The Mentalist - Black Gold and Red Blood, S01E06

Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) almost got what's coming to him. That's right, Bosco (Terry Kinney) found the recording device Jane planted under his desk, and so Jane got sent to jail.

If you thought that jail would stop Jane's meddling and prevent him from closing the case, than you do not watch The Mentalist very often. Not only did he gain the confidence and trust of his fellow inmates quite easily, but he also imitated Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) to anger a suspect and get him thrown in jail so that Jane could question him and escaped the prison to get a confession out of the murderer, Sandrine (Ashley Jones* who is appearing in everything these days). And in the end, Lisbon (Robin Tunney) used her influence over Bosco to get Jane released.

He learned nothing from the entire experience, of course, but he will have to find a new way to find out what's going on with the Red John case from Bosco.

It was quite an entertaining episode, and also clever. Exactly what I want when I watch the Mentalist...though perhaps a little devoid of Rigsby/Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) action.

Did you enjoy?

Stargate Universe - Earth, S01E07

One of the trickiest things about Stargate Universe is the attempt to adjust to it. It is SO different from its predecessors.

I nearly laughed myself silly when Col. Young (Justin Louis) calmly tried to explain to Gen. O'Neill that he was declining to follow orders because he had always looked up to O'Neill and his decision to always do the right thing no matter what. Young is so far from Jack it's hard to believe the character was supposed to be similar to him.

And while there was the honest moment of hilarity when Jack confessed that Carter had saved him numerous times using science he didn't understand, there was a touch of realism that does not appear in SG1 or Atlantis. Let these scientists do their job and bring you home; follow my orders because I've ordered you to. Well at least Jack still wants to always get his own way.

In Universe, we've found that, despite the characters being on the other side of the universe, a lot more action takes place on Earth. Young is busy trying to win back his wife, which he succeeds in doing, only to have the transmission device fail briefly in the middle of intercourse. And so Col. Telford (Lou Diamond Phillips), who appears to be a villain, later appears at the wife's door for who knows what illicit action. And if that's not enough, Eli (David Blue) is not only busy pining after the useless Chloe (Elyse Levesque), but is also suffering from being told he's a good friend and therefore not a love interest. If this is going to be the focus of the show, why bother sending them to the other side of the universe?

I want to see planets. New planets with more going on than just a search for water or sand. I want Rush (Robert Carlyle) to figure out how the ship works and for the heroes, while exploring Destiny, to come across neat gadgets. And I want to laugh! I want to laugh at a turn of phrase, an event or a comment that doesn't involve Eli or Jack. Where are the lines like "I'm sorry for shooting everybody" or "How do I know you are better; you referred to me as Lucy".

Stargate Universe has pulled out of the station, and it is headed somewhere at a respectable clip, but sometimes I just can't help but feel like they left too many things behind and didn't pick up enough new things is this edgier Stargateverse story. Do you feel the same way?

The Good Wife - Conjugal, S01E06

The Good Wife continues to be terrific television, as we not only examine the inner workings of a law firm and courtroom, but also the personal tragedies involved with wrongful convictions.

Alicia (Julianna Marguelies) and Cary (Matt Czuchry) worked together for once, trying to successfully get in a last minute appeal. Though they submitted the appeal on time, it was rejected. Still, both having been approached by the wife of the convicted man, Alicia and Cary convinced the firm to try an appeal based on the fact that the man was entirely innocent, and not just that the case had not been tried fairly.

The most interesting part of the episode was the demonstration of how difficult it is to be an eye witness and to actually recognize someone in a line up. We watched brief videos, and then had to identify who we'd seen from 6 photos. I did not succeed on any, and neither did the characters, even though we had just seen the video and most line ups take place days or even weeks after the initial event.

What do we actually see or notice when we see a person once, for only a moment. A t-shirt or a hat is easier to place, rather than the person wearing them.

To win the case, Alicia again went to her husband, Peter (Chris Noth), and got advice that eventually won them the case and freed an innocent man from jail. Margulies and Noth have such amazing chemistry, you can't help but want to see them together, but is Peter actually innocent? And even if he is, can they get over the even bigger issue of his affairs?

The draw to this show is two-fold - the interesting court cases and Alicia's personal life. So far, both have maintained an average of excellence that exceeds expectation.

Do you agree?

Bones - The Tough Man in the Tender Chicken, S05E06

This may have been the goofiest episode of Bones ever.

The body they found - well, actually, it was found by Woodchucks, who are essentially Girl Scouts who wish to emulate Brennan (Emily Deschanel) in every way - had a face which distinctly resembled a chicken.

This was, of course, followed by some speculation that he was some sort of government experiment gone wrong, in which the attempt had been made to combine man and chicken into a supersoldier.

Riiight...

Don't get me wrong, I'm normally right in with the weird and campy, and I was quite happy to have Hodgins (T.J. Thyne) back in conspiratorial mode, but chicken-man?

Though the moment that just went too far to be remotely believable was when Brennan and Booth (David Boreanaz) were at the chicken factory and the protesters yoked and feathered them. Thank God Booth then arrested them all. What kind of morons assault members of the FBI for absolutely no reason.

And don't even get me started on Angela (Michaela Conlin) and her quest to save the adorable pig. You're really going to get mad at a friend over that? I guess this is the part of me that just has to embrace my meativoreness and admit that I eat animals well aware that they once had faces and I'm okay with that because as a human, I was designed to eat meat as well as plants.

But at least it seemed like the episode focused on the crime committed, and Booth brought up his potential long-term sufferings from his surgery when he did not recognize that a man was lying.

Oh, and Angela slept with Wendall (Michael Terry)...which I hope is not going to create issues between him and Hodgins...

Did you enjoy the goofiness, or was it too much for you?

FlashForward - The Gift, S01E07

We have learned more, and we have even more questions to which we want the answers. That is the continuing premise of FlashForward, and I continue to be intrigued by the questions and satisfied with the fullness of the answers.

In Thursday's episode, we finally learnt that the future is not set in stone, as Simon (Dominic Monaghan) indicated last week. It can be changed; those future 2 minutes and 17 seconds are not a guarantee.

The proof was huge, when Agent Al Gough (Lee Thompson Young) decided that he was going to kill himself, despite having had a flashforward. He could not bear the guilt of a future act in which he would accidentally kill a woman, a mother of two, and so he threw himself off the top of the FBI building.

The scene was moving, and brilliant, the pain of his fellow agents mixed with the hope that his act offered. Now Demetri (John Cho) knows that he can avoid his own murder, after all the British agent will not end up meeting with Al over the Rutherford case this April. Mark (Joseph Fiennes) and Olivia (Sonya Wagler) can try again, knowing that it is possible that Mark will not drink and Olivia will not leave him. Even Nicole (Payton List) and Bryce (Zachary Knighton) hint at a different future, with a mutual interest that may replace the importance of the girl Bryce saw in his flashforward.

The point is, of course, that action must be taken to change the future. Al made a decision to end his own life, despite having the hope of knowing he was to be alive in April. The Ghosts, as the people without flashforwards call themselves, have been dying without consideration of the future, possible killing themselves, but when April 29th comes, some of them might still easily be alive. It is not something anyone could prove until that date came. And it is hard to conceive of anyone thinking they would live ending their lives any sooner - but Al did. He did change the flashforward, which means that all our expectations have to change.

Anything is now possible.

Eastwick - Red Aunts and Windows, S01E07

While this week's episode was an improvement over last week's, it still isn't hitting any heights. I'm starting to accept the fact that the show is going to be cancelled and to not be too upset over it. Which is very disappointing considering how well it started.

Roxie (Rebecca Romijn) should have had a really emotional time, since Chad (Matt Dallas) was killed when her statue of Darryl fell on his head. He appeared to her in a dream, telling her to follow the signs, which led her to discover a CD with a song he had composed for her. All this was very touching, and Roxie's continual consultation with Darryl (Paul Gross) over the matter, which led her to conclude she only needed to rely on herself, and to finally empty out her husband's drawer, as well as Chad's. But when Chad's family banned her from the funeral, that pissed me off. And then, when the rain stopped, his grandfather essentially assaulted her, trying to drag her from the graveyard and when she resisted, she knocked him into an open grave...a miraculously dry open grave, I ought to mention. It was over the top.

Meanwhile, Joanna (Lindsay Price) was trying to figure out how to use her telekinetic powers again. For some reason, they stopped working this week, and I am very interested as to discover why. It was entertaining to see her running around with the cute new reporter who took her job at the paper, but you have to wonder what's going to become of her. She can't get her old job back - what is she going to do? I do hope that a love story develops here, I already like this guy far more than Will (Johann Urb). But the show might not last long enough for me to find out.

Finally, Kat (Jaime Ray Newman) had the most interesting and important story line. When her daughter fell, she healed the cut with the touch of her hand. Then, at the hospital, Eleanor Rougement (Cybill Shepherd) asked Kat to heal her arms as well. She told her that they were the same, that they both had powers. No longer able to deny what was going on, Kat went to Eleanor, bringing Bun (Veronica Cartwright) with her since she was Eleanor's emergency contact. Eleanor manages to cure Bun's amnesia by removing the red aunts from her body, and after Kat leaves, the two plot to kill Darryl again.

At least we are now back on a path of activity. Roxie and Jamie (whom we did not see this episode)'s plot line needs to pick up again, since Roxie has accepted her power. Joanna needs to get her groove back, and now that Kat is accepting, perhaps the three will come together and figure out this cone of power thing.

Are you disappointed or hopeful about Eastwick?

A Knight's Tale

I watched A Knight's Tale the other day. As you might have guessed, I was of course slightly pained to watch Heath Ledger alive and well on screen. It's not the same thing to watch an actor who died of old age, possibly even before I was born, alight the screen, but when I think about this man who was only a few years older than I; when I remember watching this movie while he was still alive and looked the same...it's a bit like seeing a ghost.

Regardless, though, of Heath Ledger's untimely death, A Knight's Tale is still the fabulous and terrible move that it ever was.

Shannyn Sossamon spends the film wearing the most atrociousness outfits. Her hair is always utterly bizarre, and the hat she is wearing in her first scene is the ugliest hat I have ever seen. It's hard to think of her as a beauty when she lacks style in almost every imaginable way. But William (Ledger) loves Jocelyn (Sossamon) for some unknown reason, so accept and move on.

Move on equally from the complaints about the bizarre mix of contemporary and medieval style, music, and everything else. It was done on purpose, and if you just accept it, it's actually a lot of fun.

But not as much fun as Wat (Alan Tudyk) and Chaucer (Paul Bettany). If these two don't reduce you into fits of ridiculous giggles, than you and I do not share a sense of humour. They are such great comic relief.

Finally, I must mention Rufus Sewell. So many people think of him first as a villain because of this movie, but I saw him first in Dangerous Beauty. Oh is he attractive, sexy, debonair, and all that other good stuff. And so what if he is the villain, it's really that he's not particularly forward thinking and refuses to be beaten by anyone.

What was your opinion of A Knight's Tale?