shrewd.buddha

Gah. This show. Merlin kills and kills and kills .. left, right, and center.. But when he gets the chance to kill the Brick - someone he actually has a personal reason to kill ... he just talks and talks and talks some more.. These shows do this all the time. The red shirts and unknowns are killed with hardly a thought, sorta making murder seem ordinary and casual. But when a 'named' character, big baddie, or supporting character is in the line of fire, everyone takes a moment to think about the ramifications. WtF?!

Wow. There are leadership confrontations and killing at every turn -- like some kind of crazy pinball machine of fighting. The Grounders are always ready to fight the Sky People, and kill everyone and everything. The Sky People are always power-playing and fighting among themselves (Clarke vs Abby vs Jaha vs ..). The Mountain People are now fighting among themselves and are fighting the Grounders and the Sky People. It's all a bit much all the time... We know the Mountain People are trapped in one location. But what is the excuse for the Grounders not finding a less killing-fields neighborhood to live in? And we know Clarke and the Sky People are sticking to one spot because their people are prisoners. Clarke & the Sky People should now be the name of this show..

I am really impressed with how all the separate elements are starting to gel in the final episodes. I'm also liking how Peggy's co-workers are coming around and are not just stereotypes. They are being shown as men who are good at their jobs, despite their prejudices at the time. Man, that was a brutal, two day work trip for the the SSR agents. Judging from their running escape from the camp, the bodies of their co-workers were left behind. It looks as if it took Stark's betrayal for Peggy to be more assertive at work. She isn't hiding her skills anymore. ...Unfortunately, it appears her new status is to be short lived from what the previews showed for next week. Oh well, it was a good evolution from her beginning status.

So, in that last scene with Jack and Beth-Michelle ... If Jack hooks us with Beth it will mean he has slept with all his female co-workers - in addition to having had problems at his last job related to sleeping with women at work (Amanda). He had even told Janice, before having sex with her (hate the 'sleeping' euphemism), that he had a problem with that. If Beth goes for it, it's another ding for her profiling skills. And Jack (DM) still comes off more creepy than comforting. The blonde boyfriend cop was really ridiculously bad : "He doesn't have an alibi, let's arrest him!" "Okay, now she did it, let's arrest her!" "Arrest this guy, we found his lighter !" ...But we was right about not wanting to be part of Amanda's messy personal life. Jack is screwing up everyone's boundaries between work life and private life . As for the case of the week : once again the Stalker Squad does not figure out who is the real stalker until the target is taken hostage and it's a life-or-death situation. That's not good for their record, right? When the crazy stalker chick had the woman backed up against the pier railing and then said they were going to jump together, I kept thinking "You are a lifeguard! Go ahead and jump off the pier and swim to safety!" It's not as if the stalker had a gun to shoot her from a distance. And the victim-of-the-week also didn't show much lifeguard-ing skills when she just stood by and let her fiance burn to a crisp. Maybe it was better that he died quickly - but no one tried to throw a blanket or sand on him. The lifeguard girl also had a huuuuge house in LA. How much money do LA lifeguards make? Would have been more realistic if she were a Baywatch actress 'lifeguard'.

I think the show was committed to sticking to Kitty's story line from the books. Which is fine, I guess. But in actual life, I think Sherlock would have tried to talk Kitty out of killing or maiming not for the sake of Gruner, but for her own sake. He wants the best for her and that would not be going from one type of psychological prison to a life of hiding from the law. She may have freed herself of feeling like a victim, but now she is not free to live however she pleases. Joan and Sherlock should have realized the consequences Kitty would have to deal with. But I don't think the show is going for realism, so never mind.... And realism probably would not have given us all the dramatic scenes that were so good.

Unfortunately, Lucy Liu's Watson does suffer in comparison to Kitty -- and I feel that comparison will now hang over the show .. I suppose the show cannot abruptly change the setup of the characters, since they are married to the Holmes' mythos. Such things do take me out of the story, making me wonder about director's choices, actors' choices, etc. ...Especially when it comes to things like Holmes' haircut and styling and Watson's flatness (or is it restraint?).

How does Clarke always manage to end up on a girl-date camping trip with the leader of the Grounders? First Anya, now Lexa. It usually doesn't end well for whoever is not Clarke.. I must have mistook Clarke when she said she was going out for some fresh air. She must have been directed : "Exit, stage right, pursued by bear ..or gorilla." She and Lexa somehow managed to wander miles away from camp and discovered an old zoo -- that is somehow unknown to the Grounders from the camp. And now Jaha has transformed into some hybrid of Jesus-Moses, leading his people to the promised land. Did he put out a Bat-signal during the night that allowed this disciples to show up at his door the next morning? Oh show, promise me you'll always be crazy...

I think the writing for this show is sharp, much better than AoS, but Peggy's double-agent status makes me wonder what her role model Steve would say if he were around. Yes, we know she's the hero and is doing 'bad' things for the right reasons, and yet ... She is stealing government property based on lies from Stark. If she were to get caught before clearing Stark there would be no way to avoid being labeled a traitor. ..And even when she manages to save the day in the end, the 'regular joes' in the SSR may not be so forgiving of how she sabotaged a lot of their work. (When Sydney Bristow was doing the same thing on Alias, it sorta worked because the agency she was working for was basically evil.) It will be interesting to see how the show wraps up Agent Carter's situation at the SSR. I doubt the higher-ups we've seen so far will chuckle and say "Oh Peggy! You've made fools of us, but we're all better off because of it now! Why don't you take charge?" That's the only sticking point I have with the show, really. And even with that, this show is way better than most of what's out there right now.

This show really didn't grab me in the beginning, but lately I'm enjoying it at lot more. What really helped was letting go of the Batman connection - the show works better on its own. The cinematography, the atmospherics, the clothing, the not-quite-sure time period (they have cell phones, but dress like the 50's). All of that makes it fun to watch - much like the episode of Bones that was done as a 1960's Hitchcock movie. ...but I don't drive myself crazy trying to catch all the names and places that are related to Batman comics. That stuff goes back for almost 80 years..

I was somewhat disappointed that Eddie turned out to be stereotypical in several gay ways. Suddenly he became Cam from Modern Family, with the dishy zingers and whatnot. It was okay, but I wouldn't mind if they turned down his volume a bit. I appreciated the nudity and stuff - thanks HBO - it's part of the appeal (a la Girls) . But I did find myself wondering if scenes like the one with Patrick and the enema bottle can make for casting hurdles for the actor. I actually do appreciate that they 'go there' when it comes to revealing the unsexy aspects of sex. I'm not sure which part of Patrick and Kevin's lying is worse : their work lie or their lie in relation to Kevin's boyfriend. Having an affair with your boss would cause all types of work problems, almost creating a hostile work environment. Patrick is immature, but hopefully he will learn to avoid situations that involve so much lying in the future. ...or how exhausting such situations are. Lynn seems to realize Dom has a lot of growing up to do : dating-wise, career-wise and lifestyle-wise. But it would probably have worked better if he had just been honest with him instead of the manipulation. But they both decided to mix work and a relationship, so ... After this episode, we talked about how watching these characters make obviously bad decisions is frustrating to watch. But we also agreed that there is not much market for shows about well adjusted gay men who work steady jobs and come home to fulfilling, peaceful families. And since the show is call Looking, I'm guessing we are going to be dealing with the messy dating period of life.

Oh, Joan, those company picnics are going to be super awkward now... The episode had me hooked, but it felt a bit like a tease by the end : Sherlock trying to brace Kitty to accept that her attacker had probably been caught but she might be in denial. But the trafficker bad-guy was killed off-camera in a fire. Everyone knows you don't kill your main bad-guy off-camera. Does this show avoid action scenes as a rule? I couldn't tell it if was a cost savings measure or if TPTB just don't want this to be an action show. There just seemed to be a lot of after-the-fact scenes with lots of exposition in the dialogue. I know the basis of the show is Sherlock putting clues together and then info-dumping his conclusions ... but a little action wouldn't hurt. Just my opinion..

Yay! There has been peace long enough that the open wounds on people's faces have stopped oozing and started to heal. Boo! These poor people never catch a break. They never have time to appreciate the clean air, the two-headed animals and glowing butterflies. What bad luck that all the Space People's ships managed to land in the middle of a Grounder versus Mountain People war. Why has no one suggested moving to a less stab-y neighborhood? But I guess there's never much time to plan that, what with all the killing and going to war and all...

I am still on-board for this show - but that being said - the Perry+Ray thing is starting to feel as if it could drag on an on.. Maybe they could take a break from it for an episode or two while the Beth Stalker Bromance is on the road. One thing is for certain - there is no guessing as to where they are headed. The case-of-the-week was okay. I liked the twist that the stalker's victim was not the stalker's actual object of obsession. Beth, please close your flimsy curtains when you are at home. But I guess it's okay since there is a police guard outside. ..But wasn't that the same policeman who did such a bad job of protecting the news anchor guy - who got shot at his front door while this policeman was on watch? And one last thing - are we supposed to think that the Stalker Unit is incompetent? Because in almost every case Beth & Company never mange to figure out who the stalker is until the point where the stalker has taken someone hostage or killed someone. At that point, it would have been dealt with by the police anyway -- so all that stalker investigation work could have been done in hindsight.

Beth and Jack investigate the break in of a popular anchorman's home after his stalker sends a video of his daughter to his phone. Perry learns more insight about Beth's past.

It was an okay start -- but I also feel as if this series will just unravel into a mess as they try to keep extending the premise for multiple seasons. The other problem is that the show's selling point is the movie -- and the movie is really hard to live up to -- especially if you are just padding things out to fill ten or so episodes. But if you've seen the movie, and it's easily available, it becomes an annoying distraction because you keep comparing how things were done movie versus the show (at least it was for our house). So why attach the show to the movie, anyway? Why not use the idea but create new characters and circumstances? I guess I just dread watching the show fizzle out -- because all television shows seem to go on and on and on .. until enough people quit watching and then they get yanked, sometimes in the middle of a cliffhanger..

This show raised a lot of question about how the movie actually did things - so we rented it and re-watched (wow, the movie is almost 20 years old). The movie was excellent and holds up really well. Of course it was directed by Terry Gilliam, so it has a lot of atmosphere and quirkiness going for it. One thing I did prefer about the movie was there was no option of erasing the future - the point of sending people to the past was to get enough clues to finally create a cure for the disease in the future. The notion that a entire timeline can be erased seems pretty far fetched. But then again, everyone seems to make up their own time travel rules to suit their own purposes -- and again, the entire notion of time travel.. I feel, for me, the show will definitely suffer in comparison to the move. Knowing that basically everything that happened in the movie will be stretched out -- not for ten episodes, but possibly an indefinite number of episodes -- makes me feel exhausted already. Like that other SyFy show, Continuum, it seems as they are gong to be forced to reinvent a lot things to keep things going with no end in sight.

Patrick is annoying with his denial about the state of his affair and his different versions when he is talking to either his friends or Richie. But it is entertaining, so it must remind me of things that actually do happen. When Richie and Patrick put Augustine to bed, Augustine said some things to Richie in Spanish. Does anyone know if it was about Patrick or his affair with his boss? It seemed as if one of the stories of the episode was how their secret affair was slowly but surely making itself more exposed. I guess Augustine is gong down the road to drug problems. I just hope they manage to avoid most of the cliches -- and I especially hope they don't try to resolve it in one very special episode where Augustine goes too far, immediately snaps to, then is mostly back to normal the next episode. Maybe that's the most egregious cliche of drug problems on tv shows. As to whether the writers are naive or knowledgeable about relationships : if they were truly experts, they should be writing best selling how-to books since no one has managed to figure how these things work. It's probably a combination of what they have observed and whatever issues they have dealt with in the past (or present?). I would also like Frank to make a reappearance. There usually seems to be few rounds of "did we give up too soon?" before a long term couple calls it quits for good. And how about a bit of levity and the possibility of a happier tomorrow? It seems as if the show has a gray cloud over everyone's head with the impending atmosphere of "..and then everything will turn to shit..".

I thought Beth's #1 stalker was in a secure enough facility that all visitors had to be verified somehow. Not that it's a big deal -- it is not too far a stretch for this show. And I like the ramping things up to the 11th level ... Why not? Do they make the songs played at the end of the show specifically for the show? Or do those versions actually exist? If the latter, I definitely do not want to visit the music cafe that plays these unplugged versions. ..Still enjoying this crazy mess of a show. Maybe next season, after they have somewhat dealt with the Ray+Perry thing and the Jack&Son stuff, they can expand on Janice more. I'm liking her character a lot more lately. The Elisabeth Rohm character does not look as if she belongs with the other characters -- it's as if she just came from a fashion photo shoot with the overdone makeup and what looks like a spray tan.. Just my opinion.

I am happily shocked at how well made, well written and well acted this "fill-in" series is turning out to be. Sadly, AoS suffers in comparison (especially in the writing and dialogue dept.).

I think the myth of the harmonious open relationship is about as realistic as the myth of the harmonious strictly monogamous relationship. Both types seem to suffer or benefit from expectations and assumptions. But the monogamous relationships seem to have a much simpler set of expectations and assumptions. Open relationships seem ripe for unexpected consequences, scheduling issues, distraction of affection issues, etc, etc, etc. But if the show wants to tackle either type, I good with that, as long as it's done with warts and all (and not preachy). People who overly defend either side come off like those people defending Paleo diets or anti-immunization -- i.e. bug-eyed crazy.. And I think I do regard Looking to be like Girls or Sex&tCity -- so to me it's a comedy .. or dramedy.. Certainly Patrick would be regarded as the lovable loser and pivotal character. Dom is the Samatha, sexually motivated character (Blanch? ). I don't know what Augustin is.

We watched the first season back-to-back, with the "inside the episode" commentaries included - so I thought watching a live episode by itself might be a letdown .. and it sort of was.. Since all this 'stumbling through life while making every. single. cliched. mistake. and having lots of sex' thing was done thoroughly by Queer As Folk, it is almost more interesting to follow the story of the producers making a show about gay men making their way through life. Like others have said, I would like the show to throw us a few curve balls instead of rehashing every gay scenario we've already seen before. Can we see some gays living on the outskirts of town and raising chickens instead of clubbing? Are all three characters going to have revolving door relationships because that is how most of the new characters are going to be introduced? And for some reason the comment "He has a House In Virginia" just irked me. It's like nothing has changed since "He's a friend of Dorothy". Maybe it's just sad to me that the gay clandestine code talk is still a thing. I feel as if this show has already decided on its path and it's one that's been trod many times before (Girls, QaF, Sex&theCity, GoldenGirls). But it would be nice if there was one character who didn't make all the obvious blunders.

I feel that Elementary is trying for a more bleak, harsh, dare I say 'gritty', feel. And, to me, it is sort of a downer depending on how you approach the show. It's not exactly fun escapism. To tie this in with the addiction/recovery theme of the series, I think people who have not closely dealt with an addict (recovering or active) might find Sherlock to be delightfully quirky and someone they'd like to meet. But people who have experienced the seemingly endless emotional roller coaster ride of being part of an addict's support system may not want to ever meet him. I sort of regard Sherlock the same as I did House (who was modeled after the original Homes ) : I can enjoy his genius from a comfortable distance - but I cannot really relate to any of his groupies who choose to endure the intentional or unintentional abuse just so they can learn from him or witness his genius. Also, Sherlock's home feels like a halfway house with all the disheveled stuff, peeling paint, and whatnot.. Again, depending on your take, it is refreshingly 'real' or depressingly shabby. And the same can be said about Sherlock himself.

Actually, I am not sure if the top three amigos agents who harass Carter are going to be part of the problem or part of the solution. With their old school sexism and old school interrogation techniques, things could go in either direction. Will Agent Carter be recognized as a asset and will they begrudgingly accept her? Or will they be a minor evil in the fight against a major evil? I like the show a lot, but I can see getting tired of the 'Alias' aspect of the "spy within a spy ring" thing.. Even Alias could not support that for too long.. But there is a lot of room for growth in many directions - which is a good thing. Hope the ratings are good..

Really good stuff. Tho I can see Agent Carter having the same 'problem' as Steve Rogers : too wholesome, too perfect, for their own good. Howard and Tony Stark, Thor, even Jarvis have quirks and flaws that make their characters more interesting. Peggy's 'flaw' seems to be that she is a woman in a man's world -- but that's not the thing that can make her more relate-able. And I hope they don't harp too much on how sexist most of her co-workers are. Yes, it was a different time -- you're not going to see any/many minorities in roles of authority, either. But .. the show needs to not lose focus of the fact that everyone in the SSR (or whatever it is) is trying to do good. (Except for the embedded Hydra moles, of course.) And yeah, this show seems to have more pop than AoS, but maybe that's because it has a tighter focus on fewer characters. Looking forward to the weeks to come..

So, Diane did not even make an effort to call Kalinda on her ever-present cell phone to ask about her findings or even for a laptop password -- then Diane found the document that was needed, understood which part was incriminating and then printed out that part to take to court? Is that what I'm supposed to believe happened? I know this show lives on last second discoveries and incredulous coincidences and Kalinda flipping through a five-year-old case file and finding the one piece of overlooked evidence that turns everything in their favor .... but ... (there is no 'but' -- that's just crazy 'yall ) . I have come to regard The Good Wife sort of like NCIS , or Suits, or even Revenge -- the cases don't matter, the facts don't matter, the politics don't matter, the legal realities don't matter -- it's all just minutiae that allows the actors to have kick-ass 'winning' scenes and verbal throw-downs.. Even though I don't watch with much attachment any more, I can still remember season one when Alicia gave Cary a courtroom spanking on an almost weekly basis.. How did they manage to come to be at odds on such a regular basis..? Because ... TPTB made it so..