True Blood, 1x12, “You’ll Be the Death of Me”

Episode Title: You’ll Be the Death of Me
Writer: Raelle Tucker
Director: Alan Ball
Originally Aired: 11/23/2008
Grade: A

Rene as the killer didn’t really work for me as presented on the show, because they didn’t even start dropping the clues until episode 10. When it comes to mystery stories, I want to go back and watch the episodes and see the obvious clues that I missed or misinterpreted, but the closest thing here is Rene’s comment about Sookie reminding him of his sister, which was a completely innocent comment as far as we knew at the time. A good clue shouldn’t have to lean on what’s revealed at the end of the story, it should be something suspicious in its own right within its present context. I can give Ball a bit of a break on this since murder mystery isn’t really his specialty, and it’s not like I was watching the show for the mystery, but I’m still curious to see if this was handled better in the book.

I’m glad Terry and Hoyt are free to continue being awesome, though. I really hope there’s nothing ugly inside their heads besides some PTSD and a fairly innocent infatuation with vampires. And if Hoyt is going to hook up with Jessica, I hope that she will somehow actually care about him, and that he will not end up dead, because it’s gonna kill me if this guy’s first real relationship ends up being nothing but pain and danger, given what a sweetie he is.

Sookie having to kill Rene… I guess I was supposed to be cheering for her, but it really just made me sad. Taking a life is a big deal, even if the person has murdered your friends and family and is trying to murder you. I’d kind of like to see that killing Rene had an effect on Sookie, but I’m guessing it will just be glossed over in favor of pushing the new murder mystery forward.

I’m curious as to whether Sam’s outburst in the bar about Sookie and Bill getting married had more to do with his feelings for Sookie, or the fact that shapeshifters aren’t “out” the way that vampires are. I’m tempted to guess the former, since if they’re not “out,” there’s nothing to stop them from trying to fit in with the humans and get married. However, even getting close enough to someone to feel comfortable telling them the truth would be risky, since there’s no way of knowing how they’d react and what would happen if they told others. Shapeshifters have no form of legal protection unless they pretend to be human, or at least that’s what I’m assuming.

As for Jason, I’m not sure how I feel about his new storyline, but my initial reaction is that I’m definitely not thrilled. It feels like he went through a long, arduous journey and ended up right back in a same place. A poster named hardy har over at Television Without Pity may have said it best: “He's like a human incarnation of an Etch-A-Sketch. Give him a good shake and it's back to square one.”

I’m kind of hoping sweet, controlled, non-judgmental Tara is not here to stay, because I miss the old one.

I was worried after the previous episode that Jessica might become some kind of bizarre coquettish plaything for Eric, but after his attitude last night, I can't imagine it. Personally, I don't think I've seen a character on the show that would be a good match for Eric in any romantic/sexual capacity. Maybe BookSookie and BookEric have blazing chemistry, but on the show, I'm half-convinced I sense more sexual tension between Eric and Bill than Eric and Sookie, though admittedly they haven't spent much time together so far. In Bill and Eric’s last scene together in the finale, I guess you could compare the fang-bearing to dick measuring, but given Eric’s fairly effortless authority over Bill, it came off like more of Eric fucking with Bill for kicks, as in, “Hee, you’re just too easy, Bill,” with Pam rolling her eyes. And on a shallow note, it’s almost a shame that we’re not likely to see much of Skarsgård smiling on this show without fangs in the picture, because his smile is pretty guh-worthy. You could see a hint of how dazzling it is even with the fangs, but still, not quite the same.

Supernatural, 4x10, “Heaven and Hell”

Episode Title: Heaven and Hell
Writer: Eric Kripke
Director: J. Miller Tobin
Originally Aired: 11/20/2008
Grade: C

So I’ve been okay with the angels and demons, and with a storyline that actually progresses a little bit at a time, but the stupidity of the “brotherly symmetry” (among other things) in this episode almost ruins all of the positive progress the show has made this season. Sam screwed a demon, therefore Dean must be “boned by an angel”? Oh, please.

The list of stupid things in this episode continues:

-Why would Uriel tell Dean that liking Dean is one of Castiel’s weaknesses, or reveal that he has Anna’s grace? Wouldn’t Uriel want to keep those facts close to the chest?

-Speaking of Anna’s grace, the simplistic portrayal of grace as some kind of energy that you can “lose” all at once (and then get back later!), that you can actually “rip out,” is fucking ridiculous, even for this show. Do demons have something similar, something opposite to grace? The writers seem to have set angels and demons up as diametrically opposed, and they seem so fond of symmetry, so why can’t the demons just rip out some aspect of their being and become human again?

-Why is Ruby not dead from Anna’s little grace-induced explosion?

-And speaking of Ruby… Ruby torture porn? Seriously? Fuck you, Kripke. I mean, I knew I was signing on for some misogynistic bullshit when I started watching Supernatural, but that was gross beyond the normal parameters of this show, demon or not.

-As for Dean confessing to being a torturer in Hell, I certainly get the feeling that the writers knew this was where they wanted to take Dean from the beginning of the season, but it still didn’t feel like that’s what Dean’s been struggling with. That’s some hardcore angst-causing shit, and we didn’t see enough of that angst (which, okay, maybe that’s a good thing in a broader sense, but they should’ve gone with something a bit less drastic).

But damn, Ackles can cry on camera. Which was about the best thing about this entire episode.

Privileged, 1x10, “All About Overcompensating”

Episode Title: All About Overcompensating
Writer: Michael Reisz
Director: Normal Buckley
Originally Aired: 11/18/2008
Grade: B+

So Rose blew off her studies to be a famous Baker twin, and suddenly her educational problems are all Megan’s fault? I don’t think Megan is flawless with the girls—far from it—and it doesn’t seem like the writers necessarily want viewers to believe that it’s all Megan’s fault outside of Rose’s point of view, so I’m just going to chalk it up to faulty reasoning on Rose’s part.

And apparently Megan us just as willing to blow off her new boyfriend as she is her best friend Charlie. The girls should be important to her, but so should Will, who just became her boyfriend the night before.

At least it was nice to see Megan and Lily have a positive interaction that didn’t end in disaster.

And Mandy has finally won me over, despite the bobblehead and the ho patch, by being so brutally honest with Megan. I know she ended up apologizing for being harsh, but it was still great to see Megan called on her shit.

Best line of the episode was easily Marco’s, “Is Megan someone who thinks too much, or is Megan someone who thinks way too much?”

Chuck, 2x07, “Chuck vs. the Fat Lady”

Episode Title: Chuck vs. the Fat Lady
Writer: Matthew Lau
Director: Jeffrey Hunt
Originally Aired: 11/17/2008
Grade: B+

I must say that Jill being Fulcrum was silly and obvious, and also that they didn’t go far enough with making her sympathetic. Seeing Chuck call her on her crap in the previous episode was great, but seeing the entire thing dropped after that point, with no real closure or explanation, utterly sucked.

I also had a problem with Chuck’s maniacal devotion to Jill in this episode. Him telling Sarah through the glass that he’s sorry, but “it’s Jill” just felt strange to me. Even though she was important to Chuck in the past, they’ve only been reunited for a few days. Plus there’s the fact that we, as an audience, were not attached to Jill because we barely know her and she didn’t even offer Chuck an explanation for what happened in college, so when he said that, I was just kind of like, “Erm, so?”

I also had a hard time with the “steamy” scenes in this episode. Both the Chuck/Sarah shower scene and the Jill/Chuck sex scene both had me feeling equal parts uncomfortable and titillated. The shower scene was just completely ridiculous, especially with her shaking his head in her cleavage, or whatever that was, but it did make me go “awww” when the romantic tension showed up and he realized he was soaping down mostly-naked Sarah. It was a little fan-fic-ish, but still, awwww.

(I also thought it was a bit weird that before that scene, Sarah and Chuck were changing their clothes in the same room, right next to each other. Kind of undermined the next scene, where Chuck was all, “OMG, naked Sarah!”)

As for the sex scene… that was hard to watch, because on the one hand, I adore Chuck and Sarah together, I knew things with Jill were not headed down a good road, and I found Chuck’s utter, headlong devotion to Jill deeply disturbing. Plus we've just never, ever, in the history of the show, seen a passionate sex scene like that, so it kind of made me feel like I was watching something I shouldn't see, which was emphasized by the conflict with Casey's surveillance.

On the other hand, I still enjoyed it because it was kind of hot, and because Chuck finally got to have sex. And I don’t mean that in a sexist “High fives, Chuck got laid!” way, but as far as we’ve been led to believe, the man hasn’t known the love of a woman in 5 years or so. And he looked very enthusiastic and not terribly nervous, so good for him. (ETA: Although unfortunately, given her Fulcrum status, he's probably just going to feel nauseous every time he thinks about that night. And he was so happy while it was happening, too, the poor guy.)

If Chuck and Sarah ever get to that point, it better blow this scene completely out of the effing water.

Also, Chuck needs to pull his head out of his ass and be a bit more careful of Sarah’s feelings. He’s been rubbing Jill in Sarah’s face through this entire arc so far, and it’s not cute. If Chuck were a different person, I’d probably want to slap him for being insensitive. But he’s not, he’s Chuck, and Chuck is insecure. Painfully so. The kind of insecure that can talk himself out of believing that the many, many ways that Sarah has shown her feelings and affection for him—kissing him when they thought the bomb was going to go off last season, or going on a date with him in the season premiere, not bringing a gun, and almost kissing him, for example—are sincere.

It’s almost like he’s deliberately insensitive because he’s both self-defeatist and even a bit passive-aggressive. Like he half-subconsciously says things that he knows would be hurtful to her if she really cared, but she doesn’t care, so it’s okay, except wouldn’t it be nice if she did care?

I think he absolutely cares about her, and about her feelings, but sometimes he just gets a little lost in his hard-to-shake belief that he’s a worthless loser. So yeah… he should be more sensitive, but I think it can be blamed on his lack of self-esteem. At some point, though, he’s going to have to stop this passive-aggressive lashing out, because while it's understandable, it's also self-destructive and not terribly attractive over a long period of time.