Within the first five minutes you can tell what kind of show Justified will be.

Sitting across the table from an unnamed criminal at a sea-side restaurant in Miami, Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens lays it out on the table for the would-be convict, “the airport is a good forty-five (minutes) from here, but I figure you’ll be alright if you leave in the next two minutes.”

You see, Givens – in complete generosity – gave him twenty-four hours to leave town or he’ll shoot him on sight, which happens to be in two minutes. While I don’t want to ruin anything, I’ll tell you this; Givens is a man of his word.

Timothy Olyphant easily slides into the role of Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, but make no mistakes, this is not Seth Bullock, the character he became famous for on Deadwood. While Bullock was an ill-tempered Sheriff, Givens is much more of the cool, calm and collected type. Although, don’t let that fool you, he’ll easily kill you on the spot, but only if you make the first move because Givens will only pull out his gun if he’s going to kill someone. As he says, “that’s what it’s for – to kill.”

Much of the first episode revolves around the consequences of what happened in Miami. It seems that not everyone is fond of Givens having his own brand of justice and is therefore punished by being relocated back to his hometown in Kentucky. Once there, Givens is met by his new boss, Art Mullen (Nick Searcy), and quickly jumps on a couple new cases that force him to face the one thing he tired to forget – his past.

Through the occurrence of multiple crimes, Givens is forced to cross paths with his ex-wife, Winona (Natalie Zea), an old crush, Ava Crowder (Joelle Carter) and his former best friend, Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) who is now not only a criminal in his own right, but also the leader of a group of white supremacists that, through-out the episode, provide wonderful comedic-relief and fodder for Givens.

As one might guess, those interactions all lead up to a dramatic showdown between Givens and his former friend, but I’ll leave that for you to see for yourself.

From the premiere, Justified gives the appearance of being a series about how Givens’ personal life interweaves into his professional one, but with each subsequent episode, his personal life, and the characters in it, are all but extinct as the series changes focus to a more traditional criminal-of-the week drama. While both incarnations of Justified are equally enjoyable, I’m hoping that as the series progresses, Justified will find a happy medium between the two.

Final Thoughts

Those looking for Justified to be a Deadwood replacement might be disappointed, but on its own, Justified is a solid show that has the potential to be winner for FX and one that I’ll continue to watch.

What did you think about the series premiere of Justified? Will you continue to watch? How did you like Raylan Givens’ brand of justice? Am I the only one that the white supremacists were great comic relief?

Catch the season premiere of Justified tonight @10PM on FX.

Follow me on Twitter @anthonyocasio

If Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg’s landmark HBO miniseries Band of Brothers taught us one thing about war, it is that it is brutal, tragic, and psychologically scarring to soldiers on both sides of the conflict. What Band of Brothers also taught us however, is that men who train together, fight together and die together will, out of necessity, form an unbreakable bond of friendship and brotherhood, and it is this bond that gives them the capacity to perform incredible feats of bravery.

With that in mind, let it be known now that The Pacific is NOT Band of Brothers, and in my opinion, nor should it be.

From the earliest moments of Part One of The Pacific, Hanks and Spielberg’s new HBO miniseries about World War II, you get a sense that, this time around, the terror of war will not be redeemed by moments of pure heroism and valor. That’s not to say that we will not see heroic acts of course, merely that the reality of fighting in the Pacific theater was different than fighting in Europe.

While the war in Europe was brutal, at least it was fought on familiar ground. Aside from the introduction of new weaponry and tactics, such as advanced tanks or the implementation of airborne troops, much of World War II in Europe was similar to World War I. Soldiers moved from Point A to Point B, dug in trenches, fought the enemy, and then moved from Point B to Point C. It is a narrative that we are familiar with, and one that is easy for the viewer to follow because it meshes with our expectation of war.

The reality of war in The Pacific however, is that there were no expectations. For United States Marines Robert Leckie (played by James Badge Dale), John Basilone (played by Jon Seda), and Eugene Sledge (played by Joe Mazzello), the names Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, and Peleliu mean nothing; they are simply distant specks in the ocean. It is only when they arrive that the men discover they are not simply fighting the Japanese, but also disease, exhaustion, and the dense jungle itself, in which suicide attacks and guerrilla warfare are the norm.

Speaking of Leckie, Basilone, and Sledge, it is important to note that these are the three main characters which we will be following over the course of the miniseries. In Part One, we meet each of them briefly (Sledge as he is told by his father that he cannot go to war because of a heart murmur, Basilone as he shares a farewell dinner with his large Italian family, and Leckie as he hits the shores of Guadalcanal) and we get a sense that, although they will not become friends, they will cross paths during the war, and in these intersections we will see how each of them carries the weight of the war on their shoulders.

Apart from establishing strong performances and important themes, Part One of The Pacific is an incredible technical achievement. Foregoing the muted tones and grainy quality of Band of Brothers, The Pacific uses lots of light and bright colors to depict Guadalcanal as the island paradise that it could be if it weren’t for the enemy lurking in the trees. The brightness of the daytime scenes contrasts magnificently with the night scenes, particularly the one and only battle of the episode; a standoff between American Marines and Japanese soldiers on opposite sides of a river.

The battle, which is the technical highlight of the episode, leaves nothing to the imagination, showing in frightening detail the white light of bullets whipping through trees and the sudden explosion of mortar shells. A painful scene the morning after the battle is the episode’s dramatic highlight, again using bright colors to give a focal point to the corpses of dozens of soldiers left floating in the river, as well as a last-ditch suicide attack by a wounded Japanese soldier and a tense showdown between an unarmed Japanese soldier and the American Marines who use the opportunity to take potshots at him. In killing the soldier, Leckie demonstrates in one stroke his humanity, as well as his increasing acceptance of the grim reality of war.

Ultimately, I think Part One, while somewhat uneven, is an unexpected and surprisingly effective introduction to a series that has the potential to become one of the most morally complex examinations of war in film or television history. As I said at the top of the review, The Pacific is not Band of Brothers. In this case, I think that’s a good thing and I’m eager to see how the rest of the series develops.

Discussion

Did you get a chance to watch last night’s premiere of The Pacific? (If you didn’t, you can watch the full episode at HBO’s website.) What did you think? How do you feel about the series in comparison to Band of Brothers?

Cancellation, especially in the television industry, is often permanent. Although, I think that someone forgot to pass that along to the cast of Southland and their extremely determined executive producer, John Wells. Three days after NBC abruptly canceled the series, Wells was already in talks to move the show to another network while star Michael Cudlitz was telling NBC where to “stick it” via his Twitter. In the end, it took less than a month for the sophomore series to find a new home on TNT where, as we’re told, they know drama.

Ever since the show premiered last April, I have been of two minds because while the look and feel of the show almost instantly draws you in, I wasn’t a really a fan about it being an ensemble drama. Not that I have anything against ensembles, but Southland continuously had a problem with actually using the entire ensemble in every episode – Not anymore. With the second season, the ensemble cast has been nixed with the focus now being on Sherman (Ben McKenzie), Adams (Regina King) and their respective partners.

It has been over nine months since a new episode of Southland aired; will it be able to pick up where it left off so long ago and please all the fans that followed it to its new cable home? More importantly, will it be able to find new fans?

Review

While there are so many police procedurals now on television, it wasn’t until the season premiere of Southland that I realized most of them don’t include actual police work. Instead, we get people with sunglasses and one-liners running around a high-tech lab being able to do things with images and videos that aren’t even possible. If you looked at all the shows currently on television, it would seem that it takes five crime scene techs and one detective to solve the crime.

Southland is a refreshing look at the real work police officers do everyday. After such an intense first season finale, they wasted no time kicking things into gear with the second season premiere. In the first few moments we’ve already got glimpses of gang riots and highway shootings. After being off the air for so long, it’s nice to see all the officers we’ve grown to love back together again – with a few new faces.

As a fan of Amaury Nolasco, I wish that in his temporary role as Adam’s partner he was playing an upbeat, likeable, sidekick like his former Prison Break character – rather than the know-it-all professional. Still, his character didn’t bother me as much as Brown’s new partner, Ferguson. I understand that with the nickname of “SLUG” (Slow Learner Under Guidance) that he wasn’t exactly the top officer, but having him eating in the patrol car, picking up his dry-cleaning, not wanting to use computers and shooting a kid in a car… it did seem a bit much. While I’m sure it’s plausible that he’s just that type of person, in terms of storytelling it felt like a bit of hand-holding in order to get to the big neighborhood riot scene.

When I originally saw previews of the riot, I knew that it was crazy, but after watching the entire scene I now know why people in the neighborhood didn’t know it was fake and joined in. For a show that prides itself on realistic portrayals, they sure pulled it off. What better way to film a riot scene in South Central, LA than to actually start a riot in South Central, LA?

(Interesting Fact: Ben McKenzie said in the live chat following the premiere that the real police had to pull a gun off someone in the neighborhood during the filming of that scene and that there were so many non-actors in the mix that when he was supposed to hit the stuntmen with his baton, someone from the neighborhood would always grab his hand to stop him.)

Overall, the premiere of Southland was an exciting ride from start to finish. Not only am I excited for next week’s episode, I’m waiting in anticipation for the return of Tom Everett Scott.

Final Thoughts

Southland is to police what Rescue Me is to firefighters. With a strong season premiere on a network that believes in it, the only thing that will stop it from being great is if the ratings aren’t enough for TNT to pick it up for a full season.

What did you think of the season premiere of Southland? Will TNT will pick it up for an entire season? Is NBC going to be kicking themselves for getting rid of such a great show?

Catch Southland @10PM on TNT

Congratulations to Kyle Smith of Long Beach CA for winning the complete first season of Southland on DVD!

Follow me on Twitter @anthonyocasio

I’m going to be completely honest; I had no idea that the season finale of Heroes was on last night. What’s worse is that it might not only be its fourth season finale, but a series finale if the show doesn’t get picked up for another season… and with the ratings down, that’s a definite possibility.

This past season has been pretty much (somewhat) hit or miss for me. While there’s been a sufficient amount of episodes decent enough to keep me watching, I still had to fight through all the poor storylines and singular character episodes just to get to them. I guess that’s why I needed my DVR to remind me that Heroes was even on.

With the season finale we’ve got Robert Knepper’s psycho carnival barker hell-bent on destroy the world, Claire and HRG buried 40 feet underground, Hiro still being annoying, Parkman seeking vengeance & Sylar with a heart. Is there any way they’re going to wrap up everything nicely with a pretty little bow?

Review

As with any episode of Heroes we’re presented with a “previously on…,” this time it’s voiced by Robert Knepper which made me realize how much I enjoy him as an actor and how I wish he was given a better character. After that we’re met with the usual “popping in” on the various characters to see what they’re up to and like always, they’re not really doing much… well, at least not anything to progress the overall plot or their individual stories. Why give the audience an entire 42min of progression when everything can happen in the list 15min?

When something actually does happen, it soon becomes obvious that it’s all smoke and mirrors. The characters shown to be in peril are no more in danger of dying than Jay Leno is to leave NBC. For every “this is it” moment there’s always someone to jump in and save the day. (I still have no idea how Tracey’s powers allowed her to pull Claire and HRG out of a trailer buried underground. She water moved them? I literally described what she did and it doesn’t even make sense.)

Then we get to the “heart-warming moment” with Hiro and old lady Charlie… or for anyone who’s seen the Doctor Who episode “Blink,” the moment where you realized they completely lifted that whole time traveling love/death scene. Sure, it was great… it was great when Doctor Who did it, but NBC just couldn’t let her die. Not on screen, at least. That would be too dark… and Southland knows what happens to series that are deemed “too dark.” Although, I’ve got go give credit to whomever cast the old woman version of Charlie. She was spot on…

Finally, we get to “the moment.” The showdown that we’ve been waiting to see this entire season. To say it was anti-climatic would be nice. It was at this moment that I finally realize just how much of a crutch the various characters powers are to the writers. Instead of using them to tell a wonderful story, they see whatever loop-holes they can use to quickly get it over and done. If I have to see the crazy puppet master guy just come out of nowhere and control people, I will quit watching television forever.

He was a great one time character and even the second time it was neat-o, but I’m sick of him jumping in and controlling things. As he enters the screen I can just see him dragging the story with him. “Oh, the really important character that we needed this entire season won’t do something? That’s alright, we’ll just make them.” If “we’ll just make them” was going to be the endgame all along, just do it from the beginning and save me 3 episodes of nonsense.

Oh, and Peter? Gotta give props to whatever writer decided to give him the power of having whatever power he touches. Why stick him with just a single power when he can nab whoever’s power he wants just by touching them? “Oh, there’s a really big bad guy that’s going to destroy the world? Well, Peter will just touch him and cancel out that power.”

While I enjoyed Robert Knepper in this season of Heroes, I think it was more because it was something new than because his character was all that great. On the other hand, the good guy Sylar was a pleasant surprise and one of the few good things to come out of this season and finale of Heroes.

Final Thoughts

Maybe I’m coming off a little harsh, but after so many years of mediocre storytelling and promises of things being better, I’m over it. Nice going NBC and Heroes, you got me… Now just bring out Ashton to tell me that I’ve been punk’d and we can all move on to something new.

Oh, and Claire showing the entire world that she can heal herself… who cares. The Haitian will probably just wipe the minds of the entire world or something else will come along to completely negate this supposedly huge cliffhanger.

Discussion

Am I being a little too harsh? Did you enjoy the past season of Heroes and loved the season finale?

Maybe I am being a little Negative Nancy, but don’t have the right after the huge drop in quality after the first season?

Do you think Heroes will get another season and be back next fall?

After months of anticipation, the two-hour Smallville television event that everyone has been waiting for is now upon us as Hawkman, Star Girl and Dr. Fate teams up with Clark Kent, Green Arrow and Martian Manhunter to track down a killer before it’s too late.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock that has no internet or television, you’ve  heard something about the Smallville television event “Absolute Justice” in which The Star-Spangled Kid/Skyman, Sylvester Pemberton, seeks out of the help of Chloe and her band of superheroes, all while Lois Lane is dealing with the evil Amanda Waller and the secret government agency, Checkmate. The episode is written by DC Comics (and fan-beloved) writer, Geoff Johns.

No wonder this is a two-hour event – there’s no way you could squeeze this many DC references into a single 60-min episode. Even I had to dust off my DC Comics Encyclopedia to make sure that I wasn’t missing anything.

Still, I had to at least miss a couple of fanboy references and I’m sure that the readers will make sure to tell me in the comments, there’s no doubt that for a fan of Smallville or comic books in general, “Absolute Justice” is a must-see event.

Review

While “Absolute Justice” started in the typical Smallville fashion, it quickly became apparent that in terms of storytelling that this episode would easily become one of the best, if not the best, episode of Smallville in its nine years of being on the air.

It was a wonderful to see that guest characters could be on Smallville with a backstory that’s more than the normal “guess who just happened to come to Metropolis.” In the months leading up to this television event I was worried that maybe the costumes wouldn’t work or that the story would be bland. Luckily, the manner in which the Justice Society and its Golden Age DC characters were handled exceeded above and beyond all of my previous expectations.

There were so many names being dropped and characters being referenced that I challenge anyone to watch this without hyper-focusing on every name being mentioned wondering if you happened to miss someone. (Was that supposed to be Thomas Jagger impersonating Clark Kent to drop off the Checkmate package to Lois Lane?)

Who would have thought that as the episode concluded that I would be happy with watching a Justice Society television show each week? One more thing that pleasantly surprised me was only wonderful Dr. Fate was. Some characters don’t make the transfer from print to television that well, but like Green Arrow, Dr. Fate easily stole the show.

Still, the episode was not without its faults. When the Lois Lane/Checkmate storyline kicked in it completely took me out of the story and made me wonder if the writers had originally written this plot in or if someone thought it would be great idea to crowbar in some foreshadowing to the ninth season finale.

Continuing with the Checkmate conundrum was the “big bad” of this episode. Icicle wouldn’t exactly have been my first choice as antagonist, especially when they decided to cast such a poor actor to portray the son of Dr. Joar Mahkent. His mannerisms were extremely odd and for the most part, the only way I could justify him making it this far with his “revenge” plot was because that’s what the writers decided. It certainly wouldn’t be because he has a formidable foe.

Final Thoughts

Overall, “Absolute Justice” was a wonderful glimpse back at the Golden Age of DC comics with more than enough nods to keep comic book fans busy searching through their mental Rolodex of superheroes while maintaining a wonderful storyline that could easily be enjoyed by those that aren’t so comic-literate.

Discussion

Before everyone starts yelling at me, I know that I passed over some things. Yes, it was great to see Martian Manhunter get his powers back and I have to admit that I got goose bumps when we saw glimpse at the fate of Clark Kent.

But, were you as happy with “Absolute Justice” as I was? Do you agree with me about Icicle and Checkmate?

Did you catch all the superhero nods and references?

Tonight saw the beginning of the end for Lost, one of my favorite shows on television. Or is that the end of the beginning? You never know with ABC’s hit series and the creative minds of Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, their writing staff, and everyone involved in the creative process.

After a long wait, Lost has entered its 6th and final season, something that was pre-determined several years back when ABC agreed to let the show set its concrete end-date so the writers could fully plot out the structure of the show – and set up its story appropriately without forcing extra “filler” episodes to milk the franchise.

Just as I did with our Lost Season 5 Finale Review & Discussion, I’ve made many pages of notes while watching the finale, having gone into it with no spoilers beforehand. Join us as I review and discuss 2-hour season 6 premiere of Lost, titled “LAX.”

While watching the episode, I typed up a summary of everything that happened as it happened to help me remember. I’ll post that later as a play-by-play recap of the entire 2-hour premiere.

For now, let’s hit on the big topics.

Introduction

The show opens with the white flash resulting from Juliet setting off the bomb from the Lost Season 5 Finale. This transitions into the intro of the premiere which sees Jack back on Oceanic Airlines, flight 815.

So, did the bomb work? Did the Losties successfully put things in order and end up back on the plane? No, fool. This is Lost!

What we see is a re-imagining of the intro to the series, an alternate reality. The scenes start out the same as we remember and just like before, the airplane hits that foreboding turbulence but what we expect to happen does not, and the Flight isn’t interrupted by the airplane breaking apart into pieces.

Instead we see what would’ve happened with our favorite characters had their flight continued normally. We get several great cameos including Charlie and his drug habit, Boone who lost his life in season 1, exploding Dr. Artz and even a voiceover cameo from Greg Grunberg as captain of the flight.

Multiple Story Arcs

What happens in the alternate reality is only one of three stories being told at the same time and throughout the special we’re continuously jumping from one to another.

While seeing what the flight should have been and what happens to the characters at the airport once they land at LAX, we’re seeing the repercussions of what happened at the four-toed statue after what we thought was Locke manipulated Ben into killing Jacob.

Richard is there outside the structure, waiting with a large group of survivors and a bunch of armed folks led by Ilana (played by Zuleikha Robinson). Recall that at the end of Season 5, Ilana and co. brought the casket with the real John Locke to show Richard Alpert which had them all wondering who the heck they’d been following to meet Jacob.

So, following this story for a moment, some interesting revelations are made. We learn that the bad John Locke, who’s really Jacob’s nemesis (I refer to him as Esau) is in fact the smoke monster.

We also learn that he and Richard have history and are enemies of sorts. From the way everything has played out in the series so far, we are lead to believe that he is the villainous character of the show and that Jacob is the good guy. How Richard doesn’t age and what his history with these two are, or what his mission is, are still a mystery.

Continue to Page 2 of Lost Season 6 Premiere Review for more…

For the time shifted viewer, we do have spoilers included in this review of Smallville’s mid-season return episode “Disciple.”

We open to Lois Lane (Erica Durance) and Clark Kent (Tom Welling) leaving a charity event and we see that they’re publicly an “item” now.

The episode sets up Oliver Queen’s (Justin Hartley) old instructor, Vordigan, (Steve Bacic) who they call the Dark Archer. He shows up in Oliver’s life, trying to right some wrongs and set an old promise in motion. The old promise is an oath that Oliver took while training under Vordigan that declares “No lovers, allies or disciples” in his life.  This confused me since obviously Oliver was a disciple of Vordigan.  Vordigan tries to make the oath come to be as he takes shots at Lois, Chloe and kidnaps Mia (aka Speedy).

Vordigan wants his pupil, Oliver, to kill him because he feels he’s getting old and is becoming too slow to fulfill his duties.  Wow, I thought I was hard on myself!? Meanwhile Oliver is still having a few issues – he seems haunted by the dark side he experienced in the past, plus he’s just not handling the Lois and Clark pairing that well.

Of course Zod (Callum Blue) is pandering to Clark, but Clark isn’t buying it.  Zod even plays the Lois card and visits her, making us wonder if he might spill the beans on Clark (he’s effectively creepy in the scene). This is all a roundabout test of Clark.

In the closing scenes there is a final conversation between Clark and Zod where our hero tells Zod in no uncertain terms to stay away from Lois.  This encounter was rather foretelling and when Clark whisked away like he usually does when in a hurry, Zod jumped/twitched.  It was a subtle emotional demonstration of a crack in Zod’s tough outer shell, even if it was a fleeting millisecond.

Did The Premiere Live Up To The Wait?

It’s a shame that the mid-season return wasn’t the “Absolute Justice” 2-hour event.  I say that because all I wanted to do was get through this to the next week… It was a bit distracting.

This episode touched on several emotional issues between characters, and although Chloe drifted in the cliche direction of suspecting Oliver as being the nasty Dark Archer, she didn’t sell it hard.  In other words the showrunners didn’t take the easy way out on this one.

The relationship with Clark and Lois isn’t too over the top… though we’re experiencing great patience on Lois’s part when Clark disappears suddenly or doesn’t show up at certain times when maybe normal folks (or previous season Lois) would (i.e. visit in hospital).

I liked seeing Steve Bacic again. He actually looked more like the Green Arrow from the comics than Justin Hartley – too bad the dialog between the two at the end of the episode was so painfully cornball. Does anyone remember Bacic from Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda?  Or did you catch him playing Dr. Sexy on Supernatural?  Now that was a funny episode!

I’m also becoming a bit disillusioned with Callum Blue’s portrayal of Zod.  I’ve seen Callum in a different series as the bad guy and he seemed exactly the same, so Zod doesn’t feel very unique anymore.  I’ve ruined it for myself!

Don’t worry, I’ll get past it.

How did everyone like the premiere episode?  Are we all looking forward to next weeks 2-hour movie, “Absolute Justice?”  I am.

Well, here it is.

After two seasons and twenty-six episodes Whedon’s latest project, Dollhouse, is coming to an end. For a show that hasn’t even been on the air an entire year, much hullabaloo has been made about this series. From a controversial plot to a slow start involving mediocre storytelling, it’s really no surprise that the show never really found an audience (which was reflected in the ratings). Still, I have no qualms about saying that I’m going to miss Dollhouse.

Sure, the show had its faults and it was nowhere near perfect. I’d describe my relationship with the series as a “rollercoaster,” but that really wouldn’t be accurate as there were many more “downs” than “ups.” To come to be a fan of Dollhouse meant that you had to fight through a lot of drivel in order to get to the good stuff…. But when the good stuff came, it was totally worth it.

Over the past six episodes, Dollhouse completely changed. Instead of hoping that each new episode would be watchable, I became enthralled with the continuation of the enormous storyline that was started in the infamous unaired 13^th episode from season one, “Epitaph One.”

Tonight, we not only wrap-up the story, but also the series. This is “Epitaph Two: Return.”

Review

If someone would have bet me $100 after watching the premiere of Dollhouse last February that the series would wrap-up in a Mad Max fashion, I would have easily taken that bet. Still, I can not say anything bad about the way it ended. Sure, it was a little off the wall and somewhat over the top, but it was good… and that’s all that counts.

I enjoyed this finale for many reasons, but one of the main reasons is because it was essentially picking up off of an episode that never aired on television. This was the second part of an episode that in order to watch, you would have had to seek it out by either buying the first season on DVD, flying to Europe to watch or by “other means.”

For Whedon to take an episode that was made way under budget, without any of the original cast and not really having anything to do with what we’ve seen in the first season and use that story arc to send the series off into the proverbial sunset… that takes… well, it takes something most people don’t have.

Was it perfect? No, but it sure was close. I wasn’t a big fan of Felicia Day in this episode. It seemed like she was play-acting half the time. I enjoyed her in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog but in this episode, she was easily the weakest actor. And while I liked the whole Alpha transformation, I did miss being able to see that progression or “evolution” as they called it. I guess that’s what happens when you jump ahead 10 years (Maybe I can say something bad about it).

Still, that’s just me nit-picking. I could have easily watched this as a standalone movie and been completely satisfied. It had everything I wanted and delivered in a way that I’ve never seen before. Coming from a guy who’s made an entire episode with almost no sound (Hush) or one where the entire cast is singing (Once More, with Feeling), I shouldn’t really be surprised.

I guess that’s why people flock to someone like Joss Whedon. While he gets a lot of flack from people for the way he works, when he’s on his game, it’s something you’ve just got to see.

Tonight, he was on his game.

Or maybe he wasn’t. While my self-esteem might think differently, I can’t always be right. Can I? What did you think about the series finale of Dollhouse? Was it everything you wanted? Are you happy how it ended? Do you think now that Ballard is in Echo’s head that she’s going to start talking in a deep, raspy, voice?

Click to see yesterday’s previews of the Dollhouse Series Finale before the episode aired…

With two of my favorite shows returning tonight, my hands are almost shaking from all this pent up excitement. Well, it’s either that or the 12 cups of hot chocolate (those mini-marshmallows are brutal) that I drank today. It’s as simple as this; Supernatural is returning tonight and Supernatural is awesome.

If you’re reading this, you already know what I’m talking about and I need not say more. For those that don’t; I’m sorry, but you’re fired as a reader this site. Alright, maybe you’re not fired, but you’re on probation (double secret probation).

It’s time to salt the windows and doors, secretly draw a devil’s trap under your living room rug and replace all the bottles of water in your house with holy water because the demons are taking over and Sam & Dean can’t be everywhere.

Review

Just as I thought, this episode had nothing to do with the overall story arc involving the Devil. While this normally might be something that would annoy me (especially after being off the air for two months), I didn’t really mind it as the story was strong enough to carry an entire episode without me looking for more.

I can’t remember if this is the third or fourth time that Dean and Sam have had an “imprisoned” type episode. I can’t say enough how much I love these episodes because they usually have to improvise their weapons as most prisons, or in the case mental hospitals, don’t allow you to bring in a ‘67 Impala with an arsenal in the trunk.

One thing I particularly enjoyed was that Sam and Dean were able to get admitted into the mental hospital by just telling them what’s been going on in their life. Obviously the doctor hasn’t been reading those “Supernatural” books that the prophet has been writing. It was a wonderful nod at just how crazy their life is.

Following the events of the previous episode where both Jo and Ellen died, it was nice that the writers were able to use the setting of a mental hospital to have the brothers touch up not only what happened to their friends, but exactly where they are in life and what they’ve been doing. Who would have thought that such a wonderful internal monologue could be so perfectly portrayed by a monster who sucks crazy brains out of your head.

While the ending was a bit underwhelming, the reveal of who the monster was did catch me a bit off guard. I was all about stabbing the doctor… oops. Did anyone else catch Lazlo Hollyfeld (Jon Gries) from Real Genius as the guest star hunter? Amazing! It’s nice to see him out of the closet. (Not that way.)

That being said, I’m ready for next week because I don’t know how much more I can take of a Castiel-less Supernatural episode. I really don’t know if they’re going to be able to write him off after this season is over as he’s quickly become a favorite character… although, so was Ash and they had no problem dropping a house on him.

So, what did you think of this episode? Were you alright with an episode that had nothing to do with the overall storyline? Missing Castiel? Have yellow eyes?

Let’s hear it!

Can you believe that the last time we had a new episode of Burn Notice was August 6, 2009? That’s quite a long time ago. USA is getting almost as bad as HBO with their breaks in programming. While I’ll happily admit that I’m fine waiting 6 months for a new Burn Notice, my incessant need for instant gratification tends to kick in, which causes me to try and Michael Weston my way in with USA PR to get an early look at the returning episode.

When that doesn’t work, I fold my arms and pout until the day Burn Notice returns. Well, today is that day and I can barely hold back my excitement. After seeing no-nonsense Michael “take care” of Tom Strickler for what he did to Fiona, one can only guess what’s going to happen now when someone gets in the way of Michael on a mission.

Review

Right from the start, memories start rumbling and you almost forget that the show hasn’t been on for almost half a year. With that, I’ve learned to embrace shows that quickly run through what happened in previous episodes, because I realize how much I forgot. Like in this case: I totally forgot about Michael’s contact to the CIA getting murdered. To be honest, I actually forgot who Michael was ultimately after or who was after Michael and I think that is becoming a problem with Burn Notice, but I’ll get to that later.

This episode was perfect Burn Notice. They take on a case to help someone who was wronged all while showing you how to do things in the most awesome way possible. Seriously, I could listen to Michael Weston voiceovers for the entire episode. I think the reason is that while there’s surely a bit of Hollywood magic, I kind of believe that if needed, you could totally do most of that stuff he does using the directions from the show.

Still, there wasn’t anything special about the case…. EXCEPT the reunion of Cagney & Lacey. That was just so wonderful to see Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly sharing the same frame again. What’s that? You don’t know what Cagney & Lacey is? Well, I’ll let you check Wikipedia for yourself, but let’s just say that it was the Chuck of the 80s and needed to be saved by its fans (without the use of Subway).

I’d have to say that the chemistry between Gless and Daly really kicked the episode to another level. For a show that tends to lean more towards the action, there was a fair amount of emotion showed between Gless and Daly. I also have to give it up to Gless for knocking the last scene out of the park while not wearing any makeup. It’s crazy to see nowadays.

Now, back to my little rumblings of a problem with Burn Notice. While the show is seriously top-notch programming, I’m starting to have a problem with the whole A & B storylines. Sure, we get the case of the week, but not much is done with the overall ‘Michael is burned’ storyline and that statement doesn’t just refer to this season. I really don’t feel that much progress has been in that area, at all. It seems like Michael is just bouncing from main bad guy to main bad guy with the same rinse and repeat outcome; they die (or he kills them) and there’s someone else behind it all.

Burn Notice is great, but with a slight tweak it could be even better. Just give Michael something, anything, in terms of progress with his whole burn notice problem. That is, after all, the name of the show.

That’s what I think… My girlfriend often tells me that I’m wrong but since she doesn’t watch the show, I’m riding high with my opinions. I need someone to knock me off my high horse.

This is where you, the reader come in. What did you think of this episode? Any thoughts to my little problem with the show?

Now here are some awesome clips from the episode.

Some like it hot
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWuZWx58kX4

Delicate hands
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhBIspq_lSI

Burn Notice airs Thursdays @10PM on USA.

The last 24 hours of my life have been interesting. I have been responding to comments and emails of all kinds regarding my initial review and discussion of part 1 of 24’s Season 8 launch. Last night’s offerings featured a cast comprised of both new and familiar characters and even more familiar goings-on inside the first 88 minutes. Would the second half of the premiere provide us with something more filling? Or were we locked into an all-too-familiar Jack-based fate? The answer came shortly after tonight’s second hour ended in the way that, as a one fan so eloquently tweeted:

“…I give tonight’s second episode Five Whirring, Bloody Buzzsaws Out of Five!”

Once again it’s time to don the covert manpurse, load your .40cal H&K, and strap in for a spoiler-ridden review of the third and fourth hours of 24 Season 8!

These reviews are, as stated above, filled with story-decimating SPOILERS. Readers beware…

Last hour we left the venerable and determined Jack Bauer with a new but somehow familiar free reign to operate, with Chloe at his side and one goal – find the assassin targeting Middle East President Hassan at all costs! Jack heads to one of the outlying neighborhoods of New York on a lead that Chloe brandishes from a traffic cam. Jack then does some real detective work, by paying off a basketball-playing youth who has seen the man he’s looking for recently arrive by cab.  The young lad directs Jack to a blue house across the the court where he saw the man go. As Jack investigates, he sees the ghastly corpse of a semi-dressed police officer who’s been shot in the head. Jack draws his weapon and clears the house and calls Chloe to get more intel.

Jack suddenly realizes that police have been dispatched to the house and only one suspect remains in the house with a gun – him. A partial explanation and taser gun later, Jack awakens strapped to a chair getting the first beating of 2010 from a justice-seeking policeman. Eventually, the policeman’s partner assists Jack in putting a stop to the vengeful beating and the two of them are able to get the vital intel about the now-dead officer to the powers at CTUNY, who piece together where the now dead cop was supposed to be on detail. This, along with a faux bomb threat inside the UN eventually reveal that the bomb is not actually in the UN building itself, but somewhere in the actual road/path that is being cleared for President Hassan’s emergency exit.

As the second hour of this evening’s offering ignites, the Russian mobster who has set the lethal trap arms the bomb hidden under a manhole cover and prepares to push the button to kill President Hassan. Agent Cole (Freddie Prinze Jr.) is able use his car to ram the presidential vehicle out of the blast zone and ends up saving the life of President Hassan.

Meanwhile, Agent Cole extracts himself from the car, ensures that President Hassan is in a new able-to-escape vehicle, and notices a frumpy, out of place police officer and realizes that this is the man they’ve been looking for. The Russian mobster realizes that the plan has been foiled and runs into one of New York’s many abandoned, yet exceptionally lit buildings and receives a  call from President Hassan’s brother, Omar, who inquires as to his brother’s status. “He survived,” he states, “and soon they’ll know it was you who was involved.” Realizing that the walls of justice are quickly closing around him, Omar takes advantage of the pen he usually signs brotherly checks with and stabs one of the many in-proximity guards in the neck and makes his escape.

Back at CTU, Dana receives a call from her former manlover, Kevin, and they engage in conversation that completely derails the moment and pace of the program. I didn’t see nor will I see any value to this wayward interaction so I shant share anything else about it.

Jack has now traveled halfway across New York to arrive at the  blast scene in just 4 minutes, and takes up arms with Cole to hunt for the assassin inside the aforementioned abandoned building. The Russian mobster gets the drop on Cole, who clearly doesn’t watch enough 24, and orders him to his knees. Jack gets the drop on The Russian mobster who clearly has missed the many syndicated repeats of 24 in his motherland, creating yet another dead Russian mobster for this 8th season of 24. Jack is able to capture the ornate tattoos from the most-recent dead body and sends it along to CTUNY for posterity and research.

Continue reading the final hour of the Season 8 premiere…

As 24, Day 8 arrives on Fox this evening, Jack Bauer fans are hyped up about several things:

1. Jack is back. Do we REALLY need to know anything else?

2. We’re set back in New York City, with a new pseudo CTU set up, electronified and ready to tangle with a new season of terrorist shenanigans.

3. Sure, we’ll see Kim Bauer, but we’ll also get a giant slate of acting talent that will help smooth out the waves of often-felt discord regarding Kim (and she wasn’t THAT bad last season).

4. Jack’s inevitable on-screen screams will be there at some point to kick-start our adrenaline.

Regardless of where the story, plot twists and injections of adrenaline take us this year, I and those of you that have been following 24 for years are jazzed, prepped and ready to take a trip on another of the worst days of Jack Bauer’s life on 24.

I’ve been very satisfied with the lack of spoilers conveyed in the trailers and previews that have been offered this year – and hope they keep pre-episode spoilers to a minimum throughout this (possibly) final season.

And now, on to the review:

– Review of Season/Day 8’s hours 1 (4pm-5pm) & 2 (5pm-6pm) For 24 –

The hype has been bold, and non-stop for months. Small, generally-spoilerless but action-packed trailers and sneaks have paved the way for the return of Jack Bauer in New York and the night has finally arrived.

The Scenario: Jack Bauer, reasonably happy and trying to live life to its fullest is not-so-surprisingly jerked from his peaceful perch to hopefully save the day. He and Chloe brave technological speedbumps that they quickly overcome with skill sets, patience and episode-based time crunches. Barking screams from Jack encouraging people to give him answers, “NOW!”,  explosions and gunfire of all kinds hypechallenge the in-home theater systems of Americans and the “ClUnK!” of terrorists who fall at the hand of Jack Bauer’s hand. All this in-between commercials and product placements galore.

The Problem: This description is from season 5,6 and 7 of 24 on Fox.

I have had the distinct pleasure of reviewing 24 for a long time. I have watched it since its inception. I have real zeal and love for the character of Jack Bauer, his never-ending want for answers and his ability to get them – regardless of the means. Officially however, I am tired of listing of the same 16 different plot “twists” and “traits” that comprise a season of 24. Aren’t you? Let me explain.

While I am a hater of spoilers in general, the dialog, and eventual discussion will be spoiler-ridden to prove my point. Readers beware.

This season we are in New York. Jack is playing with his now four-or-so year old grandaughter, Teri, who helps us understand, along with phone dialog from Jack’s daughter Kim, that Jack has emerged from a coma, taken in the dangerous, life-threatening-all-around dangerous operation that Kim volunteered to partake in last season and now lives, happily. Hmm, Jack Bauer playing in the realm of happy life? That sounds familiar.

A former contact from Jack’s past CTU-based life ends up being shot, and finds Jack Bauer to confess his role in a near-future murder plot of a leader of a nameless, middle-east-based country. Jack contacts Chloe, a newly-minted, apparently-neophyte tech comm agent at the new New York-based CTU to tell her of the plot and to engage the new CTU leader who has promised a new age of national security and protection with a new team in a new facility that all looks very familiar down the the surround-all glassness, giant video screens, subdued lighting, hot ladies with badges, secluded unlit areas – literally. Hmm.

Agents are sent to meet with Jack and the bleeding-to-death guest star who have been directed to a police station that is only 5 city blocks away. We know this because of the first use of the new, next-generation Eye Drone Technology (cousin of the Eye Traffic Camera technology), which will clearly be used a LOT in this season of the show. Jack’s route is blocked by bad guys who are summarily killed by Jack without bullets of any kind. Those keeping tally: A fire ax and long clanking fall down a staircase kill the first of this year’s baddies. Jack continues on dragging along Mr. SoonToDie. New, responsibility-laden CTU agents arrive at a Drone-Eye-designated rooftop where one of the fleet of black CTU helicopters arrive to take Jack and his informant to CTU to figure out the plan! An unwelcome rocket/missle is fired from someone across the way and destroys the helicopter in a giant explosion killing several agents and eventually the needed informant who has conveyed that there is “an insider involved in the hit on the nameless country’s president” before his eyes roll back in his head and he dies with Jack hovering above him.

After the short less-than-10 minute- drive to CTU, Jack is taken into custo– err is welcomed into the new CTU NY offices and will be debriefed by the woman that not only doesn’t know how to do anything, not only can insult and derail discussion with anyone, but will be left with the responsibility to debrief the only lead CTU now has to the informant. All this while claiming that they have more important things to track down via a tasty bit of electronic detective work that fits together better than a security protocol and a scriptwriter’s paycheck. All right! But wait, there is dissent. The young gun agent wants to tell the truth, but the man in charge of CTU wants him to keep it under his hat to avoid internal investigations that will only hamper the general goals of CTU. Can’t have that! While the faces have changed, and the production designer has change, these too are terribly familiar.

Madam President (a woman who has somehow been re-elected after putting her daughter in prison, divorced her angry, vengeful, also-out-of-a-coma husband) has convened a grand, world-changing treaty discussion with President Hassan of – some country. These negotiations will change the way that country does – something, and it’s really important because we couldn’t possibly have a nuclear bomb go off on our soil. Thanks to all of the intel, debriefs and hand-held camera moves, we are able to take in the framed reporter into custody. CTU NY brings her to the all-new fresh from Logan’s Run interrogation rooms and – asks questions! We’ve never seen things like this before, have we?

A phone call is received by one of CTU NY’s crack agents, Jenny – err Dana, who has apparently left a former life to create this all new life where we’ll be marrying a CTU NY Coworker (who just survived exploding helicopter death). That’s interesting. She must really be skilled to pass the gauntlet of governmental investigation required for this new position. The man on the phone tells her that he knows what she did in her previous life, and that she needs to do what she wants or he’ll tell the police about it! Ah ha, another NEW personal wrinkle experience for a sitting, prestigious CTU agent. Hmmm.

Jack has a conversation with Chloe where he not only debriefs, he also takes part in the first part of yet another bit of treason with Chloe. Ahh, what’s a little treason between former CTU coworkers, right? Jack commands Chloe to give him access to the CTU NY armory, and while she’s at it, hack into the new system she doesn’t understand and review every piece of archival drone camera history here in the next few minutes while I go wander around CTU and fetch any firearm I want. While Jack is checking out the stock of apparently already-loaded weapons, he is taken into custody! Jack turns the tables on the new CTU NY head, using overhead knowledge from several conversations in the previous hour to leverage – well – anything he wants. In an hour and 35 minutes, Jack has been able to achieve full autonomy over the new CTU head, to command any resources he wants, and to have the incompetent, treasonous criminal Chloe O’Brian as his leader at Ops. What season is this?

The unnamed country’s President’s brother (did I just type that?) encourages his brother to have no more contact with the female reporter that will get him in trouble. It’s best for the nation, it’s best for his family and more importantly, it’s best for his estranged wife and child. As President Hassan heads back to ponder his decision, the brother makes a phone call from his Sprint cell phone to the man that has, in the last hour, traveled to a house across town, used a personal laptop and hacked into the UN database, found and secured the vital security documents essential to success, acquired a rocket launcher, destroyed a helicopter from an anonymous rooftop, killed CTU agents and changed clothes at least once. Luckily, we know all of this because Jack and Chloe have illegally accessed the immense void of “drone imagery archives”, seen the medallion on the hood of the taxi (from tens of thousands of feet in the air) the man took and traced his movements to a general part of New York City. Cool.

We find out that the previously Russian/Bosnian/IDontKnowWhatian master assassin and helicopter-destroyer has infiltrated the New York Police Department over a long period of time and is now involved/in charge of the security caravan that will be transporting the nameless country leader to his next vista of interest. Ah ha, a mole who has managed to fool everyone, including a large number of law enforcement officers in collusion with the brother of the man who is in the crosshairs who is on the inside! A brother on the inside? Hotly original!

Jack grabs his manpurse, tells his daughter, granddaughter and silent son-in-law that he’ll see them in LA eventually, grabs the stack of incredibly important papers and orders the initiation of the search of traffic cams via the always-popular Jesus Eye technology. And the boop, beep, boop, beep continues…

With a very sharp but fat tongue in cheek, you now have the review of these first two general and familiar hours of Season 8 of Fox’ 24. While I’ve enjoyed the first hour or so before we (in my opinion) completely erased the void of last season and this season, we are in terribly familiar waters. Where is the originality that made this show what it was at one time? How can other programs like SVU, NCIS and a litany of others provide us with shows that occur in only 42 minutes give us such original satisfaction, but something that so many want to be impressed by give us – this?

Another trait I see intruding on a show that I dearly love is the lack of SUSPENSE. Remember when you’d learn pieces of a puzzle, over an episode and perhaps at the end something is paid off? That is now apparently not “in the formula” of 24 and has been discarded and replaced with a literal televised display of Attention Deficit Disorder. The best sample of this is President Hassan’s brother who goes from caring, best for the country advice-giving brother to bold and unabashed plotter of his own brother’s death – in less than 3 minutes. How about peppering hints through several episodes and then paying those things off? Where IS that suspense I mentioned in general?

And so I ask YOU, the good readership, to help me understand where this season is going but more importantly, how can we get past the “well, that’s what HAPPENS in 24, Mike” answer that I anticipate?

There ARE original stories that can fit into the 24 format.

With the award season in full swing, we at Screen Rant figured that maybe we should be covering these prestigious events because who knows, Mariah Carey could get up and say something crazy at one of these things OR Mariah Carey could get up and say something crazy at two of these things.

In case of such events, the general consensus is that we need someone around to provide hilarious, informative and cute/endearing commentary as well as someone that you, the reader, can yell at when you don’t agree with something we say.

So, join us back here at 8PM (EST) and we’ll kick things off as the always wonderful Ricky Gervais hosts the 2010 Golden Globe Awards.

In case you’re wondering who’s nominated for what or if you’re just in a general curious mood, here’s a list of all the nominations so you can follow along.

2010 Golden Globe Nominations

No need to wait til 8pm. Start your predictions now.

With the holiday season upon us, now is the time to sit back, relax and enjoy the company of your loved ones. Although, if you’re the part of the world where snow is common (like myself), you’re already sick of the white devil powder that covers everything. Fortunately, we’ve got more important things to worry about. What’s so important, you ask? Well, it’s just THE END OF TIME.

Not only the end of time, but also the end of an era. Since the 2005 return of Doctor Who, we’ve been blessed with two wonderful actors portraying the Doctor, Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant. It’s been over 4 years since we said goodbye to Eccleston and now the time is upon us again.

Time to say goodbye to David Tennant.

[Update: This will cover “Doctor Who: The End of Time” (Part 2).]

Click here to go to the second page and view the review of “Dr. Who and the End of Time” (Part 1)

After such an extremely disappointing first half, it’s hard to think that it could get any worse with part 2 of “The End of Time” and for the first 5 minutes into the second half, I started to think that it could. Then, the clouds cleared and Russell T. Davies was able to ever so slightly save himself for being known as the man who both resurrected and ruined Doctor Who.

While the second half was much better than the first, it still wasn’t “up to standard” with what Who fans have become accustomed to. I’m not going to lie, this past year hasn’t exactly been the best in terms of story, but it would be hard for any fan to deny that since its resurrection, Doctor Who has been top notch in terms of storytelling.

Maybe that’s why this overall special failed. In terms of storytelling, I didn’t really care about what was going on; Too many new things were introduced at once and they all began to just blend together and I started to ignore them.

The whole “medical fix-it machine,” cactus people, super hero Master (flying with his hands), stunt man Doctor (falling through the ceiling), Donna’s mind defense system, Time Lord beacon… it was just too much. It seemed as if Davies had thought of a scene, “the Time Lords returning” and was so excited about that idea that he just threw anything down to make it happen.

Still, this might sound like I didn’t enjoy the episode at all and that’s not the case; I truly enjoyed the episode. The last 20 minutes of the finale were worth sitting through every single special since last Christmas. When it comes down to it, the quality of the entire episode was secondary to what we I really care about: the ending. Somehow, I don’t know how, Davies pulled out a brilliant conclusion to this Doctor Who story.

From the moment that the Doctor stated, “it’s already started” I was hooked and couldn’t stop watching until it was over. With the words of “I’m going to get my reward” and him revisiting all the main characters, Davies got back his glory and I couldn’t have been happier about it.

This special is a perfect example why Davies needed to step down as head writer. While most of the episode was rubbish, there was enough brilliance peppered in to keep me watching and the ending of this episode was most certainly brilliant.

A New Doctor

Alright, I know everyone is going to have their thoughts on Matt Smith as the new Doctor, so here are mine: I’m going to wait and see. It’s as simple as that.

Yes, I’ll admit that his performance at the end was odd, but if you look back to the regeneration that revealed Tennant as the new Doctor, he wasn’t exactly winning any awards.

There are a lot of things that tell me this upcoming season is going to be bad, but Steven Moffat has written so many wonderful Doctor Who episodes that I just have to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Don’t I?

Click here to go to the second page and view the review of “Dr. Who and the End of Time” (Part 1)

[Update: Go HERE for answers about the shocking twist ending!]

As the fourth season of Dexter comes to a close, fans are going into the finale knowing two things; (A) Something crazy is going to happen and (B) We have no idea what that crazy thing is. I have a feeling that neither our preview of the finale nor our spoiler post will prepare fans for what’s to come.

Sure, by now all of you probably know the twist involving Deb and her revelation about her adopted brother’s connection to not only Harry’s past, but also her own. Still, the fact that we know that going into the 52-minute finale has me believing that Deb’s revelation is just the tip of the iceberg – or in this case, ice pick.

We’ve got Dexter facing off against Trinity, Deb snooping around Harry’s past, Quinn dealing with the suicide of his girlfriend (who might still be alive) and Trinity’s daughter, Christine. There’s also Trinity’s family, Rita and the kids, Masuka and don’t forget about Batista and Laguerta’s nuptials from last week’s episode.

REVIEW [MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW!!!]

-

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from the season finale of Dexter, it’s to expect nothing. I should have known that a show which has been able to continuously reinvent itself would leave nothing on the table and that’s exactly what happen with this season finale.

So much happened within the first 20 minutes that my mind was unable to absorb it all. I literally had to watch the episode twice as I was riding such a wave of intensity that lasted until the last five minutes of the show. As I finally calmed down, that feeling didn’t last long as the seasons big reveal had, unbeknownst to me, not yet happened… but we’ll get to that later.

There’s no way any show other than Dexter could have pulled off the entire “bad day” chain of events and make it believable. Dexter Morgan is always so in control of his emotions with his methodical way of living – which is great for building tension – but in this instance it was a pleasant surprise to see his character having to quickly deal with things that just didn’t go his way.

I’m not going to lie, this was a near perfect episode. I have no doubt that we’ll see many Emmy awards because of this season and particularly this episode. Still, there were some things that I’d like to nit-pick: I wasn’t really feeling Deb’s whole reveal to Dexter. I’m not sure if she wanted to tell him because she was being a kind sister or because she was angry, but something about it felt a little “wrong place, wrong time.”

There’s also the whole “we’re taking the case from you” with the FBI walking in. Sure, it’s probably realistic on some level, but it felt more like an easy way to tie up loose ends, and free up the team for whatever or whoever is the “big bad” next season. Also, what happened to the whole Batista and Laguerta storyline? There was a quick mention of their marriage, but that’s it.

Let’s move on to Trinity. For the entire season he has been an extremely menacing individual. On par with any bad guy you could think of and while I so enjoyed Dexter revealing himself as the one to have taken his oil cap, I felt the actual killing was a bit odd and unfulfilling. I’m not sure what it was, maybe it was the banter between the two or Trinity’s odd mannerisms about wanting the train to be on, but something just wasn’t playing right to me. Also, Dexter using the claw hammer as a murder weapon was literally frightening. The moment he flipped the hammer around and swung made me wonder if had “crossed over.”

Now, it’s time to talk about the last 3 minutes of the show. I think “wow” would be my response. I know that’s what I would have said if my jaw wasn’t open so wide. I know that fans have been against Rita for a while and have wanted her killed, but I believe Rita adds the humanity that Dexter needs not only as a person, but as a show. Without her, he would just go along with his crazy rules talking to his dead father in the back seat (quite talkative he was this episode). I just don’t know what to think. Oh, it was a twist – a big one—and I’ll take all the blame for screwing up the spoiler and misinterpreting what executive producer, Clive Phillips, had said, I just don’t know how I feel about it – not until I see what they do with it next season.

Still, throughout the entire episode I was so enthralled and stressed out that you would have thought it was my life or at least real life, not just a scripted drama. Although, I would say those words could also be used to describe Dexter… “not just a scripted drama.” With a 12-episode season, Dexter has to consistently deliver such a strong story that viewers will not stray during the long breaks between seasons.

…and deliver, it has.

Enough of me, what did you think of the episode? Enjoy the “twist” at the end? Hate me for screwing up one of the spoilers? Since Showtime has already ordered a fifth season, what do you see in store for Dexter? What could they do to top this?

UPDATE: Still have questions about the twist ending? Now there are answers (including confirmation of a misstep by the showrunners): Go HERE.

Update Source: Entertainment Weekly

The third week of ABC’s new FlashForward arrives inside the television review halls of Screen Rant.

The world view of what has taken place expands as we begin in a prison in Munich, Germany, where a long-term prisoner named Geyer and a guard begin a discussion that will change many lives and perspectives. What will we find out this time? Will we garner more puzzle pieces that are put in place or only glimpses at the 2 minutes and 17 seconds that had almost all of us spent frozen three weeks ago?

I’ll be reviewing this and future episodes of FlashForward in an ironic and incredibly-appropriate “stream of consciousness” format, giving you essentially what I’m thinking as the show airs. I encourage everyone to send feedback in regard to any of the points below and use this opportunity as a sounding-off point to tell the Screen Rant team what YOU think about this third episode of ABC’s FlashForward!

The secret knowledge of foreign language and subtitles:

I know that my viewpoint stems from a bias based on my continual hunt for open and closed captions in the entertainment realm, but I LOVE to have movies that feature partial subtitles. Here we meet an older inmate and a familiar guard who talk about their lives, past current and future and while it’s short, the information is passed along nicely in German which is subtitled for the audience. Great stuff! The reason? For those of you that don’t speak a particular language, the subtitles provided are a glimpse into secret knowledge being conveyed on screen. Rather than thinking of them as a hurdle to one’s movie-watching effort, think of them as a bundle of information you wouldn’t have had otherwise and you’ll see them in a whole new light.

The cause of the FlashForwards:

It’s great to see this information used as another always-dangling carrot and like so many other things in our pseudo-scientific lives, we’ll certainly be approached from a variety of sources as to why and how the Blackout happened, who was responsible and more importantly, how we can prevent it from happening again. Do YOU have a line on how the Blackout happened? Don’t forget to use the discussion items below to tell us what you think!

137 Sekunden:

This isn’t only the title of this episode (which again evokes the power and “mystique” of foreign languages), it’s the time period that the older inmate Geyer says he has many answers for. Like many arguments that occur online, here the Nazi’s/Holocaust/etc are mentioned/inserted and the scales of justice and knowledge begin moving and will eventually arrive at a decision. I like when we’re solicited to do so and can’t wait to see what decision awaits.

Information from Geyer will lead them to “them”:

I really like the tack the program is taking on providing us pieces of knowledge, and then moving on where we’ll get to see if the buy-in on [insert character/event] will pay off in the future as we head towards a known point in the future. The tension it adds to the program is really well done.

Outstanding German Prison Production Design:

I cannot wait to interview either the production designer or some of the crew that made this episode, mostly because I want more detail on where the prison scenes were filmed for this episode. The design of each of the scenes that centered around moving in and about the prison were spectacular, providing something literally colored differently for all to behold. It’s another piece of why many people see and love television shows that often goes “unseen”. Be sure to thank the production designers of the programs you watch. They are the true artists of everything seen on-screen and in a show like this one, can make or break an effort.

White-Bread Tightie-Whitie Hula Dance:

There are a series of words that I never thought I would envision or (GULP!) see in an episode of a network-based television program, but alas, here they are and here it is for all to see. We see the same gentleman that we’ve seen in numerous/previous FlashForwards dancing to music in his white-undeed glory. Frankly I know why I’m not a detective because I think I’d have shot him out of sheet fright. Later, we find out that he’s a man down on his luck (and dancing skill) and that the path is emblazed for him to journey into another white series of clothes (a guard shirt with a badge, etc). What can we expect in the future from this wayward soul? Will he have a part to play in the machine speeding towards late April next year?

Guilt-stepping your FlashForward Visions:

It was interesting to see that the future-guard’s vision was actually held as a reason to “do something” and made me think about how many people would use a “vision” as a crutch to ensure that things inside their own FlashForwards actually happen. It’s another facet that I love about this show and I can’t wait to see it utilized more. People have ALWAYS been driven by “what they must do” regardless of the facts, perspective and knowledge, and I can’t wait to see how that soup of factors is built, boiled and served to us here via FlashForwards.

Living by the future rather than for it:

Time Travel has been something that all of us have considered. Many of us have hoped for it. Others fear it because it means that someone else could be in control of OUR destiny, rather than being able to guide your own fate. While this bullet point sounds very much like the previous one, this one goes much deeper. Are you one who believes (as is hailed in the TERMINATOR films) that we “have no fate but what we make for ourselves?” I am.

Now consider the viewpoint of you knowing that things you’ve “seen” on a certain day in the future would come to pass.  Would you go on living your life comprised of a fate “you make” or one where the events to come are the focus and you’re new intent is to make them come true/happen? I LOVE the questions this show asks of us as an audience and I cannot wait for more. I’m trying to remember a television show that asked me to think as much as this one and I just don’t have an answer. Great work, ABC!

The Screen Rant team is still wondering what YOU think of this week’s episode of FlashForward. Discuss below and share your thoughts on this week’s episode!

The second week of ABC’s FlashForward arrives with knowledge, action and intrigue! Read on below as I detail my thoughts from this second episode and remember – if you missed this evening’s episode, there is a scheduled encore edition planned tomorrow evening. Same FlashForward time, same FlashForward channel!

I’ll be reviewing this and future episodes of FlashForward in an ironic and incredibly-appropriate “stream of consciousness” format, giving you essentially what I’m thinking as the show airs. I encourage everyone to send feedback in regard to any of the points below and use this opportunity as a sounding-off point to tell  the Screen Rant team what YOU think about this second episode, of ABC’s FlashForward!

– Stunning Visuals That Open The Episode: As we enter this episode of FlashForward, we’re gifted with some astounding visuals of planet Earth, from just outside of standard shuttle and space station orbit and – well, it’s just stunning. I’m eager to learn whether or not they’re pure CGI or perhaps something from one of the many recent and final missions of our space shuttle adventures.

– The Army is Always There: Every minute and a half or so as this episode starts, there is a great image of the military moving into place. During this episode, we see a variety of military-based vehicles and personnel taking up station in the city post Blackout and it’s great to see.

– Captain Harriman Inna’ House! Alan Ruck makes an all-too-short but credited appearance as the apparently-drunk AA-goer in this episode. Does anyone know if we’ll see more of him in this series? I don’t see anything additional at his IMDB listing so I’m going to assume no at this point.

– What did YOU see? This is an outstanding throw to more great fan-based discussion that really will stand the test of time. Just like knowing where you were for other real-life events (JFK assassination, shuttle disasters, 9-11, etc), this phrase and it’s context will last a good long time.

– Playing Blackout: “Role-playing like what happened after 9-11 and Katrina?”: Clearly I’m missing a piece and this will serve as the first call to the audience. What “role-playing” are they referring to for 9-11 and Katrina survivors here?

– Olivia and Mark and their Dialog: After seeing some of the worst train-wreck movies in recent history this last week (SlipStream, A Little Piece of Heaven, Fighting) it’s great to see some engaging, REAL life dialog here inside of FlashForward. Olivia’s dialog with both her daughter and the others around here in the hospital and more is wonderfully written and paid off perfectly by actress Sonya Walger.

– The Mosaic Collective: This is one of the best-ever pieces of story and series concepts I’ve seen in a while. As we were compiling our weekly FlashForward Podcast, we received a gaggle of email from our listenership that sent us a link to a dedicated, official Facebook application now available called “MOSAIC” that – not so strangely, allows you to interact and talk about the series, the story bits and perspective – with people all across the world. Be sure to check out the listing of cool sites that we’ve got compiling here and if you know if one like the Facebook MOSAIC Site on the web that we should know about, please let us know.

– The Perspective of Armed Soldiers Standing Guard: Call it a personal warm fuzzy here, but I’m all for the American military ensuring order. Extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary measures and it’s great to see something other than wide open chaos in a series that cultivates events that effect the entire world.

– The Autism Spectrum: Do you know it? I don’t. It’s another rare thing when a series can not only call attention to social goings-on, but make you want to seek out more knowledge. Another great push here is that while Autism is mentioned, we’re not bludgeoned over the head with preaching or down-your-throat details here as it’s introduced. It’s another showcase of writer’s skill that’s really appreciated and makes me want to learn more about what I’m listening to. Be sure to learn more about the Autism spectrum here.

– Again, quick-hitting subtle humor: An admitted bowel movement session by investigative team leader Stanford Wedeck (Courtney B. Vance) suddenly becomes tragically even more funny. Another agent, Rafalski, was also in the restroom during the blackout, and apparently went face-down into a urinal in the bathroom. Wedeck, after waking up on the toilet from his blackout, then rescues his coworker, and – in true duty-filled fashion to provide then drowning of Rafalski – gives him mouth to mouth resuscitation to revive him. Just as in last episode, this is the one piece of quick humor that makes it’s mark and quickly moves on in perfect contrast with the rest of the episode.

– Deduction Begins: D. Gibbons: I have a feeling that we’re going to see lots of the kind of interaction with people like DiDi (short for Diedre) Gibbons in FlashForward. When you consider the people that will contact an investigational organization like this new one, the interaction with people via MOSAIC, and the inevitable cameo from guest-stars-a-plenty, you can bet that we’ll see more.

– Sounds from STAR TREK: Note to everyone watching. Agent Hawks (Janice) is keying in and mining through data and the soft touches you hear, are the same sounds that you’d hear from many-a-STAR TREK character in the Next Generation (TNG) and Deep Space Nine (DS9) eras when touching a data console of the Federation. Ahhh, mindless sound memory trivia.

– Another Team Investigating: This launches some of the same great rivalry potential that we’ve seen in other series and I’m really eager to see where they take us with it. Just when you thought we didn’t have a large enough cast, you can bet there will be more without a doubt. We also are told in this segment that there IS confirmation of a second known player operating during the blackout which constitutes the definition of a “conspiracy” – a magical little word that will make fans heads everywhere swirl with anticipation week to week. Any speculation as to why THEY’RE investigating?

– Conversation between Demitri and Janis: I was (sadly) watching a movie I really wanted to like called “Fighting” recently. While the venues in the movie featured wonderfully framed cinematography, the dialog in that movie, from GI Joe alum Channing Tatum and Zulay Henao was, well, horrid, forced and – no one talks like that. In stark contrast here in FlashForward, we see an outstanding scene between Janis and Dimitri that makes the eyes and ears swell, because – it’s conversational, moving and – it’s how people TALK to one another. Kudos once again to not only the writers but the actors that pull this one off wonderfully.

– Another unobtrusive Next Episode segment: I have to hand it to the people editing this program. It looks to me like we’re not going to get any “next time, on FlashForward” inserts that give away the farm. Let’s hope that all other programs (in particular 24) do the same and give us just enough to whet the whistle without blowing any and all surprise for next time.

– Encore Episode the tomorrow evening: For those of you that might have missed this evening’s episode, and don’t have dedicated, “at-least-44-minute-Internet access” there is hope! There will be an encore episode of this evening’s show tomorrow! Be sure to tell friends! While the ratings for this show were solid, the fact is that the studio is going to need to see sustained gangbusters from the fans of this series or it’s going to be potentially be a victim of walking a bit too close to chopping block later this year.

So what did you think? Discuss below!

Last season on Ghost Whisperer we said goodbye to Rick Payne (Jay Mohr) and hello to Eli James (Jamie Kennedy). Melinda (Jennifer Love Hewitt) finds out she’s pregnant while Jim (David Conrad) is shot and turns into Sam/Jim. The Book of Changes shows up and we learn about “The Watchers.” As the season closes, we find out Melinda is having a boy whose abilities will be greater than her own.

Recap

As the season starts with the episode “Birthday Presence,” we find Jim and very anxious Melinda worried about the birth of their child. As the book noted last year, her child would be born on September 25^th, 2009. (Lucky for us, that is the air-date of this episode.) Worrying about the health of her child, Melinda heads to the hospital where complications arise and her child, Aiden (Connor Gibbs), must immediately be delivered via C-section.

After a commercial and a five year jump, we return to a child’s party. As more is revealed, we find out that it’s Aiden’s fifth birthday. Eventually, we meet up with all our favorite cast members and find out what they’re up to after so much time has passed.

Melinda is pretty much the same, but now a mother. Jim is a full fledged doctor. Ned (Christoph Sanders) is in college with Eli as one of his professors. Delia (Camryn Manheim) is now the belle of the ball with multiple suitors vying for her attention. Sadly, nothing much has changed with Eli.

After catching up with our familiar friends, we’re on to the ghost of the week. This ghost is a female who has been visiting Aiden on his birthday every year to sing “Happy Birthday.” After some “Scooby-doo-ing” from the team, we find that the ghost is of a woman who was pregnant and in the hospital at the exact same time Melinda gave birth. Sadly, the woman died while giving birth.

As the episode continues, we find out that the ghost woman believed her child died at birth and that Aiden had received the spirit of her child. What actually happened was that her child survived and was given to some adoptive parents that she had originally made arrangements with. There was some drama between her and the adoptive father pressuring her to hold up her end of the agreement and give them her child. The episode goes into it some more, but that was generally the gist of it.

The main thing we learn from this episode is that not only can Aiden see spirits, but he is an empath; meaning that he can sense, feel and relive emotions and events of those he connects with. He is also able to project events to his mother, Melinda.  In this episode, he relives the moment of death from the ghost mother which causes him to stop breathing.

Review

Oh, Ghost Whisperer, what has happened to thee. Watching this episode I am hard pressed to find anything that originally drew me to this series. Not only can three people on the show interact with spirits, but now they’re having every child able to interact with ghosts as well. Mix that with the whole “Book of Changes” storyline and the addition of “The Watchers” and I have to make sure I’m still watching the same show. Sure, the whispering to ghost’s aspect is still there, but it feels less that and more of a super hero show.

Touching upon the “Five year jump” – I’m totally comfortable with the television series jumping ahead multiple years and showing us what the characters are up too… but at the end of a series when the show is completely over. The fact that they did it in the middle of the series is just mind boggling.

For the past four years, we’ve follow Melinda through all her ghost adventures. In those four years, we have seen everything and anything happen to her. Now, we’re led to believe that the five year jump in her life holds no interesting stories? She had a friend die, plane crash, evil brother, ghosts trying to killer her… and then all of a sudden her life goes quiet for five years? I’m not buying it and have no idea why they believe I would.

I feel like they cheated and instead of actual character development, they just jumped five years and since anything can happen in five years, they can write their way out of anything they didn’t like previously.

The whole child storyline has me perplexed, but I’ll give it a chance. I feel like the overall Melinda storyline of the show was never finished and now with the addition of her child, it never will be.

I apologize that my overall tone seems to be less that positive, but for the past year I’ve watch Ghost Whisperer go in the wrong direction. With the start of this new season, I don’t feel like that has changed at all, but…

I still have hope.

After watching, what are your thoughts on the season premiere? Do you like where they’re taking Ghost Whisperer? What did you think about the five year jump?

Let’s hear it!

Fox took a chance – a huge chance – when they ignored all the social media hype about The Sarah Connor Chronicles and focused on Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse.  At least at first glance, that is what it looks like.

Friday overnight ratings for the premiere episode of the fantasy TV series Dollhouse were rather miserable looking.

Which could make perfect sense if you count on the fact that it’s a Friday night and there were other shows premiering on other networks, but Dollhouse averaged 2.5 million viewers.  At least they beat out the encore episode of America’s Next Top Model.  LOL.

(Sadly, it also looks like Smallville only brought in 2.5 million viewers for it’s Friday night premiere… but that’s for another article.)

We still have the “Live + 7 Day” ratings to come in, but will they be reassuring?  Who knows.

For me, the premiere of Dollhouse was fractured and yet satisfactory.

THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS SECTION. Skip Spoiler Section

Having watched last season, it was odd seeing what looked like a new feel of the relationships in the Dollhouse.  The Dolls are having some form of subtle social interaction (Sierra (Dichen Lachman) and Victor (Enver Gjokaj) smiling and holding hands?) and that threw me for a loop, considering all of last season they just walked around between assignments in a haze, as they went to their yoga, swimming or other activities.

Echo (Eliza Dushku) was off on an assignment, being married to arms dealer Martin Klar (Jamie Bamber).  If you saw the episode, that was not Jamie putting on an accent.  That is his accent.  It was refreshing to see… or hear, actually.

But Agent Ballard… sorry, former FBI agent Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett) was using Echo to bust the arms dealer and Ballard has an uneasy relationship with the Dollhouse.  He was the client, of sorts, for this assignment.  Eh?

As if that wasn’t hard enough, Echo’s mind programming started to snap and other personalities were sparking up in the middle of her assignment.  At one point, in front of Klar, Echo asks out-loud, “What did they make me this time?”  That is until Ballard fixed her.

You know how sometimes thumping the copier machine helps it work?  Ballard thumped the copier machine a few times before it kicked it in gear.  Literally.

Dr. Saunders (Amy Acker) is flipping out.  She found out at the end of last season that she’s a doll and this information is not going over well with her.  At all.  To distract herself, she’s playing practical jokes on Topher.  At one point, she tries to sneak into bed with Topher (Fran Kranz), which creeps him out… considering that he programmed her to be repulsed by certain aspects of himself.

There was some serious deep conversation between these two that revealed there’s more character to Topher than met the eye last season.

** END SPOILERS **

Unfortunately, from what I can tell, you had to have watched last season to understand this first episode of season 2 of Dollhouse.

What I mean by that is not everyone is as involved in the show as some fans are.  Not everyone cruises the internet looking for back episodes.  Not everyone is a fan of Whedon.  Sometimes, shows have to be able to grab uninitiated viewers and gently pull them along, as well as keep the seasoned viewers engaged.  It’s a very hard mix to accomplish.

I get where Joss is coming from in this premiere episode as everyone is still picking up in the aftermath of Alpha’s attack.  Yet I fear potential new viewers could be confused.

I asked a friend who watched this episode (at my bidding) and I think I’ve created a distant shell of conservative trust.  He said it was an odd, dark and fractured episode.  Too many things happened for him that kept him off-balance.

It was truly Dollhouse / Whedon as we know it.  It did not disappoint this fan and yet the ratings are scary.  The episode was dark and angst-filled for me, but that’s what I’d expect at this point in the story.

I just hope all those other ratings commodities help keep Dollhouse around for it’s full 2nd season run.

Did Joss make a mistake by shoving the uninitiated viewer into the show like this?  Was he just focused on the veteran fan of the show?

Speaking of fans, Was Dollhouse all you expected it to be?  Or have you even seen it yet?  Let us know your thoughts.  Screen Rant wants to hear them!

Ratings info source:  TV By The Numbers

Tonight was the premiere episode of CSI’s 10th season. At the end of last season, we saw two things: Langston volunteering at a hospital in his spare time – and him having to use, for the first time, deadly force to kill someone. Let’s see where this new season picks up and what, if any, ramifications it has had on him and what the entire team has been up to.

My interest is more than a little piqued for this premiere episode as we see the return of Sarah. The episode descriptions promise that they welcome her return as they become tighter to investigate the death of a famous young actress killed in a dubious traffic collision.

As with my previous CSI recap, review and discussion, I’m warning you now that I’m going to spoil everything. I’ll even spoil the commercials for you (Target, Pepsi). See, already did it. If you have yet to watch the episode, tread carefully as everything below will be spoilers!

A New Light

As the episode opens we’re in the morgue with everything frozen in place. Dead bodies are all over the place, water is spraying everywhere and Doc is chasing after a man with a gun. As more of the lab is revealed we see bullets being fired, glass everywhere and that people have been shot. The opening concludes outside the lab with a delivery van carrying two men firing back at two unknown figures with guns. As the camera pulls back it’s revealed to be Nick and Sara.

With a bright flash we’re back in the lab staring at a tarantula with a subtitle reading “48 Hours Earlier.” We catch Catherine making a remark about Riley leaving the lab and sticking them with 100 open cases (In real life, the actress who played Riley, Lauren Lee Smith, was let go as the producers said, it was “an issue of how we were feeling the ensemble was working.”).

We find Langston in the lab doing stabbing ballistics gel with a knife. After some poking by Eickle, he congratulates Langston on making CSI – Level 2. With that happy moment out of the way Langston is paged to a crime scene where we find the main victim for this episode, actress Olivia Hamilton has been killed in a suspicious car accident.

After another wonderful Who concert, we return to the crime scene, but now it’s early morning. Catherine theorizes that markings on Hamilton’s car showed that she was stopped at the time of the accident. As per the usual CSI episode, a second, but smaller case arises and Catherine gives it to Greg who doesn’t seem too happy about that and a throws a little tantrum.

Finally, we catch up with Brass, for the first time this season, and he’s in his office with two men, a security consultant named Tom O’Neil (Garret Dillahunt) and his client, Hamilton’s boyfriend, Denny Ocampo. After Ocampo reveals no helpful information, we then return to Greg and find him in a hotel room taking pictures of a man who appears to have been killed in the midst of a robbery.

We return to Catherine and Doc in the morgue around the young where they find out she was 8 weeks pregnant. As Catherine walks off we catch up with Langston at the hospital, standing near Richard Wilkes, who is believed to be the person who killed Olivia Hamilton in the accident. As the lab reports come back we find out that Wilkes had a mixture of alcohol and GHB in his system. As Langston and Stokes search through Wilkes’ car they find a vial of drugs and a creepy book with cut up pictures of the actress. Clearly, he’s a stalker.

Shortly after, Langston receives a letter from the review board regarding his shooting from last season. Langston was cleared of all charges. He talks with Nick about how it hasn’t been bothering him and he doesn’t like that feeling.

Everything Changes

As Langston and Stokes turn their attention to traffic tapes of that night, they find out that someone pre-empted the traffic light to force Olivia into that specific intersection. With Nick interested as why they hadn’t found a traffic emitter in Wilkes car, Langston hurries back to Wilke’s hospital room where, after taking a closer look, finds hidden bruises caused by a seatbelt. The problem with the marks is that Wilkes wasn’t wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident. Someone else was driving the car.

Sadly, the team doesn’t get much time to revel in their new found knowledge as Eickle busts in with a newspaper showing Wilkes confessing to the murder. He then starts yelling at Catherine about how she’s not doing her job properly and cites Riley’s exit interview as something she should read.

With that, Sara finally pops up in the episode, but at the worst time. She’s alone (surprise, surprise) as Grissom is “guest lecturing.” While everyone is catching up with Sara, Catherine returns to her office to read Riley’s exit interview. Inside she finds that Riley believes there is no leadership or unity within the team.

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