Boston Legal Finale: “Made in China” & “Last Call”

If you’ve read me for a long time you will know that one of my favorite guilty pleasures on television is (or I suppose was) David E. Kelley’s “Boston Legal.”  I have long been a fan of Kelley’s writing and how he ingeniously intertwines humor along with important social issues most of us are not even aware of.  I was simply devastated this past summer when I learned Boston Legal would be taking its final bow this year.  I became even more distressed when I learned the season would be abbreviated and would be ending with a half-run in December!!!!

Alas…my beloved Boston Legal aired its finale this past Monday but in true David E. Kelley fashion it went down swinging!!!!

Why did I love Boston Legal so much?

1.  Quirky Characters:  From the quirky main cast to the quirky recurring guest characters, Boston Legal just had the most hilarious characters from the lascivious name partner Denny Crane to the sarcastic Alan Shore to the quirky Jerry Espenson to the revolving cast of quirky judges (Judge Brown was my favorite) Boston Legal had a literal managerie of ingenious characters.  They were a total hoot, that’s what they were 🙂 *nod to Melvin Palmer*

2.  Tackling the Issues:  Much like it’s predecessor The Practice, Boston Legal and Kelley were not afraid to tackle the key issues of the day and never failed to educate me on things I was not aware of.  A vast majority of the cases brought up on the show tackled very relevant issues that more public policy debate should occur around.  Sadly enough, I doubt that really occurs.

3.  Hilarious!!!  Boston Legal had a great knack of “Breaking the 4th Wall” with the characters poking fun and making many a “wink wink nudge nudge” to the audience.  My favorite 4th wall moments were the ones where Kelley and the cast would basically give ABC the FU for relegating it to the “B” line-up, especially toward the end of Season 5.  Carl Sack espousing Boston Legal’s awesomeness for marketing toward the “Over 50 demographic” in the second to last episode was gold 🙂

So…my thoughts on the Final Episode?

1.  Crane, Poole and Schmidt becoming financially insolvent in the world financial crisis was gold.  Very much plausible.  The firm being bought out by the Chinese and being renamed “Chang, Poole and Schmidt” sucks!!!

2.  Denny and Alan arguing before the Supreme Court and winning Denny’s right to try out an experimental Alzheimer’s Drug was gold!!!  Perfect way to end the series.

3.  Denny and Alan marrying each other to pass out Denny’s estate was interesting.  Just another example of how Boston Legal was on the cutting edge of social issues.  The whole gay marriage thing and it’s legal debates are awesome stuff.  Homosexual lovers?  Nah.  Committed “life partners” who sincerely love one another.  Sure.  Denny and Alan definitely do have a legitimate love for one another.  Who’s to say they can’t marry one another if the law allows same-sex marriages.

4.  Jerry and Katie.  Right on Jerry!!!  Jerry Espenson was one of my favorite characters on the show.  He was the “lifetime loser” who never got a break because he was deemed, “too weird” by others.  I know the feeling.  The guy ends the series by finally making partner, standing up to a bully and bagging the girl.  Perfect ending!

I’m a bit saddened not all of the previous cast made their way back for the finale.  It was nice to see Edwin Poole at the Thanksgiving episode prior to the shows end but what about other former alums like Brad Chase, Jeffrey Coho, Clarence Bell, Lori Coulson, Claire Simms, Tara Wilson or Sally Heep?

In all, I’m very bummed my Denny Crane has tried his last case and been put out to pasture but I’m sure we’ll see old Shat in a Priceline commercial soon enough.

Denny Crane!!!

Episode Review: Heroes – “I Am Become Death”

Quote: “You always sucked at tug of war.” – Ando to Hiro while breaking out of prison.

This was a great episode as a ton of storyline was pushed forward and groundwork for the rest of the season was laid out. For those of you keeping track of the storylines here we go…

Storyline Tracker

Peter, Sylar and Claire: Future and Current Peter travel four years back to the future where Current Peter sees a world full of super-powered beings. Future Peter tells Current Peter they’ll need Sylar’s Intuitive Comprehension ability to figure out the complexities of restoring the timeline. Future Claire and the Future Haitian show up and kill Future Peter and Current Peter barely escapes. Peter seeks out Future Mohinder for assistance and finds him fully morphed into something “not quite human” as he screwed up the formula. Through him Peter finds the fully domesticated Future Gabriel and his son (???) Noah. After the shock wears off Peter convinces Future Gabriel to teach him to access his power. Future Claire, Future Knox and Future Daphne show up to kill Peter (tracked with the help of Future Molly) and in the midst of a super-rumble young, innocent Noah becomes a victim of the assassin squad. Future Sylar goes nuclear and destroys all of Costa Verde in his anger and grief. Captured post Nuke, Peter is tortured by Future Claire till Future Nathan intervenes. Now possessed of Sylar’s insatiable quest for knowledge Future Peter almost kills Future Nathan and teleports back to the present to confront Present Sylar on how to control the ability.

Parkman: Still in the African wilderness with the Precog Shaman, Parkman dons the “Rap Music Spewing Walkman of Precognition” and partakes of God’s Herbs to open his Third Eye where he sees Current Peter’s Future scenario play out before him. He sees his marriage to Daphne, the child they have together and their raising of Molly Walker. He sees Sylar going nuclear and the Shaman’s vision comes true as Daphne, though escaping the blast to return to Matt, dies in his arms as she “wasn’t fast enough.”  Parkman comes to after his vision, consults with the Shaman and then follows his “Totem” (the turtle he first saw upon wakening in the desert) even deeper into the African wilderness.

Mohinder and Maya: Mohinder continues to devolve as he slowly succumbs to the base emotion of anger. He turns Maya away and intervenes in a neighbor’s domestic despite kicking his neighbor’s @$$ at the beginning and end of the episode

Nathan Petrelli & Tracy Strauss: Tracy tracks down the doctor who “created” her and learns of her other triplet Barbara. She learns that she and her sisters were genetically endowed with their powers at the behest of a “Company.” Disturbed she pleads with the doctor to remove her powers but he claims that he was made to “forget.” Grief-stricken she attempts to turn herself in for the death of the news reporter but she continues to lose control of her powers. She resigns as Nathan’s Chief of Staff and attempts suicide. Parallel to this Nathan continues to receive political advice from Linderman’s Spirit while asking for God’s. The Higher Power advises him to save Tracy. They reveal their powers to each other and finding her soulmate in Nathan, Tracy shares a passionate kiss with him. Fast forward 4 years to Future Peter’s world we learn Nathan in this timeline becomes President as well, this time with Tracy Strauss (or maybe Barbara, lol) as his First Lady.

Hiro & Ando: Hiro and Ando remain trapped in Level 2 and patch up their differences as they attempt to escape (to MUCH comical effect). Their attempt is thwarted as they are caught by The Haitian. Angela Petrelli intervenes and shares with them the danger the world is in at the loss of the formula the Nakamura clan guarded as it is the formula that gives people powers. She frees them to find the one person who knows how to track down the formula — the buried alive Takezo Kensei/Adam Munroe.

Thoughts

I LOVED this episode. We learned a ton and got some great action scenes as well. So it seems it was NOT Mohinder’s doing that gave everyone in the world “Black Market” powers but rather the long-buried/guarded Formula the Company developed that gave Nikki/Tracy/Barbara (and who knows who else) powers. Who’s attempting to put the formula back together? Commercials for tomorrow’s episode seems to indicate that it just maybe Papa Petrelli’s doing…

Question Threads:

1. Why do future Claire and company consider Peter to be an Extremist/Terrorist who needs to be killed/stopped at all cost? What the heck did Future Peter do??? How did Claire become so cold? What will happen when Current Peter next meets the current Claire?
2. It’s been two episodes since we’ve seen Elle. What’s up with her? Apparently the writer’s don’t know either as the Sprint commercial/contest asks for our input (1. Track down Sylar, 2. Take care of the Company or 3. Go to college).
3. Future Sylar domesticates and has a son. (???) Who’s the mother???
4. Who’s trying to put the formula back together? Is it Papa Petrelli? What does Adam Munroe have to do with it?
5. Armed with Sylar’s Intuitive Comprehension powers, Peter in theory now has the power to change the timeline, provided he can control his “hunger.” The question still remains though, SHOULD the timeline be tampered with?
6. How the heck do Daphne and Parkman wind up together? Where is Molly NOW? How much longer till Parkman gets back to America? Will the Shaman stay with him?
7. Where is Knox currently?

Tune in tomorrow. Heroes airs at 8:00 p.m. HST on NBC.

Episode Review: Heroes – “One of Us, One of Them”

Quote: “Popcorn?” – Hiro Nakamura

Heroes Season 3 Episode 3 for me was a bit of a mixed bag. Don’t get me wrong, the episode was just as fun and entertaining as any other but there were bits that were somewhat disappointing for me (I’ll get to that in a bit). Perhaps my expectations are too high? On the plus side we got quite a bit of questions answered. On the down side I’m of the opinion the writer’s have perhaps closed off some interesting possibilities for the future by neutering some of the potentially interesting villians we met. Anyway, here we go…

Storyline Tracker

Hiro and Ando: Batman and Robin journey to Germany to hunt down the Nakamura Clan’s secret formula that Catwoman (Daphne the Flash) stole. In some pretty hilarious scenes they confront both Daphne and the returning Haitian. Internal animosities flare up between our two bff’s which lead to a malfunction at the junction and capture by our favorite big, spooky Black dude of Power Negation abilities. Nemesis Daphne makes off with both halves of the formula for the big pay day. Hiro and Ando are locked up on Level 5.

Parkman and the Shaman: Parkman’s spiritual journey continues in the African wilderness with the mysterious African Precog Painter. Seemingly this Precog only has (third) eyes for Parkman’s future as all the works we see are of Parkman’s life and times. That’s kinda creepy imho… Like with Mendez, we see the Shaman go into the “White-Eyed Zombie Zone” as he paints Parkman’s future. In the capstone to this storyline for this episode Parkman partakes of some (presumably) funky herbs and (presumably rap, j/k) music off the Shaman’s “Walkman of Insight” and enters the “White-Eyed Zombie Zone” himself thus opening his Third Eye to the infinite knowledge of the Universe. Lesson: Wanna see the future? Drug yourself up and listen to rap music 🙂

Claire: Wanting to learn how to fight Claire asks her birth mother Meredith to train her. She gets more than she bargains for as Meredith humbles her and advises her that “there’s nothing wrong with being just a 17 year-old girl.” Claire has other plans…

Peter Petrelli: Current Peter remains trapped in Jesse’s body and once revealed to Knox and Flint gets the Smackdown layed on him until he trigger’s Jesse’s power. Future Peter appears and frees Peter and takes him to the future to show him why he’s done what he’s done.

Tracy Strauss and Micah: We get our “Where’s Nikki” questions answered as Tracy Strauss tracks down Nikki and Micah to the New Orleans home Micah was last seen in last season. Tracy sees Nikki’s remains lying in state in her coffin and Micah thinks his mom’s returned from beyond for a sec. Through his power of Technopathy Micah researches Nikki and Tracy’s birth records and reveals they have the same birth date, were born in the same hospital and delivered by the same doctor. Tracy tracks down the doctor who reveals that he “created” her. Lesson: Ali Larter apparently will always have a job because even if Tracy Strauss bites the big one later this season or next season there’s apparently an army of Super-Bowered Nikki/Tracy clones to fill in the gap.

Sylar and Bennett: Bennett recaptures Flint and Jesse with Sylar’s help. Recidivism is Sylar’s middle name though as he can’t help himself and kills Jesse to take his power. Flint winds up locked up in Level 5 and Sylar gets returned to his cell as well. Knox makes a getaway.

Thoughts

The episode was fun. The interplay between Hiro and Ando and Bennett and Sylar respectively was hilarious. See “Lines of the Night” below. My biggest gripe with this episode was the way the writer’s treated the villains he’d seen built up over the last few episodes. To note: Magneto (The German) was killed off by his own partner Knox. Tell me an electromagnetism-wielding bad guy wouldn’t have ruled to see develop? (Hey, it worked for some OTHER super-hero franchise out there). Black Bolt (Jesse) was dispatched by Sylar after being built up last episode (“You don’t want to know what Jesse can do” – Noah Bennett). With the theme of season three being called “Villains” we are now down two. I sure hope Level 5 has more baddies to be tracked down as I just feel we kinda wasted two potentially interesting baddies. Not that we lack a Rogues Gallery between Daphne, Adam Monroe, Parkman’s Dad, the still-at-large Knox and the semi-rehabbing Sylar.

Question Threads:

1. Why is the Shaman so in tuned to Parkman’s life? Who is the woman shown that Parkman (or his dad???) is carrying? Whatever happened to Molly Walker?

2. What will become of Micah next now that his mom and dad are gone? Whatever became of his cousin Monica?

3. So it seems Nikki, Jessica and Tracy were part of a cloning project. How many more of them are out there?

4. So it seems Daphne’s boss now has this formula that can destroy world. What exactly is this formula?

5. Angela’s vision: has she been successful is changing things to avert it? Surely her manipulation of Sylar is part of it? Is she really Sylar’s mama?

6. No Mohinder or Maya this week?

Lines of the Night

Ando to Daphne: “I know what you’re trying to do. Hiro is my best friend. We will never leave each other’s side.” (turns to look at Hiro who has left to chase after the Haitian.) “Hiro???”

Ando to Hiro: “Quick, she’s getting away. Stop time.
Hiro: [tries to stop time but can’t]
Haitian: [grabs Hiro and Ando
Hiro to Haitian: “Popcorn?”

Sylar to cop: “We’ll need some coffee.”
Sylar to Bennett: “You like decaf, right?”

Next Week

Current Peter sees the Future.

Episode Review: Heroes – “The Second Coming” and “The Butterfly Effect”

Quote: “Stop punishing me for something I haven’t done yet” – Ando

Good times are ahead as with no writer’s strike in the way, Heroes has graced us with its return for a 3rd season.

NBC treated us to a triple dose of Heroes love with a 1 hour “Countdown” special and two-hour premiere featuring two episodes of Heroes goodness: “The Second Coming” and “The Butterfly Effect.”

Storyline Tracker (spoilers if you haven’t watched it yet)

Nathan: In the titular storyline of the premiere, post assassination attempt Nathan sees the Power of Christ compelling him to raise from the dead to Spread the Gospel. He also starts to channel Cole Sear and starts to see dead people as Linderman makes his return from Season One. Nathan is propositioned by the debuting Tracy Strauss to become the newly appointed junior Senator of New York.

Mohinder: With the help of Maya’s genes he develops a serum that gives the average person powers. He injects himself and turns himself into Spider-Man apparently. The side effect? He becomes a major mac daddy and scores himself some hot Latina love action from Maya.

Hiro and Ando: Discontent with taking over his father’s corporation and feeling the need for adventure Hiro learns of his family’s role in protecting the world from a dangerous secret falling into the wrong hands. He finds the secret only to have it stolen from him by a super-speed toting femme fatale (doh!!!). Morever, he heads to the future to see what happens only to see yet another Post-Apocalyptic world where a super-powered Ando kills him (???).

Sylar: Back to full power Sylar acquires the one power he’s dreamed off — Claire’s regenerative abilities. He embarks on the hunt again to take more powers but is taken down (mishappenly) by Mr. Bennett and Elle and is detained by the Company.

Elle and Mr. Bennett: They take down Sylar. Bennett gets ready to go after the Level 5 escapees. Elle finds herself on the unemployment line with a nasty facial scar courtesy of Sylar.

Matt Parkman: Exiled by Future Peter to the Sahara Parkman comes across yet another Precog painter and has a hilarious encounter with a turtle.

Peter Petrelli: The season opener reveals it was Future Peter who comes to take out his brother to stop an Apocalyptic Future from happening. Like in all his incarnations Future Peter is one bad mofo and he locks away current Peter in the body of one of the Villains on Level 5.

Claire: Following her encounter with Sylar Claire no longer feels any pain when injured and starts to question her own humanity.

Question Threads

While addressing questions we’ve had, like any other good storyline we are left with more questions to ask and an equal amount of questions unanswered:

1. Is Nikki Sanders and Tracy Strauss the same person? They look alike. They act alike. Nikki Sanders was last seen in a burning building at the end of Season 2. You could make a strong claim that Tracy Strauss is yet another one of poor Nikki’s 8 million personalities aside from the fact Tracy has a different power (cryokinesis). So, are they two different people or has Nikki manifested two bad @$$ powers? If they are different people, where is Nikki?

2. Where are Micah and Monica? (Last seen escaping the same burning building Nikki was in).

3. What makes Claire so special? Sylar told her she was special and could never die. Future Claire was also very caught up in her “specialness” before attempting to blow Peter away.

4. What’s the deal with Linderman and Nathan Petrelli? Is Nathan plain crazy and just “seeing” things in terms of Linderman or is Linderman’s spirit legitimately following and guiding Nathan from beyond?

5. Who is this mysterious precog African Shaman who’s taken Parkman under his wing?

6. What is this mysterious secret formula the Nakamura clan has guarded for years? Who does the mysterious speedster work for that wants it?

7. What are these two futures we’ve seen: the future that Future Peter comes from and the one seen by Hiro? Are they related? Can they be prevented? SHOULD they be prevented?

8. The Level 5 villains? Mr. Bennett says they can destroy the world and make Sylar look like kindergarten in comparison. Angela Petrelli saw a future where they’ve basically killed all our Heroes as we know them. That’s spooky. Just who are these baddies? What are their powers and what are their intentions?

9. What happened to the villain (Jesse) whose body Peter is inhabiting? Is he dead? Does Peter still retain his own powers within that guy’s body?  Bennett told Claire you “don’t want to know what Jesse can do.”  Just how bad is Jesse?

10. Mr. Bennett was locked up on Level 5 with the rest of the “Villains.” What does that say about Bennett’s “dangerousness.” lol

11.  With Bennett going after these baddies the Haitian can’t be far behind from making his return.

12.  Is Angela REALLY Sylar’s mama???

Lines of the Night

In a wink-nudge to Season One, the writer’s forever dispelled how it is that Sylar’s acquired other people’s powers through this brilliant exchange when Sylar captures Claire to take her power.

Claire (with head ripped open): “Are you going to eat it?”

Sylar: “Eat your brain? Claire that’s disgusting.”

Another awesome exchange came at the expense of Parkman who’s on the verge of dying in the African wilderness:

Disembodied Voice seemingly from the turtle: “That plant there, it will give you water.”

Parkman (awaking, dying of thirst): “Thank you turtle!!! You saved my life!!!”

Shaman: “Why are you talking to a turtle?”

A final hilarious exchange comes between Hiro and Ando as they attempt to track down the speed vixen:

Ando: “Does Batman put Robin in danger when he sets a trap for Catwoman?”

Hiro: “Sometimes. To teach him a lesson.”

Ando: “Stop punishing me for something I haven’t done yet!”

Hiro: “Don’t kill me and I won’t punish you!”

Coming Up Next

Heroes is back 🙂 Monday’s just got a lot more fun. Can’t wait till tomorrow’s episode 🙂

Episode Review: Knight Rider – “A Knight in Shining Armor”

Quote: “Michael Long? Sounds like a pornstar.” – Zoe Chae

After the success of the 2008 film pilot, Knight Rider is back on air in it’s 3rd and most successful tv revival to date.

Show Premise

For those of you too young (oh my god…) to remember the original 80’s Knight Rider series it was
the show that forever put David Hasselhoff on the map. The series, in both incarnations, basically follows the story of a guy with a really cool car and team of back-end supporters fighting to protect the everyday common person and save the world from the bad guys.

New World, New Knight
If you missed both the pilot movie and the season premiere, the new series follows the adventures of Mike Traceur who in the storyline is the estranged son of Michael Knight. Traceur is a former Iraq War vet who gets recruited to carry on his father’s legacy and is awarded a new version of K.I.T.T. (Knight Industries Three Thousand).

The Producers of Knight Rider seemed primed to make this go around of Knight Rider a success where other syndicated sequels have failed. The new K.I.T.T. is about 80X cooler from the original as it’s able to morph itself into different vehicles through the power of nanotechnology. Capitalizing on the success of other successful spy/government ops shows like Alias and 24 the series has included a colorful cast of supporting characters in the opps room including Paul Campbell as Billy Morgan and Smith Cho as Zoe Chae whose quirky characters, interactions and lines seem ready to take on Alia’s Marshall Finkman and 24’s Chloe O’Brian as show stealers.

Quips of the Knight (paraphrased):

Exchange 1:

Billy Morgan: “I hold advanced degrees in computer science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and chemistry.”

Zoe Chae: “I speak 9 different languages. We should make a baby.”

Exchange 2:

Mike Traceur: “My father’s real name was Michael Long.”

Zoe Chae: “Michael Long? Sounds like a porn star.”

Mystery Man

Another interesting take the story writer’s have taken with our new Michael Knight? He’s a man of mystery as parts of his past seem to be blocked from his memory. In the season premiere Knight comes across different opps in the field who know him but he has no clue who they are or how they met. A former Iraqi War vet K.I.T.T.’s scan of his service records indicate tons of classified files and gaps in service records stretching weeks or months at a time with Traceur having NO CLUE as to what happened. Man with a mysterious past and missing memories? Hey, it’s helped Wolverine‘s longevity for 30+ years.

I won’t get into too much depth as to the episode itself but all I can say is that hopefully this Knight Rider incarnation gains good traction and doesn’t blow out its tires like so many other revival attempts of the past.

Buckle in for the adventure as Michael Knight and K.I.T.T. ride off to save the world once again – 2K8 style.