Dollhouse: "Belle Chose" by Matthew J. Brady
Serial killers! Slutty college girls! Long-distance mind-swapping! Dollhouse's costume department! This episode has it all, or at least some of it. Plus, more Battlestar Galactica spill-over, with Michael "my eye grew back" Hogan showing up as a Dollhouse investor whose nephew is a psycho kidnapper. It's only a small role, but it's a decent one, and maybe he'll show up again at some point. The plot involves Victor being imprinted with the crazy guy's mind so they can interrogate him (he's in a coma from a car accident, and we've gotta find his victims before time runs out! This show will steal every plot it can get its hands on), but he escapes and leads them on a merry chase through LA. At the same time, Echo is off having (pseudo-)pseudo-intellectual discussions with a college professor in hopes of seducing him and raising her grade (she's so dumb she thinks "medieval" is halfway between "beginner's evil" and "advanced evil"! Oh, my sides), because he's too nebbishy to actually fuck a real student. And so, it's a typical thing, with complications and tense scenes and jokes like we've come to expect.
The thing is, there are some interesting moments where--
Sarah (Matt's wife): Hey, what are you doing wasting time talking about this junk?
Matt: Excuse me? What are you--
Sarah: You know what you really want to talk about, the REAL exciting thing we saw last week.
Matt: You mean--?
Sarah: That's right, the So You Think You Can Dance tour! Why bother with your silly shows when you've got that?
Matt: Well, it wasn't really TV--
Sarah: It's from a TV show! Come on, we watch it every week, and you knew all those dancers by name!
Matt: Uh, that's true, but that's just from absorbing the information secondhand.
Sarah: Oh, come off it, you're there next to me on the couch every time, excited to see all the leaps and twirls. You love every sequined, sexy minute of it.
Matt: Maybe not every minute, but I do enjoy the artistry and physicality of the dancing, and it's fascinating to see the impressive results of professional choreography and what has to be a less-than-optimal amount of practice over such a short period of time from week to week.
Sarah: See, I knew this was what you wanted to talk about. So, what did you think of the show?
Matt: It was pretty good. I was impressed how much I was able to see even from our cheap nosebleed seats. The movement of the dances were very clear even from that distance, and it was interesting to be able to see the whole thing, without having the viewing angles chosen by an editor. And man, those dancers are pretty incredible, just amazing to watch how much they're in control of their bodies and how well they can communicate the artistry and emotion of the dances. But what about you? You're the one who really wanted to go.
Sarah: I loved it. It was amazing to see those beautiful dances performed live in front of me. However, I was disappointed that they only had two new routines for the live show, both group dances. Everything else, even the solos, were recycled from the TV show. That made for an interesting new way of seeing some of those routines though. The zombie dance that Jason and Kayla did was amazing this time, but I thought the one that Jeanine and Phillip did suffered from not being able to see the details of their smaller movements. And the dancer that really impressed me was Kayla; she wasn't my favorite on the show, but she was beautiful on stage.
Matt: Yeah, that's for sure. Me, I loved watching Phillip's solo; man, that guy can move. Brandon and Jeanette were pretty awesome together as well; they did four separate routines from the show, all excellent.
Sarah: I wish they had done my favorite dance of theirs, that tango!
Matt: True, true. And some of the group routines were amazing to see when you're watching everybody move around on a stage rather than seeing them on a screen. It was pretty awesome, overall, although I could have used more dancing and less video.
Sarah: I know! They kept showing clips from the show, and were always talking about what the judges said when they introduced the dances. I don't care if Nigel called it "the greatest cha-cha he's ever seen." Less talk and more dance already!
Matt: I guess they gotta keep the branding and the non-dancer personalities prevalent in everyone's mind. So, we're agreed then? It was a great experience?
Sarah: Yes! I want to go next year too!
Matt: We'll see about that. Can I go back to what I was doing now?
Sarah: If you must.
Okay, so, yeah, Dollhouse was good this week. I've forgotten whether I had anything else to say about it, except that the thing they do at the end of episodes, where Echo exhibits some personality trait of whatever she was imprinted with, is kind of tired now that she can basically retrieve memories and personalities at will. Unless they're trying to indicate that the serial killer persona might be fighting for dominance in her mind. That's interesting stuff, kind of a Crazy Jane vibe. I like it. Yeah, this episode was exciting and full of stuff to think about; let's keep this trend going, please.
Bored to Death: "The Case of the Stolen Skateboard" by David Brothers
Bored to Death is, right now, the dictionary definition of a show you tune into because nothing else is on. We're four episodes in and so far, it's just kind of okay. The hook is cool. Jonathan Ames is a novelist whose girlfriend has left him, who is having trouble with his new novel, and who really, really needs to grow a spine. Instead of doing that, he hops on Craigslist and offers his services as an unlicensed PI. It's less illegal that way, apparently.
Surprisingly, the show isn't really a Mystery of the Week setup. Instead, Ames brings it up whenever he can, often to perfect strangers. He comes off as fairly desperate for approval, like the kid on the block whose dad works at the toy factory and he can get you some toys if you want them i mean it's no big deal, okay? It feels like he's saying "Hire me!" pretty often. His boss is Ted Danson, here playing a pervert stoner, and when he calls, Ames has to come running. Doesn't matter where he is. It's the kind of relationship that needs either clearer boundaries ("Yeah, Ames, my lady is walking around topless while we talk about business, what's the problem?") or to be cut off completely.
What's entertaining about it, though, is that he's fairly interesting in his weakness. In this episode, he takes a case mainly because the housewife is pretty cute (she's Parker Posey, if you're wondering) and reminds him of his mother. No, really- she babies her son, who is apparently allergic to everything, and Ames shares a lovely story about his mother protecting him as a child. Then they make out on her kitchen floor. I mean, c'mon-- am I the only one making this connection?
The case is retrieving her sickly son's skateboard (why is a kid allergic to air skateboarding, anyway?) from some New York City-Brand Teenaged Thugs. They're just 16, though, no big deal. Except Ames is a skinny guy, pretty much a coward, and rather than just being honest, he tries to use trickery to get the ride. He comes off like a pedophile or someone begging to be robbed. "Hey do you guys know where this other kid hangs out?" he asks, wearing a trenchcoat and flashing money.
Bored to Death is basically about a self-centered guy who is trying to be accepted by others. What's good for us is that he's clueless in a "well off New York resident" way. It's a good show in a flipping through channels, "oh, it's this show, cool," sort of way. I wouldn't rush out to watch it, but if it falls into my lap, I won't complain.
Mad Men - "Wee Small Hours" by Sean Witzke
Hey look the masturbation couch is back!
Connie Hilton calling Don Draper up in the middle of the night, asking Don about the morality of instinct and shit. He wants "Hiltons on the moon, that's where we're headed", and offers Don his international business. Betty compares the baby to Hilton, Don goes into work early, most likely still drunk from the night before. The hippy teacher who's been throwing it at Don is out jogging, both of them pause as MLK speaks on the radio. Don's all fucked up on Connie's words and he's thinking about god and destiny and the teacher's whole tolerance deal isn't helping. Coffee is used as a euphamism for fucking too. That's not new. It's raining in both the city and by Betty's house. Betty writes her boyfriend a letter. Don is disgusted by his underling, notably Peggy. Don drives by the same spot looking for the teacher to no avail. Betty's still an awful mother. Betty maintains a sexually-charged correspondence w/ that guy, which now has the added pleasure of crappy voiceover narration. Salvatore is still not comfortable having sex with a man, which must suck for him. The Lucky Strike commercial subplot is a nice dig at the way things are suddenly about to change, with the son of the head of Lucky Strike being smarter about his commercial than the ad-men are. The two shitheads - fat guy in glasses and fat communist bearded guy - get more play here. I'm still not learning their names, but the Lucky Strikes guy tries to fire Sal through fat guy with glasses. Don and Connie drink prohibiton-era booze and Connie pours his heart out to Don. "It's my purpose in life to bring America to the world, whether they like it or not". Connie believes in Manifest Destiny, but in a culture-war way. It's interesting, because he's so nice about it. It's not a malicious Reagan-era fucking commies logic, it's a guy who actually wants to defeat the communists by being a better man than they are. God is on his side, simply by the logic that the comminists don't believe in God. Betty and that Henry guy escalate fast, and he shows up at her house and they come really damn close to screwing. They've both got it bad, and Bettty's snap at the end of the last episode is going to result in her fucking around on Don instead of doing something about it. We all saw that coming. Lucky Strikes guy shows up, gets Sal fired. Roger Sterling (who is a fucking cocksucker) dumps it on Don, because he's a cocksucker. Don Draper doesn't give a fuck if Sal's gay, really. Not at all, he just doesn't want him fucking with his money. "You people" as a pejorative for maybe the first time ever on this show, and it's Don firing Sal not for being gay, but for turning Lucky Strike guy down. Lesson one of Mad Men is DO NOT fuck with Don Draper's money. Connie Hilton's hat is so ridiculous that it completely takes the seriousness of Don's presentation down a few dozen pegs. Don's conversion of Hilton's earlier speech into the ad campaign is interesting, because Don essentially sells American obsolescence back to itself, instead of the saving-grace speech of Connies, Don's missed the point entirely. The two of them argue about Don promising Connie the Moon, both literally and figuratively. The two of them don't really understand each other and that's going to become more and more important as the series goes on, I think. At Betty's fundraiser we hear rich white people try to be tolerant even as their black maid collects their coats, and a hacky line of "I voted for Kennedy once I think I'll do it again". Hint hint. Hey did you know that Kennedy's gonna die this season? It's not like they haven't hinted at it before or anything. Henry finds out that Betty is fucking crazy, and even as she pushes for an affair, she leaves him hanging. This isn't going to end well. Roger Sterling tells Don "I'm here to put you on notice", Don could clearly care less. MLK dies off-frame, Betty says something hurtful about it to her black maid because she's Betty. Don lies to his wife about Hilton calling, because the only thing that's going to set his life right just now is screwing that hippy teacher, who is giving off almost as many mixed signals as Betty has been. Honestly? This episode was terrible.
House: "Instant Karma" by Nina Stone
What gives you more power, knowledge or money? Or drugs? Or God?
Okay, seriously those are the only four choices. (Fucking is a kind of money.) Now, you know how House feels about God or anything remotely spiritual. He loves to balk at it, and the writers of this show love to dangle the possibilities of the supernatural at work in our lives here and there, now and then.
In this episode, we have the struggles of a father, a billionaire father of a sick son that, of course, no one in the rest of the world can properly diagnose. With all the power of a man who knows he can buy anything, this man demands House as his doctor. And gets him, although House is not in charge, Foreman is. (Pretty much in name only, though.) Long story short, this man is convinced that he is not totally powerless over his sons [at one time in the episode] incurable disease. He believes that he has way too much good fortune in one area of his life, and the balance is off. He seems to think he's being punished by God or "the gods." So, after receiving the news of his son's incurable disease, he signs away all of his money. He bankrupts himself, in order to control the outcome. Weird thing is, that House in a usual end-of-show moment of briliance figures out what's really wrong and the kid doesn't die. The father says, "It worked." House says, "The medicine worked." The father smugly, joyfully smiles and just repeats, "it worked."
I usually like episodes when we get a little taste of some form of spirituality. But in this case, I was not rooting for this guy and his theory. Like, this time, when you ask, "Was it God or was it House?" It was House. All House. God does not get my vote in this one. Often I'm all for those episodes and little instances the writers put in, in the hopes of seeing House believe in something greater than, well, himself. But in this case, I'm rooting for House. The father's arrogance was off putting. And the story didn't really hold my interest. (I'd also seen the actor in a scene from the movie Shaft the night before, and he was really horrible in it. He said "Shaft, you gotta pick a color: black...OR BLUE." It was really stupid.)
There was a lot going on in House under the theme of power - who has it, who doesn't, etc. I thought maybe I was grasping at straws to find a theme and a bigger topic than, well, the actual episode. But my re-watch confirmed my hunch. I mean, just look at all this dialogue that came of at various times:
House discussing Foreman being in charge with Cutty:
H: He loves Power. And I love puzzles.
C: You love power and puzzles.
H: True. But when I had them both....
What? He was a drug addict? Or a not-so-nice person? That was fine with the viewers of America. We loved him like that. And see, at the end of the day, the end of the episode, it's clear that knowledge gives you more power than money. House is smarter than everyone. Even when he's not trying. So, he gets what he wants - whether by manipulating people, or by being able to figure out impossible things. He wins. Money can buy you House. But money can't turn you into House. When the dude is getting ready to sign away his life and everyone's trying to convince him not too, someone says to him, that his son is dying and it has nothing to do with Karma. He says:
Father: No. He's not dying. I'm not going to let him.
House: People don't get what they deserve. They get what they get. There's nothing you can do about it.
Which was interesting to hear, coming from the man who will do anything to get what he wants. ;)
Fringe: "Momentum Deferred" by Matthew J. Brady
"Why are shapeshifting soldiers from another universe stealing frozen heads?" Yes! Good question! But really, it's the answer as to why the hell I watch this show. Ideally, it would be constant bits of ridiculousness like this, with any random moment from the show being enough to freak out somebody who walked into the room. That's good TV right there.
Anyway, this episode gets back onto the "enjoyably stupid" side of the divide, with the revelation/clarification/confirmation that our world (or the Fringe equivalent) has been infiltrated by a bunch of shapeshifter agents, not just the one that took the place of Olivia's partner, and they're just the first wave in an interdimensional war that promises to see one universe completely destroyed. That should make for some good TV-style effects; hopefully they'll figure out a way to work in some Kirby dots. There's also a plot about a girl who Walter experimented on many years ago by dosing her up with lots of LSD who could see into the other universe, so for the hell of it, they look her up and dose her again. It's a pretty pointless thing to do, since it goes nowhere, but we do get the implication that Walter fucked her way back then, totally messing up her life in more ways than one. The show never comes out and confirms that fact, but it seems pretty obvious, given the flirty looks the now-middle-aged lady keeps shooting him, her perfect memory of everything about him, and her willingness to get experimented on at the drop of the hat. The actress who plays her makes it seem like this is the culmination of some life goal, but the fact that a mad scientist fucked up her mind and disappeared into a mental institution for 20 years doesn't bode well for any future relationship.
The real centerpiece of the episode though is the revelation of what happened when Olivia met with Leonard Nimoy (as the other mad scientist of the series, William Bell) in the other universe, and he delivered a bunch of exposition to her about wars between universes and the bad guys' intention to open a door and kill everyone or something (although, since they can already send people back and forth all the time, a door doesn't seem like it would make much difference). But the best part is the way he ends it, by throwing her through a window of his office, which, as you might remember, is on an upper floor of the still-standing World Trade Center. It sort of makes sense in context, but it's still pretty hilarious.
I think I'm just watching this show to see what sort of ridiculous silliness happens next, but when it's a week like this, man is it worth it. More guys drinking mercury and twitching spastically because their shapeshifter bodies are dying, please, or Walter doing a Jason Woodrue and feeding Olivia flatworms (I don't know if they intended that reference, since they had to be really obvious about mentioning Invasion of the Body Snatchers). That's the stuff.
Dexter: "Blinded By The Light " by Tucker Stone
Well, John Lithgow killed somebody again this week. It wasn't as horrifying/well-shot as his previous murder, the one where he stripped naked and then gave some poor lady the worst bath ever, but it was relatively efficient.
That was, until he said "Mommy" while looking at the body. It went unmentioned last week, but part of the problem with Lithgow's character is that the writers seem to believe that Lithgow is as bad an actor as some of the rest of the Dexter cast. Besides that exposition-only (and basically unworkable) line, a previous episode saw Lithgow stuck making it clear to the viewer that he had grabbed a stray dog as cover when stalking his most recent victim. The thing was, it was obvious that he didn't own the dog--throwing in a "hey, just in case you're a moron" line just made the character seem like a fake imitation of The Ultimate Serial Killer that Agent Lundy keeps painting him as. Which--well, that's understandable. Lithgow's character is an archetypal horror show, a unstoppable, untraceable wisp of a man. He even comes complete with the "lone wolf" description, a background clearly painted to tantalize Dexter, who remains trapped in a domestic prison he's created. But if Lithgow is self-reliant enough to have gotten away with 30 years of cross-country serial killing (so well that his existence is believed in by only a few), then why the hell does he keep standing around in public places verbalizing his own thoughts, tactics and motives?
It's a lot more fun to focus on Lithgow at this point, anyway. This episode also saw Dexter take on Tim O'Neil's description of "terrible vigilante", complete with facemask, just to scare the local neighborhood vandal. There was even a scene where he ran around the neighborhood trying to evade the neighborhood watch, who were all wearing mining headlamps. If you wanted to start talking about jumping the shark--well, you're an asshole, but hey--now would be the time.
Sons of Anarchy - "Falx Cerebri" by Tucker Stone
God, just look at that title. It's not like Sons can get away calling itself "Bikers, NERTZ", but gawd damn man, "Falx Cerebri"? Who are you fucking kidding, television show?
Last week's episode implied, strongly, that this week would include gunplay. And while it did have a shootout, where the excellently cast children of Henry Rollins shot at Jax only to find their little one-on-one shootout turn into a gigantic "seven bikers fire 70 or so rounds blindly towards the bunkbeds of a couple of neo-Nazi children" clusterfuck, no one died in the entire episode. Nobody even got hit by any stray bullets, which outta tell you something. The final showdown--the one that had been pumped up in the "next week on Sons"--consisted of Henry Rollins firing a handgun into a podium to set up the bikers for a good old fashioned police round-up. Meanwhile, Jax found the one actor on the show that's worse than him--the "good" cop--and spent most of the episode playing his faux partner. Thankfully for Jax, all of Katey Segal's scenes were with that horrible woman who plays Girlfriend of Jax, and almost every scene went like this:
Girlfriend: Will it always be like this.
Katey Segal: No. It calms down.
Girlfriend: Down.
Katey Segal: [waits, looks confused]
Girlfriend: What is this. [points to gun]
Katey Segal: What? It's a gun. I have lots of them. It's a gun.
Girlfriend: It is a gun.
Katey Segal: [Confused, looking at cameraman.] what's wrong with her? are you..do you want to cut?
Girlfriend: What is this. [points to cup]
Katey Segal: It's a cup. [to cameraman] no, fuck this. I got shit to do today, you deal with it. [Leaves]
Girlfriend: What is this. [points to gun again]
That's pretty much the entire episode, excepting the part where Opie ran his motorcycle into a car and ended up flying into the back window of the car. Because he's Opie--the only guy on the show that can act and is granted lines that aren't completely fucking stupid--he scrambled onto the ground and got back on his motorcycle. Like a champion. After that, he went back and found out that the lion's share of his biker gang had been arrested in one big group, and the viewer found out that the next episode of Sons of Anarchy is going to consist of all of the non-Opie actors doing their own version of Shawshank.
Which--well. That's one way to go with it.
-Matthew J. Brady, Sarah Brady, David Brothers, Sean Witzke, Nina & Tucker Stone, 2009
Roger Sterling is a goddamn fictional national treasure.
Posted by: AERose | 2009.10.15 at 03:49
That exchange between Jax's girlfriend and Peg Bundy is hilarious. I think the show's a guilty pleasure for me, but that part and the cop's acting were bad tv.
I still like the soap opera aspect of the show with Jax everyday looking more and more like the bad guy with the SoA. I think that's the most interesting part of the show for me and what keeps me coming back.
Posted by: Jacob | 2009.10.15 at 13:29
And I just realized a couple of days ago that Jax is the British roommate from Judd Apatow's Undeclared. I actually thought he was kind of annoying there.
Posted by: Jacob | 2009.10.15 at 13:33
MLK was killed in 1968. The thing the Drapers' maid - Carla - is listening to the radio about is the bombing of a black church in Birmingham, Alabama, and the four little girls killed therein.
Posted by: John Pontoon | 2009.10.15 at 15:52
One L, cocksucker.
Posted by: Tim O'Neil | 2009.10.15 at 15:55
The extra L stood for "love", dicklicker.
I'm probably on board with Anarchy for the time being, mostly due to Kurt Sutter. But man, they're casting this show with a bunch of numbskulls. People like Segal and Perlman can and have done good work before, but all of their scenes are with charisma vampires, and the scripts usually give those chumps the upper hand. It's absurd.
Posted by: Tucker Stone | 2009.10.16 at 15:45
I agree for the most part, Tucker. I think I'm a little more forgiving of Jax than you, but he does seem deliver his lines the same way a lot of the time.
I disagree about Sagal, though. She's getting more and more annoying to me every episode. Although, I wonder if it's her storyline that's getting annoying. I was naive, but I thought they'd do something unique with the rape angle. Serves me right for being an idiot, I guess.
I do like Perlman, though. And I definitely agree with you about Opie. I'm liking the cop from Batman Begins, too. The rest of the characters can be dropped off a cliff. Especially that "tough guy" that's from one of the ancillary gangs who seems to show up out of nowhere every so often. The guy who's so eager to kill everyone.
Posted by: Jacob | 2009.10.16 at 20:52