From the Halloween episode of Castle:
Category: Cowboy Pete’s TV Roundup
Cowboy Pete’s TV Round-Up: Getting “Lost” in “Smallville”
Two genre series had their season enders this week. One did it right. One did it…not so much. Some spoilers follow:
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Cowboy Pete Plays With “Dollhouse”
The conventional wisdom is that one should give a Joss Whedon program much longer than you would give a show produced by just about anyone in the known universe because it takes you THATLONG to realize the full scope of what’s involved. This is a fairly recent worldview considering that viewers knew pretty much what “Buffy” was about from the pilot, and that includes the abortive pilot that never aired. Same with “Angel.” But because of his body of work, Whedon himself should have our trust. Not the program itself, but Joss.
So I’ve been fairly restrained, waiting to see the overall concepts, waiting to see where Joss and his merry band of pranksters was going with this. And I find that, at the end of the season, as engaging as the last aired episode was…
If I never see another episode…oh well. And that’s because the show never got past the major problems I had with it initially.
Cowboy Pete Ups “Chuck” and Downs “Heroes”
So “Chuck” and “Heroes” both had their season finales on Monday. Thoughts, including frankly unavoidable spoilers, follow.
HEROES: I’ve been patient this season. Honest to God, I have. In a season that seemed preoccupied with depowering Hiro, knocking off blonde heroines, Sylar flipflopping between hero and villain (he’s a freaking serial killer of innocent people; HOW can he be a hero?), and a plotline that moved at a glacial pace (at the beginning they were busy rounding up heroes, and as of the last episode, they were…still rounding up heroes), and the snore-inducing opening and closing narration, I have stuck with it.
And what’s our payoff?
Nathan is brutally killed by Sylar, and Sylar is brainwashed into pretending to be Nathan. And it’s all his mother’s idea.
Am I the only one who thinks that’s sick? A cop out? Revolting? Borderline necrophilia? Mother Petrelli doesn’t want Nathan out of her life, and so she transforms Nathan’s killer into Nathanmania, an incredible simulation? How about she wants him dead because he just slaughtered her son and will, without question, kill again? Oh, but what will the president say if he discovers that a senator was killed by someone with powers? How about if he’s told, “This guy killed Nathan Petrelli, but we put him down like the rabid dog he is so he’ll never hurt anyone again.”
The notion that she’s keeping her son’s killer around, looking at him every day and pretending he’s her son…it’s hideous. And Peter is supposed to treat him like his brother? Claire like her father? It’s an exercise in cruelty for all concerned. It’s madness.
And what’s the outcome of the major storyline? That the president suddenly decides that heroes might be of benefit to the government and therefore the government should work with them? “Hey, guys, sorry we were rounding you up. How about we employ you instead?” They couldn’t have thought of that earlier?
Nothing worked for me. Nothing made sense to me. Nothing rang true for me. I may check it out next season, but I’ll have this series on a VERY short leash.
CHUCK: On the other hand has gone from strength to strength. Over a period of time the characters have grown, become deeper, more layered, more lovable, with some of the best cast chemistry on the air. The addition of Scott Bakula to the cast (however temporary) and the jaw-dropping revelations that entailed were nothing short of brilliant. The loopy wedding performance by “Jeffter” contrasted with the firefight in the wedding reception room was deftly edited, the introduction of a new (or expanded) villainous outfit was well executed, and if one of the key dramatic beats was predictable (you just knew Chuck had to get the intersect back in his head) they nevertheless built upon that and gave us an ášš-kicking climax that was genuinely exhilarating (not to mention worth it just for Sarah’s and Casey’s reactions. I want a t-shirt of Casey saying, “Chuck me!”
“Chuck” has had miserable ratings luck, ranging from a strike-truncated first season to a heavily promoted episode being derailed by an Obama speech. Plus the competition from “Dancing With the Stars” has been brutal. Consequently it’s iffy as to whether the show will be renewed. I sure hope so.
PAD
Cowboy Pete plays with the Dollhouse
So Joss Whedon makes his return to the Friday night Fox death slot in hopes of defying the odds with “Dollhouse.” There has been much controversy over the creative process of the series, with Fox supposedly not being happy with original scripts and taking a heavy hand. This would be the same Fox that insisted Firefly’s pilot episode be aired at the end of the series’ truncated run, prompting Kathleen and me to watch the pilot, turn to each other and say, “Okay, the series makes a lot more sense now.”
So where do we stand with “Dollhouse?” Not really sure yet. Commentary with no real major spoilers follows:
Cowboy Pete Mutinies against Battlestar
I am extremely irritated with BSG. Extremely so.
Between the acquisition of my DVR, its ease of programming and the joy of buzzing right past commercials, the various schedule conflicts with other programs I watch (not to mention my various bowling leagues) the concept of appointment programming in Casa Cowboy Pete’s has virtually disappeared. There are no programs that can’t wait for some convenient, commerical-free time.
Except for BSG.
We can’t wait. Short of being out of town and not having access to Sci-Fi Channel, we have to be there at 10 PM Friday to watch the dámņëd thing, and suffer through the commercials. We could be watching “Psych” or our recording of “Friday Night Lights” from an hour earlier or going out for the evening, but no. We’re right there at 10, watching BSG, suffering through the commercials, not wanting the slightest delay. In doing so, we’re waiting and watching for the slightest weakness in the series so that we have an excuse to relegate the show to the same status as, well, pretty much everything else on the air.
Thus far they’ve given us no excuse, and last week’s episode doesn’t make it any easier.
Ðámņ them. Ðámņ them to hëll.
COWBOY PETE ECLIPSES “HEROES”
“Heroes” has been getting slammed a lot this season and I decided to wait until a natural breaking point to discuss it, since to my mind trying to review it as it goes is akin to reviewing a book chapter by chapter. You run into a whole “forest for the trees” thing.
Now, with the first half of the season drawing to a close, I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s not actually a forest involved. It’s more of a jungle, and I’m in desperate need of a machete.
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