Entries Tagged 'Reviews' ↓

First halves of two parters are always a little tricky. A lot of the action is tied up in setting up stuff that won’t pay off for another week, and that’s doubly true for a show like "Lost." Actually, with a show like "Lost" there’s a lot of stuff that won’t pay off until next season, if then. Still, the lack of consistency in "Lost" is one of the single most frustrating things about watching it. Sometimes it’s really, really on, but other times it gets mired down in its large cast, the multi-layered timelines and the never-ending tease.
Not only is this week’s episode tied up in moving people and plots into place for the big conclusion, but it also reminds me a little bit of "Noises Off" in the scene where everyone is running in and out of various doors, just missing each other over and over again. With […]

Continue reading this post by: Liz Lacy For more…

Wow. After a slightly lackluster episode last week, "BSG" has bounced back in a serious way. This episode was quite the emotional rollercoaster, I’ll admit it even had me a little teary-eyed at a couple of points. Speaking of which, can we get Mary McDonnell an Emmy please? Despite the fact that Roslin’s cancer treatments are undeniably the B-plot in this episode, she brings a pathos to the process that’s absolutely irresistable. The whole "dying of cancer" schtick is such a painfully tired cliché that it’s a tightrope walk to keep it from tipping into melodrama or parody, but somehow, she manages.
I have to award points to my husband, who successfully identified Emily as a Star Trek cameo; the improbably named Nana Visitor of "Deep Space Nine." I thought the plot with Emily was, truthfully, a little heavy-handed, and it was pretty obvious where it was going from the […]

Continue reading this post by: Liz Lacy For more…

Okay, it took me about ten minutes to get my eyes uncrossed after that ending. That was a full-tilt boogie, "Lost" style. I think I’m looking forward to seeing the half-baked theories that the internet comes up with almost as much as I’m looking forward to seeing the next episode. Given what we’ve learned, and what’s been hinted at, there are many billions of crackpot theories now available to the obsessive fans. Not that I would have any idea about that kind of thing.
Given what we know about his history, "destiny is a fickle bitch" seems like the perfect motto for Benjamin Linus. I’m surprised he doesn’t have it tattooed across his butt. Ben is a man who knows about the winds of fate, and which way they blow, and they are most definitely, err, blowing Locke. Clearly Ben’s not exactly excited about losing his slot as the golden boy, […]

Continue reading this post by: Liz Lacy For more…

It’s nice to be reminded that while Saul and Tyrol are competing for who can go crazier, they’re just wading in the kiddie pool while Starbuck is jumping off the Olympic high rise diving board straight down into 12 feet of the craziest crazy around.
We’ve finally gotten a chance to see what’s been doing on the Demetrius, and it’s more or less exactly what you’d expect; Starbuck is using feng shui to find her way to earth and it’s making the crew just the tiniest bit antsy. None of this is helped by the arrival of Leoben, who is now somehow Starbuck’s best pal. Even knowing that creators Eick and Moore have said that the show is, ultimately, about getting to Earth, and knowing that the craziest people on "BSG" tend to be the ones who are correct, it’s still hard to believe that Kara isn’t just on the most […]

Continue reading this post by: Liz Lacy For more…

Tonight’s episode must have really tickled the fancies of the Jack/Kate shippers of the world, but for the rest of us it left a bit to be desired. There’s some good action in there, and a hell of a classic "Lost" cliffhanger, but you have to wade through a bunch of Jack and Kate cracking up in flashbacks and the least tense surgery ever. After telegraphing Jack’s illness so thoroughly, it’s disappointing that they went with the most cliché illness ever, and it’s hard to build up much concern about the health of a character who is verifiably alive several years later.
That aside, the added flavor that the Kahana crew brings to the mix makes for some interesting action. It’s a curious revelation that Charlotte speaks Korean, but there’s no way that’s just an interesting coincidence. Perhaps now that the exigency of Jack’s illness is passed, Bernard will be able […]

Continue reading this post by: Liz Lacy For more…

I’d be hard pressed to say whether Saul or the Chief is cracking up more spectacularly at this point on "Battlestar Galactica." Tory seems to have jumped on board with the zeal of a convert - with bonus creepy S&M action - and god only knows what’s going on with Anders but I’m betting he can’t keep up with Saul or the Chief for sheer crazy good times. Even Baltar is starting to look comparatively balanced, and he’s getting tossed around the room by a hallucinatory sex robot.
Yet another week goes by that we get nothing much more than an obligatory "by the way, Starbuck still exists and is still crazy" shot, although the preview for next week suggests that we will finally get some payoff on the big tease. Maybe that will give Anders a good chance to storm around, melodramatically talking about how he’s nothing but a machine […]

Continue reading this post by: Liz Lacy For more…

Benjamin Linus is rapidly moving from "pretty excellent villain" to "perhaps one of the best TV villains of all time." Make no mistake, he is a guy with which you would not want to frak. It probably bodes well for no one that the events of this most recent episode have stripped Ben of one of the last remnants of his humanity, but as bad as it is for the survivors of Oceanic 815, it’s pretty much awesome for us.
The episode is titled "The Shape Of Things To Come," and we definitely get a taste of what is coming up. Lots of dead bodies, lots of villainy and - of course - lots more questions. Along with new questions, we get a nice dose of an old favorite. Namely, what the hell is up with the smoke monster? Yes, old smoky is back again, and he is not in a […]

Continue reading this post by: Liz Lacy For more…

TorchwoodTitle: "Exit Wounds"First Aired (US): 4/19/08
So another season of "Torchwood" comes to a close, not with a bang but with a whole series of bangs and a lot of whimpering. "Torchwood" season 2 was an improvement on season 1, and the finale was no exception. There was nary a rampaging demon in sight; havoc was wreaked, chests were pounded and mayhem ensued, but at least it was 100% rampaging-demon-free.
James Marsters was back to deliver his particular brand of swaggering insanity as Captain John Hart, Jack’s obsessive stalker, but his story ended up being more interesting than just another jilted Jack-fan. After leading the team a merry chase, blowing up huge chunks of Cardiff and stealing Jack away to 27 AD, he reveals that he’s merely a pawn in a time-traveling game of chess, sent to mess with Jack by someone who wants very, very badly to hurt our hero.
Of course, […]

Continue reading this post by: Liz Lacy For more…

A difficulty in juggling a big ensemble cast and multiple plotlines as "Battlestar Galactica" does is that, some of the time, a few will fall short. With the Cylon civil war getting into full swing, and the hidden Cylons clinging desperately to survival while trying to figure out what they’re supposed to do and be, it’s hard to care  very much about Adama vs. Roslin vs. Adama. This is surprising because Pappy Adama and Roslin are arguably two of the most interesting characters in the show, but at the moment I just can’t get worked up about their political bickering. Let’s be generous and say that’s because the other stories are way too cool.
We only get a snippet of what’s up with Starbuck and the crew of the Demetrius, who have apparently been on the road for a few weeks. It’s not very interesting, but it’s also not really […]

Continue reading this post by: Liz Lacy For more…

TorchwoodTitle: "Fragments"First Aired (US): 4/12/08
I’d like to say something better about this episode than to call it necessary, but unfortunately that’s about the best I can do. "Fragments" is a classic plotline, it’s the "how did we get here" episode where we follow the characters down the murky path that led them into the grips of Torchwood. This gives us some interesting backstory, but I have to admit it feels a little perfunctory here. It’s like they needed to occupy the hour from the first thing that happens to the big finish that sets up for the season finale next week, and so they figured they’d give us a flashback. On a sitcom, this episode was in real danger of just being a clip show.
We already know how Gwen joined Torchwood, of course, so it’s only Jack, Ianto, Tosh and Owen who get trapped when a building that was supposed […]

Continue reading this post by: Liz Lacy For more…