05.30 Blood Ties
06.30 Kyle XY
07.30 Supernatural
Blood Ties. Episode 9. "Stone Cold" A solid case-of-the-week written by the person who wrote the books that the series is based on (Tanya Huff). Not only is the case good, but so is all the stuff between the three main characters and their messed-up love-triangle. The opening scene deals (very well) with the events that closed the previous episode and then we are launched into the case. A woman is turning men into stone statues. The story works and the writer uses it to (skillfully) make comments about sex-appeal, aging, love and romance. The cast (especially Christina Cox) are nothing short of superb in dealing with the statue and treating it as a real person.
The final scene is very, very sad. Vicki and Mike, out in the woods at night, staring straight-ahead, and talking (very briefly) about the way people sometimes fall in love with the wrong person. Wonderful writing wonderfully played.
Kyle XY. Season 2, Episode 12. "Lockdown" A bottle show, of sorts, where everything happens in the house where the family lives. Kyle has a long dream sequence where his mind manifests two people and he discusses with them the problems that he is facing. For the first time in the history of the show the scenes with Andi were not totally awful and I could bear to watch them. I'm not even remotely interested in her, or her cancer story. I wish the character was dropped from the show, to be honest.
The parents have a bad fight but, by the end of the episode, have opted to tell each other some things they know about Kyle. A good step forward. For them, and for the show.
The final scene (Kyle meets Jessi in the woods) is very good. Can't wait to see what happens next.
Supernatural. Season 2, Episode 18. "Hollywood Babylon" Another funny episode? So soon? And one that really works, too. In-jokes abound as the boys go-Hollywood and join the production crew on a horror flick. Dean is hilarious in pretty-much every scene. But, right across the board, the script is a gem.
Comedy and Horror go together very well on TV. Kolchak: The Night Stalker (the best show in the genre) was very funny and very scary. The X-Files got funny after they moved production to California and managed to poke fun at Fox Mulder and the conventions of the show without ever compromising the integrity of the character or the drama of the stories.
Lots of other shows (She-Wolf Of London, Special Unit 2, etc.) have been both funny and 'scary'.
Supernatural seems, late in this second season, to be finding it's funny bone. And Dean, much like Fox Mulder before him, is the target of a lot of that. Deciding to make the show's most tragic/heroic character a figure of fun is undertaking a dangerous balancing act but the series (and the actor) pulls it off with no strain. Dean is frakkin' hilarious. He's such a goofball and I love him. Betraying his fanboy roots when face-to-face with a modern scream queen. It seems right, somehow, that this kid who knows nothing of pop culture would have found time to devote his free time to the world of low-budget horror flicks.
Comedy aside, this is a great case-of-the-week. Inventive and entertaining. The writers (having well established the rules of this world) now continue to find clever ways to change things around).
Highlight? Supernatural (I laughed. A lot.)
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Sun, Nov 9, 08 - Blood Ties, Kyle XY, Supernatural
