Saturday, October 20th, 2007
11:30 Bionic Woman
12:30 Corner Gas
Bionic Woman. Episode 4. Another muddled and weak outting from the worst new show of 2007 that I'm still watching. For now. I'm hanging in there on the promise of new writing from the Friday Nights Lights crew, I guess. But it's hard to care about this god-awful show. I'm so bored, at this stage, by the character of Sarah Corvus that even the performance of Katee Sackhoff cannot entertain me. I'm bored by Sarah and the total lack of direction with regard to her character. She's the enemy, she's Jamie's mentor, she's sick, she's Jae Kim's lover, she's impossible to capture, she's easy to capture. Oh My God! Yawn.
Jamie is such a dreadful lead character when compared to, say, Syndey Bristow. They face many of the same problems but, while Sydney was awesome from the first episode, Jamie is just blah week after week. She's obsessed with her sister dating older guys in a way that only TV characters ever are, she's afraid to fly (!), she can't cook without starting a fire (!), she's naive about the mission they send her on, and she makes the wrong tactical decision for emotional reasons. Worse, she fights - and later abandons - her partner behind enemy lines.
It must be said that her partner, Antonio Pope, kinda deserves what he gets for being a jackass. Although his reasoning at the end of the episode was sound (kill the nice guy who was a security risk) his treatment of Jamie at the start of the mission was atrocious. He didn't tell his mission partner, Jamie, what his plan was. And it came as a shock to her when he got her captured by the bad guys. The sort of nonsense that appears on TV from time to time, but never on Alias or something good.
Also, isn't the relationship between Jaime and her sister, Becca, the worst portrayal of sisters every seen on TV. Like almost everything else in this show, it lacks consistency. In previous episodes they are shown to fight for almost no reason and later dance around the appartment together for no logical reason (and with no apparent rhythm!). This week's dilemma is: secrets. Becca is obsessed with Jamie keeping secrets. Because that happens in real life... yeah. And it's not just a thing that happens between TV characters... yeah.
There is a lot wrong with this show. A lot. But the worst sin, at this stage, is the character of Jamie Sommers. She is a moron. Starting fires in her kitchen, fear of flying, saving enemies because they are cute guys, are all part of her repertoir in this episode. She spends most of the story in absolute agony over the fact that she has to lie to her kid sister about the reality that she has just become a top-level government agent. (A top-level government agent, by the way, incapable to generating an air-tight lie that her sister doesn't see through before the second commerical break.)
Jamie can't justify this to herself. And it has to be explained to her. Repeatedly.
Think of Sydney Bristow, think of Buffy Summers, think of Veronica Mars, think of Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson. Then think of how badly the Bionic Woman writers have missed the boat with this new character...
Corner Gas. Season 4, Episode 3. One of the funniest episodes I've ever seen. Oscar and Emma try to cut their heating bills by having Hank install a digital thermostat, but it leads to fights over temperature control. Lacey drives thru a Yield Sign and has her licence taken by Karen, the cop, after she mocks the sign. Meanwhile Davis, the other cop in town, installs a new security decal at Corner Gas, which tells the height of anyone passing by. All these plotlines (and more) intersect with an ease that is an absolute pleasure to watch. All punctuated by genuinely hilarious gags.
I especially love the following exchange, which takes place after Oscar and Emma get Hank back to their house to re-jig the digital thermostat. So, he can set it in secret he sends them outside. Where they talk about all their fighting.
Emma: "I should have never listened to that do-gooder Lacey."
Lacey: "Excuse me, I'm right here." (She is standing beside Hank's pick-up truck.)
Emma: "And why are you here again?"
Lacey: "Because Hank's my ride."
Oscar: "And why can't you drive?"
Lacey: "Because Karen is on a power trip."
Karen: "Excuse me, I'm right here." (She is parked behind Hank's pick-up truck.)
Emma: "And why are you here again?"
Karen: "I'm making sure she doesn't drive."
Oscar: "And where's Davis?"
Karen: "He's off sulking because he's shorter than me."
Emma: "I'm going back inside."
Lacey: "See you at the driving test." (Emma is the town's Driving Test tester.)
Emma walks off in a foul mood.
Karen: "You're screwed."
Highlight? Guess.
Bionic Woman, Corner Gas
Bionic Woman, Corner Gas, Taxi, The Office, Women's Murder Club
Saturday, October 13th, 2007
08:00 Women's Murder Club
08:50 Bionic Woman
09:40 The Office
10:30 Corner Gas
11:00 Taxi
Women's Murder Club. Episode 1. Angie Harmon steals the show as tough-cop Lindsay Boxer, who questions all suspects with a husky voice and - on several occasions - pulls out a gun and runs after bad guys, all sexy-like. On each occasion, the culprit runs away. Hmm. If Angie Harmon came running after me (gun drawn or not), I'd darn well stay put and see what she wanted to do. Harmon (the best thing about Baywatch Nights) is pretty much the best thing about this police procedural. Having said that, the (large) cast are all very good. This particular case was kinda lame, but I liked the show enough to want to see what happens next.
Bionic Woman. Episode 3. At this stage, three weeks in, how much you enjoyed the episode depends on how invested you are in these characters. This story is all about the two Bionic Women as they go head to head to a lot of... conversations. Long angst-ridden conversations. Several of the cast have really started to make their mark on the show, but for all the running around here, you don't get any sort of story in this episode. Just a lot of events that tie together and are part of some bigger tale that they are not prepared to reveal to us just yet. Basically, this is a small sandbox peopled by a group we didn't know four weeks ago, and we are being invited to come and watch them throw sand in each other's faces. Any potential commitment to this continuity-heavy series is not helped by the nagging feeling I have that they have left an episode out somewhere along the way.
The Office. Season 4, Episode 3. Wasn't The Office always an hour long? Didn't it always have Jim & Pam as a rock-solid, very romantic, couple in the middle of all the chaos, and wasn't Angela Kinsey always getting all the biggest laughs? Well... maybe none of those things were true until now, but now that they are true they feel so so right. The show opened with, perhaps, the cleverest/funniest/best pre-credits sequence they have ever tried. After that we got a slow, careful build up as the team prepared for a WebSite Lunch Party, sorry make that WebSite Launch Party, until around the mid-way point Michael took a Pizza Delivery Boy hostage and - after that - the episode never looked back. Highlight #1: Jim & Pam's conversation on the roof. #2: All conversations between Phyllis & Angela. #3: Take A Chance On Me (which is a series highlight, too. Ed Helms rocks.)
Corner Gas. Season 4, Episode 2. After a shaky start to the season, I was a tad worried that CG might have lost some of it's sheen for the 4th season. Not so. Back to comedy gold this week. Every plot seemed natural and the interweaving was seamless and hilarious. In some scenes, every single line of dialogue is a joke. How many times do they re-write these scripts to get them right?
Taxi. Episode 27. An early Season 2 episode which brought back Reverend Jim and got him a job working for the Sunshine Cab Company, along with Alex, Elaine and the gang. Aside from the comedy gold of Christopher Lloyd & Andy Kaufman doing their thing, it features a stand-out performance from Danny DeVito (when Jim drugs Louis to mellow him out so he will give him a job). Even that pales beside the sequence where Jim takes the test to become a Taxi Driver in New York City. "What Does A Yellow Light Mean?" he whispers to Bobby. "Slow Down!" hisses Bobby, afraid they will be heard. Jim considers this. And repeats the question... slower. And on and on it goes. The same eight words being said over and over. Slower and ever slower.
Highlight? Taxi.
Bionic Woman, Corner Gas, Friday Night Lights, October Road, The Office
Saturday, October 6th, 2007
07:50 Bionic Woman
08:40 Bionic Woman
09:20 The Office
10:10 October Road
11:00 Friday Night Lights
11:50 Corner Gas
Bionic Woman. Episodes 1. A truly awful pilot. My first time to see the new version re-affirms my problems with this mess. All of the dialogue is false. It's cut & paste stuff from loads of bad TV and bad movies. Yes, the cast is good and, yes, the action sequences are good. But when people stop to talk it is unwatchable. The minor changes (new actress, new character, new scenes) do nothing to make it any better, because the new stuff is badly written, too! Writer Laeta Kalogridis previously worked on Birds Of Prey, which I've always liked. I may have to go back and re-evaluate my thoughts on that show, as a consequence of this show.
Bionic Woman. Episode 2. Much better than the pilot. With all the exposition (clumsily) out of the way, the characters start to talk like people. Not real people, not yet, but they at least sound like TV people. Isaiah Washington & Kevin Rankin join the cast with this episode, and both are fantastic. The plot used is a direct lift from Episode 1 of The Six Million Dollar Man, and the peripheral characters are fleshed out like the characters on BSG. There's still a long way to go to make this thing "good" but, after seeing the jump made here, I'm happy to stick around and see what will happen. I've pretty much given up on Chuck and the new ABC soaps, but Bionic Woman might, just might, yet be a good TV show.
The Office. Season 4, Episode 2. I'm still loving Jim & Pam. Indeed, the show's other couples got some quality airtime in this outing, and it was all good. Mindy Kaling gave me some big laughs this week, as Kelly faked pregnancy to lure Ryan out on a date! Brilliant.
October Road. Episode 2. When Hannah finds out that Nick is staying in town, she assumes that he is doing this to get to know his son. Her son. She's right. She confronts him. He tells her he has a job. Which is a lie. So he sets about getting the job he told her he already had. This leads to some pretty funny scenes and one or two serious ones also, as Nick begins to confront the part of him that made him run away ten years ago. An absolutely great soap.
Friday Night Lights. Episode 17. From a cool (but very fake) small town to a less 'cool' (but very real) small town: Dillon, Texas. This is the episode where Julie tells Matt that they are going to have sex. Classic! Julie's mother sees him buying condoms and the trouble starts. Four of the scenes stand out for me. (1) Heartfelt conversation between mother & daughter, (2) the evening in the cabin between boyfriend & girlfriend, (3) the conversation between the parents waiting at home, and (4) the final meeting between Julie and her parents. Aimee Teegarden & Connie Britton do the best work they have done on the series so far, and Kyle Chandler & Zach Gilford aren't far behind. It's only when it's all over that you remember you've been watching actors. It's really beautiful what the are doing here: honest, clever and majestic.
Corner Gas. Season 4, Episode 1. Not the funniest outing. Wanda acting like Judge Judy goes on for too long and is overboard for the tone of this series. Likewise, Brent's new haircut, and Oscar's car trouble. Both ideas go on for too long, past the point where it's funny anymore. Rare to find an episode that's short on laughs, but this is it!
Highlight? Friday Night Lights.
