The Right Reasons: An Advance Review of Tonight's Episode of The Good Wife

Do we do things for the right or wrong reasons? When you cut beneath the surface, are all the "right" reasons really wrong?

I've been raving about CBS' gripping and intelligent series The Good Wife all season long, and hopefully the praise has rubbed off on those who wouldn't normally tune into a legal drama.

But The Good Wife is no mere episodic courtroom potboiler: it's a canny and critical arbiter of society and technology, a stirring and often emotional exploration of family and morals in the media age, a portrait of working women, and a romance- and intrigue-laden drama that manages to stir both your heart and your mind on a weekly basis.

Tonight's episode of The Good Wife ("Great Firewall"), written by creators Robert King and Michelle King (with a story by Leonard Dick) and directed by Nelson McCormick, ranks up there with some of the very best installments the series has produced to date, an exceptionally crafted installment that juxtaposes the political maneuverings of Peter Florrick's campaign with the backroom politics underway at Lockhart, Gardner, and Bond.

There's an innate elegance to the parallel structure of the stories unfolding here, games of manipulations and shadows enacted to entrap and foil various adversaries. As Alan Cumming's Machiavellian Eli Gold attempts to turn the three-way race for state's attorney into a two-man battle, Diane (Christine Baranski) and Will (Josh Charles) find themselves attempting to outwit Derrick Bond (Michael Ealy) through some underhanded means of their own.

But this is The Good Wife, after all, which means that the action concerns itself with both the bedroom and the courtroom. The case this week focuses on Shen Yuan (Lost's Ken Leung), a Chinese dissent who was tortured for five years in prison after his IP address was turned over to the Chinese government after he posted an anonymous blog about democracy coming to the Communist country. While no one sets foot into a courtroom this week (the action revolves around a series of depositions), the tension over the case and the ethical questions it raises give this week's episode a visceral punch. Should American companies operating oversees have to follow the letter of the law abroad? Is there a moral dimension to the cost of doing business?

In this case, it's the social networking site that's being sued after they turned over Shen's IP address to the Chinese authorities. Did they have a legal obligation to do so? Were there unforeseen consequences to their actions that they couldn't anticipate? That's the defense undertaken by the global site's counsel, Viola Walsh (Rita Wilson, reprising her role here), who returns to Chicago and is sitting on the other side of the table from her one-time friend Diane. Viola argues just that, bringing in a slew of experts and witnesses in an effort to derail Shen's case.

In addition to Leung and Wilson, the episode is overflowing with strong guest stars. Look for The Big C's John Benjamin Dickey to turn up as Neil Gross, the hoodie-wearing head of the social networking site who is raked over the coals by Will and Co. during the deposition. While I don't want to give too much away about the case (or the episode as a whole), I will say that there's an additional dimension to the case, one with ramifications for companies doing business overseas as well as personal ones for the firm itself. Opening the door to the light in China comes with a price, it seems.

Elsewhere, a tip from Zach (Graham Phillips) and Becca (Dreama Walker) might just help Eli eliminate one of the players from the state's attorney race, after the recent revelation that Wendy Scott-Carr (Anika Noni Rose) employed an illegal alien for five years. While Eli grappled with whether or not to out the illegal nanny (America Ferrera), he ultimately pulled the trigger after getting to know her on a personal level. (SPOILER: I'm told she'll return later this season in two episodes.)

We've seen all three players here engage in some dirty politicking as they hope to nab the position. Fingers of blame are pointed, wriggling attempted, and ultimately the conniving and manipulation, the games of politics, pay out in dividends. But, just as in China, there's a price to pay for such business. Politics and big business are both morally corrupt institutions and the hypocrisy of both worlds is all too clear here. Look for Julianna Margulies' Alicia to see first hand just what price is and how it changes the way she looks at someone at the firm. What is interesting is the way in which Zach and Becca jump into the race, all but giving Eli a smoking gun to use against Glenn Childs (Titus Welliver).

That smoking gun metaphor applies to the battle for the future of the firm as well, especially with the eleventh hour plotting by Diane, Will, Julius (Michael Boatman), and David Lee (Zach Grenier) against Bond, as they attempt to gain the upper-hand over the named partner by any means necessary. I'm erring on the side of caution here so as not to spoil, but there are some great scenes between Diane and "altacocker" Howard Lynn (Jerry Adler) and use of Roger Stern's "Gang of Three." I will say, however, that by the end of the episode, the ultimate fate of the firm will be revealed...

Those wondering why there's been little mention of Kalinda Sharma (Archie Panjabi), rest assured that our favorite investigator is being used here to good effect. A change of address card brings some unexpected consequences for Kalinda, who appears to be opening up. Look for a sweet and hysterical scene between Kalinda and Alicia (hint: it jokingly involves "Eat Pray Love") and an intriguing one between Kalinda and Matt Czuchry's Cary Agos. Could it be that the little card Kalinda sent out is her way of opening up to some people? Or is she attempting something else altogether? An attempt to protect herself? And how does this play into the repeated calls she was receiving last week, potentially from that mysterious husband of hers? Hmmm...

Ultimately, "Great Firewall" is one of those episodes of The Good Wife that lingers with you long after the closing credits have run, an installment that fuses together the breakneck pacing of an episodic legal plot with payoffs in the overarching story. There will be numerous consequences yet to unfold as a result of this pivotal and gripping episode. It's not to be missed.

The Good Wife airs tonight at 10 pm ET/PT on CBS.

Family Business: Trust Issues on Chuck

If there's one thing that Chuck has dealt with on an ongoing basis, it's matters of trust and fidelity in the spy world, where such things are seen as potential weaknesses to be exploited rather than strengths.

Over the course of the last four seasons, Chuck Bartowski has been transformed from a naive asset into a full-blown spy of his own and I don't mean thanks to the Intersect (which still manages to flash and give him information or enable him to engage in some kick-ass Kung Fu), but rather his demeanor and way of handling himself in the field has changed significantly. Whereas he and Sarah were once on separate trajectories (he wants to be extraordinary! she wants to be normal!), they've now settled somewhere in the middle together, a spy couple whose missions are backdrops for their romantic endeavors.

This week's episode of Chuck ("Chuck Versus the First Bank of Evil") found the one-time spy wannabe engaging with his own asset, Vivian MacArthur Volkoff (Lauren Cohan), the daughter of notorious international criminal Alexei Volkoff, who has been spirited off to a top-flight CIA holding facility. But, unlike some of the other agents who work in government espionage, Chuck hasn't lost sight of his own moral compass. It's clear that he cares for Vivian and that the two, whose childhoods are remarkably similar in some ways, are two simpatico souls desperate to reconnect with the parents who seemingly turned their backs on them years before.

But the balance of power has shifted. Whereas once before, Chuck would have been the one duped into assisting, say, the CIA, he now is the CIA and he's the one making promises here, offering Vivian the chance to see her father in exchange for her help on a mission to Macau. The only problem is that Beckman has no intentions of letting Vivian see Alexei and Chuck's broken promise to Vivian unwittingly sends the conflicted woman over to the dark side...

Personally, I'm of two minds about Vivian. On the one hand, I'm glad to see that we're witnessing the birth of a highly conflicted villain, one who is being pulled into the family business, not because of greed or a need to take over the world, but because she doesn't know where her heart is leading her. Volkhoff's unpredictable dangerous quality isn't due entirely to his ruthlessness, it's also due to his world-class gift for emotional manipulation, as we saw earlier this season.

His presents to Vivian--an account card to a bank, which leads her to a safety deposit box containing photographs and mementos of Vivian as a child, Volkoff's most prized possessions--are clearly intended to tip her hand, to make her see that Alexei didn't turn his back on her but kept a close eye on her, grooming her as his future replacement. Which is exactly the agenda that Riley (the always fantastic Ray Wise) pushes when he encounters Vivian on two separate occasions: they need her to step into her father's shoes and what better way than by turning her against Chuck and her handlers? Despite the obvious connection between Vivian and Chuck, Riley is able to effortlessly drive a wedge between the two of them. After all, isn't Chuck responsible for the arrest and detainment of her father?

On the other hand, there's been a lot of focus on Vivian the last two weeks. While I applaud the show's writers for offering us a different type of villain--and a female villain, no less--than we've seen to date, Vivian's development comes at the expense of other characters' screentime, something I hope balances out now more that we've seen Vivian seemingly make her choice (i.e., the final shot of her in the car with Riley at the end).

I can't shake the feeling that the Buy More and its staffers (sorry, Jeffster fans) are more or less superfluous these days (RenFair humor?), as are Ellie and Devon largely. I'm glad to see that Sarah and Ellie are (finally!) bonding between last week's scene and this week's wedding preparation, and their interactions in "Chuck Versus the First Bank of Evil" injected some Bridezilla comedy into the mix, to boot. (I didn't, however, need the extended montage of Sarah trying on wedding dresses--would Castle really have a huge assortment of bridal gowns?--but it did at least pay off with the bullet hole-ridden gown that Sarah set her sights on.)

And the positioning of Vivian front and center meant that Casey was once more relegated to the background, something that troubles me when I think of how much fun the missions were when it was Chuck, Sarah, and Casey together. Far too often these days, Casey is paired with Morgan, which is fine but it seems to be happening all the time now... and, hell, Morgan is now his roommate. (Which will, hopefully, mean that the relationship between Casey and Alex might finally get some much-needed development.) Here, Morgan catches Casey involved in something clandestine in a secret sector of Castle. We're not privy as to just what Casey's mission really is, but Morgan overhears that it will involve a TR-476 and there's the matter of that odd corridor in Castle. Just what is he up to? And how does it tie into the Volkoff story arc? Hmmm...

Some other thoughts:

• Loved the fact that the writers used the famous Lost numbers sequence (4-8-15-16-23-42) on Vivian's Bank of Macau card. A nice touch that was further served by the presence of Lost's Francois Chau (Pierre Chang!) as the bank manager.
• I was concerned that black-clad Chuck and Sarah's robbery of the bank would tip too much towards being The Matrix but the walked a very fine line and came out on the right side, puncturing the tension by having Chuck and Sarah discuss wedding plans.
• I'm still not convinced that Castle ("J. Crew for spies") would have an actual selection of wedding dresses to choose from in its costume department, but it was a good way to payoff the earlier scene with Chuck finding Vivian appropriate attire for their mission
• I'm glad we haven't seen the last of Ray Wise's Riley, here whispering poison into Vivian's ear.
• I love that Sarah, who was so conflicted about wedding planning, becomes obsessed with it, throwing herself into the arrangements as though it were a tactical mission, dreaming up elaborate plans for a ceremony on a private island and flying the cake in from Paris. It's a believable transformation, and I'm hoping that her need to pull off the "perfect" wedding leads to a return of Gary Cole as her con man father.

All in all, "Chuck Versus the First Bank of Evil" is a fun episode that won't necessarily rank as the very best Chuck has had to offer, but I thought it represented a significant improvement over some of the clunkers we've been given of late.

What did you think of last night's episode? A winner or a miss? What is your take on Vivian Volkoff? Head to the comments section to discuss.

In two weeks on Chuck ("Chuck Versus the A-TEAM"), Chuck and Sarah begin to investigate when they suspect that Casey is carrying out private missions; Chuck fears that the CIA's seemingly-perfect new operatives will render him obsolete; Morgan settles in with a new roommate, and Awesome panics when Ellie embarks on a potentially dangerous line of research.

Game of Thrones: The Maester's Path

I have traveled to Pentos and the Inn at the Crossroads.

Thanks to HBO (and Campfire)'s new immersive experience The Maester's Path, I've accrued the first link in my maester's chain. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then you haven't read George R.R. Martin's "A Game of Thrones," the first in the author's multi-volume novel series which is about to hit the airwaves next month as HBO's Game of Thrones.

Last week, I tweeted that I had received an ornate wooden box from HBO containing scrolls, vials of various scents (from incense and pear brandy to wood beams and salt harbor). Following the instructions (lovingly embodied in a series of hand-tied scrolls), I was directed to mix the scents to create two blends, each one embodying two locations within the world of Game of Thrones. Pear brandy, wooden beams, and crusty bread combined to form the heady perfume of the Inn at the Crossroads, while salt harbor, incense, and spice market formed Pentos.

Over at Cultural Learnings, Myles McNutt discusses his thoughts on the transmedia implications of sending out these immersive kits to critics, bloggers, and fansite webmasters, all "opinion leaders" whose experiences here all help to promote the series to their followers. Personally, I find it refreshing to receive a press kit that is thoughtful and which ties into the program on offer, rather than more junk to stuff away in a closet, free swag that's neither in keeping with the tone or tenor of the show it's meant to be promoting nor something you want to keep in your house. (American Idol TV tray, I'm looking at you.)

What HBO has done is create an expanding array of experiences to actively engage the user, transporting him or her to Westeros directly.

Rather than send an stock object, HBO's marketing team has commissioned a series of uniquely authentic experiences, each of which serves to bring the user into the world of Game of Thrones by engaging their various senses. This one, which comprises the first link in the maester's chain is meant to get the user to use their olfactory senses, to engage with the material in a way that goes beyond the normal screener and press notes. Instead, you're invited into the world itself, to participate in the atmosphere, to engage directly and perform proactive tasks: mixing perfumes, reading maps, deciphering clues.

The scent bottles each contained a specific symbol on the "aged" glass bottles. Fansites such as Westeros.org and Winter-Is-Coming.Net spent much of the last few days attempted to decipher clues in their meaning, or unlock hidden messages contained within the maps. Today, HBO unveiled its tie-in website for The Maester's Path, adding a further layer of interface to the user experience. Those symbols unlocked the first link in the maester's chain, as users had to use a rubric to match up the symbols to their scent blends for four locations in the kingdom of Westeros.

The site promises several more experiences yet to arrive, likely tied to each of the four remaining senses (I'm holding out hope for lemoncakes for the "taste" portion) and an opportunity to grab another link in the maester's chain each Monday. I'm curious to see just what turns up over the next few weeks on my doorstep. Will there be Dothraki verses to translate? Weirwood branches to touch? Lemoncakes to eat? (Pretty please?)

While I've been on board with HBO's Game of Thrones since I saw the original pilot last spring, events such as these serve to separate the series from the pack of numerous (and countless) offerings on television. Not because The Maester's Path is an inclusive experience, per se (it's not, unfortunately, due to the cost involved with sending out these custom-designed boxes), but because there's a thought to quality and overall satisfaction here.

This isn't just swag, but an opportunity to extend audience engagement beyond the linear broadcast, to get viewers to ask questions, theorize, discuss, and engage, all with the intention of pushing awareness of the show and its launch in April. It's both canny and informative, and it reduced even this jaded critic to the gleeful curiosity of childhood fascination.

(Meanwhile, you too can join the Maester's Path and play along as well. Click here to begin your own journey to Westeros.)

Game of Thrones premieres April 17th at 9 pm ET/PT on HBO.

Uninvited Guests: Til Death Do Us Part on Big Love

"We're on separate paths." - Adaleen

While the Henricksons have overcome many huge obstacles over the last five seasons, it seems as though the thing that's tearing them apart might be themselves. Through thick and thin, through betrayal and compromise, Bill and his wives have always seen past the here and now to the eternal, to the celestial kingdom where their family would spend forever walking hand in hand.

But that eternal happiness is now being called into question, as is their felicity among the quotidian existence of life on earth. This week's episode of Big Love ("Til Death Do Us Part"), written by Aaron Allen and directed by David Petrarca, found the Henricksons besieged on all sides: from Albert Grant's vengeful vendetta against Bill, to the LDS Church, and among themselves, as the paper wedding of Bill and Nicki fast approached.

We've been told that their marriage is a legal formality, a means to an end as it would allow the two to legally adopt Cara-Lynn and keep her safe. But it's also thrown the order of their family structure into chaos, it seems. Bill and Barb are now divorced and that opens up a host of questions both celestial and mundane. With law enforcement gathered at the door, the dissolution of Barb and Bill's marriage creates a situation that could spell their doom. It's one that they didn't see coming, even as the audience was waiting for the other shoe to drop as family and friends gathered together to witness the union between Bill and Nicki.

I will say that Nicki is so infrequently outwardly giving that when she does have moments of true generosity and appreciation for her sister-wives, it's entirely genuine, such as it was here. The moment that passed between Nicki and Barb, as she thanked Barb for everything, was a true heartfelt moment in every sense of the words. There was no deception here, no manipulation, no underhandedness. It was a blushing bride on her wedding day, and it was impossible not to feel that Nicki was--perhaps truly for the first time in her life--blissfully happy. She got her storybook wedding, her white dress, and her day in the spotlight. She became, in that instant, the one and only Mrs. Henrickson.

As for Barb, she wanted to be a part of the ceremony in any way that she could. While I worried, early on, that this would be a platform for her bid for the priesthood, Barb put aside any doctrine on Nicki's wedding day in order to serve as a true conduit between Nicki and Bill, to literally marry them to together but also figuratively, to put the hands of her husband and sister-wife together, to join them in an unbreakable bond, linking all three in the act of marriage.

Which is why what came later was such a colossal betrayal. Refusing to acquiesce to the others' request for a resealing, Barb was stunned to discover Bill, Nicki, and Margene being resealed without her. Even if it doesn't change her beliefs--that all four of them are sealed for all eternity--it was enough to rock her foundations to the core. The three of them have pledged themselves to one another... while Barb stands, alone, in the hallway. Does she have a place in this family? In their celestial home? Is she witnessing, in those moments, the end of her marriage altogether, both on paper and in her heart of hearts? Does she still believe her words at the wedding, that her family is "ordained of God?

Barb, of course, is no longer legally married to Bill. While she might retain his last name and control of the family finances, Barb has lost certain legal entitlements. Perhaps most notably the right not to be forced to testify against her husband. Now that she's a free agent in the eyes of the law, she could be forced to speak in court against Bill, currently under investigation for statutory rape.

In the state of Utah--and correct me if I'm wrong here--there is currently no statute of limitations on crimes of this nature, which means that Bill can still be tried for this act even though years have passed since Margene was a minor. But the damage is done: even if Bill was unaware that Margene was 16 when he bedded and later married her, ignorance of the crime does not excuse its execution. Margene may have deceived Bill and the others, but the onus doesn't lie on her as she was under the age of consent and therefore not responsible for her complicity in the affair.

Margene knows she did something wrong, even if it's taken her years to "remember" and admit this to the family. Unfortunately, she did so while Heather was around. It's a weighty knowledge that Heather can't easily shrug off and she ends up confessing her troubles to her bishop... who promptly sees this opportunity for what it is: the plunging of the sword of Damocles hanging over the head of Bill Henrickson. While Heather may have done some maturing of late, she's still woefully naive, and she believes that the privileged information that she shared with the bishop would remain in confidence. But this is a game of politics and of church that the players are engaged in, and the Mormon Church just had a smoking gun fall into their laps.

Meanwhile, while the feds investigate Bill's crime, Margene realizes that her experiences are unfolding once more within the Henrickson clan. While she finds Cara-Lynn's romance with Gary adorable and sweet, she soon realizes what is actually going on right under their noses: under-age Cara-Lynn is involved in a sexual affair with Greg Ivey. While everyone--most notably Nicki, who believes Greg has a crush on her--is oblivious to this fact, it's telling that it's Margene who picks up on the subtle cues, the familiarity between Cara-Lynn and Greg as she stands on her toes and whispers in his ear. She sees the signs because she experienced them. What she sees in that stolen moment is herself and Bill brought to life.

It's interesting to me that a show that focuses on beliefs and values would have so many characters undone by their libidos, as is so often the case with fallen religious leaders in real life. Bill's affair with Margene, Cara-Lynn's with Greg, Ben's one-night stand with Rhonda, and Alby's homosexual proclivities (a shepherd who lay with another shepherd, in Bill's words), these all represent faith-based characters being led astray, their souls falling into perdition, thanks to their hearts. But life is full of repeating patterns: snowflakes, butterfly wings, mothers and daughters. If we don't face up to the past, we're doomed to repeat it... or our children are. A trip to the theatre isn't just about poor people singing about freedom, but an opportunity to engage in an inappropriate relationship. (Greg's mother even seems, for a split second, to have twigged to what's really going on here.)

(And, yes, so too has Lois' mind has been lost, thanks to her husband's numerous improprieties. Her rage at what's befallen her is unleashed upon Barb several times in this episode, Lois' fury embedded in the vicious comment she hurls at her son's first wife: "I'm glad my son divorced you." While she may not mean it, it's a comment that hits home for Barb in that moment.)

Other thoughts:

• Alby seems hell-bent on "purifying" the compound through any means necessary, abolishing all technology at Juniper Creek after the kids allegedly discovered "sexting," though he's free to pay Verlan to strip for him. (I'm convinced that Verlan was a hustler before meeting up with Rhonda; he's far too easily paid for his services here.)
• Rhonda claims she lives with Crystal and her friend Jeff, but Ben sees no signs of anyone living there. Is Rhonda just squatting in an empty house? And how long before ticking timebomb Rhonda tells Heather what she and Ben got up to while they were on a break?
• I'm glad that neighbors Carl and Pam have remained in the series throughout its run. Here, we see these two engaged in a fight about finances in front of Margene's Goji Blast group that's both timely and depressing.
• Michael Sainte clearly has Margene wrapped around his little finger. It's refreshing to see Sainte be revealed as being a fraud and a crook while preaching prosperity through charity.
• I'm hoping that Greg and Cara-Lynn's relationship comes to light and that it's Margene who puts a stop to it.
Lois and the chicken bones? Heartbreaking.

Finally, I felt as though Adaleen's words about being on a separate path hover uneasily over the episode; they're spoken to Nicki about why she won't attend the wedding (though she does come to her senses in time), but they apply here to the entire cast of characters. While it seemed for so long that nothing could break up this family, everyone seems to be walking on very separate paths these days.

Which is scary, as the thing that the Henrickson clan needs now more than ever is unity, something that's rather scarce these days. Just as Bill and Nicki come together in matrimony, we're seeing evidence of fractures everywhere else. And, what worries me, is that the ice is cracking right under their feet and the Henricksons don't even see it.

Next week on Big Love ("The Noose Tightens"), Bill looks to Albyʼs past in an effort to thwart his ambitions, leading Alby to concoct yet another diabolical scheme to bring down the Henricksons; Barb finds herself targeted as her husbandʼs accomplice as the investigation continues; Nickiʼs “rescue” of a skittish compound wife complicates life at home, and lands her in hot water at Juniper Creek; Margene finds herself at the crossroads in her business with Goji Blast; Don suffers emotional aftershocks that could have a lasting impact on Home Plus; Cara Lynnʼs secret leaks out; Heather apologizes for spilling the beans about Margene.

Academy of Motion Picture Tedium: Was This the Worst Oscars Ever?

Just a few quick words about last night's experiment in tedium that was the 83rd Annual Academy Awards.

Over the years, the Oscars have gotten the (rightful earned) reputation for being a bloated, boring telecast of an awards show. Overblown and hyperbolic, the Academy Awards have often represented a largely three-hour-plus snoozefest, apart from Billy Crystal's memorable opening monologue/montages and some occasional upsets.

But this year's Oscars broadcast, hosted by James Franco and Anne Hathaway, might just go down in the history books as the Worst Oscars broadcast ever.

Painfully awkward, unfunny, and sluggish, last night's awards ceremony dragged on for three and a half hours with barely a laugh thrown in. As The King's Speech rather predictably swept through the awards categories (and I say that as someone who was a devotee of the film), the entire affair seemed to be a deflated mess of a show, a bizarre mix of history lesson, stage elements, auto-tuned music videos, and kids singing at exactly the moment everyone wanted to stream out of the cavernous Kodak Theatre auditorium.

When poor Kirk Douglas gets the biggest laughs of the evening as he's uncomfortably trotted up to the podium to announce the Best Supporting Actress winner, it's a sign that something's wrong in Hollywood, and Hathaway and Franco seemed at times to be alternately bored (Franco), overly peppy (Hathaway), or as though they were hosting Saturday Night Live again.

While the two seemed game enough at first, as the evening wore on, their expressions drooped considerably. Jokes about this being a youth-centric Oscars broadcast hit close to home. Elements such as the previously mentioned auto-tune music video, the hackneyed Inception "homage" gambit, etc. all seemed to scream the Academy's intention to make this the most accessible and "fun!" Oscars ever for the young'uns. How wrong they were, as more consideration seemed to be spent on Hathaway's numerous costume changes than in making the telecast, well, funny. Or even remotely entertaining.

Yes, there were some genuinely entertaining moments within the tediousness. I thought that The King's Speech screenwriter David Seidler gets the award for the best speech of the evening. (Colin Firth is the runner-up here.) Melissa Leo, who took home the Oscar for Supporting Actress even after those campaign ads, had the most bizarre acceptance speech of the evening, though her historic F-bomb was perhaps the most unscripted moment of the entire night. (The same can't be said for Best Actress Natalie Portman, who thanked everyone involved with Black Swan, including the camera operators. Sweet? Perhaps, but also a little calculated.)

I had thought that no one was going to get booted offstage before they finished, so why did the director try to cut off--off all people--verbose Aaron Sorkin, who won for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Social Network and the producers of said film, who won Best Picture?!? Yes, the show was running 30 minutes over, but perhaps they would have been better to scrap some of the needless "theme" elements peppered throughout the broadcast, especially as the winners of the Governor's Award were trotted out on stage to wave rather than, you know, actually say anything on-screen.

Me, I'm just lucky that I TiVo'ed the ceremony and started over an hour and a half late, so I could skip through the commercials and over some of the dullness of this boring monstrosity. As for the Academy, they'd do best to rethink just who can pull off hosting duties on Oscars night. I hear Ricky Gervais might be available...

Going Home: An Advance Review of Tonight's Episode of Fringe ("Subject 13")

Home is forever the place we're running to or running from. Or, sometimes, it's both.

On tonight's heartbreaking episode of Fringe ("Subject 13"), the writers have once again peeled away the veil of time to offer the audience another look into the past, a sequel to last season's "Peter," set six months after the events of that episode.

While that episode, set in the heart of the 1980s, depicted the good intentions of Walter Bishop (the always sensational John Noble) in saving the life of another world's Peter after the death of his own son, tonight's episode shows the poignant consequences of his actions, focusing not on the global aftermath of his actions (those damaging soft spots in the universe's structure) but on the emotional toll that his decision makes on both sides of the dimensional divide.

Six months after kidnapping Peter and nursing him back to health, things are anything but stable in the Bishop household. Walter is rarely around, focusing on his research in Jacksonville, Florida, while Elisabeth (Orla Brady) is left to hold down the homefront on her own. But things aren't easy nor are they necessarily better since Walter traveled to the other side and brought back someone who looks like their son... but who isn't him, not really.

[Note: As always, please do not reproduce this review in full on any web sites, message boards, or similar.]

I don't want to spoil too many details about this fantastic and poignant episode, but I will say that it delves into the chance childhood meeting between Peter and Olivia Dunham, here played by two superb child actors gifted with the oldest of souls. There's a grace to the scene they share together, surrounded by a field of white tulips, that took my breath away.

While there's an emotional hook to their crossing of paths, there are also dire consequences to their meeting, unlocking a chain of causality that brings us to the present day. A confession, a drawing, a discovery, each plays its part in the drama unfolding around these children, as the bravest of actions might seemingly damn each of them in turn.

Am I being coy? You bet, but I also don't want to spoil this sensational bookend to "Peter," one that dives into the chasm forming between both world's Walter and Elisabeth Bishop, as they struggle to come to terms with what's been taken from them and the second chances that propel them to make decisions with horrific consequences.

So too do we see the formative years of young Olivia "Olive" Dunham, as the writers offer the first glimpse of someone we've only heard mention of prior, someone who shaped Olivia into the person she is today. We've known for some time what her unique "trigger" is for her powers to activate, but we see here the root causes, the impetus that drives that emotional response. And we see the hubris inside of Walter Bishop that compels him to experiment on this innocent, seeing in her the possibility for Peter's return. But the road to hell is always paved with good intentions, and the path that Walter embarked upon six months earlier is leading him closer and closer to the flames.

As for Walter himself, special praise goes out once again to the magnificent John Noble, here again playing variations on the Walter Bishop of the current story arc. In Noble's performance, we see a dazzling range: Over Here's gifted scientist struggling to do the right thing when faced with a multitude of moral quandaries, and Over There's grief-stricken father struggling to come to terms with the disappearance of his only son. It's a staggering portrayal that only further underlines the lack of awards recognition for Noble.

Reprising her role as Elisabeth Bishop, Orla Brady is once again brilliantly brittle, a woman coming apart at the seams who nonetheless tries to keep her family together... and keep them alive. Her willingness to dive into the icy depths of love after losing her child shows her strength of character. The battle between Elisabeth and Peter raises questions of trust and fidelity, as Peter pleads with her for the truth. Will she break and reveal all? Will she lie and hold onto her son for a little while longer? Will she be able to let him go all over again when the time comes?

"Subject 13" doesn't pull any punches, not with the portrayal of the daily agony faced by the two Bishop couples and by the child caught in the web between them. Emerging from his illness, young Peter is trapped between two worlds, between the childhood he remembers and the one he doesn't, between the small differences between his world and the next. A scene in a toy store between Peter and Elisabeth serves to depict the wide chasm between the two individuals, as Peter browses your typical array of 1980s children's toys (look for a BSG shout-out here) before settling on something simple. I can't shake the feeling that there is something deeply profound about his choice, given that it's a mode of transportation that he chooses here, seeing everywhere the possibility for escape.

Focusing on both realities, the episode shows the cracks forming in the Bishop family, all the more haunting because we know the eventual outcome of these marriages. But just what is Over There's Walter doing in Florida? That you'll have to wait to see, but I will say that you'd do best to remember your 1980s American history and that Walternate's current position makes a hell of a lot more sense now after this mini-revelation.

All in all, "Subject 13" is another heartbreaking and poignant installment, one that will linger with you long after the closing credits have run. Despite the fact that most of our major characters don't even appear in the episode, you'll walk away feeling as though you've gotten an even deeper understanding of just what makes Walter, Olivia, and Peter tick. And it might make you all the more sorrowful as a result.

Fringe airs tonight at 9 pm ET/PT on FOX.

Southern Gothic: The Chicken Oyster of Doom on Top Chef

Well, the next time a student gets caught cheating off of someone else's paper, they should just say that they were "inspired" by their peer.

Or at least that's the defense that Top Chef's Mike Isabella would apparently give, as displayed by his behavior on this week's episode of Top Chef: All-Stars ("For the Gulf"), in which he was "inspired" by a dish that Richard Blais had concocted in his notepad so much that he executed the exact dish later that day in the Quickfire Challenge.

The other chefs, upon learning of Mike's perfidy, seemed to be in agreement with yours truly: it was an act of culinary plagiarism, a serious breaking of "chef law" given that the incident in question happened on camera before our eyes.

Let's rewind for a second. Richard Blais, that culinary mad scientist and food visionary, keeps a notebook that's stocked with ideas, should inspiration seize hold of him, even during the stress of the competition. Mike saw Richard's book and asked him what it was, they flipped through it together, and Mike spied Richard's idea for a chicken oyster dish. Cut to a few hours later when the chefs are tasked with creating a fried dish for Paula Deen, the doyenne of Southern cuisine, and Mike makes, well, Richard's dish from top to bottom.

Is it against the rules? No, but there's a certain lack of morality involved in willfully stealing another man's intellectual property. Richard's been willing to help his fellow chefs out throughout this competition, lending a hand when he can, but even he felt that this went way beyond what is considered acceptable behavior.

Had Mike and Richard been talking, apropos of nothing, about chicken oyster and then Mike felt inspired by the conversation to create that dish? I have no problem with that. But to recreate Richard's entire idea--the chicken oyster served in an oyster shell--was truly an egregious move and set Mike up as the true villain of the season. But adding insult to injury was the fact that Mike won the Quickfire Challenge--and a $5000 cash prize--based on someone else's idea. And not just anyone, but his fellow competitor.

It was just wrong and it further exacerbated an already uncomfortable Quickfire. Antonia would have won had it not been for the fact that she only plated one dish, rather than the required two; her dish (fried avocado, shrimp, and jalapeno with grilled corn, tomato, and fried herbs) absolutely nailed the brief and nearly brought guest judge Paula Deen to rapture. But rules are rules and Antonia's slip-up meant that Mike Isabella took home the win and that $5K check for "his" fried chicken oysters with mustard gravy and oyster liquor.

(Personally, I would have given it to Richard Blais for his fried bacon with fried mayonnaise, tomato, and cucumber. The fried mayonnaise is something I've seen Richard make on Science Channel's Blais Off; aided by some liquid nitrogen, he freezes globs of mayonnaise and then coats it with batter before frying, an ingenious and practical application of molecular gastronomy at work.)

As for everyone else, there was some seriously shabby execution on display here, shocking given how far we are in the competition and how close we are to the final round. But the chefs performing poorly in the Quickfire Challenge (Dale, Carla, and Tiffany, to a certain extent) didn't seem to regain their confidence in the Elimination Challenge either. And it wasn't just any run of the mill Elimination Challenge. Here, they had to cook Gulf Coast seafood for a crowd of 300 people at a charity event. Wait, 300 people?!?!

They'd have some help in the form of sous chefs, i.e., previously eliminated contestants, but, more often that not, this ends up being more of a hindrance than a help in the end. But cooking for 300 people, all arriving at once and swarming your station? No easy feat, that.

So what did the chefs prepare? Let's take a look:

• Antonia: Blue crab cake, corn, jalapeno, and Andouille relish with crab broth
• Richard: Crispy Gulf snapper with pulled pork and citrus grits
• Dale: Amberjack stew with Andouille sausage and potatoes, Creole mustard crouton
• Tiffany: Honey-glazed shrimp, grits with jalapeno and cheese, shellfish sauce
• Mike: Grit-crusted Gulf shrimp, sour cream and chive potatoes, with pork and lobster sauce
• Carla: Fried grouper with collard greens and chow-chow pico

It wasn't a surprise to anyone watching which three ended up in the top and which in the bottom. Antonia, Richard, and Mike's work here was so vastly superior in presentation, execution, and flavor profiles that they had obviously scored in the top here, while Carla, Tiffany, and Dale each had major execution errors that were impossible to overlook.

I'm glad that Richard didn't let Mike's behavior derail him from winning the Elimination Challenge here, as he knocked out a stellar dish that recalled surf-and-turf, albeit with a Blais-like twist, fusing together pork, snapper, and citrus elements into a single glorious dish. Antonia wisely retains the ethereal lightness of crab in her beautiful and balanced plate, and Mike did a good job with his own Southern plate, one that pushed him out of his comfort zone a little bit. (I am thrilled, however, that Richard got his own against Mike, beating him out for the win here.)

As for the others, where to begin? I will say that I was flabbergasted with the judges' verdict here, as they opted to eliminate Dale for his amberjack stew. Were there serious problems with this plate? Undeniably. But there were grievous errors with Tiffany and Carla's dishes as well, and Dale has been a strong contender of late. (I won't say anything of the fact that Angelo seems to always get his partners or victims of his help sent home. Oops, I guess I just did.)

Dale's dish suffered from some bad decisions--undercooked potatoes, way too overpowering mustard on that Creole crouton, and the decision not to put the amberjack front and center--but those were similar problems with the others' dishes as well. Carla completely masked the flavor of the grouper by piling on mustard and hot sauce and Deen turned her nose up completely when faced with Carla's collard greens and chow-chow. It was an odd, ugly dish that did Carla no favors. Tiffany seemed to play the blame game a bit and put the onus on sous chef Marcel for why the shrimp was overcooked and why the honey glaze (which she typically dilutes with water when she makes it) was so overly sweet. But she also didn't taste the food as it was going out and relied on Marcel to oversee quality control. Big mistake when it's your name on the food and your continued participation in this competition are on the line.

Should Dale have gone home? Hell no, I say. I would have sent Tiffany home in a heartbeat. She's had some strong dishes, but they were much earlier in the competition and she seems to have completely lost her edge here. But as the judges have said, you're only as good as your last dish. Dale's dish wasn't good but, based on the judges' comments, I didn't think that the other chef's dishes were better than his.

What do you think? Did the judges make the right call? Should Tiffany have gone home instead of Dale?

Next week on Top Chef ("Give Me Your Huddled Masses"), the chefs create food fare on the open water, and later journey to Ellis Island to whip up dishes based on their family trees.

Top Chef Preview: Snack Bar Quickfire



Top Chef Preview: Cooking to Stay

The Daily Beast: "Why You Must Watch Parenthood"

So, wait, you're not watching Parenthood?

NBC’s Parenthood is not the most glamorous show on television. Its focus, charting the lives of a sprawling Berkeley, California family, might pale in comparison to, say, Desperate Housewives’ antics on Wisteria Lane. There are no murders, no swapped babies, and no satirical, over the top look at domesticity here.

Which is to say: enough is enough. This is a show that you should be watching, regardless of whether you're a parent yourself or a teenager. (Or, even if you're well past your teen years.)

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "Why You Must Watch Parenthood," which discusses the reasons why you have to watch NBC’s criminally underrated drama Parenthood, which captures the highs and lows of family life.

On tonight's episode of Parenthood ("Do Not Sleep With Your Autistic Nephew's Therapist"), Crosby deals with backlash from his mistake; Alex's constant visits irk Adam; Kristina and Adam must confront an issue that could hamper Max's progress.

Casting Couch: Kiefer Sutherland Grabs Touch, Minnie Driver Lands Hail Mary, Jason Isaacs Gets REM

A trio of leading actors are heading back to television this pilot season.

Former 24 star Kiefer Sutherland has been cast in FOX drama pilot Touch, from creator/executive producer Tim Kring (Heroes) and 20th Century Fox Television. The project revolves around Sutherland's character, a father "who discovers that his autistic, mute son can predict events before they happen," according to Deadline's Nellie Andreeva.

Production is slated to begin in late May or early June, due to Sutherland's Broadway commitments. (He's currently on stage in a revival of That Championship Season.) Touch will be directed by Charles McDougall, who has become quite the go-to pilot director in recent years, having directed pilots for such series as The Good Wife, The Chicago Code, Desperate Housewives, The Tudors, and many others.

Elsewhere, Minnie Driver (The Riches is also heading back to television, this time to star in CBS drama pilot Hail Mary, where she will play "a suburban single mom who teams up with a street-smart hustler to solve crimes," in the Warner Bros Television-produced pilot, from showrunner Ilene Chaiken (The L Word)

And Jason Isaacs (Brotherhood), who starred in last year's FOX pilot Pleading Guilty, has landed the lead in NBC drama pilot REM from Lone Star creator Kyle Killen. Project, from 20th Century Fox Television, is described as "an Inception-style thriller centered on a cop (Isaacs) who wakes up after an accident to find he is living in two different realities," per Deadline's Nellie Andreeva. Isaacs will also serve as a producer on the project, which will be overseen by 24's Howard Gordon.

Community: The Problem with Pierce

Viewers of Community have embraced the NBC comedy's ability to explore the boundaries of the single-camera broadcast comedy format, gleefully embarking on adventures involving zombies, outer space, chicken finger-hoarding mobsters, pen-stealing monkeys, and much more.

But what some viewers have had a hard time doing is offering a hug to the show's most dastardly character, Pierce Hawthorne, played by veteran Chevy Chase. In the first season of Community, Pierce often acted as a personification of the study group's id, a childlike man who frequently expressed the things that each of us progressive, modern people have sworn never to think, let alone say out loud.

The problem with Pierce in many ways is that it's become difficult at times to separate Pierce Hawthorne from Chevy Chase. Both men appear to be loud, loutish, and disruptive, prone to being an attention-stealer who often engages in pratfalls in order to grab the spotlight away from one of his costars. (If you've ever attended one of Community's panels, either at the Paley Festival or Comic-Con or the Television Academy, you know exactly what I mean.)

This season, Pierce has been put through the wringer a bit--his mother died, he was injured in a freak trampolining accident, and he became addicted to prescription painkillers--all seemingly in an effort to make the audience sympathize with a character who is so self-centered that he willfully disrupts a suicide-prevention-based game of Dungeons & Dragons.

Given his disruptive influence and ill manners, Time's James Poniewozik pondered why the group continues to spend time with Pierce, saying, "I can deal with it by remembering that the answer is, 'Because Chevy Chase is a cast member on this show.'"

There's a certain kernel of truth to that, all the more fitting because this week's episode ("Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking"), written by Megan Ganz and directed by Joe Russo, utilized the mockumentary style of Modern Family and The Office (and to a lesser extent, the Russo Brothers' work on Arrested Development) to create an aura of docudrama-style reality around Pierce's hospitalization. (You can read my pre-air thoughts about this week's episode here.)

Because Community is meant to be inclusive, there's always been a place at the study room table for Pierce, just as there has been for the socioeconomic and racial diversity at play within the series. Community colleges, after all, represent students from a wide walk of life: young and old, wealthy and poor, black and white. It's a cultural hodgepodge that functions more or less as a microcosm for society itself. Which is why it's fitting that there would be a character of advanced age within the group, even though his presence is often barely tolerated by the other characters.

Which, one could argue, seems to be the case on stage with the cast members and Chase himself. Just as Pierce seemingly loves to destroy the brief moments of camaraderie or happiness among the group, so too does Chevy Chase seem to relish throwing a spanner into the works every time there's harmony in a public forum. Both men can't seem to help themselves, and there is something quite sad about seeing a grown man behave like a child begging for attention. Which is why I can't help but wonder whether the show's writers haven't imbued Community with this sentiment, pushing Pierce to behave more and more outrageously, all in an effort to garner attention from a group of people that don't seem to like him very much.

Scroll down through Twitter and you'll see more than a few people bashing the character of prickly Pierce Hawthorne. Last week's scene with Pierce lying inert on a park bench after an overdose of prescription medication seemed to act as a bit of wish fulfillment for the contingent of Community viewers who want Pierce to keel over. Which made me wonder whether this was just another case of the Community writing staff employing a metatheatrical context to explore the audience's depth of feeling toward this character... or, in fact, the cast and crew's own feelings towards Chase. (Is this episode an outward manifestation of what it's like to work with Chase on a regular basis? Is Pierce's role the very same as that of Chase's on set?)

Despite the issues that Pierce has faced this year, the audience has largely had a hard time feeling sympathetic towards him. Despite the emphasis on his feelings of exclusion this week, trying to find an emotional connection to Pierce is a bit like trying to wring blood from a stone. It's just not going to happen, but in the grand scheme of things and in the emotional world of Community, that's okay.

Pierce as a outward villain has been something that we've seen more of in Season Two of Community than in the show's first season, where the role of the group's antagonist was performed by Ken Jeong's Senor Chang, a malevolent presence who seemed to exist to make their lives hell. This year, with Chang now sidelined as a figure of authority, that role has fallen to Pierce largely and the conflict the group has faced this year has largely been internal in nature, thanks to Mr. Hawthorne.

I would argue that, while I have no love for Pierce (though I did enjoy his brief foray into breath-operated wheelchairs), he's a necessary evil, the mirror that the writers can hold up in front of the characters in order to make them face their innermost fears and insecurities. This week's episode, which found Pierce bequeathing last gifts unto his study partners in a game of "psychological vengeance" forced them to face up to some hard truths. Despite the fact that he's often overlooked, Pierce seems to know the study group better than they know themselves at times.

(I was reminded briefly, of Baudelaire's le flaneur, the detached observer. While that seems a role more well suited for Danny Pudi's Abed, who the episode sets up as the literal eye of the piece (hence the documentary camera), Pierce's insight here into the unseen inner struggles of these characters sets him up as such an observer, though his interference in their lives, via those "gifts," disrupts any detachment he might have. Pierce is determined, it seems, to be not on the outside but the focal point of everyone's attention.)

After all, Pierce's gifts do peel back a layer of onionskin of these characters: he's able to bring to the surface Shirley's insecurities and her holier-than-thou attitude, Jeff's nascent daddy issues, Annie's elitism, Troy's fear of disappointing his idol (pitch-perfect LeVar Burton), Britta's secret selfishness. His "bequeathings" are crucibles by which to test the strength of these individuals. Does the heat make them stronger or do they crack?

Pierce provides a valuable role within the group, therefore. It may not be an honorable one or a particularly sympathetic one, but there's a reason why the show needs someone like Pierce in the mix. While external conflicts can bring a group together, internal conflicts are divisive and damaging. And that, at the end of the day, makes for good television. There's something to be said for not finding each and every character a paragon of virtue, or even someone you'd want to spend time with.

The fact that Pierce's presence has irritated some viewers (even me at times), that he's such a trouble-maker and an antagonistic presence, makes Community that much more naturalistic, in the end. Every rose, after all, has its (Haw)thorne.

Next week on Community ("Intro to Political Science"), Greendale holds student elections in preparation for a visit from the vice president, as Annie, Jeff, Leonard, and Star Burns against one another; Abed befriends a Secret Service agent (guest star Eliza Coupe).

How the Cookie Crumbles: Knee-Socks and Tablecloths on Top Chef

Um, yeah.

While in the past I've supported some wacky challenges on Bravo's addictive culinary competition Top Chef because they tested the contestants in terms of adaptability, I have to say that I was scratching my head last night while watching the latest episode ("Lock Down"), which had the chefs scrambling in a Target store to find equipment and tables (!) in order to assemble a station before cooking a meal for 100 people. In the middle of the night.

I get that this is Top Chef: All-Stars. And I also understand that these chefs are going to be put through their paces by the producers. But there was something extremely off-putting about this latest challenge, which seemed to put an equal--if not more--weight on running around Target with multiple shopping carts and grabbing items left and right (which seemed, to me anyway, to be a half-hour ad for Target in many ways) than in actual cooking.

It's hard to, you know, cook for 100 people when you don't even have a table set up.

I will say that I really enjoyed the Quickfire Challenge, which had the chefs creating cookies for Sesame Street's Cookie Monster, Telly, and Elmo. It contained just the right balance between hilarious mayhem and serious culinary skills and it was lovely to see the chefs reduced to little kids in the presence of Elmo and Cookie Monster. (Except Angelo, who seemed a little perturbed by the entire ordeal.)

But we saw some real creativity from the chefs here as they thought up some inventive and imaginative cookies containing an array of ingredients. Not all of them were the prettiest per se (cough, Antonia) but I will say that some of them sounded absolutely fantastic. (And, yes, I'm referring again to Antonia.)

So what did the chefs make? Let's take a look:

• Angelo: Chocolate chip and Belgian hazelnut cookie with a chocolate-banana milkshake
• Antonia: Double chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips, fresh caramel glaze, and sprinkles
• Carla: Chocolate chip cookie with cinnamon
• Dale: Pretzel and potato chip shortbread cookie with salted caramel chocolate ganache
• Mike: Almond and dried cherry cookie with rose petal sugar
• Richard: Ice cream cookie with chocolate chips, zucchini, and mint
• Tiffany: Shortbread cookie with lemon zest, rosemary, and thyme, served with coconut milk

I knew instantly that Antonia and Dale would be in the top, despite the fact that some have already commented that Dale's dish is very similar to Momofuku's compost, but I thought that he nailed the interplay between salty and sweet to create something different than anyone else in the challenge. Antonia's dish, while not the prettiest, definitely hit the mark.

But the others? There were some bad dishes in the mix, including one from Richard that confused me altogether. Why did he make an "ice cream" cookie rather than an actual cookie? He could have infused those flavors into something like a meringue cookie, or topped a flat biscuit with a liquid-nitrogen frozen ice-cream. Or, hell, made an ice cream cookie sandwich.

And I was surprised that Angelo missed the mark so entirely. He appeared, on the whole, to be off his game this week in a shocking way. Perhaps it was down to those ridiculous knee-socks he had on; could they have been cutting off blood flow to his brain? Not sure, but Angelo--whose "advice" had previously sent many a contestant packing--seemed to have the tables turned on him in a big way this week when it came to asking Mike Isabella for help with seasoning.

So let me get this straight: the typically know-it-all Angelo didn't trust his own palate, "fatigued" though it might have been this late at night? But I'm getting ahead of myself. Here's what they made for their Elimination Challenge dishes:

• Angelo: Baked potato soup with bacon, onions, sour cream, potato skins, scallions, and grated cheddar cheese
• Antonia: Parmesan cream eggs with almonds, tomato, apple, and a garlic crostini
• Carla: Curry apple soup with tomato-ginger jam, and cucumber apple slaw
• Dale: Ribeye grilled cheese with spicy tomato soup
• Mike: Spicy coconut soup with mushrooms, scallions, and lime
• Richard: Pork tenderloin with green chilies, apples, braised pork ribs, and corn pancakes
• Tiffany: Jamabalaya with chicken, sausage, and shrimp with a summer salad

Nearly all of the chefs tended towards soups this week, which was a bit foolhardy given the time constraints they had to work within. Soup typically takes quite a long time to make properly, because you really need to concentrate the flavor and let it settle in for the long haul. Making a quality soup in under an hour is a Herculean feat, really, especially when you aren't working in an actual kitchen.

But that didn't stop quite a few contestants from going the soup route. Dale, at least, paired his with an electric iron-press grilled cheese... and then wisely took the sandwich up a few pegs by including ribeye within. The juxtaposition of the ribeye grilled cheese and the spiciness of his tomato soup won over the judges; it was a smart rendition of a childhood classic and a clever use of the equipment at hand.

That said, I was more impressed by both Richard and Antonia's dishes. Antonia managed to correctly cook 100 eggs. That's an incredible feat, given the time and workspace they had at their disposal, and her dish was well-conceived and executed. And it wasn't soup, but an individually plated dish that had multiple elements on the plate.

Richard's dish blew me away. What he was able to achieve in that time was remarkable, especially (A) as it didn't prepare a soup, and (B) he actually had not one, but two proteins on the plate, between the tenderloin and the ribs, and that corn pancake. It wasn't the prettiest dish he's ever done by far but it looked tasty and it contained a hell of a lot of effort and precision given the late hour and the fact that he prepared it inside a Target store. If he had perhaps thought more about presentation, he could have perhaps taken home the $25,000 prize. Alas, that went to Dale.

On the other end of the spectrum, it was bloody obvious to everyone that Angelo, Tiffany, and poor Carla would end up in the bottom this week. Carla ran around Target without much aim or purpose, more concerned about finding tablecloths and linens for her workstation and in cooking... and it showed in the food. Her curry apple soup was thin and one-dimensional; it lacked body, substance, and protein. Even the addition of chicken could have bolstered that dish but her lack of direction and momentum really hurt her here. I thought for sure this was Carla's Last Stand...

But then there were Tiffany and Angelo, each of whom really struggled this week. Tiffany's heavy hand with those dried Creole seasonings did her in and the dish really wasn't a Jambalaya by any stretch. Angelo's baked potato soup seemed overwhelming, just on screen. There was a rich heaviness to it that made me slightly queasy, and I didn't even have to eat a bowlful. Accentuating the difficulty with finishing this overrich dish was the fact that it was completely over-seasoned.

That was due in part to Angelo turning for help to sudden BFF Mike, who told Angelo that the dish "lacked something" and "needed salt." While it was Mike who put the idea into Angelo's head, the blame really does fall on Angelo for then over-salting the dish. He could have added some more bacon in or some additional salt, but Angelo chose to add BOTH, rendering the dish way too salty and almost inedible, really.

It was a poor showing from one of the strongest chefs in the competition, who nearly won his season (or would have, perhaps, if illness hadn't nearly sidelined him), but he seemed really out of his element in this week's challenge and lacked the killer instincts that had gotten him this far. A shame, really, though I am happy that Carla will stick around for another week. She needs to really step it up, however, if she wants to make it to the end, after this week's poor performance.

What did you think of this week's episode? Did the judges make the right decision in awarding Dale the win? And would you have sent home Angelo if you had to make the call? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Next week on Top Chef ("For the Gulf"), it's a deep fry contest for Paula Deen, the queen of deep fat; later, the chefs prepare seafood dishes for a charity event.

Top Chef Preview: Paired Up



Top Chef Preview: Paula Deen Visits the Top Chef Kitchen!

Ex-Friday Night Lights Star Adrianne Palicki to Play Wonder Woman

Tyra Collette, here's your lasso of truth.

Former Friday Night Lights mainstay Adrianne Palicki, who starred in FOX's short-lived drama Lone Star earlier this season, has been selected to play Diana in David E. Kelley's Wonder Woman pilot for NBC. The project, written by Kelley, will be directed by Jeff Reiner, who previously worked with Palicki on Friday Night Lights.

Putting aside my thoughts on the project itself for a second, I think that Palicki should be a much bigger star than she is. Her performance as Tyra Collette, which she briefly reprised on Season Five of Friday Night Lights was electrifying: a tough-as-nails teen who fell into an unexpected romance on the show with a most unexpected partner (keeping the FNL plot points to a minimum here). And while I wasn't a fan of FOX's Lone Star, Palicki's performance was a standout and it was fantastic to see her in a more mature, adult role.

But Palicki should know what she's gotten herself into: namely that Kelley has a hell of a lot of work to do on the Wonder Woman pilot script, which has been maligned by many in Hollywood, including yours truly. You can read my take on the truly awful pilot script over at The Daily Beast, in a script breakdown (of the eight craziest scenes) that ran a few weeks back.

Unless Kelley rejiggers the script significantly before production, Palicki will play three versions of WW in the pilot episode: superhero Wonder Woman, high-powered business mogul Diana Themyscira, and Diana Prince, mousy assistant to Etta Candy who lives in a tiny West LA apartment with her cat Desi. Yes, this is a Wonder Woman who wants to have it all! Who is still pining for lost love Steve Trevor, now a lawyer in the Justice Department! And who cries herself to sleep at night!

And, no, I'm not kidding about any of this.

Docu Drama: An Advance Review of Community's "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking"

Question: What do LeVar Burton, Firefly, and twisted mind games have in common?

Answer: They're all together in one place on this week's sensationally satirical episode of Community ("Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking"), written by Megan Ganz and directed by Joe Russo, which I watched earlier this week. (That was, as you'll learn soon enough, an "explanabrag.")

NBC's Community has already tackled zombie invasions, paintball wars, outer space, and stolen pens with vigor and gonzo spirit intact, so it was only a matter of time before Dan Harmon and his merry band of mischief makers in the writers room would attempt to transform the actual physical format and style of the series for an episode.

In this case, "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking" does just that, satirizing the mockumentary style of such fellow NBC series as The Office and Parks and Recreation, as Danny Pudi's Abed attempts to make a documentary which shows the study group's reaction to how close Pierce (Chevy Chase) brushed against death itself. Shot docu-style--with all of the talking heads, cutaways, and montages (more on that in a bit) that you might expect--the use of a physical camera in the action here makes sense within the reality established by the series, and the episode itself has quite a bit of fun deflating this particular stylistic device.

As always, I don't want to give away too much about the episode, lest I spoil the experience for the audience. But I will say that the episode serves several functions: it picks up the threads from last week's ending (where Pierce was seen lying on a park bench after overdosing on prescription pills, perhaps in a wish fulfillment scenario out of many a viewers' mind), it challenges the viewer to care about Pierce even as he's behaving in a malicious and cruel manner, and it sets up a number of crucibles by which to test the individual members of the study group.

The latter is effortlessly achieved by the "psychological vengeance" enacted by the (not) dying Pierce Hawthorne, who creates a series of gifts that he bequeaths to each of them from his hospital bed. But these are not mere gifts, but objects that can he use to torment members of the group, who he feels have excluded him and who don't take him very seriously at all. (I'll echo comments made by Joel McHale's Jeff Winger here and say that Pierce's actions this week don't exactly make it easy for them to do so.)

"And so it is bequeathed." The bequeathed items are specific to each of them, targeting a weak spot in their character: Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown) receives a CD ("compact record") said to contain recorded proof that the group talks about her behind her back; Britta (Gillian Jacobs), a.k.a. "Sourface," receives a check for $10,000 with the "pay to the order of" line blank so she can decide which charity to donate it to; Annie (Alison Brie) gets a family heirloom, a diamond tiara ("Are these blood diamonds?!?!") because she is Pierce's "favorite"; Troy (Donald Glover) gets a chance to meet his idol, Star Trek/Reading Rainbow star LeVar Burton; and Jeff is about to be reunited with his long-lost deadbeat dad.

All of these moments are captured by Abed on film and assembled in the editing bay for maximum drama, which means quick cuts, threaded-in reaction shots, staggered zooms, and emotional montages, which overlay "generic" voiceover with random images to give the final thoughts some real weight, according to Abed. (It's a masterful and rather tongue-in-cheek send-up of Modern Family's closing montages.)

But there's a real emotional weight to the episode as well, seeing how each of the characters deal with the challenge that Pierce has created for them. Will they give in to the treachery that he's concocted? Or will they rise above it? Will Shirley listen to that CD? Will Britta be selfish or selfless? What will Jeff say to the father he's not seen in decades?

And just what is Pierce's relationship to the group? After everything he's pulled of late (destroying the gang's attempts to save Fat Neil via the Dungeons & Dragons game), Pierce has become an antagonistic force within the group, a role previously played by Ken Jeong's Chang. But there are questions of integrity and, well, community that Pierce's nature sets up within the show. He's a part of the group but a divisive part and his actions here don't necessarily engender loyalty from them.

I will say, however, that Pierce's most dastardly action within this episode does have an unexpected consequence and perhaps reveal the true relationship he has to the group. Pierce's words--often racist, misogynistic, or just generally ignorant--often force the study group to say things that they wouldn't normally speak aloud, to confront uncomfortable truths or misguided ideas, to respond to questions raised with certainty and accountability. (Even if, after all, refers to Shirley as the group's new "black swan" now that he's dying.)

Keep an eye out for some other high points of the episode: the scene where Jeff and Britta role-play; Troy's reaction to LeVar Burton (and one the weirdest renditions of the Reading Rainbow theme song); Troy and Abed's suicide pact (with the best Firefly reference ever); Shirley's talking head in a janitor's supply closet; and, well, just about all of it. It's an episode that is set entirely away from Greendale and the study room but the sense of community versus isolation, acceptance versus disapproval, play heavily into the action here.

It's an episode that both celebrates and satirizes the mockumentary format (the search for "profound thematic connection"), as well as the messiness of real life, the speed bumps along the way, and the lessons you learn when you least expect them. A bit like Community as a whole, really.



Community airs Thursday evening at 8 pm ET/PT on NBC.

Bat Girl: Kalinda Takes a Swing, Alicia Strikes Out on The Good Wife

Batter up...

I knew that last night's episode of The Good Wife ("Net Worth"), written by creators Robert and Michelle King, would have a doozy of a twist embedded in its episodic plot, because the episode was being kept under firm wraps by the folks at CBS... and even Archie Panjabi was coy about what was going to happen when I interviewed her a few weeks ago. (For that interview and more information about what's coming up between her and Blake, you can click here.)

But I also didn't quite expect the breathless hotel room showdown between Panjabi's Kalinda and Scott Porter's Blake that followed so closely on the heels of an encounter between Kalinda and Jill Flint's steely FBI agent Lana, an extended sequence that had both Blake and Lana seemingly aiming for Kalinda's, er, heart.

Despite Lana's job offer to Kalinda, she seemed more interested in her body in those moments than in her mind and the aura of conquest hovered over the entire sequence. But while these two danced around the question of sexual union, Kalinda seemed to relish seducing Blake, regaining the upper hand in their twisted relationship in order to strike home a fairly brutal blow. Yet it was Blake who managed to wipe the satisfaction right off of Kal's face in the end...

So what do we know about Kalinda Sharma thus far and how have these preconceptions been changed by this week's episode? Let's discuss:

* Her real name is Leela, rather than Kalinda.
* She may be a Canadian national who is living under an assumed identity.
* She may have faked her death in a house fire in order to escape... something.
* She's married! (This one came as quite a surprise to me.)
* Her husband is still alive and Blake claims to have been in contact with him, so he didn't die in the alleged house fire.

All of these elements come together to paint a rather different picture of Kalinda/Leela than the tough-as-nails badass that Kalinda presents herself as. There's a sense that Kal has been running from something, something dangerous and potentially life-threatening, and that she had faked her own death in order to escape. The obvious answer would be that mystery husband that Blake dangles over her like a Sword of Damocles in the final minutes of their scene together.

It seemingly comes as a surprise to Kalinda as well, whose entire modus operandi in the scene seems to be to string Blake along, get a hold of that baseball bat (now evidence in the beating of that trial witness and an object that the state's attorney's office wants to their hands on), and then deliver a coup de grace that leaves him struggling to breathe on the floor. Unexpected? Brutal? Cunning? All of the above.

But Kalinda is blindsided by the news that "fixer" Blake has been speaking to her husband (or, at least, he claims to be), leaving the victor of this particular round up in the air. Kalinda may have been able to wrap Blake around her little finger, getting him to strip down to next to nothing in an electrifying encounter, and then slugging him with her bat. But I can't help but wonder whether Blake truly wins no matter what Kalinda does, that the demons that she's been trying to outrun have finally and truly caught up with her.



I also loved the reveal that Blake's connection to Will dates back to his days in Baltimore as well and some illegal work that Blake did on Will's behalf. Just what this work was and whether it was professional or personal remains to be seen. Also of note: how Cary (Matt Czuchry) attempts to both protect Kalinda and distance himself from her, though his investigation into Blake and the search warrant he obtains links Blake to Bishop at MS 13... but it also proves to Blake that Kalinda has hacked his computer system and is attempting to set him up. (Consensus is still out whether Cary helped or hindered his new BFF this week.)

Fantastic skewering of Aaron Sorkin (and his TWoP debacle and struggles with drug abuse) and The Social Network in this week's case, which found the subject of a Social Network-esque film, Patric Edelstein suing the movie studio that released the film, claiming that it defamed him. Along the way, we got Rita Wilson as the insanely jealous Viola, F. Murray Abraham as Burl Preston, and a plot that, once it veered too closely into Social Network territory, even pulled out a mention of said film to ground the plotline further still. Questions of right of publicity, defamation of character, and emotional truth marked this intriguing and realistic depiction of the battle between art and commerce. (Well played, Gardner & Lockhart.)

Elsewhere, I loved the scenes between Julianna Margulies' Alicia and Dallas Roberts' Owen; they crackle with the authenticity of siblings and it was fantastic to see these two out of their elements (Alicia searching desperately for wifi, their hotel room banter, Owen smoking "medical marijuana" in the bathroom) as they spent some quality time together. I'm happy that the Kings have chosen to keep Owen in the picture, moving him from Portland to Chicago, where hopefully he'll be more of a (bad) influence in Alicia's life.

Still, I was happy to see that he was willing to ask her what she wanted and their "it's Alicia time!" conversation was insightful and adorable ("sultry-eyed Will") in equal measure. While Owen's line about needing a minute of Will's time was said half in jest, there was an emotional truth to it and to Alicia's need to clear the air and find out just what Will had said on that second voicemail message, to attempt to get the facts and make an informed decision about her future, even as she's finally allowed Peter (Chris Noth) back into the marital bed.

So why doesn't Will (Josh Charles) come clean? Is it that he's moved on and doesn't want the complication of getting involved romantically with Alicia? Are things already just too chaotic at work with Bond? Does he not want to be responsible for jeopardizing Alicia's marriage? Or is he testing her? Seeing whether she'll come after him even if he claims to have taken the moral high road on that voicemail, telling her that she should stay with Peter.

Or is it as simple as Will not wanting to be responsible for a "plan," for something that's not as easy as a casual relationship, to take that plunge and try to be with Alicia? Despite all the talk of everything being fine between them, I can't shake the feeling that the chasm between Will and Alicia has widened even more considerably.

What did you think of this week's episode? Will Will and Alicia ever get their ducks in order and take the plunge together? When will Alicia realize that it was Eli who made the decision for her and deleted Will's voicemail? And just how will things end between Kalinda and Blake? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Next week on The Good Wife ("Last Shot"), Diane represents ballistics expert Kurt McVeigh in a lawsuit; Eli takes an interest in Wendy Scott-Carr s illegal nanny.

The Daily Beast: "The Good Wife's Scene-Stealer" (Archie Panjabi)

Archie Panjabi plays The Good Wife’s law firm snoop, Kalinda, and viewers are obsessed. “I don’t think there’s ever been a no-nonsense, bisexual investigator of Indian origin,” she says.

When Archie Panjabi won the Emmy Award for outstanding supporting actress last year, many said, “WHO?” But to the millions who watch The Good Wife, and are obsessed with Panjabi’s mysterious, ass-kicking investigator character on the CBS legal drama, she was the Academy’s logical choice.

Over at The Daily Beast, I sit down with Archie Panjabi (in a private cabana at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, no less) to discuss playing the hard-edged Kalinda Sharma, the character's bisexuality, tonight's pivotal episode of The Good Wife, and why Panjabi will forever be a "breakout" star in my latest feature, entitled "The Good Wife's Scene-Stealer."

I'm curious though: why do you think viewers are so entranced by Panjabi's Kalinda?

I discussed this issue with Panjabi, but I'd love to hear your take on the character and the audience's engagement with Kalinda. Head to the comments section to discuss.

The Good Wife airs tonight at 10 pm ET/PT on CBS.

The Amazing Andy: Michael Emerson Steals the Show on Tonight's Parenthood

While tonight's episode of Parenthood makes mention of the "Amazing Andy," it's the amazing Michael Emerson (Lost) who should be singled out for praise here.

It's been far too long since Emerson--who brought depth and grit to his portrayal of the Machiavellian Benjamin Linus on Lost--has been on my television set, so I was overjoyed to learn that he would be appearing in an episode of NBC's woefully underrated Parenthood as the Amazing Andy. Emerson is the sort of actor that comes around but once in a lifetime, the gifted artisan who manages to walk off with every scene in his pocket so effortlessly.

Tonight's superb episode of Parenthood ("Amazing Andy and His Wonderful World of Bugs") gives Emerson the chance to play a very different sort of character than Benjamin Linus or, indeed, like any other that we've seen Emerson play in his vast career.

While the episode deftly balances several plotlines--including Drew bonding with his errant father Seth (John Corbett), Crosby and Jasmine's relationship fracturing further amid increased pressures and misunderstandings, and Julia and Joel's efforts to have a second baby--it's Emerson who steals the episode here.

Playing a character with Asperger's Syndrome--that would be the Amazing Andy of the title--Emerson imbues him with the sort of traits you would expect to see in a nuanced and realistic portrayal of someone with an autism spectrum disorder: he's methodical, highly specific, and attuned to the way that things need to be done. But the portrayal isn't limited to just those surface-level signifiers; Emerson creates a fully three-dimensional character here, one with flaws and dreams, vision and pluck, humor and pathos.

In a series that has sensitively handled the challenges involved with raising a child with Asperger's, it's no surprise that Parenthood would eventually bring in an adult Aspie, but the way in which the character enters into their lives is both emotionally resonate and laden with humor. While Peter Krause's Adam and Monica Potter's Kristina don't exactly realize at first that Andy has Asperger's, it makes sense that they would see the neurological condition with some blinders, being so focused on Max's well-being. For them, raising a child with Asperger's means shutting themselves off to the possibility that there are adults in the same situation as their son.

Emerson's Andy--who brings his vast collection (and love) of bugs to Max's birthday party--provides the perfect opportunity then for Adam and Kristina to witness a window into Max's possible future. But what they see in Andy isn't something sad or tragic: it's a man who loves his job and who has found a place in the world.

"Crickets can't actually smile," says Andy, giving Kristina a stuffed cricket before he does his (unannounced) walk-through of their house two days before the party. "That would be anthropomorphizing."

Look for a scene between Emerson and Krause at the end of the episode that had me getting misty-eyed as the two discuss happiness. Beautiful, poignant, and understated, it's a fantastic sequence that deals with both Adam's fears for his son and the realization that Max's future can be a happy one.

It's the type of small moment that Parenthood does so well, as it captures the conflicting and often messy emotions of everyday life.

Elsewhere, look for Crosby to be further tempted as he and Max's behaviorist Gaby (Minka Kelly) get closer... and for things between Crosby and Jasmine to get even worse. Despite the fact that they still have a date for the wedding, I'm beginning to believe that these two may not make it to the altar. And events in tonight's episode seriously won't help matters on that front.

There's an interesting scene between Zeek and Seth that shows the long-standing animosity between the two men, as well as an incident involving Drew that might point to the influence that Seth is having on his adolescent life (let's just say that it might not be a positive one), while Lauren Graham's Sarah has to come to terms with the fact that Seth is now a part of her son's life. And Joel and Julia's efforts to conceive lead to a very humorous moment that's entirely hysterical and utterly embarrassing for these two.

All in all, "Amazing Andy and His Wonderful World of Bugs" is a turning point for the second season of Parenthood and a wonderfully emotional and uplifting episode in its own right. Be sure to tune in tonight... and to have some tissues handy.



Parenthood airs tonight at 10 pm ET/PT on NBC.

There's Always Music in the Air: This Weekend's Twin Peaks Event

Just a few words about what was an amazing and surreal experience this weekend.

There is a place in downtown Los Angeles that's a bit of a local institution: Clifton's, a nearly 100-year old cafeteria where nearly the entire three-story interior is decorated like a forest. Trees sprout up from inside the main dining hall, the walls are painted to resemble a forest, and there are nooks and crannies designed to look like mountains.

In other words, it's the perfect place for a Twin Peaks gathering.

Saturday saw the launch of the Twin Peaks at 20 exhibition and reception, which featured artwork (paintings, photography, sculpture, metalwork, and much more) based on Twin Peaks and its characters as part of the 20-year celebration of the show's launch. Photography by Richard Beymer (Ben Horne!) sat alongside haunting boxes made by Grace Zabriskie (Sarah Palmer!) and works by co-creator David Lynch.

Cherry pie and doughnuts were served, along some of Lynch's damn fine coffee (which you can buy at select retail outlets), the soundtrack blared over the loudspeakers, and there was a room set up to resemble the Black Lodge/Waiting room, and, yes, those familiar zig-zag white-and-black floors and red curtains were in attendance.

Lynch created some prints specifically for the exhibition, including a limited-run print of the Twin Peaks town map (which I purchased and plan to hang in a place of prominence) and some Cub Scout-style badges that celebrated the show's two decades and that broken heart necklace that played so prominently into the plot of the first season. (Also for sale: extremely limited-edition Packard Sawmill work aprons, RR Diner coffee mugs, Great Northern Hotel stationery, books of poetry by Zabriskie, and much more.)

It was odd and magical--the sensation of walking into this forest to hear "Falling" was something I can't describe and took me back 20 years--and weird and wonderful. And it was the perfect way to celebrate the surreal and haunting quality of Twin Peaks itself. Thanks for the memories.

(For more on Twin Peaks, you can read my feature from late last year at The Daily Beast, where I interviewed co-creator Mark Frost, Sheryl Lee, and James Roday of USA's Psych, which reassembled much of the TP cast for an episode.)

The Stone Bench: The Special Relationship on Big Love

It's fitting in a way that the resolution to Barb and Bill's current problems--or, at least specifically, the question of Cara Lynn's protection--should occur at the spot where their relationship truly began: at the stone bench where Bill proposed to Barb all of those years ago.

On this week's episode of Big Love ("The Special Relationship"), written by Patricia Breen and directed by David Petrarca, we witnessed what might just be the end of Bill and Barb's marriage, or at least the legal, paper version of it. While Bill reassures Barb that they would still be sealed for eternity, the sting of his suggestion is evident: in order to safeguard Cara Lynn's future, Bill would have to marry Nicki. Which means legally divorcing Barb.

Let's be honest: Bill has always had a special relationship with his first wife and rightly so. Of all of his wives, Barb was the one with whom he has spent not only the most time, but also spent as man and (single) wife. They were a couple for nearly twenty years before the consideration of plural marriage was put on the table. When Barbara joined Bill in marriage, there wasn't any talk of polygamy or of sister-wives. She believed she was joining him solely and completely.

While Nicki would often refer to Barb as "Boss Lady" (remember those days?) with a more than a hint of malice, there was truth to her words. Barb was the first wife and first wives do have a bigger piece of their husbands' hearts. So the fact that both Bill and Barb are considering divorce, even in secular terms, speaks of how strained their relationship was become of late and perhaps how much Barb is chafing against the constraints of the lifestyle they lead.

I've been thinking a lot about causality as it relates to Big Love recently. The family's current situation, their decision to enter into plural marriage, and the fact that Bill has three wives all stems from the fact that Barb contracted cancer in the first place. In looking at where the Henricksons have gone, it's hard not to look back at that singular moment as the turning point for their lives. Without the cancer, Nicki Grant wouldn't have been in their home and without the Faustian bargain Bill struck for Nicki nursing Barb back to health, the Principle may not have entered their lives.

Every moment of our lives is dictated in some way by the infinite number of steps that led us there, from a youthful proposal to the sickbed, from the consideration of divorce to the adoption of a child. We're the totality of our experiences, the sum of every decision, every moment lived, every coincidence, every fateful step. Barb and Bill are reminded that the Principle allowed them to welcome a number of righteous warriors for Heavenly Father into their family, but also perhaps that everything that has happened to them can be traced back to the inherent unfairness of life.

The same holds true with the Principle being lived in the wilderness rather than in plain view. The progress that Bill Henrickson has made is juxtaposed with the abuses of polygamy and the unwillingness of the LDS church to be associated with an element of religion that they turned their backs on long ago. When Roman Grant grabbed the prophethood of Juniper Creek, wresting it from the hands of its rightful holders (the Henricksons), he set in motion a chain of events that brings us to the present day, a time where Bill is under siege from every direction--fellow polygamist sects, the state senate, the LDS church, his employees, etc.--even as he attempts to reform the system.

But missions of reformation are never easy, particularly when religion (and religious intolerance) enter the equation. Questions about the sanctity of marriage, while not outwardly mentioned on the show, hover over the debate about the legitimacy of marital plurality. The parallels to such measures as California's Proposition 8 and the ongoing debate about gay marriage can't be overlooked here. Just as the polygamist lifestyle is being attacked via discussions of re-criminalization and "witch hunts," the writers are deftly using this as an opportunity to look at other aspects of society's unease with redefining marriage.

But putting aside and social messages embedded within the series, this week's episode sought to depict just how far everyone is willing to go in pursuit of their personal causes, whether that be the continued existence of their family (Verlan), acts of vengeance (Alby), or the morality of protecting those who are being abused (Bill). But political gain often comes with a personal cost, as Bill will likely learn.

Albert Grant has made it his mission to tear down everything that Bill has built, targeting not only his Safety Net initiative (which he blames for allowing Lura to escape) but employing Verlan to murder Don Embry. In one of the episode's most shocking sequences, Verlan attempts to bludgeon (and then drown) Don in his tent on an ice lake while Don's sons (including Gary) are standing at their car. Verlan's eerie silence, the dead-set look in his eyes, speak volumes about the lengths he's willing to go in pursuit of the money that Alby dangles in front of him, money that he needs in order to pay off some long-standing Las Vegas gambling debts. (And then there's the matter of that manslaughter charge.)

Verlan's desperation plays right into Alby's plans for revenge. I also can't help but notice the scene where they first meet where Verlan seems to be offering himself up to Alby sexually. To his chagrin, he learns later that, even after "completing" his assignment, Albert doesn't let him leave, instead calling him an "Alby-ite" and ordering a room set up for him. (Uh-oh.) Whether Verlan was doing it for Rhonda (who tells him to take whatever Albert offers him), his child, or his debts, he proved that he was willing to do whatever was necessary.

Fortunately, Verlan's attack isn't successful and Gary is able to save his father's life and get him to the hospital in time. Bill's words are a cold comfort to Don ("Heavenly Father isn't done with you yet!"), though they do demonstrate the divine responsibility Bill places on the events in their lives. If each of them has a purpose, that purpose reaches its climax when their deity decides it's time. Call it fate, call it Heavenly Father, call it Life, but Bill believes that something is guiding them, that his actions and decisions are the result of testimony.

But so too does Barb. She believes with her heart that she is following her essential truth in pursuit of the priesthood. Her quest for religious and divine equality are at loggerheads with the patriarchal nature of their religious tenets, with the order prescribed by Joseph Smith. Bill isn't willing to relinquish the priesthood, nor is he willing to give Barb the blessing that would be required for her to ascend to such a step.

Which brings us to the here and now: to another conversation on that stone bench at the university. The years have changed Bill and Barb and altered their family. Coming full circle to where their marriage began, Barb agrees to a divorce, but I don't think that Cara Lynn's future is all that's on Barb's mind when she relents and agrees to dissolve their union. Throughout the series, Barb has struggled with life amid plural marriage, even leaving for a time back in Season Two. While I still believe that the family will end the series intact at the very conclusion, I can't help but wonder whether this new test will free Barb up to reconsider the choices she's made in life and the events that lead her there. We'll see just what she decides...

Some other thoughts:
* Interesting that Greg Ivey is saving himself for marriage... and that Cara Lynn would inappropriately show up at his house (the location of which was discovered by Google Maps, naturally) and be invited in. While Greg seems to be fighting against temptation, Cara Lynn seems determined to push the boundaries of their relationship. Her line of questioning towards Greg and her slight standoffishness towards Gary this week seem to point towards an interest in her teacher. Given her history, I'm concerned about just where this interest is leading, amid a season that's full of child brides and underage sex.
* Loved Rhonda's bizarro announcement at dinner (which ended with "Thank you.") and the clue she inadvertently dropped about Verlan coming into $50,000. I'm hoping Bill picks up on his when considering just who would have attacked Don as it certainly wasn't a vagrant living in the woods.
* I couldn't believe that Frank drove off without saying anything to Lois. I'm hoping he does learn--from Lois--that his actions lead to her dementia and that he is responsible for what's befallen her. These two have been at war for so long that Frank needs to finally stop being so craven and evil and offer some conciliation towards his wife. Lois' hunger strike, her disinterest in being at the Henricksons' houses, and her insistence that she go home are all breaking my heart. To see this formerly indestructible woman lose all semblance of control is gut-wrenching.
* I wonder what Alby will to do Verlan when he realizes that his contract killer failed to actually, you know, kill Don.
* Margene's "Achilles heel" is bound to come out sooner rather than later. Her pervasive interviews with local press (she's the "sunny face" of polygamy) and her scene with Michael Sainte. She's suddenly on a lot of people's radars, not least of which Sainte's. He's not happy about the sales that Margene is making with people on the compound... and given his prominence in the LDS community, I think that his storyline is just beginning...
* Loved Senator Barn throwing the football to Bill as being symbolic of his support... and that he does (for now, anyway) hold true is efforts to push through the Safety Net legislation. But something tells me that Barn has a few tricks left up his sleeve.

All in all, "The Special Relationship" moved the plot along briskly as things are set up for the series' endgame, while also making homage to the emotional core of Big Love: the rivalries between sister-wives, between questions of sanctity and sacrilege, between family matters and social ones, and between personal desire and the greater good.

Next week on Big Love ("D.I.V.O.R.C.E."), Barb capitulates on Billʼs marital plans, but not on her hopes to attain the priesthood and enlists ex-Mormon feminist Renee Clayton (guest star Judith Ivey), much to her mother Nancyʼs chagrin; Bill faces new impeachment pressure in the senate, and scrambles for new clients in the wake of LDS boycotts of his stores; Nicki chafes at the status quo; Margene eyes a sponsor for her pro-polygamy childrenʼs rally; Cara Lynn puts in extra hours with her tutor, Greg; Alby vows to combat Safety Net with a purification program of his own; Bud Mayberry warns Bill of an imminent threat; Frank and Lois strike a deal; Heather makes a decision that deflates a vulnerable Ben.

The Scarab: An Advance Review of Tonight's Fringe

In Ancient Egypt, the scarab beetle was a sacred insect.

The daily behaviors of the Scarabaeus sacer were viewed as symbolic of greater issues of immortality; among them, rebirth, resurrection, and renewal. They were believed to be created out of death itself, given that the parasitic insects would lay their eggs in the bodies of hosts.

Keep that in mind when watching tonight's stellar episode of Fringe("Immortality"), written by David Wilcox and Ethan Gross and directed by Brad Anderson, which is set entirely "Over There," as we learn that fallout that has occurred in the life of their Olivia Dunham after her escape from "our" world.

Revolving around a deranged scientist's quest for glory and the use of those beetles, here just as sacred to him as they were to the Egyptians, the episode raises questions of immortality. How, as humans, we're ever aware of the fragility of the mortal coil, and how we're so desperate to find a way to escape the limitations of the body, to strive for immortality, not in the literal sense, but the figurative.

Do we choose to believe that we live on in our offspring, our genetic line continuing after we're gone, or do we strive to create something permanent that outlives us all? Just as the names Watson and Crick and Jonas Salk are so etched onto our collective memories for their contributions to science and the way we view the world, this scientist is attempting to outrun his own inexorable demise by leaving a mark on the world.

(As always, please do not post this review in full on any web sites, message boards, or similar. What follows are minor spoilers for "Immortality.")

How he is attempting to do just that is connected to the case being investigated by Over There's Fringe Division, a case that involves scores of beetles erupting out of human hosts, so if you're at all squeamish about bugs, you might not want to watch this episode while you're eating. Or right after, for that matter.

(As for the bugs themselves, keep your ears open for what I believe to be a Charles Manson reference as the Fringe Division discusses the genus and species of this particular beetle. Helter Skelter, anyone?)

As our scientist goes about his work, viewing his research as something analogous to a holy crusade in an attempt to reverse extinction, his efforts at resurrection put him on a collision course with the Fringe team, which has been greatly changed in the wake of the Olivia switch-up. Colonel Broyles is missing and the search for his body near the amber zone of Boston has been called off (of course, we witnessed his demise in "our" world when Fauxlivia jumped back to her reality) and Lincoln has been placed in charge of the team.

But things that look alike aren't always the same. We're acutely aware of this from Olivia's struggles to come to terms with Peter's infidelity with Fauxlivia. The two women might look alike, they might share some characteristics beyond their appearances, but these two people aren't the same. We're naturally shaped by our experiences and the two dimensional twins haven't shared the same sense of loss, the same love, the same life. Peter's inability to tell the difference between them nags on Olivia's conscience. Surely, if we were to go missing, our loved ones would know that the person who replaced us wasn't us?

Likewise, there are differences being displayed between our Walter Bishop and Walternate this week. While Walter attempts to redress the balance between them by making himself "smarter," we're privy to a scene Over There in which we learn that their Walter is bound by moral restrictions that never plagued Walter Bishop. There are some things, we learn, that remain sacred, even when hope is lost.

We're also seeing more damage caused by Faulivia's treachery in stealing Olivia's life and engaging in a love affair with Peter Bishop. As her boyfriend Frank Stanton (Philip Winchester) returns to New York, he brings with him reminders of the time she spent in another woman's life. Just as Olivia has been shaken by what happened during her absence, so too does Fauxlivia feel the weight of the decisions she made, the lies she told, the lines she crossed in pursuit of her objectives.

Frank's return brings up a host of unresolved issues for Fauxlivia as well as questions about their future together. I don't want to say too much here, but I will say that we're seeing another instance of harmonic vibration here. Just as Fauxlivia's presence in Peter's life changed him, so too did Peter's presence change Fauxlivia. The ease she had with Frank in their life together has put off-kilter by the relationship she had with Peter. We often can't change something without risking being changed by it ourselves. Perhaps Fauxlivia wasn't lying to Peter when she said that it started out an assignment but became something else.

The reappearance of Frank on the scene is fraught with personal complication for Fauxlivia and her struggle to come to terms with her feelings and how much to open up to Frank are juxtaposed with this week's investigation. Is there any hope for Frank and this Olivia? Or was their relationship doomed to fail once she returned to this world? And is there any hope for this Olivia to regain her equilibrium? (Cue squirm-inducing bug scene.)

The fantastically crafted episode also features Twin Peaks alum Joan Chen, who here plays Reiko, a woman with a connection to Walter Bishop. I don't want to say too much about who Riko is and the relationship she has to Walter, but I will say that it allows John Noble to offer a side to Walter/Walternate that we haven't yet really seen throughout the series. And it's great to see Chen, who memorably played Twin Peaks' Josie Packard, back on television. (Let's just say that the years have been kind to her.)

I can't shake the feeling that a certain license plate glimpsed in this episode is a clue for next week's episode (entitled "6B"). I wasn't aware of the title when I first watched "Immortality," but I found the letters on the plate to be suspicious enough to ponder. While I'm not sure of its significance yet, there's a similarity between that and the title that's too coincidental to let go of just yet.

(Some other thoughts: I'm curious just when we'll see our world's version of Lincoln Lee, who, on the other side, has stepped up as the insecure leader of the team now that Broyles is gone. Just where is Lincoln "over here," and what is he like? It would be interesting to see. Additionally: I can't shake the feeling that duality we're seeing--the red "Over There" universe and the blue "Over Here"--may be erased somehow by the end of the season. If it's not a case of only one universe surviving, then I wonder whether there wouldn't be the creation of, say, a yellow-colored third universe, perhaps one that combines the two somehow. Hmmm...)

All in all, "Immortality" is a fantastic installment that fuses together the personal with the professional, with a creepy mystery of the week and perhaps a turning point for the season itself, whose effects will be felt long after the closing credits.

Once again, this season has proven that Fringe is in pursuit of not just the mysteries of science but that of the soul itself. No small feat for a sci-fi drama but here the series' writers make it look effortless.

Fringe airs tonight at 9 pm ET/PT on FOX.

Our Lives, Our Selves: An Advance Review of Any Human Heart on PBS' Masterpiece Classic

"Never say you know the last word about any human heart." - Henry James

Logan Mountstuart, the central character of Any Human Heart, which begins this Sunday on PBS' Masterpiece Classic, has experienced the sort of life that is overflowing with love and loss. It's a portrait of not just a life lived, but also of England in the 20th century.

The three-part drama (which aired last year in the UK on Channel 4) is adapted from William Boyd's 2002 novel, "Any Human Heart: The Intimate Journals of Logan Mountstuart," and recounts the extraordinary life of the central character, played throughout his life by Sam Claflin, Matthew Macfadyen, and Jim Broadbent. Told in a non-linear fashion, we witness key moments in Logan's life: his Oxford collegiate days, the blush of first love and fatherhood, wartime encounters, romance and death, success and failure.

It's the elderly Logan (Broadbent) who is sorting through the detritus of his life and, it seems, his memory, attempting to arrange events in a way that they can be understood, dreams standing side by side with painful memories, half-remembered ones giving way to brutally honest ones, moments of pride and of shame. As he recalls his life, he sorts through the numerous journals he kept throughout his life, the photographs and objects he held onto, as he starts a conflagration in his back yard, the follies of youth giving way to the sobering realizations of old age.

That Logan crosses paths with some extraordinary individuals--from Miro and Hemingway to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (the latter played to icy perfection by Tom Hollander and Gillian Anderson)--and is at times at either the right place (or the wrong place, depending on your viewpoint) for some of the seminal moments of the twentieth century gives the gorgeously crafted piece some historical heft, but it's the portrait of one man's life that gives Any Human Heart its true emotional resonance.

This is a heartbreaking drama that uses the life of Logan Mountstuart as way of exploring the universal and the deeply personal. The multiple selves of Logan--represented figuratively by a toddler in a boat, a teenager, an adult, and an old man--are seen gathered on a lake, as Mountstuart attempts to come to grips with his life, the paths he took, the choices he made.

At times elegiac and heartbreaking, witty and droll, Any Human Heart makes us realize the patterns and stories in our own lives, as well as the passage of time that marches on as we too change and alter, marry or divorce, love and lose. Just as we see an England that changes over the course of nearly 100 years, we see the changes in ourselves as well. And that's the beauty and magic of this extraordinary piece of television, the way in which we can connect both to the other and to ourselves. It's not one to be missed. Just make sure you have some tissues nearby.

Any Human Heart begins Sunday evening at 9 pm ET/PT on PBS' Masterpiece Classic. Check your local listings for details.