Here’s a look back at the best and worst of TV in the past week (March 13-19), and a peek at what’s coming up.
Highlights
1. “The Pacific” (HBO). The first episode of the 10-part miniseries started off slow, ratcheting up the tension leading to the inevitable first battle with the Japanese on Guadalcanal. The night gunbattle was a harrowing, confusing mess in the dark, with tracer fire illuminating shadows and silhouettes before dawn revealed the staggering body count. The Guadalcanal scenes reminded me a lot of “The Thin Red Line,” both the movie and the book, and that’s not at all a bad thing. It was a sumptuous, moving hour that I’m betting was just a taste of even greater things to come.
2. “Justified” (FX). Timothy Olyphant just exuded cowboy cool. With his steely gaze, stubbly chin, quick draw and ice water in his veins, he’s a dead ringer for Clint Eastwood in his Spaghetti Western days. (Speaking of the quick draw, was I the only one who noticed a Han Solo homage? Part of me cheered, “Han shot first!” after Waylan Givens gunned down that dude.) And Walton Goggins was fantastic as the bomb-happy bad guy. The characters, the setting (rural Kentucky), the snappy dialogue . . . I can tell already I’m gonna like this series.
3. “Lost” (ABC). Sawyer as a cop. For that scene alone, it was an awesome episode. Not as plot-advancing as recent episodes, it was more of a set-up piece. But what a setup. I loved how Sawyer (sorry, I just can’t call him James or Ford or whoever), the ultimate con man, started making headway with UnLocke and Widmore by simply telling the truth. I saw some online chatter complaining that Charlotte was thrown in kinda randomly, that she deserved better than to be a one-night stand with Sawyer, but I have a different take. I think that whole date was just an excuse to reveal how Miles knows her — she works with his father at “the museum.” Hmmmm. So what is Dr. Marvin Candle/Pierre Chang doing working at a museum in parallel world? We know the Dharma Initiative existed in that timeline, and so did the island. Is the good doctor still affiliated with Dharma, and are he and Charlotte working for it in L.A.? Also, who do you think killed the Ajira survivors? My bet is Smokey/UnLocke. Widmore would be too easy. Oooh, and what (or who) is locked in that room on the sub? An anti-Smokey weapon? Or Desmond?
Lowlights
1. “Minute to Win It” (NBC). Wow, this is an unbelievably stupid show. Just an absolute waste of time. Case in point: One “challenge” has a guy tearing tissues out of a box. Seriously, don’t you have anything better to do with your life than watch a guy tear tissues from a box? Lord knows I do. It took me about 5 minutes to decide I’ll never watch again. A friend of mine had an idea on how to improve the show: Call it “Minute to Shin It” and have audience members kick an NBC programming executive in the shin for 60 seconds at a time. I’d totally watch that.
2. “The Office” (NBC). Jim and the rest of the sales staff have become total jerks (even Phyllis, WTF?). This was not an enjoyable half hour. Despite his inane plan, I was still on Michael’s side in the whole sales lead brouhaha. There are so few likable characters left (actually, in this episode, were there any? Darryl?). With the exception of the wedding and the birth, this has been a hugely disappointing season for a once great show.
3. “Amazing Race” (CBS). Was I the only one bothered by a fun romp on a World War I battlefield where half a million men died, and there wasn’t even any mention of that fact? I wouldn’t say it was quite poor taste, exactly, but more of an odd thing that made me go “Hmmm.” Maybe I had battlefield horrors on my mind because of “The Pacific.” The racers, meanwhile, were spouting off one stupid thing after another. Caite’s charming “I’m going to eat the crap out of that baguette” and “This baguette is good, I’m glad there was no like crap in it”; Brent’s description of airplanes: “They’re in some sort of flying things!”; Heidi’s theory that her and Joe’s unconditional love gave them an advantage no one else had (err, how about the father-daughter, or brothers?); and Brandi’s incessant whining about having to crawl. I’m hating most of these teams. I like the cowboys and cops, and the father-daughter might be OK but we never see them. The rest? Suck. Speaking of suck, Joe and Heidi apparently spent over six hours on their Morse code challenge. Ouch. That would suuuuuck.
Looking forward to . . .
1. “Breaking Bad” (10 p.m. Sunday, AMC). The season premiere is here, as Walt tries to pick up the pieces of his broken family. And still be a drug kingpin. This is gonna be good.
2. “Lost” (9 p.m. Tuesday, ABC). It’ll be a Richard-centric episode. Finally, we’ll get some answers about him. Well, maybe.
3. “The Pacific” (10 p.m. Sunday, HBO). It really is up there with “Band of Brothers” in terms of quality. Can’t wait for whatever comes next.
