TV review: Once Upon A Time

It has been quite some time since I've seen a MUST SEE television show. Once Upon A Time fits the bill. Airing on Sunday nights at 8:00PM (Eastern) on ABC, the show takes the classic fairy tale characters and throws them into the real world. While that isn't a new plot (see: The Charmings from the late 80s), this does have a bit of a different take on it.

The series revolves around the fight between Snow White and the Evil Queen. Snow White married her Prince Charming. At the wedding, the Evil Queen storms in and threatens to destroy Snow's happy ending. Fast forwarding a few months, a troubled Snow White is pregnant. She turns to Rumpelstiltskin, who can see the future. He informs the princess that the queen will banish everyone to a realm with no happy endings and that her unborn child will be their savior. The queen unleashes her curse, not only transporting everyone into our world but also wiping all of their memories.

I think what I find most interesting about the show is trying to figure out what the fantasy world counterparts are for the real world people we meet. The heroine, Emma, is, of course, Snow White's daughter. Ten years before the first episode, she gave up a son for adoption. This boy, Henry, is the glue that holds everything together. He brings Emma to Storybook, Maine to help the town regain their memories and restart time. As of the second episode, the only explanation for Henry knowing about the fantasy world is that he believes a fairy tale book that his teacher, who is Snow White, gave him is fact.

Both my husband and I highly recommend this show to everyone. As a matter of fact, he turned it on for our 9-year old daughter this morning. There is nothing really scary in it (yet anyway) so the kids are likely to enjoy it. And the plot is good enough to keep the adults interested as well. It is definitely a show that is good for all.

Love The New Shows

Post contributed by Fletcher Vargas I got DirecTV a while back and I didn’t think I’d use it all that much – boy was I wrong about that! I have gotten utterly addicted to BRAVO and all the reality shows on it. It’s a great network all around and they do other stuff, too, like some really good old school movies but why I really tune in is all the reality stuff. I love all the Housewives series, especially the Beverly Hills seasons but I’m having a hard time watching this year with all the off screen drama surrounding the death of one of the husbands. I also really like Flipping Out with that decorator guy Jeff Lewis but man is he hard to watch sometimes. He’s so mean and straightforward – it’s no wonder he can’t keep his staff or clients happy! Look at me talking about all these people like I know them…that’s the side effect of watching too much TV I guess! I never would have imagined I’d watch this much each day but I really like it!

Glee

I know I am way behind everyone on this. My husband, my daughter, and I have started watching Glee on Netflix. They only have the first season up and we're about halfway through it now. I get why so many people like it. Not only is the music pretty good, it's also catchy and most people recognize the songs. Unfortunately, that is the only good thing about the show. The characters are annoyingly two-dimensional, which doesn't leave a whole lot for the actors to do between songs. Supposedly the glee club "needed" 12 members in order to participate in competitions. However, half of them are barely there. One of the characters is even referred to as "Other Asian." If you're going to bring in new characters, at least use them. In addition, the "plot" is only there to carry the characters to their next musical interlude. Almost everything in the show is based on lies and trickery. It would be nice if the show didn't use music as a crutch. Let the characters carry the plot. There are some great beginnings there. Stop forcing them into song just because they haven't sang for 10 minutes.

Even though I will continue to watch the show, I can't guarantee that I will ever actually like it. It's too big of a hit for them to make any changes to it now. And that is rather sad.

The Cape: Goggles and Hicks

I tried posting this yesterday but we kept losing power due to high winds. I think we're stable enough now for me to get this done.

During his last battle, Vince managed to break some ribs. Max wants him to take the day off to rest. Unfortunately, heroes don't always get a day off.

Vince tries to spend the day watching his son, Trip. Halfway through the day, He (and Orwell) gets attacked by Goggles and Hicks, a pair of assassins hired by Fleming to get rid of The Cape. Of course, Orwell and The Cape defeat the dastardly duo.

Meanwhile, Trip manages to make a new friend....even though the friend is a little on the weird side.

I found this episode to be fairly boring. Nothing new was revealed other than the fact that there are more members of Tarot. (um, duh.) I suppose Trip's new friend could be interesting. It'll definitely be better than his mom hounding him all the time about stuff.

I'm ready for the show to be better now....

The Cape: Dice

A new foe appears on the scene. But she's not quite a villain.

Flashback! Peter Fleming talks with ....a scientist? An engineer? I'm not really sure. They are discussing a young girl named Tracey. She is a savant who sees the world in probabilities, giving her the ability to basically see the future. She correctly predicts every throw of the dice, as well as predicting that Fleming will kill her father and she will kill Peter.

Fast forward ten years and Ark is about the debut a new type of artificial intelligence called T.R.A.C.E. (pronounced Tracey, of course). The device will give you the answer to any question you ask. If you ask "What color shirt will I wear on Tuesday?", it will calculate the probabilities and tell you that it will be "blue." Yeah, it's a bit of a stretch.

Now an adult, Tracey, going by the name Dice, shows up to assassinate Fleming. He barely escapes alive. Orwell and Vince watch the security tape from the event and Vince figures out the true identity of Dice. Together, Orwell and Vince go to her apartment to find out what Dice is up to. She finds the do-gooders and attacks. Vince chases her into the basement, where Ark's men pick her up.

Fleming, for some reason, is intrigued by Dice. Of course, she tries to kill him again. This time it is The Cape that saves him. Orwell pointed out that if Dice kills Fleming, there will be no way for Vince to clear his name. So now it's up to The Cape to protect Fleming from the deadly woman.

Orwell watches video of Dice staring at the Ark building for two hours straight. With the upcoming debut of T.R.A.C.E., Vince knows the party will be where her next attack takes place. Unfortunately, due to all of the attempts on Fleming's life, security will be on alert. He turns to the Carnival to help him. Ruvi the hypnotist and Raia the tightrope walker decide to help him learn how to tightrope walk from the top of one building to the next. When the time comes, he just barely makes it across the gap.

Dice has filled an elevator with gas and plans to use that to blow everything up. Again, The Cape saves the day. He gets all of the innocent people out of the way before saving Fleming's life once more. However, he does not save the T.R.A.C.E. technology. He blows that up himself. Meanwhile, Orwell handcuffs Dice to the handrail in the stairwell, effectively letting Ark capture her without being captured herself.

What to say about this episode.... It was OK. I thought Dice's visions were very well done. However, things were a little too convenient. Supposedly, Vince/The Cape wasn't in her visions. If she could predict the future so well, she should have known he would be there. Even when she found out about The Cape's existence, she never takes him into account. She watched him save Fleming at least once yet never tried to account for that in future plans. I think I'd like to see her again but only if her mistakes get corrected.

The Cape: Scales

Scales, one of the baddies from the first episode, is back. But is he as scary as he is ugly?

And why are evening dresses with feathery masks considered 'costumes?'

This episode appears to take place in one day - Vince's son, Trip's, birthday. However, an awful lot happens for one day.

Scales is working his schtick at the docks when an Ark flunkie comes to shake him down. Pissed that Faraday didn't come himself, Scales threatens to kill the flunkie later. The Cape watched this, of course, so now he knows that both Ark and Chess are taking money from the ugly baddie. Vince makes it his misson to tell Scales that all of his troubles are caused by Faraday in the hopes that the public will find out that Faraday is Chess.

For some reason, there is a costume ball on a train. Faraday shows up as a white-clad sheriff. Orwell is there in a pretty dress and a mask. (Really. This is such a lame attempt at a costume.) Meanwhile, the prison administrator guy from the Tarot episode is dressed as The Cape. And the Carnival of Crime is there to rob everyone, despite Vince's attempts to get them to help him.

Scales confronts Faraday, propositions the mayor with illegal goods delivered from his docks, and attempts to tell everyone that Faraday is Chess. Needless to say, the mayor rebukes him and then everyone laughs at the Chess revelation. In his anger, he steals everyone's money and jewels before holing himself up in the caboose. When he separates the caboose from the rest of the train, the brakes on the main part of the train stop working. (Who designed this thing?!) Faraday and The Cape have to work together to sever the brake line underneath the moving vehicle.

Of course, they save the day. Though it seems that Faraday recognizes Vince in the costume. Back on the now-stopped caboose, the Carnival faces down Scales. They steal what he stole and lock him in a cage. He breaks out of the cage by slamming his head against the bars so many times the hinges snap. And who does he happen to find there? The Ark flunkie from the beginning of the episode. Convenient.

I found this episode to be very lame. Scales is a terrible villain. He's entire character is based on the fact that he looks like an ugly snake. He doesn't even have snake-like powers. He's another ugly thug. Blah. Oh, and the storyline about Trip's birthday was boring. His mom had a bad day. She got stuck in traffic so she was late and her cell phone battery died so she couldn't call Trip to tell him that her co-worker, Travis, was coming over. He had to sit in the hall for the entire episode. As a result, the show was filled with more flashbacks of things Vince did with Trip on his birthdays. None of it progressed the story at all. C'mon writers, get with the program.

The Cape: Kozmo

The Cape has now moved to its actual timeslot of Monday at 9PM. It has the geek favorite Chuck as a lead-in so there is a good possibility the show will do well. As long as it doesn't turn into Heroes.

Remember, there are spoilers behind the cut!

I found this episode to be slightly informative, yet annoying at the same time. We learn a bit more about the origins of the cape. It has been handed down among master magicians who all turn on the persona of "Kozmo." Max Malini was the last official Kozmo. His apprentice was Gregor Molotov. Gregor did receive the cape as the new Kozmo but he used it to murder a woman. So Max took the cape back and Gregor traveled around various Russian prisons for 20 years. However, as an escape artist, Gregor managed to find his way out of every prison. This time, he has come back to the Carnival to retrieve his cape.

While at the Carnival, Gregor meets Vince and figures out that he is the one with the cape. At the same time, Ark is breathing down Orwell's neck. Ark raids her hideout mere minutes after she flees. Orwell turns up at Vince's door berating him for trying to shake down one of the members of Ark's police squad that set him up as Chess. Thanks to his shenanigans, Orwell has lost her hideout.

So now both Gregor and Orwell are at the Carnival. Gregor reads Orwell's palm and reveals a few tidbits about our unknown computer expert. Unfortunately, these aren't really informative facts. She's spoiled, has daddy issues, and she's been imprisoned. In all, it's pointing toward Orwell being Peter Fleming's daughter.

Of course, Gregor doesn't get the cape. Of course, Vince proves to Max that he is honorable enough to handle the cape without going to the dark side. Of course, Vince's wife, who believes he is dead, is starting to move on with her life. And, of course, this shows his tortured soul side.

I believe Scales is back as the Villain of the Week next Monday. If the show doesn't pick up the storyline a bit more, it will definitely lose the audience. I know this is only the third episode (the pilot consisted of two episodes) but people won't wait around forever.

TV review: The Cape

The 2-hour pilot for NBC's The Cape aired on Sunday, January 9 at 9PM. I've been waiting for this show to air for a long time. While I wasn't able to watch the show live, I did record it to watch last night.

Vince Faraday is a cop in Palm City. Many of the officers around him are corrupt and a mysterious blogger known as Orwell has been outing them. When the city's new police chief is killed by a masked criminal called Chess, Faraday sets out to make things in his hometown right again. He joins Ark, a private security company, run by Peter Fleming, on the edge of privatizing the police force.

Shortly after joining Ark, Orwell sends Faraday a message pointing him toward a shipment of a deadly toxin. Faraday and his partner, Marty Voyt, check out the cargo train delivering the shipment. Unfortunately, Voyt instead delivers Faraday into the hands of Chess, who is none other than Fleming himself. Fleming frames Faraday as the masked villain and sends his security force, armed with Nikon rifle scopes, to catch him. During the chase, the news helicopters above see him die in a large explosion.

However, Faraday is not dead. He is discovered by the Carnival of Criminals, a strange circus-themed group of bank robbers. Faraday buys his freedom with his Ark passcard. Soon, Faraday asks Max Malini, the head of the circus, to help him clear his name and get back to his wife and son. Max and the others teach Faraday hypnosis, cape tricks, and other skills that will transform him into the superhero known as The Cape.

As The Cape, Faraday goes after Chess and his henchmen. While on one such mission, he comes across Orwell trying to get the dirt on Chess. Quickly, Orwell and Faraday join forces to take back their city.

I had a lot of fun watching this show. My favorite character, by far, is Max Malini. He's not only wise, he's also funny and devious and just plain awesome. I almost wish he was the superhero! As for the rest of the characters, I am willing to give them time to grow. It seems like a lot was shoved into two episodes, almost like the audience missed a season and had to catch up to the storyline. I think that the writers should have kept the pilot as an origination story and kept some of the baddies for later. Hopefully they will not disappoint me. I want this show to be successful and, in order to do that, it has to be good.

Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol

For the first time ever, on December 25, 2010, the Doctor Who Christmas special was broadcast in both the UK (on BBC One) and the US (on BBC America). This year's special was titled A Christmas Carol.

We join Amy (Karen Gillian) and Rory (Arthur Darvill), the Doctor's companions from the previous season, on their honeymoon. Unfortunately, the passenger ship they are on is about to crash into a planet covered in strange clouds that screws up their controls. Of course, Amy calls the Doctor (Matt Smith) to save them. He can't use the TARDIS to save them so he lands on a building that seems to control the clouds. Sadly, he finds a bitter old man, Kazran Sardick (Michael Gambon), unwilling to help anyone.

This is where the Christmas Carol story begins. The Doctor goes back in time to Sardick's childhood to figure out where the man went wrong in life. He finds a boy who has had his curiosity and love stomped out by a demanding father. Luckily, the Doctor steps in to help foster the boy's curiosity about the fish that swim in the strange clouds. But where there are fish, there are predators too. After dodging a shark attack (and losing half of his sonic screwdriver in the process), young Sardick is crushed to find that the shark is dying. Unless they can get it back to the clouds, it won't survive. The only way to save the shark is to use an "icebox", a life support chamber that Sardick's father uses to control people, to transport it.

Young Sardick chooses the chamber of a young woman, Abigail Pettigrew (Katharine Jenkins), because she loves the fish. Just after releasing her, the shark attacks again. It is Abigail's singing that soothes the shark into submission. Once they save the shark, the boy decides that this has been a grand adventure. As Abigail returns to her chamber, young Sardick promises that the Doctor will return every year to celebrate Christmas Eve with them.

Years pass and the Doctor makes good on the promise. Every Christmas Eve, they release Abigail and travel around time with her. On the seventh year, Abigail confesses to a now teenaged Sardick that she was terminally ill when she was locked in the chamber. She only has one more day to live. Devestated, the lovestruck Sardick locks her back in the chamber without telling the Doctor about her condition. Realizing that life isn't fair, he still continues on the path to becoming a bitter old man.

Amy appears as a hologram to old Sardick in order to show him how to passengers of the doomed ship are coping. Since they know that singing can have an effect on the clouds, all of the passengers attempt to sing carols to stop the ship from crashing. The sound of the singing begins to break through to Sardick, but he just waves it away stubbornly.

As a last resort, the Doctor appears again telling old Sardick that he has shown him the past and the present. Now it is time for the future. He brings the boy to see what a crotchety old man he has become. This has a monumental effect on old Sardick, who vow to use his machine to save the ship. However, the Doctor has changed Sardick so much that the machine no longer recognizes him. Their only option is to use Abigail's voice to control the clouds again.

Knowing that this will be her final day, old Sardick opens her chamber one last time. She sings into the sonic screwdriver and the clouds stabilize, saving the ship and her 4000 passengers. Amy and Rory reunite with the Doctor, while Sardick and Abigail spend their last moments riding around the clouds in a shark-drawn carriage.

I usually like the Christmas specials. The Runaway Bride being the one episode I hated. This time around, I absolutely loved the episode. The interaction between the Doctor and the various incarnations of Sardick were wonderful. My favorite parts were when teenaged Sardick asked the Doctor for love advice. While I enjoyed CChristopher Eccleson and David Tennant as their respective Doctor, I really enjoy Matt Smith's version. He has the ability to be completely fun-loving yet deadly serious at the same time. If you haven't watched Doctor Who recently, this may be the one to latch onto.

Eureka Holiday Special

Eureka is one of the "can't miss" TV shows in our household. Last night, they aired a holiday special! As always, it was smart, funny, and added a little twist to the story. (Though I wonder if Sheriff Carter has gotten any term life insurance quotes recently. He is almost always in some sort of danger!) Sadly, I don't want to talk about it too much in case you haven't seen it. (Much like I haven't seen the Warehouse 13 holiday episode from last night yet. It's on my DVR though!) But if you love Eureka, you'll adore the holiday spin on the show. So awesome!