Dexter 5x01

The new season of Dexter started way back in late September. We are reminded that initially, Dexter had been drawn to Rita because he felt that she, like him, was damaged emotionally – while she honestly believed that he was an good and decent man. Well, Dex remembers that even on their first date, he slipped out to satisfy his urge to kill someone – someone who, no doubt, deserved to die according to the twisted Code of Harry, the man he thought was his foster father, but was actually his biological dad. Having Rita and her kids was a great camouflage for his Dark Secret. But things got more complicated – as they tend to do in life – as they became family, got married and had a baby. Now Rita is dead, the last victim of “The Trinity Killer.” Over the course of the previous seasons, our Darkly Dreaming Dexter also had to deal with “The Ice Truck Killer” (his brother), “The Bay Harbor Butcher” (Dexter himself) and “The Skinner,” in his profession as blood-splatter analyst at the Miami Metro Police Department of Homicide. Who is going to be his main antagonist this season? How is he going to cope with Rita’s kids? And, more importantly, how is Dex going to cope with the loss of his emotional and moral support, the only human connection to reality besides Debra?

At Miami Homicide, Lt. LaGuerta warns her department that the FBI is in charge of the investigation of Rita’s death, but everyone wants to be in on the case, because it’s Rita and because it’s Dexter, and because they have so many unanswered questions. In fact, Det. Quinn soon suspects Dexter. “When a wife is murdered, 90% of the time it’s the husband,” he offers. What is his alibi? That he killed “The Trinity Killer”? That he was the only witness at the secret ceremony of LaGuerta and Batista’s wedding? Personally, Dexter is incapable of displaying his emotions and unable to deal with the funeral arrangements. Debra’s undying support for her brother is simply heart wrenching. Astor, Rita’s daughter, responds as teenagers do, bitterly angry – blaming Dexter for not protecting her mother, which is exactly what Dex feels himself. So, he acts on impulse, torching his storage space, taking off on his boat with a fresh set of clothes, the tool of his trade and a memento of his past, of who he really is – the blood slide collection of his victims. When he happens upon some hick in a bathroom, he brutally beats him to death, in full daylight, covering himself in blood. Venting his rage, his loss and sense of guilt all sink in, and he breaks down crying.

This episode certainly added another layer or two of emotional depth to the main characters. The human dimension of everyone’s loss and grief is depicted excellently. I am less sure about Deb’s hook up with Quinn on Dexter’s bathroom floor. (Is it me, or does Desmond Harrington really look frightfully thin?) What this episode didn’t give is much of a hint of what’s to come this season. The Cricket has heard that Julia Stiles will play the new woman in Dex’ life ... interesting! That Maria Doyle Kennedy (Katherine of Aragon of The Tudors) will guest star as an Irish nanny. That there will be a few new police offers at Miami Metro. That Chris Vance (Burn Notice) will join the cast, as will Jonny Lee Miller (Trainspotting). This all sounds exciting – and I can’t wait to see what’s coming. (Of course, when you’re reading this, I’ll be already mid-season.) Do check back in for more!

Modern Family 1x06

It’s the first day of school for our modern family. It’s all nervous energy as Clair is preparing breakfast and lunch, Haley is worried her friends are going to think she is dating a 40-year old who’s not even cute if her driving instructor is going to pick her up from school, Luke never made his summer assignment, and Alex has trouble dragging all her things to school. She explains that cellists are in more demand in university orchestras. “You know what’s not in demand?” Haley chides, “Girls in university orchestras.” For his part, Phil believes he knows it all: first day of school is tough for stay at home moms, with the kids gone, the nest is empty. But Phil listens, with his mind. So he took the day off to keep her company, although she just wants to catch up on some reading. “If you listen,” Phil explains,” women will tell you what they want by telling you the opposite of what they want.” Wise words, indeed. Before you know it he feels Clair is challenging him for a 2-mile run. “You think I can’t keep up with you?” – “I think you can’t keep up with this conversation.” And it’s on! As expected, Phil has a hard time keeping up with Clair – and then she realizes the first day of school is hard for all her kids, including the one she married. She lets him win and right when he’s basking in his glory, Haley slams her driving instructor’s car into her father, making him fly over the car. “I’m good. I’m good!” Phil shouts, while Haley looks on in horror.

Meanwhile, Manny wants to wear his traditional Colombian poncho to school to show the kids he is proud of his cultural heritage. After Jay returns from dropping him off, Gloria notices the poncho’s still in the car. She convinces Jay to go back and support Manny. Then Manny pulls out his pan-flute – and Gloria begs Jay to break the flute. “The poncho by itself is fine,” she says, “The poncho plus the flute plus the stupid dance? My son will die a virgin.” Little Lily of course is too young for school, but Cameron is dressing her up as various pop icons for his photo shoots. Mitchell’s more concerned about baby-proofing all the pointy objects around the house. Cameron tells his to stop worrying and just dance with their baby. But when he does, Mitchell bumps Lily’s head on the door jam. Much comedy ensues in their panic. Plus there’s a nice guest bit for Suzy Nakamura. Actually, unless it’s the alcohol talking, I thought this episode was quite hilarious. No, seriously, I watched it three times.

Weeds 6x11

Silas, pretending to be called Mike, stops by Lars Guinard’s house again – the man who used to date Nancy in high school. They wind up talking and Silas mention’s his mom’s name. “You don’t look anything like her.” They talk some more over beer, and suddenly Silas blurts out, “I think you’re my dad.” And after dropping that on him, he takes off. Meanwhile Nancy has delivered the first load of their fierce concoction, and she asks the club owner, Hooman Jaka, if he knows where she can get fake passports. He gives her a name and address, “for her man.” She asks him what it is with all the oppression of women. “You guys scare the shit out of us,” he says honestly. Then Andy goes to the office of this fancy businessman, Daoud Mahmed. “That fucking piece of shit cocksucker, I spit on Hooman!” Later, at his home, it transpires that Mahmed’s daughter is actually about to marry Hooman. Since Andy doesn’t have enough money for all the passports, Mahmed proposes that Andy makes sure the marriage isn’t going to happen. Briefly pondering if that means sleeping with his gorgeous daughter, Andy says, “Okaaaay, you mean break them up!” “Not good enough,” Mahmed wants Hooman dead.

For his part, Shane lets it slip that Nancy isn’t going to stay for much longer with Warren, who freaks out, unwittingly drinks Andy’s magic potion, starts bouncing and acting all zany. (Richard Dreyfuss may actually be having even more fun than the audience!) But what I really want to know is who this “Ellis Tate” is, the guy who approached Nancy in the cemetery. Warren isn’t much of a help, “the big black guy? No! Oh, no, fat girl. Yeah, I’m pretty sure.” She stops by the school library to check the year books, meanwhile getting scolded for calling a classmate a prude, and finds that Ellis was in fact a fat girl – and not a nebbish looking guy. Curious, as always, and no doubt worried, she can’t help but call fake Ellis. She lures him out of his motel room, breaks in, finds loads of news paper clippings, photos, discs and files – about herself and her family. Then he barges back in. He’s a journalist, Vaughn Coleman, wanting to write her story – and he’s offering to help her expose the criminals, before they get to her. If he can find her, they will, too, soon. She agrees – I must say, a tad surprisingly – and starts telling her side of the story.

Gossip Girl 4x07

By now the only redeeming quality of GG is the game Blair and Chuck keep playing to bury their love underneath geological layers of spiteful intrigue. Serena’s dalliance with her Business Psychology professor is tedious to the extreme. Enough already! Dan’s effort to bring back Jenny for a family celebration of the first anniversary of Rufus’ and Lily’s marriage would have been laughable if he wasn’t so annoying. And I am certainly fed up by that Flatchester girl and her imprisoned brother. At least it turns out Collin is not in on her schemes, he is her cousin helping her get through college. But Ben is still hell-bent on getting Serena expelled, because she is responsible for “everything” ... Oh, the mystery! What in the name of all that is unholy could Serena have done to this boy in his orange suit?

Nate and Serena force Chuck and Blair to sign a peace treaty to commit them to their ceasefire, under the threat of ex-communication. They are willing to play along, but are they going their separate ways as disgruntled enemies? It’s Blair’s twentieth birthday. Naturally the party is going to be all glamor and sophistication. Everyone who’s anyone is there. Dan is still pining that his family didn’t have a celebration of their own – with Jenny – and hopes to sabotage the festivities by showing an embarrassing video of Blair karaokeing. For shame! One of the guests falls flat on her ass and knocks over a bowl of chocolate sauce. Blair blames Chuck, who denies, Dan confesses, his father is horrified, Lily just finds it amusing. Party’s over. After they’ve sworn their mutual undying hatred, Chuck grabs Blair’s neck, they kiss, he lifts her atop the grand piano, and they start making passionate love. ’Bout time.

BBC Oceans: Mediterranean Sea

The secrets of the earth’s oceans have remained largely undiscovered. Our oceanographic exploration team is trying to put the world’s oceans in a human scale. This time the expedition is headed for the Mediterranean, which last time the Cricket checked wasn’t technically an ocean, but we are informed it is in fact the remains of an ancient ocean. It is home to about ten percent of the planet’s marine life, Western civilization developed around its shores, and the hundred million visitors every year are having a profound effect on these waters. When maritime archaeologist Lucy Blue sets out to dive the remains of a Roman shipwreck, I was hoping for a site of a naval battle during the First Punic War, because they do take us to near the Egadi Islands (site of the war’s last battle in 241 BCE). Alas, all we get is a pottery field of amphorae. Truly incredible, though, is the footage of Paul Rose and Tooni Mahto seemingly flying through the clear water of an underwater cave beneath Mallorca. Spectacularly sculptural stalactites and stalagmites indicate that tens of thousands of years ago these caves were above the water line until the sea level rose and flooded them with salt water.

Around the submerged Ferdinandea volcano, created by the collision of the European and African continents, the team learns that industrial fishing has extinguished larger fish such as sardines and tuna – indicating that the entire eco-system may be at risk. Environmentalist Philippe Cousteau Jr. then inspects a blue-fin tuna farm. Glad as he is seeing these beautiful fish, he is obviously enraged, knowing how they are on the brink of extinction once again due to overfishing. Later, Philippe and the team search for the great white shark, as the Sicilian Channel is a nursery for its juveniles. But despite all their efforts they remain unsuccessful. In the Straits of Messina (where the First Punic War commenced), however, expedition leader Paul Rose is able to sight the prehistoric six-gill shark, the largest living predatory fish. And what a marvelous sight it is!

In Treatment 3x01

Off the bat, things are going to be different this season on In Treatment. For one, Dianne Wiest won’t be returning as Paul’s therapist Gina – which is a shame, because their sessions were frequently the highpoint of the week. Additionally, this season is not based on the Israeli original BeTipol, so this will be a test case to see if Rodrigo García and his team can pull off another successful season on their own. From this first episode alone, I would say there’s no reason to worry. Paul Weston’s new patient, Sunil, is a highly intelligent and poetic, compassionate and funny, though somewhat cynical, Bengali who arrived only recently in New York. His son and daughter-in-law are worried that he is not coping well with the loss of his wife of thirty years. Daughter-in-law Julia is a gorgeous woman, a literary agent, afraid for his well-being, afraid of his effect on her children, afraid of him – but in his words, Julia is really afraid of herself, of the emptiness inside her. Sunil is a proud man, with a full life behind him, who finds her frivolous and superficial – a bad influence on his son. His son Arun is an optometrician, yet he prescribed his father medication to deal with his grief. When Paul asks Sunil if the medication has any effect on him, he replies that he is “one hundred percent absolutely scientifically positive” they have no effect, because he is actually planting them – in the lily that Julia put in his room. I didn’t know how much I missed the show until I saw the season premiere. What an incredible performance of all involved. I am already intrigued by these new characters. As a side note, the Cricket won’t be posting back-to-back chirps as the episodes air on HBO. Instead you may expect them once a week.

Caprica 1x13

The Cricket asked for more about Zoe kicking ass in v-world – and what do we get? A whole episode without her or her various permutations, or Tamara, or Lacey... Instead the focus is on Daniel and Amanda Graystone. Daniel has created an avatar of his estranged wife in an attempt to be with his family. He puts her to the test, but keeps getting disappointed. He tells her about the lies he told her, he yells at her, he even smacks her, but all he gets are emotionless responses. She just wants to sleep with him. She’s the perfect wife, but not the real thing – which is better. This failure to get the avatar to access feelings also spells problems for his latest project, Grace by Graystone, promoting his avatar software as a means to let lost loved ones live on in virtual reality. Meanwhile Amanda is making a concerted effort ingratiating herself in the polygamous community of Sister Clarice Willow to learn more about the STO so that the police can finally arrest these terrorists that killed her daughter. For her part, Clarice is not making much headway getting her Apotheosis program up and running, but she is still devoutly confident that she is the chosen vessel of the One True God to unite the Twelve World under His worship. In other developments, Joseph Adama’s Ha’latha brother Sam is running into trouble dealing arms. To eliminate a rival gang he steals one of the Cylons to wreak some serious havoc. He suggests to the Guatrau they should use the robots in the Tauran rebellion against playboy dictator Andreas Phaulkon, apparently a pawn of the richer worlds – i.e., Caprica. All of this is vaguely interesting, but really all over the place.

Surprising as it was that Syfy aired this second half of the season earlier than initially scheduled, it is less surprising that the remaining five episodes will be put on hold until the first quarter of next year, after which the show will be canceled. It remains difficult to sympathize with most of the main characters. The plot is hardly compelling and meanders off time and again. The events are supposedly set half a century before the Battlestar Galactica series, when Bill Adama was a boy. No one later seems to remember any of the events taking place in Caprica, and there is frightfully little to gratify the BSG fans – except for the Cylons. Rather than intergalactic space fights, the viewer gets human drama – and that with barely an ounce of psychological depth. That the series failed to capture an audience is only to be expected. We’ll see if the Cricket can bring himself to watch the remaining episodes next year.