Tag Archives: episode

Watching Castle – "Significant Others" (S05E10)

The PolyBlog
January 10 2013

I know the ‘shippers love the idea of Castle and Beckett working out on the show, dating, etc. But it is really starting to overwhelm the episodes. Earlier this season it was their parents meeting; this week’s episode involves Alexis being sick and her mom (i.e., Richard’s ex) coming to stay with her while she’s sick. All at Castle’s apartment, all while Beckett is staying there cuz her place is being fumigated. Most of it is just a waste, except for a scene where you see the ex-wife running around in skimpy clothing, making Beckett all insecure about her intentions.

However, what really annoys me is that the big “change” in the episode (small spoiler alert!) is when Beckett and the ex go out for dinner together, kiss and make up, everything’s great, etc. Except the VIEWER DOESN’T SEE ANY OF IT. It all happens off-stage. So, the writers tell me this relationship and how it impacts on others is super important but then resolves it off-screen? Whose idea was that???? The intern’s????

For the mystery of the week, I have to say it was incredibly weak. Divorce attorney killed, whole situation smacks of revenge, let’s look at the suspects, etc. Yet, and I will throw out a big spoiler alert here, the motive for the murder is almost non-existent. It is painfully obvious in about scene 2 that the wife who went missing-and-presumed-dead years before is still alive and that she will pop up again near the end. It’s a slim thread that gets hammered on three times in about five minutes so the audience doesn’t miss the significance, so the fact that it will be relevant to the resolution is too obvious. Except the wife didn’t do much wrong — she faked her own death, sure, but she didn’t profit by it, she did it to escape an abusive husband. She’s got a new husband, lives in area (really? they would stick around???), but are the legal hassles she’ll have when the truth comes out enough to cause her to switch to murder? After all, this is the woman who had a drunk abusive husband in front of her on a boat in the middle of nowhere and left him alone. But the divorce attorney who might reveal her secret should get murdered. Sorry, that one was way too hard to swallow.

The only two gems in the entire episode were Lainey advising Beckett to “mark her territory” at Castle’s and a final conversation between Castle’s ex-wife and Beckett where the ex says one of the reasons they broke up was that Castle was too private a person, i.e. sharing was too one-way, a point that resonates with Beckett on a deep level.

Season premiere – Rizzoli & Isles

The PolyBlog
January 10 2013

Showcase just kicked off the second season of Rizzoli & Isles (originally aired in 2011), and it has a very slow start. At the end of Season 1, Rizzoli was being held hostage, various people had been shot at the station, she was asking people to shoot the bad guy holding her, etc. When they didn’t, she turned the gun in his hand and shot him through her, taking him out. Of course, she’s in a bit of pain even three months later when the episode starts, as she’s being awarded a medal for being a hero. At the same ceremony (why would it be the same ceremony? It wouldn’t, but let’s go with it), a female military officer named Abby is getting an award for her work overseas. Just after the ceremony, a car bomb takes out the other officer. The episode is pretty good overall, just a slow start with getting Rizzoli up and around, back to work, etc.

The mystery part is not very good though — it is painfully clear really really really early that it is not a terrorist attack but rather a personal hit on Abby, and since one of the few things we know about Abby is that she was wounded in battle and she used to date one of her fellow soldiers, it isn’t that big a stretch to figure out one or both of those issues are the cause (actually it turns out one is a clue, the other is the cause). Yawn. On the personal front, I was excited that Rizzoli has a new beau, and they even end up in bed together but apparently do not have full sex (not sure why, they just don’t, even though they used to date and are clearly adults now who want each other). I was initially REALLY excited that Rizzoli’s mom and dad split up cuz I hate the Mom and I hoped this would reduce her role — unfortunately, quite the opposite. Mom now pops over to Rizzoli’s house cuz she’s bored. Maybe it’ll improve, but at least the interactions between Rizzoli and Isles are fun. Would be more fun if THEY were dating each other, but alas, apparently prime time is either not ready for that or felt that it would undermine their characters (“strong powerful, oh, they must be lesbians” would indeed be a bit of a cliche, I suppose).

Season premiere – The Republic of Doyle

The PolyBlog
January 10 2013

The Republic of Doyle kicked off this season with a couple of changes. Leslie is “missing in action”, although obviously just undercover somewhere; there’s a hot Indian chick replacing her that Jake gets to work with; and Tinny is now a police cadet. The episode is written by Allan Hawco (yes, the same actor who plays Jake and who created the series and is the show runner), so it is pretty good with the characters. Rose, Tinny, Des, and Leslie have almost nothing to do, but it’s fun to see Malachy and Jake hanging out with a visiting brother-in-law/uncle and nephew/cousin from Ireland. Uncle Gerald is a buffoon, basically a complete caricature of a drunken Irishman, which doesn’t work at all (plus the actor is just plain annoying), but Jake’s cousin is basically a younger version of Jake. Running around, getting into trouble, hairbrained schemes, chicks, the drunk tank, etc. He’s a lot of fun to watch, although when he gets the Irish brogue going at top speed, he is a wee bit hard to understand.

Simple mystery of a local thug with a priceless statue that someone is stealing to pay off some other debts, yada yada yada. All works out in the end, and the hot Indian chick gets a free collar from Jake without having to do any leg work or even really get involved in saving Jake’s butt (which Leslie normally does). The one stupid note is Des…he was shot in the chest/stomach at the end of Season 3, survives with no after effects, but is on stupid crutches which he keeps dropping (cuz apparently that is funny to Allan Hawco) and he has some sort of weird “mystery” business deal going on that looks highly illicit but they go out of their way so much to not say what it is in any way, with lots of generic pronouns, you know it isn’t anything bad at all (turns out he’s buying a car). Stupid stupid storyline.

Watching NCIS – "Shabbat Shalom" (S10E11)

The PolyBlog
January 10 2013

This was a huge episode in my view, and this season does really feel like they are planning for it to be the last. Before Christmas, you saw Fornell and Gibbs kind of close some elements related to their ex-wife, Ducky has resolved issues of whether he wants to stay or go, and Tony resolved issues with his father. This episode has two stories running concurrently — the first is about a dead journalist, dressed as a petty officer, who was working on a story about drug use in the military. It’s a pretty stupid story though as the four main suspects all confess to “protect the military image”. Uh-huh, let’s see if I have this straight — they confess to murder which is a murder IN the military, not a civilian murder, so they’ll serve their time in Leavenworth, even though it’s obvious they didn’t do it. To hide drug use. Yawn.

The second story though is about Ziva’s father Eli being in town covertly, a potential assassination attempt on his evil Iranian counterpart, and more importantly, to spend time with his estranged father. What is more significant though is the ending — GIANT spoiler alert — as there is a shootout at Vance’s house, killing both Ziva’s father and Vance’s wife. Wow! Killing off two big characters? Sounds definitely like the final season to me. I’m betting good ole Ziva is going to wind up high up in Mossad at the end of the season (maybe with Tony as a liaison officer???) and Vance gone as director. Gibbs might even retire (with Tony as lead agent???). Either way, I expect some shake ups to come in the team as they deal with aftermath.

Watching The Mentalist – “Days of Wine and Roses” (S05E11)

The PolyBlog
January 7 2013

The Mentalist episode this week had two cases running simultaneously: an old case which is Lisbon chasing Volker for old deaths (previous episode, dead journalist and personal assistant) and a new case of a dead model, Charlie, who snuck out of a rehab program. The case for Charlie is Jane doing what he does best, relatively unfettered…running around, tweaking people’s noses to get them to react, etc. He quickly figures out the case is really about a missing necklace, and it doesn’t take a genus to figure out who she might have told her secret to, since she didn’t open up to her roommate, or her lover. That pretty much leaves only one character — her counsellor at the rehab clinic — and I hate the “hold-back” that Jane does on that one. Usually when Jane holds something back from the viewer, i.e. not revealing a clue, it is still fair game as the viewer can see what Jane saw. However, Jane smells cigarette smoke on the counsellor and figures out she’s hiding something, even asks her about it, but it is quite a leap to get to the conclusion that it is a casino (based on fact that she smells REALLY STRONGLY like cigarettes, which as a simple viewer, you wouldn’t know).

The ongoing Volker case is far more interesting, although a judge that Lisbon normally trusts proves unreliable after Volker gets to her, which I find disappointing as that judge had been a strong character previously. At any rate, Lisbon eventually gets a warrant for an associate of Volker’s, only for him to wind up dead. At the end, it was really interesting to see Lisbon say to Jane very clearly, “I need your help.” She wants Volker so bad, she’s willing to openly tell Jane she needs him. Shippers won’t be happy though because earlier in the episode, Jane suggested he would like to see her find romance because she deserves to be happy, and there is no hesitation that perhaps he means him or would mind her finding it. A far cry from their first case where he asked her to go for a romantic lunch and was amused that she was flattered by it when he meant it as a location for a sting. Not bad, but not one of the best episodes overall, more like a prelude / holding episode for Lisbon to go after Volker. Her own white whale, or Red John, so to speak. And don’t get me started on the fact that Van Pelt is still doing nothing more than sitting behind a desk to hide her real-life pregnancy. It’s getting monotonous seeing her do research on the phone.