Friday Night TV

The cable's back, thank goodness. Highlight for spoilers:

• Las Vegas: So last week Dean Cain was crushed by a giant squid off camera. Way less interesting that Lara Flynn Boyle being blown off the roof, but Sam inherited the Montecito, and now she's drunk with power. Also, Mary's dad didn't go to jail, so she wants to shoot him. But presently, she's having some issues with crowds and being easily startled. And the "previously" mentioned that Shooter McGavin episode, so I thought he might be coming back, but I guess that was just because they happened to reference the kidnapping. Actually, for all I know, he may have come back. I missed a 15 minute chunk in the middle for a news interruption (a press conference about the bus wreck here this morning).
  
  And Delinda was eating a corn dog looking thing that she described as a corn burger with chili and cheese. That sounds freakin' delicious, in a heart attack causing sort of way.



• Monk: Yet another non-mystery mystery. At least this time it wasn't until about 10-15 minutes in before they telegraphed the killer. Nice to see both Bulldog from Frasier and Tommy's father from Rescue Me. But this episode was typical of the current season... a few funny parts, but totally unremarkable.



• Psych: I love that Shawn and Gus are terrified of the ghost, and how excited they were at having started an urban legend. But more importantly, setting the mystery in a sorority house is a good idea. For the, uh... interesting relationships between the sisters... yeah, that's the ticket. I love that Gus is starting to get good at detective work. He's obviously not on par with Gus yet, but he's still picking up on a lot of stuff. Mercedes Ruehl in the B-story was pretty good, too. Even though nothing really happened, she really sold the crazy.
  
  One thing that bugged me: Shawn started doing the "redrum" finger motion from The Shining, which seemed like it was obvious that he got that it was Bianca backwards. But then he just stood there like an idiot for a second before seeing the reflection of the Acnaib, then he made his "aha!" face and it was like he didn't get it until then.
  
  The joke that Gus played Bud on The Cosby Show was hilarious. I confuse Dule Hill and Deon Richmond all the time. When Teachers came out a year or two ago, I was seriously confused as to why the guy from The West Wing looked sorta weird. And Airplane's "good luck, we're all counting on you" always makes me laugh.

On the Tivo: Nothing.

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Friday Night TV

For some reason I didn't record Las Vegas... I may or may not watch it on NBC's website. It's not a show I worry about missing though. Highlight for spoilers:

• Law & Order: So famous "baseball" player named "J.P." killed his wife, but got acquitted in a high profile trial by saying the cops framed him, then lost a civil suit to the father of a victim, owes huge amounts of money to the father, but lives well off his pension, and then decides to write a book about how he hypothetically would have killed his wife, had he done it. This may sound vaguely familiar to you. Normally the "ripped from the headlines" aspect isn't quite so similar in as many details, but I think they're comfortable in thinking that O.J. would have a hard time suing for defamation of character, given that there's not much character to defame.
  
  In this case, the publisher turns up dead. Your standard L&O investigation, bouncing around between suspects, finally arrives at the idea that J.P. (Bobby Cannavale, who's been everywhere lately) bribed the jury in his trial via his publisher, but only the publisher knew the bribed juror's name. When the juror starts blackmailing J.P., he kills the publisher while trying to get the juror's name out of her. P.J.'s lawyer shows up, and he's Mario Van Peebles! I love that guy. Does anyone remember Sonny Spoon? That show was cool. So anyway, despite devoting two whole paragraphs to it, the episode just wasn't very interesting. I really think it's time for this show to call it quits.

• Monk: Could it be... an actual mystery? One woman turns up dead, then a second body turns up shot, stabbed, poisoned, crushed, bludgeoned, and some other kinds of murdered. And some elite FBI unit in a super high tech bus kinda thing shows up to make Monk and the Captain feel inadequate. But in the end, no, it's not a mystery, because the guy who did it was a non-character for the episode. The only mystery was that the second murder was a distraction, which seemed kinda obvious.

• Psych: It's the dad from the Wonder Years! Unless it's Joe Torre, but I'm pretty sure it's the Wonder Years guy. And the episode was directed by Joanna Kearns, Mrs. Seaver from Growing Pains. As an avid poker player, most Hollywood versions of poker bug me. They show pros with magic powers to stare in your soul and see exactly what you're holding. It doesn't bother me as much here, cause Shawn's always shown having powers of observation that are basically supernatural, so I'm willing to suspend my disbelief. In addition to the 80s TV nostalgia, this was fairly entertaning... most of the jokes worked. Sadly, Monk and Psych are wrapping up their seasons next week, so Friday night TV will go back to being crappy pretty soon.

NBC has started running ads for Raines, the series about a crazy detective with Jeff Goldblum. Looks decent enough to give it a shot, but for some reason I don't trust a show with a big star that premieres in March. I figure it'd get a highly promoted Fall launch if it was any good.

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Last Night's TV

Even without Battlestar Galactica, Friday night isn't half bad, thanks to the return of the USA stuff. And NBC's Las Vegas/L&O pairing is... watchable. I kinda gave up on Numb3rs recently, even though it's probably better than L&O, but after 16+ seasons, I have a hard time letting go. I sound like a shill for NBC Universal. But on with it (highlight to reveal spoilers):

• Las Vegas: Whenever something big and expensive shows up, you can be pretty sure it will turn up missing. So when Ed takes off on vacation and a priceless mummy shows up, guess what happens? And it went with the cliched diplomatic immunity plot. So they had to steal the mummy back, Oceans 11 style (costumes, elaborate scheming, montage to explain the whole thing at the end).
  
  The B plots were about Sam being offered $2m cash for 5 minutes of sweet, sweet loving, and Mary after a hotel guest who steals towels and stuff from the rooms. As much as you might have expected a main character in a network tv show to whore herself out, she ended up passing. And as much as you would've expected a completely open and shut case for the room thief, there was a surprise twist! Also, at some point, two attractive young women locked lips. Good times.
  
  This isn't great tv, but mindless fun. And it delivered this time.


• Law & Order: Remember when they sometimes did shows that were not "ripped from the headlines?" Sometimes, they used to actually write stories.
  
  This one's the Ted Haggard story. Anson Mount (Conviction) plays the fundie preacher who's secretly hooking up with a gay male prostitute. In the L&O version, the man whore threatens to expose the affair, and then ends up dead. It's weird that they dig up yet another Conviction alum, after putting Milena Govich in the original and Julianne Nicholson on CI. Mount was solid. But I'm still not digging the new cast members, and the old ones are phoning it in. The writing is weak, and I think had Jerry Orbach not hung around for as long as he did, the show would've died off years ago.


• Monk: First season Monk had mysteries that were sometimes challenging, Monk was a deeper character with his quest to get back on the force and find Trudy's killer, and the show was at times pretty dark, but still managed to be funny. Now, he's still funny, but the mysteries seem to be a lame excuse for a few amusing neuroses to pop up. This week's "I might have inhaled some reefer" spaz was pretty funny, and Tony Shalhoub makes it work. But the show is declining in a hurry. But it's not that old, so you never know when it might turn itself around.


• Psych: On the other hand, Psych is fresh, funny, and smart. James Roday and Dule Hill are great together. The dialogue is crazy and funny and frantic. The mysteries are solid, they surprise you but the twists aren't out of left field. This week it turns to a courtroom drama, with Shawn using his fake powers to defend an accused murderer.
  
  More importantly, Keegan Connor Tracy (semi-racy link) guest stars! She was on Jake 2.0 and all smoking hot in the glasses. She's popped up a few other places (almost all, like Psych, filmed in Vancouver), but usually not with the glasses. She's here, with the glasses again, and awesome. Yes, I'm a nerd and I dig the sexy librarian thing. Sue me. And there is noooo way sleazy weatherman guy wouldn't notice her.
  

Tivo: TCM stuff again.

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