Week of April 11: A TV Let Down

I watch many television shows a week, following about 9 shows religiously. Even though I do not expect every episode of each series to be perfect, I do expect there to be a decent plot line, to be entertained and for  the show to have CONTINUITY. (The only exceptions for this are soap operas becuase you cant expect much from shows that have children go from 5 years old to 15years old within a year).  I felt that this weeks showings were lackluster at best. Not all of the shows were bad, but I would say only one or two had very good episodes.(One of those is Lost which had a stellar episode bringing back Libby and finally reminding me why I used to love Hurley) Let me point out the two shows I was most disappointed with:

Flashforward: "Let No Man Put Asunder"

Not really sure what to say about this show right now. It seems as though they are grasping onto anything they can to stay alive and are not worrying about the quality. I am not buying Janis being the mole, Mark Benford is always overacting and the plotlines are becoming less and less entertaining. In Sci-fi programs viewers have to allow themselves to throw their normal view of reality to the waist side in order to become engrossed in the new world being presented to them.This makes it extra important for the writers to keep the integrity of the characters becuase when it comes down to it, the characters and their relationships to each other is what makes sci-fi shows applicable to our own lives. So unless there is another major plot twist and Janis is a mole for an organization that actually does good, I can not accept that her character would betray her friends, coworkers and country. For a series that started off with such good writing and such a good premise, it is sliding down a steep and slippery slope.

This weeks episode began as a flashback to two years before the blackout with Mark Benford giving a speech about how the new FBI agents are now important becuase they work for the government. The speech was boring and uninspiring, but then again so was the episode. We see four familiar faces in the "new batch" of agents including Marcy, Demetri, Al, and Janis. (Suddenly the episode just got a little better becuase Janis is wearing glasses making her look extra hot.) After everyone gets their partner assignments the only four newbies we have ever seen on the show gather together.  Al then utters the line "We've been a team since Quantico. Booze and bullets."

Huh, err, what? DISCONTINUITY ALERT. Please let us go back to episode 1x06 entitled "Scary Monsters and Super Creeps." In this installment, which only aired 10 episodes ago, Demetri and Al are in the car. Demetri tells Al a story about the night Janis and he graduated from Quantico and they got hammered followed by Demetri  blacking out after 5 drinks. Al responds to the story with "You blacked out after five drinks and they still gave you a badge." Is it just me or does anyone else thing that Al would have been there the night of graduation if they had been best buds during training. If nothing else he would have at least heard of this story if they were friends. So fast forward (not to be confused with flashforward) to the present episode, and this conversation makes no sense. Do the writers think we can't remember stories and dialogue from the show? It is their job to make stories continuous and believable, and right here they have failed. I think every writers room should have a poster in big bold letters that read "CONTINUITY MATTERS, CONTINUITY MATTERS, CONTINUITY MATTERS," because boys and girls, continuity does matter. And yes, it is a very small slip up, but I still find it unacceptable. The only thing that redeemed this scene was that Janis was wearing those red glasses.

 

BONES- "The Death of Queen Bee"
Two weeks ago was Bone's  100th episode and  boy was it big. Boothe finally admitted he had feelings for Brennan and they should give it a go but Brennan said no. So the question everyone was asking was "Where do they go from here?" I do not know what the correct answer is but I do know the incorrect one. The incorrect answer is back to Bone's hometown on the same weekend that her 10 year reunion is taking place. The show has spent 5 seasons making Brennan's character more emotionally accessible and less socially awkward. She has learned how to talk to people in a way that does not always offend them. In one quick episode though, all of this was lost. Everyone kept commenting on how she was so awkward in highschool, and how no one liked her becuase she played with dead things. Usually when this happens the viewer feels bad for the girl who was the outcast, but I DID NOT feel bad for Bones. She was a know it all in HS and is still a know it all now and she was rubbing it in people's faces. She was so socially awkward. It made it very uncomfortable, almost to the point of physical discomfort,  to rwatch scenes with her in it because you just knew she would say something that would offend. It was not in the least bit a strong episode.

Any thoughts on what aired on TV last week, think i got something wrong, let me know. That's all for now.


APB