Friday, August 31st, 2007
10:00 My Boys
10:30 Burn Notice
01:30 The Winner
02:00 Seinfeld
02:30 The Hardy Boys Mysteries
My Boys reached it's mid-season finale tonight (at least for me). Perceived wisdom dictates that the best new sit-com to emerge last season was 30 Rock, but (much as I love 30 Rock) I think my heart belongs to Jordana Spiro and the gang on My Boys. Spiro is just so darn cute, so darn adorable and so darn hot (a tough combo to pull off, I know it leaves me drained), and her ensemble are so perfect together that it's hard to put 30 Rock ahead of it. Rock had, I feel, a few growing pains, and only became really funny in the latter half of the season. Boys hit the ground running and delivered comedy-gold from the onset. This episode saw the gang celebrating a birthday, realising that the wife of one of the 'Boys' wasn't actually the ogre he makes her out to be, and - most importantly - it saw our heroine getting a very hot, very passionate kiss. From one of the 'boys' no less. Now that's a cliffhanger!
Burn Notice is now my Best New Show of The Summer. The last three episodes have been so perfect in execution, and so much fun to watch that I've left with no choice than to put it ahead of Traveler, Hidden Palms, Kill Point and Greek as the show that has given me most pleasure since June dawned. Episode 8 picked up the thread from Episode 7's ending (a very hot, very passionate encounter between our hero and his ex-girlfriend). Since it started, I've seen Burn Notice as a 21st Century version of The Equalizer, with a hint of MacGyver thrown in. Tonight, they added The Fall Guy to the mix, with our hero and ex(?)-girlfriend tracking down and eventually helping a bail-jumper who was (of course) innocent of the crime. As with recent episodes, the operation to clear his name was fast-paced, action-packed and laugh-out-loud funny. It was also... cool. Very cool. Especially the very end where our hero completely out-wits the bad-guys. That's what makes this show so much fun to watch, the hero is very clever and it's fun to watch him out-smart a series of smart and smarmy bad-guys.
A few hours later, I sat back down to the 5th episode of The Winner. Produced by Ricky Blitt & Seth MacFarlane (of Family Guy), The Winner was a short-lived sit-com which aired 6 episodes last spring. Hit and miss (but very funny, when funny) the show focused on a thirtysomething loser who becomes best friends with a high-school kid and starts to (finally) grow up. A little. This episode was probably the weakest of the run. It took the familiar mistakenly-believed-to-be-gay storyline and... did nothing substantial with it. The only twist here was that our hero, in an effort to prolong the dating experience and procure futher freebies, didn't fess up to not being gay. That's a funny idea. But it was buried deep in the episode, and wasn't helped by an unfuny sub-plot about the high-school kid having a new best friend. The Winner was a great little series, but this is not the episode to remember it by.
Much better was the Seinfeld episode where George gave a tip while ordering lunch, was annoyed that the waiter failed to notice it, and tried to take out the tip so that he could do it all again. Of course, he was caught apparently stealing from the tip jar. This being a sit-com he was barred from the premises at a time when going there every day meant the security of his job. This being Seinfeld George's storyline was resolved when unrelated events happening to Kramer intruded upon George's life in an unexpected manner. Ah, comedy-gold.
Voodoo Doll, Part One is an episode of The Hardy Boys Mysteries that represents both a high-point and a low-point in the series history. It's a high-point because it has a stellar guest cast, a great atmospheric setting, a genuine mystery, and a fast pace. It's low point because it represents the introduction of Janet Louise Johnson as Nancy Drew, replacing Pamela Sue Martin in the role. While I am greatly upset that Martin was replaced, I've had almost 30 years to get used to the idea so it's fair to say that I'm almost over it. I like Johnson, who was great in Battlestar Galactica. But her arrival here means that Nancy is reduced to a supporting role in the series, it means the formula has being tinkered with and the end is nigh. By and large, the best episodes are gone and the remaining stories are of lesser quality.
Voodoo Doll, however, is excellent. Kim Cattrall, Ray Milland, Julius Harris, James T. Callahan & Howard Duff all appear with Milland totally stealing the show as the spooky Dr. Thatcher. It's Mardi Gras, and the Hardy Boys are in New Orleans. The previous resident of their hotel room has been found dead, and the boys have their pockets picked by a mysterious group who want them to move out of the room. Of course, Frank and Joe doggedly track down the thief, meeting some strange characters along the way, finding themselves deep in the world of Voodoo before the episode's cliff-hanger ending.
My Boys, Burn Notice, The Winner, Seinfeld, The Hardy Boys Mysteries
