Sat, Apr 19th, 2008
07:00 Dexter
08:00 Battlestar Galactica
09:00 Columbo
11:00 The Office
11:30 Corner Gas
Dexter. Episode 12 bring the first season to an end in superb fashion. Dexter's final battle with the Ice Truck Killer is everything we could have hoped for. A great build-up and a great pay-off. Very emotional and certainly deserving of a twelve episode lead-in. Just as good are all the subtle signs that Dexter's perfect life is (probably) about to come to an end. Some of the signs are not so subtle (Doakes). And what about that final scene? A fantasy sequence in a show which never does them? A crowd cheering Dexter because he's their favourite Serial Killer? Wow. Cool idea. Nice ending, given the emotional battering that poor Dexter had taken.
Battlestar Galactica. Season 4, Episode 3. Gut-wrenching television. A beloved character dies a brutal death. Horrific. I really loved this character and I'm sad to see death claim them. But, unlike what Prison Break did this season, this is a death that makes sense within the show, and feeds perfectly into where the show is going. I don't like it because I adore the character, but - apart from that - I have no problems with it. Having one regular character kill another regular character is always going to be exiting, but having the killer be one of the undercover Cylons makes the viewer wonder about all of them. Are they all capable of this? Are they really cold-blooded killers? Just machines? All of them?
BSG is having a fantastic season. So many scenes are now underscored by what we know (that the characters on-screen don't) and it looks like that is going to continue for a while longer. Can't wait. (But why do they have to kill the characters we love so much?)
Columbo. Episode 4. Some of the killers on Columbo are cold-blooded planners who set out to trap their prey, and some are victims of circumstance, who elicit sympathy from the viewer. The killer in this story is a curious mix. A private investigator who occasionally resorts to blackmail. This time, however, it goes wrong and he kills a woman in a fit of bad temper. At times you do feel sorry for him, but as the story advances (and he gets more smug) that empathy evaporates. Columbo is always the one you root for, anyway. And he is in top form here. His clever use of palm-reading early on, to figure out who the killer is is particularly cheer-worthy. And, in general, there is a strong sense of the underdog going up against the big shot. And it's always a pleasure to see the little guy winning.
The dialogue at the very end (where Columbo explains how to use a potato to stall a car) is one of my favourite pieces of dialogue from the show. Ever. I've had it on audio tape for almost thirty years. I could say it backwards!
The Office. Season 4, Episode 10. Back on form. Michael becomes obsessed with a model in a catalogue (as you do) and Dwight tracks her down. Well, actually, he finds her grave! Genius. This storyline is full of laughs and underscored by sadness: Michael is lonely, and too shallow/blind to bond with a genuinely nice woman who crosses his path. Kevin, meanwhile, got a great storyline where he solved the parking problems for everyone in the office and got a great line of dialogue about how great it felt to win one. Great piece of television that.
Best TV Moment of the Week? Jim teases Pam about proposing.
Corner Gas. Season 4, Episode 14. Another winner. Corner Gas is having a run of classic episodes. Brent and Karen play table hockey in this one. And the whole town becomes obsessed. So much so that Hank televises the games. It's genius. Such a goofy idea. Full of great laughs, too.
Highlight? Battlestar Galactica.
Dexter, Battlestar Galactica, Columbo, Office, Corner Gas
