10.00 Flying Blind
11.00 Good Morning Miami
12.00 Battlestar Galactica
Flying Blind. Episode 8. "Lovers and Other Strangers" Jonathan, Alicia's ex-boyfriend, returns and declares that he is getting married.
Once again Neil has to deal with an ex-lover of Alicia's but this episode, at least, puts two new spins on the idea. First, the ex-lover has been on the show before (Thomas Haden Church from the show's pilot). Second, Neil has no real problem with Jonathan returning to get married, rather it is the normally unflappable Alicia who gets upset as her ex prepares to move on.
There are still as many laughs as normal (with Megan/Clea Lewis getting some wonderful lines/moments) and the twist on the oft-used plot keeps things fresh and interesting.
Good Morning Miami. Episode 19. "Three Weeks Notice" Gavin and Dylan are finished and Roberta gets him into a celebrity AA group to help his career.
Matt Letscher is great in this episode and Fran Drescher (in her third and final episode) is a hoot as his mean agent, Roberta. Gavin seems to move on from the break-up with Dylan very fast and - before long - Roberta has his signed up with a new AA group that will help his career. However, the meeting allows his feelings about Dylan to come pouring out and - by the end of the episode - Gavin finds himself staring into a bottle of booze, on the verge of throwing it all away. The climax (where Jake comes to his rescue with some surprising words of encouragement) is one of the best scenes that the show ever had.
Frank, meanwhile, gets a great subplot. I love Frank. He's a real oddball and the writers have a lot of fun coming up with oddball stories for him. This time out... we discover that Frank has an eating disorder and Penny has to come to his rescue. Jere Burns is very funny, milking humour from pretty much every line of dialogue.
The Jake/Dylan romance takes a slight step forward. Obviously, with Dylan being newly single and all. She asks to come over and hang out, but Jake's grandmother comes to his rescue and orders him to stay away for three weeks.
Battlestar Galactica. Season 4, Episode 16. "Deadlock" Ellen Tigh returns to the fleet, Baltar's people get miliant and the Final Five Cylons vote to leave the fleet.
Better than last week, but that would not be hard. Pretty much all the scenes with Ellen were awful. I can certainly recognise the wisdom (now) of making her the final cylon. It creates a lot of great conflict. She's a naturally abrasive character and putting her into this position of power is a stroke of genius. Something I didn't appreciate when she was first revealed. Also, the fact that her husband/lover has moved on after her 'death' and fathered a child is guaranteeing the show more natural conflict.
Seems wonderful.
So what's my frakkin' problem?
Well, to be honest, much of what transpired looked like bad soap opera. The squabbling around Ander's bed was so bad it made me want to laugh. Much of what happened with Caprica Six and the baby tried so desperately hard to tug on my heart strings that I found myself totally unaffected and disinterested.
Except...
...when Michael Hogan came into play. His performance, and some of the lines given to him, were truly wonderful.
But, in general, I was disappointed by the Ellen Tigh storyline. Even as I sat there, realising the considerable potential in making her so pivotal... I was disappointed.
Baltar's battle of wits with his own lieutenant was much more interesting, and so was the who idea of the Cylons wanting to leave. Tigh voted to stay. No surprise. Tyrol voted to leave! Huh? I figured he was going to the dark side since mid-season but he went out on a limb to save Adama and the ship during the mutiny, and he's currently working hard on ship repairs. All of this would seem to indicate that he's still a Battlestar man at heart. Also... Boomer is back! Isn't that a compelling reason for him to want to stick around?
His vote, in my opinion, was an attempt by the writers/producers to create more tension, more pressure for Tigh and make him the one Cylon who wanted to stay. And - because I saw through their ploy - I was unaffected by it.
All told? Better than last week, but disappointing.
Highlight? Battlestar Galactica (disappointing or not, it's still frakkin' Battlestar Galactica and I'll be thinking about this episode all week)
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A Briefing With Michael: One Year Ago
Sun, Feb 22, 09 - Flying Blind, Good Morning Miami, Battlestar Galactica
