Two shows were out of the mix again last week, Fringe and Dollhouse, both of which will be absent this coming week as well.

Meanwhile, for the shows that did air first-run episodes this past week, the spotlight was on Thursday, which was a bit disappointing for ratings. FOX's airing of the World Series between the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies dominated the airwaves, garnering a 10.6/17 share, according to Fast National ratings from The Nielsen Co. By comparison, even the reality juggernaut Survivor couldn't compete with America's favorite pastime, returning a 7.1/11 for its Survivor: Samoa iteration.

Both, however, finished well ahead of FlashForward, which is settling back down a bit. The ABC skein earned a 5.7 rating/9 share, matching the all time low it had back on Oct. 15. That's an eight percent drop from the previous week, and nine-and-a-half percent below its season average so far.

FlashForward remains the highest-rated network genre show, however, well ahead of NBC's Heroes, which earned a 3.7/6 this past week.


Mad Men
"The Gypsy and the Hobo" | Aired 2009.10.26
After this season boasted a lawnmower scene that rivaled Dead Alive (well, maybe not), the Halloween episode "The Gypsy and the Hobo" is decidedly gore free. However, even after Betty learned Don's secret in the last episode, his gut-spilling in this hour is still shocking. This is Don at his most vulnerable, and Jon Hamm gives a hell of a performance. This season has featured a number of surprises, but the biggest one will be if Hamm somehow loses the Emmy for his work here. Don has always been a layered character, but "The Gypsy and the Hobo" allows the actor to reach new levels of nuance.

Christina Hendricks' Joan earns a cheer for finally striking a blow against her doctor husband's treatment of her, but she and Betty are impossibly trapped. The irony of the show (and the time period) is that Greg may be a doctor, but he is painfully stupid. Meanwhile, no one notices his wife's intelligence because she is a former secretary and a woman (and a beautiful one, at that). Second-wave feminism approaches, but one wonders if it will truly change things for Joan and her peers.

-- Kimber Myers

Castle
"Vampire Weekend" | Aired 2009.10.26
I’ve learned that Halloween episodes need to be judged by different rules. After all, it’s the one time of year in which TV writers can indulge in vampires and werewolves without necessarily jumping the shark. In last week’s Castle episode, "Vampire Weekend", Castle and Beckett investigated a Nosferatu-wannabe found staked through the heart. This lead them into New York City’s underground vampire community, which again, on any other week might have seemed lame.

Instead, we got a pretty compelling episode. The key, in my opinion, was having Castle and Beckett address the ridiculousness of vampire masquerading, discuss the human element behind it, and apply that to themselves. As Castle points out, individuals who are immersed in the macabre often suffered some kind of trauma. "Some people become vampires," he notes, then turning to Beckett, adds, "and some people become cops."

"Then what happened to you?" Beckett asks.

By drawing these correlations, Castle gets to have its cake and eat it, too. It’s a Halloween episode, but the boogedy-boogedy elements never overwhelm what the show is at its heart: a character-driven mystery series.

Meanwhile, the opening contained an in-joke that Firefly/Serenity fans simply cannot miss.

-- Phil Guie

Heroes
"Strange Attractors" | Aired 2009.10.26
This past week's episode, "Strange Attractors', featured the obligatory 'Halloween themed' story line in which Claire and her new college roommate, Gretchen — who are still sorting through their "feelings" for one another — find themselves embarking on a sorority pledge in a slaughterhouse (where else?). It's all been engineered by Samuel, of course, whose primary goal is to get all the heroes back to the carnival, where presumably he can add them to his personal collection of circus freaks...for reasons not yet clear. Samuel's niece, the invisible Becky is his instrument in this task, and though she does her best to kill Gretchen, she ends up revealing herself in the process.

Here's the problem with scenes like this in every horror film or TV show ever made: when folks are in a pretend spooky situation that begins to turn deadly...they always stick around. Here's a hot tip: LEAVE!

It's the age old writing trap, and the writers fell ass over tea kettle right into it.

Elsewhere, Noah Bennett's path to redemption takes an unexpected turn when attempts to enlist Tracy to help spring Jeremy from jail backfire...leading to the boy's death and Tracy's insistence that Noah never call her for anything again. More and more it seems as though Bennett's days are numbered, as he heads down an ever more frustrating path. That said, he's the one normal person in this troupe, and a dramatic cantilever to the heroes' powers. The writers ought to keep him; but I don't think they will.

Finally, the whole Sylar-in-Matt Parkman's-body angle is getting a bit annoying. Matt stumbles upon a technique to use alcohol to rid himself of Sylar's tormenting manifestations once and for all (an irony that the writer's probably loved a little too much), and while at first the tactic works, once he wakes up, he discovers that he's no longer Parkman. He's Sylar in Parkman's body, and Parkman is now Sylar. Huh? Yep, that's our reaction, too. It was fun at first, but keeping track of multiple switching consciousnesses flipping back and forth across three different bodies is getting way to convoluted.

-- Robert Falconer

Eastwick
"Bonfire and Betrayal" | Aired 2009.10.28
Halloween has come to Eastwick, and every year the town stages a massive bonfire on the site of the witch trials and burnings at the stake. But in the more modern and civilized (?) era, the townsfolk simply burn caskets filled with the metaphorical "demons" from the past year.

Roxie is still having the vision of a future her attending a funeral for someone close. By the end of the episode she'll learn that she can't actually alter events to avoid her visions coming true.

That's a question that FlashForward will be trying hard not to answer for years if they can help it.

Joanna and Kat are on the outs because Joanna used her powers over Will to find out what happened on the night of the full moon.

While moping on the couch, Joanna also discoveres that she has another power: telekenisis. It comes in handy when she tries to escape from Pastor Dunn, who kidnaps her so he can "free her from her spiritual burden".

That's code for burning at the stake, by the way.

Darryl only shows up a couple of times in this episode, to further the plot. Last night I realized that all of the male characters in this show are plot devices. They aren't really developed at all.

Darryl is the object mystery to be solved. Will is the ideal object to be attained. Kat's husband the object of obstacle to be overcome.

Maybe it's about time that a show came along in which the men were nothing but objects — turnabout is fair play, after all — but the one-sidedness is starting to make this show feel a bit tedious.

-- Blaine Kyllo

FlashForward
"Scary Monsters and Super Creeps" | Aired 2009.10.29
FlashForward is just six episodes in, but the show is already losing the verve its innovative concept provided. The humor and politics of the last few episodes are largely gone in "Scary Monsters and Super Creeps", but we get some action from an investigation by Demetri and Al. The human drama centers around the looming love triangle between Mark, Olivia, and Lloyd, which sees Mark going into attack mode.

Fans of Dominic Monaghan have seen the British actor goofy (The Lord of the Rings) and self-sacrificing (Lost), but this episode of Flashforward finds him turning alternately sexy and sinister. "Scary Monsters and Super Creeps" is Monaghan's first major appearance in the series, and his turn as Simon reveals that he can play a villain just as well as a Hobbit or a one-hit wonder. He stands out in a sea of underdeveloped characters, but is that just because he's shiny and new?

-- Kimber Myers

30 Rock
"Stone Mountain" | Aired 2009.10.29
The search for a new actor for TGS is underway, and it's why Liz Lemon has traveled to Georgia. Jack wants her to cast someone who will appeal to middle America, and despite Liz trying to tell him that all Americans are the same — which is to say different — he drags her off to a barbecue restaurant that converts to a comedy club in the evenings.

You know that's not going to go well, and it starts off badly with Liz having yet another issue with her digestive system. It's all about the bodily functions with her, have you noticed?

Tracy thinks he's going to die because of the "rule of three" and Jenna is trying to be nice to the writers so they'll give her good stuff when the new actor arrives.

But the best moments of the episode were with Tracy and guest stars Jimmy Fallon and Betty White. Fallon and Jordan try to kill each other, and White, jabbing her finger at the phone receiver, tells Jordan that she'll bury him.

Who knew the old gal had it in her?

-- Blaine Kyllo

Supernatural
"The Curious Case of Dean Winchester" | Aired 2009.10.29
In "The Curious Case of Dean Winchester", Sam and Dean discover that a witch is running a high-stakes poker game where the currency is life years instead of money. Bobby sees the game as a chance to get out of the wheelchair and bets 25 years, but loses. As Bobby begins to age rapidly, Dean steps in to save him but also ends up turning into an old man, leaving Sam holding the only hopes for their survival.

Yes, there's some Benjamin Button in there. But it's not nearly as much fun as you might think. Despite the amusement of watching veteran actor Chad Everett's (Medical Center) appearance as the aged Dean Winchester, the episode just feels like what it is: an attempt to do a traditional stand-alone Sam & Dean episode that's unrelated to this season's apocalypse arc. The trouble is that it's just not that much fun, and suffers from a stark and dreary narrative. Actor Hal Ozsan does his best as the witch, Patrick, and there's an amusing exchange between Bobby and the aging Dean about the process of getting older...but it feels awkward and contrived; an attempt to force frat humor into a humorless story.

Besides, Sam and Dean are engaged in a high stakes poker game themselves: vessels for opposing powers during the apocalypse. Even if either of them were to age to within a hair's breadth of mortality, it seems as though powers higher than some witch wouldn't have allowed that witch's game to reach any terminal conclusions anyway.

-- Robert Falconer

Smallville
"Crossfire" | Aired 2009.10.30
The latest episode of Smallville, "Crossfire", was a bit more fun than previous installments this season, if only for its opening scene. Lois determines that the imminent death of print media (yes, that will have to include The Daily Planet—sorry Joe & Jerry) means that she needs to make the move to television "journalism." Somehow she convinces Clark to help her audition for Good Morning, Metropolis, and after a fitful turn in front of the cameras, they get hired for the gig...emphasis on the word "they." Apparently the producers decide that the duo's natural bickering and awkwardness on-camera is a good thing. Go figure.

That aside, the Lois and Clark side of the series gets a little more play in "Crossfire", and offers some genuinely fun moments. The reporters first assignment is to rustle up dates for a story about Internet matchmaking, which of course leads to the obligatory uncomfortable moments and repressed jealousies...but unfortunately perhaps the episode's most uncomfortably contrived thread, too: Oliver Queen showing up as Lois' date because, are you ready, he hasn't really ever gotten over her.

Trouble is, there's really no reason for it. The Lois and Clark relationship is on it's way, and Oliver has moved on to helping rescue Mia "Speedy" Dearden from a life of prostitution. The Lois angle is an unnecessary distraction here, and the writers really need to keep moving forward, not zigzagging back to stuff that's already concluded in audiences' minds.

Meanwhile, Chloe tracks the Kandorians, yet keeps running into Tess Mercer's many firewalls; firewalls erected by Mercer's young computer whiz, Stuart. In a completely unnecessary plot thread, Chloe sets out to convince Stuart to abandon his efforts and join her, while Tess continues her game of one-upmanship with Zod, who has become the chairman of Tess' solar-powered building project. All Zod wants, of course, is to mine Tess of everything she knows about Jor-El. Unfortunately, Zod's efforts to accomplish this prove fitful when one of his soldiers is killed by Tess as the soldier tries to extract the information from her.

The relevance of the solar powered building is sketchy, and frankly, so is Tess' ability to kill Zod's soldier. There's so much going on here, and so many facets hidden from the audience, that it all feels increasingly improbable and unbelievable...to say nothing of superfluous. What the series needs now is one or two main arcs and some linear throughput. The show has too many unnecessary characters, and the writers are trying to be too clever by half in giving all of them something to do...and then trying to integrate all their various stories. Unfortunately, what it leads to, is story holes.

-- Robert Falconer
Stargate Universe
"Water" | Aired 2009.10.30
Stargate Universe got back up to speed this week with a more action-oriented episode, "Water," that harked back to more traditional space operas.

Something is depleting the water supply on Destiny faster than the stranded humans can drink it. Is it the troublesome Sgt. Spencer, who seems to have a suspiciously large stash of Snickers in his quarters? Or is there a link to the vaporous apparitions that keep appearing in the ship's hallways?

To replenish the water tanks, Colonel Young (Louis Ferreira) and Scott (Brian J. Smith) don impressively designed Ancient space suits and take a trip through the Stargate to a frozen planet. You don't have to be a psychic to predict how smoothly that goes. Nonetheless, there is a palpable sense of tension driven by the desire of the principle characters to find solutions. It's also refreshing to see Young get in on the action. His complaint that Rush is a man requiring a lot of work, however, is becoming a cliche. Moreover, it's time that Rush was commended by someone on his commitment to the greater good rather than constantly being the subject of everyone's scorn, which feels unrealistic. He is a pragmatist, but he is still being masqueraded like the series' answer to a regular "obligatory villain".

Also, Eli's humor needs to move beyond movie references.

Notwithstanding those niggles, though, "Water" has whet my appetite for more Stargate Universe.

-- Michael Simpson