The L Word Season 1 Review - Very Informal

The L Word: Season 1

Grade: 5.8/10

The L Word Season 1 overall proved to be better than the pilot suggested. However, many of the issues I had from the pilot remained a significant part of the series as the viewer is essentially shown a group of women who are cruel to their loved ones for a variety of reasons; the primary one being “I couldn’t help myself”.

Worst of all is the character of Jenny played by Mia Kirshner. If ever a role could destroy an actor or actress for me for the remainder of time it would be Jenny ruining Mia Kirshner. The more I think about why these people would ever write a character so major to the story this bipolar, frustrating, mind-numbingly wishy-washy and just plain bitchy is beyond my comprehension as a human being. In the Pilot she wasn’t so terrible. She was clearly confused and realizing that she felt something for another woman; Marina. However this storyline plummets quickly as we see that Jenny begins to do oddly hypocritical things like; avoid Marina, then deliberately go to The Planet where she works, then tell her she it was a mistake, then follow her into the bathroom to do stuff, then tell her it was a mistake, then wait for her to call, then continue to do it with her, then feel really guilty, then not feel guilty. The stupidity goes on like that for a while. Then when Tim finally catches Marina going down on her the logical thing to do would be…to lie, say it was the first and only time and then go to The Planet to tell Marina she will never see her again and then get married to Tim. Totally logical, right? Right? :cricket…cricket: Granted, Tim was the one with the grand plan to get married but really liked Tim and I understand that he was very confused at that point and considering that Jenny makes about 100 of the stupidest decisions a person can possibly make so Tim gets to make 1 bad decision. I allow it. Plus it led up to the moment when Tim leaves Jenny in the motel room in the middle of the night after getting married which was basically the funniest thing ever. What does that lead Jenny to do? Jenny, being Jenny, decides to write stupid things while sitting in a fucking field and then she hitchhikes and takes some shrooms with Cally from BSG and then climbs a mountain and then sits next to a mailbox. Then she comes back and lies to Tim again who, hilariously, throws all of Jenny’s stuff onto the yard. Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. I won’t even go into the rest because I’m getting mad just thinking about it. But I’ll tell you that it involves getting screwed over by Marina and her lover Francesca, throwing wine bottles, writing about manatees who can talk, going to an aquarium and looking at some manatees, having sex while manatees watch and then hooking up with a really nice woman named Robin (played by the great Anne Ramsay) who really deserves better. All in all she is truly a terrible concoction. This is coming from someone who loves flawed characters, deeply flawed ones, but Jenny and most of these characters are either too cruel or too uninteresting to hold my interest or sympathy.

The rest of the storylines did not fare nearly as badly as this. Bette and Tina end up being quite likable. My favorite stuff in the season involved Bette’s handling of the “Provocations” exhibit and her interaction with her father. She blew it all though by randomly fucking over a 7 year relationship by fucking a carpenter multiple times. Because that makes sense. It would have been a lot more interesting if she had been a character who we knew for a while. But no; Candace comes in for one episode and by the end of it they are making out. Poor Tina. Right now I enjoy Tina but I am going to take a wild guess and assume she will do something to make me hate her eventually. I am 5 episodes away from finishing Season 2. Bette gets so much worse in Season 2 but we will come to that in time. I found myself invested in the two of them and it was pretty heartbreaking when they had the miscarriage. Bette’s breakdown at the Fae Buckley debate was rather fantastic and moving.

Dana continued to be pretty annoying. I enjoyed her coming out to her parents and her relationship with the sous-chef but overall her moments of humor are what made her stand out. Her relationship with Tanya is just so stupid and makes no sense. Alice is much worse, in the first season at least (she becomes tolerable in the second season). All she talks about is her stupid chart and gossip. She had an interesting brief relationship with an ex and the stuff with her mother was interesting enough.

Kit was a waste of time. Her presence feels forced and awkward. One of my favorite scenes of the season though, was her encounter with her and Bette’s father.

Of course there is Shane, the saving grace of the show. Her storyline was actually very interesting and I loved where it took her character. Her refusal to get involved with Cherie Jaffe’s daughter was fantastic and the scene where she confronts Cherie both at the house and at the exhibit was really moving. Shane lights up any scene she is in and one the best things about her is the way she handles situations differently than anyone else. She comes off as very free and easy going, which she is, but she has so much integrity. What’s great about her is that she won’t get involved in anything if it’s not her business but she is so loyal to helping people out, to a fault. She’s so caring and it is adorable.

Overall the season was okay but nothing special. The episode where we see each of the characters first lesbian experience was great. Using Leonard Cohen is always very welcome (he is used twice more). Seeing Devon Gummersall aka Brian Krakow was a pleasant surprise as well as seeing Tigh from BSG as Dana’s father. A few storylines were genuinely intriguing but more often than not they were either actively bad or uninteresting. The women just come off as people who have nothing else to do but fuck up their lives in every way possible and then not take responsibility for anything. Essentially it’s like watching a bunch of children.

Sorry that this review is not an attempt at something deep or professional or meaningful or relevant. The show is simply not worth it to me. You will hear from me after I finish Season 2. I am fast forwarding through pointless nonsense with this show.

24: Season 8, Episode 11: "2:00-3:00am"

"24″: Season 8, Episode 11: “2:00-3:00am”
Grade: 6/10

This week’s episode of “24” was a step up from essentially the entire season thus far. While the majority of it was the mediocre to bad quality of television that us fans have become used to sitting through, towards the end of the episode we were given a 10 minute segment that was a breath of fresh air, easily the best of the season so far, which showed us that “24” can still provide genuinely interesting and suspenseful situations.
Bringing on Mare Winningham as the mother of the son who had a bomb strapped to him was a very smart move. There have been countless occasions when the audience is asked to care about characters we meet for maybe an hour and 99% of the time the show fails at bringing any level of genuine sympathy and attachment to the table in its efforts to make us invested in people we will only know for one hour. Or even several hours; for example, not once were the Russian brothers anything but a waste of time, yet we were supposed to care. Bringing on an actress we know and an actress that can evoke immediate sympathy draws us in very quickly and the situation then becomes something to invest in. Throw in the classic “24” scenario of a young fellow who has convinced himself that America killed his father resulting in the bomb strapped to him which then allows Winningham and Bauer to try to convince him to stop, and we have a bona fide great scene folks. And that’s what those 10 minutes were; great. This season has essentially been a joke; I’ve laughed more than anything else. It’s just bad. I’ve been watching this show since it premiered nearly 10 years ago so I am not about to stop now but the level of excitement in me when I know a new episode is coming is now at an all time low. However there are two things that hopefully signify a rise in quality this season. One are those 10 minutes which prove to me these people still have something left in them. Two is the preview for next week which actually looks decent especially with whatever seems to be going down at CTU.
Now that those 10 minutes which ended in tragedy have been covered, we can go over the rest of the episode. I have decided that I wish that Dana and Cole’s subplot was purely comedic. Think about it; this subplot sucks beyond comprehension and there seems to be no end in sight for it. “24” should have conducted an experiment in genre television by having the rest of the show be as serious as it normally is; don’t change anything. Then, every time we see Dana and Cole it would be like a Laurel and Hardy thing. Think of the hilarity that would ensue when they try to drown the bodies? How about the screwball comedy of trying to hide all of these phone calls that Dana has to take? It would be a huge failure, but it would be one of the most famous stunts a show ever pulled and either way it would be genuinely hilarious or gloriously awful. Think about it; at least it would be more interesting.
Anyways, Dana continued to be a moron this hour especially when she took that phone call. She is a moron for not assuming that this guy had information. And what did he have? Not much. He has proof that a few phone calls took place. Not that they met, not what was in the phone conversations. All she needed to say was he was an old friend of mine and we talked a few times. But no; she had to deny, deny, deny. Then she calls Cole because she made a boo-boo. I loved how annoyed he was when she called. And the “Lie; we both know you’re good at it?” Well guess what Dana; if you both get out of this okay (which you won’t) then you have a lovely lifetime of quips like that to look forward to. It was also funny how everyone made the rounds of taking a shot at Dana. First it was Head-Tilt Hastings, then Chloe and then Arlo who is the worst character of all time. Also, way too much time was given to Dana this week, even more than usual. The scene in which Head-Tilt Hastings lectures Dana in his office was unnecessary; we just had this scene 10 minutes before when Head-Tilt Hastings lectured both Dana and Cole. It was the same scene twice.
What else happened? Not much. We found out that the Tarin is in fact a co-conspirator which was pretty obvious. This continues to prove that if a couple are having sex during any part of the show, that one of them is bad and that we will find out in the form of a post coital hotel shower scene. It’s happened countless times on this show and it happened again. I have to admit though that the President’s daughter is one of the best I’ve seen at not showing how scared she is. Bravo.
Hassan and his wife yelled at each other. And is that it? I think that might be it. Character wise, nothing interesting is happening with Jack. I wonder how long Renee will stay at his apartment before something goes down. We shall see. Next week looks to be interesting actually. As I said, anything going down at CTU is welcome by me.

The Office: Season 6, Episode 8: "Koi Pond"

The Office: Season 6, Episode 8: "Koi Pond": 7.1/10

I am very intrigued with where this season could be going. I have just finished reading a review of this episode on The A.V Club and they basically have this theory that what the show is doing is slowly having Jim become Michael. They think Michael was probably more like Jim (in that people generally liked him) before he became boss and that his need to be liked has turned him into the boss he is today. While Jim does not have the same need to be liked as Michael does, Jim has insecurities that are significant as well and that we are going to see a slow transformation into how Jim becomes more like Michael. This is not my theory; it is The A.V Clubs'.

I'm not going to subscribe to this as of yet because I do not think that the series is going to take the Jim stuff that far and I do not think that Steve Carell is going to leave while the show continues. Despite this, I think that what they are doing with Jim is pretty incredible and I will get to the reasons why in a minute.

Overall I think that this episode was a bit messy. Like Curb I think it tried to cram too many things into the episod or it was not structured right or something. While the last 10 minutes were really something, I feel like it was too crammed. I like that they took Pam out of the office for the episode to let the Michael/Pam's mom story btreath a bit. I do feel that they spent too much time on the B story and I wish more time had been spent on the A one. Pam is a bitch. I guess I'll give her some slack because she is pregnant but her reaction to being mistaken for Andy's wife was entirely uncalled (although Andy's revenge went too far as well). They spent too much time on the final meeting involving Pam and Andy pretending to be a couple. The last scene with them was pretty nice though even though I cannot for the life of me figure out why Pam has a problem with Erin since I absolutely adore her.

The A story line was a bit repetitive in places. Also, apparently the entire office decided to become douches for Halloween. Something I am loving about this season so far with Jim in the co-manager position is that he is being put in difficult positions. It is very interesting to see him have the reactions that Michael can have to things when he is put under pressure. He can be awkward and it is a different experience seeing someone else besides Michael in that position. I thought the way he spoke to Angela when he said "I wasn't talking to you" was the most angry I have seen him in the shows' run. He cannot control anyone. The office employees are in control and not Michael and Jim because of the way Michael has conducted the office over the years. I cannot wait to see where they take Jim this season. He wants to try to succeed on his own and I hope they show us whether he can or not.

During the episode I though it is going one way and then it took a turn. A great turn. I did not think the Michael "breakdown" or whatever we want to call it was serious enough but it was still a slightly jarring turn of events as his joked about himself directly leads into him trying to joke about his lonliness (probably testing out a new way to handle it for himself) and it backfires immediately as none of the office members find it funny and Michael certainly is unable to joke about it either. By bringing in the next unexpected turn of events, the episode unfortunately throws this revalation to the side for the rest of the episode.

The realization that overshadows Michael's "breakdown" is a very interesting one. We see that Jim could have saved Michael from falling into the pond but he actually stepped back. Wow. Was it just a natural reaction or was it deliberate because of the way Michael had treated him earlier? They imply it was on purpose. Either way I was really surprised when the episode revealed this but I was again dissapointed in the way it is shoved under the rug. Michael says "Jim is jealous of me" and this realization maks him ok. Everything was wrapped up way too quickly in this episode but I do think that a lot of the issues in the episode will be addressed again very soon particularly everything involving Jim and his new position. Not a perfect episode but a flawed one that has great moments and begins to explore some really fantastic potential that the season has set up for us.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 7, Episode 6: "The Bare Midriff": 6.2/10

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 7, Episode 6: "The Bare Midriff": 6.2

I personally thought that this episode had a bit too much going on that it tried to cram into the episode. I know that the show usually does have a lot of threads that all tie together in some way but I think this episode overextended himself. That being said though I still liked the episode.

I was happy to see Jerry and Julia back this week. I really love Larry and Jerry's interactions with each other. At a certain point I started to wonder if the episode was going to be following them around all day and I sort of wish it had. The material with the bare midriff was funny although I wish they had addressed the issue more as a personal offense of what is and is not office appropriate wear and not so much as the fact that they were offended by someone of her body type wearing the shirt. I love the way Larry brought the whole thing up. He tried to be gentle but it backfired of course. Other highlights included Larry and Jerry refusing to move over for Richard Lewis and Richard Lewis getting hit by a car.

Dexter: Season 4, Episode 5: "Dirty Harry": 8.2/10

Dexter: Season 4, Episode 5: "Dirty Harry": 8.2

This season is really just getting better and better. As I have said before this show can easily feel like it is on repeat but I really do feel like we are starting to delve into some new and interesting material here. Particularly in the way that the season has connected Dexter and the Trinity Killer in the issues involving family. At the end of this episode we and Dexter learn that the Trinity Killer who we assumed was a lone wolf because Lundy (RIP : ( ) assumed it, is actually a family man. Dexter is also now a family man. It brings up a lot of really fascinating stuff for Dexter and I cannot wait to see how the show explores these issues of family and being forced to maintain connection to humanity as both Dexter and the Trinity Killer do what they do and more importantly why the Trinity Killer is able to do this.

Something else I really loved about the episode is that you would expect this to be a pretty low key episode that mainly deals with the fallout of the shocker at the end of the previous episode but in fact a great deal happens here. Deb and Anton broke up, Rita found out Dexter still keeps his apartment and confronted him on it, Deb had a breakdown (which I will get to), Angel is being transferred, the Trinity Killer killed again, Dexter found out who the Trinity Killer was, etc. A lot happened which was nice.

My favorite scene of the season to date occurred in this episode and it was Deb's breakdown. I have said before that I think that Jennifer Carpenter is entirely unappreciated and she is without a doubt more talented than a great deal of the actresses working today. She gave us a very refreshing on screen breakdown that moved me to tears not only because of what her character was saying and how badly I felt for her but because she had a breakdown in the way that real people have breakdowns. She starts hyperventilating and everything; it was so real and exactly the way it actually is and she absolutely nailed this scene which was so extremely emotional. I hope Deb can pull through and I think she can because even though she is such an emotional person who really feels everything she is also very very strong. Her dialogue in that scene hit pretty hard. She has such a low sense of self worth and we rarely get to see that she does so when it all comes out it is slightly hard to take. I love Deb.

Anyways this was a really great episode and I think they are doing a much better job at keeping up momentum and intrigue than last season and the first season as well. Thinsg are just getting more and more intense and I really hope this season can end with some actual consequences or a cliffhanger because I am sick of each season ending with everything perfectly wrapped up. You would think Dexter is controversial but it is actually so easy to watch and it really pulls back a lot of the time. I want it to do something drastic at some point. Last week's end was pretty incredible though.

There are still things I do not like very much particularly Quinn and his stupid girlfriend but at least we got rid of one weak link this week; Anton. He sucked. I think the show has always struggled with making any supporting character stuff as interesting as the Dexter storylines.

24: Season 7, Episode 22: "5:00am-6:00am"

24:
Season 7, Episode 22: “5:00am-6:00am”
Grade: 6.9

I am not sure why, after so many great episodes of 24 this season I have no idea why they decided that the last 6 episodes to drop the ball. This episode was not bad. There were good things about it definitely. I guess I am just disappointed that the season went in this direction. I was really hoping and not only hoping but had faith that this season of 24 would manage to bring Kim in and not have her be in danger. I was hoping that they would rely on Kim for something else than to be in peril. But once she was in the airport, I knew that she was in for it. As soon as we had the first shot of the woman that we are supposed to think is a nice woman that will help Kim out, I knew they were bad. There are some things and some situations where 24 cannot fool me anymore, but it’s cute to see them try. There are some things with the Kim thing this time that I appreciated. One was that Kim was not actively kidnapped like she always is; in fact at this point she has no idea what is going on. This was a clear decision made by the writers so that even though they have the same situation going on that we’ve seen before; it’s being done in a different way. So this I appreciated. Something else I have realized about it is that it is the most dramatic thing they can do. It has been a while since we’ve seen Kim and thus it has been a while since Jack has had to face this situation. When you add Tony into the mix of things and the fact that Jack is dying and Renee, you pretty much get the most dramatic situation that Jack can have going for him. So I am excited to see how this I resolved and I am also excited that if they had to bring the Kim thing in, that they have done it in a way that is slightly different. I just hate that the show became so clearly predictable this late in the game.

However I really cannot stand seeing Jack having to play the bad guy. Not in the sense that I think its bad TV but its just hard to watch. Again though, we’ve seen this situation so many times and while it is exciting, I was hoping that this season could continue its’ really impressive exciting streak by bringing something new to the table. Since Kim has to stay alive for Jack to give him the bone marrow so he can survive and since we know Jack survives, we know that both of them live. And since someone big has to die because this is the finale it has to be Tony. So Jack and Kim and Renee (she’s due back next season) will survive and Tony will not. It is not hard to figure out what will happen in these last 2 hours and that is very unfortunate.

In other news, what for me is extremely exciting is that Ethan is back!!!! Here is hoping that Ethan comes back for next season because there is no way Olivia is obviously going to keep this job. I have always liked the Olivia story because even though she is aggravating, I have always been interested in the story. Again though, it’s another story that we pretty much know how it is going to end. I may not know the specific outcome of it but obviously Olivia will no longer have her position at the end of the season and she will be found out. However it will be interesting to see how this effects the Taylor administration. YAY ETHAN!!!

This episode among the goods was a great scene between Jack and Tony in which Jack beat the hell out of Tony all in a minute. Then we see him asking why he betrayed him. Neither has anything left to lose. He looks at Tony like a sad puppy. Then we go to Renee as she gets a position on Jibraan. Then she goes to get Jack and we see that he has been standing there looking at Tony all sad and disappointed and betrayed for the past minute and a half. Oh boy was it sad.

On the other hand we saw Jibraan and Hamid reunite which was nice. I really was hoping they would end up happy. No Taylor which was weird. She has been pretty absent lately. So that is pretty much it. Everything is set up for the next two final hours of 24 Season 7. I’m not too thrilled with the familiar situations we are in going into the finale but I am hoping it will be exciting nonetheless. Even though I’m pretty sure about what is going to happen, it will still be really heartbreaking and dramatic for sure if Tony is in fact dying next week.