Month: October 2009

TV: Reality Bites #1

On October 5, 2009

Survivor 19×01 – 19×03

OMG, I still hate Russell. I’m kind of bored with this season, actually. I don’t really like anyone (the two people I did find interesting they already voted out, but that piqued interest could just be the editing). It’s more like degrees of dislike/apathy. And yet, anyone wanna take bets that I’ll stop watching? Yeah, I didn’t think so. :/ At least I am glad Jaison got his way third time around. But Russell voted with them, so did Russell go along with them, or was that his plan all along? I feel like the answer to that was in the episode and I didn’t pay attention. Probably because I’ve started tuning out whenever Russell’s on screen.

Shambo actually played that tribe visit pretty well – if she can manage to hang on in her tribe until merge, she’s in a good position with the other tribe.

The Amazing Race 15×01: Premiere (spoilers)

(haven’t watched the second ep yet)

There are some HOT GUYS this year. That’s refreshing after the complete lack of hot guys last year. Also, I really hope they don’t give the Christian teams a bad edit. Or you know, that the Christian teams don’t turn out to be douchebags (anyone watch Treasure Hunters that one summer and remembers the pastor and his family who turned out to be the most devious, underhanded team in the game?).

Tokyo – I’m getting more and more ready to visit Tokyo, somehow. I’ve never been particularly hot on visiting Asia at all, but Tokyo just looks totally awesomely insane. Vietnam – Wow, did they hit monsoon season, or is it always that wet there? I would die. I hate wet. *loves on SoCal*

So far, so good – I haven’t completely picked favorites yet, but the opener had enough stuff in it (immediate elimination, non-elimination, WTF Japanese game shows) that I was entertained. We’ll see if the formula starts wearing thin, though, the way it kinda did last year.

So You Think You Can Dance 5×01-5×05: Auditions

Does it seem like to anyone else that the auditions are going on longer than usual? Is it just because they’re stretching them out over more weeks than they do in the summer? Feels like they’ve been auditioning forEVER. I really hope that all the things I love about the show don’t get destroyed by it becoming a fall show. I don’t really think that’ll happen because, I mean, we still have Cat and judges who care and good choreographers and dancers and all. But they’re pacing and editing it more like Idol, and that’s bothering me just a tad. DON’T RUIN MY SHOW.

Not a lot more to say until the competition starts.

TV: Crime Pays #1

By Jandy

On October 5, 2009

In Television

NCIS 7×01: Truth or Consequences and 7×02: Reunion (minor spoilers)

I missed a bunch of last year, but I guess Ziva kinda liked a guy and Tony killed him, hopefully because he was a threat of some kind and not because he just didn’t like the guy. I liked his nod to Kate, even in the midst of nearly killing himself to save Ziva. The Ziva who came back isn’t the same as the Ziva who left, though. You can see it in her eyes. She’s a little bit broken. I’m not sure from the preview of the next episode that they’re going to keep that vulnerability, though. I hope they do. It would be fitting, and grow the character a lot.

Episode two – Ziva’s back! Yay. Kind of. They really need to keep this emotional edge she’s got right now, though, and not hide that or make it go away. The scene with her and Gibbs – wow, I wanted him to grab her and hug her so badly, but that would’ve been wrong. They did it right. That’s one of the reasons I keep going back to this show – they don’t manufacture dramatic scenes with big emotional climaxes. They let the relationships play out over weeks and years. I missed the whole part of the story that informed that conversation, but they played it just right. Ziva’s coming back isn’t a return to business as usual – there are still wounds there that are only now beginning to be healed. If they speed up that recovery and everything’s back like nothing ever happened in a few weeks, I’ll be disappointed.

NCIS: Los Angeles 1×01: Identity and 1×02: The Only Easy Day

Not sure after the first episode if I’ll be keeping up with this one or not. No characters really jumping out at me. I like LL Cool J’s character, but Chris O’Donnell is kind of annoying me. I did like the crime of the week, though, decently enough. I tend to find with NCIS that I never keep track of each episode’s case very well – I’m in it for the long-term characters. We’ll see how Los Angeles does. (And how much LA itself plays into the show – that may make a bigger difference than you might think.) Oh, and also, apparently Edna Mode works for NCIS now. That’s…a little distracting.

The second episode picked up pretty well. Liked it more than the first one. And Edna Mode didn’t distract me quite so much. The rookie and the female agent brought some added dimension to it – they could be the interesting secondary characters that keep me at it. The crime of the week was intriguing, too; held my interest at any rate

TV: Sci-Fi Worlds #2 (SPOILERS for Dollhouse)

By Jandy

On October 5, 2009

In Television

I’m a week behind on these, but I wanted to get these up.

Dollhouse 1×13: Epitaph One and 2×01: Vows (SPOILERS)

1×13: Epitaph One

Wow, that was good. THAT is what I wanted from the show in the first place. The darkness, the mystery, the weight. It’s perfect. I hope the second season grabs some of that weightiness. When Whiskey said “Did I do my best” and little-girl-Caroline said “Yes” I totally lost it. Joss. OMG. Joss. I hate you. I love you.

The only question now, is, how the hell are they going to follow that with a season set currently? When we know so much of what’s going to happen…or is this meant to be one possibility of what will happen? Will scenes from “Epitaph One” pop up as we get to them chronologically in the show?

2×01: Vows

Hey, Jamie Bamber! Hot as ever. Really liking the little character bits – DeWitt and Victor, Sierra’s not-so-prim-and-proper persona, Whiskey messing with Topher.

It is using some of the stuff from “Epitaph One” (Whiskey’s scars, her relationship with Boyd), but not to depend on it. That’s kind of what I expected, and the best way to deal with the episode – include references to it that those who saw it will get, but not make it so that people who didn’t will notice they’re missing something.

Loving Amy Acker. LOVING. And deeper characterization for Topher. Nice. This season is starting off really strong. Even the episode’s story wasn’t bad (and no, not just because Jamie Bamber was in it looking all hot); the bait and switch on the client was pretty well-structured.

Echo remembers everyone she’s been. You can tell by listening to her talk, she’s not blank – Eliza’s not the greatest actress, even I’ll admit that, but she did a good job with the intonation there. But she wants to find the originals of all her imprints? Really, some of them probably can’t be found – they’re creations/amalgamations, right? That could be a wild goose chase to distract them for weeks – I kinda hope that doesn’t happen. I think that’d get old.

FlashForward 1×01: No More Good Days

Still not convinced this is sci-fi, but I already put it in the banner. Whatever.

Why must shows cast British actors and then have them play Americans? I mean, they’re great with the accents, I’m not complaining about that. I’m just saying. Why not just make the characters British, if you’ve got to have Joseph Fiennes and Sonya Walger? (Although, actually, Joseph Fiennes with an American accent is kind of distracting. Walger’s is perfect.) AHA! HA! They didn’t make Jack Davenport’s character an American.

So they’ve got these visions timed to coincide with the end of the season, right? If this is a one-time event, as it’s set up to be, what are they going to do next season? Randomly have another flash forward? That’d be lame. Or do a Lost thing and have it spiral into craziness?

That was a really good premiere. Well-paced, well-shot, good premise, some interesting character moments, and a lot of questions raised. I’m still worried about the long-term viability of the show, though. But hey. A lot of shows that I’ve been concerned about because they seemed like one-trick ponies have surprised me.