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Lost was a really great "binge show". I watched it this spring, starting just about when the series concluded. The fact that I live under a rock helped me avoid all the discussion regarding the finale. This show has been on my list for years - since middle school, when I was not allowed to watch "grown up shows" - because of Dominic Monaghan and my insane Lord of the Rings fandom. I figured that now that it's over, what better time to start, right? It was very good. The whole of it, minus the final season, was on Netflix Watch Instantly, which made it so easy to access. Despite theories that the writers haven't had any idea what they've been doing since day one, the show was very well crafted [early CGI polar bears almost turned me off of it all though] in visual, written, and intellectual ways. It's one of those shows that you actually have to watch because if you miss thirty seconds, you won't have any idea what's going on for the next four episodes. Every episode, no matter how ridiculous, left me craving the next, which is an incredibly good thing for a television show.The show takes a lot of effort to experience, but it's really something of a television masterpiece, and the journey is well worth the hours of your life that you'll spend watching it.
Castle - Season 2, Episode 8: "Kill the Messenger". Original Air Date: 9 November, 2009.
The episode begins with a bike courier; a masked man crashes a car into him and steals the package the man was set to deliver. The team tries to figure out what was in that package, so they track down the sender, an old woman, hooked up to oxygen in her own home. She says that she had no idea what was in the package she'd sent that morning, and that it was from her nephew, Brady. He had sent it to her years ago, and told her to keep it safe and to never look at it when he went to prison, and now, he wanted her to send it to whom it was addressed. That person? The captain. But when they want to talk to Brady, they find out that he's been murdered that morning in prison. Talking to others involved with Brady's case, in which he pleaded guilty to murder, they learn that he may not have been the murderer. A lot of digging around in Brady's victim's case brings them to one of the wealthiest families in the city: the Wellesleys. In the end, they discover that the Wellesleys' attendant / butler / everything man, Frank Davis, was not only responsible for the biker's death, but also Brady's [I think?] and the young woman from all those years ago. In the previous episode, Castle said, "I'm going to go with the butler," and tells Beckett it's who the mystery writers always go with when they're out of ideas. It's a cute bit of foreshadowing into the end of this episode.
The minor plot in this episode is very minor; Grams gets a 'MyFace' as she calls it, and she has to deal with multitudes of friend requests. And then she has a date!
Like last week's Fringe, I like that we got to learn about a higher-up that we don't normally get much character development. Unfortunately, I thought it was too similar to Fringe's story, with the captain having to close up an old case and all that. I do not like weird TV coincidences like those.
The plot was quite gripping, however, I did not love this episode. Maybe I just wasn't into it, who knows, and I can't really say why, but I just didn't feel myself being drawn in the same way as I normally do.
TV right now is killing me. I hate baseball and Teen Jeopardy.
Stupid baseball. Fox is 'hosting' the World Series. Baseball is what made me watch House forty-five minutes late. Now it's the reason that Fringe, House, and Glee are all post-poned until the series is over. UGH. I'm sorry, sports fans. I really am. But isn't this what we have ESPN for?
Stupid Teen Jeopardy! Oh my gosh. I get really frustrated watching them. I don't think I'm really smart enough to be on the show, but I'd like to be, and I'm the same age as the kids on the teen tournament, but I'm answering the regular questions. I wish I had watched way back when Meryl was on it. I don't even remember why I didn't. But these kids... they played a clip of a bassoon, which has a very specific timbre, and the only person to ring it said 'violin'. No one else knew. There are always plenty of stupid little things like that. As an adult, I'll probably forgive them, like how I can forgive the little middle schoolers for not answering certain very simple questions. But I am the same age as these people, so I get very upset. And the simpleness of the questions is almost insulting! If I were on that show, especially tonight's episode, I would have been genuinely insulted if the questions were as easy as they were. And tonight's final! "There's a statue of him at the Baker street subway station." Girl answered Shakespeare. SERIOUSLY?
So I'm very excited for the next few weeks of television. Teen Jeopardy will be over after another week, and my regular daily trivia show can resume; the World Series will finally end, and we can go back to what's really important, House, Fringe, and Glee!
Castle - Season 2, Episode 7: "Famous Last Words". Original Air Date: 2 November, 2009.
This was a wonderful episode! It begins with Alexis, almost in tears [or very recently in tears, I guess], and she asks her father if it's true that Hayley Blue, the lead singer of her favourite band, is dead. It is. The crime scene is staged to look like a recent music video of hers, and the team follows a lead to her... most enthusiastic fan. A.K.A. stalker. He leads them to the band's guitarist, who leads them to the producers who had taken her in and paid for her rehab. Apparently she was like a daughter to them. In the end, they arrest the wife, but she is adament that it was not her. Of course, they don't believe her, but one look at the husband... Well, Castle hears her final song again, and he realises they've got the wrong guy: it was the husband. He had forced himself on her and later killed her. The episode ends with Beckett, Castle, Alexis, and Castle's mom [I really need to start remembering her name] at a Hayley Blue memorial concert, and, aw how cute, they look like a family. Or something.
I loved this episode. We see more of the relationship between Castle and Alexis, but through Beckett. She says it best when she says that she's so used to seeing Castle act like a twelve year old that it's weird [strange? refreshing?] to see him play the part of the father. And at the end, when Castle is confronting the man who raped the rock star, he's really into it, on the verge of tears, it would seem. The whole episode was really intense, with the same formula of leads and disappointments. Not much changes in the Beckett/Castle dynamic, though.
I also realised, just before watching this, that my Monday nights are all about architecture: first I watch House, then I watch Castle.
Castle - Season 2, Episode 6: "Vampire Weekend". Original Air Date: 26 October, 2009.
America's current vampire obsession has invaded... my half of the world...
It's Halloween, and Castle is preparing for a big party. He keeps mentioning it to Beckett, reminding her that costumes are mandatory, and hinting that he'd love to see her in something sexy. But even more important is the case: a vampire was murdered by a stake through the heart, in a cemetary. Yeah. Apparently this boy, Crow, belonged to a small geek community of vampires [I say geek meaning a person who is fascinated by one specific thing or culture and strives to live as close to the object of his emulation as possible, no negative connotations intended]. He was a young artist, who, together with his friend Damon, also found murdered, was creating a graphic novel about a real life NYC vampire named Morlock. The team finds Morloch and takes him into custody. He's a case, because he has a condition, I forget what it's called but its nick-name is the Vampires' Disease, and he is very sensitive to sunlight, to the point where his skin burns and blisters up with contact. With that condition come hallucinations and other craziness, so it's no wonder he actually believes he's a vampire. In the end, it was his insane babble and crazy talk that solved the case. Crow's step-mother had killed his mother so she could marry the father, and now, many years later, Crow figures this out and so she kills him too, trying to frame his group of vampire friends because of his father's disdain for them, in an effort to keep her husband close to her. In the meantime, Alexis is going to her first 'real' high school party with her friend and co-parent [for a health class baby egg project], and her dad knows she won't get into any trouble, but he tells her to call him if she feels uncomfortable or compromised in any way because he will come get her, no questions asked, no punishment. She thinks she won't have to, but she does because the punch was spiked and her friend was really wasted. Castle picks them up and does the right thing in calling the girl's parents, despite Alexis's protests that she would get in a lot of trouble. In the end, the friend was so mad that she broke the egg baby.
The episode was good, and very Halloweeny. Castle began the episode by saying how much he loved Halloween, but Beckett says it's the worst as far as weird crimes. I think the show did a decent job, too, and not making fun of the geeks. Of course, individual characters mocked the vampire Covent a little, but the way they were portrayed in the show was as a little weird, definitely different from the 'norm', but not dangerous or bad or stupid. And, I know I say this a lot, but I really love the relationship between Alexis and her father. There are so few 'like me' teenagers on television, whether it be adult programming on basic channels, like this, or on pre-teen shows on Disney. This girl is well-adjusted, has a few issues, but nothing she can't handle, and she's not angsty or slutty or deceitful like so many TV teens are. In this episode, she had to learn a bit of a lesson between choosing the right thing and the easy thing, but she followed her father's orders, and doing differently in that situation could have ended really badly.
So I have some exciting news about this new show. Sure, it looked good, but I've been busy [lol] and hadn't watched it. I've heard good things about it, too.
But now for the exciting part. Mum called me the other day, and she said that... DOMINIC MONAGHAN WILL BE JOINING THE CAST OF FLASH FORWARD!!!
Told you it was exciting. A quick trip to IMDb validates Mum's story. We also notice that, besides the X-Men movie, he hasn't done anything since last year's Chuck episode. So I'm excited. It's a new show, perhaps I can catch up, or I could always watch the season during the off-season.
I'm skipping Castle this week. I watched it, and it was good, but my roommate came in and talked to me for like fifteen minutes and I was very distracted. I'd like to watch it again, but that seems like an even bigger waste of my time than the way I already waste my time, and I'm just a little too stressed out for that. So I will simply post the notes I took while watching, typos and all, and leave it at that.
Castle - Season 2, Episode 5: "When the Bough Breaks". Original Air Date: 19 Oct 09
He's late so they tease him.
He's pretty distracted thinking about his upcoming launch party.
Candy wrapper.
"Mmm, kinda tastes like soap. I like it."
postcards in home
Alexis is excited to go.
Certain British spy. WHOO? I've probably never heard of him.
My roommate came in and distracted me for ten-ish minutes. Oops. Something about the kid she babysat or something.
They arrest a Czech man, the victim's ex-husband, but he thinks they were chasing him as immigration cops.
There's a woman that they didn't get to interview on their first go-around, and she says that the night of the victim's murder, she recalls seeing the victim arguing with a man; the artists' rendering looks an awful lot like someone they already know.
So they talk to this doctor - he's the husband of the woman they interviewed, the father of the kid the victim was giving candy to. Apparently, they were having an affair. But what else?
Launch party! Did you read the dedication? "To the extraordinary KB and all my friends at the 12th."
"You are extraordinary."
"can I close the deal, already?"
"What if the wife got onto the affair?"
They fight. British secret agent or new Nicky Heat novel? Hmmm...
WHAT AN AMAZING PLOT TWIST
not enough alexis in this ep.
"That was Esposito. There's been a murder. Are you coming or not?"
Oh, yeah, and guess what?? Some good news about the show!
Tomorrow? Last night's Glee. And Fringe is taking a break until 5 Nov. Yay -.-
Castle - Season 2, Episode 4: "Fool Me Once". Original air date: 12 Oct 09.
The episode starts with a bang, as usual, when a man on his way to the North Pole broadcasting to a class of children is murdered on camera. Turns out the man was running his "North Pole expedition" from his apartment in NYC, after conning a few private schools out of a lot of money.
Beckett is pushing Castle's buttons, and he says he won't let it get to him... but oh it gets to him. She says she has 'plans,' which Castle assumes to mean 'date,' but we see her hop into a relaxing looking bubble bath with a glass of wine and Castle's new book. Next day in the office, she's playing games with him.
Alexis has a hot, new violin teacher, who has her father quite nervous, but his mother is perfectly okay with it. Always the voice of reason, that woman. Well, Castle starts freaking out about Dillon, which leads him to an epiphany about the victim's fiancée's father, which leads them down that investigative path.
But when they approach the father, he reveals that he knew all about Fletcher's con business because he'd hired a P.I. to follow him for a week or so. The team goes to the P.I. to see the photos, and they find one with the elementary school teacher from the beginning of the episode, so they go back to him. The teacher says Fletcher has a partner and he points her out in the photo, and it's Elise, Fletcher's fiancée who was quite insistent that her betrothed was not a con artist. So now we've come full circle, and Castle asks, with good grammar, "Who's conning whom?"
Well apparently Elise thinks that Fletcher was a CIA agent. But - is her lead legit or is it just another lie he told her? Castle knows a guy, and they check out this lead - he was not in the CIA.
Meanwhile, Alexis is freaking out because of her father freaking out. She yells at him for checking up on Dillon - it's always interesting to see how his cases take shape in his family life - and she tells him that she's a good girl and she's in high school, which is "the Wild West of hormones." Well played, Alexis.
They go back to Elise, to tell her that her fiancé was not in the CIA, but she has even more shocking news for them: Fletcher's alive.
"But if Fletcher's alive, who's the dead guy in our morgue?"
"I hate this case!" "I know, isn't it great?"
They find the engagement albums for Elise and Steve, and they figure out that Susan was Fletcher's con partner, naming her as suspect because she stood to lose a lot of money if Fletcher really was changing his ways. They shout, "The con is still on!" and rush to stop Susan.
They apprehend Susan, and all is well. Except for Elise, because her fiancé is really still dead.
Beckett turns to secrecy to read Castle's book, hiding in the bathroom, but he surprises her in there [hahaha], and he resolves things with his daughter.
Some quotes I enjoyed:
"That man could sell sand to a camel."
"Oh now who's the sucker .... [awkward silence]... Sir."
"Shut the front door."
I've been doing a lot of review-style entries on the other blog, and I figured that people wouldn't necessarily want to read about them. Plus trying to keep up with them and post about... well... life?... would be hard, and would include multiple posts a day. For that reason, any 'review' [I am in no way a critic, nor should I really be listened to, this is all opinion] -style posts will be here.
I've only posted two TV review posts on four-12 so far. The first one can be found here and the second, here.
From now on, you can expect individual posts per show, and posts about books, movies, CDs, and other things of that sort. Yay! I'm excited [heh -.-"].
Coming soon: House, Heroes, Castle, Glee, Fringe, Brave New World, and Forget And Not Slow Down.Even though I should be studying.
