Entries Tagged 'Reviews' ↓

Oh Starbuck, nobody has a freakout like you do. Oh sure, Gaius might be hallucinating a slicker, greasier version of himself and Roslin may be quietly self-destructing, but nobody has an old-fashioned, laying on the floor, screaming at the top of your lungs freakout like Kara Thrace.
After the wind-up in the first episode, here comes the pitch. Everyone’s nerves are turned up to 11 and the situation is changing too fast to have any chance of finding a balance point. Of course, since it’s BSG, it’s only going to get spectacularly, horribly worse. My biggest problem with this show is it’s just so unrelentingly cheerful and twee, it’s like watching an episode of the "Care Bears" for Crissake. Let’s see how we did on points, shall we?

Cylon Freakouts: 1 (Okay, just one, but what a one! The sixes are starting to sound a little bit like freshman philosophy majors, but […]

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TorchwoodTitle: "Adrift"First Aired (US): 4/05/08
As a fan of "Torchwood," I’m enamored of the show’s tendency to keep changing things up; from a critical standpoint it’s like shooting at a moving target. Most of the time "Torchwood" is a frothy parfait of faintly silly scifi, melodrama and hot bisexuals, but then it delivers an episode like "Adrift," a sober, thoughtful exploration of hope, heroism and loss. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just a little perplexing. If I didn’t recognize the characters I’d think I was watching a different show. This week’s episode isn’t the guilty pleasure that "Torchwood" fans have come to know and love, but it’s one of the best, probably the best when it comes to standalone episodes that aren’t really focused on the larger arc.
It makes sense to discover, as Gwen does, that the rift doesn’t just deposit things in Cardiff, it also has a nasty habit […]

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Welcome back, "Battlestar Galactica," you’ve been missed. Never has the "previously on" been more necessary - it seemed like season 3 ended somewhere back in the Reagan presidency. Were it not for the miracle of the DVD I’d be forced to resort to Wikipedia to remember the names of all the characters. With all that waiting, does BSG live up to all our expectations?
In a word, yes. Even though we spend a good chunk of the episode playing through the fairly expected consequences of the big cliffhanger from last season, it remains interesting and tense, and in true BSG style the last few minutes leave you staring at the screen like some kind of slack-jawed yokel. Having pioneered the Extremely Scientific Scorecard(tm) for "Lost," I will use it to measure the approximate awesome-osity of "Battlestar Galactica." How do things stack up?

Gaius Christ, Superstar: 3 (He gets himself some apostles, heals […]

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In preparation for the triumphant return of "Battlestar Galactica," the fine folks at the SciFi channel have sent us over the first episode of the new season to preview. The episode came wrapped in a brown paper parcel, which seemed appropriate given how excited I was about a chance to preview it. It also came with dire warnings about ninjas clad in NBC logo masks who would come to my house and silence me permanently were I to so much as breathe a hint of what happens in the fourth act.
However! If you, like me, cannot resist sneaking a glimpse at what lies ahead, there is more on the premiere after the jump. Be assured, within the bounds of what NBC will allow us, it is extremely spoilery.
It says something about the kind of show "Battlestar Galactica" is that while there’s a certain inevitability in what happens for the first […]

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TorchwoodTitle: "From Out Of The Rain"First Aired (US): 3/29/08
An old standard of sci-fi action shows is the "monster of the week" plot. Some shows - "The X-Files" springs to mind - are at their best when focused on the good old "see the monster, research the monster, kill the monster" plots, and some - anything by Joss Whedon, for example - are at their best when embroiled in the drama of the characters and ongoing season or series plots. "Torchwood" is undeniably a guilty pleasure, and it’s at its guiltiest and most pleasurable when the characters are doing what they do best, shagging and fighting with each other. As a result, the quotidian spot-catch-kill episodes leave a little bit to be desired.
The monster-of-the-week in this case is some circus freaks who have somehow become trapped on celluloid; for their part, they’re pretty creepy, which makes up for the […]

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ABC’s new sitcom "Miss Guided" is one of a number of shows from the network lately that sound promising but…somehow…miss the mark. Think of "Eli Stone," "Men In Trees," "Big Shots," even "Dirty Sexy Money." (C’mon, I know you want to like it, but really, is it that good?) Nonetheless, in this strange March mid-season, with the writers strike
and NCAA basketball both messing up normal viewing habits, I seem to
have watched four episodes of "Miss Guided" in the last 10 days or so.
Go figure.
Judy Greer stars as high-school guidance counselor Becky Freeley, a "nice" girl who’s starting to realize that it’s good to be a little bit bad from time to time. That may have to do with the fact that she’s closing in on 30 and still single. Cheery and perky, her darker thoughts usually voiced in asides, she could be a winning character, but the show is kooky […]

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ABC’s new sitcom "Miss Guided" is one of a number of shows from the network lately that sound promising but…somehow…miss the mark. Think of "Eli Stone," "Men In Trees," "Big Shots," even "Dirty Sexy Money." (C’mon, I know you want to like it, but really, is it that good?) Nonetheless, in this strange March mid-season, with the writers strike
and NCAA basketball both messing up normal viewing habits, I seem to
have watched four episodes of "Miss Guided" in the last 10 days or so.
Go figure.
Judy Greer stars as high-school guidance counselor Becky Freeley, a "nice" girl who’s starting to realize that it’s good to be a little bit bad from time to time. That may have to do with the fact that she’s closing in on 30 and still single. Cheery and perky, her darker thoughts usually voiced in asides, she could be a winning character, but the show is kooky […]

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JerichoTitle: Patriots and TyrantsFirst Aired: 3/25/08
Thus ends the strange career of "Jericho," not with a bang, but a civil war. The show defied cancellation once, but lightning failed to strike a second time and the trial-run second season will be its last. It’s gone off to that big TV set in the sky, to live on in our DVDs forever. Presumably on the DVD: the other season finale that was filmed, which left the story open for continuation. Which is different from this episode… which left the story open for continuation.
How did they wrap things up? Well, the ending was reasonably satisfying despite the limited time available to tie off the myriad threads, but the central plot was in no sense resolved. That’s for the best, really; any ending that involved the overnight toppling of Jennings & Rall/Cheyenne would be so unbelievable as to be ridiculous. They did bring […]

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Often, when watching an episode of "Lost" that centers around a character I don’t like (cough Kate cough cough Jack), I find my patience for the storyline significantly reduced. Conversely I’m more inclined to be favorable about a weak Sayid, Sun or (sniff) Charlie episode. Every fan of a show is like this, and I try to take it into account when I write my reviews. So it’s saying something that the fact that this week’s episode is all about the morally flexible and whiny Michael didn’t put a damper on my interest.
Having finally gotten the painfully obvious reveal of Michael out of the way, we’re free to find out what the heck he’s been doing since he sailed off into the sunset lo these many episodes ago. It’s a sign that I’ve gotten too accustomed to "Lost"-style storytelling that I was finding the flashback sort of disorienting. Michael’s flashback […]

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TorchwoodTitle: "Dead Man Walking"First Aired (US): 3/08/08
There’s no doubt about it, "Torchwood" has hit its stride. After delivering a nice, high-tension entry last week, they give us a follow-up that’s nothing like a letdown. The story is intense, the characters manage to keep their freak-outs to a fairly reasonable level (and when they do freak, it’s with good reason), and there’s some very genuine creepy delivered. Aside from a slightly unfortunate bit of unintentional comedy with an animated glove (too much like Addams Family, sorry) the episode is serious as a heart attack. It would be easy to credit the upswing in quality to the addition of Freema Agyeman to the cast, but so far she’s largely taking a back seat. She’s definitely a welcome addition, but this story is absolutely about Owen, Jack, Tosh and Gwen. Seriously BBC, you can’t be thinking of getting rid of those characters.
Of […]

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