Gargoyles 2.39 Avery Brooks, John Rhys-Davies. Lots to enjoy...

Gargoyles 2.39

Avery Brooks, John Rhys-Davies.
Lots to enjoy here. Plenty of action and two very exciting stories, smartly told.

• In the b-story, Elisa has amnesia. Something which causes her to run from Goliath in fear when he finds her. It also clouds her judgement for most of the episode, until her instincts kick in near the end and she joins forces with the gargoyles.
  
• The a-story kicks off when the travelers arrive on Easter Island and something mysteriously starts attacking them one-by-one. Elisa is first, and she is then released with her memory wiped. The gargoyles are not so lucky. They are captured and - by the end - are facing execution.
  
• But there’s no real villain here. Instead they face a powerful opponent whose goals are actually honourable. He is, however, wrong about the gargoyles and they are forced to fight for their very lives.
  
• Long before the ending arrives, it has become clear to us what a lonely, tragic figure their opponent is. The conclusion brings that into even clearer focus, but - at least - offers him some companionship for the future.
  
• Bronx took quite a beating in the early scenes, so I was delighted to see him get his own back in the big battle at the end, with some vicious moves.
  

9/10

Gargoyles 2.38

Hector Elizondo. Fast-moving environmentally-aware story with some well-constructed moments of tension.

8/10

Gargoyles 2.37

Dorian Harewood, Roddy McDowall. Strong place-of-the-week adventure, with a large group of interesting new characters, an adventure with a few clever touches in the story and a basic but worthwhile moral at the heart of it all.

Very similar to shows like Sliders. 8/10

CSI, Greek, The Crow, Entourage, Joey, Gargoyles

Tues, Mar 25th, 2008

08:30 CSI
09:30 Greek
10:30 The Crow
11:30 Entourage
12:00 Joey
03:00 Gargoyles

CSI. Season 5, Episode 23. The appeal of CSI can been seen on display in the opening minutes of this solid episode: a mysterious murder baffles us and people we like show up to solve it. Nothing more, nothing less. We see two college students having a night of passion. By morning, Gil, Sara and Greg are standing over their dead bodies. Gil is television's greatest creation since Fox Mulder. Greg isn't far behind, so when Gil disappears off to court (for the rest of the episode) we are more than happy to stay with him and Sara as they try to figure out what happened. In typical CSI style, it's fascinating from start to finish.

Greek. Episode 11. Greek is back. Yay! And sending it's characters spinning in wonderful new directions. Calvin outside the Greek system? Cappie and Rebecca in a relationship? Casey as a leader? All very interesting. The episode holds the viewer enthralled from the moment we see Scott M. Foster falling asleep at an important meeting, or Clark Duke sniffing text books for pleasure. It's just bliss having this show back. And now they've added Senta Moses to all the goodness. Hilarious.

The Crow. Episode 14. I don't like "it was all a dream" episodes. And that is basically what this is. Eric (still in prison) gets a chance to go back in time and change events on the night he and Shelly died. He does. Twice. But they always end up dying in new ways, and usually with their friends dying as well. I'm not sure what lesson the enigmatic Skull Cowboy was trying to teach Eric here, but it's kinda lost on me, too. Which makes the whole episode kinda pointless. On the plus side Kadeem Hardison makes a great guest star and it's wonderful to see Sabine Karsenti in several scenes.

Entourage. Season 3, Episode 3. One of the best episodes ever. The core of this show is the friendship. It's about 4 close friends. And the premise of this clever story is that there used to be a 5th guy. Who went to prison. Now he's back. And he is a disruptive element within the group. Lots of laughs here. And, ever better, lots of character-based drama.

Joey. Season 2, Episode 16. It's Alex's 30th Birthday Party. Some things work and some things don't. Paulo Costanzo only has a few lines (as the Party's awful DJ) but he's laugh out loud funny when he does. Andrea Anders is sweet and funny as the birthday girl. I didn't warm to her at all in Season One, but by this stage in the run she had won me over. Melanie Moore is a scene stealer as Joey's stalker. Miguel A. Núñez Jr. is pretty much invisible as Joey's friend. He brings nothing to the episode/show. Write him out, and you've lost nothing. Adam Goldberg is godawful from start to finish. He gets lots to do in the episode, yelling and shouting and stuff, and I have no idea what the writers were intending to do with this character, but he totally sucks. Worse, he drags Drea de Matteo down with him. There is nothing for her to do except bicker with him. Awful. The plot - with Joey liking Alex who has a boyfriend - is a pointless rethread of Joey liking Rachel on "Friends".

Gargoyles. Season 2, Episode 36. Fantastic. Elisa, Goliath, Angela and Bronx arrive in Norway... for a pitch battle with Odin (who wants his eye back). This is one of the shows simmering sub-plots and it comes to great fruition here. Great storytelling, epic battles and strong work on the characters. The corruption of Goliath is subtle and scary. The guest characters are interesting and likable. The visuals (lots of snow falling and stormy conditions) are striking and appealing.

Highlight? Greek