Tag Archives: Television

November 12, 2007 · 11:17 pm

Heroes – “Four Months Ago”

“Four Months Ago”

November 12th, 2007

Remember when Heroes began its season by jumping four months into the future, thus robbing us of true resolutions to the few burning questions that last year’s mediocre finale left us? Well, this week’s episode is supposed to make up for the unfortunate start to the show’s sophomore season by filling in the blanks. However, that isn’t its effect, and Tim Kring knew this enough to apologize ahead of the episode airing.

You see, all this episode does is make you realize how much the producers screwed up the first time around. If this had been our first introduction to new characters, or our first visions of returning ones, this season might have started on a completely different note: a good one, even. It’s an attempt at a do-over that was, bizarrely, built into the season structure. And, even though Tim Kring apologized, I still think that there is a lot of blame to be thrown around. Because, while certainly worthwhile, this episode did not resolve every problem that Heroes faces.

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November 12, 2007 · 10:40 pm

Chuck – “Chuck Versus the Truth”

“Chuck Versus the Truth”

November 12th, 2007 

In deciding which of the early evening shows to watch this fine Monday evening, I chose Chuck for a few important reasons. First off, I have found the show to have been quite enjoyable thus far this season. And, this evening saw two guest appearances from alumnus from two shows that heavily influence the series. As a result, with Rachel Bilson (Late of The O.C.) and Kevin Weisman (Late of Alias) on board, Chuck was the night’s most intriguing option.

The result was an episode that, once again, did a great job of connecting the plot-of-the-week to the recurring storylines and Chuck’s personal life. However, as much as a I found Rachel Bilson as enchanting as ever, an end of episode event left a sour taste in my mouth. The episode did a lot of good for Chuck’s character, but it also took the show’s premise a small step backwards by foregrounding an element that they’ll never live up to.

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November 11, 2007 · 10:30 pm

The Amazing Race – Season 12, Episode 2

“I’ve Become the Archie Bunker of the Home”

November 11th, 2007

After last week’s episode resulted in the two most frustrating teams battling it out for last place, we should have known that it wouldn’t last. This week, while the show certainly did not devolve any great deal, we did see a team that deserved to stick around longer get beaten down by mostly just plain fatigue. It’s not that they didn’t earn their departure, but rather that I would have liked for the race to accomodate their pace just a little longer.

It wouldn’t have been so bad if the other, less likable teams hadn’t also had a pretty good leg as they traveled from Ireland to Amsterdam. It was actually a leg in which we saw the worst in one team, and no one really stepped up to show us anything we didn’t expect…well, outside of a bit more of Donald than I personally expected to see at this stage of our television relationship.

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November 4, 2007 · 10:39 pm

Season Premiere: The Amazing Race – Season 12, Episode 1

“Donkeys Have Souls Too”

November 4th, 2007

The first episode of every season of The Amazing Race features a great deal of bunching, necessary to keep the teams close together. However, for all of that effort, I can’t remember a single opening leg that is particularly memorable, mainly because they’re all the same: they drive, they fly, they task, they bunch, and then they arrange themselves as they wish. Really, there’s nothing that one can be surprised by in a premiere (As purely anecdotal evidence: not a single premiere made TWoP’s Top Nine Episodes List).

However, I consider this premiere to be one of the most memorable…or, if you will, least objectionable. The team who went home were rather annoying, the significant other-related drama was generally well-handled, and they managed to cover a wide territory of tasks in the span of only a single hour. Was it brilliant? No: all premieres lack the emotional connection we will eventually make with this teams. But, in short, this episode had soul, and that’s really what counts.

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November 1, 2007 · 10:32 pm

The Office – “Branch Wars”

“Branch Wars”

November 1st, 2007

This week signals a return to the type of Office episode that I enjoy, find humorous, and yet can’t help but feel could have been better. I like this kind of episode, because it isn’t bad (Which at least one of the one hour segments were) and it signals a return to formula for a series that deviated from it too often early in the season.

Strongly directed by returning guest director Joss Whedon (Who is returning to television with Fox next year), the episode had some great subtle visual comedy and a great awkward moment between Jim and Karen (Returning guest star Rashida Jones). However, the build to that moment was The Office at a sensationalist level that did not elicit enough laughs to justify its stupidity.

And, I’m sorry, but urine is always stupid.

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October 30, 2007 · 8:34 pm

Pushing Daisies – “Girth”

“Girth”

October 30th, 2007

You know, when I heard that Pushing Daisies was having a Halloween episode, it felt like a natural fit – however, this isn’t quite what I expected. The episode was good, a solid continuation of some of the show’s key themes and all, but it wasn’t exactly spooky or sensationalist. It used the Halloween setting to introduce a sleepy hollow-esque horseman, but otherwise was actually quite grounded in its characters.

It was a story of Olive’s employment history, Ned’s childhood trauma, Chuck’s precarious present, and Emerson’s love of shovels before it was the story of a ghostly killer. And, of course, the following will contain spoilers.

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October 30, 2007 · 12:44 am

Chuck – “Chuck Versus the Sandworm”

“Chuck Versus the Sandworm”

October 29th, 2007

I should have known that Chuck would eventually find its indie rock sensibility considering Josh Schwartz is in charge, but the early mention of Arcade Fire still came as a bit of a surprise. The show has fallen into a nice groove of slickly-produced spy romps tempered by emotional interludes on the home front; while it is certainly geeky, its indie cred remains in question.

In the case of this episode, it’s actually a bit of a step-backward for Chuck, to be perfectly honest with you. The show’s sense of humour may still be intact, but it stretched its premise a bit thin with Lazlo, an electronic geek who can use a home theatre system to guide nuclear missiles and magically produces a steering apparatus from the glove box of Chuck’s car. The question of trust is a fine recurrent theme, but I wish I could trust the producers to maybe ground the series a little more; the result is an episode that felt a bit off even as its interpersonal story stayed on track.

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October 29, 2007 · 10:55 pm

Heroes – “The Line”

“The Line”

October 29th, 2007

At a certain point during tonight’s episode of Heroes, I pondered simply blogging about the storylines that I actively enjoyed within each episode. By the end of the episode, I realized that this would be fairly difficult considering there was only one that qualified. As a result, this review shall remain pretty well 90% negative.

There just isn’t anything overly compelling about Heroes right now: at this point, they’re just dropping the occasional hint of something interesting (In this episode, the paintings and Peter’s end of episode time warp) while stumbling towards a climax. The problem right now is that there are only three storylines actively driving towards something meaningful, and only one of them was actually heavily featured in the episode (And is a more recent development). The rest…well, Heroes just isn’t pulling them together.

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October 28, 2007 · 3:11 am

Guiding Principles for the Return of CBS’ “Jericho”

For those who may have been curious as to what I’ve been doing for the past two weeks that has resulted in a rather alarming lack of blog postings, I’ve been busy with a variety of school-related activities surrounding the faculty strike currently affecting my campus. As part of this, our students’ union released a set of guiding principles which the administration and faculty will ideally follow within this setting.

Perhaps proving I’m forever incapable of forgetting about Jericho, my mind immediately turned to what I would write for today, Jericho Digg Day. Terocious at Jericho Junction was kind enough to organize this, and I wanted to provide something with real value for Jericho fans to think about. As a result, I have decided to craft a series of guiding principles that CBS and fans should follow when Jericho finally returns to television at some point in the next number of months. I believe that, if these guidelines are followed, the show has a great chance of success, and that the fans have the potential to get the 3rd season they deserve.

Guiding Principles for the Return of “Jericho”

Jericho Digg Day – October 28th, 2007

Before the Date is Announced:

  • CBS should be in close contact with fan communities in order to recapture the grassroots elements of the initial campaign to save Jericho.
  • The DVD set should be advertised through traditional and new media in a way that reflects its importance to the campaign.
  • Fans should attempt to overcome the rifts growing between certain populations in order to present a united front.
  • CBS should be responsible for keeping the series in the public eye, not just the fans; however, fans should continue to digg, read and comment on stories to keep their momentum alive.

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October 24, 2007 · 9:07 pm

Pushing Daisies – “Pigeon”

“Pigeon”

October 24th, 2007

With its third episode, Pushing Daisies proved itself worthy of the praise lauded onto its pilot. And, after seeing its ratings, ABC rewarded the series with a full season order earlier this week. As a result, tonight’s episode is the first airing while we know that there is no longer any fear: Pushing Daisies will be getting a full 22-episode order.

The fourth episode, meanwhile, is a charming and engaging affair which never really clicked for me. While last week used the fantastic pilot to build on the relationship between Chuck and Ned, this week was our first episode that combined a stand-alone murder mystery with the loss of director-producer Barry Sonnenfeld. While the show’s charm was mostly intact, it just didn’t feel the same.

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