It’s week two, were you watching? Elle2 and Alice Jester caught a few shows and here is the week in review:
Elle2’s Week in Review
Week two of the new season is now behind us. My ‘cotton candy’ Monday night was a little too sweet for me in the Scorpion arena, so I missed 75% of it, and NCIS:LA was caught via my DVR, so I skipped some parts but watched others. I’m happy that at least Callen’s father issues were still woven into the script a bit, surprising for this show.
Blindspot was quite enjoyable with some reveals on how the tattoos ‘work’, if you will, as the first one unlocks the second; thus the second should unlock the third, and so on. Also, Weller and ‘Jane’ appear to have history from their childhood, which does allow for some character development as Weller now is very protective of Jane, but not so much that he shuts her back in the office. She is Special Forces/Navy SEAL trained, so she can definitely handle herself. Jane, rightly so, is searching for answers, not only about what happened to her but who she was before. Memories out of context can be dangerous, as they are easy to misinterpret; it remains to be seen if Jane is seeking redemption for past actions or if she was always on the side of good. I did like Weller’s assessment of her when she was questioning her morality: Your first instinct is to help people. You’re good. The rest of the team is having small moments with Jane, both sharing their distrust of her as well as their own thoughts on morality. The show is doing a solid job developing the personalities of all its characters, which only makes them more interesting. I’m looking forward to the next episode.
I decided to give Limitless another try. I’m mostly against the show because it took my beloved Person of Interest’s timeslot, which is unfair. CBS wants out of the rental business, and PoI was the only show they didn’t own, thus they were renting it space on the schedule. CBS no longer wants to do that, thus PoI, a far superior show to the likes of Hawaii Five-O, NCIS:LA, NCIS: New Orleans, Madam Secretary, and CSI: Cyber – just to name a few, gets a shortened schedule and likely no more. Television is business, and this was a business decision. Well, at least I’ll have 103 episodes, after the partial season 5 airs, and that’s better than most. So, to be fair to Limitless, I gave it a second go.
The lead is engaging, many times talking to no one but himself and exploring his brain potential as well as his new job. I enjoyed his interactions with all the characters and the little map of him taking a bus all over the city to buy parts to build the exemplar bomb to prove his theory, as well as how he counseled various strangers he met on the way in their personal problems. It does seem that the ground rules are a bit fuzzy as to what this drug allows you to do: relationship counselor? Child counselor? Learning a new language? Electrical engineering? And so on, but then again, the show is called Limitless, so I guess the possibilities are, well, without limit. The ending of the episode was nicely done with the appearance of the nurse who works with the Senator from the premiere appearing as his father’s in-home nurse. Clearly the warning to Finch was real, tell no one, or the consequences will be severe. Nothing like a threat of harm to Finch’s father’s health. I’m not a fan of lies, and was very much hoping Finch would tell his father what was going on, but apparently that cliché lives on. Then again, the Senator’s reach is clearly far, as the computer and electrical blackouts showed each time Finch tried to do some research. I like that the stakes got bigger each time as well, first just the computer screen, the second time, however, it was all the power for a second or two. Nicely done.
Winters are long, cold, and fairly boring here in the Northeast, I’ve got room for Limitless in my schedule, for now.
Rob Lowe is back with a new comedy on FOX, The Grinder. I loved him on The West Wing, and found him engaging here, along with Fred Savage and William Devane. Already Lowe’s character has some depth, beyond the Hollywood persona of Dean Sanderson, a/k/a The Grinder. It was enjoyable watching him needle his brother, Stewart, as only brothers can do, but also with purpose. Dean knows his brother is a good lawyer; Stewart just needs to trust himself. Dean’s antics in the courtroom are over the top, but also just what Stewart needs to throw his notecards to the side and get down to the business of defending his client, and winning his case. He succeeds. I completely saw the pratfall coming of Stewart falling into the jury box, and cheered when it happened because Fred Savage just went with it, and then the character got right back to business. It was expected, but also necessary, for it only drove home the point that while Stewart isn’t Dean, Dean also isn’t Stewart, but together they can go very far. I’m looking forward to this week’s episode.
CBS’s Criminal Minds returned this week, with yet another cast change. Honestly, I wish they’d just reduce the cast to six and stop trying to fill the role vacated by Paget Brewster. Blake was less than memorable, and I don’t even remember the name of last season’s character. I do know, however, that Jennifer Love Hewitt (who played the forgettable character) costarred with Aiysha Tyler, the newest actress to fill the slot, on Ghost Whisperer. I did like the introduction of this character, as well as seem to recall that she is only recurring. I think that will be a good thing. For me, the best parts of this show are the team moments, so as long as they have their round table discussions at Quantico and the airplane moments as they head off to the case and then return home, those are the moments I tune in for. The rest is background for whatever project I am currently involved in. This week, it’s sanding as I get ready to paint and apply border.
I caught Bones premiere this week also. I’m a sucker for forensic shows, and I’ve always enjoyed the investigation behind the crime. This show has never lost sight of that, even as it has riddled the workplace with implausible romances, implausible because, well, everyone at that place is either married to the other or dating them. I’m intrigued with just what Booth has caught himself up into, and liked watching Brennan hold it together long enough to realize the bones she was examining weren’t Booth, but his brother. The flashback/memories were a nice insight into Brennan’s tightly-controlled emotions. I’m not a big fan of ships on shows, but I will give Bones credit for doing Booth and Brennan’s relationship justice. They took their time, made it not too overwhelming of a distraction, didn’t play the game of, ‘we’re together but don’t tell anyone’, and haven’t made it happily ever after without a care in the world. They’ve had their ups and downs, but they keep coming back to each other. That is, after all, true to marriage. It is work. The passion lasts for but a bit, but the relationship takes work and commitment. I’ve got room for this show, both on my DVR and on my schedule each week.
To round out the week, a bit late as I had to let my DVR record it and catch it later one, was the series finale of CSI. I’ve always enjoyed the original, even as in these later seasons I haven’t caught most of it. Grissom was always my favorite, with Greg my second favorite. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Grissom back on my screen, but was disappointed that so much time was spent on his and Sara’s relationship, one that I never caught any chemistry and/or purpose for, and that Greg was sidelined for so much of the time. In the end, Catherine will be running the lab, a move that makes the most sense as Sara was and remains too emotional of a persona to have such a position. It was a cliché seeing her and Grissom ride off into the sunset on his boat, as these two as a couple never captured my interest, but it was fun to see the team, most of it, back in action again. Farewell, CSI. I’ll catch you in syndication, the early seasons that is before Grissom ever left.
That’s it for this week. My picks for most enjoyable this week were Blindspot and The Grinder, with an honorable mention for some spots of NCIS:LA (always the Callen and Sam buddy moments) as well as Bones.
Next week gets really busy as The CW bows, and that puts five more shows into the mix for me. It will be a busy week.
As always, thanks for reading, Elle2
Alice’s Week in Review
I wish I could give you as much as Elle2 did, but it was an extraordinarily busy week. I did manage to check out two premieres, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Sleepy Hollow.
I didn’t write much about Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D last season, but I found season two to be a bold and exciting new shift in direction. It remained consistent all season long and by the end, when the whole Inhuman thing eventually played out (after dragging on a bit tool long), I was very excited about what was coming next. The season three premiere didn’t disappoint.
The brisk pacing and consistent tone just kept going on. It was like there was never a summer break. Skye is now Daisy, and that whole bizarre Fish Oil thing from last season played out in the off-season. It’s turning normal people into Inhumans and at an alarming rate. This is causing the whole paranoia from the government, control the aliens, they have to be stopped, blah, blah, blah. Daisy now has to play the role her mother did last year, taking in the new guys and teaching them not to freak out. Except she has no idea what she’s doing. But hey, the whole thing kicked off the season with a super cool action sequence, complete with suddenly appearing white flying pod, and this is the futuristic show that it should have been from the first episode on. The plane is cooler now too! I smiled along with Coulson over the new toy.
I had to look up who the freaky spiky haired alien dude was and why he is hunting Inhumans. Let’s just say his name is Lash, he’s an Inhuman and a super villain. That’s all we need to know for now. We’ll get to know him more in other episodes. Luke Mitchell, aka Lincoln, the hot helper Inhuman from last season, is a series regular now, so I’m not expecting him to die bloody anytime soon. Also, I do love it when Coulson just drops into dangerous situations, has a cool calm conversation with an ice cold bitch (welcome to the show Rosalind), and then executes the awesome escape plan after he’s gotten the info he needed. If anyone thought Coulson was dead, well chances are the cat is out of the bag by now (don’t spoil it for me if it came up in The Avengers: Age of Ultron, cause I haven’t seen it yet). He also needs a new hand stat. He can only use the fake one for situations of escape a couple of times before the enemy catches on. You won’t be able to fool Grant Ward like that when he returns next week!
But yes, highlight of the entire episode without a doubt was the saga of Fitz and the loss of Simmons. She disappeared after being sucked into the Monolith and hasn’t been seen since. Last season was such a great turn for Fitz because they used the brain injury to turn him into a loose cannon, and in this episode he’s never been edgier! He’s really damned sexy when he’s unhinged and suddenly I love him more than ever. That shot of him cool and calm in the back of the cab in Morocco, with those sunglasses and light colored suit, just damn. He got to outsmart the bad guys too in a classic Fitz way, with cool electronic gadgets. But it was all just a front. Fitz is not cool and calm at all. He’s freaking out. I teared up with him when Coulson told him it was time to tell Simmons’ family that she’s missing. But the tears don’t last long, as the failure of the parchment to give him his answer sends him into a major rage. No, I wasn’t stunned at all by him barging into the locked down monolith cage with a shotgun before screaming at the thing with an extremely frustrated shrill (that’s sarcasm BTW). That was pretty intense. I hope the scream therapy worked on his behalf.
It wouldn’t be AOS without the “WTF?” moment. Simmons can be found running on a dark planet reminded me of that Phantom Zone in “Smallville.” Weren’t the moons even the same? I half expected Tom Welling to jump out and declare to be her savior. One thing is sure though, anyone writing off that Fitz and Simmons romance, especially after his declaration of love, might want to put the pen away and see how this plays out. Although, Fitz might end up in the looney bin first.
While I loved AOS, Sleepy Hollow’s return wasn’t as exciting. No, it wasn’t last year’s disaster either, and I’m pleased to see that they decided to go back to basics, but there’s just something about supernatural investigations stemming from twisted words our founder fathers that has lost it’s luster. I pretty much rolled my eyes over taking the infamous saying of “Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes,” to mean that is the only way to kill the red devil creature that happened to show up at Bunker Hill. That was pushing a legend a wee bit too far.
Still, I loved seeing Abbie and Ichabod reunited, for it was their chemistry was the heart of the show and it’s good to see them get back to that. I loved that Jenny is back too and being given credit as the woman who spent all those years researching. Way to use that knowledge. There were two LOL moments, Ichabod’s sentiment over leaving his comrades in jail that lasted about ten seconds, and his total disgust over the tacky theme of The Colonial Times restaurant (Eggs Benedict Arnold?? Giant Ben Franklin Bobbleheads? Oh, I must visit!). I really LOVE the haircuts for both of them, and the FBI really suits Abbie nicely. Plus I knew her boss was going to die because it’s C Thomas Howell. He dies in everything.
The MOTW story was okay, the back story of Betsy Ross didn’t grab me, and I don’t know what this Pandora chick is doing, but she’s not catching my attention so far. The tablets from the Crane grave definitely seemed like a cheap way to bring the two together (not to mention the tablets looked like cheap foam as well). They don’t need signs from tablets. The red devil naked dude was pretty much the attention getter. I’m still willing to give the show a try for a few more weeks, but so far Sleepy Hollow runs the risk of the show that will have the most back episodes accumulating on my DVR.
I’m pretty stoked to have my Arrow reviews returning, so watch for that this weekend. Happy CW premiere week everyone!
