Week in Review: Overall, Not Bad, Not Great

SPOILERS: Last week's episodes of White Collar, Warehouse 13, Covert Affairs, SYTYCD, and Eureka

...and references to Jake 2.0 and the Middleman but I don't know if that counts as a spoiler

So, I've been watching Jake 2.0 all weekend, and I have to say, I'm halfway through the whole series and loving every episode. Of course, the fact that half the series consists of about 8 episode also makes me want to burst into tears. In other words I'm suffering from Firefly syndrome. Or, since it was in part written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach and they didn't even ever air the last episodes, maybe it's Middleman-emonia. Horrible disease; symptoms include speaking in runon sentences and compulsion to curse using odd phrases like "Grapes of Wrath, Dubby!".

Anyways, last week's TV programming was in a similar vein; some good, some bad, all mixing for a thoroughly "eh" week.

On the bright side of last week, I saw A Little Night Music last Saturday, saw Promises, Promises this Friday, and I finally got my hands on a copy of Lord Sunday by Garth Nix. Oh, and I met Bill Nye the Science Guy. So you'll understand if I was a bit busy to do some posting. 

Note: If you didn't understand any of that, get to the googling! Or just wait till I post about them. Up to you.

White Collar: Did you watch the White Collar episode last Tuesday? What White Collar episode? Well, just like a certain mysterious stadium, I wasn't aware of it initially, and watched it on Thursday on Hulu. It was good, a classic episode, with some additional hilarity via Mozzie. I'm not surprised he votes, but I am shocked he could be such a sucker for a politician. Poor guy. I am far more excited for this weeks episode which centers on a college professor who teaches about Caffrey in his class! Neil's ego + college students = hilarious scenarios.

Plus, I'm really starting to like Diana. Best scene of the episode - Neal and Peter arguing over who has to tell her that Neal gave her the cover of being an escort. Still, I want Lauren (played by Natalie Morales) back! I need my Dub-Dub! ... Not that seeing her as an FBI agent is my way of coping with the Middleman being cancelled ... Anyway, Diana is totally resilient to Neal's charm, and actually has a backstory that doesn't make me want to strangler her [yet] so I'm happy to see her sticking around.

(Translation: Natalie Morales played one of the main characters, an apprentice to the current Middleman, who himself made a rather creepy appearance in one of the first Dollhouse episodes [Image] )

Warehouse 13: Awww, Claudia gets a boy. Good for her. He is rather hopeless though, so we'll see how long she can put up with someone who isn't nearly as brilliant and world-saving as her. Otherwise, watching this episode was a somewhat painful experience for me. Come on. They hit us over the head with the postwoman being bitter, and then Myka and Pete were sooooo slow on the uptake with the movies. I thought it was glaringly obvious after the Western. 

Still, I did enjoy finally finding out what the town thinks the Warehouse is for - everyone hates the IRS, but it does allow them to snoop. Poor Pete though; it's rather rough for a guy who very clearly cares a lot about whether people like him. (Not in a teen girl low self esteem way, more in the sense that he works really hard at being charming)

Covert Affairs: An acceptable second episode, not as explosive as the first and - OMG it's Dr. Suresh!. Sorry, that's my reaction to Sendhil Ramamurthy. I'm curious how he'll be on this show; I liked him 1st season of Heroes, but his character just got worse and worse as the show went on. I really don't know if that was acting or writing, but I guess I'll find out soon enough. The plot was nice; I didn't actually see the double agent plot twist coming, which is a good sign. Though I wouldn't believe any personal advice I got from a guy who just tried to kill me, just saying.

I really liked the family issue of the will. I may be too young and poor to actually need one, but I've talked to my parents about theirs before. It's an emotional topic with life-changing consequences; Annie doesn't need to be a CIA agent for that to be a complex request. It's more than just asking her to babysit every once in a while, it's a huge commitment. It was handled well, and I like that it was thrown at us along with all the other stuff in the episode; however, the ties between that and the spy plot were a bit obvious.

My one problem? Auggie was Mr. Fix-It. He taught her to fight, talks to her about her family issues, etc. I really hope that isn't a trend developing. I'm fine with close friends who share stuff, but he can't give her a solution for everything or it's going to get old fast. And then in Giles style he'll have to leave so she can be on her own and.... Sorry, I had a Buffy flashback. Won't happen again.

SYTYCD: BILLLLY! NOOOOO! What, they didn't eliminate him? Phew. This week was all about "how long can they plug stepping in order to keep me from turning off the TV." And the answer was about 1.5 hours. I was really close to turning off the TV and going to bed early; I was really rather bored for being this late in the season. And I'm really over Jose. When choreographers acknowledge that they remove technicality in order to make it danceable, that's bad.

Also, Kenny Ortega spent more time complementing the choreographers than talking about the dancers. Good for him.

Eureka: Fun. So much fun. Probably my favorite TV episode of this week. There's nothing like a guest appearance from Wil Wheaton and a zombie outbreak in GD to make everything better. Plus Jo = badass. [Image] The funny thing was that her massive anger issues actually helps her resist the drug for much longer since she's used to having control problems. Also, Tess falls victim to the "die for our ship" trope; nice girl, I feel bad, but I much prefer Jack longingly pining over Allison.

Also, how has Grace not figured out Henry considers her a stranger? I loved her prank; serious alternate timeline scientists always fall for the whole "we've destabilized the universe and now everything we touch is destroyed" bit. Silly scientists. And you can see Henry is falling for her, which could lead to some comedy and a definite amount of heartbreak.

Even though I don't have much to say beyond that, it was a really really fun episode. I would highly recommend watching it for some zombie-enfused fun.

Jake 2.0: Haha, so it's not a running TV show, but it is what I've been watching. It is distinctly different from Chuck, even with a similar premise. I think it's extremely funny, and I really like the characters, especially Diane - she's rather brilliant for a post-doc, but that's moderated with an awkward protectiveness for Jake. The evil plots are evil, the nerds are awkward, and I really like how psychological the episodes get at times (think Last Man Standing, Double Agent, and Blackout). My only problem? Stereotypical hackers - by which I mean totally unrealistic. Dumont and his gang may be the badass evil rich nerdy sociopaths we see in movies, but the scene of Jake undercover with them in the club just makes me crack up; it's just too unnatural.

My favorite episode right now is either Last Man Standing or The Spy Who Really Liked Me - but I'm working my way through Blackout and the end of the series, so that may change.

Fingers crossed for a better week!

~ Sarah

EDIT: I take that back. I finished the series last night and my favorite episode is definitely Get Foley. It pains me to think that it wasn't even aired in the US, the show was cancelled that quickly. Absolutely brilliant.