Tuesday, November 13, 2007 Rant Archive
“Why does everything have to blow up simultaneously?”
It’s the question Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) asks as the WEEDS world around her seems about to crumble. Her son Silas (Hunter Parrish) got his ass handed to him by members of a motorcycle gang. They were upset that Nancy refused to buy the club’s inferior product, and took it out on junior. Worse still, they said she was next.
As bad, younger son Shane (Alexander Gould), the genius, believes he sees his dead father. Nancy can only handle one problem as a time. First she takes Silas to Dr. Tupelo, a physician who asks no questions, requires a $500 cash deposit only in American money and no longer accepts barter. Silas needs stitches, but the good doctor is out of Demerol. So Tupelo uses only a topical anesthetic.
Under the circumstances, can you blame Nancy for wondering “How can we call ourselves a first world country when we can’t provide basic health care for our criminals?” It is just one example of the show’s maliciously off-beat sense of humor.
Finally, the episode I’ve been looking forward to since the beginning of the season. Not to say the rest of the episodes have been chop liver, but I loved last season’s “Five Years Later,” and this week’s “Four Months Ago” was in the same vein.
At long last, we find out how Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) healed, how Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) ended up in Ireland with amnesia, the lame way DL (Leonard Roberts) died, and exactly what sent wonder twins Maya and Alejandro (Dania Ramirez and Shalim Ortiz) on the run.
To be honest, the only story I was interested in was Peter’s and Nathan’s. Thankfully, most of the episode centered on them. Like Hiro (Masi Oka) was the driving force for saving the world last season, it seems the torch has been passed to Peter this season.
In the last issue of Entertainment Weekly, HEROES creator Tim Kring wrote an apology to fans of the show. One of his self-proclaimed mistakes was waiting too long to get to the “world-saving stakes.” I must agree. It took us less than three episodes to find out New York City would be demolished last season. This season, it was until last week that we found out the fate of the world. Now that I know, though, the show has re-peaked my interest, and I’m getting that same kind of tingly excitement I had through most of last season.
Can Chuck (Zachary Levi) save the country’s nuclear secrets from crazed tiny guy Reardon Paine (Kevin Weisman) who poisoned his sister? You bet. Can he save himself from the charms and advances of Rachel Bilson as the seductive sandwich maker Lou? Definitely not.
The episode begins with Paine torturing a guy who worked in the nuclear program and had codes that would act as a skeleton key to the entire system. Paine poisons him with a mixture that starts as a truth serum and ends with death. The guy, Mason Whitney, is freed to retrieve the codes and exchange them for the antidote. It is during this that he bumps into Chuck, Agent Sarah (Yvonne Strzechowski), Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) and Captain Awesome (Ryan McPartlin) on a double date. During the “bumping into” the codes are dumped in Ellie’s pocket and Mason is rushed to the hospital where he dies.
Well, it only took three weeks, but finally a new episode of K-VILLE made it to the airwaves. Starts off hot, too; Cobb (Cole Hauser) and Boulet (Anthony Anderson) answer a call to respond to a robbery, and they show up just in time for it to be a murder. The partners split up to pursue the suspects, and Cobb chases down one of the guys with Glue Boy (Blake Shields) backing him up, only to get a big shock when the suspect recognizes him from his felon days. Cobb hesitates, and the suspect gets away and hands a beat-down to Glue Boy. Glue gives the suspect a fatal shooting, but Glue Boy gets a trip to the ICU, and Cobb feels a buttload of guilt, a burden that Love Tap (Tawny Cypress) is more than happy to hand him.
Knowing that his old gang is still running around, Cobb decides to infiltrate his old gang and take them out, with a little backup from Boulet, on the theory that if they don’t get taken off the streets, eventually they’ll cross paths and cause trouble. Cobb makes contact, while Boulet sees his wife greeting a man with excessive affection. This doesn’t make either of them happy. Meanwhile, Cobb’s getting back into the life, but there’s at least one gang member who isn’t welcoming.
It looks like Jack (Reed Diamond) just can’t help himself, when it comes to interfering in Dan (Kevin McKidd) and Katie’s (Gretchen Egolf) lives. Thanks to his investigation into the mysterious money he found in Dan and Katie’s closet, the feds have stepped in. And now, the whole thing is out of Jack’s control. Because of his meddling, Dan and Katie may end up becoming suspects in the infamous Dillon McClean case from the 1970s. I don’t know about you, but that’s not what I call brotherly love. And with Dan being busy saving people from the past, it may end up all falling into Katie’s lap. And now that Katie has stumbled upon something interesting from Livia’s (Moon Bloodgood) past, she has even more to worry about, where her husband is concerned.
Meanwhile, Dan is busy attending a party in the past, where he meets a young hippie woman with ties to a murder. Nobody said time-traveling would be easy, but honestly, couldn’t the reason he’s sent to the past be spelled out from the beginning?
I am officially annoyed with PRISON BREAK. I may have been hinting at it for the last couple of weeks, but this time, it’s for real. Even with this week’s added twists, I just can’t seem to muster up enough concern to give a damn about what happens to Michael (Wentworth Miller), Lincoln (Dominic Purcell), or anyone else on the show.
This week, Whistler (Chris Vance) gets a visit from Gretchen formally Susan B. Anthony (overplayed, as always, by Jodi Lyn O’Keefe). She tells him that they’re going for the “bang and burn,” whatever the hell that is. “What do I do about Scofield?” Whistler asks. “Kill him,” Gretchen replies with her best bitch face firmly in place.
Yep. I’ve already turned off my brain and given it a rest for the next hour.
And I think the writers and directors of PRISON BREAK know that I, and the rest of the viewing audience have, have taking a brain break because they keep doing those instant flashbacks as if we can’t remember what happened on last week’s episode or even what happened before the last commercial break. Whoever thought that dramatically flashing back to key moments from two minutes ago would make for more interesting television needs to find a new job. I know I’m watching a show on Fox, but I’m not really that dense to not remember Gretchen’s kill command when Whistler pulls out his shank to stab Michael.
Every other week writers and producers happily point out how amnesia comes in handy when dealing with the former trainwreck that is your life. This week, while tasting ice cream with her parents, Samantha (Christina Applegate) hears a GoGo’s song and bursts into uncontrollable tears. Later, when she’s hanging out with Todd (Barry Watson), talking about whatever it is these two idiots talk about, she runs into a man that flips out at her very presence and takes off running in the opposite direction. This man is Nathan (Todd Grinnell), former lover of Samantha’s & presently with a fulltime restraining order.
Andrea (Jennifer Exposito) explains to Samantha that the two of them are not just beautiful women, but flaming hot, unattainable women because they never got the attention they needed growing up and that gave them the indelible ability to divide and conquer any & everything around them. Herein lays the problem, when someone says they do not want you back—YOU JUST TRY HARDER. With most things in life, the whole divide and conquer thing works perfectly, but when you just show up and demand someone love you—well, you sound like a psycho.
Samantha tricks Andrea into handing over the restraining order file and she goes on the hunt for Nathan to tell him she’s sorry and not at all the same person. So this idiot hunts him down and tries to explain to him all this worthless stuff when she realizes the greater problem is the relationship she has with her father.
Hello, your name is Samantha and now everything you cannot remember doing is suddenly a big huge deal. I guess one of those giant, life defining moments happens to be getting your first lay on—at least it is according to Samantha. I mean, her body knows what’s up. Her body’s probably done it thousands of times with possibly hundres of people, judging from what we know about her prior to her amnesia the possibilities of Samantha being a whore is pretty high. And now that she doesn’t remember sex it’s such a huge deal that she feels like she needs to figure it out & get it done.
First, Samantha goes to her mother asking about sex. The big virginity question makes things so awkward and weird onscreen that I really wanted to turn off the television. The virginity question sparks a debate between Samantha’s parents when her father finally realizes that he was not his mother’s first lover. Samantha leaves her house and goes to her friends Dena (Melissa McCarthy) & Andrea (Jennifer Esposito) to talk about how she knows she’s done it, but she doesn’t know it—cause of the stupid amnesia. Dena & Melissa try to describe it to Samantha and sound like retards. Andrea says she should hurry up and have sex and get back to the grind. While Dena says she should wait for someone that cares about her to show up.
Samantha goes to Todd’s (Barry Watson) apartment to collect more of her stuff and she asks him about sex—what was it like with her? How was she in bed? You know, the sort of questions you ask your ex after 50 margaritas and the total loss of your dignity. Samantha on the other hand has a green light to question all this crap because she is an intellectual invalid with zero memories. Todd says sex was great with her and she leaves the apartment while everything around her is some sort of phallic symbol.
Don’t you hate it when your friends point out that annoying quirk from your new lady friend, so that you can’t stop thinking about it and it drives you crazy for the rest of the short time you continue dating her? Like she always chews gum with her mouth open. Or she always wears leggings with any outfit. Or she weighs about 250 pounds. … Um, not that I’m speaking from personal experience or anything.
Anyway, that’s what happens to poor Ted (Josh Radner) when the gang meets his new hot item. The problem is, she’s quite the talker, and Ted doesn’t realize it until everyone tells him. This sets off a chain reaction of revealing everyone’s quirks that threatens to drive everyone crazy.
But then Marshall (Jason Segel) finds out he passed the bar, and everyone forgets their underlying hatred for each other. Oh, and they watch Barney’s video of a dog pooping on a baby (I just had to throw that in).
Never underestimate the island! Just when you thought you had all its answers figured out, LOST is throwing another curveball at viewers. The show has slipped back into mainstream media with a series of
webisodes, which premiered this past Monday and will air weekly on network website
abc.com.
The web-based episodes are two–to–three–minute shorts of a series collectively titled “Missing Pieces.” Despite the implications of that title, these will not be deleted scenes from previous seasons, but rather newly-shot material designed to fit into the show’s broad and convoluted mythology. LOST creators are leaving it up to the fans to piece together where each “mobisode” (as they call them) fits into the show’s timelinee. The Nov. 12 premiere mobisode was “The Watch,” a story that focused on Matthew Fox’s character, Jack Shepard, a day before his doomed-marriage to wife Sarah. While throwing rocks on the beach Jack’s questionably deceased father came to give his son a wedding gift, a watch passed down through the men in their family.
Well, another season of CURB is in the books, and I think all die-hard fans were left scratching their heads after Sunday’s finale. What did we learn? That Larry and Cheryl may be split up for good. That the Greenes’ daughter Sami is a woman now. That Larry may or may not have a gerbil stuck up his ass. And best of all, that we might have another season of Leon Black!
In this week’s season finale, the Blacks announce that their house is ready and they’re moving out. Larry sees this as a mixed blessing. While he thinks they’re all kind of a pain, you can tell he misses the company – especially with Cheryl still dating the “No Fly Zone” underwear designer.
Adding to Larry’s troubles are the rumor that he has a gerbil up his ass (he disspells those rumors, although he admits he does have a “tickle” in his anus). That can’t be good for anybody.
TELL ME YOU LOVE ME started its season with a bang. In fact, pretty much everyone was banging someone. Graphically. With the kind of attention to detail that might have won it an award from Adult Video News. However, the series ended with a whimper.
After 10 hour-long sessions, the only message the show seemed to have for viewers is you have to be crazy to see a therapist. Where to begin?
Why not start with Jamie (Michelle Borth), who I have affectionately labeled the slut? When the series started she was engaged to Hugo (Luke Farrell Kirby); but she broke it off when she overheard him tell a friend he doubted he could be loyal to her for the entire length of their marriage. She did the right thing. Only later did we discover that the self-righteous whore (in the nicest sense of that word) didn’t wait for the bloom to come off the rose. She was fooling around on Hugo while they were engaged.
DEXTER is simply the best thing I am watching on TV this season. Tonight, again, production design and writing achieved a perfect balance of complement and completion. The episode begins with Dexter (Michael C. Hall) and Lila (Jaime Murray) in the middle of some aggressive lovemaking. Lila is barking instructions like Dexter is learning how to parallel park in Midtown Manhattan and the shadowed projection cast on his back is a mix of webs and spiders from Lila’s imposing art. The symbolism isn’t hard to grasp; Lila is in control of our hero…for now.
Recovery is a funny thing. Sometimes different addicts take different things away from the program. Dexter is learning to control his addiction to murder and is refocusing that energy into proactively dealing with the obstacles his life of crime has presented him. The first is dealing with the FBI’s Superstar Special Agent Frank Lundy (Keith Carradine) and the task force assembled for the sole purpose of discovering the identity of the Bay Harbor Butcher (that’s Dexter). Dexter sends a manifesto to the local paper. “I’m about to be published,” he says in voice over as the news flies through the department. A risky move but he feels he needs to redirect the task force rather than just avoid them.
His second problem is Sergeant Doakes (Erik King), who has decided to recommit himself to finding out what Dexter is hiding. Dexter uses the murder of a teenager to set Doakes on the wrong path of an investigation. He later slips the blood report onto Doakes’ desk that exonerates his chief suspect for Lieutenant Laguerta (Lauren Velez) to find. She has been concerned about Doakes’ obsessive tendencies and when it looks like he is railroading an innocent man, she takes his legs out from under him. In the ensuing confrontation between Dexter and Doakes, Dexter looks attacked and Doakes is suspended pending an IA investigation. Professional problem two dealt with.
When Michael (Jason Isaacs) says he isn’t ready for parenthood he isn’t kidding. This week he sends Collin (Brian F. O’Byrne) to take his girlfriend Kath (Tina Benko) to the clinic to get an abortion. Collin tries to be the nice guy even telling Kath she has an option and can have this baby if she wants. I like seeing Collin go against the cousin he’s been idolizing and standing up for something he believes in. Regardless, Kath tells him she’s going through with it and he supports her because he was sent to do a job & that’s what he’ll do.
Besides being a heartless bastard this week, Michael continues to pay off the debts to the Italians by being apart of a mob hit. He’s been stationed as support in the hit. He’s supposed to pick up a hired killer, take him to a house, wait for him to kill the mark and then take the killer back to his hotel. Every last part of this guy drives Michael nuts. And I’m not really that surprised as the killers a type-a sociopath and weirdo. He says some profoundly bizarre things to Michael that include: explaining how homosexuals and transvestites and the least gratifying to kill because they will never give you the satisfaction of begging and screaming, masturbating in the marks house to kill time & beating the marks wife and eventually killing her for showing up during his hit. Michael desperately tries to figure out why this guy is getting whacked, but never gets any answers.
In case you forget, Michael Caffee (Jason Isaacs) is a bad guy. The sort of bad guy that knows being bad is a way of life. The sort of guy that knows being bad isn’t something you give up to get a desk job. Michael Caffee has started to face his own lifestyle choices as he deals with fatherhood hitting him in the face. This is Mona’s third pregnancy & his first. She knows what to expect and has a sort of calm confidence when it comes to prepping for the up and coming baby. Now that Michael has been put on medication for his epilepsy she’s moving full speed ahead with plans for a nursery for the new baby.
Meanwhile, Michael’s dealing with more than fatherhood. He realizes any plans he has for the Hill will be circumvented by Freddie Cork being in charge. When Freddie tells the banker that he wants his full take no matter what, and getting the entire take means cutting into Michael’s it becomes clear to Michael that the only way he’s gonna get head is neutralizing Freddie.
While Michael is looking for a way to get Freddie out of the picture, Declan (Ethan Embry) is collecting information about Michael and his cousin to pass onto the D.A. Too bad Michael already talked with them and has set up Freddie into incriminating himself. When Declan returns to police headquarters to rollover on Michel he’s told that Michael is not longer important because he’s giving them Freddie. Now Declan understand exactly how much trouble he’s in if Freddie goes to jail and Michael takes over. Michael runs a much tighter ship and Declan may be of no use.
To circumcise or not circumcise. That was the question faced by Bree Hodge and her husband Orson on this week's installment of DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES. You see, Orson subscribes to the belief that the process is a mutilation that robs a man of substantial sexual pleasure. Bree, of course, thinks an uncircumcised penis is unsightly and unhygienic. The twosome dueled it out in a storyline that lent itself to some hilarious moments, like Orson's retelling of his own circumcision at age 5 and Bree crashing a brisk and posing as a Jewish person.
Lynette spent the episode trying to get rid of her live-in mom, who has taken to bringing home men at bars. During a pretty crowded kitchen scene, we met Stan, an older fellow with whom Lynette's mother planned on taking a shower. And you thought the circumcision talk was too much information! There was a hilarious scene in a diner in which Lynette tries (and fails) to convince her younger sister to let their mother stay with her. Felicity Huffman had me in stitches with a sight gag in which she popped her sister's trunk and stuffed them with her mother's luggage, hopped in her own car and sped off.
THE SIMPSONS, “Little Orphan Millie”: Milhouse’s folks are getting remarried, which should be good news, right? As with everything else in the universe of Homer and the rest, the wedding is just another opportunity for Homer to make a huge tactical error. In this case, he admits to Marge that he doesn’t know what color her eyes are. Dumb ass. Anyway, while Milhouse is hanging with the Simpsons, his folks manage to fall off the cruise ship and are believed dead. Way to start an episode off right, Groening.
Anyway, Milhouse moves in with the Simpsons, but even that carnival of weird isn’t sufficient to help Milhouse shake his depression … until an encounter with Maggie convinces Milhouse to start acting like a man. In his case, though, being a man means acting like an existential loner, which thrills Lisa no end but damages Bart’s cool factor. Meanwhile, Homer continues to take a beating in a battle of wits with Marge, who is becoming desperate to find out what color her eyes are but is thwarted at every turn.
Tonight we go back to 1999, after the bodies of three boys, who went missing in a four-year span, are found in separate storage units. With the discovery of a fourth boy’s body, in yet another storage unit, the cold case team springs into action. It turns out that all four units are owned by the same person, so you know right off the bat who the first suspect is going to be. But the investigation doesn’t stop there. As we all know, there is usually a web of evidence and witnesses that have to be broken through before the real answer is found. Sadly, the murders of young children are usually the hardest cases for even the most experienced detectives to crack. That may be because nobody wants to believe there are people in the world who are evil enough to harm a child. But if this show has taught us nothing else, it’s taught us that none of us are safe from the dangers that lurk around every corner.
As I’ve said before, I believe that’s why viewers have taken to COLD CASE in such a big way. We all want to believe that justice is fair and swift, unfortunately it’s not. Watching a show whose characters not only care about the murder of every single person, no matter how long ago it was and no matter who the person was, gives us the sense of fair play and closure that is so lacking in our society today.
Following the success of PIRATES OF THE CARRIBBEAN at the box office, Disney and über-producer Jerry Bruckheimer made a push last week to get another exotic property underway, a live-action version of the popular videogame
PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME.
Disney and Bruckheimer have tapped Mike Newell (LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA) to direct a script written by Jeffery Nachmanoff (THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW) and videogame creator Jordan Mechner. Newell met with the studio execs last week, and negotiations are expected to begin shortly.
However don’t expect to visit the Arabian sands anytime soon. PRINCE OF PERSIA will not go into production until labor issues regarding the current
WGA strike have been resolved. As a result, a release date for the film is impossible to pinpoint.
Tonight is when the rubber hits the road for Justin (Dave Annable), because the Walker family has figured out he’s back on drugs in a big way. Honestly, it wasn’t as if they didn’t see this coming. They knew the minute he came back from Iraq with a horrific injury that his recovery was going to be more difficult than the average soldier’s. Than again, I don’t think Justin’s story is unique, which is what makes BROTHERS AND SISTERS so relevant, as well as entertaining. Apparently, drug abuse isn’t so uncommon in the armed forces, but who can blame them. I mean they not only have to leave their family and loved ones for ungodly amounts of time; they also have to put their lives on the line every single day. Not too mention the horrors of war that they see, so it’s no wonder that so many of them come home more than a little dependant on chemical substances just to get them through the pain.
But the Walker’s aren’t your average family, which means that Justin’s drug abuse isn’t the only challenge they have to face. Kitty (Calista Flockhart) and Robert (Rob Lowe) are dealing with the miscarriage Kitty suffered in last week’s episode, and than there’s Sarah (Rachel Giffiths) who’s trying to manage the mess her divorce is causing for her children. I guess this just goes to show, the bigger the family, the bigger the problems.
Robert Redford’s LIONS FOR LAMBS is a no-frills film with a liberal message and a lot of ambition. It is also a star-filled affair, with Redford, Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise driving much of the dialogue laden plot. The film’s great error was in failing to show the audience much of anything while instead counting on A-list actors’ long-winded speeches to do the convincing. It doesn’t work.
LIONS FOR LAMBS is a motion picture admonishment of both the current administration and the apathetic American public. The film is not an epic war drama nor is it a political thriller. It’s simply a collage of conversations had by different people about the same thing. As a result, what Redford probably thought was a straightforward and poignant call to action is actually a talky and preachy mess.
Let’s start with the most painful conversation of them all. Redford’s character is an idealistic professor at “A California University” (I’m not even joking; that’s what the subtitle said) who invites a good looking but seemingly average student into his office to discuss the young man‘s potential. Redford is upset with the student’s attendance record and general apathy toward learning because the young man previously showed so much promise. In flashbacks, we see the student engaged in a class discussion that does nothing to substantiate the Redford character’s but I digress. They spend the entire movie rapping back and forth about whether it’s worth even caring in the current political climate. The professor thinks it is. The disaffected student thinks it isn’t. In a movie full of blunt and heavy-handed lessons, this is the most clichéd, didactic and grueling one of all. The conversation between these two is so generic and obtuse, it is unbelievable.
Funny things happened, quite literally, on my way to see this spectacular film. I was running late and had already bought a ticket to see the film next morning at 10:30 am, but tried to crash sold out shows in order to finagle an early seat. On my way to the theater, I was cutting through crowds and I ran into Javier Bardem watching people line up outside the theater to catch his flick. I am not even kidding you, I almost ran the man down with the intensity of a locomotive, and had this been after I’d seen the film I would probably have kissed him and prayed he didn’t bludgeon me. As it turns out, Mr. Bardem was really nice about the fact that I am inconsiderate and insane, and I thought it was really cute that he was standing there with Penelope Cruz (rumored girlfriend) like he’d never made a film before. Without a doubt Javier Bardem steals the show playing the sociopathic slaughterhouse murderer, Anton Chigurh. Star encounter aside, I should get to the point and talk about the movie.
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN is a story filled with the realization that there are no winners. There is only the realization that you are alive for a set amount of time and then you die. Everything in between is filled with the choices you make and the lifestyle you’ve decided to participate in. The movie begins when Llewlyn Moss (Josh Brolin) stumbles upon a drug deal gone terribly wrong and finds the participants dead, a truck filled with heroin and a suitcase filled with two million dollars in cash. This seems like every common man’s fantasy, stumbling upon free money to save them from their feeble existence.
The
WGA strike has claimed yet another victim.
Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Fox’s ‘24’ will be postponing the premiere of its seventh season, originally set to air on Jan. 13, 2008. ‘24’ will remain on hiatus until enough episodes can be prepared for the show to air its usual “non-stop” season. Just when that will be depends on the strike. Awesome.
Scrambling to fill the vacancy, Fox has decided to debut TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES in ‘24’s Jan. 13 slot.
PRISON BREAK, which was originally set to break in Dec. before returning in April, will now bow out with Monday’s Nov. 12 episode, only to resume early on Jan. 14. Always the ace up the sleeve, AMERICAN IDOL (which needs no money-grubbing writers) will storm the airwaves on Jan. 15 and 16 for its two-night, all-consuming, premiere.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but when people I kill show up again after 25 years, it really bugs me. It sure seems to bug Mick (Alex O’Loughlin), especially when the dead person in question is his undead ex-wife (Shannyn Sossamon). Wait, that didn’t come out right. In the universe of MOONLIGHT, cremation is one of the sure methods of disposing of the undead, and that’s what Mick did in the process of saving a young Beth (Sophia Myles) in the early 1980s. This comes up because in the process of watching a landmark building burn to the ground, Mick runs into a photographer who is a dead ringer for the vampire ex.
Luckily (or maybe not), Beth is acquaintances with Morgan, the dead ringer, and when somebody breaks into Morgan’s apartment and steals her cameras, Beth logically turns to Mick to help find the guy. However, Mick’s total freakout at being confronted with a twin to his ex generates a lot of tension that Beth isn’t particularly thrilled with, and things get tenser when it turns out that Morgan captured an image of the thief/arsonist killing someone. Oh boy. Apparently, that sinking feeling is catching, because it even creeps into his conversations with his buddy Josef (Jason Dohring).
When’s Coach Eric (Kyle Chandler) gonna get a break? His team, family & support system has fallen apart. What else could happen? Oh, I guess his monthly check gets cut down to a fourth of what it should be. When Eric’s sister-in-law notices it she says he makes the same as she does and she’s a pre-school teach while he lead the Panthers to a championship. Tami’s (Connie Britton) sister proves to generally be a pain-in-the-ass, as she shows up and makes Tami feel inferior for choosing to be a mother and goes out of her way to undermine and belittle Eric. Eventually, Tami and her sister come head-to-head admitting each is jealous of the other’s choices. There’s nothing like a little sibling rivalry to make people appreciate what they have, right?
Now Eric runs to Buddy Garrity to complain about his substantial pay cut. Buddy’s solution is to hire Eric as the high school’s Athletic Director. Eric isn’t exactly interested, but he needs the money. While Buddy promises him it’ll be a walk in the park he soon realizes Buddy continues to be full of crap, as the Panther soccer coach comes into his office bitching about funds. Gee, how awesome, right? Eric’s problems are multiplying by the second because Buddy also brought him Lyla’s juvie reject, Santiago, promising Eric he’ll be a star—problem is the boy has no idea how to play football.
I guess this week things are supposed to go back to normal for our friends in Odessa, Texas. Coach Eric’s (Kyle Chandler) finally back to doing what he does best, coaching the Panther’s. If for one second you thought that would establish the stasis everyone once knew in Odessa, well, you’re an idiot. Hello? This is a television drama, so nothing can go back to normal.
Riggins has called Lyla to help him stop street from getting that ridiculous shark cell injection to help regenerate his ability to use his legs. Sorry Street, but I am not sure if anyone ever told you this, but if something sounds too good to be true it probably is. Not to mention the fact that STREET IS NOT AN X-MAN AND JUST A STUPID HICK FROM SOME SMALL TOWN IN TEXAS. Lyla and Street realize that Riggins didn’t tell either one that the Street was unaware that she was coming. Lyla was put off at first, but eventually agrees to stay—even though she is against most of the things Street and Riggins are up to in Mexico. Riggins arranges a booze cruise for the three to go on where Lyla and Riggins can attack Street with the truth. During the cruise Street agrees not to go through with the surgery and then throws himself into the ocean. Later on he washes up on the shore where Lyla and Riggins find him alive. Street is just sick of missing out on living, and who can blame him?
Entertainment Weekly caught up with HEROES creator Tim Kring this week as he stood amongst his fellow writers in
WGA protests on the NBC lot.
“Yes I’m picketing my own show,” [said] the 50-year-old writer-producer. “So surreal.”
Strangely enough Kring then launched into an earnest apology to fans for HEROES’ second-season stumble. The show has suffered a 15 percent ratings drop compared to its first year, with fans and critics alike complaining of weak storylines and a serious lack of action. To be fair some of that early lackluster response has started to turn; the Nov. 5 episode of
HEROES finally came with a bit of what fans want: high stakes drama, big action and unexpected twists.
Despite that upturn, the show’s second season may already be dead on arrival. In the face of the WGA strike, HEROES’ Dec. 3 episode has been re-cut to serve as a potential season 2 finale. If that were to be the case, Kring and NBC will “reboot” the series for season 3, hoping to lure new viewers and lost viewers alike.
“The message is that we’ve heard the complaints—and we’re doing something about it.” [Kring said.]
This week’s installment in the 21st century update of BIONIC WOMAN begins with a business transaction: a buttload of cash and bearer bonds for a list of some kind. A list of what? Probably not a list of what goes into Mom’s killer apple oatmeal cookies; this is an espionage-focused show, after all. However, at this point, I’m already thinking I saw this when it was MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, so as long as nobody pulls off their face to reveal Tom Cruise underneath, we should be OK.
Anyway, it turns out to be a robbery, which catches the Berkut Group fellers so off guard that the thief, a bad dude named Victor Booth, gets away. Considering they were keeping this deal under surveillance, that doesn’t say a whole lot for them. Maybe now the need for a $50 million upgrade to a genius bartender makes more sense, no?