TV Roundup: Week of 12 October 2009

How I Met Your Mother: Ok episode. Marshall and Lily's double date with Robin and Barney was fun to watch, especially Marshall's over-enthusiasm, but ultimately ran out of steam at the end.

The Office: Terrific episode of "The Office", packed with laughs. Oscar's TH that the sane was being outnumbered after Jim and Pam are gone and Toby had zoned out, followed immediately by Toby zoning out during his TH, was the hilarious highlight. The cold open and Kevin taking Jim's office were funny too, and despite the premise, I found myself liking Andy and Dwight helping Michael with his "mob" issue.

Stargate Universe: Geez, Rush's rant was probably the most unbearable, insufferable moment I've seen in fictional TV this year, by a country mile. Not helping the likeabiity of this show at all. Other than that, I really liked how the others pulled together despite Rush's negativity, and I'm especially starting to take to Eli's optimism. A nice moment of levity at the end when the crew paused to take in the beautiful sight of the planet as Destiny entered its gravitational pull, and they worked in a cliffhanger too. All in all, despite Rush, I liked the episode, so I think I'll be sticking around for a few weeks.

Departures

Absolutely stunning movie, easily the best film I've seen this year, or for that matter, for the past several years. Deeply moving, poignant, and yet with moments of genuine humor as well, "Departures" richly deserved its Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Totally bawled my eyes out during the movie...I've lost count of the number of times I cried, and I've watched the movie twice! Though the story of how Daigo eventually overcomes his initial hesitation and revulsion for his profession of encoffinment breaks no new ground structurally, the eloquence of the storytelling and little things here and there make for a truly memorable film. I love the portrayal of Daigo and his wife's relationship, how devoted and supportive Mika is to her husband. Really felt the hurt that Daigo feels when Mike recoils at her husband's touch after she found out about Daigo's job, and shared the joy of their reunion after their brief separation. Also loved his surrogate family at work...his taciturn but gentle boss (Tsutomu Yamazaki in the performance of the movie) and Kumiko Yo's assistant. Watch for the powerhouse finale that the film understatedly builds towards. Another undoubted highlight is Joe Hisaishi's rich score. Not many films can be this powerful through its quiet elegance and beauty...this is one of them.

The Office: "Niagara"

Jim and Pam's wedding episode was a nice installment, with funny moments (most notably Kevin's hairpiece, indignation at Oscar's revulsion at him being his date, and the tag of him resting his feet in the vending machine cooler), and the sweet, poignant ones (notably Jim's toast before his verbal faux-pas, Pam's mini-breakdown after her veil got torn and Jim cheering her up by cutting his tie "now we're even"). After "Phyllis' Wedding" was arguably one of "The Office's" weakest episodes, it rebounded nicely here when it matter for the union of the show's first couple. The Niagara falls wedding (where the real wedding took place) is undoubtedly the highlight, and Jim's delighted glance at the camera was priceless (also great was his TH that Plan A was to marry Pam the day he met her). The romance was nicely understated, and the episode gave more of a sense of joy and delight at the felicitous occasion. Did I like it as much as I would have liked? No, but I liked it plenty. It's hard for the wedding to live up to the momentous events in Jim and Pam's relationship, especially after they have been together for so long now that the wedding feels almost like an afterthought, a formality to what was already a happily ever-after following the delightful season 3 finale "The Job" (my favorite "Office" ep). Make no mistake though, from the 27 seconds of silence, Jim's heartbreaking confession of love to Pam, the pain of their separation, their aforementioned longwaited reunion at the end of season 3 (and that's not even taking into account Jim's proposal to Pam that had "Office" fans all over grinning cheek to cheek), this has been one of the most endearing, compelling screen romances ever. Fairy tales do happen after all.

How I Met Your Mother "Robin"; Dollhouse "Instinct"; Parks and Recreation "Practice Date"

Okay episode of HIMYM this week. Not a lot of laughs, though Ted's lecture to Barney on tips on dating Robin does give Cobie Smulders an opportunity for some nice comedic moments. Subplot of the barrel doesn't do much for me, and the tie-in to the main plot is superfluous at best. Nice to see Lily being a supportive friend to Robin though, in her crisis moment.

Dollhouse, I thought, had a good episode. Despite the telegraphed nature of the main mission-of-the-week storyline, I found myself engaged nevertheless. One part that left me confused though (in the aftermath of the reveal that Echo "remembers" her imprints)...does Echo retain her consciousness and the remnants of her imprinted personality are only in the background after a wipe? I.e. that she's completely her imprinted personality (without her original personality) prior to the wipe? Because she didn't seem to recognize Ballard when he came to take her back to the Dollhouse the first time. Good scene in Echo's heart-to-heart talk with Ballard in the park later in the episode about the tolls of taking down the Dollhouse while retaining her own personality juxtaposed with all her imprints, and offers more insight in that Echo seems to "feel" her previous imprints rather than remember them, though the scene does seem to reach for a higher emotional impact than what it eventually achieved.

Terrific episode of "Parks and Recreation", continuing its fine form this season. The one-upmanship competition among the staffers to see which of them could dig up the most dirt on each other was great, and had the awesome payoff of Tom catching Ron in his late-night jazz gig as Duke Silver. I like the main plot of Anne helping Leslie practice for her first date with Dave. Leslie's rambling of her awful past first dates was hilarious. All in all, a very enjoyable installment indeed. The next episode can't come soon enough!

Stargate Universe: Series Premiere

A new Stargate series! Yay! Despite its shortcomings, I liked "Stargate: Atlantis" (SGA) a lot, and so with its cancellation I was looking to maybe the latest in the franchise for my weekly Stargate fix. First off, "Stargate: Universe" (SGU) looks amazing. It really looks like SyFy Channel pumped in a lot of dough into the premiere, as the visual effects look better than anything on SGA and SG1. The premiere also moves at a nice clip, though the action sequences (e.g. the evacuation from the base to the Ancient ship) lack suspense or generate any significant levels of excitement. Indeed, even the final reveal of Robert Carlyle's Dr. Rush on the central concept of the show (the Ancient ship automatically drops out of hyperspace whenever it detects a world where it deems is suitable for the placement of a Gate, and drops back into hyperspace after 12 hours...which means the team only has a limited time to do their trademark Stargate trekking) doesn't really register as big an impact as what the writers (Brad Wright and Robert Cooper probably intended. Critically, despite the dire situation of a failing life support system on the ship, I found I didn't really care for any of the characters, and found myself missing SGA in the middle of the premiere. Eli as the resident geek comes across as irritating and annoying, where SG1's Sam and SGA's McKay were easily my favorite characters in those respective shows. Young is just mirthless instead of imposing, and Rush is just so holier-than-thou it's off-putting. Though the creators probably wanted a show that isn't a clone of its predecessors, I found myself missing the the levity of SG1 and SGA. SGU seems like its aiming for "Battlestar Galactica"-scale gravitas, and just coming off as a poor imitation, and abandoning what really distinguished the "Stargate" franchise (at least for me)...a fun sci-fi show where one can just tune in each week to watch the team's exploits without thinking too much. It's only the first episode, of course, so I could very well be too harsh in my opinions and harbor unrealistic expectations...perhaps I did indeed expect to find an SGA clone. It'll be intriguing to see how the show develops itself both in terms of tone and its characters over the coming weeks.

Parks and Recreation: Episodes 1 - 3

Block post for "Parks and Recreation". Really liking the season so far, and the way they have been writing Leslie, so that she's more than just a female Michael Scott. She's way more self-aware than Michael, but finds her well-intentions in politics doesn't always, let's just say, translate. I like how Anne is being integrated into the show as Leslie's friend. I don't find her presence out of place and I think the show needs a level-headed character to ground all the zaniness around. Leslie's budding relationship with the cop looks promising, and he certainly comes across as very decent and amiable. Hope the show can keep this up! The next episode can't come soon enough!

The Office: "The Promotion"

Jim's promotion to co-manager in the previous episode understandably leads to tension between the two heads of the office, as Oscar so astutely pointed out in his oblique TH on the situation ("Name me one country that doesn't have two presidens"). Jim naturally tries to right all the perceived wrongs in Michael's management style, only to discover the best intentions doesn't always go hand-in-hand with good management. Jim can, at times, come across as smug and superior, and it's a little nice watching him floundering in the face of the staff revolt after his announcement that only sales will be getting raises this year. I thought it was also a nice curveball thrown by the writers that Michael didn't actually make the situation better, when I thought this might be one of those brief moments of Michael genius when he would show why he was the boss for so long. Guess one can't really spin "no raises" in any good way. The TH with the staff complaining to the camera crew about the raises, and Dwight trying ventriloquism to throw in a dig at Jim was a laugh-out-loud moment ("It's Creed", and Creed agreeing!). Regarding the use of the beans to rank the staff in terms of merit (and therefore who would get the raise), obviously it wasn't meant for the staff to see, but I would feel insulted too if I were in their shoes. The gaff probably wasn't in the use of the beans, but in leaving the door unlocked for Dwight to bring in the rest of the staff. Affecting scene at the end with Michael and Jim bonding over their "World's Best Boss" cups, a brief moment of levity in the face of what was a long day for both of them. Looks like this storyline of Jim being co-manager is going to stick for a while, so really interested in seeing where this leads. At the moment, I really like what I'm seeing, and like "The Michael Scott Paper Company" arc of last season, throwing off the office dynamic to what the staff (and the audience) is used to, is paying off dividends for the show. The next episode can't come soon enough!