Category: TV

“Betty’s Wait Problem”

Oh, Betty. It’s like the writers were gifted with divine inspiration: they don’t need to set up Betty with a totally bland person with whom she could never share interesting dialogue: they can simply write in a character with whom she has chemistry! ¡Dios Mio!
Yep, Betty herself once more becomes a worthwhile element of the Betty ensemble: life is good.

Spoilers for the one who wears braces!

“The Kindness of Strangers”

It may surprise you to hear that the first thing I said upon completing this episode was “I didn’t hate that.” But, well, I didn’t hate this. You know, it almost harkened back to glory days of old on Heroes, when things were intriguing and didn’t suck.

Plus, finally, Heroes has black people. Not just black people, mind, but Black People About Whom George Bush Doesn’t Care. Righteous.

Spoilers! I’ve got to pick up the pace, people!

“Kindred”

Seriously, you should come to my house and watch Heroes with me. I’m fairly certain that my periodic pausing of the show and swearing at the TV is more entertaining than what’s on offer. With each passing week I add a new character to the Pantheon of Idiocyâ„¢, but this time around it’s a spoiler, so check out within …

Week old spoilers!

“Family/Affair”

Oh, Ugly Betty. You’re one of those TV shows where the titular heroine/ostensible lead character has the least interesting story. That said, with only one villain running amok and possible redemption for Bradford, things are looking up!

Betty Spoilers!

“Lizards”

You know how most episodes of Heroes can be subtitled “Parkman is stupid”? Well, add “Claire is stupid” to that continuum! I watched this episode with Ajay and he said “I’m not sure that I can watch this show if you’re just going to be shaking your head all the time.”

Spoilers!

“The Gangs of Camden County”

If you’ve seen this episode, you’ll know that I immediately realised I had to mention it. Yes, it’s another gay episode of My Name is Earl.

Earl is given a week off his sentence for his services in the previous episode, and is offered a month off if he can calm down the “Ebony and Hispanic” tensions in the prison yard. Eventually, Earl realises that the two gang leaders have fallen in love with each other and instigate fights just so that they can spend a few seconds together. Meanwhile, Randy can’t get himself thrown in prison to join Earl, so he applies to become a prison guard.

I don’t know much about prison homosexuality, save for all of the lame “don’t drop the soap” perpetuations. What we have in My Name is Earl is a legitimate relationship between two men, albeit one littered with fellatio popsicles and kissed knuckles. This episode has nothing to do with karma and more to do with Earl cleaning up the messes of the thoroughly incompetent warden. It also involves the anachronism of someone being sent to work in 2001 for playing Guitar Hero in his underwear – a game that patently did not exist in 2001!

But that’s beside the point. The point is that this is interracial homosexual tenderness and a heckfire of a lot of kissing for the kind of show that Earl is. It surprised me, and tended to indicate that the series is going to steer clear of the sort of blind, easy to “write” prison humour. That and Joy is getting smarter simply because Randy needs to survive. I still miss Camden at large, but My Name is Earl continues to be grande.

“Alone”

Just weighing in to say that, while House III had the best non-medical serial stories of the show so far – which isn’t that difficult given that it had almost always been entirely episodic without much care for the characters in the first two series – this new season hasn’t wowed me yet.

Bring back Foreman, Chase, and Cameron, I say! (and they’re still in the opening credits, so I don’t really have to say that) Also, make me give a care for the case in question, although that’s not so much of a worry. I’m not convinced that House can carry the show by himself, although Doctor Buffer was some good stuff.