Tuesday Night Mid-Season Finales

SPOILERS: NCIS, Glee, SGU, and Riese

Whoops....I guess I fell a liiiittle behind. My bad.

Damn, this is a lot more stuff to go through than all the Monday ones. Once again, aiming for impact and general opinion rather than specifics, sorry, or else this post would be way too long and I'd never get to enjoy my vacation.

Which is going great, by the way. I love holidays. Video games, home cooked meals, being driven crazy by your family (but of course you still really love them)....thank goodness none of them read this blog.

Also, if you're interested in plays and/or gay rights, I highly recommend the play called "The Laramie Project"; very moving and emotional. On a similar note, hurrah for the end of Don't Ask Don't Tell! (You can tell when I started writing this post by this paragraph)

Anyways, Riese actually turned out rather less disappointing towards the end. My final say would be, watch it if you enjoy artsy sci-fi or fantasy. It's nothing really original and the actors fall flat at times of the potential I know they have (kind of like watching Natalie Portman in Star Wars - you can tell she's trying but the dialouge she has to work with is just too awful). However, I was struck by the beauty of the show - the costumes, the gadgets, the scenery, all really stunning. It's aesthetics make it past that dividing line that makes certain steampunks shine while others are merely clunky and flashy. If you have some time to spare this break, watch it, and maybe like me you'll look forward to a potential second season. But you'll also see that it's no surprise that they weren't given their own TV show - this is no Sanctuary.

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Tuesday, November 23
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Riese, "Retribution"

• Another gorgeous dress - really the head of costumes/wardrobe should be so damn proud for his/her work in this show [below]. It is the shinning highlight of the webisodes.
• What exactly did they do to Arkin? It's rather vauge. Also BINGO ten points to Gryffindor for me for calling that.
• And Riese - she just breaks out somehow? The magic plot device helped her...

More action, I guess this gets a B.

Riese, "Reunion"

• Poor poor trennan, getting used and abused by Amara and Marlise. And I'm totally loving it. I just wish we'd gotten a lot more Marlise.
• Riese finally meets up with Rand, and she doesn't seem to know him (but he was in her weird nightmare/dream?)
• That's how it ends? My reaction - "huh, not bad actually". The show wrapped up it's final episodes with a bit more punch. I actually am somewhat curious what a second season would produce in terms of storyline, but I'm afraid they're held back by heavy handed dialouge and incorrect choices in where to define the 10 minute segments.

This one gets an A- cause I actually wanted more when it was over.

Stargate Universe, "Visitation"

• First off, who the hell are Boon and Cain? I didn't remember them, did you?
• No baby. Poor poor TJ, but was anyone besides her really surprised? The whole theme was about faith, and when forced to prove it's existence, higher powers tend to be rather disappointing.
• "Turn the mic back on" - Winston Churchill
• "I was a little over qualified for HR" (Camilie talking about hypnosis)
• Greer asking for forgiveness was one of the few times I felt his character was rather honest. He's a solider, but with regrets, which is so much nicer than his original "grrrr, want fight" personality.
• Dying in order - gruesome, frightening, impossible to prevent, and such a totally awesome plot line.

This episode was really rather stellar, I give it an A.

NCIS, "Enemies Domestic"

Whoa, was that....was that Vance's backstory? That was my general reaction to this episode. And unfortunately that's all that remains of my memories of the episode as I didn't take notes. The Ziva/Liat fight scene was great and why has "McGyver" not been used yet? I felt that the flashbacks were great but the aging makeup was a little less than desirable (Gibbs didn't look a day different, though Vance and Eli did - especially Vance [right]). All in all, a good episode, and one I thought made a very good finale.

Except it wasn't the finale. I give it an A.

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Tuesday, November 30
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Glee, "Special Education"

• Kurt going to the Warblers, very eager, and my first thought is "that bird is so dead"
• Magic comb! Cutttte.
• Lauren - annoying, forgettable, and a body replacement for Kurt, hopefully not a character replacement
• Puck being nicer to Jews - "walk with me"
• Don't Cry for Me Argentina at Rachel's funeral? In case you don't know, that's from Evita, and she's comparing herself to Eva Perron. Jeez that girl has a massive ego. But it was a rather lovely performance by both Lea Michele and Chris Colfer.
• Older choir was nice, I'd have liked to see one of the glee clubs from last year
• Warblers do Soul Sister, also a good performance. Have I mentioned yet that I adore Darren Criss? [right]
• I Had the Time of My Life - Quinn had the voice for it, I kept waiting for the famous lift
• Cooop oooout with the tie
• Emma married to the "finest dentist alive"! Good for her, Stamos is quite the catch.

I enjoyed this episode, certainly more than the Christmas episode (see below), I give it a B.

Stargate Universe, "Resurgence (Part 1)"

First off YAWN. In comparison with the previous weeks episode, this episode totally fell flat, which is made worse by the fact that it was the mid-season break. Not really a surprise that SyFy cancelled the show a week ago.

• Telford returns (yay!) having magically figured out how to communicate with his alien buddies only to get utterly tricked and betrayed by them. I was actually genuinely surprised.
• Eli is still all mopey and emo. Come on dude, you are losing my interest, quickly. Don't become a proto-Rush.
• Mysterious Lucian Alliance guy continues to hit on TJ [below] irregardless of the situation. Does anyone know his name?
• Chloe. Can we find out what she's up to? I'm really bored with the continual "it's getting worse". Now it looks like something will actually happen.

Blah. What a let down after Visitation. I give it a C.

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Tuesday, December 7
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Glee, "A Very Glee Christmas"

I did not like this episode. And it all comes back to Christmas. Glee is usually very good at religious thinks, at controversial things, and this episode felt like it just slipped past all of that and went down the trail of the Madonna episode - too themed to amount to anything good. The two highlights were the songs "Sue the Grinch" and the Colfer/Criss version of "Baby It's Cold Outisde."

My issues:

• Rachel and the actress who plays her is Jewish. Stop making her sing so many fricking Christmas songs. Yes, she sounds lovely. But it made absolutely no sense, and she just came across as even more need-ily desperate for Finn.
• Christmas in schools is a no-no. Not only is school out for winter break long before then, but any religious material is pretty thoroughly banned in schools. Yes, they're a glee club and school choirs do sing Christmas music. And yes, they are in nowhersville midwest, but still. But they get all super pumped about having a Christmas tree and decking it out [below]. I was expecting that to be the issue of the episode.
• Speaking of the above. Where are the Jews and atheists? Rachel makes a passing comment about Chinese food but otherwise there is no comment, the group seems thoroughly Christian.
• How could Bieste ever afford those leg machines for Artie. How.

This episode was such a disappointment, I have to give it a C-.

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Tuesday, December 14
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NCIS, "False Witness"

Fun episode, though not memorable, and certainly not a good mid-season finale. I adored the victim as he got under everyone's skin and might have rekindled Abby/McGee six years after we were informed that ship had sailed. Great case with a surprise twist with the attorney. However, like I said, not memorable. For example, I do not even recall the scene this picture is from [above]. But it is cute.

I give it a B.