August 24, 2008

‘Stargate Atlantis’ and Other Disasters

On Thursday, news broke that Stargate Atlantis would conclude its run at the end of this season, its fifth. I stopped covering the show in November when my consistent disappointment led me to repeat the same thing week after week. As I said then, I still watch the show, but it hasn’t done a thing to make it worth writing about. Let me repeat it, though, for the last time ever: this show had endless potential, and we saw glimmers of this in its first and second seasons; after that, much like another sci-fi spinoff (Enterprise), it took a nosedive off a mountain and has been rolling down it ever since, up to and including last week’s disastrous nonsensical wrap-up of the Weir storyline (using an actor who played McKay’s self-built replicator last season). I had really hoped the show would claw its way back to must-see status, but I guess the writers never had much interest in that. It might be too much to hope that they’ll give it a halfway-decent sendoff; more likely, they’ll end on a half-assed cliffhanger, then abandon plans for the follow-up movies. Kind of like Deadwood, only without the outraged fans.

In its stead, producers Robert C. Cooper and Brad Wright have greenlit a third spinoff, Stargate Universe, which fans hope will redeem the flaws of Stargate Atlantis. The producers say, “We plan to keep those elements that have made the franchise a success, such as adventure and humor, while breaking new ground in the relationships between mostly young and desperate explorers, thrust together and far from home. Above all, we believe the Stargate itself remains an enduring icon with infinite potential as a jumping off point for telling stories.” Young? Desperate? Relationships? I have my doubts that The O.C. meets Star Trek: Voyager will redeem the failures of Atlantis.

Burn Notice (USA) — Am I crazy, or did something about this episode feel a little off? It had a lot of great things happening—bona fide high-seas pirates, Michael assuming the identity of a nerd, great guest turns from Prison Break’s Silas Weir Mitchell and The Unit’s Max Martini. It even addressed one thing I complained about last week, which I didn’t figure they’d get to so quickly: the return of a previous character Michael helped, who has returned to generate the plot and involve himself in a romantic subplot with Madeline. It also featured one of the biggest bad-ass moments in the history of Burn Notice: Michael tossing a handful of gun powder in the air to prevent getting shot (it’s explosive).

Somehow, the sum of these parts didn’t add up to a satisfying whole. I wish I could put my finger on the exact problem. Maybe they went a few steps back in terms of marrying the “who burned me” plot with the “client of the week” plot. Maybe, despite a change of window dressing every week, the client stories are a little repetitive. Or maybe Michael just didn’t offer enough hilarious spycraft voiceovers.

I haven’t felt the level of angst others have regarding this season, but this episode definitely had an off feel. It won’t be back for a few weeks, so we’ll see what happens when it returns.

Eureka (Sci-Fi) — I call so, so, so much bullshit on this episode. I can’t even express in words my disappointment with their sendoff of Nathan Stark. I have read several sources that claim it was Ed Quinn’s decision to leave the show, and gosh, I can’t imagine why. It couldn’t have anything to do with the writers doing nothing interesting with his character after the initial artifact-obsession storyline—choosing, instead, to shove him into a love triangle that never worked.

As with Stargate Atlantis, I don’t mourn the death of Nathan Stark so much as the colossal waste of potential. They let a fine actor slip through their fingers and assassinated (literally) an interesting, well-played character—for what? The episode had some good moments, but even in Stark’s sendoff, everything is about The Tedious Triangle, so much so that his death lacked the poignance it could have had. True, it was a sad moment—but the ending felt so rushed, we had no time to fully understand the willing sacrifice Stark made in order to save everyone else. It wanted to have the same power as “The Gift,” the instant-classic Buffy the Vampire Slayer finale that found our heroine diving into a gooey vat of special effects to save her sister and the world. Instead, it had the emotional resonance of the Small Wonder where Vicki’s evil robot twin tricks the family into moving to Hollywood, then leaves them stranded while she runs off to become a star.

Let me try to guess the Carter-Allison relationship trajectory from this point forward: Allison will pull away even further, because of the grief. Perhaps she’ll blame Carter for Stark’s death, even. At some point—a season-ending break seems like a good time, but it may come sooner—she’ll go off on a long trip, leaving Carter alone and lonely. When she returns, one of them—maybe both—will be in a relationship with a person who exists solely to keep the two of them apart.

Man, do I ever wish that dry-cleaning girl hadn’t been evil.

Flashpoint (CBS) — This episode had such a hilarious, over-the-top start that I thought CBS started it midway through by mistake. Maybe that’s why this episode never managed to grab me.

Last week, we saw something bizarre and unusual. Maybe I’m alone, but I’ve never seen anything like the teen-girl shootout at the mall in any serious entertainment, much less on a network-TV drama (even if it is one that airs in the summer). It introduced me to a subculture that may not exist, may not be prevalent, but if it’s either, it’s certainly not represented in popular entertainment.

This week, however, we got a pretty basic, predictable story that didn’t do much for me: two rich kids abused by a violent father. One has turned into the de facto black sheep—lashing out and causing so much trouble he is not only sent to military school, he’s kicked out—and the other has become a quiet whipping-boy willing to do everything his father wishes in order to keep the peace. Among other problems, they didn’t do much to address the way the mother felt about this. They also didn’t dig deep into why the father beat them. Yes, they give us the routine explanations that (a) he’s wealthy and thinks he’s above the law and (b) they need to be “worthy” of the family name, but anyone who’s seen the 1988 classic Above the Law knows there must be a deeper explanation. Like maybe the father was using his government connections to traffic drugs from Southeast Asia.

Joking aside, Flashpoint’s primary strength is its ability to give us a balanced view of these hostage situations. Yes, the show says, these people are criminals and what they do isn’t right (even if it’s for the right reasons), but they’re not the one-dimensional monsters who prowl the streets of Jerry Bruckheimer’s Las Vegas, Miami and New York. Aside from twisting the plot so the “big reveal” doesn’t occur until late in the episode, this episode didn’t do much to dimensionalize our victims. We have a rich-brute father, a troubled older son, a meek younger son and a mother who barely exists. Where is the subtlety I admired in previous episodes?

Notice I didn’t even mention Sam’s big conflict—the suicide of a fellow soldier. It made for a poignant ending and for some interesting relationship drama within the unit, but trying to bridge this subplot with the story of Rolland and Simon Stachan (no, seriously, those are the characters’ names—I looked it up) didn’t work well at all.
I liked the idea of forging this connection with Simon because his friend reminded him of Rolland, but it just didn’t fit as well as it could have. Then again, who am I to complain? At least it’s not the neat-package solution we’d expect from such a routine cop-show plot.

Mad Men (AMC) — Okay, they’ve turned Duck into an out-and-out villain. I know he exists as an opposite of Don, but we hardly know him and they’ve already assassinated his character by turning him into a boob whose incompetence is only recognized by Don, while Sterling and Cooper eat out of the palm of Duck’s hand. This show is usually distinguished by its subtlety and depth, so I’m not sure where they went wrong. I just know this entire American Airlines “Duck looks like a hero/Don looks like a villain” subplot has been a little too ham-fisted for my tastes.

However, Peggy’s story made up for any other flaws. I can think of only two or three moments of the show that had more power and insight than the scene where Father Gill shows up at the Olson residence and turns down Anita’s food but insists they pass along to Peggy a written copy of his sermon. The unspoken—but obvious—sibling rivalry that has permeated the Peggy-Anita relationship so far finally boiled over in Anita’s fantastic “confession” to Father Gill. A petty, spiteful act…that any jealous sibling would have taken.

The Middleman (ABC Family) — Finally, some character development for Noser! Amusing as he is, I have to admit I couldn’t figure out why he warranted “series regular” status until this episode. It’s clear now that he’ll play an important role later on…somehow.

I can’t help feeling like the whole “puppet villain” thing might be played out. It’s hard not to compare it to the respective “puppet” episodes of Buffy and Angel, especially when this week’s villain is the vampire to end them all—Vlad the Impaler, Count Dracula. But two big things helped this episode come into its own: first, the love of the Middleman for Lacey, and second, the fact that Lacey isn’t the only one he loves. They’ve created such a refreshing spin on the age-old “unrequited love” story (Eureka could learn a thing or five) that, even without having a third woman, they’ve made a potential triangle compelling. Mainly because it’s not the usual “two men love the same woman”—it’s one man loving two women… I assume.

Speaking of refreshing and bland romantic subplots, The Middleman has also made me happy by not forcing a romance between The Middleman and Wendy. Ignoring the defiance of the characters’ internal logic (because they could just do what Buffy did and frustrate the shit out of me by rewriting characters so they’d do absurd things in order to get romantically involved), it’s just such an obvious trope. I prefer the borderline-sibling relationship between The Middleman and Wendy. Never change this, writers!

Monk (USA) — Speaking of uncomfortable romances and sibling relationships… I could understand why some might have a hard time with Monk’s behavior in this episode, but I found it very interesting. In a way, it gave us a deeper insight into the oft-referenced Trudy relationship. I could never quite figure out how they got together, but it makes a strange kind of sense. Not to downplay the love between Monk and Trudy, but the way they portrayed him with this week’s love interest, it almost seems like the woman becomes a new obsession, trumping all the others and making him—well, he verges on tolerable, able to put aside some of his phobias and compulsions unless somebody does something crazy like tosses semi-cooked food into a hat.

The ending, too, could appear a little hard to swallow, but I bought it. In fact, it added even more depth to Monk: a good woman trumps most of his problems, but nothing will beat finding “the guy.” Her mother was “the guy,” and it didn’t matter to Monk that she was willing to confess and do the time herself—just as it didn’t matter to her that her mother committed the crime. It’s a fundamental difference in who they are, and although it left Monk a little lonely and a little pathetic, that’s who he is. He’ll never be the type of person who can just say, “I see what you’re doing here, covering for your elderly mother, and I’m going to let it slide because she’s old and her crime was just in my eyes, even if it isn’t in the eyes of the law.” Some might see this as giving Monk a bland, black-and-white view of criminal justice—but that’s exactly the way Monk is.

Psych (USA) — Has anyone else noticed that USA seems to have upped their guest-star budget. Burn Notice, Monk and Psych have all lined up tremendous guest stars for roles big and small. This week, Jane Lynch (Best in Show) and Barry Corbin (reuniting with WarGames director John Badham, who directed this episode) enlivened Psych. Perfectly cast as Chief Vick’s Coast Guard sister, Lynch and Kirsten Nelson manufactured a sibling rivalry that’s a comic inverse for Mad Men’s ultra-depressing, ultra-serious rivalry. On the other side, Corbin brought more oomph than one might expect to his role as a rich Texas oilman whose sinister daughter is framing him for her crimes.

The mysteries were a bit more predictable than usual, but the usual high-quality interplay between the characters and these guest stars elevated it quite a bit. I doubt we’ll see Corbin again, but I have hope that Lynch will return. Lassiter’s instant crush on her supplied some of the episode’s biggest laughs. Of course—and maybe this is a negative statement—the biggest laugh for me was the title of this oil-themed episode: “There Might Be Blood.”

D. B. Bates is a film critic and television viewer who has often shouted at fictional characters who probably wouldn’t listen to him even if they could hear him and existed in reality. Interested in explaining to D. B. the many ways he got it wrong? E-mail him.

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