Archive for October, 2009

“Desperate Housewives”

Season 6; Episode 5

“Everybody Ought to Have a Maid”

Originally Aired: Oct. 25, 2009

In this week’s episode, Gabby’s skills as a mother are seriously doubted when Juanita and a friend get hurt playing together. Julie comes home from the hospital and informs Nick (Dominick) that their affair is over.  Since Bree has fired Katherine, the rest of the gals agree Katherine needs help before they have another Mary Alice on their hands. Mike tells Susan about Katherine hitting on him, but not to worry about it. Nick and Danny discuss the affair with Julie and threatens to tell Angie if it persists.

Mrs. McCluskey asks Lynette if she and Tom can hire Roy as a handyman so he can have some walking around money, and therefore, improve her sex life, which Lynette was none too pleased to know about. She agrees anyway.

The maid at Bree and Karl’s coital motel, is none too pleased when she finds out that Bree is cheating on her husband. Which leads to a heartwarming confrontation between the two women, but resulting in Bree continuing the affair, convinced that she doesn’t deserve the love that Orson still has for her.

Everyone’s canceling on Juanita’s birthday because one of the mother’s on the block is spreading the rumor that kids aren’t safe at Gaby’s house. Gaby asks Carlos for cash to solve the problem. He wonders if it wouldn’t be easier to just watch the kids while the play. Yeah, right. Like a normal mom? Gabby goes all out for Juanita’s Birthday with bouncy houses, a clown and a live chimp, which makes the other girls in the neighborhood demand their mothers allow them to attend Juanita’s party after all. The other moms reluctantly give in and it seems that Gabby has the upper hand until the chimp goes berserk and tries to kill the clown, reaffirming what the other mother’s suspected all along about Gabby’s effectiveness as a Mother, until Carlos reminds her that the girls have turned out quite well and were able to protect themselves from the psycho chimp, even with Gabby’s lack of responsibility.

Roy and Lynette argue over where to put a birdhouse. Tom wanted to put it in one part of the yard, Lynette another. Roy calls Tom the man of the house and, unlike Lynette, wants to treat the guy with a little respect. They fight, she fires him and in the process destroys the birdhouse. Tom smoothes everything over with Roy, by telling him why Lynette’s a control freak: an absent dad, a drunkard mom, and he lets her control him because it makes her feel safe and that’s his job as her husband. One of the finest written and acted scenes this season so far! And Lynette and Roy patch things up.

Danny Gives Julie a gun for protection, which ends up being used by Susan on someone outside their home. Katherine ends up getting grazed by the gun, not being seriously hurt, yet the Bolens end up having to cover the mess up. Katherine wants to call the police on Susan but Angie talks her out of it.

What’s in store for the ladies in the next episode?

Keep it here to find out!

Until Next Time,

Michael Queenstown

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Desperate Housewives

Season 6; Episode 4

“The God-Why-Don’t-You-Love-Me Blues”

Originally Aired: October 18, 2009 (Season 6, Episode 4).

Is there ever a week where Desperate Housewives isn’t about keeping secrets?

I really can’t remember one hour of the show that has been totally secret-free, and that’s fine with me! Danny kept his dad’s secret about Julie; we learned from a conversation with Angie and Danny about ”the explosion” that left Angie scarred; Lynette continues to keep her baby secret from Carlos; Ana kept a secret about seeing Gaby and John kiss from Carlos; Bree continued to keep her affair a secret from everyone; and Julie kept the identity of her married lover (which this blogger was able to figure out right before the last shocking scene of the episode) secret from her mother.

Actually, Nick referring to himself as Dominick threw me at first. When Nick referred to himself as Dominick at Julie’s beside, I kept wondering who Dominick was (a secret identity? a pet name?) before I realized that Nick was Maybe that’s what the whole ”D” thing in her journal was about, too? Now that I think about it, I got a weird vibe from Julie and “D” from the very first episode, but never thought much of it. Until now. It all makes sense.

Of course Katherine going nutso during the wedding when Bree was going to use the same cake that Katherine had designed for her never to happen wedding to Mike, was the highlight for me. Now that Bree fired Katherine (and I have to say the keying of Bree’s car was priceless) what will she do? She says her work was the only thing she had going for her, and now she doesn’t even have that anymore. I expect more drama from Katherine before the mid-season finale. Yes, there will be a mid-season finale. What’s the deal? Television can’t go a whole season anymore without taking a break half way through it?

Oh, and the whole storyline with John returning sucks, in my opinion. I hope Marc Cherry doesn’t plan on Gabby reigniting her affair with John now that he’s a successful business man.  And I’m just starting to like the character of Ana, Carlos’ Niece.

Oh, well.  Besides everything else, this season is shaping up to be as good as, or maybe (shudder the thought) even better than the first season, which in my opinion was the best season of television at that time on any network.  That was of course, before Fringe came along. You can read my Fringe Blogs here as well, so I won’t bore you.

Tune in next time!

Until Next Time

Michael Queenstown

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FRINGE

SEASON 2

EPISODE 5

“DREAM LOGIC”

FRINGE

SEASON 2; EPISODE 5

“DREAM LOGIC”

As part of Olivia’s rehab, Sam (Bowling Alley Guy) he has her collect business cards from people wearing red, and then pick letters from the cards and play word-jumble and voila! She gets a message she’s been needing. In this case, “You’re gonna be fine,” which is what Charlie told her the first time they met and she was a scared newbie.

Just who the hell is Sam anyway??

The whole storyline with the dual-personality doc and the mind-control-dreams was good. I also wonder how it fits in with the alternate universe. Maybe just the fact that it’s weird and Massive Dynamic has been tracking him for a while.

Speaking of Massive Dynamic, when did they become the good guys? Now it seems like they’re sort of partnering with the Fringe team, but when the show first started, they seemed to be their enemy.  But then again with William bell (Leonard Nimoy) at the helm, I’m not convinced they’re good guys.

We learn a little more about Peter’s childhood as this season is moving along. I know that I came to the conclusion at the end of season 1 that  Peter from this universe died, and Walter crossed over and stole the other Peter and brought him back. This week’s episode seemed to confirm that, as the ending scene had Peter flashing back (via nightmare and talking in his sleep) to a childhood experience, where it appeared that Walter may have taken him.

Maybe Peter was recalling the exact moment when he and Walter traveled from one universe to the other.

Peter also told Olivia that because of his childhood nightmares, Walter had him say a mantra to condition himself not to remember his dreams. So in addition to stealing Peter, maybe Walter was experimenting on him, as he and William Bell did with the other children, including Olivia. Then again, maybe Peter died during one of those experiments, and that’s when Walter stole the other Peter?

Of course, that’s all just conjecture at this point. No sense on getting too far ahead of the story, right?

Stay Tuned, Fringe Freaks!!

Until Next Time

Happy Viewing!

Michael Queenstown

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I am so psyched!! The one television show I’ve been waiting for to return finally has!!

And season 2 of Fringe titled “A New Day In The Old Town” starts off with a bang, or rather a crash-as in car crash.  Before we even get settled in, two cars collide.  One of the drivers is nowhere to be found, and the other is badly injured.  He runs to a nearby apartment, where he pushes every doorbell until he’s buzzed in (not smart people in this building).  He’s all broken and bloody when he attacks one of the tenants, then cleans himself up in a mirror before he starts rearranging his face with his hands until all that’s left is a crumpled shell. THEN he puts a device in his mouth and the other end in the mouth of the man he attacked and pushes a button. His faces fleshes out again, kinda like inflating a really ugly tire. But when he’s done, he looks like the man he accosted!!!  A Shape shifter, no less!!!

Now, THAT’S one hell of a way to start the season!!

On the scene of his car accident, the FBI tries to figure out what happened. They have a report Agent Dunham was driving, but her body is nowhere to be found!

Meanwhile, back in Boston, Peter and Walter grocery shop. Walter insists on making custard for Peter’s upcoming birthday, which he says Peter loved as a child. Peter thinks he never liked it. Peter gets a distressing phone call, and when Walter and Peter arrive on the scene of the car accident they meet an Agent Jessup (played beautifully by series new-comer Meghan Markle).  Peter wants to know where Agent Charlie Francis is, but Agent Jessup doesn’t know. Walter messes with the crashed SUV. No one saw it crash, but more importantly Agent Jessup wants to know what Peter and Olivia do at “Fringe Division”. Walter messes with the SUV and is bothered by something (not unusual for Walter), and he sets the alarm off. It revs up all on its own, and then stops. All of a sudden, Olivia’s (Agent Dunham)body comes shooting through the windshield and onto the street in front of them.

Non-responsive, she is taken by paramedics into surgery, with a possible brain hemorrage.  Outside New York General Hospital, Broyles intercepts Agent Jessup and informs her she’ll be reporting a random traffic accident. Case closed. Agent Jessup argues, but Broyles explains “that’s the way it is”.

A doctor tells Peter they are unable to restore brain function in Agent (Olivia) Dunham, but Walter refuses to believe that (of course). He busts into the surgery room to examine her himself. She’s alive, but on a machine. Walter weeps over her body apologizing for what happened.

Peter consoles himself by getting plastered in a nearby bar when Broyles joins him and informs him that the “brains” in DC have decided, that due to the circumstances, the “Fringe Division” is to be shut down due to the failure to deliver any useable results, which makes Peter wonder what they were doing in the first place. He thinks they were too late. Broyles says that’s not entirely true. They toast Agent (Olivia) Dunham.

Elsewhere, Agent Jessup accesses the “Fringe” file using someone else’s classified I.D.

Back the the hospital, Peter runs into Agent (Olivia’s) Dunham’s (from here on I will refer to Agent Dunham merely as Olivia)sister Rachel. Olivia had a living will and Rachel is prepared to use it.

Peter sits at Olivia’s bedside. He bends down to kiss her good bye, when all of a sudden she bolts straight up in bed and starts talking in a foreign language.

Her brain functions are back, she knows who she is. She asks for Peter, tells him she went somewhere. Someone was trying to stop her but she went anyway. There’s something very important she is supposed to do and that all their lives are dependent on it. She asks for her gun.

At the Federal Building, Peter asks for Broyles, who is in DC. He asks for Agent Charlie Francis (from here on out, referred to as Charlie). He shows his I.D. which is immediately shredded because it is no longer valid.

Just before security can show him the curb, Agent Jessup comes to his rescue. She explains to Peter in her car that the driver in the accident was a George Reed, and she wants to know about the “Fringe Division”.

They go to George Reed’s house only to find him dead inside. Not emotionally, but physically. Walter is called. He diagnoses a virus. He wants the body taken to his lab (of course).

The shape shifter visits an electronic shop and makes a special request for a typewriter and is given the key to the back room. On this typewriter he types a report about the target being eliminated. As if by invisible fingers, the typewriter replies “Target Still Alive”. Our shape shifter requests new orders. The mysterious typist replies. “Interrogate Target. Then Kill HER.”

Back at the lab, Peter tries explaining to Agent Jessup that Walter use to work there years ago on special government projects.

Back at the hospital, Charlie meets with Olivia. She says she’s fine. But Charlie knows his friend better than that. “You can fool the doctors, kiddo,” he tells her, “you can’t fool me.” She has no memory of what happened to her, but whatever it was, she’s unable to even load her gun.

Back in the lab, Walter performs an autopsy on Reed (I would call him George, but he’s dead, and probably won’t become a regular on the show) as he directs Astrid (who he calls “Asterix” in this episode. I think he knows her name but gets it wrong on purpose to piss her off. That would be so like Walter.) on how to make custard for Peter’s Birthday party, which Peter could care less about at this point.  Walter manages to point out the fact that while he loves custard, he hates flan, and this delights him for some reason.

In the roof of Reed’s mouth, Walter finds three punture holes, which prompts Walter to show everyone a video from an experiment many years ago, in which a woman says she saw a man with a machine in his mouth with three nails in it, exactly like the puncture marks found in Reed’s mouth. The woman says that man she saw said he was from another universe. She describes this man taking the physical shape of another person, just like we witnessed in the beginning of this episode. “They can look like any of us,” the woman on the tape says.

Back in the hospital, Olivia tries to load her gun, but with no results.

In DC, Broyles sits in front of a government hearing committee, who calls the “Fringe Division” “indulgences” in the budget. Broyles gets testy with the panel, telling them the country should be on it’s knees thanking God for the “Fringe Division”.  This does little good to change the committee’s mind. They want some usable proof.

Outside the hearing, Broyles meets with Nina. She doesn’t want “Fringe Division” shut down either. She kisses him gently (YIKES!!!!) and tells him to do what he always used to do, “save the day.”

Meanwhile, Peter and Jessup follow up on a body found with three holes in its mouth. He was found two blocks from the accident site. They think whatever it is is still trying to accomplish its goal. Peter realizes Olivia may be the target and heads for the hospital. But the shape shifter is already there, and startles Olivia’s nurse.

Now this nurse checks in on Olivia, asking her how her memory is, but Olivia only remembers bits and pieces. The nurse insists she keep trying to remember.  Olivia remembers she was on her way to meet someone. But she doesn’t remember who. She remembers something is hidden, but not what that something is. Then, satisfied that Olivia knows nothing, the nurse (now the shape shifter) jumps on her and starts to strangle her. They struggle. Charlie, Peter and Jessup arrive. Jessup is the first to reach Olivia and shoots the shape shifter twice in the back, but it jumps out the window and heads for the basement. They chase after it. The shape shifter startles Charlie, who immediately fills it full of lead. The gunfire attracts Peter and Jessup who arrive to find Charlie standing over the body. Peter finds the shape shifting machine, now broken, laying on the floor. Case solved. Or is it?

Peter brings Olivia a whole mess of flowers, explaining Walter’s Theory that the nurse was a “shape changing soldier from another universe” and that’s where Olivia went.  “Do you think it’s a bad thing I can say that out loud and neither one of us thinks I’m crazy?” he asks.

Olivia tells Peter that something is hidden and they need to find it. Peter says no matter what, Walter will figure it out. He asks her about the foreign language she spoke when she woke up. He tells her it was Greek and that it was something his mother used to say to him as a child every night before he went to bed: “Be a better man than your father”. He says it was a code between them, to keep the people he cares about close, after which Olivia reminds him he does very well.  She asks him as he leaves if it’s true what she heard about “Fringe Division” being shut down. He tells her “no”.

Peter meets with Broyles, gives him the broken shape shifting device as proof and says they’re calling the shots now. “You surprise me, Bishop” he says with a grin.

Back at the lab, Peter finds Astrid and Walter (and the cow) with birthday custard.  “SURPRISE!” they yell, hugs all around.

In the hospital, Olivia is finally able to load her gun.

In the basement, we see Charlie pushing a laundry cart toward the  incinerator. Lifting the laundry off the top, we see a body inside: the body of the REAL Charlie Francis!! The shape shifter has now taken over Charlies body, and duly disposes the real Charlie into the incinerator.

OMG!!! was all I had to say after this one folks!!  I noticed Leonard Nimoy was in the trailer for next week’s episode, so it’s gonna be getting goooooood. This show has never failed to leave me at the end of it with a gaping jaw.

So, Until Next Time Fringe Fans!!

Happy Viewing!!

See you next week!!

Michael Queenstown

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FRINGE

SEASON 2; EPISODE 2

“NIGHT OF DESIRABLE OBJECTS”

Here we go with season 2 episode 2 of my favorite show, Fringe, called “Night of Desirable Objects”.

First off, in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, some construction guys are packing it in for the night as a radio report says there’s no information on the disappearance of six people from the area. One of the construction guys gets sucked into some blue goo coming out from the ground. Better make that seven people missing, but who’s counting?
Meanwhile, back in New York City, Olivia checks out of the hospital, still a bit woozy and using a cane, but eager to leave nonetheless. Of course she is under the watchful eye of Shape shifter Charlie.

Back in Boston, Mass., Broyles informs Peter the FBI signed off on everything he asked for, including new housing for him and his dad, and Peter shows him reports he’s found of the six people disappearing in Pennsylvania.

Elsewhere at Harvard, Walter and Astrid prepare an experiment, as Olivia walks in just in time to see a recreation of her accident, in which a frog gets launched from a car (and into the safety of a net). He can’t make the frog disappear like she did. He thinks she was gone for an hour before she crashed. She thinks she went somewhere and met with someone, but the details are foggy.  Peter arrives to take them all to Lansdale, where Walter is excited about the blue goo and the sheriff isn’t too eager to cooperate.  Back in the sheriff’s office, he’s hassling Olivia about butting in, but she gets distracted by a fly she seems able to hear way too well.  She calls Charlie to run the names of the victims.

Then Charlie visits the same pawn shop owner from last week and goes to the back room. He sits down at the spooky typewriter and reports Olivia trusts him completely. He asks for instructions.

Back at Harvard, Olivia and Peter skim the missing persons reports. Peter checks in on Walter, who paralyzed his hand with the blue goo from Pennsylvania. He says the base solution contains human DNA. Olivia finds in the reports that one victim was near all the others’ families around the time of the disappearances, Andre Hughes.

Olivia and Peter arrive at the front door. Hughes finds them with a wheelbarrow full of dirt, and invites them in. Olivia’s supersonic hearing kicks in as she looks around. She hears breathing. But Hughes says no one else is there. She goes to investigate. Notice how I refer to Andre Hughes on a last name basis?  Me thinks he isn’t long for this episode.

She goes upstairs and the breathing gets louder. She draws her gun and opens what should be a bedroom door, but instead finds a makeshift chemistry lab. She thinks the breathing is coming from the closet. She tells whoever it is to come out, opens the door and sees only bottles. Someone startles her in the hall. She whirls around and fires her gun, nearly blowing Peter’s head off.

Hughes is brought in for questioning and we find out he is a doctor 20 years retired. His lab stuff is sent to Walter. Hughes is questioned on why he visited the families of the missing. He says he didn’t know them, but lost his own wife and son during childbirth some 17 years earlier. Hughes is asked for a DNA sample, refuses and is threatened with a warrant.

Olivia goes for a follow-up, where the doctor finds her still purple and bruised up. As she’s changing, Nina drops by, writes down the name Sam Weiss on a piece of paper and tells her when she’s ready, although he’s not a shrink, she thinks he can help put her back together.

Meanwhile, Agent Jessup, (who hasn’t yet earned the right to go by her first name yet) who better get more to do in this show or, she’ll be going bye-bye, checks out Hughes‘ house. In his family Bible she finds a newspaper clipping describing his wife and son’s mysterious deaths in childbirth. The note from his pastor tells him not to blame himself.   Hmmmmmmm…………

Agent Jessup informs Peter that she believes that Hughes may have killed them, which thrills Walter as he may have more bodies to examine. Mrs. and baby Hughes are exhumed.   Back in the interrogation room, Hughes tears apart a chair with his teeth, constructing something. This something happens to be a noose!  Meanwhile the sheriff and the FBI open the Hughes coffins.

Baby Hughes’ coffin is empty and has a hole in it. Something dug its way in, and worse case scenario, dug its way OUT! At this moment Hughes hangs himself.  Olivia goes to talk to Hughes in the federal building in Boston. But unless her new found super hearing allows her to talk to the dead, she’s out of luck.

Back in the lab, upon examining Mrs. Hughes, Walter finds she had advanced lupus, which should mean she was incapable of having children. But she did. And now the baby is gone. HUH?

Walter has found that Mrs. Hughes DID give birth, and by examining the tissue of the remaining afterbirth, he is able to determine that the baby wasn’t entirely human. Walter thinks Hughes used scorpion DNA and the genes of something which burrows underground to alter his baby in the womb so it could survive its mother’s lupus. “It’s brilliant! He’s created a super baby,” Walter cries.  Olivia comes in and says she thinks that the breathing she heard with her super sensitive hearing at the Hughes’ home was none other than baby Hughes.

Back at the Hughes house the sheriff notices burrowed ground and a puddle of blue goo. As we now know, this ain’t good. The sheriff disappears in the puddle of goo. See, told ya it it ain’t gonna be good.

In the Hughes’ home Peter and Olivia find a hidden nursery, a  subbasement with dog’s teeth on the dirt floor, and a cinder block missing from the wall.  Peter removes more and finds a dog skull in the dirt wall, as well as the sheriff’s dead body. Just then the Hughes baby, now a dirt baby grabs Olivia and drags her into the tunnel. Peter races after it and pulls it off her.   When the Hughes / Dirt Baby (now man sized) starts coming after him, Olivia picks up a stick and stabs it. The Hughes / Dirt Baby tries to dig its way to safety, but ends up digging the ground out from under the sheriff’s car, which falls through the dirt, crushing him.

Back in the lab, Peter prepares to go fly fishing, telling Walter about a young man saving all his money from a paper route to buy a fancy lure, called the “Night of Desirable Objects” (Its about time they worked the title in here somewhere!). But, alas, he never got to fish with his father, who was always busy. “And this young man gave this to you?” Walter says, not getting it as usual. He asks Peter if he can go fishing with him.  Like an Andy and Opie moment. Awwwwww!

Back home, Olivia soaks in a bubble bath, but is distracted by the loud popping of the bubbles and distant, but loud arguing of her neighbors, and a fly, and street noise and a million other things she shouldn’t be able to hear, so she ends up at a bowling alley with Sam Weiss’ contact info.  Why? Is it because it’s so quiet you can hear a pin drop? Anyway,  she tells the man behind the counter who she’s looking for, like he would know in a million years, right?  He says Sam met a girl and moved to Atlanta. I stand corrected! She says thank you and starts to leave, but he stops her, asking if she’s going to give up so easily. She figures he’s Sam. He asks if the head aches have started yet. He assures her they will.

Meanwhile, back at the pawn shop, Charlie types on the creepy type writer, reporting Olivia remembers nothing. He asks for advice. “Unacceptable. If she can’t remember on her own then do something to help her.”

Who is this Sam Weiss character?  How can he possibly help Olivia? How does Nina know any of this? But then, how does Nina know ANYTHING about ANYTHING?  Will Charlie ever be freed from the shape shifter, or is Kirk Acevedo’s contract not up for renewal?

Find out Next time folks!!  I hope!

Here’s a “Sneak Tease” of  Episode 3:  ”Fracture”…

Peter, Walter, Olivia and Broyles pursue a strange and deadly occurrence in Philadelphia where a bomb blew up inside a train station but left no trace of any explosive device. The perplexing and unexplained set of circumstances returns Walter to the lab to closely examine the human remains where he uncovers an unlikely energy source that triggered the explosion. With the explosive threat of more bombs and links to a classified military project, the intense investigation leads Olivia and Peter to Iraq.

Got goosepimples already thinking about it!!  Maybe they’ll find Osama Bin Laden is behind it?  Doubt it.  But ya never know with Fringe!!

See ya next time!!

Michael Queenstown

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