TV is the New Reading

Week welcomes returning shows

I blogged about “FlashForward” last week without the opportunity to take in the “What Did You See?” special. I’m not sure what was going on in December when I managed to miss a pretty significant episode, where they went to Hong Kong and FBI agent Demetri, part of the Mosaic task force, was convinced his partner, Mark, was going to shoot him three times at close range.

Mark of course has no reason ever to do this, but the mysterious Iranian lady said that she was reading the report in her flashforward, that Demetri would be killed and soon.

Well, soon is hard in the world of television programming, because fellow agent Janis needed to be in her second trimester by April and it is now March and she is still just conceiving. Programming realities being what they are we will absolutely be suspending disbelief on that. If they could just have gotten this one last episode in before the hiatus the timeline … still wouldn’t be perfect because there was a two-hour special last week to split between the 10^th and the 17^th, and if they’d run those in December they’d have aired Thursday’s episode on Christmas Eve, and there’s simply no way they’re airing expensive, original one-shot programming on Christmas Eve. So … someone’s programming math broke down.

The Aaron Stark “You kidnapped my daughter. Prepare to die” storyline is a bit ridiculous because it’s like “Edge of Darkness” or “Taken,” except instead of a highly trained officer at the top of his game it’s Aaron Stark, a rundown alcoholic, beating up trained Jericho operatives and breaking into the home of a multimillion dollar munitions mogul James Erskine to track his abducted daughter, Tracy, to Kandahar.

Tracy, see, had witnessed Jericho operatives prosecuting a massacre of civilians in Afghanistan, so she landed in their crosshairs. Why they kidnapped her, why they didn’t just kill her is beyond me, but oh well. Aaron has access to the means of tapping Erskine’s phone and the roof of his palatial home, from which he dangles his daughter’s former boyfriend – now her betrayer – with a message, “Happy Birthday,” scrawled on his tummy. That and the birthday hat on his head and wow did Aaron seem to have plenty of uninterrupted time to mess around unobserved on the roof of the home of a multimillionaire, having lugged a 150 pound guy up there in the first place, and with no team nor means of prior reconnaisance or access to any more information than, say, I would have.

Yes, I know, it establishes him as a badass, someone you wouldn’t want to mess around with, but there’s no good reason – especially after he announced his presence to Erskine himself – that he’d have the access or leeway to accomplish this badassery. He must be a magical ninja!

Others

“Grey’s Anatomy” is in something of a holding pattern. Along with introducing all of George’s rambunctious siblings and Meredith’s little sister Lexi (why did she go blonde? Was that necessary? Is there a quota of blondes you need to have on the show? Why not red? There’s a real dearth of redheads in Seattle), now Alex Karev’s brother is here to … yell at him, which is the default greeting on this show. I’m not bored but I’m not that interested. Seems like they’re also going to the baby well again. You’d think one of them would actually have had one by now.

This show is silly, and it no longer has the best music on television. I actually haven’t heard much good from much of anyone recently. At least on “Mercy” there’s still plenty of truly fun character-driven stuff to do. Like when everyone was gathered in Veronica’s parents’ living room morning after St. Paddy’s Day and as new Flanagans stumbled into the gathering – one of them with a green sparkly wig on his head – three of them protested that they did not need an intervention. Chloe agonized that she might have slept with a Flanagan, and another Flanagan wife chose the moment to intervene about her husband’s porn addiction. Freeqin’ hilarious.

Mostly I’m looking forward to some good stuff this week. “Chuck” continues winding down its storyline. Also, on “24,” someday someone’s going to explain to me how terrorists planning to leave the country with weapons-grade nuclear material – i.e., they’re simply transporting it from place to place – can themselves not only repurpose it for a radiological attack on Manhattan, but also have access to an EMP device sufficient to wipe out the New York offices of CTU, which I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t have access to and can’t believe would be on the shelves at the local Radio Shack – all within a few hours. That’s just nutty. Get ‘em, Jack.

Also on deck, the series resume of “V” on ABC – you’ll recall after Visitor leader Ana blissed everyone out at the end of the fourth episode there was a flash to a number of V ships lying in wait for … a visit. If you’ve got a good memory. It’s been awhile. It’s a weird storyline – they know they’re superior to us in every way so why bother with outreach and ambassadors and exchanges when they’re simply going to plunk down and take over.

I guess it would be easier to simply poison us than fight us (though it seems both methods are equally easy for them), so I guess we can kick back and enjoy watching that as well. P.S. – Syfy is airing the original series again for everyone who didn’t get enough of that the first time.

Finally, more Anna Torv, please! An all new “Fringe” returns Thursday on FOX with a storyline specially formulated to chill the blood as a young Walter makes some pretty earth-shattering decisions about his son, the universe and everything.

“Chuck” airs Mondays at 8/7c on NBC, “24” airs Mondays at 9/8c on FOX, “V” resumes Tuesday at 10/9c on ABC, and “Fringe” returns at 9/8c on FOX. Also, “FlashForward” continues at 8/7c Thursdays on ABC, and “Grey’s Anatomy” airs at 9/8c Thursdays on ABC, and “Mercy” airs at 8/7c Wednesdays on NBC.

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