TV from 10/14 - 10/20

Sunday (10/14)

Dexter

This is the first episode that I have reviewed of any show this season that is getting full marks. On top of this being a great episode, Michael C Hall delivered the best performance of the year in his speech at the end of the episode. It was a truly amazing speech about his addiction and the dark passenger that he lets take control was mesmerizing. Plus it lead to the great moment where Doakes thinks that Dexter is a drunk or drug addict and no longer suspects him for anything more devious. There was also a great storyline of Dexter hunting and killing a car salesman that included great moments where he ends up buying a minivan and doesn’t know why. Plus there was some good Bay Harbor Butcher detecting by Debra and Keith Carradine. Sweet episode.

10 out of 10

Monday (10/15)

Chuck

This was the first episode of Chuck that I really liked. I’m still not totally sold on the show, but for one night I was fan. Could it be because the rogue agent kept taking off her clothes throughout the episode? Maybe. On top of that fantastic plot point, there were some decent action scenes with the heist and then the showdown at the hotel. Until I actually choose to like the show, I don’t have much to say.

7 out of 10

Heroes

And the bloated cast makes itself known once again. This was a whole episode with nothing on Hiro or Peter, who are probably the 2nd and 3rd storyline behind Claire. Because of this we have too much Mohinder/Molly/Parkman and Mexican adventures. Both of these arcs at least delivered some good moments. The Molly plotline moved forward the whole previous generation of powers story so that’s good even if it means that Parkman’s dad is one of them. While Sylar is now rolling with the bleeding eyes siblings so at least he will break things up by killing folks. Micah’s new life in New Orleans also happened and if it weren’t for Rey Misterio I would have tuned the whole thing out. I am still unsure about where the Bennet story is going because Daddy Bennet should always see right through lies and Claire is just lying to his face now. Well Kristen Bell shows up next week so things are looking up. Hopefully Powers Boothe doesn’t show up and have her skull cracked because it is that and not Veronica Mars that I remember her for.

7 out of 10

Weeds

Well this episode finally started to clarify where this season was leading towards. Nancy royally pisses off 2 people by the end of this episode, and living the life that she does it is not good to give people a reason to mess with you. Having Celia see Nancy and Matthew Modine in action was cool since I hate Celia, but the whole pension argument between Nancy and Peter’s ex was annoying. This has all been thrown together so fast so I just don’t care about that woman yet. There was a nice Conrad/Silas scene and Doug getting audited was cool. We’ll see how the season finishes up.

6 out of 10

Californication

This is 2 in a row that has severely disappointed me. I think I watched the entire thing on fast forward and that was before I knew that there was a threesome involving Hank and his wacky bald agent. That never needed to happen and I don’t think it really did. Plus now not only is Mia pissing me off but also the agent’s Suicide Girl assistant is flying up the annoying scale. There was a little Hank and Karen at the conclusion so hopefully we can get back to that next week.

4 out of 10

Tuesday (10/16)

The Unit

Another solid effort by The Unit and for once the dual storylines both delivered the goods. Now this probably happened because Jonas was holding down the arc back on base. Actually Jonas’ story was really good with him boot-camping his daughter to get her ready before she enlists. The story with the rest of the team was interesting because people were lost and Bob, Mack, and Hector all got to have their moments to shine. I am starting to like this show a lot more than when I first watched it 2 years ago.

7 out of 10

Reaper

I still don’t have much to say about Reaper. There is usually amusing dialogue between Sam, Sock, Ben, and Andi so each episode goes by quickly. This week had a bunch of good scenes involving Spanish and the bird that Sam needed to capture the escapee. The Sam and Devil interplay over his contract was all right but not the best the show has done. Overall this was just a decent episode.

6 out of 10

Damages

This is building towards one helluva conclusion. This week’s episode was the first that actually made me think that there will be a second season. I had no idea how they were going to reconcile the Patty and Ellen relationship but they cleared that up with one conversation; Ellen never thought Patty played any part of her fiancée’s death, she was just saying that to get Patty back into the city. The final scenes between the 2 of them were great because after the entire season Ellen had flipped their roles and was completely using Patty. We also got to see just how and why David was killed which also revealed just how far Frobisher will go. On the other hand I am not too sure about Patty’s son showing up randomly but I will trust the show to make it all work. I am definitely amped for the finale this week.

9 out of 10

Wednesday (10/17)

Bionic Woman

This is just clipping along. There was just some serious information dropped this week. Jaime has an expiration date and Jonas has no answers at the moment. There was a real good fight scene between Jaime and Antonio, which capped off a decent little Central American journey for the 2 of them. I’ve seen the whole lying to the people you care about on Alias but the relationship between Jaime and her sister hasn’t annoyed me yet so that’s a positive. We are a bunch of episodes in and Sarah Corvus is still a more interesting character than Jaime Sommers; its not so much a problem but eventually that needs to switch.

7 out of 10

Life

I wouldn’t call this the first bad episode but it definitely was the first one that I didn’t care for. It was probably because there was more time spent on the case of the week than on Charlie searching for answers. There was a good scene with Charlie and the cop that arrested him but that it was short. The stuff was his lawyer was passable but I am more interested in the mystery. The case was the case and I don’t have much to say about it.

5 out of 10

Thursday (10/18)

Smallville

Hooray! This season will have at least one episode that I truly liked. Like many things in life, I give all the credit to Dean Cain. Whether or not his immortal will actually be Vandal Savage doesn’t matter at the moment, this was a real strong story. There were great scenes between Clark and Chloe and Clark and Lex because of the evil doctor. On top of that, we got some decent Martian Manhunter versus Supergirl scenes. This even included a horribly forced attempt at getting the name Martian Manhunter out there. No Lois 2 weeks in a row along with another wacky Lana storyline coming up still shows that there is not such thing as a flawless Smallville episode.

7 out of 10

Dexter and Damages go 1 and 2 for the second week in a row. This time they flip flop though because the Dexter episode was incredible. No Fox shows mean that there is no clear cut show to be in slot number three. Next week should be the last of the insanity with Damages concluding and I believe the Monday Showtime shows at their penultimate episodes.