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ENTERTAINMENT May 18, 2006 Season's End The 2005-2006 network television season is just about done for me. All I have left on my schedule is the two hour finale of Lost next week and then I'm free of my self-imposed television commitments. Right now, all I'm planning to watch over the summer is the third season of The 4400 . Beyond that, I'm looking forward to getting out of the house and enjoying the hot, summer weather… as I head towards dark, air conditioned movie theatres to pay up the ass for a bunch of over-hyped movies that will mostly disappoint. The lowdown on how the past season went for my shows that aren't Lost or Battlestar Galactica: Veronica Mars
Veronica graduated high school, solved the mystery of who crashed the school bus and killed a bunch of her classmates in the first episode, and even found out who raped her two years ago. But this year, sadly, it was just harder to care as much. Unlike season one's emotionally charged and deeply personal murder mystery of who killed Lilly Kane, the bus crash mystery was actually several mini-mysteries in one. It was a labyrinthine series of plotlines that I couldn't explain to you with a map and a minotaur. Veronica herself didn't have the same fiery drive about getting to the bottom of the bus crash as she had about who killed her best friend (and how could she?) and that rubbed off on this viewer. Still, there was an abundance of good stuff this year: Charisma Carpenter getting naked regularly, a lot more of Tina Majorino as Mac, cutting Teddy Dunn's Duncan loose as he was never anywhere near as interesting a love interest for Veronica as Jason Dohring's Logan is, and one of the high points of the series: an episode guest starring Alia Shawkat and Michael Cera of Arrested Development . (With the possibility of recurring roles for them in season three as well as a permanent role for Majorino.) Veronica's graduation moment when everyone applauded her was just shy of Buffy's prom moment when she was voted “class protector.” And while the central mystery itself was difficult to invest in, the finale where Veronica confronted the real killer and nearly lost her father was gut-wrenching. But the best stuff this year was saved for Logan, who had a four-episode arc where he seduced a girl named Hannah who was the daughter of the witness to his murder prosecution and ended up falling for her and breaking both of their hearts. The episode set in the school carnival where Logan first picked Hannah up was practically a master's class for boys on how to pick up a girl (the formula: 60% asshole, 40% sensitive, sweet guy). And then there is Logan 's evolving relationship with Veronica, which hit one of the series' highs during the anti-prom when Logan drunkenly confessed his love for Veronica and then crushed her heart when she returned the next morning to reciprocate and found him in bed with Charisma Carpenter. Lastly, the finale was satisfying, with a pretty daring fantasy sequence showing what Veronica's life would have been like had Lilly never been murdered, and closing with the kickoff of next year's mystery. Season three will be Veronica's freshman year at Hearst college, where there's already a serial rapist to hunt down, one of a series of smaller mysteries solved in mini-arcs of episodes instead of the full-season mysteries of seasons past. Unfortunately, ratings are down in season 2, a reflection not of the quality of the show, but of how difficult it was to penetrate its storylines for the layman or veteran viewer. This has resulted in a 22 episode order for next year that can be cut down to 13 (and then cancellation) if Veronica Mars's ratings don't improve. But 22 or 13, I'm glad the show is coming back for another go. It's still one of the best shows on television. Bones
Bones is probably my most refreshing show as it's not heavily-serialized unlike every other hourlong I watch. The selling point of Bones , the palpable chemistry between Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz , only got better as the series progressed. Booth and Brennan love each other. There's no doubt, no hiding it. They're the most well-matched and entertaining man-woman crime fighting couple on television – Mulder and Scully without the sad, geeky repression. Brennan and Booth don't get together not because the plot demands they stay platonic but because their characters are so finely developed. They're waiting for the right time, maybe when their lives don't revolve around identifying the victims of murders from their remains and then catching the killers, which is the one love they share that supersedes the love they feel for each other. And seriously, they do have plenty of time. At least another season, thanks to good ratings and the good fortune to be paired with American Idol. Booth and Brennan's characters aren't the only reason to enjoy Bones ; the entire supporting cast has stepped up to be fascinating players themselves. Jack Hodgins and Angela Montenegro have initiated a flirtation that could turn into something down the road. Zack Addy is the probably best nerd on network television and though the seeds have been planted for him to leave the show, they are thankfully in no rush to pull that trigger. They've all gelled very nicely as a cast. Bones generally avoids shock value storylines and slam-bang action for character-driven investigations and moral quandaries, but the series has hit a couple of noticeable high points: Adam Baldwin guest starred as an FBI agent who plotted to kidnap and murder Brennan. An injured Booth busting out of the hospital and saving Brennan's life was thus far the emotional zenith of the series. And that was followed very closely by the season finale where Brennan learns the truth about her parents' disappearance, who they really were, and who she was. They also figured out quickly that Emily Deschanel is a beautiful woman who should smile more, and she does at opportune moments, always to great effect. The beauty of Bones is the world doesn't have to end in every episode and they don't need lurid soap opera shenanigans to keep the characters interesting. Booth and Brennan are doing just fine investigating, arguing, trading witty banter, and balancing each other out. Smallville
One of the best decisions Rob and I ever made was to stop recapping Smallville . He went one further by quitting Smallville altogether, while I just can't. Because it's Superman. Even a fucked up, bastardized, retarded, serial rape of his origin story, it's still Superman. And I was there from the series' beginning, unfortunately. I'm invested, for better or worse. I'm compelled to see this through. Still, two things were beneficial that made this season far, far more tolerable (and fleetingly, even enjoyable) than last season. One, since I don't have to recap the show, I don't have to pay very close attention, which helps. And two, this season thankfully was not the shit storm last season was. Oh, there were low points: Lana becomes a vampire. Lana becomes a drug addict. But then, Aquaman and Cyborg showed up. There was a lot more sex and Lois getting into bikinis and becoming a stripper. Lionel Luthor turned babyface, was possessed by some sort of Kryptonian intelligence, and is this close to banging Martha Kent. Meanwhile, Clark is still an asshole and I still don't like him. He opened the season without his powers, which meant he could fuck Lana to his heart's content, while Chloe treated him like a used dishrag during their investigations. We learned without his powers, Clark doesn't bring much to the crime-fighting table. That was pretty good. But then, Clark got his powers back and quickly dumped Lana for the last time. Lana then ran into the arms of Lex, who'd been wanting to bone her for years and to his credit, was only waiting for her to be legal. In the midst of this soap opera, James Marsters showed up as Brainiac, who is on Earth to use Clark as a means to free Zod from the Phantom Zone. Probably the most retarded and least believable storyline this year involved Jonathan Kent running for and defeating Lex Luthor to become Kansas state senator, completely unaware that Lionel Luthor clandestinely funded his campaign. But then Jonathan's pretty much a dope, as evidenced by hiring 20 year old college dropout Lois Lane as his campaign manager. Still, compare the storylines "Jonathan becomes state senator" to "Lana is possessed by a witch" and season 5 wins by a landslide. Smallville managed to hit a series high point with the episode when Clark told Lana he is from Krypton, proposed to her, and then got fucked over by Jor-El, who killed her and then took Jonathan's life in exchange for Lana's, who doesn't remember a thing. The season ended with Brainiac coming back to unleash Zod and trap Clark in the Phantom Zone. Good riddance. After five years of that douchebag Clark , I think I prefer Zod (in Lex's body) ruling the Earth. The stuff I enjoyed most was 1) Chloe, and 2) Lex and Lana's relationship, where Lex did what Clark would never do: tell Lana everything about his nefarious plans and surprisingly, she was totally cool with it all. All Lana ever wanted was a boyfriend who wouldn't keep secrets. Lex is a super villain? Lana's in! Oh, Lex is actually the evil Zod? Call Lana Mrs. Zod, then. Just no more secrets! God, this show is retarded, but at least this season, it was occasionally a fun kind of retarded. At this point, that's all I ask. |
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