Last Week’s Television Shows This Week

Where we discuss episodes from the past couple weeks.

1. Constantine and Grimm

I’d lost interest in these shows a while back, so the episodes had been piling up on the DVR.  Due to a tv drought (after all, how many times can you rewatch Outlander?), I finally caught up.  Guess what?  They’ve been kind of good.  Grimm in particular.

2.  Constantine and Supernatural

The Winchester conduct some good old-fashioned flashlight-foo.

“A Whole World Out There,” Constantine’s 11th episode (which aired way back on Jan 30) felt a lot like Supernatural.  Sure enough, this past week’s Supernatural‘s “Halt & Catch Fire” was eerily similar.  Both shows featured four college students (two guys, two gals) dealing with spirits beyond our realm.  Three of the students died:  first one of the guys, then a gal, then the other guy; leaving only the final gal to survive, but not before a close encounter with the dead spirit.  Methinks there is formulaic television at work.  Constantine‘s episode was more macabre than Supernatural‘s, but then, Constantine is pretty damned macabre in general.

3.  Arrow Last Week

Last week’s Arrow, The One Where Oliver Returned “Uprising,” left me uninspired.  Maybe it was because Felicity rejected Oliver.  Or because Ted Grant died (I’m assuming).  Two developments I  deeply dislike, so nothing to say.  Moving on…

Fandom-meter Readings

The winter hiatus is upon us.  With several posts sitting in my Draft box, perhaps it’s time to try a new tactic. The authors at Previously.TV use several different formats for their reviews, one of the being “Rankled,” in which characters (and maybe events?) are ranked according to their actions in various episodes.

Now is the perfect time to reflect on the shows I’ve been watching.  What are these shows and how do they fare on my current “fandometer”?  More importantly, which shows are interesting enough to cover?  (The photos below should give you a hint.A)

The Flash

Arrow

Supernatural

(How funny that these three shows are on the CW, because I am far from the demographic they’re aiming for.)

1.  The Flash is living up to its pre-season hype.  It’s been rather light-hearted (for a series that deals with crime, death, and evil).  Will that continue now that we’ve had two (re-)defining episodes?  More thoughts will be forth-coming.

2.  Arrow.  Yep, The Flash/Arrow crossover did exactly what it was supposed to do—pique my interest in a show I hadn’t watched recently.  I don’t know if Arrow will remain in the #2 spot, but since I’ve been watching seasons 1 and 2 nearly non-stop, this is where it stands as of today.  Again, more thoughts will be posted during the hiatus.

3.  Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  (That’s the last time you’ll see me type out the “official” title for a while.)  This show has been so good this season, it’s currently out-ranking Supernatural on the fandometer.  But a great first part of the season does not guarantee a great second part, especially given a watershed episode such as “What They Become.”

4.  Supernatural.  It’s hard to maintain momentum when a show’s been running as long as Supernatural.  The second half of season 8 proved the show still has some juice in it, and the Dean’s Mark of Cain could prove to be as engrossing as the Trials of season 8 if the show doesn’t veer too far into its “brother lying to brother” mode.

5.  Gotham.  Unlike The Flash, it hasn’t quite lived up to its pre-season hype.  The show has become so bogged down with the “Making of the Penguin” story, I’m not sure I’ll continue watching.

6.  Constantine.  It might have been ranked higher than Gotham, but I’ve yet to watch the latest episode, so how high can my interest be?  Actually, “A Feast of Friends,” in which John Constantine convinced an old friend to host an unbeatable demon nearly turned me off the show.  But the subsequent “Danse Voudou,” along with the introduction of recurring character Joe Corrigan, changed my mind.

7.  Grimm is another show I watch, but am seldom moved to discuss.  Nor do I see that changing in the near future.

8. Sleepy Hollow.  I’ve officially given up on the show.  “The Akeda” was yet another “end of the world is nigh” episode, and was a solid zero on the fandometer.  Not only did I stop watching after the first three minutes, I immediately deleted it from the DVR.

CANCELLED!

Well crap.  Intelligence was cancelled in favor of another season of The Mentalist.  That makes yet another show down the drain.  My Current SciFi category is going to be significantly smaller next season.   Let’s look at the count.

Intelligence – CANCELLED!

Almost Human – CANCELLED!

Dracula – CANCELLED!

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – Renewed!

Freshmen programs:

Grimm: Revelation (313)—It’s All About Monroe

Look! It’s Monroe’s parents—E.T.’s Earthly step-mom and That Guy.

Last week Grimm returned after its long winter hiatus.  How long was it?  Not as long as last season’s three-month hiatus.  But long enough to forget the previous episode was a cliff-hanger.  And “Revelation” was quite a good episode.

When last we saw everyone’s favorite inter-Wesen couple, Monroe had proposed to Rosalee.  Via cuckoo clock!  His parents fly to Portland to meet her, only to discover she’s a “foxy” Fuchsbau and not a werewolf-esque Blutbad.  As if that wasn’t enough of a shock, they also learn Monroe is friends with a Grimm.  It’s enough to send them away in disgust.

After some separation angst, Monroe gives his mom and dad an ultimatum.  Mom decides to stay and try to make peace with the situation.  She visits Rosalee at the Spice Shop, where the two perform a Vertrautheiten (thank you, close-captioning!), which seems to involve some sniffing and purring.

So Many Shows, So Little Internet Quick Takes

So much has happened in TV-land since my internet modem crashed last week.  I was able to post a couple reviews I’d already started (Agents of SHIELD and Supernatural—and a reply to Natalie) during interludes of access, but that’s it. Now that things appear to be stable, here’s a super-duper brief roundup.

New best gal pals? Nope!

What a Hank without a Nick?

Any excuse for a hug.

Come for the Urban, stay for the Ealy

Terrible Terrors on the loose! Aren’t they cute? And colorful.

Talk to the hand.

Yep, all these shows are discussed (to a limited degree) under the cut.

Friday Night’s Gore Fest

Holy crap!  Friday was such a gory evening on NBC, it’s taken me three days to recover, and I still haven’t found the courage to rewatch either Grimm or Dracula (which I like to do before reviewing).    Grimm went “there” with exploding guts, and Dracula… well, let’s count all the ways you wouldn’t want to die.  Perhaps I’ll do 2 two-fers next week, since we’re heading into the very busy week.

Exploding guts in a tree

Head bashing commences

Friday Night Quick Takes

[Sorry for the late posting.  I enjoyed too much wine and food during the evening, and paid for it Saturday.]

To bide my time until 9:00 pm, the evening began with a Supernatural episode I’d recorded earlier in the day.

Supernatural:  Folsom Prison Blues (219)

This under-appreciated gem almost made the top 5, but not quite.  It’s chalk full of great lines, such as “Who looks better, me or Nick Nolte?” “Shaddup.” “Really pretty sure.”  Dean is at his sassy best, instigating fights and besting cons at poker for the “currency of the realm.”  Clif Kosterman, Jensen and Jared’s driver and bodyguard appears as “Poor giant Tiny.”  Winchester-obsessed FBI Agent Victor Henriksen makes an appearance.  Public defender Mara Daniels and prison guard-family friend Deacon are two one-time characters I’d love to see return.  And it’s topped with caper music ala Ocean’s Eleven (the George Cloonry remake).

Who do you think will win this fight?

Feet! (for those with foot fetishes)

So Many Shows, So Little Time

Once Upon a Time in Wonderland:  Forget Me Not (103)

In the show’s best episode to date, we get a back story for the Knave of Hearts.  And, boy, is it a doozy!  I have a review/recap in draft and will post it later today.

Grimm:  The Ungrateful Dead (301)

I confess, I fast-forwarded through about 7/8 of it.  Yeah, yeah, zombies running amok.  Yeah, yeah, Adalind, Hexenbiest, blah, blah.  Yeah, yeah, Zombie!Nick running amok.  All that fast-forwarding caused me to miss Sgt. Wu, though.  I’ll rewatch for any Wu-isms—and Monroe-isms—but probably won’t review the episode.

Dracula:  The Blood Is the Life (101)

Holy crap, that was one lavish production!  Do they plan on keeping it up week after week?  I’m not sure I can stand that much foggy Victorian London extravagance week after week.  (Just kidding.  Of course I can.)  I’m just not sure the atmosphere will resonate with modern day viewers.  Then again, it does have Jonathan Rhys Meyers.  And tons of sexiness.  I might post a review early next week.

Grimm: Kiss of the Muse (220)

Thank God that story line is over!  Just about everyone has hated the saga of Juliette not remembering Nick and her obsessive attraction to Capt Renard (and vice versa).   Her memories have been coming back over the past few episodes, and last week she finally remembered her feelings for him.  Of course, since this is television, we must have as much contrived drama as possible.  So just as she’s trying to get closer to Nick, he comes under the spell of a seductive siren.

Hank’s souvenir from his Hawaiian vacation? Crutches.

Well, she’s not actually a siren, she’s a Musai, an elfin creature who secretes a substance that makes men obsessively attracted to her when she kisses them.  And insanely jealous of any other man—to the point of murder.  In fact, that’s how Nick and Hank happen upon her.  A writer, her current boyfriend, has been murdered by her ex-boyfriend, an otter-like Wesen (a Luisant-Pecheur according to NBC’s Grimm website).  I swear, nearly everyone in Portland must be Wesen.

A Grimm Week, part 2

Endangered (219)

This (half-)week’s Wesen is… aliens!  Well, not really, but they are creatures with glowing blue skins.  They’re called Glühenvolk, they’re nearly extinct, and the pregnant females feed on raw cow ovaries.  We know this because a farm-hand discovers several cow mutilations and is killed in a struggle with said glowing blue creature.  He’s killing the cows for their ovaries to feed his whiny, needy pregnant wife.  I end up having no sympathy for this woman.

Based on the witness description and a piece of skin snagged on a barbed wire, Nick is able to identify the type of Wesen from one of his Grimm Encyclopedias.  Rosalee explains the Glühenvolk were thought to have been hunted to extinction, prized for their skin.  Turns out this couple is being hunted by a man posing as a UFO aficionado.  He’s a Raub-Kondor, a bird-like creature with blue eyes.  He kills his prey, then skins them and sells the hides to collectors.  Lovely.

Television cutest couple: Monroe and Rosalee.

Rosalee and Monroe join Nick in his search for the couple.  But first they find the hunter’s trailer, and are appropriately disgusted.  When they find do find the pregnant woman, she goes into labor.  Rosalee takes charge, and Monroe helps as best he can until the husband returns.  Shortly after a glowing blue baby is delivered, the hunter arrives.  In the melee that ensues, Nick grabs the hunter’s shotgun and kills him.