Thursday November 11 and 18, 2010

SPOILERS: Big Bang Theory, Bones, Riese, and Sanctuary

Yep, yep, yep, still behind, catching up, here's last week and the week before for these shows. Trail of Blood still on it's way, I swear, Animus was also another knock out of an episode. Really, Sanctuary is on a roll this season, there's not a single episode that didn't end without me anxiously ready for the next week. Plus yesterday?! I mean, that was a Magnus-fest, and a wonderful one.

Also, you get to hear me snap when it comes to Bones this season.

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Past, Past Week

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BBT, "The 21-Second Excitation"

• Amy's reaction to finding out about the sleepover - "I'm a girl!"
• "I informed you thusly"
• Wil Wheaton! Wow he has a wonderful Jar Jar impersenation - Sheldon's responses about poorly executed beards and using a Picard quote
• Actually it's Lee, but I prefer trouble
• MOB of RTLA fans at the end

I've loved Wil Wheaton ever since his appearance as Fawkes on The Guild. And Amy was kinda funny with all the sleepover shenanigans. But looking back, I don't really remember this episode all to well without my notes. And for that, I give it a B-.

Sanctuary, "Hero II: Broken Arrow"

• "This is why we do monthly drills"
• This may just be me being picky, but you can see Agami slightly mess up (the box moves when she claims it too heavy - rocks to the side)
• WALTER! (it's like Wormhole Xtreme - props to anyone who gets that reference) 
• Inverset - really, Magnus contracts out? How does Henry feel about that?
• Awww, Walter won't return Henry's emails
• I liked that there was a definite humanity to the evil guy, he doesn't like Kate in pain (then again, it freaks him out, he doesn't feel bad)
• Very neat twist finding out the suit was made in lab, just trying to recover it
• "terahertz radiation generator between IR and microwave" - I wrote this down, I have no idea what it means, and all I can think of was that it was a science fail.
• Reduced inhibitions - anyone else start thinking what I did? Which lead to -
• "I promise I won't comment on how hot you look." - and come on, that's cruel, but it was absolutely hilarious how Kate knocked Henry out
• Big Guy pulled a matrix (you can see a bit more Druitt in that)
• Magnus has buddies in the russian mob, of course

Chris Gaulthier returns as Walter, Kate gets an episode all to herself for bad-assery in latex, and Magnus reminds us that not all her friends are the nice legal kind. I enjoyed this episode a lot, and I even enjoyed reading over my notes and remembering this episode in pieces as only my haphazard note taking can allow. Don't watch this without seeing the first Hero, but otherwise, this was a great stand alone episode that you can casually watch with friends. I give it an A-.

Bones, "The Shallow in the Deep"

• Booth waking up and all the cracking bones
• "the time that fat girl shot you" - that's blatantly insensitive to what was an incredibly sad moment in the show and for Brennan
• hahahahahahaha, catching Sweets and Daisy, and Sweets just signed the form
• interesting finding murder remains in a slave ship (more of what her department should be doing)
• also, more backsliding with Hodgins with the aliens
• WHOA Sweets, not getting the Star Wars reference (han solo to obi wan kenobi) - haven't we already established that Sweets is a huge nerd?
• AND ignoring the fact that Brennan has admitted to being emotionally abuse as a child, yet no connection within this episode to the victim
• Sweets as a quasi-virgin offering
• ok, that's really vauge as ID (describing the woman as having red hair and flipping it)

You know what? Screw the rest of this episode. I couldn't enjoy it thanks to the horrendous backsliding of the characters. Multiple times in this episode, character traits were played for laugh that have been dealt with in previous seasons. It's one thing that the show can't decide which Pennsylvania city Booth was born in. But ignoring the fact that Brennan was a foster kid (this is how she bonded with Sweets), Hodgins has been cutting back on the conspiracies since Zack left, AND the fact that Sweets has been established as 100% nerd, combined with the week before's "not a betting man" comment referring to Booth is just atrocious. Making your characters grow up episode by episode does nothing and means nothing if you don't carry it over from season to season. It's offensive to the fans who like to believe that these are real, continually developing people we watch, not a set of character traits played for laughs and drama each week. 

I am very close to giving up on Bones. The story might have been a B, but for me, the episode was a D+.

Riese, "Prey"

• There we go, now it's starting to get interesting with the creepy deserted village of Vidar
• Narration ruined it though - foreshadowing when the film was actually shot well enough to do foreshadowing on its own

Well, to be honest, that episode was a whole bunch of nothing. Any moments of drama were ruined by early narration telling us that there would soon be dramatic moments. I give it a C.

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Current Past Week
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Big Bang Theory, "The Boyfriend Complexity"

• There are no stupid questions (in response to questions about the adamantium prostate)
• "Oh, good, context" PENNY'S DAD where is Leonard's mom when you need her? 
• Raj and Bernadette's Wallowitz's mom impersonations! And then - 
• HAHAHAHAHAHA the Raj/Howard kiss!
• "I'll friend you on facebook"

Funny episode, finally back to Leonard and Penny, not just Sheldon. Hilarious side story with Raj. Not super memorable, but again, really enjoyable. I give it a B+.

Bones, "The Babe in the Bar"

• God, that's just grosssssss
• VINCENT! 
• Blatant product placement with the phone, really?
• Harriet was a spy!
• I call bullshit on the blood in the bubble.
• I beg of you not to look at me directly (cuuuuuuuuuuute)

Same complains as the week before, I really can't work up much more emotion relative to Bones except to say that I really like Vincent Nigel Murray. I give it a C.

Riese, "Indoctrination"

• Let's see - remove the humanity from children and attempt to brain wash them with spastic levels of symbols. Then they start murdering. You didn't see this coming, how?!
• Amara ain't in control, is she? Also who is this "he" who is reaching enlightenment and will ascend to the throne. My guess is Riese's brother Arkin.

Getting interesting, I give it a B+.

Sanctuary, "Animus"

First off, this was a great episode in terms of Henry-ness. It wasn't really the background we'd been hoping for per se, but it filled in a lot of the werewolf questions (sorry, hyper accelerated proteans). They seem to have a knack with tech and they've been hiding because they thought they couldn't control the change. It's different, but you know what, I'll take it. Plus Erica was a very not-Verruca (once again, points for getting that reference) female werewolf, and I really did like her character (the ending up with Henry bit at the end was kinda a given). 

But let's get to the real reason we all loved this episode - the Tesla/Magnus dialouge. Every scene had me totally cracking up. Plus the Hollow Earth find, the particle accelerator, and Tesla's love of pushing buttons made this side story part of the episode totally awesome. They even brought up the fact that Tesla can now create EM shields - which should make his next rematch with Druitt incredibly interesting. Plus this episode drove me to put together a favorite quotes section.

• "I give you the best hours of my life and this is how you repay me you teasing harlot from Camden?"
• "Where would science be today if I constantly stopped to bathe?"
• "And you bathed! Thank you so much."
• "What about you're..um, boy, can't he get [the generator] up and running?"
• "I'm too exhausted to even banter with you"
• "Go, fix my house" "What am I your house elf?" "Thank you Dobby!"
• "What are you doing in my bedroom?" "Well, I can think of a dozen answers, but I'll leave that to Oscar Wilde"
• "You are brilliant." "Don't I know it." "Now get out." "Okay."
• "That's right! Surrender your secrets to the master of electricity!"
• "And we never even said vows!"
• "Hold me close, and either way, I'll die a happy man...Maybe a little tighter, you know, just to be safe."
• "If you were any more transparent you'd be invisible"
• "You're not taking this personally are you?" "Me?! Of course I am"

I think you can tell where I'm going with this. I give the episode an A.

Yeah being almost entirely caught up! Just need this week (which might get tossed with the upcoming week) and Trail of Blood, which is in the works. Happy Thanksgiving those of you who finished reading this!

~ Sarah