Day: January 27, 2006

Lost: If you’re skipping any episodes that don’t feature glimpses of the Others or the Smoke Monster or some huge revelation about the Dharma dome, you can just move along. I quite liked this one because it jumped right on the big question mark hanging over Charlie at the end of the episode two weeks ago, and unlike some long-standing unresolved plot points in the series, this one really needed to be addressed immediately. It’s funny how, when confiding his dreams and hallucinations to Eko, Charlie pointed out something that I was already thinking – if Kate sees a horse in the jungle, or if, well, anyone sees Walt running around, no sweat, nobody questions it. But Charlie having premonitions about the baby in mortal danger? It’s gotta be the heroin. (Admittedly, the presence of the heroin doesn’t help his case.) Locke also voiced something I was beginning to feel was at the root of the story – Charlie trying to save the baby because he can’t save himself – although I really came to resent Locke’s handling of the situation. Charlie needs help and, like it or not, they’re stuck with him. A side note: I like the Hurley/Libby angle. I like it a lot. Sometimes the oddest attractions do pop up when and where and with whom you least expect them. Feel free to file this under “of course, you would say this, because you’re fat too,” but it’s nice to see Hurley treated as a fully-rounded human being and not just occasional comic relief or exposition about the mystery numbers. That said, I laughed out loud at Sawyer’s quip, “I bet you’ve got a load you’d like to drop in.” 😛
Invasion: Shades of Lost – quite a bit of this week’s episode was a flashback to nine years before the rest of the series so far, showing how Tom Underlay became the first person in Homestead to be infested and finally shedding some light on what role he plays within the community of the infested hurricane survivors. It turns out there’s an opposite number who may be working against him (and indeed, may be the one who shot him at the beginning of the episode), and it could be that as sinister as Tom seems sometimes, he could be all that’s keeping the infested humans from running riot and more aggressively trying to expand into the general populace. Which is kinda scary, to think that there’s someone out there even creepier than Tom. I rolled my eyes a little bit at the conspiracy theory which seemed to imply that the military is in bed with the possessed humans. Surely that’ll turn out to be something other than what it is, rather than an excuse to have mysterious black helicopters show up and snatch the bad guys out of danger continually. I’ll say it again: if you’re a Lost fan who’s upset over the lack of forward motion of the plot vs. character development, stick around for the show that comes on right after it.
Stargate SG-1: This is one case where yes, I can see the resolution coming from a light-year away, but the character touches are what make it. I’m glad to see some further nailing down of what makes Cameron Mitchell nuts-but-functional in a different way than John Crichton. A lot of this episode’s plot specific were pretty much paint-by-number, though I did enjoy seeing a previous episode’s plot development (the memory storage device) come back without being completely mission-critical or a throwaway gag.
Stargate Atlantis: Remember the “winter season premiere” where Rodney OD’d on the Wraith enzyme and became quite an entertaining one-man show? I think someone realized that sequence was some of the best pure entertainment that Atlantis has produced this season and decided an encore would be dandy. I was actually a little disappointed when Fantasy Carter showed up, because David Hewlett was doing a great job of carrying the whole show, on his own, locked into a room without even a speaking computer to play off of. And yes, I realize that Fantasy Carter isn’t bound in any way to act like the Carter we know from SG-1, but I somehow wasn’t expecting her to get as lowbrow as “…but I bet I can get you hot!” – that sounded less like something from Rodney’s subconscious and more like something a certain sector of fandom would want to hear. (I guess I can’t complain too loudly, because I can’t say I would’ve minded being trapped with this slightly yummier version of Carter.)
Battlestar Galactica: Y’know, I hope I’m not really picking up on a case of Janeway-itis hitting President Roslin while her immune system is still recovering from her miraculous cancer cure. There are times when she seems remarkably like a hard-ass, much more than one would expect her to be, and then there are times she comes across as being almost laughably naive, as in this episode with her expectation that the fabulous Adama boys were somehow going to wipe out the black market in one swell foop. If anything, Apollo probably has a much better solution, even if it is…muddy. (And speaking of Apollo, kudos again to Richard Hatch for making the best of a very brief appearance – and it seems like we’ll be butting heads with him again in the future.) Apollo wasn’t just standing in the mud – he was in it hip-deep. And Adama turns out to be the least naive of them all. I was sorry, however, to see Fisk go. (And who the heck is running the Pegasus now?) While still a relic of Admiral Cain’s regime, Fisk at least seemed redeemable. It’s almost scary to think about who’ll be running Pegasus next. Maybe she does get taken out after all, and sooner than I thought. As for Baltar, again, I think Roslin was extraordinarily naive not to see that coming. Forthright she may be after her recovery, but surely she hasn’t lost so many of her wiles as to realize that there was probably a more diplomatic litmus test she could’ve employed than an offer to resign.
Little boo-boo I spotted at the end of the promo for next week’s Galactica: “All New New Next Friday.” I can’t laugh too loud, I’ve accidentally done stuff at least that stupid and put it on the air before. 😀 Also, why does it seem like advertisers suddenly feel that Galactica is a prime demographic for folks who need cold medicine? Feelin’ stuffed up, buddy? That’s because you have a big big cold! I’d swear those two spots ran in every break.… Read more