Thursday (October 23) - The Question of Aesthetics

I'm not feeling too well, so this TV Warrior update will be shorter than others.

CSI 9.3 - "Art Imitates Life"

I totally dug the Mannequin Serial Killer. Standing the bodies up was a new one. Also good: continuing cracks in the Gil Grissom facade. I think the double blow of losing Warrick and then re-losing Sara right on top has affected Grissom tremendously, and it paves the way for his leaving.


On the other hand, I hated the new girl Riley Adams (Lauren Lee Smith) from the first moment I saw her, but I think I was supposed to, so maybe I kind of love her. She has an abrasive personality that HAS to be designed to antagonize the audience, at least at first. She also smiles too much. Reminds me of Denise Richards in STARSHIP TROOPERS. There are situations where smiling just seems weird. Sara would hate her. Time will tell how the others take to her.

One other great line. Jeffrey Tambour has a great role as an arrogant artist. (I hope we see him again.) At one point he's shown pictures of the dead bodies, and turns them away, saying, "I can't stand looking at inferior art....it sears into my subconscious like bad Mexican Food."

Ouch.

Sometime (when I have more to give), we should discuss whether murder ever rises to Art.

Life on Mars 1.3 - "My Maharishi is Bigger than Your Maharishi"

After last week's disastrous episode, I was almost ready to write this show off. I gave it one more week, and this was a much stronger episode, although still weird. Why wouldn't this guy go visit wherever it is she supposed transfered in from (upstate NY?), and see if he indeed had a life, or if he just time-travelled. Seems like an easy thing to check.

Anyway, I continue to love Harvey Keitel, who gets to smack people around and care about gay people, but Michael Imperioli is still unused. Not sure how much longer I will stick with Mars, but the quality of last night's ep says at least one more week.

Eleventh Hour 1.3 - "Agro"

I've given up hope that the blonde chick will be scantily clad any time soon, so I'm left with the strange performance of Rufus Sewell, and further comparison between Eleventh Hour and Fringe. The show is interesting and all, but the way it's set up, I find it hard to believe two people would go all the investigating, and the science, and everything else. I mean, there are other people in the FBI. Why wouldn't they help out too?

World Series

With the long overdue retirement of Billy Packer, is there a more annoying sports announder than Tim McCarver? It's gotten so that I watch 80% of the game with the sound off. Sad.