Chuck - Chuck vs the Pink Slip, S03E01

Chuck is back, baby!! Despite the real threat of cancellation last year, Chuck got renewed for a third season. I just hope viewership increases to guarantee a fourth, etc.

When last season ended, Chuck (Zachary Levi) had just downloaded a new intersect into his brain, one that allowed him to learn kung fu. In Chuck vs the Pink Slip, we learned that regardless of how many awesome new abilities he can now access - kung fu, guitar playing, boxing, etc - he still has no control over his ability to flash and access the skills.

This episode, the first of three starting off the season, was really designed to restore the status quo. Because of the fear of cancellation last year, changes occurred that needed to be undone so that our heroes could continue to function in about the same way they did in years past.

Chuck, Casey (Adam Baldwin), and Morgan (Joshua Gomez) are all now working at the Buy More again, Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) and Chuck are back to hiding their feelings from each other, and the team is back to working together in the Castle under neath the Orange Orange yogurt shop.

In many ways, Chuck still has the stand alone formula, where no major changes will occur except in season finales or the like. The premise of every episode is about the same - Chuck, Sarah, and Casey must save the world with their spy skills while keeping their spying a secret, and our friends at the Buy More get themselves into some kind of trouble, which may or may not overlap with the spy plot.

In this episode, the highlight was truly Casey flying in to rescue Sarah and Chuck, firing his large gun and delighting in every moment of it. Oh, have I missed this show. Did you miss it two? Check back in an hour for the review of So3E02!

Bones - The Goop on the Girl, S05E10

Bones gave us a Christmas episode again this year, and though Santa Claus was involved, it was not as exciting as the year when Booth (David Boreanaz) and Brennan (Emily Deschanel) kissed under the mistletoe.

We had a special guest star - Zooey Deschanel, Emily Deschanel's sister. In the episode, she played Brennan's cousin, and everyone got to joke about how they looked so similar they could be sisters. Unfortunately, though cousin Margaret could be amusing with her dry quoting of Benjamin Franklin, and though it did reveal that Temperance is not so very different from her family, the only purpose for having her on the show was to get a guest spot from Zooey Deschanel. Which is too bad -they could have done much more with it.

And, despite getting to delight in watching Brennan strip Booth down to his boxers because his clothes were covered in evidence, as a Christmas episode it ended up being quite sad. A young man was blown up and his mother had to bury him on Christmas, alone. There is something very strange about being sent off to the holidays by a cast of crime solving characters, who have made me laugh so hard that I've cried, with a funeral.

And as we return this Thursday, we wonder if Booth and Brennan will finally get together, and more importantly if Hodgins (T J Thyne) and Angela (Michaela Conlin) will get back together.

Castle - The Fifth Bullet, S02E11

Another finale before the Christmas break that was like any other episode. Still, an excellent episode, both comical and playing with the heart strings.

When a gallery owner is murdered, only 4 of 5 bullets fired are on scene. The fifth turns up in a copy of Crime and Punishment, in the pocket of an amnesiac.

Jay, or Jeremy when he finally found out his name (played by Marc Blucas*), was a witness to the murder, but cannot remember the events. Soon, his ex-wife shows up to help him, and though he can't remember her, and she can remember their divorce, there is still a deep connection between the two of him. Jeremy is sweet, self-deprecating, and smart - he is so likable that a crazy lady came in off the street to try to claim him as her husband since he could not remember otherwise.

Liking Jeremy just made it so painful when a gun turned up in his apartment, and all evidence indicated that he had murdered the gallery owner and been shot at in the struggle. And Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Beckett (Stana Katic) were pained by the discovery because not only was it harsh that such a likable fellow was a murderer, but he could not remember why he did it in the first place.

I have always feared amnesia, though as long as one is able to form new memories, even if you start your life over at 50, is better than the kind where you only truly understand what's going on for about an hour. Still, to start that new life with a jail sentence based on something you did before you forgot would simply be horrible.

In the end, of course, he turned out to be innocent. And so, while emotional, we did end on a high note. The humour throughout the episode was also a terrific balance. At the start, Castle threatens to get himself a dog named Sherlock to help them investigate, and points out to the disapproving Beckett that she is clearly his work wife. Martha (Susan Sullivan) had it right at the end of the episode when she told Castle to kiss Beckett before they were old.

And tonight, you can catch the first episode of the second half of season 2, guest starring Alyssa Milano. Are you excited?

The Mentalist - Throwing Fire, S02E10

As a nice send off before the hiatus, The Mentalist gave us an episode that not only had the delight of Jane (Simon Baker) being slightly out of sorts, but also flashbacks to his childhood and his relationship with his father.

When a baseball trainer is killed, by several blows to the head with a baseball bat, our CBI team is called to investigate. Jane gets whacked in the head by a fly ball, passes out, and starts remembering his father and the moment he chose former path in life.

The episode focused on father-son relationships, with a focus on the pressure fathers put on their children to succeed and what disastrous consequences that come later.

Naturally, of all the baseball players' fathers who were trying to get their sons scouted, the one with the best relationship with his son turned out to be the killer.

The lesson? Make your own choices because in the long run you will be responsible for them. And Jane really felt that was an important lesson.

In his flashbacks, we learn about how his father trained him to be a psychic for the circus. We see him delighting in bringing happiness to a woman when he knew something about her life, but regretting the con when he was supposed to be able to save a little girl's life, something he knew he could never do.

The moment when he decided to go through with that con was the moment when he sealed his own fate, putting him on the path that led to the death of his wife and child. I have to wonder if Patrick Jane has ever actually thought of that. He probably blames many things on his father, and on himself, but in some ways I think he might be too selfish to share that blame with anyone else.

As for the rest of the team, Lisbon (Robin Tunney) didn't get enough attention, though she did get a few zingers in at Jane's expense, Cho (Tim Kang) got the chase down an escaping witness, and Grace (Amanda Righetti) and Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) had several sweet moments at work, but proved that they could remain focused in a crisis.

Now, I just wonder if we will pick up the season with a Red John episode, or whether episode 8 is all we are getting for a while.

The Mentalist - A Price Above Rubies, S02E09

This episode of the Mentalist took on a more serious tone than usual, with only a few moments of amusing delight. Strange how serious an episode where the murder victim had no opportunity for sympathy can be.

In A Price Above Rubies, a wealthy young man robs his own jewelry store and commits murder to cover his trail. It did not take long for our CBI agents and Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) into making the foolish man confess his crime, and the path that led to his arrest lacked the typical zeal of the show.

When Jane and Lisbon (Robin Tunney) went to the rehab clinic to determine a connection between two of the suspects, we got our splash of the affection between the two as Jane pretended to be a concerned husband, and Lisbon, the supposed alcoholic wife, verged on wanting to kill him, as well as being amused.

We also go a little Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) and Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) moment at the end of the episode, when a diamond turned up in her pocket and Jane told her that Rigsby put it there. But it was not enough to make for the tension the two had shown earlier when, while pursuing a lead, Grace asked Wayne if it would always be so secretive between them. The pair has barely been together for two episodes and there is already tension because it would be problematic to go public? Plus the fact that it's being brought up while they are on duty just proved the CBI right for their concern about relationships between their agents. And wouldn't you think it was Rigsby who would want more from the relationship? After all, until they got in bed together, Grace was the one being sensible about it.

And we have not been getting enough of Cho (Tim Kang).

Then again, every show needs to have weaker episodes so that we have a chance to better appreciate the solid ones.

Castle - One Man's Treasure, S02E10

The quality of the crime investigation plot lines of Castle (as opposed to the personal relationship plot lines) is based on misdirection. There are very few episodes of any crime show where the murderer is not introduced at some point before the truth is discovered, sometimes as a suspect, and sometimes as a minor witness, almost forgotten.

In One Man's Treasure, the misdirection was not about laying the blame at the feet of one suspect so that another would go unnoticed, as was the case in episode 9 of this season, but to direct the focus of the crime towards the personal relationships of the victim rather than his work.

When a man is murdered, both his wife and his fiancée show up to identify the body. Naturally, the suspicion is that someone discovered his deception and murdered him out of vengeance. Abigail Spencer, whom you may know as the obsessive school teacher on Mad Men, played the wounded fiancée with an equally obsessive fervor. She masked her role of preventing the victim from performing corporate espionage by being the distraught wronged woman in love with a man who lied about being married.

The poor wife, who could not believe what her husband had done, suffered the persisting interference of a woman who did not actually care but was trying to recover corporate secrets. In the end, she learnt that her husband loved her and died protecting the environment, but the roller coaster of her emotions, which were elegantly portrayed, makes the fake fiancée quite the bitch.

In the end, Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Beckett (Stana Katic) sifted through all the information and worked out who was doing what to whom, and with all the misdirection, I was not able to work out the motive or the murderer any faster than they were. Kudos for that, and also for making an episode that, while punny as always, focused more on the crime and the victims than it did on the ongoing character development of Beckett and her police force and Castle and his family.

Castle - Love Me Dead, S02E09

Corruption, prostitute rings, and secrets are often the make up of great storylines. Such was the case of the 9th episode of season 2 of Castle.

Despite various warnings throughout the episode that people are not always what they seem - mostly to increase the worry of a fretful Rick Castle (Nathan Fillion) in regards to a secret his daughter, Alexis (Molly C. Quinn), was keeping from him, I did not pick up on who the brains behind the killings was until the end reveal.

The story began with an allusion to Cape Fear, a DA was found murdered, thrown off a parking garage, and Castle was convinced that the murderer would be found in the files of the criminals that DA had previously put in jail. A known set up, which I'm sure the writers could have gone with to make a good story.

Instead, they took a different route. Our paragon of justice, the murdered DA, was apparently also a pimp. Responsible for a ring of call girls, his death was the result of a take over by his enforcer. Sifting through the information, Beckett (Stana Katic) and Castle are able to build a case against Knox, the enforcer and murderer of the DA, with the help of a hapless call girl, Scarlett (Michaela McManus). Though scared for her life, she reveals that Knox faked his alibi.

Scarlett had Castle utterly convinced of her vulnerability, and when Knox kidnapped her, Castle and Beckett came to the rescue, just in time for Scarlett to kill Knox, protecting herself. As she collapsed to the floor in shock, the performance seemed genuine. She appeared truly frightened and unable to comprehend the events that brought her to the point where she had to take a man's life.

Despite her brilliant acting, certain mistakes she made in the staging of the kidnapping were revealed, and Beckett and a disappointed Castle arrested her.

We all want so much to believe in the goodness of people, that a DA is completely law-abiding, that call girls all really hope to become lawyers and came to their present situations through tragedy, that people are what they seem and what they present to us. But one must face the facts, and if the facts say that someone is a criminal and their story is false, it doesn't matter how good their story is. Though, of course, it might still get published.