Over the past week I've spent just over nine hours catching up with the third season of the Glenn Close tour de force that is Damages. As I mentioned previously I have a great deal of respect and enjoyment for the first season, but I felt that the second season - despite some excellent performances from the cast - wobbled more than a few times and came dangerously close to falling over thanks to weak plotting and poor editing choices.

It wasn't a deal breaker, but I was concerned that the third season would also suffer from similar issues.

Spoilers, it doesn't. In fact it's everything the second season wanted to be and more. Damages continues with it's own indomitable style; strong female leads, non-linear plotting, twist revelations, shocks and high stakes in the world surrounding the law courts.

This time the show focuses on the Tobin family, who are involved in a ponzi scheme that has bankrupted everyone who was involved in it. Patty Hewes (Glenn Close) and Tom Shays (Tate Donovan) are given the task of recovering the money for the various victims while Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne), now working for the DA's office, is involved in the criminal side of the investigation.

Sadly the adorable Anastasia Griffith does not return as Katie Conners, but Ted Danson does as Arthur Frobisher, and he's not the only familiar face who graces our screens as the plot moves along by touching on events from the past. There's also a host of superb guest stars, including Campbell Scott, Martin Short, Len Cariou and my all time favourite actress Tara Summers - who I can unashamedly say is utterly brilliant in every moment she is on screen.

Performances are throughout, superb, in particular I have to praise Rose Byrne - who previously has struggled to bring any real emotion or rounded characterisation to her performance as Ellen Parsons, something I've often felt was caused by her need to maintain a US accent (she's from Australia). She's more comfortable with the new, slightly evolved, Ellen - and she's able to play someone who's learnt about the manipulation game from the best. Yes, that's right - Ellen is becoming a schemer of epic proportions in her own right, a much warranted and superb development for the character. In fact, every core character gets some deserved character development, we delve further into Patty's past while also gaining a broader perspective on both Ellen and Tom's lives.

The third season of Damages is everything you've come to expect from the show; it's dark, exciting and clever with strong characterisation layered on top of a plot so twisted you might as well call it a pretzel. It's one of the current cream of the crop drama shows out there and it's one of the few running a genuinely serialised plot over it's thirteen episodes. In fact the serialised nature of the show makes it a better experience on DVD than when it's shown weekly, you can dive into the murky depths of Patty's world and only come up for air when you choose to. As such I can highly recommend picking up a copy of the boxed set and settling down to enjoy a dark tale of deception, embezzlement, lies, fraud and more than a few murders. It's Damages and it's great.


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For a review of the first season go here. Be warned there will be spoilers about events from the first season in this review.

Damages had a first season with an exceptionally unique style of show, I personally appreciated the ambiguity in characters, their goals and personalities not being a clear cut case of Good/Evil but having instead greyer shades. Yes, by the end of the season we had clearly defined villains and a heroine but the journey there was far from straightforward and the last episode of the season is one of my favourite episodes of all time.

The second season then needed to build on the original season's style by evolving its use of non-linear narrative and ambiguous characterisation without straying too far from the format. It's a tall order, because if the season just re-treads old ground you'd end up with something that doesn't engage and if you deviate from the established format you risk losing established viewers. Not an easy line to walk.

So, Damages brings in more big names capable of fantastic performances - joining the returning cast of Glenn Close, Rose Byrne, Tate Donovan, Anastasia Griffith and Ted Danson we get the fantastic selection of William Hurt (A History of Violence, Dark City and so much more), Timothy Olyphant (Deadwood), Marcia Gay Harden (Royal Pains), John Doman (The Wire) and Clarke Peters (The Wire, Treme). A huge wadge of quality talent descending onto our screens and promising great performances.

Following on from the fantastic season finale the second season sees Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) now cooperating with the FBI in an investigation into Patty Hewes (Glenn Close). Ellen naturally has good reason to be involved in this after Patty attempted to have Ellen murdered. Ellen is not only using her position to investigate Patty, she's also maneuvering to expose Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson) as the man behind the murder of David Conner, Ellen's fiancé. Ellen has plenty of reasons to remain close to Patty at this time.

Just like the previous season the show is divided into a past storyline that builds up towards the shocking present 'teaser' storyline. The 'teaser' storyline in this case initially opens with Ellen pointing a gun at an unknown person or persons and talking before pulling the trigger twice. It's a marked change from the Ellen of the first season and the film noir undertones of the scene are nicely played. As before, the past storyline pushes forward towards the teaser while the teaser expands on events and gradually reveals more of the situation to raise more questions for the viewer. It was an exeptionally effective ploy in the first season, but if I'm honest it's not as well done here - the performances from the actors are superb, but the editing is very ham-fisted, in particular the music used for certain moments is completely mood breaking.

In all, despite the superb cast, the second season is not as strong as the first one - watching it on DVD was a superior experience to watching it 'live' (one episode per week), just like the first season Damages is a show better watched in bursts rather than one part at a time, but the second season shows a poor choice of direction by the editing and directing staff. It's rare that a superb cast cannot overcome technical and plotting issues, but in the case of the second season of Damages it has happened. Fortunately I'm now watching the third season on DVD and I can say that many of the problems and issues the second season has are resolved.

So Damages Season Two is something that needs to be taken at value, yes it has flaws, yes it is not as good as the first season, but it is an enjoyable experience and it is most certainly worth watching.
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Damages was one of those shows that crept up on my radar after I discovered that Glenn Close and Ted Danson were appearing in it. Both actors who have exceptional pedigres on screen, I had most recently enjoyed Glenn Close's performance in the fourth season of "The Shield" and Ted Danson was, of course, fan-flipping-tastic in "Cheers" back in the day, so I was keen to see how he'd perform in a serious drama.

The show focuses around the dynamic between titanic lawyer Patty Hewes (Glenn Close), a young associate named Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) and their class action lawsuit against the wealthy Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson). Frobisher is accused of lying to his employees and attempting to profit from insider trading.

The series is most notable for it's unusual use of time, the vast majority of the show's scenes are set in the past - with only a few key scenes being set in the present time. These present day scenes are used as 'shocking' teasers designed to raise questions for the viewer while also teasing unthinkable events and placing characters in bizarre situations. It's an interesting concept that demonstrates just how important the journey can be when you're understanding how someone got there, not entirely original in the media of film (Memento being the classic example for playing with time and the perception of it).

Patty Hewes is a sharp, dangerous litgator at the top of her game, she's aided by her right hand man - Tom Shayes (Tate Donovan) and her Uncle Pete. As time passes Patty comes to allow the young Ellen Parsons further and further into her business and her life, with events that suggest (given the unusual timeline in the show) a bad end for Ellen and her fiance David Conner (Noah Bean).

Damages is an intense, fun ride of a show through a twisty plot that barely enters the courtroom at all. It's somewhat surprising at first, but despite being a legal drama very little of the action takes place in the courts. The show instead looks at the surrounding work involved in building a case, especially when dealing with someone as powerful, clever and duplicitous as someone like Patty Hewes. The show racks up the tension with every passing moment and thanks to clever dialog and brilliant characterisation it works beautifully. Cumulating in a stunning season finale that brings everything to a head, answering the questions you will have had along the way and then leaving you wanting more while wondering 'what's next for these characters?'

Particular praise must be lumped onto Glenn Close, her performance is key to the show and she really excels in the role. Damages came into being after her appearance in The Shield's 4th season and I think it is fair to say her observations and experiences near Michael Chiklis's blistering (and career defining) portrayal of Detective Vic Mackey have had some influence on Patty Hewes. At times she manages to display the same duality of purpose and even on occasion she holds similar facial expressions to Vic's. This is not to take anything away from Glenn herself, she's an accomplished and quite brilliant bunny boiler - but like any great actor she's capable of cribbing from others and improving on her game.

Ted Danson is likewise fantastic, his performance as Arthur Frobisher is a long leap from the bartender Sam but he handles it with aplomb and poise. He walks a fine line between being a detestable cartoon villain and being a reasonable (if unpleasant) human being with understandable objectives and believable motives. I know Frobisher is one of the outright bad guys of the piece (being the target of the class action suit etc etc), but I still can't help but appreciate the guy.

One of my favourite cast members is Anastasia Griffith whom I think is just wonderful as Katie Conner, but the powerhouse performances come from Glenn Close, Ted Danson and the brilliant Zeljko Ivanek (as Ray Fisk). Zeljko in particular is a favourite of mine from the superb 1990s show Homicide: Life on the Street and I'm thrilled to say he's as good in Damages as he was in that show, but it's hardly surprising as Zeljko tends to be superb whenever he's on screen.

In fact the only cast member I'd say feels a little out of her depth is Rose Byrne, she's adequate as Ellen - but at times her performance is a little wooden. As she's often in a reactive role this isn't too bad to deal with, but occasionally I do find myself feeling unengaged with her character because of it. I'm not sure if this is an intentional performance or just caused by a lack of experience as a leading character in a TV series, but it is a shame at times.

This minor grip aside, the first season of Damages is a whistle stop tour of a story told through time, space and the world of lawyers. It's an awesome experience that will get the blood rising and leave you wanting more.

It also has one of the best (and most appropriate) TV Themes of all time. So what are you waiting for? Hurry up and check out the first season of Damages, otherwise - by the time I'm through with you, there won't be anything left!



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I recently renewed my aquantience with the wonderful drama/suspense/twisty experience that is Damages by rewatching the first season of the show and finally catching up with the entire of the second season. With the third season coming out in the UK on the 18th of October I've decided to spend several posts this week looking at the show and why it's a great piece of television that any consumer of great drama should be watching.

The schedule is to look at the show as a whole and what makes it great, then look at the first two season boxed sets in turn. Hopefully by the end of it there is at least one person who decides the show is worth a spin, because it's a brilliant creation.
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I missed the actual date for my blog's birthday this year... Oops. It was actually the 27th of September 2007 when I started writing on here.

This year has been a reasonable year for television, not amazing if I'm honest - most of the existing shows I've watched have either been pretty OK (but nothing to go nuts about), or fallen by the wayside and been placed as "to catch up with on DVD". Only "Mad Men" has managed to stand tall, but Boardwalk Empire looks full of promise and I'm hoping it'll

But as for new shows, the world of DVDs has been most kind to me this year. Thanks to Dan Owen of Dan's Media Digest I discovered "In Treatment", thanks to my father I found "Mongrels", thanks to my sister I learned to enjoy "The Inbetweeners", thanks to Aaron of Snark and Fury I rediscovered "Robot Chicken", thanks to Lucia of Heroine TV I've started to watch "My So Called Life" and thanks to my random 'I'll have this' purchases in local stores (impulse buys trump internet purchases for me every time) I introduced myself to "Samantha Who", "Frisky Dingo", "Freaks and Geeks", "Wonderfalls" and "Better Off Ted".

Highlights of the year outside of the DVD spectrum include this year's Doctor Who (which I reviewed over at TV Geek Army) which was a triumphant urination on the head of Rusty's offerings from the years previous, writing for TVGA (I'll be reviewing Sons of Anarchy for them every Sunday) and podcasting for the first time with Lucia (Heroine TV).

I'm hoping in this upcoming year to do a couple of podcasts of my own, write some more guest reviews for other sites (just ask if you're interested, I have time to do a fortnightly slot for sure!) and catch up on some seriously great shows!
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The second (and concluding) part of my podcast with Lucia of Heroine TV is now up on her site (here). We tackle shows like Frisky Dingo, Dollhouse, Pushing Daisies, Drive, Terminator, Better Off Ted amongst others; and we totally do not talk about Arrested Development (honest!)

It's around the three and a half hour mark as we got a little carried away. Enjoy!
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No full update today, instead there's a link to my first ever podcast which I did in concert with Lucia of Heroine TV.

This is the first of a two part show and in it we discuss Firefly, Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me, Joan of Arcadia, Jack and Bobby, My-So-Called-Life and Darkplace. We also touch on why Star Wars makes me feel a little sad inside and what happened the last time I watched Star Wars: A New Hope (back in 2005).

The podcast can be heard here. Enjoy and feel free to comment over at Heroine TV on it.
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Mongrels is a strange beast of a show to try and describe, it was initially recommended to me by my father - a lover of the following categories of shows Science Fiction, British Sitcoms, Documentaries and "sick" comedy (and probably others, but these seem to be the types he recommends to me). There's a fair amount of crossover between the shows we enjoy, so it's always enough for me to check out a show he's recommended.

To quote here's the recommendation I got from him with Mongrels "You've got to see Mongrels, it's this sick show about animal puppets. Really funny, but disgusting as well."

My curiosity was peaked enough to give one episode a try on the BBC iPlayer and I enjoyed it enough to pick up the entire first season on DVD.

I think you can encapsulate the essence of Mongrels with the following description; it's an adult orientated sitcom in the vein of the Muppet Show. It centres around five animals who live in (or near) the back yard of a pub. There's Nelson (voiced by Rufus Jones), a metrosexual fox and the slightly neurotic lead of the show; his best friend Marion (Daniel Tetsell), a stray cat of an indeterminate origion who is best described as being - off the wall and easily persuaded into bizzare acts. Nelson has a crush on Destiny (the beautiful and hilarious Lucy Montgomery -
whos performances here, in The IT Crowd and "The Armstrong and Miller Show" contines the trend of my favourite actresses being called Lucy - she's now in the Lucy Hall of Fame along with alltime favourite Lucy Porter) an beautiful afgan of questionable intelligence; Vince (Paul Kaye) a proper fox and general hard case; and Kali (Katy Brand) who is best described as a chav pidgeon with ideas well above her station. They're joined by Gary (Tony Way), Destiny's owner - who barely interacts with any of them apart from Destiny, existing as the token human in the show, while the animals can talk with each other, they cannot communicate in a meaningful and direct fashion with Gary (though they can communicate with other humans, it depends on the situation).

Visually the show is quite a treat, the puppets are distinctive and well put together, this combined with the superb voice acting and talented puppetering brings the show to life and is quite capable of imersing the viewer to the point that you forget that you're watching puppets. The stories are outlandish and deal with a range of "taboo" subjects including genocide, incest, murder, castration/neutering, forced "bum love", inter-species fornication and much more besides. Mongrels is a show that considers no subject too sensitive to lampoon and it gets away with it thanks to the inhuman appearance of its cast and the obviously "non-serious" intent of the show. It's there to make you laugh, maybe make you feel a little queesy and entertain you at the same time.

Mongrels is not a show to everyone's taste; it's often crude, low-brow and at times downright unpleasant, but it is also - most importantly - exceptionally hilarious and the DVD of the first series represents exceptional value. Two opposable thumbs up!
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Originally I wanted to write about just Dragonchasers, it's an episode worthy of a review/analysis all by itself, but my previous entry in the Urban Jungle series didn't include the episode Throwaway, so initially I'm going to write a little about that episode before moving onto Dragonchasers - the most important episode of the first season after the pilot episode.

Throwaway is the first episode that has the Strike Team dealing with a mess that isn't created by Shane, in this case it's Lem's **** up, shooting a man who turned out to be both a) unarmed, b) completely innocent and c) brother to a hot latina hairdresser. He shoots the man because he believes that he's armed with a gun and about to shoot Vic; this is the start of the pattern for Lem, he tends to get into trouble when he's protecting the people he cares about. In this case it's Vic, the man Lem considers to be something of a brother and a father figure. Lem himself has little family outside of the Strike Team and as such more than any of the others he considers the guys to be his family.

It is also the first episode to give Claudette (side note: Claudette was originally scripted to be a man, C.H. Pounder's performance convinced Shawn Ryan to change the characters gender with minimal other changes - one of the reasons Claudette is the strongest female personality on the show by a long margin, she's given the dominant role in the Claudette/Dutch relationship). It's also the moment where the Julien/Danny rift comes to a head, only resolved when Acevada himself steps in and breaks their heads against each other (figuratively) to force a resolution to the situation. For these two this is something of a turning point, the episode allows them to move forward and cements the foundation of a strong working and personal relationship. Julien and Danny working together is an important part of the show, they're often required to provide the story that contrasts with the Strike Team's high energy acts and Dutch and Claudette's tendency to journey in really dark places.

Mix into this a fantastic heist/set up performed by the Strike Team and Throwaway is a solid episode that works well and develops some of less well developed characters somewhat. Learning more about Claudette, especially Dutch's reactions towards her father, is welcome and entertaining; likewise having Julien and Danny come to some form of balance in their relationship as trainer/trainee is very important as it sets up one of the key elements in the following episode.

Dragonchasers is one of the episodes of The Shield where I experienced a television revelation, the very first episode was, of course, Pilot which stepped over the line of what was considered acceptable to show on television by having the lead character murder a fellow police officer at the culmination of it. As I've mentioned in earlier posts, The Shield then takes some time to distance itself from the pilot episode showing the return to normal that occurs after a fellow officer is killed on the job. Now, you'd be forgiven if you thought that considering the fact that Terry was murdered was going to be a large part of the shows initial thrust, but the truth of the matter here is that with only two people knowing the truth and a solid cover up clearing the evidence for every character in the show Terry's death looks exactly like it does on the surface - the bust went bad, Terry got killed. Police Officers die in the line of duty, everyone at the station knows that is a fact and they've all experienced it before - so they move on and back to the daily grind.

I've digressed, so I'll return to Dragonchasers and why it is the second episode in The Shield that changed the way I perceive television and raised the bar for what I accept as good story writing. Dragonchasers contains two monumental story lines in it, but for the first time neither one belongs to the Strike Team - instead the storys revolve around Julien and Dutch.

Up until this point in the series I considered Dutch to be little more than light relief and Julien to be a secondary character. Julien's antagonistic relationship with Danny (and being set against Vic for a while) made it difficult to access him as a character and Dutch for a long time had little more in the way of defining characteristics outside of "stereotypical nerd-cop".

Dragonchasers changes the game for both of them, for Julien the episode brings together his conflicted and angry emotions about being gay along with his new found resolve to do right by his patrol partner Danny. After a transvestite (played by Jazzmun) bites Danny (attempting to give her HIV - which he blames the police force for) Julien eventually agrees to throw the perp a 'blanket party' - a savage tradition where the perp is covered under a blanket in the back of a police van and then beaten with nightsticks. Julien not only cuts loose here, but his conflicted emotions over his own sexuality (and his commonly misguided notion that transvestites are the same as homosexuals in general) results in his turning the perp into himself in his mind. The resulting violence is exceptionally harsh, while the scene doesn't play out in graphic detail, the damage caused by the beating (as described by Danny) show just how far Julien went over the edge.

The real meaty story though belongs to Dutch, bringing to a head the 'face down' serial killer mini-arc, the initial thrust occurs when Julien and Danny happen upon a man masturbating in an alley - they let him go with a warning, but when mentioning the anecdote to Dutch he makes a connection most wouldn't. The man was jerking off near where one of the serial killings occurred (or at least where the body was dumped), this fits with the profile he was considering for the killer.

After first scoping Sean (the suspect) out Dutch has him come in, not to charge him with anything, but to sound him out and try to see if the man has any levers he can push. What follows is a tour-de-force performance from both Jay Karnes and Michael Kelly (as Sean), Dutch is quite literally broken apart by the intuitive and merciless Sean who disassembled every part of Dutch's personality in an exceptional level of mental bullying and showboating. Dutch himself sits there, trying to regain purchase and being humiliated - this humiliation is compounded even further when the rest of the station start watching Sean's performance for their own entertainment. You're left wondering why on Earth Dutch is willing to sit there and take this kind of abuse, is his obsession with finding the serial killer that large? Is he so desperate that he'll put up with anything to achieve this?

The revelation comes in the eleventh hour, when (watched by almost the entire force via CCTV) Dutch admits that he only took this tirade of abuse and humiliation with the intent of buying time to get a search warrant for both Sean's house and his aunt's. Once found out Sean soon changes track, admitting to everything and laying claim to his body count. The rest of the force watch as Dutch nails Sean and bags himself one serious serial killer - he walks out of the interview room to the sound of applause from his fellow officers. All of them are impressed with what Dutch did.

This just makes the closing scene of Dragonchasers all the more poignant, Dutch - still being congratulated - heads to his car and sits down inside before breaking down in tears. He may have scored a decisive victory (not just for Sean's victims, the public and the law in general, but also for himself and his status in the station), but Sean's attacks and how close they cut to the truth of Dutch's life, took their toll on him. Dutch may stand victorious but was it worth the price?

This entire storyline is amongst one of the best that Dutch and Claudette have, it's a great piece that portrays a lot about a man without needing to spell it out in a simplistic and 'dumbed down' fashion. Dutch doesn't need to vocalise his pain, it's all there for you to see in his actions and expressions.

Quite frankly it's a stunning performance and that's why Dragonchasers is one of the best episodes of The Shield (and possibly one of the best procedural episodes in the genre, it's certainly in a similar league to Homicide's Three Men and Adena).
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I recently got my Wii set back up and it's now become my standalone BBC iPlayer. I suppose I could use it for other things, but I can't really figure out what else it would be any use for (having grown tired of the balance board that came with it). Fortunately for me the BBC iPlayer works pretty well on it and as such I've been using it to explore the various BBC programs that are on offer. On Demand viewing is pretty much my preferred viewing method these days, I don't want to be tied to watching the television at a fixed day and time, I want television to suit my lifestyle and my choices. If I want to go out for a cycle or an impromptu gathering I don't want to go through the hassle of having to remember to record any shows I miss.

Sure, I could set up series links and what have you, but again that doesn't suit my temperament. I prefer to look at a list of shows and pick one to watch immediately rather than draw up a list of shows that I want to record in order to watch at some point. I can now dip in and out of shows, taking a chance on things like Cowards, Mongrels (more on this one next week for sure) and returning to shows such as My Family and Armstrong & Miller whenever I feel like it.

This is how I came across the BBC 2 show Vexed; something about its entry in the comedy section of the iPlayer made me decide to click the play button. I'm pretty sure it wasn't the synopsis provided - "Police detectives Jack and Kate have very different approaches to the job and life in general. In fact they disagree on everything" - that just sounds, well bloody awful. And I know it wasn't the cast - I've never heard of Lucy Punch, Toby Stephens, Ronny Jhutti, Roger Griffiths or Rory Kinnear before and looking at their imdb entries it's not really surprising - none of them have performed any monumental roles, though they've all appeared in episodes of shows I have watched.

Vexed is best described as a comedy/drama/police procedural with an irrelevant sense of humour. It's a mild spin on the old cop buddy format with two somewhat disparate partners pushed together - in this case you have the talented and dedicated but somewhat neurotic DI Kate (Lucy Punch) partnered up with a man who seems to be permanently stuck in the 1970s with his misogynistic, womanising, lazy, cut corners attitude - DI Jack (Toby Stephens). It's an old formula and while it's not really a stretch for a show to partner a woman with a misogynistic pig it is one that works. The relationship provides a lot of bounce between the characters (as long as the man isn't too much of a tw*t).

Vexed has just three episodes at this time and with its production company Greenlit Right Productions in administration (or greenlit for termination as The Shield would have it), it's hard to say if there will be any more episodes - especially given the mixed critical reaction. I know that Dan of Dan's Media Digest had a rather adverse reaction when I tweeted about liking Vexed - I believe he threatened to unfollow me! Certainly many critics and reviewers have had negative things to say about the show, in particular about Toby's performance as Jack.

But frankly I disagree, I felt the show had a certain charm from a police based television series that I hadn't seen since Police Squad - Vexed is certainly grounded more in reality than Police Squad was, but DI Jack has a Frank Drebin feel to him - an ironically charged, ham-fisted performance that is over the top - but it's still pretty darn hilarious to watch him in the same way it's hilarious to watch Frank over act in every single scene. He's supposed to be charming and great with the ladies, but instead he tends to come across as ignorant, useless and piggishly chauvinistic and I think we all know those are traits that some women are drawn to like moths to flame. (I said some ladies, I didn't mean you of course!)

Lucy Punch's performance as Kate is the more grounded of the two performances, she's a lot of fun - a mix of a strong woman combined with a neurotic wife desperate to keep her home life together. She's the smarter of the pair by a long margin and tends to use her head in problematic situations - Jack instead seems to rely on a mix of intuition and dumb luck, he's a man who can't remember how to plant a tracking device properly, carries a gun without training (and then loses it) and electronically stalks women to pick them up. An awful piece of work if you met him in real life, but pretty darn hilarious on screen.

It is more than likely that Vexed won't have any more episodes after the third one, the combination of critical panning and the large factor of the production company being in administration seems the right mix to result in it being killed off before it has a chance to develop and that's a shame in my opinion, because there's a lot right about Vexed. It's something different enough to get my interest and it's one of the few new British shows that I found myself enjoying - it's energetic, crude, offensive and born in a timeless fashion that makes it feel like it would be just as much at home in the 1970s or 80s as it is in this day and age.

The three episodes that have been recorded cover a trio of cases - the first involves a serial killer hunting single women, the second a depressed banker under threat of assassination (in a rehabilitation clinic) and the kidnapping of Gemma G - a member of a girl band. Each episode is 60 minutes long and self contained.

In all I'd say you should consider giving Vexed a try, it's an uneven show that is in its infancy but there are times where the dialog and characters shine out with sheer genius and show what it could grow into. Jack/Toby and Kate/Lucy have some solid on screen chemistry that bubbles up in exceptional ways at times, especially when they are dealing with Jack's general incompetence. It's a fun show and something a little different - so spend three hours of your time and give it a go. I'm glad I did.
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I recently watched and wrote about the first season of Frisky Dingo, a mad cap jaunt through the world of a supervillain named Killface and his newly acquired nemesis Awesome X (aka Xander Crews). Frisky Dingo is one of those shows you just have to watch to properly understand the brilliance of the show; it's energetic, funny, clever and frat house stupid all at the same time.

The second (and final) season picks up a short time after the cliffhanger ending of the first season, in an act of teenage rebellion Simon activated the Annihilatrix despite his father's plea not to do so. (un)Surprisingly the world was not plunged into the Sun, instead it was moved a short distance further away from the Sun, thus providing a solution to global warming.

Killface decides to take advantage of this gain in public opinion by running for President, something that the now destitute Xander Crews finds out about and decides to foil - if only he had the resources that is. Ka-Kow!

Much like the original season, Frisky Dingo 2.0 continues to develop and evolve both it's storyline and its characters, often in unexpected directions. This is, of course, a fresh and welcome change when compared to the format of many other cartoons (and indeed sitcoms), normally every story is, as you well know, self contained in a single episode. Frisky Dingo flaunts this by having each episode be a part of what came before, the ongoing storyline has some benefits and some disadvantages. It does manage to provide a narrative that you become invested in, it also gives you a wild ride that twists off to utterly unexpected places - it's only when you stop and take stock do you think "how on Earth did the story get to this point?" But, it also means that the show is almost completely inaccessable to anyone who hasn't watched it from the beginning. Events occurr on screen that make no sense when taken out of the context of the entire show and I believe that's at least one thing which contributed to the show's cancellation (and might also explain why it's spiritual successor 'Archer' has self contained episodes).

The first season of Frisky Dingo was a parody of current events, pop culture and the super hero genre. The second season retains this, but evolves it further by providing a strong parody of the US political structure. Killface, a viciously sociopathic individual 'cured' global warming - so he becomes the Democratic candidate; Crews on the other hand is a rich, decadent individual who lives almost completely alienated from normal society due to his bizzare isolation due to wealth - so naturally he's the Republican candidate. The pair are both moronic, have terrible habits and have no idea how to act like decent human beings (or even be one in Killface's instance).

Still, they push on - Killface supported by running mate (and rapper) Taqu'il, campaign manager Valerie and global warming poster child, the awesome penguine Baby Lamont. Xander supported by his wealth and Stan - his attempts to recruit a running mate prove a little... difficult to achieve.

Frisky Dingo was (and is) a shining example of how surreal and yet fantastic comedy can be. The ten minute episode structure the show follows really helps - much like it does in Harvey Birdman - there's no padding out of scenes, it's just plot, set up, gag, resolution - onto the next scene! This makes the show feel a lot longer than it is and absolutely packed to the (crab) gills with just about everything you could want from a comedy show with a sick sense of humour.

All that said, if still you're unsure about trying the show, perhaps this collection of clips from the show will help.

Second thought, that'll probably confuse you further, so let me try this angle instead.

Buy Frisky Dingo, it's the true American way. BOOSH!
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Starring:
Woody Harrelson
Elias Koteas
Michael Kelly
Sandra Oh
Kat Dennings
and Clark Johnson

The superhero genre is riding on a fair high at the moment, with the Marvel and DC heroes all making appearances in their respective films, films that range from the awesome (Hulk, X-Men: The Last Stand) to the truly awful (The Dark Knight, Spider-Man 2) - wait, did I get that the right way round?

These films tend to cover exceptional individuals gifted with abilities that set them apart from the norm, Spider-Man has some kind of genetic ju-ju that powers his physical strength and then another suit that turns him into an Emo.


Superman on the other hand has a whole range of abilities, the core of which is being a colossal jerk and even 'ordinary man' Bruce Wayne has the super power of being mega ridiculously rich.

But, if you span back far enough you reach a different kind of superhero film, I of course refer to the most excellent Mystery Men. A film that deals with a lower key kind of superhero, those one step above 'the man on the street'.

Well the Canadian born movie Defendor has echoes of Mystery Men in it's construction, and along with it's showboating compatriot Kick-Ass the film deals with a more honest form of superhero, a man who has nothing more than his natural abilities as a human, marbles, wasps and a whole lot of heart.

Woody Harrelson stars as the titular Defendor/Arthur Poppington, a kind hearted but slow man by day and a masked vigilante by night. Defendor uses a catapult, marbles, jars of wasps and his grandfather's trench club in his tireless search for 'Captain Industry', the man who killed his mother.

Despite the subject matter of costumed avengers Defendor is an exceptionally low key movie, Arthur casts a stark contrast when compared against any of the more typical superheroes. He's a below average man of limited intellect who dons the persona of Defendor as a way of escaping from himself. His optimism and determination are pretty much all that keeps him going out onto the streets time and time again. There's no high level heroics, there's no dodging of bullets, there's just one very ordinary man doing extra ordinary things.

Comparisons to Kick-Ass are pretty much inevitable when you're looking at Defendor, but I honestly prefer Defendor. Kick-Ass is a film that may have originally had some real intent behind it's message (maybe), but Defendor wins out due to it's exceptional heart, sad story of a lonely man seeking to connect with a world that looks down on him and the powerhouse performance that Woody Harrelson brings to the screen.

Woody is no stranger to playing "lesser intellect" characters, as he's often taken the role of the below average man in the past, but this takes nothing away from his time on screen as Arthur/Defendor. He delivers a scorchingly painful performance that is both touching and funny. It would be easy to make Arthur seem like a character worthy of nothing more than comedic effect and pity, but Woody rounds out Arthur and makes you engage with him as a human being.

As the story unfolds Defendor meets a prostitute (Kat Dennings), who draws him into a conflict by revealing the location of Captain Industry. He spends time interacting with the always awesome Clark Johnson (Police Captain Fairbanks), hunting after and tangling with a rogue police officer (Elias Koteas) and being interviewed by a psychiatric (Sandra Oh) after he assaults a man in broad daylight. Defendor has his share of successes and failures during the course of the movie, nothing comes easy to him but he shines out as much as he falls behind.

Defendor is an exceptional movie with a great deal going for it. It's able to make you laugh and feel sad at the same time, it can engage you both viscerally and intellectually and it has a meaningful story with a real point to it. Add to this the driving powerhouse that is Woody's performance and you have an enjoyable movie that will stay with you after it has finished.
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The middle stretch of The Shield's first season is an interesting selection of stories. They establish just about everything you need to know about all of the core characters and their motivations. Dawg Days is a rather fun episode that demonstrates how difficult it can be for a police officer to work as the "landlord" to drug dealers, things get out of hand when one of Vic's "informants" Rondell Robinson opens fire at a party where Lem and Danny are both moonlighting security. Lem knows to keep his mouth shut about Rondell's involvement but Danny - as a good, straight cop - implicates him. This results in Vic having to call in some favours with Danny, playing on the intimate relationship between them to get Rondell out of trouble. Dawg Days is also notable as the first appearance of the character Kern Little (played by " Sticky Fingaz") Kern will make multiple appearances in many seasons and remain important to Vic for a long time. His introduction here is particulary memorable, mostly due to his exit from the storage container near the end of the episode.

Blowback can seem less important on the first viewing, but it's actually one of the major start points for the show - the introduction of the Armenian gangster/foot fetishist Margos Dezerian (played by Katey Sagal's husband Kurt Sutter creator of The Shield's sister show Sons of Anarchy), "The Dezerian" and his Armenian cohorts eventually grow to be major parts of the show, especially in seasons 2, 3 and 7. Dezerian himself would go on to make just three appearances, but he remains one of the most memorable criminals of the show and the Armenians themselves eventually became one of the greatest potential threats to Vic and his boys.

It also helps that Margos is one heck of a creepy character. Blowback is also one of the episodes where the Strike Team come close to exposing themselves after they steal two bricks of heroin from the Armenian bust but are seen doing so by Julien. The interplay between Julien, Acevada and Vic continues throughout the entire run of these episodes, ending in Cupid and Psycho when Vic blackmails Julien into changing his story.

Cherrypoppers is a journey into one of the sickest stories The Shield ever touches on, dealing with a ring of people involved in 'Cherrypopper' movies - films that involve young girls and lets just leave it at that. The Shield often attempts to move Vic towards the role of protagonist by having the people he's set against seeming far worse than he is. Cherrypoppers is one of those episodes (like the pilot) dealing with sexual predators hunting after and abusing young girls. It's a primal form of manipulation but it does work well, you have to understand that many people eventually 'forgot' just how dark, twisted and criminal Vic actually was. In the end some of them even began to mistakenly think of Vic as a 'hero' rather than the cop killing, brutal drug lord with a badge that he was.

Shane's racism, which was touched upon back in The Spread, flares up in a more prominent fashion during Pay in Pain, as mentioned earlier Shane's racist attitudes would often become a major problem for the Strike Team, especially for Vic. Vic doesn't care what skin colour someone is, he only cares if they're an asset or a threat to him, so Shane's "un-business-like" (and frankly backward) attitudes towards non-Caucasians is a problem. The general Strike Team attitude is 'doesn't matter where you're from if your money is green and plentiful', so Shane is a problem. Of course, Shane being a problem is something of a reoccurring issue in The Shield and Pay in Pain is not the last time it will surface.

Julien continues to struggle with his homosexuality, something that stands at odds with both his spiritual life and his work one. He's drawn to Thomas, but he's also repulsed by who he is and he's deathly afraid of being discovered by his colleagues. The police force is (as we're reminded by Danny) a brotherhood, and there's quite a few things that can get you ostracised from it, being a rat or being gay are two of them. Julien has managed to be both of these and it's Cupid & Psycho where these two issues come together - in the hands of Vic Mackey.

But Vic continues with the information in the way he always does, it's a tool to be used. He actually doesn't care that Julien is gay, not one bit - but it is a lever he can use to get Julien to drop his testimony against the Strike Team on the drugs, he plays a fantastic game and pushes Julien all the way to recanting - no matter the consequences. Afterwards Vic turns it on it's head by suggesting that Julien 'did Vic a favour' and now Vic has his back. It's a classic case of manipulation and Vic won't go telling people that Julien is gay as long as Julien isn't a threat to him. Vic even goes as far as to consider Julien a 'buddy' now that he has control of him.

It's a just another example in the way that Vic manipulates people and uses them as resources, if you're in someway of use to Vic he'll keep you sweet, if you're of potential use he'll manipulate the situation until you're in his control, if you're a threat he will eliminate you one way or the other. Ultimately everything Vic does is about control and protection for himself.

These episodes also establish a further driving motivation for Vic apart from his sociopathic consequentialism. His son Matthew is diagnosed with autism, a serious issue for a young child and an expensive one for any family to deal with, Matt's autism fast becomes one of the major driving forces behind Vic's all consuming need to get money and as much as possible. It also legitimises his actions both in his mind and in the minds of many viewers. He might do bad things, but he's doing them to ensure his son gets the life he deserves.

Of course, things are not perfect at this point, the lack of early character development due to that "missing season 0" (The season pre-Crowley's shooting) means that some of the relationships between the characters feel a little forced. Vic and Gillroy is a great example of this, it feels like Vic is nothing but a problem for Gillroy so you're left wondering why on Earth the man protected Vic at any time, his announcement that he's removing any assistance he might give Vic during the end of Cupid & Psycho seems almost redundant, why he helped Vic and the Strike Team up till now seems almost impossible to understand.

David Acevada is given some exceptional character development during this period, he goes from being 'the man after Vic for some reason' to a politically ambitious man who desires advancement in politics, exposing Vic is one of the fastest ways he can secure the popular vote - something Terry Crowley alluded to in the pilot episode. Now his hard on for Vic becomes something more understandable and his anger over Julien's retraction all the more vivid.

Dutch is also given some extra focus and direction, his obsession with catching the 'face down' serial killer continues and escalates when he asks for the assistance of the FBI. His frustration at an inability to succeed here, something that is compounded by two lads using the police force to play a practical joke on each other, pushes him towards using a psychic for help. It won't be the last time his obsession with serial killers will take him to unusual places.

Dutch also gains some personal growth from an unusual source during the Claudette/Vic, Shane/Dutch pairing, Shane's advice on how to land some 'hot widow' action is very offensive and immature, but Dutch is desperate enough to give it a go and in Cupid & Psycho it pays off, giving Dutch his first relationship of the show. You'd be right if you thought that anyone listening to Shane is desperate, but the world is full of desperate people just looking to make a connection with someone, anyone, and Dutch is one of those people.

These five middle episodes for the first season give us a taste of what the show is like during 'business at usual' hours, it's energetic, fun and filled with scrapes that almost get the Strike Team into trouble. Almost like a grim and gritty version of The Three Stooges, but it's also capable of going to profound places, surprising you with a revelation about a character or showing you an insight into one member of the force - often through physical means. Some of the looks and shots of the characters show exceptional depth, expressing more than their words or even their actions do, this is a hallmark of Clark Johnson's work and it's his deep influence that is felt right across the show with the long wordless moments that convey an ocean of emotion.

While the plots of The Shield are quite often breakneck and thin (due to the number of stories in a single episode) the characterisation in the show is of exceptional depth. Especially when you're dealing with key characters like Acevada, Shane, Lem, Dutch, Claudette and of course, Vic himself. It's these powerful performances that make re watching the show such a deligh as there are hidden depths to every scene.
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Bryan Fuller, the name is now pretty much synonymous with oddball television shows that have an endearing lead cast, an unusual concept and rapid cancellation. He first worked on Star Trek: Voyager before creating the rather fantastic TV Series Dead Like Me - which was cancelled after two short seasons. Most recently he's been involved in Heroes (now cancelled) and Pushing Daisies (cancelled); so it should be no surprise to anyone that Bryan's first project after Dead Like Me was cancelled by Fox just four episodes into its run. Fortunately for those of us who enjoy quirky comedy/drama with strong and well realised female leads the shows first season was filmed in it's entirety and is available on DVD.

Caroline Dhavernas stars as Jaye Tyler; a moody, withdrawn 'Generation Y' underachiever. She lives in Niagara Falls and works in one of the local gift shops with a co-worker she describes as a 'mouthbreather'. Jaye is distant and withdrawn, connecting with few people apart from her best friend Mahandra (Tracie Thoms), even her family (Parents Sharon - Katie Finneran, Darren - William Sadler, Sister - Karen Diana Scarwid and brother Lee Pace, who would star as Ned in Pushing Daisies later on in his career) find her hard to associate with. Jaye lives in a trailer park and has little to do with the world in general if she can help it.


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Like Family Guy? Like Doctor Who? Always wanted to see the two of them mashed together in something other than another irrelevant Family Guy cut away? Want no longer, the Internet gives you...

Doctor Stew!


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The pilot episode is the defining point of The Shield, it's the bang on which the entire series is formed, and while it is one of the most important episodes in the show it's not a great character piece. As I mentioned previously it's a piece that's crammed full of characters and has to rush along at a breakneck pace towards an almost inevitable conclusion. As such it falls into the hands of the following two episodes to give us some extra character depth and development in order to allow us, the viewer, to connect with these characters on a deeper level.

"Our Gang" follows on from the events of the pilot episode with the barest of moments elapsed. Most of the Farmington District Police Force is outside the hospital where Terry Crowley was taken. That's the first real mule kick from this series, Vic's bullet wasn't even a clean kill - Terry dies in hospital in the following episode. Despite shooting for the head Vic couldn't even manage to be certain his problem was dealt with cleanly, Terry does die without waking up and being able to tell people what happened, but the entire situation is a great example of how messy things could have been (and will be).

The reactions outside the hospital during the cold opening are also great; Vic manages to look cold and almost like he is in shock, unable to grasp what's happened - but he's always in complete control of his actions, especially his closing comment "I'm responsible." A comment that serves two purposes, first of all it creates a "Did he just confess?" moment for the viewers (a moment that is extended a little by the opening credits) and secondly in the context of the situation it actually serves as a calculated move. By admitting a form of guilt he's able to make whatever signs of guilt he and Shane might have look natural and also by starting with such a bombshell he's heading off any accusations that might suggest he's responsible for Terry's murder. Even in a situation like this Vic is looking for the higher ground to take the advantage. He's that sociopathic.

Shane on the other hand is obviously afraid of being caught, he looks sick and close to breaking throughout the scene. He's fortunate that he's not questioned at this point in the episode because he would probably have broken (later on, when he's had time to compose himself and fabricate a story with Vic he does manage to keep it together, just). Lem and Ronnie on the other hand wear their innocence on their sleeve, especially Lem who takes the whole incident personally, for Lem the Strike Team will always be his family and the loss of their newest member is like losing a young brother. He lashes out in the only way he can, breaking a van window and cutting his hand up. You notice here that the innocent member of the Strike Team lashes out in anger, whereas his two guilty team mates remain relatively calm and collected. Ronnie on the other hand - the reasons behind the way he reacts become clearer once you've seen the seventh season.

A huge section of the rest of "Our Gang" deals with the mental landscape of Vic Mackey, through a series of flashbacks we're shown Vic's mental process in an abstract manner. Gradually we see him reconcile his dissonance over the act, almost breaking during the weightlifting scene but finally coming back out of it as collected as he's ever been. It's almost an act of birth (or rebirth) for him, (there's certainly a lot of pushing involved in the sequence, that's for sure.)

"Our Gang" also confirms one of the major antagonistic relationships of the show, the one between David Acevada and Vic Mackey. David's pursuit of Vic, which is somewhat hollow and unconvincing in the pilot episode "I just want to get a dirty cop off the street" reaches a new level of purpose. He's convinced that Vic is behind Terry's death and while he cannot even come close to comprehending the truth and instead suggests that Vic set Terry up and sent him into a death trap (which is why he doesn't manage to break Shane - he's just far enough away from the truth that Shane can deny with certainty). It also brings Gilroy fully into the equation, a man who currently has Vic's back but will eventually become the piece that (temporarily) unites Vic and Acevada against him.

While "Our Gang" represents a transition past the abnormal events of the pilot episode, "The Spread" represents business as usual. It's the first real insight into the capering shenanigans of the Strike Team and lets you experience what things must have been like before the show started. It's a lighthearted episode that could almost make you forget what transpired in the two episodes previously, it's certainly at odds with them.

The Strike Team perform a little light corruption by detaining a star basketball player and thus determining the outcome of a match before it happens. It's betting time. This storyline gives the guys a chance to spread their characters, showing Lem to be quite an amiable fellow, and revealing Shanes racist attitudes in a well acted manner. Walton Goggins manages to look very uncomfortable at appropriate moments, showing some deep seated racist attitudes buried inside Shane's persona - something that will pay off in a later season (in one of the moments I kind of wish never happened). Ronnie still remains something of a background extra at this point.

Throughout the first few episodes it's the Dutch/Claudette stories that can provide the tension and the laughs when things look bleakest. "The Spread" is no exception, the main thrust of the story is pretty grim, there's a serial killer/rapist on the loose. But the discovery of a naked man, and the fact that he keeps jars in his fridge full of *Dutch sniffs them* "That's not mayonnaise"... wait for it. Semen. Is a classic moment of black humor, Dutch's reaction is just hilarious as he tries to leap away from the jar, dropping it and getting the man juice on his shoes.

In fact pretty much the whole of "The Spread" is a relatively lighthearted affair, but it remains important because it does set up the start of the serial killer storyline for Dutch and Claudette. A storyline that contains one of the more brilliant moments of the season, the one where I took my opinion of Dutch and turned it 180 (it's in the episode "Dragonchasers" which I consider to be the second huge moment of The Shield). It's also the first episode to really play up Julien's struggle with his homosexuality, the point where Julien begins to become more than just 'the rookie cop who makes mistakes'.

"The Spread" is also a great example of what the show could have been like if they'd run a season prior to Terry Crowley's murder. The hi-jinks of The Strike Team are exactly the kind of thing he could have been involved in, something a little underhanded and dirty but not overtly criminal. It's another one of those episodes that makes me wish there had been a prequel season (so to speak), but it's not worth dwelling on again this season as the rest of the episodes coming up pick up the pace and move forward.

With the completion of "Our Gang" and "The Spread" The Shield has mostly got past its initial crunch point and is looking to move forward with an eye towards developing a long term story line. The show would never manage to escape Terry's shadow, but at this point it had at least performed a cathartic ritual and bought some breathing space so it can expand beyond the 'original sin'.
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When The Inbetweeners aired on British television I cunningly managed to miss every single episode, so when I recently received the first two series as a gift from a family member I was finally able to rectify this oversight on my part. When I was given the set both my brother-in-law and my father warned me that "[You] find it a little hard to get into at first. [You] ask, why should I watch something with these horrible people?" But that, "It's worth it, because it's brilliant, revolting but brilliant."

Now I usually take television advice from my father with a pinch of salt; it's not that he has bad taste (he did watch the Survivors remake, but even he admitted how awful that was - and I still recall the incredibly amusing comments he made while we watched the Doctor Who special The Voyage of the Damned - a story redeemed only by "friend of this blog", the awesome Clive Rowe) it's just that he prefers quite a lot of different shows to the kind I like. My main genres are the US Sitcom and the non-procedural police show - his are Science Fiction and gross out British comedy (Mongrels for example). My brother-in-law on the other hand was introduced to The Wire and The Shield by myself and my brother; since then he's embarked on a journey of all that is great in television - I intend to lend him The Sopranos next.

So I wasn't exactly sure what I'd make of The Inbetweeners; but the general consensus seemed to be 'Stick with it, it's really good once you get used to it'. And that's good enough to make the show worthy of a watch, especially when it was a gift.

So what exactly is The Inbetweeners - well if you've been living in a bubble for the past couple of years (a bubble that hasn't been popped by George and Susan of course), it's a half hour situation comedy centered around four friends in their last few years of school. The principle/narrator is Will (Simon Bird) a public school boy transferred to Rudge Park Comprehensive school after his parent's divorce resulted in his mother not having sufficient funds. Will integrates himself with a trio of young lads; Simon (Joe Thomas) a relatively normal, if unpopular, young man; Neil (Blake Harrison) best described as a cross between a boy and large slightly slow puppy and Jay (Joe Thomas) resident pervert and world class overcompensator.

They form a somewhat unpopular, lower rung, clique - not the absolute bottom of the school pecking order (that would be the Freaks and Geeks of coruse), but certainly a long distance away from being near the popular kids. Nowhere to fit in, sort of in between everyone else (oh, I see what they did there - very clever, I guess). And what follows is two series full of hopes being dashed, unpleasant situations, unwelcome advances from a suspect teacher, vomit, pee and teenage fumblings towards the opposite sex. It's simultaneously hilarious and cringe worthy - just like all of the great British comedies.

Performances are solid throughout, but of particular note in the cast is the completely apathetic and child hating Mr Gilbert (Greg Davies) the lovely Belinda Stewart-Wilson as Will's mum Polly and the school bully Mark Donnovan (Henry Lloyd-Hughes). It's also worth saying that Blake Harrison's performance as Neil is consistently outstanding, he brings a naive charm and pleasant attitude to the role that makes him both fun and likable - even when he's admitting to ejaculating all over the interior of Simon's car.

So The Inbetweeners is another great British sitcom; it's charming and unpleasant, fun and painful, nostalgic and fresh. It captures the essence of the teenage wasteland and takes a pretty shrewd look at the British youth. It might be a little easy to shrug off many of the events in the show as being outlandish and unlikely, but a lot of what happens in it reminds me of my latter day school years and the quite frankly outrageous things we did at times - and just like the teenage injuries that have left scars on myself, The Inbetweeners will have lasting impact.
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I'm not sure if you're aware of the site at this stage but I think it's time I posted about one of the (relatively) newer TV sites out there. It's TV Geek Army, a television review site that is growing in popularity, more of a collaborative effort with multiple writers rather than a single individual (much like the excellent Crimespree Cinema) - though the hard working Eric helms the vast majority of the work at the moment.

I'm currently involved in the site with the occasional post (about once a week on average - I can't manage more sadly) and just recently 'totallyTV' has joined the ranks. I'm currently involved in a small round table about TV Show finales (which you can read in it's entirety here) and my series of Doctor Who reviews can also be found on the site.

There's certainly room for more writers if people are interested, it would take some of the load off Eric (or not, he seems to eat, sleep, breathe and sweat television) and as always more content along with different viewpoints is a great thing for any site.

So stop by, say hello and let Eric know I sent you!

Back tomorrow with more Rev/views.
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Pilot episodes are probably the most important episode in any television series, they set the tone and pace of the show while also letting the audience (and network) decide if this particular show is for them. As such most pilot episodes attempt to come out swinging with a couple of huge blows that's going to make the people watching go "Wow, I can't believe I just saw that. What's next?"

Without some kind of hook in this day and age it's quite probable that the average viewer will forget about a series and not return to watching it. So many pilot episodes include highly charged and memorable incidents that often attempt to be unique in an effort to crystallise themselves in the memory of the viewers. Some great examples of this include Six Feet Under's brutal car accident involving Nathan Sr; BSG's nuking of civilisation (in a mini-series sure, but still), Rescue Me's ghosts and West Wing's revelation of the identity of Martin Sheen as the president. The objective is to create talking points that will keep people going until the following week's episode.

Pilot is one of the most extreme examples of this concept as right from the gate The Shield sits down and tells you exactly what kind of a show it's going to be. It's a hard hitting show that isn't afraid to deal with unpleasant crimes and police brutality. Pilot sets the style, tone and pacing for the entire series and lets you know exactly what you're going to be seeing from the show in the future. Personally I think this is a great construct, if you don't enjoy the pilot episode then it's clear you won't enjoy the rest of the show - it's a fantastic sampler of the coming storm the show provides.

There are a few fantastic decisions that were made during the creation of Pilot the most significant of which was the casting choices. Looking past the core cast it's the role of Terry Crowley that was the real stroke of genius. Reed Diamond was a relatively well known face linked to procedurals at the time due to his involvement in Homicide: Life on the Street and it's clear that it worked because Reed's role as Terry (despite appearing in just three episodes) is iconic and has become one of his best known roles on television - an impressive feat considering the low episode count, but Terry is that important to the series.

Add to Reed's "stunt casting" the decision to try and frame Terry as a lead role, including putting Reed's name into the opening credits and the way the plot attempts to promote him as one of several leads in an ensemble piece and you end up with a show that does it's absolute best to set up Terry as an important character in order to make his subsequent murder by Vic at the climax of the episode as surprising as possible. Reed was even heavily featured in the adverts for the show before the pilot's airing.

There is one thing that has to be made clear here, the reason we don't see anyone plotting to murder Terry in advance isn't a case of misdirection by the writing, it's because Vic doesn't plan to shoot Terry when he heads into Two Time's apartment - things just fall into his hands and he takes an opportunity to eliminate Terry because he knows Terry's snitching on him and his team. Terry's murder is the 'original sin' of the series (and Vic) but it's not a planned thing and though it doesn't seem like it as time passes, Vic's actions do actually prey on him - it just takes a long time for it to surface.

Pilot isn't perfect, it's an exceptionally dense episode with a lot going on and possibly too many characters to follow; There's Acevada, Vic and the Strike Team (Lem and Ronnie take a back role at this point, which is important because they're also the pair not involved in Terry's murder - but Shane is more active in the episode and he's the only witness to Vic's actions at the end), Claudette & Dutch and Danny & Julien - that's four separate story lines which only interweave at on occasion when the characters meet up.

The best intertwining is between Vic and Claudette/Dutch - where Dutch's interviewing techniques come up short and Acevada makes the call to allow Vic to torture a suspected paedophile. The addition of torture, paedophilia and police brutality make it clear to the viewer that this show is going to go to some dark places, but it can also make it seem like the show is trying to hard to shock. In some ways, Pilot is trying too hard Shawn Ryan and company wanted to really shock and surprise viewers in a similar way to the method Six Feet Under used before (Six Feet was one of the first shows to really bring death into the equation outside of procedurals, and they went for it in a big way). So it is more than possible some people would look at this episode and think "it's just a shock jock video nasty type show" before passing on it, and if they're thinking that then the show probably isn't for them, but for the people who stick with it and move on there's a wealth of subtlety and psychological insight of the darkness in the human condition to be gained over the passing seasons.

There is another point where I do feel that Pilot comes up a little short, and it's only with the hindsight of seven seasons. Pilot attempts to do too much and it's not until you watch the later episode Co-Pilot (an episode I'll certainly write about later on) do you realise where The Shield could have benefited from a slower burn at the start. In short, with hindsight I think the first season of The Shield would have been better served if Terry had been established and followed as one of the principle leads for at least half a season, perhaps ending the first season with the events of the pilot episode. Now I do know this would have shocked many viewers even more than Pilot did, and it could have actually turned away far more people, but in the overview of the entire series it would have worked a lot better. As it is these characters explode onto the scene with Terry's blood on their hands and we have little to go with, as time passes we do come to know (and even love) the characters, but initially there's a real disconnect that doesn't quite go away.

At this point in the show as well very few characters are painted in apart from the broad strokes. We have Acevada as the politically ambitious police captain, Dutch as the shrewd but over confident detective who's the target of the stations bully (Vic), Claudette as Dutch's world weary, jaded and cynical partner and Vic as the corrupt cop straight out of the stone ages of policing. Everyone else has very little depth (and even those four aren't exactly rounded out); Danny and Julien are involved in little more than light relief (their case involving the tyres slashed by Lamar works quite well as a balance to Dutch and Claudette's dark investigation).

Vic does have considerably more characterisation than the other members of the cast during this episode; he's already portrayed as a somewhat complex character, while bringing in Lonnie for questioning over the murder of his partner he shows concern about the children left loose in a drug den and right after fleecing the pimp Dimitri he ends up handing Connie (a hooker) a fair bit of money so she doesn't have to work tonight (and for her son). Vic's concern about Connie is a constant thing in the early part of the show.

There is also some strong symbolism present in the episode; Acevada's speech about cleaning up the town contrasts deeply with the Strike Team's actions on the street. Vic's first act in the show is to beat a perp for running and the rest of the episode does have strong ties with the plotting of the film Serpico (with an alternative outcome for the Serpico-like figure of Terry). The other major symbolic object of note is the men's room toilet - it's blocked and remains blocked for most of the series. I'm not 100% on what this stands for, but the only period where it is unblocked is during the fourth season (when Monica Rawlings is in charge and things look like they're going to get a lot better in Farmington). I'd hazard a guess that it is to do with the arrested development of the male characters in the show and their tendency to remain 'blocked' at a more primal state, but it also could be a reference to The Strike Team and how The Barn is unable to get rid of it's unsightly "waste".

When you take the whole episode into context there are flaws to it, but as an opening to the series it's close to perfect. It's completely faithful to the way the rest of the show would unfold and it sets up the incredible feat of a seven season story line that does pay off in full (in the most spectacular and emotionally draining fashion). There's no other show that manages to have the concepts and constructs of it's pilot episode remain relevant for seven seasons and still echo across the final few episodes. So Pilot is one of the most important episodes in the series, and it's actually more important than most other shows' pilot episodes are. There's no doubt that Pilot is one of the greatest pilot episodes in television history and it's something that any television aficionado should watch - it's a great appetiser for the rest of the series.

Trivia:
Ponyboy Harris (the man selling VCRs) is none other than Max Perlich a Homicide alumni (like the director of this episode Clark Johnson), it's a bit of a blink and you'll miss it cameo role. Sadly he doesn't reprise it.

You can purchase the T-Shirt worn by Vic at the BBQ online, I have a pair of them (one blue, one black) it's a nice design.

It's quite possible that Acevada is responsible for the dog crap in Dutch's desk, not Vic.

Homicide's influence on the show extends quite pervasively, not only is Clark Johnson the director of this episode (and Max's appearance) but Shawn Ryan himself has credited Homicide as one of the key inspirations behind the show.

Claudette is quite accepting of Vic's ways - at least initially, but seeing him act on the interogation room camera with Dr Grady is the start of what becomes a major part of the series.
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So Futurama has managed to pull a 'Family Guy' completely now, it's brought itself back from extinction and onto our screens through the four made for TV DVD movies and is now airing it's sixth season. The movies - Bender's Big Score, The Beast With a Billion Backs, Bender's Game and Into the Wide Green Yonder were a mixed bag overall. Alternatively great and then quite awful with no real consistency. Watching the DVDs with commentary revealed that the cast and writers were quite unaware of the weaker parts of their baby - they found great entertainment and pride in even the most juvenile and unoriginal of their jokes.

On a few rewatches my opinions of the four movies have changed a little - My estimation of 'Bender's Big Score' has gone up further, it's certainly the best of the quadrology; but 'Into the Wide Green Yonder' has plummeted in it's stock and I now only marginally prefer it over 'The Beast with a Billion Backs' - Bender's Game sort of hovers around the middle, some parts of it are brilliant, but others sort of fall flat.

Anyway, what I have been hoping is that the four movies which consist of the fifth "season" of Futurama were not the symptoms of diminishing returns for the series (something that Family Guy has begun to suffer from and that The Simpsons has been accelerating off towards the event horizon of since season ten). But in truth it's only through the watching of the now airing sixth season that we can get an idea if the quality of the original series (especially in the last two seasons) has been maintained.

Well, I'm going to quickly run through the first seven episodes with a short review on each:

Rebirth:
A moderately touching story that alternates between being good and being pretty lame. It was a rather lacklustre start to the new series, still when it was good it was rather good indeed and the twists in the plot were fun.

In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela:
Out and out the worst, yes that's right - worst, episode of Futurama of all time. There was a great premesis here to be played with but instead what we got was a torid venting of sewage that seemed to dump all over both the show and the viewers. I don't think I'll ever watch this episode again - it's even worse than That's Lobstertainment.

Attack of the Killer App:
The first of the great episodes in the season. Attack manages to lampoon current culture trends and as such feels both fresh and funny. The release of the iPad in particular (and the still continuing froth about the iPhone) really gave this episode some teeth. The race between Bender and Fry for followers and the uploading of the embarrasing video of Leela all came together to create something that just worked perfectly.

Proposition Infinity:
While not as bad as In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela, Proposition Infinity dumps all over one of the better established relationships in the show - Amy and Kiff for very little pay off. In fact you get so little pay off that at the end of the episode 'everything returns back to normal'. I've always appreciated that Futurama is one of the few mainstream cartoon sitcom shows that seems to have a progressive plot that builds on previous events. This was a huge step in the wrong direction.

The Duh-Vinci Code:
While the episode was a little late in taking full advantage of the buzz around Dan Brown's book (this wasn't the first time this happened with Futurama, see the Titanic episode), The Duh-Vinci Code was the first genuinely good episode of the season. It was fast paced, fun and filled with a balance of good gags and thoughtful moments - classic Futurama.

Lethal Inspection:
Yes, the ending to the episode was predicatble, but that did not reduce its impact. Lethal Inspection builds on the improvement in writing that The Duh-Vinci Code offered and gives us the first really emotional episode since Bender's Big Game.

The Late Philip J. Fry:
Fry and Leela's relationship has been exceptionally hard to follow in this season, and at this point I'm still hesitant to say that it's settled down into a pattern that can be followed. But The Late Philip J. Fry did feel like an episode that addresses this and moves the pair forward - I don't mind the ultimate destination for the pair, but I don't want to see more of the exceptional nonsense In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela voided at us.

Overall thoughts:
The sixth season has had a few rough episodes and weak moments, but there has been marked signs that the show is returning to its original stride. While I really, really cannot stand In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela in the least bit and will not be watching that particular turd ever again, the rest of the season so far has enough parts to make it an enjoyable proposition. It's just not quite back to the status of "all-time classic" yet.
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