A relatively quiet week for TV watching in the Rev-Views household.

Dexter:
Finally we're past the spoiler moment for Dexter, I already knew for a long time that Prado was going to get drawn into Dexter's tangled web after the news report about the knife incident mentioned saran wrap. This has impacted on my enjoyment of the show because instead of watching Prado take steps into a world that he shouldn't be involved in and sit around hoping he would pull out, I've instead been watching his slide into evil.

But, this week still managed to pull a great revelation moment that has set the scene and returned all of the tension (as Rob predicted they would over at Dan's reviews of the show). The final few episodes of Dexter promise to be pretty special.

Boston Legal:
An exceptionally unusual episode of Boston Legal this week, taking place almost entirely in Shirley and Carl's home over thanksgiving. There are no court cases, just Carl, Shirley, Denny, Edwin Poole (remember him?), his adopted son, Alan, Jerry and Katie. It's a sweet episode that has some exceptionally lovely moments for Shirley and Carl, plenty of amusing groans everytime Alan said he had something to say and an "about time" moment for Jerry. I really do feel that the quality of the show has risen greatly in this final season and I'm going to miss the show when it's gone.

Heroes:
Eclipse is the first of a two-parter in what is possibly the worst decision the show has ever made. Right now they've ruined the characterisation of their core characters so deeply that the only entertaining elements left are the powers. Now they've taken them away for the duration of this two part 'event'.

As a consequence things are exceptionally dull, short of the writers killing Claire and Peter off (which will sadly not happen any time soon) there's really nothing much to be gained from this episode beyond some half decent - but bizarre and out of character - moments for Elle and Sylar. This is a show that I'm very close to walking away from, as frankly, it's rubbish right now!

How I Met Your Mother:
This season has had a few very good episodes and then a few that are pretty flat. Fortunately for us "The Naked Man" belongs to the former category. We have every character involved in fun storylines based around Robin's latest date who likes to pull something he calls 'The Naked Man', a move that has a 2 in 3 success rate. Cue some brilliant moments for everyone, even Ted manages to be a bit less boring than normal this week.

The Shield:
It's over and this will be one of the last times I get to talk about the show (until the Season 7 DVD release, which should come out in Region 2 before Region 1 if past trends are anything to go by) but I'm still at something of a loss. The full review is over here, but there are still so many more things I'd love to say about this show. The short version is this. The Shield was the best thing that aired over this Fall season, no arguments, no disputes, that's the truth. Of course, the show will be ignored at Emmy time, but that's because the Emmys are as meaningless as popularity polls when it comes to judging what shows are actually the most well written and performed.

I digress. It was AMAZING and frankly the show is now a MUST WATCH for anyone who considers themselves an informed and tasteful watcher of TV.

Oh and the words "Family Meeting" will never sound the same again to my ears.

The IT Crowd:
I missed the first episode and a few minutes of this one (the second). I enjoy the IT Crowd because of Richard Ayoade's portrayal of Moss (I've enjoyed his work since The Mighty Boosh and Darkplace) and because I think Katherine Parkinson is lovely. The episode was fun light comedy but nothing really groundbreaking, it seems that the show is in something of a rut. Fortunately it's still fun and I honestly enjoy it. But it's not something that's ever going to be worth more than a paragraph in a review round up.


Live at the Apollo:
I managed to catch the first 'Live at the Apollo' this week by almost pure chance. It was presented by Michael McIntyre (a comedian who I first saw at the Hammersmith Apollo) and featured his own talents alongside the stylings of American comedian Rich Hall and fellow Welshman Rhod Gilbert. Michael was just brilliant, as always. Likewise Rich (who I normally see on shows like QI and Not the Nine O'Clock News, I've never seen his stand up before) was great. Rhod on the other hand was a little hard to get used to, I sat in silence for most of his gig. But I did start laughing towards the end, his style just took some adjustment on my part.

The episode is here if you wish to watch it.

In other news I've been catching up with Weeds season 2 + 3 and continuing to work on 'Watching the Wire' episode seven will be up tomorrow. Outside of TV land I've been enjoying Left 4 Dead on the 360.

That's all for this week, so if you don't mind. Lets just take a moments silence for the passing of one of the greatest TV shows of our generation.

...

The Shield.