Bad week to leave town. I've been catching up with everything, but Boardwalk will have to get a three-episode skim real soon now.
Revolution Season 2, episode 1: Born in the USA
More of a reboot than a second season. Remember when our heroes intrepidly reached the Dark Tower and overcome all obstacles to turn the power back on at the end of last season? Well, that lasts all of four minutes. Following Randall's nuclear-lauch-cum-suicide (which makes zero sense aside from freeing up an actor for better things), Rachel flips the switch back. We pick up six months later, with previous power bases Philly and Atlanta destroyed and everyone in the cast scattered to restart the story, now without an overarching story but with the imminent return of the American government.
Danny, at least, remains dead.
Homeland 1
I had such hopes for the new-look of Homeland. Saul heading the Agency, Carrie his erratic, mistrusted right hand. Quinn recovering from surgery and F. Murray Abraham as Iago. As with our previous series, there's a sufficient jump forward in the narrative, allowing everyone to be reintroduced in their new circumstances.
Unfortunately, aside from a wary, betrayed Saul who quickly goes on the offensive to quell a possible dismantling of the agency's remnants, the remainder of the cast's new circumstances are dull to dire.
I'd read the interview with Gansa, and to my dismay the chance to relegate the abandoned Brody family was forsaken for the opportunity to relate to the viewing audience. Must there be an audience surrogate "regular family" in the midst of a high-level CIA drama?
As for Carrie, she's treating her PTSD and abandonment with booze and hookups by night while toeing the agency's line at a congressional hearing by day. There are few more thankless tropes in the TV drama playbook than the asshole courtroom-prosecutor, and Homeland lives down to this tradition much to the detriment of Carrie, Saul, and the series at large.
Masters of Sex: Pilot
Watching this reminded me of Mad Men. The early episodes, when that series couldn't get out of its own way to shout how ugly! misogyny! racism! primitive! its setting was. Add to this the terribly broad introductory characterization of nearly everyone, horribly telegraphed plot points (friends don't fuck!) and, well, it's a good thing for future episodes of this "best new series" that it's clearly pointing its true center will be Lizzy Caplan, whom I still I have a crush on from two years of Party Down...
MAoS: 8-0-4.
After avoiding several opportunities to watch the SHIELD pilot over the summer, I missed it when it finally aired. Second episodes, i.e. episode 1.1 are often in retrospect among the weakest outings of any series and I hope this is still the case for SHIELD. Aside from Coulson, whom we have some affection for, the cast feels like the residents of Universal City's Dollhouse. I'll keep watching -- fuck, I sat through every week of Last Resort -- but I expect more out of this series, pronto.
Two longtime cable heavyweights wrapped up last week. One I abandoned early, the other I came to later. Dexter ended as badly as it's been limping for years now on the Showtime treadmill. When I gave up on the always-in-danger, never-get-caught repetition, I had some hope that a finale would finally move the premise forward. It not only failed to do so, it failed in spectacular fashion.
And then there's... I've been watching but not writing about Breaking Bad; so I'll just briefly comment: Perhaps it will age poorly, but today, this is now the series finale gold standard. This is how a landing is stuck. Triumph, tragedy, righteous vengeance, and oh so much pathos. Liked it a lot.
Best of the week: Breaking Bad by a mile. It's not even fair.
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