Archive for April, 2009
Just a few short months ago, I was all excited about the multitudes of awesome Winter TV shows and Spring TV shows heading our way. And yet, somehow, I haven’t fallen in love with as many of them as I thought I would. I’m still watching Castle, I’m determined to stick with Parks and Recreation, and Better Off Ted has become a favorite, but many of the others are stacking up on the DVR or falling off my radar completely. So I thought I’d ask: As most of these shows head toward their finales in the coming weeks, which midseason shows are you falling for this time around?
Photos courtesy of NBC and copyright 2009 ABC, Inc.
It sort of feels like we shared this episode of Lost with other projects that needed some promotin’, though I actually thought it was cool when the black behind the opening Lost logo turns into stars, which turns into a Star Trek promo. And . . . it kind of worked on me. I’m more excited now to see that movie on the big screen, what with the scary roaring creatures and all.
Also, during the commercial breaks, did you notice the super-quick flashes of images followed by the text “What did you see?”? You can see all the spots here, and this is apparently the official site for the ABC show that these spots are for, Flash Forward. The effect is a little different watching them online, but as I watched those things on TV I thought they were incredibly creepy.
Anyway! On to the actual show. What did you think of “The Variable”? To talk about it, read more.
- When Eloise Hawking goes to see Penny in the hospital where Desmond’s been taken after his fight with Ben, she says her son is responsible for all this, prompting an exchange that made me chuckle:
Penny: “Your son is Benjamin Linus?”
Eloise: “Good Lord, no! My son is Daniel Faraday.”
- Faraday tells Jack that his mother was wrong about destiny, that he doesn’t belong there at all. Here’s yet another situation in which one character believes in destiny (Eloise) and the other believes in free will (Faraday).
- Dr. Chang echoes the words uttered by Eloise when she and Ben are trying to gather the Oceanic Six: “Then God help us all.”
- “Dr. Chang, Miles is your son.” No time for easing into great revelations!
- Check out the hair on Faraday at his graduation! He reminds me of a Lego man, with his little eyes and all that hair. Anyway, though we see glimpses of Eloise being kind to her son (the inscription in his journal: “No matter what, remember, I will always love you”), she is mostly cold and withholding – perhaps because she knows what happens in Faraday’s future?
- “Welcome to the meeting, Twitchy.” Ha! It’s like chuckle time at Juliet and Sawyer’s – Sawyer calls Faraday “H.G. Wells” and delivers my favorite line of the night: “Your mother . . . is an Other?” It’s not so funny, however, when Sawyer gently calls Kate his old pet name for her, “Freckles,” and Juliet gives Kate the code for the fence so they can get to the hostiles. “It’s over here for us anyway,” Juliet says pointedly. This appears to have a double meaning, no? It’s over here for . . . us.
- When Widmore goes to meet with Faraday (and especially when he says he’s “old friends” with Eloise), I had this suspicion that Widmore would reveal he’s Faraday’s father. The reveal comes later, but it turns out that’s true. Huh. During their meeting, Widmore moves a Wired magazine on the couch, with a headline “The Impossible Gets Real!” Widmore tells Faraday he’s “a man of tremendous gifts and it would be a shame to see them go to waste.”
- Daniel talking to Little Charlotte reminds me so much of The Time Traveler’s Wife – right down to the girl’s red hair. Aaaaand this scene makes me feel like crying.
- So, Paul Giamatti (OK, Radzinsky) and his buddies start shooting and Faraday is grazed in the neck. He realizes, “This is our present. . . . Any one of us can die, Jack.”
- Faraday explains: “I’d been spending so much time focused on the constants, I forgot about the variables. And do you know what the variables in these equations are, Jack? Us. We’re the variables. People! We think, we reason, we make choices, we have free will. We can change our destiny.” So, he wants to detonate a hydrogen bomb.
- Back (er, forward) at the Marina Medical Center, Eloise is apologizing to Penny. “For the first time in a long time, I don’t know what’s going to happen next.” But Desmond is OK! Yay. “I promised you, Penny. I promised you. I’d never leave you again.”
- So Eloise sent her (and Widmore’s) son back to the island, knowing that her past self would shoot him. Wow. She kind of does win the sacrifice argument, Widmore.
Photos copyright 2008 ABC, Inc.
Ever since I heard about Adam, which premiered at Sundance this year, I’ve been dying to see a preview for it – and now it’s finally here! This sweet-looking romance stars Hugh Dancy and Rose Byrne (Damages) as two twentysomethings who live in the same apartment complex. They become interested in each other and might be on the path to love if not for one little thing: Adam (Dancy) suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, which means he has trouble navigating dating and other social situations.
I was worried that this movie might be a little too sentimental, but the trailer is charming, with a few moments that made me laugh out loud nestled between the emotional scenes. The reviews out of Sundance were generally positive, with one critic describing it as “extremely touching and sweet.”
The movie also stars Peter Gallagher, Amy Irving, and Mark Linn-Baker and will hit theaters July 29. To watch the trailer, read more.
Photo courtesy of Sundance
For one week only, ABC Thursdays are back to normal. Ugly Betty makes its return from its Spring hiatus – just in time for Private Practice to air its second-season finale.
When we left off with Betty, the Mode staff was hard at work on the annual sex issue. In tonight’s episode, we learn the issue was a flop, leaving Mode in dire financial circumstances (the economy is everywhere!). Conveniently, Betty’s boyfriend just happens to be, y’know, loaded. Wonder if that’s going to cause any tension at all?
Meanwhile, on Private Practice, Violet’s about to give birth, and that prompts her to make a decision between Pete and Sheldon. But things take a turn for the dark when a past patient shows up at Oceanside, putting Violet and her baby in grave danger. I chatted with Amy Brenneman about this episode a few days ago, and I’ll be sharing some of her thoughts on her storyline later today, so stay tuned for that.
In between the two, we have another new episode of Grey’s Anatomy, in which Izzie’s mom – played by Sharon Lawrence, last seen as Megan’s mom on Privileged – comes to town to pay a surprise visit to her ailing daughter. She’s not the only parent in town: Thatcher Grey turns up at Seattle Grace with a thing or two to say to his daughters.
Sounds like quite a night all around, eh? To check out a clip from each of tonight’s episodes, just read more.
Photos copyright 2009 ABC, Inc.
