tvthatdoesntsuck

Happy Halloween!  In celebration of the holiday, today’s entry will focus only on the scariest show of the week… Supernatural.  Tomorrow, when things go back to normal, we’ll post our regular review for The Office. 

REVIEW FOR

SUPERNATURAL
Season Four
Episode Seven
“It’s The Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester”
Written by Julie Siege
Directed by Charles Beeson

Supernatural continues to be the power-house of the fall television season with another strong episode.  This is another chapter in the overall arc of the season, as Sam and Dean race to stop a witch from opening one of the sixty six seals… on Halloween no less.  There is some great character development, and the plot of this episode stretches the moral ambiguity in all new ways when Sam is forced to choose between using how powers to stop a demon nearly as power (if not more powerful) than Yellow Eyes.  There is a lot of mythology and funny one-liners thrown in as well, again proving that this is one of the most textured shows currently airing. Like the last few episodes, this lacked some of the urgency of the first few installments… but that’s to be expected.  The opening to the season was gritty, brutal, and dark, and it got some big things moving.  These episodes are building up for more big things to come, because if a show packs in so many huge events in every episode, those events start to lose their significance.  Hopefully, Heroes will eventually learn what Supernatural has mastered.  This episode served as nice build-up in the angel storyline, the sixty six seals storyline, as well as the character arcs–and I can tell something big is coming this way soon.  I think it’s going to be the revelation of exactly what happened to Dean in hell.

REVIEW FOR

Pushing Daisies
Season Two
Episode Five
“Dim Sum Lose Some”
Written by Davey Holmes
Directed by Lawrence Trilling

Things aren’t looking good for Pushing Daisies.  It was recently included in a (very short) list of shows that are in trouble.  Ratings have been declining, which makes me think that this quirky series might go the way of Bryan Fuller’s previous two shows.  And I hate to say it… but I’m not sure if I’ll be campaigning for Pushing Daisies.  Don’t get me wrong.  I like the show.  But when I watch a show made by Bryan Fuller, liking the show means that it simply isn’t as good as the previous work he’s done.  This is the dude that created Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls.  His pilot to Dead Like Me is the best pilot I’ve ever seen.  He also wrote “Company Man,” which is probably the best episode of Heroes.  Also, he’s done a good job with Pushing Daisies, but he’s just not delivering the type of material I know he’s capable of.

This week’s Pushing Daisies wasn’t better or worse than the previous week’s.  It continues the story arc about Ned’s family and delves into Emerson’s personal life, but not family-wise this time.  This week, he gets hot and heavy with Simone, the dog trainer from the first season.  It’s a funny episode and I laughed and even got a bit emotional at the end… but I can’t help but notice that the original novelty is starting to wear off.  I want this to be a show that I look forward to each week the way I look forward to shows like The Office, Weeds, Lost, and Supernatural, but it’s just not happening.  If this show is going to survive, Bryan Fuller needs to bring it.

6/10

So The Ex-List has been cancelled.  It’s honestly not a surprise.  Still doesn’t take away from the hurt.  I mean, one would think they would give the show more than four episodes, but I’m still not surprised.  Creator Diane Ruggiero left due to creative differences with the network, who wanted to make the show shitty, while Ruggiero wanted to make it not shitty.  Well, I don’t know how many episodes she was involved in, but the four we got to see were not shitty at all.  In fact, they were pretty damn good.  One thing the show couldn’t get, though?  Viewers.  It’s unfortunate, but the Friday slot on CBS is pretty much certain death, and this fresh, quirky, well-written show–like many before it–just couldn’t survive.

I’ll miss the show, but it’s certainly not heartbreaking.  We didn’t get to know it enough for it to be.  One thing that does add a little salt to the wound, though?  Moonlight fans.

I’ve seen crabby fans.  Hell, if I liked the show I’d be crabby too.  It was cancelled.  They have a right to be crabby.  But here is the thing that makes the Moonlight fandom literally the worst fandom of all time.  They’re bitter, mean, and–frankly–stupid.  You’ll have to excuse me if you’re a Moonlight fan and you don’t engage in the type of behavior type of behavior I’m about to describe, because you’re the exception to the rule.  But from the first trailer of The Ex-List, from the minute these Loughlin lovers discovered that this show would be airing in their precious slot that Moonlight used to occupy, they flamed the show.  They flamed the actors involved in the show.  They flamed the people producing the show.  They made The Ex-List a scapegoat for the cancellation of Moonlight, and are now literally throwing a party in the comment section of Ausiello’s blog about the cancellation of The Ex-List.  One would think that Moonlight fans, like fans of let’s just say any fandom would be sympathetic that another show got cancelled.  Nope.  Let’s have a look at what Moonlight fans are saying.

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“Good! I’m a mourning Moonlight fan, and this news thrills me big time. “

“I agree with the Moonlight people. I am slightly pleased that the show that Moonlight got CANNED for went down the tube so fast.”

“Yes, as a former Moonlight fan, I did break a smile this morning when I read this. “

“For me, The Ex-List ended when they cancelled Moonlight”

“Serves Nina Tassler right! Stupid woman. Yes, I’m a bitter Moonlight fan. I’ve accepted that my show is over, but that doesn’t mean I can’t gloat! :-)”

“Who’s running CBS?!?!?!?! They pulled Moonlight for this ?!?!?!?!?!”

And my personal favorite:  “Ha, I am glad that chick got shut down! Hope they bring back Moonlight or put Flashpoint on….”

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So the bitter and mean parts are pretty obvious.  But let me point out the stupid.  Is it because they’re in love with a show that is wholly derivative of other modern shows?  Nah.  Is it because their show literally takes scenes from Buffy and Angel, and treats the best member of their cast, Jason Dohring, like the funny next door neighbor?  Nah.  Is it because the entire plot of the vampire’s sire coming back as human was copied beat for beat from the second season of Angel?  Nah.  Was it that the acting, other than Dohring and a few guest stars, sucked?  Nah.  Is it because Moonlight has absolutely no internal logic?  Nah.  That doesn’t make the fans stupid.  Hell, the show was definitely a far cry better than your average reality program, so even though it was a Godawful show, it doesn’t make the fans of the show stupid.  What makes them stupid is the fact that they think the cancellation of Moonlight is The Ex-List’s fault.  They must think that these shows are living creatures, and that The Ex-List bullied Moonlight off the playground.  Wake up, people.  That is not how this works.  Moonlight was cancelled because the network didn’t like how it was going.  The Ex-Listwas cancelled because of low ratings.  You don’t blame a show’s replacement for your show’s cancellation.  That.  Is. F***ing. Stupid.

Were Angel fans upset when their show was cancelled?  Of course they were.  Did they blame it on the show’s replacement.  Of course not.  No one does that.  They petitioned for a movie.

Were Veronica Mars fans upset when their show was cancelled?  Of course they were.  Hell, I cried when they cancelled that show.  Did they blame it on the show’s replacement.  Of course not.  No one does that.  They helped organize a crew, made a bunch of petitions, and just got news that Rob Thomas met with Kristen Bell to talk about a Veronica Mars movie.

Were Firefly, Wonderfalls, Roswell, Dead Like Me…. ah, you get the point.  Just understand, Moonlight fans, that  no one does what you are doing.

Moonlight fans… just do what everyone else does.  Continue to petition.  It’s probably too late for a renewal of your show, but go for a movie.  It worked with two of the above examples, and a third is in talks.  A fourth is being continued in a comic series, and a fifth is going to cross over with a current show.  Don’t blame other shows for your shows downfall, and definitely don’t rejoice in the cancellation of other shows.

RIP The Ex-List

REVIEW FOR

HEROES
Season Three
Episode Seven
“Eris Quod Sum”
Written by Jesse Alexander
Directed by Jeannot Szwarc

The good definitely outweighs the bad in this episode, though there was indeed some bad to be passed around.  Let’s get to that first.  I’m not sure how many more twists they can put in each episode.  Major characters die like it’s nothing… but wait, it was a trick!  But wait, that actually was a trick too because someone involved in that aforementioned trick is actually working for a trickster who is tricking the initial trickster!  I wish the story was strong enough to not rely so heavily on tricks… hell, I wish they’d just watch the first season over and over again so they could re-learn how to do what they used to do.  And that’s deliver constant 9/10, 10/10 Lost-quality episodes.  Plot holes come with the medium sometimes, but let’s try and not make them so gaping.

On the positive side, Elle is back.  Also, there is a pretty great Veronica Mars reference from Lyle.  When they discover that Elle has broken into the house, Lyle says “The bitch is back,” which is a direct reference to V-Mar’s finale.  The Elle/Claire stuff was good, and I still am in love with what they’re doing with Sylar.  They’ve made an increasingly stale character (as of Season Two) suddenly the most interesting member of the growing character collection, and I can do nothing but respect that.  I’m sort of shocked that they’re killing off all the villains that were being built up in Season Two (I mean, the disposal of Season Two’s Big Bad Adamwas necessary for Arthur Petrelli to rise up (quite literally), but the villain they killed in yesterday’s episode hardly got a chance to be badass… and Season One set him up to be even worse than Sylar.  Overall, the great stuff about this episode is gold, which already makes it as good as last weeks, but I just wish there could be more consistency in the show.

8/10

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Bad News

The Ex-List has been cancelled.  Since there is no Fringe on tonight, I’ll be talking about that tomorrow.  Out of all the new shows, honestly, how is The Ex-List the first to go?

CBS gets a -16.

REVIEW FOR

True Blood
Season One
Episode Eight
“The Fourth Man in the Fire”
Written by Alexander Woo
Directed by Michael Lehmann

True Blood was good this week.  It wasn’t exceptional, like it’s been the past few times, but it was a solidly entertaining hour.  I thought the explanation behind Bill’s survival could have been explained more… or just betterfor that matter.  The way it is, it seemed like a cheap twist to leave viewers shocked, backed up by a really flimsy explanation.  Maybe it will be fleshed out in later episodes, but I think they should have taken the time to tell us.  Also, they seem to have forgotten that Bill’s proclamation of “Sookie is mine” was just a way to get other vampires to stay away from her.  Now he’s saying “you’re mine” in private conversations.  “You’re my girlfriend” is fine.  “You’re mine,” used the way it was in this episode, is not so fine.  Aside from those two quibbles about Sookie/Bill, the episode was very enjoyable.  I thought Stephen Moyer (Bill) continues to improve on a weekly basis, and it was really cool to see him and Sookie interact with the kids they were babysitting, which humanized both of them.  I also liked how the show plays on audience expectation a lot.  Jason seemed to be changing for the better due to his new girl… but that may not be the case.  Rene seemed as if he were about to be killed… but something unexpected and wonderful happened.  I also really liked the stuff with the television loving vampire and Lafayette.  So absurd and really kind of sad.  Aside from some kinks that I really think should have been worked out in the script stage, this was another very good episode.

7/10

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REVIEW FOR

Sanctuary
Season One
Episode Five
“Kush”
Written by Damian Kindler
Directed by Martin Wood

Surprisingly, Sanctuary did not suck this week.  I don’t know what the hell it was, but everything seemed to be better.  The main action (at least 90%) of the episode is shot inside a crashed plane, which was an actual set, not CGI, which already puts this episode ahead of the others because it actually looks real.  The CGI was saved for some snowy landscape scenes, which actually didn’t look bad.  The acting was good, and even Amanda Tapping–the most overrated actress of this television season–wasn’t bad.  And while I had the “twist” in the last act figured out before the second act was over, it was well done.  It certainly wasn’t great, nor was it among the best episodes I’ve seen this week, but it was good enough to truly shock me.  When a show that has been consistently spewing out episodes as bad as Sanctuaryhas been doing, it really gives a jolt to the system when they deliver an episode that is actually good.  And, I have to say, this one was.  Which actually means more work for me, because it bought two more episodes of my time.  If the next two episodes are at the same caliber as this one was, I might just stick around.

6/10

REVIEW FOR

The Ex-List
Season One
Episode Four
“Do You Love Me, Do You Surfer… Boy”
Written by Matt McGuinness
Directed by Tamra Davis

I’m starting to really like this show.  After four episodes, it’s getting close to I’m-buying-this-season-on-DVD status.  This time around, Bella runs into an ex (surprise, right?) who is a former beach bum, current business man posing as a beach bum to make a profit off of his image.  The twists and turns in this episode keep the premise–which could easily wear thin and become monotonous–alive, keeping the readers and characters on their toes.  I also love and, as a writer, look up to the way the writers always have all of the main characters involved in their own subplot, which never takes away from the main arc of the episode.  It just makes each act of the show seem very full and textured.

8/10

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REVIEW FOR

Life on Mars
Season One
Episode Two and Three
“The Real Adventures of the Unreal Sam Tyler” / “My Maharshi is Bigger than Your Maharishi”
Written by Brian Oh / Written by Tracy McMillan
Directed by Michael Katleman / Directed by Michael Pressman

Sorry I missed out on this one last week.  There’s so much good television out right now that it’s really hard to make myself stay on top of the newer shows.  I’m glad I DVRed the second and third episodes, though, because they were actually very good.  Every bit as good as the premiere, and the third was even a bit better.  The series tackles current issues like homosexuality and war protesters, setting up nice conflicts between Sam with his modern outlook on things and his department, with their archaic 1973 prejudices.  There are a few moments during the show where I felt a guilty pang in my chest, though, because I take a firm stance against police procedurals which, by and large, f***ing suck.  But this is innovative enough with a big enough twist to avoid getting pulled into that blanket of meh, and I’m glad that each episode keeps the plot focused around Sam’s very odd situation, instead of letting him grow accustomed to his surroundings like I feared he would.

7/10

For the review of this week’s SUPERNATURAL and THE OFFICE, scroll down a post.  If you are a n00b and/or lazy, you can also just click here.

Now, onto new business…

REVIEW FORPUSHING DAISIES
Season Two… so far
Created by Brian Fuller
(more credits will be listed below)

I didn’t catch Pushing Daisies last season, and due to the late release of the DVD this September, I had to haul ass to watch it in time to be all caught up by the time the second season hit the tube.  Well, it was an impossible feat.  Thankfully, my trusty DVR has been storing all the episodes for me, and I’m finally caught up.

A lot has happened.  This season seems to focus more on longer story arcs than the first season did, because within the span of three episodes, Olive gets to a nunnery, Emerson Cod takes his search for his daughter to the… pop-up books, Chuck decides to move out, and Ned begins to learn how to deal with his loneliness.  Aunts Lilly and Vivian also take a huge step… out of the house and into the Pie Hole, which causes major issues with Chuck.  The show continues to make what seems silly end up heartfelt and well done.  Hell, Olive was a freaking nun in training and it didn’t suck.  How is that possible?

Much like the entire first season, none of the episodes really stand out as being great.  I really did enjoy “Bad Habits,” but what really gets me about this show is the little things, such as Emerson Cod’s book (”Lil’ Gumshoe”) designed to help his daughter find him.  I loved Ned’s decision about living arrangements at the end of this week’s episode, “Frescorts.”  I’m thrilled that this show continues to be so strange and so innovative each week, though I’m still truly waiting for the show’s first great episode.  Bryan Fuller’s first episode of Dead Like Me was at the great level.  The entire last act of Fuller’s Wonderfalls was.  I hope it comes soon from Pushing Daisies.

7/10

CREDITS:
2×01: Bzzzzzzz! (Written by Brian Fuller. Directed by Adam Kane.)
2×02: Circus Circus (Written by Peter Ocko. Directed by Lawrence Trilling.)
2×03: Bad Habits (Written by Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts. Directed by Peter O’Fallon.)
2×04: Frescorts (Written by Lisa Joy, Gretchen J. Berg, and Aaron Haberts. Directed by Peter Lauer.)

REVIEW FOR

SUPERNATURAL
Season Four
Episode Six
“Yellow Fever”
Written by Andrew Dabb and Daniel Loflin
Directed by Philip Sgriccia

It says a lot about a show when the weakest episode of its current season is this good.  It’s not as funny as last week’s episode, not as emotionally poignant as the first four episodes, nor is it as scary as Supernatural’s best spookers.  It doesn’t really even touch on the major arc of the season that much, other than hinting at what Dean feels about Sam.  The first half of it dragged a little bit… but, in watching it, I realized that even the parts that were a bit slower were among the best television I’ve seen this week.  The Dean/Sam banter is witty, and the mystery of the week goes from meh to fantastic about halfway through.  I’ve noticed the writers struggling for a while to get around the “Oh, there’s a ghost?  Just burn the body!” problem they’ve had, which led to a lack of ghost-centric episodes, and I think the twist they put on that here was great.  Overall, not the best episode, but still very entertaining.  What was the best, though?  The episode ends with an outtake of Jensen Ackles lip-synching “Eye of the Tiger.”  That was funny as all hell.

7/10

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REVIEW FOR

THE OFFICE
Season Five
Episode Four
“Crime Aid”
Written by Charlie Grandy
Directed by Jennifer Celotta

As Michael and Holly take their relationship to the next level, Jim deals with the impact Pam’s stay in New York is having on their relationship.  Also, the office gets robbed, which leads Michael to come up with the brilliant plan of hosting an auction of worthless goods and/or services to get some of the money back.  It’s an entertaining episode, and really pushes the characters stories forward nicely.  The absence of the Jim/Pam dynamic is starting to bring the season down a bit, but on the other hand, their increasingly stilted relationship is creating a really tense dramatic effect, especially in comparison to Michael/Holly.  Overall, this—like most of the season, other than the fantastic premiere—was a funny, but average episode.

7/10

REVIEW FOR

FIRE AND ICE
A Sci-Fi Channel Original Movie
Written by Michael Konyves and Angela Mancuso
Directed by Pitof
Starring Amy Acker, Tom Wisdom, John Rhys-Davies, and Arnold Vosloo (Habib Marwan from 24!)

Okay, my first TV movie review.  To be honest, the only reason I watched this film was because it had Amy Acker in it.  She played Fred and Illyria on Angel and is probably the most underrated actress working today.  She wasn’t given much to work with in this movie, but that’s basically because it’s so plot driven and quite short (two hours, with commercials).  The basic gist of the movie is this.  A fire dragon attacks King Augustin’s (Vosloo) kingdom, so his daughter Princess Luisa (Acker) takes the initiative to enlist the help of a known dragon killer to save them.  Turns out, said dragon killer is dead, survived by his equally skilled son, Gabriel (Wisdom) and his witty/large/valiant friend, Sangimel (Rhys-Davies).  There are a lot of fantasy tropes at work here, and none of it is really innovative, but I think the movie achieves what it intended to–create a plot-driven story with somewhat likable characters that fight dragons.  At the film’s best, it’s cathartic (mostly thanks to the great score, and Acker’s acting) and at worst it’s cheesy, but never cringe worthy.

The worst thing about the movie is probably the tree people, who are as bad as Power Rangervillains.  They’re literally dudes with leaves taped to their bodies who make tribal sounds as they attack Luisa.  Mercifully, that scene was short.  Another huge problem I had was the audio.  Re-dubbing was used expansively in this film; I don’t know if there was a problem that they couldn’t use mics or had bad sound, but every line of Paxian’s (Augustin’s advisor) dialogue was horribly dubbed over.  The acting as a whole wasn’t fantastic or terrible, but I have to say, as much as I love, praise, and worship Amy Acker, it took a while to get used to the British accent she was made to do.

Overall, it was a surprisingly enjoyable film.  I came for the Acker and stayed for the… well, mostly still the Acker, but at least I enjoyed the stay!

6/10

REVIEW FOR

FRINGE
Season One
Episode Six
“The Cure”
Written by Felicia D. Henderson and Brad Caleb Kane

Fringe is losing me.  I’m certainly not going to stop watching the show any time soon, but I’m definitely losing the initial feeling of interest I had for the show.  This episode, like the last one, and like every Fringe episode other than 1×04, was just okay.  There were some good things about it, and it seemed a lot more eventhan most of the episodes, but it never went to the next level for me.  The attempts at character driven subplots–the letter from Olivia’s dad, Peter’s ominous agreement with Nina Sharp–were interesting and helped save this episode from being a 3 or 4/10, but I can’t help but feel that this is CSI: Ten Years Into the Future.  The experiments they’re doing are, of course, fringescience (hence the title) but it seems as if they’re almost scared to go into the mythos the started developing in 1×04.  Maybe they want to save that for later in the series, or go the route of The X-Files and only make the “big” episodes centered around the real plot of the series.  Maybe they want to go the Lost way of things and give us answers a little bit at a time.  That totally works for Lost, because Lost is guaranteed two more seasons and is structured like one uber long movie.  It’s just not working for Fringe, because Fringe is largely episodic, and when they never delve into the mythology and only scratch the surface of the supernatural, these mysteries of the week lost the intrigue that the show is–in my opinion–supposed to have had.  Don’t get me wrong, this wasn’t a bad episode.  It’s just not as good as the show could/should be.

 Fringewon’t air a new episode until 11/11/08.  Maybe, like Joss Whedon did with Dollhouse, the creative team have taken some time to improve scripts.  Hopefully, that is the case.

5/10