Streaming Options
Poll: What was your favorite scene from Pretty Little Liars - Out of Sight, Out of Mind?
*This renewal is for 13 episodes, Showcase will air it in Fall 2013 while Syfy will air it Winter 2014
Season 3's show runner Emily Andras will continue to run the show in Season 4.
Streaming Options
Hey Psych-os! I recently got a chance to check out the Psych season 7 premiere, and let me tell you, I'm so glad it's coming back.
There will be more info closer to the air date, but for those of you anxiously awaiting news on the episode, I've got a little treat for you. Here are a baker's dozen teases for you to browse and hypothesize about.
(WARNING: I call them "non-spoilery," but if you really don't like any sort of spoilers, don't read ahead. Just in case. I don't want to feel your wrath after the fact. And yes, I understand that putting a "warning" in parenthesis feels a little counterproductive- hence the capitals.)
And as promised, here are your "Baker's Dozen Non-Spoilery Teases," hot out of the oven:
- The episode starts mere seconds after the season 6 finale.
- Cars named after berries don't have great luck (SPOILER: more cars may qualify than you think)
- Shawn has new, cooler flashes on clues, including slow-mo and zooming. Hard to tell whether it's the new norm, or just for this episode where he is particularly determined.
- Woody's idea of "helping" is definitely NOT one that others appreciate. Needless to say, he often assumes the worst has happened, and plans accordingly.
- Shawn doesn't seem to know what a Mexican Stand-off is.
- Juliet wins the Best Girlfriend award.
- There's a plate of nachos that are almost worth dying for.
- Gus does not know where officials keep their IDs. (Hint: it's NOT the pants pocket)
- In their own way, everyone tries to help Shawn/keep him from dying. That's right, even Lassie.
- Shawn tricks Gus into helping him, more than once, by promising food. (What else is new?)
- One beard CAN become two disguises if you know how to work it.
- While Henry fights to stay alive at the hospital, he's helped (?) by someone who considers him/herself very close to him.
- Shawn breaks a lot of things.
I hope this helps stave off the desperation until Psych airs February 27th on USA!
Streaming Options
By popular demand a new option has been added for not killing any of them
P.S. This is not about least favorite character, you could choose to kill one of your favorites for story-line reasons.
Feel free to explain your choice in the comments.
Yesterday's episode of Castle was the second episode of this season's 2-parter. A lot of great stuff happened, and there was some good news in the ratings and audience department as well
'Hunt' earned a 2.3 adults 18-49 rating, and 10.77 million viewers. This rating was identical to last week's 'Target.' Target set the season ratings high, and Hunt equaled it. This bucks the trend that was set by the three previous 2-parters, which have always seen a ratings increase from the first to the second episode. Hunt bucked that trend, equaling the ratings of the first episode, Target
Last week, Target drew in 9.85 million viewers, the highest number of viewers since episode 8 this season. Hunt, however, earned 10.77 million viewers, not far off 1 million viewers more than Target, and also the third most viewed episode this season, behind episodes 4 and 5.
Overall, this season's 2 parter performed much better than last seasons's 2-parter. Last season, the Pandora and Linchpin duo earned a 2.0 rating and 8.86 million viewers, and a 2.1 rating and 9.73 million viewers respectively. With Target and Hunt each earning 2.3 ratings, and 9.85 and 10.77 million viewers respectively, this season's 2-parter was much more popular with the Castle fandom than last season's 2-parter
The Round 2 poll for readers' guesses at the ratings for Hunt yielded a pretty broad range of results. Given Castle's 100% record at increasing the ratings from the first 2-parter episode to the second, it's not much of a surprise to see that a combined 50% of voters guessed a 2.4 or 2.5 rating for Hunt. Just over 10% of people guessed that Hunt would equal Target's 2.3 rating. Interestingly, just over 22% of people thought Hunt would earn a '2.8 or above' rating. Sorry to drop a bombshell, but I think you'd be more likely to be struck by lightning than Castle seeing such as massive ratings boost - unless you're ABC's Scandal!! You can see the results of the poll here
A little bit of trivia now, Hunt was Castle creator Andrew Marlowe's thirteenth episode. Over the course of the series, the episodes Marlowe has written or co-written have averaged a 2.48 rating, and 10.44 million viewers. There are other writers who have better ratings and audience averages though, you can check out this page on my website for more information on individual Castle writers and the performance of their episodes
Thanks for reading! I hope everyone survives the three week break without deteriorating too much!
Jimmy
My apologies that it's a bit later than usual!
Last week we learned that the prison was a home. This week an alternative theory was floated: “This is a tomb.” This was a homecoming episode for
Andrea. Or was Andrea the harbinger of
death?
We got biblical in this one – something about casting off an
arm to stop a body from being cast into Hell, and Merle and Hershel bonded. Back at Woodbury, the Governor carried
himself like a spiritual leader.
The main action kicks off about halfway into the episode
when Andrea meets up with her old group, and they are rightly cautious. It wasn’t quite the warm fuzzy reunion I had
expected, but I did imagine a Carol/Andrea hug – and got one.
Andrea learns that Shane, Lori, and T-Dog are dead. She’s horrified by the prison and how
hardened her old friends have become.
The group asked some good questions:
“What makes you think this man wants to negotiate? Did he say that?”
“No.” “Then why did you come here?” Andrea
turns against Michonne. “What have you
told them?” Good to see the group standing
with Michonne now, and standing up for for
Axel – people who fought with them.
Although Andrea has a point. What
else could she have done?
Andrea also meets Baby Asskicker. That was a nice moment. And I liked seeing Rick give Andrea a gun as
she left. They all know they’ll soon be
in a fight where they’ll need every gun they have, but there’s still room for
friendship in this world. It was a warm gesture.
Andrea & the Governor
But the scene I’m guessing everyone is talking about is the
one where Andrea has the opportunity to kill the governor but doesn’t. So what is with Andrea? And with Carol? There’s no confusion anymore that Andrea
knows that the Governor lies to her and is pretty messed up, in a violent kind
of way. She considers taking Carol’s
advice and killing him – but then doesn’t.
I’m reading into this that Andrea doubts the Governor and
values her old friends more. She wants
to help them. I’m fine with Andrea not
killing the Governor. She distrusts him
and has reasons to fear his actions, but from where she stands, she hasn’t been
injured by him yet, and to kill him like that would have been cold.
But what now?
She’s back in Woodbury. Can she
stand by and watch the Woodbury soldiers train kids to kill her friends? On a side note, was anyone else thinking that
the governor would wake up during that scene where Andrea considered killing
him?
And Carol’s comment? Killing
the Governor would no doubt save a lot of lives in the end, and more
importantly to the group, lives that they care about. But that was cold. It sort of makes sense for Carol’s character
though. She was an abused wife and
probably fantasized about killing Ed.
She seems to see everything in the lens of abuser and abusee. She saw Merle as being like Ed, but that
doesn’t really appear to be the Merle/Daryl dynamic from what we’ve seen so far.
Did Carol really think Andrea was at the same place she was,
and could so calmly kill someone she had feelings for and had just been
with? My shock was not that Andrea
rejected it but that she actually considered it. Andrea
doesn’t want the prison to become a tomb, but I expect a direct, honest
response from her. Her character has
been shown to say what she thinks and fight for what she believes in. To be honest, I would have expected her to have
not left the prison.
More Thoughts
Was any one else a little confused when Hershel brought up
the no-longer-a-democracy comment?
Doesn’t he want Rick to listen to his point of view? So by default, doesn’t he want it to be a
democracy? Does he expect Rick to be
faultless because Rick declared martial law earlier on when everyone was panicking?
Or did he just want Rick to focus and tell him what to do?
Michonne’s motivations were cleared up. She wanted to show Andrea what the Governor
was like. “You chose a warm bed over a
friend.” Ow.
Beth (or I should probably say Emily Kinney) has got some really good vocals. I was somewhat impressed in
the season premiere. I was really
impressed in this episode.
Great scene with Milton up close and personal with a
walker. Why do I get the feeling he’s
going to end up at the prison before all is said and done?
Michonne and Merle’s version of bonding over abs? Awesome.
And what do you think about Tyreese and co.’s willingness to
so quickly switch sides? It’s not too
unbelievable because they didn’t know Rick’s group for too long, they are tired
and scared, and they really just want a safe haven. But they know these people now. Can they really arm up against them – people
who took them in and fed them, and who have a baby in their care – without
flinching?
The title was called “I Ain’t a Judas,” and true to the
title, no one was really a Judas. Milton
didn’t betray the Governor. Merle didn’t
betray the prison group. Andrea didn’t
betray Rick. And Andrea didn’t betray
the Governor. Maybe next week.
So over the past few weeks I've talked about how shipping relates to canon. How sometimes it works by redefining it, by reading into it, by reshaping it or discarding it entirely, and by interacting with it as it interacts with us.
And in this very ending column of the section, I want to bring it back to the canon again -- the musical kind. The beautiful thing about a canon is that is is the same melody - no variation - played by each instrument, starting at a different time. But depending on which instrument is playing, and what other parts of the selfsame song it's interacting with, listeners will hear different things at different times.
Let's look at the musical example of the canon that I posted at the very start of this series of columns:
To every instrument on its own, this is a C major scale going downward. That's very clear.
But on the third beat, we have an minor third - an A minor. In the very next note a major third - G major.
The tune, the tenor, and the mood shifts from note to note depending on which notes are being played in conjunction
And in the four beats when we have all three notes playing together -- such a rich sound! an F major, an E minor, a D minor and then a C major chord. What's more, that F major is being created by adding a single note to the A minor. A difference of one note, one layer, and a minor chord becomes a major one. From sad to happy in a single F.
For those of you who don't read music, here's the single melody -- and here's the canon. You can't deny that it's the same melody, but depending on the beat, it sounds very, very different.
Now, there are two reasons I bring this back around to shipping.
One is the obvious, which is, depending on what notes you're playing at the same time, where you are and what pieces of the melody speak to you, you can listen to the same notes but hear something very, very different. Perhaps, if you're like me, and you're musically inclined and know what's coming next, you imagine that F on the bottom of the A minor third, and it almost sounds happy to you instead of sad. It's still a minor third, but you hear it as major. I don't need to tell you the point of this ham-handed metaphor -- what we see on the screen is the same, but what we take away from it is different, and there's no shame in that. Those are the differences that make art complex and intriguing and wonderful.
But the other half of the metaphor is this: Shipping isn't a single melody, either. That's what I've been trying to illustrate. Part of shipping is interpreting what's on the screen. Part of shipping is remaking it. Part of shipping is interaction with one another, and part of it is interaction with the outside world. Some shippers do some of these, some do others, some do all, but there is not a single thing that all shippers do.
Shippers are not a monolith. Shipping brings different joys to different people. And sometimes there's dissonance among the different points of view, and sometimes discomfort, and sometimes ugliness. But most of the time, harmony and acceptance, because we all understand that we see what we see, and it may not be what others see, but there's nothing wrong with enjoying and sharing and debating that.
And all these questions of "canon or not canon," "talk about it or not talk about it" -- they are conversations that go on within the shipping community as well. Some shippers would prefer to live in their own space and not engage the larger fandom; others think it's essential. Some find it intensely embarrassing when questions that touch on shipping are brought up with the professionals; other people see those questions as the only way to open doors that have traditionally stayed closed. Some shippers engage in behavior that embarrasses other shippers; some shippers have shame or guilt or fear attached to their shipping and would rather it be private; some find it a core part of who they are and how they interact with the world. But no single shipper's activity represents the community at large. Not even this columnist, no matter how much she may try to shed light on things.
Over the next few weeks I'm going to start talking about the different things shipping is to different people. Some of them are in conflict with each other. Some are not. But each is an insight into one corner of a varied world, and each has a different relationship to canon, to the rest of fandom, and to the world at large.
But first, I'll be bringing you something special. A friend of mine, Paul, a non-shipper who was interested in how shippers think, had the good graces to engage with me in a long conversation. It was a long and sometimes uncomfortable talk, but in the end we were able to find many points of agreement. The conversation was an uneasy one, and there was a lot of friction, but I found places to concede certain behaviors are unsustainable, and he found some previously unexplored interest in the underlying questions that drive shipping. I'll be bringing you that conversation as a column, and as an example that yes, we can discuss this and make progress.
Speaking of discussions:
I ask very specific questions at the end of every column. There's a reason I do this: to help guide the discussion and focus our energies not toward our animosity toward each other but toward the topics within and around shipping that bear talking about. To that end, I continue to be a little dismayed that every week has contained some permutation of "X and Y aren't in love, and you're watching it wrong if you think so." So let me state this, in boldface, and for the record.
The point of this column is not to convince you to ship. So the point of your comments should not be to convince people not to.
I'm writing this column because there are things to talk about with shipping. The big, big question is, how do we co-exist with non-shippers? What in our behavior needs to be modified; what are the reasons for the animosity that exists and how can we come to an understanding? And yes, we have to co-exist. Because things can't stand as they are. You can't control what I see when I watch TV, and I can't control what you see. But we're both watching, and we both feel the need to discuss it. So no matter how many times you say "Shippers should find their own forum," shippers aren't going away. Coexisting isn't impossible. We just need to start to listen to each other.
If you're here to do that, and not to shame or drive in wedges, then I hope you'll look forward to future columns as much as I'm looking forward to posting them. If you're not interested in that process? Fine, but that takes you outside the discussion, too, and your comments will not be treated as valid discussion points.
One more thing: I respectfully ask that you not downvote comments by shippers simply because they're by shippers. It is rude and it tells everyone that good faith is not to be found here. I'd prefer if you didn't use the voting system at all, as it seems a cowardly way to heckle from the sidelines. But if you're going to upvote and downvote, limit your downvotes to comments you feel are rude or inappropriate. And like it or not, comments by shippers on a shipping column are unquestionably appropriate.
How do we break the impasse? What is there to talk about besides "yes, ship" or "no, don't"? What are the specific questions you have to ask that will let us move forward?
Streaming Options
I'm glad to see that even though other relationships may come into their lives, nothing will ever be stronger than the love between Troy and Abed. They truly are two heads of one gluon (or something like that).
What was your favorite part of the episode? If you don't see it belong, tell us in the comments!
Suits would be a typical law procedure series if we didn’t take into account Mike Ross’ Past (the simple fact that he’s a fraud) or that they almost never go to court. From its premise the show offers unique and entertaining ways to make the audience root for the anti-hero. None of these characters fulfill the stereotypes of the kind of lawyer we’re used to seeing, but they’re still honorable in a lot of ways.
When the first half of season 2 started back in June, the characters were dealing
with the aftermath of Jessica finding out the truth about Mike; having some
sort of closure when it was overshadowed by the other half of Pearson Hardman
coming back.
Daniel Hardman is introduced as a man that made a lot of mistakes and is wanting to rectify them. However, there’s something off that doesn’t let the audience completely
trust him. (For me it was the way he delivered his lines sounding more like a
yoga instructor than a lawyer trying to catch up with all the cases he missed,
but that’s me, maybe the way he overlooked the firm was definitely fishy too).
The suspicion is confirmed when Travis Tanner appears suing Harvey for hiding
information on a difficult case from years ago, resulting in Donna’s exit from
the firm after she finds and destroys the (in theory) missing memo.
During the midseason finale and after a handful of angsty episodes the problem named
Daniel Hardman is solved with him being kicked out of the firm after his scheme
is uncovered; clearing Donna’s name in the process. But the dynamics of this
family of lawyers is broken after Louis’ betrayal and the death of Mike’s
grandma.
The second half of the season handles the fallout of Hardman’s exit and the
economic problems the firm is going through.
The first case deals with Mike’s tendency to empathize with clients; the
consequence of this being the addition of Katrina Bennet to the firm. Bennet is
a fifth year associate that doesn’t instantly click with the characters and, by
the finale, her competitive (and not so innocent) side shows, making her seem more like the type of character Scottie is than any other of the ladies at the firm. Oh, yes; because Scottie, Harvey’s old classmate, rival and lover, is back. And she’s back to help Pearson win the 45 cases of gender discrimination Jessica took against Folsom Foods. Resulting in having Hardman as opposing counsellor even if the firm representing the cases is Rachel’s dad, Robert Zane; if it’s one thing we know for sure, it’s that getting rid of Hardman is not as easy as it looks. But Scottie has a hidden agenda and it’s related to the possible merger that could happen with Edward Darby’s firm from England (who doesn’t like Daniel all that much either) No need to say Harvey isn’t happy, putting things at risk when he sues one of Darby’s clients, gambling if the merger finally goes through. (And his name at the door)
Between cases and the economic crisis, the characters go through problems of their own.
Both Harvey and Mike were involved in romantic storylines that didn’t go
anywhere which makes us wonder where is Korsh going with Rachel and Mike who’ve survived a few fights and are reconnecting again, having its moment during the finale when, after blowing his cover and finally telling her the truth, they have a hot HBO deserving angry sex scene in the copy room. And where is he going with Donna and Harvey? because, at least to me, don’t love each other as brother and sister as Donna tried to make us believe (and probably in the surface is what she believes). A sister doesn’t look like that after she realizes a ‘you look beautiful’ comment isn’t directed at her. (Unless you’re watching Game of Thrones, but that’s another story) During the finale there’s a heartbreaking scene when Donna corners him to defend Scottie, who puts her job at risk because she loves Harvey and probably his own happiness. Always one step ahead of him, Donna knows how it will turn out, (After all, she’s Donna, she knows everything) and after calling him out on never listening to his feelings but rather the rational side of things, he finally trusts Scottie enough to use the file she gave them to win the case against Darby.
However Jessica’s ahead of his game too, and after putting Mike in the crossfire (being fired by Harvey and unfired by her) Harvey loses the case, and has to welcome Darby with open arms. Among a few Downton Abbey and British culture related jokes, the way things were at the firm took a full swing and the relationship between the main characters is broken, one way or another, by the end of the episode.
The season created an arc that affected not only the firm but the dynamics of the
characters, letting Rick Hoffman steal the screen with Louis’ redemption during these last 6 episodes, and making Meghan Markle own Rachel’s downfall after not getting into Harvard.
With a better understanding of what happens under the surface, every moment sets the bar high to what to expect next season; letting the actors show how good they are.
Suits let us wait for months for their summer Season 3 with burning questions:
How will Mike and Harvey’s partnership go on?
How will Jessica and Harvey’s work relationship develop after she showed him who’s in charge?
How will the firm be doing when we meet again after their English counterpart is finally settled?
For me, Summer can’t get here soon enough. What about you? Fill me in on twitter or in the comments.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
