Week in Review, Nov 26 to Dec 2

The Week in Movies

This was the week that Wes Anderson brought his unique charm to the world of stop-motion animation with Fantastic Mr. Fox, a rare animated movie made for adults, giving me my first reason to visit a movie theatre since the release of District 9. I have no familiarity with Roald Dahl's source material, but the script by Anderson and frequent writing partner Noah Baumbach is brilliant, completely retaining the flavour, wit, and pathos of the dialogue in Anderson's live action films, except here voiced by animals, and with all swear words amusingly replaced with "cuss." The animation style is terrific; jerky and traditional while also detailed and beautiful. If you are a Wes Anderson fan, it's a must see; if you are not, you probably won't enjoy Fantastic Mr. Fox much either.

The Week in Television

No Thursday or Friday TV this week, due to Thanksgiving. It was both a relief and an annoyance; annoying because I do really enjoy the Thursday and Friday shows, especially the comedies, but a relief because I had a lot more free time. Unfortunately, I didn't actually do anything productive with that free time, choosing instead to mostly do nothing. Or at least I don't remember doing anything...

Over the past week, I have continued trying to catch up with Mad Men, moving into season two. I also watched my first three episodes of the UK's Top Gear, a show that has long been recommended by friends, but I didn't see what appeal there would be for someone that couldn't care less about cars. Top Gear is in its 14th season, and I don't plan to revisit past seasons anytime soon, but I have to admit that it is abnormally entertaining for a "car show."

Saturday, November 28th
Liked: Legend of the Seeker (2x4)

"Touched" was a busy episode of Legend of the Seeker; not great, but still quite good. Amidst a mildly successful Confessor-heavy episode plot (the love story didn't work, but the rest was well done), the Stone of Tears storyline was advanced, tag-along Flynn was disposed of, and Richard and Kahlan had a long awaited encounter in the woods. I'm really enjoying this season so far--better stories and more momentum than the first season at this point.

Sunday, November 29th
Loved: Dexter (4x10)
Liked: The Amazing Race (15x10)

Dexter's "Lost Boys" was another awesome episode in an awesome season. Almost everything worked brilliantly, including the development of the previous episode's crazy twist, and the momentum and intensity that is being maintained (pretty much since episode five) is incredible. I really wish I could watch the last two episodes right fucking now.

I haven't written much about The Amazing Race this season, but this is a show that is what it is, so what do I write? I have enjoyed every episode, I like most of the teams, and I'm sure next week's finale will be exciting. The Amazing Race continues to be my favourite reality show because it is about traveling to interesting places and completing crazy tasks while dealing with foreign cultures. Teams mostly only have themselves (or shitty cab drivers) to blame when things go wrong, which is a nice change from the Survivor-style competition reality show. (I used to watch Survivor as well, but eventually found myself bored with it because of the predictable format and the non-deserving winners. The only other reality show that I watch currently, So You Think You Can Dance, hasn't even received a single mention in these Week in Review posts, but that's mostly because I am watching the episodes on someone else's schedule, and we are usually a week or two behind. If I was to review SYTYCD episodes, the performance shows would almost always earn a Liked and the results shows would always get a Meh.)

Monday, November 30th
Meh: Heroes (4x12), House (6x9)

Heroes entered winter hiatus with "The Fifth Stage," an episode that offered a whole lot of "WTF?" and not much enticement to come back in January. The best storyline had Peter and Nathan/Sylar battling it out, but Peter's new Haitian powers were used inconsistently, and Nathan's (presumably final) death scene was just silly. There was no explanation this week for where Hiro ended up last week, but instead we were treated to plenty of scenes with Claire being retarded, and Noah was again completely wasted. I have to admit that I am fascinated by the fact that showrunner Tim Kring is continually penning the weakest episodes of this series. Of all of the series I have watched over the years, Kring is unquestionably the worst showrunner of all time.

If anyone is actually reading these Week in Review posts through in detail each week, you may have noticed that I stopped talking about House. That's because it has become background noise for me. I'm still interested enough in the character of Gregory House to want to keep half-assed tabs on what's going on in the show, but I don't care about any of the other characters--except maybe for Wilson, who got a very special episode of his own this week. Conceptually, the idea of a Wilson-centric medical mystery of the week was great, but the execution was only okay. If the show delivers another episode worthy of specific comments, I may offer some, but this season has been a big Meh-fest so far.

Wednesday, December 2nd
Loved: Glee (1x12)

"Mattress" was the first substantial episode of Glee since before the World Series hiatus. Other than the musical routines, my favourite scenes in Glee generally involve the relationships between the adults (Will, Terri, Emma, Ken, and, of course, Sue) or the character of Rachel, and these elements were the focus in this episode. Last week's drama with Terri seems even more pointless after this episode, but I'm pleasantly surprised by the plot development--I certainly expected that plotline to drag out all season (although, technically, since Glee was originally only picked up for 13 episodes and later extended to a full 22, episode 12 is pretty close to the end of the originally planned season).