Homicide Episode Guide: 'Black and Blue'

Written By James Yoshimura

Directed by Chris Menaul

         One of the more notable cases  in David Simon’s book involved the shooting of John Randolph Scott, a small time drug dealer who got shot on Monroe Street, one of the more notable drug streets in Baltimore. At first, it seemed that a police officer had accidentally killed the man, but it soon became very clear that he was not the culprit. Unfortunately for the detective in charge, it would never become clear if a police officer or a civilian had killed the suspects.

         The central story of ‘Black and Blue’ takes a look at a similar shooting. Detective Pembleton runs into many of the same obstacles that  befell his equivalent in the book: little cooperation from the neighborhood (because of the possibility of police involvement) and little cooperation from the police force (who don’t like being accused of witnessing a cop  do anything wrong)  Adding to the problems is the fact that Lieutenant Giardello is defiant in Pembleton’s apparent  disloyalty to his fellow officers. However, a key difference occurs when detective work by Bayliss and Howard manages to turn up a friend of the deceased C.C. Cox, Lane Staily (played by a very young Isaiah Washington)

            We then witness one of the most wrenching scenes that the writers of Homicide would ever do. Pembleton enters the Box and by sheer verbal manipulation by the use of race, rage, indignancy, sorrow and finally the guilt that Staily feels that his friend end up dead because of him manages to elicit a confession out of an innocent man. When Pembleton comes out of the box with the confession, he is soaked with sweat and absolutely disgusted with himself and what Gee has made him do. “Look at him.” He says “he didn’t shoot Cox but… he’s proud that he signed.”  This is one of the most emotionally raw moments that James Yoshimura would ever do, and in his tenure on Homicide, he wrote some honeys. What is even more stunning is that Gee seems initially willing to accept this confession before his conscience  makes him turn to Staily and get the truth--- the real truth--- out of him. Something very critical in Gee breaks after he witnesses Pembleton’s extraction of the confession. He no longer is quite as willing to give  those people in police-involved shootings the benefit of the doubt. This will surface on several occasions as the series progresses

            More importantly to the series is the fact that for the first time Andre Braugher dominates the episode in a way that he hasn’t before.. This would lead to some major  changes in the way that the series worked. For the first thirteen episodes, Homicide could clearly be called an ensemble show with no one character being a bigger presence than the other. However, Braugher (and to a lesser extent Kyle Secor) would be thrust into the limelight more and more often as the writers realized the power and charisma  that Braugher really had as well as the balance between Bayliss and Pembleton.

            When the truth about the shooting comes out, and it becomes clear that Lieutenant Tyron (the commander of the man who was originally considered to be the shooter) there are a couple of painful touches. For one thing, we see the consequences of arresting police for any kind of shooting involving the career and the reputation of a good cop.. For another, Howard once had  an affair with  Tyron. There isn’t a great deal made of these (we don’t see Howard break up when she learns that Tyron was the shooter) but we do see the theme that the detectives on this show do not live in a vacuum.

            Two other romantic subplots are of minor importance in this episode. Munch’s on again, off-again relationship with Felicia reaches its peak and valley simultaneously. When the episode begins Munch is positively glowing about his happiness , by its end the relationship is deader than a doornail (along with an entire tropical fish tank of Felicia’s) and Munch his convinced that romance is dead. Ironically his partner Bolander has come to a complete about face on romance as well.  His relationship with Dr. Blythe has apparently come to naught. And he is pissed at Munch’s apparent happiness. However, in the course of this episode he meets a waitress named Linda (played by Juliana Marguiles, a year before she would be slingshot to stardom on ER), a woman who is half his age and who is far more optimistic. They share little in common but a musical hobby (she plays the violin and he plays the cello) but there is clearly something in her spirit that appeals to Bolander because by the end of the episode they are making beautiful music together, literally and metaphorically. This has an effect on The Big Man that will last in

to the next episode.

            One of the more critical things about the episode is how the show is shifted off balance. In ‘See No Evil’, all nine characters got an even shake. In ‘Black and Blue’, Felton, Lewis and Crosetti (who were at the center of the last episode) get virtually nothing to do. In the past shows, some characters would dominate one episode while other characters faded into the background but this imbalance did not usually last more than one episode. However, as the show progressed this would happen less and less often as characters like Pembleton and Bayliss got more exposure and characters like Munch and Howard fell to the background.

            But this is an issue for later. For now, ‘Black and Blue’ stands as a  fine episode showing how the most emotional drama can come from lies as much as they can from truth. This is fine stuff.

My score:8.75

CW Analysis 'Crazy-Ex Girlfriend' Review

Another series for the CW that has achieved massive critical acclaim, and actually managed to do something that almost nothing on the network manages to do - win two Emmys, albeit not for their top performer - yet has managed to perform to an almost non-existent audience is Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.  A series literally unlike anything on TV these days - a musical comedy with some of the most satirical original songs in the history of the medium - and featuring some of the most daring original characters on TV, this series survived by the skin of its teeth last years. It's now been put in what amounts to the TV dead zone - Friday nights at 9 - and has been cut to 13 episodes from 18. For a network that survives on smaller audience shares, the CW seems to be doing everything in its power to kill this series.

Which may be one of the great tragedies since 'Dollhouse' died a similar death. Despite all this, 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend' remains one of the most daring shows on TV.  Most of the credit for this goes to showrunner-lead actress Rachel Bloom, who won just about every Best Actress in a Comedy award except for the Emmy, and seems to be doing two things in every minute of the episode: dare the blind Emmy judges to ignore for her second straight year, and manage to charm us into liking her while trying to avoid her complete insanity. In the first season finale, Rebecca Bunch managed to finally win over the heart of hopelessly dim teenage crush Josh (Vincent Rodriguez III). Unfortunately, she then told him about her crush. And now things have gotten ridiculously awkward. They're still having lots of sex, and he's technically living with her (mainly because his ex kicked him out in the season finale), but there's a lot of awkwardness between them. Most of which, of course, is Rebecca's fault. Only she would decide to disguise herself as a ping-pong ace, then hire a twelve-year old to coach her on the game, and play her doubles partner, just to hang out with him.

Making this all the more awkward is the fact that for most of last season, she had an on-again, off-again affair with Greg (Santino Fontana), Josh's closest friend. Now, she's trying to make things better with him, only to learn that Greg is now attending AA meetings. Which is bad enough, but it turns out he's still harboring feelings for her.

Once again, the parallels to an earlier WB classic, Felicity, are apparent, except that it has become increasingly clear that neither side of this triangle should really be with Rebecca. As one fringe character put it so eloquently: "How is it that all my friends keep falling in love with this woman?"  The craziness has gotten to the point that Rebecca's other close friend, Paula, has realize just how nutty it is trying to keep up with her, and actually made her sign a contract keeping her away from any more of this insanity. She's now decided to try to go to law school herself, which just goes to show how addictive Rebecca's situation is.

Have I mentioned just how funny this series is? Last night, we had what amounted to one of the series highpoints when Greg led an Irish drinking song about just how dangerous alcohol was to him now, Paula had a number satirized a Disney musical which featured a stanza on diarrhea, and an entire sequence at an AA meeting where they discussed how important bringing doughnuts were.

I don't know if Crazy Ex-Girlfriend will survive past its second season. The fact that its been an award winner for a network that hasn't had many probably gives it some breathing room, but I have no idea how much. Being cast off to Friday's following Vampire Diaries, which is ending its run this year, hasn't helped boost it much. But its clearly had something of a life on streaming, and its more daring than a lot of the series being made on network TV.  I can only hope. That parts not Crazy.

My score: 4.5 stars.

X-Files Episode Guide: Terma

Written by Frank Spotnitz & Chris Carter

Directed by Rob Bowman

And.... now we drive over the cliff, and the end results are worse than what happens when Mulder does the same in Russia.

The conclusions of two-part episodes are invariably disappointing. After getting promises that the findings of part one will end up revealing world-changing proof of alien life or that the government is guilty beyond doubt, we always put the toys back in the box with nothing ever changing. People get killed, the evidence conveniently is destroyed, and our beleaguered heroes are left with nothing.  That's exactly what happens here, only this time is worse because it takes place before Congress, where--- even if you do buy into the idea that these people are just straw-men for the Consortium----  you'd think would have a level of importance. Scully is held in contempt of Congress (but we already knew that from the last episode) and the government has no interest in pursuing any evidence. That's bad enough, but when Mulder leaps to his feet and yells at them for basically not being able to believe in extra-terrestrial life, he sounds pathetic and ridiculous as it look. It's a terrible moment that makes Mulder look like the kook everyone thinks he is. I would like to say it's the worst moment in the episode, but it isn't--- it's just the most disheartening.

Oh, there are so many problems with Terma. All of the forward motion we got in the last episode is thrown away to be replaced with awful dialogue that just seems to hang there. Skinner and Scully are forced to say sentences at each other that are so long an unwieldy, you have the marvel at their capacity to relate them. William B. Davis and John Neville snap and snarl at each other in such an overdramatic, contempt-filled  way, you'd think they were auditioning for Grumpy Old Men.  The teaser which seems to come out of Kevorkian territory that just seemed like the writers are making a statement by writing into the mythology, which is borderline offensive.

But the worst part of the episode isn't the long rambling dialogue--- we're used to Carter-speak by now. It isn't that the writers are so busy with exposition they completely overlook vital plot points, like how the hell Mulder got out of Russia just in time to appear before the committee, or why the hell Krycek arm was amputated. It's not even that after establishing the conspiracy as international we're now going back into a Cold War type struggle, which wasn't even hinted at before.

No, it's the last few scenes, when it is revealed that Alex Krycek, who until this point has been defined as part of the American conspiracy is now revealed to be a Russian operative under the name of Comrade Arntzen, one powerful enough to get a Soviet killer out of retirement.  Even the most devoted fans of the series thought that this came completely out of left field, and it still stands as one of the biggest failures of the entire series. It's one thing to throw part of the plot away if  you're not comfortable with it; it's another to completely rewrite what a character is supposed to be for the sake of it.. None of Krycek's motivations for the last year and a half now make any sense. And it gets worse because now it seems we can't even believe how he got out of the missile silo, so they've thrown away part of what we learned in the same episode. For the remainder of his time on the series, Krycek's motivations or place in any part of the conspiracy will never make any sense, and it only can be seen as a clear demonstration that the writers didn't know they were doing when it came to the mytharc.

The episode is not entirely without effective moments. The scene with the Prisoner in the gulag where he tells Mulder of his desire to die, and then gives him the weapon that he was going to use to kill itself is fairly good, because at least its about something, and the work of Stefan Angrim is very effective. The assassin, Paskow, is also fairly interesting because he's one of the few characters on any side of the conspiracy that clearly has doubts about what he does, but is efficient at his job anyway. And the next to last shot revealing Krycek's false arm is effective---- they should've stopped right there. But the good moments are few and far between, and are lost in the middle of the same kind of scenes we've been getting for three years now, and its starting to get a little tiresome at this point. Unfortunately, we're due for a good many more of the bad then the good from this point on when its come to the mytharc.

Terma basically proves that Carter has no game plan when it comes to the mythology. Oh, he has ideas that are interesting--- the black oil looks interesting enough, and the ideas of smallpox being involved is a good concept---- but he's now proven that he's willing to throw characters under the bus in favor of the mytharc. Which is bad enough, but to do without any basic plan was criminal, considering he has now completely reversed himself as to where he was in the conspiracy that he was at this point in  Season 3. This mythology ultimate shifts as much as the Alien Bounty Hunters---- speaking of which, where were the aliens in this episode?

My score: 1.5 stars.

X-Files Episode Guide: Tunguska

Written by Frank Spotnitz & Chris Carter

Directed by Kim Manners

There eventually comes a time in any fan of The X-Files that they reach the point where you lose faith that Carter and company really know what they're doing with the mythology. This two-parter isn't quite the point for me, but we're getting pretty close. Which is something of a shame because for more than three-quarters of the episode, there actually seems to be a chance that we might be going somewhere.

The teaser is more interesting than usual, because the jeopardy that one of our heroes is facing isn't fatal, it's more basic than that--- Scully being held in threat of contempt of Congress is a major deal. Or it would be, you know, if we hadn't spent the last three years being told that our elected officials hold no power over the real evil in this world. Our heroes have faced far more vital threats to their lives; in that sense being threatened with indictment for treason seems... quaint, almost. Even the Smoking Man observing in the background seems more bemused than concerned.

What makes this episode work far better is the fact that we don't have so much of this double-talk that we have come to associate with the mytharc. In its place is violence and action, which for a change lends the episode a certain level of intensity that we are finding less and less often. It's not so much the fact that Krycek resurfaces---- having been liberated from his prison in North Dakota by a team of militia that he promptly turns on in order to get face to face with Mulder again--- its the fact that what he\represents is a genuine threat to the plans these men hold. (Though even here, there is a certain sloppiness. Krycek telling us "There is no truth. They just make it up as they go along" cuts a little too close to what we made be feeling about the writers at this point.)

Once again, we are promised major revelations and what we get is---- a rock. Yes, I know its a rock where the black oil seems to be hibernating, and that which we know is alien in origin. And yes, we know the fact it seems to be coming from diplomats would seem to indicate the international flavor of the conspiracy. We want to believe that it has the answers that Mulder is seeking, but at this point, I'm beginning to feel that Scully might have something of a  point when she comes to doubt what's in it.

Admittedly, the fact that Krycek seems to be taking a fair amount of abuse from everybody in this episode does add to the level of enjoyment. It's nice to see both Mulder and Skinner wailing on Krycek, and the scene where poor Alex is left to fend for himself when an attacker comes to search Skinner's apartment, and ends up hanging on for dear life is more exciting than usual. And I really think Mulder would've been better off if he'd left Krycek to freeze in his car. Maybe the mytharc would be better off too, because this is where things start to go off the rails.

The fact that Krycek seems to speak Russian just as Mulder is about to leave for his diplomatic flight to Siberia always struck me as a little too convenient, even when I saw it nearly twenty years ago. But the 'trust no one' Mulder decides to take Krycek with him to Tunguska where the cosmic event that took place in 1908 actually happened. It's an interesting approach, but in retrospect it again seems a little too convenient--- everything in our experience has let us think that the conspiracy was international in flavor. The fact that we seem to be getting back into Cold War mentality always seemed to be a step backward for the series. It was fun seeing it  in last week's episode, but that was clearly a satire of the genuine feel of conspiracies in our history--- once again, Carter seems to be taking a comic look at the mytharc and playing it as if it were straight. Someone's got to tell Carter what a joke is.

There are some other parts of this episode that work particularly well. Seeing CSM actually in a position of leverage over Skinner after the way he's been threatening him the last time they spoke in Paper Clip, lends a certain edge to him that has been lacking in the mytharc recently. Seeing CSM and the Well-Manicured Man have a very loud argument is also well done, as we've now begun to see that they represent two different factions in the Syndicate that are coming into conflict. But not that long after that Mulder and Krycek are taken prisoner, and once again the doubts are starting to circle, especially when the Prisoner in the gulag tells Mulder that Krycek is speaking formally to the guards. I'm sure that when Carter and Spotnitz did this, they thought they were adding wrinkles to the character. What they were doing was sowing the seeds of their destruction.

Oh, don't get me wrong--- Tunguska is a pretty good episode. There's a lot of tension and anger rather than the double-talk we usually get, and for once we have two genuine cliffhangers ---- Mulder being held prisoner in Russia, infected with the black oil, and Scully in D.C. trying to protect Mulder, and risking contempt of Congress. There are also some good performances by Pileggi and Davis, and the late Fritz Weaver adds a great deal of majesty to his brief appearance. But from hindsight, it's clear that this around the point where the rubber started to leave the road. It's not certain  here---- and maybe not even in the conclusion--- but there are dark signs ahead.

My score: 3.5 stars.

The X-Files Episode Guide: Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man

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X-Files Episode Guide: Sanguinarium

Written  by Valerie Mayhew and Vivian Mayhew

Directed by Kim Manners

Ewww.

A few weeks ago, we visited the extreme grotesquerie of Home, and I thought that its darkness and gore made it one of the more powerful episodes of the series. Now, we have Sanguinarium (and oh, if you know your Latin, you know just what this title implies) examining the extreme bloodbaths of a plastic surgery ward, and while the level of gore isn't that much greater, the effect is somewhat more revolting--- and more to the point, less effective dramatically. (I don't why Home was taken out of syndication, and this one never has. Maybe it's because incest trumps liposuctions).

Maybe the other reason is the authors are far less experienced at trying to make comparison. Morgan & Wong in Home were taking on some of the more virulent strains of  American values, but they'd been doing this so long and so well, that the satiric tone seemed to play better. One would be hard pressed to argue that vanity and personal appearance have now become the more advanced American values, but the Mayhew sisters don't seem to be interested in following those same tangent. So they try to cover their basis by throwing this under the idea of demonic possession, with a side of witchcraft thrown in. What they seem to be more interesting in dealing with is gory set-pieces, and while the teaser is shockingly effective, the more we see of it, the less effective it becomes. By the time Dr. Franklyn is peeling his own face of with a scalpel, its all but become a running  gag (emphasis on 'gag')

There's also the more important fact that Mulder and Scully are practically useless in this episode. It's ironic that the staff of this surgery clinic worries about how the FBI's appears will bring ruination upon the hospital, in actually, they can do  nothing to stop the blood rituals that Dr. Franklyn has invoked. They basically go from death to death trying to catch up, and they never accomplish anything. At this point, its probably ridiculous to blame X-Files for having episodes where our heroes accomplish nothing----- but for them to figure out who is behind the deaths, stop him at what appears to be the final moments, only to have him slaughter one last victim who just happens to have the same birthday as Halloween, seems too big of a coincidence to let go. (And if that death was the one he had in mind, why did he carve Dr. Shannon's name into the pentagram with the other victims? This is the kind of flaw in the  writing Morgan & Wong would have been able to spot in advanced. Once you've foiled the villain, there isn't much point to seeing that he gets away with it anyway.

At this point, the more obvious flaw comes from the writers--- the Mayhew sisters were writing their first and only script for the series--- and clearly they had only the vaguest of ideas as to how the series worked. (A couple of years, they would have a completely different view as to witchcraft when they helped create the hit series Charmed.) They have the ideas of what the crimes involve and there's definitely some interesting set pieces---- the idea that the practicing witch in the story is actually on the good side is an interesting quest, but since her craft takes the form  of the clichés we have come to expect that, its hard to see her as much of a hero. It's also never explained how exactly Dr. Franklyn managed to make her choke up hundreds of pins when she was trying to tell Mulder and Scully whose behind this. Both Richard Beymer and O-Lan Jones give very good performances, but neither is allowed to act much out of the caricatures they are being forced to play in.

Admittedly, there are some good bits on display here---- Mulder pointed to the broomstick on Nurse Waite's porch, and saying 'probable cause?'  And the way that Mulder finds himself reconsidering his own vanity on the surgery ward shows that he seems to still be considering this place for a nose job. But unlike the laughs we got in Home, which were more a need for relief from the horrors that were on display--- the few we gets seem to be even more out of touch than usual. They feel like jokes for the sake of jokes, and these writers don't have the same track record as some of the better comic writers.

Ultimately, Sanguinarium is just a messy episode that seems to be trading on the series penchant for darker and more unsettling set pieces we've getting this season. Only like quite a few episodes this seasons, the setpieces don't hold up very well for an actual story. The overall effect is one of just  bloody confusion that provides few scares and fewer laughs.

My score: 2.5 stars.

X-Files Episode Guide: The Field Where I Died

Written by Glen Morgan & James Wong

Directed by Rob Bowman

Of all the episodes that I have watched so far, this one is the first I really wasn't looking forward to watching again. There were very few episodes of X-Files that I considered truly dreadful the first time around, but The Field Where I Died was one of the group that I considered the most pretentious of the lot.  It also didn't seem to show Mulder in  a particularly good light---- here the ATF and FBI are trying to stop a cult from committing either a massive attack or a mass suicide, and here's our hero undergoing hypnosis to try and remember whether or not he spent his past life with the female guest star of the week. It seemed the definition of fiddling when Rome burned, particularly because we got so little in return--- the regression sequences for Mulder is one of the most painful sequences you will ever see on the series, not because it's powerful or moving, but because it seems to be one of the most hideous cases of overacting you'll see on television.  I know the last time I reviewed this episode, I gave it only a 1 (and that was on a scale from one to ten.) Just put it on the list of worst episodes ever and move on.

The critical response to this episode, much like that of Talitha Cumi, has also undergone significant divergent. At the time the episode originally aired in 1996, Entertainment Weekly gave it an F. The passage of time has been a little kinder to it, and other viewers of the series have been more favorable. But even in the favorable reviews of the episode, I have tended to see under the heading 'daring, but not nearly as good as its trying to be." One gets that feeling from both Duchovny and Kirsten Cloke, who plays Melissa, the wife of  Vernon Ephesian, the head of a Hale-Bopp- Jim Jones type cult located in the south.  One wants to give credit to Cloke for giving a very brave and radical performance as  a woman so tormented by her life at the Church of the Seven Stars that she has started to see her own past lives. The problem is, it's just not good enough.  Frankly, every time she started to channel one of her past lives, I grimaced in pain, the accents and tones of people of different eras and sexes were so horrible. And poor David Duchovny--- the scene where he is regressed hypnotically first to the Holocaust, then to the Civil War  features writhing so painful that you'll wonder who the hell he's trying to channel---- William Shatner?

But maybe time was a little kinder to this episode than some of the others, or maybe I was just a little more patient. Whatever the reason I didn't loathe it with the same disgust I did Teso Dos Bichos  or Excelsis Dei. Perhaps  it was because I seemed to realize the point of what Mulder was trying to do. With less than twenty four hours before Ephesian and his followers are released to the compound to do something dreadful, Mulder and Scully are trying to find something--- anything--- that can avert this tragedy from happening. So Mulder tries to find a link with Melissa that might reveal where the bunker of weapons are, even if it involves trying to find out about her past life in  the Civil War. Mulder is so desperate to find this stash he undergoes hypnosis himself, and seems to find a  connection between himself and Melissa.

Of course, some people hold grudges against this episode for other reasons---- mainly that Mulder's soulmate through the eons seems to be this poor troubled woman, and not Scully. As a shipper, I can see their frustration. As a writer, though, I'm inclined to give the episode a little more credit for not going to the obvious link, and have Mulder and Scully be friends throughout the centuries and not lovers. It's a sweet and rather charming thing to think, and because Carter still was holding fast to the idea that Mulder and Scully would never, ever be romantically involved (who knows? At this stage, he might even have meant it), there's a daring there, too.

But what makes this episode such a dark one is the fact that Melissa is too damaged to even believe in past lives or that there's anything good waiting in this one. That may have been the point by Morgan and Wong, but its effect is to make the whole episode seem a little pointless. The episode ends with one of the bleakest finales the series would ever do, with Mulder walking through the bodies of the suicides of the cult, a tragedy that the FBI foretold, and yet was absolutely useless in preventing. The problem is, despite being on all the characters minds, the writers have spent so much time dealing with the past lives that the tragedy is considerably blunted when we get there. And by now, we've gotten so used to hearing purple prose in voiceover that when we actually hear poetry (Robert Browning, I think) we just think: did Carter get called in to write this section too?

The Field Where I Died is not a great episode--- indeed, I think my original finding that this is Morgan & Wong's weakest script still holds up after nearly two decades. However, it's probably more do the high quality of their work overall rather than the fact that this episode sucks. At least it continues to demonstrate that they're willing to be more daring after their hiatus from the series It's still muddled, bleak, and ultimately unsatisfying--- but I no longer think that its the disaster I did when I first saw it. Who knows? Maybe in my next life, I'll consider it a classic. But for now:

My rating: 2.5 stars.

CW Retrospective: Jane The Virgin Review

Greg Berlanti's series for the CW have been among the biggest audience getters in the networks, occasionally even raising the network as high as third in their time slot. While these DC-based series are intriguing on their own, an interesting side benefit is that it has allowed for a certain level of experimentation among the remainder of the series. Last season, the CW showed a remarkable amount of faith in its programs by renewing every series that was airing on its 2015-16 bloc. This was particularly good news for a couple of low-performing shows that are not only among the best programs on the network, but on the air, period.

One of their more stealth success has been the delightful Jane the Virgin. A rollicking satire based on a telenovela, its dallies in the same world that series like Desperate Housewives played in, but with a much more intriguing twist. For one thing, the title character Jane Villanueva (the underappreciated Gina Rodriguez) has been dealing with more twists in her life while determining to keep her virginity until her wedding night. After nearly a season and a half of dallying between accidental baby daddy Rafael and former fiancé Michael, she finally settled on the latter and married him in the season finale. Michael then was shot in the final minutes after the wedding by his partner, who was finally revealed to be long-dead Sin Rostro.

The season premiered with one of the most serious episode the show has dealt with so far, as Michael hovered between life and death. In all honesty, I really believed that they might kill him off, even though it would've been a major tonal shift away from most of the series, especially given how dark the nature of TV is these days. I think one of the greatest moments of joy came when he finally came through his surgery, and hopefully the series can get back to lighter things.

And to a certain extent, it has. Michael and Jane have once again moved back home, finding that they had to have Abuela (Jane's grandmother) take care of him, and that they'd have to wait on sex a little longer. (Hence the subtitle: Jane the 'married' Virgin'.  Everyone is dealing with issues of their own. Rafael seems to finally have gotten over his feelings for Jane. Unfortunately, he now has another set of problems to deal with, as his ex-wife Petra (Yvonne Coll) is trying to reconcile with him. What he doesn't know is that Petra has actually been paralyzed by Ivanka, Petra's twin sister (also played by Coll, in another role that the Emmys will have to really work hard to ignore) and the Ivanka is trying to blackmail Rafael. Xo. Jane's mother, is still dealing with an unwanted pregnancy, and has just had a major fight with her grandmother about having an abortion. (Given TV's and the series opinions, its unclear if the show will get around to it) And Rogelio (Jamie Camil, still excellent) has been trying to help his family as well as launch his Quantum Leap type telanovela into an American crossover.

It's admittedly a lot to deal with, but Jane has never had much trouble finding its bearings no matter how convoluted the premise gets. Indeed, part of the reason the viewer is never really lost is because of the delightful narrator (Anthony Mendes) who is more than willing to remind us of what's going on, and the wonderful subtitles, a combination of hashtags and reminders that are almost as funny as the action going on.

This is one of the more delightful series on the air, and the fact that its barely being recognized by any audience except TV critics and ignored by the Emmys is yet more proof that the Emmys judges have their heads firmly up their asses. I sincerely hope that Supergirl gives this series even the smallest of boosts in audience. They may have little in common except a great female lead, but that shouldn't stop people from watching anyway.

My score: 4.25 stars.

Homicide Episode Guide: See No Evil

10.See No Evil

Written by Paul Attanasio

Directed by Chris Menaul

         When Homicide was commissioned in 1993, NBC programmers were so sure that it would succeed that they ordered four additional scripts from the production team. When the show only received middling ratings (at least in 1993 terms) the network backed away. Network head Warren Littlefield was committed to the show, however, and so made an arrangement that those four episodes would be filmed and no others. Technically, these four episodes were the ‘second’ season of Homicide. However, almost every fan of the show considers it an addendum to the first. The creators seemed to think so as well; all four episodes that were filmed were set  immediately after the last episode of season 1.

          In the year between the season 1 and season 2, there were a few subtle changes in the style of the show.  The color of the cinematography who been toned up a little. The camerawork would also change a little with fewer multi-angled shots, though they would still appear occasionally. More importantly, Fontana and co. would begin reducing the number of storylines per episode. Since the second season was so short ,however, it would be hard to notice these changes. They would become increasingly clear as the series moved on into later years.

         To be perfectly honest, it is hard to notice the changes in the episode that should have been aired first in sequence:  ‘See No Evil’. (This episode would be the second aired for reasons which will be explained later). We are still involved with crime  with a mixture of suspense and a raw humor (though in this case the humor is related to an outside activity) There  are a lot of uneasy and provocative questions that are raised and little answers.

         The most obvious of the questions raised comes from the main story of the episode: Is assisted suicide on behalf of terminally ill people merciful or is it homicide? This is a question that Beau Felton must confront in regard to Harry Prentice. This question is elevated by the fact that the main suspect, the victims son Chucky, is also a childhood friend of his. Felton must confront this issue twice in the course of the episode. The first time appears when he learns that Prentice has retained a doctor to bring about the end of his life. He knows about the pain that the old man is in, but can not seem to reject his belief in the law. The second time occurs after Chuckie has killed his father. He knows that the act is wrong but he also knows that he can do nothing about it except try and save his friend. Daniel Baldwin gives his most complex and emotional performances as Felton. Not only do we get a great deal of insight into his life growing up, we see that despite the fact that (as he admits) he isn’t much of a cop, he still has the capacity to deal with moral issues.

         It is interesting to contrast Felton’s behavior with that of Meldrick Lewis. When he learns of Felton’s attempts to tam- with his investigation, we see one of the loudest display of emotion from the normally calm detective. We see that at this point in his career, he still has very clear cut ideas of what makes up a ‘real’ murder. AS he puts it : “You go when its time to go, and all the rest is homicide’. Yet, in the end, he uses his discretion to turn Chuckie loose. This goes to show that Lewis is not, like many detectives, made of stone.

         A clear contrast to this emerges is Frank Pembleton’s investigation in to the shooting of  C.C. Cox. A drug dealer and suspect in a police investigation, Cox apparently dies from a stray bullet from an officers gun. However, it soon becomes very clear that the officer did not, accidentally or otherwise, fire the shot that killed Cox. There are several unpleasant possibilities in the murder of Cox, the most obvious which is that a police officer shot Cox. This does not however, deter, Pembleton from pursuing the shooter with  more dedication than a scumbag like Cox  probably deserves. As we are coming to learn about Pembleton, every murder must be avenged, every killer apprehended no matter what the cost.

         Normally Lieutenant Giardello would applaud this kind of dedication.  However, he displays a surprising amount of resistance to any kin of investigation which would impugn police officers. First, he resents the brass’ decision to let the initial suspect twist in the wind for a few days, and then he refuses to let Pembleton bring in police officers gun’s to check if theirs is the gun that killed Cox--- which causes Pembleton to go over Gee’s head for perhaps the only time in working for him. It should be mentioned that the higher-ups in the police department show no qualms about doing either of these actions, which further shows how far removed they are from the real police.  Keeping in with the tradition of earlier Homicide’s this investigation is not resolved until the next episode.

         What little humor in this episode that there is occurs when the department recommends sensitivity training for the squad.. Most of the humor comes from Bolander’s refusal to take any part in something that he considers ridiculous. Naturally, Munch is rather pissed at this, and delivers one of his funnier diatribes to a bartender and a very amused clientele of a restaurant. And then there is an amusing sequence where the already- sensitive Bayliss speaks impassionedly to the doctor only to realize that she is not the person he remembers. Yet even in this humor we see some very serious character insight. Kay Howard’s discussion reveals some of her deep misgivings of working with men who investigate mostly male killers and then trying to date  one. We also get more insight into the fragile behavior of Munch combined with his own relationship woes. Rarely will we get such insight into the characters of this show.

            There are no easy answers to the questions posed in ‘See No Evil’. Maybe there are no answers at all. Like the detectives themselves, things are more often then not seen in shades of gray—or blue.
My score: 4.5 stars.

An Argument Against Binge Watching

This may be nothing more than a demonstration that I am hopelessly out of touch with the generation of Youtube and the Internet and getting next weeks episode a day in advance.. Nevertheless, I'm going to give my best effort.

Recently, I became aware of the phenomena known as 'binge watching' a series all at once thanks to  Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. I have learned that people get caught up on series like Mad Men and The Wire over a period of days. I've actually known about it for quite some time, but was too appalled by the idea to write anything about it.

I have always felt the desire when I was hopelessly behind in a TV series that premiered to critical acclaim, but for one reason or another, I didn't watch the first season. Then time passed, and given the nature of the series, one was hopelessly behind.  (I never did get caught up on the first few seasons of The Shield.) With the age of DVD box sets and Netflix, things became easier. But even with this easy access, I always portioned out how I watched the series: one episode a week, like if I was a regular viewer. This rule would even serve me for series that were cancelled, such as Deadwood.

I've held to this pattern even with the deluge of new media making it easier for anybody to get caught up on a series. After Bryan Cranston won his third consecutive Emmy, I realized that I had to get caught up on Breaking Bad. Like millions before me, I turned to Netflix. Unlike those millions, I staggered my viewing to one episode a week. As I savored the brilliant writings and Cranston's descent into a criminal underworld, I became as addicted to it as Jesse was to heroin in Season 2. But even as my mind demanded more episodes, I steadfastly kept the pace at a deliberate feed. And I believe that this deliberate parceling out of the episode made me savor the glorious moments more than somebody who streamlined through them in a matter of weeks. I actually took a month between the last two episodes of Season 4. And even though I knew what was coming (you can't avoid spoilers) I was blindsided by the spectacular 'Face Off'. I may know what's coming in Season 5, but I'm still waiting cautiously to see how it comes out. I'll finish it in time for the final eight episodes, but I'm in no hurry to get it done

I've held firm to these principles even with series I've already seen. When I decided to develop my episode guide for Lost (much of which has been published at this site) I naturally decided to rewatch the entire series. I didn't do it all at once (like it was satirized in the recent hit comedy This is 40) , but took a full two years to go through every episode week by week. And I believe this restraint helped me discover what worked so well about the show. I still have great dismay about the shows final season and the last few episodes, but by rewatching it an episode at a time from start to finish made me remember how fresh the characters seemed, how good the acting was, and how well developed the relationships on the show came to be over time. Maybe you'll get the same feeling if you go through the series in a month, but I highly doubt it.

I know that in the age of instant gratification and revelation where every detail of the story is revealed weeks in advance, it is passe to apply to these rules, but maybe there's a lesson to be learned from it. When Netflix developed the fourth season of Arrested Development,  a lot of the people who viewed it were dramatically disappointed by it, and I can't help but think maybe that's because they tried to take it all in at once. Arrested Development was a series that needed to be watched slowly to appreciate the layers of the humor and comedy. It is like ice cream, and maybe the people who watched it all at once got the equivalent of brain freeze.

Maybe I'm wrong to take TV like this. All I know is that there are great series out there that I have never watched. Someday soon, I'm going to see Friday Night Lights. And when I do, I'm going to watch it as the networks intended: one episode at a time. 

X-Files Episode Guide: Unruhe

Written by Vince Gilligan

Directed by Rob Bowman

The first episode of the series to air on Sunday night is also the first episode aired out of order (it was the second episode of Season 4) Made to air after Millennium took its time slot,  it plays as one of the darker and more unsettling episodes of the series. It also plays remarkably like one of the more 'straight' X-Files and highlights one of the more obvious discords.

For once, the element of the supernatural seems almost incidental to the nature of the story. Indeed, Mulder's obsessive nature over the finding these 'thoughtographs' seems almost trivial in comparison with the hideousness of the crimes that are being committed. It ends up making Mulder, for the first half of the story, someone who is more obsessed with the paranormal then with the body count that is piling up. Scully, by contrast, seems more repulsed by the nature of the crime than in any episode since Irresistible (and that's not the only echo of  that were going to have). The crimes do seem to warrant it. The murders of these young women that the killer is trying to 'save' are some of the more unsettling ones we've seen the show do in awhile, partly because they seem more monstrous in nature.

Throughout his career,  writer Gilligan will demonstrate a remarkable ability to make the inhuman seem human, making us see the man behind the monster. Gerry Schnauz (named, as we will find out, in honor of a friend and future colleague of Gilligan's)  is made out to be clearly disturbed, the victim of some kind of horrible abuse from his father that led to his sister's suicide. Unable to deal with these horrors, his personality has become so warped that it seems to have the power to do so to photographs. Yet there is an element of humanity to Schnauz despite all this--- after all, there is the fact that he genuinely believes he's helping his victims--- and in the final minutes of his interaction with Scully, he seems to realize there is some element of the devil in him after all. In what will become a recurring theme of Gilligan throughout his Season 4 scripts, the monstrous elements of the man don't make him seem like less of a human being. Full credit, too, should be given to veteran character actor Pruitt Taylor Vince, early enough in a long and successful career to seem equal parts victim and perpetrator.

 In part because of Mulder's obsessive nature involving these photographs, he looks a bit flakier than he normally does. It therefore falls to Gillian Anderson to do the leg work. She figures out how the killer chooses his victims and her instant leap when Mulder tells her about a certain element in the photograph to connect with who the killer is spot on  One therefore chafes a little to learn that, yes, this is another episode where Scully gets abducted. (Admittedly, its the first time in a year, but still, it's getting a little trite by now.) What makes this abduction different than the others is that Scully actively takes a part in trying to save herself, and trying to convince Schnauz of his madness. (Unfortunately for her, it works a little too well)  It's a startling scene that makes us realize just how strong Scully is. What we don't understand is why Schnauz sees 'unrest' in her, anymore then the other victims. (Then again, perhaps as with Clyde Bruckman a year ago, maybe he knows somehow what's coming for Scully.)  At the end of the episode, when Scully is like always writing the end of case notes, she seems more disgusted and revolted than usual. (Anyone doubt me, just look at the end of last week's episode and contrast) It's as if the horrors of the event have risen up through her gorge more than usual.

Unruhe is not quite a perfect episode. I'm still not sure how Mulder figured out where Schnauz was keeping Scully, or what exactly the 'sixth finger' is supposed to represent. And considering that the episode ends with no clearer reason as to why these women were being tormented by 'the howlers' , seems to be a gulf that the series should have tried to clear up. But by and large this episode is one of the show's underrated gems. Like Oubilette last year, its difficult to watch and difficult  to like, but its one of the series more restrained looks into the mouth of madness.

My score: 4.5 stars.

X-Files Episode Guide: Teliko

Written by Howard Gordon

Directed by Jim Charleston

One wants to give this episode more credit than it deserves, but the sad truth is that this is simply one of the more unimaginative and pedestrian episodes of the series. One wants to give Gordon for not falling back on his old staple of paranormal revenge, except that in doing so he blatantly steals the basic idea from one of the founding episodes of this series.

Because what this episode resembles is a rip-off of Eugene Tooms, both in basic principle (Samuel Aboah kills for melanin, Tooms for livers) and it basic foundation (Aboah turns pale when he needs his fix, Tooms turns jaundiced) and both had the ability to squeeze themselves into really tiny places. Now there's room for variation on this theme, if its done well, Jeffrey Vlaming demonstrated a certain imagination with Virgil Incanto in 2Shy, and we'll see another, much better variation of it later this season. But Gordon doesn't seem to have the fundamental ability to go into deeper meanings of what it means to drain the pigmentation of a black man.

That's the thing that Gordon doesn't have the strength to deal with. Given an opportunity to take a look at race, or among the principles of immigration, he instead opts to take the direction of so many weaker first and second season episodes of the series, and simply tell the story of the teliko as though it were nothing more than an African myth made real. Thus what could have been an interesting story devolves into a story like Shapes or Red Museum, detached and apart from so much of the modern world. And it's not enough that he does this, he tries to give this story something a conspiracy flair where it doesn't belong--- he changes the title phrase to 'Deceive, Inveigle, Obfuscate', and has Mulder and Scully keep repeating it for no real good reason, he has Mulder and Scully try to give it more urgency by passing over the question of why Aboah would come to America in the first place, he has Mulder meet with Covarrubias for reasons that don't seem to give the show any sting. It doesn't seem to have the urgency of one of X's visit or Deep Throat's pronouncements; it just seems that Mulder is trying to get a date with the pretty blond chick who works at the UN.

And what makes this such a shame is that there are some very good African American actors presents given roles that could potentially have great power that are essentially wasted. Carl Lumbly, one of the more gifted black actors, is given the wasted role of a social worker, and the script can't decide whether he'd be better served as an advocate for Aboah or a victim of his---- so it has him be both and neither. Zakes Mokae,  a truly legendary African actor has a great deal of majesty in his presence, but in this episode he's basically just given the role akin to a tribal elder and one can't help but feel the wasted opportunity. The music doesn't help either, with Mark Snow demonstrating, not for the first time, that his ability to produce interesting music from another culture is essentially nil.

Now don't get me wrong. There are a lot of dreadful episodes in X-File lore, and this one isn't even close to that horrible. It's not even a series worst for Gordon, who was in the middle of the pack as far his ability to write for this series went. But basically Teliko doesn't have anything new to say and isn't delivered very interestingly. It doesn't even have the ability to be as painful as some of the other episodes this season will be. Its a monster-of-the-week episode that doesn't even bother to create an original monster. its a refreshing change of pace to have Scully save Mulder's life instead of the other way around, but considering that whole episode seems to come down to whether she can read the message in his eyes doesn't say much for the writing. We'll see worse episodes for the series, but very few as  with as little ambition as this one.

My score: 2 stars.

X-Files Episode Guide: Home

Written by Glen Morgan & James Wong

Directed by Kim Manners

The opening images of this episode, even decades later after series like Criminal Minds and SVU, are still among the most revolting in TV history. It's not because they're more disgusting than what we tend to get with broadcast fare these days, it's because what we are seeing overloads the senses to a degree that we had almost never seen on TV before, and despite all this, will rarely see again. Based on that, one can understand why Fox, when this episode first aired in 1996, took out of syndication and didn't put it back til five years with very graphic warnings. One almost wonders if these days they'd even bother to do that much.

The imagery that we see and the crimes that are depicted are part of a new phase from Morgan & Wong that we will see in their fourth season episodes. One wonders if this in part a reaction to their being dragged back in the world of a show they spent the first two years mastering. One could almost make the argument that what the Peacock family is doing falls under the watchword of The X-Files at all---- Mulder and Scully certainly seem to think so, and given  their reactions throughout the episode, one can tell just how far they have been drawn outside their comfort zone. Morgan & Wong have satirized small-town values before on this show--- their last chronological episode Die Hand Die Verlezt was an out and out satire of it--- but even compared to this, they seem like gentle pokes in the side compared to what we see here. One can tell that Sheriff Taylor (the first in  a series of fascinating performances by Space: Above  & Beyond veterans--- in this case, Tucker Smallwood) looks upon the coming of the FBI and the horror of this murder as an affront to everything he holds dear. The Peacock family, latest in a generation brought about by decades of inbreeding, have the same fears. They have been satisfied to orbit around each other without violence--- it is only the coming of Mulder and Scully that brings them into conflict.

Division among where this episode ranks among X-Files fans differs radically depending on who you ask. Some have thought it a brilliant and darkly fascinating episode--- perhaps in the tradition of Grand Guignol.  Certainly, it was one of the most highly rated of fans early on--- but that may have just been an example of absence making the heart grow fonder. There is  a tending to revile this episode as a grotesquerie of some of the most horrible impulses that man is capable of, but compared with what gets on, say, the most recent episode of Hannibal, it seems positively mild in comparison.

Perhaps what revolts people is seeing Mulder and Scully trying to gag their way through the horrors of Home as if it were just a traditional monster of the week episode, when in fact the horrors of what are going on with the Peacock family---- particularly the horror show that both figuratively and literally is their mother--- are in many ways far more frightening and harder to dismiss than a liver eating mutant.  Some part of me, though, can't help but wonder if this in itself is a commentary on the complacency of the series, considering some of the horrors that they've viewed so far. You wouldn't want to have to go through this every week--- God knows, there are enough TV series where we see this--- but for a single episode its well done  And the fact is, there are some absolutely chilling bits that, mixed in with the unusual amount of gore create images that are among the high points for the series. The scenes where the Peacock brothers get in their car, drive over to the Taylor's house, and brutally murder them, all to the sounds of 'Wonderful, Wonderful' stands out as one of the great pieces the series will ever do.

And much as we can be astounded by how the personal seems to intervene in our heroes lives, one finds it hard to believe how this place--- of all places--- makes Mulder want to return to a simpler life (which considering how nightmarish his childhood must have actually been, )is remarkable. And that seeing a child born with the most horrifying birth defects leads to Scully thinking about becoming a mother becomes particularly galling when we learn what appears to be the fate of her ability to give birth later this season. (We'll deal with the idea of Scully becoming a mother when we have to)

Let's be honest. Home is not an episode for everybody, even among the most rabid devotees of the series. It's a  lot easier to admire it then it is to enjoy, and even the gags that resonate (Scully's reaction to her nephews near constant viewing of Babe, Mulder's to when he find an article in the Peacock house to Elvis dying) seem a little had to stomach given the horrors that the Peacocks bring with them. But it's well directed, well shot, and some of the most god-awful frightening moments in the history of the series that guarantee you will never listen to Johnny Mathis the same way again. For that reason, it has to be regarded as one of the series most remarkable achievements, even though, like some great works of art, once you've seen it, you can't imagine watching it again.

My score: 4.75 stars.

X-Files Episode Guide: Herrenvolk

Written by Chris Carter

Directed by R.W. Goodwin

Most of the conspiracy episodes are filled with long deathless monologues of purple prose in place of action. Herrenvolk takes the fairly unique approach of having long stretches of action--- the opening chase sequence where Jeremiah Smith, Mulder and Scully run from the Alien Bounty Hunter goes on for nearly four minutes with almost no dialogue at all. It's certainly a refreshing change of pace from what we normally get with the mytharc episodes. But refreshing doesn't necessarily make it much of an improvement.

At this point in the series, we know that whenever someone talks about 'revealing the truth' that we're going to get lots of explanation and nothing lasting. Herrenvolk takes that same approach, only this time without the benefit of the explanation. Mulder goes on an overnight trip to Canada based on the explanation that Jeremiah will explain 'the project to him' and yet somehow manages to empty the tank of his car without having that conversation. Just when Mulder gets as frustrated as we are, the Alien Bounty Hunter emerges from the highway determined to kill Smith and they start running again. In one of his rare speeches,  the Bounty Hunter taunts Mulder by telling him that Smith 'only tells him pieces' and 'he knows nothing of the whole'. I hate to be the one to say this, but this alien was telling more of the truth than Smith did.

What makes it so galling is that this foretells a major shift in the characters. Up until now, when either Mulder and Scully have the chance to either learn more abut the truth or be by the person they love in the hospital bed, they have invariably chosen the latter. This time, knowing that he has the man who can get his mother off the respirator, Mulder instead elects to go on the midnight train to Canada. This can't help but be considered a step in the wrong direction, particular since Mulder walks away from the experience with no real more knowledge about colonization. Oh, there are some interesting fact--- we've got a lot of clones around, one of whom seems to be the child Samantha Mulder--- but most of what we know seems to deal mostly with bees. Now I'm not saying the bees part of the mythology isn't any more gimmicky than anything else we've learned about so far, but trying to figure out why Chris Carter, rather than sticking with the mythology he has decides to devote an episode to killer bees, doesn't seem to make much sense

What's going on with Scully, as is so frequently the case in these mytharc episodes, is far more interesting. Trying to go through the data that the Smiths have been collecting at the various Social Security office leads to some more interesting ideas. With the help of X, she manages to narrow down that through the Smallpox Eradication Program, the government is finding a way to tag and catalog is fairly more  unnerving than watching Mulder and Jeremiah Smith climb through an apiary (and frankly, would be more fitting in with the realness of the mytharc we explored last year).

But all of this is ultimately frustrating when the Bounty Hunter removes Smith from the equation, and, to all intents and purposes, from the series. Apparently, Carter takes the position that this series isn't big enough for two groups of aliens, and just like he did with the Gregors in Colony, there's almost no sign of Smith for the remainder of the series. Given what we learn about the Bounty Hunters healing touch, one could see why he  might have found having another alien superfluous, but considering that he seems to be eliminating the more interesting characters in favor of black oil and bees, one can sort of see why we now begin to realize Carter's stretching out the mythology without much regard for the viewer. It's starting to get irritating

This episode is also fairly depressing because X falls for the conspiracy's manipulations and is eliminated by one of the Syndicate's triggermen. It does, however, lead to one of the standout death sequences, where X uses his lifeblood to point Mulder in the right direction for his next informant, Marita Covarrubias. There's also something fairly shocking in seeing the CSM managing to get a favor out of the Bounty Hunter to heal Mrs. Mulder, using an argument so false sounding, one would have to be inhuman to not ferret out the lies. There's also a certain irony that the creature that seems to put an end to any home of saving her turns out to be the means to her  eventual recovery.

Herrenvolk isn't a terrible episode by any means, but given the level of the season openers we've had so far, its something of a disappointment. Still, it does feature one of  Duchovny's better performances so far, which is something of a first for him. There's also a fairly good valedictory performance by Steven  Williams as X  and continued good work by Roy Thinnes. However, like an increasing amount of the mytharc, it seems in the end like a wasted opportunity. There were so many good elements of the mythos that could be well utilized so far. To add new ones, and to just have sequences that comes as teasers rather than actual promises---- well, even those getting perturbed with the mythology at this stage in the series would've begun to have their patience worn out. I wasn't worn down yet, but the creaks in the mytharc are starting to show.

My score: 3.25 stars.

CW Berlanti, Part 3: Arrow Review

In my review for Arrow, the Berlanti-DC series that launched the whole trend, I said that the fourth season had looked like it was possibly going to be lighter in tone than the very dark third season. I should've known better. Last season was so dark - or should I said, Darhk, eventually involving the death of an original cast member, Laurel Lance that it practically made the third season seem cheerful in comparison. By the end of the season, which nearly ended with an apocalypse instead of just a threat to the city, even the remaining member of Oliver Queen's team had gotten to the point where they couldn't handle being vigilantes anymore. Thea Queen gave up her cape, John Diggle reenlisted, and Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards, by far the heart of the show) officially broke up with Oliver.

It's small wonder that Oliver, who ended up being sworn in as mayor in the season finale, has begun to feel the darkness closing in. In addition to going equally hard as the Green Arrow, he has been very reluctant to take on help. And God knows he needs it. Still trying to take on the duties as mayor, he is now dealing with a gang-runner who seems determined to take over the criminal enterprises (Chad L. Coleman, familiar to those of us who watched The Wire). Add to that a more  deadly archer only given the code name 'Prometheus',  and you can see why Oliver is finally giving into the need to get help. It's taken him four years, but he finally seems to realize that his going it alone approach isn't going to work. The fact that he's finally willing to admit his failings, albeit to another vigilante who was enpowered by the critical failings of last season, makes you realize that there is at last some hope for progress. And given his final willing to trust his new team, including tech Curtis, a science geek, who as Oliver puts it "speaks Felicity", there may be some hope that he's about to get himself pointed in the right direction.

It's a good thing, too, because some of his other friends desperately need the help. Quentin Lance (Paul Blackthorne, still this series secret weapon), who took some of the most driving blows last season, has lost his job, his girlfriend, and his battle with the bottle, trying instead to face up to the duty of being deputy mayor. (Considering that Oliver's admitted he got the majority of his political experience by binge watching The West Wing, I have a feeling this could be a full-time job.) And Diggle has run into major trouble in the army -framed for trying to steal a nuclear weapon by a superior officer, he now faces a court-martial and prison, a fate he somehow thinks he deserves because of how he killed his brother late last year.

Admittedly, Arrow remains the darkest series of all of Berlanti's work. But the show is starting to fire on all cylinders. Even the flashbacks, which have been a weakness of the series for the past two seasons, have begun to seem more like they are relevant. Dealing with his time in Russia, a plot point that has been discussed but never fully explored, they actually seem relevant. It's something of a pity that this will be the last season where they take place, as this is the final year before his time away from Star City ended.

It's not a perfect series, and its still a little dark than all but the most fervent Arrow enthusiasts might be willing to tolerate. But it remains one of the real winners on TV. Makes you wait for the inevitable crossover between all four series due to come in November. I know I'll be waiting with breathless anticipation.

My score: 4 stars.

CW-Berlanti, Part 2: The Flash Review

By far, the series in the Berlanti-verse that is far closest to the DC world is The Flash. It's always been one of the more light-hearted of the series, which is why its abrupt shift into darker territory in the final episodes of Season 2, when Barry's father, who he spent his adult life trying to get out of prison, was murdered by Zoom. Emotionally devastated, even after defeating Zoom, the Flash used his speed to go back in time and stop his mother's murder. Having done so, he created an alternate timeline known (as in the comics) as 'Flashpoint', but  after trying to live a normal life with his parents, things slowly began to unravel, and he let his mother get murdered, restoring the original timeline.

Or so he thought. Instead, he has created an alternate world where things are closer but not quite the way they had been before. For starters, there's a new CSI working alongside Barry back at the Central City PD, who specializes solely in metahuman based cases. And this guy doesn't like or trust Barry. (Tom Felton uses the smarm that he perfected for years as Draco Malfoy to create a person the viewer doesn't fully trust. Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) is still dealing with problems in his family - his newly discovered son Wally (who was a speedster in Flashpoint) has been trying to find out if he has yet become a metahuman based on what happened last season, and Iris is no longer as close to her father as she was in the previous timeline. Barry and Iris have finally found their way to each other, but as is almost always the case in Berlanti DC, romance is always the hardest thing to manage.

Things aren't nearly the same at Star Labs, either. Cisco is dealing with fallout from the previous timeline in which Barry let his younger brother die, something that has somewhat cooled their relationship. Caitlin seems to be about the same, but now she has developed some metahuman powers of her own. Anyone who remembers what happened in Earth-2, and her stint as Killer Frost, has a good reason to worry. And just to add to all the fun, Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanaugh, still prickly and brilliant as always) has returned to reveal that his daughter Jessie, who he spent much of Season 2 trying to rescue has become a speedster herself. To say he's not happy at the level at what Barr has done is an understatement. On top of all this, there's a new metahuman villain calling himself only Dr. Alchemy, who seems determined to restore previous people with their powers again.

Trying to keep on top of the world of Flash is always the most complicated of all the series - there are time travel stories, paradoxes, parallel worlds and now alternate realities. But it's also the most fun of the series on the CW,  because the characters aren't nearly as broken as they are in the rest of the worlds that Berlanti has created. Love is perhaps the biggest part of this world - that and forming a family, even if they're not related by blood. This is one of the most entertaining series on TV period, even if, like me, you have only the most casual of understandings of the DC world. If you do, then this series is even more fun.

My score: 4.5 stars.

CW and Berlanti: Supergirl Review

Earlier this month, the CW turned 10. That it has managed to exist nearly as long as the networks that merged to create it - the WB and UPN - is something of a miracle, considering how much it was staggering as recently as four years ago. Only with the advent of cable and the fragment of the broadcast networks would it have managed to survive this long at all.

But something rather extraordinary has happened as the network has grown. Its series, originally little more than fragments designed to accept certain niche audiences, have changed. The CW, once a network focused almost completely on the teenage and twenties audience has grown up. And though a lot of its series are based on some superhero franchises, a lot of its series have become more and more daring, leaving room for some of the most brilliant and experimental series that have been on broadcast TV in a long time. (However, the network does have one thing in common with its predecessors: the Emmys seem determined to pretend it doesn't exist).

To look at how the network has changed, we have to look at some of the programs that have been in its stable for some time. Which means focusing on the showrunner who currently commands 40% of the networks real estate, and will have a fifth series appear in 2017: Greg Berlanti.

Admittedly, the superhero franchise has gotten excessively tired. Once something that the network jumped on for hit TV, it has now become almost exclusively the province of the CW. There's a pretty good reason for that: Berlanti seems to be the only writer who understands just how much of an outsider so many of these heroes are. Unfortunately, network TV's desire for huge audiences doesn't seem to meld with Berlanti's vision. Last year, when CBS purchased the rights to Supergirl, one got the feeling that CBS wasn't entirely sure what it had invested in. The series had moments of greatness in it, but for the most part, it seemed a pale imitation of the other shows that Berlanti was running on the CW. As a result, the audiences were never quite big enough for the Tiffany network, and it went to CW after CBS gave up on it in April.

The CW's version of Supergirl feels a bit different than the one we got on CBS. For one thing, like much of the CW's schedule, it's shot in Vancouver instead of Hollywood. For another, it seems to be trying to do what the other Berlanti series have done, and narrow its focus a little. Much of Supergirl's problem on CBS was that it seemed to moving, well... faster than a speeding bullet, a little too quickly for its audience to catch up on. And in trying to be its own series, it pretty much ignored much of Supergirl's universe. The CW version fixed that part very quickly, by finally having Supergirl's more famous cousin, Clark Kent, alias.. well, if you don't know, this series wasn't for you anyway. And as Superman began working with his cousin, it managed to get one of Berlanti's bigger strengths, looking on the people on the outside.

A lot of the problem of the series was trying to find a way to make the other characters work: Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh) Kara's foster sister started out like gangbusters, but than was pushed back a lot. Now, seeing her sister bond with a fellow Kryptonian to the point where she was beginning to feel left out was actually something more in the Berlanti-verse. It gave her more emotion than she demonstrated in the last half of Season 1, and seems to be pointing her in the right direction.

The series is also giving more range to some of its other characters. Winn, a foster child who worked at CatCo along with Kara had some interesting moments but ended up more in the background then he should've. Now, he's moved to working in the DEO, and is getting more into the valuable science geek that has been a critical part of Berlanti's world ever since he started with Arrow.And now, they seem more convinced to work with the comics world than they were comfortable with on the CW: the first two episodes featured the appearance of a member of the Luthor family, and the develop of John Corbin, aka Metallo. Clearly, Berlanti is slowly getting back into his comfort zone again.

The series, however, is still struggling a bit with the life of Kara Danvers (Melissa Benoist), Supergirl's alter ego. After a year of trying to mix her work life and secret life, she finally seems to be heading in the right direction careerwise, beginning a job as a reporter at Catco. On the one hand, her new boss, Snapper Carr gives Ian Gomez the possibility to play against type. But on the other, Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart, who was one of the few more interesting characters through the CBS run) is no longer going to play a critical role in her career. (Flockhart has been regulated to guest star status.) It's still not clear whether this new path will work.

Supergirl still isn't at the level of Berlanti's other series. But for the first time since early in Season 1, I feel that there's a possibility that they might get in the right direction. The action is better, and more importantly, the characters are more interesting. Hopefully, we'll finally find Supergirl heading forming a League of her own.

My score:3. 25 stars.

Secrets and Lies Season 2 Review

Considering how much critical acclaim and awards have been directed at ABC's anthology series American Crime,  it perhaps isn't that much of a shock that they would try to have lightning strike twice with a similar idea. Based on 2015's modestly successful Juliette Lewis-Ryan Phillippe series Secrets and Lies, featuring Lewis as Andrea Cornell, a homicide detective investigating a high-profile murder, the series rebooted in LA earlier this season with an entirely different set of actors and investigation. The problem is, its still having a lot of problem finding a direction.

This season's storyline deals with the death of Kate Warner (Jordana Brewster) when she falls off the roof of a her family's building during a celebration. As the investigation into Kate's death proceeds, the story focuses around the husband Eric (Michael Ealy, doing some of his best work since his stint on The Good Wife) who, in addition to dealing with the loss of his wife, must also deal with the death of her unborn child.

The series has mainly dealt with the stories around Eric and his family, as well as the people who work in the same business that Eric was just about to take over. As the series has proceeded, we find that Kate has been keeping many secrets from her husband - she had a child when she was a teenager, and there is a possibility that he was working at their company under an assumed name. One of their more recent hires, Liam, has disappeared from the company, and was using his identity to set up false credit accounts. And the deeper Eric gets into trying to find out what happened, the more it seems that he never knew his wife as well as he thought he did.

Secrets and Lies has everything that should be the making of a great series. In addition to actors like Ealy and Brewster, it also features such fine character actors as Kenny Johnson and Terry O'Quinn. And it uses some interesting framing devices that aren't seen much on broadcast TV. The biggest problem, though, is its lead actress. Juliette Lewis is a much better actress than critics give her credit for being, but Cornell is cast into one of the most iron-jawed detectives that I have come to associate with the type like David Tennant. The difference being there has been more character development in Tennant's roles, and a willingness for change. One would expect, given how badly her character botched the investigation that she led in Season 1, that she would have learned a certain level of humility, but so far that has not been shown to be the case. It doesn't help matters that a fair amount of the more interesting storylines are passed over for typical cliches so far.

This has the makings of a good series, and it could be a player on ABC for years to come. But given the most recent level of material that they've been producing over the last couple of seasons, one wonders if they should make the effort for a series where fine acting is often overshadowed by stilted writing.

My score:2.75 stars.