Lost Girl, Nov 24 - Lovers. United.

In this week’s episode of “Lost Girl”, Bo is finally back – proper. Yay! But Lauren’s been captured. Boo. And now on to the greater details. 

In this particular episode Dyson finally got married to Bo. True, they were ‘channeling’ a pair of ghosts, but the same plot device was used in BtVS S2, and it worked there too. Plus, the ghosts (one human, one Fae) were used to introduce a Gothic angle to the show: in this particular episode Bo had to rescue a family from a vengeful Fae ghost because the father’s ancestor has killed the Fae and her human fiancé because he and the others thought that the Fae in question was a witch, something that brought back the final episodes of the S3 of this show: human-Fae interactions may be more complex than humans being just minions (or worse for the Fae). 

This brings us to Lauren, who had been finally captured by the inquisition, or the Una Mens, or whoever: Vex had sold her out in the previous installment to save his own skin. Since this episode has also introduced a cool new (well, recycled, you can say) villain, Vex is doomed still, but he had been discussed last time, so that is it for him for now.

Lauren, on the other hand, had been captured – by someone from her past according to the episode’s prompt. Perhaps, and the fact that her new ‘girlfriend’ aided in her capture just adds salt to the wound. And yet...

Since the beginning of the show, Lauren was shown thrust into positions that demanded more confidence from her, more self-confidence and quick thinking. Lauren may not be a follower, but she most certainly is not a leader – she is more of a fatalist, who goes with the flow. Well, now she will have to stop, or... there probably are not any other options: “Lost Girl” is a TV show, and when a scriptwriter (or several) decides to make their character into a hero, their character will become a hero...or a heroine in Lauren’s case.

Now why the scriptwriters decided to make Lauren a hero is another story; the short answer is that as a main (or at least a secondary) character) Lauren has to become a heroine or a villainess, that is it. Of course, she could have also vanished for good, but to do that her actress would have had to quit the show and she obviously does not want that. So Lauren is stuck being captured for now...at least until the next episode or two.

But speaking of heroes, Bo and Dyson... Yes, Clio (the bounty hunter from the previous episode who was the woman) was working for Vex in order to capture Bo, we get that. The fact that she betrayed Dyson and Bo is worse. But...

The rather callous way Bo handled Clio (who was named after the Greek muse of history) and Dyson let her was not better. In TV world heroes differ from villains by being more generous, sometimes even offering the evildoers a last chance to be redeemed, or at least get the Hell out of town. After all, Clio did help Dyson find Bo as well as put the ghosts to rest, so Bo could’ve just bitchslapped her around and sent her on her way – and that would’ve been the last of Clio, most likely. Instead, she ended up with a slit throat on a road somewhere, and Bo and Dyson continued on their way, rather like Bonnie and Clyde.

So: Lauren is captured (either by Fae or by humans or by somebody else), while Bo and Dyson are driving back to Toronto from somewhere else (wherever they have landed by jumping off the ghost train) and... that is it. The others were not in this episode. Guess we will have to wait until the next one to see what has happened to them. Overall I rate this episode a solid B. 

Meanwhile, in other news, Bar Rescue has its own problems: it aired yet another episode about a bar... whose owner had shot some other person and perhaps not in self-defense. Needless to say, even an accidental release of this episode, late in night, was...controversial, so for now Bar Rescue is probably laying low. Since it is a good show, I sincerely hope that they make it through ok...

S.H.I.E.L.D., Oct 15 - Eye-Spy

In this week’s episode of “Agents”, the agents have to deal with a rogue agent, who has apparently defaulted and joined the dark side, robbing banks, and armored cars, and safes in order to get to some bizarre formula that not even S.H.I.E.L.D. can figure out. 

However, because this is Marvel™, and Whedon, things are not as they seem – the ex-agent, Akeela, has a cyborgnetic eye that will kill her if she tries to go back to the light side. It is up to the show’s heroes to make things right again, and they deliver!

Agent May livens up somewhat and becomes more human in this episode and less of an emotionless “cyborg” that she was in “0-8-4”, for comparison. She does not kill Akeela and actually appears to be warming up to Coulson even though their personalities still clash as they did in the previous episodes.

The FitzSimmons duo are still comically reliving despite themselves, or their intentions, perhaps. Yes, they successfully operate on Akeela, but somehow their babbling... it is still funny, perhaps intentionally so.

This brings me to my first two comments. Firstly, the dendrotoxins used on Akeela are neurotoxins made from the venom of mamba snakes, a group of 4 species of highly venomous – and agile – cousins of cobras. Secondly, the comic relief bit – it is not so much annoying as over-the-top and established: practically from the pilot episode the FitzSimmons duo have been alleviating the tension, the audience knows much less about their back story than about anyone else’s: they are seemingly secondary characters without much personality behind them. I say personality, because their characters are largely the same without much difference between them. Considering that the “Agents” are built around teamwork...see below.

There is chemistry between Grant and Skye, which is not surprising. “Agents” may be about teamwork, but it is also about couples – the FitzSimmons duo, May and Coulson, Grant and Skye. Coulson, true, tries to bond with everyone...but the FitzSimmons duo is on the bottom: they are important to the plot, they provide the scientific knowhow, but to the scriptwriters, at least, they are the least important characters, period. “Agents”, or rather the main cast of the show, is fieldwork oriented, and the FitzSimmons duo is situated mostly in the background. Possibly, they will have an episode or two to themselves, but that is anyone’s bet, really.

As for Grant and Skye their relationship continues to evolve even as they work together to imitate Akeela infiltrate a Belorussian scientific facility to acquire the formula, as mentioned previously. When Grant had to seduce, cough, a security guard - that was quite funny. Then again, so were the glasses – Clark Kent references probably abounded. That is sweet, but also...predictable.

Let us be fair. There is nothing wrong with being predictable; it is just that in Whedon’s earlier works – BtVS, Firefly™ - there was nothing particularly predictable about them. It is as if Whedon is taking the easy way out: they want a show about the States being great? (Never mind that the shutdown is still going on, ha-ha.) I will do that and nothing more. The passion, the raw energy that was so noticeable in the pilot episode is gone, and what we have is a solid, but rather stogy, Cold-War-reminiscent, spy thriller, down to the Victory Square. While there are several Victory Squares in the world, my money is on it being the Belorussian one, as opposed to one in British Columbia, Canada. Belarus seems to have become a stand-in for Russia and yes, why not, it is just that the Cold War is done and gone; there is no need to revive on both sides.

Of course it may be that JW is just tired, just as Jon Taffer from “Bar Rescue” is. In the episode “Crappy Cantina” you can see that he had enough with bar rescuing and as a result the cantina in question had to close even though he had supposedly rescued it. Maybe JW is suffering from the same fatigue, who knows?

In any case, the “Eye-Spy” episode was good, solid, impressive, but – uninspiring. It was a typical action flick without any of the charisma that BtVS was famous for, and for many people that would be fine, but for a screenwriter, author, producer, etc, of Whedon’s caliber that is disappointing. I just hope that the next episodes will show the “Agents” – and the agents – get out of this funk, because even with the lack of inspiration it is a good show and has the potential of being a great one.

Spike: update

My apologies to anyone who got misled by my yesterday's post: Spike had cleaned up its game. 'Bar Rescue' appears to be airing full episodes for now, while 'Deadliest Warrior' and co once more show the 'episode highlights' label where appropriate. Sorry about the rant yesterday, then.

Spike: latest developments

For an opening line, I am a fan of the TV channel Spike. Sadly, it appears to have become discontinued in Canada, but that's off topic. The topic is that Spike seems to be going downwards in quality, and its latest 'trick' is just another symptom of this deterioration.

Let's start at the beginning. And in the beginning we have one of the several programs that are aired on this channel: 'Bar Rescue'. As I said, Spike appears to have become discontinued in Canada, but its' site is still accessible, so that's okay.

On the other hand, this site doesn't show most of the new episodes from such shows as 'Bar Rescue', but they are releasing the so-called 'episode highlights': a bundle of scenes from various eps of different shows that are aired on Spike. That's still ok.

Lately, though, Spike has began to label those highlights as 'full episodes', which is not ok. A 3-4 minute scene from a 'Deadliest Warrior' episode is not a 'full episode', not to mention - seriously? A single clip (say, about an AK-47) from an episode 'Somali Pirates vs. Medellin Cartel' is the only highlight of that ep? Seriously?

In 'Bar Rescue' case this isn't as extreme, there the audience can enjoy a bit over 15 minutes worth of highlights from their latest ep, but it is not a full ep. No, for real - use the right label! If people will want to see episode highlights they will see them all the same, and if you try to trick other people into seeing them by using the wrong label, this will work only once or twice, and that's it. No one else will go there because the audience doesn't like to be tricked.

So: a popular TV channel is reduced to somewhat fraudulent tricks to have its audience watch the highlights from the new episodes of its' shows. How the mighty have fallen!