Random musings about what I’ve been watching for the last few days. Oh, any many spoilers below.
The Amazing Race – NOOOOOO! Mel and Mike are gone. Part of me doesn’t want to watch it any more. They were smart, funny, and nice.
The Mentalist – Archie MacDonald is back! Still cute. Gosh, I’m a sucker for that voice. And he’s still cute. I hope this means that he will pick up some more acting gigs. I need more Archie in my life.
Speaking of The Mentalist, I have a casting suggestion. Please cast Jeffrey Pierce as Owain Yeomnan’s brother, for at least one episode if not as a recurring guest. Why? Well, Owen and Jeffrey played brothers in the show The Nine. Then Owain played the original Cromartie in the pilot for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Now Jeffrey is playing a different terminator on that show. Obviously, these two actors need to share some screentime together in The Mentalist, then guest star in another TV show at different times, and finally share more screentime together as brothers in yet another show. Let’s make this pattern happen.
Life on Mars v. Battlestar Galactica finales. This may be blasphemy, but I actually preferred the resolution of LOM (both versions) over BSG. I just couldn’t buy all the colonists and cylons dispersing themselves around the world in ones and twos. Humans (and cylons?) are herd animals. Wasn’t that abundantly clear in the first season of the show, if not the premise? We group together despite our differences in order to survive. After years of war and journeys, I can see them wanting to spread out and get space away from each other. But I think that would have only lasted for a few years. And we wants our toys. I don’t believe that everyone could give up their creature comfots. And the montage of dancing robots at the end seemed to reinforce the idea that technology is evil. I’ve read that the creators did not intend that interpretation, but that’s the nature of literature. You can’t control how your work will be interpreted, and you may add themes unconsciously and unknowingly.
LOM (US) also had a WTF twist. Sam and the other cops are really astronauts on their way to Mars, using virtual reality while in hibernation to keep from going insane or somesuch. The show actually brought life to Mars with a shot of a white loafer stepping onto red dust. (By the way – that dust was the worst f/x of the series.) Literal, but the twist made sense and explained the prevalence of robots. As much as I loved the British original, I didn’t like the suicide ending. Maybe it was the US editing, but I needed a few more scenes to fill out his post-coma life, especially one with Sam researching whether Gene, Annie, Ray, Chris, and the others actually existed. Something to make Sam account for the details of him comatose dream. And I needed him to explore another way to return to 1973 before killing himself. The decision happened too abruptly. That said, I loved LOM.
I didn’t watch the ER series finale. Yes, I was once a loyal viewer. Saw the pilot and loved it. Kept watching even when Carter went to Africa. I gave it up, though, a couple of years ago when they de-legged Ray and bad things happened to every other character in the season finale. The show seemed to hate its characters, and the events seemed so contrived. So I stopped watching. Adding Angela Bassett to the cast couldn’t even bring me back. I hope that the finale was satisfying, but I just didn’t want to take the chance that the show would screw over its characters once again. Or give them all happy endings.
Last but not least My Boys is back. PJ and Bobby are finally together! All is right in the world.
Psych, on the other hand, is a wacky procedural cop show with little character development. The same sorts of things happen every week: a murder or two, Shawn sees details that others miss, behaves manically, he hits on a girl and solves the case. The show is chock full of silliness. The characters don’t progress that much. Each time a new woman is introduced, Shawn hits on her because he can and/or to make Jules jealous. I live for the moment for Shawn and Jules get together. I am tired of being teased. In one episode, they hold hands; in the next, they have no spark. I understand that their sexual tension is part of the show; having them get together could kill the fun. After all, they’ve had an object lesson on set — Cybil Shepherd of Moonlighting plays Shawn’s mom. I just wish that the showrunners would take a look at Ed or other shows where the couple did get it on without killing the chemistry.
Best of all, this episode about the private lives of NFL football players finally had a gay subplot. Malik’s ex-wife intimates that their marriage failed because he was really gay. His team members ride him, complete with a musical interlude in the locker room: disco ball and high-kicking dancers in lycra football uniforms frolicking to the tune of “It’s Raining Men.” Ha-ha. The guys play up the fey stereotypes – lisping, preening, gold lame and short shorts. Later, alone at dinner, Clay, another team member, hits on Malik, thinking that he is actually gay. Surprised, Malik throws Clay out of his aparment. During the next game, Malik accidentally outs him to the rest of the team. The episode ends with the coach (played by Lee Majors) benching Clay for the rest of the game. Clay sits in the empty locker room angry, sad, betrayed.
