Supergirl: Season 5, Episode 4 “In Plain Sight” (C+)
I don’t know what it is since it’s a different voice that’s speaking Ma'alefa'ak’s words each time, but all of his lines sound horribly inauthentic and almost laughable to me. “Meet me at the planetarium” was a particularly unfortunate one, and I’m glad that we at least won’t have to deal with him trying to threaten or incept anyone in the immediate future since he’s now in Lena’s hands as she works with him to exact whatever revenge she’s still trying to get on a team whose handshakes and T-shirts she’ll now be taught. It’s hard to really understand her aims, and she’s not the only one that everyone now needs to worry about working against them in ways they’re not even prepared to consider. William being undercover as a jerk didn’t work too well since Kara and Nia figured out what he was really up to almost right away, and Kara would do well to determine whether he can actually be trusted so that he can be an ally rather than yet another impediment. James deciding he needs to go back to his hometown to find a new purpose in life helping the underserved and impoverished makes some sense given his abrupt dismissal from his job, and I wonder what that means for Mehcad Brooks’ presence on the show. Brainy probably couldn’t have done much better than he tried to do in this hour, but it’s good that he and Nia might be approaching a more productive place given how distracted and unnerved he was by the instability of his relationship.
Showing posts with label In Plain Sight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label In Plain Sight. Show all posts
Thursday, October 31, 2019
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Catching Up: Summer Series
With all this Emmy hysteria and my race to finish both “Firefly” and the complete “X-Files” series before their respective film follow-up theatrical showings (“X-Files” review coming soon), I’ve neglected to review all the summer television I’ve been watching. While it’s not nearly as much as I watch in the fall, there’s still a good deal of shows that I’ll summarize here before starting to review them each on a weekly basis (possibly in an end-of-week digest format, but we’ll see). I won’t be reviewing all the episodes I’ve seen over the past few weeks, but I’ll pick up where I am and start reviewing from here on out.
I’ve just posted pilot reviews for Flashpoint and The Cleaner. I plan to continue watching “The Cleaner” starting with episode two tonight. I tried the second installments of both “Flashpoint” and In Plain Sight only to discover that they were just as bad as the first ones. I am happy to say that I opted to pick up Swingtown after my initial dismissal of the show and have now deemed it a proper guilty pleasure. As I mentioned a few posts earlier, “Swingtown” will be moving to the new timeslot of Fridays at 10pm.
As far as returning shows go, I decided to check out two sophomore shows which I had only seen the first few episodes of when they premiered last summer. I’m watching Burn Notice because of guest star Tricia Helfer (“Battlestar Galactica”), who is good on the show, though regrettably not quite as good as on BSG. It’s a quirky show that’s amusing at best and entertaining enough to sustain my interest, especially now that it doesn’t conflict with “Swingtown”. The other show is Saving Grace, which I think I’ve had just about enough of at this point. I never got into it, giving up last summer after only four episodes. Holly Hunter gives a decent performance but the show just doesn’t feel right. Watching it after The Closer also doesn’t quite give it a fair chance. Brenda Jonhson and the gang were back for a strong premiere last week and a good enough episode last night. I look forward to their continuing adventures, and I’m glad to see Phillip P. Keene (Buzz) added to the credited cast at the beginning of the episode. There’s nothing I hate more than a terrific ensemble that doesn’t credit all of its members accordingly (examples: see SAG nods for the casts of the movie “Ray” and shows like “24” and even “The Closer” in its first season).
Lighting up my weekend viewing are the Friday night USA offerings Monk and Psych, which premiered last week with amusing if not somewhat unsatisfying installments. “Monk” offered a fitting farewell to the late Stanley Kamel (Dr. Kroeger) and “Psych” managed to introduce Cybill Shepherd without overshadowing the rest of the cast. I think both of those shows will improve this coming week and throughout the rest of the season. I’ve heard some exciting news about some of the best characters from “Monk” returning for the show’s 100th episode this season.
In addition to this bunch, I’ve been doing my best to keep up on Showtime’s Monday night comedy pack Weeds and Secret Diary of a Call Girl without actually having the channel. So far, so good, though I’m pretty sure I’m watching the original British version of “Secret Diary of a Call Girl”. Billie Piper really runs that show all by herself, and she’s doing an impressive job. On “Weeds”, I’m finding Mary-Louise Parker rather irritating, as opposed to fascinating last season. Justin Kirk is really fantastic this year, and while I didn’t love Albert Brooks’ arc, he spun the story in a good direction. The show, despite a clever new opening bit each episode, has been getting off to a slow start, reorganizing all its characters in the proper way, but I think it should pick up soon enough. I haven’t yet seen last night’s episodes of either show, so I’ll start off my new reviews with thoughts on these two.
It’s weird that this summer is missing so many shows that really do feel right in the summer, such as “Entourage”, “Californication”, “Flight of the Conchords”, and especially “Rescue Me”. I’d even prefer to have the second season of “Damages” running right now rather than opposite a massive slate of programming in the spring. All of those will come in due time, I suppose. At least there is one upcoming positive: season two of the best reviewed-show in ages begins this Sunday at 10pm. Tune in to AMC for Mad Men. I know I will.
Reviews of upcoming episodes of all these shows and my thoughts on the whole “X-Files” series are coming soon. I will be reviewing “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” as soon as I get a chance to see act three.
Coming in the next few weeks: the 2nd Annual AFT Television Awards, honoring the very best in television this past season, in my opinion. I’m sorting through right now, finding eight great contenders in some categories and three in others. I’ll begin announcing categories soon; you won’t want to miss them.
I’ve just posted pilot reviews for Flashpoint and The Cleaner. I plan to continue watching “The Cleaner” starting with episode two tonight. I tried the second installments of both “Flashpoint” and In Plain Sight only to discover that they were just as bad as the first ones. I am happy to say that I opted to pick up Swingtown after my initial dismissal of the show and have now deemed it a proper guilty pleasure. As I mentioned a few posts earlier, “Swingtown” will be moving to the new timeslot of Fridays at 10pm.
As far as returning shows go, I decided to check out two sophomore shows which I had only seen the first few episodes of when they premiered last summer. I’m watching Burn Notice because of guest star Tricia Helfer (“Battlestar Galactica”), who is good on the show, though regrettably not quite as good as on BSG. It’s a quirky show that’s amusing at best and entertaining enough to sustain my interest, especially now that it doesn’t conflict with “Swingtown”. The other show is Saving Grace, which I think I’ve had just about enough of at this point. I never got into it, giving up last summer after only four episodes. Holly Hunter gives a decent performance but the show just doesn’t feel right. Watching it after The Closer also doesn’t quite give it a fair chance. Brenda Jonhson and the gang were back for a strong premiere last week and a good enough episode last night. I look forward to their continuing adventures, and I’m glad to see Phillip P. Keene (Buzz) added to the credited cast at the beginning of the episode. There’s nothing I hate more than a terrific ensemble that doesn’t credit all of its members accordingly (examples: see SAG nods for the casts of the movie “Ray” and shows like “24” and even “The Closer” in its first season).
Lighting up my weekend viewing are the Friday night USA offerings Monk and Psych, which premiered last week with amusing if not somewhat unsatisfying installments. “Monk” offered a fitting farewell to the late Stanley Kamel (Dr. Kroeger) and “Psych” managed to introduce Cybill Shepherd without overshadowing the rest of the cast. I think both of those shows will improve this coming week and throughout the rest of the season. I’ve heard some exciting news about some of the best characters from “Monk” returning for the show’s 100th episode this season.
In addition to this bunch, I’ve been doing my best to keep up on Showtime’s Monday night comedy pack Weeds and Secret Diary of a Call Girl without actually having the channel. So far, so good, though I’m pretty sure I’m watching the original British version of “Secret Diary of a Call Girl”. Billie Piper really runs that show all by herself, and she’s doing an impressive job. On “Weeds”, I’m finding Mary-Louise Parker rather irritating, as opposed to fascinating last season. Justin Kirk is really fantastic this year, and while I didn’t love Albert Brooks’ arc, he spun the story in a good direction. The show, despite a clever new opening bit each episode, has been getting off to a slow start, reorganizing all its characters in the proper way, but I think it should pick up soon enough. I haven’t yet seen last night’s episodes of either show, so I’ll start off my new reviews with thoughts on these two.
It’s weird that this summer is missing so many shows that really do feel right in the summer, such as “Entourage”, “Californication”, “Flight of the Conchords”, and especially “Rescue Me”. I’d even prefer to have the second season of “Damages” running right now rather than opposite a massive slate of programming in the spring. All of those will come in due time, I suppose. At least there is one upcoming positive: season two of the best reviewed-show in ages begins this Sunday at 10pm. Tune in to AMC for Mad Men. I know I will.
Reviews of upcoming episodes of all these shows and my thoughts on the whole “X-Files” series are coming soon. I will be reviewing “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” as soon as I get a chance to see act three.
Coming in the next few weeks: the 2nd Annual AFT Television Awards, honoring the very best in television this past season, in my opinion. I’m sorting through right now, finding eight great contenders in some categories and three in others. I’ll begin announcing categories soon; you won’t want to miss them.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Summer Pilots Galore
Summer always brings a number of new shows, the majority of which don't make it anywhere close to a renewal. This year should be no different, as the first three big scripted series of the season start up. They're all quite bad. Not that I'd expect much more, though summer has provided some memorable series, such as FOX's "The Inside" and last year's so-bad-it's-good CW "O.C." clone "Hidden Palms".
The first new show of this summer is "In Plain Sight". Its quality is especially disappointing for me because I was so looking forward to it. There's no reason it had to be this bad. I know that Mary McCormack can act well, and I wish that her character bore more similarity to her "West Wing" persona, as I'd think it would work a lot better for this show. I've been accused in the past of finding characters too often "unlikeable", and while that's certainly true here, her character just doesn't work. She tries desperately to be snappy and witty all the time but fails miserably. The show takes a similar route, making every single mistake in the book. Lead character Mary is burdened with an excessively lame sidekick who's both slimy and ineffective at the same time. Her boss spends far more time trying to decide what kind of gift to get for Mary than actually doing his job. It's supposed to be funny, I gather, but it's not. The Russian girl who wants the breast implants isn't terribly interesting, especially as an opening case. Just in case you didn't believe that the couple in Witness Protection was linked to the mob, they cast two recurring cast members from "The Sopranos" (Mikey Palmice and Charmaine Bucco). Not that I have a problem with typecasting, but it seems like too much. The show isn't nearly funny or dramatic enough to merit going back for another look. I had planned to watch the show's second installment to see if it might get a bit better (and because the guest stars this time were Wendell Pierce and Alfre Woodard), but didn't get around to it. This show may make it to a second season only because of the network it's on and the success of other USA summer shows ("Burn Notice", "Monk", "Psych"). It also did incredibly well in the ratings.
The next new show can't exactly be called "big" and, more significantly, I don't know if it can be called "new". "Charlie Jade" premiered on SciFi channel on June 6, 2008. It's definitely a British import, but I don't think it's a remake, and may instead just be re-aired, similar to "Extras" on HBO. The show isn't worth doing that much research. It's instantly unbearable, which is a difficult thing for a show to manage to do. Its lead, Jeffrey Pierce, is most reminiscent of Alex O'Loughlin's main character on the recently-canceled vampire drama "Moonlight" - except he isn't a vampire. There's actually very little that's special about him, save for some hallucinogenic visions he has every once in a while. It looks like "Sin City" and jumps back and forth between three parallel universes in an incoherent, rushed manner. The universes are converging for some reason, with constantly shifting color schemes and everything. The opening line of the show, following some soundless transference of watermelons between the universes, is "Our balls are bigger than your balls". Don't waste any time even thinking about this show. I've already written too much about it.
The third show was far more interesting than the other two, but I can't help feeling it's trying WAY too hard to offer a smothering excess of sexuality on a network that doesn't really allow it. If you haven't guessed yet, the show I'm referring to is CBS's "Swingtown". The premise is highly amusing, and the costumes and settings are impressive. It bears a striking resemblance in the way it plays itself out to NBC's short-lived summer offering "Windfall" from a few years back, also starring Lana Parilla. A large ensemble with no clear main character all get detailed plotlines and everything plays out in a very corny way that doesn't seem believable. I don't know if it's supposed to, though, and it might work. The main swinger couple is pretty outlandish and it's fun how they try to corrupt everyone. I was very impressed with the acting by Molly Parker as the redhead who's excited by the prospect of all this sleeping around. I'm not sure I can take this show on a week-to-week basis, but I have the second episode taped and might get around to watching it.
In Plain Sight: F
Charlie Jade: F
Swingtown: C
Season recap of "Battlestar Galactica" and Emmy predictions to come soon.
The first new show of this summer is "In Plain Sight". Its quality is especially disappointing for me because I was so looking forward to it. There's no reason it had to be this bad. I know that Mary McCormack can act well, and I wish that her character bore more similarity to her "West Wing" persona, as I'd think it would work a lot better for this show. I've been accused in the past of finding characters too often "unlikeable", and while that's certainly true here, her character just doesn't work. She tries desperately to be snappy and witty all the time but fails miserably. The show takes a similar route, making every single mistake in the book. Lead character Mary is burdened with an excessively lame sidekick who's both slimy and ineffective at the same time. Her boss spends far more time trying to decide what kind of gift to get for Mary than actually doing his job. It's supposed to be funny, I gather, but it's not. The Russian girl who wants the breast implants isn't terribly interesting, especially as an opening case. Just in case you didn't believe that the couple in Witness Protection was linked to the mob, they cast two recurring cast members from "The Sopranos" (Mikey Palmice and Charmaine Bucco). Not that I have a problem with typecasting, but it seems like too much. The show isn't nearly funny or dramatic enough to merit going back for another look. I had planned to watch the show's second installment to see if it might get a bit better (and because the guest stars this time were Wendell Pierce and Alfre Woodard), but didn't get around to it. This show may make it to a second season only because of the network it's on and the success of other USA summer shows ("Burn Notice", "Monk", "Psych"). It also did incredibly well in the ratings.
The next new show can't exactly be called "big" and, more significantly, I don't know if it can be called "new". "Charlie Jade" premiered on SciFi channel on June 6, 2008. It's definitely a British import, but I don't think it's a remake, and may instead just be re-aired, similar to "Extras" on HBO. The show isn't worth doing that much research. It's instantly unbearable, which is a difficult thing for a show to manage to do. Its lead, Jeffrey Pierce, is most reminiscent of Alex O'Loughlin's main character on the recently-canceled vampire drama "Moonlight" - except he isn't a vampire. There's actually very little that's special about him, save for some hallucinogenic visions he has every once in a while. It looks like "Sin City" and jumps back and forth between three parallel universes in an incoherent, rushed manner. The universes are converging for some reason, with constantly shifting color schemes and everything. The opening line of the show, following some soundless transference of watermelons between the universes, is "Our balls are bigger than your balls". Don't waste any time even thinking about this show. I've already written too much about it.
The third show was far more interesting than the other two, but I can't help feeling it's trying WAY too hard to offer a smothering excess of sexuality on a network that doesn't really allow it. If you haven't guessed yet, the show I'm referring to is CBS's "Swingtown". The premise is highly amusing, and the costumes and settings are impressive. It bears a striking resemblance in the way it plays itself out to NBC's short-lived summer offering "Windfall" from a few years back, also starring Lana Parilla. A large ensemble with no clear main character all get detailed plotlines and everything plays out in a very corny way that doesn't seem believable. I don't know if it's supposed to, though, and it might work. The main swinger couple is pretty outlandish and it's fun how they try to corrupt everyone. I was very impressed with the acting by Molly Parker as the redhead who's excited by the prospect of all this sleeping around. I'm not sure I can take this show on a week-to-week basis, but I have the second episode taped and might get around to watching it.
In Plain Sight: F
Charlie Jade: F
Swingtown: C
Season recap of "Battlestar Galactica" and Emmy predictions to come soon.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
A Quick Note About Show Previews
I've noticed something very interesting, which I think is actually quite clever. Both FX's "Damages" and USA's forthcoming "In Plain Sight" have used marketing campaigns which include two very different TV spot styles. I commented on this briefly before "Damages" started, but I'll say more about it now. The first set of ads for each feature a very comic tone, with the former show emphasizing Tate Donovan's humorous introduction of Patty Hewes, and the latter framing Mary McCormack as devilishly witty and sarcastic. The next series of "Damages" ads showed the dramatic battle between Patty and criminal Arthur Frobisher, while the new "In Plain Sight" commercials ask the question "what if your life changed in an instant" and preview some of the more serious "Saving Grace"-style cop drama sure to be seen on the show. I suppose this is an effective strategy, creating two essentially different series through two markedly sets of ads. I had more interest in the dramatic "Damages" and the comedic "In Plain Sight". Given how "Damages" turned out, it's likely that "In Plain Sight" might also end up a drama, but its placement on USA alongside shows like "Monk" and "Psych" might suggest otherwise. Any comments on the contradictory campaigns?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
