Once Upon a Time: That Still Small Voice

“I wish, I wish, but nothing changes. I wish I was better at wishing!”

Back in my review of the pilot, Patricia commented how these fairy tales were based not on the traditional tales, but on Disney versions. It made perfect sense then, especially considering ABC belongs to the House of Mouse, and it makes more sense now. If you don’t consider the song Jiminy Cricket sings in the animation, “When You Wish upon a Star”, the scene when Archie does it looks like a Deus ex Machina. Besides many, many references, we didn’t get much this week, though.

Eureka: The Story of O2

… in which the town celebrates “Space Week” with a rocket race around the moon, and Jo investigates the cause of Zane’s “sky cruiser” crash. Meanwhile, Carter visits Zoe at Harvard.

Glee: I Kissed a Girl

Back at the end of Season Two, I was rather frustrated that Santana hadn’t come out. In terms of plot build-up, there was a lot of baking, but no cookies. Now I’ve eaten them, I’m missing the cookie dough...

The Walking Dead: Pretty Much Dead Already

Dale: “I may not have what it takes to last for long, but that’s okay. At least I can say that when the world goes to shit, I didn’t let it take me down with it.”

Merlin: Lancelot du Lac

“My name is Lancelot, my lady. I am yours to command.”

Wow! If ever proof was needed that this isn't the same silly little show it was four years ago then I think this episode was it. This was an absolutely fantastic episode, the best of season. And considering how strong season four has been so far, that is really saying something.

Ringer: That's What You Get for Trying to Kill Me

"Big sister's watching you"

Regular readers will probably be aware that I've had a complicated relationship with Ringer. There were times when I've thought it was genuinely absorbing and fun, then there were other times when I got entirely bored by the damn show. But as Ringer wraps up the first half of its season, I'm left with that general feeling that it's not exactly terrible. I don't think Ringer will ever be high art, and I don't even think the show is going to hit that stride of soapy awesomeness I really wish it would pursue but, for what it is, the show is fine. There were parts of this episode that really frustrated me, but it had a drive to it that I found weirdly entertaining.

Misfits: Episode Five (I Tell You, This is Not the End)

Rudy: "Oh, therapy... I love it."

After the mayhem and time travel of the past two weeks, tonight's episode was more a sedate traipse through character development territory. For the first non-Howard Overman penned episode of the series, I’d say tonight's offering was a success. Rudy's dialogue was as sharp as it's ever been, and provided some much needed relief during the occasional lapse in pace. We also bid a fond adieu to the notorious Shaun. (To his credit, he did manage to stay alive longer than his fellow probation workers.) So, for the most part, I'd say Jon Brown did a competent job. Which can only be good news for next week's similarly Overman-lite outing.

Justified: Riverbrook

"Did you miss my heart on purpose?"

Not as strong as the pilot, but it was definitely quirky and fun to watch.

Star Trek: Spectre of the Gun

"It's just bits and pieces. It's incomplete."

Definitely an entry in the bizarre category. You gotta give them credit for a creative leap, dropping the officers of a starship into a minimalist theater recreation of the old West.

Doctor Who: Carnival of Monsters

“The generators were built by the old Eternity Perpetual company. They were designed to last forever; that's why the company went bankrupt.”

Ahhhh, Robert Holmes. You magnificent bastard, how I have missed you. You've been gone far too long. Don't make a habit of it.

Dexter: Get Gellar

Dexter: "Travis is proving to be my penance."

Only Dexter would go alone into a dark hole after a serial killer.

Fringe: Wallflower

“You understand right now how important it is to be seen.”

In one of the most famous passages of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, geist encounters another, and the interchange between the two results in geist evolving into a more mature being through the encounter and the struggle for dominance it creates.* No man, as Donne says, is an island. We must be recognized to recognize ourselves. We must recognize others in order to understand our relation to them and to the world we inhabit.

The Walking Dead: Secrets

I’m sorry this review is late, but I’ve been suffering with a nasty flu that I hope is not the precursor to zombisism. If I don’t post next week you might want to get out your survival gear. The fever was pretty high.

Carl: “Everything’s food for something else.”

Breaking Bad: Pilot

"It's easy money. 'Til we catch you."

Chemistry, Walter White tells his students, is the study of change, of growth, decay and transformation. Walt's life indeed changes drastically in the course of this pilot.

Justified: Fire in the Hole

"Guess I just never thought of myself as an angry man."

Apparently, you can go home again. It just tends to be problematic.

American Horror Story: Rubber Man

"I'm not crazy, I'm just pregnant."

Happy Thanksgiving! And what better way to celebrate than with a bunch of graphic sexual violence! Ugh. This was the much-anticipated 'rubber man reveal' episode, and it sure was as gross as promised. The identity of the fetish baby-daddy was reliably squicky, with connotations I found deeply uncomfortable and scenes of forced intercourse that pushed this show into really horrifying areas. Sure, we had major grossness last week, but that was a whole different wheelhouse to the stuff that went down here.

Community: Documentary Filmmaking: Redux

“Some flies are too awesome for the wall.”

Usually it is not a good sign when a show starts repeating itself. Community already had fun parodying documentaries last season with 'Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking'. But that episode was specifically about poking fun at sitcoms that use documentary style, such as The Office, Parks and Recreation and Modern Family. This episode, however, was a clever deconstruction of behind the scenes making of documentaries, resulting in one of the best episodes Community has ever done. In your face, NBC!

Misfits: Episode Four (Please Come and Save Me)

Kelly: "No! You’re not allowed to die."

Tonight’s episode picked up a seemingly throwaway line from season two, and ran with it to incredulity shattering lengths. Last year we learned how Seth sold Curtis’ superpower to some Jewish guy who wanted to travel back in time and kill Hitler. Tonight, we got to see how Friedrich Hisch made out. Unsurprisingly, not very well. Instead of preventing the war, his dropped mobile phone gave the Nazis the tactical advantage needed to win it, resulting in a poignant, shocking, sometimes hilarious trip through an alternate-history Britain. Oh, and Kelly mullered Hitler.

Farscape: The Way We Weren't

When Chiana discovers a video revealing that Aeryn was involved in the slaughter of Moya’s original pilot, Pilot and Aeryn are forced to confront some ugly and painful truths from their pasts.

Dexter: Sin of Omission

Dexter: "I took advantage of you."
Deb: "Yeah! You did!"

Dexter's religious quest continued on its demented path with a blood-soaked, heavily annotated Bible, confession of his murders to a priest with Alzheimer's, and absolution. Just telling the truth to a priest and being absolved seemed to mean something to Dexter. I'm not sure what. I'd think that Brother Sam actually was good for Dexter. Except for his sin of omission.

Supernatural: How to Win Friends and Influence Monsters

Dean: "I think you pissed off my sandwich."

Was this a Thanksgiving episode? It featured an emphasis on family with the three of them on an actual hunting trip, childhood reminiscences, heart-to-heart talks, and an evil turducken, which is certainly the Frankenstein monster version of a traditional Thanksgiving meal.

Let Us Give Thanks…

Lots of great news in TV Land this week! It’s almost enough to make us feel better about Community’s mid-season hiatus. (Well, not really.) Click your way through to find a list of the Top Five things we here at billiedoux.com are thankful for. Minor casting spoilers ahoy!

5. Jason Dohring will guest star on Supernatural in mid-January. (The link reveals his role.)

4. Amy Acker will guest star on Grimm in early 2012. (Same deal with the link.)

3. Sherlock is coming back! Stateside, May 6th.

2. Downton Abbey is coming back! Stateside, January 8th.

1. Arrested Development is coming back on Netflix!

Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Part One

"No measure of time with you will be long enough. But we'll start with forever."

Romantic, creepy, occasionally funny (intentionally and unintentionally), and ultimately enjoyable, Breaking Dawn Part 1 was an interesting exercise in how sometimes the source material shouldn't always be followed. I don't really know how to review this movie without bring up some of the major plot points. So if you don't want to be spoiled, I'll say that it was a faithful adaption, for good or bad. It didn't add anything new to the franchise, and won't sway anyone from their opinion of the series. If you like the books and movies, you'll probably like this one. If you don't... then you won't.

Major Spoilers Below!

The book stirred up controversy because of some rather blatant messages about anti-abortion and premarital sex. This is especially evident in the extreme physical trauma that Bella suffers. She starts with bruises, and ends up as a battered and broken corpse. This transformation from a healthy young woman is rather disturbing, and it's all because she has the audacity to want to be a part of a world she doesn't fully understand. For me, the issue is more about her right to choose her own path, no matter what the obvious consequences are. Is it right to kill the child to save the mother, without her permission? Is she healthy and rational enough to make that choice?

Thankfully, the movie doesn't try to answer those questions. The writer wanted the character to have a baby, and this was the way she decided to describe that scenario -- right or wrong, it doesn't really matter. The problem is when it's viewed by people who could be influenced by its message. Bella sacrifices everything for her love, her body and potentially her soul. She leaps into a strange world with both feet, and never looks back. Her suffering is so acute that we have to watch as she is literally torn apart. The reward, perfection and immortality.

Looking at the series as a whole, there is an underlying theme of Bella's disconnection with the world. She is always at odds with her humanity, and when she encounters Edward and the Cullens, she realizes internally that this is what her life should be. She fights tooth and nail to become like them, and I think that's the reason she goes through what she goes through. She is so unwilling to sacrifice the unnatural side of her new existence that when a baby threatens her life, she can't see it as a danger. Her dogged determination, flying in the face of rational fear, is really her defining characteristic.

There is also the fact that the child is truly something special, reinforced when her telepathic husband hears the unborn child's thoughts of love for her parents. It renders the entire situation moot, because there is no question about the nature of the baby anymore. It is one of those big convenient answers in the book, making the situation as black and white as possible.

The other big controversy involves Jacob imprinting on Bella's baby. This was never really explained, and although there is a fascinating visual depiction of this event, it still doesn't really work except as another convenient plot device. It solves all the problems with the broken treaty with the Quileute werewolves, and the love triangle that dominated everything that came before. In the book, Meyer explains imprinting as an absolute connection, a true love which can take whatever form is needed. For example, Jacob will be her best friend throughout her childhood. Later in life, if she chooses to be his girlfriend, that would be something that could evolve easily. It's a strange and slightly uncomfortable situation, but it doesn't seem perverted or disturbing.

Bella's transformations, and there were two major ones in this movie, were stunning. She goes from healthy to emaciated, using a combination of make-up and digital effects to produce something that was difficult to watch. She was skin and bones by the time she gave birth, and Edward working on her corpse to restore life felt like it was hopeless. But her transformation into a vampire was just as impressive. There were other moments that didn't work as well, specifically the wolves. They moved, looked, and sounded like wolves, but the animation spoiled the feel. And the digital face they gave Renesmee was a little too surreal, which served the scene well but felt too CGI.

For me, though, Breaking Dawn isn't a cautionary tale, it's a love story. The first movie had problems with the chemistry between the two leads, and the next two movies worked on that problem. But this is the first time I felt that connection, and I think that the actors totally sold that side of their performance. I don't really like wedding scenes, but I really enjoyed this one. I was actually kind of dreading sitting through romantic clichés, but I didn't cringe once... well except for the speeches. The honeymoon scenes were equally fun. They managed to capture the insecurity of that first night, and the joy of the first weeks, until Bella became pregnant.

Unfortunately, there really is no plot in this first half, except to serve as set-up for the second half. Which means that although there is a beginning, a middle, and an end, those pieces don't actually fit together to form a complete picture. Two bookended events, the wedding and the birth, were filled in with a lot of exposition and melodramatic tension. However, the problems with narrative flow were offset by some of the best performances in the series. I also appreciated that the director used several musical cues from the first movie. It felt like a final installment, except this wasn't the end. Interestingly, they could simply end the series here. The final moment works as a logical stopping point, albeit a frustrating one. I wonder if it's frustrating only because I know there is another whole movie of content to see? Either way, we have to wait until next November to see Part 2.

For a fan of the series as a whole, I would give this 2 1/2 out of 4 baby vampire-human hybrids.

One final note -- you should stay until the cast credits are done because there is an additional scene.

The Walking Dead: Chupacabra

Maggie: “You weren’t supposed to see this.”

Well, it’s nice to be right... or is it? I haven’t read the comic books, so my conjecture that Hershel and family had some hidden zombies was just that. I can see that the secret in the barn is not going to be popular with our little gang of survivors and the pet zombies explain a lot -- why Hershel just wants them to leave, why Maggie was upset when T-dog killed the well zombie, and the rule against guns on the property.

Doctor Who: The Three Doctors

“So, you’re my replacements, a dandy and a clown.”

I've always had a hard time loving these multi-Doctor stories. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing the Doctor's bicker and argue with himself as much as the next guy. But the circumstances that bring the various Doctors together always seem contrived and the stories themselves just never live up to expectations.

American Horror Story: Open House

"Every pregnant woman worries there's a little devil in them."

I sometimes wonder what Jessica Lange, Frances Conroy and Denis O'Hare all think about this show, in light of the scene where two of them stood around while Conroy's sexy doppelganger chewed a guy's penis off. Lange especially, as she's always been pretty vocal about her appearances in bad projects (check out the 'mother-in-law-from-hell' Gwyneth Paltrow vehicle Hush... or don't). American Horror Story isn't at all a bad show, but I don't think anybody can deny that it's a series that waves its shlock flag proudly. Seeing these esteemed actors perform scenes like that feels so arresting as a viewer, and you can almost imagine them asking "has it really come to this?"

Glee: Mash Off

Smear campaigns and insults cause karmic retribution for teachers and students alike this week on Glee.

Once Upon a Time: The Price of Gold

Snow: "Do you realize what an inspiration you are to everyone?"
Cinderella: "All I did was get married."
Snow: "All you did was show that anyone can change her life."

This is the first time Once Upon a Time outright contradicts fairy tale canon. I was a little bothered at first, mostly because the Fairy Godmother could very well be wearing a red shirt; but later I was bothered because the show implied we should be rooting for the wrong character.

Ringer: Shut Up and Eat Your Bologna

"You've completely transformed your entire life."

Unfortunately, I feel like I'm at that point where Ringer has lost me. I still watch the show, and I'll tune in and review for the rest of the season, but my general interest in the characters and the storylines has drifted, and I don't think I'm ever gonna be completely drawn in again. I bring this up because "Shut Up and Eat Your Bologna" featured a ton of movement in several story arcs, but I was never particularly moved myself. When that sort of thing occurs, you can't help but feel that the show's general tone just doesn't work for you.

Eureka: All the Rage

… in which GD becomes an increasingly hostile work environment. Meanwhile, Grant and Henry attempt to modify the bridge device.

Misfits: Episode Three (Turn Me Loose, Baby)

Peter: “A superhero has to be prepared to die for what he believes in.”

Which is Howard Overman’s not-so-subtle way of reminding us that Simon’s going to die, and there’s not a whole lot anyone can do about it. Promising not to travel back in time won't save him. It's already happened. Alisha being alive is proof of that. Simon's story arc is by far the most interesting of the show. The chasm between the man he is, and the man he’ll one day become, is rapidly shrinking. Tonight Superhoodie saved his first innocent -- and by way of thanks, Peter laid the foundations for his demise. Now there’s gratitude for you.

Community: Studies in Modern Movement

“He tweeted it!!!!!”

Hands up who still has Seal's 'Kiss From a Rose' stuck in their head?

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

[This is a review of the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse series, on which the television series True Blood is based. Although I don't reveal whodunit, this review contains a ton of spoilers. You have been warned!]

"I raised my head from his neck, and a wave of dark delight carried me out to sea. This was pretty exotic stuff for a telepathic barmaid from northern Louisiana."

Dexter: Nebraska

Brian: "How do you feel?"
Dexter: "Like anything is possible."

On the surface, this episode was about a road trip to Nebraska. But it was actually more of a side trip inside Dexter's mind. And it was just fascinating.

Farscape: Crackers Don't Matter

To avoid detection by Scorpius and those who’ve seen his “wanted” beacons, the crew hires a creature named T’raltixx to outfit Moya with a cloaking technology. During the journey to the transformation yards on his home planet, the crew is exposed to pulsar light that induces paranoia and distrust, causing them to turn on one another.

Fringe: And Those We’ve Left Behind

“He is a fringe event.”

The Golden Ratio, or phi, finds mathematical symmetry in nature and likely-unplanned symmetry in art. From the shells of the nautilus to Dalí paintings and rabbit reproduction, phi describes the relationship of spatial objects, mathematical figures—not quite life, the universe, and everything, but quite nearly.

Supernatural: Season 7, Time for a Wedding!

Dean: "Shouldn't she have asked for my permission or something?"
Sam: "You mean you want her to ask for my hand?"

Obsessed fans pay big bucks to go to conventions, where they are herded about like goats and wait in lines for many, many hours just to talk to their favorite actors for ten seconds. It isn't much of a surprise that Becky would go a lot further, since she's the one and only rabid Supernatural fan who knows the boys are real.

Immortals

What happens when you combine 300 with Clash of the Titans?

Immortals is a feast for the eyes and drew me in visually with startling imagery and occasionally stunning CGI work. In a lot of ways it felt more like a moving sculpture or masterwork painting than a movie. The oddly monotone scenery was gorgeous, and most of the locations were large multi-faceted places with underground temples or massive caverns. Everything was either wide open or very claustrophobic, which helped create a grand canvas of dense blacks and vibrant splashes of red, blue, gold, and white that established the tone of the movie without having to use exposition to fill in the blanks. This was a bleak world. Poverty, slavery, and blatant oppression made the heroes' choices between sides make sense, even if they didn't from a story perspective.

Unfortunately, I wasn't emotionally invested in the characters, even the main hero to a degree. I don't believe this wasn't the fault of the actors. The director's choices in pacing and style over substance were the real culprits. There was no real attempt to build the characters; instead, they were used as placeholders to progress the story, which was basically a string of locations and events. The lead was played by Henry Cavill (The Count of Monte Cristo), and he gave a good performance, even if the film didn't require a lot of range. The main villain Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) was truly horrific. Rourke didn't hold back with his performance, even though the character was extremely one-dimensional. The rest of the characters were basically archetypical fillers that had some good moments, but were forgotten pretty easily. This lack of character development unfortunately extended to the gods as well. They were all fairly generic except for their well known names; Athena, Poseidon, Zeus, etc. Which is a little disappointing because they were some of the most visually striking and impressive elements to this visually striking movie.

Immortals is a testosterone-filled gore fest that makes some horror movies look tame. The battle scenes were very over the top, especially in 3D. There were constant images of weapons impaling bodies, limbs and heads flying around, torsos cut in half, and blood spraying everywhere. It was extremely graphic, but fun in a brutal sort of way. The scenes with the gods had some of the coolest combat moments I've seen in a long time. Those minutes of supernatural butchery alone were worth the price of admission.

So ultimately, Immortals was a good attempt, and I enjoyed a lot of it. But it was short on character, even though it was high on style. I would give it 2 1/2 out of 4 severed body parts.

• Back to Movie Reviews home
  

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

"Remember -- the enemy's gate is down."

Ender's Game is about a future where humankind was attacked and nearly destroyed by an insectoid alien race. The most important task on Earth is to find and develop a great military leader to win the next, inevitable encounter with them.

The main character, Ender, is a young, gifted boy with a difficult and frightening home life. At the age of six, he is sent to Battle School in space, where children are taught military history, weapons and tactics. Mock battles are carried out in "battle rooms" with no gravity. Everything that happens is manipulated by the teachers and administrators, who have their own agenda unknown to the children.

I can still remember how I felt the first time I read this book. It did what outstanding science fiction is supposed to do -- it took me to a new place and presented new ideas that shook me up. And the ending just stunned me.

There are a lot of intense topics explored in this book. The constant acknowledgement of children as helpless second class citizens with no rights. The abuse and death of children (and not just teenaged children) as fodder for war. War as the ultimate in game play. The immorality of war even when it is necessary to save the human race. Invasion of privacy for the sake of security. Children as killers.

Which makes Ender's Game sound like this huge, heavy, somber tome. It's not. It's fairly short, beautifully written, immediately engaging, impossible to put down, and in my opinion the best of Orson Scott Card's many science fiction and fantasy books. Originally written a couple of decades ago, Ender's Game has managed to remain fresh and undated. It could have been written yesterday.

One of the biggest criticisms directed at Ender's Game is that the child characters speak, act and think like adults. I can understand why some feel this way, especially in regard to the political shenanigans of Ender's sister and brother. But I think critics are not taking into account what brilliant children can be like. Gifted kids have said that Ender's Game rings true for them, and that's good enough for me.

Card wrote a number of sequels to Ender's Game (intriguingly, two completely different series of sequels, with two different sets of main characters). The ones I read were quite good, but I don't think any of them were as extraordinary as the original. And isn't that usually the case? A movie version has been planned a number of times, and is now in development. I'm not sure a movie version of Ender's Game will work, since most of the actors will be kids, but I'm looking forward to seeing them try. (I remember when I first saw The Sixth Sense, I thought Haley Joel Osment would make a terrific Ender.)

Since the readers of this site are science fiction and fantasy fans, I bet many of you have read Ender's Game. So I hereby declare that the comments section are a free for all -- spoilers are permitted and welcome.

If you haven't read the book and you plan to do so, don't read the comments!

• Back to Book Reviews home
  

Vampire Diaries: Homecoming

“Vampires are usually so reliable.”

No. No, no, no, no, no. That is not what was supposed to happen. No, I say! And no, again, and thirdly: no.

Except for that one scene, which was almost... almost... almost a yes.

Glee: The First Time

It's an essential theme for a high school show. That first time. Will it be your soulmate? Or will it be an alien invasion in your tent? We found out this week on Glee!

American Horror Story: Piggy Piggy

"Do you think I wanted a bloody Mexican ghost in my bathroom?"

In an episode that saw Connie Britton eating brains and Cam from Modern Family being terrified by the piggy man in the mirror, it was the kids that actually brought some levity to the proceedings. Opening with a horrible flashback sequence to the Westfield High massacre, this was an hour driven by Violet's gradual discovery of Tate's murderous rampage and her horror at her ever-present feelings for him. I'm not sure I totally buy that she'd still be into him, considering a) he's a multiple murderer, and b) he's dead; but the story is an interesting one.

Once Upon a Time: Snow Falls

Charming: “You're a...Girl.”
Snow White: “Woman.”

Whew! I was worried all the flashbacks in this show would concern the time between the wedding and the curse, as was the case of the first two episodes. That would get old fast. Thankfully, they got out of that rut before being stuck in it, and delivered a somewhat unconventional meet-cute.

The Walking Dead: Cherokee Rose

Dale: “For the first time in my life I’m bettin' on the snowball.”

Is there anyone else out there wondering when this lovely idyllic existence is going to blow to pieces?

Star Trek: Is There in Truth No Beauty?

Miranda: "I suppose it has thorns."
Kirk: "I never met a rose that didn't."

Simplistic symbolism, anyone?

Ringer: Maybe We Can Get a Dog Instead?

"So you're Bridget now. Because I can't tell anymore, can you?"

This was a far more character-driven episode than any of the ones preceding it, but lacking in anything particularly juicy. All the show needs to do now is find some kind of balance between the two. While I enjoyed a lot of the character beats on offer here, it was an hour that was practically crying out for something additionally soapy and ridiculous. And on that front the episode came up short. Up until the FBI wire scene, this was a major snooze-fest.

Eureka: A New World

… in which our favorite time-traveling Eurekans continue to discover and adapt to the changes in the altered timeline.

Fringe: Novation

“Why am I here? How am I back?”

Having been woefully sick for a woeful amount of time, I find myself in an odd situation as I review this episode: I am asking myself what I remember, five days after having watched it. (And having watched it in a Theraflu-induced haze.) What sticks with me most is the sensation of the enormous risk the creative minds behind Fringe took by “renovating” their show in the manner they have.

Misfits: Episode Two (She Make Me Go Oh)

Melissa: "You have no idea what it feels like to be a woman."

I was hoping that with Nathan gone, Howard Overman would spend some time rounding out the rest of the show’s characters. Tonight’s episode did just that. For Kelly, Simon and Alisha, community service has been something of a blessing. It’s given them a sense of purpose, some much needed self-worth, and a unique (if twisted) camaraderie. For Curtis, however, it’s been a real step backwards. Before his drugs conviction, he was the only misfit whose life wasn’t an unmitigated disaster. He was someone with real talent. He had a future. In short: he wasn’t a misfit at all.

Dexter: Just Let Go

Dexter: "Here I am. The fork in the road."

I was surprised by how much this episode upset me.