06.30 The Big Bang Theory
07.00 CSI
08.00 Greek
09.00 The Closer
10.00 Lie To Me
The Big Bang Theory. Season 2, Episode 2. "The Codpiece Topology" Leonard dates Leslie.
The wonderful Sara Gilbert makes a return to the show. Now as a regular. Excellent news. Gilbert is a superb talent who has been trapped in sub-par material for far too long. Not any more: Big Bang Theory might well the funniest show on TV right now.
Leonard and Penny are no more. No surprise there. The show needs to keep them apart, in order to fuel more suspense. I have no problems with that, now that we all know Penny likes Leonard we can see a future for them and it makes perfect sense to keep them apart for a while longer. Makes sense? Huh, it's practically a TV tradition!
CSI. Season 6, Episode 8. "A Bullet Runs Through It, Part Two" The teams continues to deal with the overwhelming evidence in the aftermath of the gun battle. And Gil figures out who shot the police officer.
Once again, it's fascinating to watch Gil and team deal with the mountain of evidence and make sense of it. No other shows are telling this type of story and it's fun to watch.
Paul Guilfoyle does some great work in the final scenes, as Brass comes to terms with what he has done. The episode went a long way towards making us thing that Sofia might have fired the fatal shot, but I didn't care. I don't like the character. And since it was making it far too obvious, I was assuming that it would turn out not to be her fault. I wasn't sure until the very end that it was Brass who was responsible (it could have been the kid's partner, for instance) but any sympathy I might have had for him was destroyed somewhat by his own certainty that Sofia was responsible. I suppose that was the point, really. He really, really didn't think that it could possibly be him. Fair enough. But, I would have been softened to him somewhat if he had briefly alluded to the possibility. It also, in my opinion, might have been slightly better storytelling. I've always believed that a 'twist' ending can be more powerful if some of the characters allow for it at some stage in the narrative. Especially in a case such as this: where there are only four possible outcomes (Sofia did it, Brass did it, the partner did it, a bad guy did it). For reasons that never made full sense to me, the story make everyone assume that Sofia fired the bullet and nobody ever thought that Brass might have been the one. Not even Brass.
So, I wasn't quite as sympathetic to him, but I still enjoyed the ending between him and the widow. Very low key and human.
Greek. Episode 22. "Spring Broke" The gang head to the beach.
A complete departure from the usual formula. And a complete disaster. There's nothing here that resembles the show we've loved all season. The characters simply don't work when taken from their environment, and it doesn't help that they are behaving out of character: Rebecca in a wet t-shirt contest, Cappie and Casey getting romantic and Rusty and Calvin having a fight.
Amber Stevens had a cute sub-plot (chasing a mysterious hot guy) and the resolution of the Evan/Frannie flirtation was satisfying.
Everything else sucked!
The Closer. Season 4, Episode 13. "Power of Attorney" The suspect's clever lawyer is, himself, the suspect's partner in crime.
For the second week in a row Brenda matches wits with a very, very clever bad guy. This time, however, she loses and the guy gets away with it.
As gripping an hour of TV as you are ever likely to see. This is superb stuff.
Lie To Me. Episode 2. "Moral Waiver" The gimmick is good, Tim Roth is fantastic but the stories are awful. Both of the stories in this second episode are stock tales from other crime dramas, with nothing added to make the retelling worth it. In each case it is obvious from the moment the story starts what the outcome will be. Watching this is torture. Tim Roth is not enough to save this pile of manure. I want to like this show, but it's pure rubbish.
Highlight? The Closer (clever)
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Tue, Feb 10, 09 - Big Bang Theory, CSI, Greek, The Closer, Lie To Me
