28 October 2012

Vegas S01E04

I must be getting soft.

I'm beginning to like this.

Michael Chiklis brings the animal charm that shone through The Shield to give us a mobster with A Dream, and a way to quietly root for him.

Dennis Quaid's impression of a stetson-wearing Easter Island statue was beginning to wear a little thin until we were shown just how sentimental a Harrison-Ford-channeling son-of-a-gun he is.

And The-Irish-Guy-from-the-US-remake-of-'Life-on-Mars' looks like he might have a nice subplot going with the Girl-with-Smarts-who's-also-the-Mob-Boss's-Daughter.

Meantime, Carrie Ann Moss is sorely, sorely missed.  C'mon, writer-dudes:  the woman can take down a room of cops as a warm up, or a foyer of cops and soldiers when properly motivated.

27 October 2012

Last Resort S01E05

This kind of story-telling is what The Shield so freakin' good:  you put your characters between a rock and a hard place, and then you put them between another rock and a hard place.

The shenanigans on the island with our heroes Chaplin and Let's-Forgive-Him-for-'Underworld' squaring off against Cheney and Rice Curry and Black Republican Woman, intercut with I-Will-Overcome-Female-Lieutenant's dick-swinging with the COB (Chief of the Boat) whilst two-stepping with opposing subs and the Reluctant-Heroic-SEAL-Guy, made this ep a nail-biter.  Still don't care for the stuff Stateside but everything else is beginning to fucking sing, man.


... Yeah, I should know names by now but... I don't.

Damned good TV, this is.

26 October 2012

Arrow S01E03

Yeah, okay.  Dialogue still barely registers at an entertaining level.  But plot things are happening:  the potential beginnings of Speedy; the resolution of phase x of the Oliver-Laurel-Merlin (what the FUCK kind of character name is Merlin, please?) triangle; and the beginning of the Green Arrow club with the induction, it would seem, of the fanboy-named Diggle.

Yeah, sure, I'll watch some more.

22 October 2012

Hunted S01E01 (BBC/Cinemax, 2012)

Three questions popped into my head in the first five minutes:

1.  Why does the bad guy take our heroine all the way into his evil lair?  They were en route to dinner or something so... couldn't she have just waited in the car?

2.  Why does film and television insist on showing that snipers can shoot distant things without resting the rifle on something?

3.  If you're a henchman in your boss's evil lair and you see your meal-ticket - in this case, a presumed kidnap victim -  being accompanied by a strange woman walking in a hurry, wouldn't you just shoot first and ask questions later?

(It's possible that:  1. our heroine and bad guy have been in a relationship a while and either (a) she can be trusted to come into the evil lair or (b) she can't be trusted with the driver; 2. snipers who make headshots at impressive distances are all descended from Lee Harvey Oswald; and 3. see 1. (a) preceding.)

Let's see how bored I get with my other viewing.

20 October 2012

Arrow S01E02

Each ep so far has had a moment where I've grinned like I actually like the fucking thing.

One goddamn moment.

It's not that the rest of the ep's 45-minute running time has been unbearable.  Aside from the action set-pieces where I go full-screen on the old lappie, the rest of the show has helpful dialogue that I can tune half an ear to while I surf or 'work'.

The second ep had two moments, actually.

This show could grow on me.  Like mould or something.

19 October 2012

Arrow S01E01 (CW, 2012)

I'll be up front with you:  barring his cameo in Frank Miller & Klaus Janson's The Dark Knight Returns, Green Arrow has never really been a superhero I've taken seriously.  (Was it the missing arm that made him interesting?  Maybe.)  (Sorry for any spoilers.)

Watching this pilot with all the familiar supporting names - Diana Laurel Prince, Speedy - was marginally interesting for... the rapport between our hero and his family maid, and a not-bad-okay-that-was-pretty-good parkour-included chase half-way through the ep.

All the while though, the flawless skin, the lantern jaws, the ultra-sculpted musculature kept making me think I was watching the 90210 reboot.  And I fucking know I haven't watched that shit.

I think it's tone:  the premise is kinda dark, but the bodies are like an homage to The Karen Carpenter Story.

... Maybe.  Maybe I'll try another.

18 October 2012

Vegas S01E02-03

Compared to Last Resort, this show isn't so fast on cycling through to the next backlogged ep.

The weekly storylines are quite cookie-cutter, the season (or - groan - series) storyline reminds me - again - too much of Crime Story, and, ever since it popped into my noggin, I just haven't been able to shake the idea that lead Dennis Quaid should play Harrison Ford's brother in a movie or something soon.  Honestly:  am I the only one thinking Quaid is channeling Ford?

The acting's solid.  Michael Chiklis is looking less and less like Vic Mackey and more like a transplanted East Coast hood.  I'm still waiting for Carrie Ann Moss to be given something meaningful to do by the writers.  And I'm so glad James Russo's character hasn't been killed off yet (though it's only a matter of time given his character's line of work, and Russo's casting history).

I'm an easy sentimentalist so I think I'll waste a bit more bandwidth on this.

17 October 2012

Last Resort S01E02-03

I know I'm liking something when - and this is when I have a multi-ep backlog - I drive straight into the next ep.

Eps two and three reveal a show that is shaping up quite interestingly.  The acting is really variable.  The dialogue, too.  But the characters - and the execution of this is also variable in quality - have some intriguing backstories that promise much more than Lost meets Hunt for Red October.

15 October 2012

Modern Family S03E01-03

The season opener seemed to be an harbinger of more of the same.  Contrived circumstances and forced laughs.

But then the second and third eps put lumps in my throat - just the like the first season did - as well as made me laugh heartily.

This is more fucking like it.


04 October 2012

Elementary S01E01 (CBS, 2012)

Elementary is unfortunate to open in the long shadow of Sherlock and countless earlier UK iterations.  Sure they keep the sleuth English with lead Jonny Lee Miller and 'update'/'reimagine' the show with an Asian American female Watson in Lucy Liu, and set it in the Big Apple, with the pilot helmed by Michael Cuesta, veteran pilot director of Dexter and Homeland.

I made it half-way through when a voice beside me cried out, "Please make it stop!"

I guess I'd zoned out and was waiting for the next spoonful of narrative yummy-gummy-ness.

It is so slooow.  There's no spark between leads Miller and Liu.  I hated the opening with yet another bloody voyeuristic imagining of how to kill a woman painfully.  I'm an old fan of Lestrade-equivalent Aidan Quinn - have been since Desperately Seeking Susan - but his role is so grateful and dull and thankless.  And the pace is sooo slow.

Boring.  That's the word.