tvthatdoesntsuck

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

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