Married to the Media

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March 30, 2007

Some can't get enough, Some just can't...

Our first new installment of House in three weeks finds House unable to pee, or consequently to sleep. That is, except for a quick nap he took in his office at the start of the episode. While napping, he dreams of being rescued from a humvee explosion by a marine who, upon waking, is the patient in the file Cuddy just handed him! AAhhhhhhh!

House is way too obsessed with figuring why he would have had this patient in a dream (where? how? when? did he know him?) and trying to get himself to pee than to work on the case much, so Chase, Cameron, and Foreman take the reins.

The patient thinks he has Gulf War Syndrome and has been unable to sleep, so Chase and Cameron take him to the sleep lab to test him out. It's going to be a long night of observation and there's an empty sleep lab right next to the patient's so, hey, why not grab a quickie while we work?? Foreman eventually wanders in to the lab to find the patient crying out for someone to tend to him and Chase and Cameron nowhere in site. That is, till they come running in from the other room looking a bit out of it.

Foreman questions them later about it (in a very House-like suspicious fashion, I might add!) and Cameron comes right out and confesses the truth. Foreman finds what she just said extremely funny and takes it all as a completely ludicrous joke. "House would do Wilson before YOU'D ever do Chase!", Foreman says as he's laughing hysterically. Chase, defending himself says, "Hey, she did me ONCE!" "SHE WAS STONED!", Foreman replies as he keeps laughing.

As the case moves on, the patient is found to have an icky infection is his mouth, multiple tumors in his brain that appear and then disappear, and is suspected of having several forms of cancer, primarily so they can bring Wilson into the mix. During all these various diagnoses, Chase and Cameron continue to find new places to "have uncomplicated sex and nothing more". (I LOVE that Cameron made quite clear to Chase that is ALL this is.) House continues to be on two missions. He must get himself to pee and he must figure out how he knew this patient and how he would have ended up in one of his dreams.

To solve his first problem, House leaves work early, goes home and gives himself a catheter. Oh, yuck. The best part of THAT was, he has another dream where he goes to work with the catheter under his jeans, it breaks, and he "pees" all over the floor... and CHASE steps in it. Now that he has solved THAT problem, he can sleep and therefore dream. He remembers how he knew the patient. He saw Cuddy and this marine making out a party two years ago. AND he didn't like it. AND, Cuddy and he had a one night stand once that likely led to her hiring him at PPTH.

When he reveals all this to Cuddy, she seems a bit flattered that he remembered her making out with this guy so many moons ago. But she also tells him to "get over her" and that "ship had sailed." Sadly, she said those things in such a flirtateous way I don't believe she really DOES want him to leave her alone. Dang!

The patient stuff seemed a bit disjointed to me in this episode and frankly, after two viewings and reading some notes, I'm still not sure what they decided was wrong with him. But I DO know that Chase and Cameron got caught with their pants almost down in the supply closet by HOUSE. This elicited a great "Hugh Smirk" (as I call them) as House walked down the hall after seeing them. And, if Cameron was choosing all these workplace venues for their "fun sex" to get House jealous, as Chase suspected and I think she was, she just may have accomplished her aim!

Posted by Marenkay at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

"Crazy Christians" on SVU

Remember the "Crazy Christians" skit on Studio 60 that was only discussed but we never got to see? Whether that was because it was considered too offensive or whether it was even more unfunny than the skits we DID get to see was never revealed. Our SVU, thank heaven!!, which doesn't shy away from anything, put up no such filters.. featuring a story about some Crazy Christians with a Law And Order twist!" this week.

This episode opened with a man found dead in a graveyard, arms crossed on his chest, eyes poked out. We quickly learn that the crows hovering about removed the eyes, not the perp. (ewwww... but that's SVU!) As we move on, we learn that that the vic had a gay porn website and was an actor. He appeared at a playhouse that was run by a Christian church that put on skits to entertain and attract people to their congregation. When Elliot, Olivia and Fin burst into the place, they find a group acting out a skit featuring a partial-birth abortion. Now THAT'S entertainment! Woo!

The church is run by Rev. Tim Daly and his wife, Kathy Baker who have ten kids between them. Most of the actors at the playhouse were kids of theirs. Examination of the DNA found around the vics apartment point to Tim Daly as both the murderer and the vic's lover. Tim even "takes responsibility" for the murder, but never really says that he DID it. Wife, Kathy Baker, is appalled that her loving husband was loving men, and shoots him to rid the world of him. He doesn't die, which is good... since they later determine that since the DNA found was only a partial match, and this couple has five sons, it was just as likely that one of them was the vic's lover and murderer.

O and E realize that brothers often tell their sisters things they won't tell their parents. They question the oldest sister and learn that one of the brothers, Paul, came out to the family last year. Dad sent him away to "be cured" and they all thought he had been. But as Elliot points out, you can't change who you are. Paul and Dad come to an understanding and Dad decides he can accept Paul for who he is and that he was wrong to try to "cure" him last year. Each thinks that the other was the murderer... but they realize while talking that neither one is! So who did it? The evil CFO of Tim's church... who reveals himself in the final scene as COMPLETELY off his rocker!

One quick personal life note hinted at in this week's episode. As Elliot and Olivia are working this case, Elliot gets a call on his cell from Kathy. They were supposed to meet for a drink, but he has to cancel (as usual!) due to work. He tells O that he's planning to move back home. "When?", Olivia asks. Elliot says he doesn't know yet, that's what he and Kathy were going to discuss when they went out for the drink. Now, he appeared at her door a few episodes ago saying he wanted to move back home? So what's the hang-up? Why the delay? Wouldn't you think that if she wanted him home as bad as he wanted to BE home he'd be in that next day?? I read a spoiler that might point to the answer to this.. so don't read on if you don't want to know.

In Mike Ausiello's column on TV Guide Online, they alluded to a pregnancy among one of the cast menbers that would "affect the possibility of an eventual Elliot and Olivia hook-up." Since it couldn't be O, and no other female characters pregnancy would affect E and O getting together, the assumption is that KATHY is preggers.. but NOT by Elliot... (probably by someone she hooked up with during this separation.) We should know more before this season's end... so keep watchin'!!!!

Posted by Marenkay at 01:05 PM | Comments (0)

March 29, 2007

All I could say was HOORAY!!! ....then @#$%&*!!!!!!

I am sure I joined most LOST fans in a nationwide ecstatic dance of joy with the demise of both Nikki and Paolo in the first 10 minutes of this week's episode. These two "Who the hell are you?" characters that suddenly arrived on the island this season after having never appeared on the island during any of the first two seasons have been widely unaccepted (is universally hated too strong?) by fans.

We came to care about our core group of Losties in Season 1 and came to despise "The Others" in Season 2. To have two new people suddenly thrown onto the island and thrust upon us fans in Season 3 and to expect us to believe that they had always been there, not just added because it was felt that after all the season 2 deaths the show needed another hottie guy and hottie girl, just stretched the believability of this already rather unbelievable show a bit too much and was just plain offensive. It certainly didn't help matters that it wasn't until this episode, two-thirds into the season, that TPTB at Lost made any attempt to let us get to know them or start to care about them.

Now, we finally get the Nikki and Paolo backstory and learn that they are another set of grifters (This island is rife with criminals it seems.) who took an old man for his wealth and made off with a bag full of uncut diamonds. Paolo seems rather taken by Nikki, who was a C-List actress featured in a cut-rate rip-off of a Charlie's Angels type TV show called Expose' and from all evidence presented last night, seems to be quite the bee-yotch. She yells at and berates Paolo pretty much every chance she gets and seems only interested in him to the extent that he can help her pull off this heist and then get off this island with their "treasure" intact.

As you would imagine, the bag of diamonds ends up LOST after the plane crash. After much searching for the bag, during which, we learn Paolo and Nikki stumble upon the Hatch, the Surveillance Station and the plane in the tree before any of the characters we know and love, Paolo finds the bag of diamonds. He doesn't let Nikki know he found them, however. He stashs the diamonds where she can't find them. (Remember his long visit to the can when they accompanied Sayid, Locke, and Kate and found the communication station? He was hiding them in the toilet tank in a Russian Stacking Doll!) His reasoning that if he didn't control her access to the diamonds, she would have no use for him. (Probably true.)

Once Nikki finds out that he has the diamonds (which have now been stuffed down the front of his pants!) Nikki throws a jar full of poisonous spiders at him. Paolo keels over immediately. As he is passing out, Nikki steals the diamonds back and tells him that he will just be paralyzed.. for eight hours.. as a result of these bites. A whole jar full of spiders tend to scatter and CAN bite more than one person, however. Nikki gets bitten too, and just manages to bury the diamond bag before she passes out as well.

It's Sawyer and Hurley with Jin that end up coming upon them both as well as figuring out their secret and eventually finding the diamonds. Too bad they didn't figure out and no one else knew, that they were merely paralyzed and not dead... BEFORE THEY HAD A FUNERAL AND BURIED THEM. We see Nikki's eyes pop open for a second as Hurley and Sawyer throw the sand on them.

So, are they dead?? They probably will be SOON.. they did put A LOT of sand on top of them (and threw the diamonds in there with them too!) But, as Locke said to Paolo in one of the flashbacks, when Locke caught him trying to bury the diamonds, "Nothing stays buried on this island for long. The island is eroding." (ummmmmmmm.... How does Locke know THAT??) It's not likely, but it's possible that We MAY still be stuck with Nikki and Paolo after all. Damn.

Posted by Marenkay at 10:08 PM | Comments (2)

March 27, 2007

Showtime takes a weekly look at "This American Life"

This American Life began in 1995 as a radio show produced by Chicago Public Radio and hosted by Ira Glass. The one hour radio version currently airs on over 500 public radio stations nationwide. Each week's TAL is an exploration of common and uncommon American lives surrounding a central theme. Usually, these are true stories told by the people who lived them. Ira Glass serves as narrator, interviewer, and emcee, moving the show along.

This week, a TV version of This American Life premiered on Showtime. This version is only half an hour long, but maintains the pace and the charm of the radio show. If you're a fan of Bill Geist's segments on CBS Sunday Morning or the "human interest" stories in your local paper or in People Magazine, you'll love TAL. It features those types of stories with a bit of a twist....

For example, the premiere TV version featured a story I remember hearing about a year ago on the radio version. We meet a Texas couple who raise Brahma bulls. They have one that is very near and dear to their hearts, Chance. Chance is both a business partner and a special friend to the couple. He makes personal appearances at events and on TV shows. He is so tame he sleeps under a tree in their front yard. At the age of nineteen, old for a bull, Chance dies. But at that same time, the couple learns of a cloning project being undertaken by Texas A&M University, where they took Chance for his veterinary care. They love Chance so, they make arrangements before his passing, to have Chance cloned. What transpires when "Second Chance" comes into their lives is the focus of this first story.

The theme of the first TV offering of TAL is "Reality Checks". In addition to the Second Chance story, we explore the story of a start-up rock band "Ghosts of Pasha" who are given the gig of a lifetime. Early in their first tour, they play to a house packed with rabid Ghosts of Pasha fans dancing to all their tunes, sporting GOP t-shirts, singing along knowing all the words. It's a glorious night. Later, they learn that this show was the work of an Improv company called "ImprovEverywhere" who specializes in missions such as these with the intent of making people happy. They felt they would be giving a new and deserving band one wonderful, memorable, gig. The reality, for the band, was quite different.

I'm a big fan of the radio show having listened to it for years from its original home, WBEZ-FM, the NPR affliate in Chicago. I immediately set a Tivo season-pass for the show when I learned it was launching on TV and will definitely continue to watch. Human nature in all its craziness and the particular quirks of social behavior found only in America have always been fascinating to me. It's a big country we live in and there are many, many, quirks to explore. If I had to make any complaint at all, I wish the TV show were not only a half hour long. The longer radio show allows TAL to explore an additional story (the TV version featured two this week, the radio show usually covers three.) and each feature is usually longer. Perhaps it will expand in length if it takes off. I hope so.

Tune in to This American Life on Showtime. It runs multiple times throughout the week, so check your listings and set your TV. You won't be disappointed.

Posted by Marenkay at 12:55 PM | Comments (0)

March 25, 2007

Jockeying for Position on GREY'S

Last's weeks episode set each character off in a new direction. This week, they're each jockeying for their place in that new strata in which they find themselves.

While Izzy has both glowing memories and mixed emotions about the previous night's hook-up with George, George wakes with no memory of what happened at all. He knows he got rip-roarin' drunk and figures he passed out at his former house. Concerned about how worried and mad Callie would be since he did not call her before he "passed out.", he races to the hospital. Once there, he learns Callie was concerned but not angry (if only she knew), apologetic about their fight earlier and she has news. "Sober up, George. And take a shower, my father is in town and he's meeting us for lunch."

Dad, played by the wonderful Hector Elizondo, is none too pleased that his "hija" went off and got married, a rather significant event, and did not involve her family in any way. They didn't even know she was seeing someone. Dad is concerned that George is after her for her money. George, despite his pounding head, stands up to dad, telling him point blank that he had no idea she had money and that he would refuse to accept any money, home, or whatever dad planned to provide. Callie is VERY impressed that her man stood up to Dad, and Dad seems impressed as well.

In the midst of the conversation with Dad, memories of the previous night with Izzy flash back to George. He is devastated. After leaving dad and Callie with the lunch, he finds Izzy and they go into the supply closet for a chat. While it looks for a minute like they might kiss again (Izzy sure wants to!), George pushes her away. Later, they discuss their "mistake". Izzy wants to figure out a way to tell Callie, but George says he will never tell her. It will only hurt her and only serve to clear his conscience. It was a mistake and it will never happen again. While Izzy verbally agrees to this, her heart does not. Clearly she doesn't feel this was a mistake. She told Addison that while it was wrong to hook up with a married guy, it "felt like things were finally falling into place." Given the look on George's face at the episode's close, he's probably wrestling with similar feelings. Good luck keeping the lid on this kettle...

The arrival of Colin Marlow threw wrenches into the works of both the race for Chief and Cristina and Burke's engagement. Cristina thinks that she'll be able to "rewind" their relationship to where it was before the proposal. Burke, however, is adamant that he wants to move forward. He feels he's not the same guy he was when they started up (and when the Chief hand-picked him to succeed him in his position..) and he doesn't want to be. He wants to move forward. Cristina finally decides to move forward with him, agreeing to a small, non-religious wedding. (Something tells me that will change....)

This day, in the race for Chief, the contestants are presenting themselves, and their ideas for the future of the hospital, to the Hospital Board. Everyone thinks it will just be like a typical job interview, until Marlow arrives with binders full of ideas for his "ten year plan." As each attending tries to figure out how to compete with that, Sloan asks Bailey, "What changes would you like to see at SGH?" Bailey puts off his questions, saying she has patients RIGHT NOW who need treatment, so she doesn't have a future plan. She has a RIGHT NOW plan. The board comes out of the meeting room glowing at Sloan and raving about the "Right Now" plan he presented... as Bailey scowls... I expect (and look forward to) the impending showdown.

In other character news, Meredith drowns her grief about mom... in work... a "like mother, like daughter" action that would make dead mommy proud. And Alex helps Jane Doe pick the new face Sloan will construct for her. Good thing, since I suspect he'll be looking at that new face a lot in the future.

No new Grey's this week... and a check of the official Grey's/ABC website doesn't say when the next new one will be. Rest assured, we won't go too far into April without a new Grey's... and there will be new ones throughout May sweeps including the two-hour episode that everyone is talking about that will launch Addison's spin-off show.

Posted by Marenkay at 02:44 PM | Comments (0)

March 23, 2007

Locke's Order: Toasted Sub, C4 on the side

Locke has definitely been someone to keep an eye on from day one. There's always been something strange about him, something that made you say, "Hmmmmm....." I've wondered why he no longer needed the wheelchair he boarded the plane in. I've wondered why he was so transfixed by all things Dharma. I've wondered why he seems to think he has some kind of communion with this island and why he would just stare out into space on the beach sometimes. He's been at odds with Jack, Sayid, and Ben/Henry.. but he's always helpful to the ladies. So, WHAT IS UP WITH LOCKE?

We still don't know for certain, but we got some of our questions answered about Locke this week. Even better, LOST has gotten interesting again. Locke has always been one of the more compelling characters and digging more into what makes him tick is always a good thing. This week's flashback showed that Locke's con-man dad had a new victim in his sights, a rich woman he planned to marry. Her son had concerns about the relationship and sought Locke out,having learned that Locke donated a kidney to "dad" while he was living under another name. The son was hoping Locke would either vouch for dad's character or help him scotch the relationship. Locke tells the son the donation was anonymous and random and claims not to have known the recipient.

Soon after, cops show up at Locke's meager apartment. The son who visited him has turned up dead with Locke's name and address in his coat pocket. Locke goes to confront "dad" about both the relationship/con and the son's death. Dad tells Locke that he had nothing to do with the son's murder and that the wedding has been called off because the woman was so bereft about losing her son. Locke doesn't buy it, so Dad tells him to call her to verify. As Locke approaches the phone, Dad grabs him and throws him through the window. He falls to the ground, EIGHT stories below. Ouch.

It was clear last week that Locke did not come along on the trip with Kate and Sayid to Othersville to save Jack. Why is he along? When Ben awakes from a nap, he finds Locke in his room with a gun pointed at him. Locke knows the Others have a submarine and he wants it. Just as Locke knows about the sub, Ben knows A LOT about Locke. He knows pretty much his whole backstory. He knows he doesn't EVER want to go back to the wheelchair again. He also knows that Locke wants never to be able to be reached, found, or touched in any way by his father again.

Locke doesn't want the sub to escape, to save anyone, or to sail away in it himself. He wants to destroy it so that no one can leave, so they can never be rescued, and he never stands the chance of losing his mobility or running into papa. He wants the "magic" of this island to last forever, at least for himself.

Ben certainly has a knack for knowing exactly what each person's button is and pushing it.. and in just the way necessary to get precisely what he himself wants or needs. He "allows" Locke to go to the Sub even though he knows he wants to destroy it. He lets Locke think he's succumbing to his demands. Locke feels that Ben has respect, almost awe, for him since he seems to have found and harnessed the "secret" of the island which lifted him from his chair. Alex even warns Locke, "My dad is manipulating you. That's what he does." (and doesn't Michael Emerson do it better and more menacingly than anyone? )

Of course, despite warnings and what might have been better judgment, Locke blows up the sub. Ben's reaction? "Thanks". Locke got him out from between a rock and a hard place. Ben's "people" need to feel they CAN leave (yeah, right!) when/if they want to, and the sub's presence is necessary for them to believe it. On the other hand, Ben promised Jack he could leave via the sub if Jack's saved his life and Ben would look bad to his people if he went back on his word. What a win-win for Ben! Now Jack can't leave - but it's not BEN's fault, it's LOCKE's... and gee, none of "his people" can either... and that's all LOCKE's fault too!

Ben kept his end of the bargain. Locke is fascinated with the island and it's secrets and powers so he gave him a taste. He told Locke that on this island there is a box and whatever one desires would be in it. (hmmm.... sounds like the smoke monster to me... taking the shape of what you long for - a lost brother, a horse, a dead dad, a bird that says your name, a lost friend from the insane asylum.... or maybe... ) AN EVIL DAD YOU CAN WAIL ON. Ben takes Locke to "the box" and who's inside??? Dad... all tied up and at Locke's disposal.

Kate and Sayid's "rescue" attempt? Nixed for a number of reasons. Kate goes to see Jack who is in a very Beaver Cleaver living room playing piano. He asks why she's there and tells her she shouldn't have come back. He's leaving the next morning. Oh and by the way, we're being watched. And you're being captured again. And we already have Sayid. Oh, one more thing... Jack... You're not leaving anymore.
Sorry......

Posted by Marenkay at 04:37 PM | Comments (2)

March 18, 2007

An OTHER side of Locke

I called it out last week, and now... I'm not the only one suspicious of Locke. After Locke "accidently" blew up eye-patch guy's communication station, Locke, Sayid and Kate bring him along as a hostage and guide to help them find Others-ville and Jack. On the way, Mikhail (E-P guy), tells the group the Others were brought to the island by a "magnificent man." (NOT BEN.) and BOY, oh Boy, there goes Locke... all intrigued and entranced again at the mere mention of the Dharma cult.

Also, I hope you all heard Mikhail say in a heated moment, "The John Locke I KNEW...... " (He knew him from before.. eh?) earning him a VERY dirty look from Locke and soon after - a big SHOVE from Locke -right in between some pylons (set up as a protective parameter around Others-ville) that zap Mikhail in a violent way, killing him. Sayid and Kate watch in horror as Mikhail dies. Afterward, Kate berates Locke asking why he did this. Locke tells her that the Others never would have traded him for Jack (How does Locke know that?) and "Pardon me for not knowing they had a SONIC WEAPON FENCE. I didn't know he was going to die. How would I know that?" Sayid turns to look at Locke VERY suspiciously... HOW DID LOCKE KNOW THAT WAS A SONIC WEAPON FENCE? Kate figures out they can get over the pylons and they go to Locke's backpack for the ax. Guess what they find?? Some C4 explosives - the same C4 that Locke said he had NO IDEA WAS THERE when he "whoops" blew up the communication station. Sayid asks why Locke is really there with them? Is he really there to help Jack? "Why else would I be here?" Locke says. SAYID ain't buyin' ANY OF IT.

The flashback star of the day was Claire who we learn was a) quite Goth in her not-that-much-younger days.. b) has a mom who was in a vegetative-state for quite some time, but must be dead now (given she referred to mom in the past tense when talking to Sun.) and c) shares a daddy with Jack. This big reveal we have suspected for awhile, since we had seen in previous flashbacks scenes of Jack's dad trying to see his daughter and being denied (as a glimpse of Claire was seen in the background of the house he was trying to be allowed into.)If I remember correctly, the other car involved in the Claire/Mom accident was being driven by Jack's wife - Carol from Ed.... but that was not discussed in this episode.

In the present day on the island, Claire gets the idea to capture and tag a bird with a message about where they are so that they can all be rescued. Sun and Jin help her, but Charlie and Desmond scotch the attempt. Later, Desmond brings her the bird. Charlie and Desmond ruined the earlier capture try in yet another exercise to delay Charlie's envisioned/impending death. The bird is tagged and set free, and Charlie lives on to charm both Claire the character and Evangeline Lilly the actress for the foreseeable? (ha!) future.

The episode ends when Kate, Sayid and Locke, having made a tree-bridge to climb over the pylons, make it to Othersville, which looks just like Pleasantville once it turned fully into color. They are shocked to see Jack.. playing touch football in a yard with Zeke as friendly as if they were the Kennedy brothers at Hyannisport.

This week's episode (3/21) features a LOCKE flashback and, we're told, a big reveal. We are to learn how Locke ended up in the wheelchair. Interesting, sure.. but what I REALLY want to know is why he DOESN'T need it now... AND what Locke is REALLY up to.

Posted by Marenkay at 06:35 PM | Comments (2)

Grey's: Moving In, Moving Up, Moving On

There was a lot of movement on the new Grey's episode this week. As we moved through this day and evening with our friends at SGH, each person saw something change in their lives, some for better, some for worse, some.. too soon to tell, but definitely a movement forward in one sense or another.

Izzy/Alex/Callie/George

Alex has moved in to George's vacated room at Mer's house. Izzy learns of this when she runs into Alex in the bathroom as she steps out of the shower in the morning. He's not moved or impressed by the sight of Izzy in a towel (and she's more than a bit disappointed about that.) and goes about his business. She runs to wake Meredith (and Derek!)to gripe about this arrangement. Izzy is convinced that it's just a matter of time before George realizes his marriage to Callie was a mistake and he will need his room back. She also, quite clearly, misses George. Later, she talks to Alex alone in the kitchen, asking, "Am I going to be the girl pining for the dead guy forever?" Alex tells her she'll move on when she's ready to move on.
Alex, meanwhile, is interested only in his pregnant patient, Jane Doe. (Who, being played by Elizabeth Reaser, will be VERY cute when the swelling subsides!)

That same morning in a fancy hotel room across town... George and Callie are eating a room service breakfast. George asks whether the meals they are getting are "part of the friends and family deal we have here too?" and Callie says they are. He doesn't understand how all this food could be included in the $400/wk "deal" she said they had, and wondered if the $200 50% he's been chipping in is enough. Callie finally tells him that there is no "deal". She is RICH... and she has been paying the whole bill - upwards of $2,500/wk. His $200 has been tipping housekeeping!

George is pretty pissed that his wife has kept something this big from him. He wonders aloud if Callie really trusts him and really considers him a partner. Callie angrily tells him that he still chooses his friends over her every chance he gets and insinuates that Izzy has a problem with their marriage because Izzy wants George for herself. George laughs at that notion. "Izzy is a super model, I'm George!", he replies. "And what does that make me?", Callie says. Being her size and shape, I know where she's comin' from there, and fully understand when she throws George out of her very expensive hotel room.

George shows up at Mer's house with a bottle of bourbon. He needs to vent about his marriage with his best friend Izzy and this bottle of alcohol. The two friends drain the bottle, get giggly and silly on the floor and discuss his marriage and the fight he had with Callie. George tells Izzy that part of the problem is that Callie thinks that Izzy wants him. Izzy and George share a hearty laugh about that notion.. but are soon looking at each other in that... drunken.... wanton way. OH MY GOD... Izzy wakes up naked in bed with George.

THE CHIEF RACE
gets a new contender in the person of Colin Marlow, a reknowned cardio-thoracic surgeon who taught Christina at Stanford. The other docs fall all over themselves trying to impress him and/or scare him out of competing much to the chagrin of the current chief. He catches Derek, Sloane, Burke, and Addison on several occasions arguing in the halls about patient care and "showboating" surgeries that they performed.

CHRISTINA/BURKE
Marlow, it turns out, did more than teach Cristina in class. Burke, who is impressed by Marlow's appearance at SGH and his lofty reputation as a surgeon, is NOT impressed when he sees Marlow greet Cristina with a hug and a butt-squeeze in front of all. He convinces himself it was only a fling between a student and a teacher, until Marlow corrects him. He and Cristina were in a serious relationship for three years, and he proposed to her on several occasions. Marlow tells Burke he's rather surprised she agreed to marry him, as she was fundamentally opposed to the whole institution of marriage when they were together. Burke calls her on this and she admits she feels the same way about marriage, but agreed to it to "make him happy." "Marrying me to placate me does not interest me AT ALL.", Burke tells her. Already, this engagement is in trouble.

MEREDITH/DEREK/THATCHER

Meredith's "family", her dad and his new wife, played by Mare Winningham, arrived at the hospital to touch base and check on her in the wake of her mother's death. She still didn't want to consider them her "family" yet, but eventually decided to give them a chance. She agrees to host a dinner at her house, which Derek agrees to attend as well. It's one of the most uncomfortable family dinners I've ever seen (and I've seen a few!) especially after Dad goes on about a cute picture of him and Molly, Mer's half-sister as a girl - that isn't Molly at all - it's Meredith. At that moment, Izzy blows a fuse in the house and dad, whose house this once was, goes to fix it. He's gone for a REAL LONG time. When Derek goes to look for him, he finds dad in a rocker in the laundry room in full "escape the family" mode. Derek talks him through it, they flip the breaker switch and head back in to dinner. Meredith and step-mom have broken the ice a bit by then and Cristina has shown up to discuss the blow up of her engagement. As Mer's visit with dad ends, they walk past a porch swing that hasn't worked for years. Dad remembers he put a pin in it years ago to prevent Mer hurting her fingers as a child. He pulls out the pin and the swing works again. Mer and Dad's relationship may be on the upswing after this.

ABC was originally planning to air a repeat this Thursday, 3/22, but October Road's premiere did so well with the lead-in from a new Grey's that they decided to run a new Grey's this week to keep the momentum going. Guess we'll get to see the aftermath of the George/Izzy fiasco (I can't think of it much of any other way.) AND, I believe we meet Callie's daddy - to be played by Hector Elizondo.

Posted by Marenkay at 06:33 PM | Comments (0)

March 11, 2007

Keep Locke away from COMPUTERS!

One thing we definitely learned from this week's LOST is that Locke is far too entranced with computers and with all things Dharma. He also is just curious enough to push what shouldn't be pushed.. and is apparently quite good at chess. OR.... there's another possibility - one I've tossed around in my head almost since Lost's beginning.

I think it's quite possible that Locke is a Dharma Initiative member himself. He's of the right age, "boomer-ish", AND he positively becomes transfixed every time he sees a message from Dr. Marvin Candle, the star of every Dharma instructional video. Remember when they found the first tape? Locke was transported... practically in a zone. We know from his flashback that he has been looking for a place to belong for a long time and is certainly one that is easily susceptible to a cult-like mentality.

I also remember several scenes where he acts in a knowing way about things they encounter on the island. He did not seem at all un-nerved, for example, when they found the "Swan" station and learned that it was a surveillance station for the other hatches. "Eye-Patch-Guy", who we met again this week, stared back at them from one of those surveillance monitors and while it freaked out everyone else... Locke was pretty un-moved, just as he was when we re-met the guy this week. He didn't seem surprised that he could suddenly walk.. or that Rose was cured either... And she spoke to him of their magical cures as if she knew he was aware of it all from the beginning.

Sayid, Kate and Locke stumbled upon "Eye-Patch-Guy"'s station, complete with livestock and a kitty, as they went back to try to spring Jack from "Others-ville." While Sayid and Kate were pretty determined to get to the bottom of who this guy was and what he was doing there, Locke was not all that concerned. He was wandering around the dude's place unsupervised (and Eye-Patch-Guy didn't seem to notice or mind, at first.) AND even had enough time away from Kate and Sayid to sit down and play several rounds of chess vs. the computer he found there. Now, I don't know about most people.. but I don't like people messin' with my computer.. not even people I know well. I certainly wouldn't let some stranger I've never met sit down and start hitting buttons randomly. Especially... if there's a command out there that COULD blow up the whole damn place. Unless... hmmmmm.... your endgame WAS to blow up the whole damn place from the start.. and make it look like you just stumbled on to that command as an INNOCENT LITTLE ACCIDENT while playing chess.... Locke seems rather prone to these innocent little accidents, and I'm just not buying that they really are innocent anymore.

The best news coming out of this episode is that it's gotten all us LOST fans speculating again. Probably all that Eye-Patch-Guy said about a fight between the "hostiles" and the "others" was true... but are Ben, Juliette and his gang one or the OTHER? (tee-hee!) And what about Rousseau? Was she a "hostile" or an original Dharma member herself? Maybe she and her team were sent to the island by Dharma after communications went down.. or when the "illness" happened - to re-staff the project?

Other highlights of this episode were the ping-pong match with Sawyer's stuff as the prize. I agree with other fans I talked to that I wish we had seen more of the match. It would have been fun to see Hurley clean Sawyer's clock in a "Forrest Gump"-level smackdown. Best moment?... A Sawyer line once again. Sawyer says what we ALL have been thinking when he sees Paolo for the first time and says, "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?" IMHO, making Paolo and Nikki more plants of "the OTHERS" is the only way their arrival into our core group would make sense... and killing them in grisly fashion, as they did to ETHAN (Tom-Cruise-Cousin) ROM is the only satisfying way to get them off the show. Which, I think, we ALL wish they would just DO already.

The bad news for LOST, besides the continuing and futile attempts to get us to like Paolo and Nikki, are that ratings just don't seem to be rebounding. Being a fan of puzzles myself, I'm beginning to think that while we puzzlers love to ponder and speculate, we also want to SOLVE.. and feel good that we figured something out. When all you get is questions and more questions.. for awhile anyway, it's fun to go deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole. But eventually, you either want to start feeling smart .. or you give up and move on. Between the long time off and the lackadaisical plot movement up till this week, I think many of we puzzlers have tuned out.. or tuned IN... to something new and currently more intriguing... LIKE HEROES.

Posted by Marenkay at 05:22 PM | Comments (0)

The Moment House/Cameron Fans have waited for!

AND... a good case too. Actually, there were two good cases and an interesting guest star. Dave Matthews excellently played the patient-of-the-week, an adult left mentally challenged, but a musical savant, after being involved in a bus accident at age 10.

House eventually figures out that the right side of his brain has been malfunctioning since the accident and that the best thing for him is a hemisphere-ectomy, or removal of that damaged right side. House thinks that removing this dead half will allow the good half to perform at its best and give Patrick (DM's character) his best chance at a normal life. However, it will remove his musical savantism, since as we learn from House, musicianship is a global function (requiring both sides of the brain.)

Before the diagnosis, or maybe because House already suspects the final outcome and wants one last chance, House and Patrick play a beautiful duet. House rolls a piano into Patrick's room, sits down and plays the opening passage of The Boomtown Rats, "I Don't Like Mondays." Patrick fills in the next passage perfectly. House visibly stops to consider this for a moment, and then begins a pretty little song that we later learn he wrote himself when in Junior High. He stops after the first passage again, and Patrick fills in the next passage, plus the next one... one that House never wrote, and finishes the piece. It's gorgeous. It's also very cool seeing Hugh play piano (yes, that's really him playing!) and I'm sure that Hugh is thrilled to be playing with Dave Matthews.

After some consideration on the dad's side, and some back and forth with Cuddy, Patrick does have the hemisphere-ectomy and ends the episode able to button his shirt, something he could not do before, and a sign that House was right.

Patrick's case, however, was only one of two the team was working on this week. Through some very HOUSE-like spying and privacy intrusion, Cameron learned, by OPENING HOUSE'S MAIL AND READING IT, that he had booked airline tickets to Boston. Foreman caught House delivering his own blood to the lab for analysis. Putting two and two together, they assumed he might be looking for a job elsewhere. (Harvard, Cameron says, is looking for an Infectious Disease Dept. Head - House's specialty.)Cameron then feels perfectly justified to break into House's apt. and search it (she has learned from Greg well!) She and Chase let themselves in with a key they find hidden on the top of his doorframe and proceed to again open and read his mail. They find a phone bill with many calls to the 617 (Boston) area code. Chase picks up House's phone and dials the number, and "Massachusetts General" picks up.

As we know, Cameron is a direct line to Cuddy. In the next scene, we see Cuddy on the phone with Mass Gen, telling them in no uncertain terms that they can NOT woo away her ace diagnostician. She learns that he is NOT job-hunting and not coming for a social call. There could only be one other reason for his trip there, one that they would refuse to reveal. He's a patient. The doc that Cuddy speaks to at Mass General mentions the name of another specialist he's coming to see. It's someone Wilson knows, an oncologist with a sub-specialty in brain cancer.

Once Cuddy tells Wilson, it only takes an instant for Wilson to tell Cameron and Cameron to tell the rest of the team. This sets them all into a tizzy trying to figure out if perhaps he was mis-diagnosed. In between digging into House's "case", each of House's team members and friends deal with the news that he is dying. Foreman tries to tell House he likes him. Chase hugs him and cries. Wilson is more than a bit put out that House didn't come to him, his best friend AND an oncologist. Each person comes to House except for Cuddy. He shows up at her house, ostensibly to discuss Patrick's case, but really to cop an ass grab (which Cuddy allows) and to invite his poor, dying self into her bed (which she denies saying, "Call the Make-a-Wish Foundation!") Cameron comes to House's office with a letter of recommendation she asks him to sign. She tells him she's applying for a job at Penn, because there's no sense in staying there if he's not there. Again, very HOUSE-like of her to write her own letter. He tells her he's not dead yet and asks her if she's sure she wants to leave. She approaches him slowly, runs her hands along his face, and kisses him. House seems uncomfortable about this at first, but starts to get into it. Until, that is, he sees her reach into her pocket and pull out a syringe. In another Greg-like move, she has an ulterior motive. She's trying to sneak a blood sample from him so she can run tests. He's offended that she tried to pull that off, but she happily points out that he DID kiss back. (and boy, did he!)

Throughout, Greg is not happy that his team even knows he has cancer. He tries to direct their energies back to Patrick's case and tries NOT to talk about it whenever possible. He clearly enjoys, however, seeing each of his significant person's reactions. (especially Cameron's)

The team figures out that he WAS mis-diagnosed and he does NOT have brain cancer. I think he may have been a little proud that they got to the bottom of this.. but he was NOT happy that they told the folks at Mass. General about it. Why? Because he already knew he did not have cancer. He was using someone else's file to FAKE cancer so that he would be admitted to a clinical trial of a drug that would be injected into the pleasure center of his brain. His team is horrified that he would fake cancer to get high AND let them all believe that he was dying. Wilson doesn't seem as surprised. Knowing both Greg's personality and the extent of his addiction better than the others, he points out that while most REAL cancer patients do OK if they have people who care around them, HOUSE went out of his way to push away the people who cared about him when pretending to be a cancer patient. Wilson suggests that if he wants to assuage his pain, he might start small, "try spending time with friends " rather than injecting drugs into his brain. The episode closes with HOUSE looking from the outside in to a bar where Chase, Foreman, and Cameron are having drinks after work. He looks like he might join them.. and places his hand on the doorknob to enter as the credits roll.

This was definitely one of the best episodes of the season, and I'd say, in the Top ten for the series so far. Two more weeks off.. (Thanks AI.) and then back on 3/27 for NINE new House episodes in a row. Can't wait.

Posted by Marenkay at 05:17 PM | Comments (2)

March 04, 2007

Lost: Come on and Take a Free Ride!

This week's LOST seemed like the comic relief episode to me... which leads me to think (and hope!) that some truly edge-of-the-seat developments are just around the corner.

We focus on Hurley this week, seeing him first at about the age of ten. His dad, played by Cheech, is getting ready to split on him and mom. He gives him a speech about having hope and making your own luck and then rides off into the sunset leaving him with lonely mom, a broken down Camaro, and a really big candy bar.

Dad comes back seventeen years later to reconnect with his family who are now big time lottery winners. Hurley has been consoling himself with many of those tasty candy bars over the last seventeen years and dad can't stop himself from mentioning that. Mom is thrilled that Dad is back because, "she has needs." (ewwww.) but Hurley is grossed out, and HURT. He makes it clear dad will be getting none of the money and that he is going to Australia to get the curse the numbers put on him removed. We know how that turned out. I wonder if Dad is still "comforting" mom in that big beautiful house with the Bennigan's butlers.

In the present day island world, Hurley is greeted by Vincent, the Move-The-Plotline-Forward dog, who is clutching a necrotic arm in his mouth. He runs off into the forest hoping Hurley and Charlie will follow. "Sure, follow the dog with the dead, skeletal arm into the creepy forest", says Charlie, "Be my guest." Hurley goes alone.. and finds a VW Van "Dharma-Mobile" turned over on its side. "Roger" the armless "Work-Man" is inside, along with a case of not-at-all-cold, not-at-all-frosty, Dharma Initiative Beers.

Why anybody would want these hot, skunked, shrely flat and god knows how old beers, let alone be willing to WORK for them, I'm not sure. But Charlie, Jin and Sawyer end up agreeing to help Hurley try to bring this dead van back to life. I'm not sure where they are planning to drive it once its running either... but the getting there was all the fun.

Sawyer/Hurley scenes are always funny to me. Yeah, Sawyer throws a lot of fat jabs at Hurley, and I don't like that, but many of Sawyer's best lines seem to come out when Hurley is around. "Lookie there, you found yourself a hippie car." was just one of many.

Following the "Little Miss Sunshine" auto-repair manual, Hurley decides to try to pop the clutch and get the van started by giving it a rolling start down a REAL steep hill. Charlie decides to ride shot-gun which made me certain that this is where Charlie would meet his Desmond-predicted demise. Sawyer and Jin give the van a shove and it careens down the hill toward a really big rock. It jumps to life (powered by gas, battery power, brakes and an electrical and steering system that are god knows how old, damaged, or lacking of fluids.) They miss the rock and toodle around the island to the tune of "Road to Shambala", the same song that was playing when Hurley's dad left in the flashback... and just coincidentally? loaded into a cassette deck in the van. Hmmmmm. Wonder if it's track number 4? or 8?

In other Lostie news, Kate is extremely pissy to Sawyer and after saying a quick HI! to everyone, immediately sets out to go back to Other-Land and rescue Jack. First, she's going to get help. She won't tell anyone who that would be, but Locke and Sayid follow her, and find that it is Rousseau she's after. When she tells Rousseau she thinks she saw her daughter, she looks happy to assist.

So many other shows are taking "rerun breaks" now that Sweeps is over, but LOST is still new each week. I'll keep an eye on the ratings and see if this "take a big break, but then come back with all new episodes" strategy pays off for them.

Posted by Marenkay at 06:51 PM | Comments (1)

March 01, 2007

SVU: Siblings can be a HEAP of trouble

Olivia learned this week that little brothers can be a whole heap of trouble sometimes (My apologies to any "Loyal Subjects of Garfield Goose" demeaned by this statement.) Now that O knows she has a little brother, she needs to find out all she can about him. Elliot finds her staking out his house in Jersey one night, figures out what she's up to, and agrees to stay with her and help. A couple of NJ uniformed cops come upon them there and wonder what the heck they're doing. They're keeping an eye on this guy too, we learn, because he is a suspect in several stalking and break-in cases. Olivia and Elliot are reprimanded by the Captain in NJ AND by their own captain, for sticking their noses where they don't belong.

Cragen almost suspends them for going over state lines with their badges and guns, but instead assigns them to the case of several men who claim to have been raped. Soon after, Elliot, Olivia, Fin and Munch find themselves in pursuit of this rape suspect, who is fleeing in a van. Olivia, while pursuing, is talking to her new brother's girlfriend on her cell phone. While distracted, they lose the suspect. Now Cragen is REALLY mad. Elliot tries to cover for O's mistake, and O claims she just misheard Elliot's directions during the pursuit. Later, however, Cragen hears tapes of the walkie-talkie transmissions during the chase and realizes that Olivia was carrying on another conversation while pursuing the perp. And we thought he was mad before?!?!

Olivia arranged a meeting with the girlfriend during that conversation, but the brother himself shows up instead. Simon realizes she is a cop and asks why she is pursuing him and his girlfriend so relentlessly. O has to come clean and explain who she is. She doesn't tell him how she learned this, of course, since her running of the DNA test to find him was more than a tad unethical.

Soon after this first meeting, O learns that one of the women her brother is suspected of stalking has been raped. This woman also identifies her brother in a line-up as the man who raped her. O has begun to bond with Simon and has spent an evening getting to know him. But now she feels betrayed and feels that Simon may be a case of "Like Father, Like Son." We learn from Olivia, along with Simon, that his father raped her mother. Olivia is the product of that rape, making them half siblings.

O wants to support her brother and to believe him when he says that he is innocent and that Captain Millfield (played by NYPD Blue and All My Children veteran, Kim Delaney) is out to get him. The reason for this would be that the captain and her younger sister went to high school with Simon. He had been involved with the younger sister at one point. According to Captain Millfield, Simon raped her sister. According to Simon, it was a night where he made advances and was rebuffed, and nothing really happened. Since that night when "nothing really happened", her sister has been in and out of psych facilities, on medication, and never able to hold a job. She DOES have a vendetta. She is standing up for her sibling just as Olivia is for hers.

After learning that O botched the case of the male rape suspect and realizing she was carrying on another conversation during the chase, Cragen got to the bottom of the case of the missing brother and the DNA test she took it upon herself to have run. He also found that Elliot was covering for O at every opportunity, just as she has so often done for him. He insists that they both be interviewed by a psychologist with the goal of determining whether they should be split up for being too close. Her assessment, "Yes, you should split them up because they are too close. But if you do, you will lose your best team of detectives."

We know that Cragen can't split them up. We'd all be heartbroken! and besides, he had Elliot teamed with someone else while O was on "undercover assignment" and look how well that turned out. Not good... not for anyone. But, we can rest assured he will be watching them a whole lot closer.

Posted by Marenkay at 12:08 PM | Comments (0)

The Miracle? Meredith MAY have gotten over herself.

The last of the three-part ferry accident episode was entitled "Some Kind of Miracle." Given that, PLUS the fact that this show is called, "Grey's Anatomy" made me pretty certain that Meredith was NOT going to die.

Of course, in the end, she didn't... but the journey she took, and how it affected her and all those who love her, was interesting, fun - even funny at times, and quite revealing. Hopefully, it pointed several characters in new directions as well.

Meredith took the walk toward the white light and woke up on a gurney in the hospital to be greeted by Denny Duquette and Kyle Chandler, the "bomb guy". Soon after, her mom's scrub nurse and the girl that died after being impaled by the pipe (from an early Season 2 episode)

Through Denny's prodding, we eventually learn that Meredith fought only for a little while when in the water, but soon decided, "What's the Point?" and gave up, allowing herself to drown. McDreamy, we learn, suspected that this was the case. He tells Addison that "She (Meredith) knows how to swim." Derek feels that Meredith's mother is the cause. Ellis Grey was always hard on Mer. Nothing ever pleased her, even Mer putting much of her own life, goals and dreams aside to care for her, and yet, she called her "ordinary" and belittled her every chance she got. Ellis, who is in SGH herself during this time, awaiting heart surgery, is visited by Derek, who calls her out over this. "If she dies, it'll be on you." he tells her.

Each of the satellites orbiting around Meredith reacted to her impending "death" in different ways. Izzy, at Callie's insistence, went back to work. Callie and Izzy had it out over George while trying to distract themselves through working. Callie telling Izzy she will have to accept her as part of George's life or she would become "That girl George used to know." George gave it to Izzy too. George told her he really needed her support and friendship since his father died, but he felt she kept "taking it away" from him.

Alex seems to be connecting with and perhaps even falling for the pregnant woman he saved at the ferry scene. Sounds like she will be around for several more episodes.. and that the swollen face will soon be gone to reveal ... ELIZABETH REISER.. who starred in "Saved" on TNT last summer and has also been in "The Family Stone", among other things. She is a real cutie... and if we learn that her husband hasn't come to claim her because HE is dead.. I wouldn't be surprised if Alex decides to step right in.

This is good, because it looks like Alex is out of the Addison picture, at least for awhile. Addison realizes that McDreamy never felt for her what he feels for Meredith. McSteamy tells her, "But I did." They decide to give their relationship one more good try - IF and ONLY IF - He can make it without womanizing... NO SEX with Addy or anyone else - for sixty days. He agrees to this, but only if Addy doesn't sleep with anyone else during that time either. "Who would I have sex with?", Addy says.. just as Alex appears ...

Cristina is NOT dealing with the possibility of losing Meredith well. In fact, she tries not to deal with it at all. First, she walks out of SGH in the middle of a shift and buys out the local 99 cent store. Later, she shows off her purchases to Joe while getting schnockered at the bar. Burke find her there and tells her she will never forgive herself if she doesn't come and say goodbye to her friend. She agrees to come.

We knew that Cristina was a member of the "Dead Dad's Club" and that this was at the root of much of her "distance." We learn, through Meredith's conversations with Denny, that Cristina had witnessed her dad's death. They were in a car accident together when Cristina was nine, and dad bled out in front of her while waiting for help. This certainly contributes to her reluctance to get close to anyone, and I'll bet, is at the core of her desire and drive to be a surgeon.

Cristina arriving at Meredith's side to say goodbye coincides with Meredith realizing, while "on the other side", that she really doesn't want to be there. Denny does a marvelous job of pointing out to Meredith that while "checking out" might be the easiest thing for her, her loss will break all of those she is closest to.

She sees her mother walk past, in the distance at first. Mom comes to her and tells Mer, "You shouldn't be here."
"Neither should you", Meredith says. Mom says it's OK and tells Meredith, "You're anything but ordinary." That, and Cristina's insistence that Bailey and Webber try one more time to revive her, are what bring Meredith back.

Touching moments abound in this episode.. but my favorites were: Cristina arriving at Mer's bedside, touching her feet, and then deciding NOT to give up and say goodbye, but rather demanding that Bailey and Webber try one more time. When they succeed, Cristina telling Mer, "her person", that she is going to marry Burke. "You're the only one I wanted to tell", she tells her.

Derek seeing Meredith again, Addison realizing she and Derek never had what Mer and Der have, and best of all, the moment where Izzy and Denny "see" each other at the end.

Now that Feb Sweeps are over, it may be awhile before we get a new GREY's... so if you want to relive some of those special moments from this episode.. Here's a link from a great YouTube montage put together to encapsulate it all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3spvh3khRVc

Let's hope that when we return to SGH, Meredith will have come through this a little less "all about Meredith" and a little more cognizant of and appreciative of, her friends. We certainly learned more about each of them, and each of them more about themselves, through this experience.

Posted by Marenkay at 12:08 PM | Comments (0)