06:30 The Middleman
07:30 The Burning Zone
08:30 Supernatural
01:30 Flying Blind
02:00 Good Morning Miami



The Middleman. Episode 5. "The Flying Fish Zombification" Since I don't like Wendy's roommate very much, I was a tad bored by her storyline in this one. Will her mom show up at her Art Crawl or not? Gee, who cares? Much better was the case-of-the-week: flying fish that turn people into trout-eating zombies. Lots of very funny scenes. My fave? The bit where The Middleman was on the phone (being told about the flying fish for the first time) and we could see Wendy way in the background having a fight to the death with one of the dastardly creatures. That was hilarious in itself but it got funnier as the phone conversation ended and The Middleman was saying how important it was to capture one of the creatures alive while we could see Wendy bashing it to death in the background. Great slapstick comedy in a show where most of the laughs come from the witty dialogue. And Mary Pat Gleason, of course.



The Burning Zone. Episode 1. "The Burning Zone" Some pretty nifty ideas here but, in general, this is a pretty poor pilot. The cast is a mixed bag: Jeffrey Dean Morgan is great as the lead scientist, and Paul Guilfoyle is a fantastic bad guy in this first story. But Tamlyn Tomita is as bland and forgettable here as she was on Babylon 5 and while James Black was great in the series that followed he fails to impress in this opener.

The characters are all pretty dreadful. The writers give the lead hero guy several key scenes to make us think that he is a cool and dangerous rule-breaker. But he comes across as a jerk. We meet him speeding along a highway being chased by local cops and "not having time" to stop and explain himself. Instead he leads them on a merry chase before his security team bails him out. Later he meet his female partner for the first time and sparks fly because he was previously responsible for the death of her fiance. A fact that he has totally forgotten!!

So, the lead scientist hero is an arrogant jerk and his team are also pretty crap. The pretty scientist girl is one of those annoying TV characters who doubts everything the hero says and keeps getting proved wrong every step of the way. They are clearly supposed to be Mulder and Scully, but they are clearly... not!

The tough guy assigned to protect the two scientists proves sadly inept in this first story when he is quickly overcome by a bad guy and possessed by the very intelligent virus the team are trying to stop. I mean he is instantly beaten in a fight and becomes one of the bad guys. In, like, his third scene. In the frakkin' pilot!! How is any of that supposed to make us think he is cool or interesting?

Finally, there is the boss guy that they all work for. He seems to think they are all highly expendable and activates a self-destruct device to blow the compound up when the lead bad guy escapes. I mean, seriously? There's one dangerous bad guy running around and the solution is: blow the place up and kill the two scientists who might save the entire world. Yeah, that makes sense...

So, with all this crap going on, is there anything worthwhile in the pilot? The answer is: Yes. It's a great story. A sentient virus has returned after 14,000 years in hibernation. The virus explains that man's natural place in the scheme of things is as a host for the virus. That's some pretty cool stuff. And there's a mysterious van driver, too. Who appears to be glowing with the light of God. Or something. And it's all very intriguing.

So, a good story and a dynamic leading man (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) made me want to tune in for episode two. Which is when Michael Harris joins the cast, thank goodness!



Supernatural. Season 2, Episode 7. "The Usual Suspects" A great episode and an instant addition to my list of Best Ever Supernatural Episodes. It deviates from formula, has a very strong story, a non-supernatural foe and two of my most favourite actors (Keegan Connor Tracy and Jason Gedrick). Add Linda Blair to the mix and you have a major win for the Supernatural team. I've not seen much of Blair but she's the one carrying this episode (it's from her point of view and she's pretty much in every scene) and she is fantastic.

Yes, it was easy to see who the bad guy would turn out to be (in the big twist ending) but, hey, you can't have everything. They made references to X-Files, CHiPs and Jim Rockford... I'm more than happy!



Flying Blind. Episode 3. "The Week of Living Dangerously" Neil and Alicia have moved on to having sex at her place and things are going great. Until she gets a "I never thought I'd hear from you again" phone call. Her ex-boyfriend - a Latin American guerrilla - threatens Neil's life. Neil, being the man he is, cowers in fear for most of the episode and the laughs flow freely. The dialogue on this show is amazing. "Does he wear a retainer, because I really know how to use that to my advantage?" More than just being funny, there is the fact that this is the first time that Neil has felt like fighting for a woman. Cool stuff.



Good Morning Miami. Episode 6. "Kiss of the Spiderman" A perfect episode. The dynamics between all of the characters are now in place and the romantic "event-in-this-episode" between Jake and Dylan is accidental (so he's not a jerk for trying to break her relationship up).

Jake is secretly in love with Dylan and only two characters know it. His grandmother (who we see in his home life) is in favour of him chasing Dylan and Penny (who he works with) thinks he has to back off and leave Dylan with Gavin. It's an interesting dynamic and it really makes the show come alive. It brings Jake's inner turmoil out into the open and allows it to be discussed out loud. Plus, Jake is now written as being uncertain about what to do next, and this allows the writers to make his grandmother and Penny more extreme. They are pushing him in different directions and this gives the show the conflict in needs to make it fun to watch. And it's got lots of good gags, too, so it's also funny to watch. A perfect mixture, in fact.

The main storyline shows us what happens when Jake and Gavin wear identical costumes at Halloween and Dylan kisses the wrong one. In the sub-plot we learn for the first time that Frank may be gay. Pretty much every scene is laugh out loud funny and the romantic tension at the end comes across as genuine and sweet. Penny, my absolute favourite character, gets some of the best lines and - what I love most - she drops her sarcastic guard on two occasions and is very nice to Jake and his situation.

This makes her more likable, yes, but it is also vital to the success of the show. These moments help validate Jake's position. And, as I found myself on this particular re-watching of the show, Jake's position in the early episodes is not very easy to defend. He could come across as a bit of jerk trying to end (what appears to be) a pretty okay relationship. But, by episode 6, we see that he's not trying to do anything to anyone and he is - in fact - completely trapped by his desperate love for this girl he barely knows. Penny's interaction with him in these scenes serves two functions: it helps makes the whole thing funny (as opposed to sad and lonely) and - when it really counts - it helps us to like Jake. We can see that, for all her teasing, Penny kinda likes him and feels for him. And, at this stage in the series, that is where the audience is, also.

Highlight? Good Morning Miami (Poor Jake)
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04.30 Back To You
05.00 Greg The Bunny
09.00 Flashpoint
10.00 Burn Notice
11.00 Keen Eddie
01.00 Wizards And Warriors

Back To You. Episode 16 (Episode 12, in production order.) "House of Tomorrow" An okay episode. Kelly's fascination/obsession with Chuck drives the story in this one. He is dating a younger woman (again) and Kelly is tauting him about it. Chuck sets out to prove that he is more mature than she is willing to admit and, in the process, buys a house that he has never seen (!!). It turns out to be a 'futuristic' house with loads of voice-activated devices, which go awry in the episode's frantic conclusion. It's not a very funny episode, since most of Kelly's rants are just unfunny rants, but the bit at the end (in the house) is funny even if it is too forced to be genuinely hilarious. Best bit? Chuck's date thinks she is watching him being spanked by Kelly (he has, in fact, set his pants on fire).

Greg The Bunny. Episode 10. "Surprise!" Middle-of-the-road episode. Not the funniest that the show has done, but it has several classic (and very funny) moments. Sasha Alexander guests as TV Guide reporter who is assigned to profile the entire cast and, since she has to interview all of them, she basically appears in every scene and carries the whole episode. Works for me! All of the regular cast (human and puppet) get a chance to shine in this one. Sarah Silverman has never been funnier on the show, but it is still Warren who gets all the best lines. He's my favourite character, with Tardy Turtle (also superb in this episode) now coming a close second.

What brings the episode down (IMHO) is the soft-and-fuzzy side of the story. When the story opens the gang are (inexplicably) bickering more than usual while Greg's voice-over makes observations about... family. Anyway, as the reporter goes from person to person we learn that most of them are unhappy with someone else in the cast. Then, in the birthday party at the end, when the reporter is about to unveil a scandal that might damage the show, they all pull together and stand up for one another. Cue a sickening voice-over from Greg about... family. Awful.

Never mind. This time out the comedy rises above schmaltz. Many, many scenes are laugh-out-loud funny. My favourite? Jimmy finds Sarah Silverman and Sasha Alexander (both looking supremely hot) in some girl-on-girl action and declares: "Considering that we only had three hours to plan, I would say this is a pretty damn good party!"

Flashpoint. Episode 4. "Asking For Flowers" Chandra West guests as the sister of a battered wife taking things into her own hands with the slimy husband: Kenneth Mitchell. Flashpoint beats Standoff by always finding a way to tell intimate stories and make them compelling. While this is the weakest of the first four, it is still a damn fine hour of TV with a couple of big twists to keep the audience guessing: for most of the episode the heroes have no idea who the real bad-guy is (which makes you wonder if they will shoot the wrong person) and - minutes from the end - the balance of power shifts dramatically. Good stuff.

Michael Cram gets a chance to shine in this one. His character is very cool and my favourite part of the whole story was the split-second shot at the end where he goes home to his wife and you can see how genuinely happy he is to be in her company. Not enough of that on TV.

Burn Notice. Season 2, Episode 4. "Comrades" Nothing special, but still very good. Michael's brother is back on the team in this one, and Sam (Bruce Campbell) pretty much takes the lead in both cases. Little touches like this keep the formula fresh. Good guest work, too, from Lost's Andrew Divoff.

Keen Eddie. Episode 6. "Sucker Punch" The case-of-the-week is crap. Eddie and the team are trying to find an underground fighting club and they keep chasing/meeting a fighter and trying to convince him into helping them. This happens over and over (and Eddie keeps getting knocked out, which is funny) until the guy eventually decides to help them and then pursue his dream of a life in the theatre. Usually the cases/stories on Keen Eddie are strong and have depth. This one isn't and doesn't.

But that's not important this time out...

Most of the episode is actually devoted to Eddie and Fiona. Fiona, you see, is moving to New York to be with her idiot boyfriend Nigel (Theo Fraser Steele) and Eddie and she will never have to see one another again. Each declares that this makes them happy, but we can see (thanks to great performances from Mark Valley and Sienna Miller) that it actually makes them sad. Honest-to-goodness... sad. And it's not just the typical TV romantic tension either. You can see that they are each bewildered by their feelings for one another. He doesn't just fancy her, he likes her. And vice versa. And it's really rather sweet. There's one long scene, in particular, which isn't trying to be funny. It's just about how they can't say what they are thinking, so they just keep looking at one another.

As wonderful as all the Eddie/Fiona stuff is, the highpoint of the episode is the Miss Moneypenny scene. Once again she gives a sexual answer to one of Eddie's innocent questions (he is the only one to hear it, of course) and I thought my TV was going to melt from the heat. Seriously. I watched this with two other men and we were all gob-smacked. Why would anyone ever need to watch porn? Just watch Rachael Buckley on Keen Eddie! Grrrrowl!



Wizards And Warriors. Episode 1. "The Unicorn of Death" This was not the first episode filmed, but it was the first episode shown. Although it is delightful from start to finish, it does a pretty bad job of introducing the world of the show and the various characters contained therein. Basically this was a show that needed a two-hour opener to do it justice. Watching this particular outing gives you a feeling of being dropped into the middle of the action. Flawed as this episode may be (when used to open the series) there are still many, many things to enjoy.

Julia Duffy steals the show as the spoiled princess. Virtually every line she utters makes you laugh out loud and she, basically, saves the day at the end. Only Duffy could take a shallow, self-involved character like this and make her heroic and adorable. And funny. "He's always so busy," she laments, with a pout, as the dashing hero rushes away from her to save everyone from certain death.

Duffy is supported by a strong cast. Duncan Regehr and Clive Revill, in particular, are a joy to watch. Both playing evil men and both having an absolute ball doing it. The entire cast, directed by Bill Bixby, give the impression that they are having fun. And there is a lot of fun in the script, too. Many moments of comedy, in fact, in lots of unexpected places. This is a rather hip show. Definitely the grandfather of shows like Hercules and Xena. There are no scenes without one-liners and most hit their mark.

The story is good, too. The bad guys have planted the equivalent of a nuclear device in the castle of the Good King and are calling for his surrender. From this starting point the story advances in logical fashion, with a few surprises along the way. The best twist is when the innocent courier realises what he has brought to the castle and decides to try and save the princess. Everything is funny, firmly rooted in character and very exciting.

Highlight? Wizards And Warriors (hip)
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07:30 McMillan And Wife
01:30 That '70s Show



McMillan And Wife. Episode 5. "Death Is A Seven Point Favorite" Another complex story with multiple murders and someone trying out some elaborate ways to fix a football game. As usual, it doesn't really make a lot of sense but it is amusing. Not laugh-out-loud funny or anything, but it's fast moving and the great regular cast are capable of raising a smile every few minutes. Sally is relegated to third-place character as Mac and Enright do most of the legwork (Enright gets the episodes biggest laugh, too, with his new hairstyle). Other elements of the formula are in place, too: The movie starts with an action sequence (showing Mac closing a case) and ends with an action sequence (which, in line with other endings, is a bit over-the-top).

That '70s Show. Season 6, Episode 5. "I'm Free" Two stories unfold in this very funny episode: The marriage of Fes and Laurie is under investigation by INS and Kelso tells Brooke he wants to be part of the baby's life. Both storylines deliver laughs but the Kelso storyline is the best. It's fun to watch him partnered with Donna, and great viewing as we watch her uncover his conscience and (slightly more) mature side. Cool episode.

Highlight? That '70s Show (Kelso & Donna)
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12.30 Garrison's Gorillas



Garrison's Gorillas. Episode 1. "The Big Con" Very good opening episode to a very good series. Garrison's Gorillas was about a motley crew of convicts, co-opted into the military and working on dangerous missions behind enemy lines during WWII. The opening minutes of this opener shows them parachuting down together for the first time and getting the particulars of their first mission: replacing counterfeit currency plates with ones that have been altered in a particular way. It's good story, with a really great cast. There's lots of silent action and tension (a lá Mission: Impossible) and with this being the first mission together there's a fair bit of macho posturing as Craig Garrison tries to control his men and gain their respect.

The focus for most of this is the character played by gyest-star Telly Savalas. Savalas is great (of course) but the character is boring and pointless. Even if I wasn't a long-time fan of the series I would find it easy to predict what will happen to the rebel within the team (Garrison will beat him down, win everyone's respect by doing so and - in the end - the rotten apple will die somehow). Consequently most of the scenes with this character are less entertaining than the scenes of heroic teamwork and male bonding. Garrison's Gorillas is a noteworthy series in that all of the leads are equally likable and it's a lot of fun to watch them working together. It's also a fine action/espionage series. The climax of this opener is a rousing battle between our heroes (making their escape having made the switch) and - what appears to be - hundreds of German soldiers. Good stuff.

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10.30 Barney Miller

Barney Miller. Episode 4. "Graft" I like Barbara Barrie. I've always liked her and I've seen her in a thousand guest shots. She's great. But even she can't make the role of Barney's wife work. This is the first episode since the pilot to show Barney's home life. And, as soon as the show shifts back there, it sucks. Plain and simple.

Dick O'Neill (another of my favourite guest stars from a thousand shows) appears as an Internal Affairs cop who drops hints that someone at the 12th is corrupt in some way. The episode that follows is pretty good, as each of the regulars wonders if his own small transgressions are responsible for the allegations. There are some good gags and lots of well-written character work. The episode only really stops being good when Barney goes home in the middle and the final scene (where all the plots are tied up) is laugh-out-loud hilarious.

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