Bones - A Night at the Bones Museum, S05E05

This week's murder was witnessed by a mummy. That's right, an Egyptian mummy, dead for over 3000 years witnessed a recent murder, though Bones (Emily Deschanel) and Booth (David Boreanaz) do not originally have a body to investigate. Oh, and apparently mummies smell like Christmas.

When beginning the investigation, where would our team be without a lab assistant? After all, now that Brennan runs around to question people with Booth, someone needs to actually look at the bones...this week? Daisy! That's right, Sweets (John Francis Daley) convinces Brennan to give Daisy (Carla Gallo) another chance. He apparently taught her some breathing exercises, so he hopes she will impress Bones this time.

When investigating the mummy, Bones and Daisy both get their giddy geek on about the discovery and it's historical importance. Seeing Bones giddy was almost as surprising as seeing her behave just like Daisy. In fact, Bones had more than one uncharacteristic moment - she is apparently a huge fan of The Mummy (1932), and can quote the lines and everything. Apparently, she didn't miss all culture.

Despite the distractions of such a cool archaeological find, Brennan and Booth discover the murder victim - a curator at their own museum. In the end, she was murdered over a large ruby found in the mummy's chest. And while that was interesting, I enjoyed Bones and her love of ancient corpses a lot more. It reminded me that her real calling and her background was not solving murder investigations, but solving historical puzzles. When she proved that the mummy was innocent of a murder he supposedly committed 3000 years ago, thus changing history, she accomplished something that will endure forever in her world.

What part did you like best?

Glee - Throwdown, S01E07

Glee may be nonsensical and ridiculous, but that is the point. This week brought me exactly what I expected, or possibly even a step up from that. And that makes a program worth while.

Sue (Jane Lynch) and Will (Matthew Morrison)'s time together as co-coaches of the Glee club was the battle we expected. Sue was delightfully manipulative, as always, choosing the minority kids to do a separate number. We even got another Sue Says (YAY). And while Mercedes (Amber Riley) rocked the house, Rachel (Lea Michele) and Finn (Cory Monteith) shared another romantic solo as Quinn (Dianna Agron) looked on. I have to remind myself that her child is actually Puck's and that Finn and Rachel are trying not to give in to their mutual desire, otherwise I'd feel really bad for her.

Will, to revenge himself on Sue, began failing her Cheerios, who weren't actually passing Spanish. It was nice to see him grow a spine and to see someone stand up to Sue. It was also a lovely contrast to his tears at the sight of the ultrasound of his baby girl - that's right, Terri (Jessalyn Gilsig) found a way to convince the OB to make her seem pregnant, even though she's not.

Finally, Will and Sue have a major blowout and the entire Glee club walks out on them. They want to have fun and they want to hang out together. Then, the episode ended with tragedy as the news of Quinn's pregnancy hit student blogs on Sue's order. Up until this point, I have loved her every evil choice, but this one was just a bit too much. Poor Quinn - her parents will kill her...and poor Terri, how will she secretly take that child now?

The music was definitely the best part of this episode, not because the plot wasn't entertaining, but because the songs were so good. Quinn's solo of You Keep Me Hanging On, which will always remind me of a music video with Goofy at the beach from the Disney Channel, suddenly had real meaning for me. She is giving love, but she's losing her grip. Tell Me How I'm Supposed to Breath with No Air and Keep Holding On were also show stoppers, but the highlight was Nelly's Ride With Me, which was the first song sung by our glee club without the full musical backup. You could actually hear them sing, and know it was them, in a casual context. It was amazing. Let's have more of that!

What do you want to see more of?

Eastwick - Fleas and Casserole, S01E04

While Eastwick still does not have great ratings, it continues to be so much fun. That is really what this series is about, amusing yourself. Enjoying the little ridiculous things.

For instance, Roxie (Rebecca Romijn) has yet to decide how to deal with her neighbour, Jamie (Jack Huston). She continues to have creepy dreams about him, but little things keep proving those dreams, or the message of them wrong. For instance, Jamie does not have the tattoo on his hip...or at least he didn't when she saw his hip, for he only branded himself later that day. And Jamie tells her he was taking pictures of Darryl (Paul Gross)'s house, though she thought he was spying on Darryl and her. Turns out, of course, that those pictures were in fact of her. The amusement is derived from her fear combined with his behaviour - he does not resemble the man in her dreams who scares her. He actually seems quite nice. And Roxie is a good person, after all, and expects that from other people too.

The most entertaining story arc this week was Joanna (Lindsay Price)'s. We learn that not only was she once engaged and abandoned at the alter, but when she speaks to any male she's both attracted to and uncomfortable with, she says terribly embarrassing things. She is so completely focused on Morgan (Brian Hallisay)'s sudden appearance in Eastwick that she is more concerned with the relationship that ended two years ago than the one she could potentially have now with Will (Johann Urb). She ends up missing their date because she is sleeping with Morgan. She realizes what a mistake it was when she asks Morgan why he left her in the first place, and he whines about her something awful.

Though she tries not to let Will know what happened, Morgan shows up to ask her out again, she, backed up by her awesome best friend, Peggy (Sarah Rue), tell him off. Unfortunately, the whole office hears what happened, and even though she bested Morgan, it cost her Will. Sad, but still hilarious.

Peggy is such a great and supportive friend to Joanna, so it was actually quite surprising for me when the episode ended with a reveal of Peggy and Jamie sharing knowledge about Darryl Van Horne, and then making out. Does she have any idea of Jamie's potential future of hurting Roxie?

Is she evil? Or is Darryl evil and manipulating Kat, Joanna, and Roxie to be so as well?

Kat (Jaime Ray Newman) certainly delved into her potential evil. She started the episode terrified that Raymond (Jon Bernthal) had kidnapped her children. Though he brought them back, he took them to scare her and told her he could do it again. She was pissed. What was the lesson we learned a couple weeks back from Dollhouse about mothers? So she, Roxie, and Joanna try a spell which is supposed to cover him in boils. We are unsure if it worked or not because, while Raymond does end up covered in red splotches, Kat is fairly certain they are flea bites from the fleas on their new dog. She does go farther, though, contacting Ivanka (Ivana Milicevic*), Darryl's New York lawyer. Through her anger, we see something new. Though Kat's relationship with nature has been volatile before, when she summoned an earthquake, or lighting, or frost, she had yet to destroy anything natural. It was perfectly horrid when she made the decision to destroy Raymond and we saw a garden full of beautiful roses wilt.

Luckily, though Kat has settled in her decision to end her marriage, she realized that if it got ugly her children would be hurt. So now Raymond and Kat are exchanging living in the house with their kids, and the rest of the time, Kat is living with Joanna.

I can't wait for next week's episode. I really love this show.

Melrose Place - Shoreline, S01E06

Lauren (Stephanie Jacobsen) is just about the worst call girl ever. She really has to learn to stop talking back or behaving uncomfortably. You have decided to sleep around for money, so stop acting like you're too proud to do it. Pride gets checked at the door, though maybe if she had more confidence, she'd do better. Ah well, it's not the worst plot ever.

That, instead, would be the idea the "normal" Riley (Jessica Lucas) was asked by a huge fashion designer to be the face of his new campaign because she's not a model. Well I'm not sure if she has the height for it, but there are very few 1st grade teachers who have bodies like that. Like we needed another "normal" girl played by a very attractive actor getting discovered. I'd wonder where this plot is going, but I don't really care. That may be because I don't like Riley.

And we SO did not get enough Ella (Katie Cassidy) time, though her conversations with her boss, Caleb (Victor Webster), get more and more fun. Almost like they might get along as colleagues. They're both starting to respect the other's ability to get the job done.

Finally, we get to the big plot of the episode. Michael Mancini (Thomas Calabro) got suckered by Violet (Ashley Simpson-Wentz). She seduced him, slept with him, videotaped the whole thing, and is now out for revenge in the name of her late mother who refused to acknowledge her...though I bet that Violet actually believes her own story that Sydney was thrilled to find her again.

Oh Soap Operas....I mean, oh nighttime dramas that are essentially soap operas only with slightly fewer characters and only an hour a week instead of 5.

The Good Wife - Fixed, S01E04

This show continues to impress me. It is a great mix of court room and family drama. You care about the developments in Alicia's life, but you also get an interesting, self-contained court case. I would not want to miss an episode, but if I did, I could pick up the next week without suddenly being completely confused.

The case this week involved a young husband suing a pharmaceutical company because, after taking a drug, he went from being an Iron Man to being in a wheelchair. If he and his wife won this case, than over 100 other athletes and young people who had been also affected by the drug would be able to bring a class action lawsuit against the same company and have precedence to win.

Diane (Christine Baranski)'s case was going well, and the defendant's attorney (True Blood's Chris Bauer*) does not have a particularly strong defense. Then, Alicia (Julianna Margulies) finds a piece of paper which indicates that either juror #2 or #11 is being bribed. They don't know which one, and they can't even know for sure that it is true. In their pursuit to find the truth, juror #2 is removed from the jury, though when this occurs, they are certain she is not bought. Juror #11 is being paid though, but when they bring this to the attention of the judge, he is fed up and says it's too late and the jury's decision will rest.

The jury finds in favor of the young couple, and Alicia is quite pleased until she realizes that it was the couple who bribed the jury. She brings her findings to Diane, thinking something must be done, but Diane reminds her they already brought their concerns to the judge, they have fulfilled their legal duty. Alicia's reaction to the entire case is a very unique combination of naive expectations and legal requirements. She wants to find the corrupted juror, for the integrity of the case, not to prevent a possible loss, and she is surprised to discover that the law only requires so much.

But she really had bigger personal concerns this week. Hounded by Peter (Chris Noth)'s lawyer, Daniel Goldson (Joe Morton*), she tries to find letters from Peter's past. If information exists that Peter was not being bribed, it is up to her to find it. Worse is the fact that the new tactic is to prove that Peter's lies during the investigation were to prevent Alicia from discovering his affair, to protect her, and not to hide any other legal issues. No one seems to realize just how hurt Alicia still is over the affair. Peter really has so much to do if he ever wants to return to her good graces, and it hasn't even occurred to him.

Can't wait to find out what happens next week, can you?

Castle - Fool Me Once..., S02E04

Everyone loves a good con movie, or when a cop show gets a good con plot. This one started out a little horrific. A class full of grade 1 students is watching a live video of an arctic explorer, who is telling them about his trip (which they helped fund). Suddenly we see the shadow of a person with a gun, and then the man is shot while the class looks on in horror.

And it turns out that Stephen Fletcher was not actually in the arctic, but in an apartment building. Also, he's not actually Stephen Fletcher. He's a con man, with multiple identities and no prints in the system. And what con man doesn't have quite a few victims who would like to see him dead.

It turns out that he was really really good at what he did. He managed to convince a woman who had diagnosed paranoia issues to give him her life savings - she apparently meditated about his death regularly, but did not commit the crime. He also had a very wealthy fiancee whom he was to marry in about a week. Naturally, Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Beckett (Stana Katic) believe this to be a con as well. They ask her father, after all, what wealthy man does not have potential-future-sons-in-law followed by private investigators? And he did, and discovered the truth. When he confronted Stephen about it, Stephen promise that that life was behind him and that he loved Elise, and agreed to sign whatever prenuptial the father wanted.

It also turned out that the grade 1 teacher (played by David Ramsey* from Dexter) was in on the scam and getting money for it. He didn't kill Stephen either, but he reveals that Elise knew about his meeting with the dead man. And the clues keep leading to new places, and yet never to the solution. Oh complicated cons!

Beckett and Castle finally unravel the information, with help as Stephen makes contact with Elise. Is he still alive? After all, the video did not actually show him being shot and the body they recovered had no face and could not be identified. But, since they've determined that the love between he and Elise was real, they go to follow her. She has already gone to meet him.

At her house, Castle and Beckett find the programs for the wedding - they were printed by Elise's friend Sue and are exactly like the brochures for the arctic expedition.

So they con Sue - she gets money from Elise, supposedly for Stephen, but when she gets to her car and opens the case, all she finds are newspapers.

Meanwhile, Beckett spends the entire episode denying or implying that she has been reading Castle's book and conning him. It was pretty entertaining.

Did you enjoy it?

Mad Men - Wee Small Hours, S03E09

This show can be so exhausting and depressing. There are usually moments of delight or happiness hidden amidst all the poor choices, but not in Sunday's episode. Even Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) choking on cigarette smoke was not enough, only bringing a smile to my face and so close to the beginning of the episode it was all but forgotten.

The political overtones would have been enough, with mentions of the potential re-election of Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr's I have a dream speech on the radio. A perfect, poignant moment found Betty (January Jones) and her friends chatting about how horrid things were for Black people in the South, more 1863 than 1963 one joked, and meanwhile Carla (Deborah Lacey) answered the door. But these seem so removed from the drama going on in our characters' lives.

While Don (Jon Hamm) went on an emotional roller coaster ride trying to give Connie Hilton (Chelcie Ross) exactly what he wanted, and failing since he chose not to give him the moon, and Betty wrote letters to Henry Francis (Christopher Stanley) and then ended the affair when she realized making it physical on his office couch would be cheap, Sal (Bryan Batt) suffered the most. How interesting that an episode so full of the search for equality based on skin tone put the emphasis on the gay character.

Poor Sal was propositioned in the editing room by Lucky Strike's Lee Garner Jr. This repulsive man aggressively began to grope Sal, who refused him. Both were upset, by Lee more so. He called Harry Crane (Rich Sommer) up and told him to fire Sal. Though Harry didn't do this, assuming Lee was drunk, when the next meeting with Lucky Strike occurs, Sal is there and Lee storms out. When Harry confesses, Roger (John Slattery) fires Sal and tells Harry to get Don to fix it.

Don agrees to fix it. Harry leaves his office, leaving Sal to be able to tell the man who knows his inclination the truth. But Don will not hear it. He is appalled, either assuming something did happen that wasn't good for Lee, or that Sal should have given in as Don so often has. After all, he slept with the horrible woman, Bobbie Barrett, last season. It's only sex and apparently that's part of business...Don wishes Sal good luck in the future, since that will not be at Sterling Cooper.

While Betty ends the episode on the right note, not having her affair, Sal is somewhere in a park or the side of the road looking for solace and unable to tell his wife what has happened and Don has finally found his way into the arms of Sally's teacher.

Sal has been fired; Joan has quit; Peggy slept with Duck; Pete is unbearable. And Don is the same as ever. I realize Mad Men is a drama, but you gotta give me something to cling to and be happy about.

What do you think?

Dexter - Blinded by the Light, S04E03

I continue to be pleased with this season of Dexter. I am completely intrigued by the Trinity Killer (played by John Lithgow). He has already killed two women - one in a bathtub, by cutting her femoral artery, and one by persuading her to throw herself out of a building. Now he has only one kill remaining - apparently he will bludgeon a man to death. That two of his three murders have taken place in the first 3 episodes makes me wonder when the third will happen. Will he actually commit this murder, as no one seems to be in a position at all to catch him? And if he does complete his pattern, how will they be able to find him after the fact.

I also love the excitement Dexter (Michael C. Hall) feels over the Trinity Killer's success in committing murders for so long without getting caught. In so many ways, Dexter is normal. He doesn't realize how normal he is, and that is the beauty. This episode took particular pains in his interaction with Astor (Christina Robinson) to demonstrate that, though he thinks he is alone in his inability to relate to the pre-teen, he fails in the same ways other fathers do. In some ways, he gets along better with others because he tries to behave in a way that will make them happy and him inconspicuous, rather than being selfish like everyone else. But even with these parallels drawn, when Dexter contemplates the idea of remaining undetected and yet leaving bodies for the police to find, the dark passenger inside of him gets excited.

Poor Quinn, though, has such issues with Dexter now because he can't understand him. He can't understand that someone would simply keep his mouth shut without getting something in return. And because Dexter doesn't understand that if he takes something as an agreement to stay silent, Quinn will stop annoying him about it. Of course, Quinn's going to get himself in trouble to way he does not watch his mouth in bed with that journalist. The Trinity Killer is probably going to hit the front pages. I wonder where that will take the story.

And so, we continue to watch our favourite serial killer trying to deal with the trials of life and living in suburbia. I wonder how Rita is going to deal with Dexter's decision to break the neighbour's floodlights. Are you excited for next week?

Stargate Universe - Air, part 3, S01E03

This episode just wanted to make me groan. I love the Stargate franchise, and I am so ready to offer my love to this new chapter, but boy is it making that difficult. With SG1 and Atlantis, the premieres grabbed you and delighted you and there was no going back, but with Universe, I feel like it's a ball of raw potential that has yet to be given proper direction. Like, if I stick around, it will get me where I want it to, but that that may not happen for a little while.

It's like a train, slowly getting out of the station, creaking and stopping sometimes. Once it gets going, it will be a nice smooth ride, but it's not a race car that goes from 0-100 in one second and we are off. Just put a little oil in the gears, a little attention and focus, and we'll do just fine.

In Air, part 3, Scott (Brian J. Smith), Greer (Jamil Walker Smith), Rush (Robert Carlyle), Eli (David Blue), and three others go through the gate onto a desert planet to find some calcium compound of some kind which can be used to fix the CO2 scrubbers. Not finding what they need close to the gate, they set out and eventually split up, Scott, Greer and Rush in one group, Eli with the other three.

It doesn't take long for Eli's group to decide to ignore Rush's insistence that they will find what they need on this planet. They want to check out the other nearby planets, even though there is only about 6 hours left. But apparently they are looking for a place for continued existence anyways. Greer and Rush go to stop them.

Now these two have some serious issues. It's the second time Greer pulls a gun on Rush, and he also kicks him in the back. The two then get in a fist fight and role down a bit sand dune. All I have to say is there better be one heck of a back story for their issues with each other. And this is what I mean by needing time. Right now, I feel like I'm watching two 8 year olds fighting to see who is king of the castle, but I'm betting (or blindly hoping) that later, coming back, it will be awesome and make a lot of sense.

Despite their bickering, Greer makes it to the gate in time to shoot the last of the three going through in the arm, and prevent him from taking the portable DHD with him. He listened to Rush's order on this, which makes me think, in the end, he is a soldier who does what he's told when it actually matters, or when it's not about his personal issues with a person. Maybe there is hope for him after all.

Scott is still out looking for the calcium deposits, and follows some weird sand flurries and visions of the priest who raised him and later drank himself to death when Scott impregnated a girl at 16. It's interesting to learn the back stories, and it's also neat to see more religion in Stargate and to wonder how it's going to feature in this chapter. I've always been more interested in the mythology than the science. But, again, I feel like there are other things that the writers should be establishing and we can worry about the details of our leads later on.

Greer goes after Scott, and together the two of them drag the bag back to the gate...but they are not going to make it. Rush tells Eli to put his arm through the gate, positing that the gate will not close and the ship will not take off due to some kind of emergency fail safe. He turns out to be right, and Eli brave enough to follow his advice, and so Scott and Greer make it and the air filters begin to function.

On the ship, Young (Justin Louis) and Chloe (Elyse Levesque) went to Earth using the ancient communication devices. Young gets advice from O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) who basically tells him to suck it up, make the best of what he has, and that no one is ready for what is required of them when they go through the stargate. Chloe tells her mom of her father's death, and if you thought she was annoying, well her mom is a lot worse. She even threatens to expose the Stargate program if her daughter doesn't get returned to her safely. I wanted to punch her in the head.

And while they were on Earth, Col. Telford (Lou Diamond Phillips) is on the ship, being a prick. Eventually, TJ (Alaina Huffman), the medic, had to sedate him so that he would not do damage to Col. Young's body. Why are so many of these characters so easy to dislike?

The best part was the make up. Everyone who was roasting on the desert planet came back with some beautiful red sunburns.

The worst part? All the questions.

1. What happened to the two left behind, or do we even care?

2. What was with the shuttle taking off from the Destiny at the end of the episode?

3. What possible problems will they face next week, other than the fact that a lot of the crew are jerks?

Also, there are so many characters, it gets distracting. In SG1 and Atlantis, there were 5. Same with Atlantis at first. Then the doctors became more important in both. Here, we are starting with way more characters than that, and we aren't given enough.

So, once the train is out of the station, I know it's going to be great. All I can hope is that it picks up steam quickly.

Dollhouse - Belle Chose, S02E03

What an incredible episode! Hopefully the slight increase in viewership from last week will at least remain constant if not continue to grow considering how fantastic this episode was. (Again, the quality is SO great, if it gets cancelled, it won't be from lack of fulfilled potential and talent).

The show began in a basement or factory, with a man adjusting mannequins. At least, at first I thought they were mannequins. It turns out they were women injected with powerful paralyzing drugs, manipulated by an insane man. When one tried to escape, he ended up killing her, and then, on the street, when he was attempting to replace the doll he called Aunt Sheila, he was hit by a car.

Next, we discover he is in a coma at the Dollhouse, and Adelle (Olivia Williams) wants Topher (Fran Kranz) to revive him for his uncle (portrayed by BSG's Michael Hogan). Uncle Brad has invested a lot of money in the Dollhouse, and Adelle is keen to give him what he wants until Topher reads his brain scan. They discover the nephew, Terry, has the brain of a serial killer - with underdeveloped empathy and the like. Suddenly, Topher (that's right, as Boyd (Harry Lennix) pointed out, Topher) as an ethical problem with reviving him, and so does Adelle.

Brad reveals that he suspects Terry has some women hidden somewhere, and he wants to wake Terry to find them. They do a brain dump, and put all of Terry straight into Victor. I'd say that Enver Gjokaj, who portrays Victor, stole the show, except that the writing is so balance and the rest of the cast so strong that, instead, he should be mentioned for a terrific performance.

Meanwhile, Paul (Tahmoh Penikett) is getting Echo (Eliza Dushku) ready for an assignment as a nubile college student who is to be seduced by her Chaucer professor. Paul is disturbed by Echo's transformation into Kiki, so much so that he is thrilled when Boyd replaces him so that he can confront Victor/Terry the serial killer. ("A serial killer? Thank God.")

Penikett and Gjokaj worked so well together during their interview. The calm and poise that Terry/Victor projected, along with the super creepy vibes, were chilling. And Paul's manipulations would have made me tell him all about the doll-like women in my basement...even though I don't actually have any.

Things get worse of course. Brad, believing Paul and Adelle's plan was not going to work, breaks Terry/Victor out of the Dollhouse. Terry makes him crash his car, and escapes on foot. And it turns out that Victor is not equipped with a GPS device. It was removed when he had his face reconstructed. (Here, we also got an acknowledgement of the existence of Dr. Saunders (Amy Acker), who is still missing). So the Dollhouse allowed an untraceable serial killer out into the world. Oops.

Echo/Kiki continues to have a much more pleasant time, now dancing with her professor.

Topher is never one to be defeated. He decides, at Adelle's insistence, to perform a remote wipe. Yes, that might leave a vulnerable Victor who knows where, but that's better than a serial killer. The wipe occurs, and the entire system at the Dollhouse goes off line. They don't know if it worked.

Turns out, it just switched Terry and Kiki. So suddenly you have Victor/Kiki, who hasn't realized she's a man, being peppy and dancing at a night club, trying to seduce all the boys, and Echo/Terry, stabbing her would-be-seducer in the neck.

Again, Gjokaj was brilliant her. I believed he was a woman. And he had so much fun dancing and shaking his ass. It was great. It got better when one of the men he had focused his attentions on got homophobic when Kiki tried to pick him up, and punched him. Well, he missed, and Victor/Kiki punched him first, very angry that the guy would punch a girl. Paul showed up, and Victor/Kiki threw himself into his arms, sobbing "Paul, Paul, why did you ever leave me?" It was beautiful! And then Paul told off everyone staring, "What are you looking at."

So Victor was fine, and Echo's GPS chip was still working, so they were able to find her and save the three women who were still imprisoned there.

I'm still not sure the exact implication of the comparison between our Dolls, Echo , Victor, etc, and the women Terry captured and used as dolls, but it was a powerful and disturbing image.

What did you think?

Fringe - Momentum Deferred, S02E04

Considering that this was the best episode of Fringe so far this season, and hopefully the beginning of an upward trend, the fact that it is still in the 6am slot on the second day of my Thursday night show reviews shows how hard up it is against its competition. Frankly, I think Fox should move it back to Tuesday nights, where it consistently had higher ratings than it is getting now.

We finally got to find out what Olivia had seen when she was in the other dimension in Season 1's finale. About time. They probably should have brought at least some of this in earlier. I'm interested in what's going on now, and feel like there has indeed been a change in the structure from last season, I feel like we are going somewhere. Leonard Nimoy* as William Bell continues to be a little hilarious for me. I mean, you should not have such a famous actor appear with the first lines being "Who are you?" "I'm William Bell." No you aren't, you're Leonard Nimoy.

But we now know a whole lot more. The other universe, for some unknown reason, wants to destroy our universe. If the two universes become open to one another, they will collide and only one will remain. It might not be ours. So they are sending over the shape shifting first wave to find the guy who can open the door for them.

We had the exit of Kirk Acevedo (though there is always the possibility of seeing him in the other universe). I was glad that he got a pretty cool exit, where he outsmarted Olivia, got the info he needed and passed it on to his comrades before she succeeded in killing him. It still doesn't really make up for Charlie's lame death, but seeing Olivia so distraught by the fact that she had to shoot a man wearing her friend's face was worth it. I will miss Charlie Francis though. Cry!

So Fringe, bring on episodes like this! What did you think?

Supernatural - Fallen Idol, S05E05

I love how a show that has a serious plot line going on, like...um...the apocalypse, can still have stand alone episodes where our heroes, Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles), get to fight a god who has taken on the form of Paris Hilton*.

And the episode finished with the promise that we would continue to get these kinds of episodes, which are my favourites.

The episode started with the problem, a guy and his friend, Jim, (played by SGA's Paul McGillion*) are going to go for a ride in James Dean's car. Jim goes to get the video camera, and when he returns, his buddy died in what seemed to be a car accident, though the car was parked the entire time.

Next, Abraham Lincoln appears and shoots a civil war historian in the head. And Ghandi, though in life he was a fruitarian, tries to take a bite out of Sam's neck. Luckily Dean burns Ghandi's spectacles, and the ghost disappears. He thinks the case is closed, and wants to move on. Sam is not so sure.

Turns out, Sam was right. A girl has gone missing, apparently taken by Paris Hilton. Since Paris Hilton is not dead, the boys realize it can't be a ghost. It turns out to be a god.

Have to give Paris Hilton some credit for taking on a role in which we delight because she beat up Dean, and we get to mock him for it, and Sam chops her head off. Sort of like how some people saw Repo the Rock Opera just to see her face fall off.

We also got a reference to House of Wax, in which she starred with Padalecki. I recall they also mentioned Gilmour Girls once, but I have no recollection of mentions of shows that Ackles was in, such as Dark Angel. Maybe I just never noticed.

This episode was pure fun and had a happy ending for most (not for Paris Hilton - after the god disappeared, the local police put out an APB to find the supposed kidnapper). Did you enjoy it?

The Mentalist - Red Badge, S01E03

The Mentalist really delivered a fabulous piece of creativity this week, and Robin Tunney's performance easily deserves an Emmy.

Though it started with the standard cop show premise that one of our officers is accused of murdering a criminal, the new interpretation was fresh and unexpected. You see, when Theresa Lisbon (Robin Tunney) and her team found the body of a child molester she had previously sent to jail, and her fingerprints were found on the murder weapon, she could not remember whether or not she was guilty.

She mentioned in her therapy sessions that sometimes her father had blackouts caused by drinking, and we later learn that she has no memory of what she did the previous Tuesday night. (We did have an amusing moment when she claimed she watched a cooking show...the one with the man...the angry man). You don't really believe that she could have killed him, but she has doubts. After all, he was a child molester, a very bad man...and cops have killed criminals before.

After failing a polygraph test, she asks Jane (Simon Baker) to hypnotize her, and while we learn that she thinks the mail guy is hot and Van Pelt will make a great officer if she manages not to sleep with Rigsby, the hypnosis does not clear her memory.

Distressed by her inability to know the truth, she starts going over the edge. A very different Lisbon than the person we are used to, she yells at everyone in the building and eventually throws a chair through a window. Completely out of control, we find her at home with scotch and a bunch of pills, dancing and imbalanced. When her therapist arrives, brought by the concern of her boss and Jane, Lisbon pulls out her gun, not being at all careful with it. Her therapist tells her it was okay for her to kill the bad bad molester. She saved people and he deserved to die.

As he reveals to her what she ought to remember, Jane appears - the entire thing was a ploy. Jane figured out that the therapist was drugging her so that she would forget. He is arrested for the murder.

Now, why did he commit it? Another brilliant change. Lisbon would soon testify against a man, and he, wanting to discredit her, orchestrated a murder that he had no personal reason to want to commit.

Gotta love when the hit them out of the park.

Bones - The Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood, S05E04

This episode of Bones was just goofy. Not necessarily in a bad way, but overwhelmingly so.

There are three lines of development: 1. Parker (or Baby Booth) (Ty Panitz) wants to find his dad a girlfriend. 2. Arastoo Vaziri (Pej Vahdat), the Muslim intern, does not in fact have an accent. and 3. A suburbanite was murdered and his body was burnt in a luau pit with a roasting pig.

I'll discuss them in that order.

So Parker wants Daddy Booth (David Boreanaz) to have a girlfriend. Apparently Booth needs a girlfriend very badly "to sex up." Yes, those were the lad's exact words. Booth, of course, does not know how to deal with the entire situation, asks Sweets (John Frances Daley) how to deal with it, and never discusses it with Parker. At the end of the episode, Booth convinces Bones (Emily Deschanel) to come hang out with him and his son so that Parker will see that his dad does have good relationships with women, and she asks Parker why it is so important for his dad to find a girlfriend. The reason? So that he will move into a house where there is a pool and Parker can go swimming. So yes, fathers, ask your sons what they are thinking because when they are that little, their logic hasn't been pushed off track by any sexual distractions.

I would like to note that there has yet to be any mention of whether or not Booth is still feeling more affection than before for Brennan. Apparently a crime show which is all about character development can neglect to tell us the gossip we really want to hear. Sigh.

The plot point of Vaziri and his fake accent was just bizarre to me. Perhaps there have been complaints about him sounding stereotypical or discriminatory or something. I can't imagine that when they originally created this devout character they intended to have him lose the accent later. I don't know. It was entertaining, but I was as surprised as the characters were when suddenly he spoke perfect English. Wouldn't his application forms for the internship have revealed that he hadn't just arrived in America? There must be some reason for it, but I don't know.

So finally we get to murder...It was a goofy murder, perpetrated by three people together who lost their tempers because they hated a guy's wind turbine. Makes me not want to move to the suburbs.

While there was nothing particularly awful about the episode, and I realize that it can't be easy coming up with interesting murders week after week, if this had been one of the first episodes of the series, they would have lost viewers. In fact, it is apparently one of the shows that has been losing dedicated viewers because it's just not hitting our standards.

Pull up your socks, Bones, because I know you can be great and this episode missed the mark.