Sun, Oct 19, 08 - Valentine, Middleman, Pushing Daisies, Supernatural, Office, Corner Gas

05.30 Valentine
06.30 The Middleman
07.30 Pushing Daisies
08.30 Supernatural
03.00 The Office
03.30 Corner Gas

Valentine. Episode 2. "Daddy's Home" Better than the pilot. The case-of-the-week is still corny, but most of the episode is devoted to the regulars and their backstory. And a good one it is. The blood-drenched cliff-hanger (flash-forward) really shocked me, and I'll be back for more episodes.



The Middleman. Episode 12. "The Palindrome Reversal Palindrome" The show puts it's own spin on the idea of Parallel Worlds in this superb final episode. We get to see 'evil' versions of the regulars and Mark Sheppard returns for a second episode (sadly he is underused). The friendship between Wendy and Lacey gets a lot of screentime this time out and gives the show a solid core. Apparently this show has been garnering critical praise for the writing of it's female characters. No wonder. They are superb and their friendship is as real as anything I have ever seen on TV. Kudos writers/performers!

Our final shot of Wendy finds her (once again) on the phone to her mother. Happy. And it's a lovely way to leave things if we never see her again. (Gosh, I hope we do!)

Pushing Daisies. Season 2, Episode 3. "Bad Habits" Bees, clowns and now nuns! All getting the Pushing Daisies treatment. Olive gets lots of screentime (to make up for leaving her out of the first two episodes, I guess) and the ending (where Ned tells Chuck who her mother is) is unexpected and wonderful.

Supernatural. Season 2, Episode 14. "Born Under a Bad Sign" Back on form, the show delivers one of it's best-ever episodes. It's a two-hander (hardly anyone else appears in the story) and it's an acting tour-de-force for both men. Jared Padalecki gets to play real Sam (briefly), fake Sam and bad-ass demon. He looks like he is having a ton of fun in all three parts. Jensen Ackles gets to play out some of Dean Winchester's toughest-ever moments (and that is saying something).

The story is simply superb. The mystery is completely engrossing and the ending - when it comes - is perfectly obvious and makes perfect sense. Yet, I truly never saw it coming, such is the skill of the writing and acting. It's the tale of what happens when Dean finds Sam one week after he went missing. Learning that his brother has no memory of that week, Dean takes him on a quest to find the truth and learns that Sam has killed someone. Is this the turning point heralding everything that Dean was warned about by his father? Is Sam about to go all Dark Sam on us?

Much as I love Sam, I'm starting to realise what an epic heroic figure Dean truly is. He's starting to edge his way (in my affections) up alongside people like Carl Kolchak, Fox Mulder, Jack Bauer and Alex Mahone. Watching him deal with the dilemma in this episode was painful. Watching him come to the realisation that he might - one day - have to kill Sam and just as quickly realise that he can never do that. Even when truly provoked: watching Sam torture a loved one.

Sam's fate is a cruel one. But at least it is clear. As a hero, his journey is clear. Escape the curse, fight fate and overcome the demon/prophecy.

Dean, however, has been cursed with choice. He has two routes to heroism. Kill his brother or fight alongside him to overcome the oncoming doom. It is this choice (and the fact that his character will allow him no choice) that makes Dean the truly epic hero of the two.

Dean's becoming my favourite anyway. I often think of a comedy moment from an earlier episode and how much it really says about the man. When Sam mentions myspace and Dean has no clue what it is ("it is a porn site?" he grins) we laugh. But, upon reflection, we can see that this is a solid character moment. Dean is outside the terms of pop culture. He is not one of us. He protects us. And, like Carl Kolchak before him, he is alone because of that. Even with his brother beside him, (thanks to this season's story arc) he remains very much alone.

The Office. Season 5, Episode 3. "Baby Shower" Some of television's greatest-ever moments occurred towards the end of this week's episode of The Office. I honestly think that many decades from now people will still remember how they felt when Michael hugged Holly, and when Jim and Pam left messages for each other.

It was, in all other respects, a typical episode of The Office. An "event" disrupted the work day. Most Office episode revolve around some disruption to the routine (there's always a party of some sort, a milestone of some sort). We don't just get to see normal days at work (like hundreds of other workplace sit-coms) and when we follow the gang away from work it's always for a unique event of some kind (not just a night on the town, or another of Mary Richard's disastrous dinner party's). And this is just as unique as all the others: Jan brings the baby into the office for the first time. Michael's baby. Sorta. Well not really. Not at all, actually (as Darryl points out in one great scene). But Michael feels connected to this baby. Or, to be clear, feels that he ought to feel connected to it. So he contrives to make that connection happen.

He also contrives to hide his attraction to Holly from Jan. He fails to do this (as we learn at the very end) and he fails to hide it from Holly also (in a delightful scene at the very start, when he announces that he will be mean to her for the duration of Jan's visit and her adorable face positively lights up with understanding).

But the ending is where it all comes together. Michael endures more pain and humiliation than any one man should ever have to and - in the closing minutes of the episode- he seeks Holly out for a hug and (as emotion overcomes them both) he asks her out. Wonderful.

Then there is Jim and Pam. What a great storyline. We love them. We love them as a couple and we love them loving one another. But, as veteran TV watchers, we are conditioned to expect it all to go wrong somehow (for the sake of some stupid story arc). So the writers tease us. For the second time in this season, the tease us in the exact same way and then - as we start to feel panic - they remind us that (not matter what is happening in their lives) this is Jim and Pam and they have found one another and they are not letting go.

In the premier, we watched (in horror) as they seemed to be living separate lives and then (in a wonderful surprise) the story unveiled a rain-swept proposal and all was well with the world again. Then, this week, the writers pull the exact same stunt. Again. And I fell for it. Again. With glee they push the buttons that will make fans panic: Jim and Pam are leading (what appear to be) very separate lives, in different cities. Then, in a stroke of storytelling genius, the episode ends with Jim and Pam leaving phone messages for one another. Messages in which words/stories/themes/concerns are mirrored perfectly.

Oh, and love. Love, too, is mirrored perfectly.



Corner Gas. Season 5, Episode 1. "Cable Excess" Five seasons in and the show delivers one of it's tightest, best, and funniest scripts. Community television comes to Dog River and the regulars fight for the right to do their own show. Brent gets the job of selecting which show goes on air and the script is full of knowing references to the fact that Corner Gas is a highly acclaimed, critical darling. Eric Peterson shouts that Street Legal sucks, and the show finds another clever ending. Best bit? Crowds gathering every time Oscar started to rant. Funny. But - also - when you stop to think about it, a very clever comment on the appeal of the character with the audience at home.

Highlight? The Office (Wonderful)
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Sun, Oct 12, 08 - Threshold, Middleman, Pushing Daisies, Supernatural, Office, Corner Gas

05.30 Threshold
06.30 The Middleman
07.30 Pushing Daisies
08.30 Supernatural
02.00 The Office
02.30 Corner Gas



Threshold. Episode 13. "Alienville" For it's final episode, Threshold delivers one of the standards of sci-fi/fantasy storytelling: alone in the 'friendly small town' where everyone has been brainwashed. It's Molly and Cavennaugh in danger, trying to track a human scientist in danger from aliens, and trying to survive the citizens of the town. Good fun. Episode has a nice ending, too, which tries very hard to give fans an upbeat ending to the cancelled series. Gotta admire that.

The Middleman. Episode 11. "The Clotharian Contamination Protocol" Part of the fun of watching this show is the text that appears on screen during the episodes. Most shows just use on-screen text to tell you the date, the time or the location. Middleman does that, too. But they also find quirky ways to impart lots of other cool information, too. And jokes, of course. This is another strong episode. And it ends with a great scene where Wendy - sure she is about to die - tells The Middleman that he has been like a father to her. Hard to see that without a small tear in the corner of your eye.

Pushing Daisies. Season 2, Episode 2. "Circus Circus" Chi McBride gets all the best lines and his character is more pivotal to the story than usual because there is a parallel between the case he has taken and his own missing daughter. No dead body to kick start the story this time, which makes you wonder why he bothers to bring The Pie Maker along. But, with PD, it's best to stay away from questions. I mean, why exactly is Olive hiding in a convent? Best to just sit back and enjoy the spectacle as the PD gang head to a circus. It turns out to be a quirky circus and - before long - there are dead bodies piling up. Clown dead bodies, by the way!

I'm not really enjoying the while Chuck has moved out storyline, but I like the bits where she dives over the counter every time an aunt walks into Ned's place. Goofy fun.

Supernatural. Season 2, Episode 13. "Houses of the Holy" A so-so episode. The story is good, but the conflict between the brothers is a bit too manufactured for my liking. Sam thinks the supernatural force at work could be an angel, while Dean reveals that he has no belief in angels. They argue about this a lot and I wasn't buying any of it. I mean, there's already so much conflict inherent in the characters that this seems too contrived to be needed. Even worse was the ending where each brother has come to see things from the other's perspective. It's a solid stand-alone story idea (for a movie or a book) but as part of this television series? I'm not sure it belongs here. It's hard to be invested in a fight that - you know - will never be mentioned again in the series.



The Office. Season 5, Episode 2. "Business Ethics" How I love this show! Where else am I to find a story so resplendent in moral wrongness? (Yes, I wrote 'wrongness', get over it!)

Holly's seminar on ethics unearths some really bad behaviour in the office and sets in motion events that might lead to someone losing their job. Michael is horrified and he and Holly butt heads over it. Their conversations about it not being 'a family' are painful to watch because we know how Michael thinks and feels at this stage and it's sad to see how far apart he and Holly still are. You cannot help but wonder how the writers can possibly find an ending that works.

And they do. The ending is sublime. Wrong on so many levels, but so perfectly right for this show. And all of the Michael/Holly scenes are wonderful. It's turning a new pleasure on this show: watching Michael almost get things right with Holly. Watching Holly notice and appreciate it. I'm falling in love with them falling in love.

As good as the a-story was, it was the b-story that gave me my episode highlight: Jim taunting Dwight about Battlestar Galactica. That wasn't just funny, that was comedy gold.

Corner Gas. Season 4, Episode 19. "Gopher It" When Red Dwarf delivered a fake final episode at the end of one season it really upset me and cemented my love for the show and it's characters. This is the fake final episode of Corner Gas, the one where the characters all prepare to go their separate ways. I already know how much I love this show, so I don't need anything to put it in focus for me. Still, though, I found myself moderately upset that this might be the way things pan out. I guess I just don't want the show to end. And had this been a real final episode it would have been a great one to finish on. Thank frak it wasn't, though.

Highlight? The Office (BSG, Holly)
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Sun, Oct 5, 08 - Threshold, The Middleman, Pushing Daisies, Supernatural

05.30 Threshold
06.30 The Middleman
07.30 Pushing Daisies
08.30 Supernatural



Threshold. Episode 12. "Vigilante" Threshold was the CBS take on "what if CSI was about aliens invading?" and no episode better illustrates this than the one where Ramsey witnesses the killing of a girl (that he has just slept with) and the team investigate. All of the opening scenes are very much like the ones found on other CBS crime procedurals and maybe if the show had opened with a few episodes like this it would have hooked more viewers. Maybe.

Across the board this is a fantastic episode. Peter Dinklage holds the episode together with a performance of many layers. He makes you laugh, he makes you cry: Ramsey is one of TV's coolest heroes. Likewise: Fenway, whose continued fighting with Molly is my fave part of the show. They hate each other's methods, yet they must work together. Fantastic dynamic. It helps that Brent Spiner is one of the coolest people on planet earth!

Speaking of cool people... Jeffrey Donovan rocks the show with a great guest shot that - I presume - would have led to further appearances if the show had not been cancelled too soon. Donovan plays an alien infectee who has the ability to see the aliens. More than that: he is tracking them down and killing them... one by one.

Several great actions sequences in this one, with Manning finally biting the dust (yay!) after weeks of causing problems for the heroes. Best action bit: The vigilante goes after Lucas while he is visiting his wife at the hospital where she works. A thrilling chase/battle.

The Middleman. Episode 10. "The Vampiric Puppet Lamentation" Where else am I going to see a story about Vampire Puppets? Yes, this show operates in the same general area as Pushing Daisies and Reaper but with considerably more panaché. I love these characters, I love the fast pace of the stories, I love the millions of pop culture references, I love the cast, I love the ongoing romances, I love everything about this.

Best bit? The vampire puppet turned into a bat puppet and flew off (with the poor guy still attached!). I was amazed by that. And by the revelation, at the end, that MM's heart belongs to some other woman. Who? A dead wife, maybe?

Also, what are the three Canadian vampire detective series? Forever Knight, Blood Ties and...? Wendy's a bigger TV geek than me! I love her even more now!

Pushing Daisies. Season 2, Episode 1. "Bzzzzzzz!" Strong case-of-the-week? Check! Endearing character moments? Check! Unique visual style? Hmm, looks like critical-darling Pushing Daisies has weathered the long break very well and returns to the airwaves without missing a beat. Yes! To be honest, I wasn't worried. Once they got from the pilot to the regular series and sustained the vision, I was confident. So, what to say about this episode? It was cool and very funny. And Kristin Chenoweth stole the show. With Chi McBride coming a close second.

Supernatural. Season 2, Episode 12. "Nightshifter" Superb! Sam and Dean trapped in a bank siege with a crazed gunman, hostages and a shape-shifting supernatural evil. The gunman is after the same supernatural evil that they are, but methods cause a lot of problems for the boys, putting them very much on the FBI's radar (an excellent Charles Malik Whitfield).

From the get-go this is a flawless outing. Great character work as Sam now acts like the tough one when it comes to dealing with the general public. His tough-love methods make sense (and prove tragically prophetic). The action inside the bank is thrilling from start to finish. I defy anyone to predict what will happen next, at any time. When the sniper fired the kill shot I was breathless with shock. And the mechanics of those final minutes (the boys and the two identical girls) were as clever as anything I have ever seen.

Highlight? Supernatural (twists), with The Middleman coming a close second (Vampire Puppets? Frak me!)
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Sun, Sep 28, 08 - Gary Unmarried, The Middleman, Threshold, Supernatural

06:00 Gary Unmarried
06:30 The Middleman
07:30 Threshold
08:30 Supernatural



Gary Unmarried. Episode 1. "Pilot" Generic sit-com made bearable by Jay Mohr. He's the lovable rogue in the middle of this only-on-TV situation: recently divorced, new girlfriend and his ex-wife is marrying the marriage counselor. Plus three kids running around. Not really my cup of tea, but Mohr made me laugh so who knows? I might go back for more...

The Middleman. Episode 9. "The Obsolescent Cryogenic Meltdown" Flawless fun. Wendy's relationship with Tyler is sweet and fun to watch. Her relationship with The Middleman is great, too. His frequent droplets of advise are wonderful and wise. He really is a unique and interesting character. Kevin Sorbo is a great guest star as the Middleman from the 60s and the show wisely finds humour without resorting to cliché gags.

Threshold. Episode 11. "Outbreak" Catherine Bell joins the cast and make a big impression, having great on-screen chemistry with Brent Spiner (in the lab) and Brian Van Holt (out in the field, being shot at). Spiner also has great chemistry with Carla Gugino and I would have loved if their constant fighting led to romance. This is the one where the aliens explain that the they are trying to save the Earth from a destruction that is six years away, and it's adds a nice level of doubt to events on screen.

Supernatural. Episode 11. "Playthings" Apart from a "twist" - which is easy to predict - this is a solid and very enjoyable outing. I like the idea of an episode set in a big, creepy old hotel and the show makes the most of the setting. There's some great comedy (with Dean worried about how people perceive them) and some creepy guest characters (the old lady and the ghost kid). I also like the fact that the boys weren't the ones to save the day.

Highlight? The Middleman (Wendy in love)
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Sun, Sep 21, 08 - Middleman, Threshold, Supernatural, Back To You, Greg The Bunny, Good Morning Miami

06:30 The Middleman
07:30 Threshold
08:30 Supernatural
12:30 Back To You
01:00 Greg The Bunny
01:30 Good Morning Miami

The Middleman. Episode 8. "The Ectoplasmic Panhellenic Investigation" More goofy fun and sweet romance. The plot revolves around bookish girls taking over the bodies of popular girls at a college and affords series-star Matt Keeslar the chance to play the part of a teenage girl in control of his body. Very funny. But most of this episode is about Wendy's feelings for the guy who is dating her room-mate. He's a guest star from a previous episode and the show is very clever in the way this story unfolds. Very clever indeed. Such a funny, clever show.

Clever? Funny? Hah, a natural to be cancelled too soon.

Sigh.

Threshold. Episode 10. "The Crossing" Lots of action and loud rock music open this episode as three of the aliens captured in earlier episodes attempt an escape from the Threshold HQ. They fail. But Molly decides they need to be moved to another facility. And fast.

During the transfer there's an attempt to break them out (cue: lots more shooting and stuff) but most of this episode dominated by some strong character drama. An infected soldier uses his final hours as a human to document the change for the Threshold team, on the condition that they execute him as soon as he has gone fully alien. Cue: lots of debate between Molly, Fenway and Ramsey about whether this is the right thing to do. It's good stuff, and the episode pulls a nice twist at the very end when one of the team becomes infected, too.

Supernatural. Season 2, Episode 10. "Hunted" We finally hear what John said to Dean and... it's a bit of an anti-climax, to be honest. The episode plays fair, however, and we do learn what might be in store for Sam. But his father said very little about it to Dean and I feel a bit cheated that the show teased us for so long about it and delivered very little. When we do learn the 'big secret' it turns out to be from a minor recurring character. Strange storytelling choice.

Apart from that it's a bit of an non-entity episode. Sam goes solo, does some digging, meet a cute girl and gets in trouble. Dean appears mid-way through the episode, gets tied up and that's about it. There's nothing much to get excited about, or interested in. The revelation of Sam's future, though it comes from an unexpected source, is very good and promises of much goodness to come...

Back To You. Episode 17. "Hostage Watch" I've had a love-hate relationship with Back To You since it started, but I must admit that it's final episode was very funny. Chuck is called in when a man holding hostages at a bank specifically requests him as the person he wants to talk to. Everything that plays out inside the bank is funny, and the reaction from Kelly is great, too (she calls out "I love you" to Chuck and then regrets it). The script gives Chuck a nice epiphany wherein he realises he has to stop being reckless like this now that he has a daughter. And it works perfectly within the framework of this being a workplace sit-com.

I liked it a lot. And there is a part of me wishing that it was coming back for a second season.

Greg The Bunny. Episode 13. "Blah Bawls" Flawed it may have been but this show managed some great episodes. A few were dreadful, yes, but most were pretty okay. This is one of those. It's funny and makes great use of the characters. Blah takes centre-stage and it's wonderful. He's a rich and interesting character: Pining for his dead wife and being dragged to a singles club against his will. Lots of funny stuff in all of that, but also a bit of depth and meaning. Things go awry when he ends up sleeping with Warren's ex-wife. The ex-wife that Warren is still very much in love with.

This being a sit-com the amourous couple accidently switch phones which brings everyone to the same place at the same time and allows for lots of comedy mis-understandings. Warren (my favourite character on the show) is priceless in all his scenes and - as well as being funny - the script does a great job of making both regulars into even more interesting characters than they previously were.

Not the best episode but a funny, clever outing nonetheless. This show should have survived.

Good Morning Miami. Episode 9. "Hi, My Name Is Jake" Nothing special happens in this one (until the very, very end) but it's an enjoyable and funny episode. Jake is competing with Gavin in a series of sporting competitions. It gets out of hand and... he joins Gavin at an AA meeting and claims to be an alcoholic! Pretty awful but, hey, the guys on Seinfeld used to do this kind of stuff. Anyway, he feels remorse next morning and spends the rest of the episode trying to undo his stupid lie. Mark Feuerstein and Matt Letscher have great chemistry together and seem to be having a ball in all their squabbling scenes. They are having fun, and it's fun to watch.

At the very end, Dylan lets slip that she 'likes' Jake.

Highlight? The Middleman (body-swap comedy)
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Sun, Sep 7, 08 - Middleman, Burning Zone, Supernatural, Back To You, That '70s Show, Good Morning Miami

06:30 The Middleman
07:30 The Burning Zone
08:30 Supernatural
12:00 Back To You
12:30 That '70s Show
01:00 Good Morning Miami

The Middleman. Episode 7. "The Cursed Tuba Contingency" What a surprise. Usually I watch this show for the jokes, witty dialogue, pop culture references and elaborate plots. I was totally side-swiped this week by the romance between The Middleman and Lacey. Side-swiped because I found myself totally into it. Right from the start of the episode, when they sat side-by-side in the empty cinema I was smitten with them as a couple. And that's not been the case. Up to now I've not really warmed to the character of Lacey and the crush she had on The Middleman was just a throw-away gag in every episode. Now suddenly it was the main thing in an episode and it really worked for me. Brit Morgan and Matt Keeslar had great chemistry and the storyline was really romantic. Their cinema visits were wonderful. Her staying to see the end of the movie for him, and telling him what happened later during their goodbye dance, were very sweet and romantic. Darn, but it really got to me. And, suddenly, I'm totally rooting for them as a couple. If they don't end up together in the last episode I will feel royally jipped.



The Burning Zone. Episode 2. "The Silent Tower" While there were a few things to like in the pilot, this first episode of the regular series is across-the-board awful in all respects. Michael Harris joins the cast and is the best thing about the episode. Daniel Cassian is an interesting hero, and a reason to watch every week. Edward Marcase was written like an arrogant jerk in the pilot and this time out they writers have him fall victim to the virus in the opening minutes of the story and send him wandering around a deserted tower block for the duration of the episode. Crazy. This is the frakkin' lead character. And he's completely sidelined in the second episode? That's bad television, no matter how you look at it. Writers with no idea of how to establish a hero.

Tone-wise the show is trying so hard to be The X-Files that it comes across as ridiculous. Nobody trusts anybody, and everybody is lying to everybody. For, as far as I can see, no good reason. The paranoia and distrust made sense on The X-Files, but it's just silly here. Government conspiracies built up around viruses? How can they expect us to take this seriously?

Cassian makes a pretty likable and interesting hero, it must be said. Even if most of his scenes are very badly written (the twist at the end of this episode, for instance, is beyond awful). In fact, all the scenes are badly written. And the story is nonsense. A tower block where everybody committed suicide? Because it was - it turns out - build on a secret lab belonging to a long-deceased evil scientist. Who - it is revealed at the very end - is now one of Cassian's bosses?

I'm sorry but that makes no sense. The X-Files was able to get great milage from the idea what Scully and Mulder were often sent in as sacrificial lambs by people who knew the whole story but didn't reveal it to our heroes. This show tries the same idea, but it's silly when applied to a story about something so huge. And also applied to a team that is, at this stage, incredibly inept. On The X-Files, at least, you knew why they were using Mulder: he was bloody brilliant at what he did, and they could - to a large degree - predict how he would react and deal with stuff.

Marcase and his team are, it must be said, inept idiots. Two team members have become infected in their first two cases.

It's just silly TV. Sigh.

Supernatural. Season 2, Episode 9. "Croatoan" Beyond superb. This was something special. Maybe I just have a weak spot for stories like this... who knows? For whatever reason, I loved every single second of this amazing episode. This is the sort of TV hour I would rewatch over and over if I had enough spare time. The boys arrive in a town and soon find themselves trapped with a few innocents while absolutely everyone else in town goes crazy. It's the Supernatural take on every zombie movie you have every loved and I have to marvel at the way the writers can incorporate stock ideas into the world of the show and make them work.

If you accept that Supernatural is X-Files for the 00s then you must accept that they have much more restricted pallette from which to craft their stories. I mean, the clue is in the title: all stories must involve the supernatural! So, from the get-go lots of stock sci-fi/fantasy ideas are off the table. Yet, the show finds inventive ways to bring stuff onto the show that you might never expect. In this tale, you get all the beats you'd expect to find in Zombie flicks, or tales of alien possession, or standard stories of apocalyptic plagues. But, no... it's all tied to the recurring demon/evil on the series. Now, that's clever TV.

As for the actual story itself: Wow. Intense stuff. Not just in terms of what happens to everyone in the story, but based on the character drama between the two brothers. Dean has never been cooler, or - in the same beat - more chilling and scary. Jared Padalecki does some of his best work on the show, as Sam faces his own death. He really nailed it. No over-the-top antics, he just conveyed the weight falling on Sam's shoulders as contemplated his fate and totally pulled us in to feel it too. I knew that Sam wasn't going to die (Hello!) but the point was making the audience feel his pain and marvel - yet again - at the amount of suffering this poor guy has to go through.

Supernatural's ace-in-the-hole is the ability is tell strong stand-alone stories and use each one to examine (and lay bare) the characters of the men at the centre of it all. Thirty episodes in and the show has delivered two of TV's best ever heroes. Very real people in the middle of un-real stories.

Back To You. Episode 16. "Chuck and Kelly, Doin' It Again" Oh dear. Another dismal post-revamp episode. Although it is set in the workplace, this is - once again - driven by Chuck and Kelly's daughter. And, guess what? The little tyke has managed to suck the funny out, once again.

There are laughs, yes. Fred Willard and (the great) Ty Burrell have a funny plot about swapping ties, but most of the episode has Chuck and Kelly dealing with an ad campaign with strong sexual undertones. On the same day they have decided to tell the world about their daughter. There's not a lot of milage in that idea. And the point of the episode seems to be to engineer problems so Chuck and Kelly can make a grand gesture at the very end and tell everybody live on air.

It's undoubtedly meant to be warm and fuzzy.

But it's false as frak! The sort of crap that only happens on TV. It might work on an emotional level if we - the audience - cared about this daughter. But we don't and I resent having yet another episode devoted to her.

I'd suck it up if there were laughs, but there's aren't. End of review.

That '70s Show. Season 6, Episode 6. "We're Not Gonna Take It" Average episode. Nothing special. Three plots: Eric and Kelso compete for a waiter job, Red tries to get Fez and Laurie divorced, Donna and Jackie try to help Bob with his post-break-up depression. Each plot generates a few laughs, but nothing special happens.



Good Morning Miami. Episode 8. "Penny Wise, Jake Foolish" While it does have flaws (the subplots are weak) this is the first superb episode of GMM. This is where they started to hit it out of the ballpark. And there are no gimmicks or nonsense to drive the story. Just good gags and great character work.

Penny, Dylan and Jake dominate the episode and this is the one where the writers (skillfully and with great subtlety) tell us that Penny has a crush on Jake in the same way that Jake has a crush on Dylan. Genius. It makes the show suddenly more interesting. Certainly for me, because Penny was always my favourite character (and I'm mad about Constance Zimmer).

I've seen this episode many, many times and I always admire the way the writers tell their story. It's Jake's birthday and he tells Claire that he wants a watch. We see Penny hearing this. Claire points out that a watch is a romantic gift. And that's the end of that. We get one more reminder during the episode (from guest star: the great Kenneth Mars) that watches are romantic gifts. Then, at the very end, we see that Penny has bought Jake a watch for his birthday. Which, in the closing seconds, she doesn't give him. Awww.

Broke my heart the first time I saw it. Still breaks my heart, to be honest.

Apart from that, all the Penny-Dylan-Jake stuff is great. Very funny. Penny delivers several really great one-liners and there's a great playfulness to all the scenes between the three of them. The writers pull a great double-bluff by making us think that Dylan has the wrong idea that Penny likes Jake. Clever writing all round, then.

Except in the sub-plots (Gavin addicted to gum, Frank stealing from a corpse). Never mind. I love this episode anyway.

Highlight? Good Morning Miami (Penny likes Jake, aw...)
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Sun, Aug 31, 08 - Middleman, Supernatural, Greg The Bunny, Good Morning Miami

07:00 The Middleman
08:00 Supernatural
12:30 Greg The Bunny
01:00 Good Morning Miami

The Middleman. Episode 6. "The Boyband Superfan Interrogation" The best episode so far. It had the best story and was the funniest episode. The idea of banished dictators/criminals arriving on Earth and posing as a boyband is hilarious. The idea that the foul-mouthed soldier that comes after them should appear to be a 14-year-old girl named Cindy is even better. I love this show's habit of bleeping out foul language with on-screen graphics as well as beep sounds. It cracks me up every time. But never more so than with Cindy and her constant swearing.

Matt Keeslar did some of his best-ever work in this episode. Not only was all the stuff when he was mourning the loss of Ida great, but I loved his scenes interrogating Cindy. Him and Eden Sher yelling and shouting at one another like it was some dark police thriller. He was pitch perfect every step of the way. A great actor.

Supernatural. Season 2, Episode 8. "Crossroad Blues" A great case-of-the-week episode. It opens with a very stylish flashback to the 1930s and all scenes set there look great. The present day story (of ordinary folk achieving greatness by making a deal with a demon) is much better than it has any right to be. It's an old story. But the show finds a way to make it top notch entertaining. Firstly the people who's lives are affected by the Demon are interesting (especially the painter who asked for talent, not fame/fortune, poor schlub) and secondly the show ties this week's story into the backstory of the show (the brothers talking about the deal their dad made for the first time).

The death scene where the invisible hell hound killed the doctor lady is one of the scariest scenes they have ever had on the show. And Jeannette Sousa joins Nicki Aycox as one of the very best foes/demon girls the guys have ever encountered. She was mean with a capital M (and hot with a capital H). The climax with Dean matching wits with the demon was fantastic. The great thing about this show is that even when we know Dean is lying about his Dad in order to set a trap we also know that he means every word. That's great writing.



Greg The Bunny. Episode 11. "The Jewel Heist" Superb. Although dragged down somewhat by having to be "about something", in this case "the friendship between Greg and Jimmy", this is still an episode filled to the brim with laugh-out-loud moments. While the girls get obsessed with a paintball game, most of the guys skip out on it and head over to Greg's to help him deal with a dangerous dog (belonging to Jimmy's new girlfriend). The solution? Junction Jack performs surgery, replacing a vital part of the dog's anatomy with novely eyeballs that make a tune when banged together.

Good Morning Miami. Episode 7. "The Way to Dylan's Heart" This is a story told in very broad strokes, but the ending is so good that it makes it work. Just. Dylan sets Jake up on a date and the two couples (Dylan/Gavin and Jake/Cindy) go on a double date. The double date is a nightmare, with Jake being all over Dylan and totally ignoring Cindy. So (because this is sit-com world and such things happen here) the girl agrees to give Jake a second chance. The second date is also a nightmare for different reasons: Jake is all over Cindy this time. Too attentive and adoring for a first/second date.

All of this is unlikely, but amusing. What saves the episode is a truly wonderful climax. Dylan decides that she needs to teach Jake how to behave on a date (no kidding!). So they have a pretend-date over his desk in the office. At the end of the "date" she tells him he must pay her a compliment. And he does. Of course, he digs deep into his very real feelings for her and come up with something wonderful that blows her away. And studio audience. And me. A lovely moment in a so-so episode. And a series-high.

Highlight? The Middleman (Cindy)
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Sun, Aug 24, 08 - The Middleman, The Burning Zone, Supernatural, Flying Blind, Good Morning Miami

06:30 The Middleman
07:30 The Burning Zone
08:30 Supernatural
01:30 Flying Blind
02:00 Good Morning Miami



The Middleman. Episode 5. "The Flying Fish Zombification" Since I don't like Wendy's roommate very much, I was a tad bored by her storyline in this one. Will her mom show up at her Art Crawl or not? Gee, who cares? Much better was the case-of-the-week: flying fish that turn people into trout-eating zombies. Lots of very funny scenes. My fave? The bit where The Middleman was on the phone (being told about the flying fish for the first time) and we could see Wendy way in the background having a fight to the death with one of the dastardly creatures. That was hilarious in itself but it got funnier as the phone conversation ended and The Middleman was saying how important it was to capture one of the creatures alive while we could see Wendy bashing it to death in the background. Great slapstick comedy in a show where most of the laughs come from the witty dialogue. And Mary Pat Gleason, of course.



The Burning Zone. Episode 1. "The Burning Zone" Some pretty nifty ideas here but, in general, this is a pretty poor pilot. The cast is a mixed bag: Jeffrey Dean Morgan is great as the lead scientist, and Paul Guilfoyle is a fantastic bad guy in this first story. But Tamlyn Tomita is as bland and forgettable here as she was on Babylon 5 and while James Black was great in the series that followed he fails to impress in this opener.

The characters are all pretty dreadful. The writers give the lead hero guy several key scenes to make us think that he is a cool and dangerous rule-breaker. But he comes across as a jerk. We meet him speeding along a highway being chased by local cops and "not having time" to stop and explain himself. Instead he leads them on a merry chase before his security team bails him out. Later he meet his female partner for the first time and sparks fly because he was previously responsible for the death of her fiance. A fact that he has totally forgotten!!

So, the lead scientist hero is an arrogant jerk and his team are also pretty crap. The pretty scientist girl is one of those annoying TV characters who doubts everything the hero says and keeps getting proved wrong every step of the way. They are clearly supposed to be Mulder and Scully, but they are clearly... not!

The tough guy assigned to protect the two scientists proves sadly inept in this first story when he is quickly overcome by a bad guy and possessed by the very intelligent virus the team are trying to stop. I mean he is instantly beaten in a fight and becomes one of the bad guys. In, like, his third scene. In the frakkin' pilot!! How is any of that supposed to make us think he is cool or interesting?

Finally, there is the boss guy that they all work for. He seems to think they are all highly expendable and activates a self-destruct device to blow the compound up when the lead bad guy escapes. I mean, seriously? There's one dangerous bad guy running around and the solution is: blow the place up and kill the two scientists who might save the entire world. Yeah, that makes sense...

So, with all this crap going on, is there anything worthwhile in the pilot? The answer is: Yes. It's a great story. A sentient virus has returned after 14,000 years in hibernation. The virus explains that man's natural place in the scheme of things is as a host for the virus. That's some pretty cool stuff. And there's a mysterious van driver, too. Who appears to be glowing with the light of God. Or something. And it's all very intriguing.

So, a good story and a dynamic leading man (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) made me want to tune in for episode two. Which is when Michael Harris joins the cast, thank goodness!



Supernatural. Season 2, Episode 7. "The Usual Suspects" A great episode and an instant addition to my list of Best Ever Supernatural Episodes. It deviates from formula, has a very strong story, a non-supernatural foe and two of my most favourite actors (Keegan Connor Tracy and Jason Gedrick). Add Linda Blair to the mix and you have a major win for the Supernatural team. I've not seen much of Blair but she's the one carrying this episode (it's from her point of view and she's pretty much in every scene) and she is fantastic.

Yes, it was easy to see who the bad guy would turn out to be (in the big twist ending) but, hey, you can't have everything. They made references to X-Files, CHiPs and Jim Rockford... I'm more than happy!



Flying Blind. Episode 5. "The Week of Living Dangerously" Neil and Alicia have moved on to having sex at her place and things are going great. Until she gets a "I never thought I'd hear from you again" phone call. Her ex-boyfriend - a Latin American guerrilla - threatens Neil's life. Neil, being the man he is, cowers in fear for most of the episode and the laughs flow freely. The dialogue on this show is amazing. "Does he wear a retainer, because I really know how to use that to my advantage?" More than just being funny, there is the fact that this is the first time that Neil has felt like fighting for a woman. Cool stuff.



Good Morning Miami. Episode 6. "Kiss of the Spiderman" A perfect episode. The dynamics between all of the characters are now in place and the romantic "event-in-this-episode" between Jake and Dylan is accidental (so he's not a jerk for trying to break her relationship up).

Jake is secretly in love with Dylan and only two characters know it. His grandmother (who we see in his home life) is in favour of him chasing Dylan and Penny (who he works with) thinks he has to back off and leave Dylan with Gavin. It's an interesting dynamic and it really makes the show come alive. It brings Jake's inner turmoil out into the open and allows it to be discussed out loud. Plus, Jake is now written as being uncertain about what to do next, and this allows the writers to make his grandmother and Penny more extreme. They are pushing him in different directions and this gives the show the conflict in needs to make it fun to watch. And it's got lots of good gags, too, so it's also funny to watch. A perfect mixture, in fact.

The main storyline shows us what happens when Jake and Gavin wear identical costumes at Halloween and Dylan kisses the wrong one. In the sub-plot we learn for the first time that Frank may be gay. Pretty much every scene is laugh out loud funny and the romantic tension at the end comes across as genuine and sweet. Penny, my absolute favourite character, gets some of the best lines and - what I love most - she drops her sarcastic guard on two occasions and is very nice to Jake and his situation.

This makes her more likable, yes, but it is also vital to the success of the show. These moments help validate Jake's position. And, as I found myself on this particular re-watching of the show, Jake's position in the early episodes is not very easy to defend. He could come across as a bit of jerk trying to end (what appears to be) a pretty okay relationship. But, by episode 6, we see that he's not trying to do anything to anyone and he is - in fact - completely trapped by his desperate love for this girl he barely knows. Penny's interaction with him in these scenes serves two functions: it helps makes the whole thing funny (as opposed to sad and lonely) and - when it really counts - it helps us to like Jake. We can see that, for all her teasing, Penny kinda likes him and feels for him. And, at this stage in the series, that is where the audience is, also.

Highlight? Good Morning Miami (Poor Jake)
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Sun, Jul 27, 08 - Middleman, Kyle XY, Supernatural, Soap, Greg The Bunny, Good Morning Miami

06:30 The Middleman
07:30 Kyle XY
08:30 Supernatural
12:00 Soap
01:00 Greg The Bunny
01:30 Good Morning Miami

The Middleman. Episode 4. "The Manicoid Teleportation Conundrum" I sit down to watch this show wondering, cheerfully, what stuff it is going to throw at me. So what is it this week? A colony of aliens, living on Earth, where they fit in by looking like victims of too-much plastic surgery, who are being hunted by an big-game hunter, who is a local TV celebrity in the Dr. Phil mold. Nope, not seen anything quite like that before!

Kyle XY. Season 2, Episode 11. "Hands on a Hybrid" Bit of a mixed bag, this one. I have no interest in the Andy-has-cancer storyline or where they are taking it. And the stuff with Hillary uncovering vital plot information in her cameraman's raw footage was genuinely awful. Simplistic and silly. Or to call a spade a spade: it was really bad. However, this was also the episode where Kyle read Jessi's mind and deduced that she was just like him. All of those scenes (and the scenes with Tom Foss being mind-probed) were very good.

Supernatural. Season 2, Episode 5. "Simon Said" Bit of a mixed bag, this one. But not evenly mixed. I'd call this one as 80% good and 20% bad. The case-of-the-week is terrific, and anything to do with the Roadhouse sucks. Even better/worse this episode gave two completely new reasons to hate the Roadhouse!

Dean and Sam find themselves up against a foe who can make people do whatever he tells them do (in one hilarious scene Dean cheerfully gives up his car). The story has a great cast and a nice twist. I knew there would be a twist, but I completely picked the wrong person. As a seasoned TV Viewer I knew from the start that the guy with the power wouldn't turn out to be the bad guy, but I totally love the way the brothers also suspected it. Right from the start, they were willing to debate whether the guy with the power was actually evil or not. Sure, each one of the brothers had his own reason for saying what he said, but - still - it's writing like this that makes them seem smart and keeps me interested. As I've said before there is nothing worse than a show where the viewer at home is always two steps ahead of the hero.

So, a good case, a good foe and a good climax.

Then there's the (stupid) Roadhouse. Now, instead of merely travelling from A to B when there is trouble, the boys travel to the Roadhouse to ask their computer geek friend where to go?! Stupid, stupid, stupid! That totally undermines the lead characters, and is a total step-back from what they were able to do back in Season One, where they were a force to be reckoned with: following clues around the country and getting information any way they could. Now, we get to see Sam sitting and telling some (annoying) character what to type into a computer. Impotent, much?

Plus, it reeks of the sort of silly re-vamp that made Knight Rider even worse in it's 4th season. Not only was KITT rebuilt by a gang of street-kids (give me a break) but now he could change shape and rush to the rescue. Suddenly he was always miles away for the climax of every episode and had to rush! to! the! rescue! Very exciting. But silly, considering he never needed to do that before. Now, suddenly, we find Dean and Sam asking Ash for directions. Huh? They never needed to do that before.

But, that is as nothing compared to the ill-conceived final scene: where the boys are scolded and forced to confess about what is going on with them. Yes, Eric Kripke, because there is nothing cooler than seeing our heroes being chastised by their "Mum". (Next season on 24! Jack Bauer's mother makes him apologise!).

Seriously, this show does not need an authority figure. It's so fundamentally wrong for the show that I wonder does the production company even fully understand it's appeal. Aside from the fact that it makes them less cool, the show is about orphans on the road. That's the frakkin' point of the show. Now, suddenly, they have a mum to worry about them and scold them. Yuck. That's a different show.

Luckily, this crap is kept to a minimum and the rest of the episode is stellar stuff. If I was a more obsessive fan, I might do a little DVD editing and remove the scenes with the Roadhouse from the episode for all future viewings.

Oh, one final thing: is the show now going for romance between Dean and Jo? I thought the hint was that she was his sister? Or am I missing something here. It doesn't help that Jensen Ackles and Alona Tal have zero on-screen chemistry.

Soap. "Episode 31" Burt is my favourite character (by a long, long mile) and the Burt/Mary romance/marriage makes them one of my favourite TV couples. Mary is back in school now, and her professor makes a pass at her. Watching Burt go crazy at the thought of losing his wife is both hilarious and genuinely sweet. Later, in an effort to help Danny deal with his crazy wife Elaine, Mary tells a lovely story that gives us even more reason to love her and Burt as a couple. Speaking of Elaine, she gets the episode's best scenes. When Burt tells her that Danny can't stand her I thought my heart would break for her. Poor kid. But, then, the dinner scene where she and Danny were nice to each other and we got to see the effect this had on her was wonderful.

Greg The Bunny. Episode 8. "Jimmy Drives Gil Crazy" I had totally forgotten about this episode. It's hilarious. Man, I had better re-think my views on this show. Sure, it had some lame episodes early on, but once it got rolling, it really got rolling. This is an inspired episode. Warren (who still gets all the best lines) sends Jimmy and Greg round to his house on a errand. Greg waits in the car, while Jimmy runs in. Inside he finds a naked girl swimming in Warren's pool. She explains that she has snuck in to skinny dip on her way from school. Turns out that she's an 18 year old catholic schoolgirl (complete with uniform) who is feeling a bit naughty and wants to experiment with video cameras. Watching Jimmy react to each of these wonderful revelations (eventually he cries tears of pure joy) is some of the funniest work Seth Green has ever done. Meanwhile, Greg has woken up to find that Warren's car has been stolen by Warren's neighbour Corey Feldman who has gotten into a prank war with Warren. Thing is, the police don't understand and they find themselves in a high-speed police chase. A televised police chase. Which, of course, is seen by everybody at work. Who assume that Jimmy has flipped out and is still driving Warren's car. Each of them in turn feels guilty for stuff they have said to Jimmy (while Alison just gets incredibly turned by the revelation that he is a bad boy) and Gil eventually runs off to join the chase and save his son. The same son who, at that exact moment, has been tied up by the Catholic School Girl and is being 'forced' to make various animal sounds while she films him.

As the episodes switches from location to location it just keeps getting funnier and the climax where Gil unwittingly declares his boundless love for Corey Feldman is a real classic. Funny because Feldman leaps from the car to reciprocate the love!

Good Morning Miami. Episode 4. "It Didn't Happen One Night" Now this is more like it. Jake accidentally causes a rift between Dylan and Gavin. So we get the hope that he'll hook up with her without the baggage of him seeming like a relationship destroying scumbag. Even better, when she shows up at his place - drunk and sad - he totally doesn't take advantage of her. His niceness, of course, is what sends her back to Gavin in the end but it's good to finally have an episode where we can like Jake and feel for him: in love with a girl he cannot have.

Highlight? Greg The Bunny. Hilarious.
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Sun, Jul 13, 08 - Middleman, Kyle XY, Supernatural, Greg The Bunny, Good Morning Miami

06:30    The Middleman
07:30    Kyle XY
08:30    Supernatural
12:00    Greg The Bunny
12:30    Good Morning Miami

The Middleman.  Episode 3.  "The Sino-Mexican Revelation"  There are two reasons to love this show.  First, it's audacious.  How else do you describe a show which dares to tell a story where a masked sensei is kidnapped by 100 Mexican Wrestlers (who are later killed in a fight to the death with that same masked sensei)?  Everything about this show is creative and exciting.  There's nothing quite like this on TV.  And I love that.

Second, it works.  It really works.  It's funny and cool.  It could have been a horrible mess, but Matt Keeslar's delivery and Natalie Morales' attitude make it work.  Throwing crazy elements into a script is no guarantee of success.  You need the right cast to make it work.

(This is the episode where Natalie Morales poses as a scantily-clad waitress.  There's no part of that previous sentence that I don't love.)

Kyle XY.  Season 2, Episode 10.  "House of Cards"  Kyle brings Declan onto 'the team' and - together with Tom Foss - they plan a heist: To get Kyle's ring back.  Everything that has been set up in earlier episodes is starting to pay off and the show is getting even more satisfying to watch.  It's also great fun to see Foss and Declan on-camera together.  Kyle does some cool stuff in this episode and (of course) his 'secret life' causes him to cancel a date with his new girlfriend.  The show takes these clichéd situations and bends them to suit the characters.  So the episode ends not with a fight but with a sweet kiss.  This is why the show "works for me" (to quote Rick Hunter).  Amanda is nice.  And the script doesn't make her behave mean to Kyle to create false drama.  Instead the drama comes from Kyle's innocent with these situations.  We are nervous for him and therefore engaged in what is happening between him and Amanda.  Her reaction to him makes for great character writing, too.

It's a great show.  I don't watch Smallville (I saw the pilot and hated it) but I presume Kyle XY is a kinder, nicer version of Smallville.

Anyway, Smallville was a rip-off of the far superior Roswell.   But I digress...

Supernatural.  Season 2, Episode 4.  "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things"  Now this is more like it!  A really good episode.  The story is much better than the previous one, and it's fits into the ongoing character arc for Dean in a much more natural way.  While the parallels with their own father's death and their feelings about it seemed forced in the previous episode, in this outing every reference to the dead and the desire to bring them back seemed natural and worked wonderfully.  In context of what the brothers have just gone through.  This would have made a much better Episode 2.

Great guest casting helps make for a strong episode.  Tamara Feldman is very scary as the Big Bad Evil and Christopher Jacot is wonderfully earnest as the guy who brings her back from the dead.  For love.  Poor schmuck!

This show is remarkable in the way is balances comedy with the serious/sad stuff happening on-screen and never seems to trivialise the pains of the guest characters.  This episode is a prime example.  Dean and the dead girl's female friend share a scene which is works perfectly on two levels.  We are engaged and sad for the girl grieving over her dead friend, and we are laughing at Dean.  How the show plays both cards together impresses me.  Every week.

The character work on the boys is top notch.  It always is.  From silly stuff (Dean catches his younger brother watching motel porn) to weighty stuff (Dean finally talks out his feelings on their father's death).  "A+" stuff all the way.  That final scene was gobsmacking.  I didn't expect it.  I didn't expect Dean to say that stuff.  Man, I can't wait to see what happens next.  I'm so glad Sam didn't give him any trite answers before the show faded to black.  I had a few written in my own head as I watched, but - upon reflection - they all sucked and the show ending was... perfect.

Greg The Bunny.  Episode 7.  "Father & Son Reunion" has always been my favourite episode of Greg The Bunny.  I haven't seen them all, of course, and I now realise that Episode 6 is brilliant also, but I still think this is aces.  Greg, Jimmy and Gil get high on hash brownies and go throw eggs at the house of someone they all hate.  Or, at least, try and throw eggs at the house.  Their shots go wildly askew and the whole attack degenerates into a very odd conversation over a hedge.  Hilarious.

I normally don't like the serious elements of Greg The Bunny episodes.  When the show tries to teach lessons about being nice or some such crap.  Usually the 'heartfelt's stories leave me cold, and seem like added-on network interference.  But Rochester's death (in the previous episode) and the father-son stuff (in this episode) really work.  Even if the rest of the episode wasn't very, very funny I would still enjoy these stories.  But, as it happens, the rest of the episode is very, very funny.

Susan The Monster, Tardy Turtle and Snookums have hilarious small scenes.  Jack and Dottie have a funny sub-plot about random meetings outside of work and Warren (my favourite character) gets to give a great monologue and get into a fight with his audience.

Good Morning Miami.  Episode 3.  "The Heart Is a Lonely Apartment Hunter" I've watched season one of this show many times.  And I love it very much.  But I've never written reviews of it before. And ,while this is a good episode, I can't help but notice how hard it is to like Jake.  He is, after all, plotting to split Gavin and Dylan, because he is after falling in love with Dylan (having just met her).  He seems, when you analyse him, to be a bit selfish and immature.  The show tries to make us dislike Gavin, I think, but he's actually a fairly likable guy.  So, upon reflection, Jake is scum.  Sorta.  But, it never bothered me before.  And, upon reflection again, it doesn't bother me now that I am aware of it.  Why?  Well, I guess I'm just a sucker for a love story.  And what happened to Jake in the pilot and how has dealt with it, is romantic.  He changed his while life around because of a chance meeting with a woman.  Works for me (to quote Rick Hunter).

The only flaw in this episode is the sub-plot devoted to the unfunny Weather Nun who works on their TV show.  She's a one-note character, and devoting an entire plot line to her only serves to illustrate how pointless she is.  Even worse, this plot uses Frank and fails to make him funny.  Frank is a fantastic character, the funniest character in the whole show, how can you fail to make him funny?

The best part of the episode revolves around Penny.  Penny rapidly became my favourite character and this episode is an example of why.  She deduces that Jake has a crush on Dylan and immediately stops being a wiseass and offers him the hand of friendship.  It's a lovely, lovely moment, and an example of why I love this show so much.

Highlight?  Good Morning Miami

Sun, Jul 6, 08 - Middleman, Kyle XY, Supernatural, That '70s Show, Two Guys And A Girl

06:30    The Middleman
07:30    Kyle XY
08:30    Supernatural
12:00    That '70s Show
12:30    Two Guys And A Girl

The Middleman.  Episode 2.  "The Accidental Occidental Conception"  This is a funny show.  The dialogue is snappy and witty and guaranteed to provoke a laugh or two.  A lot of the ideas are audacious, too.  It's a creative show.  So much so that you are inclined to think: I can't believe they are doing this.  It has echoes of the best ideas of Reaper and the pace of Pushing Daisies.  So, all things considered I'm pretty happy with The Middleman.

Kyle XY.  Season 2, Episode 9.  "Ghost In The Machine"  It starts off with one of the worst ideas ever used in the series, but it quickly develops into one of the very episodes this show has offered.  Lori decides that she wants to do something reckless and visit the site of a recent murder.  Huh?  What the frak is that about?  The writers are - I think - so embarrassed by this lame idea that it happens off-screen and we first learn of it when we hear Declan and Kyle talking about it.  Of course, this (nutty) quest brings all of the main characters into the woods and back to the place where Jessi committed the murder.  Which, of course, is also beside Zzyzx.

Very lazy writing, guys.

Once that nonsense is out of the way, the episode that follows is one of the very best: Kyle 'time travels' back into some 'memories' he didn't know he had acquired, we get a further clue on the whole 'should Kyle trust Foss' mystery and we see that Jessi has been reprogrammed by Madacorp and is no much more focussed on Kyle.  Pity.  I like her.

The scenes with Kyle walking around in the past are very cool, the confrontations with Foss are great, but the revelation as to the identity of the real Bad Guy is something that was predictable at the very start of the season.

Never mind.  Great episode.

Supernatural.  Season 2, Episode 3.  "Bloodlust"  I didn't like this episode at all.  This is the one where they put forward the idea that everything supernatural doesn't have to be killed and introduce some nice vampires (who live off cow blood).  I watch Supernatural for a lot of reasons.  But not to see rehashed ideas from other shows!  It was painful to see the show deliver such a pedestrian script.  I knew right from the start where this was going.  Once the other hunter was introduced I figured out they would ending up fighting him, one of them (probably Dean) being late into the fight and - at the end of it all - the brothers would be a bit closer.  Or something.

One of the strengths of this show is that you cannot write the final scene after watching the first ten minutes.  And this week, much to my disappointment, I could.

I also strongly feel that there is no place for "nice" supernatural entities in the world of this show.  We've seen that.  Supernatural should be more of a bleak world-vision.  I keep saying that.  But only because that was the way it was during season one and I don't want the show 're-vamped'.

Plus, in another of my pet-hates, in a moment of crisis I do not want to see Sam phoning his Mommy-figure back at the bar.  Sam shouldn't be telling Dean "X is bad because so-and-so tells me", he should be saying "X is bad news because my gut instinct tells me".  That's cooler.  And more interesting.

So, did I like anything about this episode?  Yes, two things.  The pre-credits sequences was supremely creepy and the idea of Dean opening up about his grief to an outsider is brilliant.

That '70s Show.  Season 6, Episode 1.  "The Kids Are Alright"  This is more than just one of television's best ever sit-coms to me, it's a time-trip back to the early '00s when I first started sharing a house and 'forcing' my housemates to watch the TV shows that I liked.  That '70s Show played night after night back then.  Easy-going comedy that was guaranteed to make everyone fall about the room in hysterics.  The channel airing it in my part of the world bleeped out all the swear words, but apart from that it was perfect.

It still is.  The sixth season is where we kinda fell away.  I used to put all the episodes I could on tape and then we'd watch them in the right order.  I kept missing key episodes of season 6 when they re-ran and used to take weeks for the show to loop round again to Season 6.  So it kinda fell off the viewing list in our house.

Until last week when I stumbled across an episode by accident (they still silence out the bad words, by the way!).

Season 6 starts off with Red recovering from his heart attack.  Some of the best scenes are the ones with the (dysfunctional) Foreman family.  Eric's rage and desire to get away are very real and very easy to relate to.

Watching the show again for the first time in years, I'd forgotten how much I love Donna and how much she reminds me of one of my girlfriends from that time years ago.  One of my housemates used to tease me a lot back then because she reckoned I only watched the show night after night because the girl in it reminded me so much of that girl I used to date.

She was only partly right.  I watched it cos it was funny, too.

Two Guys And A Girl.  Season 3, Episode 7.  "Berg's New Roommate"  It was ABC's answer to Friends but, in many ways, it was better.  The Sharon-Johnny romance was certainly as good as anything the NBC show every offered up.  And this is one of the key episodes: Sharon lures Johnny into competing with another couple to secure the date and church they want for their wedding.  In the process she lies about stuff that supposedly happened with Johnny and that leads her to confessing to Johnny that she once had feelings for Pete.  Great stuff.  Funny.  But real, too.  Real in the sense that Johnny and Sharon deal with their fight in a mature real-world kind-of-way.  He's annoyed that she had feelings for someone else (who lives downstairs) but he has to suck it up and deal with it without any huge 'moment' to prove that Sharon thinks he's The One for her.  That only happens on TV, you know.

Highlight?  That '70s Show

Sun, Jun 22nd, 2008 - The Middleman, Doctor Who, Kyle XY, Supernatural, Greg The Bunny

05:30    The Middleman
06:30    Doctor Who
07:30    Kyle XY
08:30    Supernatural
01:00    Greg The Bunny

The Middleman.  Episode 1.  "The Pilot Episode Sanction" is a blast from start to finish.  It's easily the best pilot I'm seen this Summer so far and I can't wait to see more.  It's quirky, funny and full of references to everything I love: sixties TV, comics, movie icons.  A young woman (the gorgeous Natalie Morales) becomes sidekick to a mysterious superhero (Matt Keeslar) and helps him defeat a talking gorilla with designs on world domination (by killing mob leaders and leaving bananas at the murder scenes!).  Javier Grillo-Marxuach has had a hand in some of the very best TV shows of the past decade and this looks like a worthy addition to the list.

Doctor Who.  Season 28, Episode 8.  "The Impossible Planet" is pure Doctor Who.  The Doctor (and companion) arrive at a remote space station/space ship/outpost of some sort.  They meet lots of characters, something evil is at work and people start dying.  It's a classic Doctor Who set-up and this episode is a perfect execution of the idea.  With some truly huge ideas thrown in to blow you away: a planet that obits a black hole!?  What the frak?!

Kyle XY.  Season 2, Episode 8.  "What's the Frequency, Kyle?"  Kyle XY is one of the best written shows on TV, and it also has one of the best casts.  Bruce Thomas is normally overlooked by the scripts on this show, but he really gets a chance to shine in this one, when Stephen's father goes into a coma and dies leaving lots of things unsaid between the two men.  It's a very human story and (although the show uses Kyle's powers to offer some solace) I applaud the show for telling a sad story where nothing much gets resolved.  Stories like this are closer to real life and have much more impact than implausible death-bed reconcilliations.

Jaimie Alexander does her best work so far in this episode as Jessi starts to come to terms with her actions.  Specifically: her attack on Lori in the previous episode.  Jessi is in major turnoil for most of this episode and Alexander is pitch perfect.  The ending of this plotline was also quite sad.  What exactly is going to happen to Jessi?  Are they going to wipe her mind?  Which, effectively, kills the girl who has been on the show this season?  I hope not.  I hope she kicks ass, breaks free and starts to deal with her mistakes.

Finally, none of this would work if Matt Dallas wasn't so frakkin' great in the central role.  He brings such an innocence and wonder to the role of Kyle, and his voice-over narrations set the whole ponderous tone for the show.  I love the type of stories this show is able to tell.  Small family-driven tales wrapped up in a sci-fi envelope.  And the show tells then without creating false tension.  When Kyle starts to receive messages from the dying man, Stephen doesn't resist them. A lesser show might have created "conflict" by setting it up so that Kyle had to win Stephen over or something.  Thus wasting our time with something we've seen many times before.  Instead, the show concentrates on the wonder of what Kyle can do.  And it's all rather cool.  And makes for great stories.

Supernatural.  Season 2, Episode 2.  I have mixed feelings about "Everybody Loves A Clown".  Following the episodes with the father was always going to be difficult but I'm not sure that this was the way to go.  The case-of-the-week was average.  But, on this show, 'average' is really quite good.  Killer Clowns are an interesting idea, which crops up from time to time.  It works fine here, but I wonder if every kid would really invite a clown into their house in the middle of the night?  In this day and age?  Hmmm...

The character-work between the brother was top notch.  And the real joy of this episode was in watching the brothers closely to see how each was coping with the violent and sudden death of their father.  In this respect the show did not disappoint.  It never does.

No, what bugged me about this episode were the supporting characters.  Who appear (from this episode) to be a bunch of new regulars for the boys to work with on occasion.  This is exactly what the show does not need!  And all three of the new characters are straight from the Big Book of Bad TV Clichés: a cute girl, a nerd and a mother figure.  Yuck, yuck and double yuck!  Chad Lindberg is particularly annoying in his role as the computer geek.  Alona Tal is cute.  Way too cute for this show.  She's just wrong.  And while Samantha Ferris is very good in her role, I hated the character because it felt like the she was being offered up as quick replacement for the boys' father.  Not something I want to see.  In the episode after his death or in any future episode.

What the show needed here, I feel, was an episode where the boys are alone and devastated.  Where they find their way forward - together - by doing what they do.  Instead they have their newest case handed to them by Ellen.  And I lost interest.  The appearance of this sudden family unit takes away a lot of the lonliness of their situation.

Also, the world of Supernatural is uniquely male.  The undercurrent of the show has always been the love between brothers and the love between father and son(s).  Plus, the world of the hunters has always been shown to be a world of lonely solitary men, driven by a need to destroy evil.  Men with not much else in their lives.  Now, suddenly, we learn that they have a bar to go to and swap notes.  And there's a cute girl in the middle of all this, too.  No, thanks!  We've already had that show.  It's time to do a different take on this.  Hopefully, this pseudo-family won't be around for long...  I'm more tempted than ever to check spoilers/cast lists for future episodes to see where all of this is going, but I'm better off not knowing I suppose.

Greg The Bunny.  Episode 6.  "Rabbit Redux"  Wow.  This is one of the episodes I missed first time round.  Wow, again.  A great episode.  Funny, and with surprising depth.  Wow.  Who'd a thunk it?  Rochester returns.  The rabbit who was fired, thus giving Greg his big break on TV.  Rochester has fallen on hard times.  So Greg, feeling guilty, gets him back on the show.  Then Rochester has a heart attack and dies.  And the final half is about how everyone deals with it.  And it's really well-written.  Warren (so my favourite character at this stage) gives a great eulogy and I really feel like I've seen something rather great.  Wow.

Highlight?  The Middleman