I don't like the constant hiatuses either -- but I guess were lucky to have what we do, working around her real-life pregnancy.
It's always been funny and fun to me about her matter-of-fact view of her superiority! I especially liked when she was introduced as the leading forensic scientist in the country ... and she corrected the introducer immediately and with a straight face, "... in the world."
I like how mature they act in their relationship -- friends and partners. They're not like all giddy in love. That is, for this to work on the TV show, I think what they're doing with the couple is perfect! I don't see how their getting married would ruin it, just add to the enjoyment.
Doesn't it always seem that whenever a female lead character in a series gets a boyfriend from outside the team, the boyfriend turns out to be a bad guy (or he sometimes gets killed helping the team or sacrificing himself for the team)? It would be nice if Ray had a more original fate. I'd think NCIS can come up with a new twist if any show can ...
I liked this episodes, the review, and the comments -- testy points of view included. And I never thought about the dog, but now I can't stop wondering: What happened to the dog?
I only just watched this -- saved it for Christmas and then was too busy. I guess I like cheesy holiday fair (I mean I've seen "It's a Wonderful Life" several more times than I care too, so can get sick of them, but like shows/movies/books that give that warm Christmas feeling) -- and this Christmas NCIS wasn't any cheesier than previous holiday fair.
Breena was stunningly pretty in this episode (previous episodes she appeared in were "Moonlighting" which involved the polygraph expert, and "Mother's Day" which was about Gibbs' former mother-in-law) -- and I don't recall anyone as pretty as she looked in this one in those. Actress is Michelle Pierce, 5'5" graduate of UCLA.
I liked the shootout with Ziva just fine. I don't think she's become a super heroine, but it follows her role all the way from the beginning. From all I've read of gunfights, both wild west and modern police, is that there is a lot of shooting and few, if any, hits. Partly because someone is shooting back and partly because short barrels, such as on hand guns, are not anywhere near as accurate as rifle length barrels. That is, I could both believe that nobody was hit and believe, since hand-to-hand is more about skill and leverage than strictly size, that the fight could end with Ziva having a choke-death hold on her adversary and literally be stuck in absolute immobility while he was dying to keep him from killing her. That was even better than when that psycho monster beat her and everyone else up.
My favorite character was the pregnant Marine. I not only liked her wanting to be a Marine, but trying to live by corp values -- and even asking for special treatment, "This time only, sir!" Very heartwarming.
I think a B grade is fair. I like the family -- and think that there's more "story" in Modern Family and that that maybe cuts down on the number of jokes per episode. I do like the Alex-Hayley developing relationship (but think it started last season in the Who get's Lily episodes when they were arrested for vandalizing the school together). I also like Claire, and like her better than Phil who is sometimes too incredibly stupid. Claire's character is realistic in the sense that you can see she's Jay's daughter (and Mitchell's sister). Phil can be annoying in that he's strictly a sitcom character. Another character I think has been fleshed out a little more realistically without being any less idiosyncratic is Cam -- his farm stories, the truck driving, saving the cork, all a lot better than befriending someone to get a reservation to an exclusive restaurant, which is just so "gay".
I agree that Pumpkin Chunkin was the worst episode. The scene that I liked the best was Jay giving Phil advice, and just so matter-of-factly acknowledging that Phil's done a good job of supporting his family in tough economic times. It kind of struck me like Jay might roll his eyes at Phil's surreal antics, but he hasn't missed that Phil's a damn fine match for his daughter.
I'd give the show a D this season. I liked that they were having many story arcs and letting all of the characters have some time -- but I think a lot of the storylines have been rather poor (I sort of think that Murphy thinks, or that there's a writers' consensus, that drama is always about evil, which would mean every character has to become evil ... at least for their story arc). I don't think that connects with current high school experiences (that the norm includes a student sleeping with a teacher or a student trying to damage an infant's health in order to have a teacher found to be an unfit mother, or a teacher running for Congress, or the school completely ignopring all the Santana and Brittany bullying ... or on and on. In the first year especially, much of the drama was about New Directions trying to be good, trying to compete, trying to win their niche in the school. Instead, they've also made the star of the show semi-schizophrenic in anything evil they can stick to her an episode at a time (again, as I've said, because I think Murphy wants to prove he can break Michelle's career as well as make it). What a waste of a good premise this show has become this season!
When they've shown Jane's past life in previous episodes, he seemed to have a conscience -- like when he was hit by the baseball, he hesitated on the healing crystal and had to be shoved into it by his father (and he was criticised also for giving more information than the con required in the audience setting -- sorry, don't remember details, but the implication was a veering from his father's kind of cons to conning people via his own discovered method that was actually helpful to them. Also, he has been supportive of Lisbon, and even said in the truck trailer left in Mexico, that he would always be there for her. I just sort of believe that Jane has been drawn as a character who has always had a conscience to where he could go to work for the police, whereas his old man was totally good for nothing and could never have worked with the police, but at least was the example in front of Jane so that he didn't grow up to be his father.
I kind of have the impression that Murphy has it in for Lea Michelle this year (like maybe she was the one who refused to do a spinoff and so now he wants to destroy her character on the show in the hope of "I made you and I can break you" kind of nihilism). She used to be the star of the show and the reason many of us got excited about the show to begin with. This year she's one of the least used characters.
What do you mean by she's taking over? Helgenberger was demoted and Ted Danson was put in charge ... and to me the show is finally back to as good as it was with Grissom -- so what's the deal with Danson? Is he being moved aside into some other capacity?
By Tony's "greatest fear" being dying alone, I think what Tony meant was that ending up alone was his greatest "worry" and, if it plays out that way, possible "regret." As someone who has dated as much as it's implied he has/does, he has certainly had countless opportunities to, if nothing else, "settle" and raise a family and have all of that lifestyle. He chose not to both to enjoy his current lifestyle and because those he wanted, well, it didn't work out. As he gets older, he's thinking about all of that. I don't think it's a fear, though, like spiders or heights or clowns or, in keeping with the show's comic turn regarding Tony, a roomful of children.
By Tony's "greatest fear" being dying along, I think what Tony meant was that ending up along was his greatest "worry" and, if it plays out that way, possible "regret." As someone who has dated as much as it's implied he has/does, he has certainly had countless opportunities to, if nothing else, "settle" and raise a family and have all of that lifestyle. He chose not to both to enjoy his current lifestyle and because those he wanted, well, it didn't work out. As he gets older, he's thinking about all of that. I don't think it's a fear, though, like spiders or heights or clowns or, in keeping with the show's comic turn regarding Tony, a roomful of children.
@farsia2010 -- You hit on one thing about Glee that is very frustrating: Some things are difficult to know what we were intended to understand from them ... and then they just throw out various hardline story ideas, whenever it suits them, like we must have only imagined certain things happened. And Sugar never showed enough depth of character to be any way adaptable to anyone else even existing in her revolve-around-me world, so I can't see any way they could ever explain this! It drives me crazy.
This was a superb episode. It had drama and conflict (very realistic conflict) without all the over-the-top hate (that I still can't figure out if we're supposed to ignore or supposed to think it's humor) -- and even showed two of the worst, Santana and Mercedes, smiling, and showed Quinn honest, if only as a device of the choices, in the celibacy club. The acting was good too (Beiste wanting to but scared to believe, Finn's expression about not being recruited, Rachel calling herself a girl in a vulnerable moment, Karofsky carrying onward from his conflict and bullying, and especially Kurt, both with Karofsky and his anger in the backseat of the car). The music (the play) bridged all the drama. Bravo!
Of course, by the previews, it's back to over-the-top hating next week. Oh well.
I liked this episode and liked the Elvis impersonations (and liked Alexis cleaning up from the party and her realizing that possibly her father wouldn't care, although he noticed what was missing, but that she cares -- it's her home!). And the insane captain had something police-captain-like to do this week too. My, "but," though is that I did miss Castle and Beckett working on the case together (not the "caskett" aspects, but the dialogue and interplay I subconsciously expect between them).
Funny episode. I liked Claire in this, the way she dealt with her family in different ways -- ignoring Phil and the treehouse and dumping Haley in the wilderness so she could get her started on her essay: "How I Survived My Crazy Mother."
I thought New Girl was too esoteric -- meaning Zooey is playing her character as completely batty -- and was surprised by how well appreciated and how strongly praised it has been at TV Fanatic. What I've been watching for is Glee because this season is so completely different from the first 2 seasons -- much less music, much less comedy, lots of unjustified hostility, anger, and political agenda. I miss the fun and all the music and will keep watching the ratings just to see how it's going to go ....
I didn't care much for this episode. There was hardly any music and the storylines just felt so negative. Quinn should be in juvenile hall with her peers. I agree with @Serenity concerning Mercedes and Santana. I do like what they've been trying to do with all the story threads (because it does give everyone a bit of screen time), but it's becoming more of a soap opera than a musical or a comedy. Is it even still trying to have comedic moments anymore? Brittany (Santana's doormat) isn't funny when she's just so grossly manipulated for everybody else's use. Rachel whining about the play. Finn jealous of Blaine. And what's with Kurt's sour expressions? And way too much politics twisted way out of reality. And the reviewer mentioned that the show felt real? Then it's an awful sad world.
This show has possibilities and I liked the reformed wolf as a sidekick too -- but whether that will pan out isn't clear yet. I would like to see him work on cases ... but his boss is the ultimate evil? and there's some big V-like conspiracy below the surface? Is that going to be the thrust of future episodes? I will watch again, but only could give the episode 3 stars for mostly the same reasons as the reviewer, I guess, and I do want to like this show. It just didn't settle the matter with the pilot.
I think it's totally believable that a couple would decide to cool things if they considered, for the very first time as was the case, that others saw them as being in a much much heavier relationship than they had considered themselves. A normal couple would very likely want to step back and evealuate things in each of their own minds.
The strangest thing in this episode to me -- although it felt right and certainly acceptable -- was Alexis, underage and still in high school -- heading out to a party which her parent only finds out about by asking her why she's all dressed up in passing. Kids would normally get permission ... but I can't imagine Hollywood teenager Castle bothering to seek permission from his mother (because he'd have been a lot on his own and worldly and mature enough from that independence, I'd suspect, to not need parental guidance so much by the time he was Alexis's age). Well, if you think about it, neither would Alexis really -- just serious conversation sometimes (which Castle still gets from his mother when he sometimes still needs it).
@ummm -- I thought he'd said sociopath too ... so when I read the review I stuck the tape in and watched the end again before saying so ... and he said "psychopath." I think sociopath is what he should have said, but he didn't.
Since not everyone is from the United States, I'm not sure everyone follows Richard Hurts. "Dick" is short for Richard -- and in the U.S. (and maybe elsewhere, but I don't know that???), that is one of the slang words for a part of male genitalia. So the name is about junior high level, like really young locker room humor (locker room humor is off-color giggly adolescent guy humor). Off-color is ...
Burn Notice
Comments by Keith Vlasak (Page 12)
Bones Review: Death Goes Digital
It's always been funny and fun to me about her matter-of-fact view of her superiority! I especially liked when she was introduced as the leading forensic scientist in the country ... and she corrected the introducer immediately and with a straight face, "... in the world."
Will Booth and Brennan Get Married on Bones?
NCIS Round Table: "Housekeeping"
NCIS Review: Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight
NCIS Review: Gibbs Delivers!
Breena was stunningly pretty in this episode (previous episodes she appeared in were "Moonlighting" which involved the polygraph expert, and "Mother's Day" which was about Gibbs' former mother-in-law) -- and I don't recall anyone as pretty as she looked in this one in those. Actress is Michelle Pierce, 5'5" graduate of UCLA.
I liked the shootout with Ziva just fine. I don't think she's become a super heroine, but it follows her role all the way from the beginning. From all I've read of gunfights, both wild west and modern police, is that there is a lot of shooting and few, if any, hits. Partly because someone is shooting back and partly because short barrels, such as on hand guns, are not anywhere near as accurate as rifle length barrels. That is, I could both believe that nobody was hit and believe, since hand-to-hand is more about skill and leverage than strictly size, that the fight could end with Ziva having a choke-death hold on her adversary and literally be stuck in absolute immobility while he was dying to keep him from killing her. That was even better than when that psycho monster beat her and everyone else up.
My favorite character was the pregnant Marine. I not only liked her wanting to be a Marine, but trying to live by corp values -- and even asking for special treatment, "This time only, sir!" Very heartwarming.
Very enjoyable holiday fare!
Modern Family Midseason Report Card: B
I agree that Pumpkin Chunkin was the worst episode. The scene that I liked the best was Jay giving Phil advice, and just so matter-of-factly acknowledging that Phil's done a good job of supporting his family in tough economic times. It kind of struck me like Jay might roll his eyes at Phil's surreal antics, but he hasn't missed that Phil's a damn fine match for his daughter.
Glee Round Table: "Merry Extraordinary Christmas"
The Mentalist Review: Who Is Patrick Jane?
Bones Midseason Finale Pushed Back to January
CSI Season 12: A Look Back, Forward
Glee Review: Secrets, Secrets, Are They Fun?
Elizabeth Shue to Take Over on CSI
NCIS Round Table: "Engaged (Part Two)"
By Tony's "greatest fear" being dying alone, I think what Tony meant was that ending up alone was his greatest "worry" and, if it plays out that way, possible "regret." As someone who has dated as much as it's implied he has/does, he has certainly had countless opportunities to, if nothing else, "settle" and raise a family and have all of that lifestyle. He chose not to both to enjoy his current lifestyle and because those he wanted, well, it didn't work out. As he gets older, he's thinking about all of that. I don't think it's a fear, though, like spiders or heights or clowns or, in keeping with the show's comic turn regarding Tony, a roomful of children.
NCIS Round Table: "Engaged (Part Two)"
Presenting: Glee's 300th Musical Performance!
Glee Review: All About Sex!!!
Of course, by the previews, it's back to over-the-top hating next week. Oh well.
Castle Review: Jackpot!!
The Mentalist Review: Obsession Meets Obsession
Modern Family Review: The Gift of the Vagi
TV Ratings Report: Disappointing Returns for FOX
Glee Review: The Pluck of the Irish
Grimm Review: Brewing with the Enemy
Castle Round Table: "Demons"
The strangest thing in this episode to me -- although it felt right and certainly acceptable -- was Alexis, underage and still in high school -- heading out to a party which her parent only finds out about by asking her why she's all dressed up in passing. Kids would normally get permission ... but I can't imagine Hollywood teenager Castle bothering to seek permission from his mother (because he'd have been a lot on his own and worldly and mature enough from that independence, I'd suspect, to not need parental guidance so much by the time he was Alexis's age). Well, if you think about it, neither would Alexis really -- just serious conversation sometimes (which Castle still gets from his mother when he sometimes still needs it).
The Mentalist Review: Jane's Texas Twang
Modern Family Review: Hit and Running for Office