By John Keegan and Gregg Wright
It took a while, but "Eureka" seems to be finally giving us an indication of what the overall season (or half-season) direction will be. What I'm discovering now is that I underestimated the actual importance of the whole "Matrix" situation. It's leading me to think that the writers were more clever than I'd thought, and had an intriguing story arc in place from the start. My first reaction to the Matrix situation was that it didn't matter at all, because it was just some arbitrary simulation of what some program believed was a believable future version of "Eureka". But I was wrong.
It took a while, but "Eureka" seems to be finally giving us an indication of what the overall season (or half-season) direction will be. What I'm discovering now is that I underestimated the actual importance of the whole "Matrix" situation. It's leading me to think that the writers were more clever than I'd thought, and had an intriguing story arc in place from the start. My first reaction to the Matrix situation was that it didn't matter at all, because it was just some arbitrary simulation of what some program believed was a believable future version of "Eureka". But I was wrong.
Tonight NBC will premiere one of its new series, Saving Hope. In the series, Chief of Surgery Charlie Harris (Michael Shanks), who works at Hope-Zion Hospital with his fiancée and fellow surgeon, Alex Reid, played by Erica Durance, enters a coma after being in an accident.
Tomorrow, Fox will premiere it's new reality series, Take Me Out, hosted by George Lopez. The new dating show, based on the international version, features thirty single woman, who will see several bachelors who one by one will try to make their best first impressions. The show consists of four rounds. The women will listen to the men and if they decide they are uninterested, turn their light out, which could result in a blackout. Then the bachelor will turn the women's lights off who he is not interested in, until he is down to two. He will then ask a final question and make his choice. The couple will be sent on a romantic fantasy date and report back after. Another woman is added to the twenty-nine and the group will continue to stay throughout the series, trying to find "Mr. Right."
One of The Hub's newest series, Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters, premiered this weekend. The new original animated series is a re-imagination of the Wizards of the Coast trading card game, Duel Masters.
Mostly an episode devoted to setting up the events to come in the finale, this installment explores the fallout from the debacle at Forli and Lucrezia's attempt to capitalize on her seductive talents. Both plot threads lead to strife between brothers that will hardly come to a good end.
There was bound to be consequences to Lane Pryce's choice to embezzle funds from the company several episodes ago. Due to his lone status as the money man as well as a foreigner seemingly lost in a country that has never fully accepted him, Lane resorts to the most horrifying and final choice left to him. His fellow co-workers are now forced to deal with his shocking suicide head-on instead of sweeping events aside like they've been doing for much of the season.
With his nearly 38 years of studying and investigating the paranormal, John Zaffis aka "The Godfather of the Paranormal" is back leading the team in season two of Haunted Collector. The Haunted Collector team has expanded, adding new team members, Jesslyn Brown and Jason Gates, to help clients with their unexplained activity.
Oh come now, you knew it was mutant cannibals right from the preview, what you want to know is if these mutant cannibals are worth $10 a ticket. Before I talk about the movie though I should share another bit of relevant information about your reviewer's background; I don't like horror movies. Don't get me wrong, gore and scares aren't the problem. It is because most horror movies are very sparse on plot. Far too often I've seen the story in a horror flick boil down to "it's a ghost/vampire/werewolf/demon." Then there's a bunch of people who die followed by a coin toss whether the hero prevails over the evil with his newly acquired love interest or they die in the last scene. There are a few horror movies I like, my favorite of which is John Carpenter's The Thing, and even that can be argued to be more of a monster movie than a horror movie.
Tonight Franklin & Bash returns for its second season to TNT. The legal drama follows the lives of two smart young lawyers, Jared Franklin (Breckin Meyer) and Peter Bash (Mark-Paul Gosseleaar), who will do whatever it takes to win cases, even if it doesn't fit in with the legendary law firm they've become a part of. Their boss Stanton Infeld (Malcolm McDowell), lets them get a way with a lot, as long as they close cases, much to the annoyance of the other straight-laced employees.
This was definitely this season's most difficult episode to review. "Blackwater" was a break from the norm, in that it told a more self-contained story and worked as a climactic season finale. "Valar Morghulis" is, in most respects, a return to the norm. Some developments feel like major turning points and undoubtedly well-suited for a season finale (and we'll discuss that more later), but like most episodes of "Game of Thrones", it feels like just one small piece of a much larger story. It's a lot harder to gauge my personal reaction to something like that.