Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
05.00 Rules Of Engagement
05.30 Dan For Mayor
06.00 Damages
11.30 Hiccups
Rules Of Engagement. Season 4, Episode 3. "Atlantic City" Jeff vs. Audrey in a war of lies.
Instead of different plots for everyone, the whole episode is devoted to Jeff and Audrey with the other characters grafted (seamlessly) into the mix.
It's an amusing episode. The show's married couple play a clever chess game of lie and counter lie, with each knowing the other is lying and trying to up the stakes and counter the various bluffs. It's interesting that a show can manage to be both adorable and cynical at the same time.
And how about Oliver Hudson? Adam barely appears, but he gets great laughs when he does. Have they always written Adam as being so dumb. I don't remember it as being this bad, before, but it's very funny.
Dan For Mayor. Episode 4. "Inside the War Room" Campaign HQ
There's no real stand-out moment in this one, but it's probably the strongest episode so far. It seems as if the show has found it's feet. Scenes with Dan & Jeff were nicely balanced with scenes of Claire & Alan on the other campaign and it's suddenly made sense (to me) why (most of) these characters were on the show. Dan and Jeff are our heroes (particularly Dan who I simply adore, I want to cheer for him in every scene), Claire is torn between her fondness for Dan, her love for her soon-to-be hubby and her 'loyalty' to the campaign she's working on: the very funny Laurie Murdoch. Meanwhile, we can see that the daughter of Dan's other rival appears to have a slight crush on our hero.
Four week's in the show has built up a nice little world of characters that we like and care about and will want to see again.
Roll on next week!!
Damages. Season 3, Episode 8. "I Look Like Frankenstein" Ted Danson
I love Damages, but there are things about it that I don't understand. Why do they keep bringing the Ted Danson character back? Danson is fantastic, and I really like the character, but he really seems to have no place in such a story-driven series. His arrival in Season 2 had great shock value, but amounted to nothing.
His screen-time in this episode puzzles me. What has it got to do with anything?
However, having said that, I do agree that his character is on a fascinating personal journey and I'm happy to watch it. But, at this stage in the season, I'm more invested in the personal (final) journey of (poor) Tom Shayes.
Aside from all this: The final few minutes were very satisfying with a dizzying succession of flashforwards and flashbacks that filled in a few blanks here and there and make me eager to see what happens next.
Hiccups. Episode 3. "Office Clothes" Stan's new clothes, Millie's new office.
Has Hiccups lost it's way? I mean, what is it about? I thought (from the pilot) that it was about Stan teaching Millie to calm down a bit (even though he was clueless himself) and I liked that premise. But, in this episode, Millie and Stan barely appear together (and when they do it feels forced and pointless) and the show new appears to be about a bunch of random characters (most of whom I don't like or find funny.)
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A Briefing With Michael: One Year Ago
Rules Of Engagement, Dan For Mayor, Damages, Hiccups
