Monthly Archives: August 2008

Review, Television

Psych: Daredevils

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Again, late with this one but spoilers anyway.

The show opened with a flashback to 1987 where Shaun is preparing to ride his bike over a ramp and another kid. Henry grabs him at the last minute. It makes sense that Shaun like daredevils and daredevils are his heroes. It totally fits his persona.

The episode was a pretty good one with most of the focus on the case that Shaun and Gus were working. They stumbled upon that case because of a daredevil named Dutch the Clutch who was played by the guy who plays Frank Laupidus on Lost. It was great seeing him on another show but funny that I could see the Laupidus character being a little like Dutch, they dressed the same and everything.

Shawn and Gus go to see Dutch Perform. Shaun spots a leaking gas line as Dutch goes through a ring of fire and concludes that someone is trying to murder Dutch. The guys then try and get into Dutch’s inner circle. They befriend Dutch’s son.

A couple of red herrings are thrown at us in the form of Dutch’s son and one of the guys on the crew but eventually Shaun finds the real mastermind behind the sabotage.

I personally am enjoying seeing a more grown up Shaun. It makes the character more believable and easier to identify with. I think that his approach to Dutch and what dutch was trying to do was very spot on. It showed real maturity on Shaun’s part.

Another storyline that is happening is the one on the Police side. Lassiter is having women troubles and Juliette is charged with finding him a date. This leads to a funny exchange with a hooker. I think we need some more episodes where Lassiter and Juliette are featured more prominently and not just peripheral.

Also if you ever wondered about the pineapple in every episode here are some theories.

Television

Burn Notice: Comrades

I am almost a week late with this review, but there still may be spoilers if you haven’t seen it. Things have been busy. I watched this episode on Saturday after I got home from London and also after watching the last 5 episodes of season 1. I am very glad that I bought season one on iTunes before my London trip. It gave me a chance to be occupied on my flights and to get the entire season in one/two sittings. I like the insight this gave me for future episodes.

The yogurt thing. Psych has the pineapple and Burn Notice is all about yogurt. Watching tons of episodes over and over you start to wait for the yogurt to appear. This week some frozen yogurt was used to sooth Sam’s hangover.

This week’s episode we see the return of Michael’s brother, Nate. Nate has been in Fort Lauderdale since Michael sent him and his mother there at the end of Season 1. Nate was more than a bit perturbed by being left out of the loop and up in Fort Lauderdale when the coast became clear.

This episode was also a great one for Sam to shine. I love Bruce Campbell and he was excellent in this episode. There were a few great scenes with he and Larry Miller. It was funny when you thought that Larry Miller was going to get the upper hand, then Sam turned things right around and got the better of him. It really looked like Sam was enjoying himself this episode and his talents were being used rather than being just a sidekick to whatever Michael wanted him to do.

The big crisis this week was a Ukrainian girl who’s sister was being held ransom. Hatyah paid some people to get her sister to this country. When she arrives they want more money or they will kill her. So Michael has to capture a guy who is in charge of hiding the girls and make him talk. It is up to Fiona and Sam to bring him in. In a scene that truly shows how warped Fiona is and how tough she is we see her tangle with the bad guy. She tries a stun gun but the guy knocks it out of her hand. She gets is back but he is holding her, instead of losing she zaps him anyway and because he is holding her she knocks herself out as well. Luckily Sam was backing her up and could bring her home.

Michael and Sam create a fake jail for the bad guy and Sam does his interrogation techniques on him. The guy is tough and will not crack. Now it is time for Michael to take on another persona and another accent. He becomes Sergei and he immediately gets in a fight with the guy and calls him a rat. This is a great technique to make the other guy want your trust. Through the course of a few days Michael gains the trust. Next the Prison Break.

Michael recruits Nate (begrudgingly) to be a guard, and in some of the funnier parts of the show Nate gets a couple good hits in on Michael, especially when Fiona was beating him up for his cover as Sergei. The out of no where punch from Nate was great. This was also a good episode in terms of character development. Michael actually admits that Nate was a help on this case and also that he, Michael, isn’t always right. I look forward to more character development this season. I just hope that Michael can find a balance to be part of his family and still be able to stay sharp as a spy.

In the end Michael “breaks out” of the prison with the bad guy. They go to the place where the girls are kept. Michael convinces the bad guy to go warn the big boss and then Michael’s crew shows up and saves the girls.

A couple of sub plots were happening here.
1. Sam trying to get some info on Carla through the Larry Miller Character.
2. The crisis of need of the week.
3. Michael’s relationship with his family.

I think this episode balanced these things very well.