Glee - Hairography, S01E11

A show stopping number is often enough to redeem a floundering musical, encouraging audiences to go back despite a great many issues to see a moment so bright that the rest does not matter.

This did not quite happen on Wednesday's episode of Glee.

Don't get me wrong, the pregnancy plot line actually tore at my heart springs this week, with Quinn (Dianna Agron) deciding to give up her baby because Will (Matthew Morrison) was the best dad her baby could hope for, and Will giving up an awesome car to get a minivan for the whole family. But this moment, like the show stopper, did not make me forget the rest of the episode.

I just couldn't get into it. The first 6 minutes, I was almost tempted to turn it off - and would have if it had been a premiere and not a show I was already invested in. And the opening number, not performed by our guys, but by another school - I'm not sure if it was the intention, but the singing and dancing really did nothing for me, and all that hair flipping did not distract me from how boring it was. The same goes for our heroes' hairographied number later in the episode. Hair tossing is not actually an interesting enough concept to build an entire episode around, guys, sorry.

Then let's address the Rachel (Lea Michele) makeover thing. Okay, I know Kurt (Chris Colfer) is in love with Finn (Cory Monteith), but it's getting a little tiresome that he is getting so possessive and trying to sabotage the competition. Rachel looked positively terrifying in her Grease outfit, her hair fit for a brothel. Plus, I'm getting tired of everyone continuing to find Rachel grating, and for the Glee kids to continue to be so disconnected. This group would get nowhere in the real world because they wouldn't actually be able to perform as a team, so keen on destroying each other.

But, though the show stopper did not make me forget my complaints and my earlier boredom, it did make my heart swell. A group of deaf kids signing Imagine, with one saying the words rhythmically, and then our kids joining them, singing and signing as well. That was a number to remember. One of peace and happiness and togetherness. A message that Glee might project, but often does not have follow-through for. It was amazing.

So I'll watch that number again, that's for sure, but the rest of the episode? It might also be fun to bash my head against the wall a few times. What did you think?

Bones - The Foot in the Foreclosure, S05E08

And now we all know where spontaneous combustion comes from.

This episode was fantastic when it comes to the personal interaction of our favourite characters, though when it came to the actual case, well, I'd say that having a nose is not a guarantee of a win, but I think I'm reaching with that pun.

On the one hand, we had Booth (David Boreanaz) taking responsibility for his grandfather, Pops (Ralph Waite), which had your comic highs and your emotional lows, and on the other hand, we had a bizarre fetish murder which turned out to be a violent act of passion and grief in which a man beat a couple he found in his bed (the bed he shared with his late wife) and beat them to death with a bust of his own face (hence the nose comment above).

As for the case, it would not have been solved if not for Angela (Michaela Conlin)'s super computer skills (isn't she supposed to be an artist, not a graphic design and computer genius?). The computer determined that the melted polyester was an employee jacket, leading to the discovery of the identity of one of the victims; it also mapped the shape of the weapon imprint, displaying what was obviously a nose. Apparently all crime labs need to get this computer, it solves problems as well as magic!

I realize that the strength of Bones lies in the characters, which is why I still consider this a terrific episode, but couldn't try try to make the methods used to solve cases plausible?

Enough about that, and more about Pops! Booth's granddad was hilarious! He called Booth "shrimp", asked if he was gay when he professed no interest in Brennan (Emily Deschanel), and then told her that she had ovaries of steal (well he tried to tell her she had balls of steal, but she informed him that she had ovaries, not balls, so he corrected his statement)! Even better was when he told Booth at the end of the episode that he had to go back to his nursing home to help some of the women with crochet AKA sex.

The man who raised Booth when his abusive father took off is everything we hoped and expected. It is no wonder that he turned out to be emotionally well adjusted despite everything.

The best part of the episode? The fact that Clark (Eugene Byrd) was finally drawn into talking about his personal life - his grandfather - at work. He is human after all!!!

What did you think?

V - It's Only the Beggining, S01E04

As a regular episode of a regular season, V did a solid job, but as the last episode before a multiple month hiatus waiting to see what people thought, I think it may have missed the mark.

Don't get me wrong, I will be SO pissed if ABC doesn't bring V back in March as it is currently supposed to do. Frankly, I'm not entirely sure why it decided on the break in the first place, but we don't need to go there.

The episode had solid plot markers throughout, leaving me with questions and fears that I want the show to answer. But it also left me with a raised eyebrow and a "really?" on my lips.

When it resumes in the fall, we will hopefully find out whether Father Jack (Joel Gretsch) survived a stabbing and what exactly Ryan (Morris Chestnut) and Valerie (Lourdes Benedicto)'s baby will look like. We'll learn what Anna (Morena Baccarin) has planned for Tyler Logan Huffman), as well as for the rest of the planet. We may even learn if Anna is a fan of gerbil. I look forward to that. But the set up was a little cheesy - basically what happens when you build the hype through commercials, and then have to leave a bunch of cliffhangers to build more suspense when you are only 4 episodes in.

I wanted to see more of the conspiracy - okay, so the V are clever and wanted to put something in our flu shot, but what? Tell me more? And Joshua (Mark Hildreth) had to skin his best friend to protect himself - did we get to see any of that? The pain and agony of both of them was merely hinted at and I wanted more. And I wanted to see how much Anna's Bliss brought Joshua back from the brink of all that pain, and whether any part of him wanted to resist it, or whether Anna would know if he did.

Instead of getting more answers and development, something I crave at this early stage in the game, we got more questions...some of which did not feel necessary. Is Jack a soldier or a priest? Couldn't he be both? Does that really matter right now?

Regardless, I want to watch more - even though the prospect of hundreds more V ships makes me wonder more why they need such numbers that feel any more terror for the fate of the human race - do you?

Glee - Ballad, S01E10

Last week's episode of Glee had two major arches - Rachel (Lea Michele) developed a crush on Will (Matthew Morrison) and Finn (Cory Monteith) told Quinn (Dianna Agron)'s parents she was pregnant. The first was delightful in so many ways. The second was not. And the episode had a few issues I will address as well.

It started with Rachel and Will singing a love ballad - why you ask? Why not I say. Rachel suggested it, and for once Will tried to decline, thinking it was inappropriate. A big difference from a few weeks ago when his hip hop number practically had him grinding with the high school students.

At any rate, Rachel fell madly in love, resulting in a back-and-forth of ballads between the two, trying to get across what they felt - Rachel love and Will fear. In the end, Rachel realized that she did what many somewhat attractive girls with annoying tendencies do - she was reaching towards someone she knew she could not have because it is easier than reaching for an actual possibility that might still fail. I love that despite Lea Michele's beauty and talent, the writers and the actor have managed to create a girl that those of us who are possibly pretty but outwardly flawed can completely relate to.

The pregnancy plot was not nearly so pleasant. Yes, poor Quinn got herself kicked out by her horrid father, and Finn has to man up more, which were poignant and important moments, but the thing I can't get out of my head was Puck (Mark Salling)'s confession to Mercedes (Amber Riley). He was pissed because he's the father of Quinn's baby.

And what did Mercedes say? She told him to back off and leave Quinn alone. She'd chosen her baby's father, and Puck should suck it up that it's not him. WHAT!!! Are you kidding me! Puck is the father, and he has just as much right to claim his baby as Quinn does. You can't just sleep with some random guy and get pregnant and then decide the father is someone completely different. That's not how biology works. And Puck wants to be a part of his child's life.

Plus, it is totally unfair to Finn not only to be lied to about it, but to have the pressure of being a young father thrown on his shoulders cause Quinn decided it would be so.

I will be pissed if this thing never comes to light. Frankly I now strongly dislike Mercedes character; I think she's a bitch.

Am I being to harsh, or do you agree? And where the heck was Sue??

Dexter - Road Kill, S04E08

When this season of Dexter started, I assumed that the Trinity murderer's murders would span the season. I was very much surprised when he finished his cycle of murders before the season was half over. And I am even more surprised that he has remained alive.

John Lithgow's Trinity Killer is a brilliant variety of emotional moments, and I will miss him whenever it is that Michael C Hall's Dexter manages to kill him. Not only has be been a worthy adversary for everyone's favourite serial killer, but Lithgow's performance is sublime.

And it could easily have become tedious. It took little time for Dexter to find Arthur Miller, the mask of Trinity, and in the previous seasons once Dexter had labelled you a killer, well, you weren't really going to last. But Miller has staying power, and the writers have made us believe it.

Dexter doesn't want to go through with the kill because, as Miller pointed out this episode, they are the same. They have killed innocents, and regretted it, and they also have to kill, yet both manage to mascaraed as normal, happy family men with perfect but slightly flawed families.

In watching Trinity, we see what Dexter might become, or what he might have become even more so that with his brother. It forces us to think about how we feel about what Dexter does. After all, despite his caution he still managed to kill an innocent man. His victim did not deserve to die, and so we remember why we think that capital punishment is questionable and why police investigations have so much protocol.

Yes, Dexter is full of morality, and it is also full of interesting questions. For instance, who shot Deb and Lundy and why? The Trinity Killer made SO much sense, but he is too damn tall for the shot that was taken. Plus, now that we know Arthur Miller, it does not seem his style to kill bystanders with a gun. But we had already determined it wasn't the vacation murderer...so perhaps it was Christine, the annoying journalist, out to get the best possible stories in this tough economic climate.

What are your suspicions? And how do you feel about Dexter as a serial killer of late?

White Collar - Flip of the Coin, S01E04

White Collar continues to please me every week. Matthew Bomer as Caffrey, Tim DeKay as Burke and Tiffani Thiessen as Ellie continue to have fantastic chemistry and timing between the three of them. And Willie Garson as Mozzie, finally allowed to interact with DeKay, completes a solid and terrific cast.

The episodes themselves do not always lend to greater commentary. Yes, I absolutely adored Burke's inability to deal with crying women. Yes, I was quite happy that between Caffrey and Mozzie the job got accomplished with some lovely finessing of the rules. Yes, I love that Neal is as good as he is. But what else can I say? It was good, it was solid, I liked it, and I laughed.

Perhaps we should discuss morality? How do you feel about the FBI working with a convicted felon? Is this a good thing, since Neal so clearly understands the world of con artists and has the skills not only to be one but also to thwart them? Or is he likely to do us all a bad turn and use his time with the FBI not only to get whatever it is that he wants, but also to better avoid them next time?

And what does Neal want? Is it just to find Kate? It it for Kate? But other than a hint about Bordeaux and that X marks the spot we continue to learn little about it.

What are your thoughts?

The Mentalist - His Red Right Hand, S02E08

After two weeks of speculation and concern, we finally got to watch His Red Right Hand and discover which character (or characters) on The Mentalist would die.

I was fearful - who could they possibly kill of our leads? The only possibilities that made any sense were Sam Bosco (Terry Kinney) and Vincent Minelli (Gregory Itzin), but with all the hype about the deaths, it seemed too easy. If they really wanted to shock and surprise, killing Cho (Tim Kang) or Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) would have been far more effective.

But Bosco died, not Rigsby or Cho, and while that seems to obvious answer, I was happy with it. I can live with Bosco's death even though he'd stopped being such a pickle, and I can live with the death of the rest of his team too. But just because I can live with these things, and just because I am gleeful that my favourite CBI team has escaped unharmed (physically at any rate), it does not mean that this episode wasn't both heart-rending and forward-moving.

Bosco's death, shortly after he confessed his love to Lisbon (Robin Tunney) and made Jane (Simon Baker) promise to kill Red John, was a blow to everyone. He was made of the right stuff, and once he stopped being so difficult toward Jane, things would really have started to move forward. Plus, you have to love that he was not forgiving of Jane's ridiculous and illegal behaviour. Sure, it's nice to always solve a case, but sometimes it's nice for the conviction to hold.

He will be missed.

There has been some speculation as to how this will affect the team. Well, Minelli retiring certainly will be an issue. Someone new is going to have to get used to Jane's eccentricities. We'll have to see just how forgiving he or she is. Lisbon will certainly not be able to move on easily. She loved Sam, too. Even Rigsby is suffering over the death of Hicks, whose life he had saved only a week ago.

Jane, on the other hand, will not be affected any more than usual. There was a moment, when the murderer told Jane that Red John had killed Bosco and his team so that Jane could be back on the case, that Jane believed these new murders might truly be his fault. It didn't even cross his mind at that point that Bosco was just reopening the case to him and he would have been back on the trail soon enough. But when she said those words, believing all the while that Red John was a good man, well it took something out of Jane. That was all undone only moments later when Red John killed his own right hand. She may have been willing to do anything for him, but she meant nothing to him. And when Jane was proven correct on that front, he got his strength back.

Red John killed Bosco and had her tell Jane it was for him to hurt Jane. Nothing more. It's a crappy reason to die, but Jane will honour their memories by not being distracted. Before the mourning of his fellows was over, he was back at the files, desperate to find a trace of Red John's mistakes.

He had made them before, he would make one again, and eventually, he will be caught.

I just hope not too soon. Either the series will end, or some other super serial killer that cannot be caught will have to appear to save the day.

Where do you think we will go from here?