Saturday, October 13th, 2007
08:00 Women's Murder Club
08:50 Bionic Woman
09:40 The Office
10:30 Corner Gas
11:00 Taxi
Women's Murder Club. Episode 1. Angie Harmon steals the show as tough-cop Lindsay Boxer, who questions all suspects with a husky voice and - on several occasions - pulls out a gun and runs after bad guys, all sexy-like. On each occasion, the culprit runs away. Hmm. If Angie Harmon came running after me (gun drawn or not), I'd darn well stay put and see what she wanted to do. Harmon (the best thing about Baywatch Nights) is pretty much the best thing about this police procedural. Having said that, the (large) cast are all very good. This particular case was kinda lame, but I liked the show enough to want to see what happens next.
Bionic Woman. Episode 3. At this stage, three weeks in, how much you enjoyed the episode depends on how invested you are in these characters. This story is all about the two Bionic Women as they go head to head to a lot of... conversations. Long angst-ridden conversations. Several of the cast have really started to make their mark on the show, but for all the running around here, you don't get any sort of story in this episode. Just a lot of events that tie together and are part of some bigger tale that they are not prepared to reveal to us just yet. Basically, this is a small sandbox peopled by a group we didn't know four weeks ago, and we are being invited to come and watch them throw sand in each other's faces. Any potential commitment to this continuity-heavy series is not helped by the nagging feeling I have that they have left an episode out somewhere along the way.
The Office. Season 4, Episode 3. Wasn't The Office always an hour long? Didn't it always have Jim & Pam as a rock-solid, very romantic, couple in the middle of all the chaos, and wasn't Angela Kinsey always getting all the biggest laughs? Well... maybe none of those things were true until now, but now that they are true they feel so so right. The show opened with, perhaps, the cleverest/funniest/best pre-credits sequence they have ever tried. After that we got a slow, careful build up as the team prepared for a WebSite Lunch Party, sorry make that WebSite Launch Party, until around the mid-way point Michael took a Pizza Delivery Boy hostage and - after that - the episode never looked back. Highlight #1: Jim & Pam's conversation on the roof. #2: All conversations between Phyllis & Angela. #3: Take A Chance On Me (which is a series highlight, too. Ed Helms rocks.)
Corner Gas. Season 4, Episode 2. After a shaky start to the season, I was a tad worried that CG might have lost some of it's sheen for the 4th season. Not so. Back to comedy gold this week. Every plot seemed natural and the interweaving was seamless and hilarious. In some scenes, every single line of dialogue is a joke. How many times do they re-write these scripts to get them right?
Taxi. Episode 27. An early Season 2 episode which brought back Reverend Jim and got him a job working for the Sunshine Cab Company, along with Alex, Elaine and the gang. Aside from the comedy gold of Christopher Lloyd & Andy Kaufman doing their thing, it features a stand-out performance from Danny DeVito (when Jim drugs Louis to mellow him out so he will give him a job). Even that pales beside the sequence where Jim takes the test to become a Taxi Driver in New York City. "What Does A Yellow Light Mean?" he whispers to Bobby. "Slow Down!" hisses Bobby, afraid they will be heard. Jim considers this. And repeats the question... slower. And on and on it goes. The same eight words being said over and over. Slower and ever slower.
Highlight? Taxi.
Bionic Woman, Corner Gas, Taxi, The Office, Women's Murder Club
