TVSquad

"What makes a child go bad? Nurture or nature?"

(S04E06) For the first act of tonight's show, I kept thinking, what's the deal with Sergei? The episode unfolded like an onion, revealing more and more about this kid. The more I heard, the less I cared that he was missing.

It makes you wonder, how does someone like Brenda remain neutral and not form an opinion too soon in the investigation? It must be her training, because while Pope was quick to remove the "critical missing" status from the case, Fritz -- who came along to provide backup -- was not. It was up to Brenda to make the tough call. For a while there, it seemed like she may have messed up by yielding to Will's point of view.

One of the virtues of The Closer is that even though it's a procedural drama, they let true feelings show. There are visceral emotions at play, like when the neighbor cried about how his dog was killed, and when Theresa showed the detectives Sergei's room and revealed how evil her brother was (to her), and when Jason confessed that Sergei was terrorizing him.

(S03E05) Not my favorite episode so far this season, but still very entertaining. That's because The Closer does quirky very, very well. Brenda is usually the freakiest freak of the bunch, but this week she got overshadowed by her real estate agent and by a surly old man who claimed to have killed seven people.

Let's start with the real estate agent, named Gary (played by French Stewart). He works his catch phrase, "Gary Doesn't Lie" into almost every conversation with Brenda and Fritz as he helps them look for a new home. I don't know what these two professionals are doing with this slimeball-- as interrogators for the FBI and the LAPD, don't they know creeps when they see them? French Stewart did a marvelous job of playing an LA-type real estate agent who was working his gimmick the whole time.

(S02E13) That was not good. -- Bones to Booth after he shoots an innocent clown head.

Hey, it's Bill!

Did you recognize the actor who portrayed sleazebag Monte Gold? It was none other than Alex Winter, the man who played Bill S. Preston, Esq. in the Bill and Ted movie duology (is it a word? I don't know, but I'm using it anyway). You don't remember him? Let's see if this jogs your memory . . . he was the friend of Ted Logan, played by the much more successful Keanu Reeves. Ah, now you remember! Nice bit of casting there by the producers of Bones.

Back in October I mentioned a new animated series from Kitchen Confidential creator Dave Hermingson called Two Dreadful Children, about a redneck family who discover their disobedient twin boys are geniuses. The pilot was picked up by FOX, and one assumes it will be added to the networks Sunday lineup of animated shows. Maybe it'll boot The War at Home off the lineup, one can only hope. The Hollywood Reporter has a little more information, namely that French Stewart, Chris Kattan and Meredith Roberts will be lending their voices to the new series. Kattan and Stewart will play the family's neighbors, and Roberts will voice one of the twin boys. No word yet on when the series will debut.

(S05E05) I'm beginning to think of this as the Brian & Stewie show. Again this week, their story was much better than the Peter story. With Peter's injured hand, the setup was good, but it kind of headed downhill from there. The opening with Quagmire smuggling the fireworks into the country ("Yeah, that's just as fun."), Chris playing David Koresh and the heavy handed FBI agent, and Stewie ignoring Peter's missing fingers while asking for more juice was great. Finally something for Meg to do too.