Weekly TV THoughts: 04/12 - 04/18

Good TV week this week, which is to be expected as shows head toward their season finales.

-Chuck, Monday: I think I said is last week, but this show is just REALLY good right now. They found a plausible way to bring Jill back into the fold, which was cool, and with Chuck letting her go at the end, I wonder if this wasn't the last time we'll see her. I really love how they've sent Chuck and Sarah rogue for the time being, pitting them against Casey and the US Government. What happens when Casey eventually meets up with them on the trail of Chuck's dad, Stephen/Orion? As much as Casey is beholden to his orders, I think its clear that he'll end up helping Chuck and Sarah when it comes down to it. And while the mirror B-story at the Buy More wasn't anything great, it was saved by the Godfather II reference between Big Mike and Morgan. I can not wait to see where the story goes to finish out the season, and it better come back for Season 3.

-Heroes, Monday: Ask any fan of this show and they're bound to tell you that Company Man is one of, if not the, best Heroes episode ever. Clearly, this episode was meant to channel that awesomeness (even using the black-and-white) flashback scenes, and I think it succeeded, for the most part. This episode was essentially one big therapy session for the characters, with everyone present at Coyote Sands becoming alarmingly self aware. It was an fairly deft way to reset all the characters back to where they were in Season 1 (or, at least close to that) after a couple of seasons of messing them up. There wasn't much to the story this week, I thought, other than to bring the Patrellis and the Bennetts together. The story about Angela's sister was nice to know (especially since they dropped that line about why she steals socks, making a call back to the pilot), and it was kind of cool to see the origins of the Company (or the origin of the idea of the Company), but neither really advanced the current storyline. Its was all set up to get the characters pointed in the right direction, which is what this show needs. I think its clear that they'll be wrapping up the Danko storyline this season, and then spring board into next season by creating the new Company they talked about in the diner. Hopefully, they can bring everyone back into the story to finish out the season in a satisfying manner.

-24, Monday: Okay, I have to admit that I didn't see Tony's betrayal coming. Not because I didn't think it was possible (because anyone can be a mole on this show), but because I just didn't think the writers would go that route. I thought that it would seem forced to have him switch sides AGAIN, and you what, I think it felt forced. So after Tony "died," he was a bad guy. Then hooked up with Bill again, and he was good guy posing as a bad guy. Then he joined up with Jack and he was just a good guy again. But no, because he's actually been a bad guy this whole time. It calls into question everything we've seen him do this season, though I guess we now know where Tony was getting his insider information about Starkwood; he had a guy on the inside. And he HAS to be a bad guy because he up and killed Larry Moss, who was just starting to get interesting. At least, I think he's dead; he didn't get a silent clock, but he did get a long, drawn out suffocation scene at the hands of Tony. So let's say he's dead. I really hope that Tony isn't revealed to be the ultimate head bad guy when its all said and done (since clearly Jonas Hodges wasn't it). I can stand him being a bad guy this whole time, but not the mastermind. That would just be stupid. Oh, and finally, Kim's back and it wasn't completely contrived. It was very natural (with her already being in D.C., trying to reach Jack since he was supposed to be testifying before the Senate), and now they have a way to save Jack's life (becasue c'mon, you know that they experimental treatment's going to work). And we got a tender scene between Jack and Kim that we don't often get on this show, which was a nice change of pace. I wonder how Jack will react to Tony's latest betrayal. I'm guessing he's going to kill him.

-Lost, Wednesday: I'm a big fan of Miles, and I'm glad he got his own flashback episode this week. He, along with Hurley and Lapidus, get the best lines on the show, and the pairing of Miles and Hurley is just comedy gold. We got some good backstory on Miles, like confirming he is Dr. Chang's son and was born on the island, why he was on the freighter to begin with, and why he asked Ben for $3.2 million. None of that is all that shocking, but the bigger news about about Miles's confrontation with Bram and the people who ask "why lies in the shadow of the statue?". Clearly they're not Widmore's people (so there goes that theory); so who are they then? Are they Ben's people? Eloise Hawking's? The remants of the Dharma Initiative? Some other group we haven't learned about yet? Don't know, but I'm banking on them being a part of Dharma, or at least what's left of it. Maybe they formed from the people that were on the mainland, back in Ann Arbor. And speaking of Ann Arbor, welcome back to the show, Daniel Faraday. There was a moment there where I wasn't sure if Daniel was going to recognize Miles there on the pier, but sure enough, he did. So he got off the island, joined up with Dharma in Ann Arbor, and is now back on the island to join in what looks like the construction of the Swan station. What's he been up to in the past three years? We'll have to wait two weeks to find out, since there's a clip show coming up this week. Oh well, I can handle the week's off because I know there's an end on the horizon.

-Kings, Saturday: So Kings got dumped to Saturdays to finish out its run (since its never a good sign for a pickup when you're airing on Saturday nights). Oh well, at least they'll get to finish out their story, which I hope has some semblence of an end to it. I was getting a little sick of everyone in the royal family trying to get between David and Michelle, first it was the King, then the Queen, and this week it was her brother Jack, so I'm glad they finally came forth and had Michelle explain her situation; as expected, she is already promised to someone else. Wonder who. And Macaulay Culkin debuted this episode as the King's nephew, Andrew, who's been in exlie for some reason. Not much was revealed about Andrew other than that his time in exile has seemed to make him a little off (he stared at a fork as if he had no idea what it was for). Clearly he'll be used more in episodes to come, but I thought they'd do a little more in his first episode, especially since it seems like he came back from exile out of the blue. I was a little surprised they didn't even mention the mutiny storyline this week; it was almost like it didn't happen. But the one scene between Silas and Reverend Samuels was tense, so maybe its still there, just not on the surface.

No Dollhouse this past week, but its back this week, and there's no Lost this week. Maybe I can find some time to watch some more baseball (that is, as long as FSN Ohio doesn't decide to cut away from anymore games).