Tv.com News

GIRLS PROBLEMS

... Girls is losing one of its boys. Christopher Abbott, who plays Charlie (Marnie's on-again-off-again boyfriend) on the much-talked-about HBO show, is leaving the series. Why? Let's play multiple choice: a) Lena Dunham, b) Lena Dunham, c) Lena Dunham. If you answered "shameless Girls creator Lena Dunham," you're correct! The two allegedly butted heads going into the production of Season 3, so Abbott did the whole "fuck you I quit" routine. Since appearing on Girls, Abbott's star has brightened, and he'll move on to other projects he has in the works. [NY Post]

BUSINESS TIME

... Science Channel is ordering The Moaning of Life, starring An Idiot Abroad's Karl Pilkington in a new set of adventures. This time, Karl will travel the globe and see how other cultures deal with entering middle age. [TV Guide]

... Adult Swim has ordered the shortform live-action series Hole to Hole, from South Park's Pam Brady and Chelsea Lately's Arden Myrin. The comedy is a parody of 1980s detective shows and follows two sexy billionaire sleuths. [Deadline Hollywood]

... BBC America has put a premiere date on the final season of the U.K.'s Being Human: June 8. The Beebs also dated the interesting-looking zombie miniseries In the Flesh, about zombies that are reintegrated into society. Look for that three-parter to start on August 3. [BBC via press release]

... Discovery, TLC, Animal Planet, and Investigation Discovery (which are all part of the same network family) have announced their respective programming slates, and they're full of all the wacky stuff you'd expect from these bonkers channels. Among the highlights: two Discovery shows that feature people being dropped off in remote places completely naked, a TLC show called My Teen is Pregnant and So Am I, the eel fishing Animal Planet show called Eel of Fortune, and Investigation Discovery's Evil In-Law, which tells harrowing tales of overeager mother-in-laws. Television at its finest! [Discovery via press release]

... Disney Channel has given the greenlight to Mighty Med, a live-action comedy about two kids who work in a hospital for superheroes. Bradley Steven Perry (Good Luck Charlie) and Jake Short (A.N.T. Farm) will star. [Disney Channel via press release]

... Syfy is developing a new drama. There aren't many details on the project, but what we do know goes something like this: A meteorite hits a plane and the only two survivors go on the run from the government but have no idea what happened. So it's going to be one of THOSE shows. [Deadline Hollywood]

MORE CNN DESTRUCTION

... CNN's Ali Velshi is leaving the network for the soon-to-be-launched Al Jazeera America news network. You may know Velshi for his outstanding work wearing windbreakers and standing in flooded intersections during weather catastrophes. [Deadline Hollywood]

View the original article here

What to watch on Friday, February 1...

SERIES PREMIERE, Whenever you feel like it, Netflix
House of Cards
The entire 13-episode series, from executive producers David Fincher and Kevin Spacey, begins streaming on Netflix at midnight Pacific/3am Eastern, so you can chip away at your idealistic faith in the American political system one installment at at time or bludgeon it to a pulp in a marathon viewing session. Spacey stars as a conniving congressman with grand ambitions—and a vendetta against the new U.S. president.

8pm, NBC
The NAACP Image Awards
The iconic civil rights organization holds its 44th annual celebration of achievement in the arts, with nominees from the realm of TV including Aziz Ansari, Donald Glover, and Kerry Washington. Steve Harvey hosts live from Los Angeles.

8pm, CBS
Undercover Boss
A Boston Market exec puts the "officer" in Chief Brand Officer when she must personally enforce company policy. In a series first, her stint on the front lines of fast-casual chain dining leads to a rambunctious employee getting canned.

8pm, The CW
Nikita
Ryan sends a team to rescue his abducted girlfriend from the clutches of a rogue agent, but you just know that the first seven places the team checks they're gonna be told that she's in another castle. Elsewhere in "Survival Instincts," Nikita is thrown for a loop when Owen, rather than Michael, joins her in the field.

9pm, Starz
Spartacus: War of the Damned
Spartacus and Co. plan to capture a Roman city to house their burgeoning community in "Wolves at the Gate." Meanwhile, Crassus's growing force gains a major, if unpredictable, asset with the arrival of a brash young military commander: Julius Caesar.

10pm, CBS
Blue Bloods
When a man riddled with rat bites is thrown from a moving car in "Inside Jobs," Danny tries to find out who was sending a message and why. Come to think of it, has anyone seen the kid from Ben around lately?

LATE-NITE:
– Wanda Sykes, Tyler Hamilton, and Brandford Marsalis on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, 11:35pm, NBC
– Kevin Spacey, Nick Griffin, and Emeli Sandé on Late Show with David Letterman, 11:35pm, CBS
– Highlights from earlier in the week on Jimmy Kimmel Live, 11:35pm, ABC
– Jason Bateman, Zosia Mamet, and Andrea Bocelli on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, 12:37am, NBC
– Joe Theismann and Ariel Tweto on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, 12:37am, CBS

What to watch on Saturday, February 2...

10:30am, Cartoon Network
Young Justice
This week's outing is called "Runaways." Could the title indicate that, with the cancellation writing on the wall, our heroes are throwing DC-Marvel rivalry and licensing concerns to the wind and launching a rogue crossover with another band of juvenile superfolk? Probably not!

SERIES FINALE, 8pm, Nickelodeon
Victorious
Mr. Sikowitz dares the kids to respond in the affirmative for a full day in "Victori-Yes," the series finale. Such blatant inversion of Nancy Reagan's famous advice to America's youths can only lead down a road of debaucherous ruin. Or possibly to a send-off full of family-friendly hijinks.

9pm, BBC America
Ripper Street
Cholera fears grip London, but some of the bodies turning up in Jackson's morgue show evidence of deliberate ergot poisoning (which was nicknamed "St. Anthony's Fire" back then, because the Victorians were streets ahead of us at hanging monikers on maladies). Naturally the team races to uncover a pattern behind the mounting death toll.

SPECIAL NIGHT AND TIME, 10:05pm & 10:35pm, HBO
Girls & Enlightened
Rather than pit its two Sunday-night comedies against an event likely to draw literally fifty times their combined average viewership, HBO is just gonna leave a couple of new episodes right here for you on Saturday (they're also already available on HBOGO). Hannah throws a dinner party that spirals into immaturity in "It's A Shame About Ray," while Amy discovers the brave new world of social media and Tyler fends off Dougie's investigation in "Follow Me."

What to watch on Sunday, February 3...

3pm, Animal Planet
Puppy Bowl IX
Puppies caper. Hedgehogs cheerlead. Kitties perform at halftime. Hamsters survey the proceedings from tiny blimps. Meep the Bird live-tweets the entire spectacale. Humans bask in a much-needed oasis from the unrelenting deluge of stupid that marks their own, severely less adorable species.

LIVE, 6:30pm Eastern, CBS
Super Bowl XLVII
America's annual flash card reminding us how roman numerals work returns for its 47th season. The Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers square off in a footballing match at New Orleans's palatial I'm Not Bothering To Google Its Corporate Sponsor Superdome. Beyoncé and her reunited Destiny's Child squadmates are scheduled to perform at halftime, which should occur about four and half hours after kickoff.

9pm, PBS
Downton Abbey
All the other networks flee into repeats tonight, but the Granthams are not so timid (though it's worth noting that, as of Tuesday, the rest of the season is already legally available on iTunes/DVD). They greet your so-called American football with a curt "pish-tosh!" and soldier on with a new episode, which finds Robert at odds with both Cora and Matthew. The esteemed residents of Downton didn't let the Jerries slow them down and they'll be damned if they let the 49ers do so! Stiff upper lip and all that rot.

SPECIAL POST-SUPER BOWL EPISODE, 10pm or whenever the game actually ends, CBS
Elementary
Sherlock and Joan earn the coveted post-Super Bowl slot, but even that honor may not help Joan stave off the threat of eviction from her apartment. The case of the week in "The Deductionist" pairs Holmes with an FBI profiler on the trail of an unpredictable criminal played by guest-star Terry Kinney. He's so unpredictable, even the episode summary doesn't know what he'll do next!

SPECIAL POST-SUPER BOWL EPISODE, 11:35pm, CBS
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
Cool down from ~17 hours of gridiron glory and artery annihilation with a star-studded special installment of The Late Late Show. Guests include Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Julie Chen, Neil Patrick Harris, Nikki Reed, and Drew Brees.

View the original article here

After six years of WTFs, OMGs, and a slew of unintentional LOLs, we'll be saying goodbye to Gossip Girl this season. Ten more episodes and this generation's defining teen drama will bid us adieu. Although I've had a tumultuous relationship with the show over the years (not unlike Chuck and Blair, though I don't recall being traded for a hotel), the last few seasons have featured more good than bad... so I'm (mostly) excited to see how this one ends. Here are some of the things on my personal wishlist for the final season, and I hope you'll share yours in the comments.

Or, to put it another way: Give Chace Crawford's Nate something valuable to do. Despite its long tenure on the air and all the hotspots the characters travel to, Gossip Girl's world is pretty small. And yet, the show too often makes it smaller by focusing on the messy love connections between Blair, Serena, Chuck, and Dan. While I totally understand that those characters are the driving forces, Nate has been stuck in one awful story after another, basically since Season 2. The good news is that his search for Gossip Girl is actually interesting.

And now that Bart is back, Rufus and Lily's broken marriage should provide Kelly Rutherford and Matthew Settle some quality material to work with. (It will probably also allow them to re-mine some of the story territory from the earlier seasons with a new spin, which could work).

The one thing that's always bothered me about Gossip Girl is that it never really feels like the drama matters. The characters always get over grudges—at least temporarily—and nothing has really ever changed that much. In the final season, with characters moving further into adulthood (though it's not like they ever finished college or acted like real kids anyway), it would be nice for certain events to have an impact on these people. I applaud the show for never killing off any major young character and I wouldn't suggest it now, but this is the final season. Give it some finality. Blair and Serena can't keep sprinting up to the precipice of never being friends again, only to begrudgingly kiss and make up. Chuck and Blair's erratic—some would say unhealthy—relationship needs to either stick or be completely blown up for good. No more half measures.

This point somewhat contradicts the last one, but Gossip Girl has become rather stuffy and stiff over the years. That happens to soaps like this because writers feel like they have to keep topping themselves by ramping up the melodrama, leading to an evaporation of the humor. While Gossip Girl has never been overly hilarious, the early seasons had a great sense of self-reflexivity about them. The show went from went from reinforcing and occasionally poking at the teen soap tropes to fully embracing said tropes.

Honestly, much of this stems from characters like Blair and Dan being stuck in dramatic love triangles. Those stories, while compelling in their own right, dried out some of Blair's fire and turned Dan from a sarcastic outsider into a fraudulent, hypocritical insider. Unsurprisingly, the awkward courtship between those two rekindled their—and the show's—comedic foundations.

This show has always done a fine job of casually discussing the influence of contemporary social media and celebrity culture, allowing the "character" of Gossip Girl to have a much longer lifespan than I ever imagined she would. In fact, I've greatly enjoyed the show's recent attempts to make GG a bigger force in the story (yes, even that weird period where "she" was, like, on vacation and Georgina took over).

So I think the show should explore that story more—Gossip Girl is just as much a core character as anyone else on the show, right?—and eventually reveal "her" identity. I don't know where that story could go, and it might end up being terrible, but GG's always been a big part of the show, "she" deserves a meaty story at the end of it.

But with that said, if Gossip Girl reveals that GG was actually one of the main characters all along—or worse, that she was like Vanessa or something—I'll be substantially disappointed. Even in the unbelievable reality that these characters inhabit, there's no diegetic way that the writers can convince me that GG was actually Chuck (or whomever) all along. Just don't do it. There have been enough swerves and hollow betrayals.

I'm all for celebrating the characters and the world in the final season but sometimes, trying to serve too masters doesn't necessarily work out for the best (sorry, Lost). While little callbacks and an occasional character return are both fine, Gossip Girl needs to focus on giving the core characters the send-offs they deserve.

On a related note, I would personally love it if the show never, ever flashed into the future in the finale. Josh Schwartz's O.C. finale mostly got away with it, almost solely on the charm of the cast. But other shows, like Dawson's Creek, had somewhat silly finales that spent too much time constructing false drama in "the future" that the audience knew was going to be solved anyway. Just let the story be the story, and let it end.

Everyone has their favorite character or allegiance, but it's become pretty clear that this is Blair's story in a lot of ways. It was her wedding in the 100th episode, it was her multiple love triangles that dominated much of the last two seasons, and frankly, she's the more interesting of the two female leads.

But a big reason for Blair's prominence in the story is that the writers have struggled to define who Serena is. She has always been a giant mess and in the early going, it seemed like her hyper-earnest demeanor and lack of self-awareness was going to turn her into an updated, more attractive version of Marissa Cooper. Yet in more recent seasons, and especially at the tail-end of last season, Gossip Girl allowed her to recognize and then embrace the truth: She's kind of the worst. She's just as manipulative and jealousy-driven as Blair, if not more, but regularly refuses to admit it. While her long-con against Blair might have gotten busted up in the finale, it was pretty cool to watch it unfold.

Nevertheless, the show has, at times, keyed in on these traits only to return to the "Serena is the important It-Girl" well. In the final season, the writers really need to make a choice: Does Serena admit her issues and really work to become Not the Worst, or does she double-down and embrace villainy? I'd love to see the latter happen just because it's different, but I'll happily accept the former. Again, the show should take a stand and stick with it.

Okay, I have one more biggie on my wish list that I'd like to share with you folks but I'm warning you right now that it is going to be controversial to a big portion of the audience. I wanted you to be prepared.

Here it comes.

Listen, I get it. People love the Chair. The show often suggests that it also loves the Chair. We've been told over and over about how they are this epic romance, destined to find one another time after disastrous time. But after six years and countless occasions of Chuck and Blair severely mistreating and damn-near harming one another, it's time to move on. There's a difference between not being able to let go of your first love and a pathological insistence on making yourself miserable by being with someone.

I don't care if it's Dan or Nate (LOL), someone new, or no one at all. But Blair needs to be with someone who hasn't traded her for a building, nearly physically assaulted her, and psychologically tormented her. I'm sorry, but choosing Chuck isn't a vote for epic love. It's a cry for help.

View the original article here

Gossip Girl S6E01: "Gone Maybe Gone"

Welcome to the final season of Gossip Girl It-Girls and Lonely Boys. Although I enjoy the show quite a bit, I'm also under no illusions with regard to its existence in the grand scheme of television. I think it's best that we have fun with these reviews, so each week I'll be discussing the five* biggest points of the episode, almost like those Monday-morning stories you see about the NFL. Nothing like bringing teen soaps and sports together!

* I reserve the right to increase or decrease this number, depending on the episode. But five seems like a good place to start.

So let's get right into the last season premiere in Gossip Girl history, "Gone Maybe Gone," which was pretty good.

I'm all for the main characters having their own things going on but too often, they're in disparate places for extended periods of time, only stopping to deliver exposition to each other at the beginnings of episodes (see: at least half of Chuck and Nate's conversations from, like, ever). And really, Gossip Girl thrives when most everyone is together, either in the same space (parties, obviously) or as part of the same story.

That strength was on display in "Gone Maybe Gone" with everyone—Chuck, Blair, Nate, a disgruntled Dan and Georgina—searching for the missing-all-summer Serena. Even though it took a good while for everyone to actually get together, the dueling convoys of Chuck, Blair, and Nate and Dan and Georgina nicely provided differing opinions on what could have happened to S. Plus, the show always does road-trip stories really, really well.

Georgina has grated on me at various points in the GG's run, but she is always much more enjoyable when paired with Dan's exasperated straight-man (/tool) act. And once everyone actually arrived at Serena's location and attempted to break up her "wedding," the different plans allowed for multiple characters to quickly catch up with one another without the episode seeming too expositionary. Dan being slapped by Blair and Serena within a two-minute period was lovely.

"Gone Maybe Gone" is executive producer/co-creator Josh Schwartz's first official script credit since the Season 3 finale of Chuck in 2010 and boy, is it nice to have him back. When I compiled my wishlist for this last season, I called for a return of the show's stronger humor, and it seems that Schwartz had similar thoughts in mind when crafting this premiere with Stephanie Savage. "Gone Maybe Gone" certainly wasn't a laugh-riot or anything, but it featured a handful of really great comedic moments, many of which were fairly self-reflexive and meta (a strength of Schwartz's): the aforementioned Humphrey double slap, Chuck's update that the Ostroff Center (named for former CW president Dawn Ostroff) has now been renamed the Pedowitz Center (named for current CW president Mark Pedowitz), and Blair's insistence that Serena couldn't survive in the wilderness because she isn't "country strong" (an obvious nod to Leighton Meester's film career).

Gossip Girl needs comedy. Hopefully this continues all season.

After overdosing on the train, Serena did what she does: charmed her way into the life of a successful man (Barry Watson, playing a typically just-fine everyman). Only this time, she ditched the van der Woodsen glamour and pretended to be Sabrina, the Vassar student from Wisconsin. At first, I was ready to shrug and eye-roll my way through another silly "Serena lies to a love interest" story but the episode actually did something smart: It provided legitimate logic for Serena's decisions.

Her speech to the group about ditching her identity because they kicked her out (Blair), didn't want to see her again (Dan), and generally didn't have time for her anyway (Chuck, Nate) made a shockingly high amount of sense. And the "break-up" with Blair felt so real that I can't wait to be really angry when they're frenemies again in three episodes.

She's still a lying fraud, though.

I have to hand it to Schwartz, Savage and the rest of the Gossip Girl team. Last season, showrunner Josh Safran spent an entire year toying with the idea of Blair and Chuck (part XXXIV) or Blair and Dan or Blair and Louis before ultimately and predictably deciding on the first pairing (again). But even though Safran is oversteering Smash into the watery abyss where it belongs, Gossip Girl has wasted no time coming up with a ridiculous reason to keep epic (fail) lovers Blair and Chuck apart and suggesting that her thing with Dan might not yet be DONE-done.

Again, I sort of like the logic the show put forth for why Chuck can't give into Blair yet, because it's true: He can't be an immature boy forever. However, the fact that he can't manage his crusade against his father and his feelings for Blair at the same time and the fact that she can't see how much Dan cares for her (you know, because he only tells her all the time) is baffling. How long before Chuck hooks up with another woman (probably the one from Dubai helping him take down Bart)? Three episodes?

It takes a certain kind of moxie to wipe away the substantial resolution you built to in your previous season finale without really undoing anything. It's silly but awesome.

Despite all their posturing, the show still wants us to view Blair and Serena as inherently good, admirable characters. And outside of Chuck (sometimes), the men are sometimes wet blankets as well. So it's always good when Gossip Girl allows someone to come in and stir the pot. The diminishing return that is Georgina has started to swing back the other way, but Ivy's scheming against Lily in this episode was entertaining. Seducing Rufus wasn't quite OMG- or WTF-worthy, but it accomplished multiple things: 1.) It gave Rufus something (well, someone) tangible to do, 2.) It kicked off Ivy's anti-Lily campaign with a bang (literally), and 3.) It ruined Dan's 2012. That's what we like to call a win-win-win.

What'd you think of the episode? What's on *your* list of the most important moments from "Gone Maybe Gone"?

Gossip Girl "Gone Maybe Gone" Photos

View the original article here

New Girl S02E01 & S02E02: "Re-launch" & "Katie"

New Girl came back to television intending to party it up in celebration of Schmidt losing his penis cast (RIP penis cast), but Jess's unceremonious layoff from her beloved teaching position put a damper on the festivities. Schmidt intended his party to be a re-launch of the "Schmidt Brand" after its lengthy hiatus from the bedroom, but faced with a sudden identity crisis after losing her job, "Re-Launch" became a story that belonged almost entirely to Jess.

Jess has joined the ranks of many in our current economic suckfest. With so much time devoted to pointing out that she was running late for work on the day she was laid off, I was dreading something so cartoonish as Jess randomly getting fired for being late that ONE day, even understanding that New Girl is ultimately a comedy. In my opinion, the best comedy is that which remains grounded in reality, particularly the more unpleasant aspects of it. Christopher Titus's one-man show Norman Rockwell Is Bleeding is my go-to example for making awful things funny and healing, but sitcoms are just as capable. Scrubs comes immediately to mind, The Big C and Nurse Jackie, even 2 Broke Girls when it brings its A-game (which was soooo not the case during 2 Broke Girls' own Season 2 premiere on Monday night).

Jess's layoff was no fault of her own. Her school district had to make cuts and decided that the fairest way to do so was to start with untenured faculty. Jess was untenured. It was just math. It happens.

I was laid off once. It's kind of the worst thing ever, with the humiliation of the actual termination being followed by a general downgrade in lifestyle as your savings shrink and you start to think maybe Mc-Employment wouldn't be so bad. I got laid off on my birthday, so like Jess, there was a party available to provide the perfect setting for a complete and total meltdown, complete with tiny hats and too many shots. (LOVE tiny hats.)

After I was laid off, one of my friends told me that a teacher that she greatly admired once said to her, "Every person needs to be fired once in their life." If it happens at the right time, a firing can be liberating, the ultimate freedom, the perfect opportunity to "re-launch" your personal brand. However, Jess's rebranding is complicated by the fact that she liked her old brand very much. She was happy as a teacher. It was all she ever wanted to do.

It was important for Fox to air "Katie," the follow-up to "Re-Launch." as the second part of Tuesday's two-episode premiere because "Katie" was where the Jess we know and love began to reappear after Nick encouraged her to embrace her unemployment. The resident screw-up, Nick is no stranger to reinvention in the aftermath of crushing failure. He's actually probably the best candidate, out of all of her roommates, to help Jess get back on her feet.

Now, the possibility of Jess finding another teaching job at another school isn't off the table by any means, but if New Girl is aiming to reflect the climate here in the real world, well, I personally know an upsetting number of un- and underemployed educators. Reinvention may be in Jess's best interest for the time being, but with her ideal identity unavailable for the foreseeable future, Jess has become aimless, trying on new personalities and roles the way you try on a dress. In "Re-Launch" we met Ivy the wild shot girl. In "Katie" it was Katie, a dancer who failed to meet new love interest Sam (Bent's David Walton) and whose place Jess was happy to fill in her absence.

By removing a fundamental aspect of Jess's identity, New Girl has given itself the ultimate freedom. Jess's alternate personae, Ivy and Katie, were fun and different explorations of Jess's character during the season premiere, but I sincerely hope that Jess isn't left to aimlessly don and ditch different roles throughout the season. The return of Sam, even after he learned who Jess really was, leads me to believe that Jess might be done trying different lives on for size, but even if she is willing to return to being Jess, she still needs to decide WHO Jess is.

While Jess's reinvention was the most obvious re-launch as we kicked off Season 2, her roommates and friends had their fair share of changes as well. Fresh out of his penis cast (and Max Greenfield's Emmy nomination), Schmidt was determined to either get back with Cece or move on from their Season 1 break-up—but he really wanted to get back together. In fact, his entire re-launch party was planned as little more than an elaborate attempt to woo her back. Unfortunately, when Cece arrived, it was with new boyfriend Robbie (The Office's Nelson Franklin) in tow. I think I can guess what Schmidt's story arc is going to be this season.

In "Katie," Nick attempted to be Jess's unemployment guru and encouraged her to use her sudden abundance of free time to do something that really made her happy. He also met his "future self," in one of the elderly regulars at the bar who called himself the Nick of the Future. When he was inevitably revealed to be a crazy old homeless man, Nick took the guy's advice anyway, guiding Jess through the pratfall of being caught between her Jess and Katie identities and mixing her up a fresh old fashioned at Old Nick's insistence. Jess was impressed because she had always wanted to try the drink (they're so gooood).

Nick's season 2 story was hinted at as last season drew to a close, basically confirming his attraction to Jess. Despite his general ineptitude in life, Nick's relationship with Jess is one of the few things he tends to handle with care—which, of course, means that their will-they-won't-they storyline will be drawn out for at least another season or two, and certainly most of this one, if the arrival of Sam, the blind date meant for Katie that Jess intercepted, is any indication.

Poor Winston, as Schmidt pointed out, has no other role than that of "Winston." I wouldn't mind seeing him get his own interesting storyline this season. Dinner with his grumpy mom and WNBA star sister was a start, but surely we can find something more exciting for him to do, right?

What do you hope to see in Season 2 of New Girl?

– One-liner spotlight goes to "I thought we talked about you not wearing your shower diaper in the kitchen," and "Imagine all that pee on your pretty dresses!"

– I wanted to laugh at Bearclaw. I really did. But mostly I just felt bad for him. I'd say that someone needs to give him a hug, but I don't want to get anyone groped, so I think we should all just pitch in and buy him a Real Girl doll.

– What's the expiration date on Cece's new boyfriend? Is she just fighting the inevitable? Are she and Schmidt awkwardly meant for one another?

– "Hi. I got laid off." Just rip that band-aid off, Jess. No, but really, what SHOULD she do with all of her shiny new free time?

– I love Parker Posey. That is all.

View the original article here

Lost Girl S02E22: "Flesh and Blood"

All season long, Lost Girl has been doing a really good job of building up suspense. The Garuda has been a threat for several months now, so last night I was just about dying to see what would happen.

If I hadn't been so excited, maybe I'd be less disappointed right now.

The rational part of my brain realizes that "Flesh and Blood" was a perfectly serviceable episode that didn't make any big mistakes. But I'm sorry, when you spend months getting me all hyped up to find out how Bo will defeat the Garuda, my expectations are gonna be high. So let's break down the small mistakes that made Lost Girl's Season 2 finale such a "meh" episode.

First off, the problem with having the big, bad villain wait to make his move is that you really have to give him a reason why. Even a bad reason! After months of waiting, the Garuda had his shadow minion just show up at the Dal one day and whisk Trick away. He could have done this at any point in time! He could have even gotten REALLY clever, and taken him when Bo wasn't around! Had he done that, she wouldn't have known Trick was gone until too late, and the show would be called Lost Garuda by now.

"Life is hard when you don't know who you are. It's even harder when you DO know, and that thing is a fiery, soul-sucking bird of DOOM!"

Hmmm, doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

It was awfully lucky that Bo not only knew Trick was gone, but that he had also JUST discovered where the Garuda was hiding. How convenient! And since she had just assembled her team and thought of a way to keep them all together (injecting them with her blood to make them supernaturally loyal to her), they were all set to go! Except that Hale's sister Val, who we met in "The Girl Who Fae'd With Fire," showed up, too. I was happy to see her because she seemed like a pretty cool character... but then she didn't do ANYTHING! Think about it, all episode, what did she do? Okay, sure, she helped out with the Berserkers. All, like, FOUR of them.

Here's another complaint: I know stunt men are expensive, but if you don't have enough minions to fight off it kind of looks like your evil lord is strapped for cash. No one is scared of Doctor Frugal or Master Coupon Cutter. Speaking of low budget, it was awesome that they decided to set the season finale in an abandoned mental institution. It was significantly less awesome that it looked like it could have been ANY abandoned building. When you say things like "abandoned mental institution," I expect to see something terrifying. When I get a generic warehouse instead, it's disappointing. Plenty of other shows have done far more on what was likely a smaller budget, just saying.

Despite being outnumbered, the Berserkers still managed to seriously wound Kenzi. She was unconscious and in bad shape. So Hale used his siren abilities to... I feel stupid just typing it... sing at a frequency that could cauterize the wound. Yep. That happened. Pretty sure that was a decision the writers' room made at 2am the night before their deadline.

Writer 1: "Okay, looks like we're done... wait! On page 40 Kenzi is dying, and on page 41 she's fine!"
Writer 2: "Just have Hale heal her with his voice."
Writer 3: "But that doesn't make any sense!"
Writer 2: "Whatever! I'm tired!"

... That's my guess at how that scene came to be.

While Bo and her friends fought their way through what could easily have been a warehouse against fewer people than it takes to run a laundromat, the Garuda tried smooth-talking Trick into rewriting the Fae laws. He showed Trick a vision of when he wrote the laws in the first place. According to the Garuda (WHO IS OH SO TRUSTWORTHY), the Light and Dark were just about to unite to kill Trick anyway, so Trick didn't have to write the laws to save the Fae, he had to write them to save himself. The Garuda's solution was for Trick to unwrite the laws so the Light and the Dark could come to peace naturally. Okay, come on. Even if the Light and the Dark had something they could agree on eleventy-jillion years ago, it doesn't mean they do now. And this suggestion for peace came from someone who feeds off of chaos. Despite the Garuda's poor debate skills, Trick was just about to write with his blood when Bo busted in and pointed out that he was being an idiot. But it was too late. The Garuda's argument had weakened Trick to the point where the Garuda could possess him.

That, I admit, was pretty cool. It also made Nadia's death more meaningful, because Bo and Lauren were able to use what they'd learned from Nadia's possession to defeat the Garuda. Lauren had determined that when Nadia was possessed there was Fae DNA in her blood. So that meant there was some amount of Garuda in Trick, enough that Lachlan's venom could kill him. So they did that, it worked, and we got a pretty neat little animation of a fiery snake battling a fiery bird. Trick died in the process, but Bo brought him back with his wife's life essence. Trick had given it to Bo to use on herself if the whole soul-binding thing turned her evil, but she decided to use it on him instead.

All in all, it was a mostly mediocre episode. But at the end of the day, this season finale did exactly what it was supposed to do; in my opinion, it's more important for a finale to get you pumped for next season than it is to wrap up the threads of the current one. In that respect, "Flesh and Blood" succeeded. Bo is totally turning evil, since she didn't take that life essence. Last week's episode left me wondering what villain could possibly give Bo more of a fight after she finished with the Garuda. What's more powerful than the Garuda? Bo herself.

And what was that on Kenzi's arm? Must be from the bottle that fell on her at the Norn's last week, right? I'm really curious to find out what that was, and how she'll deal with it.

Finally, the love triangle: Bo hasn't really had to deal with the Lauren-or-Dyson decision much this season. Until recently Dyson wasn't able to love her, then Lauren had Nadia around. Next season looks like an all-out battle for love! Though Dyson and Lauren may both be less into her once she starts turning mega-evil. Though maybe not! We shall see!

Questions:

– Are you Team Dyson, Team Lauren, or Team Both?

– How many Berserkers does it take to properly guard an abandoned mental institution?

– What do YOU think is up with Kenzi's arm? Wild guesses are not only welcome, they're encouraged!

– Will you be watching next season?

View the original article here