The Brainer - From A Place Of Love

At first glance The Mentalist - known as The Brainer in my circle - appears to be yet another crime procedural, along the lines of CSI and all the other alphabet shows. I've also heard it referred to as a 'serious' Psyche.

In reality it is both of these things, but it's also much more. Granted, there is a strong connection to USA Network's Psyche - both main characters are fraudulent psychics who use their powers of observation and deduction to help the police solve crimes. This is where the similarities end.  While Psych's main character is surrounded by family and friends and usually has the personality of a big kid, The Mentalist's lead, Patrick Jane, is a tormented, lonely man who was responsible for the murder of his wife and child and, as a result of his guilt, doesn't allow anyone to get close to him.  That's not to say he doesn't ever have fun or joke around or act like a child, but there's always a layer of sadness lurking just beneath the surface.

Comparisons to other crime procedurals are also not out of line.  The show follows the general formula, introducing a new crime to be solved every week, and these crimes are almost always solved within the allotted hour (or 40 minutes, allowing for commercials...).  There is however, an over-arching story involving the serial killer who killed Jane's family and is still focused on him and the people around him.  There is also a strong cast of supporting characters who bring depth to the episodes. In the second season, for example, Gregory Itzin - who guest starred periodically as a CBI (California Bureau of Investigation) supervisor - gives an incredible interview to a group of over-inquisitive reporters, which unfortunately was the swan song for his character. Currently, Pruitt Taylor Vince (whom you might recognize from Deadwood or Constantine, or any number of television or movie appearances) is filling the role of supervisor,  with a character who is somehow both loathsome and sympathetic at the same time.  And these are just the guest stars. The regular cast is also amazing, with the standout being Tim Kang, who plays Investigator Kimball Cho with a deadpan delivery that is absolutely hysterical.

With the tragic backstory of the main character, the show could be dark and disturbing (and is, at times). However, Cho's one liners are not the only humor to be found.  Jane brings an often childlike exuberance to many of his interactions with the rest of the team, and the writers provide plenty of witty, humorous dialogue all around.  On this week's show, for example, when Jane uncovers the killer, they pull a gun on him and tell him, "I'm sorry I have to kill you, but I'm doing it from a place of love."  How can you beat that?

So yes, these comparisons are not inaccurate, but they also don't give the full picture of what the show is about, or how absolutely awesome it is.

Glee - The Sound of My Dream Dying

I'm sure no one who knows me would be surprised to know that I took Glee for a test drive in my brain sometime between the first and second seasons. I resisted for as long as I could, but my ideal world is one where all oral communication would be through song. I feel certain that everyone would be happier if life was a musical. I... well, you get the idea.

I was skeptical as I sat down in front of the pilot episode, pretty certain that I'd be watching a bunch of teenagers singing songs that I wouldn't know and wouldn't like. (The musical part of my brain is trapped in the 1980s.)  It was a pleasant surprise when the music was mostly recognizable and inoffensive, and the story lines were not incredibly stupid.  Yes, Mr. Schuester blackmailed a student into joining the glee club, but I was willing to let that pass for the moment. As the end of the show approached, I felt pretty ambivalent.  The show was okay - there was nothing offensive, but also nothing exciting.  I was committed to watch the last ten minutes, then walk away from Glee, never looking back. Then, with about five minutes remaining, they performed Don't Stop Believin' by Journey. I was all in - watching the remainder of season one over the next few weeks, as the show slowly, bit by bit, lost me...

Here's my issue:  I understand that the glee kids, most of whom are painfully socially awkward, might find it easier to communicate their feelings via music. I applaud Will Schuester for providing them with this outlet.  However, I don't enjoy the episodes where he uses music the same way.  I can understand why he would sing during a rehearsal, if it helped to show the kids how to express themselves.  That I can accept.  What I don't like is when he serenades Miss Emma Pillsbury (hmmm...I still need to find a pie recipe for this week...) instead of just speaking to her like an adult.  Yes, it's true - Matthew Morrison and Glee have killed my dream. I no longer think that I could stomach people mooning around, singing about their feelings.

I haven't watched much of season two at all. I will admit that I was excited to see the Rocky Horror episode but I ended up turning it off before the end. I accepted the student love triangles from season one, and I even lived with all the adult relationship drama.  What killed me about the Rocky Horror episode was that Schuester was willing to twist the show around - to the detriment of both the student performances and the show itself - in an attempt to win Emma back from her new boyfriend.  Forget the fact that it was his own damned fault that he wasn't that boyfriend. The way that he disregarded what was best for everyone except himself totally disgusted me.  Dude, you're supposed to be one of the adults, and a role model. For the love of god, act your age.

I do want to point out that - outside of Schuester being an idiot - there are some good things about the show.  The guest stars have been great - Kristen Chenoweth, Idina Menzel, John Stamos, and Neil Patrick Harris (who was phenomenal, and clearly should have beaten Schuester in their audition).  I also think that Mike O'Malley is excellent - and surprisingly touching - as Kurt's father.  He so obviously loves and supports his son, even though he clearly doesn't understand what's going on with him. 

Romo Lampkin By Any Other Name Is Just As Awesome!!

Mark A. Sheppard is my hero.  When I first noticed him, as Romo Lampkin on Battlestar Galactica, I recognized his awesomeness.  Since BSG, he's been on almost scifi/fantasy show out there and, in fact, almost every television show that I watch - Burn Notice, The Middleman, Dollhouse, Leverage, Chuck, Warehouse 13, and Supernatural (starring The Prettiest Man on Television) to name a few.  This past weekend, Mr. Sheppard made his first appearance on Doctor Who. AND...HE...WAS...AWESOME!!!  I was relatively unspoiled going into the episode, and had no idea that he was going to be in it.  His first screen moment in anything always warrants a cry of, "Romo Lampkin!!"  However, his appearance on a show that has long been a pillar of the scifi genre further warranted an excited full-body-flail-of-happiness.  (Which was followed by intent focus on every remaining moment of the episode, waiting for his character to be killed off.)  As of the cliffhanger conclusion of the episode, he has not yet died.  I'm sure that this week's installment will require the same rapt attention, as if the focused powers of my mind could keep a fictional television character alive.  Actually...hmmm...

Five Was The Magic Number, Dammit

Have you ever had a favorite show that you wished would go on forever, only to have it disappoint you when it tried to do just that?

Believe it or not, I've already discussed how great it would have been if Supernatural had ended about five minutes before the end of the season five finale, and that discussion took place long before the first episode of season six ever hit the airwaves. Let's shave off everything after Dean and Castiel's conversation in the Impala. No Chuck-voice-over, no goodbye to Bobby, no settling down with Lisa, and definitely no resurrected Sam. Just Castiel disappearing and Dean driving through the rain and the darkness, alone with his car.  Now, if that's too ambiguous for the rest of the world, I'm not opposed to Dean vocalizing a final goodbye to his PERMANENTLY dead brother, or a closing shot of Dean arriving at Bobby's. Hell, even his arrival at Lisa's, although I think that's wildly against character - family has always been the most important thing to Dean, so he should be reluctant to let Bobby, his surrogate father, out of his sight. 

Regardless, the bottom line is that the episode could have wrapped up five years of story in a neat little package, but instead the ribbon was pulled off and the wrapping paper torn so that they could give us a cliffhanger to bring us back for an additional season. Instead we got excessive voice over (for those of us who weren't bright enough to follow what was happening without being led by the nose). We got Dean and Bobby parting. We got Sam returning from Hell (Hmmm...that seems somehow familiar...). And we got a sixth season of a show that was supposed to only run for five; a sixth season full of character flaws and plot holes the size of whales. (Go to the Museum of Natural History in NYC - whales are huge!)

I got through the first seven episodes of season six before deciding that Supernatural and I needed some time apart. This was a tough decision, since our five year relationship was obviously much more than a summer fling. I've just come back to the show this week, and I realize that I made the right choice. Jensen Ackles is still the prettiest man on television, but the rest of this season is a hot mess:

1. No Kripke - This was a warning flag when they announced it last spring. The man had carefully put together a five-season story arc, culminating in the Winchesters saving the world. Where could they possibly go from there?
2. Sam returns from Hell - Yawn. Dean already did this in season four, and Sam already returned from the dead in season two. Sam is soulless this time, you argue? Well, is there such a big difference between angry-resurrected-maybe-evil Sam from season three and indifferent-resurrected-maybe-evil Sam from season six? Um...less yelling, maybe? And I guess the lack of soul means less angst...
3. Grandpa Campbell is pointless. Really pointless. Crowley didn't need him as a middle man - he could have just used Sam's soul to make Sam and Dean do what he wants. And are we supposed to believe that the hunters of the Campbell clan are all going to welcome Grandpa back with open arms and let him boss them around? Even if good old GC serves a larger purpose before the season is out, his entire story line thus far is weak. Also, the rest of the Campbells remind me of the potential slayers from Buffy or the red shirts from Star Trek - cannon fodder.
4. The writers have apparently forgotten who their characters are. In one episode, Dean objects to Sam hitting on a waitress when the world is collapsing around them. Remember when Dean used to try to get his brother laid? Remember when Dean would allow himself to be distracted by any pretty woman who walked by? Also, Sam wavers between being a soulless ass and being normal Sam. I'd love to say that this represents Sam putting on a front that sometimes slips but, if that's the case, it's done so badly that everyone involved should deny that's what they were going for.
5. Inane dialogue runs rampant. For example, in at least two episodes this season, Dean asks Sam, "We have a Plan B?" Because, after spending his entire life hunting monsters, a backup plan wouldn't be automatic?
6. Not enough Castiel, Bobby, or Romo Lampkin...I mean Crowley. It's sad that the supporting characters are more interesting than the brothers but, let's face it, they're - at the very least - a lot less whiny.

Oh, good. In yet another example of how the writers are no longer writing to tell a story, but are instead just marking time between the characters' bitching at each other, Sam just pointed out that Meg couldn't kill them because she needed them to take her to Crowley, and Meg totally missed the opportunity to slit Dean's throat, turn around, and tell Sam,"I only need one of you." Not that I'd ever want to see Dean's throat slit because, hey, Jensen Ackles, but come on writers!!

That's not to say that it's all bad.  There's a redemptive moment for the writers when Sam rips open his own wrist with his teeth in order to make a devil's trap... I'm going to hang in there and get all caught up as we inch closer to the season (but probably still not series) finale. I like to watch Jensen Ackles (of course), and part of me is still clinging to the slim hope that the season will conclude in a way that clears away all the early-season murk and restores the awesomeness of which I know the show is capable...

Murder One - And Only One

And who knows what I'm talking about when I say, "...that TV show from the mid-ninties, Murder One, with all those lawyers and Jason Gedrick..."? Don't all raise your hands at once.  Here's a little more help: it's also got Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson, and it stars a guy that looks a lot like Daddy Warbucks.

This is a show that - even if you haven't ever heard of it - is worthy of your attention.  It's not the best legal procedural drama ever to air on network television, but it may well be the first to present a single case that spanned an entire season.  This show was 24 and Lost before they were even born.  I've only recently found it again, and started re-watching the first few episodes, and I have to say that it's holding my interest so far.  So, go forth, be fruitful, find Murder One, and watch the hell out of it - you'll be watching a piece of television history...

Not House, Christopher, but Home. And that's the problem...

Okay, so we watched House together and came out the other side with the same feelings - Masters was bringing something new to the show and it sucks that she left; some Thirteen stories are good, but how much more can there be while maintaining the character's freakish desire for privacy; the Cuddy/House breakup didn't make as much sense as the writers might have hoped; apparently the writers care even less than I do that House is back on the pill.

I was never a Cameron fan, so it surprised me that I liked Masters so much - she's got all the Cameron traits multiplied times at least 500... I have to say that it was refreshing to see someone stand up to House without compromise.  On the other hand, the longer she stayed, the more likely that she would start to compromise her ideals (as we saw in this week's episode), so her departure is actually timely - she chooses to leave rather than to change for him. Go Masters!

I know that lots of people don't care for Thirteen, but I've liked her from the start. She's a good doctor, despite the fact that she got her job as much for the mystery that she presented as for her medical ability.  More importantly, she's another character that doesn't cater to House.  How long did she maintain the secret of her past? The episode from last week was great, and I loved the peek at Thirteen's life, but I don't want more right away.  The best way to ruin the character would be to give us the rest of her story now.  Let's give the guys the chance to try to figure out what's going on with her.  I'd even accept some Foreman-House-Thirteen tension as Foreman tries to find answers that he knows House already has.

Do you think the writers woke up one morning and said, "House and Cuddy...what were we thinking...let's end that thing right now...?"  I don't necessarily think that Cuddy arrived at the wrong answer, but I agree that the timing of it really doesn't make sense. It was very abrupt and didn't seem particularly thought out.  It was more of a gut-reaction that left me expecting Cuddy to snap out of it and take it all back within the next week.

Finally, House back on the Vicodin is about as interesting to me as watching paint dry.  (I mean paint that's being applied by someone other than Jensen Ackles - I'd be perfectly content to watch him paint anything...)  I'm terrified that the writers are going to think that it's a good idea to take the House story full circle and we'll get to watch the character devolve over the remainder of the season.

Story-wise, I think we're both concerned that it's going to go to that ugly place where the guest star of the week has some horrible disease and after 4 or 5 misdiagnoses House will swoop in and save the day while popping the V and haranguing his staff.  Foreman will continue to be boring and serve as House's mini-me. Taub will continue to be a womanizing schmoe, Chase will continue to have too little to do, since Taub is filling the womanizer role, and Thirteen will be secretive and terminally ill.  The chicken bet between House and Wilson was hysterical, but if that's all the interaction we see with Wilson, well, that's just unfortunate.

We need:
More Foreman and Taub - it's in their interactions that Foreman exhibits the most personality I've seen from him since early in the series.
More House and Wilson - bring on the bromance. It would be nice to see more of Wilson's reaction to the breakup and the return to Vicodin.  It's hard to believe that the character can be this unemotional about both of these things...
Taub and Foreman and Thirteen - Taub's nosy (no pun intended) and Foreman's still got feelings for her, so they should be all up in her business to try to find out where she's been.  I left Chase out because he seems pretty aloof and indifferent about everything lately.  Talk about a waste of a good character.

House

So I watched this weeks episode of House, with you, and I had a few thoughts about it which I will now share with you and the Internet. I have this horrible feeling now that Masters is gone the show might fall once again into a dry rut of a routine. Although there are some story lines with 13 in them that I enjoy I feel like there isn't much more to do with the existing character dynamic. I miss the days of House being this character that regardless of all of his flaws we still felt sorry for him, and I feel like that aspect of the show is missing in this season. I felt that the Cutty breakup was abrupt and slightly unjustified. I also and confused at why they still have not completely gone into when and why he started using drugs again. The development of the House character seems to have come to a grinding halt. In my mind this ended after the first episode of season 6, or "House The Movie" as I usually call it.
My favorite season to date is season 4. In this season they reinvented the cast, reinvented the dynamic of the character interactions and once again reminded us that although House is brilliant, he also alienates everybody he cares about and is terribly damaged. They also displayed exactly how much House loves Wilson and to what lengths he was willing to go through for his friend.
~ Chris