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?