TV Reviews (Spoilers)

[matt_zimmer]

Reviews for the latest episodes of Lost, Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, Wolverine and the X-Men, Smallville and the premiere of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse.



Lost "This Place is Death"

Sorta mixed feelings about this episode but it wasn't bad by any stretch of the imagination. I think the thing that made me a BIT cautious in praising it is the outright continuity busting the series has done regarding time travel lately. Rousseau SHOULD have recognized Jin if they were going to do what they did last week. I have a feeling the writer's might have an explanation for this up their sleeves in the future but until they do I'm a bit of an unhappy camper.

Raise your hands if you were surprised Mrs. Hawking was Daniel Faraday's mother. Hmmm? No one? This was such a "Doy" that I'm a bit disappointed that the writers tried to pass it off as a cliffhanger surprise twist.

LOVED the scene with Locke and Christian Shepard. When has listening to Ben ever led to anything good? It seemed almost obvious but it was good for Christian to spell out to the audience what a dopey move it was letting Ben turn the frozen donkey wheel.

Speaking of Ben I loved his scenes with the remaining Oceanic Six and how they were all pretty much threatening to kill him. And yay, Desmond's finally back in the mix! REALLY worried about Penny now though with Des getting in range of Ben. Uh oh.

Good, but not great episode. ***1/2.

Heroes "Chapter Two: Trust and Blood"

Not gonna lie. Didn't love this episode. But it was STILL miles better than anything in Villains so I'm just gonna put it in the win column and consider myself lucky.

Loved Matt convincing Ando it was his destiny to kill Hiro but they IMMEDIATELY retconned the surety of that happening by killing off Daphne. REALLY dumb move as they could have kept us on the edge of that terrible future for a couple more seasons.

Yeah, Hiro, it's time to get your powers back. And I'm glad he's gonna be proactive about it.

I'm not buying HRG's reasoning for turning to the dark side at all. Last week I thought maybe he had good reasons for doing what he was doing or that he was a mole but it turns out they really just needed another bad guy. But Claire's right, HRG turning on people he's fought side by side with IS somewhat out of character.

Sylar's story was surprisingly watchable considering the character jumped the shark a season and a half ago.

Decent. ***1/2.

Battlestar Galactica "No Exit"

Yeah, it was somewhat of a let-down from the last two weeks (I had REALLY expected bigger fall-out from the epic mutiny) but the episode was so fascinating for the insight it gave into the Cylons that I'm not really complaining. SUCH a shock that there was a thirteenth Cylon that is allegedly dead now but we should have seen it coming. Why else would there be Number EIGHT Cylons if Number Seven was one of the Final Five? At first I thought that the producers had only come up with the Final Five concept in season three and had fudged the numbers because when they originally wrote the show all of the Cylons were going to be together and have a bunch of different copies (and that Sharon was called eight because the writers didn't know that there would only be seven main Cylons). If that WAS the original idea kudos to the writers for FINALLY explaining what happened to the number sevens and in such a believable manner. If not, GREAT planning on their part and a pleasant surprise.

Speaking of pleasant surprises Ellen Tigh being a smart motherly figure for the Cylons was a nice twist considering her human personality. And the idea that she's Cavil's "mother" just upped his ick factor considering what he did with her in the beginning of season three. I love how she keeps calling him John and refused to call him anything else. For his part I loved Cavil's rage at being stuck in a human body. VERY interesting, sci-fi concept and well-played by Dean Stockwell.

And of course Anders. There is NO way the coma will be permanent (Micheal Trucco NEEDS to be able to show off his recent real-life neck scar). I LOVED The Daily Show's John Hodgeman as the funny brain surgeon. Best comedy sci-fi cameo since Seth MacFarlane on Star Trek: Enterprise.

A good episode. ****.

Wolverine and the X-Men "Overflow"

I'm really digging the new cartoon and thought this episode featuring Storm was pretty spiffy. It reminded me a OT of the nineties series but with better animation and voice acting. Pretty cool.

LOVED Forge's reaction to Wolverine scratching his ship. Funny.

It looks like they may actually USE this Future Imperfect scenario from last week for the rest of the season instead of being an unresolved one-off plotline like it was on the old show. I'm cool with that.

I liked this a lot. ****1/2.

Smallville "Reqium"

Ehhhh. Not feelin' it. Yeah, they finally came up with a good reason to split up Clark and Lana for good but I think the best thing about their relationship in the Superman mythos is that Clark CHOOSES to be with Lois instead of her. Now, it makes it seem like Lois is the runner up when it SHOULD be the other way around.

And I HATE that they pretended to kill off Lex especially since they used a different actor for the imposter. The X-Files pulled similar crap regarding Mulder in season nine and the parallels between the suckiness of that show's later seasons seem to be closely mirroring this one's.

Oh, Toyman was in this? I prefer STAS' version a LOT more and thought this one was too close to the pedophile goth in Superman Doomsday.

Not my favorite episode ever. **1/2.


Dollhouse "Ghost"

The much anticipated new series from Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Joss Whedon that Fox has hyped to the max. How is it?

It's a mess. I WANTED VERY much for this to be great and it isn't. Not by a long-shot. By the end of the episode I was burying my face in my hands.

I'm not saying it's bad show by any means. But it's confusing, lightweight and unaccessable to most people including me. This series is going to bomb HARD and then Joss is going to blame Fox for canceling it and say that he will never work with them again dooming ANY future potential live-action Buffyverse projects.

And the most infuriating thing about it is that I KNOW that Joss is such a great writer and that the openings to most of his TV seasons suck only to get progressively awesome as the season progresses. But the average viewer is not going to know that and will not bother tuning in for a second episode. I'm well aware of Joss' "slow-burn" tack regarding story arcs but you CAN'T do that approach for a new series. Period.

Say what you will about Firefly. Say that it too was not something a general audience WOULD respond to and that a sci-fi western isn't something that is going to become a hit even if Fox HAD treated it right. But Firefly had great and engrossing characters from the get-go, LOADS of clever humor and dialogue and great action set-pieces. All of that is missing from Dollhouse which feels less like a Joss Whedon series and more like the second coming of Bionic Woman.

I know how Joss works. The show will slowly but surely become awesome as the season progresses and then get canceled right when it starts to get good.

But I think the worst thing about it, is that the entire concept is kind of sexist and to go from the grrl power of Buffy which was SO empowering of women to a character like Echo who is a dull blank slate is SO disappointing. And since Echo has no memory of each of her different incarnations she's not exactly a lead we can relate to. Tamhoh Penikett's Agent Paul Smith is a MUCH more interesting character and I wanted to see more of him.

This series is NOT going to be a cult series canceled before it's time like Firefly was and have enough fan demand to bring it back. This is going to be the new Bionic Woman and Knight Rider: series that had POTENTIAL to be good, but the early episode sucked so much that the audience wasn't willing to give it a chance to. ***.

Comments

[dcauyojimbo.livejournal.com]

Lost

It was cool to see Smokey again. I wonder if that was The Temple it was defending that Ben tried to get Alex, Danielle, and Karl to go to last season before they were murdered. If it was, the evolution of it did raise more questions for me, who dismantled it, the Others or the DHARMA Initiative? It felt like a nod to fans to finish up Danielle's past in this episode from when they arrived, how Montand lost his arm, and when she started killing everyone.

Heroes

I'm not entirely convinced that Daphne is dead. It's television. If I were Homeland Security, I'd patch up Daphne and use her as leverage against the all mighty Matt.

I'd like Hiro to get his powers back. Be interested to see the full scope of Ando's power and experiment on someone like Hiro who had powers but lost them. Looks like they are going to meet a new character in India judging by Matt's pictures. I think I saw Molly Walker in there. Be a nice surprise if Sanjog Iyer popped in.

I think HRG is taking his 'do everything for his family' motivation too far or he is colluding with Angela and feeding her intelligence.

I liked Sylar, back to his season 1 roots. I'm hoping he uses sound manipulation, it's such a powerful ability. He's been cycling between Telekinesis, Electric Manipulation, Lie Detection, and Intuitive Aptitude the past episodes.

Dollhouse

I agree that the episode was a mess but I'll take anything by Joss Whedon. It gets better over time like fine wine. ;) It was great to see Dushku and Amy Acker onscreen together. Not sure how Echo can be a relate-able character, maybe if that procedure starts glitching and she retains pieces of herself.

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

Lost: Yeah, we should have gotten a Danielle flashback before the producers killed her off. However now more questions are raised by the sickness that we thought were already answered.

Heroes: Agreed about HRG. It's a bit out of character. And I hope Daphne isn't dead too.

Amy Acker and Eliza Duchku already appeared together when Faith visited Angel in season four.

[dcauyojimbo.livejournal.com]

Lost: Mmm, I just think as general as I can in regards to the Sickness. I think if you don't have a certain gene in you, you can't adjust to the properties of the Island (sort of like applying to be an astronaut) and go nutty. The Others like to refer to this as being "chosen by Jacob," as if he protects them from the Sickness. I like how there are more answers than questions these days. I'd like to see who the original Others are, the ones who made the hieroglyphics. I don't think even Richard is and he's like at least in his 70's.

Heroes: Me, too. Heck, I'm not even entirely convinced Meredith, Flint, Eric Doyle, or Danny Pine are dead from the Volume 3 finale. We know that Meredith and Flint's ability allows them to survive fire, but what what extent was never elaborated. Only saw Pine's severed metal arm, but I don't care too much about this character. Doyle, as lame as his power was, he had potential to be a good villain. I remember his last scene when Sylar overpowered him, he did fall over, but he was still gasping for air.

I got it. Future HRG injected himself with the formula, got space time manipulation, went to the past, and switched places with present HRG. ;P

Dollhouse: I meant, good to see them onscreen together again. Ah yes, when I saw Faith busted out of prison with Wesley in tow, I knew it'd be a kickass season.

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

Lost: See, that's what I thought about the sickness too but this episode clearly tied it to the Monster. Maybe Danielle was wrong about that but she seemed to be the only one last week who had no direct contact with Smokey. And yes, I LOVE how they are actually answering questions now and not raising as many new ones.

Dollhouse: I miss Angel and the entire Buffyverse. Comic books aren't cutting it for me.

[dcauyojimbo.livejournal.com]

Lost: Hmm, yeah, but I'm starting to doubt they will ever give a definitive answer about Smokey.

Dollhouse: I never did get into the comics. I still have to look into that Dr. Horrible series.

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

I think we'll get one for Smokey. It's the sickness that I'm afraid we'll never get an answer to.

Dr. Horrible is on DVD from Amazon.com. It's awesome.

[dcauyojimbo.livejournal.com]

True. Sort of like how the Numbers just appear indirectly on the show now after Hurley's episode back in season one.

Awesome, $10.49. Just have to find something else to get free shipping!

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

The writers painted themselves in a corner with the numbers. They seemed to have learned from that mistake. If I had to pick ONE issue that will never be resolved it's the numbers.

[dcauyojimbo.livejournal.com]

Well, the Numbers were explained in one of the online ARG's which of course some fans argue aren't canonical. But as a defense, some explanations used on the ARG have seeped onto the show. And I really do like the origins and explanation of the Numbers as part of an equation for the apocalypse. It gives more resonance to how important the Oceanic Six are.

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

Aside from the continuity issues (which I agree the ARGs aren't canon) the explantion itself makes no sense. It reminds me of how Gene Roddenberry tried to reconcile the Stardates between the original Star Trek and The Next Generation. It sounded nice on paper but offers no real answers or an explanation that is remotely understandable. No, I pick the Numbers as the one issue on the show that will get no satisfactory resolution. Even the writers admitted that they wrote them in that episode because they were cool and hadn't planned on returning to them (until they became popular) or even come up with an explanation to them.

[dcauyojimbo.livejournal.com]

Good point. I didn't know the writers admitted it, either.

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

I think that was the one instance they did that. At least they were man enough to admit it.