Thursday, March 01, 2007

THIS IS WHY I'M HOT: Veronica Mars, LOST, MORE

What up everyone ...

As I said on Tuesday, it's been CRAZY lately 'round these parts. Tons of work in our office and lots of stuff in the works for iTunes. Right now, check out THE BLACK DONNELLYS on iTunes, which as its first episode FREE for a limited time only.

Anyways, some TV STUFF for ya' ...

- First of all, VERONICA MARS this week was yet another awesome, kickass resolution to one of the show's overarching mystery arcs. The show rarely (okay, never) disappoints at these big finale episodes, and this was another classic. Unfortunately, Rob Thomas and co were nto really granted enough time to include the dizzying array of twists, turns, and most of all, suspects that we're used to from this show. Which meant that this ep really had to be clever at how it approached its endgame, as, really, there were only 3 strong suspects in the murder of Dean O'Dell - Mindy O'Dell, Hank Landry, and Tim Foyle. It had to be one of them, but the episode did a fan-frakkin'-tastic job of making us guess which one was the killer up until the last possible moment. And then, just when we thought we knew the answer, the brilliant final reveal threw a final twist at us, allowing Veronica to single-handedly deduce the actual killer just as it seemed that the case was wrapped, the mystery solved. This was just great stuff - so good that honestly, I could almost, ALMOST accept this as a fitting series finale, if it came to that. But luckily, we are guaranteed at least six more episodes of Veronica Mars' great characters, razor-sharp writing, and brain-teasing mysteries. But man ... what is wrong with the CW? Replacing this witha Pussycat Dolls reality show? Seriously? One of the best dramas of the last 5 years replaced by pop-reality crap? Just tasteless, really. Classless. Just plain wrong. Anyways, we are still left with at least six standalone eps, though we have to wait until MAY to see 'em. And hopefully, they will only be a prelude to a fourth season to come. But the greatness of Tuesday's ep only made this whole situation all the more tragic -- this was Emmy-worthy, classic stuff, vintage VM.

My Grade: A

- Also on Tuesday, GILMORE GIRLS had an ep that seemed to do everything in its power to get us to elicit an "awww, shucks!", and gosh darnit it worked. This was just one of those happy, feel-good episodes that didn't feature too much melodrama - just lots of moments designed to elicit smiles as we watched our favorite characters have all kinds of lovably wacky shenanigans. Lane and her mom are two of my favorite characters on the show, so I loved seeing them resolve their differences for Lane's babyshower. And Lane asking Rory to be her baby's Lorelai was a great little moment. Good stuff all around. And I don't care what anyone says - April is great, and I love almost all the scenes with her and Luke.

My Grade: A -

- Last night's LOST ... Well, it was an okay little episode. Kind of a filler ep, with a lot of "return of the heroes / gathering of the troops" type stuff. Nonetheless, there were some good moments, a decent amount of nice character-driven humor, and the end with Hurley and Charlie cheating death kind of fun. Still, once again, the entire flashback sequence felt pretty unnecessary and redundant in light of previous Hurly-centric flashbacks. And while I appreciate the show's ability to include humor, it's kind of frustrating that Hurley and the cursed numbers, once one of the show's most intriguing mysteries, has basically turned into a joke storyline that even the writers now seem to acknowledge as being more a trite piece of Lost trivia than a real, important part of the overarching mythology. It's like they're saying: "Dude, don't worry about the numbers ... I mean, WE'RE not too concerned about what they mean, and you shouldn't be either." Again, I really admire that this show can take itself lightly every so often (a lot of dramas could learn from that), but sometimes the show feels so laid back that it really diminishes the urgency of the main plotlines - first and foremost, the show's tendency to show its characters lounging around when they should basically be freaking out that they're trapped on an island filled with monsters, freaks, and hostile inhabitants. So yeah, this was a decent episode with some fun character moments, but nothing to get too excited about.

My Grade: B

Alright - that's all I have time for today. Back later with more!

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