TV Reviews

The Office – Body Language

Michael Gary Scott is the epitome of awkwardness. He symbolizes every awkward moment of our lives, and every friend we have that embarrasses us with the foolish decisions they make, the ones we would never make. Watching Michael Scott in action is painful, because he lacks awareness. He doesn’t realize when he’s being an idiot, which means we’re forced to suffer the embarrassment. I’ll admit it: there’s never been a fictional being that has made me as uncomfortable as Michael Scott does at times. But that’s what I love him for. He elicits a strong emotional response from the audience, whether for good or bad, and in last night’s episode, “Body Language,” Michael Scott was at his most awkward, leading to many frustrated groans, laughs, and a surprisingly touching end scene.

Stargate Universe – Lost

While Scott, Chloe, Eli, and Greer are trapped below ground on the planet they were stranded on, Rush, Young, and the Destiny now in FTL are trying to figure a way to recover their lost crew members.  Rush and his team think they’ve figured out that Destiny is reaching the outer part of the Galaxy they are currently in meaning if they don’t recover the crew soon they never will.  Tamara is trying to decide how to tell Young that she is pregnant with his child.

Supernatural – The Devil You Know

We’re coming down to the final stretch with Dean and Sam putting Gabriel’s plan to the test. They have War and Famine’s rings, so the boys are looking for Pestilence and Death.  Once again for the second week in a row help comes in a very strange way.

Remember Crowley?  That really pain in the you know what Demon that the boys have had really nasty run-ins with from time to time.  Well, Mark Sheppard is back and he’s a little more reasonable this time.  It seems that he is on the Devil’s hit list with a bullet.  The only problem is he’s in store for a long eternity of suffering.  So he shows up just in time to help Sam and Dean find Pestilence.

Supernatural – Hammer of the Gods

A spate of bad weather drives the Winchesters to what seems to be a four star hotel in the middle of nowhere.  Of course, we as the viewer knows that something is up.  A group of various religious and pagan gods are gathering to decide what to do about the Apocalypse. Of course the Winchesters may be the key to their plans.

Justified – The Collection

Raylan’s relationship with Ava is continuing when Art shows up to take a little trip to Cincinnati.  An art collector and rancher who is about to be indicted by the FBI is trying to sell assets and as they belong to the US Marshalls Service Art and Raylan will be present to take control of any proceeds received from the sale.

The cast was outstanding for this week’s episode.  Besides the collector a Mr. Owen Carnes played by character actor Peter Jason, you had his wife Caryn played by Katherine LaNasa, the Stable Manager played by Greg Davis, the art collector played by Robert Picardo of Voyager fame, and finally the art expert played by Tony Hale.  This is quite a collection of fine actors.  Also I noticed for the first time that Gary Hawkins who is Raylan’s former wife’s husband is played by William Ragsdale who among other things played Herman on Herman’s Head back in the early nineties.

South Park – Crippled Summer

So how do you review an episode where a disabled little boy is repeatedly raped by a shark with a 9 inch penis? Carefully…

Crippled Summer, as the title suggests, is not one for the easily offended. The episode manages to teeter on the brink of decency by parodying a selection of sources, in an attempt to neutralise any offensive content with an equally ludicrous scenario. Much of the humour stems from these shock tactics and even I winced a few times in places. But due to a lack of depth, the jokes quickly wear thin.

Stargate Universe – Human

Rush has hooked himself into the Destiny’s systems and seems to be reliving a critical time in his life as he tries to decipher the hidden information within the information he is seeing.  We learn a whole new side to Rush and you might even say his character may be misunderstood.

Two major storylines dominate the episode.  The first is Rush’s living through a painful point in his life while trying to learn what he needs in the now.  The second is the situation where Destiny drops out of FTL and four crewmen go to a planet they must deal with some dire consequences.

Happy Town – In This Home on Ice

Let’s get one thing straight before talking about “Happy Town”:  it’s far from a happy place.  Of course, the dozens of commercials that air before and after every show on ABC have made that abundantly clear, but for a show labeled “Happy Town,” the show starts off on a dark and macabre note and doesn’t let up for the next hour.  Comparisons between this show, David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” and Lynch’s feature film “Blue Velvet” will likely arise as the show goes on, mostly because they all revolve around the idea of a quaint, innocent town with a gritty underworld filled with secrets that nobody knows about.  However, “Happy Town” struggles a little bit out of the gate, and with only eight episodes to attract an audience, the show will have to work double time to make up for its errors.

24 – Day 8: 10:00 A.M – 11:00 A.M

It’s comforting to know that some things will never change.  For instance, the Yankees will always be the bane of every New Englanders existence, “Law & Order” and “The Simpsons” will somehow always escape cancellation despite being on air for a billion years with sub-par ratings and boxers will always, always be better then briefs.  For “24” fans who are lamenting the loss of one of their favorite shows, last night’s episode of “24” should’ve been a breath of fresh air, because everybody knows that Jack Bauer will always, at least once a season, ignore the orders of his superiors, go off the grid and take matters into his own hands.  Last night saw the events of the last few episodes culminating in Jack completely ignoring the President’s orders to stand down and attempting to unearth the Russians for who they really are: the murderers of Omar Hassan. 

V – Heretic’s Fork

The following review may contain some mild spoilers, I’ll try not to go into too much detail but I feel it’s necessary to
examine certain developments, so use your discretion when reading.

A ‘heretic’s fork‘, we are told early on, is a piece of torture equipment that was a rather effective way of getting people to divulge their secrets. It’s an interesting choice of title that points to a more morally ambiguous atmosphere running throughout the entire episode.

We begin where last week left off with the human assassin, who is now strung up in a basement and is sweating profusely.  As he justifies his actions, we have an interesting scene with possibly the most polarized version of a good cop/bad cop routine ever to grace the screen. On one hand we have the good Father Jack and on the other is the sociopath mercenary, Hobbes. This little moral dilemma plays out rather how you’d expect, but this doesn’t make it any less of an adrenaline rush. Suddenly the show has it’s very own Jack Bauer, only unlike Jack, Hobbes is always a complete bastard.

There were several moments tonight where Hobbes, as shallow a character as he is, totally overshadowed the rest of the cast and without him, the resistance is really just a Priest a Mum and an Alien (that is definitely the new name of my band). He provides little more than a bit of grit and violence, but it really adds to the feeling of desperation for those who are burdened with the truth and creates a greater sense of urgency. Whilst we are discussing the atmosphere of the episode, I couldn’t help notices the way the writers seemed to have turned up the notch with the B-Movie vibe. The episode is littered with phrases like ’hybrid baby’ and ’soldiers bred to fight‘ and I for one, absolutely loved it. The show was never going to be a serious action drama and it’s relieving to see them get comfortable with the alien invasion clichés.