Castle - The Third Man, S02E14

Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Beckett (Stana Katic) revealed this week that they have far more in common than we might have previously guessed, and confirmed that they would make a much better couple together than they would with anyone else.

Though dealing with a particularly confusing murder investigation, in which motives and suspects were scarce, Castle and Beckett decided to go out on a date. Not together, unfortunately. Castle, named Bachelor 9, went out with Bachelorette 3 (Sarah Brown), while Beckett dated Mr. July from the Fireman's Calendar. Except it was together because both couples ended up eating at the same restaurant.

Neither Castle nor Beckett paid any attention to their dates, both preoccupied by the particularities of the case. Beckett was so wrapped up in her work that she did not even notice her firefighter's attempts to get her attention, going so far as to ask "Do you want to have sex with me later?" and getting no reply. And when our heroes both solved the case at about the same time, they promptly contacted the other to discuss, leaving their dates to merge so that at least the firefighter and Bachelorette 3 had real dates that night.

Once the case was solved, Beckett and Castle, both starving since they had not eaten at their dates earlier, went to an all night burger joint. Too bad they still don't see how good they are together.

And while I loved their double date, my favourite part of this episode was when they went to make an arrest, Beckett still decked out in a fabulous one shoulder red dress, and she told Castle to hold her purse after she pulled out her gun. Isn't it nice to know that the NYPD can do their job and look fantastic at the same time!

Chuck - Chuck vs First Class, S03E05

Although Chuck (Zachary Levi) seems to be getting better control over his flashes, and his flashes seem to get better control over a situation, it is a relief to know that the show continues to find hilarity in him and that he continues to be relatable.

In this guest star-heavy episode, Chuck goes on his first mission alone! And, as it turns out, he has to have a face-off with a big goon played by Steve Austin. Not a guy I would want to have after me.

But, despite getting punch in the stomach repeatedly, Chuck manages to defeat the big guy in a sword fight, thanks to the intersect. Later, however, though Chuck gets a hold of his nunchucks and is ready to defeat the guy again, the luggage in the plane's hold falls on Austen. And so, we get the reverse of what used to happen in previous seasons - instead of Chuck being helpless and saved miraculously, he is no longer helpless, but still is not always his own hero.

Other developments included Agent Shaw (Brandon Routh) confessing to Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) that he too once loved a spy, and she died. Though, at first, he came across as all business, the mysterious agent is quickly becoming a multidimensional character. He is putting Chuck out in the field, and our hero is not failing him. Despite my thought after the premiere, that we had returned to the status quo, there is a lot of progress.

Chuck also met a girl on his way to Paris, the intelligent and lovely Hannah (Kristin Kreuk, aka Lana Lang from Smallville). At the end of the episode, she shows up at the Buy More, likely looking for work.

Poor Chuck, when he met Sarah, he had not been able to get over Jill for 5 years. Then, every time another possibility has presented itself, since, of course, he can't be with Sarah, something spy related has screwed it up for him. Will Hannah be a secret agent? Will she be dating a criminal? Or will she simply cause more stress on Sarah and Chuck's relationship?

Finally, my favourite part of the episode, Casey (Adam Baldwin) and Morgan (Joshua Gomez) teamed up to stop the insurgents at the Buy More. There is nothing that irks Casey more than disrespect for leadership and anarchy. Now the Assistant Manager's Lieutenant, Casey is keeping the boys at the Buy More in line! And it seems we will be able to advance past the distaste the other employees had for Morgan rising in the ranks.

Are you pleased with the developments in Chuck?

Caprica - Pilot, S01E01

The import and impact of any science fiction series comes from the way it reflects the problems in our own society and forces us to think about them from different perspectives. Battlestar Galactica did this time and again, earning it great praise. Now, the hope is to do the same thing with Caprica.

Instead of being confronted with desperate people trying to make choices for survival, Caprica brings us a world that we can relate to more easily. These people have not lost their homes and everything they have ever known; they are not in danger of imminent death. Like us, their society has reached the point of decadence where self-destruction is all but inevitable. Did the Romans realize the trouble their empire was in? Do we?

And yet, the is not the focus of the new show, not the decadence or the destructive choices, not exactly anyway. Instead, religion is the issue of the day. Whereas in BSG, monotheists and polytheists were divided between Cylons and Humans, in Caprica, we learn that monotheism is being embraced by humans, some of whom are using the extreme measures of terrorism to get their point across. But unlike in BSG when the humans took up suicide bombing in their fight against the Cylons (taking humans with them, too), Caprica's suicide bombing did not make me feel that maybe there is a time and a place for that sort of action, or at least understand that way of thinking.

I did not like the little punk who blew up the train, and was quite annoyed with him for killing several characters with potential.

I want to like Caprica, and I will continue to watch it, but the premiere just happened too fast. We did not get enough of a sense of the characters before the bomb went off and changed all their lives. Who were these people who died? Did Zoe (Alessandra Torresani) ever had a good relationship with her parents, or is it only in her death that they begin to regret the distance? I'm not sure what the writers wanted us to think.

Again, comparing the show to BSG, I have the equal impression in this premiere that the writers don't know where exactly they are headed. Unfortunately, while that worked and made sense for a bunch of humans fleeing across the galaxy, it does not on a planet with established everything. I wanted to have a sense of the order that had once been and was beginning to fall into disorder, as the lack of the need to survive brings out more bizarre needs and urges.

Finally, the biggest problem for me is that I have no one to relate to. There are grown adults, with flourishing careers and young children, and there are confused teenagers. I am a confused adult, unsure of what career to follow, with the difficulties of finding a mate, rather than keeping that relationship alive.

So, Caprica is off to a rocky start, at least in my mind. Did it meet your expectations? Are you satisfied? Do you see a path that will take this show somewhere wonderful? Let me know!

Human Target - Embassy Row, S01E03

Now, I know I said I wasn't going to watch Human Target, and I'm not really, but it was on and I was being lazy and it was on...it's not the worst show in the world. My opinion, though, remains the same - there are better shows on TV.

In this episode, Christopher Chance (Mark Valley) has a different challenge. An old friend was poisoned, so now he has to finish his friend's work and save both himself and his friend's brother (Sean Maher) from dying of poison as well.

It was interesting so see Chance in a different situation, one in which he has less control. The episode also contained another awesome fight scene when Chance and FBI agent Emma Barnes (Emmanuelle Vaugier) first confronted each other. But, while it was awesome, any desire to watch the show based on the action sequences were then destroyed when Chance and Barnes escaped by making a ridiculous jump on a motorcycle, and then climbed over a wall while being shot at by machine guns, with Chance nearly dead from the poison, without getting shot. Not credible, people.

We did finally get a hint of plot continuing from one episode to the next, as, after Barnes and Chance parted, she ran his prints and wants to find him again. Meanwhile, Chance claimed that leaving his prints behind was a mistake because, as he said, "risk everything for woman? What [is he], 14?" So there is a potential love story going on, which could be exciting.

So, again, Human Target isn't a waste of time, but missing it is not a tragedy either.

Spartacus: Blood and Sand - The Red Serpent, Pilot, S01E01

Spartacus: Blood and Sand as been called 300 + Gladiator, and that isn't wrong given that the filmography takes after the first, and the plot is not so very different from the second. Still, I think I will enjoy the story at least as much as Gladiator, even if the imagery misses the 300 standard.

Blood and Sand is an appropriate title for this show, where gallons of computerized red blood splashed across the screen from every sort of injury. Though some of the fights were pretty cool, and I particularly enjoyed the face that Spartacus (Andy Whitfield)'s wife, Sura (Erin Cummings), also knew how to wield a weapon, I could not help laughing in the final battle as Spartacus used a gladiatorial short sword to lop off the limbs of his adversaries as if their bones were made of butter.

I know, we've seen if for years and both the silver screen and the small one, but you need a really, really sharp blade with a whole lot of force behind it to accomplish that task. And once you've done it once, your blade will have dulled enough to make doing it a second time rather difficult.

But I will not dwell on the fighting or the graphics, which varied between cool and cheesy, or the plot, which varied between the two as well. Enough people have weighed in with the contrasting opinions that they really like it or they really hate it. Instead, I want to examine the relationships between the husband and wife pairings of the three main couples.

Spartacus and Sora are, as expected, the perfect couple. They love each other, both with a violent physical passion and with a terrible depth of emotion. And though their sex scenes did not quite meet the 300 standard of Gerard Butler and Lena Headey, it was pretty intense.

Still, all they want is to be able to love a quiet life together, undisturbed by violence, raising crops and children.

Glaber (Craig Parker, whom you might recognize as Haldir from Lord of the Rings), a Roman commander, has an equally passionate relationship with his wife, but they, as a couple, have a far different goal. They both seek glory. Glory for him means glory for her, and that goal supersedes any other driving factor in their relationship. Not that Ilithyia (Viva Bianca) does not love, or at least lust, for her husband. I very much get the impression that she had a great deal of choice in her husband, and she picked Glaber over any already successful man because she did have affection for him, physical or otherwise. Still, she expects him to deliver that success, and his recent failure, which both blame on Spartacus, hurts them.

Despite the greatest amount of affection, their relationship is undermined by their inability to achieve their goal, and Ilithyia will likely continue to hurt their chances of success because she undermines her husband rather than supporting him.

Finally, Batiatus (John Hannah!!!) and Lucretia (Lucy Lawless) are a Roman couple who actually understand the nature of their marriage. It may be that there is also physical passion there, or that Batiatus would be jealous of any dalliance of Lucretia's, but that was not apparent in the premiere. Instead, they seemed as business partners, both intent on the success of the Gladiators and thus their livelihoods. Lucretia, unlike Ilithyia, understands that any power and standing that she has comes from the success of her husband; therefore, she wants to build him up, as well as his business. This marriage may not be based on the love and affection of the previous two, but in the face of adversity, unlike Ilithyia and Glaber, and much like Spartacus and Sura, they aren't likely to self-destruct.

So what were your thoughts on the premiere itself? And on these three couples?

Vampire Diaries - Bloodlines, S01E11

In many ways, this intense episode was the perfect welcome back from a short Christmas hiatus, but there were a few moments, and a few reveals, that were wasted and not used for their full worth, to my disappointment.

We will address those first.

Alaric (Matt Davis), the sexy history teacher, who until now may well have been a vampire, revealed to us through an internal monologue that he was thrilled to have finally found a vampire after all these years. He then proceeded to not wear his family ring while in the sun, to prove, once and for all that, whatever secrets he might have, vampirism was not one of them.

Why, I ask you, was there such a set up to have us believe that he might too be a vampire, who could not enter a house uninvited, who could not go in the sun without a magical ring, only to tear the whole thing down so quickly? Yes, the fact that he killed Logan just before the break indicated that he was likely not the vamp who had made him, but that didn't prevent Alaric from being yet another vampire. Mystic Falls does seem to attract the mystical.

My other issue was the reveal of Elena (Nina Dobrev)'s adoption. Did Stefan (Paul Wesley) need to reveal what he had learnt about her in such a way? I realize he was already caught in such a huge lie that to tell her another mistruth did not seem possible, but that just felt like another moment that should have been prolonged was simply throw away. I can only hope that the aftermath and the discovery of her true birth parents (is it too much to hope that she was Jenna (Sara Canning)'s child from a young and stupid misadventure? Though, maybe that wouldn't be a good things since they are only supposed to be 12 years apart; never mind). I do hope that the discovery takes its time and is worth the shock.

Otherwise, I LOVED Damon (Ian Somerhalder) in this episode. It was the perfect demonstration both of how utterly ruthless Damon can be, how perfect a killer, and his weakness for Elena. He rescued her from whatever monster was coming to get her in episode 10, then dragged her to a bar in the middle of nowhere. Why? For the fun of her company and to piss of his adored baby brother.

There, he meets up with a witch from his past (none other than Gina Torres), who immediately betrays him to another vampire, Lexi's boyfriend. Bent on revenge, the vamp covers Damon with lighter fluid after beating him senseless. Elena plays the impression that Damon cares for her and she for him for all it is worth, convincing the vamp to spare Damon where he did not spare Lexi. He does, which is possibly the stupidest move ever.

No, Damon did not kill him then, but some day he will. And he did return to the bar and stuck is arm into the witch's chest.

When will people learn to stop telling Damon that they are full of vervain. If you kept your mouth shut, he would bite you and then fall over, but instead he finds some other way to end your life. He is a killer, pure and simple, a wild cat always on the prowl, the perfect predator. There is no surprise that he killed Alaric's woman, though you have to wonder how he convinced her to let him inside. That should be an interesting show down, but we know that Alaric can't win. Evil always triumphs because Good is dumb...and Damon is oh so deliciously evil.

I also really loved the interaction between Stefan, Bonnie (Katherina Graham) and her grandmother (Jasmine Guy). It's nice to know that the non-humans of the town can at least be open about the nature of their friendships. It's nice to have it, but it only goes so far as our own are protected first.

What were your thoughts?

The Deep End - Pilot, S01E01

The Deep End, a new court room drama focusing on 4 first year associates and the trials (haha) of their lives, premiered at 10pm Wednesday night. While it did not earn a spot of my exclusive roster, I will say that it shows possibilities, and might end up being a lot of fun. If it becomes a smash hit, I will have not problems revisiting.

Within the 1-hour premiere, the writers did a good job of establishing four interesting and different associates who, while a little cliched, are realistic enough to be enjoyable. Dylan Hewitt (Matt Long) is the pretty boy who has the saviour complex; Beth Branford (Leah Pipes) comes from a family of lawyer, and though she may be smart and beautiful, she needs to prove that she deserves everything she has; Addy Fisher (Tina Majorino) gets walked all over, despite the fact that she is clever, but she will surely grow a spine and get interesting; and Liam Priory (Ben Lawson) has a weakness for women that gets him into trouble professionally more than emotionally.

Add to these the evil boss (played by Billy Zane, who has aged since Titanic 14 years ago), his wife, Susan (Nicole Ari Parker), and a female law clerk sleeping with the boss and interested in Dylan, and a picture begins to emerge of where this show is going.

There will be fun, and sex, and major complications, and every once in a while a case will be solved and we will care about it. So enjoy it if it's your kind of show, and let me know if I'm missing something.