OPINION

Damages, Reaper and a Little Recap

Written by Josh Lasser
Published October 17, 2007
Part of TV Nights

Okay, I'm sorry, I apologize, I missed writing this column Monday and Tuesday, so let's quickly recap my thoughts there before moving on to last night.

Desperate Housewives.  I know that Carlos actually paying someone to kill Edie was highly unlikely, but I'm still disappointed that it's just a financial thing and not death.  Aren't you?  I may harp on this every week, but don't we all want Edie gone?  And I mean dead and gone.  It would be great if she had the ability to do the voiceover narration for the show.

NBC's Monday night lineup.  I'm liking Chuck still and thought Heroes was better this week than in past weeks.  It's just a little too fortuitous for me that Sylar should just happen to end up in the car with our newest super-powered buddies, but I still like the idea that the story is slowly, ever so slowly, starting to creep forward.  And, good for the producers giving Matt Parkman something of a more complete storyline.  I wonder if his father really is the Bogeyman, it would be great if that were the case.  Maybe Parkman himself is a little evil.  I don't think he is, but it would be a fun turn of events. 

Did you notice on Journeyman that they actually threw a nod to Quantum Leap?  Dan wakes up in the church at the beginning of the episode, clearly having just leaped back in time, the priest sees him and utters Sam Beckett's famous words, "oh boy." 

I think I figured out what bothers me about the show — the stories of the people he has to save are completely boring.  Because the show has to try and balance what's happening in Dan's present with what he is trying to do in the past, neither gets explored deeply in a single episode.  However, because the present remains constant from one episode to the next, the producers are able to add a little bit of depth to that story in every episode.  The same is not true of the past.  The stories in the past are little one-offs.  They don't role over from week to week and consequently they are never explored with any depth.  I think the show tries to get away with this by having the viewer see the past from Dan's perspective and having him be completely in the dark, but that got old after the first two episodes.  I will give the show that they are trying to do something hard here, but I still think they need to work on either the balance between past and present or the way the stories in the past are developed.

Last night, watching Reaper, I couldn't help but wonder if I'm getting too old.  Maybe it's me, I'm not sure, but the Sam and Andi will-they-or-won't-they storyline is already tired.  Every week Sam laments the fact that he isn't together with her and how much he wants to be, and every week something ruins it.  Okay, so we have only seen four episodes, but it's there every time and I'm getting more than a little sick of it.  Frankly, I think the Devil ought to start smacking Sam around about his attitude toward Andi.  I know that Sam and the Devil have spoken repeatedly about her, and the Devil has chastised Sam for not acting, but I think he really needs to be a little more forceful.  Or, perhaps, Sock should write Andi a love note and pretend it's from Sam.  I can see absolutely no reason why the story can't progress with the two of them either dating or completely uninterested in each other.  I can see no reason why we have to be subjected weak after weak to Sam's whining on the topic. 

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Josh Lasser, formerly known as "TV and Film Guy," and complete with a Masters Degree in Critical Studies in said areas, gives his opinions on TV, Film, and Entertainment in general. All of which he does in a shameless attempt to try to get paid to do the exact same thing. Josh is also the editor of the Blogcritics Magazine Television Section.
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Damages, Reaper and a Little Recap
Published: October 17, 2007
Type: Opinion
Section: Video
Filed Under: Video: Comedy, Video: Drama, Video: Fantasy, Video: Suspense and Mystery, Video: Television
Part of a feature: TV Nights
Writer: Josh Lasser
Josh Lasser's BC Writer page
Josh Lasser's personal site
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#1 — October 17, 2007 @ 23:11PM — Mary K. Williams [URL]

wow, I missed the Sam Beckett thing. Kinda funny. I've missed so much on Heroes - trying to catch up, it's not easy.

Chuck is kinda cool, huh.

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