A Case of the Mondays

Archive

Yes, I know there was no column last week, and I apologize for that. I was actually considering posting the column late, but ultimately I just decided to make this one doubly long, which I’m sure all of you are thrilled about.

It’s actually too bad that I didn’t do a column last week, because the previous week was the best in a long time, as far as television shows are concerned. Basically every one of the shows I really enjoy had a new episode, and they were great episodes to boot.

So, anyway, since I didn’t discuss anything last week, this week you get a double dosage of each show!

A DOUBLE DOSAGE OF LOST:

First, the Locke episode. Here are some of the things that I, or other people, caught: The woman that Locke was doing a house inspection for (just before he found out his father was alive) was actually Sayid’s girlfriend. An interesting connection. Also, the safe deposit box was number 1516, I believe, which are two of the numbers, and all of the planes that passed by when Locke went to visit his father were Oceanic.

According to my boss, the voice over the PA in the hatch was the woman in the plane who did the drop off, and she was warning the people in the hatch that the drop off is coming and that the doors had to close because of it. Perhaps most significant about this is that, evidently, the Dharma experiment is still going on.

There is also speculation that Locke’s father, who we learned is evidently a con man, is the same guy who conned Sawyer’s parents (which resulted in the murder/suicide that ultimately messed Sawyer up, big time). The only conflict is that the guy was named Sawyer, but it’s not outside the realm of possibility that he would come up with an alias. It just seems coincidental that they would decide to make Locke’s dad a con man, when we already know that that’s the occupation of Sawyer. And, as you know, there are rarely ever any accidental coincidences on this show. As Locke’s father said to Locke in a previous episode: “you’re not the first person I’ve conned.” And the reason he had to fake his death was because of a con that went awry. And, to use Sawyer’s terminology, what Locke’s dad did to Locke seems like the definition of a “Long Con.” I certainly think that this is a possibility.

As far as the flashbacks go, I enjoyed them, as I do pretty much any Locke-centric episode. I like the fact that “Island Locke” is so drastically different than “Flashback Locke.” That’s why his behavior, which can sometimes be erratic, never really seems uncharacteristic. People complained when Locke threw the dishes after being manipulated by Henry, saying that Locke has always been a cool head. That’s not true, as we’ve seen in past flashback episodes that he can have a short fuse (particularly the one where we find out he was once crippled).

I also find Locke’s constant need to get close to his father, no matter what he did to him, completely believable and realistic. It’s absolutely innate for a child to want acceptance from his/her parents, no matter what the circumstances. Trust me, I’ve seen it in real life. If anything else, I think Locke just needed a happy, or at least cordial, closure to that painful chapter in his life. Sometimes that’s needed in order to move on.

Oh, and Entertainment Weekly had a great photo of the map that appeared on the wall when the dark light went on. I’m sure most of you have seen it by now, so I don’t need to get all too descriptive. I definitely think that Declan was the person who did it, in his need to find out what he had gotten himself into.

I also have a feeling that the question mark in the center is the supposed “line they can’t cross.” There is something over there, something significant, that The Others don’t want them to get at. The bottom building (The Swan) is obviously their hatch. The “Staff” building must be the hatch that Claire was held captive.

There is also a supposed “translated” version that somebody had made. Here’s the link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrismoody1111/122921010/in/set-72057594065586665/

By the way, I also really liked seeing Jack one-up Sawyer. Like I say a little later in this column, Jack is most likeable (in my opinion) when he’s sharing scenes with Kate. For whatever reason, the chemistry with her shows his softer side. With people like Locke and Sawyer, he can come off self-righteous, bossy, and condescending. That said, it was nice seeing Jack play the good guy again.

I also have to point out Kate’s “Do you want me to break out a ruler?” line. Please, girl, you’re not fooling anybody: You LOVE the fact that these two guys are trying to impress you. Don’t kid yourself.

Okay, now the Hurley episode. I, like many others, I am sure, could see a mile away that Dave was a figment of Hurley’s imagination. I was also positive that we’d see in the background that Libby was actually a doctor at the institution (which I’ve mentioned before). The actual reveal, which was that she was actually a patient, was even more interesting. There was almost something sinister about the way she was watching Hurley, which leads me to believe that she unquestionably recognizes him. The question remains, though: Is she actually a psychologist? It’s possible that she had a breakthrough and devoted her life to helping others with psychological problems. Of course, she may also be lying. Nevertheless, there is undoubtedly something more sinister about her now. This may also explain her, to be kind, inexplicable attraction to Hurley.

I also got a kick out of the fact that, with like five minutes left, Dave came up with an extremely plausible and logical explanation for why this could all be a dream. I kept looking at the clock and saying to myself “could they possibly convince me that this isn’t a dream with this amount of time left?”

Oh, another thing I got a kick out of: How, at the beginning of the episode, Hurley destroyed that massive stash of food he had. I mean, really, how extremely, positively, exceptionally selfish of him. First he steals food from the group, and then when he decides HE doesn’t want it anymore, instead of, ya’ know, offering it to the mounds of people who haven’t had anything other than fish, he destroys it all. Then he’s actively upset when more food comes, because HE can’t be around food. I mean, geez, I understand not having will power, but this was just astronomically selfish.

Oh, and the numbers made a quick appearance: The deck that had collapsed and killed two people was made for 8 people, but 23 were on it instead. Not to mention that Hurley and Leonard were playing Connect Four.

This whole Henry storyline gets more interesting by the episode. He once again gets caught in a lie, and in turn we find out that the bearded Other is no where near the leader (which was hinted at in the Claire episode), and that whoever is in charge is very powerful, to the extent that his own followers are afraid of him (which, again, was hinted at in the Claire episode). We must also ask if Henry really did let the clock run out, and if he didn’t, why he wants to make Locke believe that he did. Henry’s comment that God doesn’t see the island was also particularly intriguing.

I continue to find Ana Lucia more tolerable, and I find her chemistry with Sayid interesting. Sayid is just so eager to punish somebody for Shannon’s death, and Henry makes the perfect scapegoat. Meanwhile, Ana Lucia is still feeling the effects of incorrectly pointing out somebody as an Other, and accidentally killing Shannon. As such, she’s far more hesitant to use such severe means.

I also have to say that I get frustrated for Locke. I mean, this guy has provided a whole lot for the island. He was the person who found the hatch, and used every possible resource to try to get into it, which in turn brought the entire crew a whole lot of luxuries. What does he get for all his trouble? People basically telling him that they can handle things without his help. I’d find that pretty annoying if I were in his shoes. Speaking of Locke, I also liked his immediate refusal to get into the wheelchair.

Oh, and my prediction for what Eko is building: A church. And I also think it’s no mistake that Charlie is the one helping him.

Next week looks really interesting, with Jack and Kate attempting to make a trade in order to get Walt back. First off, I really like this because of the fact that it brings attention back to Walt. I feel like the fact that a young boy, one that they’ve grown to care a great deal for, who has been kidnapped by a group of people who have killed their own, has been greatly underplayed. Along with that, whatever happened to Ana Lucia’s personal mission to save the children who were kidnapped on her side of the island? I also find Henry’s comment very interesting, that they would never give up Walt.

I also like that Jack and Kate are growing attached again. I’ve missed that relationship. Jack seems a lot more unlikable when he’s dealing with anybody other than her.

A DOUBLE DOSAGE OF 24:

9:00 episode – Well, I was very pleased that it turned out Audrey wasn’t a mole, and I was especially happy that it didn’t hurt her relationship with Jack. I’m still shocked each week when I say this, but Audrey has grown on me immensely. This week’s edition of TV Guide had an interview with Kim Raver in which she discussed Audrey’s depth and strength as a character, and she’s spot on. The character has developed incredibly, and I’m glad that it doesn’t look like she’ll be written out any time soon.

However, I do find it a bit hard to swallow that they’d allow somebody whose father is a high ranked political official to get tortured on the word of an unreliable source. Not to mention that she’s pretty high up the ladder herself. The revelation that she slept with Walt Cummings was interesting, though, and it makes me want to rewatch early episodes to see how she reacts to the news of his betrayal and suicide.

Other than the Audrey stuff, not much is coming to mind in terms of what happened that episode, except the Pierce/Wayne Palmer stuff, which I will discuss at further length in the 10:00 hour.

10:00 episode – I must say, though, that despite how incredible this show is, they do often rely on tired story arcs. The first is the mole within the organization, and the other is the usurpation of CTU. It seems like every single season, some outside force comes in to take over CTU, whether it’s an entire organization of just one person. I mean, is anybody other than the person in charge capable of running the place?

That said, I really enjoyed the fact that Audrey stood up to the weasel who was trying to turn her against CTU and Bill Buchanan. Along with Audrey, Bill is most definitely my favorite character out of people I didn’t like the season before. I must admit, though, that Chloe hasn’t grown on me like she has everybody else. I’m hoping that we haven’t seen the last of Bill, as he’s had a pretty rough day in regards to being thrown out of power.

I enjoyed the stuff with Wayne Palmer and Agent Pierce. Above anything else, this season has done an incredible job of making “background characters” into well developed, highly enjoyable characters, many of which can now carry an entire story on their own. I’m also thrilled that they didn’t go through with the Martha/Pierce love affair. Hopefully I haven’t spoken too soon.

The revelation that the President is actually involved in this has a lot of interesting possibilities, but it’s up to the writers to provide a logical explanation for why he’s doing it. Some things about this make sense: For example, he had a plausible reason to give away the Russian president’s motorcade route. I also really like the possibility that he’s not a nincompoop after all, but instead (not too sound too cartoonish), he’s an evil genius. It was his apparent ineptitude that caused serious delays in the resolution of many of the day’s events.

That said, a lot of stuff needs an explanation, most particularly the Walt Cummings stuff. It’s not even as if they could say “they were just acting,” because much of their behavior happened when nobody else was in the room. In those cases, who exactly were they acting for? I think the story arc has intriguing potential, but the burden is on the writers to make sense of it. And make good sense of it, no less. Swerves for the sake of swerves just hurt the show.

A DOUBLE DOSE OF SURVIVOR:

Regarding Survivor’s return episode, all I have to say is wow, I have never seen such a poorly played game by pretty much everybody involved. I mean, it was one of those episodes that the “best” player was the person who did the least bad. A major headshake of shame goes to Terry, Austin, and Shane, in that order.

I’ve been a big fan of Terry throughout the entire season, but man did he play an atrocious game. I think he had the right idea going after Bruce, and I even think his “you don’t have to worry about Tribal Council for weeks” campaign held merit there. But what on earth were you doing when you were going and making those same deals to Shane and Cirie? Was he even paying attention to who is calling the shots and who is safe in that tribe? Not only was it moronic, but he came off as extremely arrogant by doing that. And, if anything, it hurt his negotiations with Bruce, since it just shows Bruce that he’s willing to make that deal with anybody in the tribe.

And Austin….Austin, why on EARTH would you reveal at Tribal Council that you were just pretending to be weak, to make people think you’re not a threat??? I mean its one thing to reveal that, but to explain your motives as well? I’m baffled….just baffled. I like Austin a lot also, but that was quite possibly the stupidest thing I have ever seen, ever.

In regards to Shane, he was just a total douche when it came to being so obvious about your tribe meeting up to discuss who to vote off next. He should have learned something from last year with Jamie, who basically did the same thing. He basically outright told people straight to their face “hey, you’re next…then you….then you” and it got to the point where it annoyed his own alliance enough that they voted him out. And it’s not as if a whole lotta people like Shane to begin with.

Before last Thursday’s episode, I was strongly against Terry doing anything with the hidden idol other than keeping it for himself, for whenever he needs to use it. My line of thinking was that the immunity idol is only going to save him once, and it’s not as if using it now will give them the numbers advantage anyway. His best hope is to just use it in the event that he doesn’t win the immunity challenge, and then hope he wins the remaining challenges until the final four.

That said, I thought he played a great game, and his idea to use the idol to lure Danielle was great. Actually, I’m absolutely shocked that she didn’t take it. The only thing I can think of is that Danielle and the rest of the girls have a plan to take out Aras and Shane. Otherwise, she would have jumped up one spot by joining Terry and Co, not to mention having the immunity idol just in case.

However, since she turned down the deal, and it seems as if Terry is going to become a bit of a cocky jerk this week, there’s a big problem with Danielle knowing that she has the idol. I mean, the guy has a huge target on his back anyway, but this could really bite him in the ass.

Speaking of Aras, he really annoyed me this past episode. Him going on and on about what slime the LaMina people are was a bit much. Oh, look at the poor innocent Casaya guys, as they pick off their opponents one by one. Please. I mean, the guy is all up in arms upset that LaMina would, ya’ know, not just sit back and let themselves get voted off one by one. I also liked how Cirie called him out at Tribal Council, by noting that his deal with them in the reward challenge helped him win, and really didn’t do anything for the girls.

Oh, and what was the deal with the reward challenge? I mean, under any circumstances having food is better than not having food, but nothing sucks more than being soaking wet, and then trying to get all comfy in equally wet blankets. From the looks of the show, it’s been raining an awful lot…they couldn’t have foreshadowed something like this happening?

A DOUBLE DOSAGE OF THE OC:

First and foremost, I must say that the scene of Seth and Kirsten at AA was one of the most genuinely touching scenes I’ve seen in, like, forever. They’ve really taken a huge step back in focusing on the fact that Kirsten is a recovering alcoholic who very nearly died a year or so ago, and it was nice to see that she’s doing well and serious about getting better. It was also very sweet to see that she thanks Seth for essentially saving her life. Again, that was an exceptionally touching scene, and the idea of Seth and Kirsten spending time together was cute.

I actually used to enjoy the Ryan/Sadie thing, but it’s quickly become an annoyance. It reminds me of the Julie/Neal thing, where there’s all this build up towards the characters getting together, but once they finally do, all these obstacles are thrown in the way to destroy it. Hey, it’s happened to me in real life and it sucks. It’s just annoying to watch the build up, only for things to start falling apart, like, right away. Oh, and yay, we got to see tough Ryan AGAIN! Will somebody finally point out that this guy doesn’t look tough in the slightest bit?

I thought the whole thing with Summer defending Julie and Marissa, despite her differences with each, just so her dad would be happy was really, really cute. That episode actually also did a great job showing the contrast between Summer and Marissa. Sure, Summer can be sassy and spoiled from time to time, but when push comes to shove she wants the people she cares about to be happy, whether it necessarily makes her happy or not. That door is absolutely, positively, super duper adorable.

The Marissa stuff was the same old, same old. Life is woe for this girl, huh? Like Summer said, get over yourself.

That said, I did actually enjoy her reconciliation with everybody in this past week’s episode. I do think I may have a problem, though, with the fact that she got into Berkeley, but Seth couldn’t get into Brown. I didn’t really ever watch the first season, but to the best of my knowledge she isn’t bringing in amazing grades, and she’s had a lot of serious problems, both legally and academically. I’m sure that the lack of extracurricular (not to mention the whole dumping the first interview thing) has hurt Seth, but c’mon, good grades and an impressive SAT score has to count for something, right?

Along with that, I was a bit intrigued by Seth’s motives for lying about being accepted into Brown. Was he really just doing it so that Summer wouldn’t turn down the great opportunity, or was he also lying to himself? I’m leaning towards the latter, considering that he had numerous opportunities to come clean to people that are not Summer, who wouldn’t necessarily tell Summer, but chose to continue lying instead. That must be absolutely heartbreaking for him, though.

Speaking of heartbreaking, poor Summer has to experience the heartache of believing that Seth doesn’t want to be with her, instead of her knowing the truth. Poor thing. Much like the week before, The OC provided one of the more genuinely touching scenes, this time of Summer crying in bed as Marissa came in and laid next to her. Following their earlier reconciliation, this was a really sweet moment. I also really liked when Summer gave Marissa the Berkeley sweatshirt, and revealed that she had bought it months ago because she knew she would be accepted. Very cute.

I have to say, I side with Julie in the whole “on trial” thing. Neal definitely did make it seem as if she was getting thrown to the curb if there were any familial issues. I’m usually hesitant to believe if Julie is genuine about something, but she did seem so in regards to her concern about Marissa’s well being.

I’d like to know where the stuff with Matt and Sandy is going. They were definitely leading towards the idea that Sandy is selling his soul weeks ago, but have since seemingly backed away from that. Now they seem to possibly be leading back into that direction. I don’t know why, but the whole hospital story gets on my nerves a bit, as it seems like Sandy is willing to sell out anybody and anything to get this hospital built. His caring so much about this seems to have just come out of nowhere.

The Ryan/Sadie thing was even more annoying this week than it was last week. So they make an impulsive decision, and upon realizing that what do they decide to do? Make another impulsive decision! And, I mean, are these two like incapable of living in the same area and not necessarily living together?

Also, the idea of having a sweatshirt party of the college you’re going to is actually cute, but isn’t it a little insensitive to the people who might have been crushed by being rejected by a school they had their heart set on going to? And how about the fact that people may have gotten accepted to numerous schools, and haven’t necessarily decided which one to go to? And where the hell were all the Rutgers sweatshirts?!?!?

So, after South Park’s episode last week, it seems that there’s a little rivalry between them and Family Guy (more accurately, between the fans of each show). On which side of the line do I stand? If I was forced to choose, Family Guy beyond a doubt. With that said, I do hope people realize that South Park is immensely more intelligent than people give it credit for, and is almost always a guarantee laugh. I just feel like, if a joke is funny and makes me laugh, isn’t that all that counts? Does it matter if it’s so called “relevant” to the main story, or if it’s based on the story as a whole? I mean, I watch Family Guy and I say to myself, “how on earth do they come up with this stuff?” By no means is that show full of cheap jokes, as your average Joe couldn’t come up with stuff half that funny.

I also find some of the criticism from South Park ironic (perhaps intentionally so). You have Cartman arguing about interchangeable jokes that have nothing to do with the plot, when he’s just as guilty of doing the same, with his constant racist, Jew, and hippie hating comments.

Along with that, I also hate that whole “this is every Family Guy joke” argument, as that can be made about any show. That’s like saying “here’s every Seinfeld joke: An obvious commentary on everyday situations.” Um, yeah, that’s the show’s type of comedy. To say that every Family Guy joke is an irrelevant cut away to some pop culture reference doesn’t mean that they don’t still have to come up with a different reference and make it funny. Along with that, the earlier episodes most definitely had an in-depth plot that had jokes that were relevant to the story. Most of the criticisms made sell the show short big time.

Anyway, that’s it for this week. I’m going to try to post a double dosage review of the past couple week’s episodes of Smallville, but we’ll see how much time I have to spare and how inspired I get. I hope to do that, though. If not, expect them my thoughts in next week’s Case of the Mondays.

So anyway, until next time, Case Closed!

Matt Basilo has been writing for Inside Pulse since April 2005, providing his insight into various popular television shows. Be sure to visit his blog at [a case of the blog] and follow him on Twitter.