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Doctor Who (The Second Series): “The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe"

As much as I like River and Rory, I was kinda glad to see the Doctor spend his time in this year's Christmas special with a new cast of characters for a change. This time out he played the mysterious caretaker to an old mansion which was to be the refuge for a young WWII widow and her two children. The Doctor had planned all sorts of surprises for the two children but the biggest surprise of all came from something he didn't anticipate. I guess it was a good thing for him that those WWII widows tended to be so resourceful...

Despite the episode title, the episode did not quite draw on the Narnia books as much as you might think. True, there was a trip from the mansion into a mysterious wintry world that could have been the inspiration for Narnia and I must confess that there were times when I kept expecting to see a faun or two. But apart from that, there was not much else that would remind one of things Narnian.

In any event, the episode was still enjoyable and though I had a few nitpicks as to such things as whether the RAF would really use a middle-aged father of two to fly planes when piloting planes during wartime was traditionally a younger man's game and why actor Bill Bailey was shown in the previews when his role came so close to being a cameo, I still enjoyed it more than last year's Christmas special.

I guess part of me was in the mood for a crowd-pleasing episode after the more disappointing episodes of the past season and this episode filled the bill. Granted, had it been a bit more shameless in its attempts to tug at my heartstrings, I might have had cause for complaint. But fortunately, it was not.

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Desperate Housewives: “Putting It Together"

As this week's episode ends, poor Bree Van de Kamp (played by Marcia Cross) was talking to a dead person. If there has been one thing that has been established on this show and other TV programs, it's that talking to dead people is never a good sign.

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Desperate Housewives: “Pilot"

My late sister got me hooked on this show and though I should hate myself for admitting it, I actually found it hard to resist its spell. Oddly enough, the series seems rather tame by cable standards. Only one of the four main characters is doing anything particularly sinful and even she eventually sees the error of her ways. I must confess that Gabrielle "Gaby" Solis and her husband Carlos are my favorite characters on the show thus far but the others have had their moments.

The one main flaw in the series I've seen in the series thus far is its inability to reconcile the cheery demeanor of the show's ghostly narrator with the tragic aftermath of said narrator's big secret. Not only does such a demeanor not make much sense in light of what we eventually learn about said character, but it is also difficult to watch the end of the first season and still think as highly of the narrator as the show's writers expect us to do. After all, many things can be forgiven in the name of friendship but there is a limit.

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Masters of Horror: "The Black Cat"

Director Stuart Gordon tries to do for Edgar Allan Poe what he did for H.P. Lovecraft with his Reanimator series. The result is not quite as memorable as I would have liked but at least I can tell Gordon tried. If nothing else, it will be interesting to compare cult icon Jeffrey Combs' performance as Poe with that of a more conventional actor when John Cusack plays the same character in the upcoming mystery flick The Raven.

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Masters of Horror: "The V Word"

After seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and five seasons of Angel -- not to mention the various vampire shows that have aired since then -- it must be very hard for TV screenwriters to come up with yet another new angle on the vampire theme. However, this episode does not even try to come up with anything new to say about vampires and the most imagination it displays is in the title. Once you have figured out what that means, the rest of the episode is all downhill.

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Masters of Horror: "Valerie on the Stairs"

If nothing else, this episode was a nice flashback to the days when horror movies did not feel obliged to explain everything at the end. Indeed, without the DVD commentary, some of you might feel a bit confused as to what actually happened at the end of this story -- and perhaps that's a good thing.

The story is about a would-be writer who checks into a special hotel intended to house other would-be writers. Unfortunately, the writer's literary efforts are interrupted by visions of a ghostly damsel in distress who is being pursued by a monstrous demon. The writer takes it upon himself to investigate and finds himself involved in a bigger mystery than he would have ever imagined. Unfortunately, his efforts to save the girl and make himself the hero of this story inevitably backfire in a way few would have guessed...

In any event, this episode deserves credit for having one of the most original endings I ever saw in this series. It just might take some of you a while to figure it out.

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The Sarah Jane Adventures: "The Empty Planet"

Rani and Clyde wake up to a world in which everyone has disappeared save for the two of them and a mysterious little boy. Plus the three of them are being chased by giant robots.

But the really mysterious part comes when Rani and Clyde arrive at an English restaurant that advertises sweet potato and chorizo soup -- a dish which might not seem so strange in New York or Dallas -- but in London? I always thought England did not have a large Hispanic population. So where did the idea for chorizo come from?

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Doctor Who (The Second Series): "The Wedding of River Song"

That's it? That's the big season finale?

I should have known something was up when I found
myself increasingly distanced by the show's endless references to the Doctor's impending death. Granted, even kids in grade school had no problems predicting that the Doctor really wouldn't die at the end of this season, but still...

In any event, I still enjoyed the episode. I just wish things had been tied together just a bit more.

And I did love the hint that the Doctor was Jewish. Indeed, at the end of his impromptu wedding ceremony, I kept expecting him to break a wine glass beneath his feet while Rory and Amy cried, "Mazel Tov!" But I guess Moffat figured he had played with the minds of Doctor Who fans long enough.

However, I find myself even less optimistic about the next season than I was at the end of last season. And that is a real shame given that Matt Smith has shown a lot of potential this season for becoming one of the most memorable Whos since -- well, David Tennant. I don't really want to see the show go back to its "Doctor Who as the ultimate imaginary boyfriend" formula of the first few seasons but I don't want to see it become unwatchable either. So once again I keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best. Though, come to think of it, a Doctor Who/Primeval crossover episode would not be a bad way to start the next season...

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Doctor Who (The Second Series): "Closing Time"

The Doctor finally gets rid of Amy and Rory just in time to run into an old friend -- Craig, the apartment dweller from last year's episode "The Lodger." Craig is living with his girlfriend Sophie now and the two of them have a baby to boot. They are still not officially married yet but then this is not only a family show but also a British family show so no one on the writing staff really cares.

Unfortunately, there is a group of Cybermen kidnapping people in the area and it is up to the Doctor to find a way to defeat them without putting Craig and the baby in harm's way. Guess which one of those goals the Doctor does not accomplish?

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Doctor Who (The Second Series): "The God Complex"

Remember that old cliché about how only people with a faith in a certain ism -- for example, Communism or Zionism -- tended to survive the trauma of the Nazi concentration camps?

In this episode, we see a reversal of that cliché in which faith in something -- anything, in fact -- proves deadlier than faith in nothing at all. Granted, the show stretched pretty hard to make its point. Almost too hard.

Nor is it always that logical. At one point, it shows a young Muslim woman being haunted by the ghost of a father who demanded high grades from her -- yet most Muslim women nowadays are not known for being from families which demand great educational efforts from them, much less straight As. I must admit to admiring the chutzpah it took for the episode's writer -- Toby Whithouse of Being Human fame -- to create a sympathetic Muslim character in this day and age but it was all ultimately a wasted effort.

Oh, well. This episode did make for an interesting thought experiment. I just wish there was a little more thought.

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Doctor Who (The Second Series): "The Girl Who Waited"

You say you haven't gotten enough of that Amy Pond character on this show? Well, this episode finally grants you your wish. I hope you're satisfied.

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Doctor Who (The Second Series): "Night Terrors"

A little boy in England has been getting scared at night so one evening he breaks down and calls upon the Doctor for help, inspiring the Doctor to make a "house call" -- which means he spends the rest of the episode popping Vicodin tablets, making sarcastic remarks and walking with a cane. Okay, he actually does nothing of the sort though it would have made for a neat episode if he did.

As it is, this episode appears to have borrowed most of its ideas from an old Twilight Zone episode. Not that that is a bad thing. After all, previous episodes in this series have borrowed from such shows as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The X-Files. So why not borrow from The Twilight Zone?

Of course, the ending is a tad predictable but at least it doesn't appear to have come out of nowhere like the conclusion of the previous episode. Plus, this show did first start out as a kid's show so it's nice to see Moffat and company remembering its roots.

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Doctor Who (The Second Series): "Let's Kill Hitler"

We the TV audience have come back from a summer-long hiatus in time to meet yet another old friend from Amy's past -- a person who proves to be more important to Amy's life than she ever figured. The mysterious Mels -- a young black woman who was Amy's bff back in the day shows up at a rendevous between Amy, Rory and the Doctor just in time to hijack the Tardis to 1938 Berlin. "Why 1938 Berlin?" you may ask. Well, haven't you read the title? They're going to kill Hitler.

Mels never explains why it's so urgent that she kill Adolf Hitler and it is not much of a spoiler to point out that she never gets around to doing it anyway. Nor does this episode ever explain why she is not similarly obsessed with killing Joseph Stalin or Chairman Mao Tse-tung. (Offhand, I am guessing it has something to do with the fact that Stalin and Mao never ordered the bombing of London.) The rest of the episode seems like an excerpt from one of X-Men writer Chris Claremont's "Dark Phoenix" stories since we basically watch Amy's old friend turn into something a bit more destructive than the old pal she knew so well in girlhood. Worse yet, the Doctor proves to be little help because in all the excitement, he gets hit with a bullet and starts dying. Plus there's a weird alien going around duplicating the exterior of people's bodies and then getting rid of the originals.

Will things get sorted out? Well, the episode is not a two-parter so it's safe to say, "yes." However, showrunner Steven Moffat has some serious explaining to do.

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Dexter: "My Bad"

Wow! Time for another season of Dexter already? How time flies!

When we last left Dexter Morgan, he had just found that a certain much-beloved character had been found murdered in her own bathtub. At the beginning of this episode, said character was still dead, doomed to return to the show only in flashbacks. Given that said character was one of my favorite characters on this show, it's hard to pretend that this made for an especially fun episode.

That said, the most memorable part of the episode was Dexter's oddly emotionless response to the death of said character. One character on the show describes his 911 call as a "lab report" and for a while, it looks like Dexter is going to attract some unwanted attention. But years of covering up his true self pay off and Dexter gets away with not being suspected of one of the few murders in the Miami area he had nothing to do with.

In addition, we get an in-joke reference to Dexter star Michael C. Hall's former role as an undertaker on Six Feet Under. Only this time around, Hall gets to play the client, not the undertaker.

Moreover, we get to witness the clumsiest murder in Dexter history. A murder so ill-conceived it seems a miracle Dexter got away with it. Is Season 5 the season we find out Dexter Morgan has a death wish?

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Room 222: "I Love You Charlie, I Love You Abby"

Apparently I spoke too soon when I described the title character of the "El Genio" episode and his girlfriend as the only Hispanics on this series. During the last five minutes of this episode, one of the title characters of this episode was called by the name "Charles Moreno" -- and Moreno, of course, is a popular Spanish surname. Which, of course, means Charlie was Hispanic -- although not necessarily Mexican.*

Whether or not it was intentional from the writer's point-of-view that the audience saw the character in question as Hispanic seems doubtful. After all, the character was rarely described as being Hispanic the same way the title character of "El Genio" was. Nor was he given any of the conventional "Hispanic" traits that sloppy TV writers like to give to Hispanic characters. (For example, bad accents, frequent use of Spanglish, etc.) Nor was his impending marriage to what seemed to be a rather WASPy white non-Hispanic girl seen as being especially controversial. I would like to give the writer the benefit of a doubt and assume that this was the way he chose to make up for the more contrived elements of the "El Genio" episode but alas, there was no commentary on this episode so I guess I will never know for sure.

Anyway, the main concern shown during the episode concerning Charlie and his would-be bride Abby was more about their age than their ethnicity -- and the closest the episode came to a conventional ethnic joke lay in the fact that tacos were served at Charlie's impromptu bachelor party. Mr. Dixon and his girlfriend Ms. McIntyre were greatly concerned about Charlie and Abby's plans to get married at the end of the school year -- but the first attempt they made to get them to change their minds only resulted in Charlie and Abby moving up the date of their elopement. It was not until after the above-mentioned bachelor party and Abby's bachelorette party that Dixon and MacIntyre found a way to convince the young couple they were not ready to get married yet -- and even then it was a close call.

So the idea of a Hispanic character on a TV show dealing with issues which were not necessarily ethnic issues would seem to be a good thing, right? Even if I find myself preferring the way such issues were handled on old I Love Lucy episodes.

* Contrary to popular belief, Hispanic is not a political euphemism for "Mexican" and can be used to describe almost anyone with Spanish-speaking ancestors. Of course, since it is often considered a political term, it is not always used that way but it should be.

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Maude: "Maude's Dilemma: Parts 1 & 2"

Like most Norman Lear sitcoms in the early 1970s, Maude tended to have a lot of scenes devoted to loud arguments and constant shouting. So it's kinda refreshing to note that the show's most controversial episode actually started off rather low-key. The episode took almost forever to establish that the title character Maude Finley was pregnant, even longer to casually allude to abortion and even longer to actually use the word "abortion."

If anything, the show seemed almost too subtle. Though the story lasted through two half-hour episodes, it conveniently ended before we ever saw the inside of an abortion clinic. Instead, much of the time was taken up mining humor from the reluctance of Maude and her husband Walter to admit to their true feelings about her late-in-life pregnancy. Officially, Maude Finley was in favor of legalized abortion; she just didn't want to admit to wanting to have one herself. Officially Walter was in favor of whatever Maude wanted. Her twentysomething daughter Carol was a bit more open on the topic, continually reminding her mother that abortion was currently legal in New York. (The episode aired prior to the Roe v. Wade decision so abortion was not yet legal in every state of the union.)

As a person who recently witnessed the wavering of a friend who was committed to getting an abortion but not above having last-minute qualms about it, I must confess that I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't more debate about the subject in this episode. Yes, one could hardly blame Lear and episode screenwriter Susan Harris for choosing the safest route past the network censors of the time. And one could understand Ms. Harris' determination to point out that good people have abortions too at a time when the opposite view was all too prevalent.

Yet I can't help wondering if the procedure would have been all that simple for Maude Finley. And I can't help wondering whether or not she ever experienced second thoughts. Perhaps I'm just projecting my own pro-life leanings onto a fictional character, but then again, up until a time quite recently when I spoke with the above friend who was getting an abortion, I was perfectly happy leaning in the pro-choice direction on the grounds that at least safe abortions meant less women would die. But there was something about my witnessing my friend's wavering on the subject that convinced me that one could be pro-choice and yet still have serious misgivings about an actual abortion. Misgivings that could not be easily cured with strict applications of feminist or liberal dogma.

I still prefer that abortions be legal if for no other reason than the fact that that's the best way to assure that they're safe. But part of me would also prefer that they be rare. And while I understand the many reasons Norman Lear would never feature my viewpoint in a TV episode, I nonetheless believe it is important. After all, not all issues can be adequately dealt with in the course of a half-hour television show. Abortion just happens to be one of them. However, I do respect Norman Lear and Susan Harris' efforts to prove otherwise.

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Miami Vice: "Free Verse"

Geez, you can tell a TV show is old when director Michael Bay appears in one episode as a bit player so unimportant that he's only listed as Goon #3.

It's even more embarrassing to realize how old a certain show is when you're old enough to remember when this same show was the subject of magazine cover stories and endless hype about how said show was the way of the future. Oh, well...Time does have a perverse way of putting artistic pretensions into perspective. However, I must admit that I can't help wondering how much of director Bay's current directing style was inspired by what he witnessed while working on the set of director Michael Mann's Miami Vice TV series.

In any event, the episode in question concerned an assignment by the Miami Vice Squad to safeguard a visiting Latin American poet. Why was the Vice Squad being assigned to play bodyguard to a poet? The story never really explained why but then few people back in the day ever watched Miami Vice for the story.

One of the funniest bits in the episode occured early on when the appearance of two pretty female Vice Squad detectives provoked the visiting poet to ask whether all the police in Miami were as attractive. Then scar-faced Edward James Olmos' Lt. Martin Castillo character showed up and the poet noted that his question just got answered.

The rest of the episode was a cat and mouse game between the Miami Vice detectives (especially Don Johnson's Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas' Tubbs) and the various assassins sent out to kill the poet. Crockett proved especially disillusioned to learn that the poet was not only the target of a right-wing death squad but of left-wing assassins as well. And of course, one of the assassins proved to be working with an inside man whose identity wasn't revealed, natch, until the last minute.

The episode also went out of its way to note the poet himself was not as squeaky clean as his would-be martyr status would indicate. His own daughter was disgusted by some of his past actions and it wasn't until the very end of the episode that father and daughter experienced anything close to reconciliation.

Not that happy endings last long in Michael Mann world. But then one shouldn't really expect much cheerfulness on a show called Miami Vice.

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Doctor Who (The Second Series): "A Good Man Goes to War"

Go, Rory! It's about time they started giving him more to do.

And why would a forest-dwelling people be so unclear on the concept of a body of water which wasn't a river? I hail from Michigan, a state with many forests, and they certainly know about lakes and ponds up there.

On the plus side, I did find it kinda cool that Amy named her daughter after a character on the old cartoon show Josie and the Pussycats. I'm not sure that's what she intended to do but she did so anyway.

Oh, well. I'm guessing this is one of those episodes that Moffat would rather us not think too much about. It is a big shame that it ends on a cliffhanger, though, and that the next episode won't air till next fall. Ouch!

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Doctor Who (The Second Series): “The Rebel Flesh” and “The Almost People”

Seems to me that we've had not just one but two televison series in America (Battlestar: Galactica and Dollhouse) that have had fun with the concept of people who aren't really people. Now it's British producer Stephen Moffat's turn. Or rather Moffat's writer Matthew Graham's turn.

I must confess that I found Graham's term “ganger” a more original term than the usual “clone.” And the idea of two Doctors for the price of one? Amazing.

I was kinda surprised to see a little pro-life sentiment in these episodes instead of the usual “clones are evil” sentiments. Though come to think of it, we have “clones are evil” sentiments in these episodes as well. Trust a Doctor Who writer to find a way to keep every kind of science fiction fan happy.

And by the way, major props to whoever suggested Matt Smith end the episode with a verbal reference to the old Michael Mann movie The Last of the Mohicans. I certainly wasn't expecting that.

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Doctor Who (The Second Series): “The Doctor's Wife”

Heh. The villain of this episode is named “House.” As in a certain Hugh Laurie character.

And whoever guessed that a sentient Tardis would look so much like Helena Botham-Carter? Well, I guess screenwriter Neil Gaiman did since he is one of the few writers I trust enough to make me believe in as unlikely a concept as a sentient Tardis. Of course, some would say that the idea of Rory (Amy's husband) being the “pretty one” was the real unlikely concept in this episode but let's not go there.