Tag Archives: season

Series premiere: Limitless

The PolyBlog
September 23 2015

I never saw the movie Limitless, but I thought the premise sounded interesting — a special drug that gives you access to more parts of your brain, making you extremely efficient and smart as a whip. The holy grail of pharmaceutical companies everywhere, and one of the hoped-for byproducts of work on Alzheimer’s treatments. So when they announced a TV version, I thought, “Why not?”

The premise is a young Brian Finch, drifting along as a wannabe music star when his old buddy hooks him up with a designer drug called NZT-48, the wonder drug to give his brain a “jumpstart”. It works awesome for him, so much so that he figures out what his father has for a disease. But his father needs a liver transplant, the drug wears off, and Brian needs another fix to keep his brain churning at light speed. Except his old buddy is dead, he’s the prime suspect for a while, and the FBI is on his trail.

Fast forward to some interactions with an attractive FBI agent (Dexter’s sister, remember her?), and she’s willing to play along for a bit to see if he can find the real killer. Which he does, along with someone important finding him and offering him a cure for NZT’s debilitating side effects. Cue the credits, along with an offer of a liver for Dad in exchange for, dun dun dun, Finch becoming an FBI consultant.

It wasn’t an awesome episode but some of the effects were cool, and if it treads along the same path as Forever, Elementary, Lie to Me, then I’m okay with that. Hard to say if the show has legs, but I’ll watch for awhile at least.

Season premiere: NCIS: LA

The PolyBlog
September 23 2015

When NCIS: LA left off last season, Arkady was near death in Russia and the NCIS team were bugging out. Fast forward, G is trying to find out if Arkady is still alive, and distancing himself from the team to do it. They get all Mama Bear on him, and the episode is basically all about them treating him like a suspect.

In the end, it was really much ado about nothing…no real plot development, small scene of drama, etc, but nothing that really moves the plot along. Not a great episode, but at least Deaks mentioned something about the LAPD investigation into his behaviour, and an original cause perhaps. Other than that? Yawn.

Season premiere: The Big Bang Theory

The PolyBlog
September 23 2015

Big Bang Theory left off last season with a series of relationship changes — Leonard and Penny were off to Vegas to elope, and Amy told Sheldon she needed some space to think about their relationship, leaving Sheldon wondering what to do with the engagement ring he wanted to give her.

The first EP of the season was primarily about Leonard and Penny getting married, and doing so in a very off-screen sort of way (nothing like Bernie and Howard’s wedding). It is being streamed over the internet so that their friends can watch too, but it’s pretty low-key, with the outcome pretty much what you expect between these two crazy kids.

Meanwhile, Sheldon can’t decide if Amy is going to take him back or they are truly broken up, and he doesn’t know how to process the complex emotions going through him, so he generally behaves childishly, driving a further wedge between them. Kind of a stupid series of scenes, nothing worth watching. Certainly not Emmy nomination worthy.

It appears that Stuart is going to be super creepy this season, and not in an innocent fashion but more like Wolowicz from first season.

Episode was okay, not one of their better ones.

Season premiere: Castle

The PolyBlog
September 22 2015

I heard that Castle’s premiere this season was way down in ratings, but that has never concerned me. Generally, I don’t care one whit about ratings, only if I enjoy the story, and I almost always enjoy stories with Castle. Last year’s finale could have easily served as the series finale, but it got renewed, so it was time to pick up some of the pieces.

Gates is off to become Deputy Bureau Chief, so Beckett is now Captain of the squad. Which puts Castle in the passenger seat for awhile, and thus back to his P.I. business. Apparently, Alexis likes the business too and is playing Nancy Drew. Something weird is going on with her either as a character or as an actress — she was about twice the size of the previous waif, with arms the size of Popeye. No explanation, so I started to feel judgmental or something.

Anyway, Beckett lies to Castle about where she’s going on her first day as Captain, and when things go to hell in a handbasket, Beckett is nowhere to be found but it is obvious she was there and she was bleeding. Castle and the boys follow in hot pursuit, but it feels like last year’s episodes where Castle was missing. I don’t know how long the story will be dragged out, but it was at least a two-parter with a to be continued at the end. Bracken was in the episode, but since the actor playing him is busy over on the Heroes: Reborn reboot, I don’t think we’ll be seeing much of him here.

Okay episode, and Castle was okay without Beckett. Not sure about Alexis’ new role though.

Season premiere: Scorpion

The PolyBlog
September 21 2015

CBS was on the fence for Scorpion last season, and I fully expected it to be cancelled. The show is cheesy, the plots are far-fetched, and the awkward social dynamics of the characters make The Big Bang Theory look like a mature lovefest. But there’s a component each week that is interesting — they put the characters in impossible situations, and they have to Macgyver a solution.

The first season left off with Walter O’Brien, head genius, having an emotional flameout and trapped on the side of a cliff after going through a guard rail in a Ferrari. It was meant to trigger all these emotional epiphanies in the characters, but it was more about all the techno wizardry of solving one problem only to be met with another.

The new season started with a standard Scorpion-type problem — there’s a satellite going to hit California, there’s nuclear material onboard, they have to stop it from hitting a populated area. Except the writers went on full-scale overkill on this one — normally there are 3 or 4 complications during the episode to keep things interesting. This ep? There were at least 7 or 8. Every nuance was compromised, and then their solution didn’t work. It was a complete hoot to watch. Still cheesy as all get out, but it was a great ride.

Better yet, Alana de la Garza has joined the cast as the head of Homeland Security and one of Scorpion’s key clients. I love her in just about everything — Law and Order, last year in Forever. I’m sure there have been things I didn’t like her in, but nothing comes to mind. It was a great addition to the show with her scenes as the ball-busting security type, even more so than as an ADA or a homicide detective.