Heroes: The Line

A wee bit better, but one thing is for certain: in a season that's nowhere near as good as the first, Zachary Quinto's Sylar stands out above everyone else on the show. The scenes with him are terrifying and as good as anything in season 1. It was nice to see HRG all badass again.

Peter: He and his girlo head to Moan-tree-al, as Americans pronounce it, where they find a note from Monroe, the guy Bob has warned Mohinder about. Then they teleport to an apocalyptic NY in June 2008, in one of the most fake uses of a green screen I've ever seen. It was SO clear they were standing on a soundstage with a photoshopped picture of Times Square in the background, right down to the echo of their voices. Now both Peter and Nathan have seen this.

Claire: Last season we were led to believe that when times get tough, certain humans evolve to become heroes. This season we've learned that superpowers have been given to certain people so that they'll either totally rock in double-dutch, or they can play practical jokes on the bitchy cheerleading captains. While the trick was kind of funny, last season it seemed these heroes had a purpose, something their powers were given to them for, and this season they're just horsing around with them. I think that's the main reason why this season just isn't working with fans. Is Tim Kring a one-trick pony? Did he look beyond season 1 at all? Is there a second act?? At least on Lost, CC and DL had a vision. I don't think Kring knows what the heck is going on anymore, because this season doesn't seem to be leading up to anything.

Moronder: He finally grows a pair and refuses to inject Monica with the new virus, and instead storms into the room where Bob is standing and hurls a syringe against the wall, no doubt sending that live virus flying all over the room. Let's hope it wasn't airborne. Where the heck did this guy go to school?!

HRG and Haitian: They go to see Ivan, HRG's old "friend," who knows where the paintings are hidden, and these scenes were particularly compelling. The Haitian removes all traces of the memory of the early years with his wife, including their marriage and honeymoon, and the guy finally spills all when HRG threatens to remove the memories of his deceased daughter. And then he shoots the guy anyway. Wow... These scenes also reminded me of season 1, especially when he nonchalantly stops in the middle of the torture session to answer a phone call from Claire Bear.

Nikki and Paulo The Wonder Twins The Whiny Twins Alejandro and Maya: Alejandro, i.e. the non-stupido, says he doesn't trust good ol' Gabe, and he's right. Sylar sucks up Maya's power, or at least tries to, while she kills several rednecks hanging out on the U.S. border trying to keep those dang Mexicans outta their country. Then, in the best scene in the episode, he tells Alejandro he's going to kill him and his sister as soon as he's done sucking up their powers... but he does so in English, a language Alejandro can't speak.

Hiro: He finally steps on that cockroach in the past and alters the future, kissing the girl and pissing off Kensei, who turns them all over to the dogs. One question: if guns had been outlawed in Japan, how did her father know how to make them?

Monica: Bob leaves her be (yeah, right), with a file of phone numbers to call in case of emergency, and an iPod with every skill she might ever need on it. I'm sure The Company will totally leave her alone now. (Actually, if they do, then this show really HAS lost it.) Cheesiest line: "Look around: it seems this town could really use some amazing."

Nikessica: Says she's Moronder's new partner (great... Dumb and Dumber are reunited). And she's clearly not Niki, despite Doofus thinking she is.

The paintings: Looks like Niki pounding on a door, Hiro and Kensei fighting, a crazed Nathan holding a gun, a hand holding a vial of the virus, presumably... what DOES it mean?

So what do the paintings mean? Who is Adam Monroe and why did he know Peter could get there? Next week's preview shows a bunch of more interesting characters coming back, and Bob saying Peter is the line... ooh. Looks like it might actually be a really good one (and for Canadians, it's at a different time, so just check the PVRs for that).

Dexter: Season 2
No Spoilers here for anyone who hasn't been watching yet:
When I saw the last season of Dexter, it followed the mystery of the ice truck killer, a serial killer who was murdering women and draining them of blood, and who started sending messages to Dexter... ALSO a serial killer (by night; by day he's the forensics blood spatter expert trying to find other killers). By the end of the season, the storyline had taken a turn that made the show brilliant, but it also made me wonder how the heck they could go onto a season 2? And then, this year, I saw exactly how they could do it.

If you're not watching this show, you should be. Go back to season 1, watch it, and then start in on season 2. You will not be disappointed. I will tell you now -- it's gory, it's dark, and you might want to stop after the first episode or two. But trust me: Stick with it. It's genius, and surprisingly, HILARIOUS. Seriously. The darkest of dark humour, but hilarious nonetheless.

Sunday night's episode was awesome. I can't tell you how many times I gasped, or put my hand over my mouth, or said, "oh my GOD" out loud, etc. All in one hour. And now... the spoilers for those watching: Just highlight the paragraph below (if you're not watching, stop reading here and skip down to the next part).

Last night's episode revealed that not only did Dexter's foster father KNOW Dex's mother, but he put her in the container as bait, promised that nothing would happen to her, AND seemed to have been having an affair with her. Through the help of his new Narcotics Anonymous sponsor, he hunts down the one man still alive who murdered his mother, and when they finally come face to face you think this guy is SO gonna get it... and then he doesn't, because the sponsor is able to pull him out of the situation. Meanwhile his sister is dating a guy who she can't trust because the last guy tried to kill her, and when she finds out he's selling a book to publishers called The Ice Princess, she thinks it's a tell-all about his relationship with her, only to discover he writes children's books. AND THEN the episode ends with Dexter spraying his boat for blood still on it with a fluorescent light, and the camera pulls back to reveal the cops have put CCTV on the docks, and someone has just seen Dexter erasing his tracks. I cannot wait to see how he gets out of this one.

Season 1 was all about Dexter finding out that there's someone out there just like him, because he went through the same hell Dexter did. Season 2 is about who Dexter really is, and why he is the way he is, and whether or not he is able to change himself. I think this show is amazing, and why Michael C. Hall hasn't gotten an award for this is just insane.

Dexter airs in Canada on The Movie Network Sunday nights at 10pm, the same time as new episodes air on Showtime in the U.S. Please check it out!

Heroes recap coming soon!

A Few of My Favourite Things
(plucking daisy petals): I love the show... I adore the show... I love the show... I adore the show... I love the show... I adore the show!! Yes, Pushing Daisies continues to be my big love of the fall 2007 TV season. This week's highlights all involved a pigeon that Ned accidentally brings back to life. From Olive and Vivian singing They Might Be Giants' "Birdhouse in your Soul" in the backseat of the old car Lily was driving to Lily putting a new wing on the bird using a bejeweller, to the crazy fake bird that was flying in the sky, the whole bird storyline reached the sublime this week. Chuck and Ned dancing at the end in their beekeeper suits... who knew that a lack of touching could be so darned romantic??


This week's The Office was also hilarious. Fave moments:

• Michael using the word "urban" as a synonym for African-American (Phyllis is a less-urban Aunt Jemima)
• Jim saying people think Dunder-Mifflin sells mufflers, muffins, or mittens
• Jim's Second Life avatar: "Philly Jim" as Pam called him, and the fact he's not the Jim we know, which led a friend of mine to comment that we really don't know Jim at all, come to think of it...
• Kevin doing his Kool-Aid Man face
• Andy unable to figure out the ad for "Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat Bar." (Best line is when he comes up with applesauce, and the look on Jim's face.)
• Meredith saying she's not used to so many people being around when making videos
• Dwight's happiness at hearing that Angela said, "Oh, D," when making out with Andy (and Andy thought it was Dee for An-Dee).
• Pam clearing Michael's phone lines: "Beep beep beep beep! Okay, clear."
• Darryl's jingle, and how good it was: "Dunder-Mifflin, the people person paper people!"

Of course, all of that led up to the brilliant commercial that Michael had done. The writers on the show could have gone for the low comedy on this one, and just made it the worst commercial ever. But instead they let him make something that on the surface appeared to be a pretty effective commercial, with paper being used everywhere, until the entire thing is undercut by the final words: "Dunder Mifflin: Limitless paper, in a paperless world." And then you realize the futility of it all -- all of the things you saw paper being used for in the ad have been replaced by the Internet, or in the case of the Dwight/Phyllis scene, SPEECH. ;) I LOVED that he cast Stanley as the criminal by the side of the road, and then it cuts to the guy having a job at Dunder-Mifflin, causing viewers to wonder just what kind of person is being hired at DM. Or that the one artist in the company actually uses computers to make her art, and not paper. It was genius. (Did anyone else think the actual Dunder-Mifflin ad sucked?)

The last two weeks have turned Dwight into a seriously sad character. Last week when Jim found him moaning in his room I almost cried myself, it was so sad. This week watching him watching his second life self flying through the streets was heartbreaking. (Though the fact he's the same person in both lives is hilarious.) I was so happy to see him smile again.

Just a quick note that the Lost contest has been extended to November 5. I've only received a few entries, and a lot of emails from people saying they already bought it. So I'll extend it, and if I don't get more entries I'll postpone it until Lost is actually coming back. :) Thanks to those who have entered so far!

The Lost Curse Continues...
And now, Daniel Dae Kim has been arrested for DUI. What is WITH that show?! The article makes a valid point, something my husband and I wonder aloud every time a celebrity is caught with a DUI -- can't they afford drivers? Or a cab? What is WRONG with them? Keifer Sutherland would rather have his mug on the front of the papers after trying to kill several people with his car than pay a guy to sit in the car all night and wait for him. And apparently it's in the contracts of the Lost cast to NEVER give your keys away if you're a little tipsy. I think this cast needs a serious seminar on what to do when you've been drinking and need to get home. Either that or complete prohibition. Man...

My First PVR Casualties
Well, it was too good to last. I've finally deleted two "events" from my PVR. The first... Bionic Woman. I can't believe this is the same show I was SO excited about all summer long. But after 5 weeks (feels like 15) it is so dull dull dull and dead boring. Every episode is exactly the same and goes absolutely nowhere. You know what, David Eick? Forget hiring writers. I'll give you the skeleton script you've been working with, and you just need to fill in the "bad guy of the week."

Intro:
Jaime sits alone in a room while emo music plays, rain falling against the window, sad about her lot in life.

Cut to Sarah, threatening someone. Probably has the shakes, or not, depending on if she's had her fix.

Back to Jaime and her sister, and Jaime lies to her sister, sister looks suspicious.

Jaime at the agency, and the bald guy (I haven't bothered to learn names) mentions she's worth $50 million.

Jaime figures out some new part of herself, but in the heat of battle, takes something like 10 minutes to actually use it.

Cut to Jaime doing martial arts with Asian guy, while Asian guy thinks about Sarah.

Sarah meets up with Jaime, threatens her sister.

Jaime goes back agency, yells that she's her own person and they don't own her. They talk her into doing the mission anyway. INSERT MISSION OF THE WEEK.

Sister finds out Jaime's lying about something. Sarah is caught. Then gets away. Threatens someone. Vows to get Jaime.

Jaime goes home to her sister, they argue, emo music plays, she tells her sister how much she means to her.

END.

Blah.

The second show is Cane. It started out great, but now it just feels week after week like King Lear meets The Godfather. Brothers all stabbing each other in the back, no one is loyal to the family, dad's going to die, Mom is all pretty and dominant. I just cannot get past the incestuous relationship between Smits and his wife, and the terrible casting. They cast some woman in her mid-30s to be married to Smits, in his mid-50s. Every time she walks on screen I think it's his daughter, until he kisses her in the way you don't kiss a daughter. I find it boring, and just don't have time for it with other good things on TV.

And one of those good things is Pushing Daisies, which I'm THRILLED to report has been picked up for a whole season!!!!! YAY ABC!!! I'm so happy. (Thanks for the link, Sarah!)

Heroes: Fight or Flight
Sorry it's taken me so long to get around to posting this. While I don't think Kristen Bell has saved Heroes, I think last night's episode was by far the best of the season. I was so happy to enjoy so much of it. There has been FAR too much exposition and lead-up in recent episodes, and finally there's intrigue and some revelations.

Not to mention... ding dong, the leprechaun's dead! RIP, boyo.

Elle: We don't know too much about her... she might be Bob's daughter, or the daughter of someone else, but she's someone's daughter. She shoots electricity from her fingertips (OOH, never seen THAT power before!) Ahem. Looking forward to more Veronica coolness in upcoming eps.

Peter: He knows his name but is upset that his little box doesn't reveal much more, until he goes all white-eyed and begins painting. It was great to have the throwback to Isaac from last season, and to get a hint of things to come, even if it's not clear what's up. I don't see the chemistry between him and the Oirish girl, though, so that's a little much. Apparently Montreal is in his future. Go, Canada!

Hiro/Ando: Interesting that Ando takes the strips to a forensics person to try to read them more easily, but will that give anything away? (I thought the forensics guy was hilarious... "Does Hiro survive?!" "How would I know?" haha!) Hiro is more and more in love with the girl, but if there's one person who will set aside his own needs for the greater good, it's Hiro. Can he do this? And how exactly will they take on such a giant army?

Monica: So it's not just TV, but she can copycat anything. Think of the possibilities of this one! She didn't really intrigue me last week, but this week she was more interesting. She can be a pro wrestler, or Glenn Gould. Though killer piano skills probably won't help her much in the next Kirby Plaza showdown...

Micah: Dull, dull, dull. He says to Monica that she must miss her mother, who is dead, and then says "I miss my mom, too." Um... what about your DAD, who is dead? I realize DL hasn't really been in Micah's life lately, but you'd think the kid would miss him just a wee bit and be a little down about it, but he acts like it never happened. Weird.

Matt: After a domestic dispute with his new live-in partner, Mohinder, he heads off to find the Bogeyman, a.k.a. Daddio. This was definitely the best part of the episode, as he hooks up with Nathan (who looks like hell) to go to Dad's place, only to find out he's as much of a swindler now as he ever was. He's not a mindreader: he's Freddy Kreuger, apparently. He puts Nathan and Matt into their own worst nightmares, and then walks away, leaving them there (did anyone else notice when Matt pushes Nathan off him, he clocks Adrian Pasdar's face onto the door frame? OUCH.) It looks like Janice was actually the woman who gave birth to the 17-pound baby in Siberia, and they named it Gigantor (did you SEE the massive arm on that kid??) It sounds like Janice had the child, told Matt it wasn't his, but he knew deep down it was, and left her anyway. (She must have told him this before the baby was born; isn't all of this supposed to be just 4 months later? Janice wasn't even showing at the end of last season.)

Nathan: As I was told last week by an anonymous commenter on my blog, the burn victim is indeed Nathan, and he seems to be dogging him. It's like burn victim Nathan is an alternate universe Nathan, and in his nightmare, NY was blown up. Loved that scene. Nathan has a serious dark side.

Bob: Gonna die.

Niki/Jessica: Looks like The Company is running tests to bring Jessica out, but they can't corral her when she does.

Moronder: Takes Molly to The Company, knowing they're the bad guys. Great. Nice one. How could such a hot guy be so braindead? (Don't answer that.) And now he's on Monica's doorstep. Great.

Quick reminder about the Finding Lost book contest. Send in your entries now! I forgot to mention that I won't be collecting addresses for anything, so don't worry about that. I'll delete emails when the contest is over. Looking forward to reading more entries!

Finding Lost -- Season Three: The Contest!

Hey all! My new book, the season 3 installment of Finding Lost, is finally in my hot little hands (okay, it was put there 2 weeks ago, but I move slowly these days...) and it should be available in stores probably next week (or the following, depending on how long it takes the stores to remove them from the boxes and place them on shelves) or you could order it from Amazon by clicking on the link to the left.

But in the meantime, I wanted to offer a contest to win a personalized autographed copy. All you have to do is answer this question (and there's no right or wrong) and I'll choose my favourite response and post it on my blog. Check back here and I'll announce the winner on Monday, November 5, on the blog.

Question: You have a friend/brother/sister/relative/enemy who was a diehard fan of Lost in season 1, began complaining about it a bit in season 2, and after watching the first six episodes of season 3 they quit and decided to move on to Heroes because they thought Lost was lame. And by quitting, they missed out on the best episodes the show had aired yet. So... what do you tell them to lure them back so they can return in time for season 4?

Don't post your answers on the comments board: email me privately with your response. Put the word CONTEST in the subject line. Send me funny, serious, or completely whacked responses: I am entirely objective. Unless, of course, your response is to watch season 3 for the awesomeness of Nikki and Paulo. I'll have to disqualify you right there. It takes a bigger person than me to be objective on THAT one.

I hate to limit the audience for this, but this is open to Canadians and Americans only; shipping outside of North America has become too insanely expensive, so I'll have to limit it to those, sorry!

I look forward to your responses!

Pushing Daisies, Ep 3: The Fun in Funeral
Oh my god, this show just gets better and better.... there were so many moments where I laughed out loud in this ep, and just loved every minute of it. I've already watched it twice, it was THAT good. I hope this show lasts forever.

And when I said last week that I feel like this show was written just for me, it REALLY seemed like that this week. When Emerson got stuck in the window, all I could think was that he was like Winnie the Pooh stuck in Rabbit's doorway, mostly because I had JUST read that story to my daughter last night. And then... Chuck says, "you're just like Pooh!!" and by the time she yelled, "Kick, Pooh, KICK!" and he spontaneously kicked his leg, knocking out Woodruff, I was howling (my son had just dozed off in my arms and he startled awake, I was laughing so hard).

Other fave moments:
-Emerson being so annoyed that Chuck is at his "private meeting" that he shuffles out of the booth, practically knocking her on the floor.
-Olive asking the herbal remedy salesman if he'd ever felt like the oxygen going out of the room, and the storyteller explaining that the man had a pathological fear of just that, and that he'd be sucked out of the earth's atmosphere... hahaha!!
-Olive treating him like a drug dealer: "This is a pie house, not some herbal craft den!"
-the flashback to Ned as a little kid discovering the one-minute rule
-The 1950s feel to everything -- the costumes, the cars, the decor, the travelling salesman...
-Louis wearing the Darling Mermaid Darlings T-shirt
-Aunt Lily lifting her eye patch so the pool of tears can fall out, HA!
-Olive dramatically ducking in fear as the bird flies over her during the pie delivery, and then holding her chest as she runs down the stairs... I love this actress!
-the discussion of the name of the Pie Hole
-Emerson telling Louis that The Rapture killed them all
-"Gimme your paws, Pooh!"
-the story of the Chinese slave who became a Civil War hero, and the accent Wilfred has, making him sound like he's from the deep south. I laughed out loud at the bit about his great great great great grandfather running southeast when everyone else ran north. "Some say it was the hand of destiny, while others thought it was heatstroke."
-Ned channeling his inner Jedi
-Ned listing off the choices we make in our lives and including, "Kiss her or keep her." Awww...
-"Kick, Pooh, Kick!" hahahaha... it never gets old!
-Chuck and Ned gift-wrapping all of the stolen stuff.
-The line, "I'm gonna see if I've got some plastic wrap" actually being the most romantic line I heard on TV all week.

Heroes, Ep 4: The Kindness of Strangers

Okay, any minute now this show will become a little more interesting. Everyone dumped on the beginning of season 3 of Lost saying they hated it, it was boring, they couldn't figure out what was wrong with the show, and they were jumping ship to the far superior Heroes. I argued that you can't compare one show's first season to another's third, because the first season of a show is always the one that pulls us in; it's sustaining it that is the hard part. I said it'll be interesting to see if Heroes is still this good in its season 3. Now I'm reading everywhere that people are sick of Heroes and jumping ship and complaining that they wish Lost was on because it's the better show. Ah, the fickle fan. I'm still hanging in there... I have faith it's going to get better, because of that stellar first season (minus the finale). (And, just for the record, I really liked all of Lost's season 3...)

I finally got around to reading the EW cover story from a few weeks back (the issue that had Hiro on the cover) because I didn't want to see any spoilers. In it, Tim Kring actually says that he thought most people didn't like the finale last year because they clearly couldn't follow one long complicated arc over the season (so this season will be divided into two), and because the show had done so many great things in the year it put FAR too much pressure on the finale to live up to the season. So, he concluded, they learned their lesson. So... does that mean this year will be kinda sucky so we don't have any great expectations of the finale? Not the way to go there, Tim. The other thing I'm curious about is Bryan Fuller. Watching last week's Pushing Daisies again, I saw his name on it and realized he was one of the head writers on Heroes last year, so by leaving the show to go to this one, does that mean their creative force has left? Because Pushing Daisies ROCKS, and Heroes... does not.

Maya and Alejandro: So... I've been championing the Wonder Twins as the ones I'm most interested in simply because they're new, but... um... did anyone else feel like this week they'd suddenly turned into Nikki and Paulo? They're harboring a very dark secret; they're on the run from the law; they've committed murder; they're trying to get into the U.S. illegally... and with ALL of that going on, Maya goes and spills absolutely everything to Sylar moments after finding him on the side of the road. HUH? How stupid IS she? It'll be interesting to see if Sylar is able to eventually absorb both of their powers, thus allowing him to go black-eyed and plaguey, but able to control it with Alejandro's powers. I'm still curious to see what Alejandro's absorption of her black-eyedness is actually doing to him.

Monica: Whoa. Her power is... seeing something on TV and replicating it. Like no 12-year-old has ever seen a body slam on WWE and done it to his brother. (I once worked with someone who told me her son watched a wrestling move on TV and then did it to his brother, and she took the TV, unplugged it, and put it out by the curb for garbage pickup and they never had a TV in the house again. Um... yikes?) While I thought the spin around the pole and kicking the bad guy was pretty badass, let's hope she's not watching any creepy porn any time soon. Did I miss something, or did the manager seem way off-base in telling her that her "home situation" meant she couldn't get a different job, since she lives with her brother and guardian? Um... isn't that EVERY teenager?? I could see if the rude kid at her house was actually her SON that her home life would be taken into account.

Claire: Goes to the top of the Hollywood sign so she and West can chit chat and he can dare her to jump off, saying she has to lose her fears. Which makes perfect sense, since if HE jumped, he wouldn't have to suffer the consequences of bones sticking through his skin afterwards. He seems to realize that and Claire, showing she'll do anything for Loverboy, jumps, but he catches her and they float up in the air. Bah. I hate that guy. That said, Claire comes up with a pretty brilliant plan to get onto the cheerleading squad, arguing with her dad that she wants to be "normal." Because, as we know, the majority of girls in high school were cheerleaders.

Matt: Ooh, Daddy is the Bogeyman!! I didn't see THAT coming. I'm intrigued. Very intrigued. Since this season is called Generations, I wish they'd actually move to that theme, looking at the ancestors of each of the current-day heroes and dealing with those. I thought we'd go back in time and see Linderman discovering his powers and Granny Petrelli, etc. but instead they're just being offed one by one and that seems to be it (and Takezo Kensei seems to be some sort of ancestor of Claire's, and therefore Nathan's and Granny's, if his powers being the same as hers is any indication). How is Matt going to help Molly now that she seems to be lost in her own head? Does he have to kill his own daddy in order to bring her back?

Nathan: After trying to reconnect with his sons and being sent away, he shaves, and then goes to meet with his mom and she actually seems to have a heart for the first time ever. I want to see more of this storyline. I loved the scene of her talking in Matt's head.

Micah: Sorry, but the kid who plays Micah just has NO charisma for me. His character annoyed me last season, and now he's the little polite kid with the curly hair who's so meek and sweet you just want to hit him. That said, I wanted to slap his cousin into tomorrow, too, so it looks like that family is one of extremes. Either meek as hell or rude as hell.

Absent: Niki (THANK YOU!), Peter and his Irishmen, Hiro, Ando

Next week: Kristen Bell arrives. YAY, VERONICA!!!

Other Heroes news: Here's an interesting interview with Zachary Quinto in TV Guide. Here's Matt Roush complaining about this season of Heroes. Interview with Jack Coleman. EW pleads with viewers not to give up on Heroes. And finally, George comics:

Saving the World: A Guide to Heroes

'Tis Monday, the day where we all hope that this week's Heroes will be better than previous weeks this season, and then discuss it tomorrow when I finally get my act together and post something quick on it. (Gone are the days of my long posts... sigh... okay, don't scroll down and discover that's a total lie.)

So in the meantime, I wanted to mention a new book that's out in stores now called Saving the World. This is a sometimes-academic, sometimes episode guidey companion to the show, and it's great. Full disclosure: I worked on it and helped edit it, but I work on half a dozen books a year and I only mention books occasionally on my blog. Here's the cover:

I also want to mention proudly that I'm in this book as part of the "Finale Face-Off." My blog entry on that disastrous finale appears, followed by a rebuttal by author David Lavery, and then I get the final word. So if you liked the finale and hated my post on it (or if you totally agree with me that it could have been WAY better) then check out this book. There are also chapters comparing Heroes to Lost, on how Hiro follows the journey of a question hero, on the kaleidoscope of themes, on the comic book ties of the show, and lots of tables, episode guides, encyclopedic entries, etc. It's definitely the perfect companion going into the show, and I felt much better tackling season 2 after having read it. :)

This Week's SNL Digital Short
Sometimes I wonder what the weather is like in Andy Samberg's world. I've watched this about 5 or 6 times and laugh out loud every time. Just when you think it's totally insane, it gets insaner.





P.S. This is my 300th post! Yay anniversaries. :)

WATCH PUSHING DAISIES...
And that's an order.

I just watched the second episode, and I am absolutely head over heels in love with this show. I feel like it was written just for me, with an Edward Gorey/Tim Burton feel to it that I adore. The second episode was fantastic: Olive broke into Olivia Newton John's "Hopelessly Devoted" in the middle of The Pie Hole (how much do I love the name of the restaurant, seriously...), but kept getting interrupted, which was hilarious; Ned and Chuck shared a kiss through body bags that was more romantic than any other kiss I've seen this season; Ned installed a protective guard in his car between the passenger seat and driver seat so Chuck could ride shotgun without dying... and he included a little glove so they could hold hands (squee!); Emerson is a knitter, and it actually gets them out of a tight fix... he was the highlight of the ep for me, knitting his little gun cozies, almost making a comment about Ned and Chuck being the real dummies but keeping it to himself, using his knitting needles to get them out of a tight fix, and giving the single most hilarious face in the episode when the car in front of them explodes and a fiery box of laxatives lands on their hood...

If you haven't watched the ep, this will all sound seriously insane, but this is my fave show that's on right now (and yes, I'm officially putting it ahead of a lacklustre Heroes this season...). I can't wait for next week.

News: Fisher Stevens -- i.e. that guy who was once engaged to Michelle Pfeiffer back in the 80s, and then... I dunno, did he do something since then? -- has been cast on Lost as the guy you heard talking on the sat phone at the end of the finale last year.

Bionic Woman, Cane, Journeyman, and Life have all gotten requests for more scripts. It doesn't meant they'll get full-season orders, but this is a good sign! Gossip Girl has been picked up for the full season, and is the first show to have gotten the order. Yay!

Other shows I'm watching:

Heroes: Did I mention lacklustre? I still love it, and enjoy it every week, but I need some new heroes, quick (Kristen Bell doesn't show up until week 5 so I have 2 more weeks to wait).

Cane: Is still great. I've seen the first two episodes, and Jimmy Smits' character has that same moral ambiguity of Angel or Spike, but without the camp. You do NOT mess with him, yet as the protagonist he gets us to cheer him on, even as he's doing terrible things to people. Please don't cancel this show...

Reaper: Still hilarious, but it might be one I drop, only because it's SO much like Chuck, as I've mentioned, that I'm starting to mix the two up in my head, and Chuck is far superior.

Chuck: In this week's episode, Chuck goes to a fancy ball with an art auction, and as he's drawn to the one painting, a woman comes up to him and asks what he thinks, to which he replies, in a fluster, "It has a certain... Bob Ross-ian quality to it." I nearly fell off the couch laughing. I'm sure I'm not the only person who's been on the couch on a Saturday afternoon channel-surfing, and stopping when I see a white guy with a giant afro standing on an entirely black stage with a single spotlight on him, painting and talking about inserting "a happy little tree." At least, now I know Chuck has also sat and watched this guy transform a white canvas into a painting of an outdoor landscape that I would see hanging in my grandparents' home. Best line of the week.

Gossip Girl: Still awesome, and I'm enjoying the ongoing tension between Serena and Blair. Does anyone else get the feeling that Dan is Gossip Girl? I know that's probably not the case, but I swear he's standing right there whenever you hear Gossip Girl's voiceover.

America's Next Top Model: Not awesome. Boring, in fact. I think I'm watching it out of habit at this point. This week was makeover week, traditionally a great ep, but they showed us the digital image of what each girl would look like, taking away the final result so it's not a surprise. Wah.

Dirty Sexy Money: In last week's ep, there's a quiet scene at the end of the episode where Nate Nick tells Tripp that he can't get his dad's briefcase open. Tripp, gazing out of the window, suggests he try 712, which is his wife's birthday. As Nick sets up the numbers and pushes the button, the loud click of the briefcase causes Tripp to close his eyes in pain. The moment he's dreaded for 40 years -- proof that his wife had been having an affair with his best friend -- has finally come. Sutherland is terrific in this scene, and this is coming from someone who's not a big fan of his. This week he's just as good, when he explains to Nick that he probably knew deep down about the affair, but didn't actually know know. Jeremy and Juliet continue to intrigue me (Jeremy's hot in a going-nowhere kind of way), though the scene at the end where Juliet finds out Jeremy bought expensive jewellery for her nemesis featured the worst acting I've seen on the show yet. I really like the scenes between Patrick and Carmelita (played by Candis Cayne, possibly the most beautiful and believable female impersonators I've ever seen). They could have gone the route of the outlandish with this plotline of Patrick -- the guy running for senator -- sleeping with a transsexual, but instead he's really in love with her, and she's pretty amazing.

Ugly Betty: Continues to make me laugh. Too bad Papi's back (I don't like him very much), but the scene this week of Henry telling off Marc and Amanda and Marc saying he can't remember ever being so turned on was a riot.

30 Rock: Last night's ep was as brilliant as the week before: Jenna deciding to "keep" her belly roll as if it's a baby; Liz eating the steak WAY too fast and saying with a straight face that a dog came into the room and took it from her; Jack taking a little too long to save Will Arnett from choking to death; Tracy sending Kenneth as a gift to his wife; Kenneth telling Angie that he's really good at the "sex stuff." I love this show.

The Office: Finally back to its original form. The scene where Meredith walks up to Jim and has him sign her pelvis cast had my husband laughing so hard we had to pause it (by the way, I'm positive he signs "John Krasinski" and not "Jim Halpert" in that scene... did anyone keep the episode so they could pause and look?). Dwight's computer becoming "self-aware" was pure prank classic (and it was sweet that Pam felt sorry for Dwight and was nice to him, but she said he "mercy-killed" Angela's cat, and there was really nothing merciful about what he did...); Kevin saying Alfredo's pizza is like eating a "hot circle of garbage" had me howling (now... why didn't Michael just send the kid away with his pizza and not pay for it, since he was going to order pizza from the other place anyway?); Phyllis trying to use psychology on Angela's bitchiness; Stanley grooving to the Infinity Web site music; Michael giving a speech and everyone in the office just watching the TV screensaver hoping it'll go straight into the corner slot (ok, I've TOTALLY done that with the computer windows screensavers); Andy getting his Barbershop quartet on the phone and doing ABBA's "Take a Chance on Me" (HA!)... how could Angela not fall for that, even when the guy is Andy?; . This was a great episode.

Journeyman: I liked this week's ep more than the previous, but like I said last week, I want a little more tension in the present. Luckily, Katie discovered at the end that one thing Dan is doing in the past is seeing Livia, and if that doesn't cause serious tension, nothing will. I was talking to someone who knows the writer on this coming week's ep, and said it was going to be a high-concept episode. I'm intrigued.

Moonlight: Week 2 was a vast improvement over week 1. However, the writer was David Greenwalt (i.e. the guy who created the Angel character on Buffy, and helmed the show Angel in the first season it was a spinoff). What is he doing writing for this show? A) doesn't he recogize it's ripping off his baby? B) doesn't it kill him that all of the vampire tendencies/myths/belief systems have been thrown out the window to make the writing easier? What is he thinking?
Anyway, all that aside, I liked it a lot more, but by 3/4 of the way through, thought this was it, and I'm not tuning in beyond this. And then in the final 5 minutes, I changed my mind: when Beth walks into Mick's apartment and finds him greedily sucking back blood from blood bags and his eyes all white and the teeth showing, she discovers that he's a vampire. That's going to put things in a new direction. I'll give it one more week...

Aliens in America: HILARIOUS. If you're not watching this show, please do. There's a scene where Justin turns to his bitchy sister to find out how to distance himself from Raja (after Raja has stood up in class and announced that if he were trapped on a deserted island, the only thing he would want is Justin, prompting people to say they were a gay couple), and she says, "Just do what I do: I told everyone you were my brother, and we adopted you from a retarded family." He stares at her and says with a dead voice, "You had to make my WHOLE family retarded." I was in stitches. I love this show.

Everybody Hates Chris: Something's been lost with this show. The scenes at home are still funny, and there are still moments in Chris Rock's voiceover that make me laugh, but it just doesn't compete with The Office or Aliens in America. But I've been watching it for 2 years now, so...

Torchwood: I checked out this series last Friday when it premiered on CBC. It was intriguing, and had some interesting twists, but I don't think I'll stick with it. A little too Doctor Who, without the Daleks. Not that that's a bad thing, but it just didn't feel original.

The Tudors: Holy Henry Hotness! I've just watched the first ep of this show, and it was great. And Henry is one fine-looking dude. This is the pre-50-inch-waist years. Thank god.

Dexter: Still creepy as hell... this week's was hilarious and tragic, as Dexter tries to get his killin' mojo back. His voiceovers are still SO great, as they're usually ironic or sarcastic commentary on what is happening on the screen. He had to put his brother to rest, finally, though I felt it was done a little quickly (I was hoping his bro would dog him for the season, and maybe he will reappear, but the final scene seemed pretty... final). The scene of Dexter being pulled away from his brother when they're in that carton was heartbreaking... what kind of cop would take only one child and leave the other one in that horrid place?? It made me cry.

Friday Night Lights: Yay, it's back!! I was talking to a friend who was pretty disturbed by what happens with Landry and Tyra (she's not alone), but I actually found it pretty believable, and in keeping with how they might react to the situation. If you didn't like it, and thought it was contrived, Jason Katims has said in an interview that this week's episode will change that, and offer more explanation. I love love this show. And I'm still in love with Coach Carter...

Bionic Woman: Hmm... I wanted this show to be better... here's still hoping.

Kitchen Nightmares: Haven't seen this week's ep yet. See above.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: OK, this show was supposed to have been finished after last season, and that's what Larry David said, and then, like the Who, the show came back. But I'm so glad... it's the same horrid discomfort that the show's always done best, and I love it. Larry meets the "Black family," who happens to be black, and blurts out that it would be like his last name being "Jew." Larry is late getting home, and drives past the site of his best friend's mother's recent death, which is covered in flowers, and actually steals some flowers from it to take to his wife as an apology. Yeowch. Only Larry...

OK, I think that's it. Well, I'm also watching EastEnders (where Michelle Ryan is NOT bionic) and loving it, but it's too far behind (I think they're in November 2005 at this point) to comment on it.

I think I need to cut down on my TV. Thank goodness for long periods of feeding my newborn son on the couch. :)

Heroes Ep. 3: Kindred
Sylar's back, Takezo's on his way to becoming a hero, and Candice is Michelle. Hmm... I thought this week's ep was pretty good, but unfortunately, so much of it was predictable.

Peter: The Oirish clan decides dey're gonna look for da pot o' gold at de end of da rainbow, and dey need Peter ta help dem. Dey remind Peter dat dey're brudders, BOYO (love how they throw in that word to make it "authentic") and dey all have da family crest... but Peter hears that one of them is traitor, and boom, by the end of the ep, he's a traitor, and Peter becomes a brudder.

Claire: Crazy flying guy calls her a "lizard girl" in class, and then we're subjected to one of the cheesiest moments I've seen on this show (what was WITH that crapola piano music that played when he flew through the air with her???) Ugh. Anyone else think he's a drippy doofus? Only interesting thing is finding out that HRG hunted him and marked him. Oooooh....

Candice: "They're looking for me, so I had to take on a new identity." Truth: "The actress who plays me moved over to star on Reaper, so the producers had to replace my character. Luckily, I'm an illusionist!" And, apparently, an overweight girl who couldn't deal with her looks so she created a new persona. Not sure how to feel about this.

Hiro: I was actually intrigued by Hiro's story; I love the idea of him leaving little scrolls of his story in the shaft of the sword, although it's hard to believe 300 years went by with no one finding the scrolls in the shaft, especially when the instructions to open it were right on the bottom. But that nitpick aside, I liked the idea of telling the story that way. Takezo takes on the 90 Angry Ronins (his comment, "Just how angry ARE they?" was hilarious) and wins, or so it seems (you never know with that guy) and he's turning into the hero that Hiro wants him to be. Unfortunately, he's taken a shine to the swordsmith's daughter, and now can't time travel until he can close this chapter in his life.

Mohinder: He's under constant supervision by Bob (by the way, awesome Buffy connection: Stephen Tobolowsky, who plays this guy, was the original Principal Flutie in the unaired Buffy pilot, but by the time the WB picked up the show, the role was being played by Ken Lerner. Every time I see Tobolowsky I think of Flutie). He finds the final painting that Noah's been looking for.

Noah: The final painting has his death, and it looks like it's perpetrated by Claire and Flying boy. Eek. But they've been able to change Isaac's paintings before, so let's see what they do here.

Niki and Micah: DAMMIT I was so enjoying this show without them. Niki is off to see Bob, who's promised her a cure (and she hasn't learned her lesson about not talking to strangers) and she drops Micah off at Uhura's house in Louisiana. (Apparently there's only room for one Trek actor at a time, and they have to kill off one before bringing in the next.) She opens the door mysteriously and then says, with a little too much excitement, "WELCOME to Nawlins!" and then looks at them and the camera holds her for a little too long, that same way they segue out of soap opera scenes by holding the camera too long on them and they make painful expressions.

Alejandro and Maya: What's up with these two? This season I find their story the most intriguing (which is why they need to hurry up and introduce some new people, because discovering all the new people last season was the real fun of the show). She does terrible things, and Alejandro then sucks the evil out of her. What is it doing to him? Is he absorbing the badness and is it killing him? Is he turning evil? Could he become a Sylar-type? Until now Alejandro seems to go away from her, and she's unable to stop the blackness from coming on. But this week she actually wills it. Eek. What's up with her? Good guy or bad guy?

Sylar: Speaking of bad guys, looks like Sylar's lost his mojo. LOVE having Zachary Quinto back, but he's a bit impotent, so to speak. Lets see how long it takes him to get it back.

Bite Me Again!

I've been waiting for the cover to finish up before mentioning this, but my Buffy book, Bite Me!, which was released in 2002, has been updated with season 7 and the season 8 comic book series, and will be out in stores before Christmas. And it has a fancy new cover!! :)

Thursday Night Funnies
My Thursday nights on NBC are complete again, now that 30 Rock is back!

Last night's 30 Rock was an instant classic. Jack incorporates "Seinfeldvision" with all of the NBC shows, using old footage of Jerry Seinfeld, manipulated by a computer to be inserted into any NBC show, allowing him to bring Seinfeld back to the network. It was HILARIOUS. (They show him inserted into Heroes, calling Hiro and Ando on the phone and whispering, "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World!" with his big fuzzy hair from the Seinfeld days.)

Fave line (y'all knew I was going to choose this one): Jack asks Jerry to work with him, and says just pick the show and I'll let you cameo on it, and Jerry says, "I like Lost. Do you do that one?" Hahahahahahaha...

Other fave moments:
Ken doing the Seinfeld theme on the elevator, and Jerry saying, "Seriously?"
Liz wearing the wedding dress and Tracy seeing her and saying, "oh no, did a Korean person die?"
Jack saying you could buy NBC for $4 million.
Jack's plans to kill Jerry.
Ken becoming Tracy's work wife.

The Office was a good one, too... Jim and Pam were outed inadvertently by Toby, who looked crushed to find out Pam was with Jim for reals. Angela referred to Pam as "the office mattress" (!!!!) which is cruel even for Angela. Ryan came back, and Kelly told him she was pregnant, which was a lie, and then was shocked when he was angry about it. Poor Toby not only had to deal with Pam and Jim coming over and asking if they needed to sign an office love statement, but his old nightmare of Kelly and Ryan yelling about their relationship in the next cubicle was relived. Dwight and Michael upped the awkward ante by going around to businesses that had left Dunder-Mifflin and begging for them to come back, offering them gift baskets. The joke was that gift baskets were a thing of the past, but I can tell you, working in an office where we get giant gift baskets from certain suppliers every Christmas, we definitely learn to love those people more. There's nothing like a tower of Ferrero Rochers to buy my business. :)

What’s on my PVR – Part 2

Returning Shows:

Dexter: Ah, how I love that this show is back. Opening episode was seriously awesome, and made me even angrier that Michael C. Hall was completely overlooked for the Emmy. I wasn’t sure how they were going to possibly follow the first season up with a further season, considering what happened, but now I see that while the first season was about him chasing another serial killer, in this season he will become the hunted. By his own sister, no less, while “helping” the force find him. Awesome.

Gossip Girl: Still love.

Bionic Woman: Halfway through ep 2, and I’m enjoying it still, but it’s not knocking my socks off.

Journeyman: After week 2, I’m a little worried this show is going to be a “who will Dan save this week?” show and won’t have enough of the present circumstance in there. What I liked the most is the conundrum between sticking with his wife and child in the present and wanting to go to Livia in the past. I hope they delve more into that.
**Peter Bjorn and John Watch: “Young Folks,” which I previously spotted in Gossip Girl and Dirty Sexy Money, ALSO played in the end moments of Journeyman. Come on, people… sure, it’s a great song, but there are other small indie bands that have a huge song that could be inspiring you.

America’s Next Top Model: Same old.

Kitchen Nightmares: This week’s was more like the first ep, unfortunately. Now that someone posted in my comments that last week’s was, indeed, the contentious episode the show is being sued over, I wonder if Fox just toned it way down, making it far more subtle and not so over-the-top. THEY SHOULD KEEP DOING THAT. It was the subtlety that makes the show work on the BBC. This week, they pretended to return 2 months later, but they didn’t really (I was so excited, and then…) All of the scenes they showed were from the final night, not 2 weeks later. To make it worse, they made it look like Mike the manager had a blowup during service, when in fact it was long after the restaurant had closed. Not sure if Fox thinks were stupid (correction: they do) but the owners tell him to leave, he goes outside, cut to edit of a full restaurant of people looking outside. Cut to Mike, standing outside waiting for them to make a decision, and he’s standing near the window, which is DARK with the curtains drawn and it’s long after closing. Duh. I think Martin from ep 2 just might have a case.

New shows:

Chuck:
Premise: Guy who works as a Nerds on Site person for a Staples-type store gets an email from a former roommate, now working as a spy, sending him all of the government secrets encoded in a series of weird images. The spy is killed, and the NSA and CIA are in a race to see who can find Chuck and put him to good use.
What I Liked: The show is hilarious. It has a wry humour about it that made me laugh out loud at parts (in one scene he goes to “LargeMart,” which is clearly a Costco, and when a spy begins chasing him throughout the store he runs up to an employee and asks her if she can find someone from security “or that guy who checks the receipts.” HA!!)
What I Didn’t Like: I can’t really think of anything I didn’t like about this. It’s bizarre and over-the-top, and in just the right parts.
People from my other shows: Jayne from Firefly; General Beckman made appearances on Buffy, Alias, and Angel.
Verdict: Chuck’s a keeper.

Moonlight:
Premise: If you’ve seen Angel and Forever Knight, you know the premise.
What I Didn’t Like: Geez… where to start? First of all, in the opening five minutes they drop every myth about vampires you can imagine. This guy can walk around during the day, it just gives him a headache (??) Holy water has no effect on him, nor does garlic, a cross or any religious symbol, and if you drive a wooden stake through his heart, he “gets better.” COME ON. The writers just tossed everything about vampires out the window because it makes their job easier. Unlike the writers on Angel, these ones don't have to worry about actually setting everything at night and making sure they're consistent, etc. And as if the premise of the show wasn’t Angel enough, between every scene they do an overhead shot of L.A. shot very quickly with the traffic sped up below… EXACTLY the same segues they used on Angel all the time. There’s a blond woman in the show who finally catches on that Mick’s a vampire… think Elizabeth Rohm in season 1 of Angel, without the attitude problem.
What I Liked: Jason Dohring was great; he was NOTHING like Logan, showing the guy’s actually got a lot of range. And the second half of the show was a lot better than the first.
People from my other shows: Logan from Veronica Mars; Hiatt from The Shield; I know there were some others but now they escape me.
Verdict: One more week, and then I’m dropping it. The fight between the two vampires at the end was pretty cool, and enough to bring me back, but I was SO ticked about them dropping the vampire myths it’ll take a lot to keep me.

Reaper:
Premise: A guy’s parents sold his soul to the devil before he was born, and now on his 21st birthday the devil’s come to collect, making him a bounty hunter, collecting people who’ve escaped from Hell.
What I Liked: Another really funny show, Sock has a very Kevin Smith sense of humour (Smith exec produces and directed first ep), and the cast is great. Also had moments that made me laugh out loud. In the second ep they chase a guy who can make lightning, and they dress from head to toe in rubber, causing Sock to worry aloud that they’re going to die “dressed like a bunch of condoms.”
What I Didn’t Like: Odd that Chuck and Reaper are two similar shows in the same season – two geeks who both work in big box stores and have things happen to them by people on the outside that sentence them to a life of doom. I honestly keep mixing up the two shows in my head.
People from my other shows: Chuck’s crush, Ali, is the illusionista from Heroes.
Verdict: Another keeper. Man… my poor PVR. Why so many good shows this year?!

Pushing Daisies:
Premise: A piemaker has discovered since he was a kid that if he touches a dead thing he can bring it back to life, but with a second touch he kills them again, permanently. A second catch: If he brings them back to life for longer than a minute, someone else drops dead to balance out the universe. He makes money on the side of pie business by finding out where reward money is offered, and going in to the dead people, touching them, asking who killed them, getting the info, and killing them again.
What I Liked: I LOVED this show. The night before I watched it, I was saying to my husband that despite this season having a bunch of great shows that I really don’t want to stop watching, there was no standout like Heroes or Friday Night Lights that I became completely emotionally invested in. And then I saw this one. Okay, I won't become "emotionally invested" in it, not like Friday Night Lights, but it's a keeper for sure. The colours are a little too bright, the sets too unrealistic, the music very Tim Burton/Bernard Herrmann, and it features a voiceover that sounds like a man reading a bedtime story. It’s perfect. In fact, the thing I could compare it to over anything else is a Tim Burton film, which I was saying to a friend of mine the other day. It’s like an outlandish fairy tale… about killing people for money. Lee Pace is great as Ned; actually the cast is fantastic overall. The humour is very funny (the waitress at the Pie Hole, the hilarious name of the restaurant, keeps mixing up words and says for years she thought masturbation was when you chewed your food slowly, hahahaha!), and yet it has a twinge of sadness about everything.
What I Didn’t Like: Only one nitpick: When he’s a little boy, his dog is hit by a car, and he touches the dog, who jumps back up and starts running. Unphased, the kid runs after him. Some time later, after touching flies and bugs, etc. his mother drops dead of an aneurysm. He touches her, and she’s fine. Then that night she kisses him goodnight and drops dead, and that’s when he realizes if he touches something twice, it dies again. My question is… we’re to believe he NEVER touched that dog again? I find that hard to believe. Just a small nitpick. And I’m not sure how it’ll continue; I just hope it doesn’t become a “dead person of the week” show.
People from my other shows: Locke’s mom from Lost.
Verdict: The best of the new shows. I’m praying it doesn’t get cancelled after 3 episodes. Then again, it’s reminiscent of Wonderfalls, so…

Aliens in America:
Premise: A guy who is a complete loser in school gets an exchange student, thinking he’ll get some swim team captain from Sweden who will make him totally cool, but when an equally nerdy kid from Pakistan shows up, he knows his loserdom just plummeted even further.
What I Liked: Three new comedies that are really funny! STOP. I can’t take another show… how am I going to decide what to drop? The mother in this one is especially great; she’s uber-aware of the giant L on her son’s forehead, and does everything to make him “cool,” but nothing works. When he ends up on the jock’s list of top 10 “bangable chicks,” I was howling. (But felt bad about it.)
What I didn’t Like: The scene at the airport where the boy shows up from Pakistan would have been funnier with that crazy music, if I hadn’t seen the movie Election 4,000 times and completely associated it with Reese Witherspoon. Again, stop with the music that is so readily identifiable with something else.
Verdict: I’m going to keep watching. Dammit. I need to get a bigger PVR.

Still on the PVR: The Tudors, Five Days, The War

Heroes: Lizards
I was watching the film Flags of Our Fathers today on TMN (a gory film, but beautifully done) and in the final moments, the voiceover says that people are not heroes, and they don't want to be heroes. We create heroes and turn otherwise ordinary people into heroes because it's something WE need. I thought that sentiment applied to this show better than anything I've heard recently.

Last night's Heroes was even better than the week before. In the premiere, Hiro realized that maybe some of his heroes weren't what they're cracked up to be, and like that sentiment, Hiro needed Kensei to be a great warrior because it allowed him to maintain a belief in heroes on general. This week, Hiro becomes Kensei and makes him the hero that his father always told him he was. And we discover that Kensei seems to have the same power that Claire has. I loved the Hiro storyline this week.

Speaking of Claire, I know that she heals, but does she not feel pain? Wouldn't sticking her hand in boiling water feel like she'd stuck her hand in boiling water? Wouldn't cutting off her toe feel like she'd just cut off her toe? Or does she have a lessened pain response? Healing aside, if sticking your hand in boiling water would feel like it, I think you'd use a collander, like her mom suggests.

Angela Petrelli almost meets her maker, and she's accosted by someone we can't even see. Could this be the storied bogeyman that Molly mentioned?

Peter's still being held captive by the foitin' oirish leprechauns and their terrible accents. The lead guy found Peter in "da turd row" last week, and now is pissed that he couldn't find his treasure in the carton. (Presumably he was looking for his pink hearts, yellow moons, blue diamonds, and purple horseshoes.) I'm dying to find out what's in the box that the guy threatened to throw in the fire...

Loved the scene of Angela screaming for Matt to get out of her head.

The Haitian was back (I'm not sure if they thought we were supposed to be surprised to see him in Port-au-Prince, but I was assuming that's who they meant), and I love that he and HRG are reunited.

Overall, a strong episode. Thoughts?