TV Notes: Threshold, Desperate Housewives

[yendi]

Loved on, thought the other kinda blew:

Threshold: The more I watch this, the more I enjoy it. Not just because of watching Carla Gugino. Really.



Okay, so we've got evidence now that the aliens have been here before. So why haven't they colonized us? Was the initial probe just an automated scout, and maybe it landed, got buried, and the family that found it initially ended up activating it, thus inviting the more recent snowflake?

And why didn't the initial probe change local insects? Or was it too weak (as established later in the episode)?

One other thing I love: Brent Spiner manages to be completely un-Data-like. And the entire cast is wonderful.


Desperate Housewives:

Well, I do like what they're doing with Alfre, at least.



Wow. Two weeks, two suck-ass Lynette plotlines. So she's in a conflict with her hubby in which she's clearly in the right (a rarity on this show), and her reaction is to release a fucking rat inside her house? Just a ludicrous storyline. The guy was sleeping on baby vomit, for god's sake!

As for the other storylines, I knew we'd have the Bree/legal one this year, but do we really need another annoying mother-in-law? Unless we get a gag that each year, a wife kills a mother-in-law (directly or indirectly). That might be fun. But why the hell is the MiL still staying with Bree?

I did love the Susan plotline this time. Terri was well-used. And I'm still intrigued by the Applewhites. I'm assuming that at least part of the story she told her shrink was true, but that there are definitely details out of place (I've been assuming for a bit that that's not really her son). As it is, though, I can't just see the guy in the basement as an abusive husband, unless the goal is to have him escape and turn into the show's first true villain. Otherwise, it gives us no sympathy for him. I'm also not sure what the point of not showing his face is, unless we're supposed to know him. *shrug* I'm sure we'll find out soon.

Comments

[eyewrist.livejournal.com]

But why the hell is the MiL still staying with Bree?

My question? Where the hell did her KIDS go?

[yendi]

Heh. That was the other one I was wondering, but I figured it might make sense that they'd stay with some friends, or just spend some time alone (I know I did when my step-dad died, although I was younger than them).

[eyewrist.livejournal.com]

I suppose.. But I think they've always handled her kids in a strange way. Sometimes they're around, othertimes (like now) they just dissapear.

[yendi]

True. They're pretty much plot devices. But at least they're old enough to theoretically be on their own.

[eyewrist.livejournal.com]

Hm, did they ever resolve the thing with her son and the whole "leaving camp because I think I'm gay" thing.. ?

[yendi]

Nope. But they're supposed to give us more on that this year.

That one moment when the son turned to the daughter and said, "do I need your help?" last week certainly had interesting potential.

[sainthuck.livejournal.com]

There's always the "I ran over our neighbor's mother and I'm an unrepentant sociopath" thing that only kind of got resolved by the camp thing.

I'd assume they'd get back to that once the Mother-in-law storyarc is played out. I just loved Bree's huffy reactions to her vile child's lack of any remorse whatsoever.

[mgrasso.livejournal.com]

Blast! I just added Threshold to my Season Passes on your reviews, and it looks like I've missed... 2 eps? Blast.

[yendi]

Actually, 3 or four at this point. The pilot was a two-hour movie, and there have been two episodes since.

[mgrasso.livejournal.com]

Gah. Just what I hoped to avoid this fall; this was the one show I forgot and I've not liked any of the other new shows ("Bones," "Supernatural," "Invasion") I was told to check out.

[windswept.livejournal.com]

It's way better than any of those. Sevral orders of magnitude better. In fact, I wrote a little about it here:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/crazypills/350139.html

[ketzl.livejournal.com]

Yeah I'm into Threshold, it's fun and well-done. It's got us wondering-- the way the aliens have been presented, if they wanted to take over the whole planet in days or even hours, they obviously could and could have done it centuries ago. So what do they really want?

[yendi]

Well, if the initial artifact was just a scout, they may only recently have become aware of us. And it's clear that just destroying our world isn't the way -- they want to colonize, and we don't know all of their needs.

[cscottd.livejournal.com]

I like the way that the aliens seem to be terra-forming¹ by reprogramming all of the native DNA (although there's clearly even more to it than that, given what we've seen so far).

I'm still puzzled though by the fact that (as you mentioned earlier) none of the insects (or other animals, or plants) were changed by the "probe"... I wonder what that means, if anything.

---

¹ or rather whatevertheirplanetis-forming

[cscottd.livejournal.com]

Threshold: The more I watch this, the more I enjoy it.

This show is rapidly growing on me.

From the pilot, it seemed to be about the weakest of the "mysterious-thing-in-the-water" trio (Threshold, Invasion and Surface), but the last couple of episodes have been really excellent, and I'm liking it more and more.

[yendi]

The pilot had a lot of character intros, but once they got into regular interactions, it's a lot more effective.

Plus, none of the other shows had Carla Gugino. :-)

[cscottd.livejournal.com]

The pilot had a lot of character intros, but once they got into regular interactions, it's a lot more effective.

Definitely.

They seemed to have a lot more premise (and as you said, character intros) to set up than the other shows and I think it made the pilot seem a bit weaker (although I don't see any way it could've been avoided).

Now that the story's ramping up, however, it's really starting to shine.

Plus all of that setup is paying off, because I think it's really helping the characters to be interesting and three-dimensional.


Plus, none of the other shows had Carla Gugino. :-)

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that you're a fan of Carla Gugino. ;)

[yendi]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that you're a fan of Carla Gugino. ;)

Who, me? :-)

I'm still mourning Karen Sisco

(And I got a kick out of Carla's character having to fake being a US Marshall in ep #2).

[cscottd.livejournal.com]

I actually never saw Karen Sisco, but quite a few people whose television-related opinions I admire seem to have been big fans of it.

[sainthuck.livejournal.com]

Dang, looks like I picked the wrong creepy alien show to watch this year (I chose Invasion). I'll have to dig up some torrents for the Threshold eps I missed.

DH has one key weakness for me (actually two): Lynette is always a twit, and Gabrielle is always ALWAYS a brat. It's so hard to generate any sympathy for those two, though Lynette's back-to-work storyline was starting to reverse the trend. And then she goes off and dumps a RAT in her own house. Ayiyi.

Susan/Bree/Applewhites are the A-storylines so far, and anything that focuses on the best/funniest actors on the show (Teri/Marcia/Alfre) is good in my book.

[cscottd.livejournal.com]

Dang, looks like I picked the wrong creepy alien show to watch this year (I chose Invasion).

I'm still following both, so far.

Threshold really does keep getting better, but so far Invasion has been pretty good too.

Besides, Invasion is created/written by the same person who did American Gothic, which is another show that I really enjoyed (until it was cruelly axed).

[yendi]

I loved American Gothic.

And it comes out on DVD in 22 days!

[cscottd.livejournal.com]

I noticed that!

I just looked up American Gothic before replying to sainthuck's comment (just to make sure I wasn't mistaken) and I saw that it's due out on DVD.

I know someone who is going to have to shuffle around their DVD budget over the next few weeks. :)

[sainthuck.livejournal.com]

Shaun Cassidy did American Gothic, too?

This is the same Shaun Cassidy who was the 70's teen idol, right?

If he is, these two images just do not compute.

[yendi]

It's the same one. That's part of why AG was so surprising, for me (although Sam Raimi's involvement is what got me watching).

[cscottd.livejournal.com]

Yes.

And yes. :)

I had the same trouble juxtaposing those two concepts back when I first saw American Gothic, but I quickly realised that he's really good at what he does now, regardless of what he did back in the 70's.

Besides, pretty much all of us who were around back then have some equally embarrassing memories(and/or fashions and/or hairstyles), if we're honest about it. :)

[sainthuck.livejournal.com]

Hee. Yeah, that's true. And there's no law that says teen idols can't grow up to be creative producers of cool TV shows.

So what's this mean? In 20 years, will we be seeing Justin Timberlake's "Gothic American Invasion"?