06.00 Dollhouse
07.00 Supernatural
08.00 Kyle XY
09.00 Battlestar Galactica
10.00 Lost
11.00 Good Morning Miami
11.30 Flying Blind
Dollhouse. Episode 1. "Ghost" A very hot young woman is programmed to be a hostage negotiator.
Utter nonsense. I'm not buying any of this. Seriously, why would a covert group go to all this trouble? Who would want this kind of service? The job of the pilot is to sell the series idea to me and this one failed badly.
Joss Whedon has a funny old track record. Angel and Buffy rate as two of the greatest TV series every made, and Firefly is utter crap and a rip off of the much superior Starhunter. Yes, I know that Angel was itself a rip-off of Forever Knight but, in the case of Angel, they brought a lot of great stuff to the table that Forever Knight didn't have. Firefly stole a lot from Starhunter, but added nothing. Dollhouse is just dumb.
Well, to be accurate, it's also a rip-off. This time the original source material isn't Canadian. It's a British show called Joe 90, but it's still the same idea.
Lot of stuff has been added to the mix. A conspiracy, for instance. And the cast are fantastic. But the problem remains... why would anybody go to this amount of trouble?
More than anything else, this show reminded me of My Own Worse Enemy because I was asking the same questions then, too.
Supernatural. Episode 14. "Long-Distance Call" Everyone on town is getting a phone call from a loved one who died...
Much better than last week. This looks and feels like Supernatural. And as case-of-the-week episodes go, it's a pretty good one. Nothing spectacular, but it's a solid bad guy and the brothers have some conflict, too.
Kyle XY. Season 3, Episode 3. "Electric Kiss" Kyle and Jessi work together to help Amanda.
Mixed bag. Jessi's one-liners are fantastic. She's hilarious and she's easily the best character on the show. But the contrived way she (and the writers) found for her and Kyle to kiss was totally stupid.
And what's up with all this Kyle/Jessi action anyway? Isn't she more his sister than anything else? Isn't Amanda his soul mate? That's certainly how I want it to be. However, the ending of this episode gives the impression that Kyle and Amanda are finished for good. And she may even be gone from the show.
If that is the case, then that would suck. I love Jessi, yes, but not as a love interest for Kyle. She's best as the snarky side-kick.
Battlestar Galactica. Season 4, Episode 15. "No Exit" Anders is in hospital, Ellen is with the Cylons and Adama must deal with a badly damaged ship.
Awful. The worst episode of Battlestar Galactica and - to be honest - one of the worst episodes of anything.
First off, this chapter totally violates the "Show, don't tell" rule of fiction writing. No matter how you look at it, that is very, very bad television. In the a-plot Anders lies in his hospital bed and tells the gathered cylons all the stuff that happened to them several thousand years previously. Meanwhile, in the recent past, Ellen and Cavil are having a conversation and - from their talk - we learn even more of what happened long ago.
And it's very boring old twaddle.
Why the writers/producers choose to do things this way is beyond me. Surely, with Anders remembering this stuff, it would have been very easy to dramatize the events and, you know, show us! I mean, it would have used the same actors and essentially the same sets, so why not do it that way?
Instead we get a huge data dump, through endless talking heads.
And, it must be said, some of the data, is kinda rubbish. Suddenly we are told - for the first time - about this whole other Cylon model called Daniel that was never mentioned before. Isn't it a bit late to be introducing major new elements?
Then there's the c-plot, which features Adama and Tyrol. Predictable old claptrap. There are some beats that recur from time to time when it comes to Adama: he makes a gut reaction of some kind, something racist or backward thinking, and - by the end of the story - he has evolved and is able to make the correct decision and understand why it is the right thing. They have done this one more than one occasion and, in my opinion, it is way past time to give it a rest. In this episode, he wants Tyrol to fix his ship but issues the order that no Cylons are to be allowed to work on her. His words are offensive and visibly offend Tyrol. It's obvious that the writers are bending over backwards to create a story arc here. They push Adama to an extreme position and let him 'evolve' back to an acceptable one. Predictable old claptrap.
Lost. Season 5, Episode 5. "This Place is Death" Jin and the French Group have some adventures, before he reunites with Sawyer and the gang. Locke meets Christian and leaves the island. Ben and a small number of others meet Mrs. Hawking. Charlotte dies.
I can't believe they killed Charlotte. Yes, it was foreshadowed and all, but still... I hope she'd be around for a while longer. Her final scene with Daniel was suitable tear-jerking.
Locke setting off to rescue everyone (and put an end to these annoying time-jumps is very cool) and it was fun to see Ben unsettled for once, by the arrival of Desmond. Desmond is somehow 'off-book' and that makes him very, very cool.
Best bit? Sawyer's joy at finding Jin alive.
Good Morning Miami. Episode 17. "Fear and Loathing in Miami" Penny starts working for Frank, to get away from the advances of Jake.
Everybody gets something to do in this episode, with some plots being better than others. Gavin gets a new agent (Fran Drescher joining the show for three-episode arc) and Frank reveals to Penny that his job entails doing... absolutely nothing. Very funny. Less successful is the nonsense surrounding Claire and her paranoia over her publicity photo showing up her age lines. Nobody is going to believe that Suzanne Pleshette has worries like this.
Flying Blind. Episode 7. "Desperately Seeking Alicia" Neil's cousin Leslie visits and wants to be just like Alicia.
Good story that has nothing to do with ex-lovers of Alicia and still manages to have Neil out of his depth and in a panic. Meredith Scott Lynn is a very strong guest star (playing the same character she played on The Marshall Chronicles) and as well as being funny she's got good chemistry with Téa Leoni. This episode pushes another side of Alicia. Many stories dwell on the characters considerable sex appeal, but here is a story about the magical spell she casts over people that has nothing to do with sex or romance. When we see the wonderful way she connects with Neil's repressed cousin we are reminded that Alicia is very, very special. A wonderful person, with many layers and much depth.
Highlight? Lost (Charlotte dies)
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Sun, Feb 15, 09 - Dollhouse, Supernatural, Kyle XY, Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Good Morning Miami, Flying Blind
