- Notifications: All prior notification categories remain in scope. Any exclusions from before still stand: e.g. there will be no pre-season notifications for broadcasting seasons, because these are hyped enough already!
- Season premieres: All season premieres will remain in scope, except for for broadcasting seasons. This was a tough decision but it'll give me some time for the premiere to sink in for those shows that I haven't watched for a long time.
- Season finales: All season finales will remain in scope, but will not be required as part of the "finale day aftermath" process anymore. This means I can effectively write the season finale review anytime. These reviews will now serve as a review of the whole season.
- Midseason premieres: Contrary to what I said earlier, these will not be in scope anymore.
- Midseason finales: These will be treated on a case-by-case basis. Generally midseason finale reviews will be written for good shows where the midseason finale was a big event in the life of the show, however there may be other considerations. For example, I didn't write a review of [SPN] "Bells And A Siren" because although it was technically a midseason finale, there were only two more episodes produced of this show ever.
- Commentaries: These will become more frequent but on a completely ad-hoc basis. Currently at the time of writing, there is only one post tagged "Commentary", but I intend to use the "Commentary" tag to enable me to write reviews of seasons during the actual season.
Saturday, 30 January 2010
NOTIFICATION: Scope Changes (Part 2)
After having some time to think about what would be a good medium between no reviews at all and the endless problems I got into under the old policy, here's my current thinking as to when I'll be posting on this blog in future.
Friday, 29 January 2010
NOTIFICATION: Finale Day 8
Finale Day 8 will be held on 30/01/2010. The episodes comprising this session will be:
Sports Night: "Quo Vadimus"
Rome: "Kalends Of February"
The replacement seasons will be:
[SPN] Sports Night -> [24H] 24 Season 8
[ROM] Rome -> [DMG] Damages Season 3
Sports Night: "Quo Vadimus"
Rome: "Kalends Of February"
The replacement seasons will be:
[SPN] Sports Night -> [24H] 24 Season 8
[ROM] Rome -> [DMG] Damages Season 3
Saturday, 9 January 2010
NOTIFICATION: Scope Changes
At this time I have made the difficult decision to mostly not continue with this TV review blog. I have done a lot here, reviewing episodes throughout 2009, but I have found that it is just not working. After a hard day at work, I am often too tired to write an episode review, but feel I can't watch a new episode until I have reviewed the previous one. I have found that this year I have watched far too few episodes, and it's not realistic to expect to spend huge amounts of time writing reviews when I have so much other work to do.
I am still planning to write entries in this blog covering the following events:
I am still planning to write entries in this blog covering the following events:
- Notifications (such as changes to the list of programmes, pre-season notifications, and other miscellaneous commentary)
- Reviews of season premieres (mostly)
- Some reviews of season finales
- A few reviews of midseason premieres and midseason finales where applicable.
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
[ENT] Shockwave, Part II
TV Programme: Star Trek: Enterprise
Season: 2
Episode: 1
Date I watched this episode: 02/01/2010
Time since I last watched this programme: 2 years, 5 months, 22 days.
So this is the first review I've written of an episode in the Star Trek franchise, and of all the seasons of Star Trek that I am going to be watching over the next months and years, this was the one I was looking forward to least. I know roughly what is going to happen with this show, and it's fairly well-known across the Star Trek community - 1st season sets the scene, 3rd season is one continuous arc and 4th season is several small arcs building up to the founding of the Federation, but the 2nd season is something of an anomaly. Many standalone episodes with little relevance to the stories past or those to come.
However, I was pleasantly surprised by this episode, which had a very action-packed, sleek and unpredictable plotline. It almost felt like some of the old plans in Farscape, where John and D'Argo went off and did their own thing a bit. That normally doesn't get to happen in Star Trek, but they had the perfect setting here - a ship which had been overrun by an enemy faction, and the crew HAD to go to desperate measures to retake it.
Also similarly to Farscape, the plan was only revealed fairly slowly; we didn't know until the end what they were really planning to do. This made it all the more shocking when Reed got captured (although watching the episode again it's clear this was meant to happen) or when the warp core breach sounded (although at the time it seemed plausible that this could be real, as the timeline was going to be altered anyway). The backing music almost merged into one track which smoothly ran through the episode, bulging and dipping as the plan moved through its various phases.
The episode's stark focus on teamwork (which overall made for an uplifting feeling, especially when they were stranded in their quarters and making a plan) meant that it spent a little time with each character (as would be expected for a season premiere) but some characters were more neglected than others. In particular, Phlox and Travis hardly appeared at all, while Archer and T'Pol really led the episode.
The episode started with a sequence very much led by T'Pol. Here, she showed her brilliant leadership skills, bourne out of her logical method. She really showed her worth and was praised by Archer. However her role as leader did lead to her torture (under which she held up extraordinarily well) and we saw a different side of her from before, a damaged, broken side. She was barely up to dealing with Archer's orders, especially as she didn't even believe it was possible.
Archer was just getting very frustrated in this ep, as he wanted to help, but couldn't really do so because he wasn't allowed to know much of what was really going on. It was good to see him finding out about the Federation for the first time, and that he would have a large part to play in its founding. Archer also showed tremendous confidence in his actions at the end (not that I expected anything less), and somehow managed to get past legions of armed Suliban on enemy territory. A feat worthy of Roj Blake, surely!
Those who do know what is really going on are Daniels and Silik. Silik shows his inner weakness here - unable to lead without constant hand-holding by this figure from the future. He is weak on his own. Daniels must have known this and seemingly also that Silik wouldn't be able to contact this future figure. Perhaps the Future Guy is from Earth and so would have been destroyed in this alternate future?
The other characters made pretty average appearances, conforming to fairly well-established character patterns. Hoshi was moaning as usual, which is frankly getting boring. Tucker fitted well into the gunslinging, cowboy attitude he had to take on in this episode. And Reed retained that uncomfortable look which he exhibits throughout the programme, while carrying out his orders without question. In general I don't really rate Hoshi, Reed or Travis as characters.
The show also showed its bravery and willingness to set itself apart from other shows, even other Star Trek shows, by admitting that humanity has made some mistakes but is prepared to deal with them as part of the learning experience. And in that sense, it is a very mature show which shows humanity in a very realistic light. It also didn't try to answer every question about time travel - even Daniels admitted that he didn't have all the answers.
While "Shockwave" (i.e. last season's finale) was filled with doom and gloom, this episode was uplifting, cool, captivating, well-planned and generally enjoyable. While it doesn't make me any less sure that this season as a whole will be a disappointment, I do think this was one of the best episodes so far in the entire programme.
Season: 2
Episode: 1
Date I watched this episode: 02/01/2010
Time since I last watched this programme: 2 years, 5 months, 22 days.
So this is the first review I've written of an episode in the Star Trek franchise, and of all the seasons of Star Trek that I am going to be watching over the next months and years, this was the one I was looking forward to least. I know roughly what is going to happen with this show, and it's fairly well-known across the Star Trek community - 1st season sets the scene, 3rd season is one continuous arc and 4th season is several small arcs building up to the founding of the Federation, but the 2nd season is something of an anomaly. Many standalone episodes with little relevance to the stories past or those to come.
However, I was pleasantly surprised by this episode, which had a very action-packed, sleek and unpredictable plotline. It almost felt like some of the old plans in Farscape, where John and D'Argo went off and did their own thing a bit. That normally doesn't get to happen in Star Trek, but they had the perfect setting here - a ship which had been overrun by an enemy faction, and the crew HAD to go to desperate measures to retake it.
Also similarly to Farscape, the plan was only revealed fairly slowly; we didn't know until the end what they were really planning to do. This made it all the more shocking when Reed got captured (although watching the episode again it's clear this was meant to happen) or when the warp core breach sounded (although at the time it seemed plausible that this could be real, as the timeline was going to be altered anyway). The backing music almost merged into one track which smoothly ran through the episode, bulging and dipping as the plan moved through its various phases.
The episode's stark focus on teamwork (which overall made for an uplifting feeling, especially when they were stranded in their quarters and making a plan) meant that it spent a little time with each character (as would be expected for a season premiere) but some characters were more neglected than others. In particular, Phlox and Travis hardly appeared at all, while Archer and T'Pol really led the episode.
The episode started with a sequence very much led by T'Pol. Here, she showed her brilliant leadership skills, bourne out of her logical method. She really showed her worth and was praised by Archer. However her role as leader did lead to her torture (under which she held up extraordinarily well) and we saw a different side of her from before, a damaged, broken side. She was barely up to dealing with Archer's orders, especially as she didn't even believe it was possible.
Archer was just getting very frustrated in this ep, as he wanted to help, but couldn't really do so because he wasn't allowed to know much of what was really going on. It was good to see him finding out about the Federation for the first time, and that he would have a large part to play in its founding. Archer also showed tremendous confidence in his actions at the end (not that I expected anything less), and somehow managed to get past legions of armed Suliban on enemy territory. A feat worthy of Roj Blake, surely!
Those who do know what is really going on are Daniels and Silik. Silik shows his inner weakness here - unable to lead without constant hand-holding by this figure from the future. He is weak on his own. Daniels must have known this and seemingly also that Silik wouldn't be able to contact this future figure. Perhaps the Future Guy is from Earth and so would have been destroyed in this alternate future?
The other characters made pretty average appearances, conforming to fairly well-established character patterns. Hoshi was moaning as usual, which is frankly getting boring. Tucker fitted well into the gunslinging, cowboy attitude he had to take on in this episode. And Reed retained that uncomfortable look which he exhibits throughout the programme, while carrying out his orders without question. In general I don't really rate Hoshi, Reed or Travis as characters.
The show also showed its bravery and willingness to set itself apart from other shows, even other Star Trek shows, by admitting that humanity has made some mistakes but is prepared to deal with them as part of the learning experience. And in that sense, it is a very mature show which shows humanity in a very realistic light. It also didn't try to answer every question about time travel - even Daniels admitted that he didn't have all the answers.
While "Shockwave" (i.e. last season's finale) was filled with doom and gloom, this episode was uplifting, cool, captivating, well-planned and generally enjoyable. While it doesn't make me any less sure that this season as a whole will be a disappointment, I do think this was one of the best episodes so far in the entire programme.
Saturday, 2 January 2010
[LST] Stranger In A Strange Land
TV Programme: Lost
Season: 3
Episode: 9
Date I watched this episode: 01/01/2010
Time since I last watched this programme: 4 months, 1 day.
Centric for: Jack
This is the second Jack-centric episode this season, and quite forcibly so as the "present-day" portions of the episode focussed mainly around Jack and his time with The Others. As with other episodes like this during season 3 ("A Tale Of Two Cities", "Every Man For Himself", "Not In Portland" etc), we see Jack and Ben pitted against each other. And here even more so than ever we see that Jack and Ben are alike in a lot of ways: specifically Jack is a man of his word, just like Ben. And that makes for a very dignified battle of the minds between these two otherwise opposite characters.
We get to see a glimpse into The Others' sense of justice, which is not at all like I expected. Well Ben seems to be very much on Juliet's side in this fight, saying she is "one of them", but surely he must know this is no longer true or he wouldn't have offered her the incentive to get her to help him. Maybe he is just delusional, wrapped up in his own archaic loyalties. Or maybe Juliet's trial was just a setup to get Jack to help...because otherwise how would Isabel know for sure that Jack was lying? Maybe the whole thing was a setup! In any case, Jack is suitably wary of Juliet, and only wants to help her because on the surface she saved his friends lives to get into this mess.
In general The Others are not definitely bad or definitely good, but a very mysterious group. They certainly seem to have brought happiness into some peoples lives, like Cindy Chandler (I think it was just a coincidence that her daughter asked about Ana-Lucia). However it does seem at times like they are just trying to create mystery, such as all the talk in this episode over which island The Others live on, even though we already found this out in "A Tale Of Two Citites".
Kate and Sawyer were going through a very complex period in their relationship in their little side-story this episode. Sawyer thinks that Kate only slept with him because she likes him a bit and prefers Jack, but Kate doesn't really know what she thinks, and so it's hard for them to have a meaningful conversation about practically anything. Sawyer and Karl have a great chat here in probably the best character scene of the episode - where he inspires Karl to go after Alex because she really is "worth the trouble". Now no matter what happens - if Karl lives or dies - it will be in some sense a happy ending.
I really didn't get the flashback story of this episode, for pretty much the first time ever. Sure, it was a cute little story but I didn't see the relevance it had. I can concede that maybe "He walks among us, but is not one of us" has meaning in both situations, but this doesn't really fit with the original fortune told by Achara. This wasn't the only bad part of the episode - I really didn't like the final sequence, and thought the camerawork didn't fit very well with the music played over it.
This episode marked in a sense the end of one chapter of the programme and the beginning of a new one. No doubt next time we see Jack he will be on the main island again, looking after Ben while the other survivors regroup and try to launch an attack. We're not too far from the half-way point, and surely it won't be too long until they are all re-united again.
Season: 3
Episode: 9
Date I watched this episode: 01/01/2010
Time since I last watched this programme: 4 months, 1 day.
Centric for: Jack
This is the second Jack-centric episode this season, and quite forcibly so as the "present-day" portions of the episode focussed mainly around Jack and his time with The Others. As with other episodes like this during season 3 ("A Tale Of Two Cities", "Every Man For Himself", "Not In Portland" etc), we see Jack and Ben pitted against each other. And here even more so than ever we see that Jack and Ben are alike in a lot of ways: specifically Jack is a man of his word, just like Ben. And that makes for a very dignified battle of the minds between these two otherwise opposite characters.
We get to see a glimpse into The Others' sense of justice, which is not at all like I expected. Well Ben seems to be very much on Juliet's side in this fight, saying she is "one of them", but surely he must know this is no longer true or he wouldn't have offered her the incentive to get her to help him. Maybe he is just delusional, wrapped up in his own archaic loyalties. Or maybe Juliet's trial was just a setup to get Jack to help...because otherwise how would Isabel know for sure that Jack was lying? Maybe the whole thing was a setup! In any case, Jack is suitably wary of Juliet, and only wants to help her because on the surface she saved his friends lives to get into this mess.
In general The Others are not definitely bad or definitely good, but a very mysterious group. They certainly seem to have brought happiness into some peoples lives, like Cindy Chandler (I think it was just a coincidence that her daughter asked about Ana-Lucia). However it does seem at times like they are just trying to create mystery, such as all the talk in this episode over which island The Others live on, even though we already found this out in "A Tale Of Two Citites".
Kate and Sawyer were going through a very complex period in their relationship in their little side-story this episode. Sawyer thinks that Kate only slept with him because she likes him a bit and prefers Jack, but Kate doesn't really know what she thinks, and so it's hard for them to have a meaningful conversation about practically anything. Sawyer and Karl have a great chat here in probably the best character scene of the episode - where he inspires Karl to go after Alex because she really is "worth the trouble". Now no matter what happens - if Karl lives or dies - it will be in some sense a happy ending.
I really didn't get the flashback story of this episode, for pretty much the first time ever. Sure, it was a cute little story but I didn't see the relevance it had. I can concede that maybe "He walks among us, but is not one of us" has meaning in both situations, but this doesn't really fit with the original fortune told by Achara. This wasn't the only bad part of the episode - I really didn't like the final sequence, and thought the camerawork didn't fit very well with the music played over it.
This episode marked in a sense the end of one chapter of the programme and the beginning of a new one. No doubt next time we see Jack he will be on the main island again, looking after Ben while the other survivors regroup and try to launch an attack. We're not too far from the half-way point, and surely it won't be too long until they are all re-united again.
[ROM] An Owl In A Thornbush
TV Programme: Rome
Season: 1
Episode: 3
Date I watched this episode: 01/01/2010
Time since I last watched this programme: 2 months, 14 days.
This episode showed the natural progression of the events of the last episode. Carefully and quietly, we see Caesar take Rome from Pompey. Both men remain completely calm and collected throughout, great leaders seen at their peak while Atia is going insane with stress. In general, this is such a quiet episode. We see Caesar's men galloping over barren, deserted landscapes, we see Rome standing completely deserted. This is such a contrast to earlier episodes and shows how flexible this show is.
It's a beautifully woven story though. Caesar's plan is really quite well thought-out: he is expecting Pompey to slip up in forcing him to leave Rome, and in the end that is exactly what happens. If it hadn't been for the money, probably things would have played out in Pompey's favour. I wonder how similar this episode has been to real historical events.
Titus's influence is quite wide-reaching, as he doesn't care about rules and doesn't care about the consequences of his actions. Now he has all that money, what will he do with it? It seems sensible that he would defect to Pompey at this stage, as his friend Vorenus has left Caesar. But I don't think he is clever enough for that, and will probably try to start a new life with that slave girl.
Atia on the other hand, after realising that she has the upper hand, is coming to terms with her new sense of power. She is now the one who can provide protection to those who want to stay in Rome. She orders a hit on Glabius, which surely must be linked to her power complex, and then somehow manages to convince a very naive Octavia that she had nothing to do with it. She and Octavia just have such different views on men, as starkly seen in this episode. Atia wants to just use men for sex, whereas Octavia feels a deeper connection than Atia has ever felt with a man. It will be interesting to see what happens with Caesar returns to Rome and favours the less-voluptuous Servilia.
Gaius Octavian really came into his own in this episode. He seems to be the one who really knows what's going on, with the Pompey/Caesar mindgames and with Glabius's death. He shows tremendous leadership skills for a boy of his age, and it is done in a really beautiful way that doesn't seem forced at all.
Niobe is completely mixed up emotionally in this episode as she struggles to deal with her repressed emotions for Evander and her renewed emotions for Lucius. I do feel sorry for Lucius as he is trying so hard, even deserting Caesar's regiment, and I want things to work out for him. He claims the past is forgotten, but if he really knew what had happened in the past then perhaps he would not be so cavalier.
Well this was another great episode and I am really looking forward to more. I will have to accelerate my watching of this programme to some extent as I really want to finish it before the Damages season premiere later this month.
Season: 1
Episode: 3
Date I watched this episode: 01/01/2010
Time since I last watched this programme: 2 months, 14 days.
This episode showed the natural progression of the events of the last episode. Carefully and quietly, we see Caesar take Rome from Pompey. Both men remain completely calm and collected throughout, great leaders seen at their peak while Atia is going insane with stress. In general, this is such a quiet episode. We see Caesar's men galloping over barren, deserted landscapes, we see Rome standing completely deserted. This is such a contrast to earlier episodes and shows how flexible this show is.
It's a beautifully woven story though. Caesar's plan is really quite well thought-out: he is expecting Pompey to slip up in forcing him to leave Rome, and in the end that is exactly what happens. If it hadn't been for the money, probably things would have played out in Pompey's favour. I wonder how similar this episode has been to real historical events.
Titus's influence is quite wide-reaching, as he doesn't care about rules and doesn't care about the consequences of his actions. Now he has all that money, what will he do with it? It seems sensible that he would defect to Pompey at this stage, as his friend Vorenus has left Caesar. But I don't think he is clever enough for that, and will probably try to start a new life with that slave girl.
Atia on the other hand, after realising that she has the upper hand, is coming to terms with her new sense of power. She is now the one who can provide protection to those who want to stay in Rome. She orders a hit on Glabius, which surely must be linked to her power complex, and then somehow manages to convince a very naive Octavia that she had nothing to do with it. She and Octavia just have such different views on men, as starkly seen in this episode. Atia wants to just use men for sex, whereas Octavia feels a deeper connection than Atia has ever felt with a man. It will be interesting to see what happens with Caesar returns to Rome and favours the less-voluptuous Servilia.
Gaius Octavian really came into his own in this episode. He seems to be the one who really knows what's going on, with the Pompey/Caesar mindgames and with Glabius's death. He shows tremendous leadership skills for a boy of his age, and it is done in a really beautiful way that doesn't seem forced at all.
Niobe is completely mixed up emotionally in this episode as she struggles to deal with her repressed emotions for Evander and her renewed emotions for Lucius. I do feel sorry for Lucius as he is trying so hard, even deserting Caesar's regiment, and I want things to work out for him. He claims the past is forgotten, but if he really knew what had happened in the past then perhaps he would not be so cavalier.
Well this was another great episode and I am really looking forward to more. I will have to accelerate my watching of this programme to some extent as I really want to finish it before the Damages season premiere later this month.
[JER] The Day Before
TV Programme: Jericho
Season: 2
Episode: 12
Date I watched this episode: 28/12/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 4 months, 19 days.
Well finally back to this programme, and it never ceases to blow me away. This episode didn't really touch on a lot of the points in the midseason finale (the Mimi/Stanley/Bonnie/Shaun situation, Dale's murder, the election result) but I'm sure we'll get to that. Instead, most of the episode was devoted to getting some real answers about Jake and Rob. This is about the only place they could really do this kind of episode, right at the beginning of the second half of the season, where it doesn't ruin the pace.
The episode intercut between three areas: one focussing on Jake, one focussing on Rob, and one focussing on everyone else (events in Jericho on that day). However, this was seemingly just to keep the show interesting, rather than for any dramatic/storytelling purpose. So I'll try to deal with each of those in turn.
First up with Jake, the character of Freddie was introduced, and a lot of time was spent developing this character as Jake's closest friend. This just served to heighten the emotion when he was killed, even though he was only a one-episode guest star. This entire piece showed just how brutal and powerful Ravenwood are, or were at the time of the bombs.
I've been asking for ages what Jake was doing prior to the events of this programme and now we have at least a partial answer - he was working for Ravenwood. Again I see that I was right to give the show some leeway on this - if someone had told me this at the start then it wouldn't have had so much suspense during episodes like "Rogue River" and "Crossroads" when we were just getting to know Ravenwood.
There is still the issue of the incident in Afghanistan though. The show doesn't reveal what actually happened, but I suppose I wonder, does it even matter? We know that Jake and Freddie just tried to survive, and that innocent people died, and maybe that's all we need to know. We have a sensational view now of Ravenwood as this evil entity.
When Jake called home, the expression on Gail's face really acutely reminded me of when Clark Kent called home in [SMV] "Exile". She must know to some extent what Jake has been up to, though she clearly doesn't know now that Jake was involved with Ravenwood. The ep also answers the question of what compelled Jake to return to Jericho after 5 years. We know why he left - because of Jonah - but he returned because he was desperate. Him and Freddie had tried to play both Ravenwood and the government, and that could never end well.
The other facet that this touched on was Jake and Emily. It was only a small comment, but Freddie confirmed that Jake did still have feelings for Emily, even before he returned to Jericho and met Heather. This puts the current state of affairs into a new perspective.
Turning to Rob, well on the face of it he seems to just be a terrorist. But the question is - what kind of terrorist organisation could run such a massive operation as this? All the people we see in it have American accents and different ethnic backgrounds, so in that sense it almost feels like they are an organisation similar to "The Company" of Prison Break or "The Alliance" of Alias.
The exit strategy for the bombings also seems a bit ambiguous. Are we to believe that these were supposed to be suicide missions? Surely not, as Rob has had extensive training on the aftermath of the attacks, including the rally point talk. He seems too clever to be wasted like that. However, the "men who will change the world"? The timing doesn't seem to add up, how could they possibly get away so fast?
Rob's sheer determination for his family is shown here. When we see him approach Darcy that first time, he is completely determined and he goes to great lengths to get them to safety, even assaulting police officers. We see toward the end of the episode how far along things have come, and how Darcy admits she does trust him - perhaps not knowing how close he was to the people behind the attacks.
Sarah's return at the end of the episode was shocking and unexpected. It's unclear how she escaped from the men holding her at gunpoint, but maybe she has been sent from Rob's organisation, maybe she was the one typing "See you soon." Rob does say earlier in the episode that the entire bombings plan was her idea, so she must be quite senior within the organisation. Clearly there is something extra we haven't seen - as we don't even know where the bomb is at this point. Perhaps Rob did go to Columbus to rescue Sarah, who knows. I'm sure we will find some answers soon enough.
In the Jericho area, there are a few little things going on. We get to see Stanley meeting Mimi for the first time, and it's believable in the context of what has happened since. Johnston's offer to Eric is completely unexpected and I'm sure there will be some fallout from that in the near future. And we get to see what's really the first ever character development of Roger: showing that while he is ambitious, he does have a good heart and he does really love Emily.
The last part of the episode, after replaying some footage from the pilot, played out some "present day" footage for 5 minutes. Roger is seen to be in heavy shock and a changed man, while Jake tells Emily to go to him and forget about the two of them. That's not going to happen easily now that Emily has experienced it again and her father has implored her to have another go. But will Jake manage to go back to Heather? Who knows, they haven't spoken in days/weeks.
In general, the episode does ask more questions than it answers, but in a much more elegant way than some other shows like Lost. A lot is coming up though - not only those situations from the midseason finale but also the introduction of Sarah into the equation, will keep me coming back for more. Once again a brilliant episode from a brilliant show.
Season: 2
Episode: 12
Date I watched this episode: 28/12/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 4 months, 19 days.
Well finally back to this programme, and it never ceases to blow me away. This episode didn't really touch on a lot of the points in the midseason finale (the Mimi/Stanley/Bonnie/Shaun situation, Dale's murder, the election result) but I'm sure we'll get to that. Instead, most of the episode was devoted to getting some real answers about Jake and Rob. This is about the only place they could really do this kind of episode, right at the beginning of the second half of the season, where it doesn't ruin the pace.
The episode intercut between three areas: one focussing on Jake, one focussing on Rob, and one focussing on everyone else (events in Jericho on that day). However, this was seemingly just to keep the show interesting, rather than for any dramatic/storytelling purpose. So I'll try to deal with each of those in turn.
First up with Jake, the character of Freddie was introduced, and a lot of time was spent developing this character as Jake's closest friend. This just served to heighten the emotion when he was killed, even though he was only a one-episode guest star. This entire piece showed just how brutal and powerful Ravenwood are, or were at the time of the bombs.
I've been asking for ages what Jake was doing prior to the events of this programme and now we have at least a partial answer - he was working for Ravenwood. Again I see that I was right to give the show some leeway on this - if someone had told me this at the start then it wouldn't have had so much suspense during episodes like "Rogue River" and "Crossroads" when we were just getting to know Ravenwood.
There is still the issue of the incident in Afghanistan though. The show doesn't reveal what actually happened, but I suppose I wonder, does it even matter? We know that Jake and Freddie just tried to survive, and that innocent people died, and maybe that's all we need to know. We have a sensational view now of Ravenwood as this evil entity.
When Jake called home, the expression on Gail's face really acutely reminded me of when Clark Kent called home in [SMV] "Exile". She must know to some extent what Jake has been up to, though she clearly doesn't know now that Jake was involved with Ravenwood. The ep also answers the question of what compelled Jake to return to Jericho after 5 years. We know why he left - because of Jonah - but he returned because he was desperate. Him and Freddie had tried to play both Ravenwood and the government, and that could never end well.
The other facet that this touched on was Jake and Emily. It was only a small comment, but Freddie confirmed that Jake did still have feelings for Emily, even before he returned to Jericho and met Heather. This puts the current state of affairs into a new perspective.
Turning to Rob, well on the face of it he seems to just be a terrorist. But the question is - what kind of terrorist organisation could run such a massive operation as this? All the people we see in it have American accents and different ethnic backgrounds, so in that sense it almost feels like they are an organisation similar to "The Company" of Prison Break or "The Alliance" of Alias.
The exit strategy for the bombings also seems a bit ambiguous. Are we to believe that these were supposed to be suicide missions? Surely not, as Rob has had extensive training on the aftermath of the attacks, including the rally point talk. He seems too clever to be wasted like that. However, the "men who will change the world"? The timing doesn't seem to add up, how could they possibly get away so fast?
Rob's sheer determination for his family is shown here. When we see him approach Darcy that first time, he is completely determined and he goes to great lengths to get them to safety, even assaulting police officers. We see toward the end of the episode how far along things have come, and how Darcy admits she does trust him - perhaps not knowing how close he was to the people behind the attacks.
Sarah's return at the end of the episode was shocking and unexpected. It's unclear how she escaped from the men holding her at gunpoint, but maybe she has been sent from Rob's organisation, maybe she was the one typing "See you soon." Rob does say earlier in the episode that the entire bombings plan was her idea, so she must be quite senior within the organisation. Clearly there is something extra we haven't seen - as we don't even know where the bomb is at this point. Perhaps Rob did go to Columbus to rescue Sarah, who knows. I'm sure we will find some answers soon enough.
In the Jericho area, there are a few little things going on. We get to see Stanley meeting Mimi for the first time, and it's believable in the context of what has happened since. Johnston's offer to Eric is completely unexpected and I'm sure there will be some fallout from that in the near future. And we get to see what's really the first ever character development of Roger: showing that while he is ambitious, he does have a good heart and he does really love Emily.
The last part of the episode, after replaying some footage from the pilot, played out some "present day" footage for 5 minutes. Roger is seen to be in heavy shock and a changed man, while Jake tells Emily to go to him and forget about the two of them. That's not going to happen easily now that Emily has experienced it again and her father has implored her to have another go. But will Jake manage to go back to Heather? Who knows, they haven't spoken in days/weeks.
In general, the episode does ask more questions than it answers, but in a much more elegant way than some other shows like Lost. A lot is coming up though - not only those situations from the midseason finale but also the introduction of Sarah into the equation, will keep me coming back for more. Once again a brilliant episode from a brilliant show.
[SPN] Shane
TV Programme: Sports Night
Season: 2
Episode: 6
Date I watched this episode: 28/12/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 4 months, 19 days.
This day was kind of unofficially my "midseason premiere day". This was pretty much entirely by coincidence, as I'd intended to watch Rome instead of Jericho but my laptop didn't have enough battery to play what I thought would be a 50+ minute episode. But it's kind of cool as I watched the midseason finales of this programme and also Jericho on the same day, and I had then watched the midseason premieres on the same day too.
This episode should have been called "Kafelnikov". (See my previous review for more details). In fact, the whole "Shane" storyline to this ep was a bit pointless, without really any moral to the story, except to give Casey something to do and an excuse not to help Dan out. It also led to the silliest, most cheesy scene in this PROGRAMME so far, with Dana dancing to "Walking On Sunshine" - I didn't appreciate this.
Dan's initial chat with Abby at the bar was kind of a mix of "business" and "personal" and was quite funny to see the way Danny handled that. However, it really brought his problems bubbling to the surface and hit a bit of a turning point in Dan's arc in general. I don't think Dan had ever thought before about how therapy would work - it is going to be a long process, rather than a "quick fix" which is what he was expecting from Abby.
He's just trying to get his head around the fact that his problems run deeper than not being able to pronounce Kafelnikov's first name. That's not just the least of his problems, it's not one of his problems at all. "It's a hard name to pronounce" to quote Abby. Dan kind of thought this is how it would manifest itself, but by the end of the episode he's just beginning to realise how this is going to play out.
Dan's relationship with Abby has also taken a big hit in this episode, I think. He can't really carry on dating her when he is seeing her in a professional capacity. Also, he has kind of ruined things by bursting into her office like that - which even I could see was wholly unprofessional.
The third story in this episode was with Natalie and "Hell", and even this was much more well-executed than Casey's story. The Hell story did have kind of a moral to it - that people don't do bad things because they know they're wrong, not because of any fire and brimstone, or certainly this is true in Natalie's case. I think I could see that already but it's a good piece of direct character development.
In general this was an episode with a pretty key main storyline, and a few extra bits tagged on for good measure. But Josh's and Jayne's acting kind of redeemed it, and I'm looking forward to seeing where this can go in the next episode.
Season: 2
Episode: 6
Date I watched this episode: 28/12/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 4 months, 19 days.
This day was kind of unofficially my "midseason premiere day". This was pretty much entirely by coincidence, as I'd intended to watch Rome instead of Jericho but my laptop didn't have enough battery to play what I thought would be a 50+ minute episode. But it's kind of cool as I watched the midseason finales of this programme and also Jericho on the same day, and I had then watched the midseason premieres on the same day too.
This episode should have been called "Kafelnikov". (See my previous review for more details). In fact, the whole "Shane" storyline to this ep was a bit pointless, without really any moral to the story, except to give Casey something to do and an excuse not to help Dan out. It also led to the silliest, most cheesy scene in this PROGRAMME so far, with Dana dancing to "Walking On Sunshine" - I didn't appreciate this.
Dan's initial chat with Abby at the bar was kind of a mix of "business" and "personal" and was quite funny to see the way Danny handled that. However, it really brought his problems bubbling to the surface and hit a bit of a turning point in Dan's arc in general. I don't think Dan had ever thought before about how therapy would work - it is going to be a long process, rather than a "quick fix" which is what he was expecting from Abby.
He's just trying to get his head around the fact that his problems run deeper than not being able to pronounce Kafelnikov's first name. That's not just the least of his problems, it's not one of his problems at all. "It's a hard name to pronounce" to quote Abby. Dan kind of thought this is how it would manifest itself, but by the end of the episode he's just beginning to realise how this is going to play out.
Dan's relationship with Abby has also taken a big hit in this episode, I think. He can't really carry on dating her when he is seeing her in a professional capacity. Also, he has kind of ruined things by bursting into her office like that - which even I could see was wholly unprofessional.
The third story in this episode was with Natalie and "Hell", and even this was much more well-executed than Casey's story. The Hell story did have kind of a moral to it - that people don't do bad things because they know they're wrong, not because of any fire and brimstone, or certainly this is true in Natalie's case. I think I could see that already but it's a good piece of direct character development.
In general this was an episode with a pretty key main storyline, and a few extra bits tagged on for good measure. But Josh's and Jayne's acting kind of redeemed it, and I'm looking forward to seeing where this can go in the next episode.
DATA: 2009 in review
Seasons watched through 2009:
- Jericho Season 1 (watched 8 episodes in 2009)
- Dark Angel Season 1 (watched 4 episodes in 2009)
- Prison Break Season 2 (watched 17 episodes in 2009)
- The New Adventures Of Superman Season 2 (watched 13 episodes in 2009)
- The Sopranos Season 1 (watched 8 episodes in 2009)
- Ultimate Force Season 3 (watched 1 episode in 2009)
- 24 Season 7 (watched 26 episodes in 2009)
- Futurama Season 5 (watched 16 episodes in 2009)
- Damages Season 2 (watched 13 episodes in 2009)
- The Apprentice (UK) Season 5 (watched 12 episodes in 2009)
- Spooks Season 2 (watched 10 episodes in 2009)
- Peep Show Season 6 (watched 6 episodes in 2009)
- Lost Season 3 (watched 8 episodes in 2009)
- Sports Night Season 2 (watched 6 episodes in 2009)
- Pushing Daisies Season 2 (watched 5 episodes in 2009)
- Rome Season 1 (watched 2 episodes in 2009)
- (Pokémon Season 1 (outside scope of this site) (watched 21 episodes in 2009))
- La Femme Nikita Season 1 (watched 2 episodes in 2009)
- Gavin & Stacey (unknown number of episodes so not included in total: somewhere between 0 and 14) (outside the scope of this site)
- Blake's 7
- Mad Men
- One Tree Hill
- Smallville
- Superboy
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- Star Trek: Enterprise
- Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Twin Peaks
Friday, 1 January 2010
[DRK] Gill Girl
TV Programme: Dark Angel
Season: 2
Episode: 8
Date I watched this episode: 26/12/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 3 months, 26 days.
Moving on with my programme catch-up, I thought Dark Angel would be next as I wanted to save the "good stuff" for the end. However I was pleasantly surprised as this was an absolutely stunning episode and quite possibly the best episode of the season so far. Once again I'm glad to not see Joshua, who can pretty much ruin an episode. But that's not all - there were plenty of great things about this one.
It actually started off quite badly though. The "misdirection" with Logan being ransacked by his niece, was all a bit silly, and when I first saw the gill girl, I thought it looked like a very tacky special effect reminiscent of some of the other weird creatures we've seen this season. But after that, things did pick up.
Ames White is finally back in his first appearance since "Radar Love", an episode I watched back in 2008. His character is great in just the way he speaks about the Manticore escapees...using the neutral tense and so on, as if they were just machines. I suppose this is how he compartmentalises his emotions about the whole thing. We see him in one scene in the episode chatting cheerfully to his wife and son on the phone while the gill girl is in agony in the cage. He is quite a complex and interesting character.
The twist that the guy in the club was actually a "gill boy" and not one of White's men was a really unexpected one. I didn't see that one coming and was genuinely taken aback - which is a rarity for me these days as I tend to read so many spoilers. It also helped me to really feel for Max that she had just assaulted an innocent man.
The best sequence of the episode, unsurprisingly, was at White's base, which was cool in itself. Seeing Max and Alec working together for a change, scampering around the outside, and gill boy swimming through the vents, was just really smooth. Then when the alarms went off and things got chaotic, the quick reactions of these trained soldiers and what they chose to do was also cool - and they were always one step ahead of both me and Ames White.
Alec seemed a bit out-of-character in this episode. Previously he's only done things when there has been financial gain in sight. Here he proceeded on even though it was pretty clear that he had no chance of sleeping with the gill girl. Maybe he's just doing it for the thrill - this would seem to make sense but still it feels a bit strange.
The whole virus side-story seemed a bit pointless, but maybe it will be developed upon? All the stuff with the chapel and Max and her emotions was just irrelevant, but maybe I'm just not giving the show enough slack. Also the whole "eggs" scene was pretty pointless and we could have got that information in other ways.
In general though it was just a cool concept, well-written and well-executed. Seeing Max and Alec doing different things at the start of the episode and then teaming up was quite natural and the story flowed well, seeming generally natural without being predictable. Like I said, one of my favourite episodes of this season.
Season: 2
Episode: 8
Date I watched this episode: 26/12/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 3 months, 26 days.
Moving on with my programme catch-up, I thought Dark Angel would be next as I wanted to save the "good stuff" for the end. However I was pleasantly surprised as this was an absolutely stunning episode and quite possibly the best episode of the season so far. Once again I'm glad to not see Joshua, who can pretty much ruin an episode. But that's not all - there were plenty of great things about this one.
It actually started off quite badly though. The "misdirection" with Logan being ransacked by his niece, was all a bit silly, and when I first saw the gill girl, I thought it looked like a very tacky special effect reminiscent of some of the other weird creatures we've seen this season. But after that, things did pick up.
Ames White is finally back in his first appearance since "Radar Love", an episode I watched back in 2008. His character is great in just the way he speaks about the Manticore escapees...using the neutral tense and so on, as if they were just machines. I suppose this is how he compartmentalises his emotions about the whole thing. We see him in one scene in the episode chatting cheerfully to his wife and son on the phone while the gill girl is in agony in the cage. He is quite a complex and interesting character.
The twist that the guy in the club was actually a "gill boy" and not one of White's men was a really unexpected one. I didn't see that one coming and was genuinely taken aback - which is a rarity for me these days as I tend to read so many spoilers. It also helped me to really feel for Max that she had just assaulted an innocent man.
The best sequence of the episode, unsurprisingly, was at White's base, which was cool in itself. Seeing Max and Alec working together for a change, scampering around the outside, and gill boy swimming through the vents, was just really smooth. Then when the alarms went off and things got chaotic, the quick reactions of these trained soldiers and what they chose to do was also cool - and they were always one step ahead of both me and Ames White.
Alec seemed a bit out-of-character in this episode. Previously he's only done things when there has been financial gain in sight. Here he proceeded on even though it was pretty clear that he had no chance of sleeping with the gill girl. Maybe he's just doing it for the thrill - this would seem to make sense but still it feels a bit strange.
The whole virus side-story seemed a bit pointless, but maybe it will be developed upon? All the stuff with the chapel and Max and her emotions was just irrelevant, but maybe I'm just not giving the show enough slack. Also the whole "eggs" scene was pretty pointless and we could have got that information in other ways.
In general though it was just a cool concept, well-written and well-executed. Seeing Max and Alec doing different things at the start of the episode and then teaming up was quite natural and the story flowed well, seeming generally natural without being predictable. Like I said, one of my favourite episodes of this season.
NOTIFICATION: Star Trek: Enterprise Season 2
Next season to start will be:
Star Trek: Enterprise
Season 2
Initial run: 18/09/2002 - 21/05/2003
Starring:
Pre-season buzz (quotes):
Star Trek: Enterprise
Season 2
Initial run: 18/09/2002 - 21/05/2003
Starring:
| Scott Bakula | as | Jonathan Archer |
| John Billingsley | as | Phlox |
| Jolene Blalock | as | T'Pol |
| Dominic Keating | as | Malcolm Reed |
| Anthony Montgomery | as | Travis Mayweather |
| Linda Park | as | Hoshi Sato |
| Connor Trinneer | as | Charles Tucker |
Pre-season buzz (quotes):
- "A couple of the episodes this year were somewhat spawned out of some thoughts that I had at the end of the first season. I've said to them, 'you know there's a relationship that I think we could explore more and this is why' and then that spawned an episode. I said to them we have something on our ship that we haven't utilized since the pilot and that just became a big story." - Scott Bakula, quoted by TrekWeb.
- "The first season was to an extent about really focusing on the relationship between the Captain, Trip and T'Pol. The rest of us may not have had as much to do. I kind of get the impression in in the first five or so episodes [of the second season] that there may be more of an ensemble feel. It does seem as if everybody's being used more extensively." - John Billingsley, quoted by TrekWeb.
- "I really identify with this notion of exploring and I like this idea of exploring in a world where there are no rules. We're being told some of what the rules are sometimes by the Vulcans but they're really the only ones holding any kind of standards or bar that we're supposed to perform to out there. So I like that I continue to be somewhat of a maverick in that sense, feeling out each situation and talking amongst ourselves about what to do." - Scott Bakula, quoted by TrekWeb.
- Obviously the biggest cliffhanger is that Archer is now stranded in an alternate 31st Century, with no clear way of getting back. I imagine they'll have to do a bit of trickery to get him out of that one.
- Back in the "present", Enterprise is just about to be destroyed by Silik and his men: again, this situation will be resolved by the end of the premiere episode, or else we would no longer have a show.
- The temporal cold war really reared its ugly head here in a fiercer way than in previous episodes. Perhaps this means the war will have more of an involvement in this season's episodes, though from what I've heard this is unlikely.
- The season premiere is simply titled "Shockwave, Part II" (or in some lists, just "Shockwave II"). It is the only episode of this programme to follow this naming format (in TNG, this kind of thing was done all the time across season finales/premieres, but I think it shows a bit of a lack of imagination). It begins immediately after the end of last season's finale.
- The season finale is titled "The Expanse". It is one of the episodes I'm most looking forward to, as I know it sets things up for the more continuous third season. There are 26 episodes in this season.
- The main cast does not change in this season, nor in any Enterprise season. However most of the recurring guests are brought back this season, such as Forrest, Soval, Shran, Silik and Daniels.
- This is currently the programme with the longest period since I last watched it (apart from programmes which I have completely finished such as The West Wing or Alias). This is mainly due to wanting to get other sci-fi shows out of the way first such as Farscape's special features and Futurama.
- I bought the DVD almost immediately after finale day 7, along with the other seasons to premiere around this time, and this is the first of these.
- At the time of writing, I've watched all my additional catch-up episodes ("Gill Girl", "Shane", "The Day Before", "An Owl In A Thornbush" and "Stranger In A Strange Land") but haven't reviewed them just yet. However once I have done, I'll be starting this season.
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