Hell on Wheels - Pilot, S01E01

Hell on Wheels is one hell of a title. Makes me think of motorbikes and street gangs. Which is not at all what this show is about. It's a period piece, taking place in the States after the Civil War, and it focuses on the construction of the rail road. It's gritty and dirty, very curious and interesting, but in the long run not something I want to stick with.

I liked the concept. A man lost his wife during the war because some enemy soldiers did not conduct themselves like gentlemen when they took over the farm, and naturally he plans to seek vengeance on all the bastards who hurt her. By the end of the episode, he discovers that there was another man involved, but he doesn't know his name, so that certainly sets up a path for the show to follow.

Meanwhile, you've got a skeevey politician trying to build the railroad, and you really can't like him, which has apparently become popular these days. Come on! I don't want to watch shows about people I don't like. I want to love the heroes, and love to hate the bad guys, or hate to love them. But feeling mostly indifferent with a dash of distaste is not going to make me watch a program.

Also, there was a charming young woman and her loving husband who were attacked by a group of blood-thirsty red Indians. And I use those words knowing full well what they imply because frankly this group was right out of those monstrous stories told about Native Americans. I'm surprised that no one had a fit about it. I'm not saying that the Native Americans never killed any Europeans anymore than no Europeans ever killed Native Americans, but the scene was far to violent for my tastes. It was brutal and seemed absolutely pointless, and the attackers came across as really really awful.

And that's what it came down to, for me. I love a good period piece, and I appreciate when a show does adhere to the mores of the time period. I don't need things sugar-coated. But I also don't need to watch a blood bath.

Grimm - Pilot, S01E01

An interesting concept - the decendants of the Brothers Grimm are able to see things that the rest of us can't. They recognize the...we'll call them demons for lack of a better word. Turns out the Big Bad Wolf is a species of men with animalistic tendencies and an obsession with red hoodies.

I liked the pilot. It was scary at points. Very scary in fact. A good combination of the scary with the campy. Because Grimm fairy tales coming to life is nothing if not a little campy. I really like the idea of our hero, Nick (David Giuntoli) teaming up with a wolf, Eddie (Silas Weir Mitchell). Sure, these are the monsters which haunt our nightmares, but perhaps they are not so given over to the side of them that gives us the willies.

As to where it is going...well, I've only watched the first two episodes at this point, although 4 have aired, and it did get a full seasons pick up, which is always a good thing...so going somewhere it must be.

First episode, Little Red Riding Hood. Second, Goldilocks and the Three Bears. And there are a lot more Grimm fairy tales to go through, though not all are as famous or well known as these. So the question is whether they will continue to follow a theme of one story per episode, or will a larger plot take over. And will that larger plot have anything to do with the fairy tales as we know them?

Once Upon a Time - Pilot, S01E01

I love fairy tales. Always have, probably always will. And so I am on board to watch this show. Yet I wasn't as thrilled with the pilot as I had hoped. Perhaps we need to wait a few more episodes until we really get into things. Really great stories sometimes need a bit of a runway to bring them up to full speed.

Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) I loved. Okay, I wasn't wild about the name, since swan is just a little too Twilight for me, but let's not focus on that. She's a bondswoman, not afraid to use her feminin wiles to achieve her goal, and she's got this incredible gift of always knowing when she's being lied to. But she has major abandonment issues from growing up an orphan, and also has no friends. This is not a boring, one-dimensional hero. Yay!

Then we have her son, Henry (Jared Gilmore), who appears on her front door on her 28th birthday, just as she blows out a birthday candle wishing she did not have to spend the evening alone. I suppose every fairy tale needs a child's faith togive it full power, and he's a pretty good reason for Emma to go to Storybrook, Maine, where her future awaits.

So far so good...except as we are learning about the current state of affairs, we are also finding out how our fairy tale heroes got themselves stuck in our modern world. I can't say how I felt about Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Prince Charming (Josh Dallas). I loved when Charming got their baby into the wardrobe to save her, fighting off enemy soldiers while wielding a sword in one hand and holding his child in the other. Also, having him get stabbed did really give a sense that the Happily Ever Afters were coming to an end. But I couldn't help but think a lot of it was a little cheesy.

Fairy tales can be cheesy. Enchanted certainly does a wonderful job of showing us the pitfalls of love at first sight, as well as the reasons why poofy dresses just aren't practical. The 10th Kingdom never shied away from story references and commentary. But in Once Upon a Time, they lacked a classy modern gloss across the fairy tale world, and yet never acknowledged the silly romanticism of Snow White's rediculous dresses or The Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla)'s Force-like powers.

The fairy tale world looked like something out of a 50s tv show. Too bad it's not the 50s anymore, and without winking at the audience about the choice, it just seemed as though it had not been carefully thought through.

But, we aren't going to hang around in that cheesy world too much. Instead, Emma's got to help people in the here and now.

So the big question that remains is how is the Evil Queen winning? Sure she's mayor of the town, but she doesn't seem that happy. Does she remember where they all came from, or was she just as much a victim as the others? And why on earth did a woman like that decide adoption was a good idea?

I'll continue to tune in to find out.

Boss - Listen, Pilot, S01E01

Considering that Boss was renewed for a second season before it even premiered, expectations for this pilot were pretty high. And certainly the quality was there. I can't complain about the storytelling, the acting, or the cinematography. I can, however, complain about the show itself.

Why should I watch a show were all the characters are manipulative jerks completley out for their own interests?

Kelsey Grammer's Tom Kane is an ass. He may be dying of some bizarre ailment which is certainly going to be problimatic while he remains Mayor, but I'm not going to like him simply because he's sick. It's his actions in life that matter - his intimidation techniques to accomplish his political goals, his violent tendancies, his astrangement from wife and daughter. This guy has no redeeming qualities, except perhaps that he is quite smart and capable, but as he is using those for all the wrong reasons, I really can't care.

And he is the lead character of the show. The rest of the cast is equally corrupt and irreverant. Just what the daughter is doing as a pastor who buys drugs, I cannot say, and nor, frankly do I care. I care no more about the wife who may be trying to help children get better education but is more concerned about appearances than results. And the one character I did like, the doctor who diagnoses Kane, well, what does she get for her trouble of being a good person and an honest doctor? She gets drugged so that she knows that people can get close to her and her son and hurt them if she screws up. I suppose in a world so full of mean spirited people, it's impossible to believe that she would have stuck to her vows without coersion, but if I were her, I'd be so much more tempted to speak out of interests of self-preservation now that I'd been threatened.

So I spent an hour watching this show, during which I really started to question my resolve to stick to watching entire episodes when I really don't care. Next time, I'm not going to waste my time.

American Horror Story - Pilot, S01E01

I slept with the light on after watching this pilot.

American Horror Story is creepy. You spend half of it in suspense, and the other half covering your eyes. And all you know is that there is something very very wrong with that house, but who can say what it is. Frankly, I want to know, but I'm not sure I really want to find out.

The show certainly does its job of freaking its viewers out, and the only concern I have for it is how it will maintain that. Do I really want to subject myself to terror every week? Can I stand not knowing what is going on, what might happen next from week to week? Can they keep up the fear I feel, and do I really want them to? These are factors we will have to examine over the next few episodes.

What I do like is how original it feels. Sure, the concept is standard - wounded family moves into new house to start over, but the house is evil and haunted. It's been done many times before.
But it's still different. What is with that maid? The women see her as an old hag, but Ben (Dylan McDermott) sees one hot redhead who is bent on seducing him. And the neighbour, Constance (Jessica Lange), threatened to kill her again? What exactly did that mean?

What part in the horror going on in that house does Constance play? Is she a ghost too, or something worse? And Tate (Evan Peters) is equally baffling. How did he end up as Ben's patient if he's not real? Or is the house just messing with some poor unbalanced kid?

And so we wait and watch and discover new things, all the while leaving our nerves in a raw state of anxiety. But I will go back to the well, as long as the storytelling remains as fantastic. I will stick with it, even though it frightens me.

Pan Am - Pilot, S01E01

It starts with a gimick - who doesn't want to watch a show about 4 gorgeous women in the 60s breaking out from traditional roles to do something wonderful like travel the world. And then we add substance - what does it truly mean to have a life where you are always going to a new place, where the only thing you can count on is change? Add some CIA intregue and a dash of romance and broken hearts, and you have a show that I can't wait to watch every week.

Sure, the characters are pretty stereotypical. Maggie (Christina Ricci) wants to do more than travel the world - she wants to change it. And she's not going to conform to expectations or the rules either. Colette (Karine Vanasse) is the exotic flavour, a french girl who favours surprises as long as they aren't that the man she was sleeping with is married. Then we have sisters, Laura (Margot Robbie) who ran away from home and her wedding to discover herself, and Kate (Kelli Garner) who left home to do what she wanted in the first place and now feels a little cramped by her sister.

But, hey, I'm not looking for uniqueness here. I'm looking for sheer entertainment. I want to be interested, amused, enthralled, and if occassionally it's a little predictable, I can live with that. But, regardless, I don't actually know what the direction and feel of the whole season is going to be like. I can't wait to find out!

Hart of Dixie - Pilot, S01E01

The thing about train wrecks is that while they are horrible, you simply can't look away. Hart of Dixie didn't even have that going for it. Again, like A Gifted Man, I found myself slugging through the episode out of a sense of duty. I WILL watch all drama premieres, regardless of whether or not I think I will like them. Sometimes they surprise you. The surprise I got with Hart of Dixie was how bloody awful it was.

I hated Zoe Hart (Rachel Bilson)! I completely agreed with her chief of staff - the girl had the bedside manner of a newt. Perhaps that is an insult to newts.

She was just a boring, idiotic, stuck-up and self-centred twit. How am I supposed to like a character like that? Granted many of the other people in the town were equally jerks, but when the lead isn't likable, we have a problem.

Plus, as a girl who grew up in a small town, I don't like the backwaters way we're being represented. I mean, sure, Zoe's judgments are presented to make her look like a bigot (again, not a word I should be using for the hero), but Lemon Breeland (Jaime King) is so much the stereotypical former prom queen that still thinks she's awesome cause she never left home cliche I couldn't stand it. And what kind of a stupid name for a girl like that is LEMON.

So all I can say is terrible! Come on, CW, Hellcats was way better than this. And so is Nikita! If you are going to cancel something, at least replace it with a show I would consider an improvement. No wonder One Tree Hill keeps getting renewed. And Hart of Dixie is not the next One Tree Hill.

Prime Suspect - Pilot, S01E01

Although it's quite rough around the edges, I actually found myself enjoying this show by the end of the pilot. Unfortunately, I really don't get the premise. Hardworking female cop utterly surrounded by bully males? Are you kidding me? Affirmative action and sexual discrimination suits would be all over this thing.

Jane Timoney (Maria Bello) is a tough-as-nails cop trying to do her job well and coming up against a lot off resistance from the men she works with. They could have played it that she doesn't have the greatest of people skills, refuses to back down when she believes she's right, and won't ever cater to someone else's ego - those things are actually still true, but the impression given as to why she's having such a hard time at work isn't because she's a bitch but because the guys she works with are all sexist dicks.

And that's also one of the problems with the show. All the characters are jerks. You have a hard time liking most of them, even Jane who's the hero. By the end of the pilot, I liked her, but that was because there was method to her madness. Her ways work, they achieved the goals necessary, and she never compromises who she is or what her values are to get these things. That doesn't mean that I don't understand why other people would have such issues with her. The rest of the characters continued to come off as either dicks or putzes.

So, while the show is decently done and probably has an interesting and possibly even worthwhile route to follow, it's not for me. Was it for you?

Terra Nova - Genesis 1 & 2, Pilot, S01E01-02

Amazing! I absolutely loved this show. Distopian future meets time travel meets fresh start with dinosaurs. Crazy and exactly the kind of premise I can get behind. Plus, with the right amount of emotional family connections and more than a dash of mystery, who wouldn't enjoy this show?

Granted the CGI dinosaurs aren't exactly amazing. It's like they tried a little too hard to make them awesome, but didn't quite have the budget, so they end up being more mediocre than they would have been if less effort had been involved. Also, the Carnisaurus (aka Meat-a-saurus) and the Slashers aren't any kind of dinosaur that I've ever heard of. But let's not interfere with creativity when it is so much fun.

We started with a family, husband and wife and 3 kids, all thrilled to pieces over an orange, once again a rare treat. I couldn't help but wonder whether they would be able to make the peel into candy after they ate the fruit as 19th century settlers to North America used to do. But the thrill of the orange is forgotten when population control shows up, and we discover that a family is four and not five people. The world is a horrid place, the environment destroyed, the sky and air disgusting.

After this quickly introduced desolation, our heroes are offered a chance to go to Terra Nova, a place of hope far away from the world they now live in. Problem is, Dad's in jail and the youngest child who's not supposed to exist anyway isn't welcome. There was quite a lot of tension in the segment leading up to the travel through the time-rift into the past. Part of me hoped for a division between where they were going and where they had been. I would love to know more about this terrible picture of our future. Certainly we will learn more about it as our characters relate their new experiences as shocking and in other such ways, but I've always loved a good story about a distopian future.

Nevertheless, once through to 85 million years ago, the show continued to impress me. First off, they quickly explained some sciency thing about the probe sent through which apparently proved these passengers were in an alternate timeline, and that killing a butterfly would not change the future. I'm not entirely sure if this is to lull us into a false sense of security, or if it was an easy way to stop people from complaining about it.

Next, they also dealt with the crimes of our hero family like civilized people, and not like petit fonctionaires. No one cared anymore if there were 3 children instead of 2, and as long as all the people who showed up were useful, then that was good enough.

Finally, there was quite a bit of mystery. For instance, who are these 6ers? This secondary band which split from the main group could truly want to harm our heroes, or they might have very different motivations. Also, what is the deal with the symbols carved on the rock by the missing scientist. What does that all mean?

I can't wait to see this show again next week and to find out what is going to happen.

Person of Interest - Pilot, S01E01

Finally a pilot worth watching! I was beginning to despair for the new series being launched this Fall that almost none of them would be worth the time it takes to watch them. That said, Person of Interest is more likely to go on my list of Shows I Might Watch At Some Point rather than the Shows I MUST Watch NOW list. Still, I give it praise because I am interested in seeing more.

The premise was a lot more interesting than I originally thought. The cameras watching everyone, evaluating their intentions, and dismissing the potential evil of or danger to anyone if it did not reach 9/11 proportions, made far more sense than I expected. Big Brother is watching, but he only cares if what you are going to do will hurt a lot of people. Small scale doesn't bother him.

And that is where the main characters come in. Mr. Finch (Michael Emerson) designed the Big Brother machine, and told it to dismiss the little things, but through some tragedy we will hopefully discover in the future, he began to care about those so-called "irrelevant" issues. Having more money and time than he needs or cares about, he hired John Reese (James Caviezel) to prevent these bad things from happening. Reese gets a job from the deal, and a purpose of trying to save people. Both of these men are missing parts of their souls after devastating circumstances and it will be interesting to see as the series progresses how much their accomplishments help to fill that hole.

It's clever, it's intriguing, it's interesting, and it is a little different from the other shows out there. Certainly worth checking out.

A Gifted Man - Pilot, S01E01

What a terrible, terrible show. I didn't like the main character at all, the person who somewhat redeems him and is his love interest is dead, and his decision to see a medium to try to rid himself of this haunting made no sense for such a strong believer in science.

This is a rule that shows should not break: Don't try to get me invested in a romantic relationship where one half of the party is dead! Unless of course the dead one is a vampire or something of that sort...But not a ghost! Not simply dead. I have no interest in caring about a character I know isn't going to be around much, or isn't ever going to be able to BE ALIVE.

And if that rule being broken wasn't enough to prevent me from becoming interested, nothing else was going on anyway. The medical stuff that usually can entertain regardless of character plot lines, like murder investigations in cop shows, was so secondary that I couldn't care. He's a doctor, but the pilot didn't focus on that; it's simply the career he chose. So we didn't really get to see any cool medical science.

All we got were grumpy people being nasty to one another and really not helping in situations which were going badly, the impression that people are all pretty stupid and do very little to preserve their own lives, and the reminder that when it comes to love, most people wait until it's too late or leave too soon. Why would any of that interest me?

Charlie's Angels - Pilot, Angel with a Broken Wing, S01E01

What is with all the premieres this fall? Is it just me, or are a lot of them mediocre and lacking anything that will give them staying power? I suppose many people don't have the same tastes as me, but it's hard to believe that Charlie's Angels is going to get a big and faithful audience.

It was really cheesy, in that 1970s I'm reminiscing about the original Charlie's Angels but trying to make it up to date and somehow accomplishing neither kind of way. It lacked the sweetness of nostalgia while keeping silly storytelling devices that do not work anymore. And amid that campyness, it just got way more serious than I wanted to deal with when we watched one Angel be tortured.

Certainly, I was surprised when within the first 5 minutes, one of the Angels was killed in a giant explosion. A clear reminder that these women are replaceable, and hopefully an indication that the odds are going to be serious. Except that shortly after, when a man with a machine gun riddled a boat the girls were on full of bullets, not one shot so much as grazed an arm. I'm sorry, but if you dive off a boat and someone is shooting up the water, it's quite likely you will get hurt. I was disappointed that they all got away clean from that.

I also simply can't relate to these girls. They have a past that is not perfect, but they are beautiful and highly capable and not able to feel grief for very long so life is really just a big party. That's not my life, and I'm not sure why I would want to watch someone else live it.

It's possible, again, that audiences will like this show more than I did, but it simply did not have what a good show needs in 2011.

Revenge - Pilot, S01E01

While the dark and twisted nature of this show is what one would expect from the title Revenge, it's too tragic. I couldn't help but feel compassion for all of the characters, and yet did not feel enough for the lead who is trying to wreck havoc on the Hamptons.

The first segment of the show takes us to the end of the summer where we witness the murder of a young man, Daniel (Joshua Bowman). By the end of the episode, there are two possible reasons for the murder which I can deduce - Jack, (Nick Wechsler) who appears to have pulled the trigger, either had a personal motive, likely related to money, or he did it for the lead character who is seeking revenge - Emily...or is her name Amanda (Emily VanCamp). Neither of these seems a good enough reason to kill a guy who seems alright. He certainly has done nothing to deserve death, and even if he was simply a casualty of a vendetta against his mother, I certainly cannot feel sympathy for his killer. Plus, he really appeared dead, and not on death's door, so getting to know him over the next several episodes, we won't get attached since we know he won't be sticking around.

Frankly, if I'm going to watch a show about Revenge, I want it to be delicious. Victoria (Madeleine Stowe)'s vengeance against her best friend over the affair with her husband, now that was delicious. It was cruel and very precise, and she was extremely honest about it. Emily's vendetta against Victoria does not have the same feel. She doesn't have the same righteousness about her when destroying other people's lives. It's sad really.

It's possible this show will be a hit, but I really can't see the appeal. It wasn't clever or interesting enough to really be worthwhile, nor was it devilishly evil enough to be a guilty pleasure. I'd put this show on the eventual casualty list for 2011-2012, even venturing to bet it won't get picked up for the back 9. Am I being to harsh, or was that your impression as well?

The Playboy Club - Pilot, S01E01

As a huge fan of period pieces, The Playboy Club appeals to me for many of the same reasons Mad Men does - the costuming, the sets, the reminiscing of a much classier time. And this show is not nearly so depressing as the AMC hit, which is definitely a bonus.

The local is sexy. Our two main locations are the Playboy Club and the Playboy Mansion, where all the bunnies are dressed in sweet little costumes that cover so much that for a 2011 audience, they really aren't revealing. I want some of those outfits. I'm glad, however, that I don't have those names. Why did they pick Maureen for the name of the main character? We still need a few more years to go by before that will get revitalized.

As for the story, while we do have a little bit of house drama between our newest bunny, Maureen (Amber Heard), and the most senior bunny-now-bunny mother, Carol-Lynne (Laura Benanti), it seems that the crux of the plot is going to centre around the mob and the disappearance of the leader of one family after his visit to the Playboy club. Perhaps that is the corporation forcing the tv show to keep itself from getting inappropriate? Hard to say. I'm not displeased at the idea of a 1960s mob show, but find it interesting that its title is Playboy.

I do like it and I want to keep watching. Again, more for the glam than anything else at this moment. The characters are fun and interesting enough, the plot does have places to take us. I do have to ask why exactly Don Draper was cast as the lead. I mean, it's not surprising that Eddie Cibrian's Nick Dalton dresses the same as the ad man, or has the same hair style - these were very popular for your 60s ladykiller, but somehow Cibrian has the exact same voice, the same pitch, same intonations, same everything? Really. I could record them both saying the same line and not be able to differentiate between the two. That might get annoying, though the similarities to Jon Hamm aren't really a bad thing.

So I'm going to keep watching and keep enjoying, but I'm not 100% sold and do worry that this show might not be the success that its bold title deserves.

Unforgettable - Pilot, S01E01

While Unforgettable is certainly a much better title than The Rememberer, that will not stop this show from ending up cancelled by the end of season 1.

I say this not because it is a bad show. Certainly the premise - pairing up a person with a gift with a cop - is one that tends to be popular, and a woman with perfect memory could contribute in very interesting ways. Plus, it was decently acted. I quite enjoyed Poppy Montgomery's portrayal of Carrie Wells.

But solid acting and an interesting premise will not be enough. We've already learnt that Carrie has a complicated past involving her sister's murder - a day which was unlike any other in that the details of it do in fact elude her. It's very dark. And there was little humour lightening that darkness, both in the characters and in the stories.

Which means that audiences like me, fans of shows like The Mentalist and Castle, are not likely to want to add it to our watch list when our other Cop+Special Helper dramas are equally dark and already have us nice and hooked.

So while I might be interested in watching another episode of the show, if only to see how Carrie's superb memory helps when she isn't actually the witness of the murder, I'm not hooked.

Unless something truly unforgettable happens within the next couple episodes, I predict that the show will have a mediocre audience rating which will slowly decline into cancellation. Unfortunate, but that's just the way it goes sometimes.

The Secret Circle - Pilot, S01E10

Televising another book series by Vampire Diaries writer L.J. Smith, and having executive producer Kevin Williamson on board, is pretty sure to make another huge hit. After all, those who like vampires are probably also into witches, and the quality of thought in terms of plot and detail is likely to be as good. And while The Secret Circle seems far more directed at teenagers than the Vampire Diaries, it still has enough elements that a fantasy-loving adult could well take to it too.

The pilot started well. Excellently in fact. When a mysterious man shows up out of nowhere and uses magic to create an inferno and kill a woman we were clearly supposed to like in the first five minutes of a show, you really get the sense that the punches will not be pulled. People will die, and in rather extreme ways, which is great! I don't always like having characters I like die, but it certainly raises the stakes. I hope that the risk and danger incited by this act continue.

On the other hand, I wasn't quite so into the first meetings of our lead cast. I like Cassie (Britt Robertson), and I think she was wonderfully cast. Robertson has a depth of personality that allows her to be complex enough to be interesting. Adam (Thomas Dekker), on the other hand, leaves me quite cold. I don't know what his feelings about Cassie's arrival are, and I can't tell whether that's because the Director is trying to misdirect us, or because Dekker simply isn't consistent. Plus the whole romantic line between him and Cassie seems really forced, and pisses me off because he has a girlfriend. Granted, there really doesn't seem to be anything going on in that relationship anyway, but inconstant is not a term I want to use to label the lead male.

As for the rest of the teenagers, they are a little cookie-cutter at the moment. I can only hope that will develop as we go.

Naturally, I am more interested in the adults of the series, the parents of our teenage heroes, as well as in the secrets and mysteries that they are keeping. What happened 16 years ago? Clearly a whole lot of people died, but I do want to know how and why. What made these people the way they are? The questions that make me want to keep watching are all about the parents, and about how Cassie is going to manage in this new world she has been introduced to.

The show is likely to be a huge success. Pairing it with Vampire Diaries is going to give both shows terrific advantage in terms of keeping their teenage and young adult audiences. Whether the demographic past 25 remains tuned in will simply depend on how things develop. If the mysteries remain interesting and the younger actors flesh their characters out a bit more, it could be quite the enjoyable guilty pleasure.

Did you enjoy it?

Ringer - Pilot, S01E01

First emotional response - frustration that I will have to wait a week to find out what happens next, and indeed that I will continue to only get 45 minute installments of the development every week. Ringer is certainly the kind of show one will devour like candy as soon as it is released on DVD.

The premise is terrific. What would you do if given the opportunity to escape the troubles of your life so perfectly? Starting over in seemingly much improved circumstances appeals to many, and the cautionary message that at least in our own lives we are aware of all the different complications reminds us that things might look greener on the other side of the fence, but perhaps that's because dangerous pesticides give it a certain luster.

I am pleased to see Sarah Michelle Gellar on TV again, having loved her since Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She still portrays both strength and vulnerability with believability, but now gets to throw in cold calculation to the mix. Watching her play two characters, one of which is pretending to be the other, I cannot always be certain of whether we are encountering Bridget or Siobhan, but I would say that this is more of a directorial choice to leave the audience confused than a lack in ability on Gellar's part to make the two subtly but markedly different. Give that time.

As for the mystery and the trouble both women have got into in their lives, we easily side with Bridget. Oh sure, she was a stripper, a prostitute, and a drug addict, but somehow I find that far easier to forgive and ignore than Siobhan's adultery and manipulation. Bridget is trying to find herself, to fix her life, and she may not be going about it the best way, but the path is certainly commendable. Siobhan, on the other hand, clearly just wants things to go her way.

What do you think of the two sisters? And will you be watching again next week? I know I will be.

The Walking Dead - Days Gone Bye, Pilot, S01E01

Of all the scary monsters that exist in supernatural stories, the modern zombie is, in fact, the most possible. Although the notion of a disease which brings dead tissue back to life, and renders it ravenous for human flesh, is quite far fetched, when compared to vampires, werewolves, and magic-users, the possibility becomes far more probable. And so we have a hero, walking up after being unconscious for more than a month, who finds the world completely changed and zombies a part of every day existence.

Although I knew that the lead character was not going to die in the pilot episode, this did not stop me from constantly being on edge as I watched him discover a new and terrifying world, or, worse, whenever he encountered a walker (as the dead who come back are called). This show is extremely creepy, and the details are both disgusting and disturbing.

Within the first few minutes, after watching a scene which clearly would take place in the future, we learned quite a few things. 1. Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), our hero, is a cop. Or at least, he was before the zombie apocalypse hit. 2. Finding campsites which are abandoned and have a fair number of corpses about them is something he has become quite used to seeing. 3. The walkers retain some sense of instinct from their previous lives (the little dead girl picked up a stuffed bear). 4. The dead want to attack the living with a terrifying intensity. 5. A shot to the head will, indeed, bring them down.

And then the actually story starts. The quick conversation between Rick and his partner, Shane, did an excellent job of establishing what their mundane, every day lives were. We never saw Rich with his family, never even saw the two men off the job, but we had a sense of who they were as friends to each other and as lovers to their women. We also quickly understood their attack style: Rick was not afraid to take point, and when he went down, getting shot in his bullet proof vest, his main concern was that his wife never know the danger he was in.

Because of Shane's concern for his friend and because of Rick's concern for his wife, both had their guards down which allowed one of the criminals to get a shot past the vest.

As someone who has never read the Walking Dead graphic novel series upon which the show is based, the thing I am most curious about is how long it will take Rick to find his family again. Shane, apparently, managed to get Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) and her and Rick's son away from the more infected areas, but he also seems to have gotten into Lori's pants. I suppose you can hardly blame her, given the stress she is currently under, nor the difficulties she and Rick were having in their marriage. I, however, dislike seeing her with another man when I know that Rick is doing everything in his power to get to her.

I don't want Shane and Lori to get so close that her choice is too complicated.

As for the grossness factor, man, are the blood and guts gross or what? It's absolutely stunning in its vividness, but I could do with a little less. I don't actually want less, as I think that would detract from the point, but I don't always need to be quite so grossed out. Also, it is not something I am planning on watching alone because I definitely feel the need to cling on to someone who ought to be protecting me from the horrors I am seeing on the screen.

I am hooked, there is no doubt about that. And I have no concerns about getting to see as much as I want as AMC has already greenlit the second season of the show. The Walking Dead is going to have a long life (hehehe, I made a pun).

No Ordinary Family - Pilot, S01E01

Well, that was the worst premiere I've seen in a long time. I'm actually surprised that I didn't turn it off out of boredom. It wasn't exciting, it wasn't interesting, and it wasn't good television.

The premise is good: Superhero family. Who wouldn't be into that? I like superheroes. But the meandering and unfocused storyline told from the perspective of parents in couple's therapy didn't grab my attention at all. I could not care about these characters. They are supposed to be ordinary people with extraordinary powers, but that doesn't means they are supposed to be uninteresting people who discover their powers in odd, but common circumstances, and then explore them by being ridiculous.

I suppose I could say, in the shows favour, that I can imagine some schmucks responding to gaining superpowers in this way. "I'm going to try and get myself shot and experiment by trying dangerous tasks while my best friend watches." Great idea. And the friends creating secret lairs because they think it is cool, or coming up with epic descriptions of the abilities...again, this may well happen in reality if gaining superpowers was truly possible. But watching this normal behaviour was extraordinarily tedious. There is a reason that television tells stories about anything other than common and ordinary life stories. Giving uninteresting people superpowers will not make them interesting.

So it was boring, and pretty predictable, and possibly okay for younger audiences up until the lead got shot in the back of the head with a large caliber bullet. I don't know who is watching this thing, but it is not me, and I am telling you that it should not be you either.

Undercovers - Pilot, S01E01

Finally a pilot which has me won over. This terrific premise (a retired spy couple must get back into the game) was excellently realized, with solid fight segments, neat spy bits, and fun remainders of real life sneaking in. The episode was exciting and hilarious, while serious just enough of the time to keep us focused. I'm looking forward to following it.

So much of television these days seems to be based on the will they/won't they factor. If you follow my blogs, you know that I constantly complain about this. And Undercovers proves absolutely that that particular story telling technique is not necessary. Our leads, Steven (Boris Kodjoe) and Samantha (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), are married and in love. Sure, we got a bit of the impression that their relationship had lost a little bit of its spark - they had settled into a comfortable zone where passion did not visit very often, but the affection was still there. And watching them interact, being playful at times, jealous when necessary, and protective every moment, we saw that love come back into full flame. A flame that does not need to be tempered with.

Instead, we will get to focus on the fun of the missions. I loved when Sam was getting the information off that arms dealer's blackberry. She seduced him as long as she needed to, going so far as to end up in very sexy lace underwear in the middle of a wine cellar, and once her task was complete, she slapped him and told him to get away from her. It was sexpionage at its best. And who didn't love the use of the word sexpionage?

I can't wait to see more. I am certain that there is more to the show than the mostly episodic nature we got the impression of in the pilot. Something about the way their handler said that they didn't know exactly why they were being reinstated screamed exciting plot!! I wonder how long it will take for us to figure that out, or discover if he merely spoke of the likelihood that Leo (Carter MacIntyre) had gone rogue. What do you think?