The Killing: Undertow

[Note: Sorry for the extreme lateness of this review. My computer's been in the shop this past week to have a new hard drive installed after my last one failed.]

“By the weekend I'm gonna be working as a security guard at the Space Needle.”

Well, thank God that's finally over with. Okay, technically its not really over yet. There are bound to be some serious repercussions for the bad decisions some of our characters made in this episode.

So it turns out Rosie really did just stop by Bennet's place to drop off some school books. The reason Bennet was acting all shifty was because he and Mohammed were trying to help another young girl escape from her circumcision loving parents. And his reward for being such a good Samaritan? Bennet ended up like the other guy in the story, the one who was beaten to pulp and left by the side of the road to die. Is he dead? Possibly. I'm just glad that now we know for certain that Bennet Ahmed didn't kill Rosie Larsen. He didn't do it. The end. Now, lets get back to the issue of those expensive shoes...

It was shame to see Stan became that man again. It was even more of a shame that, of all people, it was Mitch who virtually pushed him into making such a boneheaded decision. This is all cruelly ironic since she and Rosie were the reasons Stan stopped being that man in the first place.

What's worse is that all the bad decisions these people made were the results of a rather preposterous coincidence. The writers really are asking a lot if they expect us to swallow that Rosie and the Somalian girl both just happened to own the exact same t-shirt. Honestly, that's the sort of hackneyed plot twist I'd expect CSI: Random City to resort to. It was nothing more than a deliberate false clue, planted there with no other purpose than to make a certain character look more guilty than they actually are. This was done with more ambiguity in the Danish series. There it was never made clear if it was the murdered girl's shirt or if the mother was just saying it was in order to bring about justice for her daughter.

With only four episodes left this season I am starting to worry that they won't be able to wrap this mystery up in a satisfying way. There no getting away from the fact that the show has now become a chore to get through. The pace has started pick up somewhat in the last few episodes but is it a case of too little too late? Going by recent viewing figures a lot of people have already decided that they don't give a damn who killed Rosie Larsen.

It is obvious that the bosses at AMC wanted The Killing to become the sort of watercooler drama that everyone is talking about. But that honour has, rather deservedly, gone to Game of Thrones instead. My parents always used to say that “I want doesn't always get.” And don't I know it. I'm still waiting for that Sega Mega Drive I wanted for my eleventh birthday.

Notes and Quotes

--Jumperwatch: After a brief cameo at the start Chestnut is sadly replaced by the latest addition to the Sarah Linden autumn collection, a rather disappointing grey turtle neck.

--There is obviously something seriously wrong with Belko. He was practically rabid when he and Stan were attacking Bennet. When Stan wouldn't let him beat up the teacher he started beating up a rock instead. A freakin' rock!

--I am loving the new and improved Linden/Holder partnership. The make much more effective crime fighting team now that they actually trust one another. Linden is even covering for Holder's screw ups.

Linden: “It was my idea, I told him to set up the tap.”
Lt. Oaks: “You're supposed to keep him from screwing up not show him how.”

Linden: “Anything?”
Holder: “I got nothing from these Deadliest Catch fools.”

Linden: “If you don't talk we will have to hand you over to the FBI.”
Holder: “Yeah, and those Virginia farm boys, they're going to pull some crazy Guantanamo rendition shit on your ass.” ... Read full post

Eureka: Family Reunion

... in which an overhaul of the Cryogenics unit reveals that Fargo’s missing grandfather has been frozen for the last fifty years. Meanwhile Jo and Zoe try to uncover the identity of the mystery woman to whom Carter is sending flowers.

Well, after several strong episodes, we got our first underwhelming episode of the season. I’m always eager to explore our characters’ pasts, so I love the idea of learning more about Fargo’s family and Carter’s youth, but I wasn’t overly impressed with the execution or some of the story choices in ‘Family Reunion.’ Pierre struck me as rather bland compared to Fargo, and the primary mystery of what had happened to him was fairly predictable (Androv was too obvious, so “old friend” Charlie immediately floated to the top of my suspect list). Obviousness isn’t anything new for Eureka plots, but in this case the humor and character touches that often make episodes so enjoyable were largely absent and weren’t able to make up for the predictability. Plus, the extremely dark turn in the Carter subplot was too stark a contrast with the relatively light touch of the rest of the episode. The show often manages to balance serious events and character developments with completely outrageous comedy, but this particular twist didn’t work for me, despite the loose “the past always catches up with you” theme.

What were the writers thinking when they decided to burden Carter with this depressing bit of backstory? Doesn’t the guy already have enough baggage with the failed marriage, losing his alternate life with Allison, having his mind-wiped, and being duped by his “best friend” Henry? Eureka (at present) certainly has a dark and serious undercurrent running through it, but for the most part, Carter and his misadventures trying to save the town from itself are the comic centerpiece of the show. Weighing him down with the guilt of inadvertently causing his girlfriend’s death as a teenager just seems far too bleak for this character. Did the writers think he needed some Big Reason for being so uptight about teaching Zoe to drive? Because it was fine for him simply to be a nervous, overprotective dad. Did they feel he needed some Deep, Dark Motivation for being such a stickler for people taking responsibility for their actions? If so, I think it was completely unnecessary. I have never questioned why Carter feels so strongly about making a difference and ensuring justice is served. He’s a cop and he’s a good man; that’s enough in my book. Not all characters need to have dark tragedies motivating their choices and actions. This isn’t NYPD Blue or Rescue Me.

On the flip side, we learned that Fargo comes from a long line of seemingly cursed screw-ups, which informs the town’s general attitude towards him. “Trust me, nobody treasures Fargos.” Or at least, that’s what everyone thought before defrosting his grandfather and learning that, although ill-fated, Pierre was the real genius behind the scientific advances pioneered by the town’s Albert Einstein. Moreover, he was a stand-up guy who never would have run away from his expectant beloved, Belle. While I didn’t find this particular plot terribly engaging, the developments it yielded are great for Fargo, and I hope the discoveries about his grandfather’s brilliance gives him the self-confidence to reach beyond everyone’s underwhelming expectations for him. I also hope it gives our favorite Eurekans pause, and maybe makes them look at Fargo with new eyes. He’s an incredibly smart and talented young man --- even if he does have an abundance of annoying character traits --- and it would be nice to see him develop into something more than everyone’s favorite punching bag (even though he’s pretty entertaining in that role).

Other Thoughts

We did get some nice follow-up on Carter’s anger toward Allison over her betrayal in the last episode. Although I think she was projecting her guilt a bit, too.

I couldn’t place Fargo’s grandpa while watching, so I looked Tygh Runyan up on the web and realized he recently played Dr. Caine on Stargate Universe. Doh! I totally should have recognized him.

Carter: “Is anyone curious as to how he got in there?”
Stark: “He’s a Fargo. Are you really surprised?”
Fargo: “I am standing right here.”

Global Dynamics got a team to the moon in 1962, but didn’t go public until 1969. Tee hee!

Pierre: “I’ve seen the way people treat you around here, and getting fired could be a blessing.”
Fargo: “True.”

We got some nice beats between Henry and Nathan and learned a bit more on Henry’s investigation into Kim’s death. He now believes that Beverly and whoever she works for sabotaged Kim’s equipment to prevent Stark and Kim from learning more about the Artifact. I guess Carter is no longer the only one Henry blames for Kim’s demise.

I thought it was cute when Eugenia and Irvin got together in Season 1’s ‘Dr. Nobel,’ but Pierre and Belle reuniting was a bit saccharine for my taste. Way more “gack!” than “awww ...”

Final Analysis: Not a strong episode, and I really didn’t care for the completely unnecessary revelation about Carter’s past, but it was a nice “win” for Fargo.

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Field of Dreams

[During the break between our spring finales and the start of our summer shows, I'm going to post a few reviews of my favorite movies.]

Terence: "It's unbelievable."
Ray: "It's more than that. It's perfect."

Field of Dreams has a deceptively simple and somewhat idiotic plot. When he was young, Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) rejected his father's baseball dreams, but didn't replace them with dreams of his own. One day in his cornfield in Iowa, Ray hears a voice saying, "If you build it, he will come." Ray plows over some of his corn and builds a baseball diamond, enduring the ridicule of his neighbors as well as the very real possibility of losing his farm. After the ghosts of the infamous 1919 Chicago White Sox come to play in the field (giving a whole new meaning to the term "dream team"), Ray goes on a bizarre road trip to Boston to find and help a writer who was famous in the sixties, which leads him to a ghost in a small town in Minnesota. In the process of doing these illogical things, Ray finally makes peace with himself and inadvertently attains his fondest wish.

I have trouble connecting with fantasy that doesn't have vampires in it. I'm more of a sci-fi fan. But Field of Dreams is a fantasy nearly everyone can relate to, because it's grounded in reality. It's about seeing our parents as people, about accepting their dreams as well as realizing our own. It's about the importance of following an irresistible impulse, doing what's right, and taking a leap of faith, even when it can cost you everything. The resolution never fails to move me, even though I've seen it a dozen times.

Ray Liotta is perfect as the ghost of Shoeless Joe; he has this supernatural, all knowing but I'm-really-just-a-guy feel to him. James Earl Jones is memorable as the bitter, disillusioned J.D. Salinger-like writer who rediscovers his purpose in life. Amy Madigan is great fun as Ray's outspoken, supportive wife; I always enjoy her big scene at the PTA meeting. And Burt Lancaster is touching as Doc Graham; I always loved the little story about the blue hats. Kevin Costner does a great job as Ray, too; this is one of his three best movies, in my opinion. (The other two? The Untouchables and Bull Durham.)

Field of Dreams makes you feel like you did when you were a child, the world was full of wonder, and anything was possible. (In other words, like the people in that line of cars.) It's such a memorable little movie that it's become a part of American culture. It brings the biggest mystery of life literally into our back yard while giving us a story that is joyful, poignant and beautiful. (You could say that I like this one, huh?)

Quotes:

Annie: "If you build what, who will come?"
Ray: "He didn't say."
Annie: "I hate it when that happens."

Annie: "What if the Voice calls while you're gone?"
Ray: "Take a message."

Ray: (smiling) "I have just created something totally illogical."

Shoeless Joe: "Is this heaven?"
Ray: "No. It's Iowa."

Mark: "You don't know the first thing about farming."
Ray: "Yes, I do. I know a lot about farming. I know more than you think I know."
Mark: "Then how could you plow under your major crop?"
Ray: "What's a crop?"

Ray: "The Voice is back."
Annie: "Oh, lord. You don't have to build a football field now, do you?"

Annie: "If you experienced even a little bit of the sixties, you would feel the same way, too."
Woman: (indignantly) "I experienced the sixties!"
Annie: "No, I think you had two fifties and moved right into the seventies."

Annie: "Omigod. As a small boy, he had a bat named Rosebud."

Doc Graham: "This is my most special place in all the world, Ray. Once a place touches you like this, the wind never blows so cold again."

Four out of four bats named Rosebud,

Billie

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Game of Thrones: A Golden Crown

“Thunk.”

It’s hard to go wrong with Jane Espenson. She’s written for nearly every show we cover (including the upcoming Torchwood: Miracle Day), and she manages to inject humor into even the most dire of situations without ever losing the tone appropriate to a specific show. She succeeds because she seems to have an incisive understanding of the characters she writes for: her episodes reveal new aspects of old friends in a way that makes those aspects seem familiar. Above all, she lets her characters make jokes (rather than the slapstick approach of the author making the character a joke) and she trusts our basic human impulse to giggle nervously in the face of despair. In case you can’t tell, I loved this episode.


I’m in the odd position of having waited a week to write the review (see below), and I was surprised to realize earlier today that I didn’t remember much happening: rather, I remembered Tyrion’s jokes, Ned Stark finally cracking a grin, and that sly throne room scene. Of course, I didn’t forget the golden crown that gives this episode its title, or the joust between Bronn and Lysa’s vassal, but the majority of this episode was about people talking, arguing, bickering, and generally getting on each other’s nerves.

If “The Wolf and the Lion” was structured in binaries, “A Golden Crown” is all about trios, quads, and more. Conversations, arguments, and physical fights all took place between numerous people. This could have been chaos, or many people standing around and awkwardly not interacting, but Espenson aced the interactions, the actors aced the acting, and the intensely expository nature of the previous episodes started to pay off tenfold. Did I mention I loved this episode?

Winterfell

Theon had a bit more to do this week: he’s quite a smarmy bastard, isn’t he? Then again, the urge to fight and kill seems to be sweeping more than just Team Greyjoy—the wildlings are fleeing the north North, the whores are fleeing the regular North, and everyone seems to expect chaos at any moment. Between the zombie hordes and the Lannister army, Westeros seems to be in for a frightening winter.

The Eyrie

I’ve watched the scene in which Tyrion almost falls out of the cell three times now, and every time my stomach has dropped. And then I’ve been overcome with laughter at his conversations with Mord, quoted extensively below. Look at how boring those quotes are, sitting dully on the page. But Madame Espenson trusted Peter Dinklage, and he delivered.

Little Lord Robin is all id, no ego, isn’t he? Less breastfeeding this episode, but still lots of nuzzling—I hope that child actor doesn’t develop some sort of complex. Best of all, though, was that damned spoon and Catelyn’s reaction to it. Lysa let her son tap his spoon without regard for it being the most annoying sound in the entire world, and Catelyn let it happen. This tells us that Catelyn assessed the situation off-screen. A strong sense that characters have lives off-screen is becoming my conditio sine qua non for watchable TV shows, and GoT has it in spades. Also, Tyrion’s confession? Perfect in every way.

Vaes Dothrak

Dany ate the heart of a horse. And suddenly I’m a vegetarian again.

In other news, Viserys finally got what he wanted: a golden crown. Those of us who have read the books have been looking forward to this scene eagerly—and it was my one moment of disappointment. I loved everything leading up to it: Viserys’s conversation with Ser Jorah, the nearly palpable fear and anger when he put the sword to Dany’s belly, even the brute force of Khal Drogo. But I wanted more gold, less “thunk.” It was hard not to laugh in that moment, even though everything that came before was so well played that Viserys seemed more tragic than petty.

King’s Landing

My two favorite scenes featured Sean Bean. One was a quickie: his conversation with Arya and Sansa, in which he told them they would go home, was the first chance we got to see that the Starks do, in fact, have a sense of humor hiding under their badger cloaks.

The other: the throne room scene. Finally, we get to see someone sit on the throne! And it’s not the king, but rather the realm’s most just and loyal man, hearing of the terre gaste caused by Lannisters, but unable to fight them because of the spear wound in his thigh. The Fisher King metaphor wasn’t overplayed, but as subtle allusions go, it’s quite fruitful in terms of understanding everything at stake in Westeros and the brewing Stark/Lannister war.

Wounded or not, Ned still managed to lob a shot across Tywin Lannister’s bow. Gregor Clegane (aka “The Mountain,” the guy who decapitated his horse last week) has been playing the brigand in the riverlands, trying to blame the Tullys (Catelyn’s family), but obviously doing the Lannister’s dirty work. Ned’s decision to go threaten Tywin with attainment was a bold move, as was his decision to send Beric Dondarrion to roust Gregor Clegane from the woodsy lands in the center of Westeros.

Littlefinger lost no time in pointing out the stakes of Ned’s decision, either. At first, I thought Littlefinger’s asides were obnoxious exposition. Then I realized that the character was being intentionally annoying and obtuse—I think he thought Ned wouldn’t realize it, either. Ned did, but it doesn’t seem to have colored his view of Littlefinger. Ned doesn’t realize that everyone has his number, which means he doesn’t understand most of the people around him.

And, finally, Ned figured out what we’ve all already guessed: Joffrey is not Robert’s son, Cersei is an adultress, and Jaime is both uncle and father to his twin sister’s son.

Bitter Peaces:

• Cersei: “I shall wear this like a badge of honor.”
Robert: “Wear it in silence, or I’ll honor you again.”

• Tyrion: “My family is rich! We have lots of gold! I’m prepared to give you lots of gold!”
Mord: “No gold!”
Tyrion: “Well I don’t have it here.”
Mord: “No gold! F*** off!”
…
Tyrion: “About the gold…”
Mord: “No gold!”
Tyrion: “Listen to me! Sometimes, possession is an abstract concept…” [I’m laughing as I type that line. It’s very Xander, in a way.]
…
Tyrion: “Have you ever heard the phrase, ‘rich as a Lannister’? Of course you have. You are a smart man.”

• Tyrion: “You want specifics, I suppose. When I was seven, I saw a servant girl, bathing in the river. She was forced to return to the castle, naked and in tears. If I close my eyes, I can still see her tits bouncing…When I was 12, I milked my eel into a pot of turtle stew. I flogged the one-eyed snake. I skinned my sausage. I made the bald man cry—into the turtle stew, which I do believe my sister ate. At least, I hope she did. I once brought a jackass and a honeycomb into a brothel…”
Lysa: “Silence!”
Robert: “What happened next?”

• Syrio: “If you’re with your trouble when fighting happens, more trouble for you.”

• Viserys: “If I sell one egg, I’ll have enough to buy a ship. Two eggs, a ship and an army.”
Ser Jorah: “And you have all three.”
Viserys: “I need a large army.”

• Renly: “I suppose it was all rather heroic. If you were drunk enough and found some poor riverlands whore to shove your prick inside and ‘make the eight.’”
Lancel: “More wine, your grace?”
Renly has certainly been influenced by Ser Loras. (See above, re: characters having lives off-screen.) Lancel just makes me laugh. How did they find such a perfect actor for that role?

• Sansa: “I don’t want someone brave and gentle and strong. I want [Joffrey]!”

• I want to grab Ned Stark out of Westeros, tie him down, and loofah that oil and dirt off of his face.

• Sansa is turning out to be rather bitchy. I guess gaining a whole kingdom for the price of a direwolf will do that to a girl.

• Speaking of direwolves, where are they? I miss their oversized ears.

• Theon’s and Tyrion’s prostitute has left the North and is heading south. As she keeps appearing, I assume she must be important.

• List of the dead: Viserys, assorted wildlings.


There’s no excuse for an episode review being this late. And, really, I have no excuse. But I did spend all seven days feeling horribly guilty.

Four out of four riverland girls.
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Doctor Who: The Almost People (2)

Doctor: “Would you like a Jelly Baby?”

Matthew Graham's definitely gone up in my estimations. I liked this episode a lot. Admittedly, it had some problems. The dialogue was occasionally clunky, the CGI predictably rubbish, and there was far too much telling rather than showing. ("Who are the real monsters?") But these are minor gripes in what was, an otherwise, event laden episode. And now we know who died back in episode one, the question must surely be: what has happened to Amy?

I can live with the fact that a Ganger (and not "our" Doctor) died back in “The Impossible Astronaut”. There's a modicum of logic to it. If that's, indeed, what did happen. The Moff went to great lengths on Doctor Who Confidential this week to explain that the Doctor and his Ganger are mentally and physically identical. When they swapped boots, even Amy couldn't tell them apart. The timing of when they swapped boots is, perhaps, harder to nail down. I'm guessing it was some time prior to the Doctor giving up his sonic screwdriver, and telling Amy to trust his Ganger. Earlier than that wouldn't make sense.

Seeing the Doctor interact with himself was a rare treat. The Doctor's always had this internal monologue going on. And making the internal, external provided the perfect platform for all manner of shenanigans. (Beautiful word, shenanigans). It also afforded Graham the opportunity to write some cracking dialogue, and for Matt Smith to act his little (though, likely, big) socks off. Finally, someone the Doctor can relate to. Someone who can concur unequivocally with his stratospherically high opinion of himself, and, yet, not feel inferior in comparison. What's true of the Doctor, is also true of him.

Despite feelings of outrage and anger over the injustices done to the Gangers, the Doctor's Ganger remained essentially unchanged. He didn't succumb to feelings of animosity and revenge. It was interesting to see how the various moral dilemmas affected the Ganger-crew. Miranda, tempered by her own mortality, ended up sacrificing herself to save the humans. Jimmy, moved by seeing holo-Sam, ended up feeling compassion for his human counterpart... to the extent of actually replacing him (at Jimmy's request.) Even Dicken stopped sneezing. Was that a dropped thread? Or am I reading way too much into this whole "sneezing" thing?

Jennifer's transformation from Anakin into Darth Vader was perhaps less successful. I get it that she was pissed off with humanity. But would that really have changed her personality so radically and in such a short space of time? One minute she was all timid and demure, the next she was inciting genocide against the whole human race. I'm not saying the issues didn't have far reaching implications. But, this was an intimate tale, with a small cast, and her megalomania and ambition felt way too big for the story.

The CGI (as already mentioned) fell on its arse again. They keep trying to pull off these big CGI monsters but they just don't have the budget. The Doctor's transformation was effectively done, as was Jennifer's elongating jaw. But her turning into a monster felt (a) too much like "The Lazarus Experiment" and (b) like an excuse to inject some random action into proceedings where absolutely none was required. There was enough going on without it.

I was a little puzzled by the Doctor obliterating Ganger-Amy. For two episodes now he's been banging on about the Gangers being real people. (Gang banging, if you will.) So why the sudden need to kill off Amy's Ganger? Obviously, to break the connection. But, didn't she deserve to live? Wasn't the whole point of the episode that the flesh was more than just moss? Unless the Doctor knew her molecular memory would survive (as the Ganger-Doctor's surely must), and that she'd eventually come back. (See Zob's excellent explanation in the comments section below.)

Quibbles aside, that was some cliffhanger! How long has Amy been missing? Was she taken when the Silence captured her back in “Day of the Moon”? The Doctor's been telling Amy to "breathe" since at least episode two. Or was the switch made in the three months between TIA and DotM? Could it even have happened prior to the events of TIA? I was surprised, too, when Rory let the Doctor kill Amy. I half expected him to shield her. Yet he didn't. Did he sense something was wrong? Or is he starting to trust the Doctor?

Eye Patch Lady is a mid-wife? What kind of a creepy hospital is Amy in? All, no doubt, will be revealed next week. The trailer for “A Good Man Goes to War” looks amazing.

Bits and Pieces:

-- Loved hearing Tom Baker's voice at the start. Nice tip of the hat, too, to Pertwee's classic line...“Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow”. Marvellous!

-- The moment anyone says "You need to trust me", it almost certainly means you can't trust them. And you can trust me on that.

-- How did those eyes in the wall make any sense? Were they there just so the Doctor could crack his "The ayes have it" joke?

-- What a stroke of luck the Doctor had that onion-tasting clot cure in the TARDIS. Is that the only condition he has a cure for?

-- We'd best be on the lookout for stolen biscuits. Jammy Dodgers in particular.

-- The code word was badboy? Saucy.

Quotes:

Ganger-Doctor: “Is that what you were thinking?”
Doctor: “Yes, it's just so inspiring to hear me say it.”
Ganger-Doctor: “Ha, I know.”

Doctor: “Breathe!”

Doctor: “Yowza! An escape route. You know, I'm starting to get a sense of just how impressive it is to hang out with me.”
Ganger-Doctor: “Do we tend to say Yowza?"
Doctor: “That's enough. Let it go.”
Ganger-Doctor: “Okay.”
Doctor: “We're under stress.”

Rory: "I'll break out the big guns.”

Doctor: “We both wear the same bow ties. Which is cool.”
Ganger-Doctor: “'Cos bow ties are.”
Doctor: “And always will be.”

Buzzer: “I should have been a postman like me dad.”

Miranda: “You can't let him go. Are you crazy?”
Doctor: “Am I crazy, Doctor?”
Ganger-Doctor: “Well, you did want to plumb your brain into the core of an entire planet just to hold its orbit and win a bet.”

Doctor: "Call me, Smith. John Smith."

Doctor: "If you have a better plan, I'm all ears. In fact, if you have a better plan, I'll take you to a planet where everyone is all ears."

Doctor: "Have you been getting up very early and jumping on the bed?"
Adam: "Yes, really high."
Doctor: "I expect chocolate for breakfast. If you don't feel sick by mid-morning, you're not doing it right."

Ganger-Jimmy: "Hang in there, mate."
Jimmy: "I'm quite handsome from this angle."

Amy: "I never thought it possible."
Ganger-Doctor: "What?"
Amy: "You're twice the man I thought you were."

Doctor: "Miranda Cleaves. Marvellous! Beware of imitations."

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The Killing: Pilot

“Mrs Larsen, do you have a daughter?”

The Danish series Forbrydelsen (The Crime) is one of the best crime dramas of the last few years. Powered by a phenomenal performance by Sofie Gråbøl as Detective Inspector Sarah Lund and her now legendary jumpers (jumpers are cool), it plays out like a Scandinavian cross between Twin Peaks and State of Play.

One of the great things about Forbrydelsen is that it shuns all sense of instant gratification that your typical CBS crime procedural show revels in. The longer format and measured pace allowed for greater depth and more emphasis on character. Here all crimes aren't solved in less than 45 minutes thanks to flashy forensic magic. Also, the victim’s family aren't used simply to provide teary-eyed exposition and additional motivation for the hero go out and catch the killer. This is a show that doesn't shy away from showing the devastating effect the loss of a loved one can have on a family and can be brutally honest in its portrayal of grief.

AMC's remake relocates the action from the damp city of Copenhagen to the equally damp city of Seattle (actually the immensely damp city of Vancouver). The basic premise remains the same as the original; one murder case, told across an entire season with each episode covering a single day of the investigation. The plot is divided into the same three distinct but connected strands; the police investigation into the murder, the family's struggle to cope with their devastating loss and the election campaign of a city councilman to be mayor.

Much like Syfy's retuning of Being Human, which had the misfortune to premiere at the same time as the original was airing its blistering third season, The Killing suffers from some unfortunate timing. The Danish series had only just finished its run here in the UK and was still very fresh in my mind when I sat down to watch the remake. At first I was going to give it a miss, figuring that no matter how good it turned out to be The Killing would never be able to reach the same quality as Forbrydelsen. But curiosity eventually got the better of me.

The first time I watched this pilot I didn’t enjoy it. Not because I thought it was bad. Like all AMC shows The Killing is exceptional well made and brilliantly acted by a cast made up of people I like. I’m certain that, if, like a lot of viewers, I’d come to it with zero knowledge of the original I would’ve loved it straight away. But I didn’t, so I couldn’t. So far The Killing is offering me nothing I haven't seen before and done better with more interesting accents and character names that you could have fun trying to pronounce properly. The pilot is virtually a shot for shot, word for word remake. Even the music is exactly the same, which is no surprise since composer Frans Bak also did the music for the Danish series.

So why should a devoted jumper fanatic like me bother sticking with The Killing?

Well, first of all there is that great cast (more on them further down). Secondly, the producers of this version have stated quite vocally that they plan to use the original as a starting point and that the identity of the killer and the motivation for the murder will be different. I hope that's true because I'm not looking to watch the exact same show again only in a different language. And thirdly, the jumpers. I know I've said this before but jumpers really are just as cool as bowties. And fezzes. And Stetsons. And bunk beds.

Who's Who

Rosie Larsen – The Victim

The murdered girl. Despite what AMC's marketing department might think its unlikely that Rosie is gonna be a Laura Palmer for the 21st century. So far we know very little about Rosie Larsen. She's something of an enigma wrapped in a puzzle, trapped in the boot of a car at the bottom of a lake.

Sarah Linden – The Detective

The driving force of the series is Mireille Enos as Det. Sarah Linden. She’s the stoic type who solemnly stares into the middle distance a lot, no doubt haunted by all the horrible things she’s seen while on the job. Or its constipation. I have a little trouble telling which is which. I want to like Linden but I feel like I’d be betraying Sofie Gråbøl if I did. It’s like Tennant/Smith all over again except I’m not instantly falling in love with Enos the same way I did with Matt Smith.

Stephen Holder – The Detective's Partner/Replacement

I might be frosty towards Linden but I’m having no such problem with her partner/replacement, the remarkably tactless Stephen Holder, brilliantly played by Joel Kinnerman. Holder is a former undercover cop with a cockish attitude and tendency to treat everyone he meets like they’re a suspect. In the grand tradition of police dramas Linden and Holder a mismatched pair but thanks to the performance of the actors they don’t easily slip into buddy cop clichés.

Stanley and Mitch Larsen – The Victim's Parents

Rosie’s parents. They are as much victims of this crime as she is. Their entire world has been shattered by her murder. Although it can be uncomfortable to watch at times, this is the series' strongest storyline. Much of this is thanks to the exceptional performances of Michelle Forbes and Brent Sexton as Mitch and Stanley. What can I say about Michelle Forbes that hasn’t been said before? The woman is just incredible. She’s been one of my favourite actresses since her Next Gen days and this is some of the best work she’s ever done.

Darren Richmond – A Professional Dullard

Richmond is a handsome and idealistic city councilman and mayoral candidate. Despite Billy Campbell’s best efforts, Richmond is duller than an episode of Boardwalk Empire with all the interesting bits (basically, all the violence and nudity) edited out. But at least he's not as repulsive as Jamie and Gwen, his campaign staff. Jamie, in particular, is a rather loathsome little gerbil. He was practically foaming at the mouth about exploiting Rosie’s disappearance for political gain. Well congratulations, Jamie, you got your wish. The kid turned up dead and in one of your campaign cars. So, now what are you going to do?

Notes and Quotes

--Jumperwatch: Like her Danish counterpart Sarah Linden has a fondness for the type of distinctive knitwear you only wear at Christmas because it was a gift and you don't want to offend Auntie Sheila. What makes this all so cool is that Linden, like Lund, doesn't seem to give a damn how unfashionable she is. Her current choice is okay but I can’t see anyone wanting to pay hundreds of dollars for it. Not like this beauty.

--Mireille Enos was actually pregnant at the time this pilot was shot.

--I do like the title sequence. Good title sequences are rare these days.

--It is one of the fundamental universal truths that man is incapable of fixing anything with tape (unless he’s MacGyver, who could fix a nuclear reactor with tape).

--Due South and BSG fans will no doubt recognize Callum Keith Rennie as Linden’s fiancé while Gary Caulk (Lt. Oaks) has been in loads of things, most notably The Dead Zone and SG-1.

--Caprica fans will no doubt recognize Jasper’s house as same one that was used for the Greystone’s home.

Richmond: “I’ll not exploit a family’s tragedy for a soundbite”

Holder: “Nice weather, ocean, beaches, hate that shit.”

Linden: “You think homicide’s going to be any different?”
Holder: “At least you got a bad guy.”
Linden: “Yeah, who’s that?”

Fraser: “My name Fraser, not Osama.”

Holder: “Guy lose his wallet while he was getting his knob polished?”

Jamie: “Election is in twenty-six days we don’t have time to be jerking off here.”
Gwen: “Well, not an image I want in my head.”

Holder: “You sure he stayed in last night?”
Mitch: “Yeah, I’m sure.”
Holder: “How?”
Mitch: “How do you think?”

Terry: “What’d the cops say?”
Mitch: “Nothing, they just asked me a load of bullshit as usual.”

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Glee: New York

“I see it now. I don’t have to choose between my career and love.”

12th Place? TWELVTH FRAKKING PLACE? I know that the show choir competitions employ judges with incredibly dubious credentials, but was the decision making done by a troupe of drunken mongooses? I understand that if New Directions won Nationals, the series would basically have nowhere else to go (except international competitions!), but damn, they were so good, I really felt they might win.

New Directions in New York

It was so much fun to see our favourite glee club gallivanting around NYC, looking more a lot colourful than they usually do. It lent a ‘school trip’ air to the episode. With most school trips the singing is confined to the bus journey, but it felt right that New Directions would burst into song in the middle of Times Square. The school trip feeling continued as Puck tried to score some booze, everyone bunked off song writing in order to go enjoy the city. Several of the scenes and performances were odes to New York in one way or another; in fact much of the episode was a love letter to the Big Apple. Finn and Rachel met in central park in a beautiful scene with bubbles and balloons on bow bridge, dined at Sardi’s and met Patti LuPone. As if that wasn’t enough, Rachel and Kurt breakfasted at Tiffany’s (well, outside it) and broke into the Wicked theatre.

Boulevard of Broadway Dreams

Ironically, Will and Rachel, the two main characters struggling with their dreams of Broadway, were discovered by Glee creator Ryan Murphy on Broadway. This episode seemed like a sly tip of the hat to two performers who really can make the screen or stage come alive with their talent. Will’s scenes felt like they needed another reappearance of April to make them more believable, Matthew Morrison is a great performer but it was still just him singing on an empty stage. Will gave up his Broadway dreams for his kids rather easily. I am a little disappointed; it felt like that plot was tied up too quickly and neatly. I am so glad that Kurt also got to sing on Broadway since for me, he has been the heart of this season and has grown so much over the course of it. He not only has big dreams of his own, but is the one who helps Rachel realise hers. He’s a star. You know, when you stop and think about it, Kurt Hummel’s had a pretty good year.

Nationals (No Public Displays of Affection Please)

It’s hard to think about Nationals without getting annoyed that New Directions placed so low on the rankings, especially since they wrote their own material (When did they finally get down to it? The songs were amazing!). It was nice that Rachel reconciled with Sunshine, but I expected her to have a larger role in the series finale since she made such a big impact at the beginning of the season, their scene in this episode relied too much upon events all the way back in Audition. It also felt too unbelievable that Sunshine would be upset enough to want to be deported and then be that easily consoled by Rachel. Dustin Goolsby’s scene with Will was similarly strange. Dustin didn’t gloat, didn’t seem threatened or adversarial. Why would they chat at a bar together when Captain Smarmy was planning on telling New Directions about Will’s plans to leave anyway?

For me, the best parts of the Nationals storyline were centred on Finn and Rachel. Their pre-curtain up chat felt so much more real than the equivalent at the end of Season One. The following performance was more charged with emotion as a result, and perfectly finished by their beautiful but ill-timed kiss. I am finally properly on board the Finchel love train. Jesse was pretty unimpressive in comparison, but he was right, that kiss cost New Directions the Top 10 Showcase. I am glad they didn’t show too much of the understandable fallout from that disappointment and instead focused on the sweet Blaine/Kurt, Brittany/Santana, Sam/Mercedes scenes. Of course, Finn and Rachel’s talk in the library ended with them getting back together. Everybody say ‘Ahhh’!

Loved

- “My cup, my cup, saying what’s up to my cup, my cup, more of a friend than a silly pup...” Way better than My Headband. I think that's where Brittany drew her inspiration!

- Rachel and Kurt talking about achieving their Broadway destiny in front of Tiffany’s & Co. while Moon River played on the soundtrack, then singing Wicked together. Hell, even I want to move to NYC with them!

- Even though I didn’t like Quinn’s bratty, entitled rant, I appreciated the feeling that Quinn, Brittany and Santana are still a little clique – the popular girls, ex-cheerleaders, The Plastics. I’d like to see more scenes with the three of them together.

- Below, I have a moan about some characters disappearing or not being treated well. Not so with Blaine. Even in the final episode they managed to fit him in, Hurrah! Blaine and Kurt aren’t just an adorable couple, they’re also role models, and a symbol of hope to many young gay, bi or unsure people out there. Their declaration of love was so sweet.

- Speaking of cute couples, Brittany and Santana are so great together. I am glad they focused on their friendship rather than their romantic love, as there wasn’t time to do it justice in this episode.

- Santana was being held back by three people when screaming at Rachel in Spanish, Grr! I’m looking forward to finding out more about the cause of her general angriness next season.

Didn’t Love

I thought about doing two versions of this review, a cynical one, highlighting the many overtly cheesy, overly emotional or politically plotted moments, and a more gleeful one. However Glee isn’t suitable programming for grumpy young men, so I’ll reserve my cynicism for this section.

- How could New Directions rank TWELVTH? This was so implausible that it almost feels like the writers were saying “Oh come on, you didn’t think they’d stand a chance at winning when it’s only the end of Season Two?” I also don’t love this because I take it to mean that they might not win at Nationals until the last series of Glee.

- Quinn’s threatening talk at the end of last episode was basically for nothing. She didn’t have a plan for New York, or if she did it wasn’t revealed. Instead, her anger was conveniently located in the ends of her hair which was trimmed, and her vengeance-y power was gone. Poor Samson, I mean Quinn. Her character has not been treated very justly by the writers this season.

- Artie rolling around that fountain sculpture! I mean what if he had fallen off! And how’d he get up there in the first place?

- It seems like Coach Bieste and to a lesser extent Emma were just put on hold as characters towards the end of this season. Emma is still a virgin; why did Carl and Holly break it off with their respective partners if Will and Emma’s relationship didn’t develop? Dave Karofsky is still in the closet, and so is Santana. Bieste had her first kiss from Will, and then drunkenly told him she loved him. What happened there?

Glee Against the Music

Brittany, Artie and Puck - My Cup:
I decided to give this a song review slot since I actually really enjoyed it! But that was mainly Brittany’s sassy dancing and everyone’s ‘Huh?’ faces. Grade B

Madonna - I Love New York / New York, New York from On The Town (New Directions):
Rather dodgy mash-up, at least to begin with, but it got better. The staging was clearly epic. I particularly enjoyed the skipping through central park with balloons and flowers in front of mounted police, and the girls on the red steps in Times Square. They looked very girl-band-y (yes, that is a word), especially with their multi-coloured New York garb. Grade B

Matthew Morrison - Still Got Tonight (Will):
This song perfectly suited Will (for obvious reasons), and his performance was thrilling. He was really good, and the song was just long enough to get into and not feel cut short. Two complaints, the lack of staging and the overuse of auto-tune! B+

Bella Notte from Lady And The Tramp (Puck, Artie, Sam and Mike):
After I got over my confusion about whether Finn had asked Puck & Co. to serenade them, it created a magical atmosphere for Finn and Rachel’s almost kiss. My heart did a little flip-flop when Finn whispered “Take a chance on me”. And Puck can play accordion too! What’s next, French horn? Grade B

For Good from Wicked (Kurt and Rachel):
Good idea Kurt, seriously good idea. This really did feel a little bit like Kurt and Rachel fulfilling their destiny. Not only was their performance stunning, but the song fit the situation so well. What great acting as well as singing, they were so full of emotion. Grade A

Yeah! - Usher ft.Lil Jon & Ludacris (possiblySingaz Wit Attitude):
Yeeeeah. Good singing, great dancing etc, but why were they all wearing maternity dresses? I enjoyed the performance at the time, but afterwards I wished they had cut this out in order to fill out some of the threadbare plots in this episode. Grade C.

Glee - As Long As You're There (Vocal Adrenaline):
I didn’t realise this was another Glee original song until after watching the episode, but it does stand up with the other originals. What it doesn’t compare to is Bohemian Rhapsody, and neither did the staging, compared to Vocal Adrenaline’s winning performance at the end of Season One. It was also a lot shorter. If it wasn’t for adorable Sunshine, I wouldn’t have been that impressed at all. Grade B-

Finn and Rachel – Pretending:
This was great! If Glee can keep doing original songs of this calibre, that fit their leading man and woman like a glove, I am going to have to write a thank you note on behalf of my mp3 player. The intensity of the performance was amped up by Finn and Rachel’s conversation beforehand, and I really felt the heat of that kiss. Grade B+

New Directions - Light Up the World:
Just like Loser Like Me, this was a pure, unadulterated dose of Glee. The ensemble performance really worked, and the choreography was definitely better than what we’re used to, a far cry from the infamous Reach to Nowhere. The girls’ dresses were gorgeous too. Grade A-

Quotes for Gleeks

Rachel: “He did seem crazy. He charged my credit card by swiping it through his butt crack.”

Kurt: “I feel like Eloise.”
Brittany: “I have pills for that.”

Puck: “You need to ask her out tonight. Take her on one of those big awful dates you see on those unwatchable romantic comedies that you grow a vagina with if you watch all the way through.”

Dustin Goolsby: “They're hideous. My kids are at least attractive. Yours look like they haven't been baked properly.”

Kurt: “I'm spending my summer composing Pip, Pip, Hooray! The Broadway musical about Pippa Middleton.”

Santana (in Spanish): “Do you know what goes down in Lima Heights Adjacent? Bad things!”

Blaine: “I love you.”
Kurt: “I love you too. You know, when you stop and think about it, Kurt Hummel’s had a pretty good year.”

Brittany: “I know I’m going to be a bridesmaid at Mike and Tina’s wedding. And I’m going to be anxiously waiting just like everyone else to see if their babies are Asian too.”

And that’s it! Glee’s sophomore year is over. There were some patchy parts to this episode, but it tried to cram an awful lot into 45 minutes, and according to the internet, some important scenes got cut. I wish it could have been longer. Maybe I just want more Glee. It’s going to be a long summer, maybe it’s time to re-watch from the beginning. From the top!
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Star Trek: A Private Little War

Kirk: "A balance of power. The trickiest, most difficult, dirtiest game of them all, but the only one that preserves both sides."

When you get past the mildly silly white fur monster with horns, the bad wigs, and the wiggling root used to heal Kirk, this is actually a very good episode with something important to say.

The Prime Directive is a critical concept in this series, although it is usually observed in its absence. What do you do when an enemy violates the Prime Directive in such an underhanded way, exploiting a primitive culture while making it look as though the progression was natural? In truth, sad though it was, Kirk's decision to arm the other side at exactly the same level was the only solution. You can't put the genie back in the bottle.

Along with the very sixties cold war metaphor (plus Columbus corrupting the culture of the original inhabitants of North America), "A Private Little War" also did the Garden of Eden much better than "The Apple", with Nona playing the obvious part of the tempted Eve, with Kirk's phaser as the serpent. They apparently recycled the white wigs from "The Apple," but the primitive costumes were much closer to skins or homespun than the white towels and fake flowers (except for Nona's costume, which was mostly black leather and orange fake fur left over from "Friday's Child"). I liked the face jewels, too; it was a nice touch.

I also liked the B plot with Spock's self-induced coma. This episode's Most Obvious Symbolism was the violence that Christine Chapel was forced to inflict on Spock that paralleled the awful decision Kirk made to arm Tyree's people. I also liked Dr. M'Benga; he was fun and matter-of-fact.

And hey, Kirk and Spock are so in tune that they got mortally injured at pretty much the same time. Not to be outdone, McCoy managed to get shot in the arm by a flintlock. Yes, a doctor got a shot in the arm. Ha ha.

Ben says...

The hardest thing about writing something about this episode was selecting where to start. Because, lets face it, we have both The Vulcan Slap Cure and the Mugato.

A cautionary point though. You can start a review with either one, but if you bring either one to a party it will not win you friends. Sure, the Mugato is popular at first, but then it tosses your neighbor's girlfriend out a window and mates with the punch bowl, and suddenly it's all about "are you insane? You can't bring a dangerous science fiction animal to a party, man!" and unsympathetic animal control officers and "preliminary hearings" and all that. And let me add that, although you will be tempted, this is not, NOT, the time to try the Vulcan slap cure on the host. It will only make things worse. The whole thing just devolves into a violent Star Trek themed episode of Mr. Bean. I am pretty sure that this just proves that I am not going to the right parties. Also, I checked and there is nothing illegal about dyeing a gorilla white and strapping a fake horn to its head (so in your face, ASPCA).

Oh yeah, also this was another great episode which tackled the realities of the Cold War and its collateral damage to people in the developing world in a tremendously thoughtful way at a time when science fiction was still thought of as a kid’s genre. (More about this after I complete my "community service".)

Back to Billie for bits and pieces:

-- Star date 4211.4. An unnamed planet that looked an awful lot like the mountains of southern California. In fact, I could swear that I could see the San Fernando Valley in the distance.

-- Kirk visited the planet thirteen years ago and became friends with Tyree. Pretty big coincidence that Tyree's people were being victimized by the Klingons, isn't it?

-- When Spock was shot, McCoy said he would have died if his heart hadn't been where his liver should be. The splot of green blood made me think of paintball.

-- There were no replacements for damaged Vulcan organs on the Enterprise, probably because there is only one Vulcan. But isn't he an important Vulcan? He's important to me. :)

-- Krell the Klingon was a return to the previous Klingon make-up; those cute little hair tufts were back.

-- McCoy used an awful lot of phaser blasts to heat up those rocks. I thought phasers were more powerful than that.

-- The Mugato was a terrifically cheesy alien animal with white fur and horns.

-- The line about Asian brush wars made me think of "You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is, never get involved in a land war in Asia." (One of these days, I have to get around to reviewing The Princess Bride.)

Quotes:

Nona: "There is an old custom among my people. When a woman saves a man's life, he is grateful."

McCoy: "Since Tyree won't fight, he'll be one of the first to die."

McCoy: "Spock! You're alive?"
Spock: "An illogical question, Doctor, since obviously you are hearing my voice."
McCoy: "Well, I don't know why I was worried. You can't kill a computer."

Three out of four flintlocks,

Billie

All of our Star Trek reviews are archived here.
More about Ben here.
Photo credit: Memory Alpha

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Eureka: Noche de Suenos

... in which some of the town’s residents begin having the same dreams.

Like the previous episode, ‘Noche de Suenos’ made me both gasp out loud (truck accident) and laugh my ass off (naked Carter and my quick realization that Zoe and Jo had shared his dream). However, unlike ‘Duck, Duck, Goose,’ this episode featured some substantial plot and character development, particularly for Allison, Kevin, and Stark.

This week we learned that Stark suspects the Artifact is an antenna that connects to a zero point energy field containing all knowledge and experience from the beginning of time (the Akashic Field). Furthermore, he believes Kevin has developed a connection to the field because of his unique brain wiring and his exposure to the Artifact’s radiation. Kevin could, therefore, be the key to understanding life, the universe, and everything. Pretty heavy stuff for such a little kid. And for his poor mom, who is at her wit’s end trying to figure out what’s happening to her son and find a way to protect him.

Allison’s struggle in this episode was incredibly absorbing. Not only did she have to wrestle with whether her efforts to protect her son were putting the entire town at risk, she had to confront the purity of her own motives for pursuing the research in the first place. Obviously, she and Stark want what’s best for Kevin, but it is far too easy for them to rationalize that their needs --- her desire to form a connection with her son and Stark’s desire to understand the mysteries of the universe --- are also in Kevin’s best interest. Are they truly helping him by invading his dreams, or are they simply allowing themselves to believe that to justify their own selfish agendas? This episode doesn’t really answer that question, and I appreciate the ambiguity. Now we all have to ponder whether Allison and Stark are making the right choices. After inadvertently killing one person and putting 49 others at serious risk, I’m curious to see how much longer Allison will simply forge ahead as Stark wants, especially given that she already has so many doubts about her own motivations.

Other Thoughts

So Carter managed to finagle an actual workout date with Allison! Only to get undercut by Stark and his PhD from MIT, of course.

Carter (re: having to strip down for decontamination): “You’re enjoying this aren’t you?”
Stark: “No.”

Jo was reading a magazine called Military Ma’am in her shared dream with Carter. They come up with the funniest titles for her reading material!

Consider me less than surprised that Fargo is an excessively whiny and demanding patient. Or that he was threatening to sue Carter.

Jo told Carter she grew up with three brothers and no mom, but in Season 1’s ‘Before I Forget’ she told him her mom used to make her costumes. Maybe she died when Jo was a young girl.

Interesting that in Allison’s shared dream with Kevin, he was a normal kid. Was that her influence on the dream, or does Kevin really dream of himself as a normal kid?

Stark: “Do you really want him to be like any other normal kid?”
Allison (whispers): “Sometimes.”
Stark: “There’s nothing wrong with that.”
Allison: “Then why do I feel so guilty about it?”

It took me forever to confirm the spelling for “Akashic” Field. I kept trying to find it with “zero-point energy” related searches and nothing turned up. After several days it finally occurred to me to Google “field of all knowledge” and voila! The second result was the Wikipedia entry for “Akashic records.” Doh! That’s what I get for thinking it was a science concept when it was really a theosophical one.

It appears that Carter may be starting to recover his memories of the alternate timeline. The brief glimpse of Henry mind-wiping Carter during the group shared dream had to be from Carter’s mind, since he was one of the subjects in the neural networking study and Henry wasn’t. Very interesting. Henry feigned ignorance when confronted, but I’m more than curious to see how that thread continues to play out.

The dream about Jo, Stark, and “Senor Fargo” was totally freaking hilarious. I laughed even harder when they revealed it was Jo’s dream and not Fargo’s. So are she and Taggart really over? And she’s started lusting after Fargo? OK, then.

This week our featured Stargate guest actors included Colin Cunningham (Major Davis, SG-1) as dream researcher Paul Suenos (because what else would he be with that last name?), and Martin Christopher (Officer/Captain Marks, SG-1) as the medical doctor.

Ooh, Carter had to breathe oxygen-rich plasma! A fun reminder of The Abyss.

When Carter asked Jo if she had ever wanted to be anything else, the first thing that popped into my mind for her was dancer. I guess because she’s such a tough, kick-ass chick, it seemed to me that her secret childhood dream would be to become something graceful, beautiful, and girly. I was really delighted my instinct turned out to be true, and thought the final scene was an incredibly sweet capper to the episode. Very nicely played by Erica Cerra.

Final Analysis: Very strong episode, which managed to be both freaking hilarious and incredibly poignant.

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I Am Number Four

"My entire childhood has been an episode of X-Files."

If you've been hanging around this site for awhile, you know I'm not big with the snark. But this movie just yanked the snark right out of me.

I Am Number Four was so obviously intended to cash in on the Twilight franchise, but with sexy teenage aliens instead of sexy faux-teenage vampires. The movie is very young adult and very blond, and of course, the superpowered very important alien is in hiding and running for his life, but insists on attending high school. If they were going to try for anything resembling realism, they would be acting like Sarah Connor, using every skill and subterfuge possible to hide... well, okay, John Connor went to high school, too. But he was human, underage and didn't look 23, so he had an excuse.

The lead actor (Alex Pettyfer as the titular Number Four) was... well, I was going to say abysmal, but maybe he was just boring. Pretty much every one of the supporting actors was a better actor than he was, and that included the dog. (I liked the dog.) I especially liked Number Six. Actually, this movie should have been written around her (I Am Number Six) instead of him, except that girls don't tend to be the lead in movies about aliens.

So I spent most of the movie waiting for the Timothy Olyphant scenes. (He was basically doing Obi Wan. Enough said.) Jake Abel, the third Winchester brother from Supernatural, got to be inexplicably nasty; Kevin Durand (Keamy from Lost and Joshua from Dark Angel) got to do a lot of mugging and overacting while wearing scary alien makeup. Dianna Agron from Glee was completely wasted; they gave her a Veronica Mars-like obsession with photography, but that was pretty much it -- although they did sneak in the movie version of Glee slushies. The only character I really liked was the dog.

The writing consisted of cliched, rubber stamped lines that we've heard a thousand times before. And there was practically nothing resembling background on the aliens. Was I supposed to read the book or books before watching the movie? Why did they have numbers instead of names? Why were they being eliminated in numerical order? How could Number Four be stupid enough to stop and develop photos while running for his life? Why did the producers of this movie think that we'd care about Number Four without anything resembling good writing, good acting, and/or charm, like, say, Starman? And who thought of those embarrassing subcutaneous flashlights in his hands?

Well, it wasn't a complete loss. I did like the dog.

One and a half out of four Twilight ripoffs,

Billie

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NewsFlash: Torchwood trailer

I know I'm being repetitive, and it's going to suck if it turns out terribly, but I am very excited about the return of Torchwood. And we finally have a trailer! "I'm Welsh."





Enjoy. Anticipate. Subscribe to Starz.

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Doctor Who: The Rebel Flesh (1)

Doctor: “Human lives are amazing. Are you surprised they walked off with them?”

Matthew Graham's first effort at a Doctor Who script ("Fear Her") was an anomaly in that, despite Graham's impeccable writing pedigree, it was absolute tosh. No writer, no matter how talented, can pull off a scribble monster. True, the minuscule (some may say non-existent) visual effects budget didn't help matters. But it was still pretty bad. Thankfully, tonight's episode went a long way toward making amends. It wasn't perfect. But I didn't herniate myself from weeping at it either; which is always a bonus.

"The Rebel Flesh" was always going to struggle, coming as it did, after "The Doctor's Wife" (AKA my new favourite episode ever!) The idea of using “inferior” beings as slave labour isn't a new one. It was used to great effect in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, a film which also explored the issue of identity and what it means to be "human". In the case of the Gangers, the matter was further complicated by them being exact replicas of their "parents". They were mirror images of their human counterparts -- inside and out -- making them indistinguishable from the real thing.

If the flesh, memories and personalties are the same, then what (if anything) sets them apart? What makes them less human? If Cleaves and Co had pondered on that, instead of reacting to the perceived threat, maybe they'd have realised the Gangers had as much right to live as they did. They weren't monsters... at least, no more than they themselves were. Maybe Cleaves realised that from the start, and that's what frightened her. The human's hatred of the Gangers felt somewhat akin to racism. There was no rhyme nor reason to it. They feared them because they were different. And, likewise, the Gangers feared the humans because they'd inherited their "parents'" mental dispositions.

The plot itself was a traditional base under siege yarn, the twist being, rather than escaping from some outside alien threat, the enemy was very much of their own making. It came from within. In fact, in many respects, they're were fighting against their own ignorance and prejudices. The enemy knows them as well as they know themselves. It'll be interesting to see who outwits whom. (Or even who outwits Who.) Would they have turned on each other so suddenly and so absolutely? I'm not so sure. Cleaves is clearly something of a bigot and a control freak. Yet her doppelgänger seems more self aware. More sympathetic. And infinitely better at reading Cleaves than Cleaves is at reading her. She didn't react favourably to doppel-Jennifer's call to arms, either. Maybe doppel-Cleaves is evolving. She certainly seems the more human of the two.

Rory seems to have taken a shine to Jennifer. And Jennifer certainly wasn't shy in making her feelings for Rory known. Finally, someone who sees Rory for who he is. After Sexy calling him "pretty" last week, Rory's sex symbol status seem to have sky-rocketed. I'm not sure Rory fancies Jennifer per se, I suspect it's more his nursing instincts kicking in, and an innate desire to protect the weak. But Rory was something of a revelation tonight. He put himself in the firing line to save Jennifer. He even risked his life leaving the chapel sanctuary to go in search of her. What will Amy make of that, I wonder? She didn't seem to know what to make of Rory's protectiveness tonight.

Which brings us to the Doctor. How did he know the crew were using earlier technology? Earlier than what? (I know, earlier than later technology... but how does he know about the later technology... unless he's actually been later?) Despite, ostensibly being there by accident, how comes he knows so much about what's going on? And why did he try and dump Amy and Rory at the chip shop, before the TARDIS was “unexpectedly” hit by the solar tsunami? It's almost as if he wanted to go alone. But why? Because the TARDIS always takes him where he needs to be? Or was it something more premeditated?

Admittedly, the Doctor's doppelgänger turning up wasn't much of a surprise. (Although it was a surprise he looked like Odo. ) Now we've been introduced to the Doctor's Ganger (and the technology spawning him), can we start to speculate on what happened back in episode one? Was the Doctor who died a doppelgänger from the future? Or is that too simple for the Moff?

Bits and Pieces:

-- Was the Doctor's accent supposed to be Yorkshire? Isn't Marshall Lancaster from Macclesfield?

-- Caerphilly Castle added a lovely Gothic charm to the story.

-- Did the vats of living flesh remind anyone else of the resurrection technology from Battlestar Galactica?

-- Eye patch woman had a brief cameo again this week. Weird!

-- I wonder if the Doctor's boots rotting in the acid will have any future significance? His doppelgänger is still wearing his boots. Is that the only way we'll be able to tell them apart?

-- Amy's pregnancy test is still swinging to and fro from positive to negative. Surely the Doctor knows what's going on by now?

-- Wow.... that was some dodgy CGI. That head on a stalk looked decidedly shoddy. And the less said about Mr. Fantastic's arms, the better.

-- Why did Dicken keep sneezing?

-- Loved Amy kissing Rory's finger better. Awww.

-- Since the Doctor and Rory seem to be Dusty Springfield fans, I'm guessing Amy's the Muse fan? Rock on, Amy!

-- Why does a crashing TARDIS make the same sound as a crashing prop plane?

Quotes:

Doctor: ”Text book landing.”

Amy: "Oh, we've gone all medieval.”
Rory: "I'm not sure about that."
Amy: “Really? Medieval expert, are you?”
Rory: “No, I can just hear Dusty Springfield.”

Rory: “My mum's a massive fan of Dusty Springfield.”
Doctor: “Who isn't?”

Doctor: “There are people coming. Well, almost.”
Amy: “Almost coming?”
Doctor: “Well, almost people.”

Doctor: “I can see why you keep it in a church. The miracle of life.”
Buzzer: "No need to get poncey. It's just gunge.”

Amy: “Doctor, Rory.”
Doctor: “Rory?”
Amy: “Rory!”
Doctor: “Oh Rory... always with the Rory!”

Doctor: "I've got to get to that cockerel before all hell breaks loose. I never thought I'd get to say that again."

Jennifer: "My name is Jennifer Lucas. I'm not a factory part."

Rory: "Are you sure you're feeling better? No more super-elastic punches?"

Doctor: "Yes, it's insane. And it's about to get even insanerer."

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Eureka: Duck, Duck, Goose

... in which space junk orbiting the planet begins crashing down on Eureka on the day of the Tesla School science fair.

After several more serious episodes, ‘Duck, Duck, Goose’ didn’t have much in the way of “deeper meaning” (unless you count the reveal of Zoe’s budding intellect), but it was still a fun little episode. I particularly enjoyed how a number of seemingly disparate threads came together in the end to provide the solution to the town’s latest catastrophe --- even Carter’s hilarious early trip to the gym and S.A.R.A.H. the super-smart car.

Speaking of that little trip to the gym ... Oh. My. God. Carter pretending to work out in that tank top and those little shorts had me laughing pretty damn hard, and Stark’s bemused reactions just made it all the funnier. I was also highly amused by the running gags about Carter’s childhood IQ score. Megan referring to him as “Reno 111” was my favorite (especially after the short shorts!).

I’m not convinced that Zoe should be lying to her dad about her IQ score given their history, but I understand that in her mind she’s protecting him. Poor guy is surrounded by a town full of geniuses, and would probably be hurt to think his sole ally is drifting to the other team, so to speak. I think he’d adjust just fine --- Carter’s the kind of dad who would ultimately be proud that his kid is super smart --- but I get why Zoe would lie. Carter certainly seemed relieved when she was right there with him at average.

Other Thoughts

I was entertained by Jo in SWAT gear and by Stark ragging on the science fair entrants.

Jo (re: the science fair): “Teens with unlimited access to terrifying technology. It’s Armageddon with acne.”

Carter: “Jo made it seem like the sky was falling.”
Stark: “That hasn’t happened since 2004. And that was more an igniting of the ionosphere.”

Colin Ferguson is really game for some serious physical comedy. Love it!

How delightful to see Taggart again! His interactions with his geese managed to be funny and yet incredibly disturbing. When he snapped his little winged angel’s neck, I was as horrified as Carter! “I don’t know whether to be disturbed or relieved.”

I like the idea of using robo-geese as camouflage drones. Terrifying, but likely highly effective.

I also loved seeing the notion of “peaking in high school” applied to the nerds instead of the jocks. Poor, Finn.

Allison and Stark continue to be rather chummy. First working out together and then her calling him to check in on Kevin. They even left the fair together.

Not much on the overall arc this episode, except for the brief moment between Henry and Stark. I’m glad that Henry doesn’t blame Nathan for putting Kim in a position to be harmed, but I’m also very sad knowing that he does blame Carter. Every time we see evidence that maybe they are becoming friends again, the show has to twist the knife. Heavy sigh.

Final Analysis: A rather insubstantial episode, but also a seriously funny one.

... Read full post

Supernatural: The Man Who Knew Too Much

Bartender: "Honestly, I'm dying to know how it all turns out."

I've been confused all season about where they were going with Castiel. But I bet if I rewatched the season now, it would make sense. His search for God, his disappointment, mortgaging the moral high ground by dealing with Crowley. And it all came down to this.

I was concerned that they were about to write Misha Collins out. Instead, he just got promoted to major nemesis. It's not easy to take a sympathetic character that nearly everyone loves and turn him into a monster, but they absolutely pulled it off. Castiel is now the most powerful, frightening villain the Winchesters could ever face. And it's so much worse because they once loved him. I swear, it was almost worse than watching him die. (Except we're gonna get more Misha Collins, and an evil Misha is better than no Misha.)

Honestly, I think you can say a cliffhanger is successful if you keep talking about it afterward. How can they possibly resolve this situation? Will God stop Castiel? Can God stop Castiel? If downing millions of souls creates a god, is that how the God in the Supernaturalverse was created? Are those souls suffering, like Jimmy does? And what does Jimmy think of all this? Dean, Sam and Bobby were all looking totally freaked. Can they bring themselves to bow down and worship their former friend? I'm sure they'll think of something, since I can't see them getting smited the first minute of season seven.

Castiel brought down The Wall of Sam, and Sam not only survived; he chose to take Soulless Sam and Sam from the Box into himself, and he got up and followed Dean and Bobby. He did his best to help instead of dissolving into a self-pitying bundle of emotional goo. The scenes in Sam's head and the three way split were done so well. I got the impression that Blank Sam could have chosen to be Soulless Sam again, but his memory of Soulless Sam's victims, personified by that beautiful dead bartender, just wouldn't let him do it.

This episode was gorgeous in a bleak sort of way. The dark streets, with the song "Playing with Fire" in the background. The burning candles all over Bobby's house standing in for the fires of Hell when Blank Sam finally met Sam from the Box. Castiel glowing with power. And Mark Sheppard probably did the most powerful recitation of Latin that I've ever seen on this show. I also liked all the bits from the past they added to Sam's dreamscape, like John's Wall of Weird from season one and the storage locker full of the Winchester past ("Castle Storage"). And the Nite Owl Hotel was in "Live Free or Twi-Hard" where Soulless Sam let Dean become a vampire, reminding us that Dean was a victim of Soulless Sam, just like the bartender.

The final Castiel/Balthazar scene was terrific, too. They didn't say what they were really thinking, but it was so clearly written on their faces. I'm sad that we lost Balthazar; I was just starting to really like him. At least Mark Sheppard is still with us. Smart move, producers, because I hope we see him in season seven.

All in all, I thought this was a stronger finale than last season's. "Let It Bleed" resolved Dean's family issues. "The Man Who Knew Too Much" resolved Sam's "Wall", and Castiel just arc'd his way into the category of major threat. Instead of a big action-packed shoot-em-up, this finale was totally about our characters. As it should be.

Bits and pieces:

-- I still get chills when they do "Carry On, Wayward Son."

-- I assume Sam was "the man who knew too much." I'm sure we'll still be dealing with his unbearable memories next season.

-- The bartender (beautifully played by Erica Cerra from Eureka) was definitely Sam's type. I kept thinking she had to be more than she appeared to be, an angel or a demon, even as I kept empathizing with her.

-- Castiel finally got to explode Raphael. I actually cheered for him, even under the circumstances.

-- Loved the shot of Bobby, Dean and Sam walking together down that alley.

-- The Impala got crunched again. Did they have to crunch the Impala again? It's like hurting a living character. In his dreamscape, Sam was driving the Impala. It felt like an emotional stand-in for Dean.

-- Blank Sam described Dean as a "male model type." It made up a bit for all of the girly-long-hair and Sasquatch jokes.

-- Virgin blood, the blood of a Purgatory native, and the moon in eclipse? Then how did Lovecraft do it? And really, what was Eleanor? What are natives of Purgatory if they're not demons or angels? Is there a Biblical name for them?

-- According to several sources, Misha Collins will not be in the cast next season. But of course, he has to come back. Hey, we barely saw him this season.

-- This week: Bobby's place; Bootback, Kansas; Sam's brain.

-- This episode was written by series creator Eric Kripke. I could tell. Gee, I think they knew they were getting another season. I have confidence that the Supernatural powers that be wouldn't have left us with such a massive cliffhanger if they thought there was a possibility of cancellation.

Quotes:

Crowley: "You seem even more constipated than usual. Maybe get you some colon blow?"

Castiel: "You think I'm handing all that power to the King of Hell? I'm neither stupid nor wicked."
Crowley: "Unbelievable. Have you forgotten that you're the bottom in this relationship?"
There are always sexual double entendres in Supernatural, but they've been thick on the ground during the last few. Balthazar was nearly as bad as Crowley.

Castiel: "You can't imagine what it's like. They're all inside me. Millions upon millions of souls."
Crowley: "Sounds sexy. Exit, stage Crowley."

Castiel: "I'm your new God. A better one."

They went out with a bang again, and I'm so glad I have a seventh season to look forward to. Four out of four Purgatory power shakes,

Billie

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Supernatural: Let It Bleed

[There were two episodes of Supernatural last night. But it wasn't a two-parter, so I'm reviewing them separately.]

Dean: "I lost control for a minute. And I just wanted to say that I'm sorry."

It was a dark and stormy night. Okay, I couldn't resist opening my review with this. And I wanted to leave spoiler space before saying...

So much for Lisa and Ben. Dean not only gave up his "ex-lady friend and not kid" to protect them; he even gave up the memory of their mutual past. During the past season, Dean has undoubtedly taken some comfort in the knowledge that at least Lisa and Ben loved him, that the three of them had been a successful family of sorts, that Dean really could have had a normal life. And now, even that is gone. Dean's sacrifice really got to me. And all this just confirmed Dean's core belief that everything he touches turns to crap. Except that Ben would be long dead if it weren't for Dean, but I bet Dean never thinks of that.

The car crash was the perfect metaphor. Lisa and Ben have always been in mortal danger as long as Dean loved them, and an angelic memory wipe was pretty much the only way to end their part of the story without killing off both characters. Or even worse, Lisa dying and Dean being forced to raise Ben as a hunter, just as he was raised. Dean just saved Ben from becoming another Dean. It's so sad.

I knew Lisa, Ben or both would have to be possessed, so why didn't Dean see it coming? You know, everyone who has ever met Dean and Sam should have one of those protective tatts. And I know demons lie, but I believe Lisa really was thinking that Dean was indeed the worst mistake she ever made, and unfortunately, she was right. Props to Cindy Sampson; she was totally poisonous and hurtful, believable as a demon.

So apparently, after a season of mystery and all this carrying on, the reason Castiel wants the souls in Purgatory isn't so much to win the war in Heaven, after all. It's about power. Oh, Castiel. That's so disappointing. At least we know now that Balthazar has a shred of decency under the snark, as Dean says. Maybe Balthazar will turn out to be their white knight, so to speak. Although the writers are signalling pretty strongly that he's going to bite it in the finale.

Bits and pieces:

-- March 15, 1937, Providence, Rhode Island, and the Lovecraft story was "Haunter of the Dark." I'm not a Lovecraft fab, although it's obvious from reading about him that his work fits into the Supernaturalverse.

-- Balthazar said that taking in millions of souls was nuclear and could cause an explosion that would take out most of the planet. So I'm thinking that would be bad.

-- In the parallel old flame department, it was Dean's ex-ladyfriend who got kidnapped by Crowley, and Bobby's ex-ladyfriend Ellie Visniak who was cornered by Castiel at the end of the episode. So she's from Purgatory, huh?

-- Ben did a great job as shotgun back-up while Dean was carrying Lisa out of the warehouse. The writers have been pretty consistent with Ben; he's always been Dean all over again.

-- Can I say again that I really hate seeing our heroes torture demons? Especially Dean, after what happened to him in Hell? And we've been getting way too much of it lately.

-- Moishe Campbell of the New York Campbells. Loved it.

-- And I always love the decor in Supernatural. This week's favorite was the velvet paintings and weird posters in the Lovecraft fan's house.

-- Gold acting stars for Jensen Ackles. He made me cry. Misha Collins also did some superb work. Castiel's face when Dean refused to trust him? Heartbreaking.

Quotes:

Sam: "So we gotta get it back."
Bobby: "Or we read the copy I already made. Hi, glad to meet you. Bobby Singer, paranoid bastard."

Dean: "Am I supposed to know who that is?"
Bobby: "Horror writer? 'At the Mountains of Madness'? 'The Call of Cthulhu'?"
Dean: "Yeah. No, I was too busy having sex with women."

Crowley: "Your chocolate has been in my peanut butter for far too long."

Crowley: "I promise I won't hurt them, provided you and Jolly Green stand down. Got it? Splendid. Kisses."
Jolly Green. :) Even better than Sasquatch.

Lovecraft fan: "H.P. Lovecraft? This guy is literature. He should be taught in schools. He's up there with Dickens and Dean R. Koontz."

Bobby: "I hear you have a large collection of Lovecraft's private letters."
Lovecraft fan: "Yeah. World's largest."
Bobby: "Wow. You must be catnip to the ladies."
Lovecraft fan: "I'm in a long term online relationship."
That's two geek digs in the same episode. Come on. I might just start taking offense. If I weren't already sure that the Supernatural writers are as geeky as I am.

Balthazar: "I know I'm going to live to regret this, but I'm officially on your team. (pause) You bastards."

Four out of four car crashes. On to part two,

Billie

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The Killing: Stonewalled

“I should've known, subtlety isn't exactly your strong suit.”

As some of you might have guessed I've not been feeling much love for The Killing lately. For the last three weeks the police have been circling around their prime suspect but are still no closer to knowing for certain whether or not Bennet killed Rosie. If it turns out that he's just another red herring (something that is looking increasingly likely) then at least a third of the season has been wasted chasing after false leads.

Even though I'm not happy about it I do understand why the writers are dragging this storyline out. This is a serialized show after all. They've got to try and stretch this all out for thirteen weeks and sometimes that can mean cougars encounters and episodes about tattoos. Maybe it would've been better if they hadn't bothered. Is there really anything wrong with revealing the identity of the killer sooner rather than later? It's something that both Dexter and Spiral have done in the past and neither of those shows suffered as a result. If anything, they both benefited because of it.

Oh well, could’a, would’a, should’a...

The Investigation

What 'Stonewalled' might have lacked in major plot developments it more than made up for it with some terrific character development for Linden and Holder. Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman both got the chance to shine in this episode, Kinnaman especially. I haven't exactly been equal in my distribution of praise when it comes to the cast. I'm often so busy gushing about Forbes and Sexton that I tend to neglect everyone else.

Might've took me eight episodes but I'm finally starting to warm up to Mireille Enos as Sarah Linden. She's still something of an inferior Sarah Lund clone but I'm not as bothered by that as I used to be. The Rosie Larsen case has become an obsession for our knitwear loving heroine. Everything else, including her son and fiancée, has become a secondary priority to her. All that matters is solving this case. Linden's put too much of herself into this investigation to quit now. And as a result she's starting to crack up bit by bit. She's not as stoic as she once was and her methods are a little more reckless.

But on a brighter note, at least her relationship with Holder has now improved.

Right from the start the two of them have had a tense relationship, one built on mistrust and lack of respect. Linden treats Holder like he's her personal dogsbody, often sending him off to run errands that she's too busy to do herself. She's frustrated by his less than professional attitude causing her to doubts his skills as an investigator. But Linden's finally got to see her partner in a whole new light as she followed him to the Narcotics Anonymous meeting and heard his confession. Kinnaman fully deserves a gold acting star for that scene. 

Now their trust issues have been sorted out Linden and Holder have come to a new understanding with each other. She's finally starting to realise that, for all his personality faults, Holder is actually a capable detective. Something he demonstrated again tonight by getting that wire put on Bennet's phone (all that talk of wires and judges really made be nostalgic for Baltimore).

The Larsen Family

While Linden and Holder were growing stronger as a couple, Stan and Mitch were slowly falling apart. After briefly reconnecting yesterday/last week, Mitch has retreated back in the sanctuary of Rosie's room. Meanwhile, Stan is struggling to look after the boys and run his business.

Mitch's detachment from reality and her parental responsibilities has been obvious for weeks. I don't think it was really necessary to put the boys in danger just to tell us that. Worst of all we didn't get to see Mitch's reaction to what she'd done. I wasn't even sure she was aware of what had happened. I'm still not quite sure. When Stan confronted her about it she reacted almost like someone who didn't seem to care. Considering what she's been going through right now I can't see Mitch as the type of person who would reacting indifferently to her children being put in danger.

I can understand Stan's reasoning for packing up Rosie's stuff. If nearly killing her remaining children doesn't shock her out of her apathy then maybe dismantling her sanctuary will. But all this led to were bitter recriminations and further estrangement.

The Richmond Campaign

Closed until something interesting or relevant to everything else happens.

Notes and Quotes

--Jumperwatch: No change from last week. Chestnut must be getting seriously smelly by now.

--The intense focus on Bennet has also meant that clues that seemed important a few weeks ago, such as the expensive shoes, the key and Rosie's film, have all been virtually forgotten.

--How exactly it is in the public interest to show pictures of Rosie's murder?

--Holder has now been clean for six months. He was raised by his sister, Liz, who sacrificed her youth to look after him. He repaid her by stealing from her and his nephew to feed his addiction.

--Linden, I hope this will teach you to have all your sensitive case files password protected from now on.

Holder: “Yo, it's called a detective shield, Einstein. As in tonight's breaking news federal agents makes asses of themselves jumping two homicide cops.”

Principle Myers: “No one's accusing you, Mr Ahmed.”
--Apart from the police, the Mayor, the press, Belko, Belko's mate at the school...

Linden: “Why don't you make yourself useful and stay here and do nothing.”

Mitch: “And he's still out there. You still haven't arrested him. You've done nothing.”

FBI Agent: “You just broke chain of custody.”
Linden: “Too bad it's your ass.”

Linden: “You have any idea what you put that girl's family through?”
Jack “Figures, you only care about other people's families.”

Stan: “We gotta focus on the future, Mitch.”
Mitch: “The Future? It's been a week.”
Stan: “I know what happened this morning. The boys could've been... we have responsibilities, Mitch.”
Mitch: “I'm not the one taking responsibility? You let her stay home that weekend.”
Stan: “And if weren't so strict, maybe she wouldn't have hid things from us.”

Holder: “Is there something you want to ask me?”
Linden: “Not anymore.”
Holder: “Good, 'cause what you see is what you get.”

Before I go I'd just like to apologise for the lateness of this review. ... Read full post