Our reviews for this past week are down a couple of shows, thanks primarily to baseball. Fringe was a no-show on account of the former, and Supernatural offered us a repeat of this season's premiere.

That said, we've got some new entries in the mix, which we'll be continuing as well. Blaine Kyllo chimes in with his thoughts on this past week's episodes of House, 30 Rock and Dollhouse (the latter of which returned to the airwaves after a one week absence).

With choices reduced on account of America's favorite pastime, viewers had a second look at shows they might have otherwise missed the first go-round, in their quest for something to watch, and this benefited FlashForward, which earned its best audience since its second week, picking up a 6.2 rating/10 share.

Meanwhile, according to the stats, Fringe, which has been a big ratings loser in its sophomore season, saw an uptick the week ending Oct. 17, though conventional wisdom is that its move to Thursday night has only hurt the series. It's too early to tell yet what will happen next, but we hope the upswing continues; it's a compelling show.


Mad Men
"The Color blue" | Aired 2009.10.18
If you heard the sound of jaws hitting living room floors last Sunday evening and wondered what the fuss was about, you must not have been watching Mad Men. While the end of last season was marked by a slow-moving sojourn with little plot development, this year means business. Sunday's episode, "The Color Blue", put one more crack in the facade of the man who is 'Don Draper', which means high drama for viewers and trouble for Jon Hamm's character. The episode might have begun on familiar footing — Don lying to Betty (January Jones) so he can escape for a liaison — but a shocker midway through the hour shakes the Draper household as much as the events of late 1963 will disrupt the world.

Meanwhile, the Sterling-Cooper offices are in turmoil as well, but few of its denizens recognize it. The main event in "The Color Blue" is a showdown between Paul Kinsey (Michael Gladis) and Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss), but the real attraction of the episode is the interaction between fan favorites Bert Cooper (Robert Morse) and Roger Sterling (John Slattery). Times may be a-changin', but Mad Men's perfectly created characters continue to enthrall.

-- Kimber Myers

Castle
"When the Bough Breaks" | Aired 2009.10.19
This past week, Detective Beckett got some competition for Castle’s attention: a book deal for writing a certain 'British super-spy'. It threw Castle off his game, too, which I can’t recall ever happening; he’s slow to react when a suspect attempts to bolt, and nearly misses getting to the scene of a homicide.

The latest episode, "When the Bough Breaks", centered around a dead woman whose moral character changes dramatically from beginning to end. At one point, it appears she was grief-ridden, emotionally-compromised, possibly involved in illegalities that led to her demise. But not everything is as it seems. Meanwhile, the possibility of Castle moving on leads Beckett to re-evaluate her feelings; she wants him to stick around, and Castle wants to, but for the sake of the continued romantic tension between them, of course neither will admit it.

How the book deal gets resolved might seem a little far-fetched, but "Heat Wave" is a New York Times bestseller. And who reads novels featuring that certain 'British super-spy'? Overall, Castle continues to be well-written and acted, and if I have any gripe, it’s some of the interiors, which look too spacious to really be New York City.

-- Phil Guie

House
"Brave Heart" | Aired 2009.10.19
Think of this as the Halloween episode of House. The good doctor (Hugh Laurie) is hearing voices — the ghost of Amber? — and dead bodies are screaming in the morgue during an autopsy.

The ep starts off with a dynamic and thrilling parkour chase during which we're all wondering who this week's patient is going to be. The cop who falls off the roof is an easy candidate, but there's no mystery behind his injuries. Not until he confesses that he expects to die at the age of 40, just as his father and grandfather did. So Cameron, ever the bleeding heart, decides the diagnostic team needs to save him.

House isn't interested because there are no symptoms to consider. Except for the broken leg from falling off a roof. But when the patient dies hours after being released, House tries to get back in the game.

Ever since House returned from the psychiatric institution he's been working hard not to become the man he used to be. The problem is that the old environment is pulling him back in.

And now he's been reunited with his old team — Cameron, Chase, Foreman — he seems to be waiting for a complete relapse of his psychotic break.

Laurie and the writers have managed to keep House's gruff, cynical, dickheaded personality intact even while he's clearly improved. I hope they can continue to walk the fine line.

-- Blaine Kyllo
_______________________________________________________________________________

Heroes
"Tabula Rasa" | Aired 2009.10.19
This past week's episode of Heroes, "Tabula Rasa", was more intriguing than perhaps any of the previous episodes of this season. A lot was going on. And a lot of it was about redemption.

Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia) got shot in the chest as he and Noah Bennet (Jack Coleman) sought out a young Georgia boy named Jeremy, a healer with the power to cure Hiro's (Masi Oka) brain damage. Noah sees helping Jeremy as his opportunity to help those he previously persecuted, and thereby gain some measure of redemption and purpose in his life. Given all the persistent rumors that one of the original male characters is going to die, my vote is Noah, who seems to believe that his life hasn't amounted to much anyway; it just feels like his threads are getting wrapped up...and that his presence is less and less necessary. Time will tell...

Meanwhile, Hiro's hospitalization ends up being a blessing for newcomer Emma, whose ability to see sounds as patterns of light is something she'd prefer not to have. Hiro's desire to help Emma not only reawakens his spirit and energy — prompting him to continue his time-jumping quest to right past wrongs — but also brings Emma out of her shell and enables her to realize that her ability might just be a gift after all.

At the same time, Sylar's (Zachary Quinto) newly adopted home, the carnival, run by Samuel, is the most complex piece of the puzzle this season. Samuel is clearly not beyond manipulating others to gain his own narcissistic ends, but his attempt to restore Sylar's true memories is reminiscent of many ancient myths where those too arrogant to know better end up unleashing a power they cannot ultimately control. Watching Heroes, one cannot but wonder if that's exactly what's about to happen here.

All in all, a more compelling episode in a series that still seems to lack any sort of overall arc or endgame, but as someone pointed out to me, it may not be about the destination with this show, but about the journey. Thankfully the journey is getting more interesting...

-- Robert Falconer

FlashForward
"Gimmie Some Truth" | Aired 2009.10.22
As the first season of this freshman series progresses, FlashForward is delving more into the lives of its characters. We've gotten intimate glimpses of the struggles of Mark (Joseph Fiennes) and Olivia (Sonya Walger), but "Gimme Some Truth" provides insight into Agents Janis Hawke (Christine Woods) and Stanford Wedeck (Courtney B. Vance). However, this added attention to character development shows the weaknesses of the series' writers.

The plot still draws viewers in with numerous unanswered questions, but the dialogue and interactions are poorly scripted. Vance gets the opportunity to demonstrate his acting talent, but poor Woods is given some terrible lines in a relationship subplot that makes a worldwide blackout seem a little less ludicrous.

The primary story in "Gimme Some Truth" focuses on Mark's testimony in Washington that will decide if the L.A. office continues to receive federal funding for their unusual investigative tactics. Until FlashForward reveals that the visions aren't set in stone, there's little suspense with what happens (we know the office is still mid-mission on April 29), but the tension lies in the how. "Gimme Some Truth" gets surprisingly political, and it'll be interesting to see if the show continues down this partisan path.

-- Kimber Myers

30 Rock
"Into the Crevasse" | Aired 2009.10.22
Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) should be on top of the world, but her new book, "Dealbreakers", has her in a rut. All of the men in her life are down on her because the women in their lives have read her book. Tracy (Tracy Morgan) is even more offended because so many of the Dealbreaker bits were based on him.

Jenna (Jane Krakowski) is having a passive aggressive temper tantrum and is off to Iceland to act in a werewolf film.

And Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) finds himself face to face with his nemesis, Devon Banks (Will Arnett), who is working for the federal government in economic stimulus.

There were some great and funny moments between Donaghy and Banks, but the best moment in this episode was Liz, following Jack's advice and going deeper instead of trying to climb out of the rut.

She does so by giving Tracy the rights to her life and writing the script adaptation for Tracy to direct. As a porno.

-- Blaine Kyllo

Smallville
"Roulette" | Aired 2009.10.23
Smallville continued its trend this past week of telling stories that focus on its elevated secondary characters; in this case Oliver Queen, aka Green Arrow (Justin Hartley).

Queen gets a redemption of sorts, an opportunity to turn away from his self-destructive, alcohol-fueled downward spiral (the reasons for which were never convincingly elucidated, frankly), by being lured to participate in a journey of awakening—a journey clearly influenced somewhat by Michael Douglas' 1997 movie The Game.

As Oliver attempts to determine who's placed him into a maze of gunfire, explosions and double crosses, it actually starts to get a bit interesting (though has little to do with the name of the show...you know, Smallville). But it never quite gels, with too much artificial dialogue torn from a dime store pulp novel. And when the payoff finally arrives, and we learn who was responsible for the entire ordeal, it's a WTF? moment.

The mastermind turns out to be Chloe (Allison Mack), whose own superpowers are growing faster than any of the other myriad guest stars from the DC Universe regularly trotted out on Smallville nowadays. Not quite a jump the shark moment, but awfully damn close.

I understand the conundrum the writers face with Smallville. When you have a hero like Clark Kent, it's hard to come up with villains every week who can defeat him. After nine years of handicapping him with Kryptonite in one form or another, there's not many ways left to spin that device anymore, and so doing an old-fashioned "who's trying to destroy my life" type of story is appealing...but that requires a human, mortal character in order to work.

But, this is Smallville, which was supposed to be a series about the trials and tribulations of Clark Kent (an alien, virtually immortal character) growing up and eventually becoming the persona we all know and love. Trouble is, after nine seasons, that story is played out.

And now, in a quest for longevity, Smallville has become something completely different from its original raison d'etre.

-- Robert Falconer
Dollhouse
"Belonging" | Aired 2009.10.23
Joss Whedon's Dollhouse is getting darker and more sinister all the time. And because the dolls can become anyone, can do anything, I'm never really sure whether we're seeing a doll in a persona, or as themselves in the before-time.

By about ten minutes into "Belonging", though, I've determined that we did get a glimpse at Sierra's life before she became a doll. Her name is Priya. She's Australian. An artist.

After that things get fuzzy because she interacts with the rest of the dolls during an active engagement arranged by a client, Nolan, with strong connections to Rossum, the company that owns the Dollhouse. But it's Priya who meets the dolls long before she ever becomes Sierra.

Nolan, played by guest star Vincent Ventresca — anyone else remember him from Sci-Fi's The Invisible Man? — unsuccessfully tried to woo Priya with that engagement. Instead, he's leveraged his position with Rossum to turn Priya into a doll so he can have her programmed to love him. He just couldn't take no for an answer.

Yes, very creepy. And there are some violent and extreme moments in this episode. It's dark.

Dichen Lachman, who plays Sierra, has been one of the best actors making up the Dollhouse ensemble, and it was nice to see her have a bit more to do. Funny, then, that she seemed less comfortable playing Priya than she does while playing Sierra.

But just as the dolls are finding their other personalities seeping into their lives, causing chaos, so are the administrators at the Dollhouse finding chaos breaking out around them. And the secrets we're learning about aren't only about the dolls. Those administrators have secrets, too. Adelle DeWitt (Olivia Williams) admits as much to Topher, before accusing him of having no morals at all.

Echo (Eliza Dushku) might be the only stable personality in the Dollhouse. And she might be the only one with a plan.

-- Blaine Kyllo
_______________________________________________________________________________

Stargate Universe
"Light" | Aired 2009.10.23
It grieves me to say that after feeling like Stargate Universe had a promising start, I am starting to loose interest. While the latest installment, "Light", was an improvement dramatically over last week's ("Darkness"), I still found it dull, humorless and lacking drive.

The problem may partly be the concept. The humans on the Destiny can only go where the ship takes them. Moreover, they are a group of ordinary folk, not the hand picked team of scientists and technicians we are used to in space operas. As a result, they have few skills that can save them. The impotence embedded in these circumstances was particularly pervasive in "Light". With the ship out of power, our heroes spent much of the episode just accepting their misfortune and waiting for the end. That may be more realistic than the deus ex machina solutions that 'Star Trek' and 'Stargate' have been criticized for before, it isn't very exciting. 

It doesn't help that the show is filmed in low light and dull colours with understated acting and pointless hand-held camera techniques (the latter is now becoming a cliché of the genre). Jerky focus is no substitute for involving drama.

The characters have also gone flat. Even Eli has lost his pizazz since he has started standing around doing very little. Robert Carlyle's Dr. Rush is still the most interesting, but he is beginning to feel like a character from Lost. If the mystery behind his behavior is dragged out for too long, the resolution is bound to be anticlimactic. As a Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis fan I really want to like this show, but it needs to lighten up to keep me interested.

-- Michael Simpson