In Treatment s1 ep 31; ep 32; ep 33; ep 34; ep 35

With Laura temporarily not featuring, the first episode of the week instead gave us Paul and his children.  It was typically well-crafted, but did little apart from add a little of Paul’s backstory.  This might have been the first time all season that ‘In Treatment’ has been a little dull.

Everyone else, however, was on top form.  Sorry to keep going on about this, but I just don’t buy the resumption of the therapist/patient relationship between Paul and Alex as remotely plausible.  I’m prepared to live with it, though, as it gave Blair Underwood the opportunity to turn in his best performance yet, even better than last time: apparently revealing a lot, but leaving the big questions opaque.  I still couldn’t say for sure whether he’s gay, whether he wants to go back on active duty, whether he’s traumatised.  Mia Wasikowska’s excellence as Sophie is now so routine that we’re in danger of losing sight of just how good she is.   And Paul and Kate’s own session with Gina was as compelling as ever: after a week of seeing Paul preside loftily over the petty behaviour of others, it’s salutary to watch him sniping petulantly at his wife, even if she does kind of deserve it.  Strike that “kind of”, on reflection.

But the most powerful episode of the week – and the real revelation – was the Josh and Amy episode.  After weeks of this being the weak link, we got the payoff this time round.  I mean, I’m now firmly on Team Josh, but as the two of them ripped each others’ souls out it was harrowing stuff.

Fringe s2 ep 8

It’s a bit unfortunate that Sky 1 chose to screen ads for the new seasons of 24 (January!) and Lost (Coming Soon!) during this episode.  They got me excited, yes, but also reminded me that there are tv shows out there that I’m hugely excited about (since you were asking, e  ) and that Fringe isn’t one of them.

Which is a shame really as this episode wasn’t a bad one.  The Observer was back again (I know, he’s in it every week, but I’ve NEVER managed to spot him so it doesn’t count, ok?) and this time he brought his buddies.  Apparently, The Observer is not like The Highlander – there can be more than one.

And guess what The Observers (which I was going to say should be the name of an indie rock band till I saw this) have been up to?  They’ve been turning up before significant events in history – execution of Marie Antoinette, Boston Tea Party, you know the type of thing – getting themselves a seat at the back and settling down for the show.  Why, you ask?  I don’t know.  Maybe they don’t have cable tv. 

Anyway, this week, one of them decided to stop observing and start taking part, so the story kicked off with him kidnapping a young woman, and Olivia and the Bishops being called in to help find her.  The story of his relationship with the girl might have been a bit more movingly handled in another show, but Fringe’s effort at the themes of love, loss and self-sacrifice was passable, and at least Olivia’s role was scaled down a bit.  The Observers may play robotic but they’re still more lively than Agent Dunham.

Of course, we can’t have everything, so, because the story was a bit better, they decided to scale down Peter’s role too, relegating him to jumping up and down demanding to know what The Observers know.  Oh, Peter.  I hope you actually get to do something about it when you find out.

House s6 ep 7

A very difficult episode to write about.  It had a few awesome ideas, and a couple of moderately awesome things.  Ultimately, though, I think the problem was that it was just a bit too in love with its potential awesomeness, and as a result fell short of delivering actual awesomeness. 

Unlike last time, Patient of the Week was a goodie: one Hank Hardwick (huh huh huh), a good Jewish boy who also happens to be a porn star.  He’s got stuff wrong with him – as ever, the details and the cure don’t matter much.  It was edifying, though, to see that an adult movie actor was in a position legitimately to lecture the Princeton-Plainsboro crew on job satisfaction, relationships, and getting the work-life balance just right.  And I positively relished the moment when Mrs Porn Star called the doctors on their annoying habit of presuming that they can deliver little moral homilies to their patients: “You’re here to treat him, not lecture us”.  I suppose she should be thankful that Chase didn’t take it on himself to kill her husband, mind you.

But it’s the team which is the real story this week. House is using the patient as a means of getting all of his former team members to fall in love with diagnostic medicine and their old jobs: so he doorsteps Taub and Thirteen with some tantalising symptoms, and keeps Cameron and Chase within striking distance, although they still have the whole Chase-the-murderer thing to work through.  Three vacancies, four potential applicants.  Something’s gotta give, and it isn’t impossible to guess what it will be.  Or is House just doing all this to distract himself from the improbable relationship between Cuddy and Lucas?

Anyway, could have been awesome but wasn’t quite.  I’m hopeful that now the team has reappointed itself the show can settle down a bit – the writers are more keen than I am on team instability as a plot device.

Burn Notice s2 ep 6

Another well-constructed and entertaining episode.  I’m not quite as convinced as the writers that the plotline about Carla is all that, but this week it worked well as Michael was coerced into assisting in the theft of a mysterious wooden crate.  It also meant an all-time favourite spy skills voiceover, as Michael explained how you might, if you had the inclination, turn the boot of your car into a rudimentary x-ray machine.

This had to be juggled with Ricky, the client of the week, accountant to menacing gangsta music mogul Valentine (played by Wu-Tang Clan’s Method Man.  There should be more Wu-Tangers on TV).  $2m of Valentine’s money had gone missing, and Ricky’s in the frame.  When ‘Burn Notice’ is working well, like this week, it manages to get the plot just right – intricate but not baffling, and with room for Michael to fire off the odd deadpan VO wisecrack.  I liked his bored face as he worked out how best to lose a fight with the chief suspect.

One question.  Does he not turn down his fee rather a lot these days?  If so, what is he living on?

Without a Trace s7 ep 12

A weeping statue, a girl missing her dad, and a couple of little miracles? Aw.  I really liked this one. 

The story about hope and faith and family was sweet, the main guest actors (Thomas Calabro and Hayley McFarland) were very likeable and even Jack managed to join in the spirit of things by growing up and letting Sam and her babydaddy work things out for themselves, rather than throwing his weight around and forcing her into a corner.  Like I said – miracles.

House s6 ep 6

One for the fans this week.  It was pretty hard to get worked up about the Patient of the Week, wealthy jailbait who couldn’t bring herself to tell House and the team anything approaching what turned out to be the pretty mundane truth, to the point where they administered a truth drug.  (But why not just do that every week with every patient?)  No, this week was all about House, Cuddy, Wilson, and an unexpected fourth wheel.

As I’ve mentioned before, part of the fascination of this season has been watching House trying to be a better man, and one aspect of that seems to be his coming to terms with his feelings for Cuddy.  Not that he’s above nicknaming her funbags Patty and Selma – because they’re “always smokin’” – but he also contrives to get himself to a residential conference that she’s going to be at, with the intention of seeing where their relationship might go.  And so, in a lovely scene at the medics’ 80’s theme party – and with Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Time After Time’ bringing back memories for those of us who were, y’know,  going to 80’s parties in the 80’s – House and Cuddy, gently and regretfully, start to unpack a bit more of the Huddy backstory.  Lisa Edelstein’s still bringing her A game; Hugh Laurie’s left his A game way behind and is operating at a yet higher level.  It’s remarkable to think out that he started out as, essentially, a stand up comedian; this man is some actor.

For those of us who like the House/Wilson civil partnership, plenty to relish here as well, as House tries to save Wilson from himself, in a way which, as Wilson eventually sees, reaffirms the value of their friendship.  Robert Sean Leonard is also some actor.

As for the fourth wheel:  I’m not sorry to see that character back, because I liked him first time round, although I’m afraid I can’t for a second see him as a plausible partner for Cuddy.  But introducing a new dynamic into the Princeton-Plainsboro relationships might be a good thing; we’ll see.   Meantime Chase has introduced a new dynamic into his marriage, in the form of a murder confession.  I could be wrong, but surely Cameron’s not going to like that.

Curb Your Enthusiasm s7 ep 5

A significantly improved ‘Curb’ this week started with a delicious opening, when Larry successfully gets a date with a woman sitting on the other side of a cafe table, only for her to wheel round to his side in her wheelchair…  Typically, he quickly comes to see that he can turn this socially to his advantage – “I date the disabled!” – although his first sexual encounter with ‘Denise Handicapped’  is somewhat lacking.  Fortunately for Larry, and for us, Leon is back to diagnose potential problems:  “Did you bring it?  Did you do your dizzle?  Bring the ruckus to that ass!”  The pointless arguments with celebs worked well, as did Larry’s dilemma when faced with a choice between protecting his BlackBerry and saving Jeff’s drowning daughter.  Much better.

Hung s1 ep 5

I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to make this connection, but I watched this episode of ‘Hung’ just after watching episode 4 of this season of ‘Dollhouse’, and the similarities and differences were striking.  Had Ray’s client this week gone to the Dollhouse it would have been easy: Victor would have been given a quick once-over with a baby wipe, programmed, and sent into the field to play the reluctant romantic/knight in shining.  For poor old Ray, though, it was much more difficult; after three goes at acting out Jemma’s scenario, and one ‘Truman Show’-esque feeding of his lines, he still hadn’t quite nailed it.  Well, he’d nailed it, but apparently not in the right way.   His perseverance was touching, though.   (A point of order: no doubt there’s still a lot we have to find out about Jemma, but is she not implausibly attractive?  I mean, I’d do her for nothing.)

And in the background his wife’s second marriage is starting to hit turbulence, as her husband Ronnie (a precise performance by Eddie Jemison) hits financial trouble, while Tanya has to cope with the rather pathetic  and unsettling motivational speaker Floyd (Steve Hytner).  Likeable as ‘Hung’ is there’s a lot of pain and loneliness just under the surface.  I’ve damned ‘Hung’ with faint praise recently, but this was rather good, and the standout episode of the season so far.

Spooks s8 ep 3

The first 57 minutes of this week’s Spooks were pretty uninspiring, to be honest. 

Seige-style hostage situations are practically one a season on this show, Ros is usually the one stuck in them, and this week’s villains - some anti-capitalist, anti-rich and (unfortunately) anti-watchable ”Baader-Meinhof groupies” – may well have had a perfectly legitimate point about billionaires doing bad things but they were so phenomenally self-righteous and annoying about it that they ruined the episode completely. 

Yes, my interest in the “trial by internet” story was already reduced by the fact that Without a Trace did a similar storyline years ago with a vapid socialite rather than a venal billionaire in the dock, but if the baddies had been remotely charismatic or sympathetic, the attempt to shade the episode with Spooks’ trademark “everybody kind of has a point, even the ’bad’ guys” theme might well have worked far better than it did. 

Even the idea of a super-group of billionaires who secretly rule the world kind of annoyed me – mainly because I couldn’t remember which film or book (or both) they were borrowing it from. 

In fairness to the cast, everyone – especially Hermione Norris, who managed to impress even though all she had to do was stare grimly for most of it – did their best to keep things ticking over and the “trials” themselves were impressively chilling and upsetting, but the episode only really hit its mark in the last 3 minutes when something so quintessentially, horribly, shockingly Spooks happened that I remembered just how powerful this show can be – and that I should really be more careful what I wish for if they’re actually going to give it to me.

FlashForward s1 ep 8

I don’t know about you, but the impression I have is that ‘FlashForward’ is perhaps the most contentious show we’ve ever featured on Unpopcult.  I suspect the writers would like us to be arguing about the Message, rather than the simpler question of whether it’s any good or not.  But such have been the differences of opinion that I can’t even begin to guess whether anyone else is going to share my view.  So I’m just going to start the review with “I don’t know about you…”.

I don’t know about you, but… poker?  Fricking poker?  Charlie and Miles playing poker for the future of mankind?  Come.  Off.  It.   It’s not as if this show has, until now, been noted for its levity, so in theory a bit of a lightening of the portentous tone could have been welcome.  But there’s a difference between the judicious use of wit and just flat-out taking the piss, is there not?  Particularly after the conclusion to last week’s episode set up an intriguing thread or two about predestination, more or less written off this week in a couple of newspaper headlines and a dirty weekend for Shakespeare and Penny.

And overall, short of a title card at the end saying “Will this do?” it couldn’t have been plainer that this episode was just filler.  So I got annoyed.  Why was no-one wondering whether, y’know, someone else could have the three-star tattoo?  Bird shop woman – why?  Man with beard – why, God, why?  I was reduced to wondering whether I was imagining it, or whether Wedeck was getting a bit handy with Janis; boy, is he going to be disappointed if so.

Not good.  Can do better.  Need to.