Burn Notice s2 ep 5

Everyone has a weak spot, and Michael’s no different – no matter what the job is, dude cannot and will not walk away if there’s a kid in harm’s way.  Hence the absolutely lovely scene this week when reformed getaway driver (or “expediter” as the advanced ones are apparently called) Trevor talked our hero into helping him stay on the straight and narrow – “I have a kid, man.”  And in that moment, we all knew, it was on.

While trying to stop the jewel heist Trevor was press-ganged into without getting Trevor killed, the team also had Carla’s office to think about breaking into, and Sam’s relationship with Veronica to try not to break up.  All of which made for a decent episode, with lots of enjoyable moments albeit not quite up there with this show’s best.  Is it just me or is that a running theme this season? Burn Notice is great fun, and I’ve been enjoying it a lot this year, but not quite as much as I did last year.  We still have half a season for them to step it up and reach the giddy heights I know they can, though, so here’s hoping.

Il y a Longtemps Que Je T’aime (I’ve Loved You So Long) (2008)

Kristin Scott Thomas was nominated for a heap of awards for her role in this French drama - a film about a woman with a terrible secret who finds understanding and love in her long-lost sister. 

And rightly so.  She gives an astonishing performance as the damaged, introverted Juliette, giving her intensity, dignity and fragility so convincing your heart breaks for her throughout. 

Scott Thomas is the centre of the film, but the supporting cast are excellent too, so the performances are not the problem here.  The problem is, unfortunately, that for a good hour very little actually happens.  There is a lot of fantastic acting, a lot of beautiful emoting, and a lot of deeply felt pain and suffering, but that’s it.  It’s not till the last 40 minutes or so that the film stops being worthy and starts moving, which is a shame, because the story is a compelling one and the ending is heart-stopping.  I just wish we’d gotten to it sooner.

Without a Trace s7 ep 11

I watched WAT last night and 24 hours later, I still have nothing to say about it.  It wasn’t a bad episode at all, just not particularly worth talking about, and it looks like inspiration ain’t gonna come any time soon.    So, seeing as only about 2 people are watching this anyway, can I just say:-

1. Marianne “Special Agent Vivian Johnson” Jean-Baptiste directed this one,

2. It was about a missing 12 year old fed up with her divorced parents, and

3. It was perfectly fine.

And leave it at that?

House s6 ep 5

Manipulative TV is a bad thing, of course.  But what if it’s done well?  This episode of House was a shameless exercise in viewer-button-pushing, and I loved it like the cheap ho I clearly am.

Patient of the Week is Donny (yet another ‘Homicide’ alumnus, Jon Seda), who is about to turn 40 and therefore convinced that he’s going to die imminently, as his father, grandfather and great-grandfather dropped dead at that age with cardiac problems.  Unfortunately there’s nothing wrong with his heart.  House wants to kick him out.  Everyone else wants to keep him.  So convinced of his fate is Donny that he’s always made it clear to partners that he doesn’t want to have children, and as it turns out he doesn’t want to know the one he does have.

Meantime House is sleeping in Wilson’s rather disturbing shrine to Amber, and seems to be hallucinating again – he can hear whispers.  And Chase is still being haunted by the ghost of President Jones.

The PotW issue resolves itself in the normal way, although there’s a pretty dramatic detour.  The whispering I wasn’t expecting to play out as it did, and both the cause, and House’s reaction, were surprisingly moving, as was House’s sudden confrontation with Cuddy.  At the moment it looks as if House is torn between being House and being something better, and Hugh Laurie is right on top of it.

And an episode which spent a lot of time examining various responses to loss ended on a few hopeful notes, although not for poor old Chase; not only does he have President Jones’s blood on his hands, he’s having to take that particular open pay packet home to Cameron.  You get the feeling that things are going to get a lot worse for him.  But for the rest of us, ‘House’ is going pretty well this season.

Curb Your Enthusiasm s7 ep 4

I suppose that the quality of improvised comedy must be even more variable than the scripted stuff.  Sometimes it works; this was one of the other times.  Larry David, sans the ‘Seinfeld’ gang this week, had set up a number of scenarios which looked promising – wanting the home phone number of his doctor; a date with old flame Mary Jane Porter (a particularly delightful-looking Sherry Stringfield); the gift certificate; Christian Slater and the caviar; the bad singing.  All very clever, but it didn’t really result in anything very funny.  Unless you count “Shut the fuck up!”.

Spooks s8 ep 2

Just a few minor problems for Section D to deal with this week.

Ruth’s anger, Harry’s distress, and, oh yeah, the UK’s energy supplies for the next 6 months or so being blown up.  Piece of cake.  

Our heroes had to ensure a deal was sorted with the Tazbeks for additional supplies before all the lights went off in the entire country, while trying to deal with the triple obstacles of a persistent Tazbek dissident, a whiny journalist and Harry being so far off his game that even Useless Jo seemed useful in comparison.

Plenty of scope for the usual Spooks touches, then, with the CIA and the Tazbek movers and shakers being double-crossing liars,  Ros and Lucas (2 seasons, 2 strip club episodes for Lucas - I sense a theme) being fantastic, and everyone arguing about the rights of the few vs the needs of the many, while dashing about breaking rules and heads and all sorts.  But for all that, this episode felt a bit lacking. 

The plotholes were more irritating than usual – for instance, if the evil Tazbek Trade Minister was the only thing stopping the Tazbek PM from doing what I wanted, and I knew he was plotting against the Tazbek PM, I would just let the Tazbek PM know.  I’m sure he’d happily get shot of the Trade Minister, and I’d get what I wanted with minimum effort on my part.  Sure, my scheme’s not as exciting as Jo’s was, but mine might’ve worked. 

And as for the Lucas/CIA Blonde business, I’m just not on board.  Richard Armitage did his usual great job selling it, and I know Lucas has form for dubious choice in women, but come on – he likes’em drippy not sociopathic.  Blondie’s behaviour was cold, cruel and utterly repellent this week, and the writers had Lucas switch from horrified rage to enthusiastic ardour a bit too quickly to convince.

And the switch from Malcolm to new wunderkind Tariq was a bit too quick to convince as well.  Generally, this wasn’t a vintage episode – when Harry’s not at his best, neither is Spooks it would seem.

Hung s1 ep 4

I was just a little underwhelmed by this episode for most of its running time.  It’s not an overwhelming show in any case.  But the last few minutes turned it round very nicely.  Ray’s children – intelligently cast and well acted – provided the first lump-in-the-throat moments, and Ray himself forging a touching human connection with one of his clients rounded things off very well.

FlashForward s1 ep 7

I spoke too soon when I said that ‘FlashForward’’s ratings in the US were holding up; over the last couple of weeks there’s been something of a drop, partly because of scheduling issues, and – I guess – partly because of the variable quality of a few of the episodes.  This is a problem.  If you’re ‘Heroes’, for example, and you hit the mark for most of the first season, you can get away with a lot of insultingly poor episodes and still retain quite a lot of your core audience.  But if you mislay your audience five episodes in, you run the risk of never getting it back.

Does this episode shore things up?  I don’t know that it does, frankly, displaying as it did the usual strengths and weaknesses of ‘FlashForward’.  But I will say this: I think the writers showed considerable bravery, by doing something I can’t quite specify because of our no-spoilers-in-the-main-article policy.  I’ll come back to that.

One of the major – and justified – criticisms of the show is that there aren’t really any likeable characters, nor any particularly sympathetic ones.  In what looked like an attempt to answer that, we were treated to Mark, Demetri, and Al joshing about, not quite fist-tapping and towel-popping but that sort of thing.  You guys!  It didn’t really work for me, but ‘FlashForward’ then pulled off one of the coups it manages just regularly enough to keep me watching by introducing the genuinely troubling and intriguing concept of the Ghosts, those who saw nothing in their flash and who therefore are assumed to be already dead, in a sense.  (What about those who will be sleeping in five months’ time?  What did they see?)

The pace then dropped again, though, with some ponderous mystical-cum-philosophical nonsense about the Blue Hand organisation, put together to give Ghosts somewhere to dress funny, and with the reappearance of Alex Kingston - never a good sign.  In addition, if that bearded man would like to revise his flash to include receipt of a terrifyingly brutal punch in the face, I’m that soldier.

But then – not for the first time – the ending saved the show.  And some.  The review I was planning to write, about how the writers seemed to be putting another more likeable character front and centre, elbowing Mark out of the way, had to be scrapped.  Both brave and potentially gamechanging, and credit where due.  That a second cliffhanger was piled on top of that simply confirmed yet again that this show can do starts and finishes, but more often than not has trouble filling the gap in between.  If it can get that sorted, we might have a show on our hands, if anyone’s still watching.

Ugly Betty s3 ep 19

Oh, puhleeze.

Matt’s feckless womaniser past, Hilda and Councilman Karate Kid’s irritating to-ing and fro-ing, and Wilhelmina sexually harrassing her night-nanny/manny?  Tedious and stupid, all of it.

In Treatment s1 ep 21; ep 22; ep 23; ep 24; ep 25

Five excellent episodes this week; even the makeweight Jake and Amy storyline provided enjoyment as Paul decided that an aggressive approach might pay dividends.  Or maybe he just felt like it.  After all, he was having a hell of a week.

The series is still pivoting on the relationship between Paul and Laura, examined again in the first of this week’s episodes.  While we now know that Paul claims that he loves Laura, we still don’t know why, nor whether it’s because the producers are leaving it to the intuition of the viewer to fill in the gaps, or – and it matters – because they’ve undercooked the writing and acting. 

Anyway, Alex senses a weakness and homes in on it during his session, in what was perhaps the most extraordinary episode so far; and after ruthless and relentless probing – and a remarkable violation of privacy - Paul finally snaps.  This gets further explored during Paul’s own session with Gina, for which they are joined by Kate, ostensibly trying to save their marriage, although partly at least trying to reclaim a bit of the moral high ground.  Personally, though, I’m not sure that she deserves too much sympathy just because her dirty weekend in Rome didn’t go according to plan.

Somewhat sui generis in all of this is Sophie’s story, which this week provided raw, uncomfortable, but compelling viewing.  I’ve said it already, but justice demands that – yet again – Mia Wasikowska’s remarkable performance  be acknowledged.  She’s switching from girlhood to womanhood and back again in a manner which feels both utterly traumatic and completely natural.