06:00 Dexter
08:00 Burn Notice
10:00 NewsRadio
11:30 Rising Damp
12:00 Jesse Stone
Dexter. Season 2, Episode 5. "The Dark Defender" Dexter briefly sees himself as comic-book hero in this one. Clever. Dexter has always reminded me of Wolverine. How cool to see him seeing himself in these terms. Also, the fact that he's saving his own mother in this vision makes it all the more interesting/sad. Truly the writers have turned Dexter into a complex and wonderful character (how much of who he is, is due to his father's well-meaning training?). And, it must be said, they have served all the characters in the show just as well. This episode has some wonderful stuff between Laguerta and Doakes. Interesting chiefly because of what we know about them from previous episodes. Laguerata fascinates me. I alternate between liking her and being shocked by her. Great stuff.
Burn Notice. Season 2, Episode 3. "Trust Me" Business as usual, again. For the first time this season, Michael is seen helping an ordinary person: a dumb guy who got conned, while trying to help his mother (the always wonderful Cindy Pickett). Michael's mum has some nice scenes with Fiona this week, a nice way for the writers to keep the Michael/Fi romance alive without actually giving them any romantic scenes together.
NewsRadio. Season 2, Episode 16. "Houses of the Holy" David Cross guests as an oddball magician in pursuit of Beth. He's typically hilarious. As is the episode. Joe fills in for Catherine on-air, much to Bill's dismay. Bill had originally picked Joe for the job as a way to annoy Dave, who - of course - wanted to put Lisa on-air. Best scenes? Bill and Joe trying to put each other off with difficult questions. At one stage Bill rips up a sheet and then asks Joe to read the story.
Rising Damp. Season 2, Episode 1. "Permissive Society" Parts of the series that have only been hinted at before are brought out in the open with this episode. Rigsby makes a proper play for the affections of Miss Jones and Alan is revealed to be a virgin (I think). He certainly is found out as being totally clueless with regard to women. Up to now, we all knew that Rigsby liked Ruth but he never made any direct play for her (if you don't count waving that smoking stick about!) and while we certainly suspected that Alan was pretty clueless he never actually said it to anyone else on-screen before. With the start of the second season, I suppose Eric Chappell was just making the conceits of the series more concrete. Whatever the reasoning behind it, it's certainly one of the funniest episodes. All the best scenes are the ones between Rigsby and Alan and - on this viewing - I think their friendship is my favourite part of the show.
Jesse Stone. Episode 4. "Sea Change" The least enjoyable episode so far. The rain/mist, piano music and sadness are in-place but the show is lacking a strong murder mystery to keep it moving. Jesse is bored without a case to work on, so he digs up a cold case from the early '90s and investigates it at his leisure. Which is the problem. Since only Jesse cares, and he only cares because he is bored/unhappy, there is no great reason for us to care. We do care, however, about Jesse and from that angle the movie is very successful. Jesse's strange relationship with his ex-wife hits a rough patch when she starts dating and wants to stop their nightly phone calls. The case, such as it is, does have a nice twist at the end, but the violent conclusion seems out of place and tacked-on. Possibly in an effort to make things more exciting and give the movie some gunplay at the end?
Highlight? Dexter. Cool.
Yet Another TV Review Podcast
Sat, Jul 26, 08 - Dexter, Burn Notice, NewsRadio, Rising Damp, Jesse Stone
