dreamloom

Category: Reviews

Deeper, analytical pieces on shows and episodes.

  • Charlie Jade recap: “Choosing Sides”

    Well I may have killed a few people, I may have even enjoyed it. But you want to walk away from 10 billion people. And they’re all going to die without your help. Which one of us is a psychopath? – 01 Boxer

    Remember a few weeks ago when Charlie and 01 got a minute or two together on screen and it sparkled? What do you think about an entire act of the two together?

    I had a chance to interview Michael Filipowich a couple weeks back; we’ll be posting that Wednesday morning. In that interview I found out just how lucky we all are the writing chores changed hands. The first guys…well, here’s Filipowich:

    They were always worried about putting Jeff and I together…I swear they said this – “we don’t want to blow our load too early.”

    Yikes. Fortunately, tonight we got an episode designed to bring them together.

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  • The Middleman recap: “The Clotharian Contamination Protocol”

    I’m so glad I got attacked by that tentacled ass monster back in the lab and that you framed me so that I’d have to be your sidekick. Because I am so proud to be a MM. I’m proud to know you. And I want you to know, that since my dad disappeared, you’re the closest thing I’ve had to a father. – Wendy Watson

    It was a blast this week. Let’s go through the checklist:

    • Mark Sheppard, check.
    • An ambiguously evil corporation that looks like Apple, check.
    • Tyler Ford dressed like a shifty talent agent, check.
    • Nanobots, check.
    • Vejar references, check.
    • Many Doctor Who references, check.
    • Even more Die Hard reference, check.
    • Dubby’s very touching Code 47, check.
    • Oh yeah. And WENDY WATSON IN UNDERWEAR!!!

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  • Mad Men review: “The New Girl”

    You’re never going to get that corner office until you start treating Don as an equal. And no one will tell you this, but you can’t be a man. Don’t even try. Be a woman. It’s powerful business when done correctly. – Bobbie Barrett.

    The boys in the office might think the new piece of eye candy sitting outside Don Draper‘s office is the new girl, but we know it’s Peggy. Peggy is Don’s protege, his wingman, and his project, but tonight she asserts herself as her own woman. It takes a kick from a former dancer, but she finally knows she has to treat Don as an equal.

    That’s easier to some extent now that she and Don have both covered for each other and both helped each other through trying times. We have a much clearer picture of what happened to Peggy after last year’s finale, finding her in the hospital unable to accept or comprehend why she was there. Don’s words of advice, as true to his nature as any he’s ever uttered, could have been stolen from the hobo’s code.

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  • Burn Notice recap: “Rough Seas”

    Last time you were in town you nearly got her killed. That’s not going to happen again. – Michael Westen

    Oh man, oh man. I-I-I don’t think I can do this. Do I have to…what…no. I-I-I really have to go…can I just…why don’t you just…No. No. Okay, okay, okay. It’s okay. Fine. Michael’s going to be late so I’m…do I have to…okay. I’m Jackson and I’ll be going in a minute, I swear. Michael’s going to be right back.

    The Recap

    Michael and Fiona have a meeting with her friend to ask about the sniper rifle. What? No. He’s an arms dealer. That’s not good. He’s an arms dealer in the middle of a deal with some angry B-B-Bulgarians and he makes Michael be his bodyguard? That’s really not good. At least they make it out in time, even if watching Fiona drive the Saab to shake off that SUV made me a little woozy. It’s okay. They’re okay.

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  • The Middleman recap: “The Vampiric Puppet Lamentation”

    Young Noser will be rent limb from limb to save you!

    You really can’t get much more literal than that, can you Middlefans?

    Tonight’s episode of The Middleman finds Wendy Watson fighting to save Middleman, fighting to save Lacey, fighting to save Noser, and fighting puppets. Seems a bit of a let down that her big fight of the night was against a couple of vampire puppet minions, but she sure did kick their puppety butts.

    Nosiree, No Noser Here

    We open in the illegal sublet Wendy shares with another, photogenic young artist as she and Lacey doll up for a party. TMI for Wendy and us as Lacey tells her she had a sex dream about Pip. In her recollection of the sex dream, Pip was dressed as the Middleman which should have told her something, but Lacey didn’t seem to realize.

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  • Charlie Jade recap: “Thicker Than Water”

    Blood. Blood’s thicker than water. But then blood’s just a synecdoche for family. And what is family?

    The relationship between a father and son, certainly is family. So is that between lovers. Two orphans, watching each other’s backs and surviving on the streets through cunning. That’s family, too. In a world where six companies control everything, company is family as well.

    Back in “Devotion” we saw some of Charlie’s training with the Vexcor security forces. At that time, they were welcomed into the fold by a behavioral specialist: “Vexcor is your future. Vexcor is your family. And you are its sons and daughters.” The familial relationship is cultivated within Vexcor to ensure its employees treat Mother Company with the respect and sense of duty required.

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  • Mad Men review: “Three Sundays”

    My father beat the hell out of me. All it did was make me fantasize about the day I could murder him…And I wasn’t half as good as Bobby. – Don Draper.

    For those viewers completely turned against Don Draper after last week’s events, I doubt three weekends in church and some time in the confessional are enough. Particularly as it wasn’t Don asking forgiveness.

    The confession from Peggy’s sister was more about indicting Peggy than seeking absolution, more about a jealous older sister complaining about her baby sister is treated by everyone else. Peggy lives with remarkably few repercussions from her actions, almost unheard of today, let alone in a conservative Catholic household of 1962. Her mother is proud of Peggy’s accomplishments and never touches on her failings, though she’s too happy to apologize to Father Gil (Colin Hanks) for Anita’s overcooked chicken.

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  • Burn Notice recap: “Bad Blood”

    I’m Jimmy Glynn. Mike asked me to talk to you rats about tonight’s episode. There was a wicked awesome monsoon in Phoenix earlier that knocked out satellite coverage, so this is a little later than usual.

    The Recap

    Mike takes Carla’s crossword puzzle and tracks down his new wrangler, Victor. He looks like a fruit in a flowered shirt, but he pulls a .22 on Mike pretty damn quick. He hands Mike a cellphone and tells him he needs to keep it with him all the time.

    Mike knows while he’s working with Victor, things are gonna be dicey for his ma, so he sends Sam to stay with her. When Sam gets there, he thinks some mook’s setting up cameras, but it’s just a friend of the family helping Madeline out with her VCR. A mook who needs help from Mike. That’s where I come in.

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  • Charlie Jade recap: “Identity”

    What makes you who you are?

    Does your identity come from what you do? Where you come from? Something else? I met a girl one night, a friend of a friend of a friend, and asked her what she did. She told me she “tried to do one thing a day to bring her joy.” Now, the pragmatist in me wanted to kick her out of my car. But the guy looking to get lucky said, “that’s a beautiful answer.” Did she answer my question?

    Tonight’s episode asks that question several times.

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  • The Middleman recap: “The Obsolescent Cryogenic Meltdown”

    Crack wise all you want about my Eisenhower jacket Dubby. But I wear it because it’s named after a man who led soldiers through harsh times against the darkest of evils. This jacket says something about…about me. The man I choose to be.

    Middleman 2008 is all about honor and duty and pride and sacrifice. He watches westerns and believes in true love. He drinks milk and eschews obscenities. He’s a throwback to a simpler time. But that’s not the job, that’s the man. So when Middleman 1969 – a suave and slimy Kevin Sorbo – is thawed out to face off against his arch-nemesis, there’s more than a little tension the Middleranks.

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