Michael Canfield
United States - http://www.michaelcanfield.net
Mike Canfield is a freelance media, business and fiction writer based in Seattle.
Michael Canfield
United States - http://www.michaelcanfield.net
Mike Canfield is a freelance media, business and fiction writer based in Seattle.
Shark: Wayne's World 2 (season finale)
(S01E22) Billy Campbell is back as Wayne the serial-killer, now in the middle of an O.J., If I Did It, -style book tour. Larry King, playing himself for the umpteenth time in a crime drama, interviews Wayne, albeit with eyes glued to cue-cards. Larry asks the kind of pointed challenging questions here that only the fictional Larry King is even know to ask. This cameo affords the most fun moment of the night, however: Stark after arresting Wayne during a commercial break in the interview, and never one to pass by a camera, sits down to join Larry for the final segment.Continue reading Shark: Wayne's World 2 (season finale)
Heroes: Five Years Gone
(S01E20) This episode is listed as "String Theory" on my PVR and some places online, but on NBC's site and the screen itself it says "Five Years Gone" so that's what I went with.
"What if?" stories are fun. They allow the creators to play around with characters and show them in unexpected new lights. This isn't a purely "what if?" story, however. What happens here determines "our" Hiro's (younger Hiro's) ability to return to the present and change history in the coming episodes -- or fail to.
Continue reading Heroes: Five Years Gone
Shark: Strange Bedfellows
(S01E21) One of the more interesting episodes this season. Stark mostly handles this week's prosecution alone. This is a good thing. Madeleine and Raina find themselves just about taken in at one point by the kidnapper's implausible defense that he had "rescued" the boy from his own parents which were the so-called "real abusers."This story doesn't ring true to Stark. He proceeds to rips it to shreds under cross-examination. This was a real treat to see. It's the kind of scene I once, so long ago, last fall, imagined a show starring James Woods as a legal superstar would excel in, and showcase often.
Continue reading Shark: Strange Bedfellows
Heroes: .07%
(S01E19) It's Linderman's voice we hear over the "previously on Heroes" opening segment, rather than that of previous narrator Mohinder. That's an improvement. To tell you the truth I didn't know what to expect tonight. Heroes seems like it has been gone so long, I started worrying that its return would inevitably fail to live up to my anticipation.I needn't have worried. I quickly found myself falling right back into the groove of the show. My favorite storyline was the Texas one. I enjoyed HRG's orchestration of the escape, using his knowledge of Matt and Ted's powers. As the Eric Roberts character will later say of HRG to the Artist Mohinder: "Glasses? Tall fella? He's no longer with the company." No doubt.
Shark: Fall From Grace
(S01E20) This was a straightforward episode concerning the murder of a computer whiz who gets mixed up with some shady characters when he tries to raise big bucks for his daughter's medical needs. Stark only wastes a few minutes chasing the obvious (therefore innocent) initial suspect before turning to an investigation of the evidently-notorious Lundy Brothers. D.A. Devlin is especially concerned about Stark this time. Not only is she doubtful, as usual, that Stark's crazy tactics will convict (though they almost always do), she is sure that a failure to convict the Lundy Brothers will cost her next week's election. By my count, Stark and the High Profile Crimes Unit are something like 18 for 19, a 94% conviction rate, going into tonight's episode, but you never know, the electorate can be fickle.
Continue reading Shark: Fall From Grace
Shark: Porn Free
(S01E19) It's the saint versus the pornographer, as someone in the episode says. An internet pornographer is murdered, ostensibly by a single man who also runs his very own shelter for wayward young women. That's handy. Apparently this particular shelter is the place in the Valley to find women with low self-esteem to lure into porn. By the way doesn't "internet pornographer" sound ever so much sleazier that just plain ol' pornographer? Evidently the Shark writers think so.It's no surprise when "the saint" is eventually revealed to have done business with the porn king, then got out of business with him, then fell in love with one of the women he was "rehabilitating" in his shelter, who then became a porn actress, who then ... oh, who cares?
Continue reading Shark: Porn Free
Shark: Trial By Fire
(S01E18) All in all, I enjoyed this hostage-crisis episode better than the previous hostage-crisis episode, "The Wrath of Khan", the one in which attorney Alexis Cruz got axed. Evan Handler gives an enjoyable performance as the poor loser who claims he's innocent and is looking at his third strike. Handler played Hurley's probably imaginary friend Dave, the title character in a Lost episode last season and, more recently, one of the two hacky comedy writers on Studio 60, that Matthew Perry's character liked to bust on.
Continue reading Shark: Trial By Fire
Shark: Backfire
(S01E17) Just under the wire, Shark sneaks a new episode into the vast desolation of repeats that is March. This time, the plot concerns the racially-charged shooting of a drug dealer and his honor-student cousin by two cops. As usual, the true culprit is not the person who Stark initially charges with a crime, but rather the person who years and years of TV-watching has told us to expect it will be: the allegedly least-likely (and therefore, most likely) candidate. The actual mystery here is why Isaac backed off his opportunity with Raina in San Diego some episodes ago. Isaac's ready to explain that now, but Raina's not in the mood, initially, to listen. She's reasonably suspicious that Isaac might just amount to a whole sack of drama and what does she need with that noise?This is one of the better episodes. The plot-reversals, double-reversals, and triple-bogie re-re-re-reversals are not so outrageous as to sink the whole enterprise, and this allows some room for good character interaction.
Continue reading Shark: Backfire
Heroes: Parasite
(S02E18) "Company Man" last week gave us many dimensions of one character. This week's awesomeness gives us many events snowballing throughout the Heroes universe. New characters, new secrets about old characters, and in anticipation of a month-plus hiatus, some tantalizing cliffhangers.
If this episode had been a football game, then I would say it was remarkable for its extraordinary number of turnovers. Time after time, when one character thinks he or she has the drop on another -- surprise! It isn't so.
Continue reading Heroes: Parasite
Heroes: Company Man
(S01E17) Damn, this is good TV. Heroes has raised the bar for itself again. That's my review, thanks for stopping by, I look forward to reading your comments.
Seriously though, I don't know where to start. The show this week focuses on one main story: the life and career of that "company man," Mr. Bennet, the man with a hidden first name, aka HRG. He is, as we knew, mysterious, calculating, and deceptive. He's also intelligent, conflicted, and loving. Jack Coleman, who plays this character teasing out all his layered glory, deserves an Emmy based on this episode alone.
Continue reading Heroes: Company Man
Shark: Blind Trust
(S01E16) Incredible. I don't mean that as a compliment. First we are supposed to believe that 16-year-old Julie is able to keep her DWI arrest secret from a parent for an extended period. Even with Isaac covering for her, I don't buy it. Even the media finds out before Stark! And what kind of person is Isaac? He doesn't call Stark that night? Isaac is an adult, and he's keeping secrets with his friend's kid? Well, he is the guy who recommended the world's lamest bodyguard for Julie recently, so maybe I expect too much of him. All I know is Det. Baldwin Jones would never have messed this upThis isn't done because it makes sense however, but merely to set Stark up for a big feeling of betrayal to mirror the one he's going to get from this week's case...
Continue reading Shark: Blind Trust
Heroes: Unexpected
(S01E16) See, this is what happens when you give an ex-junkie a gun just in case a human bomb turns up, and tell him to use it to "save the world." Not HRG's best strategy, and a tragedy for Simone (Tawny Cypress). I think Nathan, succumbing to the more cynical side of his nature, will be relieved by this turn of events, because of his fears over Simone's earlier stated intention to go public with her knowledge of special abilities. Not that Simone would have been believed any more that Claire was when she opened up to her Mom's doctor.
Nathan, by the way, tells Simone exactly how he would handle persons with special abilities: treat them like lab rats and isolate them. This, as we know, is pretty much the philosophy of HRG's organization, anyhow.
Continue reading Heroes: Unexpected
Shark: Here Comes the Judge
(S01E15) Tim Matheson guest stars as a judge and charter member of the Los Angeles Stark-Haters Club, an evidently very large and influential organization. He's also a careerist and a hypocrite. Sebastian quickly realizes the judge is guilty of murdering his own wife, and with that you have your quintessential Shark ingredients. Matheson does a good job playing the self-righteously self-righteous judge, who early-on accuses Stark of going after him because of his tough law-and-order case rulings, and finishes-up accusing Stark of homophobia. Stark's consistent though. He goes after the judge, not because of any personal or political ax to grind, but, well, because of the whole murdering-his-spouse thing.Continue reading Shark: Here Comes the Judge
Heroes: Run!
(S01E15) A rough week for some of the heroes makes for another pretty good episode, especially the Parkman and Jessica stuff. For once, things appear to be going Matt Parkman's way. He's beaming as he heads off for his first day on a new job as private security. His client turns out to be an a-hole. Matt has not gotten used to overhearing the negative thoughts everyone he meets seems to have of him.
Just in from Vegas, recently-liberated Jessica has a new job herself; it's the first of what may be many contracts from Mr. Linderman. The cat-and-mouse chase up and down the stairwells was intense. So was Matt's near fatal fall. Jessica chucks him out a high window before finishing what she came to Los Angeles to do. Say what you will about Jessica, but she certainly enjoys herself more than Niki ever has. It was cool that Matt read both Niki's and Jessica's thoughts as they argued in the stairwell. [Note: that's how I interpreted Jessica & Niki's exchange in the stairwell anyway. See comments by Michelle @ 13 and Bill @16, etc. below.] Wherever they go, the mirror-twins seem to encounter an ample supply of reflective surfaces.
Shark: Starlet Fever
(S01E14) Yeesh. This episode was one silly drawn-out mess. A Britney/Paris/Lindsay type starlet is run off the road and killed. Initially the paparazzi seem to be responsible, adding a touch of the Princess Di tragedy to the mix. There's a possible stalker angle. There is molestation by step-parent: a middle-aged man with an earring. An opportunistic kid sister. A fake celebrity feud started for "cross-promotional purposes." All this gives Stark and the rest of the High Profile Crime Unit plenty of beautiful people to sneer at, although, strangely, none of the guest performers cast as the various young celebrities are nearly as attractive as the gorgeous cast of series regulars.
Forget the Knight Rider movie, say the series creators - TCA Report
Giveaway Monday: TV Funhouse
Giveaway Monday: Mad Men radio, DVD, lighter and more
