February 10, 2008

The Strike Is…Something

Looks like the writers’ strike is headed to a deal. Thank fucking God. The downside is, many networks appear to be shuttering productions until next fall, no matter what. It’s more economically sound to wait until the fall and (perhaps) tack on some extra episodes to next season than to start up production again for two or three episodes. But who the hell knows? So many rumors are flying, it’s hard to separate fact from fiction.

House (Fox) — While Sunday’s post-Super Bowl episode was much better than last Tuesday’s crapfest, this Tuesday’s episode is the best show they’ve done in at least a year. So I’m going to stick with my conclusion that last week’s episode was an old cast-off they hastily (and poorly) rewrote, which explains the more-minimal-than-usual screen time of Cameron, Chase, and even Foreman, and also explains why all the new characters acted exactly like the old characters.

The nicest moment in Sunday’s episode was Mira Sorvino’s ill shrink outing Wilson as a horrible person. He tries too hard to be nice and compassionate, but the fact that he remains friends with House (and the fact that he’s nice all the time) suggest a dark side we haven’t seen much of on the show. The ending reveal that he’s dating Cutthroat Bitch reenforces that. In Tuesday’s episode, it makes House very uncomfortable that Wilson is effectively dating him, but as Wilson points out, they’ve been a couple for years.

It sheds an interesting new light on Wilson, the underused utility player who often makes me say, “If this show was an hour of House and Wilson bantering, it would be the best show on TV. Too bad about all that medical mystery shit and all those annoying young people who keep whining at him.” He’s had several marriages fall apart, several other relationships fall apart, and he mentions Cutthroat Bitch is the opposite of his type. If relationships with “his type” end badly, it makes me think things with Cutthroat Bitch will be all right. After all, he’s been “dating” House for who knows how long, and things are okay.

Lost (ABC) — What a dense, interesting episode. The boat people are instantly more interesting than the tailies (much as I loved Libby and Eko, neither got as much screen time or character development in their entire seasons on the show as the boat people did in this episode). The flashback showing us the discovery of a fake Oceanic 815. The fact that Frank was supposed to fly 815. The Dharma polar bear in Tunisia. Miles being a real (apparently) ghostbuster, and also stealing some drug money for his troubles.

This was a great episode that raised a lot of questions, gave us a bit of insight into the characters—in short, everything Lost does best. Too many questions for me to take the time listing; I’d rather just watch the season unfold.

I only have one major theory. I could go into thoughts about the boat people, who they are, what they’re doing on the island, but I think it’s at least reasonably clear that they’re there for something more than Ben. Best case, they’re there to remove Ben and study the island. Why else would you bring such a disparate group of non-assassins to kidnap and (one assumes, based on Ben’s tone of voice) torture and kill Ben?

No, my theory for this week is this: Walt is Ben’s “man on the boat.” It could just as easily be Michael, but the two of them are definitely on the boat, and I think Walt is the one with the crazy “special” psychic and astral-projection skills required to (a) figure out who all these people are, where they came from, and what they want without arousing suspicion, and (b) relay that information to Ben. We’ll see whether or not I’m right…

Psych (USA) — This episode didn’t really grab me. It was funny, as usual, but Zoolander covered about as much male-model satire as we need for a lifetime. It’s not a great movie, but anything that tackles the same ideas will come across as derivative. Psych usually does a little better.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Fox) — This is where I wanted them to take the show: the idea that time-traveling terminators are a self-fulfilling prophecy. Skynet is going to be much more difficult to take down when you can send machines back in time to stockpile supplies, weapons, building materials, etc., as we saw in this episode.

In addition to that, we’re seeing more and more of John’s leadership capabilities. He’s willing to take action, and while he makes some dumbass moves, he’s a quick-thinker. The scenes with the hibernating terminator standing who has effectively trapped him in a sealed bunker were incredibly well-done, tauter than anything suspense and action shows like 24 have delivered in recent years. Much of the effectiveness of the fight scenes can be credited to Joel Kramer, but this wasn’t action or stunts. This was all the handiwork of the writers and episode director Sergio Mimica-Gezzan.

I hope this show continues to embrace the ideas laid out in the original movies and continue expanding them. They’re creating one of the more interesting and unique (despite its genesis in the movies) sci-fi universes in recent memory.

The Wire (HBO) — So what is the deal with Partlow? They’ve made occasional references (“This Marine shit”) to his methods being a little more “professional” than your average gangsta. We get more and more of his character—this week, the introduction to the idea that he has a whole family living in a nice house (probably in Baltimore County, where it’s safe)—but I don’t think Simon and Burns are ever going to put that fine a point on it. He’s either a sociopathic soldier instinctively, or he’s smarter than the average cornerboy, or he’s ex-military.

Sad, the subtle references to a “Joe Stewart” (and another name that one assumes is Hungry Man’s proper name) being vague drug killings. It’s one of those sad things. Alma isn’t a horrible reporter—just inexperienced. One would assume Twigg would know Prop Joe, at least, if not both of them. He’d understand their long, storied contributions to the Baltimore drug trade and realize their deaths should be a reasonably important story. But I guess the underlying point is those stories are rarely told, by anyone. Even if Twigg knew of them, could he get the proper detail? Even if he could get that, would a newspaper want to print a story about the death of a drug kingpin? It’s sad that most papers would probably sweep a story like that under the rug, even if they had it.

At any rate, Omar dove off a balcony. I’m sure he survived, but holy shit! I don’t believe any of the stupid hype that he somehow managed to jump off the balcony, twist his body in mid-air, and drop onto one of the balconies a few floors below. No way do I believe that. The Wire, while not truly realistic, has cultivated enough of a realistic feel that a feat not out of place on Heroes doesn’t belong here. More likely, he had the foresight to place something on the ground to cushion his fall, then dragged his ass to a prearranged hiding spot. I do feel bad for Donnie, though. He’s not coming back from that.

And then, the craziest shit of the episode: McNulty versus Templeton. Whose lies will win? Hilariously, Templeton has stumbled across a real story, but I don’t even think he knows it. He may think he’s so good at making shit up that he stumbled across the truth accidentally; even if he doesn’t, he can’t break the story of McNulty’s phony serial killer without implicating himself as a fraud. Meanwhile, McNulty finally gets his page-one ways, but it still means nothing. Carcetti authorizes budget for two detectives to work unlimited overtime. To catch a serial killer. Yes, yes, a fake serial killer, but I’m as outraged as McNulty. I feel bad for Kima, though; I’m afraid McNulty’s going to bring her into his “weak shit,” as Bunk poetically calls it, and she’ll end up going down with the rest of them.

Which brings me to the illegal wiretap. Lester, Christ. No wonder he spent 13 years, four months in the pawn shop unit, working on his dollhouse miniatures. He makes McNulty look rational. At this point, I’m not sure if all their crazy maneuvering will work because the city officials are so apathetic, or will destroy all of them because the city’s population is so terrified.

My speculation on the random computer-handshaking noises that closed the episode: cell phone technology has finally passed wiretap technology (or, at least, the tap technology available to the BPD). Marlo’s either sending e-mails, files, or using some kind of encryption to contact the Greeks.

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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