PCB's Television Round-Up, Part 2

Supernatural

Not that the first season was bad, but this season has been a huge improvement. The first season’s overall arc didn’t seem to really kick in until the last few episodes and it all seemed a little, I don’t know, random. The second season occasionally suffered from the same problem (Certainly Sam’s powers came and went without any discernible reason), but as stand alone stories, the episodes this time around were much stronger.

The chemistry between Jared and Jensen is fantastic too. Despite looking not even remotely similar, you could really buy that they are brothers. The “Tall Tales” episode was an absolute riot and generally there was humour in every episode. They also know how to pile on the emotion and the last five minutes of “Heart” with both the brothers in tears was very moving. And the season finale was very clever in that it has given the upcoming third season an overall arc AND a deadline. Smart thinking.

Bones

I started watching this show primarily for David Boreanaz. I loved him as Angel and he’s easy on the eyes too. When the show began airing, I had never read a Kathy Reichs novel. This was apparently to my benefit as die hard Reichs lovers were none too happy with the changes made to Temperance Brennan and her team. I read a Reichs novel recently and found it to be over plotted and FAR too gruesomely detailed.

Anyhoo, the first season was amiable enough, the cast had good rapport and their banter and interplay made up for some less than inspired storylines. It was never less than watchable and to be honest, it was never more than that either. That all changed with episode nine of the second season, “Aliens in a Spaceship”. Holy mother of God. With that episode, Bones became must see TV. That episode was true edge of the seat, heart in my mouth television. The final moments of it, with a tearful Hodgins confiding in Angela that he couldn’t close his eyes without being back in the car, buried alive, brought a lump to my throat. The rest of the season couldn’t sustain that level of brilliance but it didn’t dip THAT far below it. Quality stuff. Mercifully renewed for a third season, I can’t wait for it to start airing already.


Lost

Hmmmmmmm. An odd scheduling idea (six episodes before a thirteen week hiatus, followed by non stop showing of the next sixteen episodes) didn’t really work. Mainly because the six episodes that aired before the break were deeply uninvolving. The cliffhanger, meant to make the viewer desperate for the thirteen weeks to be over, was hopeless. I couldn’t have cared less about anything at that point.

And then the hiatus was over and the show picked back up. I don’t know if they fired the writers in the hiatus and got new ones in but slowly the quality crept up and with the stand alone episode dealing with the demise of Nikki and Paolo, the show finally tipped over into being worth watching again.

And then they delivered the best season finale I think I have ever seen of any show, ever. The flash forward revelation answered some questions, but posed about a bazillion more (not least “if this is the future, how come Jack’s dad is still alive?”) and somewhat more crucially the potential for the final three seasons is H U G E. I am cautiously optimistic that now there’s a definite finish line, the show will stop dicking around and be drop dead brilliant. However, the middling second season is a big reminder that they can take a massive amount of potential and bugger it up completely. And they also pissed off all the LOTR fangirls by killing off Dominic Monaghan. I figured as soon as I read the interview with him complaining he was bored by how little he’d been given to do that his days were numbered though so I was not surprised when he left the show feet first.