Law & Order:Special Victims Unit - Closet (Season 9)

Homosexuality is a funny old topic. We pretend that we are all comfortable with it, and there's nothing wrong with it really, but deep down so many people still have a problem with it. A friend of mine who has had two close gay friends confessed recently that he hopes his son doesn't grow up to be gay. I find that quite entertaining, but not having a gay son I guess I really don't know how I'd react. I'd hope that I was comfortable with it, but frankly I just don't know.
The Special Victims Unit spends a lot of its time dealing with homosexuals and presenting a comfortable "we don't judge you" attitude, but when Stabler's kid's sports hero turns out to be gay, it's curious that he is quick to defend the image of straight hero to Benson. It's always fun when a L&O detective takes a different line to their partners.

Meanwhile, we get homosexuality in sports heroes, a common enough thing as Lake points out, though Tutuola accurately responds, only after they've finished playing. I remember a time when the only sports star who was openly gay was Martina Navratalova, and there were some problems there. However, as time goes on there are apparently more, but I have to admit that I can't think of a single one - though that may be more to do with the fact that I have no interest in sports rather than any particular failing of society.

Having tickled this issue, the case goes to court where a second theme is introduced and Beverly D'Angelo returns to the series as a defence lawyer to prove that her client was not guilty of the murder crime because of his injuries incurred by football over the years. Much is made of the damage that is done to sports players by the sports that they play and football (along with boxing of course, say hello Rocky!) is one of the ones that comes under heavy fire. The film "Any Given Sunday" used it as a pivot for the plot, and now SVU is taking on the mantle. The question here, though, is similar to the other ones posed by the L&O programmes - when does something cease to be a person's responsibility and become the responsibility of something else. It may very well be true that our suspect was not in control of his action thanks to playing football, but he was the one that chose to play the game in the first place, fully cogniscient of the injuries he might incur. I find it difficult to give sympathy to these situations. It's a bit like someone killing because he was driven to starvation, after having given all his food and money away. You make a decision and you have to deal with the consequences, even if those consequences occur a little further down the line and a little outside the box that you think you are in.

Meanwhile, it was nice to see the entire nine members of the SVU cast appear this week, with Meloni and Hargitay proving that they are the masters of the "sideways stance, angled head" look. Ice-T clearly is keeping the short hair that he gained from last week's episode (weird to see him without that pony tail), but I'm beginning to think that either Munch or Lake should go...two is overkill, and Munch is really doing bollocks all at the moment.

"A"

House MD - House's Head/Wilson's Heart (Season 4)

Anybody who knows me even a little bit will know that I'm a sympathetic cryer. If they are blubbing onscreen, I'll be bawling on the sofa. This week, in the two-pat seasonfinale of "House MD" there was a lot of tears. The episode was a chance to see a lot of the characters in a different-light - House at his most vulnerable and arguably at his most stupid; Wilson at his most desperate and "Thirteen" forced to face a side of medicine that she is, or was, not even remotely comfortable dealing with.

Sadly I can't review this two-parter without giving away a spoiler for what happens at the end of the series, so I may as well spill it now and get it over with: Amber aka Cut-throat bitch dies. Sorry to spoil, but it's difficult to get to the crux of the episode while skipping around that fact.

The first episode kicks off with House, badly wounded, at a strip joint. Having realised he was in a terrible bus crash, he does Remember that someone is going to die due to a symptom he saw - though he doesn't actually remember who. A series of flashbacks, both accidentally occurring and deliberately induced, lead to a bus driver with bubbles in his blood. But the presence of a mysterious woman leads to the discovery there is someone else badly ill - of course it's Amber.

House's desperation to discover this fact leads him to do a variety of stupid things, culminating -in the second episode- of having an electric shock delivered straight to his hypothalamus. It is this that shows us House at his most stupid- almost dying as a result - but also shows us Wilson at his most desperate - he effectively manipulates House into doing it. What's most interesting about this is why House would do this for Amber. After both Amber, and almost House have died, leaving the pair in a heavenly bus, we see House at his most vulnerable when he confesses to Amber he wants to stay because there is no pain. But Amber replies "We don't all get what we want." Her response is highlighted by a curious look, leaving us to wonder precisely what she is alluding to: her not getting a job on House's team. her not getting a personal relationship with House, or perhaps House not getting a personal relationship with her. Certainly House dreams a quite erotic dream about Amber suggesting the latter.

Of course the end of the episode is where I started to blub like a baby as House tears up at the randomness of Amber's death, and Wilson and Amber share their final moments together at Cuddy's insistence. It is Anne Dudek's tour de force in the series and I can't help but be disappointed by her departure.

And wasn't the only one. Both Kutner and Taub share a bond with Amber that Foreman can't understand, but 13 feels it particularly strongly-even to the point of being unable to do her job. It's a nice opportunity for House and 13 to come in to conflict. 13 finally not only faces it, bit also faces her few of not knowing her true medical condition.
In the same vein, it's nice to see how House's two teams don't mix. Foreman meets with Chase and Cameron, still not bonding with the new team. Indeed, it's curious that it is Taub rather than Foreman who broaches the awkward question of the possibility that House slept with Amber - something he, as a philanderer, can understand better than Foreman, or even Kutner or 13 (or is it Hadley? Will we ever learn her name?)

So Season 4 ends, and we have a chance to reflect on the whole season. It's been an interesting journey, getting to know and love the various interns who were up to replace the original team (still remember the old man who thought the same as House) and watching them being whittled down to the final three who I have to say I am tremendously enamoured of. The return of Foreman was well handled, and it's good that they didn't just back down and reinstate the original team, although both Chase and Cameron have become somewhat reduntant to proceedings, and it wouldn't be a huge shame to lose them. It's also been nice, mainly in the season finale, to get the chance to see House in a way that we have never seen him before. It's these changes to the show that have made the new season quite different to the previous three, the last of which was showing signs of staleness. I'm looking forward to season five to see how the changes this season will affect the programme.

"A+"

NCIS:Tribes (Season 5)

Having dropped the pro-Iraq war stance that NCIS has held so dear for so long in favour of a pro-American soldiers stance (much more suitable if I may be so bold as to make social comment), the series continues the theme this week with an episode centering around the murder of an American Muslim marine for reasons that remain unclear until the end of the episode and, the catch of the episode, in a manner that is equally unclear. Ducky takes a moral stand by refusing to autopsy the body in line with his father's and his faith's wishes, much to Palmer's disagreement as he points out that, were the victim to be white or Christian, religious wishes would have absolutely no ground whatsoever to stop the autopsy.

Gibbs becomes the episode's cold, unfeeling brain, demanding an autopsy and holding the body until the case is solved, prompting him to be asked why he hates Muslims, although Gibbs merely replies that he doesn't. Ducky, of course, comes up with a solution to the autopsy situation that serendipitiously provides them with the manner of the victim's execution, and from there the episode merely looks for the one person who hasn't been blamed for the murder.

The social commentary is somewhat interesting as, although the Iraq war is no longer held in high regard, it's clear that the producers of NCIS want us to remember that Al Qaeda are still a very real threat, and while it is easy to condemn the American invasion of Iraq, it is equally quite difficult to condone the actions of Al Qaeda on 9-11. They did kill an awful lot of people for pretty much no real good reason to anyone who is not a mad Al Qaeda supporter. It's nice to see NCIS take a more liberal viewpoint on the whole situation.

Meanwhile, the characterisation of the regulars is on its usual top form; it's nice to see Ziva as the very sympathetic side of the team towards the Muslim, although once again DiNozzo and McGee are relegated back to being comedy backups as DiNozzo's love of movies is challenged by Ziva's study of the subject and McGee gets a big mug. Meanwhile, does anyone else think that there might be something going on between Gibbs and Abby? If there isn't, there should be!

"A-"

Big Brother 08

I haven't reviewed Big Brother for quite some time now which is perhaps a review in of itself. The house is currently filled with boring people who spend their tine whinging or fighting. After the much promised "nor frat house" house, that's exactly what we've ended up with. The few good charges have now gone - the best thing that was introduced was the new eviction system which was far more indicative of what Australia wants. How? Well.... in the past we've been given who the housemates don't want and been told to evict them. The new way tells the housemates who we want out and gives them the awkwardness of getting rid of one. Even Tim on Big Mouth made mention of how difficult it is for the housemates and THAT'S interesting. But no new we're gone back to the old way.

But of late there has been some new charges which I feel the need to comment on. Of course the only person left in the house over thirty is Terri who proceeds to get more and more inane. I actually think the introduction of Terrance is a good thing as it gives Terri some one to bounce off, and brings more of an age balance to the house. Even the housemates have realised that Cherri is boring and as soon as they realize Rihanna is q Brigitte clone she'll be gone as well.

The other housemates are beginning to show their true colours; Ben is a snob, Alice is patronising. Brigitte is trying to channel Corey Nobbi has a sudden hatred of all intruders, which is bizarrely strange; and the fight between Bianca and Renee clearly have anger management issues that need to be sorted. The less we talk about Renee's astonishing rudeness the better. And the stupidy of the whole group...

This... is Big Brother. Housemates... you have been evicted. It is time to leave the house.

So let's talk about some ways to improve BB if it even makes it to the screen.

Firstly-did we notice how well Mike Goldman hosted the eviction show on Friday? Well you should've because he shat all over Kyle. Give him the job as host. don't care who is with him - Jackie O or Bree, but get Goldman to host!!!

Second -bring back the old style of eviction and the previous style of nomination. Australia nominates, the housemates evict, but make them don't face to face. Increase the tension! Then, for God's sake have Goldman say "It's time to go..." It's a classic.

Thirdly, bring back Uplate. Keep Big Mouth, but get rid of Tony Squires.

Finally-later timeslot. Turn the show into an adults only programme. Kids will be upset, but who cares?? It's not like the ratings can get much worse.

Doctor Who: Silence In The Library (Series 4)

There's nothing worse than when Doctor Who doesn't do so great in the ratings, particularly when the episode being broadcast is bloody awesome. In Series Two, the series suffered on the broadcast of The Satan Pit, and that was a great episode. Sadly, for Silence In The Library, it's happened again, and once again it's a brilliant episode, penned by Doctor Who's Executive Producer-elect Steven Moffat. Curiously it was Moffat's BAFTA-winning episode Blink that suffered from the slump last year as well. Do the general populace just not like Moffat's work? Or is it just that Britain's Got Talent was far too interesting to switch off. Hopefully the episode will get a good time-change.

Meanwhile, onto the episode itself. Moffat, in a similar way to P J Hammond, realises that horror is all about imagery, and he also believes that (like one of his predecessors, Robert Holmes), Doctor Who is a horror programme. Skeletons, freaky little girls and libraries are all very scary and they play on the imagination to freak us out. All these elements turn up in Silence In The Library, but the weird thing about this episode - and something that's a great idea - is having two story strands that are definitively tied together (the little girl's and the Doctor's) but there is no obvious way in which they are tied together. It's an idea that was used in the Matrix, and subsequently used in reverse in the sequels very unsucessfully. When the audience knows what the link is, but can't see the storylines interacting, it loses the freakiness-effect of being in the same position as the characters - knowing that there is another storyline out there, but unable to see how they are tied together.

Similarly to Moffat's own The Girl In The Fireplace, we have another female character who is linked in a very soulful way to our hero, though interestingly we have a character who has met the Doctor before, but he has never met her before. Professor River Song is an archaeologist who keeps a book which looks not dissimilar to the TARDIS that charts her meeting with the Doctor. Riversong is a slightly odd character, coming across as overly flirty in the first few moments we meet her, before implying that she knows the Doctor in a romantic way. It's odd, but can be explained away by the suggestion that the character was trying to get the Doctor jealous. Perhaps we shall see more of Prof River Song in Moffat's take on the series.

The episode has a superb cast with ER's Alex Kingston playing River, Bond movie regular Colin Salmon as Dr Moon and St Trinian's Talulah Riley as poor Miss Evangelista. On that note, the death of Miss Evangelista and her subsequent ghostly return is one of the most disturbing moments of the episode and also one of the saddest in the series. It is handled so well by Catherine Tate, and she should take full credit for the tears that came to my eyes. The production team should take great joy in the knowledge that in an episode with an amazingly high calibre guest cast, it is still the series leads that steal the show, with both Tennant and Tate on top form.

Giving the episode a rating with the second part still to come is a bit difficult, but I'll do it all the same. So much of the little girl's storyline has yet to be explained and if I were to discuss it at any length I would be doing it a disservice as it is clearly being set up for quite a revelation in the second half. But on the same note, the cliffhanger is one of the most unsettling that has appeared in the series to date.

"A"

Playmate Of The Year 2008: Jayde Nicole

Having discussed at great length in previous reviews the nature of the archetypal Playboy Playmate (pretty much Marilyn Munroe) and the tendency for every six out of ten Playmates and PMOY to have those characteristics, AND noting that in May not only did the CyberGirl Of The Year buck the trend, but the Playmate of the Month did as well, it has transpired that in 2008 the anti-Playmate is what the people want, and so of the twelve choices we were given, it is 2007's Miss January, Jayde Nicole that was voted in.

Of course we were actually only offered five of the stereotypical Playmates which meant that in all probability the final result would be someone who bucked the trend. What is interesting though is that Jayde doesn't just buck it because she is a brunette from Canada, but noticeably she has a tattoo - and not just any tattoo; one that is located just below her belly. And it is the word "respect". I believe that she is the first PMOY to actually have a tattoo and shows that Playboy is slowing changing to adapt to the times. Despite being a radical magazine, changes in the "girl next door" take a lot longer to have an effect; it wasn't until 2002 when we got a PMOY with a brazillian, and it is only now that we see a PMOY with a tatt. Poor old Heff must have been fighting it every step of the way.

I personally think that Jayde is a very beautiful choice, and was probably the best choice that could have been made (although I do have a sneaky fondness for Spencer Scott who appeared later in the year).

"A"

Playboy: Cybergirls & Coeds May 2008

When compared to Playmates, the Cybergirls always come off as a little...uh...how should I put this nicely? Skanky. This month, however, we seem to have been given a group of girls who are not really Playmate material, but aren't young enough to be Coeds, and that's the most interesting thing about this group of CyberGirls - the majority of them are all a little older than the average.

Heather Bauer is 27, but frankly she doesn't get too many merit points from me. I'm not sure why, but I guess at the end of the day her face is a little long. I know, I know, I'm being harsh, but we are talking about Playboy-worthy girls here, so perfection is obviously expected.

Britney Ariana is the odd one out, a mere stripling at 21 and she seems to have a little bit more going for her than the other three. Obviously she is who I expect will get voted CGOM, but I wouldn't be entirely surprised if she ended up a Playmate at some later point.

Jia Lynn continues the "older-than-average" theme at 25, but obviously long faces is a bit of a theme too, and it's something that she shares with Heather. Both of them are obviously very attractive, but both are outshined by Britney.

One of the things that girls do on posing for Playboy and adopting their pseudonym is to use their middle name as a new surname, but this means that we can sometimes have the situation we have this month, with Kristi Lynn, sharing their same surname as her predecessor. Kristi is 28 and more attractive than Heather or Jia, but I find her breasts to be a little on the large side, so my vote is still firmly with Britney.

Curiously it was Alexandra Penovich that got the CGOM for May - yet another dark haired model getting the general public's vote, but unlike the other monthly models for Playboy in May, Alexandra is a little more fuller-figured. Aside from that she fits the standard bill, and, along with all four CyberGirls, is a big proponent of the brazillian. No tattoos, no unusual piercings - the CG for May are quite a subdued bunch.

Of course, the Coeds are never quite as skanky as the CyberGirls, and due to the curious nature of where the Thursdays fall in May we have five Coeds.

The five are all very attractive - in order they are Nicole Aylward, Kamelia Berke, Lana Tailor, Lauren D'Marie and Lyndsy Wolf.

Kamelia gets a thumbs down because I really despise nipple rings. Shame, as it's been a while since a redhead made it as a Playboy model, and it would have been nice if she had been a positive standout rather than a negative one.

It's nice to see girls of colour (or color) getting featured, and Lauren is a very attractive dark girl who, in my opinion, should go further if it weren't for the fact she appeared in quite a standout month.

Lana is the tattooed girl for the month and she's got quite a fascinating piece of work on her abdomen, which I would imagine took a fair time to create and probably a lot of pain in the process.

So we are left with the two Aryans who bookend the month, and to be honest they are both quite, quite gorgeous. I think Lyndsy just pips Nicole for my bet as Coed in two months time, and I think it's because she is just a little more natural looking than Nicole. Obviously it's not the brazillians (again, all five are shaven-havens!), rather it's that Nicole's boobs are a little fake-looking, while Lyndsy is clearly natural. Plus, Lyndsy's smile is nicer than Nicole's - although it's a close run race.

Amanda Adams was the girl who got Coed Of The Month, and I have to make mention of the fact that she is an unusual choice, appearing to be more fully-figured than most (a little like our CGOM). Her face shape even gives the impression she has double chins, but she is not remotely overweight, and is rather a very attractive young lady. A good choice.

So in my birthday month, it's nice to see that Playboy gave me a fantastic selection to celebrate!

"B+"