Lost Season 4 Episode 9 The Shape of Things to Come

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Lost Season 3 Episode 9 Stranger In A Strange Land

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]]> http://zhokolatte.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/hes-hot-and-he-knows-it/ Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:41:35 +0000 zhokolatte http://zhokolatte.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/hes-hot-and-he-knows-it/ http://weakinteractions.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/the-non-science-of-fringe-snakehead/ Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:06:33 +0000 John http://weakinteractions.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/the-non-science-of-fringe-snakehead/

Fringe: Season 2: Episode 9: “Snakehead”

Walter finally gets his solo mission.

Without getting too much into the allegory of our comfortable First World lives being possible only by the exploitation of the poor, this week’s investigation does skirt around a few uncomfortable truths. The usual impossibilities to do with rapid growth aside, this episode was refreshingly easy to watch.

This episode is debunked at Popular Mechanics and Polite Dissent, and you can read more about it at Fox, IMDb and the A.V. Club.

Random thoughts

The name of the Triad gang, Sun Hung (孙空; correctly Romanised from the Cantonese as syun¹ hung¹; the Fringe cast pronounce it as “Sun Hong”) approximates to “Grandchild/Empty”.

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Just five seconds into this episode Bill plunged a stake through Longshadow’s  heart, causing him to spurt blood like a stuck pig. Let no-one accuse this show of slow pacing.

I do feel sorry for the poor old props department– they must have had a migraine when they realised how much tomato juice they’d need for this baby. Sookie’s face and body were entirely drenched in the stuff, and still it kept on coming. Finally, when supermarket shelves all over Alabama were empty of V8, Longshadow, with a hammy cry, collapsed into a pile of black PVC. At which point Ginger, quite rightly, threw up. The smell of tomatoes must have been nauseating. Sookie took it rather well, considering she had escaped being bitten only to be covered in passata. She even remained stoic when Pam creepily offered to remove some stray vampire entrail from her cleavage.

So Bill saved Sookie, but brought himself a whole heap of hassle, because apparently it’s bad form to kill a vampire for the sake of a human.  The vampires sure have a lot of rules, for a crew of dead people. After Bill got a ticking off from Eric with a promise of more to come, he accompanied Sookie home, lyingly assuring her that he wasn’t in trouble. Someone had strung Sookie’s cat to the ceiling fan, but such is the body count in this programme, this caused almost no reaction. Anyway, I don’t remember seeing Sookie with a cat, and suspect it had only been cast five minutes earlier.

Star turn this week was Eddie. You gotta love his story about how he became a vampire: he entered into it voluntarily because he’d noticed that vampires got all the hot young guys. Each to his own, but wouldn’t it have been simpler to have gone down the gym and worked on his pecs?

Kidnapped, drained of his blood, stuck in Jason’s basement and forced to watch him and Amy have horrible V-inspired hallucinogenic sex, would have finished off most people. But Eddie managed the clever hostage trick of bonding with Jason, who was, though such a thing can scarce be imagined, more stupid than ever this week. He seemed a little brighter at first, acknowledging Amy’s flakiness with the line, ‘I shoulda known something wasn’t right, the second you walked into my life carrying that big bag of crazy. Any woman with a purse that big is bound to have somethin’ I don’t wanna know about.’

But it took only one drop of V for his teeny-tiny brain to disappear again.  He told Amy he loved her and gushed to Eddie that she was the one. Well, she certainly is a one, Jase, you’re right there. Eddie told Jase she was a psychopath, which was good to hear as I had thought that too but everyone else seemed to like her – even  Sookie, whose telepathy the writers had clean forgotten about; even Sam, though as he keeps pursuing Tara, his tolerance of crazy ladies is clearly set quite high.

Tara was wondering whether to pay a staggering 800 dollars to the wild woman of the woods for exorcism. Come on Tara, she’s probably not a member of the American Psychological Association. Have you even asked to see her certificates? Sam stumped up the cash, but don’t ask me why, I have no idea. She’d just comprehensively rejected him on the grounds of having a demon inside her. Sam, take a hint, lad. Most of us would consider that to be a definite ‘no’.

When Eric at last came a-calling with his heavies to take Bill away for trial, Bill asked Sam to  protect Sookie while he was gone. Bill seemed to know something about Sam that none of the rest of us knew – except of course we did, and had done for ages. So when Sookie was accompanied home by the dog from Merlottes, and woke to discover a naked Sam, sprawling on her bed where the dog had been, Sookie was the only one who was the least bit surprised.

Posted by Qwerty

Liz says she thinks the final four are the most deserving (didn’t she say Lauriana should go home?). Melody does look better with her makeover.

Song choice:
How to Save A Life by The Fray
Here for the Party by Gretchen Wilson
Chasing Pavements by Adele
Ready, Set Go by Tokio Hotel

Liz jumps on the country song Gretchen Wilson. Lauriana takes Adele’s song because even though she’s never heard it, it’s a blues song. Melody and Todd want the Fray song but Todd once again lets her take it (after she refuses to give it up).

Today the artists will do interviews. This their final assignment. Todd says he’s spoken to small press but never something so big. Rodney warns them that they are representing themselves and Bad Boy and they are promoting themselves and their brand.

Liz doesn’t think about what to censor and what to share. She doesn’t talk about her music. Melody talks about her specific style. Lauriana says she won’t stop singing no matter what happens and she wouldn’t change who she is or her morals to win. Todd didn’t know how to take the opportunity to promote himself.

Rodney gives them feedback afterwards. He points out that soundbites are used to represent an artist. Overall, Lauriana did the best.

Laurieann coaches them and tries to encourage them to connect to the music. She wants to see another level.

Performance time. Guest judge, Kelly Rowland.

Todd is first and is apparently sporting a new look. A vest. His hair looks better. But he looks possessed. Rodney loves what he does but he’s predictable. Tamara is speechless. Except she’s not. Laurieann says he’s not manufactured crap. Kelly says he’s still around for a reason.

Second comes Melody. Wow, I really do not like her voice. Not even slightly. BTW Melody’s mom is in the audience. Rodney says she connected. Tamara says she got chills. Laurieann says she made it personal. Kelly tells her she’s a star.

Lauriana follows. Rodney isn’t sure if it connected, it was too low for her. Tamara wasn’t convinced tonight. Laurieann says the others just connected better. Kelly says she did a good job.

Finally Liz. Rodney says she killed it. Tamara says she could win. Laurieann says Yeehaw. Kelly says exciting, fun.

Now it’s about who can win it all. Judges have made their decision. Melody will be going through. Liz is through it’s between Todd and Lauriana. What are the odds of an all girl final?

Todd thinks he is different and that’s what the label is looking for. Lauriana says she is passionate, she works hard. Lauriana is not ready and Todd will be in the finale.

Me and actor Leonard Terfeld in Oskyldigt Dömd, episode 9.

Remember back in June this summer I was blogging about the TV show Oskyldigt Dömd, that I had a part in? The episode finally aired this past Wednesday and is online on TV4.se now. I took some screencaps of my parts to show you. It was so much fun, I can’t wait to do something like this again.

Episode 9 baby!

Dexter Season 4 Episode 9 Hungry Man

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Dexter Season 3 Episode 9 About Last Night

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Dexter Season 1 Episode 9 Father Knows Best

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Watch Desperate Housewives Season 5 Episode 9 Me And My Town Preview

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Desperate Housewives Season 4 Episode 9 Something’s Coming

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]]> http://cultural-learnings.com/2009/11/26/on-abc-family-matters-fizbo-and-here-comes-my-girl/ Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:18:33 +0000 Myles http://cultural-learnings.com/2009/11/26/on-abc-family-matters-fizbo-and-here-comes-my-girl/

“Fizbo” and…

“Here Comes My Girl”

November 25th, 2009

Thanksgiving is a holiday about family, which when deployed in television does one of three things. The first is to emphasize the cohesiveness of a particular group of characters who work seamlessly when brought into the same setting. The second is to emphasize the sheer chaos that results from the show’s personalities coming together, to either comic or dramatic purposes. The third, meanwhile, is to demonstrate that the show is a convoluted mess where bringing the characters together is a futile exercise that will fail to provide interesting television.

What’s helpful for ABC’s 9pm comedies is that both of them have built their identity around the idea of family, to the point where bringing the gang together is like second nature to the two shows. Cougar Town has really started to charm me as of late, and “Here Comes My Girl” is yet another fine episode that brings together this group of individuals into a family of sorts that’s just an enormous amount of fun to watch bounce off of each other. And “Fizbo” is perhaps my favourite Modern Family episode yet, taking advantage of the chaos at the heart of this family and bringing things to a satisfying (and also sort of sweet) conclusion.

It made for a really comforting hour of television comedy, which is what the timeslot has been providing (on average) all season.

Perhaps the strongest individual element of the episodes were the show’s fully taking advantage of the strengths of a pair of supporting characters, in this instance Dan Byrd’s Travis and Eric Stonestreet’s Cameron. The two characters have been strong overall, but this episode allowed them to take things to another level. With Travis, this means going beyond his sarcasm and awkwardness to the heart of his relationship with his mother, resulting in Jules losing her sense of self-control and failing miserably at being anything close to “cool.” The result is a really honest, but funny, story of a son coming to terms with the role his mother will play in his adult life, and while it had its broader comic moments (the balloon gag) and its quippy one-liners (the rolling pin would make me feel self-conscious too) it was more about that moment at episode’s end (set to, thanks to the sleuthing skills of Mrs. Sepinwall, Noah and the Whale’s “Give a Little Love,”) where Jules and Travis share a quiet moment preparing Thanksgiving dinner. It was a wonderful piece of acting from Cox and Byrd, and totally sells that Travis is more well-adjusted than Jules but is nonetheless believably awkward. It was a heartfelt and funny little story that really sold me on the relationship.

As for the genius of Fizbo, I don’t really know where to start. Stonestreet’s Cameron has become the show’s breakout character: while Ty Burrell’s Phil stole the pilot (Lion King moment notwithstanding, even, I’d argue), Cameron has been able to show more dimensions and has a slightly better foil in Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s Mitchell. Fizbo was a stroke of genius because of both the sheer commitment of Stonestreet and some legitimately amazing directing choices. Look at the dramatic angles the show uses to introduce the character as Cameron puts on the nose/eye makeup, or the amazing shot of Fizbo’s foot stepping out of the car when Mitchell’s about to get attacked at the gas station. The show worked to create the legend of Fizbo, and while Stonestreet was nailing the smaller moments (like the “something”/”nothing” gag with Jay) the direction was establishing just how epic this ass-kicking, balloon-animal machine really is. It didn’t have the emotion of Cougar Town’s storyline, but it didn’t have to: who needs sentiment when you have legend?

Cougar Town was less interested in creating such a huge sense of destiny, but I thought the comic rhythms the show has established in recent weeks were working in overdrive: there were a number of fantastic scenes with Ellie and Laurie playing off of one another, the dynamic between the three men was as strong as it always is, and both broader scenes (the “Hi Kylie” song and the basketball games) were executed to their full effect. I also like that they came right out and pointed out that both Bobby and Grayson are at the point in their lives where Jules is the perfect woman for them, and that they used this for both comic and dramatic effect. There was a joke to be had in Grayson’s suggestion of buying it deep inside and avoiding it, but it’s also kind of true, and the characters have a strong enough dynamic for me to buy things going slowly. Some shows I’d wish that they’d get the usual storylines out of the way, but I’m so enjoying just hanging out with this family that a Thanksgiving dinner can simply hint at some things before just being about spending time together.

And perhaps the best thing about “Fizbo” was that this same theme wasn’t hammered into our heads. The conclusion did end on a note that Luke got a great birthday after all, one where he (and not the holiday) was the center of attention and where the whole family came together, but it came to be through a series of hilarious circumstances. After complaining about V’s in media res opening this week, it was great to see one where the views into the hospital scene made us on alert for potential maladies, and the result was a lot of brilliant comic tension as you had both legitimate threats (the scorpion, Dylan’s mayo allergy, the crossbow) and hilarious phobias (Phil’s fear of clowns, which was a great piece of acting from Ty Burrell) pulling us in various different directions. When things eventually go terribly wrong, with Manny becoming the great hero (“My dog’s still in there” was a cute touch) only to have Luke end up breaking his arm after slipping on Claire’s “comb sheaves” beads was the sort of wonderfully fitting climax that the show should do more often. The show earned that scene in the hospital in a way that previous episodes haven’t earned their tidy endings, and the result was a really great half-hour of television.

Overall, two families I’d be glad to have Thanksgiving dinner with, so long as there’s no crossbows involved and Fizbo is invited.

Cultural Observations

• Want to take this chance to wish all of my American readers a Happy Thanksgiving – sure, it’s not as good as the real CANADIAN Thanksgiving, but I hear it’s still a pretty big deal and all that jazz.
• There were a number of great Fizbo sight gags, but I think the battle for me is the post-badass novelty clock pullout and the running away from the scorpion like a small child. So different, and so amazing.
• Although there were a few too many Michael Scott style “Make joke and mug to camera” moments for Phil in this one, I liked that the show continued last week’s trend of Phil making fun of Claire as opposed to vice-versa.
• Andy’s “I’ve got a secret” heartburn was a fun bit of comedy from Ian Gomez, and Christa Miller is as lovely as always in twisting the knife.
• My one question from the show: while Bill Lawrence’s usual signature touches (the use of music, the oddball comedy, the physical comedy, etc.) are all in place along with a sense of sweetness that the show was lacking in the pilot, I do wonder if the show is interested in investigating actual sadness or tragedy at all. Scrubs, as a medical show was forced to confront it, but these characters are relating to the point where something happening to a distant relative could be played emotionally, but it definitely feels more resistant than Scrubs (or, for that matter, Spin City) to the idea. Just a thought.

“The Vengeance Formulation”

November 23rd, 2009

Last week, the show chose to split its story between something that works (Sheldon and Penny) and something that doesn’t (Leonard, Wolowitz and Raj on their own), resulting in an episode that was a mixed bag (although perhaps a bit better than I gave it credit for, as my distaste for the latter perhaps overshadowed the strength of the former).

This week, however, the show returns to more of an ensemble structure, and while nothing reaches the heights of adhesive ducks it’s a solid episode as a whole because it manages a reasonably emotional Wolowitz storyline with a cheap but not ineffective Sheldon storyline. There was every chance for these two elements to go off the rails (based on both the show’s tradition of misusing Wolowitz and the presence of Kripke), so the fact that they stayed moderately in orbit makes this a victory, if not exactly an overwhelming success.

When it comes to Wolowitz, I strongly believe that less is more, unless the show decides to do what they did here and turn Wolowitz from obnoxious to introspective. While interacting with a fantasy version of Katee Sackhoff isn’t genius or anything, it allows Wolowitz to stop acting like he runs the joint and actually come to terms with his delusions. The naked bathtub fantasy version of Katee Sackhoff spoke the truth, and while there were signs of the old Wolowitz (feeling more slighted by the fact that Sackhoff’s date was tall as opposed to handsome, since he actually believes he is handsome) for the most part he was honest with himself. Sure, he messes up his romantic overtures to Bernadette, but he was legitimately charming during his tone deaf wailing at episode’s end, and the fact that Howard was given any continuity at all in terms of a relationship is such a huge step forward that I think it’s commendable.

It also shows how even Howard, who to this point one couldn’t imagine in a relationship, is effectively getting the relationship stories that Leonard has been given in the past, except ones that are actually funny. While Sheldon in a relationship might be too ludicrous, and Raj in a relationship has been made impossible by the alcohol gimmick, Howard and Leonard are both effectively eligible, but the show has always resisted treating Howard seriously (by having his actual skills be so outmatched by his capability), sending him off to gothic night clubs and moving him away from legitimate couplings. However, while Leonard’s relationships tended to be neurotic and sort of dull, Howard’s relationship is (to use his own word) quirky in a way that adds a fun dynamic to the show. Sure, I’m not a huge fan of his relationship with his shrill mother, and I could have used less talk about what he was doing in the tub, but for once the show didn’t actually treat him like a horny 15-year old, and for this I was most grateful and certainly entertained.

As for the other half of the episode, it really comes down to how funny you find someone talking in a high-pitched voice and how you feel about Eric Kripke. Twitter user SnowDan mentioned that he likes Kripke because it’s ironic that the university bully has a lisp (which would, outside of that world, make him subject to bullying), but I’ve always felt like that joke has been long ago used up in favour of dialogue that calls attention to the lisp unnecessarily. The idea of Sheldon having a nemesis is funny on its own, which is why Leslie Winkle was more interesting to me (especially because the gender politics of it all wreaked havoc with Sheldon’s already problematic ability to respond in kind) than someone both more dully mean-spirited and less witty. Beyond the broad irony, that for me was not clever enough to sustain the character beyond a first appearance, the character is a normal guy who has a lisp, and most of the humour derived from the character has been through how he says it rather than what he says.

But I thought that this week’s story was less let down by Kripke (who on only a few occasions fell into traps like “Wiot”) and more by a single decision. I like the general principle of the storyline, with Sheldon’s big moment turning into an embarrassment and his attempt at vengeance going horribly, horribly wrong. There’s something very solid about that, and even when I know that we’re never going to get to see the aftermath (since everything will, conveniently for Sheldon, reset next week) the uncontrollable chaos of the final sequence was even communicated through webcam. However, where the storyline suffered was that the joke of Sheldon and his high-pitched voice didn’t appear to actually be Jim Parsons with helium, nor Jim Parsons faking such a voice. Unless I’m mistaken, the voice was looped in during post-production, which if true is a huge disappointment, and took me out of the scene regardless.

There were a number of things in this episode that bugged me a bit, like how the other guys so quickly joined in on laughing at Sheldon on the radio (as it was national radio, after all), or how Raj was too busy making fun of Sheldon to help Leonard try to get him out of bed, or how Penny’s self-awareness about her relationship with Leonard didn’t extend to her realizing that they have no actual chemistry and that sitting in close proximity to each other does not a relationship make. But none of these elements felt like they were the point of their respective storylines: Sheldon’s embarrassment was necessary to get to his vengeance gone awry, and Penny needed to be aware of her own relationship so she could objectively view Wolowitz’s and be able to ward off Bernadette.

And those two storylines worked, coming to solid conclusions that were either narratively satisfying or humorously destructive. They didn’t offer any particular comic highs, but they didn’t offend any of my sensibilities either, so I can’t really complain.

Cultural Observations

• Katee Sackhoff in the tub makes me realize that some part of me feels obligated to watch 24 this season with her being part of the cast.
• It says something about the show’s conditioning to not bother remembering things from previous episodes that it took me a while to figure out if Bernadette was actually the person on whom Wolowitz went on a double date a while back. However, I’ll give them this: her trait of not getting Wolowitz’s jokes was memorable enough that I was at least 75% sure.
• While some small moments bugged me, I thought Sheldon nailing the whoopie cushion gag on Leonard really did prove its comic validity.
• And just in case we weren’t sure, apparently Raj is delicious caramel.
• If Sepinwall writes a review, I think “as soon as I play Cylon and Colonist” seems like the obvious “after the jump” line. We’ll see if I’m right.

“Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap”

November 23rd, 2009

I’ve been having a back and forth with other critics over the past few weeks about the current state of How I Met Your Mother, as there’s a general consensus that the show got rid of Barney and Robin before its comic potential had been fulfilled but a disagreement over whether this is all part of a broader plan. And, on Friday, co-creator Carter Bays did an interview with Michael Ausiello that managed to do absolutely nothing to settle this argument. On the one hand, Bays noted that this could just be one part of a larger journey between the two characters, which seems encouraging. However, on the other hand, he also said the following:

“None of us wanted to see Barney wearing a sweater-vest and going to bed-and-breakfasts,” says Bays, adding that it makes sense the relationship would “flame out fast” given that “neither of them, at their core, really wanted to be tied down.” Bays also believes that, deep down, viewers prefer single Barney to attached Barney. “It’s one of those things where you can give people what they think they want, or what they really want.”

It’s one thing that Bays is remaining coy about their future, but for him to have internalized what I feel is a close-minded and limiting audience reaction to the character is highly problematic for me. The show didn’t give Barney a chance to adapt Single Barney into Attached Barney so to judge so quickly is so short-sighted that it is either a misquote or a sign that my faith in Bays/Thomas is lower than it’s ever been.

And while “Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap” seems built to regain my trust and sympathy by tapping into the show’s most slaptastic mythologies and by actually giving Lily and Marshall a story of their own, it does nothing to deal with my overall concerns about Barney as a character (proving a wash in this area) and disappoints by feeling like a strange mash-up of sentimental and comic that feels far less organic than the original “Slapsgiving.

Accordingly, How I Met Your Mother remains “on notice,” even during this holiday season.

The reason this episode does nothing to do with Barney’s character is that he remains in a supporting capacity. Barney, as a caricature with no sense of emotionality, works so long as he isn’t asked to be the center of attention. Like with last “Slapsgiving,” the slap itself is less about Barney (who simply sits paralyzed by fear, this year trapped by not knowing who is going to slap him as opposed to not knowing when the slap is coming) than it is about Ted and Robin arguing over who is going to slap him. As a result, Neil Patrick Harris simply gets to play the combination of mortal terror and savvy disruption as Barney tries to get them arguing to the point where neither of them will dole out the slap before the imposed deadline of sundown. The result is a performance and a character beat that doesn’t fall short because it has no aspirations: Barney is specifically compartmentalized outside of the dramatic side of the episode, and there’s nothing wrong with this.

However, ignoring the fact that this story would have been just as interesting if Robin and Barney were still together (where Ted and Robin could have still brought the turkey as roommates and her right to the slap could have been about getting retribution for their fights), the real reason that this story doesn’t work is that Ted and Robin have nothing to work out. While the first “Slapsgiving” put a nail in the Ted/Robin relationship (if not the friends with benefits potential) for good in the midst of the slaptivities, providing an emotional depth to the episode, this year’s Ted and Robin story was ultimately pointless. I kept waiting for something to happen to make Ted and Robin’s conflict more explicitly about either Barney (for Robin) or something at all (for Ted, who hasn’t had a real story all year) so that it would have some sort of impact, but it never did. I don’t mean to so clearly cry out for some continuity, but at least start listing off the various ways that Barney has wrong Ted in the past, or bring up Robin’s relationship with him long before the conclusion of the episode. As good as NPH was in the various reactions, especially when Ted and Robin were arguing and he was popping up between them, the only time their argument became interesting was when Ted tried to lie and claim he was still in love with her: at that point, as played out as that card is, it was at least something to give the storyline a point.

In the end, for the episode to claim that the whole “Slapsgiving 2″ storyline was all an effort from Marshall to bring everyone together (which makes no sense considering that he raised it before Mickey arrived, and thus before they needed to be reconciled in any major way (Major Way! *Salute*) ) is patently false, and a bit of broad overgeneralizing that the show is normally above. I thought Chris Elliott was engaging as Lily’s inappropriate board game-obsessive deadbeat dad, and I like that Lily was finally given a storyline, but it failed to connect with me both a) because we had never been introduced to it in the past and b) because Lily was kind of unsympathetic throughout. It may be a symptom of the fact that Lily has been somewhat mean all season, but the “You’re Dead to Me” look and her unwillingness to forgive her father lacked emotional nuance. The episode didn’t know if it wanted us to take Lily’s hatred seriously (in overdoing his faults to the point of sending Lily’s grandfather back into the steel mill) or to view it as frivolous and silly (like with her newspaper stealing neighbour or her bridesmaid), mixing Lily’s pride and love for her family with being overemotional and bitter. So when the episode eventually tells, rather than shows, Lily’s moment of realization that the convenience store owner was actually dead to everyone, it’s like we’re so disconnected from Lily’s emotions that any real value in their reunion is lost, a problem only compounded when it gets lumped in with the slap towards the end.

Of course, the episode had its charms. I thought Marshall got a lot of great content in the episode, whether it was the fake arms in his Sunday dinner webchat or him retelling the story of he and Mickey’s meeting so that it wasn’t him who was bawling his eyes out. And Mickey was worth it if only for the endless parade of board game concepts (Tijuana Slumlord, Car Battery, There’s a Clown Demon Under the Bed, Landmine Lunge, Diseases, Dog Fight Promoter, etc.) And even though it could be seen a mile away, the premise of the slap bet hasn’t lost all of its charm, and seeing Jason Segel rip into Neil Patrick Harris remains as entertaining as ever before.

But the episode struggling trying to both use an existing mythology (the slapping throne was a nice addition) and create a new one (with Lily’s father) in the same episode, and both suffered as a result. The two storylines never meshed together as organically as they did in “Slapsgiving,” and the Lily side of things needed more time and focus to allow us to connect with her emotional journey. It wasn’t an unfunny episode, but it didn’t live up to the mythology it tapped into.

It’s not a slaptastrophe, but let’s just say I have my slapsgivings…as in misgivings, not the pural of Slapsgiving. Note the lack of capitalization.

Cultural Observations

• You’d be amazed how instinctively I added the repeat/salute after “major way” above. No delay at all.
• Of the various new slap phrases in the episode, I think “Slape Diem” was my favourite.
• They’re onto the last slap, and I’ll say this much: it needs to be an event on its own. Don’t worry about other storylines, just give us an epic slap episode worthy of the occasion.
• It used to be that Lily’s different hair was what destroyed any realistic flashbacks, but wigs could at least pretend: Hannigan’s new chest, however, is far more conspicuous.
• And yes, as everyone saw, the 1990s Board Game commercial version of Aldrin Games’ Slap Bet, complete with kids slapping the elderly was a whole lot of fun, especially the 90s commercial interpretation of “You Just Got Slapped.”

“Hungry Man”

November 22nd, 2009

There is no question that I have been highly critical of Dexter this season, which isn’t to suggest that I wasn’t also critical of season two (where the conclusion fizzled) or season three (where things felt as if they wrapped up too neatly): this is a show that I have always felt struggled in the balance between the parts and the whole, and this has been especially clear this season. While I’ve enjoyed the majority of the story surrounding the Trinity Killer, and Michael C. Hall is delivering as compelling a performance as ever, I’ve found myself watching episodes out of obligation more than interest, and fastforwarding through anything not involving Trinity, Dexter, or Deb.

If we follow that strategy, “Hungry Man” contains perhaps the best connection yet between Dexter and Trinity, offering glimpses of two theoretically similar Thanksgiving dinners that in reality tell two very different story or, more problematically for Dexter, two very different stages of the same tale. The problem is that this isn’t actually a new theme, having effectively been the purpose of the Trinity story since we meant “Arthur,” and despite some really fantastic execution throughout it (like seasons before it) feels a bit too on the nose, thematically.

However, when you have a show that likes to meander about as it does and (in my opinion) waste our time with storylines that are irrelevant until the show decides to deliver a bombshell like at the end of this episode, I’ll take compelling contrivance over mundane mind games any day.

What bugs me about showing the dangerous side of the Mitchell family is that it was so inevitable. The storyline has always been an extravagant excuse to investigate Dexter’s family more carefully, a conveniently Miami-based serial killer who happens to also have a family. Over the past number of episodes, the show has created excuses for Dexter to see what Arthur is made of, discovering last week that he’s not even close to stable and discovering this week that his family has consequently suffered. And in those scenes the show has created a lot of legitimate dramatic tension, as Arthur/Trinity is unpredictable in a way that Dexter simply isn’t. We know how Dexter responds to situations, and we’re so far inside his head that the show has felt the need to more consistently use Harry as a second voice in order to diversify his inner monologues. To have a new character who is similarly complex to be able to investigate is both useful for Dexter (who loves self-inflicting psychoanalysis) and for the show, and Lithgow has been a great addition as a result.

However, my problem is that this episode goes too far to vilify Arthur, to take him so far away from Dexter’s current position that he becomes simply a cautionary tale rather than a complex individual to be dissected by Dexter and by the audience. It’s one thing to shatter his image of the perfect family by suggesting that his son resents him for the emergence of his violent tendencies, or to suggest that he is over-protective of his daughter to the point where he locks her in her room and has effectively turned her into both a creepily sexual 15-year old and a replacement for his dead sister. I think those cracks in the perfect family were both really interesting (especially with the daughter, who until this episode seemed a waste of the acting talents Vanessa Marano showed on Six Feet Under or Gilmore Girls), and they created consequences that wouldn’t be visible from behind a tree in his front yard, Dexter’s first vantage point into this family.

And yet, when Jonah went off during Thanksgiving dinner and Arthur went on a murderous rampage choking out his son and throwing his daughter across the room, the scene went too far. Yes, the scene was an enormously compelling piece of drama, and we’re conditioned to gasp when Dexter reveals the Dark Passenger to Arthur in that moment, but it makes things far too easy, which is the same thing that has happened in every past season. In Season Two, Lyla was a lifeline for Dexter, someone that he was able to talk to about his problem (albeit veiled in the context of Narcotics Anonymous), and killing someone who offers him solace would have been an intriguing moral dilemma; of course, she turned into a kidnapping arsonist psychopath, so all questions of morality disappeared. The same happened in Season Three when Dexter found Miguel Prado, someone who could be a friend and confidante who knew about his problems but understood and even assisted with it; however, he was revealed to be a corrupt attorney who was using Dexter to kill innocent victims, which made Dexter’s decision to kill him less morally complicated and more “satisfying.” It was a “Hell yeah” moment on a show that, late in each season, loves shifting into that mode.

For once, I’d like to see one of Dexter’s foils actually remain complicated to the point where Dexter doesn’t know if he should kill them. I’m aware that Trinity doesn’t make a great candidate for this considering the fact that he has murdered nearly 100 people in his lifetime, but having Dexter witness it first hand in such vivid detail creates too simple a trajectory. Dexter is at its best when it is investigating moral complexities, in particular within Dexter, and that ship has officially sailed: from now on, we’ve switched from being compelled by the intricacies of this friendship to a sort of bloodlust, hopeful that Dexter “gets another kill” (a common complaint amongst some fans is that they aren’t satisfied unless Dexter draws blood). The scene was enormously compelling, don’t get me wrong, but it also signals that the compelling series of episodes more carefully investigating Arthur have passed, and a serial killer is effectively all that’s left.

I thought that this hour was one of the best so far this season in terms of connecting Trinity and Dexter’s experiences, and Harry’s observation that Rita was, at one point, also just a cover for his true identity is spot on. Dexter has been holding onto hope that Arthur somehow figured it out, but in this episode any sense that Arthur has anything under control was eliminated as soon as his family was revealed as so tragically flawed. While it involved one of the subplots I fastforwarded through (Elliot and Rita’s transgression), it was interesting to see how Dexter returns to his family and sees what he believes to be happiness (Cody volunteering thanks for Dexter, the same thanks that had to be coerced out of the Millers) when in reality Elliot has whispered in Rita’s ear that Dexter isn’t around as much as a real father should be. It allows Dexter to believe his family is different when, based on what we know (and what Dexter should know, considering Rita’s less than stable past) there is every chance that ten years down the line they could be just the same.

But, unfortunately for the season as a whole, this is as far as this investigation is really going to get, if we follow the traditional patterns of the season structures (which, as noted, to this point have been almost slavishly adhered to). While we learn that Christine is Trinity’s daughter, and Deb puts together that she was likely the person who shot her and killed Lundy, we’re entering into the part of the season that completely demystifies the villains in an effort to allow Dexter to be a hero. Now, killing Trinity is avenging the thirty years of murders, protecting against future murders, protecting the Miller family, and protecting himself (now that Arthur knows his inner demon); there’s nothing complex about that, an inevitability tied as much to Lithgow’s guest star status as it is to the show’s ongoing pattern.

And if this was all surrounded by a more compelling set of ancillary storylines, I’d probably be less likely to complain about it, but forgive me if Batista/LaGuerta and Quinn/Reporter aren’t doing it for me.

Cultural Observations

• I do think that Jennifer Carpenter deserves a lot of credit this season. She was really solid in her scenes with Cody/Astor tonight, and more importantly did a good job of various revelatory moments that wouldn’t have worked without a good performance (as she’s basically acting with herself).
• However, I thought Masuka at Thanksgiving dinner was a huge disappointment: instead of letting him loose comically, they tied him up in Rita and Elliot’s drama, which could potentially lead to long-term hilarity but actually makes me less likely to care about the character moving forward. Did Masuka really need to be connected to that storyline?
• I’m going to presume that the title is as much a reference to the TV Dinners (which defined Deb and Dexter’s post-Mrs. Morgan Thanksgiving traditions) as it does to Dexter/Arthur’s hunger to kill.
• I thought Deb’s realization that the killer is working on a school pattern makes sense, but wouldn’t the bludgeoning have taken place during the school year, thus making Deb realize that he’s Miami-based? I know that she was at Thanksgiving Dinner and not in front of the board, but it was just something that she didn’t get to follow through on.

“We’re Not Working with Anybody, Ever, Anymore!”

November 22nd, 2009

When we get this close to the end of The Amazing Race, the show’s interest in its characters begins to shift. At certain points, the show allows the racers to appear as comrades, laughing together and competing against the race itself more against each other. However, by the time you get to the final four teams, the show wants every chance to pit the teams against one another in a fight to get to the end, trying to breed the sort of competitive fire that you want to see at this stage in the game.

And while most of the google hits from last week’s post seemed to indicate that the biggest piece of news from the leg was crotch censorship, the real story was the way the producers turned Dan and Flight Time’s altercation into a sign that, from this point forward, things are personal. In reality, the clip was only really edited this way (Big Easy clarified, as they did at the start of this leg, that they had no personal vendetta), but what it does signal is that all bets are officially off.

And this week, as the teams head to the Czech Republic, we realize that this season these teams are perfectly built in order to enter into this competitive stage. There is no team in this race that is what one would call a “feel good” team, and the result is that we’re effectively watching to see how well these teams are able to embrace this competitive spirit. And while this might not fit into a narrative of personal achievement or self-realization, it does fit into what makes these final legs of the race suspenseful: all of these teams are both ultimately capable of being competitive (athletic and strong-minded), but they also tend to create an enormous amount of drama in the process.

As someone who likes this competitive side of the race, I’m pleased by this, but I can see how someone looking for more of a fan favourite finish to the race may be disappointed.

Some of my favourite moments on the race are those where a team becomes divided on an issue as integral to the race as competition. You start to see how people choose to ignore certain realities (like, say, teams not losing sleep over taking someone’s taxi in a race for a million dollars) in an effort to rationalize this crazy process: at this point, they’re suffering from killer fatigue, someone like Brian actually expects that Sam and Dan should apologize to him for stealing a taxi. Perhaps months later, as they share a lunch over all their adventures around the world, they can get together and clear the air, but in the context of the race this behaviour would make no sense.

But it’s the sort of behaviour that emerges when you have teams interacting with one another as the race gets more competitive. Meghan and Cheyne get into a fairly heated argument over whether or not they treated the Globetrotters poorly after the detour, and you can sense that the two are thinking about this race very differently. Meghan is thinking in the short term, feeling that they agreed to work with the Globetrotters and they should continue honouring that agreement. However, Cheyne is thinking in the big picture, believing that the Globetrotters could have just as easily taken the taxi, and that any advantage is a key to staying in the lead and staying in the race. Perhaps not surprisingly, Cheyne is in the right here: heck, if Meghan was able to see what we saw, she would know that the Globetrotters have intended to simply follow Meghan and Cheyne anyways before they agreed to work together, so this isn’t exactly some sort of long-term alliance that both teams are really devoted to. So much of the sense of an “alliance” on the race is convenience, whether in the form of a calculator or in the form of someone who has directions from a local, so to expect those sorts of relationships to remain sacred is inherently false.

Brian and Ericka’s beef with Sam and Dan is even more intriguing when you consider that, when Brian and Ericka are eventually spared by a non-elimination leg (get to that in a minute), Brian argues that he is out to prove that you can win this race honestly. This is noble, certainly, and makes for a nice sort of “good vs. evil” narrative for the show’s producers, but it’s also something that ignores the balance of the material (the million dollar cash prize) and the immaterial (personal satisfaction) that exists in the race. There is no one way to win the race, and in some instances dishonesty has triumphed over honesty, just as blind luck has triumphed over skill. While the taxi theft is something the producers like to be able to build up to create tension between the teams, it’s less about the tension between individuals and more the tension between competitive and non-competitive within each individual racer, within each team, and in the teams’ relationships with one another.

So I love moments like Cheyne losing his temper (and dropping an f-bomb) with Meghan over her conscience getting the best of her, or Ericka proving the voice of reason by pointing out that Sam and Dan aren’t likely detouring to the nearest confessional to wipe away their sin. As the teams begin to grow more and more competitive (with the finish line growing closer in each leg), they begin to either buy into the sense that this is a race or resist turning into “one of those racers” and losing some sense of their humanity in the process.

And one of the things that has been so interesting about the Globetrotters is that they don’t seem to care about any of this. Yes, this is a team that wants to win, but I don’t think that Flight Time was purposefully slowing down Meghan and Cheyne at the Detour. Sure, I may be naive for believing him to be telling the truth, but to this point in the race they’ve shown no sense of being coy with their strategy: while Meghan and Cheyne briefly plot to mislead other teams about what the “Vintage Praga” might be, Flight Time and Big Easy are more blatant when they try to “game the game.” You notice that they never debate about whether or not they should be competitive because they’ve always agreed: this is a game, and they want to win, whether it means freaking out a terrified southern belle in water wings or getting into a physical confrontation of sorts on a boggy boardwalk.

I guess it’s no surprise that players on a team that never loses are willing to be competitive to keep from losing, but I think it’s the kind of attitude that the other racers seem more reticent to employ. Sam (who initially insisted “No, we can’t” when Dan suggested they bribe Brian and Ericka’s cabbie), Brian and Meghan all tend to resist these attempts at being cutthroat or competitive, which creates tension in a way that doesn’t seem to exist between Flight Time and Big Easy. And while it’s true that competition between the teams can create plenty of tension this late in the race, like Big Easy nearly throwing a guitar at Meghan for yelling “Cheyne!” in the opera house, it is the tension between racers that will eventually bring you down. And while Meghan and Cheyne argued in the cab, and Ericka’s attitude has proven difficult in the past despite Brian’s supportive stance, and Dan and Sam had a hay bale-style meltdown on the rapids, the Globetrotters have stuck together through both stupidity (the briefcase in Dubai) and sloth (Big Easy in this Detour) in a way that could take them a long way.

As for the leg beyond this particular theme, though, it was actually pretty much killed by the non-elimination. I distinctly remember them saying that all but two legs were non-elimination earlier in the season, but I likely misheard; accordingly, Brian and Ericka earn their third life (they would have been eliminated in Holland too, if not for Tiffany/Maria’s struggles) and live to fight another die, which sort of flies in the face of the spirit of competition. In the case of the Hay Bales, where Gary and Matt were saved just two weeks ago, I thought it worked because of how much that Roadblock inspired a sense of personal achievement that could be celebrated by being saved. Here, though, Brian and Ericka made a critical mistake inspired by an effort to be more competitive (taking the train/subway as opposed to a cab to the first clue in Prague), and it put them behind for the rest of the leg – there’s nothing unfair about this, so there’s something dissatisfying about them remaining for another week.

Personally, I like these kinds of episodes because they’re a sort of psychological experiment, but I can see how they might not be quite as engaging for some viewers. There’s no one left that you can really root for unconditionally, and that’s an integral narrative for some viewers. What will be interesting is seeing what happens next week when we really do get down to the Final Three, and we see whether Meghan and Cheyne’s domination to this point can extend into a finale regardless of their competitors. This won’t be the most emotional of conclusions, but I think that there’s a chance for a real race to be had here, and personally that’s all I hope for in the end.

Cultural Observations

• I also hope for teams that are capable of creating some enjoyable comedy, which Flight Time (and his graceful dance moves and operatic serenade) and Sam (who knew the Opera in question, and who was hilariously humming it in the taxi as they drove to the pit stop) are able to offer. Brian and Ericka are also capable of this, don’t get me wrong, but they were a bit tied up with the competitive side of things this week.
• In case it’s confusing to have this as Episode 10, when it’s likely labeled as Episode 9 in some circles, the two-hour finale threw things off, so this is technically the 10th leg.
• Always fun to see how the times work out when the teams leave the pit stop: while last week’s editing indicated that Brian and Ericka were fairly far behind the front teams, they were actually right on top of the Globetrotters (and were likely just out of the camera shot when they went wide on the showdown between the Globetrotters and the brothers).
• The Don Giovanni challenge felt like it was trying to create a memorable character in the laughing opera singer who insulted the contestants when they brought him guitars and instruments which clearly do not qualify as “tiny,” but I don’t think it really worked. The show is best when its hilarious facilitators are inadvertently hilarious.
• And, maybe it’s just me personally, but I’d much rather have a final leg with no team I hate than one where there are teams that I both love and hate: whoever wins this race, I don’t think they’ll be an undeserving or dissatisfying winner, which is better than if that remains a possibility even with one team I enjoy still in the running.
• Thank you, Amazing Race, for no more crotch censorship.