06.00 Scrubs
06.30 Breaking Bad
07.30 Flashpoint
08.30 Arrested Development
Scrubs. Season 8, Episode 3. "My Saving Grace" Carla nags a mean intern, Cox works with Kelso and The Janitor to remove Courteney Cox.
Truly awful.
Not only is this episode not funny once, the whole thing is annoying and embarrasing.
I normally enjoy Neil Flynn as The Janitor, but he runs rampant in this episode and it's very hard to watch.
Carla takes an intern aside and behave like a condescending bully for 25 minutes of godawful TV.
Yuck. Is this the same show that delivered a classic episode last week? What the frak?!
Breaking Bad. Episode 1. "Breaking Bad" A mild-mannered high-school teacher turns to the manufacture and sale of drugs as a means of extra-income for his family before he dies.
Wonderful opening episode, dominated by a killer performance from the awesome Bryan Cranston.
The first half shows us his life. And it's a bleak picture. Were it not for Bryan Cranston's amazing presence I'd have tuned out. He keeps you watching.
Then, at the mid-way point, everything turns up a notch. Our hero finds out that he is dying. And he makes some odd choices...
Best moment? Walter has a total Hulk-Out moment when some jerks make fun of his kid.
Logically/Morally I know that this is all wrong, but it feels so good and this is a TV hero I very much want to root for...
Flashpoint. Episode 16. "Clean Hands" SRU must protect a serial killer.
Average story dragged down by having a member of the team taken hostage. The twist in the end is predictable, but the there's a truly superb character arc for Jessica Steen's character that saves the episode from mediocrity.
Peter Outerbridge and Kari Matchett are two of my favourite performers (particularly Outerbridge) but neither one is well-served by the script. Outerbridge's character is too similar to too many other hostage-takers the show has featured.
The show does a great job of mis-direction with regard to the character played by Matchett. For most of the episode, I thought they were introducting a new recurring character for Enrico Colantoni's Parker to get romantic with. About two-thirds of the way in, I figured out what was going on, and then it was just a matter of waiting for the twist to come... Boring.
What I did not see coming was the stuff that happened to the Jessica Steen character.
Steen is a lot like Michelle Forbes. Both of them have an admirabe track record of being regulars/semi-regulars on quality shows for short/memorable periods of time.
Steen's character affords the writers (on this show) to shake up the status quo in worthwhile ways. The regulars on Flashpoint are nice guys, very dedicated to what they are doing. The newbie character isn't quite as committed, so she gets to ask awkward questions and make everything think a little harder about what they are doing. It's good stuff and I enjoyed every minute of it. The ending (where Steen's character was the one to take the kill shot on a 'good' person, to save a serial killer) was really superb.
It's just a pity the rest of the episode didn't quite live up to it.
Arrested Development. Episode 4. "Key Decisions" Gob goes into prison to... break out! Lindsay climbs a tree to... save it! Buster takes off his glasses and finds... love?!
The first truly great Gob episode. It's hilarious and he is fantastic.
Several key elements of Arrested Development make their first appearance in this episode. 1. The airport staircase car used by the Bluth family for transportation. 2. The character of Marta (played here by Leonor Varela). She was references in the previous episode, but this is where she shows up and where Michael falls in love with her. 3. The catchphrase "I've made a huge mistake." Used twice by Gob in this episode for the first time. Since this is a rewatch the arrival of this wonderful phrase had me in fits of laughter for no logical reason. I mean, it's not funny yet. But it will be. 4. The character of Lucille Austero (played by Liza Minnelli) who is surely one of the greatest things about Arrested Development. Stumbling around, always on the verge of falling over.
Funniest scene? When Gob arrives in prison he is approached by a very large, very angry-looking man who - we are told - is known as White Power Bill. Gob, being very stupid, does a magic trick on Bill wherein he pulls a coin from his 'dirty ear'. At this point, one of Bill's entourage runs off, shouting his new moniker "Dirty Ears Bill". All the while, Bill just stands glowering down at the constantly beaming Gob.
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.
Highlight? Breaking Bad (Bryan Cranston)
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A Briefing With Michael: One Year Ago
Sat, Jun 20, 09 - Scrubs, Breaking Bad, Flashpoint, Arrested Development
