Chuck Todd interviews me about alternate histories
Showing posts with label Kenny Johnson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kenny Johnson. Show all posts

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Dexter 8.9: The Psycho Son

Well, I've been saying all season that the prime villain in Dexter this year is Vogel.   In episode 8.9, it turns out that I wasn't too far off.

The brain surgeon turns out not another of Vogel's patients, not Vogel herself, but her son.   And though at this point there's no evidence that she's been working with him all along, she's certainly working with him now, in an alliance that promises nothing but trouble for Dexter.

And that's not all.   Kenny Johnson from The Shield is on hand as a US Marshall Cooper hunting Hannah.  In a great scene, the marshall asks Harrison to identify the three figures in his little boy drawing.  Harrison says Daddy, me, and ... the blonde woman is Mommy.   Either Harrison is even more clever than we think, or he has Mommy on his mind because Dexter earlier asked him if he missed Hannah and Harrison said he wanted her to be his Mommy.  So Dex and Hannah caught a break because Harrison had indeed put Hannah in the picture, but identified her to the marshall as Mommy not Hannah.

But judging from the coming attractions - and in fact I thought so during this episode - Marshall Cooper won't be dissuaded that easily.  So, with just three episodes to the whole series left, here's what Dexter has arrayed against him.   A psycho and her shrink mother who knows just about everything there is to know about Dexter.   The only advantage that Dexter has over Vogel is her constant under-estimation of his emotional depth.  But Dexter also has to fend off Marshall Cooper.  And whom can he count on for help with that?   Incredibly but increasingly plausibly, Deb - who's beginning to accept life with a "convention of serial killers," as she puts it.

Dexter wants to go off to Argentina with Hannah and Harrison.  Watch out Buenos Aires!  Yeah, I know the odds are long, but I'm hoping against all odds for a happy ending here.

In other words, I'm hoping to hear a song from Evita before the season is over, in addition to the song from Lost.

See also Dexter Season 8 Premiere: Mercury in Retrograde, Dexter Incandescent ... Dexter 8.2: The Gift ... Dexter 8.3: The Question and the Confession ... Dexter 8.4: The "Lab Rat" and Harry's Daughter ... Dexter 8.5: Just Like Family ... Dexter 8.6: The Protege ... Dexter 8.7: Two Different Codes? ... Dexter 8.8: "A Great Future"


And see also Dexter Season 6 Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 6.4: Two Numbers and Two Killers Equals? ... Dexter 6.5 and 6.6: Decisive Sam ... Dexter 6.7: The State of Nebraska ... Dexter 6.8: Is Gellar Really Real? .... Dexter 6.9: And Gellar Is ... ... Dexter's Take on Videogames in 6.10 ...Dexter and Debra:  Dexter 6.11 ... Dexter Season 6 Finale: Through the Eyes of a Different Love


And see also Dexter Season 4: Sneak Preview Review ... The Family Man on Dexter 4.5 ...Dexter on the Couch in 4.6 ... Dexter 4.7: 'He Can't Kill Bambi' ... Dexter 4.8: Great Mistakes ...4.9: Trinity's Surprising Daughter ... 4.10: More than Trinity ... 4.11: The "Soulless, Anti-Family Schmuck" ... 4.12: Revenges and Recapitulations

And see also reviews of Season 3: Season's Happy Endings? ... Double Surprise ... Psychotic Law vs. Sociopath Science ... The Bright, Elusive Butterfly of Dexter ... The True Nature of Miguel ...Si Se Puede on Dexter ... and Dexter 3: Sneak Preview Review



 

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Friday, December 23, 2011

Prime Suspect Locked Away

NBC broadcast one of the final episodes of its short-lived new series, Prime Suspect, last night.

Too bad.  The show has a stellar cast - Maria Bello (ER), Brían F. O'Byrne (Brotherhood, Flashforward), Kirk Acevedo (Fringe!), Kenny Johnson (The Shield!!), to name just a few.  You can't get much better than that.  And the dialog has been sharp, humorous, tough, crackling.

But, sad to say, the plots were nothing special.  With the exception of one superb episode - 1.8 - which brings Jane (Bello) and Reg (O'Byrne) upstate and into a series of escalation action sequences as gripping as you might find in a good movie - the individual episode stories were trite and lackluster,  in contrast to the edge-of-your-seat mysteries in the original British series, which started Helen Mirren.

And the continuing story, which had potential, never really went anywhere.   Jane's difficulties as a female detective in the still male-chauvinist NYPD detective world barely went beyond the conflicts and abrasions of the first episode.  And her personal affairs, in particular, the possibilities of life with Matt (Johnson), never really were developed, either.

But, don't get me wrong, I would have been very happy to pick up the show for the rest of a complete season in the New Year, and will miss it, with all of its flaws.   NBC has added another good show to its roster of what might have beens, if only given a little more time on the air.   The Black Donnellys, Kidnapped, and Friday Night Lights (which managed a bunch of seasons only because NBC brought in DirecTV), and now Prime Suspect ... NBC has great taste in getting shows on the air, but doesn't seem to know what to do to keep them there.

Just two episodes left - next Thursday night, and the week after.  I'll be watching both.

See also review of Prime Suspect premiere ...

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The Plot to Save Socrates


"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book


Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com ...
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Friday, September 30, 2011

Prime Suspect

Prime Suspect on NBC has been getting some excellent press - as has its star, Maria Bello as NYPD Det. Jane Timoney - and it's all deserved.   Timoney is a sassy, take-no-guff, courageous, bright, fearless police woman who may be the best police woman on television since ... well, Angie Dickinson as Police Woman.

And the supporting cast is stellar, too.  Kirk Acevedo (from Fringe) as Det. Calderon, Brian F. O'Byrne (from Brotherhood and Flashforward), Kenny Johnson (Lem from The Shield!) as Jane's love, and Aidan Quinn (Legends of the Fall) as Jane's boss all make memorable contributions to the series and every scene they're in.

Prime Suspect was a long running show over in England - the NBC series is a new adaptation - and said to have influenced The Closer, which also features a high-powered woman steering a course in a police department dominated by men.   But Brenda Leigh Johnson on The Closer, though tough enough, is no match for Jane Timoney, who mixes it up with the best of them, and gives chase to bad guys twice her size.  (We're going to Netflix the British series.)

It's also good to see Peter Berg involved in the production of another show after Friday Night Lights, and set so palpably in the streets of New York.   With Law and Order down to one series, and Blue Bloods a little too formulaic for my tastes, New York's primed for a new, hard-hitting cop show.

                 Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic


The Plot to Save Socrates


"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book


Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com ...
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