Television

The Good Guys – The Broken Door Theory

Dan Stark is quickly becoming one of television’s most entertaining characters.  He lives his life according to his own rules and doesn’t let himself fall into the abyss of cliches that constitute most cop procedurals.  He’s interesting in that he and his partner catch bad guys even though his method of stopping crime may seem a bit outdated.  If you take his rapid-fire personality, the flirting, his mustache, his shades, and his quirky non-sequiturs, you get one hell of a unique cop.  Tonight, he was the star of “The Broken Door Theory,” the best episode of “The Good Guys” to date.  The show has been shaky in its first couple of episodes, but thankfully the cast seems to be meshing a little better.  If the writers can work out the rest of the kinks in the show, “The Good Guys” may actually become a great show.  However, not even the anomaly that is Dan Stark and the goofy action scenes can save the show from sometimes sticking too closely to its own format.

The Good Guys – Bait and Switch

Somewhere in between the atrocious reality shows, talent shows and the new drama and comedies being created to fill the gap between this television season and the next, there are shows that stand out and remind us how fun television can be.  “The Good Guys” takes the best elements of action movies and television shows, such as “Burn Notice” and any buddy cop movie (I’m thinking primarily of Lethal Weapon), and runs with it.  The show may have its flaws and has a long uphill battle in the ratings department, but it’s undoubtedly fun and deserves to stick around for awhile.  The show went on a temporary hiatus for a few weeks following its series premiere, and it returned tonight with “Bait and Switch,” and just like the pilot episode, it was filled with its typical adrenaline-laced action sequences, explosions, car chases and Dan Stark-isms that are quickly becoming some of the best quotes on television.

“Bait and Switch” followed the same format that the pilot did.  Jack Bailey and Dan Stark investigate a minor crime in the form of broken windows and streetlights and are somehow lead to a major stolen car ring run by a couple of British guys, one of them being Nigel, who, despite his menacing attitude, is plagued by jealousy.  One minute, he’s threatening to kill somebody and the next, he’s whining and pleading through the telephone to his girlfriend, worried that she’s cheating on him.  These men are attempting to bring a number of stolen vintage American vehicles back to England and are attempting to find somebody to do the job for them.  Jack and Dan realize that there are an abnormal amount of vintage American cars being stolen in the neighborhood of the vandalized windows and street lamps and begin investigating.  Soon enough, they learn about Nigel and the stolen cars and try to take him down.  However, a slew of firearms, moles, explosions and redneck patriots stand in their way.

True Blood – Bad Blood (Season Premiere)

True Blood is back to solidify its position as one of the most popular shows on TV. Last season had ratings of around 12.5 million a week, which made it the second most watched HBO production after The Sopranos. But can it continue to wow and surprise, or has True Blood lost its bite?

First a quick recap for those, like me, who have the memory of a drunken old woman. There are a multitude of details that I won’t mention, but these are the salient pieces of information that will certainly be important for the upcoming season.

Glee Season Finale- Journey

If there was one phrase to describe the season finale of Glee, it would be “All I could’ve wanted.” Sure, it was corny at times but that’s just the Glee way. Corny while still entertaining as hell. And “Journey” had no shortage of corny entertainment.

Damages: Save or Sayonara?

A woman emerges from an elevator with blood painted across her skin.  Her hair is disheveled and her body quivers and shakes uncontrollably.  She’s wearing a coat and is naked underneath it.  She runs through the streets, passing pedestrians and cars along the way until she’s finally stopped by the police.  It’s clear there’s an interesting story here, and as this woman says, “Get me a lawyer,” we know that we’re in for a bumpy ride.  However, the action suddenly shifts six months earlier as we begin to learn how exactly this curious set of events came to occur.  That was the beauty of “Damages,” a legal drama on FX that was recently canceled after its third season finale.  The show mixed the future and the past, flashing to the past so that there would be a contrast between what happened six months ago and what was happening now.  The show was infamous for pulling the wool over the audience’s eyes, and even during the season finale, the writers wouldn’t completely reveal what their true intents were for certain characters and plot points. 

Burn Notice: Friends and Enemies

And it’s back! Our favourite spy-show, complete with suave, sexy spies, gun-toting babes, womanizing ex-soldiers, and hypochondriac mothers. The long awaited follow-up to the cliffhanger finale of season 3 was exiting, fast-paced, fun, and a good start of the new season. A new enemy, overarching storyline, and the well-established and successful formula that has secured the show two more seasons were started again.

Burn Notice season premieres seem to follow a nigh identical script: A quick “This is what you need to know” recap, a very quick and somewhat unsatisfactory resolution to last season’s cliffhanger, and then a quick-and-dirty “standard” plot-line, which is then usually finished off by a teeny wheeny surprise or revelation.

Glee- Funk

I did not review last week’s Glee as I was a bit busy and didn’t have the time, but it was one of my most favorite episodes in the past weeks. I was a huge fan of their Bad Romance performance and I thought the “fag” scene between Burt and Finn was amazing.

That being said, I was quite excited for this week’s Glee, but once I saw the title I was a bit nervous. I didn’t think they could pull it off. And after watching it, it was definitely a roller-coaster of thinking “This is great!” and at other times “This is just awkward and odd as hell.”