CinemaSpy’s Week-End TV Recap (Nov. 14)

The big television news for the week preceding, was, of course, FOX's decision to cancel Dollhouse, a move not necessarily unexpected, but still lamented by fans of the show. Sadly, the writing had been on the wall from the beginning of the season—without a significant uptick in viewership, the series' life-expectancy would be short. It didn't happen…and it was. Dollhouse will return Dec. 4, with its series finale set for Jan. 22.

FOX's other genre series, Fringe, rebounded a bit to its pre-World Series numbers with a 3.7 rating/6 share. That equates to a 19 percent jump from the previous week, but still trails behind The CW, where the network's flagship skein, Smallville, finally regained some ground to tie its former Thursday night stablemate, Supernatural.

Over at ABC, V led all genre shows for the second week of sweeps, despite a more than 25 percent drop from its series premiere, earning a 6.6 rating/10 share, according to Fast National ratings from The Nielsen Co. It also beat ABC's FlashForward, which experienced a 3.6 percent drop from the previous week. Still, V didn't make the top ten. It was the 19th most watched show during sweeps week, finishing behind ABC's Castle.

NBC's Heroes experienced some momentum during the second week of sweeps, but ultimately lost that momentum with a 10.5 percent drop week over week.

Mad Men
"Shut the Door. Have a Seat" | Aired 2009.11.09
If a psychiatrist were to assess the AMC drama's third season finale, mania would likely be the diagnosis with the episode's euphoric highs and depressing lows. But no one should prescribe Lithium: "Shut the Door. Have a Seat" is certainly the best episode of the season.

With Sterling Cooper sold to real-life agency McCann Erickson, Don (Jon Hamm), Bert (Robert Morse), and Roger (yay! I mean, John Slattery) join forces to start their own agency with the help of Lane Price (Jared Harris). Presumably, Lane's wife will whine about being stuck in the world's greatest city, but the audience must be happy with the staffing of Sterling Cooper Draper Price. Gone are the Kinseys, Cosgroves, and amputation-causing secretaries. Instead, the office has been whittled down to the best characters, including the triumphant return of Christina Hendricks' Joan (and her fabulous wardrobe).

Just as Don is strengthening his relationships outside the office (reconciling with Roger and letting Peggy know her value to him), his marriage is at its worst point. The episode ends with Betty (January Jones) on the arm of Henry Francis, but its most brutal point comes in an angry confrontation between Betty and Don that replaces all the office-scene giggles with gasps.

– Kimber Myers

Castle
"Kill the Messenger" | Aired 2009.11.09
Unexpected visits from the past are a recurring theme this week. When a bike courier is killed in a traffic accident, Castle and Beckett investigate, only to find the incident connects to an old case investigated by Detective Roy Montgomery. That was years ago, of course, and Montgomery (Ruben Santiago-Hudson) is now the 12th Pct’s commanding officer, which doesn’t stop him from kicking it old school. Personally, I like it when a show gives a lesser cast member more of the spotlight, so long as the balance isn’t upset too much. Sure, Montgomery shows the resourcefulness that got him where he is today, but make no mistake; Castle and Beckett are still the stars around here.

Back on the home front, Castle’s mother (Susan Sullivan) gets into social networking, and must decide whether to meet an old flame she hasn’t seen since high school. This time, Castle’s personal life doesn’t much inspire his approach to the murder case — which in the tradition of American crime stories, leads back to a powerful and influential family — but that’s okay. The main pleasures come from watching members of the supporting cast strut their stuff a little more than usual.

– Phil Guie

House
"Known Unknowns" | Aired 2009.11.09
This episode should have been titled, "Confessions", because that's what everybody was doing.

House confessed to Cuddy that he intended to call her after they first met in med school lo those many years ago. (We also learned, during that conversation, that he was kicked out of med school, a plot point big enough you can expect it to come into play soon.)

Wilson wanted to confess to his peers that he had assisted a dying patient, suffering from extreme pain, in committing suicide. That he was, in effect, a murderer. The intent was there even if House prevented him from actually making his confession in public.

The patient, a young girl with absent parents, was confessing all over the place even if few of her admissions were truthful.

But the most dramatic of confessions was Chase finally telling Cameron, his wife and colleague, that he had intentionally ended the life of the African dictator. That he was, in effect, a murderer.

The point being made here is that decisions of life and death are fraught with difficulty. Was Wilson any less a murderer than Chase because his patient was already dying? Or had a wish to be dead?

I expect this philosophical position to be further explored for at least a couple of more episodes. At least until Cameron's character leaves. You knew that _________ was leaving the show, right?

My only other thought about "Known Unknowns" is that I'm not buying the relationship between Cuddy and the private investigator House employed last season. It's too pat, for one thing, and the PI is just not Cuddy's type. There's no chemistry there at all.

– Blaine Kyllo

Heroes
"Shadowboxing" | Aired 2009.11.09
Despite its penchant for plot threads that seem to go nowhere in
particular, I'm starting to enjoy Heroes more with each passing week. As they say, it's not about the destination, it's about the journey. The critic in me sees a show that doesn't really seem to have a predetermined endgame, and yet, I like the characters enough to care about what they think and feel…most of the time. In "Shadowboxing", Claire decides to further investigate the sorority attacks (she can't help herself, after all), which leads to Samuel's arrival in the dorm and the revelation that Noah killed Becky's dad many years ago. It's not enough to separate father and daughter, but it is enough to plant some seeds of doubt in Claire's mind. My only problem with this is: we've been down the father/daughter trust road before—unless it leads to a different outcome (like a permanent split between them), it's just filler.

Meanwhile, Peter’s new ability helps him to save more and more people, but it also drains him faster and faster. Fortunately, his burgeoning relationship with Emma renews him…and also gives her a second lease on life. Some have remarked that the Emma character is uninteresting; I disagree, she displays a refreshingly innocent, no-agenda quality and I'd like to see this relationship with Peter go somewhere.

Elsewhere, Sylar's battle at gaining full control over Matt's body escalates, with the two tormenting each other in an escalating battle of "I have control"…"No I have control"…"No I have control." Sadly, it's all a bit confusing and purposeless; though definitely dramatic. What's equally sad is that it ends up in the death of a good samaritan by the side of the road…and ultimately in Matt apparently being willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to stop Sylar once and for all. But will Matt survive…? Of course. Will Peter have something to do with it? Oh, probably.

And that's all I'll say.

– Robert Falconer

V
"There Is No Normal Anymore" | Aired 2009.11.10
As the title says, this past week’s episode of V set up the fact that there is no going back as the Visitors now seek official diplomatic ties with humans. FBI Agent Erica Evans and priest Jack Landry witness a Visitor clean-up of the mess left behind by the Visitor warehouse massacre in the Pilot. But when Erica calls 911 from a payphone nearby, her call is intercepted by the Visitors masquerading as the DEA. She is later investigated regarding her partner Dale’s disappearance, but is soon able to convince her boss that Dale was a terrorist mole. She doesn’t mention knowing he was a V.

Against her express wishes, Erica’s son Tyler and his friend Brandon proudly start their first day in the V’s Ambassadors of Peace program. But when anti-Visitor goons heckle Brandon, Tyler punches one of them. This alienates his crush, the Visitor named Lisa, and moves the V council to reconsider his membership.

Ryan Nichols has his own problems as he hides his wound from the warehouse battle from his fiancé. It reveals his subsurface reptilian nature. To heal, he goes to Angelo, a Jersey mechanic and fellow V traitor. Angelo heals Ryan but then drugs him and escapes, too skittish to trust even Ryan. He warns Ryan that if he loves his fiancé, he’ll leave her to save her from V retribution. At home, Ryan’s fiancé notices an upturned picture frame. When she fixes it, a business card with a number and the name Cyrus falls out.

Meanwhile, TV journalist Chad Decker is bothered by Anna’s control over him and independently hosts a panel show to discuss V pros and cons. The result is, public opinion tips in favor of the Vs. He uses this to prove to Anna that he has power too.

By the end, Father Jack agrees to work with Erica to form a resistance. Erica has stolen a list of all the people who have called the FBI to report alien activity prior to the V’s arrival. They plan to scour the list for those who want to join the resistance.

The episode wraps with Dale reawakening in the mother ship, his "fatal" injuries healed.

The Pilot episode rushed to get the mythology out of the way, since the 1983 series revealed it all anyway. But now, things are slowing down and more time is being allowed to hint, to tease, and to set up relationships. Still, there’s a powerful driving force that keeps the story moving quickly forward. The result is a good mix of spooky, paranoia, and action that’s still very interesting.

– Tasha Huo

FlashForward
"Playing Cards with Coyote" | Aired 2009.11.12
"Playing Cards with Coyote" may not be the best episode of what is fast turning into a very mediocre show, but it does have one thing going for it: Ricky Jay! The actor/master magician makes a brief appearance (with more sure to come) that places him as a powerful figure within the show's conspiracy-ridden plotlines.

Characters continue to debate fate vs. free will after Al's game-changing suicide in last week's episode, but no one (even the showrunners?) seems to know how the event will affect their fate. Mark (Ralph Fiennes) and Olivia (Sonya Walger) have a hotel-room rendezvous to revel in the newfound knowledge that their marriage may not be over, but the love triangle still looms. At the episode's end, Mark thinks he may have disrupted a major part of his own future, but the audience knows he's made a major miscalculation (shouldn't an FBI agent be smarter than the couch-bound masses?). "Playing Cards with Coyote" does draw strength and hope from the interaction between Aaron (Brian F. O'Byrne) and Tracy (Genevieve Cortese), but all that is lost in a silly poker-settled bet between blackout-causing co-conspirators Lloyd (Jack Davenport) and Simon (Dominic Monaghan).

– Kimber Myers

Bones
"The Dwarf in the Dirt" | Aired 2009.11.12
The auspicious return of Stephen Fry marked the return of Bones to the schedule after the MLB playoff break. And oh, what a return.

These days, post-coma and verging on being depressive, David Boreanaz's Seeley Booth is much like his Angel, the brooding vampire with a soul. It's fun to watch, actually, and reminds me just how good an actor Boreanaz is.

Emily Deschanel is getting better, too, or at least her playing Brennan trying to l
ighten the atmosphere was more fun to watch. It's the social awkwardness that we like about the forensic anthropologist, after all.

But the best scenes, actually, included Fry, as the psychiatrist-turned-chef Gordon Gordon Wyatt, and John Daley, as the prodigy psychologis Lance Sweets. Daley

Three other things to note:

1. The dwarf wrestler who was arrested near the beginning of the episode ran from the FBI because his work visa had expired, and he was worried about being sent home to Sudbury, Ontario. A nod to creator Hart Hanson, perhaps? He may have been born in California, but he was raised in Canada, and has a degree from Vancouver's University of British Columbia.

2. Anyone else wonder who the jewelry store rent-a-cop was? He was one of those guys I knew I should recognize, but wasn't sure why. It was Dan Castallaneta, better known to most of us as Homer (and dozens of other voices on The Simpsons.

3. Was there some kind of contest for viewers to get a chance to appear on Bones? There's no other way to explain the appearance of a half-dozen people at the Smithsonian bearing clipboards requiring signature. Tamara Taylor, who plays Camille Saroyan, had to deal with three in a row. What's up with that? Anyone have any idea, let the rest of us know in the comments.

– Blaine Kyllo

30 Rock
"The Problem Solvers" | Aired 2009.11.12
Okay, seriously. What is it about Canada? After watching Bones, in which a midget wrestler confesses to being from Sudbury, Ontario, the new cast member for TGS — remember the robot guy from the auditions? — is also Canadian.

Something weird going on. Although the 30 Rock writers had some fun with the pronunciation of "about".

But this episode was about two relationships.

The first, the continuing camaraderie between Jenna and Tracy, who become the problem solvers for which the episode was named. But, as always, their misunderstandings end up causing more problems than they solve.

The second relationship that featured here was between Liz and Jack, who finally consummate their relationship. In a way. But not until both tested the market to see who else was available.

Ultimately, they come to appreciate what we already know: they were made for each other.

– Blaine Kyllo

Fringe
"Of Human Action" | Aired 2009.11.12
"Of Human Action" dives straight into its action, so to speak, as police trap two nefarious suspects and their alleged kidnapping victim atop a parkade in Queens. It was particularly fun for yours truly to watch this sequence, as I was standing just off-set when it was filmed…and watched with baited breath as the police officer fell to his "death" for the opening teaser (you can see some exclusive behind-the-scenes images for this episode here).

Of course, the hostage situation isn't exactly as it seems, and as Fringe division track the two suspects — who appear to be able to control the minds of their victims — it makes less and less sense that they would be involved in any sort of kidnapping plot. So who's the actual perp? Turns out it's the "kidnapping victim" — not a victim at all — but rather the disgruntled, hormonal teenage son of an employee at Massive Dynamic who just wants to find out what happened to his MIA mother…and isn't satisfied with daddy's explanation. This leads the boy on a cross-country killing spree with Peter Bishop unwittingly in tow; under the unshakable influence of the boy's mind control abilities.

Soon we learn that the boy's abilities are the result of an experimental drug that dad brought home and that the boy accidentally ingested…except that in typical Fringe style, we find out at the end that his intake of the drug wasn't accidental at all…and his father isn't even really his father.

Whoops.

This was actually a terrific story, since it dealt with so many elements that echo established themes in the series: secret experiments, subterfuge and father-son relationships. It was also just a darn good suspense yarn that further deepened the mythology and gave Joshua Jackson an opportunity to get back in the middle of the action for a change, as opposed to merely standing around trading quips with his father.

– Robert Falconer

Supernatural
"The Real Ghostbusters" | Aired 2009.11.12
Typically, when Supernatural does humor, they do it brilliantly, and we've been blessed with two comedic episodes back to back; the previous week's truly excellent "Changing Channels", and now this past week's "The Real Ghostbusters". In the episode, Sam and Dean find themselves at a Supernatural fan convention (a convention celebrating Chuck Shurley, the writer of the Supernatural novels…who is, of course, actually a prophet).

Watching Sam and Dean walk around a convention filled with folks dressed up like them is as funny and surreal as you might imagine. In the mythology of the series, Chuck's visions about Sam and Dean have led him to write fictional novels about the brothers' non-fiction exploits…which, in turn, has spawned a fan following…and finally a convention in which the Winchester brothers find themselves face-to-face with folks who like to make believe they're the brothers, or any number of the creatures that the brothers have really combated.

On a real world level, "The Real Ghostbusters" also serves as a good natured poke at real genre conventions, and that fact isn't lost on the writers, who throw in plenty of easter eggs for not only fans of Supernatural, but those who frequent sci-fi/fantasy/horror conventions in general.

Of course, it wouldn't be an episode of Supernatural without a real menace, and it's soon revealed that the old mansion in which the convention is taking place is haunted by the ghosts of a trio of nasty children, who begin taking their revenge out on the costumed conventioners. Sam and Dean must step in and partner with two other Sam and Dean wannabes who fancy themselves more in touch with the "real" Sam and Dean than the real Sam and Dean…but who ultimately learn a thing or two about separating fact from fiction. The best part, however, is that the real Dean ends up gaining a different and va
luable perspective about his own life from his dress-up doppelgänger.

The only aspect of the episode that didn't work was a final scene in which the fake Sam and Dean are revealed to be a gay couple. It was unnecessary, and embarrassing to watch Dean awkwardly grapple with this extraneous element. Not sure why the writers added it.

– Robert Falconer

Smallville
"Idol" | Aired 2009.11.12
OK, I've ragged on Smallville plenty this year. But not today. This past week's episode, "Idol", was good old fashioned back-to-basics fun. In the story, superhero twins Zan (David Gallagher, Numb3rs) and Jayna (Allison Scagliotti, Warehouse 13) show up in Metropolis to help The Blur fight crime, and leaving his shield symbol as a calling card, but end up turning their fan worship into several botched rescue attempts. This lands Clark in hot water with the shady District Attorney, who's only interested in scoring political points with the public.

All the while, Lois is seeing a shrink (er, therapist), trying to get a handle on her feelings for The Blur, for Clark…and for why she's transposing the two of them. You see, at one point in the episode, The Blur's voice scrambler glitches and reveals Clark's voice for an instant…but did Lois really hear what she thought she heard, or does she simply WANT Clark to be The Blur to satisfy her own fantasy of convenience?

Now, I'll admit that the twins were a bit too saccharine, with their bubbly enthusiasm and willingness to give The Blur all the credit. But thanks to the honest performance of Allison Scagliotti, I bought it. Few actresses could offer the sort of authentic performance that Scagliotti did in an episode essentially dealing with two silly characters.

I also like the fact that the writers are having some fun playing to the more vulnerable side of Lois this year; it's refreshing. No one wants to see Clark/Supes end up with a chick whose first reaction to receiving flowers is to kick your ass. Not that I'm suggesting that Lois lose her moxy; far from it. It's just nice to see these actors play to some of the original themes long established in this mythology. A lot of us have been waiting for that.

The episode was essentially enjoyable because it was a bit "lighter" overall. Sure, it dealt with some serious themes, but it was a nice departure from the heavy Zod/Tess/Kandor narrative which has frankly marred the show this season more than helped it.

– Robert Falconer

Stargate Universe
"Time" | Aired 2009.11.13
An away team from Destiny arrives on a jungle planet, where they find a kino that contains video footage of themselves that was shot prior to their arrival. While they attempt to sort out what it all means, an unidentified and deadly illness begins to strike them one at a time, forcing them to quarantine themselves on the planet.

But it's double jeopardy, as our characters also run afoul of some nasty alien scorpion-thingys that have little compunction about attacking off-worlders and piercing them through the abdomen — primarily doing so at night — creating a situation of chaos. At the same time, it's determined that travel back through the gate may be problematic, since the wormhole to that location has become unstable and temporal instability effects are being experienced.

Written and directed by Robert Cooper, much of the episode plays out like a first person shooter RPG, and while that might sound unpalatable for a television episode, it's surprisingly effective, particularly given the very authentic jungle set that the filmmakers built for the episode. Everyone is running around under the the dark, wet canopy, discharging their weapons as the creatures attack, creating a sense of unrelenting helplessness that's telegraphed very effectively.

Ultimately, it's determined that the sickness is unrelated to the creatures, but rather was in the water brought aboard during the episode "Water". Moreover, the venom produced by the creatures on this jungle planet could be the cure to killing the parasitic entities present in Destiny's new water supply. Provided the venom doesn't kill our crew first.

Stay tuned…

– Robert Falconer