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| carrobin |
 Posted: Mon May 18, 2009 10:27 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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I keep meaning to watch "In Plain Sight," but it's hard to follow what's on the USA channel--I missed almost all of the last "Monk" season.
Tonight's "24" finale had its thriller moments, but I was annoyed by the extended ending while we waited and waited for Kim to show up and save her daddy. I thought maybe they were going to just let him die and then bring him back to life. The whole last half hour felt like they were just filling time till the last-minute rescue. (But what exactly was our straight-arrow FBI agent going to do to the bad guy? Looked like waterboarding would be the least of his worries.)
Hope next season will sharpen things up a bit. The New York setting will be a nice change. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 12:11 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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carrobin wrote: I keep meaning to watch "In Plain Sight," but it's hard to follow what's on the USA channel--I missed almost all of the last "Monk" season.
Tonight's "24" finale had its thriller moments, but I was annoyed by the extended ending while we waited and waited for Kim to show up and save her daddy. I thought maybe they were going to just let him die and then bring him back to life. The whole last half hour felt like they were just filling time till the last-minute rescue. (But what exactly was our straight-arrow FBI agent going to do to the bad guy? Looked like waterboarding would be the least of his worries.)
Hope next season will sharpen things up a bit. The New York setting will be a nice change.
I always TiVo what I want to watch regularly so I don't miss it. In Plain Sight is on a bunch of times per week. This week's episode was particularly good. No, I shouldn't say that, because last week's was just as good in a completely different way.
I thought Cherry Jones as the president had some great moments in the last half hour of 24, and Will Patton was rather creepy as the baddie. And believe it or not, I was totally relieved when Kim entered. I thought they might be going to let Jack actually die and bring in a new leading actor for next season. It's probably the only time I've ever been happy to see that drip of a Kim (or, as inlareviewer used to call her, "Kimsodim") appear on screen. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 9:22 am |
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Quote: It's probably the only time I've ever been happy to see that drip of a Kim (or, as inlareviewer used to call her, "Kimsodim") appear on screen.
Same here. She finally got her shit together and actually did some smart things. I actually felt bad for her being burdened with such a spoiled clueless character to portray in the previous years.
24 did stretch my suspension of disbelief once again, but not quite as badly as last week's episode. |
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| chillywilly |
| Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 2:18 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 8250
Location: Salt Lake City
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billyweeds wrote: In Plain Sight this week offers yet another little mini-masterpiece of episode writing and acting. Mary McCormack would be a shoo-in for an Emmy nomination if the series were not on the little-respected USA Network. She's a cop in the Albuquerque division of the Witness Protection Program and she's a no-bullshit lady to put it mildly. McCormack--a favorite of mine ever since Murder One, but whose career has been in what I feared was a permanent stall until now--is quite subtly amazing. And she's given terrific support by Lesley Ann Warren as her alcoholic mother, an out of control but basically loving woman. The whole cast is stalwart and the plots are gripping. Not to mention the most important factor: the show is funny as hell. I recommend it without reservation.
Based on what you've said about this show, and given the fact that I like Mary McCormack (I still remember her role as Howard Stern's wife in Private Parts as being very good), I'm going to have to go watch an episode or two to see what I'm missing. |
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Chilly
"If you should die before me / Ask if you could bring a friend" |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 3:11 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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This is the time for the unwritten law of series television to kick in:
When you have been raving about a series for a long time, it is a given that the very first time someone watches the show on your recommendation, that will be the first really rotten episode.
(There must be a less wordy way of phrasing this law, but you get the point.) |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 3:13 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Something I really love about In Plain Sight is that the series really plays fair with the continuing story of its core characters. Sometimes a series will try to forget certain things that happened previously so that they can introduce some plot line that makes no sense in terms of what has already happened, and they hope you won't notice.
Don't ask me to give you an example, but it happens. |
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| lissa |
| Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 4:51 pm |
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Mary McCormack first caught my attention as John Biebe's wife in Mystery, Alaska. Recently, I watched the entire series The West Wing and she was quite good as Kate Harper, though I'd have liked to have seen more about her personal life. She has talent, to be sure.
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| lissa |
| Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 4:54 pm |
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Quote: Don't ask me to give you an example, but it happens.
Most famous example - even though it was two different shows, they were related (one a spin-off of the other). Dallas brought back Bobby Ewing in a cheap dream device, but Knots Landing had already named one of Val's and Gary's twins Bobby after his late uncle.
Continuity is a problem much of the time, but shouldn't be; soap operas deal with it all the time, and they have daily shows to film. A weekly series should not get caught like that. |
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Statistically, 6 out of 7 dwarfs aren't happy. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 6:09 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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| Medium is currently guilty of telescoping time. The youngest daughter is now about five years old. Two years ago she wasn't even born. I may be a little off on the time but not much. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 6:58 pm |
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billyweeds wrote: Medium is currently guilty of telescoping time. The youngest daughter is now about five years old. Two years ago she wasn't even born. I may be a little off on the time but not much.
Steroids. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 7:43 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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lissa wrote: Mary McCormack first caught my attention as John Biebe's wife in Mystery, Alaska. Recently, I watched the entire series The West Wing and she was quite good as Kate Harper, though I'd have liked to have seen more about her personal life. She has talent, to be sure.
And she's married to the producer of Brothers and Sisters, making them sort of another Michelle Pfeiffer/David E. Kelley couple. |
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| lissa |
| Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 8:20 pm |
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Quote: The youngest daughter is now about five years old. Two years ago she wasn't even born
Known as SORAS - Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome. I hate when they do that. Of course, it's (almost) better than what they did with the 3rd Cunningham kid on Happy Days. Chuck, was it? Disappeared from the canvas altogether!
Quote: And she's married to the producer of Brothers and Sisters, making them sort of another Michelle Pfeiffer/David E. Kelley couple.
Very cool. As is the case with Ken Olin and Patricia Wettig, both of Brothers and Sisters. And formerly both of Thirtysomething. |
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Statistically, 6 out of 7 dwarfs aren't happy. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 11:17 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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| My favorite example of a series that stayed consistent through its run was "Buffy," which took a lot of wild turns along the way but managed to keep us faithful viewers on board. (It did help to employ magic to explain little things like a teenage sister suddenly appearing as if she'd always been there--though it took excellent writing to overcome the viewers' skepticism and win us over to acceptance and even affection.) |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed May 20, 2009 5:25 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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lissa wrote:
Very cool. As is the case with Ken Olin and Patricia Wettig, both of Brothers and Sisters. And formerly both of Thirtysomething.[/color]
Had no idea they were married. Olin isn't actually on camera on B&S, right? Does he produce or direct? |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed May 20, 2009 5:30 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Movies don't usually do that SORAS thing, but the sort-of-current 17 Again does the opposite, which is just as disconcerting and reality-destroying. The whole premise of the movie is that the Zac Efron gets his girlfriend pregnant in high school and has to abandon his dream. Twenty years later (it's made crystal-clear that it's 20 years) Matthew Perry and Leslie Mann (Efron and the girlfriend grown up) have a daughter in high school. Nothing is mentioned of the fact that she must be over 19 years old and still a senior. She seems reasonably intelligent and not the kind to get "left back" (do they still call it that?). Do the math. (It isn't hard to do.)
Stupid.
And don't start me on telephone numbers beginning "555." |
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