Drop Dead Diva--"Pick's and Pakes" Review

    In this episode, Stacy went to court against a pake patent troll, and Jane dealt with a lawyer who was losing his mind. A subplot involved Luke and Kim dating, and a surprise announcement from Kim.

     

Jane’s case this week had an interesting twist in that the emphasis was on her co-counsel, not the client. The Surprise Turn For the Worse in the case came early in the episode and was quickly overcome in order to make room for the real story: Jane’s co-counsel, the famous Lawrence Brand, has Pick’s Disease. Pick’s Disease, according to DDD, is a degenerative frontal lobe disease which actually does cause the victim to lose their mind. Stories like these can be very affecting, because what’s scarier than losing your mind? It must be one of the scariest aspects of getting older, and to have it happen when you’re only in your fifties is terrifying and heartbreaking.

   Jane and Owen’s interactions were very nice this episode. It’s nice to see how they are with each other when they’re not dealing with dramatic questions like “is Owen going to drop dead” or “should we really get married”. Instead, in this episode they talked about houses and having children. Lex Medlin melted my heart with his delivery again when he said, “Kids!...No, I like the way that sounds!” His face!

     Stacy’s story was delivered with normal Stacy adorableness and another guest appearance by Kim Kardashian. It was nice that Stacy and Grayson got to work together on this one. It’s a good reminder that he’s known her fom back when Deb was alive, not just through Jane. They have a legitimate friendship.

     The pake-off? Fabulous. It was probably my favorite scene, because it was so cute, ridiculous, and had a great song playing in the background. The song, incidentally, is “The Kitchen” by Little Jackie. You’re welcome, because it was not altogether easy to find. 

      Stacy’s sadness over Jane moving is completely understandable, although the line about how Jane was “moving on with her life” didn’t really strike home. Stacy actually has a very successful business, is an absolute sweetheart (and stunning), and has great relationships and a lovely home. Really the only thing she doesn’t have is a guy. So it’s not like Jane is really moving on with her life while Stacy is just stuck in a rut. Nonetheless, it is sad to see Stacy and Jane separating.

     Kim and Luke’s sub-subplot was entertaining due to everyone gagging over their relationship. Even though they’re both fairly attractive people, their personalities are both too abrasive and unappealing to be combined. Unless they get paired with someone more charming or kind (like Kim with Parker or Luke with Stacy), it’s too much annoyingness to handle. However, right after she told him she was pregnant, Luke was really sweet. He said exactly the right thing in that situation; both kind and not insistent.  “I’m here if you need me.”

     Overall, a good episode! It was very entertaining, with a good balance between the fun (pake-off) and the weightier (Pick’s Disease) material. There was not enough Margaret Cho, however.

Extraneous Notes:

• Jane’s opening scene where she knocked over the water and elbowed the Nancy Grace in the face was hysterical. I can see why it would go viral.
• Jane’s instant recall was pretty spectacular this episode. And obvious. Doesn't anyone around her ever find it weird how she looks like she literally gets smacked in the brain by information?
• The judge on Stacy’s case was my favorite ever in the series.“No one likes a troll!”
• Stacy’s date to the wedding is super cute.
• I love how matter-of-fact Jane is about how many and what gender and how far apart the children will be.
• It’s so fun that Stacy has a successful business. I can totally see how something like that would work out, although maybe not in this economy.

Credit:
Producers: Josh Berman, Alex Taub, Craig Zadan and Neil Meron
Writers: Josh Berman

Grimm--"The Kiss" Review

     In this episode, Nick, Rosalee and Monroe attempt to stop Juliette’s memory loss and Nick deals with suspicion from the FBI while Nick’s mother continued to kick ass and be completely unhelpful in getting answers. Meanwhile, Renard and Adalind’s mother work together to wake up Juliette. Nick’s mom has to leave (although she doesn’t, really) because she keeps killing people, and Juliette wakes up but doesn’t remember Nick.

    Grimm seems to like ending each episode with semi-cliffhangers. The last episode ended in a cliffhanger which had to be resolved in the beginning of this episode, and then this episode ended in a pseudo-cliffhanger. It makes for a strange cycle, where a previous story has to be tied off before the next can begin, all within 45 minutes. But maybe it’s intentional? In order to give a sense of good progression with the over arching, seasonal plots.

     Why do all the people that Nick’s mom questions keep dying? She does not have the gentle touch, for sure. Her motherly heart-to-heart with Catherine Schade made me wonder, though, do hexenbiests get any extra physical strength when they shift (I can’t remember the proper word)? Because Schade seems pretty tough for not liking the “physical stuff”.

     On to Captain Renard. “The prince”? I love this story arc. There’s so much possibility. Seven families? The Wesen Wars? Yes, please! The more Grimm develops its history and mythology, the better.

     I want to know exactly how Catherine Schade’s concoction “purified” Renard. Like, physically? Did it clear out all his cholesterol or something? It doesn’t seem like it would affect his intentions or emotions, really, because he’s the bad guy, right? Hard to have a pure heart when you’re the bad guy. But maybe he’s not! Maybe he’s just a complex character with complex motivations.

     Also, I don’t know, but I find it curious that Renard had to kiss Juliette to administer the cure. For one thing, because everyone acknowledges that kisses are the way to do things. What is the historical basis for that? In “Once Upon a Time”, they say it all the time: “True love’s kiss can break any spell”. Not that Renard’s kiss was one of true love, but still. The power is acknowledged.

    For another thing, it led me to wonder whether when Juliette wakes up she’s suddenly going to be devoted to Renard. That would be a horrible backfire for him, wouldn’t it?

     Overall, I enjoyed this episode. It was good because it gave some more attention to how Nick has to balance his Grimm life with his job as a police officer. The episode also gave time to Renard, which is a good idea because he’s awesome. He’s very tied into the mythology of the show and developments with him usually mean developments of the back story, as well. For instance, what exactly is he the prince of? Why is he in Portland? What's up with that CGI castle Renard's brother was in? So many delightful questions!

Extraneous Notes:

• There was some pretty spectacular gore happening with the severed arm hanging from the ceiling, yeah?
• It’s seems very convenient and fan-servicy that Renard had to rip his shirt off during the purification process.
• I loved Monroe’s face when Nick assigns him and Rosalee to take Nick’s mom home. “We three will all just… Go on living”—with a tiny question mark at the end.
• Nick’s mom has such a supernatural look to her that it’s strange that she’s just human. Her face is so… Elfin.
• What is Mama Burkhardt’s plan? Can she really be trusted?

Drop Dead Diva--"Ashes to Ashes" Review

Owen returns!

In this episode, Jane and Grayson deal with the case of a woman who wants to keep her fiancé’s ashes after his recent death, but is being contested by his step-mother, to whom he left everything in his (3-yr old) will. Also, Luke helps Terri out and Parker and Kim work through some sexist whatnot.

Jane and Grayson

The case of the week involved a woman, Kathy, asking Jane and Grayson to help her keep the ashes of her dead fiancé based off of a video of her fiancé saying that he was hers, “body and soul”. Also she can see his ghost and telling her in no uncertain terms that he wants her to have the ashes, but ghosts aren’t really admissible in court. Usually Jane is the one who is gung-ho to take a case even if the odds are ridiculous, but this time Grayson wanted it because of the similarities between Kathy’s situation and his with Deb.

So they take the case and it’s going really well for them until the grossest reveal ever: Kathy has been eating the ashes. Explanation? It lets her see her fiance’s ghost.

I’m pretty sure everyone who heard that except the people in the show started thinking, “dangerous toxin! You’re going to die because of some dangerous hallucinatory toxin in the ashes! Danger, Will Robinson!” Because that’s what I did. Do TV characters never watch TV?

Anyway, Jane and Grayson still almost manage to pull the case off. Unfortunately, Kathy lets it slip in court that she’s seeing the ghost of her fiancé and then basically they lose the case because she seems crazy. The obviously evil stepmother is given the ashes because Kathy is obviously insane, and Kathy passes out because there were heavy metals in the ashes she was munching on.

And then comes the Jane-epiphany (you know, I really love this show, but it is pretty predictable) where she realizes that the dead fiancé was poisoned by his stepmother, who wanted his money, and that’s why his ashes are toxic.

And then Jane tricks the evil stepmother into confessing, like a boss.

So, yeah. Fun case, except Kathy really needs some help. Slowly killing yourself by doing something super creepy/gross just to see your dead fiancé… Not the healthiest way to grieve.

Parker and Kim

I kind of love Parker, but he’s such a pompous ass. 

He comes into the office, explains that actually, the FBI sting was just a set up, everything’s okay, and he’s probably going to get a medal. So you kind of want to smack him to start with, but then you realize that he didn’t every tell Kim what was going on. Kim, his partner. Like, business partner, not fun-times partner.

Then he sends flowers to apologize. Hah. Hah hah.

And then when that doesn’t go over so super well, he gets some awesome advice from Terri to stop being such a pompous, sexist ass.

So then he figures it out and makes Kim happy and he’s a charming, low-voiced devil again! Yay.

Luke and Terri

Luke and Terri got to bond this episode, and Terri got to wear the best, most ridiculous outfit ever.

Terri almost got conned into dropping $1000 on a producer after supposedly winning first prize in a music contest, but Luke saved the day.

Isn’t it interesting that Luke helping Stacy in the last episode and now he’s helping Terri? It’s like he started out as a terrible guardian angel to Jane, but he’s getting better at helping her and other people.

And you know, I like Luke. I know almost no-one else does, but he’s kind of awesome. I have high hopes for him.

And finally,

Jane and Owen

I’m kind of one of those people who likes Grayson a ton (although I’m unsure if I can ever see him with Jane), so I was not super excited to see Owen.

In my notes I had a list of the only explanations that would excuse him not calling: “I work for the government”, “I’m an alien”, and “your life depended on it” are about as far as I got, but I guess, “my heart stopped” was pretty good, too.

But apparently almost dying made him rather over-cautious. “I know this doesn’t seem fair” he says to a heart-broken (and then super angry) Jane after taking back his proposal. Ack. It made me so sad; you could tell it was difficult for him. But of course, it’s Owen and he's a good guy, so he’s rescinding his proposal for Jane’s sake.

There is a juxtaposition between Owen and Jane here that was kind of cool. Jane/Deb went through a death experience and basically decided to take a hold of life and live it all the more. Owen went through a death experience and retreated away from his life.

But then Grayson goes and accidentally shoots himself in the face when he tells Jane that he loves how she “doesn’t take no for an answer”.

So she goes and doesn’t take no for an answer from Owen.

You know how I said that I wasn’t super excited to see Owen? I changed my mind. The last scene was my favorite scene. Lex Medlin did a great job of expressing a pretty fair range of emotions without saying much. When he said “Of course I have the ring”, my heart kind of melted.

This is the most I’ve ever liked them together, actually. The look on his face when she proposed to him was priceless. Actually very moving. I felt as moved by the look on his face as I usually am when people hug and kiss in the same sort of situation. It was awesome, even as I was wondering in the back of my head what’s going to happen to Grayson.

Overall, a big, good episode!

Extraneous Notes:

• There wasn't enough Stacy in this episode
• Stacy interpreting Jane’s dreams for her, and then pretending to be Owen because she had “robes” on—really cute. They have such a nice friend interaction!
• I can’t quite believe Grayson’s googly eyes when he looks at Jane
• Terri had some very interesting information about the original Lady Bodacious, or rather, Boudica. Link! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudica
• The dead fiancé/ghost was pretty cute. In a Narnian faun kind of way. http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1216985088/nm3942723
• I like Kim’s pants in the beginning of the episode.

Credit:

Director: Michael Grossman

Writers: Josh Berman, Rob Wright

Last Note:

I am trying to get my word count down on these things, but I have so many things I want to say. It seems like once I get the brief summary down, I don't have room left to talk about the actual characters and the subtext and all the interesting bits. Anyone have any suggestions? 

Mentalist--"Like a Redheaded Stepchild" Review

     

    So, at the beginning of this episode, Grace hands invitations to her wedding and gives one to Rigsby. Awkwardness ensues while Cho watches stoically. This leaves me wondering what the writers actually want to do with Rigsby and Van Pelt. It kind of feels like they don’t know. That’s okay, because it’s more realistic, because in real life you don’t get to know, either. Still, in terms of the story, I just feel kind of not-invested-enough with Rigsby and Van Pelt. Certainly not as invested as I’d like to be, you know?

   

     Moving on to the rest episode, I do believe that the focus was mostly on Rigsby and his horrible relationship with his horrible father. This storyline made me incredibly sad. The entire second encounter with Rigsby and his dad just made me want to slap the man. The way he talks is just abrasive and ugly, but the things he actually says are incredible. Almost a bit too much, actually, but we’ll get to that later*. At one point, he actually says that he tried to beat the goodness out of his son.

  

    It kind of made me wonder about the reasoning people have for beating their children. As in, how do they rationalize it and make it okay in their heads? Or do they even try? With Rigsby’s Dad (can’t remember his name), it’s that Rigsby was weak—he was too nice, too cop-like. So really, by beating him his dad was helping him out. It’s like his dad knows he has awful, screwed up reasons, but he needs some kind of reason for doing things, right? And by golly, “awful and screwed up” is good enough for him.

Also, the scene at the bar after Rigsby simultaneously saves his father’s life and embarrasses him, it was a small, nice combination of acting and writing when his father says, “Weakness lives in the eyes.” And Rigsby looks away.

Eventually, though, Rigsby was able to sort-of-not-really work his crap out with his dad and confess his doomed feelings to Grace. So I guess he can feel good about that. In a “being the bigger man even though it sucks” way.

    Is it sad that I liked Grace and Rigsby’s relationship in that last scene the most I ever have? I have never been less annoyed by them.

One “nice” moment in this whole awful situation is when Rigsby talks to Lisbon about his father. It’s a time like that when you can see that she’s a good boss. Like it’s not just her ability to shoot a gun and kick butt, it’s the fact that she cares about her team and trusts them. She listens to Rigsby, understands him, tells him what he needs to know (“I trust you”), but then makes sure that he won’t do anything stupid by ordering him never to interview his father alone again. In some ways it’s like she’s a mother.

…Mother Teresa.

…

Anyway. The case of the week wasn’t incredibly interesting since it was mostly just used as a platform for Rigsby’s father issues. I liked the girl at the salon, though. Shelley. It was interesting that there was a Jane-comment about her childhood mistreatment in the midst of an episode about Rigsby and what must have been a lot of mistreatment in his childhood.

     In fact, there are a lot of people in this show with terrible childhoods. *This is what I said I’d come back to.* Why have all the main characters been so mistreated or so messed up in their youth? As far as I can tell, Grace is the only one with a semi-normal background, unless I’m forgetting something.

     Jane had a carnie father who made him con people. Lisbon’s father beat her and her brothers. Cho was in a gang so his influences probably weren’t that great. And then there’s Rigsby, whose father may just win in the “worst dad” contest.

    So is this a conscious decision on the part of the writers or is this just a fairly common television writing device, to give your characters a little more interest? I haven’t paid attention to this before, so I guess I’ll have to keep an eye out now.

Other than that, the case was fine; interesting enough. I have to say, though, I called it completely wrong. First I thought Nicky was going to die; then I thought he wasn’t going to have a very major part; then I thought he was going to die again and that the head guard was going to kill him because the head guard had killed the first victim.

But I was super wrong, so hopefully my life never depends on my ability to pick out a murderer.

Extraneous notes:

• Cho was barely in the episode, and I am the sadder for it.
• I find it ironic that Shelley met the best guy she’s ever dated while spying on him for her convict brother.
• The look Nicky gave Jane when he found out that it was his nails that had given him away. “Seriously?”
• Nicky was cold! He was more concerned about having messed up his track record of no kills. Ew. Just because you haven’t killed doesn’t mean you don’t have a murderer’s heart.
• No Red John developments
• Also, does anyone else think that Simon Baker is sexy in a Robert Redford/Peter O’Toole way? (Not asking if anyone thinks he’s sexy, period. Pretty sure a lot of women agree with me there.) Robert Redford in this picture: http://www.ouchpress.com/robert-redford/images/26840.html, and Peter O’Toole in this one: http://handson.provocateuse.com/show/peter_o_toole/02 , which is so mind-numbingly attractive it’s ridiculous

     Credit:

     Director: Eric Laneuville

     Writers: Bruno Heller, Jordan Harper

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