nixsight

Bones Season 3: 11-15

This season of “Bones” has been an odd animal - the incongruous return of Zack after his sudden decision to go to Iraq at the tail end of season 2, coupled with the introduction of a grotesque serial-killer season arc, and the firm placement of Jack and Angela’s wedding hopes in limbo made for a sequence of episodes that lacked the overall cohesion of past seasons - when you found yourself in an episode that was part of the longer continuity, it was often a bit of a shock.

However, the show stayed consistently well written and acted throughout, and these last few episodes were solid, and didn’t seem to be adversely affected by the writer’s strike at all.

0311 - Player Under Pressure: This is pretty much a “body of the week” episode - although that body is a pretty grotesque one, having been crushed when the retracting bleachers at a University gymnasium contract. The conflict between Bones and Booth in this episode - because of course, there has to be one, it’s built into the premise of the show - is in Bones’ dismissal of sports as a pastime for the young, which shouldn’t draw the attention and prestige that it does in for it’s star athletes in this episode. Booth was a jock, so he doesn’t like this.
It’s pretty much by-the-numbers “Bones”, but there’s enough intrigue and excitement to make it worth a watch, and some very sympathetic supporting characters. This is a bit of a trademark of the show - and is probably a large part of it’s ongoing appeal - at times when other shows would come off as trite, this one instead tugs at the heartstrings in a way that doesn’t make you feel conned. Which is nice.

0312 - The Baby In The Bough: A great “stunt” episode - a fairly transparent McGuffin that lands the team with a baby to look after leads to a lot more comedy than sensible plot, but man, is the baby cute, and many of the regular cast members get at least a few moments of decent character development out of their interactions with it.
And it left Girl One and I a little too broody, if you ask me.

0313 - The Verdict In The Story: Finally, we see a conclusion to one of the show’s longer arcs, as Bones father finally sees trial for the murder of the head of the FBI.
There was clearly a possibility for this episode to end up being about the conflict inherent in the fact that Bones is a witness for the defense, and the rest of her team are working for the prosecution, and there are some remnants of that particular situation in the script. However, probably correctly, the writers realised that because of the characters involved - most specifically the super-rational Temperance Brennan - conflict wouldn’t really be appropriate, and this side of the episode instead becomes awkwardness, with one notable period of defiance by the lovely Angela Montenegro. Sigh.

(It’s a rule that whenever I type her full name, I have to sigh afterwards. Girl One is worse, in case you were wondering…)

There are some courtroom back-and-forth’s that are just great, with able performances by Patricia Belcher and Ernie Hudson as the lawyers in the case. And the story flips backwards and forwards as you might expect - but has an appealing amorality to it that I enjoy. I love seeing how they deal with Booth’s admiration of Bones’ dad, and how he deals with the ways that that conflicts with his job.

If there’s a criticism here, it’s that the jury are kind of underestimated a lot, for an episode that plays out almost entirely in a courtroom. But this is hardly a flaw that is unique to this show.

0314 - The Wannabe In The Weeds: Another “body of the week” episode, but one that’s notable because of where it lands the main players in the show. Pretty much the whole episode works as a McGuffin for the heartbreaking shocker of an ending which has us going into the final episode of the season with the absolutely tragic potential loss of a key cast member.

It also acted as a bit of a spoiler for Girl One for “Angel”, because the recurring location throughout this episode is a karaoke bar, and it was peculiar to see David Boreanaz prickly and uncomfortable with one of those again. I had to say something!

That setting also allows for a bit of comedy, with Zack in particular getting to rule with his operatics.

0315 - The Pain In The Heart: Of course, I should be kind of pissed off, because it turns out that the potential tragedy, which is dragged out for the first five or ten minutes of this episode to the extent that we utterly believed it, is just a massive piece of misdirection. Which sucks.

However, this episode sees the climax of the Gormogon storyline, and that’s a bonus. It’s also a bit shocking.

I made the mistake just now of nipping over to IMDB and seeing what people had to say about it. This was silly, because they were outraged - of course they were. One of the show’s major characters gets written out in this episode, and of course it’s caused a bit of a kerfuffle. It’s going to be a bit difficult saying much more about the episode without hopelessly spoilering it, in fact. So I won’t.

But although the whole thing is handled in a bit of a rush, which is uncharacteristic for this show, and probably a by-product of the writer’s strike, it actually does kind of make sense. The show has been gearing the audience up to think that one of it’s characters might be more wrapped up in the Gormogon situation then they were letting on, and in this and the past couple of episodes, we’ve heard a convincing argument for more than half of the regular team being capable of murder, which has been fun for a misanthrope like me to watch - I personally believe that almost all of us are capable of murder. Although the situation that unravels in the last ten or so minutes of this episode is a bit out of left-field and mishandled, the groundwork for the revelations have all been laid, and the background information to tie it all together is right there in this episode, albeit in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it stew.

I really liked this episode - it made some brave choices, and it leaves me kind of pumped for how they’ll handle the next season.

House Season 1: 02-03

“House” continues to be a peculiarity - even by episode 3, I am starting to see the rigid episode formula that a friend told me about as it is firmly established.

However, as the same friend mentioned, it doesn’t matter that the episodes are so familiarly structured that it is even noticeable among all the other shows that stick to similar weekly patterns, because the show is so well written and performed that it’s a joy to watch.

Although of course, “joy” is subjective in this case - because the stories are turbulent and often a little heartbreaking, and thus far House himself is almost unrelentingly horrid. It’s clear from this early on that he is only a misanthrope in the same manner that I am - one gets a clear sense through Laurie’s performance that this character limits his contact with other people not because he hates them unconditionally, but because he finds them almost universally unsurprising and rubbish. When given a choice between helping someone and not helping them, he almost always chooses to help, in his way.

Medicine here is treated like scientific exploration, and the presentation suits that paradigm - admittedly, the slick computer generated simulations are reminiscent of CSI, but that’s cool, because those shows always look great. As this first series progresses, the supporting characters are starting to establish their roles, but it’s still a little early to say where exactly they’re going to end up.

0102 - Paternity: The “A” story here is about a high school boy who suffers double-vision and night terrors. There’s not a lot to that part of the story, beyond the usual solution/problem/solution/problem rollercoaster that is part of the show’s formula. However, House’s continued pragmatic and superficially misogynistic approach to working with Cameron, and his use of his team as proxy starts to solidify here, and it makes for an interesting dynamic. It’s interesting because it establishes an almost “us versus him” situation, and while each individual has a different relationship with House, they also have a team response to him. At the same time, of course, they have responses to each other.

This is also where the clinic cases kick in and give the show a unique feel - even as the “A” story unfolds, it’s broken up with what are almost comedic “skits”, and these give some and incongruous relief from what is almost unrelenting tension or grimness in the main stories.

0103 - Occam’s Razor: A fairly basic episode, but it raises the - perhaps obvious - question of sexual attraction between the attractive young Chase, and the gorgeous young Cameron. I believe this is where we also first get a hint that Chase, like his colleagues, is brilliant, but tends to play the odds with House, saying what he believes House wants to hear, rather than thinking for himself, and I wonder whether this will become a plot point or character development area later on.

We also get to see a slightly softer side to House’s character, even if none of the other characters do, by episode end.

Buffy Season 4: 01-03

In some ways, Season 4 of Buffy was the difficult one - Season 2 was the first season proper, and as such was like nothing we’d seen before, and Season 3 was an amping up of the best parts of Season 2, and had two or three key focusses, all of which were carried over from it’s predecessor - such as Buffy’s inevitably doomed relationship with Angel, and the run down to the end of High School.

Season 4 doesn’t have those focal points - and if anything it’s main theme is change, which in a show which had done such a good job of establishing it’s characters and settings throughout, this is a tough step. As such, it tends to falter a little from the off, with only really Willow’s role as best friend and resident academic student staying unchanged, and if anything strengthening.

It also represents a shift in the way we do things at chez Nix and Girl One. For a start, the show really pushes the “previously on” bits at the beginning of each episode - a constant pain and a redundant feature on DVD releases, I reckon - and so I’m going to have to pay attention and fast-forward through any “previously” bits that spoiler too much of the oncoming episode. And also, at least for this first season, there are a few crossovers between this show and “Angel”, and this means making sure to watch them both in sequence with each other. Which is a pain, but we do what we can…

0101 - The Freshman: Whedon is clearly very attuned to how his characters would feel in a given circumstance, and this first episode deals with how Buffy would cope with shifting into a situation where she doesn’t know the rules, and is no longer the “big hero on campus”. I remember this episode leaving me a little unmoved at the time, but I’m enjoying Gellar and Buffy more this time round, and her discomfort seemed to make more sense, and was easier to sympathise with.

Although her alienation mirrors the way she often felt when first arriving in Sunnydale, this time round things are slightly different - in High School, Buffy at least still remembered being popular at her previous place - and she was always the cool friend next to Willow. But now Willow fits in perfectly, and is in her element. The stylists on the show have gone to town on Hannigan to reflect this - gone are the brightly coloured dungarees, and now she looks chic and sexy rather than just dorkily cute.

This episode brings the problems Buffy is having adjusting right into literal space, though, when she has her ass handed to her by a pack of vampires lead by the just ginchy pop-goth vamp Sunday, who starts to look like she might be a recurring character, right up until she doesn’t any more.

This, and the next season’s opener, are basically classic Whedon misdirection episodes - although both have some interesting information to impart, they are designed more as delivery mediums for the final scene - in both cases telling us what the season is really going to be worrying itself with.

It isn’t a bad way of starting a season, don’t get me wrong. And there are excellent moments when we find out what Xander and Giles have been up to.

0102 - Living Conditions: … and this episode continues the idea of opening this season on red-herrings, as Whedon et al remove the problem of Buffy’s roommate who doesn’t know her secret. The episode is like an extended rant on how difficult it is sharing space with incompatible people, and it allows for a couple of info blurts for Oz and Xander, but beyond that is mostly about getting Willow installed as Buffy’s roomie.

It’s well scripted as ever, but the supernatural threat never feels like much of a real threat in this episode, which gives it a kind of vague feel.

0103 - The Harsh Light Of Day: This is where the season really starts to kick into gear for me. For a start, there are a bunch of returns - First Harmony, who is somewhat changed, and then Spike, who is pretty much the same. Then Anya shows up and makes a play for Xander, and that just makes my day. In fact, the scenes that the two have together, wherein they are so adorably Whedon awkward, are just pitch perfect.

The emotional center for this episode is Buffy’s first proper encounter with a man since Angel. Of course, the fact that Parker is a real live human guy doesn’t actually make for a smoother relationship - once Buffy has sex with him, it becomes apparent that he wasn’t after an actual relationship, and Buffy, raw from her past experiences with men, is heartbroken. Temporarily, of course, because that’s roughly when Spike comes in, and takes over the episode.

Although Gellar does well with the scenes, I didn’t find the emotional weight of this episode particularly heavy - for my part, it was good to see the whole team once again sitting around, trying to sort out a supernatural problem, as both the first and second episodes of this season worked out ways to leave Buffy facing the monsters on her own.

This episode constitutes the first real crossover with “Angel”, by the way, with Oz leaving for LA at close of play to take the gem that Spike was after to Angel for safekeeping.

0104 - Fear, Itself: … and this is the first episode of the season that stands up as being truly horrifying and pushing the characters forward a little, despite being a little flawed at the end.

Buffy, Xander, Willow and Oz attend a “haunted house” party, but find once there that the house has really been possessed by a fear demon. This makes for some truly gruesome visuals, and some heart-wrenching scenes as the team’s fears are played upon and they seperate. The boys get the worst of this, I reckon - Xander’s embodied fear is that he’ll become invisible to his friends, and Oz becomes almost catatonic when he starts changing into a werewolf and can’t control it, because he is scared of hurting Willow.

Eventually Giles and the ever amusing Anya manage to rescue the others, and this is probably where the episode fails - the revelation of the demon is given over to a sight gag, and though it is very funny and unexpected, it robs the episode of a lot of it’s emotional currency.

However, there is little bad one can really say about seeing Anthony Head in a sombrero.

Angel Season 1: 01-03

When “Angel” first aired, I had very low expectations - at that point, I really hadn’t been fond of the character when he appeared on “Buffy” - young and impetuous as I was, I felt that time when he was on screen was time that could have been better spent on Willow, Oz or Xander.

However, within a single episode, I found that Boreanaz was already managing to bring a little more depth to the character, and that the character needed.

Watching it now, I realise that a big part of what I enjoyed about this show was the shift towards actually having their superhuman protagonist move and behave in super ways - from the first episode on, there is already lots of running across and jumping off of rooftops, playing chicken in fast cars, and general zipping around, being cool.

There’s also a lot of heart to the show - and a chunk of that is down to the genius decision to include Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia on this show, as well as Glenn Quinn as the very snappy Doyle.

Cordelia was no longer relevant in “Buffy” once that show shifted away from the High School setting, but in “Angel” she gets to move from being the loftiest bitch in school to being the lowliest wannabe actress in town, and the change is more poignant than you’d expect. And if you’d told 1999 me that I’d be extolling the merits of Doyle now, he’d have hit you with a brick. Maybe not a brick. But something heavy. I didn’t like him back then, but now I find his accent lilting rather than annoying, and his character endearingly pathetic instead of witless.

The show wasn’t without it’s issues. For example, at least in these first few episodes, it takes it’s “lost souls in a city that doesn’t care” remit as meaning “hot blonde women dealing with mean oppressive men”. I seem to recall this changing later on, and maybe it was a way of subverting the Buffy/Angel dynamic, and stating categorically that this show was different, but it really stood out to me.

Also, there’s a real effort to create some kind of spark -not necessarily romantic, but definitely emotional - between Angel and Kate Lockley, and it just isn’t ever there.

And another thing that bugs me ever so slightly - but not to the extent that it ruins my enjoyment of the show - is how fast and loose it plays with the whole “only direct sunlight can hurt vampires” rule established in the Whedon-verse. Admittedly, the creators were kind of pinned down by the Los Angeles locations, but it is a little infuriating that, due to the way TV shows are filmed and lit, Angel often appears to be in a fully sunlit setting, but then goes to great pains to avoid a particular ray of light.

0101 - City Of…: A decent pilot, that I suppose unavoidably has to refer back to “Buffy” in it’s opener, but doesn’t find itself crippled by the fact. Doyle felt like a pain in the ass first time round, but I warmed to him much quicker watching it with Girl One.

And as I’ve said before, Cordelia is a great addition to this series. She’s already grown up a lot since her role on “Buffy”… although of course, Charisma Carpenter was always a tiny bit unbelievable as a high school student anyway.

This episode sets the tone for the rest of the series, too - because Angel doesn’t manage to save the innocent in this story, and has to make do with avenging her death. It gives you the clear impression that not everyone here gets out alive, which seems fitting, considering.

0102 - Lonely Hearts: It’s a shame that this episode was so overwritten, because it’s an imaginative second episode, and introduces Kate Lockley, a character who could have been so great. An episode about loneliness, this one drives the message home a little too forcefully for my liking, with too much of the dialogue going over many of the character’s desire to “make a connection”.

0103 - In The Dark: … Oz turns up, here, following on from the corresponding episode of “Buffy”. And Spike follows him.

These were the best two characters to lead off with, as crossovers into this show. Oz’s arrival instantly shows a contrast in the way that the two shows are filmed, and his laconic delivery matches up better with the more gritty approach that this show has. The episode opens with a hilarious Spike scene, that you remember for a long time afterwards, as he delivers a voice-over to a standard Angel rescue scenario.

And the first truly vile villain of the series shows up, in the vampire that Spike employs to torture Angel, although the darkness of the character is a bit of a throwaway thing. Kind of like - you can tell this show is more mature because there’s a child-molester monster.

0104 - I Fall To Pieces:This episode was a lot creepier then I remember it. The premise is more X-Files than Whedon-verse, with a stalker who can break himself down into composite parts, which float around and are very gross indeed.

Still, there’s something that bugs me about the idea that a pair of hands with no body or even arms to push themselves off against can throttle an average adult, let alone Angel. There is, after all, the question of leverage.

Still, not a bad first disc to start a new show off with, and Girl One seemed to enjoy it enough to continue watching.

Robot Chicken Season 1

It’s possible that I idolise Seth Green a little too much.

But then, last week I watched Robot Chicken, the show what he made, and it’s possible that I don’t idolise him enough.

Of all the shows that I’m watching at the moment, this is the one that is most likely to be an acquired taste - I can’t think of a single person I know who would enjoy this show even nearly as much as I do. (This is a lie… I can think of at least two people who might - but I can’t promise nothing…)

It’s basic premise is simple enough - basically, the show-makers have a load of toys, and thought it would be funny to animate them. Each episode consists of a large number of small sketches, and a couple of longer ones, and the whole thing has an irreverence that you almost wouldn’t expect from American writers - if you hadn’t watched any TV in the last ten years.

This is not polite comedy, and it isn’t particularly easy to watch, either - quite aside from the crude stop-motion animation, there’s the fast cuts and the harsh, often grotesque voice-acting.

But it’s compulsive. It takes the smart route with the sketch-show formula - cram enough quick gags in and it won’t matter if half of them don’t appeal to a viewer, because a few seconds later a proper laugh will come along!

There’s a fondness to the parody here, as well - even when it’s horrid or profane, very few of the jokes are out-and-out hateful, and this would seem to be borne out by the huge number of guest voices they have over the course of this first season.

The closest this show ever gets to any other is the very slight similarity it has to Adam and Joe’s old toy versions of movies, and if you liked those, or any of the other Adult Swim shows, you’d probably get a kick out of Robot Chicken.