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Frannie 911

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

The new nice Roger

“Frannie 911” is the ninth episode of season three of American Dad!.

Plot summary

After Roger ruins Stan’s study by turning it into a Turkish bath, Francine comes up with an elaborate plan to reunite Stan and Roger after the big fight. She fakes Roger’s kidnapping in the hopes of showing Roger that Stan still cares about him, but Stan never shows up to pay the ransom; he simply delays and makes up excuses. After Stan tells Francine that he knew she was faking it the whole time (she was calling him with her own cell phone and it showed up on his caller ID), she confronts Roger in the hotel he is staying in, telling him that either he needs to be nice or he’s out of the house. For at least a year, Roger had been nice. However, it turns out that being nice is slowly killing him. On his deathbed, Roger reveals that his species has to be jerks, otherwise he’ll die. He insults Steve’s dancing, something Stan says they both needed, restoring himself to health. Though Francine returns to being an enabler, she lets Stan be who he is: “the guy who beats the crap out of Roger when he deserves it.” She locks Roger in the attic with Stan, leaving Roger to be beaten off-screen.

In a sub story, Hayley and Klaus constantly challenge each other to a “dare-or-dare” game. Klaus takes a picture of Francine’s undergarments and later fills his bowl with Jell-O. Hayley has to go naked, say raccoons took her penis and dress herself as Captain Merrill Stubing from The Love Boat for fourteen months.

In another story, Steve tries out background dancing. He eventually stops after Roger tells him how terrible his dancing is.

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Tearjerker (American Dad!)

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

“Tearjerker” is a third season episode of the animated series American Dad!.

Plot summary

The show starts as a parody of The Spy Who Loved Me. A British agent with a mustache jumps out of a cable car, and the woman next to him tells the henchmen to follow him. The agent kills one of them and when he is about to shoot another, Stan comes to help him. Stan blows up the henchmen and unwittingly creates an avalanche. The two jump out and open their parachutes but unfortunately the unnamed agent dies when he is crushed by Stan’s falling snowmobile.

Stan imitates the gunbarrel sequence but the gun shoots him twice before he can fire, upon which the opening credits start to roll. Stan and other characters play roles in a Bond-style spoof. In it, Stan plays a 007-type agent assigned by his boss, B (Bullock) to infiltrate the set of arms dealer-suddenly-turned-movie producer Tchochkie Schmear (Klaus, in a human form) Schmear has recently been producing over twenty films with A-list celebrites, but all are absolutely atrocious. Stan then travels to Tunisia to investigate the set of one of Tchochkie’s movies, Bark of the Covenant (a remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark featuring all dogs, including a German shepherd as Indiana Jones and Matthew McConaughey as Karen Allen). Eventually, Stan discovers that Schmear has been hired by the diabolical Tearjerker (Roger), an emotionally fragile business tycoon who has been abducting celebrities from his spa and replacing them with celebrity robots that will star in the most horrible movies possible. The robots malfunction when they are exposed to milk. Later, B has Stan fly to Japan. Dressed as Geisha Girls, B informs Stan that Tearjerker is a notorious gambler who only invites people to his lair unless they are celebrites, or if they have beaten him at Baccarat. When he arrives at Monte Carlo, he is introduced to Sexpun T’Come (Francine)(whom he believes is a prostitute) and an apathetic Tearjerker. When Stan reveals that he does not know how to play Baccarat or Craps, an exasperated Tearjerker asks Stan to name his own game. Stan says he wants to play highest number, wherein the players name the highest number that they can think of. After Stan leaves with the invitation, Sexpun gives Tearjerker his wallet. He makes the obligatory quip about the hero’s fate, and then starts maniacally laughing, but cuts himself short when he belches. He states that he had eaten a pickle earlier with a Rueben sandwich, and then moans (self consciously) “I’m so fat.”

On the flight to Tearjerker’s lair, Stan meets Johnny Depp who is drinking a milkshake and reading a script that Steven Spielberg had given him. Stan makes Depp promise to tell him if he is turned into a robot. On their arrival, Tearjerker orders Sexpun to seduce Stan, only to begin randomly sobbing that she had forgotten his birthday. When she approaches Stan, he proposes to her, stating that he was saving himself for marriage, and if she accepted he stated “I’m gonna make love to you until you hate your pussy” Stan gives her a ring and tells her to think about it. After she leaves, Johnny Depp reappears, saying that he has given up the Spielberg script and had been attached to a Schmear project called Skateboarding Grandma. Suspicious, Stan offers Depp a milkshake. When he refuses, Stan physically forces open Depp’s jaws and regurgitates the milkshake down his throat. (”Drink it! Drink it like a bird!”) Depp, now revealed to be a robot, malfunctions. (but not before revealing that he had once seen a robin’s nest in Tim Burton’s hair)

After being helped by Sexpun, who has fallen for him, Stan realizes that Tearjerker (who is out for revenge ever since he was laughed out of the audition for Monster’s Ball) plans to use his masterpiece Oscar Gold, the best and saddest film of all time about a mentally retarded alcoholic Jewish boy and his cancer ridden puppy during the Holocaust, to cause millions of moviegoers to cry themselves to death.

After Gums’ boat tour of the plan leads Stan and Sexpun right into the villain’s office (an example of the poor construction), Tearjerker ties them up and forces them to watch “Oscar Gold” along with millions of people around the world. Everyone is on the verge of crying to death (with the exception of viewers in Tehran, who find it hysterically funny and will apparently laugh themselves to death), Sexpun states she accepts his proposal of marriage, and Stan remembers that the engagement ring was given to him by S (Steve, whose gadgets only make women’s breasts grow). He urges her to put it on, which causes Sexpun’s breasts to swell so large that they break the ropes, allowing her to set herself and Stan free. Discovering the real Adrien Brody and Halle Berry (along with Matt Damon and Lucy Liu) in Tearjerker’s dungeon, where he keeps the captive celebrities, Stan records a video of them with their baby and posts it on the Internet. All the movie goers then get phone calls about the celebrity baby and go home to see them online.

His plan in ruins, Tearjerker unleashes his soldiers to kill Stan. However, as they descend on ropes from his blimp, they plummet through the floor of Tearjerker’s office (another example of the poor construction); Stan then climbs up their ropes (which were supposed to retract, but instead are another example of poor construction) onto the airship. Tearjerker tries to flee in an escape pod, planning on creating a more successful and even sadder movie: six hours of a baby chimp trying to revive its dead mother. However, the shoddy construction causes the pod to fall into a volcano. In the end, Stan and Sexpun get married, though it is unknown how long their relationship will last since Sexpun realizes that Stan was, up until their honeymoon, a virgin. Meanwhile, Tearjerker’s charred arm rises from the volcanic crater…only to fall back in after a few seconds.

Cast

American Dad! character Role Bond spoof
Stan Smith Himself James Bond
Francine Smith Sexpun T’Come Bond girl (specifically, Pussy Galore, Tracy Bond, and Plenty O’Toole)
Roger Tearjerker Auric Goldfinger, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Le Chiffre
Klaus Tchochkie Schmear Professor Dent, Milton Krest
Avery Bullock B M
Steve Smith S Q
Hayley Smith Miss Peacenickel Miss Moneypenny
Greg Corbin Peddie Mr. Wint
Terry Bates Mannie Mr. Kidd
Chuck White Professor
Capt. Monty Gums Jaws

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More with Less

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

“More with Less” is the first episode of the fifth season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by David Simon from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns and was directed by Joe Chappelle. It originally aired on 6 January 2008.

Production

Title reference

The title refers to the cutbacks and buyouts at The Baltimore Sun; managing editor Thomas Klebanow states that they “simply have to do more with less”. It also refers to the unstable fiscal situation in Baltimore, which affects many other institutions, including the police department. In several interviews, creator David Simon has professed that despite being an oft-repeated command to dying institutions, the ability to do more with less is an inherent impossiblilty.

Epigraph

“ The bigger the lie, the more they believe. – Bunk ”

After tricking a young suspect into confessing to a crime by an elaborate hoax, Bunk makes this remark. Season 5 of the Wire will revolve around a series of lies, both public and private. This episode also marks the second time the epigraph is spoken during the cold open sequence – the other time was during the first episode of season 3.

Credits

Starring cast

The fifth season starring cast consists of: Dominic West as Jimmy McNulty; Reg E. Cathey as Norman Wilson; John Doman as William Rawls; Aidan Gillen as Tommy Carcetti; Clark Johnson as Augustus Haynes; Deirdre Lovejoy as Rhonda Pearlman; Tom McCarthy as Scott Templeton; Clarke Peters as Lester Freamon; Wendell Pierce as Bunk Moreland; Sonja Sohn as Kima Greggs; Lance Reddick as Cedric Daniels; Andre Royo as Reginald “Bubbles” Cousins; Seth Gilliam as Ellis Carver; Domenick Lombardozzi as Thomas “Herc” Hauk; Michael Kenneth Williams as Omar Little; Gbenga Akinnagbe as Chris Partlow; Jamie Hector as Marlo Stanfield; Neal Huff as Michael Steintorf; Jermaine Crawford as Duquan “Dukie” Weems; Corey Parker Robinson as Leander Sydnor; Tristan Wilds as Michael Lee; Michael Kostroff as Maurice Levy; Michelle Paress as Alma Gutierrez; Isiah Whitlock, Jr. as Clay Davis.

Clark Johnson, Tom McCarthy, and Michelle Paress joins the main cast as journalists at The Baltimore Sun. Neal Huff, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Tristan Wilds, Jermaine Crawford, Isiah Whitlock, Jr., and Michael Kostroff are now billed in the opening credits. Reg E. Cathey’s credit has moved up to the start with the credits in alphabetical order instead of the section where two or more names appear at a time. Fourth season stars no longer appearing in the starring credits include Frankie Faison (Commissioner Ervin Burrell), Jim True-Frost (teacher Roland Pryzbylewski), Robert Wisdom (retired police officer Howard Colvin), Chad L. Coleman (community boxing trainer Dennis “Cutty” Wise), Glynn Turman (ex-Mayor Clarence Royce} and JD Williams (murdered drug dealer Bodie Broadus).

Although credited Michael K. Williams and Isiah Whitlock, Jr. do not appear in this episode.

Guest stars

  1. Frankie Faison as Ervin Burrell
  2. Amy Ryan as Beatrice “Beadie” Russell
  3. Marlyne Afflack as Nerese Campbell
  4. Robert F. Chew as Proposition Joe
  5. Delaney Williams as Jay Landsman
  6. Felicia Pearson as Snoop
  7. Duane Rawlings as Hungry Man
  8. Troj Marquis Strickland as Ricardo “Fatface Rick” Hendrix
  9. Anwan Glover as Slim Charles
  10. David Costabile as Thomas Klebanow
  11. Sam Freed as James Whiting
  12. Dion Graham as Rupert Bond
  13. Bruce Kirkpatrick as Roger Twigg
  14. Jay Landsman as Dennis Mello
  15. Edward Norris as Ed Norris
  16. Method Man as Melvin “Cheese” Wagstaff
  17. Jospeh Urla as Maryland District US Attorney
  18. Gregory L. Williams as Michael Crutchfield
  19. William F. Zorzi as Bill Zorzi
  20. Bobby J.Brown as Bob Brown
  21. Benjamin Busch as Anthony Colicchio
  22. Rick Otto as Kenneth Dozerman
  23. Ryan Sands as Lloyd “Truck” Garrick
  24. Ron Tucker as Unknown
  25. Tom McCarthy as Tim Phelps
  26. Donald Neal as Jay Spry
  27. Robert Poletick as Steven Luxenberg
  28. Kara Quick as Rebecca Corbett
  29. Todd Scofield as Jeff Price
  30. Eisa Davis as Bubbles’ Sister
  31. Gil Deeble as Hucklebuck
  32. Edward Green as Spider
  33. Dante Painter, Jr. as DeShawn
  34. Corbin Smith as Monell
  35. Peter Linari as Pete the Bartender
  36. Laura Lippman as Laura Lippman
  37. Michael Olesker as Michael Olesker
  38. Gene Terinoni as Jimmy Asher
  39. Brandon Young as Mike Fletcher
  40. Lee Everett Cox as Aaron Castor
  41. Dennis Hill as Detective Christeson
  42. Juhahn Jones as Drug Dealer
  43. Brian E. McLarney as Officer Brian McLarney
  44. Jermaine Shorts as Unknown
  45. Jay Spadaro as Officer

Lee Everett Cox and David Costabile’s names are misspelled in the credits as Lee Evertt Cox and David Costible respectively.

Uncredited appearances

  • Mike D. Anderson as Ghost
  • Keenon Brice as Bug
  • Darrell Britt Gibson as O-Dog
  • Chris Clanton as Savino Bratton
  • Thuliso Dingwall as Kenard

Plot

Summary

Homicide

Detective Bunk Moreland extracts a confession from a suspect using manipulation and a mock polygraph test. His reasoning gives the episode its epigraph “the bigger the lie, the more they believe.”

Politics

Mayor Tommy Carcetti’s plan to rejuvenate the police department has been halted by funding cuts necessitated by the massive education deficit. Norman Wilson remains disappointed in Carcetti for refusing the Governor’s assistance for the schools and putting his ambition to unseat the Governor before his responsibilities as Mayor. Police commanders Ervin Burrell and William Rawls are forced to accept further funding cuts from Carcetti but convince him to lift the ban on secondary employment for police officers.

Mayor Carcetti and Council President Campbell meet with the Republican Maryland U.S. attorney as a means of acquiring Federal resources to help the Baltimore Police Department. Carcetti is told that as political corruption and counterterrorism are the bureau’s main investigative priorities that the U.S. attorney’s office will grant them a dozen FBI agents in exchange for corrupt state senator Clay Davis. In the discussion, Carcetti defends Baltimore City State’s Attorney Rupert Bond’s decision to keep the case local as he fears the Republican attorney will be use the case to damage the image of the Democratic Party. Campbell then criticizes Carcetti for upsetting the feds and as they discuss Clay Davis, Carcetti claims that Bond will charge most of the Clarence Royce’s administration including Campbell who sees Bond’s motive to charge Davis as a means of one day running against her for Mayor.

Major Crimes Unit

The Major Crimes Unit’s year long investigation into the Stanfield Organization and their involvement with the murders in the vacant houses has still not produced enough evidence to make arrests, but their continued observation has curtailed some of the criminals’ activity. Marlo Stanfield continues to scheme despite noticing the continued surveillance. He is intimidating independent drug dealers into buying his narcotics, causing unrest in the New Day Co-Op about splitting up new territory and has Chris Partlow working to find Sergei Malatov as a connection to the Co-Ops’ suppliers.

The Unit is closed down as part of the cutbacks, effectively ending investigation of the vacant murders. Colonel Cedric Daniels convinces Carcetti to retain detectives Lester Freamon and Leander Sydnor to staff the Davis investigation.

McNulty

Detective Jimmy McNulty is outraged and despondent upon his return to the homicide unit. McNulty has begun drinking heavily again and fails to return home to his domestic partner Beadie Russell.

Western District

Morale is similarly low in the Western District because of pay cuts. Sergeant Ellis Carver struggles to keep his men in line and drinks after work with his old partner Thomas “Herc” Hauk. Herc has been discharged from the department and is now using his contacts in the department as a defense investigator for Maurice Levy.

Michael

Michael Lee is acting as an enforcer under Partlow while his friend and co-habitant Duquan “Dukie” Weems runs their drug dealing crew. Dukie has not gained the respect of the crew and Michael suggests paying him for looking after his younger brother Bug instead.

The Baltimore Sun

In The Baltimore Sun newsroom similar funding cutbacks are affecting the reporters’ morale and work. Editor Gus Haynes remains principled and efficient. His institutional memory allows his team to identify and break a story about city council president Naresse Campbell relocating known drug dealer Ricardo “Fat-face Rick” Hendrix’s strip club out of town at a considerable loss of public money and link it to campaign contributions from Hendrix. Ambitious reporter Scott Templeton remains dissatisfied while his colleague Alma Gutierrez is happy with her work.

Bubbles

Bubbles is living in his sister’s basement and no longer using drugs. However, he must leave each morning as his sister does not trust him enough to leave him alone in her house. He walks through the city while she’s at work, trying to avoid the temptations of the street. Bubbles works as a rush hour distributor of The Baltimore Sun to commuters – he sells a copy to Campbell, who is outraged by the Fat-face Rick story.

First appearances

  • Gus Haynes – a veteran of The Baltimore Sun and city desk editor,
  • Scott Templeton – an ambitious and dissatisfied reporter, and
  • Alma Gutierrez – an enthusiastic young crime reporter.
  • James Whiting, the paper’s Executive Editor
  • Thomas Klebanow, – The paper’s Managing Editor
  • Steven Luxenberg, – The paper’s Metro Desk Editor
  • Tim Phelps, – The paper’s State Desk Editor
  • Jay Spry, – veteran re-write man
  • Roger Twigg – long serving reporter
  • Mike Fletcher. – young general assignments reporter

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E Pluribus Wiggum

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

“E Pluribus Wiggum” is the tenth episode of The Simpsons‘ nineteenth season, first broadcast January 6, 2008 on Fox. It was written by Michael Price and directed by Michael Polcino, and it guest starred Jon Stewart and Dan Rather as themselves. It was a politically themed episode satirizing the hype that surrounds presidential elections. This episode became controversial in Argentina for referring to Juan Perón as a dictator.

Michael Polcino was nominated for Writers Guild of America Award in the animation category for writing the episode.

Plot

Homer leaves work, and when he’s reminded that his diet is starting, he decides to have one last binge at Springfield’s Fast-Food Boulevard. After filling up, he decides to throw away his wrappers and the contents of his car in a trash can outside of a Krusty Burger, tossing away a leaky battery and a lit match. The acid from the leaky battery eats a hole in a gas main, with the lit match igniting the gas. A fire starts which soon causes nearby gas pipes to explode, destroying Fast-Food Boulevard completely.

At a town hall meeting, the enraged residents of Springfield demand that Fast-Food Boulevard be rebuilt immediately. To fund the reconstruction, a bond measure is proposed. As the next election is too far in the future, Mayor Quimby moves it to the upcoming weekend, making Springfield’s presidential primary the first in the nation. Candidates and reporters head to Springfield when they hear the news. Lisa soon discovers that none of the candidates in the election are compelling.

The candidates flock to the Simpsons, who are undecided. Their home is filled with people and their yard is covered with reporters; helicopters and news vans surround the lot. Kent Brockman asks Moe which party he likes, Moe replies, “I like girls.” When Kent asks if he is a registered voter, Moe says that he is a “registered something.” When voting day arrives, an angry Homer and other citizens hold a meeting in Moe’s Tavern. Homer suggests the people vote for the most ridiculous candidate, whom they choose after Chief Wiggum suggests himself. The same night, Kent Brockman announces an unexpected turn of events: Springfield has rejected all the leading candidates and voted for 8-year-old Ralph Wiggum, who wins the primary, much to the shock of Lisa Simpson.

Ralph is immediately spurred as the leading candidate, and Homer and Bart embrace him by becoming his fans. Lisa, however, is miserable, as she knows how slow Ralph is. A news report (called Headbutt) shows Ralph has no idea of which party’s nomination he is seeking. The Springfield Republican Party decides to fight for Ralph, knowing certain victory will come during the election. The Springfield Democratic Party also knows that greatness will come once they win Ralph over. The leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties break into Ralph’s home, wanting to fight for him. Lisa confronts Ralph amongst the media frenzy, attempting to convince him to not run. Ralph tells Lisa he wants to run so he can bring peace between warring nations. He is proven to be a formidable candidate, and both the Republicans and the Democrats support Ralph for president. The episode ends with a political commercial for Ralph, sponsored by both parties.

Cultural references

  • The title is a reference to E pluribus unum (”Out of Many, One”), the Latin phrase that appears on United States coins and currency.
  • Cheesy McMayor is a parody of McDonald’s Mayor McCheese.
  • Former President Bill Clinton is seen putting up campaign signs for his wife, Senator Hillary Clinton. Later, in the commercial for Ralph, Bill announces his support for him, adding “but don’t tell you-know-who” – an obvious reference to his appearance earlier in the episode, when Hillary whines at him over the phone.
  • Arianna Huffington and George Will are parodied as guests on the fictional talk show “HeadButt”, a possible parody of MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews.
  • Springfield’s Democratic Party headquarters is in Trader Earth’s, which is a parody of Trader Joe’s.
  • A diner in the episode, Dead Lobster, is a parody of Red Lobster.
  • Dan Rather’s utterance of “Sweet mother of Murrow!” refers to Ethel Lamb Murrow, the mother of prominent television and radio reporter Edward R. Murrow.
  • The song played during Homer’s fast-food binge is Hungry Like the Wolf by Duran Duran
  • Mr. Burns said that Bush surposedly won the last election somewhat sheepishly and added “Don’t check the ballot boxes in Iowa. This is a subtle reference to the Florida controversy about Al Gore garnering more support in a keystone state, which both Iowa and Florida are. <<< WHO WROTE THAT DRIVEL? I WOULDN’T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN CORRECTING THE GRAMMATICAL MISTAKES, AND I CAN’T EVEN FIGURE OUT WHAT IT IS TRYING TO SAY. SOMEBODY HELP, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.

Reception

An estimated 8.2 million people tuned into the episode. Richard Keller of TV Squad said that it was an episode with many jokes and sight gags, his favorite being the episode’s guest stars and the many references. His only disagreement was the abrupt ending. Robert Canning of IGN said the episode had all the ingredients that seem to make it a classic episode. He enjoyed the theme of Homer and Fast-Food Boulevard, the political mocking, and the centering of Ralph, and like Keller, he felt the show seemed to shun Ralph until the end; he gives the episode a rating of 6/10. Dan Snierson of Entertainment Weekly reveals (five days after the episode was broadcast) that it received positive reviews from the site, and Ralph Wiggum had their vote.

Controversy

Although the episode has not yet been broadcast there, the episode caused controversy in Argentina. The controversy is over an exchange between Lenny and Carl. Carl says “I could really go for some kind of military dictator, like Juan Perón. When he ‘disappeared’ you, you stayed ‘disappeared!’” Carl’s comment is a reference to the Dirty War in Argentina, a period of military dictatorship during which as many as 30,000 political dissidents disappeared, and is largely regarded as having begun at least two years after the death of Juan Perón, who was elected three times. The clip was viewed on YouTube over ten thousand times in Argentina and some politicians in the country called for the episode to be censored or banned.Lorenzo Pepe, former Argentinian congressman and president of the Juan Domingo Perón Institute said “this type of program causes great harm, because the disappearances are still an open wound here.”

Some also reacted negatively to Lenny’s response to Carl’s comment: “Plus, his wife was Madonna” which is a reference to the film Evita where Madonna played Eva Perón. Pepe added “the part about Madonna—that was too much.”

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That 90’s Show

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

“That 90’s Show” is the eleventh episode of The Simpsons‘ nineteenth season. It was first broadcast on January 27, 2008. Kurt Loder and “Weird Al” Yankovic both guest star as themselves, this being the second time for Yankovic. The episode was written by Matt Selman, and directed by Mark Kirkland.

After Bart and Lisa discover Marge’s diploma from Springfield University, Homer and Marge recount one of the darkest points of their relationship. The episode significantly retcons some of the Simpson family history, depicting the timeframe of Homer and Marge’s romance as being in the 1990s, as opposed to the 1980s setting in past episodes. Subsequent episodes such as Season 20’s “Take My Life, Please” would return to the 80s depiction, however.

Plot

The Simpson family is freezing inside their house since Homer had not paid the heating bill, thinking that global warming would compensate for his ineptitude. Bart and Lisa, searching for items to feed the fire, discover a box containing a degree belonging to Marge from Springfield University. Homer and Marge look shocked to find it, and claim it was from their dating years. Lisa does some calculations and realizes that, because Bart is 10, and Homer and Marge are in their mid-to-late thirties, Bart must have been born later in their parents’ relationship than they thought. Marge and Homer proceed to describe one of the darker points of their relationship, the 1990s (which Bart has never heard of, despite the fact that the show was one of the most popular on TV during the 90s).

In the flashback, Homer and Marge are happily dating, living together in an apartment, Marge is an avid reader, and Homer is part of an R&B group alongside Lenny, Carl, and “Lou the cop”. One morning, Marge wakes up to find out she had been accepted into Springfield University, but is shocked to learn of the high cost of tuition. Homer, taking pity on Marge, gives up his dream of becoming a musician and instead decides to work at his dad’s popular laser tag warehouse in order to pay for it, where he is abused by the children. At Springfield University, Marge is impressed with her surroundings and with the radically politically correct Revisionist history professor Stefane August, despite Homer’s disapproval.

The episode’s second promotional image, featuring “Weird Al” Yankovic

In the present, a repairman arrives and fixes the heater, while Marge continues on with the story. Marge soon begins to admire August, and while caressing Homer after his long day at work, realizes she has feelings for her professor. Marge starts talking to Professor August who has also fallen for her. August begins manipulating Marge by telling her Homer is a simple “townie” who would not appreciate her intellect. A shocked Homer arrives and catches the two together. In his anger, he reforms his R&B group with a new sound called “grunge,” which Homer explains is an acronym for “Guitar Rock Utilizing Nihilist Grunge Energy.” His band is renamed to “Sadgasm” and they sing a song Homer calls “Politically Incorrect”, listed in the episode’s credits as “Kisses are Dirt”. An angry Marge and Homer soon call their relationship quits, and Marge leaves to go with Professor August.

Homer goes to Moe, who at this point owns a cigar bar, where Barney was starting to be a recurrent client. Finding no help from Moe, Homer goes on to perform a new song, called “Shave Me”, which causes him to become so famous that “Weird Al” Yankovic parodies his song calling it “Brain Freeze”. Marge finds Homer’s music unnerving. Marge and August share their first kiss. When running onto the beach, August reveals he and Marge have very different views on marriage. After the two argue, Marge breaks up with him, breaking his heart. A miserable Marge watches television and is surprised to see Homer made a song dedicated to her, called “Margerine”, thought what she did to Homer. A special news report with Kurt Loder interrupts, revealing Sadgasm had broken up and Homer is holed up in his mansion, miserable. Arriving there, Marge thinks Homer had been doing drugs and soon begins caring for him. It turns out the needles were insulin for his diabetes. The two soon re-unite. Marge reveals to Bart and Lisa that she learned “Homie is where my heart is.”

Cultural references

  • The title is a reference to That ’70s Show and That ’80s Show.
  • The scene with “Marvin Cobain” is a parody of a scene in Back to the Future.
  • Homer’s first band is a reference to R&B group Boyz II Men, and the song they record is a parody of the latter’s 1994 hit I’ll Make Love to You.
  • The button in the Springfield University quadrangle is a reference to Claes Oldenburg’s “Split Button” on the University of Pennsylvania campus.
  • The song Politically Incorrect played by Sadgasm in the episode is similar to a mix of the songs Come As You Are, Heart Shaped Box and Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle all by Nirvana.
  • The song Margerine performed by Homer at the end of the episode is similar to the song Glycerine by Bush. When singing Margerine, Homer is dressed like Kurt Cobain of the 1990s group Nirvana.
  • The song Shave Me played by Sadgasm in the episode is similar to Rape Me by Nirvana.
  • The episode also made references to ’90s entertainment; Sonic the Hedgehog & Amy Rose, Seinfeld, and Melrose Place are all mentioned. Comic Book Guy explains why The Lord of the Rings could never be filmed.
  • Homer mentions that Matt Groening was working hard on launching Futurama, during the 1990s.
  • When Marge and Homer are dividing their shared life, Homer seems to take the lesser of both items, such as taking Vinyl instead of CDs and taking Enron Stock instead of Microsoft Stock.
  • Also when Marge and Homer are dividing there shared life, Homer takes the Vinyls, which contains a Pink Floyd vinyl “The Dark side of the moon”
  • Beanie Babies are featured as well as the song during the scene with the beanie baby is Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve.
  • The song Closing Time by Semisonic is also featured.
  • A sculpture by the Spanish artist Joan Miró is found at the campus of Springfield University, as is the statue “Split Button” by Claes Oldenberg on the University of Pennsylvania Campus.
  • Homer injecting himself with insulin is a reference to Kurt Cobain addicted with heroin injections.
  • While waiting outside the college gates, Homer begins to cry while reading tragic love novel, The Bridges of Madison County, only to later add “This book sucks so much”.
  • Professor August says that “situation comedy is a doomed genre”, a common belief in the early 90’s due to the cancelation of many 80’s “family comedies”. Ironically enough, situation comedy rose again during the 90’s and gained more critical acclaim than during the 80’s. This comment also refers to the fact that traditional sitcoms have not been as popular or critically acclaimed in the 2000’s as they once were in the ’90s.
  • Homer mentions that the college is nothing like the one in the 1978 film Animal House, stating that he smashed a beatnik’s guitar against the wall just like John Belushi’s character Bluto in the film, only to have the beatnik sue him successfully
  • During the flashbacks, Marge’s hairdo is modeled after Jennifer Aniston’s famous hairstyle The Rachel which she sported during the first two seasons of the 1994 sitcom Friends. Meanwhile, Homer’s pre-grunge look was modeled after Matthew Perry’s Chandler character from the same sitcom.

Rating

This episode was rated TV-14.

Reception

An estimated 7.6 million viewers tuned in to the episode, fewer than the previous episode. Richard Keller of TV Squad enjoyed the many cultural references to the 1990s, but felt disappointed that the episode changed the continuity of The Simpsons. Robert Canning of IGN strongly disliked the episode, also feeling that the continuity change was not a good choice. He said, “What ‘That ’90s Show’ did was neither cool nor interesting. Instead, it insulted lifelong Simpsons fans everywhere. With this episode, the writers chose to change the history of the Simpson family.” He gave the episode a 3/10, and suggested that this episode should have been set a decade earlier to fit classic Simpsons continuity. He later added that it was his least favorite episode of the nineteenth season, and that it “was an episode that [he] will be erasing from [his] personal Simpsons memory bank”.

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It’s a Wonderful Lie (House)

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

“It’s A Wonderful Lie” is the tenth episode of the fourth season of House and the eightieth episode overall. It aired on January 29, 2008.

The plot centers around the Christmas season; the episode’s title is a play on the Christmas movie classic It’s a Wonderful Life.

Plot

House and his team treat a woman, Maggie, who suffers from sudden paralysis of her hands. The paralysis presented as she was belaying and coaching her daughter, Jane, on the rock-climbing wall. The daughter falls and suffers a broken wrist. House probes the patient and her daughter, trying to tease out a lie between them, but both insist that they are always honest with each other. As the team tries to cure the paralysis, the woman loses her eyesight, and her other organ systems begin to shut down.

The patient is known to have inherited a mutation of the BRCA1 tumor suppressor gene from her grandmother, putting her at significantly greater risk of developing certain types of breast cancer. In an effort to avoid these risks, the patient had an elective prophylactic double-mastectomy. She had no follow-up reconstructive surgery; this additional element of “honesty” further interests House, who despite it stands by his theory that everybody lies.

The team believes that the patient’s symptoms may be psychological in origin, but this is proven false when she is discovered to have severe calcification of her entire skeleton, and the lymph nodes in her neck begin to swell and occlude her airway. House and the team conclude that her best hope is a bone marrow transplant, but the patient will not allow her daughter to be tested for a match, despite the daughter’s protests. House concludes that the only reason someone would refuse that test is if they knew already that the marrow would not be an HLA match, not because “it might hurt a little”. The patient confesses that her daughter is the biological child of a drug addict who made her promise never to tell the girl about her true background. House, satisfied that everyone does in fact lie, makes a snide remark about the irony of preferentially keeping promises to drug addicts, and encourages her to tell her daughter the truth. When it is revealed to the daughter that her mother has a terminal disease, the daughter tells her mother that she won’t live, despite the mother’s hope of a wrong diagnosis. House later tells Wilson, “I saw something amazing. Pure truth. She told her mother that she was dying. Stripped her of all hope. . . . It was like watching some bizarre astronomical event that you know you’re never going to see again.”

The patient is eventually told she has an unknown terminal disease and the team, without House, spends the rest of Christmas Eve testing for every disease they can. While they’re at work, House has a conversation with Wilson that leads to an epiphany. Entering the lab singing God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen, House proclaims that he is about to perform a Christmas miracle, and orders his team to give the patient risperidone, an anti-psychotic medication. At the patient’s bedside, House explains how, during fetal development, a layer of breast tissue progenitor cells develops. Eventually, the extra tissue dies everywhere except, as House puts it, in the “fun places”. House suspects that this culling process was faulty in the patient, leaving a deposit of breast tissue somewhere on her body which eventually produced a tumor. Due to the anti-psychotic medication, the tissue has engorged and begun to lactate; House extracts breast milk from the swelling found on the underside of the patient’s right knee, orders her to have surgery and a round of chemotherapy, and declares the case solved.

In the clinic, House treats another female patient, called Melanie (Jennifer Hall), whom he initially diagnoses with strep throat. House notices that she has a necklace of Saint Nicholas, whom she describes as the patron saint of children. At the same time, he notices that she’s had HIV tests every 3 months, and that Saint Nicholas is also the patron saint of prostitutes. Since she isn’t a child, he tells her that he’s deduced that she is a prostitute, which causes her to smile in response. She later returns with pustules on her neck and chest. House asks if she does donkey shows, and when she says yes, he gives her a prescription for contagious ecthyma, a disease she has that can be caught from donkeys. She invites him to see the show, and says he might like it. At the end of the episode, House (an atheist) visits a church, which is putting on a Nativity play during which his clinic patient rides in on a donkey, playing the part of the virgin Mary. Ironically, Saint Nicolas is also the patron saint of the falsely accused.

Reviews

  • Review: House MD–”It’s a Wonderful Lie” from Firefox News
  • House: It’s a Wonderful Lie from TV Squad
  • Medical review of “It’s a Wonderful Lie”
v • d • e

Portal · Episodes (Season 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) · Awards · Soundtrack · Quotes · Category
Main characters
Dr. Gregory House · Dr. Lisa Cuddy · Dr. James Wilson · Dr. Allison Cameron · Dr. Robert Chase · Dr. Eric Foreman · Dr. Remy “Thirteen” Hadley · Dr. Chris Taub · Dr. Lawrence Kutner
Minor characters
Edward Vogler · Stacy Warner · Mark Warner · Michael Tritter · Amber Volakis · Lucas Douglas
Executive producers
Paul Attanasio · Katie Jacobs · David Shore · Bryan Singer
Cast
Hugh Laurie · Lisa Edelstein · Robert Sean Leonard · Jennifer Morrison · Jesse Spencer · Omar Epps · Olivia Wilde · Peter Jacobson · Kal Penn


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McStroke

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

Peter, Brian, and the Cow in a photo booth.

“McStroke” is a season six episode of the FOX animated series Family Guy, that aired on January 13, 2008. The title is a play on McDonald’s terminology of putting “Mc” in front of common words. It guest stars Ricardo Montalbán as the genetically engineered cow.

This was the first new episode of the show in more than a month due to the writers’ strike and was the last episode to air without Seth MacFarlane’s permission (the strike ended on February 12, 2008, four weeks after this episode first aired). On the DVD commentary, Seth MacFarlane stated that the producers tweaked the episode after the strike.

Plot summary

While looking through Cleveland’s mail, Peter discovers a magazine about mustaches. This fascinates Peter, who decides to grow a mustache himself, which he grows attached to. Later, while walking down the street, he sees that the local fast food restaurant McBurgertown is on fire. The mustachioed firemen mistake him for one of them and recruit him to help. Peter enters the blaze and saves someone trapped inside, but Peter’s mustache burns off.

When Lois comes into the kitchen wondering where Brian is, Lois realizes that Peter had taped Brian to his face as a replacement mustache till his mustache grows back. Shortly thereafter, the owner of McBurgertown comes to the Griffin’s home and wants to offer Peter a lifetime supply of burgers as a reward for his heroism. Peter takes off Brian (his replacement mustache) and accepts this offer, but after eating 30 burgers in one sitting, he suffers a severe stroke that paralyzes the entire left side of his body. Three months later, he gives stem cell research a try, which completely heals him in five minutes.

Peter blames McBurgertown for the stroke and tries to sue but loses, so he and Brian infiltrate the company headquarters to find incriminating evidence. There they discover a slaughterhouse filled with cows, one of which has the ability to talk (voiced by Ricardo Montalbán). They release this cow, escape the guards, and have him give testimony describing all the evils the company has committed against his species. The McBurgertown franchise is left in ruins.

Stewie as “Zac Sawyer”

Meanwhile, Stewie complains about the teen dramas on TV, saying that anyone can become popular. So he and Brian wager that Stewie can disguise himself as a high-schooler and become the most popular kid in less than a week. Taking on the name “Zac Sawyer”, he starts hanging out with Connie D’Amico and her friends and easily wins them over with his cool antics. Connie and Zac drive to Anal Point to have sex, but when Zac takes off his pants, Connie laughs at the size of his penis. The next day at school, he is ostracized by the popular kids for his “baby penis”, ending his reign of popularity. Zac asks Connie for one last kiss. Connie accepts, but when Connie’s eyes are closed, Stewie takes off his clothes and kisses her, making her look like a pedophile, thus having Connie arrested by school security.

Soundtrack

The Monkees – Pleasant Valley Sunday

R.E.M. – It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

Production

The role of the talking cow was written for comedian Bill Maher.

Critical reception

The main plot of the episode has been called “a mild parody of the movie Super Size Me“. Some critics disliked the episode and blamed MacFarlane’s lack of participation due to the strike, but others, acknowledging that “this episode could have sucked” because of the strike, found it brilliantly entertaining.

Citations

  1. ^ Brad Trechak, “Family Guy: McStroke” TV Squad. “Overall, other than a few high points, I’d have to say this episode was a downer. The writer’s strike could be blamed. Perhaps with Seth MacFarlane behind the episode, some stuff could have been made better.”
  2. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV8Bwbo2a5Y&feature=related
  3. ^ Brad Trechak, “Family Guy: McStroke” TV Squad
  4. ^ Ahsan Haque, “‘Family Guy: “McStroke” Review: Peter grows a mustache and Stewie goes to high school.” IGN

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The Beginning of the End (Lost)

Friday, June 19th, 2009

Hurley meets Abaddon at the mental institution

“The Beginning of the End” is the fourth season premiere, and seventieth episode overall, of the American Broadcasting Company’s serial drama television series Lost. It was aired on ABC in the United States and CTV in Canada on January 31, 2008. Co-creator/executive producer Damon Lindelof and executive producer Carlton Cuse wrote the premiere in late July 2007, with most of the episode directed on location in Oahu, Hawaii in August and September by executive producer Jack Bender. With this premiere, Jeff Pinkner no longer serves as an executive producer and staff writer. The episode was watched by eighteen million Americans, bringing in the best ratings for Lost in seventeen episodes. According to Metacritic, “The Beginning of the End” garnered “universal acclaim”.

The narrative takes place over ninety days after the crash of Oceanic Flight 815, on December 23, 2004. The stranded crash survivors make contact with Naomi Dorrit’s (played by Marsha Thomason) associates on a nearby freighter, but the survivors divide when they hear that those on the freighter may not be coming to rescue the survivors. Flashforwards show the post-island lives of Hugo “Hurley” Reyes (Jorge Garcia) and Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox). They are lying to the public about their time on the island. In flashforwards, Hurley has visions of his deceased friend Charlie Pace (Dominic Monaghan); in the present, Hurley grieves over Charlie’s death on the island. Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davies) makes his first appearance in “The Beginning of the End”.

Plot

After being knifed in the back by John Locke (Terry O’Quinn) in the third season finale, Naomi uses her satellite phone to talk to George Minkowski (Fisher Stevens) on the freighter. Before she dies, she tells him that her injury was an accident and to give her love to her sister. Meanwhile, Hurley finds Jacob’s cabin. He looks through the window and sees Christian Shephard (John Terry) in a rocking chair before someone steps up to the glass. Hurley runs away, but finds the cabin again—in a different location. He squeezes his eyes shut and when he opens them, the building is gone and Locke appears.

Desmond Hume (Henry Ian Cusick) returns from the Looking Glass, bearing Charlie’s final message that the freighter offshore is not owned by Penny Widmore (Sonya Walger). The survivors reunite at 815’s cockpit. Jack knocks Locke to the ground, takes his gun and pulls the trigger, but finds that the gun is not loaded because Locke had no intention of killing Jack earlier that day. Locke tells the castaways that they are in great danger and leaves for the Barracks with Hurley, James “Sawyer” Ford (Josh Holloway), Claire Littleton (Emilie de Ravin) and her baby Aaron, Danielle Rousseau (Mira Furlan) and her captive Ben Linus (Michael Emerson), Alex (Tania Raymonde) and her boyfriend Karl (Blake Bashoff), Vincent the dog (Pono) and four other survivors. Soon after, Jack and Kate see a helicopter and meet Daniel, a twitchy physicist who parachutes down.

Flashforwards show that Hurley is semi-famous as one of the “Oceanic Six” after his escape from the island and is keeping quiet about his time there. Hurley encounters an apparition of Charlie. Shocked, he speeds away in his Camaro and is apprehended by Los Angeles police. Hurley is interrogated by Ana Lucia Cortez’s (Michelle Rodriguez) former partner Detective “Big” Mike Walton (Michael Cudlitz) and he lies that he has no knowledge of Ana Lucia. Hurley, looking at the interrogation room’s mirror glass, imagines seeing Charlie swimming in water until he breaks the glass and floods the room. Hurley willingly returns to the Santa Rosa Mental Health Institution, where he is visited by Matthew Abaddon (Lance Reddick), who claims to be an attorney for Oceanic Airlines. When Abaddon fails to supply a business card, he asks if they are still alive before stealthily exiting. An apparition of Charlie appears who tells Hurley that “they” need him. Finally, Hurley is visited by Jack, who is thinking of growing a beard. Jack confirms that Hurley will not reveal the Oceanic Six’s secrets. Hurley apologizes for going with Locke and insists that they return to the island, but Jack refuses (Which shows us that these flashforwards take place before Jack’s).

Production

While casting characters, fake names, occupations and scenes were temporarily assigned to limit the leak of spoilers.Lance Reddick was told that he was auditioning for the part of “Arthur Stevens”, a “ruthless corporate recruiter”, instead of Matthew Abbadon. “Matthew” and “Abaddon” were revealed as season 4 clue words in the alternate reality game Find 815. The writers chose the character’s surname after they read the Wikipedia article on Abaddon, which states that it means “place of destruction”. The writer-producers were originally interested in having Reddick play Mr. Eko during the second season, however, he was busy starring on HBO’s The Wire.Jeremy Davies was cast as Daniel because he is one of the writer-producers’ favorite character actors, and they think that his “transformative quality [and] the tremendous intelligence that seems to emanate from him … seemed perfect for [the part]“, which was originally planned to be a recurring role. When Davies met costume designer Roland Sanchez, he was wearing a thin black tie. Sanchez merged this “cool, edgy look” with his idea for the character’s clothes: a “nerdy” loosely woven dress shirt from J.Crew.

Several titles were proposed for the episode. The ultimate title is a reference to a line in the previous episode when Ben warns Jack that contacting the freighter “is the beginning of the end”. Filming began on August 17 and ended on or just after September 7, 2007. Garcia felt “a little pressure” because he had the lead role in the episode, but “was really excited, too [because it] was a different direction for a season premiere [that he] felt the fans would probably dig”. In the mental institution, Hurley is seen painting a picture of an Inuit man and an igloo. This was painted by Garcia. When the episode was broadcast, Christian appeared in Jacob’s cabin; however, the scene was shot with another Hurley inside. Additionally, when Garcia was filming his interrogation scene in an aquarium, he was unaware that Charlie would be swimming outside and breaking the glass in the finished product. Charlie’s swim was filmed weeks after the rest of the episode had been shot, alongside production of “Meet Kevin Johnson” and the Lost: Missing Pieces mobisodes in late November 2007. The scene was filmed with stunt double Jake Kilfoyle at the Looking Glass set that was previously used for the third season episodes titled “Greatest Hits” and “Through the Looking Glass”.

Most Lost episodes feature crossovers and “Easter eggs”—intentionally hidden clues and references to the show’s mythology—and “The Beginning of the End” is no exception. Despite being dead, Christian appears for a couple seconds in Jacob’s cabin with no dialogue. Big Mike, who appears in Ana Lucia’s flashbacks in the second season episode “Collision”, returns in Hurley’s flashforward. Randy Nations (Billy Ray Gallion) appears in a few seconds with no dialogue, videotaping Hurley’s arrest. When Hurley hallucinates that Charlie is swimming outside the interrogation room, Charlie has “they need you” written on his hand. This is what Charlie tells Hurley later in the episode.

Due to production of the fourth season being put on hold due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, the show runners wanted to hold the eight episodes that had been completed until they were able to make more of the season. ABC decided against this and announced that “The Beginning of the End” would be aired at the end of January 2008, regardless of when the strike was to end. This was the first Lost episode to be aired on Thursday at 9:00 pm ET, a competitive and prestigious timeslot normally occupied by Grey’s Anatomy; previous episodes had been aired on Wednesdays. Like the previous Lost season premieres, “The Beginning of the End” was scheduled for an outdoor premiere at Sunset on the Beach in Waikiki, Honolulu, where movies are regularly shown on a 30-foot (9 m) screen free to the public, but it was cancelled due to the writers’ strike. The original television broadcast of the episode was immediately preceded by a clip-show titled “Lost: Past, Present & Future”.

Reception

Don Williams of BuddyTV dubbed “The Beginning of the End” “the most anticipated season premiere of the year”. It was watched by approximately 16.137 million American viewers live or within six hours with a 6.7/17 in the key adults 18–49 demographic, bringing in the best Nielsen Ratings for Lost in seventeen episodes and ranking Lost eighth in the weekly charts. The episode was watched by a total of 17.766 million viewers live or recorded and watched within seven days of broadcast and this number went toward the year-end average. In Canada, “The Beginning of the End” was seen by 1.855 million viewers, making Lost the sixth most watched program of the week. It brought in an audience almost double the size of that of the previous episode and greater than any third season episode, with the exception of the season premiere. The fourth season premiere was successful in the United Kingdom with 1.1 million viewers. In Australia, Lost was the fifteenth most watched show of the night with 912 000 viewers, which was deemed disappointing by David Dale of The Sun-Herald.

American critics were sent screener DVDs of “The Beginning of the End” and “Confirmed Dead” on January 28, 2008. Metacritic gave the episode a Metascore—a weighted average based on the impressions of a select twelve critical reviews—of 87. Robert Bianco of USA Today wrote that “returning with a heart-stopping, perfectly pitched episode … Lost is an oasis in a strike-parched TV desert.” Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times described “The Beginning of the End” as an “emotion-churning chemical dump right in the old brain stem—horror, hysteria, regret, adrenaline and what … will happen next?” Adam Buckman of the New York Post gave the episode four out of four stars. Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune “blissfully enjoyed every minute” and noted that “there aren’t any faults”. Diane Werts of Newsday raved the episode as “superb” and “insanely entertain[ing]” and concluded her review with “Lost seems to have found itself”. Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle declared that it and “Confirmed Dead” “are roller coasters of fast action and revelation [that are] good to see”. Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe pointed out that “Lost can still make the pulse race and the brain tingle … [and] remains TV’s most gripping serial”. Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger was unsure “if Lost is ever going to give satisfying answers to its many, many remaining mysteries … but when it’s as scary and hilarious and moving and exciting as these two episodes, I’m okay with that.” In less positive reviews, Rodney Ho of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution called it “a satisfactory return episode with a fair share of drama and pathos … [that] provides just enough revelations to keep fans hungry for more” and David Hinckley of the Daily News rated the episode with three stars out of a possible five.

Brian Lowry of Variety said that “Lost’s return goes down like a welcome tonic as scripted TV fades to black … providing an unusually generous array of juicy moments for the large (and, at times, neglected) cast.” Mark Medley of the National Post called it “a brilliant season premiere” with multiple “jaw-dropping moments”. Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly felt that the premiere was mind-blowing and featured good acting by Garcia. Frazier Moore of the Associated Press wrote that “Lost is further upping the ante, and heightening the pressure on us as the show’s vast mythology continues to metastasize.”Kristin Dos Santos of E! called it “so well written, produced, acted and directed it felt like a movie”.Michael Ausiello of TV Guide described it as “easily one of the best hours of TV so far this season.” Bruce Fretts of TV Guide responded well to Reddick’s performance. Chris Carabott of IGN gave the episode 9.1/10, stating that it was “a great start to what promises to be an exciting … season 4. The momentum and pacing is on par with last season’s finale”. LTG of Television Without Pity graded it as an “A–”. Jon Lachonis of UGO gave the episode an “A+”, calling it “a crushingly emotional, action packed introduction … [which proves] that … Lost’s groundbreaking protean form still has plenty of blinding ways to dazzle and entertain in a way that is nonetheless unique unto itself.” Oscar Dahl of BuddyTV wrote that “the episode was pretty much a masterpiece”. Daniel of TMZ graded it as an “A”, saying that it was perfect and set up the rest of the season well.

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To the Last Man (Torchwood)

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

Toshiko implores Tommy to use the key in order to repair the time shift.

“To the Last Man” is the third episode of the second series of British science fiction television series Torchwood, which was broadcast by BBC Two on 30 January 2008.

Plot

Synopsis

Tommy Brockless, a young World War I soldier, shell-shocked from his experiences in the trenches, is the key to saving the world. He is taken into custody by Torchwood in 1918 – Torchwood having been told to do so by his future self – and held in cryonic storage until the time comes for him to save the world. He is awoken one day each year for a medical check-up and a “day out” as a precautionary measure in case he is needed.

A time shift is set to cause 1918 and the present to bleed together at an unspecified time, and when this happens it is Tommy who will be “stitching” the fragments of 1918 back to their rightful place in time.

It is ninety years before this eventually happens and fragments of 1918 are appearing in an old abandoned hospital. Before the team realise that this is the year, Toshiko becomes infatuated with Tommy. Owen, noticing the closeness between them and having experienced something similar (cf. “Out of Time”), warns Tosh about the eventuality of saying goodbye.

When Tommy is told what he must do – actions that will result in him not seeing Toshiko again – Tommy initially refuses to take part. However, with encouragement from Toshiko, he begins to see the bigger picture and agrees. Toshiko is reluctant to do this, as Jack explains that Tommy is destined to be court martialled and shot for cowardice upon being sent back to the trenches. Jack eventually persuades her that it is for the greater good and she relents. During a brief time shift, Tommy tells Torchwood employees from that era that they must take him into custody. Then, with the next time shift, after a tearful goodbye, Tommy goes back to his own time. However, in his own time he reverts back to being shell-shocked and forgets all about Torchwood and why he has the Rift Key therefore the time shift still continues. As the time shifts are forcing the rift open Toshiko is able to be psychically transmitted into Tommy’s mind in the past and encourages him to the use the key. Tommy turns the key in his Rift manipulator device, dragging all of 1918 back with him.

Continuity

  • For the dating of this episode, see the Chronology.
  • Tosh and Tommy share a brief moment on Penarth Pier – built in 1894, the same year that Tommy was born.
  • Tommy remarks on how ridiculous it is that he has to save the world in his pyjamas. The Doctor did just that in the Doctor Who episode “The Christmas Invasion”, and refers to it as being very “Arthur Dent.”

Outside references

The title of – and dialogue within – the episode is a reference to Field Marshal Douglas Haig’s Order of the Day on 11 April 1918, in response to the German Spring Offensive: “There is no other course open to us but to fight it out. Every position must be held to the last man: there must be no retirement. With our backs to the wall and believing in the justice of our cause each one of us must fight on to the end.” Reporters at the time recognised that his order echoed that of Général Joffre to the commanders of the French Armies in September, 1914, at the outbreak of the First Battle of the Marne: “The hour has come to advance at all costs, and to die where you stand rather than give way.”

“Tommy” was a common slang term for a British soldier, particularly associated with the First World War.

Jack suggests that the British army executed “more than 300″ shell-shocked soldiers for cowardice during the First World War. Executions for all offences numbered 346, of which 40 were for murder or mutiny. The remaining 306 were for desertion (266), cowardice (18), and other offences (22). While some of these can now be attributed to shell shock, most cannot, although all 306 were posthumously pardoned in 2006.

Production

The song “One Of These Mornings” by Moby plays towards the start and at the end of this episode. The song “She’s Got You High” by Mumm-Ra plays in the pub as Toshiko and Tommy play pool.

News 24 stock footage is used to depict the Iraq War, again with the BBC logo omitted as it has been in Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures episodes and in more recent Doctor Who episodes when news reports have been included as part of the story.

Reception

On overnight returns, The Guardian reported that the episode achieved a 13% share, 3.2 million viewers, in its first broadcast on January 30, 2008, at 9pm.BARB later listed the episode as BBC2’s top audience draw for the week ending February 3, with a certified estimate of 3.51 million viewers including timeshift.

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Not for Attribution

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

“Not for Attribution” is the third episode of the fifth season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by Chris Collins from a story by David Simon & Chris Collins and was directed by Scott and Joy Kecken. It aired on 20 January 2008.

Production

Epigraph

“ They’re dead where it doesn’t count. – Fletcher ”

Fletcher is referring to decision-making among the newspaper concerning whose life (or death) is worthy of being covered in the increasingly shrinking amount of information the Baltimore Sun provides to local residents. The quote nicely aligns with the amount of determination the BPD with office in solving a crime, depending on the victim.

Credits

Starring cast

Although credited, Andre Royo, Seth Gilliam, Domenick Lombardozzi, and Michael Kostroff do not appear in this episode.

Guest stars

  1. Frankie Faison as Ervin Burrell
  2. Paul Ben-Victor as Spiros “Vondas” Vondopoulos
  3. Robert F. Chew as Proposition Joe
  4. S. Robert Morgan as Butchie
  5. Delaney Williams as Jay Landsman
  6. David Costabile as Thomas Klebanow
  7. Sam Freed as James Whiting
  8. Bruce Kikpatrick as Roger Twigg
  9. Maria Broom as Marla Daniels
  10. Al Brown as Stanislaus Valchek
  11. Donnell Rawlings as Damien “Day Day” Price
  12. Anwan Glover as Slim Charles
  13. Method Man as Cheese
  14. Felicia Pearson as Snoop
  15. Michael Stone Forrest as Frank Barlow
  16. Todd Scofield as Jeff Price
  17. Brandon Young as Mike Fletcher
  18. Lenny Hamm as Homicide Detective
  19. Ramon Rodriquez as Renaldo
  20. Gregory L. Williams as Michael Crutchfield
  21. Donald Worden as Donald Worden
  22. Damon Henderson as Pastor
  23. Thuliso Dingwall as Kenard
  24. Kwame Patterson as Monk
  25. Edward Green as Spider
  26. Keenon Brice as Bug
  27. Dominick Cicco as Andreas
  28. Sarah Desage as Bank Teller
  29. Michael Rivera as Renaldo’s friend
  30. Baye C. Harrell as Hack driver
  31. Kristian King Lewman as Assistant Medical Examiner Diane Lerner
  32. Eric Messner as Alma’s Boyfriend
  33. Joey Perillo as Medical Examiner
  34. Tracey Teague as McNulty’s date
  35. Vincent M. Ward as Butchie’s Bodyguard
  36. John Brennon as Banker #2
  37. Gary D’Addario as Gary DiPasquale
  38. Sarah Grace Hart as Six Flags girl #1
  39. Christine Lee as Store Clerk
  40. Jim Scopeletis as Banker #1
  41. Sophia Wang as Six flags girl #2

Two real BPD officers, former Homicide Detective Donald Worden and former BPD Commissioner Leonard Hamm, appear in the episode’s opening as midnight shift homicide detectives.

Uncredited appearances

  • Robert Poletick as Steven Luxenberg
  • Derrick Purvey as Big Guy
  • Kara Quick as Rebecca Corbett
  • Steve Luxenberg as Sun staff member

Plot

Summary

McNulty

Detective Jimmy McNulty continues his efforts to create the illusion of a serial killer and draw attention and funding for the police department. He falsifies a connection between two old cases involving homeless victims and the decedent he strangled. The plan fails when both the media and his superiors are disinterested. Bunk Moreland remains outraged at McNulty’s plan and after several attempts to talk him out of it enlists the help of Lester Freamon. This strategy backfires when Freamon makes suggestions to improve McNulty’s plan by sensationalizing the killer.

Politics

Deputy commissioner Stanislaus Valchek leaks department statistics to Mayor Tommy Carcetti that indicate a rising crime rate. When Commissioner Ervin Burrell delivers manipulated statistics to Carcetti, the Mayor finally has the political ammunition he needs to fire Burrell. He plans to replace Burrell with Cedric Daniels but is worried that he will not be accepted by Burrell’s supporters. Carcetti has ex-reporter Norman Wilson leak news of the plan to to Sun editor Gus Haynes to test the waters.

Grand jury depositions are held in preparation for the Clay Davis trial while Davis tries desperately to convince his former allies to protect him.

Baltimore Sun

Alma Gutierrez is disappointed when her story on the Junebug triple homicide doesn’t make the front page.

The Baltimore Sun faces major budgetary cuts from its owners and copes by closing foreign bureaus and offering reporters “buy-outs” to leave their jobs. One reporter forced to accept a buy-out is crime beat veteran Roger Twigg. Twigg puts his institutional knowledge into play for a final time to deliver the commissioner story. Scott Templeton is disappointed when Twigg is given the story and responds by producing a strongly worded react quote which implicates Daniels in deposing Burrell. Daniels is mortified by the quote and confides in his ex-wife Marla Daniels about his fears that Burrell will use information about corruption in his past to end his career.

Michael

Michael Lee is withdrawn following his involvement in the killings and Duquan “Dukie” Weems convinces him that the two of them should take Bug on a day trip to Six Flags America in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC. Michael hires a hack cab to transport them to and from Six Flags. The three boys enjoy the rides and games at the park, winning stuffed animal prizes at one of the carnival-style booths. The two older boys also meet and flirt with similarly-aged girls from Fairfax County, Virginia, an affluent Washington suburb. Upon their return, Michael is reprimanded by Monk for leaving his drug dealing corner untended.

Stanfield Organization

Marlo Stanfield approaches Spiros “Vondas” Vondopoulos with a monetary gift which is rejected because the bundled bills are “dirty”. Stanfield seeks help from Proposition Joe both in acquiring clean bills and laundering his money. Stanfield also offers a bounty on anyone connected to Omar Little. Joe accommodates Stanfield’s financial requests but avoids helping him find Omar. Stanfield visits the Antilles to check on his laundered money and gives a second, clean gift to The Greeks. Joe tells his nephew, Cheese, that he fears provoking Omar into returning to Baltimore. Cheese ignores his wishes and gives Chris Partlow information on Omar’s associate Butchie in secret.

Partlow and Snoop torture and kill Butchie, leaving a witness alive to ensure that word of their actions reaches Omar.

Omar

The message sent by Chris and Snoop finds Omar in idyllic retirement with Renaldo and shatters his peace.

Deceased

Butchie – tortured and killed by Chris Partlow and Felicia “Snoop” Pearson.

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