Well, I'm struggling today, I won't lie. I'm sleep deprived, bread deprived, and my office smells weird. Yep, this is one of those days where I'm counting down to the finish line.
Yesterday afternoon, this no-good feeling hit me like a ton of bricks, and two late nights of Passover sederin' caught up with me. I was down for the count, feeling feverish, and barely made it through the long day, until I got home, collapsed on my bed, and barely moved until I finally drifted into a restless, oft-interrupted slumber.
Yep, I've got the Passover blues, and I'm not sure what will provide the cure.
At least, yesterday, I finally caught up on a little TV. Namely, the much-anticipated season finale of one of my favorites, PRISON BREAK.
- This week's PRISON BREAK season 2 finale was in many ways a huge success. It had many of the great character moments, tension, drama, and action that I've come to expect from the show, and it also had the added factor of keeping us guessing as to the outcome of the season-long plot, and what this would mean for the upcoming third season.
First of all - I hate when I hear people deride this show for being "unrealistic." The last time I checked, there was plenty of good storytelling that was anything but realistic. Do these same people deride Indiana Jones for beeing too cartoonish? Do they criticize Batman for not having realistic motivations? These are probably the same people who will go to see Grindhouse this coming weekend and claim to just not "get" it. People - a show being over the top, excessive, and having a sense of fun is not an automatic knock against it. I mean, look at shows like Kidnapped, The Black Donnellys, and others that suffered due to being overly serious, self-important, and humorless. On the other hand, shows like 24, Lost, and Prison Break capitalize on their outlandish premises by capturing just the right tone to match the circumstances - fun, melodramatic, at times self-referentially humorous. Prison Break's B-movie esque tone is pitch-perfect for what the show is. And then there is Prison Break's other great strength - it's characters. Is there another hero on TV as cool under pressure as Michael Scofield? Another antagonist as morally complex and badass as Alex Mahone? Another villain as enjoyably vile and sinister as T-Bag? Another supporting character as hilariously pathetic as Bellick? Just seeing all of these characters interact and do their thing is always a good time. And the fact the this show is willing to be so over the top makes for some crazily awesome character moments. I mean, how great is that one Company guy who only talks via writing on note cards?
That being said, the season finale was, as with the last few episodes, almost ridiculously contrived. As I've said, it's like the writers had their endgame in mind and then feverishly scrambled to align all of the pieces so that the plot would quickly come together as desired. One after another, all of our principle players end up in Panama. One after another, they are all set up to be detained in the same Panamanian jail. As if by magic, Lincoln is exonerated of all his crimes (what about all the crimes he committed AFTER escaping from jail?) and within minutes, seemingly, a free man - and yet, just as quickly, he and Michael are fugitives, because they, what, killed an evil Company henchman in self-defense? And suddenly, these nationally-known public figures are reduced to running from a bunch of soldiers through the Panamanian jungle? As much as I admire the show's willingness to play fast and loose with logic, this was a bit much.
And yet still, this episode was a hell of a ride. From Michael's set-up of Mahone to Bellick and T-Bag scheming in prison, to Kellerman's apparent death - a ton of great, memorable moments were contained in this ep. The ending, while predictable, was suitably ominous and creepy, hammering home the idea that Fox River penitentiary was nothin' compared to Panama's anarchic, Sodom-and-Gomorah-esque hellhole of a prison. And what's with all these weird scientists and whatnot talking in hushed tones about Scofield? Is Prison Break about to get all scifi on us or something? In any case, I'm definitely intrigued, and can't wait for next season. This is good stuff, and continues to be one of TV's great, often underrated action-packed hours.
My Grade: A -
- Still haven't had a chance to watch Monday's 24 - I may hold off on that one until next week and treat myself to a Jack Bauer double hour of power ...
- On last night's LOST ...
Well, it was a decent episode, but nowhere near as good as the last few episodes that centered on Jack, Kate, Juliette, Locke, and The Others. This was one of those trademark Lost episodes where the ambiguity was laid on so thick that rather than making things intriguing, it simply left me annoyed and frustrated at the writer's cheap tactics. I mean, at first I was intrigued that Juliette seemed never to have seen or heard of the Smoke Monster. But then it turned out she was lying, and had manipulated Kate all along. But ... why exactly? This was yet another episode where totally obvious questions were ignored in favor of completely forced interpersonal drama. Juliette, for example, tells Kate all the facts and statistics she knows about Jack - isn't Kate curious HOW she knows all these things? Later, Jack insists that Juliette comes to the Tailie's camp despite Kate and Sawyer's suspicions. Doesn't Kate now have EVERY reason to believe that Juliette is simply manipulating them all once again? And yet she says nothing to Jack? And speaking of oddities ... okay, I get that with her sketchy past, Kate may have picked up a bit of fighting skill or whatever ... but suddenly mousy Juliette is a kung-fu master? Ummm ... yeah, okaaaaaay. Overall, the whole Kate - Juliette interaction did nothing but create forced tension between the two over Jack, at a time when a barely-existant love triangle should have been the last things on their minds. I mean, Kate is handcuffed to a bonafide Other and asks nothing except "Did Jack really say that?" I hate when Lost employs this kind of lazy, half-assed writing, much of which seemed little more than an excuse to pit Kate against Juliette in a wet t-shirt pier-six brawl catfight (not that I'm complaining, per se). Meanwhile, we get a totally sappy Sawyer-lite subplot that basically reduces this once-villainous character into a big ol' softie. And of course Sawyer's good deeds led to yet another cringe-worthy island montage wehre we see all the typical shots of Claire cradling her baby, people eating around the campfire, and Sawyer staring introspectively into the night sky. Laaaaaaaaaame. As for the flashacks - not bad, pretty decent, but once again, did we really need them? Another very non-essential backstory that felt needlessly tacked on out of obligation to uphold the usual format. There's a lot of interesting stuff going on here in the background, but the writers need to keep the important stuff front and center and let all the character drama happen organically. After a few weeks of insanely high quality, this ep reminded me of why I've gotten so frustrated with this show before.
My Grade: C+
- Alright, I'm out, counting down to the weekend. Back at ya' soon with more.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment