TV Show Reviews

 Started out bad, but has since got a whole lot worse!

This is a spin off from Doctor Who. Jack was killed off, resuscitated and abandoned sometime in the future but inexplicably we now find him safely back in the present leading 'Torchwood' an organisation which investigates and deals with inexplicable phenomena (like X-Files).

John Barrowman, whose guest appearances on Doctor Who added a fun and humorous element to the show, seems to only be able to truly shine while in the presence of a Doctor. And while his fake American accent is fine in small doses on Doctor Who, in Torchwood the extended use gets very annoying very quickly. Plus his story is mishandled, his missing two years which played an important motivation for his character in the Empty Child are not addressed at all. And the rest of the characters are unlikable and two dimensional at best.

But personally, the most disappointing aspect of the show is its billing as adult-oriented. The throwing in of some swearing and sex doesn't make it adult when the script is simplistic, juvenile and utterly lacking in any of the intelligence, edge or wit needed to raise it to the level of a genuine adult drama, it simply comes across as a kids show suitable for Saturday mornings than anything else.

Now, shows like Battlestar Galactica (the new one) manage to come across as adult through intelligent, layered scripts, which, if the need arises, include sex, violence and the rest, whereas Torchwood seems to have stapled these excesses on.

The other problem with this show is the overwhelming, dreadful music, which is not only awful in its own right but any kind of atmosphere or tension is more often than not blared out by the terrible, dated, cheesy techno.

The only thing that impresses me about the show are the special effects, which are actually decent but on the whole not worth keeping your eyes open for an hour.

Other than Twilight winning everything, the night will be remembered for Bruno's bare ass landing right in Eminem's face. It came off very legit and Eminem left the theatre immediately after. Fantastic stuff. Obviously it was staged in the sense that they both knew they were going to have a skit together - but not like that. That was a total surprise to Em and you can easily tell by his reaction. Vid below... not sure for how long.

Also, Keyboard Cat made an appearance! And Kings of Leon kicked ass!

 Dexter is a really good show, even if they did deviate a lot from the novels (which are also good and I recommend reading).

I hated that crazy bitch in Season 2 and the ending of S3 was very bad: Miguel dying in the episode before the last was not a good way to do things. The season felt like it ended with a thud rather than with a bang. Miguel was awesome as the show finally got an actor that could hold his own with Michael C. Hall. Every scene featuring the two was electric. It's something House could desperately use at this point. Overall I wasn't as glued to the Season as I was the first two.

IMO, it goes like this - S1>S2>S3. I enjoyed all three seasons and can't wait for the next.

Speaking of which, Holy bejesus, S4 casting spoiler:

John Lithgow will play the big bad! Awesome casting.

 Your show for low budget super hero drama! Despite the budget being ridiculously low, I'm fine with it. For the most part CG is getting so easy to do, and so cheap that even Smallvilles CG is keeping paces with Heroes, which is filmed on a much larger budget. And this show can't be worse than when the season finale battle included someone getting thrown out of a window and the fighting not shown on screen.

It's prop design that's really lacking on Smallville; they can't afford to film anywhere but the ten or so sets that they have. So seeing the same one room hospital, the same one street metropolis, etc is a bit hard to watch over and especially when they have to play a PSP off as a high tech GPS device from Queen Industrys.

 The Finale had good action and good drama. The first episode was better than the second as the second had like 40 minutes of exposition White House 90210 drama. I liked Tony's motivations. The Tony thing had dragged down the last 4 weeks or so because it didn't really make a ton of sense what he was doing. Great scene between him and the bad guy. Tony is COOOOLD blooded. I also thought the Jill Bauer ending was handled correctly. We don't need to see what happens when she finally snaps and tortures the guy... just that she did finally snap.

Also, loved how it went from pitch black to bright daylight literally within 5 minutes. And when they shot Tony, I didn't get the whole "Let him crawl a little closer... wait... wait for it... wait til he gets right there *BANG* Ok Renee go grab the gun". In the end, I guess Tony got what he deserved for monologueing. I also laughed at Kim assuming that the HISPANIC dude was the bad guy. Speaking of which, I was about to say that at least Kim wasn't totally useless this season, but then she goes off running after the guy without taking a weapon with her.

And in a single day, there's been planes crashing into each other, an assault on the White House, a bioweapon attack of some sort, a chemical plant having to be shut down, multiple administration deaths and the city's not in lockdown for some reason.

This was a decent to good season. Sort of middle of the pack as far as rankings relative to other seasons. Not the best. Not the worst. The first half is excellent about up to episode 13 or 14. The second half of the season was definitely far weaker by comparison (with Jack being on the sideline and Tony's heel turn) except for these final two episodes which were good.

Definitely a big rebound from last season which was shit from about the 5th or 6th epsiode on. I'm cool with it and I'm definitely down for next season unlike last season which soured me so much on the show that I didn't think I would watch anymore.

Tony and Dubaku were the highlights of the season for me.

And I'm guessing Kim will be an analyst again in CTU next season (which will make it horrible to watch). Tony remaining alive means he will feature in Season 8. I am not looking forward to the romance between Jack and Reene next season, infact I would have rather have Larry alive as he was a far more interesting character to me. And I bet Muslim dude is gonna be the main villain in Season 8. Old habits die hard.

For now:

S1>S5>S3>S7>S2>S4>>>>>S6