In which we give the demon baby of “Charmed” a tongue lashing, decide not to veto “West Wing,” and–in a one time appearance in these parts, vote “Survivor” off the island.
CHARMED—Well, whoever said last week on this board that he was sick of episodes about babies must’ve just despised this entry. The Charmed Ones wind up taking care of a demon baby who becomes Wyatt’s bestest friend and does some tricks with his tongue that are going to make him VERY popular with the ladies when he grows up. A “Beauty and the Beast” riff provides a rare outing where the sisters are working at cross purposes with each other with nearly fatal consequences…although if the Beast was wounded, why couldn’t they simply shout “Leo!” and have him show up to do the healing thing, instead of having to schlep back to the manor? Ah well. “Charmed” remains a fun, turn-your-brain-off series featuring empowered women battling evil without the endless sturm and drang that characterized much of Buffy’s last season. And when Piper commented that she ad libbed a lot, I wondered if the actress really did and that was a nod to it. Meanwhile, I’m waiting to find out if Phoebe’s boyfriend is actually evil because…well, that would figure, wouldn’t it. And hey, here’s a thought: What if, when Piper winds up giving birth again, she has twins. Suddenly you’ve got the power of three in males.
WEST WING—Be aware that a VCR mishap caused me to miss the first twenty minutes, but I’m reasonably certain I was able to get a feel for the episode from what I saw. And the feeling was a good one. For the first time in ages, not only could I actually see what was on the screen, but I was cheering what I was seeing. Now I’m aware that it was shamelessly manipulative on the part of the producers to drag down Josh and Bartlet so that their resurfacing would be that much more powerful. And that drag down made for some pretty flaccid viewing, as I’ve been commenting. But it was almost as if the actors were thrilled to be getting their game back. See the President pep-talking tourists! See him walk to the Congress for the purpose of seeing the Speaker so that the budget can be worked out.! See the Speaker, in a show of arrogance mixed with fear, keeping the President waiting (wisely, other GOP reps are depicted as angry over this development). And just when you’re ready to be sick from the humbling sight of Bartlet just sitting there, see Josh’s brainstorm of “Let’s leave right now.” You can just imagine the reaction of the “West Wing” voting public. “The President walked to Congress to see the Speaker and the Speaker wouldn’t see him? What a putz!” Masterful. You can disrespect the man in the office—Lord knows I’ve done it routinely—but you don’t disrespect the office itself. Let us hope we will now see a return to form that will give the series the second wind it so desperately needs.
SURVIVOR—I don’t normally write about “Survivor,” but I watched the first episode because I was intrigued by the pirate theme and—pretty much like everyone else in America—immediately thought Rupert was a hoot and a half. Thoroughly piratical. Brilliant casting. And I thought, “Okay…I’ll stick with this until and unless they vote him off.” Which they did last Thursday. Might be my imagination, but Jeff did NOT look happy about it. Small wonder. Who’s left behind? Jon, whose insufferable smugness reminds me of the worst guys from my high school days; Lil, who whines about how conflicted she is and then stabs Rupert in the back; and an assortment of mundane individuals who could be washed into the sea tomorrow and I couldn’t care less. I hope they all starve from lack of the fish that Rupert was catching for them. I’ll say one thing, though: If Rupert was in it for the money, the million dollars he didn’t get on “Survivor” will be chicken feed compared to what he could rake in if he hooks up with a canny agent. First off, Disney should be banging on his door to cast him in the sequel to “Pirates of the Caribbean.” There’s commercial possibilities and who knows what else. A big question will be how he comes off in the inevitable Letterman appearance. My only concern is, I hope it doesn’t turn out he has a history of violence or something like that, because there were moments during the show where I was thinking, “I would NOT want this guy mad at me.” Then again, if I were stuck on an island with Jon, I’d likely be moved to violence as well. So anyway, I’m done watching the series, but will be intrigued to see what’s next for Rupert.
• 
West Wing:
I thought it was brilliant, that when Leo had no idea what to do, he called the only person he could…. Abby.
Great Episode.
Travis
The thing this season is that the intelligence is there and the political ooomph is there.
But the momentum seems off. Kinda reminds me of the first half of Buffy’s last season. Great moments that put other shows to shame, but just a relentless lack of real momentum and rather than cheering our heroes, we’re shouting “Get on with it!”. If this is the ‘Let’s drag them down so we can lift them up’, then the uppage needs to gain the same momentum.
It’s that quirky/sparkiness that is lacking. This episode was a distinct improvement, but Sorkin, I think, would have given us a more satisfying tete a tete between President and Speaker. Instead, it happens mostly off-camera. A bit like setting up Luke and Darth and then Luke coming out of the room and saying “Well, that taught him!”.
Still better than most of the product on TV and certainly almost as satirical as the real President’s voyage to our fair shores this week (All that extra security…and he STILL got in!).
John
I thought the episode was really good; the decision to go to the Speaker in the first place was really
arrrggg… thought that was ‘cancel’ I was hitting too fast… now I have to comment.
Anyway, thought the original decision to go down there was a really good one, anyway. Even if it was a quick, instinctive move, it led to both Jeb & Josh coming up with ideas on the fly, which was necessitated by them simply doing something new. I started crowing at that point, just because of all the possibilities that opened up.
What’s next for Rupert:
He’s back in February for “All-Star Survivor”! Yay! More Rupert!!
I was also, for the most part, quite pleased with West Wing this week. There was a point at which I was saying to the screen “Why is everyone but the President and Josh stupid?” but …. President Bartlett taking a stand, and winning … a hopeful break out of the sort of siege mentality …. Yes, one is always left thinking “It’s not Aaron Sorkin” (of course, who doesn’t still look at “The Incredible Hulk”, for example, and say, “It’s not Peter David”? 🙂 West Wing will probably be in the same situation forever); but this episode was a pretty satisfying effort.
Peter,
Time to get a TiVo. Stop messing around with the VCR.
WEST WING had me cheering this week.
Bartlet’s back. Josh is back. Abby is back. Sure, there are still a few characters who need work. (For example, Leo, pleading for the President to end the stalemate, still seems to be a shade of his former self.)
But I genuinely loved this episode. It’s not Sorkin, but it shows me there’s hope. I love the moment when Abby dramatically enters, tells Bartlet to basically do what he thinks is best, and culminates by asking, “Jed…where’s Josh?”
To see Josh and Bartlet redeemed like that…fantastic. Yeah, the whole walking to Congress aspect is cheesy, but it’s cheesy in a Sorkin way, and you have to give credit for that. I still think that the writers don’t quite know what to do with Will or Charlie now. I think CJ seems to be written well now.
My only lingering complaint is minor. When Sorkin was handling the scripting, almost every regular character would have some one or two character moments in each episode, like a little humor between the President and Charlie, or a little humor between Will and Toby. Now, it just seems like the writers are giving rotating arcs, i.e. the whole “Josh and Jed” arc.
Finally, there’s one recurring cast member I’d like to see more of: Debbie Fitterer. We hardly see the President’s Secretary. I miss Mrs. Landingham and what she brought to the show. I’d like to see Debbie interact with the President and Charlie more. Heck, I’d like to see Lily Tomlin more on the show, period. Let’s hope that’ll happen.
Though this show isn’t covered, I thought I’d deliver a rant on it. Maybe that’ll get it out of my system. Here goes. Anyone who watched ER this Thursday got a heavy dose of Irony. This isn’t the sort of Irony that hits you over the head; this is the sort of Irony that puts you in a headlock, breaks every bone in your body, then thoughtfully heads off to make love to your significant other. Seriously, the only way the writers could have been more disrespectful to the character in question would be to have the assembled cast gather round the body and spit on him. End rant.
That said, on Charmed, has anyone else noticed how Paige went from “I need a life away from magic” to “these jobs are part of my magical destiny”? The chimera baby was cute, though.
Survivor–
He is on the All-Stars? That’s great. I liked him. He seems like the type you’d see at Renaisance Fairs or gaming conventions. Frankly the others are idiots. They wanted to vote him off the week before, so why did they let him get immunity?
PAD —
Miss you at Wizard World Texas. George Perez is great. I’m disappointed.. they had all these preview books for the DC titles, but nowhere could I find Fallen Angel.
Peter, You would have loved the first part of West Wing as well.
I totally agree with you about Rupert and his star potential. He’s the man… and like another poster said– already filming Survivor 8: The All-Star Edition…
Apparently, you won’t be seeing Rupert on any live appearances until the season finale of Survivor 7… As he’ll have just enough time to fly back from the All Star gig to get to the Survivor 7 Finale (assuming he doesn’t get kicked off the All Star fest as quick as he did the current show).
Go Rupert!
It would be so deliciously funny to see him win TWO or more MILLION on the All Star Survivor– then get that canny agent you mentioned and become a big time character actor… While clueless Lil, snarky Little John and the rest of those nutbag leftovers fade away into well deserved obscurity!
PAD —Miss you at Wizard World Texas.
That’s probably because I wasn’t invited. If they’d asked me, I’d’ve come. Would’ve come to Chicago, for that matter. Wizard never invites me to their conventions. Ever. I was at the Philly con only because I contacted them and said I’d drive down, and they said “Sure.”
Guess I’m not on their interest list.
PAD
I was mistaken about the Fallen Angel preview. They did have it there and it looked good.
(of course, who doesn’t still look at “The Incredible Hulk”, for example, and say, “It’s not Peter David”? 🙂
no offense to anyone, but I still use Bill Mantlo as the standard….
with Peter David coming in at a close second.
Given that Rupert came from here in Indy, I was inclined to root for him from the get go. I just hoped he would do well. From the moment that he stole the other tribe’s shoes, I knew he was something. Each week he became must see tv, and the feeling of dread began to grow, as I knew this guy who I enjoyed watching was probably going to be voted off. And it happened. Maybe those of us here in Indy will get lucky if he doesn’t get anything national and he will be our local celeb for a good long while.
Actually, one of the interesting things to come out of his appearance is we have found out a lot about ol’ Rupe around here. Turns out he is a Star Wars nut, much like myself. He also has a part time job working for ABC. He goes out and drives a camera cart on the sidelines of college football games. The guy seemed to be doing his best to play a fair and balanced game. Of course he was voted off. My dream is that when they return to camp next week, they will find the head of the speargun is missing. I can just see him having his revenge that way…
<< Suddenly you’ve got the power of three in males. >>
About time too. Who says the girls get to have all the fun?
Interesting thing about Rupert, too: those little outbursts, which granted could be quite disconcerting, were no doubt the result of his going onto the show as a smoker. Whether intentional or not given the way they walked the plank at the start, Rupert effectively quit smoking while on that island. I can’t even imagine how much Jon would aggravate me in the middle of huge prolonged nic-fit.
The look on Hafley’s face when they opened the door was priceless.
Is it me, or is Steven Culp turning into one of those “hey, I may watch this show just cause they gave him a recurring role” actors.
Oh hey and Pete, I can just see you next month holding court in the Con Suite pontificating on TV shows 🙂
As the person who made the “Sick of stories about babies.” comment, I must say that I liked this week’s show (yesterday)better than either of the previous two weeks. However, Peter I’m curious since most people seem to be split on whether this show is better with Shannen Doherty or Rose Mcgowan, I’m curious which side you are on. I’m more of a Shannen person myself. If Holly Combs has to leave and Shannen won’t come back, I’d like to see her replaced by either Tiffani Thiessen or maybe if TRU CALLING is cancelled, Eliza Dushku.
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