Supernatural S4E1: "It's good to see you again, boy."

“Lazarus Rising”

First off, a very brief recap of the story of Lazarus (translation “God (has) helped”) from Wikipedia. In the Gospel of John, Lazarus was a man who lived in the town of Bethany. His sisters sent word to Jesus that he was ill, but when Jesus finally arrived Lazarus had been in a tomb for four days. Martha reproached him, and when Jesus assured her that Lazarus would rise, she thought he was referring to resurrection on Judgment Day. To this Jesus replied, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” In the presence of a crowd of Jewish mourners, Jesus had the stone rolled away from the tomb and bade Lazarus to come out. This he did, still wrapped in his grave-cloths.

Fourth season of SN feels different right off the bat. Dean wakes up in a coffin and manages to dig himself out, only to find the landscape around him decimated (in a perfect circle, natch). He breaks into a convenience store for some essentials, including water, food, and the latest issue of Busty Asian Beauties. He discovers a red hand print burned into his shoulder. Suddenly, all of the electronic devices in the store switch on and a sustained high-pitched shriek sounds, paining Dean and shattering all glass in the vicinity. He escapes and finds Bobby, who puts him through a number of tests to ensure that he’s really Dean. Bobby hasn’t spoken to Sam in months.

Through the magic of charm & GPS tracking, they find Sam in a hotel room with a brunette girl. Sam is skeptical about Dean’s reappearance, but is easily convinced. Dean is sure that Sam “worked some bad mojo” to get him out of hell, but Sam swears he had nothing to do with it. He gets Dean up to speed: he hasn’t been using his psychic abilities, Ruby is gone, and Lilith tried to kill him but he was immune to her powers. No big deal.



Bobby takes them to see a psychic friend. I was kind of hoping it would be Missouri, but instead it is a hot rock ‘n’ roller who hits on both Dean and Sam. Unfortunately, when she has a séance to see Dean’s rescuer, her eyes liquefy and she is blinded for life. Ouch.

Sam and Dean track down a group of demons in a diner. They don’t know who saved Dean, but they’re spooked. Later, Sam sneaks out to kill the diner demons. Dean is attacked by the high-pitched shriek again. He is convulsing on the floor, blood streaming from his ears, when Bobby rescues him. Then, Sam and Dean start lying to each other.

Dean calls Sam, asking where he is, and he claims to be getting a hamburger. Lie # 1. Sam asks what Dean’s doing, and Dean says something innocuous. Lie # 2. Really, Dean and Bobby are going to summon the being that pulled Dean from hell. At the diner, the demons all have their eyes burned out, and Sam kills the one left alive using only his psychic powers. Lie # 3. The brunette from the hotel appears, saying that his powers have improved. It’s Ruby, in a new body. Lie # 4.



Back to Dean & Bobby, who are summoning the mysterious being. A young man appears, wearing a suit and tie. He knocks Bobby out with a wave of his hand, and none of Dean’s weapons work on him. Uh-oh. Then, he drops the bomb: he is Castiel, an angel of the Lord. He had thought that Dean was special, able to hear his true voice (the shrieking), but he was wrong. He squints, reading Dean’s mind, and realizes that Dean doesn’t think he was worth saving. But he’s wrong: God has a plan for Dean, and he has work to do.

Hmmm. I have high hopes for this twist, although bringing God into the show in this capacity kind of implies that this is the final season. I mean, when God himself gets involved, you gotta figure it’s the final “epic battle.” But this does portend interesting character development for Dean, who we’ve seen time and time again doubt the existence of God or angels. Regardless, I was pleased to see the brotherly strife flare right back up again. All this lying can’t be good, and what’s with Sam’s powers?

ANTM Cycle 11: Makeover Edition

THE RUNDOWN
Not much to say here…it’s the makeover episode. The twist is that they don’t get to hear about what’s going to happen in advance, and all the mirrors in the room are covered so they can’t watch their transformations. Afterward, they all look really good and nobody complains, except Elina, who doesn’t feel like herself anymore. She gets over it quickly, though.

THE CHALLENGE
The girls do the Wal-Mart challenge from last year, but in addition to putting on makeup in under 30 seconds they also have to film an unscripted 30-second short about a foundation matching system Cover Girl is introducing in stores. Surprisingly, a lot of them do very well. The ones who don’t – most of whom are this season’s “golden girls” – are truly awful. Hannah wins.

THE SHOOT
The girls do a swimsuit shoot on the beach. The designer, Susan Homes, is there. And we get another twist – Jay does not direct the shoot. The girls are on their own. Again, most of them do well. Annaleigh, Hannah, Brittany, and Isis do not. Isis is noticeably uncomfortable in her swimsuit, and Jay reminds her that the photographer and designer don’t know about her situation. Unfortunately, this doesn’t help calm her down.

DURING PANEL
More girls are praised than critiqued:
Sheena has so much fire in person, but her shots are beautiful and serene.
Lauren Brie’s shot is amazing.
McKey’s makeover has totally changed her look; her pose is original and unique.
Marjorie looks like a page from a magazine.
Samantha’s makeover has made her look like a real model.
Elina is stunning; her makeover took her out of her comfort zone and it worked.
Joslyn has a great pose full of movement.

IN PRIVATE DELIBERATION
The judges are concerned about Annaleigh, Clark, Brittany, Hannah, and Isis. They talk about how Clark and Lauren Brie are opposites – Clark is gorgeous in person but takes poor shots, while Lauren Brie is plain in person but takes amazing shots. Lauren Brie reminds them of CarriDee.

The first photo is Elina. Ironically, you can’t even see the swimsuit in her shot.
The bottom two are Annaleigh and Brittany.
Brittany is pretty, but she’s “just pretty.” There is no connection in her photos.
Annaleigh is tanking. They expect more from her.
Brittany is eliminated.

Fringe S1E2: "All of this connects to the magical man-baby how?"

“The Same Old Story”

People seem to be giving up on this show quickly – at least, people I know. I found this episode entertaining, but did notice a drop in quality from the pilot. “The Same Old Story” was all over the place, lacking a specific focus and under-developing several main characters. The best part of the show, so far, is the fractured relationship between Walter and Peter. When Peter sang his dad to sleep at the end … oh my.

We open on a guy and a hooker lounging in bed. The guy is creepy and steals off to the bathroom with a set of surgical tools. Suddenly, the hooker starts screaming bloody murder as her stomach ripples grotesquely. Creepy Guy drives her to the hospital and abandons her. The doctors ask how long she’s been pregnant, she insists she isn’t, there is a huge ripping noise, and she dies. The doctors cut out the baby and look horrified. By the time our intrepid team shows up, the baby has aged into an old man and died.

Frankly, this episode did not go the way I anticipated, which is good as far as the surprise factor but I liked my way better. After John Scott’s betrayal, Olivia is conflicted. She doubts her intuition, and she doubts the outcome of every case she and John worked on together. She becomes obsessed with the idea that Creepy Guy is a serial killer that she and John hunted. Since the killer’s MO didn’t match the first scene, I figured Olivia was just wrestling with her own personal demons to the detriment of her work. Alas, it turns out that she is correct.

After less research than I would have liked, the team learns that an old colleague of Walter’s named Penrose had engineered a “son” by tinkering with human growth hormone. Government experiments in the seventies attempted to grow an army of young men that would rapidly age to 21 years and then stop. However, the “stopping” proved to be a problem. Creepy Guy has to use other people’s pituitary glands to keep himself young. In the end, they vanquish him simply by interrupting his attempts to extract a victim’s gland, and he ages and dies in front of Olivia. The whole thing was a little blah. Much more interesting were the small, suggestive moments throughout.

Peter is an interesting character. There have been several hints about his weird past, but seeing as he is basically supposed to be a regular guy (albeit a genius) I find it interesting (if somewhat unbelievable) that he can collect evidence at a crime scene, shoot a gun at another human being with no hesitation, and rig a makeshift defibrillator in less than a minute. In this episode Walter casually says to Olivia, “If you’ve read my file, then you know the truth about Peter’s medical history.” She looks blank, and Walter quickly backtracks. There is much buzz in the blogosphere that Peter was “engineered” much like Creepy Guy. Walter’s comment, combined with the throwaway line earlier in the episode when he says, “95% of babies are born with blue eyes. Yours were green,” lends some credence to that, though I have my doubts.

Walter was underused in this episode, which meant it was less humorous than the pilot, but there were some interesting bits I’m not ready to speculate on yet: Walter had no memory of them re-opening his Harvard lab, yet he remembered where he hid his car 17 years earlier. Penrose saying that Walter “knows things no one in power should know,” and Walter’s subsequent comment that “the pitfall of a scientist is differentiating between god’s domain and our own.” And JJ Abrams sure does love shows that revolve around father issues, so I’m curious to see how the Walter/Peter relationship will develop.

Also learned in this episode: Bionic Arm Woman (Nina) is connected with Broyles in what looks like some sort of board-member capacity. She offers Olivia a job at Massive Dynamic, which O. refuses. Broyles then tells Olivia that though Nina knows about the pattern, certain knowledge is classified beyond her level.

Finally, we come to the end. While Peter is singing Walter to sleep, there is a shutter-flash image of three bodies lying on what look like hospital beds. Unable to rewind and pause live TV, I don’t have much to go on here. More engineered human beings? A Walter flashback, or real-time? I’ll just have to wait and see. If you have any speculation, please leave my poor TiVo-less self a comment!

90210 S1E4: "I've made a ginormous mistake."

“The Bubble”

Fourth episode, and nary an ill-advised sexual encounter to be had. I think this may be the most boring teen “drama” I’ve ever seen. It’s certainly more wholesome than the original series.

Grandma Lucille becomes director of the school musical (what?), eventually being replaced by Brenda Walsh.

Naomi doesn’t understand why her mom puts up with her cheating son-of-a-bitch dad. With all her family issues, she’s like Marissa Cooper without a drinking problem. “Drama” occurs when Naomi snakes her dad’s BlackBerry and sees that he’s been talking to his girlfriend, Gail. Um, yeah, so? We already know they’re dating. Anyway, she confronts Gail only to learn that Gail loves dad, and dad has moved Gail to Beverly Hills and set her up in the family’s beach house.

Ethan asks Annie on a date. So does Ty. She accepts Ethan’s proposal and rejects Ty, so he’s like, “Whatever, I’m the richest hottest guy in school, NBD.” Ethan then stands Annie up. He has a decent reason, though – his brother Stephen has severe OCD (or is autistic? who knows, they don’t tell us) and loses his shit when the housekeeper moves their furniture around. Naomi stops by to complain about her dad and ends up calming Stephen down, reminding Ethan of all the good times they used to have. In the end, she makes a play to get him back and he agrees.

After being stood up by Ethan, Annie tries to win Ty back by baking him snickerdoodles. He’s standoffish until she kisses him, and then he’s all “Wow, you’re so fucking cute I can’t resist.” Seriously?

Meanwhile, it is ON between Silver and Dixon. There is lots of flirtation and they even chat about wanting to go out on a date…though they never actually make one. Also, the freeze between Naomi and Silver begins to thaw after Dixon claims that boys don’t hold grudges against each other and Silver sees the error of her ways. Obviously Dixon has never seen Dawson’s Creek.

Dixon gets a job at the Peach Pit and his big drama this episode is that his job interferes with his schoolwork. I know – makes for compelling viewing, right?

Finally, in what is possibly the most tedious “reveal” in TV history, we learn that Dylan is the father of Kelly’s child, and Brenda accuses Kelly of still being in love with him.

I don’t have much to say. This show is utterly lackluster, and all the characters remind me of others who have come before, but done a better job. That being said, the scenes from next week’s episode look mildly promising as far as drama goes, showing implied coitus that ends with Annie sobbing in a corner. Finally.

ANTM Cycle 11: Fear of Heights Edition

The focus this week is that half the girls in the house think Hannah is racist. When they’re all swimming in the pool, Hannah pushes Isis, kind of hard, for “getting in her personal space.” When Sheena and Brittany confront her about it later, Hannah says some nonsensical stuff about how she’s the “whitest white girl” and she just doesn’t like “urban things” like rap music. S&B talk to some of the other girls about this, and finally everyone sits down to have an intervention. They ask Hannah if she’s racist. She cries and says it’s “not very nice” of them to ask. A couple girls stand up for Hannah, saying it was just a misunderstanding. Hannah tells McKey that what the girls are doing to her “is like gang violence.” Meanwhile, Isis asks for Annaleigh’s help while taking her hormone injection, and afterward Annaleigh says she’s honored that Isis trusts her. It’s really sweet. At this point, it seems as though Hannah is the only one who still has a problem with Isis.

DURING THE LESSON
The girls learn about posing from Benny Ninja, and practice posing in fabric tubes. They’re not very good.

AT THE CHALLENGE
The girls pose with accessories by Tarina Tarantino, a jewelry and handbag designer. Most of them are terrible. Nikeysha, who still can’t keep her mouth shut, actually tells Tarina she might pee herself because she has to use the bathroom so badly. Elina wins the challenge.

DURING THE SHOOT
The girls pose on a rope ladder that leads up to a hot air balloon. The initial idea is for the ladder to be dangling from the balloon, but it is too windy. Instead, they anchor the ladder to the ground and digitally manipulate the photo. Lauren Brie, Elina, and Marjorie are fantastic. Joslyn is great. Everyone else struggles.

DURING PANEL
The amazing: Lauren Brie, Marjorie, Elina
The good: Hannah, Clark, Isis, Joslyn
The bad: Annaleigh, Samantha, Nikeysha, McKey, Sheena, Brittany

And something odd happens after panel. During her evaluation, Paulina asks Sheena if her boobs are real, and she says “of course.” Then, after every girl has been critiqued, Sheena comes forward again, visibly upset. Her manner is confrontational, and it seems like she’s going to say something stupid and get herself kicked off the show. Instead, she admits she had breast implants at a young age, and says she feels that it was a stupid choice. The judges commend her honesty.

IN PRIVATE DELIBERATION
The judges are absolutely blown away by Lauren Brie, Elina, and Marjorie. They even go so far as to agree (!) that Lauren Brie has taken possibly the best photo in the history of ANTM. They liken Elina to Angelina Jolie, and marvel at Marjorie’s ability to be a chameleon.

The first photo is Lauren Brie.
The bottom two are Isis and Nikeysha.
Nikeysha is eliminated … and even then, she tries to talk over Tyra.

Man, where did Lauren Brie come from? She looks totally plain when she’s not on a shoot. Her personality didn’t make an impression during the premiere. I don’t remember anything about her last shoot. And yet her photo this week was truly stunning. The shoulder that looks like it’s popped out of socket, the elegantly arched foot, her level of comfort on a swaying rope ladder … incredible. And of course, Marjorie and Elina were terrific as expected. Like the judges, I was pleased to witness Marjorie’s ability to change her photo personality along with her look. She just needs to pull it together during panel. She constantly looks like she’s cowering, about to burst into profuse apologies. Despite that, at this stage of the game it seems that these three are setting the bar way too high for the other girls to reach.