By John Keegan and Edmund Boys
I had promised myself I’d stop using movie analogies when reviewing “Person of Interest”. I’d give myself a chance to stretch and find new ways to sum up the show. But the producers obviously were onto my plan. Perhaps they actually have a Machine, but one that anticipates the viewers’ every thought. How else to explain “Baby Blue”, which I can only describe as their take on “Three Men and a Baby”, with a decidedly lethal twist?
I had promised myself I’d stop using movie analogies when reviewing “Person of Interest”. I’d give myself a chance to stretch and find new ways to sum up the show. But the producers obviously were onto my plan. Perhaps they actually have a Machine, but one that anticipates the viewers’ every thought. How else to explain “Baby Blue”, which I can only describe as their take on “Three Men and a Baby”, with a decidedly lethal twist?
Tonight Syfy will air the season two finale of the special effects makeup competition, Face Off, and choose a winner. Conor McCullagh, the winner of last year's competition, who appeared on the series earlier in the season, talked to the digital media recently about his time on Face Off and this years competition, as well as some of his other projects, including Vampire Diaires and The Hunger Games.
The producers warned us that the season was going to get more intense, and they certainly weren’t kidding. A number of situations take a decidedly ugly turn in this episode, challenging expectations and reminding us that this is a show that is enjoying a creative high point.
“The River” takes a step back from the psychological horrors of the previous episode and turns to something a bit more familiar to genre fans in this installment. I would call this the “Resident Evil episode”, because that was precisely what was coming to mind from the start. And given my usual lack of enthusiasm for zombie stories (closer to loathing, actually), I was surprised at how well this episode worked for me.
I think it's safe to say that this season hasn't been as impressive, overall, as I'd hoped it would be. There have been some high points, to be sure, but the bulk of the drama unfolding at the farm has been disappointingly bland and underwhelming.
This installment comes across as a bit innocuous, a low-key story compared to the Wham! moments of "Vexed" and just what's needed to keep things moving in a fun little show like "Lost Girl". A good old fashioned Fae holiday, combined with a chance for the show's ensemble darkhorse to spread her wings a little, certainly doesn't disappoint.
Because nothing happens without purpose in a season of “Spartacus”, unless the real world intervenes, all that tension between the rebel factions was going to bubble to the surface before long. With Agron feeling more and more on the outside, especially with Oenomeus back in the fold, it was almost inevitable that he would rescue a large group of his own people over Gauls. And it takes no time at all for them to get out of Agron’s control.
When it comes to fleshing out a relatively standard story involving a semi-obsessed “girlfriend” who wants to take out the competition, one can do a lot worse than to cast Danielle Panabaker as a fire-dancing stripper. It left me wishing, on some level, that she could stick around as a supporting character for a while, especially since they dropped the ball on what could have been a perfect opportunity to pull Juliette into the fold.
The second episode of this show establishes how the concept will work on a weekly basis. Detective Britten is going to solve a pair of cases with at least one tie-in between them. There are apparently going to be ongoing revelations about the Britten family that show how they are coping with the loss of one of its members.
Robert Quarles tried to pull off something that would makes things real complicated for his two chief opponents. There were mixed results that followed. For a time, all of the investigations converged towards Raylan, with the very real possibility that he might be booted from the Marshal Service.