So this is it. The last episode of Burn Notice for the year and will everything come to a head? In "Good Solider" Michael has to balance investigating Carla's actions while also helping out a friend of Campbell's who needs to prevent a kidnapping.

Read about yogurt, swimming and a ferry cross the Mersey beyond the link...

With Burn Notice about to go on hiatus for about half a year or so it's very important for this episode to pack a real punch, it needs to be something that will keep you itching to find out what's next - like say the end of any Supernatural season or season six of The Shield - so the question is. Does Good Soldier leave you hanging on the hook and eager for the next episode? The short answer is "sort of", as for the long answer it's time to delve into the episode and see why...

Good Soldier in many ways is classic Burn Notice, as the show has evolved it's become about the balancing act Michael has to pull between helping others and investigating his burn notice. The first season had a little too much of the first and not enough of the latter, but the second season has looked to address this - giving the viewer a tension packed mix that involves Michael desperately juggling the two threads each episode. Sometimes with fantastic results, sometimes it just feels a little average and overloaded... This week's halfinale™ feels overloaded but that's a deliberate story decision and it's one that works well.

Michael is hot in the pursuit of Carla after last week's events and it's not how good she looks in a swimsuit that's preying on his mind. He's determined to find out exactly what she's up to and he doesn't care what the expense is, which is just as well because it seems Sam Axe is enjoying his food and drink a lot since Ronnee broke up with him, especially when someone else is footing the bill. Also, as Michael confirms in the narrative - spies comfort eat while carrying out surveillance. Cue lots of shots of Carla swimming in this episode and I'm sure Tricia Helfer fans will enjoy those scenes.

The episode is a great showcase example of Jeffery Donovan's acting talents, not only do we get multiple examples of how little Michael likes the Fi & Campbell relationship (Campbell seems fine with the whole thing, maybe someone explained what Michael does with an episode of the A Team) but we also get some cracking drunk acting followed by a seriously amusing religious conversion. Ladies and Gentlemen, the man has serious acting powers.

As for the episode, just as I noted earlier this one is a heavy balancing act between the Burn Notice story and the kidnapping episode story and this time they get it just right. The kidnapping feels urgent, the reason for Michael getting involved is solid and we get a nice, juggling act feel to the entire thing. It does feel like Michael is rushed between both jobs, but he's committed to helping Campbell's friend to avoid having Fi do it solo. Now I'm not entirely sure why Fi can't be left to do such a job alone, it can't be a case of competency - Fi is most definitely competent - so it might be concern on Michael's part about Fi's methods. She's rather... brutally inclined, whereas Michael prefers to deal with troublemakers in a non-lethal fashion and get them killed later (off screen). Speaking of which, hasn't the off screen body count been massive this season? I'm not sure I like the way so many of the criminals in each episode are shuffled off to "Fort Lauderdale" (Burn Notice speak for killed - I'm sure they don't get to go punting around the canals in a dumpster).

What else is there to like in this episode? Well Nate Western makes yet another reappearance in this episode and he's pretty good. Nate's attempting to go straight, start up a business driving limos and even helps out Michael before Carla stitches him up because of Michael's interference. It's Michael's actions at the start of this episode that drive most events later on, because he uses that key card and sniffs about in the sniper perch it seems everything else is brought down around him at the end. I'm honestly a little confused at this point as to why he feels the need to find out about the job he's been setting up - does anyone remember Michael's reasoning behind why he needs to investigate the job Carla is setting up? I'm not sure any more how it relates to him finding out why he was burned, but it does lead to some exciting television.

Michael, Fi and Sam scope out Carla down at the docks, waiting to see who the target on the ferry will be and we get some pretty good nervous/worried/concerned acting from Tricia. The woman doesn't have many lines in this episode but her physical performance in the docks scene and the following motorcycle chase are great. Michael realises that Carla knows he's watching (hardly surprising as he's wearing the same suit he always wears and has made no real attempt to hide) and he takes off with Fi running interference while Sam checks out Bill Thompson (the Sniper's house). We get a pretty exciting final chase scene with cars smashing into each other and motorbikes skidding under semis before Michael loses the tail and heads back home. While opening the door Sam calls and warns him that Bill's house has been blown up with explosives, Michael twigs just as he starts opening the door and leaps over the balcony just as the explosion hits...

"To be continued..."

As mentioned at the start, this cliffhanger ending isn't bad. While there is no worry about Michael's survival there are a lot of questions to be asked. It's clear that Michael's interference has resulted in a kill notice being dropped on the whole operation and all operatives being directly used were to be killed. But there are still serious questions, mostly revolving around Bill's involvement in the whole thing, the unknown operative from Carla's file and of course Carla's reactions down the docks. It's hard to tell if she was trying to stop Michael or attempting to drive him back home, she most likely knew about the explosives - but which side of the equation is she on? What will happen to Nate? Will Sam ever find love again?

At least some of these questions will be answered next halfseason but I'm not left sitting on the edge of my seat waiting to find out right now and that's why it's just a maybe. It was a good halfinale but the final cliffhanger wasn't so gripping that I just absolutely can't wait - I'm looking forward to the return of Burn Notice, but I'm not going to find waiting agonising either.

Overall the second season of Burn Notice (so far) is a nice little package, the show has evolved from the first season and has even moved to expand it's scope of characters. Providing recurring ones and even a slightly enlarged cast (with Campbell, Nate and Carla making multiple reappearances). There has also been some great guest spots, in particular Method Man (Valentine), Chris Ellis (Virgil), Michael Shanks (Victor - who grew on me and I'd like to see again) and of course Tim Matheson as Larry.

I've enjoyed watching this almost as much as I've enjoyed writing about it, but that's it from Burn Notice until next year. How did everyone else find the ride?

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To keep my load as light as possible most of the shows I watch are going to be looked at once a week on a Saturday (as I never watch TV on a Saturday so it makes for a good break point).

Only a few shows dripped their way onto TV this week. Most shows I watch are starting later, many of them next week.

Fringe:

Ok, I tried. I really did try to like this show, I enjoyed Alias when it was on the TV and I enjoyed some of Lost before I just stopped caring about all the "mystery" but both of those shows grabbed me with their first episode and didn't let go for a long time. On the other hand we have Fringe, which feels more like Cloverfield - masses of hype, total let down - it's really like a poor man's ReGenesis or X-Files. The cast doesn't click, the plot is *ahem* weak and Lance Reddick must be insane if he thinks the dialog he has here is any good compared to his previous material (The Wire) and Reddick is the best thing in it. So Dan, I gave the show a chance, I really did; but with next week containing so many awesome shows returning I'm just not interested in carrying on. I'm going to stop watching this and just keep an eye on the reviews, if suddenly a lot of people start saying "Slow start but it's become must watch" then I'll get back into it. But for now, bye bye JJ - I'm just going to go rewatch Millennium and wait until Dollhouse is released.

House:

Eh, a little - well not good this week. Last season started very strongly and ended with a crushingly brilliant two parter but the first episode of this season really didn't grab me - in fact I spent a lot of time pausing the show and doing chores - that's not a good sign. It seems that maybe Wilson has left the show, which is a bit of a shame because the interactions between House and Wilson were second only to the ones between House and Cuddy. The medical case involved in the episode was rather "I don't care" and even a layman like myself felt it was pretty weak, I do get a kick out of reading the Polite Dissent reviews of House mind you. Overall it was OK but the show still feels stuffed to the catheters with characters and now I hear there's some talk of a spin off character? Oh well, I guess I shouldn't complain about a formulaic show trying to shake up it's formula a bit. It's just - they did it better last season.

Supernatural:

Ok so at the end of the last season Dean went to a very bad place indeed. And now he's back. Fine, I did wonder if they were going to use at least a portion of this season devoted to trying to bring him back and introduce a few new characters. But heck Jensen Ackles is the most interesting member of the cast so I guess I can live with a huge Deus Ex Machina followed by a mystery. Oh and when I use the term Deus Ex Machina I think it's the most appropriate use of that term ever.

It seems this season Ruby is busy corrupting/teaching Sam how to use his powers (about time we found out a little more about them) while Dean is dragged back from hell by Castial (Castiel?) who claims to be an angel on a mission from God. I guess it was just a matter of time before someone turned up claiming to be a part of the 'other side', but given the tone of Supernatural I wonder. It's clear Castiel is pretty ridiculously powerful but is he really what he claims to be? And why does he need Dean?

No Heroics:

Rather than talk about this myself I'm just going to plug Rob's review as I think he nailed my thoughts on it as well.

The other TV I watched this week was on DVD, I finally saw the last season of Fraiser and all of Police Squad. Which means I need to get more DVDs, I think Weeds Season 2 + 3 are up next on the list of stuff I want. Which reminds me, I should write up that list so I know what to keep an eye out for...

Next week several shows start up again; The Office, My Name is Earl, Boston Legal and How I Met Your Mother amongst them.
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While I wait for my neighbours to stop locking their little girl out in the hallway as punishment here are this week's collected reviews for the latest episode of The Shield.

Again we start with 2GuysTalking. I've said it before but I do appreciate the style used here, also I can appreciate their concern with the closed caption. Some days I'm forced to use them myself.

The imdb rendition isn't as well laid out at last week's but it's still a good read.

Of course I wouldn't forget Tom R's Recap & Review over at TheTwoCents.

And here's Jonathan Toomey's one as well, I'm a little surprised anyone voted thinking that Vic did actually mean what he said to Shane at the end of the episode. His expression after Shane left said everything, and that's even if you don't consider the fact that Ronnie wouldn't let it stand if Vic decided not to take Shane out for what he did. Mind you, considering Vic's MO it's possible Vic will just set Shane up to be killed rather than do it himself.

Alan Sepinwall's shortish review is as always expanded by the comments action.

TV.Com has just the two reviews at the point of posting. One of them dares use the phrase 'Jump the shark', and it's not the first time I've heard it uttered with regards to this season. *Waves at Paul B.*

Here's a review from Eric Goldman at IGN. Once again the title kind of makes me laugh.

Jason Pinter decided to skip last week and do a condensed review of both "Snitch" and "Money Shot" this week.

Coming later, my own collected short reviews on the TV I watched this week and maybe the half season finale of Burn Notice depending on how worded out I feel.
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I finally registered over on tv.com. I don't know how often I'll update things over there but my profile is located here. At the very least I did what I could to correct the criminal rating "The Wire" has on the site. 8.7 indeed!
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We once again ride the slippery slope to damnation with the strike team in the latest episode of The Shield. Vic and Shane continue to play the Armenians and Mexicans against each other while everything around them threatens to collapse...

Read about attack dogs, the Billings minimum and "alternative" sexual therapy after the link...

Ok, I'm sorry. But Blogger seriously hates this post and it's once again reverted it to my note form version so I've had to re-write it again. I've written this thing four times now and it keeps on getting screwed up... Sigh, if it goes again I'm just going to give up and ignore this thing.

Vic shows that he has some serious stones this week by revealling himself to Rezian in order to control both the Armenians and Shane directly. Not only does he show a total lack of fear by walking into the lion's den but when asked about the two million all he responds with is an offhand "We burned through the money" - Nice little callback to Lem's actions in Season 3. Vic has some balls of steel on him for sure and has certainly forgiven Lem for his actions, he's not even willing to slander the man post humously. Still, I'm thinking this is a serious mistake on Vic's part as now the kingpins of both sides know him by sight. This could blow up in his face.

It's good to see Julien and Ronnie working a case together, it's a shame this didn't happen last week as well. But at least I got what I asked for in this episode, sadly it's clear that the Strike Team struggles to operate with only two men (and Tina) and the lack of control Ronnie has over both Vic and Shane is clearly grating on him hard. This is evidenced more than anywhere else in the final scene of the episode where a resigned and angry Ronnie finally tells Vic where he stands with him. Vic's actions are starting to bite Ronnie, seriously.

The case Ronnie and Julien worked was an interesting callback to a previous season. Specifically the Granny "lover" Axl. He's not really someone I wanted to be remined about if I'm honest, but at least the story gave Julien and Tina something to do. Also after the porno dealer "Natural, but small" Tina shows her vicious streak again here.

Billings is again putting in the absolute minimum but shows he cares when it matters as he moves quickly to assist when it's discovered that Wan was abducted and sexually assaulted. It's clear that Billings is good police when he's motivated, it's just a shame that the department has beaten him down repeatedly and this has removed almost all desire to work at his job properly. If Dutch could reach him we'd have one heck of a good detective on the job. In fact it's a little surprising that Dutch hasn't attempted to get Danny paired with Billings, I'm sure she'd appreciate the chance to work as a detective (she's certainly shown the skills) and she'd probably bring out the good Billings.

Once again Vic makes use of ICE to do his dirty work for him. Olivia is suspicious of his actions, assuming that Vic is angling for something - perhaps a round in her panties. Vic of course plays the "I'm just a good cop who cares" angle, one that's worked so many times in the past (at least until the mask slips) so I'm predicting it's just a matter of time before she caves and they end up sleeping together.

It was a great little episode and I had a lot more to say about it, but all of those words I wrote are lost like tears in the rain...

(Unless someone happens to have a cached copy of the earlier version on their machine... If you do, please please help me!)

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There was a post last week over at Alan's site which got me thinking about my favourite opening sequences, I sat down. Spewed out my favoutires and ended up with 15 that really stood out on my memory. So I thought I'd post about them here and thanks to the wonder of YouTube I can even provide videos so you too can marvel at the good old days where opening credits could be in excess of ten seconds long.

I'm going to break this one into three parts as other wise this would be one heck of a list. Please, feel free to agree or disagree with any of the opening credits listed here and tell me any of your favourites. I'd love to watch other opening credit videos as well if you want to put them in the comments sections.

If they don't appear to work properly on the main page (which they do not in my browser) click on the title link and they should work in the seperate page.

The A-Team



Actually finding this video was a heck of a task in itself, it seems everyone and their grandma wants to remake their own version of this theme. Not really surprising, it is an absolute classic. Saturday evenings back in my childhood were spent around my Grandparents house and this was the climax of the visit. Sitting down and forcing everyone else to watch The A-Team was just great, I'm still not sure if my sister actually enjoyed watching it as well or just watched because she had too.

Captain Scarlet



Sure Thunderbirds and Sting Ray also had excellent opening credits, but Captain Scarlet is where it's at. Combining just the right amount of creepy mystery with awesomeness it sums up everything you need to know about the show right there.

Darkplace



A complete spoof of the low budget horror genre Darkplace manages to lampoon multiple shows in it's opening credits and sticks with it's style perfectly. It's great fun working out what shows are referenced in the various scenes.

Dead Like Me



A great show with a cracking set of opening credits that really set the tone for the rest of the show. I'm very fond of the off-beat piano that keeps everything light and enjoyable, but I also like the entire "Reapers amongst the living unseen" click this intro has.

Dexter



Highlighting the violence of everyday actions with a series of disturbing camera angles Dexter's opening sequence is always a delight to watch. All scored to a fantastic theme composed by Rolfe Kent (While I'm at it Daniel Licht composes a lot of the other tunes and is worth a listen), the dark humour present in the show is here in spades.

Part 2 is here and Part 3 is here
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Continued from part 1.

Firefly



I love this one so much I learnt to play it on guitar, it's a bit of a party piece of mine - well when there are spades of total TV/Sci-Fi/Joss Whedon dorks around it is anyway. It's a great song and that's the thing which turns this opening from average into something special.

Fresh Prince of Bel-Air



This is the extended version of this classic opening, it also has the lyrics - just in case you didn't already know most of them.

Homicide:Life on the street



This one is just a classic, it sets the tone for the show beautifully with stark black and white images and a dark tune mixed with radio chatter. It just evokes the feel of noir and the show.

Police Squad



While the Naked Gun openers are more commonly known I'm very fond of the Police Squad version. I especially enjoy the Abrham Lincon and Special Guest Star death each week. Now in colour!

The Prisoner



Is it surprising this one has made it onto the list? It's brilliant. I wonder if the remake will have something as good...

This series climaxes in part three!
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Continued from Part 2

Six Feet Under



Along with Dexter I think this is one of the finest on this list. It's stark, beautiful and disturbing, just like the show

Sledge Hammer



This one's on here for the sheer 80s cheese brilliance of it. Sledge Hammer never pretended to be a clever show, but the opening sequence is fantastic. A series of close angle shots of Sledge's gun followed by a delivery of his catch phrase and some poor gun acting. It's just great.

Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister



Not only does this one have exactly the right tune playing, it's also a piece of art as those caricatures of the cast are sketched up while you watch. Great stuff, again one I remember from my childhood as my parents watched it religiously.

The Wire

Season One


Season Five


I've included two of them here, my two favourite renditions of the opening sequence, which are Season 1 and Season 5. Honestly I don't know which version of the intro theme I love more, the Blind Boys of Alabama's one (Season One) is the first one I heard and I own the album it came from but Steve Earl's rendition just manages to feel even bleaker but remains catchy.

The 4400



Was this song made for the show specifically? It just fits so well, it's beautiful, sorrowfull and every single scene in it screams of abduction. It's a real shame this show didn't get the exposure it deserved.

So how about it? Agree? Disagree? Have I missed anything?
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In this week's Burn Notice Michael is approached by a dead man about killing a nurse. It's the penultimate episode of the current "half-season" and boy is it a doozy.

Read about screwdrivers, home improvement and the undead beyond the link...

This week has Michael and company looking into the details of the sniper (Bill Johnson) they discovered in the previous episode while Michael is also approached by Larry (played brilliantly by Tim Matheson) and asked to perform a hit on a woman. It's worth noting that apparently Larry is considered deceased and this results in one of the best captions this show has ever had with "Larry, Undead Spy" and his term for the target provides another excellent character caption with "Jeanie, Dead-ee".

It turns out Larry isn't dead, but most of the cast wish he was. After just a small amount of time on the screen it's clear why Michael and Sam have such an issue with him. Larry is dangerous in a whole new league, it's clear he's wandered over the line Michael edges near and he's spinning along a wonderful curve of destruction. In short if Michael botches the job by informing the police there will be blood. Buckets of blood. Tim's performance as Larry is just stupendous, he provides such an air of barely concealed menace to all his actions. The scene with the screw driver was just fantastic (though the editors did over expose Michael's reaction when he palmed one of his own 'just in case' - cutting back to his hand more than once is a little OTT).

We get to meet Campbell this week, Fiona's new man friend and it turns out he seems to be nothing more than an ordinary paramedic. But I'll be surprised if he lasts because Michael, Sam and Fi are anything but subtle. The scene with Sam and Campbell in the ambulance was particularly telling, and funny. Sam claiming to be a soil scientist while cocking a gun. My favourite line of the episode also comes from Sam in this scene, when Fi mentions that Larry is good looking Sam quips back "He's alright I guess. He's no Campbell though." A fantastic piece of self aware comedy that skates along the fourth wall without actually breaking it.

I enjoy the little scenes like this were the unreality of Michael's life jars with normal people's. Normally it's just the scenes with Sharon Gless (Madeline) that highlight how unusual Michael's life is. Speaking of which, I was thrilled with the counselling scenes between Madeline and Michael. It was great of the writers to get her a little more involved in the story by having her provide Michael with an idea for a cover identity, something he promptly uses as an item in his required list of "Things he's grateful to his mother for". Needless to say, she's none too impressed with his selection.

We also have another guest star of note in Drew (Larry's client) who is played by Zachary Bryan - one very familiar face as he's from Home Improvement. He gives a solid performance in this, but I'm used to seeing him as a kid/teenager so it was a little odd here. Mostly it's the moment where Larry breaks his neck at the end which I found unsettling.

Ultimately by the end of this episode Michael manages to save Jeanie but (as mentioned) because Drew screws up at the drop off and spooks Larry, Michael is unable to take out Larry. Which gets Drew killed. Larry taunts Michael a little - claiming that he knew Drew was already dead but couldn't take the shot because he cares about his old friend Larry. I suspect it's at least in part because Michael doesn't like to shoot people anymore and in part because the network want to keep Burn Notice lighter and more family friendly.

The episode ends with Michael realising everything he's pulled for Carla and Victor has been support for Bill. A revelation which makes him realise he might be able to find out what the job is. Setting up the final episode nicely, which should be an exciting finish.

Despite the comparatively brief nature of my review this week I enjoyed this episode a lot, Tim Matheson was fantastic as Larry and the show balanced all of it's elements superbly. It holds up alongside the exceptionally Sam Axe-centric episode "Comrades" and as such is one of my favourites so far this season. I look forward to a return appearance from Larry as he's my favourite of all the Burn Notice villains we've seen so far.

Top stuff!

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Here's this week's collected Shield reviews.

First up is the one from 2GuysTalking. It seems they don't share my shining opinion of how awesome Billings is.

A short one from Tom R at TheTwoCents.

This weeks imdb one is laid out in a different fashion when compared to last week. That's what happens when you have multiple people providing the input. I do appreciate the bold headings for each section, it makes for easy scan reading to the part(s) you're interested in.

Jonathan Toomey has his review of the second episode up at TVSquad. This week's poll is looking into which of the two gang kingpins will cotton onto Vic's antics first.

Alan Sepinwall is of course continuing with his reviews here. As always there's plenty of interesting action in the comments section.

There is just the one review on TV.com. I guess the buzz about the show has gone or something. They're a fickle bunch who don't even have The Wire in the top 100 shows by rating, so what do they know? (imdb on the other hand have taste)

I have to include this one from over at IGN as the subtitle just cracks me up. "Wants to be more wanted." Ha!

Actual content ahead! Burn Notice Review will be up either tomorrow or later today depending on my schedule plus I have a little list I want to put together maybe I'll get to it on Sunday.
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This week's episode sees Vic and the Strike Team handling the escalating situation between the Mexicans and the Armenians while Dutch and Billings deal with a case of 'death from above'.

Read about falling concrete, Billings and awesome guest stars beyond the link...


After a solid season opener with a bit of a shock moment in it, Snitch is something of an anti-climax in comparison. While it's still excellent television, it's doesn't compare to The Shield at it's best. While the two side stories, one involving some spook street youths gunning down innocent white civilians in order to move up into the "Top Ten" in a new set of gang most wanted ratings and the second one involving Dutch and Billings investigating the murder of a young female singer outside her own tenement block are both superb. The main thrust of the Strike Team story is a little off.

I'm rather confused as to why Vic let Aramboles live, it seems completely out of character for him to do this. Aramboles is the one man outside of the Strike Team who could reveal the truth about Vic's actions in stirring up this gang war, but Vic just ships him off out of the country with a few threatening words? He's done much better in the past and considering the situation his actions seem an about turn when compared to his personality and past behaviour. It has a high chance of biting him in the arse later on this season. I half expected at least Shane to go behind his back and have the guy offed instead of sent to safety where he can eventually screw things up for the guys.

On the other hand, it's always been clear that Vic has morals, twisted morals for sure but they are there. Maybe murder has begun to become too much for him, maybe he's just tired, who knows?

Ronnie was sidelined for most of this episode again, after such a strong episode for Ronnie last week it's a bit of a shame that he's been shoved back behind Vic again. While it's clear he can't control Vic at all; which makes his position as the new Strike Team leader a little watery, it's also annoying that he was so cut out of this episode. Same with Julien who's reduced to "extra with the odd line". Fine Vic is deliberately shutting these two out of the picture right now, but would it hurt to have a few scenes with Julien and Ronnie working the street a little?

On the other hand, the other two stories were excellent. I'll look at each one individually, first of all we have the gang rating killings. This was a pretty predictable story that could have just plodded along without any punch. But the performances from the guest actors, especially the old lady who provided the witness statement; her bold talking to the police where everyone could see was top hole. She came across as someone tired with the moral slide her neighbourhood had taken, someone who's family had disappointed completely, someone who had nothing to lose at this point and just wanted to stand up against it all. She was fantastic. As was the young spook street lad who executed the killings, his performance in every scene was just superb. Right from the moment where Vic backs him up into a corner and he puts on the "don't care, hard man baller" persona he's just brilliant. He sells the right mix of a kid out of his depth and not really understanding it and brings out this ignorant youth who just really doesn't get it at all. Funny, vulnerable and just engaging. Both of these two 'one off' characters just nailed their parts to the wall.

The scene immediately following the one between the lad and Claudette (which was awesome) did have its impact weakened by immediately landing the consequences of Claudette losing it with the lad. I felt this scene would have been better placed later in the episode instead of immediately after the break,

In the other side story we have a desperate Dutch working with a completely apathetic Billings while trying to work out who dropped a concrete cinder block on a woman's head. While Dutch is running about getting stonewalled by all of the tenants Billings is putting in the absolute minimum effort. Chatting up a pretty witness and giving people change so they can purchase stuff from his own vending machines (after a Dutch rounds them all into the Barn in an attempt to break their silence). But the crowning piece of this story is where an irate Dutch vents at Billings over his lack of effort, just to have Billings first of all respond by saying he cannot be bothered to put anything in over the minimum needed and then immediately solve the case in an almost completely off-hand fashion. Billings (as I think I said last week) is one heck of a detective when he wants to be, he's showing a level of brilliance on par with season one Dutch.

All in all it was a bit of an unusual episode, the strongest stuff didn't come from the Vic storyline, it was a bit of a reversal compared to normal and I think it worked. But this still remains one of the weakest episodes the show has ever had, but from what I've heard it's the weakest one this season, so things will get better.

Other Thoughts:
It seems that Danny thinks the same as I did; she's convinced it's Tina's fault the room (in last weeks episode) wasn't cleared. There also seems to be some subtle love triangle thing going on involving Dutch. Are both women interested in him?

While I'm still talking about Danny, the scene where she pulled out the gun was pretty intense. She really should not be partnered with Tina in any situation as she doesn't feel safe with her.

Last week's reference to the place where Guardo was killed was rather subtle, this week it was balls out funny and in your face.

That lad quickly c-walking/shuffling in his slippers was brilliant. But the whole situation felt really dangerous for the police involved. It felt more tense than it should have. On a side note this and this are two of my favourite c-walk videos.

Claudette's lupus is still making its way back into the storyline.

I do like the way that The Shield doesn't overplay the gore factor, they normally cut quickly to it and then pan away, or provide only some of the details. It really makes the scenes more disturbing.

Autumn Chiklis doesn't really seem up to the part any more, the more lines they give her the more obvious it is she can't act. The scene with her telling Billings to arrest her father had a lot less impact than it could.

But the scene following it where Billings is all buddy-buddy with Vic and 'sensitive' about Vic's situation with the lass is just ace. Billings has always wanted to be close to the Strike Team, but he's at best a pencil pusher. Vic's face after Billings hands him some advice as 'equals in fatherhood' is just brilliant. Once again David Marciano just nails his part and provides the laughs.

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Well the first episode of Dexter's new season was leaked so I thought I'd check it out and save myself a little time later on when things get... crowded.

There are heavy spoilers for the first two seasons of this ahead and light ones for the episode itself. So I'll go and put up a spoiler cut right here.

A little light bloodshed and pancakes after the link...

The previous two seasons of Dexter have been seminal affairs that managed to pack so many ground breaking events into them that even now; on the rewatch, they are staggeringly brilliant. But there have been issues with the show, not in quality but in peaking early. I am still surprised and a little saddened with the decision to kill Rudy at the end of the first season, this deviated from the book's decision - which I feel was a better choice. Having Rudy/Brian out there still alive and potentially interacting with Dexter from time to time would have provided a potential returning hook. It also would have helped later on because the scenes between Michael C. Hall and Christian Carmargo were fantastical intense and reigniting those would have been interesting. It could also have kept viewers hooked because you could have a copy-cat Ice Truck Killer fake out leading into the return of Brian.

There is a similar problem with the loss of Doakes at the end of season two. It was phenomenal and gut-punching, but I still maintain that the second season would have been better served if it was the third season. I would have liked more time to see an escalation of the conflict between the pair and more screen time for Erik King who is brilliant. The second season is still brilliant, but I just wish they had pushed that storyline back a year. Or at least jailed Doakes for the crime to allow some interaction between Dexter and him, oh well. Killing Doakes was genius, but I can't help but feel the show has lost something now.

As such; at the start of the third season, Dexter is in the safest place he's been since the series started. There are no hooks in him right now at all and that's a problem, unlike the start of the previous season Dexter has a pretty good life right now. He has Rita, he has no problems killing, Doakes is down for the Bay Harbour Butcher murders and Dexter has refined his dumping methods to avoid suspicion. Life is pretty good for him.

And the hook for this season doesn't seem to have enough of an impact, in a struggle Dexter kills the wrong man and violates Harry's code. A man who turns out to be the brother of Assistant District Attorney Prado (Jimmy Smitts), Prado is billed as 'changing Dexter's life' over the course of this season and to be fair, Smitts is very good. It's just that his younger brother has already turned out to be more than a little shady and as such I'm expecting Dexter to discover that he didn't break Harry's code.

It's still Dexter, it's still brilliant. But as far as opening episodes go this one was the weakest of the three we've had so far. But I can forgive a weaker first episode if it turns out to be the calm before the storm and I'm sure it will be.

Random thoughts:
One name in the opening sequence always stood out in the previous season, it's the place that was held by Erik King. His name was the only one that blinked out of existence instead of just vanishing. I wondered about that choice for a while and came to the conclusion that his time was numbered. C.S. Lee is in that spot now and his name likewise blinks out - does this mean that Vince will bite it this season? Or is it just a decision to keep consistency?

Dexter losing his tooth/crown was close to pointless if he was going to just pick it up and pocket it in the crime scene immediately afterwards. It does serve to highlight how he can be so effective at evading capture, but we already know that so I'm not sure it was needed at all.

Jennifer Carpenter (Debra) looked better with longer hair, she has quite a long face anyway and now her hair is shorter it's even more obvious. But it's not terrible and I'm always (childishly) pleased with the quantity and quality of her swearing.

The new policeman, the one who's under investigation (I can't even recall his name that's how little an impression he made on me). Man he was awkwardly inserted into this episode. But his inclusion has nothing on his haircut, I have no idea what they were thinking with that one but his scalp looks terrible.

Batista gets his promotion, yay! He's one of the more endearing characters in the show; hard working, inept with women, but a good mate and he's already proven to be an effective choice as Sergeant as he dealt with Debra in exactly the right manner.

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While I'm waiting for the pre-aired episode of Dexter to *ahem* arrive I've decided to talk about Six Feet Under. I suspect it might be because both shows star Michael C. Hall in them and show what a fantastic character actor he is, because he's damn near unrecognisable as David Fisher when compared to Dexter Morgan.


Starring:

Peter Krause as Nate Fisher
Michael C. Hall as David Fisher
Frances Conroy as Ruth Fisher
Lauren Ambrose as Claire Fisher
Mathew St. Patrick as Keith Charles
Freddy Rodríguez as Federico Diaz
and Rachel Griffiths as Brenda Chenowith
With Richard Jenkins as Nathaniel Fisher


There are some shows I will point at and call 'landmark television', these are shows that managed to change the landscape of televisual storytelling through their existence or highlighted an exciting new way to tell their story. Some of them lost their way and suffered at times (like 24, Lost, Prison Break & BSG) while others never had a single major duff moment (like The Shield, The Wire, Dexter, Homicide, Arrested Development & Seinfeld). Six Feet Under belongs to the latter category.

The show, created by Alan Ball, centers around the lives of the Fisher family; who own, run and live in a funeral home. They live their lives steeped in death, surrounded by the dead and grieving. This could appear to be a bleak existence for anyone, but for the Fishers it's life as usual. Which is the core concept of the show for me, it's about death but it celebrates life.

Everything about the show is simultaneously macabre and beautiful, at least one person dies in every episode - normally these people become the clients for the Fisher family - and these deaths are handled in a way that is sometimes shocking, sometimes amusing but always original. Much like the start of House M.D. or any hospital drama you find yourself watching for the soon to be deceased and wondering who & how. Then once the moment comes the show treats it with a quiet dignity that is at first unexpected and then wonderful. Unlike most shows, Six Feet Under uses fades to white instead of the standard fade to black. These fades are used to mark each death in the show along with their name, date of birth and date of death. It's a unique touch that manages to suggest a sense of hope about what lays beyond life's ultimate doorway.



Nate Fisher is the oldest child of Nathaniel & Ruth Fisher, he grew up hating life in the funeral home and moved far away, returning only to visit the family on holidays. But on one such visit he meets a beautiful woman in the airport and they are overcome by their impulses. While this is happening tragedy strikes the Fisher family and it changes the course of Nate's life forever. Forcing him to stay in Los Angeles and help with the family business.

On one level the show deals with death and the various characters viewpoints, expectations and experiences of it. Each and every character has a fundamental sadness to them, they are forever marked by their experiences. But the other side of the show is a rather more conventional family driven drama, Claire has problems in school, David and Keith have difficulties in their relationship (mostly driven initially by David's reluctance to come out of the closet) and Nate struggles with the new direction his life has taken. It's a show with a very black sense of humour to it, while you won't spend every moment laughing - it has more than it's fair share of comedy moments.



Six Feet Under altered the direction of modern television in a profound manner, before death was mostly something that tended to happen only in crime dramas and was something to be "solved". But the show turned it into something of a spectacle and made a real event out of people dying. It broke down many of the taboos surrounding death, it was also one of the first major shows to portray a gay couple in a realistic and sensitive manner. David and Keith's relationship is a very realistic one, they feel like a proper couple and the show doesn't seem to take advantage of this by playing up the gay aspect. It's very well handled.

Michael C. Hall's performance as David Fisher was in fact so good that quite often viewers expressed surprise when they discovered he was in fact not gay in real life. The man is a phenomenal character actor and he was the sole reason I started watching Dexter. Peter Krause is also superb as Nate, giving a wonderful 'everyman' performance that helps cement the viewer into the reality of his new life. Sadly Peter hasn't really moved onto anything else that's interested me, I kept meaning to watch "Dirty, Sexy, Money" because he was in it, but I never got round to it. Likewise every other member of the core cast is just brilliant, I could go into what each and every single one brings to the show but I'll just stop by saying Mathew St. Patrick rocks.


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I've decided to waste time complete my reviews of the Red Dwarf collection DVDs for the sake of completeness while I'm waiting to watch the final two episodes of Burn Notice.


For the previous series review see here:
Series 1
Series 2

Starring:
Chris Barrie as Arnold Rimmer
Craig Charles as Dave Lister
Danny John-Jules as "The Cat"
Robert Llewellyn as Kryten
Hattie Hayridge as Holly


The third series of Red Dwarf marks the point where the show evolved into the entity that captured the hearts of the British nation. Sadly it is also the first season where Normal Lovett was not involved in the project, Hattie Hayridge (who played Hilly in the final episode of the previous season) takes over the role for the next three series. A large amount of events are explained in a ludicrously fast moving set of text that parodies Star Wars. The short version is, Holly has changed his appearance, Lister has repaired Kryten but had to give him a new head and Lister's twin sons have left to their mother's dimension.

Series Three is really where Red Dwarf found its feet and struck a balance between dialog and sci-fi action. It's also the first series I actually watched as it was being broadcast on TV, having just become old enough to be allow to stay up. As such I have fond memories of the episodes, but on rewatching they hold up brilliantly.

The first episode Backwards is a clever piece that has the crew discovering a wormhole that leads to a 'modern day' (i.e. 1990s) version of Earth where time travels backwards. Initially Rimmer and Kryten find the place first and enjoy their lives but Lister and the Cat ruin it for them and they end up leaving. Marooned is a fantastic character driven showpiece for Chris Barrie and Craig Charles which has their characters stranded on an ice planet and Lister forced to go to extreme lengths to survive. Polymorph remains my favourite episode of this series as it features massive laughs (especially in the boxers scene) and some of the most memorable lines from the show. Bodyswap is another episode where the actors get a chance to show off, this time it's Craig, Chris and Danny who all get to act like each other as their personalities have been swapped about. Timeslides I'm not so fond of, it has a lot of cause and effect but it also has a very major change to the history of the show being used as a throwaway gag at the end and it doesn't really work. The Last Day is a strong ending to the series, when Kryten's expiration date comes up his replacement arrives, and the long journey in space has affected his sanity.

It's a great series of the show and it sets up the sweet period for Red Dwarf (Series three to six are the best, especially series six) and it often serves as a better introduction to the show over the first two series.


Packaging:
The BBC have kept the same standard for every series throughout, matching the spine up on each series to create a copy of the logo and only changing the colour plus stills used on each. I love this attention to detail as nothing throws me more than a series switching up their design halfway through.

Extras:
As always the BBC put others to shame with the extras on this. Not only do you get excellent and interesting cast commentary on every single episode (even if Danny is a little bit too fond of the word woofer) you also get a whole separate disc filled with stuff:

Cast Commentary
"All Change" Original Documentary
Deleted Scenes
Smeg Ups (Out takes)
Hatties DJ Diary
Tribute to Mel Bibby
"Food" Featurette
Backwards - Forwards
Trailers
Raw FX Footage
Isolated Music Cues
Talking Book Chapters
Photo Gallery
Weblink
And Easter Eggs plus a collectors booklet

Price:
The outright winner for this boxed set is play.com who have it at £7.99. Which is 4.9ppm, of course the problem with UK TV shows is they are always shorter than the American ones which makes it hard for them to ever win the ppm wars.

Details:
Run time: 161 mins
Aspect Ratio: 4:3 Full Frame
Audio: Stereo
Colour: PAL
Subtitles: English - SDH

Series three of Red Dwarf is an exceptionally excellent package. It's got it all in there and the amazing thing is that the show continues to get better after this one, it's Red Dwarf just as it finds a stride. I'd recommend anyone who's not watched the show to try this one first as it gives you a better idea of what the show is really like, the first two series feel very different (but are worth watching after this one).



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At the end of every week (Friday) I'm going to post the best reviews I've read around the net about each episode of the final season. Naturally you follow these links at your own risk if you've not watched up to and including episode 701.

Here's the first batch:

TV.Com - There are five at the moment and I'm sure more will turn up later. They're a mixed bag, some are a good read, others not so.

2GuysTalking - This one is a biggie, there's one heck of a lot of information and thoughts about the episode. Fortunately for us it's all broken down into sections with headers for each. Nicely laid out imo and worth at least skimming through.

Daemonstv - A very short one from Eric at daemonstv, highlighting how confusing the show can be for viewers, I feel especially sorry for our US cousins who have only just had the 6th season released on DVD. Over here in Blighty we've had around half a year to watch and re-watch the 6th season so I didn't have that much trouble following (I did for get one or two character names, I still can't recall the name of the darn tycoon who's so important).

TheTwoCents - At first I wasn't sure where the review was here, but it turned out to be located in the comments, a pretty clever way of hiding spoilers without having to use HTML which still doesn't work quite right. *shakes a fist*

IMDB - melanie809 (and others I assume, but she's the last to update when I looked) provides a synopsis/recap here that's shows a little bit of Dutch loving and manages to cover most of the details in the episode. Good place to check if you're not sure on something, for example that tycoon is called Pezuela! I have no excuses now!

TVsquad - Jonathan Toomey runs through his thoughts on the premiere and there's even a poll for predicting how things will end up for Vic. They missed out the option I would have voted for, which is "He walks away from everything and just disappears." But it seems most people think Vic needs to catch a bullet/needle for everything his done.

Author Jason Pinter's Thoughts are here.

And of course there are Alan Sepinwall's review as well. I already linked to that one before in my own review, but I'm including it here for the sake of completeness.

If anyone comes across any others, hook me up.
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For a while now I've enjoyed the fact that I can watch The Colbert Report legally via the Comedy Central website, especially because I do not get FXUK in my viewing package and switching up in order to get it isn't an option right now.

But this week Comedy Central took a HUGE step backwards in the world of free media and closed its viewing borders. Putting it back with less enlightened sites like Showtime, tv.com and so forth.

They've tipped my hand, I was content to watch episodes with a full 2 mins of advertising in them because it was legaly available. But now I'm stuck with going back to the original method I used to watch the show and I don't want to do that because of the hassle, illegality and so forth. So I'm afraid that The Colbert Report is disappearing from my "Currently Watching" list and will not be returning until Comedy Central rescind this action. What happened to the golden age of media? Where's our culture?

They're not going to bully me into watching FXUK, not even if it does show all of the best television.


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So here we are; at the beginning of the end with the first episode in The Shield: The Final Act and the long wait is finally over. The Co-Efficient of Drag brings us right back to the action the day after season six's finale and gets on with the meat of the show immediately.

More after the link...

Unlike my Burn Notice reviews which are part recap/part review I'm just going to be reviewing my thoughts on each Shield episode right after watching it. This is in part to keep the amount of writing down in size and in part because I don't like pausing The Shield to make notes.

The Shield hasn't ever had a single bad episode ever, in fact even average episodes for this show are well above the standard of the rest. But often the season openers are a little weaker than the main thrust of the season. (When I say weaker I mean weaker in comparison to standard set by the Shield, they're still amazing). And The Co-Efficient of Drag has a similar feel to it, the viewer is left trying to recall all the events of the previous season (even I struggled and I watched Season 6 last week) and the "Previously on The Shield" segment doesn't cover everything.

So here's the short version: Shane is in bed with the Armenians, Vic is facing retirement and has formed an alliance with Acevada against a property tycoon (who's name evades me right now - but I'm sure I'll get to know it as the season progresses) while also siding with the tycoon in an attempt to use the man's pull to keep his badge. Billings has set up a law suit against the department, Claudette has to improve the stats for the department or it'll get closed, Julien is a part of the strike team and Hiatt has been fired.

So the action takes place the day after the end of the sixth season and it opens with a pretty hard hitting scene that was leaked/released onto the Internet a while back. Vic and Ronnie hit Shane's home in retaliation for his kidnapping of Vic's family. Shane barely manages to explain his situation and he sets events in motion for the episode, it becomes a race between Vic plus Ronnie and Shane to find the hit man Shane shot in the previous season. Whoever makes it there first will

In counterpoint to this intense storyline we have two others, bodies are being dragged along streets to mark out territory (this links to the property tycoon) and a female federal agent joins the Barn as part of the investigation. Anyone want to make a bet how long it is before she ends up sleeping with Vic? And the other storyline provides lighter relief as it involves Dutch investigating one of Billings's old cases and brings him back into the show.

I'm very pleased to see Billings back as he's just fantastic in this show. David Marciano is a great actor and he really sells Billings as a believable human being. It would be too easy for someone to ham it up with a big selection of salad sauce when they're given such an obvious clown role, but David doesn't. He manages to give him a human quality while also not distracting us from the facts that Billings is a cowardly weasel of a man who can occasionally show signs of being a brilliant cop. Also pairing Billings with Dutch on screen is always great.

The main event in this episode, and the one that provides the punch; is Ronnie's actions. This episode marks the moment where Ronnie steps over the line and kills in cold blood. Something Vic did with Terry and Shane did with Lem. We always knew that Ronnie was going to get more screen time once Lem was out of the picture and this episode shows not only will we have a larger role for Ronnie, but it also shows that David Rees Snell can act. It's good to see Ronnie becoming his own man.

Speaking of acting, it's also clear that Walton Goggins (Shane Vandrell) has upped his game; he's gained some composure and a lot of presence; the scenes where he's talking in prison are great and he's now able to hold his own in a scene against Michael Chiklis. While ultimately Shane cannot be forgiven for killing Lem ("Lem was family" - Vic) at least it doesn't appear that he's going to be spending the season whining and screwing up all the time (maybe just some of it.)

Julien, Danny and Tina get minor roles in this episode. Julien in particular feels sidelined at the moment; but it's tough for his character because he's been placed into a team that's lost members, has a close knit core group and is currently divided against itself. Danny on the other hand has a bit of a shock moment where she's attacked by a hiding criminal after the room was supposed to be cleared - needless to say she wants the job of the officer responsible and I suspect that Tina is the guilty party here, she's a complete screw up.

There are also a lot of call backs already:
Aramboles was left chained up in the room where Vic killed Guardo last season
Claudette's illness is still an issue
Danny and Dutch's kiss was wrapped up very quickly thanks to Dutch's usual lack of social abilities. Hee!
The new agent came from the same department as Haitt
The DA who appears also featured in Season 4
There is a call back to a scene from the second season where the head of the battered woman shelter (who Vic was dating) shoved an abusive husband over the railing

So as beginnings go it was a pretty good one for The Shield. The episode was one of the strongest initial season episodes and holds up alongside Season 4 or 5 - both of which had additional punch thanks to Glen Close and Forest Whitaker. So it's a great start and having Ronnie finally step over the same line as Vic and Shane gave it additional meaning which I didn't expect to see so soon in the season.

For another review of this episode I'd recommend reading Alan Sepinwall's blog post located here. (I will be reading it right after clicking "Publish Post" as I prefer to write my own review before reading ones belonging to others.)

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As I'm sure you're aware the first episode of the final season of The Shield airs on FX tonight at 10pm (68 mins long apparently). I hope you're ready for this as it's going to be the most gut wrenching ride this side of the falls. There will be a review up tomorrow evening (GMT), which gives people time to view the episode without being hit by spoilers. I will still put it behind a cut mind you.

I'd like to give a warm welcome to a brand new blog in the form of Snark and Fury. There's no content there right now but I can assure you that past writing about television from the author (on his other blog) has always been entertaining so it's one to keep an eye on.

In other Shield related news (all spoiler free unless specifically mentioned otherwise):
Here's a link to Alan Sepinwall's mostly spoiler light review on NJ.com
The teaser trailer on YouTube
A few Publicity stills from season 7
A series of final cuts on FX Networks (should be spoiler free) including a look back at the previous six seasons
TV Squad's and Cinema Blend both have an early look at The Shield (Minor spoilers in each, I didn't read too hard once I realised)

I'll see you back here tomorrow after I've watched the first episode!
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Direct Link to the site:
http://www.watchtheguild.com/

Starring:
Felicia Day as "Codex"
Sandeep Parikh as "Zaboo"
Jeff Lewis as "Vork"
Amy Okuda as "Tinkerballa"
Robin Thorsen as "Clara"
Vincent Caso as "Bladezz"

The Guild is a collection of that short web-isodes that have been out for a while and focus on a small group of dysfunctional individuals who draw their entire social support system from each other, via the medium of an online guild in an undisclosed game (but most likely World of Warcraft).

Now this show is about a subject that I have a rather; intense dislike of. I really don't approve of MMOs as a whole, especially the latest batch headed up by World of Warcraft. Originally I wasn't that bothered about them, but having lived with people who became complete WoW-Heads and as such totally obnoxious losers who lived strange hours, smelt bad and talked in complete net-speak gibberish I'm not too well disposed towards them any more.

Note: I'm sure there are well balanced individuals who treat MMOs as occasional bursts of enjoyment out there. But I can't understand how people can spend hours sat in front of what is essentially a very bad movie without getting bored. Still people are free to spend their lives as they wish and it doesn't harm me so enjoy!

Felicia Day (who recently shot to fame as Penny in Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog and previously appeared on shows like Buffy) stars in and writes this off beat comedy about a young lass who's entire life is currently lived on the Internet as part of a tiny group of fellow addicts loosely called 'The Guild'. Her life is disrupted when 'Zaboo' turns up uninvited on her doorstep and starts proclaiming his undying love for her. This, combined with an "in-game" issue with Bladezz spamming 'fag' galvanizes her into arranging a face to face meeting with the other members of the guild. Who all live locally but have never met before...


It's not a bad little diversion to watch in an evening, each episode is approximately five minutes long and it's quite funny at times. Felicia is very likable and amusing as Codex and performances from the rest of the cast are equally strong, Jeff Lewis (Vork) and Vincent Caso (Bladezz) in particular are great, but I also enjoyed Amy Okuda's disinterested put-downs thrown at various times. You're left wondering why on earth she bothers with them because she seems to do nothing but insult the others and play on her DS. Which I found very amusing.

But it's not all perfection, parts of the dialog I found just too dorky for my stomach to handle, especially the stuff in the final episode which had me cringing when the guild members use in game terms while confronting Zaboo's mother in a restaurant - treating the whole thing like a "boss battle". I'm sure MMO users will find that part very funny, but I didn't like it.

Additionally, I just could not stand Zaboo from the very first moment he turned up; this was intentional as he's an unwelcome guest in Codex's house and she's too passive to properly drive him out. But I found myself getting irritated at him every time he opened his mouth. This isn't to say everything that he does is annoying and unfunny. The photo shopped picture of himself and Codex was amusing and the Ethernet cable incident made me laugh. But on the whole he was the weakest part of the series and for me this was a shame because most of the story revolves around him. Also, and I know this is entirely superficial, but I hate his eyebrows - man they are annoying.

Last of all, I could not stand the 'theme music' they've chosen to use; please - if you ever read this guys - switch it up next season and use something that sounds less like fairies taking a whizz on bells. I found myself skipping past it every single episode and it's only a few seconds long.

Still, negative feelings about Zaboo and the extreme, cringe worthy level of dorkiness (both of which are in the same area of comedy as "The Office" and "Fawlty Towers" so they're still quite acceptable) it's a great little series that should appeal to computer people (ooh you computer people with your computer stuff and your computer lingo, you scare me!). I guess I'm not part of the target demographic but I still enjoyed it once I gave it a chance.

I'll give it a 3/5 (which is pretty good for an independent, free, net web-isode thing) and I look forward to the next 'season'.


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Homicide Series 6 came out today but I didn't get a free copy (I guess all that Fremantle Media Enterprises bashing over the packaging doesn't pay) and as it doesn't include the film (Homicide: Life Everlasting) and the cheapest it's available for is £27.89 at sendit I've decided against purchasing it for a while. I really regret not ordering the region 1 versions from Amazon these days mind you. But let's push on and look at series five shall we?

For the previous reviews in the Homicide series check here:
The Complete First Series (Seasons One and Two)
The Complete Second Series (Season Three)
The Complete Third Series (Season Four)
The Complete Fourth Series (Season Five)


Starring:
Richard Belzer as Detective John Munch
Yaphet Kotto as Lieutenant Al Giardello
Kyle Secor as Detective Tim Bayliss
Clark Johnson as Detective Meldrick Lewis
Andre Braugher as Detective Frank Pembleton
Reed Diamond as Detective Mike Kellerman
Peter Gerety as Detective Stuart Gharty
Jon Seda as Detective Paul Falsone
Callie Thorne as Detective Laura Ballard
Michelle Forbes as Dr Julianna Cox


Season Six/Series Five of Homicide is possibly the show at it's finest, from the triple bill opening episodes guest starring James Earl Jones through to an electrifying final episode the show delivers blow after blow of highest quality entertainment.

The cast gets quite an overhaul compared to previous seasons; Brodie (Max Perlich), Kay Howard (Melissa Leo), Megan Russertt (Isabella Hofmann) all depart. Also Paul Falsone (Jon Seda) moves up from guest star to regular member, Laura Ballard joins (Callie Thorne) and Terri Stivers (Toni Lewis) gets additional screen time. But the most surprising return is when the cowardly cop Stuart Gharty (Peter Gerety, The Wire) from season four's episode "Scene of the Crime" and Season Five's two parter "Partners and Other Strangers" and "Strangers and Other Partners" (where he was IAD) has been transfered into Homicide. A theme of unjust promotions that runs through the series (and it's descendant "The Wire").

Kellerman's actions from the end of the previous season hold a huge sweeping presence over several cast members in this season and heavily influence the actions of several members of the unit. There is another cross over episode with Law & Order in "Baby it's you" and things build up to a terrific final episode that really rocks the boat.

This season is every bit as good as previous ones, while the new detectives can be a little hard to adjust to - especially Falsone as he keeps prodding into the events of the previous season - they all give excellent performances and fit in well by the end of the season. Homicide deserves those three Peaboy's it's won as it really is such a fantastic show.


Packaging:
I'm really a bit tired of pointing out the flaws in this range. The main thing it has going for it is it matches up with series four; but this means it doesn't match up with series 1 to 3. Again a simple cardboard dust sleeve would have mostly fixed this problem at minimal cost. Also once again the photos on the back are from the incorrect seasons; this time we have one that's actually from season 6 (series 5) but the other two are from before series 3 as Baldwin and Beatty make an appearance again...

Extras:
None, as usual.

Details:
Run time: 1035 mins approx (23 Episodes)
Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Audio: 2.0 Stereo
Languages: English
Colour: Colour/PAL
Subtitles: English

Price:
Series 5 hasn't been out for too long so it hasn't dropped much in price - I still feel that the standard asking price of £40 per boxed set is ridiculous, sure the show is amazing but the product being put out is not worth anything near that. Right now the cheapest is £28.99 from play.com but I still feel that's over the odds for this considering all the flaws in the Region 2 version. It's a rather pathetic 2.8ppm, but it is worth noting that HMV often drops the price of the Homicide DVDs to £15 and when that happens it does become worth picking up (really I don't see why they just can't keep the price at £25 per season instead of fluctuating it between too expensive and too cheap.)


Same as yesterday's review on Series 4 this is an amazing show wrapped up in a rather stinky product. Ultimately I'd recommend Homicide to anyone who's enjoyed top notch police drama like The Wire, The Shield and so forth. But I'd also recommend them to avoid the region 2 versions and purchase the region 1 versions instead as Amazon and Play have them. I wish I had done.



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