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Dexter S7E03: "Buck the System"

Well, we knew that couldn't last.

Deb's plan to save Dexter through intense observation and half-cocked detoxing came from a place of love and hope, but there was no way that he was ever going to help make that work—because he doesn't really want to change. Dexter has spent too much time embracing his Dark Passenger, and he's certainly worked very hard to convince himself that the code is good enough to keep him from being a full-blown monster. So, despite Deb's best hopes, her plan is all but busted.

However, that's actually okay. Another week, another episode of Dexter that subverts my expectations in a good way. Instead of harping on Deb suffocating Dexter and him trying to sneak away from her every 10 minutes, "Buck the System" moved into another realm of their new relationship: Dexter telling her the truth.

When he recognized that she wasn't going to stop badgering him about his whereabouts, Dexter turned the tables on Deb and laid everything out on the table. He further explained the code, why he does what he does and more importantly, why he does what he does. And for good measure, he brought Deb along while he was casing a probable killer in hopes of convincing her of the value of his work. That conversation in the bar, with Dexter opening up and promising that he wouldn't kill unless he knew for sure he was doing what "must" be done and Deb wholeheartedly disagreeing with him, is now my favorite scene of the season so far.

The show is (somewhat surprisingly) examining Dexter and Deb's relationship with a great deal of subtlety, particularly with regard to their ideological differences. They care for—but can never really understand—one another. But although Dexter has always been super afraid of Deb finding out his secret for this very reason, the show is working hard to at least give Dexter a chance of convincing her that while his way might be horrible and unorthodox, it's not THE WORST.

"Buck the System" took the smart approach to making that happen by allowing Deb into Dexter's process, creating workplace tension about warrants and procedure that was low-key but still purposeful. Plus, I love that Dexter admitted to Deb that she's already been in on his process forever since she's followed so many of his fake hunches. By the end of the episode, Dexter was proven right—because he almost always is—but still, Deb questioned what this means for their relationship both at work and outside it. Maybe they can't have the same relationship they had before. For the third episode of the season, that's a damn great conclusion.

Some might say that the show should have allowed Deb to freak out about Dexter's identity more, or maybe the writers should have slow-played some of the tension between them in these early episodes, but it's worked really well for me. The show is nicely and logically moving through beats of this story without falling into melodramatic drivel, which was really my big fear coming into the season. The fact that there hasn't been a scene with Deb pointing a gun at Dexter and suggesting that she needs to turn him in is really promising. Their relationship is deep enough—and screwed up enough—that it's believable to me that Deb would try to fix Dexter and that she would ultimately see his side of the argument, only to recognize that his side of the argument isn't good enough. Frankly, that's an adult and complex conclusion for a show that tends to skew toward the silly and stupid side of things.

The other big news (which, based on the comments, I know you folks want to talk about): Chuck's Yvonne Strahovski made her anticipated debut in this episode as Hannah McKay, the former accomplice of a deranged killer Miami PD needs information from now that the long-closed case is opened. Dexter, for whatever reason (well, she's pretty, I get that), dropped the Q-tip when trying to perform a DNA swab, which is basically this show's version of a meet-cute.

There was certainly a spark between Dexter and Hannah, who refused to give much of anything to Batista, information-wise, because she was giving googly eyes to Dex, but it's still unclear how she will play into the season as things progress. The show always has more cases going then it seems, so I'm guessing she'll have to come in for questioning or something silly like that. But nevertheless, it's always great to have Yvonne around. She and Michael C. Hall worked well together in just a short scene.

And! The Ukrainian mob story took a nice turn as well. After Dexter sent the hand back into the office and the weird video diary to Jamie, Louis lost both his job and his girlfriend. So, in hopes of getting some quick (read: lame) payback, Louis went to the marina to sink Dex's boat. The problem with that? Issak and George happened to be there at the same time, looking for the owner of said boat because it was the last place that a GPS tracked Viktor to. Louis gave up Dexter as the owner of the boat and got himself a bullet in the head for his troubles.

What a weird story. For a handful of episodes, it seemed like Louis was going to be a major threat to Dexter for a reason we were not privy to. Then, it was revealed that he was just a pipsqueak, but there was still something there. Turns out, nope, just a dweeb with a weird temperament. That's an odd conclusion to what was a pretty odd story. Nevertheless, it's nice to see that the baddies already know about Dexter. Usually, it takes eight episodes to get to that point.

But this season, Dexter isn't doing things in the usual fashion—and is much better for it.

– I quite enjoyed Dexter's frustrated dream sequences in the first part of the episode. Michael C. Hall nails the unsettling satisfaction that takes hold of Dexter during certain kills. The glee is terrifying but awesome.

– Quinn falling in love with a stripper who outwardly tells him that she's been ordered to manipulate him is both the funniest and saddest thing to happen this season. Can't someone just put that guy out his misery? For all of us?

– That killer's bull costume and Saw-inspired murder den were sufficiently creepy, right? I feel like the show has done so many things like that over the years that new attempts to shock fall on deaf ears.

Dexter "Buck the System" Photos

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The Newsroom S01E10: "The Greater Fool"

There are many, many things to be said about last night's season finale of The Newsroom, but I'm going to lead off with the thing that it did best. It settled things. Even if it didn't always settle them in ways that were particularly enjoyable to watch, nor particularly sensible, it still settled them. The Newsroom is now at rest, and while there are certainly loose ends to tie up come next season, the biggest, and arguably many of the most annoying plot points have been put to bed. What it needed to settle, "The Greater Fool" did, albeit in the typically elephantine way this show tends to go about doing things.

Without turning this into a lengthy, repetitive missive on the entirety of The Newsroom's first season—presumably, you've already read enough of my ramblings to know where the problems typically lie—I'll simply say that "The Greater Fool" often embodied many of this show's least endearing qualities. Its propensity for melodrama in place of reasonable thought, its inability to make its female characters seem like anything other than ridiculous, flailing cartoons, its narrative dissonance between the brilliant news broadcast the characters seemingly think they're doing, and the Tea Party bash fest they're actually doing—all of it was there, front and center. But in tying up its loose ends, "The Greater Fool" managed to, at the very least, turn those problems into reasonably entertaining television. Even when I knew I was watching something kind of stupid, I usually laughed. I suppose that's better than nothing.

What we knew from last week's episode preview was that two things in particular would happen. One, Will would experience some kind of medical emergency, possibly of the self-inflicted variety. Two, we knew that the big conspiracy against Will would come to a head, with AWM head Leona Lansing at some point firing Will. Of course, there wouldn't be much of a Season 2 if Will were just kicked off the air—unless of course Season 2 was going to be all about getting Will back on the air, but I don't think anyone wanted to see that. Fortunately, things didn't go that way.

Starting with the aforementioned medical situation, we thankfully didn't have to sift through a big old suicide plot this week. As it turned out, a despondent Will simply accidentally took too many of his prescription antidepressants. He did so while drinking, and lamenting the hatchet-job cover story about him and News Night 2.0 in Newsweek. The same article Will commissioned to have written by Mackenzie's ex-boyfriend, in the hopes of having him become the young boy who told all the people about the valor and majesty of Camelot. Camelot is News Night, in case you missed it. You probably didn't, though, since Will spelled that metaphor out at least three times this week.

That all backfired, Will became depressed, and essentially gave himself a bleeding ulcer. Will spent much of this week recovering in the hospital and debating whether or not he should even bother to come back to News Night. He felt like the "greater fool" that the Newsweek article called him, and it took a rotating volley of News Night staffers (mostly headed up by Mackenzie) to eventually push him back to the news desk. But before he got there, he spent more time talking about Camelot, and Don Quixote, and basically feeling sorry for himself while bickering back and forth with a sassy nurse.

I don't mind saying that these sequences were, by and large, the funniest things in this week's finale. As much as Will continues to be a petulant dick in most situations—especially at the end of this week's episode—Jeff Daniels is why I keep coming back to this show outside of just having this assignment to write about it every week. No matter how many times Aaron Sorkin debases the character (last week's pants-putting-on debacle immediately springs to mind), Daniels sells this character far better than he has any right to. Even when I think Will is an abhorrent asshole, I still kind of love watching him be an abhorrent asshole. With perhaps the sole exception of Charlie—who really didn't have enough to do this season—I think Will is the only character on this show that truly, consistently works.

Which leaves us with the rest of the ensemble. I've been as critical as anyone about the Jim/Maggie/Don/Lisa quadrangle of idiocy, but I'll admit that even in spite of last night's ludicrous coincidences and moronic character behaviors, I breathed a small sigh of relief. To quickly recap, Maggie knew that Jim had come to her apartment last week to talk to her, not Lisa. Maggie told Lisa this, which Lisa was not happy about. Meanwhile, Don was considering inviting Maggie to move in with him, which Sloan halfway recommended he seriously, deeply consider, and not just because she apparently has a thing for him. Yes, now Sloan is even in on this nonsense, which came mostly out of nowhere and ended just as quickly, after Don ultimately invited Maggie to move in anyway. I don't know why we needed to toss yet another sexual complication into this office, but there we have it.

It's a shame, because Sloan has been one of the more intriguing, if underutilized characters this season. Olivia Munn has given Sloan a dignity that I'm not sure is even on the page, so it's troubling to see that she was mostly an afterthought late in the season. This week there were allusions to her leaving to work at some equity firm, but that was all abandoned at the end of the episode with one casual remark. Why even insert the tension if you're barely going to address it?

Which honestly speaks to the same problems I had with how the big honking conspiracy against Will played out. I think we all knew that Will, Mac, and Charlie would get the best of Leona and Reese somehow. Things looked a tad grimmer when Charlie's source decided to take a header off the Queensboro bridge, but a mysterious envelope sent to Charlie after his death seemingly put all the pieces together to let the News Night team blackmail AWM's higher-ups into letting them do the show their way. And Charlie even got their whole conversation—Reese admitting to phone hacking and all—on tape for posterity. Or, actually, because they never had the evidence at all. The envelope just contained a beef stew recipe, a callback to Charlie's last conversation with his informant. Oh, those sneaky News Night rapscallions!

With the Lansings in check and Will all hellfire and brimstone again, News Night did the show it'd been aching to do for 15 months. And what did that show amount to? A lot of intense, utterly unfocused bashing of the Tea Party.

Here's my thing. I don't care for the Tea Party one bit. I share nearly all of Sorkin's views on the subject, and in my own mind, hearing Will call them the American Taliban during his show resonated in a way that made me go, "Huh, yeah, there's maybe some truth to that." But the problem is that no "serious" newsman worth his salt would use such inflammatory language during a broadcast, unless he was just looking for quick, easy headlines. This is not discourse. This is exactly the kind of sound byte-y trash-talking that ideologue news anchors like Sean Hannity and Keith Olbermann use to whip people into a frenzy.

I see why Sorkin is going this route. He's essentially turned The Newsroom into a kind of political comfort food for those who find the Tea Party rhetoric deplorable. But therein lies the dissonance. Will and Mac want to make a real news program about real issues, but they're still talking in the same kind of incendiary platitudes everyone else uses. At the beginning of the broadcast, Will's takedown of voter ID laws passing in predominantly Republican-controlled state governments was absolutely brilliant. It was focused, tight, and broke down exactly why the laws are complete and utter nonsense. But then the broadcast just devolved into a long laundry list of why the Tea Party is a bunch of lying jerks, with no particular focus on any one subject matter. It was more rant than news broadcast.

That's too bad, because there are so many good ideas in The Newsroom. Rarely has a show with so much potential seemed so unable to completely make good on that potential. It will be interesting to see what criticisms Sorkin takes to heart when writing the next season, and which ones he chooses to ignore. It'll give us some insight into what he actually believes this show needs to be, versus what it ended up being as he attempted to lay the groundwork for the series.

For all my complaints about this episode, this season, and this show, I'll say this much for The Newsroom: It was never boring. Wary as I may be, a part of me is genuinely looking forward to Season 2 to see where things head. I don't know if that makes me an idealist, or a masochist. Maybe a bit of both.

What did you think of the finale, and the first season as a whole? Will you be tuning in for Season 2?

– I guess I'm not terribly surprised that Aaron Sorkin seemingly hates Sex and the City's idealistic portrayal of female single life in New York City. I just kind of wish he hadn't dragged Maggie into that whole thing, so as to maybe, just maybe, spare her the indignity of having to scream at a bus full of silly women (and Jim) about how messed up her life really is. But it happened, so there's nothing else to say except to at least compliment Alison Pill on making that cringe-inducing scene slightly less cringe-inducing. She's a wonderful actress, and I really hope Maggie sucks a lot less next season. I want her to be fun and likable, not insane and, well, more insane.

– Also, anyone else notice how quickly Maggie's hair dried from the moment she got splashed by the bus, to the moment where she and Jim finally kissed? Even with a hair dryer, I don't know any women whose hair dries that quickly. Hell, my hair doesn't dry that quickly, and I barely have any.

– So, does the semi-predictable return of sorority girl mean that we'll get to watch Will yell at her every week next season? That should be fun.

– Hope Davis's reappearances haven't lived up to her first interaction with Will, which is unfortunate because there's a potentially interesting character there. But with TMI now apparently being shut down, I'm not certain we're ever going to hear from her again. That's a shame.

– Neil is still alive, and at no point was assaulted by hordes of online trolls. Dammit.

– On the positive side, Terry Crews will apparently be back next season, which is great. He, like Sam Waterston and Olivia Munn, just didn't have enough to do this season. Maybe next year, we'll get the Terry-heavy episode the masses are clearly demanding.

– For what it's worth, it's been a pleasure writing up The Newsroom each week for you all. I know many of you out there have lamented my sometimes decidedly negative tone, and I hope you know that I haven't been ignoring the feedback. Positive or negative, I'm just glad people read my stuff and feel compelled to comment, and I do take your criticisms at face value. By the same token, I'd be remiss if I didn't give my honest opinion on the show week after week. We're not always going to agree, but, perhaps a bit like Will himself, my hope is that the conversation can remain respectful and thoughtful. Mostly it did, and I'm thankful for that.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun, and hopefully I'll be back around for the next season. Until then, I'm Alex Navarro. Good night.

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Burn Notice S06E09: "Desperate Times"

Death sucks. It is the thing that sucks most in the world. The passing of a loved one stirs up all kinds of messed up emotions ranging from soul-rotting guilt to soul-melting anger. Time crawls, thoughts sour. While the departed obviously bear the worst of these icky circumstances, those remaining are left to question the order of the world, evaluate personal value, assess fulfillment, or more often than not just be plain sad. Basically the opposite of a birthday party. In tonight's hearty mid-season finale "Desperate Times," Nate's ghost shrouded a search for vengeance, that once again found Michael considering the effect his dangerous lifestyle has on his friends and family. Questions were answered, promises were made, and in true Burn Notice form, those hard-won milestones were left rendered into mere trailheads pointing towards a larger enemy.

Maddie finally came out of hiding to do the opposite of celebrating, and hashed out some resentful feelings towards Michael, telling him that "every mistake Nate ever made was because he was trying to be like [Michael]." It speaks to the impressive level of emotional intelligence in pop-culture that this difficult scene between a beaten down Maddie (no makeup, no cigarette) appeared on a show as light-hearted and action-oriented as Burn Notice. "Who do I call, when your call doesn't come. Tell me that"? she asked Michael in a mother's earnest quaver. Making Maddie privy to his secret activities immediately backfired, as his mother responded like a vulnerable guardian and the stakes were never clearer: she simultaneously worried for the safety of her one remaining son, and blamed Michael for the danger that routinely surrounded him. Y'ouch. Talk about a guilt trip.

Yo The Shields's Kenny Johnson, 'sup? Despite her pleas, Westen and company, plus an agent working the Anson case named Brady Pressman (Chad Coleman, "Cutty" to The Wire nuts, that guy in I Hate My Teenage Daughter to nobody) proceeded on a covert operation sponsored by the CIA (much to Fiona's chagrin) down to Panama, to capture the man believed to be Tyler Gray. Under the guise of a stolen weapons investigation, Card had to keep the crew slim setting up an all-too-rare full team-based adventure that gave each member a chance to shine. Fiona maintained a generally peeved attitude towards the government agent, even as he ran through all the technologically advanced artillery to which Westen and friends would have access. Speed frame designated wall breacher, M-110 rifle, Level 5 Body Armor, and APR-556, Corner Shot Gun, were among the goodies that would help fell the man who murdered Nate. Brady seemed to be fitting right in, even calling bedtime with "alright kids, tomorrow's a long day so let's get to bed."

The next morning Michael and Fiona shared a romantic moment, with the latter beaming out the window reminiscing, "There's only one other place I've ever seen the sky that color," to which Michael replied "Over the Irish Sea." (Got it, tropical nation Panama shares similar dusk weather with the traditionally severe, and blustery Ireland). Michael upped the romantic ante (romante?) by trying to move things back to the bed, cooing, "You have no idea how beautiful you look right now." Pretty mushy stuff. Unfortunately there was no time for Eskimo kisses because Gray and some local mercenaries ambushed the crew in its own hideout.

After a literally explosive escape onto the rough, Michael suffered a sever rib-cracking merc kick, forcing them to Peter Pan it off the roof and into a nearby junkyard. Fly Sam, fly!

Jesse had it especially rough because in all the hubbub he had left behind his own shoes and was left doing a Die Hard impression from the ankle down. Making off with only a portion of the cool CIA gadgets thankfully allowed Westen to do what he did best, and he hot-wired some weapons out of some already advantageous items.

Feeling chuffed, or perhaps finally recognizing he had put himself and loved ones through enough bullet-related strife, Michael pledged to Fiona that this would be his final mission. In Burn Notice language, that basically meant crap would definitely hit the fan in ways unimaginable. Knock on wood guys! Still grasping for closure, Maddie blackmailed Tom Card of the CIA (Michael's Trainer/John C. McGinley) into providing her access to a classified file describing the tragic official details of Nate's passing. It was a heart-wrenching decision on her part to explore the terrible facts behind her son's death, but perhaps cathartic.

Back in Panama, Brady was alarmed that the get-along gang wanted to continue. Never to back out of its familiar underdog element, Team Westen easily repurposed the supplies into some ceramic glass-shattering buckshots, and mickey-moused flash grenades to conduct a counter-attack. Jesse even cobbled together some boots, to which Fi called "a Panamamian peep-toe. Tres chic."

Like a true ruthless survivalist, Gray sacrificed his own and fled to a nearby building that he promptly claimed as Sniper's Haunt, then delivered sweet bullet love to Brady's leg like his rifle's name was Romeo Don Juan de Cupid…the Gun. The optimistic wound victim related to Michael with a touching story of his father's military death, and offered to do whatever he could to help Westen. In Burn Notice language (once again) that basically translated to "I hereby declare myself a target!" Meanwhile, Fi got to play gypsy...

While the crew swiftly regrouped in pursuit, Card offered Maddie a consolation speech/bottle parable encouraging her to see Michael's dangerous actions as essentially motivated by a juvenile need to protect his younger brother Nate, and his mother. Could this be Westen's fatal flaw? By extension, Card reasoned every person Michael has ever helped was indebted to Maddie and Nate. "Hmm," Maddie probably thought, followed by "...but I'd rather my son was alive."

"Enjoy your trash nap, pal!" With a risky diversion by Fi and Jesse (who humorously grumbled "you're not the one trying to out run a sniper in hobo shoes"–plus I thought Michael hated putting Fi in harms way?), Westen was able to monkey his way up Sniper's Haunt, and swing his entire body nearly through Gray's torso.

Then like a rodeo star, he prize-tied his brother's executioner and helped himself to a little face-bleeding physical justice. It's always a bad sign when the bad guy's caught and he laughs through some blood. It means he's off, or knows something that's about to turn the booted stomach victory into some kind of loss. To the surprise of probably no one, all was not as it seemed down in Ol' Panama Town, and Westen spared Tyler Gray as a hostage, after discovering the sharpshooter to be a mere pawn in the weaponized game of spy chess that is Michael's waking life. Luckily EVERYONE survived…

Well, almost everyone. What did come as a true surprise was that Card had allegedly sent Westen and company on an intended "suicide mission," as evidenced by Card's odd behavior and some shameless telephone lies. Oh, also another good indicator was the F/A-18 fighter jets that air bombed the crew's former location, plus a heroic, imminently bleeding out Brady inside a hijacked getaway Astro Star Van.

Poor Maddie took an earful from Card about how Michael was like a son to him, then dropped all pretense and received confirmation of Michael's purported death. In the end she hadn't really found a satisfying answer to her ultimate question, which was more along the lines of "why do bad things happen to decent people?" Nate was innocuous, but certainly didn't deserve such a grisly end. There's really no rhyme or reason as to why loved ones have to cease being, but Maddie can take solace in knowing she received about as much resolution as us viewers did with this epic, yet frustrating cliff-hanger. How many times has Michael been jerked around by the CIA? Pick a side, suits! Anyway, see y'all in a few weeks! When we come back, the awesome Patton Oswalt guest-stars. SCORE!

Questions!

-Was the break-in footage of Tyler Gray falsified by the CIA?

-How far up the government chain does this go?

-How will Westen and friends ever survive in Panama?

-How will Maddie react when Michael goes missing?

-Why is Card doing this?

-Was this a satisfying twist?

-Did this twist make sense?

-Will Michael break off ties with the CIA once and for all?

-Does this mean there's a possibility that Pearce is in hot-water for knowing about Anson and company?

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Bunheads S01E10: "A Nutcracker in Paradise"

It's good that Bunheads is going on hiatus: I have a ton of affection for this show, but after last night's clunky summer finale, I realized how badly I need a break. There's so much potential here—and occasionally, moments of genuine greatness—but the series is still finding its footing. That was especially obvious in "A Nutcracker in Paradise," which tried to do way too much and ended up macing itself in the face.

I know Bunheads wanted to go out big. I appreciate the effort. The problem is, this show has been very much about smaller conflicts and subtler character relationships. This episode tried to give us big dramatic scenes—almost all of which fell flat—as well as some truly absurd moments. (Michelle maced the girls. She pepper sprayed the entire cast of The Nutcracker. I can't.)

The point was to put Michelle and Fanny at odds with each other again. Makes sense; the back-and-forth between these two has been the highlight of the show from the beginning, and if they're getting along swimmingly, there's not a whole lot for Bunheads to do. But there are ways to do that, ways that feel a lot more organic than Michelle nearly blinding all of Fanny's students. That was equal parts horrific and silly: truly awful to think about, but also too ridiculous to be taken seriously.

Bunheads has never exactly been a realistic show: It's about a Vegas showgirl who ends up teaching ballet in the sleepy town of Paradise, because—well, don't ask too many questions. Fine. It just seemed like recent weeks were working toward a more grounded series, and I'm willing to accept a ludicrous premise to get us where we need to be. But this was just too much to handle. The macing. The creepy ringer. That unbelievably awkward dream sequence. Pull it back, Bunheads—you're better than this.

Even the moments that I wanted to see (Boo and Carl getting together, Michelle macking on Godot, Sasha returning to class) were way too rushed. Perhaps it's because the writers weren't sure Bunheads would be picked up for a full season, but this season finale tried to cram it all into one episode. There's no reason for that—I'd rather part ways from a show with a little uncertainty than choke on all the plot it tried to cram down our throats. Even if Bunheads had ended, I wouldn't have minded a few loose ends. That's what fanfic is for, isn't it?

But with all that said, I'm glad Bunheads is returning. Looking back on the first half of the season as a whole, I've greatly enjoyed the show, and I still think it's closer to Gilmore Girls than anything else on TV. If you know how much I miss Gilmore Girls, you know that's a good thing. This wasn't a perfect half-season debut, but I think ABC Family made the right choice in giving a mostly very enjoyable series a longer shot at working out the kinks. All good dancers know they need to stretch first!

Besides, I'm excited about what's happening next. Now that Michelle and Fanny are enemies again, we can look forward to more great Sutton Foster-Kelly Bishop showdowns. I'm also down for Michelle and Godot hooking up some more, so I hope he's not in Australia for too long. Plus, the dancing is still great, and the summer finale was an especially good showcase for that: Give me more toe-tapping and soft-shoeing and I will endure any poor narrative choices made in the future. Give me more of Michelle singing numbers from Cabaret, and I won't even complain in my review.

QUESTIONS:

– So much happened in the finale. Which plot point deserved more time?

– Is Michael gone for good, or can Fanny win him back?

– Will kissing Michelle give Godot second thoughts about his indefinite vacation?

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