Escher Paints Abed

I have an itch in my brain now, thanks to Community. 

For a show that does a lot of the "meta" even this is a lot.  It's an old episode and I just got it now, a few years after it aired.

 "Custody Law and Eastern Diplomacy"

The situation:
Britta wants to sabotage Abed and Troy's friendship with Luca, just because he happens to be an ethnic cleanser.  But she doesn't want to tell them he is an ethnic cleanser.  Troy and Abed tell her if anyone were to take their Kickpuncher dvd they would stop being friends with them.  So Britta plans to frame Luca for it.  Unfortunately for Britta, she's caught stealing it. 

The brain itcher:
By Abed.  Who has a security camera in his room.  For a very detailed documentary about his life.  But...

"most of it is just him watching dailies"

Which means that the camera is filming Abed watching film on the tv of whatever the camera had filmed previously.  Which is him watching dailies of him watching dailies......and it just goes on and on and on....however deep you can see into those two mirrors.

This is a lot, even for Community.  And now my brain hurts.  Thanks guys.




The Game

One Last Time - HL

Homeland episode 3-09 "One Last Time"

Written by Barbara Hall

Directed by Jeremy Reiner

I suppose there are two options after having Saul retrieve Brody (and I'm not sure if Saul knew where he was the entire time, if those are "his" people in Caracas, or if he found out some other way).  Option 1 is gloss over Brody's rehab via time jump in order to get on with the next steps of the story.  Option 2, which they took, is to dedicate an episode to Brody's rehab in the vein of Rocky.  Perhaps it was the execution, but this episode fell the flattest of perhaps the entire series.  It made me a temporary Homeland nihilist, thinking there is no purpose to anything that happens on the show.

For example, the story about Saul's home being bugged is going to be infuriating if that's all there is to it.  The show put an end date to Saul's tenure as acting director.  I understand inserting a ticking clock can be necessary and is often used to create drama.  These are the people who brought you -24- after all, which literally had a ticking clock at every commercial break.  But to seemingly arbitrarily move that deadline makes us question why it was there in the first place?  To create meaningless conflict between Saul and Lockhart?

Saul knows all apparently, and as I mentioned, it's not clear to me how he knew about Brody.  Perhaps Saul is being set up to have an enormous Carrie-CIA bomber level failure at the end of the season?  Will the show be re-booted again for Season Three, and will that re-boot stick?  Or will it be more like the re-boots on Alias where they kept changing the name of the organization but essentially kept all the other parts the same?

Carrie, infuriatingly, is still stuck on Brody and proving Brody's innocence.  I thought the show had moved past the Carrie-Brody dynamic and onto other things like a new villain and the re-building of the CIA, along with Saul becoming a part of This Town,  and Mira and Quinn's respective doubting of their own actions.  And maybe Carrie finally quits yo-yoing between insanity and whatever one level removed from insanity is, becoming competent for a longer stretch of time (like Tommy Gavin or Andy Sipowicz and their alcoholism).

But no, let's get a few more whacks at Seabiscuit's corpse.

Bullet time:

• Max and Virgil's PKE Meter made me chuckle.  But pretty much everything they do makes me chuckle.  And I shouldn't knock it consider an anonymizer turned out to be a real thing
• No coincidence this weak episode featured little of Peter Quinn, MVP
• Whoa, how about Brody ripping the chair apart to stab his arm?  Not the cry for help like Dana, that guy was going for it.
• This show works let a network show a lot of the time.  One is the on-screen credits during the opening minutes.  It always gives something away with guest stars.  When they flash that Chris Chalk (Tom Walker) is returning, it takes away from Brody's hallucinations.  Run them at the end.
• Oh!  Now that I look at his IMDB page, I am realizing that he is both Gary Cooper on Newsroom and played the fugitive Jody Adair for two episodes on the recent season of Justified.  Awesome!
• Justified, Justified, Justified.

I can't pardon a turkey!

Jed, Charlie, the Knife, Turkey Pardons and the Butterball Hotline.  Scenes like these are what made the West Wing staff family and what set the show apart.

 Happy Thanksgiving!

40 Degree Day

The recent weather in Washington, DC brings to mind this awesome scene from The Wire

Farewell Daddy Blues - BE

Boardwalk Empire episode 3-12 "Farewell Daddy Blues" - Season Four Finale

Written by Terrence Winter & Howard Korder

Directed by Tim Van Patten

Boardwalk is a show where I do not have a favorite episode.  I do not recall particularly strong episodes either.  There are, however, strong characters and casting, memorable scenes throughout the series, as well as turning points that stand out as important.  This is  due to the nature of the show with the large cast, multiple settings, and numerous storylines.  The show it is most similar to is Game of Thrones, which also features a large cast and multiple settings*.  In both shows, we take temporary breaks from characters, even the favorite ones, for several episodes at a time while we check in with the other storylines.

* I would love to see a pie chart showing the combined budgets of Game of Thrones and Boardwalk versus all other HBO shows.

Game of Thrones does manage to have several memorable episodes, notably "Blackwater" and "The Reigns of Castamere".  The common thread between those two episodes is they are exceptions to the series, largely singularly focused on one storyline for the full hour.

Boardwalk may have had it's strongest episode of the series on Sunday, and almost certainly completed its strongest season thus far.  However, it diverged from it's HBO cousin on how it got there.

This is a show that is greater than the sum of its parts, despite many of the parts being quite spectacular.  Despite the big ticket sets and costumes which strive for a Mad Men-level of accuracy, probably the greatest part is the casting and acting. 


Being greater than the sum of its parts, Boardwalk is probably one show that would particularly benefit from the natural method of analysis of writing up each individual episode, but rather take 3-4 episodes at a time.  This is probably why reviews don't necessarily speak to the quality of the show.

Season Three was largely self contained and felt "off the shelf".  You could insert and remove the entire season at will within the series.  Episode One: introduce villain, Episode Thirteen: kill villain.  The overall storyline felt telegraphed (Villain conflicts with Nucky, Nucky is edged out, Nucky regroups, Nucky wins).  Outside of Margaret (and a lesser extent, Eli), not much changed within the characters.  They sat in largely the same places they sat at the end of Season Two with the same outlook on life.  The villain was a bit of a carpet bagger who had few connections within Atlantic City.  Some of the established characters' storylines felt less than necessary and, come the finale, ultimately directionless due to the lack of payoff*. 

* How could they payoff though when not much was invested in the first place?

Season Four made two bold, unconventional moves.  It did not force the female lead into a story simply for the sake of using her.  And it did not give the central, top billed, featured throughout the entire opening credits, Nucky Thompson his own adventure but rather allowed his character to reveal itself via reactions to the machinations of other, just as qualified, characters.  Nucky was both physically separated from much of the action (living at the Albatross) and mentally (allowing much of his operations to be run by Eli and, of all people, Mickey Doyle).  His position is an emeritus one, able to step in and apply pressure as needed (like Bert Cooper at Sterling Cooper & Associates).  Nucky spends his time reacting to other characters coming to him (Will, in trouble and later entering the business, Eli and his annual betrayal, Chalky's problems with Narcisse, AR's money troubles, even the land deal and the Lansky-Luciano-Petrucelli-heroin-Narcisse dynamic is brought to his door).  Nucky's reactions to each of these, whether the image he wishes to project with Will, his indifference to Chalky or his coming up short in the land deal all show just as much about him than if he had his own story to tell.

One other aspect that strengthened the show, especially in contrast to Season Three, was the introduction of several new characters/sources of conflict.  Between Mr. Piggly Wiggly, Knox and Narcisse, the plot thickened each week and continued to remain unclear throughout how they would or would not tie together, but interesting enough to make us want more.  And that was just the new characters.  The Chicago outfit expanded.  AR connected to Peg.  With all these embers in the fire, there was a lot of flexibility with how the story could end.

In a simplistic way, Narcisse was Rosseti to Chalky's Nucky.  A menacing outsider who encroached on territory.  But the execution was much better, with understated performances evoking more from the character than Rosseti ever could no matter how many people he beat to death.  Bobby Cannavale won the Emmy when he was probably 5th or 6th best in a category I was shocked he was nominated for int he first place.  Jeffrey Wright has to be in the mix next year as his performance dwarfs Cannavale's. 


When the end did come, little was final about it, and it set up the following season better than any previous finale.  Eli, Capone, Van Alden, Margaret and Chalky are all in new settings or roles.  Narcisse is in a position that was completely unpredicted and gives enough flexibility where he can come back if there is a story to tell but also fade away if they feel a Peg-esque year for him coming on.  There are a lot of different directions the show can take now as the show becomes almost wholly a gangster show with little remaining of the political machinations and post war life the first two seasons conveyed.  That however is in line with what Jimmy told Nucky long ago...

• Body Count 3 (33 total)
• Maybelle - Richard at the Onyx with the sniper rifle :-(
• Knox - Eli in his house with the saw, candle stick, bare fists and whatever else was lying around.  Brutal.
• Richard - Unknown Narcisse henchman, shot at the Onyx but dying at the pier, with the pistol
• I yelled and turned away in horror and nearly vomited when Knox went after Eli's eye
• A Wire like montage caught up with everyone near the end, showing us their new digs
• Hoover, ignorant as he truly was regarding organized crime, bared his teeth with Narcisse, much like he did with Remus, and opens the door to a lot of possibilities with the FBI, Narcisse, and Garvey
• Few television deaths shake you like Richard's.  We see him on the train with a few un-Boardwalk like flashes as he walks up to the house.  It brings to mind both "Everyone's Waiting" and "Mayham" and I wonder if Richard died.  I quickly discard that thought as Richard still has his mask on.  A quick cut to the house and back to Richard and my heart absolutely sinks as Richard's face is fully restored.  I had figured if Richard had died, his face would be replaced once he passes on, being restored and able to spend time, however it exists in that state, with his loved ones.  Once his face is restored, it's immediately clear even before the cut to the pier that Richard is passing on.  It was tough to expect him to live and live with his missed shot, killing Maybelle, as well as the goodbye he gave Tommy and his new wife at the station, but seeing Richard go is a death as hard to take as any in recent memory
• HBO posted an In Memoriam video for the character.  I have not given it a ton of thought but Richard may be a top ten for the last ten years.

Havre De Grace - BE

Boardwalk Empire
Episode 4-11
"Havre De Grace"

Written by Howard Korder who will be credited with nine of the twelve episodes this season

Directed by Allen Coulter, of Rome

Well, Mr. Piggly Wiggly revealed himself to be a Pinkerton, there to get a confession out of Gillian for the murder of Roger, apparently in the employ of Leander in the interest of revenge for the Commodore's death (even though Jimmy killed him).  She's caught in a grift that is more or less taken from The Sting.

I was wrong about one thing.  I thought Gillian murder of Roger was more like a ritualistic type thing to bring her closure due to never finding Jimmy's body, but apparently it was to officially make in dead in the eyes of the law and to give the remaining estate to Gillian, as guardian of Tommy.  Turns out she was and is aware of what she did and I was reading way too much into it.  

I was wrong about a second thing.  There are only twelve episodes this season, meaning next week is the series finale.  Depending on how that turns out, this could beat out Season Two as the strongest of the series.  *

* Coincidentally, Justified just had their fourth season and depending on who you talk to, it beat out the previously strongest Season Two.  Either could be considered  the best, it is six in one hand, two birds in the bush.

Speaking of Justified (get ready for a bunch of Justified references, it comes back in six weeks), Nucky gets a call from Gaston Means, who is completely bombed, but lucid enough to tell Nucky there a "skunk in his cellar" and requesting $50,000 working his way up to $200,000 to tell him who it is.  We saw Means meeting with Knox/Jim earlier, but I'm not sure if he's referring to Knox/Jim or Eli at the moment.  The call ends abruptly when the Capitol Police storm his house to arrest him for perjury.  Means bemoans "I was a judge!"...and you will be again in rural Kentucky.

Body count 3 (30 total)

• Oscar :-( By Narcisse's henchman at Havre de Grace with the shotgun
• Two of Narcisse's henchman. Winston at Havre de Grace with the shotgun
• We'll assume the guy Mr. Piggly Wiggly shot is not actually dead

"Take care and God Bless!"

White Horse Pike - BE

Boardwalk Empire  Episode 4-10 "White Horse Pike"

Written by David Flebotte of The Sopranos "Calling All Cars"

Directed by Jake Paltrow, previously of a few episodes of NYPD Blue

• Eli seems to be providing information without prompting which becomes more interesting when he provides a name, Balanchuck, as Torrio's #2 in Chicago (rather than Capone)
• Knox/Jim makes a lot of not veiled threats toward Eli about throwing his kid in prison
• Petrucelli and Lucky are stocking the orange crates with heroin to smuggle north.  The nerve of them to smuggle drugs instead of the thing they are supposed to be smuggling
• Oranges mean death
• Chalky is not happy about Narcisse so he and the rest of the lil Rascals meet in the alley and talk about how they're going to get him back.  They decide to drink a lot of pop and make pee balloons using a funnel.  Then they'll draw them onto their turf and pelt them with the balloons
• Just kidding.  They're going to shoot him
• So they go to shoot him and hit a bunch of people, but not Narcisse because this is only episode 10 and not episode 12 or 13

•  There are a lot of heavily stylized shots that sort of make me think "Scorsese" like as they enter the stock exchange, or the That 70's Show rotating camera around Van Alden & Co. or the POB shot of Narcisse coming in to see Nucky
• This season had a lot of embers burning in the fire and now they are converging
• Richard is home, working for Nucky and now involved in the Tommy custody battle with Gillian
• Lil Thompson is in the mayor's office and he's connected to Nucky there, spying for him, but he's also connected to his father, obviously, who is being pressed by Knox/Jim for information who is attempting to put together an interstate crime case at each of the locations our characters reside because they spend all their time doing interstate crime
• AR is giving a deal to Peg of Old who I expect to cross paths with Nucky at least once more before the end of the season
• Nucky is involved, reluctantly, with the trucks bringing heroin north.  He's staving off Chalky getting dead from Narcisse while he does business with Narcisse, Joe the Boss and Lansky (and Petrucelli and Luciano)
• "I've been around many people who've been shot" is like Michael Scott saying he was in the car that hit Meredith
• Narcisse introduces himself to Chalky's daughter (lowercase d) as Richard Pastor, which I guess is the long version of Dickie Pastor who is the buy Purns stabbled a billion times with the broken bottle all but decapitating him
• Between this and Homeland, Fall '13 is the season of broken bottles to the neck
• Body count - 3 (27 total)
• Lansky's henchman transporting liquor - Knox/Jim on White Horse Pike with the pistol 
• Two sheriff deputies transporting Chalky and Daughter - Chalky in the car with the knife and gun - not to mention doing it while he pretended to be asleep and with only one arm, the other recovering from being shot

"Take care and God bless!"

Marriage and Hunting - BE

Boardwalk Empire episode 4-08 "Marriage and Hunting"

Written by:
David Matthews - two earlier episodes this season
Jennifer Ames - associate producer, getting first writing credit
Steve Turner - co-producer, getting first writing credit

Directed by Ed Bianci who directed an early Damages episode

Previously on Boardwalk Empire, Van Alden went nuts! (George! Be reasonable!)

I don't believe we've ever seen Gillian be as honest and frank about her background as she was with her manfriend at the beach.  She's not the most reliable narrator, but in this case I don't believe she has anything to gain by lying.  She doesn't name Nucky as the sheriff who took her to the Commodore when she was all of twelve, but we know it was him.  Gillian changes one detail about Jimmy's death, that he died of a heroin overdose.  I'm not positive she hasn't convinced herself that is what happened, replacing his disappearance with her murdering the kid in the bathtub.  It's entirely possible in her mind she's inserted that kid's death as Jimmy's.  Basically, I believe she believes that.  She's not entirely unsympathetic and we'll probably feel a little bad when she kills herself (either accidentally or on purpose) after whatever Mr. Piggly Wiggly is planning finally happens.

That's not to say she should get Tommy back.  But inexplicably, the custody battle seems to be leaning toward the addict-prostitute and away from the family whose cared for Tommy ever since he showed up at their door following a little late night massacre at the addict-prostitute's house of whore.  This because she works at a store and her dad is on a fixed income and Gillian's about to have a windfall from selling the aforementioned house of whore.

Van Alden is back in a big way this week, adding unintentional humor to every scene he's in with every movement he makes and every word he speaks.  Here is a list of things Nelson Van Alden a.k.a. George Mueller does in this episode

• Unsuccessfully employs sarcasm when speaking to his non-native English speaking wife
• Creates a nice arrangement of flowers in a wreath
• Delivers the flowers, unwittingly, to Capone
• Offer's to kill his boss at the flower shop for $1,000
• Makes his baby cry multiple times
• Get's jumped by his former co-workers from the iron shop
• Murders said former co-workers
• Admits his entire past life to O'Banion, including murdering his Prohibition agent partner
• Sweeps up some flower trimmings
• Watches O'Banion get murdered
• Robs O'Banion's store
• Has weird sex with his wife while admiting his past life and throwing all the cash he robbed from O'Banion's in the weirdest music video ever

Body Count -  4 (23 total)

• O'Banion - Rival gansters in the flower shop with multiple guns (while shaking his hand)
• Iron salesmen x 3 - Van Alden in the alley with his pistol

"Take care and God Bless" even though Van Alden says he used to believe in God but doesn't believe in anything now

A Red Wheelbarrow - HL

Homeland episode 3-08 "A Red Wheelbarrow"

Written by Alex Gansa (big dog on the show) and James Yoshimura (of Homicide)

Directed by Seith Mann who directed a few episodes of Elementary which is one of my favorite shows on right now and one of the few CBS  shows I've latched onto since the early days of How I Met Your Mother

• Saul is enjoying life with his terrible wife
• When his terrible wife ends things with her manstress, she comments that it's sudden, much like Jess says Dana's leaving is sudden
• I wonder why we're spending time of this.  Perhaps to see Saul happy only to have it taken away...
• But then this jabroni installs a listening device, a fake mouse, in Saul's home.  So his relationship was to get into Saul's house?  Or he was recruited to do so once someone found this guy who had a relationship with Saul's wife?  Also, why is he sneaking in now to do it?  He's been there before.  Why start a relationship to get a bug close by if it turns out they were installing it the same way anyone could, without having such a relationship. 
• This makes no sense because Saul doesn't do any spy stuff from his home, nor is it likely they think they can get some blackmail material on Saul via this device. 
• I guess the alternative is that he's crazy jealous spurned ex-manstress who wants to spy on his girlfriend and her husband from a personal motivation
• The senator apparently un-Lockhart'ed the conference room door.  I wonder if Saul's secretary had to call a Lockhart-smith
• No one can accuse Saul of thinking small
• Did Javadi try and succeed to create dischord between Carrie and Saul?  Did he pick up on the one nerve (Brody) that could set Carrie off, not trusting Saul & Co.?
• Dar and Bennet meet at the Occidental, or at least there's a shot of the outside of the restaurant
• Carrie acts fake pissed with Bennett's associate
• So Carrie's 13 week pregnant, or a trimester in, with her terror baby
• Sometimes the exposition kills me.  Fara knows what the IG is.  Also, we know this guy, who Estes used to keep Saul in a room with a lie detector test
• Except here this guy has a totally valid point about Fara jeopardizing things
• The surveillance guy I'm a fan of from "Tin Man is Down" is back.  He mentions lawyer Franklin (apparently not Franklin of Franklin & Bash) is using an anonymity, which sounds like a made up device from CSI or Hawaii Five O, made from the same people who make the computers that "enhance" images (enhance-o-zizer?  bass-o-matic?).  But apparently this is a thing
• The bomber is in USA and he is.....CHRIS BRODY!   Just kidding.  He is actually......SOME GUY!  Here is my though process in real time from those minutes of the show
• It's just some guy
• Is he going to kill him?
• Yes.
• Bigger picture, Carrie, WTF
• Carrie dont fucking do it
• dont fucking do it
• dont do it.
• dont
• fucking
• do
• it
• QUINN THIS IS WHAT MVPS GET PAID FOR!
• winged her!
• M-V-P!  M-V-P!
• If we learned anything from Breaking Bad...this body disposal is not going to go well.  You need a giant tupperware thing from Sam's Club
• Saul had to go away
• He takes a diplomatic car somewhere
• Is he in Caracas?
• Is he in CARACAS?!
• I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS WHY DO YOU DO THIS I JUST WATCHED THREE STRAIGHT EPISODES AND NOW I HAVE TO WAIT DARN YOU ALL TO HECK!
• Ideally Saul flies back with Brody and the doctor and they meet up with Detective Megatron and have a jolly old Homicide mini reunion
• They have the strings screeching up in the sound track and a cut to black/credits.  Should have ended with one of these

Gerontion - HL

Homeland Episode 3-07 "Geronition"

Written by Chip Johannsen

Directed by Carl Franklin

• Gerontion is a T.S. Elliot poem which I would normally read except that I have three of these episodes piled up, plus Boardwalk, plus shows I don't even write about so just check out Wikipedia if you're interested
• Literally returning to the scene of the crime the homicide detectives are going over Farida's body.  Except this is no ordinary homicide detective.  It's Meldrick Lewis of the Baltimore Police Department!
• Previously linked this scene of his.  Here's another one from an early episode that dealt with an assisted suicide being investigated as a Homicide
• James Yoshimura, a producer on this show and Homicide, has to be the link between these Homicide folks showing up on Homeland.  
• That or there are two rooms locate dnext to each other because they are next to each other alphabeticall, and the actors keep going into the wrong one
• This is awesome
• This is really awesome
• IMDB says the character is named Calvin Johnson so we will alternate between calling him Meldrick and calling him Detective Megatron
• Javadi's question about how the murder is covered up seems like sincere curiousity about the how intelligence works in the United States.  Like, if there were an intelligence conference at a convention center and people came from all sorts of intelligence communities there could be a working group or breakout session called "Murder: How is it covered up?" where everyone could compare notes
• Saul and Javadi's interview plays a lot like this season's version of "Q&A"
• Because Carrie's pregnant, she has morning sickness and acted motherly toward the screaming kid.  I mean, no one else put it in the playpen so it wouldn't wander over dead bodies.
• Lockhart is the guy who wants the new technologies to replace old school HUMINT, but he is also stuck in the old way of thinking where "you hit us we hit you, rawr, revenge!" without looking at the bigger picture.
• Compare to Lockhart wanting to change, discussing with Dar Adal
• At first it's kind of the opposite of Moneyball where the character we are supposed to sympathize with is of the new school and needs to get it past these crotchety old men stuck in the past.  But then we look deeper into it and Lockhart really just lacks a vision and a grasp of the entire picture and long game like Saul is trying to play.  So they disagree not only on tactics but on overall strategy and goals.
• Quinn proposes the exact solution that the cops want and that Carrie was going to take to them.  Or maybe she telepathically got him to say that.
• Fara's going to kill Javadi with scissors.  Maybe Carrie told her a war story about chasing down Abu Nazir with a pipe
• Javadi immediately starts probing Carrie when they are in the car together.  He's a spy and he can't or won't turn it off
• Who moved the bomb?
• Have you done anything but make things worse?
• Peter Quinn's been questioning things all season (if this damage is justified for the greater good)  since he shot that kid and about now he's really ready to hang up the sniper rifle
• Line of the season, Saul to Lockhart "No....Make me."

Still Positive - HL

Homeland episode 3-06 "Still Positive"

Written by Alexander Cary, an executive producer on the show

Directed by Lesli Linka Glatter, who is just working non-stop lately


When I last watched television two weeks ago, Carrie was quickly carted off to a meeting with the new Abu Nazir...Javadi (Iran CIA #2).  This will be fun, I have three episodes on the DVR here so I get to watch a quarter of the season back to back to back.  However these posts are likely going to be short and bulleted.

• The dark humor of a CIA stakeout "You took a taxi to a CIA safe house?!"
• Heading in the direction of Germantown, MD...if truckstops are what they are looking for then they should take 270 to 70 and get off at Breezewood, PA, the Las Vegas of truck stops 
• Hey CIA team, I can follow Google maps too!
• Actually, after Google maps came out my Intelligence professor said that was basically the technology they'd been using ten years before at the CIA
• Saul's wife is awful and she keeps beating this dead horse even though Saul wants it to lie there.  You don't get to leave your husband, cheat on him and then set the terms of who is mad about it, how mad, and what specific aspects to be mad bout.  The way she keeps bringing it up is to hear him say it's all okay in order to make herself feel better about her behavior
• Carrie is doing pretty well  on this polygraph considering that she flushed all her meds
• Clandestine  means hiding the actual operation, covert means hiding the hand of the United States (or whatever country) in the involvement of the operation
• One of the strengths of Homeland is whatever the opposite of dramatic irony is (have been searching for a term for this but have been unsuccessful.  It is some combination of suspense and unreliable narration.)  We're unclear as the viewer whether what is happening is according to plan and how much the characters know.  For example, at the time of the polygraph we're not sure if Carrie is ad libbing or if the plan was for her to blackmail him into coming in
• Turns out the answer is "sort of"
• Saul tried to get Dr. Sanjay Gupta out of Iran but failed
• These guys driving Carrie to the middle of no where has an Adrianna and Silvio feel to it
• On the "Still Positive" episode title, Carrie is pregnant, but Morena Baccarin is the one who looks pregnant in this episode
• Google says she announced her pregnancy in May and had a boy on October 22.
• I was surprised Jess Brody is still Jess Brody, given that even Skyler White changed her name.  But Dana's going to change her name now in what is hopefully the fine point on her storyline this season
• Close caption says the new name is "Lazaro"
• She pronounces it LAZ-a-ro but the clerk mispronounces it la-ZAR-o.  Now Dana has the joy of constantly dealing with people mispronouncing her name, which is only slightly better than being Nick Brody's daughter
• I can't decide what is the most inappropriate thing this (public employee) clerk did, commenting about her mom/dad, asking if he can pray for her or saying "God Bless"
• Sometimes in Homeland things have to be extreme or nothing.  Like Dana trying to kill herself and later running away with a kid who likely murdered his brother.  But the name change is a good way to show the aftermath caused by Brody on his family without going to eleven
• In a way the whole season is tied to the 12/12 bombing at the end of Season Two, whether it be the aftermath at the CIA, the revenge operation, or how the Brody family is being treated.
• Does Carrie has some California roots because she called it "The 270" instead of "270"
• There's no exit 1 unless you are talking about the spur
• Exits 1A and 1B though are for Bethesda and Rockville
• Maybe Carrie inadvertently flushed her birth control when she flushed the rest of her meds.  Whoops!
• Actually, it's not that cyclist guy.  Her doctor says she's 13 weeks along, but Carrie's not been willing to accept reality.  It's Brody's apparently.  Congrats Nick!
• I originally though she was stockpiling the tests for some future caper, not having the slightest idea of what that could be.  Then I wondered if she was stockpiling urine like fellow crazy Howard Hughes, except instead of mason jars, really tiny amounts absorbed by pregnancy tests.
• That is disgusting 
• Pregnancy storylines are rarely interesting, come out of nowhere and almost always a result of the well running dry. Also, I'm on Season Three of Dexter and I don't really need another one of these.
• Justified has manged to not let Winona's pregnancy become a hinderance because 1) it largely motivated Raylan's actions and career ambitions in Season Four and 2) Time passes so slowly in Harlan, it hardly matters.  Season Four was about two weeks in television land
• Also, so often a character is given a pregnancy simply so the writers have something to take away and manufacture some sympathy
• I want to work at the CIA and not wear a tie
• You can tell this is fiction because of the expected speedy confirmation.  In real life Senator Keith Olbermann employed several illegal immigrants to do his lawn, thus creating a political problem holing everything up
• Javadi shot his daughter in law in the face IN THE FAAACEE!
• Not quite evening them up, Saul nails him with the palm of his hand in the face.  IN THE FAAAACE! 
• Two murders in about two minutes for Javadi.  In cold blood.  I'm surprised there was no dog at the house for him to kick
• Homeland is generally not graphically violent.  The murders I can remember seeing up close have been bloodless (Veep, The Tailor).  While other victims are taken out from a distance or as part of a larger threat that we do not see the gory details of.
• They are all very matter of fact about glossing over the murder.  Get the murder weapon and follow the procedure.
• I wonder who designed the SOP for the CIA on murder ignoring
• "There's a lot of blood."  "It's a bloodbath" - Peter Quinn lacking poetry in describing the scene
• This episode was 48 minutes long with the credits and previouslies.  Most of the episodes have been in the 40-s, which is basically network length.  
• Sons of Anarchy has been running 90 minutes each week with commericials and it is too long

Tomorrow

During the federal government shutdown I re-watched episodes of West Wing, including......"Tomorrow"


You thought I was going to say "Shutdown"*


* That scene is not actually from "Shutdown" but the line is too appropriate to not use

I mentioned previously that "Tomorrow" is up there with the best recent series finales in the game due to how well it addresses the point of the series (show public service through the Bartlet administration) and gives farewells to characters we love.


The plot driving much of the final two seasons is wrapped up.  It was wrapped up episodes ago on Election Day Part I and II.  A few loose ends from the campaign and the new Congress were tied up in the subsequent episodes leaving for the finale...exactly what?

The absence of a larger storylines urgency allows the characters to reflect on their service and take the steps to the next station in life.  "Tomorrow" manages to not dawdle on newer characters, save for some Mr. & Mrs. Santos scenes (it'd e silly to completely ignore the new president we spent two years building toward) and focus on the longer tenured characters like CJ and Will and most of all Jed.  They head nod to others like Josh and Sam and we get to see cameos by Ron Butterfield and Mallory which not only do not feel forced for the sake of the finale, but woven in well with the episode's storylines. **


** I will admit there is one thing in this episode that drives me nuts.  Abigail wonders whose bright idea it was to hold an inauguration in January and Jed replies it was the Founding Fathers.  You know, Jefferson and those guys.  Except this is wrong.  Originally inauguration was held in March, partially because word traveled a lot slower in those days.  It was not until the 20th Amendment was ratified in 1933, and first being put into practice for FDR's second of eighteen inaugurals in 1937 that inauguration was held in January.  

This grates like nails on a chalkboard, or spelling Pittsburgh without the "h".  But it is not because of the factual error.  West Wing has more than it's share of incorrect, fictional or debatable facts on the show and these are often done in the interest of furthering a character, a mood, a scene or a plot.  This one is an unforced error because it does none of these things.  Jed, a student of history who can speak at length on every single national park, who stalls poker games with useless trivia, who annoys his Ford's Theater seatmates with endless Lincoln facts, would never get this wrong and it is incredibly out of character for him to do so.  Thank you for indulging me, rant over.


We know where Josh, Sam and Donna are going (to run the White House in their new, promoted, roles) so a quick acknowledgement is all we need.

Through CJ and Will and Charlie we are able to reflect on their time and service to the country.  A lot is said in a wordless scene where Will pops into the office to find his compter contents archived.  Here, West Wing manages to give a "life goes on" type ending.  Even though the characters are moving on, there is still business to be done.  Capped by a changing of the guard type scene taking place exactly at noon, the White House service staff move the Bartlet portrait down and the Santos portrait up.  It's the best since Tim Bayliss left BPD Homicide


Toby's pardon situation provides a semi-suspenseful story throughout the episode so as to include some sort of conflict, which is good considering the other storylines are wrapped up.  Appropriately, it involves Jed's internal conflict weighing his principals the office of the presidency right up until he signs it as his final act, knocking on the desk like a judge ending court.

Mallory's appearance is more than welcome due to her gift to the president, and her being the only person who could logically give it to the president.  While the show was about public service via Bartlet's presidency, the soul of it lay in the friendship between Jed and Leo.  How the oldest of friends supported each other through the toughest of times including world conflicts, addiction and disease was what made the show so endearing.  All other relationships on the show took their cues from Jed and Leo and would be viewed relative to theirs.  With John Spencer's sudden passing and the characters and the actors lost a dear friend.  The napkin lets us remember some of the finest moments in the show's run as well as our fictional mentor if there ever was one.

I don't have a television!!

Oh, hello!  I didn't see you there.

I Don't Own a Television will be on a brief hiatus beginning this week.  The "raw data" episode posts for Homeland and Boardwalk Empire will have intermission.

Do not to worry though!  I hear there are other places on the Internets you can find television analysis.  I recomend AV Club's TV Club.

Have an A-1 Day/week/fortnight.  Take care and God bless!








...Hodor...