The Americans 1.02

The Clock

Philip and Elizabeth are tasked with getting a microphone planted in the home of US Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger's home. They don't like it. They think it is too risky but they find a way to make it work: they blackmail the Weinbergers' cleaning lady into doing it for them by poisoning her son. They tell her they want her to steal a clock from Weinberger's study and bring it back to them. Philip places the transmitting device in the clock and gives it back to the cleaning lady. She is supposed to put it back in the Weinberger home the next day but she starts having second thoughts even though she knows that only they have the antidote to the poison coursing through her son's veins.

FBI agents Beeman and Amador catch a woman who works at the Russian embassy exchanging expensive caviar for stereo equipment. She has been shipping the stereo equipment back to Russia. It is all for personal gain. They convince her to start working for them, by threatening to tell her boss what she was up to.

Philip has a little problem on the side. He has been pumping a US government official's wife for information. She's tired of her husband and wants to run away with Philip. Nothing too dramatic happens in this episode but she has Philip worried that she might tell her husband or some else about him. This thread is left dangling but I'm sure it won't dangle for too long.

Elizabeth faces a bit of drama of her own with Paige, her 13-year-old daughter. She's having trouble connecting with Paige. It seems like she's afraid that she's losing Paige. Elizabeth also expresses a fear that if something happened to them (such as they were killed or captured) that she doubts that Paige would be able to handle whatever came next.

In the end everything seems to work out. The maid comes returns the clock to the Weinbergers' residence. Elizabeth administers the antidote. The FBI and the Attorney General of the United States are pleased to have a mole inside the Russian Embassy.

I wasn't sucked in by this episode from the opening scenes. It started a little slower than the previous episode. As it progressed the momentum built. The layering of the different story lines was handled quite well. Music was used very effectively to heighten tension at key moments. I like that both sides of the Jennings lives factored into the story. I liked that both Elizabeth and Philip have their own emotional hurdles to navigate. I like the quiet moments that they share. Overall I am very impressed with this series so far. I hope that the quality of the show remains high.

Star Trek: Enterprise 1.16

Shuttlepod One

Commander Tucker and Lieutenant Reed are on a mission in Shuttlepod One when their sensors and communications go down. They return to the spot where they left the Enterprise only to find nothing but debris from the Enterprise. They conclude that the Enterprise has been destroyed and start heading for the nearest starbase. They do not have enough energy to get there before the air in the shuttle runs out.

Commander Tucker insists on thinking positively about their chances of survival. Lieutenant Reed is much less optimistic about their odds of being found before they run out of oxygen. The two men soon start getting on one another's nerves. Lieutenant Reed has a dream that they are back on the the Enterprise. He comes very close to kissing T'Pol in the dream. The two men get very tipsy on a bottle of Kentucky bourbon. They turn down the heat to below freezing which they calculate will give them an additional 12 hours to breathe.

The Enterprise was not destroyed. They get back to the shuttle a couple hours before Tucker and Reed would have run out of air. The final scene is similar to Lieutenant Reed's dream with the exception that T'Pol shows no personal interest in Reed.

This episode is for the most part focused on Tucker and Reed. I believe this is the most screen time that Lieutenant Reed has received in any on the episodes I have watched this time around. There are a few scenes that take place on the Enterprise before the men are rescued but they are brief. There wasn't any suspense as to whether the men would get rescued on not. Obviously they would. The episode was about seeing what happened Reed and Tucker when the chips are down. This is not my favorite episode but I like it and consider it to be worthy of inclusion in a selective re-watch of this season.

Young Justice 1.20

Coldhearted

It is Wally's birthday. There's a major snowstorm blanketing the United States. The team throws a surprise party for him. He's all excited about getting a kiss from M'Gann. She disappoints him by kissing him on the forehead. Artemis then points out to him how chummy M'Gann and Conner are and he is able to see what he didn't see before. It was just two episodes ago that Artemis had her hopes about Conner dashed when Zatanna pointed out the same thing to her.

The Justice League calls on the younger heroes to help out with a nationwide disaster. Five floating snow machines are dumping snow across the country. All the team members (including Zatanna) are teamed up with Leaguers, except Kid Flash. He is tasked with traveling cross-country to deliver a donor heart to a 10-year-old girl on the west coast.

Wally is fairly cocky and stops along the way to fight Vandal Savage. He doesn't have time to complete the fight and leaves once he realizes he is wasting precious time. He arrives at the hospital in Seattle, WA in time but then gets fooled into handing the donor heart over to a bad guy. He has to fight Count Vertigo in order to get it back.

All in all a very good, very Kid Flash focused episode. He isn't my favorite member of the team but he is ultimately shown to be more three dimensional than he often seems.

Haters Back Off 1.08

i'm famous

The family falls apart as Miranda's single-minded vision on her "career" keeps her from seeing what's going on around her. She tells off Uncle Jim after she gets sick of him not being able to make her a star. She agrees to go on a date with Patrick and then stands him up after she thinks Owen is going to propose to her. Emily moves out after giving Miranda a piece of her mind. Bethany misses Miranda's performance because she is too doped on the medicine her doctor prescribed for her ailing kidney.

The episode ends with Miranda's latest video going viral as she sits at home alone and cries.

I wasn't sure what to expect but this was a very different sort of episode than I thought it would be. It was a lot more heartfelt than previous episodes. The wheels come off and it's unclear where the show will go in the second season. I can appreciate what they did here but I'm not sure if or how to compare this episode to the rest of the first season. Overall a definite thumbs up.

Community 2.03

The Psychology of Letting Go

Jeff gets obsessed with his health after he learns he has high cholesterol despite his healthy diet. Pierce is convinced that his recently deceased mother will return from death, which creeps out the others, especially Troy. Britta and Annie get competitive about raising money for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Chang has to stay away from Professor Duncan due to a restraining order.

Patton Oswalt makes a guest appearance as a nurse at the the Greendale Health Clinic.

Not the best, not the worst. It had its moments but on the whole fell a bit short in my opinion.

NewsRadio 3.03

Massage Chair

Dave gets rid of free snacks in the break room. Bill leads a revolt over the issue which somehow leads to him buying a massage chair.

Joe tires to impress Catherine by fixing up her desk. His "improvements" to her desk get sillier and sillier.

There is a joke that makes reference to a piece of gum Beth finds in the office fridge. She says the gum had been there since August 1995. The episode originally aired in October 1996.

The comedic timing in this one is great. Bill gets a big part to play (for once) which really highlights Phil Hartman's comedic genius. Mr. James had some choice lines toward the end when he lets Dave get to play the hero when he "decides" to restore the snack to the break room..

This is my favorite episode of the season so far.

Becoming Bond (2017)

This is a movie about George Lazenby, who played the role of James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The movie is narrated by Lazenby. It begins with his early life before he got the role of James Bond. He was born and raised in Australia. He wasn't much of a student and didn't graduate from high school. He got a job repairing cars but moved on to become a car salesman at the same car dealership. He fell in love with Belinda, a woman he met at an embassy party, and ended up following her to England, where he found work selling cars once again.

Before too long he found work as a male model. He and Belinda lived together for a time but eventually she left him after he cheated on her. George continued to work as a model until an older woman urged him to go out for the role of James Bond. He had never been in a movie before. He had to trick his way in to see the man casting the movie. Everything went well until the movie was finished shooting. The studio tried pressuring him into signing a long-term contract. He didn't like the look of things so he didn't.

Instead he grew a beard and let his hair grow long. He showed up on TV shows like Johnny Carson looking very different than he did in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. He never made another Bond movie. He worked in real estate, got married, and did some acting. Becoming Bond ends with Lazenby explaining that he doesn't regret his choice to not sign the contract.

Lazenby's story is recreated visually as he relates it to the audience. There is very little footage of young Lazenby. Most of the story is told through recreations of stories that he relates.

My biggest problem with this movie is that it is entirely told from one perspective. The narrator is also the subject. Other people have written about Lazenby and have opinions of him (in particular in regards to his involvement in the James Bond movie) which can be found online. It would have been nice if some of that could have been found in this movie. I'm not sure what the exact definition of a documentary is but this doesn't feel like a documentary to me.

I like the way the story is broken up into chapters of varying lengths. All chapter titles are all riffs on the titles of James Bond movies or one-liners from the movies.

Chapter 1 You Only Live Once
Chapter 2 The Road to Pussy Galore
Chapter 3 Try Another Day
Chapter 4 For Her Eyes Only
Chapter 5 From Australia with Love
Chapter 6 The Guy Who Loved Me
Chapter 7 Single Oh Seven
Chapter 8 The Man with the Golden Tongue
Chapter 9 Unlicensed to Kill
Chapter 10 Tomorrow Sometimes Dies
Chapter 11 Shaken Not Deterred
Chapter 12 The World Is Never Enough
Chapter 13 Decisions Are Forever