House 707

Not a bad episode. Not a great episode either but it even had moments that were reminiscent of vintage House. I extend props to the show for mixing up its introductory scene. The show went to the effort of depicting a scene in history that contributed to House's current medical conundrum. I wasn't particularly enamored with the revamped opening but I certainly appreciate the thought. Deviating from well-worn formulae is normally a good thing in the entertainment industry. The road less traveled and all that jazz. 

The episode again lacked any philosophical thread tying all the elements together. It also had the gall to involve Wilson without any Wilson-House banter. On the positive side I like what they're doing with the new female doctor on House's team. She's the Yin to his Yang. Overall, the episode was average. Season average, not series average. Its good to see that the will for improvement through change is there though.

Episode Rating:

5 (Average TV)

Episode's Best Line:

"Yeah. That was true. When you were dying." - Cuddy (To House, on context redefining matters) 

Chuck 408

This is one of the few shows that I actually look forward to. Its fun and its quick and it doesn't take itself too seriously. Its kind of like a lighter, more comical, and more James Bondish Burn Notice. And like the Bond films, there's never a shortage of eye candy. Me likes candy. The episode plots are pretty trite but its overarching series plot flirts with creativity.

Chronically underachieving genius Chuck Bartowski gets a surprise and confusing email from his college friend turned nemesis (long story) Bryce Larkin (a CIA agent in peril). Upon viewing the video content of the email, Chuck is bombarded with seemingly random imagery that induces a trance-like effect. When Chuck comes to, his regular life turns into a wild adventure wherein he discovers that a massive government intelligence database has been visually implanted in his very unique mind, and he is now a closely monitored CIA asset. In charge of the monitoring is blond bombshell CIA agent Sara Walker. Chuck immediately forms a schoolboy crush on the beautiful Ms. Walker that, under the cover of a romantic relationship, grows into love. The emotionally detached and ever cautious Agent Walker cannot help but develop her own fondness for Chuck and eventually yields to his romantic overtures. The two begin a relationship and Chuck utilizes the veritable supercomputer (The Intersect) lodged in his brain to become a full-fledged CIA agent. Crime fighting, life balancing, super spying absurdity ensues.

This week's episode was par for the course. With The Intersect suppressed in his mind, Chuck and the team are benched. Insecure with his Intersectless inadequacies as a secret agent, Chuck submits to extreme measures to try and pull The Intersect back into his accessible consciousness. What stuck out most in my mind from this episode though was the embarrassingly shitty special effects on display. Come on NBC, there's no excuse for such bush-league production. Seriously. It unfairly detracted from an otherwise good show.

Episode Rating:
5 (Average TV)

Episode's Best Line:
"My life would be a never ending cyalis commercial if I had her." - Jeff

The Next Iron Chef 307

I like this show. I am an admitted Food Network junkie but I particularly like this show. Seduction was the theme of the episode. A little strange, yes, but free and playful enough to showcase the chefs' creativity and  edginess. At this point in the competition none of the chefs are lacking for confidence. Its not just in their cooking either, the contestant seems to fall in love with every decision they make. Perhaps cockiness is the more appropriate word, and by the looks of it none of the chefs realized that the inevitable elimination put all of them in statistically uncomfortable territory. Two people are to be eliminated this week to put the competition back on track after last week's unexpected clemency. 

Ultimately tough competition sent Chef Tio home and a botched lardo spelled doom for Chef Tsai. It was sad to see Chef Tsai go, but I still have one horse in this race in Chef Forgione. I expect Chef Forgione to win and emerge the next Iron Chef if for no other reason then from a production perspective, Chef Canora is just too similar to already Iron Chef Mario Batali. Fortunately, I won't have to wait too long to find out.

Episode Rating:

5 (Average quality TV)

Episode's Best Line:

"Chef Canora, you may have just spelled your own doom. Enjoy that." - Alton Brown (A snide SOB) 

Dexter 508

This week's episode of Dexter was great. It picked up right where it left off last week in its examination of primal humanity, only this time it stretched the theme to even more characters.

Jordan Chase is brought back into focus as a charismatic and oddly appealing philistine. He promotes a reawakening of, and return to, the primal self - not as an homage to the noble savage of Rousseau, but as an embrace of some much more nebulous savage.

The viewer is again reminded of LaGuerta's cut-throat instincts and her self-serving absolutism. Simply put, Laguerta is a bad person, perhaps the corporate version of Dexter... only she doesn't submit to any code of moral calculous, just self-interests.

Deb struggles equally in coming to terms with her own rigidly puritan sense of right and wrong and everyone else's grayer moral perspectives. I think the writers are setting the stage for Deb to discover Dexter's dark passenger. I also am reminded of the fact that Deb only has two gears: bulldog and whiny bitch.

Meanwhile, Dexter is forced to recount his psychological reaction to Rita's death, where he and the viewer share the quickly forgotten realization that he is human. (All Too Human?)

And Lumen sees Dexter for the first time not as the Dark Defender but as the Bay Harbor Butcher... and seems to accept accept him.

Aside from being an excellent episode, it lays the groundwork for even more and better to come. Thoroughly enjoyed.

Episode Rating:
8 (Quality TV)

Episode's Best Line:
"I've never been around so many people that made me feel normal." - Dexter (Internal monologue)

Family Guy 905

This week's episode was not very good. It was short on good jokes and classic Family Guy flashbacks. There was also the inexcusable and ill-fated neglect of all characters not named Peter or Louis. Most upsetting however was that the episode was pretty much a boxing redo of a season three karate episode. Of course the writers did take some measures to protect themselves from claims of self plagiarism: This time when Lois discovers her punishing prowess she doesn't lose herself to narcissistic vainglory. Very original Mr. MacFarlane, very original indeed. Sad times are upon us when the whacky world of Family Guy approaches its asymptotic limits of creativity.

Episode Rating:
3 (Bad TV)

Episode's Best Line:
"Coming up next, a boxing match where the fighters are bleeding before the fight!" - Tom Tucker

How I Met Your Mother 609

Episode 9 - Glitter


Another episode of How I Met Your Mother ... another twenty minutes of my life flushed down the drain. How this show has gotten to a sixth season is beyond me.

This week's episode centers around friendship and BFF's. Robin is annoyed by Lilly "reading what to expect, when you're expecting to expect". Barney finds a video of 'Space Teens' ("Solving crimes in space using math") - i.e. teenage Robin, or shall we call her Robin Sparkles?
Ted hooks up with an old BFF - Punchy, and Robin gets closure with her BFF - Jessica Glitter.


What I liked:

• Bringing back poetic Ted ("When Glitter's womb a fruit did bear ... to hell with this, I'm outta hare"). Reminiscent of the shows better days (The Sexless Inkeeper, anyone?).
  

What I didn't like:

• Pretty much everything else. Especially story-lines like this. Super lame.
  

Ideas for the show to rebound:

• Perhaps an increased role for Bob Saget? Voice-overs alone are far from enough ...
• Some kind of major plot twist (and actually going through with it) - Lilly and Marshall separating; Ted actually finding a serious girlfriend; Barney getting a new job. Anything. But something!
• Getting rid of Lilly - never was a fan of that character. Super annoying and rarely funny.
  

Episode Rating:
3 (Bad TV) - Seriously, why do I still watch this show? For the occasional chuckle?

Episode's Best Line:
"Two Dudes watching a kids show might be worse." - Barney (on how Space Teens must be porn)

Boardwalk Empire 109

Episode 9 - Belle Femme


In an episode centered on allegiances, this weeks' episode solidifies Nucky's place as a self-centered, yet amazing, political beast.

There are two main story-lines in "Belle Femme":

1. The turf war between Nucky and the D'Alissio gang.
   
2. The pursuit for political sway in the election campaign.

In terms of the the turf war:

• Jimmy returns to Atlantic City and reunites with Nucky. Tension is high with his wife, Angela, and their relationship is definitely icy (Don't worry, they still make room for "bedtime"). He tries to catch Lucky Luciano, right-hand-man to Arnold Rothstein, and tied to the D'Alissio brothers for the hit on Elie, but winds up being caught by Nelson, and is sent to jail.
• Nelson's assistant, Agent Sebso, show his allegiance by "taking out" the main witness against Jimmy - Billy Winslow. Nelson's gonna be steaming, to say the least.
  
• Arnold Rothstein forms an allegiance with the D'Alissio gang, to import whiskey from England, and to join the fight against Nucky.
• The show ends with a failed attempt on Nucky by the D'Alissio brothers.

In terms of the political campaign:

• The two main issues that bother Nucky on the upcoming elections are the candidacy for Mayor and Sheriff. The Democratic reformist candidate, Derwood Fletcher, leads the polls. In response, Nucky makes a deal with Edward Baydor to replace the current Mayor Backrack. The old commodore even suggests that Nucky replace his brother as sheriff, as per his widely publicized corruption.
  
• Nucky and Margaret make a deal - he helps her save the dress shop of Madame Jeunet, and she'll help him get the female vote with her strong ties to the Women's Temperance League.
  

What I liked:

• Jimmy's insistence on bringing the 'Man with Half a Face' - WWI hero Richard Harrow. First, it shows Jimmy has some class left in him. Second, to still be able to sharp-shoot with half a face is pretty, pretty, pretty good (To quote Larry David).
• Jimmy's insistence on Nucky to flat out state that he should kill the D'Alissio brothers. In doing so, he makes Nucky acknowledge that he's more than a politician - he's a murderer.
  
• Nelson flaring up on not being informed of the intercepted Post Office wire of Jimmy returning to town. Once again, we get a true sense of his dedication to his job ("Man needs to have courage for his convictions").
• Margaret talking back to Madame Jeunet. "You treated me just like the Pollock". You go girl!
  

What I didn't like:

• Agent Sebso siding with the superintendent over Nelson. Who knows, perhaps he was even sold out? After all, he was the one who knowingly let Nucky into the jail to talk with Jimmy.
• No Al Capone again ? Not even a single scene?! Come on !

Food for Thought:

• Now that we know that Nucky truly is the politicians' politician, will he sell out his brother for personal gain? Will he give away his candidacy for Sheriff for the sake of his own (and the Republican's) political muscle?
• How will Johnny Torrio and Al Capone respond to Jimmy's departure? Better yet, will they send in support to Atlantic City to help Nucky in his fight?

Episode Rating:
8 (quality TV) - a bunch of parts of the episode made me pause and actually say "wo" outloud.

Episode's Best Line:
"It's not just blood I'm worried about ... it's ink" - Nucky (talking to Elie on the public awareness of his corruption).

Worthy mention:
"If we only elected good men, we'd never have leaders" - Nucky (On Warren Harding and his presidency campaign)