Issue #20, 9 – 15 November 2008

Posted by AJ in Entertainment and Pop Culture TV Rewind.

This week: The Hills’ Whitney gets her party on; Heroes gets good again, but it’s not because Jeph Loeb was fired; Eli Stone kicks some cheating fiancé ass; Bones gets good again or at least as good as this season will allow; and Jennifer Aniston guest stars as the most awesome psycho ever on 30 Rock.

***

Show: The Hills
Episode: “Back to New York” (4×14)
You Can Watch It: Mondays at 10pm on MTV

This week’s episode of The Hills was essentially a set-up for Whitney’s upcoming spin-off of a spin-off series, The City, which premieres at the end of December.  Whitney and Lauren jetted off to New York City (as the episode’s title suggests) to help run a fashion show for Kelly.  The girls played the field of available male models and a Robert-Pattinson-meets-Jack-Johnson singer-songwriter.  Meanwhile, Heidi dealt with the aftermath of getting fired from her job at Bolthouse while Spencer reacted insensitively as usual.  Spencer convinced Heidi to go out clubbing to celebrate her newfound freedom, and Brent (the man responsible for terminating Heidi from her position) just happened to be at the same club.  A confrontation that involved the words “bro” and “dude” ensued.  Heidi attempted to clean up Spencer’s mess and Brent attempted to explain to her that Spencer is ruining her life (to no avail of course).  And—oh!—we learned from the wise and always cordial Kelly Cutrone that there is a separate MEN’S fashion week.

Conclusions:
We have all been officially programmed to watch The City.

***

Show: Heroes
Episode: “Villains” (3×08)
You Can Watch It: Mondays at 9pm on NBC

I hope there was a ratings spike because the flailing Heroes got back to its season one goodness this week.  Hiro took a spirit walk with the crazy desert man’s drugs (the same guy Parkman dealt with after Scarface Petrelli sent him packin’) and learned about the origins of the current crisis facing the heroes—Arthur Petrelli.  It was one of those great going back in time and filling in all of the gaps episodes.  We learned that Claire’s mother actually started the train fire that began the entire “save the cheerleader, save the world” movement and that she didn’t know Claire survived the fire when she was a baby (read: that Claire was even alive).  We also learned that Arthur Petrelli attempted to have his eldest son, Nathan, killed to protect his good evildoer friend, Linderman.  And when Mrs. Petrelli found that out, she wasn’t havin’ nonna that!  She poisoned his lentil soup and put him in the bedridden, creepy condition we found him in earlier this season.  There are a little subplot about Flint, Claire’s idiot uncle, but it wasn’t interesting and no one cared.  Once Hiro returned from his spirit walk, Ando made his surprise face and Arthur Petrelli showed up and decapitated the desert guy, which was not good news for the desert guy.

Conclusions:
I wonder if they will have the audacity to create another person who has the white-eyes-sees-the-future power or if they will let it go this time.

***

Show: Eli Stone
Episode: “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” (2×04)
You Can Watch It: Tuesdays at 10pm on ABC

The split between Weathersby and Poser & Klein is just getting started.  Martin Posner did his best to bribe everyone and their mother into staying on with his firm while Eli did everything in his power to keep the receptionist staff and Maggie.  Taylor also suckered Eli into talking Matt into staying with Weathersby and becoming a person with a soul.  The two guys took on a case involving green card marriage fraud and protecting a Pakistani woman who married her gay best friend to stay in the country from getting deported and sent home to be the victim of an inevitable honor killing.  Everyone was saved thanks to Eli’s vision of the prosecutor’s boss cheating on her husband (with Maggie’s now ex-fiance) and Matt’s powerful closing arguments.  However, in the end Matt decided that getting his beauty sleep was more important than trying real cases.  In related news, Eli had a vision of Scott, Maggie’s aforementioned ex-fiance, cheating on her and punched him in the middle of their engagement party.  But—hey!—he started it.  Maggie admitted she’s in love with Eli and accepted Posner’s offer to stay with their firm because she knows Eli isn’t in love with her, which is weird because he had a vision where they were married and had a baby last season, so question mark question mark question mark!  Also, speaking of babies, Taylor told her daddy she is pregnant with Matt’s baby and doesn’t know if she is going to keep it.  Now that he’s going to Posner, I’m going to go with “probably not.”

Conclusions:
Eli kicked some MAJOR ass!  Didn’t know that Armani-wearing prophet had it in him!  Go, Eli!  PS—I love you.

***

Show: Bones
Episode: “The Con Man in the Meth Lab” (4×09)
You Can Watch It: Wednesdays at 8pm on Fox

Yes, this week’s episode was as exciting as the title makes it sound (for once).  I think it’s been more than clear that this season has thus far been entirely sub par when compared to the previous three seasons.  But, in a Heroes-esque turn of events, this week’s episode brought back the original spirit of the show that we all know and love.  The team investigated the case of a group of con men and a twisted sheriff and the theft of close to $200,000.  Booth’s brother, Jared, showed up and brought out the best of the sexual tension between Booth and Bones and we learned more about Booth’s personal history.  A drunk Jared, after taking Bones out on a date, crashed his car and Booth sacrificed taking credit for a huge RICO case to help him avoid charges and jail time.  Cam, Sweets, and Bones worked together to come up with the appropriate speech to give at an intervention, and Bones was as socially awkward as ever.  Also, when the emotional revelations were completed, Bones kicked Jared’s ass both verbally and physically.  It was a good thing she wasn’t carrying her gun at the time.

Conclusions:
I thought for sure Booth and Bones were going to kiss this week.  I’m only slightly disappointed.

***
Show: 30 Rock
Episode: “The One With the Cast of Night” (3×03)
You Can Watch It: Thursdays at 9:30pm on NBC

Liz and Jenna’s old roommate from when they lived in Chicago, Claire Harper (played by Jennifer Aniston), came to town and neither of them was really excited to see her.  Apparently, Claire is exhausting what with her need to be “spontaneous and fun” and go clubbing and steal people’s clown boyfriends.  Claire immediately set her sights on Jack and a hilarious drug addiction metaphor played out where Liz attempted to get Jack to kick his Claire habit before it was too late.  Unfortunately, that didn’t quite work out and things ended with Claire stealing a policeman’s gun, putting it in Jack’s hands, and Jack being chased down the streets of Manhattan by a couple of uniforms.  The things we do for love.  In subplot news, Kenneth was distraught after being forced to wear a new page uniform and Tracy was determined to do whatever he could to make Kenneth feel better.  So, he arranged a reunion of the cast of Night Court and they filmed a wedding scene for Harry and Christine that always should have been.  And Jenna forced herself into it gracefully.

Conclusions:
Raise your hand if you think Jen will be back?  (Note: You should all be raising your hands.)

Entertainment and Pop Culture, TV Rewind |