Wednesday, October 17, 2007 Rant Archive
There doesn’t seem to be a lot of upside to hunting escaped souls for the Devil (Ray Wise). No vacation days, no sick time, things keep disappearing and everything that happens to Sam (Bret Harrison) at work just draws the wrath of Ted the managerial douche bag down harder on Sam and the crew. This time, Andi (Missy Peregrym) suggests a road trip to a Flaming Lips concert at the University of Idaho (My alma mater! Go Vandals!) for the weekend, but Satan doesn’t like the idea of Sam taking a break.
Anyway, when things continue to vanish and Sam pops open the box from Hell to find a dove in a cage, Sam (with a little help from Google) figures out that the escaped soul is a former magician named Bellifiore. A little deductive work, a sharp observation or two, and the boys are on the track of one bad fellow. However, in the eight decades or so since his death, Bellifiore has learned more than a little real magic, and he’s … well, tricky. I know, another terrible pun. What can I say? This show brings it out in me. Must be the Devil.
How will Sam, Sock (Tyler Labine), and Ben (Rick Gonzalez) trap a real magician using only their wits and a dove from Hell? Will Sam ever learn not to tempt the Devil to screw up his life in ever more ingenious ways? Who cares? Wherever the show is going, it’s a hoot getting there.
Tonight’s episode of BOSTON LEGAL is Denny Crane’s (William Shatner) worst nightmare come true; an old army buddy who needs legal representation after admitting he is gay. Being that Denny is a right-leaning conservative, he certainly can’t be the one to defend his friend, so Shirley (Candice Bergen) answers the call for him. Leave it to a woman to take care of a sticky situation, especially this woman. Shirley is more than competent enough to handle the case, and more than compassionate enough to realize the position it puts her old lover and law partner, Denny, in. Of course that doesn’t mean she has to ignore the fact that Denny is being a schmuck, yet again, but after all the years she has worked with him, she is used to it by now. And Denny wonders why his romantic relationship with Shirley never worked out. That’s ok, Denny still has Alan (James Spader) to lean on, and really, besides the lack of sex, it’s probably the best relationship the two of them have ever been in. But now that Jerry (Christian Clemenson) has been spurned by his love interest, Katie (Tara Summers), he may be crawling back into Alan’s arms as well.
And speaking of Katie, after achieving successful conclusions for her first two clients, she is bound and determined to help her latest one. Actually, he’s an old client who has come back with another problem, but more about that later. This case is perfect for the newest associate at Crane, Poole and Schmidt, considering that she is one of the only lawyers there who still has a bleeding heart. We’ve already seen how emotional she gets about her work – I mean she was the first person to believe that brooding monster she represented in last week’s murder case – so a custody battle is right up her alley. But she may have to learn how to hold back a little or she may end up having a nervous breakdown. And in this law firm, there is a precedent for that. If you’ve been watching BOSTON LEGAL since the beginning, you’ll remember one of the original partners was carted away to a sanitarium after conducting a staff meeting in his underwear. It must be something in the water; I mean first you have Jerry, whom I adore, but has emotional issues of his own. And then of course there is Clarence (Gary Anthony Williams), or Clarice, depending on the day and mental state he’s in. Then again, Denny Crane isn’t operating on all full cylinders either, so it’s understandable that the staff would reflect the management.
So, this being the penultimate episode of the season, we’re in scorched earth mode on DAMAGES. Last week’s episode ended with Ray Fiske (Zeljko Ivanek) responding to an attempted blackmail attempt by Patty Hewes (Glenn Close) by blowing his brains out in her office. Patty had obtained information on Fiske that would have utterly destroyed Arthur Frobisher’s (Ted Danson) case, so Fiske, in what could be described as the ultimate in attorney loyalty, decided to exit the case, and corporeal existence. Who’s the first person Patty calls? Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne), the former junior associate and erstwhile protagonist of the show. That sound you hear is the “Something’s afoot” alarm going off.
Considering that Gregory Malina (Peter Facinelli) and George Moore (Peter Riegert) have been whacked in the last couple of episodes, and we know Ellen’s fiancé David (Noah Bean) is going to die real soon—this is, after all, the crime Ellen’s being held for in the present timeline—one just can’t help but wonder who else is going to buy it before the show screeches to a halt with next week’s season (possibly series) finale. One thing’s for sure; there’s a whole lot of blood in the water.
But that’s not all! David and Ellen break off their engagement, just in time for Katie to show up and deliver the videotape that Malina made before his untimely death by speeding car. The unsinkable Ms. Hewes is deeply rattled by Fiske’s suicide, and heads for her beach house to recuperate. Frobisher, meanwhile, is feeling like he’s going down for the last time, and is self-medicating his pain away, snorting enough coke to dissolve his skull. And, in probably the last mistake he’s going to make in this show, David watches the Malina videotape and calls Ellen to inform her, which is just inviting trouble from the narrative gods. Sure enough, after a visit from the stalker chick, Frobisher’s wetwork men show up and give David that skylight in his skull we’ve been expecting all season.
This week on THE BIGGEST LOSER I get lied to, one team gets its heart ripped out and tragedy visits a contestant just before the weigh-in. And NBC goes surreal for the first half hour.
Every week I fall for it. That deep voiced announcer promises me something amazing on THE BIGGEST LOSER and every week I get my hopes up and every time I am disappointed. This time it was promised, “One trainer goes too far…And IT’S NOT JILLIAN!!” And then they would show a shot of trainer Kim guiltily looking over her shoulder. Jillian blew out a guy’s knee a couple of seasons ago racing him. Could we be looking at something as awesomely irresponsible as that? I hoped. And what I got instead was Kim saying the “F” word to David during a workout…TWICE!!! I say that more times driving my daughter to pre-school.
Six episodes into this season I am conditioned to the show starting at 8:30 pm. Imagine my surprise when I tuned at this time and the first half hour was dedicated to Senator Larry Craig telling Matt Lauer that he wasn’t gay. A whole half an hour of, “I’m not gay, Matt.” “Matt, I’m not gay.” “Do you see a gay guy here? Then you must be looking in a mirror ‘cause it ain’t me!” Or something like that. Turns out it was a news special. I gotta start looking at the TV GUIDE channel.