Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Laws of Nature

The hacker formally known as Skye

"My name is Daisy, I'm with S.H.I.E.L.D. and we're here for your protection."

O brave new world, that have such Inhumans in it.

Gotham: Knock, Knock

"Very good. Boyishly charming. The laugh is fabulous. Use that."

In this action-packed, frankly awesome episode, we see the fallout from last week's prison escape begin to escalate as the Maniax take Gotham by storm. But who is controlling them? What's the real aim of all this? Meanwhile, Bruce and Alfred reach a new stage in their relationship, and possibly become friends as well as Master and servant.

Star Trek The Next Generation: The Offspring

Troi: "Congratulations, Data! It's a girl."

This episode was almost a spiritual sequel to the brilliant second season episode "The Measure of a Man," which brought into focus the basic rights of a sentient artificial life form. "The Offspring" attempted to deal with the applications of those rights, in one of the most fundamental aspects of life: procreation.

Daredevil: Daredevil

"Nelson and Murdock. Avocados at law."

It is very easy to view Daredevil's first season as a superhero origin movie told in 13 parts. One of the big problems with modern superhero films is that they have an annoying tendency to fall apart in the final act, as plot and character development is pushed to the side in order for the hero and villain to smack each other around while some doomsday machine counts down to oblivion. Daredevil, sadly, is no exception. Although there was no doomsday device. I bet they are saving that for The Defenders.

The Fall: These Troublesome Disguises

"Once upon a time, this worked for me. You snap the band on your wrist when your thoughts and feelings overwhelm you."

I may need a rubber band on my wrist if The Fall gets any more overwhelming this season because who am I kidding, of course it will. Based on 'These Troublesome Disguises', it will gather its own kind of steam, uniquely painstakingly slowly, taking the time to give just the amount of space each breathtaking tense moment or grief-filled ache requires. This is a show where not a single second is not considered a chance to communicate the anguish, the precariousness, the crushing weight of our exacting human nature. And Allan Cubitt, the show's creator, is more confident and relaxed than ever that he can deliver to us this special little series, a watery reflection on remorse.

Fear the Walking Dead: Cobalt

"The man with the blade and the man in the chair, they're not different."

That was intense. I wasn't happy about it, either.

Star Trek Deep Space Nine: The Alternate

"One of the Bajoran science probes recently scanned a planet about six light years from the wormhole. It picked up some very unique and familiar DNA patterns. Patterns very much like my own, Commander. Doctor Mora thinks he may have discovered the origin of my people. Of me."

How do you react when the man who raised you in a lab, two steps away from a Petri dish solution, suddenly shows up at your full time and highly demanding job on a space station? Then what do you do when he offers you the key to your own soul?

Doctor Who: The Witch's Familiar

Doctor: 'Admit it, you've all had this exact nightmare.'

After last week's cliffhanger, it was always going to be an uphill struggle to dig the story out of its proverbial hole. Obviously Missy and Clara couldn't be dead, and whilst Missy's anecdote about the Doctor escaping android assassins brought out the best in Clara—as she picked through the clues, made the correct deductions whilst hanging upside down, threatened to kill Missy, before finally stomping off pointy-stickless to save the Doctor—I'm not sure the rest of the episode allowed her to shine so brightly.

Sunday discussion: Who won the week?

So many premieres. And it isn't even October yet.

The 100: Survival of the Fittest

"Attack her and you attack me."

If you go down to the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise. If you go down to the woods today, you'd better go in disguise, because there's a f**king giant mutant gorilla on the loose and it seems to be intent on eating Clarke and Lexa.

Continuum: Power Hour

Julian: "I'm still here, destined to be the bad guy."
Lucas: "Says who? 'Bad guy' is a matter of perspective."

I've gotten very attached to the characters on this show. And that includes the villains.

The X-Files: Drive

Case: Mulder is kidnapped by a man who has to keep moving west.

Destination: Buhl, Idaho; Elko, Nevada; California

“I’m just saying, that’s no way to treat a man. Take away his dignity like that. It ain’t right. Better just to kill him.”

There is an overused metaphor about life that states if you don’t keep moving, you die. It’s overused, because there is a lot of truth in it. This episode takes that metaphor and makes it literally true.

Doctor Who: Marco Polo

Wagons east...

On the road to Peking, the Doctor goes a long way out of his way for good Chinese takeout, then gambles away the TARDIS to Kublai Khan.

The Middleman: Series Review

“I got recruited, the exact same way you did. When the last Middleman hired me, he never said and I never asked. Ida was already there, so were all the weapons and gadgets and things. Sometimes a box comes in with more weapons and gadgets and things. I don't know where they come from; they just do. Maybe Ida runs the show, maybe it's the conspiracy. Maybe it's God. I'm just The Middleman.”

It’s the same old sad story. Boy discovers new TV show. Boy falls madly in love with new TV show. Mean TV executives cancel new TV show. Boy is heartbroken. Pre-orders the DVD.

Rectify: Charlie Darwin

"Emotion is for losers."

Let's start off with a metaphorical window cleaning, followed by an equally metaphorical branch falling off a tree, shall we?

Blindspot: Pilot

Weller: "That was right under our nose."
Reade: "Behind her right ear, actually."

Here we have yet another high concept series about a mystery/conspiracy involving the FBI. On the surface, this feels like another version of Blacklist without Raymond Reddington (I wouldn't be surprised if the shows existed in the same universe). Yet I found myself engaged with this pilot, which was probably due to the likability of Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe.

Gotham: Damned If You Do

I admit to waiting all summer to finding out what's next for the city of Gotham after last season's blockbuster finale! This episode picks right up where the last left off. With Penguin on top and Gordon on the bottom – and no sign of Fish Mooney to balance the scales – Jim has to learn some hard lessons about compromise in this mixed bag of a season opener.

Minority Report: Pilot

The time: 2065

The place: Washington, DC

The premise: What happened after the end of the movie Minority Report, where the all important precogs were freed and sent to live somewhere in secret, no longer forced to work for the Precrime Program. Except one of them is still desperate to do something about his visions.

Daredevil: The Ones We Leave Behind

"It's a difficult thing, isn't it? Taking a life... feeling of the weight and responsibility of all the years the person you've murdered has lived... moments that they've cherished... the dreams that they've struggled towards, gone... because of you. I want you to know something. Something important that I've learned. That it gets easier... the more you do it."

Those bastards! Why would they do that? WHY?

Fear the Walking Dead: Not Fade Away

"Just a perfect day."

A lot of Walking Dead fans love the zombie action and gore. I pretty much just tolerate it. I'm into The Walking Dead because I'm fascinated by apocalyptic drama, by how good characters react to an extreme end of the world situation. It's interesting that that seems to be the focus of our spinoff. This episode was all about the growing and completely justified paranoia of our characters. There wasn't a single exploding head.

The Emmy Awards 2015

The 67th Emmy Awards aired tonight. Historically, this show is the weakest of the award shows during which there are few surprises.

The 100: Remember Me

"The dead are gone, Clarke. The living are hungry."

The title implies that we are dealing with the fallout of losing a main character, but I think the fallout we are dealing with is the truce that's been made.

Doctor Who: The Magician's Apprentice

Doctor: 'Davros made the Daleks. But who made Davros?'

Now that's how you do a cold open! Not only did it follow on seamlessly from 'The Doctor Meditates', it complemented the opening ambience of 'Genesis of the Daleks' perfectly, and dropped a gasp-inducing D-bomb on our shuddering craniums. The mastermind behind the Daleks is back—looking as ill as ever. Who'd have thought he'd be such a handsome looking kid? That Skaro air must really mess with your complexion... not to mention your hair follicles.

Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Rivals

"Everyone has to have someone to confide in, someone to hear their stories. I offer a sympathetic ear. And if they request my help I give it to them."

Tribbles Gambling machines multiply and endanger Deep Space Nine in a somewhat hilarious episode featuring great Quark lines, but not necessarily much else.

Star Trek The Next Generation: Yesterday's Enterprise

"Geordi, tell me about... Tasha Yar."

When the Enterprise C emerges from a temporal rift right in front of the Enterprise D, the ramifications go far beyond the ship and its namesake.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

It differs wildly from its source material, but that deviation isn’t where The Scorch Trials suffers. There was clearly a lot of effort put into making a fast paced action adventure that would top its predecessor, but as a result sacrifices were made in terms of character development and dynamics to sustain momentum. It’s exciting and thrilling, but it isn’t necessarily engaging.

Sunday discussion: Who won the summer?

Summer television was once a wasteland, and not that long ago. I was just perusing our keyword label 'Summer Television Wasteland' (which was a fun blast from the past, by the way, with 16 posts going back to 2006), and I was reminded that we used to spend the summer here on Doux Reviews interviewing each other and doing retro reviews of our favorite old shows. Now there's so much new stuff on TV that it's a challenge to keep up.

Continuum: Rush Hour

What do you mean, my wig is distracting?

"You're out of your own loop."

Exciting. Fun. A little dense, but it's Continuum so I'm okay with that.

The X-Files: The Beginning

Case: Mulder and Scully investigate an alien that is loose in the desert.

Destination: Phoenix, Arizona

Maslin: “And, so the plot... I’m just trying to get this straight. The plot is for these spacelings to take over the planet aided by a group of men here on earth?”
Mulder: “A shadow conspiracy within our own government.”
Maslin: “Who are growing corn in the middle of the desert, which features pollen which was genetically altered to hold a virus, which will be taken away by bees whose sting transmits the virus, causing the growth of an extraterrestrial biological entity inside the human host?”

Huh? As much as I crush on Fox Mulder, I’m with A.D. Maslin on this one.

Daredevil: The Path of the Righteous

Bloody and alone.

“The martyrs, the saints, the saviors—they all end up the same way. Bloody. And alone.”

For a show about a lonely superhero and his lonely adversary, there’s a lot of conversation in this episode. Matt and Karen, Matt and Claire. Fisk and Wesley. Matt and the priest. Etc. Nearly every scene in this episode is based on two people talking. And, in that dialogue-heavy script, the show contrasts the loneliness of Matt and Fisk with the complexity of their social networks.

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys Series Review

“Wherever there was evil, wherever an innocent would suffer, there would be... Hercules!”

This is the story of a time long ago. A time of myth and legend. When ancient TV producers were petty and cruel and they plagued mankind with increasingly drearily programming. Only one show dared to challenge their power... Hercules!

Rectify: Sleeping Giants

"Absence of destructive behaviors! Motivation to change!"

This episode, like the last one, began with Daniel trapped in his cell, and I thought, why do they keep starting this way? And then I went, idiot. Of course. He's in a coma, imprisoned inside his head. How else would he relate to what was happening to him?

Doctor Who: The Edge of Destruction

I'M NOT GOING BACK TO
COAL HILL SCHOOL!!!

(a.k.a. Inside the Spaceship)

Two episodes, one set, no guest cast, no budget, no problem!

Daredevil: Nelson v. Murdock

“We’re going to be the best damn avocados this city has ever seen.”

You’ve heard of the proverbial one-two punch. It’s a classic boxing combination that begins with a jab, thrown with the non-dominant hand. The goal of the jab is to bring the opponent closer while preventing them from seeing the follow-up cross, which is sheer force meant to take the opponent down.

The X-Files: Fight the Future

Case: Spontaneous alien repopulation, if you will.

Destination: North Texas, Dallas, Washington D.C, Antarctica

The second sentence in the action description in the Fight the Future script reads: "We're not in 19" television land anymore, Toto." It’s beautiful. It’s Chris Carter’s perfect joy at making The X-Files into a feature film contained in one simple sentence. For Carter, this was what he always envisioned for the series. Panoramic Mulder and Scully.

Fear the Walking Dead: The Dog

Travis: "You know how I feel about guns."
Daniel: "The gun doesn't care how you feel about it."

Best one so far.

The 100: Spacewalker

"If death has no cost, life has no worth."

My first notetaking scribble when I started watching this episode was, "This is so not fair. I got a Finn episode."

I was wrong. This episode was amazing.

Star Trek The Next Generation: A Matter of Perspective

Picard: "Investigator, in our system of jurisprudence a man is innocent until proved guilty."
Krag: "In ours, he is guilty until he is proved innocent and you are under our jurisdiction."

Based on the old theme of a story told from multiple perspectives and epitomized by the 1951 Akira Kurosawa movie Rashomon, this episode tried to tackle a murder mystery with Riker as the primary suspect. Pretty much every show has some version of this particular plot at some point during its run. Some have been great, some not so much. Here, the results were mixed.

Continuum: Lost Hours

Is that a wig?

"To going home."

What a jam-packed episode. And I don't mean that in a bad way. I've been worried that the final season of Continuum would seem like it was tacked on, making the series lesser than it was. If this episode is any indication, no worries.

Rectify: Running With the Bull

"I never felt envious of you, not one time. I was just grateful to have something to hope for, even if it was for the life of another person."

The thing about Rectify that keeps getting to me is how they balance such devastating human ugliness with exceptional beauty and light. Maybe what this series is trying to say is that the beauty of nature alone makes life worth living, no matter how bad things gets.

Doctor Who: The Daleks

"It's only a model..." "Shh!"

(aka "The Mutants" or "The Dead Planet")

At the end of 1963 the shaken and weak British populace, still reeling from the onslaught of Beatlemania, succumbs to Dalekmania!

Rectify: Jacob's Ladder

"I'm going away for a while, to get better. Or different."

This was such a three-hanky episode. I don't mean that at all facetiously.

Terminator: Genisys

"Come with me if you want to live!"

Trying to make something good, while at the same time paying homage to what has gone before, is an incredibly hard thing to do. The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day are arguably two of the best science fiction action movies ever made. They were hard, unrelenting, and iconic. The two movies that followed them, Terminator 3 and Terminator: Salvation, were not very good. Terminator: Genisys was a major improvement over those two sequels, but it still had some major flaws.

Star Trek Voyager: Future's End, Part 2

"Tuvok, has anyone ever told you, you're a real freakosaurus?"

Still stuck in 20th century Los Angeles and with the Doctor programme-napped, the Voyager crew must stop a 20th century computer mogul from trying to fly a 29th century time-ship with disastrous consequences.

The X-Files: The End

Case: The death of a chess grandmaster and a telepathic boy lead Mulder and Scully into the heart of the conspiracy they’ve been struggling with for five years.

Destination: Vancouver BC and Washington DC

Mulder: “This kid may be the key not just to all human potential, but to all spiritual unexplained paranormal phenomena. The key to everything in the X-Files.”

This episode was written to be the series finale. Because it’s not, it becomes a harbinger of all the mistakes that were to follow.

Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Sanctuary

Kira can't seem to catch a break; she's arguing with the provisional government on Bajor, arguing with Sisko because she's arguing so much she can't do her job, and now three million refugees are coming through the wormhole looking for help. What's a girl to do?

Sapphire and Steel Series Review

“All irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension. Transuranic heavy elements may not be used where there is life. Medium atomic weights are available; Gold, Mercury, Copper, Jet, Diamond, Radium, Sapphire, Silver and Steel. Sapphire and Steel have been assigned.”

And if you have the foggiest idea what the hell that all means answers on a postcard please.

Movie Review: Bring It On

“This is not a democracy. It's a cheerocracy.”

There are plenty of TV shows and movies that we’re embarrassed to like because of their title or their premise. If you’ve ever tried to explain to someone that, no, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is not as silly as its name implies, you were likely mocked and perhaps even pitied. So I hope you’ll bear with me when I tell you that Bring It On, while no Buffy, is a fabulous and enjoyable movie that transcends its high-school cheerleading premise.

Sunday Discussion: What shows are you most looking forward to this fall?

Four seasons. Not enough.

When I started posting these Sunday discussion topics a few weeks ago, the first question I wanted to ask was, "What shows are you guys looking forward to this fall?" And then every other TV site on the internet posted the same question that very week, and I thought, do I want to look like I'm imitating all the other TV web sites? So I went with another question.

And then this morning I thought, so what? I'm posting it anyway. What shows are you most looking forward to this fall?

Star Trek The Next Generation: Déjà Q

"I stand before you defrocked. Condemned to be a member of this lowest of species. A normal, imperfect, lumpen human being."

A moon has shifted out of orbit around the inhabited Bre'el IV, potentially destroying a planet. While refugees presumably run amok on the ground during the evacuation procedures, the Enterprise crew is distracted by... Q, appearing naked and in recumbent posture. And, they soon find out, completely powerless.