Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
06.00 Brothers
06.30 The Good Wife
09.30 Melrose Place
11.30 Lie To Me
Brothers. Episode 1. "House Rules" Two brothers, who bicker a lot, realise they must work together to keep a restaurant afloat.
It sounds like a very average sitcom idea, but - as executed here - it is very funny and the cast are terrific.
Pedestrian concept aside, this one sparkles. Virtually every line will make you chuckle and all four cast members are a hoot to watch.
The Good Wife. Episode 2. "Stripped" A stripper who was raped. Meanwhile, Alicia's children find photos of their father with a call-girl.
A step-up - quality-wise - from the pilot, with a much more complex case and some interesting developments in the backstory. Paloma Guzmán plays a stripper (and ex-hooker) who says she was raped by a rich businessman. Will takes the case (with Alicia as second-chair) but there are several twists and turns, so the viewer isn't sure where all of this is going. This particular viewer certainly wasn't. And I loved that.
Once again Julianna Margulies brings a quiet dignity to the role of Alicia and there are times when your heart hurts for her. Yet, she's far from perfect (she doesn't research one witness fully and embarrasses Will at one point in the courtroom) which only serves to keep her human and interesting. And gives the viewer even more reason to root for her.
There are many, many scenes where they show could mess it up and deliver the types of scenes we've seen in other shows before. But that never happens. Instead, Michelle King and Robert King keep the characters off clichéd paths and - as a consequence - keep the audience engaged.
This show, which didn't interest me very much pre-season, is poised to become my favourite new drama of 2009-2010.
Melrose Place. Season 8, Episode 4. "Vine" Jane Mancini (Josie Bissett from the original show) shows up and blackmails Ella into helping her fashion business. Violet is arrested, and Riley helps her over Jonah's objections. Riley also finds time to lie to a big time director and get Jonah a big break. Lauren's life as a prostitute sees her taking a beating from a scummy client, and Augie gives David a job but David causes a fight.
Great fun. Jane's blackmailing plot is hilarious and adds extra tension to Ella's plotting. Jonah's (common sense) reaction to Violet also makes for a few loud chuckles.
Bottom line: I like all the characters, and I like all the storylines. As the show zips from one to the other I never lose interest.
Lie To Me. Season 2, Episode 1. "The Core of It" Multiple Personality Disorder. Judge.
Tim Roth continues to be the best thing about this show. He rocks. His character, however, still looks/feels like a cheap House knock-off. The stories are still rather pedestrian and the supporting cast are underused and bland.
Highlight? The Good Wife (complex)
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Brothers, Lie To Me, Melrose Place, The Good Wife
Tue, Feb 10, 09 - Big Bang Theory, CSI, Greek, The Closer, Lie To Me
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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Thur, Jan 8, 09 - NCIS, Damages, Always Sunny, Lie To Me, Mentalist, Night Court
05.30 NCIS
06.30 Damages
07.30 It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
08.30 Lie To Me
09.30 The Mentalist
03.00 Night Court
NCIS. Season 5, Episode 8. "Designated Target" NCIS works closely with the wife of a man who has been running, from an assassination death squad, for many, many years.
Another clever, and wonderful, episode of NCIS. The comedy between the characters is simply superb, the story is interesting and the twist at the end is genuinely heartbreaking. For two characters.
Since the show always likes to tell tales with twists at the end, I was suspicious of the wife. Maybe she was lying to Ziva (about love, romance and true love) and would turn out to be an assassin herself. That was not the case. In the show's final seconds, the husband and wife are reunited to find that he has married again (in the mistaken belief that his wife had been killed). It's an absolute slap in the face and everything about that final scene is perfect. The shock revelation, the pain and dignity shown by the wife and the final slow close-up on Ziva's sorrowful expression.
This is a wonderful episode for Ziva. And for Ziva and Tony. We see them alone - as a team - more than usual, and the script/performaces play up the attraction between them in a more obvious way than is normally done on the show.
Works for me. More please!
Damages. Season 2, Episode 1. "I Lied, Too" A month has passed, Ellen and Patty are both trying - in the own way - to deal with the events of Season One.
Superb opening episode to another one of television's consistently A+ shows.
I'm delighted to see Ted Danson back for the new season, and also delighted that the writers have devised a way to maintain the show's clever/unusual narrative structure.
So, who did Ellen shoot (if she did, in fact, shoot anyone)? Patty, Frobisher, Katie, Wes...
It could be anyone. Wes could be working for Patty, Katie or Tom might be more corrupt than we realise... There is no way of know. Yet. However, based on Season One, we can be sure that the journey to the revelation will be a thrill ride.
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Season 3, Episode 12. "The Gang Gets Whacked" It's certainly got some very funny moments, but this double-length episode (that turns the regulars into drug dealers) isn't quite funny enough to fill out the extra half-hour.
Each cast member has a stand out scene, and some of the ideas are inspired, but I spend a lot of this one watching and waiting for the next laugh. The best bits involved Frank brainwashing Dennis into becoming a prostitute, and anything involving Charlie's obsession with horses.
Lie To Me. Episode 1. "Pilot" A standard cop show, with a great lead actor and a nice gimmick.
The stories are pedestrian and I found it very easy, in both stories, to predict what the outcome would be. In the story about the politician it was easy, from the first scene of the story, to know that the prostitute was - in fact - his daughter.
Tim Roth owns this show. I've always liked the guy, but - My God! - he rules this show the way that Hugh Laurie rules House. Roth is one of the few actors who can make it compelling when his character is sitting listening to someone else talking. We believe that Lighman is deep in thought every second that he appears on screen. That's what Roth brings to the table with this role.
The rest of the cast are bland, except Brendan Hines who is wasted in a support role. He should be the one partnered with Lightman out in the field.
The show's gimmick in interesting. But - in this first episode - it did cause me to step back from the story a few times. Instead of thinking 'oh, that guy is lying', I was thinking, 'I wonder how the filmed that bit'. Hopefully, in future episodes they spend less time explaining/showing how Lightman does his magic. Let's just accept that he can read people perfectly and move on. Give us some better stories than this one!
And give Lightman more of a personal life. This guy knows when people are lying, for frak sake! Let's see him on the dating scene, or dealing with a family crisis of some sort. There's huge scope to make this one more than a boring procedural.
The Mentalist. Episode 2. "Red Hair and Silver Tape" I'm trying to like it, honest, but it's still coming across as a bit too pedestrian for me.
Simon Baker is terrific. He's got star quality. He is the show. And when he stands there watching and listening he makes it compelling. I believe that Patrick Jane is clever and always thinking. So, yes, I buy it. I'm willing to take the leap and go along for the ride.
But the stories need to stronger than this one: a trainee serial killer in a small town.
The best bits were the scenes between Patrick and the kid brother of the victim. Patrick's speech was superb. And it's enough - I think - to make me want to see the next episode.
I think.
Night Court. Episode 7. "Once in Love With Harry" Reinhold Weege delivers another superb episode, when a prostitute mistakes Harry's kindness for something more.
Rita Taggart, Harry Anderson and Karen Austin give wonderful performances in this one, and the script gives all three characters wonderul depth and heart. Lonely Carla, kind-hearted Harry and jealous/protective Lana are each made very real.
Harry's final speech, when he wonders aloud, if he might actually be falling in love with Carla is heart-breakingly good. It's also a speech of depth and perception.
I'd expect nothing else from Night Court.
Highlight? Damages (bang! bang!)
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A Briefing With Michael: One Year Ago
