Criminal Minds 7.3 Meets House and The Unit

Good to see Mack back from The Unit (Max Martini) on Criminal Minds 7.3 last night, in episode that almost smacked of House.

Martini plays Luke, a Navy Seal, who massacres an Internet-service office, and then kills his parents.  He soon is threatening his beloved wife and daughter.  Spencer figures out that Luke has a rare condition which makes him think people he knows are impostors - due to having in car accident recently - and though Luke isn't cured, Spencer is able to use his diagnosis to get Luke to put down his weapon.

I like this kind of Criminal Minds, where the solution to a medical mystery - why the unsub is a serial killer - provides a non-lethal resolution to the problem.  It's a good change of pace from killers so depraved that even understanding their twisted motive provides no option other than taking them out.

Meanwhile, Prentiss continues to need to patch up good relations with the team, understandably non-plussed about having been lied to about Prentiss's death, and therefore having grieved in effect for nothing for months and months.   This time it's Morgan who makes his peace with Prentiss.  But I still have a feeling we haven't seen the last of this, especially regarding Hotch and his part in the deception.

See also Criminal Minds 7.1: "The Is Calm and It's Doctor"

And see also Criminal Minds in Sixth Season Premiere ... Criminal Minds 6.2: The Meaning of J. J. Leaving ... Criminal Minds 6.3: Proust, Twain, Travanti ... Tyra on Criminal Minds 6.13 ... Criminal Minds 6. 17: Prentiss Farewell Part I ... Criminal Minds 6.18: Farewell Emily ... Criminal Minds 6.19: Fight Club Redux Plus ... Criminal Minds 6.20: Emily's Ghost ... Criminal Minds 6.21: The Tweeting Killer ... Criminal Minds 6.22: Psycho and a Half ... Criminal Minds 6.23: The Good Lie ... Criminal Minds Season 6 Finale

And Criminal Minds 5.22 and the Dark Side of New New Media

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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

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NCIS 8.3: Tiff!

We last saw Abby Brammell in a regular TV-series role as Tiffany, the neglected  but much desired wife of Mack, the stone-cool tough-as-nails second in command on the late lamented  CBS show The Unit.  Brammell's not only back but now part of the armed services herself in episode 8.3 of NCIS, where she plays  tough-as-nails Marine Sgt. Heather Dempsey, who puts three deadly shots in the chest of an in intruder in her home, shortly after she gets out of bed after sleeping with someone else's husband.

She lies to the NCIS team about her bed-mate, which makes first DiNozzo and then the rest of us suspicious.  But she turns out to be innocent - at least, of any wrong-doing in the shooting - and, who knows, I hope we see more of Heather on the series.  She's excellent at defusing bombs.

Lots of good touches in this episode, including a lesson from Ducky on how pineapple juice can be used to make fingers fingerprintless, and the travails of Gibbs and Tobias with "atomic" spicy Indian take-out (something I can relate to).   DiNozzo's up to be the public face of NCIS recruitment, but the powers that be go with Gibbs as more authoritarian (I would've gone with Ziva on the poster, but that's just me).

Seeing Gibbs eating take-out at home with Tobias drove home the point is that Gibbs is still in need of a little better permanent company.   Jenny's of course long gone, the woman colonel a few years ago fizzled out,  there was a little chemistry between Margaret and Gibbs last year - but it didn't get too far and we've seen no sign of her this season.   That leaves ... hey, maybe Heather...

See also NCIS Back in Season 8 Action ... NCIS 8.2: Interns!

And see ee also NCIS  ... NCIS 7.16: Gibbs' Mother-in-Law Dilemma ... NCIS 7.17: Ducky's Ties ... NCIS 7.18: Bogus Treasure and Real Locker ... NCIS 7.21: NCIS Meets Laura ... NCIS Season 7 Finale: Retribution

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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

Lie to Me 2.16: Ria's Sister

Lie to Me 2.16 last night continued the good run of summer LTMs, with a show about Ria and her younger sister, Ava.  The two actresses (Monica Raymond as Ria, Alyssa Diaz as Ava) look so much alike (and fine on the screen) that they could be sisters in real life.  Before the episode is over, Ria is "drunk of her ass" and "sticks her tongue" in Lightman's mouth (quotes from Lightman) as she tries desperately to get some control over her out-of-control situation.

It's out of control because Ava may be involved in a murder - she's already in prison - or may be a potential victim of the killer.  She's punched out, under Gillian's protection, when some bad people break into Gillian's house.   Gillian winds up with a bruise on her cheek, and is clearly shaken.    Lightman holds her and tells her how much she means to him.   But it's already clear, I think, that he's falling under Clara's romantic sway, and the coming attractions for next week show more of that.   (Fine by me - though I'd like still like to see Gillian and Lightman together.)

Max Martini - Mac on The Unit - also puts in an appearance as Dave Burns the prison shrink, who may or may not be involved in the murder.   Dave reminded me so such much of Mac that it seemed to me that the prison shrink was just a mission for Mac (I half expected Dennis Haysbert to walk in) - a testament to his memorable role on The Unit.    In Lie to Me, he turns out to be innocent, and may have continuing role, since there's clearly a spark or two between him and Gillian (and other reason she and Lightman may going different erotic ways).

Loker continues to have almost no role, but I'm thinking we'll see him in something major on Lie to Me before the summer is over.


See also my reviews of Lie to Me and Bill O'Reilly, Saddam Hussein, and Ben Reynolds in Lie to Me 2.6 and Lie to Me 2.7: The Redeeming of Loker and Lie to Me 2.8 in Afghanistan and Viva Lightman and Las Vegas in Lie to Me 2.9 ... Lie to Me 2.11: Double Feature ... Lie to Me 2.12:  The One Prevarication ... Lie to Me 2.13: The Whole Truth and Rep Joe Wilson ... Lie to Me 2.14: Paranoids Can Have Real Enemies ... Lie to Me 2.15: Melissa George and Shawn Ryan

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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

Viva Lightman and Las Vegas in Lie to Me 2.9

So now we see that the delightful Dr. Lightman has another flaw from a prior life in the fast lane - he has a weakness for the roulette wheel, and for big stakes, since it's the one game in Las Vegas that can't be figured at all by looking at anyone's face.

That's what Foster tells us, and she keeps a watchful eye on Lightman in this Las Vegas caper, who in turn keeps telling her to back off, she's "smothering". Foster's also at least as concerned about Poppy Wells - played by Abby Brammell of The Unit - who looks better than ever, which is hot indeed, and certainly enough to get Lightman to spend a night with her with all the trimmings. I half expected Mac to storm in (a Unit reference), but the story played it out just fine with its own cast of card-playing characters.

Meanwhile, back in Washington, DC, there's some fine chemistry brewing between Loker and Torres, who remarks to Loker about the dilated pupils of someone Loker is dating, with Torres just an inch or so from Loker's face, and Torres' pupils dilated pretty well as well. Food for thought and more for Loker.


5-min podcast review of Lie to Me

Lie to Me continues to glitter and simmer.


See also my reviews of Lie to Me and Bill O'Reilly, Saddam Hussein, and Ben Reynolds in Lie to Me 2.6 and Lie to Me 2.7: The Redeeming of Loker and Lie to Me 2.8 in Afghanistan

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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

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...





Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!

Lie to Me in Afghanistan

Shawn Ryan - most famously creator, writer, show-runner of The Shield, easily one of the best shows ever on television, and arguably the best - was brought aboard Lie to Me this season to add some visceral punch to the intellectual power Lie to Me already had. This was never more apparent, and successful, than in Lie to Me 2.8 this past Monday.

This could have been an episode of The Unit, another great show executive produced by Ryan. Lightman takes a trip to Afghanistan, to sort through an apparently American Taliban, who may or may not be telling the truth to his American captors - that is, our soldiers, who are under attack.

Back home, Foster's doing her best to keep it together, including keeping Lightman's daughter Emily in the dark about her father's whereabouts. But since the Washington, DC team is helping Lightman, whose interrogations are up on video screens in the Lightman Group's offices, it's only a matter of time until Emily learns the truth.

Meanwhile, there are good twists and turns in the Afghan theater as well. We know, of course, that Lightman won't get killed, but it was good to see him in these life and death situations anyway. He's in a very different physical place than usual, but his keen intellect dominates and illuminates as always.

As I've said before, Lie to Me is one of the few shows with such a sharp variety of storylines, ranging from personal to professional to criminal and now military crises. Shawn Ryan's input looks to be just thing for this mix.

5-min podcast review of Lie to Me


See also my reviews of Lie to Me and Bill O'Reilly, Saddam Hussein, and Ben Reynolds in Lie to Me 2.6 and Lie to Me 2.7: The Redeeming of Loker

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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

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...





Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!

The New Golden Age of Television Roars Back

Have you seen Heather Havrilesky's dyspeptic The year the small screen fell flat in Salon, subtitled "Lackluster pilots, slumping sophomore shows and the devolution of the serial drama. The golden age of TV suddenly looked tarnished in 2008."

Here's the picture she paints ...

2008 not only marked one of the worst years of TV in the last decade, but all of the momentum and promise of the past few years seemed to vanish in a haze of crappy, unoriginal new programming, lackluster sophomore shows, flaccid sitcoms and pointless cable comedies.

Some bloggers agree with this, at least in part. The Flaming Nose, for example, cites Dexter, Mad Men, and True Blood as exceptions to Havrilesky's screed, but calls it nonetheless "well reasoned".

But I don't know what picture, or screen, Havrilesky or the Flaming Nose have been looking at.

The past year - 2008 - brought us one of the best seasons of Lost, a cut-throat knock-down legal thriller in Damages, the best episodes ever shown of Law and Order: Criminal Intent, outstanding seasons indeed of Dexter and Brotherhood on Showtime, and The Wire, In Treatment, John Adams, and, yes, True Blood on HBO and Mad Men on AMC, to name just a few.

And here's what we have in store this and next month of 2009: the debuts of new seasons of 24 (January 10-11) and Lost (January 21) - among the top shows ever to have been on television - as well as Battlestar Galactica (January 16), Big Love (January 18), and Damages (January 7), plus the resumption of Fringe (January 20), Life on Mars (January 28), Heroes (February 2), and The Sarah Connor Chronicles (February 13). And, come to think of it, of The Unit (January 4), The Closer (January 26), and Bones (January 15) - none of which I've yet reviewed here on Infinite Regress (as I have all the others), because I've not yet thoroughly caught up with the earlier parts of the current season, because they're not yet on DVD, and I prefer watching these great shows on my television not computer screen.

And, while we're at it, there's also The L Word, which is coming back for its final season on January 18, and I reviewed the first four episodes of here last week. Another fine show.

So, is the new golden age of television - as I called it in an op-ed in Newsday in July 2006 - "tarnished"? Only if you're wearing some kind of rust-colored glasses...