Capsule Reviews – Heroes, Studio 60, Desperate Housewives

Heroes – Season 1, Episodes 4 & 5

Heroes (along with Friday Night Lights) is quickly becoming my favourite drama on TV. Note I didn’t say “favourite new drama”. I truly mean best on the air. Unlike Lost, which I still like despite how it continues to get mired in complexity and a continuously expanding cast list, Heroes seems to have a winning formula. Each of the characters gets screen time every episode and the “A” plot moves forward every week alongside the individual character “B” plots. I also sense that the show will stick to a comic book formula (like Buffy and Angel did) with each season consisting of a large arc and a “big bad” that the heroes fight which is mostlyresolved at season end. Some of the highlights from the last 2 episodes are:

• Future Hiro coming to warn Peter and making contact at the end
• Matt using his powers to reconcile with his wife after getting captured and mind wiped last week
• Nathan flying away and his conversation with Hiro
• Claire driving her car into the wall and her father (the “Big Bad”) mindwiping the quarterback
• Nathan’s negotiation with his blackmailers
• Great inside joke NBC with the hotel being the Montecito
• The mission revealed: “Save the Cheerleader, Save the World”

Also if you haven’t checked it out yet, go to NBC.com and read the online Graphic Novels created for the show.

Avi’s Episode Ratings: A

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip – Episode 6

Could I be any more conflicted about this show? I really want to like this show but I just can’t. It’s like a chef got all these great ingredients but only used them to make a peanut butter sandwich. If it was any other show I would have dropped it already but I keep hoping that somehow it’s all going to get better. Based on last night’s show I’m getting less and less hopeful. Does the head of a network really need friends so badly that she needs to beg for them? Did anyone not see the baseball player writing his number on the ball coming from miles away? Could they really not think of anything better for the talented Lauren Graham to do? Did you feel the story with Tom’s parents was as unecessary as I did? On the not as bad side, I didn’t mind the story with the black comedian or legend Eli Wallach as the blacklisted writer but wasn’t wowed by them either.

I’m even growing tired of the dialogue. The thing about the dialogue on the West Wing is that the people involved were having a conversation and it was interesting and about something (even if the topic was as mundane as an agricultural bill stalled in Congress). Here it’s just banter and unless this show starts to be about something, I don’t think it’s long for my list.

Avi’s Episode Rating: B-

Desperate Housewives – Season 3, Episode 5

I’ve definitely enjoyed this season far more than last but the show is all fluff that I tend to forget right after watching. Here’s what I remember. Susan finds out that Mike doesn’t remember her and that Edie is poisoning him against her so she in her typical Susan ridiculousness, kidnaps him from the hospital to take him on a tour of their memories. Bree’s daughter is having an affair with her teacher and Bree’s interference opens for the door for her daughter to create consequences for everyone but herself seemingly with Bree’s blessing. Mike’s number is tattooed on the dead woman connected to Orson. Carlos and Gabrielle continue to fight and one up each other with Gabrielle, finally bringing a man home she met with a bar so that Carlos can catch them in bed. Finally the worst story of them all, Lynette continuing to redefine overbearing wife, Tom living in a dreamworld where he’s a pizza chef and his daughter’s mother scheming to break them up, something which, if not for their 4 kids, I’m starting to think wouldn’t be a bad thing given their relationship.

Avi’s Episode Rating: B