receipient here, and his character was developed a lot further in this episode than earlier, so I didn't really "know" him before. Next week's is called "A Pretty Girl In A Leotard". I think this is a Patty kind of thing to say.
In summary then, this episode tied up a few loose ends, while leaving enough open to make the show still interesting. It certainly made me feel better about the direction of this show in general. However, why couldn't they have just skipped the last two episodes and done this earlier? In a 13-episode season, there is no real room for dawdling.
Thursday, 5 February 2009
[24H] Redemption
TV Programme: 24
Season: 7
Episode: (Prequel)
Date I watched this episode: 05/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 1 year, 1 month, 28 days.
Well, 24 is back! While it's taken me a long time to get around to watching "Redemption", the length of time since I last watched 24 is mainly due to the fact that it was off the air during the 2007-2008 television season (as I'm sure you know, this was due to the WGA strike). The last "episode" I watched was [24H] "Debrief", which was first released as a series of mobisodes in May/June 2007, but also as a single episode of roughly 10 minutes. Whereas "Redemption" was not released until November 23, 2008. So the level of hype surrounding this could not be higher.
On top of this, my expectations for "Redemption" were actually quite low. I had been told by my friend Paul that it was a bit rubbish, and he even went so far as to tell me not to waste my money on the DVD (but by this time I had already bought it). I knew that "Redemption" would set the story for 24's Day 7 (as do all the 24 prequels), so for that reason in itself it was worth watching. But all in all I was rather ambivalent before watching it.
I must admit to start with that this is a very different 24 from how we are used to. Usually, it is fast-paced, action-packed and doesn't leave any time to pause for thought. Remember the season 6 premiere, which had a bomb blast less than 3 minutes into the episode? That's the kind of thing I'm meaning here. "Redemption" is reflective, and explores other elements of a drama show that 24 doesn't usually have time to touch on. Now I know I've been recently going on about how reflective Damages has been becoming, and I stand by that. But once in a while, you need that kind of episode, and I can't remember the last time 24 paused for thought.
Let's talk about the beginning then - it was interesting to have the intertitle there, something which 24 can't usually do. The teaser was hard-hitting and shocking. In fact I was pretty amazed at how far they went with that, but they were trying to drive a point home. 24 doesn't often make "points" the same way as other shows (such as The West Wing) although it has done in the past (the detention facilities of season 6, for example). The child soldiers thing was an interesting take, something I didn't know much about, and I'm sure it helped raise awareness of the issue in general. They didn't go too far with pushing it down your throat though - that one scene at the beginning was enough to get you thinking for the rest of the episode. And the end scene, where it wasn't exactly a happy ending for most of those people, was both realistic and reinforced the message.
Following that there were a few more scenes with characters we'd never met before. This is usually the case with 24 - introduce Jack Bauer dramatically a little bit into the episode. Remember for example season 2, where Jack was first shown with a beard, or season 3 where he was shown on a picture as he gained access to the prison. Here the moment of entry was Jack standing in a doorway, surrounded by sunlight. In the scene which followed it set up the character for the season and how he has changed in the last couple of years. He's found somewhere he can make a difference. And really the entire feature was about how he was forced to give up that solitude and come back to the life he had lived before. Hence the title "Redemption" (previously it was called "Exile", but I think this is much more fitting).
As for characters in general, Jack was pretty much left to carry the episode. There were very few familiar faces, although we did have Tom Lennox and Noah Daniels, making what will probably be their final appearances on 24 (having said that, there seemed to be some unexplained animosity between Henry Taylor and Tom, and some mysteries around Noah, so maybe these two will be revisiting at some point). We also got our chance to see the new President (and First Gentleman Henry Taylor). Every president on 24 is completely different in the way they handle things (apart from Wayne Palmer but he didn't last very long!) I'm sure Allison will handle things very differently from how Noah did, and the speech she gave at the inauguration was both touching and impressive.
Carl Benton was obviously another key character in this episode who won't be returning in season 7! One thing which struck me about Carl was that he seemed to be too nice. He was meant to be this really tough soldier, even a torturer as implied in the episode. But he didn't come across like this, and this was rather a flaw in his character. This aside, his death scene was brilliantly done, and was quite emotional.
The cinematography in this episode was outstanding. It was largely filmed on location in South Africa (Sangala is not a real country) and the use of natural lighting (as mentioned earlier), wide angles, and panning (especially in the abduction scene) were particularly impressive.
Most of the problems with this episode arose from it being a TV film. In fact, it often seemed not be able to make up its mind if it was a double episode of a primetime TV series, or a feature film. For example, the scene between Noah and Allison. This tension seemed to spill out beyond a single scene, but was confined to that one scene due to time constraints. On the other hand, other storylines were tied up well, like the journey to the helicopter.
Most 24 prequels are about 10 minutes in length (incidentally I only really like the one for season 5, the ones for seasons 4 and 6 are a bit rubbish). Due to the long running time of "Redemption", it had to serve a dual purpose as kind of a season premiere, setting up the storylines. Because of this dual purpose, a lot of the side storylines came off as being a bit disjointed from the rest of the piece, although there clearly were links there. I suppose that because a lot of this wasn't resolved and will continue into the next season, this is only to be expected. But again it's about the struggle between the episode and the film.
The climax to the whole episode found similar problems. There was a very short gunfight in the streets, probably less than a minute in length. In the end, Jack just seemed to give up, as if they had run out of time to show the episode. This provided rather an anticlimax to the whole "redemption of Jack Bauer" arc.
A lot of critics have said that this episode was assembled like (to use a phrase from a review in the Chicago Tribune) a "laundry list" of 24 elements. This was true to some extent - and 24 often does repeat itself with different characters in the same situations. Even multiple times within the same episode - like Willie running off countless times. Things like Jack almost leaving and then being forced to stay because of the imminent danger, are pretty standard for 24 and I think the writers sometimes underestimate the viewers intelligence.
On the same note, there were pretty much no twists in this episodes. It is one of the things 24 is renowned for, having lots of twists and turns in the plot, and again this says to me that the writers feel they can use the same devices over and over again, without introducing new twists. I hope they realise this for season 7 proper. (However I would re-iterate that this was in an entirely different setting from normal 24, and so that does make for some variety).
A couple of scenes also stood out as being badly thought out. This whole "Jack vs an entire army" thing is getting a bit ridiculous. Nearly every season has an episode where Jack goes alone against about 100 people and wins. Here it was when the People's Freedom Army stormed the school. He did get captured eventually, but it took way too long. Aside from that, this was one of the best battles of "Redemption" though.
The other bad scene was Tramell's reluctance to let all the children through. This seemed a bit pointless as they were all let through in the end, and seemed like a device they wanted to explore further but didn't have the time (if this had been an episode of a series they could have held some children back and freed them a few episodes later). This sequence should have been left out altogether.
Anyway this is probably the longest review of anything I have ever written. Soon (after watching Redemption's special features, and an official video documentary called "Dossier" summarising the events leading up to Bauer's subpoena) I will start watching season 7 proper. It takes place 65 days after Redemption. A lot can happen in 65 days! I imagine Jack has been back in the states for most of those. I wonder what he has been up to. I wonder how the conflict in Sangala is going, and how Allison is coping. It won't be long til I find out!!
In summary I think this was actually a pretty good episode despite my initial expectations. Although it struggled between being a film and an episode, it was an interesting and primarily well-executed excursion for the show.
Season: 7
Episode: (Prequel)
Date I watched this episode: 05/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 1 year, 1 month, 28 days.
Well, 24 is back! While it's taken me a long time to get around to watching "Redemption", the length of time since I last watched 24 is mainly due to the fact that it was off the air during the 2007-2008 television season (as I'm sure you know, this was due to the WGA strike). The last "episode" I watched was [24H] "Debrief", which was first released as a series of mobisodes in May/June 2007, but also as a single episode of roughly 10 minutes. Whereas "Redemption" was not released until November 23, 2008. So the level of hype surrounding this could not be higher.
On top of this, my expectations for "Redemption" were actually quite low. I had been told by my friend Paul that it was a bit rubbish, and he even went so far as to tell me not to waste my money on the DVD (but by this time I had already bought it). I knew that "Redemption" would set the story for 24's Day 7 (as do all the 24 prequels), so for that reason in itself it was worth watching. But all in all I was rather ambivalent before watching it.
I must admit to start with that this is a very different 24 from how we are used to. Usually, it is fast-paced, action-packed and doesn't leave any time to pause for thought. Remember the season 6 premiere, which had a bomb blast less than 3 minutes into the episode? That's the kind of thing I'm meaning here. "Redemption" is reflective, and explores other elements of a drama show that 24 doesn't usually have time to touch on. Now I know I've been recently going on about how reflective Damages has been becoming, and I stand by that. But once in a while, you need that kind of episode, and I can't remember the last time 24 paused for thought.
Let's talk about the beginning then - it was interesting to have the intertitle there, something which 24 can't usually do. The teaser was hard-hitting and shocking. In fact I was pretty amazed at how far they went with that, but they were trying to drive a point home. 24 doesn't often make "points" the same way as other shows (such as The West Wing) although it has done in the past (the detention facilities of season 6, for example). The child soldiers thing was an interesting take, something I didn't know much about, and I'm sure it helped raise awareness of the issue in general. They didn't go too far with pushing it down your throat though - that one scene at the beginning was enough to get you thinking for the rest of the episode. And the end scene, where it wasn't exactly a happy ending for most of those people, was both realistic and reinforced the message.
Following that there were a few more scenes with characters we'd never met before. This is usually the case with 24 - introduce Jack Bauer dramatically a little bit into the episode. Remember for example season 2, where Jack was first shown with a beard, or season 3 where he was shown on a picture as he gained access to the prison. Here the moment of entry was Jack standing in a doorway, surrounded by sunlight. In the scene which followed it set up the character for the season and how he has changed in the last couple of years. He's found somewhere he can make a difference. And really the entire feature was about how he was forced to give up that solitude and come back to the life he had lived before. Hence the title "Redemption" (previously it was called "Exile", but I think this is much more fitting).
As for characters in general, Jack was pretty much left to carry the episode. There were very few familiar faces, although we did have Tom Lennox and Noah Daniels, making what will probably be their final appearances on 24 (having said that, there seemed to be some unexplained animosity between Henry Taylor and Tom, and some mysteries around Noah, so maybe these two will be revisiting at some point). We also got our chance to see the new President (and First Gentleman Henry Taylor). Every president on 24 is completely different in the way they handle things (apart from Wayne Palmer but he didn't last very long!) I'm sure Allison will handle things very differently from how Noah did, and the speech she gave at the inauguration was both touching and impressive.
Carl Benton was obviously another key character in this episode who won't be returning in season 7! One thing which struck me about Carl was that he seemed to be too nice. He was meant to be this really tough soldier, even a torturer as implied in the episode. But he didn't come across like this, and this was rather a flaw in his character. This aside, his death scene was brilliantly done, and was quite emotional.
The cinematography in this episode was outstanding. It was largely filmed on location in South Africa (Sangala is not a real country) and the use of natural lighting (as mentioned earlier), wide angles, and panning (especially in the abduction scene) were particularly impressive.
Most of the problems with this episode arose from it being a TV film. In fact, it often seemed not be able to make up its mind if it was a double episode of a primetime TV series, or a feature film. For example, the scene between Noah and Allison. This tension seemed to spill out beyond a single scene, but was confined to that one scene due to time constraints. On the other hand, other storylines were tied up well, like the journey to the helicopter.
Most 24 prequels are about 10 minutes in length (incidentally I only really like the one for season 5, the ones for seasons 4 and 6 are a bit rubbish). Due to the long running time of "Redemption", it had to serve a dual purpose as kind of a season premiere, setting up the storylines. Because of this dual purpose, a lot of the side storylines came off as being a bit disjointed from the rest of the piece, although there clearly were links there. I suppose that because a lot of this wasn't resolved and will continue into the next season, this is only to be expected. But again it's about the struggle between the episode and the film.
The climax to the whole episode found similar problems. There was a very short gunfight in the streets, probably less than a minute in length. In the end, Jack just seemed to give up, as if they had run out of time to show the episode. This provided rather an anticlimax to the whole "redemption of Jack Bauer" arc.
A lot of critics have said that this episode was assembled like (to use a phrase from a review in the Chicago Tribune) a "laundry list" of 24 elements. This was true to some extent - and 24 often does repeat itself with different characters in the same situations. Even multiple times within the same episode - like Willie running off countless times. Things like Jack almost leaving and then being forced to stay because of the imminent danger, are pretty standard for 24 and I think the writers sometimes underestimate the viewers intelligence.
On the same note, there were pretty much no twists in this episodes. It is one of the things 24 is renowned for, having lots of twists and turns in the plot, and again this says to me that the writers feel they can use the same devices over and over again, without introducing new twists. I hope they realise this for season 7 proper. (However I would re-iterate that this was in an entirely different setting from normal 24, and so that does make for some variety).
A couple of scenes also stood out as being badly thought out. This whole "Jack vs an entire army" thing is getting a bit ridiculous. Nearly every season has an episode where Jack goes alone against about 100 people and wins. Here it was when the People's Freedom Army stormed the school. He did get captured eventually, but it took way too long. Aside from that, this was one of the best battles of "Redemption" though.
The other bad scene was Tramell's reluctance to let all the children through. This seemed a bit pointless as they were all let through in the end, and seemed like a device they wanted to explore further but didn't have the time (if this had been an episode of a series they could have held some children back and freed them a few episodes later). This sequence should have been left out altogether.
Anyway this is probably the longest review of anything I have ever written. Soon (after watching Redemption's special features, and an official video documentary called "Dossier" summarising the events leading up to Bauer's subpoena) I will start watching season 7 proper. It takes place 65 days after Redemption. A lot can happen in 65 days! I imagine Jack has been back in the states for most of those. I wonder what he has been up to. I wonder how the conflict in Sangala is going, and how Allison is coping. It won't be long til I find out!!
In summary I think this was actually a pretty good episode despite my initial expectations. Although it struggled between being a film and an episode, it was an interesting and primarily well-executed excursion for the show.
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