Spartacus: Blood and Sand - Sacramentum Gladiatorum, S01E02

Which is better - fake gratuitous sex and violence as watched on shows like Spartacus, or the real thing which the Romans indulged in at his time? Or, what does it say about our society, in comparison to theirs, that we watch as much of it, but are less involved because it is all fake?

That there are so many shows on right now which remind us that we, like Rome, find ourselves floundering in a society so full of desires and expectations. What has become of community, of family values, of morality? What has become of decent hard work, and pf actually producing something? No wonder we are caught in a recession, and yet, for those who weren't already fighting financial difficulties, what difficulties do we encounter? We are certainly not close to starving to death!

What is it that we do not have? Video games or movies we want to buy, a house that is larger than we need anyway? And entire new wardrobe?

When was the last time that anyone we knew, even one person, found survival to be their priority? We sit, every day, thinking of how we can make money, of how we can get what we want, and of how we can accomplish that without having to do very much ourselves. Crop failure and drought are still a problem for our farmers, and if they happen, then we are annoyed at the higher cost of food, but, in Canada, in the States, there will not be a food shortage.

We aren't sitting idle by as Haiti is in crisis, but we have no idea of what that would be like. How many of us could survive such a thing, how many of us would have a clue what we ought to do?

And then there is an unnamed gladiator, called Spartacus (Andy Whitfield), who wants nothing more than to battle against the difficulties of the elements with his wife at his side. His wife who is a treasure to him, more important than anything, including his own life. He is the hero, our hero, and yet don't we identify far more with the Romans that with him? Certainly, he is suffering an injustice, but were we there, we would not see it. We would consider that he had wronged Glaber (Craig Parker);however, now, enlightened as we are, we would not think it right that his wife suffer for his crimes, nor that he should have to battle to the death because of them.

Still, perhaps the judicial system would not be in such difficulty if our criminals earned us money by fighting to the death in pay-per-view matches, rather than costing us to shelter, feed, and rehabilitate them.

What are your thoughts?

Bones - The Devil in the Details, S05E14

I said in my last posting about Bones that the show does not confront controversy, though it does often bring up potentially difficult issues. This week's episode, The Devil in the Details, was no exception, and, indeed, proved my point.

The victim, who was found burning on the alter of a Catholic church, was a schizophrenic who was born with a tail and had surgery to give himself devil's horns. Naturally, this brought forth the on-going tension of the belief structures of Bones (Emily Deschanel) and Booth (David Boreanaz), one purely believing in science, and the other a good Catholic.

That confrontation, however, never goes on the path of actual belief. It is never about whether Bones or Booth is right, but about the fact that Bones never shows proper respect for the belief system of others. Like Bones' disregard for the use of psychiatry, which was also brought forth this week, the focus is that Dr. Temperance Brennan always says the most inappropriate thing based on societal expectations. But those societal expectations themselves are not questioned. Is she right or wrong in her thoughts? We don't know, but that is not the point. The point is that she expresses her thoughts at all the wrong times and in all the wrong places.

And again, the murderer was not one of the potentially risky choices we had to choose from. Neither the mental patient who thought she was an angel of the lord, nor any of the doctors of the institute were involved. Instead, the victim's brother killed him in what was possibly an accident involving anger that the insane brother was taking heroin on top of everything else wrong with him.

And maybe I should just accept that Bones is not about shocking us with the revelation of the murderer. I should focus on the character development and interaction, on Booth and Brennan's always simmering, never burning romance that has yet to happen. But I still would love to see the writers take that step and make a shocking choice. Would you?

Chuck - Chuck vs Nacho Sampler, S03E06

Is Chuck (Zachary Levi) becoming evil? And is this behaviour, so out of character for him, going to turn him into an alcoholic? Those were the questions I had as this episode of Chuck ended.

Now that Chuck is a proper spy, an actual agent and not just an asset, he has to take on the responsibilities of a spy. The parallel drawn between Sarah's reaction when she first showed up to meet with Chuck in the premiere so long ago and Chuck's own reaction when he discovered he would have to do the same thing was beautiful. Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) had clearly become so immune to the process that she was likely terribly surprised to find out how different Chuck was, and how differently he made her think.

I should rewatch the first season and see where and how Sarah changes because of the influence Chuck has on her. It's a far less obvious change that the one Casey (Adam Baldwin) went through.

Chuck, on the other hand, had no delusions about how difficult it would be. And he wanted to let his asset go - not the first time he had done such a thing, as he had previously allowed Jill to escape because of his feeling. But now, Chuck knows he has a job to do, and regardless of whether something is right in his heart or not, when you are a spy, you have to do what you have to do for the government and for the greater good. Even if it slowly destroys your soul.

But despite my fear for Chuck's soul, I still laughed my way through this episode - Casey! Oh how well they use Adam Baldwin. How wonderful that he gets to write off going to Weap-Con this year because he's doing it for work! And Lester (Vik Sahay) and Jeff (Scott Krinsky) competing to see who can stalk Hannah (Kristin Kreuk ) the best for Morgan (Joshua Gomez) was brilliant, particularly when all their work was for not the moment Morgan realized that Chuck was keeping secrets from him. What is a beautiful woman when your best friend is lying to you?

So is Chuck becoming evil? And are Morgan and Ellie (Sarah Lancster) going to save him from this evil, or are they going to get themselves in real trouble when they start to investigate?

Rome - Season 1, Episodes 1-4

I recently began watching Rome with a friend of mine, and, as we are watching multiple episodes at a time, I will record my thoughts on all these episodes at once.

I am truly delighted with this series. Though I do sometimes find myself wondering about the exactness of the historical detail, whether a custom shown has any basis in Roman history, let alone specifically in that era. For instance, while I know that in Medieval times, it was the custom to cook birds and then redress them in their feathers for presentation, I have no notion whether this was in practice in the time of Julius Caesar. Then again, half of my knowledge of the period comes from the BD Asterix, which was always terribly accurate.

But these are the problems that any historical fiction, whether film, TV, or novel, has to contend with. And the presentation of it is all quite believable and so well put together that it hardly matters.

The show has its foundation in the historical political disaster of the time. With Caesar (Ciaran Hinds) and Pompey (Kenneth Cranham) forced to confrontation, both must be perfectly careful in how they play the game, both having imperfect knowledge of the strength and weaknesses of the other. Pompey, so far, has proven himself overconfident and yet as fearful as a rabbit. Caesar, on the other hand, is brilliant. He does not have the misfortune of thinking his position any different than it is.

Brutus (Tobias Menzies), Mark Anthony (James Purefoy), and Octavian (Max Purkis) appear fully formed, showing complex natures in few words. Our knowledge of who they will become is no hinted at, but it is not ignored either. Brutus and Octavian are both young brats, but Brutus, though older, does not look to advance much past the youth who can't hold his liquor. Though, at first, Octavian appeared equally useless, his sharp eye and his understanding of political maneuvering make him Caesar's heir in spirit, as well as in everything else. And Mark Anthony, the worst brat of the lot, is so self-indulging and yet aware of who he is and all his flaws, I cannot help but love the character, even though the man is far from Shakespeare's brilliant speaker of "Friends, Romans, countrymen." Though I can certainly imagine James Purefoy deliver this speech, he would be portraying a far different Mark Anthony.

But perhaps, after Caesar's death, he will get there.

Finally, the two characters with the most freedom Lucius Vorenus(Kevin McKidd) and Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson) are absolutely the most fun. Not tied down by any historical responsibilities, these two men play so well off each other because of their extreme differences. While Vorenus is so honourable and dedicated and wants to do everything right, Pullo gets himself into trouble at every turn. But, they do manage to influence each other for the better too. Pullo needs to guidance of a strong man he respects, for he responds quite poorly to authority. Strange for a man in the army. Vorenus, on the other hand, is useless when it comes to women.

The frustration and fun McKidd and Stevenson so obviously felt while doing these roles comes through perfectly, and gives a show so focused on politics a heart beat of its own.

Have you watched Rome? What were your impressions of the first few episodes?

Vampire Diaries - Unpleasantville, S01E12

Vampire Diaries has the uncanny knack of making me actually think about Vampire lore and its development and place in society.

Last week, Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) wrote a paper commenting on his great-grandfather's journal about vampires during the civil war, indicating that these monsters were a depiction of the Union soldiers threatening the peace of the area. So this week, when vampire Noah (Dillon Casey) showed up on Elena (Nina Dobrev)'s doorstep, posing as a pizza boy, and thus got her permission to enter, I began thinking about where that part of the lore came from.

Likely, it was a warning - don't let just anyone into your home. How many times, when someone comes to your front door, do you ask them inside? Maybe it's just into the foyer, to keep the cold out, or keep the cat in, maybe they are bringing in a delivery or are there to fix your cable? And you may ask how often that happens after dark, but here, in Canada, in the winter months, dark comes pretty early. And, fine, the likelihood of vampires being real is pretty slim, but does that mean that we should be any less cautious about who we ask in? If Elena, who knows there are vampires out there and knows that one is after her, does not pay attention to whom she lets in her front door, how careful are the rest of us?

On top of getting my mind thinking, Vampire Diaries was also really fun this week. Between the 50s style dancing and the developing love stories, there was a generally happy tone. Elena and Stefan (Paul Wesley) are happily reunited, and past the Katherine thing, Matt (Zach Roerig) and Caroline (Candice Accola) have the beginnings of what might turn into the only normal relationship on the show, and Alaric (Matt Davis) and Jenna (Sara Canning) are going to go on a date, despite his issues about his late wife.

I must comment on the wife, Isabelle. She was from Virginia and has the same name as Elena's birth mother. Too bad that a simple mention of her name wasn't thought enough for us to notice it; Jenna had to give Alaric a questioning look, as if to say there could only be one Isabelle in the entire world - it is such an uncommon name that your wife must be my niece's mother.

Subtlety people, subtlety!

Ah well, this episode was terrific regardless, allowing most of the characters to shine, even if only briefly. When Stefan and Damon (Ian Somerhalder) tortured Noah, and then killed him, for the first time we really saw Stefan's dangerous side. It's good to know that if any vampire other than his brother threatens Elena, he's ready to protect her. Also, when Alaric was passing by, and Damon questioned him, but he was holding vervain, now that was just a beautiful moment of Damon being over-confident, and Alaric sweating about it just enough.

What was your favourite part of the episode?

Republic of Doyle - Duchess of George, S01E03

Keeping in mind that Canadian television must be watched with less of a critical eye than American shows, Republic of Doyle continues to maintain a respectable level of quality. And it is keeping an audience level which reflect this.

What brings audiences back again and again are not the storylines revolving around the cases our private investigators pursue - the writers won't be winning any prizes for originality here - but, instead, we viewers are solidly invested in the wit and banter of the characters.

Jake Doyle (Allan Hawco) continues to be the best part of the show. He is charming and handsome, but SO flawed, so awkward, that he is no different from most of the charming men one actually meets in the world.

He and Malachy (Sean McGinley) play off each other as well in the third episode as they did in the first. The timing and the choice of comments made is always funny and always said with just the right undercurrent of love and annoyance towards one another.

With solid acting and character-writing (even if some of the other writing is a little ridiculous), Republic of Doyle has a solid chance of staying on the air. Not something that can be said about most Canadian shows.

In this particular episode, which I should focus a little more on rather than just comment on the show as a whole, we again got a lot of action scenes. Not Jake chasing people across boats or roof tops, but he did get into more than one fist fight and he also had a little action on the side - not with his ex-wife, Nikki (Rachel Wilson), who may be pregnant, nor with Constable Leslie (Krystin Pellerin), though, when she was drunk, she was very interested in him - with a client's wife. I'm not sure what the purpose of this side plot was - to show Jake as a dog, to add a little more sex, to put a little more attention towards the tattoo clue? It wasn't necessary, but watching Allan Hawco running up the street wearing nothing but tight black shorts was not something I'd complain about.

Have you begun watching this show yet? What's your opinion?

Bones - The Dentist in the Ditch, S05E13

In its fifth season, episodes of Bones tend to either be amazing, or disappointingly so-so. And this episode was the latter. So-so is not so bad, they still have shining moments, but sometimes I feel like the writers have got to the point that they don't expect to get new audiences tuning in and needing to be captured, and that they feel we long-time viewers will watch whatever they put before us.

The case this week was not particularly obvious - there were SO many suspects, and so many motives that I could not be sure where the guilt would lie. Usually, I commend shows when this occurs, but I think I did not particularly care about the murder. Regardless of it having been given the proper time to develop and a respectable amount of focus, it didn't really matter to me who had murdered the dentist or why.

I suppose the writers were hoping that the prospect of the dentist being a gay football player, and possible having brought down the wrath of some fellow footballer whose testosterone level hit the ceiling over an ass slap, was enough to grab my attention. Maybe it worked for others, but not for me. The most likely reason for this? I've noticed that while Bones may bring up the possibilities of a controversial murder, they never actually go through with it. The murder of the Amish boy was not by a member of his community; the murder of the video gamer was not by an autistic boy.

Not to say that Bones (Emily Deschanel) and Booth (David Boreanaz) did not get to have some great character development as Booth refused ignore the fact that his brother was in love with a former call girl while Bones insisted that he had always told her love was more important than the rest.

But what are your thoughts? Was last week's episode of Bones interesting enough for you? Or do you wish they all had the level of intrigue of last week's JFK conspiracy?