Television

Bob’s Burgers – Weekend at Mort’s

The eleventh episode of Bob’s Burgers is a great treat for anyone who has been watching the series from the beginning as it brings back characters and gags from previous episodes. It starts off with a green mold growing in the restaurant that requires a visit from the health inspector Hugo. He tells them that the restaurant will need to be tented for 48 hours. Whereas Bob looks at it as a complete loss of weekend profits, Linda sees it as an opportunity for them to have the honey moon they’ve never had.

The Killing – Vengeance

Though I was excited to see Ed
Bianchi (one of my favorite directors) taking the reigns for a second
time in the series, even he couldn’t elevate this episode into
something worthwhile. The plot and characters did see some
development, but it wasn’t enough to make day seven of the
investigation into Rosie Larsen’s murder a very revealing one, or to
make the episode live up to its name.

Coming off the latest cliffhanger,
The Killing jumped right back in where it left off; with Stan
Larsen driving to an unknown destination with the primary suspect in
his daughter’s murder riding shotgun. It was hard to judge what Stan
might do; knowing little of his past other than former ties to the
Polish mob, but I didn’t have much doubt as to Bennet Ahmed making it
home in one piece. I was however expecting Stan to question Bennet
about his relationship with Rosie and found it frustrating not
getting any of those answers, and even though we find out later Stan
was protecting himself from being the man he used to be, I find it
hard to believe he would have walked away without learning something.
Stan did put up a couple of solid performances however; the first
being the one I just mentioned when he explains to Mitch why he let
Bennet go. Hearing how Rosie’s birth changed him was a revealing
moment for both the character and actor, giving me a hope that Brent
Sexton has the chops to do convincing emotional scenes while
delivering dialogue, and not just breaking down alone in a gas
station bathroom. The second great scene was with his two sons. After seeing
news coverage about Rosie’s death the boys wanted to know what actually
happened and were not going to accept Stan’s old answer (“No
more heaven stuff, okay dad?”).
In addition to that powerful line, the choice to shoot the scene
from a distance emphasized how the viewer feels… they can’t comfort
these boys who lost their sister and best friend and neither can
Stan, but like any dad, he tries his best.

Dexter – One Down, Two To Go…

Following news last week of casting call information for the sixth season of Showtime’s Dexter, there has been wide speculation of who might fill some of the pivotal roles. Now the first role has been officially cast: TV Line is reporting that Colin Hanks will be joining the show.

Hanks, who has appeared in many television shows from Roswell to his starring role in the short-lived Fox series The Good Guys, is the eldest son of Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks. 

Smallville – Prophecy

“Prophecy” is two stories in one. The first would make many cringe, but the second is definitely worth following. The episode starts with Clark meeting Lois at The Daily Planet. She is surrounded by a sea of paper from a potential big story she stumbled upon while finalizing preparation for their upcoming wedding. What follows is the typical fast-paced conversation used to deliver details (the writers believe) that we need to know in order to understand what will follow (a ten-year run and a slew of writers would do that to any show). My sirens went blazing when Clark seemed to embrace Kryptonian values surrounding weddings. Since when did the Fortress qualify as his father? And even if it did, since when did Clark feel so Kryptonian? When his powers were transferred to Lois I was relieved to see the plot device exposed. This is the less appealing story.

Game of Thrones – Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things

A lot of shows settle in after a few weeks of explaining things to
refocus on the current story, though if anything, last night’s Game of
Thrones episode actually had significantly more exposition than the
previous ones. We learned the backstories of a few minor characters, we
learned more about the war that gave Robert the throne and the last
winter, we learned about when places were built and the names of some
dragons. Having already read the books, it’s hard for me to know how
much of this information is really useful, and how much is just window
dressing I’m already familiar with that spices up the reading but can
slow a TV show down a bit. The book worked by bringing you inside the
heads of several significant characters from chapter to chapter, and
needing all of these stories and tidbits to be told in dialogue instead
seemed to bog it down a bit. It’s still a well-made show, and the cast
did a good job of wringing some entertainment out of those speeches, but
I did think it was a little dull in comparison.

Nikita – Betrayals

Despite being burdened with being a show on The CW, Nikita
has been so consistently impressive it’s starting to become ridiculous.
The show has managed to keep a coherent plot throughout so many twists
and turns, all the while throwing action and espionage in our faces to
the largest extent possible. All season long we’ve been building to this
week and despite the grim outlook for the close to the season as of
last week, the finale is now set up to be great.

Fringe – The Day We Died

For the season finale, Fringe
unveiled a new color for the opening credits. The show’s title was dark
instead of the usual silver, and for good reasons. This episode begins
in the future (of This Side) where Peter ended up after getting into The
Machine last week. The year is 2026 and Peter is in his forties. He is
injured in an explosion right away and is taken to the hospital while
having only the memories of our Peter. When he leaves the place not too
long after, he is back to being his 2026 self. The episode is mostly
spent getting us up to speed with what has happened in 15 years and
trying to deal with the impending end of the world.