TV Reviews

True Blood – Cold Grey Light of Dawn

It may have taken seven weeks, but I finally know what the fourth season of True Blood
is about! “Cold Grey Light of Dawn” was a colossal return to form for
the show that has been fairly terrible for weeks now, and it achieved it
in the simplest of ways: following one story from multiple perspectives
for the entire episode. Okay, so technically there were a few other
stories intertwined with the main thing, but for the most part, it was
50 minutes spent explaining what the hell had been going on for the last
six weeks. In short, Antonia – the necromancer that has seen fit to possess Marnie – is back with a vengeance. It really is that simple. Sadly for the True Blood
team it has taken them at least three episodes of doing absolutely
nothing to get to that point and essentially admit that the story really
is that shallow, but now that they’ve actually done it, they might just
have a chance to do something.

Entourage – One Last Shot

After exploding out of the gate in week one and slowing things down in week two, week three of the two-month goodbye tour for Entourage
saw fit to throw some drama into the lives of Vince and his band of
merry men. Until last season the drama in the show had always been
heavily, if not entirely, based around movies for Vince, or Drama trying
to get any kind of job going. Taking on a slightly more serious tone
with Vince battling a drug addiction (although he didn’t see it as a
problem at all) was a good move for the show even if it wasn’t executed
particularly well, if only because it allowed season 8 to go in the
direction that it’s going right now.

Haven – Sparks and Recreation

After
last week’s sentient machines, “Sparks and Recreation” was clearly
built around a much better idea, or more accurately, much better ideas.
It had all the ingredients of a remarkable story, and although it never
got the spark (pun intended) to ignite the whole, it was still a good
episode of Haven. Besides showing how good at multilayered
stories the writers are getting, its greatest achievement is to have
introduced two interesting characters that deserve to stay with us for a
while.

There
was a lot to like about this episode’s main storyline. There was the
fact that we had not one but two troubled residents. There was also the
fact that a non-afflicted person exploited that knowledge and almost got
away with murder. And finally, there was the fact that Audrey was very
often wrong. Mayor Brody’s ability (to attract people’s affection and
consideration) was an interesting one, and the show did a great job
giving it to a politician who, of course, shamelessly used it. The actor
playing the part had the perfect smile for it. Having the mayor’s wife
scheming was also good. It is always interesting when the motive is as
personal as jealousy and when elements allowing us to understand it are
properly distilled over the hour as they were here.

Breaking Bad – Bullet Points

With “Bullet Points” the fourth
season of Breaking Bad finally saw the plot progression it has
been lacking. A lengthy scene of dialogue managed not to feel
drawn-out thanks to some humorous lines of back-and-forth, it also
led to a shocking discovery for Walt. In addition, Jesse’s emotional
breakdown finally sees advancement when it draws some unwanted
attention. This episode had the action, drama, and black humor that
are trademarks of the series, and showcased why they are.

One of the best things about Breaking
Bad is its cold opens, and it proved that again this week. Mike
almost loses a few tail feathers of his own when a Los Pollos
Hermanos truck is shot up by a couple of interlopers looking to rip
off the shipment of meth hidden in the buckets of batter. The scene
was certainly over-the-top(particularly when both guys came flying
out of the back of the truck as a result of Mike’s pistol), but it
was nonetheless an impressively shot piece of stylized violence.
Particularly so in the choice to stick with the interior of the truck
for the first few moments as Mike listens to the muffled voices
outside and the gunshot that tells him he is about to have a very bad
day. In addition to getting batter on that nice parka, Mike gives up
a chunk of his ear, but comes through relatively unscathed; which is
more than can be said of the two cartel thugs. Likely trying to send
a message to Gus that he can still be hurt regardless of his efforts
to cut them out of the business, Mike simply stamps the cartel’s
message “return to sender.” Killing those two won’t be where it
ends though, and the scene is really meant to establish early on that
Gus is facing problems in addition to his two little lab rats, and
why even more so than normally, he cannot accept the risk of working
with a junkie; especially one who is on such a downward spiral.

Wilfred – Pride

After putting out fantastic episodes
for the past two weeks, Wilfred fell back down with its latest
installment. “Pride” wasn’t the worst the series has done, but
it also failed to build on the momentum of its predecessors.
Starting out strong, most of the jokes didn’t make it past the
halfway mark before they started souring. The episode did feature
some top notch acting though, including the episode’s guest star.

Things were looking up early on, with
one of the funnier recurring characters making an appearance.
Kristen didn’t stick around for long, but she got in a few humorous
jabs at Ryan with her brief screen time. If the character had
stayed, the episode likely would have been better, but her small role
mainly served to setup the plot. In which, Ryan is trying to save
face, only to lose more than he ever thought possible. Refusing to
ask Kristen for money -which she makes clear is the only way he is
getting any- Ryan contemplates finding a job, which Wilfred voices
his firm objections to, “Jobs are for immigrants.”
Wilfred’s plan to make some quick cash actually winds up putting
Ryan deeper into debt. Proving dogs don’t know much about the law,
Wilfred veering Ryan’s car into a parked Escalade probably seemed
like a good idea to him at the time.

Louie – Oh Louie/Tickets

The television show “Oh Louie” takes us back to one of the more depressing times in a life filled with little else.  C.K. was at his most self-referential in the episode ‘Tickets’, exploring two parts of his life that those unfamiliar with his career might not even know about. The episode explores the subject of plagiarism.

Falling Skies – What Hides Beneath

After the amateurish two-parter, Falling Skies
rebounded this week with “What Hides Beneath,” an episode that not only
kept us interested for the full hour, but also managed to advance the
main story with fascinating surprises. The story’s flaws — which are
mostly inherent to the series — didn’t prevent it from delivering an
impressive lead-in to the last two episodes of the season.

The
episode did three things right from the very beginning. It first
introduced us to Weaver’s unrest, then laid out the resistance strategy
from which two of the four storylines stemmed from, and finally brought
Ben Mason to Dr Glass. The writers then skillfully unraveled the
storylines like spider webs from those starting points.

True Blood – I Wish I Was The Moon

If TV shows gained popularity based on how annoyingly frustrating they are, True Blood
would be watched by at very least the entire population of Earth and
the Na’vi from Avatar. “I Wish I Was The Moon” didn’t really break from
the trend of utter pointlessness that a lot of what has come before it
put onto the screen as much as I would have liked it to, but it did just
enough to make the episode watchable, whilst still kind of sucking. The
entire fourth season of True Blood has thus far suffered from a fatal flaw –
I don’t know what the hell it’s about. Now half way through the season
it really doesn’t look like that is going to change by its conclusion,
hence the annoyance. The frustration beside that comes from the
indecision by the writers as a result of them clearly not knowing what
they’re doing either. Save for the premiere because there was nothing
before it, each one of the episodes has gone in a completely different
direction from the previous one, giving more or less weight to stories
seemingly at random. Worse still, the unnecessary length of the episodes
is killing the pacing – something that was particularly obviously this week.

Entourage – Out With a Bang

“Out With a Bang” was an odd episode for Entourage.
After exploding onto screen last week with massive plot progression,
quickly setting up the entire season and dealing with the aftermath of
last year, things were slowed down perhaps just a little too much this
week. Now that everything is in place, the show has set about adding
some depth to the frame that it has laid out. Whilst ordinarily I’d be a
firm proponent of such a move, the balance wasn’t quite what I
expected. Dealing with the characters’ relationships is paramount – evident by their weight in this episode –
and Vince’s career is the show, but when Turtle’s “relationship” with
Alex is played up just as much as Eric’s is with Sloan, you’re doing
something wrong.

Haven – Love Machine

Last
week’s episode flew so high that “Love Machine” had nowhere else to go
but down. Still, it did not crash and burn but rather dipped a little.
Using the qualities that sustained the series throughout the first
season and some of the newfound momentum, the writers delivered a story
that was touching, even if it lacked both the beauty-of-the-parts and
beauty-of-the-whole appeal of the previous episode.

The
investigation followed the pattern we are now familiar with. Audrey,
with the assistance of Nathan, first went after the wrong suspect. It’s
only after several more incidents that she set her eyes on the troubled
resident unwillingly breathing life into machines. Here, unlike last
week, she had an epiphany, and this is where the already flimsy idea
fell apart. Having no issues whatsoever with the supernatural or
science-fiction doesn’t mean suspended disbelief, but rather broadening
one’s mind so as to work with whatever construct the author provides.
Things still make sense — they have to or the mind complains — but they
do it in a universe where rules are not quite like those in the real
world. Sentient machines could have worked better if the writers had
prepared us properly. Also, the breadth of knowledge required to be able
to fix machines from such diverse engineering fields is staggering and
shouldn’t have been simply ignored.