Human Target 1×01 Pilot
The pilot episode certainly looked interesting. The action was well balanced above realistic and below unrealistic. It looks like as if it’s going to be Die Hard or Lethal Weapon in a series format and I certainly will watch more episodes of it.
“You wore a vest? Where’s my vest?” – “I’m your vest.”

24 8×01 – 8×04 4:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Dammit. I should have known better. I decided to watch the season en bloc when it is over. But I just had to peak a little and was already drawn back in…
I love Jack’s new “Are we done here? Can I go home now?” attitude. Of course they aren’t done and Jack can’t go home.
When I read that that Freddie Prince jr. (Wing Commander, Scooby Doo) – He married my Buffy, dammit!!! – would take the part of the leading CTU Field Officer I was a bit worried. But he has gotten older and looks like he can pull it off.
Of course there are again the typical 24 plot points like the incompetent CTU boss, the CTU member who has private problems and I am already wondering who the mole is – but that’s OK, it’s 24 after all.
What I also like is that – aside from the 24 alumni who have returned this season – these episodes feel like a huge School Reunion party: The aforementioned Freddie Prince jr., Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica) – looks gorgeous btw -, Paul Wesley (Stefan in The Vampire Diaries), Cliff Simon (Ba’al in Stargate SG-1), David Anders (Takezo Kensei / Adam Monroe in Heroes, Julian Sark in Alias), Jürgen Prochnow (Dune, Das Boot) and according to the CTU files Callum Keith Rennie (Ray in Due South, Leoben in Battlestar Galactica) will also appear anytime soon.

Life Unexpected 1×01 Pilot
I was made aware of this series at least twice. The second time was a few days ago when blogs reviewed the pilot episode. But I’ve seen bits and pieces of this episode before – most likely in a trailer a few months back. And even though I had forgotten the show in the meantime I now remember that I decided back then that I’d give it a try.
I really liked the pilot. The characters are believable and down-to-earth. Even though the show runs on The CW this isn’t Beverly Hills 90210 or Gossip Girl, this is different. As with every show it now depends on what kind of storylines they are going to tell and how this triangle+attachments is going to work out.

Spartacus: Blood and Sand 1×01 / 1×02 The Red Serpent / Sacramentum Gladiatorum
Lots of nudity (male and female). Even more blood. Better you put a bucket below your telly in case it spills out of the screen. The optic leans more towards 300 than Gladiator, especially when there’s blood flowing. The problem is the story. These first two episodes show how Spartacus became a Gladiator but it didn’t give the viewer an idea what the entire show is going to be about. And that’s why I am not yet convinced. To quote Buffy’s Spike: “I love a good slaughter as much as the next bloke” but I also need a real story in between.
Time will tell … at least you now get the chance you never got with Xena: To see Lucy Lawless in the nude.

Chuck 3×04 Chuck vs Operation Awesome
The only thing I’ve ever seen Brandon Routh in was Superman Returns but here he didn’t remind me of his character there. I like him as addition to the team because he could stir things up a little.
I don’t know if it’s just my imagination because they announced it but the show actually feels a bit less funny and a bit more serious. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still an Action Comedy and there’s plenty of fun in it. But the general tone during the spy action seems to have darkened a little since last year. I’m not complaining – I like it.

Castle 2×13 Sucker Punch
I didn’t think that they would ever bring up the topic of Beckett’s mum’s murder ever again since they so thoroughly dismissed it at the beginning of the season.
I liked how they handled this case and I also liked the end a lot. Now I hope that they don’t forget it again but actively push that story forward.

House M.D. 6×10 The Down Low
This episode had the perfect House mix. Both ploys were really enjoyable (though I had suspected that House helped Foreman – which he did not) and the case was a really good one. I liked how the characters interacted and I also thought it was a good ending to the story even when it was a sad one.

How I Met Your Mother 5×13 Jenkins
While the name-giving Jenkins story was funny I loved the “but, erm” storyline. The drinking game was so cool.
Only while I am writing this I notice that the “mother” topic was put on hold again, but since I didn’t miss it during the episode I can’t really use it as an argument…

The Big Bang Theory 3×13 The Bozeman Reaction
He considers Penny a friend, how cute. I thought it was great that all the characters got their fair share of jokes and screen time (even though Sheldon was the light house again).
I am also pleasantly surprise of how much a non-issue Leonard’s and Penny’s relationship is. I feared it would become the center story with an ultimate break-up and then on and off again (Ross/Rachel or Clark/Lana anyone?). To not making it a major plot point is certainly an interesting move (though I still think there is something coming…).

Two and a Half Men 7×13 Yay, No Polyps
This was also fun, especially the way it played out – even though it played with an old cliché.
Funny thing: I recently showed someone the Pilot episode and recognized Chelsea in there. As it turns out, before Chelsea became Chelsea in Season 6, she also was Suzanne (Season 1), Tina (Season 2) and Nina (Season 5). Not that I mind but since when does Hollywood have a shortage of beautiful women?

Heroes 4×15 Chapter Fourteen ‘Close to You’
I don’t want to complain – or actually I want, otherwise I wouldn’t write this – but the season has aired about 2/3 of its episodes and by now I wish something big should happen. As I said in the beginning I have nothing against a slow start but I didn’t mean that nothing should happen. The goal of the season has been clear for a while now (stop Samuel) but when they did the same thing in the first season with Sylar it was much more interesting – except for the end which was kinda lame.

Heroes 4×16 Chapter Fifteen ‘Pass/Fail’
I have to say I found this episode a bit boring, neither the Hiro nor the Sylar/Claire nor the Samuel storyline really worked for me, especially since I don’t really know what to make of that trial (Was it a dream? But the how he got healed? Was it “real”? I hardly think so). And that Samuel is not the most stable person isn’t exactly news.

Cougar Town 1×12 Scare Easy
And Jules dumped another guy. It was an OK episode but Jules was a bit too quirky for my taste in this one. But I liked the ending; it’d make for a cool Slasher movie.

Cougar Town 1×13 Stop Dragging My Heart Around
Oh yeah, this one will have consequences. I liked the switches between all the couples and their conversations to point out all the differences between them. And I like their attempts at writing songs, it’s a cool new element (or I haven’t noticed it before Scare Easy).

The Good Wife 1×12 Painkiller
The case itself wasn’t that interesting this time, but the story around Kalinda was. Maybe I missed a bit but I couldn’t figure out for which side she’s now really working and where she’s only pretending – if she doesn’t play them all. That was very intriguing and I will figure it out over the next episodes.

Bones 5×12 The Proof in the Pudding
That was a really nice toying with the JFK assassination conspiracy. I liked it how went back and forth about whether this was actually him and thus whether JFK was shot by two persons. But the panicking Camille was also great.

Burn Notice 3×10 A Dark Road
Finally Michael is back. And Cagney & Lacey, too. Both women interacted very well with each other until the bitter end. I still like this show very much, it’s a great cast and a cool story, even though they just exchange one bad guy who looks over his shoulder with the next and everything else remains the same.

Human Target 1×02 Rewind
I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the previous episode but I hope that was just a glitch. Time will tell.

Leverage 2×11 The Bottle Job
I believe this story actually worked better with Jeri Ryan in it. Nothing against Gina Bellman, but Jeri is sexier and that was exactly what they needed to pull this double con. And I have to say I didn’t see that ending coming. Especially the recaps were fun because of this.

The Vampire Diaries 1×11 Bloodlines
Just when I feared that they had softened Damon I can calm down, he shows that he’s just as nasty as ever. Good for him.
What I didn’t understand was why they revealed the secret whether or not the teacher was a Vampire (with a ring); they could have toyed with the viewers for a while there.

White Collar 1×08 Hard Sell
So, no game-changer after all. OK then, fine with me.
Even though I am not a big comic collector, I would totally be awesome to have the contents of that vault, especially the “Action Comics” #1 issue.

Supernatural 5×11 Sam, Interrupted
That was a nice twist on the “checked into an asylum” storyline that appears on every fantasy show at some point. It was just a bit incredible how Sam and Dean were constantly able to open all kind of doors in the loony bin. Security and sweeping of patients does not seem to be a big issue there.

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