By John Keegan
With Audrey now on a deadline, or so it seems, the character dynamics have definitely shifted. Audrey feels a greater sense of urgency, and that means that she’s less willing to worry over little things like maintaining good relationships. What starts with Duke trying to get Audrey to live a little turns into something very ugly by the end.
With Audrey now on a deadline, or so it seems, the character dynamics have definitely shifted. Audrey feels a greater sense of urgency, and that means that she’s less willing to worry over little things like maintaining good relationships. What starts with Duke trying to get Audrey to live a little turns into something very ugly by the end.
With the preliminaries over and done with between “Letters of Transit” and the fifth season premiere, the writers finally get down to the business of setting up the details of the final story arc. It’s a bit of a mixed bag, with some of the character beats overcoming the weaknesses of a rather tedious plot structure.
While I appreciated that "Blue On Blue" ran with some of the hanging plot threads from "Captain", it doesn't feel like a complete episode to me. The parts seem to still be coalescing into something interesting, but it's not quite there yet. Lines are being drawn amongst the crew of the USS Colorado and the grip Captain Chaplin has on the Sainte Marina island is tenuous at best. The episode contains a lot of talk about how difficult it's going to be when brothers in arms who should be friendly are forced to shoot and kill each other, yet the show then takes an abrupt turn to another direction, and the conflict is then dropped. It's very strange.
This weekend marks the debut of the new Steel Magnolias on Lifetime. The new adaptation of the iconic play and film, which is executive produced by Craig Zadan, Neil Meron, and Queen Latifah, premieres Sunday night. Latifah also stars in the film as M'Lynn, along with Phylicia Rashad, Adepero Oduye, Condola Rashad, Jill Scott, and Alfre Woodard
Ellen Dubin is probably best known for her work in science fiction and fantasy television, with roles on series such as Forever Knight, Lexx, and The Collector, but she has a list of credits in other genres as well, such as for her role in Napoleon Dynamite.
The pilot episode of "Elementary" was not a particularly stellar effort, which meant the follow-up only had a low bar to clear in order to be an improvement. And it did clear it, barely. Maybe it's because the shock or the outrage had time to wear off, but there was more to enjoy in this second outing, though it's still got a long way to go before it's actually good.
I will admit that "666 Park Avenue" is in the correct timeslot for what the show is. This is not a show that is going to require a ton of thinking or investment in a big mythology. So I think it's the perfect show to end the television week. Beyond that, it has a great hook for genre fans in veteran actor Terry O'Quinn, and that aspect compensates for the somewhat weak premise.
Living up to its stellar first season, and avoiding the dreaded sophomore slump, was already a heady challenge for “Homeland.” Sweeping the Drama Emmys one week before its return, becoming the first show both to beat out “Mad Men” and to top it by adding the acting awards to its series prize, just upped the ante. Most of the season is already in the can, but the premiere shows the accolades are deserved, as they don’t miss a beat resuming the story.
The seventh season finale was easily one of the most disappointing in the entire series run. Not only did it deliver a tepid conclusion to the Leviathan arc, which clearly was beyond the ability of the writers to implement on a budget, but it left Dean sitting in Purgatory without much rhyme or reason. Getting out of that mess was never going to be easy.