Tuesday, November 19, 2013

'Almost Human' in Ani-gifs and Tweets: Pilot Introduces a Beautiful 'Ro-bromance'

ALMOST HUMAN 'Pilot' on FOX, Sunday, Nov. 17
©2013 Fox Broadcasting Co. (photo used with permission)
Photo credit: Liane Hentscher/FOX
Quick note: If you are used to seeing my recaps on Yahoo! TV, there is an explanation of what happened with their tech glitches here. This recap for the second part of the premiere, "Skin," can be found here.

 Almost Human takes place 35 years in the future, where crime has skyrocketed, and the future is bleak. The "Pilot" episode begins with a cop, Det. John Kennex (Karl Urban), taking part in a raid with his human partner. Various cop androids are helping, but when Kennex's partner is injured, the bots refuse to help Kennex pull him to safety because he is too far gone. Kennex goes it alone, but his leg is blown off, followed by some sort of explosion caused by a device known as a parabolic pulse charge.
But that is all a memory. Kennex is actually hooked up to a dangerous regression therapy machine, after 17 months in a coma. He is attempting to remember what took place during the police raid, and how the criminal organization known as the Syndicate knew about it so they could ambush the cops. There's got to be a mole. He also wants to figure out what happened to Anna, his ex-girlfriend, who has been missing ever since he woke from his coma.
Kennex's superior officer, Capt. Maldonado (Lili Taylor), convinces him to come back to work early because the Syndicate may be at it again, and Kennex is the only cop she trusts with the case. Kennex has a shiny new synthetic leg that acts up constantly, and now he's got to have a synthetic by his side as well. In fact, all cops are now required to partner with the same types of droids (known as MX-43 androids) that refused to help Kennex's partner during the ambush months earlier. When his new humorless partner threatens to report him for using dangerous drugs and regression therapy, Kennex tosses him out of the moving car.

Kennex goes to get a new android from Rudy (Mackenzie Crook), the nerdy tech guy of the series. Rudy introduces him to a DRN model named Dorian (Michael Ealy). The DRN models were designed to act more like humans, with the ability to convey emotions and bond with people. The one drawback of this older model is that it has an emotional breaking point, just as humans have. Rudy gives Kennex the honor of waking his new partner with the ritualistic touch on the ear with a metal rod, and thus begins a beautiful "robromance."
Dorian turns out to be quite a character, playing with his lips, feeling intimidated by the MX androids, and expressing data conversationally, such as representing the decimal number 81.439 simply as 80. Oh, and don't ever call him a "synthetic"! That may as well be a racial slur to the hot bot.
They look into a supposed robbery in which Maldonado believes the Syndicate may be involved. During their newest crime spree, the Syndicate kidnaps a cop known as Det. Vogel by popping a giant wad of bubble gum on his face with some sort of special bubble-gun. It looks like it would be fun if it didn't seem to hinder his ability to talk... and breath. Oh, and they also destroy his android.

They bring in a suspect from the robbery, and Kennex beats the snot out of him for information. Taking a more peaceful route, Dorian realizes that the suspect shot himself so the cops would bring him in. He pretends to have done it out of fear of the Syndicate, and tells them the location of where they can find Vogel.
Later, the suspect pukes out a device that he then leaves on a pipe in the bathroom as they escort him out to take him to a new location.
Of course, the whole thing is a setup, and the Syndicate watches as Kennex and Dorian enter the room where Vogel is being held in a small, bullet-proof box. Dorian and Kennex watch in horror as the Syndicate activates a tripwire, and Vogel meets an ugly demise. Poor Vogel sure had some bad luck with face-splats and goo!

Dorian is able to pull a neat trick where he takes some of Vogel's blood and sticks it in his neck for analysis. He's a walking med lab!

Vogel had been sprayed with programmable DNA. The poison basically causes humans to die of a multitude of diseases all at once... and they're targeting cops!
Kennex feels that his only option is to go back for even more strenuous regression therapy in order to jog his memory of who the mole may be and why they are targeting cops. During the regression, he sees that his ex-girlfriend was part of the ambush! Dorian saves his life and pulls him out of regression before he has a literal brain explosion from the revelation. 

Dorian connects with Vogel's android to see if he can find out anything more, and Princess Leia pops up saying, "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi; you're my only hope!" Actually, it's video of what happened when Vogel was kidnapped, and reveals that the cops have something that the Syndicate wants.
Kennex calls in a lockdown of the station, but he's too late. The Syndicate breaks into the station, shuts down all the androids using the device planted in the bathroom, and begins spraying people with what looks like a silver fire extinguisher filled with their die-from-everything, face-popping poison. Luckily, Dorian is not affected by the MX-android shutdown, and helps stop them before they find what they're looking for. 
The item is revealed to the audience as a female robot head, but the cops are unable to find it as the records involving the item have been destroyed.

At the end of the episode, Kennex has warmed up to his human-like android partner, asking Dorian to call him "John" from now on. Yep; it's the second step in the beginning of a beautiful robromance. 
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Sunday, November 17, 2013

'Grimm' in Ani-gifs and Tweets: Mermen DBag Fundamentalists on the Loose!

The Grimm episode "One Night Stand" finally introduces some friendly mermaids to the Grimm universe! Unfortunately, their mermen counterparts aren't so nice.
The episode begins with a group of two sisters with two boys, singing horribly and playing guitar badly. It's all in good fun until they decide to take a skinny dip and pair off for some two-second sex consisting of a couple of heavy breaths and hugging in the water. You wouldn't know that was what happened until one of them, a guy named Jake, says, "That was incredible!" Also, he confirms it later in the episode, just in case anyone missed it (which was easy to do).

While having subtle fun in the lake, the other guy, named Dan, is pulled under the water by a creature. Anna, his female companion, swims away as he's pulled to his death, simply warning the others to get out of the water. Jake, on the other hand, swims toward Dan in an attempt to save him, as Anna and her sister Sarah, Jake's companion, swim away. 
Jake is also pulled under, but the girls' third sister, a deaf "mermaid" named Elly, pulls him to safety and performs CPR. She appears to have taken a liking to him, as she had been spying on him and looking through photos on his phone. 
The gang is called on the case to figure out who killed Dan, and Nick spots Elly woge and swim away quickly. It turns out that all of the sisters are Naiads, which are water nymph Wesen. Let's just call them mer-people for the fun of it!
Hank and Nick bring Jake along to a boat house, where Wu has tracked Jake's stolen phone. Jake spots Anna and Sarah, but they pretend not to know him. What a burn!
The girls are brought to the station for questioning, but they are entirely uncooperative. Nick threatens to leave them in a jail cell until they dry out and die (as his books in Aunt Marie's trailer indicated they would if left outside the water for too long), but they refuse to talk until their father confesses to the crime in order to protect his daughters. Sarah finally agrees to talk, but they'd better hurry with their story before they become dried out fish sticks!
Sarah explains that two other boys who had moved in from Alaska were responsible for killing Dan. They are your typical redneck mermen fundamentalists, who believe in the old ways. Those old ways involve prearranged marriage (with Anna and Sarah, in their case), and the murder of the men with whom their women decide to have children. All mermen are sterile, you see, which makes them wildly jealous of the men who will donate the sperm that will produce the children they will have to raise.
Elly still has a crush on Jake, and decides to put on a little show for him by showing her true self and swimming incredibly fast around his pool. Hopefully mermaids aren't sensitive to chlorine!
But then the mermen arrive and hit Jake over the head. They take Elly out to be "cut," which involves holding her head under water until she turns to her Naiad form so they can cut the webbing between her fingers and toes. Ouch! Rather than allow them to do that, she kicks them in some choice spots. 
That's not enough to stop them, however. When the cops show up, one of the mermen knocks her out and drops anchor on her tied-up feet until she's pulled far underwater. 
Nick jumps in and saves her using his Grimm-zombie power, and they arrest the mer-culprits. And Hank is now in on Nick's weird zombie moments. Nick is underwater for a very long time when saving Elly, and takes on that nice shade of bluish-white dead-face.
Meanwhile, Rosalee is moving in with Monroe, but they've got way too much combined stuff. Monroe begins by suggesting he get rid of a few of his own things, but winds up giving a little speech about a paperweight, which leads to some clock-talk.
Later, Monroe finds a little statue that looks like a chia-bunny on a stick. He decides that it deserves "a place of honor," after Rosalee tells him it was from Holland and belonged to her grandmother. She realizes that Monroe is trying way too hard to make things work, and calms him down by saying part of what sounds like a Barney the dinosaur song ("I love you, you love me").
At the end of the episode, Juliette reads an email message for Nick talking about Grimm-business. It closes with "I love you," and is signed, "M." Juliette seems nervous, wondering who "M" could be.
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Saturday, November 16, 2013

'Elementary' in Ani-gifs: 'Blood is Thicker,' but What's up with Mycroft?

Mycroft (Rhys Ifans) sticks around for "Blood is Thicker," his second episode in a row for "Elementary." He finally gets to spend some time with Sherlock! Well, maybe that's not such a good thing.

 The episode begins with a sparring match. Mycroft is fencing with Sherlock (Jonny Lee Miller) on the rooftop with an egg on his head. The loser is Mycroft, when his egg is broken. Good thing it's not a middle school exercise to protect an egg-baby!
Sherlock's and Watson's (Lucy Liu) first case of the episode begins when a kid hears something going on in a delivery van. The delivery guy shrugs it off, and winds up driving through town with a dead girl on his roof.
When Sherlock is finally called in, he is able to determine where the girl fell based on the location of the paint chips she knocked off the ceiling and onto the packages. Watson notices that a tree is missing off one of the balconies on the building, and they use that to determine from what room the girl fell.
Sherlock deduces that the dead girl was a "kept woman," but she is actually Haley (Kersti Bryan), the daughter of the rich owner of the building, Ian Gale (William Sadler), who is dying. He has a rare blood type, and needed a blood transfusion from her.
Some fans had a few additional things to say about the actor who plays Ian Gale.
...and, Mr. Gale also has a spectacular view from his hotel.
Watson offers to go to the morgue alone to study Haley's body so Sherlock can send some quality time with his brother at dinner. Sherlock tries to get out of it, going so far as to say that eating is a waste of his time, but Watson has already bought her vending-machine dinner.
It turns out that Haley would have died from her stab wound whether or not she had fallen off the balcony, which means the fall was a mistake. Her boyfriend Ray (Kieran Campion) says that Haley had been seriously ill with the flu for the last two weeks, but Christian Suarez (Elliot Villar), the lab tech who took her blood for her father, said she was fine. 

Ian Gale dies, and Sherlock soon realizes that he was murdered by his wife, Natalie (Margaret Colin). Natalie used Haley (her step-daughter) as a human incubator to create a custom toxin for her husband so it would appear that his body was rejecting his heart transplant. Christian confesses to taking a million dollars to do the job, while the wife would inherit $15 million.
Meanwhile, Sherlock finally shows up for dinner at Mycroft's restaurant after repeatedly standing him up. In order to be honest with his brother, Sherlock must label the dinner as "exquisite."
After the dinner, Mycroft makes the symbolic gesture of handing over the keys to 221B in London, just as Sherlock appears to be losing interest in their conversation. Mycroft then informs him that their father wants Sherlock to move back to London, or forfeit his financial help.
Sherlock asks Watson to come with him to London, but confesses that he doesn't really want to leave, because New York, and the people he has met there, have kept him on track with his recovery from drug addiction. Watson puts it much more simply: "screw him" (referring to his father). They can make it on their own, as long as they begin taking on paying jobs, once again.
The father is not the culprit, however. Sherlock has a nice moment with his brother, wherein he tells Mycroft that he has decided to stay in New York, and gives him a letter to pass to their father. When Mycroft is alone, he tears up the letter, then carries on a nefarious-sounding conversation with someone at a +44 country code (which is in the Isle of Man, U.K.). He says that the plan didn't work, mentions his father, and refers to Sherlock and Watson as "they," indicating that he is speaking with someone who probably shouldn't know about their personal business. Something is afoot!
 
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Thursday, November 14, 2013

'Elementary' in Motion: Mycroft is Back!!

"The Marchioness" -- ELEMENTARY on CBS
lt to rt: Mycroft Lucy Liu, Rhys Ifans, Jonny Lee Miller
Thurs. Nov. 7 (10:01 – 11:00 PM, ET/PT)
Photo: Jeff Neumann /CBS
©2013 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. (used with permission)
Quick Note: I waited on this recap to make sure it wasn't going to be posted on Yahoo. They have been having some tech difficulties, so my usual recaps are not being posted at the moment. Until I can post on Yahoo, I'll be posting these on my blog. The downside is that I don't get paid for these. The upside is that I get to upgrade the recaps to include gifs and tweets, and I can say whatever I want! You can find my past recaps here and here Please enjoy!

 "The Marchioness" may be the most awkward episode of Elementary to date. Awkward in a good way, that is. Hilariously awkward, in fact.

 The episode begins with Sherlock sharing some of his deep thoughts with his addict group. In the middle of a thought, Sherlock's brother Mycroft shows his face.



This sends Sherlock into a bit of a rage out in the hall, with Sherlock exclaiming that he wouldn't have shared anything at all had he known Mycroft was there. After a bit of arguing between the two brothers, Watson decides to welcome Mycroft with an extremely awkward "hug."


Turns out Mycroft is visiting from England to enlist Sherlock's help with his "friend," Nigella Mason. Nigella is actually Mycroft's former fiancée, with whom Sherlock "engaged in several bouts of vigorous sex" right before his brother had a chance to seal the deal with her. Hence, the tremendously awkward un-welcome kiss.



Sherlock can't stand Nigella after she betrayed his brother (with him), and prefers to call her a trollop. She's also a "horse pimp," as Sherlock puts it, selling the sperm of her horse Silver Blaze.

The case involves the murder of a man named Dalton who was handling Silver Blaze's medications. The culprit was also apparently attempting to kill Silver Blaze before Dalton walked in on him. Sherlock finds his first clue at the farm in the form of fingerprints on a nearby tree branch, indicating that the killer is missing a finger. And he looks so pleased with himself!



Sherlock feels vindicated when he realizes that a man named Aguilar is attempting to kill Nigella because she has been selling him sperm from Silver Blaze's brother. Silver Blaze died long ago, and she simply saved hair and blood before disposing of the body in order to fake the tests.

Sherlock's focused work on the case prevents him from thinking about anything else, even eating. Mycroft had to remind Sherlock, like a child, that his food is getting cold. Sherlock hastily grabs a bite, unnerving Watson and Mycroft.

It turns out that Aguilar used a contract killer named El Mecanico, a mass murderer who has been wanted for decades. The only witness to the murder appears to have the same missing finger as the prints obtained from the tree branch, but his prints don't match. They do match a liquor store robber who was murdered and buried under a tree. The man had killed the robber and buried him under a tree, leaving some of his DNA. The DNA belongs to El Mecanico. So, the "witness" is actually the killer!

Meanwhile, Sherlock also deduces something almost as disturbing: Watson slept with Mycroft! This leads to a few additional awkward moments and inappropriate questions from Sherlock. He even pokes Watson's bed with a stick before conversing with her to ensure that Mycroft isn't in there!


Nigella continues to worm her way between Mycroft's and Sherlock's relationship, but they finally send her off so they can spend some quality, albeit awkward, bro time together.



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