02:00 Prison Break
03:00 Californication
Prison Break. Season 4, Episode 4. "Eagles and Angels" I realised, checking the ratings over on The Programming Insider, that two of my favourite shows (Prison Break and Sarah Connor) are about to get hammered in the ratings by two shows that I sincerely detest (Chuck and Heroes). Sigh. It's a depressing thought. How can two shows of flair and intelligence be out-ranked by two derivative hours of mediocrity? I mean, Chuck is Jake 2.0 and Heroes is Lost-With-Superpowers. How can they be so popular?
Sigh.
Anyway, this was anothe superb episode of Prison Break. Another "A+" outing for a show that effortlessly re-invents inself every season and manages to provide almost as many thrills per episode as 24 at it's peak.
This episode has a lovely opening scene between Michael and Sara. Very sweet, very romantic. Great chemistry between leads. Sarah Wayne Callies has never looked more beautiful and the writers give her some great material as Sara goes a little off the rails over the death of Bruce. Great guest work from Tara Karsian in this storyline.
Meanwhile over in the a-plot we get a guest shot from the wonderful Stacy Haiduk (who is totally underused) and a very exciting scheme which has the boys going undercover as cops. Once again the show reminds us that Alex (my favourite character) is a very smart guy as he leads the way with lots of clever/key observations. After worrying last week about the fates of Bellick and Sucre I have to marvel at the way the show has integrated everyone into it's new status quo. Nobody is being overlooked and I get a real kick out of seeing them function as a team.
Best scene of the episode? T-Bag sees the guys and they see him. Hilarious and exciting, in equal measure. And the T-Bag storyline is a treat. Ingenius and original. Seeing him follow through on someone else's plan without knowing anything about it is rivetting television. His nerves - before meeting everyone for the first time - were endearing and I'm going to love everything about this clever subplot. Particularly the gorgeous receptionist (Shannon Lucio).
Californication. Season 2, Episode 2. "The Great Ashby" Once again the daughter proves to be my favourite character and gets the main insightful dialogue of the episode (when she talks about Hank at the dinner table). This is another wonderful episode in this great series. It's funny and sad in equal measure. I was suprised/delighted to find that this one picks up directly after the previous episode. And I was positively overjoyed to find that Callum Keith Rennie was back for a second episode and with a lot to do this time out. Rennie has been one of my favourite performers ever since he joined Due South and turned it into a show I wanted to watch. He is amazing in everything he does (eg. Battlestar Galactica) and he gets one of the best scenes in the episode (when he talks about his ex, in the car). Everthing about that scene was wonderful: the way it snuck up on you and the way it was performed.
Highlight? Prison Break (T-Bag)
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Tue, Sep 16, 08 - Prison Break, Californication
