Tuesday November 9 and 16, 2010

SPOILERS: Glee, Riese, Stargate Universe, and NCIS

Hello world! I am writing to you (and programing from) the glorious Pittsburgh airport, in a desperate attempt to fulfill my promise to catch up. Ehhhhh. More and more bullets. And don't even think about an episode of the day. Or pictures. I'm that behind, sorry.

Also, I've come to the conclusion that it's not Amanda Tapping's fault. Not even Morgan Freeman could make the Riese narration bearable.

Finally, I've got a question for all the SGU watchers: At the end of last weeks episode, did Rush deliberately miss? I'm not sure myself. Let me know what you think in the comments.



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Past Past Week
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Glee, "Never Been Kissed" - This episode was a lot of hit and miss for me. First off, I LOVE Darren Criss - you may know him as Harry Potter from A Very Potter Musical, but now the world know's him as Blaine. However, given the dramatic nature of the bullying theme in this episode, Glee's signature tact was missing when they ruined the dramatic moment of Kurt confronting his bully by having him get kissed in a totally unpredictable moment. They had a chance to make a very strong, real emotional scene, and instead they created something almost insultingly absurd. Plus, Schu kissing Beiste was just sort of annoying; no girl or woman wants her first kiss to be a pity kiss. Also, why are all girls on this show either total sluts or absolute prudes?

• Puck's back! (no kosher meal choices in juvie)
• DARREN CRISS - Teenage Dream (sounds less autotuned) was even better than the original Katy Perry song
• "Prejudice is just ignorance"
• How Puck and Artie ask out Brittnay and Santana
• Girls singing - Living on a Prayer/Start Me Up (slutting it up/rocking the heels, you can totally tell they aren't high school age)
• Sue's evil laugh + confetti cannon + clean it all up = wonderful
• Schu is such a man whore, really
• The boy's version of "bad-ass and girly? - Stop in the Name of Love and (don't know the other song name); funny choreography and CUTE

Overall, I give the theme and Darren Criss an A. But on execution, I got to give it a C-.

NCIS:, "Broken Arrow"

• Naval Academy - I know two guys who go there and have visited it myself, so it made me kinda happy that it was the setting, although we didn't go back after the opening.
• Ducky inerruted .... Oh, well, walks off. What is it with procedurals ignoring their MEs?
• Tony Sr. and Ziva, so adorable
• Abby can't get that accurate radiation measurements from a geiger counter, come one, we're not that stupid as an audience (I hope)
• Cute end with the fishing trip story

I love DiNozzo Senior, so it was very good to see him again. He and Tony finally get that heart-to-heart that was missing from his first appearance. And Gibbs gets all fatherly himself. And Ziva is just not a knock-out. Who doesn't love Cote de Pablo? I'll give it a A-.

Stargate Universe, "The Greater Good"

• "New friends, Yay" - Volker's actually developing quite the snarky sidekick scientist personality
• Side note: Simeon's tattoo's are kinda awesome (back of neck)
• Rush - BUSTED. Amanda Perry is brought back, I was very happy to see her character again, though it's a bit odd to see Rush pursue her when he hallucinates his dead wife while on the bridge
• Brawl between Young and Rush, you cannot put those two together, not the best combo we already know - discussion in total silence. Sometimes the absence of music means so much more.
• Hells yeah Eli with the calculations - also, Rush saves Young, wow, I wasn't actually sure what would happen.
• And finally - NO GIN! I LIKE HER! No Samuel, I mean, Simeon, NOOOOOOO!

This was a great episode. Not only did we see the return of Amanda Perry and Rush get busted for the bridge, we have massive drama in the form of Simeon killing Gin and Amanda. On top of that, we get Rush/Young fighting plus Destiny's true mission. However, the true mission is a little iffy. Structure of the CMBR (that's Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation)? Intelligent super life? A little too religious importance for me, not enough scientific reason to carry it out. I give the episode a A-.

Riese, "Dawn"

• Narration still just makes it heavier overall.
• Ryan Robbins is just not cutting it as Rand - which is so disappointingly different from his amazing skill at playing Henry. However, the fault really lies in the horribly cliche, heavy script - he doesn't get much to work with. It's like watching Natalie Portman in Star Wars II and III.
• Also, kill them all and burn the town is really not an effective or productive form of evil. It doesn't do you any good. Unless you're Jack the Ripper. And even Druitt has standards. This approach only makes the villains seem more cliche and 1-dimensional.
• However, the bit with Hannah was kinda nice. Didn't really need narration though, better without, somewhat ruined the tension.

I don't think these really even deserve a grade. I guess I'll give it a D+.

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Current Past Week
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NCIS, "Enemies Foreign"

• First off, before this even gets started, Eli David is the most Israeli name ever. EVER. Really.
• McGee and Tony arresting the teenager. "Can you believe no one's heard of us?" Not after seven seasons of this show.
• "If someone wants something out of your pants, they should use their hands." PAUSE. And then the dialouge continues. Hilarious. 
• Shalom = hello and goodbye...oh Gibbs, using Hebrew translation to tell of Mossad agents. You so funny.
• Next year in Jerusalem. (Malachi and Tony's conversation about Liat)
• "You have a way of making my family disappear" - makes me wonder how many new fans of the show know nothing about Ari or about how Ziva joined the team
• "Another man, a lesser man, a human man"
• "We are calm, you're yelling"
• Ziva's driving, epic shoot out, dramatic vague ending

Though thanks to a bad WiFi connection and the not-so-greatness that is the CBS website, this episode took a total of and hour and a half to watch, I really enjoyed this episode. Eli David returns, and we are reminded what a total jackass he is sometimes. I've never been the biggest Vance fan (go Jenny Sheppard!) but he did have some good moments in this episode. Plus Liat was a fantastic addition, challenging Ziva and providing some additional trained killer awesome to the show. Toss in some great funny dialouge and this was really a knockout episode. I give it an A.

Riese, "Beast"

• Amara has the best clothes and crown
• Allison Mack as Marlise. AWESOME. Evil.

And we actually got plot and action in this episode! Narration, still pointless. But the music was excellent. We got some info on Riese's brother (?) Arkin. And creepy Hannibal Lecter dude is intriguing. Plus there seemed to be an image of Rand in that dream, odd. Anyways, I guess it was an improvement. I'll give it a B-.

Stargate, "Malice"

• Well, now we know what happens when someone with the stones dies. And it happened to the two nicest girls on the show! I'll miss both Gin and Amanda.
• Rush's glasses make a reappearance, and are even used. I do like the subtle reminders that they are very much trapped on the ship. There are some things they just can't make or scrap together.
• The breakdown - needed, not drawn out for excessive emotion. 
• Simeon cauterizing his wound - like a man. It just was so...tough guy.

So here's how my notes went for the end:

• Rush is a horrible shot, nice to know physics doesn't always = perfect
• STAMPEDE

My question is, did Rush deliberately miss? I haven't made up my mind, I'd be really interested to know what other's think.

Otherwise, this episode was emotional, action filled, suspenseful, and thankfully did not come back to the topic of Destiny's mission. Rush gets to go rouge, Simeon is killed off (hmm, we seem to be down a few Lucian alliance members, convenient), Chloe does more weird alien stuff, Eli breaks down, and everyone else watches. I give it an A. 

Glee, "The Substitute"

• Principal Sue! (highly dramatic music)
• 8 year old Glee kids!!!!! So absolutely adorable.
• Terri returns [medicated, in therapy, likes him at his weakest]
• Gwyneth Paltrow - cure for the common class
• "I don't even have that nice of a car!"
• "Come on, there's got to be a Journey's song we haven't done yet"
• Forget You - great, but wayyy too short a skirt for a substitute teacher
• Make Em laugh - drug haze? Matt's got moves, he keeps up with Mike Chang. However, the song was rather pointless.
• Nixon is Sue's idol, of course
• "Rachel, you suck!"
• "I thought you'd never ask, it's kinda my catchphrase"
• Nowadays/Hot Honey Rag - yes that would be Rachel being crazy
• Umbrella + Singing in the Rain = Not a good mash up. A good mash up takes two songs and makes a new one (my favorite is Don't Stand So Close/Young Girl). This was just two songs glued together. Almost a duet, not a mash up.

As for this episode, I'm a little divided. I do really like the Holly Holiday character. The Kurt/Mercedes storyline was really only about getting another episode with Blaine, otherwise it was kinda lacking. Terri was back, which was hilarious, although I think I spent the whole scene with Terri seducing Will going "NO, no, bad Schu, baaaad" (very similar to my reaction to him playing Rocky). The end was a bit of a let down, but otherwise it  was a solid, though not brilliant episode. I give it a B-.

Phew. To Thursday! And Trail of Blood!

~ Sarah