castle: s02 e05 when the bough breaks

This one was very sweet. And so, so sad.

A girl is found dead, and the trail leads to her ex husband who says she left him because he reminded her too much of their dead son. They find out that she'd just lost her job at a high-end hotel / apartment place because of showing too much interest in a Doctor's kid. As they investigate, they find out that her baby and the Doctor's baby and the baby of someone else that she'd been reported for showing too much interest in two years before had all been born in the same hospital on the same day, and all were boys. The doctor switched his own sick baby for this poor immigrant lady's healthy one, and when the sick baby she thought was her's died, she made it her mission to find out what happened-- and it led to her death. It's sad because it's a horrible thing to go through.

Meanwhile, the Heat Wave book launch means the deal with the police is done, and Castle and Beckett keep butting heads over it-- he's got an offer to relaunch 'a certain British spy' and wants to take it, but doesn't want to leave Beckett; she thinks he wants her to tell him to do it, and has this image of not wanting to put up with him anymore, so she keeps insisting that she'll be fine and even relieved to see him go. This hurts his feelings because he likes working with her and thinks he's been more use than that, and hurt feelings make him snarky. Snarkiness makes her angry, and so she's insisting more firmly that he's just in the way. And so on and so forth until the case is solved and they have to part ways. And they're very civil about it. They both have things to say, you can see it in the awkward way they both keep almost saying things and then not doing so, but they shake on it and prepare to go their separate ways. It's sad because they like each other (though it's probably not at a capital-L level yet, though his agent saw how he was looking at her and told him to get it over with already), and they're both misinterpreting the situation, but neither will just admit that they want to stay together.

So, sad all around.

But in the end of the case, they get the kid's read dad (the dead woman's ex husband) and his supposed-mom (the doctor's wife, now effectively widowed by his life imprisonment for murder) together so he can meet his actual son and tell her about her actual son. And my head immediately gave them a shared-trauma-leads-to-unlikely-love happily ever after. And Becett and Castle get simultaneous calls from their bosses informing them that Nikki Heat is through the roof and they want three more books, and so they're still together whether they want to or not-- which causes anger and consternation that's really there to cover up relief.

Yay! They're still a team! It looked almost like they were actually going to split them up and make me suffer through episodes where they're doing separate things and have to work their way back together after only five episodes.

I really liked this ep. I love how Castle and Beckett are gravitating toward each other mostly against their own better judgement. And I like how their snarking covers the fact that they actually do respect each other and are starting to blur into something like a real friendship with tinges of the sexual tension that was always there. I think they can go far. People like tension in their TV shows, sure, but I don't think it has to be chaste forever-- remember Remington Steele? This could totally go that way: no actual consummation, but the occasional making out, the embroilment of emotions, and the constant reminder that she's in a dangerous line of work and he's not quite trustworthy. Maybe that's why I like this show so much-- it's like RS, and there hasn't been something like that since it went off the air. Most things that try to walk that line wind up in Moonlighting land where there's too much snark, too much fighting, and not enough love and deepening respect. I think this show is good-hearted enough to walk the line and avoid Moonlighting hell.

the mentalist: s02 e04

Jane vs bikers is fun, and Lisbon totally not being intimidated by said bikers is fun, but the story itself was kind meh. Not horrible, but not all that interesting, either. The chick with the brother wasn't all that likable or relatable, the wife was dull, the dead husband was nasty... I don't know, I sort of feel like a case ought to have someone I can root for.

Other than Jane.

Of note this ep: Rigsby's dad was a biker, and that's why he doesn't like bikers. Lisbon is still putting up with Jane, no matter what he does. No progress with Van Pelt, but she's pretty kick ass on the road.

bones: s05 eo5 a night at the bones museum

This is the moment when the whole rest of the cast ruins my life. Or, you know, breaks my brain.

Because right before that, we had progress, people. This is why I love the episodes where one of the other of them has an outside romantic interest-- hackles go up, defenses close down, eyes go green, and then in the end, it forces movement on the thinning line between them. And I squeed so much my eyes were bleeding like this week's second body.

The main story was about an ancient Egyptian mummy and how excited Bones is to find new anthropological evidence on who it is and what happened in his life, solving a 3000 year old crime and bringing justice in such a way that the museum holds a banquet in her honor. And it's about how the mummy was used in the murder of the scientist in charge of the study on him, and another scientist that couldn't handle the prospect of the riches he could gain by the secrets she uncovers in her examination. There was more of the in-house paranoia like a few seasons ago when scientists turned up dead. But you know what? They talked through that one then, and there was no need to say it all over again-- they just all knew that one of their own was dead and the crime needed to be solved.

Meanwhile, Daisy's back, and she and Bones find common ground with the mummy. And Booth's boss thinks Bones is hot and asks her out, which puts Booth on edge and on the defensive, and he keeps insisting that it's because he doesn't want her messing around with his boss, but we all know better-- including Angela, who says as much, flat out, and that's why I love this show. It's like real life here: everyone can see what's going on except the two of them.

Anyway, Bones doesn't get it, and goes out on the date, and talks about Booth, which he'd asked her not to do, and when he finds out about it, he's hurt, and she can't understand why, until he doesn't quite say that he shares more with her than he does with anyone else, but even she, with her near-total lack of social skills figures that one out. And in the end, she takes Booth to the gala instead of AD Hacker, and there's a Moment, where they're being honest with each other for the first time all episode, and each thing they say brings them closer together, and he sort of ducks his head and she sort of tilter her chin up... and then everyone walks in and I die of deferred fandom. Not quite as bad as that scene in the first X-Files movie (nothing has been that bad, ship-wise), but it was such a perfect scene, so of course it had to die. That's how TV works. ::sigh::

But before they go back to the party, she straightens his tie and he pushes her hair back off her shoulder, and they smile at each other, and there's still hope. And maybe an idea, and inkling, a hint of how that Moment could have gone? The feeling that they would be okay with it? A girl can hope.

Now we just need to get that lingering issue of Booth's brain trauma out of the way, the nagging idea that he only loves her because his neurons are rattled. I'd like him to face a clown and find it disturbing again, get all shaken and upset, and then realize that he still has feelings for her. About face, gushing that it's okay, she's confused, and... well, probably nothing. At least a hug, even if he doesn't explain anything to her. Which he probably won't unless it's sweeps week or the season ender, because Hart Hanson wants me to have an aneurysm. Oh, but the fanfic it could spawn!

the mentalist: s02 e03 the scarlet letter

This week, for once, it was all about Lisbon. Yay for backstory! Apparently, she's a hardass because she had an abusive father, a mother who died when she was 12 and three younger brothers. I'm assuming that it drove her to upholding the law as a direct result. And it's nice to get to know something about her; I've always sort of gotten the idea that something was broken there-- why else would she have so much trouble trusting people, relaxing, letting go?

Right, synopsis.

The body of a child molester that she put away when she was an investigator shows up in an alley, and she doesn't remember what she did the night it happened, which becomes a problem when her fingerprints are found on the gun. She's relieved of duty and her team is taken off the case, and she takes it badly. While the kids keep looking for clues in a phenomenal show of solidarity and faith, as well as stubbornness and bucking authority, she quietly dissolves. She fails a polygraph and asks Jane to hypnotize her in a touchingly fragile scene where she's about to come undone at any moment, and he does his best to help hold her together. Really, if they don't want me shipping these two, they need to not have scenes like this.

Anyway, even under hypnosis, she can't remember, and that apparently gives away the real culprit about the time that Van Pelt recognizes the corpse's cellmate as the brother of his girlfriend and that leads them to a money trail that uncovers the real culprit: the shrink who's been not signing of on her for weeks, and a guy who she was supposed to testify against that day in court. Jane figures it out, of course, but the episode is more subtle than usual, and we don't know that he's figured it out, so the big reveal at the end actually works better than it does when the payoff is only Jane's cleverness (which is usually a pretty great payoff, but I find myself liking the subtlety). Offscreen, they hatch a plot that involves Lisbon's very public breakdown, and a very visible downward spiral involving booze, drugs and her off-duty glock, and use all of the above to catch the shrink.

A very strong ep, and a great one for character development, without sacrificing the plot. That's a fine line, and they got it right off.

Best parts:

I loved that whole scene in her apartment. She's all nervous in seventeen different directions, and he snoops around a bit to distract her, then gets her to relax with reverse psychology. Regardless of his own brokenness-- or maybe because brokenness calls to brokenness in the age old traditions of tv-- he's starting to care about her. When she's out, he holds her for a second and pats her head, which was very sweet, and when she's under, he goes out of his way to keep her calm and keep her comfortable, and he doesn't force her when nothing comes up. And that moment when she's trying desperately to hold it together-- beautiful. They've got a secret together now, and he wanted to comfort her when she started crying, but he understands her well enough to know it's not what she wants. Wonderful.

I wonder how much of the displays and the talks could be considered real?

Bosco's in love with her? Isn't he married for, like, twenty-five years? But it was a new side to the gruff old adversary, and it both gives him depth and gives Jane something to leverage him with, especially since Lisbon doesn't even seem to notice. I hope when it comes up again, Jane doesn't use the detail to damage too much; we don't want him to lose Lisbon's support again too soon (though the inevitable return of Red Jack around midseason or season finale would be a good time to pull out all the stops and start burning through all this gathered information...). Relationships are so odd in this show; this looks like the start of a love triangle, but Lisbon doesn't even notice, Jane's too damaged to play it straight, and (I think) Bosco's unable to act on it.

I wonder how Cho's date went?

I like the comradery. I like that they take the team seriously, and they stick up for each other, even the boss who shouldn't play favorites. And is frequently annoyed with them all. The actors must actually like each other; it comes through in the acting.

Poor Rigsby. There's so many reasons why being in love with a team mate is a bad idea, and yet there it is.

Man, Robin Tunney does tense and brittle well. I was literally leaning forward through the whole last act, waiting for everything to fall into place and stop being so achingly horrible... Though it would have been nice if it was Jane (maybe with the team) who talked her down. But that would have messed up alot of dynamics, and would have put her into therapy for good.

I love that the method was the coffee that she's been saying is awful since the first episode. Awesome foreshadowing.

Lisbon's a lot smaller without her blazer and her gun. That was awesome costuming.

community: s01 e01-02

Oh my Goddess, I haven't laughed as much as this in ages. Not since we watched the whole first seasons of How I Met Your Mother and Big bang Theory. It's silly, it's odd, a lot of it doesn't make sense in that perfect way where it's wonderful, and I love it. There will be more. I'm just sad i watched it now instead of waiting until it was done so I could watch it all at once.

special: obama on letterman

It's no secret that my allegiance lies firmly in Camp Obama, but even if they didn't, this show would have swayed me. There wasn't much that I saw that was new or different, nothing I'd consider inflammatory or scandalous, so I don't have a lot to say about what was said, but I can say that Obama comes across as kind, dedicated, very principled and well-informed on all his subjects. And best of all, he seemed comfortable and could keep up with Letterman's signature zaniness and left-field questions and comments. It was lovely. He's a person who can talk intelligently about things he really cares about, and that's such a nice change from any official public appearance Bush ever made, that it's very encouraging. And there's a little sass there-- "I don't know if you're aware of this, but I was black before I ran for President". My only criticism isn't really a criticism-- it's that he comes across as so sincere that he kind of makes me want to take him out and get him drunk so he can goof off a little more. It's almost... intimidating? Unnerving, maybe, that there's nothing bad to say about him as a person. Maybe that's why so many people can't see his charms; they want something that will make him seem like less of a good guy, something that will bring him down to a level they can deal with, instead of making him seem like an honestly good person-- which can make people who aren't that good and caring feel inadequate.

But it was a good hour, and I hope he does more like it-- Presidents are meant to take care of the people, and going on talk shows and just hanging out lets him sort of connect with the people who put him where he is. And let us connect with him. And it's awesome.

castle: s02 e01

The full review, as before, is on Examiner, and, also as before, I'll give the less professional reactions to the episode here, and follow with actual reviews later.

- I love Nathan Fillion. Seriously. He's got that quality that I really love in an actor, where he can switch gears in no time flat: silly and flirty to sudden recognition of his own wrongdoing? No problem. Serious as a heart attack to goofy and charming? Easy peasy. He's all over the emotional depth, and I adore watching him. This show would be boring without him, and I'm glad he gets to keep it.

- Stana Katic does uptight and self-righteous very well, but there's that edge of fun that she doesn't need for the part, but it's presence makes Beckett more interesting, like she's repressing a much more fun self that she's decided isn't useful. She comes across as smart enough to keep up with Castle, bold enough to run a team, and sure enough to know who she is and where her morality lies-- and to follow up on that when it's not necessary, like when Castle gets himself in trouble. Which he does whether she's mad at him or not.

- The crime drama could have been a little more forefront, but it's the second season, and they're allowed to loosen up a little. Just don't go all Bones-Season-4, where the crime is hardly even there, when it's supposed to be the purpose of their partnership.

- I like that he's a writer, and that he's actually seen writing. This is good. And it's good that when he's shown writing, it's just him on a computer, and nothing fancy, because that's how writing actually is.

- Alexis needs something to do. She's just uniformly sweet and unintentionally insightful, and there's got to be something else. I don't want her to go down the troubled-teen path (every teen on TV does that), but it'd be nice if she got to be somewhere other than the house, got to be involved in something, got to have a life of her own where she can be more interesting. She should be a pillar of society, since her dad is such a child most of the time.

- And the cops-- I don't even remember their names. They need to be fleshed out, too. Characters, back stories, events in their own lives. I like them, but they're just sort of a greek chorus of snarkiness now, and I'd like them to have stories of their own.

- Over all, it's a good start to the season, though, and I'm glad they didn't draw out the issue of Castle being exiled from the team. It's the partnership that makes the show work, and when they're separate, there's really no reason for them to be in one show.

bones: s05 e01

Bones is back!!!!

I already wrote up an offical review over on Examiner (along with Fringe, which will be chonicles in the SciFi Blog), so here I'll takae this space just to squee-out:

- Like I said there, the balance seems to be back between the drama / soapiness, and the crime-solving. This is good. Last season seemed pretty much cursory over most of the crimes, and that sort of weakened the concept of the show.

- Bones and Booth are so gret together. Scenes where they're apart are so much less than ones where they can bounce off of eachother.

- David Boreanaz seems to have gotten tanner, and maybe lost some weight over the summer; the lines around his mouth look deeper-- but the smile is still there, and that's what matters.

- So Booth has come to grips with the fact that he's in love with Bones-- and the scene where Cam totally already knew what he was going to say before he said it was just priceless, but I really want someone at some point to say something to the effect that they have all know Since The Beginning and they were getting tired of waiting for them to figure it out-- but now he thinks it's fallout from brainsurgery and doesn't trust himself. I prefer to think that before his surgery, his brain was occupied with other things, like not dying, and didn't have a chance to be mooning over Bones at the moment of the brainscan, and it makes me sad that people might convince him that he doesn't really feel the way we all know he does. But the fact that Sweets knows about it means they'll probably have to talk about it in therapy, and that means maybe they'll face it this year. His frustration at their denseness has been mounting, after all... man, these writers know how to jerk me around!

- Bones vs Pyschic was pretty awesome, and that really charmed smile when Avalon told her that 'he sees the truth of you and he's dazzled by it' was so sweet. If only she could make the connection there.

- Booth said it! He confessed-- and immediately threw her a safety rope before that wide-eyed slack-jawed look could settle in, but he said it. I wish the camera had given us just a moment more of that look-- the looked terrified.

- Cam rationally offering a hug was brilliant. Hodges not even pretending to be rational about it was equally brilliant.

- That moment with the 'king of the lab' bit could have said something about missing Zack there, it's been two years by now, but it didn't and I'm sad.

- Cyndy Lauper probably isn't the best actress, but she was great for the part they gave her, and she was remarkably sweet and affecting. She didn't overplay the psychic thing, and that was great. It could easily have gone too far and been a joke. I hope she comes back; it's fin to have someone even less rational than Booth around, and see how he gets closer to Bones in mindset to allow for it.

- Caroline. I love me some Caroline, and it's always great when she's grumping up a scene and making everyone else play off her. I'm glad she's still around, and I love that she made Booth cram his big manly self into the back of her tiny two-door car. I also love that Booth had that moment of overflowing affection and she didn't know what to do with it-- and when he turned to Bones and she looked positively alarmed.

- Ooh, and that sweet moment from the physicist episode where Booth pushed Bones into the wall and his hands were in her hair made it into the opening credits montage, so I'm going to take that as an indication of future plans. I mean, it's been five years. Real people have gotten married and had a kid by now. It's not like they rushed anything.

- I wonder how long they're going to drag out the recovery thing? I'm hoping on the shortest amount of time possible unless it's forcing issues they won't deal with; otherwise, it will just become a crutch for him to be inconsistent, and that would suck. And the sooner he gets his confidence back, the better... unless a lack of confidence drives him into Bones's arms. You see where I'm going with this.

Overall, it was a great first episode, shippy enough to keep me afloat, real enough to make me sad and hopeful at once, and I love how they didn't go the easy way through this-- Booth didn't deny his feelings again, didn't waffle about needing to tell Bones (until someone made him doubt himself), and when it came down to that moment at the end when he's forced to face that he isn't quite right, he told her anyway, and let it hang there between them for just a moment before sparing her, and it was all very sweet.

the whale that exploded

I watch some random crap on TV, and it seems that now we have digital cable and all our stollen channels back, this trend is only likely to get worse. Like last night, when D and I chose to spend most of the hour before bed watching s show trying to figure out why this giant sperm whale went kablooey.

It was actually pretty interesting.

See, there was a sperm whale that washed up in an oyster farm in Taiwan, and since it was dead, they had to figure out what to do with it, and they had to figure out why it was dead. If ti had washed up on a beach, they'd just necorpsy it there, take it apart, and send the parts to various marine biology places and universities and such, and the bones'd wind up in a museum somewhere-- especially since this is a sperm whale, which doesn't get seen or studied much.

But this one washed up in moderately deep water, so they had to fish it out (much like the way I had to fish out my goldfish that very morning, only much, much much bigger). They thought it was an average-size whale, maybe 20 ot 25 tons. But when the 45-ton crane couldn't lift it, they realized it was bigger than they thought, and they had to get a bigger crane, a 120-tonner, and that one just managed to hoist it, on two absurdly-skinny wires, onto a waiting truck that it crushed. It had to be lifted again and placed on a longer, heavier truck, and it was still too big. The picture I chose for this post shows both the grossness at the end of this saga, and the sheer size of this thing: the biggest truck they had, and the tail was still dragging on the road as they drove it around. I mean, there's a whole section about how internal decomp-pressure pushes the genitals out, and that whale's penis is taller than I am. Talk about intimidating. And they keep saying how big it is.

So they've got this massive dead creature on a truck, and they have to wait overnight to get through the Coast Guard check point because it took all day to get it out of the water, and it's too late to navigate the town now. And the blowhole blows in the middle of the night, with the grossness, but only a fraction of what's to come. In the morning, they take it to the labs they're headed to, and it's too big for the lab, so they have to redirect this massive bundle to the university, and half way back through the town, it blows. Guts and blood and gross, all over the downtown area. They want to know why, so there's this show.

When they get it cleaned up and finally to the university, they take it apart and find that it's spine bones are broken, and it's insides are severely damaged, and the story becomes an ecological disaster story: the whale was hit by a cargo ship, and killed, hopefully instantly. Apparently, the engines of the ships are way in the back, and the bulk and solidity of the ship itself blocks the sound from reaching creatures up front, and even if a little does, so many ships churn through the water that there's a sort of white noise in the ocean from it, and the whale probably never had a chance. Sadness. And scary. Because some scientist recently found a whole pod of sperm whales floating upright in the water after a long dive, looking like rocky promontories rather than whales, and visible only from the air, and that means that if all of them do this, they could be getting hit all over the place.* And unless it washes up, or the ship reports it, no one would know.

But man, what a gross show.

*There's whole ecosystems on the bottom of the sea that can live for years off a single whalefall; I wonder if there are more of them now? A ship-killed whale that isn't near the coast would just folat around, get torn up by sharks, and then fall, and if there are more of them then there were, there should be more of these ecosystems, right?

swords: first impressions

- It's like Deadliest Catch, but with swordfish.

- I had no concept of how frikkin' big swordfish can be! Fourteen feet long and over 800 lbs at their full growth! That's... crazy. But I guess if there's space as big as an ocean, there's really no reason a fish can't be that huge.

- It's kid of barbaric-- miles and miles of lines with other lines hanging off them, baited and dangling. They caught a mako shark (which Shark Week informed me is one of the most vicious sharks), and had to disentangle it. It didn't show them setting it free, though; do people eat sharks here? Is shark-hunting allowed?

- A single yellowfin tuna is worth up to 1200 dollars? No wonder people go out into the stormiest waters in the hemisphere and risk their lives.

- I was never all that thrilled with Deadliest Catch; it's almost like the title predetermines them toward the sensational, and I don't really care to watch people getting hurt all the time. But this one is just about the job, the good and the bad, and the background, too. It feels more palatable, and it's something I wouldn't mind watching while waiting for the Colony to come on.