The Blacklist 1.10 Review: Separation Anxiety

For all those that have yet to watch last night’s episode of The Blacklist, entitled ‘Anslo Garrick (No. 16) Conclusion’, then now is a great time for you to go and do that. This is not a spoiler free blog. THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! You’ve been warned.

Well, we got our conclusion to Anslo Garrick storyline this week, including a very nicely executed death scene that Red carried out. There were a lot of great moments to this episode, but for the most part I just found myself confused. I mean, who was the guy that was talking to Red? What does Red have on them? Have we met them before? So many questions that it was almost difficult to enjoy this episode.

That being said, there were some good points to this conclusion. We got to see a lot more Aram, similar to last week’s episode, which was great. We also got to see Keen take down that man in the building across from hers effectively well. More suspicion, at least for our eyes, arose surrounding her husband, which is a tantalizing story I look forward to investigating further. Also, Dembe is most assuredly alive, and that is something I am very happy about. Getting to see Ressler kind of happy when his engaged ex-fiancé visits him in the hospital was almost worth the pain he went through. And one other thing was how comically good that team “Mr. Kaplan” used to take out that warehouse. They were really good. So, really, there was a lot of great stuff to this week’s episode, it just didn’t all seem to fit cohesively together as much as it normally does. The story was kind of a mess.

Overall, this episode was just messy. I did enjoy Aram and Keen working together, and getting to see Red say goodbye for now to Keen, with his parting words being to watch her husband. Again, the oddity of Ressler smiling was astounding in that he’s always the broody, dramatic character, and I definitely want to see more of that, particularly with interactions with Keen. I still have yet to see Cooper evolve into a fully formed character; for the most part he seems like a leader that doesn’t really have any more to him. The cameras in Keen’s apartment came to a head a lot earlier than I expected, and I’m not sure how I’m feeling about this series going forward, but I do think that of all ten episodes, this is merely the weakest, and I’m okay with that. Still, I have one question, and that’s was Red lying when he said he wasn’t Lizzie’s father, or was that a definitive answer? It didn’t sound like one to me, so I’m hoping he was lying.

My rating: 7 out of 10.

Best Lines:

“If you can’t save her, you’re of no use whatsoever.” – Red tells Ressler, after having saved his life.

“Anslo, what are you doing here?” – Red questions the man, knowing he was there all along.

“But I suppose I could make us a copy.” – Aram says to Keen, knowing it will be breaking the rules.

Okay, I’m off to review The Originals in a minute. Afterwards check back in for reviews of Supernatural and Trophy Wife.

Almost Human 1.04 Review: A Rooster in the Henhouse

Any of those that have yet to watch last night’s episode of Almost Human, titled ‘The Bends’, that would like to do so without the threat of spoilers, the time to turn away from your screen would be now. This is not a spoiler free blog. THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! You’ve been warned.

Well, this week’s episode wasn’t quite as good as the last two episodes, but it wasn’t all bad. I didn’t mind so much that it opened up with a scene that involved Rudy’s character in a tough situation, only to get set back twenty-four hours before to fill in all blanks. My one problem with the way they did that was that I find Rudy’s character isn’t quite as fully developed as he could be. The actor is great at portraying him as a geeky lover of science and technology, and all that entails, it’s just the really visceral emotions that he seems to have trouble with. I don’t really feel like everything comes across clear enough when it comes to his emotions, which is why I’m on the fence with this character; he’s great sometimes, but not others. It works as a secondary character, but when he’s used as a focus of an episode, it doesn’t quite come across.

The way this episode was written, it was a little predictable that it would turn out to be the narcotics Captain that was the Bishop. Honestly, Kennex is a character we’re shown to trust, so there was no way we wouldn’t be expected to trust his judgment of the fallen police officer, and thus that led to the aforementioned Captain being the villain of the piece. It was fun to watch Kennex shoot him dead, but I expect in a more dramatic series, that would’ve led to a darker moment for the character because he was definitely able to arrest the man – as proper police procedure dictates. Nonetheless it didn’t completely detract from the episode.

Overall, this episode had both comical moments, and slightly more heartfelt ones. There were a lot of great cinematographic shots to the episode that I really loved. I just wish this week’s episode could’ve been a little deeper, and less superficial. Basically, this week’s episode was weaker than that of the pilot, and much worse than the last two episodes. Still, I am liking this series.

My rating: 7 out of 10.

No memorable lines.

All right, I’m going to take a brief break for the moment, to try and recharge, and I’ll be back after to review The Blacklist. Later, check in for reviews of The Originals, Supernatural, and Trophy Wife.

How I Met Your Mother 9.12 Review: Life is Full of Surprises

Anyone that has yet to watch last night’s episode of How I Met Your Mother, entitled ‘The Rehearsal Dinner’, now would be a good time to go and do that. For this is not a spoiler free blog. THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! Proceed at your own discretion.

This is going to be short and sweet, because I am very tired, and I have two more reviews to catch up on, so here goes.

Last night’s episode was much better than the episode before it, mostly because it didn’t have anything to do with rhymes. Honestly, I have no plans to ever rewatch that episode; it was terrible. But anyways, I really enjoyed how flashback heavy this episode was, particularly the flashback sequence where the gang all spits off the many bad ideas Barney has had. I’m definitely happiest when there are more flashbacks in an episode, so that I get to see the gang in New York City, versus the terribly situated inn where the wedding is being held.

That being said, this series is about halfway through its final season and only twenty-two hours are left until the wedding, and it’s feeling a bit hokey. As anyone that has read my previous reviews regarding this season will know, I’m still not happy with the way this season is going. It just feels like it’s dragging on and going nowhere. This is all just a bit too much for me. All of this could honestly have been settled in a handful of episodes.

My biggest problem with this season is not that everything is occurring over this one, really long, weekend, but more so that almost all of the episodes have felt like unnecessary filler. We really didn’t need that one poker episode, or most of the terribly done Halloween episode. We also didn’t need to include Anna Camp’s character, or the Friday night cocktails where Ted chose a woman unwisely. A lot of these things were completely unnecessary, so much so that I’ve only really liked about three or four episodes this season. It really is disappointing.

All in all, I’m wishing that the writers would pick up the pace a bit and get to the juicier stuff. While it was funny watching Ted dress like Liberace and almost be able to figure skate, but otherwise this episode was too hokey for my taste. I really am hoping the second half of this season is better.

My rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Best Lines:

“Puppies!” – Barney enthuses, after pretending to break off his engagement to Robin and surprises her with the bundles of joy.

“You’re a fricken weirdo.” – Lily calls Barney, to which Ted concurs.

“Isn’t that right, Theodore?” – Barney questions Ted, getting up in his face.

“Poppycock!” – Barney utters.

“Well dog my cats, what are the chances?” – Barney expresses.

Okay, that’s one Monday show down, two to go. Check back shortly for my review of Almost Human, and afterwards The Blacklist.

Once Upon A Time 3.09 Review: Everything For Henry

All those that have yet to watch last night’s episode of Once Upon A Time, titled ‘Save Henry’, now would be a good time to go and do that. For this is not a spoiler free blog. THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! You’ve been warned.

Well, I have to say that I am not at all happy with the direction that this series is going in. This series – aside from the Emma and Hook moments, and a few fleeting Emma and Neal moments – has gotten so terribly bad. Not only have these last nine episodes only expanded across a handful of days, but when it finally comes to a somewhat conclusion of the, not Pan story but, Neverland story it’s so beyond easy that it is ridiculous. Honestly, is that all it took to defeat Pan’s attempts at stealing Henry’s heart? Regina just takes it out of his chest? Did Pan really not see that coming?

They really appear to be trying to redeem Regina somewhat and make her a morally gray person. She’s not what appears to be the villain of the piece, and that’s really detracted from this series. I get trying to bring fairytale stories to the real world in a realistic way, but sometimes a villain is a villain, and giving them heart just because their actress is good doesn’t always work in the best interest of the overall piece. Maybe no one is wholly good, or wholly evil, but people do veer towards each end of the spectrum, and not everyone is redeemable.

This episode really could have been so good. Unfortunately, the writing just didn’t click, and the acting was half-assed at best. Even someone as strongly favouring of Emma as a character as myself thought that her “mothering” the lost boys, and that dreadfully written speech, just came across as near pathetic. It needed so much more passion behind it, and that’s just not something I felt. For a mother that was coming close to losing her son, she didn’t seem too embroiled about saving him. She certainly wasn’t anywhere near as impassioned as Regina was this week at trying to save Henry. Honestly, Regina was about the closest thing to being a strong point this week – for the most part.

Overall, I don’t think I’ll stop watching this series any time soon – because I really need to see where it’s going with Hook, Emma, and Neal – but I do feel like it’s lost its heart. It just doesn’t have that freshness it came to have during the first season, and even parts of the second season. The closest it’s had this year to greatness were fleeting moments that likely don’t even encompass one full episode. And don’t even get me started on this whole Henry centric season, or the fact that he is in no way capable of encompassing how bad ass Pan has been this season – up until last week’s reveal that he is Rumplestiltskin’s father. Anyways, until next week with this series. Please let it be good.

My rating: 5.5 out of 10.

There were no favourable lines this week.

Okay, by this coming out, I hope you get the hint that I will not be posting a review for Dracula this week. Unfortunately, it just has not caught my attention in four episodes, and I will likely be falling behind now until I feel the need to catch up. Which could very well not happen for a great deal of time, so no more reviews likely of this series in its future – however short that may be. Anyways, check back in tomorrow for reviews of How I Met Your Mother, Almost Human, and The Blacklist.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 1.09 Review: How We Understand People

For all those that have yet to watch this last Tuesday’s episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., entitled ‘Repairs’, well then you’re even later to the show than I am so you should probably go watch it now. This isn’t a spoiler free blog. THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! Proceed ahead at your own discretion.

This series seems to be coming together rather slowly. Even just with this week’s episode the characters seem mostly superficial, and in May’s case mostly rigid. There’s very little heart to this series on a consistent basis, it seems to peak out at times, but not quite often enough. I just don’t care enough about these people’s lives, and I think that the rest of the audience is feeling that way as well. These actors don’t seem to play off each other well enough and don’t seem to have enough good chemistry to keep this show up. Someone needs to throw them all in a cabin in the middle of a no-signal patch of deep woods and let them work together for a week and see how they come out after that.

More regarding this episode, while it was inferred to the last episode, I’m not getting Ward and May. They didn’t set that thing up anywhere near as well as they should have. Of all people, I’d expect May to gravitate towards Coulson more than Ward, despite her sharing more in common with Ward – job wise. They just, they don’t fit well enough at all. And the fact that they feel the need to hide it, I honestly don’t think anyone would care if they were getting their freak on together. And yes, I did just use freak on. Basically, for me, it didn’t feel natural to either the story or the characters themselves. I would feel differently if it had.

So basically this week’s episode, otherwise, was about this man who kept jumping between dimensions – or, at least, that’s the gist I got from it. This was a very confusing concept for me. Was the guy going to die? Or was he just holding on to this reality too grippingly that he wasn’t able to stick to the other dimension? They didn’t explain this nearly as well as they should have, so it kind of feels like unfinished business to me.

Up until that point, I was enjoying what was going on with this episode, very intriguing. I really liked the whole prank situation that went on, although it wasn’t done nearly as well in certain situations as it could have. Also, I’m kind of angry with Coulson for thinking that what May needed to hear at her ‘Cavalry’ moment was what she told the man clinging to a woman he liked. That was completely terrible, and not at all something anyone should tell another person. It kind of made me want to punch him out.

All in all, this series isn’t exactly moving in a way that makes sense. It feels like it’s jumping all over the place, and that it’s resolving certain storylines improperly. It’s like they don’t seem to know where they’re going, or even have some endgame in sight. The way that it is moving is rather sloppily done, and not at all something that will likely keep this series around longer than this season. Unless they really get their act together, I don’t have high hopes.

My rating: 6 out of 10.

Best Lines:

“No! You do not touch that!” – Fitz scolds Skye for touching the graphics.

“My boring, old, flat computer.” – Skye mutters, after being told not to touch the graphics.

My apologies for how late this is, although I did watch it two days ago, I’ve just not felt in the mood, I’ve been in the Christmas spirit – something that’s getting harder to ignore the closer we get to Christmas. But here you go. I’m probably not going to have the Dracula review up until tomorrow, alongside Once Upon A Time.