Somewhere

The Week In TV 31/10/2011

Community, Season 3, Episode 5: Horror Fiction In Seven Spooky Steps

It would be nigh-on impossible to top the last episode of Community, but if this week’s Halloween special wasn’t quite as impressive as “Remedial Chaos Theory” (and suffered for being fairly similar in format), it was still a pretty solid seasonal treat.  It starts with Britta being convinced that someone in the group has homicidal tendencies on account of the psych evaluations she handed out the week before, so insists that they all tell scary stories for Halloween in order that she can evaluate them better.  The stories they tell are fairly typical for each character (Abed’s is rigidly logical, Britta’s is overly earnest, etc.), but they work wonders in revealing how these characters see one another whilst, crucially, also remaining very funny.  Exposing old neuroses in a new setting has worked for the show before, and although it’s no surprise that Pierce and Shirley feel underappreciated by the group, the settings we saw these anxieties played out in ensured that they didn’t feel repetitive.  But what really endeared this episode to me (other than Gillian Jacobs knocking it out of the park with her performance) was the warmth of it.  One of my niggling concerns with Season 3 up until “Remedial Chaos Theory” was that the show had turned a corner in how it saw these characters and their relationships to one another, and whilst sentimentality can be the death knell for TV sitcoms, I was concerned that the cynicism was going to be overbearing.  After all, the show is capable of wonderfully sweet moments as well as the more off-the-wall stuff, so I’m pleased to see that this has returned to the fore a little more this season.

The Good Wife, Season 2, Episode 5: Marthas and Caitlins

A strong episode this week, one which brought all of its story elements to bear on one another, and which also began the slow machinations of what I’m hoping is a series-long plot arc.  After Lockhart Gardner’s key witness in a case against an airline company commits suicide, the only other person who can testify is convicted wife-killer (and high point of Season 1) Colin Sweeney.  Pairing together Celeste and Alicia was one of the episode’s better ideas – and I particularly enjoyed their tequila-soaked banter later on – and together they present their offer to Sweeney: if he testifies against the airline company, they can try and get him early release.  This cleverly brings in the states attorney, with Carey arguing that in order for them to grant early release, Sweeney must first get them proof that a white supremacist with whom he’s been giving advice on the stock market to, is guilty of having someone killed on the outside.  Yet this also has another level, as Eli’s attempt to get Peter a position as DNC keynote speaker will almost certainly be jeopardised by the bad publicity that would result of such a high profile release.  It’s a deliciously cynical episode, one which is underscored by Alicia being tasked with hiring a new first year associate.  She’s given two options: Martha or Caitlin.  Caitlin (played by Anna Camp, recently seen on both True Blood and Mad Men) puts Alicia off with her weird hobby of skateboarding on trampolines (or something), and since Marta is the best candidate on paper, Alicia thinks that she has an easy decision.  Except that Caitlin is David Lee’s niece, and she’s told in no uncertain terms that any power she thought she had was illusory and, not only that, but she herself got her position through nepotism (Will’s to be precise) rather than an innate ability to do the job well.  It’s an episode where its characters are presented with both “right” choices, and those from which they stand to gain more.  If Alicia is steamrolled into making the “wrong” choice, elsewhere she chooses to help release a man she knows killed his wife and, in the end, only Kalinda makes a truly moral choice in declining Eli’s offer to work on Peter’s campaign for governor (a story point which will surely come back).  It’s an episode of deliberate contradictions and grey areas: The Good Wife at its best.

Gossip Girl, Season 5, Episode 5: The Fasting and the Furious

After last week’s mostly compelling forty-three minutes, this week diluted events to the point of blandness.  Of course, this wasn’t helped by the fact that a lot of this week’s action revolved around two of the shows most boring characters and a guest star that’s even more wooden than her reputation allows for.  As Diana’s online gossip rag is about to go live, Gossip Girl reveals that someone stole the mobile phones left at the door of the Jenny Packham show, meaning that exposing what she found in them would mean exposing her crime.  Suddenly, Diana needs a new scoop and whilst managing to persuade Ivy to break into Lily’s safe and steal some personal documents is presumably going to reveal some fruit down the line, Ivy’s faked crisis of conscience was especially uninteresting.  Instead, Diana inveigles her way into the Waldorf’s party (at which the not-so-happy couple announce Blair’s pregnancy) and helps cause a rift between the queen and Louis  over a contract stating that should Blair disobey any number of prohibitive rules concerning the upbringing on her son that she could lose custody.  It’s a kind of ludicrous storyline that again shows that the writers have no idea with Sophia is hero or villain, and fails to utilise Louis’ sister (the most promising evil-doer this show’s seen since Juliet) well, either.  Elsewhere, Chuck’s meeting with a psychologist that might finally be able to understand him feels like treading water as far as this character is concerned, and something we’ve seen played out numerous times at this point.  Surprisingly more successful was Serena revealing how she felt about Dan’s book, the hurt over the portrayal because Dan had clearly meant so much more to her than vice versa.  Yes, it was shallow and self-regarding, but utterly in line with the character, and I’ve always been a sucker for call-backs to old relationships on TV shows, so it got to me.  Otherwise, much of what the show set up last week in terms of Dan vs. The World was slowly frittered away, as his friends and family (barring Nate) quickly came back round to his way of thinking.  This being the case, it’s difficult to build up much hope for the episode’s final twist, that Louis is aware that he might not be the father of Blair’s child.

Homeland, Season 1, Episode 4: Semper I

Another excellent episode this week, which delved even deeper into the personal lives of its characters, whilst also bringing about a second meeting between its two main players.  Three weeks have elapsed since Lynne was murdered, and Carrie’s semi-legal surveillance on Brody is terminated.  In a nice touch, she finally gets to enter the home she’s been watching all this time, where she – of course – heads straight for the garage, picking up Brody’s prayer mat but failing to recognise it as anything important.  Forced onto the periphery, she begins sitting in a parked car outside Brody’s house as the rest of her team use their lead from last week, vetting customers of the store where Lynne’s necklace was sold on.  One of these is, of course, the young couple who we saw last week buying a home ominously close to an airport.  As Carrie and one of her co-workers (who, unbeknownst to her, has been tasked by David to see if she has any side operations of her own) tail the husband, her wife gets a warning (from the inside?) and he manages not to lead the CIA back to his new property.  Introducing this new aspect to the story not only opens things up, but also demonstrates Carrie’s monomania.  She crosses the guy off her list, ever vigilant in her pursuit of Brody, whom she manufactures a meeting with at a veteran support group.  Here, and in an earlier scene with David, we’re astutely aware at how good she is at mimicking flirtatiousness and an easygoing nature that we know run contrary to her endgame.  Whilst I think the show is more intricate than having Brody, say, fall in love with her or something daft like that, he’s certainly taken by her.  As Carrie said a few weeks ago, “Nobody said that becoming a terrorist was easy,” and it’s an idea that has run through each episode.  Back at home,  Brody’s violent, upsetting behaviour in the bedroom has extended to more outlandish behaviour outside it, as his not-so-coded hints that he knows of Jessica’s relationship with Mike snowball into a strange act of violence in which he uses a pistol to shoot a deer in their backyard whilst they’re throwing a dinner party.  This is the final straw for Jess, who demands that Brody seek help if they’re ever to function as a family unit, and the fact that he does so (at least until he’s waylaid by Carrie) further humanises a man for whom the word “normal” has increasingly little relevance.

Once Upon A Time, Season 1, Episode 1: Pilot

Great set-ups can make for uninspired, frustrating viewing if you don’t feel like the writers are making good use of their potential.  That’s certainly the case with ABC’s new drama, Once Upon A Time, in which a group of fairytale characters lose their memory and are thrust into the modern day world, specifically the groan-inducingly titled Storybrooke.  On her twenty-seventh birthday, Emma is confronted by a young boy named Henry who claims to be the child she gave up for adoption ten years ago.  Taking her back to Storybrooke, where “time stands still,” Emma meets the Wicked Queen (town mayor and Henry’s stepmother), Snow White (primary school teacher Mary Margaret) and Rumpelstiltskin (Mr. Gold, slimy owner of the entire town).  Through flashbacks, we learn how these characters came to be stranded, after the Wicked Queen places a curse on the kingdom which only Snow White and Prince Charming’s child, Emma, is immune to.  Legend has it that one her twenty-seventh birthday, she will return to fight the war against the Wicked Queen and “return the happy endings.”  The material set in the fairy tale kingdom is by far the best, bringing together several characters in a sort of Grimm’s Greatest Hits that’s helped enormously by Ginnifer Goodwin’s strong performance as Snow White, a much stronger personality than we’ve been led to believe.  That we are also introduced to Pinocchio, Geppeto and Jiminy Cricket (first introduced by Italian author Carlo Colloddi in the late 1800s) suggests that the writers will be happy to plunder more recent sources than the Grimm brothers and Perrault.  The present day sections are more problematic, since it’s difficult to know where this is all going.  Is it Emma’s job to help these characters find a way back to their own world, or provide them with their happy endings in Storybrooke?  The former leans towards the upcoming war that the pilot keeps mentioning, but the latter would seem to be the more sensible option purely on a week-to-week basis.  Furthermore, there were several elements that just don’t work.  Henry is the sort of kid you only meet in TV shows, and it’s difficult to understand what his motivations are, or if he’s just a plot device to set the wheels in motion.  There’s a certain thrill in seeing these characters brought to life in another setting – a late appearance by Grandmother and Little Red Riding Hood is fun – but there’s nothing really to hang it all on.

Pan Am, Season 1, Episode 5: One Coin In The Fountain

Another unbalanced episode of this promising light drama set in jet age America.  The most surprising thing about Pan Am so far has been the fact that the one story thread that should read ridiculous – Kate’s continued work with the CIA – is frequently it’s most entertaining.  This week she was tasked with getting an invite to a casino in Monte Carlo from a suave Yugoslavian played by Goran Visnjic.  Once there, she needed to get the fingerprint of an Italian woman his friend was arriving with.  Every aspect of this particular story (including Kate having to push a clearly interested Maggie out of the way) was excellent performed and executed.  Unfortunately, too much of the episode was taken up with characters we just don’t care enough about yet, namely Ted and Dean.  Ted’s romancing of Laura – which, again, occurred in pointless flashback – continues unabated, and if not exactly dull, it’s not giving us anything we’ve not seen before.  Dean is lumbered with an even drearier storyline, as he romances the mistress of a Pan Am exec and – shock horror! – leaves his keys underneath the seat of his boss’ expensive car.  Hardly the stuff of high drama.  What’s especially frustrating is that the show has plenty of elements that work well.  It boasts more than capable performances, at least two genuinely interesting characters in Kate and Collette, and manages to tread a fine line between serious(ish) drama and escapism.  Yet the writers continually frustrate by granting more and more time to the pilots, and in sidelining both its big star draw in Christina Ricci (who has had very little to do so far), and Collette, the one character with real emotional resonance.

Revenge, Season 1, Episode 6: Intrigue

A slower episode than we’re used to this week, as Emily was again left having to deal with the fall-out of her actions.  Having learnt from Nolan that Lydia is in a coma, she uses the security footage to get Frank fired by the Graysons, only for the plan to backfire dramatically when he realises almost instantly that he’s being set up for some greater purpose.  As Nolan says desperately at one point, “He’s better at this than we are.”  Indeed, one of the best things about Revenge is that it not allows its protagonist to be fairly nonchalant about the collateral damage she imposes, but also shows how quickly things become messy when you start placing bets on how people are supposed to react to things.  And Emily’s plan certainly doesn’t seem to be going too well this week, after tearing Tyler apart in front of Daniel at a relaxed dinner date (surely the episode’s highlight) and having to do some serious backpedalling to get back into everybody’s good books.  I’m less concerned with the cutesy romances going on at the periphery, since Jack has yet to fully emerge as a character for me and think his constant drop-bys at Emily’s home are creepy rather than endearing.  But much worse is Connor Paulo, who is just too unconvincing as the bar hand trying to win over the rich girl; it’s a storyline that belongs in another show.  That being said, pretty much everything involving Tyler – the major spanner in the works at the moment for Emily – is spot-on.  We’ve still no idea as to his motivation, but what with drugging Daniel, sabotaging his job and faking a head wound, I’d say there’s a lot more to see from him.

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