Oh, Burn Notice...

Man, this season has been up and down for Burn Notice. I've really been enoying the season-long arc, and Jesse has been a good addition to the team. However, tonight's season(ish) finale exposed one of the glaring flaws that this show has acquired: The Client of the Week isn't always interesting. Sometimes you just have to abandon the formula and give us a solid hour of what we want. You've got Jesse on the loose with a gun and a grudge, Robert Patrick being awesome, and Vaughn being creepy, and yet they still bog down the hour with the kidnapping nonsense. Was it an okay plot? Sure. Save it for another time though. All it did was give Michael access to a submersible, and that wasn't even that imperative to the ending. Don't get me wrong, submarines are still kick ass, but still. Now the cliffhanger, that was some awesome stuff. Mystery boots picking up the briefcase, Michael bleeding out on the pavement, shot by Jesse (ostensibly to help him, but yeah), Vaughn's guys shooting it out with Robert Patrick's henchmen...made for a great wrap-up. Anyway, I can't see the formula going away anytime soon, but Burn Notice will be back in November, and someone has a whole mess of names of the people who burned Michael. What are they going to do with six episodes? We'll have to wait and see. Emphasis on "wait".

New Leverage coming up this weekend, and Eureka tonight. Felicia Day is guesting on Eureka coming up soon, maybe this weekend, maybe in September. Either way, looking forward to it.

And I'm back

Maybe I'm OCD and I just liked the idea of having an even 100 posts...or I got busy and lazy when going back to nights. Either way, I'm back, and hopefully will be back to normal output now.

As it is, I've finally gotten around to watching Dexter, hooray for me! I'm halfway through season 1, and it is amazing so far. I know I'm behind the curve, but I'm going to shoot for a season summary, as far as my opinions go.

Meanwhile, this has been a great week for TV. Leverage on Sunday was an epic episode with lofty aspiration that it completely achieved. The Rashomon Job was a clever story about how the team all crossed paths while trying to steal the same item...well, all except Nate, who was trying to keep it right where it was. Everybody's recollection of the events built so well on each others, using similar looking actors to fill in for each of the Leverage crew for each telling of the story. The completely different takes on Sophie's accent had me rolling with laughter, and John Billingsley was a great guest star as the museum security director who wasn't as ruthless as the rest of the team remembered. It's been a great season for the show, and the metaplot episodes are coming up in the next few weeks.

Top Chef was a little bit of a downer tonight, as Amanda's turn finally came up. Alex leaving last week was pretty much ordained, but I really thought that Amanda might have been able to dodge the bullet tonight. This is one of the more frustrating things about Top Chef judging: sometimes it seems like the worst dish of the night goes home, and sometimes it seems like more of a "worst chef overall" goes home. Kenny left for "worst dish", but Amanda left as "worst chef". Granted, her tartare wasn't perfect, but at least two of the other three bottom dishes sounded worse. On the other hand, the other chefs are more experienced and have better finishes, so she was the safe choice to go. Oh Amanda, I'll miss you and your massive levels of cuteness.

Psych was just okay this week, but Chi McBride is awesomesauce, so it gets a good grade. Last week's episode was better, with Shawn and Gus competing with an older version of themselves to solve the murder of the former chief of police. This is still a show that manages to make product placement funny, too.

Warehouse 13 has also been improving by leaps and bounds, putting up three really good episodes in a row. Pete had a bit of a freakout, but that led to Claudia getting to hit the field as an apprentice agent with Myka to explore a wrestling team that bursts into flame. However, last week's episode was the pinnacle of the series so far. Pete and Myka switch bodies thanks to a griffin statue, and while the usual hijinks occur (involving Pete's cute girlfriend, and guest star Cody Rhodes), the incredible part was how the two actors managed to take on their counterparts speech patterns and mannerisms so well. Also, Artie and Claudia hit the road to track down another artifact, and Claudia has to deal with a lovestruck Artie (great acting by Saul Rubinek on that one too), and Artie eventually gets even with Claudia for the "Knock Knock" handcuff incident from way back in last season. It was telegraphed by the "previously on" at the beginning of the episode, but still a cute moment. This show has really come into its own, and if you're not watching, you're missing out.

More to come soon, including a few episodes of Burn Notice to catch up on, and some other stuff. Good to be back.

One Hundred!!! Round Numbers Are Cool!!!

The milestone is here, one hundred posts since starting this blog almost one year ago. A project that started out as a way to track Heroes as it slowly sank into the quagmire of high expectations and an inability to maintain a coherent storyline has evolved into...well, I don't quite know, actually. But I've watched a lot of shows, enjoyed many of them, and that's good enough for me. As promised, this will finally be my Doctor Who post, which I've been putting off for a while.

Doctor Who: So Matt Smith has one season under his belt, and this is actually the first full season of Doctor Who that I've watched. I've seen some of the David Tennant episodes, but those were spotty at best, mostly the product of the occasional BBC America mini-marathon of episodes. I enjoy the concept of Doctor Who though: Well-written science fiction stories, aliens, time travel, a charismatic lead, an attractive Companion, and through it all an example of the potential of humanity.

Matt Smith's doctor is...he's like a cross between a Muppet and a samurai. From the first episode, he begins it dipping fish fingers in custard and ends it giving a heated speech to an alien race, warning them what will happen if they tangle with him. That's what I loved about an episode like "The Lodger"; it was some brilliant comedy, but in the end, it was his belief in humanity that helped save the day. Even in an episode like "Cold Blood", where the Lizardperson was killed, he still trusts in us to do the right thing.

In the case of the finale, a chain of events from Van Gogh, to Churchill, all the forward to Liz 10 and River Song leads us to...an exploding TARDIS. And Stonehenge. And...the Pandorica. What is it? Who is inside? Why is Rory a Roman centurion? Oh yes, and all of the Doctor's enemies have shown up, all at once. As the Pandorica continues to open, Amy has to fight off a Cyberman, Rory wonders why she doesn't remember him, River recruits a Roman legion, and The Doctor employs some stalling tactics to buy them some time. Seriously though, that whole scene was amazing, with The Doctor holding off the combined forces of countless alien aggressors with nothing but the memories of how often he's defeated them.

So Amy and Rory. Amy doesn't remember Rory, and Rory doesn't remember how he became a Roman soldier. Then the Romans start growing lasers out of their hands, because they are actually robots programmed to believe they're human. Rory fights it, but shoots Amy in the gut. Not the best reunion ever. River is in the TARDIS, unable to stabilize it, and is stuck in a time loop (for her own safety, of course). Downstairs, The Doctor is confronted with his enemies, and the Pandorica opens with no one inside. Yet. Because it's a prison meant for The Doctor. The Rogues Gallery believes that The Doctor will be the one responsible for destroying the universe, and that they are saving all of time and space by sealing him away. The Doctor pleads with them, telling them that he's the only one who can stop it all, but it's too late. What a downer.

But luckily, there's a happier Part 2, and even better, it involves Li'l Amy! A series of mysterious notes leads her to a museum where the Pandorica is on display, having been guarded over the years by a mysterious man in a centurion's uniform. Oh Rory, you sly devil, you. Amy touches the Pandorica, which opens to reveal...Amy? Buh? Must be time for a flashback. Or does the word "flashback" hold any meaning whatsoever in Doctor Who-ville? Time travel nosebleeds occur in my chair, as The Doctor uses a wrist thingy to time travel to Rory and tell him to put Amy in the Pandorica, which will force her to stay alive. Honestly, the time travel "timey wimey bits" gave me a huge headache, although they did lead to some good times. River Song being ruthless with an ancient Dalek, Rory as Amy's protector throughout history (good work, by the way), The Doctor popping back and forth as he pleased, and then the reveal that this was all taken from Amy's imagination. Apparently living next to a crack in reality will do things to a gal.

My favorite part of the episode was The Doctor going backwards in time, and his very quiet, very gentle scene with Young Amy as he tells her his story, and all the while, planting clues. Amy's wedding looked lovely, and she manages to remember The Doctor back into existence just in time for the dancing. Amy and Rory are wed, everything's back to normal, and we'll see you back here in time for the Christmas Special. Which is too far away. Dammit.

So that's the season. I still like Matt Smith's Doctor, although the character still fluctuates a little too wildly between floppity slapstick and deadly seriousness, plus they never really explained a lot of the aggression from the early episodes. Maybe that was just "new actor/new part" syndrome, or maybe it was meant to give Amy the opportunities to be the rational Girl Friday. I'm even looking forward to some more River Song, as well as next year's storyline. Overall, I really enjoyed this season, and some very good storytelling occured.

And that's it for post #100! Post #101 is coming soon, with a few new shows to catch up on. I never did finish FlashForward, or even start Bored To Death, but I'm not too concerned about those (and neither were viewers...ZING!!). My future output depends on my future work schedule, which I should know soon, so my posts will either get a lot more frequent, or a lot less frequent. Which will it be? Oooh, our first cliffhanger!!!

I got 99 posts, and a bitch ain't one...

Almost at post #100, and the excitement is palpable! Also, Eureka heats up, Leverage hits the fast lane, and on Top Shot, you can cut the tension with a knife.

Top Shot switched things up a little...not in eliminations (although apparently, that's next week), but in the weapon. It was throwing knives today, and while JJ had a lot of problems in practice, he nailed it in the team challenge and Blue beat Red by a five second margin. Kelly got to sit out an elimination (plus he is the Silent Assassin when it comes to winning those), so it was Denny getting out-slingshot by Peter. In sadder news, Tara's dad was having complications from cancer, so she left the competition in order to be with him.

Two episodes left to go, and next week we'll be losing a goodly number of the remaining marksmen. I'd like to see Kelly advance to the finals, but we'll just have to see. Of the people remaining, he's got to have the most challenge experience, which gives him an edge.

Eureka went a little different direction, as Carter left town to go visit Zoey at Harvard, and still managed to get into a little Eureka-style trouble with an invisible cat. Pretty light for a B story, but it did get us a little...not so much closure, but at least we got some Zoey this year. Nice haircut, by the way.

With Carter out of town, it's up to Lupo to keep track of a rocket race, a joyriding Zane, and a buildup of self-propegating oxygen that is threatening to set the town on fire. Jamie Kennedy was oddly cast, but not necessarily bad. Lupo tries (and succeeds) to get through to the "good Zane" that is inside of alternate-Zane. In a surprising turn, Allison cheats to help Kevin win, which is what winds up helping cause the impending firestorm. Kevin has the answer though, and he, Allison, and Grant save the town. Interesting how two episodes have gone by with no mention of "can we fix the time business?", which makes me wonder if they're just saving that for later, or if they just really wanted a shakeup.

And finally, Leverage brought the goodness this week with their version of Gone in 60 Seconds (but, you know, good). Bill Engvall was a surprisingly effective bad guy, so between him and John Schneider, this has been a good season for guest villains. Unfortunately, this is another week where Parker is the one to make the con go all tits-up on the crew. Granted, it was explained in the story, and the flashback to pre-teen getaway driver Parker was great, but it just seems odd for that to happen twice in a row like that. Sophie's use of neural-linguistic programming as a car salesman was a great callback to earlier in the season, as was how the team got together to steal the auto race. Another thing that bothered me, though, was all the "we can outrun bullets" stuff that Eliot, Parker, and Hardison wound up having to do. Just a little unrealistic for this show...just didn't feel natural. Another week without The Italian or anything close to the meta plot, which makes me wonder if we're getting a big run of those episodes coming up soon.

Catching up on Burn Notice and Top Chef, but I'm thinking of making the 100th post my long-postponed Doctor Who post. We will all be surprised together!

Models, Militias, Trick Shots, and Wesley Crusher

Big week of shows, and less time to do them in, so we're going quick and dirty for this one. Grab hold and follow along. Also, the Doctor Who post is coming, I promise. I even changed my Facebook picture to Matt Smith with his fishcustard to remind me.

Leverage: Bromance, baby! That's all you need to know about this week's episode, just a big old bromance trip to the woods with Eliot and Hardison. It starts out as a simple scam: impersonate an IRS officer, steal a credit card, run up the number, and profit. Then it turns into money laundering. Then it turns into freedom fighting. Eliot and Hardison go from "Let's do an easy con, then sneak away and go fishing (Eliot's idea, not Hardison's)" to "Let's get captured by a backwoods militia and have to escape through the woods". Nate steals them a train, Hardison hacks a forest (That joke was said by my friend Jon...dammit), Eliot is ready to go, but Hardison convinces him to go back because the militia has a fuel oil bomb prepared and ready to go off...somewhere. Good for Hardison. The rest of the con was standard, although Parker's lapse in letting the bad guys overhear her end of the con on her headset seemed a little sloppy for her. Worked out in the end though, and was a great episode.

Eureka: Updated the opening with a brief "here's why everything is different" montage/voiceover, which is a little annoying, but beneficial to the new viewer. Especially since Wil Wheaton is the special guest scientist, and his legions of fans follow him wherever he goes. GD Director Fargo is having to live up to the reputation that "this timeline Fargo" has created. Something something killer bees, something something science, and now everybody has a huge rage boner going on, and no one knows what's going on. Angry Lupo was some good times, as was Ragey Wil Wheaton. The last half of the episode was shot and lit like a zombie video game, which was an intersting choice for the show, but a little annoying to try and watch, especially online. Nice little MacGuffin with Henry and Grant working on the wormhole device, and Grant's speech about never having had an impact on the world (since he popped forward 50 years in time) was well written, and serves as a counter to his enthusiasm about being able to science it up in the future. I'm liking this storyline.

Warehouse 13: Myka is pretty. And not a bad looking octogenarian too. Lot of sillyness with the team investigating models who all of a sudden grow old and die, and Myka posing (see what I did there) as a model in order to get them backstage to investigate. Man Ray is a pretty obscure reference to hang an episode on, but good for them for not dumbing it down for the audience. Lot of red herrings, but some poignant moments in the back half, mainly Pete's pep talk to Myka and the scenes with Claudia and Artie while Myka was in the hospital. These are some pretty solid character moments, and it bodes well for the series if the writers are going to give us these kind of scenes, even amidst the scifi gadgetry.

Master Chef: Another brick in the Gordon Ramsey media empire, and I'm of two minds about it. This is pretyt much "Chef Idol", which isn't a bad idea, except I CAN'T TASTE THE FOOD!!! I can hear music, I can watch "talent", but I can't taste food. Frustrating. The idea is nice, take amateurs and find the best, but the previews of the team challenges and whatnot make it sound a little too Top Chefy. Top Chef works because it's professionals being pushed to the limit. Taking amateurs and putting them through gimmicky challenges is...well, gimmicky. It might work better as more of a competitive culinary academy if anything. Some of the people were interesting, and the judges are good, so I'll stick with it and see how it progresses. Honestly, I'd probably prefer to watch something like a 64 person single elimination cook-off, tournament style. Someone give me a development deal!

Top Shot: Trick shooting was cool, and Kelly made a hell of a run in the elimination challenge. Next week, it looks like anything goes. odd pacing if they're really kicking off that many people at a time, but maybe they ran out of challenges? Either way, I hope there's a second season of this show. It's a good concept, and next week is throwing knives!

Top Chef, Burn Notice, and Psych are coming up!

Oh hai, Psych!

Big update today. Totally forgot to do last week's Psych, but now I have last night's to go along with it, as well as Burn Notice (finally) and Top Chef. Let's begin.

Burn Notice had a good episode this week, delving into the big plot for a good portion of the episode. They captured Kendra, but now have to break her, and that bitch crazy! Like, slam her own head into a table crazy. Rather than break out the blowtorches and pliers, they start by threatening her with rendition (sending her to another country to be tortured and likely killed), then realize that they can play Jesse as the hired help/low man on the chain and let her attempt to deal with him. They manage to get her accounts out of her, and while unable to use them to track the mystery man, they are able to trick her into thinking that they're empty (meaning, her employers screwed her), and she spills her intel as a way to get revenge on them. And the boys celebrate with a frosty generic beer. The client of the week is Buddy, a clothing counterfeiter (and Fiona's new best friend) who is a loose end for an art thief trying to swap and swipe Alexander the Great's sword. Mr. Slippery likes explosions (so whatever happens, Fiona has a new best friend), and doesn't mind a few bodies in the getaway. Mr. Slippery turns out to be Ms. Slippery, but all is well at the end, and Buddy may just be the new Barry as far as recurring characters go.

Psych came back strong and mixed some things up this season (much like Eureka did). First off, Juliet is still traumatized from being kidnapped and almost killed by Mr. Yin at the end of last season, so she's on desk duty at City Hall. Meanwhile, Shawn's dad took the job at the PD, acting as the overseer for the consultants...including them Psych boys. The first episode (Romeo and Juliet and Juliet) sees the Triads getting involved, but it all boils down to Romeo and Juliet (or West Side Story, if you prefer), as well as some sweet kung fu (or Wu Shu, if you prefer) action. Shawn has to run around on his own to solve a kidnapping, since Henry won't hire them officially for the case. More importantly, he manages to get Juliet out of hiding and back on the streets by the end. In episode two (Feet Don't Kill Me Now), we get a little bit of a wife swap, as Lassiter and Gus team up to track down leads on a deal girl with a purse full of unmarked fertility pills from a drug trial. Not to be outdone, Shawn grabs Juliet and they work the case from the "psychic" angle. The two teams keep bumping into each other, although the pairings work well at first. Sparks fly though, and the original teams get back together in time for the big reveal. Interesting twist on the format, and Dule Hill gets to show off his sweet tap moves at the end. Lassiter tapping to clear his mind and concentrate on the facts was a funny bit though, although doubtful it will carry over to future episodes. I'm also losing track of the number of specific references Shawn makes per episode, but today's ranged from the Double Down to Phineas and Ferb. Glad to have you back, Psych.

Finally, Top Chef mixed it up a little this week too, first in the Quickfire. It was an exotic ingredients challenge, where the chefs drew knives for the "drafting order"of the ingredients, then Padma pops in after ten minutes of cooking and makes them all switch ingredients with the chef to the left, leaving them to alter their gameplan on the fly. Then, in the elimination challenge, they cook cold dishes in two teams of six. Each group will taste the other group's food, then nominate one top and one bottom dish. Angelo was going total gamesmanship, and managed to get lucky with Kenny's not so good lamb dish (rather than Amanda's cartilege laden chicken). Tanisha's peppery scallops went up on the other side, and rather than losing his rival, Angelo loses his pal as Tanisha is sent packing. Nice to see them playing the game, but the challenges are getting weaker. Hopefully next week picks up.

Well played, Syfy

Oh, how I hate the name change, but your shows are still good. Well, the ones I watch, anyway. And I've heard good things about something called a Megashark.

Anywho, Eureka continues to do some amazing stuff with this season. The Time Traveling 5 (well, 6, but we'll get to him) continue to discover all the ways that Eureka has changed since they came back from 1947. In an hour, we establish that they've all got something to gain by keeping things the way they are, but something to lose too. For Carter, he gains Tess (who agrees to move in with him) but loses Allison (who he had that decade-spamming smooch with at the end of the premiere). Henry loses his wife, but gains...well, I don't know that he gains anything by setting things right at this point. Unless he was really attached to that statue of Archimedes being granite. Allison gains her GD director gig back (and Carter), but loses Kevin, who is the biggest winner of this storyline since he actually gets both screentime and lines. Jo loses Zane but is now the head of GD security, which is a pretty sweet gig. Fargo lost his kinda-girlfriend, but is now the head of GD. And as head of GD, he whitelisted one of those crazy projects that always winds up trying to blow up the town.

Oh yeah, and Dr. Grant is in the future (well, present), too. And Sheriff Andy!!! Oh my, how I missed him. Both of them wind up helping Carter shut down the lightning experiment and once again save the day. The crazy red lightning fries the wormhole device, leaving our intrepid heroes currently stranded in what Carter bitterly calls "The New World". Fairly dark stuff from Eureka, and I like the tone. Playing up the character side of it, how they've left things behind, really helps the show stay grounded. Next week: Wil Wheaton!

Warehouse 13 was intriguing this week too, but more for the lack of traveling. Pete is still trying to get his stuff, but government cutbacks have left the town in a shambles, and the post office (with everyone's favorite surly postal worker) shut down. And the Farnsworths are on the fritz. And it turns out that everyone in town hates them because they think they work for the IRS and that the Warehouse is full of tax records. Cute. The Artifact OTW is another Farnsworth invention, which is projecting realistic versions of movies into town whenever our recently laid off postal worker pops a batch of popcorn. Not the best episode for that.

On the other hand, Mark Sheppard comes by to awesome things up a little, investigating Leena's crazy woozy spells that she's experiencing after having the Pearl of Wisdom in her ear for so long. Seems like there's some echoes of MacPherson still stuck in there, so don't count him out for a return later this season. Not the best episode, especially after the action of last week, but we got a lot of Claudia, so I'm not complaining.

Top Chef is imminent, and I will find last week's Burn Notice eventually. Damn you, Hulu!