Television

Dexter – Just Let Go

I really don’t know where to begin with “Just Let Go.” Brother Sam’s shooting last week was an unexpected twist in the story to say the least; the character has been an interesting one from the start and the possibility of losing him so soon was honestly something that I hadn’t begun to consider. The more I think about it however, it was kind of inevitable. Yes, if you haven’t seen the episode, Brother Sam did die, but his death wasn’t really about him dying at all. Over the last five episodes Sam has used what little screen time that he had to drastically alter Dexter’s outlook on life, and with his death, that part of the story was truly allowed to come full-circle.

Ignoring the religious side of things, Sam taught Dexter that there can be goodness or “light” in all of us. His own story was definitive proof of that fact – a murderer turned honest-to-god (literally) saint. With the prospect that such a light exists within him, Dexter began to question quite a lot of things, most importantly his relationship with the person that he has known as himself for his entire life. If light exists within him and people really do have that capacity to take such a drastic change of direction with their lives like Sam, then why can’t Dexter do the same thing: hang up the killing tools and assimilate to normality.

Supernatural – The Mentalists

Of the many facets of the supernatural, one of the least touched upon in Supernatural is that of psychics. When they have come along, they have been almost uniformly instrumental in significant plot twists throughout the show’s run, but they had yet to serve as the focus of an episode until now. Before getting your hopes up about this being a mythology-heavy piece that serves to create an amazing episode in the scheme of things, know that “The Mentalists” really didn’t delve into anything. Instead, almost all of the “psychics” seen were complete fakes.

The premise was fairly simple: supposed mediums in a supposedly extremely psychic town were being offed by a real supernatural entity and Sam and Dean were brought back together after last week’s separation to hunt down the killer. The latter part of that sentence is really where the episode found its strengths, but it also contributed to a lot of what I found wrong with it. After finding out that Dean had killed Amy behind his back, Sam was naturally pissed last week and mirrored his season one self by taking off on his own. The idea of having the brothers then collide on the case was perfect – it is exactly how they should be brought back together – but its execution didn’t quite work as well as I’d hoped.

Person of Interest – Witness

For those surprised that Jonathan Nolan and J.J. Abrams’ new fall show Person of Interest would be a week-to-week procedural, here’s a fistful of continuity for you. The show caught all its viewers off guard this week by upping the stakes in not an unforeseeable but nonetheless surprising manner.

Fringe – Novation

The last time the aftermath of a cliffhanger rested on Peter’s shoulders was in “Entrada” where he had to confront Fauxlivia, and where I think he was poorly used. In “Novation,” however, we couldn’t get enough of him. Yes, there were other things happening, things which might turn out to be at the heart of whatever threat the story has in store for us this season. There was even the ever beguiling Olivia Dunham around, but all that mattered was Peter. In just one episode, Fringe has managed to turn the lead that, to me at least, always seemed an accessory into a character I now want to see as often as possible.

For all his brilliance, his involvement in almost every significant scientific project ever mentioned in the first seasons of Fringe, Walter has never been the heart of the series. The first of the three leads we saw in the pilot was Olivia (or “Liaison” as Broyles called her then), and really, Fringe has always been mostly about her. While she was the cornerstone of things happening in the present, the overall backstory was clearly dominated by Walter and his son. That is until “Subject 13” brilliantly turned the Bishop family drama into a story about the already beguiling young Olivia Dunham.

Once Upon a Time vs. Grimm: Battle of the Urban Fantasies

By
the beginning of October, all new scripted shows of the fall season
have typically premiered. This year, however, two TV series waited for
the end of the month to grace our small screens with their presence,
and it turns out both are heavily based on fairy tales. ABC’s Once Upon a Time, somewhat lighter, opened one week before NBC’s Grimm,
much darker, which fittingly premiered a few days only before
Halloween. With the similarity between the source material and the fact
that both shows chose a late start, we at Player Affinity TV couldn’t
resist a face-off.

Terra Nova – Bylaw

Jim
Shannon took center stage in “Bylaw,” and this not necessarily because
he had more screen time than the other members of the Shannon family,
which he did, but because the main story was an investigation following
every single rule in the book of police procedurals. A choice that,
understandably, exposed the episode to some of the weaknesses of the
genre.

Motive
is rarely an issue in police procedurals as it would seem we are
capable to resort to murder for virtually any reason, but the way the
killing is carried out very often deserves some attention. At some
point in the story, Jim Shannon says, “Between the wildlife and the
Sixers, there are a lot of ways to die in this jungle,” and he is of
course right. The settlement is surrounded by a nature teeming with
dinosaurs, flying reptiles and even plants that are a danger to human
life, not to mention the infamous Sixers. If the sight of Foster, the
murder victim, going alone to the communication relay station was
already a bit of a surprise, the way his murder was set up was even more
so. The killer used a nicoraptor as the murder weapon, trapping it in
the relay station, which is extremely dangerous to do alone as one
would be exposed to the raptor and potentially to several other
dinosaurs (raptors or not) drawn to the same bait.

Summer Glau Attached to TNT Drama

Summer Glau has joined the cast of TNT’s Scent of the Missing. 

The dramatic pilot will follow Susannah (Tricia Helfer), a K-9 Search and Rescue volunteer who solves crimes with her golden retriever Puzzle. Glau will play a beautiful, but tough member of Susannah’s team, according to Deadline. The actress previously starred in short-lived NBC superhero drama The Cape and also appeared in post-cancellation cult titan Firefly as well as Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which many also consider to have been cancelled before its time.